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seeds for his hamburger."
He faces charges of burglary and possession of burglary tools.
ST. PETERSBURG
Suspected prowler said unknown drugs made him see "people rising from the ground"
A 43-year-old St. Petersburg man spotted behind a house in the 3800 block of Sixth Avenue N told police that drugs made him see people rising from the ground and in trees before his arrest Dec. 31.
Joshua John Meier was arrested about 4 a.m. He told officers he "may have taken unknown drugs earlier in the night," according to an arrest report.
He faces a charge of loitering and prowling.
—Compiled by Zachary T. Sampson, Times staff writerRabbitMQ is a message broker, allowing to process things asynchronously. There’s already an article written about it, if you’re not familiar with RabbitMQ.
What I’d like to talk to you about is the lifecycle of a message, with error handling. Everything in a few lines of code.
Therefore, we’re going to configure a RabbitMQ virtual host, publish a message, consume it and retry publication if any error occurs.
The technical solution is based on two libraries:
RabbitMQ Admin Toolkit : PHP library the interacts with the HTTP API of our RabbitMQ server, to create exchanges, queues…
Swarrot : PHP library to consume and publish our messages.
Swarrot is compatible with the amqp extension of PHP, as well as the php-amqplib library. The PHP extension has a certain advantage on performance (written in C) over the library, based on benchmarks. To install the extension, click here. The main adversary to Swarrot, RabbitMqBundle, is not compatible with the PHP extension, and is not as simple in both configuration and usage.
Configuration
Our first step will be to create our RabbitMQ configuration: our exchange and our queue.
The RabbitMQ Admin Toolkit library, developed by odolbeau, allows us to configure our vhost very easily. Here is a basic configuration declaring an exchange and a queue, allowing us to send our mascot Wilson and his fellow friends to space:
# default_vhost.yml'/' : parameters : with_dl : false # If true, all queues will have a dl and the corresponding mapping with the exchange "dl" with_unroutable : false # If true, all exchange will be declared with an unroutable config exchanges : default : type : direct durable : true queues : send_astronaut_to_space : durable : true bindings : - exchange : default routing_key : send_astronaut_to_space
Here, we ask the creation of an exchange named ”default”, and a queue named “send_astronaut_to_space”, bound to our exchange via a homonym routing key. A binding represents a relation between a queue and an exchange.
Let’s launch the command to create our vhost:
vendor/bin/rabbit vhost:mapping:create default_vhost.yml --host = 127.0.0.1 Password? With DL: false With Unroutable: false Create exchange default Create queue send_astronaut_to_space Create binding between exchange default and queue send_astronaut_to_space ( with routing_key: send_astronaut_to_space )
If you connect to the RabbitMQ management interface (ex: http://127.0.0.1:15672/), many things will appear:
Click on the Exchanges tab: an exchange named default has been created, with a binding to our queue as indicated in our terminal.
Now click on the Queues tab: send_astronaut_to_space is also here.
Let’s take a look at the publication and consumption of messages.
Consumption
The library helping us to consume and publish messages, Swarrot, has a Symfony bundle which will help us use it very easily in our app: SwarrotBundle.
The thing we want to achieve here is to publish messages, and to consume them. Here is how it’s done.
After installing the bundle, we have to configure it:
# app/config/config.yml swarrot : provider : pecl # pecl or amqp_lib connections : rabbitmq : host :'%rabbitmq_host%' port :'%rabbitmq_port%' login :'%rabbitmq_login%' password :'%rabbitmq_password%' vhost :'/' consumers : send_astronaut_to_space : # name of the consumer processor : processor.send_astronaut_to_space # name of the service extras : poll_interval : 500000 requeue_on_error : false middleware_stack : - configurator : swarrot.processor.exception_catcher - configurator : swarrot.processor.ack
This is a configuration example. The interesting part comes around the “consumers” parameter.
Every message published in an exchange will be routed to a queue according to its routing jey. Therefore, we need to process a message stored in a queue. Using Swarrot, special things called processors are in charge of this.
To consume a message, we need to create our own processor. As indicated in the documentation, a processor is just a Symfony service who needs to implement the ProcessInterface interface.
The particularity of processors is that they work using middlewares, allowing to add behavior before and/or after the processing of our message (our processor). That’s why there is a middleware_stack parameter, that holds two things: swarrot.processor.exception_catcher and swarrot.processor.ack. Although optional, these middlewares bring nice flexibility. We’ll come back on this later on.
<?php namespace AppBundle\Processor ; use Swarrot\Broker\Message ; use Swarrot\Processor\ProcessorInterface ; class SendAstronautToSpace implements ProcessorInterface { public function process ( Message $message, array $options ) { //... } }
Our SendAstronautToSpace processor implements a method called process, which allows us to retrieve the message to consume, and use it in our application.
We’ve just setup the consumption of messages. What do we need to do next? See the publication part of course!
Publication
Once again, it’s very simple to publish messages with Swarrot. We only need to declare a publisher in our configuration, and use the SwarrotBundle publication service to publish a new message.
# app/config/config.yml consumers : #... middleware_stack : - configurator : swarrot.processor.exception_catcher - configurator : swarrot.processor.ack messages_types : send_astronaut_to_space_publisher : connection : rabbitmq exchange : default routing_key : send_astronaut_to_space
The secret is to declare a new message type, specifying the connection, exchange, and the routing key. Then publish a message this way:
<?php $message = new Message ( 'Wilson wants to go to space' ); $this -> get ('swarrot.publisher' ) -> publish ('send_astronaut_to_space_publisher', $message );
The service swarrot.publisher deals with publishing our message. Simple right?
After setting up queues, published and consumed a message, we now have a good view of the life-cycle of a message.
Handling errors
One last aspect I’d like to share with you today is about errors while consuming your messages.
Setting aside implementation problems in your code, it’s possible that you encounter exceptions, due to external causes. For instance, you have a processor that makes HTTP calls to an outside service. The said service can be temporarily down, or returning an error. You need to publish a message and make sure that this one is not lost. Wouldn’t it be great to publish this message again if the service does not respond? And do so after a certain amount of time?
Somewhere along the way, I’ve been confronted to this problem. We knew such things could happen and we needed to automatically “retry” our messages publication. I’m going to show you how to proceed, keeping our example send_astronaut_to_space. Let’s decide that we’re going to retry the publication of our message 3 times maximum. To do that, we need 3 retry queues. Fortunately, configuration of retry queues and exchanges is so easy with RabbitMQ Admin Toolkit: we only need one line! Let’s see this more closely :
# default_vhost.yml #... queues : send_astronaut_to_space : durable : true retries : [ 5, 25, 100 ] # Create a retry exchange with 3 retry queues prefixed with send_astronaut_to_space bindings : - exchange : default routing_key : send_astronaut_to_space
The array of parameters of key retries corresponds to the delay after which the message will be published again. Following the first failure, 5 seconds will go by before publishing again the message. Then 25 seconds, and finally 100. The behavior suits our problem perfectly…
If we launch our command one more time, here is the result:
vendor/bin/rabbit vhost:mapping:create default_vhost.yml --host = 127.0.0.1 Password? With DL: false With Unroutable: false Create exchange default Create exchange dl Create queue send_astronaut_to_space Create queue send_astronaut_to_space_dl Create binding between exchange dl and queue send_astronaut_to_space_dl ( with routing_key: send_astronaut_to_space ) Create queue send_astronaut_to_space_retry_1 Create binding between exchange retry and queue send_astronaut_to_space_retry_1 ( with routing_key: send_astronaut_to_space_retry_1 ) Create queue send_astronaut_to_space_retry_2 Create binding between exchange retry and queue send_astronaut_to_space_retry_2 ( with routing_key: send_astronaut_to_space_retry_2 ) Create queue send_astronaut_to_space_retry_3 Create binding between exchange retry and queue send_astronaut_to_space_retry_3 ( with routing_key: send_astronaut_to_space_retry_3 ) Create binding between exchange default and queue send_astronaut_to_space ( with routing_key: send_astronaut_to_space )
We still create a default exchange. Then, many things are done:
Creation of an exchange called dl and queues queues send_astronaut_to_space and send_astronaut_to_space_dl : we’ll come back on this later on.
Creation of an exchange called retry and queues send_astronaut_to_space_retry_1, send_astronaut_to_space_retry_2 and send_astronaut_to_space_retry_3: here is the interesting part, all queues that will be used to do a retry of our message.
Now let’s configure our consumer.
With Swarrot, handling of retries is very easy to configure. Do you remember those middlewares we’ve seen before? Well there’s a middleware for that!
# app/config/config.yml consumers : #... middleware_stack : - configurator : swarrot.processor.exception_catcher - configurator : swarrot.processor.ack - configurator : swarrot.processor.retry extras : retry_exchange :'retry' retry_attempts : 3 retry_routing_key_pattern :'send_astronaut_to_space_retry_%%attempt%%' messages_types : send_astronaut_to_space_publisher : connection : rabbitmq exchange : default routing_key : send_astronaut_to_space
The main difference with our previous configuration is located around the parameter middleware_stack: we need to add the processor swarrot.processor.retry, with its retry strategy:
the name of the retry exchange (defined above)
the number of publishing attempts
the pattern of retry queues
The workflow works this way: if the message is not acknowledged followingan exception the first time, it will be published in the retry exchange_,_ with routing key_send_astronaut_to_space_retry_1._ Then, 5 seconds later, the message is published back in our main queue send_astronaut_to_space. If another error is encountered, it will be republished in the retry exchange, with the routing key send_astronaut_to_space_retry_2, and 25 seconds later the message will be back on our main queue. Same thing one last time with 100 seconds.
bin/console swarrot:consume:send_astronaut_to_space send_astronaut_to_space [ 2017-01-12 12:53:41] app.WARNING: [ Retry] An exception occurred. Republish message for the 1 times ( key: send_astronaut_to_space_retry_1 ) { "swarrot_processor" : "retry", "exception" : "[object] (Exception(code: 0): An error occurred while consuming hello at /home/gus/dev/swarrot/src/AppBundle/Processor/SendAstronautToSpace.php:12)" } [ 2017-01-12 12:53:46] app.WARNING: [ Retry] An exception occurred. Republish message for the 2 times ( key: send_astronaut_to_space_retry_2 ) { "swarrot_processor" : "retry", "exception" : "[object] (Exception(code: 0): An error occurred while consuming hello at /home/gus/dev/swarrot/src/AppBundle/Processor/SendAstronautToSpace.php:12)" } [ 2017-01-12 12:54:11] app.WARNING: [ Retry] An exception occurred. Republish message for the 3 times ( key: send_astronaut_to_space_retry_3 ) { "swarrot_processor" : "retry", "exception" : "[object] (Exception(code: 0): An error occurred while consuming hello at /home/gus/dev/swarrot/src/AppBundle/Processor/SendAstronautToSpace.php:12)" } [ 2017-01-12 12:55:51] app.WARNING: [ Retry] Stop attempting to process message after 4 attempts { "swarrot_processor" : "retry" } [ 2017-01-12 12:55:51] app.ERROR: [ Ack] An exception occurred. Message #4 has been nack'ed. {"swarrot_processor":"ack","exception":"[object] (Exception(code: 0): An error occurred while consuming hello at /home/gus/dev/swarrot/src/AppBundle/Processor/SendAstronautToSpace.php:12)"} [ 2017-01-12 12:55:51] app.ERROR: [ ExceptionCatcher] An exception occurred. This exception has been caught. { "swarrot_processor" : "exception", "exception" : "[object] (Exception(code: 0): An error occurred while consuming hello at /home/gus/dev/swarrot/src/AppBundle/Processor/SendAstronautToSpace.php:12)" }
When creating our virtual host, we saw that an exchange called dl, associated to a queue send_astronaut_to_space_dl has been created. This queue is our message’s last stop if the retry mechanism is not able to successfully publish our message (an error is still encountered after each retry). If we look closely the details of queue send_astronaut_to_space, we see that “x-dead-letter-exchange” is equal to”dl”, and that ”x-dead-letter-routing-key” is equal to ”send_astronaut_to_space”, corresponding to our binding explained previously.
On every error in our processor, the retryProcessor will catch this error, and republish our message in the retry queue as many times as we’ve configured it. Then Swarrot will hand everything to RabbitMQ to route our message to the queue queue send_astronaut_to_space_dl.
Conclusion
Swarrot is a library that allows us to consume and publish messages in a very simple manner. Its system of middlewares increases possibility in the consumption of messages. Tied to RabbitMQ Admin Toolkit to configure exchanges and queues, Swarrot will also let you retry your lost messages very easily.
ReferencesA popular mosque in Montreal's Saint-Laurent borough is facing fines of up to $1,000 a day if it refuses to heed an eviction notice.
According to borough authorities, the Al Andalous Islamic Center, which hosts about 1,000 worshippers for Friday prayers at its Décarie Boulevard location, has been operating primarily as a place of worship where zoning prohibits it.
The Association des Sciences Islamiques au Canada, the non-profit organization which manages the mosque, says it first applied for a permit in 2012.
We warned them that they were not in the right place and had to find another one. - Alan DeSousa, mayor of Saint-Laurent
In its application, the association said the place of worship was "born of a need in the community, as the presence of Muslims in the borough is growing year by year."
The application was rejected in May 2013, and an eviction notice was served.
'We warned them'
Alan DeSousa, the mayor of the borough, said when officials visited they discovered the building was mostly used for worship, which is contrary to zoning regulations.
"We warned them that they were not in the right place and had to find another one," he said.
Since the mosque's application was rejected in the spring of 2013, there have been several written exchanges between its directors and borough authorities.
These exchanges were concluded last month with the issuance of a final notice asking the mosque to vacate the premises by April 3. If the association that operates it fails to do so, it could be forced to pay up to $1,000 a day in fines.
"We were very permissive and nice to them by giving them time, since 2013, to find another place," said DeSousa.
"We saw that it was not going anywhere."
Searching for new location
The mosque's administrators said they have had trouble finding another location of adequate size where local zoning regulations allow places of worship.
They are planning to challenge the eviction notice.
The Association of Muslims and Arabs for a Secular Quebec is supporting the mosque in its efforts.
Haroun Bouazzi, the group's co-president, said closing the mosque would be a bad idea because it would alienate worshippers and lead to crowding at other mosques.
"We must avoid what happened in France, where there are just no new places of worship," Bouazzi said, adding that people could end up saying their prayers "in the street" if mosques aren't available.
For regulars like Ben Slem, the mosque is more than a place for prayer.
"We had our wedding here, the new immigrants use the place to find people to help them," he said.
He said if the mosque closes, he'll be forced to pray at home.
Mosque administrators have started a petition asking the City of Montreal for a new space, or permission to stay.Links are NOT allowed. Format your description nicely so people can easily read them. Please use proper spacing and paragraphs.
“Even if this universe is truly nothing more than a brutal bloody shadowy forest, we Cultivators will burn all that we have just to give off a single weak flickering spark in the darkness!
No matter how weak each spark is, how short-lived, how small… As long as the sparks flow unabated, then one day one of those sparks will light some tinder, and that tinder shall light some fallen branches, and those branches shall set ablaze each and every last tree of the forest!
In the end, even the smallest sparks will eventually set the shadowy forest ablaze, and illuminate the whole world!”
In a world teeming with cultivators, Li Yao, who makes his living collecting scrap metal, encounters the soul of a titan powerhouse from forty thousand years in the past.After a decade of steady growth, Quebec microbrewers are on the defensive as they fight to retain their turf in bars and supermarkets.
Big brewers are buying out independent breweries and keeping their shelf space in retail operations — reducing the space dedicated to actual independent breweries.
Shawinigan's Le Trou du Diable microbrewery sale to Molson is cause for concern for the president of the Association of Microbrewers of Quebec, Frédérick Tremblay.
"If Molson uses Trou du Diable to strangle more local microbreweries on their own territory, it will get very difficult," Tremblay said.
In 2007, microbrewers had 4.5 per cent market share and a decade later that number had grown to 10 per cent.
Now, it looks like some big brewers are eating away at those gains.
New certification allows an 'informed choice'
To try to protect its industry, the Association of Microbrewers of Quebec is creating new labels that will certify when a product comes from an independent brewer.
"It's important for consumers to easily identify products made by microbreweries so they can make an informed choice," Tremblay said.
The new logo will be on beers made by Quebec microbreweries beginning in early 2018. In the United States, microbreweries already have a logo that identifies independent producers.
The new seal of the Brewers Association in the U.S. emphasizes the word 'Independent' (Brewers Association) The logo features an upside down beer bottle with the words "Certified Independent Craft." Independent is also in a larger font, a deliberate emphasis.
"The benefit of 'Independent' is that it's unassailable," Paul Gatza, director of the Brewers Association for Small and Independent Craft brewers in the U.S., said earlier this year.
"That's the one thing that the large brewers can't do is claim that they are independent of a large brewer so there is a purity in that word."
In Quebec, some local microbrewers aren't as bothered by the recent sale of Le Trou du Diable.
Luc "Bim" Lafontaine, who was a brewer at Montreal's Dieu du Ciel and now works at Godspeed brewpub in Ontario, said microbreweries are bound to keep being bought out.
"I'm happy for them. They're friends. They worked hard," Lafontaine said of Le Trou du Diable owners.Smite developer to expand HQ with new eSports studio Atlanta-based Hi-Rez Studios looking to grow headcount by 50 positions this year
Brendan Sinclair North American Editor Thursday 26th March 2015 Share this article Share
Companies in this article Hi-Rez Studios, Inc.
Hi-Rez Studios is thinking bigger. The Atlanta, Georgia-based developer today announced plans to expand its headquarters as it looks to bring the free-to-play PC MOBA Smite to new markets.
By the end of this year, the studio plans to add 50 new jobs to its payroll, bringing total headcount to more than 200. Hi-Rez will also add more space to its campus, with room for an e-sports production studio as well as more developers. The e-sports studio will aid the company with online broadcasts for Smite Pro League tournaments, including room for live audiences at the biggest matches of the year.
Hi-Rez also hopes to expand its catalog of games. It has already announced an Xbox One version of Smite for later this year, but the studio is also planning to work on new games in tandem with its expansion plan.
If you have jobs news to share or a new hire you want to shout about, please contact us on newhires@gamesindustry.bizDefenders 042: Dazzle January 19, 2012
Shoutout to GIROG for requesting Dazzle. Vote for tomorrow’s hero over at r/Dota2.
I’ve been playing Dazzle a lot lately, and I am liking him more and more with every game. A buddy and I have been laning Omni + Dazzle, and between the two of us, mana boots, basilius, and soul rings, our staying power is pretty much unstoppable.
Most people look at support as the “bitch” role, but I really enjoy it. And not just in Dota, either. I playing support type characters in pretty much every game: BF3 (Support), TF2 (Eng/Medic),. I really like the feeling of enabling my team. Whether it’s a well timed ÜberCharge or dominant warding to gain map control, a good support player can make or break the game.
So, who is your favourite support hero? What it is about their skillset that makes them great at supporting their team?
Wallpaper. 1920×1080.
PNGs. Square / Wallpaper(Boston, MA) – The Boston Beer Company announced earlier this month that three beers in the Barrel Room Collection will be available nationally with shipping beginning in the next few weeks.
Those three beers are: New World Tripel, Stony Brook Red and the latest addition in the series, Thirteenth Hour Stout. Not part of that expansion is American Kriek which will remain available in only select markets: New England, Denver (CO), and New York.
In the brewery’s own words, what makes these beers special is the yeast.
In the case of our Samuel Adams Barrel Room Collection the yeast is what brings the wild and the funk. Many traditional Belgian beers used wild yeasts in a spontaneous fermentation to create their beers. For our Samuel Adams Barrel Room Collection we developed a blend of yeast and bacteria in a beer we like to call the Kosmic Mother Funk®, or KMF. It’s the soul of these beers and is blended into each at different levels. It’s KMF that adds a whole new wild spectrum of flavors to the beer from earthy and spicy to floral and sweet.
The Barrel Room Collection is available only in 750ml bottles with suggested retail set at $9.99.× Iowa town at odds over bullying involving autistic teen
Some members of an Iowa community appear to disagree over whether a teen with Asperger’s Syndrome is a victim or perpetrator of bullying.
WHO-TV reports 13-year-old Levi Null has the autism spectrum disorder Asperger’s Syndrome. His condition causes involuntary body movements, and Levi also might act out by making offensive remarks or name-calling.
What’s resulted is verbal and physical altercations with other students, and a recent online post of video of Levi’s involuntary movements.
Levi’s mom says it’s bullying.
Some citizens of Melter – including adults related to the accused bullies – seem to think Levi brings it on himself.
WHO reports the father of the teen who posted video of Levi says his child was wrong, but that he thinks only about one-fourth of the actions taken against Levi are actual bullying, and the rest is Levi’s fault. Another resident said his nephew “cocked him in the mouth” when Levi called him a name.
Experts say people with autism cannot necessarily control how or when they might respond to their surroundings and situations.
The teen who posted the video was disciplined under the school’s ‘intolerance’ policy, but not for bullying. The school principal also said the online video post was not found to be bullying. The school board president says he stand by the principal.Despite major advancements in robotics and the huge potential it has to make our lives easier, robots are still mostly stuck in industrial settings. We have seen a few robots enter homes, healthcare, and other work settings, but for the most part, they are still a novelty. In order for robots to become as ubiquitous as the other technology that consumers have recently embraced, two big problems still need to be addressed: Safety and cost. One specific mechanical part -- the actuator -- could be the catalyst that starts the robotics revolution we've been waiting for.
An actuator is the part of a robot that converts electrical energy into motion. Altogether, actuators make up around 30 percent of the cost of a robot, so roboticists have spent decades trying to improve the design. A Canadian Company called Genesis Robotics has now made a breakthrough with a new type of actuator called LiveDrive.
"We see robotics being in a very similar place to where the personal computer was in the 80s or early 90s," Mike Hilton, CEO of Genesis Robotics tells us. While computers were once too expensive for all but a few companies, eventually there was a turning point where computers became affordable enough to move into not only new businesses but also homes.
Hilton says, "We see a similar trend starting to emerge with robotics. Something that has been a very useful tool for improving the quality of production in a factory could now become something that could help out in a hospital, a school, factories and warehouses, military scenarios, and give the aging population more independence."
A traditional actuator is a combination of an electric motor and a gearbox. Electric motors are good at spinning quickly, but they don't have enough lifting power, so a gearbox is added in order to make the robot's limbs powerful enough to be useful. Unfortunately, gears are high maintenance and expensive.
The roboticists at Genesis Robotics have invented a direct drive actuator that has the same torque and lifting power as a traditional actuator, but without the need for the pricey gearbox. The idea is similar to the impressive gearless robots that we have seen from Ghost Robotics, but on an industrial scale. In the past month, Genesis received two allowances for patents on the design of its direct drive actuator.
Just like all electric motors, LiveDrive is a combination of copper coils and magnets, but it has a unique design that dramatically increases the magnetic force. Hilton explains, "We have a custom arrangement for the magnets and the type of material that the magnets are embedded in that allows us to amplify the magnetic force of those magnets." As a result, the copper coil piece of the motor and the magnetic portion are drawn together by 2,000 pounds of magnetic force. This makes the actuator powerful enough to ditch the gearbox.
This new gearless actuator can help bring down the cost of existing robot designs, but it will also make entirely new designs possible. It's not just cheaper -- the gearless actuator is also thin and scalable. LiveDrive can range in size from less than half an inch to around 30 inches, but the parts can also stack to amplify the power of the actuator.
READ ALSO: Video drones move adverts from the screen to the sky | Robo Wunderkind wants to teach children to be robot creators | Robot crime raises thorny legal issues that need addressing now (TechRepublic)
Most importantly, if robots are going to venture outside of structured industrial environments, they absolutely have to be safe. The new design addresses some safety concerns by making control mechanisms more precise. When you stop a traditional actuator, the gears keep moving for a moment. So, even if robots are loaded with sensors and collision avoidance technology, there will be a mechanical delay. "
"There's a whole line of robotic capability that is just in its infancy, and the right actuator -- with the right cost point, with the right safety capabilities - could really be the vehicle that allows us to take robots from the factory into the home," Hilton says.
Flippy the robot uses AI to flip burgers at fast food jointsTop military brass planned to drop the British Army’s famous ‘Be the Best’ recruitment slogan and crossed swords crest, alleging they are “elitist” and “non-inclusive”.
Defence secretary Gavin Williamson stepped in at the eleventh hour to veto the politically correct plans, which were to take effect from January 2017 on the expensively-procured advice of third-party “image consultants”, the Mail on Sunday reports.
“Market research in May 17 found that ‘Be the Best’ did not resonate with many of our key audiences and was considered dated, elitist and non-inclusive,” noted a document title ‘The Army Brand’, produced under the direction of General Sir Nick Carter.
“The ECAB [Executive Committee of the Army Board] therefore agreed that its use should be phased out as soon as affordably possible. The retirement of Be the Best will commence immediately with all planned refreshes of Be the Best branded material cancelled in favour of brand-compliant products.”
Army Chaplains To Lose Christian Motto Because It Might Offend Muslims https://t.co/DWuXoZJ3vG pic.twitter.com/kMS1H2yFhj — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) November 21, 2015
The planned overhaul was described as “futile lunacy” by critics, with rebranding costs estimated in the millions at a time when the Armed Forces are facing savage cuts.
“The Defence Secretary believes that the British Army is the best of the best and has put these proposals on hold,” said a spokesman for the Ministry of Defence.
Commons Defence Select Committee chairman Julian Lewis had also spoken against the changes, saying: “Being the best is nothing to be ashamed of – it is a matter for pride and a very positive message to transmit. Why should we be afraid of excellence when we are constantly saying our Armed Forces are the best in the world?”
Social Justice Warriors Go Beserk Over British Army ‘Black Face’ Which Is Actually Camouflage https://t.co/0ICllzJekJ pic.twitter.com/6KhFZVYO2e — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) October 19, 2016
While the move is likely to prove popular with the Tory Party’s conservative base, which has been frustrated by its leaders’ love affair with social justice and long pressed it to stand up against such politically correct initiatives, some critics have suggested the Defence Secretary effectively vetoing commanders will strain relations between them.
These have deteriorated significantly since the Tories first returned to office in 2010 — initially in coalition with the left-wing Liberal Democrats — and began drastically curtailing the Defence budget, while EU contributions and commitments to the inflexible and often questionably allocated foreign aid budget were protected and steadily increased.
Some veterans defended the Government’s decision, however, with Colonel Richard Kemp, a former commander of British Forces in Helmand, Afghanistan, and COBRA Committee member, saying it was “lunacy to squander money on a futile branding project” in a time of cutbacks.
“‘Be the Best’ is popular because it encapsulates the desire for our troops to be better than their enemies,” he explained.
“It has never been about them looking down at anyone in society, so any suggestion it is elitist is nonsense. The Army needs to be the best and to know that it is.”
Follow Jack Montgomery on Twitter: @JackBMontgomeryby Chas W. Freeman, Jr.
I’m here to talk about the end of the American empire. But before I do I want to note that one of our most charming characteristics as Americans is our amnesia. I mean, we are so good at forgetting what we’ve done and where we did it that we can hide our own Easter eggs.
I’m reminded of the geezer—someone about my age—who was sitting in his living room having a drink with his friend while his wife made dinner.
He said to his friend, “you know, we went to a really terrific restaurant last week. You’d like it. Great atmosphere. Delicious food. Wonderful service.”
“What’s the name of it?” his friend asked.
He scratched his head. “Ah, ah. Ah. What do you call those red flowers you give to women you love?”
His friend hesitated. “A rose?”
“Right. Um, hey, Rose! What was the name of that restaurant we went to last week?”
Americans like to forget we ever had an empire or to claim that, if we did, we never really wanted one. But the momentum of Manifest Destiny made us an imperial power. It carried us well beyond the shores of the continent we seized from its original aboriginal and Mexican owners. The Monroe Doctrine proclaimed an American sphere of influence in the Western Hemisphere. But the American empire was never limited to that sphere.
In 1854, the United States deployed U.S. Marines to China and Japan, where they imposed our first treaty ports. Somewhat like Guantánamo, these were places in foreign countries where our law, not theirs, prevailed, whether they liked it or not. Also in 1854, U.S. gunboats began to sail up and down the Yangtze River (the jugular vein of China), a practice that ended only in 1941, when Japan as well as the Chinese went after us.
In 1893, the United States engineered regime change in Hawaii. In 1898, we annexed the islands outright. In that same year, we helped Cuba win its independence from Spain, while confiscating the Spanish Empire’s remaining holdings in Asia and the Americas: Guam, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico. Beginning in 1897, the U.S. Navy contested Samoa with Germany. In 1899, we took Samoa’s eastern islands for ourselves, establishing a naval base at Pago Pago.
From 1899 to 1902, Americans killed an estimated 200,000 or more Filipinos who tried to gain independence for their country from ours. In 1903, we forced Cuba to cede a base at Guantánamo to us and detached Panamá from Colombia. In later years, we occupied Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, parts of Mexico, and Haiti.
Blatant American empire-building of this sort ended with World War II, when it was replaced by a duel between us and those in our sphere of influence on one side and the Soviet Union and countries in its sphere on the other. But the antipathies our earlier empire-building created remain potent. They played a significant role in Cuba’s decision to seek Soviet protection after its revolution in 1959. They inspired the Sandinista movement in Nicaragua. (Augusto César Sandino, whose name the movement took, was the charismatic leader of the resistance to the 1922 – 1934 U.S. occupation of Nicaragua.) In 1991, as soon as the Cold War ended, the Philippines evicted U.S. bases and forces on its territory.
Spheres of influence are a more subtle form of dominance than empires per se. They subordinate other states to a great power informally, without the necessity of treaties or agreements. In the Cold War, we ruled the roost in a sphere of influence called “the free world”—free only in the sense that it included every country outside the competing Soviet sphere of influence, whether democratic or aligned with the United States or not. With the end of the Cold War, we incorporated most of the former Soviet sphere into our own, pushing our self-proclaimed responsibility to manage everything within it right up to the borders of Russia and China. Russia’s unwillingness to accept that everything beyond its territory is ours to regulate is the root cause of the crises in Georgia and Ukraine. China’s unwillingness to acquiesce in perpetual U.S. dominance of its near seas is the origin of the current tensions in the South China Sea.
The notion of a sphere of influence that is global except for a few no-go zones in Russia and China is now so deeply ingrained in the American psyche that our politicians think it entirely natural to make a number of far-reaching assertions, like these:
(1) The world is desperate for Americans to lead it by making the rules, regulating global public goods, policing the global commons, and doing in “bad guys” everywhere by whatever means our president considers most expedient.
(2) America is losing influence by not putting more boots on the ground in more places.
(3) The United States is the indispensable arbiter of what the world’s international financial institutions should do and how they should do it.
(4) Even if they change, American values always represent universal norms, from which other cultures deviate at their peril. Thus, profanity, sacrilege, and blasphemy—all of which were not so long ago anathema to Americans—are now basic human rights to be |
songs from ‘Antics’, culminating in the breathless ‘Slow Hands’. With six months behind it, encore opener ‘All The Rage Back Home’ is confirmed as one of the very best songs the band have written with its restless energy building to a crashing climax.SANAA, YEMEN - After Friday prayers, about 25 protesters stood outside Sanaa University chanting for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to resign. As the clock ticked toward 1:30 p.m., one by one, they began to leave, as did a small group of people watching them.
"They've gone to chew khat," Shihab Sharabi, 21, one of the protesters, said with a sheepish smile.
Khat, a leafy narcotic, is consumed by nearly every man here. Add that to the many reasons that Yemen's protest movement has yet to gain the same momentum as the revolts in Egypt and Tunisia, say many Yemenis.
For the past three weeks, protests have rocked this impoverished Middle Eastern capital. Some were massive; others were tiny. But one thing has remained constant: Most of the protests ended before 2 p.m. That's when many Yemenis enter khat-chewing sessions in their homes or cars, practically anywhere.
"In Yemen, chewing khat is like drinking water," said Samir al-Sami, an aid worker observing the demonstration. "We can't live without it."
Among its effects, khat is said to induce euphoria, loss of appetite and sleeplessness. The World Health Organization classifies it as a drug that, if abused, can cause mild psychological dependence. It is an illegal substance in the United States.
In Yemen, researchers estimate that as much as 80 percent of the population chews khat leaves, the vast majority starting at a young age.
That confounds Aidroos Al Naqeeb, an opposition lawmaker. When asked why Yemen, inflicted with many of the problems fueling the rebellions in Egypt and Tunisia, has not experienced a similar transformation, Naqeeb cited Yemen's weak civil society and weak culture of popular protests.
Then he added, shaking his head, that "the culture of khat is also playing a role."
Khalid al-Hamri, 22, a student, said it would be pointless to protest in the afternoon. "In the morning, all the government officials are in their offices. They will hear our protests," he said. "In the afternoon, nobody will listen to us because everybody is chewing khat."
Just then, a man walked by, his left cheek bulging with khat. He glanced at the protesters and jeered: "Don't you have anything better to do? The government will put you under its shoes." Then he walked in the direction of stores selling khat.
At the shops, there were much bigger crowds, some spilling onto the street. Everyone was clutching small plastic bags containing the leaves.
Back at the university, the protesters sat on the sidewalk, clutching Yemeni flags. Sharabi vowed that if Saleh didn't step down, they would protest all day, until midnight.
"We will bring our khat here and make a revolution," he said, as another protester walked toward the khat stores.Human Resources: Social Engineering in the 20th Century explores the rise of mechanistic philosophy and the exploitation of human beings under modern hierarchical systems. Topics covered include behaviorism, scientific management, work-place democracy, schooling, frustration-aggression hypothesis and human experimentation
Scott Noble, the filmmaker behind the extraordinary and informative documentary “Psywar,” has made another revelatory and important documentary, available free to the public, called “Human Resources: Social Engineering in the 20th Century.”
“Esentially,” says Scott, “this film is about the rise of mechanistic philosphy and the exploitation of human beings under modern hierarhical systems.” The film includes original interviews with: “Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Rebecca Lemov (“World as Laboratory”), Christopher Simpson (“The Science of Coercion”), George Ritzer (“The McDonaldization of Society”), Morris Berman (“The Reenchantment of the World”), John Taylor Gatto (“Dumbing us Down”), Alfie Kohn (“What does it mean to be well educated?”) and others.”
review via - http://www.documentarystream.com/human-resources-social-engineering-in-the-20th-century/Screenshot of Nightingale 1.11.0
The Nightingale developers have released version 1.11.0 of their open source, cross-platform media player application. This is the first stable release of the project since it was forked from Songbird due to the original developers dropping support for Linux to concentrate on the Windows and Mac OS X versions of their software.
Nightingale 1.11.0 integrates the latest Songbird changes, improving the performance of the player and implementing a new play queue. It also adds a refreshed visual look and the ability to get automatic updates for the software. Furthermore, the team has worked on porting many Songbird add-ons to Nightingale and has changed the software's infrastructure so that add-ons can be ported by modifying a single file.
Users of the developer preview versions of Nightingale (1.8.x) will need to uninstall that copy of the program before they can install version 1.11.0, taking care to back up their profile to avoid losing data as the old profile will be overwritten in the process. The developers also point out that "now is the best time to transfer your Songbird profile to Nightingale" before the divergence between the two code bases becomes too great. To this end, they have prepared a wiki page with instructions how to do so.
Full details of the changes are available in the release notes. Nightingale is available for Windows (32-bit), Mac OS X (32-bit) and Linux (32- and 64-bit) and can be downloaded from the project's web site under the terms of the GPLv2.
See also:
First Nightingale media player release arrives, a report from The H.
(fab)In a televised address this evening, President Barack Obama outlined his ideas on how to defeat the Islamic State. Along the way, he declared the organization variously known as ISIS or ISIL to be "not Islamic."
In making this preposterous claim, Obama joins his two immediate predecessors in pronouncing on what is not Islamic. Bill Clinton called the Taliban treatment of women and children "a terrible perversion of Islam." George W. Bush deemed that 9/11 and other acts of violence against innocents "violate the fundamental tenets of the Islamic faith."
Word magic permits Obama to turn ISIS into a "not Islamic" organization.
None of the three has any basis for such assertions. To state the obvious : as non-Muslims and politicians, rather than Muslims and scholars, they are in no position to declare what is Islamic and what is not. As Bernard Lewis, a leading American authority of Islam, notes: "it is surely presumptuous for those who are not Muslims to say what is orthodox and what is heretical in Islam." (That Obama was born and raised a Muslim has no relevance here, for he left the faith and cannot pronounce on it.)
Indeed, Obama compounds his predecessors' errors and goes further: Clinton and Bush merely described certain actions (treatment of women and children, acts of violence against innocents) as un-Islamic, but Obama has dared to declare an entire organization (and quasi-state) to be "not Islamic."
The only good thing about this idiocy? At least it's better than the formulation by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (known as CAIR) which has the nerve to call ISIS "anti-Islamic."
In the end, though, neither U.S. presidents nor Islamist apologists fool people. Anyone with eyes and ears realizes that ISIS, like the Taliban and Al-Qaeda before it, is 100 percent Islamic. And most Westerners, as indicated by detailed polling in Europe, do have eyes and ears. Over time, they are increasingly relying on common sense to conclude that ISIS is indeed profoundly Islamic. (September 10, 2014)
Sep. 10, 2014 addenda: (1) This analysis fits into a larger context, which I explore at "Prominent Non-Muslims Decide What Islam Is and Is Not."
(2) John Rossomando of the Investigative Project on Terrorism gathers more Islamist apologetics at "Muslim Leaders Insist Islamic State Not Islamic."
(3) A reader asked me: If Obama, as non-Muslim, is in no position to decide ISIS is not Islamic, how am I, as non-Muslim, to decide that it is Islamic? Clever question, but I am not deciding anything, just listening to the claims made by ISIS and acknowledging them. More generally, if someone says he's Muslim, I take his word for it. Incidentally, If someone (e.g., Obama) says he's Christian, I take his word for it too. I am not in the business of judging theology or hearts.This season, Celtics guard Jason Terry will be keeping a diary for ESPNBoston.com. In his first entry, Jason talks about why he wanted to come to Boston, the funniest moment from their trip to Europe, the nickname the team now has, and why he already hates the Heat. (--As told to Louise K. Cornetta)
Starting my Celtics career with a trip to Europe with the team was a great bonding experience. Turkey was a little different though. From the sites and the sounds to the food, Turkey was just a little different. The food was an adjustment as the cuisine was not what we were accustomed to. But once we got to Italy, it was better in those aspects. Let me tell you the best part about each leg of the trip. For Turkey, we took a boat trip as a team to a restaurant that was directly on the water. I'm not sure what sea it was, might have been the Black Sea, but definitely one of the seas. Think about that. Think about having restaurant being right in the middle of the sea and the food there was actually great. The rookies got up and got hazed a little bit, all in good fun. The best part of Italy was as a team we walked around the city, toured the big church there and went shopping together. It was interesting to see what guys shopped where. A lot of the guy's opinions were they weren't buying anything they could buy in the States. But of course, everybody ended up at Gucci and Louis [Vuitton] and I was like, "What? You can’t buy that in the States?!"
The funniest moment on the trip was we were attracting a lot of attention because of KG's [Kevin Garnett] size. He's so tall that they recognized him easily. We were getting bombarded by pictures. So all of sudden, KG takes the camera from one lady and started taking pictures of her. We got quite a crowd around us once they saw what he was up to. Definitely a bonding trip and the reason is because you're around each other and you're in foreign territory. You rely on one another to communicate because you mainly just stay in touch with your loved ones through the internet. You kind of lean on one another for the 7-8 days we were there. We ate breakfast together. We ate dinner together. At night, I called it campfire style where we bonded and formed a group called the Wolfpack. So it was the same group of guys downstairs at the hotel sitting under heated lamps telling stories and playing cards -- that was really big for us. The Wolfpack was everybody on the team. Everybody every night was down there but we called it the Wolfpack as a team bonding thing.
I know I'm new to this team. Let me tell you a little bit about myself. I'm from Seattle, Washington. I'm one of 10 children. My mom was a single parent and raised all 10 of us. I'm the second oldest. I had to learn responsibility at an early age because I had to take care of my younger brothers and sisters while my mom was off working long hours driving the city bus. Now that I have a family of my own, it made me a much more responsible adult. I've had some tough obstacles to overcome in life with losing two siblings. The challenges that I went through, was all about sacrifice. In my life and in my career it's been all about the sacrifice. On the court, I've been a player who has always sacrificed. Coming off the bench, when I could easily be starting for any team in the league, I'm showing everyone around me that sometimes sacrificing is good as long as it turns into a winning situation. I learned that from watching my mother sacrifice all her life. She never had the fancy cars or fancy clothes and jewelry because she would always give to us first. She made sure we had shoes and we had clothes. Therefore sometimes she went without. I learned all this at an early age.
As for my playing career, at the University of Arizona, which we call the Guard U., in my sophomore year guys like Damon Stoudamire, Steve Kerr, Sean Elliott, and Sean Rooks would come back and play against the guys that were in school. One day I was out there just tearing it up. I was thinking that if I can do this against the pros then maybe I do have a shot of playing in the NBA. My goal when I got to college was to, one, get a degree, and two, was to play professionally, and not necessarily in the NBA. So after that day and after winning the National Championship in `97 in my sophomore year, we had a lot of scouts start coming to practice. I realized that if I worked hard, I realistically could do this. I followed the leadership of my teammate Mike Bibby by watching him workout every day with what he did and his preparation to go to the NBA. I followed his routine to a tee, that's why I made it.
View from Jason Terry's hotel room in Istanbul. Courtesy of Jason Terry
Since we're talking about winning championships, you probably already know I won the NBA championship in 2010-11 season with the Dallas Mavericks. It was really disappointing when we didn't get a chance to defend our championship with the exact same team we had the previous year. But I take with me the friendships, especially with guys like DeShawn Stevenson, Jason Kidd, Shawn Marion, Tyson Chandler and J.J. Barera. Those are the bonds that you'll never forget. Now that I see those guys on other teams, you always think back about how we accomplished something great. There are so many guys who don't have the opportunity to play for one championship, let alone win it. We were a unique and special group. We did get that job done.
To win a championship, you have to have team unity. Everybody has to be on the same page and buy into the system that the coach has. You have to have veteran leadership and we had the best in Jason Kidd, who was our point guard. Then you have to have faith and belief, not only in each other but in yourself. I think we had all those qualities on that team. Then also the stars lined up for us. I mean, we were just playing great basketball, team basketball, at the right time.
Now I'm a Boston Celtic. I wanted to come to Boston because I wanted another opportunity to play for a championship. I saw their roster and knew what the coach, Doc Rivers, was about. I first met Doc in 2001 when he was the assistant coach for the Goodwill Games I was playing in. There were several factors for why I wanted to play for him. One, he's a champion. Two, he's a future Hall of Famer. Three, he's a guy who has played the game. So he knows. He knows as a veteran player when to kind of pull back and when to get on you. He knows how to put each player in a position to be successful out there on the court and that is valuable.
Another reason I wanted to come to Boston is the history and the heritage of the Celtics organization. You know every year they are going to be fighting for a championship. Regardless of who is in those uniforms, they are going to be one of the last two, three teams standing in the end. I wanted to be a part of that. I wanted to be able to one day say, "Man, I was on the Boston Celtics." John Havlicek, Don Nelson, all the history here. Bill Russell lives by my mom in Washington. I wanted to be a part of that rich culture because I'm a basketball historian. After 13 years in the league, when you become a free agent you look at three teams: The Lakers, the Celtics and maybe the Knicks. But really, you know Boston and L.A. are class organizations.
It didn't take me long to embrace being a Celtic. I hate whoever they hate. The Lakers are number one up there and the Heat aren't too far behind. Doc tells us every day to think about the Heat. Not only does he tell us, but the film plays over and over if you go to the practice facility. Before practice and after practice, that series [2012 Eastern Conference Finals] is playing over and over on the television. We start off the season against them (Oct. 30 in Miami). Obviously the road to the championship goes through the champions and that's the Miami Heat. I take it on. I take it on personally. This is just a part of me, my make up, and my character. I'm just so happy to be on a team with guys who are just as passionate as I am because that's how I play every day. You know Kevin Garnett is probably the most passionate guy I've ever been around. I've only been around a month and a-half, but he plays the way I do.
As the sixth man on this team, I definitely bring that energy and ability to make shots right now. I don't need a warm up. When I come into in the game, I'm ready to go. I'm going to give you all I have. This team is a mix of veterans and new guys. I'm one of the veterans. I'm definitely a spiritual and emotional leader. Not only for the guys off the bench, but for the entire team. I am a champion. I've won one like Pierce, KG and Rondo have. So I give us that experience too.
Now that I'm in Boston, I want to experience everything I can. My sole focus though is I want to win it all, that's it. Other than that, I want to continue to give the fans as much love as they give us. Being out in Boston, this is probably the greatest sports town I've ever been in. Don't get me wrong, Dallas was great. They're right there too. But my first week and a half in Boston, I knew that this was a sports town. Everywhere I went I was welcomed to Boston. Whether I was at a Patriots game or a Red Sox game or eating in the North End with my family, they welcomed me like I was already a Celtic. I want to experience this city. I went to Fenway to talk to people about how to learn the Boston accent. I want to go to Cape Cod to check that out. I know there is plenty for me to do. Where do you think I should go? If you have suggestions feel free to leave me a comment.Please enable Javascript to watch this video
HOUSTON -- Houston's streets got a little hotter today as the Houston Latino Trump Coalition came out to support their candidate.
"He's the only choice we have." Julio Torres responded as he waved his Latinos For Trump sign at passing cars.
"He's going to give us progress, he's going to give us opportunities, he's going to end all the race-baiting, and he's going to end all of the poverty in our neighborhoods. He's going to do a lot better for us than Hilary Clinton will."
Needless to say, this did not sit well with some members of the Latino community including Ximena Magana who came to voice her opposition.
"I came because I am a dreamer." said Magana as she waved a "Build Bridges Not Walls" sign.
"I am a woman, I am Hispanic and I'm not going to tolerate anyone who is attacking my community. And anyone who is attacking other communities here in the Houston area. We are here, we are hard working, we are dedicated and we are giving back to the community."
As for the statement that he made about women that threatens to derail his campaign efforts, well the impact depends on who you ask.
"The video that just came out, with the way he treats women and the way he talks about women is very disheartening. As a woman myself, I think that it's disgusting to think that someone who is running for an elected office doesn't hold himself to any morals."
In contrast, Trump supporter and fellow Latina, Hope Cruz does not feel so strongly.
"I have thick skin, it is what it is. We're all guilty of getting together with a friend and saying things. And uh someone sold him out."
LET'S JUST HOPE BOTH SIDES CAN MANAGE TO GRAB HOLD OF THEIR EMOTIONS THE CLOSER WE GET TO ELECTION DAY.Yes, the rumors persist that Microsoft, even though it’s actively trying to kill Windows Phone, may be getting back into mobile. If there is a Surface Phone, and to be honest it’s hard to imagine that Microsoft won’t in some way re-inter the mobile space, Windows phone enthusiasts are going to have some hard choices to make. A new Microsoft mobile entry is going to not only have to compete in a heavily saturated and mature market, but carry along with it the baggage of multiple failed mobile attempts.
Still, it’s pretty clear that a fully functioning Windows 10 ecosystem *needs* a mobile component, and so here we sit, reading the tea leaves and awaiting some kind of word on what Microsoft has planned for the future of mobile.
But even if they do take another stab at mobile, will you come along for the ride? Microsoft fans have been burned and burned again by hitching their cart to Windows Phone and/or Windows 10 Mobile. Will you be back for more? Take our poll below and let us know where you stand:
Are you ready to give Microsoft another mobile chance?
Personally, although I bit the bullet and moved to a Samsung S8+ earlier this year, I miss Windows 10 Mobile. I wanted a new modern device, but it’s Android, fergawdsakes. It’s just not the same, and if a new Windows phone surfaces, I will be taking a good hard look. How about you? Are you done with Microsoft mobile? Are you anxiously awaiting a Surface Phone? Leave a comment and let us know what you think.
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Further reading: pollThe first thing that Romney mentioned in his explanation of how he was different from Bush was the development of new drilling technology: "We can now, by virtue of new technology, actually get all the energy we need in North America without having to go to the -- the Arabs or the Venezuelans or anyone else. That wasn't true in his time." This is not exactly a compelling response; it's sort of like saying that the biggest difference between Bush and Clinton was the development of the iPhone.
The rest of Romney's answer was even stranger. Romney seemed to accuse Bush of being soft on China, indifferent to Latin America, and an opponent of small business. Because of his unpopularity, Bush has been subject to a large number of critiques. I have never before, though, seen the 43rd president of the United States portrayed as China coddling, Latin America disdaining, and small business hating. If we go back all the way to the 2000 presidential campaign, we can remember that Bush described China as a "strategic competitor," that he declared that he would look to South America "not as an afterthought, but as a fundamental commitment," and that he promised to cut taxes on small businesses. So, contra Romney, Bush was hawkish on China, supportive of South America, and receptive to the concerns of small business.
That Romney and Bush are using almost identical language to describe China, Latin America, and small business (among other things, a more detailed treatment of their rhetorical similarities would run to novel length) is not in the least bit surprising. In case we've forgotten, Bush and Romney are Republican politicians of the same generation (Bush is 66, Romney is 65), appealing to the same base, and supported by the same powerful business interests. Given their similarities, it would be surprising if Bush and Romney didn't sound the same.
Romney's attempt to respectfully distance himself from Bush will probably work. Given the frenetic pace of modern elections and the immense pressure of 24 hour media cycles, re-fighting issues from the Bush administration will likely seem either churlish or crazy. Obama has an extremely tall order if he wants to convince the public that "Romney = Bush." As even a perfunctory examination of Bush's campaign rhetoric suggests, Romney's "new" proposals really are substantively similar to Bush's. And if you look at Bush's record in office, cutting taxes, eliminating regulations, "supporting small business," and "getting tough with China" weren't extremely beneficial to most Americans. One does not need to be a partisan Democrat to see that the GOP really hasn't changed much since Bush's time in office.
We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.On 26 October 1863 the representatives of 11 schools and football clubs met at the Freemasons’ Tavern near Covent Garden in London and founded the Football Association, seeking to establish a unified set of laws, essentially so that those who had gone to different public schools could play against each other when they met at university. Ever since, it feels, the notion of the sport as an end in itself, as a good to be cherished and protected, has been dwindling. Short-term self-interest rules.
Africa Cup of Nations to switch from January staging to June in 2019 Read more
The Confederation of African Football at least last week decided that the Cup of Nations will, for now, be played in Africa and will feature only African teams, rejecting suggestions from its marketing committee to explore the possibility of inviting three or four nations from elsewhere and playing the competition outside the continent. But as of 2019, the tournament will be played in June and July rather than January and February and it will comprise 24 rather than 16 teams.
To which the reaction can only be a weary sigh as another great tournament goes the way of the World Cup and the Euros. The shift of date is problematic (not least in that the 2021 tournament will clash with the Confederations Cup) but there are arguments for it. African players at western European clubs will no longer find themselves with competing claims on their attention every other season – which should benefit the players, the clubs and the countries, and lead to fewer wrangles such as that between Liverpool and Cameroon over Joël Matip this year.
But there is a reason the Cup of Nations was held in January and February: weather. The next tournament is scheduled to be hosted in Cameroon. In June in Yaoundé the mean daily high temperature is 27 degrees, with average monthly rainfall of 170mm and 85% humidity. These are not ideal conditions for football. Whether it is worth that compromise to satisfy European clubs is open to doubt; it would certainly not have happened when Issa Hayatou was the CAF president.
The expansion to 24 teams is not even debatable. It is a terrible idea, diluting the quality and rendering the group stage a slog of largely meaningless football. There will be those who claim an expanded tournament gives a chance to smaller nations and point to the experiences of Wales, Iceland and Northern Ireland at the 2016 European Championship, ignoring the fact that all three would have qualified for a 16-team tournament. In France last summer it took 36 games to reduce 24 teams to 16. Based on the qualifying record, that in effect meant substituting the Republic of Ireland and Hungary for Austria and the Czech Republic. Neither reached the quarter-finals. This is supposed to be elite sport, not a GLC sports day.
Perhaps even that could be tolerated if there was any evidence an appearance at a Cup of Nations is an aid to development. Have Botswana or Niger kicked on since qualifying in 2012? Have Malawi benefited from being there in 2010, or Namibia from 2008? Or has the decade since Togo and Angola reached the World Cup been a golden age for football in either country?
Facebook Twitter Pinterest A Burkina Faso supporter prepares for action at the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations. A 24-team tournament would not be good news for fans. Photograph: Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty Images
Besides which, 24 is an awful number for a tournament if filtering to a last 16*, because it entails best third-placed teams. Comparing between groups always feels artificial and can lead to anomalies that, through the fault of nobody but the format, seem unfair. At the European Under-21 Championship this summer, for instance, the teams in Group C had a clear advantage because, playing last, they knew what was necessary for, in this case, a best second-placed team to progress: Germany, trailing to Italy, had little incentive to press for an equaliser because they knew a 1-0 defeat gave them a semi-final against England while a heavier defeat would have seen them miss out to Slovakia, the second-placed team in Group A.
At the Gold Cup, meanwhile, Honduras qualified ahead of Martinique as a best third-placed side entirely because they were awarded a 3-0 win for a game against French Guiana that had initially finished 0-0, Martinique were punished in effect because French Guiana had wilfully played Florent Malouda despite knowing he was ineligible.
Then there is the problem of hosting. A 16-team tournament requires four stadiums and even that is not always easy. In 2015, for instance, two of the quarter-finals were switched at the last minute from Ebebiyin and Mongomo because the infrastructure there was simply not good enough.
Premier League at 25: the best signing – Patrick Vieira to Arsenal, August 1996 Read more
That, perhaps, is an exception given Equatorial Guinea had stepped in with a month’s notice to replace Morocco as hosts but recent tournaments are littered with new-built stadiums that will never be used again (this, perhaps, is the underlying logic of the proposal to move the tournament to a different continent: rather than the Chinese constantly funding and building stadiums in Africa, there perhaps comes a point at which it is easier to take the tournament to pre-existing Chinese stadiums). A 24-team tournament means a minimum of six stadiums and that not only reduces the number of potential hosts but means increased investment in white elephants.
Cameroon is already behind schedule in its preparations for 2019, while struggling with increasing tension between the Anglophone and Francophone parts of the country. These decisions have at least given it an extra five months to get ready but it will now have to prepare two additional venues. Morocco, having pulled out of hosting duties for 2015 over Ebola fears, is standing by (June temperature in Marrakech 32 degrees, precipitation nil).
But this is about more than 2019. It is about more than Africa. It is about sporting authorities acting not in the interests of the sport but for short-term financial gain. Increase the number of finalists by 50% and you decrease your chance of missing out. More than that, you decrease the chances of the vital markets of Nigeria and South Africa missing out.
Will the football be better or meaningful? Will it help African sides prepare for the challenge of the World Cup? Is this, in any broad sense, good for the game? Of course not but who still cares about that?
[*This is an academic point because nobody would ever do this but if 24 filtered to quarter-finals, you could have eight groups of three and avoid dead rubbers so long as you had flexibility in the scheduling so the fixtures in each group went A v B followed by C v the loser of A v B followed by C v the winner of A v B].These rumors may be a bit soon to attribute to Hugo Barra, however it is looking like Xiaomi may have a smartwatch in the works. The watch is reportedly coming from Millet and while this could have easily been looked at as future offering for the Chinese market, there has been word from Barra dealing with a international strategy for the upcoming year.
When Hugo Barra joined Xiaomi (as the Vice President, Xiaomi Global), he mentioned that the team would be looking to “expand their incredible portfolio and business globally.” This of course, could mean a smartwatch. Anyway, while not yet having been announced by Xiaomi, the watch is said to be coming from Millet and inline with their current pricing strategy.
Reports coming from MyDrivers suggests that could mean a price that is “significantly lower” than other currently available smartwatches. There was not any specifics revealed, however as we have seen a wide variety of smartwatch pricing, we are hoping to see something further. Current smartwatches include the Pebble at $150 and the Galaxy Gear at $299. A wide range.
Further details here point towards the possibility of the Xiaomi smartwatch arriving with MIUI. This one is pronounced as “Me You I” and it is available for a wide variety of Android handsets as an alternate ROM. MIUI sits with the promise of “bringing customization to a whole other level with phone and SMS features that you wouldn’t think of and an original UI that redefines Android.”
While the features aspect, particularly the part about the phone, may not make it to the watch, there is something about the original UI bit that may prove helpful to a smaller display. Well, maybe not this specific version, but the part about how they are comfortable with making the custom interface.
Anyway, while it still seems early days in terms of Xiaomi Millet smartwatch rumors and leaks, given the recent hire of Hugo Barra — it does seem like a story worth following. And just to make this point clear, the above watch is not the Xiaomi, it is a Samsung Galaxy Gear with the Xiaomi logo showing.When the state’s rowdiest beer festival claims Grand Rapids as its home, a week dedicated to beer isn’t outlandish — especially for Beer City, U.S.A.
Monday marks the beginning of Grand Rapids Beer Week — a week-long celebration of the craft beer industry that has exploded in the past three years — and the Michigan Brewers Guild’s 8th Annual Winter Beer Festival at Fifth Third Ball Park.
One day isn’t enough, said Jon Piepenbrok, managing partner of Liquid Table Solutions and organizer of the 2nd Annual Grand Rapids Beer Week. Piepenbrok started with Detroit Beer Week in 2009.
“The buzz surrounding the festival is huge — that’s all the people that can go,” Piepenbrok said. “We want to build a week, a beer vacation, where people come in and put money into the local economy.”
Tickets to the Brewers Guild festival sold out in 13 hours, angering many who didn't capture tickets, and attract about 8,000 people and 65 breweries.
“It’s such a unique festival,” Piepenbrok said. “Only in Michigan will we see 8,000 people drinking beer in a parking lot in the middle of February.”
Piepenbrok, who’s from the east side of the state, said he has heard of people who had been to every Brewers Guild festival in its 13-year history, but failed to buy tickets for this one. They’re still coming to Grand Rapids to participate in the Beer Week festivities.
There will be more than 50 events across the West Michigan area for Beer Week, including beer dinners and tap takeovers such as Monday’s Hudsonville Beer Night at HopCat and Wednesday’s Perrin Chinese New Year-themed beer dinner at Rockwell Republic.
Aside from the beer dinners and tap takeovers, the Grand Rapids Society of Brewers came up with its third installment of the Grand Series, The Beer City Grand Series. Previous installments were the Beer City Pale Ale and the Grand Pumpkin.
The series will push beers to their limits as seven area breweries brewed up high-alcohol-by-volume imperial beers.
“The concept is amazing,” Piepenbrok said. “It’s the brewers banding together and doing something awesome.”
Monday also marks the beginning of a two week event run by Experience GR — Cool Brews, Hot Eats. There are 57 restaurants and brewers participating in the event, which is similar to the bureau’s Restaurant Week and features a long list of menu specials.
The event is meant to inspire local chefs to use beer and get diners experimenting and expanding their palates, said Janet Korn, marketing director at Experience Grand Rapids.
“Beer tourism is a natural connection to pair with culinary tourism,” Korn said. “It will help diners experience both the great local craft beers and cuisine.”
The Experience GR aspect will help bring a new crowd to the beer industry, Piepenbrok said.
“It reaches out to the fine dining segment,” he said. “Every time you can get that crossover is fantastic. It’s bringing new faces in the door.”
The weekend capped by the festival is a celebration of all things Michigan, said Robert Wanhatalo, head brewer at the Mitten Brewing Co. and a native Yooper.
“It’s thousands of our closest friends, together, braving the state’s wild winter weather,” Wanhatalo said. “All for a taste of what we do best: brew beer.”
Grand Rapids Mayor George Heartwell has embraced the craft beer industry and loves the annual festival.
“I always go out to the festival — it’s so much fun,” Heartwell said. “It’s an incredibly important industry, both because it represents an emerging economic sector, but that it’s attracting young, educated people.
“Beer is a great thing for Grand Rapids,” Heartwell added.
Editor's note: reporter Pat Evans works at Mitten Brewing Co.Size Information
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ness in New Vegas - there's lots of it - but it's always being tempered by down-low grit. For every giant plastic Tyrannosaur, there's a Boone who had to shoot his true love in a mercy killing.
Fallout New Vegas was great for more than its thematic maturity. Structurally it was more directed, but really it was every bit as free and open. Fallout 3's Washington, with its plazas of combat and tunnels of dread (for their labyrinthine nature as much as their inhabitants), left me feeling short-changed of freeform exploration and, more importantly, interesting loot. New Vegas stepped up and delivered, despite going to great effort to make sure you headed south from Goodsprings. On top of this were the additional skills (cannibalism meant you never went hungry in Hardcore Mode, especially if you levelled it up) and the best bit of all - a shedload of equipment and a bit of light crafting.
The expansion of systems is always welcome, and you always want a sequel to have more stuff, especially weapons. New Vegas gave me lots to seek out and play with. For this, I was eternally thankful. Working my way up to an anti-materiel rifle was a better incentive to go explore and accumulate XP and caps than any storyline, and became particularly joyful when I finally cleared my way back to Goodsprings from the north, helped ably by said rifle with explosive and incendiary rounds. When the Gunrunner's Arsenal arrived, I openly wept tears of joy for a week.
There's so much to reminisce about in Fallout New Vegas. Meeting Mr House, abortive stealth-killing runs through Caesar's camp, the climb to Tabitha's radio station, running the Boomer's gauntlet, slaughtering the Powder Gangers in their pissy prison, solving the mystery of the Ultra Luxe, finding Chinese Stealth Armor at the Hoover Dam. Getting a new brain for an ailing dog, freeing the slaves at Cottonwood Cove, seeing the BoS in hiding and crisis, Vault 22. The DLC was pretty awesome too - Old World Blues was a deranged jaunt for loot (and where New Vegas took a rare step over the plausibility line), Honest Hearts was quite the landscape and Dead Money was intense, but New Vegas's hardened soul found a crystalline summation walking the Lonesome Road.
Here, New Vegas's grand vista narrowed into a winding corridor of desolation and decay, with a huge moral choice at the end. War is all too easily trivialised in video games. Such is the reduction of consequence, the appeasement of players who never want to restart anything, and the chase for sensationalist set-pieces. The increasingly chaotic landscapes of the Lonesome Road, from ruined military base into a city that felt truly shattered, seemed to pull Fallout's key theme into sharper focus. The sheer finality of a global nuclear exchange was no longer a backdrop, but comes to the fore. It was serious business.
In Fallout 3, you get to set off a nuke in the early hours of the game, to serve a rich elite and as a side-quest easter egg. At the end of the Lonesome Road, you get to set off a nuke to serve your moral alignment - or explicitly chose not to. To me, the tougher combat and the ruined, isolated canyon (becoming progressively more illustrative of the effects of nuclear war) pulled me into pacifism in a remarkable way. It was story, game and environment unifying to provoke something profound - the belief that no nuclear weapon should ever fly again.
For all my comparative criticism of Fallout 3, I absolutely loved it. I even loved Mothership Zeta. It's just that New Vegas transcended it. It seemed to have more of everything I loved and less of the things I didn't. I just hope Bethesda has bottled a bit of that magic - the kind that came from Josh Sawyer, Chris Avellone and Obsidian - for Fallout 4. When it came to the end of New Vegas, I took the Wargames route - I chose not to play. The Legion must die, but the NCR is doing it wrong. The rest are silly, irresponsible or sociopathic, so I left the Hoover Dam as it was, a standoff between ideology and destiny, at loggerheads forever. I took to the wasteland as some condescending protector of the nameless settlers and wandering traders, killing all the violent things for the people this world depends on. It wasn't a formal ending, but it should have been.
The fact that I'm satisfied leaving it in limbo (and without feeling spineless) underlines the greatness in New Vegas's moral complexity. It was the perfect ending for a player who didn't want to watch the world burn, but just wanted it to leave it a nicer place.DISPLAX Interactive Systems announced today the launch of its star product: Skin Dualtouch. It is basically a new version of its Skin Multitouch, except that this one allows 2 touches to be detected simultaneously. It is a “transparent and flexible thinner-than-paper polymer foil that, when applied to glass, plastic of wood, turns the surface interactive.” A grid of nanowires embedded in the foil acts as the patent-pending controller that processes multiple input signals.
DISPLAX’s Skin Dualtouch foil will allow many different materials to function as multitouch devices, and can even enable zero bezel designs. No word on which companies will be using DISPLAX’s technology in their products but it is already shipping worldwide now (except in the US). Find out more at DISPLAX’s website.
[Press Release]
Filed in..A research team at Toyohashi University of Technology in Japan has fabricated an implanted wireless power transmission (WPT) device to deliver power to an implanted neural interface system, such as a brain-computer interface (BCI) device.
Described in an open-access paper in Sensors journal, the system avoids having to connect an implanted device to an external power source via wires through a hole in the skull, which can cause infections through the opening and risk of infection and leakage of the cerebrospinal fluid during long-term measurement. The system also allows for free-moving subjects, allowing for more natural behavior in experiments.
The researchers used a wafer-level packaging technique to integrate a silicon large-scale integration (LSI) chip in a thin (5 micrometers), flexible parylene film, using flip-chip (face-down) bonding to the film. The system includes a thin-film antenna and a rectifier to convert a radio-frequency signal to DC voltage (similar to how an RFID chip works). The entire system measures 27 mm × 5 mm, and the flexible film can conform to the surface of the brain.
The researchers plan to integrate additional functions, including amplifiers, analog-to-digital converters, signal processors, and a radio frequency circuit for transmitting (and receiving) data.
Such a system could perform some of the functions of the Braingate system, which allows paralyzed patients to communicate (see “People with paralysis control robotic arms using brain-computer interface“).
This work is partially supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research, Young Scientists, and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.
element14 | Kevin Warwick’s BrainGate Implant
Abstract of Co-Design Method and Wafer-Level Packaging Technique of Thin-Film Flexible Antenna and Silicon CMOS Rectifier Chips for Wireless-Powered Neural Interface Systems
In this paper, a co-design method and a wafer-level packaging technique of a flexible antenna and a CMOS rectifier chip for use in a small-sized implantable system on the brain surface are proposed. The proposed co-design method optimizes the system architecture, and can help avoid the use of external matching components, resulting in the realization of a small-size system. In addition, the technique employed to assemble a silicon large-scale integration (LSI) chip on the very thin parylene film (5 μm) enables the integration of the rectifier circuits and the flexible antenna (rectenna). In the demonstration of wireless power transmission (WPT), the fabricated flexible rectenna achieved a maximum efficiency of 0.497% with a distance of 3 cm between antennas. In addition, WPT with radio waves allows a misalignment of 185% against antenna size, implying that the misalignment has a less effect on the WPT characteristics compared with electromagnetic induction.Posted in General
We’ve finally come to the end of my alignment series. We’ve denounced the dark forces of the evil campaign, held the dread Jerk-adin at bay, and gotten those lazy neutrals off of their arses. Now it’s time to mix it up with some alignment-based desegregation!
Picture this: You’ve got a group of semi-serious roleplayers, within reason. None of you knew what the others wanted to play, so you made characters with vastly disparate purposes and goals. Your GM tosses you into an adventure and says, “Alright guys, what are you going to do?” Duh, you’re going to fight.
This happens to a lot of games. After rules negotiations and hygiene faux pas, I would wager morality-based issues cause the most strife for polyhedron-chuckers. But they don’t have to. With a little tuning, they can help you play your characters in bigger, better, more interesting ways.
Family Planning
GMs get the lion’s share of blame when campaigns turn into squabbling. Even the haughtiest of storytellers have to act as referees (or adult-sitters) for their players. That won’t change anytime soon, so your best bet is to head off problems before they begin. You and your players should figure out what kind of story you want to tell and what kind of characters you want to tell it with. What are your tonal expectations? Is the game world gritty? High fantasy? Will the adventurers start as rat-catchers and become cosmic pyromancers?
Don’t let players create their characters in a vacuum. They don’t need to know every inch of each others’ histories, statistics, or favorite foods, but each player should know the others’ basic concepts before they start filling out their sheets. In most games, you want characters to have ties to at least one (preferably two or three) of the other adventurers explaining why they might adventure together. Perhaps the scoundrel owes the priest of justice his life, and that’s why she’s helping him slay the Ogre Queen. If they’re meeting for the first time (probably in a tavern), a little out-of-character knowledge will go a long way…
Talk It Out
Sometimes, the best way to mitigate conflicts is to figure out what they’re going to be. If your characters are going to meet for the first time, how do you think they’ll interact? Is your chaotic barbarian willing to see the virtue of the tactician’s plan? Is your priestess of light willing to let small evils slide so the urchin thief will stay in the party? Just why IS the imp necromancer hanging out with you?
Remember that, just like real conflicts, what seems obvious to one person may not be to another. If you expect the rogue to put down the stolen spoons the moment you catch him, you’d better say so. Otherwise, he might just flash you a little thieves’ cant and stick them in his pockets. This takes a little spontaneity out of your roleplaying, but laying down a few dynamics ahead of time will prevent arguments.
Naturally, you must play well with others. If one player acts stubbornly and refuses to let the others have their way, your games will likely fall apart (or continue without him). While alignment conflicts are myriad, the same handful crop up over and over again, and they’re pretty easy to solve.
Honor in a Den of Thieves
So everyone else is bankrupting local merchants with five-fingered discounts, and one guy won’t even break the speed limit. Assuming this character actually fits into the campaign, you need to figure out WHY he or she is lawful. Lawful good characters tend to follow the rules because they believe order serves the common good. Lawful evil characters lean lawful because they serve a specific evil or because the system allows them to get away with doing bad things. Aside from Modrons and Inevitables, lawful neutral characters tend to be kind of lame. But they don’t have to. They simply need specific codes of ethics that (they believe) transcend morality.
Lawful guys (and gals) still need to play nice with the hooligans. If you connect their backstories, you can justify adventures fairly easily. Their loyalty to the others might supersede their personal honor. Or they could work against the party. Perhaps they steal from the party’s funds to make fair compensation to those they’ve wronged, or they simply notify the authorities. This could actually make a great story hook. But everyone has to discuss these possibilities out of character (preferably in advance) to prevent conflict.
Candle in the Dark
Lots of groups end up with a singular good character (or at least, one character who is by far the good-est). Most often, these people end up playing the role of moral compass, which gives rise to paladin problems. But not every good character needs to follow the law. Plenty erratic elves and flighty fairies hold good and freedom in equal regard.
When they don’t lead the team, these characters often push the party toward virtue with innocence, idealism, or just plain optimism. Perhaps they see good in the other player characters in spite of their evils. In this case, they might be the group’s heart and soul. You can stab Jayne, but how dare you threaten Kaylee. Note that this dynamic only works if the other characters actually like this character, which you should discuss in advance.
Fox In the Henhouse
Some characters are slightly less than honest. And, by that I mean they’re thieves, opportunists, or con men. Others have too much damned power for the law to get in the way of their mayhem. I already covered a lot of this because these types seem to make up 90% of my gaming groups. But, let’s re-iterate: neutral characters can absolutely save the day.
From a player perspective, ask yourself a couple of things: What are your character’s boundaries? He or she is isn’t evil for a reason. Chaotic neutral characters still have some kind of belief. They must find something off-limits. Then, what will it take to make your character actually give a crap? If you’re playing the only non-good or non-lawful person in the group, you should let your compatriots sway you to the straight and narrow from time to time. You don’t have to make it easy, but don’t make it too difficult.
The Bastard
Despite my hatred for eeevil games, I love evil characters in good games. However, players and GMs must handle them with care. Like their unscrupulous neutral counterparts, evil characters can have an entire game’s worth of side-schemes going, though theirs tend toward murder more than greed. At their best, evil characters provide (black) comedic relief. They might sneak off to murder people, “accidentally” kill harmless NPCs, or misunderstand concepts of good and evil.
Two key details keep the bastard from ruining games: First, he or she can’t screw the party over. Not really. Bastards might occasionally steal from their friends or sneak off to do evil, but they can’t actually kill, maim or bankrupt the group. If they try, they will lose (by GM fiat, if necessary). Second, the bastard can only stay with the party as long as his or her usefulness outweighs his or her sins. This works best when the bastard is one of the more useful but less powerful character types. An imp rogue or a utility wizard might fit the bill. If he or she gets goes too atrocious or becomes useless, arguments of “my character wouldn’t put up with this” will rear their ugly (and justified) heads.
The group should decide why the bastard is tolerated. My suggestions include a sibling bond, a friendly/romantic relationship with a good-aligned character, a life debt, or $$. It’s okay to make evil characters loyal to the party (even if they don’t care about anything else). Sometimes, you don’t need a reason to stick by your friends.Following his crash in second practice on Friday, Palmer was only 19th in FP3 this morning in his rebuilt car.
But his qualifying performance was even worse, not helped by a fuel system problem on his first run. His 1m28.244s was over a second off the next-slowest car, the Williams of Lance Stroll.
“We had a fuel surge on the first run, so I didn’t do a lap,” said Palmer. “My second lap was the first of the weekend on ultrasoft and to be honest the car was awful.
“Yesterday the car was feeling good before I crashed, which was my bad, but I was really happy with the car at least and showing something sensible in the lap times.
“Today, the car was put back together, I have to thank the guys, but it’s actually a disaster. I’m a second off what I did on my second lap in FP1, which is pretty terrible.
“The brakes are terrible, the balance is pretty horrible and the traction is terrible.”
Palmer will start ahead of Stroll, however, due to the Canadian's grid penalty.Good news for those who pre-ordered a copy of Duke Nukem Forever at some point in the last decade - you will indeed get your money's worth.
At least that's if Gearbox bossman Randy Pitchford has anything to do with it. Speaking to VG247 he said discussions with shopkeepers are already underway.
"There are a lot of people who pre-ordered the game. We've been starting to talk with retailers because we didn't take them directly, and 3D Realms didn't take them, it was all retailers going, 'I'm going to take this guy's money,'" Pitchford said.
But Gearbox won't stand for that sort of talk. "We've started to engage them, saying, 'Hey, you've got customers who you made a promise to, and any bad feeling they have will reflect on us, so can we work together to do something for those people?'
"I don't know what we can do yet, but something should be done for the people who pre-ordered."
Duke Nukem Forever is coming to PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 in February. Read our recent hands-on preview to find out how it's shaping up.Who Pays for Pro-Assad Videos on Tulsi Gabbard’s YouTube Channel?
pplswar Blocked Unblock Follow Following Feb 9, 2017
Hawaii Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard claims her trip to Syria was not aimed at bolstering Bashar al-Assad’s bloody regime, but the videos on her official ‘Tulsi Press’ YouTube channel indicate otherwise.
For those who don’t know, there is no freedom of movement or press under the Assad regime and so whomever Gabbard met with in Syria was vetted and approved by the regime. The regime allowed her to create the above videos for the purpose of telling regime’s story: Assad, the secularist reformer, is defending the country from evil Muslim terrorists. Assad’s long history of collaborating with Al-Qaeda and Islamic State is never mentioned. Assad’s industrial torture-and-execution apparatus that has killed tens of thousands of Syrians is obscured. Assad’s control and manipulation of religious figures and institutions is hidden. Watching these videos you would never know that jihad is in Assad regime textbooks for schoolchildren and that Islamic [sharia] laws and courts are an integral component of the regime’s legal system.
The political blowback on Gabbard for her pro-Assad PR stunt forced her to repay $9,000 to the fascist Syrian Socialist Nationalist Party (SSNP) activists who footed the bill for her trip. (Gabbard has yet to explain why she would take money from the SSNP if she’s so against terrorism given the SSNP’s history of orchestrating suicide bombings i.e. terrorism.)
But who is paying for the pro-Assad, pro-regime propaganda on her YouTube channel?Earlier tonight at a press event in San Francisco, Valve unveiled a brand new multiplayer (versus) mode to be included in Left 4 Dead 2. Scavenge is the name of the game; and if you thought your L4D experiences were frantic before, well..you had every right to, it’s not like you knew about this yet. Onward to the details!
Scavenge has one team play as the four survivors scrambling to collect gas cans from various spots in a small location in an effort fuel up a generator before a two-minute timer hits zero. There are 16 cans total and 20 seconds are added to the clock for each one that’s successfully retrieved. Think timed, goal-oriented Survival mode with an end point that isn’t necessarily your death–though that’s certainly one of the few conclusions.
That’s where the other team of up to four comes in. In control of Special Infected and backed by relentless zombie hordes, the group must do their best to stop the cans from reaching the goal. Two of the new Specials announced have great advantages in the mode: Spitters can set dropped cans on fire, and Jockeys can leap onto the shoulders of a survivor, directing them away from there intended destination.
That’s basically it! Best two-of-of-three with half time’s where teams switch sides. Valve has confirmed that all six L4D2 campaigns have their own unique Scavenge map, nice.
Left 4 Dead 2 will hit shelves PC and Xbox 360 November 17, and it sounds like it’ll be packing a helluva lot more content than the first game offered upon release.As a culmination of Naughty Dog's work over the course of the PlayStation 3 generation, Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception delivers a level of visual quality few games on the platform could hope to match. First released in 2011, Uncharted 3 remains the most divisive of Naughty Dog's PlayStation 3 games. In the wake of the spectacular Among Thieves, the hype surrounding the release of Drake's Deception was immense and in the eyes of certain fans, the game didn't entirely live up to those expectations. Yet, given a second chance, there's an adeptly-crafted game here, something that becomes clear when revisiting the title in 2015. When separated from the hype, Uncharted 3 really shines - especially on PlayStation 4.
While the game itself may have fallen short of initial expectations in some quarters, its technological foundations certainly do not. Uncharted 3 stands as one of the most visually ambitious titles to have graced Sony's last-generation console. Pushing effects work, animation and scene complexity through the roof, it is, quite simply, a beautiful game. While it lacks the larger levels and impressive indirect lighting of The Last of Us, it offers a spectacle that still manages to eclipse many games released today, backed up by characterisation and story-telling Naughty Dog's rivals are still struggling to match.
With such an incredible foundation, just what could we expect from a remaster then? Looking back at the first two Uncharted games, Bluepoint remade a tremendous number of assets to enhance each title but with Uncharted 3, that's not really the case. Asset quality remains very similar to the original game throughout the experience. However, if you look closer, Bluepoint's attention to detail still manages to shine through in this excellent remaster.
The most important change is actually apparent right out of the gate - a reduction in input latency. When Uncharted 3 first launched, users complained of sluggish aiming in comparison to its prequels. Of the three games, Uncharted 3 suffers from the highest input latency by quite a wide margin. In response to these complaints, Naughty Dog attempted to rectify the situation by implementing an alternate aiming mode in the first patch. Yet, even with this change in place, the game just didn't feel quite right.
Our detailed analysis digs into the changes made to Uncharted 3 in its transition to PlayStation 4. It's fair to say that the enhancements are rather more subtle compared to the other titles in the Nathan Drake Collection.
In the move to PlayStation 4, Bluepoint is given the opportunity to finally put this issue to rest - and we feel it has succeeded: Drake's Deception now offers quick, responsive controls that are a pleasure to use. It's easier than ever to pull off accurate shots and there is never a sense that camera movement is weighed down by unwanted latency. Quite frankly, no game in this collection needed this tweak more than Uncharted 3, and the results here are excellent.
This is coupled with the obligatory boost to frame-rate which, as with the rest of the collection, operates at a stable 60 frames per second for the vast majority of the experience. Dips are limited to a few specific sequences, but average performance is actually even smoother than the remastered Uncharted 2. As this is a late generation Naughty Dog production, we were curious if performance issues similar to The Last of Us Remastered might crop up but in the end, that's not the case at all.
Image quality is also consistent with the rest of the collection. We see full 1080p with excellent post-process anti-aliasing employed, along with variable levels of texture filtering quality, seemingly deployed on a per-surface basis. On PS3, Uncharted 3 utilises a less refined post-process anti-aliasing solution that struggles with long edges and high contrast areas resulting in plenty of shimmering. The implementation on PS4 offers superior coverage with minimal sub-pixel pop from frame-to-frame.
The flaming chateau section highlights the reduced'red glow' effect present around the roaring flames on PS3. The change in depth of field quality eliminates artefacts around characters but can also impact the appearance of certain backgrounds. Note the difference within the out of focus area just behind Nate. This underground section demonstrates both the increase in texture and texture quality resulting in a much sharper overall scene on PS4. Note the difference in shadow quality between the two. While the resolution of the shadow maps remains similar, the additional filtering on PS4 can produce superior results in many situations.
Once we move beyond the list of expected improvements, we begin to see a greater difference between Uncharted 3 and the rest of the collection. Both Drake's Fortune and Among Thieves received a healthy dose of new assets including models, textures, and effects. In comparison, Uncharted 3 benefits much less from such changes. That's not to say we didn't find improvements, but those present are far less expansive overall.
While geometry seems to be a match between the two versions this time around, we did notice plenty of redrawn textures. During normal gameplay, textures actually appear very similar between the two versions with the lower rendering resolution of the PS3 original seemingly obscuring detail. Yet, when the camera pulls in for a close-up, it's possible to see that base textures are actually much higher quality on PS4. The texture work on PS3 was already very good, but at 1080p, the upgrades are certainly beneficial.
Then we move onto shadow quality and it's here that we see some rather curious results. Shadow maps retain a fairly low resolution with visible stair stepping visible along the edges. There's improvement on PlayStation 4: it makes use of additional filtering on shadows to help smooth out these rough edges, but it's not entirely successful. In comparison, the PS3 original presents chunky, unfiltered shadows throughout the game. Here we're seeing that Bluepoint has returned to this effect and made it better, but in common with the other work in this game, it's not quite the night and day difference we see with other elements elsewhere in the collection.
On the other hand, contact shadows receive a noticeable boost in quality on PlayStation 4. The solution utilised on PS3 tends to introduce smoky black halos around objects and characters, leading to some rather awkward-looking situations - quite a few of the ambient occlusion techniques seen in the last-gen were somewhat heavy-handed in this way. The AO implemented on PS4 in the Nathan Drake Collection is of a higher precision and manages to avoid these artefacts while still adding depth to the scene.
As we scale this building, the increased resolution and improved anti-aliasing really make a difference. Also note the difference in ambient occlusion around the ladder. Higher precision motion blur produces an even more pleasing effect which, when combined with improved texture filtering, results in a sharp air strip here. Texture streaming is, once again, much faster on PlayStation 4. Even several seconds into this sequence, textures are still appearing on PS3. Look closely along the wall behind Nate. On PS3 we see an extra shadow cast by the wooden beam that has gone missing on PS4. Texture quality has certainly improved at least.
Moving on, one of the standout visual features introduced in Uncharted 3 is volumetric lighting. Used for elements such as flashlight beams or rays of sunlight, the effect is present throughout the game. Unlike a screen-space effect, these light-shafts remain properly visible even when the source is occluded from view. On PS4, the precision of these volumetric light shafts is higher than its PS3 counterpart. In the original game, objects passing along the perimeter of the light volume also tended to exhibit saw-tooth artefacts - and this have been eliminated on PS4.
Conversely, the red glow or 'colour bleeding' of the red channel used to emphasise high intensity lighting has been reduced or even removed on PS4. This is most noticeable around the flames during the chateau escape sequence but can be observed in other scenarios as well. It's unclear if this effect was eliminated for technical or artistic reasons, but its absence is difficult to explain. It only really tends to be noticeable on a direct A to B comparison, but it's an example of how a small handful effects in the original games don't manage to find their way across to the Nathan Drake Collection.
Depth of field also receives a boost in quality. On PS3, during both real-time and pre-rendered cut-scenes, foreground objects placed against an out of focus backdrop tend to exhibit edge artefacts where the two intersect. The remastered version utilises a higher quality effect that eliminates these issues. It's another example of how Uncharted 3's remastering here is more about refinement than it is about fundamentally altering or dramatically improving the game, as opposed to some of what we saw in Bluepoint's work on the two previous games.
Alongside the release of the Nathan Drake Collection, Bluepoint has released a patch designed to improve upon a number of issues. While the game included on the disc is exceptionally solid, the patch definitely adds some extra polish. Two of the most important features made available in patch 1.01 include performance improvements and higher quality shadow rendering.
In terms of frame-rates, we see a definite improvement to an already very stable experience. For example, the initial ruins section in the original game suffered from dropped frames both during exploration and while engaged in a gun battle later. We noted dips to around 55fps during this section that persisted throughout. With the patch, we see only a minor stutter upon initial arrival at the scene but this quickly clears up and the section continues with a very stable 60fps.
A look at the performance of Uncharted 3 on PlayStation 4 compared to the original PS3 release.
With Uncharted 2, instances of slowdown are more common, yet we also see improvements with the 1.01 patch. Gun battles in the swamps of Borneo regularly saw performance dip below 60fps in the original version - this is still in effect even on the patched version, but the average frame-rate is 2-3fps higher on average, producing a smoother experience during these challenging sections. This is consistent with Uncharted 3 as well, where dips have either been improved upon or eliminated completely.
It's important to note that even in the unpatched version, performance issues are relegated to specific scenes while the majority of the game operates without issue. The patch eliminates these blips in some sequences while simply improving the average level of performance in others. Either way, the overall level of performance significantly exceeds The Last of Us Remastered, which could see extended sequences where the game failed to sustain its 60fps performance target.
Shadow quality is also improved in the day one patch. The original release utilised a dithering effect around the edges of certain types of shadows. With 1.01 we see the filtering method changed and dithering removed from all affected areas, resulting in a smoother overall presentation. It's impressive that Bluepoint was able to improved shadow quality while simultaneously increasing performance - shadow rendering is one of the more computationally expensive tasks for the GPU.Late in the second period, Tom Wilson and Brandon McMillan got into a heated shoving match. This wasn’t an ordinary scrum after the whistle. Wilson laughed at McMillan, then they exchanged facewashes until Wilson swung him around like a rag doll. They even put their foreheads together like they were The Rock and Triple HHH about to exchange chair shots.
This is some next-level antagonism.
GIF
GIF by @myregularface
During the play-by-play, Beninati asked Laughlin for some insight on what might have been said, then he thought better of it. “Care to translate that conversation, Locker? Though I don’t think it is suitable for the airwaves.”
Let’s look at a few more screens of this because it’s amazing.
Photos
Coincidental minors. McMillan gets two for roughing. Wilson two for laughing at him. #capsYotes — Mike Vogel (@VogsCaps) November 3, 2014
Full RMNB Coverage of Caps vs Coyotes
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PinterestWomen are coming out about their experiences with sexual harassment in the workplace, despite evidence that the perpetrators will likely suffer no consequences. The many stories in the news cycle about powerful men taking advantage of women has got other men pissing their pants.
The New York Times reports that men are responding to the Cautionary Tale of Harvey Weinstein and others like it by avoiding their female colleagues, particularly those in a subordinate position. Instead of thinking about the discriminatory practices that allow Weinsteins to grow like persistent fungus, they’re making them an even bigger feature of the workplace. Men fear being accused of sexual harassment, because it would ruin their lives. Just take this quote from orthopedic surgeon Dr. Mukund Komanduri, who avoids women at work:
“I’m very cautious about it because my livelihood is on the line,” he said. “If someone in your hospital says you had inappropriate contact with this woman, you get suspended for an investigation, and your life is over. Does that ever leave you?”
Boo freaking hoo. You know what else doesn’t leave you? Being held back in your career because your manager is too scared to make eye contact with you because he’s afraid you’re gonna tell some story about how he harassed you. Or he might feel compelled to grab your boobies, and then he’d lose his job! You did this, Woman.
If men are afraid to get to know their female subordinates, that means they’re less likely to promote them or support them, and instead cultivate relationships with other men, as usual (but worse):
Women with sponsors are more likely to get challenging assignments and raises and to say they are satisfied with their career progress, according to data from the Center for Talent Innovation. Yet 64 percent of senior men and 50 percent of junior women avoid solo interactions because of the risk of rumors about their motives, according to a survey by the center.
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One investor, who spoke anonymously with the NYT, says that a “big chill came across Silicon Valley” as stories about sexual harassment and assault at tech companies became public. They claimed that people were now canceling networking meetings and even casual coffee dates with women and minorities, because there is now a “huge reputational risk.” Yes, instead you’ll have the reputation of someone who doesn’t ever speak to women or minorities. Great, cool.
In all of these highly publicized stories, the sexual harassment was in the form of suggestive back rubs, forced kissing, flashing grotesque genitals, phone sex, sexting, and other forms of assault. They’re not stories about shaking hands too long over a latte. If you fear being accused of sexual harassment, don’t harass women, and you’ll do just fine. Also, promote them into positions of power so other women can find mentors who aren’t scared shitless by them.Happy holidays from the Obama administration. Federal agencies are currently working on rolling out hundreds of environmental regulations, including major regulations that would limit emissions from power plants and expand the agency’s authority to bodies of water on private property.
On Tuesday, the White House released its regulatory agenda for the fall of 2013. It lists hundreds of pending energy and environmental regulations being crafting by executive branch agencies, including 134 regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency alone.
The EPA is currently crafting 134 major and minor regulations, according to the White House’s regulatory agenda. Seventy-six of the EPA’s pending regulations originate from the agency’s air and radiation office, including carbon-dioxide-emission limits on power plants.
Carbon-dioxide limits are a key part of President Barack Obama’s climate agenda. The EPA is set to set emissions limits that would effectively ban the construction of new coal-fired power plants unless they use carbon capture and sequestration technology. Next year, the agency will move to limit emissions from existing power plants — which could put more older coal plants out of commission.
“The proposed standards, if finalized, will establish achievable limits of carbon pollution per megawatt hour for all future units, moving the nation towards a cleaner and more efficient energy future,” the agency said in its agenda. “In 2014, EPA intends to propose standards of performance for greenhouse gas emissions from existing and modified power plant sources.”
Hundreds of coal plants that have been closed or slated for early retirement due to Environmental Protection Agency regulations, according to coal industry estimates.
“Already, EPA regulations have contributed to the closure of more than 300 coal units in 33 states,” said Laura Sheehan, spokeswoman for the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity.
However, the agency isn’t just working on limiting emissions from coal plants. The EPA is also working on a rule that would expand the definition of “waters of the U.S.” under the Clean Water Act to include water on private property.
Republicans have hammered the EPA’s draft water rule as the largest expansion of agency power in history.
“The EPA’s draft water rule is a massive power grab of private property across the U.S. This could be the largest expansion of EPA regulatory authority ever,” Texas Republican Rep. Lamar Smith. “If the draft rule is approved, it would allow the EPA to regulate virtually every body of water in the United States, including private and public lakes, ponds and streams.”
The EPA’s rule is heavily supported by environmentalists who argue that it’s necessary to protecting water quality. Smaller water sources, they argue, eventually affect larger water |
200 km distance around it.
Sabetta port is being built as part of a $27 billion project by Yamal LNG on the Ob River estuary to export 16.5 million tons of liquefied gas from the Yuzhno-Tambeyskoye field.
The accounts of explosions creating the recent craters is consistent with testimony about a bang and 'glow in the sky' seen 100 km from a remote crater on the Taimyr peninsula in Krasnoyarsk region. This blowout was in 2013, it is believed.
Scientist Dr Vladimir Epifanov, the sole leading expert to so far visit the site, said: 'There is verbal information that residents of nearby villages - at a distance of 70-100 km - heard a sound like an explosion, and one of them watched a clear glow in the sky.'Diego Valle's Blog, and kindly contributed to (This article was first published on, and kindly contributed to R-bloggers)
I’ve been complaining about how homicide statistics from police sources were too low in 2009, with the entire state of Chihuahua having less homicides than its biggest city. I was thinking of finding out if I could use the IFAI (Freedom of Information Access) to obtain the original CIEISP forms which the state police forces are supposed to fill out each month and send to the National System of Public Security (SNSP) for tallying, to see if there were any unusual patterns, but someone beat me to requesting the data.
You can see the request here, and download the excel file with the CIEISP forms here.
The main difference between the datasets is that the CIEISP forms usually report lower numbers than the data the SNSP gave to the ICESI. This is not surprising since the CIEISP forms have no recorded homicides in some states during the last months of the year (the request was made in December 2009), but the numbers for Chihuahua in both datasets are identical, with a total of 2523 homicides recorded. More importantly, in the months of November and December there were no homicides registered in the CIEISP forms, and the data for October looks incomplete. That’s the reason Chihuahua had such a low homicide rate according to the police, the data they gave to the ICESI only includes 9¾ months of homicides.
Given that Mexican President Felipe Calderón and the former Attorney General Eduardo Medina-Mora are on record as stating that violence in Mexico is low, it is not surprising that a government agency would give misleading information to an NGO. I bet the UN, a couple of think-tanks and newspapers will use the lower number, the data will be considered “official”, and then next year the SNSP will quietly update the data, just like what happened in 2008.
To estimate the homicides in the missing months I deleted the last three months from the CIEISP forms and predicted them from a linear regression. The predicted number of homicides in Chihuahua for the whole year was 3256. I still think that even with the missing months added in, the police data will be missing about 400 homicides (according to Milenio there were 3,687 narco-executions in Chihuahua), just like in 2008, but at least it no longer looks ridiculously low.
From the chart it looks as if the SNSP only gave “preliminary” data for Chihuahua, coincidentally the most violent state in Mexico. Here’s a chart with the estimated data for Chihuahua, the rest of the states use the original numbers from the SNSP:
It looks really bad, Chihuahua saw its murder rate go from 76 to 96 (though likely more) and Durango’s homicide rate more than doubled. Chihuahua in 2009 nearly had the murder rate of Ciudad Juarez in 2008!
We can also look at the execution rates reported in David Shirk’s Drug Violence in Mexico Data and Analysis as tallied by 3 major Mexican newspapers: El Universal, Milenio and Reforma. For the most part the tallies of the newspapers are similar with Milenio usually reporting higher numbers than Reforma, and El Universal in the middle. The big exception is Chihuahua, where Milenio reported 1555 more executions than Reforma:
Number of narco-executions in Chihuahua:
Reforma 2,082 El Universal 3,250 Milenio 3,687
The numbers for Reforma look too low since in Ciudad Juarez there normally used to be about 200 murders a year, and in 2009 there were more than 2600, I’m pretty sure the vast majority of those extra murders were due to the war between the Sinaloa and Juarez Cartels—and that’s only one city—so the number provided by Reforma looks too low. On the other hand there probably were about 3600 homicides in the whole state of Chihuahua and I doubt each and every one of them was related to the drug cartels, so the number provided by Milenio looks too high. I just split the difference and used the average.
Here’s the percentage of homicides due to narco-executions:
Like I said the number of homicides in Chihuahua is probably an underestimate and the percentage of homicides which are linked to narco-executions is likely a little bit lower.
P.S. You can download the data and code from my Github account (the first time you run the program it will download a 3MB map of Mexico from GADM
RelatedIn Silicon Valley, “unicorns” might refer to billion dollar startups, but on Nonprofit With Balls, a humor site about life in the nonprofit industry, that term refers to something more real, and more heroic: nonprofit workers. “These people are underpaid to work on emotionally challenging issues, and all with crappy chairs that they got off Craigslist,” says site founder Vu Le. “We are like unicorns, imaginary creatures here to make the world better.”
Such quips have made Nonprofit With Balls (site logo: a cartoon unicorn juggling lots of balls, of course) a reality check within the philanthropic field. “We need to own our awesomeness more,” says Le, who speaks at numerous conferences around the country and was named one of the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s 40 Under 40. “The sector draws lots of humble, compassionate people who are less likely to be assertive about our needs and the restrictions put on us. If we want to be effective, we need to start owning our power to shape policy and the system.” To help with that, he recently started Nonprofit Happy Hour, a private Facebook group that has more than 5,500 members. For executive directors, there’s ED Happy Hour, a monthly meetup in more than a dozen cities including New York, Portland, and Ontario.
Some of the site’s more popular posts point out problems like funders awarding annual instead of multiyear grants. As the site points out, before being acquired by Snapchat, Bitmoji, a service that turns images of people into cartoon strips, received $8 million to perfect their not quite world-changing work. But an after-school program that increases its participation rate won’t necessarily see an increase in funding, which could leave the NPO more strapped. Another problem is when donors earmark how their funds should be spent. Le compares this to how a customer might restrict a baker making a cake, only paying for part of it, then limiting what ingredients can be used, and whether or not the baker can apply money toward electrical costs or oven repairs. Plus, any recipe changes would need to be discussed. “We should be committed to the cake, whether it’s good, whether we can make it serve more people efficiently,” he says.
“If we want to be effective, we need to start owning our power to shape policy and the system.”
As a veteran nonprofit director, Le experienced many of these struggles firsthand. He currently leads Rainier Valley Corps, a fellowship program to empower leaders of communities of color within the Seattle area. To that end, the site itself was inspired by an experience he had a few years ago. At the time, he managed a small group that provided services to low-income Vietnamese families. A larger, better-funded group wanted free help with their own outreach program. On Nonprofit With Balls, Le calls moves like this trickle-down community engagement, so he said no. “We don’t have enough time to juggle other people’s balls for them,” he says. The site’s name riffs on how many balls unicorns have to keep in the air, with that double entendre about being, er, assertive.
Other industry hiccups that Le has called out include hiring managers who list salaries as “dependent on experience” when there’s a low and high range they could share. This wastes some applicants’ time and allows employers to lowball already super-low-paid employees. Many funding processes are also overly time-consuming or complicated, excluding folks without the resources to suss things out. At the same time, Le encourages unicorns to riff on their strange work world in fun ways, too. He’s sparked popular hashtags like #NonprofitPickupLines. As he’s put it before: “Your eyes are like a federal grant: I can get lost in them forever.”
Occasionally, Le receives an email from a funder or manager who has taken his advice to heart. But the site’s impact is likely bigger than that. He’s unifying a scattered and generally underappreciated workforce. If you want to draw attention to a cause, you need to humanize it. As his herd grows, Le is doing that with the struggles that nonprofit workers themselves face in daily business. That’s the first step to curing bureaucratic nightmares.
Have something to say about this article? You can email us and let us know. If it’s interesting and thoughtful, we may publish your response.Oath of the Gatewatch is already an exciting set, and I'm excited to see an interesting red card when I buy a box of the set: Goblin Dark-Dwellers.
When I first look at this card, I'm reminded of a few cards that have unique effects. Snapcaster Mage, Shriekmaw, and Mulldrifter all come to mind as defining creatures that saw a fair amount of play due to inherent value they generate. As the Buy-a-Box promo for Oath of the Gatewatch, it's a card that R&D wants players to see and thinks they'll use in decks. Some, like Goblin Rabblemaster and Sylvan Caryatid, shaped the Standard they came into.
But most of all it reminds me of Snapcaster Mage. Snapcaster Mage defined a lot of Standard when it was played in W/U Delver as well as Esper Control decks. A lot of that was due to Snapcaster Mage only costing 2 mana, but in comparison here, you're paying all 5 mana upfront as opposed to splitting the cost (2 for the Snapcaster Mage plus the mana cost of the instant or sorcery). However, the actual creature is much bigger and has pseudo-evasion by comparison.
It plays very well with 3-mana removal and/or burn spells (such as Crackling Doom and Jeskai Charm), so that's the most obvious direction to go with it. In addition, it has great synergy with Kolaghan's Command, allowing you to grind your opponent down to virtually nothing by returning a different copy of the Goblin Dark-Dwellers.
Here's a potential updated list for Mardu Blue (or Jeskai Black, albeit there's no Mantis Rider anymore... ).
The older lists played Painful Truths, but that doesn't work very well with Goblin Dark-Dwellers; therefore, the switch to Read the Bones works well. Playing the full four doesn't work because it's still a 5-mana spell that is somewhat awkward in multiples, but once you start chaining them, grinding them out should be relatively easy with your (almost) never-ending supply of Shriekmaws and Mulldrifters.
I could also see the Goblin Dark-Dwellers being a reasonably good top-end card in a red beatdown or R/G Landfall deck. The pseudo-evasion is more valuable there, and it synergizes well with Temur Battle Rage since it's already a 4/4.
It might actually be a lot better as a sideboard card here—post-sideboard games in a lot of matchups typically go a lot longer, especially when your opponent is attempting to kill all of your creatures. There're also fewer targets here than in an Atarka Red deck... which leads me to trying to build a bigger Atarka Red deck.
In updating this deck, it's interesting to note how good Goblin Dark-Dwellers is at providing two triggers for your Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh. On turn six, alongside any 1-mana spell, Dark-Dwellers is likely to transform your Chandra without Chandra having to enter combat.
Also, this list is much better at grinding out people who are attempting to kill all of your creatures with Radiant Flames or Rising Miasma. In general, my philosophy for building beatdown decks is to try to go bigger in post-sideboard games to avoid a lot of the commonly played cards (such as Radiant Flames and Rising Miasma). Goblin Dark-Dwellers fits relatively well into that plan and is just excellent as a two-for-one in general.
However, I wouldn't be surprised to see it pop up in other midrange decks (especially four- and five-colored variants that play Bring to Light), especially if some more situationally good instants or sorceries with converted mana cost 3 or less are printed.
Outside Standard, I don't hold out too much hope for this card. Paying 5 mana is a lot for a two-for-one creature in Eternal formats, especially when you compare it to Eternal Witness and Snapcaster Mage.
Thanks for reading, and I appreciate any comments here or on Twitter.
Jarvis© Richard Goerg/Getty Images Folded American flag. IRVINE, Calif. — The student government at University of California, Irvine has voted to ban display of the American flag — or any flag — from its lobby.
A resolution that was narrowly approved by the legislative council of the campus' Associated Students calls bans all flags from the common lobby area of student government offices, according to the Orange County Register. It prompted removal of the American flag from a lobby wall.
The student council approved the resolution on a 6-4 vote Thursday, with two abstentions. The executive cabinet was expected to consider a veto on Saturday.
The resolution authored by student Matthew Guevara of the university's social ecology school lists 25 reasons for the ban, saying that the American flag has been flown in times of "colonialism and imperialism" and could symbolize American "exceptionalism and superiority." The resolution says "freedom of speech, in a space that aims to be as inclusive as possible, can be interpreted as hate speech."
The American flag had hung on a wall in the student government suite. A few weeks ago, someone removed the flag and put it on the desk of Reza Zomorrodian, the Associated Students' president, with an anonymous note saying it shouldn't be in the lobby.
The executive members decided to put up the flag again. Then the resolution was brought to the council.
Zomorrodian, an opponent of the ban, said the American flag was "an iconic and symbolic representation of our values in the U.S."
On Friday, state Sen. Janet Nguyen, R-Santa Ana, said she and other legislators may introduce a state constitutional amendment to prohibit "state-funded universities and college campuses from banning the United States flag."Sen. Pat Toomey was among 18 senators to vote against a deal Wednesday night to reopen the federal government and raise the debt ceiling.
The Pennsylvania Republican joined the Senate’s most conservative lawmakers in their opposition to a last-minute deal to avoid the U.S. government hitting the debt limit deadline on Thursday, which the White House warned would lead to a default, and to end the 16-day government shutdown.
Toomey is among the Republicans who maintain that failure to raise the debt limit would not result in a default because the U.S. government could prioritize paying interest owed on its debts. In fact, he was the pioneer of a plan to require the U.S. Treasury Department to pay out its debt obligations before any other bills, which many economists panned as too risky.
Toomey hoped to use the debt ceiling debate to extract Obamacare changes, such as a repeal of the medical device tax and a delay of the individual mandate requiring all Americans to have insurance. He never supported the Sen. Ted Cruz effort to link defunding or delaying Obamacare with government funding, though he did ultimately vote with Republicans to do so.
“The one major redeeming aspect of this bill is that it reopens the government,” Toomey said in a statement after the vote. “I disagreed with the plan to make funding the government contingent on defunding Obamacare and I am glad this bill will get the shutdown behind us. But I cannot support piling hundreds of billions of dollars of debt on current and future generations of Americans without even a sliver of reform to start putting our fiscal house in order.”
Pennsylvania Democrat U.S. Sen. Bob Casey voted with all other Democrats in support of the budget bill.
The Club for Growth, a conservative group that keeps tabs on how lawmakers vote, urged members to vote “no.” Toomey was president of the organization between his time as a U.S. congressman representing the Lehigh Valley and his 2010 campaign for the U.S. Senate.
Of the 10 votes the group has monitored this year, including this one, Toomey has only defied them once on the fiscal cliff deal in January.
Toomey endeared himself to Democrats when he aligned himself with the White House and Senate Democrats on a push to expand background checks on gun sales. But his recent votes on fiscal matters, which have always been his passion, have drawn their ire.
The Pennsylvania Democrats quickly put out a statement after the vote that said Toomey's position showed "his true colors" and that he is "completely out-of-touch with Pennsylvania."
Toomey is up for re-election in 2016, which is a presidential election year.
The bill now moves to the House where all area lawmakers, including the Lehigh Valley's Reps. Charlie Dent, a Republican, and Matt Cartwright, a Democrat, will support it.Ruby was missing.
That was the only thing that Blake was completely certain of when Zwei ran over to the giant sinkhole in the middle of the street. It had become abundantly clear when her amber eyes spied Crescent Rose laying forgotten on the ground… something that Ruby would never do willingly.
At first, Blake had tried to logically calm herself down; it's an old city, of course there are going to be sinkholes, she'll be fine! Never mind the fact that they couldn't get a hold of her with their scrolls, Blake was confident that Ruby was fine.
It was as Doctor Oobleck started to lead them deeper into the underground complex that Blake's confidence in Ruby's well-being was shaken. Ruby hadn't been found at the bottom. Had she maybe gone into one of the tunnels to find a way back up? Why hadn't she called?
What if Ruby ran into Grimm? Blake was all too aware as to how combat capable her girlfriend was without her weapon. But she could run away! Her semblance is speed, after all. And for a while, Blake was able to quell the rising anxiety.
That changed when the group encountered the White Fang members guarding the entrance to the subterranean city. That frustration that grew from their progress being slowed to fight them was marred by panic.
What if the White Fang captured Ruby?
There was no stopping that panic.
The thought that a bunch of extremists who hated humans currently had Blake's very human girlfriend made her cold with fear, her ears flattening under her bow. Her girlfriend, who was quite defenseless as the weight of Crescent Rose on her back reminded Blake.
It was a sudden rush of fear that Blake had felt before. Sure, she had friends during her White Fang days who had been in peril or had been captured or killed… it wasn't to say she hadn't feared for them, but on the other hand, she never had someone she cared for as much as she did for Ruby.
What had once been a well-founded but slightly detached fear that Blake had been able to suppress, now spilled over as her mind raced through the possibilities – one more gruesome and terrible than the last.
Ruby, the adorable teen who didn't accuse Blake of anything when she found out about her ears. Who had kept hidden that fact from their teammates. Ruby, who just wanted Blake to have fun, to go to the dance and get some sleep. The same Ruby who Blake had started dating not more than a day ago after having a crush on the girl for almost as long as she knew her.
And now someone like Adam, or maybe even Adam himself had the possibility of finding her, alone and defenseless, maybe even trapped under some rocks deep underground away from any of her friends…
The only that Blake could do was run faster. Faster than Ruby's own partner, faster than Ruby's sister. Even faster than their professor.
She couldn't even imagine what would happen… or rather that was the exact problem, she could. Blake had been a member of the White Fang, she knew precisely how they operated and what it had become; humans were never treated well.
What happens if they figure out Ruby knows me?
That was another thing altogether – Blake was a traitor to the cause, she'd abandoned them mid-mission. Not only had she betrayed the cause, but she had betrayed the leader on a very personal level given he was her mentor.
Ruby was perhaps in the most uniquely horrifying position if the White Fang found that out; not only would be she a human but a human dating a traitor to the cause…
Blake's knuckles went white from their grip on Gambol Shroud as she sped deeper into the cave system, out pacing even the normally blur-like Oobleck.
Slash, stab, shoot, dodge, slash...
The Faunus threw herself into the running fight in a desperate attempt to keep her mind from thinking too much. The mechanical nature muscle memory drilled into her for years, the flash of a gun, the swing of a sword… that was what Blake tried to focus on.
Blake could hardly believe her eyes when a fluttering red cloaked figure started running towards her, breaking her sole focus on who her next opponent was… only for a line of White Fang soldiers to jump in between. Before they could even bring their guns to bare, they were already in the air, having been swept away by Blake as Ruby nearly rammed into her looking only slightly worse for wear.
Once more, instinctive muscle motion took over as Blake wrapped Ruby in a bear-like hug. "Ruby!"
"Blake!" Relief flooded her senses and the fear, the panic, the overwhelming anxiety finally started to abate with her girlfriend in her arms, as Blake could finally put her fears to rest. She could finally get her hands to stop shaking. "Uh… Blake?"
"I was so worried." Blake could only hug Ruby tighter. "They didn't hurt you or anything?"
"I'm fine!" It was only then that Blake started to loosen the embrace. "That Torchwick guy was trying to get me to talk but I wasn't saying anything!"
Amber eyes flickered towards the bowler hat man who was booking it towards the train further into the cavern, seething with an overprotective anger that she hadn't felt before. "He won't be doing that again." Blake's focus resettled on Ruby adopting a far kinder expression. "I-"
"Hey lovebirds, they are getting away!" Yang's voice finally pulled the two out of their little moment. "You can save that for later!"
Blake couldn't help but give a guilty blush as the two broke apart.
At least Ruby is safe.
AU: Hey look, a new chapter. Neat.
Blake fearing that Adam has Ruby is a scary thing.
A new chapter cometh. Though, to be fair, a lot of the reason this came out a bit later was because trying to make this chapter seem interesting was hard. In the end I'm moderately happy with this. It gets what I wanted done.
Guess what that means?
RETURN TO FLUFF LAND IS SOON.
Thank you for reading, I hope everyone has a wonderful day! :DThe Pontifical Academy of Sciences has invited California governor Jerry Brown to deliver a keynote address in their upcoming meeting on climate change to be held in the Vatican.
The Nov. 2-4 Vatican workshop titled “Health of People, Health of Planet and our Responsibility: Climate Change, Air Pollution and Health” will attempt to link up the health risks posed by air pollution with anthropogenic climate change driven by carbon emissions.
This is not the first time the Vatican has offered a platform to the contentious California governor from which to proclaim his views on global warming.
Invited to speak at a similar Vatican event in 2015, Jerry Brown, a darling of Planned Parenthood, railed against climate-change skeptics, calling them well-financed “troglodytes” who are determined to “bamboozle” the gullible.
The Vatican hosted 10 U.S. Democrat mayors as well as Governor Jerry Brown of California at its event, while no Republicans were present. At the conclusion of the event, Brown joined the other politicians in signing a declaration stating that “human-induced climate change is a scientific reality, and its effective control is a moral imperative for humanity.”
In his address, Brown said that climate change is “the biggest threat of our time” after nuclear annihilation. “If we don’t annihilate ourselves with nuclear bombs then it’s climate change,” he said.
He called for a crusade against the “fierce opposition and blind inertia” of “well-financed” climate change skeptics.
“We have very powerful opposition that, in at least my country, spends billions on trying to keep from office people such as yourselves and elect troglodytes and other deniers of the obvious science,” Brown said at the conference.
The governor said that despite the opposition he kept a positive viewpoint, citing Italian communist leader Antonio Gramsci, who spoke of the “pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will.”
During his Rome visit, Brown—who was a Jesuit seminarian in the 1970s—reportedly met with Father Adolfo Nicolás, the superior general of the Jesuit order.
Although nominally Catholic himself, Brown has been a passionate supporter of abortion-on-demand in opposition to the Catholic Church’s defense of unborn children, and has called himself “an uncompromising champion of a woman’s right to choose.” He also supports federal funding of Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers, leading Planned Parenthood to refer to him as “the REAL pro-choice candidate for governor.”
Unsurprisingly, California accounts for a disproportionately high number of U.S. abortions, and although only 12 percent of the national population lives in the state, 29 percent of all the nation’s abortions take place there.
The Vatican point man behind the workshop is Argentinian Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, the Chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. Sánchez came under fire in May of 2016 for offering a Vatican platform for other known proponents of abortion and population control, like Jeffrey Sachs and UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon, as well as population hoaxer Paul Ehrlich.
When questioned about the decision to enlist speakers so divergent from Catholic teaching, Sánchez shifted the blame to the Tea Party and the oil industry, and suggested he was not responsible because “I am only the Chancellor.”
Sánchez was also criticized for the homogeneous composition of the May workshop and his efforts to silence anyone who brought a vision of climate change at variance with the official party line.
The November conference will address both pollution and climate change in an attempt to link the two very different issues.
The brochure for the workshop states: “Climate change caused by fossil fuel burning leads to increased risks of extreme events such as heat waves, droughts, fires, severe storms, floods which in turn have major health effects.”
At the same time, the workshop will also address the negative health effects of air pollution, rightly noting that “there is now an immense body of evidence on how air pollution harms health.”
In a major study, the Lancet journal has revealed that pollution-related diseases were responsible for an estimated 9 million premature deaths in 2015, or some 15 times more than from all wars and other forms of violence combined.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the level of air pollution in the United States is among the lowest on the planet.
In the most recent WHO report on air pollution, the U.S. was listed as one of the countries with the cleanest air in the world, significantly cleaner than the air in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, the UK, Japan, Austria and France, not to mention major polluters such as India, China, Egypt and a number of former Soviet republics.
Follow Thomas D. Williams on Twitter Follow @tdwilliamsromei see the problem. As comparison many academics and laymen in Finland are in shock that former PM of Finland, Mr. Jyrki Katainen, saw fit to leave his post as Prime Minister of Finland (yes apparently people can just go and do whatever they want for better career opportunities), to get to Brussels to be the European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs and the Euro until 2014. Only to leave Mr. Alexander Stubb, an right-wing social darwinist, to steer the ship into deepers waters.
We can of course thank Olli Rehn for doing an excellent job...before passing the torch to Katainen. A status quo or a deepening crisis is foreseeable. Maybe it will take Antonio Draghi to lower the value of the euro compared to the USD to see at least the economy go up.
it is probable that Rehn has talked to Juncker about Katainens appointment. Katainen, the neoliberal right-wing career opportunist, is not going to make things better for us. We have the past to prove it. He is too young and too neoliberal.
Now Katainen has been appointed by Juncker to be the Commissioner of Growth and Employment from 2015-. This is sad to say but this is a farce and has been for a long time. After crashing almost the whole Finnish economy, unemployment rose his whole term, outsourcing on a massive scale, delivering moral degradation, destroying the historically unpresedented welfare state (one can not blame just on one person but he really did a good job) it should be expected to see this kind of "expertise" going to the top of the European Commission. The corruption of power is a fact. There is of course the chance of blindness, ideologies, simple indifference or negligence, but this behaviour is a serious threat to the whole idea why we wanted the EU, a peace and stability project benefiting all of us. By all these undemocratic and some might say unjust and corrupt nominations by elite power, we could be gloomy and call ouselves "the lost generation" instead of just the "lost decade" as Joseph Stiglitz amongst others have pointed out.
What have we learned? We also have to start questioning (well most of us have done it for many years) the legitimacy of the European Commission and how Europe can function with this current power structure. The EU Parliament should have the executive power. Not the lobbying firms and the European Round Table. A democratic deficit is also a result after what has happened the last decades.
With so many different countries with different cultures, behaviours, structures we should start asking for less centralized power and work together for maybe a stronger alliance, not union. Yes, this is possible due to us humans having an excellent skill on seeing what is good for ourselves both individually and collectively. The EU is simply broken and we have lost a vision for a better future.
As we so often have seen in the past there is a risk when power is in the hands of the few. Especielly people who are not elected for the job. Theoretically, if these kinds of appointments should be done, the people should be awarded jobs according to how they succeeded in the past.
A high moral, sence of justice, integrity and understanding all people's needs should be focused on when we think and pick leaders of future. We can all draw our own conclusions from the past and see where this ship now is going. This is a sad story but we can make it a happier one. Even the smallest things matter. Respectfully
Andrei SandbergToronto's subway stations have mostly simple and elegant names. Save for a small number of outliers, the formula is easy: take the name of the nearest major street and subtract the suffix "road," "street," or "avenue."
In case of a conflict, add "West." The convention started with the Yonge line in the 1950s and has since been continued on the Scarborough RT and even the St. Clair streetcar.
In contrast, London Underground stations are mostly named for the surrounding neighbourhood or part of the city, though there are a few streets, landmarks and pubs — Royal Oak, Elephant & Castle, Angel, Manor House, and Swiss Cottage — sprinkled in for good measure.
Toronto has some exceptions, too. Some of these will be obvious, while others probably make unfamiliar references to the average TTC rider.
Here's how Toronto's atypically named subway stations came to be.
Museum
The glut of stations in the Avenue and Bloor area required the TTC to get creative with its names. Museum station first appeared in 1959 on a provisional TTC document. At the time, Bay station was called Bellair (it was also briefly called Yorkville before the University line opened in 1963.) The Museum name, of course, refers to the nearby ROM.
St. Andrew
Faced with the problem of having two stations on the same street within a very short distance, the TTC opted to name the stations on University line after former city electoral wards. At the time of its abolition in 1901, St. Andrew's Ward was bound by King and Queen in the north/south and Yonge and Dufferin streets in the east/west.
St. Patrick
There was a time when the TTC seriously considered changing the name of St. Patrick to Art Gallery, in reference to the nearby AGO. The name in use today is a nod the former St. Patrick's Ward, a division of the city bound by Bloor, Bathurst, University, and Queen. The mint green platform tile is a reference to St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland.
Osgoode
Osgoode station is named after Osgoode Hall, the historic law building on the northeast corner of Queen and University that was named for William Osgoode, a prominent early judge and lawyer. It's an interesting choice given the trend of naming stations for city wards: St. John's Ward covered the area where Osgoode Hall stands today.
Old Mill
The Old Mill Tea Garden opened on the site of a former Humber River sawmill on Aug. 4, 1914, the same day Canada entered the First World War. Over the last 100 years, the Tudor-style complex has expanded to include a hotel, spa, and namesake subway station. Opened in 1968, Old Mill Station is often considered one of the nicest in the system.
Main Street
Main Street is the only station on the Toronto subway system to retain its suffix. The street was named when it was the principal thoroughfare of the town of East Toronto. The town itself is long gone, but relics like the name of Main Street remain. The TTC keeps the suffix to avoid giving the impression it's the city's principal station.LG has quietly unveiled X Power and X Style in Ukraine. The X Power has a 5.3-inch HD screen, is powered by a quad-core MediaTek MT6735 SoC and packs a 4100mAh battery. The X Style has a 5-inch HD screen, is powered by a quad-core Snapdragon 410 SoC. Both the phones will likely run Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) and come with 4G LTE connectivity.
LG X Power specifications
5.3-inch (1280×720 pixels) HD display
1.1GHz Quad-Core 64-bit MediaTek MT6735 processor with Mali-T720 GPU
2GB RAM, 16GB internal memory, expandable memory up to 32GB with microSD
Android 6.0 (Marshmallow)
Dual SIM
13MP rear camera with LED Flash
8MP front-facing camera
4G LTE, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS
4100mAh battery
LG X Style specifications
5.3-inch (1280×720 pixels) HD display
1.2 GHz Quad-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 64-bit processor with Adreno 306 GPU
1.5GB RAM, 16GB internal memory, expandable memory up to 128GB with microSD
Android 6.0 (Marshmallow)
Dual SIM
8MP rear camera with LED Flash
5MP front-facing camera
4G LTE, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS
2100mAh battery
The LG X Power is priced at 5000 Hryvnia (US$ 200 / Rs. 13,450 approx.). The LG X Style is priced at 4500 Hryvnia (US$ 180 / Rs. 12100 approx.) and will go on sale in Ukraine in July. No word on the global roll out yet.
Source | ViaFirefighters from Station 13, one of the busiest firehouses in San Francisco, regularly respond to calls from high-rises across the north Financial District.
Now, Supervisor Aaron Peskin is hoping the property, at 530 Sansome St., has the potential to help mitigate another emergency: the city’s affordable-housing crisis.
In a dense neighborhood where available development sites are scarce, Peskin is proposing that the city take advantage of the property’s 200-foot height limit to build an affordable-housing tower above a new fire station.
On Tuesday, Peskin will introduce legislation that separates out the property’s air rights, so that the Fire Department could continue to own the land and the station, while the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development would own the air rights.
The idea of building housing at Station 13, which dates to 1975, is not new for Peskin. He floated the idea in 2002 during his first stint as supervisor, but the plan never took off. The difference this time is that the city is facing a housing shortage that has more than doubled rents since the tech boom took off after the recession.
Back to Gallery SF supe urges building affordable housing above fire station 3 1 of 3 Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle 2 of 3 Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle 3 of 3
The 9,000-square |
where they come up with 2.53°C since NASA uses NOAA’s data, and one month shouldn’t skew half a year so much, but that is what seems to be happening. Plus they have the 2.53C in the annual mean column, which as we know isn’t complete yet, since 2012 is not complete.
GISS makes no direct caveat about presenting monthly data in the section on Figure D, though by inference, they possibly suggest it in the “five year running mean”, but aren’t clear if that is a monthly or annual calculated running mean.
Source: http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/graphs_v3/
Even so, if that running 5 year mean is using monthly data rather than annual data, updating one part of an annual graph with monthly data (for the annual mean as seen in the tabular data) can be very misleading to the public, and as we know, that page at GISS is used worldwide by media, scientists, and advocates. Therefore, it is very important to present it accurately and not mix monthly data and yearly data types without explanations of any kind.
I wanted to look in the Wayback machine to see what the Figure D graph said earlier this year, like maybe up to June, but to my surprise, GISS apparently prevents that public page from being indexed by the Wayback machine. In fact, they seem to have prevented a lot of content from being indexed and stored since 2005, see the dates:
http://wayback.archive.org/web/*/http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/*
In fact if you look at this graph of plots
http://wayback.archive.org/web/*/data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/
…and then try to go to the GISTEMPS graphs page, you get a lot of this:
I find it troubling that the publicly funded NASA agency GISS would block archiving of such an important global resource. This is not cool, guys.
Fortunately, Steve Goddard archived the GISS figure D image on January 29th, 2012, right after the year 2011 was updated with annual data:
So clearly, the effect is in 2012 data to date, but why would they plot monthly data to date on a graph depicting annual values?
This brings up some points.
1. The current US data Figure D graph compiled by GISS for 2012 is clearly erroneous the way it is presented.
2. The Figure D graph at GISS is clearly being updated with incomplete annual data, since this update showed up on the GISS website on August 13th, 2012. The graph portrays annual data. No mention is given of monthly data. This is wrong and misleading.
3. As before, as I pointed out to Governor Browns office, (now corrected) if I made a dumb mistake like this in a time-series, plotting incomplete months and presenting it as annual data, Tamino and his followers would “rip me a new one” (his words).
4. Why do I have to be the one to keep pointing these things out? Doesn’t the Governors Office and NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies have any quality control procedures for the climate data they present to the public? Apparently not.
5. Why does GISS block the archiving of such important resources like the global temperature data they produce by such public domain services like the Wayback machine? Could it be they don’t want inconvenient comparisons like this one below to be made with their graphs?
Inquiring minds want to know.
h/t to Art Horn for the reminder today.
UPDATE: Shortly after this piece published, I emailed Dr. Gavin Schmidt of NASA GISS:
From: Anthony Date: Tuesday, August 21, 2012 12:44 PM To: Gavin.A.Schmidt@nasa.gov Subject: courtesy note Dear Dr. Schmidt, I doubt you’ll credit me when you fix this, or even acknowledge receipt of this message, but I’m informing you of the error anyway. http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/08/21/climate-fail-giss-is-presenting-2012-us-temperature-as-off-the-chart-while-preventing-older-data-from-being-archived/ Best Regards, Anthony Watts UPDATE2: Commenter Jim P. points out 2012/08/21 at 1:50 pm Anthony, there’s no error. It’s just the chart doesn’t extend high enough for this year.That’s the data for the year to date, not July. As you can see from this NOAA chart: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/temp-and-precip/time-series/index.php?parameter=tmp&month=7&year=2012&filter=ytd&state=110&div=0. The mean temperature for the year-to-date is 56.4F, or 13.6C. The normal is 52.2F, or 11.2C. The departure is 2.4C or close to what GISS is reporting. REPLY: Yes, I see, thank you. But, presenting monthly year to date data, in a graph labeled annual mean data, with no caveat at all, is most certainly wrong and misleading. I’d be excoriated by the climate community at large for presenting an annual mean graph with incomplete data for a year like that, so why should they get a pass for being sloppy like the California Governor? – Anthony
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RedditI finally got around to organizing some of the photos I took during the Hurricane Sandy blackout. Except for the power going out in my neighborhood, I don’t have any stories of hardship. I just had to walk to work and walk back in pitch dark every day that week. So I didn’t see any of Sandy’s real devastation, but walking around the deserted downtown Manhattan was enough craziness for me.
Note: If you’re viewing this on the Tumblr dashboard, click here to see all the photos attached to this post.
Virtually all of them were shot with my Sony NEX-7 and 24mm lens. No clever skill to them or heavy-post-processing…just bumped the ISO and aperture to the max and held my breath. All of these photos are on my Flickr account and available through Creative Commons, along with the metadata and original sizes.
Feel free to re-use the photos (with attribution). So if you were interested in purchasing a print, donate instead to post-Sandy efforts: Coney Recovers | Staten Island Advance’s list | FEMA Donation Info
(Source: Flickr / zokuga)Things aren’t going swimmingly for Telmatobius culeus. First, there’s its common name: the frog species is known as the Lake Titicaca scrotum frog because of its loose skin, which draws in the limited oxygen of the lake waters. The frogs, which can grow up to two pounds, are already listed as critically endangered by the IUCN, the international body that assesses threatened species. But Peru's wildlife ministry recently reported that over 10,000 of the frogs were found dead along a 30-mile stretch of the Coata River, from the Cacachi Bridge to its mouth at Juliaca on the shores of Lake Titicaca.
Pollution in the Lake Tititcaca basin, the frog's only home, and predation of its eggs by invasive trout have reduced their numbers by 80 percent over the last three generations, reports Dan Collyns at The Guardian. Because of its size—it’s the world’s largest water frog—poaching for food also takes a toll.
It's not known exactly what caused the mass die-off, but Max Blau at CNN reports authorities found sludge and solid waste flowing into the river, and many locals believe pollution from Juliaca was the cause of the deaths. Authorities have collected water samples from the river, which will be tested by Denver Zoo amphibian specialists Roberto Elias and Enrique Ramos.
Elias tells Collyns that his preliminary investigation showed that villagers recently began cleaning garbage out of the river, which may have stirred up contaminated sediment and could have impacted the frogs.
Whatever the case, it’s not an isolated incident. Pollution in Lake Titicaca is a growing problem.
Carlos Valdez at the Associated Press reports that industrial waste and heavy metals from cities has poisoned and killed off a large percentage of the lake's fish and amphibians. Farmers claim the water is so contaminated it stunts their crop growth. Runoff from mining operations in the mountains also contributes to the problem.
Peru and Bolivia, the two nations that straddle the 3,200-square-mile lake, have created a 30-person agency to monitor Titicaca. But it receives little funding to manage clean-up projects. Valdez says people are worried that the poor water quality will soon impact the tourist industry, which draws 750,000 visitors to the area every year.
Collyns reports that local environmental activist Maruja Inquilla Sucasaca took 100 dead frogs to the square in the city of Puno on the banks of the lake to bring attention to the problem. “No one took the pollution problem seriously until I showed them the dead frogs,” she says. “Lake Titicaca used to be a paradise, now we can’t use the water and our livestock die if they drink it.”
Stephanie Pappas at LiveScience reports that since 2010, the Denver Zoo has been breeding scrotum frogs confiscated from markets around the lake. The hope is to learn more about their biology and breeding behavior to better inform conservation plans and to keep a population of the frogs alive if the situation at Lake Titicaca worsens.Looking for news you can trust?
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In recent years, even as deaths on the nation’s roads and highways have fallen to their lowest levels in more than a half-century, motorcyclists are dropping like flies. Fatal crashes involving motorcycles have more than doubled since 1997—they now account for 1 in 7 traffic deaths, killing some 4,500 bikers (PDF) a year.
So how are riders’ groups responding to the carnage? In short, by lobbying Congress to make regulators leave them alone.
If the bikers have it their way, the nation’s chief traffic cop, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), will no longer be able to fund state police checkpoints to ensure that motorcyclists are wearing helmets that actually work—as opposed to the stylish-but-useless novelty numbers many bikers wear to get around state helmet laws.
Last year, meanwhile, lobbyists for motorcycle groups derailed a proposal that would have reinstated financial penalties for states that lack helmet laws—similar to the federal pressure that pushed states to adopt compulsory seat belt laws. And bikers’ allies in Congress are working to reaffirm a gag rule that since 1998 has barred NHTSA from encouraging state and local leaders to enact motorcycle safety measures.
This is “an interesting and dangerous road they are going down,” says Jackie Gillan, president of the Washington-based nonprofit Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety. “They are so emboldened now, not only do they try to repeal laws and stop them from being enacted, they try to stop the hands of law enforcement, saying you cannot use grant money to have motorcycle checkpoints. Can you imagine if they said the same thing about sobriety checkpoints?”
The motorcycle groups—notably the American Motorcyclist Association and the Motorcycle Riders Foundation—have been remarkably successful at paring back state helmet laws over the past few decades. In the late-1970s, 47 states required helmets for all motorcyclists. This past April, with the repeal of Michigan’s nearly 50-year-old helmet law, only 19 states now require all riders to wear one, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. (See below.)
The Michigan repeal was opposed by more than two dozen medical and public health groups, led by the Brain Injury Association of Michigan. A poll (PDF) conducted around that time indicated that 80 percent of likely Michigan voters wanted to keep the helmet law intact. And while the repeal legislation requires bikers to carry at least $20,000 in medical coverage, critics say that sum won’t come close to covering the costs of a catastrophic injury.
Not to mention the death toll: With more bikes on the road and fewer states requiring helmets, motorcycle fatalities have ballooned from 2,116 in 1997 to 4,502 in 2010 (see chart). The 2011 stats aren’t out yet, but among the thousands dead were 55-year-old Philip Contos, killed during a rally to protest New York’s helmet law—police say he would have survived had he worn one—and 17-year-old Caroline Found of Iowa City, who died after her moped struck a tree.
After her death, four of Found’s friends launched a campaign to persuade the Iowa Legislature to enact a helmet law. (Iowa, along with Illinois and New Hampshire, allows even teenage riders to go without helmets.) But their bid went nowhere. “It is getting to the point where we’re going to have to bubble wrap everyone just to protect them from everything,” a state legislator told the young activists. “I think there’s got to be some common sense here.”
In fact, helmet requirements are widely considered the most effective tool at the regulators’ disposal. According to NHTSA chief David Strickland, “No other single countermeasure offers a comparable body of supporting scientific evidence confirming its potential for saving lives of motorcyclists.” The agency estimates that motorcycle helmets saved 1,483 lives in 2009 (PDF), and that another 732 American bikers would be alive today had they been wearing one that year.
“If you sustain a moderate to severe injury that doesn’t kill you,” notes one trauma surgeon, “you are going to be a drain on society for the rest of your life.”
NHTSA has also estimated that helmetless riders cost society some $1.3 billion a year in medical expenses and lost productivity. “If you don’t wear a helmet, and you sustain a moderate to severe injury that doesn’t kill you, you are going to be a drain on society for the rest of your life,” explains Thomas J. Esposito, chief of the Division of Trauma, Surgical Critical Care and Burns at Loyola University Medical Center in Chicago.
Motorcyclists, of course, have long groused that helmet laws are a drag on their personal freedom. Instead, they argue that the government should emphasize rider training to prevent crashes. But it’s not clear that training works—on the contrary, a 2007 Indiana study found that riders who had completed a basic training course were 44 percent more likely to be involved in an accident than untrained riders. (The researchers speculated that the trained riders were perhaps overly confident, and thus ended up taking more risks.)
Other studies have shown that while training helps riders pass basic skills tests, their odds of crashing after six months on the road are about the same as those of an untrained rider. And even if training does make some motorcyclists safer, public health advocates argue that relying on it exclusively is like telling people who take a driver’s ed course that they no longer need seat belts or car seats for their children.
That motorcyclists have managed to evade the sort of regulation that has made seat belts and car seats standard equipment speaks to the power of a vocal minority whose libertarian message resonates with lawmakers. The bikers’ groups are funded by manufacturers that have nothing against helmets per se, but are loath to offend their most vehement customers. The American Motorcyclist Association—whose corporate members include Harley-Davidson and North American divisions of Yamaha, Kawasaki, Honda, and Suzuki—has spent $3.8 million lobbying Congress on helmet laws and other issues over the last decade, while doling out more than $200,000 in campaign contributions, according to OpenSecrets.org. The Motorcycle Riders Foundation spent $2.1 million in lobbying during the same period.
These groups also maintain armies consisting of thousands of grassroots volunteers who are always down for a good protest ride, and are ready to make plenty of noise when called upon. That’s the force Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), a longtime supporter of mandatory helmet laws, ran up against last December, as he was poised to propose a bill that forcing states to pass helmet laws or else lose millions in federal highway funds.
The rider groups raised the red flag among their members, encouraging members to give their lawmakers an earful. In the end, Lautenberg ditched his pro-helmet bid without even offering it up for formal consideration. A spokesman for the senator says Lautenberg “remains committed to strengthening helmet laws and is pursuing several strategies to increase helmet use across the country.”
In the mid-1990s, NHTSA began encouraging states to pass helmet laws, and set aside $330,000 to educate legislators on the issue. One of the components, a video titled “Without Motorcycle Helmets, We All Pay the Price,” featured testimonials from crash survivors and a trauma room physician who compared helmets to “a vaccine” because of the compelling evidence that they reduced brain injuries.
Controversy ensued when the Motorcycle Riders Foundation circulated an early cut of the video to its congressional allies, complaining that NHTSA was using tax dollars to lobby against the interests of taxpaying bikers. They found a champion in Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.)—Harley-Davidson is headquartered in Milwaukee—and in 1998 Congress passed a sweeping measure barring NHTSA from influencing state and local legislators on any pending legislation. Representatives of the agency may appear as witnesses, but only in response to an official invitation.
More recently, after NHTSA signaled a renewed interest in promoting helmet use, Sensenbrenner sponsored a House resolution that would reaffirm the gag rule. And last year, when NHTSA earmarked $350,000 to help state police set up roadside safety checkpoints for motorcyclists, Sensenbrenner introduced a bill that would sever funding for the program. His resolution, which attracted 18 cosponsors, is now in the hands of a House subcommittee, while the ban on checkpoint funding is with a House-Senate conference committee working on a long-term surface transportation bill.
The aim of the state checkpoints, in part, has been to crack down on so-called novelty helmets, which account for an estimated 1 in 5 helmets on the road. They are lightweight, come in various styles, and help riders keep police off their case. But they’re worthless in a crash. “They are just plastic toys, essentially,” says Tim McMahon, a California personal injury lawyer who won a $1.7 million award for a Fresno man who sustained brain damage while wearing a novelty helmet he thought was safe.
“These checkpoints are not an effective use of taxpayer money,” Sensenbrenner responded in a statement. “Motorcycle-only checkpoints force law enforcement officials to play ‘nanny state’ to all riders rather than focusing on those who are endangering themselves and others on the road, and do not address the factors that contribute to motorcycle crashes.”
“You cannot be in this battle,” says Michigan public health advocate Michael Dabbs, “and not be frustrated by this senselessness.”
Instead, the bikers’ groups insist that NHTSA, which has doled out more than $30 million in training grants over the years, should step up that effort. “The federal government says all day long: ‘You guys are a huge problem. You are killing yourselves out there. You need to start wearing helmets.’ But then they do not want to put resources” toward training and accident prevention, says Jeff Hennie, a DC lobbyist for the Motorcycle Riders Foundation.
The stark disconnect between what biker groups are asking for and what safety experts say actually works riles public health advocates like Michael Dabbs, president of the Brain Injury Association of Michigan. “You cannot be in this battle,” he says, “and not be frustrated by this senselessness.” He adds that the riders’ insistence on personal freedom would be socially unacceptable if taken to its logical extreme: “Maybe we ought to save some of the costs when police or emergency responders go to the scene of a crash and the person is not wearing a helmet,” Dabbs says. “Perhaps they ought to be left there like roadkill.”The gas station on Broad Street is now offering a growler fill station and it will have one tap dedicated to Moccasin Bend Brewing company products. (Photo: Staff)
Authored By chloe.morrison
Moccasin Bend Brewing Co.’s taproom in St. Elmo is now closed, and owners are looking for a new location, according to the business’ Facebook page.
Management has been updating customers via the business’ Facebook page.
On April 24, they posted this update:
We will be leaving our present location very soon, most likely at the end of the month. It is not our decision to leave… Posted by Moccasin Bend Brewing Company on Friday, April 24, 2015
After that, a manager said that details were still up in the air but that the business would be moving from 4015 Tennessee Ave. in St. Elmo, although they hoped to maintain a presence in the area. The manager also said to check updates on Facebook for more information.
On April 29, leaders posted these updates:
Hey guys, sorry for the confusion, but we will unfortunately be closed tonight. Our negotiation attempts to secure… Posted by Moccasin Bend Brewing Company on Wednesday, April 29, 2015Let me make this abundantly clear, there isn’t a single person in the UFC that can stop Jon Jones in any weight division, and it’s not because of his eye pokes. Jon Jones is a very visceral fighter and regardless of if his opponents put eight weeks of diligent training in, Bones already won. In fact he won when his opponent signed the UFC contract and saw the name ‘Jonathan Dwight Jones’ on the front page. Much like how Fedor dominated the Pride FC heavyweight division, mostly for his supreme fighting prowess, but in some part the aura he exuded before stepping in the ring hampered the game plan on every opponent he faced in Pride FC. The same can be applied to Jon Jones.
It goes without saying that his freakish physique and 84.5″ reach also contributes to his iron reign of the light heavyweight division (and realistically any other division he chooses to step into). Although Alexander Gustafsson did come close in his first encounter with the champion, I can’t imagine a scenario in which he beats him in the rematch which is rumored to go down in Sweden some time this year. As far as Daniel Cormier, Jones is entirely too smart to let him close the distance. If Glover had 25 minutes to land his hardest punch on Jones (a guy that John Hackleman said hit harder than Chuck Liddell) and was still systematically ripped apart by Jones, Cormier will have a damn near impossible time striking or even taking down the champion.
Jon Jones is a supreme human being, but the friggin’ dude simply can’t stop poking people in the eyes.
It’s an attribute of his fight game that most MMA fans criticize him over, so we thought it would be appropriate to make a list of The Top Ten Jon Jones Eye Pokes in UFC History. Big thanks to all the respective.gif makers that made this happen.
10.) Jon Jones vs. Shogun Rua – UFC 128
Ah, March 19th 2011, the night Jon Jones became the youngest UFC light heavyweight champion, and the night when everyone made snarky comments about Pride FC dying. Damn all your jokes, Pride FC never dies — it’s a persistent state of mind. However check out this series of eye pokes from the contender in the second round.
9.) Jon Jones vs. Rampage Jackson – UFC 135
I remember everyone in the media giving Rampage a ‘puncher’s chance’ in Jon Jones’ first title defense, but not much more. Rampage Jackson is only one of five fighters to ever take Jon Jones past the 3rd round, which in a perfect world has to count for something. Check out these deadly fingers Jones placed in Rampage’s face as he was loading up to strike him in the 3rd round.
8.) Jon Jones vs. Lyoto Machida – UFC 128
After those first five minutes at UFC 128, it was unanimous that Jon Jones lost his first round in his short MMA career. It was stunning, and probably made a lot of Las Vegas bookies sweat in their smoke-filled rooms filled with money. Check out this eye poke from the champion from that first round.
7.) Jon Jones vs. Alexander Gustafsson – UFC 165
Our first.gif from the Alexander Gustafsson fight, and my god what a great fight that was. Aside from Lyoto, Alexander was the first guy to really give Jon Jones legit trouble during a bout. People thought he was the one to dethrone the champion, but after twenty-five grueling minutes, he (along with Jones) was just another disfigured victim to the belt. Check out this eye poke that happened earlier on at UFC 165.
6.) Jon Jones vs. Rashad Evans – UFC 145
I remember Bobby Razak and I in the lobby of a hotel in London streaming this fight on the internet. Streaming from UFC.tv, obviously. We don’t advocate piracy on MiddleEasy. We also don’t advocate these eye pokes Jon Jones pulled off against Rashad Evans in the third round.
5.) Jon Jones vs. Alexander Gustafsson – UFC 163
The old finger in the eye approach, when it comes to Gustafsson. It’s as if Jon Jones wants to make his fingers socialites and introduce him to a party on Alexander Gustafsson’s orbitals. Even Big John McCarthy seems to take note of the eye pokes, but for only a brief moment.
4.) Jon Jones vs. Shogun Rua – UFC 128
Not only did Jon Jones have top control in the first round of the main event at UFC 128, but he also wanted to show Shogun just how amazing the inside of his palm looks when viewed from a mat. Jon Jones’ right thumb seems as if its prying open Rua’s eye lid.
3.) Jon Jones vs. Alexander Gustafsson – UFC 163
Our third and final.gif from Jon Jones vs. Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 163, which should tell all of you something about how difficult this bout truly was for the champion. It seems like Jones wants to keep his distance, but the threat of an eye poke is difficult to overcome, even for the most seasoned challenger. You can even see Alexander wipe his eye and Big John running in there to give Jones a warning.
2.) Jon Jones vs. Rampage Jackson – UFC 135
Even Rampage thinks the extended fingers and eye pokes are rather ridiculous. Oh, look at that, a Josh Rosenthal sighting. We should collectively form some petition to get that dude out of jail — so he can let these eye pokes slide, like this one from Jon Jones at UFC 135.
1.) Jon Jones vs. Glover Teixeira – UFC 172
So you remember that time when Jones shoved his fingers so deep into Teixeira’s face that his pinky basically went inside his skull. Seriously, take a look at that.gif again — you can almost pin point the moment when Jones’ pink disappears into Glover’s head. Wow, just wow.DAYTON, Ohio -- For the second time this year, a coroner's office in Ohio has run out of space for dead bodies due to the opioid epidemic, CBS Pittsburgh reports.
The Tribune-Review reports the Montgomery County office had 13 bodies on Monday. Twelve of them were overdoses.
Coroner Dr. Kent Harshbarger, says they have already expanded the cooler once last year because space for 36 wasn't enough. It now holds 42 bodies.
Doctors group issues recommendations on opioid epidemic
"If this pace continues, I'm not really sure what we're going to do," Dr. Harshbarger told the Trib. "It's full every night."
In February the coroner's office also ran out of space due to the opioid epidemic. Dr. Harshbarger said then that he was considering renting space at funeral homes in the community to handle the overflow.
He also reportedly rents refrigerated trailers that can be brought in when deaths spike.
"I'm looking at 2,900 autopsies, 2,000 of them overdoses," Dr. Harshbarger told the Trib.
His office reportedly handled fewer than 2,000 autopsies total in 2016.
A crime lab that will focus exclusively on testing drugs such as opiates contributing to Ohio's record overdose deaths was announced Tuesday.
Officer shares his near-deadly encounter with street fentanyl
Among the drugs tested by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation lab in Springfield will be heroin, fentanyl and carfentanil.
Attorney General Mike DeWine and officials from Clark County and Springfield planned to unveil the lab Tuesday.
BCI also operates crime labs in Bowling Green, London and Richfield.
Last year a record 3,050 Ohio residents died from fatal drug overdoses, most of them heroin- or painkiller-related deaths.Listen to the podcast.
There’s a powerful juxtaposing of realities going on right now: one is the world as we know it, with an ethos of fear and scarcity, and an ugly underbelly that’s so evident in the daily deluge of horrific news; and the other is a life-centered ethos revealed in Nature’s emerging summertime landscape of stunning beauty and overflowing abundance.
Imagine a world centered in Nature’s life-giving ways: where scarcity is met with abundance, fear with love, and there’s enough for everyone and everything.
Two realities, two ways of living and engaging the world around us, two different outcomes for our lives, human society and Earth home. At this moment, both these realities are turned on high, in our face, shaking us awake and asking us to choose.
This isn’t a comfortable discussion to have. It’s near impossible to take in the horror that’s become our daily news, without trying to hide from, deflect or rage against the toxic brew of sexism, homophobia, racism, violence and the myriad of other ills that pervade our human psyche and collective behaviors.
These terrible events and human ills aren’t isolated, disconnected aspects of our society. They’re symptoms or outcomes of a reality of fear and scarcity that rules our world, where there isn’t enough food, money, jobs, power, social status, and even love to go around. In a reality where the dominant, aggressive and greedy rise to the top of the pile, gathering life’s goodies to themselves, things are going to get nasty and ugly.
Take a deep breath. Yes, these things are true and this reality exists. But they’re not inevitable nor the only choice. In the summer season, Nature offers us a very different, life-centered reality and a vision of a new, better world.
Here are three simple, potent lessons from Nature that can help you revision your life and our collective reality in alignment with the powers of life in Summer.
1. Abundance is real.
In the sun-bright days of Summer, abundance isn’t an illusion or utopian ideal. It’s real and substantive, woven of the raw elements of sun, earth, rain, soil and seed that, through the wondrous miracle of life, produce the foodstuff that feeds the hungry bellies of this world.
Nature’s abundance expresses itself in an ethos of generosity, of giving more rather than less, and taking only what is needed. Take a single cherry tree, not only does it offer up delicious fruits for humans and creatures alike year after year, but the pits of the fruit provide the seeds of future plants and harvests.
Imagine choosing abundance as a guiding force in your life, and making it real through the raw elements of your grace, goodness and generosity.
Imagine living in harmony with Nature’s ethos of generosity by giving more of yourself rather than less, and only taking what you truly need by walking lightly on this Earth.
Imagine conceiving this same abundance in our shared society, where a decent standard of living is a given, and power, worthiness, love, and other markers of personal satisfaction and social value are infinite and available for all, each in accordance with our deep, true needs.
2. Life is good.
The powers of life are at a peak it the Summer, and the good things of the living world are on full display. The sun is hot. The sky is clear blue. Wild things are plump, healthy and busy tending their young. Ripe fruits weigh down branches. Gardens are overflowing with produce.
Sunshine caresses bare skin. Luscious flowers scent warm breezes. Wild music of birdsong and buzzing insects fills the airwaves. Flowers paint the landscape in bright colors and vibrant greens. Strawberries are soft and sweet. Life is very, very good.
Imagine slowing down and taking in Summer’s goodness, giving yourself over to awe and delight, and relaxing into the loving, delicious embrace of life’s goodness.
Imagine living and sharing this same goodness inside of you by gifting others with your best qualities and nature.
Imagine a world in which Nature’s goodness is cherished, with its gifts and wonders received with gratitude and a debt of protecting these precious resources, and where people share their own goodness and best nature with others.
3. All life is beautiful and worthy.
Wild things don’t have self-worth or identity issues. A dung beetle doesn’t stop to measure its beauty and value against a butterfly. It goes about the business of being a dung beetle, in alignment with its unique dung beetle purpose and place in the great weaving of life.
Be it a dung beetle or butterfly, dandelion or rose, robin or turkey vulture, mouse or wild cat, no one is more beautiful or worthy than another. The summertime powers of light and life call every living being to blossom, flourish, and play their essential part in the balance and well-being of the whole.
Imagine a reality in which every living being is witnessed and honored as beautiful, worthy, precious and essential to the web of life that sustains us all.
Imagine honoring and claiming your beauty, gifts and sacred purpose, knowing that you’re truly beautiful and worthy, and that your contributions to life deeply matter.
Imagine living in a world where others do the same, where there is no better or worse than, just infinite configurations of beauty and gifts, all contributing to the balance and well-being of the whole.
Visioning a New World
As I share Nature’s lessons and these visions of a life-centered reality, I want to be clear that I’m neither naïve nor someone who believes that light and love can banish life’s evils. Nature isn’t always gracious and generous. Winter brings scarcity and death, and the wild world can deliver up devastation through earthquakes, hurricanes, wildfires and other natural disasters. Yet Nature always returns to abundance, goodness and life.
In the same way, our personal lives and collective humanity are plagued by the natural ravages of illness, suffering and death, as well as the countless ills and horrors of our collective reality of fear and scarcity. Yet we can choose a vision for our lives and world based on a reality that always returns to abundance, goodness and life, no matter what challenges and hardships come our way.
This isn’t an easy choice to make. It’s hard sometimes to believe in abundance, goodness and life’s beauty in the face of the pain, suffering and horrors that weigh down our personal histories and shared humanity, and the terrible, terrible things we humans continue to do to each other and our Earth home.
Believe me I know, because I’ve traveled into the depths of my own personal horrors and those of our humanity, and come out the other side. I’ve come to understand that I/we can’t undo the harm that’s been done to us, and to the people and things we hold dear. What we can do is look life in the eye, see and speak truth, and choose accordingly.
We humans are capable of immense horror and great goodness. We can build a world based on an ethos of scarcity and fear, or abundance, goodness and beauty. We get to choose, each moment and each challenge, which of these two realities will be our guiding force. Yet, in the end, only a life-centered ethos, love and the best of our nature can mend our hearts, transform our life and take on the momentous task of creating a new, better world.
Nature shows us what we’ve forgotten. It teaches us that abundance, goodness and beauty are real and ever present. It reminds us that nothing is forever; from the depth of Winter, life always returns to and unfolds into the stunning plenitude of Summer. So too we can emerge from the long winter of soul of humanity, and a collective ethos of fear and scarcity, to return to a life-centered reality that can embrace and nourish us all.
Imagine a world infused with Nature’s life-centered reality: where scarcity is met with abundance, fear with truth, horror with goodness, pain with joy, and suffering with compassion, and where there is enough happiness, love, respect, nourishment, resources, beauty and power for everyone and everything.
Imagine that there’s a place and purpose in this world for every person and wild being, each beautiful, worthy and precious, and that we each bring our best gifts and qualities to the communal table of humanity to solve the problems we’ve created and build a better world together.
Then shift into this living state of abundance, goodness and beauty; stretch out your hands and send this vision outward, like a prayer, into the suffering hearts of our human world.
Bring these lessons and the life-centered ethos of the Summer into your life through the Path of She Guided Journey – Summer Journey: Thou Art Goddess.
The Summer Journey: Thou Art Goddess offering is part of a Guided Journey Series through the seasons to help you seek and source the transformative, life-centered teachings of the Goddess and Nature. The Summer Journey includes: a Guidebook (pdf ebook), Journal (pdf ebook), and Guided Meditation (mp3 audio) that offer an integrated, seven lesson program with wisdom teachings, awareness practice and journaling exercises, and a guided meditation.
Learn More at: Summer Journey: Thou Art Goddess.
Buy Now at the Path Store.After telling Republican convention delegates to vote their conscience last month, Gov. Scott Walker is now urging delegates to honor the wishes of the majority of primary voters who voted for Donald Trump.
"The vast majority of delegates from across the country believe that whether they supported Donald Trump or not in the primaries, he won fair and square and I think the delegates feel great reluctance to go at odds with what the voters said during the primary," Walker said Monday.
At this point it's increasingly clear that Trump will be the GOP's pick and the party should unite against presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, Walker said.
"I think there’s a clear contrast between Hillary Clinton, who would be more of the same and who would be connected to the elite establishment in Washington, versus Donald Trump, who I think is willing to take on that establishment," he said.
Strong opposition to Clinton will unite not only Republicans, but also independents and even discerning Democrats, Walker said.Submitted by WG on Mon, 08/09/2014 - |
os evenly split playing time with Mazanec, appearing in 38 of the Admirals' 76 regular-season games. As of now, Saros is projected to take over as Milwaukee's full-time starter next season, which would probably be best for his development. But an impressive training camp could change those plans.
"Of course, it's an interesting situation and a really good chance for me, too," Saros said. "I'm going to do whatever it takes to make this (team). We'll see."
Reach Adam Vingan on Twitter @AdamVingan.
MAREK MAZANEC OR JUUSE SAROS?
Career AHL statistics
Mazanec: 55-43-17, 2.57 goals-against average,.908 save percentage
Saros: 29-8-0, 2.24 GAA,.920 save percentage
Career NHL statistics
Mazanec: 8-11-4, 2.77 GAA,.902 save percentage
Saros: 0-1-0, 3.10 GAA,.870 save percentageTotal health spending per capita, in U.S. dollars PPP-adjusted, of Sweden compared amongst various other first world nations.
The Swedish health care system is mainly government-funded and decentralized, although private health care also exists. The health care system in Sweden is financed primarily through taxes levied by county councils and municipalities.
Management [ edit ]
Sweden's health care system is organized and managed on three levels: national, regional and local. At the national level, the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs establishes principles and guidelines for care and sets the political agenda for health and medical care. The ministry along with other government bodies supervises activities at the lower levels, allocates grants and periodically evaluates services to ensure correspondence to national goals.
At the regional level, responsibility for financing and providing health care is decentralized to the 21 county councils. A county council is a political body whose representatives are elected by the public every four years on the same day as the national general election. The executive board or hospital board of a county council exercises authority over hospital structure and management, and ensures efficient health care delivery. County councils also regulate prices and level of service offered by private providers. Private providers are required to enter into a contract with the county councils. Patients are not reimbursed for services from private providers who do not have an agreement with the county councils. According to the Swedish health and medical care policy, every county council must provide residents with good-quality health services and medical care and work toward promoting good health in the entire population.
At the local level, municipalities are responsible for maintaining the immediate environment of citizens such as water supply and social welfare services. Recently, post discharge care for the disabled and elderly, and long term care for psychiatric patients was decentralized to the local municipalities.
County councils have considerable leeway in deciding how care should be planned and delivered. This explains the wide regional variations.
It is informally divided into 7 sections: "Close-to-home care" (primary care clinics, maternity care clinics, out-patient psychiatric clinics, etc.), emergency care, elective care, in-patient care, out-patient care, specialist care, and dental care.[1]
All citizens are to be given on line access to their own electronic health records by 2020. Many different record systems are used which has caused problems for interoperability. A national patient portal, ‘1177.se’ is used by all systems, with both telephone and online access. At June 2017 about 41% of the population had set up their own account to use personal e-services using this system. A national Health Information Exchange platform provides a single point of connectivity to the many different systems. There is not yet a national regulatory framework for patients’ direct access to their health information.[2]
Provision [ edit ]
Private companies in 2015 provide about 20% of public hospital care and about 30% of public primary care, although in 2014 a survey by the SOM Institute found that 69% of Swedes were opposed to private companies profiting from providing public education, health, and social care, with only about 15% actively in favour.
In April 2015 Västernorrland County ordered its officials to find ways to limit the profits private companies can reap from running publicly funded health services.[3]
Financing [ edit ]
Costs for health and medical care amounted to approximately 9 percent of Sweden’s gross domestic product in 2005, a figure that remained fairly stable since the early 1980s. By 2015 the cost had risen to 11.9% of GDP -the highest in Europe.[4] Seventy-one percent of health care is funded through local taxation, and county councils have the right to collect income tax. The state finances the bulk of health care costs, with the patient paying a small nominal fee for examination. The state pays for approximately 97% of medical costs.[5]
When a physician declares a patient to be ill for whatever reason (by signing a certificate of illness/unfitness), the patient is paid a percentage of their normal daily wage from the second day. For the first 14 days, the employer is required to pay this wage, and after that the state pays the wage until the patient is declared fit.
Details and patient costs [ edit ]
Prescription drugs are not free but fees to the user are capped at 2,200 kr per annum. Once a patient's prescriptions reach this amount, the government covers any further expenses for the rest of the year. The funding system is automated. The country's pharmacies are connected over the Internet. Each prescription is sent to the pharmacy network, which stores information on a patient's medical history and on the prescriptions fulfilled previously for that patient. If the patient's pharmaceutical expenses have exceeded the annual limit, the patient receives the medication free of charge at the point of sale, upon producing identification.
In a sample of 13 developed countries Sweden was eleventh in its population weighted usage of medication in 14 classes in 2009 and twelfth in 2013. The drugs studied were selected on the basis that the conditions treated had high incidence, prevalence and/or mortality, caused significant long-term morbidity and incurred high levels of expenditure and significant developments in prevention or treatment had been made in the last 10 years. The study noted considerable difficulties in cross border comparison of medication use.[6]
A limit on health-care fees per year exists; 150-300 SEK for each visit to a doctor, regardless if they are a private doctor or work at a local health-care center or a hospital. When visiting a hospital, the entrance fee covers all specialist visits the doctor deems necessary, like x-ray, rheumatism specialist, heart surgery operations and so on. The same fee is levied for ambulance services. After 1100 SEK have been paid, health-care for the rest of the year will be provided free of charge.
Dental care is not included in the general health care system, but is partly subsidized by the government. Dental care is free for youths up to 19 years of age, while a general dental care insurance (introduced in 1974) covers all inhabitants from the age of 20 onwards.[7]
Mental health care is an integrated part of the health care system and is subject to the same legislation and user fees as other health care services. If an individual has minor mental health issues, he is attended to by a GP in a primary health setting; if the patient has major mental health issues he is referred to specialized psychiatric care in hospitals.[8]
Performance [ edit ]
The reduction in infant mortality between 1960 and 2008 for Sweden in comparison with Ireland, France, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
According to the Euro health consumer index the Swedish score for technically excellent healthcare services, which they rated 10th in Europe in 2015, is dragged down by access and waiting time problems, in spite of national efforts such as Vårdgaranti. It is claimed that there is a long tradition of steering patients away from their doctor unless they are really sick.[9]
Waiting times [ edit ]
Urgent cases are always prioritized and emergency cases are treated immediately. The national guarantee of care, Vårdgaranti, lays down standards for waiting times for scheduled care, aiming to keep waiting time below 7 days for a visit to a primary care physician, and no more than 90 days for a visit to a specialist.[10]
See also [ edit ]
Health care compared - tabular comparisons with the US, Canada, and other countries not shown above.
Vårdguiden 1177
References [ edit ]Mantyhose, leg hosiery designed and marketed to men, is a growing trend according to Time NewsFeed. Fashion web magazine e-MANcipate is strongly endorsing this trend and wants to change the rules of what men are supposed to wear. They provide a place for men to learn more about this fashion choice and they even provide instructions on how to put on mantyhose.
We are here to break the rules of what men are obliged to wear, defined by the tradition of modern times, as we are not satisfied with wearing boring suits only. We believe that pantyhose for men can be an everyday clothing item, and that it can be fashionable as well. Throughout e-MANcipate, with our photos, we are trying to illustrate it as well. We want to promote / achieve gender equality for men, to eradicate sexism that is attached to us by forcing men to the classical macho roles and to a limited number of acceptable clothes / outfits. (And by the way, are all the women who wear trousers crossdressers?)
Time NewsFeed explains why mantyhose may be appealing to men:
Often they are worn by men who work outside, such as landscapers, to guard against the cold. They also serve as a compression tool for those with circulatory problems, and are said to help revitalize muscles if you are standing on your feet all day…Most men buying into the trend wear their tights much as you would wear long johns – beneath the pants, as an extra layer. However, those with sartorial boldness might try pairing them with shorts.
via Time NewsFeed
images via e-MANcipateNATO’s top commander bluntly told the Pentagon on Wednesday that the allied effort to slow Russia’s advance in Ukraine isn’t working. He delivered that message as the Obama administration appeared to back away from earlier indications that the U.S. would arm the Ukrainian army against pro-Putin forces.
“Right now we are not arming the Ukrainians with lethal weapons, and what we see is that Russians continue to provide their force, continues to build the capability,” Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, the supreme allied commander of NATO and commander of U.S. European Command, told reporters at the Pentagon on Wednesday after testifying before the House Armed Services Committee hours earlier.
A decision to provide that lethal aid “could cause positive results, could cause negative results,” he added. “But what we’re doing now is not changing the results on the ground.”
Breedlove, however, said he was ready with plans for the U.S. to provide military assistance to a beleaguered Ukrainian Army fending off Russian backed rebels—should the Obama administration ever make a decision.
The U.S. has conducted comprehensive studies of Ukrainian military needs, he added, and has a good sense of what it could provide to assist with an effective defense with Russian troops in the east.
Breedlove—once an advocate for a stronger U.S. stance in the Ukraine conflict—painted a bleak picture of a Russia increasingly intervening in the war there, as the West debates whether to help.
“It’s getting worse everyday,” Breedlove told reporters. “We have seen a steady escalation.”
Meanwhile, the Kremlin’s involvement in the conflict had evolved from opaque to direct, Breedlove said. The commander added that Russia had sent “well over” 1,000 combat vehicles.
Breedlove also said Wednesday he could not say “what’s going on in Mr. Putin’s head,” but that Putin’s goal “is to keep Ukraine out of the West and the West out of Ukraine.”
Advocates for arming Ukraine are growing increasingly aghast at the passing time without lethal aid from the United States.
“It’s disappointing that it still hasn’t occurred,” Sen. Bob Corker, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told The Daily Beast. “[The Obama administration has] put the decision off. We’ve pressed them in Congress, we’ve passed legislation. It passed unanimously on the Senate floor to authorize them to [provide lethal defensive arms to the Ukrainians].”
Supporters of providing such weapons argue Ukraine cannot defend itself otherwise and Russian aggression cannot go unanswered.
“The West is endangering their own interests by taking so long. If Ukraine is forced to capitulate to Putin’s agenda, then all of those worst fears that the West has will begin to materialize because based on the rhetoric and everything that we hear coming from the Russian state, Ukraine is not the end. Ukraine is just the beginning,” Pavel Yarmolenko, a spokesman for the Ukraine Freedom Support Group, told The Daily Beast.
But there are risks—serious risks—to providing those arms. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry acknowledged that it was impossible to know how Putin might react if the United States were to provide more lethal aid to Ukraine, but retorted that the world has seen “how he has responded without us providing weapons, and that isn’t going very well.”
Breedlove stopped short of advocating for lethal defensive weapons as some has urged in the last few weeks. The administration now appears to have moved away from such a decision in the face of vehement opposition from the U.S.’s NATO partners. Instead, he called the military part of a multifaceted arsenal that includes diplomatic and economic efforts.
“This will not end militarily,” the supreme allied commander told reporters. But Breedlove did not describe his own personal opinion on the issue of lethal aid.
“Gen. Breedlove has supplied his best military advice to the chain of command on options so that Administration can make their decision. To openly discuss his [position] jeopardizes his best advice and our role to inform our leaders on what we assess to be options,” Captain Gregory Hicks, a spokesman for the general, told The Daily Beast.
Earlier this month, the administration appeared to move toward providing Ukraine such weapons, which it had repeatedly until Germany and France led a Europe push for a ceasefire agreement in Minsk. Within hours of its implementation, the agreement collapsed.
Opponents charge that such weapons will not be enough for Ukraine to fend off Russia, potentially forcing another weapons escalation and eventually a proxy war.
Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Christine Wormuth outlined these concerns at the hearing Wednesday, suggesting that Russia could “double down” if the United States were to ramp up military aid to Ukraine. The result, she said, could be “more human suffering,” meaning that tools such as economic sanctions could be “potentially more effective.”How much money can be made by selling a block of wood meant to remind people that they don't need to spend money on frivolous goods?
Amsterdam-based copywriter Pim de Graaff hopes to answer that question with Nothing, a small block of wood that sits next to all the other stuff you own and... well, that's about it. The handmade blocks cost €29 each and, according to de Graaff, a few have already been sold.
"Nothing reminds us to enjoy everything we already have," de Graaff says in a release sent to PandoDaily. "Seeing Nothing on my table at home makes me feel I don't need more all the time. Not necessarily the newest iPhone. No new clothes just because. It gives me peace. I hope to share this feeling with others through Nothing."
All that anti-capitalist hullaballoo means is that de Graaff is selling something to convince people that they don't need to buy anything new. It might just have that effect if new owners open the box, stare at the thing they just spent almost $40 on, and smack themselves in the forehead with it. That's probably their only hope.
But the way de Graaff is selling his wooden block to greedy blockheads is worth noting, if only because it's a microcosm of e-commerce's best practices being used to sell a product borne from Alanis Morrissette-level irony.
Nothing doesn't just have a website that's already gone viral on Digg and is simply waiting to be linked to on Upworthy. It's also got a series of Pinterest boards detailing its development process and where the blocks have ended up. It's got the requisite Facebook page. And it's only available in a limited run of 50 blocks -- at least for now -- so it's got an air of exclusivity.
The only things preventing this from being an Internet darling are a crowdfunding campaign and a commemorative tote bag featuring a pithy slogan.
All snark -- or is it smarm? -- aside, it is fascinating to see what a copywriter is able to sell with some wood, a few free online services, and a website. The product itself is a bit silly, and the entire thing reeks of a performance art piece showing how anti-capitalism has been subverted by money-grubbers, but if that's the case it's a pretty good performance.President Donald Trump addresses supporters as he speaks at the Indiana State Fairgrounds and Event Center in Indianapolis on Wednesday. Joshua Lott/Getty Images
President Trump presents himself as a hard-nosed enforcer. He likes to talk tough about terrorists, criminals, immigrants, and refugees. But there’s one group of people he doesn’t like to target: the rich. Trump’s policies, such as the tax-cut plan he unveiled this week, favor billionaires and multimillionaires like him and his economic advisers. But Trump has developed a trick for hiding this soft spot. He plays a card from his macho repertoire: nationalism.
Deference to the rich is a Republican staple. Conservative politicians might lambast Sharia, welfare bums, and college professors, but when anyone asks why their tax or regulatory policies benefit the wealthy, they cry “class warfare.” The real enemy, Republicans argue, is the government. That’s how Gary Cohn, the director of Trump’s National Economic Council, defended Trump’s tax-cut plan on Thursday when reporters pointed to elements of the plan that would serve the rich. Never mind that, said Cohn. “What the American people are concerned about is their financial position,” he argued. “How much do they get to keep? How much goes in their pockets versus how much goes to the government?” At a press briefing on Wednesday, House and Senate Republicans made the same point.
Trump is different. He ran for president as a champion of working people who were being shafted by the global economy. Outlining his tax-cut proposal on Wednesday, Trump said it would serve the middle class, not the rich. But in the face of data indicating that the savings would go largely to high earners, Trump brought a new argument to the table: He urged the public to focus on country. The tax plan was “pro-American,” he argued, and it would “take care of our people” for a change.
Trump’s innovation is to adopt a common Republican talking point and filter it through his nationalist lens. Take “competitiveness.” This is a favorite Republican term, since it frames deregulation and tax cuts—which from a progressive standpoint, are a concession to the GOP’s donor class—as self-discipline and strength. In his speech, Trump cited his host state, Indiana, as an example. “This state has claimed a powerful competitive edge built on low taxes and less regulation,” said the president. “Indiana has welcomed dozens of companies fleeing high taxes and high-tax states.” That’s the typical GOP line. But Trump went on:
We want to do the same thing for America, making our country more competitive with other nations. … We let other nations come in and take advantage of us and take our jobs away and take our businesses out. And we’re stopping that … We have surrendered our competitive edge to other countries, but we’re not surrendering anymore. … We will dramatically cut the business tax rate, so that American companies and American workers can beat our foreign competitors and start winning again.
This is classic Trump: Foreigners are taking advantage of us. We’re not going to surrender anymore. We’re going to compete and win. But to get tough on these countries, we have to be nicer to CEOs and investors. We have to give them a giant corporate tax cut.
When a farm worker enters this country illegally, Trump wants him hunted down and deported. When a football player kneels for the national anthem, Trump wants him fired. But when an American company makes money overseas and stashes the profits abroad to avoid U.S. taxes, Trump doesn’t impugn the company’s patriotism. He says it’s America’s fault for taxing businesses too heavily.
How does Trump sell this corporate suck-up message to the workers who voted for him? By telling them we’re all on the same team. “We want our companies to hire and grow in America and to raise wages for American workers and to help rebuild American cities and towns,” he told the audience in Indiana. “That is how we will all succeed together and grow together as one team, one people, and one American family.” On Friday, speaking to the National Association of Manufacturers, Trump returned to this theme. “The era of economic surrender is over,” he declared. “We will dramatically cut the business tax rate so that American companies and workers can beat our foreign competitors.”
Trump’s nationalism fits the Republican agenda like a glove. On the surface, he’s an unconventional populist who threatens foreign trading partners on behalf of “the forgotten man and woman.” In reality, his tax-cut package, loaded with conventional ideas such as repeal of the estate tax and the alternative minimum tax, serves the donor class. But quarreling about that would be unpatriotic. Don’t ask how much of the money is going to the rich, says the president. Ask what you can do for your country.For the Dallas Stars the season opener is quickly approaching as the Stars host the Vegas Golden Knights on October 6. That means training camp and preseason are winding down and the roster is beginning to take its final shape. On defense, coach Ken Hitchcock is said to have selected his six defensemen with reports indicating that Julius Honka is not one of the six. For Dallas this is a huge mistake.
The six-projected defensemen at this time are said to be Dan Hamhuis, Stephen Johns, John Klingberg, Esa Lindell, Marc Methot and Jamie Oleksiak. Dallas has a young evolving defensive corps and that has been felt the last few seasons with inconsistent play on the back end. This off-season they were rewarded with a blue chip prospect in Miro Heiskanen with the third overall pick. Prior to that the best prospect in the system has been another Finish defensemen, Julius Honka.
In two and a half seasons in the AHL, Honka produced 106 points. Dealing with injuries last season the Stars called up Honka to the NHL squad, where he produced five points in his 16 games played. While his defensive stats weren’t suburb, Honka showed glimpses of what he can do at the next level. The Stars have seen the ceilings and floors for a lot of their defensemen and Honka has the ability to raise the bar. While Hitchcock prefers players who have a strong defensive game, that is not the Stars identity, that is not what they are built for. The Stars are built to be a puck moving team with a dynamic offense, and hope Hitchcock can provide an improved back end.
Next offseason Dallas will have six NHL caliber defensemen needing contracts. Players with expiring contracts may not fetch as much in return but are easier to move. While it is unlikely veterans Dan Hamhuis and Marc Methot, and emerging star John Klingberg, are considered to be moved the rest of the corps could be shopped for Honka to have a permanent position. While maybe better defensemen at the moment, none have the ceiling of Honka.
The Stars have shown the same organizational issue with the forwards group in recent years as well, bringing in past their prime vets and fringe NHLers to keep some of their promising young forwards in the AHL. While there will be growing pains, it is time the organization gives their best prospects a shot to prove themselves. If Heiskanen is really in the plans within the next two or so seasons, the Stars can’t also be trying to transition Honka at that time. It takes players some time to become acclimated to the game at the next level before we see who they really are.
At this point, the Stars know exactly who players like Jamie Oleksiak, Patrik Netmeth and Greg Pateryn are. While a change in scenery with a new coach could have been just what they needed, the first few preseason games have showed little to change expectations of the lot. Honka on the other hand has showed the ability to quarterback the power play and move into a position to be a top four guy this season. Keeping Honka in the AHL because the Stars are scared to lose a fringe asset would be a mistake.Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser) Frank Ockenfels/AMC.
Pete Campbell dominated “Signal 30,” the fifth episode in Mad Men’s fifth season. Over the course of the hour, Pete attempted to seduce a teenage girl in his drivers’ ed class, hosted a dinner party, failed to fix a plumbing problem, slept with a prostitute, and lost a fistfight.
Slate spoke with actor Vincent Kartheiser by telephone shortly after the episode aired.
Slate: Do you like Pete Campbell at this point?
Vincent Kartheiser: I can sympathize and empathize with some of the things he faces and some of the obstacles he has created for himself.
Slate: Is Joan right that everyone wants to punch him in the face? Is Lane right that he has become a monster?
Kartheiser: I think Joan’s right. A personality type like Pete sometimes has to push people’s buttons, and through the seasons he has done that. I’m not sure if Lane’s right about him being a “grimy little pimp” or that he deserves all the blame for that situation. Pete’s upset at all of them for laughing at him. He felt betrayed.
Slate: He’s a man of ambition, but he seems to get more unhappy the more he achieves. He’s achieved many of his goals—Trudy had the baby, he got a bigger office, he’s dominating Roger—but he seems to get crabbier by the week. Do you understand why he’s so unhappy?
Kartheiser: With success comes a level of sadness. You think, “I’ll reach this goal, and then I’ll feel a sense of completeness, of wholeness. I’ll feel that I have accomplished something. I will see myself as a worthy man.” And it doesn’t really exist.
He also has the weight of this entire agency on his shoulders, and he doesn’t feel like he’s getting any respect for that. I think that a bigger man would handle that better. Pete becomes pouty and kind of aggressive. He tries to show off and make people respect him, and that’s not possible.
Slate: Do you think there’s any hope for Pete? Is he just doomed to being a lonely man and becoming more and more unhappy the older he gets?
Kartheiser: There are times in your life where you realize the distance between who you are and who you thought of yourself as. Everyone’s inevitably going to face periods of their life when they feel hopeless and worthless. I think there are redeeming qualities to Pete. I don’t think he’s doomed.
Slate: Pete always seems to feel very self-conscious about his size—he’s not manly in the same way as Don—and he’s conscious of getting older. You’re the same size; you’re the same age. I know that you’re an actor playing a role, but do the character’s feelings ever sow seeds of doubt and discontent in your head?
“Whenever you have something good, you’re scared of losing it.” Jordin Althaus/AMC
Kartheiser: I don’t think the character does that to me, but I think that as a human being, I can look at the scene with the young girl and the handsome young man, and I can look directly at my life and think, “That happens to me all the time.” I’ve come to a point now that when I’m in a room with 22-year-old girls, I think about them like my daughter or my younger sister. But I remember very clearly realizing, “Oh, wow, I’m not even part of this person’s sexual thoughts!”
I have that same reaction. I’m older and fatter and uglier. I’m not 21. I am self-conscious of my body. I am self-conscious of my age. I am all of those things as a human being. Not just as a person who plays Pete, but as a dude.
Slate: The episode tonight began with a gory driver’s ed film. It made me scared that something horrible was going to happen to Pete. As an actor with this fantastic part on this awesome show, do you share the anxiety of something happening to Pete?
Kartheiser: Whenever you have something good, you’re scared of losing it. You do have anxiety, but if I’m going to die on a show, or if I’m going to get kicked off a show, this is the one I want to do it on. I trust Matt. I’m happy to do whatever he needs me to do to tell the best story. And if that means me not being on it anymore—if that brings to a head a point that he’s trying to make—then I’m happy to be the arrow that he has to fling away.
Slate: What’s the most difficult aspect of being on Mad Men?
Kartheiser: Having to explain the more amazing points of Mad Men. I’m just an actor. I’m not nearly as smart as the writers of this show. I’m only speaking for myself—I think some of the other actors get it more than me—but I’ll run into people with brilliant minds who start asking me questions about the show, and I’m like, “Look, whatever you’ve come up with is definitely better than anything I’ve read into it.” I can tell you what Matt Weiner says. I can tell you what Jon Hamm thinks. But I’m just a puppet. I love my character, and Matt writes great shit for us, and he makes sure we understand it. We work hard on it, and I’m proud of that, but the hardest part is that it’s a lot of really highbrow stuff, and sometimes I’m just a lowbrow dude.
This interview has been edited and condensed.Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich. (AP photo)
Robert Reich, who served as Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton, is urging his fellow progressives to block President-elect Donald Trump from carrying out his policy plans for his first 100 days in office, including a suggestion to “boycott all Trump products, real estate, hotels, resorts, everything.”
Reich’s “First 100 Day Resistance Agenda” also urges Democrats in Congress to draw out the hearings of Trump’s Cabinet nominees while progressive journalists “dig into their backgrounds”.
“Our version of ‘Drill, baby, drill’ is ‘Sue, baby, sue’,” he continued. “Throw sand in the gears. Lawyers, get organized.”
He also recommended “coordinated fund-raising” efforts that would “fill the coffers of the most endangered and effective opposition groups.”
Besides letters to the editor, op-eds and social media posts protesting Trump, the former Labor secretary, who is now a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, proposed “sister” marches to the Women’s March on Washington planned for Trump’s Inauguration next month.
“And then? 1 Million Muslims. 1 Million Latinos? What would keep the momentum alive and keep the message going?’ he asked.
“Call a meeting of family and friends this weekend,” Reich urged fellow progressives. “Come up with to-dos… We’re not going away.”
In an interview with Amy Goodman from DemocracyNow!, Reich expressed his fears that Trump’s agency heads will not enforce the law.
“If you have a president—a secretary of labor who’s against all of these labor laws, there’s a substantial danger that they will not be enforced, because that’s what the Labor Department does, is it enforces.
“I think we do have to regard this as not a normal presidency,” he continued. “You know, some people say, ‘Oh, well, it’s just a—we’ve had conservative, pompous, narcissistic presidents before. This is—this is not normal. This is really dangerous. And we have to resist. We have to have a peaceful resistance,” Reich said.
“And what I tried to do is list the kind of things that we all, as citizens, need to do and need to have our representatives and senators in Congress do, and not only mount a forceful rejection of these Trump nominees, most of whom are completely unqualified and incompetent with regard to enforcing the purposes of these agencies that they are going to be running, or Trump wants them to run, but also, individually, we need to boycott Trump products.”One of the first things you learn about evolution in school is that the human body has a number of'vestigial' parts - appendix, wisdom teeth, tailbone - that gradually fell out of use as we adapted to more advanced lifestyles than our primitive ancestors.
But while our wisdom teeth are definitely causing us more pain than good right now, the human appendix could be more than just a ticking time bomb sitting in your abdomen. A new study says it could actually serve an important biological function - and one that humans aren’t ready to give up.
Researchers from Midwestern University traced the appearance, disappearance, and reemergence of the appendix in several mammal lineages over the past 11 million years, to figure out how many times it was cut and brought back due to evolutionary pressures.
They found that the organ has evolved at least 29 times - possibly as many as 41 times - throughout mammalian evolution, and has only been lost a maximum of 12 times.
"This statistically strong evidence that the appearance of the appendix is significantly more probable than its loss suggests a selective value for this structure," the team reports.
"Thus, we can confidently reject the hypothesis that the appendix is a vestigial structure with little adaptive value or function among mammals."
If the appendix has been making multiple comebacks in humans and other mammals across millions of years, what exactly is it good for?
Conventional wisdom states that the human appendix is the shrunken remnant of an organ that once played an important role in a remote ancestor of humans millions of years ago.
The reason it still exists - and occasionally has to be removed due to potentially fatal inflammation and rupturing - is that it’s too 'evolutionarily expensive' to get rid of altogether. There's little evolutionary pressure to lose such a significant part of the body.
In other words, the amount of effort it would take for the human species to gradually lose the appendix though thousands of years of evolution is just not worth it, because in the majority of people, it just sits there not hurting anyone.
But what if it's doing more than just sitting there?
For years now, researchers have been searching for a possible function of the human appendix, and the leading hypothesis is that it’s a haven for 'good' intestinal bacteria that help us keep certain infections at bay.
One of the best pieces of evidence we’ve had for this suggestion is a 2012 study, which found that individuals without an appendix were four times more likely to have a recurrence of Clostridium difficile colitis - a bacterial infection that causes diarrhoea, fever, nausea, and abdominal pain.
As Scientific American explains, recurrence in individuals with their appendix intact occurred in 11 percent of cases reported at the Winthrop-University Hospital in New York, while recurrence in individuals without their appendix occurred in 48 percent of cases.
Now the Midwestern University team has taken a different approach to arrive at the same conclusion.
First they gathered data on the presence or absence of the appendix and other gastrointestinal and environmental traits across 533 mammal species over the past 11.244 million years.
Onto each genetic tree for these various lineages, they traced how the appendix evolved through years of evolution, and found that once the organ appeared, it was almost never lost.
"[T]he appendix has evolved independently in several mammal lineages, over 30 separate times, and almost never disappears from a lineage once it has appeared," the team explains in a press statement.
"This suggests that the appendix likely serves an adaptive purpose."
Next, the researchers considered various ecological factors - the species' social behaviours, diet, habitat, and local climate - to figure out what that "adaptive purpose" could be.
They found that species that had retained or regained an appendix had higher average concentrations of lymphoid (immune) tissue in the cecum - a small pouch connected to the junction of the small and large intestines.
This suggests that the appendix could play an important role in a species' immune system, particularly as lymphatic tissue is known to stimulate the growth of certain types of beneficial gut bacteria.
"While these links between the appendix and cecal factors have been suggested before, this is the first time they have been statistically validated," the team concludes in their paper.
"The association between appendix presence and lymphoid tissue provides support for the immune hypothesis of appendix evolution."
The study is far from conclusive, but offers a different perspective on the hypothesis that humans have been keeping the appendix around for its immune support this whole time.
The challenge now is to prove it, which is easier said than done, seeing as most people who have had their appendix removed don't suffer from any adverse long-term effects.
But it could be that when people get their appendix removed, immune cell-producing tissues in the cecum and elsewhere in the body step up to compensate for the loss.
One thing's for sure in all of this - while we're probably not going to regain our tails, it's too soon to write off the appendix just yet.
The research has been published in Comptes Rendus Palevol.Denver Police Commander Tony Lopez (YouTube)
Protesters at the Denver airport over the weekend were told by police that it was illegal to exercise “free speech without a permit.”
Denverite reported that over 200 people gathered at the Denver International Airport on Friday to protest President Donald Trump’s executive order banning travel from seven majority-Muslim countries.
In video posted to YouTube, Police Commander Tony Lopez can be seen advising demonstrators that they are in violation of the law.
“Stop doing anything that could be construed as free speech without a permit,” he explains.
Lopez warns in the video, which lacks context, that even carrying a copy of the U.S. Constitution was prohibited in the airport.
“I cannot carry the Constitution without a permit?” one protester asks.
“Correct,” the officer replies.
Watch the video below via YouTube.Support for Spicebird has been discontinued. We thank our loyal users for all the support and recommend you to migrate to Mozilla Thunderbird for a |
brands. "If the paper breaks during your use of toilet paper, obviously, that's very, very important."
The second half of the pitch is that Marcal's toilet paper is almost as soft as the other guy's anyway.
"Handle it like you're going to take care of business," company manager Michael Bonin said, putting this reporter through a blind test of virgin vs. recycled toilet paper. Two rolls were hidden in a cardboard box: the test was to reach in without looking and wad them up, considering the "three aspects of softness," which are surface smoothness, bulky feel and "drapability," or lack of rigidity.
The reporter wadded. The officials waited. The one on the right felt slightly softer.
That was not the answer they wanted: The recycled paper was on the left.
© 2009 The Washington Post CompanyQueues have formed around the building as pilgrims wait their turn to kiss the image, with local police forced to increase patrols to keep crowds under control.
The outer wall of the timber factory in the town of Velyky Berezny in western Ukraine has been turned into a shrine, as visitors leave bunches of flowers at the site they consider holy.
The markings, which first appeared earlier in the summer, look like they have been caused by mold or damp.
But local Christians saw what they believe is a representation of the head and body of Christ in the discoloured shapes, sparking interest across the country.
The factory has now become something of a tourists attraction with people crowding the site to take pictures on their mobile phones.
"Sightings" of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary are not uncommon in Ukraine, where the majority of the population belong to Eastern Orthodox churches.
In July religious fever took root in the Irish village of Rathkeale, Co Limerick, after workmen claimed the image of the Virgin Mary appeared in the remains of a felled churchyard tree.The High Court would probably strike down a plan to automatically revoke dual nationals' citizenship, a leading constitutional law expert says, with solicitors already gearing up to challenge it if it becomes law.
UNSW professor George Williams told a Senate inquiry on Tuesday that it was the most "problematically drafted bill" he had ever seen, with more constitutional problems in it than any he had given evidence on. This included a law that allows ASIO to detain and question any Australian for up to a week and foreign fighter legislation aiming to restrain Australians returning from conflict zones in Syria and Iraq.
Professor Williams had "no doubt" such a law would be challenged in the High Court and had already been approached by "prominent solicitors" who had clients facing charges that are included in the bill.
"It's such an obvious one to bring a challenge to; I don't see why they wouldn't to escape loss of their citizenship."
Under the plan, crimes that could automatically deprive you of your citizenship range from treachery, sabotage and mutiny to damaging or destroying Commonwealth property. Dual nationals engaged in terrorism-related activity would automatically forfeit their Australian citizenship even without a conviction, though they could appeal the revocation in court.The imminent expansion of England’s controversial badger cull “flies in the face of scientific evidence”, according to the nation’s foremost experts, who have called on new prime minister, Theresa May, to halt the “failed” policy.
The scientists say the badger cull, intended to curb tuberculosis in cattle, is a “risky, costly, and inhumane” distraction and may actually increase TB infections.
TB is a serious problem for farmers, with 36,000 infected cattle slaughtered in Britain in 2015 at a cost to the taxpayer of about £100m. But this is a “monstrous” waste of money, according to one of the scientists, who says the problem could be effectively tackled by cracking down on the spread of TB between cattle.
Badger culls in Gloucestershire and Somerset are due to begin their fourth year in the coming weeks, with another in Dorset entering its second year. But up to 29 applications for new culls across nine counties, including Cheshire, Cornwall and Herefordshire are now being evaluated by officials. The environment secretary, Liz Truss, backed a rollout in February, saying: “I want to see culling expanded across a wider number of areas this year.”
The letter to May is from professors John Bourne, Rosie Woodroffe and Ranald Munro. Bourne and Woodroffe ran a £50m trial in 2007 that concluded that badger culling could “make no meaningful contribution to cattle TB control in Britain”. Munro led a government-appointed group that scrutinised the first year of the Gloucestershire and Somerset culls and concluded that they were both ineffective and inhumane.
They tell May: “We urge you to review the considerable evidence that culling badgers is a risky, costly, and inhumane tool in the fight against bovine TB. We submit to you that expanding this unpromising programme would fly in the face of scientific evidence. We publicly call on you at this time to halt – not expand – the failed badger cull.”
They say the loosening of rules designed to make the culls effective – such as killing the badgers in a short period of time to prevent wider spread of TB – has left them “far below the minimum standards” required.
“The license conditions have not delivered effective culls yet and the changes made since are only going to make them less effective,” said Woodroffe. “So culling could very easily make a serious problem for farmers worse.”
The scientist who commissioned the £50m trial, Lord John Krebs, also heavily criticised the cull. “Badger culling is a sideshow,” he said. “The only effective way to stop TB is stopping the spread from cattle to cattle by more testing and a much better test.”
Krebs said: “The government has not produced any figures to show the pilot culls in Gloucestershire and Somerset have worked, so how can they justify rolling out the cull to more areas?”
A spokesman for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “England has the highest incidence of TB in Europe and that is why we are taking strong action to deliver our 25-year strategy to eradicate the disease and protect the future of our dairy and beef industries. The government is implementing an adaptive strategy involving various different interventions to tackle the spread of TB, eg cattle measures, biosecurity and badger control in areas where the disease is rife.”
The badger culls have proven expensive, costing farmers over £6,000 for each of the many thousands of animals shot. “Defra’s own calculations at the start were that it was going to cost more than it saved, and [since then] it has been more costly and probably less effective,” said Woodroffe.
Bourne said the taxpayers’ money spent on compensating farmers for slaughtered TB cattle was also a waste. “It is monstrous that a disease that is stimulated, maintained and geographically spread by cattle movement, which is in the control of government and farmers, costs the taxpayer so much. It is quite monstrous, because the wherewithal is there, the science is there and it [just] needs sensible application.”
He said there was “not a hope in hell” of the current government strategy eradicating TB in 25 years.
In 2015, the British Veterinary Association withdrew its support for the shooting of free running badgers, as “it has not been demonstrated conclusively that controlled shooting can be carried out effectively and humanely”.
Munro said: “You can see quite easily that the roll out into many more areas will immediately increase the risk of a considerable number of badgers being injured and suffering for [a cull] that doesn’t actually work.”Who am I? This question has rolled around in my head since entering the convent.
“Who do you think you are?”
A sister asked me this question the other day in response to something I had said. She was not being rude; she was genuinely questioning whether the way that I think of myself is accurate and spiritually healthy.
Sr. Augusta, who is almost 100 years old, was recently visited by several of the younger sisters in the province. As they entered her room, she reached out her hands and exclaimed:
“What beautiful faces! Spouses of the Lord and friends of humanity!”
She’s had almost 100 years to think about it, but she pretty much managed to sum up religious life in one sentence.
Who am I?
This question has rolled around in my head since entering the convent. I have given up a career, my bank account, my wardrobe, my dreams and most difficult, control.
I have entered into a life that in some ways defines me before I have a chance to define myself. When I meet people, they see the mystique of religious life before they see me. Sometimes, many times, after speaking with people, I walk away wondering if they were really speaking to me or to the person they think I am.
Of course, this happens to everyone. When we meet people for the first time, we assess them, scrutinize their clothes, actions, and words, and go on to interact with them based on assumptions we have made.
The thing with being a nun in habit is that it adds a plethora of assumptions to that process. These assumptions sometimes are so blinding that people can forget they are speaking to someone who has not always been in a habit, to someone who has individual thoughts, concerns and characteristics.
This is, in some sense, how it is meant to be. Religious life makes us “friends of humanity,” and you cannot be a friend of humanity unless you give yourself to others, pour yourself out and, in some sense, lose your identity.
And yet at the same time, my sisters are quite unique. Some might say eccentric. Anyone who is friends with a religious will tell you he or she is often quite interesting. My family has known for many years a monk who is an extern for a Benedictine community. Even when I was an atheist, I thought he was the bee’s knees because he would make totally off-the-wall witty comments to people. He is a friend of humanity, but he certainly doesn’t pander to humanity.
And I suppose that is what being a religious is about. We are friends of humanity, but we are not meant to be defined by humanity — or by ourselves for that matter. We are not self-made. We are meant to find our identity solely in God, and we are able to do this more freely precisely because we do not have control over the many aspects of life that define other people: career, future, money, certain clothes, dreams.
You may be reading this and wondering, So how does this relate to me?
It certainly relates to you. One doesn’t have to make a vow of poverty, chastity and obedience to grow in detachment from the things of this world that threaten to define us, the things that are often working in opposition to who we are truly meant to be.
We are all meant to find our identity in God. And frankly, it’s a lifelong process — for the religious, just as much as it is for everyone else.
Thankfully, Sr. Augusta has already given us the cliff notes:
We are meant for union with God, and to pour ourselves out in self-gift to others, in whatever vocation God calls us to.
We are
Spouses of the Lord and friends of humanity!
Sister Theresa Aletheia Noble, FSP, is the author of The Prodigal You Love: Inviting Loved Ones Back to the Church. She recently pronounced her first vows with the Daughters of Saint Paul. She blogs at Pursued by Truth.While employment in construction has declined, the number of jobs in the fields of leisure, hospitality, healthcare, and business has increased. Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images
The improving U.S. jobs trend confirmed by Friday’s data favors the old over the young. A solid 227,000 jobs were added, with upward revisions for past months, even though the unemployment rate stayed at 8.3 percent. However in the last five years, people aged 55 and over have gained 3.6 million jobs, while younger workers have lost 7.6 million. The incentives of shrunken savings and funny money are doubly harming the young.
The details of February’s report were strong. Professional and business services, healthcare, leisure and hospitality and manufacturing all saw tens of thousands of new jobs. Construction employment declined slightly, indicating that recent strong data was not due simply to the northeastern United States’ mild winter.
Throughout the recent downturn and slow recovery, the 55-and-overs have fared better than their juniors in terms of getting jobs, even if they may not relish having to do so. In the past year alone, they accounted for 67 percent of the 2.5 million net new job gains. Indeed, 600,000 new jobs went to people aged 65 or more, raising the number of people in that age group who are working by more than 10 percent.
The trend has squeezed younger workers. The unemployment rate for those aged 55 or over in February was 5.9 percent, against 7 percent for the 25-54 age group - traditionally considered the prime working years - and disheartening double-digit rates for the under-25s.
It’s possible that in some cases the experience of older workers has helped them beat younger rivals for jobs. At least as likely, though, is that the poor investment returns of the last decade and Federal Reserve policy that has slashed interest rates on their savings have forced them to continue working or to start again.
The U.S. economy benefits from the continued productive employment of older people, though perhaps golf course managers would beg to differ. But younger workers, denied the construction jobs they are physically equipped for because of the housing malaise, may feel their struggle to navigate this difficult economy is worsened by unexpected competition from the wrinklies.
Read more at Reuters Breakingviews.The results are in! I’ve completed my test of the Hydrogen Peroxide and Baking Soda method of whitening yellowed nails. (If you missed the first post, look here!) I’ll detail my results and photos after the break, but first…
Let’s recap!
My goal was to test whether the common DIY home remedy of Baking Soda (sodium bicarbonate – NaHCO 3 ) mixed with Hydrogen Peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) to un-yellow nails actually worked worth a damn. I started with nails that were not super yellow, but yellow enough that I constantly noticed their discoloration when not wearing polish. I have certainly seen worse yellowing, but I wasn’t willing to let my nails get more yellow before starting my experiment. I’m a bad scientist, I know. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Getting the right consistency with the paste was problematic. Peroxide is more viscous than water, so it pours much more quickly. I found that pouring the peroxide into the bottle cap, then using the cap to dribble the liquid into my mixing dish was the way to go. My first two paste mixes were far too thin and I had to add more baking soda to thicken it up, which just wasted material. Even so, I didn’t get the consistency I was looking for until the LAST treatment. Of course. The measurements that worked best for me were 1 heaping teaspoon baking soda, and one capful of peroxide.
Here’s what my best paste consistency looked like:
Results: I actually performed this treatment four times in a seven day span. During the length of the experiment, I did not paint my nails at all, nor did I alter my nail care routine from its previous crappy state. I wanted the peroxide paste to be the only variable. I had originally intended to repeat the treatment as many times as it took to get solid results, but I stopped when the paste started doing more harm than good.
Let’s have a look, shall we?
Conclusion: Meh. I wasn’t that impressed with the results of this experiment. As you can see from my comparison pictures, the yellow was toned down a smidge, but it certainly wasn’t anywhere near the result I was expecting. I see ladies online that swear by this method and claim that it whitens their nails right up. Maybe if I had started with much, much yellower nails, I would have seen a more drastic change.
When the benefit of very slightly clearer nails was outweighed by my fear of actually damaging the surface of my nails, I stopped the experiment. After the fourth treatment I could see some surface peeling. (Note: I clearly had surface peeling in my before pictures, but I felt that they worsened after treatment.) Exposure to cleaning agents and chemical solvents (like acetone-based polish remover) can damage the nail surface and cause surface peeling like I was seeing after treatment. I made an educated guess that the oxidizing nature of the hydrogen peroxide was causing minor corrosion, and thus the peeling.
In short, I can’t call these completely negative results. I did see some small improvement in color, but I strongly caution you to use this method sparingly. My nails are, admittedly, thin and weak already from mistreatment. If you have stronger nails (good on you!), you might be able to use this treatment more often with less deterioration.
-RG
AdvertisementsWilson, Bee, New Statesman (1996)
Everyone knows Hitler was a vegetarian. This cliche is trotted out whenever the veggies threaten to get above themselves. Even the saintly Delia cites it as a stain on the vegetarian community. If the most wicked man in history abstained from meat - or so the cliche insists - then a vegetarian diet loses all its virtue.
But they never stop to ask what kind of vegetarian Hitler was. In fact, he was a highly idiosyncratic, not to mention creepy, vegephile, with almost nothing in common with the Linda McCartneys of this world.
For a start, his distaste for meat knew no pity of animals. At mealtimes he often boasted - in graphic detail - of a slaughterhouse he had visited in Ukraine. It amused him to spoil carnivorous guests' appetites. As they put their forks down in disgust, he would harangue them for hypocrisy. "That shows how cowardly people are," he would say. "They can't face doing certain horrible things themselves, but they enjoy the benefits without a pang of conscience."
During a wretched adolescence in Vienna, Hitler was practically vegan - but only through necessity. He eked out a thin existence on soup, corn pudding and margarine. Conversion to true vegetarianism actually came very late in life. Writing Mein Kampf in prison in 1924, he chewed sausages and herring with the worst of them. Only after the suicide of his niece, Geli Raubal, in 1931 did he suddenly renounce Fleisch und Wurst, more out of a nauseous guilt than idealism.
His diet thereafter was free of flesh, but bolstered with a medley of quack supplements, administered with zeal by Theodor Morell. A florid charlatan, Morell took an intense interest in the Fuhrer's digestion. On 9 August 1941 he recorded that Hitler's lunch was "ice-cream, boiled potatoes and strawberries". …It's no accident I'm one of the strongest women in the world. I was but a child when my beloved Siberia was devastated during the Omnic Crisis. Surrounded by post-war destruction, watching my people suffer and die, I swore I would never allow myself to be so weak and helpless again.
I began lifting weights to build my physique and was chosen to join the national athletics program. I trained day and night, moving up the ranks, fine-tuning my body to become the epitome of strength and power. Everyone thought I would shatter records and completely dominate the world championships—myself included.
When an attack from the long-dormant Siberian omnium on the eve of the tournament thrust my village into chaos and violence once more, I withdrew and rushed home to fight. Instead of using my training to win medals and become rich, my strength protects my people.
I had thought the war was over. Little did I know it was just beginning.
Q. What is your favorite thing about lifting weights?
One of my personal heroes, Vasily Alekseyev, once said, "To successfully lift the weight cannot be avoided. I experience the tortures and the celebration. But I lift as well as I lift because it cannot be avoided." For me, lifting weights and becoming strong has given me the confidence that I can protect my family, the people I love, and my country. If I can share this feeling and inspire others to do the same, that is the best part for me.
What does a day on your plate look like?
On deployment, our menus are a bit...restricted. Luckily, thanks to modern battlefield nutrition, while I can't eat exactly what I want, our rations are carefully engineered to satisfy the nutritional demands of someone like me. Of course, sometimes it doesn't look very good. And the taste...well, I still miss the cabbage pierogis from home.
Any advice for greenhorns just getting into the iron life?
Don't work alone; find a person to lift with, find someone to lift you up when you're burning out. There's nothing that makes the hard work and grind easier than to have a partner. Remember, together, we are strong.
Zarya's Overwatch Workout
If you're a beginner, you should start light and practice good technique with this one. Train hard enough, and maybe one day you'll get to my level and snatch 212 kilograms (467 pounds) for a PR. And if you ever want to train with me, you'd better be squatting at least 300 kilograms (660 pounds)!
For the Zercher carry, I've been known to use my cannon in a pinch, but I don't recommend it. Use proper equipment and form to prevent injury.
Zarya's Nutrition Tips
If you want to be big and strong like me, you need plenty of calories to build size and power. Protein will build your muscles and make you strong. 25-30 percent of your calories should come from protein, and absolutely no less!
Carbohydrates are like the Tobelsteins at the heart of my particle cannon. They are the power source your body needs if you want to be explosive and powerful through a long day of crushing omnics! I recommend that 45-60 percent of your calories come from carbs.
Now, if you can believe it, some people are still scared of fat, even in this day and age. But good fats ensure healthy joints, better hormone function, deeper sleep, and better nerve function. Don't be afraid of fats; embrace them like a big, fuzzy, Siberian bear.
The Overwatch Summer Games Patch Is Here! From August 2-22 you can get new loot boxes, collect unique items, and try the new brawl, Lúcioball!And contrary to popular belief, talking about suicidal thoughts will not "plant the seed" in someone's mind. There is absolutely zero risk in asking someone if they are thinking about suicide. Because, honestly, if you weren't having suicidal thoughts before reading this are you thinking about killing yourself now? That's not how it works. Just asking, just acknowledging actually lightens the load.
"Why have we repeatedly imagined turning our cars into oncoming trucks?
We just do. To me this is very natural. It's hard here.
There is the absolute hopelessness that everyone we love will die...
I have just always found it extremely hard to be here on this
side of eternity because of, well, other people, and death."
She describes a deal she made with her psychiatrist that whenever she's at high elevation and feels the urge to jump that she will turn to whoever is standing next to her and say, "Sometimes when I'm up here, I want to jump."
And at this, people have a myriad of concerned responses. Because while she knows she won't ever actually jump, they don't. But the most helpful response she ever got was from a rabbi, who waved away her declaration and said, "Oh, who doesn't?"
some people
when they hear
your story.
contract.
others
upon hearing
your story.
expand.
and
this is how
you know.
As Sleeping At Last sings in the song "Snow":
"Like the petals in our pockets
may we remember who we are
unconditionally cared for
by those who share our broken hearts."
Snow
The branches have traded their leaves for white sleeves All warm-blooded creatures make ghosts as they breathe Scarves are wrapped tightly like gifts under trees Christmas lights tangle in knots annually Our families huddle closely Betting warmth against the cold But our bruises seem to surface Like mud beneath the snow So we sing carols softly, as sweet as we know A prayer that our burdens will lift as we go Like young love still waiting under mistletoe We'll welcome December with tireless hope Let our bells keep on ringing Making angels in the snow May the melody disarm us When the cracks begin to show Like the petals in our pockets May we remember who we are Unconditionally cared for By those who share our broken hearts The table is set and our glasses are full Though pieces go missing, may we still feel whole We'll build new traditions in place of the old 'cause life without revision will silence our souls So let the bells keep on ringing Making angels in the snow May the melody surround us When the cracks begin to show Like the petals in our pockets May we remember who we are Unconditionally cared for By those who share our broken hearts As gentle as feathers, the snow piles high Our world gets rewritten and retraced every time Like fresh plates and clean slates, our future is white New year's resolutions will reset tonight
1. feelings of severe despondency and dejection2. a long and severe recession in an economy or market3. the action of lowering something or pressing something downThis fall, I was talking to a dear friend and mentor (who is also a therapist) about my job and my life and I told her, through tears, "I don't know where my hope went." And she said--as plain as if she were asking if I wanted more tea--"Have you ever thought that you might be depressed?"I hadn't.No one had ever suggested this.Not a friend or family member.Not a therapist.And most importantly, not me.I told her so. And she continued,"I'm just wondering if you could use a little more serotonin in your life."We continued exploring this in the most matter-of fact way you can probably imagine:Talking about what it mightif I were depressed?How would Iif I were?Is serotonin something we can measure with a blood test yet?What is the research behind SSRIs?Any side-effects?And what my options might be if I wanted to try taking an anti-depressant.It never occurred to me to feel bad about being depressed. I left her house intrigued. Like, she had just neatly stacked and organized all of my Tupperware dishes and lids that I'd been cramming into a cupboard and slamming behind the door. And now I was thinking, "How have I never considered this?" I assess depression in my clients all the time. I didn't know for sure if she was right, but it gave me hope that,she were right, maybe I could start feeling better.I asked a doctor. She hardly blinked before writing me a prescription.I didn't have to convince her. It just wasn't a big deal.I started taking 12.5 milligrams of sertraline/Zoloft on November 16th.And then 25.Didn't feel any better, but honestly, didn't know if "better" would be obvious.And then 50 milligrams.And I didn't feel any changes for about a month.And then,I can tell you--with almost, absolute certainty--that the medication took effect on December 11th.Because I came home from work and I didn't just want to numb-out by watching TV.Because it was the first day in months that I played the piano.Because I wasn't absolutely consumed by thoughts and worries about our uncertain future.Because I felt like I could catch the deep breath that I'd been chasing for 5 months.Mood isn't something that is easily quantified.As therapists, we really try. We ask scaling questions ("On a scale of 1-10..."), we use metaphors, we assess for behaviors that provide evidence of mood changes. But it's not a clear science. It's individual. It's contextual. What "low mood" looks like for Sally, may be normal for Phil.All I can tell you is that I felt like I was drowning and now I don't.Thank you, God, for modern medicine.In my job at a mental health agency, I bump up against people's shame and stigma on a daily basis. People telling me they are not "crazy." People worrying that I will send them to a mental hospital.People thinking that therapists have this hidden magic that we're using behind their backs.Last week, a client with severe depression told me, "You wouldn't understand. You've obviously got all of this figured out." I assured him that I didn't, but I mightlike I do because I'm taking an anti-depressant and meeting weekly with my therapist. The expression on his face softened. His voice changed from irritated isolation to connected understanding. It's like his whole body exhaled, as if to say:Earlier this fall, I was taking an anxiety medication every morning to lessen the panic attacks I was experiencing in the parking lot right before going into work. I was physically assaulted by a client and the anti-depressants hadn't taken effect. I started having suicidal thoughts."Passive" as we say, but still there. Still a consideration of how I would doto feel better.As a colleague of mine says:"Everybody thinks about killing themselves. At least once. If not, always."Which I take to mean as: if life has evergotten you down, to where you've wondered if it would be easier to just fall asleep and, maybe, wake up when it's all over, then, I would argue you're normal like the rest of us.There are at least two types of suicidal ideation:One that says, "I want thisto end."And one that says, "I want thisto end."Most people--including myself--fall into the latter category.We may have these thoughts because life is just unbearable sometimes. But none of us can actually "control" our thoughts. You are not better or worse for having them. They come and go against our will. All we can do is decide what towith those thoughts. And how we will respond.I appreciate Anne Lamott's matter-of-factness on this subject in her book,And then, she says, she couldagain.Somehow, being validated in our most vulnerable moments, allows us to clear the air, to see more accurately. Like a great, fire extinguisher whooshing in and eliminating the fear that we are too much for people. More messed up than everyone else. And then, surprisingly, we find that we aren't.We findare just likeIt's soothing, like, a fresh glass of lemonade.Like, a new dawn.Like, hope.Nayirrah Waheed writes:If you can't relate to what I'm saying about any of this depression and suicide stuff, that's okay. I don't need you tothis.. Because one of the greatest gifts you can give to me or a friend or anyone at all, is just to sit with them, without trying to fix them. Just see us hurting. Be nearby.It feels like nothing, but it's almost everything.May we all have the courage to ask for help.May we all take good care of each other.May we all find peace and joy.Listen here:Liverpool Man Robbed Multiple Times Over The Summer
Sunday, 21st Sep 2014 19:10
Merseyside police are this weekend looking for a South Coast Crime Syndicate who are said to have conned a Merseyside man out of millions of pounds in the summer of 2014.
The Merseyside Police serious crimes squad is today sending a squad of detectives to the Southampton area after a Merseyside resident complained that he has seen millions of pounds taken from him in a sting like operation by a gang of heartless fraudsters. The operation which is being called "Operation We go again" says that it is aware of several suspects most of which live in the Southampton area.
The man who made his complaint to police shortly after 5pm on Saturday from a payphone in West ham's Upton Park football ground wishes to remain nameless but is being given the code name "Brendon".
"Brendon's" problems started in June of this year when he was left a substancial sum by a relative who had sold an original Luis Suarez to a Spanish collector and bequeathed this money to Brendon on the strict proviso that he spend it within two months.
This alerted the gang in Southampton who immediately contacted Brendon and said they had several sure fire investments that he would be interested in.
Initially they seemed friendly and were not seemingly asking much money, a video was sent to Brendon which showed a footballer scoring plenty of goals and even beating a few defenders for pace, Brendon estimated the players age to be around 27 and that he seemed to be scoring against a series of teams who looked like Barcelona and Real Madrid, Brendon has subsequently learned that they were in fact Dagenham and Redbridge as well as Hartlepool in their away kit. However by then he had already written a cheque for £4.5 million with the promise the player would arrive after the World Cup in Brazil
Initially though he was pleased with his purchase and contacted the gang again and bought another player from them, again after watching a video that appeared to show the player who Brendon subsequently learned was Adam Lallana beating a number of opponents in succession, he know knows this was actually the same opponent four times. Again the gang whose front man appeared to be a middle aged bald man who claimed to have managed Charlton and had the freedom of Bishops Stortford demanded payment up front which Brendon did using his credit card for £25 million.
But whilst he awaited the arrival of his two new aquisitions Brendon was offered a third player, the bald man who claimed his name was Leslie this time arrived with a foreigner in tow who seemed to be Dutch, they told Brendon they had another one for his collection and this one was the best and a snip at £20 million and that in fact he was only this cheap because his head was already in Liverpool so it would save on the post and packaging costs that had pushed up the Lallana price.
When the merchandise was delivered Brendon was shocked to find that his first purchase was actually nearly 33 and far from the youthful payer he had seen on the video, however before he could do anything the man had grabbed a shirt and was parading in front of the local press talking about dreams come true.
However at this stage Brendon still hoped that the goods were genuine Premier league footballers as he had been promised but he was to get a rude awakening over the next few weeks and he started to smell a rat.
He dug out the receipts and phoned Leslie and asked for his money back,at this stage Leslie who had been up to now all sweetness and light, became aggressive and told him "This is not John Lewis, we dont price match and we dont give money back if you return the goods within 30 days"
Brendon became frightened when Leslie turned up at Anfield in mid August with two thousand of his minders in tow and they spent 90 minutes laughing at him and singing songs with veiled language and several words Brendon found abusive.
However he decided to see if the goods would work better in time, but on Saturday 20th September he had had enough and when he again phoned Leslie and threatened legal action he was again rebuffed, although in fairness he could hardly hear what Leslie was saying as there appeared to be a party going on in the background.
He then contacted Merseyside Police who revealed that he had been the victim of an elaborate fraud and that he wasn't the first person to have been caught out in the Liverpool area, indeed a man who they referred to only as "Kenny D " had been caught out only a couple of years earlier and had been robbed of £35 million by a gang who seemed to be based on Tyneside.
Although Merseyside Police are taking Brendon's complaints seriously they have warned him that he faces not getting any of his money back, initial enquiries indicate that the money has already been laundered, that the gang who specialise in selling sub standard premier quality players and re investing in the genuine article and that the money is now spread across Europe and that interpol has indicated that it can be traced as far wide as Holland, Scotland, Romania and Austria
It could have been worse for Brendon though, before he smelt a rat he was about to spend more of his inheiritance with Leslie, but smelt a rat when he was shown a man on crutches with a £30 million price tag round his neck.
Of his £90 million pound windfall he estimates that he gave around £50 million to Leslie who he said was not all bad as he offered to reduce the price if Brendon would take an original Mayuka off his hands.
POLICE UPDATE
Merseyside Police have advised all Liverpool residents to stay inside and keep their doors and transfer windows closed till they catch the South Coast fraudsters who have been preying on gullible football managers in the area recently, although they stress that they are no danger to the public till January 1st
Get two free £10 bets on Southampton v Fulham (or other matches) by opening a new account at William Hill. Place an initial bet of a minimum of £10 and William Hill will give you two £10 bets. You must enter the promotional code ''F20'' when signing up as a new customer.
Photo: Action Images
nomorerumours added 19:55 - Sep 21
Good one Nick! 3
Clint added 20:45 - Sep 21
Brilliant! Thanks Nick. 1
BaselSaint added 20:47 - Sep 21
And Turdenham Hotspud lost. Can this weekend get any better? 1
landsdownsaint added 21:40 - Sep 21
Very good lol...I think Brenda Rogers thought they wasn't a one man team which they obviously was (Suarez) 0
perazi added 23:59 - Sep 21
One of the best bits of pi** taking I've read for ages Nick. On a serious note I am sure Lovren will "come good" but poor old Ricky doesn't have much left in the tank and Lallana is going to be found out long term. 2
SaintNick added 08:26 - Sep 22
Thanks, I think your right perazi, Lovren isnt as bad as he is playing at the moment, but may have a hard task to turn it round, |
series and Twitter and Tumblr and Reddit and message boards are just teeming with whatever aired last night, premiere predictions, crazy storyline theories, our favorite moments captured in looping gifs, and so, so much more. It’s all kind of awesome actually and has only come about because of two reasons: 1.) Scripted TV now often reaches a level of sophistication actually worthy of ardent analysis and fervor, and 2.) it is aired on a viewing schedule we are still happy to roughly adhere to.
So, for all the high fives that went around about Netflix Originals last year, they were drawn in stark contrast against some of the other TV goings-on in 2013. Saul and Carrie’s crazy asylum ploy. Ted Mosby finally meeting his wife. Brian Griffin becoming roadkill. The Bob Benson theories. The Red Wedding. When I went to activate my new iPhone last Summer, the Verizon woman’s first question wasn’t about my data plan or accessories, it was “Can you believe what Walter White did last night?” And I couldn’t.
One might argue that Netflix Originals aren’t fair game here, that these popular moments all came from well-established shows with huge followings. But remember True Detective’s righteous 6 minute tracking shot in its fourth episode that broke the Internet? Okay, well now try and imagine it buried four hours deep into eight hours content we can all start watching whenever the mood strikes us. Would it have still been as awesome? Yes. Would it still have made the same impact, gotten the same props? Would we still have been as excited? No goddamn way.
Because beyond the “everyone’s-on-the-wrong-damn-page-at-this-book-club” experience binge viewing confounds fans with, it isn’t the most flattering way to enjoy your favorite shows. On the eve of the Arrested Development drop, showrunner Mitch Hurwitz warned against gorging on the newest season of the show. After watching the new AD season, it’s easy to see why: it’s one of most complex and ambitious sitcom treatments… probably ever? And it’s difficult to pick up the subtle notes of absurdity, continuity, and poignancy when we’re diving head-first, jaw unhinged, into its trough of episodes.
Hurwitz goes on to describe what we all kinda already know: that, beyond robbing a show’s audience of anticipation, debate, reflection, and camaraderie, binge viewing compresses the viewing experience into a flimsy, and often irretrievable file that’s flung to the back our brain’s hard drive. We know it’s there and if we sort of liked it or not, but the details of the experience are immediately.zipped away. For a lot of shows, that’s actually fine (and Christ, no one has the time to be a super-fan of everything), but for the ones we cherish, or the ones we could cherish, this is sort of an issue. Binge viewing makes “what happens next” a priority over “what just happened.” More and more often, we’re seeing a lot of thought and artistry going into all that stuff that just happened and, given a moment’s digestion, it could even make what happens next even better.
And that’s the weird contradiction we in Netflix Nation find ourselves in the middle of, because this binge watching trepidation is not a knock on the company or its shows, it’s more of a lament. HoC, OITNB, and AD are all shows worthy of the kind of enthusiasm and dissection their broadcast counterparts enjoy. And by keeping its hands off the TV creative process, Netflix is attracting more and more talent to its roster, promising even more quality content we maybe don’t want to mindlessly gobble up. Marvel is getting into the Netflix business and so are the Wachowskis. If studios and networks are the square, rigid parents of creators, Netflix keeps sliding in like the cool older sibling who’s just come home from college, ready to offer TV its first cigarette. And that’s pretty rad.
But if Netflix’s current smorgasbord model holds strong and changes TV… will it change us, too? Is this our a big, sad kumbaya moment before we curl up in our individual cells, armed with Cheetos, booze, and zero pants, endlessly shoveling Kevin Spacey into our faces in ominous silence? Is this how Netflix wants us? Like we’re all working from home!?
At the very least, it does sound like an easy way to get a head count.Florida Lieutenant Governor Resigns, After Investigation Of Nonprofit
Enlarge this image toggle caption J Pat Carter/AP J Pat Carter/AP
Florida's lieutenant governor abruptly stepped down on Wednesday, two days after Florida law enforcement officials questioned her involvement with a non-profit under investigation.
According to The (Jacksonville) Florida Times-Union, Jennifer Carroll sent a resignation letter to Gov. Rick Scott that did not give a motive for her resignation. Adam Hollingsworth, Scott's chief-of-staff, however, told the paper her resignation had to do with the fallout from the investigation of Allied Veterans, which operates a string of Internet cafes.
Reuters explains:
"Carroll once owned a public relations firm that represented the organization and worked for the group during some of the seven years she served in the Florida House of Representatives. "... Hollingsworth said arrests were made on Tuesday in connection with racketeering and money laundering charges involving Allied Veterans of the World. "He said Carroll had been interviewed by the FDLE regarding her work with the firm and had resigned 'in an effort to keep her former affiliations with the company from distracting from the administration's important work on behalf of Florida families. She made the right decision for the state and her family.'"
Internet cafes, explains Reuters, "have been controversial for years," because local law enforcement officials see them as "fronts for casino gambling."
The Miami Herald points out that the investigation into what it calls "a Florida Internet sweepstakes company" is a federal one. The paper notes, however, that it is unclear whether Carroll herself is being investigated.
The Florida Times-Union has a bit more detail on the investigation into Allied Veterans of the World.
"Authorities say the group donated just 2 percent of its $290 million in proceeds to charities over about five years," the Times-Union reports. "They also say the former president received more than $1.5 million and the national commander got $250,000 from the organization."
During her tenure as a Republican member of the Florida House of Representatives, she introduced legislation that would have legalized the online gambling industry, the paper reports. She withdrew that legislation, realizing there was a conflict of interest.Step out of your home and what do you see? There is a subliminal and overt message on the streets and in the media to buy cars and use them. You'll find it on TV, on your computer, in the newspapers you read. It makes the promotion of any other form or transport, such as cycling, an uphill struggle regardless of how convenient, healthy and sustainable it may be.
The advertising spend on the promotion of motor vehicles in the UK exceeds £500m a year. And, by and large, it works: car ownership has grown steadily since the 1940s and, after the current economic crisis abates, it will likely continue to do so.
In sharp contrast, the promotion of cycling and walking is almost non-existent. When Transport for London ran a TV ad promoting cycling it was a unique occasion. The number of cyclists on UK roads has dropped sharply since the 1940s, and London stands out as a rare example of a city where cycling has doubled in six years.
While the government encourages us to walk, ride bikes and use public transport, it knows that car advertising is persuading us to do the exact opposite. Instead of sharing one car, households buy two or three so that everyone can express their own personality through their vehicle. If you believe the advertising, your car will make you more attractive, more popular and more successful. How many car ads show the reality of being stuck in traffic or the frustration of searching for a parking space?
Cycling gets the occasional media boost when team GB sweeps the Olympic medals or cycling in London soars, as more people realise it's faster around town than driving. But very few companies pay big money for bike ads, so newspapers don't have cycling sections – with notable exceptions, such as this blog - and there is no cycling equivalent of Top Gear.
The outcome of all that PR for cars is more sales as well as more congestion, more pollution and a greater demand for scarce parking spaces. There would have been no need for the congestion charge in London if not for the success of the auto industry's publicity machine and the popularity of motoring programmes.
Reversing the trend of ever-increasing car ownership and use is not as difficult as it seems. If governments were to limit car advertising, as they did with alcohol and tobacco when the health impacts were recognised, people would take decisions about their mode of transport based on common sense rather than the promise of open highways, high speeds and glamorous locations. Common sense might well encourage cycling or walking for more journeys.
The survival of cycling as a transport mode and its growth in London is a tribute to its convenience and simplicity. Surveys show that one-in-five of us would like to cycle. If the barriers to cycling were removed – such as perceived danger and a lack of cycling infrastructure – cycle journeys in the UK might increase tenfold to the levels seen in Holland or Denmark. The benefits are obvious: more cycling and walking would help prevent health problems as well as climate change.
Holland is lucky to have invested in cycling before car-oriented planning created a road system that discourages cycle use. The UK, unfortunately, has seen several decades of car-centred planning. But, as London shows, the UK can still join the virtuous circle. Local traffic management schemes can be redesigned to allow cyclists through them and urban gyratories can be removed.
If reduced auto promotion stemmed the growth in car ownership as well, we could see more people cycling and drivers might discover that the roads were less busy and parking spaces easier to come by. In fact, there is little choice; Britain's urban population continues to grow – unless we enable people to cycle and walk more, and stop persuading them to use cars, we face gridlock.
• Tom Bogdanowicz is campaigns and development officer for the London Cycle CampaignThe Drug Enforcement Administration is not having a great year.
The chief of the agency stepped down in April under a cloud of scandal. The acting administrator since then has courted ridicule for saying pot is "probably not" as dangerous as heroin, and more recently he provoked 100,000 petition-signers and seven members of Congress to call for his head after he called medical marijuana "a joke."
This fall, the administration earned a scathing rebuke from a federal judge over its creative interpretation of a law intended to keep it from harassing medical marijuana providers. Then, the Brookings Institution issued a strongly worded report outlining the administration's role in "stifling medical research" into medical uses of pot.
Unfortunately for the DEA, the year isn't over yet. Last week, a group of 12 House members led by Ted Lieu (D) of California wrote to House leadership to push for a provision in the upcoming spending bill that would strip half of the funds away from the DEA's Cannabis Eradication Program and put that money toward programs that "play a far more useful role in promoting the safety and economic prosperity of the American people": domestic violence prevention and overall spending reduction efforts.
Each year, the DEA spends about $18 million in efforts with state and local authorities to pull up marijuana plants being grown indoors and outdoors. The program has been plagued by scandal and controversy in recent years. In the mid-2000s, it became clear that the overwhelming majority of "marijuana" plants netted by the program were actually "ditchweed," or the wild, non-cultivated, non-psychoactive cousin of the marijuana that people smoke.
More recently, overzealous marijuana eradicators have launched heavily armed raids on okra plants and warned the Utah legislature of the threat posed by rabbits who had "cultivated a taste for the marijuana." Last year, the DEA spent an average of roughly $4.20 (yes, really) for each marijuana plant it successfully uprooted. In some states, the cost to taxpayers approached $60 per uprooted plant.
The program has also proven to be ineffective. The idea behind pulling up pot plants is to reduce the supply of marijuana, thereby reducing its use. In 1977, two years before the program's introduction, less than a quarter of Americans said they'd ever tried pot, according to Gallup. By 2015, after 36 years of federal marijuana eradication efforts, the share of Americans ever trying pot nearly doubled, to 44 percent.
Given that marijuana is legal in some form or another in nearly half of the nation's states, some lawmakers are saying enough is enough. "The seizure of these plants has served neither an economic nor public-safety nor a health-related purpose," Lieu and his colleagues write. "Its sole impact has been to expend limited federal resources that are better spent elsewhere."
The letter-writers note that the provision to strip $9 million in funding from the program passed on voice vote earlier in the year, "without any opposition from either party." They urge leadership to include the provision in a must-pass spending bill later this year.
Lieu doesn't want to stop there: Next year he intends to introduce a measure "to eliminate the program completely," he said earlier this year. Whether that actually happens will probably depend on how this year's measure fares during upcoming spending bill negotiations.Story highlights Trump sued the chefs after they pulled out of the project over his comments about Mexicans
Both cited a potential drop in customer base and negative impact on their employees relating to Trump's comments
Washington (CNN) Donald Trump will face a deposition Thursday in his lawsuit over a development property in Washington, a source confirmed Wednesday.
Trump will be deposed at the offices of the attorneys representing his opponent in the case, chef Geoffrey Zakarian, in Washington. The deposition was ordered by the judge in the case.
The case stems from Zakarian and chef Jose Andres canceling plans for restaurants in Trump's redevelopment of the D.C. Old Post Office building, which is located a few blocks from the White House. The two celebrity chefs backed out of the project after Trump made disparaging remarks about Mexicans during the campaign, including that Mexico was sending criminals and "rapists" to the U.S.
Trump sued the chefs in August for breach of contract after they pulled out of the project. Both chefs have filed counter claims.
Andres is Spanish-American and Zakarian is Armenian-American, but both cited a potential drop in customer base and negative impact on their employees relating to Trump's comments.
Read MoreZAKARIA: One of the elements of fallout from Russia’s attempt to influence the American election was that there was a certain amount of intelligence work being done on Russia. Our intelligence agencies were listening to what Russian government officials or Russian intelligence officials were saying. Donald Trump has accused you of trying to unmask the Americans on the other end of those conversations in an attempt to implicate the Trump campaign or people associated with Trump in some kind of collusion with Russia. What is your reaction to that? It’s an extraordinary charge by the President of the United States.
RICE: Well Fareed, it’s absolutely false. I’ve addressed this previously. I think now we’ve had subsequently members of Congress on the intelligence committees on both sides of the aisle take a look at the information that apparently was the basis for Chairman [Devin] Nunes’ concern and say publicly that they didn’t see anything that was unusual or untoward. I did my job, which was to protect the American people, and I did it faithfully and with― to the best of my ability, and never did I do anything that was untoward with respect to the intelligence I received.Dieting used to seem simple. If you were slim, you were in “good shape.” If you weren’t, losing a few pounds would benefit your health. But the latest research suggests that your risk for death and disease doesn’t always align with your physique. That makes pinpointing the “ideal” or “optimal” protein intake really tricky.
Some exercise researchers say more protein is often better—even in amounts well above the 56 grams a day (and 46 grams, for women) recommended by the Institute of Medicine (IOM). It’s filling, beneficial for appetite suppression and weight loss, and also helps prevent loss of muscle mass and strength as people age, says Dr. Stuart Phillips, a professor of kinesiology at Canada’s McMaster University. Animal sources of protein are also loaded with essential nutrients and amino acids—like iron and folate, which many people don’t get enough of, Phillips says.
For all these reasons, he says that adults, whether they’re sedentary or active, should consume a lot more protein than they probably do—up to.75 grams of protein per pound of body weight every day. For a 150-pound person, that works out to roughly the amount you’d find in a chicken breast or like-size cut of meat, a cup of beans, six ounces of Greek yogurt and eight ounces of milk, according to the USDA’s nutrient database.
MORE: Red Meat, Hot Dogs And The War On Delicious
But talk to a disease and longevity researcher, and you’ll get a very different answer—one that sure won’t please Paleo dieters.
“Proteins and their amino acids regulate the two major pro-aging pathways,” says Dr. Valter Longo, a professor of biological science at the University of Southern California. By “up-regulating” those pathways, eating lots of protein seems to promote higher rates of both death and disease, he says.
Longo’s research shows cancer rates increase nearly 400% among Americans who get 20% or more of their daily calories from protein, compared to those who restrict their protein intake to 10% of their daily calories. Risk of mortality also jumps 75% among the heavy protein eaters, his data show.
Of course, there are several important confounding factors baked into that data. Americans who eat lots of protein are probably getting it from unhealthy sources. But Longo says even if you cut out fatty, additive-stuffed cuts of meat—fast food burgers, breakfast sandwiches etc.—there’s still plenty of evidence to suggest protein consumption fuels disease and early death.
MORE: What To Know About Meat And Cancer
“We are not claiming that the high-protein diet cannot make you lose weight, but only that in the long run it is not healthy for you,” Longo says.
Based on his longevity research, he recommends people get no more than.37 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight—roughly half the amount Phillips recommends. For a 150-pound person, that works out to about 50 grams of protein daily.
But Phillips and Longo’s recommendations start to converge for older adults. For people over 65, muscle wasting and loss of strength become important concerns—so much so that eating more protein lowers your risk for both death and disease, Longo says. Once you hit 65, he says it’s fine to consume a bit more protein if you notice you’re starting to drop weight, lose strength or shed muscle mass.
All of this no doubt seems confusing and convoluted. (Despite what that bestselling diet book tells you, nothing is simple when it comes to your health and the food you eat.) But you can probably forget about counting protein grams if you do just one thing: adopt a Mediterranean-style diet.
Fish contains about half the protein found in chicken or red meat, and the other staples of the Mediterranean diet—olive oil, vegetables, whole grains and legumes—have low or modest amounts of it. That may be one reason why Mediterranean diets have repeatedly been linked to a longer life and lower rates of disease, Longo says—and it’s just one more reason to adopt the diet supported by research again and again.
Contact us at editors@time.com.mmd-by-foose-mustang-custom-1 More
The best things in life aren’t actually free… that is, unless you consider a 2015 Ford Mustang to be one of those ‘best things’. If you do, you’re in luck, because this ‘Stang – shaped by legendary custom car designer Chip Foose – is actually free, for one lucky person.
Chip Foose teamed up with aftermarket firm Modern Muscle Design (MMD) to explore the customization options afforded by the new Mustang’s S550 platform. This ‘MMD By Foose’ Mustang is the eye-catching result, and the generous team will pass it on to a new owner at American Muscle’s 2015 Mustang Show later this year.
RELATED: See More Photos of the 2015 ‘MMD By Foose’ Mustang
mmd-by-foose-mustang-custom-2 More
Better start crossing your fingers now, because this custom job isn’t just a cosmetic retouch – it tacks on some heady performance parts. Under the hood, Foose and MMD have installed a Bama Performance Whipple supercharger kit, which generates 800 horsepower at the crank and 650 ponies at the rear wheels. Additionally, the Mustang adds Magnaflow cat-back competition exhaust, Vogtland lowering springs, 1,400hp axle half-shafts, and a new carbon fiber drive shaft.
There is a fair bit of nip-tuck going on as well. MMD has outfitted the Mustang with a new Foose designed chin spoiler, gaping hood scoop, new side scoops, a rear spoiler, rocker panels, custom wheels, headrests, and more. With all those new ducts and louvers, it won’t be the most aerodynamic shape on the road… but it might be one of the meanest.
RELATED: See What Made the 1965 Shelby GT350 a Pony Car Icon
mmd-by-foose-mustang-custom-3 More
Registration for the giveaway is now underway, and as if you needed any incentive to participate, American Muscle’s Mustang event will help to raise money for the Make-a-Wish Foundation.
RELATED: Check Out the Hotter Than Hot 2016 Ford Focus RS
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Click Here to Read the Original Article on BoldRideA Temple University student is recovering after being assaulted near campus.Authorities believe the unprovoked attack was carried out by a group of juveniles last week."I had two gashes to my skull, had to get nine stitches," said Eli Glovas-Kurtz.The 20-year-old says he's lucky his injuries weren't worse after a relentless attack near Temple University at 12th and Oxford.The junior told the campus news program, Temple Update, he was heading to his car after class around 8 p.m. on November 7 when he passed a group of young teens."Right as he's by my side, he turns around and punches me in the back of the head. The kid to his right strikes me in the head with a metal pipe," Glovas-Kurtz said.His parents, both local radio news personalities, tweeted this photo of their son in the hospital.Glovas-Kurtz says he twice ran from the attackers, but they caught up with him each time he slipped on the wet pavement."They were only aiming for my head, so I really think they were trying to knock me out," he said."It's very disturbing. These are young kids," Temple Police Chief Charles Leone said.Chief Leone believes this was a random attack by four 12 to 14 years olds.They've identified a 13-year-old as a person of interest."Right now we're trying to get this kid moved through the identification process, move through looking for the other three that were involved," Chief Leone said.In the meantime, police are investigating whether this is connected to a second attack an hour later.Students seemed to be unaware of the attacks but also unfazed."It's always in the back of my mind but I'm usually not worried. I walk this way a lot," Temple student Frank Branigan said.----------In their rubber match against the Cincinnati Reds on Sunday afternoon, the Orioles committed two errors, left seven runners on base, walked two batters with the bases loaded and nearly coughed up a five-run lead.
And they still won, 7-5, before a boisterous announced crowd of 27,809 at Camden Yards.
That, in the holy name of Hall of Fame manager Earl Weaver, is what the home run can do.
"Guys in here kept saying the ball flies when it gets hot. I'm definitely seeing it now," said first baseman Derrek Lee, whose Weaver-pleasing, three-run homer in the fourth gave the Orioles a 4-0 lead. "It's fun to hit when, if you get it in the air, you know it has a chance."
The Orioles homered three times Sunday -- Mark Reynolds hit his team-leading 14th in a four-run fourth, and Luke Scott added his ninth in the seventh inning -- and finished with nine in the three-game series against the Reds. The Orioles hit just seven total homers in their most recent nine-game road trip.
The win gave the Orioles (35-40) their first series victory in their past five tries. The Reds (40-39) haven't won a series since sweeping the Los Angeles Dodgers from June 13 to 15.
Maybe the Orioles have rediscovered their power stroke -- or maybe it's just that the warm summer weather has officially arrived in Baltimore.
"I was a little surprised Saturday night, some of the balls that were hit. In April and May, those were caught either at the track or before it," said Reynolds, whose homer Sunday landed near the visiting bullpen and was estimated at 443 feet. "It's really starting to carry here lately, so hopefully we can keep this nice weather going and keep hitting some balls in the air."
Twelve of the Orioles' 17 runs this series came courtesy of the long ball, including five of seven Sunday.
Two of the shots were hit against aptly named Cincinnati right-hander Homer Bailey (3-2), who was activated from the disabled list Sunday morning after missing a month with a right shoulder injury. Scott's homer came against reliever Aroldis Chapman, who had faced five batters this series and had struck out all of them.
Bailey retired his first seven batters, but lost a shutout bid in the third, then fell victim to the suddenly powerful Orioles lineup in the fourth. He lasted five innings, yielding five runs on nine hits and two walks.
The Orioles scored single runs in the third and sixth, both on RBI singles by Nick Markakis that plated rookie Blake Davis, who reached base three times.
Markakis had three hits and extended his hitting streak to a team-high 16 games. In that span, he is batting.405, bringing his season average up to.277 after being mired in one of the worst funks of his career.
"I'm getting there," Markakis said when asked whether he felt like he was returning to form. "I'm just going to take it day by day and just try to continue what I am doing. Get on base and try to get big hits when you need them."
Orioles manager Buck Showalter said Markakis' surge has been aided by a better approach at the plate and improving hitters around him.
"He's letting the ball travel, getting deep. He's making them get him out. He's not getting himself out as much, and he's taking what they give him," Showalter said. "Nick's not going to sneak up on anybody. Everybody in baseball knows what kind of hitter he is, and they're pitching him tough."
The Orioles' offensive barrage was enough for starter Jeremy Guthrie (3-9) to pick up his first win since May 21 against the Washington Nationals -- a span of six starts without a victory. It was just the fifth time in his 17 outings that he received five or more runs of support and the first since May 26.
"They're swinging really well. You look one through nine and you've got six, seven guys that I feel are real hot right now, that are swinging it well," said Guthrie, who was charged with four runs on four walks and six hits in 5 2/3 innings. "I think that's what we had intended going into this season, and what we've seen the past couple of weeks.? We hope that that goes on throughout the rest of the year."
Guthrie threw four scoreless innings before allowing a solo homer to Brandon Phillips in the fifth, the 13th he has served up this season. He was chased with two outs in the sixth when he walked Phillips on his 111th pitch of the game.
"That's a frustrating way to end the outing," said Guthrie, who was expertly locating his mid-90s fastball early on. "But, overall, I felt I was able to throw my pitches where I was trying to for the most part."
Guthrie's pitch count was up, in part, because Orioles third baseman Mark Reynolds twice committed throwing errors. He has 18 errors in 74 games this season, which leads the majors. He had 18 errors in 142 games in 2010.
"I've struggled over there at third base a little bit, it's no secret," Reynolds said. "I'm working every day with Willie [Randolph] at trying to get better, but right now it's just one of those things I can't really explain. Hopefully, I can be a little bit more consistent in the future and just keep getting better."ABC is developing a single camera comedy series about a serial killer with Jack Black attached as an executive producer, Variety has learned.
Titled “Boring, OR,” the series is described an ensemble comedy about a small town with a serial killer on the loose. It follows Jonna, a police officer, who is determined to stop the killings while the rest of the townspeople remain dead set on not letting it affect their day-to-day lives.
Stephen Soroka will write and serve as supervising producer on the project. Black will executive produce under his Electric Dynamite banner, with Electric Dynamite’s head of development Spencer Berman will also executive produce. Eric Appel will also serve as an executive producer, with ABC Studios producing.
The project will mark the first television series produced at Electric Dynamite, though Black himself has served as a producer on numerous projects. Among his producing credits is the HBO series “The Brink,” “Ghost Ghirls,” and “Tenacious D: The Complete Master Works,” with Black also acting in all of them. He is also set to appear in the upcoming film “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” opposite Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Kevin Hart, and Karen Gillan.
Black is repped by WME. Appel is repped by WME and Principato-Young Entertainment. Soroka is repped by Rothman Brecher Ehrich Livingston.Image copyright Instagram/lojohal Image caption The band were in the middle of playing their encore when The Edge fell
U2 guitarist The Edge has said he is fine after falling off stage during the opening night of the band's world tour.
The group were performing their encore at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver when the 53-year-old took a tumble.
A video posted online of the incident shows the guitarist appearing to misjudge the unconventional shape of the stage and stepping off the side.
He later posted a picture of his grazed arm on Instagram saying: "Didn't see the edge, I'm ok!"
Image copyright Instagram/U2
U2 have just begun their Innocence + Experience tour, which will see them play some 70 dates across North America and Europe.
It is not the first stage fall the band has had the misfortune to experience - frontman Bono has taken a dive on several occasions.
He fell backwards off stage at a Miami concert in 2001 and slipped off a rainy stage in Washington DC in 1987 - dislocating his arm and requiring him to wear a sling for a dozen shows.
He also fell in 1983 during a gig in Germany after trying to climb a barricade.
Last November, Bono also underwent five hours of surgery after breaking his arm in six places and suffering a broken eye socket as a result of a "high-energy bicycle accident" in New York.California and EPA accuse VW of installing ‘defeat device’ software that reduces nitrogen oxide emissions while a car is undergoing official tests
The US government has ordered Volkswagen to recall almost 500,000 cars after discovering that the company deployed sophisticated software to cheat emission tests allowing its cars to produce up to 40 times more pollution than allowed.
The Environment Protection Agency (EPA) on Friday accused VW of installing illegal “defeat device” software that dramatically reduces nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions – but only when the cars are undergoing strict emission tests.
“Put simply, these cars contained software that turns off emissions controls when driving normally and turns them on when the car is undergoing an emissions test,” Cynthia Giles, an EPA enforcement officer said. “We intend to hold Volkswagen responsible.
“VW was concealing the facts from the EPA, the state of California and from consumers. We expected better from VW,” she said. “Using a defeat device in cars to evade clean air standards is illegal and a threat to public health.”
The EPA accused Volkswagen of using the device in 482,000 four-cylinder Volkswagen and Audi diesel cars in the US since 2008. VW must recall all the cars, remove the defeat device and improve the cars’ NOx emissions, which creates smog and has been linked to increased asthma attacks and other respiratory illnesses.
“A sophisticated software algorithm on certain Volkswagen vehicles detects when the car is undergoing official emissions testing, and turns full emissions controls on only during the test,” the EPA said in a statement. “The effectiveness of these vehicles’ pollution emissions control devices is greatly reduced during all normal driving situations. This results in cars that meet emissions standards in the laboratory or testing station, but during normal operation, emit nitrogen oxides, or NOx, at up to 40 times the standard.”
Richard Corey, executive officer of the California Air Resources Board (Carb), said: “Our goal now is to ensure that the affected cars are brought into compliance, to dig more deeply into the extent and implications of Volkswagen’s efforts to cheat on clean air rules, and to take appropriate further action.”
The EPA said Volkswagen could face other action and fines for the alleged breach of the Clean Air Act. The maximum fine for violations of the act is $37,500 per vehicle, which works out to a maximum possible fine as high as $18bn.
The EPA and Carb discovered the “defeat device” software following independent analysis by researchers at West Virginia University, who were promoted into action by the International Council on Clean Technology, an NGO.
When confronted with the EPA and Carb’s evidence, VW admitted that its cars were fitted with the “defeat device”.
VW refused to comment.Turkish intel foils ISIL attack on five EU cities, Ankara
Fevzi Kızılkoyun - ANKARA
AA photo
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) planned coordinated attacks on five EU cities and Ankara on New Year’s Eve, only to be foiled by Turkish intelligence, Turkish officials have said.A senior leader of ISIL had planned the attacks on six cities, according to the police, which inspected seized computers after an operation in the Turkish capital.An Ankara court on Jan. 1 ordered the arrests of two Turkish men suspected of belonging to ISIL and planning a double suicide bombing in the capital on New Year’s Eve.Musa Canöz, 28, and Adnan Yıldırım, 40, who were detained in a raid on Dec. 30, 2015, were placed under arrest on charges of “possessing explosive materials” and “membership in a terrorist organization.”During searches in a cell house where the two stayed, security officials seized a computer through which they revealed that senior ISIL leader Abu Mohammed al-Adnani had instructed fighters to launch attacks in Austria, Belgium, Britain, France, Germany and Turkey.In line with his instructions, sent to the militants via email, 13 suicide bombers reportedly left the northern Syrian province of Raqqa.Canöz and Yıldırım were the suspected militants designated with the task of carrying out the planned attack in Turkey.Police found photographs of many spots in Ankara, including the courthouse, police headquarters, a military school, mosques, malls and two popular squares, on the computers of the suspects. Canöz and Yıldırım took the photos and wrote down notes for each spot, the officials said.Sources told Hürriyet that German officials thanked their counterparts for warnings of an attack in Munich on New Year’s Eve that resulted in the closure of two large train stations.Popular celebrations were canceled in Belgian capital of Brussels on Dec. 31, 2015.ANALYSIS/OPINION:
Making up a story, if it’s about a designated villain, is hip in certain quarters but it’s never cool, as Rolling Stone magazine is learning in the sordid wake of its account of a gang rape at a fraternity house at the University of Virginia. It was a gang rape that by all recent accounts never happened. The magazine retracted the story, but the damage was done. Now law suits are accumulating, the editor who presided over the story at the magazine walked the plank this week, and there’s talk that the White House may have been involved in advancing the story.
Like all good stories, this one has legs.
Nicole Eramo, an associate dean at the university, has sued everybody, saying she was held up to ridicule because the story cast her as callous and uncaring of young women on her campus. A second suit was filed Wednesday by three members of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity whose house was the site of the fictitious story, who say they were implicitly identified and were defamed, too. They have since graduated. Will Dana, the managing editor of Rolling Stone, “resigned.”
That, however, is only the beginning of the story. Emily Renda, a UVA advocate for sexual assault victims, has been identified as the person who helped steer the author of the Rolling Stone article to the student identified in the story only as “Jackie” who said she was gang-raped by seven university students. Ms. Renda had previously met with the White House Task Force to Protect Students Against Sexual Assault, a committee created by President Obama. The administration says it sought her input as a “stakeholder” on the issue.
A review of the 9,000-word Rolling Stone rape account was subjected to an examination by the Columbia Journalism Review, and its authors concluded that the rape story was marked by sweeping failures and deficiencies. The review concluded that Rolling Stone “may have spread the idea that many women invent rape allegations.” It did exactly that, to the magazine’s shame, and it further spreads the notion that bearing false witness is not so bad if the cause is considered just.
The U.S. Department of Education has declined to answer Freedom of Information requests for telephone logs and other information that might show to what degree, if any, the White House orchestrated the rape story |
folgenden Satz: If man relates to things as “means of satisfying his needs,” then he relates to them as “goods,” according to Wagner. He grants them the attribute of being “goods”; the content of this operation is in no way altered by the fact that Mr. Wagner renames this “attributing value.” His own lazy consciousness immediately arrives at “an understanding” in the following sentence:
„Dies geschieht durch die Schätzung (Wertschätzung), wodurch den Gütern, beziehungsweise den Dingen der Außenwelt Wert beigelegt und derselbe gemessen wird.“ “This is done through the appreciation (valuation) by which value is attributed to goods or things of the outside world and this value is measured” [p. 46].
Wir wollen kein Wort darüber verlieren, daß Herr Wagner den Wert ableitet aus der Wertschätzung (er selbst fügt dem Wort Schätzung, um die Sache „zum deutlichen Bewußtsein und Verständnis zu bringen“, in Parenthese „Wertschätzung“ zu). „Der Mensch“ hat das „natürliche Bestreben“, dies zu tun, die Güter als „Werte“ zu „schätzen“, und gestattet so Herrn Wagner, die von ihm versprochne Leistung des „Wertbegriffs im allgemeinen“ abzuleiten. Wagner schmuggelt nicht umsonst dem Wort „Gütern“ „beziehungsweise“ die „Dinge der Außenwelt“ unter. Er ging davon aus: Der Mensch „verhält“ sich zu „Dingen der Außenwelt“, die Befriedigungsmittel seiner Bedürfnisse sind, als zu „Gütern“. Er schätzt diese Dinge also eben dadurch, daß er sich zu ihnen als „Gütern“ verhält. Und wir haben für diese „Schätzung“ bereits frühere „Umschreibung“ gehabt, dahin lautend z. B.: We shall waste no words on the fact that Mr. Wagner derives value from valuation (he himself adds “valuation” in brackets after the word appreciation in order to arrive “at a clear awareness and understanding” of the matter). “Man” has the “natural striving” to do this, to “appreciate” goods as “values,” and thus permits Mr. Wagner to derive the promised achievement of the “concept of value in general.” Not for nothing does Wagner smuggle in with the word “goods” the phrase “or the things of the outside world.” His starting point was that man “relates” to the “things of the outside world,” which are means of satisfying his needs, as to “goods.” So he appreciates these things by the very fact that he relates to them as “goods.” And we have already had an earlier “paraphrase” for this appreciation, to the effect that, e.g.:
„Der Mensch steht mit der ihn umgebenden Außenwelt als bedürftiges Wesen in fortdauernder Berührung und erkennt, daß in jener viele Bedingungen seines Lebens und Wohlbefindens liegen“ (p. 8). “As a needy being, man is in constant contact with the outside world surrounding him and acknowledges that therein lie many of the conditions for his life and well-being” (p. 8).
Dies heißt doch weiter nichts, als daß er „die Dinge der Außenwelt schätzt“, sofern sie sein „bedürftiges Wesen“ befriedigen, Befriedigungsmittel seiner Bedürfnisse sind, und darum, wie wir vorher hörten, sich zu ihnen als „Gütern“ verhält. This, however, means no more than that he “appreciates the things of the outside world” insofar as they satisfy his “needy being,” being means of satisfying his needs and therefore, as we have already heard, relates to them as “goods.”
Nun kann man, namentlich, wenn man das „natürliche“ Professoral-„Bestreben“ fühlt, den Begriff des Werts im allgemeinen abzuleiten, dies: „den Dingen der Außenwelt“ das Attribut „Güter“ beilegen, auch benamsen, ihnen „Wert beilegen“. Man hätte auch sagen können: Indem der Mensch sich zu den seine Bedürfnisse befriedigenden Dingen der Außenwelt als „Gütern“ verhält, „preist“ er sie, legt ihnen also „Preis“ bei, und damit wäre denn die Ableitung des Begriffs des „Preises schlechthin“ durch die Verfahrensart „des“ Menschen dem Professor germanicus ready cut[11] geliefert. Alles, was der Professor selbst nicht tun kann, läßt er „den“ Menschen tun, der aber in der Tat selbst wieder nichts ist, als der Professoralmensch, der die Welt begriffen zu haben meint, wenn er sie unter abstrakten Rubriken rangiert. Sofern aber den Dingen der Außenwelt „Wert beilegen“ hier nur eine andere Redensart ist für den Ausdruck, ihnen das Attribut „Güter“ beilegen, so ist damit beileibe nicht, wie das Wagner erschleichen will, den „Gütern“ selbst „Wert“ beigelegt als eine von ihrem „Gutsein“ verschiedne Bestimmung. Es ist nur dem Wort „Gut“ das Wort „Wert“ untergeschoben. {Es könnte, wie wir sehen, auch das Wort „Preis“ untergeschoben werden. Es könnte auch das Wort „Schatz“ untergeschoben werden; denn indem „der“ Mensch gewisse „Dinge der Außenwelt“ zu „Gütern“ stempelt, „schätzt“ er sie und verhält sich daher zu ihnen als einem „Schatz“. Man sieht daher, wie die 3 ökonomischen Kategorien Wert, Preis, Schatz von Herrn Wagner auf einen Schlag aus „dem natürlichen Streben des Menschen“, dem Professor seine vernagelte Begriffs(Vorstellungs)welt zu liefern, hervorgezaubert werden konnten.} Aber Herr Wagner hat den dunklen Trieb, seinem Labyrinth von Tautologie zu entschlüpfen und ein „weiteres etwas“ oder „etwas weiteres“ zu erschleichen. Daher die Phrase; „wodurch den Gütern, beziehungsweise den Dingen der Außenwelt Wert beigelegt etc. wird“. Da Herr Wagner das Stempeln von „Dingen der Außenwelt“ zu Gütern, d.h. das Auszeichnen und Fixieren derselben (in der Vorstellung) als Befriedigungsmittel menschlicher Bedürfnisse, ditto benamst hat: diesen „Dingen Wert beilegen“, so kann er dies ebensowenig nennen: „den Gütern“ selbst Wert beilegen, als er sagen könnte, dem „Wert“ der Dinge der Außenwelt Wert beilegen. Aber der salto mortale wird gemacht in dem Wort „Gütern, beziehungsweise den Dingen der Außenwelt Wert beilegen“. Wagner hätte sagen müssen: das Stempeln gewisser Dinge der Außenwelt zu „Gütern“ kann auch genannt werden: diesen Dingen „Wert beilegen“, und dies ist die Wagnersche Ableitung des „Wertbegriffs“ schlechthin oder im allgemeinen. Der Inhalt wird nicht verändert durch diese Änderung des sprachlichen Ausdrucks. Es ist stets nur das Auszeichnen oder Fixieren in der Vorstellung der Dinge der Außenwelt, welche Befriedigungsmittel menschlicher Bedürfnisse sind; in der Tat also nur die Erkennung und Anerkennung gewisser Dinge der Außenwelt als Befriedigungsmittel von Bedürfnissen „des“ Menschen (der jedoch als solcher in der Tat am „Begriffsbedürfnis“ leidet). Now it is possible, particularly if one feels the “natural” professorial “striving” to derive the concept of value in general, to do this: to give “the things of the outside world” the attribute of “goods” and dub it “attributing value” to them. One might also have said: Since man relates to the things of the outside world which satisfy his needs as to “goods,” he “prizes” them, thus attributing “price” to them, and thus the derivation of the concept “price pure and simple” by “man's” own methods is supplied ready cut to the German professor. Everything that the professor is unable to do himself, he makes “man” do; but this man is himself nothing more than the professorial man who claims to have understood the world once he has arranged it under abstract headings. But in so far as “attributing value” to the things of the outside world is simply another way of phrasing the expression of giving them the attribute of “goods,” this is far from being the same, as Wagner wishes to make out, as attributing “value” to the “goods” themselves as a designation distinct from their “being goods.” It is simply substituting the word “value” for the word “goods.” //As we have seen, the word “price” could also be substituted. Even the word “treasure” could be substituted; since “man” labels certain “things of the outside world” “goods,” he “treasures” them, and therefore relates to them as to a “treasure.” Thus it can be seen how the three economic categories value, price and treasure could be conjured up by Mr. Wagner at a stroke out of “man's natural striving” to provide the professor with his bone-headed system of concepts (fancies).// But Mr. Wagner has the dim instinct to step out of his labyrinth of tautology and worm his way into a “further something” or a “something further.” Hence the phrase: “by which value is attributed to goods or things of the outside world, etc.” Since the labelling of “things of the outside world” as goods, i.e., the distinguishing and fixing of these (in the mind) as means of satisfying human needs, is also dubbed by Mr. Wagner “attributing value to things,” he can no more call this attributing value to “the goods” themselves than he could talk about attributing value to the “value” of the things of the outside world. But the salto mortale is performed with the words “attributing value to goods or the things of the outside world.” Wagner should have said: the dubbing of certain things of the outside world “goods” may also be called “attributing value” to these things and this is the Wagnerian derivation of the “concept of value” pure and simple or in general. The content is not altered by this change of linguistic expression. It is still only the distinguishing or fixing in the mind of the things of the outside world which are means of satisfying human needs; in fact, simply the perception and acknowledgement of certain things of the outside world as means of satisfying the needs of “man” (who as such, however, is actually suffering from a “need of concepts”).
Aber Herr Wagner will uns oder sich selbst weismachen, daß er, statt 2 Namen den selben Gehalt zu geben, vielmehr von der Bestimmung „Gut“ zu einer davon unterschiednen, weiterentwickelten Bestimmung „Wert“ fortgeschritten ist, und dies geschieht einfach dadurch, daß er „Dingen der Außenwelt“ „beziehungsweise“ das Wort „Güter“ unterschiebt, ein Prozeß, der wieder dadurch „verdunkelt“ wird, daß er „den Gütern“ „beziehungsweise“ die „Dinge der Außenwelt“ unterschiebt. Seine eigne Konfusion erreicht so den sichern Effekt, seine Leser konfus zu machen. Er hätte diese schöne „Ableitung“ auch umkehren können wie folgt: Indem der Mensch die Dinge der Außenwelt, welche Befriedigungsmittel seiner Bedürfnisse sind, als solche Befriedigungsmittel von den übrigen Dingen der Außenwelt unterscheidet und daher auszeichnet, würdigt er sie, legt er ihnen Wert bei oder gibt ihnen das Attribut „Wert“; man kann dies auch so ausdrücken, daß er ihnen das Attribut „Gut“ als Charaktermal beilegt oder sie als „Gut“ achtet oder schätzt. Dadurch wird den „Werten“, beziehungsweise den Dingen der Außenwelt der Begriff „Gut“ beigelegt. Und so ist aus dem Begriff „Wert“ der Begriff „Gut“ im allgemeinen „abgeleitet“. Es handelt sich bei allen derartigen Ableitungen nur darum, von der Aufgabe, deren Lösung man nicht gewachsen ist, abzuleiten. But Mr. Wagner wishes to make us, or himself, believe that instead of giving two names to the same content he has progressed from the designation “goods” to a further developed designation “value,” distinct from the first, and he does this simply by substituting the word “goods” for “things of the outside world,” a process which is further “obscured” by the fact that he rather substitutes the “things of the outside world” for “the goods.” His own confusion thus achieves the certain effect of confusing his readers. He might also have reversed this splendid “derivation” as follows. By differentiating the things of the outside world, which are means of satisfying his needs, as such means of satisfaction, from the other things of the outside world, and therefore according them special distinction, he pays tribute to them, attributes value to them, or gives them the attribute of “value.” This can also be expressed by saying that he grants them the attribute of “goods” as a characteristic, or respects or values them as “goods.” Thereby the concept “goods” is attributed to the “values” or to the things of the outside world. And thus the concept of “goods” in general is “derived” from the concept of “value.” All derivations of this kind are simply concerned with diverting attention from a problem which one is not capable of solving.
Aber Herr Wagner geht im selben Atem vom „Wert“ der Güter in aller Geschwindigkeit zum „Messen“ dieses Werts über. But in the same breath Mr. Wagner proceeds in all haste from the “value” of goods to the “measurement” of this value.
Der Inhalt bleibt absolut derselbe, wäre das Wort Wert überhaupt nicht hineingeschmuggelt worden. Es könnte gesagt werden: Indem der Mensch gewisse Dinge der Außenwelt, die etc. zu „Gütern“ stempelt, wird er nach und nach diese „Güter“ untereinander vergleichen und, entsprechend der Hierarchie seiner Bedürfnisse, in eine gewisse Rangordnung bringen, d.h. wenn man es so nennen will, sie „messen“. Von der Entwicklung der wirklichen Maße dieser Güter, i.e. der Entwicklung ihrer Größenmaße, darf Wagner hier beileibe nicht sprechen, da dies den Leser zu lebhaft daran erinnern würde, wie wenig es sich hier um das handelt, was sonst unter „Wertmessen“ verstanden wird. The content would remain exactly the same if the word “value” had not been smuggled in at all. It might be said: By dubbing certain things of the outside world which, etc., as “goods,” man will eventually come to compare these “goods” with one another, and according to the hierarchy of his needs will arrange them in a certain order, i.e. if one likes to call it so, “measure” them. Wagner may not speak at all of the development of the real measure of these goods here, i.e. of the development of their measure of quantity, as this would remind the reader too sharply how little what is otherwise meant by “measure of value” is dealt with here.
{Daß das Auszeichnen von (Hinweisen auf) Dingen der Außenwelt, die Befriedigungsmittel menschlicher Bedürfnisse sind, als „Güter“ auch benamst werden kann: diesen Dingen „Wert beilegen“, konnte Wagner nicht nur wie Rau aus dem „deutschen Sprachgebrauch“ nachweisen, sondern: Da ist das lateinische Wort dignitas = Würde, Würdigkeit, Rang etc., welches Dingen beigelegt auch „Wert“ bedeutet; dignitas ist abgeleitet von dignus und dies von dic, point out, show, auszeichnen, zeigen; dignus meint also pointed out; daher auch digitus, der Finger, womit man zeigt ein Ding, darauf hinweist; griechisch: δεικ-νυμι, δακ-τυλο (Finger); got[isch]: ga-tecta (dico); deutsch: zeigen; und wir könnten noch zu viel weiteren „Ableitungen“ kommen, in Betracht, daß δεκνυμι oder δεικνω (sichtbar machen, zum Vorschein bringen, hinweisen) mit δχομαι den Grundstamm δεκ (hinhalten, nehmen) gemein hat.} //That the distinguishing of (reference to) things of the outside world which are means of satisfying human needs as “goods” may be dubbed “attributing value to these things”—this Wagner was able to prove not only by means of “German linguistic usage,” as Rau did, but also: there is the Latin word dignitas = dignity, merit, rank, etc., which when applied to things also means “value”; dignitas is derived from dignus, and this from dic, point out, show, auszeichnen, zeigen; dignus thus means “ pointed out”; hence, too, digitus, the finger with which one points out a thing, refers to it; Greek δεικ-νυμι, δακ-τυλο (finger); Gothic: ga-tecta (dico); German: zeigen; and we could arrive at a lot more “derivations” bearing in mind that δεκνυμι (or δεικνω) (to make visible, to bring to light, to refer to) has the same basic stem as δχομαι—that is δεκ (to hold out, to take).//
So viel Banalität, tautologischer Wirrwarr, Wortklauberei, Erschleichungsmanöver bringt Herr Wagner in nicht ganz 7 Zeilen fertig. What a lot of banality, tautological confusion, hairsplitting and underhand manoeuvring Mr. Wagner manages to pack into not quite 7 lines.
Kein Wunder, daß dieser Dunkelmann (vir obscurus) nach diesem Kunststück mit großem Selbstgefühl fortfährt: No wonder that after this feat, the obscure man (vir obscurus) continues with great self-assurance:
„Der vielfach streitige und durch manche oft nur scheinbar tiefsinnige Untersuchungen noch verdunkelte Wertbegriff entwickelt sich einfach“ (indeed[12]) {rather[13] „verwickelt“ sich}, „wenn man, wie bisher geschehen“ {nämlich von Wagner} „vom Bedürfnis und der wirtschaftlichen Natur des Menschen ausgeht und zum Gutsbegriff gelangt und an diesen den Wertbegriff—anknüpft“ (p. 46). “The much disputed concept of value, still obscured by many investigations frequently of merely apparent depth, resolves itself” (indeed) //rather “involves” itself// “if, as has been done hitherto” //namely by Wagner//, “we take the needs and the economic nature of man as our starting-point and on arriving at the concept of goods—tie it up with the concept of value” (p. 46).
Man hat hier die Begriffswirtschaft, deren angebliche Entwicklung beim vir obscurus herausläuft auf das „Anknüpfen“ und gewissermaßen aufs „Aufknüpfen“. Here we have the concept juggling, whose supposed development according to the vir obscurus boils down to “tying up,” and to a certain extent “tying on.”
Weitere Ableitung des Wertbegriffs: Further derivation of the concept of value:
Subjektiver und objektiver Wert. Subjektiv und im allgemeinsten Sinn der Wert des Gutes = Bedeutung, die „dem Gute wegen … seiner Nützlichkeit beigelegt wird … keine Eigenschaft der Dinge an sich, wenn er auch objektiv die Nützlichkeit eines Dinges zur Voraussetzung hat“ {also den „objektiven“ Wert zur Voraussetzung hat} „… Im objektiven Sinn versteht man unter ‚Wert‘, ‚Werten‘ dann auch die werthabenden Güter, wo (!) Gut und Wert, Güter und Werte im wesentlichen identische Begriffe werden“ (p. 46, 47). Subjective and objective value. Subjective and, in the most general sense, the value of goods=importance which “is attributed to the goods on account of their usefulness … not a quality of the things in themselves, even if it objectively presupposes the usefulness of a thing” //thus presupposing “objective” value//. In the objective sense one also understands by “value” and “values” the value-possessing goods, in which (!) good and value, goods and values become essentially “identical concepts” (pp. 46, 47).
Nachdem Wagner das, was gewöhnlich „Gebrauchswert“ benamst wird, zum „Wert im allgemeinen“, zum „Wertbegriff“ schlechthin ernannt hat, kann es ihm gar nicht fehlen, sich zu erinnern, daß „der also“ (so! so!) „abgeleitete“ (!) „Wert“ der „Gebrauchswert“ ist. Nachdem er erst den „Gebrauchswert“ zum „Wertbegriff“ im allgemeinen, zum „Wert schlechthin“ ernannt hat, entdeckt er hinterher, daß er nur über den „Gebrauchswert“ gefaselt, diesen also „abgeleitet“ hat, da für ihn Faseln und Ableiten „im wesentlichen“ identische Denkoperationen sind. Aber bei dieser Gelegenheit erfahren wir, welche subjektive Bewandtnis es mit der bisherigen „objektiven“ Begriffsverwirrung der pp. Wagner hat. Er enthüllt uns nämlich ein Geheimnis. Rodbertus hatte einen Brief an ihn geschrieben, zu lesen in der Tübinger Zeitschrift 1878, wo er, Rodbertus, auseinandersetzt, warum „es nur eine Art von Wert“ gibt, den Gebrauchswert. After taking what is usually termed “use-value” and dubbing it “value in general” and then the “concept of value“ pure and simple, Wagner can surely not fail to recall that the “value” “derived” (!) “in this way” (well, well!) is “use-value.” After dubbing “use-value” the “concept of value” in general, or “value pure and simple,” he discovers, on second thought, that he has simply been drivelling on about “use-value,” and has thus “derived” it, drivelling and deriving now being for him “essentially” identical mental operations. But at this juncture we discover how subjective the hitherto “objective” confusion of ideas of the aforesaid Mr. Wagner really is. For he reveals a secret to us. Rodbertus had written a letter to him which may be read in the Tübingen Zeitschrift[19] of 1878, in which he, Rodbertus, expounds why there is “only one kind of value”: use-value.
„Ich“ (Wagner) „habe mich dieser Auffassung angeschlossen, deren Bedeutung ich schon in der ersten Auflage einmal hervorhob.“ “I” (Wagner) “have come to support this view, the importance of which I have already emphasised in the first edition” [p. 48].
Von [dem,] was Rodbertus sagt, sagt Wagner: Of what Rodbertus says, Wagner says:
„Das ist vollkommen richtig und nötigt zu einer Änderung der üblichen unlogischen ‚Einteilung‘ des ‚Werts‘ in Gebrauchswert und Tauschwert, wie ich sie in § 35 der ersten Auflage auch noch vorgenommen hatte“ (p. 48, N. 4), “This is quite correct and necessitates an alteration of the usual illogical ‘division’ of ‘value’ into use-value and exchange-value, which I had still undertaken in § 3 [in Wagner § 35] of the first edition” (p. 48, Note 4).
und derselbe Wagner rangiert mich (p. 49, Note) unter die Leute, nach denen der „Gebrauchswert“ ganz „aus der Wissenschaft“ „entfernt“ werden soll. and the same Wagner places me (p. 49, Note) amongst those according to whom “use-value” should be entirely “removed” “from the science.”
Alles das sind „Faseleien“. De prime abord[14] gehe ich nicht aus von „Begriffen“, also auch nicht vom „Wertbegriff“, und habe diesen daher auch in keiner Weise „einzuteilen“. Wovon ich ausgehe, ist die einfachste gesellschaftliche Form, worin sich das Arbeitsprodukt in der jetzigen Gesellschaft darstellt, und dies ist die „Ware“. Sie analysiere ich, und zwar zunächst in der Form, worin sie erscheint. Hier finde ich nun, daß sie einerseits in ihrer Naturalform ein Gebrauchsding, alias Gebrauchswert ist; andrerseits Träger von Tauschwert, und unter diesem Gesichtspunkt selbst „Tauschwert“. Weitere Analyse des letzteren zeigt mir, daß der Tauschwert nur eine „Erscheinungsform“, selbständige Darstellungsweise des in der Ware enthaltnen Werts ist, und dann gehe ich an die Analyse des letzteren. Es heißt daher ausdrücklich, p. 36, 2. Ausg.: „Wenn es im Eingang dieses Kapitels in der gang und gäben Manier hieß: Die Ware ist Gebrauchswert und Tauschwert, so war dies, genau gesprochen, falsch. Die Ware ist Gebrauchswert oder Gebrauchsgegenstand und ‚Wert‘. Sie stellt sich dar als dies Doppelte was sie ist, sobald ihr Wert eine eigne, von ihrer Naturalform verschiedne Erscheinungsform besitzt, die des Tauschwerts“[15] etc. Ich teile also nicht den Wert in Gebrauchswert und Tauschwert als Gegensätze, worin sich das Abstrakte, „der Wert“, spaltet, sondern die konkrete gesellschaftliche Gestalt des Arbeitsprodukts; „Ware“ ist einerseits Gebrauchswert und andrerseits „Wert“, nicht Tauschwert, da die bloße Erscheinungsform nicht ihr eigner Inhalt ist. All this is “drivel.” De prime abord,[20] I do not proceed from “concepts,” hence neither from the “concept of value,” and am therefore in no way concerned to “divide” it. What I proceed from is the simplest social form in which the product of labour presents itself in contemporary society, and this is the “commodity.” This I analyse, initially in the form in which it appears. Here I find that on the one hand in its natural form it is a thing for use, alias a use-value; on the other hand, a bearer of exchange-value, and from this point of view it is itself an “exchange-value.” Further analysis of the latter shows me that exchange-value is merely a “form of appearance,” an independent way of presenting the value contained in the commodity, and then I start on the analysis of the latter. I therefore state explicitly, p. 36, 2nd ed.[21]: “When, at the beginning of this chapter, we said, in common parlance, that a commodity is both a use-value and an exchange-value, we were, precisely speaking, wrong. A commodity is a use-value or object of utility, and a ‘value’. It manifests itself as this twofold thing which it is, as soon as its value assumes an independent form of appearance distinct from its natural form—the form of exchange-value,” etc. Thus I do not divide value into use-value and exchange-value as opposites into which the abstraction “value” splits up, but the concrete social form of the product of labour, the “commodity,” is on the one hand, use-value and on the other, “value,” not exchange value, since the mere form of appearance is not its own content.
Zweitens: Nur ein vir obscurus, der kein Wort des „Kapitals“ verstanden hat, kann schließen: Weil Marx in einer Note zur ersten Ausgabe des „Kapitals“ allen deutschen Professoralkohl über „Gebrauchswert“ im allgemeinen verwirft und Leser, die etwas über wirkliche Gebrauchswerte wissen wollen, auf „Anleitungen zur Warenkunde“ verweist,—daher spielt der Gebrauchswert bei ihm keine Rolle. Er spielt natürlich nicht die Rolle seines Gegenteils, des „Wertes“, der nichts mit ihm gemein hat, als daß „Wert“ im Namen „Gebrauchswert“ vorkommt. Er hätte ebensogut sagen können, daß der „Tauschwert“ bei mir beiseite gesetzt wird, weil er nur Erscheinungsform des Wertes, aber nicht der „Wert“ ist, da für mich der „Wert“ einer Ware weder ihr Gebrauchswert ist, noch ihr Tauschwert. Second: only a vir obscurus who has not understood a word of Capital can conclude: Because Marx in a note in the first edition of Capital rejects all the German professorial twaddle about “use-value” in general, and refers readers who want to know something about real use-values to “manuals dealing with merchandise”—for this reason use-value plays no part in his work. Naturally it does not play the part of its opposite, of “value,” which has nothing in common with it, except that “value” occurs in the term “use-value.” He might just as well have said that “exchange-value” is discarded by me because it is only the form of appearance of value, and not “value” itself, since for me the “value” of a commodity is neither its use-value nor its exchange value.
Wenn man die „Ware“—das einfachste ökonomische Konkretum—zu analysieren hat, hat man alle Beziehungen fernzuhalten, die mit dem vorliegenden Objekt der Analyse nichts zu schaffen haben. Was aber von der Ware, soweit sie Gebrauchswert, zu sagen ist, habe ich daher in wenigen Zeilen gesagt, andrerseits aber die charakteristische Form hervorgehoben, in der hier der Gebrauchswert—das Arbeitsprodukt—erscheint; nämlich: „Ein Ding[16] kann nützlich und Produkt menschlicher Arbeit sein, ohne Ware zu sein. Wer durch sein Produkt sein eignes Bedürfnis befriedigt, schafft zwar Gebrauchswert, aber nicht Ware. Um Ware zu produzieren, muß er nicht nur Gebrauchswert produzieren, sondern Gebrauchswert für andre, gesellschaftlichen Gebrauchswert“[17] (p. 15). {Dies die Wurzel des Rodbertusschen „gesellschaftlichen Gebrauchswerts“.} Damit besitzt der Gebrauchswert—als Gebrauchswert der „Ware“—selbst einen historisch-spezifischen Charakter. Im primitiven Gemeinwesen, worin z.B. die Lebensmittel gemeinschaftlich produziert und verteilt werden unter den Gemeindegenossen, befriedigt das gemeinsame Produkt direkt die Lebensbedürfnisse jedes Gemeindegenossen, jedes Produzenten, der gesellschaftliche Charakter des Produkts, des Gebrauchswerts, liegt hier in seinem (gemeinsamen) gemeinschaftlichen Charakter. {Herr Rodbertus dahingegen verwandelt den „gesellschaftlichen Gebrauchswert“ der Ware in den „gesellschaftlichen Gebrauchswert“ schlechthin, faselt daher.} When one comes to analyse the “commodity”—the simplest concrete element of economics—one must exclude all relations which have nothing to do with the particular object of the analysis. Therefore I have said in a few lines what there is to say about the commodity in so far as it is a use-value, but on the other hand I have emphasised the characteristic form in which use-value—the product of labour—appears here, that is: “A thing can be useful, and the product of human labour, without being a commodity. Whoever [directly] satisfies his needs with the produce of his own labour, creates, indeed, use-values but not commodities. In order to produce commodities, he must not only produce use-values, but use-values for others, social use-values” (p. 15).[22] //This the root of Rodbertus' “social use-value.”// Consequently use-value—as the use-value of a “commodity” itself possesses a specific historical character. In primitive communities in which, e.g., means of livelihood are produced communally and distributed amongst the members of the community, the common product directly satisfies the vital needs of each community member, of each producer; the social character of the product, of the use-value, here lies in its (common) communal character. //Mr. Rodbertus on the other hand transforms the “social use-value” of the commodity into “social use-value” pure and simple, and is hence talking nonsense.//
Es wäre also, wie aus dem obigen hervorgeht, reine Faselei, bei Analyse der Ware—weil sie sich einerseits als Gebrauchswert oder Gut, andrerseits als „Wert“ darstellt—nun bei dieser Gelegenheit allerlei banale Reflexionen über Gebrauchswerte oder Güter „anzuknüpfen“, die nicht in den Bereich der Warenwelt fallen, wie „Staatsgüter“, „Gemeindegüter“ etc., wie es Wagner und der deutsche Professor in general[18] tut, oder über das Gut „Gesundheit“ etc. Wo der Staat selbst kapitalistischer Produzent, wie bei Exploitation von Minen, Waldungen etc., ist sein Produkt „Ware“ und besitzt daher den spezifischen Charakter jeder andren Ware. As may be seen from the above, it would be sheer nonsense, in an analysis of the commodity—since it presents itself on the one hand as a use-value or goods, on the other hand as value”—to “tie up” at this juncture all sorts of banal reflexions about use-values or goods which do not enter into the world of commodities, such as “state goods,” “communal goods,” etc. as Wagner and the German professor in general does, or about goods like “health,” etc. Where the state is itself a capitalist producer, as in the exploitation of mines, forests, etc., its product is a “commodity” and hence possesses the specific character of every other commodity.
Andrerseits hat der vir obscurus übersehn, daß schon in der Analyse der Ware bei mir nicht stehngeblieben wird bei der Doppelweise, worin sie sich darstellt, sondern gleich weiter dazu fortgegangen wird, daß in diesem Doppelsein der Ware sich darstellt zwiefacher Charakter der Arbeit, deren Produkt sie ist: der nützlichen Arbeit, i.e. den konkreten Modi der Arbeiten, die Gebrauchswerte schaffen, und der abstrakten Arbeit, der Arbeit als Verausgabung der Arbeitskraft, gleichgültig in welcher „nützlichen“ Weise sie verausgabt werde (worauf später die Darstellung des Produktionsprozesses beruht); daß in der Entwicklung der Wertform der Ware, in letzter Instanz ihrer Geldform, also des Geldes, der Wert einer Ware sich darstellt im Gebrauchswert der andern, d.h. in der Naturalform der andern Ware; daß der Mehrwert selbst abgeleitet wird aus einem „spezifischen“ und ihr exklusive zukommenden Gebrauchswert der Arbeitskraft etc. etc., daß also bei mir der Gebrauchswert eine ganz anders wichtige Rolle spielt als in der bisher |
percent in a mid-year crash.
Such volatility is partly due to the peculiar make-up of a market where 80 percent of transactions are made by retail investors - a sharp contrast to Western markets where institutional and professional investors dominate.
Analysts point out that China’s stock markets also have less impact on the real economy than those elsewhere.
Chinese companies rely more on bank loans and less on capital markets for their funding than Western peers and investors make up only a small fraction of China’s huge population - there were just under 100 million retail investors at the end of 2015, data from China Securities Depository and Clearing Corporation showed, in a country of 1.3 billion.
“China’s equity markets move independently of its economy,” said the note from Capital Economics.University Challenge went back to the land of the 1970s and it was far out (Pictures: BBC)
University Challenge viewers felt as though they’d been transported back to the 1970s thanks to the sartorial and style efforts of a team from Edinburgh University.
Jade Thirlwall 'vomiting and nauseous' on 'hardest day' climbing Kilimanjaro
Clever students Dale, Smith, Boyle and Goddard were a visual mash-up of the Bee Gees, dodgy Star Wars extras and the Brady Bunch during their brain-off with The Open University.
Basically they looked like hippy poet revolutionaries and underground comic writers who oppose the Vietnam War, rather than the usual cash-strapped post-millennials who like to upload pictures of their Starbucks lattes to Instagram.
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Viewers had to check their calendars to make sure they hadn’t stumbled into the decade of flares and free love.
Is #UniversityChallenge a repeat from 1972 tonight? — Dominic (@yoswansrock) November 7, 2016
University of Edinburgh look as though they're about to drop the sickest Jazz Album of the Century #UniversityChallenge pic.twitter.com/QycTodFUFn — Matt Bevan (@UltraBevo) November 7, 2016
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Individual stand-outs were Brightonian Boyle and York-based Dale, whose looks were terrifyingly (and amazingly) retro.
Barry Gibb showcasing his impressive academic interests after his success with the BeeGees. #UniversityChallenge pic.twitter.com/HAIGpjLMWc — (((Sam Seitler))) (@sdseitler) November 7, 2016
Dale : as cunning as a man who has broken into the Blake's 7 wardrobe vault #UniversityChallenge pic.twitter.com/ext0lvzpPV — Paul Tonner (@HeavyVoodoo) November 7, 2016
You see, *that* is the face of a scheming Jon Favreau, masquerading as an Edinburgh student #UniversityChallenge https://t.co/l9rKKgcE8Y —
Greg Tyler (@gregtyler) November 07, 2016
Couple of seventies super villains on Edinburgh's team tonight #universitychallenge — Steve Green (@Shadow_Chaser) November 7, 2016
Of course, the tweet comments about the team soon descended into general mockery.
Look into my eyes, the eyes, the eyes, not around the eyes, don't look around my eyes, look into my eyes, you're under#UniversityChallenge pic.twitter.com/kxdXe9qYh4 — CTS (@C_T_S) November 7, 2016
Been trying to put much finger on Dale's fashion sense, now I've got it… #UniversityChallenge @AccidentalP pic.twitter.com/pPqPd3Mpnr — Sir Peter Mannion MP (@PeterMannionMP) November 7, 2016
They may belong to a better time, but team Edinburgh will never be as stylish or memorable as Cambridge superhero Loveday.
MORE: University Challenge viewers completely lost it over vest-wearing contestant Sam Fairbrother
MORE: University Challenge viewers are outraged by Oxford team’s spectacular pop music failWhen I was little, I had recurring night terrors of a creature standing at the edge of my twin-sized bunk bed. I'd wake up paralyzed with fear in the middle of the night, anxiously watching and waiting for it to turn around and face its victim. It never did, but I always imagined it would look exactly like the Secret Santa gift I just opened, sent from the gates of hell itself - Florida.
I tried to be mad at its sender. I did. But one gets the feeling that there aren't too many of these things left in the world, that I've collected a relic from a time where children weren't so easily scared by the grotesque and unknown. Plus, it's technically a tea pot. So I guess I got that goin' for me, which is nice. Merry Christmas Reddit.For decades, the NHL's western franchises have sent their top minor league prospects far, far away to farm teams in the eastern half of the continent. It's a far-from-perfect scenario, and they haven't had much of a choice in the matter, given that hockey's "AAA" minor league, the AHL, has historically always held an eastern and midwestern footprint.
Thus, we have teams like the San Jose Sharks and Los Angeles Kings partnered up with AHL squads some 3,000 miles away in places like Worcester, Mass. and Manchester, N.H. The high cost of these long-distance relationships -- both in travel and financials, not to mention the unfair competitive advantage it gives to the NHL's eastern teams -- has forced many to propose major change.
And if that change comes at the AHL level, there's going to be a dramatic ripple effect throughout North America's minor professional hockey landscape, one that will completely alter the reality for most of the 62 teams across three leagues from coast to coast.
The AHL is going west
Rumors have been floating for months, if not years, about the potential of a new western division in the AHL. It would be a huge shift for a league that's primarily been based in the Northeast U.S. and around the Great Lakes for most of its 78-year existence.
If the AHL heads west, it's not like it'd be expanding. It's already a 30-team league, and adding five or six West Coast cities to the mix just doesn't make much sense for a league where travel costs are a chief expenditure. A 36-team minor hockey league with 30 teams on one coast and six on the other would be a little crazy.
So any addition of western AHL teams means that it'd be swapping those teams with the ECHL -- a league still commonly referred to as the "East Coast" league even after it absorbed the West Coast Hockey League in 2003, developing a national footprint and leaving a nonsensical acronym as its name.
The ECHL's western teams would join the AHL and affiliate with the NHL's western squads, while some longstanding AHL clubs on the other side of the country would be forced to step down a peg to the "AA" ECHL level.
The ECHL-CHL "merger"
News came out this week that the ECHL is looking to gobble up the struggling Central Hockey League, largely considered a slight step below the ECHL in quality of play. The 10-team league (update: now nine teams; we address this later) is primarily based, as you'd guess, in the central United States, with one odd outlier in Brampton, Ontario.
If the CHL were to merge with the ECHL, it'd create one 32-team, coast-to-coast super league. (Technically, it probably won't be a true merger. It would be much like the WCHL-ECHL "merger" in that the ECHL will just take the teams, maybe not all of them, and the CHL will cease to exist.) That league would remain one step below the 30-team AHL -- "AAA" vs. "AA" -- in the overall picture.
On the left here is the map today, and on the right is what things would look like after an ECHL-CHL merger.
AHL teams in red, ECHL teams in blue, CHL teams in green. Click the image to enlarge. The ECHL's Alaska Aces are in Anchorage, which is really far away from everything and off these maps.
Let's blow it up
The maps show one thing very clearly: the AHL is not a national league. That makes sense to a certain extent. Hockey is a sport born in the northeast part of the continent, and hell, if you really want to go way back with it, our continent was primarily settled there too. But just as the population of the continent has shifted west, it's time for the American Hockey League to do the same.
As we've established, the chief problem facing NHL teams out west is distance from their AHL affiliate. A few east teams have this gripe as well, but it's primarily a western issue. So we identified 11 NHL teams that have a legitimate problem and we picked a new team for them to affiliate with -- a team from the ECHL or CHL.
We took a few things into consideration here: geography between the chief affiliate and its NHL team is of course the primary concern, but we also considered that teams switching leagues must have other opponents within their league nearby.
We also need to make sure that new AHL teams can support the higher costs associated with playing in a better league. The closer you get to the top of the food chain, the pricier things are -- players included. So all teams we're moving into the AHL have strong attendance figures in their current leagues, since minor league hockey teams make most of their money off ticket sales. In most cases, the attendance numbers for all of these new teams are actually an improvement over what their current AHL affiliate is bringing through the gates each night.
Making the changes
NHL team Current AHL affiliate Fans / Gm Miles
Proposed affiliate Fans / Gm Miles
Diff Anaheim Ducks Norfolk Admirals 5,004 2,703
Bakersfield Condors 4,859 137
-2,566 Arizona Coyotes Portland Pirates 2,185 2,795
Las Vegas Wranglers 4,581 276
-2,519 Calgary Flames Adirondack Flames 4,192 2,496
Idaho Steelheads 3,997 884
-1,612 Colorado Avalanche Lake Erie Monsters 8,144 1,334
Colorado Eagles 5,289 57
-1,277 Edmonton Oilers Oklahoma City Barons 3,348 1,937
Alaska Aces 4,619 1,941
4 Florida Panthers San Antonio Rampage 7,001 1,356
Florida Everblades 5,045 116
-1,240 Los Angeles Kings Manchester Monarchs 5,608 3,014
Ontario Reign 8,158 43
-2,971 San Jose Sharks Worcester Sharks 3,958 3,094
Stockton Thunder 4,786 77
-3,017 Tampa Bay Lightning Syracuse Crunch 5,574 1,289
Orlando Solar Bears 6,355 110
-1,179 Vancouver Canucks Utica Comets 3,435 2,923
Utah Grizzlies 5,003 974
-1,949 Winnipeg Jets St. John's IceCaps 6,287 3,296
Rapid City Rush 4,497 722
-2,574
Every team gets a lot closer to its new affiliate, except for a 4-mile increase in distance for the Edmonton Oilers and their new affiliate, the Alaska Aces. We made this change because if we were to move every other western ECHL team into the AHL except for the Aces, their already insane travel would have been simply unworkable.
Each new AHL affiliate has shown a history of drawing fans to the rink in its old league, and every team moving up to the AHL has an arena capable of supporting AHL hockey. (The Las Vegas Wranglers are actually sitting the 2014-15 season as they search for a new arena. They are a good franchise with strong support, so for our purposes here we're going to assume they get it sorted out sooner than later.)
This is bad news for the 11 AHL clubs losing their affiliates, but some of these teams still deserve to be in the AHL. San Antonio and Lake Erie, which is based in Cleveland, are minor league teams in major league cities, and it wouldn't make sense to bump them down below the AHL.
So let's make a few adjustments.
And some tweaks...
The Lake Erie Monsters stay in the AHL. They affiliate with the Columbus Blue Jackets, just 143 miles away. Columbus' old affiliate, the Springfield Falcons, move down to the lower league. CBJ's affiliate is now 551 miles closer than it was before.
The San Antonio Rampage stay in the AHL. They affiliate with the Nashville Predators, who move their affiliate from Milwaukee. It's quite a bit further for the Predators -- 938 miles to San Antonio, 566 to Milwaukee -- but it's still within reason.
But we're not going to kick out the Milwaukee Admirals either, considering they merged into the AHL from the IHL in 2001 and are another team that plays in a major league city with solid fan support. So we'll bump the Rapid City Rush back down a peg (sorry guys!) and the Winnipeg Jets will plant their affiliate flag in Milwaukee, a city just 792 miles away. Their current affiliate in St. John's, Newfoundland is an insane 3,296 miles away, so that's an improvement.
The Albany Devils are one of the worst-supported teams in the AHL, drawing just 3,360 fans per game in 2013-14. Frankly, they deserve to be knocked down a peg. The Manchester Monarchs will stay in the AHL in the Devils' spot and affiliate with New Jersey. Manchester supports its team and the Monarchs play in a beautiful, relatively new arena worthy of the AHL.
We were informed in the comments that the St. Charles Chill of the CHL actually folded this summer. To fix this, we're going to add the Peoria Rivermen -- an old ECHL and AHL franchise that's swapped owners a few times and is currently playing in the lowly Southern Professional Hockey League -- back to the ECHL.
Meet the new AHL
The new American Hockey League AHL team NHL affiliate Distance (mi) Alaska Aces Edmonton Oilers 1,941 Bakersfield Condors Anaheim Ducks 137 Binghamton Senators Ottawa Senators 267 Bridgeport Sound Tigers New York Islanders 67 Charlotte Checkers Carolina Hurricanes 164 Chicago Wolves St. Louis Blues 311 Colorado Eagles Colorado Avalanche 57 Florida Everblades Florida Panthers 116 Grand Rapids Griffins Detroit Red Wings 158 Hamilton Bulldogs Montreal Canadiens 379 Hartford Wolf Pack New York Rangers 124 Hershey Bears Washington Capitals 131 Idaho Steelheads Calgary Flames 884 Iowa Wild Minnesota Wild 244 Lake Erie Monsters Columbus Blue Jackets 141 Las Vegas Wranglers Arizona Coyotes 276 Lehigh Valley Phantoms Philadelphia Flyers 62 Manchester Monarchs New Jersey Devils 257 Milwaukee Admirals Winnipeg Jets 792 Ontario Reign Los Angeles Kings 43 Orlando Solar Bears Tampa Bay Lightning 110 Providence Bruins Boston Bruins 50 Rochester Americans Buffalo Sabres 87 Rockford IceHogs Chicago Blackhawks 86 San Antonio Rampage Nashville Predators 956 Stockton Thunder San Jose Sharks 77 Texas Stars Dallas Stars 183 Toronto Marlies Toronto Maple Leafs 2 Utah Grizzlies Vancouver Canucks 974 Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins Pittsburgh Penguins 266
Doesn't that feel better?
Aligning the two new leagues
Now we're left with two totally different leagues, and they need to be aligned into divisions. So let's do that.
We'll start in the AHL. We'll align the 30 teams in two 15-team conferences. Inside those conferences will be one eight-team division and one seven-team division.
Eastern Conference Western Conference Marshall Bower Shore Butterfield Hershey Rochester Alaska San Antonio Manchester Toronto Stockton Texas Lehigh Valley Hamilton Ontario Iowa Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Charlotte Bakersfield Rockford Providence Orlando Utah Chicago Bridgeport Florida Idaho Milwaukee Hartford Lake Erie Colorado Grand Rapids Binghamton
Las Vegas
The divisions are named after AHL legends:
Willie Marshall, the AHL's all-time leading scorer
Johnny Bower, who has more wins than any goalie in AHL history
Eddie Shore, a Hockey Hall of Famer and longtime AHL owner
Jack Butterfield, the league's president from 1966 to 1994.
The structure basically matches the NHL's four divisions, and just like in the NHL, it leaves room for two more teams to be added on. After all, if the NHL expands, the AHL likely will also.
Here's what the new AHL looks like on a map:
On to the ECHL -- which we realize might not and probably shouldn't keep the ECHL name -- where 32 teams makes things much easier. Four divisions of eight teams each. Nice and clean.
Eastern Conference Western Conference Riley Valicevic Coffey Miron St. John's IceCaps Elmira Jackals Toledo Walleye Missouri Mavericks Portland Pirates Brampton Beast Kalamazoo Wings Rapid City Rush Worcester Sharks Reading Royals Fort Wayne Komets Denver Cutthroats Springfield Falcons Wheeling Nailers Indy Fuel Wichita Thunder Adirondack Flames Norfolk Admirals Cincinnati Cyclones Oklahoma City Barons Albany Devils South Carolina Stingrays Evansville Icemen Tulsa Oilers Utica Comets Greenville Road Warriors St. Charles Chill Peoria Rivermen Allen Americans Syracuse Crunch Gwinnett Gladiators Quad City Mallards Arizona Sundogs
Again, the division names are based on league or hockey legends:
Jack Riley, a longtime minor league executive for whom the ECHL's first championship trophy was named
Chris Valicevic, an ECHL Hall of Famer, fifth all-time in league scoring, named a league All-Star a record seven times, and named the league's best defenseman four times during his nine-year career
Bill Coffey, credited with starting the ECHL, plus two other minor leagues in the American Southeast
Ray Miron, the co-founder of the Central Hockey League and the current namesake of its championship trophy. We'll keep some of that CHL history.
Potential problems and solutions
Thirteen AHL clubs are currently owned by their NHL affiliate, which could obviously lead to some issues. The Manchester Monarchs are owned by the Los Angeles Kings, for example, and under this arrangement it'd be weird for them to own what we have set up as the New Jersey Devils affiliate.
But with the leagues working together in good faith, these problems could be solved: the Kings would technically move the Manchester franchise to Ontario, Calif. -- maybe they become the Ontario Monarchs? -- and the Albany franchise in the AHL would then move into Manchester, who are perhaps renamed the Manchester Devils.
There are several situations like this, but if the leagues and franchises work together with the understanding that the end result is better for the NHL clubs and better for minor hockey as a whole, they could sort it through and make it work.
The new setup could also lead to the folding of some minor league teams. Maybe we learn that fans in Springfield, Mass. or Glens Falls, N.Y. refuse to support AA-level hockey. When faced with the problem of hockey or no hockey, I think many fans would take the hockey option, but you never know.
These sorts of problems may creep up here and there, and there may be big changes each summer in the early years of this new arrangement. But long term, it's hard to argue that this setup isn't ideal for hockey -- both NHL and minor pro -- in North America.
***
A coast-to-coast AHL undoubtedly helps both itself and the NHL, and it's going to happen sooner or later. This scenario we've laid out above works for everybody, including an ECHL that as the lower league will be forced to have to adapt to whatever changes the NHL and AHL agree are best.
There are obviously plenty of issues with any sort of drastic realignment like this, and all 60+ fan bases in minor league hockey will probably have some quibble or concern or complaint with what we've outlined above. The owners of the 60+ teams -- some of them NHL owners as well -- will probably have even more complaints. The point of this story is merely to start discussion and outline what an ideal, or attempt at ideal, setup could look like.
If you're angry with what we did with your favorite team here, or you think you see another change that would work better than what we've outlined, let us know below in the comments.343 revisions after the 7.0 release follows the new 8.0 release of HeidiSQL now.Get it from the download page Here are the most noticable changes:... and more:- Table editor: Fix handling of BIT default values, and support BIT columns in MS SQL.- Table editor: Improve selection of ENUM and SET default values- User manager: Support dots in database and table privileges- Data grids: Support copying/pasting NULL values- Fix stripped backslashes in VIEW body editor- Apply hotkeys to dialog buttons- Grid export: Remove zero padding to avoid octal => integer conversion in PHP- Data grid: Propose column names from selected table in filter panel- Database and new table filter above database tree- Table editor: Display number of selected columns in status bar- Database tree: Indicate previously selected tables with a non-ghosted icon in the tree, while leaving never selected ones ghosted- Display timestamp in very right status bar panel when executing a query- Table editor: Add missing DATE and TIME datatypes for MS SQL- Table editor: Support old style "TYPE BTREE" in table index code- Routine editor: Finally fix ramshackle detection of routine body- Data grid: Make foreign values drop down optionally- Dialogs: Introduce "KeepAskingSetting" checkbox- Session manager: Move startup script and local time zone options together with SSL settings to a new "Advanced" tab- SQL export: Support filename and dirname patterns in export target combobox- Database tree: Display overlay icons for some special table engines like federated, csv, aria and performance_schema- Implement an automatic keep-alive ping, to prevent SSH tunnels from disconnecting- Add support for renaming tables in MS SQL- Fix crash on exit when connected to pre-4.1 servers- Table editor: Enhance MS SQL compatibility in table editor- Fix and enhance handling of multiple statements and multiple results- Grid export: Add "Include query" and "Include auto increment column" checkbox options- Processlist: Add link label "EXPLAIN Analyzer on MariaDB.org"- Internal: Refactor logic for reading and writing application and session settings- Session manager: Introduce new columns "Last connect" and "Counter"- Extend the variable editor to explicitly modify strings, numbers, booleans or enumerations- Detect client timezone and send SET time_zone to the server, so that NOW() and friends return UTC-fixed values- Session manager: Add server specific icons for TokuDB, InfiniDB and Infobright- Session handling: Use home brown file format for exporting and importing registry settings, as used for the portable version- Implement usage of mysql_warning_count(). Ask for running SHOW WARNINGS in a new query tab.- Fix command line for Wine users- Introduce new preference option "Prefill empty date/time fields".- Restore previous selection after refreshing process list (and neighbor tabs)A '90s CRPG in every way but the release date, Serpent in the Staglands is a campaign within the world of Vol, a fully realized setting inspired by the late bronze age in a Transylvanian landscape, with unique politics, races and gods steeped in history. Featuring a chosen party of five, you take the role of Necholai, a minor god of a celestial body, who descends to the Staglands for a moonlit festival only to find his way home blocked and immortality slipping out of his grasp. Seeking answers and aid, he takes on a mortal body and the guise of a traveling Spicer.
While the game rolls the dice for you, you'll traverse the Staglands on a path narrated by your own wits and choices. A true role-playing experience, Serpent in the Staglands doesn't hinder your adventure with auto-populating map markers, checklist quest grinding or rigid story exposition. You'll put the pieces of the puzzle together, and with different ending scenarios and closed off areas of the game based off actions, you'll want to play it more than once.
Use your own wits to examine maps, decipher languages, decode runes and figure out how to kill the unkillable.I’m still having trouble dealing with what happened to the games community during the second half of 2014. A lot of really depressing stuff happened, and so it’s not surprising that that sense of depression still lingers.
Unfortunately, #GamerGate still isn’t over. When I say “post-GamerGate,” what I really mean is “post-(that-time-when-everyone-was-talking-about)-GamerGate.” The hate mob is still obsessively fixating on and continuously harassing the same four or so women, and they’re still coming up with new targets to attack every week.
I was surprised by how much I was emotionally affected by the whole GamerGate mess. I usually don’t get worked up over many things, since I generally try to be laid back and optimistic, and I also try very hard to stay mentally grounded, since I know that politically and emotionally charged events such as this one have a tendency to mess up one’s sense of perspective. And so I was genuinely surprised when I realized how cynical and depressed I had grown over this whole thing.
And frankly, I’m tired of being depressed about this, so I’m hoping that writing this post might help me to get some of it out of my system, or at least reach a greater sense of emotional clarity on this.
Too Much Staring into the Void
I never even came close to becoming one of GamerGate’s targets, nor was I close to any of the targets that GamerGate did attack. Rather, my first exposure to it was when I saw people talking negatively about it on Twitter. For the first couple weeks, I was very confused about what was happening, so I read tons of articles, conversations, and posts about GamerGate, and I looked for as many different perspectives as I could find.
Part of the reason why I was so driven to understand this properly was because I posted some of those articles to the UA GameDev Club‘s Facebook group, and I worried that I was misinforming our club members if I myself didn’t have a proper understanding of what was going on, especially since we had a few members who were terrified of what was happening. Out of the 200+ people who follow our Facebook group, there were about two or three who vocally defended GamerGate from what those articles were saying about the movement. Not only did this make me feel even less informed, I found myself reading more and more about GamerGate if only to just better understand these members.
And so, fueled by both curiosity and guilt, I probably ended up reading way too much about GamerGate during those first three months. And as things got worse, I found myself motivated by sheer terror and worry — the experience was not unlike compulsively staring at CNN when something particularly scary is happening in the world. I tried following the Twitter accounts of GamerGate’s major voices and targets, and I spent dozens of hours talking to our club’s GamerGate supporters. I also occasionally tried talking to the Twitter hashtag itself, though they were usually less interested in talking and more interested in gathering around to mock and insult me.
This whole effort to research the movement was truly and utterly exhausting, but I now realize that this was all part of my attempt to cope with what was going on. I kept telling myself that maybe GamerGate wasn’t as bad as it seemed — that it only looked bad. I believed that if I just kept looking, listening, and learning, maybe I would find some perspective or some piece of knowledge that would make the movement a little less horrible, and therefore, make its existence slightly easier to accept.
Failed Attempts to Persuade GamerGaters
If you were a member of our Facebook group during that time, odds are that you would have seen at least two or three mega-threads circulating about GamerGate. For the four or five of us who actually participated in those discussions, we posted literally hundreds of comments over the course of a few months. For the most part, I was proud of how civil we all managed to keep these discussions. It really seemed as though we were trying to get through to each other, rather than simply arguing for the sake of arguing. The civility, however, started breaking down after three months or so. We got emotional and our frustrations were getting the better of us, and our discussions eventually died down.
I had such a strong desire to actually do something about GamerGate, to make a difference about the horrible situation, but I felt powerless to do anything about the harassers at the core of the movement. So I latched onto the idea of at least getting through to the GamerGaters in my own club. I felt that if I could at least convince them, then maybe there was some hope for the rest of the movement as well.
And so the long conversations that I was having with our club’s GamerGate supporters became less about coming to a common understanding and more about me desperately trying to convince them that GamerGate wasn’t worthy of their support. I poured so much energy, effort, and time into crafting my arguments and showing compelling evidence, and there were so many times when I optimistically thought, “surely this will help him see the light.”
This was my main coping mechanism for the longest time, and so when I finally gave up on convincing them (which I’ll talk more about later), it left me feeling really depressed and powerless.
Spreading the Bad News
Because GamerGate was so inherently confusing, baffling, and hard to follow, it required a decent amount of research just to be able to confidently form your own opinion on it. And so it felt particularly fulfilling to spread the word about GamerGate’s terribleness, because it seemed as though confusion and obfuscation were GamerGate’s strongest defenses.
There’s also a huge amount of cognitive dissonance that builds up when you spend that much time with people who act like the horrors of GamerGate aren’t a big deal. It just makes you want to stand up and start telling everyone that yes, this is a big deal, the movement is causing a lot of real damage, and GamerGate is filled with nothing but lunacy. Even now, I still feel like I can’t say it enough, because of how many people are out there that still believe that GamerGate is a good thing.
In an attempt to satisfy my urge to speak out against GamerGate more, I ended up publishing a blog post that I just wasn’t very satisfied with. The premise of the article was to present an assessment of the movement from an unconventional perspective, with the hope that it could offer yet another way for someone to conclude that GamerGate is an inherent failure. Unfortunately, it was posted very near GamerGate’s peak of awfulness, so it came off sounding really detached and cold during a time when so many horrible things were happening. In fact, my dissatisfaction with that post was perhaps the main reason why I felt such a strong urge to write this one.
I also briefly appeared on Digital Drift‘s podcast on GamerGate, which was a huge honor since I’ve been a big fan of their show for years. The purpose of the show was to help people understand and make sense of what was happening, so I leaped at the opportunity to participate and help people get through this. And yet, I still came out of it feeling like I wasn’t doing enough to help fix this mess. I found myself in a vicious cycle of wanting to do everything I can to help but never feeling like I was ever doing enough.
I assumed that not many people bothered to read the long discussions on our club’s Facebook group, but when I did speak out in more visible areas, it was a constant internal struggle in which I repeatedly asked myself, “am I talking too much about this?” Some of my concerns were legitimate; I didn’t want the content of our club’s Facebook group to be dominated by one particularly depressing topic. I also feared that my few Twitter followers would grow sick of me retweeting something GamerGate-related every once in a while. Basically, I was afraid that I was coming off as “uncool” for getting so worked up about this (which I must point out is rather petty, considering that so many others in the games community were silent because they were terrified of being targeted by the hate mob).
Today, however, most of my regrets aren’t with respect to how much or how little I spoke out against this mob. What bothers me more is that my voice and actions are basically a drop in the bucket compared to everything else that’s going on. This is likely just me being too hard on myself, though. I’m clearly not in a position to make much of an impact across the entire games industry, and so I really should be more satisfied with the impact that I made in the little communities that I’m involved in. Some of my club members have reached out to me to thank me for speaking out on some of these issues, both during and before GamerGate. And I have to remember that I’m definitely one of the more respected voices in our club’s community, and so the mere fact that I spoke out against these issues probably had more of an impact than I tend to give myself credit for.
It’s also worth noting that speaking out against GamerGate has very little value these days. Mostly everyone knows how horrible the group is, and their credibility has pretty much hit rock-bottom. There’s an effort to shift the focus towards more productive measures, such as helping law enforcement track down the movement’s worst stalkers.
Finally Acknowledging Reality
There’s a running theme present in almost everything that I did in response to GamerGate. As much as I was trying to convince its supporters about its horrors, I was also trying to convince myself that things weren’t as bad as they seemed. I was always telling myself things such as, “These guys aren’t bad/stupid/evil/crazy people; they just don’t realize how bad/stupid/evil/crazy their actions look.” It seems like I was trying to be fair and optimistic, but in retrospect, it feels more like I was in denial. One of the reasons why I put so much energy into this was because I was frantically grasping for something that would prove that the situation wasn’t as bad as it seemed.
The event that kinda woke me up was GamerGate’s psychotic response to the death of Brianna Wu‘s dog last month. When people heard that her dog was dying, she received a ton of vicious and deeply hurtful personal attacks from GamerGaters, presumably because she dared to complain about GamerGaters using her dog’s death as an excuse to harass her. I was so horrified by their behavior that I decided to talk to the person who I felt was the most reasonable GamerGater that I had met by that point. I was desperately hoping that he would tell me, “of course I don’t think this is cool,” but instead he defended it! He kept arguing that the while the harassers were clearly stepping out of line, he thought they were raising valid concerns that Wu should have addressed. I spent over an hour trying to explain to him why asking such questions was incredibly rude and insensitive in that situation, and as far as I can tell, I just couldn’t get through to him.
This was just the last of a series of situations that forced me to realize that these guys just don’t care at all about people. I couldn’t find the slightest shred of sympathy from a single GamerGater, not even the most rational one that I had found. That was the first time that I finally let myself truly acknowledge the darkness that I had been staring at for all those months. I had to acknowledge that things really were that bad. GamerGate’s supporters really are as heartless and as stupid as their actions suggest. They really are perfectly okay with all of the horrors that the movement is responsible for.
That realization made me feel utterly depressed and hopeless. I thought that if GamerGate was going to end, it would be because its supporters would finally come to their senses. I chose to believe in the humanity of its supporters, because that’s what gave me hope. That’s what made me feel like I at least had a chance in all of my attempts to get through to them. But now it was as clear as ever that they were simply way too lost for me to be able to reach them. I had neither the skills or resources to be able to help someone in that situation.
I had always imagined GamerGate as being just a temporary thing. But now I had to deal with the very real possibility that GamerGate wasn’t going to leave any time in the foreseeable future. I tried to walk away from all of this depressing stuff for a few weeks, deciding that perhaps time was the only thing that can solve this problem. I still feel torn up about all of this, though, so now I’m writing this post in an attempt to help myself cope with it.
Coming to Terms with It All
This is the hard part. This is what I was talking about when I said that this post was about me struggling to deal with post-GamerGate depression.
While writing this, I was reminded of the fact that Film Crit Hulk wrote about how he faced the exact same form of depression:
SO HERE’S THE QUESTION HULK KEEPS GOING BACK TO AFTER ALL THAT:
… HOW THE FUCK DO YOU RECONCILE IT?
REALLY – ISN’T THAT THE ONLY QUESTION HERE? HOW DO WE SPIN LIFE, WITH ALL ITS TANGIBLE HORRIBLENESS, INTO SOMETHING GOOD? HOW DO WE LOOK AT THE MOUNTAINS OF HOPELESSNESS? HOW DO WE STARE AT THE VOID AND COME OUT OKAY?
His full piece is definitely worth the read. He went on to write about how he was able to find hope and strength again, how he was able to be just as amazed and moved by all of the acts of kindness that he received during GamerGate as much as he was horrified by the hate of those who attacked him.
I understand that the darkness kinda sucks you in if you look into it too much, and I understand that GamerGaters are an absolutely tiny minority within the larger games community, and yet I still can’t seem to find complete closure on all of this.
I think I’m just sad that all of this garbage ever happened. It’s like looking at the destruction left behind by a big natural disaster. Of course, what happened here wasn’t anywhere near as serious as that, but it’s almost the same kind of sadness. I’m distressed by the damage that I’ve seen and I’m surprised to find myself frantically trying to help in whatever way that I can. In addition to all of the horror, hopelessness, and disappointment that I feel about this |
of several versions of the ointment were detailed in correspondence published in the British Medical Journal in 1945.[52]
Society and culture Edit
Other animals Edit
Main articles: Sarcoptic mange and Acariasis A street dog in Bali Indonesia, suffers from sarcoptic mange Scabies may occur in a number of domestic and wild animals; the mites that cause these infestations are of different subspecies from the one typically causing the human form.[16] These subspecies can infest animals that are not their usual hosts, but such infections do not last long.[16] Scabies-infected animals suffer severe itching and secondary skin infections. They often lose weight and become frail.[22] The most frequently diagnosed form of scabies in domestic animals is sarcoptic mange, caused by the subspecies Sarcoptes scabiei canis, most commonly in dogs and cats. Sarcoptic mange is transmissible to humans who come into prolonged contact with infested animals,[56] and is distinguished from human scabies by its distribution on skin surfaces covered by clothing. Scabies-infected domestic fowl suffer what is known as "scaly leg". Domestic animals that have gone feral and have no veterinary care are frequently afflicted with scabies and a host of other ailments.[57] Nondomestic animals have also been observed to suffer from scabies. Gorillas, for instance, are known to be susceptible to infection by contact with items used by humans.[58]
Research Edit
Moxidectin is being evaluated as a treatment for scabies.[59] It is established in veterinary medicine to treat a range of parasites, including sarcoptic mange. Its advantage over ivermectin is its longer half life in humans and, thus, potential duration of action.[60] Tea tree oil appears to be effective in the laboratory setting.[61]Chocolate peanut butter cups are ridiculously delicious—and you can make your own fresh Reese's Peanut Butter Cups-like version with just some aluminum foil, hot water, and a mug.
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This time last year Westpac's financial results show that the bank had experienced a sharp rise in mortgage arrears in Western Australia.
The state accounted for 10% of Westpac's mortgage book, and it contributed to a 21 basis point rise in the proportion of borrowers overall who are 90 days behind in their mortgage repayments.
CEO Brian Hartzer noted in late 2016 that the downturn in the mining boom had prompted Westpac to scale back its mortgage lending in WA.
Hartzer this week suggested the Perth situation was now turning for the better.
Despite the more positive/neutral commentary recently on WA, Vincent wrote this month that he "couldn't help but notice how bad the 90+ day past due chart in ANZ's pack looks for the state".
"I still believe WA is going to deteriorate," Vincent wrote in a market note this week.
In August, CBA noted Western Australia led its portfolio of home-loan arrears, at a rate that was twice the national average.
CoreLogic this week reported some signs of a pickup in sentiment in the Perth market.
Perth unit values fell 2.7% in the year to September and house values shed 2.9%, CoreLogic figures last month showed.hi, uh here is something I guess ( focusing on the mania aspect of them, cause i have no clue how the others work tbh)
Songs/maps cannot be modified to reach the minimum drain time. Abusing the 5 minute limitation removes its intended purpose. Types of abuse include:
Lowering a song’s BPM
Looping portions of a song
Adding sounds before/after a song begins/ends
Extending spinners/sliders over inaudible sounds
Manually removing breaks
I personally think that might be a problem if the song time is 5 min but drain time appears to be 4:59,
as in that one second of drain time that trolls you and makes you rethink your existence because the song is actually 5 min it's sad : (
with the things above you can do nothing about it and just potentially lead to either make a full spread or give up the song entirely
less likely the first option tho :ç
Mapsets cannot include more than 8 total difficulties of a single game-mode. The highest difficulty of a game-mode is not required to fit within a reasonable spread, so long as no levels of difficulty are skipped.
As for this one,
let's say we do use the same key but map two spread in two really different style that both has 5 diffs each, well we cant
it happend before on a mapset wich had the good idea to make two different spread for two really different playstyle, and eventho we could make two maps for that
I just find it really questionable, as it's the same person and it's their idea so why not, just there is no real reason 'in that specific case',it's not like seeing 42 extras or somethingAn ex Scotland Yard detective has extraordinarily claimed that police covered up a serial killer who stalked and killed 18 people on the London Underground.
The killer murdered his victims in the 1970s by pushing them onto the tracks and former policeman Geoff Platt has alleged that police deliberately kept the case from the public so as not to cause widespread panic.
Mr Platt said that he listened to Kiernan Kelly confess his crimes to police first hand after he was picked up in 1984 for being drunk and disorderly.
Having brutally murdered his cellmate, William Boyd, Kelly allegedly told police about his violent rampages on the Tube system while being questioned.
Mr Platt told The Daily Star: “He was high – high on adrenaline, testosterone… aroused. You could see it in his eyes.
“He was proud of that murder and when we went to speak to him he just confessed to killing 18 other people.”
Police went on to uncover a number of suicides on the Northern Line which appeared to correlate with the details that Kelly gave to police.
However, Platt claimed Kelly was only jailed for two previous murders and that police deliberately kept the details of his alleged killing spree away from the public.
He added: “It was a coverup. Think about it, the police don’t want it getting out – there would be mass panic.
“They didn’t want people knowing a serial killer got away with pushing innocent people on to the tracks – they’d be afraid it could happen again.
“The public would stop using the Underground which would put more traffic on the roads. It would be chaos.”
The British Transport Police asked Mr Platt, who has written about the crimes in his book, The London Underground Serial Killer, to provide any evidence he has to them.
A spokesman said: “We are aware of the claims included in this book but given the passage of time since they are alleged to have been committed these would prove difficult to substantiate without further evidence.
“We would invite Mr Platt to submit any information he has on these matters to us.”We fitted mediation models to single-trial P3b latency and RT data, to test whether the effects of caffeine on RTs was mediated through stimulus or response-locked P3b latency. There was clear evidence of mediation for stimulus-locked latencies, with approximately a third of caffeine’s effect on RTs being due to its effects on stimulus-locked P3b latencies. Caffeine, however, did not affect response-locked P3b latencies and so cannot be a mediator for the effect on RTs. This effect was robust to inferring stimulus and response-locked P3b latencies from each other, suggesting that the different findings for the two latencies cannot be attributed to methodological artefacts from non-overlapping windows.
Caffeine did not affect P3b amplitude, in line with some studies of average ERPs (De Pauw et al. 2015; Tieges et al. 2004), but in contrast to others which show an increase in amplitude after caffeine consumption (Dixit et al. 2006; Martin and Garfield 2006; Ruijter et al. 2000). This is an interesting result in its own right, but in the context of single-trial analysis it is important because it suggests that differences between conditions in terms of latency cannot be attributed to differences in signal-to-noise ratio. Our single-trial analysis technique has identified effects on amplitude in some previous studies (Saville et al. 2011, 2014 ), but not others (Saville et al. 2015b, 2016) suggesting that it is sensitive to such effects when they are present.
Our findings suggest that processes that underlie stimulus-locked P3b latencies can be accelerated by caffeine and that a significant portion of caffeine’s effect on RTs can be attributed to this effect. In contrast, the processes underlying response-locked P3b latencies are not sensitive to caffeine. It is important to consider, however, that response-locked P3b latencies are at least as good predictors of RT as stimulus-locked latencies are, so the lack of an effect of caffeine is not because the processes underlying response-locked latencies are not important for RTs. In contrast, the increase in RT variability exhibited in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been shown to be driven by greater variability in response-locked P3b latencies (Saville et al. 2015a), suggesting that the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying caffeine’s effect on RT are distinct from those associated with ADHD.
In terms of which neurocognitive mechanisms appear to be sensitive to caffeine, our findings are more consistent with effects on stimulus-processing, attentional lapses, and decision-making, rather than response-selection, motor planning, or motor execution. Caffeine has been shown to affect motor behaviour, via its antagonism of adenosine action, but the motor behaviour measured by Karcz-Kubicha et al. (2003) was the running of rats around their cage, which is not equivalent to the more motoric neurocognitive mechanisms we are concerned with here. As mentioned above, the present data were collected during the same session as study examining caffeine effects on neural correlates of perceived effort during a isometric knee extension task (de Morree et al. 2014) allowing us to draw direct comparisons with these results. In this study, caffeine had an effect on motor-related cortical potentials during movement execution, but again the task demanded a very different type of motor behaviour than the button presses required here. So while clearly caffeine can affect some types of motor behaviour, its effect on RTs does not appear to operate via this mechanism.
Our results are interesting for speculating about the processing model underlying RTs and the role of the processes underlying the P3b in this process. At first glance, our results seem consistent with some degree of independence of stimulus-locked and response-locked processing. Caffeine appears to aid cognitive processing as to speed up RT and stimulus-locked P3b peak latency without having an effect on response-locked P3b latency. A more parallel model of RT processing might expect an improvement of relatively early attentional processing to allow response-related motor preparation to begin earlier, speeding up response-locked P3b latencies also. However, it is important to remember that conceptualising the RT as being divided into pre-P3b and post-P3b stages is an oversimplification. As Fig. 2 shows, although a majority of response-locked P3b latencies occur prior to response, a substantial minority of peaks actually occur after responses. Whether or not this reflects simple error in peak identification, that scalp P3b peaks systematically lag the actual timing of important processing being completed, or whether it suggests that the processing underlying the P3b does not necessarily need to be complete prior to responding remains an interesting open question.
Although we find our results persuasive, and they were robust to the control analyses described above, the study had limitations. Firstly, we only used a single task and its demands were largely attentional. A task which was more demanding of motor-planning and execution might show an effect of caffeine on these sub-processes; indeed such a task did show an effect in the same session (de Morree et al. 2014). Against that, it is worth restating that response-locked P3b latencies were, if anything, a better predictor of RT than stimulus-locked latencies, which seems contrary to the notion that these processes were unimportant in this task. Secondly, we focus on the P3b and do not examine other components. This is defensible given the hypothesis-driven nature of our analysis, the depth of our analysis, and the risks of ‘fishing’ when examining too many dependent variables. However, our focus on the P3b may mean we missed potentially important effects elsewhere. Thirdly, although we ran the single-trial analysis with the PCA-Infomax denoised peak picking approach we have used elsewhere and a further analysis using electrode Pz instead of the Infomax factor, obtaining highly comparable results, it is currently unclear how similar the results of different single trial analysis algorithms are. For the current state of the art comparing different techniques, the reader is referred to Ouyang et al. (2017). Fourthly, previous authors have identified specific effects of caffeine on a minority of slow RTs (e.g. Smith et al. 2013). Our analyses only looked at the effects of caffeine on the overall speed of the RT distribution—it may be interesting to examine whether caffeine administration changes the shape of the distribution and how this comes about. Fifthly, the sample size was modest, especially given that three participants’ data were unusable. Power analysis in mediation is somewhat complicated, but it is likely that our study would not have been powered to detect mediation effects that were much subtler than the one observed.
From a methodological point of view, the present study is the first to apply mediation analysis to single-trial ERP data in this way, and this technique appears to have potential for the field of mental chronometry. The use of mixed effects models and single-trial analysis means that these models can be fitted to data from participant sample sizes that are feasible in psychopharmacological studies, so we believe the technique is an especially good fit for this field. Interestingly, similar models fitted to average ERPs did not detect a mediation effect, although the term trended towards significance, suggesting that our technique enjoys superior statistical power to existing methods.
To conclude, our mediation analysis of single-trial P3b latencies suggests that caffeine’s effect on RTs is driven by its acceleration of attentional, as opposed to motoric, sub-processes. This technique appears to be a promising means for studying the neurocognitive effects of psychopharmacological agents in future studies.A crew chief from the 46th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron completes post-flight inspections of the RQ-1 Predator after one of its sorties in Balad Air Base, Iraq. The RQ-1is a medium-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle. (U.S. Air Force/GETTY IMAGES)
The Obama administration’s counterterrorism accomplishments are most apparent in what it has been able to dismantle, including CIA prisons and entire tiers of al-Qaeda’s leadership. But what the administration has assembled, hidden from public view, may be equally consequential.
In the space of three years, the administration has built an extensive apparatus for using drones to carry out targeted killings of suspected terrorists and stealth surveillance of other adversaries. The apparatus involves dozens of secret facilities, including two operational hubs on the East Coast, virtual Air Force cockpits in the Southwest and clandestine bases in at least six countries on two continents.
Other commanders in chief have presided over wars with far higher casualty counts. But no president has ever relied so extensively on the secret killing of individuals to advance the nation’s security goals.
The rapid expansion of the drone program has blurred long-standing boundaries between the CIA and the military. Lethal operations are increasingly assembled a la carte, piecing together personnel and equipment in ways that allow the White House to toggle between separate legal authorities that govern the use of lethal force.
In Yemen, for instance, the CIA and the military’s Joint Special Operations Command pursue the same adversary with nearly identical aircraft. But they alternate taking the lead on strikes to exploit their separate authorities, and they maintain separate kill lists that overlap but don’t match. CIA and military strikes this fall killed three U.S. citizens, two of whom were suspected al-Qaeda operatives.
The convergence of military and intelligence resources has created blind spots in congressional oversight. Intelligence committees are briefed on CIA operations, and JSOC reports to armed services panels. As a result, no committee has a complete, unobstructed view.
With a year to go in President Obama’s first term, his administration can point to undeniable results: Osama bin Laden is dead, the core al-Qaeda network is near defeat, and members of its regional affiliates scan the sky for metallic glints.
Those results, delivered with unprecedented precision from aircraft that put no American pilots at risk, may help explain why the drone campaign has never attracted as much scrutiny as the detention or interrogation programs of the George W. Bush era. Although human rights advocates and others are increasingly critical of the drone program, the level of public debate remains muted.
Senior Democrats barely blink at the idea that a president from their party has assembled such a highly efficient machine for the targeted killing of suspected terrorists. It is a measure of the extent to which the drone campaign has become an awkward open secret in Washington that even those inclined to express misgivings can only allude to a program that, officially, they are not allowed to discuss.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence, described the program with a mixture of awe and concern. Its expansion under Obama was almost inevitable, she said, because of the technology’s growing sophistication. But the pace of its development, she said, makes it hard to predict how it might come to be used.
“What this does is it takes a lot of Americans out of harm’s way... without having to send in a special ops team or drop a 500-pound bomb,” Feinstein said in an interview in which she was careful to avoid explicit confirmation that the programs exist. “But I worry about how this develops. I’m worried because of what increased technology will make it capable of doing.”
Another reason for the lack of extensive debate is secrecy. The White House has refused to divulge details about the structure of the drone program or, with rare exceptions, who has been killed. White House and CIA officials declined to speak for attribution for this article.
Drone war’s evolution
Inside the White House, according to officials who would discuss the drone program only on the condition of anonymity, the drone is seen as a critical tool whose evolution was accelerating even before Obama was elected. Senior administration officials said the escalating number of strikes has created a perception that the drone is driving counterterrorism policy, when the reverse is true.
“People think we start with the drone and go from there, but that’s not it at all,” said a senior administration official involved with the program. “We’re not constructing a campaign around the drone. We’re not seeking to create some worldwide basing network so we have drone capabilities in every corner of the globe.”
Nevertheless, for a president who campaigned against the alleged counterterrorism excesses of his predecessor, Obama has emphatically embraced the post-Sept. 11 era’s signature counterterrorism tool.
When Obama was sworn into office in 2009, the nation’s clandestine drone war was confined to a single country, Pakistan, where 44 strikes over five years had left about 400 people dead, according to the New America Foundation. The number of strikes has since soared to nearly 240, and the number of those killed, according to conservative estimates, has more than quadrupled.
The number of strikes in Pakistan has declined this year, partly because the CIA has occasionally suspended them to ease tensions at moments of crisis. One lull followed the arrest of an American agency contractor who killed two Pakistani men; another came after the U.S. commando raid that killed bin Laden. The CIA’s most recent period of restraint followed U.S. military airstrikes last month that inadvertently killed 24 Pakistani soldiers along the Afghan border. At the same time, U.S. officials have said that the number of “high-value” al-Qaeda targets in Pakistan has dwindled to two.
Administration officials said the expansion of the program under Obama has largely been driven by the timeline of the drone’s development. Remotely piloted aircraft were used during the Clinton and Bush administrations, but only in recent years have they become advanced and abundant enough to be deployed on such a large scale.
The number of drone aircraft has exploded in the past three years. A recent study by the Congressional Budget Office counted 775 Predators, Reapers and other medium- and long-range drones in the U.S. inventory, with hundreds more in the pipeline.
About 30 of those aircraft have been allocated to the CIA, officials said. But the agency has a separate category that doesn’t show up in any public accounting, a fleet of stealth drones that were developed and acquired under a highly compartmentalized CIA program created after the Sept. 11 attacks. The RQ-170 model that recently crashed in Iran exposed the agency’s use of stealth drones to spy on that country’s nuclear program, but the planes have also been used in other countries.
The escalation of the lethal drone campaign under Obama was driven to an extent by early counterterrorism decisions. Shuttering the CIA’s detention program and halting transfers to Guantanamo Bay left few options beyond drone strikes or detention by often unreliable allies.
Key members of Obama’s national security team came into office more inclined to endorse drone strikes than were their counterparts under Bush, current and former officials said.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, former CIA director and current Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta, and counterterrorism adviser John O. Brennan seemed always ready to step on the accelerator, said a former official who served in both administrations and was supportive of the program. Current administration officials did not dispute the former official’s characterization of the internal dynamics.
The only member of Obama’s team known to have formally raised objections to the expanding drone campaign is Dennis Blair, who served as director of national intelligence.
During a National Security Council meeting in November 2009, Blair sought to override the agenda and force a debate on the use of drones, according to two participants.
Blair has since articulated his concerns publicly, calling for a suspension of unilateral drone strikes in Pakistan, which he argues damage relations with that country and kill mainly mid-level militants. But he now speaks as a private citizen. His opinion contributed to his isolation from Obama’s inner circle, and he was fired last year.
Obama himself was “oddly passive in this world,” the former official said, tending to defer on drone policy to senior aides whose instincts often dovetailed with the institutional agendas of the CIA and JSOC.
The senior administration official disputed that characterization, saying that Obama doesn’t weigh in on every operation but has been deeply involved in setting the criteria for strikes and emphasizing the need to minimize collateral damage.
“Everything about our counterterrorism operations is about carrying out the guidance that he’s given,” the official said. “I don’t think you could have the president any more involved.”
Yemen convergence
Yemen has emerged as a crucible of convergence, the only country where both the CIA and JSOC are known to fly armed drones and carry out strikes. The attacks are aimed at al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a Yemen-based affiliate that has eclipsed the terrorist network’s core as the most worrisome security threat.
From separate “ops centers” at Langley and Fort Bragg, N.C., the agency and JSOC share intelligence and coordinate attacks, even as operations unfold. U.S. officials said the CIA recently intervened in a planned JSOC strike in Yemen, urging its military counterpart to hold its fire because the intended target was not where the missile was aimed. Subsequent intelligence confirmed the agency’s concerns, officials said.
But seams in the collaboration still show.
After locating Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen this fall, the CIA quickly assembled a fleet of armed drones to track the alleged al-Qaeda leader until it could take a shot.
The agency moved armed Predators from Pakistan to Yemen temporarily, and assumed control of others from JSOC’s arsenal, to expand surveillance of Awlaki, a U.S.-born cleric connected to terrorism plots, including the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day 2009.
The choreography of the strike, which involved four drones, was intricate. Two Predators pointed lasers at Awlaki’s vehicle, and a third circled to make sure that no civilians wandered into the cross hairs. Reaper drones, which are larger than Predators and can carry more missiles, have become the main shooters in most strikes.
On Sept. 30, Awlaki was killed in a missile strike carried out by the CIA under Title 50 authorities — which govern covert intelligence operations — even though officials said it was initially unclear whether an agency or JSOC drone had delivered the fatal blow. A second U.S. citizen, an al-Qaeda propagandist who had lived in North Carolina, was among those killed.
The execution was nearly flawless, officials said. Nevertheless, when a similar strike was conducted just two weeks later, the entire protocol had changed. The second attack, which killed Awlaki’s 16-year-old son, was carried out by JSOC under Title 10 authorities that apply to the use of military force.
When pressed on why the CIA had not pulled the trigger, U.S. officials said it was because the main target of the Oct. 14 attack, an Egyptian named Ibrahim al-Banna, was not on the agency’s kill list. The Awlaki teenager, a U.S. citizen with no history of involvement with al-Qaeda, was an unintended casualty.
In interviews, senior U.S. officials acknowledged that the two kill lists don’t match, but offered conflicting explanations as to why.
Three senior U.S. officials said the lists vary because of the divergent legal authorities. JSOC’s list is longer, the officials said, because the post-Sept. 11, 2001, Authorization for Use of Military Force, as well as a separate executive order, gave JSOC latitude to hunt broadly defined groups of al-Qaeda fighters, even outside conventional war zones. The CIA’s lethal-action authorities, based in a presidential “finding” that has been modified since Sept. 11, were described as more narrow.
But others directly involved in the drone campaign offered a simpler explanation: Because the CIA had only recently resumed armed drone flights over Yemen, the agency hadn’t had as much time as JSOC to compile its kill list. Over time, officials said, the agency would catch up.
The administration official who discussed the drone program declined to address the discrepancies in the kill lists, except to say: “We are aiming and striving for alignment. That is an ideal to be achieved.”
Divided oversight
Such disparities often elude Congress, where the structure of oversight committees has failed to keep pace with the way military and intelligence operations have converged.
Within 24 hours of every CIA drone strike, a classified fax machine lights up in the secure spaces of the Senate intelligence committee, spitting out a report on the location, target and result.
The outdated procedure reflects the agency’s effort to comply with Title 50 requirements that Congress be provided with timely, written notification of covert action overseas. There is no comparable requirement in Title 10, and the Senate Armed Services Committee can go days before learning the details of JSOC strikes.
Neither panel is in a position to compare the CIA and JSOC kill lists or even arrive at a comprehensive understanding of the rules by which each is assembled.
The senior administration official said the gap is inadvertent. “It’s certainly not something where the goal is to evade oversight,” the official said. A senior Senate aide involved in reviewing military drone strikes said that the blind spot reflects a failure by Congress to adapt but that “we will eventually catch up.”
The disclosure of these operations is generally limited to relevant committees in the House and Senate and sometimes only to their leaders. Those briefed must abide by restrictions that prevent them from discussing what they have learned with those who lack the requisite security clearances. The vast majority of lawmakers receive scant information about the administration’s drone program.
The Senate intelligence committee, which is wrapping up a years-long investigation of the Bush-era interrogation program, has not initiated such an examination of armed drones. But officials said their oversight of the program has been augmented significantly in the past couple of years, with senior staff members now making frequent and sometimes unannounced visits to the CIA “ops center,” reviewing the intelligence involved in errant strikes, and visiting counterterrorism operations sites overseas.
Feinstein acknowledged concern with emerging blind spots.
“Whenever this is used, particularly in a lethal manner, there ought to be careful oversight, and that ought to be by civilians,” Feinstein said. “What we have is a very unique battlefield weapon. You can’t stop the technology from improving, so you better start thinking about how you monitor it.”
Increasing reach
The return of armed CIA Predators to Yemen — after carrying out a single strike there in 2002 — was part of a significant expansion of the drones’ geographic reach.
Over the past year, the agency has erected a secret drone base on the Arabian Peninsula. The U.S. military began flying Predators and Reapers from bases in Seychelles and Ethiopia, in addition to JSOC’s long-standing drone base in Djibouti.
Senior administration officials said the sprawling program comprises distinct campaigns, each calibrated according to where and against whom the aircraft and other counterterrorism weapons are used.
In Pakistan, the CIA has carried out 239 strikes since Obama was sworn in, and the agency continues to have wide latitude to launch attacks.
In Yemen, there have been about 15 strikes since Obama took office, although it is not clear how many were carried out by drones because the U.S. military has also used conventional aircraft and cruise missiles.
Somalia, where the militant group al-Shabab is based, is surrounded by American drone installations. And officials said that JSOC has repeatedly lobbied for authority to strike al-Shabab training camps that have attracted some Somali Americans.
But the administration has allowed only a handful of strikes, out of concern that a broader campaign could turn al-Shabab from a regional menace into an adversary determined to carry out attacks on U.S. soil.
The plans are constantly being adjusted, officials said, with the White House holding strategy sessions on Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia two or three times a month. Administration officials point to the varied approach as evidence of its restraint.
“Somalia would be the easiest place to go in in an undiscriminating way and do drone strikes because there’s no host government to get” angry, the senior administration official said. “But that’s certainly not the way we’re approaching it.”
Drone strikes could resume, however, if factions of al-Shabab’s leadership succeed in expanding the group’s agenda.
“That’s an ongoing calculation because there’s an ongoing debate inside the senior leadership of al-Shabab,” the senior administration official said. “It certainly would not bother us if potential terrorists took note of the fact that we tend to go after those who go after us.”
Staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.Despite massive boycott threats by consumers, at least 3 major sponsors of the NFL have come out in support of players disrespecting our flag and our veterans. NFL players have joined the now unemployed 49’ers QB Colin Kaepernick to take a knee on the field during our national anthem as a way to show support for the Black Lives Matter anti-cop movement. The protest exploded over the weekend when President Trump spoke out against the disrespect NFL players are showing for our flag, turning the protest into an anti-Trump protest for players who many believe are still angry that Trump won the election, defeating the seriously flawed Democrat candidate, Hillary Clinton.
Ford Motor Co., Armour Inc., and Anheuser-Busch InBev SA issued statements that affirmed NFL players’ rights to kneel during the pre-game national anthem, while also sounding patriotic notes and affirming their support for the flag.
Ford Motor Co, one of the biggest sponsors of the NFL just revealed that they are supporting the national anthem protests.
“We respect individuals’ rights to express their views, even if they are not ones we share,” Ford stated. “That’s part of what makes America great.”
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Will the media learn anything from their biased reporting of the Jussie Smollett story? Will the media learn anything from their biased reporting of the Jussie Smollett story?
Will the media learn anything from their biased reporting of the Jussie Smollett story? * Yes, they've gotten so much wrong recently that they're bound to be on their best behavior. No, they suffer from a bad case of Trump Derangement Syndrome. Jussie who?
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Trending: OSCARS 2019: A Hot Mess Of Leftist Politics and Activism On Display [Video]
Ford Motor Co chairman Martha Firestone Ford took her support for the players anti-cop, Black Lives Matter and anti-President Trump protests one step further when she joined her players on the field and linked arms with her daughters.
The tangled responses are the latest version of the challenges faced by corporations in a world in which the president makes public demands and denouncements of companies via Twitter. General Motors Co., Campbell Soup Co., ESPN parent Walt Disney Co. and Uber Technologies Inc. have all faced calls for boycotts related to their perceived support of — or distance from — the White House. –Bloomberg
Americans are not as easily fooled by the actions of these disrespectful athletes and the team owners, as they work together with the media in an attempt to weaken and discredit our President for having the audacity to stand up for America, our flag and for the honor of every brave man and woman who have sacrificed their lives for our great nation.
One of the great things about America is that consumers can decide not to purchase merchandise or goods from companies who continue to advertise with the NFL.Here’s Exactly How We Know That Hillary Is Under Criminal Investigation
Michael Tracey Blocked Unblock Follow Following Oct 28, 2016
Because there’s such an incredible propaganda onslaught underway right now, it’s worth laying out precisely how we know that Hillary Clinton is once again under criminal investigation. Clinton hacks and loyalists will work tirelessly to cast doubt on this claim, even though it is grounded in absolute fact.
Today, FBI Director James Comey issued a letter to Congressional committee chairmen. It’s slightly opaque, but there are more than enough details contained therein to conclude that Hillary Clinton is now under criminal investigation.
Here’s the full text:
Comey writes that “in connection with an unrelated case,” new emails that had not previously been in the FBI’s possession were recently recovered. (We know now that the new emails were recovered from devices possessed by Huma Abedin and Anthony Weiner, the latter of whom is separately under investigation for purportedly engaging in sexually explicit communications with a minor.) The New York Times reports that the newly-recovered emails number “in the thousands.”
One point before we proceed any further: the fact that these new emails were recovered from a device other than Hillary’s private server has no necessary bearing on whether she is criminally implicated. The FBI already announced after its initial “conclusion” of the case in July that it had been forced to obtain relevant emails from non-server sources, because Hillary had destroyed her emails in such a way as to “preclude complete forensic recovery,” as Comey said in his July 5, 2016 statement.
Because the FBI could not obtain all relevant emails by performing a forensic recovery effort on Hillary’s private server(s), they obtained emails from other federal government agencies, such as the Defense Department. These emails factored into the FBI’s investigative effort, despite not having been recovered from Hillary’s server. So these new emails, despite having been recovered from devices owned by Anthony Weiner and Huma Abedin, will likewise factor into the FBI’s present investigative effort.
In his July 5, 2016 statement announcing that he would not recommend charges be brought against Hillary, Comey said: “It is also likely that there are other work-related emails that they did not produce to State and that we did not find elsewhere.” Again, the FBI had to look “elsewhere” for relevant emails because they were permanently destroyed from Hillary’s email server with the software “BleachBit.” Now we know that the Weiner/Abedin devices are “somewhere else” that relevant emails were housed.
As to whether the initial investigation was “criminal” in nature, Comey said in the July 5 statement:
Our investigation looked at whether there is evidence classified information was improperly stored or transmitted on that personal system, in violation of a federal statute making it a felony to mishandle classified information either intentionally or in a grossly negligent way, or a second statute making it a misdemeanor to knowingly remove classified information from appropriate systems or storage facilities.
As this should make blindingly obvious, the conduct which the FBI was “investigating” was potentially criminal. That’s why the FBI conducts investigations: to assess whether crimes have been committed. Because the investigation was prompted by Hillary’s conduct, she was therefore under criminal investigation. (Sorry if this sounds elementary.) In notes released on September 2, 2016, the FBI made clear as day that the investigation was “criminal” in nature since it launched in July 2015, and that Hillary herself was a target:
So now we have established that the original FBI investigation into Hillary’s use of a private email server was criminal in nature. She was thus under active criminal investigation until July 5, 2016, when Comey “closed” the investigation and announced that he would not recommend she be charged with any violations of statutes.
When an investigation is “closed,” it’s not necessarily “closed” for all eternity. “Closed” isn’t a technical term. It just means the investigation is no longer being actively pursued. Any criminal investigation can be “re-open |
32-year-old Aaron's capture on 16 counts of securities fraud, wire fraud, computer hacking, identity theft and several related conspiracy charges, federal prosecutors said.
Authorities have called the scheme "securities fraud on cyber-steroids."
Aaron — who agreed to return to the United States to face the charges at a hearing Thursday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan — was arrested Wednesday as soon as he arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, federal authorities said.
Almost immediately, the word "CAPTURED" was slapped on to Aaron's FBI wanted poster.
Aaron's two alleged co-conspirators — Israeli citizens Gery Shalon, the alleged ringleader, and Ziv Orenstein — were extradited to the United States from Israel in June.
In a statement Wednesday, Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney for Manhattan, described their alleged operation as "hacking as a business model."
Joshua Samuel Aaron, a k a 'Mike Shields,' in his FBI wanted poster, which was updated Wednesday. FBI
According to a superseding federal indictment filed late last year, Aaron — using the alias "Mike Shields" — was the U.S. coordinator and public face of an operation that snatched the personal data of more than 100 million people at 12 major financial institutions from 2012 to 2015.
According to the indictment, many of the victims were investors who were scammed out of millions of dollars because of fraudulently inflated stock prices.
But, separately, financial institutions also lost millions of more dollars via penalties for fraudulent charges to credit and debit cards that the ring allegedly used, the indictment said.
By far, the hacking ring's biggest score was at JPMorgan Chase, where the three men allegedly obtained the data of more than 83 million customers in the summer of 2014, according to the FBI.
JPMorgan Chase later told the Securities and Exchange Commission that account numbers, passwords, user IDs, birthdates and Social Security numbers were all stolen.
But the ring — part of an even larger operation allegedly involving at least nine other people dating at least to 2007 — had tentacles in many other places, according to prosecutors.
They said the enterprise:
Manipulated securities markets
Created and manipulated fake companies
Artificially pumped up stock prices with scam emails
Ran online casinos
Operated an illegal Bitcoin exchange
Laundered money through at least 75 shell companies and accounts around the world
Prosecutors described a classic "pump and dump" operation, which they said often ran through legitimate financial accounts in Aaron's name.
The ring allegedly used data from the haul to scam investors into pouring money into their own fake businesses and into companies whose stock they'd legitimately bought cheaply — driving up the stock's value enough that the scammers could then sell at a profit.
If they're convicted of all charges, Aaron and Shalon could face as long as 117 years in federal prison. Orenstein is charged with fewer counts and could face up to 97 years.
All three face separate civil charges from the SEC.For going from a game-changing force to a marginalized movement, the tea party had the worst year in Washington. (Scott Olson/GETTY IMAGES)
The Gadsden flag, which flew proudly over the 2010 midterm elections, now lies in tatters — rent by internal disagreements, losses among its most visible standard-bearers and a growing sense that the tea party movement, which once looked like it could transform American politics, will soon be nothing more than a blip in the country’s collective memory.
The movement’s journey from boom to bust is the story of American politics writ large. The tea party’s ups and downs (in 2012, mostly downs) highlight some of the key forces shaping today’s battles — from the fissures that threaten to destroy the Republican Party to the perils of a leaderless or multi-leader effort to the difference between proving a point and winning.
The agony and ecstasy of John Boehner
No one person more embodies the fruitful-turned-fractious relationship that the tea party has enjoyed with the political world (and itself) than the man whom the movement made speaker of the House after the 2010 elections: John Boehner.
Fueled by the grass-roots energy and, in some places, anger of tea party members, Republicans gained more than five dozen House seats in 2010, a sweep that put Boehner — an institutionalist’s institutionalist — at the top of a GOP he didn’t really recognize anymore.
For the first two years, Boehner was a SINO (Speaker in Name Only) as he regularly saw his legislative and political goals upended by the purists in his party who regarded compromise as capitulation. The debt-ceiling fight of 2011 was a sign of things to come for Boehner. The speaker engaged in long and serious talks with President Obama aimed at not simply raising the country’s debt limit but also addressing our long-term budget problems. But as it became clear that Boehner was going to have to give to get, the tea party crowd in the House, who saw the debt ceiling vote as a chance to tie the government’s purse strings, made clear that they wouldn’t be going along to get along.
Then came the 2012 elections, a rebuke of the tea party’s ideas and leaders. Sensing an opportunity to wrest control of his party, or at least the House GOP, back from the fringe, Boehner went on offense. He kicked Reps. Tim Huelskamp (Kan.), Justin Amash (Mich.) and Dave Schweikert (Ariz.)off plum committees after the election, insisting that they had been insufficiently loyal to the party leadership on key votes — the most notable of which was on the budget proposal put forward by Rep. Paul Ryan (Wis.), the vice-presidential nominee.
Stories of Boehner’s reemergence were crafted, citing his renewed power over his Republican colleagues and using the tea party committee purge as example No. 1. Emboldened by his newfound strength, Boehner set out to show some force in his negotiations with Obama over the “fiscal cliff.” He introduced “Plan B,” a bill that would preserve the George W. Bush-era tax cuts on everyone except those making $1 million or more a year, and he held a 51-second news conference pledging that it would pass the House and daring the president to ignore it.
Twenty-four hours later, Boehner released a statement admitting defeat. Plan B never made it to the House floor. The speaker and Majority Leader Eric Cantor couldn’t come close to securing the votes required.
The defeat was spurred by the tea party, which saw Boehner’s plan not as a way to put political pressure on the president but as an unnecessary sacrifice of a core principle. That principle? It’s never okay to raise taxes on anyone. As Boehner’s strategy sunk, and with it, his power as speaker, it was the lawmakers he had punished who celebrated most heartily.
“Republican leadership thought they could silence conservatives when they kicked us off our Committees,” Huelskamp said in a statement after Plan B’s demise. “I’m glad that enough of my colleagues refused to back down from the threats and intimidation, thus preventing the Conference from abandoning our principles.”
Huelskamp’s victory, of course, was Pyrrhic. With Boehner marginalized, Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have been left to sort out a fiscal cliff deal — one that almost certainly will be worse for Republicans than what Boehner proposed.
Losing by winning
It wasn’t just in legislative battles where the tea party proved a point but lost the fight in 2012.
Indiana’s Senate race showed the promise and peril of the movement. Sen. Dick Lugar, who was first elected in 1976 and had been easily reelected since then, faced a primary challenge from his ideological right from state Treasurer Richard Mourdock, a little-known but decidedly more tea-party-friendly candidate.
Lugar’s problems weren’t solely ideological — he didn’t live in the state, rarely visited it and ignored advice from national party strategists to take Mourdock’s challenge seriously. But the sense that he tended toward moderation and, gasp, occasionally supported Obama on matters of foreign policy didn’t sit well with the GOP primary electorate.
Mourdock summed up his view of government succinctly the day after he beat Lugar. “I don’t think there’s going to be a lot of successful compromise,” he said on CNN. “I hope to build a conservative majority in the U.S. Senate so bipartisanship becomes Democrats joining Republicans to roll back the size of government.”
He never got a chance to see that vision realized, because of a bit of political hara-kiri he committed in a late-October debate with Democratic Rep. Joe Donnelly. Asked about abortion, Mourdock paused, then said that “even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that is something that God intended to happen.”
And, scene. As Mitt Romney carried the Hoosier State by 10 points, Mourdock lost to Donnelly by six points — a defeat that establishment Republicans immediately used to argue that the tea party’s political compass was either badly miscalibrated or nonexistent.
Mourdock’s win-then-loss epitomized the tea party’s steep decline, but he was far from the only GOP candidate who sacrificed victory at the altar of ideology. Rep. Allen West, running in a swing district in Florida, spent time speculating about how many communiststhere might be in Congress. (Eighty-one, in case you were wondering.) When asked about his feelings on abortion, Rep. Joe Walsh, running in a Democratic-leaning, suburban Chicago district, insisted that “there is no such exception as life of the mother.” (He lost by nine points.) And a tea party heroine and former presidential hopeful, Rep. Michele Bachmann (Minn.), was reelected by just over 4,000 votes against an unheralded Democratic challenger in a suburban Twin Cities district that leans heavily Republican.
The tea party didn’t catch a single break in Election 2012. Take Missouri, where the defeat of Todd “legitimate rape” Akin in the Senate race was laid at the feet of the tea party. The problem with that theory? The major tea party groups had backed Akin’s primary opponents; he won on the strength of his support among social conservatives.
Armed coups and leaderless movements
Beset by challenges on all sides, the tea party needed a leader. Instead, in early September, it got an attempted armed coup — a truth-is-stranger-than-fiction scenario in which former Texas congressman Richard K. Armey tried to seize control of FreedomWorks, a pillar of the movement. (Armey brought an aide with a handgun holstered at his hip to the FreedomWorks headquarters as he attempted to take over. And no, that is not a joke.)
Armey’s mission came up short — he took $8 million to part ways with the organization (not a bad consolation prize) — but that it happened at all exposed the tea party’s fractures to a wide audience.
At the heart of the schism was the question of whether this outsider movement should acclimate itself to the establishment it rebelled against a few years ago. Could the tea party come in from the cold and enjoy the warm embrace of acceptance, or at least tolerance, from the mainstream GOP? And if not, how could it survive without national leaders to help it become something more than an insurgent effort? In other words, the tea party needed a second act but had no director. And no one could even agree on what the script should be. The result? Chaos.
A few moral victories
If the tea party was the bright, shiny object that the political world gazed at in amazement in 2010, by 2012 it looked like a toy that had been discarded as a child moved on to bigger and better things.
To be clear: All wasn’t — and isn’t — lost for the tea party. While 2012 was far from its best year, the movement again proved its ability to influence Republican primary fights. Can you imagine Herman Cain as a relevant force in the presidential race without the power of the tea party?
And yet, its success also showed its limitations in 2012. Mourdock won’t be in the Senate next year. Nor Allen West in the House. A movement can become something bigger only if it understands the difference between winning a battle and winning a war — or between a moral victory and an actual one. The tea party won a few of the former in 2012 but almost none of the latter.
For failing even when it seemed to succeed, the tea party had the worst year in Washington. Congrats, or something.
Read more from Outlook, friend us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter.Newly unredacted European Commission notes for four of the negotiation rounds for ACTA show that the Commission failed to negotiate effectively on behalf of European citizens and businesses. That's the assessment of digital rights organization EDRi and AccessNow, who gained access to the previously censored documents.
This week and next there will be several key votes in European Parliament Committees on ACTA, the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.
In advance of these votes, European digital rights group EDRi and AccessNow managed to obtain documents showing European Commission notes on four of the earlier negotiation rounds.
The notes, which were previously redacted, cover the meetings in Paris during 2008, Rabat and Seoul in 2009 and Guadalajara in 2010. EDRi have conducted their analysis and are disappointed with their findings.
“The documents made public today provide an extensive guide to the failures of the European Commission to negotiate effectively on behalf of European citizens and businesses. They also provide an insight into the ways in which the Commission’s public relations ‘spin’ seeks to hide these failures,” EDRi explain.
Ever since the very existence of ACTA was confirmed, the issue of transparency (or lack of it) has been high on the agenda. Little surprise then that this area is the first to receive criticism.
“From the earliest stages, the Commission made weak and unsuccessful efforts to have a transparent process,” EDRi reports. “The EU ultimately agreed to work to keep all versions away from the public.”
The documents also show that the Commission failed to handle the United States effectively, having agreed to be bound by a confidentiality agreement that created a huge advantage for the US.
“Specifically, [the agreement] permitted the US to show ACTA documents to ‘selected stakeholders’ under non-disclosure agreements while the EU had no equivalent mechanism, thereby giving a big advantage to the stakeholders selected by the US authorities,” EDRi add.
Perhaps of even more concern were problems closer to home experienced with the Swedish Presidency of the European Council. At one stage the Presidency proposed not keeping other Member States in the picture “..with the explicit intention of preventing Italy and the United Kingdom from raising concerns about penal sanctions for online infringements.”
The much-discussed “3 strikes” regime for dealing with illicit file-sharing also raises its head as a thorny issue. After the Commission first denied but was then forced to admit that negotiations on disconnections for infringement had taken place, it later said that all such proposals had been completely rejected. However, the meeting notes show no such discussion or conclusion.
The criticisms by EDRi continue through several more pages of apparent failures, including that the Commission knew that it was lying when it said that ACTA is “only about enforcement and not about substantive law.” For Europeans, EDRi’s conclusion is damning.
“The comprehensive failure of the European negotiators is concerning for a number of reasons, and begs the question of what kind of influence the EU would have in the unelected ACTA Committee if the Treaty passed and was implemented.
“It also underlines the fact that this agreement, from beginning to end, was driven by the United States — the documents were drafted in the image of US copyright law, do not include particular aspects of IP that are considered important to the European economy, and even on such seemingly trivial aspects, like defining what is meant by ‘digital environment’ could not be achieved by the European representations,” EDRi concludes.
So what next for ACTA?
“There are four committee votes coming up – three this week and one next week,”
EDRi Executive Director Joe McNamee told TorrentFreak. “It is now or never.”
The four newly unredacted documents can be found below (pdf)
Paris 2008
Rabat 2009
Seoul 2009
Guadalajara 2010Update 4/16: Kaskade and The Do LaB have canceled this set, citing safety concerns.
The second weekend of Coachella will be one not to miss when Kaskade returns to Indio with a very special REDUX set at the Do Lab stage on Saturday night, in addition to his main stage set on Sunday.
Kaskade’s #REDUX is one not to miss. For those not familiar, Kaskade describes his REDUX sets as “a rare glimpse into the truth of the past. My past. And thus far, only a handful of people can say they’ve experienced it.” That’s all about to change when Kaskade takes the stage this weekend as revealed in an email sent out today from the Do Lab. The email shows the word REDUX creatively composed of the names of several older Kaskade tracks.
Get ready for an incredible experience that you’ll certainly not want to miss when Kaskade graces the Polo Fields with a one-of-a-kind set at Coachella this Saturday at 6:00pm. Get there early!
Check out part of the Do Lab email down below, courtesy of Josh Sternbach.
Thanks for letting us share it Josh!Texas authorities may seek adult prison for Ethan Couch — the Texas teen who used affluence, or 'affluenza,' as a juvenile defense to skip jail time for a drunk-driving accident that killed four people — after they announced he was taken into custody with his mother, Tonya, by Mexican authorities Monday in Puerto Vallarta, nearly two weeks after the 18-year-old failed to show up for a probation appointment.
The announcement was made during a late-morning press conference where authorities laid out possible legal options for the state to pursue. Couch will have a court hearing on Jan. 19 where the district attorney will motion to move the juvenile case to adult court. The juvenile judge will make the decision on where the case will be heard.
Couch and his mother were located and arrested by Mexican authorities on a road in the resort city of Puerto Vallarta. Couch, who was previously known to have blond hair, had brown hair but authorities were able to make a positive identification.
Authorities said it appears that the two planned the escape.
"They even had something that was almost akin to a going-away party before leaving town," Tarrant County Sheriff Dee Anderson said.
Anderson said an arrest warrant would be issued for Couch's mother, Tonya Couch, on charges of hindering an apprehension. A prosecutor says that during a hearing next month they plan to ask a judge to transfer Ethan Couch's case to adult court.
Couch's attorneys, Scott Brown and Reagan Wynn, said in a statement they won't comment on the case until they speak with their client, which likely won't happen before Couch reaches the U.S. The two were being held at immigration offices in the state capital, Guadalajara, and would be returned to the United States aboard a commercial flight to Houston sometime Tuesday.
"They are going to be sent back to their country, given that they were in Mexico improperly," Ariel Vera said. "They would have had to enter, for example, as tourists, but they entered without registering."
Mexico's Jalisco state prosecutors' office said its agents had been working with American authorities since Dec. 26 to track down and capture Couch and his mother.
They were found in a dowdy section of Puerto Vallarta's old town, far from the glitzy resorts, golf courses and high-rise hotels of the city's newer section. The street corner where they were found is dotted with a small sandwich shop, a taco stand, and a mom-and-pop corner store. A playground and a day-care center with a fence topped with razor wire stand nearby.
Couch was apparently trying to lie low; a photo distributed by the Jalisco state prosecutor's office show him in detention with his blond hair dyed black and his normally blondish beard a light brown.
Anderson has said he believes the two fled in late November after a video surfaced that appears to show Couch at a party where people were drinking. If found to be drinking, Couch's probation could be revoked and he could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.
Couch was driving drunk and speeding on a dark two-lane road south of Fort Worth in June 2013 when he crashed into a disabled SUV off to the side, killing four people and injuring several others, including passengers in Couch's pickup truck.
He pleaded guilty to four counts of intoxication manslaughter and two counts of intoxication assault causing serious bodily injury. Because of his age, he wasn't certified as an adult for trial and a judge sentenced him in juvenile court to 10 years' probation and a stint in a rehabilitation center.
The U.S. Marshals Service had issued a wanted poster promising a reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to Ethan Couch's whereabouts and capture.
The Associated Press contributed to this reportSolid-state drives are all the rage lately, thanks to their high transfer speeds and ultrafast access times, but most people still use cheap, spacious mechanical hard drives. Unfortunately, mechanical hard drives also constitute one of the most significant performance bottlenecks in modern computer systems. Even when paired with the fastest processors and lots of memory, a slow hard drive will drag down the a system's overall performance and responsiveness, which is why upgrading to an SSD usually yields such significant performance gains.
If upgrading to a solid-state drive isn't the cards for you right no, you can improve the performance of your hard drive through a technique colloquially known as "short stroking." In simple terms, short stroking a drive means partitioning it so as to use its highest-performing sectors. Hard drives perform differently depending on where data is stored on their platters. Knowing where the fastest sections of the drive are and partitioning the drive to take advantage of them are the keys to optimizing it.
Finding the Sweet Spot
Generally, the smaller you make the initial, primary partition on a hard drive, the better that volume will perform. But no one likes to be limited by a tiny volume size, so it's very useful to be able to determine where transfer rates begin to drop off on a hard drive. With that information in hand, you can tune your partition to balance overall performance against volume size.
All you need is a benchmark tool like HD Tune or HD Tach that evaluates performance across an entire drive and graphs the results. We used HD Tune in our tests.
To measure a hard drive's performance, you'll need access to a system that already has a fully functional OS installation on another drive. Connect the drive you want to test to this system as a secondary volume, and then run the benchmark tool. You'll notice that performance starts at a relatively high level and then gradually tapers off. For this article, we tested a 1TB Western Digital Velociraptor drive and initially saw transfer rates in the vicinity of 210 megabytes per second, which gradually slowed to about 116 MBps. Similarly, access times were fastest in the early part of the test and grew slower as the test progressed. This phenomenon occurs because hard drives are fastest when they access data from the outermost tracks on its platters. Given a constant spindle speed (10,000 rpm, in the Velociraptor's case), the drive's read/write heads can simply cover a larger area in a shorter amount of time when positioned over the outer edges of the platter, resulting in better performance.
For optimal system performance, you need to place your OS and all of your most commonly used applications and files in the fastest areas on the drive. Accomplishing this goal involves creating a primary partition of the correct size on the drive and then installing your OS and apps there. You can partition and use the remainder of the drive, too, but you should store only infrequently accessed data there.
With the Velociraptor hard drive we tested, performance began to drop noticeably at about the 200GB mark, as the HD Tune graph above indicates. By the 300GB mark, transfer rates had fallen by about 50 MBps from their initial speed, and they continued to decline from there. 200GB is plenty of space for a primary partition, so that's the size we'd make ours.
Once you've identified the sweet spot on your drive, create a primary partition of the optimal size. You can do this either during the initial setup phase (when installing the OS) or while the drive is connected to a system whose OS is already installed. To create a partition during a fresh installation of Windows, follow the on-screen prompts during the first phase of the setup process until you reach the point of choosing a target drive. Then click Drive Options (advanced), select your drive on the resulting screen, and specify the partition size. To create a partition on a drive connected to a system that already has Windows installed, connect the drive, boot into Windows, click the Start button, type Disk Management in the Search/Run field, and press Enter. The Disk Management utility will open and, if it detects a new blank drive, will usually launch a wizard. If no wizard launches, right-click the entry for the drive in the list at the bottom of the window, and choose the option to create a new volume. Because Windows uses binary measurements in megabytes to specify partition sizes, 1 gigabyte contains 1024 megabytes. Consequently, in specifying our 200GB partition, we had to identify a partition size of 204,800MB (200 × 1024).
Performance Testing
To gauge the performance benefits of short-stroking a hard drive, we ran a couple of popular benchmarks--HD Tune 5.0 and PCMark 7--on our 1TB Velociraptor hard drive, first with a single partition that spanned the entire drive and a second time with a primary partition consisting of the drive's highest-performance, first 200GB of space.
WD Velociraptor 1TB w/ 1TB partition WD Velociraptor 1TB w/ 200GB partition Improvement HD Tune 5.0 (read test) Average transfer rate 164.1 MBps 194.4 MBps 18.46% Minimum transfer rate 116.2 MBps 181.7 MBps 56.37% Maximum transfer rate 207.3 MBps 210.7 MBps 1.64% Burst rate 336.0 MBps 335.2 MBps -0.24% Access time* 7.13 ms 5.43 ms 23.84% PCMark 7 Secondary Storage Benchmark Overall score 2699 2743 1.63% Starting applications 5.9 MBps 6.05 MBps 2.54% Importing pictures 11.74 MBps 12.17 MBps 3.66% Video editing 21.11 MBps 21.36 MBps 1.18% Gaming 7.97 MBps 8.03 MBps 0.75% Windows Media Center 8.09 MBps 8.11 MBps 0.25% Windows Defender 2.71 MBps 2.82 MBps 4.06% Adding music 1.34 MBps 1.34 MBps 0.00%
* In milliseconds; on this measure, lower scores indicate better performance.
Test system: Intel Core i7-2700K, Asus P8Z68-V Pro (Z68 Express), 8GB DDR3-1600, Western Digital Raptor 150GB (OS), Nvidia GeForce GTX 285, Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
A hard drive's access times and minimum transfer rates benefit most from short stroking, though the average transfer rate will also jump significantly. According to HD Tune, our drive's minimum transfer rate increased from 116.2 MBps to 181.1 MBps, a boost of more than 56 percent. Also, our drive's average access time decreased from 7.13 ms to 5.43 ms, an improvement of about 23.8 percent. And the drive's average transfer rate saw a nice gain of 18.46 percent, from 164.1 MBps on the 1TB partition to 194.4 MBps on the optimized 200GB partition.
PCMark 7's Secondary Storage benchmark--a suite of trace-based tests that measure performance of simulated real-world workloads, rather than raw transfer speeds and access times (as HD Tune does)--tells a somewhat different story. Though the gains reported by PCMark 7 are less dramatic than those identified by HD Tune, system performance improved nearly across the board. The drive's overall score increased by 1.63 percent after short stroking, with the biggest gain coming in the Windows Defender test, which saw an improvement of 4.06 percent.
Ultimately, short-stroking a hard drive won't raise your hard drive's performance to the level of a solid-state drive. Nevertheless, the right partition configuration can yield tangible gains, as our test results show. A fast storage subsystem usually delivers perceptible performance improvements for the end user, so if you're stuck with a hard drive in your system, why not ensure that it's configured for peak performance?Lyon (AFP) – Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s National Front (FN), was acquitted Tuesday of charges of inciting hatred after comparing Muslim street prayers to the Nazi occupation.
The 47-year-old had been accused of “inciting discrimination, violence or hatred toward a group of people based on their religious beliefs” over the comments she made on the campaign trail in December 2010.
However magistrates in the southeast city of Lyon absolved her of any crime.
The FN made a historic showing in regional elections on Sunday.
Although the anti-immigration party did not manage to win any regions in the poll, its strong showing in a first round of voting panicked mainstream parties, forcing them to band together to strip votes from the FN in the second round.
Nevertheless the party recorded its best-ever electoral score with 6.8 million votes, prompting Le Pen to crow: “Nothing can stop us now.”
Le Pen, who took over the party from her rabble-rousing father Jean-Marie in 2011, has worked hard to soften its image.
However the party remains staunchly anti-EU and opposed to immigration and Le Pen has compared the flood of migrants on Europe’s doorstep to the “barbarian invasions” of the fourth century.
While on the campaign trail in December 2010, she complained about places in France where Muslims worshipped in the streets outside mosques when they were full.
“I’m sorry, but for those who like talking a lot about World War II, if it comes to talking about the Occupation, we can talk about it, because that (Muslims praying on the street) is the occupation of territory,” she told a crowd in Lyon.
“It is an occupation of part of the territory, suburbs where religious law is applied. Sure, there are no armoured vehicles, no soldiers, but it is an occupation nonetheless and it weighs on residents.”
After the comments, which provoked outrage in France, Le Pen was investigated but the probe was later closed without further action.
However, a complaint led to the launch of a judicial enquiry in January 2012.
Le Pen was charged in July 2014 after her immunity as a member of the European Parliament was lifted following a vote requested by French authorities.
While relieved of these charges, Le Pen is still facing legal woes.
Her party has also been slapped with charges of fraud as part of an ongoing probe into campaign financing.I have learned that Cinematographer Larry Fong has been hired as cinematographer for Shane Black‘s The Predator. This is great news for the upcoming reboot/sequel to the iconic 1987 sci-fi film Predator. More details on Fong and the production, after the jump.
Larry Fong is best known for being the director of photography for Zack Snyder’s films. He came up with the Bad Robot guys, having been part of the infamous Super 8 film festival where he met JJ Abrams. He was director of photography for Abrams’ pilot episode of Lost, for which he was nominated for an ASC Award. Fong went on to lens eight more episodes in the popular television series.
In films, he made a name for himself on Snyder’s films, including 300, Watchmen, Sucker Punch and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. He also worked on Abrams’ Super 8, Louis Leterrier’s Now You See Me and the upcoming Kong: Skull Island. The trailer for that film came out last week, with many people pointing out Fong’s stunning cinematography.
The Predator is now in pre-production scheduled to begin shooting in February 2017. We still know very little about The Predator, just that the main character is not Dutch (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the original 1987 film, which happened to co-star Black). The lead in this movie will be played by Boyd Holbrook, who stepped in after Benicio del Toro dropped out. Olivia Munn will head up an expected “strong” supporting cast. Trades initially reported that the film would bring the Predator to Suburbia, but Black has since debunked that story.
Though his movie is being positioned as a soft reboot, it’s a sequel to the original. Black has said that the film “has to stand on its own two feet, but our goal is to make sure it acknowledges that, yeah, it is 30 years later in the continuity of the story.” The film will recognize that Dutch Schaefer’s patrol was slaughtered 30 years ago in the context of the story. “It’s referenced, it’s part of the mythology. In that way, it’s more of a sequel than a reboot.”
Black has also said that the film will be rated R and it “should be scary,” funny and “ultimately it should be wondrous and about perceiving things that human beings very seldom get a chance to see.” I feel like everything Black says and all of the announcements and casting so far has been exactly what I’ve wanted to hear. And now with Fong on board behind the camera I’m even more excited.
The Predator stalks into movie theaters on February 9, 2018.Everything old is new again, and retro games are more popular than ever. Bolstered by nostalgia and the abundance of casual and arcade-style games on iOS and Android devices, old school games are making a comeback. In this tutorial I'll give you some tips on creating a successful retro-themed game.
Choosing a Retro Style
What do we mean when we talk about'retro' games? There's no concrete definition, but I typically think of games made before 1990. This includes games from consoles like the GameBoy, NES, Atari 2600, and Commodore 64, as well as classic arcade games like Pac Man, Centipede, and Space Invaders.
All of those examples use blocky, pixelated, bitmap (or 'raster') graphics. These are the type of games that probably come to mind for most people when they think of retro games.
Raster Graphics: Pac Man (Arcade), Frogger (Atari 2600), Super Mario Bros. (GameBoy) Raster Graphics: Pac Man (Arcade), Frogger (Atari 2600), Super Mario Bros. (GameBoy)
But the earliest video games actually used vector graphics. Games like Battlezone, Asteroids and Tempest were rendered with brightly glowing lines instead of blocky pixels.
Vector Graphics: Battlezone (Arcade), Tempest (Arcade), MineStorm (Vectrex) Vector Graphics: Battlezone (Arcade), Tempest (Arcade), MineStorm (Vectrex)
Another type of game us old folks used to play were simple handheld games that used a monochrome LCD display and extremely simple game mechanics.
LCD Graphics: Donkey Kong Jr. (Game & Watch), Mario's Cement Factory (Game & Watch) LCD Graphics: Donkey Kong Jr. (Game & Watch), Mario's Cement Factory (Game & Watch)
In this tutorial, we're going to talk about the more popular raster graphics games, but I mention these other types of games because they are not often emulated, and I think there is a lot of opportunity for game designers to do something really cool with those styles.
Creating a Color Palette
To create a convincing retro look, you'll want to work with a limited set of colors.
Old-school game consoles were only able to display a limited number of colors. Depending on the system, graphics would be shown in black and white, grayscale, or 8- or 16-bit color. You can see examples of the exact color palettes from specific systems on Wikipedia, but it's not important to choose historically accurate colors as long as you maintain a consistent style within your game.
We don't face the same hardware limitations we did in the past, but keeping your palette limited to a few carefully chosen colors will not only emphasize the retro aesthetic, it will also help to define the identity of your game. Look at these two examples of color palettes from Super Mario Bros.:
The colors are so distinct, you can almost recognize the game just from the color swatches.
David Sommers has a nice collection of classic game palettes at ColourLovers.com.
The exact colors you choose will depend on the theme and mood of your game, but if you take the time to choose a good set of colors your game will feel as iconic as the classics. Take a look at these modern examples:
If you're having trouble choosing colors that work well together, check out this great tutorial by Tyler Seitz, Picking a Color Palette for Your Game's Artwork.
Choosing a Pixel Size
Retro raster games are most easily recognized by their big chunky pixels, from a time when screen resolutions were much lower. In today's world of HD screens and Retina displays, the physical pixels on our devices are barely visible - not nearly prominent enough to get the retro blocky look.
In this example each pixel from our character graphic is being displayed on screen with four physical pixels. In this example each pixel from our character graphic is being displayed on screen with four physical pixels.
To account for this, we need to use multiple physical pixels to display each visible pixel in our game graphics.
You can decide what level of scaling is appropriate for your game depending on how blocky you want your game to look. Usually scaling up to two or three times normal size gives a good effect. Keep in mind that the bigger you go, the less you'll be able to fit on the screen.
I recommend that you always let your game engine do your pixel scaling for you. This means that all your assets and text are drawn at 100% (small) and the game simply scales up the entire game canvas to get to the final size. You could actually draw assets with larger pixels, but this will increase file sizes and load times, and can also have a negative impact on game performance.
Inconsistent pixel |
see hundreds of homes, lodges, and restaurants nestled into a natural mountain amphitheater. Namche is the largest village in the Khumbu region, and the point at which the trail to Goyko Ri separates from Everest Base Camp trail. We ended up staying two nights at the Himalayan Lodge in order to allow ourselves an extra day to acclimatize at 11,000 ft. There was no opportunity to be bored on a rest day in Namche with the excellent coffee shops, book stores, souvenir stands and short day hikes where, if you’re lucky, you can get your first glimpse of Everest and the surrounding tall peaks.
Once out of Namche, the trail started out relatively gradually, followed by a steep descent for a few thousand feet then immediately went back up a few thousand more feet to Dole village. Dole had only a few structures, some of which were still being rebuilt from the 2015 earthquake. The lodge owners in this village welcomed us graciously as they continued their off-season repairs around us. From this point on, we saw no signs of any other trekkers. All that remained were locals tending to their land and lodges, porters quickly passing us on the trail despite the hundreds of pounds they carried supported by their foreheads and backs, and plenty of yaks.
The views in Dole were spectacular as we overlooked the deep river valley that flowed from Everest toward the base of Kusum Kanguru. Waking up with the sun allowed us to enjoy the tall peaks before they began to be obscured by the midday clouds.
From Dole, there were only a few miles left to go to Gokyo, but in order to avoid ascending too quickly and risking altitude sickness, we split the remainder of the hike into two days. We spent a night in Machermo, where we could wash out our clothes in the river, then began the final ascent to Gokyo the following day. Although the entire hike had been challenging, on this final leg, well above 14,000 feet, every step felt like it might be my last. We could only walk a few minutes at a time before stopping to catch our breath, despite the moderate grade at this point.
As we approached Gokyo, the terrain transitioned from low, green brush with wildflowers to glacial runoff and rock fields with an abundance of arbitrarily-placed cairns, which seemed to only be there to confuse my already delirious self. The trail leveled out as we approached a series of 3 glacial lakes that were a color of turquois I thought only existed in over-dramatized travel books. The village of Gokyo was nested between the third lake and Gokyo Ri—the 17,575 foot peak from which we would be able to see Everest.
We stayed at Hotel Namaste with a beautiful older couple, who spent hours sitting with us around their wood stove telling us their remarkable life story. They were so gracious that I felt like I could have stayed there for months, but my cricket alarm clock went off at 4 am the next morning so that we could get to the top of Goyko Ri in time to see the sunrise over Everest.
We started out in the dark, guided by our trusty headlamps. As I trudged up the hill, significantly behind Prakash, the sky lightened just enough to see the silhouettes of the peaks surrounding us on every side. At this point, we were greeted by some friendly yaks, who seemed to be the gatekeepers of the mountain and were sporting some pretty rad earrings.
After about an hour and a half, we reached the top of Gokyo Ri where there hung hundreds of brightly-colored, frozen prayer flags. We sat down for a moment to catch our breath, and, almost immediately, the first rays of warm sun crept out from behind Everest. I cannot even begin to explain the awe I felt, not only seeing the light beaming from Everest, but being surrounded on every side by dozens of equally majestic Himalayan peaks.
After spending a morning looking at Everest, I just walked around in a daze for the rest of the day. We spent another night in Gokyo village, then made our way back down the valley to Dole, took a detour to the Sherpa village of Phortse, which is home to more Everest climbers than anywhere else in the world, and eventually made it back to Lukla, where we had started our trek.
We planned to get a flight back to Kathmandu, but after four days of rain and cancelled flights, we were told our best options was just to walk. Of course, why didn’t I think of that? I always just walk when I can’t get the flight I want. The two-day walk to the nearest road where we would be able to get a jeep ride out of the mountains ended up being doubtlessly the most difficult part of the whole trip. The rain was ceaseless, the trails were literally knee-deep with a slippery slurry of mud and donkey shit, and the repeated elevation gain and loss left me dumbfounded.
But, hey, I got to watch the sunrise over Everest, and I think that’s all a girl can ask for.
A big thanks to Alyssa for this post. Check out more of her adventures on Instagram @alyssatorj.
This was our first official guest post and the bar has been set high. For anyone else interested in submitting a post, click here for more information.
Like this: Like Loading...Skittles continues to walk the line between cute and creepy. How successfully it does so is, of course, a matter of personal taste. This new spot from DDB Chicago, "Skittles Smile," sets my choppers on edge for some reason, but I'm about 96 years past the target demo, and it probably works just fine for its intended audience. The ad's high-school-age heroine clearly savors the flavor of her deep-kiss encounter with a boy who has Skittles for teeth. (Were his baby teeth Pez?) The girl is played by Laura Spencer, who has gained a following from her role in The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, an Internet reboot of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Spencer also appears in a current Sprint commercial, though swapping spit with her co-star in that one would've been a grave mistake. Credits below.
Behind the scenes of the new skittles "SMILE" commercial aka best wrap surprise ever! http://t.co/xMhcRT2YA2 — Laura Spencer (@itslauraspencer) September 3, 2013 CREDITS Client: Mars/Skittles Agency: DDB, Chicago Senior Vice President, Executive Creative Director: Mark Gross Creative Director, Copywriter: Kathleen Tax Creative Director, Art Director: Marisa Groenweghe Vice President, Producer: Will St. Clair Production Manager: Scott Terry Vice President, Senior Account Director: Kate Christiansen Vice President, Account Director: Gwen Hammes Account Executive: Jennifer Marks Account Manager: Trace Schlenker Senior Vice President, Group Strategy Director: David "Chizzy" ChriswickVideo (00:32) : Minneapolis police have arrested two people in connection with an armed carjacking behind a strip mall in north Minneapolis.
Police say four suspects kidnapped and threatened a disabled veteran during an armed carjacking that ended with one suspect being shot and injured by police early Thursday in north Minneapolis.
Officers were called to the area of 21st and Bryant Avenue North around 4 a.m. for an alleged kidnapping, said spokesman John Elder. Earlier, a resident was reportedly carjacked near 12th and Knox Avenues N. and forced into his vehicle.
Officers spotted the victim's car and during a foot chase, police fired and struck one of the suspects, who was believed to be armed, authorities said.
Two suspects were arrested, including the one who was shot, and taken to a hospital and later released, police said. Police are searching for the other two suspects and are investigating whether the suspects were involved in an earlier robbery.
It was not immediately clear if suspects fired at police. No officers were injured, Elder said.
One of the suspects had a handgun, which was recovered at the scene. Police found a second one later during the investigation, Elder said.UPDATE: I've added labels to the image, as well as removed the light green colouring. Europe is mostly blank, as it was too small to label on this map, but the place names can be guessed by checking my other HDM note. Labels for the Levant and Mesopotamia (Israel region & Iraq) are missing for the same reason.Here it is, the long awaited (and admittedly unfinished) map of the world as it appears in the book series "His Dark Materials". In an earlier submission of mine ( [link] ) I attempted to verbally map the world using the places listed in "Lyra's Oxford", and matching them with historical states of the world. Now, I've taken it to the next step and attempted to map it all!As you'll notice, it's not finished, mainly because African states were barely described to the point where I only knew a few places exist. In addition to this, several locations were not described at all, which leaves large gaps in the map. So far, Dark Green indicates an identified state, and White indicates an unfinished area. Some places I even had to guess at a border, as their world history differed from ours.Phillip Pullman's descriptions aren't very helpful at times, and often contradict each other. Despite mentioning Siberia as a separate country in Lyra's Oxford, the map in Once Upon A Time In The North shows no such divisions, possibly suggesting that they are instead regions of Muscovy. Africa could be uncolonised, or it could be still in the colonial period for all we know. Kazakhstan, Turkestan and Tartary are all names used, when at times they have all been used to refer to the same regions of land, which makes placing them even more confusing.His Dark Materials is copyright Phillip Pullman.My various sources for this map are listed here ( [link] as well as the pages listed below. [link] (Central_Europe) ) [link] (2008-03).svg )Now, in this world there is the legend of the "Shadowman" He is supposed to be the last survivor from the old world. He used to be rich and powerful and he had gathered all the worlds greatest scientists to turn him immortal. When the sun turned red, he realized that it's rays were the only thing that could kill him, so he had a satellite constructed that would always cast a shadow on him from the orbit. After all his scientists died and technology crumbled, there was nobody left to control the satellite and it would continue to hide him from the sun, the only thing that could bring him death.
The Legend days he wanders the earth looking for someone to bring him death now, because he grew tired of life, but he is forced to live on in his immortal body.If he finds children he takes them with him to keep him company because he is lonely.
The story is like a tale for children in this world to make them stay inside during the day, even if it is dark outside for some reason. The Shadowman is like their bogeyman, but there could also be truth to the tale.
What I imagine is a picture of the village in the foreground, maybe close or partly build into the side of a mountain. There should be one bigger domed building, that is mentioned in the story like a community building.
There would be fields of crops and maybe a caretaker wandering the premises, and in the background there would be a large shadow on the ground with a lone figure in the middle of it.
Concept of a post-nuclear world forThe requirements:A new doll that has no facial features like eyes, nose or mouth and wears a hijab has been launched in Britain for Muslim girls.
The doll has been designed in accordance with the Sharia or Islamic law, which forbids graphic depiction of facial features of any kind.
The "Deeni Doll" costs £25 ($40) and was manufactured in China. Its creator Ridhwana B, who used to teach at a Lancashire Muslim school, said she took four years to create it.
"I came up with the idea from scratch after speaking to some parents who were a little concerned about dolls with facial features," said Ridhwana, Metro reports.
She further said that some parents do not leave dolls with their children at night "because you are not allowed to have any eyes in the room."
"There is an Islamic ruling which forbids the depiction of facial features of any kind and that includes pictures, sculptures and, in this case, dolls," she added.
To materialise the idea, she needed to have considerable knowledge as to what is allowed and what is not under the Islamic law. She said that she spoke to a religious scholar living in Leicester. The scholar guided her through the entire process of designing the product.
At present, the doll is limited to 'Romeisa', the female companion of Prophet Muhammad. Ridhwana hopes to extend the range after doing proper research.
"The Islamic range in kid's toys is quite limited at the moment with few choices. Although this project took a while, I am looking at researching other ideas in the future. I am looking at compiling a book for the Islamic upbringing of children in the future too. We have produced a limited amount at the moment but already I have had parents take up the order."Advertisement Upstate resident dies of West Nile virus, DHEC officials say Death is first West Nile virus death in state in 2017 Share Shares Copy Link Copy
An Anderson County resident has died from West Nile Virus, the first such occurrence in South Carolina this year, according to the Department of Health and Environmental Control.DHEC did not provide any additional information on the victim.DHEC has confirmed seven human cases of West Nile Virus statewide, along with detection in 10 birds and 55 mosquito samples.The risk of serious illness or death from West Nile Virus is low. Less than one percent of people infected develop a potentially fatal swelling of the brain, known as encephalitis.Most people infected with West Nile virus have no symptoms. About one in five people infected becomes ill within two to 14 days with symptoms including fever, headache, joint pain, muscle pain, and occasionally nausea and vomiting. They may often experience sensitivity to light and inflammation of the eyelids, and some may have a rash."If you develop fever or other symptoms after being bitten by a mosquito, you should contact your health care provider," Dr. Melissa Overman, South Carolina assistant state epidemiologist. DHEC stresses the importance of paying attention to the most effective ways to prevent mosquito-borne illnesses, including West Nile Virus:Repellents help keep mosquitoes from biting. Apply insect repellent containing DEET, picaridin, oil of lemon eucalyptus, or IR 3535 according to label instructions.Make sure that your doors and windows have tight-fitting screens to keep out mosquitoes.Eliminate all sources of standing water on your property, including flowerpots, gutters, buckets, pool covers, birdbaths, old car tires, rain gutters and pet bowls.Wearing light-colored clothing to cover the skin reduces the risk of bites.BIG NAME TECH FIRMS have pledged will do more to tackle extremist content, but appear to have forced the government to back down in their bid to restrict encryption.
Facebook, Google, Twitter and Microsoft have met with the UK government's latest tech expert, Home Secretary Amber Rudd. We knew this was coming, with the Open Rights Group (ORG) this week asking for clarity on what the heck this is all about, how it came to be so quickly, and what sort of things will be discussed.
ORG has got what it asked for, sort of, as the firms have put out a joint statement following the meeting, in which they say they will "encourage the further development of technical tools to identify and remove terrorist propaganda".
"Companies apply unique content policies and have developed - and continue to develop - techniques appropriate for or unique to their own platforms.
"Nonetheless, there is a significant opportunity to share the knowledge gained in these varied efforts to develop innovative solutions."
The companies also said that they explore the creation of a new forum to increase collaboration within the industry.
"Companies increasingly share best practices with one another, and we have seen that sharing lessons learned across sectors can improve our collective response to this challenge."
They out three main methods for progress: developing better tools to automatically identify and remove terrorist propaganda; helping smaller tech companies learn from others about such methods, and supporting ways to "promote alternative and counter-narratives".
However, no mention was made of restricting encryption, and in a statement but out by the Rudd, she didn't mention requiring tech firms to provide back doors in their services, despite having previously said that WhatsApp being encrypted was wrong and that the police should have the golden key to its shitty content.
"My starting point is pretty straightforward. I don't think that people who want to do us harm should be able to use the internet or social media to do so. I want to make sure we are doing everything we can to stop this," she said.
"It was a useful discussion and I'm glad to see that progress has been made.
"We focused on the issue of access to terrorist propaganda online and the very real and evolving threat it poses.
"I said I wanted to see this tackled head-on and I welcome the commitment from the key players to set up a cross-industry forum that will help to do this.
"In taking forward this work I'd like to see the industry to go further and faster in not only removing online terrorist content but stopping it going up in the first place. I'd also like to see more support for smaller and emerging platforms to do this as well, so they can no longer be seen as an alternative shop floor by those who want to do us harm."
This back down isn't all that surprising, not least because of the criticism that Rudd has received since her telly appearance on Sunday.
Noah Stride, a systems administrator for the Pirate Party UK, said: "When building a back-door into any system, you inherently introduce vulnerabilities that could be exploited by malicious entities such as hackers. These hackers could be state-sponsored individuals, or a group of terrorists themselves. It is entirely possible that malicious actors could use these vulnerabilities to gather users' information and leak, sell or even exploit it.
"In short, whilst Rudd makes the argument that weakening encryption might increase national security, it would empirically end up achieving the complete opposite." µThe BRICS name is certainly here to stay, and in terms of global governance, their influence is likely to rise as a group because of this development.
On one level, this seems like a rather odd time to be asking such a question, especially when the BRICS political leaders have just agreed to set up a joint development bank to be headquartered in Shanghai. So the BRICS name is certainly here to stay, and in terms of global governance, their influence is likely to rise as a group because of this development.
Previously, the BRICS political leaders meetings had failed to agree anything specific and even once the creation of such a bank was first mooted, for the past two years, they appeared to have difficulties in agreeing where it might be located and how it should be capitalised. At this Fontaleza meeting in Brazil, they have confounded sceptics by agreeing not only both these key things, but also to have the first head of the Bank to be an Indian. What the Bank will prioritise in terms of lending and projects, we will have to wait and see, but one can think of many good ideas including shared road and rail infrastructure challenges, especially those with some common borders, projects for energy efficiency, alternative energies, clean and safe water, and of great importance to themselves, to focus on the growing resistance to antibiotics, a challenge that if a solution cannot be found will be very harmful for their futures.
But if the BRICS leaders hadn’t made this breakthrough, I am sure the siren rising about the end of the BRIC economic phenomena would be even louder and it is important to try and objectively deal with this, separately from this announcement, important as that is.
So, let’s deal with the case as to why the BRIC story might be past its prime. Some observers believed that the whole notion of a grouping of Brazil, Russia, India and China never made any sound sense because beyond having a lot of people, they didn’t share anything else in common. In particular, two are democracies, and two are not, obviously, China and Russia. Similarly, two are major commodity producers, Brazil and Russia, the other two, not. And their levels of wealth are quite different, with Brazil and Russia well above $10,000, China around $ 7-8 k, and India less than $ 2k per head. And the sceptic would follow all of this by saying, the only reason why Brazil and Russia grew so well in the past decade was simply due to a persistent boom in commodity prices, and once that finished, as appears to be the case now, then their economies would lose their shine, as indeed appears to be the case. Throw in that China would inevitably be caught by its own significant challenges at some point, which the doubters would say, is now, then all is left is India, and if it weren’t for the election of Modi recently, there has not been a lot to justify structural optimism about that country recently.
It is factually the case that all four BRIC countries have seen their GDP growth rates slow sharply in this decade. From 2011-13, China has grown by 8.2pct compared to 10.5 pct the last decade, India has slowed to 4.6pct, down from 7.6, Brazil has grown by 2pct, down from 3.6, and Russia, some 3pct, compared to 4.6pct. So all four have grown less, and in all cases, there are plenty of issues to worry about.
But, let’s now start to get serious. Because of China’s huge importance, the weighted average performance of the BRIC growth rate since 2011 is 6.5pct. Now this is down from 7.9pct the last decade, but higher than the previous two decades. China today is one and a half times the size of the other three put together, so its influence on their combined growth rate is more important. Related to this, the BRIC countries combined GDP is nearly as large as the US, and by end 2015, it will be the same size in current US$. (In PPP terms, it is already substantially larger than the US). So even with slower growth, the BRIC country’s economic influence is on the rise. In US$ terms, they are contributing decade to date more than 3 times to the world economy that of the US, and obviously in PPP terms, even more.
So, the idea that the importance of the BRICs is over is really not a credible objective economic issue. ( note I don’t make any inclusion of South Africa as that economy is so small, it is not justified to be regarded in the same economic sphere. It is actually not even the largest economy in sub-Sahara Africa anymore, Nigeria is today. And there at least 8 other so called emerging economies are much bigger than South Africa, some of them at least 3 times)
What is undoubtedly true is that the RATE of BRIC growth has slowed, but while this might be a surprise to the casual observer, it certainly isn’t to most who follow them closely. In fact, the 6.5pct decade to date is just 0.1pt less than I had assumed in 2010 that they would grow by 6.6pct. China, crucially is actually growing by more than I assumed, so far by 8.2pct, actually more than the 7.5pct I assumed. This is compensating for the weaker growth in the other three, which indeed has disappointed my expectations, especially Brazil and Russia, and to some degree India. So it might be truer that the BRIC story decade to date has been purely supported by China, and without that, then the disappointment might be much more justified. And it would follow that if China is about to slow a lot further, which many sceptics think, then the BRIC economic story would become marginally less.
The problem with this line of thinking is that while there are considerable challenges for China, in many cases, there is evidence that the policymakers are rising to those challenges and trying to deal with them, which I might point out is quite different from many other countries that often ignore them until they cause massive crises. For example, how many readers can recall any country deliberately trying to stop house prices rising as China has- possibly-successfully-done? A couple of years ago, people worried about housing bubbles in Beijing and Shanghai, they don’t talk about that anymore. Why? Because the problem has eased due to policy. Today the sceptics fear bubbles in so-called second and third tier cities, but I think there is a reasonable chance that the policymakers will deal with them especially with so many migrants still to migrate and, now, to receive proper full blown urban citizen rights including house ownership. And more importantly still, is the data itself. After months of clear slowing, much of it, including the recent PMI’s and June’s raft of economic data has all improved further, and from what I can see, 7.5pct looks to be in the bag for 2014, if not a bit stronger.
I do believe each of Brazil and Russia have got some challenges to face, that they are not yet confronting, which at the core is to reduce their dependency to the commodity cycle, and while there are many differences between them, they do both need to become more competitive and entrepreneurial outside of commodities and to boost private sector investment. Which leaves India, about who I have to say, following the really powerful election victory of Modi, I think there are clear reasons to expect big policy improvements, and I now don’t entirely rule out that this country could still match my 7.5pct expectation for the decade. It will be really difficult, but what is quite likely is that they may grow more than 7.5pct in the second half of the decade, and possibly faster than China.
So the BRIC economic story over? I think not, even without their historically important decision to create a shared development bank, the consequences of which we are set to learn about.An Oxford graduate who stabbed her Tinder date – but avoided jail – caused outrage again when campaigners compared the sentences handed down to working class men in similar cases.
Lavinia Woodward walked from court on Monday after the medical student received a suspended sentence for an attack on a man she met on Tinder.
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Woodward, 24, stabbed Thomas Fairclough in his lower leg at Christ Church College.
During the assault in December 2016, Fairclough, 25, sustained cuts to his hands and had numerous items thrown at him.
However, Woodward was deemed “too clever” for prison and was given months to deal with her drinking and drug problems before sentencing.
Her treatment under the British justice system has left onlookers livid.
“If she wasn't Oxford-educated, if she came from a deprived area, I don’t think she would have got the same sentence and been allowed to walk free,” John Azah, chief executive of the Kingston Race and Inequalities Council, told the Daily Telegraph.
Others claimed her case highlighted the dangerous difference between the treatment of men and women.
“The judge seems to think that domestic abuse, when it is committed by a woman against a man, is not as serious as it rightly is when it is the other way round,” said Mark Brooks, chairman of the ManKind Initiative.
Woodward admitted unlawful wounding at Oxford Crown Court, but Judge Ian Pringle QC said it would not be right to damage her chances of becoming a surgeon – a “long held” dream.
However, with a criminal record, her future in the medical profession may be damaged anyway, according to experts in the field.
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Woodward attacked her boyfriend, who she had met on the Tinder dating app, after drinking.
Fairclough had attempted to contact Woodward’s parents, and had to call police to stop her assault.
The Milan-based Woodward has voluntarily stopped studies at Oxford because of her notoriety, but the world-famous university will decide how she is to be punished if she decides to go back.
During an audio recording of the police call, Fairclough can be heard screaming he had been stabbed by his girlfriend.
“I think my girlfriend has taken a lot of drugs and is throwing a lot of stuff around the house,” he said.
“Please come down here.”
Police took Woodward to a cell where she allegedly attempted suicide.
Social media users also hit out at the judgement, as men in similar situations have been jailed.
“If Lavinia Woodward wasn’t a privileged white girl she would be in prison by now. You can ignore the facts but it’s true,” said one Twitter user.
“Can we all just agree that if Lavinia Woodward was a man she’d be in jail for domestic violence with no prospect of being a doctor ever,” another user added.The Patriots’ decision to place linebacker Brandon Spikes on injured reserve came with varying reports about the reason why the Patriots decided to end his season.
Chris Mortensen of ESPN reported that Spikes was late for a practice during the playoff bye week, leading Bill Belichick to make the decision to put him on IR because releasing him would give other playoff teams a chance to sign him. Tom Curran of CSN New England reported that Spikes missed practice altogether before the transaction, while Jeff Howe of the Boston Herald reported that reports of tardiness were unfounded and that all parties decided it was best to make the mutual decision to shut Spikes down rather than have him continue to play through a lingering knee injury.
Now we’ve heard from Spikes’ agent Gary Uberstine as well. Uberstine released a statement Monday night in order to clear up “erroneous points” about the end of Spikes’ season. Uberstine says it wasn’t a mutual decision to place Spikes on injured reserve and that there was never a threat of release from the Patriots.
“The team’s decision to place Brandon on Injured Reserve was not a mutual decision, nor need it be. Brandon had every intention to keep playing throughout the playoffs, despite the pain he was experiencing throughout the season,” Uberstine said in the statement, via the Boston Globe. “We never had a single conversation with the Patriots in which they threatened to release him if he didn’t accept the Injured Reserve designation. Spikes has been a great teammate, and nobody can question the passion with which he plays the game, or how important he had been to the Patriots success. Although he is disappointed that he won’t be able to line up alongside his teammates this weekend against the Broncos, he won’t let these rumors serve as a distraction.”
Spikes won’t need to have surgery to repair the PCL injury and is set to become a free agent in March. With rookie Jamie Collins playing well in Spikes’ place against Indianapolis, Spikes’ time in New England could be at an end.Climate Week's come early at the Washington Post. The paper's editorial board, at a pace of one op-ed per day, has decided to acknowledge that man-made climate change is an unequivocal reality, and that the time to take action is now. In so doing, boasts Fred Hiatt, the Post's editorial page editor, it's going to "unstick" America's "devolving debate over global warming."
Almost. As Joe Romm points out at ThinkProgress, there are still some major flaws in that plan. Chief among them: the Post hasn't made it clear what an un-devolved climate debate would look like.
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The Post is so, so close to getting there. Its editorial board is throwing itself fully behind the overwhelming scientific consensus that climate change is real, and that it's almost certainly caused by human activity. That's good, because those facts are no longer up for debate. That same realization drove the Los Angeles Times, last fall, to stop publishing letters from climate deniers who challenged those facts. "The debate right now isn’t whether this evidence exists (clearly, it does)," letters editor Paul Thorton explained at the time, "but what this evidence means for us."
Hiatt, on the other hand, told Media Matters that its avowed strong stance on climate change won't prevent it from publishing dissenting views, even from "deniers of the problem." He explained, "I'm more inclined to take op-eds that challenge our editorials than just kind of join the chorus." It's a shame that he didn't make clear where the line is going to be drawn. If, as he says, the Post will "try in both letters and op-eds to make sure that nothing we print is factually inaccurate," then it's going to have to try not to publish op-eds like this one, in which Charles Krauthammer attempted to argue that climate change is not a fact, and backed up that argument with easily debunked claims. Or guest columns from Sarah Palin in which she argues that "we can’t say with assurance that man’s activities cause weather changes." Or more or less everything written by George Will, including future columns in which he might restate his opinion, recently voiced on Fox News, that the scientists who concede that man-made climate change aren't relying on a robust field of research, but instead "pluck these things from the ether.”
These are all long-running criticisms of the Post's editorial policy, and this week would seem as good a time as any for the editorial board to address them head-on. Not just by publishing an editorial decrying those columnists for being so wrong, as Hiatt once did, but by making it clear that it's refusing to run them in the first place. Because they're wrong.
The "most reasonable climate skeptics," per the Post, are the ones who accept a) man-made b) climate change, but who take issue with two other uncertainties: precisely how much the Earth will heat in response to greenhouse gas emissions, and the specific impacts that temperature rise will have. It is presumably those issues, if used to argue that we should do little or nothing to combat climate change, will pass the editorial board's standards. And on both, the editorial board is clear about where it stands:
Neither is a good excuse for inaction. Recent papers argue for adjusting the sensitivity range up and down, but the overall picture is stable: Scientists have reason to warn against betting human welfare on the proposition that low-end estimates will pan out. Even if the experts are too pessimistic, recent research indicates, that would not eliminate the need to slash carbon dioxide emissions over the next several decades. Scientists can also reasonably anticipate myriad negative effects in certain emissions scenarios, including sea-level rise, higher storm surges in coastal areas, more flooding elsewhere, increasingly frequent and severe heat and wildfires, extreme precipitation events, widespread changes in habitats and agricultural resources, ocean acidification with dire consequences for coral and other species, drought and the spread of disease.
Hiatt, in his conversation with Media Matters, characterized those negative effects as serious enough to pose an "existential threat" to the planet. That sentiment, too, is backed up by robust scientist. The U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which comprises the world's top climate scientists and represents the conservative scientific consensus on the issue, plans to release a report warning that “without additional mitigation, and even with adaptation, warming by the end of the 21st century will lead to high to very high risk of severe, widespread and irreversible impacts globally.” (The exact language will be subject to review, but the sentiment reflects the panel's previous findings.) They also could have thrown in the report recently released by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, "the world's largest general scientific society," which, while not claiming all questions have been answered, nonetheless cites "overwhelming evidence" that the impacts of climate change are already being felt today, and argues that the planet is at growing risk of “abrupt, unpredictable and potentially irreversible changes.”
How to frame a debate around such strong assertions? Let's look again at what another news organization did: last month, the BBC Trust published a report criticizing its journalists for giving far too much air time to people with "marginal views" -- for engaging, in other words, in false balance, a phenomenon that is no longer allowed to be referenced without linking to John Oliver's take on what a mathematically fair climate debate would look like. “The Trust wishes to emphasize the importance of attempting to establish where the weight of scientific agreement may be found and make that clear to audiences,” the report reads. “Science coverage does not simply lie in reflecting a wide range of views but depends on the varying degree of prominence such views should be given.”
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"If the Post is serious, it needs to start treating the story of the century as the story of the century and treating the established science as established science, not debatable politics," Romm argues. If it's going to publish even more editorials from people who disagree with the findings of the IPCC, the AAAS and other mainstream scientific organizations, its editorial page will be less representative than ever of the climate debate. And it's hard to see how that's going to serve anyone but deniers.Witnesses say the woman seized a microphone and began yelling. House stenographer hauled out
A House floor stenographer was abruptly hauled out of the chamber after charging the dais and screaming during Wednesday’s late night vote on raising the debt ceiling and funding the federal government.
As the bill sailed toward final passage, the presiding lawmaker suddenly began pounding the gavel. Witnesses on the floor said the woman, identified as Dianne Reidy, seized a microphone and began yelling during the vote.
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She was then removed from the chamber by floor staff and taken into an adjacent elevator. She continued yelling as she was taken away, saying phrases such as “you cannot serve two masters” and “he will not be mocked.”
( Also on POLITICO: It's over)
A spokesman for the U.S. Capitol Police said in an e-mail early Thursday that Reidy was being transported to a local hospital to be evaluated.
The incident stunned members and staffers on the floor, who had never seen anything like it.
This article tagged under: House Of RepresentativesThis past Saturday morning on a farm in western Germany, a cow who was being sent to the slaughterhouse ran away. The year-and-a-half old, 500 kilogram cow jumped and galloped over two barbed wire fences to the town of Sangerhof, two kilometers away. She next leaped over a hedge — and ended up in an ice-filled swimming pool.
The pool’s owner quickly alerted firemen. It took six people to help get her out; they first had to pump out some of the water so the very chilly creature would not drown. Gerhard Steinhauer, the farmer who owns the cow, then pulled her out with his tractor.
The “Kuhl im |
single “leader” chased by the others — to spin around on the globe’s surface, indicating that Watson is “thinking.”
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Watson uses a slew of complicated algorithms to parse every “Jeopardy!” clue, gather possible answers, and weight each guess according to how “confident” it is that the guess is correct. Davis visually represents these patterns in 27 possible states that the avatar can be in. Generally, when Watson is confident in its guess, the particles swarm to the top of the globe and glow green; when Watson is not confident, they flow to the bottom and glow orange. And while Alex Trebek is making chitchat at the podium or reading off clues, the avatar pulses a cool IBM blue.
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Watching Watson’s avatar while it plays really does add an extra thrill to the game — you actually start rooting for or against it, just like a real player. (At least, I did.) I even felt sorry for it, watching it make its “high confidence” expression before whiffing a painfully obvious answer. I’m not sure I want Watson to win the “Jeopardy!” match in the end, but by giving it a face, Joshua Davis has made IBM’s bloodless room of computer servers feel like a worthy opponent. [Read more at FlowingData]Windows 10 isn't a bad operating system, but understandably, not everyone loves it. You know what? That is OK. People have different likes and needs, and sometimes an alternative to Microsoft's operating system, such as Ubuntu, macOS, or Chrome OS can be a better fit.
If you want to switch to Linux, there is no shortage of operating systems based on the kernel. With that said, many of them aren't very user friendly. If you have lived your life using Windows, it is wise to choose a Linux distro that caters to your habits and expectations. One such operating system with a very inviting user interface is Zorin OS, and today, version 12.2 sees release. If you have been on the fence regarding Linux, now might be your time.
"Zorin OS 12.2 introduces the updated Linux kernel 4.10 with new hardware drivers and strengthened security out of the box. These updated core technologies make the operating system even more resistant to viruses and ransomware attacks, while also adding compatibility for newer hardware including PCs with the new AMD Ryzen processor series. These enhancements make Zorin OS work even better on the computers of today, and ready for the machines of tomorrow," says The Zorin Group.
The company further says, "The Zorin Desktop environment has been upgraded with speed and stability optimizations to the software and more responsive user interaction. When using the default desktop layout, you can now hover over window previews in the panel to get a full-size peek, making it quicker to find what you’re looking for. These improvements help make the Zorin OS desktop easier and more intuitive for newcomers."
If you depend on Windows software, you may find that your programs will run on Zorin OS with the use of WINE 2.0, which is installed by default. LibreOffice is a great office suite, but if you absolutely need Microsoft Office, for instance, version 2013 can run here as seen above. How cool is that?
If you are ready to try Zorin OS and potentially replace Windows 10, you can download the normal "Core" version of the operating system here. The company also sells a premium "Ultimate" edition, which you can learn more about here. My suggestion would be to try the free variant first to make sure you like it.
Photo Credit: nex999 / ShutterstockThe paper's front page frightner was 'inaccurate' - even contained its own correction
The Times newspaper on Friday, April 24, ran a front page story claiming a Labour government would mean £1000 more tax for ‘every working family’.
Today, just over a week later, the paper has admitted this was completely false.
The original story saw the headline ‘Labour’s £1000 tax on families’ plastered on the paper’s front page. It began:
“Ed Miliband would saddle every working family with extra taxes equivalent to more than £1000, according to an independent comparison with Conservative plans.”
This morning’s Times carries a mea culpa that says: “This was inaccurate.”
Here’s the correction in full:
“We said ‘Ed Miliband would saddle every working family with extra taxes equivalent to more than £1000’ (‘Labour’s £1000 tax on families’, April 24). This was inaccurate. The calculation assumes that the extra taxes are shared equally among what the Office for National Statistics defines as ‘working households’ (where all those over the age of 16 are working). In fact, as we explained elsewhere in the article, ‘the bulk of Labour’s tax rises will come form a raid on the richest pension pots, a ‘mansion tax’ on properties worth more than £2 million, the re-introduction of the 50p rate and additional levies on banks and tobacco firms’. Some of these taxes and levies will only apply to companies, and the others will affect a small minority of families, not ‘every working family’ as we reported.”
In other words, the story was total nonsense, and even contained its own correction when first published!
Labour’s tax plans, as laid out in the second quote, sound exactly like how Labour has described them – raising taxes on well-off pensioners, properties over £2million, top earners with the 50p rate and banks and tobacco companies.
The paper had no reason to claim ‘every working family’ would be ‘saddled’ with an extra £1000 in taxes.
The Institue for Fiscal Studies, on whose analysis the story was supposedly based, said no such thing.
Whether this was a mistake at the Times itself, or at Conservative party HQ, is unclear.
Adam Barnett is a staff writer at Left Foot Forward. Follow MediaWatch on Twitter
Like this story? Click here to support MediaWatch via our crowd-funding page.
Read more: Tory press blasts Miliband on Labour spending and the crash. But he’s right
David Cameron met with anti-gay pastor who believes in witches
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May made clear that it was only because of a veto by the Liberal Democrats in the previous coalition government that the Draft Communications Data Bill (aka the Snooper's Charter) was dropped when it was first presented. She added: "we are determined to bring that [legislation] through, because we believe that is necessary to maintain the capabilities for our law enforcement agencies such that they can continue to do the excellent job, day in and day out, of keeping us safe and secure."
In its manifesto, the Conservative party wrote: "we continue to reject any suggestions of sweeping, authoritarian measures that would threaten our hard-won freedoms." It also attempted to distinguish between metadata and content retention: "We will keep up to date the ability of the police and security services to access communications data—the ‘who, where, when and how’ of a communication, but not its content."
However, speaking from Russia at a conference in Australia on Friday evening, the whistleblower Edward Snowden warned against accepting this distinction: "The impacts of metadata can’t be overstated, they are collecting data on everyone regardless of wrongdoing. When you have metadata, it’s a proxy for content, so when politicians split hairs about metadata you should be very sceptical." He went on to say that adopting these data retention laws was a "radical departure from the operation of traditional liberal societies around the world," and pointed out that mass surveillance had not stopped the Sydney siege, the Boston marathon bombings, or the attack on the Charlie Hebdo magazine in France.
The Open Rights Group (ORG) blog notes the Conservative manifesto contains other proposals with implications for the online world, including scrapping the Human Rights Act, forcing Internet service providers to block sites, and requiring age verification for access to sites containing pornographic material. In addition, there is also the issue of David Cameron's remarks earlier this year that encryption is a "problem" for government surveillance, when he said: "The question is are we going to allow a means of communications which it simply isn’t possible to read. My answer to that question is: no, we must not."
Although the Conservatives gained an absolute majority in the new UK Parliament, the Open Rights Group points out that passing controversial legislation such as undermining encryption or mandating metadata retention will not be easy: "The light at the end of the tunnel is that the Conservatives' majority is tiny. Their leadership will have to work incredibly hard to secure a majority for new laws. Every MP's vote will count and this presents a huge opportunity for campaigns like ORG's to influence what happens." It's still early days, but it's clear that online rights are likely to emerge as one of the most fiercely-contested areas of the new Parliament's legislative programme.Whether in domestic or foreign affairs, a staple in the modern left’s playbook is shaming. Despite its ineffectiveness, this tactic continues to be used.
In response to Russia, Iran, and Syria’s involvement in the bombing of Aleppo, United States ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power said: “Are you truly incapable of shame? Is there literally nothing that can shame you? Is there no act of barbarism against civilians, no execution of a child that gets under your skin? That just creeps you out a little bit?”
Russia and Iran have both asserted their dominance in Syria and the U.S’s effort to arm and train rebels has failed. The Obama administration has deployed shame instead of troops and according to the liberal publication Mic, it is “powerful.”
This same plan of attack was used by Democrats domestically. Mic similarly described actor George Takei’s July plea to Latino voters to vote against Trump or we’ll have internment camps as “powerful.” The Hillary Clinton campaign and supportive journalists thought that they could shame American voters into not supporting Donald Trump. Whether it was Alicia Machado, Khizr Khan, or any of the several women who claimed they were sexually assaulted by Trump, the message was you should be ashamed to support Trump.
There seems to be two clear obstacles to success for the left’s shaming attempts. At one level, is the ridiculousness of the political ideology that embraces transgenderism and bashes “slut shaming,” trying to tell people they should be ashamed. The other and possibly more important factor making shaming attempts from the Democrats ineffective is an obvious hypocrisy.
During the electoral college vote in Wisconsin Monday, liberal protesters chanted “shame,” while one irate lady screamed, ‘This is my America!” According to the protesters, Wisconsin electors presumably should be ashamed for following America’s laws and the will of the people. The shameful act here is certainly not trying to subvert American democracy.
And let’s go back to ambassador Power’s attempt to shame Russia, Iran, and Syria for killing civilians in bombings. From what moral high ground do Power and the United States stand? According to Brown University, “Approximately 165,000 civilians have died from direct war related violence caused by the US, its allies, the Iraqi military and police, and opposition forces from the time of the invasion through April 2015.”
Same goes for the left’s attempt to use guilt by association. In the days leading up to the election, The Washington Post, NBC, The Los Angeles Times, The Associated Press, and CNN all covered a two week old endorsement of Trump by a small KKK newspaper. But even though the press made sure that voters were informed that they would be viewed equally as a murderous white supremacist group, Trump still won.
This is likely due to voters seeing criticisms like this as silly and from 35,000 feet the press views it the same way. The Washington Post and CNN did not cover the Communist Party’s chairman’s support of Hillary Clinton. The press’s attempt to shame was also exposed in their efforts to frame Donald Trump as a sexual predator.
The New York Times covered sexual assault allegations against Trump with nothing but the accuser’s statement. They did not give any coverage to Leslie Milwee’s October statement that Bill Clinton had previously sexually assaulted her.
Shaming doesn’t work when you have plenty to be ashamed of yourself, and it especially doesn’t work in a society that has been subjected to the American left’s decades-long project to remove the concept of shame itself. For much of time, religious ideals were a moral center from which shame emanated, but now, according to the mainstream left, going to a church which follows the Bible is a no-no.
With the goalposts of what is shameful so rapidly moving, shame now serves more as a political tool and less as a moral compass.The biggest food-world story of the week has turned out to be New York Times restaurant critic Pete Wells's unexpected and unexpectedly terrible review of Locol in Oakland, the ostensibly revolutionary new model for healthier, sustainable fast-food launched in 2016 by Bay Area chef Daniel Patterson, and LA chef Roy Choi. As celebrity chefs and prominent figures in the national food conversation over the last decade, Patterson and Choi's project earned the attention of Wells, who as of September has officially expanded his role to be the nation's restaurant critic, and not just New York's. He explained, following the publication of the review and a trip to visit multiple restaurants in Oakland, that he'd chosen to review it because "it was the most talked-about restaurant of the year," and because it seemed like too few people were actually talking about the quality of the food itself. But this choice, and the brutal honesty with which he attacked Locol's burger, chicken "nugs" and "no-chicken no-noodle" soup," has led to many on the internet decrying his elitism and dickishness after all, since when has a New York Times restaurant critic ever cared about small-scale fast-food businesses hoping to cater to the poor?
This isn't the first time that Wells has been accused of being elitist. The nation's foodinistas took great pleasure in Wells's brilliant and funny takedown of Guy Fieri's Times Square restaurant in 2012, which led to a subsequent cry of elitism among Fieri fans and haters of critics in general. But is this an analogous situation, or something totally different?
The argument goes like this: It's unfair to write a review of Locol as if it were just any other restaurant, without contextualizing Locol's take on fast food as compared to other inexpensive food in the area, and without taking into account that part of its mission is to deliver an approximation of fast food items (minus the fries) with less fat, salt, and calories, at a low price point for residents of impoverished neighborhoods. And while the first Locol location to open, in LA's Watts neighborhood, is in one such neighborhood, Locol's Oakland location is a bit different in that its surrounded by a bunch of other gentrified businesses next to the heart of the city's downtown in what was formerly Patterson's upscale restaurant Plum and this is something Wells addressed in his review. Taking it as just another lunch/dinner option in the neighborhood, he points to both similarly priced and slightly more expensive options right nearby, "a taqueria, a sandwich shop, a home-style Taiwanese place, a West African and Caribbean grill, a Mexican restaurant, a beer-conscious brasserie, and a branch of Umami Burger," all of which he noted were busy during lunchtime a week before Christmas.
Wells's intention was to highlight a very prominent new restaurant project by two famous chefs, and to review its food on its own merits, much the way he did at Fieri's restaurant, or when he was somewhat critical of David Chang's new spot in New York's Chelsea neighborhood, Momofuku Nishi.
As Eater National points out, Wells has positioned himself as a kind of "people's critic" in the last several years, most dramatically with his takedown of Thomas Keller's Per Se last January, proving that he's not afraid to speak truth to power and dilute some of the celebrity-chef cachet that keeps customers paying big bucks for food that isn't always terrific, just because of the brand name. But that role comes with some peril, as Wells may be finding this week, when it grows beyond the insular world of New York's elite restaurants (and tourist traps) and into a national food scene that's in dire need of a reality check, as this new three-part series on Thrillist rightly suggests.
A recent and widely read profile of Wells by The New Yorker described Wells's ethos thusly: "a disastrous restaurant is newsworthy only if it has a pedigree or commercial might; the mom-and-pop catastrophe can be overlooked... it means that his pans focus disproportionately on restaurants that have corporate siblings."
Locol sort of falls in that category, in that Paterson and Choi both have mini-empires in their respective towns, but Locol stands apart as less of a commercial and more of an idealistic enterprise.
"I think he was expecting the food to be at least reminiscent of the food at Coi... which has $265 tasting menus, or at Roy Choi's Kogi trucks... which are screaming with salt and fat, etc.," said LA Times critic Jonathan Gold, speaking about Wells's review and the backlash on KPCC's Air Talk this week. Also, in Locol's defense, Gold suggests that the fact that their hamburger is a "little dry" is "probably the 117th most interesting thing about the place."
But Wells's argument still stands, and shouldn't be written off: "The most nutritious burger on earth won’t help you if you don’t want to eat it." In other words, how do you start a fast-food revolution and put McDonald's out of business in inner-city neighborhoods if your core product simply isn't that good though Wells doesn't actually make any direct comparisons to McDonald's, where he might also find the burgers a bit dry.
The San Francisco Chronicle's Michael Bauer was pretty gloves-off in his review of Locol last summer, and no one that I noticed attacked him for it and he did give the place two stars, which was more than Wells's zero. "Similarities to other fast-food franchises end at the counter service and the low prices," wrote Bauer. "One of the tenants [sic] of fast food is consistency. When you go to Jack-in-the-Box, the product tastes pretty much the same whether in Oakland or Orlando. At Locol, scaling and reproducing recipes are still issues." He praised the "Cheeseburg" on one visit, saying it had "an intensely meaty flavor when properly seared," but he said "it wasn’t as enticing on another visit, when the meat was timidly cooked."
It could be that Wells's visits to Locol exhibited some of that lack of consistency, three months after Bauer's last visit, and thus he had nothing but bad things to say about the fried chicken patty that Bauer claimed was good enough to be featured at Patterson's SF restaurant Alta CA.
Is it inherently wrong to critique such an ambitious, albeit idealistic, restaurant project on these details, when improving on them might lead to greater success for the enterprise down the line? Is it part of a Bay Area provincial sort of attitude to suggest that such projects should be outside the purview of criticism?
Choi himself responded somewhat graciously to Wells's review saying, "It tells me a lot more about the path. I don't know Pete but he is now inextricably linked to LocoL forever... We all know the food is not as bad as he states. Is it perfect? NO. But it's not as bad as he writes. And all minorities aren't criminals either. And all hoods aren't filled with dangerous people either. But the pen has created a lot of destruction over the course of history and continues to. He didn't need to go there but he did."
As Eater concludes, "maybe... some restaurants aren’t meant to be assessed by some critics, even ones considered populist heroes."
But if no one ever takes the gloves off and tells it how they see it about the food except Yelpers, that is how does a place stand a chance of succeeding in the long run. In other words, should every critic just have let Locol expand across the state and the country without ever saying that the burger still needs a little work?
Previously: After Terrible Review From New York Times Critic, Locol Founder Roy Choi Takes The High Road
New York Times Critic Pete Wells Savages Locol In OaklandThe governor of Aragua says fake pictures of the disease on social networks seek to "distress the Venezuelans."
The deaths of 10 people in the past week of a mysterious disease in several cities in Venezuela, including the capital of Caracas, have caused panic within the population and has prompted doctors to sound the alarm.
A government spokesman minimized the warnings and described efforts to notify the public of a disease that has killed four adults and four children as a "campaign of disinformation and terrorism."
Despite the government's indifference, the country's doctors insist there is plenty of reason for concern about a highly dangerous and contagious disease of unknown origin.
"We do not know what it is," admitted Duglas León Natera, president of the Venezuelan Medical Federation.
In its initial stages, the disease presents symptoms of fever and spots on the skin, and then produces large blisters and internal and external bleeding, according to data provided week stop by the College of Physicians of the state of Aragua, where the first cases were reported.
Then, very quickly, patients suffer from respiratory failure, liver failure and kidney failure. Venezuelan doctors have not been able to determine what the disease is, much less how to fight it.
The government has denied the existence of "a mysterious disease" and described the information provided by the doctors as a "media campaign against Venezuela."
The governor of the state of Aragua, Tarek El-Aissami and Communications Minister Delcy Rodriguez, refer to the warnings as a "defamatory" strategy to "distress to the population."
Some theories being examined include the possibility that the disease could be a new type of very aggressive and severe dengue, an atypical version of the Chikunguña fever or an Ebola virus appearance in Venezuela.
Media watchdogs: Print media outlets slowly dying in Venezuela
Media watchdogs are predicting the death of print media outlets in Venezuela due to the difficulties in acquiring newsprint, which has led to diminished circulation and the shutting down of newspapers and magazines in the South American country.
According to a new report by the Institute for Press and Society of Venezuela (IPYS), at least 34 newspapers and magazines in 11 states in the past 12 months have reported constant difficulties in acquiring and other materials necessary to print, like ink, film and plates.
This situation has been exacerbated by the strict controls for acquiring foreign exchange and internal processes of the suppliers. An exchange rate control has been in effect in Venezuela for the past 11 years, and companies are required to apply for a permit to buy foreign currency and import goods. Newspapers and suppliers have complained that they have not received permits to import newsprint for months.
Due to the impossibility of securing newsprint and print materials, 10 print outlets have stopped circulating altogether and four others have halted circulation temporarily. Others have reduced the number of pages per edition, sometimes by more than half, or stopped running during the weekend in order to survive.
The oldest daily in Venezuela, El Impulso, almost closed its doors this past week.
"The newspaper industry is in a coma in Venezuela," said the president of El Impulso, Carlos Eduardo Carmona. "The government is slowly killing the free press in Venezuela."
The paper averted closing by coming to an agreement with a government company that agreed to provide enough newsprint for two weeks.
"I don't know what we will do when that newsprint runs out," said Carmona.
The government has not made any public statements about the shortage of newsprint in the country.
Follow Helena on Twitter @helepoleo
Copyright 2014 by Local10.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Data recovered from one of the black boxes from the EgyptAir plane that crashed last month showed smoke alarms had sounded on board, while soot was found on the wreckage, an Egyptian-led investigative committee has said.
Flight MS804 was en route from Paris to Cairo when it crashed in the Mediterranean Sea on May 19, killing all 66 people on board.
"Recorded data is showing a consistency with ACARS messages of lavatory smoke and avionics smoke," the committee said on Wednesday.
Investigators had previously announced that the plane's automated Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) sent signals indicating smoke alarms on board the plane before it went down.
"Parts of the front section of the aircraft showed signs of high-temperature damage and soot," the committee statement added.
TIMELINE: Major air disasters
Egyptian investigators had said that the plane turned 90 degrees left, then a full 360 degrees to the right, plummeting from 38,000ft to 15,000ft before disappearing at about 10,000ft.
The aircraft had been cruising normally in clear skies on an overnight flight when it crashed.
The aircraft's flight data recorder, along with the second component of the black box containing sound recordings from the cockpit, was found two weeks ago.
The device had been found broken into several parts and suffered serious damage, but salvage experts managed to retrieve the recorder's memory unit, Egypt's civil aviation ministry had said.
The committee statement said the search remained for the remains of the passengers and crew.
It "will continue till the full recovery of all the remains at the crash location," it said.
READ MORE: EgyptAir Flight 804 - Sisi says 'all scenarios possible'
Overall, 40 Egyptians, 15 French, two Iraqis, two Canadians and one person from each of Algeria, Belgium, Britain, Chad, Portugal, Saudi Arabia and Sudan were on board the Airbus A320.
Both Egyptian and French judiciary have opened investigations into the mysterious incident, without ruling out that it had been deliberately downed.
The crash followed the bombing of a Russian passenger over Egypt's restive Sinai Peninsula last October, killing all 224 passengers and crew.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group has claimed responsibility for that attack, but there has been no such claim linked to the EgyptAir crash. The group has usually been quick to claim responsibility for large-scale attacks.
Egypt's aviation minister had initially said an attack was the more likely explanation, but President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said there was no theory being favoured yet.Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonSanders: 'I fully expect' fair treatment by DNC in 2020 after 'not quite even handed' 2016 primary Sanders: 'Damn right' I'll make the large corporations pay 'fair share of taxes' Former Sanders campaign spokesman: Clinton staff are 'biggest a--holes in American politics' MORE’s favorability rating dropped significantly in a Quinnipiac University poll released Friday, as the months-long investigation into the terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya, have begun to drag on the former secretary of State.
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According to the survey, 52 percent said they have a favorable view of Clinton, against 40 unfavorable. That’s down from her all-time high of 61 percent favorable and 34 unfavorable in February of this year.
“Her score is down substantially from her all-time high score in February,” said Quinnipiac director of polling Peter A. Brown in a statement.
“The drop in favorability is substantial among men, Republicans and independent voters. One reason for her drop may be that 48 percent of voters blame her either a little or a lot for the death of the American ambassador in Benghazi.”
House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) this week subpoenaed State Department documents related to the Obama administration’s talking points about the attack. The State Department has already released more than 100 emails related to the talking points, but Issa called the release “incomplete.”
Many Republicans say the Obama administration, through the State Department, misled the American people about the nature of the attacks in the days following the siege that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.
White House officials have said the talking points were constructed at a time when it was too early to draw concrete conclusions about the nature of the attacks.
Still, Clinton remains the frontrunner in the 2016 presidential race.
Quinnipiac polled two potential Republican challengers: Sen. Rand Paul Randal (Rand) Howard PaulThe Hill's Morning Report — Emergency declaration to test GOP loyalty to Trump The Hill's 12:30 Report: Trump escalates fight with NY Times The 10 GOP senators who may break with Trump on emergency MORE (Ky.) and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. Paul clocked in at 32 percent favorable and 24 percent unfavorable. Bush was at 29 percent positive and 29 percent negative.
Clinton leads Paul 49 percent to 41 percent in a hypothetical head-to-head match-up and leads Bush 48 to 40.
“Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton remains the queen of the 2016 hill at this point, but the wide gap between her and some of the leading Republican contenders on favorability may be closing, as her overall favorability has taken a hit,” Brown said.
Vice President Biden suffers from a negative approval rating, at 37 percent favorable and 44 percent unfavorable.
“If Ms. Clinton chooses not to run in 2016, the potential Democratic field could include a somewhat unpopular vice president and a number of new faces who are unknown to the vast majority of Americans,” Brown said.
The Quinnipiac poll of 1,419 registered voters was conducted between May 22 and May 28 and has a 2.6 percentage point margin of error.This article describes scapegoating in the social-psychological sense. For the religious and ritualistic sense of the word, see Scapegoat
Scapegoating is the practice of singling out a person or group for unmerited blame and consequent negative treatment. Scapegoating may be conducted by individuals against individuals (e.g. "he did it, not me!"), individuals against groups (e.g., "I couldn't see anything because of all the tall people"), groups against individuals (e.g., "Jane was the reason our team didn't win"), and groups against groups.
A scapegoat may be an adult, child, sibling, employee, peer, ethnic, political or religious group, or country. A whipping boy, identified patient or "fall guy" are forms of scapegoat.
At the individual level [ edit ]
A medical definition of scapegoating is:[1]
"Process in which the mechanisms of projection or displacement are utilized in focusing feelings of aggression, hostility, frustration, etc., upon another individual or group; the amount of blame being unwarranted." Scapegoating is a hostile tactic often employed to characterize an entire group of individuals according to the unethical or immoral conduct of a small number of individuals belonging to that group. Scapegoating relates to guilt by association and stereotyping.
Scapegoated groups throughout history have included almost every imaginable group of people: genders, religions, people of different races, nations, or sexual orientations, people with different political beliefs, or people differing in behaviour from the majority. However, scapegoating may also be applied to organizations, such as governments, corporations, or various political groups.
Its archetype [ edit ]
Jungian analysist Sylvia Brinton Perera situates its mythology of shadow and guilt.[2] Individuals experience it at the archetypal level. As an ancient social process to rid a community of its past evil deeds and reconnect it to the sacred realm, the scapegoat appeared in a biblical rite,[3] which involved two goats and the pre-Judaic, chthonic god Azazel.[4] In the modern scapegoat complex, however, "the energy field has been radically broken apart" and the libido "split off from consciousness". Azazel's role is deformed into an accuser of the scapegoated victim.[5]
Blame for breaking a perfectionist moral code, for instance, might be measured out by aggressive scapegoaters. Themselves often wounded, the scapegoaters can be sadistic, superego accusers with brittle personas, who have driven their own shadows underground from where such are projected onto the victim. The scapegoated victim may then live in a hell of felt unworthiness, retreating from consciousness, burdened by shadow and transpersonal guilt,[6] and hiding from the pain of self-understanding. Therapy includes modeling self-protective skills for the victim's battered ego, and guidance in the search for inner integrity, to find the victim's own voice.[7]
Projection [ edit ]
Unwanted thoughts and feelings can be unconsciously projected onto another who becomes a scapegoat for one's own problems. This concept can be extended to projection by groups. In this case the chosen individual, or group, becomes the scapegoat for the group's problems. "Political agitation in all countries is full of such projections, just as much as the backyard gossip of little groups and individuals."[8] Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung considered indeed that "there must be some people who behave in the wrong way; they act as scapegoats and objects of interest for the normal ones".[9]
Scapegoat theory of intergroup conflict [ edit ]
The scapegoat theory of intergroup conflict provides an explanation for the correlation between times of relative economic despair and increases in prejudice and violence toward outgroups.[10] Studies of anti-black violence (racist violence) in the southern United States between 1882 and 1930 show a correlation between poor economic conditions and outbreaks of violence (e.g., lynchings) against blacks. The correlation between the price of cotton (the principal product of the area at that time) and the number of lynchings of black men by whites ranged from -0.63 to -0.72, suggesting that a poor economy induced white people to take out their frustrations by attacking an outgroup.[11]
Scapegoating as a group necessitates that ingroup members settle on one specific target to blame for their problems.[12] Scapegoating is also more likely to appear when a group has experienced difficult, prolonged negative experiences (as opposed to minor annoyances). When negative conditions frustrate a group's attempts at successful acquisition of its most essential needs (e.g., food, shelter), groups develop a compelling, shared ideology that - when combined with social and political pressures - may lead to the most extreme form of scapegoating: genocide.
Scapegoating can also cause oppressed groups to lash out at other oppressed groups. Even when injustices are committed against a minority group by the majority group, minorities sometimes lash out against a different minority group in lieu of confronting the more powerful majority.
In management, scapegoating is a known practice in which a lower staff employee is blamed for the mistakes of senior executives. This is often due to lack of accountability in upper management.[13]
Scapegoat mechanism [ edit ]
Literary critic and philosopher Kenneth Burke first coined and described the expression scapegoat mechanism in his books Permanence and Change (1935),[14] and A Grammar of Motives (1945).[15] These works influenced some philosophical anthropologists, such as Ernest Becker and René Girard. Girard developed the concept much more extensively as an interpretation of human culture. In Girard's view, it is humankind, not God, who has need for various forms of atoning violence. Humans are driven by desire for that which another has or wants (mimetic desire). This causes a triangulation of desire and results in conflict between the desiring parties. This mimetic contagion increases to a point where society is at risk; it is at this point that the scapegoat mechanism[16] is triggered. This is the point where one person is singled out as the cause of the trouble and is expelled or killed by the group. This person is the scapegoat. Social order is restored as people are contented that they have solved the cause of their problems by removing the scapegoated individual, and the cycle begins again. The keyword here is "content". Scapegoating serves as a psychological relief for a group of people. Girard contends that this is what happened in the narrative of Jesus of Nazareth, the central figure in Christianity. The difference between the scapegoating of Jesus and others, Girard believes, is that in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, he is shown to be an innocent victim; humanity is thus made aware of its violent tendencies and the cycle is broken. Thus Girard's work is significant as a reconstruction of the Christus Victor atonement theory.
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ]
Books [ edit ]
Colman, A.D. Up from Scapegoating: Awakening Consciousness in Groups (1995)
(1995) Douglas, Tom Scapegoats: Transferring Blame (1995)
(1995) Dyckman, JM & Cutler JA Scapegoats at Work: Taking the Bull's-Eye Off Your Back (2003)
(2003) Girard, René: Violence and the Sacred (1972)
(1972) Girard, René: The Scapegoat (1986)
(1986) Perera, Sylvia Brinton, The Scapegoat Complex: Toward a Mythology of Shadow and Guilt (Toronto: Inner City 1986), Studies in Jungian Psychology By Jungian Analysts
(Toronto: Inner City 1986), Studies in Jungian Psychology By Jungian Analysts Pillari V Scapegoating in Families: Intergenerational Patterns of Physical and Emotional Abuse (1991)
(1991) Quarmby K Scapegoat: Why We Are Failing Disabled People (2011)
(2011) Wilcox C.W. Scapegoat: Targeted for Blame (2009)
(2009) Zemel, Joel: Scapegoat, the extraordinary legal proceedings following the 1917 Halifax Explosion (2012)
Academic articles [ edit ]0 SHARES Facebook Twitter Google Whatsapp Pinterest Print Mail Flipboard
As so many Americans join together in shock over the events in Charlottesville, Virginia this weekend, the one thing we’ve repeatedly been told by sincere leaders on both sides of the aisle is that this isn’t what America stands |
cheap but carbon-laden energy sources like lignite and hard coal compared to previous years. Those sources became more attractive for two reasons, experts say: the higher price of natural gas and the low cost of carbon-emissions permits in the European trading system.
Alarmed by that development and by the upward march of electricity prices, Ms. Merkel's government introduced revised energy legislation last year that moved to rein in the surcharges for renewable energy. The government is also looking at placing new restrictions on coal producers to bring down emissions. Experts estimate that emissions in 2014 from Germany's power sector fell to their lowest point since 2009.
Despite the hurdles, Germany is plunging full-speed ahead in what is known here as the "Energiewende," or energy transition. But its leaders acknowledge that unless Germany can prove that the policy works for businesses too, it risks being deemed a failure.
"We need to show that in a country like Germany and a continent like Europe, it is possible to have a high level of industrialization" in combination with policies to mitigate climate change, Sigmar Gabriel, the Economy and Energy Minister, said last month. Only then, he said, "will we find that other countries follow us. Only then will we persuade people."
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Unintended consequences
In late March, policy makers from more than 50 countries gathered in Berlin for a conference to discuss the challenges of transforming a country's energy supply. Some were from oil-rich nations such as Kuwait and Algeria; others were from smaller European nations that already generate much of their electricity from renewable sources. In Portugal, for instance, the figure is more than 60 per cent.
What Germany is attempting, however, is far more complicated. It is the world's fourth-biggest economy, with a large industrial sector. Other major economies such as France and the United Kingdom have less lofty targets for renewable energy and aren't phasing out nuclear power.
At the conference, Jan Mladek, the Czech Minister of Trade and Iindustry, told a story that pointed to some of the difficulties Germany faces. On a visit last year to Berlin, Mr. Mladek said, he met with federal officials who urged him to speed up the Czech Republic's adoption of renewable energy. Then, later that same day, he met with the Premier of the state of Saxony, which borders the Czech Republic. The Premier urged Mr. Mladek not to build wind farms near the border, fearing it would destroy Saxony's tourism industry.
The story epitomizes how each step Germany has taken toward greater use of renewables has created new and sometimes unforeseen challenges – in electricity prices, in carbon emissions and in power distribution.
In Germany, consumers paid an average of nearly 30 euro cents (41 cents) per kilowatt-hour for electricity last year. In Ontario, by contrast, the peak price is currently 14 cents; the average price for consumers in the United States is similar.
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Here's what happened to prices. To hasten the adoption of renewable energy, Germany guaranteed long-term price contracts to such producers – a technique also common elsewhere in the world. The difference between those guaranteed prices and the price of power sold on the wholesale market gets passed on to consumers.
In Germany, that difference is known as the renewable energy surcharge. The surcharge has jumped from 1 euro cent per kilowatt-hour in 2009 to more than 6 euro cents currently. The increase is due to a rapid growth in the installation of green power, which has also helped to drive the market price down.
So consumers have paid more, even as the market price for German electricity has fallen considerably, because the surcharge must fill the gap. In its reforms last year, the government moved to curb further increases in the surcharge.
Despite the rising prices, support for the government's energy policy remains strong, said Claudia Kempfert, an energy expert at the German Institute for Economic Research in Berlin. Electricity accounts for just 3 per cent of the average household's budget, she noted, compared to heating and transportation, which takes up 30 per cent. A poll conducted last year found that 92 per cent of Germans favoured expanding renewable energy.
Businesses are far less sanguine than consumers about shouldering the costs of the transition. Electricity prices for industrial customers have risen more than 40 per cent since 2008 and companies say the policy has begun to affect their investment decisions.
The "huge costs for promoting renewable forms of energy restrict the competitiveness of our companies," a spokesman for the German Association of the Automotive Industry said in a statement. "In the long run, that will damage employment at home."
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BASF, a chemicals giant, has said it will focus its new investments outside Germany as a result of energy costs. Last year, SGL Carbon SE and BMW Group said they would invest an additional $200-million (U.S.) in a carbon-fibre manufacturing facility in Washington state. A driving force behind the decision: the availability of cheap power.
BASF and SGL Carbon are among the roughly 2,300 large, energy-intensive German companies that are exempted from paying the renewable energy surcharge through at least 2017. But even some of these firms assert that the energy policy isn't working.
Heribert Hauck, director of energy affairs at Trimet Aluminium SE, a large consumer of electricity, said the shifting policy terrain is making long-term investments impossible for his firm.
What's more, he added, the volatility of renewable energy – the sun doesn't always shine and the wind doesn't always blow – makes it unsuitable to meet the burden of constant industrial demand.
Germany, like other countries, has not yet solved the dilemma of how to store the electricity produced by solar power and wind energy. And it has only begun to tackle the transportation of such energy, which is primarily produced in the north of the country, to the industrial heartland in the south. One major planned transmission route from north to south – the "Stromautobahn," or electricity highway – has faced intense protest from those living in its path.
"We can implement the Energiewende up to a certain degree," said Mr. Hauck of Trimet. But the government must leave a "supply of conventional, reliable, competitive power plants in the system. That's what industry needs."
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Smaller companies have complaints too. Horst Linn runs a maker of industrial furnaces in Bavaria, typical of the thousands of so-called "Mittlestand" firms that form the backbone of the German manufacturing sector.
The government's focus on renewables is wrong-headed, Mr. Linn said. Instead, it should have focused on energy-saving technology, he asserted.
Mr. Linn estimates that his company's electricity costs have jumped 30 per cent in the past five years and fears that more increases lie ahead as the country phases out nuclear power. Yet he's never seriously considered operating anywhere else because of the skilled labour and quality control required in his business.
"You have no chance with the product we make to go to Bulgaria," he said.
Fingers crossed
In the middle of March, Germany's solar industry faced a critical test. A partial eclipse for several hours on the morning of March 20 threatened to wreak havoc on the system: Grid operators faced an unprecedented fluctuation in electricity supply as sunlight disappeared with unusual speed, only to reappear with the same unusual alacrity. (Prior to the eclipse, representatives of the solar industry had asserted everything would be fine. But "really, we were like this," said a spokesman for the industry, holding up crossed fingers on both hands).
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The industry passed the test and hailed it as proof that renewable energies were now a mature and successful part of Germany's electricity system. As the shift to renewable energy deepens, some power producers see the writing on the wall. E.on SE, a major German utility, announced in December that it would split its businesses into two.
The first will be composed of its conventional energy assets and the second will consist of its ventures in alternative energy and distribution. Some commentators likened the move to the manoeuvre deployed by some financial institutions in the wake of the 2008 crisis: dividing healthy and troubled assets into a "good" bank and a "bad" bank.
Germany's Greens, the political party that helped kick off the energy revolution, tend to dismiss business concerns as so much bellyaching. In recent years, Germany has notched the strongest economic performance of any major European country at the same time as it has implemented the energy transition, proponents of the policy say. Norsk Hydro ASA, a Swedish company, is increasing its aluminum production in Germany, Baerbel Hoehn, a Greens member of the Bundestag, said in a recent statement.
For the Greens, the future looks a little like Feldheim, a small village of neat brick-and-stucco houses south of Berlin. On a ridge near the village, 47 wind turbines generate enough electricity to power the community's needs 100 times over; the rest is sold to the regional grid.
The village also generates its own heat from a heavily subsidized biogas plant. Next up: a test project to create a lithium-ion battery storage facility for the renewable energy the village produces, the largest such installation in Europe.
Of course, there's no industry whatsoever in Feldheim. Back in the grid control room in Potsdam, the electrical engineers note that the region they oversee has very few industrial concerns, which makes it easier to incorporate alternative energies.
Meanwhile, they're plowing ahead with the many different facets of the Energiewende. "For us as engineers, it's really challenging and exciting," said Bernd Westphal, a regional manager at E.dis. "We're not getting bored here."Mehdi Masroor Biswas's photo released by Bengaluru Police
A Bengaluru-based man who allegedly operated Islamic State's most influential Twitter account was arrested from his house by the Bengaluru Police last night. He has been accused of waging war against a friendly nation and violation of Information Technology Act.Mehdi Masroor Biswas, the person behind Twitter handle "@shamiwitness", is a 24-year-old engineer who worked for a multinational in Bengaluru, police said. He moved to the city in 2011 and stays in Bengaluru's upscale southeast suburb. Police said he is an alumnus of West Bengal Institute of Technology.Sources say Mehdi did not have any direct link with Al Qaida or Islamic State group and nothing as yet suggests he was in direct touch with any jihadi element. He appears to be a case of self-radicalisation.Mehdi collected data, videos from web to post on Twitter, and majority of his tweets and posts have been deleted. Agencies are now trying to reconstruct Mehdi's cyber activities. So far, no anti-India activity or tweets posted by Mehdi have been found. Nothing has been found to infer Mehdi suggested any attacks in India, say sources.Mehdi seems more of a propagandist for Islamic State, not a recruiter or jihadi himself, sources add.The National Investigation Agency was reportedly aware of the Twitter account "@shamiwitness" and was tracking it even before Britain's Channel 4 News came up with its report on the account holder.UK based Channel 4 news on Thursday claimed that the man who operated the Twitter handle is one of the most influential recruiters for the Islamic State and is based in Bengaluru."His tweets, written under the name Shami Witness, were seen two million times each month, making him perhaps the most influential Islamic State Twitter account, with over 17,700 followers," the channel said. Mahdi has since shut down the account, which the channel said was a leading source of information between jihadis, supporters, and recruits.Hex in-game name: Champion: Main Deck List: Reserves Lists:
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3x Storm Cloud
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2x Lord Alexander, the Courageous
1x Fissuresmith
1x Field Tactician
1x Subterranian Spy
1x Reese the Crustcrawler
1x Mesmeric Hypnoscientist3x Gore Feast of Kog’Tepetl
2x Crackling Bolt
1x Boulder Toss
1x Countermagic
1x Crushing Blow 3x Scraptech Brawler
2x Time Ripple
1x Mancubus
1x Stormcall
1x Mindcaller
1x Countermagic
1x To the Skies!
1x Zodiac Divination
1x Mentor of the Song
1x Jags the Blademaster
1x Crown of the Primals
1x Verdict of the Ancient Kings
djinni Bertram Cragraven 12 sapphire shard
7 ruby shard
1 shard of fate
4 shard of innovation
3 burn
4 ragefire
3 archmage wrenlocke
4 countermagic
3 eldritch dreamer
4 mastery of time
2 peek
3 time ripple
4 crackling bolt
3 reese the crustcrawler
3 shoggoth 4 heat wave
3 buccaneer
1 burn
3 menacing gralk
1 peek
3 verdict of the ancient kings
Future Warmaster Fuzzuko 9 Ruby Shard
11 Wild Shard
4 Shard of Savagery
4 Howling Brave
3 Constantina
4 Wreckasaurus
3 Lord Alexander, the Courageous
4 Crash of Beasts
4 Stink Troll
4 Royal Falconer
4 Arborean Rootfather (Speed + Damage)
2 Gore Feast of Kog’Tepetl
4 Crackling Bolt 4 Heat Wave
4 Nature Reigns
3 Turbulence
4 Wrathwood Master Moss
Rarlig Dimmid 3 inqusition
4 soul marble
3 meek
4 murder
1 pact of pain
2 solidary exile
1 cerebral domination
4 extinction
4 vampire king
2 xentoth’s inquisitoy (Brutality)
4 angel of dawn
2 dishonorable death
1 uruunaz9 diamon shard
12 blood shard
4 shard of retribution 2 droo’s colossal walker
3 frost wizard
1 inquisition
2 solidary exile
3 hopeheart unicorn
3 cerebral domination
1 meek
ShadowM Bertram Cragraven 19x Sapphire Shard
3x Crackling Vortex
2x Replicator’s Gambit
4x Buccaneer
2x Menacing Gralk
2x Arcane Shield
3x Cerulean Mirror Knight
4x Countermagic
2x Eurig the Robomancer
4x Master of Time
4x Peek
3x Crackling Wit
2x Ingenious Engineer
4x Reese the Crustcrawler
2x Verdict of the Ancient Kings 2x Time Ripple
2x Yesterday
2x Oracle Song
1x Stormcall
1x Cerulean Mirror Knight
1x Menacing Gralk
2x Time Wave
2x Verdict of the Ancient Kings
2x Fish Hands
evildans Bunoshi the Ruthless 8 sapphire shards
8 blood shards
4 cerulean mirror knights
2 extinction
4 buccaneer
4 giant corpse fly
4 xentoh’s inqusitor (4 major blood orb of brutality)
3 monsuun
4 shard of cunning
4 wakizashi ambusher
4 crackling vortex
3 reese
4 storm cloud
3 azurefate sorceress (3 flight 3 cruelty)
1 vampire king 3 curse of oblivion
1 extinction
3 sorrow
3 counter magic
3 verdict of the ancients
2 chaos key
dameneon Wyatt the Sapper 20x Sapphire Shard
4x Crackling Vortex
3x Reese the Crustcrawler
3x Mastery of Time
3x Menacing Gralk
3x Eldritch Dreamer (Major Sapphire of Mind)
4x Countermagic
4x Buccaneer
4x Storm Cloud
4x Cerulean Mirror Knight
2x Peek
2x Verdict of the Ancient Kings
4x The Ancestors’ Chosen 3x Time Ripple
2x Yesterday
4x Sapper`s Charge
2x Verdict of the Ancient Kings
1x Eldritch Dreamer (Major Sapphire of Mind)
3x Zodiac Divination
Mars Bertram Cragraven 11x Sapphire Shard
8x Wild Shard
4x Shard if Instinct
3x Howling Brave
4x Chlorophylia
2x Verdict of the Ancient Kings
3x Mentor of Oakhenge
4x Buccaneer
4x Countermagic
4x Eldrich Dreamer (4x Major Wild Orb of Dominance)
4x Azurefate Sourceress (4x Major Sapphire of Mind, 4x Minor Wild Orb of Conservation)
2x Jadiim
2x Reese, The Crustcrawler
4x Arborean Rootfather (4x Major Wild Orb of Empowerment, 4x Minor Sapphire of Sky)
1x Mass Polymorph: Dingler 4x Chaos Key
4x Mastery of Time
4x Constantina
2x Verdict of the Ancient Kings
1x Sight of the Sun
Metronomy Bertram Cragraven 4x Howling Brave
3x Buccaneer
2x Sight of the Sun
4x Azurefate Sorceress [Major Sapphire of Mind; Minor Wild Orb of Preservation]
4x Eldritch Dreamer [Major Wild Orb of Dominance]
4x Wrathwood Master Moss
1x Menacing Gralk
3x Reese the Crustcrawler
4x Arborean Rootfather [Major Wild Orb of Empowerment; Minor Sapphire of Sky]Spells
2x Chlorophyllia
1x Verdict of the Ancient Kings
4x Mastery of TimeResources
12x Sapphire Shard
4x Shard of Instinct
8x Wild Shard 2x Constantina
3x Nature Reigns
3x Verdict of the Ancient Kings
1x Buccaneer
3x Succulent Cluckodon
1x Menacing Gralk
2x Crazed Squirrel Titan
zebuli Dimmid 4x Extinction
4x Murder
2x Pact of Pain
1x Uruunaz
3x Vampire King
4x Angel of Dawn
4x Living Totem
4x Solitary Exile
2x Hopeheart Unicorn
2x Meek
1x Tiaanost
2x soul marble
2x repel
10x Diamond Shard
10x Blood Shard
1x Shards of Fate
4x Shard of Retribution 1x Pact of Pain
2x repel
4x Frost Wizard
3x Inquisition
2x Withering Touch
3x Cerebral Domination
Diamondwolf Zared Venomscorn 20x blood shard
4x crackling vortex
3x darkspire priestess
2x gortezuma high cleric
4x murder
3x giant corpse fly
3x darkspire punisher
4x crackling rot
2x xentoth’s inquisitor (blood orb of brutality)
4x extinction
3x vampire king
3x wakizashi ambusher
3x darkspire tryant
2x dishonorable death 2x inqusition
4x chaos key
3x life siphon
1x darkspire priestess
1x darkspire punisher
3x monsuun shogun of winda’jin
1x dishonorable death
Enyma Poca, The Conflagrater 2 Countermagic
4 Buccaneer
2 Time Ripple
4 Cerulean Mentalist
4 Cerulean Mirror Knight
4 Crackling Bolt
3 Gore Feast of Kog’Tepetl
2 Legionnaire of Gawaine
3 Lord Alexander, the Courageous
1 Reese the Crustcrawler
4 Royal Falconer
3 Storm Cloud
10 Ruby Shard
10 Sapphire Shard
4 Shard of Innovation 2 Countermagic
4 Heat Wave
1 Storm Cloud
2 Zodiac Divination
2 Reese the Crustcrawler
2 Verdict of the Ancient Kings
2 Subterranean Spy
Elademri Running Deer 8x Ruby Shard
12x Wild Shard
4x Shard of Savagery4x Eye of Creation
4x Chlorophylia
3x Feral Domination4x Howling Brave
4x Wrathwood Master Moss
2x Jadiim
3x Scraptech Brawler
4x Arborean Rootfather (Major Ruby of Destruction, Minor Ruby of Ferocity)
2x Zakiir
3x Filk Ape
1x Wrathwood Colossus
2x Crazed Squirrel Titan 4x Heatwave
3x Constantina
3x Gobbleglade Witch
2x Eternal Guardian
1x Wrathwood Colossus
2x Thorntongue Snapdragon
Kalassar Gozzog 13x Blood
8x Ruby
4x of Hatred
4x Extinction
4x Inquisition
4x Crackling Bolt
4x Heroic Outlaw (Speed and DMG to Champion Gems)
4x Paladin of the Necropolis
4x Burn
4x Murder
4x Withering Touch
2x Life Siphon
1x Talisman of Vitae 4x Curse of Oblivion
4x Heat Wave
3x Chaos Key
2x Monsuun
2x Vampire King
Fliperon Wyatt the Sapper 12x Shapphire Shard
8x Diamond Shard
4x Shard of Purpose
4x Living Totem
3x Soul Marble
4x Time Ripple
2x Verdict of the Anctient Kings
4x Buccaneer
4x Countermagic
3x Eldritch Dreamer (Major Sapphier of Mind)
4x Angel of Dawn
4x Mastery of Time
4x Reese the Crustcrawler 2x Yesterday
4x The Ancestor’s Chosen
3x Menacing Gralk
4x Meek
2x Verdict of the Ancient Kings
Hapson Bertram Cragraven Sapphire Shard 14
Diamond Shard 2
Shard of Purpose 4
Shard of Fate 4Buccaneer 3
Menacing Gralk 4
Countermagic 4
Cerulean Mirror Knight 4
Soul Marble 4
Storm Cloud 4
Eldritch Dreamer (of Mind) 3
Mastery of Time 4
Reese the Crustcrawler 4
Shoggoth 2 Time Ripple 4
Meek 4
Eldritch Dreamer (of Mind) 1
Shoggoth 1
Buccaneer 1
Verdict of the Ancient Kings 4
Phallanx Lionel Flynn Ruby x 13
Wild x 6
Savagery x 4Burn x 4
Crackling Bolt x 4
Suppressive Fire x 3
Crushing Blow x 3
Crackling Sprout x 2Savage Raider x 3
Gas Troll x 4
Psychotic Anarchist x 4
Arena Regular x 3
Stink Troll x 3
Arborean Rootfather x4 (Ruby of Destruction, Ruby of Ferocity) Ruby x 1
Crushing Blow x 1
Shatter Shield x 3
Fissuresmith x 4
RageFire x 4
Nature Reigns x 2
Cirouss Bertram Cragraven |
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Abstract
European cultures have historically prevented people from restricting family size within marriage. The European marriage pattern allowed for the control of fertility only through delaying and restricting nuptiality. A new pattern, allowing for controlled fertility within marriage, simultaneously originated in New England and France in the late eighteenth century. The new pattern traveled with a new set of values, including suffrage, democracy, equality, women’s rights, and social mobility. Its main mechanism of spread was education, the availability of which also incentivized the new fertility pattern’s adoption by providing a clear way for parents to compete for the future status of their children by having fewer children. The new pattern spread across Europe, North America, and Australia during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, encountering temporary, partial resistance from some groups. Even Catholics and Mormons worldwide adopted controlled fertility by the early twentieth century or earlier. As the new pattern grew to dominate the western world in the twentieth century, Asia and Latin America transitioned to the new pattern. Sub-Saharan Africa entered a fertility transition beginning in the 1980s that is ongoing. In each of these transitions, when controlled fertility was adopted, the pre-transition positive (eugenic) relationship between fertility and wealth became a negative (dysgenic) relationship. Only tiny pockets of culture that maintain extreme separation from the new pattern – especially through refusing outside education and preventing women from contact with the outside world – have fertility patterns plausibly consistent with uncontrolled fertility. These may include the Amish and Hassidim in the United States. Once the fertility transition to controlled fertility occurs in a population, its fertility generally continues to decline until it is below replacement. The benefits of the new pattern are increased material wealth per person, a reduction in disease, starvation, and genocide, and upward social mobility. The main drawback is the onset of a dysgenic phase that may end civilization as we know it.
Introduction to Cultural Evolution
By creating language, humans opened up a new frontier for evolution. Cultures – a group’s collection of language, beliefs, behaviors, rituals, music, stories, rules, taboos, and markers of status – are made of information, transmitted from generation to generation and group to group. Cultures, or memeplexes, influence the genetic success of their adherents, often acting heterogeneously on members of their constituent populations. They form a major part of the selective environment itself, shaping the size and composition of the groups of humans they rely on to reproduce themselves.
memeplex: the collection of values, beliefs, practices, rituals, music, art, rules, stories, and markers of status that makes up a human culture, is passed from generation to generation within a population, and is sometimes passed from one population to another.
Although cultural evolution operates by very different mechanisms than genetic evolution, many biological patterns are present. Cultures mutate, reproducing varying versions of themselves by generational transmission and spread, experience differential reproductive success (selection), and sometimes go extinct. They are dependent on their human hosts, or symbiotes, a population they both change and are changed by. And we are dependent on them.
There are two ways that memeplexes can reproduce themselves: first, they can reproduce intergenerationally, being passed on to the genetic descendants of their adherents. Second, they can reproduce by spread or diffusion, transmitted from their adherents to people other than their own genetic descendants, such as to neighboring groups. In early human groups, cultures were mostly limited to the first method of reproduction. However, advances in technology, such as the invention of writing and, later, of printing, increased the importance of the second method of cultural transmission. This change relaxed selection on memeplexes in a crucial way: their success became less dependent on the genetic fitness of their adherents.
A Cultural Evolution History of Fertility
Where cultures may only be transmitted to the genetic descendants of their people, fertility norms are perhaps the most important aspect of cultural evolution. Every human group ever studied by anthropologists has a population policy (Murdock, 1945); while usually not explicit, every culture has norms and behaviors that limit population or mandate its increase. Different environments and technological packages are associated with different fertility norms. Arctic hunter populations face different pressures than medieval European farmers, and different fertility norms are successful in maintaining or even increasing a stable memeplex-reproducing population.
Matras (1965) identified four possible fertility strategies that a human culture might include:
A early marriage, uncontrolled fertility
B late marriage, uncontrolled fertility
C early marriage, controlled fertility
D late marriage, controlled fertility
Controlled fertility is not an artifact of modernity. Hunter-gatherers often control their fertility within marriage, whether by infanticide or by non-reproductive sexual practices or abstinence. The number of children born to the average hunter-gatherer woman ranges from.87 to 8.5, and in many groups is less than three (Marlowe, 1965). The higher values are consistent with uncontrolled (natural) fertility (Bongaarts 1978), but the lower numbers indicate some form of fertility control. (Differences in nuptiality do not explain the variance.)
Hunter-gatherer populations varied substantially in population policy, depending on the demands of their environment and mode of subsistence. As some groups began to practice agriculture, however, they faced the opportunity to dramatically increase their populations and take over new lands populated by hunter-gatherers by achieving high population densities. Territory determined the success of farming cultures, and a high population was crucial to maintaining and even expanding territory. Memeplexes whose population policy mandated uncontrolled fertility now had a major advantage against those that didn’t. When an agricultural culture is expanding into a frontier populated only by hunter-gatherers, whether in the Stone Age or in the eighteenth century, only cultures establishing early, universal marriage and uncontrolled fertility as the norm are successful. Populations either increased and expanded or were kept in check by mortality.
Early marriage and uncontrolled fertility were probably the norm in all of Europe prior to the sixteenth century. This pattern exists today in sub-Saharan Africa and Afghanistan, and in isolated pockets elsewhere, though this has often been the result of a fertility transition away from an earlier, controlled norm. Improvements in agricultural productivity have mimicked the selective effects of a frontier, relaxing the need for cultural limitation of fertility, much as that experienced by the Stone Age European farmers and colonial American farmers.
Around the sixteenth century, Europeans west of the Hajnal line began to switch to a pattern of late marriage, with a significant proportion of people never marrying, and uncontrolled fertility within the population who married. This norm was likely not adopted for the conscious purpose of limiting the population, but had the effect of keeping the population somewhat more comfortable below the Malthusian limit (Clark 2009). In preindustrial Japan and parts of China, however, farmers in long-settled areas kept early and universal marriage, but adopted fertility control by selective female infanticide and other means. In these populations, almost all women married and married young, but had around three children during their lives (Jones 1990 at p. 118). With industrialization and agricultural advances offering a pseudo-frontier relaxing Malthusian limits, the Japanese briefly adopted uncontrolled (or at least much less controlled) fertility, but after World War II they began to control their fertility once more. Most existing populations have been through multiple fertility transitions, and each transition has shaped the population.
Almost the entire world has recently undergone a single fertility transformation, one from uncontrolled fertility to controlled fertility. This transformation began in the late eighteenth century in a few small villages in France and New England, and subsequently spread to every continent and almost every population in the world. Europe at this time exhibited both early and late marriage patterns, but uncontrolled fertility was the norm, a crucial part of a memeplex maintained by the Catholic Church and other institutions at the center of every community.
What caused this worldwide fertility transition? Why did it start where and when it did, and what were the mechanisms of its spread? Why did so many humans adopt fertility norms at odds with their own genetic fitness? And what made some societies immune? What follows is a theory for the timing, location, spread, and limits of the modern fertility transition, taking into account the cultural, economic, and reproductive histories of dozens of populations. In short, it is a battle of the memeplexes.
A Note on the Non-Role of Child Mortality in the Fertility Transition
Since child mortality has drastically declined in the last century, many assume that child mortality had a role in people’s decisions to limit fertility. This is a problematic conception: child mortality can only affect fertility when parents have a “target” parity in mind; in uncontrolled fertility regimes, no such target exists, so there is no sense in which parents might “replace” deceased children to achieve their target. The transition is from an uncontrolled fertility regime to a controlled regime; this “target parity” is the very essence of the transition that must be explained.
Indeed, in sample after sample, decreasing mortality is found to have no role in decreasing fertility; it occurs at the wrong time and in the wrong place to be causal (see, e.g., Guinane 2010, Murphy 2012, Cummins 2012).
The Uncontrolled Fertility Norm in the Catholic Memeplex
In the centuries leading up to the eighteenth, European cultures, whether marrying early or late, exhibited uncontrolled fertility. Fertility outside of marriage was prevented and punished, but there was a positive obligation to realize one’s natural fertility if married. The enforcement of this obligation was centralized in the Catholic Church, which played a role in its communicants’ lives so extensive it is hard for moderns to imagine it.
The uncontrolled fertility norm was crucial to the success of the memeplex stewarded by the Catholic Church, by the mechanism described in an earlier section. The fact that it is a positive obligation implies that it has costs to individuals, who might benefit from “defecting.” Defecting, in this sense, means not maximizing one’s fertility within marriage. If humans directly wished to maximize their own fertility, such a positive obligation would not be necessary. But, as is often said, humans are adaptation executors, not fitness maximizers. Human preferences often align with high fertility, but high fertility is not itself the target. Sexual images of young, fertile women are desirable even though they do not increase fertility; similarly, sugar is not disdained simply because it is no longer scarce enough to promote health. One of the strongest drives that humans exhibit is for high social status. In all human societies prior to the recent global fertility transition, status was strongly correlated with fertility. Like sugar and sexual images, humans continue to seek status for its own sake even when it ceases to be correlated with fertility.
People compete for status along many dimensions. In order to sustain high fertility in its host population, a memeplex must effectively forbid competition along one particular axis: competing for status (one’s own or that of one’s children) by reducing the number of births. In many situations, it may be tempting for people to “defect” from a high-fertility norm by having fewer children, in order to have a less burdensome life themselves, or in order to improve the health and social status of their smaller number of children. This latter is what modern demographers call the “quality-quantity tradeoff;” it is a tradeoff that is forbidden by uncontrolled fertility norms. Luckily for memeplexes with this norm, there were few opportunities for upward mobility in social status in the world before the eighteenth century. Social and religious pressure was enough to prevent most would-be “defectors” from realizing these marginal opportunities; those that tried risked outcast status, and one’s fertility was highly observable by the community.
How was the Church able to impose this norm on people who had incentives to defect by controlling fertility? The Church derived its power from its deep involvement in its members’ lives. It was able to offer a profound spiritual gift: contact with the Divine as part of a community. In the fifth century, worship in Christian churches on Sundays was not just a single service, but an “interlocking series of services” beginning before dawn and continuing until after dusk (Kavanagh 1984, at pp. 56-60). Everyone participated in at least some of the services, including laudes at dawn, processions across the city, lively preaching, communion, and vespers at night; only the most pious participated in all of them. In medieval Europe, the Church had dominion over time itself, from the calendar of holidays organizing the sacred year to the church bells declaring the hours. It provided musical and other refined aesthetic experiences at a time when they were scarce, elaborating its own holiness and meaning. It united Christians under a loving, powerful, and soon-returning God.
With the invention of the printing press in Europe in the fifteenth century, a new memetic frontier opened. Over the following centuries, literacy expanded dramatically; people were able to access a new universe of cultural items, including new ideas and old books (especially the Bible) that were previously only accessible to the elite few. The earliest Protestants encouraged people to read the Bible for themselves, instead of accessing the divine only through community worship and rites guided by priests. The Catholic Church was no longer able to maintain memetic control over religion; heretical sects with mutant ideologies caused havoc (see, e.g., Carlin 2013). The Catholic Church itself entered a more literary phase as well, calcifying the “primary theology” discovered through community contact with the divine into “secondary theology” refined and approved by experts in ivory towers (Kavanagh 1984). People’s need for contact with the divine through rite was not being met by the calcified liturgy of the Church as it existed after the Council of Trent, not to mention the English Act of Uniformity of 1549 (Kavanagh 1984, at p. 81). The intimate contact with the divine offered through reading the Bible for oneself (or with one’s own charismatic preacher) proved tempting for the spiritually undernourished. Literacy, and the Church’s response to it, weakened the Church’s control over its members even as powerful new memeplexes were being born to compete with it. One of these new memeplexes would come to dominate the entire world.
The New Memeplex
In a few ordinary villages in New England and a few ordinary villages in France, commencing around the year 1776, a new memeplex was being created. Those who adopted it began to control their fertility within marriage. On two different continents and in two different languages, small communities had adopted new sacred virtues, competing with the sacredness of the old memeplex. The new sacred beliefs included democracy and suffrage, equality, universal education, and the rights of women. In America, temperance and abolition were gradually added, and as the memeplex gained power, it began to emphasize centralized organization. Like many religions, its claims to universal truth made it imperative for its adherents to impose it even upon unwilling participants in distant lands.
The memeplex that precipitated low fertility was not industrialization. The fertility transition occurred in rural as well as urban areas. More importantly, the fertility transition was centered on France, whereas the industrial revolution spread outward from England. Genetic and linguistic distance from France predicted the spread of the fertility transition within Europe between 1830 and 1970, supporting a model of cultural adoption of new norms and behaviors at the memetic “frontier” (Spolaore et al. 2014) rather than economic responses to industrialization. The same pattern of cultural transmission can be observed within the United States.
The new memeplex offered adherents the opportunity to compete along the long-forbidden dimension: by limiting their fertility. The revolutionary atmosphere in the late eighteenth century promised upward social mobility, and for the first time, there were major gains available to one’s children’s future status from trading off child “quantity” for child “quality.” An educated child, it now seemed, might rise above his parents’ station in life, a station previously accepted without question for centuries. By the nineteenth century in New England, members of the religious arms of the new memeplex controlled their fertility in order to have fewer children of better “spiritual quality,” a thought unthinkable in Catholic terms (Parkerson et al. 1988). “Pietism emphasized direct contact with God by personal prayer and scripture reading, and the need to inclucate this spirituality in young children,” say Parkerson et al. “It fostered a sense of individualism and self-worth, and put women in leadership roles that permitted notions of gender equality to emerge.”
These American religions stewarding the new memeplex were cultural descendants of the Puritan religions, formed and reformed in Great Awakenings, new memetic entities promoting new sacred beliefs often in conflict with the old ones. They allowed adherents previously forbidden gains in status in exchange for limiting fertility; and as more people began to compete along this dimension, those who did not were at a disadvantage.
It should be noted that the quality-quantity tradeoff here is not for better evolutionary quality. For example, in a large Swedish sample over many generations, children from smaller (limited) families had more education and achieved higher socioeconomic status, but had fewer children themselves (Goodman et al. 2012). Status was passed on at the expense of evolutionary fitness. There is no mystery here. Status has been reliably associated with high fertility for so long that humans pursue it for themselves and their children for its own sake, just as they enjoy sugar for its own sake.
Parents had been asked, it seemed, for centuries to come to a miniature version of the Repugnant Conclusion. Under the new pattern, a parent was able to form a sort of alliance with his first few children, increasing their well-being at the (unfelt) expense of the existence of their never-born siblings. When the birth of children was firmly the responsibility of God, this calculation was not even considered. But imagine an eighteenth century peasant watching his neighbor’s few, well-fed children gain status through education, while his own, many children are malnourished with no prospects beyond his own. Combined with the waning influence of the Church’s memetic package, the direct observation of Fortune’s smile must have been compelling. Only those in very tightly-knit religious communities, exercising a high degree of social control, and ideally rarely observing small families in practice, were immune. Only they were not compelled to compete by fertility control – at least, for a limited time, and in a progressively limited manner.
The Role of Women’s Rights
The new memeplex that drove the fertility transition to controlled fertility replaced the old sacred values of hereditary hierarchy, religious obedience, and traditional gender roles with new values, including equality, democracy, education, women’s rights, upward mobility, and suffrage. Education seems to be the primary means of transmitting the memplex and incentivizing the adoption of the new fertility pattern. However, the other factors are also important in transmitting the low-fertility pattern, though their importance varies over time. Women’s status does not seem to have been a very important determinant of the early fertility decline, though it has clearly been a determinant of the most recent fertility transition to sub-replacement fertility.
It is difficult to quantify women’s rights or women’s status in order to measure their effect on fertility. However, the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century do not seem to have been periods in which women enjoyed particularly high status, even in New England and France. Women in the United States did not gain suffrage until the early twentieth century; prior to the mid-twentieth century, women who attempted to compete with men were regarded as objects of ridicule. Rousseau, whose writings likely originate with (and partly make up) the new memeplex, prescribes a traditional role for women, taking care of children and attending to the home sphere, distinct from the role of men. While female literacy predicted lower fertility during the early transitions, these women were a long way from liberated, and the low fertility pattern was able to spread in countries in which women had very low status at the time, such as Japan.
In addition, the means that were used to space births during the early fertility transition – namely, periodic abstinence and withdrawal – would have required the participation of men. Workforce participation for women was extremely low at the beginning of the nineteenth century, around 5%, and rose very slowly during the nineteenth century. By most definitions, in the United States, traditional gender roles survived into the 1950s, when the fertility transition was already long over. While women’s rights and status would become important determinants of fertility in the twentieth century, education and social mobility seem to be more important fertility determinants in the initial transition to controlled fertility.
During the later fertility declines, women’s rights were very important as women themselves were incentivized to compete for status via education and careers. The pattern of voluntary childlessness is relatively new outside monastic contexts. It is not merely a tail of the desire for smaller families, as rates of having zero children frequently decreased as families got smaller; voluntary childlessness bears no consistent relationship to fertility (Gobbi 2011). Only later, as new, nonreproductive roles for women emerged, did voluntary childlessness begin to become common. Women’s education is also important in fertility transitions of developing countries, in which it is highly correlated to the use of modern contraceptives (Ainsworth et al. 1995). When women are taught to understand and trust the new Western memeplex, they are more willing to limit fertility using its medical technology, which might otherwise be scary and forbidden. In developing countries in which contraceptive use is not universal, female education is a strong predictor of the use of contraception (Bbaale et al. 2011, Gribble et al. 2008).
1776 at Ground Zero of the Fertility Transition
In order for the new memeplex to make progress against the old memeplex, several conditions had to be met:
The weakening of the institutions of the old memeplex A new set of sacred beliefs that could compete with the old sacred beliefs Economic and social conditions that rewarded competition on future children’s status by restricting one’s own fertility Institutional mechanisms for the spread of the new memeplex
As we have seen, the influence of the Catholic Church and its organization and control of communities had been substantially weakened during the Enlightenment. The American Revolution and French Revolution were products of a new set of sacred beliefs, valuing democracy, equality, suffrage, and education. The equality and social mobility made possible by the Revolutions increased the returns possible from status climbing, which was rarely possible before. Democratic reforms were associated with increasing public spending on education; education was at once an important mechanism by which people could trade off fertility for future child status, and a mechanism for the spread of the ideas of the new memeplex. Only those who maintained church control, rejected the new education, and prevented competition with the outside world were able to slow the spread of the new memeplex’s fertility pattern – for a while.
The fertility transition began at the same time at two places where conditions were particularly hospitable to the new form of future-oriented status competition. In both New England and France, the fertility transition began not in the wealthiest areas, but in more modest areas with low inequality. New England was both less wealthy and more equal than the South (Lindert et al., 2012), and within the South, high wealth and high inequality negatively predicted the spread of education (the most crucial component of the new memeplex) within counties (Ager 2013). Within France, those villages (Cummins 2013) and county-equivalent départements (Murphy 2012) that were the first to switch to the new fertility regime were poorer and more equal than similar areas that did not experience a fertility decline. Villages that experience fertility decline were more equal (measured by gini coefficient) than England or non-decline villages, and wealth as measured in wills was less correlated with father’s wealth in fertility decline villages, indicating higher social mobility (Cummins 2009). “Decreases in the level of economic inequality, associated with the 1789 Revolution, suggest that the environment for social mobility changed to incentivize lower fertility in France,” says Cummins (2013). The social and economic changes surrounding the American Revolution likely had the same effect, as ideals of universal education, equality, and suffrage found adherents in New England as well.
However, within these modest French villages, it was the wealthier members who limited their fertility first. Within Cummins’ (2013) “decline villages” – those experiencing the fertility transition – the wealthiest tercile of families reduced their fertility the most. In “non-decline” villages, where fertility remained high, the wealthy had more children. These two fertility regimes map directly to the two memeplexes that are battling. Below, from Cummins (2013), shows the relationship between fertility and wealth at the individual level under the two regimes between 1750 and 1810:
In the New England town of Hampton, New Hampshire, it was the middle tercile of families who reduced their fertility the most (Kilbourne 1986). Ambitious middle-class families from modest areas had the most to gain in social mobility from limiting their fertility and educating their children. They were the first to undergo the fertility transition, but others soon followed their example. By the time the fertility transition was detectable at the state level in New York in the nineteenth century, it was the wealthiest families who limited fertility the most (Haines 2008). When England experienced its fertility decline in the late nineteenth century, it was the poorest members of the highest social class (professionals) who reduced their marital fertility first (Cummins 2009) – apparently hoping to avoid downward social mobility rather than provide for the upward social mobility for their children. This pattern represents a clear departure from the eugenic, Malthusian European regime of the past, during which those with the highest wealth and status experienced the highest fertility.
The Role of Education
The new memeplex was both incentivized and spread by education (Perry 2014a and Perry 2014b). Education was costly, both in terms of expenses and in terms of forfeiting children’s labor, but returns to education in terms of both status and income were beginning to be positive for a large number of people in eighteenth century France and New England. Prior to the eighteenth century, only elites had access to education; but in the period leading up to the Revolutions, universal education gradually became a sacred mandate. Connecticut and the Massachusetts Bay Colony mandated universal elementary schooling in the 1640s and 50s, says Kenny (2008). Major educational reforms were carried out in New Hampshire as early as the seventeenth century (Wallace), and education was a major Revolutionary priority in late-eighteenth-century France (Markham).
In transitioning France, education of children (as well as mother’s literacy) was correlated with decreasing fertility (Murphy 2012). Within the United States at the same time, years of education was highly predictive of fertility decline, while income bore no consistent relationship (Hansen et al., 2014).
Spatially, the fertility transition in the United States began in New England in the late eighteenth century, then spread from the northeastern coastal states across the North to the West, and finally to the South. The map below shows the woman-child ratio (a proxy for fertility) at the county level in the United States in 1800: (from Haines et al. 2011)
In 1800, the fertility transition was underway in modest rural villages in two coastal areas, centered on Cape Cod and the Chesapeake Bay. By 1840, the low-fertility pattern centered on Cape Cod had intensified and spread to the west in the North, but not in the South (Haines et al., 2011):
At this point, education had been widely adopted in the North, and significantly less in the South. The following map (my own) illustrates the spatial distribution of education at the state level in 1840. The metric is the state’s number of children attending primary and grammar schools and academies, but not colleges, as a proportion of the number of white children ages 5-14 in the state, calculated from the 1840 census. As with fertility, education spread west in the North, but not in the South.
In the map above, enrollments approached the ideal of universal education in the Northeast, northern midwestern states made some progress, and the South educated only a small fraction of its youth. Between 1840 and 1880, fertility dropped substantially more in the Northeast than anywhere else, and fell least in the South (Hacker 2009).
In the years that followed, enrollment rates would increase rapidly in the northern Midwest, but would stagnate or even decrease in much of the South. The following map (Bleakley et al. 2013) shows the change in enrollment rates in counties across the United States between 1850 and 1870:
The states in the Northeast were already educating almost all their children in 1850, and their enrollment rates did not change much. Across the northern Midwest, enrollment rates soared, but stagnated or decreased across much of the South. Note that the figure only takes white enrollment rates into consideration, so the difference between Northern and Southern states is not just measuring the percentage of recently freed slaves.
By 1860, using white child-woman ratios as a proxy for fertility, lower fertility appears to have spread into parts of the south (Haines et al. 2011):
Within the South, the inverse relationship between fertility and education remained strong (Bleakley et al. 2009):
Hookworm, an intestinal parasite that primarily affects children and causes lethargy and anemia, but not mortality, was endemic to many parts of the South until the early 20th century. A major eradication effort was launched in 1910, and was extremely successful. Bleakley et al. (2009) posit that hookworm acted as a barrier to education, effectively increasing the cost of educating children. In areas with high infection rates, education and literacy increased and fertility declined when the parasite was eradicated. Areas with lower infection rates experienced less education increase and less fertility decline. By 1920, much of the South appears to have adopted the controlled fertility norm, and educational improvements would only increase from that point on.
Across the United States, as immigrant and native populations were exposed to the new memeplex advocating upward mobility, education, and equality, more and more Americans switched to a controlled fertility pattern. The education rate for blacks lagged that of whites until the early 20th century (Margo 1990); accordingly, black fertility began declining much later than white fertility, but then fell faster than white fertility (Haines et al. 2006, Table 1). Uncontrolled fertility groups (such as Irish immigrants in the early twentieth century) that encounter the strong, fully-formed memeplex when it is already widely accepted tend to experience rapid drops in fertility compared to the initial slow decline of the innovators; American blacks may have been culturally removed enough from the status competition domain of whites to exhibit a similar pattern.
The fertility-education relationship is also present in Europe during the fertility transition. For example, this map depicts the relationship between fertility and education in Prussia in 1849, when the fertility transition was well underway (Becker 2009):
This pattern is exhibited virtually everywhere the fertility transformation takes place, from Iran (Raftery et al. 1995) to Nepal (Axinn 2001). During Nepal’s transition, just being near a school reduced a woman’s fertility even if neither she nor her children attended it. The more the new memeplex gained in worldwide power and status, the more powerful it became at bringing new converts under its spell. Education has spread much more quickly in the recent era than during the first decades of the fertility transition (Benavot et al. 1988).
As noted above, the early converts in Europe were those with close genetic and linguistic distance from France (Spolaore 2014). In South America between 1870 and 1940, states with populations predominantly of European origin were most likely to expand education (Benavot et al. 1988). Among Europeans, the population most susceptible to the early forms of the new memeplex, education is associated with democracy and suffrage. In both France during the Revolution and Britain a century later, major public educational provisions were enacted shortly after a major expansion of suffrage (Kenny 2008). In France, the enactments occurred during the Revolution, and French marital fertility fell below 10% of its previous level for the first time in 1827. So many people had switched away from uncontrolled fertility that the phenomenon was now visible at a country level. In Great Britain, the education enactments occurred in 1870 and 1891, and Great Britain’s fertility first fell 10% below its prior level in 1892 (Spolaore 2014).
Hold-Out Groups
Return for a moment the map of 1800, 1840, and 1860 fertility above (the black-and-white maps by Haines et al. 2011). Notice the high fertility area at the northern tip of Maine. This area was heavily Catholic, as seen in this map of Catholic Churches per county in 1860 (Mullen 2013):
For decades, it formed one of the “hold-out areas” that maintained high fertility despite dropping fertility all around. In the next section, we will examine these hold-out groups and find out what caused them to resist the new fertility norms, the mechanisms by which they did so, and how the nature of the norm changed over time.
The Changing Nature of High Fertility: Catholics and Mormons
Catholics and Mormons in the United States maintained higher fertility than other religious groups, and the Irish, Spanish, and Dutch maintained high fertility for a long time after the fertility transition in Europe. However, all these groups have subsequently adopted the modern controlled fertility pattern, and their adoption of controlled fertility within marriage appears quite early. Instead of maintaining the old, uncontrolled fertility pattern, Catholics and Mormons appear to have shifted to controlled fertility, but at a higher target parity (or lower target spacing) than the surrounding population. In both cases, the nature of church control changed: it was not able to mandate true uncontrolled fertility, but was able to convince parents not to stray too far from the community mean on the highly observable metrics of birth spacing and parity. During the latter half of the twentieth century, the fertility of Mormons and Catholics descended well below any possible natural fertility population, converging at or just above the non-Mormon, non-Catholic mean. These institutions have been fighting losing battles against the new controlled fertility pattern, defending ever-shrinking concessions to higher fertility.
The role of theology in maintaining high fertility is secondary to the role of community control (Goldsheider 2006). The religious community can exercise indirect control by preventing contact with extra-religious status seeking, such as through providing religious rather than public education and emphasis on traditional gender roles; and it can exercise direct control through surveillance of birth spacing and parity by religious officials and by the community. By maintaining control of primary education, by being the center of social life among its communicants, and by surveilling the birth spacing of its members, the Church slowed but did not ultimately prevent the adoption of controlled fertility. Instead, the Church maintained a high target parity (or low target birth spacing) among its members even as they controlled their fertility. This target parity decreased over time; this is consistent with Catholics and Mormons controlling fertility and targeting the current mean parity or birth interval (so as to avoid detection by being average), as the mean would decrease over time by this process alone.
The Mormon fertility transition occurred over the latter half of the nineteenth century, just after the frontier peak in fertility (Heaton 1998). Mormon women born in 1840-1845 had on average around nine children, and the maximum parity observed was a staggering 22 (Bean 1990 at pp. 186-202). Mormon women born in 1895-1899, however, had an average of around five children, with the maximum observed birth order being just ten. Age at marriage declined only one year during that time, and the period of lactational infecundability remained constant. Beginning with the 1860-1865 cohort, women were clearly utilizing fertility control by birth spacing, and their fertility control started earlier and became more effective over time. By 1900, the Utah LDS were no longer a natural fertility population, but a controlled fertility population with a high target parity (ibid).
During the twentieth century, LDS birth rates ran parallel to but higher than the American birth rate (Heaton 1998).
Throughout the twentieth century, samples of Mormon college students and families have reported high rates of usage of fertility control, as well as high rates of usage (Bush 1976). The LDS fertility rate is presently probably about three children per woman, much higher than the average white American fertility rate, which is below two. Again, while the LDS Church was not able to maintain a genuinely uncontrolled fertility pattern, despite narratively compelling pronatalist theology and strong community involvement, it has maintained a target parity somewhat above the background level.
This is not the case for modern Catholic populations. In the United States, Catholic and Protestant fertility converged in the 1970s, and both are currently below replacement (Frejka et al. 2006). Catholic fertility in Southern Europe has also fallen to below replacement since the 1970s (Berman et al. 2007). But throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Catholic communities maintained high fertility for long periods of time even as the fertility transition accelerated in surrounding populations.
French Canadians arrived in Canada in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, from home populations practicing the late marriage, uncontrolled fertility European |
West Bank district police: here are the photographs of the attackers, courtesy of Munir Kadus.
Photos taken by Kadus of the settlers from Bracha who he says threw stones at him, his friend and their sheep. Munir Kadus
Photos taken by Kadus of the settlers from Bracha who he says threw stones at him, his friend and their sheep. Munir KadusLaws allowing same-sex couples and other previously-excluded groups to adopt children in Queensland have passed in the state parliament.
The changes, which were debated late on Wednesday night, will broaden the pool of potential adoptive parents to also include single people and those undergoing fertility treatment.
Same-sex couples are able to adopt children elsewhere in Australia, apart from in Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory.
Child Safety Minister Shannon Fentiman told parliament the changes would remove a discriminatory barrier.
"While Queensland may not be the first to break down this barrier, I am determined we will not be the last," she said.
But Ros Bates, the Liberal National Party's child safety spokeswoman, opposed the eligibility expansion citing an insufficient demand for adoption in Queensland.
"Any expansion of the right to adopt to single people and same-sex couples will do nothing but create an unrealistic expectation amongst those Queenslanders that they will have an easy access to adoption," she said.
Ms Bates said in 2015/16 there were only 21 Queensland adoption orders finalised, while the relevant department received less then 10 expression of interest applications for local adoptions per month.
"Adoption is not about appeasing someone wanting to adopt, but finding a child the best home in which to grow up happy and healthy," she said.
Ms Bates said the bill had been rushed through the committee stage, despite a six-month consultation period described as "extensive" by Ms Fentiman.
The LNP and two Katter's Australian Party MPs voted against the changes, leading to a heated interjection from Deputy Premier Jackie Trad.
"Disgraceful," she said. "Bigots."
Ms Trad was forced to withdraw the comment after LNP MP Trevor Watts took offence.
The laws passed with the support of Speaker Peter Wellington and Independent MPs Rob Pyne and Billy Gordon.Growing up, salads weren't the appetizer of choice. In Romania people prefer soups over salads. We would eat salads every now and then, but mostly when tomatoes were in season. My grandfather Bunu, who I dearly miss, had a big beautiful garden. He was very passionate about growing vegetables, which turned into his full time job after retirement.
I loved spending my summers at my grandparents' house. My grandmother, Buna, would cook for me whatever I wanted. All I had to do was to tell her what I was craving and the next day that's what we'd eat. It was heaven on earth for a chubster like me.
Dinners were especially fun, because I got to help Buna with the cooking. I would go in the garden, pick the vegetables I wanted, chop them up in the kitchen, and ten minutes later there it was- a big bowl of fresh tomatoes, green onions, gogosari peppers (a Romanian sweet pepper with a spicy kick similar in taste to bell peppers) and red radishes topped with home-pressed sunflower oil, coarse salt and cracked pepper. Salads were always served with a crispy loaf of freshly baked bread. So simple, yet so flavorful.NEW YORK (Reuters) - Ray Dalio, founder of the world’s largest hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, says the next big monetary and fiscal move should include an airdrop of money from helicopters to stimulate the U.S. economy.
Ray Dalio, Chairman and Chief Investment Officer of Bridgewater Associates gestures at the Ending the Experiment event in the Swiss mountain resort of Davos January 22, 2015. REUTERS/Ruben Sprich
He may not be entirely serious about “helicopter money.” But in a client note sent out this week, Dalio said the U.S. Federal Reserve’s ability to boost growth through lowering interest rates and quantitative easing is “weaker than it has ever been.”
“Monetary Policy 3” or MP3 will have to be directed at spenders more than at investors and savers, he said.
Dalio, who characterized lower interest rates as MP1 and quantitative easing as MP2, proposed some scenarios in which MP3 could be implemented.
“We can say that the range will extend from classic fiscal/monetary policy coordination - in which debt to finance government spending will be monetized - to sending people cash directly - i.e., helicopter money - and will likely fall somewhere between these two -i.e., sending people money tied to spending incentives,” Dalio wrote.
Helicopter money is a reference to an idea made popular by the American economist Milton Friedman in 1969 that dropping money out of helicopters for citizens to pick up was a sure way to restart the economy and effectively fight deflation.
Dalio, who helps manage $155 billion at Bridgewater, said investors should expect currency volatility to be greater than normal when countries are fighting for growth.
When interest rates cannot be lowered and relative interest rates cannot be changed, currency movements must be larger, Dalio said. Indeed, the Bank of Japan’s shocking move to take one of its main interest rates into negative territory last month led to weakness in the yen.
“To avoid economic volatility, currency movements must be larger,” Dalio wrote. “That reality creates ‘currency wars,’ pegged exchange rate break-ups, and increased currency risk for investors.”
Since currency movements benefit one country at the expense of another, he added that exchange rate shifts will not create a needed global easing. “That’s just how the economic machine works.”
For these reasons, investors should expect to experience lower than normal returns with greater than normal risk, Dalio said. Asset prices have fallen largely as a result of this, together with deflationary pressures brought about by most economies being in the later stages of their long-term debt cycles, Dalio said.Wild East Football was originally established way back in 2010 to report the Chinese game in as frank and constructive manner as possible to counter the international media’s sole focus on corruption and other negative elements. During the past six years we have seen many ill-informed and poorly-researched pieces make judgments on Chinese football, but until now we have never responded specifically to any one piece. However, UK tabloid The Sun’s “Chinese fakeaway” article over-steps the boundaries of reasonable reporting by such a huge margin that it cannot go unchallenged.
Chinese football is a very difficult thing to understand because, like everything in China, it is complex and inter-connected with so many other things, more so than in most other countries. One cannot look only at football alone to understand what happens in Chinese football. Other parts of the puzzle connect with wider society, politics and economics and all influence the game here in differing ways, both explicit and discrete. So anyone flying in to write something looking to make a strong conclusion about Chinese football is fighting an uphill battle from the start because most often, they don’t know the context. That is not the journalist’s fault as it’s not possible to know it without a really solid understanding of both the game in China and the country itself.
This is the default position a journalist starts in, assuming they are seeking to write a balanced and accurate piece to the best of their ability based on the facts they are able to gather and make sense of. It’s hard enough for the real story to get out without the writer bringing pre-conceived ideas to support a newspaper’s agenda, narrative, or any other emotional baggage which gets in the way of the truth. Such baggage The Sun has in great abundance. It is a publication with a long and dubious record of playing fast and loose with the facts and of outright hostility to anyone not sharing its narrow and simplistic conservative views. Smear campaigns, selective editing, personal attacks, a lax attitude to fact-checking, and publishing outright lies are the bread and butter of this newspaper. It’s dreadful reporting of the Hillsborough disaster and libeling of Liverpool football fans is just one famous example of it’s terrible history of judgmental reporting based on openly prejudiced stereotypes and a pathological need to twist everything to suit their purpose.
So let’s take a look at the Sun’s article and dissect it piece-by-piece so we can really see what’s going on. First up, the headline starts with
The Sun says: CHINESE FAKEAWAY: Football fans would rather watch the English Premier League than China’s sub-standard fare
WEF says: The judgmental and EPL-centric tone of the article is set right from the start. Straight away its ignoring the simple fact that the EPL is an immensely popular league in most countries in the world but somehow China is being blamed for being like everyone else. “Sub-standard” – compared to what? The EPL? It’s not news that the CSL isn’t as good as the EPL and no-one expects it to be anytime soon – so what is the story?
The Sun says: “Jealousy between its homegrown footballers and the vastly overpaid millionaire mercenaries who have flocked to the Chinese Super League”
WEF says: Again, if we are to use The Sun’s yardstick of comparing with the EPL – is there no jealousy or rivalry between players over their salaries, and are there no over-paid millionaire mercenaries playing in England? Of course this exists in China. But if anything, the domestic players are aware they are not on the same footballing level as their foreign counterparts. China being the hierarchical society it is, most accept their particular rung on the ladder as a fact of life, or at least don’t expect their treatment to differ until they have done something to climb to a higher rung. Foreign players get paid a lot more simply because CSL clubs want to bring foreign players who are better than the Chinese players, otherwise what’s the point in signing them? It seems bizarre for this sentence to be in the opening paragraphs of the article – is this the most insightful thing the Sun’s “investigation” has revealed?
The Sun says: “And this curious drama is being played out in front of half-empty stadiums”
WEF says: We’re barely into the article and it’s already rolling out tired old cliches about there being no fans. For years we saw countless international media ramble on about no-one being at the matches. This has never been true for the vast majority of clubs. Whilst attendances for the CSL were barely above 10k a decade ago, they are now more than double that. The game The Sun reporter took in, Shanghai SIPG v Beijing Guoan, had a crowd of around 26k. That is many times more than the few thousand Shanghai SIPG (then East Asia) got in the China League One a few years back before their promotion in 2012. So SIPG’s crowds can only be described as a success. Even the half-empty claim is misleading – SIPG’s stadium is limited to 46k for football for safety reasons. So actually more than half the available tickets in the stadium were sold. Shanghai has a big population? Sure, but football culture is a relatively new thing here and when the EPL clubs were 20 years old they didn’t have clubs on the other side of the world competing to attract fans in their own backyard.
The Sun says: “Even the fans who do bother turning up would rather be watching the Premier League”
WEF says: In that case why are they turning up at all? EPL and CSL games are generally not on at the same time. The story ignores the fact that CSL football is entertaining enough to attract 26,000 people to a stadium to watch one of it’s matches. Comparing CSL and EPL attendances is the proverbial apple and oranges situation – they both have vastly different histories and current situations. Top league football in China has been going barely two decades in a country which had little football tradition until recent times, it is just pointless to juxtapose EPL and CSL attendances.
The Sun says: “A feeling among coaches and foreign players that Chinese footballers do not have the work ethic to become top players”
WEF says: There is some truth to this. Many Chinese players lack professionalism, for example drinking and smoking it not uncommon, players are often picked based on seniority rather than merit, and many clubs lack properly professional setups and coaches to correct these matters. But when English players were smoking and drinking their heads off back in the 80s, China didn’t even have a football league. So developing a properly professional setup from top to bottom, takes time, just as it does everywhere else, especially when it is a developmental and cultural issue. The Sun should have backed it’s claim up by putting it into proper context rather than quoting anonymous nobodies.
The Sun says: “Ticket touts struggling to flog seats at a fraction of face value”
WEF says: More contradiction here from The Sun – the match they attended, SIPG v Beijing Guoan, was “half-full” according to them. If the game isn’t anywhere close to sold out then no tout anywhere in the world is going to sell tickets for what they were bought for since anyone can still buy a ticket at normal price through normal channels. In any case, many tickets on the street for games are unwanted hospitality or company briefs ending up in the hands of people who would rather sell them for 100% profit. Again, it seems odd this is what the “investigation” thinks noteworthy.
The Sun says: “The standard of football is on a par with League One — at best. Sports bars jam-packed for Premier League matches”
WEF says: They watched one game. Comparing is it not the point, and it’s an apples and oranges thing again anyway. As for crammed Sports Bars – again… is China to be blamed for it’s people liking the EPL just like everyone else? Perhaps The Sun thinks that China’s “communist regime” should prevent its people from seeing corrupting live foreign broadcasts such as EPL matches?
The Sun says: “The atmosphere for their game against Beijing Guoan was largely non-existent”
WEF says: This is just a lie. Shanghai Stadium may not be the best arena for football, but it gets plenty noisy for the dozens of games involving many different teams your correspondent has taken in there. And, since they insist on comparing, does anyone still believe the average EPL game has a great atmosphere anymore?
The Sun says: “I’ve been watching Hulk and he looks heavy, tired and unfit. He’s just walking around the pitch, not doing a lot.”
WEF says: It’s true Hulk, as a key player, was rushed back to play for SIPG before he was properly fit – something else not unique to the CSL. But the quote comes from an English teacher who, if you watch the video interview which accompanies the story on The Sun’s website, is clearly at one of his first SIPG matches and is going to “check out the other team in Shanghai, what’s their name again?” So here we have a Sun Reporter who has barely spent anytime in China, interviewing guys who have barely seen any Chinese football games, yet he comes up with such a damming indictment on Chinese football as a whole.
The Sun says: “The gulf in quality between the permitted five foreign imports and six Chinese players in each team was embarrassing”
WEF says: Basic factual error – there must always be at least seven Chinese players on the pitch at any one time and there can only be four foreigners at most, one must be from another Asian country. But again, are Chinese players meant to be on a similar level as guys bought for 50 million euros? The gap is significant in some cases but not all, and to describe it as embarrassing is a pure exaggeration.
The Sun says: “Foreign players in China are treated like kings…Chinese football expert Lu Win said: “They only have to click their fingers and people will run around for them.”
WEF says: This is most likely a made up quote – your correspondent pretty much knows every Chinese football expert quoted in the international media and Lu Win isn’t one of them. If it’s not made up, it’s probably from the only English speaker The Sun could find able to say what they wanted to hear.
The Sun says: “Chinese businessmen see England as a far safer and a faster financially rewarding investment.”
WEF says: So the vast millions being spent on bringing these top players to Chinese clubs are not coming from Chinese businessmen? Is there some rule saying that you must choose between investing in Chinese football and investing in English football?
The Sun says: “Alex Teixeira, Ramires and Hulk are big names but none of them have played a single minute for Brazil since setting foot in China”
WEF says: Ramires was dropped from Brazil whilst at Chelsea, Teixeria has never played for his national side, and Hulk has been mostly injured since he joined SIPG. However, Shandong Luneng’s Graziano Pellè played for Italy versus Spain last night.
Anyway, we could go on and on redressing the balance of this article. Not to mention the England-centric approach in this piece and others published from the same “investigation” – The Sun basically interviews English teachers at an SIPG game, an English player at Changchun and an English manager at Shanghai Shenxin and concludes Chinese people are lazy and local players are jealous of millionaire foreign teammates. There isn’t a shred of anything which hasn’t been said before or any insight which couldn’t be gleaned from using Google. Besides, given the gap between the EPL and CSL shouldn’t a writer who makes his living from covering the “Greatest league in the world” have a more magnanimous attitude towards a new and exciting emerging league? Post-Brexit, England is a bit sore these days, perhaps The Sun wants to make it’s readers feel better by attacking others who would also dare to build a football league based on a lot of money?
But the point is that, The Sun did what they always do – find an angle that appeals to their readership and look selectively for facts which support that story. And if they can’t find find those, no problem, some anonymous quotes will do the trick – along with some prejudiced and racist generalizations or assumptions to wrap it up. Most detestable of all about this article was a quote:
“The Chinese come across as lazy generally – surely a by-product of a communist regime that has ruled their land since 1949. “For years, their government has done and thought everything for them. Only here have I seen people shamelessly sleeping on the job … like two workers at an airport help desk in the city of Changchun in the middle of the afternoon in full view of passengers.”
This absolutely deplorable remark has since been deleted by The Sun without any acknowledgement – thankfully the South China Morning Post spotted it before it was taken down. But to say 1.3 billion people are lazy because you saw two people having an afternoon nap (often a cultural practise in China, and who knows how long the people in question had been working for)…well, it’s just mind-boggling that such an ignorant and racist observation can appear in a major mainstream publication in this day and age. It says a lot about what is really going on inside the heads of those at the The Sun. It appears that you can write whatever you want, no matter how simple-minded is, if it can be used to attack something which resembles The Sun’s usual scapegoats, ie. everything not on the right wing of British politics. In this case, the Chinese government’s “communism” and “doing everything” for the people are targets viewed through The Sun’s narrow political prism.
To sum up how absurd The Sun’s article is we need only ask a simple question – can anyone possibly imagine The Sun’s “investigation” resulting in a gushing headline and story about how wonderful Chinese football is and how it compares so well to the EPL? Of course not! It was always going to be something negative, inaccurate, scathing and disrespectful, just like most of what The Sun writes about Johnny Foreigner. This outcome of this “investigation” was decided before it even began. It’s typically biased and dangerous misinformation cynically designed to appeal to an uninformed readership and keep them that way.
We can’t change The Sun, but we can at least influence what people’s perception of Chinese football is. This country, like all others, has it’s fair share of shortcomings but it is home to an aspirational people who look forwards and not backwards. There is real passion for football here and a desire to see it improve and that deserves support. China’s football ambitions are lofty and may not be achieved anytime soon, but there should be respect for putting so much effort into something as great as the sport of football rather than trashing it to suit the dated and backwards prejudices of The Sun.Washington (CNN) Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met at The Ohio State University on Sunday for a Democratic town hall hosted by CNN and TV One.
CNN's Reality Check Team spent the night putting their statements and assertions to the test.
The team of reporters, researchers and editors across CNN listened throughout the town hall, selected key statements and then rated them true; mostly true; true, but misleading; false; or it's complicated.
Bernie Sanders
Reality Check: Sanders on factories closing
By Tami Luhby, CNNMoney
In talking about trade, Sanders decried the agreements that he said have hurt the nation's manufacturing sector.
"We have lost, since 2001, almost 60,000 factories. Can you imagine that? Sixty-thousand factories, millions of good-paying jobs," he said.
He's right.
There were 352,600 manufacturing establishments employing just under 16 million people in 2001, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. By 2013, that figure was down to 292,100 establishments, employing 11.3 million people.
Verdict: True.
Reality Check: Sanders on America's prison population
By Kate Grise, CNN
Sanders told the audience that there are "more people in jail in America than any other country on earth."
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, there were more than 2.2 million adults held in local jails and prisons in the United States in 2014.
The Chinese have 1.66 million people locked up in their prison system, while the Russian prison population doesn't hit a million, with about 644,000 people incarcerated, according to the Institute for Criminal Policy Research
However, the institute notes that China's incarcerated population is probably higher, since that number does not include people held in detention centers. In 2009, an additional 650,000 people were held in detention centers, according to numbers reported by Chinese government officials.
Just based on those raw numbers, we rate Bernie Sanders' claim as true.
However, many experts say it is best to compare the prison population rate of countries.
By this measure, the United States locks up 698 per 100,000 people, which puts it at second, according to the ICPR
Only the island nation of Seychelles tops the United States, with 799 prisoners per 100,000 people. However, some incarceration experts say that it is unfair to compare Seychelles, which has a population of about 90,000, to the United States, a country with more than 300 million people. The Prison Policy Initiative did not include countries with less than half a million residents when it published its 2014 States of Incarceration report "to make the comparisons more meaningful."
China's rate is 119 prisoners per 100,000 people and Russia's is 446 per 100,000.
Even when looking at the numbers from a different perspective, we still rate Sanders' claim as true.
Reality Check: Sanders on wealth inequality in the United States
By Tami Luhby, CNNMoney
Sanders ticked off a list of points showing how unequal America is.
One of them centered on wealth: "Problem is that we have the worst distribution of wealth of any major country on earth," Sanders said.
Financial services Credit Suisse and Allianz look at wealth globally every year. They both found that the United States has the highest level of inequality among developed countries. Noting that the economic crisis of the last decade and the subsequent sluggish recovery have exacerbated the divide, Allianz dubbed it the "Unequal States of America."
The richest 10% of Americans controlled 74.6% of the nation's wealth in 2014, according to Credit Suisse. The only other developed nation that comes close is Switzerland, where the top 10% own 71.9% of the wealth.
Wealth inequality in the United States rivals that of several emerging countries, such as Russia, South Africa and India.
Verdict: True.
Hillary Clinton
Reality Check: Clinton on Iran's nuclear program
By Ryan Browne, CNN
When Clinton was asked whether her record in office was overly interventionist, she referenced her role in helping lay the foundations for the international effort to curb Iran's nuclear program. She described the Iranian nuclear program as being highly advanced when President Barack Obama took office.
Clinton said, "You know, when President Obama went into office and I became secretary of state, the Iranians had mastered the nuclear fuel cycle. They had built covert facilities, they had stocked them with centrifuges. All of that happened while George W. Bush was president, and we had done, you know, sanctions and everything that we could think of as the United States government and Congress, but it hadn't stopped them. And there were a lot of other countries in the region who said they would take military action if necessary."
Iran's nuclear program dates all the way back to the 1980s. In 1996, President Bill Clinton signed off on sanctions against Iran to penalize it for pursuing a nuclear program. But the Iranian government did not announce it had mastered the nuclear fuel cycle until the end of 2010, nearly two years into Hillary Clinton's tenure as secretary of state.
Iran now produces everything it needs for the nuclear fuel cycle, making its nuclear program self-sufficient, the head of the country's Atomic Energy Organization told state media Sunday.
While Iran's nuclear program made great strides during the Bush presidency, the fuel cycle was mastered during the early years of the Obama administration, and Iran's use of covert facilities dates all the way back to the 1990s.
Clinton's statement that these developments occurred while Bush was in office is false.
Reality Check: Clinton on her role in the Iran nuclear deal
By Laura Koran, CNN
Clinton took credit for bringing Iran to the negotiating table for a deal that would restrict its nuclear program.
Clinton conceded that some sanctions on Iran were imposed under George W. Bush's administration, but went on to suggest that these did nothing to slow Iran's weapons-related nuclear activities.
"So I led the effort to impose sanctions on Iran, to really bring them to the negotiating table," said Clinton, adding, "the negotiations started under my watch."
Talks did in fact begin during Clinton's tenure leading the State Department, and she did play an important role galvanizing international support for tougher sanctions, but Clinton's statements Sunday minimize significant contributions by both Congress and the Bush administration.
In her 2014 memoir, "Hard Choices," Clinton wrote about how negotiations emerged from back-channel discussions through the Sultan of Oman, who ultimately suggested the talks. Clinton later sent a top aide to Oman to meet with the Iranians, paving the way for a critical phone call between President Barack Obama and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, and the commencement of more formal negotiations.
Clinton also argued successfully for harsher U.S. and United Nations Security Council sanctions that increased the pressure on Iran's economy in the months leading up to negotiations.
In particular, Clinton lobbied foreign powers to sign on to nuclear-related sanctions in early 2010, helping build unity among the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China behind the measures.
Congress also imposed new unilateral sanctions against Iran around that time, but in some cases, those measures actually went further than the Obama administration wanted to go, and were in fact publicly opposed by State Department officials.
Clinton's statements Sunday also undervalue the usefulness of measures taken by the Bush administration, led by then-Undersecretary of Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Stuart Levey.
In fact, in the last three years of the Bush administration, the U.N. Security Council imposed several rounds of tough international sanctions against Iran in connection with the country's nuclear activity. It's possible these sanctions, in addition to the ones Clinton promoted, affected Iran's calculus in deciding to pursue diplomatic talks.
Verdict: Mostly true. Clinton played a major role in bringing about the Iran talks, but those initiatives were bolstered by congressional action -- some of which her department opposed -- and by Bush-era measures.
Reality Check: Clinton on poverty
By Tami Luhby, CNNMoney
In talking about fighting poverty, Clinton pointed out that poverty fell drastically during the administration of her husband, Bill Clinton.
"In the '90s, more people were lifted out of poverty than any time in recent history. Because of the terrible economic policies of the Bush administration, President Obama was left with the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, and people fell back into poverty because they lost jobs, they lost homes, they lost opportunities and hope," she said.
Poverty did rise under the first Bush administration. In 1989, George H.W. Bush's first year in office, there were 31.5 million people in poverty, or 12.8% of Americans.
It rose to 39.3 million, or 15.1%, by 1993, when Bill Clinton entered the White House. In 2000, his last full year in office, it had dropped to 31.6 million people, or 11.3% of Americans, the lowest rate since 1974.
Poverty jumped again to 39.8 million people, or 13.2%, by 2008, when George W. Bush was leaving office.
The Great Recession sent millions more Americans into poverty. The rate hit 15.1% in 2010, when 46.3 million Americans were below the poverty line.
There are now 46.7 million people in poverty, or 14.8% of the nation. (The share has eased somewhat because the population has grown.)
Verdict: True.
Bernie Sanders & Hillary Clinton
Reality Check: Clinton, Sanders on Trump paying legal fees of man charged with assault
By Sonam Vashi, CNN
Both Clinton and Sanders addressed a recent incident at one of Donald Trump's rallies.
Hours after a Wednesday rally in North Carolina, videos surfaced of a man punching a black protester in the face at the rally and saying, "The next time we see him, we might have to kill him." Police arrested the alleged attacker, John McGraw, the following day and charged him with assault, disorderly conduct and communicating threats.
The protester was being escorted out of the rally by police officers, and the Columbus County Sheriff's Office is internally investigating whether the officers should have detained or arrested McGraw on the site, according to a spokesman.
At Sunday night's town hall, Sanders said, "Some of you may have read just a few hours ago that Mr. Trump said that he is prepared to pay for the legal costs of an individual who sucker punched somebody at a recent event.... What that means is that Donald Trump is literally inciting violence with his supporters. He is saying that 'If you go out to beat somebody up, that is OK, I'll pay the legal fees.'"
Clinton later said, "Donald Trump is responsible for what happens at his events. He is the person who has for months now been not just inciting violence, but applauding violence. The images of the, you know, young African-American protester being attacked totally without any provocation whatsoever, and having Donald Trump say that he would pay the legal bills of the attacker."
In February, Trump urged his fans to "knock the crap out of" people "getting ready to throw a tomato" at his rallies. "I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees. I promise, I promise," he said.
And Sunday morning on NBC's "Meet the Press," host Chuck Todd pressed Trump on whether he would help pay McGraw's legal fees. Trump said, "I've actually instructed my people to look into it, yes." Trump said he wants to see the full video of the incident and does not accept responsibility for it or "condone violence in any shape." He also said the protester was "sticking a certain finger up in the air, and that is a terrible thing to do in front of somebody that frankly wants to see America made great again."
Both statements from Sanders and Clinton are true.Note: This answer is my own and does not necessarily reflect the views of Uber. I have no special knowledge of Uber’s pricing strategy and all information presented here is publicly available knowledge.
Uber is blowing through millions because when entering new markets, Uber and its competitors employ a strategy known as penetration pricing.
The big idea behind penetration pricing is that you kickstart demand for your product by keeping prices far below their supply-demand equilibrium initially to increase demand. Somewhat unique to the ride-sharing market, you also need to pump money into the system to increase supply. So you’re taking a loss both supply side (driver) and demand side (rider). The good news is, you don’t need to do this forever, in theory. Once the product’s adoption reaches a critical mass, you slowly move prices towards equilibrium.
Now, if you were to raise prices arbitrarily, of course, you’d just drive away all the demand you invested in building up. What makes this model sustainable in the long term is that, due to economies of scale, as your product gains wider adoption, your incremental costs decrease, meaning the amount you need to raise prices to become profitable decreases in tandem.
This is something we’re already seeing in the ride-sharing market. The more mature cities are actually profitable for Uber and Lyft, while the higher growth cities are where the bulk of the spending — and by extension the losses — are focused.Stratis is set to take the stage at a number of upcoming conferences as we showcase our blockchain offering and latest product developments.
Over the next six months, Stratis will be attending and speak at a host of bitcoin and blockchain conferences. Starting with the Blockchain Expo at Santa Clara in Silicon Valley on the 28th November to 30th November, we will be attending and be exhibiting our technology.
As strategic partners of the Expo, we will be on hand throughout the three days, offering the opportunity for investors to discuss product developments, as well as one-on-one conversations with Stratis employees.
In the new year, we will continue to showcase our blockchain offering, attending the Bitcoin Super Conference in Dallas, Texas which is from the 16th to 18th February 2018. We will be discussing our turnkey solutions and how we utilize C# and.Net development frameworks to provide quick and easy blockchain-based applications.
On the 18th April to 19th April 2018, Stratis will be in attending the Blockchain Expo in London, Olympia. More detailed information will be provided about the Expos closer to the time.
Finally, we are excited in ramping up for a very busy period with major technology releases and attendance at key Blockchain Expos.Classixx have shared the video for their Faraway Reach song with T-Pain “Whatever I Want.” It is a shot-for-shot remake of the Smiths’ 1987 video for “Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before.” It features T-Pain as Morrissey, leading a group of people on bicycles, brooding, rubbing his head, and looking off into the distance–just like Moz. There are even updated denim jackets that say “CLASSIXX” instead of “THE SMITHS.” Watch the “Whatever I Want” video, directed by Daniel Pappas on a GoPro camera, below (via The Fader), and scroll down to see how it lines up with the Smiths’ video.
In an email to The Fader, Pappas compared T-Pain and Morrissey:
The video was inspired by the song’s attitude towards doing ‘whatever I want,’ T-Pain’s well chronicled struggle with depression, the shared sadness of Smiths fans, and how, through all of the depression and sadness, when you look like Morrissey in whatever way you can, everything is going to be okay.
Watch T-Pain on an episode of Pitchfork.tv’s “Over/Under”:As SJW Europeans, including men in relationships most weirdly of all, respond to mass rapes and other crimes by inviting ungrateful migrants into their homes, yet another civilian airliner has been blown up by a suspected Islamist bomb over Greek waters. Luggage and human body parts from EgyptAir flight MS804 continue to be found in the Mediterranean. Instead of showing solidarity with the victims and their families, we can expect that SJWs will double down and say that the only way to fight terrorism is to force open Europe’s external borders even further. The solution, however, is for Europe to demand that its population maintain a minimum level of nativity and unconditional integration, just like the terrorism-free societies of Japan and South Korea.
At the heart of this issue is the fact that there is no fundamental difference between the non-terrorist criminal proclivities of young Arab and North African migrant men on the streets of Europe and the actions of actual Islamic terrorists. Both varieties represent cultural attitudes that are savagely opposed to any assimilation into European societies and even the concept of Europe itself. Moreover, most of the Batalcan attackers, for example, transitioned from lives of regular crime to wanton destruction inspired by religious terrorism.
Rather than being assuaged by promises of homes, livelihoods and welfare-on-tap for millions of new arrivals over the coming years, a plurality, if not majority of Muslim immigrants and their descendants consciously see this as an opportunity to erode Europe’s indigenous base and make it more amenable to Islamization.
The more Europe gives out concessions, the greater and more onerous the additional demands it will face from migrants.
Should MS804’s bloody end be shown to have been the work of extraterrestrials, the Flying Spaghetti Monster or God, the argument above still stands. SJWs’ exaggerated rejoicing when a deadly or otherwise violent event is not the work of Islamic terrorists or migrants shows just how many unacceptable incidents involving foreigners and their progeny are occurring right now.
Let’s fight terrorism and “racism” by me being cuckolded!
Insofar as MS804’s demise will matter to SJWs, it will be used as a pretext to batten down the hatches. Expect them to insist that only the reason why previous attempts at letting in over a million “refugees” failed to achieve peace and “tolerance” is because those efforts simply did not go far enough. The so-called racism of a majority of the German, French, British and other European populations will be to implicitly, sometimes explicitly rationalize MS804. That the biggest number of victims were Egyptians does not obscure how the airliners and cities invariably targeted are either European or directly linked with Europe, such as leaving a major European airport. The Egyptian passengers and crew were seen as traitors to Islam, plain and simple.
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u Chibhabha, Tarisai Musakanda
Test squad: Regis Chakabva, Hamilton Masakadza, Ryan Burl, Graeme Cremer (capt), Craig Ervine, Sean Williams, Peter Moor (wk), Sikandar Raza, Tendai Chatara, Chris Mpofu, Donald Tiripano, Nathan Waller, Natsai M'shangwe, Malcolm Waller, Carl Mumba, Tarisai MusakandaThe left desperately wants universal health care, but they just cannot seem to figure out how to make it work. Obamacare was originally envisioned as a public option system, according to the 2008 campaign website of the former president. Bernie Sanders wants a single-payer system, or “Medicare for All.” So far, nothing besides subsidies for private policies on exchanges in addition to expanded Medicaid coverage has stuck at the federal level, so the Democratic Party has been forced to turn to friendly statehouses.
Both Hawaii and Massachusetts have implemented strict rules for private insurance, with the latter serving as the starting point for Obamacare’s structure. However, neither state has been able to achieve real universal health care, though both places come closer than most to a 0% uninsured rate, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Oregon tried and failed to start a serious discussion about single-payer in 2010. Then in 2014, Vermont came closer than any other state to an actual single-payer system until the governor admitted defeat after staring down a $4.3 billion price tag. To put this into perspective, the entire state budget of Vermont was only $4.9 billion at the time. There was just no way to make it work.
Vermont is a small state in both the geographic and population sense of the word. With fewer wealthy individuals or highly profitable companies to tax, it is no surprise that single-payer crashed and burned in the dark blue mountains that Bernie Sanders calls home. California, on the other hand, has no shortage of wealthy citizens and companies to tax. Perhaps single-payer will fare better there? Last week, the state Senate crossed the first hurdle to begin this reboot of the experiment, according to The Mercury News. The Healthy California Act now heads to the California Assembly.
While many supporters argue that the plan will help to create savings through lowered drug pricing and administrative overhead reduction, this single-payer legislation will nonetheless be extremely pricey. The California Senate committee charged with estimating the cost admits that the tab could be as big as $200 billion. This amount is in comparison to the existing total state budget of only $122 billion. Of course, California is also notorious for underestimating the cost of their progressive utopian projects. Originally slated to run $40 billion, the high-speed rail project linking Southern California to San Francisco is now estimated to cost $64 billion to complete, and years behind schedule, to boot. How to pay for what may very well become a tripling of the entire state budget? Quite simple, according to the committee: with an additional 15% payroll tax.
California is free to try their hand at this experiment, and conservatives and libertarians (at least, the ones who live outside their borders) should be happy and wish them the best of luck. After all, when each state is free to pursue what its citizens decide is best for themselves, within the limits of the U.S. Constitution, that is when the country is at its finest. Mandating things at the federal level is a recipe for tyranny and lost liberty, so even when a liberal state embraces a progressive agenda, as long as it is not forced on others, that should be celebrated.
However, (and this is a big “however”), the Californian bill contains a particularly disturbing line which calls into question whether this is even constitutional or not:
This bill would prohibit health care service plans and health insurers from offering health benefits or covering any service for which coverage is offered to individuals under the program.
This prohibition would, in essence, destroy the entire existing heath care market in California. No company would be legally allowed to compete with the California plan when it came to standard benefits – the only policies you would be able to buy on the private marketplace would be those which would cover procedures outside of mainstream care. Everyone would be automatically taxed to support the state-run plan, with no option to opt out.
By eliminating the possibility of private competition, the California bill goes too far. The Healthy California Act will almost certainly never see the light of day and will die a slow death due to insurmountable cost estimates, just like the Vermont bill. However, the reason conservative legislators should cite as the basis for their opposition is the appalling breach of liberty contained within the text. The mandatory tax, coverage, and payout amounts alongside the prohibition for any private competition reeks of big government run amok.
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VETERANS of the famous Upper Clyde Shipbuilders work-in have backed a Yes vote in the referendum.
Seven of the central figures in the 1971 UCS industrial dispute have signed an open letter claiming independence would be a boost for Scotland’s declining shipbuilding industry.
Related Story:
Read the letter in full below:
To the shipbuilders of Scotland, and workers in related industries,
As shipbuilders for most of our working lives, veterans of the Upper Clyde Shipbuilding work-in, and long-standing trades unionists, we want to make the case for why a Yes vote is the best choice for our shipyards and the future of our industry.
For over a century Scotland’s shipyard workers have been among the most skilled in the world, and the new Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier is further testament to our expertise. The UK Government is attempting to portray itself as the protector of shipbuilding in Scotland, but nothing could be further from the truth.
Despite the efforts of the trade union movement, shipbuilding has been neglected by Westminster governments, and there is a stronger, brighter future for our shipbuilding industry in an independent Scotland.
This is about the future: and after independence, Glasgow yards will continue to receive orders from the UK, because Portsmouth is not suitable for building key vessels, and even Westminster has admitted EU laws don’t stop the UK placing orders in Scotland after Yes.
Scotland’s shipyards will also need to build ships for the Scottish navy, and the Scottish Government’s immediate proposals are to procure four Type 26 frigates for the new Scottish navy, while in general defence procurement is increasingly a matter of international cooperation. Increasingly, governments are working together to procure ships jointly.
Last year the UK and Australia signed a new Defence Treaty that could ‘pave the way for the long-standing allies to join forces in constructing their next generation frigate’. If it’s good enough for Australia and the UK, why do the politicians at Westminster want to treat Scotland differently?
A Yes vote is the start of a great opportunity to expand the kind of ships built on the Clyde. Relying on BAE systems and the MoD alone is not a sustainable future for Scotland’s shipyards. One of the No campaign’s own spokespeople makes this point himself, when he says that ‘If we’re not going to build commercial ships, and all we’re going to build is defence frigates and aircraft carriers, then that’s what keeps us alive here’.
But there will be no more carriers from the UK and a much reduced warship programme, leading to job reductions and the consolidation of the Clyde Yards. We say: why can’t Scotland compete with other shipping centres, to build commercial ships?
The ambition to expand our shipbuilding and not just rely on the MoD will bring a new lease of life for our shipbuilding - which will also have a positive impact on surrounding areas, supply chains, and the industrial future of a neglected Scottish economy.
This is also about the history of the yards. For decades, decisions to close the yards were taken by doctrinaire Tory and Labour governments who disregarded the hopes of people who live here. In 1970 the workforce of these Glasgow shipyards faced the closure of their industry and destruction of their communities.
In 1979 Scottish shipbuilding employed around 35,000 people - but by 2012 there were less than 8,000, and the Westminster government aims to reduce jobs further from over 5,000 to 1,500. In short, it remains official Westminster policy to build ships abroad and close Scottish yards: in 2009 the Westminster government required that BAE systems close one or more of Scotstoun, Govan and Portsmouth.
It is now official UK policy to ‘build ships abroad’, since the 2005 defence White Paper reversed the policy of only building warships at home.
So, the great threat that looms over our shipbuilding industry is the threat from no change, from keeping on the same downward path with Westminster. We believe there can and must be a different way forward - but that depends on bringing economic power to Scotland.
Shipbuilding can be at the heart of an independent Scotland’s industry. The social and industrial importance of shipbuilding was promoted and defended by the UCS work-in, and will be promoted again - and with a Yes vote the difference will be that rather than decisions resting at Westminster, they will be in the hands of people and the government of Scotland, which would value the contribution of our industry to the economy of Scotland and would see a more diversified future for the shipyards and skilled workers of the Clyde.
Scotland is a world leader in offshore technologies and deep sea engineering, and that can translate into a brighter future for our shipyards too.
In an independent Scotland we will have the power to make the most of the opportunities of the future, building on our strengths, reindustrialising our nation, so that our shipyards have a strong future, and shipbuilders are guaranteed secure, fulfilling work.
This will happen when power to create the future is in the hands of those who can be trusted with it, the people who value the industry that has been at the heart of Glasgow for a century, the working people of Scotland themselves.
We are the people with the greatest stake in getting this right and that means we, rather than politicians at Westminster, will do the best job of growing Scotland’s shipbuilding sector.
There will be a sustainable shipbuilding future committed to by the Scottish Government.
In solidarity,
David Torrance - UCS Coordinating Committee member,Chair, Draughtsman and Allied Technician Association, Fairfield
Linda Hamill - Shop Steward, Fairfield
Betty Kennedy - Telephone Supervisor (refused to disconnect phones when work-in began)
Jimmy Cloughley - UCS Coordinating Committee Member, Engineer Shop Steward, Fairfield
Ronnie Leighton - Convenor, Boilermakers, Linthouse
Tam Brotherston - Shop Steward, John Brown’s
John Gibb - Shop Steward, FairfieldAfter the Minnesota Republican Party waited until the last minute to get their party’s presidential nominee on the ballot, the state’s Democrats filed a legal challenge late Thursday arguing that the way Republicans placed Donald Trump on the ballot violated election rules.
In a lawsuit filed with the state Supreme Court, the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party contends that Trump and his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, should be pulled off the ballot.
Late last month, Minnesota residents who looked up a sample ballot online were stunned to find that Trump was nowhere to be found just two business days from the secretary of state’s deadline for major parties to get their tickets on the ballot. By the next day, state party officials were scrambling.
Under Minnesota state statutes, major parties need to supply the name of the party’s presidential and vice presidential nominees, the names of ten nominated electors and ten alternate electors in order to officially get their candidates on the ballot. As the Washington Post reported, the Minnesota GOP elected its electoral college members – the ones who actually cast the ballot – at its state convention in May, but forgot to elect alternate electors.
To rectify the problem, the state party held a last-minute meeting to select the alternates, a process the Democrats say violated election law. Minnesota’s secretary of state accepted the certification, and Trump was ultimately added to the ballot.
In its petition, the DFL writes that the state GOP’s alternate electors aren’t valid because the executive committee, rather than delegates at the convention, chose them. The petition notes that “the executive committee is obviously not a ‘delegate convention.’”
“It is incumbent upon political parties to follow the rules binding our elections and in this instance it does not appear that the Minnesota Republican Party did so,” DFL chair Ken Martin said in a statement about the filing.
The state GOP did not respond to local media requests for comment.
As the Pioneer Press notes, the Minnesota Supreme Court has a good record of resolving election matters quickly. Early in-person voting in the state begins on Sept. 23.
Read the full complaint below:The Brookings Institution 23 June 2015 has launched an article under the sobering title “Deconstructing Syria: Towards a regionalized strategy for a confederal country”.
Brookings: “This paper makes a case for a new approach to Syria that attempts to bring ends and means more realistically into balance. It also seeks to end the Hobson’s choice currently confronting American policymakers, whereby they can neither attempt to unseat President Assad in any concerted way (because doing so would clear the path for ISIL), nor tolerate him as a future leader of the country (because of the abominations he has committed, and because any such policy would bring the United States into direct disagreement with almost all of its regional allies).
The new approach would seek to break the problem down in a number of localized components of the country, pursuing regional stopgap solutions while envisioning ultimately a more confederal Syria made up of autonomous zones rather than being ruled by a strong central government.
It also proposes a path to an intensified train and equip program. Once that program had generated a critical mass of fighters in training locations abroad, it would move to a next stage. Coupled with a U.S. willingness, in collaboration with regional partners, to help defend local safe areas using American airpower as well as special forces support once circumstances are conducive, the Syrian opposition fighters would then establish safe zones in Syria that they would seek to expand and solidify. The safe zones would also be used to accelerate recruiting and training of additional opposition fighters who could live in, and help protect, their communities while going through basic training. They would, in addition, be locations where humanitarian relief could be provided to needy populations, and local governance structures developed.
The strategy would begin by establishing one or two zones in relatively promising locations, such as the Kurdish northeast and perhaps in the country’s south near Jordan, to see how well the concept could work and how fast momentum could be built up. Over time, more might be created, if possible. Ultimately, and ideally, some of the safe zones might merge together as key elements in a future confederal arrangement for the Syrian state.
Assad, ISIL, and al-Nusra could have no role in such a future state, but for now, American policymakers could otherwise remain agnostic about the future character and governing structures of such an entity.”
The model already seems to be in use in Iraq (below)
Comment
The paper foresees the ouster of Syria´s legal president, only opposed by 10% o Syrians acc. to a NATO poll, by gradually occupying his land by IS(IS)/Al Qaeda forming “liberated” enclaves to fusion into a confederation without a strong central government. supported by US/NATO bombing attacks and US/ British special forces on the ground in enclaves – as is already happening in Iraq. The moral and political character of the state thus arise should be of no interest to the US!!!
This confirms what has been long reported in alternative media and has so far been called conspiracy theory! It is an open declaration of war on Syria by Brookings´ Master mind Rothschild.
However, the problem is that all Syrian anti-Assad warriors cooperate with IS(IS) and Al Qaeda! So, the Brookings article indirectly admits IS(IS) as a US ally.
In 2012, The US Defence Intelligence Agency had the above information. So the Pentagon knows full well, that the Salafists (ISIL) alongside with the Muslim Brotherhood and AQI (Al Qaeda) are the insurgents in Syria. And the US, nevertheless, is funding, training and equipping them to build one or more enclaves within Syria. This document must be the background of the above Brookings document
Were Assad foolish enough to challenge these zones, even if he somehow forced the withdrawal of the outside special forces, he would be likely to lose his air power in ensuing retaliatory strikes by outside forces. Thus, he would be unlikely to do this.
The presence of Iranian, Lebanese, Yemeni, Afghan, and other forces across Syria, particularly bordering “zone” the US attempts to create, may offer the US the prospect of a multinational confrontation it has neither the political will, nor the resources to undertake.
Russia could hardly oppose it, since it has so far been secret. But now this conquest of Syria is no longer secret – thanks to Brookings.
So one must ask: Why does Rothschild´s Brookings reveal that in public now? To increase Russian mood to intervene for her ally, Assad?
Does Rothschild want the Albert Pike WWII now?
This take down of the Syrian Government was planned by 2001 (Video)
One may rightly ask by what justification the US government receives such a plan from the Brookings Institution which has drafted US laws for 75 years.
Brookings is Rothschild´s instrument to have his plans implemented worldwide through the US government and military
Nathaniel Rothschild is a member of International Advisory Council of the Brookings Institution. And Brookings president, Strobe Talbott, is on the Advisory Board of Rothschild´s and Jesuit Council on Foreign Relations. next to its Pres. R.Haas.
In the World War II era, Brookings experts helped the government mobilize for the conflict and manage its aftermath. Leo Pasvolsky, a Brookings expert who also served in the State Department, was instrumental in refining the blueprint for President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s dream of the United Nations and helped shape the Marshall Plan. After 9/11, with remarkable speed, Brookings experts produced influential proposals for homeland security and intelligence operations. When the converging effects of climate change, weapons proliferation, weak and failing states, and other multidimensional issues of our time demanded complex remedies, teams of experts responded quickly with high-profile events and Institution-wide strategies.
Brookings is ranked the number one think tank in the U.S. in the annual think tank index published by Foreign Policy, and number one in the world in the Global Go To Think Tank Index; of the 200 most prominent think tanks in the U.S.Along with the Council on Foreign Relations and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Brookings is generally considered one of the most influential policy institutes in the U.S.Among its funders are the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Rothschild´s JPMorgan Chase, and Qatar and the Rockefeller Foundation as well as George Soros, the Rothschild agent.Police say Sean Hoare, the whistleblower reporter who alleged widespread hacking at the News of the World, has been found dead.
Police said Hoare's death at his home in England was not considered to be suspicious, according to Britain's Press Association news agency.
Hoare was quoted by the New York Times as saying that phone hacking was widely used and even encouraged at the News of the World tabloid under then editor Andy Coulson.
Coulson — who most recently served as Prime Minister David Cameron's communications chief — was arrested as part of the widening investigation into phone hacking and police corruption.
The news of Hoare's death comes just after the spreading scandal forced two of London's top police officers to resign in less than 24 hours and prompted Cameron to call Monday for an emergency session of Parliament.
Sean Hoare, the first person to link former News of the World editor Andy Coulson to Britain's phone hacking scandal, was found dead Monday. Police say his death is not considered suspicious. ((News International/Associated Press))
Scotland Yard chief Paul Stephenson stepped down Sunday night, followed out the door Monday by John Yates, assistant commissioner of London's Metropolitan Police.
Yates was the official who decided two years ago not to reopen police inquiries into phone hacking and police bribery by tabloid journalists, saying he did not believe there was any new evidence to consider.
Detectives reopened the investigation earlier this year and now say they have the names of 3,700 potential victims.
British Home Secretary Theresa May announced Monday that a police inspectorate will examine possible police corruption.
She told legislators that at moments like this "it is natural to ask whom polices the police" and announced that the Inspectorate of Constabulary would look at links between the police and the press in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal.
The high-profile resignations have made it even harder for Cameron to contain the intensifying scandal that is threatening his leadership and knocking billions off of Rupert Murdoch's global media empire.
Parliament was to break for the summer on Tuesday after legislators grilled Murdoch, his son James and Murdoch's former British chief executive Rebekah Brooks in a highly anticipated public airing about the scandal. Cameron said "it may well be right to have Parliament meet on Wednesday so I can make a further statement."
Cameron spoke in Pretoria, South Africa, on the first day of a two-day visit to Africa. He had planned a longer trip, but cut it short as his government faces a growing number of questions about its cozy relationship with the Murdoch empire and a scandal that has taken down top police and media figures with breathless speed.
Opposition leader Ed Miliband said Cameron needed to answer "a whole series of questions" about his relationships with Brooks, James Murdoch and Coulson. Coulson resigned from his post in Cameron's office in January.
"At the moment, he seems unable to provide the leadership the country needs," Miliband said of Cameron.
Cameron insisted his Conservative-led government had "taken very decisive action" by setting up a judge-led inquiry into the wrongdoing at the now-defunct Murdoch tabloid News of the World and into overall relations between British politicians, the media and police.
Still, Cameron is under heavy pressure after the resignations of Stephenson and Yates, and Sunday's arrest of Brooks — a friend of his — on suspicion of hacking and police bribery.
Who is Yates? Senior police official John Yates was long seen as thoroughly reliable and was given the most sensitive cases to handle. Once regarded as a "safe pair of hands," the 52-year-old endured prolonged, hostile questions last week from a parliamentary committee over his one-day review in 2009 which concluded that there was no evidence to justify a further investigation. Previously, Yates led a high-profile case in Britain known as the cash-for-honours inquiry, a 16-month investigation in 2006 and 2007 into whether people who made donations to the Labour Party were offered peerages. No one was charged. Yates is only the latest casualty of the spiralling scandal. His boss resigned Sunday and 10 people have been arrested. Sources: Associated Press and CBC News
Brooks released on bail
Brooks was detained and questioned for nine hours Sunday before being released on bail. Her lawyer, Stephen Parkinson, released a defiant statement Monday professing her innocence.
Parkinson said police would "have to give an account of their actions" considering "the enormous reputational damage" Brooks' arrest had caused to the social and political insider.
Brooks' arrest had thrown into doubt her appearance on Tuesday before the committee that also will quiz Rupert and James Murdoch.
But her spokesman, David Wilson, said Monday she planned to attend.
She was the bold chief executive of News International, Murdoch's British newspaper arm, whose News of the World stands accused of hacking into the phones of celebrities, politicians, other journalists and even murder victims. But, the revelation that journalists accessed the phone of Milly Dowler in search of scoops while police were looking for the missing 13-year-old fuelled an explosion of interest in the long-simmering scandal.
At an appearance before U.K. legislators in 2003, Brooks admitted that News International had paid police for information. But she always said she did not know any phone hacking was going on when she was editor of News of the World between 2000 and 2003.
Police under pressure
Police are under pressure to explain why their original hacking investigation several years ago failed to find enough evidence to prosecute anyone other than News of the World royal reporter Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire.
Stephenson, the police chief, resigned Sunday over his ties to Neil Wallis, a former News of the World executive editor who has been arrested over the scandal. Stephenson said he had nothing to do with the earlier apparently flawed phone hacking inquiry or Wallis, but was resigning to allow his agency to focus on the London 2012 Olympics instead of leadership changes.
But in his resignation speech on Sunday, Stephenson made pointed reference to Cameron's hiring of Coulson.
London's Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner John Yates resigned Monday. He's the second top official to resign in the British phone hacking scandal. Scotland Yard chief Paul Stephenson stepped down Sunday night. ((Lewis Whyld/Associated Press))
Cameron retorted that the situations of the government and the police were "completely different," because allegations that police were bribed for information "have had a direct bearing on public confidence into the police inquiry into the News of the World and indeed into the police themselves."
London Mayor Boris Johnson said Monday that Yates had questions to answer about his own links with Wallis, and added that Yates resigned after being told he would be suspended pending an ethics investigation.
Yates will be replaced by Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick on an interim basis. Dick is highly regarded among her Scotland Yard peers but has drawn criticism in the past for commanding an operation that resulted in the death of Jean Charles de Menezes, a Brazilian man mistaken for a suicide bomber.
Murdoch hopes to protect American assets
Brooks' arrest was the latest blow for Murdoch, the once all-powerful figure courted by British politicians of all stripes.
Now Murdoch is struggling to tame the scandal, which has already destroyed News of the World, cost the jobs of Brooks and Wall Street Journal publisher Les Hinton and sunk the media baron's dream of taking full control of a lucrative satellite broadcaster, British Sky Broadcasting.
Murdoch is eager to stop the crisis from spreading to the United States, where many of his most lucrative assets — including the Fox TV network, 20th Century Fox film studio, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post — are based.
Sky News reported Monday that News Corp. had appointed a senior lawyer to head an internal probe on phone hacking.
10 arrests so far
Police have already arrested 10 people, including other former News of the World reporters and editors. One, Press Association royal reporter Laura Elston, was cleared by police on Monday. None of the others has yet been charged.
Even more senior figures could face arrest, including James Murdoch, chairman of BSkyB and chief executive of his father's European and Asian operations. James Murdoch did not directly oversee the News of the World, but he approved payments to some of the paper's most prominent hacking victims, including £700,000 ($1.1 million) to Professional Footballers' Association chief Gordon Taylor.
James Murdoch said last week that he "did not have a complete picture" when he approved the payouts.
At Tuesday's committee hearing, which will be televised, politicians will seek more details about the scale of criminality at the News of the World. The Murdochs will try to avoid incriminating themselves or doing more harm to their business without misleading Parliament, which is a crime.
Hinton, too, could face questioning over wrongdoing at the News of the World during his 12 years as executive chairman of News International. But Hinton is an American citizen living in the U.S., so British authorities would have to seek his extradition if he refused to come willingly.
In the latest twist in the legal saga, Britain's Serious Fraud Office, Britain's anti-fraud agency, said Monday it was giving "full consideration" to a request from a lawmaker that it open an investigation into Murdoch's News Corp.
Late Monday, a group of internet hackers claims to have tampered with the website of Rupert Murdoch's Sun newspaper.
Visitors to The Sun's website late Monday were redirected to a page featuring a story saying Murdoch's dead body had been found in his garden.
Lulz Security took responsibility via Twitter, calling it a successful part of "Murdoch Meltdown Monday."
Lulz Security has previously claimed hacks on major entertainment companies, FBI partner organizations and the CIA.Summary
Sen. Ted Cruz’s 21-hour talk-a-thon and President Obama’s joint appearance with former President Clinton will keep us busy for a while, but so far we’ve seen our share of false, misleading and not-quite-right statements:
Cruz falsely claimed that the spouses of 15,000 UPS employees will be “left without health insurance” and forced into “an exchange with no employer subsidy.” UPS is dropping coverage for spouses only if they can get insurance with their own employer.
Obama greatly exaggerated when he credited the health care law for bending the cost curve on health care spending. Experts say the down economy is the overwhelming reason that national health care spending has been growing at historically slow rates in recent years.
Cruz said the “IRS employees union has asked to be exempted from Obamacare.” Not so. The union wants its workers to be treated like any other worker with employer-provided health insurance. It opposes a GOP bill that it says, contrary to law, would “take coverage away from employees who already receive it through their employers.”
Cruz said the unemployment rate for black teens “is over 10 times higher than it is for college graduates — 38.2 percent.” True, but that’s comparing apples to oranges. The unemployment rate for white teens, aged 16 to 19, is also high, at 20.5 percent. There’s still a racial disparity, but the rate is nearly double, not 10 times higher.
Cruz cited an outdated quote from Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, to back up his claim that Obamacare is slowing job growth. Zandi told us the slowdown in job growth at small businesses is “no longer the case.”
Sen. Rand Paul wrongly argued that “everybody is going to pay more” for health insurance under the law. The fact is, some will pay more and some will pay less. Some currently uninsured Americans will pay little or nothing because of the law’s expansion of Medicaid.
Cruz said Obama promised three-and-a-half years ago — in 2010, when the Affordable Care Act was passed — that premiums “would drop $2,500″ for the average family by the end of his first term. That’s not exactly what the president said or when he said it.
Analysis
Cruz, the freshman senator from Texas, commandeered the Senate floor for 21 hours in a blistering attack on the Affordable Care Act. He even took a swipe at fact-checkers, calling our craft “a particularly pernicious bit of yellow journalism that has cropped up that lets journalists be editorial writers and pretend they are talking about objective facts.” That’s his opinion, and he’s entitled to it. But, as Daniel Patrick Moynihan said, people are not entitled to “their own facts,” and that would include Cruz and Obama.
So, let’s see how they did in sticking to the facts.
UPS Spouses ‘Left Without Health Insurance’?
Cruz, whose speech began the afternoon of Sept. 24, falsely claimed that the spouses of 15,000 UPS employees will be “left without health insurance” and forced into “an exchange with no employer subsidy.” UPS is dropping coverage for spouses only if they can get insurance with their own employer.
Cruz: Just a few weeks ago UPS sent a letter to some 15,000 employees saying: We are dropping spousal health insurance because of ObamaCare. That is 15,000 UPS employees who had insurance for their husbands and wives, and suddenly those husbands and wives are left without health insurance and being told: Go on an exchange with no employer subsidy.
This misrepresents the impact that the UPS decision will have on spouses. It’s true that UPS in August informed its employees that as of Jan. 1, 2014, it would no longer extend health insurance coverage to “working spouses” who are eligible to obtain coverage from their own employers. “Since the Affordable Care Act requires employers to provide affordable coverage, we believe your spouse should be covered by their own employer — just as U.P.S. has a responsibility to offer coverage to you, our employee,” UPS said in a memo to employees.
But UPS said that it is “continuing to cover spouses who either don’t work, or work for employers that don’t provide health benefits.” UPS said it currently covers about 33,000 spouses and it estimates that about 15,000 of those can get insurance through their employers.
Cruz mentioned UPS twice. The first time he used it — correctly — to illustrate the folly of President Obama’s promise that “you can keep your own insurance.” As we’ve said, Obama cannot make such a promise. Those working spouses of UPS employees won’t be able to keep their insurance. Still, Cruz is wrong to say that those spouses will be “left without insurance.”
Obama Exaggerates Law’s Impact on ‘Cost Curve’
President Obama spoke with former President Bill Clinton in front of a live audience at the Clinton Global Initiative Health Care Forum in New York on Sept. 24. Obama greatly exaggerated when he credited the health care law for bending the cost curve on health care spending. Experts say the down economy is the overwhelming reason that national health care spending has been growing at historically slow rates in recent years.
Obama, Sept. 24: [B]ecause of these changes we initiated in terms of how we’re paying providers, health care costs have grown, as you pointed out, Mr. President, at the slowest rate in 50 years. We are bending the cost curve and getting at the problems that are creating our deficits in Medicare and Medicaid.
Clinton had earlier boasted of the slow rate of growth in national health care spending — a measure that includes spending by the government, businesses and individuals — saying that “[i]n the last three years, just as we started doing this, inflation in health care costs has dropped to 4 percent for three years in a row for the first time in 50 years.”
Technically, the measure is health care spending, not costs, but it is true that the growth has been 4 percent in 2009, 2010 and 2011, the lowest rate of growth since the data were first collected in 1960 by the National Health Expenditure Accounts (see Table 3). And that’s expected to continue through 2013. But how much of that is due to the Affordable Care Act? Experts say it might have played some role, but the main reason for slower growth in spending is the once-faltering and still-recovering economy.
The Kaiser Family Foundation analyzed the trend and determined that the economy was responsible for 77 percent of the slow growth rate. Plus, the study said, the rate of growth is expected to increase as the economy continues to pick up.
KFF study, April 2013: Based on statistical analysis of 50 years of health spending and economic trends, the study finds that the economy, including factors such as Gross Domestic Product growth and inflation, produces a major but delayed effect on the nation’s health spending. This effect stretches over a period of six years, meaning that the recession that ended in 2009 will continue to dampen health care spending for several more years and that spending will increase gradually as the economy strengthens.
The slower growth also began in 2009, before the law was signed.
In 2011, experts at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services pointed to the economy as the reason for slower growth in spending: “Job losses caused many people to lose employer-sponsored health insurance and, in some cases, to forgo health-care services they could not afford.”
That’s not to say the health care law didn’t play some role, albeit a significantly smaller one. The Kaiser Family Foundation study, conducted with the Altarum Institute’s Center for Sustainable Health Spending, said that the remaining 23 percent of the slowdown in growth was due to “changes in the health care system, potentially including higher deductibles and other cost-sharing that dampen patients’ use of services, as well as various forms of managed care and delivery system changes.” The study said it “cannot determine the separate impact of these factors.”
So, some changes in the health care system, which could be a result of the law, were a factor. Experts told the New York Times in February that the law may have contributed to changes in how insurers pay providers, by offering financial incentives. And there’s been an effort in health care to reduce waste and limit rehospitalizations. The Times said: “Health experts say they do not yet fully understand what is driving the lower spending trajectory. But there is a growing consensus that changes in how doctors and hospitals deliver health care — as opposed to merely a weak economy — are playing a role.”
This isn’t the first time Obama, or Clinton, boasted of those low rates of spending growth. During his State of the Union address this year, Obama said the ACA “is helping to slow the growth of health care costs.” This time, he flatly stated that the slow growth was “because of these changes we initiated in terms of how we’re paying providers.” And at the 2012 Democratic National Convention, Clinton suggested the law was the reason for the slowdown.
The ACA pushes for new payment models, as Obama mentioned, such as paying for outcomes and encouraging coordinated care. The Kaiser Family Foundation report said “substantial savings” were expected to come from Medicare, due to the law’s reduction in the growth of payments to health care providers and insurers. But much of that part of the law hasn’t been implemented yet. Says the study, in talking of the future: “Changes in the delivery system – through accountable care organizations (ACOs) and bundled payments to providers – may also yield results and help to keep ‘excess’ health costs down in public programs, as well as in private insurance.”
The law is also expected to increase spending as more Americans purchase health insurance, some receiving government subsidies to do so or joining Medicaid. The Kaiser Family Foundation report said the law would cause “a modest one-time increase in health spending” because of that.
But, again, mainly it’s the economy that’s driving spending. And the growth rate is expected to increase in coming years as the economy further recovers. The Office of the Actuary for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services estimates the growth at 6.1 percent for 2014, and near 6 percent for 2015.
IRS Employees and the ‘Train Wreck’
Cruz said the “IRS employees union has asked to be exempted from Obamacare.” Not so.
Cruz: There is a reason why the IRS employees union has asked to be exempted from Obamacare. These are the guys who are in charge of enforcing it on the rest of us. They have asked to be exempt because it is not working. The facts are clear. It is |
�0.18 km3).
Geologic evidence indicates that the MDV was a fjord ecosystem during the Miocene when seawater intruded Taylor Valley beyond the current extent of the Taylor Glacier44,45. Subsequent climatic cooling may have led to a build-up of salts through freezing (cryoconcentation) of the saline water46 creating dense brines. Our data indicate that this brine still exists beneath the Taylor Glacier (Figs 3 and 4) an inference that is further supported by the presence of Blood Falls (Fig. 4a). Low-resistivity (<0.17 Ωm) subglacial water discharges from Blood Falls intermittently and is saline enough to remain liquid to temperatures as low as −6 °C at atmospheric pressure7. Multiple lines of evidence support a marine origin of this subglacial effluent: the major ions were present in marine ratios (Na:Cl=0.88 in Blood Falls; Seawater=0.86)46, the δ37Cl signature was marine (∼0.0‰)46 and genomic material and bacterial isolates recovered from the brine were phylogenetically related to marine lineages47. Our AEM results suggest that discharges at Blood Falls are sourced from a more regionally extensive body of subglacial brine and not a small-scale feature confined to the terminus of Taylor Glacier. Such cryogenically concentrated fluids may underlie other parts of the Antarctic ice sheet margins. Findings presented here suggest that other parts of the ice sheets with beds below the pressure melting point of freshwater ice may contain liquid water and may move through basal sliding48, rather than internal deformation alone.
The unfrozen brines under the surveyed lakes (Figs 3 and 5) could be accounted for by solute concentration due to freezing and/or evaporation events of a large paleolake, see, for example, ref. 49. Models based on radiocarbon chronology of perched deltas, shorelines and other lake deposits suggest that Glacial Lake Washburn occupied much of Taylor Valley during the Last Glacial Maximum up to an elevation of ∼300 m above sea level (a.s.l.)17,50,51. However, soluble salt accumulation in MDV soils suggests that Lake Washburn only occupied the west end of the valley up to the same elevation49. Following retreat of the Ross Sea Ice Sheet, smaller lakes occupied Taylor Valley in both ends up to ∼120 m a.s.l. as controlled by lake sills or spill points. Geochemical profiles in the current water columns46 indicate that, within the past 1,000 years, lake levels in the Taylor Valley were lower than present day. Thus, the current lakes appear to be remnants of these larger paleolakes following periods of major drawdowns to small ponds or even complete evaporation, with subsequent refilling with less saline waters to modern day levels52,53. As lakes in the Taylor Valley lowered and concentrated, dense bottom brine would have infiltrated the highly permeable glacial till in the basin, sinking within the subsurface, similar to the above proposed formation of the brine below Taylor Glacier. Alternatively, these subsurface brines could be a legacy of much older marine deposition. The presence of unfrozen soil extending beyond the current lake margins to elevations approximating the estimates of a high stand Glacial Lake Washburn (Fig. 5) supports the large lake hypothesis of Hall and Denton51.
Previous to our study, the MDV lakes were viewed as being isolated from one another. From the surface, Canada Glacier appears to be preventing communication between the surface waters of Lakes Hoare and Fryxell (Fig. 1a). However, our data suggest that there is flow from the bottom of Lake Hoare into Lake Fryxell (Fig. 3 and Fig. 6). The implication of this to the geochemistry of the lakes is profound. It was previously thought that Lake Hoare completely evaporated around 1,200 years ago and its salts blew away. In this model, the relatively fresh, modern Lake Hoare resulted from a subsequent refilling with Canada Glacier melt waters52. An alternative hypothesis for dilute Lake Hoare water is that Lake Hoare is a headwater lake in our groundwater system. Lake Fryxell on the other hand is more brackish as it is receiving some portion of its bottom water from the groundwater flow system. Lake Bonney has the most saline bottom water in the valleys, which similarly may be related to its position as a terminal lake in a separate groundwater system receiving contributions from the saline subglacial marine brines from beneath Taylor Glacier (Fig. 3).
Figure 6: Conceptual diagram depicting predicted hydrological connectivity. Two distinct regions of subsurface brine were identified in the MDV. The ‘?’ indicates the zone between Lake Bonney and Lake Hoare where no connectivity was identified with our survey. Full size image
The weight of Canada Glacier could cause subsurface discharge at the glacier terminus and/or into Lakes Hoare and Fryxell. Our AEM data indicate that Canada Glacier has over-ridden what we interpret as lake water and brine-saturated sediments however a surface discharge feature has not formed. Discharge sourced from beneath Canada Glacier would involve squeezing of local groundwater or recycling of proglacial lake water. Thus, the lack of a Blood Falls like feature at Canada Glacier supports the model for Taylor Glacier and Blood Falls, where discharge requires an upstream brine supply.
Blood Falls is the only known surface manifestation of these deep brine systems and has been shown to contain a viable ecosystem with numerable microbial cells (∼6 × 104 ml−1). These numbers are typical for groundwater (∼1 × 103–1 × 104 cells ml−1)54 and other subglacial environments (∼1 × 104–1 × 107 cells ml−1)2. Previous work has shown that some of the energy needed to support cellular biosynthesis in this microbial community is gained from oxidation–reduction reactions that involve iron and sulfur, resulting in the liberation of iron as Fe (II)7. Silica concentrations in Blood Falls effluent are also high relative to other streams in the MDV55, suggesting a high degree of weathering below Taylor Glacier, which is likely enhanced by microorganisms10,28. If Blood Falls brine is representative of the subsurface fluid observed with AEM, an extensive ecosystem exists below the Taylor Glacier and much of Taylor Valley (Figs 3 and 6). DVDP borehole temperature logs indicate that in situ temperatures at depths where resistivity is indicative of liquid range between −3 to −20 °C (ref. 39), temperatures considered within the range suitable for microbial life56. Thus, the relative frequency of resistivity measurements across the Lower Taylor Valley (Fig. 2) shows the prevalence of potential habitats where temperature, salinity and liquid water might combine to support life.
Brine systems within and below permafrost along Antarctica’s coastal margins may influence surface ecosystem processes. Blood Falls reveals how microbial metabolism can release iron from underlying bedrock, which is ultimately discharged to the surface or below ground to Lake Bonney. Two major contributions of bioavailable iron to the Southern Ocean include aeolian dust (0.01–0.13 Tg per year) and nanoparticulate iron (0.06–0.12 Tg per year) in iceberg entrained sediments57. Submarine groundwater discharge, is another unaccounted for, and potentially vital source of iron and silica to a micronutrient limited Southern Ocean11. Release events at Blood Falls are episodic. We calculate, based on a surface discharge estimate of ∼2,000 m3 in volume58 with Fe and Si concentrations in outflow of 3.2 mM (ref. 7) and 264 μM (ref. 55), respectively, that a release event can deliver ∼420 kg of bioavailable Fe and 13.5 kg of Si to proglacial Lake Bonney. While similar subglacial outflow events of coastal glaciers might represent small, episodic releases of growth-limiting micronutrients, these pulses could still significantly enhance lake or near-shore marine productivity. Discharge events like at Blood Falls would represent only a small fraction of the subsurface groundwater discharge possible along coastal margins. The total flux of these nutrients remains poorly resolved; however, a recent report estimates iron flux from ice sheet meltwaters at 0.06–0.17 Tg per year, which is comparable to aeolian fluxes to polar waters59. If Antarctic submarine groundwater discharge is relatively rich in dissolved iron, for instance, if it has the concentration of iron comparable to that in Blood Falls brines, then it would only take a modest discharge of approximately 0.3–0.9 km3 to supply 0.06–0.17 Tg per year of Fe to the Southern Ocean. This represents about 0.5–1.5% of the total annual subglacial meltwater production estimated for Antarctica (∼60 km3)60. On other continents, submarine groundwater discharge represents a much higher fraction of their total surface water inputs, 6–10% (ref. 61). The paucity of constraints on groundwater pressure gradients and hydraulic conductivity distribution in Taylor Valley prohibits us from estimating the specific regional contribution of submarine groundwater discharge.
The subpermafrost brines in the MDV provide an important terrestrial analogue for future exploration of a subsurface Martian habitat. Briny groundwater has been suggested as supporting a deep biosphere on Mars62. Recent mineralogical analysis of Gale Crater supports the notion that previous fluvio-lacustrine environments may have hosted chemoautotrophic microorganisms63. On Mars, as we observe in the dry valleys, connectivity between lacustrine systems and groundwater would be important in sustaining ecosystems through drastic climate change, such as lake dry-down events63.
On the basis of the first AEM study of the MDV region, we conclude that a deep briny groundwater system exists beneath glaciers, lakes and permafrost in Taylor Valley (Fig. 6). These brines appear related to the long-term geological history of the MDV and may represent ancient changes in sea level and subsequent marine intrusion and the draw-down of paleolakes linked to the Last Glacial Maximum and recent climate variation. We observed geophysical evidence of hydrological connectivity between lakes, which were previously assumed to be isolated from one another. This finding has significant implications for interpreting past geochemical models of the evolution of dry valley lake chemistry and biology. The subsurface deep brines contain an active microbial community, as evidenced by the surface release of brine at Blood Falls, Taylor Glacier. Our results also suggest that brine flows towards the coast from ∼18 km inland where it must become submarine discharge. Microbial weathering of mineral substrates in subsurface groundwater discharge may be a significant source of solutes to the Southern Ocean. The subpermafrost brines in the MDV may provide an important terrestrial analogue for future exploration of a subsurface Martian habitat.Search ASOT:
Artist: Armin van Buuren
Show: A State of Trance
Release Date: May 02, 2013
Genre: Trance
Quality: MP3 / Joint Stereo
Bitrate: 320 kbps / 44.1 Khz
Duration: 2:02:40
Total Size: 281 MB
A State of Trance 611
is available on Spotify!
This week A State of Trance 611 a very special episode, about Armin's new album Intense.
Tracklist Armin van Buuren feat. Miri Ben-Ari – Intense Armin van Buuren feat. Cindy Alma – Beautiful Life (Album Mix) Armin van Buuren – Pulsar Armin van Buuren & NERVO feat. Laura V – Turn This Love Around Armin van Buuren feat. Laura Jansen – Sound Of The Drums Armin van Buuren feat. Lauren Evans – Alone Armin van Buuren feat. Emma Hewitt – Forever Is Ours Armin van Buuren pres. Gaia – Humming The Lights Armin van Buuren – Last Stop Before Heaven Armin van Buuren feat. Aruna – Won’t Let You Go Armin van Buuren feat. Richard Bedford – Love Never Came Armin van Buuren feat. Gabriel & Dresden – Zocalo Armin van Buuren feat. Fiora – Breathe In The Deep Armin Van Buuren feat. Fiora – Waiting For The Night Armin van Buuren – Orbion Armin van Buuren – Control Freak (Sander van Doorn Remix) Armin van Buuren feat. Winter Kills – Take A Moment (Alex M.O.R.P.H. Remix) Armin van Buuren feat. Trevor Guthrie – This Is What It Feels Like (Giuseppe Ottaviani Remix) Armin van Buuren feat. Ana Criado – I’ll Listen Armin van Buuren – Who’s Afraid of 138?! Armin van Buuren vs Sophie Ellis-Bextor – Not Giving Up On Love (Jorn van Deynhoven Remix) Armin van Buuren & Arctic Moon vs. One Republic – If I Lose Myself Coming Home (Shura Vlasov Mashup) Armin van Buuren feat. BT – These Silent Hearts
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Comments on Episode 611By Dean Weingarten
Arizona – -(Ammoland.com)-The New Hampshire House Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety has passed SB 12. SB 12 is the New Hampshire permitless or “Constitutional carry” bill for 2017.
The New Hampshire legislature has passed permitless “Constitutional carry” both of the last two years. Both times the bill was vetoed by Democrat governor Maggie Hassan.
Now, early in the session, the New Hampshire Senate has passed SB 12-FN. It passed the Senate with a healthy 13 to 10 margin, defeating two attempts at amendment, on January 19, 2017.
The next stop is the New Hampshire House. The NH House is one of the largest legislative bodies in the states, for one of the smallest states (in population). There are 400 seats in the House, with an adult population of 1.052 million. So there is one representative for each 2,630 people.
The first stop in the House was the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee. The hearing was held today, February 1st, 2017 and SB 12 passed, with a vote of 12 to 8 for the bill.
New Hampshire is bordered on the East by Maine and on the West by Vermont. Both of those states have Constitutional carry. If, as seems likely, New Hampshire repeals the permit infringement on bearing arms, people will be able to exercise their right to bear arms from the border of Massachusetts and New York all the way to the northern tip of Maine, without a permit.
Many residents of states with the most infringements on Second Amendment rights, such as New York, Massachusetts, and New Jersey, maintain a residence in Vermont, New Hampshire, or Maine, where they can escape some of the governmental restrictions.
New Hampshire's requirement for a carry permit was passed about a hundred years ago as “progressive” ideas swept the nation. Those laws are being repealed as evidence accumulates that they did more harm than good. Opponents say that they are an infringement on Second Amendment rights. In January, 2016, the bill passed the New Hampshire House 206 to 146. Republicans voted for the bill, Democrats, with a few exceptions, against.
After the 2016 election, Democrats gained a few seats. In 2016, there were 157 Democrats and 230 Re3publican. In 2017 there are 174 Democrats and 226 Republicans. SB 12 is still likely to pass the House.
The new Republican Governor, Chris Sununu, said that he would sign the Constitutional carry bill. From concordmonitor.com:
Sununu is not a gun owner but said he would sign a bill doing away with the need for concealed carry permits.
It is likely that New Hampshire will become the first state to move to permitless or “Constitutional carry” in 2017. All 10 states that have moved to Constitutional carry had gone to a “shall issue” carry permit before moving to permitless carry. All 10 have kept their “shall issue” permit system in place. This is done for the convenience of the armed public. Vermont always had permitless or “Constitutional carry”, and never initiated a permit system.
Permits are useful for reciprocity with other states. Half of the states in the Union allow carry permits as an alternate to the NICS instant check system. New Hampshire is not one of those states. That may be a reform for future years.
©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to Gun Watch
About Dean Weingarten;
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of constitutional carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and recently retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.Why being a'snowplough parent' could HARM your child: Mothers and fathers who clear every obstacle in their offspring's path risk making them 'anxious and dependent'
Snowplough parents who clear all obstacles can damage children
Expert David McCullough says they can be left anxious and dependent
Micromanaging children can also leave them unable to cope in real world
Most of us are familiar with the concept of the 'helicopter parent' who hovers anxiously over their child's every move.
But now a new parenting type has been identified - and experts say'snowplough parents', who clear every obstacle from their child's path while piling on the pressure to achieve, can be every bit as damaging.
According to David McCullough, a teacher for 30 years and the author of a book on the subject, aggressive parenting is producing children who are 'anxious, dependent, narcissistic and careerist'.
Too much: Children whose parents pile on the pressure and insist on certain paths can be left anxious
Speaking to the Sunday Times, he also warned that children are becoming 'terrified of failure' and being turned into 'achievement machines' by their parents.
'From birth, they are strapped into the car seat and protected, driven and aimed in one direction,' he added.
'They [children] are compliant; they have given up self-determination and a willingness to explore their own interests.'
And the results of competitive parenting, from failure to settle into careers to dependence and even breakdown, can be devastating.
Not, says McCullough, that any of this is intended. 'If you do not get into one of the top 30 to 50 colleges, you are in for a very hard time in life - that's the thinking driving all this,' he explains.
Tutors: Parents who employ tutors or even do their child's homework for them risk making them dependent
Tough love: Tiger mothers like Amy Chua run the risk of inadvertently harming their children
Snowplough parenting is becoming increasingly common in the UK as well as the US with nearly a quarter of teenagers supplied with tutors by their parents in a bid to boost their grades.
After school classes, intensive music lessons and an emphasis on besting the competition in team sports are all favourites of the snowplough parent, who also, on occasion, take charge of their children's homework.
As a result of increasing parental pressure, one in 10 university students suffers from mental health problems while others find themselves unable to cope without help from Mum and Dad and an army of private tutors.
'They besiege professors for extra lessons or expect a private tutor like they had when they were 17,' explains McCullough.
'In some cases, they just drop out, seeing failure as a failure of the support system around them and not as their failure.'
This, he argues in his new book You Are Not Special, has arisen from the modern 'cult of exceptionalism' and which has made children afraid to be average.
In it, he highlights examples of snowplough parenting, including that of a child being sent on a 120-mile bus journey every Saturday for a piano lesson and another who, when confronted with spelling mistakes by his teacher, replied: 'Mum must have missed those.'
Instead of succumbing to the temptation to micromanage children, McCullough says that parents should try taking a step back.
'Try as much as possible to give children free rein,' he advises. 'Let them follow their own passions and curiosities without overweening interference every step of the way.
'Sometimes our kids take paths they shouldn't, sometimes they will make mistakes. That's OK.'Two more juveniles were arrested Friday as a result of Thursday's melee outside William Allen high School that injured four Allentown police officers, Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin said.
Three youths were arrested Thursday following the fighting.
Martin said the five face charges of aggravated assault, simple assault and riot. He said more arrests may be made for failing to disperse.
Martin said one of the officers trying to break up the fighting was diagnosed with a concussion and another one, the female officer seen being knocked down in a video posted on Facebook, may have also suffered a concussion.
Two other officers were injured in the fighting but were treated and are back at work Friday, he said.
Martin said the city's surveillance cameras assisted in the identification of the juveniles involved.
(WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT) This is a second video posted on Facebook related to the melee involving dozens of teens east of Allen High School on Thursday afternoon, Oct. 29, 2015. This version appears to show the end of the brawl, which injured four police officers. A separate video posted to Facebook appears to show one officer being attacked as she tries to chase down one teen girl. In this video, a bystander seen on camera at one point remarks, "She just spanked a cop." (WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT) This is a second video posted on Facebook related to the melee involving dozens of teens east of Allen High School on Thursday afternoon, Oct. 29, 2015. This version appears to show the end of the brawl, which injured four police officers. A separate video posted to Facebook appears to show one officer being attacked as she tries to chase down one teen girl. In this video, a bystander seen on camera at one point remarks, "She just spanked a cop." SEE MORE VIDEOS
The brawl began as a fight between two female students, Martin said, which attracted a large crowd and spread several blocks.
As many as 200 youths gathered about 3 p.m. at intersections two to five blocks from the school, most of them watching while several others threw punches, police Assistant Chief Bill Lake said.
"The large groups split up into several different groups," Lake said. "Officers found themselves responding to several areas." As officers tried to pull the fighters apart, some of the boys and girls turned on the officers, he said.
A video posted on Facebook shows one officer overwhelmed at 12th and Chew streets. In the video, the officer appears to be knocked down by a girl and then attacked again as she chases the girl.
On Friday, Allentown police provided more details. Police said as officers were attempting to break up the fight, a female juvenile grabbed a female officer by her hair and pulled her to the ground. As the female juvenile was being taken into custody, she punched the officer in the face and the officer went down to the ground where the assault continued, police said.
They were surrounded by a large group of juveniles who also became actively involved in the assault before the female juvenile was taken into custody.
The video shows a crowd of teens, wearing Allen High's blue and canary colors, watching and yelling as officers try to restore order on Chew Street near West End Cemetery.
The initial report on high-school-age teens fighting came in the area of 15th and Linden streets, he said.
The school district released a statement Friday, condemning the actions of those involved in the fighting.
"APD Officers work diligently to ensure the safety of our students and this community, and an attack on an officer will be dealt with to the fullest extent of the law. Our support goes out to the injured police officers and their families."
Mayor Ed Pawlowski commended the actions of police in stopping the brawl.
"In a time when actions by police officers are subject to great scrutiny across the country, I believe our officers showed remarkable restraint when their own personal safety was at risk," he said. "Violence against police officers cannot be tolerated. The perpetrators of that violence must be held accountable in the justice system and in accordance with the school discipline code.
"The city will continue to work with the school district on enhancing the safety of children on their way home."
fwarner@mcall.com
610-820-6508In Greenwood, Miss., this year's student/parent handbook shows a globe being hoisted by several young students. “Maximizing student potential,” the Greenwood Public School District declares on its cover. On page 3, the handbook tells students to be honest, respect authority and “avoid violence,” because “there are other ways to resolve conflicts.”
Then, on page 19, it lays out the circumstances under which school administrators can hit students.
“Corporal punishment for use in this district,” it says, “is defined as punishing or correcting a student by striking the student on the buttocks with a paddle.”
Such punishment, it goes on, must be carried out by the principal or assistant principal and “shall not exceed five swats with a paddle.” The punishment does not constitute “assault, simple assault, aggravated assault, battery, negligence or child abuse.”
Greenwood’s policy is not uncommon — at least not in the Deep South. Though a majority of U.S. states banned the spanking or paddling of students over the last few decades, public schools in some Southern states still depend on the practice — creating one more stress point for students already more likely to confront ill-qualified teachers, crumbling infrastructure and chaotic classrooms.
“Some people would cry,” said Laquerius Leflore, 18, who graduated last year from Ruleville Central High School in Ruleville Miss., and says he was paddled at school five times as a teen. “It would be like somebody really got tortured, sometimes. They tried to make it hurt. That was the whole point of it."
Administrators at the Sunflower County and Greenwood school districts did not respond to e-mails and phone calls seeking comment.
There are 19 states that still permit corporal punishment: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming. But according to U.S. Department of Education data, nearly 60 percent of the students paddled nationwide come from just four neighboring states — Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Texas.
The first three of those states also happen to have among the largest African American populations. Blacks constitute about 16 percent of public school students in the United States but 35 percent of those who receive corporal punishment.
That leaves a situation at majority-black districts in the Deep South where physical punishment is a relative routine part of the public school experience.
Most districts require that principals, rather than teachers, carry out the discipline. Some schools go so far as to specify the dimensions of the paddle, according to a 2008 report on corporal punishment published by Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union. (Roughly 1½ to 4 feet is typical.) Typically, students are ordered into a passive position: butt sticking out, hands on the desk or wall. Sometimes students get bruised, the same report said.
According to a 2014 article by the Hechinger Report, punishment at one Mississippi district starts at day care and Head Start, where teachers use only rulers and pencils but caution, “Just wait until you get to big school.”
The article continues:
At “big school,” the wooden paddle is larger — the employee handbook calls for it to be up to thirty inches long, half an inch thick, and from two to three inches wide — and the teachers sometimes admonish errant students to “talk to the wood or go to the ‘hood” (slang for choosing between the paddle and an out-of-school suspension).
Particularly in some rural districts, the hitting of students is a point of only minor contention. One district superintendent in the Mississippi Delta, for instance, said parents have to sign consent forms before their kids can be paddled; about 80 percent give the green light.
Still, some education experts say the practice compounds the hazards of growing up in a region where test scores and job opportunities lag behind.
The National Education Association says such discipline is “more than ineffective — it is harmful.” Children who are physically punished “are more inclined to engage in aggressive conduct toward their siblings, parents, teachers, and schoolmates,” according to the Human Rights Watch and ACLU report.
Even in Mississippi, the number of beatings has fallen over the last decade, and some schools say they are reconsidering the practice, particularly given the prospect of lawsuits.
“Everybody now wants to say, ‘I’ll go get an attorney,’” said Darron Edwards, the superintendent at West Tallahatchie School District in Webb, Miss. “How many times can the school district afford to pay for legal fees?”
Edwards, who was the principal at Ruleville Central until 2013, used to use the paddle himself, though he says he tried to bring it out sparingly.
“I just feel like the threat of doing it was just as effective as doing it,” Edwards said.
Edwards added that the policy was in place long before he got there, and those who questioned it tended to be newcomers, like Teach for America staffers.
“They were definitely surprised,” Edwards said. “But of course, they’re surprised with a lot of things that exist in the state of Mississippi when it comes to education.”Admeld
Yahoo has hired Michael Barrett as executive vice president and chief revenue officer.
Barrett will lead Yahoo's ad revenue and operations worldwide, the company announced today. In his new role, Barrett will report directly to Yahoo interim CEO Ross Levinsohn. He will start in his new position in July.
All Things Digital was first to report the news.
Barrett was the chief executive of online-advertising firm Admeld before joining Google last year after the search giant acquired his company for $400 million. Since then, Admeld has continued to operate as it did before. The company's Web site, in fact, still shows Barrett as CEO.
According to All Things Digital, Barrett's hiring means major changes are afoot at Yahoo. The publication's sources say that Yahoo is considering getting out of the ad tech business, and will focus entirely on digital ad sales -- something Barrett is quite comfortable with. The ultimate decision on what to do, however, has not been made, according to All Things Digital.
Regardless, it's clear that something needs to be done at Yahoo. During the first quarter of the year, the company posted revenue of $1.077 billion, representing just a 1 percent increase over the same period last year. That relatively flat revenue figure resulted from a 4 percent decrease in display advertising revenue and an 8 percent increase in search revenue.
Barrett has had a long career in the advertising business, holding sales positions at Fox Interactive Media, AOL, and Disney. He even worked at GeoCities/Yahoo.
This story has been updated throughout the morning.The Placing of the Robe of the Theotokos / Fourth Sunday of Matthew, July 2, 2017
Hebrews 9:1-7; Matthew 8:5-13
Very Rev. Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen.
Only say the word, and my servant will be healed. (Matt. 8:8)
It is hard for us, living in the United States in the year 2017, to imagine feeling the way that that centurion did. He approached Jesus. He asked Him to heal his servant who was lying paralyzed. And when Jesus said that He would go there and heal the man, the centurion said that He needed only to speak the word and the servant would be healed.
If you’re at all like me, when you hear about that centurion’s faith, it seems almost utterly foreign. He just believed that Jesus could do it, and not only that He could do it, but that He could do it merely by saying a word.
I will be honest and say that even when I pray that God would heal someone or even that God would do any good thing, any thing which I know is perfectly acceptable to ask Him for, it is hard for me to believe that He will do it. And it’s also a struggle for me to believe that He’s even listening. And it’s also a struggle to believe that He’s even there at all.
This encounter of the centurion with Jesus is so foreign to us because we live in an age in which unbelief is now entirely plausible. That is, it is not hard for us to imagine that all this that we as Christians say we believe is in fact not really true at all.
We should take note here that the plausibility of complete unbelief in God and in anything of spiritual reality is a relatively new phenomenon, something that has become available to mankind only within the past few centuries. In the time of this centurion and indeed in nearly any other time in history, it was in fact implausible to suggest that there was no divinity shaping our ends. It was laughable even to say it. Everyone just took for granted that there was a spiritual realm. It was practically in the air they breathed.
I won’t go into the history here of how it came to be that we now struggle between faith and doubt in a way that most of history has never seen. But we should at least note that that history is not simply a history of more scientific discoveries being made and the unexplainable “gaps” that we used to fill in with “God” explanations getting smaller and smaller. The history is actually a philosophical and cultural history, not a scientific or rational one.
And it is not that mankind is any less religious by any real measure. What has happened is that the way in which he believes has changed. He now is at the mercy of pressure from both faith and doubt.
And make no mistake about it: Unbelievers are also at the mercy of the same forces. Even though they consciously do not believe in anything beyond what we can detect with our physical senses, they are still haunted by the sense that perhaps there is something else. They are also subject to the struggle between faith and doubt.
So what are we supposed to do with this? How can we continue to appropriate moments like this statement of belief from the centurion? Even though he probably does not know that Jesus is the incarnate God-man, that He is the Son of God, the Messiah of Israel, he nevertheless takes it for granted that, based on what he has seen from Jesus, this is a man around Whom spiritual forces move quite powerfully. He just knows it.
Our problem is that we don’t. We don’t just know it. We can’t be expected simply to believe. We do not live in a time and place when that way of believing is possible. Yes, we can grow to have the same faith, but we won’t have it in the same way. Our way will be different. So what do we do?
First, we should reconcile for ourselves that the struggle is real and that it is normal. This is where we are in history. Perhaps a day will come again when our descendants will not be subject to the cross-pressure of faith and doubt, when they will be able to meet Jesus and simply believe in Him. But that’s not today. We live in a day when we have to struggle just to keep the faith. We are people of our time.
There is another passage from Scripture which I think is a kind of motto for Christians in the stage of secularism in which we find ourselves, and it comes from another meeting between Jesus and someone who wants Him to heal someone. In Mark 9, a man comes to Jesus and asks Him to heal his son, who is possessed by a demon and often put into physical danger by the possession. Jesus says to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes” (Mark 9:23).
When I hear that, a part of my heart just sinks, because I think to myself, “Do I really believe? I’m not sure that I do. I want to believe. I’m trying to believe. But this is really hard sometimes.” Well, the response of the man might have been made for me, and it might have been made to serve as a motto for Christians in our age. What does the man say to Jesus in response? He says, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24). And at that, Jesus healed the boy.
That, I believe, is where most of our spiritual labors now should be focused. We stand between belief and unbelief, between faith and doubt, and that’s simply where we are at this stage of history. We can’t make it go away by trying to fight against some “bad guy” secularism out there that is our true nemesis. The truth is that we have all become secular.
But that doesn’t mean that we are all unbelievers. It just means that the way in which we believe has now changed from the way in which many of our forefathers believed. We believe the same things as the Apostles and Fathers, but the way we believe them is different.
So how do we struggle forward? What are we struggling toward?
We are struggling toward placing ourselves more fully in the story of Jesus, in the grand narrative that is His coming into this world, defeating death, establishing His kingdom, winning a people for Himself, and giving commands that govern His covenant with His people.
The more we do that, the more we will find that our faith will be stronger, that our ability to believe will be more like that centurion’s. Now, I do not mean that we will find true unbelief implausible in the way that the centurion would have. We can’t escape where we are. But we can have that trust in Jesus that he had, and we can have the boldness to pray deeply and fervently for ourselves and for the needs of those who are in this world with us.
As Orthodox Christians, we have a strong cultural memory of whole empires claimed by the Christian faith. And we have a tendency to feel nostalgic for those times and places. But we have to face it—they are gone, and they’re not coming back, at least, not any time soon. And we may lament for that loss.
But what |
’s when he learned where his dad had been.
Charles Harrelson had already served five years in prison for the murder of a Texas grain dealer. He had been sentenced to 15, but let off early for good behavior in 1978. His brief stint as a free man didn't last long. Harrelson was convicted of the murder of U.S. District Court Judge John H. Wood, Jr., after Texas drug lord Jamiel Chagra testified that he had hired Harrelson to kill the judge for $250,000. Chagra was facing a life sentence for smuggling drugs, and hoped that his case would get transferred to a more lenient judge after Wood’s demise. Harrelson received two life sentences.
The hitman also confessed to killing John F. Kennedy, an admission he later recanted:
In 1988, Woody Harrelson told People magazine that he was working on his relationship with his father. “This might sound odd to say about a convicted felon, but my father is one of the most articulate, well-read, charming people I've ever known," the actor, now 54, explained. "Still, I'm just now gauging whether he merits my loyalty or friendship. I look at him as someone who could be a friend more than someone who was a father."
Woody tried to get his father a retrial, though he wasn’t convinced he was deserving of it. "I don't know [that] he did deserve a new trial … just being a son trying to help his dad. Then I spent a couple of million beating my head against the wall,” he told the Guardian in 2012. His efforts were indeed for naught: The elder Harrelson had a heart attack and died in prison in 2007.The term Zen is ubiquitous, and more often than not misused. There is a "Zen of" just about everything. According to Gavin Rossdale and Bush, Everything is Zen
If you ask people what Zen is, you will never get a straight answer. Some people say it is Buddhism, some say it's not, some have strange ideas of what it truly is.
For me, mountain biking cultivates Zen, it leads to a very Zen state whether you want it to, whether you realize it, or not.
Zen requires discipline, and mountain biking, even if it's just an occasional hobby, requires discipline. You have to keep your bike maintained, or it will fail at the worst time. You have to keep your mind on the trail, or you will crash. You have to gut it out and make it up that climb, so you can reap the sweet rewards of the downhill. You have to make sure you have your helmet, shoes, food, water, or you show up at the trailhead and have to turn around and go home.
For the purposes of this blog post, let's say Zen is just being; no thinking, no mind, no you, no "I." Mountain Biking seems to be one of the closest ways to reach that Zen state. You have to be focused, present, your mind cannot be thinking about anything but what you are doing.
How often have you had to tell the story, or heard someone tell the story, of how they crashed in the parking lot, or on the easy part of the trail, or when they are just messing around? That is the universe smacking you down for not paying attention to the present moment, for not being mindful of the least of your actions. Your mind thinks about what you are gonna do later, or what happened earlier, and next thing you know, BAM, you are on the ground. That is the universe saying WAKE UP and pay attention to NOW.
Do you know those days when you are "on"? When you lose yourself in the trail, it's no longer you riding a bike on a trail, it's just youbiketrailearthworld. You hit each turn perfectly, you flow like a river effortlessly, you nail each drop and each step-up? That, to me is Zen.
There is that point when you are no longer thinking, you are just doing. You're focused on the trail and then the focus melts away and it becomes you and your bike riding the earth, then it just becomes that magical special moment that human words cannot seem to accurately describe, where you forget there is a "you”, a “bike,” or a “trail." There is no job, no bills, no crisis, no
"then" and no "later," there is just NOW.
It doesn't always happen, but when it does, it is what makes a really really good ride into The Best Ride Ever.
And what happens when you have planned for your epic riding vacation, and injury, bike woes, weather, trail clousures, or whatever happens and you don't get to ride? What happens when your plans are shot and you are forced to do something you hadn't planned on doing? The acceptance of things not going your way, but working out in a way you didn't expect, knowing that you cannot control anything but your own actions and thoughts, that is Zen.
We hope you get to come to Fruita to ride your mountain bike, or road bike, or both. We hope, as you are riding the smooth flowy trails up at 18 Rd or the rocky and super scenic Kokopeli Trails in Loma, or the techy fun stuff in Tabeguache, you have a Zen moment, and you have the super best ride EVER.
Because that, more than doing the hokey pokey and turning yourself around, is what it's all about.
Come ride with us.Humans have made a remarkably good fist of exploring the Solar System in the 50 years since we first visited the heavens. We’ve sent missions to study Mercury, Venus, the Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn. Pluto and even to various asteroids and comets.
But there’s something missing from this list and you can probably see what. Uranus or Neptune have been cruelly ignored by Earth’s various space agencies. Sure, these ice giants are a long way away and Voyager 2 flew past them in 1986 and 1989 on its way out of the Solar System. But surely, these planets deserve a little more attention.
Today, Diego Turrini at the Institute for Space Astrophysics and Planetology in Italy and a few pals make the scientific case for a mission to explore these ice giants. And there are good reasons to go.
It turns out that such a mission could help unravel the mystery of how the Solar System formed, why Neptune-like planets are so common in other star systems and could also help study the fundamental laws of the universe such as the nature of gravity at large distances from Earth. Their plan is to send twin spacecraft to the ice giants in 2034 in a mission funded by the European Space Agency.
One of the common misconceptions about Uranus and Neptune is that they are smaller, less interesting versions of Jupiter and Saturn. Nothing could be further from the truth.
For a start, Neptune and Uranus are made of entirely different stuff. Jupiter and Saturn are composed almost entirely of hydrogen and helium. But these gases make up no more than 25 per cent of the mass of Uranus and Neptune. The bulk of these planets is dominated by water, ammonia and methane, mostly in ice form along with various metals and silicates.
So that raises an obvious question. How did these planets form and why did they end up in this part of the Solar System?
A near-infrared image of Uranus taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1998
There is no shortage of ideas. A growing body of evidence suggests that the early Solar System was much more chaotic and violent than originally thought, with planets migrating towards and away from the Sun, experiencing huge collisions on the way and ending up, almost by luck, in the system we see today.
That explains, for instance, why Uranus rotates on its side, having clearly been knocked sideways in some cataclysmic encounter with another body. The migration of the planets also explains an event known as the Late Heavy Bombardment in which the movement of the gas and ice giants disrupted the orbits of many smaller bodies which then rained down on Earth and the other terrestrial planets about 4 billion years ago.
But this also means that Uranus and Neptune must have formed somewhere else in the Solar System. Determining where will be an important goal.
An interesting part of this puzzle will be the study of the Uranian and Neptunian satellite systems. One fascinating possibility is that at least some of the moons of Uranus are debris from the impact that turned it on its side.
Triton as seen by Voyager 2 in 1989
Another interesting puzzle is where Neptune’s largest moon Triton came from and why it orbits in the opposite direction to Neptune itself, the only moon in the Solar System to do this. Triton is also geologically active with geysers that erupt through its surface, possibly spraying liquid nitrogen into space. Learning more about this mysterious body is itself an exciting goal.
Perhaps the weakest part of the science case for this mission is the insight it will give into fundamental physics. One question is whether gravity is different at these distances compared to the short distances over which it is measured on Earth.
Turrini and co cite the Pioneer anomaly in which the trajectory of the aged Pioneer spacecraft was not quite as expected, implying some additional mysterious force acting on them.
Some astrophysicists suggested that this might be the first evidence that gravity was different on these vast scales. But the mystery was solved a year or two ago by physicists who calculated that the spacecraft was emitting more heat in one direction than in others, which generated a tiny force that explained the anomaly.
Sending a pair of spacecraft to Uranus and Neptune will certainly help to measure the force of gravity at these distances more accurately than ever before. But it is hardly a reason in itself to justify the mission.
Nevertheless, Uranus and Neptune must be priorities for astrophysicists, if only for reasons of completeness (given that all the other planets have had such attention). Everywhere we’ve visited has thrown up fascinating and unexpected results. There’s no reason to think the ice giants will be any different.
An interesting corollary is that many of the exoplanets found orbiting other stars seem to have a remarkable similarity to our ice giants, at least in terms of mass and possibly composition, although they are generally warmer. So studying our ice giants could give some important insight into the nature of these exoplanets and how they form.
Turrini and co are aiming for a launch date of around 2034, and hoping to keep costs to a minimum by sending two identical spacecraft to Uranus and Neptune—a mission they call Odinus. That will also produce datasets that are directly comparable, which is of important scientific benefit.
Obviously, there’s no question that we will one day send missions to the ice giants. The only point of debate is when. An interesting solution would be for the European Space Agency to team up with international partners such as the US, Russia and even China for such a mission. That would reduce the costs to each.
But perhaps the biggest hurdle in such a mission will not be technological or even financial but purely bureaucratic and political. And that would be a shame.
Ref: arxiv.org/abs/1402.2650 : The Scientific Case for a Mission to the Ice Giant Planets with Twin Spacecraft to Unveil the History of our Solar SystemRobert Crumb's illustrated version of the "Book of Genesis" is out, and it's incredible, and guess who's upset about it. Christians! The amazing part about this particular controversy is that instead of getting up in arms about comics with gay people in them or Japanese cartoons with comedic nudity, they're actually upset with the Bible, and it is blowing my mind.
The problem isn't that Crumb's illustrations are upsetting, which is what they're saying; the problem is that those stories in the Bible are upsetting, and many people -- particularly Christians -- would rather not have to look at them.
The book is this bizarre cultural nexus where the hyperactive moralism and whitewashed Scriptural cherry-picking of many Christians runs headlong into the reality of a) life and b) the book that they consider literally infallible, and it's seriously incredible to sit here and watch them crash together.
First, let's be clear about what's actually in the book. The Telegraph article says that "it includes graphic illustrations of Bible characters having sexual intercourse, and other scenes depicting naked men and women as well as 'gratuitous' depictions of violence," as though Crumb woke up one day and decided to illustrate original Bible slash fiction. In truth, all he's really done is illustrate the stories that are in the book, which is why the following is complete and total B.S.:
"It is turning the Bible into titillation," said Mike Judge, of the Christian Institute, a religious think-tank. "...If you are going to publish your own version of the Bible it must be done with a great deal of sensitivity. The Bible is a very important text to many many people and should be treated with the respect it deserves... Faith is such an important part of people's lives that one must remember to tread very carefully."
Hey, Judge, do you know what that sounds like? I mean, exactly like? The response from many Danish Muslims over the cartoon depictions of Muhammed. Except that they were complaining about people mocking something sacred to them, while you're actually complaining about someone faithfully depicting something sacred to you. Are you seriously that afraid of pictures of things? Things that come verbatim from your beloved religious text?
Also, if we're going to talk about what is and is not "gratuitous," did I really need to know -- for example -- that one time, after a man being pursued by an angry mob threw his concubine outside to be gang-raped all night long, in the morning when they were done he took her home and cut her into exactly twelve pieces? Because that's one story from the Bible that I'm not sure I needed to hear in detail, or at all, but there it is.
Consider further the fact that parents have no problem handing their kids a Bible, which has numerous stories that involve rape, murder, dismemberment, incest, infanticide, and most notably, where the main character that everyone loves gets tortured to death in an incredibly horrible way -- and even encourage kids to wear tiny replicas of the torture device that killed the hero around their neck -- while simultaneously freaking out completely because a Japanese comic book in their local library may have included brief, comedic nudity depicted by several amorphous circles.
Of course, this isn't the first time that the morality police have gotten disproportionately upset with comics -- as opposed to print books with often more titillating or controversial content -- simply because you can see the events taking place directly on the page rather than reading a description of them.
But if you really want to deal with the Bible -- or complicated, powerful stories in any medium -- then you have to be ready to look them in eye, even when it isn't pretty. The power of the "Book of Genesis" in comics form is that is forces you to do exactly that. And the idea that we're not supposed to acknowledge the violence, sex, and even horror of many moments in the Bible because people like Judge want to ignore them in both Scripture and life offends me profoundly, not only because it is ridiculous, but because it is intellectually and spiritually corrupt.
This controversy has less to do with real faith of any kind and more to do with putting your hands over your ears and shouting LA LA LA LA LA LA. Many people turn to the Bible as a book that teaches them lessons about how to live, but no one ever got better at dealing with the hard, complicated realities of living by closing their eyes, or by trying to close them for other people. And in fairness, at least one Christian group interviewed for the article seemed to agree:
A spokeswoman for the Bible Society said she hadn't seen the book but that reviews had suggested that Crumb had "really engaged" with the Book of Genesis. "It may surprise people but the Bible does contain nudity, sex and violence. That's because it contains real stories about real people."
How interesting -- comics do too. I'll have to remember that defense for the next time censors come for us.Hullabaloo
Monday, March 22, 2010
Democracy
by digby
The teabaggers are all upset that the Democrats passed a bill without any Republican votes. Evidently, this makes it illegitimate and unconstitutional. I'm not surprised they think this. They get their constitutional instruction from Glenn Beck.
But what can you say about the front runner for the 2012 presidential nomination?
A Campaign Begins Today [Mitt Romney]
America has just witnessed an unconscionable abuse of power. President Obama has betrayed his oath to the nation — rather than bringing us together, ushering in a new kind of politics, and rising above raw partisanship, he has succumbed to the lowest denominator of incumbent power: justifying the means by extolling the ends. He promised better; we deserved better.
He calls his accomplishment “historic” — in this he is correct, although not for the reason he intends. Rather, it is an historic usurpation of the legislative process — he unleashed the nuclear option, enlisted not a single Republican vote in either chamber, bribed reluctant members of his own party, paid-off his union backers, scapegoated insurers, and justified his act with patently fraudulent accounting. What Barack Obama has ushered into the American political landscape is not good for our country; in the words of an ancient maxim, “what starts twisted, ends twisted.”
I can't help but recall hearing a whole lot of patronizing advice from these same people a few years back when anyone breathed that President Bush might not have legitimately taken office since he lost the popular vote, his brother manipulated the system in Florida and he was was installed by a partisan supreme court decision. Back then it was all "get over it," and "I've got political capital and I'm gonna spend it!" Now, these same people are all screaming that it's a usurpation if the Democrats win the majority and then pass legislation that they don't like.
It's fairly clear that Republicans don't understand how democracy works. You campaign, people vote, you win elections, you get a majority, you pass legislation. They seem to think Democracy means that that elections are irrelevant, majorities are meaningless and that all legislation is contingent upon the permission of the Republican Party.
I'm sorry these people are so unhappy. I know how they feel. I used to hate it when the Republicans passed some disgusting initiative that went against everything I believe in. But I don't recall having a mental breakdown at the notion that they could do it even though I didn't want them to. The idea that they were obligated to do my bidding didn't actually cross my mind.
As they used to say repeatedly, "elections have consequences." If the people don't like this bill, they have every right to turn the Democrats out of office and repeal it. But screaming hysterically that it's cheating to pass legislation with a majority just proves that these folks' great reverence for the constitution is based more on their love of wearing funny hats than anything that's written in it.
This is how the system works. If you don't like it, start pressing for a constitutional amendment that requires that all legislation be approved by every teabagger in the land before it can be enacted. Or start campaigning to put your teabaggers in office so they can have a majority and enact the legislation you like. In either event, stop the whining about "abuse of power." They passed a bill you don't like, for crying out loud, it's not like they seized office with a partisan decision by the Supreme Court and then invaded a country that hadn't attacked us or anything...
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digby 3/22/2010 10:00:00 AMWhile mycelium wears a lot of hats, it has one primary job – to turn everything into soil, and then to feed the plants and trees that surround it. With an amazing intelligence, it’s wraps its mycelium filaments – called hyphae – around the roots of plants and trees. Fungal hyphae and plant roots working together are called mycorrhizae and it’s truly a symbiotic, life-giving relationship that sustains entire ecosystems.
The mycorrhizal filaments of fungi also produce organic compounds that glue soils together and improve their structure and porosity to enhance root growth. In addition, mycorrhizae in the soil have been found to protect plants from root diseases.
“It adds up to a fundamental mutualistic relationship between fungi and green plants, one that has been evolving for millions of years,”
said Susie Dunham, mycologist and pesticide specialist with the National Pesticide Information Center at Oregon State University.
“Most plants – from orchids, rhododendrons and madrone trees to most fruit and nut trees, turf grasses, annuals and perennials – depend on some type of fungal activity.”
So, consider the role mycorrhizal fungi can play in the garden or farm ecosystem. A few of the beneficial effects of these fungi are that they:
Seek out phosphate and other nutrients and then bring them to plants
Connect many plants together, allowing for nutrient exchange between plants
Supply water to plants
Protect plants from fungal diseases and other root-feeding microorganisms
Improve soil structure, so it’s less compacted, with more spaces for air and water
Recycles woody waste products like saplings and branches after pruning
Creates bumper crops of delicious mushrooms
Compliments of the Smiling Gardner, here are 9 tips to keeping your soil’s beneficial fungi happy and healthy:
Phosphorus fertilizer. Don’t use too much, especially chemical phosphorus. When plants have ample access to soluble phosphorus (soluble means it dissolves in water, so is easier to take up by plants), they aren’t as reliant on mycorrhizal fungi, so they don’t allow the fungal infection to occur with their roots as much. That means by using soluble phosphorus fertilizer, we’re interfering with how nature provides plants with phosphorus, so we’ll need to take over the job of the fungi and continue to fertilize our plants every year. Even fresh manure can oversupply phosphorus. Rock phosphate is okay because it’s insoluble – it actually needs to be worked on by microbes such as these beneficial fungi in order for plants to most effectively use it.
Other fertilizer. Other than phosphorus, over-fertilizing in general can inhibit mycorrhizal fungi, so it’s good to fertilize just a little at a time. That’s why I often take the fertilizer recommendations from my organic soil lab and split it up into 2-4 applications during the year instead of all at once. Too much nitrogen seems to be the next big issue after phosphorus, and sulfur is another big one too because it’s antimicrobial. Many soils are deficient in sulfur, but if we use gypsum or potassium sulfate (both contain about 18% sulfur), that’s going to be less damaging to fungi than elemental sulfur (90% sulfur), which is much more soluble.
Organic fertilizer. One reason organic fertilizers are nice is because they tend to either be rock fertilizers (such as the gypsum) that are very slow-releasing and therefore won’t cause as many problems, or are more broad-spectrum biological fertilizers (such as seaweed) that supply just small amounts of many different nutrient and therefore won’t oversupply any one nutrient. It’s still possible to over-apply organic fertilizers, but they’re more forgiving.
Pesticides. ‘Cide’ means to kill. Fungicides kill fungi, so using them can harm mycorrhizal fungi. But so can herbicides, insecticides and other pesticides. Just spraying a pesticide once isn’t going to knock out your whole fungal network, but repeated applications, especially of certain pesticides such as methyl bromide, will kill most of your microbial soil life (most countries stopped allowing methyl bromide use years ago, but the U.S. still allows it as of this writing).
Mulch. Maintaining a consistent mulch of leaves, straw and perhaps some wood chips will provide protection and habitat for the fungi. I don’t like to use too many wood chips, but they do encourage fungi, so I will use them around trees and shrubs, which want a more fungal-dominated soil. A living mulch (a groundcover or cover crop) is also useful to give beneficial fungi more plants to partner with.
Diversity. Mycorrhizal fungi benefit from having other microbes around, including beneficial bacteria, so while compost doesn’t provide the fungi itself, it does support them, as does using compost tea and effective microorganisms. Plant diversity is also beneficial, which is one reason why crop rotation can be helpful, and why leaving some weeds and wild areas to grow is, too.
Water. Like us, fungi need water, but they also need air, so if your soil is so wet that there’s not enough air, the fungi will suffer. But even if your soil is just consistently moist (perhaps from your irrigation system watering for 15 minutes every morning), that’s also an issue because the fungi won’t have any reason to go searching deeper in the soil for moisture. We face the same issue with plant roots. We want roots and fungi to spread out and go down, so we need to let the soil dry out a little between waterings.
Tilling. Tilling, plowing and double digging will slice your fungi up into pieces. It can sometimes be useful to do one of these when you’re first establishing a garden, but in the long run, it’s better to limit them to only when the benefits outweigh the downsides, which may be occasionally, or may be never. Sometimes they’re useful to lightly incorporate a cover crop or control weeds, but otherwise, less soil disturbance is usually better.
Other soil disturbance. Topsoil removal during construction is devastating to fungi. Compaction is detrimental as well, as is erosion. On a farm, there’s usually more bacteria than fungi in terms of biomass (weight). In a forest, there’s 5, 10, 100, even 1000 times more fungal biomass than bacteria! Main reasons for this big difference are the lack of tilling/plowing, compaction and erosion in a forest, plus the lack of pesticides being sprayed, and the plant species growing there.
Resources:
Mushrooms can mean healthy soil, Oregon State University
Author: Judy Scott
9 Ways To Help The Beneficial Fungi In Your Soil, The Smiling Gardener
Author: Phil Nauta [email protected]Framework for how legalisation could work in UK suggests plain packaging, three different strengths and small-scale ‘cannabis social clubs’
Cannabis could be sold in plain packaging over the counter in specialist, licensed shops to over-18s only, according to an expert panel set up by the Liberal Democrats to examine what a regulated cannabis market in Britain should look like.
The panel suggests cannabis be sold in three different strengths – lower, medium and higher – and come in prescription medicine-style resealable childproof containers with their own health warning.
The most comprehensive framework of how cannabis legalisation could work in Britain also suggests that small-scale licensed “cannabis social clubs” should be set up and that homegrown cultivation of up to four plants for personal use should be allowed.
The Liberal Democrats are set to debate a motion at their spring conference this weekend that could lead to them becoming the first major British political party to support the legalisation of cannabis for recreational use.
Tim Farron, the party leader, said: “Prohibition of cannabis has failed. We need a new, smarter approach and I welcome this report. It is a waste of police time to go after young people using cannabis and ludicrous to saddle them with criminal convictions that can damage their future careers. A legal market would allow us to have more control over what is sold, and raise a considerable amount in taxation.”
The report, which partly draws on Cabinet Office work done when Nick Clegg was deputy prime minister, says credible estimates suggest £500m to £1bn could be raised in taxation from regulated cannabis sales.
The experts suggest that the pricing of cannabis products should be directly linked to potency and weight. They say a gram of the lower-strength 5% THC (the active ingredient in cannabis) should cost a third of the price of a gram of higher-strength 15% THC.
The panel included Mike Barton, the chief constable of Durham, Prof David Nutt, a former chair of the government’s advisory committee on the misuse of drugs, and Tom Lloyd, a former Cambridgeshire chief constable and now chair of the National Cannabis Coalition.
The experts argue that a closely regulated legal market in herbal cannabis could displace both the new synthetic “legal highs” with their unknown effects and the high-potency “skunk” and other forms that have increasingly dominated the illicit market in recent years and have been linked to higher risk of dependency and psychosis.
“We recommend that plain packaging should be mandatory for all retail cannabis, with standardised non-branded designs along the lines of prescription pharmaceuticals … We therefore recommend that product labels, as well as providing basic information about the product and potency, should have mandated information and warnings about key health risks and how to minimise or avoid them,” says the report.
Cannabis “off-licences” – separate from retail chemists, “who may feel it is in conflict with their duty of medical care” – and online retail sites would be supplied by UK-based producers licensed by a regulatory authority, with a “seed to sale” tracking of each plant grown. Imports and exports would be banned.
The panel rejects the development of Dutch-style cannabis cafes in Britain, preferring to restrict shops sales so that there are not “destination” retailers. They anticipate that people will smoke cannabis in pub gardens and that “cannabis social clubs” could meet the demand for Dutch-style dope cafes.
The social clubs would be modelled on an existing 400-strong Spanish network of clubs. Under Spain’s decriminalisation laws, members can allocate their homegrown allowance to the club, which grows the pooled allocation and supplies members at a designated venue. They would be limited to 100 adult members.
Norman Lamb, the Liberal Democrat health spokesman, said: “This is a groundbreaking report that is a huge contribution to the debate on introducing a regulated cannabis market in the UK. Every year, billions of pounds are put into the pockets of organised criminals selling cannabis, and vast amounts of police time and resources are wasted going after those using the drug.
“We have to be ambitious. It is not good enough to continue pretending that everything is OK or that the current system is working. Millions of British citizens are using cannabis with no idea of the potency of what they are taking.”We, the undersigned legal experts and scholars from law, philosophy and the social sciences, endorse the following petition:
On April 18th the Hungarian Parliament will decide on the adoption of a new constitution for the Republic of Hungary. While we welcome the effort to create a new constitution for the country to overcome the technical deficiencies of the revised constitution of 1989, we consider the draft of the FIDESZ/KDNP coalition and the way it is adopted deeply disturbing.
The draft constitution
effectively abolishes large parts of constitutional review, possibly disabling the Constitutional Court as a politically independent body, gives leeway for the enactment of unconstitutional law and thereby undermines the rule of law,
declares the inconsistent and ideologically lopsided preamble and the legally undefinable „historical constitution” as binding for its interpretation, can be understood to delegitimize the entire constitutional law and jurisdiction of the last 20 years, and thus obviates any well grounded assertion of what the constitution actually says and thereby further undermines the rule of law,
severely restricts the scope of action of future governments unless they command a 2/3 majority,
has been written at the whim of the current government, is being enacted without both framework and time for proper deliberation and without sufficient participation by the opposition and the public and will therefore suffer from severe legitimacy deficiencies.
Hungary is not only a member state of the European Union, but an integral part of the European sphere of legal and constitutional culture. Hungarians have long struggled for their „Return to Europe“. Based on the existing constitution, Hungary’s world-renowned Constitutional Court has made a rich contribution to European constitutionalism. We are deeply worried that, by passing this document, Hungary risks its reputation as a model of a new constitutional democracy rising from an authoritarian regime. Following the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe, we appeal to the leaders of the coalition parties FIDESZ and KDNP, particularly to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, to refrain from enforcing a hastened decision and imposing a insufficiently legitimate constitution on their country. Instead, we urge to use the opportunity to draft and pass a document that can unite Hungarians and does not divide them. We call for a constitution that, by providing clear legal concepts instead of historical symbolism in legal form, can serve as the foundation of a constitutional state based on legal certainty and the rule of law. Finally, Hungary deserves a constitution that preserves, and not limits, the functions of its guardian, the Constitutional Court, one of the most trusted institutions in the country.
Signed (5/01, 9:00 pm MEZ):
Antal ÁDÁM, University of Pécs, Hungary Wolf ALBIN, Attorney-at-Law, Berlin, Germany Andrew ARATO, New School for Social Research, New York, USA Judit BAYER, King Sigismund College, Budapest, Hungary Jochen VON BERNSTORFF, Max-Planck-Institute Heidelberg & University Göttingen, Germany Adam BODNAR, Warsaw University, Poland Christian BOULANGER, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany David R. BOYD, Simon Fraser University, Canada Eva BREMS, Ghent University, Belgium Nora CHRONOWSKI, University of Pecs, Hungary Monica CLAES, Maastricht University, Netherlands Mihály CSÁKÓ, John Wesley Theological College and ELTE University, Budapest, Hungary Justus von DANIELS, Cardozo School of Law, New York, USA Balázs DÉNES, Hungarian Civil Liberties Union, Budapest, Hungary Tímea DRINÓCZI, University of Pécs, Hungary Catherine DUPRÉ, University of Exeter, United Kingdom David DYZENHAUS, University of Toronto, Canada Dirk FABRICIUS, Goethe-University Frankfurt, Germany Agata FIJALKOWSKI, Lancaster University, United Kingdom Zoltan FLECK, ELTE University, Budapest, Hungary Andreas FUNKE, University of Cologne, Germany Claudio FRANZIUS, University of Hamburg, Germany Siri GLOPPEN, University of Berge & Chr. Michelsen Institute, Norway Marcin GÓRSKI, University of Łódź, Poland. Marie-Pierre GRANGER, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary Christoph GUSY, Bielefeld University, Germany Balázs GYENIS, University of Pittsburgh, USA Tamás GYÖRFI, University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom Gábor HALMAI, ELTE University, Budapest, Hungary, Dominik HANF, College of Europe, Bruges, Belgium Helen E. HARTNELL, Golden Gate University, San Francisco, USA Wolf HEYDEBRAND, New York University, USA Kristina IRION, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary Ireneusz C. KAMINSKI, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland Ulrich KARPENSTEIN, Attorney-at-Law, Berlin, Germany Alexandra KEMMERER, Wissenschaftskolleg, Berlin, Germany János KIS, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary Sascha KNEIP, Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB), Berlin, Germany Jan KOMAREK, London School of Economics, United Kingdom Atina KRAJEWSKA, School of Law, University of Exeter, United Kingdom Helga KRISCH, Administrative Court, Berlin, Germany Mattias KUMM, Humbold University, Berlin, Germany and New York University, USA Johanna LÁSZLÓ, ELTE University, Budapest, Hungary Tamás LATTMANN, National Defense University and ELTE University, Budapest, Hungary Oliver W. LEMBCKE, University of Jena, Germany Patrick MACKLEM, University of Toronto, Canada Miguel Poiares MADURO, Professor, European University Institute Matthias MAHLMANN, University of Zurich, Switzerland Ernst Gottfried MAHRENHOLZ, Deputy President of the Constitutional Court (ret.), Karlsruhe, Germany Balázs MAJTÉNYI, ELTE University, Budapest, Hungary László MAJTÉNYI, University of Miskolc, Hungary Susanna MANCINI, University of Bologna, Italy Stefan MARKUS, former Ambassador to Hungary, Slovakia Franz MAYER, University of Bielefeld, Germany Jeremy MCBRIDE, Monckton Chambers, Gray’s Inn, London, United Kingdom Zoltan MIKLÓSI, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary Christoph MOELLERS, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany Jan-Werner MUELLER, Princeton University, USA Odonkhu MUNKHSAIKAN, Nagoya University, Japan Andreas ORATOR, WU University of Business and Economics, Vienna, Austria Viktor OSIATYNSKI, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary András L. PAP, ELTE University, Budapest, Hungary Vlad PERJU, Boston College Law School, USA Otto PFERSMANN, University Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne, Paris, France Ulrich K. PREUSS, Hertie School of Governance, Berlin, Germany Jiri PRIBAN, Cardiff University, United Kingdom István RÉV, Open Society Archives, Budapest, Hungary Michel ROSENFELD, President of the US Association of Constitutional Law, Cardozo School of Law, New York, USA Judit SANDOR, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary Aurel SARI, University of Exeter, United Kingdom Martin SCHEININ, President of the International Association of Constitutional Law (IACL), European Universit Institute Stefan SCHEPERS, director general of the European Institute of Public Administration (ret.) Kim Lane SCHEPPELE, Princeton University, USA Tibor SCHOBER, Attorney-at-Law, Berlin, Germany Kristina SCHOENFELDT, University of Freiburg, Germany Bernadette SOMODY, ELTE University, Budapest, Hungary Grażyna SKAPSKA, Institute of Sociology, Jagiellonian University, Poland Maximilian STEINBEIS, Attorney-at-Law, Germany Máté Dániel SZABÓ, University of Miskolc, Hungary Sona SZOMOLANYI, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia Christopher THORNHILL, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom Gábor Attila TÓTH, Debrecen University, Hungary Johan VAN DER WALT, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom Balázs |
inhalation in the clashes, which broke out after Israeli forces raided the area. Awad said that Palestinians threw stones at the Israeli soldiers, who fired rubber-coated steel bullets, stun grenades and tear gas canisters at the crowds.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=749933
2 Palestinian teens injured in clashes near Nablus
NABLUS (Ma‘an) 24 Dec — Two Palestinian teenagers were shot with live bullets and injured by Israeli forces in clashes that broke out near the Jewish settlement of Itamar southeast of Nablus. Medical sources said Shihab Nasasra, 16, and Ahmad Mleitat, 15, were shot with live bullets and taken to Rafidia hospital in Nablus with what were described as light to moderate injuries … The villages south of Nablus are frequent sites of settler violence and Palestinian clashes with Israeli forces as they are located beside the notoriously violent Israeli settlements of Yitzhar, Bracha, and Itamar.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=749631
Teenager shot, injured by PA security forces in Nablus
NABLUS (Ma‘an) 26 Dec — A teenager was shot and injured by Palestinian Authority security forces during an arrest raid in Nablus overnight Thursday, locals said. PA security forces raided al-Fara‘a refugee camp to arrest a wanted suspect and youths responded by throwing stones and an explosive device at them, locals said. Security forces opened fire and hit Salem Bassam Shawish, 16, in the chest. He was transferred for treatment to a hospital in Nablus and will receive further treatment in Ramallah on Friday. In October, PA forces shot and killed Bilal al-Rajabi, 25, during an arrest raid in Hebron.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=749883
Palestinian Authority security forces detain 14 Hamas members: Group
Middle East Monitor 25 Dec — Palestinian faction Hamas has accused the security forces of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA) of detaining 14 group members in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. In a Thursday statement, Hamas said the members had been detained one day earlier in raids carried out in several West Bank cities. But Adnan al-Dameri, a spokesman for the PA’s security apparatus, denied allegations that his forces were detaining Palestinians based on “their political affiliations.” He insisted that PA security forces only detain “those who commit illegal acts.”
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/16013-palestinian-authority-security-forces-detain-14-hamas-members-group
Israeli soldiers rob family of 70,000 shekels in Nablus raid
IMEMC/Agencies 25 Dec — Ahrar Center for Prisoner Studies and Human Rights said that Israeli forces seized about 70,000 shekels after breaking into home of 52-year-old Ahmed Shubeiri, in Qarboun village, near occupied Nablus. According to the PNN, Ahmed is father of Ali Shubeiri, who has been imprisoned for over a year now. The family told Ahrar that soldiers brutally broke into and raided their house after midnight, claiming that they were searching for arms. University student Abdullah Shubeiri, age 20, was abducted and taken to an unknown destination. The family said that the soldiers took from them 7,000 Jordanian dinars and 25,000 Israeli shekels, amounting to some 70,000 shekels total. Ahrar’s director, Fuad Al-Khuffash, condemned the action, saying that it was actually theft and not the first incident of its kind among Israeli soldiers.
http://www.imemc.org/article/70113
Settlers raid Salfit village, Israel army locks down area
SALFIT (Ma‘an) 24 Dec — Settlers raided the Salfit village of Kifl Haris overnight Tuesday, shouting anti-Palestinian slogans, villagers said. Israeli soldiers erected checkpoints around the village and prevented Palestinians from moving around the area during the incident, declaring it a closed military zone. The settlers were reportedly performing prayer rituals near the village. [near the ‘tombs of Joshua, Caleb and Nun’?]
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=749479
Israeli settlers open fire at Palestinian police near Salfit
NABLUS (Ma‘an) 24 Dec — Israeli settlers on Wednesday opened fire at Palestinian customs police near Salfit in the northern West Bank, local Palestinian sources said. The sources said that customs police officers were on duty in the village of Badiya north of Salfit when a car with Israeli license plates opened fire directly at them. No injuries were reported in the incident. The sources said that Palestinian authorities have lodged a complaint at the office of the Israeli military liaison, and a joint Israeli-Palestinian committee to investigate the incident has been formed.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=749630
Army: 2 settlers injured by Molotov cocktail near Qalqiliya
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 25 Dec — The Israeli military said on Thursday that two Israeli settlers were injured after a Molotov cocktail was thrown at their car as it drove in the Jewish settlement of Maale Shomeron, in the Qalqiliya region. The military said in a statement that an 11-year-old girl was severely burned and her father lightly injured after the Molotov cocktail hit the vehicle they were driving in. The two were later evacuated to the hospital for treatment, according to the statement, and the military said they were searching the area for suspects. Maale Shomeron is a Jewish-only settlement immediately beside the Palestinian village of ‘Azzun, east of Qalqiliya, and is built on land confiscated from a number of local Palestinian villages. Maale Shomeron is part of a larger settlement bloc home to more than 11,000 Jews that curves deep into the West Bank, surrounding a number of Palestinian villages on at least three sides and preventing Palestinians from freely moving in the area.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=749812
11-year-old girl faces ‘long, complicated’ rehabilitation
Ynet 26 Dec by Yaron Kellner — A day after a Molotov cocktail was thrown at Ayala Shapira and her father, she remains in serious condition and will undergo surgery; doctors say they will have to eventually reconstruct her face — The condition of Ayala Shapira, the 11-year-old Jewish-Israeli girl who was seriously wounded after a Molotov cocktail was thrown at her and her father while they were driving home on Thursday afternoon in Nablus, continues to be serious. A slight improvement in Ayala’s breathing and heart functioning was noted overnight, however she is still sedated and on a respirator … Ayala is expected to enter surgery on Friday afternoon. “The first steps will be to clean the deep burns, especially in the neck. She also has swelling in her throat, so in order to prevent choking we will enable her to breathe from a different area,” said Professor Eyal Winkler, the Director of the Plastic Surgery Department at Sheba Medical Center. “I told her parents the struggle will be long, and the beginning consists of stabilizing her, reviving her, and getting her to a state where we can begin to reconstruct her face. In this kind of situation, hospitalization last two to three months, and facial reconstruction can lost even longer. But we are full of desire to succeed and are optimistic. Ayala and Avner Shapira were wounded Thursday after the car in which they were traveling in the West Bank was hit by a firebomb, only a month after her mother escaped a similar attack in the same area.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4608122,00.html
Israeli forces detain 14 in village near Qalqiliya
QALQILIYA (Ma‘an) 26 Dec — Israeli forces on Thursday evening detained 14 Palestinians in the village of ‘Azzun near Qalqiliya, in the wake of a Molotov cocktail attack on a settler vehicle nearby that left two injured, including an 11-year-old girl. The arrest raids came after Israeli forces closed all entrances to the village of ‘Azzun after the incident, which occurred in the Jewish settlement of Maale Shomeron just north of the village. Locals identified those detained as Fahmi Nael Fahmi Tabib, Alaa Samir Othman Shello, Imad Muhammad Abd al-Latif Alami, Muhammad Ali Abd al-Rahman Badwan, Akrama Muhammad Nassar Dahbour, Youssef Zahran Sweidan, Muath Bilal Sweidan, Mutasem Muhammad Radwan, Murad Saqer Salim, Walid Moussa Labda, Muwayia Abd al-Latif Radwan, Omar Amjad Shbeitak, Amir Jawdat Radwan, and Ashraf Ahmad Radwan. An Israeli military spokeswoman, however, confirmed only 12 of the detentions, and declined to tell Ma‘an why the individuals in question were arrested. Hebrew-language news website Walla quoted Israeli military sources as saying that the detainees including two individuals suspected of involvement in the attack. The website reported that one of the individuals threw the Molotov cocktail that hit the settler vehicle, while the other assisted him. The incident caused widespread public consternation in Israel, and defense minister Moshe Yaalon visited the 11-year-old girl in the hospital on Friday. During his visit, he called the incident a “terrorist attack” and said the army and secret services were capable of putting an end to such incidents.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=749868
Two Palestinians kidnapped in Jenin; many injured
IMEMC/Agencies 24 Dec — Several armored Israeli military vehicles invaded, on Wednesday at dawn, Qabatia town, south of the northern West Bank city of Jenin, and kidnapped two Palestinians, while many suffered the effects of tear gas inhalation. Palestinian security sources in Jenin said the soldiers invaded Qabatia town, stormed and violently searched several homes, and kidnapped two Palestinians before taking them to an unknown destination … Many Israeli military vehicles also invaded Jenin city, before the soldiers stormed a residential apartment building in Jabal Abu Thoheir area, violently searched the home of Riyadh Hasan ‘Arqawi, and handed his nephew Mohammad ‘Arqawi a warrant for interrogation in the Salem military base. The soldiers also invaded the home of Ashraf Jamal ‘Azamta, 30, and handed an interrogation order to his family as he was not home during the invasion. Local sources said the soldiers also broke into, and violently searched, the homes of the late Mohammad Hasan ‘Arqawi (who had been killed by the army), the homes of his sons Ghaleb, Fares, Borhan, and Jihad, and handed Mohammad and Borhan Ghaleb ‘Arqawi military warrants for interrogation. In addition, soldiers invaded the al-Yamoun nearby town, searched and ransacked several homes, and installed a roadblock near Ya‘bad town, south of Jenin. Local sources said the soldiers stopped dozens of vehicles, in both directions, for more than an hour, preventing the residents from entering or leaving the town. Furthermore, several schoolchildren, and adults, suffered the effects of tear gas inhalation after the soldiers fired gas bombs at them, near the Abu ar-Reesh roadblock, in the Old City of Hebron.
Also in Hebron, Israeli military bulldozers demolished a 500 square meter chicken farm belonging to resident Yousef Rashed al-Batran, in Khallet Ibrahim area in Ethna town, west of Hebron. The army said the farm is close to the Annexation Wall, illegally built by Israel in the occupied West Bank turning many communities into isolated cantons, and leading to the isolation of thousands of dunams of orchards and farmlands.
http://www.imemc.org/article/70101
Video: Palestinian stabs 2 Israeli policemen in Jerusalem
JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 26 Dec — A Palestinian suspect on Friday stabbed two Israeli border policemen in East Jerusalem’s Old City, police said. One officer, 19, was stabbed in the neck and the other, 35, in the hand near the Lions Gate. The suspect fled the area and police are currently investigating the incident. Checkpoints were set up in the Old City and nearby areas following the attack. The suspect allegedly attacked the officers after leaving morning prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque … Ramallah-based web site Paldf released a video of the incident.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=749869
Israeli forces detain 2 Palestinians in East Jerusalem
JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 24 Dec — Israeli forces raided the East Jerusalem neighborhood of al-Tur at dawn and detained two Palestinians, locals said. Akram al-Shurafa, 39, and Faris Abu Ghannam, 37, were identified as those arrested. Both men were part of five Palestinians recently banned from Israel’s Jerusalem municipal borders for five months until April 2015. No reason was given for their exile.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=749504
Israeli forces detain 5 teenagers in East Jerusalem
JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 25 Dec — Israeli forces raided East Jerusalem early Thursday and detained five teenagers, a local committee member said. Israeli forces detained Hasan Jamjum, Ali Ahmad Darwish, Ahmad Uweisa and Khalid Jadallah in al-‘Isawiya and Muhsin Attun from Sur Bahir, after ransacking their homes.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=749697
Israeli forces detain 6 in West Bank raids
NABLUS (Ma‘an) 25 Dec — Israeli forces detained six Palestinians in overnight raids in the occupied West Bank, security officials said Thursday. In Nablus, four men were detained at dawn from the Old City, Kafr Qallil, Ein Beit al-Mai refugee camp, and Rafidia. They were identified as Alaa Mansour, a PA police officer, Muhammad Qaddumi, Murad Makhloog, 25, and Muhammad Mashaal, 25. Clashes broke out in the city following the arrests, with Israeli forces firing tear gas canisters and stun grenades at youths…
In Hebron, Israeli forces detained Mustafa Maharma, 23, and Muhammad Jamil Issa Arara, 36. Maharma was traveling in a car near Surif village when Israeli forces stopped the vehicle and used a taser gun before detaining him. Awad was detained at a military checkpoint near Beit Ummar. He had previously spent seven years in an Israeli jail.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=749691
Israel detains DFLP leader east of Jerusalem
JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 26 Dec — Israeli forces on Friday detained a leader in the leftist Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine at a checkpoint east of Jerusalem. Nader Jaffal, 42, was taken from a flying checkpoint set up near the Maale Adumim Jewish settlement, which occupies a strategic position on the main road between Jerusalem and Jericho. At the checkpoint, Israeli forces stopped and searched cars as they passed, and Jaffal’s wife Abeer said that when the soldiers asked him to get out of the car, they took him into custody. According to Abeer, the soldiers told him that there was an order for administrative detention against him, meaning he will be held without charge or trial for a potentially unlimited amount of time. She said that the soldiers then subjected both her and the car to a search, before taking him to the settlement. Nader Jaffal previously spent around 15 years in Israeli jails in a number of stints.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=749886
Israel returns bodies of Jerusalem synagogue attackers
JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 25 Dec — Israeli authorities on Wednesday evening returned the bodies of two Palestinian attackers who killed five Israelis at a Jerusalem synagogue in November. Israel notified the families of Uday and Ghassan Abu Jamal that their bodies must be buried within 90 minutes of being returned at the cemetery of al-Sawahira al-Sharqiyya, lawyer Muhammad Mahmoud told Ma‘an. Only 40 relatives were to be allowed at the funeral, he added. The family was forced to deposit 20,000 shekels ($5,000) to guarantee they would adhere to the stipulations. “After they have been laid to rest, we will feel some relief after some very hard days following the martyrdom of Ghassan and Uday,” a relative said. Israel has imposed punitive measures on the whole family since the killings, refusing to return the bodies of both men and detaining most of their close relatives, the family said.
Their home has received a demolition order and Ghassan’s widow lost her permanent residency rights. Around 300 mourners joined the funeral procession, raising Palestinian flags and chanting patriotic slogans.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=749684
False arrests won’t stop us covering Israel’s occupation
Haaretz 25 Dec by Gideon Levy — The allegations against us: violating an emergency order and insulting a soldier. The law books contain no statutes about insulting a journalist — On Monday of this week we drove to the village of Artah [or Irtah], south of Tul Karm, to report yet another story of the evil of the occupation, this one particularly infuriating and sad. The photographer Alex Levac and I were in Artah, intending to return home to Tel Aviv. The soldiers at Checkpoint 407 were surprised to see Israeli Jews leaving from the direction of Tul Karm. We showed our press cards and told them that we had been accustomed to going everywhere in the West Bank for more than 25 years. Thus began an episode in the theater of the absurd that lasted until evening. The Israeli army and the Israel Police kept us in custody for about the next nine hours. The soldiers confiscated our car keys and identity documents lest we run for our lives. We were not allowed to get out of the car, even for a moment. One insolent soldier was insulted on account of nothing and the police were summoned on account of nothing. The police did not even ask us what had happened – and just like that, we were “detained.” We were put inside a “Caracal” – an armored, reinforced metal monster with barred windows – and we drove for about an hour to the Ariel police station. There we were questioned and fingerprinted. Mug shots were taken of us for the criminals’ photo album, and we were subjected to humiliation. On the way there, I thought about the Palestinian children whom these police arrest and place in this same metal monster and what they endure. The police officers said we were being “detained” – a euphemism for arrest. When we asked to go to the bathroom, the duty officer barked: Not without an escort. The detective said we were endangering national security … Even as we were on our way to Ariel, we heard the false accusation that came from the army, and then the official statement of the Judea and Samaria District Police: We had spat at the soldiers. First the “murdering” pilots (which I never wrote), and now the “spitting libel” (I never spat on them). If we were suspected of having spat at soldiers, it is easy to imagine the intolerable ease with which the soldiers could say, falsely, that a Palestinian had pulled a knife at a checkpoint or threatened them a moment before they shot him dead.
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.633605
Terror attack thwarted: 4 Palestinians carrying pipe bombs arrested
Ynet 24 Dec by Omri Efraim — Israeli security forces stopped four Palestinians carrying pipe bombs on Wednesday at a checkpoint near Jenin. Additional forces were deployed to the scene, including a sapper to neutralize the explosive devices. At approximately 3 pm, soldiers heard an explosion near the security checkpoint and identified four suspects upon arriving at the location. They performed the procedure for arresting suspects – discovering pipe bombs hidden under their clothes. During the initial investigation on the ground, the suspects confessed to intending to commit an attack against security personnel. The four Jenin residents were transferred for additional investigation by the Shin Bet.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4607444,00.html
IDF troops find arms cache in northern West Bank
Times of Israel 25 Dec — IDF soldiers arrested seven suspected terror operatives and uncovered a major arms cache in the northern West Bank early Thursday. In a joint operation by the Paratroopers and Kfir brigades, joined by special forces, in the Nablus area, soldiers found two handguns, an M-16 assault rifle, an Uzi submachine gun, a Kalashnikov rifle, an improvised firearm and eight pipe bombs. A significant amount of cash belonging to terror organizations was also confiscated in the operation, the army said. Three other Palestinian suspects were arrested elsewhere in the West Bank overnight Wednesday. Two were arrested in Jilazoun, a village north of Ramallah, while the third, a reported Hamas operative, was arrested in Hebron.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-troops-find-arms-cache-in-northern-west-bank/
Israeli forces detonate car they say was filled with explosives
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 25 Dec — Israeli forces on Thursday evening detonated a car they claimed was filled with explosives on the main road linking Ramallah and the villages west of it. The road, which leads to the villages of Beit Ur At-Tahta, Beit Ur al-Fouqa, and Safa, was closed in both directions, leading to major traffic jams for Palestinian commuters. Witnesses said that Israeli forces were heavily deployed in the area Thursday evening, firing flares and looking for the individuals who owned the vehicle, which was empty at the time of the explosion.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=749813
Gaza
Palestinian boy, 15, dies from Gaza war injuries
RAMALLAH (Ma‘an) 26 Dec — A 15-year-old Palestinian boy from Gaza died in an Israeli hospital in Tel Aviv on Friday from injuries sustained during Israel’s devastating war on the coastal territory this summer. Ihab Muhammad Suhweil, from Beit Hanoun, died in the Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, after doctors decided to turn off his life support system. The teenager was being treated in the al-Maqasid hospital in Jerusalem and his condition deteriorated rapidly after a delay in moving him to the Tel Aviv medical center. Suhweil died an hour after his father visited him, having managed to obtain a permit to leave Gaza and see his son, who has been hospitalized for three months. He was injured on the 2nd day of the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday during Israeli bombardments on the coastal territory, which also killed his brother. Suhweil’s body will be taken to be buried in Beit Hanoun on Friday. Since a ceasefire agreement in late August, dozens of Palestinians have died from injuries or as a result of Israeli ordnance left behind from the 50-day bombardment of the territory, which killed over 2,000 Palestinians.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=749874
Palestinian killed, Israel soldier injured in Gaza gunfight
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 24 Dec — A Palestinian man was killed and an Israeli soldier seriously injured during a gun battle in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday. Witnesses told Ma‘an that Israeli forces fired heavily in border areas in Khuza‘a and al-Qarara east of Khan Younis, killing Taysir al-Smeiri, 33, and injuring two others. Hamas said al-Smeiri was the head of its reconnaissance unit in southern Gaza. “In response to the firing at our forces who were east of the fence in the southern Gaza Strip, we carried out immediate attacks against the relevant targets. There was an air strike and one by a tank,” an Israeli army statement said. Israel’s army confirmed that an Israeli soldier suffered a severe chest injury and was evacuated to hospital.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=749505
Israeli warplanes hit southern Gaza after sniper fire
Al-Arabiya/AFP 24 Dec — Israeli fighter jets carried out an air strike in southern Gaza on Wednesday and killed a Hamas militant after a sniper attack on a patrol seriously wounded a soldier, the army and medics said. The Israeli military said on a twitter statement that “sniper fire was opened on an #IDF routine patrol near the southern #Gaza Strip.” “Following the sniper attack on the #Gaza border, #IDF air & ground forces responded immediately to the threat. More details to come,” the statement added. It was only the second time Israel had struck Gaza since a 50-day war ended with a truce on August 26, after witnesses reported a first strike early on Saturday.
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2014/12/24/Israeli-warplanes-hit-southern-Gaza-after-sniper-fire.html
On-the-scene operation on wounded soldier saved his life
Ynet 25 Dec by Yoav Zitun — IDF doctor decided to drain blood out of Bedouin reconnaissance soldier’s lungs while under fire knowing that if he didn’t, the soldier would surely die — IDF doctors and medics’ resourcefulness and courage saved the life of a soldier who was seriously wounded in Wednesday morning’s fire exchange at the Gaza border. According to an initial investigation of the incident, at around 11am, a ground force from the Bedouin reconnaissance battalion, responsible for the Kissufim sector in the southern Gaza border, and an Armed Corps force were securing routine repair work for the fence when one of the soldiers suddenly collapsed. The soldier was hit from a single yet accurate bullet from a Palestinian sniper who was taking advantage of the cover provided by the close proximity of the buildings in Khirbet Khizeh, several dozens of meters from the border fence and Israeli territory … The surgery was done while IDF tanks and Air Force aircraft were returning fire at the source of the sniper fire, while the wounded soldier’s friends provided cover for the operating doctors who were working not far from the Palestinian homes.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4607656,00.html
Gaza forces deployed at border to prevent illegal crossing
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 24 Dec — The Ministry of the Interior in the Gaza Strip is deploying security forces on the border with Israel and intensifying its presence in the area in order to prevent Palestinians from crossing into Israel from Gaza without documents. The statement from the interior ministry comes just hours after a gunfight erupted on the border with Israeli soldiers, after the Israeli military said a soldier was wounded by sniper fire from inside Gaza. Ministry spokesman Iyad al-Buzm, however, did not directly mention the incident, instead stressing that the deployment was about preventing Palestinians from crossing into Israel. “There are a few cases where young people try to sneak into the ’48 lands (i.e. Israel), but Palestinian security forces have arrested some this year and Israeli forces arrested those who successfully entered,” al-Buzm said. “We are looking carefully at the issue in order to stop the Israeli side from recruiting collaborators,” he added … According to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, 94 Palestinians have crossed into Israel without documents since the beginning of the Gaza offensive in July, including 10 during the conflict and 66 since September alone. Al-Buzm said that part of the problem was the fact that there are border areas where Palestinian security forces cannot operate, allowing individuals — who he said were primarily youths — to cross over. “We still have some procedures to carry out in order to completely stop infiltration. Those who are caught will be punished appropriately,” he added. Israel also maintains a security “buffer zone” that extends between 500 and 1500 meters into the Strip, effectively extending control over 17 percent of Gaza’s total land area and 35 percent of its agricultural land. This control, which directly affects the livelihoods of more than 100,000 Gazans, also prevents security forces from operating near the border, as they are similarly forbidden from entering the area.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=749629
Israeli soldiers shoot Palestinian trying to cross Gaza border
BETHLEHEM (Ma‘an) 26 Dec — Israeli forces on Friday shot a Palestinian man as he tried to cross into Israel from northern Gaza, Israel’s army said. An Israeli army spokeswoman told Ma‘an that two Palestinians approached the “security fence in the northern Gaza Strip” with the intention of crossing into Israel. Israeli soldiers ordered them to stop and fired in the air and then at their legs when they failed to comply. One man was hit, while both were detained at the scene and taken for questioning.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=749884
Israeli boats open fire at Gaza fishermen
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 26 Dec — Israeli naval boats opened fire at fishermen off the coast of northern Gaza on Friday, witnesses said. Locals said gunfire was heard from the shore of Gaza City as fishermen were at sea. An Israeli army spokeswoman said “a few vessels deviated from the designated fishing zone” and naval forces fired warning shots in the air. The boats then turned back, she added. The Aug. 26 ceasefire agreement between Israel and Palestinian militant groups stipulated that Israel would immediately expand the fishing zone off Gaza’s coast, allowing fishermen to sail as far as six nautical miles from shore, and would continue to expand the area gradually. Since then, there have been widespread reports that Israeli forces have at times opened fire at fishermen within those new limits, and the zone has not been expanded.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=749866
VIDEO: What Egypt puts people through at the Rafah crossing
Shehab News Agency 23 December
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=943787728996981&fref=nf
Gaza women protest against Gaza crossing closure
World Bulletin 26 Dec — Scores of Palestinian women on Thursday staged a protest on the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing on the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip to demand the reopening of the crossing. The women said the crossing needed to be reopened so that thousands of Palestinian medical patients could seek medical treatment outside the Gaza Strip, which has been suffering an all-out Israeli blockade since 2007. The protesters carried placards on which they called for reopening the crossing and complained against the inability of Gaza’s patients to travel to seek medical treatment abroad. “Palestinians have the right to freely move through the crossing,” Esraa al-Areer, the spokeswoman of “Women against the Blockade”, the Palestinian movement that organized the protest, told The Anadolu Agency.
http://www.worldbulletin.net/world/151635/gaza-women-protest-against-gaza-crossing-closure
First phase of Egypt-Gaza buffer zone to cost $70 million
Jerusalem Post 26 Dec by Ariel Ben Solomon — Egypt is completing the first phase of a buffer zone along its border with Gaza and is going to start the second phase soon, the governor of North Sinai said this week. Gen. Sayed Harhour, governor of the region, told Ahram Online on Wednesday that the cost of finishing the first phase of the buffer zone would reach as much as $70 million (500m. Egyptian pounds), after they pay compensation to the residents of the remaining 837 homes. “The second phase that will begin soon along 500 more meters includes even more homes,” he said. The government is paying property owners around $14 a meter for open land and between $98 to $168 for homes, said the report. In addition, $126 in emergency aid was being given to each evacuated family. Egypt decided in November to double to 1 kilometer the depth of a security buffer zone it is clearing on its border with the Gaza Strip after an outbreak of some of the worst anti-state violence since president Mohamed Morsi was overthrown last year. Egypt declared a state of emergency in the border area after at least 33 security personnel were killed in two attacks in October.
http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/First-phase-of-Egypt-Gaza-buffer-zone-to-cost-70-million-385826
Hamas knows that the people of Gaza do not want another war
Haaretz 25 Dec by Amira Hass — The Palestinians’ response to Wednesday’s IDF raid in the Strip is not escalation but a matter of routine — Although the residents of the Gaza Strip are afraid of another war, they believe that only Israel, not Hamas, is interested in a military escalation. That is the impression gained from telephone conversations with several Gaza residents. People in the Gaza Strip believe the Hamas report that Israeli troops went into the Gaza Strip as a “violation of sovereignty” – so members of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, Hamas’s military wing, fired at them. According to the report, a unit from the Israel Defense Forces’ Engineering Corps invaded the Gaza Strip east of the town of Qarara. Armed Palestinians fired at the troops. In response, the army shelled not only Izz ad-Din al-Qassam’s lookout point, killing one of its members, but also – according to Palestinian reports – opened intensive fire at the homes of civilians who had nothing to do with the incident. According to the daily documentation of the PLO’s negotiating department, the IDF attacked various areas in the Strip 35 times in November. One person was killed and 10, including farmers and fishermen, were wounded in these incidents. The difference on Wednesday, then, is that the Palestinians responded to the army’s aggression and an Israeli soldier was wounded … Despite the occasional despairing statements to the media that war is preferable to the current stalemate, the inhabitants of Gaza cannot bear the thought of another round of warfare in which Israel attacks them in their homes with its advanced, never-ending weaponry. The Hamas authorities are well aware of this, so they have no current political or tactical interest in war.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/.premium-1.633640
After the war, a bittersweet Christmas in Gaza
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories (AFP) 23 Dec by Adel Zaanoun — A garland in hand, 11-year-old Sara decorates the family Christmas tree with her parents. But this year, the young Gazan will be spending the rest of the holiday alone. Her family applied for Israeli permits to leave the Gaza Strip and travel to Bethlehem to celebrate Christmas in the not-so-little town in the West Bank where Jesus was born. Although her parents received them, she and her older brother and sister did not. This year, Israel granted around 500 permits to Palestinian Christians, allowing them to travel from Gaza to the West Bank so they can visit Bethlehem’s Nativity church and attend the traditional midnight mass. “Christmas is a happy time but it’s also a bit sad because I didn’t get the permit to go with my parents,” Sara admits. Her mother, Abeer Mussad, spoke of a “joy tinged with sadness” as she and her husband celebrate Christmas Day in Bethlehem without their children who will on Thursday be “meeting Santa at church in Gaza”. “He will give us our presents,” says Sara who will stay with her older sister and celebrate Christmas at St Porphyrius Greek Orthodox church in Gaza City. In Gaza, the adults have done everything they can to ensure the holiday is not spoilt, but nobody can forget the deadly 50-day summer war which killed nearly 2,200 Palestinians and left the densely populated territory in ruins.
http://news.yahoo.com/war-bittersweet-christmas-gaza-203248646.html
Saudi Arabia donates $12 million to repair UNRWA schools in Gaza
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 25 Dec — The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has donated $12 million to the UN’s Palestine refugee agency UNRWA to support the repair of Gaza schools damaged in Israel’s latest offensive. UNRWA said in a statement that nearly $9.8 million will be dedicated to reconstruction, while just over $2.2 million be allocated for furniture and equipment. Eight UNRWA-run schools in the Gaza Strip will benefit from the Saudi donation, according to the statement … Ministry of education officials said in September that 70 UNRWA schools were damaged in the nearly two-month long Israeli offensive, which also completely destroyed or damaged 144 public schools.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=749532
To beat unemployment, young Gazans turn to birds
GAZA CITY (Al-Monitor) 26 Dec by Rasha Abou Jalal — Ehab Adas, 28, spends most of his time listening to the chirps of his canaries on the roof of his house. The birds are his only source of support for his family of four. One bird can fetch 300 shekels ($80), enough to meet his family’s needs for a week. Raising birds is part of a new trend among Palestinians suffering from unemployment and desperate to make ends meet. “I graduated from university in 2012, and I worked in a cement factory. But the Israeli war destroyed my workplace, and I was left without a job. This forced me to search for another source of income to support my family,” Adas told Al-Monitor. He explained that breeding birds is cost effective and does not require a lot of effort. “I only have to provide a warm place and food for the birds. I also have to have experience in identifying mating seasons, egg hatching and treatment of diseases,” he said. According to statistics issued by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics for the second quarter of 2014, Gaza’s unemployment rate stood at 44.5%.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/12/canary-breeding-gaza-amid-poverty.html
Gaza: A crossroad of civilisations
Middle East Monitor 24 Dec by Jessica Purkiss — In 201 BC King Antiochus captured Gaza. Polybius, a Greek Historian of the Hellenistic Period (period of ancient Greek and eastern Mediterranean history) recounted the incident in his work The Histories, which covered the period of 264-146 BC in detail. He wrote: “It seems to me both just and proper here to testify to the character of the people of Gaza. |
every corner.
It’s a big continent, and quite diverse. In the south east corner there’s Pacific Northwest-style rain, damp, and fog. In the mountains you’ll find snow and even ski fields. In the desert you’ll be knocking the ice off your swag in the early morning of a day that’ll end up hot enough to cook an egg on the bonnet of a car. Then, in the north, you’ll walk into a wall of humidity that reminds you of how close you are to Southeast Asia. But overall, what a visiting disc golfer will encounter is bright sun, and lots of it, so bring a good hat and sunglasses, use plenty of sunscreen, and learn to carry an extra water bottle in your bag.
And yes, OK, some of our animals do want to kill you. But as an Aussie who hasn’t died yet, I have to say that the lethality of our fauna is a bit of a beat up, amplified by the tendency of Aussies to exaggerate, or outright lie, for humorous effect.
Five or more million years of being an island has led to the evolution of some quirky wildlife, too, and it’s not just kangaroos and koala bears. Eighty-four percent of Australia’s fauna is endemic. From the kookaburra, a bird whose call sounds like maniacal laughter, to furry marsupials with duck bills and green ants that build their nests in trees, you won’t find them anywhere else.
And yes, OK, some of our animals do want to kill you. But as an Aussie who hasn’t died yet, I have to say that the lethality of our fauna is a bit of a beat up, amplified by the tendency of Aussies to exaggerate, or outright lie, for humorous effect; Google “drop bear” if you want a taste of this. Most of us die from heart disease and car crashes just like the rest of the world. Having said that, my favourite deadly creature to scare foreigners with is the Irukandji, a jellyfish who, if it merely brushes you with a tentacle, will ensure that the most painful 20 minutes of your life will also be the last 20 minutes. But it’s fine. Really, it’s fine. Just a few habits, like being careful while you walk in the bush or choosing which dark places you stick your hand in, and we promise you’ll probably make it home alive.
At any rate, as long as you aren’t a surfer, most of the death by cuddly creature in Australia occurs in the less-populated north. So far, all of the disc golf courses are in the south: The 46 courses in the country include those waterside and in park land; on converted ball-golf courses and university campuses; and in rugged bushland, alpine villages, and community parks. The pick of them is probably still Poimena, a course in the southern island state of Tasmania. Nate Doss has played in more places in the world than almost any disc golfer, and he rates it amongst his personal top five.
The Tasmanian course is getting some competition, though, as people are saying good things about Pine Rivers in Brisbane and, Mundaring—home of the Aussie Open–is a beast. There’s even a small live-in disc golf resort of sorts, Granite Mountain in Queensland. Oh, and those lovely seasoned DX and Pro D discs that you’ve taken a year or so to beat-in just so? On courses like Granite Mountain, Mundaring, and Pine Lines in Western Australia, the rocks and gravel will have them looking like Mickey Rourke’s face after a single round. Bring some durable plastic.
If you can’t visit yet, you can at least enjoy some bright sun and blue skies via the Disc Golf World Tour’s coverage of the Aussie Open this week.
A quick perusal of online forums shows that the Aussie Open has its critics: Why hold a PDGA major in the most isolated capital city in the world, out of the reach of the travel budgets of all but the most well-funded pros, in a place where the sport is still getting established?
Let’s draw a parallel with another great Aussie obsession: surfing. Turn up to any of Australia’s thousands of surf-breaks, and you’ll often see something strange. Close to shore there’ll be surfers catching plenty of smaller waves, but further out you’ll see a smaller cluster of people sitting on their boards like meditating monks, catching nothing. You’ll wonder, “Why are they sitting way out there where there’s no waves?” But a local will tell you: “They’re waiting for the big sets to come through.”
It seems to me that’s what Jussi Meresmaa, Chris Finn, and the others behind this leg of the DGWT are doing: getting into the right spot to catch the big swell. Just waiting to have a fair go.You must enter the characters with black color that stand out from the other characters
— As the CBS news magazine "60 Minutes" aired its segment earlier this month examining Duke Energy's coal ash spill on the Dan River, someone in the company's public relations office was busy tweeting.
On of those short missives read, "#CoalAsh: The truth about toxicity" and linked to a fact sheet posted online.
"It's a tool that we've used at community meetings and events," said Paige Sheehan, a spokeswoman for the company.
The sheet, she said, also also been used when addressing local government meetings. It has existed and been posted online for several months, she said, adding that it has had a few tweaks along the way.
Our interest here on @NCCapitol's fact-checking desk is always piqued when we see the words "the truth" about any particular subject, especially complex scientific and economic topics.
"Ash contains low levels of trace elements. Even if you do come into contact with ash, studies have shown you'd have to ingest large amounts to have the potential for experiencing adverse effects," says one of three main bullet points summarizing the page-long explainer.
Although that doesn't exactly make the case for coal as part of a balanced breakfast, despite comparing the amount of arsenic in coal ash to the amount of arsenic in apple juice, the fact sheet does run counter to the image of toxin-laced goop leaching into groundwater and rivers that has been part of the coal ash narrative over the past 10 months.
THE QUESTION: Are the "low levels of trace elements" in coal ash really nothing to worry about, or might this well-crafted piece of corporate communications be downplaying the toxicity issue?
BACKGROUND: Coal ash is the material left over when coal is burned for fuel. Some ash is caught by scrubbers that filter air before it leaves a power plant, while other material is collected from the bottom of boilers. Although the bulk of this material is inert, coal ash contains a number of materials considered harmful to human health, including arsenic, cadmium, chromium, selenium, lead and mercury.
For decades, Duke and other power companies stored ash in wet ponds, although more modern dry-storage methods move the ash to lined landfills or recycle it into concrete, shingles and the like. While a massive spill from a Tennessee Valley Authority coal ash lake raised national attention to the issue in 2008, battles over coal ash in North Carolina remained mainly under the political radar until Feb. 2, when a coal ash pond at a retired power plant in Rockingham County spilled an estimated 39,000 tons of coal ash into the Dan River.
That spill brought attention to ongoing lawsuits over coal ash ponds located at 14 current and former power stations throughout the state. Environmentalists have long argued that toxins from unlined coal ash ponds have fouled both groundwater and local waterways. While a 1970s case involving Belews Lake has long been the poster child for this kind of leaching, environmental groups have argued it is occurring on a number of waterways.
It's worth noting that environmental advocates recently withdrew a study claiming that fish from a lake near a coal ash pit were unsafe to eat after the company raised questions about the science involved.
Also of note, the Duke fact sheets says, "The Environmental Protection Agency has evaluated coal ash extensively and has repeatedly determined that it is not a hazardous waste."
That may change as soon as Friday, when the EPA is expected to issue regulations governing coal ash. The federal agency could rule that hazardous material rules apply to coal ash or impose restrictions more similar to household waste.
Duke's one-page fact sheet is accompanied by a one-page list of references. Some are references to government reports detailing the materials in coal ash, the toxicological profile of arsenic or a handy explainer from a West Virginia scientist putting the measures of parts per million and parts per billion into layman's language. Most of the resources in this group are cited as providing numerical and scientific values for the sheet.
However, there are four names that come up several times on the reference list and are used to back up the sheet's conclusions drawn from the numbers: Lisa Bradley, John Ward, EPRI and ACAA.
EPRI is the Electric Power Research Institute, an industry-funded think tank of which Duke is a member. The ACAA is the American Coal Ash Association, an industry trade group that promotes "the management and use of coal combustion products." There's nothing wrong, per se, with industry think tanks, but it's important to keep in mind that they come to the table with a particular point of view. Groups that are in the business of promoting energy producers and the beneficial uses of coal ash are not likely to highlight the potential health and environmental problems associated with the material.
Bradley is vice president and senior toxicologist for AECOM, a company that, among other things, provides planning and engineering services to the energy industry. She is also a member of the ACAA's executive committee.
Ward is a marketing, communications and public affairs consultant who has worked for several energy-related businesses before starting his own consulting company. He also heads Citizens for Recycling First, a Denver-based group that advocates for recycling coal ash. Ward's name appears in the transcripts of several hearings the EPA held over the past two years examining whether coal ash should be designated as a hazardous waste.
While both Bradley and Ward obviously have a good deal of background related to energy and coal ash, their ties to industry are not immediately clear in the citations on the Duke fact sheet.
"Dr. Bradley is an MIT-educated Ph.D., regarded as one of the nation’s leading experts in coal ash toxicity. She offers deep expertise in discussing the issue," Duke's Sheehan said when asked about Bradley's work and affiliations.
Sheehan pointed to several articles Bradley had written, including one for The Air and Waste Management Association. She also pointed out that Bradley had been appointed to the National Coal Council by U.S. Secretary of Energy Dr. Ernest Moniz.
To help evaluate the fact sheet, @NCCapitol turned to Gerald LeBlanc, professor and program director at North Carolina State University's Department of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology, and Avner Vengosh, a professor at Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment who has actively studied coal ash. Vengosh's latest research specifically deals with determining whether contamination comes from a particular coal ash source or not
We should note that Duke Energy views Vengosh as "aligned with anti-coal groups," pointing to work he has done with the Appalachian Voices website and similar advocacy groups. He is a frequent source for North Carolina due to his expertise in the subject and his studies of the TVA spill.
We started by asking LeBlanc whether he would hand Duke Energy's fact sheet to an undergraduate college student as a good primer on environmental risk.
"No," he said. "This was written to convey a one-sided story, that there's no problem with coal ash. I appreciate the fact they support their facts with sources of information. The bad news is that most of those sources are coal trade organizations."
Because of Duke Energy's reliance on industry trade groups rather than peer-reviewed research, he said, "you have to take everything they say here with a grain of salt."
Vengosh was similarly critical of the overall impression the company's fact sheet might leave with a less-informed reader.
"The literature and the scientific evidence clearly shows that coal ash is a dangerous material," Vengosh said.
Both Vengosh and LeBlanc cautioned that, just because there were risks associated with coal ash, does not mean that ash ponds or other storage facilities were necessarily harmful to their immediate environments. Rather, they said, each case needs to be carefully examined. However, both said Duke Energy's fact sheet goes too far in downplaying the risks.
Sheehan said Duke Energy wasn't trying to have people overlook the risks associated with coal combustion residuals but rather offer an answer to a frequently asked question about how the toxicity of coal compares with other substances.
"The chart in the fact sheet helps the public understand which constituents are in ash and how it compares to soil and solid waste to help inform the discussion about the best approach to continue to manage it safely," she said.
One of LeBlanc's strongest critiques of Duke's fact sheet is it addresses things that aren't really a concern with coal ash.
"There are a few issues that we're very concerned about, and then there are a wealth of things that we're not concerned about," LeBlanc said. "They're sort of expounding on this wealth of things that are not problematic. We don't eat coal ash. You could say a lot of things about how much coal ash you would need to eat to get sick... but that's just not relevant to the issue."
Sheehan said the company regularly gets questions about direct exposure, particularly from people living in the area of the Dan River spill. It's one reason why, she said, the company makes the comparison between the toxins in coal ash and in the soil.
"The constituents that are naturally occurring in soil dissolve the same way as constituents in coal ash," she said. "There are background levels of these constituents in groundwater and surface water."
This is a point of contention in much of the litigation between environmental advocates and the company. Environmental groups contend that rivers and groundwater see spikes in contaminants near coal ash ponds.
In general, the concern with coal ash is that water that washes through the ash picks up toxins and washes them away where they can affect drinking water or be consumed by fish and birds, which are then eaten by humans. Vengosh said that studies suggest that, due to the processes involved in burning coal, it is much easier for toxins to wash out of ash into water supplies than it is for the same material to be washed out of soils.
Duke's fact sheet makes the point that "trace elements in ash are measured in very small units. A part per million is equivalent to four drops of water in a 55-gallon drum."
Sheehan said this was not offered up to minimize the risk but to help educate the public on words, measurements and other information they may not have heard about before and to put it into context.
"I think it’s safe to say that most of us don’t spend much time thinking about measurements in parts per billion," she said. "We included analogies in the fact sheet to help people understand the language and put it into perspective."
LeBlanc said that he worries the descriptions of those very small amounts might give a non-scientist the impression they're not worth worrying about.
"It says two different things to scientists and to a lay audience," he said.
The reasons that government regulations set very low limits on materials like arsenic and selenium, he said, is because those materials are toxic.
To land a green light on our fact-checking scale, we demand "no materially incorrect assertions or misleading statements." While there aren't any fact errors in this sheet, our experts say the facts Duke Energy cites are used to build a case that might give the casual reader the wrong idea.
A yellow light on our scale generally indicates a lack of context or facts that have been cherry-picked. The focus on direct ingestion dangers and the less-than-transparent citation of industry trade groups would meet that test for us. Generally, we reserve red lights for those willfully perpetrating factual errors. But our fact checks will sometimes give a red light to those who are using true facts to, either on purpose or by accident, obscure the truth.
"I don't to take sides on these things. I try to be an objective source of information for either side," LeBlanc said. "But I do find it a little bit disappointing when I see documents like this and they're stated as, 'The Facts.' Really, it is trying to put some facts out there that are going to mislead. In my opinion, that's what they're doing here."
Duke Energy earns a red light for this fact sheet.Over the past week, liberals have been freaking out over the different members announced for President-elect Donald Trump’s administration. From Steve Bannnon to General Michael Flynn, the left has been in panic mode over what they consider inappropriate picks for the White House.
Well, one man whose name has just been floated as a possible pick for Department of Education is none other than Larry Arnn, president of the conservative Hillsdale College.
More from The Political Insider
Hillsdale College, as most of you know, accepts no federal money, and therefore is the antithesis to everything liberals believe, so Arnn’s potential role in the Trump administration will likely drive the left mad.
Trump Considering Hillsdale’s Larry Arnn For Secretary Of Education https://t.co/Ub6C04ZbmB pic.twitter.com/0mwrJlgdAQ — The Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) November 17, 2016
From Washington Examiner:
“Names fly around at light speed. Mine is one of the minor names. This is not the first time this has happened to me,” Arnn wrote in an email to Hillsdale’s campus newspaper on Thursday.
“Some people of influence would like for me to do it,” Arnn said of filling the education secretary post, noting that he has not formally been asked by the president-elect’s team if he is interested in the Cabinet-level position. “If those people decide to ask me, then I will make a decision. I will make no decision that I think would harm the college or result in my permanent separation from it.”
On his radio show, conservative icon Rush Limbaugh cheered the idea of Arnn heading up the Department of Education:
“Can you imagine if Larry Arnn ended up as education secretary?” Limbaugh told his listeners. “You put him in there at education and Cruz or Jeff Sessions as attorney general — look, I’m here to tell you that the names I have seen floated are more solid and better in terms of conservatism than your average Republican nominee would put together.”
Early in the campaign, Trump promised to shut down the Department of Education, and said he would return its budget to the states. Given that Arnn’s Hillsdale College doesn’t take federal money, he might be the perfect man to help wind down the outdated, useless federal department.
Do you think Arnn would make a good Secretary of Education? Share your thoughts below!Ricoh recently refreshed their flagship Pentax K-3 DSLR camera with the Mark II version featuring an eye-catching bump in specs and abilities. These new additions, including built-in GPS, AstroTracer star tracking, and Pixel Shift Resolution in the $1,035 K-3 II are really pushing the meaning of “bang for your buck.” In particular, nature photography enthusiasts should really be paying attention to what Ricoh has created here. In this review I cover how the camera performs shooting nature, landscapes, and wildlife to determine if this feature-rich DSLR is an underrated trail boss that deserves a spot in your pack.
The Pentax K-3 II retains some of the key features that made the K-3 a well-received general shooter. The fully weather-sealed, magnesium-alloy body with top-notch ergonomic construction and dual SD card slots, the 100 percent frame coverage viewfinder with a bright 0.95x optical pentaprism, and the 24-megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor which offers native ISO settings from 100 to 51,200 and 8.3 frames per second continuous shooting of up to 23 raw images (or 60 JPEGs) are all still here. The camera also has the same maximum shutter speed of 1/8,000s with a 27-point autofocus system and keeps some other of the niftier features such as a selectable anti-aliasing filter which allows you toggle it on demand, and in-body shake reduction image stabilization.
What’s interesting to me is that Ricoh appears to be steering the Pentax K-3 II towards being a specialist instead of remaining a general audience, everybody's happy camera. The feature set on the K-3 II basically reads like a laundry list of ideas that a nature photographer jotted down as to what would be great if a company just put them all into one very affordable camera. The rest of this review will be organized into sections describing the performance of each of these “list” items, starting with the body’s construction.
Twist-lock battery door.
Fully Weather-Sealed, Magnesium-Alloy Body Construction
The Pentax K-3 II is built with a stainless steel chassis and magnesium alloy is formed around it to create the body’s design. The body is fully weather-sealed and cold-proof down to 14 degrees Fahrenheit, and Ricoh claims there to be 92 independent seals for moisture and dust resistance. The battery door has a great twist-lock mechanism and all the accessory doors feel very tight and flush. Weighing in at 1.76 pounds (799.5 grams) with battery and a memory card installed, everything on the camera feels extremely solid and a pleasure to hold and use.
The ergonomics is one of the greatest camera experiences I’ve ever had, beating the Nikon D800 as my previous favorite. The deep grip features a well-placed notch to further comfort your fingers holding on. On the back, The K-3 II has the best button placement for back-button focusing I’ve ever dealt with. On other cameras, back-button focusing seems like an afterthought and the best customizable button is usually a quick thumb reach away from the most comfortable holding position. On the K-3 II the button lines right up with your palm’s grip and the thumb just naturally rests in line with the button. It sounds like a minor thing, but the shooting experience becomes so much more effortless and enjoyable this way.
The physical buttons throughout the body have nice placement, and nothing felt weird to press or toggle in any standard holding position. Most of the buttons offer quite a bit of customizable options for setting it up in a way that makes the most sense to you. One exception to this is the GPS button located on the left side of the body, previously where the on-camera flash button was on the first K-3. I couldn’t find a way to customize this button, which is a shame because having a physical button to toggle on and off GPS tracking on the fly doesn’t make much sense to me. There’s no immediacy with such a task, so I would have preferred some customizable settings or if they did away with the button all together to further its weather-proofing.
HDMI, USB, and power ports in the left side door.
The dual SD memory card slots in the right side door
Built-In GPS, Compass, and AstroTracer
They’ve done away with the ubiquitous entry-level feature of a pop-up flash found in the first K-3 and instead now have a built-in GPS device and compass which also powers the functionality of the AstroTracer.
The built-in GPS unit and electronic compass provide your images with EXIF data in not only location coordinates, but altitude and the direction your camera is facing as well. Apart from the obvious helpfulness this gives, the recorded information is perfect for nature photographers who happened upon a great location, but need to return for better conditions to one-up the shot they got. You can actually access this real-time data from the back of the camera too for a quick look at where you’re heading in the field.
The AstroTracer utilizes the built-in GPS, compass, and sensor shifting technology found within the camera and brings them together for a way to eliminate star trails even during long exposures. The GPS and compass unit figures out where your camera is located and where it’s pointed, and then the sensor will move itself (to a limited degree) during the exposure to fight the Earth's rotation and match up with the stars and prevent trails from forming. You can shoot multi-minute exposures with little to no star trails depending on the focal length of the lens you have mounted. When I had the Pentax 12–24mm f/4 mounted, the camera gave me a limit of five minutes. That’s crazy considering that the “500 Rule” for star photography (shutter speed = 500/[focal length * crop factor]) puts me at about 28 seconds before star trails would appear. The AstroTracer allows me 10 times that.
Pentax K-3 II with Tamron 70-200 f/2.8 attached.
Shake Reduction Sensor-Shift Image Stabilization
The Pentax K-3 II now sports an improved, more precise gyro sensor which will compensate for camera shake up to 4.5 EV steps. Any K-mount lens past and present will benefit from the three-axis Shake Reduction.
If you’re out shooting nature and wildlife at appropriate times of the day (sans tripod), you’ll find these soft lighting scenarios usually allow you to squeeze just enough shutter speed to capture the moment with no real wiggle room when also trying to get the finest image quality as well. Having a 4.5-stop shake compensation brings you that something extra when needed around daybreak or twilight, or when you are in a well-shaded forest.
Pentax K-3 II with Pentax 12-24 f/4 attached.
Pixel Shift Resolution
Pixel Shift Resolution (PSR) is such a cool feature, and it makes perfect sense to be included along with the other improvements if we keep with the theme of the K-3 II as a trail camera. PSR accomplishes gaining more detail and reducing color noise and moiré by capturing four sequential frames while the sensor shifts by one pixel for each shot. The four images are processed immediately after capture and are outputted to a single image file. The outputted file is the same sensor resolution size as normal images, so this isn’t to be confused by Olympus’ High Resolution Mode which shoots eight images to create a much higher megapixel outputted image. Below is a video that explains what PSR is visually:
The outputted file size is about four times that of a normal image captured in the DNG format. So we are talking about DNG file sizes that for me are around 30–35 MB per normal DNG raw image file bumped to 110–120 MB for PSR DNG raw image files.
If you have a tripod handy and you are in front of a scene that you think has some potential, it is well worth switching on PSR because the results are apparent. Expect to spend much more time per each outputted shot though, as PSR is doing four total exposures. Plus, immediately following the exposures, the camera will give you a “Data Being Processed” screen which disables camera functions and takes about four seconds to get through. Also beware of anything moving within your frame during this prolonged exposure time, such as leaves on a windy day, waterfalls, or moving people. You will get crazy looking, brightly-colored pixelated artifacts in your images. If you want the best of both worlds and you know there will be movement within the frame, I suggest shooting one image with PSR on and one with PSR off and then blending between the exposures for any problem areas in Photoshop (you’ll be on a tripod, after all).
LEFT: Pixel Shift Resolution disabled, RIGHT: Pixel Shift Resolution enabled
LEFT: Movement during Pixel Shift Resolution capture, RIGHT: Pixel Shift Resolution disabled
I love that the screen display rotates its orientation. Every camera should do this!
Rounding Out The Feature List
Some other features on the Pentax K-3 II include a 27-point autofocus system, 8.3 frames per second continuous shooting, and an on-demand anti-aliasing filter.
If you shoot nature and landscapes, you are probably no stranger to live view shooting. With the K-3 II, the contrast detect autofocus in live view is great. It focuses quickly and accurately, and has a few different modes of contrast detect to work with. For the best results, using the movable point or spot autofocus was the most reliable for me. Manual focusing in live view is also something I did from time to time to ensure tack-sharp shots and the K-3 II’s focus peaking and focus assist zoom really helped out in these times.
The K-3 II uses the SAFOX11 autofocus system with 27 phase-detection points and 25 cross-type sensors. It has a 86k-pixel RGB exposure metering sensor that can meter a range of -3 to +20 EV. There are a number of customizable settings to choose from in AF-C mode, such as Auto Tracking, Hold AF (Off, Low, Medium, High - A higher setting means the K-3 II won’t reestablish its focusing for a longer period of time even if your moving subject disappears behind a closer object at times), focus-priority or FPS-priority operation, AF zone select, and expandable area autofocus sizes for tracking (8 points, 24 points, or 26 points). Once you get something that works for you, you can save your autofocus settings to a user mode (the K-3 II has three user mode slots) to quickly get back to them.
For uncomplicated, adequately lit scenes, the K-3 II has no issue with either focus time or accuracy — as one would hope to expect. In the shaded woods during softer light hours, where there are many layers of foliage laid out in front the camera, this is where some true performance could shine. For the most part, the K-3 II could lock on accurately with only minimal hunting tagged on. In some scenarios I faced, such as shooting a bird concealed by a very close branch of leaves with a maxed-out telephoto, I couldn’t nail down the shot (which was frustrating when I saw how cool the shot looked on the everything-looks-sharp LCD screen). While I’m sure the higher-end Nikon and Canon’s would do some autofocus wizardry to get these exceptionally hard shots down, those also cost two to six times the amount of the K-3 II.
Click here to view an uncompressed PNG version (3 MB).
The 8.3 FPS continuous shooting speed is also a big help with wildlife photography. Birds and other little creatures are very fidgety, and sometimes you just need to blast some extra frames in order to get the right expression as it can be near impossible to predict.
Something special with the K-3 II is its ability to toggle an anti-aliasing filter when moiré may pose a problem in your images. For my purposes, I never want a low-pass filter compromising sharpness. But for those that shoot a more broad spectrum of subjects, this is just one of those nice options that can satisfy everyone by utilizing the sensor-shift technology already used in the camera.
What I Liked
Price-to-features ratio is excellent.
The feel and handling of the camera is one of the best experiences I’ve had.
Fully weather-sealed body ready for adventure.
In-body Shake Reduction image stabilization.
Pixel Shift Resolution is easy to use with obvious advantages.
The built-in GPS, electronic compass, and AstroTracer are all great additions to a scenic traveller’s kit.
DNG raw file support. I wish all cameras would give you this option over the camera manufacturer’s proprietary raw file format.
What Could Use Improvement
Programmable GPS button in a firmware update.
There may be some issues with weather sealing to figure out, but a tilt-adjustable LCD display would be so nice to have.
K-mount lens selection looks a little rough and dated, but will hopefully improve with a full-frame Pentax DSLR supposedly shipping in 2015.
The autofocus system is nothing really to complain about in the K–3 II for its price point, but this is something that you have to get very right if you are trying to take market share from Nikon and Canon.
Before I wrap up this review, I should make it clear that this camera is not only a nature photography camera. Obviously many of these features make sense in other contexts as well. When I first heard about this camera’s release, it was the AstroTracer that caught my attention. From there, I was curious to know what else it could do for a nature photographer such as myself. Everything then on was looked at from the stance of my genre and what I ended up finding was some very nice pairing in many of the special added features.
The Pentax K-3 II is available now from B&H, and is currently selling for $100 off its normal retail price of $1,035.24. That means for $935.24, a sub-$1K price point, you’d have a camera with some of the coolest special features I’ve seen released so far.
Images Shot With the Pentax K-3 II
1/1,250s at f/5.6, ISO 800
1s at f/11, ISO 100
1/800s at f/5.6, ISO 400
2.5s at f/11, ISO 100
1/20s at f/11, ISO 11
1.5s at f/11, ISO 100
1/6,400s at f/6.3, ISO 400
1s at f/11, ISO 100
30s at f/11, ISO 100
0.8s at f/11, ISO 100
ORDER FROM B&HBills in the House and Senate aim to come up with a standard tax for nicotine products. But as the Senate tax committee heard during its Wednesday hearing on the matter, e-cigs and the people that sell them fall into two big opposing categories.
Testifiers who spoke against the bill included a lobbyist for ClearWay Minnesota, an organization dedicated to keeping tobacco products out of the hands of kids, and Dr. Peter Denhel of the Twin Cities Medical Society.
They argued that the bill favors Big Tobacco companies’ e-cigarette products, such as NJOY and Blu., because these products have fixed, high nicotine concentrations in small amounts of overall eliquid. A tax based on the amount of liquid would be a break for them.
Molly Moilanen of ClearWay said that these e-cigs, because they are cheap, disposable, flavored, and readily available in gas stations and corner stores, seem marketed toward teenagers.
“Minnesota 11th graders report using e-cigs at rates twice as high as cigarettes," said Molly Moilanen of ClearWay. "And new research shows that vaping may be a one-way bridge to cigarette smoking among youth.”
On the other hand, vaping is also a bridge for long-term smokers to quit cigarettes, say representatives of independent vape shops.
Vape shops differ from convenience stores in that they counsel smokers on what sort of eliquids to buy based on how many cigarettes they smoke, with the end goal of gradually weening customers off bottles of eliquids with higher levels of nicotine to zero nicotine. Sometimes different styles of customizable, high-end vaporizers can be extremely technical, and they’ll help customers figure that out too.
The larger bottles have on average 0.3 percent and 0.6 percent nicotine, said Cap O’Rourke of the Independent Vapor Retailers of Minnesota. Big Tobacco products’ average of 5 percent nicotine per e-cigarette.
“We are in fact giving a break, in this bill, to the higher doses of nicotine in the lower amounts,” O’Rourke said. “This is the number one choice for people in Minnesota who are looking to reduce or quit smoking. This would put a huge hurdle, if not close all the shops in Minnesota that are selling [adaptable vaporizers].”
Sen. David Senjem (R-Rochester), the bill’s author, seemed to acknowledge the proposal was a work in progress that still needed to find a “happy hunting ground.”
Watch the hearing at the Uptake.
Photo courtesy of Vaping360A plan to turn Lake Kununurra into one of Australia's greatest fishing locations is starting to take shape thanks to a barramundi stocking program.
In 2012, the West Australian government allocated $700,000 towards the program, which has seen about 550,000 barramundi fingerlings released into the lake.
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Lake Kununurra stretches 55 kilometres from Lake Argyle to the Diversion Dam, cutting through the picturesque gorge country of the East Kimberley.
Local angler Dick Pasfield said after a lot of hard work, the results of the stocking program were starting to show, with some locals now catching metre-long barramundi.
"I've caught numerous metre-plus barra [but] if I told you how many, you'd probably throw me out of the boat," he said with a smile.
"And we're catching them so close to town! It's just location, location, location for barra."
Share Curt McCartney with a Lake Kununurra barra
Regular stocking must continue
Mr Pasfield said Lake Kununurra could become a fishing paradise for the Kimberley and had the potential to create all kinds of economic benefits to the region.
But he said the stocking program needed to continue to maintain the health of the fishery.
"The current project is finished; the 550,000 fish have been released into the lake, and what we've got to do is find a way to maintain, in some fashion, that stocking rate," Mr Pasfield said.
"What that rate is, we don't know yet, but we've got to be able to put barra into the lake regularly.
"As fish filter through the system and head down the lower Ord [to breed in the saltwater], we know that will occur, and we've got to be able to manage the fishery so we're replenishing what's leaving the system."
A meeting will be held in Kununurra next Monday to discuss future stocking options for the lake.
Share Kununurra local Nicholas Allen with a Lake Kununurra barramundi
"A successful barramundi fishery on Lake Kununurra would be one of the more significant drawcards to the region, bringing in tourism dollars spread across many businesses," Mr Pasfield said.
"Additionally, it will provide a great fishery for locals who would be able to combine everything they currently do on the lake, such as swimming and picnicking, with fishing for barramundi, involving all the family in a safe environment — something not possible on the lower Ord River."Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho admits his side aren't yet good enough to ditch their tag as the specialists in stubbornness.
United go to Sunderland on Sunday on the back of a 20-match unbeaten run in the Premier League, |
Trial 2 412 ms 8.88 mbps 1.49 mbps Trial 3 412 ms 15.37 mbps 1.87 mbps Average 412 ms 13.30 mbps 1.70 mbps Comp to Bench +391 ms 13.93% 13.81%
(Android Speed Test Results Unavailable – See Below)
Getting support: I contacted support regarding the issues mentioned above (configuring the service in Android). Support responded by the next day with some additional questions (fair ones). I provided some additional data and they said they’d get back to me again later. I requested an extension on my free trial, which they happily granted for several more days which was very good. Unfortunately, after several days of waiting, I didn’t hear anything back, so I was never able to connect via Android.
Getting a refund: As a free trial is granted immediately upon signup, I did not need to request a refund for Tunnelr service. A point in Tunnelr’s favor.
Concerns in Terms & Conditions / Privacy Policy: Tunnelr’s policies were broken up into a few different FAQ sections. These sections contained a lot of technical details which was nice to see (things like port lists, protocol comparisons, etc). Surprisingly, no terms in this section seemed too abhorrent. As a result, this section will be short, which is rare. Had Tunnerlr’s privacy policy and terms of service been clearly broken out, the service might have gotten the “Elegant” badge. As is, these terms are a little tricky to find and are blended in with other information. Not a bad thing, just not as removed from other content as I’d expect. Only one thing I noticed, which has already been mentioned:
OpenVPN uses blowfish
I do not care for the the Blowfish encryption standard (specifically Blowfish-128), I think it is too weak for security/privacy purposes.
Final thoughts: Tunnelr is an interesting bag. The FAQs section and support responses really make it seem like there are competent technical minds at work in the company – while on the other hand, the lack of prepackaged inline config files and a light config file generator make the experience feel a bit more rough. Same goes for the inconsistent speeds and non transparent encryption being used. Support showed promise at first with a responsive, seemingly knowledgeable representative, but I quickly felt forgotten. Long story short – I’ve seen worse, but I’ve also seen better. If it existed, Tunnelr would earn the “Meh” badge.
FROM THE VPN COMPARISON CHART CATEGORY VPN SERVICE Tunnelr JURISDICTION Based In (Country) USA Fourteen Eyes? Five Enemy of the Internet Yes LOGGING Logs Traffic No Logs DNS Requests Logs Timestamps Logs Bandwidth Logs IP Address ACTIVISM Anonymous Payment Method Email Accepts Bitcoin No PGP Key Available No Meets PrivacyTools IO Criteria No LEAK PROTECTION 1st Party DNS Servers No IPv6 Supported / Blocked No Offers OpenVPN Yes OBFUSCATION Supports Multihop Supports TCP Port 443 Supports Obfsproxy Supports SOCKS Yes Supports SSL Tunnel Supports SSH Tunnel Other Proprietary Protocols PORT BLOCKING Auth SMTP No P2P SPEEDS US Server Average % 86.24 Int’l Server Average % 20.63 SERVERS Dedicated or Virtual SECURITY Default Data Encryption Blowfish-128 Strongest Data Encryption AES-256 Weakest Handshake Encryption Strongest Handshake Encryption AVAILABILITY # of Connections 5 # of Countries 9 # of Servers 15 Linux Support (Manual) Yes WEBSITE # of Persistent Cookies 1 # of External Trackers 0 # of Proprietary APIs 4 Server SSL Rating A SSL Cert issued to Self PRICING $ / Month (Annual Pricing) 5 $ / Connection / Month 1 Free Trial Yes Refund Period (Days) 3 ETHICS Contradictory Logging Policies Falsely Claims 100% Effective Incentivizes Social Media Spam POLICIES Forbids Spam Requires Ethical Copy Requires Full Disclosure AFFILIATES Practice Ethical Copy Give Full Disclosure
If you like the project and find my work useful, please consider donating – your generous contributions help pay for the hosting, tools, and time I need to do my research and keep the data fresh.The misfortune known as Dennis Seidenberg’s injured right knee has also been considered an opportunity.
The window that opened Dec. 28, the first of 44 regular-season dates without their second-best defenseman, has allowed the Bruins to take a wide-angle look at their defense in context of another playoff run.
The evaluation: Not bad. But not good enough.
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The Bruins are 5-5-1 without Seidenberg, allowing 2.82 goals per game. This season, they’ve given up 2.16 goals per game, second-fewest behind Los Angeles (2.04).
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The Bruins improved in their last three games, in which they totaled five points against Dallas, Chicago, and Los Angeles. They allowed two goals in each game.
In those games, Zdeno Chara was Zdeno Chara — the No. 1 strongman tasked to shadow three top lines. Most of Chara’s help came from Johnny Boychuk, who could be his regular righthand man in the postseason instead of Seidenberg.
Matt Bartkowski, the team’s fastest and most agile puck-carrying defenseman, has played 20-plus minutes in three straight games. It is his longest stretch of the season above 20 minutes. Bartkowski’s high-end physical skills compensated for his average hockey sense and untimely penalties.
But the 11-game period reminded the Bruins that injuries will take place. Dougie Hamilton has been absent the last four games because of a concussion. Adam McQuaid (leg) is off the ice for a third time this season. Their durability is in question.
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The Bruins went through similar circumstances last season when Seidenberg (hamstring) and Andrew Ference (foot) missed time in the playoffs. The Bruins have no intentions of being shorthanded on defense for a second straight postseason.
The trade deadline is March 5, but it is a deceiving date. The Bruins play their final game before the Olympic break Feb. 8. The deadline is one week after their first post-break game against Buffalo Feb. 26. The Bruins have approximately four weeks of NHL business in which to acquire their preferred player.
The hockey operations department, which held its pro scouting meetings in Las Vegas last week, wants a defenseman with an expiring contract. The Bruins must save money to re-sign Torey Krug and Reilly Smith. Given their offensive production, both players could triple their current annual salaries ($925,000 for Krug, $900,000 for Smith). Neither Krug nor Smith is eligible for arbitration.
Bartkowski and Niklas Svedberg, Chad Johnson’s projected replacement next season, will also be restricted, although the Bruins could put both in play on the trade market. Jarome Iginla and Shawn Thornton will be unrestricted.
The Bruins would prefer a left-shot defenseman, preferably a stay-at-homer. The Bruins have three left-shot defensemen in Chara, Bartkowski, and Krug. David Warsofsky, recalled twice this season, would be a fourth.
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The Bruins have more right-side depth with Boychuk, Hamilton, McQuaid, Kevan Miller, and Zach Trotman. The coaching staff prefers the defensemen to play their strong sides.
The asking price for such players is usually a draft pick and/or a prospect. The Bruins have six picks in the upcoming draft. They traded their fourth-rounder to St. Louis for Wade Redden last season. Of their young players, Bartkowski, Svedberg, and Trotman would bring the most return.
Some trade targets:
Chris Phillips, Ottawa. The Bruins have a strong Ottawa connection, starting with general manager Peter Chiarelli, formerly the Senators’ assistant GM. Phillips, unrestricted after this season, would be reunited with Chara and Chris Kelly. Phillips would be an experienced, physical, and reliable second-pairing defenseman the Bruins could deploy against second lines. Landing Phillips would allow the Bruins to pair Chara with Boychuk. Ottawa doesn’t have a 2014 first-rounder, having used it to acquire Bobby Ryan from Anaheim. Two obstacles: Ottawa is still contending for a playoff spot, and Phillips has a no-trade clause.
Andrew MacDonald, Islanders. The 27-year-old is the best bargain in the league. MacDonald, who earns $550,000 annually, logs 25:57 of ice time per game, fifth-most in the NHL. MacDonald plays in all situations, including shutdown shifts against top forwards. MacDonald, unrestricted after this season, will be in line for a career score. If the Islanders think MacDonald will be too costly to re-sign and make him available, there will be a line resembling the Long Island Expressway at rush hour to acquire the left-shot defenseman. The Islanders have the third-worst record in the East, but they’re 7-3-0 in their last 10 games. They could make a late push.
Kyle Quincey, Detroit. The Red Wings, hammered by injuries all season, are in danger of missing the playoffs. If the Wings fall even more as the deadline approaches, they might be in the unfamiliar position of becoming sellers. The 28-year-old Quincey isn’t as physical as Phillips. Quincey relies on his skating to move the puck.
Henrik Tallinder, Buffalo. The 35-year-old relies on smarts and positioning to fend off attackers. Tallinder’s experience was the main reason Sweden picked the veteran for the Olympics over youngsters such as Victor Hedman and Jonas Brodin. Tallinder would be a respected and welcome presence in the room and on the ice. New Buffalo GM Tim Murray is eager to acquire assets.
Fluto Shinzawa can be reached at fluto.shinzawa@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeFlutoThe CEO of Tesla Motors, Elon Musk, is set to speak at a technology startup forum in Hong Kong next week. However, the invitation-only event will be held inside the Central Government Offices in Admiralty meaning local digital media are barred from attending.
Musk, who co-founded the electric car company, will take part in a fireside chat with CNN anchor Kristie Lu Stout at the StartmeupHK Venture Forum on January 26. It is hosted by the government’s Invest Hong Kong agency.
The event website did not state where it will be held, but a spokesperson for Invest Hong Kong told HKFP that it will be held at the Central Government Offices at Tamar. Local digital media are currently blocked from attending government events at the Central Government Offices.
“In selecting an event venue, we take into account factors such as venue availability, capacity and logistics issues and hence the venue will vary from time to time,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson added that media could visit the event’s website to watch a livecast on the day, if they are not able to access the Central Government Offices.
The annual forum is the main event on the StartmeupHK Festival calendar between January 23 and 30. Events will cover areas such as the consumer Internet of Things, financial technology, health technology and data analytics to “showcase Hong Kong as one of the fastest-growing startup hubs in the world.”
It was held at the Central Government Office in December 2013, but was switched to the Kowloonbay International Trade and Exhibition Centre in November 2014.
‘Outdated policy’
“This is an outdated policy in the digital age and can lead people to believe they are purposely trying to exclude some kind of press members, which I think must change,” Charles Mok, IT sector lawmaker said in an email to HKFP.
“Banning all online media is a backward arrangement and the government should work with online media to work out a mutually agreeable arrangement to facilitate reporters’ work.”
“In January 2014, I have raised LegCo question towards the government’s policy of rejecting online media/journalists from accessing press conferences and events at the Central Government Offices at Tamar. The Home Affairs Bureau replied at that time that there is no agreed definition of ‘online media’ among the industry, and citing venue capacity and security requirements as reasons for rejecting online media and only allowing media/journalists from traditional media.”
“My follow-up questions and request for meeting with Information Services Department and other departments went ignored,” he added.The central bank of the Philippines is looking to expand oversight of the country’s financial system following an embarrassing hack on the SWIFT international transfer system – a move that may ultimately result in new rules for domestic bitcoin services.
According to Reuters, officials for the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas are mulling whether to apply additional scrutiny to money exchangers in the Philippines, which could capture bitcoin exchanges that swap cash for digital currencies.
During an event organized by the central bank, deputy governor Nestor Espenilla, who oversees the institution’s supervision of banks, said discussions were ongoing.
Espenilla was quoted as saying:
“That is what we are looking to do, whether it is now time to impose hard regulations for virtual currency operators. Right now, we look at them as akin to remittance companies.”
Earlier this year, a cyberattack on the central bank of Bangladesh resulted in the theft of $81m, which took place via the institution’s conduit to the SWIFT network. SWIFT is used as a clearing system for the world’s financial institutions, and flaws in the Bangladeshi central bank’s cybersecurity measures were blamed for enabling the intrusion.
The incident has sparked both criticism as well as a rethink of how these institutions access SWIFT. At the event, Espenilla said that central bank officials in the Philippines have organized a new working group to address potential flaws in its cybersecurity policies.
In March, Espenilla suggested that any banks found at fault in the February hack could face penalties, according to Bloomberg.
Image via ShutterstockLiterally an article dedicated to copypastas that have been modified to belong in Melee Twitch streams. Am I shameful that I took the time to make this? Yes. Am I sorry? No.
PeoplesChamp 👀 PeoplesChamp 👀 PeoplesChamp 👀 PeoplesChamp 👀 PeoplesChamp 👀 good shit go౦ԁ sHit PeoplesChamp thats ✔ some good PeoplesChamp shit right PeoplesChamp there PeoplesChamp right✔there ✔✔if i do ƽaү so my self 💯 i say so 💯 thats what im talking about right there right there (chorus: ʳᶦᵍʰᵗ ᵗʰᵉʳᵉ) mMMMMᎷМ💯 НO0ОଠOOOOOОଠଠOoooᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒ PeoplesChamp 💯 PeoplesCHamp 👀 👀 👀 PeoplesChamp Good shit
Hi Smashers im new!!!!!!! holds up controller my name is Jason but u can call me t3h FaLCoN oF d00m!!!!!!!!hehe …as u can see im a real styler. thats why i came here, 2 meet styling BM ppl like me… im 17 years old (im really technical tho!!) i like 2 stomp and knee ppl w/ my homie (we’re stylish if u dont like it deal w/it) bcuz that’s our favorite combo!!!! he’s stylish 2 of course but i want 2 meet more stylish ppl =) like they say the more the dairrier!!!! lol…anyways i hope 2 make alot of fans here so give me lots of oddshots!!!! OHMYGODLORDWHATTHECRAP?????!!!!!!!!!! <— me bein BM again _^ hehe…toodles!!!!
My name is Hbox ResidentSleeper and I like to cry ResidentSleeper cause I always die ResidentSleeper to some stupid Fox ResidentSleeper
I sexually Identify as Fox McCloud. Ever since I was a boy I dreamed of defending my Melee Championship at EVO. People say to me that a person being Fox McCloud is Impossible and I’m fucking retarded but I don’t care, Mishun Complete. I’m having Mango inject me with tech skill and mindgames. From now on I want you guys to call me “Fox” and respect my right to shine and upsmash. If you can’t accept me you’re a spaciephobe and need to check your tierlist privilege. Thank you for being so understanding.
Fresh off the boat, from /r/smashbros, kid? heh I remember when I was just like you. A noob. Lemme give you a tip so you can make it in this cyber sanctuary: never make jokes like that. You got no reputation here, you got no name, you got jackshit here. It’s survival of the fittest and you ain’t gonna survive long on Twitch by saying stupid jokes that your little hugbox cuntsucking smashbrat friends would upboat. None of that here. You don’t upboat. You don’t downboat. This ain’t reddit, kid. This is Twitch Chat. We have REAL intellectual discussion, something I don’t think you’re all that familiar with. You don’t like it, you can hit the bricks on over to Smashboards, you Oddshot watching son of a bitch. I hope you don’t tho. I hope you stay here and learn our ways. Things are different here, unlike any other place that the light of smashbros culture shines on. You can be anything here. Me? heh, I’m a judge.. this place…. this place has a lot to offer… heh you’ll see, kid... that is, if you can handle it.
To all the Armada gloaters, I’ll tell you one thing: Twitch is, and always will be, Mango territory. OUR territory. The mods of this channel have formally endorsed Mango for GOAT. We will continue to control the chat with positive Mango messages. So before you start talking shit and bragging about your bitch’s win, I’ll have you know that we’re well versed in copypastas. Say RIP to your account if you try anything cute. Assholes.
Let’s dispel once and for all with this fiction that D1 doesn’t know what he’s doing. He knows EXACTLY what he’s doing. D1 is undertaking a systematic effort to change this game, to make Melee like the rest of the esports. That’s why he says DESTRUCTION and SUPER FIGHTING ROBOT and wears dress shirts with ties. It is a systematic effort to change Melee. When I’m the #1 commentator, we are going to re-embrace all the things that made Melee the greatest game in the world and we are going to leave our children with what they deserve: the single greatest game in the history of esports.
AAAAAAAAAAH!!! Every FUCKING day with these STUPID fucking MEMES! I’ve had it up to HERE with stupid fucking memes! You guys make me want to KILL MYSELF! Is that what you fucking want? For me to fucking KILL MYSELF and write on my suicide note “Cause of suicide: Couldn’t handle all of the stupid fucking memes, killed myself”? Because that’s what it might as well fucking say! You guys are literally, L I T E R A L L Y incapable of having even the SIMPLEST of fucking discussion without “MEME THIS, MEME THAT, PROBABLY MY B, HERE’S A PIC OF CHILLINS FACE, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA DISRESPECT AMIRITE?” Fucking STOP IT you pathetic fucking TWITCH MONSTERS, you are such fucking cancer that I cannot even fathom how you fucking scumbags live your dumb autistic lives. Don’t you have a tournament to get to, schoolwork to finish or a family to attend to? Do you literally do ANYTHING productive with your lives other than post stupid fucking memes on the Twitch chat of a goddamn Melee tournament? You fucking people make me sick and you’re damn lucky I don’t have any of your fucking addresses you fucking pieces of shits. I’d spit in your faces.
My name is Mango 4Head My friend is Scar PeoplesChamp I just lost Evo 4Head I’ll be at the bar 4Head
MM me you fratboy cock sucker. Truth be told you should hop off the internet and practice, maybe that way your local scene will know you for more than some garbage random that can’t even get top 100 on Colorado’s pr. Ps- you have no future in writing, and you definitely have no future in melee, so I hope like hell you aren’t missing class to write up crap like this. I will literally drive to your school to mm and rotate characters on you and make your little frat boy friends and trash players you lose to get hype for me. “Oh u think ur technical cause u live in bumfuck alabama” wonder where the fuck you got that idea from u fucking chump. I’m poor as fuck and I’ll mm you $100 just to make a collage of gfycats, cause guess what my boy, I too know how to post to reddit.com and think I’m hot shit. You better not fucking say no to the mm or I’ll make it a point to show up to every fucking tournament you enter for the rest of your life and win it. Also posting in CO MELEE FOR WHEN THIS GETS DELETED
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ╯╲___卐卐卐卐 Don’t mind me just taking the TOs for a walk
What the fox did you just foxing say about me, you little floaty? I’ll have you know I graduated top of my class in the Navy Spacies, and I’ve been involved in numerous secret raids on MIOM, and I have over 300 confirmed KO’s. I am trained in DK warfare and I’m the top laser camper in the entire US armed forces. You are nothing to me but just another target. I will wipe you the fox out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth, mark my foxing words. You think you can get away with saying that shit to me over the Internet? Think again, foxer. As we speak I am contacting my secret network of spacies across the USA and your IP is being traced right now so you better prepare for the shine, maggot. The shine that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your life. You’re foxing dead, kid. I can be anywhere, anytime, and I can kill you in over seven hundred ways, and that’s just with my bair. Not only am I extensively trained in unarmed combat, but I have access to the entire arsenal of the United States Melee Scene and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the face of the continent, you little shit. If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little “clever” comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your foxing tongue. But you couldn’t, you didn’t, and now you’re paying the price, you goddamn idiot. I will shit fury all over you and you will drown in it. You’re foxing dead, kiddo.
PogChamp My movement is slick PogChamp But my Charge Shots are dick PogChamp It’s me, Hugo PogChamp
IM DELETING YOU, COMMENTATORS!😭👋 ██]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]] 10% complete….. ████]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]] 35% complete…. ███████]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]] 60% complete…. ███████████] 99% complete….. 🚫ERROR!🚫 💯True💯 Commentators are irreplaceable 💖I could never delete you Commentary!💖 copy and paste this ten other times for the 👪Commentators👪 who give you 💦cummies💦 Or never get called ☁️squishy☁️ again❌❌😬😬❌❌ If you get 0 pastes: no cummies for you 🚫🚫👿 3 pastes: you’re squishy☁️💦 5 pastes: you’re a commentary kitten😽👼💦
👌😭 ahshah he did ìt again h0ly shit the💃AbIaZoLUTE💃MadMaN💃 IT JUSTKEeps geeting FuNniER EVERy 🍆fucking🍑⏳TIme⌛ he shines it haHAzhAHa 👌😭 📞 OPErATOR give mE The p👮Lice thEre’s a💃 MADmaN💃maKIN 🐸shinespikes🐸 in oUr MIDsT and I CAN’T bREATHe 👌😨
Hello, I am currently 15 years old and I want to become a professional Melee player. I know there’s a million people out there just like me, but I promise you I’m different. On December 14th, I’m moving to SoCal; home of the greatest Melee players. I’ve already got robot hands and now wavedash everywhere I go as training. I may not be a Melee star yet, but I promise you if you give me a chance and the support I need, I will become the greatest player ever. If you have any questions or maybe advice, just message me. Thank you all so much ~~
_____
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Register to voteThe Degrassi Franchise on the Teenage Experience
“Come on, give it a try at Degrassi Junior High”
The classic Canadian teen drama franchise has been on and off the air for the past thirty-seven years. One of the longest running scripted television series in history, Known for its slogan, “It Goes There,” the Degrassi franchise has tackled major topics in teenage culture, taboo (date rape, drug abuse, abortion) and overdone (crushes, first dates.) Created by executive producers Kit Hood and Linda Schuyler, the Degrassi universe started as after-school specials dealing with normal teen issues. As Ben Neihart wrote for New York Times Magazine, the kid characters of Degrassi “without much help from parents and teachers…try to figure out their lives, and kid viewers around the world second-guess them.” Known for its casting of real teenagers as opposed to college-age actors in their twenties, the drama-filled franchise spoke to a generation of Canadians growing up – and around the world as well.
DEGRASSI: THE HISTORY
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Even in its latest installment, Degrassi: Next Class, the show continues to push boundaries and tackle the issues of high schoolers in the modern era: gender fluidity, Islamophobia, and social media backlash. In its coverage of high school, it has also felt like the show closest to real life in its depiction of the high school experience. Sure, not all of us jet off to Paris on a summer class or star in Jason Mewes’s movie. But Degrassi understands the teenager’s perspective, using it to educate and support young people. As Schuyler said in an interview regarding Degrassi: Next Generation, “The whole key to Degrassi is that we are – the perspective of all of our stories is from the young person’s point of view who is at high school. These are the kinds of stories I couldn’t have imagined but this is part of the teenage world these days and it’s part of their world, we need to be telling stories about that.”
Executive producer Stephen Sohn noted this again in recent practice: characters are treated like actual teenagers. They don’t necessarily know the language or the difficulties of the situations in which they’re placed – and so the show is extremely careful about making these stories of identity ones that display truth in that. Discussing a recent episode in which characters discuss a friend who has come out as nonbinary, Sohn said:
“The scene I actually like the most is not one that Yael is in. It’s one where all their friends are expressing their own confusion about their gender: “Do I say ‘they’? Or do I not say ‘they’?” And they’re using the terms incorrectly and they’re sort of correcting each other. That’s the way we and our young audiences all are…. And if we’re going to make mistakes, they need to be intentional mistakes.”
Supporting its discussion of relevant, important issues, Degrassi is the rare teen drama that actually features teen actors at the helm. Sohn noted that “one of the reasons we’ve carried on for as long as we have is we cast age-appropriately. Our actors are always close to the characters they’re portraying in age, which is important for authenticity. But it also means the characters graduate and leave the show.” In an era where pop culture teens grow up and mature faster than ever, Degrassi ends its experiences with high school graduation. Characters aspire to go to college, enter the workforce, or maybe have no plans at all – and while there have been several returns and effort to move past the boundaries of high school, the show never quite feels safe moving out of that territory. Bethonie Butler of The Washington Post wrote about the show’s ability to capture adolescence: “For all its soapy storylines, the show also captures the day-to-day challenges and emotions… Hearts get broken, kids make bad decisions (and often, good ones) and well-meaning parents sometimes miss the mark on understanding what their children are going through.” It is the immediacy of their drama – the fast-paced, spontaneous, emotion-driven experiences – that cements Degrassi‘s place as the key to the essence of being a teenager.
“A Teen-Age Bill of Rights”
But what is the “essence of being a teenager,” and where does it come from? The concept of “teenager” as a specific life period is fairly new. Sociologist G. Stanley Hall’s monumental work of 1904, Adolescence: Its Psychology and Its Relation to Physiology, Anthropology, Sociology, Sex, Crime, Religion, and Education, documented both the biological and social characteristics of adolescence, noting it as a time of “storm and stress.” As professor of psychology Jeffrey Jensen Arnett notes, Hall’s Adolescence noted traits such as “prevalence of depressed mood; adolescence as a time of high sensation seeking; susceptibility to media influences in adolescence; characteristics of peer relations in adolescence; and biological development during puberty.” Establishing a foundation for the analysis of adolescent development, Hall’s work provided a framework through which others started viewing and describing youth culture and experience.
The American invention of youth culture as we know it today– a social construct and a response to its creation – came into being with the early twentieth century, as teens became seen as students rather than workers. Associated with trouble, youth culture had its own language, clothes, and behavior. With each decade’s problems, teens reacted strongly against adults’ and society’s attempts to control adolescents. Engaging in risky or dangerous behavior or subverting societal norms, teenage rebellion became an important part of understanding the essence of being a teenager as well. In a personal exploration of identity, youth embodied a certain self-confident expression of themselves.
Psychologist Erik Erikson built on Hall’s idea by claiming that not only was adolescence a distinct life stage, but it was a period in which individuals reacted directly to their society and time. As Thomas Hine wrote in “The Rise And Decline of the Teenager,” Erikson “also acknowledged that this identity [crisis] must be found in the context of a culture and of history.” Part of being a teenager, then, meant figuring out yourself in addition to navigating the issues of the world around you.
Adolescence: Crash Course Psychology #20
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Published in 1945 as an op-ed in The New York Times, Elliott E. Cohen’s “A Teen-Age Bill of Rights” represents a manifesto developed by parents to communicate this changing relationship between parents and youth. While codified by adults, the bill of rights identifies much of what media like Degrassi would later use to communicate the confusion that is teen identity and culture. The editorial defines the rights of a teenager as the following:
· The right to let childhood be forgotten · The right to a “say” about his own life · The right to make mistakes to find out for himself · The right to have rules explained, not imposed · The right to have fun and companions · The right to question ideas · The right to be at the romantic age · The right to a fair chance and opportunity · The right to professional help whenever necessary · The right to struggle toward his own philosophy of life
Reprinted across the country, this document recognized the existence of teenagers as a separate group, distinct from adults or children. Emblematic of a specific socioeconomic class, these types of freedoms as identified in the article noted specific rights and responsibilities with which teenagers could navigate the awkward period of growing up. Both within their homes (as Cohen’s op-ed speaks to) and in society at large, teenagers embodied these rights in their activities. Mass media portraying teen culture has consistently built on these histories and analyses of adolescence to make sense of the teen spirit.
Degrassi‘s Depictions of Adolescence
As Savannah J. Sicurella wrote in Affinity Magazine, “Degrassi‘s unnervingly accurate depiction of the teenage experience and pioneering exploration of pure human emotion through the keen eyes of a child was a different approach to teen-marketed entertainment.” Drawing on this, each installment of the Degrassi franchise balances individual and societal levels of adolescence in its portrayal of teenagers. Schuyler noted, “We can’t lose sight of the fact that we’re creating a television show, a dramatic television show, and our number one priority is to entertain…But what I’m hoping that at the end of the day, what is authentic is the emotional journey that we enjoy with our characters.”
Degrassi Junior High
The second series of the series of the Degrassi franchise, Degrassi Junior High aired from 1987 to 1989. In the pilot, character Stephanie Kaye used her first day of eighth grade to present her new self-image as she runs for class president: wearing “mature” clothing, kissing boys, and avoiding her younger brother Arthur. Stephanie was one of an ensemble cast of middle-schoolers navigating through preteen and teen experiences, like going to the school dance and dealing with mean teachers.
This installment won an International Emmy in the Children and Young People category for the season 1 episode, “It’s Late,” in which 14-year old Spike suspects she is pregnant – a dramatic storyline that brought up issues of drug abuse, school protests, and teen parenting as it unfolded in seasons 2 and 3. Degrassi Junior High also addressed difficult issues such as bullying, child abuse, adoption, homophobia, racism, and divorce. In the show’s finale, “Bye-Bye Junior High” Degrassi Middle School burned down, showing the symbolic (and literal) shift to high school.
Degrassi High
Degrassi High (or Degrassi, Old School if you watched it in the United States) picked up where Degrassi Junior High left off, continuing for two seasons. Characters dealt with the day-to-day problems of being a teenager, like unrequited love and driving lessons.
Degrassi High also featured major problems and issues in the style of “afternoon specials” TV, but they were never one-episode issues. Characters lived with the trauma or experiences: abortion in the series premiere carried through to bullying and pro-life protests; an HIV diagnosis for a male character in seasons 2 leads to plotlines of blackmail and fighting; and one character’s suicide towards the end of the show plays out with the aftermath among the other students.
The show’s TV movie, School’s Out, served as the grand finale to the early Degrassi saga, making an even edgier take on teen spirit with drugs, alcohol, sex, and the first use of the f-word on Canadian television.
Degrassi: The Next Generation
The first Degrassi installment to reach over 400 episodes, Degrassi: The Next Generation ran from 2001 to 2015. Following students at Degrassi Community School through grades 7-12, the show addressed personal issues and social issues. Starting off with an episode about internet predators, the show updated its plot lines drawn right from current events and new technology. The show’s school shooting episode in season 4, eating disorders for boys and girls, and multiple suicide storylines reflect the newer issues relevant to teens of the 2000s. Most notably, the show depicted LGBT+ identities from the beginning, with characters exploring their sexual orientations and coming out on different terms. In season 10 introduced sophomore Adam Torres, the first scripted teenage trans man character in television history, as well as the first transgender main character in Canadian television history.
Multiple articles have been written about Degrassi‘s iconic episodes, with titles like “Most Devastating Degrassi Plots” or “”Heartbreaking ‘Degrassi’ Moments Guaranteed to Make You Cry.” (Here’s a list of all the issues addressed in this installment, managed by fans of the show. And another one by Vulture.) It’s no wonder that character Ashley Kerwin says in season 4, “This is supposed to be the best years of our lives, but it’s just been one disaster after another. This school is cursed.” Firmly diving into soap opera territory at times, this installment balanced its PSA-like nature of top storylines with typical teen drama like dating, friendships, parental relationships, and school clubs.
Social media on Degrassi: The Next Generation was very important, and evolved along with the show. While email and chat rooms dominated early storylines, parody platforms of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and WhatsApp came later. Schuyler noted of the show’s evolution, “We have the consistency of our messaging…but at the same time keeping very on topic and respecting the fact that how [teenagers] communicate with one another changes. And we have to keep our show very relevant and very fresh to keep up with those changes.”
Degrassi: Next Class
Picking up directly where Degrassi: |
. See, it’s a lot more complicated that what most are led to believe.
It’s a major mindset shift, from a reactive measure of getting to cover, to employing tactics that emphasize total cover. Believe me, your reactionary gap when someone busts around the corner where you thought you were safe and sound, is too much to catch up from. And that’s how cover becomes a coffin.
Editor-in-Chief’s Note: Jeff Gonzales was a decorated and respected US Navy SEAL, serving as an operator and trainer who participated in numerous combat operations throughout the world. He now uses his modern warfare expertise as President of Trident Concepts, LLC., a battle proven company specializing in weapons, tactics and techniques to meet the evolving threat. Bringing the same high-intensity mindset, operational success and lessons learned from NSW to their training programs, TRICON has been recognized as an industry leader by various federal, state and local units. Organizations interested in training with TRICON can call 928-925-7038 or visit www.tridentconcepts.com for more information.The official fantasy cheat sheet of the National Football League. Featuring NFL content in addition to the latest player news, injury reports, depth charts, IDP, keepers, ADP, AAV and VBD. Create your own custom rankings or calculate them based on your league scoring system. The most important day of your fantasy league is draft day. Dominate your draft! * Pick Recommendation Engine: Using our custom Value Based Drafting (VBD) algorithm, players are ranked by value instead of just raw points. Calculated using your league scoring system, drafting will never be easier. * Track all team rosters in your draft. Make better decisions by knowing what players your opponents may be targeting. * Extremely deep custom scoring rules options based on your league scoring system. Includes bonus points, TD length, FG length, return yards, defensive points against, yards against, and much more! * Amazingly accurate stats projections updated several times per week. * Up to the minute player news & injury info. Works great offline as well! Active internet connection NOT required. * Complete team schedules * Sort players using VBD, ADP, AAV or projected pointsDonald Trump boasted that Tom Brady voted for him — even though the New England Patriots starting quarterback admitted to missing the early voting deadline in Massachusetts.
The eyebrow-raising contradiction unfolded at a last minute rally in New Hampshire where Trump bragged that the four-time Super Bowl champ called him to report voting for the billionaire.
“He called today and he said, Donald, I support you, you’re my friend and I voted for you,” Trump told a crowd in Manchester.
He added that Brady gave him his blessing to spill the beans on the endorsement — although it was later revealed Brady told a Boston sports radio program he apparently missed the deadline for early voting that ended on Friday.
Trump actually told the truth, Belichick did send him that letter
Donald Trump, left, stops to talk to New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. (ELISE AMENDOLA/AP)
“I haven’t voted yet,” Brady said Monday morning on the “The Kirk & Callahan Show.”
In order to have voted, like Trump claims, Brady would have had to deliver an absentee ballot no later than 12 p.m. Monday. On Tuesday morning, the station reported that Brady voted early in Brookline, Mass., at 10:09 a.m. Monday.
Brady pledged to reveal who he voted for next week on the WEEI-FM program.
Tom Brady and Donald Trump are pictured in an undated photo that was posted to Donald Trump's Instagram profile. (Donald Trump / Instagram/Donald Trump / Instagram)
He hinted at supporting Trump’s candidacy in a Dec. 2015 interview — also on the show — where he described Trump as “a good friend.”
Curt Schilling finds offensive shirt 'awesome' at Trump rally
“I support all my friends. That is what I have to say,” Brady said.
Adding further mystery to Trump’s claims, Brady’s wife, supermodel Gisele Bundchen, suggested the power couple may have skipped the Trump train after all.
As I asked about the letter Belichick said "I'll get back to you later" and hung up. He has not answered a followup text. — Hunter Walker (@hunterw) November 8, 2016
Buried in her Instagram comments, a fan asked Bundchen if she and Brady were backing the Republican nominee.
She wrote back on Saturday and simply said, “No!”
Check our interactive map for poll averages in key battleground states
The real estate magnate also alleged on Monday that Patriots head coach Bill Belichick endorsed him in what he described as “the most beautiful letter.”
Trump claims New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick sent him a letter supporting his presidential campaign. (Tannen Maury/EPA)
“You have dealt with an unbelievable slanted and negative media and have come out beautifully,” Trump said, reciting Belichick’s alleged correspondence at the Manchester rally. “You’ve proved to be the ultimate competitor and fighter. Your leadership is amazing. I have always had tremendous respect for you, but the toughness and perseverance you have displayed over the past year is remarkable.”
The Boston Globe reported late Monday night that the Patriots asked Brady and Belichick for comment from the media, but neither responded. The Patriots' locker room opens to reporters at noon on Tuesday.
Sign up for BREAKING NEWS Emails privacy policy Thanks for subscribing!Gisbert Soballa has a rather dispassionate stance toward death. The 72-year-old retired cardiologist says that, to him, dying was always "something completely normal."
Given that, the doctor didn't pause when his adviser at Deutsche Bank suggested a peculiar deal with death. The "db Kompass Life" fund buys up life insurance policies of Americans and assumes responsibility for paying their future premiums. When a policyholder dies, the entire payout from the policy goes to the fund. And since everybody dies, it would seem to be a fairly crisis-proof investment.
Soballa and his wife together invested 16,000 (about $23,000) into the fund. In 2007, they received a small dividend. Since then, the Bavarian couple has received quarterly statements -- all of which notify him that "unfortunately, there will be no dividend payments this quarter." So, it would appear that bankers' betting on the demise of anonymous Americans hasn't born much fruit.
Many thousands of investors have had similar experiences. Since 2005, Deutsche Bank has taken in 500 million ($720 million) from clients for its db Kompass Life I and II funds. But, now, huge losses are on the horizon.
When Dreams Become Disenchantment
"At the Deutsche Bank branch, they told me it was a booming business," said a 50-year-old executive assistant who was looking to securely invest a severance payment for her retirement. Today, she is worried about her savings. In a call to the fund's public service representative, she was informed "promptly and unequivocally" that her contract also stipulated the possibility of a total loss -- a warning that's pretty well buried in the small print of the sales prospectus.
But how can that be? Returns ostensibly only depend on the life expectancy of the original policyholder, which should be a fairly simple statistical variable. Still, the fact is that, since the funds take over entire policies, they have to pay monthly premiums for the duration of each and every one of them. A life insurance policy pays out only once the insured person has died. But, until then, there are only costs.
The real issue is related to the fact that the insured aren't dying as fast as they were expected to. Apparently Deutsche Bank, like many other providers, relied too much on medical experts and statistics for the United States.
When Deutsche Bank launched these funds, the market was still in the grip of great euphoria. In Germany alone, investors poured about 2 billion ($2.87 billion) into such enterprises in 2004 and 2005.
But it didn't take long for disillusionment to set in. Many providers couldn't generate the yields promised in their prospectuses. For one thing, many of the insured simply lived longer than expected. For another, buying up policies became more and more expensive due to high demand. Also, a change in the law made American life insurance funds taxable in Germany for the first time.
As early as 2005, the Sachsenfond, a subsidiary of the Sachsen LB, the now-dissolved bank of the state of Saxony, pulled its product from the market. But other institutions have kept on hoping and stuck with their investments. Just this year, WealthCap, for example, a subsidy of HypoVereinsbank, launched its fourth US life insurance fund after its other products beat expectations.
Even Deutsche Bank is getting back into the business, as well. In 2008, it launched a third Life Kompass fund, though it has been structured somewhat differently, which collected investor funds in two tranches, one of $100 million and the other of $144 million.
Still, when it comes to the other two funds, things haven't gone so well for investors, and only the bank itself has turned a profit from them. One fund -- db Kompass Life I -- netted the bankers 32 million ($46 million). For instance, they figured on "fund structuring" fees of 3.485 percent. And the bank took 9.5 percent up front in equity capital brokerage fees.
The structure of the product is so complicated that even experts don't understand it. The Kompass Life funds were structured by London-based bankers for Deutsche Bank, who apparently put their own profit above all else. With things just too far above their heads, investors chose to simply rely on the judgment of their advisers. In essence, the lion's share of the risk was palmed off on investors, while financial managers raked in a buck.
Uppity Investors
Investors in the db Kompass Life I fund financed the purchase of life insurance policies with total maturity payments of $770 million. Through the end of January 2009, a total of three policies had paid out, bringing in about 20 million ($29 million). But, as investors were tersely informed, the money was "applied to the advance payment of premiums and other costs."
At the moment, time is of the essence: The funds will reach maturity in 2015, when Deutsche Bank's London-based operation must buy back the remaining life insurance policies from investors at 80 percent of their purchase price. "Through the payment of this sum, which is considerably smaller than the maturity payments of these policies, investors would incur financial losses," the prospectus notes.
But, now, investors are slowly beginning to revolt. "In what dark alleyway have my savings been hidden?" an e-mail from one investor reads. Another writes: "I now have a very bad feeling that I'll never see my 10,000 again."
One of them -- who prefers to remain anonymous -- wants to call a special shareholders' meeting to launch an independent inquiry aimed at looking into whether Deutsche Bank was negligent in how it calculated the funds' value at the time they were launched. But there's just one problem: To call such a meeting, you first have to know who to call. And the only entity that has such information -- the names and addresses of the co-investors -- is the fund administrator itself.
The anonymous investor has been pestering the fund administrator to release this information for months, but the fund has refused to do so, claiming that data-privacy protection laws don't allow it to. In the end, though, the fund sent out a letter to all the investors saying that one of the fund's investors had taken "the occasion of the fund's current economic development" to request that he be given their personal information. Dozens of co-investors then contacted the anonymous investor directly. Together, they have employed the services of a lawyer and launched a Web site.
The lawyer, Karl-Georg von Ferber, agreess that the fund's prospectus spells out the investment risks rather thoroughly. But, he argues, the document gives rise to the impression "that it's all just about statistics and actuarial mathematics."
It's probable that many of the investors just took a cursory glance at the description of the highly complicated products. Soballa, the physician, for one, will admit to this. At the time, he says, he was just putting his faith in the strong reputation of his bank -- and his financial adviser. "He seemed very reliable," Soballa says. But it just might be the case that, when it came to these funds, the banker didn't really know what he was talking about.The Saskatoon SPCA has stopped accepting cats given up by their owners because the shelter is at capacity.
There are currently 150 cats in the facility and dozens more in foster homes.
"Accepting owned cats at this time would place the SPCA past its capacity to provide care for these animals at the level of standards set by the shelter," SPCA officials said in a press release.
Owners looking to surrender a cat can leave their name and contact information and the shelter will reach them when there's room available.
To help with space concerns, and avoid euthanizing animals, the SPCA will be holding a special adoption drive where cat adoption fees will only be $10.
The event will take place on August 11, from 12 p.m. CST to 5 p.m. CST.May so far has been a rather wet month, with Met Office figures suggesting the UK has seen more than the average rainfall for the whole month in just the first 17 days, with 74.1mm of rain in this period compared to the monthly average of 70.0mm.
It's also been colder than average this month so far, with no signs of any heat for the last week of May to stop this month coming in cooler than average. However, has generally turned drier over the last few days and the Bank Holiday Weekend is looking generally dry with sunny spells, apart from a slight hiccup overnight and through Sunday, as we see a weather front move down from the northwest, bringing a band of cloud and rain across many parts.
Saturday is looking a fairly decent day though, with a good deal of fine and dry weather with lengthy spells of sunshine for many. However, conditions deteriorating across the north and west of Scotland along with Northern Ireland through the afternoon, as a frontal system moves in from the west here, bringing increasing cloud and outbreaks of rain by evening. Feeling pleasant in the sunshine today, temperatures reaching 16-19C generally across England and Wales, perhaps reaching 20-21C in London and the southeast. Cooler across Scotland and Northern Ireland, 13-15C here.
The weather front arriving across the northwest this evening will continue southeastward with its cloud and rain across northern and central areas of Britain overnight, reaching north Wales and northern England by dawn on Sunday. Behind the rain band, turning cooler and fresher across Scotland, with showers across western areas. Ahead of the rain band, a mild and dry night across the Midlands, southern England, East Anglia and south Wales.
Then for Sunday, a dry and bright morning and early afternoon across the far south and SE of England, otherwise cloud and a rain continuing southeast across England and Wales in the morning, clearing all but the far southeast of England by evening. Brighter, cooler and fresher conditions following the frontal cloud and rain band from the northwest, with scattered showers affecting western Scotland and Northern Ireland. We could reach 20C in London and 17-18C across southern counties of England before the rain arrives late afternoon. Otherwise a cooler day behind the rain moving southeast, with temperatures of 11-14C across central and northern Britain in the afternoon.
It's the PGA Golf Championships at Wentworth in Surrey today and tomorrow and it's looking mostly dry until rain arrives later tomorrow afternoon.
Bank Holiday Monday will be mostly dry and settled as lose that weather front from the southeast Sunday night and see a ridge of high pressure build in from the southwest. So dry with variable amounts of cloud and sunny spells for many, though we could still see a few showers across NW Scotland. Pleasant in the sunshine, reaching 17C in London, 15C in Cardiff, 13C in Manchester, Belfast and Edinburgh.As the internet social turf wars continue to mature, the land grab is becoming much better understood. With a few companies controlling 95 percent of the social data, the internet is more closed and much more controlled than ever before.
The term (and concept behind) big data has been thrown around a lot over the past 15 months. What I’m referring to here is user data, primarily from social businesses that can be leveraged to build other apps and businesses if done within the confines of a company API.
A few basic examples. Let’s take Facebook: A developer, product architect, entrepreneur, etc. may want to analyze names, pictures or shares. How about Snapchat: shares or number of sent items. Instagram: users, hearts or comments. Tesla: car location, energy consumption, last charge. The list goes on and on. The modern web has been built on an open data exchange.
I regularly get asked what I think makes a good app. The answer is simple: data. More specifically: users and their respective meta-data. Users are data. Without them, no matter how flashy your app is, it won’t work. Period.
The follow up question is always, “OK, how do I get users?”
That’s the billion-dollar question. The existing social sites want you to believe that by connecting to them and through them that users will come. If only that were true. Just to set the record straight, you can’t buy users. And you can’t connect to existing sites to leverage users or anything in between. Users are tired of new, yet more of the same, software. Distribution (i.e. finding and retaining users) is the hardest part of creating a successful app.
As developers, we used to be able to go deep into the social graph on Facebook. Developers used to be able to inject meaningful data in a sophisticated way to all sorts of web and app products and, most importantly, we used to be able to request big datasets without getting throttled by bandwidth limitations. Just because a few big companies say you can use their data doesn’t mean it’s accurate.
The modern social big data players lure you in like a kid in a candy store with no coin to spend.
Over the past few years there’s been a massive shift. Sadly, the best way to illustrate such change is to look at the the rise and fall of Zynga. As Facebook opened their API and enabled users to do deep penetration into the Facebook Graph, Zynga, more than any other company, took advantage and built an incredible gaming business directly through the Facebook Graph API. Over time, Facebook began making changes to how developers could interact with specific data and just as quickly as Zynga grew, they fell — and fell far. There are many companies, big and small, that have suffered a similar demise.
The modern social big data players lure you in like a kid in a candy store with no coin to spend, just endless temptation and promises of sweet solutions. The declaration of high-quality and fast data exchange or deep penetration into graphs are the prose of all modern big businesses’ API documentation. However, like most things in life, the devils are in the details, and boy, watch out. Sure, you can have the data at desired speed, but once you hit the API threshold, the feed will go from Niagara Falls to a leaky sink faucet. If your business relies on its ability to quickly retrieve data, now what?
Similarly, yes, you can access set graphs and do deep analysis, but dig a little deeper and you’ll find, they’ll give you only 1-3 percent of anything meaningful about a specific location, person, hearts, shares and so on. What good is only a small sliver of an overall user and his or her activity across the app?
Finally, Zynga and many other lesser-known businesses illustrated that if you build a business on top of another business, you are at the whim of their decisions. They can and will change the way you interact with their data, which has major implications on the longevity and profitability of your business.
Don’t make social be the single pillar of your business.
The promised land of green pastures, endless and fast data requests and deep penetration of user data is over. The actual pasture is a tease, at best. As the internet and social businesses have matured, the value is the walled garden. By keeping user data within the confines of the core business, the ability to market and sell advertising wins every time. It’s true that some of these businesses do advertising better than others, but a model where you can pay for robust versions of access is never going to survive. The markets are just too small to support that model.
So where do we go from here? There is still a huge amount of potential, we just need to think in a more evolved way. You can’t simply think, “I’m going to come up with an idea and leverage an existing community to make it thrive.” APIs just don’t allow that type of development anymore. Like Uber has done most recently, as well as Pinterest and Snapchat, the mindset of the entrepreneur needs to be one of a new community, a more vertical, specialized approach — a “community around an interest.”
Don’t make social be the single pillar of your business; have it be a feature. Thinking purely social without an overarching premise is ironically solitary, and surely the fastest way to the back of the app store.Updated with video and a response from ASA below:
Two Muslim men were removed from a Delta commuter flight operated by Atlantic Southeast Airlines Friday after the pilot refused to fly with them on board.
Masudur Rahman, an Arabic-language instructor at the University of Memphis and Mohamed Zaghloul, a religious leader in the Islamic Association of Greater Memphis told the AP they were removed from a flight leaving Memphis International Airport, heading for Charlotte, after the pilot refused to takeoff.
According to Charlotte-area station WBTV, the men have “retained counsel and the US attorney’s office has already been contacted about the incident.”Rahman told the AP he “was dressed in traditional Indian clothing” and Zaghloul “was dressed in Arab garb, including traditional headgear” when they boarded the 8:40 AM flight to Charlotte.
The plane had left the gate and was headed for the runway when the pilot decided to turn back. Rahman said the pair were “ordered off by a Delta Supervisor.” From WBTV:
“He said ‘Mr. Rahman, sorry the pilot is not allowing you to enter the plane.’ I said ‘For what reason, TSA had a problem and we were cleared, we don’t have anything and we are respected people in our community’.” But, according to Rahman, the pilot said, “I’m not going to take to you.” “For what reason, he said some ‘passengers might be upset or uncomfortable’,” Raham said the pilot told him.
Rahman told the AP “Delta officials talked with the pilot for more than a half-hour, but he still refused.”
Delta has referred the AP’s questions about the flight to ASA. Rahman told the wire service he understands what the strange travel diversion was about.
“It’s racism and bias because of our religion and appearance and because of misinformation about our religion.” Rahman told the AP. “If they understood Islam, they wouldn’t do this.”
Late Updates:
When the pair eventually did land in Charlotte, they were met by local TV reporters. Here’s a report from Charlotte’s WCNC-TV:
Asked about the incident, a spokesperson for ASA told TPM the airline offered an apology “for any inconvenience” caused by the travel delay for Rahman and Zaghloul. The full statement from the airline, sent to TPM Saturday:Star Wars Celebration 2017 runs from April 13-16 in Orlando, Florida. In addition to fan service of all kinds, expect closer looks at Star Wars: The Last Jedi as well as Star Wars Battlefront 2.
One of the advantages to having complete control over the continuity and canon of the Star Wars universe is being able to add or retract a universal fact to fit inline with a new story.
The disadvantage to this, however, is that there is “no truth” in the Star Wars universe because of how easy it is to change information, according to Lucasfilm’s Leeland Chee. Chee is one of three core members that belong to Lucasfilm’s story group, a select number of writers in charge of maintaining Star Wars’ continuity in every movie, game, book or other piece of media that relates to the Star Wars universe.
While appearing on The Star Wars Show at Star Wars Celebration, Chee said that it’s difficult to establish a canonical truth in the Star Wars universe because of how often things change.
“There’s no such thing as truth,” Chee said. “Things that we assumed as truth, like 4-LOM is a bounty hunter that’s not a robot all of sudden changes.
“Anything is malleable.”
Matt Martin, another member of the story group, said that it makes writing a little more difficult when things in the Star Wars universe change as often as they do. That’s not even taking into account how important intricate details are. Information that they thought they knew turns out to be different, leading to a heap of research for any new development.
“Even when I’m dead sure of something, I still look it up like three times before I ever answer anything,” Martin said.
Still, there are a couple of universal truths that everyone can agree on. Han shooting first, for example, seems like one sticking point that no one’s trying to argue.
Star Wars Celebration will continue throughout the entire weekend. Polygon will have ongoing coverage of all the biggest panels and events.Civil society activists carry placards during a protest in Islamabad, Pakistan, on May 29, 2014, against the killing of Farzana Iqbal who was stoned to death by her family for marrying against their wish, in Islamabad, Pakistan. (Photo: T. Mughal, EPA)
A Pakistani woman set on fire for refusing a marriage proposal from a man twice her age has died.
Maria Sadaqat, 19, a teacher, was attacked by a group of men Sunday at her home near the town of Murree, according to media reports. She died Wednesday in an Islamabad hospital.
“She was badly tortured and then burned alive. We brought her to hospital in Islamabad but she succumbed to her wounds today,” Abdul Basit, Sadaqat’s uncle, told AFP at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences.
Hospital spokesperson Ayesha Ihsani said the woman had suffered burns over 85% of her body, according to The Express Tribune. “The poor woman was becoming better but then could not survive because most parts of her body had serious burn injuries,” Ihsani said.
Sadaqat's aunt told the BBC the incident started when the school's owner asked for her niece to marry his son.
Such attacks are not uncommon in Pakistan. Nearly 1,100 women were killed last year by relatives who thought they had dishonored their families, the Human Rights Commission found, according to the BBC.
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AN NHS facility based in Cardiff is quality control testing a cannabis-based “vaporiser” which claims to help people with a wide range of debilitating health conditions.
The MediPen, which is inhaled like an e-cigarette, has been described as a “completely legal and harm-free way to unleash the miraculous health benefits of cannabis”.
It uses a substance known as cannabidiol, an oil extracted from the cannabis plant that does not contain any of the psychoactive chemicals which get a person high.
It claims to be able to reduce anxiety, depression and even relieve the pain of arthritis and fibromyalgia.
We understand that the cannabidiol (CBD) vaporiser, which can already be bought online, is undergoing quality control measures in Cardiff and Vale University Health Board.
But the exact location cannot be released by the NHS due to a non-disclosure agreement which prevents them from sharing client information.
All contracts scrutinised
A spokesman for Cardiff and Vale University Health Board said: “As a University Health Board we undertake a number of commercial activities, such as quality control with private companies, including Medipen.
“Due to commercial in confidence we are not able to provide any further details.
“All Cardiff and Vale University Health Board contracts are scrutinised for ethical, legal and commercial sensitivities and any breach of this will be fully investigated by the Health Board.”
MediPen believes that by testing products with the help of the NHS, the public’s perception of cannabis will change.
It says it wants to “end the criminalisation of over one million medicinal users” and make cannabis-based medication readily available to those who need it.
Managing director Jordan Owen said: “Our contract is for the purposes of safety, quality control and to ensure the consistency of cannabinoid concentration throughout each batch.
“This is something that is extremely important in an industry subject to so many negative connotations, by testing our proprietary formula through a reputable body such as the NHS we are confident that this will have a very positive impact on the public’s perception of cannabis.
"This is a huge leap forward"
“This is a huge leap forward for the UK’s rapidly growing legal cannabis industry and we are confident that by breaking down the negative connotations surrounding cannabis this will have a positive effect on our countries draconian prohibition laws that are having a detrimental impact on the lives of millions of medicinal cannabis users across the UK.”
The MediPen, which is described as a “sleek and stylish portable handheld device ”, can be bought online for as little as £50 and has 17 flavours.
It says it uses cannabis plants grown in the Netherlands with the sole aim of maximising CBD content whilst eliminating any traces of tetrahydrocannabinol, the primary ingredient in marijuana responsible for the high.8 years ago
(CNN) – Ex-Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has said time and again he's not running for president in 2012, but the younger brother of former President George W. Bush also isn't ruling out a potential White House run in the future.
"You never say never about anything," said the younger Bush brother in an interview with CNN's Candy Crowley Sunday that featured both the former Florida governor and his ex-president brother. The comments were a direct response to whether he had foreclosed any possibility of seeking the presidency one day.
"I'm going to be involved," he continued. "I have an education reform foundation, trying to improve the plight of our education systems around the country. And I'm helping candidates that I believe in." Video after the jump.
But when it comes to running against what now appears will be a vulnerable President Obama in 2012, Jeb again emphatically closed the door. The younger Bush also issued a clear "No" to running for chairman of the Republican National Committee, as some conservative bloggers have urged.
Related: Paging Jeb Bush for 2012
"I really have to stay focused on this goal of achieving some financial independence, financial security for my family," he said.
Meanwhile, the former president backed up his brother's 2012 denials, saying, "He's chosen not to run this time and I finally have to believe him."
Still, the older Bush brother said he's urged his brother to run for the White House and hopes he does one day.
"He's a successful person," said the former president of his brother. "He's smart. He's honest. And he had an unbelievably good record as the governor of Florida."
Talk of a potential Jeb Bush run has increased in Beltway circles as the former president's name no longer carries quite the toxic political baggage it once did - keeping political analysts speculating 2012 may be a ripe year for the younger Bush to take on the man who succeeded his brother.
The former president added his brother's star power within the GOP goes beyond his famous last name, citing his record as a two-term governor of Florida.
"Had he been a failure as governor of Florida, they wouldn't be touting him. And if he wasn't an honest guy, they wouldn't be touting him," he said. And if he wasn't, you know, a decent person who had a great heart, they wouldn't be touting him."Prototype cricket pitch aims to help Perth remain fast-bowling paradise at new stadium
Posted
The turnstiles will be rolling over at Perth's new $1.5 billion stadium in just two years, and that means cricket in Western Australia is counting down to the biggest move in its history.
Its current home at the WACA Ground is synonymous with fast bowling, and plans are well underway to replicate that at Burswood.
But Australian fast bowling veteran Mitchell Johnson has expressed fears that once cricket moves across the Swan River, the characteristics of the famous Perth wicket will be lost.
"I remember playing my first shield game here in the early 2000s and playing against Joey Angel and Brad Williams, and just remembering how quick and bouncy it was then, and the cracks and how that played." Johnson said
"You are just not going to get that anywhere else."
We are going to give it the best shot to replicate that speed and bounce because that is what Western Australian is famous for. Ronnie Hurst, Perth Stadium project director
The solution may already be growing at nearby Gloucester Park, the home of harness racing in Perth.
A prototype of the drop-in pitch that will be used at the new venue has been soaking up the sun there for about six weeks.
The pitch will be tested under match conditions in February.
Perth Stadium project director Ronnie Hurst said the quality of the wicket at Burswood was of paramount importance.
"It doesn't matter what sport it is, the playing surface is the most important thing to the teams, and none more so than in cricket," he said.
"If you lose the quality of surface you lose so much more, so we are focussing a lot of time and energy on making sure we get this prototype right."
Mr Hurst was confident that with the help of Cricket Australia and the WACA, Perth would remain a pace-bowling paradise when the new stadium opens in 2018.
"We are going to give it the best shot to replicate that speed and bounce because that is what Western Australian is famous for, and that is what cricket in Western Australia is famous for," he said.
Whatever happens with the new pitch, one thing is for certain, cricket in WA will never be the same.
Topics: cricket, perth-6000, east-perth-6004Bruce Rader - NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) - Fourteen years after becoming an affiliate of the American Hockey League, it appears the Norfolk Admirals franchise will be sold to its parent team - the Anaheim Ducks.
10 On Your Side sources confirm that the move is inevitable as part of a new AHL Western Division that is expected to be created by five NHL teams. The Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers, L.A. Kings, San Jose Sharks and Anaheim all have AHL affiliates on the east coast and moving those affiliates to the west would save time and money when players are sent up and down from the major league level to Triple-A.
Admirals' owner Ken Young said Wednesday the team has not been sold but acknowledges that his options may be limited.
"There have been serious discussions regarding west coast teams wanting to own their AHL franchises and being able to move them closer to their parent cities," he said. "This will be discussed at a league meeting in New York in the next three weeks."
Sources tell WAVY-TV and FOX 43 Sports Director Bruce Rader the sale of the Admirals may not be finalized but it appears to be a "done deal." The AHL franchise would be sold by Young to the Ducks, and this would be its last season in Norfolk.
This does not necessarily mean the end of professional hockey in Hampton Roads. Sources say the city may attract a team from the ECHL - most likely the Bakersfield Condors, the double-A franchise owned by Edmonton.
Although the Oilers would own the team, there is speculation Young will manage the franchise and the team will switch its name to the Admirals and continue to play its games at the Norfolk Scope.Finland has many things to celebrate. In 2014, it was ranked the best place in the world to be a mother and according to “The World Press Freedom Index” took first place for freedom of the press. It has the second lowest gender gap and was ranked the third least corrupt country. The World Economic Forum also considers it the 4th most competitive nation on earth, while, according to education and publishing firm Pearson, it has the 5th best education system. However, just like every other country is has its downsides too. This mixed bag of pros and cons is particularly apparent when it comes to startups.
I’ve done business in countries around the world and lived close to eight years abroad, including four years in Russia. Now that I am running Apped here in Finland, it’s easier than ever to spot the country-specific pros and cons that often crop up when running a company. So what sets Finland apart from other countries, in both good and bad ways?
People power
It comes as no surprise we’re considered one of the least corrupt countries in the world. The Finns are an honest people. What’s more, we’re generally well educated, technology savvy and have a can-do spirit. All these attributes are essential for start-up success.
However, hiring people is expensive in Finland. So as a general rule, sweat partners, freelancers and subcontractors are a better option for a startup, because one wrong hiring decision can kill your company. Even if you wanted to hire someone, there is a gaming company on every corner and competition for talent is tough. Finnish people in general hate attention and presenting (naturally, there are exceptions) which is the most obvious handicap when companies start pushing for the U.S. market.
Finding funding
To help make things happen for introverted engineers, we have several publicly funded financing institutions. The largest operator is Tekes and they are usually involved in the majority of startups that receive any funding from the market. They also operate in English. As long as companies pay their taxes in Finland, you can talk business.
Finland is a small country and we don’t have endless oil reserves. Apart from NHL, Formula 1, Nokia and gaming industry millionaires, the funding market is a bit dry. Of course, there is money to be found. We have a couple of excellent angel networks and a few VC institutions looking after startups. Still, it’s no Silicon Valley or Skolkovo or even Stockholm.
Market matters
When it comes to getting customers, an engineering mentality is great. Compared to many mature markets where I have worked, such as the Netherlands, Finnish customers still get excited purely about new technology. Instead of being cautious, companies appreciate the potential of new innovations and they are eager to pioneer.
First there was the pulp and the paper industry, and then there was Nokia. Nokia is currently reshaping itself, but it’s not the locomotive for growth that it used to be. |
“oh, no, we have a top-10 MVP candidate and the No. 1 pick in the draft who may be a transformative player,” is not really a terrible situation. But if you’re dealing with Boston, you can go in and say “dealing that pick is more beneficial to your plan than not dealing it.”
Then there’s what happens when that pick turns into a player. The minute you draft Fultz, every team that has a star point guard they’re committed to is off the board. That doesn’t apply to Chicago or Indiana, but it removes a lot of teams from bidding consideration. And the idea of Fultz (or whoever) is greater than the actual player; that’s true for literally any-pick-to-player comparison. The minute he steps foot on the Vegas floor for summer league, he’s a real player with weaknesses, inexperience, injuries, question marks. That’s why draft night is maybe the steeper cliff for Ainge. The dip from Wednesday to now is a “things aren’t quite as sweet as they were.” The dip from now to the day after the draft is significant, and the dip increases every day through the season as you get closer to Smart and Bradley’s free agency.
THE CONTENTION
The Celtics are probably going to make it out of the first round. Any of the teams in the 5th through 7th spots they would face don’t match up well with them, Boston is 6-2 vs. Atlanta, Chicago, Indiana and Detroit this season. Making the second round constitutes progress. People tend to overlook the fact that this Celtics core has yet to win a first-round series. After that, though, is where things get dicey. Boston is 2-6 vs. the Cavaliers, Raptors and Wizards this season.
If they fail to make it out of the second round, to even reach a matchup with Cleveland, how “close” are they? If they face the Cavs in the second round, or even the conference finals, and get wiped out, where are they really at? Bear in mind that the Celtics hit the deadline when they were playing their absolute best basketball of the season. Maybe that will hold. There’s also the possibility of playing the Cavs close, or that LeBron James suffers an injury and they slip past anyway.
There are positive outcomes in these scenarios as well. But even then, if they’re closer than they thought they were, does that mean they should have pulled the trigger?
THE MARKET EVOLUTION
Let’s go back to George for a second. There’s a lot of debate about how serious the Pacers were about dealing George. On Wednesday night, several league sources polled suggested a high level of skepticism about how intent Larry Bird really was on dealing him. However, the talks were undeniably there, and pretty clearly advanced to a serious stage at some point, even if the sides were far apart between Boston and Indiana. The rumored asking price for George involved more than three first-round draft picks, which is a crazy haul for any team, though Boston could deal three and still have leftovers.
Let’s say those talks were serious, but the Celtics wisely walked away from giving up too much with George’s looming free agency next year, and the widely leaked intention from his camp to only consider the Pacers or Lakers as a free agent. Since the deadline, George has made it clear he wasn’t happy with how things were handled, and he wasn’t exactly a happy camper before all the trade talk. On the Lowe Post podcast, Brian Windhorst referred to this summer as “the summer of George.” If George has real intentions of walking if the Pacers can’t find a way to being a contender again (and that path is imperceptible at this point), then guess what?
The Celtics aren’t going to be the only team invested in going after George.
Team situations change, sometimes dramatically. It’s true that the Celtics might get a better deal in June or July, or September, than they would have gotten on Thursday, because the pressure will ramp up on the Pacers. But it’s also true that things could get tougher because more teams will start circling the blood in the water. The Pacers’ asking price for the Nuggets was too much on Thursday, but they, along with a host of other teams, are always re-evaluating their positions.
Basically, Boston’s ability to say “no” to offers and wait for their leverage to improve could just as easily backfire as bear fruit. That’s not to say either is a given, it’s to say that time is something the Celtics have to keep in mind.
THE FREE AGENCY TANGENT
It is a non-secret that Boston has interest in Gordon Hayward in free agency. Hayward will demand a max contract; he’s an All-Star, healthy in his prime who plays both ways and helps your team win. But signing Hayward pretty much guarantees that Jae Crowder (who was insulted at fans cheering for him the last time the Jazz were in Boston) will want out. So you’re losing that asset if you add Hayward. Does Hayward make them a real threat to Cleveland?
And, oh, by the way, the Jazz are looking at a serious playoff run and will have every intention of keeping Hayward who they have supported and nurtured along the path of his career. And they will be able to offer him the most money.
If they sign another big name free agent (let’s imagine something crazy happens with Blake Griffin, say), then the cap space problem stated above is in play again, and now your timeline is truncated, though. You don’t sign Blake Griffin to then turn around and build around a rookie.
All of these decisions have ramifications.
THE POINT
So after all this, here’s what we know.
The Celtics, yes, are still in a great position to cash in later and build a major contender.
They are in a “tough spot” that about 75 percent of the league would love to be in.
They are still brimming with talent.
They are probably not in as good a position as they were before the deadline.
That position worsens after the draft, and then steadily gets worse the closer you get to next season’s trade deadline.
Boston’s options are still wide-ranging, and their trade targets could become cheaper, but there could also be an evolving market for them.
So yes, it’s fine to say Danny Ainge did the right thing by not making a bad deal. Evaluating their current position, and the clock that very much does hang on the wall for them, does not mean they made a mistake. It means that the Celtics don’t have forever, and every pitch they watch go by means the pressure mounts for that next swing, with which, at some point, they have to go big or go home.To say that things in Barcelona were bad in January 2015 would be an understatement. It’s a club that — historically anyway — has a habit of making mountains out of molehills and getting into all kinds of internal troubles that end up jeopardizing the team’s displays on the field, but three months ago it was more than a harmless soap-opera-esque storyline. After the smooth-sailing of the Pep Guardiola era, Barcelona had come to a point where some of its own fans wished they would lose the decisive match against Atlético Madrid, all because they had lost to Real Sociedad a week earlier and the majority of the fanbase wanted someone out — Luis Enrique, Josep Maria Bartomeu, anyone.
Luis Enrique had reportedly fallen out with Messi, which didn’t go down well at the Camp Nou stands. Two days after the loss to Real Socieadad, Catalan newspaper Sport ran a poll asking the readers about the situation: 93% of 2,000 voters sided with Messi over Luis Enrique and 70% thought that the Argentine wasn’t being treated fairly by the manager. Nobody really knew what had gone on inside the dressing room, but they didn’t have to know: the decision between the club’s arguably best-ever player and a newly appointed coach was seemingly easy.
The decision for the Barcelona board seemed easy, too: not one political figure in a football club would ever publicly side against the institution’s greatest star.
The board lead by Bartomeu, however, didn’t show Enrique the door. The pressure was building up and in the days after the defeat at Anoeta, the power struggle inside the club became one between not only Messi and Luis Enrique, but also Messi, his team mates and the board. Andoni Zubizarreta was sacked as sporting director and rumors circulated that several members of Bartomeu’s board were pressuring him into calling early elections. Internal stability — or whatever was left of it — was all lost and on January 7th, Bartomeu held a press conference where he announced that presidential elections would be held in the summer of 2015, a year earlier than they were supposed to take place.
The moment Bartomeu called elections, something changed. Uncertainty arose, but at the same time, it was like walking on a field of dewy grass on a sunny morning: the storm had passed and taken the tension with it.
Nobody really knows what happened in the Barcelona dressing room that evening. No one knows how each player reacted as they watched the empire come tumbling down. Lord knows what Luis Enrique was thinking: Bartomeu was the man who signed him and surely early elections meant that his future at the club would be in doubt in the summer at latest. No one has really talked about it and if you ask a player about it, he will say — as vaguely as players usually do when it comes to club politics — that nothing really, concretely changed after that one fateful defeat.
It is hard to completely buy that, though, when you look at the change not only in results but also performances. The day after the elections were called, Barcelona beat Elche at home by five goals to nil, and on the following weekend, Atlético Madrid traveled to the Camp Nou just to suffer a 3-1 defeat in the hands of the Catalans. The watermark of that win over the reigning champions is the image of Messi, Neymar and Luis Suárez celebrating together after the third goal, all smiling from ear to ear. Such sight seemed a million miles away just a week earlier.
It might well be that the sudden improvement had nothing to do with the happenings of the previous week: perhaps the return of the bright-faced Barcelona coinciding with a massive political announcement was just that — a coincidence. Or maybe it wasn’t.
It’s an open secret that there are several Barcelona players who aren’t happy with the way things have been handled in the previous years. The way Eric Abidal’s case was dealt with left many shocked and discontented, while many were upset that Victor Valdés refused to sign a renewal — for whatever the reason might have been — and left the club. “I want new challenges”, he said, but it never felt like the whole truth coming from the mouth of a man who had spent his entire life vowing his love to the club. Dani Alves might be on the verge of suffering a similar fate: he enters the last months of his contract and hasn’t been offered a renewal or been contacted by the club. While letting the Brazilian go might make sense if it wasn’t for Barcelona’s transfer ban, there’s a feeling that the right back — who at this point is certainly a club legend — deserves better, and certainly has earned a bit more respect.
Then there is Lionel Messi, who should never have to fear for his future in the club, but who has reportedly felt uncomfortable after his latest renewal talks, during which a member of Bartomeu’s board refused to name him and referred to him as “ese señor” [that man] in a radio interview, and the Catalan papers painted a picture of him as a man who demanded more money to stay, as if years and years of service weren’t enough to prove his commitment.
A case could be made that the key members of the squad haven’t been made feel safe, protected and comfortable by the current management. Who knows who will be the next to be thrown out of the door to make way for newer, shinier things? Who knows how much grudge some of the senior players bear for the board that has shipped or forced their long-time friends out? Who says that a player is immune to the doubts and fears that appear in the mind of your average fan when the club does things so badly that it’s banned from signing players, which directly harms the team’s future?
While the call for elections made Barcelona’s short-term future uncertain on an institutional level, it might have provided some well-needed clarity for the players. “These people won’t be here next season.” Is it a coincidence that all tension between Luis Enrique and the squad seemed to ease when elections were called? Bartomeu hasn’t lost the presidential elections yet, but he’s far from winning them. If the people side with the players over Bartomeu the way the sided with Messi over Luis Enrique, the president’s days could well be counted.
Knowing this, the players are fighting for three titles, hopeful that things will change at the end of the season. Hopeful that the men in the boardroom will be called out for their wrongdoings; hopeful that the institution will be managed like a sports club again.
To say that the drastic improvement is all down to politics would be unfair: Luis Enrique deserves credit for how he has made the team peak physically, Juan Carlos Unzue deserves credit for how solid the team is in set-pieces, and so on. But the importance of what goes on inside a player’s head can’t be downplayed either. This is a team that — due to tragic circumstances — broke mentally last year. We can talk about tactics and formations forever, but a team scarred by loss, heartache and uncertainty rarely — if ever — lifts trophies. A team building itself back up in hopes of better, whose energy is all focused on what happens on the pitch, can go far. A team like that turns close matches around in second halves and has the ball bounce its way every now and again. That’s what Barcelona is at the moment, and not least due to the winds of change blowing through the stadium. Will the team lift trophies? Who knows. But at the very least, it is now strong enough mentally to do so.
AdvertisementsThis has been a year when social democracy has had to confront existential demons. Sunday night’s surge by Podemos in Spain, to 20%, is just the latest challenge from the radical, populist and nationalist left that saw the SNP beat Labour in Scotland, and the far-left force its way into coalition in Portugal. Traditional socialist parties saw their territory captured by nationalist populism, too: Ukip in Britain, the Front National in France, the wipeout of the social-democratic left in Poland by its swing to the right in October.
Jeremy Corbyn’s seizure of the Labour leadership is an exception that demonstrates the rule: as his control solidifies, a whole generation of centrist politicians has begun to contemplate a breakway from one of the oldest socialist parties in the world, on the grounds that it is – as former Blair adviser Peter Hyman put it this week – “over”.
That the reversals were part of a long-term process is no consolation: long-term declines in politics tend to produce intermittent seismic events. The double election victory of Syriza this year, combined with its mobilisation of 61% of the population to defy austerity in a referendum qualifies as such an event. And whatever the outcome of the Spanish coalition negotiations, the seizure of Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia by radical-left coalitions in the local elections was seismic too.
So what’s driving the process? Though there are national peculiarities, the similarities are too obvious to ignore. First, the disintegration of class voting patterns noticed by sociologists from the late 1950s onwards. It’s often forgotten, amid the angst and panic of today, that the most fundamental challenge to social democracy was – long before deindustrialisation and neoliberalism – the fragmentation of class loyalty in politics. Next come the new demographics of modern societies. The industrial working class is small, even in succesful manufacturing countries like Germany; the salariat is large; the phenomenon of the young, networked, individualist only adds to social democracy’s existential problem, which is: whose values do we represent?
The salariat is liberal; the remains of the old, white manual working class can – if its concerns are repeatedly ignored and downplayed – become conservative. The networked individual thinks and acts globally; yet social-democratic machine politics has been essentially national and local for more than 100 years.
As identity politics gained traction, from the 1970s onwards, social democracy absorbed it successfully. But it has found it very difficult to absorb, respond or adapt to radical nationalism. Hence Labour’s collapse in Scotland, the marginalisation of traditional socialism in Catalonia and the Basque Country.
But the biggest problem of all is neoliberalism, and social democracy’s conversion to it. The neoliberal economic formula may have delivered growth and stability in the 1990s and early 2000s, but today it demands austerity, rising inequality, the erosion of welfare states to fund busted banking systems and the relentless reduction of labour’s bargaining power.
If you accept this, the question becomes: what would a non-neoliberal centrist socialism look like? But it’s a question few in the core socialist parties of Europe are prepared to ask. It challenges not only the leaders, but the footsoldiers – the apparatchiks who quit Labour HQ over Corbyn; the Blairite journalists mobilised across the newsrooms of Britain to do him down; the councillors who would rather he did not exist.
But 2015 has also begun to provide an answer. In Portugal, Spain and Greece the radical left parties have each had to make compromises – with power, with nationality and with more centrist forces. Syriza gained power in January by moderating its original programme and by recruiting and embedding numerousformer social democrats into its electoral offer. It was these politicians who urged moderation and compromise, eventually getting their way after Tsipras’s empty victory in the July referendum. But on another signal issue, Tsipras had already made the ultimate compromise. He had sidelined the issue of Nato, appointed the head of a small rightwing nationalist party as defence minister, and showed no embarassment himself at donning a military flack jacket to inspect troops.
Syriza ran the Greek capitalist state, though sometimes not competently. Its solution to an untrustworthy and politicised civil service was often to “squat” ministries, keeping physical distance from those parts of the machine Marxist theory tells you to keep your eye on closely: the military, the intelligence service, the diplomatic corps.In Barcelona, the Podemos-aligned En Comú movement, which took the city council in May, has been more radical – setting housing activists to run housing policy; instituting a crackdown on platforms like Uber and Airbnb. But Barcelona is not a state. In Portugal, these are still early days for the coalition of socialists, communists and radical leftists who squeezed through the constitutional hoops to gain power in November. But the price of the inclusion of the radical left in government was its prior commitment to honour Portugal’s debt repayments.Paradoxically, a mixture of realpolitik and the absence of monetary sovereignty has forced the radical left into a space that looks a lot like the answer to the question: a non-neoliberal social-democracy for the networked world.
If we consider what social democracy originally signified, it comes closer still: the workers’ parties that emerged in the 1890s chose the word sozialdemokrat, knowing it was a term of insult for Marxists. It meant relegating revolution, and the abolition of capitalism, to the status of a distant “maximum” goal, while being prepared to run capitalism in a more socially just way, according to a “minimum” programme of reforms.
Whatever Podemos, Syriza and Corbyn’s Momentum movement say they want, what they are actually proposing fits quite well with the maximum-minimum programme of the 1890s, except in one regard: the “maximum” goal has become woolly and centred around environmental targets rather than planned production and state ownership.
But this is not a steady-state solution. Politics in the developed world is challenging centrist structures from both right and left. With rightwing nationalism and social conservatism achieving, in many countries, about 25%, and the radical left pushing close to the same, there may not be room for more than one pro-global, pro-market centrist force in between the two.
It won’t happen suddenly, but the most likely outcome for European social democracy is the one being secretly contemplated on the Labour backbenches: a fusion with liberalised conservatism. So 2016 will be the year in which the true believers of centrist socialism will hear the message: “You can’t beat us, join us” from all sides.A relative of North Korean Workers Party secretary Choe Ryong-hae has been arrested in South Korea on charges of telephone fraud.
A source in China said Oh Ki-bom (45), the grandson of Choe's aunt, entered South Korea last month and was arrested trying to withdraw W37 million obtained through telephone fraud (US$1=W1,134).
Oh was born in China's Heilongjiang Province and ran a trading company in Yanbian. But he turned to telephone fraud when his business went sour due to strained diplomatic relations between China and North Korea.
Choe's father, former armed forces minister Choe Hyon, fought alongside North Korea founder Kim Il-sung against Japanese troops in China and is revered among the first generation of revolutionaries.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un trusts the younger Choe due to his family's track record of loyalty to the regime.
There is talk that ethnic Koreans in Heilongjiang Province formed a support group loyal to Choe when he was appointed head of the military politburo three years ago.
Oh's grandmother Choe Jong-hae, Choe Hyon's sister, did not follow her brother to the North but settled in Heilongjiang Province. But Choe's family kept in touch with her until the 1960s.
The younger C hoe rose to power in North Korea under Kim Jong-un, but his position is wobbly and he was sacked from his politburo position in April last year and demoted from Workers Party standing committee member to secretary. There are rumors he barely escaped execution in Kim's efforts to bring the unruly military under control.HARTFORD, Conn. — Hartford, whose population trails Springfield's by about 30,000 residents and Boston's by about 531,000, is outpacing most New England cities in homicides this year and attracting national media attention along the way.
As of last week, Hartford's homicide count stood at 21, two more than last year's total for this city of 125,000. By comparison, Boston, with a population of about 656,000, so far has only 20 homicides – a much slower rate than in 2014, when the Hub ended the year with 52 murders.
The homicide rate in Springfield, has flat-lined for the most part after starting the year with a flurry. With 13 killings so far, the city made it through all of July without any homicides and could repeat that trend for August. Springfield had a total of 14 homicides in 2014.
Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy admits it's been a rough year for Hartford, according to the Associated Press. "We've got a problem. Crime is too high," he said.
Hartford Mayor Pedro Segarra said city police continue to partner with state and federal law enforcement officials in an effort to curb violent crime in Connecticut's capital city. "We are doing everything we can within our means to identify potential correlations that may assist our policing efforts," he said in a statement. "Even with a commitment of significant resources and partnerships across all levels of government, our community needs to continue to come together as government cannot address this issue alone."
Hartford's homicide rate has jumped around in recent years, but standout years over the past decade include 33 murders in 2009, 27 in 2011, and 23 in 2013, Time.com reports. Meanwhile, the highest recent homicide count in Springfield, population 154,000, was 20 killings in 2007. That's also Springfield's highest homicide count for this century. Other bad years were 2011 and 2013, with 19 killings each.
Despite Hartford's high homicide rate, Connecticut officials say the state's overall violent crime rate continues to decline. Nationwide, however, the opposite is true, with larger U.S. cities experiencing an uptick in homicides and other violent crimes in 2015.
Baltimore has seen an unprecedented spike in shootings, especially since the death of Freddie Gray in police custody in May, Time.com reports. Forty-five people were killed in Baltimore in July alone, making it the city's deadliest month since 1972. More than 200 people have been killed so far this year, a homicide count that wasn't reached until December last year, according to the Baltimore Sun.Pakistan's population has surged to 207.77 million, having experienced a 57 per cent increase since the last census in 1998, provisional census data presented to the Council of Common Interest (CCI) on Friday shows.
The sixth population census in Pakistan, finally carried out by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) earlier this year after a gap of nearly two decades, reveals an acceleration in the population growth rate of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), even as growth in Punjab and Sindh has slowed compared to previous results.
Pakistan houses 106.45m males, 101.31m females and 10,418 transgenders, the provisional data reveals.
The results show that 30.5m people reside in KP, 5m in Fata, 47.9m in Sindh, 12.3m in Balochistan, 2m in Islamabad, while Punjab — the largest province in terms of population — houses 110 million people.
An increase in the urban-rural ratio has been observed in all administrative units except Islamabad, which nonetheless remains the second most urbanised unit of the country.
Over 52pc of Sindh's residents live in urban areas, which has surpassed the capital territory as the most urbanised territory of Pakistan. Close to 36.4pc of Pakistanis live in urban areas, the provisional results reveal.
Balochistan, the least urbanised of Pakistan's provinces, has experienced the fastest average annual growth rate since 1998 of 3.37pc. Punjab's average annual growth rate remained the slowest at 2.13pc, slightly below the national average of 2.4pc.
The provisional results exclude data from Gilgit Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir, which is likely to be included in the final report.
The census is likely to have important implications for the upcoming general elections, as constituencies are expected to have to be redrawn according to the newly-compiled results.Album Review: Demo by Streetlight Manifesto
Mathew Kahansky Blocked Unblock Follow Following Mar 19, 2016
Everything’s got to start somewhere…right?
Somewhat surprisingly, this is the best quality version I could find.
My usual practice is to write reviews after my very first listen of an album, so that my most raw initial reactions are the ones I share. It’s by no means a perfect system, but it’s definitely a faster one than listening over and over and picking apart the finicky details like an actual music critic might do. In today’s case, I’m only partially breaking my rule. I’ve been absolutely in love with Streetlight Manifesto and basically any Tomas Kalnoky project for a few years now, gobbling up any content I can get my hands on. The songs on this particular demo are songs I’ve heard countless times (to the point where I know not only know the lyrics but the brass lines as well), but the demo itself, surprisingly, is somehow completely new to me. I’ve never heard these particular iterations and after a recent vinyl release by parent group Pentimento Music Company, it seems high time to give Streetlight Manifesto’s 2002 demo a go.
Hey look, it’s the entire demo! How convenient.
Due to my particular intimacy with these tunes already, my immediate impression was entirely on the track mixings themselves. Kalnoky is an infamous perfectionist — to the point of delaying Streetlight albums by several years — and the difference between raw inexperience and polished production are apparent. The demo doesn’t sweat the small details (probably due to lack of time/budget as much as novice designers) — sax keys click, errant notes flounder, voices crack and clash — but it makes the tracks seem less harnessed or processed. I can’t help noticing the same about the earlier Catch 22 version of the record Keasbey Nights and Streetlight’s eventual re-tooling of the same record — there’s something about the rough-around-the-edges that I appreciate so much more. It’s almost like Kalnoky fixes everything a little too much, and I’m surely impatient enough to prefer quantity over quality of product.
“Everything Went Numb” — hardcore fans of both band and genre have a hard time classifying Streetlight Manifesto as ska. I hate touching those arguments, but this track gives a rapid case study in why.
With that being said, I really don’t think Kalnoky as a songwriter or Streetlight Manifesto as a group could ever really release something low quality. Case in point: “Everything Went Numb” has no right to be a good song. As admitted in the liner notes of the record, it’s an erratic mishmash of lyrical and musical themes conceived in distant bits and pieces that somehow still coalesce into a greater sum than its parts. There’s something curiously relatable in the lyrics (at least to me), even if they deal with subject matters that you typically wouldn’t encounter in everyday life — say, robbing a bank tied to recognizing an action’s point of no moral return. Another example of Streetlight’s proficiency includes “Point/Counterpoint”, a track that Kalnoky wrote in his teenage years and absolutely hates now. The song is rife with cartoonish imageries of death and debate, but taking the lyrics at face value and dissecting the musical constitution underneath is so much more worthwhile. The contrapuntal progression (I might be misremembering the definition of this term but it sounds cool so it stays) of “Point/Counterpoint” is so incredibly satisfying that thematic cliches are hardly even noticed. The entire song feels like it could be performed by two bands of identical composition, each playing the meandering and intertwining parts that smash together for the frenetic choruses. Even the horns on the record are peculiarly clean. I’ve heard album after album of gimmicky ska bands with sky-high production budgets whose brass lines end up sounding whiny, flat and just blah, but somehow (especially considering the demo was recorded in a fucking basement) these horns come out crisp and present. Obviously I’m heavily biased but this band, this band, man. It boggles my mind.
“Point/Counterpoint” — Originally written as a slow acoustic duet, the touch-and-go between the intended participants is easily my favourite part of the album.
All ego-stroking aside, I think the most unique aspect of Streetlight Manifesto that is especially prevalent in the songs on the demo is their ability to make me turn emotional cartwheels. The songs aren’t inherently happy at all — robbing banks, murdered little girls, and wishing death to vilify another’s actions being typical subject matter — but there’s an incredibly endearing knack that the group has of steering the audience towards finding their own respective joys hidden within and subsequently dancing along like an idiot. Even though Kalnoky has a nasty habit of writing in a whiny us-little-guys-vs.-the-world mentality (which is throbbingly obvious in these few songs), the context of listening really strips away that feeling. You can read and analyze the lyrics all you want, but Streetlight’s performance responds to the angst and misery by developing individual tracks into a joyous triumph (or at least predicate the eventual coming of the same) so that the shitty feelings don’t stick around for long enough. Before you really know it, you’re back to violently prancing about like a moron instead – in the greatest way a moron can dance, of course.
Verdict: I’ve lost count of how many people claim to owe this band their lives and while the magic doesn’t totally come out until their full-lengths, I think this demo delineates the starting point of something special.Chapter 1 Developmental biology: The anatomical tradition
Nature is always the same, and yet its appearance is always changing. It is our business as artists to convey the thrill of nature's permanence along with the elements and the appearances of all its changes. Paul Cezanne (ca. 1900)* The greatest progressive minds of embryology have not looked for hypotheses; they have looked at embryos. Jane Oppenheimer (1955)** * Cezanne, P. Quoted in J. Gasquet, 1921. Cezanne. Paris, pp. 79–80. ** Oppenheimer, J. M. 1955. Analysis of development: Problems, concepts, and their history. In Analysis of Development, B. H. Willier, P. A. Weiss and V. Hamburger (eds.). Saunders, Philadelphia, pp. 1–24.
Between fertilization and birth, the developing organism is known as an embryo. The concept of an embryo is a staggering one, and forming an embryo is the hardest thing you will ever do. To become an embryo, you had to build yourself from a single cell. You had to respire before you had lungs, digest before you had a gut, build bones when you were pulpy, and form orderly arrays of neurons before you knew how to think. One of the critical differences between you and a machine is that a machine is never required to function until after it is built. Every animal has to function as it builds itself.
For animals, fungi, and plants, the sole way of getting from egg to adult is by developing an embryo. The embryo mediates between genotype and phenotype, between the inherited genes and the adult organism. Whereas most of biology studies adult structure and function, developmental biology finds the study of the transient stages leading up to the adult to be more interesting. Developmental biology studies the initiation and construction of organisms rather than their maintenance. It is a science of becoming, a science of process. To say that a mayfly lives but one day is profoundly inaccurate to a developmental biologist. A mayfly may be a winged adult for only a day, but it spends the other 364 days of its life as an aquatic juvenile under the waters of a pond or stream.
The questions asked by developmental biologists are often questions about becoming rather than about being. To say that XX mammals are usually females and XY mammals are usually males does not explain sex determination to a developmental biologist, who wants to know how the XX genotype produces a female and how the XY genotype produces a male. Similarly, a geneticist might ask how globin genes are transmitted from one generation to the next, and a physiologist might ask about the function of globins in the body. But the developmental biologist asks how it is that the globin genes become expressed only in red blood cells and how they become active only at specific times in development. (We don’t know the answers yet.)
Developmental biology is a great field for scientists who want to integrate different levels of biology. We can take a problem and study it on the molecular and chemical levels (e.g., How are globin genes transcribed, and how do the factors activating their transcription interact with one another on the DNA?), on the cellular and tissue levels (Which cells are able to make globin, and how does globin mRNA leave the nucleus?), on the organ and organ system levels (How do the capillaries form in each tissue, and how are they instructed to branch and connect?), and even at the ecological and evolutionary levels (How do differences in globin gene activation enable oxygen to flow from mother to fetus, and how do environmental factors trigger the differentiation of more red blood cells?).
Developmental biology is one of the fastest growing and most exciting fields in biology, creating a framework that integrates molecular biology, physiology, cell biology, anatomy, cancer research, neurobiology, immunology, ecology, and evolutionary biology. The study of development has become essential for understanding any other area of biology.
ContentsThe longest modern federal election campaign is almost over. Maybe it’s not too early to wonder who will govern, if the result is not clear.
Stephen Harper has given his answer, or part of it. “Obviously, our view is we’re going to win and we’re going to win strong,” the Conservative leader told Peter Mansbridge on Sept. 3. “But my position has always been, if we win the most seats, I will expect to form the government. And if we don’t, I won’t.” The third sentence, the shortest, was the most important.
Mansbridge pressed him. “So, even as the current government, if you’re just a couple of seats behind, you wouldn’t try to figure out a way to—”
Harper cut in. “No. No.”
Mansbridge: “You would resign.”
Harper: “Yeah. Well, I would not serve as Prime Minister.” There followed some approximations about how parliamentary government works, and Harper concluded with: “We ask people to make a choice of a government, and so I think that the party that wins the most seats should form the government.”
This was significant. As Mansbridge understood, any government remains Canada’s federal government through a campaign and afterward. No matter what the election result, any government may choose to “meet the House,” to test whether it can still command a majority of members’ support in a confidence vote. If it lost that confidence vote, the Governor General would be free to call on some other combination of MPs to form a government that could enjoy the confidence of the House.
These conventions are unfamiliar to us, because election results are usually so clear nobody bothers. In 1993, it was obvious Kim Campbell’s Progressive Conservatives no longer enjoyed the confidence of the House. There were only two PC MPs left. And neither of them was named Kim Campbell. After the 2006 election, Paul Martin still had the right to test the House with a confidence vote, but since the Conservatives won 21 more seats than his Liberals did, his government resigned on election night. This is almost always so obvious that steps in the process get skipped.
But this time it’s reasonable to assume the outcome after Oct. 19 will be less clear. Now if the Liberals or NDP win the largest number of seats, it’s reasonable to assume Harper will keep his word, resign as PM on election night, and let the other party form a government, even without a majority of seats. The Harper era would be over.
But what if it’s the Conservatives who have the largest number of seats?
Again, if Harper’s party wins a majority—at least |
ughur [Syria]. The coverage of these revolutions is ongoing, and we continue to report the fight of the youth to achieve dignity and freedom from tyranny and dictatorship."
Confident, charming and articulate in English as well as his native Arabic, Khanfar is a high-profile figure on the international conference circuit. Khanfar's critics say his sympathy for the Muslim Brotherhood shows in often favourable coverage of Islamist movements.
But, talking to the Guardian, he rejected that criticism. Islamist groups played an important part in the uprisings and therefore featured, he said.
In Libya, for example - which he has been visiting this week - al-Jazeera has been giving air time to a prominent Islamist exile who had been in exile in Qatar. Khanfar also promised to give a platform to leaders of the opposition Syrian National Salvation Conference.
Not surprisingly, he has many enemies. The PLO was furious about the leak to Al-Jazeera of documents exposing embarrassing details of its secret negotiations with Israel.
In Jenin in the West Bank, the family home, Khanfar's brother is a Hamas activist. Reactions to his departure included the comment by one pro-regime Syrian that he had been "exposed as a CIA asset", a reference to WikiLeaks documents that show him meeting US diplomats in Doha.
Khanfar shrugged off these revelations, and the suggestion they had successfully persuaded him to moderate elements of the channel's coverage. "Our meetings with the US have to be put in context. I have meetings with presidents, meetings with foreign ministers, with representatives of the governments of China, the US, Britain, Sudan and other countries in the world."
"Always we receive complaints. If the complaint has any merit we deal with it. Sometimes we make mistakes. We accept it. But if it's political we don't actually take it into consideration."
Qatar's leading role in supporting the anti-Gaddafi rebellion in Libya has required the emir to build a broader Arab consensus. This has also seen him patch up once rocky relations with Jordan, which was accused last year of blocking AJ broadcasts of the World Cup from South Africa. Arab power-politics and editorial independence have clearly been in sometimes sharp conflict.
But as Blake Hounshell of Foreign Policy magazine put it: "Whatever you think of al-Jazeera's coverage, there's no question @khanfarw put the network on the global map. Big time." As'ad Abu Khalil, the acerbic author of the Angry Arab blog, called him "very smart and dynamic".
Khanfar's resignation letter was clearly written with a view to fixing his legacy as the man who made al-Jazeera: "Authoritarian regimes were terrified at the birth of this new institution and they quickly went on the offensive," he wrote.
"From trying to discredit our reportage and staff through disinformation to lodging official protests with the Qatari government. When this did not stop our reporting, they started harassing our correspondents, detaining our staff and closing our offices. The only way they could stop us was by jamming our satellite signal. Yet we remained steadfast in our editorial policy – in fact, each attempt to silence us further emboldened us and increased our resolve."
Asked what he was going to do now, he said: "I'm going to continue in the same spirit of al-Jazeera. I'm going to very soon announce something related to it, related to the media and the ethics and standards of the profession."Copyright by WJBF - All rights reserved Mug shot photo of 76-year-old MAry Todd Fagler, who is charged in her husand's shooting death. (Courtesy: Aiken County Sheriff's Office)
Copyright by WJBF - All rights reserved Mug shot photo of 76-year-old MAry Todd Fagler, who is charged in her husand's shooting death. (Courtesy: Aiken County Sheriff's Office)
***UPDATED at 11:10 A.M. on Wednesday, October 28th***
A bond has been set for Mary Todd at $245,000. There were also conditions placed on her bond, they are as follows:
1. She shall be transported from ACDC by ACSO upon notice that a bed is available at Aurora.
2. She shall undergo a psychiatric evaluation & remain at Aurora for as long as the staff requests.
3. She shall comply with any follow up.
4. She will be placed on electronic GPS monitoring and house arrest. House arrest with the exception of church, doctor and attorney visits.
5. She will also be restricted to living with her daughter.
6. She shall NOT possess any firearms. Any firearms located in her prospective location must be be removed prior to Todd residing at that location.
7. She shall surrender her passport to the 2nd Judicial Circuit Solicitors Office once it is located.
***UPDATED at 11:01 A.M. on Tuesday, October 20th***
Beech Island, SC - We have learned that a Beech Island woman has been charged in the shooting death of her husband early Tuesday morning in Beech Island at 2199 Maggie Valley Lane.
According to Captain Eric Abdullah, with the Aiken County Sheriff's Office, deputies responded to the scene around 4:23 a.m.
Capt. Abdullah says, when responding deputies arrived on scene, they found 78-year-old William Todd suffering from an apparent gunshot wound to the abdomen. The victim's wife, 76-year-old Mary Faglier Todd, was the only other person in the home at the time of the incident.
Aiken County EMS responded to the scene where William Todd was pronounced dead.
Investigators and Aiken County Coroner Tim Carlton responded to the scene to assist with this investigation. Preliminary investigation revealed that Mrs. Todd shot her husband after a domestic argument.
According to Sheriff's Office records, there were no previous documented domestic incidents, or calls, that involved the couple.
Investigators arrested Mrs. Todd on the charges of Murder and the Possession of a Firearm During a Commission of Violent Crime. She was taken to the Aiken County Detention Center without incident.
Capt. Abdullah tells us this is an ongoing investigation and information that can be released will be as it becomes available.
***POSTED at 5:57 A.M. on Tuesday, October 20th***
Beech Island, SC - Aiken County law enforcement officials are investigating an early Tuesday morning shooting in Beech Island, South Carolina that has resulted in the death of one man.
The shooting occurred on Maggie Valley Lane just off Lanier Road just after 5:00 a.m. Aiken County Coroner Tim Carlton confirms with WJBF News Channel 6 that 78-year-old William Todd was killed after allegedly being shot by his wife. The coroner also tells us that the shooting stemmed from a long-running domestic dispute.
The shooter's name is not known at this time. An autopsy is scheduled for later this morning in Newberry, South Carolina.
This investigation is ongoing. Stay with WJBF News Channel 6 as we learn more information.This article is about the band. For the lack of belief in deities, see Atheism
Atheist is a death metal band from Florida, founded in 1984 by vocalist/guitarist Kelly Shaefer, guitarist Rand Burkey, bassist Roger Patterson, and drummer Steve Flynn. The band is known for their highly technical playing style, and their 1991 album Unquestionable Presence is regarded as an important landmark of the technical death metal genre.[2] After disbanding in 1994, the band reformed in 2006 and have since released one studio album and a live DVD.
History [ edit ]
The band was originally formed in 1984 in Sarasota, Florida, United States, firstly under the name Oblivion[3] and later R.A.V.A.G.E. (which stands for Raging Atheists Vowing A Gory End).[3] They recorded their debut album, Piece of Time, in 1988, which was released in Europe in 1989, but not in the United States until 1990. In 1991, bassist Roger Patterson died in a car accident and Atheist recruited Tony Choy (previously a member of Cynic) to record their second album, Unquestionable Presence. Atheist disbanded for the first time in 1992, reuniting in 1993 and recording their third album Elements, fulfilling their contractual requirements, before disbanding for the second time.
Seven years after their second break up, Kelly Shaefer decided to re-release and remaster their three albums with different bonus tracks.
Shaefer played with Neurotica until 2002, whereas Tony Choy played in a number of other bands, including Area 305 and Pestilence. In 2001, Kelly Shaefer tried to regroup the band with all the original members with the addition of the acclaimed Kyle Sokol from the Tampa Bay area on bass guitar, replacing Tony Choy due to Choy's other band commitments according to a metal magazine interview. The band reunion at this time never came to fruition due to Neurotica going on OzzFest.
Relapse Records re-issued the band's three albums in late 2005, as well as a vinyl box set containing the three albums plus the R.A.V.A.G.E. demo On They Slay. Former drummer Steve Flynn formed the band Gnostic in the same year. In January 2006, Atheist announced they were regrouping to perform live during the summer and autumn of that year. The line-up was Shaefer, Burkey, Choy and Flynn. Shaefer only provided vocals due to long battles with tendinitis and carpal tunnel syndrome.[4] Gnostic guitarist Sonny Carson handled all of Shaefer's guitar parts, while Burkey was later replaced by Chris Baker of Gnostic.
On July 12, 2008, Shaefer issued a statement where he indicated that he and Flynn were working on new material.[5] A month later, Shaefer announced that they had commenced the recording of a new studio album, which would be their first in over 15 years. The band also toured Europe and the USA in 2009 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the release of their album Piece of Time. A live DVD filmed at the Wacken Open Air Festival appeared towards the end of the year.[6]
On July 11, 2010, Atheist revealed that their fourth studio album would be called Jupiter and was set for a November release.[7] They inked a deal with Season of Mist, and their fourth studio album, Jupiter, was released on November 8, 2010.[8]
On August 3, 2010, Kelly Shaefer and Steve Flynn announced on behalf of the band that Tony Choy would not be appearing on Jupiter but is still likely to appear in live performances with the band due to his own musical aspirations.[9] The band is currently working on a fifth studio album.[10]
In February 2018, Atheist signed with Agonia Records.[11]
Members [ edit ]
Current members [ edit ]
Kelly Shaefer – vocals (1988–1994, 2006–present), guitars (1988–1994, 2010 [12] [13] )
) Steve Flynn – drums (1988–1991, 2006–present)
Tony Choy – bass (1991, 1993–1994, 2006–2010, 2012–2018)
Chris Martin – guitars (2012–present)
Jason Holloway – guitars (2011–present)
Former members [ edit ]
Roger Patterson – bass (1988–1991; died 1991)
Darren McFarland – bass (1991–1993)
Rand Burkey – guitars (1988–1993, 1993–1994)
Marcel DeSantos – drums (1991–1992)
Mickey Hayes – drums (1992–1993)
Frank Emmi – guitars (1992–1993)
Josh Greenbaum – drums (1993–1994)
Sonny Carson – guitars (2006–2009)
Chris Baker – guitars (2006–2012)
Jonathan Thompson – guitars (2009–2011), bass (2010)
Travis Morgan – bass (2011–2012)
Timeline [ edit ]
Discography [ edit ]
Studio albums [ edit ]
Live albums [ edit ]Non-therapeutic male circumcision is discussed in a recent Australian Policy Online report.
Personally, I’d see non-therapeutic male circumcision in the same category as intimate or genital piercing, and covered by a section of the Summary Offences Amendment (Tattooing and Body Piercing) Bill 2008 (Vic) Division 6:
44(2): A body piercer must not perform body piercing on the genitalia, anal region, perineum or nipples of a person under the age of 18 years, whether or not consent has been given to the body piercing.
It’s worth noting that the Current Issues Brief No. 3, 2008 from the Research Service of the Victorian Parliament discusses the Victorian bill, and regulations in other Australian jurisdictions, the paper does not even contain the word circumcision.
The paper also notes circumstances covered by other bills:
Causing injury or serious injury intentionally, recklessly or negligently, and endangerment offences under sections 16, 17, 18, 23 and 24 of the Crimes Act 1958; and
Female genital mutilation under section 32 of the Crimes Act.
Some belief systems use the term "circumcision" when genital mutilation is the only realistic term. Why should the law be sexist?
In the "Purposes" of the bill, the stated intent includes prevention of scarification of those under 18, defined as follows:
scarification means the cutting of the skin of a person to create scar tissue;
Male circumcision, therapeutic or not, certainly creates scar tissue!
The 2008 bill gives reasonable protection for surgeons (presumably to cover therapeutic procedures):
43A (1) Nothing in this Division applies to body piercing performed in good faith— in the course of a regulated health service provided by a registered health practitioner; or
in the course of clinical training by a registered student.
In the 2008 bill, it is explicitly stated that "regulated health service" has the same meaning as in the Health Professions Registration Act 2005 (Vic):
regulated health service means a health service usually provided in a regulated health profession
A religious activity is not a health service!
Section 44 makes no bones about intimate piercings of those under 18 – parental consent and/or the wishes of the child simply do not matter. It is an offence. Full stop.
Now I have no problem with a religiously-motivated circumcision of an adult. It’s their problem, and indeed, it’s good for rational society because there is the chance that a firm believer in any faith will not be able to procreate as the result of the circumcision.
Let’s look at the Judaic and Christian so-called logic in particular:
A child cannot confirm their religious adherence until they are adolescents, notably 13 for Judaic males.
Genital mutilation for religious reasons should surely require the informed consent of the subject as to both the religion and the process.
So, by their own logic, a non-reversible procedure carried out as part of religious adherence should not be carried out on pre-teens – parental consent or not.
It’s really no different from Munchausens By Proxy, although the perpetrators are not clinically insane, even though they are patently irrational (indeed belief with no rational inquiry is regarded as a virtue).
The paper published at the APO comes originally from the Tasmanian Law Reform Institute and includes the following (my bolding):
The Institute received the reference from the Commissioner for Children who is a member of the Council of Obstetric and Paediatric Mortality and Morbidity. The Commissioner asked the Institute to investigate the legal issues relating to the circumcision of males under the age of majority. The Commissioner was concerned that some procedures, when performed without medical indication and without the competent consent of the child, may traverse the rights of children.
Circumcision satisfies the legal definition of both wounding and assault.
Young children, infants in particular, may be unable to communicate consent and would almost certainly not be able to understand the nature of a circumcision procedure. Thus infants, and most young children, will not be able to provide consent that might make a circumcision lawful.
Section 2A(2)(e) of the Tasmanian Code provides that there is no free agreement when a person: "agrees or submits because he or she is overborne by the nature or position of another person."
No legislation in Tasmania provides a general power for parents to make legal, through their consent or authorisation, what would otherwise be an offence to their children.
Common law cases contain non-binding statements suggesting that a person who circumcises a child is not criminally responsible for the act if the child’s parents consented to, or authorised, the procedure. The basis for this proposition is uncertain.
Would non-therapeutic circumcision of the child of atheists be legal? Would a jury decide differently based on the religion position of one or both parents?
Where the paper cites arguments in favor of allowing circumcision without consent, those arguments are tortuous, and designed to satisfy the irrational beliefs of powerful religious groups.
It seems to me that any organization that promotes or even accepts the genital mutilation of infants is no better than a child pornography ring, and should be declared an illegal organization. Actually, there are more parallels with a child abuse network than a child pornography ring.
It also seems to me that prohibiting female "circumcision" while allowing the analogous procedure on a male infant without compelling therapeutic need, is merely enshrining sexism and religious apartheid in law.
It must stop.
See Also:
The ‘cruellist cut’ may also be illegal
The other thing is that it could also come under federal laws against terrorist acts, which include "religiously motivated violence"
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Washington (CNN) - Donald Trump is now tied with Mike Huckabee for first place when Republicans are asked who they support for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012, according to a new national poll.
But while a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Tuesday indicates that the real estate mogul and reality TV star has nearly doubled his support since mid-March, it doesn't mean he has smooth sailing ahead.
"More than four in ten Republicans say they would not like to see Trump toss his hat in the ring," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.
Nineteen percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents questioned in the poll say that as of now, they'd be most likely to support Trump for next year's GOP presidential nomination. Trump says he'll decide by June whether he runs for the White House. An equal amount say they'd back Huckabee. The former Arkansas governor and 2008 Republican presidential candidate says he'll decide by later this year if he'll make another bid for the White House.
Twelve percent say they'd support former Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, who was the party's 2008 vice presidential nominee, with 11 percent backing former Massachusetts Gov. and 2008 White House hopeful Mitt Romney and the same amount supporting former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Seven percent say they are backing Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, another 2008 presidential candidate, with five percent supporting Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, who enjoys strong backing from many in the Tea Party movement. Everyone else registers in the low single digits.
Trump jumped from 10 percent in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll conducted last month, with Romney dropping from 18 percent to 11 percent.
"Are Republicans switching from Romney to Trump? Some are, but it's a lot more complicated than that, as you would expect with 11 potential hats in the ring," adds Holland. "Only one in five Trump supporters say that Romney would be their second choice. It looks like Trump pulls as much support from Gingrich and Palin as from Romney, and Romney's support would go down even if Trump were not in the list of potential candidates."
The poll was conducted in the two days before Romney's Monday announcement that he was taking the first formal step towards another bid, by setting up a presidential exploratory committee.
According to the survey, more than seven in ten Republicans say that regardless of whom they would support, they'd like to see Huckabee run for the party's presidential nomination, with two-thirds saying the same thing about Romney.
But that figure drops to 56 percent for Trump, with 43 percent saying they don't want to see him run. By a narrower 53 to 47 percent margin, they would like to see Palin make a bid for the White House, and by a 51 to 45 percent margin, they would like to see Gingrich run.
So what could be behind Trump's rise in the poll?
One contributing factor could be his numerous appearances in the national media. Trump's questioning of whether President Barack Obama was born in the U.S. has put Trump smack in the media spotlight the past two months.
"If Trump is rising in the polls because of the amount of air time he has gotten, it would be difficult to tell whether his gains are due to what he is saying or simply due to his increased visibility. In a field of more than a dozen potential candidates, all air time is good air time," says Holland. "Most presidential seasons get to a point when the voters are looking for a fresh face. That's what gave us Fred Thompson in 2008 and Wesley Clark in 2004, to name just two examples. If the Republican rank and file has already hit that phase, Trump would be the obvious beneficiary."
But being in the top spot in the polls the year before the election doesn't always end with that candidate winning their party's nomination. Both Sen. Hillary Clinton and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani led in the national horserace polls in 2007, with neither ending up taking their party nominations.
The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll was conducted by telephone, with 824 people questioned. The survey's overall sampling error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
-CNN Deputy Political Director Paul Steinhauser contributed to this reportThanks to a tip from a WinBeta reader, we learn that WindowsStudio.mx has nabbed some leaked Microsoft training slides that show off the upcoming Windows 10 Mobile devices. We have to toss in the obligatory “allegedly” qualifier, of course, because until Microsoft’s October 6 event… well, you get what we’re saying.
If the leaks are to be believed, we’re getting our first glimpse at actual images of Lumia 950, 950XL, and 550 rather than the endless stream of renders. And if these are for real, then we’re looking at devices that look good, albeit not great compared to contemporary all-metal devices, and that are fitted out with some excellent specifications.
First we have the Lumia 950 and 950XL:
It’s perhaps a bit redundant at this point, as they’ve been fairly well-known for some time now, but it’s worth listing the specs again in the hopes that this leak is legit:
Lumia 950
5.2″ QuadHD display
Qualcomm Snapdragon 808
20MP PureView rear camera with OIS and “Natural” dual flash
5MP front camera
32GB storage and 3GB RAM standard
3000 mAh battery
USB-C
Lumia 950XL
5.7″ QuadHD display
Qualcomm Snapdragon 810
20MP PureView rear camera with OIS and “Natural” triple flash
5MP front camera
32GB storage and 3GB RAM standard
3300 mAh battery
USB-C
The 950 and 950XL both support Windows Hello, of course, for nearly instantaneous facial recognition using crazy voodoo magic (or infrared Iris scanner):
These rear images show a nicely rounded look to the devices, or at least the 950XL, and what looks like dual speakers at the top and bottom edges.
The Lumia 550 is also on the roster with specs that match previous leaks:
Lumia 550
5″ HD display with Gorilla Glass 3
Unspecified quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon
5MP rear camera with LED flash
2MP front camera
8GB storage with microSD support up to 128GB
1GB RAM
We also have a glimpse at Windows Continuum via the “Microsoft Display Dock,” that provides the expected large-screen experience via the 950 and 950XL:
Lumia 950/950XL pricing is speculated to be around the same price as the equivalent iPhone devices with potentially bundled accessories worth a pretty penny, and Windows 10 Mobile Threshold 1 is expected to be on tap. We’ll continue to report on these leaks, but of course will be waiting along with everyone else–impatiently–for Microsoft’s October 6 event, when all will be revealed.
Thanks for the tip, Ivan!
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Further reading: ContinuumMarch 15, 2016, 5:40 PM GMT / Updated March 15, 2016, 5:40 PM GMT By Justin Chon
I was recently asked to audition for a role that I felt was borderline racist. But if I said no to every single borderline role, I would be unemployed, so I decided to go and drove the 55 miles from South Orange County, California, to the studio where the auditions were being held. As I got my pass and walked over, I could see other actors leaving the audition in the distance.
Actually, a few had congregated and were talking very seriously. The circle of Asian-American actors is very small, so I recognized the actors having the discussion immediately. I asked them how the audition went, and one immediately told me disgustedly, "They want an Asian accent." I immediately said, "What the f--k?"
The accent wasn't in the email, and there wasn't a clear reason why the role needed one other than the fact that someone thought it would be funny. And it probably would get more laughs. But is that a good reason to make an actor put on an accent? Just because people would laugh?
I have my opinions, one being that if it humanizes the character, an accent is absolutely OK. But for comedic effect, that's a tough one. I have laughed my ass off to Asian characters with thick accents but have also felt sick when they’re done in poor taste. And, as an actor, my mind always drifts to "man, how must have THAT actor felt while filming that role?"
Justin Chon poses for a picture at the BAFTA LA's 2009 Primetime Emmy Awards TV tea party held at the Intercontinental Hotel on September 19, 2009 in Los Angeles, California. Toby Canham / Getty Images
That’s a question I have answered myself. Early in my career, I did a fake-ass Chinese accent for a series of T-Mobile commercials in 2003. At the time, I thought, "Hey, if I don't do it, someone else will." I immediately regretted the decision once I started shooting the spot. Since then, I have been able to navigate Hollywood without having to put myself in that situation again. Now in 2016, with 13 years more experience, I decided not to enter the audition and drove the two-hour commute back home.
During my drive I had a lot of time to think about what had just happened. I mean, no matter whether I auditioned or not, the show would go on. Some other actor would take the part and that stereotype would be given life. So what had I really accomplished by walking out on that audition? To be honest, I don't think I accomplished much. Then, other questions started to enter my mind: If the part had been with my idol, Mark Ruffalo, would I have auditioned? The answer would have probably been yes (Come on. Mark Ruffalo. Man crush).
With all of the talk about diversity these days, people are very astute to when there is even an iota of racism present. What does that mean for me? How do I do my own part? Because I've had some fortune in Hollywood and have been able to work regularly, some people do look to me for an answer, and the only possible thing I could think of would be to create.
Create, create, create. The more I create original content — whether it be Asian-centric or just people-centric — the more the playing field evens out. Even if the content is not superlative art, it's still important to put out there. In the age of digital distribution, it's more possible than ever to put movies, shows, web series, vlogs, blogs, and even GIFs out into the world. So I have taken steps to do my part. I directed a movie that I was able to sell and distribute. And I am now very actively getting ready to direct my next feature that I have written, aptly titled "Gook," an independent film about two Korean brothers. Not to mention my stream of daily vlogs I put out into the universe on YouTube.
People may look at my content and decide it's not true art or not worthy of their privileged eyes, but I realize that it is absolutely imperative in slowly changing the paradigms that currently exists. So create. That's my two cents.
Justin Chon is an actor, writer, director, and content creator. He is best known for his role in the "Twilight" movie series and as Sid Park in “Seoul Searching,” which made its debut at Sundance in 2015.
Follow NBC Asian America on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr.One of the NHL's longest-standing records was broken last Dec. 22 when Martin Brodeur and the New Jersey Devils blanked Pittsburgh 4-0. It was the 104th shutout of Brodeur's career, surpassing the mark set by Terry Sawchuk That record had stood since Feb. 1, 1970, when the New York Rangers beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 6-0 at Madison Square Garden in Sawchuk's only shutout as a Ranger, and the last one of his career. He died less than four months later.Back then, the idea that anyone would ever pass Sawchuk's total seemed incomprehensible. The question now is how high Brodeur will take the record before he calls it a career.Someone may catch Brodeur at some point in the future. But there are marks that figure to stand the test of time. Here are a few:Given the way the game is played today, many of Gretzky's offensive marks will be hard to beat -- after all, he played in an age when offense was king. Today's goaltenders are better-coached, far more athletic and have better equipment; teams also pay a lot more attention to keeping the puck out of their next.But of all his records, this is the one that will be the toughest to top. Gretzky's assist total of 1,963 would make him No. 1 on the all-time scoring list ( Mark Messier is No. 2 with 1,887 points) -- but he also scored a record 894 goals. To put Gretzky's margin in perspective: a baseball player would have to hit well over 1,000 home runs to exceed Barry Bonds' career record by the same percentage that Gretzky's career points total exceeds Messier's.Gretzky once said that Sidney Crosby could break a lot of his records. As great a player as Crosby is (he has 506 points and will be just 23 when the 2010-11 season starts), this is one that he won't get.Selanne was an untested kid from Finland when he burst into the NHL with the Winnipeg Jets in 1992-93 and immediately began terrorizing goaltenders. He blew past Mike Bossy's rookie record of 53 goals and didn't stop until he'd reached 76, tying him with Buffalo's Alexander Mogilny for the League lead.Selanne added 56 assists for 132 points, also a record for first-year players.Since then, the only rookie to score more than 45 goals was Washington's Alex Ovechkin, who had 52 (and 106 points) in 2005-06. Like Selanne, he won the Calder Trophy.Selanne has gone on to score more than 600 NHL goals, and there's a berth in the Hall of Fame waiting for him after he retires. But he's never come close to matching his rookie magic -- in fact, he dropped to 25 goals and 54 points in 51 games in his second season and didn't even reach 50 goals again until 1996-97, when he had 51 for Anaheim.Mosienko and the Chicago Black Hawks (that's how they spelled it in those days) appeared to be on the way to a season-ending loss to the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden when Mosienko had the greatest shift of any player in NHL history.The speedy right wing beat Rangers goaltender Lorne Anderson at 6:09 of the third period … and at 6:20 … and again at 6:30. That's three goals in 21 seconds, an accomplishment that has never been approached (for perspective: Jean Beliveau is next with three in 44 seconds, more than twice as long).Mosienko's record-setting night in the Hawks' 7-6 win has overshadowed his career accomplishments. He and the Bentley brothers, Max and Doug, formed the "Pony Line," one of the great trios in NHL history. He finished his 14-year NHL career (all with Chicago) with 258 goals and 282 assists for 540 points -- good enough to earn him a berth in the Hall of Fame.It's conceivable that someone could break the three records above. Not so for Hall's goaltending standard for showing up for work every night.Hall took the ice for the Detroit Red Wings'season-opener in 1955-56 and played all 70 games. He did the same thing the following season. The Wings sent him to Chicago in the summer of 1957, and he played all 70 games for the Hawks for five consecutive seasons, leading Chicago to a Stanley Cup in 1961.Hall's ironman streak grew to 502 games. But in Game No. 503, against Boston on Nov. 7, 1962, he had to be lifted in the first period due to a back injury. Hall wound up playing "only" 66 of Chicago's 70 games. Ironically, though his career lasted through the 1970-71 season, he played more than 50 games only once after 1963-64.Given that the NHL season has grown to 82 games from 70, the League now has 30 teams instead of six and the game is far more physical, Hall's mark appears safe for the ages.The first-place Boston Bruins came out firing against the Black Hawks on March 4, 1941, setting an NHL record by firing 83 shots on goal -- a mark no team has come close to in nearly seven decades. The only reason the Hawks weren't run out of the building was a 24-year-old rookie goaltender named Sam LoPresti, who had only recently been called up from the minors to replace Paul Goodman The Minnesota native made 27 saves in the first period, 31 (on an NHL-record 33 shots) in the second and 22 more in the third, keeping the Hawks close in what became a 3-2 loss. Boston forward Johnny Crawford, when asked afterwards if LoPresti was good or just lucky, said "He was good all right -- if he hadn't been good, he wouldn't be alive now."A couple of years later, LoPresti was lucky to be alive at all. After playing 47 games for the Hawks in 1941-42, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy; several months later, he was aboard a merchant ship that was torpedoed and spent 42 days on a lifeboat before being rescued.LoPresti never played in the NHL again -- though his son, Pete, was an NHL goaltender for six seasons in the 1970s.No one has come within 10 shots of facing as many shots as LoPresti -- the next-highest total is 70 saves on 73 shots by Quebec's Ron Tugnutt in a 3-3 tie at Boston on March 21, 1991. Since then, the most saves by a goaltender is the 58 made by the Islanders' Dwayne Roloson in a 4-3 overtime win at Toronto last Nov. 23.The Boston Bruins were down 6-4 at home to the St. Louis Blues on Dec. 19, 1987, when Ken Linseman scored with 10 seconds left to give the Bruins some hope. But Boston's comeback dreams were dashed in record time when Blues center Doug Gilmour scored right off the faceoff into an empty net at 19:52, sealing the Blues' 7-5 victory and setting the mark for the fastest two goals by two teams.The laws of time and space would seem to make it virtually impossible for this record to be broken, though Chicago and the Minnesota North Stars came close on Nov. 5, 1988, by scoring twice in three seconds (both with the goaltender in the net). The Minnesota Wild also came close, scoring twice in three seconds to beat Chicago 4-2 on Jan. 21, 2004.Fans who've seen Bobby Orr play only in clips like those shown on the NHL Network can't really appreciate the way he transformed hockey. Before Orr, the job of a defenseman was to help keep the puck out of his own net. Defensemen didn't "activate" (today's popular term) and get into the play.Then came Orr, who not only jumped into the play for the Boston Bruins but often led the rush -- yet he was such a brilliant skater that he was almost never out of position in his own zone. In 1970-71, Orr became the only defenseman ever to exceed 100 assists in a season (he had 102) and finished with a mind-boggling plus-124 rating, nearly doubling his own 1968-69 record of plus-65 in the still-young statistic.Montreal defenseman Larry Robinson came close to Orr's mark with a plus-120 rating in 1976-77, but no one else has ever been more than plus-98. In the last 20 years, no one has been better than the plus-60 rating by Detroit's Vladimir Konstantinov in 1995-96. Washington's Jeff Schultz was tops in 2009-10 with a plus-50 rating -- not even 40 percent of Orr's historic total.Adventure in Trove is not only defined by exploration in areas for battle, it is expressed in the love individuals and groups pour into Club worlds through building. Creations span from every imaginable form of interest. Ideas are put into motion such as national themes to anime, video games to historical landmarks, people have created art projects that instill a state |
sometimes as though I'm the only candidate who's consistently been critical of her."
Fiorina said Sunday that she did not buy that Clinton was not paying close attention to her email, as the former secretary of state asserted in an interview with NBC News' Andrea Mitchell last Friday.
"We know, for example, that she hired into the State Department a political operative who had done IT work on her campaign and for her PAC, and that that IT operative was paid $5,000, not by taxpayers, but by Mrs. Clinton herself, to do IT work on that basement server," Fiorina told CBS' "Face the Nation," referring to a Washington Post report that cited former campaign IT employee Bryan Pagliano as the State staffer whom the Clintons paid.
"So that actually takes a lot of work and lot of effort. And so I don't think it's plausible for her to say, 'Oh, I wasn't paying any attention.' She clearly was paying attention," Fiorina added.
In her interview with Mitchell, Clinton said that she "was not thinking a lot when I got in" about "what kind of email system there will be," adding that she was sorry that the situation is confusing to so many Americans and that she now disagrees with her choice. Clinton also repeatedly claimed that everything related to her use of private email on a private server while at the State Department was "above board."
Fiorina also said she agreed with former Vice President Dick Cheney's assessment Sunday that President Barack Obama's administration is to blame for the flood of refugees from Syria into Europe.
Several European countries, including France, Germany, Austria and the United Kingdom, have said they are willing to take in refugees, while Hungary has constructed a fence on its border with Serbia to stem the flow of people entering the country illegally.
"Look, the world is a more dangerous and a more tragic place when the United States is not leading, and we have not been leading for a long time," she added, calling the situation "entirely predictable" and a "lack of leadership" on the part of Obama and Clinton, his former secretary of state.BlackBerry has announced its second Android smartphone today, the DTEK50. The device, which shares hardware specifications and design with the Alcatel Idol 4, is a midrange, all-touchscreen smartphone. BlackBerry is touting the security features of the DTEK50, claiming that it is the "world's most secure smartphone." The device is up for preorder direct from BlackBerry for $299.99 starting today and will be available on August 8th. It is sold unlocked and will be compatible with AT&T and T-Mobile in the US.
The DTEK50 has a 5.2-inch, 1080p display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 processor, 3GB RAM, 13-megapixel camera, and 2,610mAh battery. The 8-megapixel front camera also includes a flash for taking selfies. It runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow with BlackBerry's software features, such as the Hub. The software is similar to the software on the Priv released last year.
The security features are highlighted right in the device's name, as it has BlackBerry's DTEK software that protects users from malware and other security problems often seen on Android smartphones. The DTEK app lets users quickly get an overview of their device's security and take action on any potential issues. BlackBerry says that it has modified Android with its own technology originally developed for the BB10 platform to make it more secure. The company is also committing to rapid updates to deliver security patches shortly after they are released.
BlackBerry has said that it will be releasing three smartphones in the near future and it appears that the DTEK50 is the first of the bunch. Though the DTEK50 doesn't have a physical keyboard, the company has recently reiterated that it is not abandoning keyboards and there will likely be future devices with the feature.I know that everyone wants to discuss critical care topics like delayed sequence intubation, management of post-tonsillectomy hemorrhage, or damage control resuscitation. I agree, they are part of what makes Emergency Medicine exciting and provocative; however, the vast majority of what we do does not require you to know how to optimize chest compressions or manage a ventilator for an intubated asthmatic. In order to provide the best care for all of our patients and maximize the efficacy of all of our therapies, we need to know some “less exciting” topics that are never depicted on TV shows about the ED. Determining whether your patient’s Asthma Control is sufficient is an excellent example of this.
Asthma Burden
1 in 11 children have asthma (CDC)
(CDC) In 2010, 7 MILLION children had asthma in the US.
had asthma in the US. In 2009, 1 in 5 children with asthma went to the ED for their care!!
In North Carolina (and I am sure many others), many patients with asthma who use the ED do not identify a regular source of primary care. (Crane, 2011) The notion of “their primary care doc will follow up on that” is not realistic in many cases. Helping to optimize a patient’s management is ALL of our jobs. “ It takes a village ” is a better way to think of it.
. (Crane, 2011)
Asthma Control
Aside from managing the acute exacerbation (which we have covered many aspects of in the past: ex, MDIs, Dexamethasone, Magnesium, Hydration Status), an important question is whether this patient’s asthma control is adequate. That brings us to the question of, what defines Asthma Control? (Bousquet, 2010)
Well Controlled Daytime symptoms: <2 or less days/week, but not more than once/day Nighttime symptoms: None Limitations of activities in past 2-4 wks: None Need for Rescue Rx in past month: 2 or less days/week Exacerbations requiring systemic steroids: 0-1 / year
Partially Controlled Daytime symptoms: >2 days/week, >Once/day Nighttime symptoms: 1-2 nights/week Limitations of activities in past 2-4 wks: Some Need for Rescue Rx in past month: >2 days/week Exacerbations requiring systemic steroids: 2 / year
Poorly Controlled Daytime symptoms: Throughout the day Nighttime symptoms: >2 nights/week Limitations of activities in past 2-4 wks: Extremely limited Need for Rescue Rx in past month: Several times a day Exacerbations requiring systemic steroids: >2 / year
Rule of 2’s
So, keeping the above characterizations in your mind might be challenging during a busy ED shift… so keep the Rule of 2’s stored in your cerebral cortex instead. (Singer, 2005)
Over the past month, Inadequate Asthma Control is indicated by: Use of Rescue Inhaler 2 days/week Awakening w/ symptoms 2 times/month Use of 2 or more Rescue Inhalers (MDIs) / year
is indicated by:
Why do you Care?
Yes, I understand that many do not believe that the ED is the place to discuss management strategies of chronic conditions. I disagree.
The best time to get someone’s attention about their health is when they are not feeling well.
. It may be the only time that they actually get to see a doctor about their chronic condition.
about their chronic condition. Determining whether their Asthma Control is inadequate and then starting an inhaled corticosteroid (or adjusting their current regimen) may be the best way to prevent that patient from having to come back to see you again in the ED. (It is a selfish endeavor really).
ReferencesA VICTORIAN scuba diver who died in South Australia's notorious Tank Cave yesterday was 50m from the cave's entrance when he came to grief, it has emerged this morning.
The 40-year-old Doncaster man and father was reported missing at about 3.45pm when he failed to surface, the Herald Sun reported.
His body was found a short time later.
South Australian police Supt Trevor Twilley said the man had 10 years experience and dived Tank Cave numerous times before.
He said divers were required to have the highest level of diving certificate and go with another diver to tackle the cave.
"On the return trip the buddy surfaced and learnt that his buddy hasn’t resurfaced," Supt Twilley said.
"He has then gone back and located the diver deceased 50m from the entrance to the cave."
Supt Twilley said he didn’t know if the man had run out of air.
"We retrieved and seized diving equipment and that will be examined by an expert to see how much air was in the tank," he said.
"The cave itself isn’t the issue. It’s most like our fatalities on the road. It’s the individual.
"Without casting any assertion on the deceased, we have no idea what caused his death."
The pair of close friends held the highest certificates issued by the Cave Divers Association Australia (CDAA).
The association's national director John Vanderleest told the ABC there was nothing unusual about yesterday's dive.
"Both men would have done the kind of diving that they would have done at that same location many, many times before," Mr Vanderleest said.
Police divers this morning begun retrieving the man's diving equipment from the popular diving spot, which features a maze-like cave that extends for at least 7km underground.
Some has never been explored.
In a statement, the association said it was sad to inform its members of the "tragic loss of one of our friends whilst they were cave diving in the Mt Gambier region".
The association confirmed Tank Cave would be closed "until further notice" following the man's death.
"No names or details can be released at this stage, but you will be informed once the family has been notified and release of these details is cleared by the police," the association said in a statement yesterday.
"The discussion forum has been taken off air for 48 hours to allow time for family and close friends to share this loss, without risk of members unwittingly passing information to those not yet informed."
Tank Cave is where world renowned Polish cave diver Agnes Milowka died in February.
Milowka, 29, ran out of air after becoming separated from her diving companion in the channel system, 500m from the cave's entrance, as she pushed into unexplored territory.
It took divers three days to retrieve her body.
She ran into grief despite extensive diving experience, including as a stunt diver for James Cameron's blockbuster Sanctum 3D.
Before her death, she left a chilling account of a similar dive in Tasmania's Tiger's Eye cave.
Tank Cave is considered one of the best diving diving destinations in the southern hemisphere and is the most extensive underwater cave system in Australia and the sixth in the world.
- Amelia Harris, AAPNBC 7’s Derek Togerson takes a look at the Chargers and their stadium hunt in this commentary
It is the one question San Diego sports fans want answered and certainly the one I get asked more than anything else:
Are the Chargers going to stay or are they going to go?
I really, really wish I had an answer. The options, as you likely know by now, are to take the Los Angeles option and move the team to Los Angeles, rebrand, and become a tenant in Rams owner Stan Kroenke’s palace in Inglewood … or stay in San Diego while once again trying to work on a new stadium deal, something they finally did for the first time ever in 2016.
Or more simply put: Will Dean Spanos take the easy road or the honorable one?
This is one of those things that one could argue both sides of and come up with a pretty convincing case either way. Before we get to that, though, let’s assume a few things we can be pretty sure are going to happen (I know what happens when one assumes but we need to streamline this thing!).
The Raiders are probably no longer a threat to head to L.A. if the Chargers choose to stay. Mark Davis has a deal worked out to go to Las Vegas, public money has been approved in Nevada, and the NFL is really warming to the idea of a team in that market. Their relocation will almost assuredly be approved at the annual league meetings in March.
Also, the NFL wants the Chargers to stay in San Diego. The league has grown enamored with the idea of a team in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and San Diego. Call it the Golden Triangle (a golden scalene triangle, to be exact).
That geographic setup would give the National Football League a brand new market to work with as well as add L.A. and San Diego as Super Bowl cities because those markets will finally have Super Bowl-caliber facilities to match the Super Bowl-caliber weather.
THAT, my friends, is a big reason for the Chargers to try and stay. Spanos has already asked the NFL to up its ante and provide more money to bridge what is estimated to be about a $125 million gap in the funding for a new facility in the town that has called the Chargers home for 55 years.
That shows a desire to stay, and that is a good sign because if the owner wants to stay and the NFL wants to stay then all we would need is the local government to want them to stay and all would be well.
Speaking of, the City/County of San Diego combination will put up money for a new stadium but not as much as Spanos would like, which is part of the impasse. Another speed bump is the facility the local politicians would help fund will very likely have to be in Mission Valley instead of Downtown San Diego.
During the failed Measure C “campaign” Spanos said he couldn’t see the team under his ownership going back there. Odds are it was a scare tactic aimed at getting votes but it does provide a problem since a return now will make it look like Dean limped back to Mission Valley with his tail between his legs.
That is not how anyone wants to be perceived, especially not a man who owns an NFL team. Still, the finances of all this could be enough to make it happen.
If the Chargers stay they will be asked to contribute $300-$350 million to the new stadium build. That is a lot of money but a drop in the bucket compared to what they will have to pony up if they decided to pay rent in Inglewood.
To move the relocation fee is at least $500 million. Building a new practice facility is another, at least, $100 million. Paying severances to workers that don’t go with the team, hiring new staffers, moving the family, paying rent in a new spot and losing revenue from a severe lack of ticket sales in a market that does not want them …
Add all that up and you’re looking at nearly $1 billion dollars to go to Los Angeles.
I understand that there is a bigger pool up in L.A. with more potential fans and more potential advertisers. But you only make money from those entities if you know how to sell yourself. Has anything in the Chargers marketing history under this ownership group suggested they have the ability to pull off some kind of advertising coup in a city where they have next to zero fan base?
(Hint: the answer starts with an N and ends with an O)
The NFL also knows this, which is why the league is seriously considering figuring out a way to help the Bolts stay put. It is in no way impossible to get a new facility built in San Diego, although financing will be difficult.
That word … difficult … is the reason why it’s anything but a slam dunk for the Chargers to stay put. Spanos wants a stadium deal done and he wants basically everyone else to do it for him, from his string of advisors and lawyers to the local government. He has said he doesn’t see another option BUT to go to L.A. and part of the reason is a stadium will be there waiting for him, built and financed by someone else.
That is awfully intoxicating for Dean Spanos.
Given the financial picture laid out earlier really the only logical reason for the Chargers to move to Los Angeles is to sell the team. Once it lands in L.A. the value increases and the asking price to sell soars to at least $2.5 billion.
Of course we have no idea if that is the ownership group’s plan or not. They have not broached that topic publicly very often. My gut tells me Dean likes being in the fraternity of NFL owners and doesn’t want to give that up quite yet.
So … is it go to a house someone else builds in a new city? Or stick with the community that supported your team for the entirety of your tenure, right up until you tried to abandon them?
The easy road? Or the honorable one?
One of the things the fellow owners are always praising Dean Spanos for is his loyalty. They see him as the good soldier who does what he can for the league.
If loyalty truly is one of Dean’s qualities then he will make more than one real push at a stadium in San Diego. He will reject the Los Angeles option, work with the local government and the NFL on a stadium plan to be put before San Diego voters in November of 2018, and then if that doesn’t work he will truly be out of options and be able to move north with a clean conscience.
That is what I believe is going to happen. It will not be surprising if he leaves. But given all the factors involved here it would be the wrong decision.UK troops to be sent to Ukraine
Up to 75 British military personnel will deploy to Ukraine next month to provide advice and training to government forces, Prime Minister David Cameron has announced.
The UK servicemen will be based well away from the areas of conflict in the east of the country, and will offer support with medical, intelligence, logistics and infantry training. There has been no decision to move to supplying lethal weaponry to the Kiev government.
The deployment was announced as Mr Cameron warned of "deeply damaging" consequences for the whole of Europe if the EU fails to stand up to Russian president Vladimir Putin in Ukraine. If he is not reined in, Mr Putin could target the Baltic states or Moldova next, creating instability which would have a "dreadful" impact on the UK economy, said the Prime Minister.
Vladimir Putin said armed conflict was in no-one's interest
Addressing the House of Commons Liaison Committee, Mr Cameron vowed t hat Britain would be "the strongest pole in the tent" arguing for tougher sanctions against Moscow if Russian-backed militias in eastern Ukraine fail to observe the ceasefire agreement reached in Minsk on February 12. It would be "miraculous" if the terms of the agreement were met in full, he said.
Further destabilisation should be met by sanctions which are "materially different" from the asset freezes and travel bans imposed so far, perhaps involving Russia's exclusion from the Swift international banking payments system, said the Prime Minister.
Mr Cameron also indicated he is ready to give the BBC more funding to provide news services to counter " the deluge of Russian-paid and backed media spreading disinformation" in the region.
Foreign ministers of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France meeting in Paris failed to reach agreement over the withdrawal of heavy weapons by both sides from the front line, which was promised in the Minsk accord.
Ukrainian foreign minister Pavlo Klimkin said there was progress on some "technical aspects" but no agreement on apportioning blame for the sporadic violence which has continued following the ceasefire deal, particularly around the strategic railway town of Debaltseve.
Asked on Russian television if there was a real threat of war in eastern Ukraine, Mr Putin is reported to have said: "I think that such an apocalyptic scenario is unlikely and I hope this will never happen... No one wants conflict on the edge of Europe, especially armed conflict."
But the EU's high representative for foreign affairs Federica Mogherini said there already was a war and the Minsk agreement represented the best hope for peace.
She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We have to make it succeed. This is the only agreement that was signed by the parties, it has been supported by the UN Security Council resolution and it is the only way we have to make peace possible in Ukraine."
Setting out details of the new UK military mission, Mr Cameron told the Liaison Committee: "We are not at the stage of supplying lethal equipment. We have announced a whole series of non-lethal equipment, night-vision goggles, body armour, which we have already said that we will give to Ukraine.
"Over the course of the next month we are going to be deploying British service personnel to provide advice and a range of training, from tactical intelligence to logistics to medical care, which is something else they have asked for.
"We will also be developing an infantry training programme with Ukraine to improve the durability of their forces. This will involve a number of British service personnel. They will be away from the area of conflict but I think this is the sort of thing we should be helping with."
Mr Cameron said the EU should go ahead with the extension of sanctions which were put on hold earlier this year and there would be an "overwhelming" argument for tougher measures against Moscow if separatists targeted the sea-port of Mariupol, which is widely seen as the next potential flashpoint.
He acknowledged that it would be "difficult" to achieve unanimity on the continuation of EU sanctions when they come up for renewal in July, but added that "the horrors of Debaltseve" should show Europe "who we are dealing with and how firm we need to be".
"I think that if, miraculously, heavy weapons are withdrawn, ceasefires are held, elections start, and all the elements of Minsk are put in place, I think you'd see people wanting to lighten the sanctions load," he said. "But if we don't see that, you will get a different view.
"Britain's role is to be at the tougher end of the spectrum, to try to keep the European Union and the United States together, and I think we should be clear about this pattern of behaviour we've seen from Putin now over many years."
It was "only a firm stand that will be taken notice of by the Kremlin," said the Prime Minister. While further sanctions would cause "short-term pain" to European economies, he warned that "the instability we will yield if we don't stand up to Russia in the long term will be deeply damaging to all of us".
"You will see further destabilisation - next it will be Moldova or one of the Baltic states - and that sort of instability and uncertainty will be dreadful for our economies, dreadful for our stability."
Mr Cameron played down recent high-profile episodes where Russian bombers had been escorted off the British coast, telling MPs the UK was "more than capable of protecting our air space" and adding that it was not clear there had been any increase in the number of incidents.
And he said the UK should have "confidence" in its dealings with Russia, whose economy was ailing due to sanctions and falling oil prices and which had not enjoyed the "fantastic success" it claimed in Ukraine.
"Because a couple of Russian planes fly around the Channel, we shouldn't talk ourselves in to a situation where we think somehow we cannot defend ourselves. We absolutely can," said the Prime Minister.
Ms Mogherini indicated that US proposals to supply arms to the Ukrainian military could be a distraction from the peace process. The Kiev authorities were concentrating on making the Minsk agreement work and "talking about anything else makes it more difficult", she said.
Mr Cameron said he had not ruled out "forever" supplying lethal equipment, but told MPs: "We've had National Security Council discussions, we've had very clear decisions that we should be in the space of providing non-lethal support... W e don't believe, fundamentally, there is some military solution to this issue."
Britain's Ambassador to the United Nations told the UN Security Council that recent days had seen "systematic" breaches of the Minsk accord, and said the UK will work to ensure that sanctions on Russia remain in place until Moscow demonstrates a clear commitment to the principles of dialogue, peace and security. So far there had been "few signs of Moscow's willingness to engage constructively", he said.
Sir Mark Lyall Grant said that, since February 12, the monitoring mission of the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe) had observed " continuous breaches of the ceasefire that threaten to destabilise eastern Ukraine further, and undermine the Minsk agreements in their entirety".
He said: "Minsk called for a ceasefire to begin on 15 February and for the withdrawal of heavy weaponry to start from 16 February. Yet within 40 minutes of coming into effect, the ceasefire was shattered by a Russian-backed separatist offensive on Debaltseve. On 19 February, Ukrainian forces withdrew from the city. Scores of Ukrainian soldiers were left dead or injured.
"The continued presence of Russian military hardware, including Uragan rocket launchers and T-72 tanks around Debaltseve, shows that Russia's commitment to withdraw foreign military formations - which was a key element of the Minsk agreements - has been disregarded. The OSCE report that convoys are still crossing the international border and the shelling persists in Donetsk and Luhansk in clear violation of the ceasefire."
Sir Mark said: "As a signatory to the Minsk agreements, Russia needs to ensure that the separatist forces respect the ceasefire. And it must fulfil its own commitment to fully withdraw the heavy weapons it has supplied them with and its military formations from Ukrainian territory."
And he added: "Nearly a year on from the illegal annexation of Crimea, we are faced with a crisis that has expanded far beyond the Black Sea and now threatens the security of the region, and the credibility of this Council. The pattern is familiar from Russian behaviour in Georgia and Moldova. Agreements are reached, ceasefires arranged, territorial gains consolidated. In Ukraine, these agreements are systematically breached within days, the violence resumes and the push for more territory begins again."
It was " in no-one's interests to return to an era where agreements between leaders become worthless", said Sir Mark, urging the Security Council to ensure that there are "clear consequences" for any further breaches of the Minsk agreement.via Will Brinson/Vine
Everyone knows that when a player throws something into the stands, it should go to a child if one is near. However, it apparently becomes a free-for-all when a superstar athlete tosses an item into the stands in an area where several kids are present.
After scoring a two-yard touchdown near the end of the first half of Sunday's game against the Cleveland Browns, Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton gave the ball to a young admirer in the front row. That's when things got a little out of control.
Three kids apparently felt like they each were entitled to the football, so they all fought over the souvenir. A fourth kid even tried to jump in at the last second and get his hands on the rare piece of memorabilia.
[Will Brinson, h/t USA Today's FTW]CLOSE The World Economic Forum estimates solar and wind are now the same price or cheaper than fossil fuels in more than 30 countries. Video provided by Newsy Newslook
California Senate Leader Kevin de León, D- Los Angeles, speaks during the first day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on July 25, 2016. (Photo: Mark J. Terrill/AP)
PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — Kevin de León has promised to lead the resistance to President Trump. A new bill could make good on that promise.
The California Senate leader has introduced legislation that would require the Golden State to get 100% of its electricity from climate-friendly energy sources by 2045. That's a big step up from the state's current renewable energy mandate, 50% by 2030 — a target that's only been on the books for a year and a half, and that California is still a long way from meeting.
Under Gov. Jerry Brown, California has become a world leader in efforts to limit global warming, which is caused primarily by the burning of fossil fuels. De León's 100% clean energy proposal would up the ante considerably — and fly in the face of Donald Trump's agenda. The president has repeatedly called human-caused global warming a "hoax," despite overwhelming scientific evidence that it's real and dangerous, and has pledged to boost America's production of climate-polluting coal, oil and natural gas, which he says will create millions of high-paying jobs.
De León's bill would require California to hit 50% renewable energy by 2025, five years sooner than under current law, and phase out fossil fuels entirely by 2045. It's not yet clear whether the Senate leader will move forward the proposal, which he introduced before the state's bill-filing deadline on Friday, almost certainly to serve as a placeholder for more detailed legislation that could be fleshed out later.
Still, clean energy advocates celebrated the proposal. De León's legislation reflects the Golden State's "moral imperative" to slash climate pollution, said Jim Woodruff, president of the Large-scale Solar Association, a Sacramento trade group that has worked with de León on the bill.
"Whether it’s a direct response to what’s happening in Washington, I don't know, but it's certainly an indication that California will continue to lead in this area," said Woodruff, who is also an executive at First Solar, which has built several large solar farms in the desert Southwest. "It's the sixth-largest economy in the world. I think by putting these goals out, it's making a pretty powerful statement, not only in the U.S., but globally, that if we set out the goals and put the resources to it, those goals can be achieved."
The 550-megawatt Desert Sunlight solar farm in Riverside County, California, about halfway between the Coachella Valley and the Arizona border. (Photo: Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun)
So far only one U.S. state, Hawaii, has a law requiring 100% renewable energy, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Hawaii has also set a deadline of 2045.
A spokesperson for de León declined to make the senator available for an interview. But the Los Angeles Democrat has worked closely with Brown to pass other landmark climate bills, writing the 2015 law that established the 50% clean energy mandate. And he's made it clear he's eager to push back against the Trump administration on immigration, energy and other issues.
"California was not a part of this nation when its history began, but we are clearly now the keeper of its future," de León and state Assembly leader Anthony Rendon said in a joint statement the day after Trump's election in November.
Experts say Trump's energy plan is unrealistic, and not just because it ignores the need to reduce emissions of climate-altering greenhouse gases. Trump and congressional Republicans have said they will revive the shrinking coal industry by repealing former president Barack Obama's environmental regulations, but the reality is that market forces — especially the rise of cheap natural gas, made available by the drilling technique known as fracking — have been a major cause of coal's decline. Unless Trump can limit natural gas production, coal will continue to hurt, experts say.
CLOSE A Pew Research poll showed 65 percent of Americans support expanding clean energy over fossil fuels. Video provided by Newsy Newslook
Meanwhile, California's plans to scale up renewable energy look increasingly realistic. The Golden State got 27% of its electricity from solar, wind and other clean sources in 2016, according to the California Energy Commission. The state's sprawling deserts have been an epicenter of renewable energy growth, with several huge solar farms opening in eastern Riverside County. The solar industry has become an economic force, creating 100,000 jobs in California and 260,000 jobs nationally by late 2016, according to an industry-backed non-profit.
Getting to 100% renewable energy may not be simple, but experts say it can be done without significant increases to electricity rates, a concern often raised by fossil fuel supporters.
"Technically and economically, it's pretty straightforward," said Mark Jacobson, a Stanford University engineering professor who has studied the costs and benefits of phasing out fossil fuels.
The falling costs of wind and solar power are the main reason for that. Last year, researchers from the University of Texas at Austin found that wind turbines and big solar farms are already the cheapest sources of new electricity generation across much of the country — and they're still getting cheaper. In California, solar is the least expensive option for much of the state.
"The prices for renewables have come down farther and faster than anyone thought was possible," said Sonia Aggarwal, vice president of Energy Innovation, a San Francisco-based policy research group that supports clean energy development.
Antelope pass through Duke Energy's Happy Jack wind farm near Cheyenne, Wyoming on Dec. 6, 2016. (Photo: Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun)
Increased reliance on solar and wind farms is expected to create new challenges for California, since they only generate electricity when the sun shines or the wind blows. That's already becoming a problem during the middle of the day, when solar farms sometimes generate more electricity than people can use, and in the evening, when solar farms go offline just as people get home from work.
But experts who have studied the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy say California already has most of the tools it needs to solve those problems.
Those tools could include smarter energy management, such as encouraging homes and businesses to shift their electricity use to times of day when solar panels and wind turbines are active. Some of those shifts could be automated. For instance, Aggarwal said California's 3.5 million commercial and multifamily buildings could install pre-heating and pre-cooling technology, which could be programmed to power up when electricity from solar or wind farms floods the grid. Energy prices that vary throughout the day could encourage those buildings to use electricity when the time is right.
"We like to say there are already 3.5 million batteries installed in California," Aggarwal said.
Other tools for getting to 100% could include new twists on old technologies, like hydropower plants that are operated so as to complement wind and solar generation, and solar plants that use molten salt or other fluids to store energy for use when the sun goes down. (One such facility, the 110-megawatt Crescent Dunes solar tower, is already operating in Nevada.) California could also incentivize the development of more geothermal plants in the Imperial Valley, which are expensive to build but can generate climate-friendly electricity 24 hours a day.
Then there's Gov. Brown's controversial plan to link California's electric grid with other Western states, which could make it easier for utilities to import cheap wind energy from Wyoming and New Mexico. The plan has divided environmentalists, with supporters saying it's needed to help the state meet its renewable energy goals and detractors saying it might backfire, allowing politically conservative states like Utah and Wyoming to export their coal power to California. Whether or not Brown's grid plan comes to fruition, California is likely to get a big influx of wind from Wyoming.
Solar panels tilt upward to track the sun's movement through the sky at NextEra's 250-megawatt McCoy solar project in eastern Riverside County on Nov. 10, 2016. (Photo: Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun)
It's unclear how big a role batteries will play in storing solar and wind power for later use, both for homes and for utilities. Right now batteries are still too expensive for widespread use, and experts say California can get to 100% without major battery breakthroughs. But if batteries follow the solar industry's cost curve, they could make the transition to clean energy even cheaper.
Jacobson, the Stanford professor, has organized some of his research into the Solutions Project, which provides a state-by-state road map for abandoning fossil fuels and outlines the costs and benefits to each state. For California, he found that transitioning to 100% renewable energy would actually lower the cost of electricity, saving the average Californian $161 per year by 2050.
If the cost savings from reducing climate change and hazardous air pollution — most importantly lower health care costs — are also taken into account, California would save an average of $7,395 per person by 2050, Jacobson found. About 12,500 fewer people would die each year as a result of air pollution.
"It's a no-brainer," Jacobson said.
Follow Sammy Roth on Twitter: @Sammy_Roth
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2m2qUL6Publicly trashing former FBI Director James Comey while he's a witness is an obstruction of justice case was a big mistake for Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders may be the next administration official who needs to lawyer up as Robert Mueller’s special counsel investigation accelerates.
Specifically, Sanders may have placed herself in legal jeopardy by agreeing to be the White House point person for the nasty smear campaign it’s been running against former FBI Director James Comey, according to Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), who appeared on MSNBC’s “Hardball” Monday night with Chris Matthews.
Mueller’s legal team is currently investigating whether Donald Trump is guilty of obstruction of justice for firing Comey in May while the FBI was investigating Trump’s ties to Russia during last year’s campaign.
At the time, Trump openly admitted he removed Comey because he didn’t like the way the Russia probe was going. So Comey remains a crucial witness to that case. And he remains a crucial witness that Sanders has tried to publicly tarnish.
“If the motivation was to poison the reputation of James Comey with the grand jurors, you’ve got another count in the indictment,” said Whitehouse, who previously served as Rhode Island’s attorney general and served as U.S. attorney for the state in the 1990s. Whitehouse cited a code from federal obstruction of justice statute that forbids any attempt to influence grand jurors.
WHITEHOUSE: The three torpedoes that Sarah Huckabee’s Sanders shot at James Comey, which open up an entirely new avenue in the case for Mueller. There’s a statute, 1504 in the obstruction of justice statutes, that talks about attempts to influence grand jurors. So the question for Sarah Huckabee Sanders is, “Who asked you to do that? Who told you to do that?” And once you know who it is, you look to their motivation. And if their motivation was to poison the reputation of Jim Comey with grand jurors, you’ve got another count in the indictment.
Whitehouse made his comments the same day news broke that investigators from Mueller’s office reportedly told Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, that he should expect to be indicted. The federal government wiretapped Manafort both before and after the 2016 election, CNN reported Monday and captured conversation between him and Trump.
In terms of context and how bizarre it is to have a White House try to smear a witness in a criminal case that targets the White House, imagine if during the Bill Clinton impeachment imbroglio, the White House press secretary, during official briefings and behind the White House podium, regularly attacked Monica Lewinsky and suggested she be the subject of a criminal investigation.
Note that Clinton White House aide Sidney Blumenthal became enmeshed in a long-running impeachment |
would become Gallatin.
In 1889, The Washington Post published a letter from a reader identified as “C.H.R.” who had come up with a plan that used the names of U.S. cities and even echoed American geography. Streets in Northeast D.C. would be named after cities in the Northeast: Albany, Boston, Concord, etc. The streets in Northwest Washington would begin Akron, Buffalo, Chicago. In Southeast: Atlanta, Beaufort, Charleston. And in Southwest: Austin, Birmingham, Chattanooga.
In 1910, a Post letter-writer suggested using the names of Indian tribes: “Arapaho, Bonack, Catawba.”
“The people who are most vocal about it don’t think prosaic letters do justice to the greatness of the nation,” Michael said. “They find it childish or immature to have it that way. We should do something better, they say. And they suggest something better — or something they think is better.”
As you know, none was adopted. Answer Man likes to think the District’s seemingly simplistic street names honor something that may seem prosaic but is in fact vital to civilization: the alphabet itself.
Have a question about the Washington area? Write answerman@washpost.com. For previous columns, visit washingtonpost.com/johnkelly.Currently the CFC find themselves between a rock and a hard place. They are attempting to hold their sovereignty on two fronts in a way that is just not feasible post-Phoebe, and they are suffering for it.
When they first deployed to QPO, they stated their intentions to wipe out Black legion and gain ‘vengeance’. Unfortunately, a day later N3 pushed into Fountain and reinforced Y-2. The CFC having moved their entire capital force out of any possible range of Y-2 now faced the problem of having to defend a system 40 jumps away.
When the first timer came out, they made their way slowly burning a 700+ man Tengu fleet the 40 jumps setting up in the system an hour before the timer came out. They waited and waited only for N3 to not show up at all. So they repped the iHub and made their way slowly home, writing the 4-hour op off as a simple move op, moving jump clones and Tengus into Fountain.
Since then N3 have reinforced Y-2 again, and there have been several skirmishes over the system. N3 have now moved their super capital capitals into range, and the system is busy running down its final iHub timer. To add to that, N3 have SBU’ed other systems and even put some of them into reinforce. N3 have dropped a large amount of TCU’s in LGB, claiming their first system in Fountain.
The CFC are looking at arguably some of the worst press they have ever had coming of an incident where they deliberately killed one of their own titan and black listed the pilot. This all seems to be a hasty decision made on bad intel, as none of the CFC are willing to release any form of evidence stating “Basically, the reason is because everything that wasn’t witness testimony or circumstantial evidence was pulled directly from our IT services, and showing you that shit would be a gigantic vulnerability. “. This refusal to show any evidence, and the fact that evidence has been presented to counter their case has left them with egg on their face. To the outside world they seem heartless, killing a member of Space Monkey Alliance, who was their capital leader as well as a member for four years. He has since stated that he will be leaving the game having lost his titan and all the time he invested into SMA and CFC.
As for their campaign against Black legion, they have seen almost no gain at all. Because they are making the 40 jumps to Fountain every day, Black legion have been left with plenty of time to recapture any lost moons. Any attempts at hell camping K3J have been short lived with Black legion perfectly happy to undock and brawl. They seem at a loss as to what the can do when the sov of a system can not be taken. The CFC are touting their holding of MTO as a victory. While in truth the only reason Black legion have made attempts at it is because they have had so much free time while the CFC are distracted in Fountain.
Another thorn in the CFC’s side is the recent announcement that Triumvirate will be pushing to take CFC sov in Vale Of The Silent. This will add a third front that will need to be defended. If the current technique of moving their entire force to the engagement continues then they will have to move huge distances every day.
The CFC seems to be in a tight spot at the moment. The current frequency of alliance updates says a lot for their situation as the leadership need to keep the member base calm and stop them from losing faith. How they deal with the attack on three fronts will be very interesting.Hopatcong, NJ
On November 17th at 7:00 pm a live stream began on Facebook. The star of the video, known on Facebook as "Otis Spunkmeyer", is Kevin Hemmerich. The video is being streamed by his brother Jason Hemmerich from the Facebook profile "Raymundo Thunk".
The video is instantly entertaining because Kevin is in a bunny suit equipped large pink ears and all. Kevin also has an air horn.
The humor started when Kevin was told he would have to turn himself in for a violation of his SLAP probation.
S.L.A.P. is a program in New Jersey. It is actually called the Sheriff's Labor Assistance Program. This is a community-based corrections program that provides a structured alternative to imprisonment. People sentenced to SLAP perform moderate levels of manual labor instead of sitting in a jail cell.
So this program provides free manual labor for the state of NJ. People are given the choice to provide slave labor or sit in jail. The crimes that fit the program are not crimes at all. To qualify you have to have no victim. Meaning it has to be a simple non violent garbage charge in the first place.
Kevin decided if they were gonna lock him up for nothing he would at least have fun with it. Equipped with a bunny suit and a bullhorn he walked straight into the police department. His brother was following quietly with the camera.
Kevin walked up to the window and blew the air horn several times. He announced he was here to turn himself in. The woman was not amused. She yelled at him to stop it with the air horn. Kevin did not. He hit the button many more times over the next few minutes while he waited for officers to come take him to jail.
The mood changes when they see a police car come in fast from outside. The car was occupied by Officer Nick Maresca and his partner Officer Chris Lottito.
Nick Maresca was the first through the door. Kevin placed the air horn down and put his hands out to show he was no threat. Maresca immediately says "Who's blowing the f***** air horn?! " Kevin says "Me". Officer Maresca says "Why the F**** are you doing that?" Kevin responds "I don't know." That is when the officer slams him against the wall and punches him in the face while yelling "You don't F**ing know?!"
Kevin's brother quickly alerts the cops they are on camera. The cop says "I don't care about that". That's when Maresca grabbed Kevin and physically threw him into the back room. Maresca's partner, Chris Lottito went after Jason demanding to know why he was there. When Jason informed him he was there so his brother could turn himself in he was immediately pushed physically outside.
Kevin currently sits in the Sussex county jail on his original sentence of 12 days for violating the rules of the slave labor program.
He is now also facing charges of harassment, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.
The person filming this whole thing was called to the police station 2 hours after leaving. He was told he had to come to pick up paperwork for his brother. When he arrived he was ALSO taken into custody. He was forced into the back and photographed. They then handed him a stack of charges.
The police claim that the person filming the encounter is guilty of harassment of the police. They also claim that he is guilty of disorderly conduct.
The last I checked filming is not a crime. Last I checked we are all responsible for our actions. You can not be charged with harassing an on duty official. Otherwise every cop would arrest every cop watcher every day.
I called the department myself and spoke with the desk Sargent. He informed me that there is an open investigation into the incident and the department can not comment further. I asked if the officer was on duty still. Again I was told "no comment" and was hung up on.
Once again the state of New Jersey has shown that its police play by their own rules. We see what happened to Trenton NJ after doing similar to a man there. The tax payers will be paying for years to come on that case.
If you wish to speak with the department about their misdeeds you can do so at the links below.
Phone 973-398-5000
EMAIL:
CHIEF OF POLICE bbrennan@hopatcongpolice.org
Officer Chris lotito (on scene partner) Clotito@hopatcongpolice.org
Officer Nick Maresca (cop that punched man) nmaresca@hopatcongpolice.orgWell, Christie Cream is finally back in New Jersey and apparently he heard on the campaign trail that his state has some of the strictest (and most ridiculous) gun-control laws in the country.
Last June, after the senseless stabbing death of New Jersey resident Carol Bowne as she waited for a firearm permit for self defense, the portly Governor said Democrats in the state legislature were “going to have to answer” for the Garden State’s laws.
“I’m dealing with a Democratic legislature — that’s what New Jersey’s given me,” said Christie in 2015. “They have a very, very different view of the Second Amendment than I do. But they’re going to have to answer for these things. There was, apparently, a protest this weekend, in front of the Senate President’s home, for folks regarding the Carol Bowne situation.”
So what did he do about it? He ditched the state to hit the campaign trail on his unsuccessful presidential bid.
Now that he’s back, it seems he may have heard Americans’ complaints about New Jersey’s draconian gun laws, but are his efforts too little, too late? Over three months after the New Jersey Firearm Purchase and Permitting Study Commission he tasked with issuing recommendations completed their findings, the governor finally rolled around to releasing them on Friday.
“I have seen far too many instances in my time as governor of otherwise lawful gun owners facing severe criminal penalties when they have no intent to violate the law in the routine transport of their lawfully owned firearms,” Christie said this week.
Christie also recalled the Bowne case as a prime example “of a permitting system that had failed and needed to be re-examined and fixed.”
The guidelines issued by acting Attorney General Robert Lougy, appointed by Christie last June to review the firearms permitting process, bluntly directs authorities to “simply follow the law by processing permit applications in a timely fashion,” according to the release.
Additional revisions include:
Applicants ability to legally cite a “serious threat” as justifiable reason to carry a weapon
Where an individual may possess an unloaded, securely stored firearm
Permits are no longer necessary for travel between home and business, or to shooting ranges and hunting grounds
While this may be fine and dandy for now, it’s ridiculous that it took almost a year for Christie to make these simple changes. The Governor continues to blindly wander through his roll without acknowledging or addressing his constituents’ angst. Reacting to his excessive time out of state, some residents of New Jersey called for Christie to step down as Governor, starting a petition called Step Down Chris, Make New Jersey Great Again.In this manner, an estimated 70% to 80% of permits are illegally in use by someone other than the permit holder. Some have been legally owned by the same person for two decades, even if he or she hasn’t touched a shawarma since the administration of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. (The health department, which distributes the permits, couldn’t produce back records of permit ownership.)
At the center of this underground economy sits a loose network of garages known as licensed commissaries where, by law, every food cart must be cleaned and stored each night. While these garages serve as a meeting point for the food cart world, there is a decentralized network of owners, brokers and would-be vendors that has evaded the haphazard efforts of law enforcement.
On a cold, rainy morning earlier this year, I visited nearly a dozen of these garages to figure out how, exactly, this illicit system operates.
In Manhattan, the commissaries are clustered in Hell’s Kitchen. Most are no wider than a single-car garage, deep as a typical railroad apartment, and hidden in plain sight behind hanging strips of thick clear plastic. Often, a broken food cart sits along a back wall, awaiting repairs.
The licensed commissaries are largely modest operations, garages that store and service just 10 to 15 carts whose operators pay upward of $600 per month. The commissary owners often require vendors to buy their provisions from the garage. Commissary owners make most of their money from a 5% to 10% markup on supplies.
Manhattan’s largest commissary doesn’t even store or clean food carts. From their headquarters on West 37th Street, Tom and George Makkos have run M&T Pretzel for more than three decades. Born in Athens, the Makkos brothers immigrated to New York in their teens with their parents; like many Greek immigrants of the time, their father supported his family with a food cart.
After college, Tom and George returned to the family business. Seeing opportunity in Koch’s permit cap, they amassed a fleet of food carts—and, crucially, the permits that made them legal. It’s not known exactly how many permits the Makkoses held at their peak, but a current employee (who insisted on anonymity) told Crain’s it was “thousands.”
By 1995, the brothers, dubbed the Hot Dog Kings by The New York Times, were in a position to pay the city a $288,200 franchise fee for the right to vend for one year from a single hot dog cart in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. That same year, they paid $480,400 for the rights to Central Park’s 60 concessions, making them the Parks Department’s second-largest revenue driver, after Tavern on the Green.
Soon enough, the high-flying Makkos brothers—and at least one other mini-empire of hot dog carts—attracted the unwanted attention of Mayor Giuliani. In February 1995, the City Council passed a law limiting mobile food vending permits to one per person or company, effective Jan. 1, 1996. The idea was to once again make the food-cart business a path for aspiring entrepreneurs. With the end nigh, the Makkoses diversified (Tom is a longtime co-owner of the upscale Italian restaurant Nello), relinquishing the pushcarts as their permits expired and becoming suppliers instead.
Twenty years later, by all appearances, M&T Pretzel is nothing but a wholesaling business, and has nothing to do with amassing—or renting—food cart permits. Along the back wall of the large, well-lit space, a row of humming commercial refrigerators holds enough hot dogs to feed a stadium. Stacks of soft drinks fill more of the remaining floor space.
The Makkoses still appreciate the power of a monopoly. Said one older man at a nearby garage, “If you buy a bottle of Poland Spring in the city, you go through them. Period.”
That’s barely exaggeration: The lot next to M&T is filled with shrink-wrapped pallets of beverages—many with the familiar Poland Spring logo, stacked two-high and packed Tetris-tight by two busy men on forklifts.
Tom Makkos—charming, funny, recreationally vulgar and good with a handshake—declined to speak on the record with Crain’s when I met him that morning. Reached by phone several weeks later, he told me he’s no longer involved in the retail end of the business.
“I do not own any permits,” he said. “I don’t own any carts. I have nothing to do with that.”
Just one block away, I met Hell’s Kitchen’s other commissary king, Zizo—“No last name, please”—who came to the U.S. from Egypt in the early ’80s. He’s been in food carts ever since, clawing his way up from vendor to garage owner. Today he has the second-largest commissary in Manhattan.
Like M&T Pretzel, Zizo’s garage (whose trade name was never made clear, and defied research efforts) is also enormous by industry standards. I found Zizo sitting at a cluttered desk in the back. He looks to be in his 50s, fit and solid in that manner of men who don’t actually sit for a living, and he was eager to talk about how the business has changed over the years.
Not that food vending was ever easy, he made clear, but it’s harder than ever. When he arrived, “everybody got a permit,” he said. “Everybody could work.” The barrier to entry was low enough to encourage entrepreneurship. In the 1980s, Zizo said, a classic hot dog pushcart cost $3,000 to $4,000 to buy; today’s carts, equipped to prepare halal lunches with griddles and coolers, can easily run $35,000.
When asked about permits, Zizo sighed, stood up and pointed to my notebook. “The price of permit going up, up, up,” he said, jabbing his finger to make sure I got his point. Today, he said, a permit costs $20,000 for a two-year black-market rental. He expects that number to rise to $22,000 next year.
New rules by the city have only made it more expensive to rent a permit illicitly. In 2015, the health department began requiring permit holders to show up in person to contest tickets for violating the myriad rules of where and when carts can operate. (Previously, the licensed food seller was held responsible.) To account for this greater risk, owners are pricing permits higher still. Some even require a security deposit in addition to the biennial fee.
“Where are these permits changing hands?” I asked.
“Go to Astoria,” Zizo said. “That’s where the brokers are.”
When Giuliani instituted the one-person, one-permit rule in 1996, the food cart business was dominated by Greeks. “Then,” Zizo said, “the Egyptians took over. Now it’s Bangladeshis and Iranians and Turks.” Astoria has been home to all these groups, and that’s why Zizo sent me to Queens to find the permit brokers.
On a late Saturday afternoon in March, working with just a few cross streets and first names, I went looking for “Dmitri” and “Effie,” both said to handle certain tasks on behalf of food vendors.Aaron Carter 'You Won't Catch Me Getting Any DUI's' Days Before DUI Refusal Arrest
Aaron Carter Says, 'You Won't Catch Me Getting Any DUI's' Days Before DUI Refusal Arrest
EXCLUSIVE
Aaron Carter doesn't drink or get DUIs... which is what Aaron Carter said days before getting arrested for DUI refusal.
We got video of Aaron in his hometown of Tampa, Florida last Monday talking smack about Shia LaBeouf's most recent drunken run-in with the law, insisting, "You won't catch me getting any DUIs... I don't even drink."
Point of fact... Shia wasn't booked for driving under the influence... cops arrested him for public drunkenness, disorderly conduct and obstruction.
Aaron got a DUI refusal Saturday in Habersham County, Georgia. His girlfriend, Madison Parker, was also arrested. She's in the video too and dishes some bad advice.Google doesn’t provide an easy way to see the storage, RAM, CPU, and other specifications of your Chromebook. But it’s possible to dig all this information up, just as you can on a traditional computer operating system.
RELATED: 4 Things to Keep in Mind When Buying a Chromebook For Linux
The specifications matter if you’re considering upgrading your Chromebook and want to know how much hardware you have. The techniques we’re covering also tell you if you have an ARM or Intel CPU, which is important if you’re installing a full Linux system on your Chromebook.
Check Available Storage
RELATED: 6 Ways to Free Up Space on a Chromebook
To view how much local storage your Chrome OS device has available, open the “Files” app and click the menu button. You’ll see a meter showing how much local storage space you have left. You can free up space by deleting files from your Downloads folder and clearing your cache.
View Memory, CPU, and Network Usage
Chrome has its own task manager on Chrome OS, too. To use it, open any Chrome window. Click the menu button, point to “More Tools”, and then select the “Task Manager” option. The task manager shows you how much memory, CPU, and network activity different web pages, browser extensions, and apps are using.
Use the System Page
Chrome OS offers a special page that shows system information. You don’t need to install anything extra to find it. Unfortunately, this feature doesn’t provide the most user-friendly interface.
To locate this interface, type “chrome://system” into Chrome’s address bar and press Enter. (You can open this page on Windows, Mac, or Linux, too — but Chrome won’t show anywhere near as much system information.)
Much of the information here is more technical than what most people need, but you can see detailed information about your release version of Chrome OS, the device’s CPU, disk usage, its hardware platform, and network connection information.
Examine Network Connection Details
If you need to know your Chromebook’s network connection information—for example, its current IP or MAC address, or your router’s IP address—first, open the Settings page. The easiest way to get there is to click the notification area, and then select the gear-shaped “Settings” icon.
Click the name of your network connection under the “Network” section at the top of the Settings window, and then click your connection name in the list. The IP address is shown on the main page.
Expand the “Advanced” section to see details like your MAC address, SSID, and signal strength.
Expand the “Network section to see details like your routing prefix (subnet mask), gateway (router address), and DNS server addresses.
Find Your Chromebook’s Name with the Recovery Utility
RELATED: How to Factory Reset a Chromebook (Even if It Won’t Boot)
Google offers a Chromebook Recovery Utility you can install on your Chromebook. Install this app and launch it. The utility is mainly designed for creating recovery media that you can use to restore your Chromebook’s operating system if it becomes damaged. However, the first page of the app (after you click the “Get Started” button also shows you the exact model name of your Chromebook and and lets you match it to a more user-friendly name. You can then Google this Chromebook name for more information, if you like.
Install a System Information App
RELATED: How to Get Detailed Information About Your PC
Google has added a variety of system APIs to Chrome OS, so simple apps can read system information and display it. Google hasn’t included such an interface with the operating system because it really doesn’t want you to have to care what hardware is in your Chromebook. These apps function like the system information utilities do on Windows.
For example, you could install Cog, a system information utility created by François Beaufort, a Google employee.
Cog shows you the name of your CPU and architecture, your current system CPU usage, the total amount of RAM in your system, the amount of memory left, network connection information, display specifications, and a few other details. Other apps work similarly, as there’s only so much information an app can get from Chrome OS and display to you.
If necessary, you can find more detailed hardware specifications with a simple Google search after you find the exact model name of your Chromebook.Here is a surefire solution to inequality–Increase fertility among the rich. If the rich had more children, capital would grow more slowly across the generations and perhaps not at all. If r=4 and g=2 then capital doubles as a share of the economy in 35 years (using the rule of 70). That figure is actually too low as it assumes that the wealthy save all of their capital income but let’s stick with 35 years and call that a generation. Wealth per rich person, however, only doubles if every wealthy family has just 2 children. If every wealthy family has 4 children, wealth per person doesn’t increase and so inequality does not increase even when r>g. If the wealthy consume about 20% of their capital income (still a very high savings rate) and have just 3 children then again we have approximate balance and no increase in inequality over the generations. With a more reasonable figure on r-g or with more children, wealth per person actually declines.
Thus, Piketty’s “patrimonial capital” contains its own internal contradiction. The more patrimony the less capital.
So how can we increase fertility among the rich? Mormon fertility is higher than average so capital inequality could decline if more rich people will be or become Mormons. Had we elected a President Romney (5 children and some 22 grandchildren! Or is it 23? Romney has lost count), perhaps that would have encouraged greater fertility among the rich.
It’s an evolutionary puzzle why the rich don’t have more children as the costs to them are low and at very high levels of wealth there is no quantity-quality tradeoff. Perhaps this is a temporary response to the shock of birth control. If so, the effect of the shock is likely to fade over time as evolution works its logic.
In Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids Bryan Caplan notes that we overestimate the effect of parental investment on children and we underestimate the pleasures of grandchildren, in both cases choosing too few children. The rich should read Bryan’s book.
In these calculations I have assumed that primogeniture won’t make a comeback, that seems solid. Assortative mating, however, will slow wealth dispersion. I have also assumed that savings and fertility are independent which is unlikely to be the case. Becker and Barro (1988) suggest that more children will increase savings but less than proportionally so the logic continues to hold. Note also that this works both ways, wealthy people with fewer children will save less. Bill Gates has three children but has already given away a substantial fraction of his fortune and he has pledged to give away much more. Even parental altruism has its limits and Bill Gates has decided that on the margin he would rather give money to poor children in Africa than to his own children. Bill Gates’s shadow will not eat our future.
So what is the second surefire method to reduce capital inequality? Reduce fertility among the rich! If the rich as a class have fewer than 2 children then it follows inexorably that their time is numbered, albeit without first creating a small number of very rich people.
The logic of r-g turns out to be highly dependent on savings behavior, fertility decisions and the nature of altruistic bequests.Several at City Hall raised the question before the election:
Had Scott Walker cut any closed-door deals with the local police and firefighters unions to gain their support during last year's campaign?
Some Milwaukee officials believe they have an answer now that the state budget repair bill is out and Walker has exempted law enforcement and firefighters from the dramatic changes he is proposing in bargaining rules for other public employee unions.
"I'm very disappointed," said Ald. Michael Murphy, a critic of the newly elected governor. "It seems to be almost like a pay-to-play."
Except the Milwaukee Professional Firefighters Association and Milwaukee Police Association don't deliver much in terms of campaign donations. The firefighters gave Walker no money, while the police union chipped in $1,100 to his campaign and that of his lieutenant governor.
What these labor groups deliver instead is an image that their candidate is tough on crime. You may remember that in addition to endorsing the eventual winner, leaders from both Milwaukee unions starred in one of Walker's most compelling campaign ads late in the election season.
"I can't speak to whether any deals were cut," said Patrick Curley, chief of staff for Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, a Democrat who was defeated by Walker in November. "But it's obvious that these two groups received special consideration in this bill."
On Friday, the first-term Republican governor called it "utterly ridiculous" to suggest that the provision in the budget bill was a payback to Milwaukee's police and fire unions.
Walker noted that the Wisconsin Professional Police Association and the Professional Fire Fighters of Wisconsin - the two state organizations - backed his opponent. If the new governor really wanted to reward his supporters, he said he could have simply exempted the Milwaukee unions from his proposal.
Instead, the governor said he is concerned that his budget bill may lead to walkouts by some public employees. He didn't recommend changing the rules for cops and firefighters because he said Wisconsin can't afford for them to leave those positions vacant for even a short period.
"To me, that's not an area to mess around with," Walker told the Journal Sentinel.
The head of the Milwaukee police union agrees.
"I don't think we're being paid back," said Michael Crivello, the union president.
From the start, Crivello said, Walker's message hasn't changed. He said the former Milwaukee County executive has emphasized the need to make the state strong again and the need to have strong public safety.
Under his proposal, public employees - except police, firefighters and inspectors - would lose many bargaining rights and could opt out of paying union dues in the future, with dues no longer collected automatically. He is also recommending limiting pay raises for state workers while asking them to contribute more to their pensions and health insurance.
Murphy, the Milwaukee alderman, said he still expects Walker to push a bill to end the requirement that police and firefighters have to live in the city in which they work.
"A lot of them will want to leave the city because the taxes are too high because we're paying high benefits to police and firefighters," said the west side politician.
Dave Seager, head of the Milwaukee firefighters union, said Walker has made his group no promises on any issue. But Seager - who appeared in his full firefighter's garb for the Walker TV spot last fall - said he would have been derelict in his duties if he hadn't raised the residency issue with Walker last year.
And what was the response? Seager said Walker pointed out that he backed legislation to repeal the requirement when he was a legislator.
"He said, 'I support it now; I supported it then - I support the residency repeal,' " Seager said. "But there were no promises at all."
No promises. No deals. Just a meeting of minds.
Strange bedfellows
It's a bizarre political metaphor, one that County Board Chairman Lee Holloway keeps calling up.
The north side pol says he is under attack from the local media - the Journal Sentinel, in particular - but will fight off the criticism and rise up like Godzilla.
"I may be down, but I come back stronger than ever," he says in a cheap and campy YouTubead.
Last week, the clip was the buzz - much of it negative - of bloggers, news outlets and talk radio.
But here's the surprising part:
The Godzilla video and a couple dozen other Holloway YouTube clips are the work of a former GOP operative who is helping out the north side politician's campaign.
Holloway said political consultantTodd Rongstad, who got his start in the Assembly Republican caucus and recently did campaign work for school choice supporters, approached the County Board chairman about assisting the campaign. Holloway attacks the media, his opponents and city building inspectors in the other videos produced by Rongstad, who once described himself as a political "hit man."
"He felt sorry for us," Holloway said.
Holloway's campaign manager, Barbara White, declined to say how much the Holloway team is paying Rongstad for the low-budget videos, saying that the figure will be disclosed in future campaign reports.
Despite the generally negative coverage for the videos, White said she couldn't be happier with them. Holloway must agree. He did a contentious Thursday radio interview in which he likened himself to Godzilla, something he did again at the start of his Friday press conference.
"Young people love it," White claimed.
Return to sender
Millionaire philanthropist Chris Abele has been a big-time backer of former Gov. Jim Doyle.
In the past decade, Abele has given $30,000 to the Democrat's campaign fund.
So it was something of a surprise to see that Abele, now himself a candidate for Milwaukee County exec, recently returned a $2,500 donation from Doyle's campaign account. Doyle made the contribution late last year.
Is this another instance of Abele trying to downplay his links to Democrats?
Not at all, said Abele spokesman Brandon Lorenz.
The first-time candidate is not taking any money from political action committees or candidate funds, Lorenz said. The campaign had not worked out all of its rules for donations when Doyle mailed his check.
Daniel Bice can be contacted by phone at (414) 224-2135 or by e-mail at dbice@journalsentinel.com.As for what’s next, various cases against Backpage remain tied up in the legal system — including one case that has already reached the U.S. Supreme Court — mainly over the federal law designed to protect free speech online by granting immunity to websites that post content created by third-party users, according to a Jan. 24 AP story.
Of note, company officials have maintained through attorney statements over the years that they have not broken any laws in terms of its adult advertising.
“The decision … will no doubt be heralded as a victory by those seeking to shutter the site, but it should be understood for what it is: an accumulation of acts of government censorship using extra-legal tactics,” according to a statement released by Backpage that day.
After the report was published on Jan. 9, Backpage announced it was pulling all of its adult listings in the United States due to mounting pressure from the government and law enforcement.
“Critics say the website has become an increasingly popular vehicle for commercial sexual exploitation,” according to a Jan. 9 report from the Associated Press. “Senate investigators have called Backpage a market leader in sex advertising and it has been linked to hundreds of reported cases of sex trafficking.”
According to the investigation, the terms Backpage automatically deleted from ads before publication include “lolita,” “teenage,” “rape,” “young,” “amber alert,” “little girl,” “teen,” “fresh,” “innocent,” and “school girl.”
The Senate report cites internal documents showing that 70 to 80 percent of the ads are edited to conceal the true nature of the underlying transaction.
On Jan. 9, 2017, after months of investigation, a U.S. Senate subcommittee released a report that accused Backpage.com of concealing evidence of criminal activity by systematically editing its adult ads to remove words that indicate sex trafficking, according to multiple media reports.
A recent report suggests illegal sex trafficking occurs in Northern Nevada, including Reno, Virginia City — and right here in Incline Village/Crystal Bay.
Released in late 2016, the 4-page "Mapping Commercial Sex Advertising Around Reno, NV" study, was compiled by the Creighton University's Human Trafficking Initiative and includes statistics gathered between April and September 2016 from listings in the Reno section of Backpage.com, a classified advertising website similar to Craigslist.
The report states that while the commercial sex industry is deeply embedded in Reno, according to the Backpage listings (which no longer exists due to the company pulling all adult-themed ads earlier this year), it also includesTruckee and South Lake Tahoe, and east and south to Nevada cities such as Fernley and Gardnerville.
The Tahoe region is deserving of special attention, according to the report, because of a higher concentration of legal sex workers in a less-populated area.
During a survey of Backpage, 8 to 10 sex workers advertised their services for Crystal Bay; 40-45 sex workers were listed for Incline Village; 60-65 were listed in Truckee; and 50-55 were listed for South Lake Tahoe.
Overall for the "Lake Tahoe" category 200-225 sex workers were listed, according to the report. Meanwhile, 95-100 sex workers are listed for Carson City; 400-450 for downtown Reno; 900-1,000 for Reno as a whole; 175-200 for Sparks; and roughly 100 for Virginia City.
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"Indeed, Lake Tahoe has the highest intensity of Backpage sex workers on the heat map," the report reads. "The number of sex workers advertising to the area on a per-capita basis exceeds that of Reno or any of the other surrounding areas. Incline Village and South Lake Tahoe also have a high rate relative to their population size."
Among other findings, the HTI report suggests that though Backpage is only supposed to promote adult escorts and legal commercial sex, evidence indicates that adults and minors have been trafficked through the site as well.
ABOUT THE HUMAN TRAFFICKING INITIATIVE
The Human Trafficking Initiative started out as a student-driven project led by HTI Co-Directors Terry Clark and Crysta Price, before morphing into continued research into the social networking of sex trafficking.
According to Creighton University, the project gained funding through a grant from The Sherwood Foundation and Women's Fund of Omaha to provide studies related to human sex trafficking across the United States.
The monies allow HTI to hire five full-time employees dedicated to this project. Law enforcement/nonprofit agencies throughout the U.S. have reached out to the university asking HTI to provide insights for their regions.
"There is not a lot of data on the commercial sex industry, so the Sherwood Foundation and Women's Fund asked us to do this basic research," Clark said in a recent interview, adding that group has primarily researched the sex trafficking problem in the state of Nebraska.
Meanwhile, since there are reportedly few resources dedicated to the issue in Washoe County, the Reno-based nonprofit group Awaken reached out to Creighton and HTI for help.
"Creighton looked at the website Backpage, and in collecting data, found that there are 1,500 women and children in the region circulated in the sex ring per month," said Melissa Holland, founder and executive director of Awaken in Reno.
Although it is hard to compare statistics with other parts of America due to the reporting mechanism continuously evolving over the past two years, Clark said that in comparing Reno |
the word ‘skin’ within the word ‘embarrassing’.
I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to separate myself from the word ‘skin’ and from the word ‘embarrassing’ by defining the word ‘skin’ within the word ‘embarrassing’ in separation of me.
When someone looks at me and I think they might see the fact that I have dermatillomania, it shatters the self-perception I have held of myself in one moment, and in that moment I feel small and vulnerable, as if the other person is now somehow above me with authority over how I feel within myself. I connect my skin to embarrassment because when and as I think people are looking at my skin I feel like they can see through the image/character/mask I put on and play when I am in public, which is confident, easy-going, and laid back – when in reality I feel at times insecure, scared, up-tight, stressful and anxious, which are the energetic experiences within which I tend to pick.When someone looks at me and I think they might seethe fact that I have dermatillomania, it shatters the self-perception I have held of myself in one moment, and in that moment I feel small and vulnerable, as if the other person is now somehow above me with authority over how I feel within myself.
I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to feel embarrassed when people look at my skin, and I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to immediately think/believe that when people are looking at my skin they are seeing things I am trying to hide, such as signs (blemishes) of personality traits that I feel are embarrassing/bad/wrong.
I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to judge myself for being up-tight, stressed, insecure and anxious, and I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to judge others who demonstrate these traits. Within this,
I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to judge ‘stressful, insecure, anxious and up-tight-ness’ as weaknesses that should be covered up hidden and suppressed.
I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to fear losing my self-definition of being confident, laid-back and easy-going when I think/believe/perceive that others can see through my ‘act’ as and how I present myself to the world, and within this,
I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to fear being treated differently if people were to know ‘the real me’ as in all the dimensions of me including those that I hide/cover up/suppress, because if people treated me differently I would then feel different and not know how to act.
I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to fear change in my world because then my self-definition would be lost and I would feel lost because I have only defined myself based on what is known and seemingly ‘within my control’, and within this I know ‘who to be’ and ‘how to be’, but beyond this is only fear on the unknown.
I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to fear expansion and self-expansion beyond the reality that I know and feel ‘in-control’ of and within.
I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to fear losing control.
I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to fear losing myself.
I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to have placed a large degree of importance into my self-image, or the image that I present to the world outside myself wherein I want to be viewed a certain way and skin-picking is not a part of this presentation, and so I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to feel embarrassed when I think/believe/perceive that my skin-picking is exposed because I feel that my foundation has been shattered and de-stabilized.
I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to believe that another person can shatter my foundation instead of seeing/realizing and understanding that it is not the foundation of who I really am, it is rather the presentation I have developed based on the self-perception I have created of who and how I want to be perceived. Within this, I see that the ‘shattering’ experience is not being done unto me by another person, but is taking place entirely within my own mind as I believe myself to be losing a part of myself that I had considered quite important. Within this, I see and realize that I am demonstrating to myself that my self-perception can be shattered at any moment because it is not something real, it is simply an image and idea I have conjured up for myself, of myself and in reality, it is not so important at all.
I commit myself to walk through this reality as I am – currently walking through dermatillomania, therefore currently blemished and flawed – but real and ready to face myself and express myself as I am in the moment, and not the perceived front I had believed I needed to live behind.
When and as I see myself reacting in embarrassment towards my skin, I stop, and I breathe. I bring myself back to Who I Really Am by reminding myself that the image I fear losing is not an important or integral part of me. I see, realize and understand that it is necessary to present ourselves well in this society but that the real substance and matter of myself is not something that can be shattered nor lost, but is here with me in ever breath.Barbara Bowen. | William Alatriste for the New York City Council Union raps Cuomo for excluding CUNY workers from raise
The head of CUNY's faculty and staff union criticized Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday for excluding the city's university system from his decision to raise the minimum wage in the SUNY system to $15 an hour.
“Lifting the wage floor for fast-food workers, state employees and now SUNY workers is the right thing to do," Bowen said in a statement. "Governor Cuomo listened to the growing demand from workers, students, labor unions, faith leaders and others. But singling out CUNY’s workers on the state payroll for exclusion is a monumental failure of progressive leadership."
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“The decision to exclude CUNY from the wage increase is a slap in the face,” she said.
Cuomo announced the executive action, which will affect about 28,000 employees, at a Monday rally in New York City. The cost of the raises will be absorbed in SUNY's budget, the governor's office said.
Last month, the governor vetoed a budget bill which would have provided more funding for CUNY and SUNY.
Cuomo's release accompanying the rally said that the SUNY raise was part of "a push to make New York the first state in the nation to enact a $15 minimum wage for all workers."
It is unclear whether that includes CUNY staff, many of whom, particularly at the senior colleges, are techically state employees.
In an email, Cuomo spokeswoman Dani Lever said, “The SUNY board agreed to raise the minimum wage for their employees, and if CUNY wants to do the same, we would be happy to work with them on a plan."
CUNY chancellor James B. Milliken said the university "supports Governor Cuomo's initiative on increasing the minimum wage for public employees. We look forward to working with the administration and the Board of Trustees to ensure that CUNY's employees receive a fair minimum wage."
UPDATE: This article has been updated with comment from the CUNY chancellor and with a clarification from the governor's office about how the extra costs will be absorbed.Inter coach Roberto Mancini has admitted to finding the task of turning around the fortunes of his team tougher than he first imagined.
The Nerazzurri currently occupy a mid-table position in Serie A with 10 matches left to play and appear to have a battle on their hands in order to claim a European qualification spot.
“When I arrived I thought it would be difficult, but I didn’t know it was going to be so hard,” revealed Mancini during an interview with Tuttosport.
“I’m just disappointed because Inter have improved, but the results still haven’t arrived.”
Mancini was also questioned on the form of loan signing Lukas Podolski and reserve goalkeeper Juan Pablo Carrizo, who was utilised regularly during the club’s ultimately unsuccessful Europa League campaign.
“Podolski could have done more because he’s played several matches now. Carrizo? I have no regrets over using him in the Europa League,” said Mancini.
“We have to try and finish the season with a better understanding, which we can work on for the future.
“We’ve only been working together for a few months and in such a short period of time we’re not able to dramatically alter or reinvent the side.”
Follow @davewh1980I've been working on this for a couple days. It would have been up yesterday but I came up with Prince Siempre and he took priority.
SOOOOOOOOOO Here we go:
My idea with these two is that they grew apart. I always saw Silver Spoon as more of a crowd follower and when she got older she got sick of Diamond Tiaras shit and stood up for herself and apologized to the CMC crew and made amends. As an adult, she volunteers at the camp from time to time and makes donations to keep the camp running.
She has a son with Rumble named Silver Lining.
He's extremely shy and tends to stay quiet. He only talks when hes very comfortable with his surroundings and the people occupying them.
Diamond Tiara is still full of herself. Shes pretty miserable with her life but shes too stubborn to let anybody know that, and takes it out on her son, Platinum Parallax. She belittles him for not having a cutie mark yet and refuses to let him associate with anyone who attends the camp or is friends with Silver Spoon. Parallax is very well behaved and mannerly, as well as kind, but because of how strict his mother is, he sneaks off behind her back often. Usually to play with his friends that she doesn't approve of. Thankfully Diamond Tiara only has partial custody of him.
His father is a canon pony, shouldn't be hard to guess who.
Headcanons goA strong endorsement of government-run, single-payer Medicare for All as the ultimate solution to U.S. health care ills highlighted position statements from the summer AFL-CIO Executive Council meeting.
The council’s health care statement, issued from the three-day meeting in late July in Silver Spring, Md., first denounced Congressional Republicans for trashing the Affordable Care Act.
“If Congress and President Trump are truly interested in improving health care for working people, there are many things they could do,” the fed’s statement said, near the end.
Those Affordable Care Act fixes include tackling “hollowed-out coverage with deductibles that are far too high for the typical person,” reining in prescription drug prices, and repeal of the “Cadillac Tax” on high-cost health plans, many of which unions have negotiated in contracts.
Lawmakers should also explore patient-centered alternatives to the private insurance system – with single-payer Medicare for All topping the list, the statement adds.
“Our core goal is to move expeditiously toward a single-payer system, like Medicare for All, that retains a role for workers’ health plans and in which access to quality, affordable health care is indeed a right for everyone in this country,” it declares.
Even as the council blasted the GOP maneuvering to repeal the ACA, that effort went down in flames in the U.S. Senate. Three Republicans – Arizona’s John McCain, Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski and Maine’s Susan Collins – listened to their constituents and defied the party line by opposing all versions of the so-called ACA “replacement” bill. Together with all 46 Democrats and both independents, their three votes were enough to sink the legislation. The other 49 Republicans voted for it.
Endorsement of single-payer government-run health care as the ultimate goal of the labor movement marked a new phase in labor’s crusade to reform the U.S. health care system.
At least 20 unions, led by National Nurses United, the United Steelworkers and the Amalgamated Transit Union, have campaigned for single-payer for years. The AFL-CIO endorsed it as a potential objective in prior health care statements.
In past years, though, Congress — and even its Democrats -- turned a deaf ear to calls for single-payer. Former Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, pushed a single-payer option through one committee during construction of the ACA, but his plan was later dropped.
And in California, a strong NNU push for single-payer in the nation’s largest state, through State Senate passage of SB562 establishing it, has been stymied by the Democratic State Assembly speaker. In addition, Gov. Jerry Brown, D-Calif., questions how the state would pay for it.
But now the federation apparently wants to revive the drive. And it may be gaining public support, as a contributor to USW’s blog notes that a recent opinion poll shows 53 percent of the public back single-payer. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., recently reported that even his Republican constituents were asking him about – and backing – single-payer.
The fed’s other Executive Council statements:
Denounced the Trump administration’s rollback of government regulations — including dumping of the rule requiring fuller disclosure from union-busters.
Reiterated pro-worker goals for negotiating a “new NAFTA."
Blasted the denial of voting rights through so-called Voter ID laws and said the stacked “election fraud” commission Trump named is probing a problem that doesn’t exist.
Defended the rights of undocumented people, including more than 1 million covered under the Obama administration’s program for protecting teenagers and young adults brought to the U.S. as children, and other workers under “Temporary Protected Status.”My black-and-white, point-and-click film noir detective point and click adventure City of Angels has been on hiatus for a while now. I forgot to tell anyone. Sorry.
I haven’t given up on the game. I will make it one day. But I came to the conclusion that I just don’t have the experience to make it everything I want it to be, right now.
It is, in many ways, my dream game. And to rush it out as my first ever, slapdash, naive project could spoil that. So I’ve decided to work my way up to it, with smaller projects.
You learn a lot when you make a game, you know? For example, I showed CoA off waaay too early, and felt enormous pressure to work on it ever since. Deciding to put it in a drawer was like taking a huge weight off my shoulders. So yeah, that’s lesson one.
But also more general, practical things about planning and building engines, and working with memory. Stuff you just literally don’t know about until you release something.
So I’m working on some smaller projects. Little iOS games. I bought my Apple dev license the other day. That’s exciting. I’m making stuff that might get done in this century. Stuff I won’t tell you about until it’s damn well nearly done.
Apologies if you’re disappointed. Just know that it will be done one day. And it will be better than Duke Nukem Forever.A yawning gulf has opened in the world of financial diplomacy. It is not whether to bail out Greece yet again. It is how a Greek finance minister should dress when visiting a chancellor of the exchequer. Yanis Varoufakis arrived in Downing Street yesterday in black jeans, a mauve open-necked shirt that was not tucked in, and the sort of leather coat Putin might wear on a bear hunt. If George Osborne still didn’t get the point, Varoufakis had a No 1 haircut. What was going on?
Greece debt standoff: George Osborne urges Athens and Brussels to strike deal Read more
What was going on was real life. If I were a banker and had seen Varoufakis arrive in the same dark suit as Osborne was wearing, what would I think? I would think here was a man eager to be accepted into the club. He dresses like a banker, therefore he thinks like a banker, which is how today’s finance ministers are supposed to think. I would be reassured.
We don’t want bankers to be reassured by Varoufakis just now. We want them to be terrified. Don’t mess with me, he is saying. I have a sovereign electorate behind me, and I have a bankrupt country. When your banks go bankrupt you bail them out. When your businesses go bankrupt you write off their debts and let them start again. Do the same to me. Your banks have lent my country crazy sums of money, way beyond the bounds of caution or common sense. Now you honestly think you will get it back. You can’t. Read my lips, look at my jeans, feel my stubble. You can’t. Get real.
Europe just now needs the shock of Varoufakis’s livery. It needs to be jolted out of any belief that Greeks can be made to return mostly Germany’s reckless loans by being plunged into perpetual penury. We know this is not possible. It is the economics of Little Dorrit, with Greece in the Marshalsea prison. It is exactly the mistake Europe made, ironically in handling Germany, over war reparations in 1919. Look where that led.
The eurozone, fashioned as a deutschmark zone, was a disaster waiting to happen, and not just for its poorer members. That disaster has happened.
Greece, and now all of Europe, are suffering because Europe is still being run by and for bankers who simply want their money back. This cannot continue, and Greece’s recent election is a golden opportunity to snap out of it. With luck Spain will follow and perhaps Italy, until the eurozone shrinks to a size capable of being responsibly managed.
Meanwhile Greece has a finance minister who looks like a normal human being. That is a start.It’s not only the Russians who pose risks to power grid cybersecurity. While they do pose some risks, there are more serious threats, especially to unprotected small- to mid-size energy companies, says a new report from the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology (ICIT).
“There’s a lot of hype surrounding the cybersecurity of the energy grid,” said James Scott, co-author of the The Energy Sector Hacker Report and a senior fellow at ICIT, a non-profit, non-partisan cybersecurity think tank that provides research and other programs related to cybersecurity.
“Now, more than ever, it is critical to understand the true threats that exist while simultaneously being cautious not to perpetuate the ‘It’s the Russians!’ Cold War rhetoric,” he said.
The biggest threat, he said, is to small- and medium- sized energy providers that don’t take important steps to keep their systems safe from the very real potential for cyber attacks.
Microgrids can keep the power flowing to these companies’ customers if the utility loses power due to a cyberattack. But how do we do to avoid a cyberattack in the first place?’
The Russians have been “parasitically woven through our grid” for many years, said Scott. “They’re very creative and stealthy. You discover them — and the Chinese, Iranians and other nation state actors after they’ve been there.”
This should be taken seriously, he said.
However, actors like North Korea, lone wolves, militant “hacktivists” and activists are most likely to initiate an attack on the grid with the intention of a blackout, he said. Countries like North Korea are most likely to hire lone wolves to hack into the grid, he added.
Their most vulnerable targets are small- to mid-sized energy providers, he said.
“It’s the small- and medium-sized providers who don’t have cyber hygiene that are most prone to attacks,” Scott said. Employees can put energy information at risk by doing things as simple as checking their Twitter account from company computers or using laptops in the field, he said.
Hired hackers can also gain access to an energy provider’s system via a vulnerability in the billing or other systems, for example. The hacker can then do things like gain control of power plant operations while making it look like everything is fine.
Grid cybersecurity requires three lines of defense
What’s needed for these energy providers are at least three lines of defense, said Scott.
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First, energy providers need to replace their legacy systems — hardware, servers and software — with newer systems. Second, companies need to create “red teams” that aggressively seek out vulnerabilities in the company’s systems. This task can be outsourced, Scott noted. These red teams should ensure that the energy providers only purchase packages — software, for example — that have security built into them.
What’s more, small- and mid-sized energy companies don’t have a dedicated security manager. They have IT managers, who aren’t necessarily trained to focus on security, Scott said.
Third, energy providers should purchase hardware and software that includes a guarantee of cyber hygiene. This means that if a vulnerability is discovered in the energy provider’s system, the company could purchase what’s called a “patch” to ensure security.
Nozomi Neworks, a company that provides cybersecurity solutions, backs up Scott’s claims, saying more and more unprotected devices are in operational networks.
“With ransomware, hacktivism and nation state attacks on the rise, owners of critical infrastructure can no longer afford to gamble with weaknesses in ICS security,” said the company in a press release.
Scott noted that energy grid hackers aren’t motivated by money. Their motivations tend to be “bad.”
A possible scenario: The Manhattan financial district gets hit with a cyber blackout attack, and the nation’s financial systems are compromised. “What happens to our financial systems then? That’s the kind of thing we worry about. It’s very serious. We don’t worry so much about Wisconsin,” he said.
The U.S. Dept. of Energy is taking these threats very seriously, Scott said.
“The DOE is trying really hard to come up with solutions and standards without stifling the sector’s innovation,” he said.
When the worry began
“I was in New Jersey during the blackout. It was weird and creepy,” said Scott. “Psychologically that’s where all the gloom and doom started about the potential for a national blackout.”
Stoking the worries was Ted Koppel’s book, released in 2015, “Lights Out,” he added.
“In October 2015 Ted Koppel’s book ‘Lights Out’ renewed attention to power grid vulnerabilities and the possibility of impending terror attack. Koppel’s book focused on the potential consequences of an extended power outage and on his opinion that ‘The Department of Homeland Security has no plans beyond those designed to deal with the aftermath of natural disasters,'” says the report. It stoked worries that outages could last for months or years, the report says.
“Koppel’s book is not the most realistic depiction of the American energy sector; however, it received a great deal of acclaim in the months following its release, due in part to media attention on the BlackEnergy malware attack that caused brief blackouts in the Ukrainian power grid,” says the report.
But a simple malware campaign can’t entirely bring down the grid, says the report.
“The interwoven networks of utility companies, transmission networks, distribution hubs, and other facets, are too complex for any one attacker to wholly dismantle…Nevertheless, the energy sector is more vulnerable than most are willing to admit. Many of the legacy systems on which the nation depends lack sufficient backup and redundancy measures.”
Track news about microgrids and grid cybersecurity. Subscribe to the Microgrid Knowledge newsletter. It’s free.With just a few hours to go before Star Wars Celebration 2015 officially begins, some new promo art for Star Wars: The Force Awakens has debuted online to whet your appetite for what will no doubt be a clone army’s worth of news. Check out the new images, showing off new shots of the Stormtroopers and the villain Kylo Ren, below.
Starring Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, Kenny Baker, John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, Max von Sydow, Lupita Nyong’o, Gwendoline Christie, Crystal Clarke, Pip Anderson, Christina Chong and Miltos Yerolemou, the J.J. Abrams-directed film will debut in theaters on December 18, 2015.
Stay tuned here for our coverage of Star Wars Celebration as all of the panels at the event, including “The Force Awakens” panel, will be live-streamed online including whatever footage might be shown to attendees.
I wonder where these are coming from 1/3 pic.twitter.com/ZWKAwd0LsQ — Tim Veekhoven (@Sompeetalay) April 16, 2015
I wonder where these are coming from 2/3 pic.twitter.com/vRKFqF3jvq — Tim Veekhoven (@Sompeetalay) April 16, 2015Jefferson Keel
A million American Indians aren't registered to vote. A million! American Indians who are registered have the worst turn-out at the polls of any ethnic group. This is simultaneously sad and infuriating. It's also problematic for progressives because the Indian vote can make the difference, has made the difference in some cases, on who sits on county commissions, in state legislatures and, occasionally, in Congress. Indians overwhelmingly vote Democratic.
Jefferson Keel (Chickasaw), the president of the National Congress of American Indians, is pushing voter registration for American Indians in a way never seen before. He wants the largest-ever Native turnout this year at the polls and has joined with Rock the Vote to make that happen. One key element of the campaign is to get the federal government to establish voter registration at Indian Health Service facilities under the provisions of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993. Among other things, the act requires state governments to allow people to register to vote when they renew their driver's licenses or apply for social services.
On reservations and in urban centers, the IHS provides members of federally recognized tribes health care and advocacy. It runs 142 hospitals, health centers and 50 health stations on reservations and about 30 urban Indian health projects where voter registration could be handled. Although the IHS runs under the supervision of Dr. Yvette Roubideaux (Sicangu Lakota-Rosebud), it is an operating division of the Department of Health and Human Services led by Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. You can click here to send an email urging her to make IHS facilities available for voter registration. Not only to make it a possibility, but to make it a reality by providing the funding required. That amounts to a modest half-million dollars.
In addition to directly lobbying in Washington, D.C., Keel is sending a letter in support of the registration idea directly to each of the dozens of IHS facilities, along with a copy of a report on the Indian vote from the research and advocacy organization, Dēmos.
Keel writes: “The Indian Health Service is a key agency in delivering on the federal government’s trust responsibility to tribes. As outlined in the report, IHS facilities, conveniently and centrally located in many tribal communities, are ideal voter registration sites. Joining other federal and state agencies in offering this service to clients will make a large impact in tribal communities, in the national Native Vote and in furthering the fulfillment of the federal trust responsibility."
(Continue reading below the fold)Yevhen Konoplyanka (l): Ukraine winger wanted by Liverpool and Spurs
Liverpool managing director Ian Ayre flew out to Ukraine this week to discuss the signing of the 24-year-old, who has made 35 appearances for his country.
However, it has now emerged that the Reds face competition from Tottenham for his signature, although Sky Sports understands the Anfield outfit remain in pole position.
Liverpool have yet to recruit anyone this month and missed out on Egyptian winger Mohamed Salah, who left Basel for Chelsea despite holding talks about a move to Anfield.
Following his side's 4-0 victory over Everton in the Premier League on Tuesday, manager Brendan Rodgers said that he was hopeful of making "a major signing".
"I think we will hopefully do something over the next couple of days," he said.
Rodgers' plans could still be scuppered again, though, if Tottenham manage to agree a deal with Konoplyanka before the window closes on Friday evening.
Konoplyanka, who scored against England in a 2014 World Cup qualifier at Wembley in September 2012, can play on either wing as well as through the middle.
The player's father Oleg has also increased speculation about a move to Anfield by telling Ukrainian media outlet Tribuna: "I do not want to say specifically but the information about a transfer to the English club is true.
"He can change clubs later this week. We do not consider offers from Ukraine."A man is being held without bond after he was found showering naked with a hose next to a girls locker room at Key West High School.
Three girls attending an overnight band camp at the school walked by Paiboon Sunthroncharti, 33, sometime after midnight on Saturday, Key West Police said.
Band director Gary Hernandez told police that the girls were walking next to the girls locker room and saw a man completely naked, washing off with a garden hose, officials said. Hernandez said both the girls and boys locker room doors were propped open, but no one was found inside, according to authorities.
Police finally found Shunthroncharti laying on the track field after a search, and the officer recognized him as a man who had been on school grounds earlier in the evening, according to an arrest report.
Weird News Photos: Man Shoves Snake in Pants
Laces the Manatee Swimming Free After Year of Rehab
"I came in through the hockey rink and there are no signs saying I can't be here," Sunthroncharti said, according to the report.
He told the officer he entered the school through a double gate next to the softball field, the report said.
He then denied using the hose to take a shower, but said he had seen "two short Mexicans" leaving the school property, police said. The officer noted that Sunthroncharti's hair and shirt were wet in the arrest report.
Sunthroncharti's bike, which was locked by the track, was taken by police for safe keeping.
Jail records list Shunthroncharti as living in Miami Beach. He has not yet been released on trespassing charges and it is not known whether he has a lawyer.
More Weird Stories:When the movie “2012” came out in theaters, I thought to myself, “Yeah right. The world couldn’t possibly end in 2012.” Well, I might be wrong about that; shocking, I know. A school district in Montana informed the world that they plan on teaching kindergartners sex ed. I guess finger painting became too messy. The curriculum also involves teaching first-graders that human beings can be in love with a person of the same sex. Great, just what we needed. As if parents don’t have enough to deal with already when sending their kids to public school. Since when did the grade-school learning environment turn into reading, writing, arithmetic, homosexuality, sex education?
It is one thing to put students through sex ed in high school. That’s almost expected these days, but even they barely understand the information. How on earth is this relevant to small children? For the parents who actually care about their child, this is insane. Most parents try to instill values of traditional marriage and have the right to decide when it’s time for the “sex” talk. Who do these school administrators think they are by interfering with that right? What good can come from teaching a class full of innocent young children about sex? We should try our best to keep them innocent for as long as we can – instead, the Helena public-school board wants to expose them to graphic sexual information.
Fox News found this little treasure: “According to the draft proposal, beginning in kindergarten, school nurses will teach students proper terms such as ‘nipple, breast, penis, scrotum and uterus.’ And once they are promoted to first grade, children will learn that sexual relations could happen between two men or two women. By the time students are 10 years old, instruction will include the various ways people can have intercourse, be it vaginally, orally or through ‘anal penetration.'”
What is at the heart of evil in our world, and how do we lessen its power in our own lives? Check out David Kupelian’s newest book, “How Evil Works: Understanding and Overcoming the Destructive Forces That Are Transforming America”
First of all, since when do school nurses have the authority to teach anything? I don’t even think my school nurse was an actual nurse. Check for lice, give them a cool towel for their headache and call it a day. And second, what do you want to bet that this district probably cut the music program and P.E. to save time and money? Now they want to waste precious time that should be spent learning invaluable life skills such as how to cut with scissors, which might actually save their life one day.
This district needs to teach the ABCs and 123s and leave sex education to those who really do care about a child’s future … the parents. Speaking of parents, the parents in Montana are up in arms over this. I can’t imagine why. Total strangers want to teach a 5-year-old about nipples and penises. The biggest concern is that children who aren’t emotionally mature enough to understand might be scared for life. Well, that’s a no-brainer. What child at the tender age of 5 is mentally prepared to learn about sex and homosexuality? I can’t even believe that this is debatable. At least when parents explain the birds and the bees it’s in private and it’s safe. That’s the time a child learns they can come to their parents with questions. Now, Helena wants to deprive parents of that bond.
If the argument for teaching about same-sex relationships is tolerance, let me stop you right there. Kids can be taught tolerance and respect in other ways. The only people who have the right to teach a child about sex and homosexuality are parents or guardians. And don’t feed me the bologna that not all children receive proper information at home. I don’t care if that parent wants to keep the kids in the dark until they’re 40; school is no place to learn about graphic sex acts and homosexuality. I would rip my kid out of that school so fast his shoes would fall off.
I am behind the parents on this 100 percent. I don’t even have children and I am sick to the core over this. How perverted and disgusting does a person have to be to propose such a horrific idea? They should feel embarrassed. Really? You want to teach a fifth-grader about sexual positions? It sounds like a line from Dateline’s “To Catch a Predator.” Um, Chris Hansen called; he wants to know if your login is still orneryforyou157. Whoever insisted on this curriculum should be locked up and never allowed even to look at a child again, yet these are the people in charge of children’s education. The year 2012 isn’t looking so bad anymore.
Of all the stories I’ve researched, this by far is the most disgusting. Not only because of the content, but because this is the direction our country is headed. My dose of honesty is this – 2012 couldn’t come soon enough if this is what we’re up against. So much for all of the hope I had. That’s long gone along with Helena’s last remaining brain cell. Luckily, most citizens of Montana have spoken out against this curriculum. But the fact that anyone would think 5, 6 and 10 years old is an appropriate age to teach children (who are strangers to them) about sexual positions and homosexual behavior is foul.
For the record, if a gay couple chooses to teach their children about homosexual relationships, that is their business. I’m just saying that these subjects are inappropriate and unnecessary to a child’s development in the classroom, especially small children. The school district has no right to insist on such a perverse curriculum. It’s ridiculous and outright stupid.Media playback is not supported on this device Aston Villa 0-2 Arsenal: Arsene Wenger happy after 'perfect week'
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger says striker Olivier Giroud deserves more credit after playing a key part in a "perfect week" which saw the Gunners move top of the Premier League.
The Frenchman opened the scoring with a penalty in Sunday's 2-0 win at Aston Villa, his 50th Premier League goal.
He also netted a hat-trick at Olympiakos on Wednesday to help Arsenal reach the Champions League last 16.
"He is at the top of his game, but is sometimes questioned," said Wenger.
"Finally the numbers get people to realise he is a good player."
Giroud, 29, became only the seventh Arsenal player to score 50 Premier League goals when he converted from the spot in the eighth minute after Alan Hutton pulled back Theo Walcott.
Arsenal's 50 Premier League goals club Thierry Henry, Ian Wright, Robin van Persie, Dennis Bergkamp, Robert Pires, Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud
He has scored 72 goals in 121 starts, plus 37 appearances from the bench, in all competitions since arriving at Emirates Stadium for £12m from Montpellier in June 2012.
But Wenger says Giroud is not given the credit he deserves because he does not possess "electric" pace.
"He is more of a player who plays with his back to goal and brings other people in.
"Maybe he is not spectacular individually but he is very efficient and a very important player for the team. He is also mentally very strong."
Arsenal are a point clear of Manchester City and Leicester City, with the Foxes hosting Chelsea on Monday in their game in hand.
Energetic Arsenal allay Wenger fears
Arsenal's 3-0 win over Olympiakos ensured they reached the Champions League last 16 for the 16th season in a row.
Wenger admitted after victory over Villa that he was "anxious" about his team's physical condition following their midweek exertions in Greece.
But Aaron Ramsey started and finished a superb counter-attack to reward their first-half dominance - and ultimately seal |
a joke.
I know a lot of the shows you think are funny deal in material a lot of people find offensive. From these things, and from other things, you may have constructed an identity as a guy who likes “offensive” humor.
Now: humor can play with subjects that may give some people offense. But “offensive” does not, in and of itself, equal humor. There are well-constructed well-executed things that some people might find offensive, and then there are lazy or truly mean-spirited things that some people might find offensive. Don’t be surprised when someone is offended by either one of them, but definitely don’t be surprised if someone is offended by something that is quite simply a slur.
If “offensive” that is the primary characteristic you think defines your taste, or your Internet persona, let me do you a favor: being offensive for the sake of being offensive will not make you funny. But if funny is something you want to be, you’ll be a lot closer to finding out what actually makes you funny if you abandon the idea of being offensive for offensive’s sake.
(I say all this as somebody whose comedy group made a sketch called “Girls Are Not To Be Trusted,” which we felt that, to anyone with a pair of eyeballs, was very clearly satirizing heartbroken nerd rage in student film form (with our laughter aimed squarely at the male nerd in question, not his very reasonable-seeming ex-girlfriend). Over the years, though, I’ve seen instances where this thing is beloved by people who quite clearly agree with the title. I’m not apologizing for it, I can’t control every single person’s reaction to my work beyond making sure that work is honest. But what I can do, and what I maybe haven’t done enough, is to say “Hey, offensive doesn’t equal funny, being mean doesn’t equal funny, being sexist doesn’t equal funny” in more public forums. Because I feel those things very deeply, and they’re true, and too often discussions about what is and isn’t appropriate are reduced to simple “____ IS NEVER FUNNY” and “FREE SPEECH MEANS I CAN UNDERTHINK EVERYTHING AND SIMPLY BE A JERK ALWAYS” binaries.)
To the “offensive” guy:
If you find yourself saying “These people just can’t handle me” a lot, maybe it’s not that we can’t handle you because a great majority humankind is just magically oversensitive. Maybe we can’t handle you because it exhausts us, angers us, disgusts or bores us to handle you.
Take a second to consider that you may not be edgy.
You may just be obnoxious.
And no matter how different being obnoxious in real life and obnoxious on the internet FEEL to you, they are the exact same thing. In the soul of the person you hurt, an actual insult yelled with a human voice and an online insult hurled from the comfort of anonymity echo in exactly the same painful way.
The conversation over what is and isn’t funny, and is and isn’t appropriate, doesn’t have to be a minefield of screaming and accusations and name-calling. It can and should be a dynamic and nuanced and interesting, and god forbid, even fun sometimes. We go a long way to making it a less tense subject to broach (and it’s not going away, nor should it) by not being so quick to shriek “HEY, HOW COULD I BE SEXIST, I HAVE A SISTER AND A GIRLFRIEND I EVEN LET SPEAK” any time the word is even mentioned.
Men have defined the conversation around gender (or whether or not there even SHOULD be a conversation around gender) for so long. Now we owe our fellow human beings a chance to be heard on their terms before we shout “YOU GUYS GOT THE RIGHT TO VOTE AND THEN BURNED SOME BRAS AT ONE POINT, SO STOP IMPLYING THAT SEXISM STILL EVEN EXISTS AT ALL.”
Guys: There is no war on men. And you may disagree with me, but I do happen to think there’s a constant, seething war against women, skirmishes in which take place on magazine covers and Facebook statuses and then boil over into domestic violence and political movements. And I don’t think it’s lead by some central conspiracy of dudes in a boardroom somewhere, though it is certainly aided by dudes in boardrooms quite often. I think it’s led by a virus, by a cloud of old, bad ideas and hateful superstitions we ought to be better than by now, employed daily, thinkingly and unthinkingly, to wound, terrify, and control.
I’d like to give you the benefit of the doubt if you think sexism isn’t around anymore. Maybe you just think it isn’t because it doesn’t seem like it ought to be. It is old, and awful, and we need to uninstall it now before it spreads to the next generation. But we have to acknowledge that it exists, that it thrives all around us, before we can do that.
It doesn’t have to be this way. We have let gender be a battlefield when it ought to be a playground. The way we are made is glorious, the ways we make ourselves, every bit as glorious. SHUT UP and SIT DOWN: that’s caveman shit. STAND UP and SPEAK OUT: that’s the way forward.
And we take the first step into a fun and a funnier future when we stop telling women to shut up. And when we stop allowing other people to tell women to shut up.
Oh, and one more thing: if you think that “discrimination against men,” social, cultural, or institutionalized, is a problem on par with discrimination against women, you need to A) shut the fuck up and D) all of the above.
Don’t like the way I just talked to you?
Then don’t be so sensitive.One wonders what needs to happen at TalkTalk for them to start caring about their users' security.
BBC News reports:
TalkTalk’s handling of a wi-fi password breach is being criticised by several cyber-security experts. The BBC has presented the company with evidence that many of its customers’ router credentials have been hacked, putting them at risk of data theft. The UK broadband provider confirmed that the sample of stolen router IDs it had been shown was real. But it is still advising users that there is “no need” to change their routers’ settings.
Understandably, computer security experts were astounded by TalkTalk’s seeming lack of concern over its customers’ passwords being at risk.
Keen to pour cold water on potentially negative media coverage, TalkTalk’s PR department pointed BBC News in the direction of another security expert:
A spokeswoman for TalkTalk said that customers could change their settings “if they wish” but added that she believed there was “no risk to their personal information”. She referred the BBC to another security expert. But when questioned, he also said the company should change its advice.
Oops! This isn’t looking good for TalkTalk.
The alarm was first sounded over the weekend when security experts at Pen Test Partners uncovered that a variant of the Mirai worm was exploiting a vulnerability to force TalkTalk routers to reveal their Wi-Fi passwords.
Of course, an attacker would need to be physically close to your wireless network to then exploit the theft of your Wi-Fi password, but still… that’s not good.
And what is even worse is TalkTalk’s feeble response.
This is TalkTalk, remember, whose customers were hit by an internet outage a week ago after their routers were hijacked. TalkTalk, whose high profile hack last year, was revealed to be due to its shameful security practices, and resulted in a record fine.
TalkTalk, whose CEO Dido Harding, saw her pay almost triple to £2.8 million amidst all this omni-shambles.
It’s no wonder that some people feel exasperated at the antics of the talent show-sponsoring ISP.
When you spend vast amounts of money on sponsoring the X Factor, there can’t be much left in the pot for security issues. — Stuart (@StegoPax) December 7, 2016
Here are some instructions I found on TalkTalk’s site about how to change the wireless name and password on your TalkTalk router.
Before doing that though, I would recommend that you reset your router (this is often done by pressing a small reset button at the back with a paperclip) to force the device to download a new version of its firmware.25th episode of the fifth season of Star Trek: The Next Generation
"The Inner Light" is the 125th episode overall and the 25th episode of the fifth season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: The Next Generation. The episode was written by freelance writer Morgan Gendel based on his original pitch. Gendel is credited as writer of the story and co-writer of the teleplay with Peter Allan Fields. It is the penultimate episode of the season and was first broadcast on June 1, 1992.
In the story, Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) is struck unconscious by an energy beam from an alien probe. While minutes pass for the rest of the crew, the probe makes Picard experience 40 years of lifetime as Kamin, a humanoid scientist whose planet is threatened by the nova of its sun. Toward the end of Kamin's "lifetime," Picard—who had come to accept his new life, though he never forgot his life on the Enterprise—learns that the purpose of the probe and the 40 years of virtual life it gave him was to keep alive the memory of Kamin's race long after the death of their civilization. Brought on board afterwards for analysis, the probe also contains Kamin's flute; Picard, having mastered it during his 40 years as Kamin, finds he retained the musical skills he learned and can still play it. He keeps it as a memento for the remainder of the series.
The episode is widely considered by critics and fans as one of the best episodes of the entire Star Trek franchise.[1][2][3][4] In 1993, "The Inner Light" won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation. The flute melody, featured prominently in the episode, was composed by Jay Chattaway and has since been re-arranged for a full orchestra.[5] The episode is also a favorite among both fans and members of the show's cast and crew.[6]
Plot [ edit ]
On stardate 45944.1, the Enterprise has just finished a magnetic wave survey of the Parvenium System, when they find an unknown probe which rapidly scans the ship and directs an energy beam at Captain Picard, rendering him unconscious.
Picard wakes up to find himself on the surface of Kataan, a non-Federation planet. A woman identifies herself as his wife, Eline, telling Picard that he is Kamin, an iron weaver recovering from a feverish sickness. Picard speaks of his life on the Enterprise, but Eline and their close friend Batai try to convince Picard that his memories were only dreams, and acclimate him into their society as Kamin. Picard begins living out his life as Kamin in his village, Ressik, starting a family with Eline, and learning to play the flute. Kamin spends much time outdoors and with his Dobsonian telescope studying nature. As years pass, he begins to notice that the planet is suffering a worldwide drought owing to increased radiation from the planet's sun. He sends reports to the planet's leaders, who seem to ignore his concerns.
Meanwhile, on board the Enterprise, the crew continues attempts to revive Picard. They try to block the influence of the probe, but as a result Picard nearly dies, so they are forced to let it continue. They trace the rocket's trajectory to a system whose sun had gone nova 1,000 years before, exterminating all life in the system.
Years pass and Kamin grows old, outliving Eline and Batai. Kamin and his daughter Meribor continue their study of the drought. They find that it is not temporary; extinction of all life on the planet is inevitable. Kamin confronts a government official who privately admits to him that the government already knows this but wishes to keep it secret as to avoid a panic. The official gravely points out to Kamin that they only just recently managed to successfully launch artificial satellites using primitive rockets: their race simply does not possess the technology needed to evacuate even a small colony's worth of people before their planet is rendered uninhabitable.
One day, while playing with his grandson, Kamin is summoned by his adult children to watch the launch of a rocket, which everyone seems to know about except him. As he walks outside into the glaring sunlight, Kamin sees Eline and Batai, as young as when he first saw them. They explain that he has already seen the rocket, just before he came there. Knowing that their planet was doomed, the planet's leaders placed memories of their culture into a probe and launched it into space, in the hope that it would find someone who could tell others about their species. Picard realizes the context: "Oh, it's me, isn't it?", he says, "I'm the someone...I'm the one it finds."
Picard then wakes up on the bridge of the Enterprise to discover that while he perceived many decades to have transpired, only 25 minutes have passed. The probe becomes inactive, and is brought aboard the Enterprise. Inside, the crew finds a small box. A somber Riker gives the box to Picard, who opens it to find Kamin's flute. Picard, now adept at the instrument, plays a melody he learned during his life as Kamin.
Title [ edit ]
Morgan Gendel named the episode after "The Inner Light", a song written by George Harrison and released by the Beatles as the B-side of their 1968 single "Lady Madonna". The lyrics of Harrison's song were based on the 47th chapter of the Tao Te Ching, which reads:
Without going outside his door, one understands (all that takes place) under the sky; without looking out from his window, one sees the Tao of Heaven. The farther that one goes out (from himself), the less he knows. Therefore the sages got their knowledge without travelling; gave their (right) names to things without seeing them; and accomplished their ends without any purpose of doing so.
According to Gendel, the song "captured the theme of the show: that Picard experienced a lifetime of memories all in his head."[7]
Ressikan flute [ edit ]
The brass Ressikan flute resembles, and has a similar sound to, a penny whistle or a tin whistle. It is considered a lasting reminder of Picard's virtual life on the planet throughout the rest of the series. Picard's flute could occasionally be seen in its box sitting on his desk. It plays a role in the episode "Lessons" where Picard develops a romantic relationship with a stellar cartographer assigned to the Enterprise, Nella Daren, who encourages his musical side, and with whom he performs a duet version of the "Inner Light" theme.[8] Earlier in the season, a scene shows Picard practicing Mozart on the flute in the beginning of "A Fistful of Datas". Its final appearance was in a deleted scene from Star Trek Nemesis; Lieutenant Commander Data picks it up and examines it while discussing human life with Picard. The original placement of this scene was to have been immediately following the wedding ceremony shown in the opening scenes. The simple theme that Picard plays on the flute was later developed into a full orchestral suite for the 30th anniversary of Star Trek.[9]
From October 5–7, 2006, the Ressikan flute was one of the items up for bid at the Christie's official studio auction of Star Trek memorabilia. The prop flute, which cannot actually be played, was originally estimated to have a sale price of US$300. Auction directors admitted that their estimates for many items did not "factor in that emotional fury generated around this kind of material".[10] The estimate was later raised to $800–$1,200 on Christie's web site.[11] In the days leading up to the auction, Denise Okuda, former Trek scenic artist and video supervisor, as well as co-writer of the auction catalog, said: "That's the item people say they really have to have, because it's so iconic to a much-beloved episode."[12] The final bid for the flute at the auction was US$40,000. Including the additional 20% fee Christie's collected on all items from the winning bidder, the total price for the flute was $48,000.[11]
Critical reception [ edit ]
This episode won the 1993 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation.[13] The award was given at the World Science Fiction Convention in San Francisco. "The Inner Light" was the first television program to be so honored since the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "The City on the Edge of Forever" won in 1968. The other Hugo Award-winning Star Trek episodes are "The Menagerie" (the only two-part episode of the original series) and "All Good Things..." (the series finale for The Next Generation).
The episode is the favorite episode of actor Patrick Stewart,[14] who played Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Star Trek writer Susan Sackett notes that it is also her favorite episode even though it is not one she wrote.[15] "The Inner Light" was ranked among the top five episodes in a "viewers' choice" marathon that was broadcast just before the premiere of the series finale.
Variety called it #1 best Star Trek: The Next Generation episode of the top 15 episodes of that series.[16] Hollywood Reporter ranked "The Inner Light" as the 4th best Star Trek episode of all 700+ episodes in 2016.[17] The flute solo, composed by Jay Chattaway was noted as one of the famous pieces of music from Star Trek.[18]
In 2018, Popular Mechanics listed "Inner Light" as one of the top 12 episodes for the Jean Luc Picard character.[19] In 2016, RadioTimes rated the scene where Picard plays the flute as the 6th greatest scene in all Star Trek.[20]
Notes [ edit ]
^ Batai, the son of Kamin, is played in a guest appearance by Daniel Stewart, the real life son of Patrick Stewart (Kamin/Picard). In the plot, Kamin's son was named after Kamin's long-time friend Batai, played in the episode by Richard Riehle
References [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ]Shane Flanagan and Trent Barrett's sprays after the first week of the finals have been brewing for quite some time now as both their teams have been on the wrong side of the whistle for the most part of the 2017 season.
MORE: Cult hero Anthony Don bags Titans top honours | Report: Blair agrees to terms with Warriors
The Sharks and Manly are both ranked third and fourth last on the penalty differential ladder as we uncover which side received the most favours.
And it's no wonder the man who benefited most from the referees last weekend, Paul Green, had nothing but praise for the men in fluro's performance after a year of having the upper hand when the whistle is blown.
The North Queensland coach did produce one memorbale rant when his side fell to Melbourne in Round 22, but even then they were still awarded more penalties as they tallied a total of 18 penalty count wins for the season.
'Penalty Broncos' was an online viral trend where rugby league fans would spread the word on every dimension of social media in spite of the whistleblower's favouring the NRL's so-called favourite son Brisbane, but it's their Queensland neighbours in the Cowboys who have topped the penalty differential ladder and been given the biggest advantage out of all 16 NRL clubs.
We broke it down in a table that reveals who won/lost the most penalty counts, which side was awarded and conceded the most penalties and finally ranked each side on their penalty differential, with the Cowboys topping the list.
Won Drawn Loss For Against Win % Diff Cowboys 18 2 4 191 151 75% +40 Dragons 15 3 6 163 133 62.5% +30 Raiders 14 4 6 183 161 58.33% +22 Rabbitohs 12 3 9 163 149 50% +14 Knights 12 2 10 164 161 50% +3 Tigers 10 3 11 134 134 41.66% +0 Bulldogs 11 4 9 154 155 45.83% -1 Panthers 9 3 12 170 173 37.5% -3 Broncos 10 3 11 137 141 41.66% -4 Storm 8 3 13 172 183 33.33% -11 Warriors 10 2 12 135 147 41.66% -12 Titans 11 1 12 152 164 45.83% -12 Manly 5 5 14 146 180 20.83% -24 Sharks 9 2 13 162 186 37.5% -24 Roosters 9 1 14 134 160 37.5% -26 Eels 8 1 15 137 177 33.33% -40
Interestingly, the four bottom sides all made the cut in the NRL's top eight, with the Sea Eagles, Cronulla, Roosters and lastly Parramatta copping the biggest whack from the referee's without having the favour returned.
Hated by a vast majority of rival fans, Manly also suffered the most heat from Tony Archer's men, managing the lowest penalty count win percentage of 20.83% and coming out on top in just 5 out of 24 games.
On the other end of the ladder the Cowboys and Dragons sit on their high horse in the top two positions, leading the way with healthy differentials of +40 and +30 respectively as they got the rub of the green.
Although the Cowboys racked up a massive 191 penalties in their favour, it was the Dragons who had conceded the fewest with 133 - a good 18 less than the ladder leaders.
As for the Broncos who were caught up in a social media frenzy, they didn't even make the top eight, slotting in at ninth with a fair share of for and against."[F]or Republicans to say that you should trust us on Medicare is like Colonel Sanders guarding the chicken coop..." Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) told The Washington Post's Ezra Klein in an interview earlier this week. "I don't think people will buy it, since the guys peddling this stuff are the very people who have been trying to undermine and weaken Medicare for years and years."
Whether Democratic reforms would indeed "cut" Medicare is a tricky question: according to sources with knowledge of Senate Finance Committee negotiations, the plan is to cut $500 billion over the next ten years, but Democrats have said they won't cut any benefits--rather, they'd eliminate overpayments in Medicare Advantage subsidies and limit the growth of Medicare payment rates. The AARP says nothing it has seen (which may or may not include Finance Committee plans that aren't yet public) would cut Medicare benefits; Republicans suggest that, as some payments to hospitals and doctors increase less, fewer services will be rendered.
On Monday, the National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee launched radio ads against three House Democrats criticizing, among other things, Democratic reforms' purported impact on Medicare.
"And how do they pay for the Pelosi health plan? By cutting Medicare. Cutting Medicare by $500 billion according to President Obama's own projections. That's right: the Democratic health care plan will be paid for on the backs of America's senior citizens," the narrator says. Hear audio here.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee responded by noting that, along with the other Republicans, NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions voted on April 2 for the budget plan that included remaking Medicare into a private-insurance voucher system.
DCCC spokesman Ryan Rudominer emails this comment in response to the NRCC ads:
Representative Pete Sessions's vote to "end Medicare as it's presently known" just five months ago proves that Republicans' desperate attempt to portray their party as defenders of Medicare is nothing short of laughable hypocrisy and another shameless effort to exploit the fears of America's seniors. Does Representative Sessions agree with National Republicans' phony arguments on Medicare, a government program they've tried to dismantle since its inception, or does Sessions stand by his own recent vote to end it? The American people deserve to know the truth.
Republicans have continued to hammer those $500 billion in spending cuts over the next decade, alleging they will curtail Medicare benefits. Democrats not only dispute that fact--a matter probably more complex than it's being presented by either side--but to them, the GOP's pro-Medicare campaign sounds a lot like hypocrisy.
We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.“What does this say about your party that this is your standard-bearer?”
The headlines from President Obama’s excoriation of Donald Trump on Tuesday rightly highlighted his flat declaration that the Republican nominee is “unfit to serve as president.” But the challenge to Republican leaders who fell in line behind Trump was even more devastating.
Obama was not simply condemning a man whose brutal cruelty finally came home to anyone with a heart after Trump’s attacks on a Gold Star family. The president was also indicting the entire GOP leadership for courting the extremism that led to Trump and for acquiescing in his nomination.
Let’s focus on the most revealing aspect of this week’s turmoil within a party now aghast over the unstable egotist at the top of its ticket.
Trump could falsely claim that Obama was born abroad, but that wasn’t enough to disqualify him. He could call Mexican immigrants “rapists,” but that wasn’t enough to disqualify him. He could lie repeatedly — about, for example, whether he had met Vladimir Putin and whether he had opposed the Iraq War — but that wasn’t enough to disqualify him. He could call for a ban on Muslim immigration to the United States, but that wasn’t enough to disqualify him. He could make degrading comments about women and mock people with disabilities, but that wasn’t enough to disqualify him.
The Washington Post’s Philip Rucker explains how unusual it is that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is withholding his endorsements of House Speaker Paul D. Ryan and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in their primary races. (Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post)
No, it seems, all this and more were sufficiently within the bounds of acceptability for House Speaker Paul Ryan to tell delegates to the Republican National Convention that “only with Donald Trump and Mike Pence do we have a chance at a better way.”
So what really set off the crisis in the Republican Party this week? Trump suddenly became unacceptable because, in an interview with Philip Rucker of The Post, he refused to endorse Ryan and John McCain in their Republican primaries.
No matter what Trump said, Reince Priebus, the Republican national chairman, was willing to bow and scrape before Trump for months in trying to pull the party together behind him. Now, and only now, is Priebus reported to be “furious” and “apoplectic” at Trump. The message: Trump can say anything he wants about women, the disabled, Mexicans and Muslims, but how dare The Donald cause any trouble for Priebus’s friend Paul Ryan?
The corruption of a once-great political party is now complete.
The sense of emergency is so profound that there is now talk of how the Republican National Committee might replace Trump as the nominee. Given how discombobulated and degraded GOP politics has become, anything is possible — though it’s a little late. There was active, organized resistance to Trump before the Cleveland convention. But Priebus, Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell put down the Never Trump insurgency. And their reasons for doing so are instructive.
Let’s go back to Ryan. At the convention, he declared that the year could “end in the finest possible way — when America elects a conservative governing majority.” Translation: Forget how bad Trump is; he’s the guy who’d sign our bills to cut taxes, shred regulation and repeal Obamacare. On “Meet the Press” in June, Ryan explained that Hillary Clinton would not “agree with any of the conservative reforms we’re trying to do.”
But Trump was A-OK on ideology. “I have spoken with our nominee a number of times about our agenda, about conservative principles, and about the policies we need to put in place in order to save the country,” Ryan said confidently. “And we have so much more common ground than any other thing. And that is why I’m voting for our nominee.”
After a bad week for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, some in the Republican Party are reaching new levels of panic. Here's why picking a new nominee might not be the answer. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)
Ryan — unlike Republicans such as Meg Whitman and Rep. Richard Hanna of New York, both of whom endorsed Clinton on Tuesday — will have to live with those words, whatever happens to Trump.
Of course, all of us have our philosophical leanings, and I freely acknowledge that mine are different from Ryan’s. But many other conservatives and many other Republicans saw early on that Trump would be the least appropriate nominee in their party’s history: a walking moral disaster, a ticking psychological time bomb, a torrent of prejudices and a man of bottomless vindictiveness. They refused to submit to the intolerable and were willing to accept four years of Clinton to save their party.
But most of the GOP’s leaders thought they could domesticate Trump and use him for their ideological purposes. They are now confronting the consequences of being so profoundly wrong.
Read more from E.J. Dionne’s archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.I want to clarify that I have never used a NoSQL database. But we were considering it for a short while at our company before coming to the conclusion that it’s the wrong choice for our application area.
I updated Sandra’s dialog in the first panel of Under A Killer Balloon: Episode 1, Page 8 since the original description of the puzzle was probably not precise enough. It’s been a long time since I had physics in school…
Richard: Sandra, please come over here for a moment. Sandra: What’s up?
What’s up? Richard: I want to tell you something very important that you must never forget!
I want to tell you something very important that you must never forget! Sandra: Yes? Richard: If data consistency is business critical, a NoSQL database will be the wrong choice! Sandra: I’ll never ever forget that, don’t worry.
I’ll never ever forget that, don’t worry. Richard: I wish my father had told me that, but I had to learn the hard way.President Trump mocked the science behind climate change in a tweet Thursday night that claimed the frigid East Coast could actually use more global warming.
“In the East, it could be the COLDEST New Year’s Eve on record,” Trump noted about the freezing temperatures in New York and other cities.
“Perhaps we could use a little bit of that good old Global Warming that our Country, but not other countries, was going to pay TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS to protect against. Bundle up!”
The weather forecasts for New York City have temperatures expected to be below freezing into the New Year.
The president was apparently referring to the non-binding Paris Accord — which his administration said the US was pulling out of earlier this year.
Trump’s claim that the agreement will cost “TRILLIONS” apparently comes from the conservative Heritage Foundation. Its estimate was $2.5 trillion over a 20-year period.
However, another estimate called the cost “modest” and added that delaying any action would actually cost the US more money in the long run.The National Rifle Association (NRA) and their congressional sympathizers refuse to allow for votes on gun safety legislation, saying there is no proof that they will make Americans safer. So I'd like to suggest a less-than-scientific experiment. Since the NRA insists the real answer is expanded access to guns and more concealed weapons, House Speaker Paul Ryan Paul Davis RyanBrexit and exit: A transatlantic comparison Five takeaways from McCabe’s allegations against Trump The Hill's 12:30 Report: Sanders set to shake up 2020 race MORE (R-Wis.) and presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump Donald John TrumpHouse committee believes it has evidence Trump requested putting ally in charge of Cohen probe: report Vietnamese airline takes steps to open flights to US on sidelines of Trump-Kim summit Manafort's attorneys say he should get less than 10 years in prison MORE should lead by example and permit Republican delegates to their Cleveland convention to carry concealed weapons and assault weapons on the convention floor.
They won't, obviously.
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After 20 little girls and boys were slaughtered by a killer with an assault weapon in their Sandy Hook Elementary School first-grade classrooms in 2012, Congress blocked any and all attempts to pass reasonable and commonsense gun safety legislation. Instead, they offered to arm teachers.
After nine congregants of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church in Charleston, South Carolina were gunned down while they prayed in 2015, we got more of the same.
Last month, 49 men and women were senselessly murdered at a gay nightclub in Orlando in the deadliest shooting by a single gunman in U.S. history. Congress stood poised to offer another moment of silence and nothing else.
But there's reason for hope. It began with a handful of House members walking out of the chamber during a moment of silence. It has turned into a full-blown rebellion.
Days after Orlando, Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) and few of his colleagues were fed up with another meaningless and insulting moment of silence. In a small act of defiance to Ryan's inaction on gun safety, they walked out.
This was followed by Sen. Chris Murphy Christopher (Chris) Scott MurphyPush to end U.S. support for Saudi war hits Senate setback Feehery: Defining what socialism is (and isn’t) Avoiding the tragedy of Brexit MORE (D-Conn.), joined by more than three dozen of his Democratic colleagues, in a 15-hour filibuster demanding votes on gun safety. A week later, House Democrats, led by civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), captured the public's attention during a 24-hour sit-in on the House floor to protest GOP inaction on gun safety legislation.
Ryan called it a "publicity stunt." What choice do we have when the NRA and their allies in Congress hold the American people hostage on gun safety?
There was a time not so long ago when pundits and pollsters would have declared these actions political suicide, especially with a general election only three-and-a-half months away.
Since passage of the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which included several get-tough-on-crime measures and a federal ban on assault weapons, a majority of members of Congress have embraced the NRA's extreme party line or they have been cowered by the NRA's perceived political clout.
President Bill Clinton William (Bill) Jefferson ClintonInviting Kim Jong Un to Washington Howard Schultz must run as a Democrat for chance in 2020 Trump says he never told McCabe his wife was 'a loser' MORE said in 1995 that the fight over the assault weapons ban cost 20 Democrats reelection and the NRA was the force behind the Republican takeover of the House in 1994. While the issue of gun safety clearly had an impact on the 1994 election, so too did controversies regarding gays and lesbians serving in the U.S. military, the president's economic plan that included tax hikes on the wealthy, and a failed healthcare reform effort. And just for good measure, the Democratic majority was showing signs of weakness after 40 straight years of one-party rule — witness the House bank scandal.
Instead of understanding the political complexity underlying the loss of the House majority, conventional wisdom took hold that the NRA's war chest and self-reported membership of 5 million was insurmountable.
But a majority of the 323 million Americans living in our country today support pragmatic measures to improve public safety by requiring universal background checks and measures to stop individuals with links to terrorism from obtaining firearms.
In response to Sandy Hook, Charleston and now Orlando, the NRA and their allies in Congress insist that these measures simply don't work. And instead of restricting access to guns, the answer lies in giving Americans greater access to unlimited firepower and allowing for concealed weapons in schools, churches and bars.
So I ask the NRA and their friends in Congress to get rid of the metal detectors and the uniformed security and turn loose your armies of patriots with concealed firearms. After all, Wayne LaPierre famously said, "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun." They should have nothing to fear, right?Story highlights Of the 29 hostages seized, three men died
Hostages were from Cambodia, China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam
(CNN) Somali pirates have released 26 hostages after nearly five years in captivity, according to an organization involved in mediation efforts.
The dozens of hostages freed were in a ship hijacked south of the Seychelles in March 2012.
Of the 29 crew members seized, one died during the hijacking and two died from illness while in captivity, according to the organization, Oceans Beyond Piracy.
The hostages were all men from Cambodia, China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam, it said. They were aboard the Omani-flagged fishing vessel Naham 3 when they were captured.
JUST WATCHED In the boat patrolling for pirates Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH In the boat patrolling for pirates 02:07
Hostages malnourished
Read MoreWASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has failed to protect its data network against possible breaches, to encrypt highly sensitive information, or to use strong enough passwords, the Government Accountability Office said on Thursday.
In addition to the cybersecurity failings, even the physical security in place to protect SEC data and equipment from being accessed or stolen is lax, a 25-page GAO report said, with workstations located in an area open to all agency staff.
The report comes just two days after the SEC issued a nine-page blueprint that put Wall Street firms on notice that they should brace themselves for some tough questions from agency examiners about their cybersecurity policies and practices.
“Information security control weaknesses in a key financial system’s production environment may jeopardize the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information residing in and processed by the system,” the GAO wrote.
“Cumulatively, these weaknesses decreased assurance regarding the reliability of the data processed by the key financial system and increased the risk that |
seemed at all afraid was when ISIS suicide bombers ran at them on foot. Then the Kurds shouted excitedly and shot them down, the bombers exploding in enormous grey clouds.
Later a young Peshmerga was brought in on the back of a pick up truck. There was a hole in his abdomen, part of his intestines protruding. Rieth and Reed bandaged him and inserted a cannula in a vein to administer fluids. Then they loaded him into a Peshmerga ambulance. “He’s got a 60 to 75 percent chance of living,” Reed said. “The problem is, if he’s hit in the diaphragm or lung, he’s got a long, long drive back to a hospital.”
By early afternoon the fighting had died down. The Kurdish fighters had taken their targets with two casualties on this part of the front. “This is the final line for us here,” said a Peshmerga officer, as bulldozers built an earth berm to provide cover. “We won’t move further.”
More Regional Tensions Escalate As The Battle For Mosul Draws Near
The Americans relaxed in the shade of an abandoned poultry farm and the Kurdish fighters brought them food, posing with them for photos. Reed and Rieth recognized one Peshmerga they had treated for a gunshot wound during an earlier offensive. He’d recovered and was back fighting.
After eating, the Americans started planning where they would go next. As they relaxed, they were soon joking about their unorthodox methods of accessing the front.
“We do a lot of lying to save people,” Reed remarked.
“White lies save lives,” Coleman replied.All platforms with Firefox: Globex Designs, makers of the popular Gmail Redesigned skin, have released a standalone Firefox extension which applies the style without Stylish (or Better Gmail and/or Better GCal). Download the extension to completely redesign your Gmail and Google Calendar with the latest and greatest style from Globex. Here's what the skin looks like.
Here's what Gmail looks like wearing the Redesigned skin:
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And Google Calendar:
Since Globex will be maintaining this extension themselves, use it instead of Better Gmail or Better GCal to apply the style—it will be the most up-to-date way to get fixes and upgrades to the skin. Make sure you de-select the Redesigned skin in Better Gmail and Better GCal and in Stylish to use the official Globex extension. Google Redesigned is a free download for all platforms running Firefox.
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Google Redesigned [Globex Designs]One of China's most advanced guided-missile destroyers will participate in a joint naval drill for the first time.
The Type 052D destroyer, Changsha, missile frigate Yuncheng and supply ship Luoma Lake left Sunday from Sanya, South China's Hainan Province to St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad, Russia for the first phase of the joint naval exercises between China and Russia, dubbed "Joint Sea 2017."
This year's exercises will focus on joint rescue efforts and protecting cargo vessels. The first phase will be held in the Baltic Sea in July, and the second in the Sea of Japan and Sea of Okhotsk in September.
The Chinese ministry of national defense said the drills are held every year, and are not aimed at any third party. The drills are meant to enhance the China-Russia ties and also to improve both sides' ability to cope with maritime threats.
"By sending its most advanced guided-missile destroyers, China is expressing its sincerity to Russia and also sends a strong signal to other countries who plan to provoke us," said Li Jie, a Beijing-based navy expert.
Holding this year's drills in key strategic locations sets them apart from those in the past, Li said, citing the Baltic Sea as the scene of confrontations between countries, such as the US and Russia.
China and Russia have held five joint naval drills since 2005. The two countries held "Joint Sea 2016" in the South China Sea involving naval ships, submarines, fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, marines and amphibious armored equipment.Doctors fear for the life of a heavily pregnant asylum-seeker living in detention on Nauru who is suffering from preeclampsia and needs an emergency C-section as soon as possible.
37-year-old Kuwaiti refugee Dee* is 37 weeks pregnant this week. Her baby is currently in a breech, or feet first, position and she also has a large fibroid, or benign tumour, on the wall of her uterus.
Last week doctors were worried Dee would go into spontaneous labour and haemorrhage if she wasn't flown from Nauru to Australia immediately to give birth.
Now doctors have diagnosed her with the potentially life-threatening condition of preeclampsia and upgraded her status to critical saying she requires an emergency C-section in Australia as soon as this week. The Nauru medical centre does not have the staff or equipment to perform the high risk delivery, they say.
According to Doctors for Refugees, Dee was told by detention centre staff after an ultrasound on Friday that her baby was still in breech position and she should expect to deliver on Nauru.
Doctors for the group say there is a possibility she will have a major hemorrhage during the birth that requires a blood transfusion.
The symptoms of preeclampsia, which can be life-threatening to both mother and baby, include headaches, dizziness, high blood pressure and swollen hands, feet, ankles and face. Dee needs to be monitored closely and requires an urgent ultrasound to monitor the wellbeing of her baby.
Dr J, an Australian obstetric and gynaecology specialist who asked not to be named, agreed that Dee needs an immediate caesarian at 37 weeks.
"This is a critical situation now that requires urgent attention," Dr J told BuzzFeed News.
BuzzFeed News has confirmed Dee is still detained at the Australian-run detention centre on Nauru, despite a number of medical transfer flights leaving the island in the last week.
This is her first full-term pregnancy; she’s previously had at least one miscarriage on Nauru.So your friend is driving your heroin-addicted ass to the methadone clinic, when all of a sudden her water breaks all over her floor mat and she starts going into labor. Fighting through the haze of the beginning stages of heroin withdrawal, you manage to shakily steer the car to the nearest hospital and stagger into the lobby for help. The nurses rush out and say, "Hurry! Get both of these people some heroin!"
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"I'm sorry, but Scott Weiland was just in here, and we had to use every last bit of heroin to make his spiders go away."
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Wait, What?
Heroin, as you may know, is an opiate, a class of drugs commonly used as painkillers (heroin itself is actually much more effective than morphine, working its magic in about two or three minutes). The National Health Service (NHS) in Britain recommends giving it to people in extreme pain, people in surgery and women in labor.
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"Thanks, heroin! I'll be thanking you again in a few hours."
That's right -- the NHS, which is made up of medical professionals who have each read at least one book, gives heroin to pregnant women. The women are given an injection of it to help with the contractions as they blast their progeny out with vagina propulsion. Because the child is on its way out of its mother's body, the one-time use doesn't do any damage and doesn't cause dependency, although the newborns won't stop crying until the doctors put on a Miles Davis record.
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As for you, you could get some methadone, but if you really need it, the doctors will just straight up give you heroin for your trouble. You see, some addiction treatment centers give out medical heroin to addicts who don't respond to methadone, with the idea of keeping them safe and off the streets while simultaneously weaning them off of the china white dragon.OneLogin, an online platform that allows customers to use a single password to access multiple sites and applications, has suffered a data breach.
The company disclosed the breach on Wednesday, saying that it had detected “unauthorized access” to customer data in the United States the same day. The company is working with law enforcement and a private security firm to investigate the hack, it said in a brief blog post.
“Today we detected unauthorized access to OneLogin data in our US data region,” Alvaro Hoyos, the company’s chief information security officer, wrote.
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“We have since blocked this unauthorized access, reported the matter to law enforcement, and are working with an independent security firm to determine how the unauthorized access happened and verify the extent of the impact of this incident,” he wrote.
While the initial disclosure offered few details, an email notification sent to customers and obtained by Motherboard states that “customer data was compromised, including the ability to decrypt encrypted data.”
Later Thursday, the company posted an update on the incident, saying that it could not rule out whether the breach allowed hackers to decrypt customer data.
"The threat actor was able to access database tables that contain information about users, apps, and various types of keys," Hoyos said in the update. "While we encrypt certain sensitive data at rest, at this time we cannot rule out the possibility that the threat actor also obtained the ability to decrypt data."
He said that the "threat actor obtained access to a set of AWS keys and used them to access the AWS API from an intermediate host with another, smaller service provider in the U.S."
The San Francisco-based operation provides customers with single sign-on and identity management services for cloud-based applications. Among its features, OneLogin lets users manage log-ins to sites and apps through a single portal.
The company has offered little information on the breach’s impact, but said that it has notified impacted customers and offered them “specific recommended remediation steps” to protect themselves.
The company, which was founded in 2010, boasts over 2,000 business customers in 44 countries worldwide.
This post has been updated to reflect the latest statement from OneLogin.By now, most know that income inequality has dramatically shot up in the last forty years. Increased productivity has generated more national income, but the distribution of that extra national income was heavily concentrated at the top. Average income growth has outrun median income growth, and productivity growth has become decoupled from median income.
This phenomenon has been explained and graphed in thousands of ways already, but I am going to try another one here. Using the Census figures, we know that from 1973 to 2007 income growth was distributed thusly:
On the furthest left, the poorest 20 percent of families saw their incomes grow by a miniscule $439, and on the furthest right, the richest 5 percent of families saw their incomes grow by a whopping $147,600. In between, there is a steady march upwards with richer income groups experiencing increasingly greater income growth. When we look at income growth measured by percentage, the picture is just as stark:
The poorest fifth saw their income increase by 2.7%, the next fifth by 13%, the next fifth by 23.4%, the next fifth by 35%, and the richest fifth by 59.7%. The richest five percent saw a massive income growth of 79.6%.
Now suppose that instead of income growth being distributed so unvenly, every income group saw their income increase by the same percentage. Not the same amount, but same percentage. This is how different things would be:
Every income group except the top 20 percent would be better off. Instead of receiving an income $16,900 in 2007, the poorest fifth of families would have received $22,800. The next fifth would have received $49,000 instead of $40,000, and the next fifth $72,600 instead of $64,612, and the next fifth $99,200 instead of $96,600. The richest fifth would have taken a hit obviously, but only them, which I find somewhat surprising. Needless to say, this alternative income distribution would have been a major welfare improver, especially for the poorest families.
It is important to note here that these figures are derived using a conservative estimate. The Census figures do not include capital gains, which have been the biggest driver of income inequality in recent times. Were you to include capital gains, the difference between the real world and the hypothetical shared-prosperity world would be even greater.One of the most talked about issues regarding Google Chrome is its memory consumption, with the popular browser often taking more than its fair share of RAM just to display a few webpages. In the latest version of Chrome, Google is finally attempting to rectify this issue and make the browser more efficient to use across a wide range of devices.
In Chrome 45, Google has implemented a new garbage collection system that attempts to clean up unused memory in idle tabs. This new system reduces RAM usage by around 10% on average, but Google saw even greater reductions (up to 25%) in complex web apps such as Gmail.
Google also wants to make opening Chrome a much faster experience, and they're achieving this by prioritizing the restoration of your most recently viewed tabs after you launch the browser. Only users who have set their browser to "continue where you left off" will see these improvements, but it should make the process of returning to browsing much faster.
If your computer doesn't have enough memory available to restore all of your tabs, Chrome will now pause the restoration process for some of the least used tabs, allowing users to click-to-restore them when they actually want to access them at a later date.
This new version of Chrome also brings Google's improved Flash management system that pauses any flash content not critical to the webpage, such as Flash ads or unnecessary animations. Google will enable this setting by default for all users over the next few weeks, and the change should translate into up to 15% better battery life.
Chrome 45 is now available to download for desktop users, and those with automatic updates enabled should find themselves already running the updated web browser.The 37-year-old is believed to be the highest-profile European racing driver to come out so far.
"You feel like you have to hide it within motorsport because it's a very masculine sport," Watts told Motorsport.com.
"There was something burning inside that said 'right, you can't hide it anymore, you've got to be free and be true to yourself and let it go out there'.
"I told close family members and friends. There was obviously shock to start with but people were also very supportive, which was nice. So I thought if they're cool with it, let's go with it."
Watts ended his racing career after Le Mans last year and is now focused on driver coaching.
He admitted making the announcement felt "easier now I've stopped racing" as he had been concerned about how sponsors and teams might react.
"The biggest thing is worrying what people will think and how they'll portray you, how they'll act around you," said Watts. "It's stupid things like thinking do I go and shake hands with people, will they shake your hand back?
"Am I going to be able to look them in the eye or not? Is it going to be awkward? There are a million and one questions going round in my head about how this is all going to work out.
"My stomach is churning about the next paddock I go to and people knowing and how they'll think of me. It's bloody scary."
Watts described recent months as "horrible" and explained he had decided making a public announcement would be healthier than only informing people close to him.
"You can either keep it secret in racing and have your separate life where your close friends and family know, or you can just go all out and say 'there you go, my cards are on the table, take it or leave it'," he said.
"The hardest bit has been the last six months in terms of fighting it. You're in denial to everyone, you seem happy-go-lucky and outgoing, but when you're on your own and climb into bed at night it's on your mind and it wears you down.
"I got to a point where I thought I'm not happy in my life. I'm not enjoying anything. So what's the best solution? Just come out and just do it. If it's out there and everyone knows about it then they can think what they want, whether it's good or bad or ugly.
"At least I can get into bed at night not having to think about it and know that it's out in the open and I can live life a lot happier."
Prior to focusing on sportscars with Strakka, Watts' single-seater career included Formula First and Formula Renault UK titles, British Formula 3 race victories and podium finishes in A1GP.
Writer's view
Some might feel we're wrong to write about a driver's sexuality, that this is a private life detail irrelevant to our motorsport remit.
But there's a difference between someone preferring to keep their personal life out of the spotlight and someone feeling they have absolutely no choice but to keep their personal life completely private from their sport because the alternative is terrifying.
My first thoughts on learning of Watts coming out was sadness that it had to be news at all, that there were still any industries in 2017 where someone would feel an announcement about their sexuality was even necessary rather than being able to safely assume their peers would accept them regardless.
Listening to Watts describe how he has felt in the build-up to his announcement was almost harrowing at times.
No one should have to feel what he has in recent months - and hopefully the motorsport world will react in a way that shows he needn't have, and that others having the same struggles won't have to. There's enough competitive and financial pressure on young racers without them having to fear their own identity.
Motorsport's conscious decision to make (hetero)sexuality part of its appeal doesn't help in this regard either. There are still FIA-sanctioned world championships that feel a race can't start without heavily reinforced cleavage displays on its grid. That issue is a whole separate minefield for another day, but its implication that this is what appeals to a racing driver or fan's desires has consequences.
It's statistically ludicrous to think that only heterosexual white males can be any good at driving fast or that only heterosexual white males would enjoy watching people drive fast. Gender and ethnicity aren't the barriers to motorsport success/enjoyment that they once implicitly appeared to be, and sexuality shouldn't be either.Rarely have the blue corporate suits of the National Hockey League stood out more.
Surrounded by a sea of white – the coming "Storm" the Winnipeg Jets fans had promised, not to mention the real snow falling outside on Portage Avenue – commissioner Gary Bettman and his various lieutenants came to Winnipeg Monday.
Bettman was here to witness the Jets' first return to the Stanley Cup playoffs since 1996 and first playoff appearance since the Atlanta Thrashers were relocated to Winnipeg in 2011.
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"A wonderful, emotional night in the making," predicted the commissioner.
Bettman went out of his way to praise the True North Sports and Entertainment group that purchased the Thrashers for $170-million (U.S.) and brought the Jets back to this hockey-mad province.
In Bettman's opinion, the obvious success of today's Jets – as opposed to the 1996 franchise that naively left town for presumed greener pastures in Phoenix – comes down to three main factors.
First is the True North ownership: "We don't get to here without Mark Chipman and David Thomson."
Second would be the MTS Centre, the rink that replaced the old Winnipeg Arena in 2004 on a downtown block that once held the mammoth Eaton's department store. The 15,004-seat Centre cost $133.5-million to build and has a deserved reputation as the loudest and most-intimate hockey rink in the NHL.
Third, Bettman said, would be the NHL itself, for putting in place a system whereby there is parity and teams anywhere can be competitive and sustainable through such factors as the salary cap (brought in following the 2004-05 lockout season), revenue sharing and protection from shifting currencies.
At the time of the departure of the original Jets – and of the Quebec Nordiques to Denver a year earlier – Canadians had become convinced that the NHL was deliberately trying to shed itself of small-market teams. Leading up to 2000, so much concern had been raised about the viability of the Ottawa Senators, Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames that the federal government considered a multimillion-dollar bailout plan – an initiative so poorly received that the Liberal government of the day quickly abandoned the notion.
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"That's never been the issue," Bettman contended, saying small-market teams can work just fine if they're run as the Jets are today. "The team, when it left, was a victim of circumstance," he argued. An inadequate rink, shaky ownership, falling dollar. Everything today is different.
"When the opportunity presented itself to come back," he said, "it wasn't an issue."
The Jets were an immediate success on their return. Season tickets went so quickly, in roughly 20 minutes, that the computers set up to handle the transactions crashed.
Naturally, this obvious success is now drawing comparison with another potential "small-market" franchise that certain investors are seeking for Las Vegas.
A group led by Fidelity National Financial chairman William Foley has had a tentative season-ticket drive under way for some time in the gambling and entertainment city.
"The season-ticket drive has gone and is going well," Bettman said, though he did not supply any numbers. Reuters, however, reported Monday that the ticket drive was expected to top the 11,000 mark this week.
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A new $350-million hockey rink with a 17,300 seating capacity is being constructed by AEG and MGM Resorts International. Some believe that an expansion team could begin play there in 2016.
Bettman cautioned against reading too much into any of this. Foley, he said, asked only for the opportunity to gauge interest in professional hockey coming to Vegas. Some time prior to the NHL board of governors meeting in June, Bettman will be briefed on the actual numbers for Las Vegas and report to the board. At that point the league will decide "what, if anything, we want to do."
That Winnipeg sold out in moments while Vegas is taking months should not be misunderstood, he said. Winnipeg fans raced to pick up season tickets, "but everyone knew a team was coming."
Bettman did say today's Winnipeg Jets are the new gold standard when it comes to landing a franchise and making it work.
"I don't know how anyone could have done it better."
Follow me on Twitter:Our team of fan reps, beat writers, podcasters and bloggers following each of the MLS teams have been with us all season. Here's their Western Conference review of the year
In the second part of our fan reps season review we look at the goals, MVPs, jokes and more of the Western Conference.
Eastern Conference review can be found here.
Chivas USA
Alicia Ratterree, The Goat Parade, Chivas USA:
Best Game:
Beating the LA Galaxy 1-0 in May, for Chivas USA's first win in the SuperClasico since 2007. It was a big monkey off their backs.
Worst game: Losing to the LA Galaxy 4-0 in August. Before that, Chivas had a shot at the playoffs. After that, their chance was gone.
MVP:
Dan Kennedy. As the runner-up for MLS Goalkeeper of the Year, Kennedy was definitely the brightest spot on a tough season.
Best goal:
Juan Pablo Angel scored a great acrobatic goal on his return to Red Bull Arena this summer in a 1-1 draw.
Best trade:
It is hard to say, since Chivas made several trades and the team performed so poorly overall, but I suppose the best one for the season had to be the trade for Danny Califf, who provided some much-needed leadership on the backline for the Goats.
Highlight of the year:
Jose Correa's goal deep in injury time in the U.S. Open Cup quarterfinal against the Charlotte Eagles, to give Chivas the 2-1 win.
Low point of the year:
There were many, if we're being honest, but the aforementioned loss to the Galaxy and the 6-2 loss at home against the Seattle Sounders were absolutely brutal.
Running joke among fans:
If there was any, it was pretty much gallows humor.
Colorado Rapids
Todd Haggerty, Pid Army:
Best Game:
I don't know where to begin, there are so many choose from (editor: possible sarcasm alert), but if I had to choose one it would the classic, thrilling 1-0 victory over RSL (or any of the pulsating encounters between the Rapids and Chivas or Portland)
Worst game:
Can I choose the whole month of July? If I had to choose one it would be the 4-1 loss to San Jose at home. The Earthquakes demonstrated how much better of team they have become and how far the Rapids of declined since meeting the Conference final two years ago. The Quakes easily could have scored 8 that match.
MVP:
The beer stand staff...they saved many an evening, so did Matt Pickens (easily the MVP of the team).
Best goal:
Quincy Amarikwa's goal in the home opener against Columbus.
Best trade:
Paul Bravo runs the Rapids so I can't answer this question with a straight face.
Highlight of the year:
The merging of supporters terrace for the last two games of the year--best atmosphere all season.
Low point of the year:
July/August and implementing possession oriented football.
Running joke among fans:
The Front Office, the four mascots, or if the joke's on us for showing up.
FC Dallas
Gina Zippilli, The Inferno, Dallas:
Best Game: In terms of scoreline, the 5-0 win over Portland. In terms of sheer fight and determination, the 1-0 win over Vancouver.
Worst game:
The loss to Seattle that eventually eliminated us from playoff contention. We looked flat and apathetic at the worst possible time to look like it.
MVP:
Kevin Hartman and Matt Hedges.
Best goal:
Julian de Guzman's 96th minute volley against Vancouver to singlehandedly keep us in the playoff race.
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Best trade: We only ever make mediocre/terrible trades, so I'll go with the Andrew Wiedeman for Julian de Guzman trade as he- unlike most of our trades- actually did something at some point this year.
Highlight of the year: There are a few. It wasn't THE highlight of the year, but it deserves a mention because it was awesome. Bruno Guarda was anything but a fan favorite in his time here, but his backflip during the PK shootout against Leon was fantastic (the whole sequence starts at 6:08, Bruno's response is at 6:41).
And of course, who could forget the return of 2010 MLS MVP David Ferreira? After 15 months out with a broken ankle (and then another foot injury), Ferreira returned to great applause on July 4th against Toronto. It was a much needed boost of confidence in the middle of a rough time for the team.
Off the field, Chris Seitz went MIA towards the end of the season and none of the fans knew why. About a month ago, an article surfaced that explained everything. I'm still in awe of his bravery and selflessness.
Low point of the year:
The winless streak at the start of the season; it's frustrating when your fans care more than your players.
Running joke among fans:
During the winless streak, we averaged one injury and one redcard per game- so we would start each game by making predictions as to which player would suffer which fate. Other than that, it's the usual running joke that we won't trade for a player unless he went to SMU.
LA Galaxy
Josie Becker, Editor, LAG Confidential, Los Angeles:
Best Game:
MLS Cup 2012. It encapsulated everything that made this season so interesting: Landon Donovan's ennui, David Beckham trying incredibly hard, Omar Gonzalez turning things around in the second half, Donovan screwing his courage to the sticking place and redeeming himself, Robbie Keane having the best nose for goal even if two were disallowed.
Worst game:
Seattle 4 - Galaxy 0. It was the match that made it seem like maybe the Galaxy were just fooling themselves, that things weren't going to come back together. Luckily it was just a blip.
MVP:
Robbie Keane. He topped the Castrol Index, he was the team's golden boot winner. He does so many things on offense beside scoring goals, and in a year when the Galaxy got into several shootouts (rather than shut teams out over and over), that was key.
Best goal:
Omar Gonzalez going up top in MLS Cup.
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Best trade:
Sending Chad Barrett out on loan.
Highlight of the year:
David Beckham wearing the Union Jack and the Stars and Stripes, parading around with the MLS Cup.
Low point of the year: The entire first half of the season.
Running joke among fans: Edson Buddle spends more time on the ground than the ball.
Portland Timbers
Roger Anthony, Timbers Army, Portland:
Best Game:
Opening night against the Union on March 12: A glorious Portland downpour, a come-from-behind 3-1 win. The Timbers later beat Seattle at home, but the train had derailed by then.
Worst game:
There were about five games where the club just quit, but the 5-0 loss at Dallas was probably the bottom of the barrel.
MVP:
Midfielder Diego Chara
Best goal:
Man-Without-A-Position Darlington Nagbe was again nominated for MLS Goal of the Year for his second goal against Real Salt Lake on March 31. The hyperventilating Portland media was sure a star had been born. Nagbe promptly went four-and-a-half months without so much as an assist.
Best trade:
On June 6, Portland acquired former MLS No. 1 draft choice Danny Mwanga in exchange for speedy forward Jorge Perlaza. Philadelphia released Perlaza on Aug. 28.
Highlight of the year:
Jack Jewsbury's net-seeking missile that produced a stunning though inartistic 1-0 win in Vancouver. The team's only road win of the year was rewarded with the Cascadia Cup, emblematic of Pacific Northwest supremacy.
Low point of the year:
The humiliating 1-0 Open Cup loss – at home! – to amateur squad Cal FC.
Running joke among fans:
One explanation for the bewildering trade of consummate pro Troy Perkins for aging Impact keeper Donovan Ricketts: When Montreal offered "Donovan," the Timbers thought they'd be getting Landon.
Real Salt Lake
Denzel Eslinger, RSL Soapbox:
Best Game:
3-0 win over Chivas USA at the Home Depot Center, perhaps the most complete match RSL played all season. RSL had a lot of matches where they played a good 45 or 60 minutes, but this was perhaps the only match all year that RSL showed what their potential really was. Worst game:
The 3-2 loss to the LA Galaxy, after going ahead 2-0 early in the match RSL allowed the Galaxy to not only get back into the match but were punished for a series of mistakes that gave the Galaxy life in the match - many believe this was a turning point of the year for the eventual MLS Cup winners. RSL hates to lose at home, and to lose at home after leading is something that is very rare, RSL was 10-3-2 on the season at that point and would win just 7 of their remaining 19 matches. MVP:
Alvaro Saborio – his 17 goals and 3 assists were a huge part of the success RSL had this year. Best goal:
The Kyle Beckerman goal against Portland, it was a thing of beauty. Kyle starts the play with his passing, and then finding himself left alone at the top of the box calls for the ball from Fabian Espindola and then he swats it out of the air and into the back of the net for the stoppage time game winner. Best trade:
Picking up Kwame Watson-Siriboe from the Chicago Fire for a 4th round 2014 draft pick. After joining the club at the end of June, Kwame made 10 starts and 12 appearances for RSL, adding much needed depth at center back and I expect that the best is yet to come for him with RSL. Highlight of the year:
I have to say the late come from behind win at Portland, a match that not only showed that RSL had found a way to win on the road but could also come from behind on the road. RSL finished with 6 road wins in 2012 a high water mark for the team. Jonny Steele drew RSL even with Portland at 2-2 in the 89th minute and then in stoppage time Kyle Beckerman got the game winner as RSL came out on top 3-2. Low point of the year:
First choice starting XI played under 200 minutes together all season. A ton of injuries kept the top lineup for RSL (Nick Rimando, Tony Beltran, Jamison Olave, Nat Borchers, Chris Wingert, Kyle Beckerman, Ned Grabavoy, Javier Morales, Will Johnson, Fabian Espindola, and Alvaro Saborio. Between injuries, national team call ups, and other issues RSL rarely saw their best players on the pitch at the same time. Running joke among fans:
I am not sure if there really is one, if there is I was probably the butt of it and so nobody told me about it.
San Jose Earthquakes
Lisa Erickson, Center Line Soccer, San Jose:
Best Game:
San Jose vs LA on 6/30/12 at Stanford Stadium, where the Earthquakes won 4 - 3 in front of over 50,391 fans. But other fans might reflect on beating Real Salt Lake 5 - 0 on 7/14 at home for the "Best in the West" and "Best in the League" titles as the game to remember.
Worst Game:
If including post-season it would be losing to LA in the Western Conference Semi-Finals after Victor Bernardez went down with an injury in the 11th minute; otherwise, it would have to be against New York with both Bernardez and Shea Salinas being seriously injured before the half, thus losing them until the end of June.
MVP: Hands down Chris Wondolowski due to tying the record for most goals scored in a regular season with 27
.
Best goal:
How to choose out of 72 amazing goals... Out of the 27 Chris Wondolowski goals, I love the back heel to beat the LA at Stanford. But then there was Victor Bernardez's amazing free kick goal or Alan Gordon getting the stoppage time winner against LA in LA. Too many to love.
Best trade:
Hands down has to be Marvin Chavez from FC Dallas! He brought speed, accuracy and a couple of goals this season. (Best trade out would have to be Bobby Convey to SKC)
Highlight of the year: Winning the Supporters' Shield with 66 points and a goals for average of 2.12 per game.
Low point of the year:
Crashing out of the playoffs at home versus the Galaxy
Running joke among fans: "Goonies never say Die!" The Quakes scored 22 goals after the 76th minute and broke the MLS record by scoring 9 stoppage time goals
Seattle Sounders
Sam Chesneau, Gorilla FC, Seattle:
Best game:
Seattle 2 Santos Laguna 1
Worst game:
Santos Laguna 6 Seattle 1 / First leg of western conference final
MVP:
Osvaldo Alonso
Best Goal:
Ianni bicycle kick
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Best trade:
Christian Tiffert for Flaco Fernandez
Highlight of year:
Mario Martinez goal against Real Salt Lake in the MLS cup playoffs
Low point of the year:
Tie - pk loss to SKC in US Open cup; loss to Los Angeles in 1st leg of western conference final
Running joke among fans:
Portland Timbers organization.
Vancouver Whitecaps
Brenton Walters, Communications Director, Vancouver Southsiders:
Best Game:
It's a toss-up: our first 2-1 win over San Jose was a thrilling last-minute win and an assertion of our intent for the season. And our 2-1 win over Real Salt Lake was a great win that featured the debut of Andy O'Brien and felt like a comfortable win over a conference rival and one of the traditional powers in the last few seasons.
Worst game:
The 1-0 loss to Portland at our last home match of the season. Horrible. Lifeless. And could have cost us our play-off spot.
MVP:
Two players stood out for their play over the entire season: young midfielder Gershon Koffie and veteran fullback YP Lee. Additionally, Jay DeMerit warrants mention here, for his all-around leadership and presence on the team. But I have to go with Lee – he was maybe the best fullback in the league, and he added depth to our attack and solidity to our defence.
Best goal:
No question: Hassli's wundergoal volley that is up for the 2012 Puskas award.
Best trade:
Ooh, tough one for us. Many of the trades (or transactions, as we made very few actual trades) we made this season hurt rather than improved the team. Acquiring Lee was obviously a great move for the club, and bringing Andy O'Brien in from Leeds looks like an excellent move as well.
Highlight of the year:
Beating the best team in the league (San Jose, not LA) twice. That and the massive presence we brought to Seattle. Highlights of the year, I think you meant to ask.
Low point of the year:
Our five game losing streak, part of which was giving up an 11-point lead over Dallas, included losing to Dallas twice in a month. We scored one goal in five games. In the fifth game of the streak Dallas beat us 1-0 in Vancouver on a last-gasp goal deep into injury time. Truly heartbreaking moment.
Running joke among fans:
Barry Robson waving his arms at the ref and teammates as the cause of our poor form.Remember the two “open carry activists” who strapped on body armor, gunned-up with semi-automatic rifles, and walked into a Dearborn (MI) police station in order to file a complaint, almost leading to their shooting deaths when they failed to comply with officers inside the station?
Those morons are now facing |
team’s money back but the process is like pulling teeth. This Company has the nerve to have Stock on the Market. The pink sheets to be exact. The symbol is WRMT that even looks like a fraud! I have two very good friends that are involved and they're good people I pray for them because I truly think this company will fall and they have put their all into this company. So be very careful of getting involved with this company. I’m a very seasoned networker that has had the wool pulled over my eyes because I wanted to believe this all would work. But now good hard working people are becoming victims of this company.“You are going to allow the Muslims build a trophy building there on HOLY GROUND,” one e-mail read. It concluded: “You need to be impeached.”
But none of the anger — hard to measure precisely, and amplified by talk radio and cable television — has moved the mayor. Indeed, interviews with his aides, advisers and associates suggest that it has only strengthened his resolve.
And they say the reasons are civic and personal. Mr. Bloomberg, for instance, has come to know the husband and wife who are among the principals behind the proposed center — a multipurpose religious and cultural institution that would be built two blocks from the site of the World Trade Center.
And for years he has, with a mix of care and impatience, been encouraging New Yorkers, including the families of 9/11 victims, to emotionally move beyond the tragedy of nine years ago.
Some of those impressed by the depth of Mr. Bloomberg’s feelings have been struck in part because he had disappointed many when, by their lights, he failed to stand behind the principal of the city’s first Arabic-language public school.
The case of the principal, Debbie Almontaser, began, much as the community center did, with a seemingly uncontroversial plan — a school that would teach Arabic. Soon enough, though, conservative advocates, inflamed by the proposal, branded Ms. Almontaser a “radical” and “jihadist.”
After opponents sought to link her to T-shirts that said “Intifada NYC” and a newspaper suggested she had defended the slogan, the Bloomberg administration forced her to resign in 2007, she said.
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A federal employment commission determined that Ms. Almontaser had not been connected to the T-shirts, that the newspaper had misconstrued her words and that the Bloomberg administration “had succumbed to the very bias that creation of the school was intended to dispel.” (The school has survived and is run by a new principal.)
Now, some Muslim leaders in New York express pleasant surprise at his position on the downtown center.
Robina Niaz, executive director of the Muslim social service group Turning Point for Women and Families, said his position in the Almontaser case “was totally the opposite, completely the reverse of this.”
Her sense, she added, was that Mr. Bloomberg “may have gone back and looked at how that was not helpful as a mayor, as a leader — that this was an opportunity to undo some of that.”
On the community center, Mr. Bloomberg’s thinking from the start was informed by what he describes as the basic rights of the people behind it.
“If somebody wants to build a mosque in a place where it’s zoned for it and they can raise the money, then they can do that,” he said. “And it’s not the government’s business.”
Mr. Bloomberg, it turned out, had met with the couple seeking to build the center. Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the imam who would run the center, led a prayer service at Gracie Mansion in 2009 and exchanged warm words with Mr. Bloomberg; his wife, Daisy Khan, had sat next to Mr. Bloomberg’s girlfriend, Diana L. Taylor, during a dinner that followed.
In early summer, as controversy started to swirl around the project, opponents began to raise questions about Islam itself, suggesting that it has tolerated radical elements, and hinted that the planned center could inspire acts of terror in the United States.
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Those claims infuriated Mr. Bloomberg, in no small part, those close to him say, because of his own family’s brush with prejudice when his parents shielded their identity from the seller of their house in Medford, Mass., a town where entire neighborhoods were still off limits to Jews.
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Mr. Bloomberg’s instinctive discomfort with the nature and tenor of the growing debate about the center moved him to seek the counsel of others he trusted.
A few weeks ago, he approached an adviser on Muslim issues, Fatima A. Shama, a Palestinian -American who is his commissioner of immigrant affairs. He asked what she thought of the project.
Ms. Shama framed the issue in personal terms: she has three sons, she told the mayor, but there is no place in the city for them to share their Muslim faith with their Jewish and Christian friends.
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“This could be that place,” Ms. Shama told Mr. Bloomberg.
The future of the center at that moment hinged on a decision by the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission.
If it voted to prohibit alterations to the building on the site on Park Place, the developer’s plan would come apart.
In mid-July, Mr. Bloomberg made a quiet trip to the site, a forlorn former clothing store two blocks from City Hall. He saw no features that he considered worthy of landmark designation.
“It’s pretty hard to argue it should be preserved the way it is,” he said.
With a decision looming, state and national politicians began to weigh in, attacking the center as an act of aggression against American values.
In a widely watched address, Newt Gingrich, a former House speaker who has worked with the mayor on education reform, criticized the planned center and encouraged Mr. Bloomberg to change his mind.
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But Mr. Bloomberg was heartened to hear that some of the families of 9/11 victims supported his position; they told him so a few weeks ago at a fund-raiser for the memorial at the site.
“One hundred percent of them in the room kept saying, ‘Please keep it up, keep it up,’ ” he recounted. “ ‘Our relatives would have wanted this country and this city to follow and actually practice what we preach and what we believe in.’ ”
Mr. Bloomberg became even more determined to speak out after he learned that the Anti-Defamation League, which for weeks has denounced what it saw as bigoted attacks on the Muslim center, abruptly announced its opposition. He was surprised and disappointed.
When asked about the group’s position, the mayor called it “totally out of character with its stated mission.”
In a pointed jab, he added, “I have no idea what possessed them to reach that conclusion.”
He asked his aides to draft a speech that would not only explain his position, but would also forcefully rebut the project’s critics and reframe the debate.
On Aug. 3, a few hours before the speech was to be delivered, his top speechwriter, Francis Barry, showed the mayor the text.
“It’s not nearly strong enough,” Mr. Bloomberg said, Mr. Barry recalled.
The mayor inserted his own language, citing the firefighters and police officers who marched into the trade center on Sept. 11: “In rushing into those burning buildings, not one of them asked, ‘What God do you pray to?’ ‘What beliefs do you hold?’ ”
And he proposed what would become the speech’s defining lines: “We do not honor their lives by denying the very Constitutional rights they died protecting. We honor their lives by defending those rights — and the freedoms that the terrorists attacked.”
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His steadfast support for the center, and his denunciation of its outspoken opponents, have put him at odds with some longtime friends, like Michael H. Steinhardt, a financier and philanthropist for Jewish causes.
“I disagree with him, respectfully,” Mr. Steinhardt said. He found the tone of some of the mayor’s remarks, especially the statement that opponents of the project “should be ashamed of themselves,” to be “somewhat puzzling,” Mr. Steinhardt said in an interview.
Nor has it endeared the mayor to a certain number of New Yorkers who have made their disappointment clear in letters and e-mails to City Hall.
One writer said she had been prepared to support a potential Bloomberg presidential campaign. “But not now,” she wrote. “This has totally changed my opinion of the mayor.”
There were also letters of praise. A woman who fled Lower Manhattan on Sept. 11 thanked the mayor for his courage. Another letter-writer called it “his finest moment as mayor.”
Faced with the response, the mayor told aides he would not change his mind, but the aides say he has seemed sensitive to the raw emotions that the issue has aroused — especially toward him.
“I have said it so many times I’m getting tired of it,” Mr. Bloomberg said recently of his support for the center. Then he continued, in something of a lament: “I’m not winning a lot of friends doing so.”Pictures of pop-singer Kesha crying in a New York courtroom Friday have been splashed all over the news with headlines like “judge won’t let Kesha escape contract” and “Kesha forced to stay in contract with alleged abuser.” However, these headlines aren’t explaining the full story. When Manhattan Supreme Court judge Shirley Kornreich denied Kesha’s motion seeking a preliminary injunction to be released from her contract with Sony, she did not ignore Kesha’s cries. Rather, the judge’s decision was simply a statement that it is too premature at this point to let an artist out of her recording contract, and the truth regarding Kesha’s abuse allegations must be explored first.
To understand the consequences of the judge’s decision, it is important to look at how this case has unfolded. In October 2014, Kesha filed a civil sexual assault and battery claim against her record producer, Dr. Luke. The 2014 complaint outlined several alleged attacks by Dr. Luke against Kesha, beginning eight years earlier, when she was 18-years-old. The abuse allegations included drugging her multiple times, including on a plane, and one instance in which she woke up naked in Dr. Luke’s bed, remembering nothing.
To win a civil suit for sexual battery, in California (where the suit was filed), Kesha must prove three elements: 1) that Dr. Luke intended to cause a harmful or offensive contact and a sexually offensive contact resulted 2) that Kesha did not consent to the touching and 2) that Kesha was harmed or offended by Dr. Luke’s conduct. In order to prove these three elements, depositions must be taken, giving Kesha and Dr. Luke the opportunity to explain what happened, and if the case doesn’t get settled, it would go before a jury.
The benefit of pursuing a civil claim, rather than criminal charges, against Dr. Luke is that a sexual battery claim allows the plaintiff (Kesha) to not only get monetary damages, but the court may also award equitable relief, including an injunction. This means that if Kesha wins her civil sexual battery case against Dr. Luke, along with getting money, the judge could release Kesha from her contract obligation to Sony – which requires her to make six more albums with them, and Dr. Luke.
However, when Kesha’s high profile celebrity attorney, Mark Geragos, filed the civil sexual battery suit in October 2014, Dr. Luke filed a counter-claim against Kesha, arguing breach of contract – that she is not abiding by her contract obligations to him and Sony. At this point, the case was moved from California to New York, due to a forum selection clause in the contract requiring all disputes regarding Kesha’s recording contract to be litigated in New York.
Since it can take a while for Kesha’s sexual battery claim, and Dr. Luke’s breach of contract counter-claim, to be litigated, Kesha’s attorney filed a motion, in October 2015, for a preliminary injunction allowing her to be released from her Sony contract NOW. A preliminary injunction grants a party relief BEFORE the case has been litigated, and before the facts have come out; as opposed to a permanent injunction, which grants a party relief AFTER the case has been litigated, and after all facts have been explored.
Since it is a premature move to grant relief so early, before the facts have come out, Kesha’s judge was looking for three elements to be convinced that she should let Kesha out of the contract now: 1) that Kesha would suffer irreparable harm if she was forced to stay in the contract until the case is fully litigated, 2) that Dr. Luke, and Sony, by comparison would not suffer harm if Kesha were allowed out of the contract now, and 3) Kesha is likely to succeed in her case against Dr. Luke eventually, so the preliminary injunction should be granted now.
In his motion, Geragos argued that Kesha would suffer irreparable harm to her career as a pop star if she was forced to stay in the contract, because the contract with Sony is exclusive, so she can’t make music with any other record company while the case is being litigated – and in Hollywood, if you aren’t putting music out consistently, you are forgotten, and your career is over. However, the judge disagreed – Sony claimed it will allow Kesha to make music with another record producer, so she can continue putting music out with Sony.
Geragos also outlined his ultimate defense against Dr. Luke’s breach of contract claim. In the recording contract, there is an election of remedies clause, meaning Dr. Luke can either force Kesha to perform her end of the bargain under the contract by making music with him OR he can sue her for monetary damages for breaching the contract. Dr. Luke can’t “have his cake and eat it too.” By arguing the contract should be continued (and Kesha should record with him), and ALSO arguing the contract has been breached (and Kesha owes him money), Dr. Luke is violating the election of remedies clause, according to Geragos.
The most curious, and puzzling, part of the case is why no criminal charges have been filed against Dr. Luke for allegedly raping Kesha multiple times. In California, there is a ten-year statute of limitations for adult rape victims to pursue charges against their attackers (and a bill may soon be introduced in the state legislature seeking to extend that statute of limitations). Kesha was 18-years-old when she alleges Dr. Luke first raped her. She was 26-years-old when she first pursued a civil claim against Dr. Luke. Had Kesha gone to the police in 2014 with allegations of rape, and had the police presented the case to the district attorney’s office in Los Angeles, then criminal charges could have potentially been filed against Dr. Luke. If a criminal case against Dr. Luke was pursued, then it would be a lot easier for Kesha to substantiate her civil claim of sexual battery and assault.
The fact that criminal charges were never filed against Dr. Luke is the real elephant in the room in this legal battle. Either Kesha never told police about her abuse allegations against Dr. Luke, or she did tell the police, and it was decided there was not enough evidence to charge Dr. Luke with rape. It is hard for me to believe that with a high-profile attorney representing her, Kesha would not have first sought to press criminal charges against Dr. Luke. It is more likely that police, and/or the district attorney’s office, felt there was not enough evidence to file criminal charges against Dr. Luke. A decision not to file criminal rape charges against a high-profile, and powerful, man in Hollywood is nothing new (Bill Cosby), and with that decision, underlies the problem.
Rape cases often come down to a he-said vs. she-said. He said the sex was consensual. She said the sex was not consensual. And rather than putting the alleged attacker “on the stand,” the victim, and her behavior, comes into question. Why didn’t you immediately go to the police? Why didn’t you immediately go to the hospital and do a rape kit? These may have been the very questions Kesha faced if she did, indeed, try to press criminal charges against Dr. Luke. Sadly, her answers may have been the very reason Dr. Luke is not facing a trial for rape.
The legal battle between Kesha and Dr. Luke is far from over, and unfortunately for Kesha, her ability to record music with another company will have to wait until the case makes its way through the justice system.
However, at least in the court of public opinion, the answer is clear – celebrities and the public alike are in support of Kesha. Sometimes the consequences of being tried in the court of public opinion can be a powerful tool. Now, up and coming female singers won’t want to work with Dr. Luke. So while Dr. Luke may never face criminal charges, and while he may even end up winning the civil suit against Kesha, his career, and his fame, have not been spared.
Mari Fagel Henderson is a contributor for LawNewz.com. She is also an attorney in Los Angeles, California.
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.The Indonesian film industry is undergoing a revival these days, with fewer cheesy horror and comedy flciks (though of course there are still a ton of those) and more films focused on telling quality stories with flair and originality. Let’s hope the trend continues in 2015!
9. Supernova
“Supernova” left a big impression on a whole generation of teenage Indonesian readers when it came out in 2001, mixing romantic melodrama with scientific and philosophical theory to create a compelling story. This year’s film adaptation of the book has a tough time fitting all of the novel’s dense references and parallel story structures comfortably onto the big screen, but Lestari said she was very satisfied with director Rizal Mantovani’s slickly produced interpretation of her tale.
8. Tabula Rasa
Worth watching for the food photography alone. The story focuses on a young man from Papua whose dreams of becoming a footballer are crushed, only for him to find a new purpose in life working as a cook at a Padang restaurant. A first-rate foodie film, the gorgeous cinematography manages to make the preparation of Padang cuisine look like an art form (and the food itself look ridiculously delicious). The family drama at the film’s center lacks some spice but is not overly sweet or sentimental either.
7. Selamat Pagi, Malam
“Selamat Pagi, Malam” tells the story of three women trying to find love of various kinds in the chaotic city of Jakarta. A lot of the movie’s best jokes can only truly be understood by those living in the capital (this must be the first movie to feature a tongsis and rainbow cake), making this sincere and funny film extra enjoyable for those of us living in the Big Durian.
6. Pendekar Tongkat Emas
Although it looks a bit like an old-school kung-fu movie from a distance, this Indonesian silat flick is a thoroughly local film that totally kicks ass. The fight choreography is beautiful and the cinematography, especially the time lapse shots of East Sumba’s magnificent scenery, is often breathtaking. Veteran actress Christine Hakim lends a bit of dramatic weight to the otherwise predictable story.
5. Killers
With a successful showing at the Sundance Film Festival early this year, Killers, this sophomore directing effort from the Mo Brothers (Kimo Stamboel and Timo Tjahjanto) made an auspicious start for Indonesian films in 2014. A unique Japanese-Indonesian horror hybrid, this psychological thriller tells the twisted tale of two very different killers, one in Tokyo and one in Jakarta, who form a strange fascination with each other due to their shared hobby. The Mo Brothers directed 2009’s Rumah Dara, one of the few great Indonesian horror movies in recent times, and Killers is a fine follow-up, full of gorgeous cinematography in service of shocking violence.
4. Maryam
Director Sidi Saleh took home the highly prestigious Orizzonti Award for best short film at this year’s Venice International Film Festival for this brief but entrancing look at an Indonesian maid who must care for her autistic employer while struggling with her own internal crisis.
3. Jalanan
The first documentary to ever get a wide theatrical release in Indonesia, Daniel Ziv’s “Jalanan” managed to take the hardscrabble lives of three of Jakarta’s street musicians and turn it into a highly watchable, crowd pleaser of a movie – bursting at the seams with humor and heart. It’s not just an ode to the people living at the margins of Jakartan society, it’s a testament to the human spirit’s ability to triumph over the most difficult situations.
2. The Look of Silence
Calling “The Look of Silence” a sequel to “The Act of Killing” is not quite right. “Look” serves as a companion piece to “Act,” telling a very different yet intimately connected story. If “Act” was all about the killers who helped orchestrate the mass murder of over 500,000 people during 1965-1966 Communist purge, then “Look” is about the victims of that horrible crime against humanity and their search for answers. As such, it tells a quieter, more reflective story than its technically-daring, emotional gut-punch of a predecessor. But that does not make it any less powerful or essential as a piece of art. The fact that Indonesia’s Commission on Human Rights is supporting nationwide screenings of the film is definitely a step in the right direction towards Indonesia healing the massive wound this genocide has left upon its psyche.
1.The Raid 2
It might not be the most “important” Indonesian film of the year but, for a certain kind of moviegoer, “The Raid 2” was definitely the most enjoyable.
But “The Raid 2” is still pretty damn important. When “The Raid” came out in 2012, it not only raised the bar for all Indonesian movies, it raised the bar for action movies everywhere. For example, the directors of “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” said The Raid was a big influence on the Marvel blockbuster.
Somehow “The Raid 2” manages to top its predecessor in both the story and action departments, telling a much more tense, complex tale while also taking the fight choreography in jaw-dropping new directions. It’s a bloody symphony of hardboiled cinematic delights and, if gore doesn’t bother you, there’s no reason you shouldn’t get a visceral kick out of watching this masterpiece.ShotPro made quite a splash when it was released for iOS earlier this year. Now the powerful pre-vis software is back, this time with a fully-featured desktop app.
In the comments of our original article about ShotPro, the most oft-requested feature was a desktop app, and as of yesterday, the development team has delivered. ShotPro is now available on the OSX App Store for $30, the same price as the iOS app.
Now a quick refresher about what ShotPro is, and more importantly, how it can help you make better films. It all comes down to pre-visualization, or planning out how your film is going to look before you ever set foot on set. Storyboarding is one form of this, but modern software has enabled us to create detailed pre-vis animations, which are often more comprehensive and useful than traditional storyboards. The only problem is that many software solutions for pre-vis are expensive, ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. ShotPro, on the other hand, comes it at a reasonable $30, which makes it great for low-budget and indie filmmakers who still want to create detailed pre-visualizations for their films.
Here are the primary features of ShotPro:
Blocking: A scene takes only a few seconds to block! Building a virtual set has never been easier with intuitive multitouch controls. These controls allow for quick placement and detailed changes to cameras, props, lights and characters. Precisely block with the feet/meter grid system.
A scene takes only a few seconds to block! Building a virtual set has never been easier with intuitive multitouch controls. These controls allow for quick placement and detailed changes to cameras, props, lights and characters. Precisely block with the feet/meter grid system. Lighting: Bring your set to life with dynamic lighting and shadows. Control ambient and production lighting variables such as color, brightness, position and even manipulate the sun.
Bring your set to life with dynamic lighting and shadows. Control ambient and production lighting variables such as color, brightness, position and even manipulate the sun. Cameras: Control the camera by adjusting elevation, rotation, zoom, position and depth of field. Add multiple cameras for each scene. Customize the camera’s lens from 20mm-350mm.
Control the camera by adjusting elevation, rotation, zoom, position and depth of field. Add multiple cameras for each scene. Customize the camera’s lens from 20mm-350mm. Characters: Casual, formal, medical, personal, police, prisoner, military, elderly, children and more! Characters can be customized with specific movements, facial expressions and loads of full body motions like walk, run, swim, etc.
Casual, formal, medical, personal, police, prisoner, military, elderly, children and more! Characters can be customized with specific movements, facial expressions and loads of full body motions like walk, run, swim, etc. Props: Ranging from plants, water, furniture, streets, vehicles, buildings, FX and many more. All positionable and keyframable.
Ranging from plants, water, furniture, streets, vehicles, buildings, FX and many more. All positionable and keyframable. Keyframing: Add movement to props, characters and cameras. Adjust your view to create dynamic 3D or 2D simulations to use as a blueprint on set. From simple to advanced point to point movements your scene will come alive in seconds.
Add movement to props, characters and cameras. Adjust your view to create dynamic 3D or 2D simulations to use as a blueprint on set. From simple to advanced point to point movements your scene will come alive in seconds. Realtime Performance in 3D: All scene manipulation occurs in realtime. This includes camera feedback, project playback and scrubbing.
All scene manipulation occurs in realtime. This includes camera feedback, project playback and scrubbing. Exporting: Once all your scenes have been completed you can export them out in 60, 30 or 24fps in 1080, 720, 480 or 240 as a.mov file to email to clients, crew, cast or friends.
Once all your scenes have been completed you can export them out in 60, 30 or 24fps in 1080, 720, 480 or 240 as a.mov file to email to clients, crew, cast or friends. Share: Projects can be shared with others or saved for your own back up.
Our friend Matt Workman, a cinematographer and pre-vis artist in NYC, has an in-depth review of ShotPro that shows how easy it is to create scenes from scratch. Of course, this is the iPad version of the software, so the way you'd interact with UI in the desktop version is probably a little different.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lOU57fbtKo
If you're interested in learning more about ShotPro, head over to their website, where they've got all sorts of tutorials. If you want to purchase ShotPro, you can find it in both the iOS and OSX app stores. Also, in the comments of the Facebook post where the desktop version was announced, the developers mentioned that an Android version of ShotPro is on the way. Lastly, from what I can tell, you have to purchase the desktop version separately, even if you've already purchased it for iOS. I could be wrong about that, so if you already have the iPad version, I would double check with the developers before dropping more cash on the desktop software.
Have you guys had a chance to use ShotPro for either iOS or OSX yet? If so, what were your impressions, and what features would you like to see in future updates? Let us know down in the comments!TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Jakarta governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama or Ahok said that he is waiting for governor and deputy governor-elect Anis Baswedan and Sandiaga Uno to craft their programs in relation to the closure of night entertainment spot Alexis in North Jakarta.
“I’m looking forward to seeing the closure of Alexis,” Ahok told journalists about the plan at the Jakarta City Hall on Friday, April 21, 2017.
A few months ago, Ahok said that Alexis owned business permit as the Stadium and Mile’s night clubs that were closed by the Jakarta administration. Both night clubs were closed due to drugs cases. Alexis, on the other hand, remains open to this date.
According to Ahok, he has no authority to close down Alexis, since it needs strong evidence to close an entertainment spot. Former acting Jakarta Governor Sumarsono also encountered difficulties to close Alexis. According to Sumarsono, there are few stages to go through before closing down Alexis. The initial stage is to issue a warning letter.
Sumarsono revealed that Alexis has never received warning letter to this date.
“Upon the second warning letter, the license can be revoked,” Sumarsono said at the Jakarta City Hall on Monday, January 16, 2017.
Earlier, Jakarta governor-elect Anies Baswedan promised to close Alexis in North Jakarta.
“We’re committed to enforcing the regional regulation. We’ll take actions against violations based on the regional regulation,” Anies said in Jakarta on Thursday, April 20, 2017.
The regional regulation referred to by Anies is Jakarta Regional Regulation No. 8/2017 on public order. Anies and Sandi pledged to close down Alexis due to an allegation of human trafficking.
“There’s an indication [human trafficking], but we have no proof yet. We’ll take actions against prostitution,” Anie said in January 2017.
AVIT HIDAYAT | JULI | LARISSA HUDA | CHITRA PARAMAESTIJetpack 4.0.3 is a security release that contains an important fix for a critical vulnerability that has been present in the plugin since version 2.0, released in 2012. According to Jetpack team member Sam Hotchkiss, a stored XSS vulnerability was found in the way that some Jetpack shortcodes are processed, which allows an attacker to insert JavaScript into comments to hijack a visitor’s browser.
This particular bug is similar to one recently found and patched in bbPress.
“Similar issues may exist in other plugins, and it’s a good reminder about the power of regular expressions to create issues when parsing data,” Hotchkiss said.
The Jetpack team has been working with the WordPress security team to push out point releases for all vulnerable branches of the plugin’s codebase, which includes all versions following 2.0. They are using WordPress’ core automatic update system, so all sites that have not explicitly opted out will receive the security update.
“Fortunately, we have no evidence of this being used in the wild,” Hotchkiss said. “However, now that this update is public, it’s just a matter of time before someone attempts to exploit it.” The Jetpack team is advising users to update as soon as possible, as the update also fixes any potential exploits that may have already been put in place.
The team credits Marc-Alexandre Montpas from Sucuri for finding the bug and disclosing it responsibly. Users will be notified about the security release via email, but those who have Akismet and/or VaultPress installed have already been protected since the first reporting of the vulnerability.
Like this: Like Loading...Crixs Haligowski was giving birth in a midwife clinic in rural Philippines, when he first learned of intersex people. The doctors told him (then her) that he was not fully female.
This did not come as a surprise to Haligowski. He was born with genitalia not clearly male or female. What he did not know was that he had a narrower alignment of pelvic bones, usually found in biological malesthe kind that would make natural childbirth impossible.
Like Haligowski, an estimated one in 1,500 babies is born intersex.
The term is used to describe conditions in which a person is not clearly male or female. Not all intersex people are born with atypical genitalia. Sometimes the differences may be at chromosomal or gonadal (ovaries and testes) levels.
In the medical community, the term intersex is refered to as "disorders of sex development" or DSD.
David E. Sandberg, a pediatric psychologist at the University of Michigan who has worked extensively with children with DSD, explained the reason behind that term,
"DSD is an umbrella term that covers any range of medical conditions associated with atypical development of sex," Sandberg said. "Whereas when you say intersex, it has a sense of identity associated with it."
Haligowski, who now lives in Chicago, has a condition called congenital adrenal hyperplasia or CAH, which is the most prevalent intersex condition. CAH affects the adrenal glands, which are located above the kidneys and produce various hormones including cortisol and androgen. CAH occurs when one of the enzymes needed for making these hormones is deficient.
The amount of these hormones affects how a baby's genitals develop. CAH can take different forms based on a variety of conditions and may not always result in intersex conditions.
Haligowski was born with what is known as classic CAH, which is usually associated with visibly atypical genitalia. But he was not diagnosed.
Haligowski had already been in labor for more than two days by the time the doctors realized that his pelvis could not accommodate the child. The midwife clinic he was at didn't have facilities to do a cesarean.
"The doctor had to put … one of those wood[en] vices and literally break my pelvis bone. It was a nightmare," Haligowski recalled this incident which happened 20 years ago, with a shudder.
Medical nightmares like this are not uncommon in the intersex community. Some of them involve delay in diagnosis and sometimes misdiagnosis. Others mean difficulty in getting medical records. But the single biggest issue has been that of surgical sex assignment on babies born with ambiguous genitalia.
An elective surgery or a medical necessity?
When Alex McCorry was born in rural Indiana, the doctors told his parents that he was a boy.
"But a few hours later they changed their mind and said I was a girl," McCorry said. "I didn't know what happened and my mother would never tell me more."
McCorry was given a feminine name and was raised a girl. But McCorry did not feel at ease living as female.
"I was forced into dresses all the time," McCorry recalled about his childhood. "And I had this beautiful long blonde curly hair which I would go out and get tangled up in the weeds and everything. So my mother got tired of having to brush all that crap out of my hair, she let me cut it short."
"I would tear my dresses and stain my dresses and everything else till she let me wear blue jeans," he added with a laugh.
McCorry was 40 when learned what happened to him at birth.
Unhappy living as female, McCorry was considering transitioning to male. During a pre-evaluation examination, a doctor discovered that he was born with atypical genitalia.
McCorry found out that the doctors had surgically removed his penis and converted his genitalia to conform to a female one.
Surgeries, like the one done on McCorry, were once standard medical procedure for children born with genitalia that are not strictly male or female. This has changed in the recent past, said Dr. Mary Fallat of the American Pediatric Surgical Association. Fallat is a professor of surgery at University of Louisville, Kentucky, and a practicing pediatric surgeon.
"The medical community has changed the way they approach children that have genitalia that is not obviously one sex or the other. The rhetoric has changed," she said.
According to her, many intersex babies are transferred to a tertiary care center for multi-disciplinary care. A team of doctors including endocrinologists, pediatric surgeons and geneticists evaluate the child and decide on further treatment, she said.
Veronica Drantz, a biologist and a founder of a support group called Intersex Chicago, said she feels that the approach has not changed enough.
"I got involved with intersex rights advocacy when I found out that they are carving up babies to meet some twisted idea of normal and this carving up continues even today," said Drantz, who is not intersex. "The medical community has been way too enthusiastic in equating difference with disorder. Just because people are different, just because there are in minority, just because their numbers are small, doesn't mean that there is something wrong with them or that it needs to be fixed."
Activist Anne Tamar-Mattis raises a question on the ethics of this practice.
Tamar-Mattis is the founder of Advocates for Informed Choice, a California-based organization for legal advocacy of rights of children born with DSD.
"It is questionable whether adults should be allowed to decide on cosmetic procedures for children," Tamar-Mattis said. "This irreversible physical treatment is not done for health needs. It is purely done to correct the way it looks."
Sometimes surgery is a medical necessity for children born with DSD, said Sandberg, the pediatric psychologist.
"Sometimes there are issues like repeated urinary infections. Sometimes there are more severe problems that may require surgeries to fix this."
Fallat points out that these days, surgery is recommended only when it is required for health reasons and not for aesthetic reasons.
"There is also a question of informed consent," Drantz points out. The surgery is irreversible and may have serious side effects. "The parents often do not fully understand what they are getting into," she said.
McCorry's surgery, he said, robbed him of any sensation in his genitals. "I was left with a useless flap of skin. The nerves were cut and there is no feeling at all."
"Growing up, I went through all these years of sexual dysfunction because there is no feeling there. The few times I was able to ask a doctor about it, they told me it was probably all in my head," McCorry said.
There is also the possibility that, like McCorry, a baby will not identify as the gender they were assigned later in life.
"The moral of my story was that 'The doctors decided you are a girl, so start |
mysterious new government flew overhead.
Frankly, I never thought it would work, but a fan-based movement, complete with nuts sent to CBS headquarters, began and Jericho was given a seven episode reprieve that started Tuesday night.
First of all, if you missed the episode, you can watch it here for free. Otherwise, be warned that spoilers follow.
I liked this episode a lot, mainly because it did something that was only done in bits and pieces during the first season; it answered questions about what’s happening in the outside world.
The attacks that we saw when the series began ended up killing more than 15 million American and shattered the Federal Government completely. In it’s place, and taking holding in Jericho, is something calling itself the Allied States of America, based in Cheyenne, Wyoming and controlling nearly all North America west of the Mississippi. Controlling most of the East is a nation based out of Columbus, Ohio (incidentally the city that Robert Hawkins was supposed to destroy with the bomb he stole). And, in the middle, controlling a lot of oil and not taking sides yet, is the Republic of Texas.
Left unanswered, and possibly at the heart of the conspiracy behind the attacks, is the question of who controls the Columbus government and whether they might be the rightful successor to the President who was killed when Washington was attacked.
The ASA, it seems, is led by the former Junior Senator from Wyoming who, apparently, was not in Washington on the day of the attacks and has taken control of a new nation that seems to have a wide variety of military equipment and infrastructure at it’s disposal. We also learn that the missiles we saw launch early in Season One were sent to, and effectively destroyed, North Korea and Iran, whom Cheyenne claims to have been behind the attacks.
The best parts of the episode? Jake Green dealing with his father’s death during the New Bern War and putting behind the need to exact revenge. Hawkins meeting up with Chavez, who was involved with him in the effort to stop the attacks and has infiltrated the Cheyenne military (how long will it be before Hawkins, Jake, and Chavez are working together?).
The worst part? Anything dealing with Stanley and Mimi and their stupid romance.
On the whole though, it was a pretty good episode and a great setup for a shortened season that, hopefully, will answer old questions and raise new ones.
Four stars out of Five
Unanswered QuestionsMount Hardman, Western Australia
Postcode: 6765
Latitude: -17.941
Longitude: 124.799
Locality: Kalgoorlie
State: Western Australia (capital: Perth - 1,798km away)
Nearest Urban Centre: Darwin, NT (890km away)
Area Code: 08 (+61 8 from overseas)
Time Zone: AWST - Australian Western Standard Time (UTC+8)
Current Time: 27/02/2019 05:26:36 pm
Nearest Airport: Broome International Airport (272km away)
Nearest Train Station: Eginbah Station (also known as Eginbah Siding) (620km away)
Nearby Geographical Features:
Chestnut Pool (21km away)
White Rocks (29km away)
Bylina Swamp (31km away)
Jimberlura Ridges (32km away)
Palm Spring (32km away)
Frog Swamp (35km away)
Mount Percy (39km away)
Mount Wynne (39km away)
Nura Nura Ridge (39km away)
Walgidee Hills (41km away)
Elimberrie Spring (42km away)
Mount Cedric (44km away)
Mount Hardman (45km away)
The Sisters (46km away)
Lake Josceline (47km away)
Mount Noreen (48km away)
Machells Pyramid (49km away)
Mamilu Hill (49km away)
McSheary Gap (49km away)
Mount North (51km away)
Moulamen Hill North (51km away)
Dog Spike Hill (51km away)
Yallamungie Pool (51km away)
Fishery Hill (52km away)
Done Hill (52km away)
• Home pageLatrinalia is a type of deliberately inscribed marking made on latrines: that is, bathrooms or lavatory walls.[1][2][3] It can take the form of art, drawings, or words, including poetry and personal reflections. Other types of latrinalia include political commentary as well as derogatory comments and pictures. When done without the property owner's consent, it constitutes vandalism. Some venues have attempted to curb such vandalism by installing in the lavatory large blackboards and providing free chalk; it is hoped that patrons will avail themselves of the blackboard and chalk rather than applying their latrinalia directly to the walls or toilet stalls.[4][5]
Etymology [ edit ]
The late Alan Dundes, a folklorist at University of California, Berkeley, coined the term latrinalia in 1966 to refer to graffiti found in restrooms.[6] Dundes preferred it over the term shithouse poetry, as not all latrinalia is in verse or poetic form.[6]
The word is derived from the compounding of latrine (or toilet) and the suffix -alia, which signifies a worthless collection of something — in this case bathroom writings.
See also [ edit ]
Bibliography [ edit ]
Joseph Gelfer, The Little Book of Toilet Graffiti
Jim Morrison, Privy Thoughts: Some Toilet Graffiti Found On University Bathroom Doors
References [ edit ]Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate: A Tale Of Two Monster Hunters
By Ishaan. March 25, 2013. 12:01am
Monster Hunter is often described as a game about hunting big monsters, finding loot, getting stronger, and then hunting down even bigger monsters. However, I’ve always felt that description doesn’t quite do justice to the series. It makes it sound like the games are just about hunting for sport, and while that is one of the many emotions you experience—especially in multiplayer—there’s more to the Monster Hunter games than just killing beasties for fun.
Monster Hunter is more a game about living in a world filled with fantastical creatures, rather than one where you simply do battle with them. The setting is a convincing mix of prehistoric and medieval, where men and a wide assortment of creatures encompassing dinosaurs, sabre-toothed bears, giant rabbits and more live together in an uneasy arrangement governed by the food chain. The creatures aren’t evil. They just want to eat, sleep and mate like all animals. Meanwhile, the humans need to live with the knowledge that their neighbours just so happen to be angry fire-breathing dragons and sea monsters. This is how everyday life is in the world of Monster Hunter.
There’s no animosity here or good-versus-evil story. The creatures in the game aren’t the reincarnated form of some ancient deity out to conquer the world or what-have-you. They’re just hungry and territorial. Meanwhile, living alongside all these monsters has made for a tough human race that still shows that familiar affinity for science and progression and trade. Monster dung makes for good fertilizer. Monster claws and teeth make for sturdy tools. Monster hides make for good clothing. Certain monster parts make for valuable trade items. Living alongside monsters is a way of life. It’s a little bit like Pokémon, but more realistic in that these creatures aren’t nearly as tame as Pokémon tend to be.
Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate does an especially good job of creating a convincing backdrop along those lines. Moga Village, the game’s setting, is a tiny, hardworking village of people that has recently been thrown into panic by recurring tremors in the area. At the root of these tremors appears to be a terrible sea creature known as the Lagiacrus. Determined not to let the Lagiacrus disrupt their way of life, the people of Moga send a request for a hunter—mercenaries for hire that are capable of holding their own out in the wild against the worst of these creatures. Your character—who you can create and extensively customize—answers the call, and before you know it, you’re not just helping protect the village, but also helping it grow by gathering resources, developing a farm, engaging in trade, and taking on assignments for the Hunter’s Guild.
Sure, at the end of the day, most of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate involves running around, plucking mushrooms, mining ore, and using these materials to build weapons to slay monsters with, but the game’s world provides a very comfortable backdrop for you to do this all in. Hunting doesn’t feel overly violent or glorified in any manner. It never feels like you’re doing it for any purpose other than that it’s just how life is in this world. You hunt, you scavenge, you eventually get stronger, and then you hunt some more. This is one of the many reasons that there’s nothing else quite like Monster Hunter out there.
The above is an introduction you may find insightful if you’ve never played a Monster Hunter game before. If you have, though, think of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate as exactly what the title says—the “ultimate” version of the third generation of Monster Hunter games. The Pokémon Crystal or Emerald or Platinum of the Monster Hunter 3 series. There’s a whole lot of content, both completely new and returning from the previous games, a significant visual improvement, and a much needed streamlining of the series’ controls.
Most of this streamlining comes from the availability of a touch screen, which works great for a game like Monster Hunter, where you have to manage a dozen things all at once in the heat of battle. On the Nintendo 3DS, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate makes smart use of the system’s touch screen by allowing you to customize it with the game features you use most. You can now access your entire item pouch from the touch screen, move your map down there to keep it from cluttering up the main screen, view your item combo lists, view the status of your team and more. Having your item pouch on the touch screen is immensely useful, as it effectively allows you to select an item with just a couple of quick taps without having to stand around and scroll through your inventory like in previous games. It also means that you can now have, say, a potion, hot-keyed to your item button (Y), but also have quick access to other frequently used items like bombs or traps via the touch screen.
Another immensely handy feature is that you can now simultaneously move the camera and your character at the same time without having to contort your hand into absurdly painful positions. This may not seem like a big deal to the folks that played Monster Hunter Tri on the Wii, but it’s a boon for the folks that tend to prefer their Monster Hunter games on portables. On the 3DS, the camera can be controlled by using a digital D-pad on the right-hand side of the touch screen. It might take an hour or two of playing to get used to, but once you get the hang of it, it’s smooth sailing the rest of the way, especially in conjunction with the new “Target Camera” feature.
Target Camera is a handy feature that lets you decide where you want the camera to focus when you press the L button. Normally, pressing L centres the camera behind your character. However, if there’s a large monster in the area, its icon will appear on the touch screen, and tapping it will turn on Target Camera. From then on, whenever you press L, the camera will turn to face the monster, bringing it back into your sights. If you’re fighting two large monsters at once, both of their icons will appear on the touch screen, allowing you to choose whichever one you want the camera focus on. This is useful if you’re fighting two of the same kind of monster, and want to focus on beating one of them before taking on the other.
Target Camera should be most useful for players that like to use ranged weapons. Prior to Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, I was never fond of using Bowguns, but since I have the Target Camera to help bring a monster back into my sights now, it’s made me switch to using a Light Bowgun as my main weapon. It’s a thoughtful feature that serves as a nice middle ground between the inaccessibility of previous Monster Hunter cameras and the threat of making the game too easy by adding a lock-on function.
For all its advancements and improvements, though, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate probably isn’t going to help make the game more accessible for people that weren’t already invested in the series. There’s still a whole lot to do with little to no explanation of how things work. Even if you’re a seasoned player, you’re still going to have to be resourceful and look things up on the Internet or get help from more knowledgeable friends when it comes to understanding all of the weapons, skills and plethora of other features in the game. For example, I didn’t know that free hunting at night is no longer accessible until much later in the game, which wasn’t the case in Monster Hunter Tri. Nor did I understand the differences between doing Solo quests in Moga Village and Tanjia Port until I Googled the info up. In a nutshell, this is still Monster Hunter.
Spencer’s impressions
I’ve been playing both the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS versions of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate. While the Wii U version has enhanced graphics it’s clearly a port of the 3DS game, which was an enhanced port of a Wii game. Perhaps the biggest issue with the graphics is the tiny text boxes that pop up in the bottom right hand corner. If Capcom didn’t want to disrupt the game’s atmosphere they could have put the text boxes on the Wii U GamePad. I suppose that problem will be solved when Capcom releases an update in April that adds off TV play and cross-region online play.
Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate lets 3DS and Wii U players hunt in the same game. Only the Wii U player gets the big screen, but it’s a nice addition for hunting parties. I’ve been playing the game mostly through an ad-hoc Wii U to 3DS connection and sometimes the screens are out of sync, like my hunter clipped through Lagombi once. What’s really nice about the 3DS and Wii U connectivity is the data transfer feature. On Friday, Capcom released a free app that transfers save data between the 3DS and Wii U version. Being able to take your hunter on the go and enjoy Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate on a big screen is a great feature since there’s so much to see and do in the game. Of course, you’ll need two copies of the game to make use of portable to big screen hunting. Data transfers are full transfers so if you want to take your hunter on the go you cannot have another character on the 3DS cartridge.
The Wii U controller makes Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate a bit friendlier to newcomers. You can customize panels on the GamePad’s touchscreen to access your item belt, sort through ammo or add a virtual control pad (not really necessary for the Wii U version). Basically, you have shortcuts you didn’t have in Monster Hunter Tri. Starting out with all twelve weapons was another good idea since it gives players a chance to figure out their play style. While there are some resource hunting quests in the beginning that act like a tutorial, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate still has a steep learning curve. I think Miiverse is chipping away at that problem since members thus far have been answering questions and you can browse through answers while you’re playing the game.
Food for thought:
If there’s one thing Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is really good at, it’s getting you excited for Monster Hunter 4. My only real complaint about MH3U is that, like in previous games, there’s a lot of fakery going on with the environment. You’ll see lots of areas in the environment—little nooks and crannies and ledges—that you can’t actually reach. Monster Hunter 4, however, looks like it’s going to let you go to just about any place that you can see, which is very exciting. The game’s world, in general, looks far more animated and alive than in MH3U.Gene patenting is in the news again. On April 15, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a landmark case challenging Myriad Genetics' patents on the the "breast cancer genes." I'll be watching closely as things unfold. Perhaps you should be, as well. The ongoing debate on gene patents boils down to one simple question: Should anyone, in this case Myriad Genetics, be allowed to patent human genes?
For me this case is personal. Breast cancer risk lurks in my family's DNA, so genetic testing was called for at the time of my breast cancer diagnosis in 2010. My entire treatment course depended on my test results. Knowing the results of my BRCA gene analysis test before making decisions about my course of treatment was crucial, perhaps even lifesaving for me.
I want every other person in a situation similar to mine to have affordable access to this life-altering information about their genes, to be able to get a second opinion if they want one and to get definitive test results so that they're not left hanging in limbo. When the resources are available, as they could be if not for Myriad's patents, anything less is just plain wrong. Equally importantly, women who do not have cancer yet but are deemed to be at high risk for developing breast or ovarian cancer based on results of BRCA testing (or would be so deemed if they had the opportunity to be tested) have preventative options that they may or may not choose to take in an attempt to avoid getting cancer. Lives are at stake here.
Back in 2009, a lawsuit was initiated by the American Civil Liberites Union and the Public Patent Foundation on behalf of 20 plaintiffs, challenging Myriad's right to patent the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. Breast Cancer Action is a plaintiff in this lawsuit, the only national breast cancer organization listed as such. (Where are all the others? I'd like to know.) In a nutshell, the suit claims that the patents inhibit scientific research as well as patients' rights to receive potentially lifesaving genetic testing.
Here is why Myriad's monopoly on the "breast cancer genes" is a bad idea:
Myriad retains exclusive rights to all testing and research on BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. This means that sharing of data and analysis is blocked, undermining further collaborative scientific research efforts.
Myriad can keep testing costs high indefinitely (and they have). Second opinions are impossible.
The patents mean continued limited access/information/treatment for underserved populations.
This monopoly creates a barrier standing in the way of further breast and ovarian cancer research.
The idea that human genes can be patented is flawed, sets a dangerous precedent and is just plain wrong.
Of course, Myriad strongly disagrees and continues to fight hard to hold on to its BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene patents. That's not surprising when one considers the amount of dollars in profits at stake.
It's true that roughly only 10 percent of breast cancer cases are attributed to the BRCA gene mutations. I realize that people like me are in a BRCA-positive cancer risk minority "club." However, science is only at the tip of the iceberg here. Genetic testing is still in its infancy. More and more genes are going to be linked to diseases, conditions and who knows how many ailments. In the future, more and more medical decisions and personalized courses of treatment will be based on genetic test results. We are entering the age of more personalized medicine, are we not?
Yet as Weill Cornell Medical College's Christopher E. Mason, who recently co-authored a study indicating the complexity here and showing that nearly the entire human genome might be covered by patents, said, "Just as we enter the era of personalized medicine, we are ironically living in the most restrictive age of genomics. You have to ask, how is it possible that my doctor cannot look at my DNA without being concerned about patent infringement?" That's why this case matters to us all.
It's really not all that complicated: Human genes never should have been and never should be patented. It's time for the U. S. Supreme Court to set things right. This landmark case directly affects my family today. Someday it might affect yours too.
Read more at Nancy's Point. "Like" Nancy's Point on Facebook.
For more health news, click here.Marc "Half-Life" Laidlaw's gonzo cyberpunk is back in DRM-free ebooks
Marc Laidlaw, the cyberpunk pioneer who went on to serve as writer on some of Valve's greatest video-game titles -- the Half-Life series, Portal -- has just posted his entire backlist to Amazon as $3, DRM-free ebooks, including his debut novel Dad's Nuke (think Fallout, but with religious extremist militants who subsist on "Host on a shingle," this being the cultured recovered foreskin tissue of Jesus Christ on fortified crackers) and Kalifornia, a brilliant and prescient novel about media, cultural disintegration, and celebrity.
Laidlaw retired from games to return to prose (as someone who enjoys reading more than gaming, I was very happy about this), and the revival of his backlist is cause for serious celebration.
Marc Laidlaw DRM-free ebooksJeffrey Johnson’s Favourite Pubs
One day Jeffrey Johnson walked into the Bishopsgate Institute, deposited a stack of his splendid photographs with Archivist Stefan Dickers and left without another word. We can only conclude that these fond pictures from the seventies and eighties record the enigmatic Jeffrey’s favourite pubs. Some are familiar, but for the locations of the others - some of which are long gone – I call upon the superior experience of my readers.
Hoop & Grapes, Aldgate (Dentures Repaired)
Sir Walter Scott, Broadway Market
Knave of Clubs, Bethnal Green Rd
Dericote St, Broadway Market
Crown & Woolpack, St John St, Clerkenwell
Horn Tavern, Knightrider St, City of London (now known as The Centrepage)
Unknown pub
The Queen’s Head, City of London
The Queen’s Head, City of London
Unknown pub
Unknown pub
Old Bell Tavern, St Pancras
Magpie & Stump, Old Bailey
The Mackworth Arms, Commercial Rd
Green Man
Green Man
Marquis of Anglesey, Ashmill St
The Crooked Billet
The Bull’s Head (Landlords fight to save City pub)
The White Horse
The Olde Wine Shades, City of London
The Crispin, Finsbury Avenue
The Blue Posts, West India Dock Rd, Limehouse (Plasterer’s Required – Call at Back Door)
The Ticket Porter, Arthur St, City of London
Weavers Arms
Photographs copyright © Jeffrey Johnson
You may also like to take a look at
The Pubs of Old London
The Taverns of Long Forgotten London
Antony Cairns’ East End Pubs
Antony Cairns’ Dead Pubs
Alex Pink’s East End Pubs Then & Now
The Gentle Author’s Pub Crawl
The Gentle Author’s Next Pub Crawl
The Gentle Author’s Spitalfields Pub Crawl
The Gentle Author’s Dead Pubs Crawl
The Gentle Author’s Next Dead Pubs Crawl
The Gentle Author’s Wapping Pub Crawl
The Gentle Author’s Piccadilly Pub CrawlAndroid BottomSheetDialog
Anita Singh Blocked Unblock Follow Following Oct 10, 2016
A couple months ago, I implemented my first Support Library BottomSheetDialog at work. I then decided to explore it a bit further in an example app:
Example “warning” dialog
There are three choices when implementing a Support Library (23.2) Material Design bottom sheet — a container view with a BottomSheetBehavior, a BottomSheetDialogFragment, or a BottomSheetDialog. There are plenty examples of the first two on the interwebs, hence I decided to write a quick post about BottomSheetDialog.
Why BottomSheetDialog?
But first, you might be wondering why use a BottomSheetDialog over a container view with BottomSheetBehavior?
Depends on how you want to use it — the latter covers the persistent bottom sheet case, whereas BottomSheetDialog (and fragment) covers the modal bottom sheet use case.
The BottomSheetDialog essentially wraps the content view of the dialog in a FrameLayout inside of a CoordinatorLayout. The BottomSheetDialog handles setting the BottomSheetBehavior on this FrameLayout, which is convenient!
Show me the code
Below is a BottomSheetDialog with dialog_coffee.xml as it’s content view.
public CoffeeDialog(Context context) {
super(context, R.style.CoffeeDialog);
View contentView = View.inflate(getContext(), R.layout.dialog_coffee, null);
setContentView(contentView);
configureBottomSheetBehavior(contentView);
}
Note that I had to make a custom theme (shown below), inheriting from the BottomSheetDialog theme to have the alpha of the background color show the intended transparency, and have it not dismiss when touched outside. I only wanted the dialog to dismiss when the user either drags it down or presses the “X” on the top right.
Using setCanceledOnTouchOutside(false) in code didn’t work, however the custom theme below did the trick!
<style name="CoffeeDialog" parent="Theme.Design.Light.BottomSheetDialog">
<item name="android:windowCloseOnTouchOutside">false</item>
<item name="android:windowIsTranslucent">true</item>
<item name="android:windowContentOverlay">@null</item>
<item name="android:colorBackground"> @android:color/transparent</item>
<item name="android:backgroundDimEnabled">true</item>
<item name="android:backgroundDimAmount">0.3</item>
<item name="android:windowFrame">@null</item>
<item name="android:windowIsFloating">true</item>
</style>
How do I configure the BottomSheetCallback?
BottomSheetCallbacks are tied to BottomSheetBehaviors and monitor events through onSlide(..) and onStateChanged(..) callbacks. You can retrieve the BottomSheetBehavior from the ViewParent of the content view, and set the BottomSheetCallback there.
private void configureBottomSheetBehavior(View contentView) {
BottomSheetBehavior mBottomSheetBehavior = BottomSheetBehavior.from((View) contentView.getParent());
if (mBottomSheetBehavior!= null) {
mBottomSheetBehavior.setBottomSheetCallback(new BottomSheetBehavior.BottomSheetCallback() {
@Override
public void onStateChanged(@NonNull View bottomSheet, int newState) {
//showing the different states
switch (newState) {
case BottomSheetBehavior.STATE_HIDDEN:
dismiss(); //if you want the modal to be dismissed when user drags the bottomsheet down
break;
case BottomSheetBehavior.STATE_EXPANDED:
break;
case BottomSheetBehavior.STATE_COLLAPSED:
break;
case BottomSheetBehavior.STATE_DRAGGING:
break;
case BottomSheetBehavior.STATE_SETTLING:
break;
}
}
@Override
public void onSlide(@NonNull View bottomSheet, float slideOffset) {
}
});
}
}
Ofcourse, explicitly setting the BottomSheetCallback isn’t necessary unless you want to respond to state changes of the bottom sheet.
I found implementing the BottomSheetDialog pretty straightforward, except for setCanceledOnTouchOutside(false) not working as expected!
From a design perspective, that makes sense because the material design documentation states that it can be dismissed when the outside is touched. However, it felt weird that the option to configure that functionality exists in the code, but doesn’t work as expected, whereas it works for regular dialogs. But, the custom theme saved the day!
There are other quirks with it, but I personally haven’t encountered them yet. There are more fun things you can do with bottom sheets that are covered here. Looking forward to having fun with these myself! Enjoy!JUNE 2--A woman clad in a burka attacked a Georgia homeowner with an American flag that was flying in front of the victim’s home, police allege.
According to cops, Aisha Ibrahim, 30, emerged Tuesday morning from a wooded area adjacent to victim Dami Arno’s home in Lawrenceville, a city about 30 miles northeast of Atlanta.
Arno told police that Ibrahim--whose eyes were only visible--walked up to her mailbox and “pulled the flag out of it.” Armed with the flag--which was attached to a four-foot long PVC pipe--Ibrahim then advanced on Arno “in a threatening manner swinging the post and flag at her, hitting her with it,” according to a Lawrenceville Police Department report.
As Arno’s two children sought to help their mother, Ibrahim “was able to get one of her shoes off” and struck Arno’s teenage daughter in the head. A neighbor subsequently “entered the fight” and was “able to help hold the suspect until the police department arrived.”
Ibrahim was arrested on a pair of battery counts and was booked into the Gwinnett County jail, where the above mug shot was snapped. A third misdemeanor charge was later filed against Ibrahim after police determined that she gave them a phony name (Amina Ali Ahra) when busted.
Police have not determined a motive for the alleged flag attack.
In a Facebook post, Arno expressed frustration that Ibrahim is not facing a hate crime charge. “A muslim women tore my flag pole down this morning and attacked me and my daughter with it after the fight she was charged with simple battery 2 counts nothing else no hate crime no destruction of property no criminal trespassing nothing,” Arno wrote.
In a post this morning, Arno uploaded a photo of a sweater-clad Fred Rogers with the caption, “Mister Rogers didn’t adequately prepare me for the people in my neighborhood.” (2 pages)College is a wonderful and ever-changing period of a young adult’s life. It is a period of growing, changing, meeting new people and coming into contact with new influences. Unfortunately, for many young college students, they’re minds are easily molded by those around them — especially those who they look up to as idols and authoritative figures; their professors.
During my four years I spent attending a college, I had more than my fair share of run-ins with professors who would forcibly push false democratic propaganda onto us students by spewing false rhetoric and freely bashing Republican views and beliefs. But boy oh boy, should one ever speak out against the almighty Democrat, you’d be shunned and the conversation would immediately be over. Most of the time I would chime in with my thoughts, but I’ll admit there were times when I wasn’t in the mood to argue.
However, out of all the run-ins with the left-leaning teachers I had endured, none were quite as appalling as the incident a friend of mine had just gone through a couple of days ago. The one and only “spoiled brat,” Chelsea Clinton, had a speaking event in the city where my friend attends college. So, as I’m sitting in rush hour traffic a text message pops up on my phone; it reads “It’s pretty sweet that we’re required to go to Chelsea Clinton’s event today for class or we lose participation points.” Being the conservative that I am, my mouth dropped. I couldn’t believe that a college professor would have the audacity to send students to a pro-Hillary-related rally and tell them that the consequence of not attending it would be a reduction in their class grade.
The saddest part of all? It didn’t end at that. Today I got a text from that same friend telling me that he skipped the speaking event. He also informed me that they were required to write a short, online discussion post about their beliefs on “Whether government today is too big or too small.” My friend, who was also born and raise a hardcore conservative, said in his discussion that government was too prevalent and too powerful in America today, and that it should be smaller. His discussion post received a grade of 50% (keep in my his two previous discussion posts in this class both received 100%), and his lack of attendance at the pro-Hillary Clinton event dropped his class grade from a B to a C.
This is disgusting. This is unfair. And this, right here, is why we, as Republicans (or any other right-leaning political members), need to take a stand and fight for what we believe in. We need to spread the word about what we believe, why we believe in it and in what ways it can benefit those young, easily-molded minds around us. Extreme liberal professors and university personnel have become too large of an influence on the young students who are eager to learn, and not always in a good way. This is our time to create change, so let’s start… right… NOW.House Freedom Caucus Chairman Rep. Mark Meadows' comments makes it likelier that a congressional showdown over a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico will be put off until December. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Freedom Caucus head opposes shutdown over wall, for now
House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows said Wednesday that he and his allies will support short-term legislation to fund the government even if it excludes money for President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall.
The stance is notable because the North Carolina Republican is a staunch ally of Trump.
Story Continued Below
"In talking to a number of my members, if there was a vote for a continuing resolution next week that did not include border wall funding, the majority of those members would be supportive of that," Meadows said in an interview on ABC’s “Powerhouse Politics” podcast. He emphasized that he's supportive of the wall but wants to avoid a shutdown fight amid federal relief efforts in Houston.
Meadows' comments makes it more likely that a congressional showdown over a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico will be put off until December, when Congress is expected to revisit measures to fund the government.
Meadows’ comments suggest Trump may have to resign himself to waiting three months to fight for wall funding. He suggested earlier this month that he is prepared for a showdown over paying for the wall, even if it were to lead to a government shutdown.
“If we have to close down our government, we’re building that wall,” Trump thundered in Phoenix, at a campaign-style rally last week.
But a growing list of urgent fiscal priorities — including the likelihood that Congress may also send billions of dollars to hurricane-ravaged Houston — may force the wall’s most ardent backers to wait.
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In September, Congress is faced with a deadline to keep the government open and to lift the debt ceiling, another perennially difficult fight among various House factions. They’re also expected to begin dealing with tax reform, as well as other thorny priorities like reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration. GOP leaders have signaled that the likeliest path forward is a three-month funding bill that punts the budget fight into December.
Many Republicans had begun expressing uneasiness about the notion that a fight over the wall might close the federal government. For example, Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) said while she's a “strong proponent” of border security, she doesn’t believe a physical wall is possible, or practical, in all areas.
“I don’t think we want to shut down government,” Fischer told the Omaha World Herald on Tuesday.
Speaker Paul Ryan, too, said during a televised town hall last week that he didn’t think Americans wanted a government shutdown.
“I don't think a government shutdown is necessary, and I don't think most people want to see a government shutdown, ourselves included," Ryan said at the event, which aired on CNN.
Trump has said he hopes a shutdown isn’t necessary but hasn’t ruled out vetoing government funding legislation that excludes wall funding money. He’s slated to meet with legislative leaders next Wednesday to discuss the September agenda.
Trump might have support for funding the wall from some Republicans facing pressure from the right.
“I’ve always supported the border wall,” Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.), who is facing a primary challenge next year, told NBC this week. “I don’t see any practical reason why we ought to close the government. I think as Republicans we need to be reasonable and work with the president on this and make sure that he gets the funding he needs.”
In the podcast, Meadows also said he would be willing to back an emergency spending package for Hurricane Harvey relief — if it doesn’t become “a vehicle for special spending.”
The House Freedom Caucus is a potential roadblock to a relief package given the group’s staunch opposition to the 2012 aid to help parts of New York and New Jersey ravaged by Hurricane Sandy. They argued at the time that the measure funded too many extraneous programs and should have been paid for with spending cuts.
“As long as we keep the emergency relief really to support the people in need, whether they be in New York or Texas, I think you’ll find plenty of conservative support, and certainly my support,” Meadows said.
Burgess Everett contributed.So nasty and so rude! The drama between NeNe Leakes and Kenya Moore is just heating up.
The two Real Housewives of Atlanta stars, who have been feuding on and off for years, took their ongoing issues a step further this week. Model and actress Moore, 44, took to Instagram on Tuesday, Jan. 27, to share a legal document that takes the fight to the next level.
PHOTOS: Real Housewives' Biggest Fights Ever
The Instagram photo shows a typed document with a header reading, "RE: DEMAND TO CEASE AND DESIST DEFAMATORY STATEMENTS."
"Mrs. Leakes has learned that you have engaged in making false, destructive, and defamatory statements," the letter to Moore reads. "These statements have been made directly, by implication and innuendo during television broadcasts and through social media and the BravoTV blog. You are hereby directed to cease and desist making any and all false and defamatory statements, which are injurious to her character and reputation."
PHOTOS: Before They Were Real Housewives
"Your postings on BravoTV have been false, malicious and ostensibly made with the intent to cause damage to her reputation by exposing her to public hatred, contempt and ridicule, and injuring her in her trade and/or profession," the letter continued. "Particularly, your statement was made with the intent to directly injure and defame Mrs. Leakes and the perception of her in the broadcast of The Real Housewives of Atlanta (RHOA), her brand as a member of the cast, and her brand in the entertainment and celebrity industry in general."
Despite the serious tone of the letter, which Moore maintains was sent by legal representation for Leakes, the controversial RHOA star did not seem phased by the document.
PHOTOS: Real Housewives' Bikini Bodies
"I guess this is @neneleakes way of saying happy birthday!" she captioned the Instagram, referencing her recent 44th birthday on Jan. 24. "#RHOA #HypocrisyAtItsBest #byegirl #SheTriedIt #SoNastySoRude."
While Leakes, 47, did not |
13:06:21 - Permalink Every day I read news items on the hysteria that surrounds the closely-related issues of sex offenders and pedophilia. As a woman who lived on the streets briefly as a runaway teen, I would never deny the existence of sexual abuse or the unique vulnerability of children to it.But I simply do not believe society now produces 10x, 20x, 100x more sexual offenders than it did a few decades ago when children walked home from school alone and safely....as I did, as did every other child I knew. I do not believe the politicized and self-serving statistics I read from social workers, PC feminists, law enforcement and others who draw money/prestige from the "child abuse industry." I know for a fact (because I investigated several cases) that the lives of entirely innocent people are being destroyed by false or otherwise ungrounded accusations that, once made, are a de facto GUILTY conviction in the eyes of the public. The soaring number of sex offenders on registries and in jail are far more a result of unreasonably expanded definitions that include an 18-year-old having sex with his teenaged girlfriend, teens texting each other, etc. It is the result of a legal system that draws little distinction between violent sexual assault and the distasteful but non-violent act of exposing one's genitalia. And, so, an increasing number of sexual offenders (overwhelmingly males) now live under bridges or on the street because of residency restrictions; they cannot get jobs; they have fewer and fewer legal rights every day; any chance of rehabilitation is virtually stripped away and non-violent offenders naturally turn brutal or suicidal in facing utter hatred from all whom they meet...Today I read a story that made my blood run cold. There has been (from what I can see) an increasing trend toward a vigilantism in which sex offenders are brutalized -- sometimes to the point of death -- by neighborhood residents who are informed by the authorities that an "offender" is moving nearby. What the hell do the police think will happen when they announce that Satan has come to town in order to rape your 3-year-old? The blood-curdling story from this morning: Parents told how to protect kids from predators. The police chief in a town in Vermont is apparently frustrated that a soon-to-be released sex offender -- who is named in the story, of course -- has the right to live wherever he wishes. I presume he was sentenced prior to residency restriction laws because such freedom is severely curtailed for those sentenced today or in recent years. And, so, the police chief gathered together parents from the community to personally warn them of the fellow's background and advise them to 'protect' their children from him. Of course, he adds the standard boilerplate warning that lets him entirely 'off the hook', No rough stuff, now! Don't break the law. I have no doubt officials such as this police chief turn their faces away (whenever they can do so with impunity) from the brutalization of sex offenders within their jurisdictions; hell, the police themselves are the main perpetrators.A final irony of the sexual offender hysteria is that the drive to protect children is actually endangering them. Decent, decent men -- like my husband -- know to stay away from children...even to help them. They know how vulnerable they are to false or mistaken charges that could ruin their lives merely by being spoken aloud. I have made Brad promise NEVER to volunteer for a Special Olympics or any other event where he will be in contact with children; this has been a hardship for him because volunteering in the community in one of his favorite things. What do parents and authorities expect will happen to children when decent men with common sense literally avert their eyes when they see a child approaching? Do they think that child will have people rushing to assist him/her when lost, hurt or in other danger? They have destroyed the social network of decent human beings whose natural instinct is to help a child in need. This helps children?This train of thought reminded me of an article I wrote years ago about an incident that drives home the impact of sex offender hysteria upon children. Some children will die because of it....On Nov. 28, 2002, 2-year-old Abigail Rae died by drowning in a village pond in England. Her death is currently stirring debate because the ongoing inquest revealed an explosive fact. A man passing by was afraid to guide the lost child to safety because he feared being labeled "a pervert."In the article "Day of the dad: paedophilia hysteria leaves men afraid to help," The Telegraph raises a question that applies equally to North America. Have high profile cases of pedophilia created such public hysteria that the average decent human being, especially a man, is now reluctant to approach a child in need?Questions after 2 die, 1 hurt in county custody
January 31, 2017
By KAREN VELIE
Editor’s Note: This is part one in a two-part series about San Luis Obispo County health services and sheriff department’s treatment of the mentally ill.
Two men died and a third man seriously injured himself while in county custody in January. A handful of county workers say the deaths and injury could have been prevented if San Luis Obispo County followed state guidelines for dealing with the mentally ill.
County employees, who requested anonymity because they fear retaliation, said that mentally ill inmates and patients are being mistreated and neglected by county staff. The mistreatment includes long-term isolation, incorrect and over medication and failure to provide adequate health care, the employees said.
Early last summer, police arrested 56-year-old Anthony Vazquez on a misdemeanor charge and booked him into the San Luis Obispo County Jail. However, a San Luis Obispo County Court dropped the charges and ordered Vazquez transferred to the county mental health facility.
On Oct. 5, county staff checked Vazquez into the county mental health facility and county doctors began prescribing medications to treat his mental health issues, sources said.
Several months later, Vazquez said he was feeling bad and began pleading to see a doctor other than the one at the county facility, telling staff and others that he thought he was dying.
“Anthony would ask, ‘Please don’t let me die in here,’ ” a source familiar with the events surrounding Vazquez’ death said.
However, mental health supervisory staff and the county conservator, who took control over Vazquez several weeks before he died, refused to allow Vazquez outside medical care, sources said. Dr. Eugene Edward Kercher, 77, hired to see patients at the facility, also failed to send Vazquez to a hospital or outside physician, sources said.
Following his decision not to provide Vazquez access to other health care providers, some county staffers questioned Dr. Kercher’s medical competency.
Several weeks ago, Vazquez’ blood pressure dropped. He was rushed to French Hospital Medical Center where he died as the result of a gastrointestinal bleed, sources said.
While county staffers question the treatment of patients at the county mental health facility, the mentally ill may fair worse at the SLO County Jail, county employees say.
Andrew Chaylon Holland, 36, was booked into the San Luis Obispo County Jail in September of 2015 on a charge of resisting arrest. Holland suffered from schizophrenia and had been going through a change of medication, his family said.
While in the county jail, Holland was held in isolation and given ineffective medication, his family said. He then became combative with staff and was repeatedly charged with battery of an officer.
Shortly before Christmas, Holland was stripped and thrown naked into a small concrete cell with rubber padding, no bedding and a hole in the floor for his waste, sources said. After several weeks, deputies moved Holland out of the rubber room and back to his isolation cell.
On Jan. 10, a San Luis Obispo County Court ordered Holland into a mental health facility. He was not transferred.
The county mental health facility regularly refuses to receive inmates claiming either there are no beds available or licensing issues prevent the facility from accepting more inmates. As a result, the jail is out of compliance with California’s Title 15 regarding treatment of mentally ill inmates, according to a 2015 audit of the jail.
On Jan. 20, deputies moved Holland into the drunk tank to await transfer to the county mental health facility. However, staff from county mental health said there were no beds available and Holland was left naked and without a bed in the drunk tank for two days, sources said.
The 2015 state audit found that San Luis Obispo County has understaffed medical personnel at the jail. Both inmates and staff have suffered, the state audit found.
The jail was seriously understaffed on Jan. 22 when two medical emergencies occurred at about the same time. Jeremiah Mobley, an inmate who was locked naked in the rubber room, began to claw at his eyes. Medical staff was attending to Mobley when Holland collapsed and went into respiratory arrest at the other end of the jail complex, sources said.
The cause of Holland’s death has not yet been disclosed.
Mobley was later taken from his cell and transported to Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center. At Sierra, Mobley was evaluated and deemed safe to book into jail.
With his eyes bloodied and swollen, deputies booked Mobley into the county jail before transferring him to the county mental health facility. After spending one night in the custody of county mental health, a family member agreed to purchase Mobley a bus ticket to his home town. A county staffer then drove Mobley to the San Luis Obispo’s train station so that he could board a bus headed out of the county.
After several minutes on the bus, Mobley became combative and refused to sit down. The bus driver then asked Mobley to leave the bus, Manuel Reyes said. After spending more than an hour in the train station restroom, personnel called law enforcement officers who drove Mobley back to SLO County’s mental health facility.
Loading...Kansas State University President Kirk Schulz expressed disappointment when a Senate budget committee took up a plan slicing millions of dollars from state appropriations to the land-grant university in Manhattan.
Schulz’s views were circulated on social media, which drew a pointed rebuttal from a Kansas House member serving a Salina district.
Rep. J.R. Claeys, a Republican and graduate of K-State, replied to Schulz’s remarks by indicating the Legislature ought to use the state budget process to encourage the university to focus on high-priority academic areas — specifically, not women’s studies.
This was expressed by Claeys with this passage to Twitter: "...as long as ‘feminist thought’ remains on the line schedule."
"I'm speaking to prioritization. That's it," the legislator said in an interview at the Capitol. "There are far more important things than teaching ideological indoctrination."
The Twitter post by Claeys caught the attention of Angela Hubler, an associate professor of women’s studies at K-State. Her response on Twitter was her first personal contribution to that communication platform.
"He has a misunderstanding about what we do in women’s studies," she said.
It is an interdisciplinary field of study that pulls together elements of literature, politics, history, psychology, art and philosophy. At K-State, she said, students explored sexual trafficking, violence against women, gender pay inequity and dozens of other topics. The politics of social change are part of the landscape, she said.
"That’s hardly putting a pitchfork in the hands of students," Hubler said.
Barbara Ballard, who teaches in women’s studies at The University of Kansas, said KU had a lengthy history of instruction in this multidisciplinary field. Contributions of women haven’t always been recognized in history books and college courses, she said.
"They’re very diverse," Ballard, who also represents Lawrence in the House, said of the courses. "People find them very beneficial."
Rep. Sydney Carlin, D-Manhattan, said criticism from the Capitol by Claeys about K-State’s curriculum was misplaced.
"I’m so sorry to see people here continue to pick apart what it takes to educate a person," Carlin said.
Schulz had issued a written statement critical of the Senate Ways and Means Committee’s action raising the potential lawmakers would withhold from the university $3 million in each of the next two years.
That would compound a $3.1 million cut ordered by Gov. Sam Brownback in February to help close a state budget deficit in the current fiscal year.
"Continued cuts in higher education have a harmful effect on the opportunities we can provide to the students and citizens of Kansas," Schulz said.
He posted a link on Twitter to his complete commentary and indicated budget setbacks could be a "momentum killer" in terms of attaining established university goals.
The Senate budget committee is poised to transfer $9.4 million from KU’s campus in Lawrence and $6.2 million from K-State over the next two years. In part, it would be reallocated by giving $7.4 million to KU Medical Center in Wichita and $2 million to Pittsburg State University.
Sen. Tom Arpke, R-Salina, led the subcommittee that developed the spending adjustments at universities governed by the Kansas Board of Regents.
He said KU student enrollment had declined and money would be better spent expanding production of medical school graduates at KUMC in Wichita and by investing in a transportation program at Pittsburg State.Image caption The Wellington statue in Glasgow is the most famous example of the trend
Glasgow council has ended plans to stop pranksters placing traffic cones on top of a statue of the Duke of Wellington. It's part of a long tradition of statue tomfoolery, says Finlo Rohrer.
The placing of traffic cones on historic statues can be blamed on two factors - alcohol and the prevalence of roadworks of some kind in city centres.
Image caption Leamington Spa, UK
But two of the ancient world's most momentous events revolved around people messing about with statues.
Image caption Auckland, New Zealand
Image caption Oxford, UK
A diadem placed on a statue of Julius Caesar arguably started a chain of events that resulted in his murder and the beginning of the Roman Empire. The diadem was removed by two tribunes (depicted as Flavius and Marullus in the Shakespeare play) and then the trouble started.
At the height of the Peloponnesian War between Sparta and Athens in the 5th Century BC, the Athenian general Alcibiades was recalled from a massive invasion of Sicily on charges of vandalising religiously significant statues of Hermes.
He decided to defect to the Spartans rather than face the trumped-up charges.
Command then passed to the less talented Nicias, the invasion was a disaster and the Athenians later lost the war. It's still not known who really smashed up the statues.
Image caption Nottingham, UK
In 2000, the statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square was memorably given a Mohican made out of turf. But the statue was also sprayed with graffiti - for which a former soldier was later imprisoned for 30 days.
Image caption Liverpool, UK
The same statue was again adorned in 2012, with a straitjacket on behalf on Channel 4, to publicise a series on mental health.
Image caption Leeds, UK
Also last year, a series of statues across London were provided with hats by notable British milliners in a project linked to the Olympics. Some criticised that move as tacky and even compared it unfavourably with Glasgow's tradition.
Image caption In Glasgow, the Duke of Wellington dons the traffic cone through the night
It's not just headwear in the form of cones or hats.
AS Roma fan Enzo Giordani travelled New Zealand adorning random statues with scarves in the colours of his football team. And a charity in Norway did the same to distribute scarves to people in cold weather.
In Trondheim in Norway, a statue of the city's founder Olav Tryggvason has occasionally been adorned with either a hat or a scarf. But bearing in mind that it's nearly 60ft from the base to the top of his head, one can only assume a degree of official complicity.
Image caption Gloucester, UK
And at least it's not a cone.
Follow @BBCNewsMagazine on Twitter and on FacebookProblem
You have a Mondrian Schema uploaded to the BA Server and you would like to modify it in the run time. For instance in our project we change it for every user authenticated to the platform to apply security restrictions. This modification aims to limit records that users are able to see in reports based on that Mondrian Schema.
Solution
This is possible by creating a jar with a class extending Dynamic Schema Processor from Mondrian library.
Test data and Mondrian Schema
This is the table we will be using for the demo.
And then Mondrian Schema on top of it, created using Schema Workbench.
Original Mondrian Schema <Schema name="TestSchema"> <Cube name="TestCube" visible="true" cache="true" enabled="true"> <Table name="TEST_TABLE" schema="AISDWH" alias=""> </Table> <Dimension type="StandardDimension" visible="true" foreignKey="NAME" name="Name"> <Hierarchy name="Name" visible="true" hasAll="true" primaryKey="NAME"> <Table name="TEST_TABLE" schema="AISDWH"> </Table> <Level name="Name" visible="true" table="TEST_TABLE" column="NAME" uniqueMembers="false"> </Level> </Hierarchy> </Dimension> <Dimension type="StandardDimension" visible="true" foreignKey="NAME" name="Age"> <Hierarchy name="Age" visible="true" hasAll="true" primaryKey="NAME"> <Table name="TEST_TABLE" schema="AISDWH" alias=""> </Table> <Level name="Age" visible="true" table="TEST_TABLE" column="AGE" uniqueMembers="false"> </Level> </Hierarchy> </Dimension> <Measure name="Number of people" column="NAME" aggregator="distinct-count" visible="true"> </Measure> </Cube> </Schema> 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 <Schema name = "TestSchema" > <Cube name = "TestCube" visible = "true" cache = "true" enabled = "true" > <Table name = "TEST_TABLE" schema = "AISDWH" alias = "" > </Table> <Dimension type = "StandardDimension" visible = "true" foreignKey = "NAME" name = "Name" > <Hierarchy name = "Name" visible = "true" hasAll = "true" primaryKey = "NAME" > <Table name = "TEST_TABLE" schema = "AISDWH" > </Table> <Level name = "Name" visible = "true" table = "TEST_TABLE" column = "NAME" uniqueMembers = "false" > </Level> </Hierarchy> </Dimension> <Dimension type = "StandardDimension" visible = "true" foreignKey = "NAME" name = "Age" > <Hierarchy name = "Age" visible = "true" hasAll = "true" primaryKey = "NAME" > <Table name = "TEST_TABLE" schema = "AISDWH" alias = "" > </Table> <Level name = "Age" visible = "true" table = "TEST_TABLE" column = "AGE" uniqueMembers = "false" > </Level> </Hierarchy> </Dimension> <Measure name = "Number of people" column = "NAME" aggregator = "distinct-count" visible = "true" > </Measure> </Cube> </Schema>
Now let’s import the schema to BA Server. Press Manage Data Source button in Home Page, then open the link Import Analysis from dropdown menu under the icon on the left to New Data Source button. Select the file with our Mondrian Schema and a data source that links to our database.
If we create an analyzer report using it we will get something like this.
Modifying Mondrian Schema
Now I will slightly modify the original Mondrian Schema (you could do this modification directly from DSP, but for the sake of the demo implementation it is just easier to do it like that and then modify in the run time only the part that cannot be evaluated before).
Modified Mondrian Schema <Schema name="TestSchema"> <Cube name="TestCube" visible="true" cache="true" enabled="true"> <Table name="TEST_TABLE" schema="AISDWH" alias=""> </Table> <Dimension type="StandardDimension" visible="true" foreignKey="NAME" highCardinality="false" name="Name"> <Hierarchy name="Name" visible="true" hasAll="true" primaryKey="NAME"> <Table name="TEST_TABLE" schema="AISDWH"> </Table> <Level name="Name" visible="true" table="TEST_TABLE" column="NAME" type="String" uniqueMembers="false" levelType="Regular" hideMemberIf="Never"> </Level> </Hierarchy> </Dimension> <Dimension type="StandardDimension" visible="true" foreignKey="NAME" highCardinality="false" name="Age"> <Hierarchy name="Age" visible="true" hasAll="true" primaryKey="NAME"> <Table name="TEST_TABLE" schema="AISDWH"> <SQL dialect="generic"> <![CDATA[AGE > %PLACE_HOLDER%]]> </SQL> </Table> <Level name="Age" visible="true" table="TEST_TABLE" column="AGE" type="String" uniqueMembers="false" levelType="Regular" hideMemberIf="Never"> </Level> </Hierarchy> </Dimension> <Measure name="Number of people" column="NAME" aggregator="distinct-count" visible="true"> </Measure> </Cube> </Schema> 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 <Schema name = "TestSchema" > <Cube name = "TestCube" visible = "true" cache = "true" enabled = "true" > <Table name = "TEST_TABLE" schema = "AISDWH" alias = "" > </Table> <Dimension type = "StandardDimension" visible = "true" foreignKey = "NAME" highCardinality = "false" name = "Name" > <Hierarchy name = "Name" visible = "true" hasAll = "true" primaryKey = "NAME" > <Table name = "TEST_TABLE" schema = "AISDWH" > </Table> <Level name = "Name" visible = "true" table = "TEST_TABLE" column = "NAME" type = "String" uniqueMembers = "false" levelType = "Regular" hideMemberIf = "Never" > </Level> </Hierarchy> </Dimension> <Dimension type = "StandardDimension" visible = "true" foreignKey = "NAME" highCardinality = "false" name = "Age" > <Hierarchy name = "Age" visible = "true" hasAll = "true" primaryKey = "NAME" > <Table name = "TEST_TABLE" schema = "AISDWH" > <SQL dialect = "generic" > <![CDATA[AGE > % PLACE _ HOLDER % ] ] > </SQL> </Table> <Level name = "Age" visible = "true" table = "TEST_TABLE" column = "AGE" type = "String" uniqueMembers = "false" levelType = "Regular" hideMemberIf = "Never" > </Level> </Hierarchy> </Dimension> <Measure name = "Number of people" column = "NAME" aggregator = "distinct-count" visible = "true" > </Measure> </Cube> </Schema>
As you can see I modified Table so that sql query when retrieving the Age will have a where cluase. The where clause will filter data using Age column by the value that will be specified using Dynamic Schema Processor which will change the place holder into a proper value. Also at this point we have to reimport the schema in the BA Server (the same way as we added it originally).
Creating Dynamic Schema Processor
Now let’s create a Dynamic Schema Processor that will modify the original Mondrian Schema so that when we use age dimension in the analyzer only records for people above certain age are displayed. To do that we need to create a class that implements a DynamicSchemaProcessor interface (in my case I extend FilterDynamicSchemaProcessor class that implements this interface). As you can see below the code is really simple and does not need much clarification, you can check the entire code on my GitHub (to see for example how to import Mondrian dependencies with FilterDynamicSchemaProcessor – sources in GitHub).
Dynamic Schema Processor package com.thejavatar.blog.mondriandsp; import mondrian.olap.Util; import mondrian.spi.impl.FilterDynamicSchemaProcessor; import java.io.InputStream; /** * Created by Lukasz Janicki (contact@thejavatar.com) on 22/07/2015. */ public class ChangeAgeDynamicSchemaProcessor extends FilterDynamicSchemaProcessor { @Override protected String filter(final String schemaUrl, final Util.PropertyList connectInfo, final InputStream stream) throws java.lang.Exception { String originalSchema = super.filter(schemaUrl, connectInfo, stream); String modifiedSchema = originalSchema.replace("%PLACE_HOLDER%","24"); return modifiedSchema; } } 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 package com. thejavatar. blog. mondriandsp ; import mondrian. olap. Util ; import mondrian. spi. impl. FilterDynamicSchemaProcessor ; import java. io. InputStream ; /** * Created by Lukasz Janicki (contact@thejavatar.com) on 22/07/2015. */ public class ChangeAgeDynamicSchemaProcessor extends FilterDynamicSchemaProcessor { @Override protected String filter ( final String schemaUrl, final Util. PropertyList connectInfo, final InputStream stream ) throws java. lang. Exception { String originalSchema = super. filter ( schemaUrl, connectInfo, stream ) ; String modifiedSchema = originalSchema. replace ( "%PLACE_HOLDER%", "24" ) ; return modifiedSchema ; } }
Configure Dynamic Schema Processor in BA Server
In order to use the newly created Dynamic Schema Processor you have to add the jar to the following location: /biserver-ee/tomcat/webapps/pentaho/WEB-INF/lib/. Then you have to edit the configuration of the schema in the BA Server to specify that this particular DSP should be used for this Schema. You go again to Manage Data Sources select the schema and then click Edit from drop-down menu and then add a new parameter called DynamicSchemaProcessor with value linking to your class (see picture below).
Now if we create the same report we will get different results than in the beginning.
LinksOn just about any change in tax policy, the most basic question to ask is: Who wins and by how much?
When it comes to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s $2.2-billion “Family Tax Cut” policy, which will allow couples with kids to split their incomes for tax purposes, getting a straight answer hasn’t been easy.
The tax credit Harper announced last fall, as you’ve likely heard, will be worth up to $2,000, calculated by letting the higher-earning spouse transfer up to $50,000 of income to the lower-earning spouse, so it’s taxed in the lower bracket. Couples with a big gap between what they make, or where one doesn’t work outside the home, will obviously benefit most.
In a canny move, Harper packaged income-splitting with another policy: a boost to the Universal Child Care Benefit, from $100 to $160 a month for each child under the age of six, as well as a new $60-a-month payment for each kid aged six to 17.
It doesn’t take a grand master in political tactics to see how hiking those monthly payments to all families with kids offsets the awkward fact that income-splitting does nothing for single parents, little for lower-income families, and not much for couples with comparable incomes.
And so, unsurprisingly, Finance Minister Joe Oliver preferred to see the effects of the two policies lumped together. In answer to my questions last fall, his department gave me the top table below, which blends the distribution of benefits from the two measures. It paints a nice, balanced picture: Relief is spread among different income levels more or less in proportion to their share of the population.
But what if you subtracted those universal monthly payments and looked only at income-splitting? The Finance department flatly declined to give me those numbers. It wasn’t until this week, when the independent Parliamentary Budget Officer agreed to replicate the table, but for income-splitting alone, that I finally had the answer to that basic question. It’s the bottom table below.
Comparing the two tables, here’s what jumps out at me, keeping in mind that these are approximate figures, since the Finance department and the PBO use slightly different assumptions and methods:
Of the 1.7 million Canadian families with children who get by on less than $60,000, only 376,000, or less than a quarter, will benefit at all from income-splitting.
Of the 1.2 million families making $60,000 to $120,000, more than a million will benefit from income-splitting. This middle-income tier makes up about a third of all families with kids under age 18, but they will collect more than half of benefits of income-splitting.
Of the 1.1 million families making $120,000 or better, about 600,000 will benefit from income-splitting, and they’ll typically pocket only a touch more in tax savings than those $60,000-$120,000 households, on average, about $1,200.
These three points should clarify the debate over this controversial tax reform. Nobody who has been following the argument among policy wonks will be surprised that lower-income families get short shrift from income-splitting. This is the part Harper and Oliver hoped to counterbalance with the monthly child-benefit boost.
But the distribution of tax relief among those with higher incomes isn’t quite what might have been expected. I find it interesting that those $60,000-$120,000 households are much more likely to benefit from income-splitting than richer families, and by about the same average amount. The likely explanation: Those better-off families are more apt to have two spouses both earning healthy paycheques, so there’s a smaller tax benefit from transferring income to the lower earner.
The real effects of income-splitting are worth pondering with an open mind. This policy, as we already knew, offers little to most of those struggling families at the bottom, the ones who could really use some help. Still, the policy looks less like an outright gift to the families at the top of the income spectrum than a boon to those in middle.
Spread across families at different income levels, the benefits make income-splitting look highly debatable, but hardly indefensible. Why a government that likes to cast itself as a champion of the middle class has been so reluctant to see the policy framed in these terms is not easy to understand.
Table One: How much families will benefit from both income-splitting and the Universal Child Care Benefit
Table Two: How much families will benefit from income-splitting alone
(Source: Finance Canada)
(Source: Parliamentary Budget Office)If it wasn’t already clear that the US government was unhappy with National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden—and the feds want him extradited, President Obama denounced him—it is now. Today, the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and her House counterpart, Mike Rogers (R-MI), both emphasized there would be no mercy coming from Washington. “He was trusted; he stripped our system; he had an opportunity—if what he was, was a whistle-blower—to pick up the phone and call the House Intelligence Committee, the Senate Intelligence Committee, and say I have some information,” Feinstein told CBS’ Face The Nation. “But that didn’t happen. He’s done this enormous disservice to our country, and I think the answer is no clemency.”
The New York Times, 3 days ago (“FBI and Justice Dept. Said to Seek Charges for Petraeus”):
The F.B.I. and Justice Department prosecutors have recommended bringing felony charges against David H. Petraeus, contending that he provided classified information to a lover while he was director of the C.I.A., officials said, and leaving Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to decide whether to seek an indictment that could send the pre-eminent military officer of his generation to prison.
The Huffington Post, yesterday (“Dianne Feinstein Urges Government Not To Seek David Petraeus Indictment”):
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) urged the Department of Justice not to bring criminal charges against former CIA Director David Petraeus over his handling of classified information. “This man has suffered enough in my view,” Feinstein said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, explaining why she doesn’t think Attorney General Eric Holder should seek an indictment. Petraeus “made a mistake,” added the senator, who is vice chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. “But … it’s done, it’s over. He’s retired. He’s lost his job. How much does the government want?”
David Petraeus, the person who Feinstein said has “suffered enough,” was hired last year by the $73 billion investment fund KKR to be Chairman of its newly created KKR Global Institute, on top of the $220,000/year pension he receives from the U.S. Army and the teaching position he holds at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. Let us all pause for a moment to lament the deep suffering of this man, and the grave injustice of inflicting any further deprivation upon him.
In 2011, I wrote a book, With Liberty and Justice for Some, that examined the two-tiered justice system prevailing in the U.S.: how the U.S. imprisons more of its citizens than any other country in the world (both in absolute numbers and proportionally) often for trivial transgressions, while immunizing its political and economic elites for even the most egregious crimes. Matt Taibbi’s book, The Divide, examines the same dynamic with a focus on the protection of economic elites and legal repression of ordinary citizens in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.
This latest example from Feinstein is one of the most vivid yet. She wanted Julian Assange – who isn’t even a U.S. citizen and never served in the U.S. Government – prosecuted for espionage for exposing war crimes, and demanded that Edward Snowden be charged with “treason” for exposing illegal eavesdropping which shocked the world. But a four-star general who leaked classified information not for any noble purpose but to his mistress for personal reasons should be protected from any legal consequences.
Long-standing mavens of DC political power literally believe that they and their class-comrades are too noble, important and elevated to be subjected to the rule of law to which they subject everyone else. They barely even disguise it any more. It’s the dynamic by which the Obama administration prosecuted leakers with unprecedented aggression who disclose information that embarrasses them politically while ignoring or even sanctioning the leaks of classified information which politically glorify them.
It is, of course, inconceivable that someone like Dianne Feinstein would urge the release of ordinary convicts from prison on the ground that their actions are “in the past” or that they have “suffered enough.” This generous mentality of mercy, forgiveness and understanding – like Obama’s decree that we Look Forward, Not Backward to justify immunity for American torturers – is reserved only for political officials, Generals, telecoms, banks and oligarchs who reside above and beyond the rule of law.
Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty ImagesIf you work in PR, you likely have some familiarity with Help A Reporter Out (HARO), the popular service designed to match reporters with expert sources all around the web. You may have even used it a time or two. But I’ll bet you haven’t exploited it like my coworkers and I have.
That’s because our marketing team at JotForm went absolutely ham with HARO for an entire year. We had our usual marketing tasks, but we often scheduled whatever we were doing around the fact that HARO emails pitch opportunities at 9:40 a.m. and 2:40 p.m. PT every single day. So, like clockwork, we were prepared whenever we got HARO opportunities knowing that the earlier the response, the better chance of getting published. We kept a spreadsheet of who we emailed so we didn’t double pitch, we argued, we wrestled for prime pitch opportunities… it was chaos.
In roughly a year of consistent HAROing, we landed JotForm in 119 articles. Let me repeat that: one hundred and nineteen articles mentioned our company, JotForm, just from HARO alone. That’s one JotForm mention in the news every three days. So what’s the catch?
A Caveat
We got media hits. That’s for sure. But does that mean there were 119 instances where a reporter was curious about the nature of online forms and how to create them? Hell no.
We were indiscriminate with our methods. Any possible opportunity to get our company mentioned — even completely out of context — was on the table. That meant our marketing team weighed in on how to get the perfect credit score, why millennials move to big cities, how it’s difficult to buy a house in this economy, and which company PR disasters we thought were the worst, just to name a few winning subjects — all in the interest of getting our company mentioned in the attributed quote.
HARO is illuminative of working in PR in general: it’s easy to get in the news when it’s the reporter’s story; it’s much harder to place your own.
On the plus side, we got JotForm mentioned all over the place. Huffington Post, BBC, Forbes, MSN CIO, Sitepoint, Inc., USA Today, US News, and scores of other sites included quotes from our small room of versatile subject experts.
The ROI
I’m not going to lie. The numbers are hard to look at. Even the posts that drew some traffic to the JotForm site had a difficult time converting anyone to a JotForm user.
Because if you’re reading an article about the best low-interest credit cards, why would you suddenly feel compelled to click on a link to a SaaS product that helps you create web forms? And once you clicked on the link, why would you possibly sign up? This also showed up in Google Analytics. It’s not pretty.
I looked for the top HARO referrers during our year-long binge. Our top ten combined for |
home that night.
I remember since the badges provided were so low at our satellite site – the multi redeem badge trick was shared. This method had everyone jumping onto the same wifi network and prepping the live password on their scanner. On the count of 3 up to 10 people all hit “enter” at the same time. This allowed agents to redeem a single passcode for multiple people.
Badges & Updates
A new badge known as Recharger launched and this one was not retroactive. Everyone started fresh on the quest to recharging 25 million XM. This became arguably the easiest Onyx badge to obtain. Simply playing and recharging daily would get you this badge in no time. Version 1.45.1 released and brought SMS verification for a new Verified badge. This was an attempt to prevent the bot problem that was plaguing regions around the world. Without being verified you had limits to the max level, items and XM you could hold. Internally, the development on Glyph game continued.
Version 1.45.3 was released and brought Glyph Hacking live. Drawing Glyphs in order resulted in bonus gear output. However, you didn’t know what that bonus gear was. The early on glyph hack output just would say “BONUS”.
Version 1.46.1 released and the number of community researchers was enormous. News of Capsules was everywhere before I even got around to obtaining the new apk and researching. I tabulated my research on this new item and communities online were exploding. How would this item work? Would it count towards inventory? Could you send them along links? Questions were everywhere about how this new item would work.
On the outside, this version allowed you to the see names of portals on dropped portal keys. Prior to this – key exchanges would be difficult having one agent drop a key and the receiving agent pick up the key and check inventory to confirm its existence. The Glyph game also updated showing a hack bonus in addition to a speed bonus.
Version 1.47.1 dropped and was different in terms of the community. Teardown like material appeared on Reddit and a few other sites. Research was everywhere so nothing could hide. We learned that Capsule development continued along with a few minor tweaks in the interface. Version 1.48.0 came a few days later bearing the assets, models and more to the Capsule. Around the same time, a next generation Heat Sink was released which adapted the cool down period and provided a reset on the hack counter when deployed.
Version 1.49.0 dropped and kept development on Capsules going. The UI had tweaks to the profile display and the agent arrow got tweaked.
You can see from the image above that everything was repositioned. A few days after 1.49.0 dropped Ingress let us know that Capsules were live.
New Levels Coming
For the first time I felt defeated in my research. Hidden in the apk for a few previous versions was a hint at the new levels. The amount of code changes each version became unreal that I missed such a crucial piece of information. The Ingress Report and version 1.50.0 exploded with the news of new levels. The idea that badges would play a part in leveling was huge as agents were already planning which badges they were going to strive to obtain.
Version 1.51.0 came out and my personal teardowns had ended. I was approached to blog at Decode Ingress and write my teardowns there. This version brought a refined button interface and numbers on the badge pop up. Now you could easily see what number you had and how close it was to next badge level.
We will end Part 4 here. On the next part of this series we’ll dive into the new level release, the launch of iOS, and global challenges that both factions had to work together to complete.i need just complete random stuff that doesnt fit together or make sense in a sentence. for example "a lobster just stole my spork so now i cant feed my hamster gatorade" orrr " i wish that pigs could fly so that i could ride one to see the unicorns having a circus in a rainbow" i want to...
i need just complete random stuff that doesnt fit together or make sense in a sentence. for example "a lobster just stole my spork so now i cant feed my hamster gatorade"
orrr " i wish that pigs could fly so that i could ride one to see the unicorns having a circus in a rainbow"
i want to creep my friends out over txt.... yeah im weird.. too bad..You may have heard of the exciting trend of eco-tourism, a socially and environmentally conscious effort to preserve delicate natural ecosystems and enlighten the inquisitive traveler as to their beauty and significance within local communities. This trend has particularly taken off in the exotic country of Costa Rica, where rocky tropical rainforests cozy right up to white sandy beaches. What’s even better is that even the most luxurious resorts in Costa Rica have taken up the eco-friendly banner. It certainly has grabbed our attention, so we’ve put together a list of our top eco-luxury destinations in this Central American gem.
Costa Rica’s attractions are plenty, drawing in many-a-traveler from honeymooners to adventure-seekers to families. Rainforests, cloud forests, mountains, volcanoes, the Pacific to the west and the Caribbean to the east, white sand, black sand, blazing sunsets and balmy breezes…can you see the correlation? And it gets even better—Costa Rica isn’t a fan of the über-large commercial tourism industry. Rather, it has mainly delved into the sustainability-seeking, nature-loving niche of eco-tourism. We can’t help but love the concept of exploring the planet in a way which at once appreciates its delicacy and awesome beauty.
One of the great things about the eco-tourism industry is that it invites an off-the-beaten-path travel philosophy that quietly and incredulously discovers the world’s hidden gems without the disturbance of several hundred cameras and a queue. Our personal luxury checklist exploded a while ago.
Destination 1
Guanacaste Region (northern highlands): Tenorio and Miravalles Volcano
Though considered dormant, the Tenorio (6,287 ft) and Miravalles (6,653 ft) Volcanoes are surrounded by geothermal hot springs and geysers amongst its cloud rainforests. This area is home to the Río Celeste, which is a vividly blue river that’s unique color is created by chemical reactions of sulfur and calcium carbonates. Intense green river grass sways in the current in clumps throughout the river, and the Río Celeste waterfall with a lagoon surrounded by mossy rocks is the most well-known feature. These twin volcanic peaks sit on either side of the small rural town of Bijagua.
(Whilst in the region, head over to the Golfo de Santa Elena for some ultra-luxurious Pacific beach time.)
Our Resort Selection
Aptly named, the Rio Celeste Hideaway Hotel offers a secluded and luxurious atmosphere surrounded by rainforest. You can tour the hotel’s grounds or arrange tours for the surrounding region of the Tenorio National Park. This resort boasts rejuvenating private outdoor showers, a wondrous tropical restaurant that serves the hotel’s own delicious Costa Rican fusion recipes, indoor Jacuzzis, hardwood floors, a spa, a pool and a swim-up bar among other amenities.
The Eco-Orientation
Resting on the edge of the Tenorio National Park, this luxury hideaway is deeply eco-appreciative. Surrounded by rainforest, the hotel and its open-air restaurant invite all manner of wildlife and give you no choice but to feel absolutely one with nature. The village of Bijagua nearby offers a taste of local culture that complements the surrounding forest rather than marring its wild beauty.
Why We Like It
Time and again, the Río Celeste Hideaway receives top reviews, and it’s easy to see why. The suite rooms offer the most luxurious rainforest accommodation; it’s the closest you’ll be to sleeping and living in nature in conditions that are the polar opposite of camping. Activities to suit all ages and interests abound, from bird watching to horseback riding to rafting. The geothermal hot springs near the surreal blue of the Río Celeste as well as the local cuisine offerings create a fantastically diversified sensory experience.
How to Get There
The Río Celeste Hideaway offers transfer service from all airports and many locations in Costa Rica, but the closest is the Liberia International (LIR), which is a 2.5 hour drive. From JOI in San Jose, the drive is 3.5 hours. From La Fortuna (Arenal Volcano), the drive is 1.5 hours. However, as there are many unique areas to explore in this northern region, The Luxe Travel recommends renting a car (preferred rates offered via booking through Rio Celeste Hideaway) to ensure you have the luxury of discovering these breathtaking sights at your own pace and interest.
Destination 2
Cabo Matapalo, Corcovado National Park, Osa Peninsula (South Pacific coast)
This area at the tip of the Osa Peninsula is an ideal location if you want to experience tropical rainforests edging right up to sandy beaches. Corcovado National Park is an expansive 103,290 acres (41,800 hectares) and safely encompasses a vastly diverse ecosystem with all manner of wildlife, such as macaws, toucans, wild cats (ocelots, pumas and jaguars!), monkeys, tapirs and all four species of sea turtle, which lay eggs in abundance in the park’s beaches. Rainforest trails, yoga, sport fishing, surfing, snorkeling, scuba diving and some good old fashioned sun-loving are popular activities in the area, though it offers much more than this.
Our Resort Selection
El Remanso Lodge. While Lapa Ríos and Bosque del Cabo are noted as the first two eco-lodges in the area (both exceptionally luxurious), El Remanso has caught up to the luxurious standards of these two resorts but is still under the radar. This grants it the advantage of having particularly abandoned beaches, rocky tide pools and lagoons, enabling you to feel utterly emerged in the wild solitude of this tropical paradise. A mountaintop haven, El Remanso offers spectacular Pacific views whilst being surrounded by rocky rainforest abundant with streams, waterfalls and wildlife. Though the beach is a 10-15 minute stroll down through the forest, the isolated serenity is completely worth it. You’ll appreciate having cool mountain breezes at the top during the night time.
The Eco-Orientation
El Remanso goes above and beyond standard eco-lodge efforts. Adhering to strict ecological standards, El Remanso is highly sustainable: powered exclusively by hydroelectricity, recycles all waste, maintains a compost system, waste water treatment and local reforestation programs and the employment of local staff to ensure a positive and sustainable community relationship. Ultra-eco-luxury.
Why We Like It
Beyond its state of the art eco-lodge efforts and its secluded hidden gem status, El Remanso is just absolutely beautiful. If you’re looking to unplug from day-to-day buzz, it’s impossible not to accomplish it here. Its mountaintop location places it, well, a bit above the rest. While being within easy distance from the Osa Peninsula’s most well-known beaches, you can take advantage of El Remanso’s own nature reserve and secluded beaches and explore tour-guide-less or take advantage of a variety of slightly more structured activities. With a well-developed yoga culture, El Remanso makes you feel like you are in the actual soul of the rainforest. BONUS: A humpback whale was spotted recently from the beach! A WHALE!
How to Get There
El Remanso is located halfway between the towns of Puerto Jímenez and Carate on the road to the Corcovado National Park. You can catch a flight to Puerto Jímenez from either the Juan Santamaria International Airport (Alajuela) or the Tobias Bolanos (Pavas) from San Jose. The airline you can take from the respective airports are Sansa and Nature Air. The flight is only about an hour, but if you choose to rent a car and drive down from San Jose, the drive is 7-8 hours! However, there is now an Alamo rental car agency in Puerto Jímenez if you’d like to have a car in the area. El Remanso can arrange for a taxi to take you the short distance from Puerto Jímenez airport to the lodge.
Destination 3
Uvita, Central Pacific
We’ve mentioned empty beaches and rainforests. We’re going to do it again—sorry, but we’re not sorry. The Southern Central Pacific coast offers more expansive pristine beaches and both secluded and more lively towns in relatively close proximity, allowing you to vary your interaction a little more than in Guanacaste or Osa Peninsula.
Our Resort Selection
Rancho Pacifico. Rather hands down, actually. Though the buzz about Rancho Pacifico’s incredible experience is getting louder, the boutique resort still prioritizes personalized attention and serene seclusion, maintaining only 10 luxury suites and villas total. If their promo video doesn’t get you excited, we don’t know what will.
The Eco-Orientation
Rancho Pacifico’s villas weren’t just built in the trees—they were built around them, with the design literally conforming to them in proper deference. Though made from concrete to minimize tree use, the resort incorporates unique stone patterns and wooden beams to create non-obtrusive structures that have received design awards. Due to the future-oriented careful planning of the founders, RP is surrounded by a 250-acre private rainforest reserve. Water is actually pumped up from jungle springs, bringing you even closer to nature and adding to the novel luxury. Rancho Pacifico also operates on sustainable development initiative, employing 28 locals in direct hospitality service but also allowing local entrepreneurs in the tourist industry to thrive (horseback riding, tours, restaurants, building materials, furniture). The resort is highly active in community school and philanthropic activities.
Why We Like It
Full-on eco-luxury standard, Rancho Pacifico’s location and architecture are breathtaking. Super easy access yet properly situated in luxurious seclusion = five stars for stress free. We know, we know…we’re biased towards seclusion as an ideal luxury getaway. However, one of the great things about Uvita is that the town of Manuel Antonio is only a short distance away if you feel the need for more civilization. You can find loads of activities in that nearby town (more shopping, more restaurants, more people but not suffocatingly touristic) and visit more populated beaches.
How to Get There
Roads leading to Rancho Pacifico are well-paved and new. An easy 3.5-hour car drive from San Jose gets you nice and tucked away at Rancho Pacifico in Uvita, ready for adventure and ultimate luxury relaxation. However, you can also take an ultra short flight (30-45 min) from San Jose to the town of Quepos and rent a car from there for an easy 45-minute drive. Manuel Antonio is also nearby. Better yet, Rancho Pacifico can arrange for your transportation to the resort and you can rent a car once you’re there. Sturdier 4×4’s are recommended for the terrain—sounds fun!
Boutique hotels such as these aren’t hard to come by in Costa Rica given its recent expansion in the luxury eco-tourism industry. Small occupancy capacity is key for energy-saving, plus it allows staff to attend to your personal needs with greater care and familiarity, allowing for an ultimately personalized experience. The great thing about Costa Rican hospitality is that if you need something, just ask. The staff will ensure that whatever you want to do, see or have is arranged.
You may have noticed we only selected locations on the Pacific Coast. This is because these locations are absolutely unforgettable and offer exceptional lodging and novel experiences. However, if you prefer a more varied Afro-Caribbean/Latino/indigenous cultural experience, try Playa Cocles on the Caribbean coast. The community itself is small and relaxing, but nearby is Peurto Viejo for live night-time reggae music, boutique, bars and surf shops. Cahuita National Park houses the largest coral reef in Costa Rica, and mangrove swamps filled with all manner of endangered plants and animals can be found in the Talamanca Indian Reserve and Gandoca Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge.
Biased as we are towards these secret paradises, we don’t want you to miss out on all of the incredible luxury, rich culture and diverse nature that Costa Rica has to offer. Here’s a fantastically comprehensive guide to help you tailor your Costa Rican experience to your personal travel desires. We also love the adventures of our friends at Mytanfeet. Explore their travels to get some great ideas for your own!
As always, if we’ve really left you hanging, drop us a line and sit back, relax and we’ll do the research for you.As part of the constitutional reform in telecommunications matters published on 11 June 2013 (the Constitutional Reform), the new Federal Telecommunications and Broadcasting Law (the Law) was finally published on 14 July, and went into effect this past 13 August.
The new Law establishes a new regulatory framework in the telecommunications and broadcasting sector in Mexico, which contains the principles based on the Constitutional Reform, whose principal objectives are: the creation of more rights, the promotion of competition, and the provision of better services at lower prices. Additionally, along with the expedition of the Law, many articles of other related laws were reformed for their proper implementation.
A general summary of the most important aspects of the new Law is presented below, and it follows the same structure as contained in the Law.
1. Area of application of the Law and the power of the authorities
The object of the Law is to regulate: (i) the radio-electric spectrum, (ii) the public telecommunication networks, (iii) the access to active and passive infrastructure, (iv) orbital resources, (v) satellite communication, (vi) the provision of public services of general interest of telecommunications and broadcasting and the convergence between both services, (vii) the rights of the users and audiences, and (viii) the process of competition and free market participation in these sectors.
In general terms, the Federal Institute of Telecommunications (the IFT), created by the Constitutional Reform as an autonomous constitutional body, has under its charge the regulation, promotion, and supervision of the use, approval, and exploitation of: (i) the radio-electric spectrum, (ii) orbital resources, (iii) satellite services, (iv) the public telecommunications networks, (v) broadcasting and telecommunications services, (vi) the access to active and passive infrastructure, and (vii) other essential facilities.
The Ministry of Communication and Transportation (SCT) is responsible for: (i) giving a technical and non-mandatory opinion to the IFT for the granting, extension, revocation, and authorization of transfers and changes of share control, (ii) guaranteeing the continuity of the provision of telecommunications and broadcasting services for reasons of termination by revocation or taking of concessions, dissolution, or bankruptcy of concessionaires, (iii) planning policies of universal and social coverage, (iv) elaborating the telecommunications and broadcasting policies of the federal government, and (v) establishing programs of access to broadband in public spaces.
Finally, the Committee of Evaluation, also created by the Constitutional Reform, will be responsible for the following (subject to the terms and conditions established under the Law): (i) calling for the replacement of vacancies of commissioners of the IFT, (ii) integrating and sending lists of candidates to the executive power, (iii) administering the exams to the candidates, and (iv) selecting the candidates who obtain the higher grades.
2. The function of the IFT
The IFT is responsible for: (i) awarding, extending, modifying, revoking, taking, or terminating for bankruptcy the concessions and authorizing assignments and changes of control, (ii) conducting the processes of bidding for frequency bands and orbital resources, (iii) fixing the fee for awarding of concessions (with the previous non-mandatory opinion of the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP)), (iv) regulating interconnection and sharing of infrastructure, (v) declaring the existence or nonexistence of preponderant economic agents or agents with substantial power and imposing appropriate measures, and (vi) verifying, supervising, and if applicable, imposing sanctions.
In accordance with the Law, the various bodies within the IFT and its powers are the following:
The Plenary is the highest body of government and decision; its powers are not delegable in the regulatory and administrative areas, and it is subject to several transparency obligations.
The president of the IFT is also the president of the Plenary, and is responsible for the representation, as well as the direction and administration of the IFT.
All of the commissioners of the IFT are responsible for participating in the sessions and voting the matters submitted to the Plenary and they are impeded from voting when there is a risk of independence, professionalism, and impartiality, and in addition they are subject to the Federal Law of Administrative Responsibilities of Public Servants.
The technical secretary of the Plenary is responsible for attending the sessions and assisting the Plenary, as well as integrating the agenda and the minutes of the sessions.
The Investigation Authority will conduct the stage of investigation in economic competition procedures and holds technical and operative autonomy.
The Advisory Council is the counsel body of the IFT formed with 15 honorary members who will have a one-year term (renewable) and will issue non-mandatory opinions to the IFT.
The Internal Comptroller of the IFT holds technical and operative autonomy to supervise income and expenditures, and to impose sanctions on public servants of the IFT.
The commissioners are subject to rules of contact with the industry and the organic statute will provide the applicable rules for the Investigation Authority and other officials of the IFT.
3. Radio-electric spectrum and orbital resources
The radio-electric spectrum and the orbital resources are properties of the public dominion whose administration will be exercised by the IFT in the following manner: (i) elaborating plans and programs of use, (ii) establishing conditions for the attribution of frequency bands, (iii) granting concessions, (iv) supervising radio-electric emissions, and (v) imposing sanctions.
In the administration of the spectrum, the IFT will seek, among others, the following objectives for the benefit of the users: (i) life security, (ii) the promotion of social cohesion, regional or nationwide, (iii) effective competition in converging markets, (iv) effective use of the spectrum and its protection, (v) guaranteeing the spectrum for the purpose and functions of the executive branch, and (vi) promotion of technological neutrality. Additionally, the IFT will act on impartial objectives, transparent, nondiscriminatory, and proportional criteria to allocate a frequency band and grant concessions of the spectrum and orbital resources.
The frequency bands are classified as follows: (i) determined spectrum, (ii) free spectrum, (iii) protected spectrum, and (iv) reserved spectrum. For the planning and use of the radio-electric spectrum, the IFT shall update the National Chart of Allocation of Frequencies (CNAF) and will guarantee the availability of frequency bands of the spectrum or network capacity for: (i) national security, (ii) public security, (iii) connectivity of public spaces, and (iv) social coverage.
The CNAF will provide the allocation of bands to one or more services according to the following categories: (i) primary basis (including protection against harmful interference), and (ii) secondary basis (which cannot cause harmful interference and do not have protection in relation to the bands under a primary basis).
Each year on 31 December the IFT will issue a program of frequency bands with the frequencies or frequency bands that will be subject to auction or direct assignment.
In the operation of wireless infrastructure, the limits of maximum exposure to humans of electromagnetic radiation should be observed.
4. Regimen of concessions
According to its aims, the concessions are classified as follows: (i) for profit commercial use; (ii) for public use to achieve the purpose of the state and the three levels of government (including public service concessionaires or permissionaires), (iii) for non-profit private use, and (iv) social use with cultural, scientific, educational, or community purposes.
The concessions will be awarded to individual or legal entities of Mexican nationality. Under the Constitutional Reform, foreign investment is permitted to the extent of 100% in telecommunications and 49% in broadcasting (subject to reciprocity in the country of the ultimate beneficiary).
A unique concession will be required (without involving radio-electric spectrum or orbital resources) in order to provide all types of public telecommunications and broadcasting services, which will be awarded for 30-year terms (renewable). To obtain a unique concession, a request that complies with the minimum requirements must be submitted. The request will be reviewed by the IFT within 60 calendar days with the understanding that the IFT will grant the concession after this period assuming all requirements are met.
The concessions of the radio-electric spectrum and orbital resources for determined use will be awarded according to a public bid, previous payment of a consideration (which will not be the sole factor in determining the award of the concession), for a term of 20 years (renewable).
The Law provides the possibility to obtain concessions of orbital resources through the request of an interested party.
All of the considerations require the non-mandatory opinion of the SHCP, which has no more than 30 calendar days to render its opinion. In order to set the amount of the consideration, the IFT will consider: (i) the frequency bands, (ii) the amount of spectrum, (iii) the coverage of the frequency band, (iv) the term of the concession, (v) the national and international references of the market value of the bands, and (vi) the achievement of the Constitutional objectives.
The concessionaires can lease frequency bands for commercial or private use with the prior authorization of the IFT.
Likewise, the Law regulates the following figures: (i) the change or recovery of the spectrum or orbital resources, (ii) the assignment of rights, (iii) change of control, and (iv) the extension, termination, and confiscation of the concessions.
5. Networks and telecommunication services
The concessionaires of public telecommunications networks shall: (i) interconnect themselves directly or indirectly, (ii) permit the portability of numbers, (iii) abstain from charging fees for national long distance, (iv) provide services in a non-discriminatory manner, (v) abstain from establishing contractual barriers, and (vi) adopt designs of open network architecture.
Additionally, the concessionaires will execute an interconnection agreement within 60 calendar days, but if they fail to reach an agreement and prior request, the IFT will resolve the disagreement terms through a specific procedure.
When the IFT considers the existence of effective conditions of competition, the concessionaires will be able to enter into bill and keep agreements, without a termination charge, including calls and SMS.
The IFT will promote the agreements among concessionaires for the co-location and shared use of the infrastructure.
The concessionaires and authorized entities who provide Internet access shall observe the following principles of network neutrality: (i) free election, (ii) non-discrimination, (iii) privacy, (iv) transparency and information, (v) management of traffic and quality, and (vi) sustained development of the infrastructure.
The public telecommunications networks with public participation will have the character of a shared wholesale network without offering services to final users, even if it is structured as a public-private association. The IFT will directly assign 90 MHz of the 700 MHz band for the operation and use of a shared wholesale network.
The Law establishes that any concessionaire may install infrastructure on state property to deploy its telecommunications networks.
In the area of broadcasting, the Law regulates the following figures: multiprogramming and retransmission, which were introduced by the Constitutional Reform. The first figure refers to the possibility of distributing more than one programming channel in the same channel of transmission, and it requires the authorization of the IFT. The second figure consists on one hand, that the concessionaires of broadcast television service shall allow the retransmission of their signal for free, without discrimination, and simultaneously, in the same geographic area, without modifications and with the same quality (must offer) and, on the other hand, that the concessionaires of pay television services shall transmit those signals of open television (must carry). The concessionaires of satellite pay television will retransmit the broadcasted signal only if they cover 50% or more of the national territory.
6. Authorizations
According to the Law, an authorization of the IFT is required to: (i) establish, operate, or use a reseller of telecommunications services without being a concessionaire, (ii) install, operate, or use terrestrial stations to transmit satellite signals, (iii) install telecommunications devices and transmission means that cross the national borders, (iv) exploit the rights of emission and reception of signals and frequency bands associated with foreign satellite systems that cover services in the national territory, and (v) temporarily use spectrum bands for diplomatic visits.
The resellers can: (i) access wholesale services offered by concessions, (ii) commercialize their own services or resell services and capacity, being responsible to the final user, and (iii) have their own numbering scheme or acquire one through the concessionaires, allowing the portability of numbers.
The procedure to obtain an authorization is the following: a request must be submitted in terms of the regulations established by the IFT, which will have 30 business days to resolve it, in the understanding that if the IFT fails to issue the authorization within such period the authorization will be granted and will be valid for a 10-year term (renewable).
7. Public Registry of Telecommunications
The IFT will be in charge of the Public Registry of Telecommunications, which will be integrated by
the Public Registry of Concessions, in which, among other things, will be filed: (a) the titles of the concessions, authorizations, modifications, or termination, (b) interconnection and fundamental plans, (c) interconnection agreements, sharing of infrastructure, and unbundling of the local network, (d) public offers issued by preponderant economic agents or with substantial power, (e) tariffs, discounts, and bonuses, (f) measures and obligations imposed by the IFT to the preponderant economic agents or with substantial power, and (g) sanctions (res judicata); and
the National System of Information of Infrastructure shall maintain an updated geo-referenced national database with information of: (a) active infrastructure and means of transmission, (b) passive infrastructure and rights of way, and (c) public sites.
8. Collaboration with the justice
Relevant provisions are those obligations applicable to telecommunications concessionaires, and authorized entities, regarding security and justice matters. The main obligations are:
to collaborate with the authorities in charge of public security and administration of justice in the geographic location in real time of mobile communication devices;
to store a registry and control of communications made from any line with its own or leased numbering, which shall identify the following data: (a) name, corporate name, and address of the subscriber, (b) type of communication or of services used, (c) data showing the origin and destination of the communications, (d) data to determine the date, hour, and length of the communications or service, (e) date and hour of the first activation and localization tag, (f) technical characteristics of the device, (g) geographic position of the lines, and (h) obligation to store data since the communication is produced;
to have an area to attend 24x7 requests for information, geographic location, and tapping of private communications;
to suspend services of mobile devices reported as stolen or missing by the owner; and
to cancel or nullify permanently the cellular telephone or radio-communications signals, or the transmission of data or images within social reformation centers, penitentiaries, or juvenile halls.
9. Rights of users
The users of telecommunications services will have the rights provided in the Law and the Federal Law of Consumer Protection. In concordance with the Law, the following rights (among others) are established:
to consult its balance free of charges;
protection of personal data;
portability;
to freely elect a service provider;
to know the commercial conditions of the pre-formulated standard contracts that were previously registered before the Consumer Protection Agency (PROFECO);
free election and non-discrimination in the access of Internet services;
notification of any change of the conditions originally agreed;
unblocking of the mobile device terminal when it is paid or after the expiration date;
bonuses or discounts for service failures or wrongful charges;
duration of credit for one year; and
not to receive telemarketing calls.
The IFT and PROFECO will exchange information about complaints of users and commercial behavior of concessionaires and authorized entities.
Handicapped users will have access to telecommunications services equal to other users and will have the following rights (among others): (i) to request and receive advice about the use of the telecommunications services, (ii) to have mobile devices for handicapped people, and (iii) that service centers, Internet pages, and customer lines will have accessibility functions.
On the other hand, the Law allows that the providers of telecommunications services be able to set prices freely, except in the case of preponderant agents or those with substantial power.
10. Universal coverage
Every year, the SCT will draft a program of social coverage and one of connectivity in public sites, with the purpose of increasing the coverage of networks and introduction of telecommunications services in priority zones, like Internet access and voice services. To measure the foregoing, indicators will be established to track the evolution of telecommunications and broadcasting services in the country.
11. Audiovisual content
The Law contemplates the following authorities in the area of audiovisual content:
The IFT will monitor and sanction the compliance of the maximum amount of time for the transmission of advertising and the rights of the audience, except with respect to programming targeting children.
The Ministry of Interior has the following powers: (a) to order the transmission of the broadcast time of the state (free daily broadcast transmissions up to 30 minutes), presentations, bulletins, and the National Anthem, at 6:00 a.m. and 12:00 a.m., (b) to authorize and supervise the transmission of game shows, (c) to verify the classification criteria, and (d) to regulate and sanction programming and advertising directed at children.
The Ministry of Public Education will promote the transmission of cultural, civic, educational, and recreational programs, as well as the protection of copyrights.
The Ministry of Health will authorize the advertising of medical and connected activities, and other products related to health, as well as imposing the corresponding sanctions.
The National Electoral Institute is responsible for the administration of the broadcast time of the state in electoral matters.
The Law provides the rights of information, freedom of speech, and reception of content without any persecution. The programming should promote diverse aspects such as the integration of families; the harmonious development of children; the diffusion of artistic, historic, and cultural values; the equality between men and women; and the correct usage of language, among others. Additionally, children’s programming shall pursue specific objectives for their protection.
In terms of advertising, an equilibrium shall be maintained between advertising and programming, subject to diverse rules such as the following: advertising shall not exceed (i) 18% in open television of the total time per channel, (ii) 40% in radio, and (iii) six minutes per hour of pay television and audio.
With respect to the rights of the audience of broadcasting services, the Law provides, among others, the following:
to receive content that reflects the ideological, political, social, cultural, and linguistic pluralities of the country, as well as the democratic life of the society;
to differentiate with clarity the news information and the opinion of the person presenting it;
to distinguish between advertising and programming content; and
to respect human rights, the superior interest of children, the equality of genders and nondiscrimination.
Specific rights are also established for handicapped audiences, such as: subtitle services, dubbing of Spanish and Mexican sign language for people with hearing problems (at least in the most rated news program), and programming through a telephone number or Internet portals with accessibility.
Finally, it will be the obligation of broadcasting concessionaires to have an audience advocate, which will be responsible for receiving, documenting, processing, and following up on the observations, complaints, suggestions, petitions, or indications of the audience.
12. Asymmetrical regulation
The Law provides three figures for the application of asymmetric regulation with the objective of avoiding affectation of competition and free market participation in order to benefit the final user.
The preponderance means the existence of an economic agent in the broadcasting or telecommunications sector with national participation of over 50%, to which measures will be imposed regarding information; the offer and quality of services; exclusive agreements; limitations on use of devices; tariffs and network infrastructure; unbundling of essential elements; and accounting, functional or structural separation, through a specific procedure under the Law.
Substantial power in any relevant market in the broadcasting or telecommunications sectors shall be determined under the Federal Economic Competition Law, applied by the IFT with the purpose of establishing specific obligations concerning information, quality, tariffs, commercial offers, and billing issues.
The telecommunications and broadcasting concessionaires that provide services in the same market or geographic coverage zone, which hinder or limit access to plural information will be subject to the following: (a) the IFT will notify the concessionaire to include in its services the access to plural information, and (b) the concessionaire will include three channels with content produced by national independent programmers, with main Mexican financing. In case of breaching the foregoing, the IFT will impose the following limits: (a) to the national or regional concentration of radio-electric spectrum frequencies for broadcasting services, (b) to the granting of new concessions of radio-electric spectrum frequency bands for broadcasting services, and (c) the cross-ownership of businesses that control various means of communication and provide services in the same market or geographic coverage zone.
13. Homologation
The telecommunications products, devices, or equipment connected to a telecommunications network or using radio-electric spectrum bands shall be homologated to comply with the Federal Metric and Normalization Law.
The IFT will give mutual recognition to telecommunications products, devices, or equipment of another country with which Mexico has an agreement or international treaty for such effects.
The IFT will certify experts in the area of telecommunications and broadcasting to assist in the homologation procedures.
14. Verification regime
The IFT will monitor and verify, according to its powers, the compliance of the Law; therefore, every person is obligated to allow the IFT’s inspectors access.
Likewise, the IFT will establish mechanisms to verify: (i) radio-electric transmissions, (ii) the identification of harmful interferences, and (iii) other disruptions to telecommunications and broadcasting systems and services.
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– he suggested that even while still in office he felt that religion was a key to understanding the modern world.
And he suggested that religious faith might be as significant to the new century as political ideology was to the last.
Blair said: "As the years of my premiership passed, one fact struck me with increasing force: that failure to understand the power of religion meant failure to understand the modern world.
"Religious faith and how it develops could be of the same significance to the 21st century as political ideology was to the 20th. Leaders, whether of religious faith themselves or not, have to 'do God'."Andrea Mitchell, NBC News Chief foreign affairs correspondent, talks with Rachel Maddow about Mitt Romney’s embarassing half-cocked response to the attack on U.S. missions in Egypt and Libya on the Rachel Maddow Show noting:
“It was revealing. It was one of those moments when both the character and the policy were both revealed. It was very transparent.”
The show begins with Rachell Maddow showing a clip from Andrea Mitchell speaking with Nicholas Burns, former U.S. ambassador who states:
“Governor Romney has in a very unwise way injected himself into a situation where he clearly doesn’t have all the facts. In no way, shape, or form is the U.S. government or the Obama administration apologizing for terrorists or sympathizing with them. I was a foreign service officer for nearly 27 years. I served both Republican and Democratic administrations, and I think it’s really important that we not play politics with this.”
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(Visited 17 times, 1 visits today)It’s a country as complex as it is vast, of contrasts and contradictions, with a history spanning 5,000 years. This can make China difficult for outsiders to understand. “Today’s China is hard to fully understand because it is huge, rapidly changing and complex,” writes Dingding Chen of the University of Macau.
But as the world’s second-largest economy — with analysts predicting it will overtake the US within the next couple of decades — we can’t afford not to. These four books, recommended by experts with a deep knowledge of the country and a mix of fiction and non-fiction, will get you started.
Peter Hessler, an American journalist, spent many years living in China, first as an English teacher and then as a correspondent for the New Yorker. His third book on the country sees him take to the road to explore its large network of highways. One of only a few foreigners to undertake such an endeavour — visitors and tourists are not allowed to drive, and even those with a residence permit are said to avoid it because of the risks involved — his journey takes him from impoverished villages to industrial factory towns.
In doing so, he manages to reveal a side of China outsiders very rarely get to see, as the Economist wrote in its review: “Through the lives of the ordinary Chinese he gets to know so well, he explains the country’s complexity, insecurities and tensions better than many of the more analytical works that have appeared in recent years.”
It’s impossible to understand a country without knowing something about its history. And for China, that’s a history that stretches backs thousands of years.
This book from British-American historian Jonathan Spence goes all the way back to the Ming Dynasty of the 17th century, explaining how events that happened generations ago were still being felt in China at the time of publication in 1990. “To understand the burdens and opportunities embedded in China’s past there is no better place to start than Jonathan D. Spence’s excellent book,” the New York Times wrote in a review when it was released. “His book provides Western readers with the historical background necessary to understand China’s continuing struggle for survival, integrity and modernization.”
She’s been described as China’s most influential female writer. And while this novel might at first glance not seem too revolutionary — it follows the life of a woman who finds love again after divorce — it did at the time of its release challenge accepted conventions, particularly the status of women.
Her short stories provide a glimpse into a China on the cusp of modernization. “Chang’s stories are about men and women, especially women, who have no choice but to navigate the treacherous passage from the world of traditional China to the freedoms, ambitions, and dangers of modern life,” the New York Review of Books wrote.
You’ve probably never heard of it, but this novel — which also goes by the name of Dream of the Red Chamber — is essential reading for people in China. “Apart from its literary merits, Chinese readers recommend it as the best starting point for any understanding of Chinese psychology, culture and society,” the Telegraph explains.
Legendary British-Chinese journalist Xue Xinran has in the past described it as one of her favourite books — and essential reading for anyone wanting to understand China. “For me it is like a bible for everything to do with Chinese culture. Books like this remind us what true Chinese culture is all about and how to preserve it.”
Have you read?
This is how China’s economy has changed
A brief history of China’s growth
7 things to know about China’s marketsThe Philadelphia Eagles created a hole on their offense earlier this offseason when they cut long-time slot receiver Jason Avant. With the No. 42 pick in the 2014 NFL Draft, the Eagles addressed that position by drafting wide receiver Jordan Matthews from Vanderbilt.
Eagles head coach Chip Kelly spoke to the media shortly after the Eagles' pick was announced. He confirmed that Matthews will be starting for the Eagles in the slot position.
Chip: Matthews can catch the ball in traffic. We’ll probably start him inside, Maclin and Cooper on outside. — Les Bowen (@LesBowen) May 10, 2014
Kelly noted he believes Matthews can also play on the outside. Matthews (6-3, 212) instantly becomes one of the NFL's biggest slot receivers, which is no surprise given Kelly's popular "big people beat up little people" mantra.
Regarding the Eagles' decision to trade up for Matthews, Kelly explained that the team was targeting two wide receivers at that time The first was Marqise Lee and he had gone to the Jaguars a few picks before the Titans. The Eagles then felt it was necessary to trade up with Tennessee in order to acquire Matthews.
Kelly said #Eagles had two guys targeted and one came off the board. It was Marqise Lee, picked three spots before Matthews. — Bob Grotz (@BobGrotz) May 10, 2014
As you can see, the Eagles' organization is fairly excited about the pick.This article is about the media franchise in general. For specific works and entries in that franchise, see Ghost in the Shell (disambiguation)
Ghost in the Shell (Japanese: 攻殻機動隊, Hepburn: Kōkaku Kidōtai, "Mobile Armored Riot Police") is a Japanese media franchise originally published as a seinen manga series of the same name written and illustrated by Masamune Shirow. The manga, first serialized in 1989 under the subtitle of The Ghost in the Shell, and later published as its own tankōbon volumes by Kodansha, told the story of the fictional counter-cyberterrorist organization Public Security Section 9, led by protagonist Major Motoko Kusanagi, in the mid-21st century of Japan.
Animation studio Production I.G has produced several different anime adaptations of Ghost in the Shell, starting with the 1995 film of the same name, telling the story of Section 9's investigation of the Puppet Master. The television series Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex followed in 2002, telling an alternate story from the manga and first film, featuring Section 9's investigations of government corruption in the Laughing Man and Individual Eleven incidents. A sequel to the 1995 film, Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, was released in 2004. In 2006, the film Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Solid State Society retook the story of the television series. 2013 saw the start of the Ghost in the Shell: Arise original video animation (OVA) series, consisting of four parts through mid-2014. The series was recompiled in early 2015 as a television series titled Ghost in the Shell: Arise - Alternative Architecture, airing with an additional two episodes (one part).[1] An animated feature film produced by most of the Arise staff, titled Ghost in the Shell: The New Movie, was released on June 20, 2015. A live-action American film of the same name was released on March 31, 2017.
Overview [ edit ]
Title [ edit ]
Shirow has stated that he had always wanted the title of his manga to be Ghost in the Shell, even in Japan, but his original publishers preferred Mobile Armored Riot Police. He had chosen "Ghost in the Shell" in homage to Arthur Koestler's The Ghost in the Machine, from which he also drew inspiration.[2]
Themes [ edit ]
One of the core underlying themes of the Ghost in the Shell franchise is the proposition that when human consciousness and individuality, essentially the “ghost,” can exist independently of a physical body, visual identification of ethnicity is no longer relevant.[3]
Setting [ edit ]
Primarily set in the mid-twenty-first century in the fictional Japanese city of Niihama, Niihama Prefecture (新浜県新浜市, Niihama-ken Niihama-shi),[Note 1] otherwise known as New Port City (ニューポートシティ, Nyū Pōto Shiti), the manga and the many anime adaptations follow the members of Public Security Section 9, a task-force consisting of various professionals at solving and preventing crime, mostly with some sort of police background. Political intrigue and counter-terrorism operations are standard fare for Section 9, but the various actions of corrupt officials, companies, and cyber-criminals in each scenario are unique and require the diverse skills of Section 9's staff to prevent a series of incidents from escalating.
In this post-cyberpunk iteration of a possible future, computer technology has advanced to the point that many members of the public possess cyberbrains, technology that allows them to interface their biological brain with various networks. The level of cyberization varies from simple minimal interfaces to almost complete replacement of the brain with cybernetic parts, in cases of severe trauma. This can also be combined with various levels of prostheses, with a fully prosthetic body enabling a person to become a cyborg. The main character of Ghost in the Shell, Major Motoko Kusanagi, is such a cyborg, having had a terrible accident befall her as a child that ultimately required her to use a full-body prosthesis to house her cyberbrain. This high level of cyberization, however, opens the brain up to attacks from highly skilled hackers, with the most dangerous being those who will hack a person to bend to their whims.
Media [ edit ]
Literature [ edit ]
Original manga [ edit ]
The original Ghost in the Shell manga ran in Japan from April 1989 to November 1990 in Kodansha's manga anthology Young Magazine, and was released in a tankōbon volume on October 5, 1991.[4] Ghost in the Shell 2: Man-Machine Interface followed 1997 for 9 issues in Young Magazine, and was collected in the Ghost in the Shell: Solid Box on December 1, 2000.[5] Four stories from Man-Machine Interface that were not released in tankobon format from previous releases were later collected in Ghost in the Shell 1.5: Human-Error Processor, and published by Kodansha on July 23, 2003.[6] Several art books have also been published for the manga.
Films [ edit ]
Animated films [ edit ]
Two animated films based on the original manga have been released, both directed by Mamoru Oshii and animated by Production I.G. Ghost in the Shell was released in 1995 and follows the "Puppet Master" storyline from the manga. It was re-released in 2008 as Ghost in the Shell 2.0 with new audio and updated 3D computer graphics in certain scenes.[7] Innocence, otherwise known as Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, was released in 2004, with its story based on a chapter from the first manga.
On September 5, 2014, it was revealed by Production I.G. that a new Ghost in the Shell animated film, Ghost in the Shell: The New Movie (攻殻機動隊 新劇場版) in Japanese, would be released in 2015 promising to show the "further evolution [of the series]".[8] On January 8, 2015, a short teaser trailer was revealed for the project unveiling a redesigned Major more closely resembling her appearance from the older films, and a plot following the Arise continuity of the franchise.[9] The trailer listed Kazuya Nomura as the director, Kazuchika Kise as the general director and character designer, Toru Okubo as the animation director, Tow Ubukata as the screenplay writer and Cornelius as the composer. The film premiered on June 20, 2015, in Japanese theaters.[9]
Live-action film [ edit ]
In 2008, DreamWorks and producer Steven Spielberg acquired the rights to a live-action film adaptation of the original Ghost in the Shell manga.[10] On January 24, 2014, Rupert Sanders was announced as director, with a screenplay by William Wheeler.[11] In April 2016, the full cast was announced, which included Juliette Binoche, Chin Han, Lasarus Ratuere and Kaori Momoi, and Scarlett Johansson in the lead role;[12] the casting of Johansson drew accusations of whitewashing.[13][14][15][16] Principal photography on the film began on location in Wellington, New Zealand, on February 1, 2016. Filming wrapped in June 2016.[17] Ghost in the Shell premiered in Tokyo on March 16, 2017, and was released in the United States on March 31, 2017, in 2D, 3D and IMAX 3D.[18] It received mixed reviews, with praise for its visuals and Johansson's performance but criticism for its script.[19][20]
Television [ edit ]
Stand Alone Complex TV series and film [ edit ]
In 2002, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex premiered on Animax, presenting a new telling of Ghost in the Shell independent from the original manga, focusing on Section 9's investigation of the Laughing Man hacker.[21] It was followed in 2004 by a second season titled Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. 2nd GIG, which focused on the Individual Eleven terrorist group.[22] The primary storylines of both seasons were compressed into OVAs broadcast as Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex The Laughing Man in 2005 and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex Individual Eleven in 2006.[23][24] Also in 2006, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Solid State Society, featuring Section 9's confrontation with a hacker known as the Puppeteer, was broadcast, serving as a finale to the anime series.[25] The extensive score for the series and its films was composed by Yoko Kanno.[26]
In addition to the anime, a series of published books, two separate manga adaptations, and several video games for consoles and mobile phones have been released for Stand Alone Complex.
Arise OVA, TV series and film [ edit ]
In 2013, a new iteration of the series titled Ghost in the Shell: Arise premiered, taking an original look at the Ghost in the Shell world, set before the original manga. It was released as a series of four original video animation (OVA) episodes (with limited theatrical releases) from 2013 to 2014, then recompiled as a 10-episode television series under the title of Kōkaku Kidōtai: Arise - Alternative Architecture. An additional fifth OVA titled Pyrophoric Cult, originally premiering in the Alternative Architecture broadcast as two original episodes, was released on August 26, 2015.[27] Kazuchika Kise served as the chief director of the series, with Tow Ubukata as head writer.[28] Cornelius was brought onto the project to compose the score for the series, with the Major's new voice actress Maaya Sakamoto also providing vocals for certain tracks.
Ghost in the Shell: The New Movie, also known as Ghost in the Shell: Arise − The Movie or New Ghost in the Shell, is a 2015 film directed by Kazuya Nomura that serves as a finale to the Ghost in the Shell: Arise story arc. The film is a continuation to the plot of the Pyrophoric Cult episode of Arise, and ties up loose ends from that arc.
A manga adaptation was serialized in Kodansha's Young Magazine, which started on March 13 and ended on August 26, 2013.[29][30]
SAC_2045 ONA series [ edit ]
Kodansha and Production I.G announced on April 7, 2017 that Kenji Kamiyama and Shinji Aramaki will be co-directing a new Kōkaku Kidōtai anime production.[31] On December 7, 2018, it was reported by Netflix that they had acquired the worldwide streaming rights to the anime, titled Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045, and that it would premiere in 2020. The series will be in 3DCG and Sola Digital Arts will be collaborating with Production I.G on the project. It was stated that the new series will have two seasons of 12 episodes each.[32]
Video games [ edit ]
Ghost in the Shell was developed by Exact and released for the PlayStation on July 17, 1997, in Japan by Sony Computer Entertainment.[33] It is a third-person shooter featuring an original storyline where the character plays a rookie member of Section 9. The video game's soundtrack Megatech Body features various electronica artists.[34]
Several video games were also developed to tie into the Stand Alone Complex television series, in addition to a first-person shooter by Nexon and Neople titled Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - First Assault Online,[35] released in 2016.[36]
Bungie's famous 2001 third-person adventure game Oni draws substantial inspiration from Ghost in the Shell's setting and characters.[37][38]
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
^ 新居浜市. There is a real-world Niihama, located in Ehime Prefecture, but its name is written differently in kanji2017 Itawamba CC RB Octavius Matthews committed to Louisville on April 21, 2016. (Photo: Courtesy of Itawamba athletics)
The University of Louisville football team added a Class of 2017 recruiting commitment Thursday from Itawamba (Miss.) Community College running back Octavius Matthews, who is rated the nation's No. 1 junior-college prospect at his position in the early rankings from 247Sports.com.
The 6-foot-1, 190-pound Matthews, who received an offer from Louisville this week and got a visit from lead recruiter L.D. Scott on Thursday, is U of L's third pledge in the 2017 class. He said he also had offers from Mississippi State, Middle Tennessee State, Troy and Alabama-Birmingham.
In addition to the top JUCO running back ranking, Matthews is considered the nation's No. 15 JUCO prospect overall in 2017 by 247Sports.com.
"It felt like home," he said. "Me and Coach Scott have a good relationship."
Matthews rushed for 808 yards and four touchdowns as a freshman last season at Itawamba.
Before junior college, Matthews attended North Jackson High School in Stevenson, Ala. - the same school that produced 2016 U of L tight end signee Austin Cummins.
Matthews' commitment continues the success of Scott, a native of Auburn, in recruiting players from his home state. He's also the lead recruiter for dual-threat 2017 Montgomery high school quarterback Malik Cunningham, who pledged to the Cardinals over the weekend.Background:
Three subsets of human monocytes in circulation have been identified and their characterization is still ill-defined. Although glucose and lipid intakes have been demonstrated to exert pro-inflammatory effects on mononuclear cells (MNCs) of healthy subjects, characterization of monocytes phenotypes following macronutrient (glucose, protein, and lipid) intake in humans remains to be determined.
Methods:
Thirty-six healthy, normal weight volunteers were recruited in the study. Subjects were randomly assigned into three groups, each group consisting of 12 participants. Each group drank equal calories (300 kcal) of either glucose or lipids or whey proteins. Each subject served as his own control by drinking 300 mL of water 1 week before or after the caloric intake. Baseline blood samples were drawn at 0, 1, 2, and 3-h intervals post caloric or water intakes. MNCs were isolated, and the expression levels of different cluster of differentiation (CD) markers (CD86, CD11c, CD169, CD206, CD163, CD36, CD68, CD11b, CD16, and CD14) and IL-6 were measured by RT-qPCR.
Results:
Equicaloric intake of either glucose or lipids or whey proteins resulted in different monocyte phenotypes as demonstrated by changes in the expression levels of CD and polarization markers. Whey proteins intake resulted in significant mRNA upregulation in MNCs of CD68 and CD11b at 1, 2, and 3 h post intake while mRNA of IL-6 was significantly inhibited at 1 h. Lipids intake, on the other hand, resulted in mRNA upregulation of CD11b at 2 and 3 h and CD206 at 1, 2, and 3 h. There were no significant changes in the other CD markers measured (CD86, CD163, CD169, CD36, CD16, and CD14) following either whey proteins or lipids intakes. Glucose intake did not alter mRNA expression of any marker tested except CD206 at 3 h.
Conclusion:
Macronutrient intake alters the expression levels of polarization markers in MNCs of human subjects. A distinct population of different monocytes phenotypes may result in human circulation following the intake of different macronutrients. Further studies are required to characterize the immunomodulatory effects of macronutrients intake on monocytes phenotypes and their characteristics in humans.Designer Pete Fecteau constructed a huge Martin Luther King Jr. portrait called “Dream Big“using 4,242 officially licensed Rubik’s Cubes. Measuring 5.8m x 2.6m x 5.7cm and weighing 454kg, this artistic endeavor was possible due to Kickstarter.com, where the artist raised the necessary money for this project. A series of fortunate events led to the creation of this interesting portrait. The designer was volunteering for ArtPrize and wanted to come up with a creative project to enlist. He literally dreamed this project and participated in the competition, being placed in the top 50 out of 1,700+ pieces entered. On display during the 2010 ArtPrize competition in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the large portrait took 40 hours to create and an additional five and a half hours and 6 volunteers to install. It took $9,000 to make and the artist had an unsuccessful attempt to sell it. After seeing the photos, would you have bought the piece?When is a side project not a side project? When it reaches the grand old age of 20, clocking up nearly twice as many years as your most popular, most revered work, that’s when. Janet Weiss is still best known for being the drummer in Sleater-Kinney, the Portland trio who emerged towards the tail end of the Riot Grrrl movement in the mid-90s. But her two decades as part of Quasi, the duo she formed with ex-husband Sam Coomes in 1993, eclipses the lifespan of that band by some margin.
Sleater-Kinney went on “indefinite hiatus” in 2006, their album The Woods and the subsequent tour making a case for them being the most successful product of a scene often accused of insularity, their audience unexpectedly started to swell as they de-bunked their precison-tooled dual guitar interplay for a looser, roughed-up approach. Since then Weiss hasn’t stopped, continuing to work on Quasi with Coomes and joining Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks for a stretch (as well as an ambitious drum trio project alongside Zach Hill and Matt Cameron) before reuniting with guitarist Carrie Brownstein in 2011 for Wild Flag, while singer Corin Tucker has despatched a brace of acclaimed solo works.
Sadly, Wild Flag, despite acclaim for their eponymous debut, are no more: “It was great but I think it just kinda ran its course," Weiss tells us. "It’s hard to have a band when you live five hours apart by plane.” But the hardcore have always hoped and suspected that Sleater-Kinney were taking an extended breather rather than calling it quits. After all, they were rock solid close and went out on a creative high. Brownstein has previously hinted at eventually getting back together.
"Bands have become more accepting of corporations. Google, Wikipedia, Apple: people relate to those huge companies like they’re family. I still feel like that’s dangerous" – Janet Weiss
We’re here to discuss Quasi’s excellent new record, the expansive 24 track Mole City; unsurprisingly, Weiss is more than happy to discuss her former band and agrees that they called it a day when they were seemingly catching a second wind. “That was a real step up, that last tour – certainly in the UK,” she recalls. “For some reason, people started coming out all of a sudden. It was weird!” It’s hard to resist asking The Question. Thankfully, Weiss takes it in good humour and laughs as she says: “Oh, you know, yeah, I wouldn’t rule it out. I don’t think we’ll be able to stay away from each other forever!” [As it turns out, a few days after she speaks to The Skinny, Sleater-Kinney temporarily reunite onstage in Portland, joined onstage by Pearl Jam and Peter Buck for an impromptu crack at an old Neil Young standard - ed]. Good enough. Now to the task at hand...
Weiss reflects on her lengthy tenure behind the Quasi kit with not so much surprise but a distinct warm joy. Their songbook is sizeable but this ninth album sounds more like a sprawling and youthfully hungry debut. Clearly the well of creativity is far from dry. It’s arguably their best work to date. “I feel the same way,” agrees Weiss. “We had few resources – we had a lot of time, we had a studio, a tiny rudimentary studio in Sam’s basement, we had mics and our instruments, and our abilities and our ideas. But what we didn’t have was money. So we just used the resources that we had and we tried to make a record that was different to the last record. We tried to make a record that was loose and less self-conscious – more fun, I think. We gave up the idea of a ‘good’ sound and a ‘good’ studio and all those things you’d perhaps have in a studio you’re hiring by the hour.” Do these kinds of logistical aspects eventually just get in the way? “Well they can overtake the creativity, they start to steer the project. You’ve got a certain amount of time to record a certain number of songs. This, though, was just open-ended.”
“We started working,” she continues. “Neither of us had anything else going on for a few months at the end of last year. We just hunkered down every day – for four hours every day. We’d meet at Sam’s house, have some coffee and just get to it. We just got to go in every day and play music, flesh out our ideas and it was just so much fun. I think it really sort of rejuvenated our musical connection. We realised what a language we have, the two of us, for communicating musically and for recording.”
Quasi, of course, were a duo long before it became fashionable, before a time of austerity made having two mouths to feed one of the driving forces. Weiss acknowledges there’s a price for the freedom the format affords. “There are some songs we simply can’t play live as a two piece. Some of them just don’t work, but there are a lot of them that have translated and I think they stand up. This album takes common threads that run through our twenty years and it’s becoming a fun record to play live. These shows have been some of our best, which is a good feeling.”
For an artist who emerged from a heavily politicised scene, it must be gratifying to have won such a broad level of respect. Weiss remains one of the best drummers in popular music. And you’ll not see that epithet qualified with ‘female’, either. To see her play live where her technique and crucially, her feel, make her stand out, remains a thrill. She dodges the compliment: “Well the funny thing about drumming is you’re never done. There’s so much more for me to understand about it. I still think of myself as still learning.”
You wonder whether someone so accomplished still needs to practise. “Yeah, I do! I feel like I’m still in the middle of my development. It’s like being an athlete or something. Drums is so physical. You can’t just put ‘em down for six months and come back and expect to have your timing and your intuition – all these things that need your daily attention. So I try to practise at least three or four times a week when I’m not touring. But if I’m getting ready for a tour, I try to practise every day. I don’t want to tour and then spend the first week getting in shape.”
With a career that bridges from that pivotal juncture of US alternative music to the increasing here-and-now sexualisation of pop and the suck-it-and-see disposability of what’s become an internet-driven industry, it must be difficult to see a way for young female musicians to replicate the communal, agit beginnings she was once part of. “I think the commercialisation, and the acceptance of the commercialisation, is the biggest difference,” she says. “You know, it used to be commercialised but we, as musicians, we railed against that. We were rebellious. We were angry and pissed off that the music world was becoming so commercialised. We were upset and we were banding together. We thought there was such a thing as selling out and that was real. It’s disappointing now that things have changed, and not necessarily for the better. Bands are more accepting of corporations. Google, Wikipedia, Apple: people relate to those huge companies like they’re family. I still feel like that’s dangerous, just like I did when I was young.”
She continues: “I’m not going to be the one to make a difference now, but I still have ideals. I feel so fortunate to have come up in music at a time when the things that I valued most as a musician were being addressed by the other musicians around me. It was such a uniting, powerful feeling to not only become a better musician with these people, but also to be talking about ideas and what we stood for – punk rock, ideals, DIY, all these things that now seem to have gone into the ether. These things really meant a lot to us. I just feel so lucky that I got to experience the pre-internet era of music, to experience the Portland scene and to be around such a great group of musicians who did so well and made such advances.”
It’s inspiring to hear a musician of Weiss’s stature speak so fondly, and so eloquently, about a time, a movement, that many tend to romanticise from a distance as observers. More importantly, it’s a joy to see her so energised by tomorrow and all its possibilities. “For me, music is the only avenue I have for connecting with people on that deep level,” she explains. “The most human I ever feel is when I’m onstage playing a song and I have that feedback from an audience. It’s timeless, you know? It’s really indescribable. And as far as Quasi is concerned, it’s still just so much fun. I have to say, I was always really excited about the future, and I still am.”Mansory has, yet again, taken a supercar and turned the dial up to 11. Or maybe 12 or 13. This time the base car is none other than the Ferrari F12 Berlinetta, a V12-powered GT car. Compared to Mansory's previous Ferrari GT-based creation, the Rambo-inspired Stallone that had used both the 599 and 612 as its base, the new La Revoluzione is a welcome departure.While the Revoluzione isn't what we'd call subtle, especially from the very front- and rear-most views, we appreciate the small amount of restraint Mansory showed when styling this deep red carbon fiber-bodied car, at least on the outside. As you can see in our image gallery above, the interior of this creation is quite loud and perhaps a little bit obnoxious.We can't argue with the results seen underhood – claimed horsepower sits at over 1,200 from a twin-turbo 6.3-liter V12 engine. That many ponies pays the expected dividends in performance, with a 0-62 run of 2.9 seconds and a top speed listed at 230 miles per hour. See it yourself in our high-res image gallery above.This morning, we received great news from the Mayor’s office – not only does his proposed budget close the $20 million hole the city budget has today, it also manages to accelerate street repair funding, and takes the next steps in implementing the high capacity transit corridors in the Transit Master Plan. He has a great guest post up on the Slog that you should read, because he’s right on. The best thing to do to build more transit in Seattle is to start doing alternatives analysis in every corridor.
The funding in the Mayor’s budget is as follows:
· $2 million for Downtown to the U-District via Eastlake. This was actually part of the original Bogue subway plan the city had in 1911 – more than a hundred years ago – and it was one of the highest use streetcar corridors in the city. Almost every inch of the corridor is multifamily zoned, and what isn’t is changing into multifamily fast.
· $1 million to plan real BRT in the Madison corridor. The mayor’s office told me this morning that this means off-board payment, and would be a higher standard than RapidRide.
· $500,000 to develop alternatives for the best pedestrian, bike, and transit crossing of the ship canal, near Fremont. Much like Portland’s new bridge, this would get transit out of traffic and be one of the largest components of a Downtown-Fremont-Ballard streetcar.
· 2.5 million to be spent on whatever corridor is ready for design and engineering soonest – Ballard, U-district, the downtown connector or Madison.
This funding is in addition to the downtown connector and Ballard funding that’s already been secured.
This is exactly what we need to be doing. This funding will identify the possible alternatives so that transit supporters have specifics to fight for and data to back it up. The next move for us will be to ensure the City Council signs off.Democratic Iowa Senate candidate and current House member Bruce Braley has a vacation house on Holiday Lake, a resort community about 40 miles from Cedar Rapids.
This spring, Pauline Hampton, one of Braley’s Holiday Lake neighbors, stopped by his second home to offer a dozen fresh, organic eggs produced by her prize chickens.
That’s when things went horribly wrong, reports The Washington Post.
Braley’s wife, Carolyn, answered the door. According to Hampton, Carolyn Braley responded to the gracious egg offer by saying, “We aren’t going to accept your eggs — and we have filed a formal complaint against you.”
The threatening comment, it turned out, arose because Hampton’s chickens had previously rambled onto the Braleys’ coveted lake property. The Senate candidate and his wife did not like it. Not one bit.
Had either of the Braleys ever walked over to Hampton’s home to discuss their annoyance with the wandering chickens?
Of course not.
Instead, on May 8, Braley and his wife then publicly voiced their beef with the chickens at the board meeting of the homeowners’ association. For their next move, the Senate candidate contacted the association lawyer, Thomas Lacina, to declare that chickens should be outlawed from the serene, rural, sprawling 755-acre resort community in the farming state.
“Chickens are not pets and should not be permitted at Holiday Lake,” Braley, a rich, liberal trial lawyer, wrote in an email to Lacina. He added that he hoped to “avoid a litigious situation.”
Braley has insisted that he made no threat to sue despite the direct reference to a possible lawsuit.
Meanwhile, Hampton, a registered Democrat and an Air Force veteran, put up a wire fence on her property to keep her chickens cooped.
While the chicken challenge is over for Hampton, it has festered for Braley and added to his growing image problem across the state.
The Democrat has responded by insisting that he handled the property squabble perfectly well.
“At no time did I ever — ever — threaten a lawsuit or threaten litigation. Never,” he told the Post. “And anybody who says that I did is not being truthful.”
He characterized the quarrel as “a personal dispute between my wife and a neighbor because chickens were on our property all the time.”
Braley also suggested that he is a victim of a conspiracy.
“I just reached out to somebody I knew expecting to get a phone call back and instead this thing blows up,” he told the Post. “And I think it’s obvious why, because people who don’t want me to be the next senator from Iowa will stop at nothing to try to drag my family through the mud.”
Some neighbors share Braley’s frustration with chickens roaming in the rural vacation area. Others think he handled the situation in a terrible way.
“Buddy, we’re here in Iowa,” Holiday Lake homeowner William Nagel told the Post. “We talk like men here and we act like men. Usually, a man’s word is like gold. A handshake is a contract. Neighbors are neighbors, and |
option. It was in his health care platform, for those like Landrieu who weren’t paying attention. But her assertion to Howard Dean about what the Senate always intended is gobsmacking:
DEAN: You would not let us choose another program. You forced us into the insurance industry. We don’t want to be forced into the insurance industry. You took away our choice. That is wrong. LANDRIEU: That is not true, you never had that choice to begin with. DEAN: The President campaigned on it, Mary. LANDRIEU: In this bill we always wanted… DEAN: The President of the United States campaigned for it. LANDRIEU: No he did not campaign for public option, he did not campaign on Medicare for all, he most certainly did not.
The only bill to pass so far, the House bill, has a public option. And there is a public option in the merged bill that Reid delivered to the Senate, which Landrieu voted for cloture on.
To say “you never had that choice to begin with,” and that this is the bill they “always wanted,” means that it was all just smoke and mirrors.
Courtesy of Harry Reid. Who was always just putting on a show until they gave the insurance industry what they wanted.
Transcript after the jump:Were The Beatles' early songs part of the 1964 musical revolution? Science says no.
They might be the icons of a musical revolution in the early 1960s, but now science is questioning whether The Beatles' music from that era was important.
"I think that our estimation of the Beatles' importance at that time, or how we think about them, has become vastly inflated," evolutionary biologist Professor Armand Leroi from Imperial College London said.
He said the music that launched the Beatles onto the global stage — including songs like I Want To Hold Your Hand, She Loves You and Ticket To Ride — "is in fact relentlessly average".
And he said he had scientific evidence to back those claims up.
What can science tell us about the Beatles?
In a study published in 2015, Professor Leroi and his colleagues tracked the evolution of US pop songs between 1960 and 2010.
They measured specific musical characteristics in the top songs on The Billboard Hot 100 chart of each year.
The researchers used audio processing software to extract changes in chord sequences, and put these into broad "harmonic" categories.
Share The rise and fall of harmonic (H) and timbral (T) characteristics in the Billboard Hot 100 chart between 1960 and 2010.
Similarly, they tracked how timbre changed in songs over the 50 years.
These "timbral characteristics" looked at which instruments were being played, and the overall character of the music.
Using these musical blueprints, Professor Leroi said his team was able to track exactly how pop songs were changing over the decades, in a similar way to how researchers track evolution using genetic material.
They then used this data to figure out when popular music was changing dramatically.
"We developed some statistical techniques to actually quantify revolutions — that's to say rapid accelerations in the rate of change of music," Professor Leroi said.
Share The evolution of popular music: how different styles of music grew and shrank between 1960 and 2010 in the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
"We identified three, and they were centred around 1964, 1982 and 1991."
Professor Leroi said the data shows a 1964 revolution that was all about music becoming more "aggressive". But The Beatles did not contribute to that change in the music.
"They're not making that revolution, they're joining it," he said.
"This revolution — and you can see it in the numbers in the charts — actually begins long before 1963... even earlier, where our data don't go."
Professor Leroi said that change in musical style was largely driven by other bands, playing louder rock and roll.
"When the [Rolling] Stones, the Kinks and the Who were transforming the face of popular music, Lennon and McCartney were writing ditties for prepubescent girls," he said.
"That's not saying they didn't have nice tunes, it's not to say they didn't have nice haircuts, or that they weren't nice boys, but in terms of driving the music ahead, they just weren't that important."
beatles biology comments teaser We asked if you thought The Beatles' were icons of a musical revolution. Read the discussion in the comments.
That can't be the only way to figure out The Beatles' impact?
Forensic musicologist Joe Bennett from the Boston Conservatory at Berklee argues that, even in their early years, The Beatles were making ground-breaking music.
Share Forensic musicologist Joe Bennett says even The Beatles' early work was groundbreaking.
"I think it's impossible to argue that the Beatles weren't important," he said.
"The Beatles could sound like chanson, or orchestral music, or rock and roll, or folk balladry — and you could get all of that in some cases in the space of one single album," he said.
Professor Bennett points to songs like Yesterday, released in 1965, where the band experiments with form, and brings a string quartet into a traditional pop song.
"This is a boy band not two years out from their first hit," he said.
Professor Bennett said many of The Beatles' other early innovations, such as their use of studio production techniques and lyrics, wouldn't necessarily register in a big data analysis — a point that Professor Leroi agrees with.
"When I say that the Beatles weren't musically important, I mean that they weren't important in a very specific way at a very specific time," Professor Leroi said.
What were the other major revolutions in popular music?
"Everybody thinks they know when the music changed. And when the music changed... was usually when they were about 17 years old," Professor Leroi said.
"The belief in the importance of the music of your youth and the arbitrariness of revolutions and change and so forth, and the journalistic nonsense that has been written about it, all conspire I think to make the history of pop deeply opaque and deeply subjective."
Share Armand Leroi has studied the musical complexity of The Beatles' early work and says it's not as revolutionary as we might think.
But Professor Leroi said his research gives an objective way of looking at musical revolutions.
Aside from the 1964 revolution, he said his data points to another major change in music in 1982, stemming from the introduction of drum machines and synthesisers.
"[These] just obliterated the musical landscape, such that everything sounds like early Madonna or Duran Duran," Professor Leroi said.
He said there was a third revolution in 1991 when hip hop and rap took over the charts.
"All sorts of songs which don't have chords in them, or have very few chords in them, and have lots of speech in them, start cropping up," he said.
Professor Leroi said while the Beatles did not contribute to the 1964 revolution, their later work may have been more musically important.
"We tend to package the Beatles as a whole with their later work like Sgt Pepper and Revolver," he said.
But he said objective scientific research may help re-evaluate claims about their earlier songs.
"We just forget then about the fact that the songs themselves weren't actually that remarkable," he said.Sven Gatz, the minister for youth, media and culture in the government of the Flanders region, attracted criticism after dressing up as the character of Black Peter.
Sven Gatz
He published a picture of himself with a black face, thick red lips and a curly black wig, accompanied with the message: “And we sing and we jump and we are so happy, because there are no naughty children.”
Black Pete, or Zwarte Piet, is the traditional helper to Father Christmas in the Low Countries. But in recent years he has become a controversial figure due to growing public distaste for the practice of mimicking black characters.
Mr Gatz said he had been invited by his local priest to play the part following Mass.
Wouter Van Bellingen, the director of Minority Forum, said the move was tasteless. He told De Morgan: “Globally, there is criticism of the figure of Zwarte Piet. If you know that... how can you post some pictures of yourself?”
Mr Gatz defended himself, saying he had “engaged against racism all my political life. And now I'm an ordinary racist because I coloured my face dark? Come on. Love, don't hate.”
In local tradition, Santa Claus – or Sinterklaas in Dutch – arrives on December 5 in the Netherlands and December 6, Saint Nicholas’s Day, in Belgium, accompanied by a gang of Black Petes, who hand gifts to children.
Opponents say he is a caricature of an African slave carried over from colonial times.
An Amsterdam court agreed with findings by a Dutch discrimination vetting board and a UN advisory panel that Black Pete is offensive.
Online EditorsIf you’re reading this, it probably means that you’re still alive in the fantasy playoffs and one step closer to a championship. It could also mean you have an addiction to fantasy football, which is ok too. All that being said, if you are still playing this late into the season, congratulations on a successful season thus far. This week we saw another string of injuries to fantasy players with varying degree of importance, Ryan Tannehill, Matt Forte & Melvin Gordon all went down with injury, among others. Gordon owners were probably relying heavily on him this season, Forte owners are probably going to miss his production too, but the Tannehill injury is a more far reaching concern for fantasy purposes. If you’re still playing, my guess is that you weren’t relying on Ryan Tannehill all season. Tannehill is a decent #2 in a 2 QB league at best. But, he’s a guy whose absence is going to be felt across the board if you own any Miami skill position players. Matt Moore is, in my opinion, the worst quarterback in all of football. Opposing defenses are going to load the box to shut down Jay Ajayi and make Moore beat them, which he can’t, so this will also hurt the owners of Jarvis Landry, Devante Parker, Kenny Stills and Leonte Carroo for the rest of the season. Anyway, hopefully, none of these injuries impact you over the next few weeks of the playoffs. As always I’m (@dibari22) joined by DFF’s very own Shane Manila @DFF_Shane and KJ Hanna @DFF_KJ, we’ll walk you through the waiver wire players we think can help you down the stretch.
John Recommends:
QB:
There are plenty of garbage heap options still out there. If you’re still playing, odds are you’re set at the position except for the possibility that the Tannehill injury hurt you. Basically, anybody you can grab is of equal value for the next 2 weeks. Matt Barkley and Sam Bradford have decent matchups in week 15 if you’re looking to throw a dart out of necessity.
RB: Bilal Powell, New York Jets
Powell looked good in relief of an injured Matt Forte and should be a top waiver wire target for everyone, not just the Forte owner. Very rarely does a 3 down back magically appear in week 15, he can be this year’s Tim Hightower.
RB: Kenneth Farrow, San Diego Chargers
I suggested picking him up at several points throughout the season only to see him go drastically underused by the Chargers. Now, with the injury to Melvin Gordon, they have no choice but to use him. Early reports have him in a timeshare with Ronnie Hillman going forward. Farrow is an unproven commodity but can be a 3 down back if need be. Powell is the top pick up this week, but Farrow isn’t far behind.
RB/WR: Ty Montgomery, Green Bay Packers
Different Sites have him eligible for different positions, but all that matters for our purposes is that he’s getting touches for the Pack. He’s the best running back the Packers have at this point and should be featured more going forward as the Packers have to win every remaining game to stay in the playoff picture.
WR: Dontrelle Inman, San Diego Chargers
Everybody loves Tyrell Williams, but Inman has been the most reliable receiver for Philip Rivers and the Bolts. He’s not doing anything flashy, he’s just a solid receiver. Since their week 11 bye, Inman has been the team’s’ leading WR each week. There’s no reason to expect that to stop.
WR: Adam Thielen, Minnesota Vikings
Thielen is really emerged as a PPR fantasy player while Stefon Diggs was injured but even since Diggs returned, Thielen has been getting his targets and receptions. In PPR leagues he’s a must add for the playoff push as the Vikes play the Colts, Packers and Bears to close out the year.
TE: Charles Clay, Buffalo Bills
I’m not really proud of this, but if you’re streaming TEs, and need an idea of where to look this week, Clay (who is terrible) is facing the (more terrible) Browns defense who have been getting absolutely murdered by TEs this season. You shouldn’t be happy about trotting him out there, but he has a great matchup.
Shane says:
QB: Matt Barkley, Chicago Bears
I told you to add him last week. If you did so and played him over Drew Brees, Russell Wilson or Ben Roethlisberger last week you might have escaped the first round. So there’s that. Funny story, if I had played Barkley over Brees last week I’d be prepping for two additional semi-finals games this week. But I swear I’m not bitter at all.
TE: Trey Burton, Philadelphia Eagles
Burton has likely flown under the radar with how well Zach Ertz has been playing lately and due to the fact that the Eagles as a team are a flaming trash heap. Even though Ertz has been a target monster the last several weeks Burton has also garnered his fair share of targets as well. Burton has 12 receptions on 19 targets for 118 yards over the last two weeks. Because the Eagles lack any outside threats they largely run their offense from the inside out and use a ton of two TE sets. If you play in any leagues where you must start 2 TEs you could do worse than Burton as that 2nd tight end. As an upcoming Restricted Free Agent, Burton is worth a stash in the hopes he lands on a team next year where he may be utilized more.
WR: Robby Anderson, New York Jets
Since the ascension of Bryce Petty to the starting QB role, Robby Anderson has flat out balled. Twenty three targets over the last two weeks shows that Bryce Petty is looking at Anderson as his 1st, 2nd, 3rd and final read. That’s all I have to say about that.
WR: Tanner McEvoy, Seattle Seahawks
This is another stash. If you failed to make it out the first round of the playoffs and no longer have to use a roster spot on a 2nd defense or a 3rd qb it’s time to cut them loose and start filling the bottom of your roster with some lotto tickets. Consider McEvoy a “Scratch n’ Win”. Yeah he might never hit, but you only have to spend a buck on him and the payoff could be immense, or at least as immense as bye week streamer can be considered immense, if it actually hits. The undrafted McEvoy is a former quarterback who converted to safety then back to quarterback who then became a receiver and finally finished his college career converting back to safety during his career at Wisconsin. So if nothing else, he’s versatile. McEvoy, measuring in at 6’6” 220 lbs. averages an impressive 17.7 yards per reception on his less than impressive 7 receptions this season. He’s flashed some big play ability in the small sample size he’s been given, he’s insanely large and relatively fast for his size.
KJ Recommends:
RB: Kenneth Farrow, San Diego Chargers: 0.7% Owned
Melvin Gordon suffered a hip injury and potentially a knee injury in week 14 after carrying the rock just 3 times. Hopefully if you own Gordon you handcuffed him with Farrow and were able to survive week 14. Even if you are not a Gordon owner, it’s time to snag this rookie backup. Of course SD has said that Gordon is day to day but I seriously doubt he plays this week. There is a tiny factor that could dampen Farrow’s upside and that’s journeyman, Ronnie Hillman. He could steal some touches so temper expectations. If you’re in need of an RB, pick up Farrow.
RB: Justin Forsett, Denver Broncos: 17% Owned
We’ve seen this before, haven’t we? Forsett was the ‘lead back’ for the Broncos in week 14, out-touching Booker 9-5. It’s anyone’s guess on who will lead the Denver backfield in week 15 but if you are relying on Booker, you best bet is to handcuff him with Forsett and hope there’s more clear information leading into Sunday.
RB: Bilal Powell, New York Jets: 37% Owned
Forte’s wheels finally fell off as he left Sunday’s game with a knee injury. With the Jets having little to play for, I doubt they will push Forte to play. In his absence, Powell went crazy with 34 touches and racking up 179 total yards and 2 TDs! Sure, this came against the 49ers but volume is volume and Powell will be used in the backfield and passing game, if he is in fact the main RB in NY for week 15. Powell is the RB to add this week and is a start in PPR leagues if Forte sits.
WR: Marqise Lee, Jacksonville Jaguars: 7% Owned
What does Lee have to do to be taken seriously?! Lee has averaged 13 PPR pts since week 11 and has led the Jags in targets in that time. Lee is worth an add if you need the FLEX play or to block your competition from having another option. Also, if you make it to the big game, Lee has a juicy matchup in week 16 vs. the Titans.
WR: Adam Thielen, Minnesota Vikings: 19% Owned
Got a feelin for Thielen. The Vikings offense is putrid but there is one player benefiting (beyond Rudolph) and that is Adam Thielen. Thielen has led the Vikes WRs in targets for wks 12-14 and averaged 80 yds per game in that span. Not to mention he’s averaging 6 catches a game. In a PPR league, that’s 14 pts a game and he has double digit PPR points in every game since week 8. He’s ONLY owned in 19% of leagues and has the Colts then the Packers to play with. Got the room, add Thielen or someone else will.
WR: Dontrelle Inman, San Diego Chargers: 27% Owned
Another week passes and Inman has another good week. What are you waiting for? Inman once again led the Chargers WRs in targets and scored for the 3rd straight game. As I stated last week, he’s taken over for Travis Benjamin and with Twill playing through an injury, Inman is the WR to own and start in SD. Don’t forget, SD plays OAK then CLE in the next 2 weeks. Not sure you can ask for a better setup. Inman could help owners win championships this year.
DEFs:
As the Falcons showed in week 14, defenses can win you a week. These are a few DEFs you can stream this week.
Bills: 53% Owned
Schedule: CLE
Falcons: 53% Owned
Schedule: SF
Texans – 44% Owned
Schedule: JAX
Dolphins – 40% Owned
Schedule: NYJ
Jets – 36% Owned
Schedule: MIA
Good luck in week 15 if you’re still playing and good luck next year if you’re not. Hopefully you’ve avoided the recent injury bug and you’re going into week 2 of the playoffs at full strength. As always, thank you for reading and we’ll see you back here next week with a victory under your belt and another step closer to a fantasy championship.Rhys Hutchings saw off the competition in the Welsh ward of St Julians
Rhys Hutchings of Goldie Lookin Chain has been voted in as a Labour party councillor for Newport, Wales.
Hutchings will represent the St Julians ward in the city. Three recounts had to be staged, but in the end Hutchings came top, polling 981 votes, reports MSN News. After winning the local election vote, Hutchings said:
It’s the hardest thing I’ve had to do since my Duke of Edinburgh Award when I was 15 years old. I’m chuffed to have won and it comes after hard work by my supporters and I’ve got to thank them for that. I can’t wait to help those people that trusted me and voted for me.
Hutchings, who is known in the band as Zardoz, P Xain and Dwain Xain Zedong, added that the rest of Goldie Lookin Chain will be coming to watch him make his debut as councillor.
Comedy rap collective Goldie Lookin Chain released ‘Primordial Soup – The Mix Tape 3’, earlier this year.This article appears in the September edition of the Financial Post Magazine. Visit the iTunes store to download the iPad edition of this month’s issue.
A million-dollar home sure doesn’t look like it used to. In some cities, it can be downright dowdy. For example, $1 million — $1,012,172 to be precise — in April would have bought an average single-family home in Toronto. Not a mansion on the Bridal Path, not even a nice place in the tony Rosedale or Forest Hill neighbourhoods; just an average single-family detached home. And those places are selling like mad, with the Toronto Real Estate Board reporting 19.2% growth from a year earlier.
Fortunately, those numbers tailed off in subsequent months, hitting an average of $865,635 in mid-July, still up 8.8% year over year. The reason for such price appreciation is simple: There is a limited supply of detached homes because no one is building them anymore. Even the suburbs are being covered with semi-detached homes, a move by homebuilders to maximize the potential profits of their land holdings. The demand for stand-alone homes in the big cities simply outstrips the current supply and there won’t be much new stock added in the coming years.
[np_storybar title=”Thinking about a move-up buy? Forget it, new study says you can’t afford it” link=”business.financialpost.com/2014/09/07/thinking-about-a-move-up-buy-forget-it-new-study-says-you-cant-afford-it/”]You’re likely stuck in your current home because of new tougher mortgage regulations and ever-rising prices in the Canadian real estate market, according to a new report.
Benjamin Tal, deputy chief economist with Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, says the old narrative of graduating from school, getting a job and then married is bumping up against new economic realities. Keep reading
[/np_storybar]
But some market watchers expect that dynamic to change in the coming years as the baby boom generation starts unwinding. The argument, so it goes, is that a tsunami of boomers won’t need the larger homes they currently occupy now that their kids have moved out so they will downsize, mostly into condos in downtown cores, close to cultural amenities and health-care facilities.
A poll by condo developer Harmony Village found that six in 10 respondents 50 years or older plan to sell their existing home and buy or rent smaller accommodations within five years. The vast majority (88%) of them owned a detached home and another 6% had a semi-detached home. The top three reasons for moving were to reduce maintenance work (81%), lower the cost of living (80%) and live in a smaller home (62%). More than half said they would use the surplus cash from downsizing to help finance their retirement years.
It’s certainly a nice thought: the older generation making room for the echo generation that is entering the family building years. But perhaps it’s just that: a thought. Demographics, human nature and common sense suggest there won’t be a wave of downsizing so much as a series of ripples and there hasn’t been a lot of movement yet.
With the uncertainty in the economy, people are a little unsure of what to do
“With the uncertainty in the economy, people are a little unsure of what to do and may be holding back on making decisions,” says Doug Norris, senior vice-president and chief demographer at Environics Analytics. “The other thing is that, overall, if you ask people, the majority will say they want to stay in their homes as long as they can. That could push them well into their mid-70s.”
There may be some older people moving into condos, but Norris says it’s too early to tell if it’s a trend. The decision to downsize generally occurs when a person’s health deteriorates to the point where he or she can’t do the gardening, shovel snow or generally take care of a larger home and property. “That’s still ahead of the boomers so it may be true there will be a lot of downsizing and we haven’t seen it in large numbers yet,” he says. “If that is the case, we’re not going to see that for a few more years, although we’ll certainly start to see it increasingly over the next decade.”
One thing is certain: The percentage of adults living in single-detached homes is most prevalent among those between 40 and 70, according to Statistics Canada’s analysis of the 2011 census, with the peak being 66.6% of those aged 50-54. The percentage quickly declines from 70 onward, hitting a low of 35.2% for people 85-plus. Given that the census splits its stats into 15 age groups, it’s a little disingenuous for market commentators to talk about change in terms of waves or even tsunamis. Demographics, says David Foot, a noted demographer and author of Boom, Bust & Echo, is much more about incremental change. He says most seniors generally don’t want to downsize because they want their grandchildren to visit and stay. The front end of the boomers are now in their 60s while downsizing begins in earnest when people are in their mid-70s. “The front end of the baby boom, born in 1947, is not going to be that age until 2022,” he says. “The big downsizing, if it is going to occur, is almost the next decade not this decade.”
By 2025, 20.4% of Canada’s population will be over 65, making the country one of 21 in the world that is “super aged,” according to a report by ratings agency Moody’s in August. The aging of the global economy will “dampen economic over the next two decades” and increase demands on pensions, health care and proper accommodations, which is why so many people are interested in what the boomers will do.
But the tendency to talk about boomers as one big analogous group is also incorrect. “The diversity gets underplayed,” says Norris, who divides them into several different groups. “People like to try to generalize, oh the boomers are like this or that and are going to have this impact. Well, they are a big group and the numbers will have an impact, but exactly how may be in very many different ways.”
Of course, because there are so many boomers, even a small shift can have a big impact. Some boomers — say, those without grandchildren or those who put a higher priority on travel — will downsize in their 60s. But those are small groups. Norris says around 20% of people over 55 will move within a five-year period. Push that out 10 to 15 years and perhaps close to half of the generation will have moved over a 15-to-20-year period. The questions are where they are going to move and from where, and whether they are going to move less or more than the seniors of today. Norris is leaning toward more moving, but certainly not less.
If you’re going to downsize, you don’t want an 800-square-foot condo, that’s for a 20-something
For one thing, boomers are less likely to have spent most of their lives in just one house. This will be even more true of subsequent generations. But boomers also differ from their parents and grandparents in another way: they helped build up suburbia instead of staying in major cities. “The suburbs were largely developed in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, large homes, large tracts of land in many cases,” Norris says. If their children stay in the suburbs, it’s quite possible they will want to stay nearby, possibly in condos, if they are built for that purpose, but perhaps apartments if they don’t want to go through the hassle of purchasing a new home. Such a trend hasn’t shown up in the data as yet, Norris say, but, anecdotally, he’s noticed seniors filling the new apartments that are going up near his home in Kanata, Ont., a suburb of Ottawa.
But boomers may not differ from previous generations as much as we like to think. We generally believe that boomers live more active, healthier lifestyles because they’re living longer, but Foot points out that measures of obesity and overweightness don’t seem to have changed all that much. Other than a reduction in smoking, advances in medicine are likely behind our increased longevity. Most medical research until the 1970s focused on reducing infant mortality, but the industry since then has been far more interested in diseases of the 50-plus set and that’s only going to increase as the boomers move through the system.
Another big argument against the trend of boomers moving to condos is that a lot of the condos being built simply aren’t appealing to people in their 60s and 70s. “If you’re going to downsize, you don’t want an 800-square-foot condo, that’s for a 20-something,” Foot says. “You want a 2,400-square-foot condo, or three 800-square foot condos, if you’re going to downsize.” But when someone buys three condos, we call them speculators, not home-seeking seniors. In any case, converting two or three units into one isn’t as simple as knocking out a few walls, although the idea of having a couple of full bathrooms and extra rooms would certainly enhance the possibility that children and their children will spend more time at grandma’s place.
The lack of suitable condos may even contribute to the collapse of that market, Foot says. As the echo generation finally tires of downtown life and moves into bigger housing, whether still in the city or further afield, there just isn’t enough of the younger generation to fill the small condos they’re leaving behind. The big push behind the condo boom of the past 15 years or so has been the echo — or millennial — kids, the first of whom was born in 1980.
“I don’t see a collapse in the suburban housing because the echo kids are going to move out there,” Foot says, noting the fastest-growing community in the last census was Milton, about a 40-minute drive west from downtown Toronto if there isn’t any traffic, where there are plenty of family homes with backyards for the kids to play in. “But I see a huge collapse in the condo market unless the condo guys are smart enough to reposition their units, knock down some walls and create 2,400-square-foot units and market those to the boomers, particularly those who have a second place already in Muskoka or somewhere like that.”
In short, some seniors will stay in their homes, some will sell and move into nearby condominiums, apartments and smaller houses, while others will up and move to towns such as Collingwood, Cobourg and Brockville, Ont., that are picturesque lakeside communities close enough to major centres. A town like Cobourg is clearly aging, with the decision to close one of its two high schools due to a lack of students proof of that.
“They’ll still want to come to the city, because that’s where the good theatre is and good symphonies and things like that, which you’re also likely to spend more money on when you get to your 50s and 60s,” Foot says. “But you’ll see also theatre in Cobourg improving quite dramatically because they won’t necessarily want to come all the way downtown all the time.”
If there is a mass exodus, seniors better hope there isn’t a housing correction first. They are the ones who would lose in such a scenario, says David Kaufman, president of Westcourt Capital Corp., because they’re relying on the equity value they’ve built up to help fund their retirement lifestyle. A 20% correction cuts the value of a $1.3-million home down by $260,000, while a $650,000 condo loses $130,000, assuming all real estate suffers the same loss. In other words, they would lose $130,000 that was earmarked for the theatre, symphony and nice dinners out.
Of course, it all depends on how each individual reacts. “It could well be quite different for more urban vs. rural,” Kaufman says. “The urban folks could be flocking to the townhouse developments that have condo amenities, but at least allow them to feel like they’re still in a house.”
That’s what Norris did. He lives in what could be called an adult community in Kanata. There’s a shared swimming pool, the snow is plowed and the grass is cut. Most of his neighbours are in the 65-to-75 age bracket and generally retired. “We downsized from a big four-bedroom suburban house when the kids left and this was attractive to us,” he says. “It’s still a fair-sized house so there’s lots of room for us. We are sort of thinking maybe we do want to go onto a condo; it never stops.”“Today everything exists to end in a photograph,” Susan Sontag wrote in her seminal 1977 book “On Photography.” This was something I thought about when I recently read that Google was making its one-hundred-and-forty-nine-dollar photo-editing suite, the Google Nik Collection, free. This photo-editing software is as beloved among photographers as, say, Katz’s Deli is among those who dream of pastrami sandwiches.
Before Google bought it, in 2012, the collection cost five hundred dollars. It is made up of seven pieces of specialized software that, when used in combination with other photo-editing software, such as Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Lightroom, give photographers a level of control akin to that once found in the darkroom. They can mimic old film stock, add analog photo effects, or turn color shots into black-and-white photos. The suite can transform modestly good photos into magical ones. Collectively, Nik's intellectual sophistication is that of a chess grand master. I don't mind paying for the software, and neither do thousands of photographers and enthusiasts. So, like many, I wondered, why would Google make it free?
My guess is that it wants to kill the software, but it doesn't want the P.R. nightmare that would follow. Remember the outcry over its decision to shut down its tool for R.S.S. feeds, Google Reader? Nik loyalists are even more rabid. By making the software free, the company can both ignore the product and avoid a backlash. But make no mistake: it is only a matter of time before Nik goes the way of the film camera—into the dustbin of technological history.
“The giveaway is bad news, as it means the software they paid for has almost [certainly] reached the end of the line in terms of updates,” wrote PC World. And, as Google explained in the blog post announcing the news, the company will “focus our long-term investments in building incredible photo editing tools for mobile.” That means Google Photos, the company's tool for storing and sorting, and Nik’s own Snapseed app for mobile phones.
Google's comments—disheartening as they might be—reflect the reality of our shifting technologies. Sure, we all like listening to music on vinyl, but that doesn’t mean streaming music on Spotify is bad. Streaming just fits today’s world better. I love my paper and ink, but I see the benefits of the iPad and Apple Pencil. Digital photography is going through a similar change, and Google is smart to refocus.
To understand Google’s decision, one needs to understand how our relationship with photographs has changed. From analog film cameras to digital cameras to iPhone cameras, it has become progressively easier to take and store photographs. Today we don’t even think twice about snapping a shot. About two years ago, Peter Neubauer, the co-founder of the Swedish database company Neo Technology, pointed out to me that photography has seen the value shift from “the stand-alone individual aesthetic of the artist to the collaborative and social aesthetic of services like Facebook and Instagram.” In the future, he said, the “real value creation will come from stitching together photos as a fabric, extracting information and then providing that cumulative information as a totally different package.”
His comments make sense: we have come to a point in society where we are all taking too many photos and spending very little time looking at them.
“The definition of photography is changing, too, and becoming more of a language,” the Brooklyn-based artist and professional photographer Joshua Allen Harris told me. “We’re attaching imagery to tweets or text messages, almost like a period at the end of a sentence. It’s enhancing our communication in a whole new way.”
In other words, “the term 'photographer' is changing,” he said. As a result, photos are less markers of memories than they are Web-browser bookmarks for our lives. And, just as with bookmarks, after a few months it becomes hard to find photos or even to navigate back to the points worth remembering. Google made hoarding bookmarks futile. Today we think of something, and then we Google it. Photos are evolving along the same path as well.
Humans have two billion smartphones, and, based on the ultra-conservative assumption that we each upload about two photos a day to various Internet platforms, that means we take about four billion photographs a day. It's hard to imagine how many photos total are sitting on our devices.
Thanks to our obsession with photography—and, in particular, the cultural rise of selfies—the problem of how to sort all these images has left the realm of human capabilities. Instead, we need to augment humans with machines, which are |
if they do the right thing.
"We need cops in Baltimore and part of our retention efforts involve leadership responsibility and having these conversations is one of my responsibility as police commissioner."Marissa Alexander KYTX
(CBS) - Last Friday, Jacksonville mother Marissa Alexander was sentenced by a Florida judge to 20 years in prison for firing what she says was a "warning shot" into the wall after a physical altercation with her husband, Rico Gray.
The case has set off yet another controversy involving the state's "stand your ground" law, which is under intense scrutiny after the shooting death of Trayvon Martin in February. Critics, including Congresswoman Corrine Brown (D-Fla.), are crying foul.
How, they ask, could a 31-year-old woman in a relationship with a man who had a history of domestic violence, and whose actions did not result in any physical injury, be sentenced to two decades in prison while George Zimmerman, the man who shot and killed Martin, is out on bail?
"The Florida criminal justice system has sent two clear messages today," Rep. Brown said in a statement on May 11. "One is that if women who are victims of domestic violence try to protect themselves, the "Stand Your Ground Law" will not apply to them...The second message is that if you are black, the system will treat you differently."
According to a sworn deposition taken in November 2010, Gray, 36, said that on August 1, 2010, he and Alexander began fighting after he found text messages to Alexander's first husband on her phone. The two were already estranged - according to her father, Alexander had been living at her mother's since the birth of the couple's daughter nine days earlier, and Gray, a long-haul trucker, said he spent the night before in his tractor-trailer. Gray began calling her names, saying "If I can't have you, nobody going to have you," and blocking her from exiting the bathroom.
Alexander pushed past Gray and went into the garage where she got her gun from her car's glove compartment.
Gray told prosecutors in the deposition that Alexander came back into the house holding the weapon and told him to leave. He refused, and what happened next is somewhat unclear. In his deposition, Gray said "she shot in the air one time," prompting him and the children to run out the front door. But when Gray called 911 the day of the incident, he said "she aimed the gun at us and she shot."
In August 2011, a judge rejected a motion by Alexander's attorney to grant her immunity under the "stand your ground" law. According to the judge's order, "there is insufficient evidence that the Defendant reasonably believed deadly force was needed to prevent death or great bodily harm to herself," and that the fact that she came back into the home, instead of leaving out the front or back door "is inconsistent with a person who is in genuine fear for her life."
Alexander's case was prosecuted by Angela Corey, the Florida State's Attorney who is also prosecuting George Zimmerman. Alexander was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and because she discharged a firearm during the incident, the case fell under Florida's "10-20-life" law, enacted in 1999, which mandates a 20-year sentence for use of a gun during the commission of certain crimes.
Corey initially offered Alexander a three year deal if she pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, but according to CBS affiliate WTEV, Alexander did not believe she had done anything wrong, and rejected the plea. Her bet did not pay off: the jury in the case returned a guilty verdict in less than 15 minutes.
Now, Alexander's family is looking for a new attorney to take the case on appeal and plans to ask the governor for clemency.
"I know that she truly tried to defend herself," says Lincoln Alexander, Alexander's first husband.
Rep. Brown is helping. The Congresswoman told Crimesider she has contacted several attorneys about taking the case and is helping the NAACP plan a May 29 march in support of Alexander.
According to Mitchell Stone, a Jacksonville defense attorney who has tried numerous stand your ground and domestic violence cases, there were several problems with Alexander's case. First, according to court documents, Alexander violated her bail by returning to the home where the shooting incident took place several months later.
"A lot of people would say, if she's so afraid of him, what's she doing going back there?" says Stone.
Second, as the judge pointed out in the ruling that denied stand your ground immunity, presumably Alexander could have fled the home through the back door instead of returning to the house and confronting Gray.
"Obviously, the jury believed the state's position, that she went into garage to get the gun and make a stand, and that's not going to be tolerated," Stone says.
Stone says the case is "not perfect from a defense perspective," but believes Alexander may have grounds for an appeal based on the judge refusing to admit testimony from witnesses who could tell the jury about Gray's history of violence against women.
And there are disputes about significant facts in the case, including whether Alexander could have escaped out the garage instead of getting her gun and returning to the house; Gray said he "knew she couldn't leave out the garage door because the garage door was locked" in his November 2010 deposition, but in her ruling against allowing Alexander "stand your ground" immunity, Judge Elizabeth Senterfitt wrote that "there was no evidence presented to support her claim."
"You can't shoot a gun at people," says Corey. "It ricocheted from the wall to the ceiling, but what if it had hit someone?"
Alexander's case is bringing scrutiny to mandatory minimum sentences, which Stone says "take discretion out of judges' hands" and essentially hand that power to prosecutors, who already decide which charges to bring. Corey, for example, could have charged Alexander with straight aggravated assault, instead of adding the gun charge, but she told Crimesider that once Alexander rejected the plea deal, she felt it was her duty to charge according to the law.
As Corey put it, "She discharged a gun to kill them, and she has to answer for that."
Her decision didn't surprise Stone: "When Corey took office in 2008, part of her platform was getting tough on gun crime."
While Florida's Gov. Rick Scott has convened a task force to look at the state's "stand your ground" law in the wake of the Trayvon Martin case, Stone says that people lobbying to repeal mandatory minimums are in the "extreme minority."
So, while Alexander waits in prison, her family and supporters insist her conviction and long sentence are a grave miscarriage of justice. They've created a website to spread the word about Alexander's case and raise money for an appeal.
Alexander's father, Raoul Jenkins, told Crimesider that his daughter had had a licensed gun for years and the two had been to the shooting range together.
"If Marissa wanted to shoot anybody she could," Jenkins says. "But that was not her intent. Her intent was to diffuse the situation without anyone getting hurt or killed."Get the biggest What's On 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
Can there have been a band more productive on hiatus than Super Furry Animals?
While frontman Gruff Rhys sweeps all before him with his multi-award nominated, multimedia extravaganza American Interior; bass player Guto Pryce enchants and delights with the dreamlit electronica of Gulp; synth wizard and production don Cian Ciaran continues to dazzle with the stylistic diversity of his mighty solo canon; and drummer Dafydd Ieuan goes for the soul jugular with his group The Earth and his Welsh version of Hitsville USA – Strangetown Records.
The one member of the Furries who we’ve heard little from is the band’s guitarist Huw “Bunf” Bunford. That is, until now.
The musician has announced details of Lots of Dots – the debut album from The Pale Blue Dots – a project borne out of his studies for an MA in Film Composition at a London film school.
Visiting tutor and established composer Richard Chester forms the other half of the duo, having met the guitarist in the midst of his studies and both realising they were “on the same planet”.
Lots of Dots is a nine-track odyssey that fans of West Coast psychedelia, alternative pop and, indeed, Super Furry Animals can instantly relate to.
Released on Strangetown Records next month, the Cardiff-based imprint shared with fellow Furries, Cian Ciaran and Dafydd Ieuan, the digital-only release opens the door on a project that sets traditional song writing alongside soundscape experimentation.
“This is our Jekyll and Hyde moment,” says Bunf.
“We love pop music, but we also like to lie down, listen to something, and not have to get up to press ‘next track’ for at least half an hour. The album definitely has a number of songs that could find themselves on the radio, but over the coming months we’re looking to take people on a journey into sound.
"By distributing found sounds online, and forming new compositions using archive material, The Pale Blue Dots is going to set out to demonstrate the pure pleasure in just listening.”
As well as continuing to work as a musician, Bunf is a secret collector of sounds, amassing a significant collection of audio cassettes full of recordings made during his global travels. Many of these will be gradually introduced into The Pale Blue Dots’ recordings.
His exploration and appropriation of atmospheric sounds saw him commissioned by The Whitworth Gallery, Manchester in 2012, being set free to gather sounds from University of Manchester grounds, including Jodrell Bank, to be used later in a collaborative performance with artist, Naomi Kashiwagi.
“Music isn’t all about pop, nor is it about rigid composition structures or completely abstract soundscapes,” adds Richard. “It is all of those things at once.
"The Pale Blue Dots is a project of complete freedom, with Bunf and I exploring mutual interests in sounds that come to us freely as well as working together to create new songs and soundscapes that give listeners something to hold on to.”
Lots of Dots is released on Monday, November 3 on Strangetown RecordsOne year ago today, I received my first shipment of Soylent, much to the consternation of many, many others who were still waiting for theirs. It’s the only benefit to living so close to the airport.
It’s been a busy year for me, with extended business trips to Asia, a broken ankle, the launch of Snare Labs, and a movie shoot, among my other responsibilities. I wanted to take a moment to write about having Soylent during the last 12 months and what I think the practical and personal differences have been for me.
My Philosophy
Right from the start, I decided that I was not going to eliminate food, but instead use Soylent in place of the snacks and the rushed, unhealthy meals I would have otherwise eaten. How this has worked out practically, is that I end up with Soylent for breakfast, many lunches, and snacks. My evening meals are usually regular food shared with friends/family.
Consuming Soylent
From the beginning, I found it to be MUCH better than any other “health shake” or “liquid meal substitute” product I had ever tried. Recently, I tried one of them again, just to check, and it was so cloyingly sweet that I threw it out after one sip. Yuck. I don’t really want to bash any specific brand, I’m just glad to be done with them.
Originally, I experimented with adding flavour so that I wouldn’t get sick of the taste. Surprisingly, though, I still enjoy the taste of Soylent plain, even after a year. My favourite addition is a banana, but I have tried all kinds of juices and flavours, including guava, coffee, and peanut butter.
Although I believe most people make a full day at a time, I often make just one “meal” (i.e., scoop) at a time. I blend it with ice and any additions, then put it in the freezer for 10–20 minutes. I try to take a break and pay attention when I’m having Soylent. A small note here, I originally received the vegetarian version without fish oil, so I supplemented with flaxseed and/or other Omega-3 sources.
Many people talk about gas when they start Soylent, perhaps because of my diet before, or my specific genetics, I had few issues with gas. At times, I do supplement with iron pills, because I am a woman who periodically bleeds.
Benefits
Weight Loss
Soylent does not call itself diet food, but I have lost about 30 pounds during the most sedentary year of my life. Normally, I work at Internet companies that provide free snacks and choose, whenever possible, a standing desk. This year was mostly one big sit down. Work trips for me are often busy, unhealthy events and this was also a year of multiple working trips. My broken ankle even put me in a cast for 7 weeks, which included the “big family meal” holidays.
If the last year had included as much activity away from my keyboard as the other years of my life have, I believe I would have easily lost more weight. I’m interested to see what this next year brings now that I can be active.
Time
Out of all the benefits, the second after weight loss is the simple benefit of time. I don’t spend any time thinking about what to eat or preparing it. My time buying groceries is significantly reduced. As well, because I decided from the beginning not to sacrifice mealtimes with friends and family, I don’t feel like I’m missing out, a freak in the corner sipping a shake while the people in my life have a meal together.
Consciousness
That might be a weird heading, I’ve been trying to think of what else to call it, but the fact is, that during a busy year, I was still more aware of my own health and what I was putting into my body than I ever have been in my life.
When I’m looking for ideas or have questions, I go to the Soylent forum. The information there is amazing and in-depth. For the most part, you don’t get much pseudo-science crap and those with nonscientific beliefs get shut down with facts. There are also recipes for successful DIY versions if you want to make your own. For those of you on Reddit, there’s a subreddit, of course!
Not having Soylent
On the forum, lots of people talk about feeling terrible when they suddenly stop their Soylent consumption.
When I broke my ankle, I extended my trip and stayed for the year end holidays in Vietnam. I had no Soylent during this time. I was surrounded by amazing food in Saigon and with my entire life being different, it’s too hard for me to figure out what differences might have been caused by not having Soylent. (I did supplement my diet with vitamin D and calcium while broken and stuck indoors.)
How I felt might have been due to my own brokenness or my long hours trying to launch Snare. I was VERY happy to get back to consuming it at home. There is a lot of peace of mind I get from having Soylent at hand.
The other time was during our movie shoot, the schedule was dawn to “when we were done” most days and I was freshly out of my cast, in a medical boot. My limited mobility, plus being on location meant that it just wasn’t practical to bring Soylent, so I would only have it in the morning and if I was starving when I got home. Again, hard for me to say what the consequences were. I certainly felt a LOT of stress and pain unrelated to my diet. The day after we wrapped, I had a rare 100% Soylent day and felt amazing — but that just might have been because I got a full night’s sleep.
Although I hesitate to say that I felt bad because I didn’t have Soylent, I certainly noticed that I felt a lot better when I was back to consuming it.
Conclusion
At this point, Soylent is simply irreplaceable for me. It’s healthy AND convenient, which is a rare combination with food. I expect to see more benefits this coming year in general health and weight loss. I may even try a DIY version that is more tailored for women.
Note: Because this might sound like an ad, I want to state, for the record, that I am not affiliated with Soylent (or the company that makes it) in any way and I am not receiving payment for writing this.On the heels of CBS ordering Supergirl to series, Digital Spy spoke to cast member David Harewood (Homeland), who plays DEO (Department of Extra-Normal Operations) agent Hank Henshaw.
In the comics (pre-New 52), Hank has a much different background. He's an astronaut that believes catastrophic events that plague him and his crew are Superman's fault. Before his injuries take his life he transfers his consciousness into Superman's birthing matrix, becoming Cyborg Superman.
Harewood well aware of Henshaw's comic backstory. "Hank Henshaw, yes, who ends up becoming Cyborg Superman in the comics, battling Superman," Harewood told Digital Spy when they brought up that who he is playing in the show. "So I'm looking forward to that." "He's a bit of a supervillain," Harewood teased. "He seems pretty indestructible. Which I kind of like because I keep getting blown up in these things. I'm kind of looking forward to being indestructible."
To me, that sounds like Harewood will eventually become, or already is, a cyborg in Supergirl. Will he actually resemble the Cyborg Superman we know and love? Probably not. I assume he'll just be a cyborg - no Superman costume. CBS' Supergirl is expected to make its debut later this year.I've been "freelancing" part time for the better part of the past 4 years and full time for the past 8 months, and if there's one thing I've learned it's that telling people you freelance will garner responses that manage to combine a jealousy of your freedom and a subtle tone that silently says,
"A freelancer? That's cute."
So what did I do? I stopped freelancing and started my own company. I came up with a business name[1], filed for a business license, and as of recent finally even got myself a desk with a fancy "Suite" address in a coworking building.
While the transition to me seamlessly occured over the course of several months, to the clients I pitched and worked with it was a sudden and jarring difference. Potential leads increased in quantity (and quality), a higher ratio of those leads converted to clients, and the level of control I had over the actual working relationship with clients improved exponentially. Behind the scenes barely anything has truly changed, but by presenting myself as a company it gave a much more professional image than that of some kid "webmaster" working from his parent's basement[2].
Remember, you're not a no-strings-attached temporary employee, you're an expert in your field whom clients come to because they want the best product possible and can trust to guide them in the best direction possible.
I'm not saying there aren't plenty of talented, extremely professional freelancers out there (there are tons), but my experience has been that being a "freelancer" sets the unfortunate tone that you need your client, whereas in reality they are the one who needs you to help tell them how to make their business successful.
Talk about it over on Hacker NewsReality TV star and Tory leadership candidate Kevin O'Leary is alleging "widespread vote rigging" in the contest to replace Stephen Harper as the next permanent leader of the Conservative Party of Canada.
O'Leary made the accusations in a statement released Thursday in which he accuses "backroom organizers" of using prepaid credit cards to sign up "fake members."
"It has been brought to my campaign's attention that there are backroom organizers who are committing widespread vote rigging and potentially breaking our electoral and financing laws to try to buy a leadership victory," O'Leary said in the statement.
The Shark Tank star said that the party has strict rules requiring all memberships to be purchased with personal cheques or credit cards, but "activists" are playing the system.
"We have been informed that to get around these rules, campaign activists are using untraceable prepaid credit cards to sign up fake members, possibly without these individuals even knowing about it," he said.
"Beyond the legalities of this, it is completely immoral, and extremely unfair to the tens of thousands of real party members that will have the impact of their votes weakened."
O'Leary said his team has raised the issue with the Conservative Party and has been reassured that an investigation is underway, but he wants the party to go further.
O'Leary also made the allegations in a series of tweets.
It's my duty as a Leadership candidate to shed light on the fact that backroom organizers may be vote-rigging in this election. 2/3 <a href="https://t.co/DwvXGp9538">pic.twitter.com/DwvXGp9538</a> —@kevinolearytv
"One thing the party must do now is state categorically that it will not accept any memberships that have been purchased with a prepaid credit card, and that any already submitted will be removed from the membership list, and will not be sent a ballot," he said.
Cory Hann, director of communications for the Conservative Party, said he is aware of the allegations and is looking into it through the party's "verification process."
"Any memberships obtained contrary to the rules will be struck from our membership list and ineligible to vote," said Hann in a statement.
"Our leadership race is and will continue to be fair for all candidates. Our rules are clear, any person looking to join our party must do so by paying the membership fee out of their own pocket, and we will ensure that principle is followed."
Interim Conservative leader Rona Ambrose stressed the party has a sound voting process that does not easily lend itself to fraud.
All voters submitting their ballots by mail are required to send a photocopy of their photo ID, she noted.
"Look, nobody can vote unless they've paid for their own membership," she said in an interview with CBC Radio's The House. "There's a whole list of requirements... it's very easy to spot these kinds of anomalies. Right now the party is looking into it."
The Conservative Party said late Friday that 1,351 memberships were struck from its voting list after an investigation found they were found to have been purchased inappropriately.
'O'Leary is a loser:' Bernier
O'Leary did not name any of his rivals for the leadership in his letter.
Hann clarified Friday saying that — despite some media reports suggesting Maxime Bernier's campaign is the subject of an internal probe — the party is not investigating any one candidate but is rather "reviewing general membership purchases."
But Bernier, seen by many as one of the leaders in the race, addressed O'Leary's accusations in a letter to supporters Friday morning. Bernier said O'Leary was simply attempting to divert attention away from his "losing" campaign.
"Kevin O'Leary is losing. He knows my campaign has raised more money, signed up more members, has more supporters, and more volunteers. He's a bad candidate. Instead of trying to win people over by putting out a platform, he's throwing mud to try to save his campaign," Bernier said.
The Quebec MP also referenced the considerable amount of time O'Leary spends in the U.S., even while running for the Tory leadership.
"While I've been building an army of supporters, he's been vacationing in Florida, filming in LA, and shilling on a home shopping channel trying to sell his line of O'Leary wine to American buyers. It's not even available in Canada.
"Kevin O'Leary is a loser. I'm a winner."
..without any evidence. You need to put up or shut up Kevin. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/cpcldr?src=hash">#cpcldr</a> 2/2 —@KellieLeitch
The integrity of the membership & rules that govern the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/cpcldr?src=hash">#cpcldr</a> race must be maintained. Any allegations contrary, demand an investigation. <a href="https://t.co/7nEfzscWlE">https://t.co/7nEfzscWlE</a> —@lraitt
Lisa Raitt echoed O'Leary's call for an investigation but other contenders for the leadership seemed unsympathetic.
Andrew Saxton and Rick Peterson challenged O'Leary, who has participated in just two leadership debates, to participate in future debates if he's so concerned about promoting democracy.
Kellie Leitch suggested it's a bit rich for O'Leary "to cast aspersions on the other candidates in this race without a shred of evidence" when he's the only candidate who's been fined by the party — for refusing to attend a bilingual debate in Edmonton.
"You need to put up or shut up Kevin," she tweeted.
Brad Trost also called on O'Leary to provide proof of his allegations, immediately and publicly.
"If this is nothing but a publicity stunt and Mr. O'Leary has no evidence, then he should be sanctioned to the greatest extent possible by the party," Trost said.The beauty of the triangle lies largely in allowing for teams to be top-heavy as long as the players brought in to support its stars properly fit the roles they’re assigned. For example, the system de-emphasizes the need for a star point guard who can engineer the offense off the dribble. In the triangle, the point guard serves as more of a conduit, camping at the top of the key as a release valve, looking to shoot open threes when available or switch the play to attack over-shifted defenses.
Newly-acquired point guard Jose Calderon should fit that role nicely. He’s better than a 40-percent three-point shooter for his career and, as traditional point guard skills go, he’s far more accomplished as a passer than a dribble-penetrator. Calderon will 34 by the time the Knicks could sign Gasol, but the limited need for athleticism from a triangle point guard should hide his advancing years fairly well; anyone who doubts that should look to the example of his new coach, who manned that post in Los Angeles well into his thirties. But whether Calderon ages well or not is secondary to the more general benefit of the system — namely, that in a league with an unprecedented supply of explosiveness at the 1, floor generals whose value derives more from minimizing mistakes and hitting open looks can be had at a bargain.
Similarly, the presence of Melo and Gasol would greatly mitigate the need for the Knicks to look for an additional star on the wing. The triangle offense would place such heavy playmaking emphasis on those two players that the Knicks need only look for wings who can hit open looks and defend to fill out their rotation.
One of the main beneficiaries of the new system in New York stands to be Iman Shumpert. The Knicks have spent three years changing their mind about precisely what he is, but, given their current offense and personnel, they can abandon their misguided intentions to turn him into a point guard or a slasher and try to help him develop into a more consistent deep threat.
Two 2014 draft picks — Cleanthony Early and Thanasis Antetekounmpo — project to be a shooter and a wing defender, respectively. In the best-case scenario, Early’s ceiling could even see him develop into something of a mini-Melo who could take on increased minutes as the strong-side wing as he develops and Melo ages.
On the interior, New York will be priced out of the bidding for high-flyers and additional post scorers, but should be able to beef up their rotation with rebounders and defenders who can play the potentially low-usage weak-side post role in the triangle while contributing in the areas that their skill sets suggest. In Cole Aldrich, Jeremy Tyler, and Samuel Dalembert, the Knicks already have a handful of guys who could fill those roles. But, again, the larger point is that these player types tend to come fairly cheap, which great news for a team whose best option is to use nearly two-thirds of the salary cap on two players.
J.R. Smith is a wild card, but at his best, he also could prove to be a significant asset in the triangle. His primary job should be to sit either in the strong-side corner or on the weak-side wing and wait for the offense to produce good long-range looks for him. But, given that Melo can’t play 48 minutes, he could also see a couple of shifts per night as the team’s primary perimeter threat, with the hope that could be enough to sate his appetite for ball-domination in a role that actually suits his skills fairly well.I stick around for the puffy tacos.
Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
Rather than continuing to argue about this on Twitter, I’ll just say it here: “Tanking” in the NBA is wildly overrated.
The idea of tanking, more or less, is that the route to NBA success is to draft elite talent. The route to drafting elite talent is to end the season with a very poor record so that you get the top pick in the lottery. The prototypical case of this would be a team that wasn’t actually tanking, the 1996-97 San Antonio Spurs, which lost their best player (David Robinson) to injury. They then finished with the second-worst record in the league, got lucky, won the No. 1 pick, selected Tim Duncan, and won the championship in the 1998-1999 season.
The reason I believe this is a vastly overrated phenomenon is that the 1999 championship is the only example I can think of in which a team won the championship while playing a No. 1 draft pick on his rookie contract. There are plenty of examples of teams riding a No. 1 pick to a championship (Lakers with Shaquille O’Neal, Miami with Shaquille O’Neal, Miami with LeBron James, or San Antonio with Tim Duncan in 2003, 2005, and 2007), but those guys weren’t on their rookie deals. The key to employing elite players is to either persuade the player to join your team in free agency or to persuade the player to not leave your team in free agency. The appearance that tanking is a route to NBA championships is based almost entirely on the false presumption that it was somehow a given that having drafted Duncan back in 1999 he would continue to play for San Antonio long past the expiration of his rookie deal.
But there’s absolutely no reason to take this for granted. Cleveland and Orlando never managed to ride their elite No. 1 picks to a championship because their stars left them for brighter shores. You have one team, almost 15 years ago, that successfully tanked their way into a championship, and they weren’t even tanking. David Robinson was just hurt.
The lesson of the 1999 Spurs is that if you really did want to tank your way to a championship, you’d have to do something really egregious. Not take a below average team and hope to add a top draft pick to it. But take an actually good team and simply refuse to play its good players. Like Oklahoma City could refuse to play Kevin Durant all season. But obviously the fans would throw a fit if you did that. And sabotaging Durant’s career like that would increase the chance that Durant would leave OKC in free agency when he gets the chance.Washington (CNN) To the critics who think Donald Trump's fiery rhetoric could be toned down, it turns out, the real estate mogul agrees with you.
"I think I could tone it down a little bit when pressed," Trump told the Christian Broadcasting Network's David Brody, in an interview published Wednesday. "I've had a great temperament. You couldn't build a great business like I've built if you didn't have good temperament but I think maybe I can sometimes tone it down. When somebody hits, you can hit a little less hard. At the same time that may be the kind of thing the country needs because we have to hit back hard to fight hard because we're not going to have a country."
Photos: Donald Trump: His own words Photos: Donald Trump: His own words Hide Caption 1 of 6 Photos: Donald Trump: His own words Hide Caption 2 of 6 Photos: Donald Trump: His own words Hide Caption 3 of 6 Photos: Donald Trump: His own words Hide Caption 4 of 6 Photos: Donald Trump: His own words Hide Caption 5 of 6 Photos: Donald Trump: His own words In his interview with CNN's Dana Bash, Donald Trump lashes out at a lawyer who had requested a break to pump breast milk in the middle of a deposition. Hide Caption 6 of 6
Pundits have criticized Trump for his words and tone about undocumented immigrants, women and his opponents.
But don't expect him to lose all his explosive rhetoric on Wednesday's debate stage. Trump also defended his tone, saying that harsh words are sometimes necessary.
Read MoreThe New Stack | February 26, 2019 Open Source Maintainers Want to Reduce Application Security Risk According to Snyk’s “State of Open Source Security Report 2019,” which surveyed over 500 open source users and maintainers, 30 percent of developers that maintain open source (OS) projects are highly confident in their security knowledge, which is up from 17 percent the year before. In addition,...
Network World | February 26, 2019 Linux Security: Cmd Provides Visibility, Control Over User Activity There's a new Linux security tool you should be aware of — Cmd (pronounced "see em dee") dramatically modifies the kind of control that can be exercised over Linux users. It reaches way beyond the traditional configuration of user privileges and takes an active role in monitoring and controlling...
LKML | February 25, 2019 Linux 5.0-rc8 This may be totally unnecessary, but we actually had more patches come in this last week than we had for rc7, which just didn't make me feel the warm and fuzzies. And while none of the patches looked all that scary, some of them were to pretty core files, so it wasn't all just random rare drivers (...
O'Reilly | February 25, 2019 Core Technologies and Tools for AI, Big Data, and Cloud Computing In this post, I’ll describe some of the core technologies and tools companies are beginning to evaluate and build. Many companies are just beginning to address the interplay between their suite of AI, big data, and cloud technologies. I’ll also highlight some interesting uses cases and applications...
Dev.to | February 25, 2019 Happy Little Accidents - Debugging JavaScript Last year I gave a talk in HelsinkiJS and Turku ❤️ Frontend meetups titled Happy Little Accidents - The Art of Debugging (slides). This week I was spending a lot of time debugging weird timezone issues and the talk popped back up from my memories. So I wanted to write a more detailed and Javascript...
The New Stack | February 22, 2019 7 Key Considerations for Kubernetes in Production In this post, we share seven fundamental capabilities large enterprises need to instrument around their Kubernetes investments in order to be able to effectively implement it and utilize it to drive their business. Typically, when developers begin to experiment with Kubernetes, they end up...
Dev.to | February 22, 2019 Basics of Object-Oriented Programming In programming, an object is simply a 'thing'. I know, I know...how can you define something as a 'thing'. Well, let's think about it - What do 'things' have? Attributes, right? - A dog has four legs, a color, a name, an owner, and a breed. Though there are millions Dogs with countless names,...
Eric Brown | February 21, 2019 st-linux-board.png The new SoC, which is aimed at industrial, consumer, smart home, health, and wellness applications, runs a new “mainlined, open-sourced” OpenSTLinux distro with Yocto Project and OpenEmbedded underpinnings. Creative Commons Zero ST Spins Up Linux-Powered Cortex-A SoC STMicroelectronics has announced a new Cortex-A SoC and Linux- and Android-driven processor. The STM32MP1 SoC intends to ease the transition for developers moving from its STM32 microprocessor unit (MCU) family to more complex embedded systems. Development boards based on the SoC will be available...
Venture Beat | February 21, 2019 Microsoft Releases Windows 10 Preview with Support for Linux Files Microsoft yesterday released a new Windows 10 preview with support for Linux files, gaming improvements, and a Chrome extension for Timeline. The update bumps Windows 10 from build 18334 (made available to testers on February 9) to build 18342. These builds are from the 19H1 branch, which...Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption A shoe was thrown at Mr Musharraf during chaotic scenes
A court in Pakistan has extended bail for former President Pervez Musharraf, amid chaotic scenes in which a shoe was thrown at him.
It is the first time the ex-military ruler has sat before a court to defend himself against charges of conspiracy to murder and the sacking of judges.
The shoe, which did not hit Mr Musharraf, was thrown as his supporters and opponents both chanted slogans.
Last week he returned from self-imposed exile to contest forthcoming polls.
Shortly before his return he was granted protective bail for 10 days in three cases.
Correspondents say that angry scenes were witnessed outside the courtroom in Karachi after judges extended bail for another few weeks.
Mr Musharraf faces a string of charges dating from his final months in office.
Pervez Musharraf Born on 11 August 1943, Delhi, India
Married with two children
Joined Pakistan Military Academy in 1961
Saw action in the 1965 war against India
Attended Royal College of Defence Studies in the UK
Frequently promoted, was made a general in 1998
Has been in self-imposed exile - mostly in the UK - since 2008
Since then is estimated to have earned thousands of dollars on worldwide lecture tours Profile: Pervez Musharraf
He is accused of failing to provide adequate security for former PM Benazir Bhutto ahead of her assassination in 2007.
He is also wanted in connection with the murder of a Baloch tribal |
Mason publicly shared his new name and use of male pronouns that better reflect his masculine gender identity. To quote his lawyer, Moira Meltzer-Cohen, who is assisting with the legal aspects of his transition, Marius is someone ‘whose courage and integrity are made even more salient by the fact that his own liberation and autonomy have long been severely circumscribed.’ In the face of a world that systematically subjects trans people to violence, isolation and abuse, we hope that everyone shows their support of trans liberation by supporting Marius and the many imprisoned trans folks. This struggle should extend beyond mere fundraising. Trans prisoners are struggling not only for the material necessities of existence, but are also struggling against systems of domination which will stop at nothing to prevent them from simply being who they are. Our solidarity needs to be as creative and varied as the state’s tactics are cruel and oppressive.
“On January 8, 2015, of this year, Eric McDavid was released from prison after nine years of incarceration. Eric returned home to his friends and family after a federal court granted his habeus corpus petition, stating that the FBI withheld evidence during the trial phase of his case. Because of this, Eric was able to plead guilty to a lesser charge which carried a five year maximum sentence—four years less than the time he had already served in federal prison. Eric’s incredible determination and the awe-inspiring support from his family, friends and comrades have not only contributed to his emotional and physical well-being while behind bars but also to his eventual release. His release from prison after 9 years is a monumental change. Eric is now faced with building a new life after almost a decade of incarceration. This is a new phase of struggle for him, and we are committed to continuing our solidarity with him post-release.”
The proposal for a January 22 day in solidarity with trans prisoners was an exciting development after this call. It is now in its third year.
The benefit events and actions in 2015 reflected these transitions, while establishing new links with other anarchist prisoners and prison rebels.
Banner drop in Chicago, 2015.
In Atlanta, a noise demo went to the jail to support prisoners on hunger strike. A benefit drag show took place in Tel Aviv. Banners were hung in West Palm Beach, Florida; Malmo, Sweden; Chicago, US; Cheltenham, UK; and Chania, Greece.
Several banners were placed in central areas of Athens, Greece ahead of the anarchist gathering to be held on Thursday evening, June 11, at Voutie Park in the Athenian neighbourhood Ano Petralona. Slogans in different languages referenced the struggles against the construction of the TAV Lyon-Turin high-speed rail project in the Susa Valley and the village of Chiomonte and against the installation of the MUOS military telecommunications system on Sicily; in defense of the Hambach Forest in Germany, threatened by devastation caused by lignite mining; and in solidarity with long-term eco-anarchist prisoners Marius Mason and Marco Camenisch, whose request for conditional release had just been rejected once again by the Swiss authorities. [Fortunately, Camenisch has just been released this year.]
– Graffiti appeared on the wall of an abandoned quarry and swimming hole in Bloomington, as well as in Melbourne, Australia and Athens, Greece.
“For Marius J. Mason and all imprisoned comrades”: Graffiti outside Bloomington, 2015.
– Microphone demonstrations took place in Denver and in Bloomington, during which participants read a statement by anarchist prisoner Sean Swain).
– Krow, who as of this writing is once again imprisoned for actions at Standing Rock, released a solidarity statement from jail in Wisconsin, where she was serving a sentence for an action on June 11, 2013.
– At an information night in Tucson, a comrade from Mariposas sin Fronteras spoke about her experience as a transwoman incarcerated in a male immigrant detention facility.
2016
Last year’s call responded to a proposal contained in Avalanche magazine for an international discussion and development of struggle against maximum security and control units:
“For June 11th, 2015, we emphasized transition in the struggle and in the lives of the prisoners we support. This year we’re focusing on a different kind of transition: the restructuring of the prison system and thus doubling down on opposition to Maximum Security, isolation, and Communications Management Units. High-security facilities are not new: for example, Communications Management Units isolated Daniel McGowan and Andy Stepanian for years. But now we are at a new juncture: there is both a fresh focus on the part of the authorities reorganizing prisons to maximize repression against long-term and combative prisoners, while simultaneously cutting costs. In response there has been a wave of resistance and revolt—in the streets and in the prisons. As this wave spreads organically, we feel impelled to contribute in support of our imprisoned friends and comrades.”
Not only did this proposal resonate with the June 11 project due to the central role of control units in caging anarchist and eco-prisoners in the US, it also offered new paths forward, with a perspective beyond support for specific prisoners (no matter how “active”), towards building a broader momentum against these units. And clearly, the question of solitary and control units is tied directly to the repression of the same prisoner struggles that might one day destroy the prisons. As Jennifer Gann stated in her solidarity statement that year:
“‘I became politicized after participating in the 1991 Folsom Prison hunger strike, and in 1992 began a long-term struggle against prison authorities and torture. This resulted in multiple prison terms of 16 years and 25 years to life for assaulting a guard, an associate warden, and Sacramento County prosecutor. I spent 11 years in Pelican Bay SHU solitary confinement (1994-2004).’”
Along with Jennifer’s statement, several more imprisoned comrades contributed their own texts, fleshing out the theme.
As is the case every year, there were a variety of inspiring benefit and informational events, from Dunedin, Aotearoa to Minneapolis and Bloomington, where a years-long tradition continued of hiking through the woods that Marius knew when he lived there. Alongside these, there were a number of solidarity actions:
– Following the Fight Toxic Prisons convergence in Washington, DC, more than 50 people blockaded an intersection in front of the Bureau of Prisons.
– In Thessaloniki, the Italian and Swiss consulates were attacked with paint in solidarity with long-term anarchist prisoners in each country. In a separate incident, the American consulate was briefly occupied, with fliers thrown and banners hung in solidarity with Marius Mason, Jeremy Hammond, Justin Solondz, Michael Kimble, Rebecca Rubin, Sean Swain, Bill Dunne, and Eric King. Two days later, the Chilean consulate was attacked with paint in solidarity with long-term anarchist prisoners and in memory of Mauricio Morales.
– Banners also went up in Athens and Volos in Greece, in Elgin in the US, and in Melbourne in Australia. Separately, in Athens, the Informal Anarchist Federation burned a van belonging to the French insurance company AXA, releasing a communiqué dedicating the action to “the rebellious minorities who have exceeded the limits of peaceful protest, legality, and morality dictated by domination, and find themselves in permanent confrontation with Power.”
– In Bloomington, the probation office was attacked and its windows broken: “The police, courts, and prisons constitute a web of control that seeks to crush human beings, forcing conformity to a social order of hierarchy and exploitation. While this manifests itself as police murders and the brutalization of prisoners, more and more it takes the role of diffuse repression via systems of home detention, work release, parole, and probation. In each of these systems of self-policing, the ability of collective resistance shrinks to none, isolating those rebels who will not submit to these forms of soft imprisonment.
“We can no longer accept the role of judicial power in our lives. We do not care if this takes the form of police cars on our streets, prison walls separating us from our friends, ankle monitors, or daily check ins. It all must go. We attack the system that floods into our lives as a reminder that its sprawl should not be normalized. As forms of repression grow beyond the prison walls it should be met with consistent attacks.
“Each act of revolt opens up space for joy in our lives, space to breathe freely. Against the asphyxiation of prison society, we choose rebellion.”
2017
In relation to last year’s call and to reflections on repression against prisoners’ movements following the prison strike of September 9, 2016, the emphasis this year is on communicating across the walls of prison and alienation. The prison authorities constantly work to limit communication or to channel it into harmless and symbolic forms—the same way other authorities do more broadly. This is why, for example, the June 11 solidarity day is not coordinated with prisoners, since they face heavy repression for organizing in this way.
As in previous years, though, some prisoners take initiative to make their own autonomous contributions, as Michael Kimble and Sean Swain already have. As Michael says from inside an Alabama prison:
“Through communication and acts of solidarity I have been able to save the lives of queer and non-queer prisoners whose life was threatened because of debts, and yes, drugs for the sick, with funds sent to me by comrades on more than one occasion. Without communication none of this would have been possible.”
As another experiment with extending communication, this year includes the release of interviews with ex-prisoners, those who’ve faced repression, and members of various support crews. An additional autonomous contribution is the release of music for the day. Building on earlier efforts by Sprank and on the important role music has played for Marius Mason and other prisoners, a benefit compilation called Sing Me Home was released earlier this week, along with benefit songs by Decide Today.
The first major action has already occurred in Forth Worth, Texas, with a noise demo marching to the Carswell federal prison where Marius is held. Occurring after the second Fight Toxic Prisons convergence, the demonstration also kicked off a campaign to shut down the admin unit (essentially a maximum security/communications management unit) where Marius was held until recently. Many other prisoners remain inside the hellish admin unit, however, and it continues to pose a threat to everyone held in federal women’s prisons. This initiative is an inspiring follow-up to the proposal for struggle against control units in 2016.Martin Brodeur has achieved the lockout hat trick, and even that doesn’t fully detail his experience with NHL labor wars.
"I was part of a strike, too, so I’ve actually been part of four work stoppages now," Brodeur reminded ESPN.com Thursday. "I was called up two days before [the strike in 1992] happened."
Hard to believe Brodeur, who has played his entire career with the New Jersey Devils, still managed to squeeze out the all-time leading win total by a goalie (656) despite all of those CBA interruptions.
"I counted it up the other day, it’s going to be well over 100 games that I lost in the NHL because of work stoppages," Brodeur said.
And counting, I interjected.
"Yes, and counting, exactly," he said, before setting up a punch line with his trademark laugh: "But I wasn’t going to play in the first preseason games anyway."
Yes, now that the league has canceled the first couple of weeks of the preseason, we await other games to be canceled. If there's still no agreement when the real games in October are scheduled to start, the 40-year-old Brodeur says he’ll ponder his playing options.
Eight years ago, when the NHL season was canceled, Brodeur didn’t jump to Europe to play in a league. He was satisfied after having played in the September 2004 World Cup of Hockey, an exhibition tour of Europe in December, and May 2005 IIHF world hockey championship, where he earned a silver medal with Team Canada.
This time around, playing in a European league might be on the docket and he’s already advised agent Pat Brisson to be on the lookout.
"I’m going to wait it out until October, when they’re going to start slashing games, and try to have a sense of where it’s going," Brodeur said. "I know I’m closing doors in Europe now because I’m going to wait a little bit, but I’d like to go somewhere to play by November if I can get an opportunity somewhere. Right now, I have no intention of going because while there’s still lines of communication [between the NHL and NHLPA], it’s still a positive thing. But if come the middle of October nothing is going on, I’ve already talked to Pat about seeing what’s out there."
In the meantime, the third lockout of his career is no less aggravating.
"It’s really an unfortunate thing to hold the players and the fans to this kind of treatment all the time," he said. "Regardless of whether it’s something they need to do -- I think everyone understands everybody’s situation -- but when you always try to bully somebody, it’s kind of tough. It’s been three times now.... It’s tough when they use the same things to always get what they want, but again, they’re in their rights to do it. It’s not like they’re doing anything different, they’re going about their business that they feel they can get a better deal for themselves."
Brodeur, like most people, saw this lockout coming. That explains why he fought so hard for a two-year deal from the Devils, enough that he even hit the open market for a few days before general manager Lou Lamoriello relented.
"At the end of the day, that was foremost the first reason why Lou and I didn’t agree on a one-year deal, because I kept telling him that I needed a guarantee I would play hockey," Brodeur said. "At my age, if I go through a whole lockout without a contract, it would have been tough for me to sign for the value I thought I was worth. So I debated with Lou a long time. It took more time than I thought it would. But they came around with it. For me, both mentally and physically, it was the most important thing to get that extra year. Because my experience is that when people talk lockout, usually it happens. That’s the feeling that I had. The second year was a safety valve for me."
A one-year deal would have risked seeing his career conclude with the end of a year-long lockout. He didn’t want to chance that.
"Eventually I’ll leave the game, but I want to leave it the way I want to leave it, and not because of a work stoppage," Brodeur said. "There’s so many great players that had that happen to them last time and I’m sure it killed them. Hopefully, that’s under my control now with how I structured things, but I guess you never know."
Until then, Brodeur hopes saner minds prevail. He believes the NHLPA has made good offers and the NHL hasn’t recognized those efforts. But for the better of the game, he hopes there’s labor peace.
"A lot of positive stuff came out of the last few seasons in the NHL, and now we’re going back to the negative stuff," he said. "It’s just not healthy."There’s a bit of drama going on amongst the family members of the late Dale Earnhardt Sr., and it’s not over where Thanksgiving dinner will be held—it’s over who has the rights to use the Earnhardt name.
The former NASCAR driver’s widow, Teresa Earnhardt, wants to keep the name from being used by Earnhardt’s son and her stepson, Kerry Earnhardt, and his wife in their home designs and furniture business. According to reports from ESPN, Kerry Earnhardt and his wife promoted the “Earnhardt Collection” in a project alongside Schumacher Homes and plan to start a furniture collection by the same name. The pair offers home designs in 14 different states.
But if Teresa Earnhardt has her way, that won’t happen—at least, under the Earnhardt name. From Bob Pockrass at ESPN:
Teresa Earnhardt, Kerry’s stepmother and Dale’s widow, doesn’t want the couple to use the name Earnhardt Collection and filed an appeal last week in federal court over a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ruling that denied Teresa’s challenge to the “Earnhardt Collection” trademark applied for by Kerry Earnhardt Inc.
According to ESPN, Teresa Earnhardt did not testify in the case but made a statement in the appeal that using the name “Earnhardt Collection” will likely “deceive or cause confusion among people that the homes and products are endorsed by Dale Earnhardt or by her.”
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But Kerry Earnhardt didn’t always have the Earnhardt name. He moved in with his mother and took the last name of Key at age three, per ESPN. He said in a testimony to the Trademark and Trial Appeal Board that his father later helped him get the Earnhardt name back, after the two started a relationship when Kerry Earnhardt was 16 years old.
Since he was born an Earnhardt, Kerry Earnhardt said he “had the right to own that name” in his testimony. From ESPN:
“Rene and I have worked extremely hard to develop the Earnhardt Collection brand and make it uniquely ours,” Kerry Earnhardt said in a statement to ESPN.com “I chose to leave a successful career in racing and could not be happier with what we’ve been able to achieve in the five years we’ve been building our home lifestyle brand inspired by our love of the outdoors.”... Kerry said he has no relationship with Teresa. He was fired from Dale Earnhardt Inc. in 2011 at around the time he began working with Schumacher Homes, he said in testimony.
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The family doesn’t seem very thrilled with the proceedings, including Kelley Earnhardt-Miller— daughter of Dale Earnhardt Sr.—who tweeted that she hates how her family has had to deal with “this nonsense” for more than four years. Kerry’s testimony continued, “I don’t think if you had a relationship that any family member would do that.”
Per ESPN, Kelley Earnhardt-Miller said no one has mistaken the Earnhardt Collection brand name of being associated with her brother and current NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr.IU position preview: Can Chase Dutra help Hoosiers reset at safety?
Indiana safety Chase Dutra (30) makes an interception with linebacker Forisse Hardin (4) watching in the second quarter of an NCAA college football game against Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich., Saturday, Nov. 1, 2014. (AP Photo/Tony Ding) (Photo: Tony Ding, AP)
The long-term plan at the back end of IU's defense was coming together.
Antonio Allen was becoming arguably Indiana's best defensive player. Chase Dutra, his versatile, athletic classmate, was emerging at safety. Allen led all Hoosiers in tackles in 2014. Dutra appeared in all 12 games, tied for the team lead with three interceptions and was twice named IU defensive player of the week.
Now Allen is gone, dismissed from the program after his summer arrest. And Dutra -- surrounded by promising but largely unproven teammates -- steps into the spotlight alone.
Can Dutra lead a revival at safety, and help Indiana improve on a pass defense that finished last in the Big Ten a season ago?
NAMES TO KNOW
Chase Dutra, 6-1, 205, R-So.
Mario Swann, 6-1, 200, R-So.
Kiante Walton, 6-2, 206, So.
Tony Fields, 5-11, 205, So.
Jonathan Crawford, 6-2, 180, Fr.*
*Listed as an athlete on roster
WHO REPLACES ALLEN?
Right now, sophomore Tony Fields is listed as the starter at free safety, alongside Dutra. Mario Swann, a walk-on from Center Grove, sits behind him.
With Allen dismissed and Mark Murphy graduated, it stands to reason Indiana will look at freshman options at safety. Crawford is among five freshmen still listed on the roster as an "athlete," a distinction that will presumably disappear as camp progresses.
But Fields has a 12-game start on any newcomer, having played in all 12 last season as a freshman. His numbers were modest -- 14 tackles -- but the snaps will count most, if he does lay claim to that second safety spot.
WHAT'S NEXT FOR DUTRA?
What makes Dutra's redshirt freshman season so intriguing is the potential it revealed.
A three-way player at Brownsburg High School, IU's coaches believed Dutra could land at as many as four different positions once he arrived in college. Even linebacker was on the table.
So while he spent much of last season serving as first reserve behind Allen and Murphy, Dutra's blend of sharp tackling and a nose for the football still stood out. Now, in addition to those three interceptions and a forced fumble, he is IU's fourth-leading returning tackler.
He's already probably Indiana's best defensive back. His ceiling might not yet be in view.
FINAL WORD
None of this is meant to paper over a serious concern. The defensive backfield is an elephant-sized question mark on a defense that otherwise looks quietly promising. IU's front seven is stocked with depth and competition, but that last-placed pass defense will again be a concern.
How much hinges on Dutra, and how much hinges on finding him a running mate at safety? Camp should give us a better idea of which question is more critical.
OTHER POSITION PREVIEWS
Quarterback
Running back
Wide receiver
Tight end
Offensive line
Defensive line
Linebacker
Cornerback
Follow Star reporter Zach Osterman on Twitter: @ZachOsterman.
Read or Share this story: http://indy.st/1Na92BxA series of fences dating back to the Neolithic period have been unearthed in Denmark by archaeologists with the Museum Southeast Denmark, yet researchers haven’t been able to determine what the almost 18,000 square meter area they surround was used for.
The palisade enclosure, found in Stevns Municipality during construction of a new sports arena, was built in five rows with openings that are believed to have been deliberately offset from each other. Archaeologists, however, haven’t been able to locate any evidence of a structure or structures that could indicate the purpose of the site. To date they’ve only unearthed various sized pits with ceramic fragments, flint tools and waste inside of them.
“It was actually somewhat overwhelming to experience that it is possible to reveal the traces of such a huge building from the Neolithic period. There are many suggestions for what they could’ve been used for, but to put it simply, we just don’t know,” archaeologist Pernille Rohde Sloth is quoted as saying in an article in Science Nordic. “The openings don’t seem to sit next to each of the post rows, and we’re slightly amazed by that. But maybe it functioned as a sort of labyrinth–at least that’s how we imagine it. That way you weren’t able to look inside the common space, which may have been an advantage.”
Generally, a palisade type of construction is built for defense, however, the rows of poles at Stevns would have stood approximately two meters tall and were placed in a way that would have allowed a person to squeeze through, suggesting a gathering area.
Numerous palisade enclosures have been discovered in Denmark and Sweden in recent years, with some of the most intriguing sites found on Bornholm, a Danish island in the Baltic Sea. In 1988 a large timber palisade (one of two on the island) enclosing a sun temple was excavated by archeologists at Vasagårds Field on the south side of the island. The Stevns site may have also had a ritualistic purpose.
One difference between the Stevns site and the Bornholm palisades is that the poles at Bornholm are located much more tightly together. It’s also probable the Bornholm fences were built prior to the ones at Stevns. Dating analysis of the Stevns site is not yet complete, however, several of the pottery fragments found there indicate it may date to the latter half of the Middle Neolithic Funnel Beaker Culture between 2900 BCE and 2800 BCE.
The Funnel Beaker culture draws its name from its characteristic beakers, ceramics and amphorae which were formed with funnel-shaped tops and found in dolmen burials. A dolmen is a type of megalithic tomb with a single chamber, which typically consisted of a flat horizontal capstone supported by at least two vertical megaliths.
“We’ve unfortunately not found any circular shaped constructions like they have on Bornholm, but the similarities between the enclosures makes me think about rituals in our finds too,” Sloth says in the article.
Image courtesy of Danish Geodata Agency / Pernille Rohde SlothThe Health-Related Quality of Life for Patients with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS)
Michael Falk Hvidberg,
Louise Schouborg Brinth,
Anne V. Olesen,
Karin D. Petersen,
Lars Ehlers
Published: July 6, 2015
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0132421
Abstract
Introduction
Material and methods
Results
Conclusion
Myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME)/chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a common, severe condition affecting 0.2 to 0.4 per cent of the population. Even so, no recent international EQ-5D based health-related quality of life (HRQoL) estimates exist for ME/CFS patients. The main purpose of this study was to estimate HRQoL scores using the EQ-5D-3L with Danish time trade-off tariffs. Secondary, the aims were to explore whether the results are not influenced by other conditions using regression, to compare the estimates to 20 other conditions and finally to present ME/CFS patient characteristics for use in clinical practice.All members of the Danish ME/CFS Patient Association in 2013 (n=319) were asked to fill out a questionnaire including the EQ-5D-3L. From these, 105 ME/CFS patients were identified and gave valid responses. Unadjusted EQ-5D-3L means were calculated and compared to the population mean as well as to the mean of 20 other conditions. Furthermore, adjusted estimates were calculated using ordinary least squares (OLS) regression, adjusting for gender, age, education, and co-morbidity of 18 self-reported conditions. Data from the North Denmark Health Profile 2010 was used as population reference in the regression analysis (n=23,392).The unadjusted EQ-5D-3L mean of ME/CFS was 0.47 [0.41–0.53] compared to a population mean of 0.85 [0.84–0.86]. The OLS regression estimated a disutility of -0.29 [-0.21;-0.34] for ME/CFS patients in this study. The characteristics of ME/CFS patients are different from the population with respect to gender, relationship, employment etc.The EQ-5D-3L-based HRQoL of ME/CFS is significantly lower than the population mean and the lowest of all the compared conditions. The adjusted analysis confirms that poor HRQoL of ME/CFS is distinctly different from and not a proxy of the other included conditions. However, further studies are needed to exclude the possible selection bias of the current study.Some people might say that in the wake of a breakup you mourn the loss of your lover, your confidante, your best friend. You might feel as if you’ve lost your sounding board, your cuddle buddy, your default dinner date. Maybe in some cases, depending on how the relationship dissolves, you lose your dignity?
Well, I lost my fucking umbrella.
I didn’t realize this until months after the actual breakup because DC had an unseasonably hot and sunny summer. I traveled to and from work every day for weeks without ever considering the consequences of a thunderstorm. Blue skies prevailed.
Until today.
What an annoying way to be reminded of a relationship’s demise.
I’m just sitting here cold, wet, and pissed off all over again.
And I’m wondering, did we really only have one freaking umbrella between the two of us? There must’ve been a few tucked away in a closet somewhere. And yet… somehow not a single one managed to make its way into any of my moving boxes.
Pathetic.
Did he hide them away on purpose? Was this a deliberate protection of his assets? Or, did he keep the umbrellas to himself in the hope that I’d end up stuck somewhere on a dark and stormy night and call him for a ride in desperation? Was it all a devious ploy to get back together?
Probably not.
Like… 90% not.
But I’m 100% drenched and totally cranky.
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GoogleBLACKPINK expressed their gratitude for all their fans in honor of their very first debut anniversary!
On August 8, 2016, the girl group made their debut under YG Entertainment with double title tracks “BOOMBAYAH” and “Whistle.” Since then, they’ve released several more successful songs, including their latest, “As If It’s Your Last,” which just hit 100 million views.
In order to commemorate their anniversary, the members left heartfelt messages in Korean, English, and Thai along with several photos through their official Instagram account.
See Also: BLACKPINK Fans Celebrate Their 1st Debut Anniversary, Hashtag Trends Worldwide On Twitter
In Korean, BLACKPINK wrote, “It is August 8, 2017 at 8 p.m. KST.”
“Today marks the first day BLACKPINK and BLINKs met each other. While being interviewed about our first debut anniversary, we think that we’ve talked a lot about how we have a lot of regrets. We believe it’s because of our desire to always show a better version of ourselves, but now that our anniversary is actually here, we only want to remember the good memories.”
“Thank you for giving us many good and happy memories during the past year. We’re curious [to know] if we’ve also given BLINKs many happy memories through our performances and various appearances.”
“We’ll show you even more aspects of ourselves from now on. So, we hope that we will come to have a relationship [with you] where we can encourage each other when we’re tired, and share our joy when we are happy. Let’s stay by each other’s side for a long, long time. We love you and see you soon.”
Congratulations once more to BLACKPINK on their first debut anniversary!Lots of people are eager to find out more about Tom Clancy’s The Division with it being one of the most anticipated games of 2015 and all. Unfortunately Ubisoft hasn’t been too keen on revealing a whole lot of details until now. Sure, we saw a demo back at E3 2014, but that wasn’t quite enough to quench our thirst. So when can we expect to hear more about the game then? Right now it seems. Examiner recently caught up with Fredrik Rundqvist, The Division’s Executive Producer and was able to find out some interesting details including the starting location, which goes by the name of Green Zone.
“We have what we call a Hub or a Green Zone. On the West Coast of midtown, that’s where people start off. It’s kind of a social hub where you can meet other players, you can re-spec, change your characters, etc. That’s basically where you start off [when the game starts],” Rundqvist said. The Executive Producer also mentions that trading will play an important role in Tom Clancy’s The Division and the Green Zone is presumably where most of the trading will take place. Examiner also managed to learn that customization will be a very important aspect in the upcoming title as well. The game apparently gives you much more options and freedom with your character than previously believed.
“That’s the first thing you will do in the game. You will create your character and it’s not like there is a predetermined hero set. It’s all about you, how you want to experience the game and in what order you want to experience the content. The same goes for the character, you decide how you want to look,” Rundqvist explained. Ubisoft mostly focused on the combat with the E3 demo and we didn’t hear a whole lot about the customization. But this is definitely something very important and we’re glad to hear that the system is going to have a lot of depth to it.
Tom Clancy’s The Division takes place in the near future where a terrible disease has left the United States nearly desolated. A special group tasked with saving what’s left of the crumbling country is being created shortly after the pandemic. This team is called the Strategic Homeland Division, but many know it simply as The Division. You are part of this group and must join with other players from around the world in order to save the USA in this upcoming MMO third person shooter. The Division will be released in 2015 for Xbox One, PS4, and the PC.Michael E. Schroeder, Manager of News + Media Capital Group, LLC., speaks to Las Vegas-Review Journal staff during a company staff meeting on Thursday, Dec. 10, 2015. Brett Le Blanc/Las Vegas Review-Journal Follow @bleblancphoto
Who is Edward Clarkin?
That question has gained national and international media attention in the five days since the Las Vegas Review-Journal first introduced the mystery author of a long article blasting Clark County District Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez’s business court rulings.
Attempts to locate Clarkin, whose story appeared in the New Britain Herald, a small Connecticut newspaper, have been unsuccessful.
An email sent to an address listed on a Clarkin-penned article was returned as undeliverable. Three of those mentioned or quoted in his November article criticizing Gonzalez said they were never contacted by him, according to a story that appeared Wednesday in the Hartford Courant, also in Connecticut. The Courant later reported Clarkin’s article contained “several passages that are nearly identical to work that previously appeared in other publications.”
After weeks of speculation on social media and more than one fake Twitter account created in Clarkin’s name, public records point to one man behind the mystery: Michael Schroeder, manager of News + Media Capital Group LLC, which bought the Review-Journal early this month.
Schroeder’s middle name is Edward. California marriage records show his father, Clarence J. Schroeder, married Karen A. Clarkin in 1957. Michael Schroeder was born in November 1958.
Reached Wednesday at his Connecticut office, Schroeder would not confirm his mother’s maiden name, nor would he comment on whether he was, in fact, Clarkin.
He also declined to explain why he told an RJ reporter he had “no idea” how to reach Clarkin last week.
Clarkin’s identity is far from the only question left unanswered in the wake of the RJ’s sale.
And clues pointing toward his identity are among many developments to emerge in the two weeks since the transaction was announced.
Review-Journal writers Howard Stutz and David Ferrara contributed to this report. Contact James DeHaven at jdehaven@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3839. Find him on Twitter: @JamesDeHaven. Contact Jennifer Robison at jrobison@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4512. Find her on Twitter: @J_Robison1. Contact Eric Hartley at ehartley@reviewjournal.com or 702-550-9229. Find him on Twitter: @ethartley.An 8-year-old boy is dead after a hiking accident in Western Colorado. It happened at Hanging Lake near Glenwood Springs.
The Garfield County Coroner's Office said the boy was walking across rocks near the Spouting Rock waterfall on Monday. That's when he slipped and fell, hitting his head on a rock.
Witnesses and fire crews performed CPR for an hour and a half.
The child was pronounced dead at the scene just after 6 p.m. Monday night.
The coroner's office said he was hiking with his family who was visiting from the Front Range.
The death is being investigated as an accident. Officials did not release the boy's name as extended family members were still be notified.
An autopsy was scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, around the time the coroner is expected to release the boy's name.
The Garfield County Coroner's Office said it released a statement saying the boy was 9 years old. That has since been corrected by the coroner's office.Spread the love
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by Morag,
Contributing Writer,In5D.com
444 Lightworker activation is being triggered. Lightworkers, volunteers, earth warriors embrace, activate and integrate upgrades. Its time to lose the avatars. Ditch the masks. Embody truth. Buckle up we’re in for a big one friends.
20 signs of quantum upgrades
1. Connecting to intense highs of lighter frequencies, floating and flying sensations, blissful rushes of love.
2. Lucid dreaming, astral projection, energetic healing upgrades.
3. You see through politics, you understand the link between corporate politics, pharmaceutical, drug and arms industry.
4. More sensitive to energy fields around us. A lot more sensitive!
5. Breathing deeper and slower, into the solar, sacral and root chakras. Flexing muscles we didn’t know we had as the chi, the energy is drawn deep into our being.
6. Appreciating synchronicity, number codes, nature’s language as an integral part of our understanding of how this new world operates.
7. Experiencing deja vu, dimensional slippage, time fluctuations, flashbacks.
8. Renewed need or drive to get on with your mission to change, heal, protect the world.
9. Chakra activations causing heart palpitations, low blood pressure, nausea, aches, flu symptoms.
10. Some people being drawn to you like a moth to a light.
11. Other people being averse to you, staying away from your energy.
12. Being less able to adopt stealth mode, hide behind your matrix avatar. As a result being more careful about who you spend time with.
13. Moving your body to enable and encourage energetic flow. Being drawn to chi gong, reiki, yoga. Becoming more flexible, looser, more fluid in movement. Hips and pelvis opening, chest and shoulders opening, back straightening, hips aligning.
14. Increased empathy and a need for energetic self care to transmute and clear negative energy regularly.
15. Trusting the universal flow of love frequency more. Knowing the right thing will come to you.
16. Consciously reprogramming yourself from matrix algorithms. Height |
providing layouts, with Scott Hampton providing the finished art and Glenn Fabry on covers.
American Gods #3 also features a variant cover by David Mack, and we have an exclusive first look at the cover.
While Fabry's cover features Shadow's encounter with his late wife, Mack's is a fascinating portrait of the character Mad Sweeney, a modern day leprechaun. David Mack had this to say about the character and the cover, above:
I wanted the cover to reflect his eccentricity, his history, and his magic... and a bit of his madness. This image of him also features the action of his magic coin trick. The act of the coin materializing from his mind into reality. The cover includes a real four leaf clover. To allude to his origins... and also to add some luck and magic to the cover and each comic book that it’s on and for those who read it."
You can also check out Glenn Fabry's cover below:
Cover by Glenn Fabry and Adam Brown (Dark Horse)
Here's the official word from Dark Horse:MIAMI -- The worst-kept secret among NBA award recipients will be formally revealed Sunday when Miami Heat star LeBron James is named Most Valuable Player for the fourth time, league sources confirmed Friday.
James has been voted MVP for the second straight season and for the fourth time in the past five years. He'll join Michael Jordan, Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Wilt Chamberlain with at least four MVP awards.
The only suspense remaining is in the final tally and how far James distanced himself in the voting from the other candidates this season, who include Oklahoma City's Kevin Durant and Chris Paul of the Los Angeles Clippers.
LeBron James will be named NBA MVP for the second straight season and fourth time overall, according to sources. Steve Mitchell/USA TODAY Sports
The Heat are scheduling an awards presentation Sunday, and James also will be presented the MVP trophy by NBA commissioner David Stern at AmericanAirlines Arena at the start of their second-round series next week in Miami.
The Heat, who have been idle for a week, swept their first-round playoff series against Milwaukee and will face either Chicago or Brooklyn in the conference semifinals, starting Monday. The Bulls and Nets play Game 7 of their first-round series Saturday in Brooklyn.
James has said for weeks that he would be honored to be mentioned alongside Jordan, Chamberlain, Abdul-Jabbar and Russell in MVP recognition. But James said Friday that he's more focused on the playoffs and helping the Heat defend their title.
"He's earned it," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said after Friday's practice. "He's having an even more historic season than he's had the last two years. Most people probably didn't think he could go to a higher level after last season, yet he reinvented himself to show that he could. Our pinch-ourselves moment was when we signed him. But since we've had him, we don't take him for granted."
James averaged 26.8 points, 8.0 rebounds, 7.3 assists, 1.7 steals and one block in 76 games in his 10th season in the league. He shot career-best percentages from the field (.565) and 3-point range (.406) and ranked in the top 10 in scoring, assists, steals and field-goal percentage among those who played in at least 70 games this season.
Last week, James finished second in Defensive Player of the Year voting for the second time since 2009. He led the Heat to a franchise-best 66-16 finish, which included the best home record in team history and a 27-game winning streak that was the second-longest in NBA history, behind the 33-game streak set by the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers.
Heat center Chris Bosh said that after the season James has had, he can't imagine his teammate being anything other than a unanimous selection on the 120 first-place ballots submitted by media members and NBA broadcast analysts.
"I don't know who else you'd vote for -- no offense to nobody else, with all due respect," Bosh said in support of James. "But that's just how good he's played this year."
Abdul-Jabbar leads all players as a six-time MVP, and Russell is the only other to win the award four times in five years.
James, 28, will be the youngest in NBA history to hoist his fourth trophy, although Abdul-Jabbar won five by the age of 30.A happy hour mixer hosted by the National Iranian American Council is pictured. Iranian-Americans set up lobbying arm to counter pro-Israel groups
An Iranian-American group that has actively backed the U.S.-Iran nuclear talks — and battled allegations it works for the Iranian government — will launch a lobbying arm next week, a move it casts as part of a growing push against neoconservative and right-leaning pro-Israel advocacy groups.
The National Iranian American Council’s new 501(c)4 will be called NIAC Action, organizers said ahead of the official unveiling Monday. NIAC Action aims to direct money from the Iranian-American community, which is relatively well-off compared to other immigrant groups, toward more concerted political activism.
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“We’ve got all this money on the table, all this political influence that’s not being utilized,” said Jamal Abdi, NIAC Action’s executive director. “Now we can actually start playing the full political game.”
NIAC, a 501(c)3 non-profit started in 2002, has long faced rumors and accusations from neoconservative activists and rival Iranian organizations of being a stooge of the Islamist government in Tehran and of skirting rules governing lobbying.
Its leaders deny any wrongdoing and once even sued an accuser, a bitter and costly lawsuit NIAC lost because it couldn’t meet the legal standard for defamation.
In an interview, Abdi reiterated NIAC’s independence, saying: “We are not lobbying on behalf of the Iranian government. We don’t coordinate. We don’t take money from the Iranian government or the U.S. government.”
Still, Abdi and others make no secret of their desire to shift the political landscape in Washington away from groups such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which has criticized the talks with Iran, and toward movements more inclined to pursue diplomacy with the longtime U.S. nemesis.
The exact number of Iranian Americans isn’t known, though some estimate there are more than 1 million. But despite being well-educated and often wealthy, Iranian Americans have rarely had the political muscle as groups representing other immigrant communities.
NIAC has some 5,000 dues-paying members, though it has around 45,000 Iranian-Americans signed up for its emails and events. Using data pulled from that broader list of backers and campaign fund-raising sources, organizers estimate that NIAC supporters as a group give on average $1.4 million to political candidates each election cycle.
That’s a small sum in the grand scheme of U.S. politics, but it’s a start, NIAC leaders say.
“While we may not be able to match the largesse of [pro-Israel donors] Sheldon Adelson and Paul Singer, our side is for the first time bringing serious resources to the playing on the field,” Abdi said.
NIAC Action, which will launch with 30 chapters across the country, will be able to endorse candidates and channel donations toward aspiring office-holders. Abdi said NIAC Action views J Street, the left-leaning Jewish-American group that also supports the nuclear talks, as a model.
Like other 501(c)4 organizations, NIAC Action won’t have to name its contributors, and it likely won’t do so because “Iranians are worried about how working on political issues impacts their ability to go to Iran,” Abdi said.
The nuclear talks, which involve Iran, the United States and five other world powers, are due to wrap up Tuesday, though it’s likely negotiators will slip well past that deadline.
Already, groups that oppose the talks are launching ads and other campaigns aimed at members of Congress, who ultimately get to weigh in on any deal. NIAC and allied groups who support the talks say they’ve already begun their own campaigns, but are saving much of their firepower for if and when a deal is reached.Italian Serie B club Pescara have come up with a novel way of enticing fans back to the Stadio Adriatico by giving away free season tickets to the area's unemployed.
Pescara hope the free tickets will keep crowd numbers up after dropping to Serie B.
The initiative, launched by the relegated Serie A club in cooperation with the Province of Pescara, has already seen 925 season tickets handed out to fans with financial difficulties due to their lack of work.
"We're delighted to have made it possible, thanks also to the precious help of the Province, to distribute almost one thousand season tickets to people in difficulty," said the general manager of Pescara, Danilo Iannascoli, on his club's website.
"We always want to get closer to our fans and to their demands and give a hand to those who are less fortunate but who, with lots of passion, want to follow our colours."
The arrangement is the first of its kind in Italian football.
"We're proud of that," said Guerino Testa, the president of the Province of Pescara. "We'd like to thank our councillors and the employment office for the way they immediately worked on carrying this initiative forward. It’s a praiseworthy project because it gives those people who are out of work 90 minutes of enjoyment at the stadium."
Pescara were relegated from Serie A last season after just one season in the top flight. They had the second lowest average crowd in the division with just over 12,000, 7,297 of which were season ticket holders.
A big drop is expected for their return to the second tier this season.Although we're nearly a generation removed from Cheech Marin’s final cinematic turn as everyone’s favorite Latino stoner, the native Angeleno just can’t seem to shake his love for green plants that get you high. These days, though, he’s traded ganja for agave — the spiny, desert succulent used in mezcal production. He helped launch Tres Papalote in 2015 and has been busy promoting the brand ever since.
In Los Angeles, that might seem easy enough; after all, this is the largest market for mezcal in the entire United States. But Marin is working hard to make the Mexican spirit a recognizable name across the globe. Here he shares a few thoughts with the Weekly on what attracted him to the project, why he still calls L.A. home and, of course, how he feels about marijuana legalization.
What’s up, Cheech?
Oh, you know, working … and trying to do a zillion things at the same time, because I’m a Chicano and I have to have three jobs at all times.
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How did you get into mezcal?
Well, I’ve seen it kinda all my life, because they’d have those bottles with the scorpion or a worm in it, and that was kinda all I knew about it. Then I started tasting it, and it was really just different. I started researching mezcals and what I found is that the one I think would be most successful is the one that’s not really too smoky but kinda right down the middle and smooth-tasting, and that’s the one that I went for.
Why mezcal as opposed to other spirits?
I like the smoky flavor, and I like that it blended well. For me it wasn’t at first a sipping kind of liquor, it was something that could be blended in so many different ways, and I was really attracted to that. And the fact that people were learning about it, and there’s always this intrigue when people are learning about something new.
The bottle label is adapted from a glass sculpture in Marin's art collection titled “A Dios,” featuring a tribal figure clutching an agave heart in his hand. Tres Papalote
Tell us about the unique design of the Tres Papalote bottle, and how you had a hand in that.
I’m a collector of Chicano art, exclusively, since about 1985, and I put together this world-renowned collection. I kinda got onto the Chicano painters very early, and I thought they were really, really good. What emerged was this story of a community told in a lot of different ways. Not only are these great painters but this is an American school of art that has not been recognized as it should be. So I started collecting that, and it’s been wonderful, still doing it. It’s like a habit.
You were born here 70 years ago, and you still consider L.A. home. What are some of the biggest changes that you’ve seen in your time here?
When I was a youngster, it was Mexico and now it’s America. The border crossed me. My grandmother, who died when she was 96, she was from Tucson when it was still Mexico. But the change is the diversification of a lot of different neighborhoods. And all of it’s a sudden it’s going to be easier to get to places because they’re really expanding transit. So now I see interaction between communities more and more. People are not as isolated. They go to each other’s communities more and more. As each individual community gets more gentrified or integrated, or whatever that it is, people are involved in each other’s food more. Especially millennials, I see them appreciate that. There is a taco truck on every corner.
How do you feel now that gringos are embracing Mexican culture — particularly food and drink — more enthusiastically than ever before?
Listen, my little blond-haired, blue-eyed friend, I think it’s a wonderful thing. Everybody’s trying more and more things, but not only getting to try them but getting to know them. Because it’s an ongoing process. My daughter, who's 24, goes down to Silver Lake and experiences all different kinds of cultures. It’s pretty cool. You go to other parts of the country and it’s still just burgers and fries. But as a whole, increasingly there is more multicultural sampling going on.
What are the areas of L.A. today that you never imagined would develop into hip neighborhoods?
Yeah, well that’s Silver Lake, Echo Park, Boyle Heights right now. I mean, it’s going on down there, everybody’s there. It’s almost like Haight Ashbury in a sense, but with better food. And there’s a bunch of mezcal bars popping up in the East L.A. area.
Speaking of Haight Ashbury — we did just pass Proposition 64, legalizing marijuana throughout the state. Did you truly ever think you’d be alive to see the day?
I did, I always thought that I would. I thought it would eventually happen. But nothing is quite as simple as it seems; it’s like on my Instagram account … [I received this comment]: "You guys are the leaders of the movement, and you were out there fighting on the frontiers for so long, you represented the community, and now you voted for Proposition 64 to legalize marijuana ….fucking sellouts!!!" [Laughs] It just cracked me up, man. Like, OK, you can’t please everybody. But it was always a tool to lock minorities up. It’s gonna change. There’s always heavy pushback against any legalization efforts, no matter what state it’s in. You forever advance, but people on the other side of the line want to undo all of those laws and they try and push back at every chance they get.
So what’s next for you and Tres Papalote?
When I first started getting into this venture, my perception was that people didn’t know a whole lot about mezcal, because there wasn’t a face of it. How do you do it? Where do you drink it? Do you chug it, sip it, put it in mixed drinks? I wanted to be the brand ambassador to kind of educate people about mezcal, and that’s what we’re doing right now — we’re trying to get it all over. We have distributors on both ends of the country and in the middle. You can’t really learn about it unless it's there, and we’re trying to make it easier to get to. That’s the push for me: to get out there and publicize it so it won’t be a mysterious thing with a worm in it.
Tres Papalote can be found behind the bar at many a Silver Lake watering hole. Liquor stores around the city price the 92-proof mezcal at around $60 a bottle. Named after the agave from which it is distilled, this particular varietal exudes citrus and green-grass notes on the nose, surrendering to a faintly smoke and sweetened finish. Worm sold separately.San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Jerry Rice, left, runs with the ball past Los Angeles Raiders cornerback Lionel Washington to score his 125th career touchdown during the first quarter at Candlestick Park in San Francisco on Sept. 5, 1994.
Quarterback Steve Young went under center on Sept. 5, 1994. The San Francisco 49er dropped back, dipped and faked a handoff to running back Ricky Watters. He continued to drop back, tapped the ball with his right hand and then heaved it toward the end zone and wide receiver Jerry Rice, who was covered by Los Angeles Raiders cornerback Albert Lewis.
The ball was underthrown, but Rice stopped short to pull it out of the air at the 1-yard line as Lewis’ momentum carried him too far. He tucked it into his stomach with two hands, and as he took a hit from free safety Eddie Anderson, fell across the goal line and into NFL history books with his 127th career touchdown.
Rice came into the first Monday Night Football game of the season with 124 total touchdowns, two short of Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown’s NFL record of 126. Rice surpassed Brown’s mark with his third touchdown of the game with four minutes and five seconds left in front of 68,032 fans at Candlestick Park and the national television audience.
“They told me they were going to give me one last shot, and I took advantage of it,” Rice told the Baltimore Sun. “I’m very fortunate. So many guys helped to put me in this position: Joe Montana, Steve Young, so many other quarterbacks, Harry Sydney.
“I was really so happy to get it done. When I caught that last ball, so much pressure just left my body.”
San Francisco quickly worked to get Rice on the board. On the 49ers’ fourth play of the game, he lined up wide left at the San Francisco 31-yard line.
Rice took Raiders cornerback Lionel Washington inside, blew past him, caught the ball at the Los Angeles 30 and outran safety Patrick Bates for a 69-yard touchdown. That score moved the wide receiver past Hall of Famer Walter Payton on the all-time touchdowns list.
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Rice finished the first half with four receptions for 96 yards and the touchdown. The 49ers ended just one first-half possession without a score.
San Francisco took a 23-14 halftime lead. Neither team scored in the third quarter, but the 49ers finished with 21 points in the final frame. Rice’s historic touchdown made it 44-14.
“It was [head coach] George [Seifert’s call],” Young, who threw for four scores, told the Sun. “Hopefully, the Raiders will understand we wanted to do it at home.
“I think the whole team is proud of being a part of something that’s really football history. I’m a little overwhelmed by the whole thing.”
Said Seifert to The Washington Post: “The man is obviously the greatest wide receiver ever to play the game.”
Ironically, the score that tied Rice with Brown was a running play. He took the ball from Watters and swept around the right side as he scorched the earth and sped downfield, breaking Anthony Smith’s attempt to bring him to the ground. The defensive end had no realistic shot of preventing Rice from reaching his final destination — the end zone — on a 23-yard reverse that put the 49ers ahead, 37-14, with 12:15 remaining in the game. Rice tied Brown with the seventh rushing touchdown of his career.
“Jim Brown, I believe, was the greatest of all time,” Rice told The Washington Post. “No one thought a receiver would be able to break a record like that. We just don’t get the ball in our hands that often.”
Much ado was made coming into the game about the Raiders, whose wide receivers had built quite the reputation for their quickness and speed. By night’s end, Rice made sure everyone in the stadium and at home knew he remained one of the league’s greatest threats on the outside. He finished with seven catches for 169 yards and two scores, along with the rushing touchdown.
“I was a little amused that everyone was talking about the Raiders’ speed at receiver and saying nothing about me and John Taylor,” Rice told The New York Times. “Well, the old guys still have it. Maybe we made a few points clear tonight.”“Life is a storm, my young friend. You will bask in the sunlight one moment, be shattered on the rocks the next. What makes you a man is what you do when that storm comes.” The Count of Monte Cristo, directed by Kevin Reynolds.
Monitoring: Austin Smith
Vienna, Virginia, USA
2:10 p.m. Eastern Standard Time
Saturday, October 18th, 2014
18:10 Coordinated Universal Time
Saturday, October 18th, 2014
Getting information from Akvo is a little bit like squeezing soup from a stone: if you think it works, then you’re probably imagining it. At least, that’s what Austin’s pessimistic side says to him, but doing something has to be better than doing nothing at all, and what else is he going to do, if he doesn’t try to talk with Akvo? It isn’t like he can even ask people for a better idea, or tell them to go do it if they’re better-suited. IT might be watching, that thing that was almost certainly lurking behind Akvo’s eyes, and maybe behind Austin’s and everyone else’s.
How do you organize a conspiracy when Big Brother is peering over your shoulder?
The answer, as far as Austin has been able to determine, is to make references and speak metaphorically and hope that Big Brother isn’t as well-read or as linguistically adept as you. If that isn’t working, and Austin supposes that he has no way of knowing for sure, then everyone is just doomed and he might as well come to terms with the idea–God, give me grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, et cetera, et cetera.
But before Austin is ready to speak the Serenity Prayer, he’s got to do his job, and that means Semiweekly Book Club with Mr. Akvo.
Agents Blank and Rucker aren’t questioning it, thank God, because Austin isn’t sure that he could lie well enough to make a good explanation if they wanted to challenge him. He’s grateful that they’re willing to trust him (and perhaps, he thinks, they’re grateful for the opportunity to make me earn that trust, here in a low-risk setting rather than in somewhere that the stakes are higher).
The worst-case scenario is that Akvo pulls some sort of stunt and Austin dies. Awful, sure, and Austin in particular isn’t happy about the possibility, but worse things could happen if he made a poor decision in the field.
Agent Heron glances through the one-way mirror, checks his phone to see that Agent Newsome (watching the camera feed on another floor) has confirmed that Akvo hasn’t been doing anything suspicious, and takes another, longer look before he opens the door and allows Austin to pass through.
Heron does not follow, but closes the door behind him. The illusion of privacy is always welcome.
The room smells like stale rust and decay, courtesy of the red-brown illustrations that adorn its walls. Akvo takes the sponge to them every few days, always within the week, but Austin feels as though the scent is seeping into the concrete and wouldn’t leave even if he stopped making new art. It’s as much a part of the room as anything else now, a mark that he’s left on it, even should he one day be allowed to leave.
Akvo does not immediately acknowledge Austin’s arrival, but continues his work, painting a portrait just below the one-way mirror. It is, Austin realizes with a start, a representation of Viejo. Her edges are wispy and indistinct, as though she is dissolving or is being viewed through a light mist, and her features look slightly different, perhaps a little smoother, than Austin remembers her from the pictures.
(He never had to see the body, fortunately. In fact, he never saw her in the flesh, which maybe makes her feel a little less real to him than she would otherwise.)
“This is a younger Señora Viejo,” says Akvo. “Fourteen years ago. Of course, she doesn’t look like a spring pup back then, either, but it’s…different,” he says, and there’s something in his tone that Austin can’t quite pin down.
Other images that are on the walls: a mountain range that Austin does not recognize; a series of concentric circles, too many for him to count at once; four people, their features too undefined for Austin to tell if he knows them or not; a very large square that covers nearly half of its wall.
Austin can’t think of anything to say in response, at least not very quickly, and before he can fix that, Akvo resumes speaking. “I didn’t hate her, you know.”
“But, you tried to kill each other,” Austin says, and Akvo shrugs.
“I spent every day of the past fourteen years and change with her. Even if I hated her, and I don’t know how people manage to hate and not understand each other under those circumstances, I think that I would still miss her. But that doesn’t mean that we didn’t have different priorities, or that those weren’t more important than our, hm, friendship,” he says, and Austin is reminded of the man’s analogy to the Cold War, weeks ago. Which of them was the United States and which was the USSR?
More to the point, how much does the answer matter? Since the time that they botched their recruitment of Olivia, Austin has made it a to-do to read up on his history of foreign intelligence services. He still feels mostly okay with cooperating with PALATINATE, at least for the time being and under the present circumstances, but he is also uncomfortably aware that saying, “Akvo is America” would not be cause for very much comfort. It would still require that he answer questions like, “In this analogy, who are the Third World Dictators that are being propped up, and what are the long-term consequences of this figurative policy of supporting totalitarian governments and giving them lessons on how to torture people?”
There is an uncomfortable silence (or at least Austin thinks so; Akvo appears to take it in stride, or not even notice it), which Austin finally breaks by asking if Akvo has finished the reading. He nods, but continues to work on his painting until Austin has gotten himself situated.
If the boundaries of the room are delineated with red-brown, then it is filled with green. Akvo didn’t request that the room be furnished, and there’s at least some evidence that this was less an oversight than it was a sign of disinterest, but it was furnished anyway: there are three chairs, a cot, a small bookshelf that stands at half Austin’s height, and a couple of those felt storage bins that Austin’s parents liked so much. Austin isn’t sure if the green color on all of them was an attempt to satisfy whatever visual aesthetic Akvo had or, as the green prison jumpsuits suggested, a joke, but Akvo hadn’t made anything of it in either case.
Austin takes a seat on a plastic folding chair and Akvo sits on the floor, not moving from where he was crouching beside the wall.
“So,” Austin says. “Job.”
It’s one of the books that Akvo had requested. Job: A Comedy of Justice, a story about an evangelical Christian who unexpectedly steps into one alternate history after another, losing everything he’d made in the previous universe, and ends up falling in love with a Norse-worshiping hostess named Margrethe and learning that God and Satan were responsible for the mess, and that they had done it more or less on lark.
“One of the things that I enjoy most about the book is that Heinlein doesn’t start it out in our world,” Akvo says. He presses his shoulders against the wall. “Alex begins in some other world, one with zeppelins and theocracy. That’s a refreshing change of pace in and of itself, but if the story is to be taken on its premises and Alex’s world is authentic in a way that those others, manufactured temporarily and on the spot, are not, then we might well infer that our universe is one of those false ones that the gods made up. I like a book that tells you that there’s such a thing as reality, and then says that you aren’t part of it.”
“I can’t believe that I didn’t think about this before, but how does that relate to Margrethe?” asks Austin. “Alex didn’t meet her until after he started traveling through worlds. But she existed, exactly as Alex knew her, in the afterlife.”
“She probably still existed. Alex still existed in the other worlds too, even if he was Alec Graham in some of them,” Akvo says, and Austin isn’t sure if he’s actually missing the point or trying to guide the conversation in a particular way.
“I don’t think that somebody is just their memories, but memories are still important. Even if she had the same soul…” Austin frowns. “What sort of person was she like before Alex started traveling? What does it say about the world that the Margrethe that we see later, in the afterlife, is the same that Alex was traveling with? Do Margrethe’s parents, from the real world, have a daughter that they don’t really know anymore? Or did every set of memories in every world get its own soul, and there are as many, I don’t know, Robert Heinleins in the afterlife as there are worlds that Alex and Margrethe experienced?” He pauses. “Are we supposed to take something from that, do you think, that one of the book’s major characters is, at least in some ways, the product of a universe that’s younger than the man who’s walking it?”
Akvo cocks his head. “It reminds me of one of those parody religions that get so much truck on the Internet. Last Thursdayism.” He frowns. “Or Last Tuesdayism. One of those. Their doctrine is that God created the world only last Thursday–or Tuesday, as the case may be–but created it in such a way that it had a perfectly falsified past, not just with fossils that are apparently millions of years old but also living things that have apparently been alive for more than the past couple of days, and their memories of lives that never actually happened.”
“Huh. That sounds like the Omphalos Hypothesis, which is a little less extreme version of that. And taken more seriously, but then again, that’s probably what Last Thursdayism is making fun of. Deacon Matthews mentioned it one time.”
“The Reverend Deacon Patrick Matthews,” says Akvo, and he closes his eyes for a second. “I had his cooking, once. He makes a fairly good pulled pork. Señora Viejo asked for the recipe.”
“You know him?”
Akvo shrugs. “Knew, or know of. One of those. It was long ago and I’m sure that we didn’t make a lasting impression on him, even if we were a little more unbehaved in those days.” Akvo pauses until he catches Austin’s eye. His stare lingers, as though Austin is an amoeba under the microscope, then he shakes his head lightly, just an inch or so, almost a twitch but careful and measured. “You’re still a good Catholic boy, aren’t you? Even after all of this.”
“Well, I don’t know about ‘good,’ but that would have been true even before this.” Austin shifts in his chair and looks away, while Akvo chuckles at his reply. “But yeah, I still have faith.”
“I don’t remember any of this being mentioned in the Book of Revelation.” Akvo raises an eyebrow. “Remind me, where does it talk about the girl who makes coins disappear?”
Austin shrugs. “I don’t know. I’m not a scholar. Maybe I’m wrong. I don’t think I am–I mean, I have doubts, doesn’t everyone have doubts? But I have faith, too. Everything’s weird and not like I expected it would be, and there’s definitely a lot that I’ve experienced, and probably a lot that we’re going to experience, that I really have to think about, but that would be true just if I were moving to the big city from rural Punxsutawney, Alabama. I don’t really have any answers, but saying, ‘There’s no God,’ doesn’t give me any answers either. I ought to keep with my original belief until I have something to replace it with, at the very least.”
“Ask you again when you find out what’s going on, then?”
“Maybe. If you’re able to tell me, then you might be able to ask me again right now.”
Akvo’s laughter is a little like a dog’s bark, brief and forceful, and it is followed by a silence that doesn’t break for at least a minute. “I don’t think so,” he says, his voice barely above a whisper, his eyes no longer facing Austin. “I enjoy your visits,” Akvo says, as if that’s an explanation for his reticence (and perhaps it is). He still isn’t looking at Austin.
“Are you okay?” asks Austin, and Akvo takes a long breath and nods.
“I…” He trails off, then tries again. “I’ve been better. You’ll figure it out,” he adds. There’s a distinct pause between the two, and Austin wonders whether they’re part of the same thought, or if he’s giving an assurance that Austin will learn the answer to his other question.
That possibility, more than the other things that Austin has seen or been told will come to pass, thrusts a needle of apprehension through Austin’s heart. Whether or not he is correct, Austin suspects that Akvo has met something that he at least thinks would qualify for the position of God. Coming against–not a mere disbeliever, but a witness to something else, is disquieting for more reasons than one.
AdvertisementsThe Leon restaurant, which sits atop a luxury mall in Tehran, features large paintings, a faux fireplace, and jazz, all to complement its fusion menu and fabulous, thick steaks.
It’s a place one goes to be seen. So when the check comes, Salar – oozing confidence and sporting a wild shock of gelled hair, a stylish plaid shirt, and a leather wristband – knows just what to do.
The 31-year-old British-educated Iranian investor hands the waiter his debit card. He then tells him his PIN, raising his voice so anyone within earshot can hear he has embraced a practice common in Iran but unthinkable anywhere else.
“When I first came back, I couldn’t believe people in Iran shared their PIN numbers like that. Now I sometimes shout it out,” says Salar, a pseudonym.
His move back to Tehran is part of a reverse brain drain encouraged by the June 2013 election of President Hassan Rouhani. Shouting out PINs is just one of many quirks embraced by those young professionals educated abroad who have spurned good prospects in the West to return to live and invest here.
It’s a bet on the future, and for many a bet on the presidency of Mr. Rouhani, the relatively moderate regime insider who has promised to resolve Iran’s nuclear issue with world powers and revive an economy crippled by sanctions and tumbling oil prices.
Sustained brain drain
To be sure, returnees like Salar are still a minority. Despite a decade of official efforts to woo home an Iranian diaspora of perhaps five million – to tap their cash and expertise, but not any Westernized political thinking – the brain drain continues.
Rouhani favors an open-door policy for returnees, whom he calls a “huge asset” who have “love for their country.” But security officials who often oppose the president have pushed back, causing a chill among would-be returnees, with a number of high-profile arrests and detentions among those who have returned.
“Now 85 percent of my friends I grew up with are not here, they are in Australia, France, the US, Vienna,” says Salar, adding that he still wonders if he'd be better off in Dubai. “But to be honest, are all of them happy? The number is miniscule.”
Salar asked that his real name not be used so he could speak more freely; his chosen pseudonym means "great man." He moved back here in August 2014 after nearly six years in the UK studying finance and accounting, and investing with his brother in an asset portfolio that paid off all school debts.
But he felt the tug of home and family in Iran, including the Tehran house where he was born and now lives. “The political landscape [in Iran] didn’t matter. I came to a decision I wanted to come back, to be close to the country. The election acted as a stimulant," he says.
Moreover, he saw an economic uptick in Iran after Rouhani’s victory that he says now requires careful handling – and probably a nuclear deal in order to offset low oil prices and the impact of US, European, and UN sanctions.
A costly exodus
“The Rouhani election, and opening of this dialogue with the US, is having a huge psychological impact on the country,” says Rouzbeh Pirouz, a Harvard-educated Rhodes scholar and founder of the Iranian Business School, an elite mid-career MBA program in Tehran.
“Toward the end of the Ahmadinejad period [2005 to 2013], I really got the sense people were quite bleak, there was a great sense of hopelessness,” he adds.
An exodus of young talent since the 1979 Islamic revolution has proven costly to Iran. Statistics from the Migration Policy Institute published by the IREconomy website indicate that some 67,000 Iranians left the country in the 1970s and another 281,000 in the 1980s. That became a cascade in the 1990s, with another 2,100,000 leaving.
Emmigration eased in the 2000s. But the International Monetary Fund |
-- tough mandatory minimum prison sentences for deported illegal immigrants who try to reenter the country. They keep coming back and back and back.
(APPLAUSE)
And if they know they go away for five years if we catch them, they're not coming back, folks How simple is it? How simple is it?
Thousands of Americans have been killed by illegal immigrants. In January of last year -- and you probably heard this story. Everybody's heard this story. Grant (inaudible), 21-years-old, a beautiful, beautiful young person was working at a convenience store in Mesa, Arizona when he was shot in the face point-blank by an illegal immigrant for no reason.
The killer was out on bond. He was roaming free, despite many previous arrests and violence. And the word from other people that knew him, please do not let him go free. Shot this young man right in the face.
In another incident, 25-year-old Spencer (inaudible) was sitting in his car at a stoplight after dropping off his girlfriend. An illegal immigrant in a pickup truck pulled up beside Spencer and without saying anything and for no reason, took out a gun, pointed it at his head and pulled the trigger, killing him instantly.
The killer had been deported four times. We weren't supposed to take him back. We took him back. He had a massive lengthy criminal record. And people said please don't take this guy back. Dead. By the way, hundreds of stories, hundreds. I've spent a lot of time with Spencer's mom, Julie. A member of the Remembrance Project, one of the great groups of people, they are devastated. They are devastated.
Sixty-year-old Margaret (inaudible) was shot to death by an illegal immigrant last July in Ohio. Earlier that day, her killer attempted to rape a 14-year-old girl, shot a third woman in the arm while he was with her children and did massive other damage to other people. Police encountered the man more than three weeks before the crime spree, but federal authorities refused to take him into custody even though they knew he was very dangerous. They didn't want to get involved.
So you have carnage. This crime wave ends when Donald Trump becomes president. Believe me.
(APPLAUSE)
Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, is totally for open borders -- there goes your country -- which would mean the destruction of our country. It would really mean that. You got to have to have borders. If you don't have borders, we don't have a country.
She also wants to expand illegal executive amnesty, which would be really -- shred -- it would shred our Constitution.
Restoring National Security Act, which will eliminate the Obama- Clinton defense sequester, allow us to rebuild our military and gives veterans -- how many veterans?
(APPLAUSE)
The right to seek private medical care when they can't get proper service. The veterans are waiting on (ph) line for six, seven, eight days. They can't even get to see a doctor. Twenty-two suicides a day from our veterans. Do you believe that number? Twenty-two a day.
Under my plan, not only will we modernize our Navy's cruisers, but we'll also invest in the technologies of the future being developed right here in central Florida. My plan also includes major investments in space exploration, also right here. You know what we call this place.
(APPLAUSE)
Over the last eight years, the Obama-Clinton administration has undermined our space program tremendously. That will change. So many good things come out of it, including great jobs. And it will change very quickly under a Trump administration and it will change before it is too late.
TRUMP: Do you ever see what's going on with space, with Russia and different places and us? We're like -- we're like watching. Isn't that nice? So much is learned from that, too.
As a cornerstone of my policy, we will substantially expand public-private partnerships to maximize the amount of investment and funding that is available for space exploration and development.
(APPLAUSE)
This means launching and operating major space assets right here that employ thousands and spur innovation and fuel economic growth. I will free NASA from the restriction of serving primarily as a logistics agency for low-earth orbit activity. Big deal.
(APPLAUSE)
Instead, we will refocus its mission on space exploration. Under a Trump administration, Florida and America will lead the way into the stars. With a victory in November, everything will change. Just think about what we can accomplish in the first 100 days.
(APPLAUSE)
In closing, we're going to have the biggest tax cut since Ronald Reagan, and actually even bigger.
(APPLAUSE)
We're going to eliminate every unnecessary job-killing regulation. They're choking our businesses to death. We're going to provide school choice and put an end to common core and bring our education local.
(APPLAUSE)
We're going to support our great men and women of law enforcement.
(APPLAUSE)
We will save our Second Amendment, which is totally under siege.
(APPLAUSE)
And appoint justices to the Supreme Court of the United States who will uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States.
(APPLAUSE)
Republicans have to finally get smart and come together. This is our last chance. This is bigger than me or any of us. It's about our country. This is about ending Obamacare. This is about the Supreme Court. This is about rebuilding our military and taking care of our vets, strengthening our borders and keeping our companies and jobs from leaving our beloved country.
(APPLAUSE)
This is about restoring the rule of law, saving our Constitution, and keeping radical Islamic terrorists the hell out of our country.
(APPLAUSE)
I invite all Americans -- Republicans, Democrats, independents, first-time voters -- to join this incredible movement, a movement the likes of which has never been witnessed in this country before -- never, never, never been anything like this.
Let's not blow it, folks -- November 8th. Get out sooner if you can. It's a movement powered by our love for America and our love for our fellow citizens. We're in a divided country. We're going to bring everybody together, not just the people here. We're going to bring everybody together. We're going to fix our inner cities.
I'll tell you what, our inner cities are so, so bad right now. The danger, the crime, the lack of education, no jobs. African Americans are living in hell in our -- in the inner cities. I mean, they're living -- they're living in hell. You walk to the store for a loaf of bread; you get shot.
We're going to fix our inner cities. We're going to fix.
Remember this, remember this, just remember this, so important. For years, the Democrats have controlled the inner cities; some up to 100 years; some over 100 years; unbroken. I say to the African American community and to the Hispanic community: What the hell do you have to lose? I will fix it. We will make them good. We'll make them safe. We'll bring back jobs. We'll create good, good schools and education.
TRUMP: I will fix it. We will fix our inner cities. Hillary Clinton's been lying about the inner cities for years. She's not going to do anything. Frankly, you want to know the truth? She doesn't have the energy to do anything.
(APPLAUSE)
She doesn't have the energy. I'm going to fight for every citizen of every background from every stretch of this nation. I'm going to fight for every person in this country who believes government should serve the people, not the donors and not the special interests.
(APPLAUSE)
I'm going to fight to bring us all together as Americans. Just imagine what our country could accomplish if we started working together as one people, under one God, saluting one American flag.
(APPLAUSE)
Once again, we will have -- right -- once again, we will have a government of, by and for the people.
(APPLAUSE)
Of, by and for the people.
(APPLAUSE)
Folks, folks, we want to end Obamacare, we want to go to a plan that's so much better and so much less expensive, right? We want to have borders and we want people to come into our country. We welcome people, but they have to come in through a legal process. So, we're going to have a wall, but it's going to have a big, beautiful door and people are going to come into our country, but they're going to come in legally.
And by the way, just in case there's any question, yes, Mexico will pay for the wall 100 percent.
(APPLAUSE)
Think about, when you get in the voting booth, the United States Supreme Court. Just think about it because, I'll tell you what, you put the wrong justices on the Supreme Court and this country will never ever be the same. It will never be what you had hoped it would be, so just think about the United States Supreme Court. And we're going to bring -- so importantly, I got into this because of the border and the terror, but because of the border and because of trade.
And the trade is so easy for me. It's so obvious what's happening when our companies are flocking out. We're going to fix our trade, we're going to bring jobs back to our country, including this area, right here, which has been devastated.
(APPLAUSE)
Together, if we win on November 8th, and I really believe we will, we better.
(APPLAUSE)
We will make America wealthy again, we will make America strong again, we will make America safe again and we will make America great again.
(APPLAUSE)
Thank you very much. God bless you. Go out and vote. God bless you.It’s not that often that I write reviews for items that actually include no electronics whatsoever. Nor is it that often that I write a review for a single piece of plastic not much bigger than a deck of cards. But this time, I made an exception – and I think you’ll agree it’s a pretty cool little piece of plastic.
See, back in September I reviewed the newly released ANT+ and enabled Sony Ericsson Xperia Active Android phone. Aside from having fully integrated ANT+ support (meaning, it can connect to your Garmin sensors like speed/cadence, power, heart rate, etc…) – it’s all fully waterproofed, and shockproof. Don’t believe me? Well, check out this popular video I put together:
Sony Ericsson Xperia Active meets sports gel
And yes, fully waterproofed:
Sony Ericsson Xperia Active Underwater
So, with that background, the most common question on my original review post was “When is a bike mount coming out for it?”. Unfortunately, there really wasn’t a good answer for that. I spent considerable time checking out phone bike mounts at Interbike the following week – but none of them really fit the bill. In short, all of the options were half-ass, at best. None would be able to withstand an exciting trainer ride, let alone some time on a rough road.
For many, the use-case was clear: A bike computer replacement. Or more specifically, a Garmin Edge 800 bike computer replacement. Being roughly the same size, and just as waterproofed and durable – it starts to become an interesting platform. Especially once you consider that the phone can run any Android app – including ones like Strava or MapMyRide. Further, it’s always connected, allowing you to stream your data in real-time – right from your handlebars.
After Interbike things went quite for a bit on the mount front, but eventually ahead of the holidays I was contacted by the folks from SportyPal, as they were in the final stages of a bike mount that was designed specifically for the Xperia Active. The goal was a super-low profile mount that could happily hold the phone without losing it. So how’d things work out?
Unboxing:
Normally I have an unboxing section in my reviews, but as is often the case with products that I get ahead of release or availability, they don’t usually have full packaging. And that was definitely the case here, no pun intended. So, the full unboxing is quite simply just the single piece of plastic:
The final unit will include a handful of zip ties, which are required for attaching it to your bike.
Getting it all connected:
Now that we’re ready to set everything up, let’s talk about how your phone connects to the mount. You’ll notice that the plastic mount has a small little round bump, this bump corresponds with the Xperia Active’s camera lens. This little notch acts as a way to help secure everything in place – and does a really good job at it.
I asked why they didn’t use the LED flash divot instead of the camera lens divot. They commented that the camera lens was the most vulnerable part on the entire camera – so they wanted to protect it (which this does). Additionally, this would allow you to use the LED flash as a flashlight (turned on permanently) in a pinch on a trail (it’s surprisingly bright).
You’ll notice that the mount is incredibly thin – by far the thinnest overall mount in terms of height that I’ve seen for a phone. Most phone mounts add a fair bit of vertical height so the phone looks fairly awkward on your handlebars. But this one is basically about the same as the Edge 800.
Finally, time to get it mounted on the bike.
This requires two simple zip-ties, which just wrap through the little holes and help to mount it tightly to your handlebar.
As usual, just snip off the the excess:
With that, we’re ready to roll!
Use and durability a bike computer replacement:
It’s funny, by now, I’m pretty used to using a given bike computer on my rides. Sorta habit-like. However, despite having both the Edge 800 and the Xperia Active on my handlebars, I never glanced at the Edge 800 – but instead, kept on checking the Xperia Active for my latest speed, distance and HR updates.
For me, it was just the sheer screen sharpness and brightness of it, and the fact that there weren’t any funky oversized protective case on it. Nor any cover that introduced weird glare.
The one setting I changed that was applicable to riding was to modify the phone’s display timeout to 30 minutes, from the default setting of about 30 seconds I believe. Otherwise, the display would turn off before you finished your first few pedal rotations. Once that was set though, it’s perfect.
Now, as I noted in my previous review, the unit’s touchscreen doesn’t respond to normal glove touches. But folks have noted that you can simply pickup a wide variety of gloves that have little tips in them designed to work with the phone.
Size wise, the phone really didn’t seem out of place, again, about the same size as the Edge 800. Here’s a pic on my handlebars from this weekend – with the GoPro in view for some context. I had taken the Edge off for the picture, though I wish I had kept it on now.
And, here’s a couple more photos for good measure:
One item of note is that if you have a triathlon/time-trial bike, you might have trouble mounting this, since some aerobar pads would block enough real estate to make that tough. You could though pickup one of the various bike computer mounts designed to fit in between your aero bars, and mount it to that though.
From a durability standpoint, it’s really hard to show just how stable, secured and durable this thing is. I think tomorrow I’m going to film a little video outside showing me being able to throw the phone with it mounted to something (deciding what, since I don’t think I’m going to chuck my bike), and not having it fall off. I think you’ll be surprised – it’s remarkably secure and tight.
[Update – 1/26/2012]
Ok, I found something to attach it to that I could throw around – yup, a paddle. From one of those inflatable boats. So, below you’ll find an artful video of my banging the crap out of the paddle (in turn replicating a bumpy ride), and, simply just tossing the whole thing (phone and all) up in the air. Sometimes it landed on the paddle, sometimes directly on the phone. Again, remember that I’m tossing around a CELL PHONE. Just because perhaps that might get lost in your video entertainment moment:
Banging the crap out of the Sony Ericsson Xperia Active with SportyPal bike mount.
A few of us were commenting at CES while playing with it then that this would be the last thing on your bike to pop-off in an accident, it’s really well secured. My time on the rougher dirt and mud trails with my road bike (some off-roading as a casualty in a recent ride), didn’t yield any issues. And while I’m not a hardcore mountain biker – I’d feel pretty confident in saying it won’t pop off there.
Upcoming Items of Note:
SportyPal also has an Android app that can connect to ANT+ sensors and record both GPS and ANT+ data. Additionally, they have the usual line of branded ANT+ accessories (HR straps, etc…). One interesting item that their app does is to take advantage of the Xperia Active’s barometric altimeter (yup, pretty cool, ehh?).
Even more interestingly is that they will be amongst the first to support the new Sony Ericsson Smart Watch via an app they’ll be releasing.
But what is the Smart Watch? Well, it connects to the Sony Ericsson phones via ANT+, and will display data in real-time from your cell phone. This could be workout data, location data, or even incoming cell phone calls. Since the Smart Watch is fully Android, apps can also be written for it. This probably isn’t as useful in a cycling scenario, but is much more appealing in a run workout – where the phone probably isn’t strapped to your wrist, but the watch is. And remember, since we’re talking a phone – we’ve got all the connectivity aspects – such as real-time positions and mapping, items your typical Garmin does not have.
The folks at Sony Ericsson are sending me out the Smart Watch to me this week to test out, and with Sporty Pal being the first folks out of the gate to support it – I’ll be digging into their Android app a bit in conjunction with that testing. Stay tuned!
Summary:
For $20, this is probably one of the coolest cheap things I’ve reviewed. The mount will be available in the next few weeks, so you’ll have it in your hands pretty soon. It’ll be available in both black and white initially, though, they also showed off a few more vibrant colors at CES this year.
Finally, I’ve gotten a lot of questions on where exactly you can get the Sony Ericsson Xperia Active. In Europe, that’s fairly easy and straightforward since a number of carriers carry it. But in the states, none of the major carriers have it in their local stores. Instead, you’d simply buy the phone unlocked (meaning, not tied to any given carrier) on Amazon (~$320US – Black/White, Black/Orange), following which your carrier of choice can activate it. And yup, it includes a full warranty and all that jazz.
For example, in my case I can (and do) swap my SIM card on ATT between my iPhone, Windows 7 Phone, and the Sony Ericsson Xperia Active – all without any trouble, it just takes a second (really, just a few seconds). The nice part here is that you aren’t stuck in any contract with a given carrier. Note though that it won’t work on Verizon though, but will work with just about everyone else on earth, and all over the globe.
With that, as always, if you’ve got any questions – feel free to drop them below. Thanks for reading!Richard ‘Thorin Oakenshield’ Armitage gave the performance of a lifetime this summer in Yaël Farber’s epochal Old Vic production of ‘ The Crucible ’, Arthur Miller’s tragedy about the Salem witch trials. Now a recorded version of ‘The Crucible’ will have two screenings nationwide on December 4 and 7.‘Yeah, it was something that came together towards the end of the run. I’m really into it – I’ve seen live opera in the cinema, primarily because I can’t afford the good seats, and it’s absolutely fantastic, the close-ups and camera angles make it a different experience.’‘I played Proctor’s final scene at drama school, and it was the first time I really connected to a character. I finished the act and didn’t really know how I’d gotten to the end and the teachers were all… we all knew something had happened. It’s the moment I became an actor, that’s the reason I wanted to do it.’‘We know they were colonists, so probably came from the UK. Proctor was an educated farmer, so Lancashire felt like a good fit.’‘I’d get into the shower to wash off the blood, then go and meet fans at the stage door and I was dazed, a bit like coming out of the boxing ring. I felt I had to be smiling but I just wanted to curl up in a ball and cry.’‘Yes, now that I’ve broken the taboo of not being on stage for 12 years. Yaël and I will definitely work together again, because we both got such a kick out of each other. It might be 2016, but it certainly won’t be too long.’ The Crucible ’ is in cinemas Thur Dec 4 and Sun Dec 7. See www.thecrucibleonscreen.comWASHINGTON — Oklahoma and Nebraska compared Colorado to a drug cartel on Wednesday and again urged the Supreme Court to let them sue their neighbor over its marijuana production and distribution system.
WASHINGTON — Oklahoma and Nebraska compared Colorado to a drug cartel on Wednesday and again urged the Supreme Court to let them sue their neighbor over its marijuana production and distribution system.
In sharply written arguments, the two states said Colorado "has created a massive criminal enterprise whose sole purpose is to authorize and facilitate the manufacture, distribution, sale and use of marijuana."
"The State of Colorado authorizes, oversees, protects and profits from a sprawling $100 million per-month marijuana growing, processing and retailing organization that exported thousands of pounds of marijuana to some 36 States in 2014," the states’ new brief says.
"If this entity were based south of our border, the federal government would prosecute it as a drug cartel."
Oklahoma and Nebraska also blasted the Obama administration for arguing that the Supreme Court should not allow the states to sue Colorado.
Supreme Court justices decide what suits are permitted among states. They hear the ones allowed to move forward and render rulings in them. The court may decide in the next few weeks whether to hear the marijuana case.
Oklahoma and Nebraska sought permission more than a year ago to sue Colorado, claiming the state’s licensing for marijuana production and distribution increased the amount of pot in their own states.
Colorado approved Amendment 64 in 2012, which legalized certain amounts of personal cultivation and consumption and also established a licensing regime for production and retail stores.
‘Major Exporter’
Oklahoma and Nebraska charged Wednesday that Colorado now calls itself a "major exporter of marijuana" and "knows that a large portion of the demand for its illegal marijuana comes from residents of neighboring states and that as many as half the visitors to Colorado are motivated to visit by marijuana."
Colorado told the Supreme Court in March that Oklahoma and Nebraska "filed this case in an attempt to reach across their borders and selectively invalidate state laws with which they disagree."
The Obama administration argued to the justices last month that the complaint filed by Oklahoma and Nebraska is not the kind normally considered by the high court.
"This case does not satisfy the direct injury requirement," the administration said in its December brief.
"Nebraska and Oklahoma essentially contend that Colorado’s authorization of licensed intrastate marijuana production and distribution increases the likelihood that third parties will commit criminal offenses in Nebraska and Oklahoma by bringing marijuana purchased from licensed entities in Colorado into those states.
"But they do not allege that Colorado had directed or authorized any individual to transport marijuana into their territories in violation of their laws.
"Nor would any such allegation be plausible."
Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt and Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson — both Republicans — accused the administration of anarchy on Wednesday. In their new filing, they say the federal Controlled Substances Act takes precedence over any state laws legalizing marijuana.
"Because the current administration does not want to take the politically inconvenient position of opposing marijuana legalization, nor is it willing to take the legally untenable position that Amendment 64 can be reconciled with the CSA, the solicitor general instead recommends that this court should refrain from hearing this case," the two states said in their new brief.
"Thus, the solicitor general is forced to argue that a state that has been harmed as a result of a neighboring state’s unconstitutional actions has no recourse or remedy for those harms."
The Oklahoman. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency.Image copyright AFP Image caption The UK says it has "little doubt" the Syrian regime was behind April's deadly attack
MPs could be asked to approve military action in principle in Syria in case of further chemical weapons attacks, two senior Conservatives have argued.
Crispin Blunt and Johnny Mercer said Parliament's approval should be sought in advance for the subsequent use of force should there be more atrocities.
Hard intelligence, legal clarity and limits on action were needed, they say.
Parliament rejected the case for action against the Syrian regime in 2013 after a suspected chemical weapons attack.
And Downing Street said there were "no plans" for Parliament to revisit the issue.
Pressure has been growing for action in the wake of an attack on Khan Sheikhoun, a town in Northern Syria held by rebel forces fighting the government, on 4 April which killed 90 people.
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) found the attack could only be "determined as the use of sarin, as a chemical weapon".
Although the UN has yet to officially determine who was responsible, and the Syrian authorities have denied any involvement, the UK says it believes the government of Bashar al-Assad was responsible.
US President Donald Trump launched a limited bombing campaign against regime military targets in Syria in response.
Speaking in late April, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson suggested that if the US asked the UK to join them in military action in the event of further chemical weapons attacks, it would be "very difficult" to say no.
He also said the recent convention that Parliament has to give prior authorisation to the use of force would need to be "tested".
Image caption The coalition government lost a vote on military intervention in Syria in 2013
Parliament rejected action against the Assad regime in 2013 as Labour voted against and nearly 40 Tories and Lib Dems rebelled. MPs later sanctioned the bombing of so-called Islamic State positions in Syria.
Mr Blunt - a former chairman of the Commons foreign affairs committee and Mr Mercer - a former member of the defence select committee - are now calling for a different approach in which the government should consider getting parliamentary authorisation on a pre-emptive basis if certain conditions are met.
In a new briefing paper published in association with the European Council of Foreign Relations, the two MPs argue the government failed to get the support of Parliament in 2013 because it "rushed" the vote, did not give sufficient guarantees over the legality of the proposed action nor provide timely intelligence.
'Unprecedented'
While a pre-emptive vote would be "unprecedented", they argue that action may be needed given that chemical agents continue to be used despite the Syrian regime signing up to the Chemical Weapons Convention in 2014 and, in an initiative sponsored by the Russians, removing all declared chemical weapons.
Such an approach, they say, would give the government sufficient time to make a "clear and thorough" case for action, set out the threshold for the use of force, spell out what limitations would be placed on any intervention and how it would relate to wider attempts to end the six-year civil war in Syria.
"It would probably be impossible to get parliamentary authority for UK reprisal action within the likely timeframe of a US military response to a chemical weapons attack in Syria," Mr Blunt - who was among those to vote against military action in 2013 - said.
He added: "Pre-emptive parliamentary authority would send a deterrent message in itself, help address the complex legal and strategic questions involved, as well as enable limitations on military action to prevent escalation and mission creep."
Mr Mercer, a former soldier who was first elected to Parliament in 2015, said the paper set out some new ideas about how the UK might respond to atrocities of the like seen in Syria since 2013 given the "bruising" legacy of its experience in Iraq.
"I hope that this paper gives genuine food for thought as to how we as a country can back up what we say with what we do and highlight a clearer path as to when we may or may not intervene," he added.
Without an absolute majority in the Commons, the government would find it difficult to win any vote on military action without the support of a large number of Labour MPs, whose leader Jeremy Corbyn is a vehement critic of foreign intervention in the Middle East.
The SNP has warned ministers against by-passing Parliament and "falling blindly in line to the Trump tune".Street price: $150; MSRP: $250; deal price: $128
Here's a great deal for marathon gamers on this high-end gaming headset. This is the first good sale we've seen on this product since it became a pick, and you'll save $22 off the street price. The deal is only available on the white model of the headset, which runs a little cheaper than the black version.
The Sennheiser GAME ONE is the upgrade pick in our guide on the best gaming headset. Dennis Burger said, "Sennheiser's GAME ONE may cost more than most are looking to spend, but its spacious sound, stunning bass performance, and noise-cancelling mic make it worth the premium for serious gamers."
Street price: $170; MSRP: $170; deal price: $136 with code 420
The first great sale we've seen on this model since we published our guide. Use the code 420 to knock 20% off of the price, which brings it down to $136.
The Grenco Science G Pen Elite is our pick for the best portable vaporizer. Mark Smirniotis wrote, "This pint-sized vaporizer produces vapor that will convert any smoker and is easy to use thanks to high-end features like precision controls, a clear display, and Micro-USB charging."
He had this to say about the quality, "The Elite produced vapor at a quality level that surprised all of our testers given the its small stature and price. While its vapor tasted a bit more cooked and looked a little thinner than higher-end models set to the same temperatures, it was still pleasant and always reliable."
Street price: $27; MSRP: $30; deal price: $22
The best price we've seen by a few bucks on this stylus. It tends to idle around $30, though recently we've seen it trending in the $27 range, with a brief one-day drop to $24.
The Adonit Jot Pro is our iPad stylus pick. The Wirecutter staff wrote, "The best stylus for most people using an iPad Air or iPad mini is Adonit's newly redesigned Jot Pro. The Jot Pro is an elegant, comfortable-to-hold accessory that allows for precise input, thanks to the company's unique disc tip."
Street price: $37; MSRP: $50; deal price: $27
This is the best price we've seen on our budget pick. While it's only a $10 drop, the street price is already an affordable $37. For comparison, we've seen our top pick for universal remote, the 650, drop down to $53.
The Logitech Harmony 350 is our budget pick for the best universal remote. Darryl Wilkinson and Grant Clauser said, "It misses out on the 650's great Help feature and display, but controls eight devices at a cheaper price."
They went on to write, "However, there are a few things that keep it from being our overall pick. The loss of the screen means it isn't as simple to use. Also, its buttons aren't backlit, which is a big deal if you're trying to use the remote in the dark (which is most of the time for a lot of us). It also lacks the interactive help feature, which we find... you guessed it, helpful."
Deals change all the time, and some of these may have expired. To see an updated list of current deals, please go to The Wirecutter.com.“Without question, this guy is smart, this guy is not a dope,” the investigator continued. “It’s a guy who thinks about things.”
Also, the caller kept each of his vulgar, mocking and insulting calls to less than three minutes, according to the dead woman’s mother, Lynn Barthelemy. The caller made about a half-dozen calls over roughly five weeks to the victim’s sister.
One investigator said the brief duration of the calls thwarted efforts by the New York Police Department to use the signal to pinpoint the caller’s location and find him, something Lynn Barthelemy said they told her they tried to do four times.
New York investigators began those efforts about a week after Melissa Barthelemy, a 24-year-old who lived in the Bronx, disappeared around July 10, 2009.
The investigator, and several others, emphasized that the idea that the killer could be an active or former law enforcement officer was just one theory being examined by homicide investigators in Suffolk County, where the bodies were found.
The Suffolk Police Department’s chief of detectives, Dominick Varrone, would say only, “Our investigative team is considering many theories and all possibilities.”
The police commissioner, Richard Dormer, said in a statement late Friday that “no suspect has been identified in the Gilgo Beach homicides.”
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Ms. Barthelemy’s body was one of four uncovered over the course of three days in December in the thick undergrowth along Ocean Parkway, near Gilgo Beach, in the town of Babylon. All were dumped in burlap sacks.
It is unclear whether the county medical examiner’s office, working with its counterpart in New York City, has determined the causes of death in the four cases.
The discovery marked the third time in two decades that a serial killer of prostitutes had stalked Long Island.
After the snow melted, the Suffolk police intensified their search in the area. On March 29, a Marine Unit officer discovered a fifth set of remains, and two days later, three more sets of remains were found, more than a mile east of where the first bodies were found clustered.
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Two officials briefed on the case said it appeared that those additional sets of remains had been dumped many years prior to those found in December, and there were no burlap sacks.
They said there were other differences that set them apart from the four bodies that have been identified, but they would not describe them.
Both of the officials suggested that the differences raised the possibility that remains found in the past two weeks — the police have yet to identify them or even say whether they have determined the gender of the dead — were unrelated to the four Craigslist women.
But they also said the differences could be ascribed to the development of the killer’s technique over time.
On July 10 nearly two years ago, Ms. Barthelemy saw a client and then deposited $900 into her bank account, her mother said. That night she called an old boyfriend, but he did not pick up. Then she disappeared.
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Melissa Barthelemy’s teenage sister, Amanda, was preparing to fly to New York from Buffalo and visit with her sister, but the trip was called off because the family could not reach Melissa. Concerned, the Barthelemys pleaded with the New York police to help find her.
Then Amanda began to receive calls, about one each week, from her missing sister’s cellphone. The voice on the other end was calm and bland, and never yelled or laughed, her mother said.
Lynn Barthelemy would not say what was said in those calls. She said the authorities told her not to disclose details so that they could use that information, which they believe only the killer would know, to weed out false confessions.
The family’s lawyer, Steven M. Cohen of Buffalo, said the caller had made remarks that were “disparaging of the sister, because of her lifestyle.”
“We can’t for certain make the leap that the person who called the sister was the killer, although I believe that to be the case,” Mr. Cohen said. “If you accept it was the killer calling, he certainly had feelings of anger towards prostitutes.”
Lynn Barthelemy said detectives had told her they rushed to several locations during the calls, which never lasted more than three minutes, but were unable to identify a suspect.
In one instance, the police learned that Melissa Barthelemy’s phone had been turned on near Massapequa, on Long Island, and that someone had gained access to her voice mail, the victim’s mother said, but that happened only once.
The caller did not ever say that Ms. Barthelemy was dead or suggest that she was alive, Lynn Barthelemy said.
“He kept us hopeful,” she said.
She still wonders what prompted the calls. It was as if he was “trying to finalize things,” she said.home | Acid Test Chronicles | The Acid Test Chronicles - Page 11 -...
This is a One-of-A-Kind Poster, hand drawn, and not mass distributed for the event. It is likely the only one made, or at least, the only one that survived. At this point in the early acid test days, Posters and handbills were not being used to advertise events. Instead, small Posters were placed up in local coffee shops and hangouts around town, of which there were several up and down the bay, but the most prominent of these was a little place called the Catalyst. At the time, it was a lively coffee shop, but now it has moved up the street and small bands play there, as it has been turned into a club.
This particular item was taken down by someone from the Catalyst Coffee Shop at the time. I spoke to Lee Quarnstrom, who worked at the Hip Pocket Bookstore in '65, and lived at the Spread, and attended the event. Lee stated something extremely revealing to |
the model using data from the previous Δt=16 weeks before week t, and then nowcast the percentage of patient visits owing to ILI in week t. With this approach, the optimal number of autoregressive terms and moving average terms, as well as the number of non-seasonal differences, are recalculated each week using previous data within the sliding window. We compare this out-of-sample baseline model to an advanced model which also uses the Google Flu Trends time series (figure 1a).
We find that the absolute residuals of the out-of-sample advanced model using Google Flu Trends data are significantly smaller than the absolute residuals of the out-of-sample baseline model using historic ILI patient visit data alone (median of the baseline model's absolute residuals = 0.095, median of the advanced model's absolute residuals = 0.075; V =10 728, p<0.001, α=0.05, two sample paired Wilcoxon-signed rank test).
Figure 1c depicts the nowcast errors for both out-of-sample models. The out-of-sample MAE of the advanced model using Google Flu Trends in the regression is 21.3% smaller than the corresponding baseline model's MAE, for a sliding training window length of Δt=16 weeks. Qualitatively, similar results are achieved for Δt=4 weeks (median of the baseline model's absolute residuals = 0.137, median of the advanced model's absolute residuals = 0.082; V =12 566, p<0.001, α=0.05, two sample paired Wilcoxon-signed rank test, Bonferroni correction applied), Δt=8 weeks (median of the baseline model's absolute residuals=0.094, median of the advanced model's absolute residuals = 0.069; V =11 218, p<0.01, α=0.05, two sample paired Wilcoxon-signed rank test, Bonferroni correction applied) and Δt=32 weeks (median of the baseline model's absolute residuals = 0.095, median of the advanced model's absolute residuals = 0.067; V =8605, p<0.01, α=0.05, two sample paired Wilcoxon-signed rank test, Bonferroni correction applied). Improvements of the MAEs range from 16.0% for Δt=32 weeks to 52.7% for Δt=4 weeks.
5. Discussion
In summary, we find that data from Google Flu Trends describing the volume of flu-related searches in a given week can be used to significantly improve estimates of the current number of influenza infections, as quantified by the number of flu-related doctor visits. Specifically, we show that Google search data can help improve these estimates of current levels of influenza, or ‘nowcasts’, in comparison with estimates generated by forecasts based on previous levels of influenza alone. Comparisons of an in-sample baseline model, using historic data on flu levels only, with an in-sample advanced model, augmented with data from Google Flu Trends, show that the MAE of in-sample ‘nowcasts’ can be significantly reduced by 14.4%. We further investigate the behaviour of an adaptive model in which the representation of the relationship between current flu levels and both Google Flu Trends and previous flu levels is constantly updated, and test this model out of sample. Here, we also find that an advanced model augmented with data from Google Flu Trends outperforms a baseline model, such that the MAE of out-of-sample nowcasts is significantly reduced by between 16.0% and 52.7%, depending on the length Δt of the training interval. We conclude that Google Flu Trends data, combined with historic influenza levels, can indeed be used to improve real-time influenza monitoring, even when official reports of flu infections are available with only one week's delay.
Data accessibility
Datasets used in this study are available via the Dryad Repository (doi:10.5061/dryad.r06h2).
Acknowledgements We thank Steven R. Bishop (University College London) and H. Eugene Stanley (Boston University) for comments. T.P. and H.S.M. acknowledge the support of the Research Councils UK Grant EP/K039830/1. T.P. and H.S.M. performed analyses, discussed the results, and contributed to the text of the manuscript.
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
FootnotesWhat do you get for your money? That's the question everyone looking to buy a piece of tech asks themselves. It also happens to be the question this recurring feature will try to answer. Is it worth spending extra on high-end gear, or do you get what you need with cheaper models? Every month, we'll look at some of the cheapest and most expensive products in a given category, testing each to see what their limits are and help you figure out when you can cheap it out, and when to plunk down some extra cash to get what you need.
Watch any post-apocalyptic film and you'll notice a pattern: nobody shaves. From "The Road" to "World War Z," as things fall apart, people get hairy. Shaving is probably one of the first things to get shoved aside when the niceties of civilization are torn away. Remove that façade of decency, it seems, and a scruffy, screaming face is staring back at you. Because who wants to live without disposable razors?
Like most daily rituals, the act of shaving one's facial hair with a non-electrical, old-school razor has been impacted by technology. Some of the pricier varieties are miracles of engineering, with more blades than a flotilla of sea pirates. The bigger impact modern manufacturing has had on the lowly razor, however, has been on the price. They're so cheap to produce, they have become disposable. But are these throwaway, mostly plastic hair-slicers really better than the heavier, long-lasting blades our low-tech ancestors used? I decided to find out by trying three razors: the cheapest modern disposable razor I could find, a classic safety razor, and a straight razor. I stayed away from motorized electrical shavers, as I wanted to make this test purely about the experience of guiding a blade slowly across the skin.
Although I was unable to engineer the downfall of civilization, I did try each type of razor for several weeks, giving myself enough time to adjust to each type, and work out the best way of using it. I discovered that this might be a case where modern and cheap is not better than old and more expensive.
The Disposable Razor
The cheapest disposable razor I could find was from my local drugstore: $6.49 for a pack of 12 dual-blade, tilting head razors. That means each razor costs about 54 cents. That's pretty cheap, but there is a reason: I found that these razors didn't last for more than a single shave. After that, the blades started to drag and skip on the skin, leading to cuts and nicks. I wasn't able to use these razors for more than a single shave without discomfort. So, realistically, that puts the cost here at about $0.54 a shave, and I ended up going through a pack of 12 razors in under a month.
Of course, there are more expensive options that last a little longer. When I used something like a Gilette Fusion razor, I could usually get 3 or 4 shaves per replacement head. But, with a pack of 4 replacement heads costing $16.79, it's no cheaper, as that works out at about $1 a shave.
The Safety Razor
If you aren't familiar with this type of razor, ask your grandfather. Patented in 1904 by King Gillette, founder of the eponymous modern company, the safety razor is a razor "where the necessity of honing or stropping the blade is done away with, thus saving the annoyance and expense involved therein", according to the original patent. This is the classic razor, with a rectangular metal head that holds a removable double-edged blade. It's called a safety razor because the blade is held between two pieces of metal that protect the skin: you can't do more than nick the flesh with it. Plus, like the modern disposable razor, the head holds the blade at the right angle to the skin, so it is easy to use. The blade is the disposable part: rather than throw the whole thing out, you remove the blade, which is just a thin sheet of metal.
The blades for these razors are very cheap: you can buy a pack of 100 assorted blades for about $20, and the razor costs anywhere between $30 and $300, depending on how fancy you are feeling. I used a Maggard Razors Starter Kit, which cost about $35.
The experience of using this type of razor was much like the modern disposable: I didn't need to worry much about nicks and cuts. I found that it was easy to use and produced a closer, more comfortable shave than the disposable, though, with the weight of the razor head providing the right pressure on the skin. When you get it balanced in the hand, the razor glides over the skin without much effort, although it did require multiple passes to get a really smooth shave. With two blades, the disposable effectively did two passes at once, and I found myself doing multiple short passes with the safety razor to shave stubborn hairs. The safety razor's larger head also makes it more difficult to do areas like the chin and under the nose, as the head stops the blade getting right under the nose.
I did find that I had to replace the blade on each shave again, though. Although you get two edges on each blade, I could feel the edge getting a little harder to move over the skin by the end of the shave, and I didn't feel comfortable reusing the blade a second time—it would tug and drag on a couple of days growth. However, this hassle comes at a lower cost: with 100 blades for $20, each shave costs about 20 cents, and you aren't throwing away as much each time, with just a couple of grams of metal going into the recycling.
The Straight Razor
For this type of shave, ask your great-grandfather. In fact, you might still be able to use his straight razor—with proper care, a good blade becomes a family heirloom that can be used for generations. Here, you shave with a single exposed blade, which is shaped before each use by stropping it against a leather or ceramic surface. Stropping just refines an already sharp edge, so a blade will need the occasional re-honing to reshape the cutting surface, a job that's best done by a professional.
And these have a real edge. A well-honed straight-edge razor will cut through your skin with zero effort. That's kind of the point, though: a sharp edge slices through hairs and thus glides over the skin better than a blunt one. And a blade made from high-grade steel will hold this edge better than a cheap blade.
Ariel Zambelich/WIRED
I used a straight razor shaving kit from Vintage Blades that cost about $230. That's a lot of money up front, but the idea is that when used properly, it'll last for years.
That's easier said than done, though. Initially, the prospect of dragging this incredibly sharp edge over my skin wasn't helped by my subconscious coming up with lyrics from "Sweeny Todd" when I tried. It's hard to bring a sharp blade to my neck while the words "Come and visit your good friend Sweeney/You sir, too sir? Welcome to the grave," roll around your head.
I got over this with time, although I never lost respect for the blade. Shaving with a straight razor requires new knowledge—learning the proper grip, finding the correct angle against the skin, managing curves. Learning these things takes time, and there are inevitably mistakes. The blade is sharp enough that you don't always feel these, but it is definitely off-putting to suddenly realize that you have just cut you nose when you were trying to shave the lip. There is, after all, a reason why my kit came with a styptic pencil to stop the bleeding.
Your skin also has to adjust, as you are essentially scraping a layer off the top. My first few shaves produced a lot of redness and irritation that took some time to go, even when using a skin conditioner like Trumper's Skin Food.
But with practice, straight-razor shaving becomes a ritual. It's never quick, but stropping the blade, making a nice lather, brushing the foam onto the skin—it all has a pleasing routine to it that quicker shaving approaches don't have. It's like the way you make good coffee: attention to the details and routine produces a better result, and I found it an oddly calming way to start a busy day.
The result was the cleanest shave of all. I found that, with practice, it produced the smoothest shave of all the types I tried, and was the longest lasting: my skin still felt smooth and clean at the end of the day. And the cost is low—with no disposable parts and with only the occasional sharpening to worry about, each shave is less than a penny.
So which type of shaving was my favorite? That's a tough one. The ritual of straight edge shaving is a good way to start the day, but it takes time, and rushing it is likely to mean I end up slicing something off. So, I'll probably aspire to using the straight edge most of the time, but actually end up using the safety razor more often.
I do like the idea of having the razor as a family heirloom, though. One day, my descendent can look at my straight-edged razor and ponder how primitive we were as nanobots shave them in their deep-space bathrooms. Or perhaps they can still use my straight razor, stropped on the skin of a cow they caught that morning as they dodged the zombies that brought modern civilization to its knees. Either way, at least they'll look just smashing.sydney's one central park by jean nouvel features lush vertical gardens
sydney’s one central park by jean nouvel features lush vertical gardens
photographer murray fredericks, courtesy of frasers property and sekisui house
forming the centerpiece of sydney’s carlton & united brewery development, ‘one central park‘ climbs to a height of 116 meters, boasting what has been referred to as ‘the world’s tallest vertical garden’. designed by acclaimed french architect jean nouvel, the scheme is composed of two towers, 16 and 33 levels respectively, that rise above a four storey retail podium. the mixed-use project, which has been developed in collaboration with local practice PTW architects, provides the australian city with 563 apartment units, offering high-end living at the heart of the urban center.
wrapping the structure in vegetation, planters and green walls extend the surrounding parkland upwards
photographer murray fredericks, courtesy of frasers property and sekisui house
the taller eastern tower features a cantilevered reflector installation (the heliostat), which incorporates 320 fixed and motorized infrared panels, designed to redirect sunlight to otherwise shaded areas of the plan. at night, the heliostat becomes a monumental urban chandelier that appears in the dark sky like a floating pool of LED lights that merge into a giant screen and simulate reflections.
a cantilevered reflector installation redirects light into otherwise shaded areas of the plan
photographer murray fredericks, courtesy of frasers property and sekisui house
wrapping the structure in vegetation, planters, vertical vines and green walls extend the surrounding parkland upwards, bringing the a sense of nature into each residential unit. the plantation also helps reduce energy consumption with leaves that trap carbon dioxide, emit oxygen and reflect less heat back into the city than traditional fixed shading.
see designboom‘s previous coverage of the project here.
a rooftop terrace provides expansive views across the australian city
photographer murray fredericks, courtesy of frasers property and sekisui house
integrated greenery helps bring a sense of nature into each residential unit
photographer simon wood, courtesy of frasers property and sekisui house
the scheme forms the centerpiece of sydney’s carlton & united brewery site
photographer simon wood, courtesy of frasers property and sekisui house
the two towers offer high-end living at the heart of the urban center
photographer murray fredericks, courtesy of frasers property and sekisui house
an aerial view of the ongoing development
photographer john gollings, courtesy of frasers property and sekisui houseEditor's Note: The "Choose Your Own Adventure" book series was published in the 80s and 90s. You were able to pick and choose what to do with a character, which then sent you all around the book. We've created just such an adventure involving the always entertaining life of Jim Harbaugh. Click on the various links to make your way through a day in the life of Coach Harbaugh!
Your alarm clock is buzzing.
There's nary an ounce of daylight outside as the red, digital numbers read 4:00. This San Francisco 49ers team ain't gonna coach itself, so you'd better turn off the "24" marathon and head into the facility. Another night of no sleep, but why do you need sleep?
You're Jim Harbaugh.
How would you like to start your day? (click the hyperlink of choice)
You can send a tweet to your fans or Prepare for a press conference. Choose your direction!
Credit: Bob Donnan, USA Today Sports
You feel dazed and light headed. You stopped using your twitter account a long time ago, but must be having some sort of strange flashbacks.
Now, it was a glorious, wonderful thing, that twitter account of yours. Many folks have fond memories of that time you promised to buy the entirety of your Stanford Cardinal team Dairy Queen banana splits if you won the Rose Bowl.
No sleep and all that Jack Bauer might have you delusional coach. Go back to bed. When you wake up, make a better choice.
Continue...
You should prepare for that press conference, or you discuss roster ideas in an e-mail to GM Trent Baalke.
Credit: Kirby Lee, USA Today Sports
You've arrived at 4949 Centennial Boulevard, and you're trying to find your happy place before meeting the media. You know what's coming. Why do you wear those khakis all the time, Jim? Is Jonathan Martin going to get bullied, Coach? Have you and Trent kissed and made up yet?
You decide not to yank anymore hair out -- for now -- and sit down for a cup of coffee before heading over to the podium.
At the press conference, you're pleasantly surprised. None of those questions were asked! However, you forgot all about the Colin Kaepernick commercial questions, how much you're supposed to hate Pete Carroll and whether or not you want to discuss your potential extension. You see Kawakami trolling, and he's trolling hard.
Another fun session with the media is in the books. You've got the rest of the day to yourself. Spend some time away, coach!
Continue...
Do you want to take in a basketball game or would you rather take the kids to the zoo?
Credit: Kelley L Cox, USA Today Sports
You may not be at work right now, but you're still sporting your get-it-done attire. Be it on the field, at a press conference or while taking in some college hoops, the crew neck and khaki pants combo is a trend you're not giving up on setting.
You got lost on your way to your brother-in-law's, and ended up in Kansas. All the same. It's a game played on hardwood, but the goal is to throw an inflated object through a tight window.
You were a quarterback in the National Football League, for goodness sake. Does anyone doubt your ability to do basically the same thing in a game where no one is allowed to touch you?
Suck it, Steve Deberg. Hit me here, and I get more, completely uncontested chances.
Continue...
You drained it, of course. Time to head out, though. You've got a game against the Lions to coach.
Relaxing with the family is always a nice retreat. The rigors of being an NFL coach will leave one gray, and, sometimes, insane. You might a sparkly ring or two, but all that does is make you want to win more. Seeing as how you're Jim Harbaugh, that mindset is only amplified.
You get the zoo, and just as you're about to stuff your face with cotton candy, a challenge is thrown down. No, there's no football game, putting contest or paper folding match. You've proudly competed -- and won, dammit -- at all of those. This, however? Siku the walrus has challenged you to a duel, Jim. A duel in the form of pushups.
Let's see what kind of shape you're in. After showing that 1,750 pound sea creature who the stronger competitor is, you get up and dry off. Looking around, you can't find your typical getup. Your prized crew neck and pleated khakis are nowhere to be seen!
Siku burps.
Well played, Siku. Well played.
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You'd better go buy some new clothes now.
It's game day. All that other bull [site decorum] leads to this. No more media, no more distractions. Time to roll those sleeves up -- ok, you never actually do that -- put on your red pen necklace and cleats and coach this team to victory.
After four quarters of intense action, it's hard to hold back the emotions. That was one hell of a win, coach! The world knows of your competitive fire, but acts shocked whenever they see it come out.
Today could be the day that things change, though.
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Would you like to excitedly greet your counterpart or leave the field humbled in success?
Credit: John David Mercer, USA Today Sports
There's nothing like a little Creature viewing, which is the real reason you shop at Walmart to begin with. Today, though, you're on a strict mission to get in and get out with your new gear. No time for the dude with the mullet in the polka dot pants.
You've got your hands full of pants, socks and some undershirts -- because real men don't use baskets -- when some schmuck with a smart phone pops around the corner and snaps a picture of you.
You're cranky because that damn Walrus just put you out another eight bucks, and now this clown wants to expose your guilty pleasure on the internets?
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Do you want to give him a piece of your mind, or would you rather just play it cool and pose for a pic?
@chaztopher Jim I'm Indy at Wal-Mart shopping for what else of course? Khakis! pic.twitter.com/ivj91wLFXF — Austin (@Matt_5_9) January 15, 2014
Remember the heart thing, coach? You were supposed to figure out how to find your happy place and channel that anger. But, here you, freaking out over some guy taking a photo of you. I know, I know. The secret is out on your frugal shopping habits, but you're going to end up having a serious stroke, man.
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You need to go spend some more time with your kids. Head over here and find that smile again.
Ripping that restrictive headset off, you toss it aside and jump with glee alongside your warriors.
Hopping, screaming and twirling, you make your way to mid-field to find that other guy. You know, the lose. The guy who didn't win.
He'll be butt-hurt about it, and people around the country who don't like you will continue to not like you, but Niners Nation will adore you!
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Wait. Is it Niners Nation? Or is it Niners Empire? It's your pick, or you can just not care!
You aren't such a bad guy after all, it seems. What a good dude, allowing Austin to have a photo snapped with you. Of course, Glenda, the Creature who took the photo was busy looking at the sequin halter top section, and cut your head off. It's blurry, too.
Amateurs.
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It's time to get over to the stadium, coach. You need to coach that game against the Lions!
@chaztopher Me and Jim Harbaugh at Wal-Mart in Indy. Feb 2013. He found what he was looking for. pic.twitter.com/QWFdlN0huW — Austin (@Matt_5_9) January 15, 2014
Now, isn't that better?
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Now that you've collected yourself, have your clothes back and are ready to work again, you really should go coach that game against the Lions!
LOL, yeah right.
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Get your Hemingway-quoting self over here and celebrate for real!
Trick question. Why does anyone care? Coach Harbaugh doesn't care, that's for damn sure.
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You're not cut out for coaching if you care about such trivial things. Sorry, but your career is over. We're nice, though, and will let you try again.
Credit: Joe Nicholson, USA Today Sports
Florio, is that you? Finally, the Jim Harbaugh story ends the way you wanted it to!
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Go away. Seriously. Click here and never come back.
Credit: Cary Edmondson, USA Today Sports
That's right. Jim Harbaugh just doesn't care.
You don't like his clothes? Tough. You hate how he acts on the sidelines? Deal with it. Want to push non-existent narratives about his contract or what his players think about him? Go for it. See if he cares.
Spoiler alert, though: He doesn't. He's gonna keep on being him, because nobody's got it better. If you have a problem with that, you know exactly what you can do.
Credit: Mark J. Rebilas, USA Today SportsThe Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers says there have already been 35,000 jobs lost in the province due to the slumping oil price and subsequent downturn in the economy.
And experts anticipate more pain to come this fall in the province’s labour market as Scotiabank reported Monday it expects the price of oil to remain under US$50 for the next 12 months.
CAPP said those job losses this year include 25,000 in the oil services sector and another 10,000 in exploration and production.
Chelsie Klassen, spokesperson for CAPP, said the numbers come from a recent report by the Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors as well as a CAPP tabulation of companies that have publicly announced layoffs.
“It’s not a time where we can speculate how many job losses but companies are evaluating their competitive position right now and just doing their budget cycles for next year. So in that budget cycle they will take into account how competitive they are in the market and each company is different,” she said. “It depends how they want to position themselves competitively.
“I wouldn’t want to speculate and say there will be more job losses but I would say that companies are definitely taking a finer look at their budgets going forward for the next year.”
Todd Hirsch, chief economist with ATB Financial, said a bigger hit to the labour market in Alberta will come in September, October and November.
“After everybody gets back from holidays and after the Labour Day holiday is behind us, I think companies in Calgary are going to have to make really uncomfortable decisions about their staffing,” said Hirsch. “It hurts me to say that but you know me I’ve been the glass is half full guy. But I do think there is a reality setting in that we are in for a longer term period of low oil prices.
“A lot of these companies in Calgary, they’ve been able to hold on because of their hedging program and they’ve hedged their oil sales on that future price, but their hedging programs are expiring in the fall and that’s the problem with hedging programs. At a certain point they expire and you have to make some tough choices around that. And word is that a lot of these companies, their hedging programs are running out. We’re sitting at $45 oil and very, very volatile prices. There is a darker reality setting in for these producers and they’re going to have to lay off people.”
Hirsch said the reality in the oilpatch will begin to have an impact on other sectors of the economy — probably in 2016 “when the payout packages have been exhausted and perhaps people start to leave the province.”
Jeanette Sutherland, manager of workforce and productivity with Calgary Economic Development, said more pain is expected to come this fall.
“I expect it’s going to get worse before it gets better,” she said. “We have heard that from a few different companies, that there are more layoffs to come. But you know what I am finding is that companies are really trying to become lean and efficient at this point. We’ve seen some companies … that have really adopted some creative austerity measures to try to hold onto talent with anything from one to two weeks off without pay to every second Friday off without pay or a slight reduction in wages or even flexible work options.
“For the most part, employees have been pretty grateful in recognizing that in order to compete for some of those larger projects, companies have had to reduce their profit margins.”
Sutherland said despite the woes in the oilpatch, there are some industries in the city that have positive job creation such as trades, transportation, logistics, creative industries, tourism and manufacturing.
“There’s definitely jobs to be had,” she said, adding that infrastructure projects throughout the city will also help in creating jobs.
The Scotiabank Commodity Price Index, released Monday by economist Patricia Mohr, said a prolonged battle for market share between Saudi Arabia and the U.S. shale producers, Russia and Iran appears likely to keep oil prices below US$50 over the next 12 months.
The report said the battle for market share was “recently exacerbated by heightened concern over a further slowing in the Chinese economy.”
It said the price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil should recover to US$55 in late 2016.
On Monday, the price was hovering around the US$49 range.
mtoneguzzi@calgaryherald.com
Twitter.com/MTone123Terry Myerson, Joe Belfiore, and Alex Kipman show us how software continues to transform the world in remarkable ways, with developers at the center of it.
[01:21] Terry Myerson Opening Statements
[03:40] Focus on creativity
[05:36] Windows 10 Fall Creators Update Announcement
[06:21] Windows Story Remix Announcement
[08:49] Lorraine Bardeen demonstrates Story Remix
[20:54] Joe Belfiore Talks about features and technologies behind Story Remix
[23:22] Microsoft Fluent Design System
[31:36] Windows and Microsoft Graph
[33:34] Windows PCs Loves Devices via Microsoft Graph
[45:51] Cloud-powered Clipboard Announcement
[49:33] Abolade Gbadegesin Project Rome Architect
[52:02] Moldering Legacy Application demonstration
[53:02].NET Standard 2.0 for UWP Announcement
[54:51] XAML Standard 1.0 Announcement
[1:02:03] Project Rome SDK For iOS Announcement
[1:07:48] Terry Myerson and Continuous Delivery to Windows Store
[1:08:18] Full UWP Capabilities in Visual Studio Mobile Center Announcement
[1:10:03] iTunes coming to Windows Store Announcement
[1:10:42] SAP Digital Boardroom coming to Windows Store Announcement
[1:11:26] Andy Mott, Autodesk's Sketchbook as a UWP Application
[1:13:31] Autodesk's Stingray
[1:14:38] Windows 10 as Development Box
[1:15:06] Ubuntu via Windows Store Announcement
[1:15:46] SUSE and Fedora via Windows Store Announcement
[1:16:24] Xamarin Live Player demonstration
[1:19:29] Windows Narrator Dev Mode demonstration
[1:21:38] Terry Myerson and Mixed Reality
[1:25:35] Alex Kipman on Mixed Reality
[1:34:59] Motion Controllers for Windows Mixed Reality Announcement
[1:37:30] Acer and Motion Controllers Holiday Package Announcement
[1:39:50] Cirque du Soleil HoloLens demonstration
[1:49:25] Acer and HP Mixed Reality Dev Kit now available via Microsoft Store AnnouncementWe try very hard to use herbal remedies in our home, but plastic pill bottles still squeak in from time to time. I HATE tossing things and I consider myself rather skilled at discovering new uses for old things. There is a chance I’ve morphed into a upcycling addict. Oh well, there are worse things.
So with a huge stash of pill bottles needing a new purpose, I hopped on Pinterest to get some ideas. If you’re not following me on Pinterest, you really should.
As always, click the image to get the tutorial for making these awesome upcycles.
#1
You can create fire starters with them. I’m not sure I’d get my kids involved (we have some “rambunctious spirits), but maybe for responsible kids.
#2
You can make a hide-a-key. I saw a similar one that used a pine cone.
#3
You can use pill bottles to store shampoo, conditioner and lotion when traveling. I think these are the right size to be approved by airline security.
#4
You can make a travel sewing kit with attached pin cushion.
#5
You can make your own pill bottle survival kit. My husband has made about 20 of these and has them everywhere he spends any time.
#6
You can store small craft and hobby items, such as cake piping tips, small beads, and needles.
#7
You can make cute Halloween potion bottles.
#8
Maybe Halloween isn’t your thing and you’d prefer a winter snowman?
#9
You can make fun rainbow crayons. You get 2 “upcycle points” if you are upcycling broken crayons (another thing I refuse to throw away).
#10
You can make a faux bamboo vase.
#11
You can make one of those quick nail polish remover tubs.
#12
You can store ammo in them. I know nothing about hunting, but I’ve heard that dry ammo is happy ammo.
#13
Okay, knitters and crocheters will love this one. Make your yarn balls center pull using pill bottles. No more chasing balls of yarn everywhere.
#14
You can make your own ink daubers. I’m not sure what one would do with an ink dauber – BINGO maybe? – but it looked like a cute idea.
#15
If you’re having trouble finding a place to store all your quarters (I’ve never had that problem), you can use them in a pill bottle.
#16
You can make some cool amber-colored party lights. Maybe for a doctor’s graduation party?
#17
You can create a travel first aid kit. We use these all the time! Again, I have rambunctious children (okay, ONE rambunctious child, but I’m not naming names… Chico)
#18
You can help out the Tooth Fairy by giving her something a bit bigger than a tooth to look for in the mess of bed sheets.
#19
You can store tiny hair doodads in them.
#20
You can lock up your q-tips so your children don’t attempt to clean each other’s ears – yes, it’s happened.
#21
If my DIY Printable Seed Packets weren’t for you, you could store seeds in them.
#22
Last, but not least, you can use pill bottles to organize batteries.
If you’re crazy about upcycling like I am, you should check out Craftsy. They offer all sorts of online classes including my personal favorite, Project Upcycle.
Want to donate your empty pill bottles?
12/01/15 Update: The Malawi Pill Vial Program “has proven the most successful program in our 22 years in Malawi,” reports Richard Stephens, one of the co-founders and member of the Board of Directors for the Malawi Project. He is making reference to the recently concluded pill container collection program conducted by the Malawi Project. Stephens continues, “The original Facebook post reached 5 million people, and churches, schools, and other civic groups all over the nation picked up the story. By late November the number of vials received had passed 1 million. More people have participated in this single program that any other program since our beginning in 1993.” The program concluded the end of November, with all final shipments to be sent to the Project’s offices between January 1st and 15th.
What great uses have you come up with for old pill bottles? Share in the comments below.
And remember, health doesn’t come from plastic bottles, but if it does, make something cute with the bottle afterwards!One of the complaints against the new Voter ID law in North Carolina is it mandates that someone have a ‘government ID’ when verifying who they are when they vote at the polls. But Mark Levin, on his show last night, was perplexed at why government ID would even be an issue:
Why does the government issue photo IDs? It’s not the private sector issuing, it’s not the Klan issuing. The government is issuing voter ID so the government can know who you are. Now why does the government want to know who you are? Because they want to know who they are giving drivers licenses to; if a police officer stops you they want to know who you are. They want to know if you have insurance. They want to know your age if you want to buy booze. And I can go on and on. There wouldn’t be government issued photos IDs but for the government.
So my question is [this]: Is the government – are all state governments racist because they are requiring you to have a photo ID, that is a photo with your pigmentation on it? I mean, this is so asinine what the Left is up to in this administration.
You know what it is? Let’s just be honest, they want to defend fraud. They want to defend fraud. You can’t get on an airplane without a government issued ID. You can’t buy booze without a government issued ID. You can’t lease an apartment without a government issued ID. You can’t do damn near anything without a government issued ID.
Except vote! Anyone can vote without a photo ID at the polls!
Have you ever tried to check into a hotel without a government ID? Have you ever tried to rent a car without a government ID? Don’t we hold voting, like, at the top? Haven’t we fought the civil rights movement for people to have |
us, the last thing on earth that sisters Regina and Samantha Belmont (Catherine Mary Stewart and Kelly Maroney) ever expected. "Night of the Comet" is generally thought of us as kitschy, and that's not an entirely inaccurate perception (cue the shopping montage set to "Girls Just Want To Have Fun"), but it's aged far better than most of the low-budget sci-fi / horror films of the era, offering unexpectedly effective scares (there's a particularly fun bit involving a nightmare which turns out to be taking place within another nightmare) and creating characters that end up far more fleshed out than the clichés they initially appear to be. The best examples of the latter come with the character of Hector (Robert Beltran), whose trip to check on the safety of his family is surprisingly touching, and through Mary Woronov's surprising poignant performance as a scientist who tries to do the right thing before succumbing to…uh, what exactly was she infected with? The science of "Night of the Comet" is more than a little dodgy, never bothering to offer an explanation as to why some people turned to dust while others became zombies, but in the end, you're provided with such an awesome artifact of the '80s that you find yourself forgiving the film its flaws. – WH
When the Wind Blows (1986)
Moving from the ridiculous to the sublime, let us look at possibly the most depressing animated film you'll ever see. Though it's likely known more to Americans because of its soundtrack, which features contributions from David Bowie, Roger Waters, and Genesis, this adaptation of Raymond Briggs' graphic novel offers a look at how an elderly couple deals with an impending nuclear war and its inevitable aftermath, focusing on how little hope that such survivors would likely have. Sir John Mills and Dame Peggy Ashcroft provide the voices of the couple, who put their utmost faith in everything the government has told them about how to survive an attack, and having survived World War II, they manage to keep their spirits up even while preparing for the worst. Alas, faith serves them poorly: promises of post-attack government assistance of food and fresh water come to naught, leaving them to collect rain water and ultimately succumb to the ravages of radiation sickness. Director Jimmy Murakami does make time for flashback sequences to establish the longstanding love the couple have for each other (you may find yourself reminded of the beginning of "Up"), but it only makes the excruciating trip to the finale of the film all the more harrowing. No, it's not a film for children…and not just because things move at a slow, studied pace that would put pre-teens to sleep. The statement made by "When the Wind Blows" is one that still proves all too familiar today: war is Hell. – WH
12 Monkeys (1995)
The future looks pretty grim in Terry Gilliam's sole foray into the realm of science fiction. (No, "Brazil" isn't sci-fi; it was satire, but these days it's looking more and more like reality.) The population of planet Earth has been nearly wiped out by a virus, and the few that have survived have moved underground; it's a hazily portrayed existence, yet there's no question that life for humanity is bleak at best. The surface of the planet remains as it was, only overrun by animals of all kinds (which is given an explanation later in the movie). The government and scientists have turned their efforts toward perfecting time travel, and have managed to cobble together a crude technique, which is where prisoner James Cole (Bruce Willis) enters the picture. He's sent to the past (numerous times) in order to find out more about the virus's origins. There he meets mental patient Jeffrey Goines (Brad Pitt, in an Oscar-nominated performance), who may very well have something to do with the end of the world as we know it. As the story moves forward, it becomes one of those time travel meditations that says nothing can be done to change the past, and no matter how hard you try, you'll inevitably find yourself becoming part of the timeline. The film, based on the 1962 short "La Jetée," was dazzling in its day, and remains a potent concoction of sci-fi, memories and madness 15 years later. It also unfortunately marks the last time Gilliam had a box office hit. – Ross Ruediger
Six String Samurai (1998)
What if the Soviet Union had launched a series of warheads at the United States in 1957? That's the intriguing question posed by "Six-String Samurai" – but the movie doesn't stop there. Instead, writer-director Lance Mungia adds another layer, using his vision of a shattered post-nuclear American landscape as the backdrop for an action thriller version of the battle between traditional music (country, mariachi), rock & roll, and metal. It sounds bizarre, and it is, but it works; the "Six-String Samurai" in question, played by co-screenwriter Jeffrey Falcon, is a katana-wielding Buddy Holly lookalike (aptly named Buddy) who wages war against a Slash-resembling, metal-cranking warlord who's bent on conquering "Last Vegas." A Sundance sensation in '98, "Samurai" never really did the kind of business promised by all the hype surrounding the film, and Mungia didn't direct again until he helmed a "Crow" direct-to-video sequel in 2005 (talk about your apocalypses). Still, it's a fun flick, and if your interests include the end of the world and rock 'n' roll, you can hardly do better than this. – JG
The Matrix (1999)
The idea of mankind enslaved by some malevolent force or another is an old favorite with moviemakers (Aliens! Bugs! Apes!), as is the idea of people being, um, repurposed, as it were. (Two words: Soylent Green.) "The Matrix" is one of the only movies to combine the two concepts, though when the movie begins, neither of them is apparent. Indeed, the world of Tom Anderson, a worker drone by day and uber-hacker Neo by night, seems pretty unremarkable. It is only after hacker cult figure Morpheus agrees to show Tom "how deep the rabbit hole goes" that Tom, and we, learn The Ugly Truth: the surface of the earth has been uninhabitable for centuries, and all humans are spending their lives in a virtual reality construct, while a complex network of machines uses the electrical energy and body heat from their real bodies, which are stored in individual pods, as a fuel source. Whoa. Curiously, the film was so eager to show off its knowledge of philosophy, Hong Kong cinema and bullet-cam techniques that it spent very little time exploring one very simple question: what price freedom? Obviously no one wants to fuel the machines that enslaved humanity, but then again, choosing life outside of the Matrix is a lot like choosing life in "The Road," minus the cannibals. (For now, anyway.) And after seeing the food that the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar ate, and the ratty conditions of the humans' promised land of Zion, that imaginary steak Agent Smith "fed" Cypher would have looked damn good to us, too. – David Medsker
Children of Men (2006)
What would happen to our world if we had everything we currently have, minus just one thing: a future? The answer portrayed in this involving, grimly violent, and hugely moving film by Alfonso Cuaron, based on a novel by P.D. James, is a bleak one indeed. Fascism, vicious anti-immigration policies, poverty, and mindless warfare are just a few of the plagues visited upon humanity by itself after realizing that it has -- for no clear reason -- lost the ability to reproduce. In the middle of all this is Theo Faron (Clive Owen at his most Bogart-esque), a tragedy-scarred activist-turned-bureaucrat who would prefer not to stick his neck out for anyone but who nevertheless finds the courage to do the right thing. In this case, that means helping a vulnerable young African immigrant (Claire-Hope Ashitey) who is the only known person to have become pregnant in eighteen years and who has therefore become a pawn in a political game being played by some extremely callous players. It's an increasingly deadly journey, including one of the most viscerally frightening battle sequences since "Saving Private Ryan." Still, it's a battle that must be endured. Apocalypses may come and go, but as long as there are children, there is hope. – BW
Terminator Salvation (2009)
The tales of the "Terminator" universe will give you a headache if you try to make sense of all the time travel shenanigans, but one thing's for sure: the future definitely isn't looking too bright for humanity. But why, you ask, have we gone with the least of the films as our designated selection when all the other entries in the franchise feature glimpses of a future involving the so-called "Rise of the Machines"? Simple: it's the only one that takes place almost exclusively during that era. "Salvation" is all about the human resistance forces fighting against the forces of Skynet, the computer system which took its artificial intelligence, said, "Screw this," and revolted against its creators (an event which would come to be known as Judgment Day). It also gives us the first full-fledged look at resistance fighter John Connor in action as an adult and provides us with more details about the Terminators' evolution, their shift away from pure robotics, and the incorporation of living tissue into their matrix. Still, we can't very well ignore the preceding films, especially since they're all about trying to keep the events in "Salvation" from coming to pass in the first place. Although the ostensible purpose of "Salvation" was to fill a gap in the franchise's history by showing more of the devastation caused by Skynet's uprising, it's arguable that we had a lot more dread about what was on the horizon when we were only seeing the future in small doses. – WH
Battlefield: Earth (2000)
Much as "Planet of the Apes" was always destined to sit atop this list, so was it secured long ago that "Battlefield Earth" would be at the bottom…because, really, where else would you put the film which took home the Razzie for Worst Picture of the Decade? There had been attempts to bring L. Ron Hubbard's 1982 novel to the big screen since its publication, but it took the power of a post-"Pulp Fiction" John Travolta to finally make it happen…and once it did happen, all but the most diehard Scientologists likely wished that it hadn't. "Battlefield Earth" paints a picture of an Earth that's been under alien rule for a millennium, but humanity finally battles back against the so-called Psychlos, thanks to the man known as Jonnie Goodboy Tyler (Barry Pepper). Y'see, Earth apparently isn't the greatest post, which is why the Psychlo charged with handling the security of the planet – Terl, played by Travolta – got his job as a form of punishment. Frustrated with the situation, Terl devises a plan to buy his way out by getting human slaves to mine huge amounts of gold from a highly radioactive area, but he makes the mistake of selecting Jonnie as his foreman. The next thing you know, there's a major uprising, Terl ends up imprisoned in Fort Knox, and the humans are in charge again. Yay, Earth! Some say "Battlefield" failed at the box office because of an anti-Scientology backlash. Don't you believe them: it bombed because it's terrible. – WHAh, the simple pleasure of a perfectly stacked soda display or an impeccably organized closet. Who doesn’t feel at least a little reenergized after a bout of over-the-top arranging? Turns out, our squirrelly friends might feel the same way about neatly-organized nuts.
In a new study in Royal Society Open Science, scientists from University of California Berkeley report that nut-hoarding squirrels are quite particular about their food caches, putting their nuts away in neat little groupings—a strategy that helps them remember where all their hiding places are. The finding points to just how mentally taxing caching nuts for winter is, but the organizational abilities of squirrels may only go so far.
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As “scatter-hoarders,” squirrels create lots of little caches where they store their food, lest a natural disaster or crafty competitor wipe out their stockpile. By having lots of little stashes all over the place, the squirrels ensure that at least some of them will remain safe. But the more stores you make, the harder it gets to remember where they all are. That’s where a bit of organization goes a long way, cognitively speaking.
When we humans organize, we tend put group things into discrete units, a strategy known as “chunking.” We do it every day with phone numbers, for example. We mentally break the number into smaller strings—such as the area code, then the first three digits, then the last four—rather than try to recall an unbroken string of ten numbers.
The same type of chunking helps us remember locations, too. If you have 100 books, you’re never going to be able to remember the exact location of each one if you put them on a bookshelf at random. But you could readily find any given book if you split the books into categories—say, fiction and non-fiction—and took a mental note of where each category, or “chunk,” is placed.
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Chunking is considered a key mechanism of human cognition, and studies have shown that rats and other animals can also use this important memory recall strategy (or mnemonic) in laboratory settings. But tests for chunking in wild animals are few and far between.
To see if squirrels are chunkers, researchers from UC Berkeley offered 45 free-ranging Eastern fox squirrels (Sciurus niger) a series of 16 seeds from a central location: 4 each from 4 different species of plant. Some of the time, they gave them sequentially in species groups—4 almonds, then 4 hazelnuts, then 4 pecans, then 4 walnuts. Other times, they gave the nuts in pseudorandom order, where they were mixed and no species was given twice in a row. When the squirrels hid their prizes, the scientists followed with a GPS to record the location of each cache. They then ran the experiment again, but this time, every time a squirrel hid a nut, the experimenters gave out the next nut from that spot later on, thus handing out the nuts from a different location each time. They then compared how often the squirrels overlapped nut varieties in their caches in each of the four types of trials.
Fastidious little hoarders that they are, the squirrels took the nuts handed out from the single central location and sorted them into species-specific storages. It didn’t matter what order the nuts were given in. “This first demonstration of chunking in a scatter hoarder underscores the cognitive demand of scatter hoarding,” the authors wrote. If it wasn’t mentally taxing to remember all of their hiding spots, the animals wouldn’t need a mnemonic like chunking to keep track of things.
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But when the researchers started handing out nuts from multiple locations, the animals’ neat little system started to break down. “Squirrels spatially chunked their caches by nut species but only when caching food that was foraged from a single location,” the authors explained. When the nut species were given in sequence from multiple locations, the squirrels still kept the species overlap minimal, including up to two species per cache. When everything was mixed and handed out from different locations, however, the rodents’ organizing skills folded. Instead of grouping their nuts by species, the animals appeared to simply avoid caching in the same areas as they had previously.
It’s unclear why the animals changed their strategy. The pseudorandom order from multiple locations put the greatest memory burden on their tiny little rodent brains, so the animals should have needed a mneumonic to accurately remember their caches even more than before. It’s possible that their mental capacity simply couldn’t handle the overload of information. Or, the authors suggest the strategy switch may have been due to the increased energetic demand of grouping nuts by species and location when the different nuts are handed out so far apart from one another in both time and space. It would have been really interesting to see if the breakdown of chunking made a difference in the animals’ ability to find the nuts later on, but alas, that was outside the scope of this study.
“A tree squirrel may face a constant series of decisions,” the authors explain in their discussion. “Our results may reflect the effects of these kinds of foraging decisions and show that squirrels may adjust behaviours dependent on how food is acquired.”
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When you think about it, the mental energy it must take to be a scatter hoarding squirrel is actually quite astounding. Many people find it hard enough to locate their keys when they put them down ten minutes ago—imagine remembering where you buried a nut in a forest weeks after! We should give these critters more credit for the cognitive feats they accomplish every day.
Christie Wilcox is a science writer, author of Venomous: How Earth’s Deadliest Creatures Mastered Biochemistry, and all around biology nerd. Follow her on Twitter.The Godfather is universally recognised as one of the greatest films of all time, and now HBO Films are developing a movie focusing on its production.
Revealed by Variety, the film entitled Francis & The Godfather will be a scripted affair that documents the making of the seminal 1973 mafia adaptation of Mario Puzo’s novel.
The movie will chronicle the behind the scenes goings on, detailing everything from the film’s creation, Francis Ford Coppola joining the project as director, Al Pacino being cast, Marlon Brando taking on the role of Vito Corleone, and the dealings the production had with the real life Mafia.
The film will be written by Andrew Farotte, a revision of his 2015 Black List screenplay.
How much interest this HBO movie will garner remains to be seen, but The Godfather is undoubtedly a classic and the behind the scenes events were anything but dull. It could be interesting.New Jersey's answer to Arnold Schwarzenegger is taking the first steps toward enriching his friends and benefactors by privatizing public schools:
NEW YORK (Reuters) - New Jersey Governor Chris Christie announced a pilot program on Thursday that would allow private companies to run public schools in some of the state's chronically underperforming school districts. The public-private partnership would authorize school management organizations to operate five schools, and would target some of the 100,000 New Jersey students now enrolled in 200 chronically failing schools, the governor's office said. The state's teachers union, which has clashed with the Republican governor over cuts to school aid and other issues, said the plan was part of Christie's "ongoing effort to privatize public education in New Jersey." [...] Christie has appointed as his acting education commissioner Christopher Cerf, the former president of Edison Schools Inc., the country's largest private-sector manager of public schools. The company is now called EdisonLearning.
Oh yeah, Christopher Cerf! Look at the chart at the top of this post and see if you can follow with this post from Blue Jersey:
Billionaire Rupert Murdoch owns Fox News, which promotes both a "corporate education reform" agenda and politicians like Governor Chris Christie to carry that agenda out. Murdoch recently hired Joel Klein, former NYC Schools Chancellor and toady to billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg, to run Wireless Generation, Murdoch's venture into the education business. Klein is the former boss of Christopher Cerf, currently Acting Commissioner of Education under Chris Christie. Cerf's last edu-business venture before accepting the position was as founder of Global Education Advisors, which "consulted" with the Newark schools on a plan to vastly increase the numbers of charter schools in the city. The $500,000 for the report came from the Broad Foundation, funded by billionaire Eli Broad. The foundation also funded Cerf's training as an education administrator.
Yes, for some odd reason, Cory Booker, Newark's mayor, refused to disclose who funded the study.Bryn Griffiths (from left), Doug Tuttrup, CEO Fred Foster and Tong Vang stand in the lobby of Electronic Theatre Controls headquarters in Middleton. Foster and the other co-owners are giving 33% of the company to employees over the next 10 years, with the possibility of more after that. Credit: Andy Manis / for the Journal Sentinel
By of the
The first hint was a holiday note telling Electronic Theatre Controls Inc.'s nearly 900 U.S.-based employees to take stock of a good year. Next came the Birkenstocks, a pair for each worker. And finally, at a company meeting, Chief Executive Officer Fred Foster delivered the real prize: actual shares of company stock.
Forty years after founding ETC, Foster said he and his co-owners are giving 33% of the company to employees over the next 10 years — and maybe even more after that.
"It's very believable that in decades the employees would have a controlling interest in the company," said Foster.
Middleton-based ETC manufactures lighting and rigging technology for entertainment and architectural purposes.
Tong Vang, a team leader in an area that assembles parts for fixtures, was shocked by Foster's gifts of stocks. "Then I was happy," she said. The employees will receive the shares on top of all of the other benefits they already have.
Foster said his desire to do an employee stock ownership plan, or ESOP, was kindled during years of watching competitors being sold over and over to different corporate owners or venture capital firms that either could not stanch the outflow of good employees or laid people off.
"This terrifies us," Foster said. "There were a lot of companies about our age started by rock 'n' rollers or people with a dream of doing something, then the partners wanted to cash out and they sold to a conglomerate that just lost the plot."
Along with Foster and his wife, Susan, there are two other ETC owners: co-founder Gary Bewick and Bob Gilson of Gilson Inc., a Madison maker of instruments for the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. To a person, the owners don't define shareholder value as the most money in their pockets or the biggest estates, Foster said.
"We define it as ETC being independent and thriving in 100 years," he said.
ETC is not disclosing what that 33% of the company is worth. But after recently completing the best first quarter in its history, executives say it is on track to beat its 2016 revenue projection of $250 million.
Every year for the next 10, the owners will sell 10% of the stock they have allocated to an ESOP, a retirement plan of sorts that buys, holds and sells company stock for the benefit of the employees, providing them with an ownership stake in the company.
"The reason ETC has been so successful is that our senior leadership has their hearts in the right place," said Doug Tuttrup, a senior account specialist at ETC who works with Disney, Universal and other customers. "There are many decisions made here with the heart first, then the head."
There are about 6,800 ESOPs in the U.S., with about 200 in Wisconsin, said Aaron Juckett, president and founder of ESOP Partners, an Appleton firm that helped ETC's owners with their plan. The average Wisconsin ESOP company has been in place for 19 years and is 66% employee-owned, he said.
ETC approached Juckett about the possibility of doing an ESOP after evaluating many alternatives, he said. To do an ESOP, a company has to be doing well and have enough financial resources, Juckett said. It is also important to have an ownership culture, something ETC already had in place, he said.
"It seems like a company that was employee-owned already because we all feel so strongly about the product and our fellow employees and the customers," said Bryn Griffiths, an IT business analyst at ETC.
The ESOP is a way to recognize that and reward employees' contributions, Foster said.
All of ETC's U.S. employees will be enrolled in the ESOP. When shares are distributed, half will be allocated equally across the employee ranks; the other half will be allocated based on pay levels. New hires will qualify to participate after one year, and the stock will take five years to vest to the point where employees can sell. They will be required to sell their shares back to the company when they leave. The 150 or so employees in ETC's international offices will be offered equivalent pension plans that meet their countries' requirements.
ETC's owners could make bigger profits if they moved manufacturing to China, said John Robison, a partner at the law firm of Quarles & Brady who represents the company. Or they could gives themselves a big payday by selling the entire company. But in an era where U.S. jobs continue to go overseas, they've chosen to balance their own profits with the well-being of others around them, he said.
"This is what it takes; it takes owners to stand up and say, 'I'm doing well enough, and what's more important to me is that my employees and the community are taken care of,'" Robison said. "That's a courageous stand."A company has ambitious plans to pipe glacial water from rugged South Westland mountains directly onto tanker ships headed overseas.
Part of a remote West Coast beach would effectively become a water-export facility, with billions of litres of water each year taken from the edge of a national park, down a remote mountainside and onto ships waiting offshore.
The large scale of the Jackson Bay project, which has been in the works for around 25 years and is coming closer to fruition, has raised eyebrows, as has the limited public consultation.
FAIRFAX NZ Maps showing the project's planned location.
Okuru Enterprises, a consortium of West Coast locals, has many of the resource consents needed for the project, including permission to take and export 800,000 tonnes of water – about 800 million litres – each month.
READ MORE:
* For sale: 40 billion litres of Canterbury's purest water
* Second Canterbury property with water extraction rights up for sale
* Elation as Ashburton council backs out of controversial water bottling deal
A hearing next month will decide if the project gets other needed resource consents, including permission to build its storage facility at Neil's Beach.
WESTLAND DISTRICT COUNCIL Renderings of the proposed water export facility at Neil's Beach, near Haast.
The water would be taken from a dam at Tuning Fork Creek on the edge of Mount Aspiring National Park, according to the company's consent application.
The water originates in glacial lakes high in the Southern Alps and flows down the braided Arawhata River and into the sea.
While the water intake is technically outside the national park, a website associated with the project uses the park as a selling point, saying the water originates "from a protected UNESCO World Heritage site".
DAVID ALEXANDER/FAIRFAX NZ The wharf at Jacksons Bay, near Haast.
It refers to an "unlimited" supply due to the area's high annual rain and snowfall and water purity that is "internationally unsurpassed".
THE PLAN
A 14-hectare "water-export complex" would be constructed on private land at Neil's Beach, a tiny community beneath Mount Aspiring National Park.
Water would be funnelled from the dam down 12 kilometres of mostly underground pipe, which would wind down the mountain across Department of Conservation (DOC) land, the Alpine Fault, and beneath a public road to the export facility.
It would fill up to six large holding tanks, together capable of holding 160 million litres of water, before being pumped through an undersea pipe onto tanker ships anchored about 5.5km off Jackson Bay.
While most of the infrastructure is on private land, the dam and several kilometres of pipe are on the DOC estate.
In the 1990s the department granted the company a concession to build its pipe, which is still valid.
Okuru Enterprises chairman Peter Roselli said on Tuesday that the company had paid more than $100,000 for the concession over the years, despite not taking any water.
It had also recently been consulting with DOC, which would consider the project's impacts once all consents had been approved.
Roselli said it had taken many years to get to this point due to the scale of the operation.
There were "quite a number" of groups interested in buying the water, he said.
"It takes a long, long time to get all the consents.
"If indeed all our consents are approved, we can then go back to the interested parties."
He assured people there would be "virtually no environmental impacts" and the water's source was sustainable; a NIWA report dated February 2016 said the project's long-term impact on water levels would be minimal.
The company's application said the project would create between seven and 10 jobs.
Roselli said it would also create export income for New Zealand and be an environmentally-friendly operation.
"The West Coast of the South Island is having a very bad trot, economically. Coal mines are closing down, the cement works have closed down.
"It's world-class water. The world needs pure water and it's getting to the stage where it's going to become very serious in the very near future."
Unlike other New Zealand water exporters or exporter plans, such as the controversial attempt to bottle aquifer water in Ashburton, Roselli said no one else was using this water as it otherwise flowed out to sea.
OPPOSITION
Concerns have been raised by some Jackson Bay locals, Heritage New Zealand, Forest & Bird and water-conservation advocates.
"This is a community resource that's owned by all New Zealanders, coming out of a national park, and a select few are going to profit from that," said Jen Branje of the NZ Water Forum, a group promoting sustainable water use.
"People go to Haast to be decimated by sand flies and see the view, they don't want to see giant ships out in the bay waiting to suck our water away."
She said those who took water should be required to pay for it, with the money used to fund projects such as infrastructure upgrades.
Because of the time taken to get the consents, some had expired and had to be re-approved.
The reapproval of water take consents late last year was not publicly notified by the West Coast Regional Council.
Consents to build the facility have been limited notified by the Westland District Council, meaning only those asked to submit may do so. This meant advocacy groups have not been able to submit.
Forest & Bird Canterbury West Coast conservation manager Jen Miller said it was concerning such a large project was not publicly notified and the group would be following up.
She said part of the pipeline would run through the conservation estate and through habitat of the Haast brown kiwi, the rarest kiwi sub-species. It has a population of about 400 and is classed as nationally critical by DOC.
The consent application said the company would work with DOC to create a kiwi-protection plan and that it was unlikely any kiwi were at risk.
Hearings are set to take place in Westland next month.John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats perfects the art of storytelling
The Mountain Goats include, from left, Jon Wurster, John Darnielle, Peter Hughes and Matt Douglas. The Mountain Goats include, from left, Jon Wurster, John Darnielle, Peter Hughes and Matt Douglas. Photo: Jeremy Lange Photo: Jeremy Lange Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats perfects the art of storytelling 1 / 3 Back to Gallery
John Darnielle found his band's name, the Mountain Goats, in a "Screaming" Jay Hawkins song, but the moniker has proven a good fit for his writing: his are sure-footed tales about uncertain people.
Darnielle may be the closest thing popular music has to a short-story writer. He's penned dozens of songs, most of them intricately drawn character studies. He then spins about 10 or 12 of these stories into thematic collections that become a Mountain Goats album.
Darnielle returns time and again to ideas of identity and the self. So two years ago, he followed that theme in the grandest way, with a collection of songs about professional wrestling. True to its title, the new "Goths" is populated by characters drawn more inward. The stories are sometimes drawn from Darnielle's youth, though not always. But at 50, he has great clarity in his recall for youth, while presenting it with the long view that comes from being older.
"That's who I was," he sings on one "Goths" tune. "This is who I am."
"There's a very American idea that there's some central 'you' that you have to be true to your entire life," he says. "And that's a weird idea to me. I'm heavily interested in our subcultures. With a subculture, maybe you're this one person for six months. But that idea, that there's an authentic self, is childlike to me. If you're growing, you're changing. So we grow, we go back, sometimes those things are for the better. Sometimes they're not. And we look back fondly, but maybe we shouldn't. One of the things about past selves, they can come back to haunt you. They're not always who you want to have been back there."
Darnielle has produced an enormous amount of music in the 22 years since he first started making rickety Mountain Goats recordings on a boom box. There have been nearly 20 albums or collections, a very well-received novel and a novella for the 331⁄3 book series in which he spun a fictional story around Black Sabbath's "Master of Reality."
The sum of his work can be daunting to those who haven't yet found the Mountain Goats, but over the past 15 years, Mountain Goats albums have become more polished things and points of entry abound, starting with the beautiful "Tallahassee."
Darnielle's writing has remained constant: wrenching, funny and contemplative. At times, he's drawn from autobiography greatly, as on "The Sunset Tree" in 2005, which documents a tumultuous adolescence in a home with an abusive stepfather. Even when Darnielle isn't a cast member in the songs - like "Beat the Champ," the wrestling album - the content still reflects his broad interests. How close were the personae of wrestlers inside the ring to their lives outside it?
So "Goths" looks at a range of a particular black-clad subculture. Some disappear into it. Others do not. On "The Grey King," Darnielle sings, "I'm hardcore, but I'm not that hardcore."
"That's the thing, with hardcore there's a point at which it crosses over into being unhealthy," he says.
In the song, a character scrapes his car against a guardrail.
"I would say that's too hardcore," Darnielle says, laughing. "It's one thing to burn your finger with a flame. It's another playing chicken in traffic."
Darnielle's own biography - at least as presented in song - swings toward and away from being too hardcore. That abusive childhood developed into a period of addiction, with an absence of direction befitting a guy who was born in the Midwest and grew up all along the Pacific Coast.
"Probably, by most reckonings, yes, I was too hardcore at times," he says. "But to me, no, I'm not dead. So, no. I only had a couple of brushes that were close, but I always backed away before things got too dangerous. I guess I have too much self-preservation. As a goth, you'd judge yourself for too much self-preservation. And to some of my friends, maybe there was a period of two years where I was too hardcore. But it always seemed like somebody else in the graveyard."
So he backed away and took a job at a psych ward - a setting that showed up in his Black Sabbath book and also the occasional song - got an English degree and set about writing songs. Darnielle took to writing with an almost natural aptitude: He's proved capable of dropping all manner of words into a three-minute song with Tetris-like precision. And he's the perfect vessel for them. While Darnielle's nasal voice is a deterrent to some, his enunciation is clear and loud. There are no murmurs on Mountain Goats albums. That said, "Beat the Champ" required a certain forcefulness to reflect the puffed up nature of wrestling. "Goths" possesses a more subtle sound.
"I think one difference between the records is this one is more about the way people think of themselves, their perceived self," he says. "Wrestling is so performative. So is goth, but in a different way. The interior states are different. And the common thread is telling stories about people. We think of entertainers and goths as caricatures. And that's dehumanizing. I think characters should be given the full measure of humanity."Canada’s richest people for 2016 have been officially selected, and a few Vancouverites have made the list.
As usual, West Vancouver resident Jimmy Pattison made the list coming in at number seven, as well as the Aquilini’s, Vancouver’s biggest development and property-magnates. Bob and Tom Gaglardi, owners of Northland Properties, including Sandman Hotels, the Sutton Place and the NHL’s Dallas Stars.
Calgary’s Garrett Camp took third place with a net worth of over $9 billion, thanks to two successful startups – Uber and StumbleUpon – and Taiwan-born Joseph Tsai landed in sixth place due to his position with Alibaba in China.
The rest of the list is mostly familiar names, like the Thomson family and the Rogers family, the Saputo’s, and the McCain family, but all are worth at least $3 billion.
The complete list was published by the Canadian Business magazine last week.
1. Thomson Family
David Thomson took over as Chairman of the Thomson Coporation from his late father in 2006, after an acquisition forming Thomson Reuters.
Lives: Toronto, Ontario
Net worth: $36.76 billion
Change from last year: up 20%
2. Galen Weston
Weston serves as executive chairman of George Weston, the grocery giant which owns Loblaws, Shoppers Drug Mart, Selfridges, Holt Renfrew, and more.
Lives: Toronto, Ontario
Net worth: $13 |
2. JPTS has a lower freeze point, higher viscosity, and higher thermal stability than standard Air Force fuels. In 1999, the United States Air Force spent approximately $11.3 million on fuel for the U-2 aircraft and was looking for a lower cost alternative. JPTS is a specialty fuel and as such has limited worldwide availability and costs over three times the per-gallon price of the Air Force's primary jet fuel, JP-8. Research is under way to find a cheaper and easier alternative involving additives to generally used jet fuels. A JP-8 based alternative, JP-8+100LT, is being considered. JP-8+100 has increased thermal stability by 100 °F (56 °C) over stock JP-8, and is only 0.5 cents per gallon more expensive; low temperature additives can be blended to this stock to achieve desired cold performance.[26]
Due to the small landing gear, a perfect balance in the fuel tanks was essential for a safe landing. Similarly to sailplanes, the U-2 had a yaw string on the canopy to detect slip or skid during the approach. A skid during flight with no bank was the hint of an unbalance around the longitudinal axis which could be resolved by moving the fuel to the left or right wing tank.[27]
Design [ edit ]
The design that gives the U-2 its remarkable performance also makes it a difficult aircraft to fly. Martin Knutson said that it "was the highest workload air plane I believe ever designed and built... you're wrestling with the air plane and operating the camera systems at all times", leaving no time to "worry about whether you're over Russia or you're flying over southern California".[28] The U-2 was designed and manufactured for minimum airframe weight, which results in an aircraft with little margin for error.[17] Most aircraft were single-seat versions, with only five two-seat trainer versions known to exist.[29] Early U-2 variants were powered by Pratt & Whitney J57 turbojet engines.[30] The U-2C and TR-1A variants used the more powerful Pratt & Whitney J75 turbojet. The U-2S and TU-2S variants incorporated the more powerful General Electric F118 turbofan engine.[31]
High aspect ratio wings give the U-2 some glider-like characteristics, with an engine out glide ratio of about 23:1,[32] comparable to gliders of the time. To maintain their operational ceiling of 70,000 feet (21,000 m), the early U-2A and U-2C models had to fly very near their never-exceed speed (V NE ). The margin between that maximum speed and the stall speed at that altitude was only 10 knots (12 mph; 19 km/h). This narrow window is called the "coffin corner",[33][34] because breaching either limit would likely cause airflow separation at the wings or tail.[35] For most of the time on a typical mission the U-2 was flying less than five knots above stall speed. A stall would cause a loss of altitude, possibly leading to detection and overstress of the airframe.[17]
The U-2's flight controls are designed for high-altitude flight; the controls require light control inputs at operational altitude. However, at lower altitudes, the higher air density and lack of a power assisted control system makes the aircraft very difficult to fly. Control inputs must be extreme to achieve the desired response, and a great deal of physical strength is needed to operate the controls in this manner. The U-2 is very sensitive to crosswinds, which, together with its tendency to float over the runway, makes the aircraft notoriously difficult to land. As it approaches the runway, the cushion of air provided by the high-lift wings in ground effect is so pronounced that the U-2 will not land unless the wing is fully stalled. A landing U-2 is accompanied on the ground by a chase car and an assisting U-2 pilot calling off the angles and decreasing aircraft height as the aircraft descends.[36][37] In practice, once the aircraft has descended to an altitude of 2 feet (61 cm) above the tarmac the pilot initiates a stall and the aircraft falls from this height. Chase cars and live calling of aircraft altitude are necessary because the landing gear is not designed to absorb the weight of the aircraft when falling from altitudes much above 2 feet.
Instead of the typical tricycle landing gear, the U-2 uses a bicycle configuration with a forward set of main wheels located just behind the cockpit, and a rear set of main wheels located behind the engine. The rear wheels are coupled to the rudder to provide steering during taxiing. To maintain balance while taxiing and take-off, two auxiliary wheels called "pogos" are attached under the wings. These fit into sockets underneath each wing at about mid-span, and fall off at takeoff. To protect the wings during landing, each wingtip has a titanium skid. After the U-2 comes to a halt, the ground crew re-installs the pogos in one wing at a time, then the aircraft taxis to parking.[38]
Because of the high operating altitude and the cockpit's partial pressurization, equivalent to 28,000 feet (8,500 m) pressure altitude, the pilot wears a partially pressurized space suit, which delivers the pilot's oxygen supply and provides emergency protection in case cabin pressure is lost. While pilots can drink water and eat various liquid foods in squeezable containers[39] through a self-sealing hole in the face mask, they typically lose up to 5% of their body mass on an eight-hour mission.[40] Most pilots chose to not take with them the suicide pill offered before missions. If put in the mouth and bitten, the "L-pill"—containing liquid potassium cyanide—would cause death in 10–15 seconds. After a pilot almost accidentally ingested an L-pill instead of candy during a December 1956 flight, the suicide pills were put into boxes to avoid confusion. When in 1960 the CIA realized that a pill breaking inside the cockpit would kill the pilot, it destroyed the L-pills, and as a replacement its Technical Services Division developed a needle poisoned with a powerful shellfish toxin and hidden in a silver dollar. Only one was made because, as the agency decided, if any pilot needed to use it the program would probably be canceled.[41] Like the suicide pill, not all pilots carried the coin, and Knutson did not know of any that intended to commit suicide; he carried it as an escape tool.[28]
To decrease the risk of developing decompression sickness, pilots breathe 100% oxygen for an hour prior to take off to remove nitrogen from the blood. A portable oxygen supply is used during transport to the aircraft.[42] Since 2001, more than a dozen pilots have reportedly suffered the effects of decompression sickness, including permanent brain damage in nine cases; initial symptoms include disorientation and becoming unable to read. Factors increasing the risk of illness since 2001 include longer mission durations and more cockpit activity. Conventional reconnaissance missions would limit pilot duties to maintaining flight path for camera photography. Operations over Afghanistan included more real time activities, such as communication with ground troops, increasing their bodies' oxygen requirements and the risk of nitrogen bubble formation. U-2 pilots now exercise during oxygen pre-breathing.[43] In 2012, modifications were initiated under the Cockpit Altitude Reduction Effort (CARE), increasing the cabin pressure from 3.88 psi to 7.65 psi, a 15,000 foot altitude equivalent. The urine collection device also was rebuilt to eliminate leakage.[39][44]
Sensors [ edit ]
U-2 with range of possible payloads
Initial missions were flown with the trimetrogon "A" camera, a modification of existing cameras, consisting of three 24-inch-focal-length cameras. This was followed by the "B" camera with 36-inch-focal-length lens and image motion compensation. It was a panoramic camera which took pictures of an extremely large area of the earth's surface. Six-thousand-foot reels of film made from ESTAR Base (PET) were used.[45]
The aircraft carries a variety of sensors in the nose, Q-bay (behind the cockpit, also known as the camera bay), and wing pods. The U-2 is capable of simultaneously collecting signals, imagery intelligence and air samples. Imagery intelligence sensors include either wet film photography, electro-optic, or radar imagery–the latter from the Raytheon ASARS-2 system. It can use both line-of-sight and over-horizon data links.
Operational history [ edit ]
United States [ edit ]
Pilot selection and training [ edit ]
Though the USAF and the Navy would eventually fly the U-2, the CIA had majority control over the project, code named Project DRAGON LADY.[46] Despite SAC chief LeMay's early dismissal of the CL-282, the USAF in 1955 sought to take over the project and put it under SAC until Eisenhower repeated his opposition to military personnel flying the aircraft. Nonetheless, the USAF substantially participated in the project; Bissell described it as a "49 percent" partner. The USAF agreed to select and train pilots and plot missions, while the CIA would handle cameras and project security, process film, and arrange foreign bases.[47]
Beyond not using American military personnel to fly the U-2, Eisenhower preferred to use non-US citizens. Seven Greek pilots and a Polish expatriate were added to the U-2 trainees although only two of the Greek pilots were subsequently allowed to fly the aircraft. Their flight proficiency was poor. The language barrier and a lack of appropriate flying experience proved problematic; by late 1955, foreign pilots had been dropped from the program.[48][49] USAF pilots had to resign their military commissions before joining the agency as civilians, a process referred to as "sheep dipping",[17] and were always called "drivers", not pilots. The program only recruited fighter pilots with reserve USAF commissions, as regular commissions complicated the resignation process. The program offered high salaries and the USAF promised that pilots could return at the same rank as their peers. The CIA's standards for selection were higher than the USAF's once the latter began its own U-2 flights; although more candidates were rejected, the CIA's program had a much lower accident rate. Test pilot Tony LeVier trained other Lockheed pilots to fly the U-2. By September 1955 he had trained six USAF pilots, who in turn trained other "sheep-dipped" pilots. As no two-seat trainer model was available for the program's first 15 years, training was done before the trainee's first solo flight and via radio. Pilots had to adjust to the U-2's unusual combination of jet engines and enormous, high-lift glider wings; because of the "coffin corner" they learned of the need to pay complete attention to flying when not using the autopilot.[50]
Test flights [ edit ]
Pilot view within the U-2 cockpit. Note the use of a high-pressure suit worn by pilot, similar to that used by the aircraft's successor, the Lockheed SR-71
As with CIA involvement, besides the normal serial number for each aircraft produced, each U-2 also has an "article number" assigned, and each U-2 would be referred to with its article number on classified internal documents. The prototype U-2, Article 341, never received a USAF serial.[51] The first flight occurred at Groom Lake on 1 August 1955, during what was intended to be only a high-speed taxi test. The sailplane-like wings were so efficient that the aircraft jumped into the air at 70 knots (81 mph; 130 km/h),[17] amazing LeVier who, as he later said, "had no intentions whatsoever of flying". The lake bed had no markings making it difficult for LeVier to judge the distance to the ground, and the brakes proved too weak; he bounced the U-2 once before it stopped rolling. Although the aircraft suffered only minor damage, LeVier again found landing the U-2 difficult during the actual first test flight three days later. On his sixth try, he found that landing the aircraft by touching down on the rear wheel first was superior to the front. Pilots continued to have difficulty during landing, due to the ground effect holding the aircraft off the runway for long distances. On a test flight on 8 August, the U-2 reached 32,000 feet (9,800 m), proving that Johnson had met his promised specifications and deadline. By 16 August, the prototype flew at 52,000 feet (15,800 m), an altitude never before reached in sustained flight; by 8 September, it reached 65,000 feet (19,800 m).[52]
By January 1956, the U-2 so impressed the USAF that it decided to obtain its own aircraft. The USAF purchased a total of 31 U-2s through the CIA; the transaction's code name, Project DRAGON LADY, was the origin of the aircraft's nickname. Meanwhile, U-2s conducted eight overflights of the U.S. in April 1956, convincing project overseers that the aircraft was ready for deployment. As often happens with new aircraft designs, there were several operational accidents. One occurred during these test flights, when a U-2 suffered a flameout over Tennessee; the pilot calculated that he could reach New Mexico. Every air base in the continental U.S. had sealed orders on what to do if a U-2 landed. The commander of Kirtland Air Force Base near Albuquerque, New Mexico was told to open his orders, prepare for the arrival of an unusual aircraft making a deadstick landing, and get it inside a hangar as soon as possible. The U-2 successfully landed after gliding for more than 300 miles (480 km), and its strange, glider-like appearance and the space-suited pilot startled the base commander and other witnesses.[53]
Not all U-2 incidents would be so benign, with three fatal accidents occurring in 1956 alone. The first fatal accident was on 15 May 1956, when the pilot stalled the aircraft during a post-takeoff maneuver that was intended to drop off the wingtip outrigger wheels. The second occurred on 31 August, when the pilot stalled the aircraft immediately after takeoff. On 17 September, a third aircraft disintegrated during ascent in Germany, also killing the pilot.[54] There were other non-fatal incidents, including at least one that resulted in the loss of the aircraft.
Cover story [ edit ]
A committee of Army, Navy, Air Force, CIA, NSA, and State Department representatives created lists of priority targets for U-2 and other intelligence-gathering methods. The U-2 project received the list and drew up flight plans, and the committee provided a detailed rationale for each plan for the president to consider as he decided whether to approve it. The CIA's Photo Intelligence Division grew in size to prepare for the expected flood of U-2 photographs. Before the aircraft became operational, however, the air force's Project Genetrix, which used high-altitude balloons to photograph the Soviet Union, China, and eastern Europe, led to many diplomatic protests from those countries and for a while CIA officials feared that the U-2 project was at risk. While Genetrix was also a technical failure—only 34 of the 516 balloons returned usable photographs—the balloon flights gave the United States many clues on how the Communist countries used radar to track overflights, which benefited the U-2 program.[55]
With approval from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA)'s director Hugh Dryden, Bissell's team at the CIA developed a cover story for the U-2 that described the aircraft as used by NACA for high-altitude weather research; the cover story would be used if the aircraft were lost over hostile territory. To support the story, U-2s several times took weather photographs that appeared in the press. The civilian advisers Land and Killian disagreed with the cover story, advising that in case of an aircraft loss, the United States forthrightly acknowledge its use of U-2 overflights "to guard against surprise attack". Their advice was not followed, and the weather cover story led to the disaster that followed the May 1960 U-2 loss.[56]
First overflights of Communist territory [ edit ]
The British government in January 1956 approved the U-2's deployment from RAF Lakenheath. NACA announced that the USAF Air Weather Service would use a Lockheed-developed aircraft to study the weather and cosmic rays at altitudes up to 55,000 feet; accordingly, the first CIA detachment of U-2s ("Detachment A") was known publicly as the 1st Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, Provisional (WRSP-1). The death in April 1956, however, of British agent Lionel Crabb while examining Soviet ships in Portsmouth harbor embarrassed the British government, which asked the United States to postpone the Lakenheath flights. To avoid delays, in June 1956, Detachment A moved to Wiesbaden, Germany, without approval from the German government, while Giebelstadt Army Airfield was prepared as a more permanent base.[57]
Eisenhower remained concerned that despite their great intelligence value, overflights of the Soviet Union might cause a war. While the U-2 was under development, at the 1955 Geneva Summit he proposed to Nikita Khrushchev that the Soviet Union and the United States would each grant the other country airfields to use to photograph military installations. Khrushchev rejected the "Open Skies" proposal, and the CIA told the president that the Soviets could not track high altitude U-2 flights. This belief was based on studies using old Soviet radar systems and American systems that were not as effective at high altitudes as current Soviet systems, of which the U.S. was not aware; Knutson later said that "the U-2 was really quite invisible to American radar, but Russian radar were a little different – better, you might say". Although the Office of Scientific Intelligence issued a more cautious report in May 1956 that stated that detection was possible, it believed that the Soviets could not consistently track the aircraft. Dulles further told Eisenhower (according to presidential aide Andrew Goodpaster) that in any aircraft loss the pilot would almost certainly not survive. With such assurances and the growing demand for accurate intelligence regarding the alleged "bomber gap" between the U. S. and the Soviet Union, in June 1956 Eisenhower approved 10 days of overflights.[58][28]
The first U-2 overflight had already occurred, using existing authorization of air force overflights over Eastern Europe. On 20 June 1956 a U-2 flew over Poland and East Germany, with more flights on 2 July. The fact that radar had—contrary to the CIA's expectations—successfully tracked the aircraft worried Eisenhower, but he approved the first Soviet overflight, Mission 2013 on 4 July. U-2 Article 347's main target was the Soviet submarine construction program in Leningrad, as well as counting the numbers of the new Myasishchev M-4 "Bison" bomber. A second flight on 5 July continued searching for Bisons, took photographs of Moscow (the only ones taken by the program), and examined rocket factories at Kaliningrad and Khimki. Eisenhower knew from the earlier overflights that his hope of no Soviet detection was unrealistic, but ordered that the overflights stop if the aircraft could be tracked. The CIA found that the Soviets could not consistently track the U-2s, and they therefore did not know that Moscow and Leningrad had been overflown. The aircraft's photographs showed tiny images of MiG-15s and MiG-17s attempting and failing to intercept the aircraft, proving that the Soviets could not shoot down an operational U-2.[59] Knutson recalled that the "constant stream of Russian fighters" trying to shoot down the U-2 during overflights was sometimes "so thick" that they interfered with photographs. Repeatedly failing for years to stop the aircraft embarrassed the USSR, which made diplomatic protests against the flights but did not publicize the penetration of Soviet territory.[28]
U-2 missions from Wiesbaden would depart westward in order to gain altitude over friendly territory before turning eastward at operational altitudes. The NATO Air Defence mission in that area included No. 1 Air Division RCAF (Europe), which operated the Canadair Sabre Mark 6 from bases in northeastern France. This aircraft had a service ceiling of 54,000 feet and numerous encounters between the U-2 and RCAF 'ZULU' alert flights have been recorded for posterity.[60]
"Bomber gap" disproven [ edit ]
On 10 July, the Soviets protested what they described as overflights by a USAF "twin-engine medium bomber", apparently believing that it was a Canberra. The U.S. replied on 19 July that no American "military planes" had overflown the Soviet Union, but the fact that the Soviets' report showed that they could track the U-2s for extended periods caused Eisenhower to immediately halt overflights over eastern Europe. Beyond the Soviet protests, the president was concerned about American public reaction to news that the U.S. had violated international law. To avoid project cancellation, the CIA began Project Rainbow to make the U-2 less detectable. The eight overflights over communist territory, however, had already shown that the bomber gap did not exist; the U-2s had not found any Myasishchev M-4 Bison bombers at the nine bases they had visited. Because the Eisenhower administration could not disclose the source of its intelligence, however, Congressional and public debate over the bomber gap continued.[61]
Suez Crisis [ edit ]
The presidential order did not restrict U-2 flights outside eastern Europe. In May 1956, Turkey approved the deployment of Detachment B at Incirlik Air Base, near Adana, Turkey. Before the new detachment was ready, however, Detachment A in late August used Adana as a refueling base to photograph the Mediterranean. The aircraft found evidence of many British troops on Malta and Cyprus as the United Kingdom prepared for its forthcoming intervention in Suez. The U.S. released some of the photographs to the British government. As the crisis grew in seriousness, the project converted from a source of strategic reconnaissance, which prioritized high quality over speed (the film was processed by its maker, then analyzed in Washington), to a tactical reconnaissance unit that provided immediate analysis. The Photo Intelligence Division set up a lab at Wiesbaden; as Detachment B took over from A and flew over targets that remain classified as of July 2013, the Wiesbaden lab's rapid reports helped the U.S. government to predict the Israeli-British-French attack on Egypt three days before it began on 29 October. On 1 November a flight flew over the Egyptian air base at Almaza twice, 10 minutes apart; in between the British and French attacked the base, and the visible results of the attack in the "10-minute reconnaissance" impressed Eisenhower. Beginning on 5 November, flights over Syria showed that the Soviets had not sent aircraft there despite their threats against the British, French and Israelis, a cause of worry for the U.S.[62]
Renewal of Eastern Bloc overflights [ edit ]
Eisenhower refused CIA pleas in September 1956 to reauthorize overflights of Eastern Europe but the Hungarian Revolution in November, and his reelection that month, caused the president to permit flights over border areas. Soviet interceptors continued to fail to reach the U-2s but, after the Soviets protested a December overflight of Vladivostok by RB-57Ds, Eisenhower again forbade communist overflights. Flights close to the border continued, now including the first ELINT-equipped U-2s. In May 1957, Eisenhower again authorized overflights over certain important Soviet missile and atomic facilities. He continued to personally authorize each flight, closely examining maps and sometimes making changes to the flight plan.[63] By 1957, one of the European units was based at Giebelstadt, and the far eastern unit was based at the Naval Air Facility Atsugi, Japan.[64]
Part of the reason for the May reauthorization was that the CIA promised that improvements from Project RAINBOW would make the majority of U-2 flights undetected. On 2 April 1957, a RAINBOW test flight crashed in Nevada, killing the pilot. The U-2's large wingspan slowed its descent during crashes, often leaving its remains salvageable; Lockheed was able to rebuild the wreckage from the incident into a flyable airframe, but that it could do so should have been evidence to the CIA that its cover story might not be viable after a crash in hostile territory. The RAINBOW anti-radar modifications were not very successful, and their use ended in 1958.[65]
Soviet overflights resumed in June 1957 from Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska to the Russian Far East, which had less effective radar systems. Others originated from Lahore, Pakistan. A Lahore flight on 5 August provided the first photographs of the Baikonur Cosmodrome near Tyuratam: the CIA had been unaware of its existence until then. Other flights examined the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site and the Saryshagan missile test site.[66][67] After a few more overflights that year, only five more would occur before the May 1960 incident because of Eisenhower's increasing caution. The president sought to avoid angering the Soviets as he worked to achieve a nuclear test ban; meanwhile the Soviets began trying to shoot down U-2 flights that never entered Soviet airspace, and the details in their diplomatic protests showed that Soviet radar operators were able to effectively track the aircraft. To reduce visibility Lockheed painted the aircraft in a blue-black color that helped them blend in against the darkness of space, and the CIA aircraft received the more powerful Pratt & Whitney J75-P-13 engine that increased maximum altitude by 2,500 feet (800 m), to 74,600 feet (22,700 m).[68]
The Soviets developed their own overflight aircraft, variants of the Yak-25, which in addition to photographing various parts of the world through the early 1960s acted as a target for the new MiG-19 and MiG-21 interceptors to practice for the U-2.
In April 1958, CIA source Pyotr Semyonovich Popov told his handler George Kisevalter that a senior KGB official had boasted of having "full technical details" of the U-2, leading Bissell to conclude the project had a leak. The source of the leak was never identified, although there was speculation that it was Lee Harvey Oswald, then a radar operator at a U-2 base in Japan.[69]
The "missile gap" [ edit ]
The successful launch of Sputnik 1 on 4 October 1957 gave credence to Soviet claims about the progress of its intercontinental ballistic missile program, and began the Sputnik crisis in the United States. The U-2 intelligence caused Eisenhower to state in a press conference on 9 October that the launch did "not raise my apprehensions, not one iota", but he refused to disclose the U-2's existence as he believed that the Soviets would demand the end of the flights.[70] In December 1958 Khrushchev boasted that a Soviet missile could deliver a 5-megaton warhead 8,000 miles (13,000 km). Although the Soviets' SS-6 Sapwood missile program was actually stalled due to technical failures, subsequent boasts—and U.S. Secretary of Defense Neil McElroy's statement in February 1959 to Congress that the Soviets might have a three-to-one temporary advantage in ICBMs during the early 1960s—caused widespread concern in the U.S. about the existence of a "missile gap". The American intelligence community was divided, with the CIA suspecting technical delays but the USAF believing that the SS-6 was ready for deployment. Khrushchev continued to exaggerate the Soviet program's success; the missile gap concerns, and CIA and State Department support, caused Eisenhower to reauthorize one Communist territory overflight in July 1959 after 16 months, as well as many ELINT flights along the Soviet border. British U-2 overflights were made in December and February 1960. The first one targeted a large segment of the railways in the Tyuratam test range area as ballistic missiles were expected to be deployed close to rail lines, as well as nuclear complexes and missile test sites. No sites were found.[71] Neither flight proved or disproved the existence of a "missile gap". The British flights' success contributed to Eisenhower's authorization of one overflight in April.[72]
By 1960 U-2 pilots were aware, Knutson recalled, that Soviet surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) had improved and that overflights had become much more risky, but did not worry because "dumb fighter pilots always think it's the other guy that's going to get hit".[28] Khrushchev claimed in his memoir that the April flight should have been shot down by new SAMs, but the missile crews were slow to react. By this time, the CIA had concluded internally that Soviet SAMs had "a high probability of successful intercept at 70,000 feet (21,300 m) providing that detection is made in sufficient time to alert the site", and the April flight was tracked quickly. Despite the now much greater risk, the CIA failed to stop the overflights because of overconfidence from the years of successful missions, and because of the strong demand for more missile site photos. By this time, the U-2 was the major source of covert intelligence on the Soviet Union; the aircraft had photographed about 15% of the country, resulting in almost 5,500 separate intelligence reports. Eisenhower authorized one more overflight to occur no later than 1 May, because the important Paris Summit of the Big Four would begin on 16 May.[73][74]
May 1960 U-2 incident [ edit ]
U-2 "GRAND SLAM" flight plan on 1 May 1960, from CIA publication 'The Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead Reconnaissance; The U-2 And Oxcart Programs, 1954–1974', declassified 25 June 2013.
Kelly Johnson and Gary Powers in front of a U-2
The CIA chose for the mission—the 24th deep-penetration Soviet overflight—Operation GRAND SLAM, an ambitious flight plan for the first crossing of the Soviet Union from Peshawar, Pakistan to Bodø, Norway; previous flights had always exited in the direction from which they had entered. The route would permit visits to Tyuratam, Sverdlovsk, Kirov, Kotlas, Severodvinsk, and Murmansk. It was expected, given good weather, to resolve missile, nuclear and nuclear submarine intelligence issues with one flight.[75] Francis Gary Powers, the most experienced pilot with 27 missions, was chosen for the flight. After delays, the flight began on May Day, 1 May; this was a mistake because as an important Soviet holiday there was much less air traffic than usual. The Soviets began tracking the U-2 15 miles outside the border, and over Sverdlovsk, four and a half hours into the flight, one of three SA-2 missiles detonated behind the aircraft at 70,500 feet; another hit a Soviet interceptor attempting to reach the American aircraft. Powers survived the near miss and was quickly captured; the crash did not destroy the U-2 and the Soviets were able to identify much of the equipment.[76]
Bissell and other project officials believed that surviving a U-2 accident from above 70,000 feet was impossible, so they used the preexisting cover story. On 3 May, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA, the successor to NACA) announced that one of its aircraft, making a high-altitude research flight in Turkey, was missing; the government planned to say, if necessary, that the NASA aircraft had drifted with an incapacitated pilot across the Soviet border. By remaining silent, Khrushchev lured the Americans into reinforcing the cover story until he revealed on 7 May that Powers was alive and had confessed to spying on the Soviet Union. Eisenhower turned down Dulles' offer to resign and publicly took full responsibility for the incident on 11 May; by then all overflights were canceled. The Paris Summit collapsed after Khrushchev, as the first speaker, demanded an apology from the U.S., which Eisenhower refused.[77]
U-2 pilots were told if captured, Knutson later said, "to tell them everything that they knew", because they were told little about their missions other than targets on maps.[28] Otherwise, Powers had little instruction on what to do during an interrogation. Although he had been told that he could reveal everything about the aircraft since the Soviets could learn what they wanted from it, Powers did his best to conceal classified information while appearing to cooperate. His trial began on 17 August 1960. Powers—who apologized on advice of his Soviet defense counsel—was sentenced to three years in prison, but on 10 February 1962 the USSR exchanged him and American student Frederic Pryor for Rudolf Abel at Glienicke Bridge between West Berlin and Potsdam, Germany. Two CIA investigations found that Powers had done well during the interrogation and had "complied with his obligations as an American citizen during this period". Although the government was reluctant to reinstate him to the USAF because of its statements that the U-2 program was civilian, it had promised to do so after CIA employment ended. Powers resolved the dilemma by choosing to work for Lockheed as a U-2 pilot.[78]
The debris of Powers' aircraft was used to design a copy under the name Beriev S-13. That was then discarded in favor of the MiG-25R and reconnaissance satellites.[79][80]
The search for operational ballistic missile sites would continue focussing on the Soviet railway system using Corona satellite imagery with a resolution of twenty to thirty feet compared to two to three feet from U-2 cameras.[81]
Restructuring [ edit ]
The U-2 shootdown in 1960 paralyzed the U.S. reconnaissance community and forced changes in policy, procedures, and security protocol. The United States also had to move swiftly to protect its allies: for example after the Soviets announced that Powers was alive, the CIA evacuated the British pilots from Detachment B as Turkey did not know of their presence in the country.[82] The end of Soviet overflights meant that Detachment B itself soon left Turkey, and in July Detachment C left Japan following a Japanese governmental request. Both detachments merged into Detachment G at Edwards Air Force Base, California, where the CIA had relocated the U-2 program after nuclear testing forced it to abandon Groom Lake in 1957.
On 4 January 1961, the CIA U-2 reconnaissance effort, which was formerly known as CHALICE, was redesignated IDEALIST.[83] This program codeword by the end of the decade was being used to describe the US reconnaissance along the Chinese coastline, while Taiwanese missions into the Chinese country would be known as the IDEALIST program[84]
By the next U-2 flight, in October 1960 over Cuba, the previously informal procedure in which the president personally approved or disapproved each flight after discussion with advisors was replaced by the National Security Council Special Group. The expansion of satellite intelligence partly compensated for the overflights' end, but because U-2 photographs remained superior to satellite imagery, future administrations considered resumption at times, such as during the Berlin Crisis of 1961.[85]
Cuba [ edit ]
External view from cockpit of U-2 near maximum service ceiling
From October 1960, Detachment G made many overflights of Cuba from Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas. Although Lockheed modified six CIA aircraft into the aerial refueling-capable U-2F model in 1961, permitting some Cuba missions to originate from Edwards, pilot fatigue limited flights to about 10 hours. An August 1962 flight showed Soviet SA-2 SAM sites on the island; later overflights found more sites and MiG-21 interceptors. The increasing number of SAMs caused the United States to more cautiously plan Cuban overflights. USAF U-2s did not conduct overflights, but officials believed that it would be better for a military officer to be the pilot in case he was shot down. Following one last Cuba overflight that originated from Edwards and ended at McCoy Air Force Base, Florida on 14 October 1962, all further U-2 operations over Cuba originated from a detachment operating location that was established at McCoy.[86]
After receiving hasty training on the more-powerful U-2F under the cognizance of the Weather Reconnaissance Squadron Provisional (WRSP-4) at Edwards AFB, Major Richard S. Heyser flew an overflight of western Cuba on 14 October in a U-2F; his was the first to photograph Soviet MRBMs in San Cristobal and he terminated his mission at McCoy AFB, Florida. Prior to launch of all Cuban sorties, the two U-2F aircraft possessed by WSRP-4 and flown by 4080th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing personnel had USAF insignia and tail numbers.[87] SAC received permission to fly as many Cuban overflights as necessary for the duration of the resulting Cuban Missile Crisis. On a 27 October sortie from McCoy AFB, one of the U-2Fs was shot down over Cuba by an SA-2 Guideline surface-to-air missile, killing the pilot, Major Rudolf Anderson; he posthumously received the first Air Force Cross. Fulfilling CIA officials' fears of a USAF takeover, CIA pilots never again flew over Cuba; SAC retained control over Cuban overflights,[88][89] which continued until the 1970s under the code name OLYMPIC FIRE.[90]
At the same time as the Cuban crisis, Royal Air Force English Electric Lightnings of the Air Fighting Development Squadron made several practice interceptions against U-2s; under ground-controlled interception and using energy climb profiles, the Lightning could intercept the U-2 at up to 65,000 ft.[91]
On July 28, 1966, a U-2 piloted by USAF Captain Robert Hickman departed from Barksdale Air Force Base to conduct a reconnaissance mission; Hickman's orders included the requirement that he not enter Cuban airspace. As determined later by Air Force investigators, trouble with the aircraft's oxygen system caused Hickman to lose |
level of chloramines, which are responsible for the odor, irritation, and enhanced corrosion at an indoor pool.
Copper ion system [ edit ]
Copper ion systems use a low voltage current across copper bars (solid copper, or a mixture of copper and zinc or silver) to free copper ions into the flow of pool water to kill organisms such as algae in the water and provide a "residual" in the water. Alternative systems also use titanium plates to produce oxygen in the water to help degrade organic compounds.
Private pool filtration [ edit ]
Water pumps [ edit ]
An electrically operated water pump is the prime motivator in recirculating the water from the pool. Water is forced through a filter and then returned to the pool. Using a water pump by itself is often not sufficient to completely sanitize a pool. Commercial and public pool pumps usually run 24 hours a day for the entire operating season of the pool. Residential pool pumps are typical run for 4 hours per day in winter (when the pool is not in use) and up to 24 hours in summer. To save electricity costs, most pools run water pumps for between 6 hours and 12 hours in summer with the pump being controlled by an electronic timer.
Most pool pumps available today incorporate a small filter basket as the last effort to avoid leaf or hair contamination reaching the close-tolerance impeller section of the pump.
Filtration units [ edit ]
Sand [ edit ]
A pressure-fed sand filter is typically placed in line immediately after the water pump. The filter typically contains a medium such as graded sand (called '14/24 Filter Media' in the UK system of grading the size of sand by sifting through a fine brass-wire mesh of 14 to the inch (5.5 per centimeter) to 24 to the inch (9.5 per cm)). A pressure fed sand filter is termed a 'High Rate' sand filter, and will generally filter turbid water of particulates no less than 10 micrometers in size.[18] The rapid sand filter type are periodically 'back washed' as contaminants reduce water flow and increase back pressure. Indicated by a pressure gauge on the pressure side of the filter reaching into the'red line' area, the pool owner is alerted to the need to 'backwash' the unit. The sand in the filter will typically last five to seven years before all the "rough edges" are worn off and the more tightly packed sand no longer works as intended[citation needed]. Recommended filtration for public/commercial pools are 1 ton sand per 100,000 liters water (10 ounces avdp. per cubic foot of water) [7.48 US or 6.23 UK gallons].
Introduced in the early 1900s was another type of sand filter; the 'Rapid Sand' filter, whereby water was pumped into the top of a large volume tank (3' 0" or more cube) (1 cubic yard/200US gal/170UK gal/770 liters) containing filter grade sand, and returning to the pool through a pipe at the bottom of the tank. As there is no pressure inside this tank, they were also known as 'gravity filters'. These type of filters are not greatly effective, and are no longer common in home swimming pools, being replaced by the pressure-fed type filter.
Diatomaceous earth [ edit ]
Some filters use diatomaceous earth to help filter out contaminants. Commonly referred to as 'D.E.' filters, they exhibit superior filtration capabilities.[19] Often a D.E. filter will trap waterborne contaminants as small as 1 micrometer in size. D.E. filters are banned in some states, as they must be emptied out periodically and the contaminated media flushed down the sewer, causing a problem in some districts' sewage systems.
Cartridge filters [ edit ]
Other filter media that have been introduced to the residential swimming pool market since 1970 include sand particles and paper type cartridge filters of 50 to 150 square feet (14 m2) filter area arranged in a tightly packed 12" diameter x 24" long (300 mm x 600 mm) accordion-like circular cartridge. These units can be 'daisy-chained' together to collectively filter almost any size home pool. The cartridges are typically cleaned by removal from the filter body and hosing-off down a sewer connection. They are popular where backwashed water from a sand filter is not allowed to be discharged or goes into the aquifer.
Automated pool cleaners [ edit ]
Automated pool cleaner
Automated pool cleaners more commonly known as "Automatic pool cleaners" and in particular electric, robotic pool cleaners provide an extra measure of filtration, and in fact like the handheld vacuums can microfilter a pool, which a sand filter without flocculation or coagulalents is unable to accomplish [20]
These cleaners are independent from the pool's main filter and pump system and are powered by a separate electricity source, usually in the form of a set-down transformer that is kept at least 10 feet (3.0 m) from the water in the pool, often on the pool deck. They have two internal motors: one to suck in water through a self-contained filter bag and then return the filtered water at a high rate of speed back into the pool water. The second is a drive motor that is connected to tractor-like rubber or synthetic tracks and "brushes" connected by rubber or plastic bands via a metal shaft. The brushes, resembling paint rollers, are located on the front and back of the machine and help remove contaminating particles from the pool's floor, walls (and in some designs even the pool steps) depending on size and configuration. They also direct the particles into the internal filter bag.[21][22]
Other systems [ edit ]
Saline chlorination units, electronic oxidation systems, ionization systems, microbe disinfection with ultra-violet lamp systems, and "Tri-Chlor Feeders" are other independent or auxiliary systems for swimming pool sanitation.
Consecutive dilution [ edit ]
A consecutive dilution system is arranged to consecutively remove organic waste that has been skimmed from the surface of the water. The surface water is pulled through the skimmer mouth where large organic waste is trapped inside the skimmer basket sieve. Each sieve basket reduces in mesh size to dilute the size of the contaminant as it passes through the consecutive dilution system. Dilution defines as the action of making something weaker in force, content, or value. The second consecutive sieve basket is attached to the circulation pump. Here the 25% of water drawn from the main drain at the bottom of the swimming pool meets the 75% of water drawn from the surface of the water. The circulation pumps sieve basket is easily accessible by the pool owner to be emptied daily. The third consecutive sieve is the sand unit. Here smaller organic waste that has slipped through the previous consecutive sieves is trapped by the sand. If not removed regularly the organic waste will continue to rot down and leech into the water. Through this dilution process it allows the organic waste to be easily removed via the sieve baskets and ultimately to be back washed to remove smaller organic waste trapped in the sand sieve to stop it leeching ammonia and other compounds into the recirculated water causing (DBP's). The sieve baskets are easily removed daily for cleaning as is the sand unit which should be back washed at least once a week. With a perfectly maintained consecutive dilution system the build up of Chloramines and other disinfection bye products(DBP's) can be drastically reduced. The water returned to the pool should have been sieved of all organic waste above 10 microns.
Skimmers [ edit ]
Coping apertures [ edit ]
Water is typically drawn from the pool via a rectangular aperture in the wall, connected through to a device fitted into one (or more) wall/s of the pool. The internals of the skimmer are accessed from the pool deck through a circular or rectangle lid, about one foot in diameter. If the pool's water pump is operational water is drawn from the pool over a floating hinged weir (operating from a vertical position to 90 degrees angle away from the pool, in order to stop leaves and debris being back-flooded into the pool by wave action), and down into a removable "skimmer basket", the purpose of which is to entrap leaves, dead insects and other larger floating debris.
The aperture visible from the pool side is typically 1' 0" (300 mm) wide by 6" (150 mm) high, which intersects the water midway though the center of the aperture. Skimmers with apertures wider than this are termed "wide angle" skimmers and may be as much as 2' 0" wide (600 mm). Floating skimmers have the advantage of not being affected by the level of the water as these are adjusted to work with the rate of pump suction and will retain optimum skimming regardless of water level leading to a markedly reduced amount of bio-material in the water. Skimmers should always have a leaf basket or filter between it and the pump to avoid blockages in the pipes leading to the pump and filter.
Pool re-circulation [ edit ]
The water returning to the pool from the consecutive dilution system is passed through return jets below the surface of the water. The return jets are designed to impact a turbulent flow as the water enters the pool. This turbulent flow as a force is far less than the mass of the water in the pool and the turbulent flow takes the least pressure route to the surface where surface tension reforms it into a laminar flow on the surface water. As the returned water disturbs the water surface it creates a capillary wave. The capillary wave if the return jets are positioned correctly creates a circular motion within the surface tension of the water allowing the surface water to slowly circulate around the pool walls. Organic waste floating on the surface through this circulation from the capillary wave is slowly drawn passed the mouth of the skimmer where it is pulled in due to the laminar flow and surface tension over the skimmer weir. In a well designed pool this circulation caused by the disturbed returned water aids in removing organic waste from the pools surface to be trapped inside the consecutive dilution system for easy disposal. Many return jets are equipped with a swivel nozzle which if used correctly will further induce a circulation in the depths of the water further cleaning the pool. When the jet nozzles are turned to one direction e.g. both to the right an anti clockwise rotation within the whole depth of pool water will exist. If turned to the left it will create a clockwise movement within the depths of the water. This rotation has the benefit of cleaning the bottom of the pool and slowly moving sunken inorganic debris to the main drain where the debris is removed by the circulation pump basket sieve. In a correctly constructed pool this rotation of the water caused by the return water from the consecutive dilution system will reduce or even remove the need to hoover the bottom of the pool. To gain the maximum rotation force on the main body of water the consecutive dilution system needs to be as clean and unblocked as possible to allow maximum flow pressure from the pump. As the water rotates it also disturbs organic waste in the lower water layers and forces it to the top of the pool water. This rotational force the pool return jets create is the most important part of cleaning the pool water and pushing organic waste across the mouth of the skimmer. With a correctly designed and operated swimming pool this circulation can be seen and after a period of time the circulation will reach even the deep end and impart a low velocity vortex above the main drain due to suction. Correct use of the return jets is the most effective way of removing disinfection bye products caused by decomposing organic waste from the water depths and pulling it into the consecutive dilution system for immediate disposal.
Heaters [ edit ]
Other equipment which may be optioned in the recirculation system include pool water heaters. They can be heat pumps, natural gas or propane gas heaters, electric heaters, wood burning heaters, or Solar hot water panel heaters - increasingly used in the sustainable design of pools.
Other equipment [ edit ]
Diversions to electronic oxidation systems, ionization systems, microbe disinfectinon with ultra-violet lamp systems, and "Tri-Chlor Feeders" are other auxiliary systems for Swimming pool sanitation; as well as solar panels; are in most cases required to be placed after the filtration equipment, and are the last items before the water is returned to the pool.
Other features [ edit ]
Recreation amenities [ edit ]
Features that are part of the water circulation system can extend treatment capacity needs for sizing calculations and can include: artificial streams and waterfalls, in-pool fountains, integrated hot tubs and spas, water slides and sluices, artificial "pebble beaches", submerged seating as bench-ledges or as "stools" at in-pool bars, plunge pools, and shallow children's wading pools.
See also [ edit ]Lawyers representing the maker of the herbicide atrazine are asking that documents related to the company's lobbying and trade association activities be excluded from a class action lawsuit being filed by some Illinois water utilities.
As the Investigative Fund reported last week, many utilities say they cannot afford expensive carbon filters that would remove atrazine from public drinking water. They are going to court to try to force the Swiss chemical company Syngenta to pay for installing such filtering systems.
In an interview today, the lawyer for Syngenta Crop Protection Inc., Kurt Reeg, said the water districts had requested documents outside of the scope of the lawsuit.
"They're asking what efforts have been made to lobby congress and the EPA with respect to herbicide legislation," Reeg said. "They want to know about all of Syngenta's trade association activities. It's totally out of the realm of this case."
The lawyer for the water utilities, Stephen Tillery, disagreed. "Their main argument is that the EPA has established that atrazine is safe. What the lobbying records will show is that Syngenta and its trade associations were inside the room when the EPA made that decision. They had special access. Environmental groups didn't have that kind of access. The public didn't even have that kind of access."
During yesterday's proceeding in Illinois Circuit Court, Judge Barbara Crowder postponed until Sept. 18 a ruling on a motion from six new Illinois communities to add themselves to the lawsuit. The cities are Carlinville, Fairfield, Flora, Greenville, Hillsboro, and Mattoon.
According to EPA records obtained by the Investigative Fund, weekly tests of the city of Flora's drinking water in 2008 found levels of atrazine above federal safety limits, but the public was never notified.
Atrazine has been studied for its potential link to breast cancer, prostate cancer, and birth defects, and the EPA considers it to be a potential endocrine disruptor. It is banned in the European Union.One day, I want to wake up, turn on my computer, check out my Facebook feed and find out that today has been proclaimed International Cuddle Day, all wars have ended and the sad kittens in the ASPCA videos have all been adopted to be smothered with warmth and hugs. However, this Sunday was not that day.
Earlier that day at The Observer, Julie Burchill threw transphobic gasoline all over a transphobic fire with a piece defending an unnecessarily hateful remark by Suzanne Moore in The New Statesman. In an essay on "the power of female anger," Moore stated that women today are expected to look “like Brazilian transsexuals.” The rest of the piece was fine, and I’m an optimist, so I’d like to believe that Moore didn’t realize she was being offensive. Maybe her anger just got misdirected. The burgeoning media apocalypse might have abated had Moore just apologized and recanted her statement—abiding the rules of feminism and supporting other women, whether cis or transgender. It’s what Susan Faludi would want.
But that’s not what happened. Instead, when faced with criticism (from her freaking fans) on Twitter, Moore took the proverbial low road. If it were a Monopoly property, it would be called Bret Easton Ellis Way. In order of chronology and reverse order of spiraling-downward proverbial-career-hole-digging offensiveness, here’s how she responded to her critics. Let’s count down the hits.
1. On using the problematic “transsexual” instead of trans or transgender: “I use the word transexual. I use lots of 'offensive' words. If you want to be offended it your prerogative.”
2. When asked why her work doesn’t recognize the intersectionality at hand: “I dont even accept the word transphobia any more than Islamaphobia You are using 'intersectionality' to shut down debate. Its bollocks.”
3. When she’s run out of things to say, FTW: “People can just f**k off really. Cut their dicks off and be more feminist than me. Good for them.”
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In her Kanye West-esque Twitter meltdown, Suzanne Moore (otherwise a respected writer and feminist) nosedives into a Reddit tailspin of argumentation, the type that Facebook status spats are made out of. The logic is that if you don’t like what she has to say, you’re the problem, and you just should un-friend her and let her live in her transphobic internet bubble. It’s her fancy way of saying “(Biological) Tits or GTFO.” As a feminist, Moore should have instead taken this moment to reflect on her politics and question the inclusion in her imagined community. She should have used this internet call out as a moment for change in a feminist movement charged with transphobia all too often. This incident recalls not only Rosanne Barr’s recent transphobic statements on Twitter but also criticisms lodged against the Michigan Womyn’s Festival for who its definition of “womyn” included and who it left out. Flavia Dzodan once wrote in Tiger Beatdown that “feminism will be intersectional or it will be bull—” and I agree. It’s not a real party unless my trans friends are invited to it.
But readers, I hope you didn’t forget about our friend Julie Burchill, because that’s where this hate party gets interesting. Rather than looking at this moment clearly and seeing the power dynamics at play (renowned feminist with media clout/cis woman in the gender binary in-group vs. assorted trans women with Twitter accounts), Burchill took Moore’s trolling to another level. Our dear Julie even made a whole article of it. The Observer, probably thinking that all press is good press, then published Burchill’s poopy diaper of journalism. They didn’t bury it online, out of view, next to a personals ad where no one could see it. No, they put it in the actual paper, awarding her demented crayon scribbles with a gold star of being archived in print forever. Fist bumps for everyone involved in that decision.
There’s too much crap in it to fully reprint here, and the piece is so astonishingly putrid that it would be shocking even if it were a broadcast on the 700 Club, who we expect things like this from. To give you the Reader's Digest version of her bigotry, here’s the top five terrible things from Burchill’s career swan song, in no particular order. Pick your favorite!
1. "With this in mind, I was incredulous to read that my friend was being monstered on Twitter, to the extent that she had quit it, for supposedly picking on a minority – transsexuals. Though I imagine it to be something akin to being savaged by a dead sheep, as Denis Healey had it of Geoffrey Howe, I nevertheless felt indignant that a woman of such style and substance should be driven from her chosen mode of time-wasting by a bunch of dicks in chicks' clothing."
2. "To my mind – I have given cool-headed consideration to the matter – a gaggle of transsexuals telling Suzanne Moore how to write looks a lot like how I'd imagine the Black and White Minstrels telling Usain Bolt how to run would look."
3. "But they'd rather argue over semantics. To be fair, after having one's nuts taken off (see what I did there?) by endless decades in academia, it's all most of them are fit to do.
4. "She, the other JB and I are part of the minority of women of working-class origin to make it in what used to be called Fleet Street and I think this partly contributes to the stand-off with the trannies. (I know that's a wrong word, but having recently discovered that their lot describe born women as 'Cis' – sounds like syph, cyst, cistern; all nasty stuff – they're lucky I'm not calling them shemales. Or shims.) We know that everything we have we got for ourselves. We have no family money, no safety net. And we are damned if we are going to be accused of being privileged by a bunch of bed-wetters in bad wigs."
5. "Shims, shemales, whatever you're calling yourselves these days – don't threaten or bully us lowly natural-born women, I warn you. We may not have as many lovely big swinging Phds as you, but we've experienced a lifetime of PMT and sexual harassment and many of us are now staring HRT and the menopause straight in the face – and still not flinching."
When looking at Moore’s and Burchill’s war on trans women, some patterns emerge between the two dung-filled screeds. The problem with their rhetoric is not just that it's hate speech (and not even coherent hate speech at that). It's that they are fighting to uphold a culture in which transgender and cisgender women have to compete with each other. Apparently, womankind doesn’t have enough female competition already—the type of middle school backstabbing that gets us nowhere. (Haven't they seen Black Swan?) In order to keep the privileges allotted by their biology—and forcibly exclude trans women from enjoying them—the two are willing to bully and namecall, engaging in the very tactics they accuse their critics of. With great media power comes great responsibility, and rather than using their privilege for good, they are using it to perpetuate the very systemic marginalization that Moore was decrying in her original article. By playing the Oppression Olympics and instead rendering trans struggles invisible, the oppressed become the oppressors, two respected writers reduced to shallow mean girls.
On top of being bad feminism, the trolling behavior seen above is bad humanism, as Moore and Burchill don’t recognize that trans issues also affect them. It’s not just that transgender issues are the problem of feminists—who, as we can see, have a lot of work to do in making the movement inclusive of all women. It's that trans issues are everyone's issues—because when some are oppressed, all are oppressed. If we focus only on cisgender people, we lose sight of the fact that trans rights are human rights. The transgender people Burchill so easily dismisses are people, too—our brothers, sisters, gender-neutral siblings, neutrois neighbors, friends, teachers, role models and allies, people who need our solidarity and support. Trans folks are fighting for inclusion in communities that historically shun them and struggling to carve out their own spaces in movements that prioritize the rights of those with hegemonic dominance over transgender equality—a movement that too often tells trans people that we can worry about you later, when the battles of the in group have all been won. First us, then you.
Although Moore and Burchill blame the oppressed for their own systemic oppression, this kind of victim blaming won’t get us anywhere, and it’s not just the job of trans people to fight for their liberation. As feminists, queer people and allies, we need to use our voices and privilege to bring trans people into our movements. As a queer writer, I need to give the marginalized a seat at my table and bring them into the spaces I take for granted as a white, cisgender-male-looking person. I need to speak up when I see oppression happening, or as Perez Hilton experienced, stay out of spaces I needn’t occupy and check my privilege. I need to be mindful of when my politics are not inclusionary, listen to criticism, recognize I’m still learning and intentionally work on being better. As an ally to others, I have to hold myself accountable—or no one can count on me to stand for anything.
And if Moore and Burchill want to be the feminists they think they are, they need to recognize that just as they are part of the problem, they can be the solution. Change has to start somewhere. So why not start with ourselves?
Note: To clarify, Burchill’s article was originally printed in The Observer and republished in The Guardian. There’s been some confusion on this point, so let the tireless internet fact checkers now rest. Your work here is done.
Nico Lang blogs about LGBTQ life in Chicago for WBEZ.org. Follow Nico on Twitter @Nico_Lang or on Facebook.Hello, I’m Chris. I play games. Lots and lots of games. As a nifty online experiment, Ben Gerber – of this very site – and I came up with a cunning plan, a sort of blogger exchange program. Once a month, Ben and I plan to share our views and musings with the readers of Troll in the Corner and Dice Hate Me, my board game blog. For my inaugural column, I thought it fitting to review Ben’s newest creation – the board game Mi Gato se Incendia! – which he so graciously gifted to me. Look for more cross-pollination each and every month on Troll in the Corner and Dice Hate Me, and let us know what you all would like to see in these columns. This month’s article on Dice Hate Me – Cats! Fire! Living in a shack without heat for a week! Or, How Mi Gato se Incendia (My Cat is on Fire!) became a board game
In Mi Gato se Incendia! players take on the roles of ordinary people whose world has just been turned upside down by an escaped housecat. The goal of the game is to scour the neighborhood for the cat and bring the cat home. The goal seems simple, but your task is fraught with obstacles. Not only are you competing against your neighbors/family/mailman for capture of the cat, but the cat can move around the neighborhood much more freely than its human captors. Oh, and the cat can also burst into flames. Have you ever tried to catch a flaming cat? It’s not easy.
At the start of the game, the players choose a starting spot on the outside of the game board, and each player receives five action cards that range from moving extra spaces to taking another turn. Each turn, a player draws one action card and can then play any number of action cards from their hand. Players may also move one space on the game board, regardless of any movement cards played during the turn. If a player is on the same space as el gato, they may make one attempt to catch the cat, provided they have a Net card in their hand. Other players can cancel the net attempt with a failure card from their hand.
At the end of each player’s turn, they draw a single Event card, which dictates what happens to the cat. Most Event cards result in el gato moving a number of spaces around the neighborhood. There are a few, however, that result in the cat catching on fire. This is usually a very bad thing.
When el gato bursts into flames, there is definitely mixed emotion around the table. The good news is that the cat’s movement is slowed to only one square, regardless of the event card drawn. The bad news is that the cat is, well, ON FIRE. While the cat is on fire, it will lose one life each round until the fire is put out. The cat is also uncatchable while it is on fire. Net cards have no effect on the flaming ball of spite.
The action cards in the game provide a joyously random element to the chase, but it’s the board movement that is the real star of this game. Players are limited to movement along the grey lines between some houses and streets. El gato, however, is not. Just when a player has managed to wind his way around houses, bushes, shrubs and mailboxes to nab the furball, the cat (having drawn a move three spaces North event card) suddenly sprints under the Johnsons’ station wagon and through the hedges to the Pickman’s backyard. It’ll probably take you several minutes to get there, and by that time, the little punk will most certainly have skirted off in chase of a squirrel.
Overall, Mi Gato se Incendia! is a fun and incredibly light-hearted game despite its foreboding title. This is a game that will provide a lot of enjoyment to families, those needing a party-like filler, cat lovers, and even those of us – like me – who would rather let el gato sit there and smoke for another turn rather than put him out.
Gameplay/Replay
The mechanics of Mi Gato are not revolutionary, nor are they what most gamers would consider “tight,” but the Action and Event cards seem to have just the right amount of chaos and humor to make each game a little something different. As mentioned, the game board accurately recreates the realistic dilemma of trying to capture an escaped cat. In many instances, the card mix can result in a pretty short game, but for every three games my wife and I played that were over in five or so rounds, we also had an epic, twenty-minute battle over a constantly-shifting flaming feline that we laughed about well after the game was over.
Components
This is a difficult category to judge since Mi Gato se Incendia is a print-and-play purchase. I printed the Event and Action cards on good card stock, which made them easy to handle and shuffle. However, the text on each card is oriented horizontally rather than the traditional vertical design, which made holding the cards and seeing what was in your hand at any given time a real chore. The board, designed by Jeremy Bushnell of Inevitable fame, is fairly well-laid out and attractive. I did, however, take the board PDF into Photoshop and delete the solid green background just to keep our printer from becoming en fuego from using the cyan and yellow cartridges so much.
Fun
So, is Mi Gato any fun? The short answer is – yes. The long answer is that Mi Gato will be fun amongst gamers who are able to forgive loose mechanics and engage the creative and storytelling centers of their brains. For instance, the reason the players are competing to capture el gato is not fully explained in the rulebook; it is left open to the interpretation of the players. Perhaps the cat wears a diamond flea collar and the players are jewel thieves who broke into the house and were surprised by a spry, cunning ball of fur. With a little dose of imagination, this print-and-play marvel’s fun factor will always lie in the heated chaos of chasing a tiny little flaming ball of spite.
Overall score:
13 out of 18 – Look past the components and picture a meeple hopping fences after a flame-broiled, cat-shaped resource disk and you’ve got yourself a winner.
Mi Gato se Incendia! is a game for 2-6 animal control officers from Ben Gerber. You can purchase Mi Gato se Incendia on Drive-Thru RPG for only 99 cents! This is a great price for a truly enjoyable game – get ’em while they’re hot!Something I really enjoy is drawing art of fan fictions. I'll probably do more in the future too. This is from '' by TheBrianJ. It follows Octavia as she becomes fed up with Canterlot society and tries to make a real difference, with cans of spray paint.I used this as a chance to work out a more solid method for painting. Instead of painting onto a sketch I drew thin line art that could be easily painted over later on, but provided enough guidance to make solid shapes much easier to define. I also played around with metallic reflections which are a lot of fun!Now that it's finished I kind of wish I had changed the setup a bit. Still, I'm fairly happy with how it turned out.MLP:FIM belongs to Hasbro.Kristin has lived in her L.A. apartment for five years, but as long as she’s lived there she’s never been confronted with the kind of sassiness she’s just been confronted with on the part of the United States Postal Service. She tells Consumerist her apartment is part of a four-plex with no locked lobby, and her door has a clearly marked, obviously quite old mail slot marked “letters.” What could possibly go in there?
Not her mail, apparently: She snapped pics of a note left on an otherwise blank delivery slip reading “No mail box, no mail.”
“Are the USPS too lazy to bend down anymore?” she wonders.
While the specifications on USPS.com for mail slots do note that they must be situated 30 inches from the ground and hers seems a bit low, the apartment doesn’t have any other mail receptacle. That could be an issue for her landlord to update eventually, but again, come on. It’s a mail slot.
Kristin adds that she’s had problems getting mail before — as in, the mailman just doesn’t bother to stop by for days on end — but this is the first time she’s gotten such a note.
We’ve reached out to the USPS to see if anyone there can weigh in on the situation and for heaven’s sake, get her mail delivered.People who have lost their hearing will be injected with a harmless virus carrying a gene that should trigger the regrowth of their ears’ sensory receptors
(Image: Steve Gschmeissner/SPL)
IN TWO months’ time, a group of profoundly deaf people could be able to hear again, thanks to the world’s first gene therapy trial for deafness.
The volunteers, who lost their hearing through damage or disease, will get an injection of a harmless virus containing a gene that should trigger the regrowth of the sensory receptors in the ear.
The idea is that the method will return a more natural sense of hearing than other technologies can provide. Hearing aids merely amplify sounds, while cochlear implants transform sound waves into electrical waves that the brain interprets, but they don’t pick up all of the natural frequencies. This means people can find it difficult to distinguish many of the nuances in voices and music.
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“The holy grail is to give people natural hearing back,” says Hinrich Staecker at the University of Kansas Medical Center, who is leading the trial. “That’s what we hope to do – we are essentially repairing the ear rather than artificially imitating what it does.”
The holy grail is to give people natural hearing back – that’s what we hope to do by repairing the ear
There are still many things we don’t know about how the ear works. This is because the delicate machinery of the inner ear is enclosed in the hardest bone in the body, making it difficult to isolate without causing damage.
What we do know is that sound waves are funnelled into the ear, making the ear drum vibrate. These vibrations are transferred to the cochlea in the inner ear via three tiny bones. Thousands of sensory receptors line a part of the cochlea called the organ of Corti, as rows of inner and outer hair cells. Sound waves, amplified by the outer hair cells (shown above right), vibrate the inner hair cells, opening ion channels on their surface that let neurotransmitters flow in. This triggers electrical activity in the cochlear neurons, passing the information to the brain so it can be processed.
Both inner and outer hair cells can be damaged by loud noises, drugs such as some antibiotics and disease, and don’t regrow. A possible fix arose in 2003, when researchers discovered that certain genes can transform the cells supporting the hair cells into both types of hair cell.
To see whether one of these genes, called Atoh1, could be used to improve hearing, last year Staecker and colleagues inserted it into a harmless virus and injected that into the cochlea of mice that had had almost all of their hair cells destroyed. Two months later, the rodents’ hearing had improved by about 20 decibels. “This is about the same difference between hearing with your hands over your ears, and what you hear ordinarily,” says Lloyd Klickstein, head of translational medicine at Novartis, the Swiss drug company collaborating on the trial.
Staecker’s team have now got the go-ahead to do the same in people. In the next month, they will begin searching for about 45 volunteers who have severe hearing loss, most likely caused by the side effects of drugs. This group will have lost a large number of hair cells, but will still have supporting structures, such as neurons, present in the inner ear. “The biggest risk is that we interfere with residual hearing, so we’re starting with people who have lost almost all hearing already,” says Klickstein.
People between the ages of 18 and 70 will be eligible for the trial. Those who are born deaf won’t be because they often don’t have the structures needed to support hair cells. Staecker estimates that the approach could help 1 to 2 per cent of all people with hearing loss, up to 7 million people in the US.
Sticking plasters
The trial will start at the University of Kansas Medical School before being widened to other institutions. As with the mice, the team will inject the viral gene package directly into the volunteers’ cochlea by peeling back their ear drum and passing a needle through a tiny hole made by a laser (see diagram). The Atoh1 gene should reach the supporting cells, instructing them to divide and form new hair cells. Results are expected between two weeks and two months later.
“Today’s medical treatments are largely limited to hearing aids and cochlear implants, which are essentially just sticking plasters,” says Ralph Holme, head of biomedical research at UK charity Action on Hearing Loss. “This is why the planned trial is extremely encouraging and offers hope to the millions affected by hearing loss that a cure is possible.”
Jeffrey Holt at Harvard Medical School, who isn’t involved in the trial, calls it ground-breaking and says he is cautiously optimistic about the work. “Hopes are high that the trial will yield positive results without introducing unnecessary complications.”
The only expected side effect is a brief period of dizziness or nausea, a common occurrence after ear surgery. In pre-clinical tests, Novartis researchers looked to see if the virus spread to any other tissues, but found it was restricted to the site of injection. It has also been designed to have limited potential to recombine with the volunteer’s DNA so it is unlikely to cause problems elsewhere.
Many other species, such as fish and birds, can regenerate the hair cells in their inner ear over time and create new auditory circuits, says Klickstein. “We’re just trying to tweak the mammalian system a little bit to do |
serve the greater good. We are the Moon's Children. If you have found your way here it is not by chance, you are at home here. You belong here with us. And while you may be caught off-guard, I think right now you can feel something inside you agreeing with me. Listen to your soul, get in touch with yourself, your soul knows this and we can show you how.
Add info to the Contacts page, noticed that we have a huge influx of trolls, no doubt because of the fact that we're a bit more "maintstream" now. We've been going down every so often because of bandwidth overload, and we've gotten an insane amout of "requests" to join us, most of them are trolls. I'm having some of the other moderators go through them carefully and we'll contact those who seem legitiment in the coming days, but we don't want to make a jump to do anything rash.
Anyway, TGIF, anyone want to have a vigil Sunday night? Drop me an email. And congratulations to Chris, we all knew he had it in him! That's the first successful one we've had in a while!
Finished adding the Contact, About, and Theories sections. Contact page has been acting weird. Hm. Fixed up the Creed, Dusk you had a few typos there. Watch that. And this layout, especially for the news posts is pretty disgusting. You guys'll have to bare with us until we get everything set up before we change it.
PS has anyone felt an increase in spiritual presence lately? It's making my neck hairs stand up on end.
DW here. I just wanted to say that Chris (Nekko) had his successful Ascension earlier today and there were no complications. Even though I'm sooo envious of him *cough cough* :-P, it really warmed my heart when I heard the news and I'm sure it will for you guys too. Actually - I don't exactly have our logs out here in front of me - but I think Chris was the youngest person we've ever had do a successful Ascension (which makes sense, Chris always was mature for his age). We're all really happy for you Chris and hopefully we'll be seeing you soon (now if only He would start talking to me... :P ).
keep this site running strong for me while i'm gone, i'll be back to come get you guys soon :)
I finished updating the testimonials page and I'm going to be handing my modship over. bahhh enough with the updates, i just wanted to say thanks for everything you guys have done for me, i feel like before i found this i was so lost and without a purpose, just wandering aimlessly. being with you guys over the past year has made my so happy and ive mad a lot of friends here and gotten to know some really nice guys. i never really believed in destiny before, but now im realizing that... yea this is what i was made to do. im counting down the minutes until hahah, i still feel like im gonna pinch myself and wake up at any moment. i already have everything i need to go there, its like all my life ive been waiting for this moment, when i can finally achieve what i was meant to do!!
The site's going to be under construction for a while due to me and Rem having to transfer all of the data over here - unfortunately not everything ended up saved and we lost of stuff so we're going to have to try and rebuild. We've done it before, we can do it again. If you guys know of any of "our guys", feel free to link them to this site, but try and keep it somewhat exclusive. Some of our old siblings (and you know who) were not meant to be part of our group.
Anyway, about the move - I know its been a hectic past couple of days with the domain change and all, but I think that we've finally found our home (fingers crossed). This will no doubt attract more potential Children, all the more merrier I say.
First of all, I'd like to say congratulations Chris! He sure has taken a huge interest in you lately (lucky), I'm not surprised it finally gave you an Ascension date, I'm happy for you man (can you tell I sound jealous?).
DW here. You may notice the slight name change, figured it was symbolic. We're back for what looks like to be for good.
Unfortunately I'm not going to be a mod for much longer - my Ascencion date is coming up really soon :) :) He finally told me when it was going to be and it's..... TOMORROW!! haah it's all I can really think about now, my family can't understand why im so excited haha :D
Hey guys its Chris! So glad to finally back with my (true) family! I hope you're as eager as I am to finally have a new place to call our own. anyway, like Dusk said, we lost a lot of content that we had stored. The good news is that I've got saved some of our testimonials, so that page should be up by tomorrow., but a lot of this will be under construction (bleh). we've got a few new toys, this new host gives us a lot more room to play around, however with the new domain I wouldn't be surprised if we get more than our "usual" amount of visitors, some may have potential, others may "think" they are good enough to join us. we're not ready to open up yet - we want to at least have a few pages working before we welcome you guys back in, so by the time you read this this will be a few days ago. how's the future? Do we have flying cars yet (heh)? Also, If anyone asks the background music is entitled "Lost in My Thoughts", i really like it.
Luna shine, brothers and sisters. We now have a new home! It's going to be a busy couple of days trying to put everything together and while we're doing that the forums will most likely be down. Feel free to use the Guest Book below to talk to each other, if the Guest Book isn't your thing there's always the IRC chat if you know it. We're looking at maybe a week or so before we're all done with the website. But for now just sit back and relax and let us do all the hard work.
Comments:
Alright, the site's back up. Finally, I was getting so sick of IRC...
gotta say I like the new site, the layout needs work, but it'll do
the important thing is that most of us survived the blackout
anyone know what happened to Alex? I havent heard from him
NO idea. Haven't heard ANYTHING on his end.
Bout time we can post. Have Luna or Mr D been speaking to anyone lately?
Hm. At least the guest book is up. Had another miserable day at school today. I'm done puting up with it. I literally have no more excuses. I'm going to get fucking shitfaced tonight and then on Monday I'm going to come back to my school with my dad's 9mm and just squeeze and squeeze and squeeze the trigger until I fucking die.
@Paradoxicle
sound rough, just remember that human emotions are only in this life. i've had half a mind to do the same myself - just kill them all in Her name. seriously, its the same shit. boring 9 to 4, wife always is on my case and i'm almost positive shes fucking someone else. you know, if you're serious I'll come drive down to you this weekkend, if we team up we can probably kill a lot more and i've got another nine you can have. lets do your school, whats it matter, we're all innocent in this fucked up world. we're the liberators, these kids are too stupid to know that we're doing them a favor. once we've all transcended this doomed reality, we'll all be with Her anyway, follower or not.
rofl, looks like we're going to lose 2 more soldiers earlier before the end. you get my seal of approval, the less this world slips comfortably in complacency the better imo.
you guys haven't been talking to Luna have you?
Careful guys. We're on a new domain on a.net now, take it to PM.
David: No PM's yet
13fliptime: No, this is of my own free will, I'm just tired of this shit and want to make a difference in the world.
Dark: Give me your number on IRC, we'll take it there
on a lighter note, i almost lost my mask, i was freaking out rofl. seriously, sometimes i just get so used to it on my face that i forget to pick it up if i put it down.
I don't know, I think the fact that we've only been operational for a day and already DR and Paradoxicle are going to shoot up some place is pretty funny. If you guys go through with it, see you on the other side, I think my Ascension's coming up soon - I've been feeling a surge of something spiritual over the past two days.
I think I'm hearing Luna, I'm not sure thought, my mind could just be playing tricks on me. But I could've sworn I heard her just now. Not sure what she said though.
And remember - we're continuing with the whiteout - that means no using these names or posting outside of here. No facebooks/youtubes/twitters/whatnot. Mr D has been EXTREMELY strict on this rule.
...Could've sworn I just heard her again. Maybe. Idont know.
Ifrit you might want to take a look at the contact page, somethings not right with it2. Research
The next step in your recovery is to research the illness as much as possible. You should be looking at as many different resources as possible – there is a lot of great information online for those who don’t know much about porn addiction. In fact, our site is an excellent resource if you need more information on this topic.
In addition to reading about porn addiction and its impact on your life, you should also be looking to find online communities that deal with these types of issues. There are plenty of online forums that porn addicts use to help one another overcome their addiction. Being addicted to pornography can often feel very isolating, so it’s nice to know there are plenty of people who have struggled with the exact same problem – porn addiction is much more common than you realize.
3. Set a Goal (Start Small)
Quitting something that we have a problem with can seem extremely daunting. This is why it can sometimes be better to set small goals and achieve them – this is a great way to build confidence and self-esteem when you’re moving forward with your life. For example, when you first quit pornography, don’t set out to see if you can make it a year without viewing porn. Instead, you should set achievable goals – try starting with three days.
Every time you achieve one of your goals, you should grow more confident in your ability to quit pornography. People often focus too much on the big picture, when they should instead be focusing on the little things as they move forward.
4. Seek Therapy
Sometimes it’s best to understand you need help from a third-party. If you think you have a significant problem, you should consider seeking therapy to help overcome the issue. This will be discussed further in the next section of this page.
5. Remove Triggers
Once you think you are on the right track, it’s important to try and remove any temptation that you might have to use pornography. If there were certain times of day or areas of your house that you use to watch porn frequently, you should occupy those times and locations with other activities. It’s often good to develop a hobby or separate interest that can take up your spare time and help you alleviate the boredom that you might be feeling without pornography.
Also, it’s best not to trust yourself – you need to approach your problem seriously. You should consider blocking the pornography sites your frequent on your computer. You should also delete any pornographic material that you might have downloaded on your computer or hard drive – you don’t want temptation at your doorstep.
6. Understand Your Addiction
After you get control over your addiction, it’s important to make sure that you understand it as much as possible. You don’t want to underestimate how powerful it can be if you end up relapsing. As with most addictions or dependencies, the person who is suffering from the addiction often underestimates how easy it is to fall back into the same traps. You don’t want to end up taking ten steps backward because you think you can handle the urges to overdo it.
In the next section of our homepage, we will speak about the role professional help can play in helping you quit pornography and maintaining a happy and healthy lifestyle in the future.Unless you’ve been reading my blog with your eyes closed, you know I am dead set against the death penalty. So much so, that I consider myself an anti-death penalty activist. Hopefully you’ve read my in-depth series on the death penalty here, but if you haven’t, here’s the long and short of my position delivered in a little thought experiment:
If there was a way to try and prevent most, or even some, violent crime, would you want to know, even if part of it was putting an end to the death penalty?
For most of us, the answer is yes, of course. For others, preventing more victims of murder is a secondary priority only to seeking out retribution and vengeance. More bodies is an acceptable side effect when it comes to what we love to call “justice”. Some of us love the death penalty more than we do the idea of reducing crime rates, fewer victims, less dead.
One such person is Charles Colson from the Gospel Coalition. Once against capital punishment, Charles found Jesus and has since found reason to support state-sanctioned murder in the Bible. Now, this is not so shocking to me, despite the fact that the very foundation of Christian morality, the Ten Commandments, says not to kill. No, as Godless Mom, I’ve sat in the front row at a crazy parade of theists bending and twisting their doctrine to justify their own bloodlust. Charles, ignoring the seventh commandment, only wants blood.
Justice in God’s eyes requires that the response to an offense—whether against God or against humanity—be proportionate.
You see, if anyone were to assert, to me, that the response to an offense needs to be proportionate, I would immediately ask why. What are the benefits of this? Does it act to reduce crime? Is there evidence that this does not increase crime, at least? I would not just accept the statement without question. I need reasons. I need evidence. I need to know why.
Essentially, Chuck, what you’re saying here, is that your belief in God has eliminated your need to know the reasons why. You said that at one point in time, you had all of these questions mulling around in your head. You were against the death penalty because you saw the flaws in the system and you had your doubts about it acting as a deterrent. But since finding Jesus, you don’t need those answers anymore. All you need is the divine command of god to tell you what’s what, even if it doesn’t make sense as it manifests down here, on mortal earth. You have surrendered your critical thought, given up your reason and your curiosity and your need to know what best suits our world, in favour of, as Hitch so eloquently put it, a celestial dictatorship.
Bury your questions.
God. Has. Spoken.
“What about mercy?” one may be inclined to ask. My response is simple. There can be no mercy where justice is not satisfied.
Justice, as it is defined, is the administration of fairness. A hypothetical, if you will:
A loving, attentive mother is murdered, brutally, left dead and bloody to be discovered by her two young children who will forever suffer from the PTSD they have from that day. Her killer is caught, also a parent of two young children. Expedited through the justice system with guilty pleas and ample evidence, the killer is put to death in front of an audience, including his now teenaged children. One of his teenaged kids struggles for years with what he saw at the execution as the corrections officers and medical techs struggled to find a vein and his father writhed, foaming at the mouth, in pain. The kid eventually kills himself. As does one of the hard working corrections officers, who could never manage to fall asleep without seeing the face of a dying man and those of his children watching him leave this world. The officer also had two kids.
One crime. Four bodies. Six orphans.
Was this “justice” fair to the corrections officer whose task was to be part of a team that ended a life? Was justice fair to the killer’s child who committed suicide? Was it fair to the reporters who witnessed the execution who went home with PTSD? Was it fair to the medical staff present who had to suspend their hippocratic oath to carry out the punishment? What if the killer had suffered from an untreated mental illness and, had he been treated prior to the crime, would never have committed it? Is it still fair to have carried out this punishment? What if, like Cameron Todd Willingham, evidence surfaced after the execution that he was an innocent man? Is that fair, Charles? Is it fair to fatherless children of the corrections officer? Is it fair to the fatherless children of the killer? Is it fair to all the other victims of crime in that state who need support services but can’t find them because funding was cut in order to keep death row kicking along? Is it fair to the law enforcement agencies in the state who continue to have their resources limited by budget cuts, while the state still spends billions on the expensive capital system?
Fairness, Chuck… fairness and justice seem to mean very different things to me than they do to you.
To be punished, however severely, because we indeed deserve it, as C. S. Lewis observed, is to be treated with dignity as human beings created in God’s image.
And now you have to make the case that we deserve it and that we can be 100% sure of this, 100% of the time. Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed for setting a fire that near a dozen arson experts across the USA claim was not arson at all, should be enough to prove this is not possible. We can never be 100% sure 100% of the time. We are fallible little meat sacks running around with hard-ons and we get shit wrong. As long as this is true, whether or not we deserve something as irreversible as death is not a call any human with a conscience can make.
mercy extended to offenders whose guilt is certain yet ignored creates a moral travesty that, over time, helps pave the way for collapse of the entire social order.
This is a claim. It sure sounds like it could be true, but as a skeptic with healthy doubt, before I can accept such a claim, I would need evidence.
The implication of Romans 13 is that by not punishing moral evil, authorities aren’t performing their God-appointed responsibility in society.
That’s not evidence, Mr. Colson. That’s a story book. If you want me to take this passage from your story book as the truth, you must satisfy three things:
You must prove there is a god. You must prove the god you believe in is the god that exists. You must prove that Romans 13 is the divinely commanded word of said god.
Then, and only then, would I accept what you’ve said as… ahem… gospel.
Perhaps the emotional event that pushed me over the (philosophical) edge was the John Wayne Gacy case some years ago. I visited him on death row. During our hour-long conversation he was totally unrepentant; in fact, he was arrogant. He insisted that he was a Christian, that he believed in Christ, yet he showed not a hint of remorse. The testimony in the trial, of course, was overwhelming. I don’t think anyone could possibly believe he didn’t commit those unspeakably barbaric crimes. What I realized in the days prior to Gacy’s execution was that there was simply no other appropriate response than execution if justice was to be served.
In other words, he made you angry. He made you angry, and we can’t have that. Had he not made you angry, you might have continued to see reason to not kill a man, but because he made you angry, we now have to put him to death. You see, this is the perfect illustration of how the death penalty is an emotional reaction to problem best treated with logic, reason and evidence. At this point, you don’t care if his execution causes more harm than good in the long run. You don’t care if it costs more, takes more money away from victims support services and law enforcement. You don’t give a shit if the death penalty actually has the opposite effect of a deterrent, promoting, via the state, murder as a way to solve your problems. You don’t care if corrections officers involved in executions get PTSD and become suicidal. None of this matters to you. Bad guy make Chuck mad. Bad guy must die.
Which leads me to a second observation. The death penalty ultimately confronts us with the issue of moral accountability in the present life. Contemporary society seems totally unwilling to assign moral responsibility to anyone. Everything imaginable is due to a dysfunctional family or to having had our knuckles rapped while we were in grade-school. We really have reached a point where the Menendez brothers plead for mercy—and get it!—because they are orphans, after acknowledging they made themselves orphans by killing their parents.
Chuck, when one opposes the death penalty, they are not advocating for no accountability. There are other punishments. Other ways to be made accountable for your actions. One does not have to die to face accountability. That, I’m afraid, is a solely theistic idea. If there is no god, there is no accountability after death. All you’ve managed to do, is stop a heart and begin oblivion for a killer. He’s not being burned for eternity thinking, “Well, shucks! Probs shouldn’t have done that!”. No, he’s nowhere. There is no reflection on his crime. There is no accountability, no lesson learned, no punishment. He’s just gone, unaware of his own goneness… dust in the wind. How is nothingness, like the time before we were conceived, a method of accountability?
Society should not execute capital offenders merely for the sake of revenge, but to balance the scales of moral justice that have been disturbed.
This, Mr. Colson, is what we like to call word salad. It has no real meaning; no way of manifesting itself in the real world. It’s a deepity: something that sounds really good coming out of your mouth, or being slapped down in a blog post, but when put to the test of rigorous thought and questioning, it bears no fruit. There is nothing to this sentence. Nothing.
The data is clear: the death penalty does nothing to reduce crime, with some criminologists claiming it can actually have the opposite effect. it only serves to hurt people – no, not the killer. Rather, the corrections officers, the family of the killer, the family of the victim and anyone else present to watch a man be put to death.
The way I see it, there are only three reasons anyone supports the death penalty, and if you hack away at the thick outer crust of deepities and word salad, you’ll find that every supporter of capital punishment falls into one of these three categories:
They are uninformed. They believe god commands it. Revenge.
There is no fourth option, Chuck. You, it appears, hover between number 2 and number 3.
For as long as I can remember, I have opposed capital punishment. As a lawyer I observed how flawed the legal system is… Naturally, as I came to deal increasingly with ethical issues, I found myself seriously questioning whether the death penalty was an effective deterrent… But my views have changed…The reason is quite simple. Justice in God’s eyes requires that the response to an offense—whether against God or against humanity—be proportionate.
You don’t care what the evidence says. You’re unconcerned with the data. Preventing future victims is not on your radar. No, what you need is to satisfy both god and your anger. Bury your questions, surrender your skepticism and give in because god commands that blood should flow.
It’s too bad, Charles. It’s really too bad, because it sounds like you were, at one point in time, a truly reasonable man. Now, you make the perfect poster boy for why religion is harmful. Before it, you were full of questions, curiosity, healthy doubt and skepticism. You were concerned with what was true, and not what sounded prettiest. After it, you became a good little soldier, marching along in time with your fellow believers, chanting the passages of a 2000 year old book as the reason you must deny your own doubt.
Your post about why you now support capital punishment would have been just as effective with only two words:
Because God.The Democratic National Committee is standing in firm opposition to plans by MSNBC and The New Hampshire Union Leader to hold an unsanctioned debate next week.
DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz issued a statement Tuesday saying that it had "no plans to sanction any further debates" before the upcoming Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary.
DNC Communications Director Luis Miranda tells CNNMoney that the MSNBC and Union Leader effort, which runs afoul of DNC guidelines, would be unfair to the media partners who have played by the rules.
"We respect the effort, commitment, and resources our media partners at PBS News Hour and at Univision/Washington Post have dedicated to our upcoming Democratic debates on February 11 and March 9 respectively," Miranda said on Wednesday.
Related: ABC debate rules will keep several GOP candidates off the stage
"As our Chair made clear in her statement last night we will not be sanctioning any further debates before the First in the Nation caucuses and primary, but will reconvene with our campaigns after those two contests to review our schedule."
Hillary Clinton said Wednesday she hoped Wasserman Schultz would change her mind.
"I would like the chairman of the party and the campaigns to agree that we can debate in New Hampshire next week," she told Chris Matthews in an interview that will air on MSNBC's "Hardball" Wednesday night.
Privately, DNC members have chafed at MSNBC and the Union Leader's attempt to go against the DNC guidelines. The DNC has a so-called "exclusivity clause," which says that any candidate who participates in an unsanctioned debate will be excluded from one of the official six.
Related: Trump and Fox at war: Neither side is backing down
Only Martin O'Malley has accepted MSNBC and the Union Leader's invitation to the debate, which would take place on February 4 -- five days before the state's crucial presidential primary -- if it takes place at all.
Clinton's campaign said Tuesday night she "would be happy to participate in a debate in New Hampshire if the other candidates agree, which would allow the DNC to sanction the debate."
Bernie Sanders' campaign said, "We will be working with the DNC and the other campaigns to schedule additional debates."
Reading the tea leaves, what that means is that the DNC and the Democratic candidates are likely to schedule additional debates after the New Hampshire primary on February 9.
That plan would likely take New Hampshire Union Leader out of the equation. It also remains to be seen whether the DNC will partner with MSNBC in light of its attempt to defy the party's wishes."There is no unintelligent processes known to science that can generate codes and machines." -- Michael Egnor, neurosurgeon, February 5th 2009
"Why do Darwinists claim that intelligent design is untestable, and simultaneously claim that it is wrong?" -- Michael Egnor, neurosurgeon, February 5th 2009
"Allow them both to be presented so students could be exposed to both. They are competing theories.... Intelligent design in my view is plausible and credible and something that should be taught." -- Tim Pawlenty, politician, August 2008
"Admitting our biases is the best way towards a rational discussion. Which I would welcome." -- John C. Lennox, mathematician, 2008
"First of all, I love science. I think that the way that Darwinism corrupts the evidence, distorts the evidence, is bad for science." -- Jonathan C. Wells, molecular biologist, 2008
"Intelligent design is the study of patterns in nature that are best explained as a result of intelligence.... Intelligent design is a minimal commitment scientifically to the possibility of detecting intelligent causation." -- Paul A. Nelson, philosopher, 2008
"Well, evolution is a kind of funny word. It depends on how one defines it. If it means simply change over time, even the most rock-ribbed fundamentalist knows that the history of the Earth has changed, that there's been change over time. If you define evolution precisely though to mean the common descent of all life on Earth from a single ancestor via undirected mutation and natural selection, that's textbook definition of Neo-Darwinism, biologists of the first rank have real questions. -- Paul A. Nelson, philosopher, 2008
"Well, it's a funny thing that questions that aren't properly answered don't go away." -- Paul A. Nelson, philosopher, 2008
"[Darwinism is] a kind of amusing 19th century collection of anecdotes that is utterly unlike anything we see in the serious sciences.... Yeah, biologists do agree that this is the correct theory for the origin and diversification of life, but here are some points you should consider as well: 1) the theory doesn't have any substance, 2) it's preposterous, 3) it's not supported by the evidence and 4) the fact that the biologists are uniformly in agreement about this issue could as well be explained by some solid Marxist interpretation of their economic interests." -- David Berlinski, author, 2008
"The extraordinary thing is that scientists accept the Big Bang and in the same breath deride the Creationists." -- Wallace Thornhill, physicist, date unknown
"He [Richard Dawkins] has the arrogance to say that anyone who does not share his views is infected with a virus. No wonder he cannot coexist peacefully with them." -- Freeman J. Dyson, physicist, September 2007
"I think Richard Dawkins is doing a lot of damage. I disagree very strongly with the way he's going about it. I don't deny his right to be an atheist, but I think he does a great deal of harm when he publicly says that in order to be a scientist, you have to be an atheist. That simply turns young people away from science. He's convinced a lot of young people not to be scientists because they don't want to be atheists. I'm strongly against him on that question. It's simply not true what he's saying, and it's not only not true it's harmful. The fact is that many of my friends are much more religious than I am and are first-rate scientists. There's absolutely nothing that stops you from being both." -- Freeman J. Dyson, physicist, September 2007
"The Cambrian explosion was the most remarkable and puzzling event in the history of life." -- Stephen J. Gould, biologist, 2007
"So it's not only that we are not alone in our own solar system, but those who came here were directly involved in bringing us about through genetic engineering by manipulating genetically the hominids, who were evolved on Earth through evolution, to bring them up to look like them and think like them and being able to learn from them. " -- Zecharia Sitchin, author, 2007
"...Evolution makes the strong prediction that if a single fossil turned up in the wrong geological stratum, the theory would be blown out of the water. When challenged by a zealous Popperian to say how evolution could ever be falsified, J.B.S. Haldane famously growled: 'Fossil rabbits in the Precambrian.'" -- Richard Dawkins, atheist preacher, The God Delusion, 2006
"The presence or absence of a creative super-intelligence is unequivocally a scientific question...." -- Richard Dawkins, atheist preacher, The God Delusion, 2006 "Teach both. You know, don't be afraid of information. Healthy debate is so important, and its so valuable in our schools. I am a proponent of teaching both." -- Sarah Palin, politician, October 2006"The presence or absence of a creative super-intelligence is unequivocally a scientific question...." -- Richard Dawkins, atheist preacher, The God Delusion, 2006
"...there is a God as a designer, who happens to be using the evolutionary process to achieve larger goals — which are, as far as we human beings can see, self-consciousness and conscience." -- Owen Gingrich, astronomer/historian, September 2006
"Intelligent design and evolutionary theory are either both testable or both untestable. Parity of reasoning requires that the testability of one entails the testability of the other. Evolutionary theory claims that certain material mechanisms are able to propel the evolutionary process, gradually transforming organisms with one set of characteristics into another (for instance, transforming bacteria without a flagellum into bacteria with one). Intelligent design, by contrast, claims that intelligence needs to supplement material mechanisms if they are to bring about organisms with certain complex features. Accordingly, testing the adequacy or inadequacy of evolutionary mechanisms constitutes a joint test of both evolutionary theory and intelligent design." -- William A. Dembski, philosopher, August 25th 2005
"Science will not collapse if some practitioners are convinced that occasionally there has been creative input in the long chain of being." -- Owen Gingrich, astronomer/historian, February 2005
"Evolutionary biologists claim to have demonstrated that design is superfluous for understanding biological complexity. But note: even such a claim demonstrates the genuine scientific status of intelligent design, for it implies that the question whether design is superfluous in biology is a legitimate scientific question and one whose outcome can be decided by scientific investigation. In science no outcome is a forgone conclusion." -- William A. Dembski, philosopher, March 21st 2002
"In fact, what we have here is irreducible complexity all the way down." -- Jonathan C. Wells, molecular biologist, 2002
"In evolutionary terms, you have to explain how you can build this system [the bacterial flagellum] gradually when there is no function until you have all those parts in place." -- Scott Minnich, molecular biologist, 2002
"I remember the first time I looked in a biochemistry textbook and I saw a drawing of something called a bacterial flagellum with all of its parts in all of its glory. It had a propeller and a hook region and the drive shaft and the motor and so on. I looked at that and I said that's an outboard motor. That's designed. That's no chance assemblage of parts." -- Michael J. Behe, biochemist, 2002
"...Homo sapiens simply sprang into being without the evolutionary process involved. In the absense of any other explanation, genetic engineering cannot be ruled out." -- David E. Twichell, author, 2001
"Science, we are told is tentative. And given the history of science, there is every reason to be tentative. No scientific theory withstands revision for long, and many are eventually superseded by theories that flatly contradict their predecessors. Scientific revolutions are common, painful, and real. New theories regularly overturn old ones, and no scientific theory is ever the final word. But if science is tentative, scientists are not. As philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn rightly noted, it takes a revolution to change scientific theories precisely because scientists do not hold their theories tentatively. Thus, in his Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Kuhn quotes with approval Max Planck, who wrote: 'A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing it's opponents and making them see the light, but rather because it's opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.'" -- William A. Dembski, philosopher, March 16th 2000
"Was it thought out by somebody or did it just happen by chance? Which is really just the same thing as saying did the universe happen by chance isn't it? And I have to say, 'Well now look, it doesn't look to me at all like chance.'" -- Fred Hoyle, cosmologist, 2000
"I tell you, in the end, Chip [Arp], the universe will have it's say." -- Fred Hoyle, cosmologist, 2000
"We are all keenly interested in where we came from and where we are going, and cosmology, the study of the whole universe, is supposed to give us answers to these basic questions. In this sense it has much the same attraction for many as does religion." -- Fred Hoyle, cosmologist, 2000
"Are we spiritual machines?" -- William A. Dembski, philosopher, October 1999
"The fossil record - in defiance of Darwin's whole idea of gradual change - often makes great leaps from one form to the next. Far from the display of intermediates to be expected from slow advance through natural selection many species appear without warning, persist in fixed form and disappear, leaving no descendants. Geology assuredly does not reveal any finely graduated organic chain, and this is the most obvious and gravest objection which can be urged against the theory of evolution." -- Steve Jones, professor, Almost Like a Whale, 1999
"Highly improbable events don't happen by chance." -- William A. Dembski, philosopher, 1998
"It's impossible to be dead. Because to be is quite the opposite of death. But it's not important. If one lives or dies there is no meaning either way. One always does die. Whatever is alive has to die. Maybe that's the meaning of life. The meaning of life is inevitable death. You may regret the idea of dying. You probably wish that you could go on and see what happens tomorrow. But that's impossible. It's written that you should die today and that's that." -- Paul Bowles, author, 1998
"For example, the Cambrian strata of rocks, vintage about 600 million years, are the oldest ones in which we find most of the major invertebrate groups. And we find many of them already in an advanced state of evolution, the very first time they appear. It is as thought they were just planted there, without any evolutionary history. Needless to say, this appearance of sudden planting has delighted creationists." -- Richard Daw |
his vision of what he thought a man should be. "The Loved One" was enough to impress wrestler Dominic DeNucci, who would then train Foley to wrestle.[citation needed]
From there, the book goes on to chronologically detail Foley's escapades as "Cactus Jack" on the independent wrestling circuit, as well as his very first match in what was then called the World Wrestling Federation. It then continues to recount his years in World Championship Wrestling, as well as those that he spent in both Japan and Extreme Championship Wrestling. It then goes on to describe his re-entry into the WWF, the creation of his new persona "Mankind", and the reappearance of Dude Love in the WWF. The book details his experience in the "Hell in a Cell" match with The Undertaker that he had at King of the Ring 1998 which truly made him famous as Mankind. Due to the concussion he sustained during the match, he had to watch video clips of it to recall the details and write about it.[citation needed]
Finally, from there, it tells the story of the introduction of his sock puppet, "Mr. Socko", and ends with his eventual WWF Championship win over The Rock.[citation needed]
Foley also breaks chronological history at a point during the book, writing about Owen Hart's death on the night it happened, rather than editing the news into a later chapter to fit in with chronology.[citation needed]
References [ edit ]
Sources [ edit ]Renault and Fernando Alonso have been cleared to compete in the European Grand Prix in Valencia after winning an appeal against a one-race ban. The French team were punished after allowing Fernando Alonso to leave the pit lane with a loose wheel, which then came off, at the Hungarian Grand Prix. However, Alonso will now be able to race at his home grand prix this weekend after the ban was overturned. Motorsport's governing body (FIA) will instead fine Renault £30,000. Alonso's right front wheel came off and bounced across the track at the race four weeks ago, race stewards subsequently ruling that the team's pit crew knew the wheel was not properly secured and failed to tell the driver. But Renault team manager Steve Nielsen had said he was confident the team's suspension would be lifted. "I've been optimistic since we got the penalty. We feel it's unjust," he said. The stewards said Renault's pit crew "knowingly released car number seven from the pit stop position without one of the retaining devices for the wheel-nuts being securely in position." 606: DEBATE It seems like Renault are the fall guys of the recent events and a point HAS to be made of it
mintroyalle They also determined that "being aware of this, Renault failed to take any action to prevent the car from leaving the pit lane... and failed to inform the driver of this problem or to advise him to take appropriate action given the circumstances, even though the driver contacted the team by radio believing he had a puncture." However, Nielsen insisted his team did not realise there was a problem with Alonso's car. "We admit we did some stuff wrong, but we don't think that the penalty fits the crime," added Nielsen. To argue their case Renault used comparative footage from races where drivers breached safety rules - but either went unpunished, or were punished less severely. One example was German driver Sebastian Vettel racing at the Australian Grand Prix in March with a loose wheel hanging by the side of his car after colliding with BMW's Robert Kubica. Vettel was fined £30,000 - the maximum amount that race stewards can levy - for continuing on three wheels and Renault said their punishment - at worst - should be a similar fine. But Whiting said that incidents such as Vettel's had not occurred when leaving the pits, but during the race itself. Renault engineering director Pat Symonds attended the hearing Renault were represented at the hearing by engineering director Pat Symonds and technical director Bob Bell, while F1 race director Charlie Whiting represented the FIA. With the ban overturned Alonso will now race at his home grand prix while Renault test driver Romain Grosjean is likely to take Nelson Piquet Jr's seat. Frenchman Grosjean should be asked to step in after Piquet Jr was told by Renault he will not continue driving for them in F1 this season. The decision to allow Alonso and his Renault team to race is also likely to delight the Spanish crowd. "The reason there are two races in Spain is largely because of Fernando's involvement," said Nielsen. "People in Spain were not so interested in F1 until he got involved, and now it's a big sport there." The incident was particularly pertinent as it happened the day after Brazilian Felipe Massa was hospitalised with life-threatening injuries suffered while racing. The Ferrari driver was struck by an object dislodged from the Brawn GP car of Rubens Barrichello car during qualifying at the Hungaroring. Massa had surgery on his skull and is recovering. The previous week, 18-year-old F2 driver Henry Surtees - the son of former F1 champion John Surtees- was killed after losing consciousness and crashing into the barrier after a stray tyre hit him.
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StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable versionFortune teller Pilar Abel loses 10-year campaign to prove she is Spanish surrealist’s only child and heir
DNA evidence taken from the recently exhumed body of Salvador Dalí has shown that he is not the father of a woman who had claimed to be the only child and heir of the eccentric surrealist.
Pilar Abel, a 61-year-old tarot card reader and fortune teller from Girona, has spent the past 10 years trying to prove that she is the fruit of a liaison between her mother and Dalí in 1955.
In June, a court in Madrid ordered the artist’s body to be exhumed after previous attempts to determine paternity had failed. A month later, experts entered the crypt beneath the museum Dalí designed for himself in his home town of Figueres, Catalonia, to take DNA samples from his hair, nails and bones.
However, on Wednesday, the Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation, which controls the artist’s lucrative estate – and which had opposed the exhumation – said analysis of the remains had shown that he was not related to Abel.
The foundation said a report submitted to the court by the National Institute of Toxicology and Forensic Sciences had established that Dalí was not her biological father.
“This conclusion comes as no surprise to the foundation, since at no time has there been any evidence of the veracity of an alleged paternity,” it said in a statement. “The foundation is pleased that this report puts an end to an absurd and artificial controversy, and that the figure of Salvador Dalí remains definitively excluded from totally groundless claims.”
It said the DNA samples would be returned shortly, adding: “The Dalí Foundation is also pleased to be able to focus again on the management of its extraordinary artistic legacy and in the promotion of the work and figure of Salvador Dalí.”
Abel told the Spanish newspaper El País that neither she nor her lawyers had yet received the results of the tests. “Until I’ve got official word, they can say what they like,” she said. “I’m not hiding away and no matter what the result is, positive, negative or invalid, I’ll give a press conference to all the media to explain the result.”
She added: “If it comes out negative, I’ll still be la Pilar.”
Abel had claimed that the resemblance between her and the artist was so marked that “the only thing I’m missing is a moustache”, adding that she had first learned of her supposed parentage from the woman she thought was her paternal grandmother.
Abel claims she told her: “I know you aren’t my son’s daughter and that you are the daughter of a great painter, but I love you all the same.” She also noted that her granddaughter was “odd, just like your father”.
Ten years ago, Abel was granted permission to try to extract DNA from skin, hair and hair traces found clinging to Dalí’s death mask. The results proved inconclusive.
A second attempt to retrieve samples followed later that year using material supplied by the artist’s friend and biographer Robert Descharnes.
Although Abel has claimed she never received the results of the second test, Descharnes’ son Nicholas told the Spanish news agency Efe in 2008 that he had learned from the doctor who conducted the tests that they were negative.
Had the DNA evidence supported her claim, Abel would have been heir to a quarter of Dalí’s fortune, which he bequeathed to the Spanish state and the foundation that bears his name and that of his wife and muse, Gala.
The latest twist in the extraordinary saga in the life and death of the surrealist had made headlines around the world – as had the fact that Dalí’s trademark moustache had survived the Grim Reaper’s scything.
Narcís Bardalet, the embalmer who prepared Dalí’s body after his death in 1989 and helped with the exhumation, said he had been thrilled and touched to see the surrealist’s best-known feature once again.
“His moustache is still intact, [like clock hands at] 10 past 10, just as he liked it. It’s a miracle,” he told the Catalan radio station RAC1.
“His face was covered with a silk handkerchief – a magnificent handkerchief … When it was removed, I was delighted to see his moustache was intact … I was quite moved. You could also see his hair.”While we're transfixed by the presidential election, in the world of high tech another duel between two well-funded, take-no-quarter candidates has just emerged … and in the long run the impact on our daily lives may be nearly as great -- and perhaps even sinister.
As you probably heard, on Monday -- that is, on a national holiday, when business announcements are almost never made -- Google rolled out Chrome, its new Web browser.
Why the odd timing? Hard to say. Google surely knows that just about anything it does these days is going to cause a news frenzy -- and especially when it's announcing its first thrust into a huge new market.
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So, perhaps it hoped to temper this coverage to a degree, and drag it out for several days. Or perhaps Google was unsure about the product itself, and didn't want to overhype it -- and then face a potential backlash. Or, maybe Google just didn't think Chrome was that important, saw a window between the two political conventions and rushed it out.
Google's official explanation is that the Labor Day release of Chrome was an accident, and the Terms of Use attached to that product were simply a cut-and-paste from other Google products. We will leave it to the reader to decide if these are viable explanations from a multi-billion company regarding one of its biggest new products in years -- and, if true, what it says about Google's competence in handling some of your most sensitive information.
Well, now that Chrome is out and being field-tested by reviewers, I think we can rule out the second and the third scenarios. That leaves the first. But why would a company that knows it has a solid and newsworthy product on its hands intentionally dampen media coverage of it?
The answer, I think, was that it was a long-term strategic decision to make Chrome look almost like an afterthought. And I think that decision was made at the highest levels of Google, perhaps by CEO Eric Schmidt.
Why? Because Google's ambitions are bigger than most of us have ever imagined, and the company is now rich enough, and powerful enough, to execute them -- even if it means the short-term sacrifice of a major new revenue source.
One more thing: If Google pulls off this strategy, it will be the most valuable company on the planet. It will also be the scariest … and we should start worrying about that right now.
First, a little background. Google sits at the confluence of two historic Silicon Valley philosophical streams.
One, which comes from Sergey Brinn and Larry Page, the two founders, reaches back all of the way to the early days of computing and continues forward through the world of gamers, hackers, Apple and the Web 2.0 generation. It is essentially utopian in its belief that technology -- especially the Web -- will bring about a better world (hence, Google's "Don't Be Evil" motto).
It also has absolutist (some would even say totalitarian) tendencies, in that it also believes that the empiricism of science and technology supersedes messy human institutions. It is proudly amoral, which is why it can celebrate hackers -- or for that matter, Steve Jobs -- as heroes, as long as they remain innovators.
Taking on Google: About Schmidt
The second stream is embodied in a single figure, Eric Schmidt. Schmidt is perhaps the smartest person I know -- and one of the few people in tech history (Andy Grove is another, and the comparison is telling) who has ever successfully made the leap from being a corporate chief scientist to Fortune 500 CEO.
But the trip wasn't easy.
Twice, Schmidt watched all of his efforts come to nothing in the face of devastating assaults by Bill Gates and Microsoft. The first time, at Sun Microsystems, Schmidt was all but helpless to do anything; the second time, at Novell, where he was CEO, he had to take the blame.
In those days, everyone in Silicon Valley was obsessed with Microsoft. It seemed an unstoppable force that would slowly crush one market after another until it had rolled up the entire tech world. Most companies and entrepreneurs either hunkered down and tried to ride out the storm, or simply ran way -- finding market niches where Microsoft was unlikely to follow.
But three Valleyites, each of them a genius of one type or another, and each of them already burned by Microsoft, set out on their own to figure out how to beat Gates.
The first was Larry Ellison, whose company Oracle was nearly as big as Microsoft. Ruthless and insanely competitive, Ellison tried and failed to draw users off their PCs and onto a theoretical "network computer," failed and then embarked on an acquisition campaign that essentially encased his customer base behind impenetrable walls.
The second was Marc Andreessen, who had to watch his beloved Netscape be crushed by Gates' borderline illegal attack with Internet Explorer, quietly withdrew upstream from Microsoft and went into the "tool" business, devising new ways for users to use the Internet without Microsoft.
But neither went so far, with such success, as Schmidt. He spent years figuring out how to beat Microsoft -- and when he was given Google, he knew he now had the perfect club. Microsoft still took most of the world's users to the Internet, but once they got there, Google owned them. The Web was all about searching for information -- and because Google's search service was free, billions of users happily took Google up on the offer.
That might have been enough. Google is now one of the world's most valuable and influential companies. Much of the planet's population passes through its simple and friendly portals every day, and in the process it has snatched up a sizable chunk of the advertising money out there. Meanwhile, no one talks much about Microsoft these days.
It would seem that Schmidt has had his revenge, and the techno-utopians of the world have been vindicated. But if you think that means the battle is over, don't kid yourself.
Did Google Lie?
If anything, the dreams of both have just begun to unfold. Schmidt seems no longer content to defeat Microsoft, but to become it -- and more. Moreover, he's got the army of brilliant, amoral young foot soldiers to do the job.
Remember, for these young techno-utopians, technology trumps all, even privacy. We saw a glimpse of that earlier this year when Facebook, that seemingly benign social network for young people, quietly implemented Beacon, which tracked users' purchases and then notified their friends in hopes of influencing their future purchases. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg professed surprise at the massive backlash against Beacon and shut it down -- but left the door opened for future surveillance programs.
But nowhere is the power to apply technology for its own sake more available than at Google. And despite the company's motto, and childlike logo and home page, this is the real driving force behind the company. And the long-term goal of this applied technology? Google has already said it: to manage all of the world's information.
Five years ago, this seemed harmless enough, even welcome. The Web is a huge, messy place -- so what's wrong with having some help navigating through it? But as Google has grown larger, and after it has taken over the big, general stuff (the Web) and begun focusing on the smaller, more specialized stuff (libraries, personal records, search patterns) that we begin to understand what "all" means... and what Google is willing to do to get it.
For example, a couple weeks ago, in a barely noticed blog entry, reporter Clint Boulton of Computerworld recounted a conversation he'd had with a Google insider who admitted that whatever the company was saying publicly -- and to Congress -- about user privacy, it was indeed tracking not just user search trails, but also their identities -- so-called "Deep Packet Inspection." The entry drew few readers, and no comments, but it did attract attention from one source: A senior Google executive called the magazine to get it to back off the story.
Even if true, had Google lied to Congress about user privacy? Probably not -- at least not in the way that Google had carefully phrased its words.
Then there is Google's odd acquiescence to the demands by authoritarian regimes around the world, especially China, to censor its search operations in those countries. These actions, inexplicable at the time, only become clear when one assumes that Google's real business now is not providing a service to its users, but in owning the world's data.
And that brings us back to Chrome. Why so low key an introduction? And why suddenly turn on a solid partnership with browser provider Mozilla? The answer, I think, has two parts.
Google: From Microsoft Killer to Big Brother?
First, Google believes that Chrome could be its Microsoft killer. Not only does it have the potential to beat MS Explorer but, fulfilling Ellison's old dream, it could be a way to let users easily download applications from the Web -- and thus circumvent Microsoft's lock on Office, even Windows, the very core of its business.
But a second reason is more sinister. Only a few people have noticed that, until recently, in the Terms of Service for signing up for Chrome, Google demands "perpetual, irrevocable, world-wide, royalty free and non-exclusive" license to any materials users create with the browser. (Google on Thursday announced that it was rescinding the clause.)
And that's only part of the story: An earlier reviewer of Chrome, Andrew Cheung of TGDaily, has noted that the browser almost seems to work "too well." For example, Cheung found that with a few keystrokes, Chrome will go into an online banking site and find account numbers, balances and transaction activity. Cheung suggests that it is a security flaw in the product. I'm not so sure.
Microsoft only wanted all of our money. Increasingly, it seems that Google wants all of our data. In running away from the evil empire, have we now instead rushed into the arms of Big Brother?
This is the opinion of the columnist and in no way reflects the opinion of ABC News.
Michael S. Malone is one of the nation's best-known technology writers. He has covered Silicon Valley and high-tech for more than 25 years, beginning with the San Jose Mercury News as the nation's first daily high-tech reporter. His articles and editorials have appeared in such publications as The Wall Street Journal, the Economist and Fortune, and for two years he was a columnist for The New York Times. He was editor of Forbes ASAP, the world's largest-circulation business-tech magazine, at the height of the dot-com boom. Malone is the author or co-author of a dozen books, notably the best-selling "Virtual Corporation." Malone has also hosted three public television interview series, and most recently co-produced the celebrated PBS miniseries on social entrepreneurs, "The New Heroes." He has been the ABCNews.com "Silicon Insider" columnist since 2000.Getty Images
In a move that could work to benefit all parties concerned, Liverpool are reportedly lining up a loan deal for Barcelona winger Cristian Tello this January.
According a to a recent article in Spanish daily newspaper Marca (h/t 101GreatGoals), the Reds are once again in the running to sign the 22-year-old, long tipped as one of La Masia's brighter graduates of recent years.
Denis Doyle/Getty Images
The report states:
Cristian Tello is very close to leaving [Barcelona] in the January transfer window. And, according to Radio Marca, the Barca player is just one step away from leaving to join Liverpool on loan. A few months ago Tello revealed his displeasure at the limited game time he was getting under [Tata] Martino. ”If you can not play at the club I may leave,” he said barely a month ago.
Despite his billing as an emerging star, Tello has found it difficult to break down the barriers of Barca's first team in recent seasons, something which has only been made less likely thanks to the summer arrival of Neymar.
CNN's Tancredi Palmeri confirmed that Mundo Deportivo had also reported the link:
Last week, it was alleged by the Mirror's David Maddock that Brendan Rodgers' side were nearing a deal for Basel flyer Mohamed Salah.
Clearly in the market for reinforcements out wide, Liverpool will look to add to the flanks that have been occupied by Raheem Sterling, Victor Moses, Philippe Coutinho and Jordan Henderson so far this season.
David Ramos/Getty Images
Per Transfermarkt.co.uk, Tello has made just two La Liga starts under Gerardo Martino this season. The youngster's brightest outing came in a 4-1 mauling of Real Valladolid, where Tello managed to record two assists in just over 70 minutes.
Though the Merseysiders would benefit most directly from any temporary move, Barca would be wise to give their winger some time away from the Camp Nou, considering he's yet to leave the club since moving from Espanyol in 2010.
However, ESPN's John Brewin raises a valid point in saying Tello's arrival would only act as another obstacle for those youngsters already at Anfield:
The Spaniard clearly has potential, but has so far been unable to expand upon early signs of talent thanks to a lack of consistency in his playing time.
Were Tello to arrive at Anfield, he'd be looking to have a bigger impact than compatriots Suso, Luis Alberto and Dani Pacheco have managed in recent years, all having earned massive hype but ultimately failing to make an impact in Liverpool's first team.American model and actress
Not to be confused with Caitlin Upton
Katherine Elizabeth Upton[4] (born June 10, 1992)[5] is an American model and actress. Upton was named the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue Rookie of the Year following her appearance in the magazine in 2011, and was the cover model for the 2012, 2013 and 2017 issues. She was also the subject of the 100th-anniversary Vanity Fair cover. Upton has also appeared in the films Tower Heist (2011), The Other Woman (2014) and The Layover (2017).
Early life [ edit ]
Upton was born in St. Joseph, Michigan. She is the daughter of Shelley (née Davis), a former Texas state tennis champion, and Jeff Upton, a high school athletics director.[6][7][8] Her uncle is U.S. Representative Fred Upton.[9][10] Upton's great-grandfather, Frederick Upton, was co-founder of appliance manufacturer and marketer Whirlpool Corporation.[11]
In 1999, Upton moved with her family to Melbourne, Florida,[4] where she was a student at Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy.[12][13] As a young equestrian, she showed at the American Paint Horse Association (APHA) and competed at a national level.[14] With her horse Roanie,[15] she won three APHA Reserve World Championships – 13 and Under Western Riding, 13 and Under Horsemanship, and 14–18 Western Riding. She was named the 13 and Under Reserve All-Around Champion, giving her a total of four reserve championships (2nd place). In addition, Upton ended up third overall on the APHA youth Top Twenty.[16] With a second horse, Colby,[15] she won 14–18 Western Riding and was included in the top 5 in 14–18 Horsemanship and 14–18 Western Pleasure in 2009.[16]
Career [ edit ]
Upton attended a casting call in Miami for Elite Model Management in 2008 and was signed the same day. She eventually moved to New York City, where she then signed with IMG Models.[17]
Upton first modeled clothing for Garage and Dooney & Bourke.[17] She was the 2010–11 face of Guess.[18] In 2011, Upton appeared in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.[19] She was featured in the body paint section and named Rookie of the Year for that issue.[17] She has since modeled for Beach Bunny Swimwear,[2][20] and has appeared in Complex[21][22] and Esquire as "The Woman of the Summer".[23] Upton wore one of the Beach Bunny suits in the 2014 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.[24]
In April 2011, an Internet video of her doing the dougie hip-hop dance at a Los Angeles Clippers game went viral and served to increase her popularity.[14][25][26] Guy Trebay of The New York Times observed that this served to illustrate the power of social media to bestow stardom upon a model, which had previously been the domain of top designer runway shows.[27] In April 2012, Upton appeared in a video of herself performing the Cat Daddy dance to the song of the same name by The Rej3ctz, which also went viral.[28]
Upton made an appearance in a June 2011 episode of Tosh.0[29] and participated in the 2011 Taco Bell All-Star Legends & Celebrity Softball Game at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona, in July 2011.[30]
Upton's acting debut was in the film, Tower Heist, as Mr. Hightower’s mistress. It was released in November 2011.[31] She also appeared in The Three Stooges as Sister Bernice.[32]
Upton appeared on the cover of the 2012 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, released in February 2012.[33][34] Upton has also recounted the negative aftereffects of the 2012 Sports Illustrated cover, as she was subjected to criticism and felt she had been objectified.[35]
Upton has appeared in editorials for American, Italian, British, Spanish, German, and Brazilian Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, V, Mademoiselle, LOVE, Italian, German, and American GQ, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, and Esquire. She has appeared on the covers of Italian, American, and British Vogue, French and American Elle, American, Italian, and German GQ, Esquire, and Vanity Fair.
She has appeared in advertising campaigns for David Yurman, Sam Edelman, Betsey Johnson, Guess?, Victoria's Secret, Express, and Bare Necessities. She was named the "new face" of Bobbi Brown cosmetics in 2014.[36]
In 2012, she was ranked the fifth-sexiest model by Models.com[37] She ranked #3 on the American publication of AskMen's Top 99 Women for 2013.[38] In 2012, she was listed on Maxim's Hot 100 list, citing her photo shoots with Sports Illustrated.[39]
Upton was the cover model for the 2013 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue for the second consecutive year.[34][40] Parts of her 2013 Sports Illustrated pictorial were filmed in Antarctica and Upton suffered from failing hearing and eyesight due to the extreme cold.[41][42]
After getting the November 2012 Vogue Italia cover photographed by Steven Meisel and the January 2013 Vogue UK cover,[43][44] Upton landed the June 2013 Vogue cover by Mario Testino.[45] She was then photographed by Annie Leibovitz for the October 2013 100th anniversary cover of Vanity Fair.[46]
In September 2013, Upton was named Model of the Year at the 10th annual Style Awards at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York.[47]
Upton appeared on the flip-side cover of the 2014 50th-anniversary Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, the first time that type of cover was used by that magazine.[48] Part of her shoot took place at Cape Canaveral, capturing her in zero gravity.[49][50]
In April 2014, she appeared with Cameron Diaz, Leslie Mann, and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau in the comedy The Other Woman as Amber, one of Coster-Waldau's character's mistresses.[51][52]
In 2014, Upton starred with Tony Hale in Lady Antebellum's music video "Bartender".[53][54] People named Upton its "Sexiest Woman" for 2014, the first time the title has been awarded.[55] Also in 2014, Upton was the centerpiece of a $40 million advertising campaign for Machine Zone's mobile app Game of War: Fire Age.[56][57]
In 2017, Upton starred with Alexandra Daddario[58] in The Layover, a road trip sex comedy directed by William H. Macy. The film follows two best friends (Daddario and Upton) on vacation as they fight over the same man during a layover in St. Louis. Also that year, Upton appeared in James Franco's film adaptation The Disaster Artist,[59] about the production of the film The Room.
Personal life [ edit ]
Kate Upton and her dog Harley in 2017
Upton has said that her belief in God is important to her. During a photo shoot, someone joked about a cross necklace she wore, saying, "Why are you wearing a cross? Like you would be religious", then took the necklace from her to do the shoot. Upton stated about the incident: "I was really affected by that. The whole thing made me realize that I do want a cross with me, at all times." As a result, Upton had a cross tattooed on the inside of her finger.[35][60]
In 2014, nude photographs of Upton and several other female celebrities were illegally leaked to the Internet.[61][62]
As of 2018, she owns a boxer dog, Harley.[63][64]
Upton started dating then Detroit Tigers baseball player Justin Verlander in early 2014,[65] and they were engaged in 2016.[66] In November 2017, the couple married in Tuscany, Italy.[67] They have a daughter, born in 2018.[68]
Filmography [ edit ]
Film [ edit ]
Television [ edit ]
Awards and nominations [ edit ]Details
miner.setEtherbase("0xd8ae46ba60513f7811dcd26882405f6be01c730f")
miner.setExtra("YourBitCoinAddress goes inside the quotes")
Let's test out using a cool feature for something useful - a mining contract using the miner's extra data.Set your miner coinbase reward address to 0xd8ae46ba60513f7811dcd26882405f6be01c730fIf you don't do that I have no way of knowing who mined which block:In the geth console:for example: miner.setExtra("1Ebb8NfVmKMoGuMJCAEbVMv2dX8GnzgxSa")This is not fully automated yet. But you will be able to see that the rewards are exchanged within 24-48 hours.To make sure that the extra works, perhaps mine a block for yourself first with some extra data in it and check on etherchain.org that it's there.Cheers!My budget is roughly 500 blocks (10BTC), so keep an eye on the address and if the balance gets close to 2000 ETH, stop.Disclaimer: This is purely experimental, but I intend to try to automate it. I'm also not sure if this has been done already, if not we're making history.Afghanistan not in a position to take on burden of 1.7 million Afghan refugees at this stage, says UNHCR spokesperson.
ISLAMABAD: Members of parliament and the United Nation Human Rights Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) have denied media reports of 1.7 million Afghan refugees being expelled from Pakistan by the end of this year.
Talking to Voice of America (VOA), spokesperson for UNHCR Aslam Khan, while terming the reports as baseless, said that Pakistan had no intention to oust Afghan refugees living in Pakistan by the end of 2012.
He said that Pakistan was bound to fulfill its obligation, adding that Afghan refugees possessing registration cards would not be displaced by force until they were ready to go back to Afghanistan voluntarily.
He said the war-torn country of Afghanistan was not in a position to take the burden of 1.7 million Afghan refugees at this stage.
Federal Minister for States and Frontier Region Engineer Shaukatullah also said that all registered and non-registered Afghan refugees willing to go back to their homes voluntarily, would be repatriated by the end of this year.
“All registered Afghan refugees who are voluntarily desirous will be allowed to go back to their homes in Afghanistan,” he said.
ANP Senator Afrasiyab Khan Khattak has said that Afghan refugees are a burden on Pakistan in view of the present economic situation, but he will not support their forced expulsion from the country as they are living in Pakistan due to certain compulsions.
He warned that forced expulsion of Afghan refugees may affect bilateral relations between the two countries, adding that both governments should evolve a joint strategy for the return of Afghan refugees so that it may be sustainable.
Spokesperson UNHCR in Pakistan Dunya Aslam Khan, sharing her views, said the return of Afghan refugees should be voluntary, but added that illegal immigrants may be expelled.
She said that UNHCR had contacted government officials to verify media reports, adding that Pakistan had made a commitment to the UNHCR country director that no recognized Afghan refugee would be deported from Pakistan.
According to Pakistani officials, about one million Afghans are living in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) without valid documents.
At least one million non-registered Afghan refugees presently living in Pakistan are reportedly being sent back by force, hence, the UNCHR official said that non-registered Afghan refugees should register themselves.
Read full storyIn the mid-18th century, the maternal mortality rate in Sweden approached 900 deaths for every 100,000 births. A hundred years later, the introduction of professional midwives had contributed to the rate being pushed down to 230. Today, four women die per 100,000 live births.
This goes to show that the midwifery profession and workforce have the power to save thousands of lives each year. Unfortunately, not everyone gets to enjoy the benefits of that power. Although global maternal and infant mortality rates have dropped by half since 1990, about 800 women and girls worldwide still die from pregnancy- or childbirth-related complications each day. Almost all of them, 99%, die in developing countries. Every day there are more than 8,200 stillbirths and, each year, 2.8 million babies die within the first six weeks of life.
World making barely any progress on preventing stillbirths, says Lancet Read more
These figures are troubling in themselves, but the fact that the majority of these deaths could have been prevented with the help of qualified midwives and doctors makes the situation even more frustrating. Added to that is a persistent and – in some places – growing resistance to the human rights of women, not least among violent extremist groups, who make the control of women’s lives, bodies and reproduction a central part of their ideology and rhetoric. Women’s human rights can never be taken for granted.
To help spread the word about the major part played by midwives in sexual and reproductive health, the Swedish foreign ministry teamed up with the International Confederation of Midwives to launch the Midwives4All initiative. Our aim is to strengthen women’s human rights, improve access to health services and resources for women, and increase female representation. This year we’re celebrating the heroism of midwives by acknowledging those whose efforts make a real difference. Our excellence in midwifery award is open to healthcare workers in 14 countries around the world.
Midwives not only improve the chance of a safe pregnancy and delivery, but also provide the full continuum of care throughout a woman’s life. By doing so, they play a key role in the empowerment of women and building sustainable societies. Access to a midwife is a big and important step in achieving sexual and reproductive health and rights for all. These rights are crucial for gender equality and are not merely a health issue.
Sweden has a feminist government and sexual and reproductive health and rights are seen as central to the struggle for women’s human rights. If women and girls can’t control their own bodies, decide whether or not to have sex with someone, and choose who to marry and when to have children, how can they participate on equal terms as men in society?
Sweden has a long tradition of being at the forefront on these matters, and up to 60% of Swedish development cooperation for health goes to promoting sexual and reproductive health and rights. In 2014, it amounted to 2.3bn Swedish kronor (£197m).
We promote more and better midwife training, strengthened legislation, increased recognition of the profession, and better information on the role midwives play. Swedish aid helps women and girls in countries where maternal mortality is highest. During my trips as a minister in Afghanistan, Somalia and South Sudan, I have seen how this work saves lives and build better capacity for the future. In Bangladesh, Swedish midwives, in close cooperation with local authorities, have helped to build up a new profession from the ground.
We have the policy and the mindset to drive change for the better, but first and foremost we have the opportunity. Through the ambitious goals of the 2030 agenda, two of |
GE KOKINIS
Then: After serving an internship in the Browns’ operations department, Kokinis became a scout with the team in 1991 and remained in that position with the team through 1995.
Now: Kokinis rose from scout to director of pro personnel with the Ravens from 1996-2008. In 2009, Kokinis was named the Browns’ general manager. Midway through the 2009 season with the Browns mired in a miserable 1-7 start, the team announced that Kokinis was “no longer actively involved” with the Browns. Kokinis returned to the Ravens as a senior personnel assistant under general manager Ozzie Newsome.
MICHAEL LOMBARDI
Then: Lombardi joined the Browns in 1987 and was promoted to director of player personnel in 1992, advising Belichick on all football matters. Some of the notable players drafted in Lombardi’s time in Cleveland are defensive tackle Michael Dean Perry, running back Eric Metcalf, defensive ends Anthony Pleasant and Rob Burnett, safety Eric Turner and receiver Michael Jackson.
Now: After working as senior personnel executive of the Oakland Raiders from 1999-2007. Lombardi transitioned into the media and now serves as an analyst for NFL Network and NFL.com.
Jim Reineking is an editor for NFL.com and can followed on Twitter @JimReineking.Some zombie myths just won’t die. In fact, I debunked this one two years ago right here at The Guardian.
To sum up, a number of scientific studies have asked the question, ‘if the sun were to enter another extended quiet phase (a grand solar minimum), how would that impact global surface temperatures?’. Every study agrees, it would cause no more than 0.3°C cooling, which would only be enough to temporarily offset about a decade’s worth of human-caused global warming.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest The global mean temperature difference is shown for the time period 1900 to 2100 for the IPCC A2 emissions scenario. The red line shows predicted temperature change for the current level of solar activity, the blue line shows predicted temperature change for solar activity at the much lower level of the Maunder Minimum, and the black line shows observed temperatures through 2010. Adapted from Feulner & Rahmstorf (2010) by SkepticalScience.com
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Denial101x lecture debunking the ‘impending mini ice age’ myth by Dana Nuccitelli
Solar activity is actually quite stable. That’s a good thing for us on Earth, because without big swings in the amount of energy reaching the planet from the sun, our climate is likewise generally quite stable. That’s allowed us to build big immobile cities and farms, with the confidence that the climate and weather will be pretty consistent in those areas. It’s allowed human civilization to develop over the past 10,000 years. Though with human-caused global warming in the process of destabilizing the climate, we’re putting that civilization under serious stress.
Back from the dead
Recently there’s been a flood of media stories claiming that the sun may be headed towards a quiet phase (a possibility), which could send the Earth into a “deep freeze” (a virtual impossibility). These stories appear to have originated in the biased conservative media (like the Daily Mail and Telegraph) and seeped into other media outlets (like CNN). Some media outlets, like the Washington Post, did a good job researching the story and discovering its flaws before publishing.
The stories stemmed from a presentation at the Royal Astronomical Society’s National Astronomy Meeting in Wales by mathematician Valentina Zharkova. Her research (not yet published) suggests the sun could be headed for a quiet phase like the one that coincided with a period known as the “Little Ice Age,” but doesn’t say anything about how this solar minimum would impact the Earth’s climate.
Some of the fault for raising this zombie myth from the dead lies with the Royal Astronomical Society’s press release, which mentioned the previous mini ice age without making it clear that it was solar activity but not the Earth’s climate that was the subject of the study. Some of the fault lies with Zharkova, who made comments ‘skeptical’ of human-caused global warming that were not supported by her research.
And much of the fault lies with media oulets like the Daily Mail and Telegraph, which ran rather sensationalist stories about an impending mini ice age apparently without consulting a single climate scientist. It’s not a coincidence that the media outlets that didn’t contact climate scientists spread this myth, while the media outlets that did contact climate scientists debunked it.
An easy myth to debunk
This ‘impending mini ice age’ myth is incredibly easy to debunk. In fact it just takes asking one simple question – if the sun is such a key driver of the Earth’s climate, then why has the entire planet (air, oceans, land, and ice) warmed rapidly over the past 60 years while solar activity has declined?
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Annual global surface temperature change (thin light red) with 11 year moving average of temperature (thick dark red). Temperature from NASA GISS. Annual Total Solar Irradiance (thin light blue) with 11 year moving average of TSI (thick dark blue). Source: Skeptical Science
That simple question is sufficient on its own to debunk the notion that the sun is the main driver of global temperatures. Research has clearly shown, it’s carbon dioxide that’s the temperature’s main control knob.
Second, research has suggested that the solar minimum around the year 1650 played a relatively small role in the cool temperatures during the Little Ice Age. Instead, heightened volcanic activity (pumping ash into the atmosphere that blocks sunlight) and a drop in atmospheric carbon levels were the main contributors to the cooling during that time.
Third, the Little Ice Age wasn’t even that cold, globally. The following chart shows the most comprehensive global surface temperature reconstruction to date, from the PAGES 2k Consortium. In just the past few decades the planet has warmed more than it cooled during the entire Little Ice Age.
Green dots show the 30-year average of the new PAGES 2k reconstruction. The red curve shows the global mean surface temperature, according HadCRUT4 data from 1850 onwards. In blue is the original hockey stick of Mann, Bradley and Hughes (1999) with its uncertainty range (light blue). Graph by Klaus Bitterman. 400 years of sunspot observations are inlaid, created by Robert Rohde.
There was significant regional cooling during the mini ice age, particularly in parts of Europe and North America, but globally it was indeed quite little.
Fourth, a grand solar minimum would be a temporary phase. Any cooling it caused would only last a few decades until the end of the event, at which point the increase in solar activity would contribute to global warming.
In summary, the difference between the Little Ice Age and current warming period comes down to volcanoes, carbon dioxide, and magnitude. The previous cool period was quite small, likely caused mostly by volcanic activity. And of course, humans weren’t pumping over 30 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year in the 17th century, as we are now.
The bottom line: even the grandest solar minimum would have a minor impact on global temperatures compared to the rapid warming stemming from human carbon pollution.Hailed as ‘enormously significant’, results in groundbreaking trial are first time a drug has been shown to suppress effects of Huntington’s genetic mutation
A landmark trial for Huntington’s disease has announced positive results, suggesting that an experimental drug could become the first to slow the progression of the devastating genetic illness.
The results have been hailed as “enormously significant” because it is the first time any drug has been shown to suppress the effects of the Huntington’s mutation that causes irreversible damage to the brain. Current treatments only help with symptoms, rather than slowing the disease’s progression.
Q&A What is Huntington's disease? Show Hide Huntington’s disease is a congenital degenerative condition caused by a single defective gene. Most patients are diagnosed in middle age, with symptoms including mood swings, irritability and depression. As the disease progresses, more serious symptoms can include involuntary jerky movements, cognitive difficulties and issues with speech and swallowing.
Currently there is no cure for Huntington's, although drugs exist which help manage some of the symptoms. It is thought that about 12 people in 100,000 are affected by Huntington's, and if a parent carries the faulty gene there is a 50% chance they will pass it on to their offspring.
Prof Sarah Tabrizi, director of University College London’s Huntington’s Disease Centre who led the phase 1 trial, said the results were “beyond what I’d ever hoped... The results of this trial are of ground-breaking importance for Huntington’s disease patients and families,” she said.
The results have also caused ripples of excitement across the scientific world because the drug, which is a synthetic strand of DNA, could potentially be adapted to target other incurable brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. The Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche has paid a $45m licence fee to take the drug forward to clinical use.
Huntington’s is an incurable degenerative disease caused by a single gene defect that is passed down through families.
'You know that you’re gradually lessening': life with Huntington's Read more
The first symptoms, which typically appear in middle age, include mood swings, anger and depression. Later patients develop uncontrolled jerky movements, dementia and ultimately paralysis. Some people die within a decade of diagnosis.
“Most of our patients know what’s in their future,” said Ed Wild, a UCL scientist and consultant neurologist at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London, who administered the drug in the trial.
The mutant Huntington’s gene contains instructions for cells to make a toxic protein, called huntingtin. This code is copied by a messenger molecule and dispatched to the cell’s protein-making machinery. The drug, called Ionis-HTTRx, works by intercepting the messenger molecule and destroying it before the harmful protein can be made, effectively silencing the effects of the mutant gene.
To deliver the drug to the brain, it has to be injected into the fluid around the spine using a four-inch needle.
Prof John Hardy, a neuroscientist at UCL who was not involved in the trial, said: “If I’d have been asked five years ago if this could work, I would have absolutely said no. The fact that it does work is really remarkable.”
The trial involved 46 men and women with early stage Huntington’s disease in the UK, Germany and Canada. The patients were given four spinal injections one month apart and the drug dose was increased at each session; roughly a quarter of participants had a placebo injection.
After being given the drug, the concentration of harmful protein in the spinal cord fluid dropped significantly and in proportion with the strength of the dose. This kind of closely matched relationship normally indicates a drug is having a powerful effect.
“For the first time a drug has lowered the level of the toxic disease-causing protein in the nervous system, and the drug was safe and well-tolerated,” said Tabrizi. “This is probably the most significant moment in the history of Huntington’s since the gene [was isolated].”
The trial was too small, and not long enough, to show whether patients’ clinical symptoms improved, but Roche is now expected to launch a major trial aimed at testing this.
If the future trial is successful, Tabrizi believes the drug could ultimately be used in people with the Huntington’s gene before they become ill, possibly stopping symptoms ever occurring. “They may just need a pulse every three to four months,” she said. “One day we want to prevent the disease.”
Scientists deploy GM sheep in fight to treat Huntington’s disease Read more
The drug, developed by the California biotech firm Ionis Pharmaceuticals, is a synthetic single strand of DNA customised to latch onto the huntingtin messenger molecule.
The unexpected success raises the tantalising possibility that a similar approach might work for other degenerative brain disorders. “The drug’s like Lego,” said Wild. “You can target [any protein].”
For instance, a similar synthetic strand of DNA could be made to target the messenger that produces misshapen amyloid or tau proteins in Alzheimer’s.
“Huntington’s alone is exciting enough,” said Hardy, who first proposed that amyloid proteins play a central role in Alzheimer’s. “I don’t want to overstate this too much, but if it works for one, why can’t it work for a lot of them? I am very, very excited.”
Prof Giovanna Mallucci, associate director of UK Dementia Research Institute at the University of Cambridge, described the work as a “tremendous step forward” for individuals with Huntington’s disease and their families.
“Clearly, there will be much interest into whether it can be applied to the treatment of other neurodegenerative diseases, like Alzheimer’s,” she added. However, she said that in the case of most other disorders the genetic causes are complex and less well understood, making them potentially harder to target.
About 10,000 people in the UK have the condition and about 25,000 are at risk. Most people with Huntington’s inherited the gene from a parent, but about one in five patients have no known family history of the disease.
The full results of the trial are expected to be published in a scientific journal next year.Marvel Entertainment has released two new clips, featuring Drax the Destroyer, from their upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy animated series.
When the show begins, Drax (voiced by David Sobolov) will already be seeking revenge against Ronan the Accuser, who is the person responsible for killing Drax's wife and child. To get close to Ronan, Drax takes part in a gladiatorial tournament that will award the winner with the "honor" of being Ronan's new enforcer. Drax abandons his mission the moment he sees the losing combatants are being shipped off to a life of slavery.
Check out the clips in the videos below.
Guardians of the Galaxy the animated series premieres Sept. 26 at 9:30 p.m. ET on Disney XD, with two back-to-back episodes. A sneak preview of the first episode will air Sept. 5 at 9 p.m. ET.Teen superstar Miley Cyrus has recorded a cover version of John Lennon peace anthem IMAGINE.
The 16-year-old hit the studio for a duet with her Hannah Montana: The Movie co-star Emily Osment after the pair bonded on the set of the film, through their love of the late Beatles legend.
Cyrus tells Moviefone.com, "I'm just a huge John Lennon fan. I studied him in school, and just watched the movie Chapter 27 (which depicts his murder).
"We (Cyrus and Emily Osment) did a duet of Imagine, in the studio."
Cyrus doesn't reveal if the duet will ever be released - but she insists fans shouldn't be surprised by her eclectic musical taste.
She adds, "I don't think the music you produce has to be the the music you listen to. I like singing pop music, and I like dancing. And you can't really dance a lot to rock and roll. I like Nirvana. I really like Radiohead. I really love the Beatles."Battlefield 1943 is an online multiplayer World War II first-person shooter video game developed by EA Digital Illusions CE and published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 via digital download only (similar to Battlefield Heroes). Unlike Battlefield 1942 this game takes place only in the Pacific Theater of Operations of World War II.Battlefield 1943 has players playing as either the United States Marine Corps or the Imperial Japanese Navy with up to 24 players on mainly three classic Battlefield maps: Wake Island, Guadalcanal, and Iwo Jima; but after 43 million kills upon both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, an additional Dogfight only map called Coral Sea will be unlocked, while the PC version will be accessible during its release. The Xbox 360 has already unlocked the extra map, but Playstation 3 users have yet to do so (we are close).
Here is a five minute unedited view of opening the game, logging in, and playing by yours truly (please have sound enabled):
Like Battlefield: Bad Company, 1943 features the Frostbite Engine for its environmental damage. For example, if you shoot a grenade at a building, the wall will blow up and expose people inside. The game only features the series’ signature Conquest mode when released. Similar to Battlefield Heroes, 1943 only features three classes – infantryman, rifleman, and scout. The game also features a regenerating health system similar to the Call of Duty or Halo series. It is currently available now on the Playstation Store for $14.99.With excitement palpable and continuing to grow ahead of the highly anticipated Canada v USA Women’s International Friendly match set for Thursday 8 May at Investors Group Field in Winnipeg, MB, fans are invited to join in on the celebration through a series of activities designed specifically for them.
The week kicks off on Sunday, 4 May when Canadian stars and Olympic bronze medallists Rhian Wilkinson and Karina LeBlanc will be at the Bomber Store at Investors Group Field from 13.00 to 14.00 local time for an autograph session. In addition to meeting Wilkinson and LeBlanc, fans will get the chance to shop for their favourite official Canada Soccer Umbro merchandise and get outfitted for Thursday’s big match. Wear your red Canada!
Celebrations will continue on match day as fans are encouraged to arrive early to the stadium to participate in the pre-match Fan Fest. The Fan Fest, starting at 17.00 local time, will feature an array of interactive activities and exciting giveaways from Canada Soccer’s partners and local soccer organizations.
Fans will be able to:
Create their own sign and support message for Canada’s Women’s National Team at the BMO booth, and may even get a high five from BMO the Bear!
Visit the Canada Soccer tent for temporary Canada Soccer tattoos and stickers and a good chat about footie!
Get their photos taken “with the teams” at the Garnier Ombrelle photo booth!
Learn more about the FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada 2015 TM at the competition’s stand!
at the competition’s stand! Test their kicking speed and accuracy in various activities presented by local community soccer groups!
And more!
When making their way into the stadium, soccer enthusiasts can pick-up a copy of the official Canada’s Women’s National Team 2014 Home Season souvenir program featuring profiles of some of your favourite Canadian WNT stars, opponent information, historical team statistics, match day rosters, and more. Programs will be available at kiosks throughout the stadium for only $2.
Ticket purchasers should make sure to find their seats early as they will be treated to a special memorable pre-match presentation and opening ceremonies... Surprises in store!
Fans, friends and families are all encouraged to wear red and paint the stadium in Canada’s colours, as well as join in the chants that our Canadian supporters group the Voyageurs, seated in sections 143 and 144, will be leading throughout the match.
Be loud, be proud! Help lift our Canadian Women’s National Team and show them that Canada’s is with them as they prepare for the FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada 2015TM!
And when the night concludes, fans will be going home with memories for ages – and maybe a couple of fun giveaways they may find on their way out of Investors Group Field!
Tickets are still available for the match, starting at only $20 (plus applicable fees), via Ticketmaster.ca or by visiting Investors Group Field box office (check opening hours).
The 8 May Canada v USA match will kickoff at 19.00 local time (20.00 ET / 17.00 HP) and will be broadcast live on Sportsnet One for those outside Winnipeg or that cannot attend. Don’t miss out on the action by following Canada Soccer and Canada WNT on @CanadaSoccerEN, CanadaSoccer TV and canadasoccer.com.I’ve been playing Pokémon GO a lot more since the release of Gen 2, and while I’m about to throw in the towel because my entire city is drowning in Swinubs to the point of exhaustion, I’ve gotten to thinking about some of the core mechanics of the game once again.
My proposal? I think Pokémon GO needs some fundamental, radical changes. I could go off about the gym/battle system, and how that needs a total rework, but I’ll save that topic for another day. Rather, I want to focus on one particular issue today, one specific form of “currency,” Stardust.
Stardust has been a core part of the game since launch. You get it from catching Pokémon and hatching eggs, and it’s used to upgrade your Pokémon to higher CP levels. While at the lowest levels, an upgrade might cost 200-400 Stardust, what you get from catching a couple wild Pokémon, as you go, it starts to settle more into the 2,000-4,000 range, per upgrade, depending on your own level. Push past that into the highest potential CP levels in the game, and you’ll be spending anywhere from 6,000 to 10,000 per upgrade.
The problem with Stardust is that unlike candy, which is Pokémon-specific, there’s one giant shared pool of it. As a result, even for players that are stockpiling a lot of Stardust, there’s little reason to “invest” it in anything not deemed useful or powerful enough. The fact is, if you tried to upgrade all your final-stage Pokémon with Stardust, you would run out of even a large stash quickly, so instead players save it for a very select few Pokémon they want to focus on upgrading.
This system, quite frankly, sucks.
Players should not be discouraged from upgrading a wider array of Pokémon because of Stardust limitations. Upgrading one Pokémon means almost certainly that you will have less resources to upgrade another, more “important” one. This creates a lot of unfortunate situations.
I will never sink Stardust into say, upgrading an Electabuzz because he’s not that great and it would be a total waste of Stardust to try max him out. So instead, My 1,280 CP Electabuzz just sits there doing nothing despite the fact that I have 90 of his candies that could be used to upgrade him. But the Stardust cost? That would be a waste.
Similarly, why ever bother upgrading anything “normal” like a Pigeot or Beedrill when it costs loads of Stardust at higher levels, plus that candy can just be used for endless evolutions of Pigeottos and Kakunas which give XP? So instead of “training up” a somewhat powerful third-tier evolution, you instead have players with 50 Pigeottos because their Pidgeys are just an evolution farm and Stardust should never be dumped into something as “bad” as a Pidgeot.
All of this is contrary to many of the core principles of the handheld game. Yes, everyone has their favorites when it comes to a core group that they normally use in battle. But part of the fun of Pokémon was also training up many Pokémon, even “not great” ones to be as powerful and potentially useful as possible.
In Pokémon GO, using a shared pool of Stardust is a limiting factor in doing that. Either it’s a literal limit, as in if you try to spread it around your team, you will run out of it quickly and be doing something “inefficient,” or it’s mentally limiting, and you get people with hundreds of thousands of Stardust that don’t want to spend it because they’re waiting for like, Mewtwo to come out or something.
My advice? Stardust should be eliminated entirely.
Part of the reason Stardust exists is so higher tier players can’t just dominate everyone else with easy upgrades. But if instead only candy was used for upgrades, and the higher the CP, the more candy it takes (which is already in place to some extent), that would still produce that effect. Getting more candy for a specific Pokémon to upgrade it is already GO’s version of “training,” either through duplicate catches, egg hatching or buddy walking, and Stardust is this external, unnecessary complication that discourages many upgrades altogether.
Similarly, to prevent the auto-decision of people spamming candy for evolutions they’re just going to trash anyway, there should be some hefty XP bonuses for upgrading your Pokémon with candy to offset that. Like say, if you’re level 30 and you invest enough candy to max out your Pidgeot at that level, you get a 5,000 XP bonus, for instance. This would require some balancing no doubt, but this current system of “evolution milling” to generate XP with surplus candy instead of investing in a specific Pokémon really runs contrary to the entire point of Pokémon.
There are many aspects of Pokémon GO that need work, but the Stardust issue has rubbed me the wrong way for a long time. Leaving dozens of Pokémon behind because some universal currency is best used only for ultra-high level Dragonites and their ilk is poor execution of a concept that worked much better in the handhelds. There’s a way to go about this where investing in non-godlike Pokémon is still fun and rewarding, but right now GO is encouraging players to do anything but that, thanks to Stardust restrictions in particular.
Follow me on Twitter and on Facebook. Pick up my sci-fi series, The Earthborn Trilogy, which is now in print, online and on audiobook.MANILA - Presumptive President Rodrigo Duterte warned taxi drivers on Monday that refusing to give exact change to passengers is a criminal offense.
"It is extortion or illegal exaction," Duterte said during his first press conference after showing an unbeatable lead in the May 9 elections.
"Iyung mga taxi both dito sa Davao at Maynila, alam mo, kapag kinuha mo iyung kasi wala kang sinsilyo (change) at hindi mo talaga ibinalik, that is estafa. That is not a simple violation," he added.
Duterte also insisted that drivers who do not have loose change should not pick up passengers.
He also pointed out that drivers could always have their bills converted to smaller denominations at nearby stores.
The outgoing mayor of Davao City added that taxi companies should provide their drivers with loose change at the start of the day.
He also urged commuters to estimate their fare and give drivers the exact amount.TAMPA, Fla. -- The New York Yankees made no deals on trade deadline day.
WHAT WAS CLOSE: The Yankees had talks with the Phillies about a trade for Michael Young, who could have helped them as a right-handed first baseman/third baseman/DH.
Young informed the Phillies at 1:30 p.m. that he would wave his no-trade clause to come to the Yankees, sources said. The Yankees, despite media reports, did not officially hear this news from the Phillies until about an hour later. The two sides spoke about trade, but could never come to an agreement.
NO ONE WANTED JOBA: The Yankees were willing to trade Joba Chamberlain for just about anything. They couldn't find anyone who would take him. Chamberlain could be traded in waiver deal or he could possibly be released at some point. He is a free agent at the end of the year, but the Yankees are not expected to re-sign him.
HUGHES-FUL? Phil Hughes was not dealt and there did not seem to be much interest in him. Teams that are contenders didn't think they could trust him as a starter, while others will just wait until he is a free agent.
The Yankees could still get something for Hughes this offseason if they make the nearly $14 million qualifying offer to him. If he accepts, he would be back on a one-year deal. If not, he would go on the open market and if he signs with another team, the Yankees would receive a first-round pick.
MORE INFO SOON: Brian Cashman is holding a conference call at 4:30 and Wallace Matthews will be on it.
QUESTION: Do the Yankees have enough to win a wild-card spot?(Stillness in the Storm Editor) The following is a transcript of a video that was removed from youtube on two separate occasions—so claimed the editor of The following is a transcript of a video that was removed from youtube on two separate occasions—so claimed the editor of The Event Chronicle. Thankfully, a transcript was made before this happened.
- Justin
Stillness in the Storm Editor's note: Did you find a spelling error or grammar mistake? Do you think this article needs a correction or update? Or do you just have some feedback? Send us an email at Did you find a spelling error or grammar mistake? Do you think this article needs a correction or update? Or do you just have some feedback? Send us an email at sitsshow@gmail.com
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Subscribe to Stillness in the Storm Blog by Email] Question -- What is the goal of this website? Why do we share different sources of information that sometimes conflicts or might even be considered disinformation? Answer -- The primary goal of Stillness in the Storm is to help all people become better truth-seekers in a real-time boots-on-the-ground fashion. This is for the purpose of learning to think critically, discovering the truth from within—not just believing things blindly because it came from an "authority" or credible source. Instead of telling you what the truth is, we share information from many sources so that you can discern it for yourself. We focus on teaching you the tools to become your own authority on the truth, gaining self-mastery, sovereignty, and freedom in the process. We want each of you to become your own leaders and masters of personal discernment, and as such, all information should be vetted, analyzed and discerned at a personal level. We also encourage you to discuss your thoughts in the comments section of this site to engage in a group discernment process.
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Greetings world. We are Anonymous. This message goes out not only to citizens across the globe, but to the U.S. President-elect, the incoming director of central intelligence, and individuals within the Kremlin.As many of you are by now aware, there are entities within the United States government and various allied Western nations who have been executing a long planned agenda involving a series of created enemies. This agenda was exposed through individuals such as Dr. Carol Rosin, who was the former spokesperson for Wernher von Braun, the German aerospace engineer and space architect who, as a member of the Nazi Party and SS, invented the V-2 rocket for the Nazis. Von Braun was one of 1500 scientists and engineers who were brought to the United States after WWII as part of Operation Paperclip.Dr. Wernher von Braun. Source: Public DomainThe agenda being commenced by the U.S. government has been planned and in motion since the 1950s, and ultimately led to President Eisenhower’s loss of control over deep national security state programs within the government. No president since, has had full operational access control over the rogue elements within the Establishment, and the covert operations undertaken by these entities (most often in the form of psychological warfare, such as frightening a nation into agreeing to war) have gone unchecked for decades and are now an existential threat. Many believe this is what Eisenhower was referring to in his farewell address, in which he warned the nation and the world about the military-industrial-complex:Dr. Carol Rosin outlines the agenda that was disclosed to her by Dr. von Braun in the following testimony:To reiterate Dr. Rosin’s statement, the series of enemies created by the U.S. and various other Western nations include first Russia, with a focus on communism, and then terrorists, which the U.S. created themselves, and continue to arm and fund. Third world countries, or “nations of concern,” were listed next – these are countries that are not aligned with either Western Nations, or Russia and their allies, and we have in fact watched the U.S. wage silent wars on many of these countries in the form of illegal coups, and the placement of dictators sympathetic to U.S. interests.Dr. Rosin went on to briefly mention asteroids as part of the agenda, and we know that there is research currently underway to reportedly protect the planet from cosmic dangers, such as the Asteroid Deflection Research Center at Iowa State University, who have been working on developing a spacecraft armed with a nuclear warhead to destroy incoming threats. The final and most significant enemy listed by Dr. Rosin, however, was the so-called extraterrestrial threat, in which the plan is to unite the world under the guise of a cosmic threat from a hostile alien race. This part of the agenda was in fact already attempted in the 1980’s when false information was purposefully leaked to President Reagan, inspiring the following speech he made at the UN:The majority of ruling governments across the globe have been aware of the extraterrestrial presence in our solar system since WWII, and this presence increased greatly after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Unbeknownst to most American and Western-nation citizens, there are those who claim the quote-unquote, “disclosure,” has already occurred without the public’s knowledge, and in fact, numerous countries have released their UFO files, including individual departments within the U.S. and U.K. governments, New Zealand, Brazil, Russia, Canada, Denmark, Ireland, France, and Chile. Of the files released to the public, many can be rationally explained, while many others cannot.Over the last 60-70 years, the United States government has worked to discredit the extraterrestrial phenomena, not only through denial and avoidance, but with the help of the media. As news outlets report on UFO sightings with a tone akin to reports of Santa’s sleigh, Hollywood has portrayed extraterrestrial life, also referred to as ETI, or extraterrestrial intelligence, as either comical little green men with a penchant for anal-probing, or as apathetic monsters devoted to destroying all human life.The U.S. government’s reason for the smokescreen revolves around the advanced technology they’ve obtained from ETI through various means, and to admit to the ETI presence in our solar system is to admit advanced forms of technology exist. This would not only bring an end to the lucrative fossil-fuel industry, but the United States military would lose their technological advantages on the battlefield, and ultimately, the Elite would lose their power.We know from government, intelligence, and military whistleblower testimonies that the advanced beings interacting with our planet are non-violent. This fact was confirmed through the Podesta Files, in leaked emails between John Podesta and Apollo 14 astronaut, Edgar Mitchell, in which Mitchell reminded Podesta that their quote, “nonviolent ETI from the contiguous universe are helping us bring zero point energy to Earth. They will not tolerate any forms of military violence on Earth or in space,” unquote.Source: WikiLeaksVarious signs have mounted over the last 6-9 months that would indicate we are getting closer to what is referred to in the intelligence community as a false-I and W, or false indication and warning, which will be aimed at propelling the weaponization of space. Nations such as Russia and China, in the meantime, have already proposed a UN treaty to ban space-based weapons.The plans for this final step in the agenda, and ensuing false flag attack, have been confirmed by a United States Airforce Special Investigations Counterintelligence Officer, who also attests to the military staging abductions, and making them appear to be extraterrestrial in an effort to confuse the public. All evidence will be released early-2017.This information comes directly from Dr. Steven Greer of the Disclosure Project, who has asked those of us within the Anonymous Movement for assistance in releasing this information to the public in an effort to either prevent the false-I and W, or provide foreknowledge of the government’s true intent, should they continue with the operation. As well as informing the public of the impending false-flag attack, Dr. Greer is in the process of developing a private consortium, in which a basic new energy technology would be developed through the utilization of zero point energy and quantum mechanics, without interference, persecution, or threat-of-harm from the various governments and major corporations who have thus far worked to suppress these technologies. We will be reporting further on Dr. Greer’s concept and proposal within the coming weeks.Administrator. Dr. Wernher von Braun: First Center Director, July, 1960 – Jan. 27, 1970. MSFC History Office – NASA. Retrieved from: https://history.msfc.nasa.gov/vonbraun/bio.html Archive (2016). Countries Releasing UFO Information. Sirius Disclosure. Retrieved from: http://www.siriusdisclosure.com/evidence/countries-releasing-ufo-information/ EV (2016). WikiLeaks Uncovers Talk of E.T. Disclosure through Clinton’s Campaign Chair. AnonHQ. Retrieved from: http://anonhq.com/investigative-wikileaks-uncovers-talk-e-t-disclosure-clintons-campaign-chair/#comments General Assembly (2014). Disarmament Committee Approves Drafts on No First Placement of Arms in Outer Space, Ban on New Types of Mass Destruction Weapons. United Nations. Retrieved from: http://www.un.org/press/en/2014/gadis3514.doc.htm Messier, Douglas (2013). Nuking Dangerous Asteroids Might Be the Best Protection, Expert Says. Space. Retrieved from: http://www.space.com/21333-asteroid-nuke-spacecraft-mission.html Stothers, R., 2007: Unidentified flying objects in classical antiquity. Classical J., 103, 79-92. PDF File, NASA. Retrieved from: http://pubs.giss.nasa.gov/abs/st02710y.html Source: AnonHQ _________________________ |
a September 2010 commercial calling Webster a "draft-dodger"[25] (Webster had received student deferments and a draft classification as medically unfit for service[26]), and a later 30-second commercial calling Webster "Taliban Dan" and warning viewers that "Religious fanatics try to take away our freedom, in Afghanistan, in Iran and right here in Central Florida."[27] Grayson's ads were criticized for editing video mid-sentence to make Webster appear to say things he did not.[28][29] Grayson released a toned-down version without the edited video or Taliban references in early October.[30][31]
On Glenn Beck's radio show, Sarah Palin agreed with a co-host's remark, "It's okay if the Republicans lose every seat in the Senate and the House except for one. As long as that one is Alan Grayson losing."[32] Conservative Newsweek columnist George Will called Grayson "America's worst politician."[33][34] Grayson was also heavily targeted in attack ads funded by groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the 60 Plus Association.[35]
Grayson was endorsed by 8th district resident and former Congresswoman Patricia Schroeder (D-CO), who characterized Webster as having "13th-century views" on women's issues.[36] Former DNC Chair and Vermont governor Howard Dean called Grayson a "healthcare hero."[37] Grayson received more votes for "progressive hero" from Democracy for America than any other candidate in the country.[38]
On election day, Webster defeated Grayson, 56%–38%.[39][40]
2012 [ edit ]
On July 11, 2011, Grayson announced in an e-mail to supporters that he planned to run once again for Congress.[41] Grayson ran unopposed in the Democratic primary for the newly created 9th District in Central Florida.[42]
On November 6, 2012, Grayson defeated Todd Long, 63%–37%, to return to Congress after a one-term absence. He described his victory as "the biggest comeback in the history of the U.S. House of Representatives."[43] Although the two districts had different boundaries, Grayson claimed the House historian had told him that the shift from a 56%–38% loss in 2010 to a 63%–37% victory in 2012 was the biggest comeback in congressional history.[44]
2014 [ edit ]
Grayson was challenged in the Democratic primary by Nick Ruiz, a professor from the University of Florida. He overcame this challenge comfortably, 74%–26%.
The Republican challenger in the general election was Carol Platt, with independent Marko Milakovich also standing. Grayson was returned to Congress with 54% of the vote.
Tenure [ edit ]
Grayson was the second Democrat to represent Florida's 8th congressional district since its formation after the 1970 census (it was the 5th District from 1973 to 1993 and has been the 8th since 1993). The only other Democrat to represent this district, Bill Gunter, left to run for the United States Senate in 1974 after only one term.
Grayson is considered a progressive Democrat. He supported Barack Obama in 2008. He was a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, of which he was vice-chairman.[45] Grayson twice joined Republicans to oppose the raising of the federal debt limit. He said, "We need to live within our means. We need to eliminate wasteful spending. If we did those two simple things, we would not need to raise the debt limit."[46]
On September 14, 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.RES 686, Grayson's "Teach the Constitution Week" bill. The bill urged high schools to spend one week each September teaching the United States Constitution to high school seniors and also encouraged students to petition the government on an issue of personal importance to them to demonstrate their understanding of their rights and responsibilities as citizens of the United States. The non-partisan resolution was passed by a voice vote and featured 222 co-sponsors.[47][48][49]
On the 40th anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969, the U.S. House of Representatives passed Grayson's New Frontier Congressional Gold Medal Act of 2009. The bill asked the president to present Congress's highest civilian honor, the Congressional Gold Medal, to Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin Jr., and Michael Collins, as well as John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth. Only about 200 medals have ever been awarded in the country's history. The New Frontier Congressional Gold Medal Act of 2009 passed the House unanimously on July 20, 2009.[50][51]
Select legislation sponsored
Known in his first term for making incendiary comments about Republicans, Grayson began to tone down his rhetoric and focused on working with Republicans to pass amendments that "appeal to the libertarian streak in the GOP". He lobbied colleagues personally and in July 2013, David Weigel of Slate magazine called him "the most effective member of the House" and said that he was approaching "an unheralded title: The congressman who’s passed more amendments than any of his 434 peers."[52]
In October 2013, his campaign sent out a fundraising email that compared the Tea Party to the Ku Klux Klan. It used the image of a burning cross as the "T" in Tea Party. Matt Gorman of the National Republican Congressional Committee described the e-mail as "hateful words and imagery". Grayson defended the comparison, saying that "here is overwhelming evidence that the Tea Party is the home of bigotry and discrimination in America today, just as the KKK was for an earlier generation."[53]
Political positions [ edit ]
Federal Reserve [ edit ]
During his first term in office, Grayson supported Ron Paul's Audit the Fed legislation.[54] Grayson gained attention for exchanges with Federal Reserve System Vice Chairman Donald Kohn and Inspector General Elizabeth A. Coleman.[55] The 5-minute examination of Coleman in the House Financial Services Committee was posted on Grayson's official YouTube page, and as of December 2010, it has been viewed more than 4 million times.[56]
On a September 2009 Alex Jones Show segment, Grayson criticized Federal Reserve Chair Bernanke's senior adviser Linda Robertson, saying "Here I am the only member of Congress who actually worked as an economist, this lobbyist, this K-Street whore, is trying to teach me about economics!"[57][58] Robertson had previously worked as a lobbyist for Enron.[59] Grayson's language was widely criticized as inappropriate,[60] and Grayson apologized.[59]
Following the AIG bonus payments controversy, Grayson joined fellow freshman Democrat Jim Himes of Connecticut to introduce the Grayson–Himes Pay for Performance Act, legislation to require that all bonuses paid by companies that had received funds under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 be "based on performance".[61] The bill was co-sponsored by eight other members of the House. On March 26, the bill was approved by the House Financial Services Committee by a vote of 38–22 and on April 1, the bill was passed by the full House of Representatives by a vote of 247–171,[62] although it eventually died in the Senate.[63]
Grayson was a co-sponsor of the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009, which would provide additional provisions to audit the Federal Reserve, including removing several key exemptions.[64]
Economic stimulus [ edit ]
Grayson made it a priority to increase the amount of federal money returning to his district. He often said that people in his district had been "exporting taxes and importing debt." During his first year in office, the amount of federal grant dollars returning to the district nearly doubled.[65][66] Grayson established a grant notification system that notifies subscribers immediately when a federal grant opportunity in their areas of interest becomes available. He also hired a full-time grants coordinator who focused solely on helping people navigate the federal grants process.
Grayson supported the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and has been outspoken in favor of extending unemployment benefits for Americans who have lost their jobs, arguing that the government had never cut off unemployment insurance when the unemployment rate was higher than eight percent. Grayson also voted for FDA oversight of tobacco products, which would give the FDA power to regulate tobacco.
Grayson has worked to combat federal waste, fraud, and abuse. In the September 6, 2009 edition of The New York Times, columnist Gretchen Morgenson thanked Grayson for uncovering the fact that, due to the federal bailout of mortgage finance giant Fannie Mae, taxpayer money had been funding the legal defense fees for former top executives at the institution. Grayson requested information about these legal costs after a June 2009 hearing of the House Financial Services Committee. Grayson's work uncovered that, between September 6, 2008 and July 21, 2009, taxpayers spent $6.3 million defending Fannie Mae executives Franklin Raines, J. Timothy Howard, and Leanne Spencer. Taxpayers paid an additional $16.8 million to cover legal expenses of workers at the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, Fannie's former regulator.[67]
In September 2009, Grayson used a parliamentary maneuver called an "extension of remarks" to provide crucial instruction on H.R. 3221, the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009, a bill that, among other things, included a provision that prohibited funding for ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now). Grayson's extension of remarks directed that the legislation defund any organization that cheats the federal government, not just ACORN. The defunding measure passed the House with a final vote of 253–171.[68] Grayson also encouraged the public to report companies covered by the bill and set up a method to report offending companies via his Congressional website.[69]
Health care reform [ edit ]
In response to Republican arguments that the Obama administration's preferred health care bill was too long and complicated, Grayson on March 9, 2010, introduced H.R. 4789, the Public Option Act (sometimes called the Medicare You Can Buy Into Act), a four-page bill that would allow all citizens and permanent residents of the United States to buy into the public Medicare program at cost.[70] The bill attracted 82 co-sponsors and was referred to the Ways and Means Committee.
Grayson later voted for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act[71] and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.[72] He voted in support of eliminating adjustments of Medicare rates of payment. He also voted against Republican substitutes for the health care amendment and insurance law amendments.[73]
On September 29, 2009, in a late-night speech on the House floor, Grayson presented his impression of the Republicans' health care plan, illustrated by signs. He said the Republicans' plan was "don't get sick", and "if you do get sick, die quickly."[74] After demands from Republicans that he apologize, he defended his comment and in a House floor speech stated, "I apologize to the dead and their families that we haven't voted sooner to end this holocaust in America."[75] He was then further lambasted for his use of the word holocaust by Jewish spokespersons across the nation. Grayson, who is Jewish, apologized to the Anti-defamation League for those offended by his generic use of holocaust.[76][77][78] He also maintained that Congressional Republicans failed to offer a feasible plan.[79][80] In October 2009, he launched NamesOfTheDead.com,[81] a website to "memorialize Americans who die because they don't have health insurance". He subsequently read stories of the dead submitted through the Names of the Dead site on the House floor.[82]
Social issues [ edit ]
Grayson is pro-choice and supports increased funding for stem cell research.[83] He has always supported same-sex marriage and said in an interviews in 2013, "the propaganda that somehow gay marriage makes straight marriage bad for everyone is just farcical to me. I just don’t understand the logic of it."[84]
Grayson voted in support of the Hate Crimes Expansion Act, which expands the definition of hate crimes and strengthens enforcement of hate crime laws. He also voted for the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Grayson supported the Paycheck Fairness Act, a bill that allows victims of wage discrimination to sue for punitive damages.[73]
Environment [ edit ]
Grayson voted for the House's 2009 American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES). The bill would provide for a $50 million "Hurricane Research Center" in Central Florida, and Grayson claimed it would immediately generate new jobs.[85] Grayson noted after the passage of the ACES Act his concern about our dependence on foreign oil, the need to promote green technologies, renewable energy sources, and the job creation from the bill (an estimated 95,000 jobs in Florida). "This bill unleashes American ingenuity to solve the energy crisis. It lets us solve our problems by being Americans and thinking our way out of it. We will become an international energy power," he said in a news release.
The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico affected Florida's number one industry, which is tourism. The lack of a relief well prevented company officials from shutting down the leak immediately. Instead, it took months to drill a new relief well, while millions of gallons of oil gushed into the Gulf each week.[86] In response, Grayson introduced the Emergency Relief Well Act, which would require that an emergency relief well be drilled at the same time as any new exploratory well.
Foreign affairs [ edit ]
Grayson has been an outspoken critic of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In May 2010, he introduced the War Is Making You Poor Act. The bill would require the president to fund the wars from the Department of Defense's base budget. The bill does not necessitate an end to the wars or mandate a cut-off date. In addition to the tax cuts, the bill would cut the federal deficit by $15.9 billion.[87]
Grayson has tried to combat wasteful spending by government defense contractors by introducing his "Gold Plating" amendment. The amendment would require that cost or price account for half of the evaluation of bids for defense contracts. The law at the time allowed for cost to account for only 1% of the evaluation. The amendment passed as part of the National Defense Authorization Act in June 2009. However, the language was stripped from the final bill during the conference committee between Senate and House leaders. Grayson worked successfully to get the amendment inserted into H.R.5013, the IMPROVE Acquisition Act, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives on April 28, 2010.[88]
Grayson has been an outspoken opponent of plans for the United States to intervene in the Syrian civil war.[89] He has rejected what he calls "warmongering,"[90] saying: "It's simply not our responsibility. We're not the world's policeman." Instead, he called for a focus on humanitarian efforts and solving domestic problems.[91] He launched DontAttackSyria.com, where he began gathering signatures for his petition calling on Congress to vote against authorizing military action against Syria, and has been "whipping votes" in the House of Representatives.[92]
Committee assignments [ edit ]
Personal life [ edit ]
While pursuing the whistleblower cases, Grayson worked from a home office in Orlando, where he lived with his second wife, Lolita Grayson, and their five children.[16]
Grayson was ranked as the 11th-wealthiest member of Congress in 2010, based on financial disclosure forms with a net worth of $31.41 million, and a pending claim against the now-defunct Derivium Capital for at least $25 million, according to Roll Call.[93] Grayson disclosed that his attorney fees and costs for the war contractor case had exceeded $4 million.[15][17]
Grayson was married to a woman he met in the early 1980s at a party in Boulder, Colorado.[19] Grayson remarried in 1990 to Lolita Grayson.[94][95] The couple separated in March 2014,[96] and Alan Grayson asked a court in Orlando to annul the marriage a year later.[97] In April 2015 the Graysons agreed to settle the dispute and annul their 25-year marriage.[98]
On 31 May 2016, Alan Grayson married his third wife, Dr. Dena Minning.[99] In 2016, Minning ran for the US House seat Grayson was vacating to pursue his Senate run. She was defeated in the Democratic primary.[100]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]Since 2000, bears have been responsible for 34 human deaths in North America. Sharks have only been responsible for 13, and some of those are debatable. Eric Reichard's death is included in that statistic, but, officially, he drowned after his diving regulator fell out of his mouth during a fight with a shark. There's a difference. Surfer Courtney Marcher is listed as a shark death, but there's no hard evidence and she had a history of epilepsy. Every person that was killed by a bear was killed by a bear. Bear's don't get assists from the ocean.
Obviously, it takes more than efficient human-eating to make for a great week of television. Bears aren't even the number-one human killers. Mosquitoes take that trophy. Even deer kill more humans per year than bears and sharks, simply by wandering into traffic. Maybe you could get a malaria special or highway dangers documentary out of that, but I'm already bored. I want Discovery Channel shows about an animal that is both murderous and adorable. I want Bear Week.
There is a 100% effective method for preventing shark attacks: don't go in the ocean. It's easy. Many people spend their whole lives outside of the ocean without even trying.
Bears live on land. That's where we live. Bears live in 36 states, numbering in the hundreds of thousands. They're everywhere, even Florida. Luckily, bears only attack outdoorsy people while they're hiking and camping, right? Wrong! That's what Adelia Trujillo, 93, of New Mexico probably thought, until a black bear broke into her house and killed her in 2001.
Jaws scared people out of the ocean, but there is no place to hide from bears.
Sharks are mindless killing machines. Bears are problem-solving killing machines. If you're camping in bear-country, you have to secure your food at night. There are many ways to do this. None of them work. The most common method is to hang food between two trees, 10 feet from either tree and 15 feet off the ground. Bears have learned that they can get to the food by cutting the rope securing it to the tree.
Many parks now require you to store food in a bear canister. Bear canisters are strong mini-barrels that are complicated to open. They were designed by humans for the express purpose of being unopenable by bears. They test bear canisters by giving them to zoo bears. They are the most effective method for bear-proofing food, but they are not 100% effective. Yellow-yellow, a smaller, middle-aged black bear in the Adirondack region of New York, figured out how to operate the unlocking mechanism of bear canisters using her teeth. Not only that, but she's been teaching other bears how to do it. Clever girl.
Sharks swim and they eat. That's it, and they have their own week of TV shows.
Hey Discovery Channel, here's a free idea for a show during Bear Week: Bear's Solving Puzzles. It's six hours long and more people watch it than the Superbowl. People pay a lot of money for commercials during things that have as many viewers as the Superbowl.The untamable 2016 campaign has settled into a kind of comprehensible chaos with 60 days until the Iowa caucuses.
Donald Trump, a contender who embodies the ultimate cross-pollination of politics and entertainment that began with Ronald Reagan, continues to easily outpace Ted Cruz, Ben Carson and Marco Rubio in what has become essentially a four-man field (with Jeb Bush and his millions lingering outside the circle of power). Hillary Clinton is still outrunning the wolves of scandal, but she hasn’t entirely dispatched Bernie Sanders yet — or shown signs of crossing over to capture independents in Ohio, Florida, New Hampshire and Iowa in the general election.
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As befits the season, America is still very much in shopping mode, with major swaths of both parties still willing to jump from one candidate to the next. Here are five state-of-the-race takeaways, 60 days ahead of the first balloting:
1. Trump remains all the rage. The mystery of why Republican voters love Donald Trump more each time he makes up a story about Muslims dancing on rooftops after 9/11 or slimes a disabled reporter isn’t really very mysterious after all. All that engineered outrageousness isn’t about fact, or politics, or messaging, it’s about channeling the rawest emotions of his fans (and they are fans, not political supporters in a conventional sense). Nobody’s got a firmer grasp on the GOP’s amygdala — perhaps nobody ever has — or given voice to the sense of creeping decline so acutely felt in white America.
The base is seething, for real, with a recent Pew poll finding three times as many Republican voters describing themselves as anger-motivated compared with Democrats. Trump may be the ultimate it’s-all-about-me candidate, but the piercing paradox of 2016 is that it actually isn’t about him — but about his ability to capture the mood of his voters, and that, more than anything, explains his pundit-defying durability. He’s earned every percentage point of popularity: When Ben Carson swooned, who picked up much of his support? Trump, it seems.
“He's going to tell us exactly the way it is,” a South Carolina defense contractor named Richard Hippey (yes, that’s his real name) told my former colleague Dave Catanese recently. This, about a candidate with a zero percent “true” score on Politifact. “We're tired of political correctness… [We] want to hear the truth.”
Here’s what those of us trapped inside the gilded New York-Washington brain cage miss: Trump may not be telling the truth, but he’s sure as hell telling their truth. This allows him to shatter most conventions of presidential campaigning, especially the notion that you have to run a positive campaign (or at least outsource your vitriol to surrogates) in order to win. Jeb Bush’s super PAC has spent millions to get out his positive message, all to get into the mid-single digits. Pluck off the happy-talk hat, and Trump has ridden up to 30 percent on almost unrelentingly negative, Reagan-on-downers message: Build a wall to keep out Mexicans; my opponents are fat, stupid, ugly, nasty, sweaty and poor; keep your “Morning in America,” I’m calling my campaign book “Crippled America.”
The question is no longer whether Trump can win the GOP nomination. He can. It’s whether his message will appeal to general election voters (or those Republicans most concerned with winning back the White House) who don’t share his anger or definition of the truth.
2. Ted Cruz is running the best campaign. The only thing less popular on Capitol Hill than Cruz is a cash bar. That’s just fine with the Texas senator, whose pitch-perfect attacks on the Dem-publican “Washington Cartel” are increasingly resonating in red states. If Trump tosses rhetoric as though he’s firing a T-Shirt cannon, Cruz has a political professional’s knack for packaging stiletto sound bites that burnish his image.
D.C. types find Cruz smarmy and stagy. No matter. Cruz often writes a script other candidates (especially Trump) later follow, sans credit: At last month’s CNBC debate, it was Cruz who whipped up the faithful by drawing first blood on the moderators whom he accused of sowing discord. “You look at the questions,” he intoned to applause so loud it nearly drowned him out. “Donald Trump, are you a comic book villain? Ben Carson, can you do math? John Kasich, can you insult those two people over here. Marco Rubio, will you resign? Jeb Bush, why have your numbers fallen? How about talking about the substantive issues people care about?”
All of this suits a larger strategic purpose: Cruz, despised as an unprincipled rabble-rouser by Republican Hill leadership, has transformed himself into a much more dignified figure in the primaries, a self-appointed guardian of Reaganesque party unity. Cruz has been almost painfully respectful to those sitting above him in the polls, especially Carson and Trump, the better to make himself a palatable alternative when, or if, they fall. It’s paying off: Last week, he vaulted over Carson into a statistical dead heat with Trump in Iowa — a seismic shift if it holds.
The fundamentals are in place for a big winter push. Cruz’s fundraising has been near the top of the field ($26 million as of Oct. 15) and his campaign has an efficient 50 percent burn rate with about $14 million cash on hand.
Even the enemy is starting to take notice: Several Democratic sources told me that Hillary and Bill Clinton have increasingly begun to muse about the possibility of a Cruz candidacy — after months of focusing on the fast-fading Jeb Bush.
3. The biggest threats to Hillary Clinton: Loretta Lynch and the economy. Bernie Sanders has proved to be a tough, appealing and, at times, lovably crusty foil for Clinton. But, as my colleague Annie Karni and I pointed out a few weeks back, he runs his campaign like a small improvisational jazz collective — and that can’t quite compete with Clinton’s relentless, if tuneless, marching band campaign. Sanders may say he doesn’t give a damn about Clinton’s email scandal, but voters do, and it seems highly unlikely he’ll be able to mount a serious counteroffensive without another server eruption. Fortunately for him, that’s entirely possible, thanks to a pending investigation conducted by Lynch’s Justice Department.
Clinton’s campaign has repeatedly said DOJ will exonerate her (“I’m starting to really think it’s finally behind us,” a top Clinton ally told me recently) and Lynch’s attorneys recently ruled that Clinton was within her legal rights to use her “home-brew” server, so long as she turned over documents covered by law and regulation. But it won’t take a lot to reignite the controversy — conservative critics expect a finding that she transmitted classified material, perhaps knowingly — and that could shift the narrative back to “Can you trust Hillary?” in a heartbeat.
Then there’s the not-so-minor matter of the economy, or more precisely the “Obama-Clinton economy,” which is what Republicans will call it if China drags the world into recession. Many economists say that’s not likely, but the U.S. economy is overdue for a dip — and recent estimates are for an at-best blah 2016. On the day after Thanksgiving, The Wall Street Journal’s Greg Ip tweeted: “Ouch: Due to ‘downward trajectory in underlying productivity growth... our estimate of US potential has fallen to 1.5%-1.75%.’ - JP Morgan.”
4. Marco Rubio will have to attack Trump. A couple of months ago in this space, I placed a $5 wager on the fresh-faced Florida senator who seemed, at the time, to be the only Republican capable of winning both the primaries and the general election. I was hardly alone in that assessment: Rubio’s top aides are unnervingly confident he’ll win — provided he doesn’t peak too soon, and hammers away on his Obama-like message of generational change.
Discipline is no guarantee of success, not this year. Rubio’s in very solid shape in the polls, and he’s locking up some of the party’s top super PAC money men. But he remains the only top GOP contender without a firm hold on any one voting group — and it’s not entirely clear where new Rubio voters will come from, despite the claims of Rubio-associated operatives that he will eventually draw disaffected Trumpites.
Sooner or later, he’ll have to go seriously negative — and that will almost certainly involve going after Trump. So far, he’s been exceedingly cautious (apart from some light sparring with Trump over immigration) perhaps responding to sharp-elbowed allegations stemming from his 2010 Senate win. Lately, he’s appeared to be using Cruz as target practice ahead of the great Trump hunt. Over the past month, Rubio and Cruz have clashed repeatedly — and with increasing bitterness — over immigration.
But Rubio’s core rationale — that the party will ultimately anoint a young, electable, rational conservative — is no sure thing. It may rest on the flawed assumption that the 2016 contest will revert to the historical mean and that the thinker will prevail over the shouter. Case in point: Rubio, a hawkish foreign policy expert, should have been a dominant voice following the Paris attacks. Attempting to make an overly nuanced point (a rarity in 2016), he told CBS he viewed the massacre as a “positive development” that would steel U.S. resolve in fighting Islamic extremism. Unlike the never-say-sorry Trump, he quickly walked it back; Trump — making one outlandish assertion after the next — never budged, devoured media attention and enjoyed a bump in several polls.
5. This is the dawning of the Age of the Super PAC. Not. Scott Walker built his presidential campaign around a super PAC and didn’t make it to Halloween. Jeb Bush was supposed to revolutionize the business of presidential electioneering by splitting his forces into a Florida-based campaign apparatus and a California-run super PAC with $100 million in the bank. He’s at 5 percent, and struggling to scrape up enough in hard-dollar fundraising to pay his dwindling staff. The independent-expenditure cash machines may prove their worth in a general election, where Republicans can converge their scattered attacks on a common target. But the super PAC model has yet to establish anything close to dominance in the primaries, where it seems to have grown at the expense — not to the benefit — of traditional candidate campaigns.Lilian outside Serb Hall in Milwaukee
Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson is running for president on the Libertarian ticket. Yet with the election only two months away, Johnson says that 70 percent of Americans don't even know who he is. So he is trying to draw more attention to his candidacy by introducing himself to voters around the country.
On September 1, Johnson spoke at Serb Hall in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He shared his views on issues ranging from immigration, education, and national security to legalizing marijuana. Johnson described Libertarians as individuals who are “fiscally conservative and socially inclusive.” They also favor a limited role for the government.
A THIRD-PARTY WINNER?
Running as a third-party candidate is a longshot. Presidential elections in the U.S. are typically two-party races. Since the mid-1800s, every president has been either a Republican or a Democrat.
This year, however, Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump have unusually low favorability ratings. According to a recent poll by The Washington Post and Fox News, 68 percent of voters think that Clinton is dishonest, 89 percent say that Trump is “hot-headed," and 60 percent aren’t ready to vote for either candidate.
Some people now wonder if a third-party candidate could be a major player in the November 8 election. Johnson, who thinks that the answer is yes, wants to participate in the upcoming presidential debates. In order to do so, he must win support from at least 15 percent of voters in five national polls. According to one recent poll, he only has support from 9 percent of U.S. voters.
Johnson began his career as a Republican. Starting in 1994, he served two terms as governor of New Mexico. His vice-presidential running mate, former Republican William “Bill” Weld, was the governor of Massachusetts from 1991 until 1997. Both men pride themselves on having served in blue (Democratic) states and worked with people on both sides of the aisle.
Johnson certainly seemed popular at Serb Hall, which was full to the point of bursting for his appearance. Several people in the extremely enthusiastic crowd held up signs that read, “You In?” and chanted, “GA-RY, GA-RY!”
The people I interviewed ranged from avid supporters to those curious to know more about the candidate. Cathi Probst of West Allis, Wisconsin, said that she was “very interested in listening to another voice [beside Clinton's or Trump's].”
Twelve-year-old Ellie Rugledge described Johnson's speech as “awesome.” She attended the rally with her mother, Kate. “My daughter will someday inherit the debt we’ve accumulated,” Kate said. “At almost $20 trillion, that’s too much.”
Will Johnson be invited to participate in the first presidential debate at Hofstra University on September 26? He will have to win over several more voters. Expect to see him out on the campaign trail in the weeks ahead.Officials at Naropa, CU say details still being finalized for public appearance
Plans are in the works to bring the Dalai Lama to speak in Boulder in October, officials at Naropa and the University of Colorado confirmed Friday.
His appearance on the CU campus would mark the Tibetan spiritual leader's first visit to Boulder in 18 years.
The visit is being organized by the Tibetan Association of Colorado, according to Naropa officials. The date of the planned visit has not been announced.
"Naropa University is delighted that His Holiness the Dalai Lama is returning to Boulder in October 2015," Naropa President Charles G. Lief said in a statement. "As a Buddhist-inspired university, Naropa's connection with His Holiness and his work goes back to his first visit to the United States more than 30 years ago, when past and current Naropa staff and faculty were involved as organizers.
"It's a great honor to Boulder, and a testament to the strength of the Buddhist community in Boulder, that the Dalai Lama is returning now."
Organizers are considering the 11,000-seat Coors Events Center for the appearance by the 79-year-old exiled Buddhist leader, CU police Chief Melissa Zak said.
Zak said she has been asked to determine how much it would cost to provide security for a visit by the Dalai Lama.
"There are a lot of fluid things on this, but we are hoping that we as a university would get to host him," she said. "It would be a wonderful opportunity for the Dalai Lama to come to CU."
Zak said she has been looking at the cost of providing security for three visits by President Barack Obama to the campus in 2012 as a baseline for what it would take to staff a visit by the Dalai Lama.
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"Typically, when you have VIPs such as the Dalai Lama coming, there is a lot of discussion going on," Zak said. "Before you can even plan a contract, you have to know what it is going to cost."
'It was phenomenal'
CU student leaders said Friday they are involved in the efforts to bring the Dalai Lama to campus but noted that plans have not yet been finalized. They said an official announcement about the visit could be made sometime this month.
Zak, CU's police chief, worked for the Los Angeles Police Department when the Dalai Lama spoke at the University of Southern California in 2011, so she has an idea of what a visit would entail.
"I am familiar with his SC visit, which was probably a four-hour window in a smaller venue," Zak said. "It was phenomenal.... It was very much a peaceful event, and people really wanted to hear his message.
"It was a wonderful opportunity to showcase SC, and I would expect the same thing would occur here at CU should we be blessed to have him come here and speak."
In his statement, Naropa's Lief said the Dalai Lama's return to Boulder would also be to support the Tibetan Association of Colorado, "a wonderful organization of Tibetan immigrants who are working hard to keep their culture and traditions alive."
A photograph of the Dalai Lama during his 1981 visit to Boulder as published in the Daily Camera. (Daily Camera)
The Tibetan Association of Colorado did not return requests for comment Friday.
Tenzin Passang, owner of the Tibet Gallery on the Pearl Street Mall, said he has heard the Dalai Lamai speak on several occasions, and it is an honor for the city that he is coming once again.
"We are very excited," said Passang, who was born in India but whose parents were from Tibet. "It is a great blessing for Boulder, especially with Boulder being a big Buddhist community."
Passang said he anticipates a lot of Tibetans will come from outside the state for the chance to hear the Dalai Lama.
"He is our everything," Passang said. "Not only in Colorado, but for all the surrounding Tibetans, this is the opportunity of a lifetime."
Visits to Boulder in 1997, 1981
The current Dalai Lama — who was formally recognized as the 14th incarnation in 1950 at the age of 15 — was last in Boulder in 1997, when he spoke at both CU and Naropa.
"In 1997, the Dalai Lama delivered the keynote address at a groundbreaking conference at Naropa on spirituality and education," Lief said in the statement. "The Dalai Lama's participation in Naropa's conference on spirituality and education also catalyzed the global mindfulness movement in education and the workplace."
The day before that speech at Naropa, the Dalai Lama spoke at CU's Macky Auditorium, alternating between English and speaking through a translator on topics ranging from compassion to the possibility of a female Dalai Lama.
The Dalai Lama's appearance had been planned for the Coors Events Center during that visit, but it had to be moved to the much-smaller Macky Auditorium over scheduling issues, which led to tickets selling out on the first day they became available.
The Dalai Lama also spoke at the McNichols Center in Denver during that 1997 trip, before traveling on to Los Angeles.
This Dalai Lama first visited Boulder in 1981, when he spoke before about 4,000 people at CU's events center.
Mitchell Byars: 303-473-1329, byarsm@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/mitchellbyarsRockets and missiles can serve as weapons systems that deliver explosive warheads to targets by means of rocket propulsion. "Rocket" is a general term that describes any jet-propelled missile which is thrust forward from the rearward ejection of matter like hot gases.
Rocketry was originally developed in China when firework displays and gun |
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// TableRow.js <Link to={"/edit/"+this.props.obj._id} className="btn btn-primary">Edit</Link>
Register the route in the index.js file.
// Index.js import EditItem from './components/EditItem'; <Route path='/edit/:id' component={EditItem} />
Now, updating our data so, we need to change EditItem.js file
// EditItem.js import React, { Component } from'react'; import axios from 'axios'; import ItemService from './ItemService'; class EditItem extends Component { constructor(props) { super(props); this.addItemService = new ItemService(); this.handleChange = this.handleChange.bind(this); this.handleSubmit = this.handleSubmit.bind(this); this.state = {value: '' }; } componentDidMount(){ axios.get('http://localhost:4200/items/edit/'+this.props.match.params.id).then(response => { this.setState({ value: response.data}); }).catch(function (error) { console.log(error); }) } handleChange(event) { this.setState({value: event.target.value}); } handleSubmit(event) { event.preventDefault(); this.addItemService.updateData(this.state.value,this.props.match.params.id); this.props.history.push('/index'); } render() { return ( <div className="container"> <form onSubmit={this.handleSubmit}> <label> Edit Item: <input type="text" value={this.state.value.item} onChange={this.handleChange} className="form-control"/> </label><br/> <input type="submit" value="Update" className="btn btn-primary"/> </form> </div> ); } } export default EditItem;
Also, we need to code the update function in ItemService.js file
// ItemService.js updateData(data, id){ axios.post('http://localhost:4200/items/update/'+id, { item: data }).then(res => this.setState({ items: res.data })).catch(err => console.log(err)) }
Now when you edit the file and update the data, you will redirect index.js component, and when you refresh the page, data is updated.
Step 15: Delete the data.
Now, we proceed to delete the data.
So we need to modify the TableRow.js file, where we have put the delete button.
// TableRow.js import React, { Component } from'react'; import {Link} from'react-router-dom'; import ItemService from './ItemService'; class TableRow extends Component { constructor(props) { super(props); this.addItemService = new ItemService(); this.handleSubmit = this.handleSubmit.bind(this); } handleSubmit(event) { event.preventDefault(); this.addItemService.deleteData(this.props.obj._id); } render() { return ( <tr> <td> {this.props.obj._id} </td> <td> {this.props.obj.item} </td> <td> <Link to={"/edit/"+this.props.obj._id} className="btn btn-primary">Edit</Link> </td> <td> <form onSubmit={this.handleSubmit}> <input type="submit" value="Delete" className="btn btn-danger"/> </form> </td> </tr> ); } } export default TableRow;
Next step is to code ItemService.js file
// ItemService.js deleteData(id){ axios.get('http://localhost:4200/items/delete/'+id).then(console.log('Deleted').catch(err => console.log(err)) }
Now, when you delete the button and refresh the page, we can see that the item has been removed.
Note: In the React.js project, generally page refresh is not worth it, but I have created this project to just showcase that how we can work with both React.js and Node.js
Github Steps To Use MERN Stack Tutorial
Clone The reactfrontend project repo. Go to the project folder run the command “npm install” in your terminal after that, run the command “npm start.” Clone the expressbackend repo. Go to the project folder run the command “npm install” in your terminal In app.js file change MongoDB URI to your particular URI run the command “npm start“ Now, go this URL: http://localhost:3000/add-item
If you still have any doubt in MERN Stack Tutorial then ask in a comment below I am happy to help you out.When Eric Holder announced new policies to reduce harsh prison sentences for non-violent offenders in August, an unusual pol had his back.
Calling mandatory minimums “one of the most unjust federal policies of our time,” Sen. Rand Paul heralded the Obama administration’s move, arguing that reform should be a “bipartisan issue.” Paul followed up on that talk with action on Wednesday, testifying before the Senate Judiciary committee on a joint proposal with Democrat Pat Leahy to curb mandatory minimums for non-violent offenders.
Critics of the war on drugs are thrilled to have Paul on board. He offers not only bipartisan validation, but credibility with a growing constituency, since Paul is arguably the most prominent libertarian in America. While progressives have spent years building the groundwork for criminal justice reform, increasingly it is libertarian Republicans who are putting some key measures over the top.
In the past year alone, Republican-run legislatures in Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia have rolled back draconian sentencing laws, citing both the cost and increasing public concern about over-incarceration.
At the national level, Republicans like Paul emphasize the libertarian argument that the U.S.’s harsh sentencing rules ruin lives and cost billions. Interestingly, his appeal for reform also addresses race.
Paul is increasingly pressing a progressive critique–that mandatory minimum sentences are marketed as “tough” on criminals, but they’re actually tough on minorities and the poor. (Government data and independent studies show black and Hispanic defendants receive longer minimum sentences than white defendants.)
“Mandatory minimum sentencing has disproportionately affected blacks, Hispanics and others who often don’t have the financial means to fight back,” Paul said after Holder’s announcement in August.
He pointed to a story from Timothy Lewis, one of the first black appeals judges appointed by a Republican president, about a black 19 year old who was convicted of simply sitting in a car where drugs were found. There were no charges of drug use, let alone drug dealing or violence.
Under automatic mandatory minimum rules, however, Lewis was forced to issue a drastic, automatic sentence. The defendant was on track to be the first person in his family to attend college, Lewis recalled, but instead he was sent off to ten years in federal prison. That outraged Sen. Paul, who says “Judge Lewis‘ hands were tied” by rules rooted in “madness.” Paul approvingly quoted Lewis’ criticism that, as applied, these laws amount to a “pervasively racist policy.”
Other libertarians agree.
“There’s no question that the impact of these laws is racially disproportionate,” says Jacob Sullum, a writer for the libertarian Reason magazine and author of “Saying Yes; In Defense of Drug Use.”
“The overwhelming majority of people being charged under federal law with crack offenses are black or Hispanic–not white,” Sullum told MSNBC. “And they’re getting disproportionately long penalties because of the way crack laws are written,” he said.
“Even if you think the drug laws shouldn’t be on the books at all, the sentences are far too harsh,” says Tim Lynch, director of the Criminal Justice project at the Cato Institute, one of the most conservative think tanks in Washington. “This is something where libertarians can agree with progressives,” he told MSNBC, “that the sentences need to be reduced quickly.” He points to Texas as a state that’s “very tough on crime” but has a growing “alliance between progressives and conservatives” for sentencing reform.
While not all conservatives subscribe to libertarian dogma, there are broader signs that a new thinking is spreading.
David Koch, the influential conservative billionaire, has poured money into Families Against Mandatory Minimums, a non-profit founded in 1991 to beat back excessive jail time.
Conservative leaders on justice issues, such as Sen. Orrin Hatch, led the GOP caucus to support an Obama proposal to reduce the crack-to-cocaine sentencing disparity. The 2010 law had six Republican cosponsors in the Senate, and passed the House on a voice vote. Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which Hatch once chaired, are working with Right on Crime, a conservative coalition that opposes what it calls a costly, “incarceration-focused” approach to crime.
The group, which testified at this week’s hearing, acknowledges that the approach they now oppose grew out of political pressure from yesterday’s Republicans.
That trend dates at least to 1968, when President Nixon ran on “law and order.” That year, the GOP platform pledged “an all-out, federal-state-local crusade against crime” (and a 13-point plan promising a “vigorous nationwide drive against trafficking in narcotics”).
Ronald Reagan took a similarly hard line as governor and president; by his second term, both parties were on board. He signed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act in 1986, a law with sweeping mandatory minimums for drug use. It drew only two “no” votes in the Senate.
It’s telling that today’s Republican platform is edging in a different direction.
The 2012 platform laments an “unfortunate expansion” of the “over-criminalization of behavior,” noting that the number of activities that Congress has decreed to be federal crimes jumped by 50% over about 30 years. It nods towards “family-friendly policies” for prisons to reduce recidivism, prison violence and “the enormous fiscal and social costs of incarceration.” If Rand Paul has any influence on the next platform, it could go even farther.
So far, Paul’s legislation to provide a “safety valve” reducing jail time for non-violent offenders hasn’t gained many friends in the House. There are about 48 members of the Tea Party caucus, but only two Republicans are sponsoring the House’s companion bill.
Reform advocates say a bottom-up, cross-party movement will take time, especially after thirty years of partisan dogma in the war on drugs.
Reason magazine’s Sullum believes the mix of moral and pragmatic arguments favor a sea change.
“To send people away to prison who don’t belong there [is] a waste of criminal justice resources,” he says, “if these people don’t pose a threat to the general public.” He adds, “it’s unjust–and this is a point that progressives, of course, have made for a long time. And conservatives have come around to that view.”
If libertarians and liberals stick together, the rest of the GOP may decide it’s better to be in a winning coalition than left behind.
[workbenchVideo: 53052058]SAGINAW, MI -- Former Saginaw High and Michigan State star Draymond Green was the star attraction at a parade and rally Saturday in Saginaw.
Green, who helped lead the Golden State Warriors to the NBA Title, was the guest of honor in a parade that included more than 30 entries, beginning at Saginaw City Hall and ending at First Merit Event Park.
At the park, a rally celebrating Green included his aunt, former Saginaw High and Michigan State basketball standout Annette Babers, who admitted the her nephew had one-upped her during their basketball careers, except that she had a banner hanging in the Saginaw High gym.
Officials then unfurled a Draymond Green banner that will also hang in the Saginaw High gym.
Green thanked the fans for their support and urged them to use the rally to catapult the city to new heights.
He asked them to "take the negativity away" and "raise our kids in the right way."PASADENA, Calif. -- In a race against time and the elements, engineers with NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander mission hope to extend the lander's survival by gradually shutting down some of its instruments and heaters, starting today.Originally scheduled to last 90 days, Phoenix has completed a fifth month of exploration in the Martian arctic. As expected, with the Martian northern hemisphere shifting from summer to fall, the lander is generating less power due to shorter days and fewer hours of sunlight reaching its solar panels. At the same time, the spacecraft requires more power to run several survival heaters that allow it to operate even as temperatures decline."If we did nothing, it wouldn't be long before the power needed to operate the spacecraft would exceed the amount of power it generates on a daily basis," said Phoenix Project Manager Barry Goldstein of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "By turning off some heaters and instruments, we can extend the life of the lander by several weeks and still conduct some science."Over the next several weeks, four survival heaters will be shut down, one at a time, in an effort to conserve power. The heaters serve the purpose of keeping the electronics within tested survivable limits. As each heater is disabled, some of the instruments are also expected to cease operations. The energy saved is intended to power the lander's main camera and meteorological instruments until the very end of the mission.Later today, engineers will send commands to disable the first heater. That heater warms Phoenix's robotic arm, robotic-arm camera, and thermal and evolved-gas analyzer (TEGA), an instrument that bakes and sniffs Martian soil to assess volatile ingredients. Shutting down this heater is expected to save 250 watt-hours of power per Martian day.The Phoenix team has parked the robotic arm on a representative patch of Martian soil. No additional soil samples will be gathered. The thermal and electrical-conductivity probe (TECP), located on the wrist of the arm, has been inserted into the soil and will continue to measure soil temperature and conductivity, along with atmospheric humidity near the surface. The probe does not need a heater to operate and should continue to send back data for weeks.Throughout the mission, the lander's robotic arm successfully dug and scraped Martian soil and delivered it to the onboard laboratories. "We turn off this workhorse with the knowledge that it has far exceeded expectations and conducted every operation asked of it," said Ray Arvidson, the robotic arm's co-investigator, and a professor at Washington University, St. Louis.When power levels necessitate further action, Phoenix engineers will disable a second heater, which serves the lander's pyrotechnic initiation unit. The unit hasn't been used since landing, and disabling its heater is expected to add four to five days to the mission's lifetime. Following that step, engineers would disable a third heater, which warms Phoenix's main camera -- the Surface Stereo Imager --and the meteorological suite of instruments. Electronics that operate the meteorological instruments should generate enough heat on their own to keep most of those instruments and the camera functioning.In the final step, Phoenix engineers may turn off a fourth heater -- one of two survival heaters that warm the spacecraft and its batteries. This would leave one remaining survival heater to run out on its own."At that point, Phoenix will be at the mercy of Mars," said Chris Lewicki of JPL, lead mission manger.Engineers are also preparing for solar conjunction, when the sun is directly between Earth and Mars. Between Nov. 28 and Dec. 13, Mars and the sun will be within two degrees of each other as seen from Earth, blocking radio transmission between the spacecraft and Earth. During that time, no commands will be sent to Phoenix, but daily downlinks from Phoenix will continue through NASA's Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance orbiters. At this time, controllers can't predict whether the fourth heater would be disabled before or after conjunction.The Phoenix mission is led by Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson, with project management at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and development partnership at Lockheed Martin, Denver. International contributions come from the Canadian Space Agency; the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland; the universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus in Denmark; the Max Planck Institute in Germany; and the Finnish Meteorological Institute. The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA.
News Media Contact
Media contacts: Rhea Borja/Veronica McGregor 818-354-0850/354-9452Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.rhea.r.borja@jpl.nasa.govveronica.mcgregor@jpl.nasa.gov2008-199Thousands Of Goans Are Giving Up Indian Citizenship To Get Portugese Passports And A New Life
Thousands Of Goans Are Giving Up Indian Citizenship To Get Portugese Passports And A New Life
Accused of verbally abusing against a minor Goa girl, who was reportedly knocked down by Padmashree awardee Remo Fernandes' son Jonah on December 1, 2015, the police found out that Remo is now officially a foreign national. But Remo, who denied the charge, isn't the only Goan to do so. Goa residents have been rushing to obtain Portuguese nationality by surrendering their Indian passports in order to find jobs in Europe, especially in the UK.
This year itself, up to August, an average of nine Goans a day surrendered their Indian passports, and due to India's lack of dual citizenship, also their Indian citizenship.
Firstly, why is Portugal giving Goans passports?
goaprism
Under Portuguese law, those born in Portuguese colonies before their liberation - in Goa, that would be 1961 - continue to be Portuguese, provided their births are registered in Portugal. Their descendants, up to the third generation, are also eligible for Portuguese passports, which is an incentive for even senior citizens who are otherwise not interested in moving, to get their names registered at the Conservatoria dos Registos Centrais (Central Registry of Births) in Lisbon.
The power of a Portugese passport
telegraphindia
Don't Miss 97.9 K SHARES 53.9 K SHARES 66.4 K SHARES 13.8 K SHARES 13.6 K SHARES
A Portuguese passport entails visa-free entry to 172 countries, and easier access to high-paying employment. Many Goans, who now hold a Portuguese passport, get better paid than other Indian nationals abroad. A Portuguese passport consultant estimates there are over two lakh Goans living in Goa, who have got their births transcribed in the Conservatoria dos Registos Centrais (Central Registry of Births) in Lisbon.
In October, the Times of India reported that Portugal isn't the final destination - its just the stopover. Portugal's economy has been in the doldrums - their real goal is to enter the UK. Portuguese passports mean an entry into the European Union (EU), of which Portugal became a member in 1986. This translates to visa-free travel across more than 170 countries.
As early as August this year, Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar had raised the issue with the External Affairs Ministry. "They are migrating not because there are no job opportunities here...It is a mentality to cross over the country borders. We need to change their mentality," Parsekar told the State Legislative Assembly.
"I feel that people spend hours together outside the consulate to get the passport. They are in a hurry to lose the citizenship of their country. This is sad," the Chief Minister said.
How many Goans exactly are becoming Portugese?
A data of ECI has revealed that 2,200 people have changed their nationality in Goa in the financial year 2012-13, which means an average six people a day.
January to August 2015: 2,158 people gave up their Indian passports to get Portuguese at the regional passport office in Panaji, after acquiring Portuguese passports. 2014 only saw 1,660 passport surrenders.
A report released by the University of Oxford in July this year noted that "the only group larger than 10,000 with a common EU country of citizenship and a common non-EU country of birth is India-born Portuguese citizens. This group accounted for just over 20,000 UK residents in the first quarter of 2015".
Who are these people?
Among those applying for Portuguese passports in Goa, about 70% are between 18 and 35 years of age, say consultants. Many queue up outside the magnificent Consulado Geral De Portugal—the Portuguese consulate in Panaji - soon after college; others notch up some work ex in India or the Gulf before doing so. The religion-wise break up of those applying is 70% Catholic, 20% Muslim and 10% Hindu (as per Census data, Hindus in Goa constitute about 65%, Christians 25%, and Muslims 8% of the population).
A changing trend, says regional passport officer Agnelo Fernandes, is that Goans migrating with Portuguese passports are no longer single males, but entire families. As a result, there's been a big spurt in the number of minors with Portuguese passports.
Inputs from Times of India | PTIAnother day, another rung of the ladder climbed. As of today (but not yesterday), Star Wars: The Force Awakens is the fifth-biggest film of all time overseas, ahead of the $960.5m overseas gross of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2. As of Wednesday its total is a "mere" $957m, but it earned $14m worldwide yesterday, with $10.9m overseas and $3.1m in America. Now while we like to talk about inflation and the 3D bump and all of that in regards to domestic box office, overseas is a little trickier. While the overseas market has expanded like crazy over the last 5-10 years, the last few years has seen something of a deflation in terms of overseas box office. The dollar is stronger in 2015 than it was in 2012, and as a result overall worldwide box office totals are smaller than they would have been just a few years ago.
When Star Wars: The Force Awakens finishes up its run, I'll try to poke around to see how close it would have gotten to Avatar in 2011 or 2012 "dollars," but for the moment it's a moot issue. The Force Awakens is going to have to settle for being top in America, second or third place worldwide, and third place overseas. It's still looking like an under-$200m total in China, and that's if it plays as leggy as it has in America which is doubtful. Oh well, that's what Episode VIII is for, right?
Obviously I'm probably the only one who cares about this stuff, but there you go. In terms of domestic figures, it earned another $3 million yesterday in America, bringing its domestic total to $822m thus far in just under a month of play. If it does around $30 million for the holiday weekend then it ends its first month of domestic play with around $855m, which is frankly insane. It'll possibly top $900 million within the next two weeks. But at this point, as we've discussed before, it's playing like a regular blockbuster from here-on-out.
At this point it will slowly start to lose screens, Walt Disney will start prioritizing The Finest Hours and Zootopia, and by this time next month it will be that much harder to find the film at a theater near you with a guestimated location count of around 1,200 theaters. That's not a tragedy, but rather just how the industry works these days. And since the film's Oscar glories were mostly confined to technical categories, it won't get a bump there either. To be fair, it fared pretty well, with five nominations including Best Score, Best Editing, Best Sound, Best Sound Editing, and Best Special Effects. But the theoretical Best Picture nomination didn't happen and I might even argue it probably deserved a nod for Production Design and Cinematography as well.
And yes, tomorrow will probably be the last "daily" Star Wars box office post since by the end of the weekend we'll be at 31 days and thus my "month of The Force Awakens" adventure will be at an end. After that I have a few more long-term thoughts, as well as some overall encapsulation posts here and there, but then it'll be time to move on to other films and the next box office champions of 2016. To those of you who read all of these daily box office posts, my thanks as I've never attempted anything like this before. I hope I've offered enough new content to justify each day's update, save for the Monday afternoons where I just updated the weekend actuals of course.
So, Star Wars: The Force Awakens has earned $822.8 million domestic, $957.9 million overseas, and $1.7807 billion worldwide. Not bad...Convicted rapist Austin Smith Clem isn’t going to prison. The same judge who sentenced Clem to zero prison time in November determined on Monday that he now has an even lighter price to pay.
Clem, 25, was convicted in September of raping his young neighbor, Courtney Andrews–once when she was 14 years old, and again when she was 18. Despite being convicted on one count of first-degree rape and two counts of second-degree rape, the only prison time Limestone County circuit judge James Woodroof included in his sentencing was 40 years, all fully suspended in favor of a community corrections program for nonviolent offenders that Clem would have been able to complete while living at home.
Shortly after Andrews, now 20, appeared on msnbc’s Melissa Harris-Perry in late November to discuss the case, a resentencing was ordered by a county circuit court and the Alabama Circuit Court of Appeals. That resulted in Woodroof’s new sentence of time already served, five years probation, and zero prison time unless Clem, the father of three girls, violates that probation. If he does, he’ll serve 35 total years in the penitentiary.
By lessening Clem’s original penalty by five years, Woodroof’s new sentence may have violated the law. According to AL.com, Limestone County District Attorney Brian Jones filed a new motion on Monday afternoon shortly after the resentencing, alleging that the court was not permitted to sentence Clem to 15 years after originally sentencing him to 20 years, and asking for another resentencing.
“We are disgusted,” Richard Andrews, Courtney’s father, told a local Huntsville, AL affiliate. “We are trying to enjoy Christmas as a family and then this happens, we have no idea what the judge is thinking. It’s ridiculous.”The Tannery – a short film by Iain Gardner has been released online. Gardner, perhaps better known nowadays for his work promoting the legacy of Norman McLaren for last years McLaren 2014 celebrations, released The Tannery in 2010. The film follows on from his other short films such as the acclaimed Akbars Cheetah and The Loch Ness Kelpie. Gardner has recently worked on Oh, Skinny Legs music video for Looper.
The film follows a fox and a rabbit as they journey through the afterlife moments after their deaths and begin to understand how the tannery links them in death. The film was commissioned by Channel 4 as part of the 4mations series and was produced at Axis Animation with music composed and arranged by Belle & Sebastian’s Mick Cooke.
The film collected best animation at the CFC Worldwide Short Film Festival which qualified the film for entry into 83rd Academy Award race. It was also awarded Best Animation at the Celtic Media Festival in 2011, and was also nominated for a Scottish BAFTA.
Keen eyed Skwigly readers will of course recognise the characters from Iain’s contribution to the Skwigly Advent Calendar in 2013
We caught up with Iain Gardener to ask him about the film.
What made you want to tell the tale of lost souls and the fur trade?
Well, I don’t think I was compelled as such!
It was very much the muddling together of personal experience and chance. I’d had a personal experience which I really wanted to communicate via animation – not a story, but an emotional feeling and I knew that I didn’t want to retell the circumstances which brought the feeling on within the film – being literal is not what makes animation such an interesting medium.
One day, I just had this image in my head of a dead fox yearning for his pelt from the afterlife. It seemed a good vehicle to express the emotion I’d felt, and the story just evolved from there.
The spiritual journey the characters undertake is a clearly defined one, is this down to a particular belief that you hold or that you were inspired by?
I wouldn’t describe myself as a spiritual person – the images are very much drawn from childhood conceptions of an afterlife, the sort I was exposed to at Sunday School but with a little bit of a critique of those notions – until recently animals weren’t allowed an afterlife! But there’s actually a whole logic behind the existence and role of those souls within the environment of the world the story is set in which I developed for this film. I may revisit this another day if I ever get a taste to make a sequel in that universe! What we see on screen was paired down from a much bigger story which may yet come to the screen.
You seem to have an affection for animal characters, telling stories with them at the mercy of mankind’s cruelty where does this come from?
It’s basically due to the fact that animals can’t advocate for themselves. It’s always disturbed me how we take nature for granted and culturally invent tropes that justify our unbalanced relationship with the natural world. My focus is on those cultural constructs we’ve developed rather than an investigation of natural history, which would be more suited to a wildlife documentary.
What did you use to create the look of the film?
The film was produced by Axis Animation, already one of the leading CG animation production houses in the UK. It was a thrill to have their team realise my designs in CGI, something I think they got a kick out of as well. The match between the 2D and CGI was done the same way live action and animation was mixed in Who Framed Roger Rabbit – print outs of the CGI backgrounds became the layout to each frame of 2D animation for those sequences – the majority of the film was traditional 2D layouts, painted in watercolour. Five years on, if I were to do it again, I reckon I’d just be animating over the CGI reference directly in software like TVPaint.
You clearly have a tie to traditional art materials, using pastel and crayon to great effect, is this a choice of comfort or a conscious style choice?Image copyright AP Image caption In 2013, Australia experienced extreme heat and the consequent fires
This year is likely to be among the top 10 warmest on record, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
It continues a pattern of high temperatures blamed directly on man-made climate change.
The president of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, told BBC News that warming could no longer be ignored.
He urged action to reduce emissions to minimise the likelihood of disasters like Typhoon Haiyan, which has claimed thousands of lives in the Philippines.
The WMO's head, Michel Jarraud, echoed his call: “The Philippines is reeling from Typhoon Haiyan... and is still struggling to recover from a typhoon one year ago.
"Although individual tropical cyclones cannot be directly attributed to climate change, higher sea levels are already making coastal populations more vulnerable to storm surges."
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says the jury is out on whether the frequency of tropical cyclones will increase, but Michel Jarraud said it was expected that the impact of storms would be more intense.
Of the broad pattern, he said: “All of the warmest years have been since 1998, and this year once again continues the underlying, long-term trend. The coldest years now are warmer than the hottest years before 1998.
"Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases reached new highs in 2012, and we expect them to reach unprecedented levels yet again in 2013. This means that we are committed to a warmer future.
"Surface temperatures are only part of the wider picture of our changing climate. The impact on our water cycle is already becoming apparent - as manifested by droughts, floods and extreme precipitation."
Today’s statement is provisional, pending weather patterns to the end of the year, but it confirms that global sea level reached a new record high.
Mr Kim said the overall trend was clear. He urged governments to end subsidies for fossil fuels and give people clean energy sources.
Australian arguments
The Philippines is not the only place to experience extreme weather: in 2012, the US suffered record high temperatures; this year was the turn of Australia.
It recorded its warmest 12-month period on record in the period ending in August. This record was broken in the 12 months from September 2012 to September 2013 and again in the 12 months to October.
Despite the record temperatures, climate change has proved politically explosive in Australia, with the new government scrapping a controversial carbon tax and refusing to pay into a fund to help poor countries most affected by climate change.
There is a high level of scepticism on climate change in Australia, and government ministers point to the uncertainties over future projections.
But Prof Kevin Parton from the Institute for Land, Water and Society at Charles Sturt University in New South Wales said: “The overall message of the WMO statement is that recent conditions from all parts of the globe have been precisely what climate scientists predicted would occur under conditions of global warming.
"Apart from increasing global temperatures, the statement points to many, many examples of extreme weather from the UK to Russia, and from the Sudan to Argentina. It also highlights huge impacts of climate change on Arctic sea ice, the Greenland Ice Sheet, Antarctic sea ice and the rise in global sea level.
"If you look only at heat waves over the last 12 months, then extreme conditions occurred in Australia, South Africa, Pakistan, Austria, Finland, China and Japan.”
Dr Steve Rintoul, research team leader at Australia's CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research division, said: "A more significant point is that global-average temperature in each of the last three decades has been warmer than any prior decade dating back to 1850, as reported in the recently released IPCC report. It provides compelling evidence that human activities are primarily responsible for the warming over the last 50 years."
The new findings come as nations meeting at UN climate talks in Warsaw, Poland, are struggling to make progress on political solutions.
In the UK, which has led the world in climate change policy, the Prime Minister David Cameron has shifted the emphasis from tackling climate change to holding down consumers’ bills.
Follow Roger on Twitter.Daiwa Next Bank, the Internet bank of Daiwa Securities Group, has selected Red Hat Enterprise Linux as its enterprise operating system for its core banking system. Red Hat is the world's leading provider of open source solutions.
The financial institution claimed that it has been able to reduce its technology costs by 50 percent by migrating from UNIX to Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
"When Daiwa Securities Group's system renovation started in 2002, we realized that open source software is necessary for IT standardization to reduce cost, depart from vendor lock-in, and achieve reliable and stable operations," said Koichi Suzuki, senior executive managing director, Daiwa Institute of Research Ltd., a core information-generating institution within the Daiwa Securities Group, in a statement.
Suzuki said that Red Hat has a proven adoption track record with leading organizations, including the group companies.
“Since Red Hat Enterprise Linux is highly versatile, we can continuously utilize knowledge cultivated from others who have similar deployments and then apply these best practices to our systems,” he said.
Daiwa Next Bank completed the migration of moving from the UNIX-based package system to Red Hat Enterprise Linux in only nine months. Officials with Red Hat said that migrating to Red Hat Enterprise Linux provided the banking institution with several cost-cutting advantages.
"The cost to build our core banking system with Red Hat Enterprise Linux was cut in half compared to deploying UNIX," said Masami Mizushima, managing director, head of information technology department, Daiwa Next Bank.
"In addition, when hardware is procured in the future, we expect that the cost-effectiveness will be lower due to the high-availability of versatile servers. In the end, this will lead us to be able to provide valuable, long-term services to our customers," said Mizushima.
Company officials said that while maximizing Red Hat technology and synergy inside Daiwa Securities Group, the company will be able to provide optimized products and services that align with its customers' needs all from using open source technology as an enabler to achieve these goals.
"I think open source is the future and is most definitely the mainstream in cloud computing," said Suzuki.
"We believe that Red Hat, as a leading open source technology company, will continue to provide our firm with robust support and services enabling users to fully enjoy the benefits of open source,” he added.
Edited by Jamie EpsteinI’ve had this review half-done forever. FOREVERRR. But now it’s actually finished! Finally. Mercifully. Not because it was unpleasant – it was not! – but because my pile of “to try” perfumes is quickly becoming a very daunting mountain. If I don’t post again within a week, send help.
Anyway, here we have Midsummer Dreams Apothecary’s new-ish collection of unisex cologne oils. They are, as with MDA’s other scents, fairytale-themed (which I love), and the samples come in adorable little mini bottles that don’t leak and stand up on their own. A+.
Beast: Warm spicy amber blends with sultry sandalwood amongst a base of white musk, rosewood, rounded out by just a hint of patchouli. This is a warm, woodsy, and earthy blend. (Amber, Oakmoss, Patchouli, Rosewood, Sandalwood, White Musk.)
Warm and musky in the vial. On skin it’s all wood and spice, with a dry, powdery sort of vibe, which usually means sandalwood. After a few minutes I get more amber and musk, and it gets to be a bit much for me.
This is a very manly smell – warm, musky, woodsy, and spicy, and not sweet at all. It definitely smells like a masculine cologne. That’s not a bad thing – I love man smells, hence why I got these in the first place. But this one is a bit too strongly something for me – I can’t tell if it’s the amber or the musk or the various woody notes. It’s just very strong and a lot. However, I do think it fits the Beastly inspiration.
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funding, Florida has set up a transitional program to help aerospace workers prepare for new employment.
Read more coverage from CNN affiliate WKMG
Many of the NASA employees seeking employment help are "like deer in the headlights," said Lisa Rice, president of Brevard Workforce, which runs the federally funded aerospace transitional program.
"First reaction: 'Where do I go? What do I do?' " she said, describing NASA employees' responses after being laid off.
Job loss, Rice explains, is kind of like a grieving process. With the help of the transitional program, aerospace employees are lead through the process of résumé writing, sharpening interviewing techniques and developing skills needed for new jobs.
Many Kennedy Space Center workers, like Bundy, have not written a résumé for more than 30 years. Transitional instructors teach workers how to include decades of experience into a one- or two-page résumé.
"You need to have a plan B," said transitional program director Judy Blanchard. "The shuttle is retiring, and the end is inevitable."
Boeing aerospace engineer Juan Vazquez took the warning to heart, having worked on shuttles for 23 years.
This year, he opened two laundromats that he runs in his spare time. To ensure that he would succeed as a small-business owner, Vazquez completed the transitional program's entrepreneur training class.
"I grew up on shuttle. I've been working on shuttle since I was 18 years old," Vazquez said. "I pretty much live and breathe this stuff. I really enjoy what I do."
Other shuttle workers have had a hard time coming to terms with the idea that there is no definite replacement for shuttle, according to Rice.
When Bush announced that the shuttle program would end in 2010, he said it would be replaced by the Constellation program to return man to the moon and beyond.
Many shuttle workers held out hope that they could find new jobs in the Constellation program, which would have included two new rocket systems and a new crew module to transport astronauts into space.
From the beginning, Constellation was plagued by underfunding. This year, Obama killed the program's future funding because of budget overruns and because it was behind schedule.
That could affect more than 20,000 workers along Florida's space coast, according to Rice.
"We are looking at 9,000 aerospace workers who will be affected with another 14,000 indirectly affected in community," she said.
For Bundy, walking away from Kennedy Space Center was not as hard as he thought, he said Friday morning. He praised United Space Alliance for going "above and beyond to help their people adjust, from job placement to constant job fairs."
But it's more about just losing a job, he explained.
"I have a lot of friends, a lot of teammates," Bundy said. "I wish them all the best, and I'm going to miss them all."AMED, Indonesia (Reuters) - A Balinese town once bustling with holidaymakers has almost emptied of tourists after warnings that nearby Mount Agung could erupt at any time - a snapshot of the growing cost the rumbling volcano poses to Indonesia’s economy.
Business has slumped at many hotels, dive resorts and restaurants in towns around the volcano since authorities issue the highest alert level for Mount Agung last month.
An owner of a dive center in Amed, around 15 km (9 miles) from the volcano and just outside the official “danger zone”, said many of her guests had canceled.
“If (the situation) lasts for nine months or more... then we have no choice but to close down because we will have no money left to operate and pay the staff,” said Helene Rabate, a Spaniard who runs the center.
Cafes and restaurants were largely empty and few visitors were seen at the usually crowded dive centers of this seaside town.
The last time Agung erupted was in 1963, when more than 1,000 people were killed. Since then, tourism has transformed towns like Amed from sleepy fishing and agricultural villages.
Restaurant owner Wayan Widarti has seen a dramatic drop in customers.
“It could be worse than when the Bali bombing happened because there’s uncertainty on when (the eruption) is going to happen and how long we wait,” she said, referring to the 2002 nightclub bombing that killed 202 people and prompted a slump in visitors to the holiday island.
Bali, famous for its surf, beaches and temples, attracted nearly 5 million visitors last year - more than half the total number of foreign tourists to Indonesia.
Tourism, a cornerstone of Bali’s economy, is Indonesia’s fourth-biggest earner of foreign currency after natural resources like coal and palm oil.
Indonesian policy makers have been seeking to boost an economy whose growth rate has been stuck at around 5 percent for the last few years, so any protracted damage to tourism will be particularly unwelcome.
Indonesian officials have said Bali remains safe for tourism, but there have been cancellations even in areas further away from the volcano amid concerns that ash clouds could disrupt air connections.
Some tourists are still in the area at a safe distance from the volcano.
“We plan to... just follow security instructions... and take a fast boat to escape if there is an eruption,” said Arlin Shiu, a woman from Hong Kong who was traveling with a friend.
Jemeluk beach is seen some 15 km away from Mount Agung, a volcano on the highest alert level, in Amed on the resort island of Bali, Indonesia October 2, 2017. REUTERS/Darren Whiteside
Disaster management authorities have imposed an exclusion zone of up to 12 km, prompting more than 140,000 residents to flee to neighboring villages.
“For people who live in safe zones, there is no reason to evacuate,” Bali governor I Made Mangku Pastika said, adding that makeshift evacuation centers were straining under the weight of thousands of extra evacuees.
(INTERACTIVE: Mount Agung awakens - tmsnrt.rs/2ymKRSY)Fortune Magazine had a worrying headline today ‘Tesla’s Self-Driving Tech Is a Danger to Cyclists, Robotics Expert Says‘.
At first glance, I thought it would be about Tesla’s autonomous driving demo since they called it ‘self-driving’, but no – it is about Tesla’s Autopilot, which is obviously not a self-driving system as it currently stands.
They based their report on an article that a Stanford roboticist wrote with an impossibly sensationalist title: ‘Tesla Autopilot Review: Bikers will die‘.
Heather Knight, like Fortune, also seems to misunderstand the capabilities of the Autopilot. She wrote:
“the TESLA Autopilot feature is basically a button to turn the car into autonomous driving mode.”
The impression that Tesla’s Autopilot is a self-driving system seems to have intensified since the company introduced its second-generation Autopilot hardware with the ‘Fully Self-Driving Capability’ feature – even though they made it clear that the feature is not yet enabled.
Hardware that could eventually enable self-driving functions are in all vehicles, but testing the current software build as a “self-driving vehicle” doesn’t make sense.
Under its latest version, Tesla’s Autopilot is still a level 2 driving system and it still requires the complete attention of the driver. Therefore, it’s not clear how someone can make the claim that ‘bikers will die’ because of the system since drivers are still completely responsible for avoiding accidents, including making sure not to hit bikers.
The danger is more with drivers becoming complacent with the system before it is ready to be completely autonomous – something that Knight seems to understand:
“I’m concerned that some will ignore its limitations and put biker lives at risk; we found the Autopilot’s agnostic behavior around bicyclists to be frightening.”
But it seems counterintuitive to be worried about people ignoring limitations and yet defining the Autopilot as “a button to turn the car into autonomous driving mode”.
In her review, she claimed that “Autopilot classified ~30% of other cars, and 1% of bicyclists” – a claim that she made purely based on the information displayed on the instrument cluster.
Even though Tesla’s Autopilot system is currently primarily for highway use, it is capable of detecting cyclists (as pictured above), but like any other situation with Autopilot, drivers should keep their hands on the wheel and be ready to take over.
The latest Autopilot software updates made significant improvements to the system on Tesla’s new vehicles and fan update coming next month is supposed to feature a new ‘silky smooth’ control algorithm that should improve it even more.
Nonetheless, until Tesla introduces the ‘Fully Self-driving Capability’, which is not expected until at least the end of the year, the system should still not be referred to as ‘self-driving’.For 10 years, John Wilson thought the cargo container he was using as a bridge was empty. Then he opened it and discovered a $2-million engine inside.
"When I saw that jet engine in there, oh my gosh, that's the first thing that come to my head — I'm going to jail," said Wilson, of Bridgetown, N.S.
The bizarre story begins in the mid-1990s.
Wilson said the engines on HMCS Athabaskan were replaced during a refit in 1994. The old engines were completely overhauled and placed in sealed cargo containers. Eventually, the containers were advertised in the Annapolis Valley buy-and-sell flyer — as empty.
Wilson, who needed something to use as a bridge on his property, picked one of the containers up for $400. He never bothered to open it. When he finally did, he also found the service log book for the Pratt & Whitney turbine.
"Everybody wanted the book — the military police wanted the book, Pratt & Whitney wanted the book — and I found out without the book it can't be sold," Wilson said.
Wilson believes he's the rightful owner and has been trying to sell his find online for months. He said it will likely end up in the United States, where a prospective buyer hopes to use it as a five-megawatt power generator.
Wilson said he's asking for $30,000, though the turbine was worth $2 million at one point.
He said there were seven more containers like the one he bought years ago. Now that he knows what's inside, he's kicking himself for only buying one.For a White House as undisciplined as this one, the tape stonewalling scans less as a political position than a legal one. White House counsel Don McGahn, or someone else who understands the potential gravity of the situation, may well have told everyone to keep their mouths shut. If the White House were to acknowledge that there are no tapes, Trump would be caught in a very troubling fabrication to intimidate a witness, but if the White House confirms that tapes exist, Trump would face the legal obligation to preserve them and perhaps even surrender them to Congress.
We know to a near certainty that the White House will come under immense pressure to come clean. If Comey testifies publicly before the Senate, it is likely he will confirm under oath that Trump sought his personal loyalty, thus resolving the mystery of the White House tapes one way or another. Trump might dispute Comey’s claims, but if he doesn’t release any tapes to prove his case, it would suggest either that the tapes don’t exist or that they vindicate Comey. The question at the heart of the tape scandal would tighten from “Do the tapes exist?” to “Did the president lie about the existence of the tapes, or about their content?” That’s a question people working in the White House will feel much more pressure to address than the one they face today.
It strikes me as overwhelmingly likely that the truth lies in one of these two scenarios. But even if Trump has recordings of his conversations with Comey, and they vindicate Trump—as he coyly suggests in his tweet—it is small solace because he will have recorded himself using his power to fire Comey as leverage to discourage an FBI investigation. That is, he will have gathered evidence against himself, documenting his attempt to obstruct justice.
For well over a year now, people have predicted Twitter would be Trump’s political undoing, but for the first time it’s possible to see how it might undo him. Unlike his March tweets baselessly accusing President Barack Obama of wiretapping him, Trump’s tweet about a possible Comey tape hasn’t plunged the government into a wasteful, humiliating charade. But that underscores rather than undermines the argument that the Comey tweet is far more damaging.
Trump might have libeled Obama, but he was ultimately, in his inimitably garbled fashion, just passing along false allegations he’d heard on Fox News. The ensuing farce, in which congressional Republicans and members of the administration sought to reverse-engineer a scandal that would give Trump thin cover, was disgraceful for everyone who participated. But it was only undertaken to appease the president and muddy the political consequences to him of having told a terrible lie about his predecessor.
The White House’s recoiling over questions about potential Comey tapes suggests the administration knows that the implications of the tweet are far more severe. In fact, though it wasn’t readily obvious in the swirl of events last week, the tape tweet is proving to be the most damaging Trump tweet of all time.U.S. President Barack Obama delivers remarks at a Hillary for America campaign event at Fayetteville State University in Fayetteville, North Carolina, U.S., November 4, 2016. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Friday that he does not believe FBI Director James Comey was trying to influence the presidential election when he decided the agency would examine newly discovered emails in its probe of Hillary Clinton’s private server.
“Now I’ve said before and I’ll say again, Jim Comey is a good man,” Obama said in an interview on MSNBC.
“And I do not believe that he is in any way trying to influence the election one way or another. I think he is a serious public servant who wants to do the right thing,” Obama said.Investigators on the scene of a deadly shooting by San Mateo County Sheriff's deputies. (CBS)
HALF MOON BAY (CBS SF) – An 18-year-old woman was shot and killed by a sheriff’s deputy in San Mateo County on Tuesday night.
Deputies responded to a violent an potentially armed woman at the Moonridge Housing Complex on Miramontes Point Road east of state Highway 1 around 9:20 p.m., San Mateo County Sheriff’s spokeswoman Rebecca Rosenblatt said. The building houses many of the areas agricultural workers.
A deputy who arrived at the scene and confronted the woman, Yanira Serrano-Garcia, and shot at her after a growing fearful, Rosenblatt said.
According to Garcia’s aunt, the 18-year-old suffered depression and had stopped taking her medication.
Emergency crews were called to the scene and pronounced the woman dead, she said.
Garcia’s cousin, Saul Miramontes, said they called 911 for help, but he never expected his cousin, Yanira, to be shot dead.
“I feel bad for her for what happened,” he said. “I don’t know why this officer couldn’t understand what was going on through her life, or could have done at least something better than try to take her life away, you know?”
Miramontes said he was told that Garcia did have a knife.
The San Mateo County coroner’s office was called to the scene in addition to detectives from the sheriff’s office, Rosenblatt said.
Deputies were not injured in the incident, according to Rosenblatt.
The San Mateo County deputy involved in the shooting has been named as Menh Trieu, a nine-year veteran of law enforcement, who had been with the department for a couple of years.
Family friend Carlos Ramirez was one of many people going in and out of the Garcia’s home Wednesday morning as a priest prayed with her parents.
“I just don’t get it. This girl is 18-years old, she’s a girl. I’m not saying that girls are weak, but if she’s not all mentally there; she doesn’t know where to put that knife, she doesn’t know your vital points to kill you,” he said.
A joint investigation into the shooting is being conducted by the San Mateo County sheriff’s and district attorney’s offices.
© Copyright 2014 by CBS San Francisco and Bay City News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.With 11:46 remaining in the third quarter of the game way back on April 3 between the Portland Trail Blazers and the Minnesota Timberwolves, Blazers forward Moe Harkless received a pass from Damian Lillard in the right corner, rose to shoot, and rattled in his third three-point basket of the night. It was his 68th made three-pointer of the season, on 192 attempts, raising his 3PT percentage to 35.4.
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Around three and a half minutes later, the ball swung to Harkless where he stood wide open on the left wing. Again, he rose up for three. “He’s got the hot hand,” the Blazers’ play-by-play announcer said; “Let it fly, Moe!” But the shot missed, and lowered Harkless’s three-point shooting percentage to 35.2. It was his final three-point attempt of the night; he finished three-for-five from outside the arc.
The next night, in Utah, with about six minutes remaining in the first quarter, Meyers Leonard swung the ball to Harkless on the right wing; he wasn’t wide open this time, but Jazz swingman Gordon Hayward had given him some space to fire up a three-pointer, and that’s what he did. And missed.
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Up to that point, early in Portland’s 78th regular-season game, Harkless had averaged roughly one three-point attempt for every 11 minutes of playing time he logged. But, despite playing around 20 more minutes in that game—and around 87 more minutes in the four remaining games on Portland’s schedule, including last night’s three-point loss to the New Orleans Pelicans in the 82nd and final game—Harkless never attempted another three-pointer.
You see, Moe Harkless’s contract, signed this past summer, included a $500,000 bonus if the career 31-percent 3PT-shooter finished the season shooting 35 percent or better from outside the arc. The miss against Utah dropped his 3PT percentage to 35.1—35.051, to be exact—a single miss away from falling to 34.8 percent. 35.1 percent is where it will stay. The regular season is over now.
For this reason, Moe Harkless is the clear choice for the 2016-17 NBA Most Valuable Player Award.BY: Follow @LizWFB
The Obama administration quietly finalized the Health Insurance Tax (HIT) over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, a provision in Obamacare that will cost nearly $60 billion over the next five years and raise health care premiums by 3 percent.
The final rule, published on Nov. 27, imposes a fee beginning in 2014 for health insurers with premium revenues over $25 million per year. The annual tax is levied for "United States health risks," and is hidden from consumers since it is directly assessed on health insurance companies.
David R. Burton, a senior fellow in economic policy at the Heritage Foundation, said the tax will disproportionally impact small businesses.
"Most large corporations self-insure," Burton told the Washington Free Beacon. "They may or may not have stop-loss insurance. Medium-sized businesses will self-insure but then have what’s called stop-loss insurance so that if their claims exceed a certain amount the insurance company will compensate them. The largest corporations are self-insured, period."
"In contrast, small companies actually buy health insurance and it’s only the actual health insurance that is subject to the tax, self-insured plans are not," he said.
An analysis by the American Action Forum found that under the tax, premiums for small businesses and households will increase as much as 3 percent over the next ten years, or roughly $5,000 per family over the decade.
According to the Business Council of New York State, the average family will see a $270 increase in their premiums in 2014. Over the next decade, the tax will cost families $5,080.
"Some of the more problematic issues of the tax are that revenue raised by the tax does not even directly fund new health care benefits but instead goes into the general treasury," the Business Council said. "Additionally, small businesses will pay a disproportionate share of these taxes since these employers are far more likely to purchase insurance rather than self-insure."
The final rule sets explicit revenues that the tax must generate each year, beginning with $8 billion in 2014. The government will collect $11.3 billion from the HIT in 2015 and 2016; $13.9 billion in 2017; and $14.3 billion in 2018, a total of $58.8 billion over five years. Thereafter, the tax will be increased subject to premium growth.
"It’s an odd sort of tax," Burton said. "It’s not at a specific rate, but it raises a specific amount of revenue from insurers who underwrite health insurance outside of the exchanges. You basically have a set amount of money and then it’s allocated among the insurers based on the amount of health insurance premiums they actually wrote."
The tax is also hidden from consumers. "They won’t see it," Burton said. "It’s in effect hidden because it’s imposed on the insurance companies, but it’s a cost to them that they have to recover by raising premiums."
Burton said estimates for premium increases range from 2.5 to 3 percent. The health insurance tax joins the list of Obamacare tax increases, including the medical device tax, payroll taxes, an excise tax on "Cadillac plans," and others.
"It’s just one more way they’re raising the cost of employing people," Burton said. "It’s hidden so people don’t really understand why, that’s probably one of the more insidious aspects of it is that it’s hiding the true effect of it because of the way it’s structured."
"If people saw that 3 percent tax on their bill every month they would feel differently about it," he said.Overstock.com CEO and bitcoin convert Patrick M Byrne will deliver the keynote speech at the Bitcoin 2014 conference on 15th-17th May at the Passenger Terminal Amsterdam.
He is expected to speak about his vision for the future of bitcoin; its potential for global financial inclusion; non-currency uses like proving ownership of stocks and bonds; and the network’s relation to society as a whole.
Jon Matonis, executive director of the Bitcoin Foundation, said:
“We are delighted to have one of bitcoin’s most prominent and prescient champions at our conference. Patrick’s decision to accept bitcoin has introduced it to mainstream society and increased understanding among consumers.”
He added: “It’s going to be a great event; this conference is where visionary technology and mainstream commerce intersects.”
Welcome advocate
Byrne has become a poster boy for bitcoin since announcing that Overstock.com would start accepting bitcoins in an offhand interview remark last December. Feeling pressure to deliver, he did exactly that with some intensive help by payment processing partner Coinbase, six months ahead of schedule.
Since then, the self-confessed libertarian and Austrian Economist has become one of bitcoin’s biggest advocates. The first major online retailer to accept bitcoin, Overstock.com made more than $124,000 in bitcoin sales in its first day of accepting the currency, and by March had topped $1m in purchases.
The company has revised its bitcoin revenue projection for 2014 from an initial $3-5m to a jaw-dropping $20m.
“Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency inventions reduce costs for businesses – small or large – and thus enables firms to pass savings onto consumers,” said Byrne earlier in the year.
“In addition, bitcoin shares the key virtue of gold: it is a form of money that cannot be easily manipulated or debased by central planners.”
Bitcoin 2014
Bitcoin 2014 in Amsterdam is the annual international conference, exhibition and networking event organized by the Bitcoin Foundation.
The conference aims to provide a platform for all digital currency stakeholders: the investors, technologists, regulators, executives, entrepreneurs, developers and policymakers who will collectively shape the future of cryptographic money worldwide.
It follows last year’s inaugural event in San Jose, California, which drew more than 1,000 attendees over the course of its three-day run.
For more information visit the event website, here.Bitcoin has hit a new all-time high today, with prices reaching $5,226 on the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index.
At press time, the bitcoin-U.S. dollar (BTC/USD) exchange rate is trading at $5,200 levels. Week-on-week, BTC is up 18.75 percent, while month-on-month it’s up 23 percent. The new record broke a previous all-time high of $5,013 set in September.
All in all, it’s a sharp reversal of trend given the cryptocurrency dropped to a low of $2,980 in mid-September on the news China had banned token sales and that local cryptocurrency exchanges would shut in the aftermath. However, in subsequent days, bitcoin’s price quickly regained, reportedly due to a pick-up in trading volumes in Japan, South Korea and other markets.
Increased institutional interest seems to have played a role in boosting bitcoin prices.
For example, a rumored “bitcoin desk” at Goldman Sachs would certainly be a game changer for the nascent market. Still, it’s just the latest sign professional traders are increasingly interested in the market.
Further, even while skeptics continue to call the bitcoin rally a bubble, the price action analysis indicates no serious trouble ahead for the cryptocurrency.
Weekly chart
The chart above shows that:
Bitcoin is chipping away at $5,154 – resistance offered by 161.8 percent Fibonacci extension of the move from the April low – June high – July low.
The RSI is overbought, although it’s not a cause for concern, as the indicator is still well below the highs seen in August and June.
Daily Chart
On the above chart, resistance is seen at $5,378.56 – 161.8 percent Fibonacci extension of the move from the Sept. 15 low – Sept. 18 high – Sept. 23 low.
The RSI is overbought.
All major moving averages – 50-day moving average, 100-day moving average and 200-day moving average – are perfectly aligned one below the other, which indicates the long-run trend is bullish.
View
A break above $5,154 would open doors for $5,378.56.
A healthy technical pullback cannot be ruled out, given the overbought conditions. On the downside, the key support levels to watch out for are $5,000, $4,809, $4,500.
Water ballons via ShutterstockDownload raw source
Return-Path: <john.podesta@gmail.com> Received: from [192.168.1.2] ([108.51.152.145]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPSA id 38sm6161298qgt.43.2015.03.21.17.45.12 for <robbymook2015@gmail.com> (version=TLSv1 cipher=ECDHE-RSA-RC4-SHA bits=128/128); Sat, 21 Mar 2015 17:45:13 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Re: Weekly calls w Cheryl References: <712C67A2-2B44-4E34-B99B-0FAB66234377@gmail.com> <406ADD61-B1F3-4759-86FB-AFC2BBD224F1@gmail.com> <CAB5o6bbVcUrB5e1eSjz4+tk+5rFUqCj6CP7iX7AoMh6y80Fr_Q@mail.gmail.com> From: John Podesta <john.podesta@gmail.com> Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=Apple-Mail-65BE68B3-FF40-4FC9-B2BD-3A98FA78081F X-Mailer: iPad Mail (12B466) In-Reply-To: <CAB5o6bbVcUrB5e1eSjz4+tk+5rFUqCj6CP7iX7AoMh6y80Fr_Q@mail.gmail.com> Message-Id: <9FFFDFBB-A1E4-4F43-B4FD-E26860DD7ED8@gmail.com> Date: Sat, 21 Mar 2015 20:45:11 -0400 To: Robby Mook <robbymook2015@gmail.com> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Mime-Version: 1.0 (1.0) --Apple-Mail-65BE68B3-FF40-4FC9-B2BD-3A98FA78081F Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Probably worth doing how to approach health as well. JP --Sent from my iPad-- john.podesta@gmail.com For scheduling: eryn.sepp@gmail.com > On Mar 21, 2015, at 8:42 PM, Robby Mook <robbymook2015@gmail.com> wrote: >=20 > Roger that > If you think it's productive, I wanted to talk about the new communication= s set up...including how we should work w certain people considering what's g= oing to be happening later. > Also, we should talk about her financial disclosure...I think Lynn and Eri= c will prepare it, which is fine, I just want Tony and Jenn to have lots of t= ime to look it over and prepare for hits. >=20 >=20 >> On Sat, Mar 21, 2015 at 8:41 PM, John Podesta <john.podesta@gmail.com> wr= ote: >> Don't know if they will continue to serve a useful purpose but they may s= till be useful to surface HRC concerns. >>=20 >> JP >> --Sent from my iPad-- >> john.podesta@gmail.com >> For scheduling: eryn.sepp@gmail.com >>=20 >> > On Mar 21, 2015, at 7:52 PM, Robby Mook <robbymook2015@gmail.com> wrote= : >> > >> > How should we use these going forward? >> > Should we focus on the self research issues? Legal issues? >> > Or do they still serve a purpose? I want to propose a meaningful agend= a >> > >> > >=20 --Apple-Mail-65BE68B3-FF40-4FC9-B2BD-3A98FA78081F Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable <html><head><meta http-equiv=3D"content-type" content=3D"text/html; charset=3D= utf-8"></head><body dir=3D"auto"><div>Probably worth doing how to approach h= ealth as well.</div><div><br><div>JP</div>--Sent from my iPad--<div><a href=3D= "mailto:john.podesta@gmail.com">john.podesta@gmail.com</a></div><div>For sch= eduling: <a href=3D"mailto:eryn.sepp@gmail.com">eryn.sepp@gmail.com</a></div= ></div><div><br>On Mar 21, 2015, at 8:42 PM, Robby Mook <<a href=3D"mailt= o:robbymook2015@gmail.com">robbymook2015@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br><br></d= iv><blockquote type=3D"cite"><div><div dir=3D"ltr">Roger that<div>If you thi= nk it's productive, I wanted to talk about the new communications set up...i= ncluding how we should work w certain people considering what's going to be h= appening later.</div><div>Also, we should talk about her financial disclosur= e...I think Lynn and Eric will prepare it, which is fine, I just want Tony a= nd Jenn to have lots of time to look it over and prepare for hits.</div><div= ><br></div></div><div class=3D"gmail_extra"><br><div class=3D"gmail_quote">O= n Sat, Mar 21, 2015 at 8:41 PM, John Podesta <span dir=3D"ltr"><<a href=3D= "mailto:john.podesta@gmail.com" target=3D"_blank">john.podesta@gmail.com</a>= ></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class=3D"gmail_quote" style=3D"margin:0 0 0=.8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">Don't know if they will c= ontinue to serve a useful purpose but they may still be useful to surface HR= C concerns.<br> <br> JP<br> --Sent from my iPad--<br> <a href=3D"mailto:john.podesta@gmail.com">john.podesta@gmail.com</a><br> For scheduling: <a href=3D"mailto:eryn.sepp@gmail.com">eryn.sepp@gmail.com</= a><br> <div class=3D"HOEnZb"><div class=3D"h5"><br> > On Mar 21, 2015, at 7:52 PM, Robby Mook <<a href=3D"mailto:robbymook= 2015@gmail.com">robbymook2015@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br> ><br> > How should we use these going forward?<br> > Should we focus on the self research issues? Legal issues?<br> > Or do they still serve a purpose? I want to propose a meaningful a= genda<br> ><br> ><br> </div></div></blockquote></div><br></div> </div></blockquote></body></html>= --Apple-Mail-65BE68B3-FF40-4FC9-B2BD-3A98FA78081F--Modern Baseball have cancelled all of their upcoming U.S. tour dates and festival appearances. In a note shared to their Facebook page, the band’s Jake Ewald stated that the cancellations are for the members “to take a break from Modern Baseball for a little while,” and also explained that the band had become an “immense source of anxiety for me.” He shared that feeling with his bandmates, who felt the same way. “The project we started as a source of joy and positive expression had become something that was slowly eating away at our mental health and our friendships,” he wrote. “Please know that we don't take a tour cancellation lightly, and under any other circumstances we would not even consider it an option, but in this instance we have to put our health and friendships first.” Read the full note below.
Earlier this year, Modern Baseball’s Brendan Lukens announced that he would not be joining the band for their European and UK shows, also citing the need to focus on his “mental and physical health.” In 2015, Modern Baseball canceled tour dates in order for Lukens “to focus on making steps towards positive mental health.”
Read “Modern Baseball and How Emo Grew Up” on the Pitch.A story: much of my family is Traditionalist Catholic. One of the many things Trads hate is receiving communion in the hand. Truth be told, I’m not a fan either. Anyway, there I was, at a wedding of one of my family members. At the reception, after the Mass, one of my aunts sought me out, and said something like, “Oh, so you think the Body of Our Lord is like a piece of gum?” Indeed, at the wedding Mass, I had received communion in the hand. One of the reasons why I was so shocked by this was that, precisely during this Mass, after receiving communion I had had a powerful prayer experience. I had cried a lot, and I had deeply felt the power of the Real Presence. This made her comment not just rude in a superficial, social way, but deeply uncharitable–particularly at that moment, the idea that I had disrespected the Body of Christ revolted me with a righteous passion. It was many many years ago, and yet the moment is perfectly etched in my memory. The point is that only God knows our hearts, and focusing on outward signs of spirituality is a grave error, for countless reasons which should be obvious to anyone familiar with the Gospel. Maybe for some people–maybe even a majority!–the choice to receive communion in the hand bespeaks an improper lack of reverence for the Body of Christ. But not always. Not always.
I often think back to that moment when I hear a line that is often heard in some Catholic circles in some version, but always in reproach: “The communion line is a lot longer than the confession line.”
Now, this line starts from a whole bunch of sound premises. That we should indeed “discern the body” (1 Cor 11:29) and come to the table of the wedding feast of the Lamb with a heart full of grace; that, indeed, the obligation to do so tends to be seen by most faithful in the wake of the Vatican II Council as a mere guideline. And yes, there’s been a dramatic slide in confession, with disastrous spiritual consequences, and people should go to confession much more often, much more regularly. And, of course, it’s impossible to encourage people too much to go to confession. All of this is true.
But here’s the thing. You don’t know people’s hearts. First of all, (low, booming voice) as a matter of canon law and infallible dogma, perfect inward contrition confers the same graces and the same divine forgiveness of sin as sacramental confession. And the words of the liturgy invite all those present around the table to this act of perfect contrition (“Lord, I am not worthy to receive you…”), they don’t ask if anybody went to confession. In your parish, you may have long communion lines and short confession lines, but you do not know who came to the table with a contrite, grace-filled heart and who didn’t. For that matter, you don’t know who, under the grace of the spirit, ran into the closest church over their Friday lunch break and got the best confession in their life and has |
had tapped Hayes' Hummer H2 from behind. Prosecutors have argued that Hayes then rammed the Smiths' vehicle intentionally before stepping out with a handgun.
+16 Will Smith's widow recounts his final moments publicly for 1st time in riveting testimony Will Smith and Cardell Hayes stood nearly toe to toe, the former a Super Bowl champion and t…
"We were trying to get a visible enough picture of the license plate information," O'Neal said earlier of Hayes' decision to follow Smith as the ex-Saint drove away from the initial bump. "Before we made impact, (Hayes) was slowing down, hitting the brakes. He was mashing 'em."
Prosecutors have promised evidence from the vehicles' data recorders will show otherwise, that Hayes only tapped the brakes before impact.
But O'Neal was forced to account for several comments he made previously to both police and media, including a remark that he felt he and Hayes could easily have won a street fight against Smith and his smaller male companions — Hernandez and his brother-in-law, Jonathan Whipple.
Rodrigue hammered O'Neal over that comment, and another one in which she said he had remarked that he only became "really afraid" after the gunshots rang out and he grabbed his own gun from the Hummer.
"Me having confidence in my ability to defend myself has nothing to do with the actions that actually happened out there," he responded, noting that Hayes may have been reacting to his own fear.
O'Neal told police that Hernandez swung at him and backed up, "probably scared." On the witness stand, he said he was being facetious in his interview with police hours after the shooting, after which the cops released him.
O'Neal, who faces no charges in the case, also said at one point after the shooting that someone who at least resembled former New Orleans Police Capt. William Ceravolo, a friend of the Smiths, was among the men trying to restrain the former Saints defensive captain.
But according to prosecutors and former Saints running back Pierre Thomas, who testified Wednesday, Ceravolo, after dining with the group, had left and was nowhere around when the gunfire erupted.
O'Neal said he was going off news accounts and photos of Ceravolo, apparently mistaking him for another man there.
Rodrigue pressed O'Neal, often in mocking tones, over his account of the volatile altercation and his purported attempt to get the license plate number and call 911.
O'Neal claimed he attempted to dial 911 after the shooting but never managed to make the call.
Following the crash, he said, two men immediately ran up on his side of Hayes' Hummer. He thought they came from the Chevy Impala at the front of the three-vehicle crash scene but said on the stand that he wasn't sure.
The Smith camp seemed "drunk or high on something" and got "more hostile and irate as time progressed," O'Neal testified.
"One of the gentlemen states, the gentleman says, 'I feel played, someone hit us. Someone hit us twice,' " he added. "He stated he wanted a physical altercation. He takes off his shirt and he starts to get really, really erratic. Him and the other guy who was with him.... The whole while I'm trying to stop them, telling them to chill out."
O'Neal said he has training in martial arts and boxing but that he declined to employ those skills during the fracas.
Buras, the judge, at one point admonished O'Neal for frowning toward Racquel Smith's supporters on the prosecution side of the courtroom gallery.
O'Neal, often combative under questioning from Rodrigue, said he saw someone in the courtroom gallery "do this to me" and raised his middle finger to his forehead.
Later, two friends who were at the Half Moon Bar near the scene of the shooting offered testimony that seemingly bolstered some aspects of the state's case against Hayes while potentially hurting others.
Justin Ross said he and his friend, Abby Levray, heard Hayes' Hummer run into the back of Smith's Mercedes SUV and then walked over toward the collision site. Ross repeatedly said it did not appear to him that Smith posed any life-endangering threat after the crash, saying the most aggressive person was Hernandez.
Ross also said the only person he heard mention a gun was O'Neal, who said he had one as he was pleading with Hernandez to "back off."
But Ross also testified that he heard Hernandez shout, "I will kill you, f***ing n***er!" to both O'Neal and Hayes, which the defense seized on to illustrate that both Hayes and O'Neal had reason to feel threatened.
Asked Wednesday if he had said that, Hernandez denied it.
Ross said he recorded part of the altercation on cellphone video and then appeared in separate, widely circulated footage captured by someone else describing what he heard before the shooting.
Levray echoed some of Ross' testimony, though she said she never heard anyone mention a gun. She said that on first glance it appeared the people from Smith's SUV were the aggressors in the altercation she witnessed, mainly because Hernandez was beating his bare chest in what she described as a "strange" scene.
Prosecutors have disputed the notion that Hernandez could have made O'Neal or Hayes truly fear for their lives, given his smaller stature.
Additionally, under questioning by prosecutor Jason Napoli, Levray conceded her opinion on who were the aggressors would change if she had information about who had mentioned a gun or later fired one. Levray said she didn't see who fired at Smith and that she ducked for cover when she heard gunfire.
The testimony late Thursday turned to the police investigation, as a former Police Department ballistics expert, Meredith Acosta, testified that all nine of the spent shell casings found at the crime scene, as well as the bullets in Smith's corpse, came from the same weapon: the.45-caliber Ruger semi-automatic handgun that Hayes fired.
The gun, lead homicide detective Bruce Brueggeman later testified, wasn't registered to Hayes. It was purchased for him by O'Neal, he said.
Brueggeman testified into the night, first walking the jury through videos showing the two vehicles traveling down Magazine Street and onto Sophie Wright Place, though none of them showed the final crash or the mayhem that followed.
The veteran detective faced an animated cross-examination as Fuller took aim at a police investigation he claimed was tainted by Smith's celebrity and a rush to indict Hayes quickly for the killing.
Hayes' indictment came just 18 days after his arrest, and Brueggeman acknowledged that several witness interviews, as well as toxicology tests showing Smith's blood-alcohol level at nearly three times the legal driving limit, came after the April 28 indictment.
Brueggeman also said police recovered video showing Ceravolo at the Windsor Court Hotel downtown at the moment Smith was shot.
That seemed to contradict Fuller's allegation that the former NOPD captain showed up in time to tamper with the crime scene following his friend's killing.
Fuller barked that police took pains to protect Ceravolo, securing the video before looking for similar evidence to verify Hayes' self-defense claim.
Brueggeman demurred, saying, "We wanted to make sure Billy Ceravolo was playing by the rules and wasn't breaking the law."
The detective acknowledged that only Smith, Hernandez and another man in their party had to be restrained during the street altercation, and that Hayes did not.
"And you don't know if Mr. Hernandez told Mr. Hayes, 'I'm-a f***ing going to kill you, n-word?'" Fuller asked.
"Mr. Hernandez never told me that," the detective responded.
"I'm sure he didn't," Fuller replied.
The detective did say he "had information that a member of the Smith party, and it turned out to be Mr. Hernandez, was acting the fool."
Brueggeman said that officers smelled alcohol on Hayes' breath after the shooting but never tested him because they felt he was sober. Fuller has said his client wasn't drinking that night.
In rhetorical fashion, Fuller also asked Brueggeman whether getting out and charging the other party was the proper response to a vehicle collision.
"That would be the wrong thing to do. That's how we end up in a day like we (have) today," the detective responded. "We don't need any violence on the street. Especially in New Orleans. Anywhere in the South. People carry weapons."
WWL-TV's Danny Monteverde contributed to this report.
Notes from Brueggeman's late-night testimony, after print deadline
-- Under cross examination by Fuller, Brueggeman testified that Ross mentioned to other officers that he captured video of the entire argument that preceded Smith's shooting on his cellphone. But, after an officer on the scene sent that video of the pre-shooting argument to himself, it was lost, Brueggeman testified.
Ross, earlier in the day, offered similar testimony.
Brueggeman then acknowledged that such a video would likely be vital to any homicide investigation, since it could help explain what caused a killing to occur. Asked if he wished to have Ross' whole video, Brueggeman admitted that he would.
Nonetheless, while later being questioned by Rodrigue, Brueggeman said nothing he found during his investigation showed Smith ever grabbed a gun or said he was going to get one before he was killed.
-- While questioning Brueggeman, Fuller established that Ceravolo eventually did show up at the scene of Smith's killing. Brueggeman conceded that not all of Ceravolo's whereabouts that night on the scene were documented on video, and he told Fuller he wasn't sure whether Ceravolo went searching for the cell phone of Racquel Smith at any point.
Though Fuller moved on after that, those questions follow insinuations by the defense that Ceravolo might have tampered with evidence at the scene of the killing, to preserve Smith's public image. The state denies Ceravolo altered the scene or even had the opportunity to do so, but Fuller's questions to Brueggeman about the former NOPD captain apparently aimed to raise doubt in jurors' minds about that assertion.
-- Earlier, Brueggeman testified that when investigators searched Smith's car, the former Saint's gun had its safety on and was holstered in a hard, plastic case, wedged in between the driver's seat and the center console.
-- A note unrelated to Brueggeman's testimony: After Rodrigue mentioned O'Neal's comments about Fuller, Fuller got O'Neal to say it made sense for the witness to be angry with the attorney, given that Hayes has remained in jail for eight months since Smith's shooting.
This post has been updated since it was first published.A study published in The American Journal of Political Science underscored how powerful political bias can be. In an experiment, Democrats and Republicans were asked to choose a scholarship winner from among (fictitious) finalists, with the experiment tweaked so that applicants sometimes included the president of the Democratic or Republican club, while varying the credentials and race of each. Four-fifths of Democrats and Republicans alike chose a student of their own party to win a scholarship, and discrimination against people of the other party was much greater than discrimination based on race.
“I am the equivalent of someone who was gay in Mississippi in 1950,” a conservative professor is quoted as saying in “Passing on the Right,” a new book about right-wing faculty members by Jon A. Shields and Joshua M. Dunn Sr. That’s a metaphor that conservative scholars often use, with talk of remaining in the closet early in one’s career and then “coming out” after receiving tenure.
This bias on campuses creates liberal privilege. A friend is studying for the Law School Admission Test, and the test preparation company she is using offers test-takers a tip: Reading comprehension questions will typically have a liberal slant and a liberal answer.
Some liberals think that right-wingers self-select away from academic paths in part because they are money-grubbers who prefer more lucrative professions. But that doesn’t explain why there are conservative math professors but not many right-wing anthropologists.
It’s also liberal poppycock that there aren’t smart conservatives or evangelicals. Richard Posner is a more-or-less conservative who is the most cited legal scholar of all time. With her experience and intellect, Condoleezza Rice would enhance any political science department. Francis Collins is an evangelical Christian and famed geneticist who has led the Human Genome Project and the National Institutes of Health. And if you’re saying that conservatives may be tolerable, but evangelical Christians aren’t — well, are you really saying you would have discriminated against the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.?
Jonathan Haidt, a centrist social psychologist at New York University, cites data suggesting that the share of conservatives in academia has plunged, and he has started a website, Heterodox Academy, to champion ideological diversity on campuses.Bantam
The world might be drastically different if a single battle from 490 B.C. had gone the other way. While many history books focus on entire wars, James Lacey, a professor at the Marine Corps War College, and Williamson Murray, a defense analyst at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies and a professor at the Naval War College, say it is actually individual battles that have more greatly affected the fate of great ideas, such as democracy. In "Moment of Battle: The Twenty Clashes That Changed the World," Lacey and Murray examine the lasting impacts of these conflicts. Lacey recently spoke with U.S. News about how these 20 battles determined the political, cultural and geographic circumstances of today. Excerpts:
Why are these 20 battles the most decisive?
There are numerous battles that military historians may think are more crucial in terms of the outcome or how decisive the fighting was. The Battle of Cannae gets mentioned by military historians all the time because it was a double envelopment, where Hannibal and his Carthaginians surrounded two Roman armies that merged together and annihilated them. But in the end, Hannibal lost; Carthage was defeated, and a generation later, the entire city was wrecked. The Battle of Zama, where the Carthaginians and Hannibal were finally defeated, created Rome as the most powerful city in the Mediterranean. How Rome established its world and its empire still [impacts] much of the world. So what we did was try and figure out what battles, whether well-known or not, the world is still feeling the effects of even today.
What’s one long-term consequence of an ancient battle still apparent now?
Well, just take the first one in our book, the Battle of Marathon. The East-West divide that we think of today between the Middle East and the Western world was created in 490 B.C., when 10,000 Athenian Hoplites defeated the massed formations of the Persian tyrant. If Athens had lost at Marathon, the only democratic city-state – the only democratic entity in the world with free markets, a constitution and people voting – would have been either wiped out or subjected to a tyrant. Everything we know about Greek culture, our entire concept of democracy, of free markets, would have been snuffed out 2,500 years ago.
You include Operation Peach, a battle from the invasion of Iraq. Is it too soon to judge long-term consequences of that war?
Yes, it is. I even start that chapter with a quote from a Chinese communist ruler, Zhou Enlai. When someone said, "What do you think were the results of the French Revolution?" – it had been 200 years – he goes, "It’s still too early to tell." There is no doubt that the consequences of our invasion of Iraq are yet to be seen. What is not in doubt is that there are going to be consequences. [Operation Peach] has the hallmarks of a battle that’s going to change the world. How it’s going to play out we don’t know. That it’s going to have a gigantic effect as time goes on, I think we could pretty much say with certainty now.
Has the concept of war changed over time?
The nature of war is brutal, violent, destructive. You’re going to get new weapons, new technology, communications, stuff that allow you to fight wars differently. But the 19-year-old in Iraq that gets shot at for the first time is just as scared as a Roman legionary fighting his first war against some Gothic tribesman. You have tremendous similarities in the nature of war which are eternal. The character of war changes, so it’s much harder to fight a decisive battle now. Napoleon and Hannibal and the Battle of Teutoburger Wald – all of these battles could be fought and won in a day. Towards World War II, you see some of these battles go on for weeks. It’s a matter of destructive power and the resiliency of nations in a modern technological world. You can produce new armies at rapid speeds when you have heavy technology and industry behind you.
Why should U.S. military leaders read your book?
Military people today tend to look at battles as events of the moment. I doubt that when we went into Iraq or Afghanistan that anyone was saying, "What’s the effect of this going to be 15 or 100 years from now? Are my grandchildren going to be affected by the actions I take today?" The United States government can end the fighting in Syria and destroy the Syrian army in a reasonably short period of time, with a minimal amount of risk. But somebody has to sit back and say, "What’s the world going to look like 10, 15 or 100 years from now because we did that?"
What would surprise readers?
People really want to understand how the world got to where it is today, and this book does a lot of explanation. I think anyone who reads it will think, for example, Wow, I never considered how the Spanish Armada had such an effect on the United States’ development as a country or the role of constitutional law.
Read the U.S. News Debate: Should Abortion Be Illegal?
Check out U.S. News Weekly, now available on iPadChipotle finally opened in Ithaca, and I endured the lines with my roommates to get a delicious burrito bowl! I got the barbacoa, which is a shredded, braised beef, and was inspired to make something similar since it is slow-cooking week. My roommate told me she grew up in Miami with her stepdad making ropa vieja (Spanish for ‘old clothes’, due to its shredded, tattered look). I got a general idea of what goes into it, and she called her stepdad for some guidance on how to do it, so I didn’t really follow any one particular recipe, although I focused a little more heavily on this one.
My roommates gave it their seals of approval, so it was definitely a success! I would love to make this again.
Braising Ingredients
2 lb flank steak
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cans beef broth
1 14.5 oz can stewed tomatoes
5 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 medium onion, quartered
2 carrots, peeled & cut in thirds
1 tsp salt
5 black peppercorns
1 tsp cumin
2 bay leaves
enough water to cover beef with 1″ of liquid (add more as necessary to keep beef from burning)
Stew Ingredients
Braised flank steak
2 tbsp olive oil
2 green peppers, thinly sliced
1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
2 onions, thinly sliced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
2 cups braising liquid (add more as needed)
1 14.5 oz can stewed tomatoes, chopped
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dried oregano
1 packet goya sazon seasoning
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
Directions
Heat oil in large pot. Grind black pepper on both sides of flank steak, and brown on both sides in the pan. Add the rest of the braising ingredients, bring to a boil, and simmer on low until the beef shreds easily (~2 hours) Remove beef from pot, and strain braising liquid into a separate bowl. Discard the vegetables. Return the braising liquid to the pot and simmer/boil for 30 minutes so the liquid reduces. While the liquid is reducing, shred the beef with two forks. Remove the liquid from the pot, add oil, and saute the onions, peppers and garlic until they begin to soften. Add the shredded beef and the rest of the ingredients, bring to a boil, and simmer until the beef is tender and flavorful (~45-60 minutes) Serve over rice with beans – yum!
Advertisements× Alta snowboard ban appealed
SALT LAKE CITY — A group of snowboarders who fought Alta’s ban on snowboarders are appealing a judge’s decision tossing their lawsuit.
In court documents obtained Monday by FOX 13, the group “Wasatch Equality” filed notice that it would appeal to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.
Read the filing here:
Wasatch Equality sued Alta and the U.S. Forest Service, alleging that the ski resort’s ban on snowboarders violates their Fourteenth Amendment rights under the U.S. Constitution. In September, U.S. District Court Judge Dee Benson rejected their lawsuit, saying that it was not what equal protection under the U.S. Constitution intended.
“There are many forums Plaintiffs can resort to in an attempt to accomplish their goal of snowboarding down the Baldy Chutes at Alta,” Benson wrote. “Seeking an injunction from this court is not one of them.”
The Fourteenth Amendment has been cited in cases of race, gender, national origin — and most recently cases for marriage equality. In arguments, lawyers for Wasatch Equality suggested that snowboarders were considered by Alta to be “undesirable.”
Alta insisted it does not discriminate against people — just equipment.BEIRUT (Reuters) - Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri said Lebanon was close to “breaking point” due to the strains of hosting 1.5 million Syrian refugees, and he feared unrest could spiral from tensions between them and Lebanese communities.
FILE PHOTO: Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri talks during a conference in Beirut, Lebanon January 19, 2017. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
Refugees who fled the six-year-long conflict in neighboring Syria make up a quarter of Lebanon’s population, and most live in severe poverty in makeshift camps across the country as the government opposes the creation of formal ones.
“Today if you go around most of the host communities, there is a huge tension between the Lebanese and the Syrians... I fear civil unrest,” Hariri told journalists working for foreign media on Friday.
He will urge the international community to boost financial support for Lebanon at a conference on Syria in Brussels next week. “I am going... to make sure that the world understands that Lebanon is on the verge of a breaking point,” he said.
Hariri said the country has been “extremely lucky in making sure this crisis has not affected host communities, but we have stretched our luck”.
The Syria war has weakened Lebanon’s economy, fueled tension among Lebanese allied to the rival sides, and triggered a number of jihadist attacks. But there has so far been no significant violence between Syrian refugees and Lebanese host communities.
Hariri urged the international community to commit to spending the equivalent of $10-12,000 per refugee over a period of five to seven years, compared to the current level of foreign support equivalent to $1-1,200 per year.
“I think that will make sure that Lebanon is going to stand on its own and the economy will thrive,” he said.
Georges Ghali, programs manager at Lebanese human rights organization ALEF, said the tensions were rooted in factors such as misperceptions held by Lebanese that refugees were being showered in aid, and government policies that had made it difficult for them to obtain official residency.
Tensions had not reached the point of violent escalation, Ghali added.
Lebanese officials, citing World Bank figures, say the cumulative cost of the Syrian conflict to Lebanon was $18.15 billion to the end of 2015. Lebanon’s annual economic growth has slowed to just over 1 percent from an average of 8 percent before the Syrian war, officials have said.
The government is seeking financial support for a program of public sector-led investment in infrastructure to boost the economy, and to increase the number of Syrians in education.
Hariri, a Saudi-allied Sunni politician, became prime minister in December in a political deal that saw Michel Aoun, an ally of the Iranian-backed Shi’ite group Hezbollah, elected head of state.
Hezbollah, which is fighting in Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad, is also part of the government.Most people in Pakistan think petrol is just petrol. Unfortunately that’s not it. Petrol comes with a certain quality, standard of purity and a pre-calculated formula of mixture and obviously not all petrol is good petrol; especially when you are in Pakistan.
Would you be shocked if you are told that Pakistan is (officially) selling one of the the worst qualities of “standard petrol” in the world?
Illegally imported petrol — that’s widely available across Pakistan — is even further degraded in quality that can not only harm your pockets due to low average mileage but it also damages the engine of your vehicle.
How Engines Work
The reason why people end up with ample engine faults is usually because of the low quality petrol.
Engines work by igniting the fuel, resulting in a detonation. Petrol engines rely on combusting air and fuel compressed together as a mixture. Hence, compression is an important factor for petrol engines (compression engines).
Problems Caused by Using Low Quality Petrol
When petrol gets ignited before the intended spark ignition, it results in uncontrolled explosions in the engine. Since these detonations are uncontrolled, it hurts the engine and they fail to last a long time.
People keep getting their engines rebuilt because of this problem. Due to the excess of air or petrol, the explosions exceed the designed limits that engine components can handle. We can say that the fuel explodes instead of burning smoothly. These explosions are generally called “knocks” or “pings”.
In short we can say that low quality petrol causes following issues:
Engine damage – resulting in regular faults and decreased resale value
Increased engine noise
Poor mileage
Slow acceleration
Engine shuts down on its own randomly
Reduced top speeds
Incomplete combustion causes more toxic emissions
Modern cars are not designed for low quality petrol
Quality Measure
Petrol quality is assessed by measuring the amount of octane in it. It can be measured using an octane rating. The most commonly used method of measuring petrol’s quality is Research Octane Number (RON). You can also say that RON tells petrol’s anti-knock quality.
RON is measured by running the fuel in a test engine. This engine usually has a variable compression ratio under controlled conditions at 600 RPM. The test informs about the amount of octane molecules in the petrol. Simply having more octanes isn’t better, that’s where RON numbers come in handy to identify what’s best.
Other than RON, Motor Octane Number (MON) and Anti-Knock Index (AKI) are also used. MON uses a more demanding 900RPM engine while AKI is calculated using the difference between RON and MON.
Generally, a difference of 1 RON is a lot and can make a lot of difference in how a car operates. Simply switching from 97 to 98 RON can fix a car’s knocking problem, making it run perfectly smooth.
Quality of Petrol in Pakistan
Pakistani petrol stations sell 87 RON petrol as a standard. The same standard is being used for the past 20 years, however, cars, technology and the rest of the world has already moved ahead.
Then there’s Hi-Octane (HOBC), that’s sold on select petrol stations, which comes with comparatively higher RON of 95.
That’s pretty much all the petrol quality we have in Pakistan.
Not to mention, a lot of petrol is smuggled from Iran and is widely sold across Pakistan. This Irani petrol comes with even lower RON value but is sold across Pakistan on petrol stations of all companies.
Another issue, prevalent in Pakistan is that private pump owners tend to mix jet fuel (which costs half of what petrol does), benzene or kerosene with petrol in order to make more profits. Sadly, the government isn’t too keen on banning pumps selling impure petrol as there’s no check and balance and pump owners are usually given a free hands.
Comparison with International Markets
We would like to mention the different qualities of petrol available in some countries so our readers can compare just how far behind Pakistani market is in this regard. Another point to note is that most countries also stopped selling leaded petrol 2 decades ago, since it is hazardous for health. However, it is still available in Pakistan.
The countries with their respective petrol RON values are listed below:
Australia: Regular (91), Premium (95/98)
Regular (91), Premium (95/98) China: Rural (92), Urban (95), Premium (98)
Rural (92), Urban (95), Premium (98) Germany: Regular (95), Premium (98), Ultimate (100)
Regular (95), Premium (98), Ultimate (100) Hong Kong: 98 RON only
98 RON only India*: Regular (91) with some special additives, Premium (93 & 97)
Regular (91) with some special additives, Premium (93 & 97) Iran: Regular (92), Super (95)
Regular (92), Super (95) Russia: Regular (92), Premium (95), Most expensive (98)
Regular (92), Premium (95), Most expensive (98) Saudi Arabia: Regular (91), Premium (95)
Regular (91), Premium (95) Sri Lanka: Regular (92), Super (95)
Regular (92), Super (95) Turkey: Regular (95), Premium (98)
Regular (95), Premium (98) UK: Regular (95), Premium (97), Premium Plus (99), Ultimate (102)
Regular (95), Premium (97), Premium Plus (99), Ultimate (102) US: Multiple offerings ranging from 90 to 110.
*India manufactures small cars which are specially designed to avoid knocking problems with low RON fuels hence the 91 RON standard.
As you can see above, no country (with officially available RON stats) is offering petrol below the 91 RON standard. Most countries use 92 RON while countries which have a large automotive industry use 95 RON for regular petrol. Some countries offer users the choice to get the type of fuel which is most suitable for their car, depending on the size of the engine.
RON Price Difference
When compared with 87 RON prices, a higher quality 92 RON fuel would cost an additional Rs 2.5 to Rs 3 per liter. A 95 RON upgrade would cost an additional Rs 4 to Rs 6 per liter. These estimates are based on international rates.
How Should Pakistan Calculate the Appropriate RON Value?
RON values are dependent on air density and oxygen quantity in it. A car which requires 98 RON at sea level would work fine on 95 RON when in a mountainous region.
Our government, which is aware of the cars being used in Pakistan, can establish a minimum RON level which would suit most cars. If most people have cars under 1000cc, anything more than 92 RON would suffice, but if there’s a majority of people using cars with a powerful engine, then another standard with a greater RON value should also be made available.
Simply increasing the RON values isn’t the answer. The value has to be appropriately selected depending on the market and the geography of the country.
For a country the size of Pakistan, having at least three or four different fuel types would be a good step.
Pakistan’s Recent Steps in this Direction
Earlier this year, the government asked the oil companies to upgrade their refineries and replace the below standard petrol with a higher one, although with a higher price tag.
The oil companies unanimously rejected the proposal, citing their conditions that they would accept only if they can sell the low quality fuel under the new brand which would help them make up for the losses in technology upgradation
Some industrial players, including Shell, wanted the government to allow selling multiple differential fuels i.e. 87, 92, 95 RON with minor price differentials. The petroleum ministry refused the companies’ proposal citing that consumers won’t know if they are getting 87 or 92 RON due to mistrust.
In our opinion, it was a good proposal because the consumer still doesn’t know if the petrol they are is getting is pure enough or not.
Differential fuel strategy could cater to all types of consumers vehicles, like motorcycles (with lesser RON requirements), small cars, medium-sized cars, etc.
As far as the local oil refineries are concerned, they called the task completely impossible before 2019. They haven’t even started any upgrades yet and it could take some time before they even begin such a project. It would take about 3 years plus million of dollars of investment for the refineries to get the upgrade.
However as far as oil companies are concerned, it would take them around 6 to 8 months to import, market and distribute 92 RON petrol after government approval. Pakistan imports a major share of petrol to fulfill its demand and supply gap and directly importing a higher grade petrol would be a feasible interim option.
It has been reported that Pakistani refineries are at least moving towards Euro-II standard 87 RON petrol. It has more to do with the contents of the petrol and little to do with engine performance. It will improve upon emission standards and will be available in Pakistan by the third quarter this year.
Regular Testing Procedures
Petrol is regularly monitored on most company owned petrol pumps. Oil companies have their own checking vans, which visit pumps occasionally and check the purity and RON value of the fuel.
The vans are equipped with portable RON meters calibrated with a 600cc testing engine, letting the individuals test the fuel quality right then and there.
Company-owned petrol pumps are usually more vigilant in inspecting fuels as compared to private or franchise based petrol pumps.
Government, as in many other cases, isn’t too keen on such testing procedures. Hence, anyone can go ahead and start selling impure petrol without any worries.
Final Words
Future plans give a clear picture that oil companies and oil refineries are in no real hurry to improve their petrol standards. They want to keep the current standard in order to keep growing their profits.
The government doesn’t want to interfere with the petrol regulations, nor force companies to sell high quality petrol. It does not even want to ban pumps which mix jet fuel with petrol.
It is the government’s job to regulate the oil companies and refineries and maintain standards.
Simply leaving it to them would never solve the issue. It’s not fiscally advantageous enough for private companies’ to make the change. Leaving the industry to regulate itself is naive.
Meanwhile, people owning cars with powerful engines, should opt to buy premium petrol (Hi Octane) all the time. The rest should avoid private or franchise petrol pumps unless you are really sure that the fuel you are getting is really 100 percent petrol.Every college graduate has been told that making your job application stand out in a pile of resumes is the key to success, and every college graduate knows that this is much easier said than done. Graphic designer Brennan Gleason, however, seems to have nailed it — he sent potential employers his resume in the form of a six-pack. Cheers?
Gleason spent several weeks homebrewing a blonde beer, which he appropriately named “Résume-Ale.” While he waited for the beer to ferment, he set out designing the labels for each bottle and the six-pack container. He designed each bottle with a different project from his portfolio as a graphic designer, while outfitting the box with a complete version of his resume.
It’s a strategy that certainly would not succeed in a typical corporate environment, but at the progressive companies where Gleason hoped to be hired, it was the golden ticket. He landed a job at Techtone as the digital marketing agency's creative director.
"I think it’s mostly just because it's different from a traditional resume," Gleason told HuffPost. "As designers, were always trying to show off our creativity. That’s the first impression these companies see."
Gleason certainly has us all racking our brains, contemplating what other kinds of 3D forms we can transform our resumes into. At least we wouldn’t have to worry about filling a page!
Images: Courtesy of Brennan GleasonJust as we can't eat iPods, we can't subsist on official reassurances that the Fed and inflation are both benign.
There is a great divergence between the conventional financial media and the public who goes to the supermarket: the financial media swallows whole the official artifice that inflation is near-zero while J.Q. Public sees his/her grocery costs, health insurance, etc. rising by leaps and bounds.
Many observers finger the Federal Reserve as the villain in the inflation story: it's all well and good to conjure up a few trillion dollars to pass out to your banker buddies, but there are always costs, recognized or not, to every action, and the Fed's credit creation and numerous quantitative easing operations have greatly expanded money supply.
All else being equal, a massive expansion of money typically causes inflation, as the flood of new money starts chasing goods and services that haven't expanded at the same high rate as money supply.
One camp reckons the reason why inflation is muted is that the Fed largesse has flowed into asset bubbles rather than goods and services, and proponents of this view make a good point: since little of the Fed largesse has trickled down to the to bottom 99.5%, it can't exerting much pressure on consumer prices. In effect, the price pressure is all in equities and rentier assets such as real estate rather than in goods and services.
But demand from consumers flush with cash is only one facet of inflation, as this chart of oil and Fed operations from Fine Charts (courtesy of Petr Fiala) reveals. Recall the charts I posted a few days ago showed a tight correlation between the price of oil and food: Recall the charts I posted a few days ago showed a tight correlation between the price of oil and food: Why Are Food Prices so High? Because We're Eating Oil
In other words, if the price of oil goes up, so does the price of food, and everything else that must be transported or that consumes oil in its manufacture.
Now examine this chart of Fed operations and the price of oil: when the Fed is actively expanding credit/money, oil goes up in price.
If little of the Fed's largesse is ending up in consumer's wallets, why should oil go up as the Fed shovels money into financiers' accounts? The answer is somewhat speculative, but there are two avenues of price pressure other than consumer demand:
1. Financial speculation in oil futures contracts, which fuels non-consumer demand
2. Fed credit/money creation weakens the U.S. dollar (USD), pushing the cost of oil priced in USD higher.
This is how the Fed fuels inflation, even |
perform. I busted out my double guillotine and made quick work of the head. Honestly, this cigar has one of the best pre draws that I’ve ever experienced. The perfect amount of air is pulled through the barrel with very little resistance. I’m able to pick up on some nice flavors as well which I’ll discuss down below. All signs are pointing towards this being an excellent cigar! I think it’s time to fire it up and see what we have going!
Smoking
After running out of butane in my Xikar lighter on my latest review of the Kill Bill I reloaded and I’m ready to toast the crap out of the foot on this Fuente Fuente Opus X! Haha, ok I’m not going to overtoast it, but I’m ready to nonetheless. Once I put the flame to the foot this cigar just takes off and starts pouring out smoke. The draw makes it incredibly easy to get this cigar going and burning perfectly.
I’m just amazed at how well this cigar starts pouring off smoke. The first third starts out great and the burn is near perfect. The ash however begins to flair out just a bit which to me isn’t a huge deal, but it doesn’t make it very aesthetic. The draw is very crisp and clean, it may not make sense, but those are the two words that come to mind when describing this draw. There is just something clean about it. The smoke coming off is so thick and it just permeates the air and swirls all around me. I think that is one factor that makes this cigar so potent is how thick the smoke is it just lingers around you while you smoke it.
During the second third I lost the ash at around an inch and half and it helped get rid of some of the flairing that I was seeing during the first. The draw continues to stay clean and crisp and the smoke just continues to pour out through this third. The body of this cigar is starting to rear it’s head. I’m starting to feel the effects of it as my hands are shaking while I’m holding the cigar and I’m starting to get a little worried that I may experience a similar sick feeling that I did the first time I smoked a Fuente Fuente Opus X.
During the final third this cigar has stayed on point and consistent just as the other two thirds were. I’m really enjoying the overall smoking experience this stick is giving off even though it’s building in it’s strength. Enough about the smoking experience lets get into those flavors that everyone talks about!WATCH: Woman uses small child to steal cellphone in supermarket
23 October, 02:07 PM
CCTV footage has emerged of a young girl pick-pocketing cellphones at two supermarkets in Cape Town, seemingly egged on by at least one adult woman. Watch.
Nick Norman first shared the videos on his Facebook account, after his wife was robbed of her cellphone at the Pick 'n Pay by Boy de Goede Circle in Parklands, Cape Town last Wednesday.
Norman's wife can be seen in the second video, where she is obstructed by a woman while the child reaches into her bag and steals a cellphone.
"My wife's bag was in the shopping trolley, with the zip closed," Norman told News24. "The incident happened at around 18h00, and she only realised two hours later that her phone was missing.
"So she backtracked her movements and eventually went back to the Pick 'n Pay where she obtained this footage from the store manager."
Norman opened a case at the Tableview SAPS, and sent info to his neighbourhood watch, but no arrests have been made as yet. A similar incident occurred, allegedly on the same day at the local Spar, of which Norman also obtained footage. This can be seen in the first video by the bakery counter.
"It appears to be the same woman and child operating in the area; although in my wife's incident it seems like more than one adult was part of the setup."A screen capture of MamaPride’s Facebook page, an online store selling maternity pants that ‘covers thighs, ankles and knees while in labour.’
KUALA LUMPUR, June 25 ― The Muslim observance of modesty has reached a new level here with the introduction of maternity pants that ensure a woman’s aurat or intimate parts remain covered throughout childbirth.
The distributor “MamaPride”, an online store specialising in the pants advertised as the first of its kind in the world, describes the garment as one that “covers thighs, ankles and knees while in labour.”
The firm sells through Facebook, with the product, available in three sizes ― L, XL and XXL ― priced at RM119 each. The product is also available at select pharmacies, according to its Facebook page.
In the advertisement, the pants appear similar to an athletics track bottom, with only an opening at the crotch to enable delivery.
A check of the firm’s Facebook page also revealed lists of hospitals that are receptive or otherwise towards the product.
In a March 20 Facebook post promoting the product, one administrator wrote that Muslim women’s modesty was often disregarded during childbirth.
“How embarrassed would your wife be. How embarrassed would the mother of your child be.
The maternity pants appear similar to an athletics track bottom, with only an opening at the crotch to enable delivery. ― File pic
“Are we to just ignore the honour and aurat of our wives just like that? Where is the honour of Muslim women?” the post read.
Aurat refers to the parts of a Muslim woman’s body that must be covered, but the extent of which varies in interpretation according to schools of Islam.
The promotion then described the pants as one that covers the aforementioned body parts, with enough space just for the “baby to make its way out.”
“For your information, this exclusive pants is limited to only those who are keen,” the post said, and asked Muslims who are concerned about their aurat and honour to help spread the message about the product.
Malay Mail Online’s attempts to contact the distributor for comment were not successful at the time of writing.According to manager Joe Maddon, it's unlikely the shortstop will play again this season.
BOSTON -- Rays shortstop Yunel Escobar left Tuesday night's 6-2 victory over the Red Sox at Fenway Park with a left knee sprain he suffered while trying to score in the third inning.
BOSTON -- Rays shortstop Yunel Escobar left Tuesday night's 6-2 victory over the Red Sox at Fenway Park with a left knee sprain he suffered while trying to score in the third inning.
According to manager Joe Maddon, it's unlikely the shortstop will play again this season.
View Full Game Coverage
"I guess a sprained knee is kind of what it is," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "[Rays head athletic trainer] Ronnie [Porterfield] is trying to determine if he needs more tests with that and if we're going to do that and how we're going to do that. You won't see him [Wednesday]. You probably won't see him the rest of the season, honestly."
In the third, Ben Zobrist singled with one out and Escobar, who was on second, rounded third and broke for home. The throw from Red Sox left fielder Yoenis Cespedes beat him by a large margin and Escobar appeared to be trying to avoid contact with the catcher, leaving him caught between trying to slide and score standing up, resulting in an awkward arrival.
Maddon alluded to Major League Baseball's rule 7.13, which deals with home-plate collisions, as a contributing factor to Escobar's injury.
"The rule that's supposed to protect the catcher that can negatively impact the baserunner," Maddon said. "Boom, that's what happened."
After Escobar was tagged out, he remained on the ground while Rays trainers tended to his left leg. He made it off the field on his own power, but once the inning was over, he left the game.
Ben Zobrist moved from center field to short and Brandon Guyer entered the game to play center and took Escobar's No. 9 spot in the batting order.Lechner Racing will be focusing on the promotion of upcoming talent in the 2017 season. Mick Wishofer joins Richard Wagner as the second of two rookies.
Mick Wishofer is making the step up to single-seater racing, more specifically ADAC Formula 4. The 17-year-old from Vienna is one of two rookies who will represent the Austrian team during the 2017 campaign which gets underway on 28th April at the Motorsportarena in Oschersleben. The teenager is regarded as one of Austria's most promising youngsters, having acquired years of experience in karting competitions. He finished eighth in the 2016 Rotax Euro Challenge and has lifted the winner's trophy in several German races.
Like many of the motorsport greats preceding him such as former Austrian Formula 1 drivers Alex Wurz and Christian Klien, Wishofer is a student at the Lechner Racing School. Here, he not only has the opportunity to develop as a driver, thanks to the support and guidance of Robert and Walter Lechner, but also to gain a sound understanding of the technology. Wishofer is aiming to pursue a successful career in motor racing and to follow in the footsteps of his role model Niki Lauda. The young man from Vienna has no problem in travelling to test sessions or to race events. He attends a combined secondary school and vocational college in Vienna that specialises in commercial courses and performance sports, which enables him to concentrate on both his full-time education and sporting interests.
Wishofer looks forward to his first ADAC Formula 4 season and in particular to the Rookie championship in which he is targeting a Top Three finish: "I'm really excited about making my debut in a formula car. My experience of karting is certainly going to stand me in good stead, but even so, I shall be approaching my first races in ADAC Formula 4 without any special expectations. In the course of the season, I obviously want to make steady improvement and to be battling for top rankings in the rookie competition. I'm convinced that I have found the best team in Lechner Racing." He expects the highlight of the season to come at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg (9th - 11th June) when he will be competing in front of his home crowd.
Lechner Racing's team bosses also have high hopes for Wishofer's debut. "I've been watching Mick since 2014 and have heard only positive things about him," says Sport Director Robert Lechner. Technical Director Walter Lechner concurs: "Mick brings everything a successful racing driver needs from his time in kart racing. ADAC Formula 4 is a very strong series and an especially tough challenge for a rookie. I am confident that we can be a strong partner to him, both in terms of the sport and the technology, as he takes this major career step."SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Kitsap Pumas earned a cup tie against an MLS foe by dispatching the USL’s Sacramento Republic, 3-1, in the Third Round of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup on Wednesday. The Pumas scored three times in a five-minute span in the second half and prevailed despite the Republic adding their own goal.
Despite Kitsap opening the game on the front foot, Sacramento got the first chance of the game. Right back Emrah Klimenta, just back from his first appearance with the Montenegro senior national team, crossed a ball in for forward Cameron Iwasa, whose point-blank shot was deflected wide by the Pumas’ Matt Eronemo.
Two minutes later, it was Kitsap with a golden opportunity as Joel Waterman crossed for Hamza Haddadi in the area, but his header went straight to Republic goalkeeper Evan Newton.
Scoreless at halftime, Sacramento brought on two of its regular starters who began the game on the bench, Harry Williams and James Kiffe. However, Kitsap would open the scoring on the hour mark.
Left winger Mike Ramos dribbled into the penalty area and crossed for Javier Castro in space in the middle of the penalty area. Castro made no mistake and slotted him what would be his first of two goals on the evening.
Undeterred, Sacramento equalized one minute later as Klimenta again sent a cross into the penalty area. A goalmouth scramble ensued, and Iwasa got the last touch to take it past Pumas goalkeeper Matt Grosey.
The wildest spell of the match was far from over, though.
Kitsap took the lead again in the 63rd minute, as Ramos finished a shot from Haddadi that the goalkeeper could only parry into his path in the middle of the penalty area. Two minutes later, Castro sealed the result with his second of the night and third overall in Open Cup play including his winner against Seattle Sounders U23 in the Third Round.
With a two-goal lead, the Pumas dropped back to defend and valiantly staved off multiple set-piece opportunities and run-of-play chances from the host side. With the win, the club advances to the Fourth Round for the first time in its history, where it will face the Sounders’ MLS side.
The match will take place June 15 at Starfire in Tukwila, Wash. In the meantime, the Pumas will continue their league calendar on Sunday against the Victoria Highlanders north of the border.
— Match Report —
Match: Sacramento Republic vs. Kitsap Pumas
Date: June 1, 2016
Competition: Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup — Third Round
Venue: Bonney Field — Sacramento, Calif.
Kickoff: 8 p.m. PT
Weather: 90 degrees, clear
Scoring Summary: 1 2 F
Sacramento 0 1 1
Kitsap 0 3 3
KIT – Javier Castro (Mike Ramos), 60’
SAC – Cameron Iwasa, 61’
KIT — Mike Ramos, 63’
KIT — Javier Castro, 65’
Lineups:
Sacramento: 12.Evan Newton — 23.Emrah Klimenta, 3.Mike da Fonte, 8.Chris Christian, 7.Joaquin Rivas (20.James Kiffe, 46) — 17.Octavio Guzmán, 6.Agustin Cazarez (18.Daniel Trickett-Smith, 65), 5.Danny Barrera, 4.Alfonso Motagalvan — 10.Thomas Stewart (9.Harry Williams, 46), 14.Cameron Iwasa
Subs Not Used: 1.Dominik Jakubek, 11.Max Álvarez, 19.Mackenzie Pridham, 22.Chase Minter
Head coach: Paul Buckle
Kitsap: 18.Matt Grosey — 27.Ian Lange, 4.Rene DeZorzi, 3.Cory Keitz, 19.Matt Eronemo — 20.Joel Waterman (8.Ibrahim Diaby, 62), 6.Nick Hamer — 28.Javier Castro (13.Kalem Scott, 77), 10.Jesús Sánchez, 30.Mike Ramos — 9.Hamza Haddadi (15.Darius Madison, 69)
Subs Not Used: 1.Arturo Oberto, 5.Trevor Jensen, 14.Connor MacMillan, 22.Daniel Davidson
Head coach: Cameron MacDonald
Stats Summary: SAC / KIT
Shots: 14 / 13
Saves: 6 / 3
Corner Kicks: 4 / 4
Fouls: 12 / 13
Offside: 1 / 2
Misconduct Summary:
KIT — Joel Waterman (caution), 37’
SAC — Emrah Klimenta (caution), 71’
KIT — Darius Madison (caution), 90’
–#AllezPumas–Russia’s Air Force supports Daesh against Syrian Liberation Fighters
Another instructive episode how Russian imperialism helps Daesh/ISIS to attack the Liberation Forces in the North of Syria
By Michael Pröbsting, International Secretary of the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT), 23.10.2017, www.thecommunists.net
In recent days we experienced another highly instructive episode demonstrating the true nature of Russian imperialism and its priorities in its military intervention in Syria.
As we reported two weeks ago, the Syrian Army – with approval by their Russian masters – let a huge and heavily armed column of Daesh/ISIS fighters pass through its controlled areas in order to attack the largest region which is still liberated by the Syrian revolutionaries. (1)
This counterrevolutionary attack took place in a crucial moment. At that time Syrian liberation fighters – mostly led by Hayyat Tharir al-Sham (HTS) – successfully advanced in the area around Abu Dali in the north of Hama against Assad’s terrorist army. At the same time the Turkish Army – with the support of Russian as well as US imperialism – started its invasion in Idlib in order to subjugate the region. (2) This area in the north of the country – encompassing the province Idlib as well as West Aleppo and North Hama – is not only the largest area under the control of the liberation fighters.
This area is furthermore mostly controlled by the petty-bourgeois nationalist-Islamist HTS which is the largest and best organized force of the resistance and the main faction which denounces the reactionary Astana deal. This deal – agreed by Russia, Iran, Turkey, Assad and various treacherous factions of the resistance and tacitly approved by Washington – aims to pacify the civil war, to liquidate the Syrian Revolution and to divide the country in different spheres of influence of the regime and the Great Powers. (3)
This attack of several hundred Daesh/ISIS fighters against the Syrian revolutionary forces in north east Hama forced HTS to effectively stop its offensive in the Abu Dali area and to relocate its troops so that it could push back the Daesh intruders.
Fortunately HTS elite units (“Inghimasi”) are making constant progress and liberate one village after the other from the counterrevolutionary Daesh forces. It is to be hoped that they will soon finish them off.
As we already noted in the past it is obvious that the counterrevolutionary attack of Daesh took place with the support of Assad’s army and its Russian master as the Daesh aggressors marched dozens of kilometers of open field though areas controlled by the regime without being attacked by them a single time! (4)
Now, as the Syrian liberation fighters are advancing against Daesh and the latter are close to defeat, the Russian Air Force accelerates its attacks on exactly those HTS forces which are actually fighting against Daesh! (5) As currently the only ongoing battle in this region is the one between HTS and Daesh, the meaning of massive Russian airstrikes against HTS forces is clear: compared with HTS and other Syrian liberation forces, Putin considers Daesh as a lesser evil.
This confirms once more the sinister collusion of Russian imperialism and Daesh and their common hatred against the Syrian Revolution. Naturally, one must not forget a sense of proportion. Daesh represents a sadistic mafia capo while imperialist Russia – one of the main Great Powers beside the US, China and the EU – rather represents Al Capone who has already slaughtered tens of thousands of Syrians.
True, the regime’s forces, with the support of the Russian Air Force, are currently smashing Daesh – together with US imperialism and its SDF/YPG foot soldiers – in the east of the country as the latter constitutes an obstacle to the colonialist plans of the Great Powers. However, when it sees a chance to utilize Daesh in the struggle against its main enemy – the ongoing liberation struggle of the Syrian people – Assad and Putin are ready to support Daesh without hesitation.
This small episode of the ongoing civil war in Syria demonstrates very well the thoroughly counterrevolutionary character of the imperialist Putin regime as well as of Daesh. Shame on those so-called leftists who praise Assad and Putin as “progressive” forces! Shame on those who have deserted the ongoing liberation struggle of the Syrian people against Assad, against the Great Powers and against their joint sinister conspiracy in Astana!
Long live the Syrian Revolution!
Defend free Idlib against Assad, Putin, Erdoğan and Daesh!
Footnotes
(1) Michael Pröbsting: Syria: A Very Instructive Episode. Counterrevolutionary ISIS/Daesh collaborates with Assad’s Army (as well as Erdoğan and Putin) in Attacking the Syrian Liberation Fighters in Idlib, 10.10.2017, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/a-very-instructive-episode-in-syria/
(2) Michael Pröbsting: Syria: The Turkish-Russian Invasion against Idlib has begun! All out to defend the Syrian Revolution against the Astana Conspirators! For an anti-Assad, anti-imperialist and anti-capitulationist united front, 07.10.2017, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/the-turkish-russian-invasion-against-idlib-has-begun/. A second motive of this invasion is Erdoğan’s desire to encircle the area around Afrin which is controlled by the Kurdish YPG militia.
(3) On the RCIT’s assessment of the Astana deal see: Michael Pröbsting: Syrian Revolution: The Moment of Truth is Approaching! Rally to defend the Syrian Revolution against the Imperialist conspiracy called the "Astana Deal"! 20.09.2017, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/syria-moment-of-truth-approaching/; RCIT: Syria: Defend Idlib against the Great Powers! Down with the reactionary Astana Deal! Defend the Revolution against the butcher Assad, against Russian and US Imperialism and the local Allies! Victory to the Struggle of the Workers and Oppressed! 04.08.2017, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/defend-idlib-against-great-powers/; Michael Pröbsting: Syria: The Astana-Deal Struggle Intensifies. Some Notes on Recent Developments in the Syrian Civil War and the Dangers for the Liberation Struggle, 28 July 2017, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/syrian-revolution-28-7-2017/; RCIT: Syria: Condemn the Reactionary Astana Deal! The so-called "De-Escalation Zones" are a First Step towards the Partition of Syria and a Conspiracy by the Great Powers to Defeat the Revolution, 7 May 2017, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/astana-deal/
(4) Our article “Syria: A Very Instructive Episode” contains a number of sources about this latest attack of Daesh against the Syrian revolutionaries.
(5) See on this e.g. https://twitter.com/QalaatAlMudiq/status/922065096989446145, https://twitter.com/milietweet/status/920733544573530115, https://twitter.com/abdullahazzam34/status/922021856785391616
* * * * *
For the RCIT’s analysis of the Syrian Revolution, we refer readers to our numerous articles and documents which can be accessed at a special section on our website: https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/collection-of-articles-on-the-syrian-revolution/Guest post by Sigrún Davídsdóttir
Now that Greece has controls on outtake from banks, capital controls, many commentators are comparing Greece to Iceland. There is little to compare regarding the nature of capital controls in these two countries. The controls are different in every respect except in the name. Iceland had, what I would call, real capital controls – Greece has control on outtake from banks. With the names changed, the difference is clear.
Iceland – capital controls
The controls in Iceland stem from the fact that with its own currency and a huge inflow of foreign funds seeking the high interest rates in Iceland in the years up to the collapse in October 2008, Iceland enjoyed – and then suffered – the consequences, as had emerging markets in Asia in the 1980s and 1990s.
Enjoyed, because these inflows kept the value of the króna, ISK, very high and the whole of the 300.000 inhabitants lived for a few years with a very high-valued króna, creating the illusion that the country was better off then it really was. After all, this was a sort of windfall, not a sustainable gain or growth in anything except these fickle inflows.
Suffered, because when uncertainty hit the flows predictably flowed out and Iceland’s foreign currency reserve suffered. As did the whole of the country, very dependent on imports, as the rate of the ISK fell rapidly.
During the boom, Icelandic regulators were unable and to some degree unwilling to rein in the insane foreign expansion of the Icelandic banks. On the whole, there was little understanding of the danger and challenge to financial stability that was gathering. It was as if the Asia crisis had never happened.
As the banks fell October 6-9 2008, these inflows amounted to ISK625bn, now $4.6bn, or 44% of GDP – these were the circumstances when the controls were put on in Iceland due to lack of foreign currency for all these foreign-owned ISK. The controls were put on November 29 2008, after Iceland had entered an IMF programme, supported by an IMF loan of $2.1bn. (Ironically, Poul Thomsen who successfully oversaw the Icelandic programme is now much maligned for overseeing the Greek IMF programme – but then, Iceland is not Greece and vice versa.)
With time, these foreign-owned ISK has dwindled, is now at 15% of GDP but another pool of foreign-owned ISK has come into being in the estates of the failed bank, amounting to ca. ISK500bn, $3.7bn, or 25% of GDP.
In early June this year, the government announced a plan to lift capital controls – it will take some years, partly depending on how well this plan will be executed (see more here, toungue-in-cheek and, more seriously, here ).
Greece – bank-outtake controls
The European Central Bank, ECB, has kept Greek banks liquid over the past many months with its Emergency Liquid Assistance, ELA. With the Greek government’s decision to buy time with a referendum on the Troika programme and the ensuing uncertainty this assistance is now severely tested. The logical (and long-expected) step to stem the outflows from banks is limit funds taken out of the banks.
This means that the Greek controls are only on outtake from banks. The Greek controls, as the Cypriot, earlier, have nothing to do with the value or convertibility of the euro in Greece. The value of the Greek euro is the same as the euro in all other countries. All speculation to the contrary seems to be entirely based on either wishful thinking or misunderstanding of the controls.
However, it seems that ELA is hovering close to its limits. If correct that Greek ELA-suitable collaterals are €95bn and the ELA is already hovering around €90bn the situation, also in respect, is precarious.
How quickly to lift – depends on type of controls
The Icelandic type of capital controls is typically difficult to lift because either the country has to make an exorbitant amount of foreign currency, not likely, a write-down on the foreign-owned ISK or binding outflows over a certain time. The Icelandic plan makes use of the two latter options.
Lifting controls on outtake from banks takes less time, as shown in Cyprus, because the lifting then depends on stabilising the banks and to a certain degree the trust in the banks.
This certainly is a severe problem in Greece where the banks are only kept alive with ELA – funding coming from a source outside of Greece. This source, ECB, is clearly unwilling to play a political role; it will want to focus on its role of maintaining financial stability in the Eurozone. (I very much understand the June 26 press release from the ECB as a declaration that it will stick with the Greek banks as long as it possibly can; ECB is not only a fair-weather friend…)
Without the IMF it would have been difficult for Iceland to gather trust abroad in its crisis actions – but Greece is not only dependent on the Eurozone for trust but on the ECB for liquidity. Without ELA there are no functioning Greek banks. If the measures to stabilise the banks are to be successful then controls are only the first step.
_________________________________________________________________________________As most San Diegans know, whether the Chargers stay in San Diego depends on whether the team can get a new stadium built in San Diego. Any such stadium, however, will require some type of voter approval if taxes will be used to build the stadium.
With the deadlines for placing initiatives on the ballot fast approaching, further details of the Chargers’ proposed plan for obtaining the necessary voter approval are already beginning to leak out. One potential site for a new stadium is near the San Diego Convention Center. As a result, the stadium effort has become intertwined with an (initially separate) effort to expand the San Diego Convention Center.
In 2011, the San Diego City Council passed an ordinance that resulted in the creation of a special tax district. This special tax district was created to impose a special tax that would only be used to help finance a proposed expansion of the San Diego Convention Center. Only certain San Diego hotels were subject to this special tax and only those hotels voted on the tax.
In City of San Diego v. Shapiro, (2014) 228 Cal.App.4th 756, the Court of Appeal held that the special tax was invalid because all registered voters in the City of San Diego were not allowed to vote on whether to enact the tax. The decision was based, in part, on Proposition 218, which added the following provision to the California Constitution:
“No local government may impose, extend, or increase any special tax unless and until that tax is submitted to the electorate and approved by a two-thirds vote.”
Cal Const, Art. XIII C § 2, subsection (d) (emphasis added).
Although the City of San Diego defined the “electorate” for the purposes of this special tax as only those hotels that would actually be subject to the special tax, the Court held this was impermissible because, based on the way the City’s ordinance was structured, the “electorate” had to include all registered voters, not just those who were subject to the special tax. In turn, the Court held the special tax was invalid because it was not approved by two-thirds of all registered voters. As a result, the expansion of the San Diego Convention Center did not go forward as planned.
Proposition 218, however, also added a provision to the California Constitution that allows local governments to impose taxes with only a simple majority vote (rather than the two-thirds vote) as long as the tax is a general fund tax and not a special tax:
“No local government may impose, extend, or increase any general tax unless and until that tax is submitted to the electorate and approved by a majority vote.”
Cal Const, Art. XIII C § 2, subsection (b) (emphasis added). The difference between a “general tax” and a “special tax” is that a general tax is a tax imposed for “general governmental purposes” whereas a special tax is tax imposed for “specific purposes.” See Cal Const, Art. XIII C § 1.
Until last week, this appeared to pose a major hurdle for the Chargers because if the Chargers were going to seek tax money for the specific purpose of building a new stadium, it is likely such a tax would be a special tax. As outlined above, a special tax requires approval from two-thirds of the electorate. The Chargers, however, would presumably prefer a tax measure that only requires approval from a majority of the electorate rather than from two-thirds of the electorate. To do so, the tax measure would need to be structured in such a way that it qualifies as a general tax, while at the same time still providing funds necessary for the specific purpose of building a stadium. This would seemingly be a difficult line to walk.
On March 18, 2016, however, the Fourth District Court of Appeal announced a decision in California Cannabis Coalition v. City of Upland that could be a major boost for the Chargers’ position. In Upland, the Court held, “[W]e decline to construe [Cal Const, Art. XIII C§ 2] as applying to taxes imposed by initiative.” The Court’s basis for doing so was that the very language of the article restricts its applicability to only those taxes imposed by a local government:
“No local government may impose, extend, or increase any special tax unless and until that tax is submitted to the electorate and approved by a two-thirds vote.”
Cal Const, Art. XIII C § 2, subsection (d) (emphasis added). Article XIII, of course, is the same article that sunk the San Diego Convention Center expansion due to the two-thirds vote requirement.
The expansion of the San Diego Convention Center, however, was attempted via a tax measure placed on the ballot by the local government, not through an initiative. When it comes to voter initiatives, the California Constitution states:
“An initiative statute or referendum approved by a majority of votes thereon takes effect the day after the election unless the measure provides otherwise.”
Cal Const, Art. II § 10 (emphasis added).
In other words, it appears the Upland decision provides a way for the Chargers to obtain tax money for a new stadium with only a simple majority vote so long as they place a special tax on the ballot via an initiative rather than via the local government. Upland states that Article XIIIC, which is the source of the heightened two-thirds voter approval requirement for special taxes, applies only to taxes imposed via local government and does not apply to taxes originating from a voter’s initiative. Thus, the Chargers could likely use an initiative to place a measure on the ballot that creates a special tax specifically to fund a new stadium and, if so, they would only need a majority of voters in order for the measure to pass.
Given the fact that Upland may be appealed to the California Supreme Court, and given the City of San Diego’s legal history with special tax measures, it will certainly be interesting to see how and whether the Chargers can walk the line necessary to build a stadium in San Diego.Gruyere is named after a Swiss village. It is traditional, creamery, unpasteurised, semi-soft cheese. The natural, rusty brown rind is hard, dry and pitted with tiny holes. The cheese is darker yellow than Emmental but the texture is more dense and compact. Slightly grainy, the cheese has a wonderful complexity of flavours - at first fruity, later becomes more earthy and nutty. To make Gruyere, raw milk is heated to 93 degrees F and liquid rennet is added for curdling. The resulting curd is cut into small pieces which release whey while being stirred. Curd is cooked at 110 degrees F and raised quickly to 130 degrees F. The pieces become shriveled which is the cue to place the curd in molds for pressing. The cheese is salted in brine for 8 days and ripened for two months at room temperature or a quick method: 10 days at 50 degrees F. Curing lasts from 3 to 10 months (the longer the curing period the better the cheese).You heard the comparisons between the DJI and Apple before. DJI is always referred to as the Apple of drones. How the story is similar:
1. Both Apple and DJI were conceived in humble beginnings.
Apple computers was conceived of in the garage of Steve Job’s parent’s house. Jobs had a strong desire to see a society in which everyone has a computer in their house to make everyone’s life easier. Don’t forget that in 1976, computers were big machines that took up most of the room in any place where computers were being used.
Frank Wang was a college student that one day had a dream in his college dorm of a personalized flying robot. The desire was as well to unleash creative potential by providing the type of photographic shots that you would not be able to get with a traditional camera.
2. Innovations have made both DJI and Apple leaders in their respective field
When you think of quality of computers, Apple has been acknowledged by Bill Gates to have the best quality of processor. Steve Jobs doubled down on this by not only creating a great processor but also reinvented the telephone altering on how we communicate as well as shrinking down the size of the computer so it would fit in pockets everywhere.
DJI has shown how camera innovation and UAVs can make a strong impact together. As their product improved, so did the ability of how you can use a drone as well as the quality of the camera increased. The Osmo is an example of this, having made it possible for panoramic as well as 360 shots in a device that appears more futuristic then your traditional camera. The Phantom Series as well as the Inspire made the standard of drone flying.
3. Both companies have opened flagship stores
Within this past year, DJI has opened a few Flagship stores with most recently in New York City. Other places that DJI has opened includes Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Seoul. The store includes a Hall of Inspire and is designed to show off the best on what DJI has to offer.
Apple’s stores can be found in abundance in a variety of malls around the country. This is separate from the flagship store located in a number of cities around the world.
Both have minimalist set up that is designed to showcase products and as well as create a new type of shopping experience. In fact, the experts at Apple are referred to as Genius.
4. Both companies cater to the inner artist in all of us.
Both companies provide equipment that are or becoming more standard in the Entertainment industry. The camera on the Phantom and Inspires series can go as high as 12 MP giving you the type of shots only provided for big studios. Mac, on the other hand, have higher end computers that offer more processing power for graphics as well as video display. The sampling rate is much higher which in the end allows for a higher quality of audio.
5. Clean Design
No one competes with Apple’s impressive product designs that extend right down to the boxes and power cables. Part of their massive commercial success is due to this one factor alone.
DJI appears to have been influenced from Apple on this. Their Phantom quadcopter range is iconic, |
president during the podcast. “Many of his formative years were spent in Indonesia. So, for him to, you know, claim that, you know, he identifies with the experience of black Americans, I think, is a bit of a stretch.”
Carson has long suggested that much of the recent racial strife—in places like Baltimore and Ferguson, Missouri—is drummed up by charlatans with a political agenda.
“Remember now, I’ve been around for 64 years, you know,” he said. “I’ve had a chance to see what real racism is.”
Like a modern-day Svengali, he has simultaneously downplayed the significance of his racial heritage while using it as a launch pad for his national prominence. That he denies the effects of systemic and implicit bias or the existence of explicit racism, and that he is now advancing the notion of a racial litmus test, should come as no surprise.
His short-lived lead in the Republican presidential primary season was built almost solely on being a counterbalance to the Obama presidency. He was, for a time, the perfect foil for Republicans who wanted to eschew their reputation as the party of white men.
The truth is, the Carson candidacy was never about any more than that.Australian authorities urged to act against man who climbed on roof of consulate-general and displayed West Papuan flag
Indonesia’s foreign minister has urged Australian authorities to act against a trespassing protester who climbed on to the roof of the consulate-general in Melbourne and displayed a West Papuan flag.
A video of Friday’s protest shows a man scaling a wall to enter the consulate and climb on the roof to show the flag before climbing down again.
In a statement on Saturday, Indonesia’s foreign minister, Retno Marsudi, said Australian authorities must complete investigations and legally process the “crime perpetrator”, describing the intrusion as “absolutely intolerable”.
Indonesia backs down in military rift with Australia over 'insult' Read more
“Australia has the obligation and responsibility to immediately process this lawfully and to ensure the security of all Indonesian missions in Australia,” she said.
The minister said she had been in touch with the Australian foreign minister, Julie Bishop, on Saturday to ensure the incident was being investigated and legal process followed.
Victoria police said in a statement they were assisting the Australian federal police following the incident.
Last week, Indonesia temporarily suspended military ties with Australia in a spat over teaching materials at a Perth army base that included reference to the independence movement in West Papua, a sensitive topic for the Indonesian military.Majority of executions confined to three countries
Of all executions recorded in 2015, 89% were carried out in just three countries: Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Pakistan ranked among the top five executioners for the first time since 2008. The Middle East and North Africa region accounted for the vast majority of all recorded executions thanks largely to Iran and Saudi Arabia. For the second year in a row, both countries carried out the highest number of executions in the region.
Executions in Saudi Arabia shot up by 76% compared to 2014; at least 158 people were put to death in 2015. Meanwhile, Iran executed at least 977 people, mainly for drug-related crimes.
Iran continued to execute juvenile offenders - those aged under 18 at the time of the alleged crime – in violation of international law. Along with Maldives and Pakistan, it also sentenced juvenile offenders to death in 2015.
Countries continued to flout other aspects of international law, putting to death people with mental or intellectual disabilities, as well as those charged with non-lethal crimes. Apart from drug-related offences, people were executed for crimes such as adultery, blasphemy, corruption, kidnapping and “questioning the leader’s policies”.
The number of countries that executed people rose – from 22 in 2014 to 25 in 2015. At least six countries resumed executions: Bangladesh, Chad, India, Indonesia, Oman and South Sudan.
At least 1,998 people were sentenced to death in 2015 and at least 20,292 prisoners remained on death row at the end of the year.ROME (Reuters) - Italian centre-left leader Matteo Renzi forced party rival Enrico Letta to resign as prime minister on Thursday after criticizing his government’s failure to pass major reforms, opening the way for Italy’s third administration in a year.
Letta’s decision to quit came after the Democratic Party (PD), the largest party in the ruling coalition, supported a call by its 39-year-old leader Renzi for a more ambitious government to pull Italy out of its economic slump.
“Italy cannot live in a situation of uncertainty and instability. We are at a crossroads,” Renzi told a meeting of the PD’s 140-strong leadership committee.
Letta plans to tender his resignation to President Giorgio Napolitano on Friday. Napolitano is then expected to call on Renzi to form a new administration.
Before that happens, however, there is likely to be considerable horsetrading.
Letta’s coalition partner, the New Centre Right party, said it would demand concessions on policy and it did not expect the government necessarily to last a full term until 2018.
“We’re not taking anything for granted, and we’re not even sure this attempt will end smoothly,” party leader Angelino Alfano said at a news conference.
Growing criticism over the slow pace of economic reform had left Letta, a low-key moderate appointed in April to lead the cross-party coalition patched together after last year’s deadlocked elections, increasingly isolated.
Appreciated by Italy’s international partners for keeping a lid on public finances, Letta fell victim to Renzi’s ruthless determination to set a faster tempo for the government.
Renzi has promised to loosen strict hiring and firing rules to make companies more nimble and shows less regard than Letta for European Union budget rules, saying structural reforms should outweigh rigid deficit limits.
Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta gestures during a news conference at Chigi Palace in Rome February 12, 2014. REUTERS/Remo Casilli
“People have accused me and the PD of having an outsize ambition. I don’t deny this. We all need to have this, from me to the last party member,” Renzi said in his speech to the party’s leadership committee. “I am asking you to help us get Italy out of the mire,” he said.
The latest bout of turmoil in Italy, the euro zone’s third-largest economy, has so far had little impact on financial markets. Last year’s political stalemate after elections, in contrast, led to much market volatility.
However, the continual uncertainty has held back any concerted effort to revive the economy or overhaul a political system blamed for hampering any deep reform programme.
In his speech, Renzi acknowledged that forcing Letta out to form a new government carried risks for both the government and himself personally. But he said there was no alternative.
“Putting oneself on the line right now carries an element of risk, but a politician has the duty to take risks at certain moments,” he said. Renzi added that he saw the new government lasting until 2018.
UNELECTED
If Renzi is named prime minister, he would be Italy’s third unelected leader in succession after the technocrat Mario Monti and Letta, who was appointed last April after weeks of fruitless wrangling between rival parties.
A sharp-talking politician, whose main experience of government has been as mayor of Florence, Renzi is not a member of parliament and has never stood in a national election. He has always said that he would want to become prime minister only with a clear mandate from voters.
However, he said that until the voting law blamed for the last stalemate has been changed, a new ballot was not possible.
“The idea of elections has a certain attraction but it wouldn’t guarantee a certain victory for anyone,” he said during the speech.
Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta listens to a reporter's question during a news conference at Chigi Palace in Rome February 12, 2014. REUTERS/Remo Casilli
Having burst onto the political scene promising renewal and a break with the Byzantine traditions of Italian politics, Renzi may now gain power with the same type of backroom manoeuvring that characterized revolving door Christian Democrat governments of the past.
“This is a very dangerous operation by Renzi both for the country and for himself,” Giovanni Toti, political adviser to former center-right Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, told RAI state television.
“He was supposed to be the outsider who was going to renew the PD. Now, as soon as he gets close to power, he’s behaving exactly like all the others,” he said.The U.S. House of Representatives finally adjourned until July 5 after sit-in protests by Democrats halted business in the chamber for more than 17 hours.
Despite the decision to end the legislative session, more than a dozen Democratic members, including Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., were still protesting on the House floor as of this morning. It's unclear exactly how Democrats will proceed with their efforts to bring up a vote on gun control.
The unprecedented demonstration, which was broadcast live through C-SPAN and social media across the country, started Wednesday morning and ended early this morning.
Democrats seized the floor and demanded a vote, ripping Republicans for being "silent for too long" about the "epidemic" of shootings, while the GOP blasted the demonstrations as a "stunt" and "disgrace."
Democrats and Republicans clashed throughout the night in the House chamber. Several Republicans heckled Democrats, and tensions flared when Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, confronted Democrats speaking on the floor about radical Islam, prompting at least one plainclothes Capitol security officer to walk onto the floor, as members separated the representatives.
Around 10 p.m., House Speaker Paul Ryan briefly called the chamber back into order amid shouts of "No Bill, No Break" from the protesting members of Congress. The roar was so loud in the chamber, with chants of "Shame," that the speaker's voice could not be heard. Democrats also were heard singing, "We Shall Overcome."
The House finally adjourned this morning at 3:19 a.m., after passing a $1.1 billion Zika funding proposal, with no votes on gun control.
"Democrats can continue to talk, but the reality is that they have no end-game strategy," Ryan spokeswoman AshLee Strong said in a statement. "The Senate has already defeated the measure they’re calling for. The House is focused on eliminating terrorists, not constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens. No stunts on the floor will change that."
Led by Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, the members had planned to stay on the floor until they get a vote on proposals to strengthen background checks and block individuals on the “terror watch list” and “no-fly” list from buying guns.
But in a 3:30 a.m. news conference amid #NoBillNoBreak marathon, Democrats declared victory after more than 17 hours of turmoil on the House floor, despite not getting the votes on gun control they had sought.
"It is late, the House is adjourned. The House did not adjourn without a message being delivered –- a very powerful message to the American people," Representative Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said. "There has been too much carnage; we need to pass legislation to make America and Americans safer."
Rep. Lewis said early this morning that the sit-in marked much progress, but vowed to start all over again when the House is back in session after the holiday.
"Today we've come a distance. We've made some progress. We've crossed a bridge today, but we have other bridges to cross," Lewis said. "The fight is an ongoing fight. We will not be happy, we will not be satisfied, we will not be pleased until we do something in a major way."
The push to institute greater gun control has picked up steam in the wake of the Orlando nightclub massacre, which left 50 dead, including gunman Omar Mateen. Both of the guns Mateen used in the killings -- an AR-15-style rifle and Glock handgun -- were purchased legally.
The event had some pageantry, with Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, dressed in a pink suit, bringing in a pink pillow. And Rep. Scott Peters got a back rub.
There were also snacks delivered to the chamber and the promise of pizza, according to Rep. John Yarmuth.
Democratic members of the Committee speaking in support of the amendment used their time to discuss individual victims of attacks in San Bernardino and Orlando, in order to put human faces on the issue of gun violence.
House Speaker Ryan's office office had recessed the House -- cutting off the chamber video feed -- but had not shut off the lights in the chamber or directed the House Sergeant at Arms to remove House Democrats.
Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C., said Republicans "want to take the high road in this" and blasted the Democrats move.
House Republican leadership had told their members in a closed-door meeting that they planned to vote on other measures before the chamber but not on gun control legislation, ignoring the protest.
Story continuesWhat now?
At noon today, outgoing Gawker editors Tommy Craggs and Max Read held a meeting with the company’s editorial staff to explain their decision to resign over founder Nick Denton’s decision to delete a post about a married Condé Nast executive’s efforts to arrange sex with a male prostitute. Since the scandal broke on Thursday, Gawker has been having what can best be described as a nervous breakdown. What started as internal conflict over a journalism judgment call (or lack of one) has metastasized into an existential crisis about just, what, exactly, is Gawker? Denton’s website, which started more than a decade ago as a single blog dedicated to mocking the Manhattan media elite, has now grown into a digital media company with more than half a dozen websites generating millions in revenue.
Standing in front of their former colleagues packed into Gawker’s Elizabeth Street offices this afternoon, Craggs and Read explained that they were quitting to defend a sacred principle, according to a source in the room. The stakes, Craggs said, are much larger than one blog post. If Denton got his way, Gawker would just become a tamer Vox, which has been valued by some at north of $400 million. “This is Nick’s Reichstag fire,” Craggs, Gawker Media’s executive editor, told staffers. What he meant, a source told me, is that “this was the pretext by which he can Vox-ify Gawker.”
This is a big reason that controversy escalated so quickly. In the weeks leading up to the Condé post, Denton has been increasingly at odds with Craggs over the company’s long-term direction, telling him that the site had become “too mean.” In his resignation letter, Craggs mockingly described a “brand book” that Denton commissioned as a sort of mission statement for the company. “We reveal what’s really happening without restraint, inhibition, or ulterior motives,” the document states. “We’re fearless in sharing our own perspectives — regardless of how unconventional, unpopular, or unexpected they may be. We tell the real story.”
According to one Gawker source, Denton has been panicked that Gawker is slipping further behind new media competitors. “Nick has decided Gawker should be Vox but a little edgier,” one Gawker source said. “He’s rich and successful and he’s been fully captured by the people he wanted to report on and be mean about.” (Denton could not be reached for comment.)
In one way, the staffers’ frustration is understandable. Denton, after all, encouraged them for years to throw bombs and not worry about the collateral damage, in human or financial terms. “Some of the cruelest posts that have ever been written are by Nick,” one said. Denton seemed to acknowledge this himself in an email to Jordan Sargent, the 26-year-old reporter who posted the disgraced post. “You need to know you did nothing wrong,” Denton told him. “These are the stories we used to do. But times have changed.” It wasn’t just Denton’s belief that the post was beyond the pale. All of Twitter was in an uproar over the cruelty to an essentially private citizen. Gawker staffers I spoke to continue to defend the post. “This is gossip and a bizarre story to boot. We fucked up the packaging,” one told me. “The facts of the story are newsworthy, bottom to top.”
The more immediate question is just how the site will continue to function this week. At Craggs and Read’s farewell meeting, staffers expressed anger that they were leaving them behind. At one point, writer Bill Arkin wanted to know what would happen to the rest of them. Craggs and Read didn’t have answers. “This is not helpful!” Arkin yelled, according to a source. Right now, Gawker is being edited by Read’s deputy, Leah Beckmann. Denton has been trying to right the ship. At 1 p.m. today, he held a meeting with the company. Two sources said he asked John Cook, executive editor for investigations, to fill in as acting editorial director. So far Cook hasn’t answered.Share. RealU's pretty, free-to-play upcoming MMO. RealU's pretty, free-to-play upcoming MMO.
Based on Tad Williams' sci-fi book series of the same name, developer RealU's Otherland is scheduled to be released in North America and Europe in 2012. Gamigo will handle online publishing, while dtp entertainment will publish the retail version of this free-to-play game.
It's been quite a long while since we've had an update on the Unreal Engine 3-based Otherland, so we spoke with gamigo's Patrick Streppel and RealU's Andrew Carter via email.
IGN: For those who haven't read Tad Williams' series, can you give an overview of what this world is and the player's role within?
Andrew Carter: Otherland is a free-to-play, MMO game based upon the best selling novels by Tad Williams.
Set in the near future, Otherland is a virtual online universe composed of many unique and compelling virtual worlds, known as the Multi-Verse, where deep fantasy meets sci-fi and advanced simulation.
Otherland Gameplay Trailer
Originally designed to be personal playgrounds of power-hungry mortals, and provide eternal life for its creators, the Grail Brotherhood, the worlds of Otherland have evolved beyond the simulations they were intended to be and have now become living worlds. Not only will the player need to find their place in these worlds, they'll also need to uncover who – or what – is secretly guiding the destiny of these fantastical worlds and return order to the chaos.
IGN: Do you follow along with a main story in the game, can you give a few hints as to what it will be like?
Andrew Carter: Set after the events of the books, the Otherland game sees the player battling against the virtual offspring of the Grail Brotherhood, the originators of Otherland, as they manipulate the tattered remains of the Otherland Multi-Verse to rebuild their empire and resume their position as the terrible new Gods of Otherland.
The game introduces new concepts such as eDNA and Myland as well as new story whilst also incorporating key concepts, locations and characters from the novels in a sandbox environment where the player is free to either peruse the story or explore at his will.
IGN: Can you describe some of the various worlds the player will travel to? What sets them apart, what inspired their designs, and what opportunities will the player have to change them? Are those changes permanent? If so, are they permanent for only the player or also the rest of the game's population?
Andrew Carter: The player will travel to many rich, varied and fantastic worlds, some that are are inspired by the Novels including Lambda Mall, 8 Squared, Mylands and many others. Each world in turn contains dozens of sub locations. All these locations exist within a singular virtual space known as the Multi-Verse and are connected together by a vast array of programable portals. What sets them apart is their richness on a vast scale, variety and overall extremely high visual quality. The player is not able to change the worlds generally, but can make changes to his Myland as this belongs to him.
IGN: Are the explorable areas wide open for all players? Or do you have to perform special tasks to access each new world?
Andrew Carter: All of the worlds are freely open to be explored by all players providing they have aquired the portal address needed to reach them via questing and leveling. The only limits are organic.
Fancy graphics, free to play.
IGN: Can you describe some of the quest goals? What types of things will NPCs ask you to do? Can these tasks be taken on in groups as well as solo?
Andrew Carter: Throughout the player's time in Otherland, they'll encounter a variety of quests include story, instance, party based, world event and sandbox quests.
Broadly the quest themes follow two threads, one connected to the local events taking place within each of the Otherland worlds where the inhabitants do not realise they are simulations. The other revolving around the larger events unfolding in Otherland and the true purpose of its existence. The quests play on both the virtual setting of Otherland and the illusion within each game world.
IGN: What happens when you die? Is there a penalty? What's at risk?
Andrew Carter: There are a few stages to death to mitigate the frustration of death in the game. When a player runs out of health they fall to the floor and enter a revive state. At this point any player can approach your resting corpse and revive you. This takes some of the attending player's health, but gives XP in return. If there are no other players around, or no one willing to help you out, there will be purchasable items that allow the player to self-revive and continue to play from the same location they died. The final option is to respawn back at the last respawn marker you passed.
What the player risks from dyeing is damage to weapons and gear as well as being open to be looted and losing Bling that isn't banked. The player also loses some XP. However items can be purchased that protect against these risk.Asking Alexandria vocalist Danny Worsnop is twenty-one years old and has released two albums, so you know what that means: it’s time for him to write his memoirs and impart all of his knowledge and life experience to the world! The autobiography is going to be called Am I Insane?, and Worsnop has now posted the first few pages to his Tumblr, much the same way, many, many years ago, Charles Dickens released A Tale of Two Cities piecemeal via Friendster.
And while all of this news makes perfect, 150% sense, here’s a fact that really doesn’t: although Worsnop is responsible for Asking Alexandria’s brilliant lyrics, his writing actually leaves something to be desired. Maybe he should have written it in rhyme? He really is such a poet, y’know.
ANYWAY, read the excerpt of Am I Insane? below, along with my own running commentary:
Dear whoever the hell stumbled across my innate scribblings;
Do you think he meant “innate” scribblings or “innane” scribblings? I’m seriously asking. I can’t tell if he was trying to be self-deprecating and accidentally came off as an idiot, or if he’s trying to say that his scribblings have existed within him since birth.
My name is Danny Worsnop.
Thanks for clearing that up, Dan. I thought I was reading Golda Meir’s memoirs.
I was born on September 4th, 1990 in Beverly, England. I entered this world kicking and screaming,
That’s not a clichéd phrase!
knowing nothing of how fucking important my being alive was going to be to so many people.
As opposed to all the other knowledge you did have when you were born, or…? Good on you for being so modest, by the way.
I grew up as unimportant and insignificant as most
You just called “most” people “unimportant” and “insignificant.” You are really coming off as a swell guy here, Danny.
in the small village of Gilberdyke (as far north of ‘middle-of- nowhere’ as you can go whilst still being a little south of ‘you’ve- never-heard-of-it’) by my forever supportive parents Philip and Sharon along with my younger sister, Kelly. Now, at the age of 21,
Little known fact: same age as Maya Angelou when she wrote I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings!
I have toured the world and sang my songs to enough people to populate a small country,
“probably one run by a horrible dictator who makes them listen to awful music”.
I’ve overcome a cocaine addiction that should’ve killed me … and alcoholism that almost did. I’ve loved, lost and loved again. In fact, I’ve fallen in love with almost as many women as I’ve fallen into bed with and we will for now, just file that under the category of “HOW MANY?!”
So Danny loves almost every woman he’s ever slept with? That’s… actually admirable. Either that, or he doesn’t have a very good handle on what it means to be in love.
So I guess I’m a rockstar,
No, you’re not. A rockstar is someone who is a household name, period. If I stop a hundred strangers on the streets of Manhattan right now and ask them who Danny Worsnop is, how many do you think will know? You’re very successful and you have the right to be proud of that success — but you’re not a rock star. Sorry, dude.
“Living the life you can only dream of” as I once so eloquently put it.
Quoting youself is douchie. Quoting yourself when what you said is an incredibly trite cliché is beyond douchie.
Danny Worsnop, the physical embodiment of sex, drugs and… What was that last part again?
Yup, he forgot the music part. Seems about right.
Rock and roll you say? Well, here’s where things get interesting. You see, I am and always will be, a rock and roller. I am and will from now until my terminal breath,
“Terminal breath” is obviously supposed to be a poetic way of saying “dying breath,” but it’s not — because “terminal” isn’t a synonym for “dying,” it’s a synonym for “fatal.” So he basically just said, “I am and will be from now until my breath is so bad that it kills people.” Just sayin’.
be a rock and roll singer. But my music is not rock and roll, no.
Sooo… you’re not a rock n’ roll singer?
The band I ironically am the front and center, high and mighty, plump up my plumage and parade it around for is in every way, a heavy metal band. I am not talking Iron Maiden, ACDC, Black Sabbath, Ronnie James Dio heavy metal. This is scream till you spit blood, hate everything, fuck the world and burn it’s
he means “its”
mother heavy metal. At this point you may at this point be
Mm-hm
wondering what the hell I am doing here. Am I lost? Did I take a wrong turn? Surely I must be in the wrong place… Well, you are as wrong as wrong could be and then some. I knew what I was getting myself into and still, with a tip of my hat and a tap of my cowboy booted heels, cannonballed right into the deep end of the volatile, unstable ocean of insanity known as Asking Alexandria…
I don’t even know where to begin to make fun of this paragraph. It’s like Bret Michaels hired a retard to ghost write his book or something. It’s just all so hackneyed and silly and it doesn’t even really mean anything, y’know? I’m not talking in a deeper sense, either — I mean it is borderline incoherent.
My uncontrollable passion for music began at a very young age. I remember all too clearly on countless occasions singing and dancing around to Michael Jackson’s “Bad” on this enormous stage to a sea of screaming fans, which, in reality, was a diarrhea greenish brown sofa that my father thought to be a fantastic addition to our living room, and a selection of stuffed animal toys strewn across the floor.
This actually isn’t funny and is almost relatable. I’m shocked.
I remember plugging a cheap karaoke microphone I got from Argos into the headphone socket of my stereo blasting out old INXS, Brian Adams and Bon Jovi albums out of it so as to provide what in my mind, was a far more believable lip-sync rendition of their hits. Pretty sure once or twice I fooled my sister into thinking I was actually singing them, not that she’d ever allow herself to admit it. In truth, I was consistently an offensively bad singer until puberty
Oh, awesome! So when are you going through puberty, dude? I’m looking forward to hearing how you sound as a good singer.
finally released me from it’s squeaky voiced, fluffy faced grasp. That never stopped my music though, I found solace in every and any instrument I could get my eager hands on. Age 7; Recorder, on which I distinctly remember being a genius.
Given how modest you’ve been thus far, I am not surprised.
Age 8; Guitar, which lasted about as long as it takes to badly learn a G chord in my kitchen. Age 9; Violin, my first real venture into music, I even played in an orchestra a couple times! It lasted about a year, then it was to the big league. Age 11; Trumpet, at this point people were starting to not only acknowledge my natural ability with music, but also to encourage it.
So from ages seven to ten, your family was like, “Shut the fuck up?” What a bunch of pricks! And if only you had listened to them!
Age 12; My first guitar, a Squire Stratocaster starter set, complete with amplifier.
Good thing it had an amplifier.
Holy hell was that guitar punished! First thing I did on Christmas Day when I tore off that paper was plug it in, crank it up, turn on Kerrang! TV. I was instantaneously convinced that I could already play along to Nirvana, Marilyn Manson, Limp Bizkit
OH MY GOD HE LIKES LIMP BIZKIT IT ALL MAKES SENSE NOW
and whatever else happened to play. I was a natural. The reality for my family in the other room unfortunately, (along with the rest of the village) was that my relentless strumming away on an out of tune guitar that I had no idea how to even BEGIN playing was in fact nothing short of painful, it also hasn’t ever stopped!
Uh, did he just admit he still has no idea how to even begin to play music?
These days, I reside happily in my Brobdingnagian world of beautiful music, beautiful women and a beautiful bank account, but it wasn’t always so… My family was a completely ordinary one.
I thought they were “unimportant” and “insignificant”?
Average money, average house, average cars, average grades, average life… Average…
Isn’t this redundant? Wasn’t this basically covered in the second paragraph?
If there’s one thing I’ve grown to detest more than anything else on this celestial orb we call home, it’s ‘average.’ Don’t get me wrong, I wish not for a past riddled with poverty,
So what are you bitching about?
but there is nothing more dull and uninspiring than ‘average’
Which explains your music
and anyone who has experienced it in large doses will verify that in a heartbeat.Media playback is not supported on this device Newcastle penalty a 'travesty' - Ferguson
Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson says the decision to give Newcastle a penalty in his side's 1-1 draw at Old Trafford was a "travesty".
Referee Mike Jones gave the spot-kick after after assistant John Flynn flagged following Rio Ferdinand's tackle on Hatem Ben Arfa.
Ferguson said: "The referee thought it was a corner and he was nearer to the incident. It was an absolute travesty.
"The problem is that assistants are not full-time even if the referees are."
If it was against me I would be very aggrieved Alan Pardew Newcastle manager
He added: "I don't think anyone in the ground thought it was a penalty apart from the assistant referee."
Ferguson supported his argument by referring to an incident in the recent home game against Sunderland when a linesman flagged for a penalty, only for referee Lee Mason to correctly give the decision in United's favour.
He said: "[In the Sunderland match] The linesman gave a penalty for a handball, which was obviously an opponent's hand.
"The referee was put in a terrible quandary, but he knew full well it was a handball from an opponent and overruled the linesman. That is what he should have done against Newcastle."
Javier Hernandez had given United a 49th-minute lead before Demba Ba's penalty pulled Newcastle level after referee Jones ruled Ferdinand had brought down Ben Arfa.
Media playback is not supported on this device Alan Pardew
Manchester United striker Michael Owen, who is injured, tweeted: "The less said about the penalty decision the better. Unbelievable. Video technology just for goals or major decisions too?
"It took more time for the ref and linesman to come to that decision than it would for somebody to watch a replay and they still got it wrong."
It is understood Jones conferred with Flynn because the referee was not 100% sure whether it was a penalty or not.
In a statement to BBC Sport, the Premier League and Professional Game Match Officials said: "Our assistant referees are part-time and to date there has been no call from the clubs to make them full-time.
"Select group assistant referees do have high standards of training and performance monitoring.
DID YOU KNOW? Of the 18 Premier League referees, two are part-time
"Over the course of the season the standard of their decision making is of an exceptional high standard."
The draw leaves United four points behind leaders and rivals Manchester City, who play Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday, but asked whether the champions' rivals were getting too far ahead of his side, Ferguson quipped: "It would be - in April."
Newcastle manager Alan Pardew accepted his team had "got a break", although he did feel Ferdinand had taken a chance by sliding in.
"I thought the tackle was risky. He definitely played the ball. I have seen it," said Pardew.
"If it was against me I would be very aggrieved. We got a break but we still had to score the goal and Demba was very cool."
The draw leaves Newcastle in fourth place, and Pardew praised his side's resilience.
"Our attitude and defending deserved a point. The heroism in that penalty box was unbelievable. They were Geordie heroes," he saidJames S. Ackerman, a Harvard art historian whose studies of the architecture of Michelangelo and Palladio remain classics in the field, died on Dec. 31 at his home in Cambridge, Mass. He was 97.
The death was confirmed by his wife, Jill Slosburg-Ackerman.
Mr. Ackerman plunged into the study of architecture while serving in Italy with the Army at the end of World War II. While awaiting a transfer back to the United States, he volunteered to work for the Monuments and Fine Arts Commission in Milan. He was given the assignment of retrieving archives that had been stored for safety in Pavia, in the monastery complex known as the Certosa.
A flame was kindled. His immersion in the Certosa di Pavia generated a master’s thesis at the Institute of Fine Arts in New York, where he earned a doctorate in 1952. While teaching art history at the University of California, Berkeley, he was approached by the art historians Anthony Blunt and Rudolf Wittkower to write a survey of Michelangelo’s architecture for a series of architectural monographs they were editing.
“The Architecture of Michelangelo,” published in two volumes in 1961, was greeted as an indispensable work on an overlooked subject. In the first volume, a dozen essays aimed at the educated general reader discussed the artist’s major building projects, which included the Laurentian Library and the Medici Chapel in Florence and the Farnese Palace and St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. In the second volume, each project was discussed with full scholarly apparatus appended.A BRITISH ex-army mercenary fighting ISIS in Syria has boasted he has personally killed 26 militants - but it is "not enough".
The hired gun said he had been been fighting for the Kurds for four years and has been jailed for doing so on trips back to the UK.
Sergey Malyzhenkov; Lenta; EAST2WEST NEWS 6 The ex-British soldier has been fighting for the Kurds for four years, Russian media reported
He was pictured but not identified by Russian media outlet Lenta.ru and told journalists: "I simply love killing, and it doesn't matter who my enemy is: ISIS, Assad or Barzani (the leader of Iraqi Kurdistan)."
"Give me a gun, and I'll fight."
The Russian report stated: "When asked about number of militants he had killed, he calmly replies: '26'.
"And after a short pause he adds: 'Not enough yet'."
Sergey Malyzhenkov; Lenta; EAST2WEST NEWS 6 He showed the reporter a picture of 'The God of Death' he drew while listening to Metallica's For Whom The Bell Tolls
The British mercenary was pictured at a camp an hour's drive from the capital of Iraq's Kurdistan region.
The camp is named after Rustem Cudi - a German national, real name Gunther Helsten, who joined Kurdish militias in Syria and was killed while fighting ISIS.
But he will soon leave the base near to travel to Rojava in northern Syria to fight ISIS for the third time, he told Russian journalists.
He had "happened to kill Russians", he admitted, but also fought along side them, and they were "very good on the battlefield".
Sergey Malyzhenkov; Lenta; EAST2WEST NEWS 6 The unnamed Brit is pictured sharpening his combat knife
He said: "I went to fight for the Kurds for the first time in 2013.
"There was no sign of the caliphate back then."
Before that he had served in the British army and was recruited as a mercenary by former comrades, he said, sharpening his knife as he spoke.
Lenta reported: "It turned out that the British mercenary had been through a serious experience - his military unit had been surrounded, and he was among a few who survived."
"The death of his peers only made him more bloodthirsty" but there was "no personal hatred involved".
He was quoted as saying: "I know |
experience of watching an IMAX movie and also fits better into one's back pocket. Because we all want to sit on our phones.
As we've previously opined, those arguments seem spurious. The Reg is unaware of just how many smartmobe owners are resentful about the need to buy a cover to enhance their devices' in-hand adhesion, but supposes the number is small. Just how easier handling becomes a selling point is anyone's guess.
The LG G Flex in all its curvy glory
Samsung's already shown the world a curvy phone, so perhaps the G Flex is a me-too play to ensure fierce peninsular rivalries remain stalemated. Whatever LG's motives, it's following Samsung by only selling the phone in Korea for now. ®Warning: Video includes offensive language
A television reporter who was fired for berating a cop during an expletive-filled tirade outside a Philadelphia comedy club says she feels “ruined” and wants to apologize to the officer after getting threats.
Colleen Campbell, 28, of Philadelphia, said she only learned that her cringe-worthy rant outside Helium on Sunday was caught on camera and posted to Facebook after she was busted on charges of resisting arrest, criminal mischief and disorderly conduct.
“When I came home, I called my producer to talk about why I was absent,” Campbell told Philadelphia Magazine. “I didn’t realize a video was out. I found out about it later because HR called me and said I was being terminated. They said there’s a video. I said, ‘What video?’”
New York-based comedian Wil Sylvince posted a 5-minute clip of a “very obnoxious” Campbell after she was kicked out of the club for “loud whispering” throughout the show.
She denied being disruptive to an officer, prompting a man who was accompanying her to thank the cop for his patience. The officer replied that he just wanted the pair to walk away.
“Or what? Or what, motherf–ker? Lick my a–hole,” Campbell says on the video, which had been viewed more than 1.5 million times as of Tuesday. “How about that? F–king piece of s–t. That’s why nobody likes f–king police … idiots in this f–king town.”
Campbell, according to Philadelphia Magazine, claimed in a Facebook post that she only had one drink and suggested she might have been drugged before deleting her social media accounts. She’s been receiving “threats” and wants to apologize to the officer, she told the magazine.
“That’s not me or how I talk or act or anything at all,” she said. “I don’t know what to do. I feel ruined and embarrassed for me and my family.”
Asked why she thinks she was drugged, Campbell said “everything was foggy,” adding that she remembers getting into an altercation at the club but said she didn’t know what about.
In her original Facebook post on the incident, Campbell claimed to have had only one drink, but she admitted having a total of five, including two shots an hour before the show and some while bartending earlier Sunday.
“I feel awful,” she told the magazine. “That’s not me or how I speak or how I talk or how I was raised. I had to delete all my social media, because I’m getting threats.”
Asked about the calm and collected cop who displayed extreme restraint during the incident, Campbell said: “I wanna apologize to the officer. I don’t remember the whole altercation at all. I remember feeling attacked. I would never talk like that. It was like watching a whole different me.”I love emoji. I love Unicode in general. I love seeing plain text become more expressive and more universal.
But, Internet, I’ve noticed a worrying trend. Both popular media and a lot of tech circles tend to assume that “emoji” de facto means Apple’s particular font.
I have some objections.
The Unicode Technical Report on emoji also goes over some of this.
Emoji are generally traced back to the Japanese mobile carrier NTT DoCoMo, which in February 1999 released a service called i-mode which powered a line of wildly popular early smartphones. Its messenger included some 180 small pixel-art images you could type as though they were text, because they were text, encoded using unused space in Shift JIS.
(Quick background, because I’d like this to be understandable by a general audience: computers only understand numbers, not text, so we need a “character set” that lists all the characters you can type and what numbers represent them. So in ASCII, for example, a capital “A” is passed around as the number 65. Computers always deal with bytes, which can go up to 255, but ASCII only lists characters up to 127 — so everything from 128 to 255 is just unused space. Shift JIS is Japan’s equivalent to ASCII, and had a lot more unused space, and that’s where early emoji were put.)
Naturally, other carriers added their own variations. Naturally, they used different sets of images, but often in a different order, so the same character might be an apple on one phone and a banana on another. They came up with tables for translating between carriers, but that wouldn’t help if your friend tried to send you an image that your phone just didn’t have. And when these characters started to leak outside of Japan, they had no hope whatsoever of displaying as anything other than garbage.
This is kind of like how Shift JIS is mostly compatible with ASCII, except that for some reason it has the yen sign ¥ in place of the ASCII backslash \, producing hilarious results. Also, this is precisely the problem that Unicode was invented to solve.
I’ll get back to all this in a minute, but something that’s left out of emoji discussions is that the English-speaking world was developing a similar idea. As far as I can tell, we got our first major exposure to graphical emoticons with the release of AIM 4.0 circa May 2000 and these infamous “smileys”:
Even though AIM was a closed network where there was little risk of having private characters escape, these were all encoded as ASCII emoticons. That simple smiley on the very left would be sent as :-) and turned into an image on your friend’s computer, which meant that if you literally typed :-) in a message, it would still render graphically. Rather than being an extension to regular text, these images were an enhancement of regular text, showing a graphical version of something the text already spelled out. A very fancy ligature.
Little ink has been spilled over this, but those humble 4-bit graphics became a staple of instant messaging, by which I mean everyone immediately ripped them off. ICQ, MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, Pidgin (then Gaim), Miranda, Trillian… I can’t name a messenger since 2003 that didn’t have smileys included. All of them still relied on the same approach of substituting graphics for regular ASCII sequences. That had made sense for AIM’s limited palette of faces, but during its heyday MSN Messenger included 67 graphics, most of them not faces. If you sent a smiling crescent moon to someone who had the graphics disabled (or used an alternative client), all they’d see was a mysterious (S).
So while Japan is generally credited as the source of emoji, the US was quite busy making its own mess of things.
Anyway, Japan had this mess of several different sets of emoji in common use, being encoded in several different incompatible ways. That’s exactly the sort of mess Unicode exists to sort out, so in mid-2007, several Google employees (one of whom was the co-founder of the Unicode Consortium, which surely helped) put together a draft proposal for adding the emoji to Unicode. The idea was to combine all the sets, drop any duplicates, and add to Unicode whatever wasn’t already there.
(Unicode is intended as a unification of all character sets. ASCII has \, Shift JIS has ¥, but Unicode has both — so an English speaker and a Japanese speaker can both use both characters without getting confused, as long as they’re using Unicode. And so on, for thousands of characters in dozens of character sets. Part of the problem with sending the carriers’ emoji to American computers was that the US was pretty far along in shifting everything to use Unicode, but the emoji simply didn’t exist in Unicode. Obvious solution: add them!)
Meanwhile, the iPhone launched in Japan in 2008. iOS 2.2, released in November, added the first implementation of emoji — but using SoftBank’s invented encoding, since they were only on one carrier and the characters weren’t yet in Unicode. A couple Apple employees jumped on the bandwagon around that time and coauthored the first official proposal, published in January 2009. Unicode 6.0, the first version to include emoji, was released in October 2010.
iPhones worldwide gained the ability to use its emoji (now mapped to Unicode) with the release of iOS 5.0 in October 2011.
Android didn’t get an emoji font at all until version 4.3, in July 2013. I’m at a loss for why, given that Google had proposed emoji in the first place, and Android had been in Japan since the HTC Magic in May 2009. It was even on NTT DoCoMo, the carrier that first introduced emoji! What the heck, Google.
Consider this travesty of an article from last week. This Genius Theory Will Change the Way You Use the “Pink Lady” Emoji:
Unicode, creators of the emoji app, call her the “Information Desk Person.”
Oh, dear. Emoji aren’t an “app”, Unicode didn’t create them, and the person isn’t necessarily female. But the character is named “Information Desk Person”, so at least that part is correct.
It’s non-technical clickbait, sure. But notice that neither “Apple” nor the names of any of its platforms appear in the text. As far as this article and author are concerned, emoji are Apple’s presentation of them.
I see also that fileformat.info is now previewing emoji using Apple’s font. Again, there’s no mention of Apple that I can find here; even the page that credits the data and name sources doesn’t mention Apple. The font is even called “Apple Color Emoji”, so you’d think that might show up somewhere.
Telegram and WhatsApp both use Apple’s font for emoji on every platform; you cannot use your system font. Slack lets you choose, but defaults to Apple’s font. (I objected to Android Telegram’s jarring use of a non-native font; the sole developer explained simply that they like Apple’s font more, and eventually shut down the issue tracker to stop people from discussing it further.)
The latest revision of Google’s emoji font even made some questionable changes, seemingly just for the sake of more closely resembling Apple’s font. I’ll get into that a bit later, but suffice to say, even Google is quietly treating Apple’s images as a de facto standard.
The Unicode Consortium will now let you “adopt” a character. If you adopt an emoji, the certificate they print out for you uses Apple’s font.
It’s a little unusual that this would happen when Android has been more popular than the iPhone almost everywhere, even since iOS first exposed its emoji keyboard worldwide. Also given that Apple’s font is not freely-licensed (so you’re not actually allowed to use it in your project), whereas Google’s whole font family is. And — full disclosure here — quite a few of them look to me like they came from a disquieting uncanny valley populated by plastic people.
Granted, the iPhone did have a 20-month head start at exposing the English-speaking world to emoji. Plus there’s that whole thing where Apple features are mysteriously assumed to be the first of their kind. I’m not entirely surprised that Apple’s font is treated as canonical; I just have some objections.
I’m writing this in a terminal that uses Source Code Pro. You’re (probably) reading it on the web in Merriweather. Miraculously, you still understand what all the letters mean, even though they appear fairly differently.
Emoji are text, just like the text you’re reading now, not too different from those goofy :-) smileys in AIM. They’re often displayed with colorful graphics, but they’re just ideograms, similar to Egyptian hieroglyphs (which are also in Unicode). It’s totally okay to write them a little differently sometimes.
This the only reason emoji are in Unicode at all — the only reason we have a universal set of little pictures. If they’d been true embedded images, there never would have been any reason to turn them into characters.
Having them as text means we can use them anywhere we can use text — there’s no need to hunt down a graphic and figure out how to embed it. You want to put emoji in filenames, in source code, in the titlebar of a window? Sure thing — they’re just text.
Treating emoji as though they are a particular set of graphics rather defeats the point. At best, it confuses people’s understanding of what the heck is going on here, and I don’t much like that.
I’ve encountered people who genuinely believed that Apple’s emoji were some kind of official standard, and anyone deviating from them was somehow wrong. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of lay people believed Apple invented emoji. I can hardly blame them, when we have things like World Emoji Day, based on the date on Apple’s calendar glyph. This is not a good state of affairs.
Along the same lines, nothing defines an emoji, as I’ve mentioned before. Whether a particular character appears as a colored graphic is purely a property of the fonts you have installed. You could have a font that rendered all English text in sparkly purple letters, if you really wanted to. Or you could have a font that rendered emoji as simple black-and-white outlines like other characters — which is in fact what I have.
Well… that was true, but mere weeks before that post was published, the Unicode Consortium published a list of characters with a genuine “Emoji” property.
But, hang on. That list isn’t part of the actual Unicode database; it’s part of a “technical report”, which is informative only. In fact, if you look over the Unicode Technical Report on emoji, you may notice that the bulk of it is merely summarizing what’s being done in the wild. It’s not saying what you must do, only what’s already been done. The very first sentence even says that it’s about interoperability.
If that doesn’t convince you, consider that the list of “emoji” characters includes # and *. Yes, the ASCII characters on a regular qwerty keyboard. I don’t think this is a particularly good authoritative reference.
Speaking of which, the same list also contains ©, ®, and ™ — and Twitter’s font has glyphs for all three of them: ©, ®, ™. They aren’t used on web Twitter, but if you naïvely dropped twemoji into your own project, you’d see these little superscript characters suddenly grow to fit large full-width squares. (Worse, all three of them are a single solid color, so they’ll be unreadable on a dark background.) There’s an excellent reason for this, believe it or not: Shift JIS doesn’t contain any of these characters, so the Japanese carriers faked it by including them as emoji.
Anyway, the technical report proper is a little more nuanced, breaking emoji into a few coarse groups based on who implements them. (Observe that it uses Apple’s font for all 1282 example emoji.)
I care about all this because I see an awful lot of tech people link this document as though it were a formal specification, which leads to a curious cycle.
Apple does a thing with emoji. Because Apple is a major vendor, the thing it did is added to the technical report. Other people look at the report, believe it to be normative, and also do Apple’s thing because it’s “part of Unicode”. (Wow, Apple did this first again! They’re so ahead of the curve!)
After I wrote the above list, I accidentally bumbled upon this page from emojipedia, which states:
In addition to emojis approved in Unicode 8.0 (mid-2015), iOS 9.1 also includes emoji versions of characters all the way back to Unicode 1.1 (1993) that have retroactively been deemed worthy of emoji presentation by the Unicode Consortium.
That’s flat-out wrong. The Unicode Consortium has never deemed characters worthy of “emoji presentation” — it’s written reports about the characters that vendors like Apple have given colored glyphs. This paragraph congratulates Apple for having an emoji font that covers every single character Apple decided to put in their emoji font!
This is a great segue into what happened with Google’s recent update to its own emoji font.
Android 6.0.1 was released in December 2015, and contained a long-overdue update to its emoji font, Noto Color Emoji. It added newly-defined emoji like 🌭 U+1F32D HOT DOG and 🦄 U+1F984 UNICORN FACE, so, that was pretty good.
How is this a segue, you ask? Well, see, there are these curious chimeras called ZWJ sequences — effectively new emoji created by mashing multiple emoji together with a special “glue” character in the middle. Apple used (possibly invented?) this mechanism to create “diverse” versions of several emoji like 💏 U+1F48F KISS. The emoji for two women kissing looks like a single image, but it’s actually written as seven characters: woman + heart + kiss + woman with some glue between them. It’s a lot like those AIM smileys, only not ASCII under the hood.
So, that’s fine, it makes sense, I guess. But then Apple added a new chimera emoji: a speech bubble with an eyeball in it, written as eye + speech bubble. It turned out to be some kind of symbol related to an anti-bullying campaign, dreamed up in conjunction with the Ad Council (?!). I’ve never seen it used and never heard about this campaign outside of being a huge Unicode nerd.
Lo and behold, it appeared in the updated font. And Twitter’s font. And Emoji One.
Is this how we want it to work? Apple is free to invent whatever it wants by mashing emoji together, and everyone else treats it as canonical, with no resistance whatsoever? Apple gets to deliberately circumvent the Unicode character process?
Apple appreciated the symbol, too. “When we first asked about bringing this emoji to the official Apple keyboard, they told us it would take at least a year or two to get it through and approved under Unicode,” says Wittmark. The company found a way to fast-track it, she says, by combining two existing emoji.
Maybe this is truly a worthy cause. I don’t know. All I know is that Apple added a character (designed by an ad agency) basically on a whim, and now it’s enshrined forever in Unicode documents. There doesn’t seem to be any real incentive for them to not do this again. I can’t wait for apple + laptop to become the MacBook Pro™ emoji.
(On the other hand, I can absolutely get behind ninja cat.)
I take issue with using this mechanism for some of the “diverse” emoji as well. I didn’t even realize the problem until Google copied Apple’s implementation.
The basic emoji in question are 💏 U+1F48F KISS and 💑 U+1F491 COUPLE WITH HEART. The emoji technical report contains the following advice, emphasis mine:
Some multi-person groupings explicitly indicate gender: MAN AND WOMAN HOLDING HANDS, TWO MEN HOLDING HANDS, TWO WOMEN HOLDING HANDS. Others do not: KISS, COUPLE WITH HEART, FAMILY (the latter is also non-specific as to the number of adult and child members). While the default representation for the characters in the latter group should be gender-neutral, implementations may desire to provide (and users may desire to have available) multiple representations of each of these with a variety of more-specific gender combinations.
This reinforces the document’s general advice about gender which comes down to: if the name doesn’t explicitly reference gender, the image should be gender-neutral. Makes sense.
Here’s how 💏 U+1F48F KISS and 💑 U+1F491 COUPLE WITH HEART look, before and after the font update.
Before, both images were gender-agnostic blobs. Now, with the increased “diversity”, you can choose from various combinations of genders… but the genderless version is gone. The default — what you get from the single characters on their own, without any chimera gluing stuff — is heteromance.
In fact, almost every major font does this for both KISS and COUPLE WITH HEART, save for Microsoft’s. (HTC’s KISS doesn’t, but only because it doesn’t show people at all.)
Google’s font has changed from “here are two people” to “heterosexuals are the default, but you can use some other particular combinations too”. This isn’t a step towards diversity; this is a step backwards. It also violates the advice in the very document that’s largely based on “whatever Apple and Google are doing”, which is confounding.
It also highlights another problem with treating Apple’s font as canonical, which is that Apple is occasionally wrong. I concede that “wrong” is a fuzzy concept here, but I think “surprising, given the name of the character” is a reasonable definition.
In that sense, everyone but Microsoft is wrong about 💏 U+1F48F KISS and 💑 U+1F491 COUPLE WITH HEART, since neither character mentions gender.
You might expect 🙌 U+1F64C PERSON RAISING BOTH HANDS IN CELEBRATION and 🙏 U+1F64F PERSON WITH FOLDED HANDS to depict people, but Apple only shows a pair of hands for both of them. This is particularly bad with PERSON WITH FOLDED HANDS, which just looks like a high five. Almost every other font has followed suit (…CELEBRATION, …FOLDED HANDS). Google used to get this right, but changed it with the update.
👿 U+1F47F IMP suggests, er, an imp, especially since it’s right next to other “monster” characters like 👾 U+1F47E ALIEN MONSTER and 👹 U+1F479 JAPANESE OGRE. Apple appears to have copied its own 😈 U+1F608 SMILING FACE WITH HORNS from the emoticons block and changed the smile to a frown, producing something I would never guess is meant to be an imp. Google followed suit, just like most other fonts, resulting in the tragic loss of one of my favorite Noto glyphs and the only generic representation of a demon.
👯 U+1F46F WOMAN WITH BUNNY EARS suggests a woman. Apple has two, for some reason, though that hasn’t been copied quite as much.
⬜ U+2B1C WHITE LARGE SQUARE needs a little explanation. Before Unicode contained any emoji (several of which are named with explicit colors), quite a few character names used “black” to mean “filled” and “white” to mean “empty”, referring to how the character would look when printed in black ink on white paper. “White large square” really means the outline of a square, in contrast to ⬛ U+2B1B BLACK LARGE SQUARE, which is solid. Unfortunately, both of these characters somehow ended up in virtually every emoji font, despite not being in the original lists of Japanese carriers’ emoji… and everyone gets it wrong, save for Microsoft. Every single font shows a solid square colored white. Except Google, who colors it blue. And Facebook, who has some kind of window frame, which it colors black for the BLACK glyph.
When Apple screws up and doesn’t fix it, everyone else copies their screw-up for the sake of compatibility — and as far as I can tell, the only time Apple has ever changed emoji is for the addition of skin tones and when updating images of their own products. We’re letting Apple set a de facto standard for the appearance of text, even when they’re incorrect, because… well, I’m not even sure why.
Returning briefly to the idea of diversity, Google also updated the glyphs for its dozen or so “hand gesture” emoji:
They used to be pink outlines with a flat white fill, but now are a more realistic flat style with the same yellow as the blob faces and shading. This is almost certainly for the sake of supporting the skin tone modifiers later, though Noto doesn’t actually support them yet.
The problem is, the new ones are much harder to tell apart at a glance! The shadows are very subtle, especially at small sizes, so they might as well all be yellow splats.
I always saw the old glyphs as abstract symbols, rather than a crop of a person, even a cartoony person. That might be because I’m white as hell, though. I don’t know. If people of color generally saw them the same way, it seems a shame to have made them all less distinct.
It’s not like the pink and white style would’ve prevented Noto from supporting skin tones in the future, either. Nothing says an emoji with a skin tone has to look exactly like the same emoji without one. The font could easily use the more abstract symbols by default, and switch to this more realistic style when combined with a skin tone.
And finally, some kind of tragic accident has made 💩 U+1F4A9 PILE OF POO turn super goofy and grow a face.
Why? Well, you see, Apple’s has a face. And so does almost everyone else’s, now.
I looked at the original draft proposal for this one, and SoftBank (the network the iPhone first launched on in Japan) also had a face for this character, whereas KDDI did not. So the true origin is probably just that one particular carrier happened to strike a deal to carry the iPhone first.
I’m sure the rationale for many of these changes was to reduce confusion when Android and iOS devices communicate. I’m sure plenty of people celebrated the changes on those grounds.
I was subscribed to several Android Telegram issues about emoji before the issue tracker was shut down, so I got a glimpse into how people feel about this. One person was particularly adamant that in general, the recipient should always see exactly the same image that the sender chose. Which sounds… like it’s asking for embedded images. Which Telegram supports. So maybe use those instead?
I grew up on the Internet, in a time when ^_^ looked terrible in mIRC’s default font of Fixedsys but just fine in PIRCH98. Some people used MS Comic Chat, which would try to encode actions in a way that looked like annoying noise to everyone else. Abbreviations were still a novelty, so you might not know what “ttfn” means.
Somehow, we all survived. We caught on, we asked for clarification, we learned the rules, and life went on. All human communication is ambiguous, so it baffles me when people bring up “there’s more than one emoji font” as though it spelled the end of civilization. Someone might read what you wrote and interpret it differently than you intended? Damn, that is definitely a new and serious problem that we have no idea how to handle.
It sounds to me how this would’ve sounded in 1998:
A: ^_^
B: Wow, that looks totally goofy over here. I’m using mIRC.
A: Oh, I see the problem. Every IRC client should use Arial, like PIRCH does.
That is, after all, the usual subtext: every font should just copy whatever Apple does. Let’s not.
Conveniently for me, someone just did a study on this. Here’s what I found most interesting:
Overall, we found that if you send an emoji across platform boundaries (e.g., an iPhone to a Nexus), the sender and the receiver will differ by about 2.04 points on average on our -5 to 5 sentiment scale. However, even within platforms, the average difference is 1.88 points.
In other words, people still interpret the same exact glyph differently — just like people sometimes interpret the same words differently.
The gap between same-glyph and different-glyph is a mere 0.16 points out of a 10-point scale, a mere 1.6%. The paper still concludes that the designs should move closer together, and sure, they totally should — towards what the characters describe.
To underscore that idea, note the summary page discusses U+1F601 😁 GRINNING FACE WITH SMILING EYES across five different fonts. Surely this should express something positive, right? Grins are positive, smiling eyes are positive; this might be the most positive face in Unicode. Indeed, every font was measured as expressing a very positive emotion, except Apple’s, which was apparently controversial but averaged out to slightly negative. Looking at the various renderings, I can totally see how Apple’s might be construed as a grimace.
So in the name of interoperability, what should font vendors do here? Push Apple (and Twitter and Facebook, by the look of it) to change their glyph? Or should everyone else change, so we end up in a world where two-thirds of people think “grinning face with smiling eyes” is expressing negativity?
Perhaps the real problem here is font support itself.
You can’t install fonts or change default fonts on either iOS or Android (sans root). That Telegram developer who loves Apple’s emoji should absolutely be able to switch their Android devices to use Apple’s font… but that’s impossible.
It’s doubly impossible because of a teensy technical snag. You see,
Apple added support for embedding PNG images in an OpenType font to OS X and iOS.
Google added support for embedding PNG images in an OpenType font to FreeType, the font rendering library used on Linux and Android. But they did it differently from Apple.
Microsoft added support for color layers in OpenType, so all of its emoji are basically several different monochrome vector images colored and stacked together. It’s actually an interesting approach — it makes the font smaller, it allows pieces to be reused between characters, and it allows the same emoji to be rendered in different palettes on different background colors almost for free.
Mozilla went way out into the weeds and added support for embedding SVG in OpenType. If you’re using Firefox, please enjoy these animated emoji. Those are just the letter “o” in plain text — try highlighting or copy/pasting it. The animation is part of the font. (I don’t know whether this mechanism can adapt to the current font color, but these particular soccer balls do not.)
We have four separate ways to create an emoji font, all of them incompatible, none of them standard (yet? I think?). You can’t even make one set of images and save it as four separate fonts, because they’re all designed very differently: Apple and Google only support regular PNG images, Microsoft only supports stacked layers of solid colors, and Mozilla is ridiculously flexible but still prefers vectors. Apple and Google control the mobile market, so they’re likely to win in the end, which seems a shame since their approaches are the least flexible in terms of size and color and other text properties.
I don’t think most people have noticed this, partly because even desktop operating systems don’t have an obvious way to change the emoji font (so who would think to try?), and partly because emoji mostly crop up on desktops via web sites which can quietly substitute images (like Twitter and Slack do). It’s not a situation I’d like to see become permanent, though.
Consider, if you will, that making an emoji font is really hard — there are over 1200 high-resolution images to create, if you want to match Apple’s font. If you used any web forums or IM clients ten years ago, you’re probably also aware that most smiley packs are pretty bad. If you’re stuck on a platform where the default emoji font just horrifies you (for example), surely you’d like to be able to change the font system-wide.
Disconnecting the fonts from the platforms would actually make it easier to create a new emoji font, because the ability to install more than one side-by-side means that no one font would need to cover everything. You could make a font that provides all the facial expressions, and let someone else worry about the animals. Or you could make a font that provides ZWJ sequences for every combination of an animal face and a facial expression. (Yes, please.) Or you could make a font that turns names of Pokémon into ligatures, so e-e-v-e-e displays as, similar to how Sans Bullshit Sans works.
But no one can do any of this, so long as there’s no single extension that works everywhere.
(Also, for some reason, I’ve yet to get Google’s font to work anywhere in Linux. I’m sure there are some fascinating technical reasons, but the upshot is that Google’s browser doesn’t support Google’s emoji font using Google’s FreeType patch that implements Google’s own font extension. It’s been like this for years, and there’s been barely any movement on it, leaving Linux as the only remotely-major platform that can’t seem to natively render color emoji glyphs — even though Android can.)
Some miscellaneous thoughts:Three people have been shot dead after a gunman went on a rampage in downtown Fresno, California, according to authorities, who have since taken the suspect into custody.
The suspect is Kori Ali Muhammad, 39. He reportedly yelled, "Allahu akbar" during his arrest. Investigators also said he used the alias "Black Jesus."
Police were called to the scene after receiving reports of 16 gunshots in less than a minute.
Witnesses say Muhammad fired several times at people, reloaded his handgun, and continued firing near a Catholic Charities building. Ashlee Wolf of Catholic Charities told the Fresno Bee that the shooting happened at a nearby bus stop.
Muhammad is facing charges of four counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder.
This is the suspect in today's downtown Fresno shooting, Kori Muhammad, charged with 4 counts of murder, 2 counts attempted murder, PD says. pic.twitter.com/vjgdbff7nF — Joey Horta (@JoeyHorta) April 18, 2017
At a press conference, Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer confirmed that they had apprehended Muhammad, who is also suspected in the murder of a security guard outside a Motel 6 in central Fresno on Sunday.
Dyer said research into Muhammad led police to his Facebook page, where messages he posted indicated that he “does not like white people” and has expressed “anti-government sentiments.”
The victims were all white males, Dyer said, although police have not released names.
Police said Muhammad has some criminal history of terrorist threats, but they do not know if he is on any terrorist watchlist. However, they said it was "still too early" to say if the shooting was an act of terrorism.
Muhammad first opened fire on a passenger inside a PG&E truck, as the driver sped away to the Fresno Police Department's headquarters and alerted the police, police said. The passenger later died from his injuries.
The downtown Fresno County Superior Courthouse has been placed on lockdown due to the shooting.
Muhammad was not found with a firearm, but he had.357 caliber rounds on him, the same rounds that were used at the Motel 6, according to police.
#EXCLUSIVE: This is the suspect accused of randomly killing multiple people. Police say he yelled "Allah Akbar" before arrest. pic.twitter.com/Jc1HSDOTFQ — Veronica Miracle (@VeronicaABC30) April 18, 2017
Agents from the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' Fresno Field Office, San Francisco Division were on scene, ATF tweeted.
The shootings were described as “random” and “unprovoked” by police, who see no connection between the victims and Muhammad.
“There is every reason to believe he acted alone,” Dyer said.
The victims were all within a block of each other in downtown Fresno.With the release of Firefox 53, we are pleased to welcome the 63 developers who contributed their first code change to Firefox in this release, 58 of whom were brand new volunteers! Please join us in thanking each of these diligent and enthusiastic individuals, and take a look at their contributions:
bakkot: 1317375, 1332052
catdesk: 1313834
jay.harris: 1318965, 1319159, 1319197
johannkoenig: 1223692, 1328330, 1328744, 1331498
oliver.scheiwiller: 1317745
pass2pawan: 1306538, 1319432, 1319539, 1319541, 1319551, 1319849, 1320126
s7hoang: 1028200
tharvik: 1321877
y.gravrand: 1319989
zirakertan: 1325473
Adrian Zatreanu: 1316008, 1321480
Ajit: 1316511
Aman Dwivedi: 1320663, 1323685
Aniruddha Patil: 1322975
Avikalpa Kundu: 1319368
Bao Quan: 1326265
Brian Chen: 1325488
Conache Cristian: 1315403
Denis Scott: 1323115
Dimitrij Mijoski: 1322655
Dylan Sharhon: 1043423
Florian Apolloner: 1324929
Francisco Aguiar: 1330009
George: 1324656
George Veneel Dogga: 887876
HAMMAD AKHTAR: 1289779, 1302765, 1302800, 1302804, 1311810, 1322193, 1323633, 1325429, 1326462
Hal Gentz: 1234317
Hamel Joshi: 1316017, 1320317
Ilya Gordeev: 1247602
ItielMaN: 1322389
Iulian Radu: 1322565
Jalen Adams: 1320154, 1324171, 1326581
Jared Beach: 430745
Jing-wei Wu: 1285802, 1325586
Julien Vehent: 1301956
Karolien: 944117, 1320829, 1321076, 1329104, 1331528
Kimberly Pennington: 1319079
Lars Bergstrom: 1283898
Louis |
the image and flash your device. It will not come as an OTA update even if you’re in the beta program. They plan four updates overall before publishing the final in the fall. The next will be in the middle of May, coincidentally during Google I/O.
The Nexus Player does have a system image, although the actual TV-specific changes are not clear at the moment. We’ll continue to let you know what we find out.
Nick Felker Nick Felker is a student Electrical & Computer Engineering student at Rowan University (C/O 2017) and the student IEEE webmaster. When he's not studying, he is a software developer for the web and Android (Felker Tech). He has several open source projects on GitHub (http://github.com/fleker) Devices: Moto G-2013 Moto G-2015, Moto 360, Google ADT-1, Nexus 7-2013 (x2), Lenovo Laptop, Custom Desktop. Although he was an intern at Google, the content of this blog is entirely independent and his own thoughts. More Posts - Website Follow Me:Aaron Naparstek has a masterful demolition of John Cassidy's bizarre anti-bike-lane rant, but he somehow skips over the most wonderful bit of all: " data-share-img="" data-share="twitter,facebook,linkedin,reddit,google,mail" data-share-count="false">
Aaron Naparstek has a masterful demolition of John Cassidy’s bizarre anti-bike-lane rant, but he somehow skips over the most wonderful bit of all:
I view the Bloomberg bike-lane policy as a classic case of regulatory capture by a small faddist minority intent on foisting its bipedalist views on a disinterested or actively reluctant populace.
Yes, you read that right: the New York populace, it seems, is basically comprised of cars, to the point at which bipeds are “a small faddist minority”.
Now it so happens that I’ve met Mr Cassidy a few times and he’s always looked perfectly bipedal to me. And for all that he enjoys parking his Jaguar XJ6 on Manhattan streets — he’s just written 1,250 words on the subject, after all — I’m quite sure that he always gets out and saunters happily among the other New York pedestrians as he makes his way to his dinner in the West Village.
It can hardly have escaped Cassidy’s notice, on his regular peregrinations from car to restaurant and back, that New York’s streets are positively bustling with bipedal life. There’s good reason for this: New York is a very dense city, in which 8 million or so bipeds — birds not included — cram themselves into a rather small area. His Jaguar XJ6 takes up about 100 square feet of street space; if everybody in Manhattan was so greedy, we’d turn the city into something more akin to Manhattan, Kansas.
And so New Yorkers turn to other modes of transportation. Primarily, we walk, taking up very little space while doing so. When we don’t walk, we cram lots of people into efficient vehicles like subways or buses. And sometimes we bike, since doing so makes a great deal of sense in a pretty flat city where space is at a premium.
Driving a car, on the other hand, is an enormously expensive thing to do, with most of the costs being borne by people other than the driver. Yet here’s Cassidy, the economics correspondent of the New Yorker:
From an economic perspective I also question whether the blanketing of the city with bike lanes—more than two hundred miles in the past three years—meets an objective cost-benefit criterion. Beyond a certain point, given the limited number of bicyclists in the city, the benefits of extra bike lanes must run into diminishing returns, and the costs to motorists (and pedestrians) of implementing the policies must increase. Have we reached that point? I would say so.
Well yes. If indeed the limited number of bicyclists in the city was a given, then Cassidy might have a point here. But it’s not. Bike lanes attract bikes no less effectively than roads attract cars and the number of cyclists in New York has been growing just as fast as the city can create new lanes for them. See if you can follow Cassidy’s logic here, because I can’t:
From San Francisco to London, local governments are introducing bike lanes, bike parks, bike-rental schemes, and other policies designed to encourage two-wheel motion. Generally speaking, I don’t have a problem with this movement: indeed, I support it. But the way it has been implemented, particularly in New York, irks me to no end… Thanks to these four-wheel friends, I have discovered virtually every neighborhood of the city and its environs, and I would put my knowledge of New York’s geography and topography up against most native residents… Let us have some bike lanes on heavily used and clearly defined routes to and from the city—and on popular biking routes within the city and the boroughs. But until and unless there is a referendum on the subject—or a much more expansive public debate, at least—it is time to call a halt to Sadik-Khan and her faceless road swipers.
The message here is that cars can and should be able to go anywhere in the city they like — that’s part of what makes them so great. Bikes, on the other hand, should be confined to a few “heavily used and clearly defined routes”, which would probably run parallel to existing subway lines. If you want to use a bicycle to explore the city, then you’re just going to have to take your chances in traffic, like Cassidy did in the 1980s.
In those days, there were few cyclists on the roads, and part of the thrill was avoiding cabs and other vehicles that would suddenly swing into your lane, apparently oblivious to your presence. When I got back to my apartment on East 12th Street, I was sometimes shaking.
Sorry, John, but the purpose of biking is not to “thrill” you so much that you end up shaking. And you surely know, even if you’re loathe to admit it, that traffic expands to fill the roads available: if you build more road space, you don’t reduce congestion, you just increase the number of cars. And similarly, if you reduce the amount of road space, you don’t increase congestion so much as you reduce the number of private cars. Which is a feature, not a bug.
Cassidy is convinced that the addition of bike lanes has increased the time he spends stuck in traffic, or looking for his beloved free on-street parking. (As Naparstek notes, his argument can basically be boiled down to “Street space should not be set aside for bike lanes. It should be set aside for free parking for my Jaguar XJ6″.) But the fact is that impatient motorists will always want to blame someone else for traffic, when, clearly, they themselves are the main culprit in that regard.
Cassidy has no problem with the vast number of parked cars which take up precious road space in New York because he regularly aspires to transcending his bipedal nature and becoming one of them himself. But if you replace those parked cars with a healthy, efficient and effective means of getting New Yorkers safely around town, then watch him roar. Jaguars — whether they have four wheels or four paws — are good at that.
Update: Adam Sternbergh piles on too, and Cassidy responds to us all.After the biggest "Archer" cliffhanger ever, Adam Reed takes a trip to "Dreamland" in another exciting genre experiment.
[Editor’s Note: “Archer” Season 7 ended with a cliffhanger: Is Archer alive or dead? If you don’t know the answer (despite it being revealed at Comic-Con in July 2016), the following review contains spoilers relating to his physical state in Season 8.]
Dreams are a tricky storytelling device for any show, but for “Archer,” Adam Reed’s sneakily ambitious spy movie spoof, setting an entire season within his lead character’s dream is the creator’s riskiest gamble yet. Sure, he’s trafficked in “Vice” and gone Hollywood, but dreams are a different story. If the episodes lack suspense because the dream has no real-world consequences — or they simply don’t live up to past episodes — it would be seen as stalling, or worse yet, a waste of time.
But “Archer Dreamland” tells an engaging, exciting story with a similar style to past seasons and freshly invigorates its familiar cast of characters by repurposing each modern spy archetype to the film noir era. Without spoiling too much of the set-up, I’ll just say what was formally announced last July: Archer is still alive, but in a coma. The season takes place in his dream, where he’s a late 1940s P.I. caught up in a complex assignment involving his partner’s murder and two rival mob bosses. Lana is a nightclub singer, Krieger is a bartender with quite a few dangerous hobbies, while Cyril and Pam play a pair of unequally crooked cops.
READ MORE: ‘Baskets’ Review: Season 2 Finale Makes a Bold Move Toward a New Family Business
Yet more importantly than who these characters have become is what their story means to their original reality, and the first four episodes provide enough of an emotional foundation to make viewers buy into the new narrative. That it’s absolutely gorgeous, well, that certainly doesn’t hurt.
For those who forgot where last year left off, let’s actually jump back a few more seasons. “Archer” has always been about more than an arrogant spy who drinks all day and bangs all night (boom: phrasing), but the series took a turn toward the existential near the end of “Archer Vice.” It proved it could work as a biting satire and an emotional saga. Anyone ready to suggest the animated comedy doesn’t need suspense to succeed in its new season — “It’s just supposed to be funny!” — obviously hasn’t been keeping up.
“Archer Vice” (Season 5) may have seemed like a fun “Smokey and the Bandit” lark — because it was — but the season also began questioning its star’s mortality. Archer, faced with being a father to Lana’s baby, couldn’t spend his time running drugs or behaving recklessly without risking his family along with himself.
READ MORE: ‘The Leftovers’ Season 3: New Trailer and Poster Ask If Kevin Is an Angel, Our Savior, or…Jesus?
Such responsibility had never been forced on the world’s least secret secret-agent, and it was thoroughly explored in blunt discussions about whether or not Archer was immortal (of course, he thought he was), before the conversation culminated with last season’s L.A.-based adventure. Beginning and ending with Archer dead in a pool, we awaited a definitive answer all season as to whether or not an animated character who never ages onscreen could, in fact, die.
As soon as they announced “Archer Dreamland,” we knew the wait would continue, and with it, more risk was put into the decision of spending a year inside a reality without consequence. These worries aren’t entirely abated by the first four episodes. Never do we pull out of the dream and head back to reality (the most obvious technique to keep up with real-world events, and thus wisely ignored). But there are also no direct parallels between what’s happening to Archer, P.I., and how it affects Archer, In-a-Coma. Mysteries are set up that appear strictly germane to the dream’s plot, not reality’s.
Save one: George Coe, the voice actor who played Woodhouse and died in July 2015, is well-remembered in Season 8, as his character serves as an integral bridge between Archer’s dream and reality. A number of moving scenes, especially early in the first episode, are given extra weight because of Coe’s legacy, and one could argue “Archer” is working on three different levels because of it: “Dreamland,” “Archer,” and our live-action world.
Also helping to drive home the story’s emotional resonance is the series’ ever-improving animation. The lighting and design of “Dreamland” leave no detail unturned, as the new season feels ripped straight from “The Maltese Falcon,” “Kiss Me Deadly,” or “The Big Sleep.” Blacks are deep, enriching the shadows as characters move in and out with mystery and menace. Ice cubes roll slowly through a glass of scotch in an entrancing time-lapse transition, and even a new title sequence plays into genre expectations.
All of this combined with Reed’s mellifluous comedic dialogue help to make “Dreamland” an engrossing new endeavor. Anyone eager to find out the fate of Sterling Archer should find more than enough distraction, as Reed and his team have crafted another fascinating experiment. What, exactly, this dream conveys remains a mystery, but it’s one we’re eager to solve.
Grade: B+
“Archer Dreamland” premieres Wednesday, April 5 at 10 p.m. on FXX.
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Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.“GOIN' to OT?” drawls Andy, a burly tattooed man with that worldly air common to those who have done time in the American army. The gate at Incheon airport in South Korea is packed with travellers, mainly Mongolian expatriates on their way home, waiting to board a flight to Ulaanbaatar. Andy's is a fair guess as to the destination of one of the few other Western passengers. “OT”—Oyu Tolgoi, or “Turquoise Hill”—is in the middle of nowhere, a desolate spot in the Gobi desert, another hour-and-a-half's flight south of Ulaanbaatar (inevitably, “UB”). But it is the site of the biggest foreign-investment project in Mongolia, a copper-and-gold mine that is springing up at a remarkable speed and is expected, by 2020, to account for one-third of Mongolia's GDP.
For Andy, who normally “does security” in places such as Afghanistan, Nigeria and Somalia, OT is a rest cure. Conditions are comfortable, the locals are a delight, and nobody tries to shoot him. And there are the transits through UB, a veritable Bangkok of the steppes—at least if your comparators are Kabul and Mogadishu. In the OT bus from UB airport into town, Andy is on tenterhooks waiting for the overnight hotel allocation. He is delighted with his billet—one where overnight guests are readily tolerated. The other news is less cheery: the airport bus will leave at four in the morning.
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UB is a boom town on the frontier of global mining. Hotels are bursting; the Irish pubs, of which there are several, are heaving with foreign miners, investment bankers and young local women with very long legs and very short skirts. French bistros serve steaks the size of tabloid newspapers. Dozens of cranes punctuate the skyline. The streets, empty 20 years ago, are now clogged. It is hard to believe on the clear sunny mornings the city enjoys much of the year, but UB's air is now as polluted as anywhere—second only to the Iranian city of Ahwaz, according to a recent study by the World Health Organisation. In the winter, when temperatures average from -10 to -30 centigrade, and often fall to -40 at night, UB burns a lot of coal.
Another sign of a boom is the effort to keep the city functioning through these crippling winters. When a Singaporean firm was building a joint-venture brewery to make Tiger beer, it was so anxious to finish in time for the summer-drinking high season that it hired patio heaters the size of jet engines for the construction site. Without such aids, building stops in the Mongolian winter. It is too cold to pour concrete.
A glitzy mall on the corner of the main Sukhbaatar Square houses the sort of establishments you come across in the better class of airport: chic boutiques, pricey restaurants, expensive-watch shops and, of course, an outlet of Louis Vuitton, which sells posh luggage. The shops usually look empty, which is reassuring for those nostalgic for the UB of the recent past—small, drab and poor, and offering its visitors, as one unhappily put it, a choice of “mutton, mutton and mutton”, but at least refreshingly different from other capitals.
Central Tower, as it is known, is a new ornament to downtown Ulaanbaatar. It is built next door to the lot where once stood the former headquarters of the former Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party, the MPRP (it has since dropped the “R” word), which for seven decades until 1990 ruled Mongolia as a one-party state and rock-solid Soviet satellite. The building was burned down in rioting in 2008 after a disputed election. The use to which the site has now been put is as good a symbol as any of the new aspirations of Mongolia's ruling class.
Dreams under your feet
To pay for these dreams, Mongolia is being dug up and sold to China. Already, more than 80% of its exports are minerals, a proportion expected to rise in a few years to 95%. Mongolia makes mining geologists salivate over its known riches and unexplored potential—for copper, coal, gold, silver, uranium, molybdenum, and on and on. Some 3,000 mining licences have been issued.
It is not just that Mongolia is a treasure-chest of geological wealth. It is slap-bang next to the world's biggest and fastest-growing market for most minerals. Put together Mongolian supply and Chinese demand, and Mongolia will be rich beyond the wildest dreams of a population many of whom, a generation ago, saw themselves as nomadic herders. With just under 3m people, Mongolia has a chance of becoming a Qatar or a Brunei: a country that has only a small population but almost all of it, in global terms, loaded. Brian Fisher, an Australian economist who has conducted a study of the economic impact of OT, says Mongolia “sounds like Australia in 1930”.
In the third quarter of 2011 Mongolia's economy grew by 21% compared with the same period in 2010. Even sober economists think the country is going to have to get used to this sort of thing. The IMF expects growth to average 14% a year between 2012 and 2016. In 2013, the year production is due to begin in earnest at OT, it is forecast to reach 22.9%. Others think it will be at least twice that.
Indeed, OT is the force driving many of these short-term projections towards the sky. Its construction is a big factor in this year's boom. From 2013 its sales will start adding an average of about five percentage points a year to the national growth rate up to 2020, when its impact on the economy will peak. By November last year over $3 billion had already been spent on OT, a figure that will rise to $6 billion by 2013 and $10 billion by 2020. For Mongolia, a $6 billion economy, this is enormous.
So is the scale of the logistical challenge of building one of the world's biggest copper mines in the middle of the desert. All supplies have to be brought in by road, from China to the south. Some 18,000 workers, including about 10,000 Mongolians and 6,000 Chinese, have to be housed and fed. Water had to be found, and is to be piped from an underground aquifer over 50km (32 miles) away. Electricity is to be provided first from China, then by a purpose-built power plant. And local people have to be compensated, coaxed and cajoled into believing that the mine is in their interests, not just those of the foreigners who are running it.
The project is a joint venture between the Mongolian government (34%) and Ivanhoe Mines of Canada (66%), which is in turn 49% owned by Rio Tinto, the mining giant that is managing OT and has put up most of the money. Already the Turquoise Hill, where the colour of the soil first betrayed the presence of copper to prospectors decades ago, has vanished. A huge pit is opening up for the first phase of the mine. Two shafts have been sunk for the second, underground, phase. On top of one, a tower is soaring. It will be the tallest structure in the Gobi, and perhaps in Mongolia. The workers are housed in long prefabricated buildings or, for the luckier ones, traditional gers, circular felt tents (equipped with untraditional en suite facilities, TV and Ethernet cables).
All this is justified commercially by the expectation that this mine will produce 450,000 tonnes of copper a year, making it one of the world's five biggest mines, as well as being a big gold producer. And it will have a life of at least 50 years. The more they look, the more potential geologists find in the area. It will be what Rio calls a “first-quartile” mine in terms of costs—ie, among the cheapest. And its proximity to China means that the cost of transport should not be prohibitive. The price of copper is especially vulnerable to swings in market sentiment. But global supply is constrained, and barring global economic Armageddon, demand is not going to collapse.
Yurts revisited
OT, however, matters not just in itself, but as a test of Mongolia's ability to work with foreign investors to pull off such mammoth undertakings. Next in line is Tavan Tolgoi (Five Hills), the world's biggest untapped coal deposit, also in South Gobi province. Notional shares in this project have already been distributed (electronically) to every Mongolian born before March 31st 2011. With a general election due in 2012, this adds political urgency to an ambitious scheme to raise billions of dollars for the mine through an initial public offering of shares in Ulaanbaatar and London. This will double the market capitalisation of the sleepy UB stock exchange.
Mongolian coal production is expected to increase from about 16m tonnes a year now to 40m by 2020 and 240m by 2040. Again China provides a ready market, but the mining boom has exacerbated Mongolian fears of a Chinese takeover by commercial stealth. So feasibility studies are under way on the costly options of building railways to take coal to Russia, and thence out to Korea and Japan via Vladivostok, or to Dandong on the Chinese-North Korea border and thence by sea to South Korea.
A touch of Dutch on the steppes
Not everyone in Mongolia looks at the growth projections and goes giddy with delight. Many worry about the economic, environmental, social and strategic costs of becoming “Minegolia”. Economists fret about a “resource curse”, or “Dutch disease”. If even the Netherlands can be vulnerable to this—whereby wealth floods in as natural resources are exploited, pushes up the exchange rate, inflation, or both, and renders other industries uncompetitive—how is poor Mongolia to cope? And the Netherlands never had a year like the one Mongolia can expect in 2013, when the economy will grow by a quarter and the current-account balance will lurch from a deficit of 14% of GDP into surplus.
Furthermore, Mongolia, a 20-year-old democracy, is prone to populist policymaking. Even as the economy is booming, political parties are tempted to promise handouts. After pledges made at the previous election, every Mongolian, rich or poor, gets 21,000 togrogs ($16) on the 15th of every month. The big parties have declared a no-handout pact ahead of the next election, and the government has set up a “fiscal-stability fund” to smooth the commodity cycle. But the temptation to dip into the till will mount as voting nears.
For economists, the resource curse is a risk Mongolia has little option but to take. As Mr Fisher, the Australian economist, puts it, its comparative advantage is in commodities and mining services. There is no point in trying to compete in manufacturing with “the biggest factory on the planet” next door in China.
Mongolia is still a desperately poor country. It has just graduated, in development-bank speak, to “lower-middle-income” status, with a GDP of around $2,000 per head. The population of UB has expanded by 70% in the past few years, to about 1.2m now. Some poor people still spend the winter nights beneath the streets (open manholes are a pedestrian hazard), huddling near the pipes for warmth. The city is sprawling outward through valleys in all directions along dirt roads lined with clapboard fences, behind which former herders live in gers.
One such herder, given the name Igor by Russians he knew in his youth, describes a common life path. A few years ago, herding in Central province, he lost many of his sheep to a dzud, one of the periodic climatic disasters that hit Mongolia—a summer drought that results in too little pasture and too little hay for the winter, followed by heavy winter snow and colder-than-usual temperatures. Igor sold the rest of his livestock to pay for his children's schooling, bought a pickup truck and moved to UB, where he makes a living hiring it out. He finds UB going from bad to worse, as more people come to town and scramble to earn money. All there is to look forward to is the summer pilgrimage home, to drink airag (fermented mare's milk) with his friends in a ger.
It is not just the weather that drives herders into town. Some are mining refugees, fleeing environmental devastation. Besides the licence-holders Mongolia has tens of thousands of illegal gold prospectors, known as “ninja” miners because the green plastic bowls they carry on their backs to sift for specks of the metal make them look like mutant turtles. Their use of mercury and cyanide has poisoned rivers.
Mongolia's most flamboyant environmental campaigner is a former herder called Tsetsegee Munkhbayar. He made his name helping clean up the Onggi river, and then for his extreme forms of protest, involving shooting at mining equipment or vehicles. In April 2011 he led a group of supporters into Sukhbaatar Square on horseback to demand talks with the government. Mr Munkhbayar, a grim-faced man looking out of place behind a desk in his UB office in knee-length boots and traditional jacket, believes that if Mongolians exploit the mines, “we will never develop.” He suggests an alternative future of herding, dairy-farming and tourism. As he talks he is interrupted by a loud blare of traditional Mongolian music. It is the ringtone on his mobile.
And not a drop to drink
One UB resident, visiting the OT site as an interpreter for a foreign journalist, cannot stop herself from weeping at what is being done to the area and to her country. For the outsider, the bleak brown desolation of the Gobi is not a landscape that evokes sympathy. And it needs an awful lot of Gobi to sustain a flock of goats and camels, so, vast though the OT project is, the number of herders directly affected is small. But the translator sees ruin: “You can't drink copper; you can't drink gold.”
In fact, the aquifer tapped for OT is too deep to affect surface water, too saline to pass human-consumption standards and so big it will be no more than one-third depleted after 50 years of the project. The big danger environmentalists see from its use is that even a future natural drought may be blamed on OT. It will be hard for the project to deny water to distressed local herders. That might lead to overgrazing.
The way it was
Such a massive undertaking is bound to distort the local economy and disrupt the environment. Compared with the ninjas, the multinationals and the development banks that will help raise the largest-ever project financing for mining can at least claim to be part of the solution. They are conducting impact assessments and bio diversity studies. The project is also providing jobs, and creating more employment for locals through subcontracts.
But it will struggle to be popular. Oyun Sanjasuuren, an independent member of parliament, says mining is bound to be political because it is “the main thing in the country”. And the face of Mongolian mining over the past 15 years has been “mostly ugly”. Miss Oyun says she entered parliament as a centrist, but now finds herself on the right as the main parties have shifted steadily to the left. OT has not been helped by tactless remarks made in the past by Robert Friedland, Ivanhoe's boss, about “the cash machine we intend to build”, and how nice it was to have so few people around and “no NGOs”.
The wealth generated by the miners is an obvious target. And the militant Mr Munkhbayar has many fans even among young urban Mongolians who moan that development is arriving too slowly. Like him, they wish it could come from some other industry. Every herder, says one environmentalist, hopes that at least one person in his family will carry on the life. But that may be changing. Twenty years ago it was hard to meet anyone in UB who identified with the city. Even if they were born there, they saw “home” as the “aimag”, or province, from which their parents came. Now a new generation of city-dwellers feels less attached to the countryside and to nomadic herding traditions. Their numbers are swollen by young people returning from an overseas education to chase the new opportunities the mining boom is throwing up.
One such, a young man called Damdin, is finding life difficult. After 15 years in Fairfax, Virginia, he has forgotten most of his Mongolian. He left Mongolia with his mother, who was fleeing his alcoholic father. At school in America the other Asian students were scared of him, despite his short stature; Mongolians, he says, have the reputation of being psychos. Now back in UB, living in a ger with his father who spends his time playing games on Facebook, his ambition is to open UB's first skateboard shop.
When The Economist encountered him, outside a derelict Buddhist temple in a ger district in the middle of the afternoon, and later at the nearby police station, he had just been punched and robbed of his phone by friends of the friend he had lent it to (“It was 4G, man!”). He was drunk, despite saying he is always teased as a wuss for sticking to beer when real men drink vodka. He was cradling a little street-puppy he had rescued from his muggers, knowing his grandmother would not let him take it home. He presented as forlorn a picture as could be imagined of the pain and dislocation of being caught between two worlds. But he said he had no intention of going back to Virginia.Crystal 251 Military Items PikalaxALT Feb 15th, 2016 1,362 Never 1,362Never
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rawdownloadcloneembedreportprint text 1.46 KB SYNTAX: moveZ - Use a move in battle (1-4) SYNTAX: switchY - Switch Pokemon (1-6) SYNTAX: run - Self-explanatory SYNTAX: itemXXX - Specify item only, XXX is one of the following 44: DIRE_HIT 161: FAST_BALL 164: FRIEND_BALL 4: GREAT_BALL 41: GUARD_SPEC 157: HEAVY_BALL 159: LEVEL_BALL 166: LOVE_BALL 160: LURE_BALL 1: MASTER_BALL 165: MOON_BALL 177: PARK_BALL 5: POKE_BALL 37: POKE_DOLL 6: PREMIER_BALL 2: ULTRA_BALL 33: X_ACCURACY 49: X_ATTACK 51: X_DEFEND 53: X_SPECIAL 52: X_SPEED SYNTAX: itemXXXpY - Must specify target Pokemon, XXX is one of the following 9: ANTIDOTE 12: AWAKENING 173: BERRY 139: BERRY_JUICE 83: BITTER_BERRY 10: BURN_HEAL 79: BURNT_BERRY 65: ELIXER 122: ENERGY_ROOT 121: ENERGYPOWDER 46: FRESH_WATER 38: FULL_HEAL 14: FULL_RESTORE 174: GOLD_BERRY 123: HEAL_POWDER 16: HYPER_POTION 80: ICE_BERRY 11: ICE_HEAL 48: LEMONADE 21: MAX_ELIXER 15: MAX_POTION 40: MAX_REVIVE 84: MINT_BERRY 109: MIRACLEBERRY 72: MOOMOO_MILK 13: PARLYZ_HEAL 18: POTION 78: PRZCUREBERRY 74: PSNCUREBERRY 114: RAGECANDYBAR 124: REVIVAL_HERB 39: REVIVE 47: SODA_POP 17: SUPER_POTION SYNTAX: itemXXXpYmZ - Must specify target pokemon and move, XXX is one of the following 63: ETHER 64: MAX_ETHER 150: MYSTERYBERRY
RAW Paste Data
SYNTAX: moveZ - Use a move in battle (1-4) SYNTAX: switchY - Switch Pokemon (1-6) SYNTAX: run - Self-explanatory SYNTAX: itemXXX - Specify item only, XXX is one of the following 44: DIRE_HIT 161: FAST_BALL 164: FRIEND_BALL 4: GREAT_BALL 41: GUARD_SPEC 157: HEAVY_BALL 159: LEVEL_BALL 166: LOVE_BALL 160: LURE_BALL 1: MASTER_BALL 165: MOON_BALL 177: PARK_BALL 5: POKE_BALL 37: POKE_DOLL 6: PREMIER_BALL 2: ULTRA_BALL 33: X_ACCURACY 49: X_ATTACK 51: X_DEFEND 53: X_SPECIAL 52: X_SPEED SYNTAX: itemXXXpY - Must specify target Pokemon, XXX is one of the following 9: ANTIDOTE 12: AWAKENING 173: BERRY 139: BERRY_JUICE 83: BITTER_BERRY 10: BURN_HEAL 79: BURNT_BERRY 65: ELIXER 122: ENERGY_ROOT 121: ENERGYPOWDER 46: FRESH_WATER 38: FULL_HEAL 14: FULL_RESTORE 174: GOLD_BERRY 123: HEAL_POWDER 16: HYPER_POTION 80: ICE_BERRY 11: ICE_HEAL 48: LEMONADE 21: MAX_ELIXER 15: MAX_POTION 40: MAX_REVIVE 84: MINT_BERRY 109: MIRACLEBERRY 72: MOOMOO_MILK 13: PARLYZ_HEAL 18: POTION 78: PRZCUREBERRY 74: PSNCUREBERRY 114: RAGECANDYBAR 124: REVIVAL_HERB 39: REVIVE 47: SODA_POP 17: SUPER_POTION SYNTAX: itemXXXpYmZ - Must specify target pokemon and move, XXX is one of the following 63: ETHER 64: MAX_ETHER 150: MYSTERYBERRYSchuette appeals to US Supreme Court after straight ticket ban fails in circuit court
LANSING, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) - The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has blocked a republican-backed law that would strike straight ticket voting in Michigan.
Tonight, Attorney General Bill Schuette is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overrule that decision.
Time is running out for republicans who want to end straight ticket voting.
The decision is a huge setback for House republicans, who wanted to eliminate straight ticket voting this November.
After three separate rulings, Schuette is going to the United States' highest court to make the case that Michigan has the right to ban straight ticket voting.
The ban would prohibit Michiganders from voting for candidates from one party by making a single mark on their ballot.
We spoke to MSU political scientist Matt Grossman, who has been following this case.
"I think the state has a strong argument, which is that we are adopting a set of policies that are effective in 43 other states," he said.
Democrats applaud the latest federal ruling that struck down the republican-backed law to end straight ticket voting before the November election.
Democrats argue republicans are trying to increase wait times at polling locations, which they saw would harm African-American voters.
House republicans disagree. They say eliminating straight-ticket voting will encourage voters to become better informed about candidates in both parties.
"I think it’s unfortunate that this federal court is overruling our rights as a state to make our own decisions here in Michigan. Ohio actually had a similar court case and they were allowed the make their own decisions," said Rep. Aric Nesbitt.
Now Michigan's Attorney General is hoping the Supreme Court will act quickly.
The deadline to finalize the ballot is September 9. And we do know right now that absentee ballots must go out by September 24.Just as Barbarian Invasion followed the original Total War: Rome, on the heels of its successor comes Total War: Attila, where the organised Romans and their fancy, shiny armour face hirsute, exceptionally angry men. Attila’s hordes will be heading west and into the empire on February 17th.
Since Rome II, Creative Assembly and Sega have really been pushing DLC, so it should come as no surprise that Attila’s getting some pre-order DLC.
If you splash out before launch, you’ll get the first DLC pack, the Viking forefathers culture pack, for free. It adds a bunch of Scandinavian factions to the game: the Jutes, the Danes and Beowulf’s people, the Geats.
Our Jules got a look at it earlier in the year, when Total War: Attila was revealed, and has this to say about it: “Keeping the Roman Empire together in the face of a changing climate, disease, and assaults from all sides is going to be one of the most difficult |
a final score.
The air pollution score was calculated based on data provided by the World Health Organisation’s 2016 air quality in cities database.
The petrol price score was based on information from local stations taken on August 18th 2017.
The World Health Organisation’s status report on road safety 2013 was used to calculate the road traffic injuries score for the cities.
The road quality score was based on the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2013 produced by the World Economic Forum, where citizens of each country were asked to assess the quality of the roads in their country. This is also a national score and does not account for minor differences between cities.
The road rage score was calculated based on the results of a poll conducted in each of the cities asking over 1000 drivers to rate their perception of road rage and the number of incidents witnessed in the past 12 months.Facebook expands data storage facilities in Prineville
View the Slideshow >>
(Gallery by Randy L. Rasmussen, The Oregonian)
PRINEVILLE -- Remember that silly picture of your kid’s birthday? The one you posted on Facebook a couple years back?
Well, it’s still there. So are more than 240 billion other photos and billions more videos and status updates. Facebook’s users add another 350 million photos every day.
Facebook knows you might want to see your old photos again someday. Or scroll back through your Timeline to revisit your posts as an online diary. But storing all those pictures – and keeping them immediately available – takes a lot of space.
Not in the physical sense, but in the virtual. That means lots of hard drives, lots of storage – and lots of energy.
So Facebook is preparing to try out a more efficient storage system at its Prineville data center, "cold storage" for those archival posts that people don't need every day, but that they don't want to lose altogether.
Josh Crass, manager of Facebook's Prineville data center, inside an existing "hot storage" facility.
Facebook says 82 percent of its traffic is focused on just 8 percent of its photos. Its cold storage facility is designed to create a more efficient way to store those photos that aren’t in heavy rotation.
The cold storage building is just a skeletal frame now, and a concrete pad. Facebook hopes to have the first of three phases up and running by fall. Each of the three 16,000-square-foot data hubs could hold an exabyte of data – equivalent to 1 million hard drives inside a contemporary PC.
Facebook already has two massive data centers in Prineville, the first the company built anywhere. The tens of thousands of servers inside those buildings are always on, ready to deliver your pictures and musings to your Facebook friends around the world.
Facebook in Prinevile
Opened: April, 2011
Facilities: Two 330,000-square-foot data centers, with room for a third. One data center is fully operational; construction of the second is complete, but it isn't fully equipped yet. Additionally, Facebook is building a 62,000-square-foot "cold storage" facility on its 127-acre property.
Employees: 70
Total investment: $285 million, as of January 1, 2012 (since then, Facebook has fully equipped one data center and built a second one.)
Tax breaks: Property tax exemptions valued at $4.4 million for 2012, the latest data available.
By contrast, most of the computers in the new cold storage facility will be asleep. A few will be alert, awaiting a request for old material and ready to summon the slumbering computers to provide their data. This material won’t reach your computer as quickly as something posted just a few hours ago – but Facebook says it won’t take long.
“The principle will be so that it doesn’t impact the user experience – so think about a matter of seconds, or milliseconds,” said Michael Kirkland, a Facebook communication manager.
Facebook estimates a cold-storage data center will cost one-third less than its standard data center. It designed the cold storage facilities to be smaller than live data centers – each rack of servers has eight times more storage than in “hot storage” – and five times more energy efficient. That’s a big consideration in the data center industry, which uses mammoth amounts of electricity to power and cool its computers.
Facebook says it used 71 million kilowatts of power in the first nine months of its operations in Prineville – equivalent to the power use in 6,000 homes. That total will continue to rise as more of the facility comes online.
Few technology companies accumulate more data than Facebook, which has more than 1 billion members. But data collection and analysis is key in many kinds of industries, and the volume of data is rapidly accumulating all over.
“We’re kind of at the forefront of that problem,” Kirkland said, “but pretty soon it’s going to be everyone’s problem.”
-- Mike Rogoway; twitter: @rogoway; phone: 503-294-7699(Reuters By Dave Graham and Miguel Gutierrez) – Two Mexican Senate committees approved a package of measures on Tuesday aimed at boosting Mexico's weak tax take, sending the fiscal bill unchanged to the Senate floor for a full vote later in the day.
Photo:ntrzacatecas
A key plank of President Enrique Pena Nieto's reforms, the bill was approved by lower house lawmakers earlier this month after they revised it to cut plans to apply sales tax to rents, mortgages, property sales and school fees.
The lower house also raised the top income tax rate to 35 percent from 30 percent and added a 5 percent levy on junk food at the last minute.
Though the Senate bodies, which included the finance committee, made no changes to the bill, it will carry a number of reservations that could lead to modifications on the floor.
Any changes would mean sending it back to the lower house to be approved again, and Congress is due to approve the bill by the end of this month.
Opposition conservatives have fought against much of the bill and are pushing hard to strip out a measure to raise the value-added tax (VAT) rate for border states to 16 percent.
At present, the states bordering the United States enjoy a lower VAT rate of 11 percent to encourage business.
The lower house changes to the tax plan in mid-October created a shortfall in the budget plan for next year, prompting lawmakers to raise the government's oil revenue estimate and make other alterations to close the funding gap.
The tax bill is tied to the 2014 budget, which must be approved by mid-November. It is one of the cornerstones of a reform drive spanning energy to telecommunications that Pena Nieto hopes will boost growth in Latin America's No.2 economy.
The last major reform pending in Congress is the president's planned overhaul of the state-controlled energy sector, which the government hopes will attract investment, help stem a slide in oil output, and power economic growth.
Pena Nieto proposed an energy revamp in August that would loosen the grip on the sector of state oil monopoly Pemex and offer private companies profit-sharing contracts.
If approved as presented, this would mark the largest opening of the energy sector to the private sector in decades.
However, the reform has stopped short of offering production-sharing contracts or concessions that oil majors had been hoping for, and many viewed it as cautious. Some lawmakers believe the plan could still be amended to attract more investment.PRS-X Series amps are not only well built, but very underrated.
This line of Pioneer's Premier Reference Series "X" amps was produced from around 1999-2001. They are both physically well built & very underrated in terms sound quality & output power. When originally purchased, each one came with a "birth certificate", showing its both its published rated power & actual power output. They also came with an awesome chrome end cap/cover. This cover hid the power wiring & speaker wires. It also made it possible to give it a finished look when putting multiple amps together in a row with, end caps on each end. PRS-X amps complete with the chrome cover, are a rare find today. Complete amps with the chrome cover & "birth certificate" are extremely rare. Models in this series are PRS-X720, PRS-X320 & PRS-X220 (2 channel); PRS-X340 (4 channel). Old school power, sound quality & build quality.Read full review
Verified purchase: NoThe Department of Energy and Climate Change - DECC - and the Environment Agency jointly issued a press notice last Sunday.
On a Sunday? Obviously someone at DECC is really annoyed about recent criticism!
If you analyse the content of that statement, what we see is distorted version of the facts, designed to manipulate the reality of what is taking place today.
For a some time the Government has sought to obfuscate any objective examination of its policies on unconventional gas and oil. Thus far though, we haven't seen such a collection of demonstrably erroneous claims within a single short statement. Let's begin at the beginning:
"Over the last couple of days, some newspapers have been misreporting the regulation of the potential shale reserves that could play a key role in securing Britain's future energy supplies."
We may have'resources, but no'reserves'
Firstly, Britain has no shale gas "reserves". A'reserve' is a known and exploitable quantity of mineral resources in the ground, with a known probability of extraction under existing market conditions.
The British Geological Survey - who have carried out studies in the north of England, The Weald and Scotland - have produced figures for the'resource' which is in the ground. They have refused, however, to put a figure on how great a'reserve' might actually exist. There is simply not enough evidence to make such a calculation.
Although many "hype" the figures (not my word, I'm quoting paragraph 14 of the Environmental Audit Committee's report on 'fracking'), there is little evidence to back-up those figures.
Even the energy industry regulator OFGEM, which has commissioned research on the issue, believes that shale gas will never contribute more than 5% to 15% of national gas demand - and also notes the environmental concerns about the process.
That amount of gas production is far less than would be required to avoid, under the Government's future energy scenarios, our dependency of high levels of piped and liquefied gas imports.
Next I'll take two quotes from near the beginning and the end of the statement:
"The government also remains committed to ensuring communities have their say on fracking applications and this is why there is no change to the process for environmental permits for fracking."
"As we have said before, we have made a commitment to ensure local people have a say about fracking in their community. The Government continues to support the development of the shale industry in a safe and sustainable way."
These statements are demonstrably untrue
Back in 2013 the Treasury's infrastructure white paper, Investing in Britain's Future, ordered: the Environment Agency to change its permitting processes; and the Departments for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) to change planning guidance.
The stated purpose of this was to speed up the approval of drilling sites for on-shore oil and gas production. Specifically, it stated that permits for drilling should be granted within two weeks.
DCLG introduced the new planning guidance in July 2013 - which was replaced by the even more stripped-down 'planning practice guidance' in March 2014. Its effect is to restrict what issues local planning authorities were allowed consider as part of planning applications.
Irrespective of what concerns the public have, local planners cannot consider the safety, the more sustainable alternatives to unconventional fossil fuels, nor the environmental and public health hazards highlighted in recent scientific research.
What the Environment Agency did to implement The Treasury's demands was even more surreal.
In August 2013 the Environment Agency consulted on draft technical guidance on 'on-shore oil and gas exploratory operations'. That process is still on-going, but it did note that the high level of public interest would almost certainly require a public consultation as part of any permit application for on-shore oil and gas.
Then, in March 2015, the Environment Agency issued new guidelines on 'determinations involving sites of high public interest'. In an almost Kafkaesque move, the Agency redefined the criteria for sites where public interest demands a public consultation as follows:
"Although it might seem at first sight rather unnecessary to define what a'site of high public interest' is, the fact that a site is generating a lot of public interest does not, for the purposes of this note, necessarily make it a'site of high public interest'."
Exemptions for emissions and waste from fracking
Currently all on-shore drilling operations require the Environment Agency (in England), Natural Resources Wales and the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency to issue permits for the emissions and waste created.
During 2011/2012 this created an absurd situation where: in Scotland, SEPA were issuing permits for exploratory drilling at Cannonbie; and yet, in England, the Environment Agency refused to ask Cuadrilla to apply for a permit for their work in Lancashire - because the Government did not want to encumber the industry with regulation.
In March 2014 DEFRA and the Welsh Government consulted on amending the Environmental Permitting Regulations (EPR) to exclude exploratory operations from the scope of the regulations. The specific amendment proposed that Schedule 1, Part 2, Section 1.2 of the regulations, which defines the restrictions on oil and gas operations:
"... does not apply to activities for which a petroleum exploration and development licence has been issued by the Minister pursuant to the Petroleum Act 1998 and the capacity of crude oil storage does not exceed 200 tonnes and the duration of oil storage does not exceed 6 months."
The results of that consultation, like the Environment Agency's technical guidance, have yet to be announced.
As a result of the Government's consultation, the Environment Agency announced it would carry out a consultation to take account of the expected change in the law. It was the media's response to the impending closure of this public consultation that the DECC statement sought to address.
The mystery of the missing Telegraph article
Which brings us to the next part of the DECC statement:
"The Independent's article ‘Fast-track fracking without public consent' and a follow up commentary piece in The Telegraph ‘Double standards will fuel suspicion on fracking' implies that fracking applications would receive less environmental scrutiny from the public. This is simply untrue."
The article in The Independent is, generally, quite straightforward. Where the dispute probably arises is DECC's definition of 'fracking'.
A full, 'high volume hydraulic fracturing' (HVHF) operation requires consent. The way DECC have gotten around the technical details in this case is to reclassify 'flow testing' or'mini-frac' operations as being insignificant - which, in a way, compared to a HVHF operation they are.
However, even the flow testing process, and associated operation like acid washing, are still environmentally significant - creating a range of solid, liquid and gaseous substances which have to be dealt with, and which have the potential to pollute the local environment.
The Telegraph article, referred to in the DECC statement, is even more interesting... it no longer exists! Other than on paper copies of the newspaper, that is, and the scan linked to.
It's a little know fact, but Google's search buffers, along with other search engines, do not always sync with the current web site content. Searching Google for a specific Telegraph article entitled 'Double standards will fuel suspicion on fracking' produced a buffered reference to the Telegraph's site map file - with an article which has precisely that name.
Search the Telegraph's web site for that article today, and it is not there. It would appear that the Telegraph's editorial staff, browbeaten by the political muscle exerted by DECC, and have chosen to remove the article.
This is not an isolated instance. As a result of pressure from the Government, and from the fracking industry's PR/lobbying machine, the UK's mainstream media not to carry many critical articles on this topic.
The Environment Agency's 1-2 weeks to grant fracking permits
At the same time, Government and industry-backed groups actively promote the technology. Consequently, many of the 'facts' we see about fracking in the media do not represent the full scope or uncertainty over what this process entails. Which brings us to the next block of DECC's statement:
"The Government has said from the start that we will consult with local communities about the impact of fracking and we will continue to work closely with the Environment Agency (EA) and other regulators to ensure all operators abide by the strict rules that govern the industry."
This is a clear misrepresentation of the Treasury's original policy, outlined in paragraph 4.34 of the infrastructure white paper, which required that the Agency must "issue permits within 1-2 weeks, by developing standard rules for onshore oil and gas exploration activities."
If the White Paper accurately states the Government's intention - which we must assume is the case - then for the Environment Agency to issue permits within '1-2 weeks' there is no possibility that the public can be consulted. The Agency's Kafkaesque amendment to its public consultation guidance enacts that as policy.
Piece-by-piece, the amendments to the Agency's permitting guidance have progressively excluded the public from the permitting process in England (Scotland and Wales have yet to complete this process).
This has been the demonstrable objective ever since the Government worked with Chris Smith - then chair of the Agency (now chair of the Shale Gas Task Force) - to plan these changes.
What is more, in tandem with the reforms to planning policy, it means many environment issues over which the public have concerns cannot be addressed through the regulatory process - which is arguably an infringement of the public's right to be consulted under the Aarhus Convention.
Keeping test-drilling out of the regulatory scope
Finally, let's take the last two blocks of the DECC statement together:
"The process for operators to apply for a fracking permit has not changed. Any operator wanting to undertake fracking needs to apply for an environmental permit, conduct an environmental impact assessment and apply for planning permission. This is open to full public consultation."
"The current consultation by the EA, however, focuses on two techniques used for testing conventional and unconventional oil and gas wells. The consultation looks to define the standard rule permits for operators applying to drill and carry out preliminary testing of oil and gas wells and not on the permits for fracking."
All the issues raised in an environmental statement might be open to consultation - but that does not mean a local planning authority has the power to consider them. Planning guidance excludes many areas of contention from their decision-making powers.
The above statements also rely on DECC's redefinition of 'fracking' to exclude flow testing and other operations.
Contrary to the DECC statement, the regulatory process has changed; or to be precise, it has changed, but the Government has yet to pluck up the courage to announce precisely how far those changes will push debate on these issues out of the public's reach.
What the DECC statement singularly fails to encompass are the current proposals to exempt 'temporary' exploration activities from the Environment Agency's permitting controls.
As far as the public are concerned, exploration is part of the whole unconventional gas process - although the industry always contend this relationship. Therefore, as far as the public are concerned, they are being shut out of the decision-making process.
Overall, the most serious factor which the DECC statement fails to address is that - today - we do not know what the operators are going to be required to do. So many consultations and amendments are outstanding that there is no certainty over:
the letter of the law related to unconventional gas and oil;
the requirements of environmental permitting;
or the Environment Agency's treatment of permit applications.
What a tangled web they weave...
Hanging over all of that, the results of the 14th Landward Oil and Gas Licensing Round, which potentially releases another 40% of the UK's land area for exploration, have still, over four years since that process first began, yet to be announced.
Government ministers, and the mandarins at DECC and the Treasury, have for the last four years attempted to retroactively engineer a legal framework for the exploitation of unconventional gas and oil.
Their major obstacle has been, over that time, that the evidence emerging about the impacts of those processes has made this harder to do - and has roused the public to oppose these policies.
Whether to save political face, or because they simply have no other policy which fits their ideological agenda, the Government has progressively spun ever-greater 'tangled web' to deflect criticism from this policy.
Sunday's statement from DECC reached a new height in that process - since almost every paragraph can be shown to be an exaggeration, a misquoting of where the process of'reform' currently stands, or to be demonstrably incorrect.
Despite DECC's statement being full of errors, half-truths and distortions, the greater problem we have is that few in positions of power in society are willing to challenge the Government's case. And the Government actively plays upon the media's poor coverage of the issue in order to do that.
More generally though, the greater failure here is not about 'fracking' per se. It is that our Government no longer feels the need to act upon objective evidence, and - in the words of the Ministerial Code - to give "accurate and truthful information" in defence of their policies.
The DECC statement is an exemplar of these excesses.
Paul Mobbs is an independent environmental consultant, investigator, author and lecturer, and maintains the Free Range Activism Website (FRAW).
Paul will be speaking at the Resurgence summer camp, 30 July - 2 August, at Green and Away, near Worcester. See here for programme details and bookings.
A fully referenced version of this article can be found on FRAW.Along with taxes, discussions around the deficit are made far more confusing than they really need to be. If we want to fix the long-term deficit, there are of course hundreds of different solutions. Despite having the best solutions on the deficit, those on the left are constantly depicted as totally delusional and non-responsive to the very real deficit concerns.
This is false, but the media needs some sort of narrative to keep the sides distinguished, and has consistently shied away from the class narrative that makes more sense. In any case, here is a short run-down of the left-leaning response to deficit concerns.
Social Security
Those on the right like to lump Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid together and talk about dozens of trillions of unfunded liabilities. However, lumping the three together makes absolutely no sense when talking about the deficit because they have drastically different budgetary effects.
Social Security for instance is really fine. As I have written before (and again here), Social Security has never contributed a single penny to the debt and will not do so for another 27 years. At that point, Social Security recipients would have to take a one-time 19% benefit cut for the program to remain solvent into the infinite horizon.
Since we should avoid making that cut, small modifications need to be made in the meantime. There are tons of modifications that will do the trick. Perhaps the most popular one for those who lean to the left is to simply uncap the payroll tax. Right now, all income made over $106,800 is exempt from payroll taxes. Removing that cap would solve the long-term Social Security deficit tomorrow.
Medicare and Medicaid
While it can sometimes be misleading to group programs together, Medicare and Medicaid are best dealt in tandem because the deficit problems for each are the same: health care costs are rising at totally unsustainable rates.
I wrote a longer article all about this a short while ago, but the short of it is that the only way to fix these problems is to constrain health care costs. Since 1975, health care inflation has been more than 4%. These costs are felt across the board, both for government insurance programs and for private programs. If that is not fixed, it really does not matter what you do: things are going to be really bad.
How do we fix this? The answer again is pretty clear: adopt a single-payer healthcare system that constrains costs just like other universalized healthcare systems across the world already do. The United States spends twice as much per person on healthcare as other wealthy countries do, but does not experience any better outcomes. Fixing this totally dysfunctional healthcare system is the only way to control costs and ensure that the long-term deficits of these programs do not spiral out of control.
As Dean Baker pointed out today, if we could reduce healthcare costs in the United States as successfully as other countries have already done, that by itself would lead to budget surpluses into the infinite horizon. Implementing a universal healthcare system that controls costs — as other countries have already managed to do — is clearly the best way to keep the Medicare and Medicaid deficit in check, but it is also one of the most politically unlikely things to occur. That’s American politics for you.
Discretionary Budget
Everything that is not Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid makes up the discretionary budget. The discretionary budget pays for all sorts of things including military, food stamps, government payroll, and so on. Fixing any discretionary budget deficits is also quite easy. As the slogan goes: end the wars, tax the rich! Well, and also get out of this recession.
The above chart from the Economic Policy Institute details some of the contributions to the current discretionary deficit problems. There are four categories: tax cuts for the rich, the wars, lost revenues, and extra spending caused by the recession. Letting the Bush-Obama tax cuts expire (tax the rich!) and ending the wars (end the wars!) would make a big dent in the discretionary budget deficit problem. But, of course, the biggest problem is that the depressed economy has destroyed revenues while also triggering government spending on social safety net programs. Once we get the economy back on track, growth and employment will resume, increasing revenue and decreasing spending. With that, we will be able to eliminate all but 2% of the discretionary budget deficit.
Conclusion
So that’s basically it. There is a plan right there that if successfully implemented would do the trick. Uncap the payroll tax cap (or make any other dozens of minor modifications to shore up Social Security); get healthcare costs under control through a single-payer system; and let the Bush tax cuts expire, end the wars, and get the economy back on track. That is not a hard to understand plan, and there simply is not a better one out there.
So, despite the present political narrative, those on the left don’t just have their heads in the sand to the reality of the fiscal situation. If anything it is the right-wing that — despite all their constant harping on the deficit — has no plan. As David Frum put it in a recent article: “Rather than workable solutions, my party [the Republican Party] is offering low taxes for the currently rich and high spending for the currently old, to be followed by who-knows-what and who-the-hell-cares.” But of course, these are the guys the media touts as fiscally responsible.BITCOIN, a "cryptocurrency" that has all the financial world talking, has had a crazy few days. Bitcoins have always been volatile, but over the past week the currency went on a tear, rising to close to $300 dollars, before plunging, losing some 60% of their value in the space of a few hours. Felix Salmon considers the carnage and writes:
Bitcoin is clearly not an effective store of wealth — just look at how quickly that wealth can be evaporated. Neither is it a useful payments mechanism, given how fast its value can fluctuate. Currently, it can take an hour for a bitcoin transaction to clear, which means that the value of the transaction when it clears can be radically different from its value at inception. Bitcoin only works for payments if you can be reasonably sure that its value will remain reasonably steady for at least the next hour or so.
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I'm going to play the pedant and note that this isn't quite right. The dollar is one of history's most successful currencies, I think it's fair to say, and yet it, like virtually every floating currency, is prone to wild volatility. In the late 1990s, the trade-weighted dollar soared nearly 50%. It then turned on a dime, dropping 30%. Then, in a matter of weeks in late 2008 it jumped nearly 20%. Once again, that's the trade-weighted dollar, not an individual currency pair (which can be much more crazily volatile).
Now over long time horizons those swings can have substantial macroeconomic impacts. But on a scale of weeks or months or even a year or two the average American has almost no idea that such movements are occurring nor does he care. And that's because America is a massive economy, in which trade is a relatively small share of GDP, in which everyone is paid in dollars and in which everything is priced in dollars. Foreign exchange volatility matters only to the extent that the exchanges you care about have a foreign component.
Now in Bitcoinia (as we might call the Bitcoin economy) that means volatility currently matters very much. Almost every good one can purchase with Bitcoins is actually priced in dollars and sold at a Bitcoin price reflecting the prevailing exchange rate. So there is almost no Bitcoin frame of reference independent of the Bitcoin-dollar exchange rate. Bitcoinia mostly lacks internal supply chains, in which contracts for intermediate goods are denominated and settled in Bitcoins. People aren't taking home Bitcoin paycheques. To put things simply: every good in Bitcoinia is an import and every job must be offshored. In that kind of economy, exchange-rate volatility matters a very great deal indeed.
But just because that's how Bitcoinia operates now doesn't mean that's how it will operate always and forever. The more purchasing power there is in Bitcoinia, the greater the incentive there is to cater to Bitcoinian demand. The more transactions there are in Bitcoinia, the more entrepreneurs will want to hedge their exposure to foreign exchange volatility by paying suppliers or employees in the same currency they're accepting as payment. And Bitcoin wage payments reinforce the demand for goods and services that can be purchased with Bitcoins. The greater the ability one has to buy and sell what one needs exclusively within Bitcoinia, the less foreign-exchange volatility matters.
Whether Bitcoinia actually attains that critical mass is very much an open question, and I certainly have my doubts. In early days volatility does matter a great deal, and huge swings against other currencies may kill the Bitcoin economy in its cradle. One might recommend a bit of macroeconomic management to create enough to stability to allow the critical mass to build, but centralised management is very much what Bitcoin is not about. Sceptical as Bitcoinistas may be of the value of central banking, it has developed as it has for a very, very good reason. And if the Bitcoin economy manages to come up with a completely decentralised way to stabilise itself without that top-down maintenance, well, that would be something very interesting indeed. More probable: either Bitcoinia will remain a small, fringe economy thanks to inherent instability, or a stabilising financial structure will somehow grow within it. And then one day we just might see a Bitcoinian J.P. Morgan gathering Bitcoinia's financial eminences into a virtual office to cooperate in an effort to stave on looming financial panic...Borussia Dortmund striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang believes Bayern Munich will surrender their Bundesliga title this season and hopes his side can be there to take advantage of any slip-ups.
The reigning champions have dominated the German top flight over recent seasons, with Dortmund the last side to buck that trend with back-to-back titles in 2011 and 2012.
As Dortmund struggled through last season en route to a seventh-placed finish, Wolfsburg and Borussia Monchengladbach saw Bundesliga bids fall away as Pep Guardiola's side proved a cut above.
However, with leaders Dortmund claiming maximum points from their opening four matches this term, Aubameyang made a bold assertion regarding the title race.
"We have started the season well. Although everybody knows that Bayern are favourites, as I said, and I am probably the only one thinking this and others don't, I think that Bayern won't win the league this season," he said.
"At least this is what I think. But we have to keep up for the whole season and then we'll see how the season will shape up at the end.
"I think that we have started very well. It's good that we have managed to achieve this winning streak. We'll have to continue playing as we know and try to win."
Aubameyang already has five league goals to his name this season, having been given a prominent attacking role under new coach Thomas Tuchel at Signal Iduna Park.
"I want to score 20 goals in the Bundesliga this season," he added.
"That's a target I want to achieve. I have a bet with the coach so I will give it my all in order to achieve this goal because I want to improve.
"It's not really a bet but at the end of the season I will show you something. I will have something to show but only at the end of the season.
"[Tuchel] has managed to make me feel at ease from day one. He gives me the confidence I need. He talks to me a lot. We speak in English but it's good for me to talk with him.
"We have many exchanges and we work a lot on this, on the videos and we do all this kind of things."The mail-order fashion site Super Groupies is collaborating with the Sailor Moon Crystal anime to create a series of super-cute, frilly umbrellas. The umbrellas come in five color variations to represent the Inner Sailor Guardians. Each one is topped with a bow and a planetary symbol charm. They retail for 5,800 yen (about US$48) and pre-orders open on April 19.
Sailor Moon Sailor Mercury Sailor Mars Sailor Jupiter Sailor Venus
Super Groupies is also offering a sleek, black umbrella with a screen-printed image of the Silver Millennium. This version retails for 6,800 yen (US$58).
Also coming to stores in April is the seventh Blu-ray volume of the Sailor Moon Crystal series. It will go on sale on April 8. It includes episodes 13 and 14 with commentary by Usagi's voice actress Kotono Mitsuishi, Chibi-Usa's voice actress Misato Fukuen, director Munehisa Sakai, producer Yu Kaminoki, and the manga's original editor Fumio Osano. The special edition bundles a 24-page booklet, a Cutie Moon Rod charm, and a special box. The Blu-ray cover shows Princess Serenity surrounded by butterflies.
Source: Comic Natalie, NijimenI am the father of a non-religious soldier. I take it personally when a cretinous wackjob priest declares that my son is a coward lacking in commitment, damned, evil, and weak. Fuck you, Bryan Griem.
There’s an adage I expect will be repeated by other ministers responding to this question. It goes, “there are no atheists in foxholes.” Meaning, when bombs burst, everyone hedges their bets and prays, “God, save me!” There’s a joke about one combat vet who prayed “Lord, if you’re there, I’ll serve you and attend church every Sunday; just get me through.” The Air Force immediately comes and blasts everything, answering the man’s prayer. He then looks up to heaven and says “never mind….”
I know that religious people have security that atheists don’t. If you believe in life after life, you fight harder, risk more, and serve better than a guy who thinks, “this is it!” If you believe you’re nothing but worm-food at death, you aren’t going to jump on a grenade to save the platoon, or charge a machine-gun nest expecting to meet Jesus. You’re going to be reserved, second-guessing, and probably be a big fat chicken.
Look, you just read the stats: “Researchers have found that spiritual people have decreased odds of attempting suicide, and that spiritual fitness has a positive impact on quality of life, on coping and on mental health.” Atheists be damned. They will be. So I really don’t care what they think regarding these tests. I’m tired of having their constant nagging, their constant opposition against God — their evil. They contribute nothing positive in the long run. Their very name, “a” theist, means they are “against,” with a big “no” regarding America’s “creator” and “Nature’s God” (the one mentioned in our Declaration of Independence). I’m frankly sick of them. Why they are here on the In Theory cast is beyond me. It’s like saying, “I have no spiritual input because I don’t believe in the spirit. So here’s my ignorance….”
I wonder what the military puts on gravestones of atheists, a thumbs-down? Listen, all religions are protected by our laws, but atheists don’t countenance America’s documents that mention God. They don’t actually deserve rights that even bizarre religionists have. If it could be shown that people who deny God create military weakness, however small, what should commanders do when choosing a winning military? I agree with you.A 17-year old has admitted to 23 charges of extortion, public mischief and criminal harassment, following a string of swatting attacks across the US and Canada. The Canadian teen was charged with terrorising “mostly young, female gamers and their parents” – many of whom he met playing League of Legends.
The 17-year old from Coquitlam cannot be named because of his age. He faced a day-long sentencing late last week, which addressed charges covering BC, Minnesota, Utah, Arizona, Ohio and California.
Crown prosecutor Michael Bauer told the court the teen had “a consistent pattern” of trying to make friends (or more intimate relationships) with gamers online. When faced with inevitable rejection, he then made repeated late-night phonecalls, shut down their internet access, and posted personal information online. Turning his attention to the girl’s parents, he would post dates of birth, social insurance numbers and credit card details online, as well as the tried-and-true prank of ordering extravagant pizzas to be delivered.
More seriously though, he would also contact local police, claiming to be holding a family hostage in the girl’s homes, announcing he had killed someone in the house, or declaring he had explosives at that address. Bauer explained that he would order a SWAT team to show up with a police helicopter, demand a ransom, or promise to kill any law enforcement official who intervened.
Local media has more details of the teen’s activities: He claimed to be a retired FBI agent, holding a family hostage (again with an AR15 rifle), with bombs planted around the house. He posted a Minnesota family’s personal details online and destroyed their credit rating as people across the country tried to open bank accounts in their names. He claimed to be in a Utah home where he had tied up his ex-girlfriend’s family. He used software to send hundreds of text messages simultaneously to his victim’s phone, and hacked personal email addresses and Twitter accounts so that his victims |
concede that his libertarian principles are not absolute. I thus voted for Dr. Paul in 2008 and again in 2012 even though he had no chance of winning. He is the only Republican candidate who even pretends to adhere to any fixed principles.
For a while, I was tempted by some of what the Green Parties say. I am, after all, pro-life. I was raised in a vast forest. I’ve always liked the Greens and agree with a lot of the Global Greens Charter adopted in Canberra in 2001. The global Green Platform includes many very Catholic statements of principle in regards to nonviolence, social justice, participatory democracy, economic and ecological sustainability, de-centralized decision-making, human rights, and so on. Were it not for abortion, I would probably even sign up! The Greens oppose capital punishment and torture, as do I. They support regional farming and small business, as do I. Their champion for a long time was Ralph Nader, whom I have always liked even when I disagree with him on some economic questions and despite the fact that he is a lawyer.
Unfortunately, however, in the U.S. the Greens, like Amnesty International, have been taken over by extremist pro-abortion fanatics for whom the right to kill infants in the womb is “non-negotiable.” In Europe, some of the Green Parties insisted that “questions implying life and death are sensitive ones indeed and let it be clear that the European Green Party has never advocated unrestricted abortion rights.” The European Greens, especially in Germany, have had painful experience with what happens when societies endorse medical killing…. and are thus much less enthusiastic when it comes to abortion and euthanasia than are liberals in the U.S. The Global Green Party platform in 2008 didn’t even mention abortion except to denounce forced abortions in China. But for U.S. liberals, abortion trumps all else. How a party that claims to be “green” can celebrate the surgical dismemberment of an infant in the womb… or think that chemically poisoning such a child through saline solution or RU486 is somehow a “life-enhancing” act… is beyond me. Here is what the platform of the Green Party in the USA states on abortion:
Women’s right to control their bodies is non-negotiable. It is essential that the option of a safe, legal abortion remains available. The “morning-after” pill must be affordable and easily accessible without a prescription, together with a government-sponsored public relations campaign to educate women about this form of contraception. Clinics must be accessible & must offer advice on contraception; consultation about abortion and the performance of abortions. (Source: 2008 Green Party Platform from 2008 Chicago Convention Jul 13, 2008)
Well, that crosses the Greens off of the list for Catholics, at least the Greens in the U.S.! (In the past few years, the European Greens have also become increasingly pro-abortion… to the point that the European Green Party Congress, held in Paris in 2011, declared that while “access to safe and legal abortion remains a controversial issue in European countries… the right to have an abortion in good psychological, sanitary or economic conditions must be re-asserted as an indispensable condition to the evolution of countries.”)
What about the Phillip Blond’s Red Tories? They are consciously drawing upon Distributist ideals. Distributism is the name given to the political aspirations of G.K. Chesterton, Hilaire Belloc and Fr. Vincent McNabb, OP, in the early 20th century. Opposed to both Big Government liberals and Big Business conservatives, the Distributists favored small, locally owned farms and businesses and sought to put into practice the Corporal Works of Mercy. Dorothy Day and her Catholic Worker movement were an example of early Distributist thought. Certainly, neo-Distributism has many attractions for Catholics… and much of what the Red Tories say appeal to us. Yet among their many attractions, numbers isn’t one of them – meaning, both Distributism and the Red Tories are more of a philosophical objection than a real-life movement.
If I was really pressed, however, I would have to say that the political movement that comes closest to authentic Catholic ideals and my own temperament would have to be The Idler movement founded by UK writer and general layabout Tom Hodgkinson.
In a very real way, Tom comes far closer to living out the ideals of Distributism, and thus of Catholic social teaching, than any of the more “serious” political parties we’ve been discussing. In a very real sense, The Idler movement is apolitical. Like G.K. Chesterton and the Distributists, Tom thinks that the most important things in life have nothing whatsoever to do with politics — things like raising children, dancing with your wife, river racing, drinking with friends — and that we should, by and large, ignore both politics and politicians. For example, Tom does not vote… and, the more I see of U.S. politics, the more I understand why he takes this stance. How can a person with principles stand with either the Party of Slavery (the Democrats) or with the Party of Torture (the Republicans)?
While I can’t quite bring myself (yet) to go that far, clearly the world needs a political and economic alternative. The obsolete ideas and ideals of Big Government collectivism … and the equally bankrupt ideas and ideals of Big Business collectivism… have run their course. Now all that is left, in most developed countries, is a political stalemate that is increasingly acrimonious, even dangerous.
The only sane alternative for fair-minded humanists everywhere is to abandon the siren song of politics altogether… to flee the plantation of government rules and regulations… and channel their energies into social and economic projects that lie outside the realm of politics.
What sorts of projects? Anything that is based on voluntary cooperation, not force. Any individual initiative or social effort that invites participation, not demands or forces it. That would include new businesses, voluntary organizations, neighborhood groups, food and medical co-ops, charities, churches and temples, social outreach enterprises.
For thousands of years, this was how people served the common good: voluntarily.
Someone saw a need that wasn’t being met, thought of a way that need could be met, and then either created a solution that could be sold, or, alternatively, persuaded neighbors and friends to join in a collective effort to provide a solution. Thus, Benjamin Franklin and the early American colonists created the first fire departments and libraries. Politics had little to do with it. Everything was done on a voluntary basis, by subscription.
Increasingly, Catholics and other people of faith will be forced to Just Say No – no to politicians and their increasingly authoritarian schemes, no to never-ending war, no to political coercion of any kind. In the U.S., unfortunately, it increasingly means saying no to party politics. It means voting your conscience instead of for a party. Sometimes it even means voting for idealistic losers.How Meditation Helped Me Defeat 16 Years of Anxiety
Ali Woo Blocked Unblock Follow Following Mar 6, 2017
If you’ve ever suffered with chronic anxiety, you know the horrible effect that it can have on your life. The stress, heartache and mental anguish of constant fear is something you’re probably familiar with. It can be devastating, affecting your career and relationships. In my own life, anxiety contributed to a number of issues; having trouble with developing close personal relationships, fear of overcrowded areas (yes, anxiety intensified my agoraphobia), overeating, over-stimulation which made focusing difficult at best and contributed to an increase in panic attacks and asthma. Couple all of that that with university, owning and managing businesses, a full time job, marriage problems, family drama, bills and piling debt, terrible in-laws and more- I was no longer a healthy person, mentally or physically.
I’d seen the cycle before, in my own family, and I knew where that road ended: death or utter contempt for life and all it has to offer.
I realized that it wasn’t the external situation that needed to change, but the internal situation. I’d been taking anti-anxiety meds for awhile and found that my senses were simply dulled (this is just my personal experience, and doesn’t necessarily mean it’s true for everyone else). Even with medication, the anxiety was there, albeit more of a quiet shadow in the corner of my mind rather than the roaring monster I experienced without meds. Obviously the medication acted as a bandaid and didn’t get to the core issue. Although it’s not recommended by doctors, I stopped my medication and began seeking alternative options.
I slowed down my caffeine intake and replaced caffeine with herbal teas, primarily teas with lavender, chamomile, peppermint, Chinese medicinal concoctions etc.
I began exercising more regularly, mostly walking and hiking
I started going out into nature more often (studies show that a nature walk can do wonders for decreasing stress and anxiety)
I rescued an amazing rottweiler and brought him into our home as a permanent member of the family, he provided me with constant solace and support until he died late last year of cancer
I did slow breathing exercises
I visited a therapist
All of those things helped me tremendously in my journey, but they still didn’t eliminate the internal issues. It wasn’t until one morning, I entered a used book store, steaming cup of coffee in hand, that something serendipitous happened. A certain book, carelessly left on a table with an overflow of magazines, caught my eye. On the cover, was the image of a Buddhist monk dressed in beautiful orange and red, laughing, eyes closed peacefully while sitting cross legged. That book was Joyful Wisdom, by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche & Eric Swanson, and it introduced me to the art of meditation.
There are different kinds of meditation out there, and when you’re learning about it, you need to be very careful about meditation centers in the West. Some have wonderful teachings, others spread false information and unrealistic promises. Lucas Chu, a teacher and practitioner of Soto Zen meditation methods in New York, states it simply,
“meditation can bring on negative associations to some people. This is the fault of borderline cult organizations, quasi-religious groups, “new age” jargon, paid celebrity endorsements, false “gurus”, impossible guarantees and poorly taught practices. However, when practiced correctly, meditation is one of the most powerful exercises. It is a practice that has been utilized across the world for millenniums.”
You don’t need to jump quickly to find a meditation center. I started my meditation journey from the comfort of my bedroom. Besides, I’ve found that my results are almost always better when I am one-on-one with a practitioner who can gently guide me through the process. Meditation is very intimate, because it is one of the few, if only times, we sit down and have a “conversation” of sorts with our minds.
Getting to know the inner workings of our minds is the first step in meditation, and requires being completely open and accepting of the things your mind shows you (for the good or the bad). With enough practice, you will learn not only to pinpoint your anxiety issues, but to face them and accept them as if you would a friend.
When you first learn to meditate, you’re going to find that you have a lot more thoughts than you ever realized. Your brain is working at full speed, processing information and chattering to you all day everyday, only, it isn’t very noticeable in your daily life. Not until you sit down and attempt to listen to the chatter.
When I don’t meditate for awhile and then get back to it, my mind becomes jumbled with so many thoughts that it’s like sitting in the center of a Colosseum full of people conversing. It can be a bit overwhelming, you’ll notice that you have so many thoughts tumbling one over the other, that it’s hard to put them together in a coherent pattern. That’s okay! It’s a normal part of the beginning process, and it means that you are on the right track.
I think one of the most promising aspects of meditation (aside from all of the physical/mental health benefits) is getting to know our minds intimately and learning that we have no control over other people and other situations. When you come to that realization and accept it, there is an immense weight that will roll right off your shoulders.
In my first month of meditation, I experienced a major paradigm shift, changing the way I looked at the world. I realized that when I had anxiety attacks, I needed to face them internally, not attempt to hide from them. What I found interesting, was that usually if a negative or anxiety-centered thought popped up, when I faced it head on, it would peter out into nothing, as if being faced with gentle steadfastness had cowed it into peaceful submission.
Remember, even people practiced at meditation such as Buddhist monks are human- they still feel anger, frustration, sadness and every other emotion that separates us from so many of our animal counterparts. Meditation helps us to face those emotions and accept them while navigating through life peacefully and compassionately.
Though I no longer take medication, I am not 100% free of anxiety (no one is totally free of that), but it rarely creeps up, and when it does, it’s extremely fleeting, darting away the moment I internally face it. I now know how to handle it and have a better understanding of the inner workings of my mind.
Through meditation, you’ll learn to make peace with yourself, accepting yourself and others as is. It may also help you to become a more compassionate and open person, as it has for me. Ultimately, it has helped me tremendously in my marriage and relationships with family and friends, and I hope that it can do the same for you.
Today, I can confidently say that I feel at peace and happy about where my life is. Good luck on your journey and please feel free to share your story in the comments section if this resonates with you!Russia is believed to have bombed a bakery run by a Turkish humanitarian aid agency in Syria's Idlib province. The bakery operated by Istanbul-based Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) is frequented by nearly 45,000 people every day.
The NGO, Turkey's largest humanitarian aid organisation, has released video footage reportedly showing the destruction of the facility, which produces nearly 16,000 loaves of bread daily. Russia has been carrying out air strikes in Syria's Idlib province targeting extremist positions, though the NGO's claims are yet to be independently verified. IHH says most of the people who visit the bakery are Syrians.
IHH officials add there is no presence of Islamic State (Isis) in Idlib province and Russia's assertions that its forces target only jihadists' interests are unjustifiable. No casualties have been reported in the alleged bakery air strike. This is because Russian jets initially pounded targets close to the bakery as warning strikes before bringing down the bakery building. Most of the people inside the bakery had fled the place as soon as they heard air strikes.
Russia has not yet responded to IHH's allegations. However, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory of Human has confirmed Russia has been bombarding targets in Idlib. IBTimes UK is awaiting a response from the IHH for more details on the reported attack.
Al Jazeera quoted activists in the area as saying that at least 44 people have been killed in the air strikes in Ariha. One strike is thought to have hit a crowded market place in Ariha, which is controlled by a Syrian rebel group named Army of Conquest.
Earlier, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) - a US-based NGO - had claimed the ongoing air strikes in Syria had hit at least three medical facilities.Chili’s Chili’s is cutting its menu to focus on things like burgers and ribs.
Experts say that Chili’s decision to slash its menu by 40% is a smart move for a company that, like other casual dining restaurants, needs something to separate itself from the competition.
Chili’s, a restaurant chain that’s part of Brinker International Inc. EAT, +2.02%, said Friday that on Sept. 18, menus nationwide will be reduced to 75 items, down from 125 appetizers, entrees, cocktails and more, the total reached in January. The chain launched in 1975 with a 25-item menu that included burgers, beer and margaritas. The new, reduced menu will give the chain the room to focus on its core menu of burgers, ribs and fajitas, the company said.
“Over the years, like many bar and grill chains, Chili’s chased consumer trends, expanded the menu and tried to be all things to all guests, therefore compromising execution and resulting in a fuzzy food reputation,” Chili’s said in a statement.
The restaurant industry has been in a slump, most recently recording its sixth consecutive quarter of traffic declines according to data from The NPD Group. Traffic at casual dining restaurants is down 3% for the year ending June 2017.
“The casual dining segment as a whole is losing market share, suffering declines in sales and traffic,” said Pat Cobe, senior editor, menu analyst at Technomic, a data and analytics provider for the food service industry. “Much of that is due to the sameness of the menus at concepts like Applebee’s, TGIFridays and Chili’s. By paring down its menu and focusing on core items and best sellers that built Chili’s brand identity, Chili’s is differentiating itself from the pack.”
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Applebee’s is part of the DineEquity Inc. DIN, -1.80% portfolio.
Bonnie Riggs, NPD Group restaurant industry analyst, agrees there is a plague of monotony across casual dining.
“Walking into one is like walking into any one of them,” she told MarketWatch. “Everybody’s got the same thing, the menu has gotten bigger and bigger, and it’s become cumbersome and confusing, especially for boomers.”
The demographic issues at many casual dining chains came up on the most recent DineEquity call.
Read: Starbucks, Brooklyn cafe settle spat over unicorn drinks
“Over the past few years, the brand set out to reposition or reinvent Applebee’s as a modern bar and grill in overt pursuit of a more youthful and affluent demographic with a more independent or even sophisticated dining mind-set, including a clear pendulum swing towards millennials,” he said, according to a FactSet transcript, saying it has moved the company away from its “middle America roots.”
“While we certainly hope to extend our reach, we can’t alienate boomers or Gen Xers in the process,” he said.
Riggs says that, for Chili’s, its menu reduction will bring the menu down to a manageable size while focusing on what customers come back for, even if items like burgers are common.
Chili’s is an NPD client.
“You can find a burger, ribs, and quesadillas anywhere, but when you do it really well, that’s the reason consumers visit Chili’s,” she said.
Experts also agree that the menu reduction is a way to cut costs and reduce food waste.
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“With large variability in the cost of various proteins and the difficulty of raising prices to your customers in this low-inflation environment, it makes sense for restaurant groups to refocus their menus on higher margin, more popular items,” said Greg Wank, partner and leader of Anchin, Block & Anchin’s food and beverage industry practice. Anchin, Block & Anchin is an accounting and advisory firm.
But Wank is concerned that the new menu, though smaller, is filled with things that diners are shying away from.
“Focusing on burgers, ribs and fajitas does not sound like they are following the trend in healthier eating,” he said.
Brinker shares closed Friday up 2.2%, but the stock is down 38.3% for the year so far. The PowerShares Dynamic Food & Beverage Portfolio PBJ, -0.22% is down 4.1% for 2017 so far, and the S&P 500 index SPX, -0.08% is up 10% for the period.The struggle for electric vehicles to gain legitimacy in a world dominated by supersized SUVs and overbearing big rigs is something of a David and Goliath story.
The underdog just landed a blow right between the eyes of America’s major car manufacturers.
In April, Tesla became the most valuable automaker in the US, passing General Motors in total market value. GM has since regained the lead by a slim margin, edging Tesla in market cap by a little more than a billion dollars.
Still, the ability of a 15-year-old company to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the venerable Detroit automakers is extraordinary. It’s a reflection of the broader picture of how alternative energy and renewables have risen to prominence. It would seem to be no coincidence that at a time when electric vehicles appear poised for widespread adoption, solar and renewable energy have become cheaper than coal.
Tesla is set to roll out its most affordable EV to date later this year—the Model 3, retailing at $35,000 before tax breaks. The Model 3 reportedly has more than 400,000 pre-sales. There are only about 540,000 EVs on US roads today, according to report called “The State of EV Charging in 2016,” produced by electric car charging company ChargePoint.
The release of the Model 3 alone promises to nearly double the number of electric vehicles (including hybrids). That’s not quite as impressive as it first sounds considering there were more than 260 million vehicles in the US as of 2014, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. In other words, EVs will still account for less than one percent of all vehicles.
Strong policy needed
There is potential for EVs to reach a market share of 30 percent or greater by 2030, but that will require radical shifts in environmental and regulatory policy, according to John Axsen, an associate professor at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia who studies green technology, consumer behavior and environmental policy.
“As long as gasoline vehicles are able to belch pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions ‘for free,’ then EVs will have a disadvantage,” he says by email to Singularity Hub. “Economists call this a market failure. So nearly all the good research out there shows that strong policy is responsible for any success we’ve seen so far, and that we’ll need more strong policy to see any real success going forward.”
There are very few places where such policies exist. For example, Norway has reached 25 percent market share for EVs because it has huge taxes on fossil fuels, huge taxes on conventional vehicles, and very substantial financial and non-financial incentives for EVs, according to Axsen.
California is leading the way in North America. Its zero-emissions vehicle (ZEV) mandate requires automakers to sell a certain percentage of electric vehicles. Quebec has recently followed suit with its own ZEV mandate. “I believe that if California did not have this policy, Tesla would never have existed (and Toyota probably never would have developed the Prius, for that matter),” Axsen says.
Earlier this year, California’s utilities submitted plans to collect up to $1 billion from customers to expand the state’s EV infrastructure. If approved, California would add more than 10,000 new charging stations, as the state pushes to put a million EVs on the road by the end of the decade. The Guardian reported last year that the European Union has created a draft directive requiring every new and refurbished home in Europe to be equipped with a recharging point.
Supply needs to meet demand
Another impediment to EVs reaching a tipping point is supply, according to Axsen. There are relatively few makes and models available, particularly in truck and van classes. “And then, many car dealerships are not carrying these EVs in their inventory, and research shows that many dealers in Canada and the US are not even trying to sell the EVs to customers,” he notes.
Most of the major US automakers manufacture EVs or hybrids, with more than 55 models on the market. There are also a number of emerging startups vying to become the next Tesla. Some of the best-funded are in China, while a company called Lucid Motors out of California (of course) has been touted as a potential challenger to Tesla. Its luxury model, still not in full production, boasts 1,000 horsepower and can go 400 miles on a single charge.
Elon Musk and Tesla, meanwhile, are not satisfied with just building the world’s most advanced EV compact cars and sedans. The company recently announced it would next tackle a mini-bus, pickup truck and even semi-truck. The latter would be a particularly disruptive technology, especially if Tesla outfits it with the company’s Autopilot system.
Of course, there are quite a few technological roadblocks the company will need to address, not least of which is developing a battery system that can handle a heavy, long-haul 18-wheeler rig. A company not named Tesla but called the Nikola Motor Company thinks it has the answer by using hydrogen fuel cells to power a fully electric 18-wheeler.
It claims its Nikola One will have a range of 800 to 1,200 miles while delivering 1,000 horsepower. And just a few days ago, Toyota also announced plans for a hydrogen cell-powered big rig, in a new race to produce the first zero-emission 18-wheeler.
Phasing out fossil fuels
“Electric vehicle technology is getting better, and a few regions are showing the market potential,” Axsen says, such as California, Norway and the Netherlands. Both European countries plan to phase out fossil fuel vehicles by 2025.
Despite such successes, Axsen emphasizes that without changes in policy, the EV market will likely continue to hover around one percent, perhaps hitting 10 percent by 2030. “The strongest policies, which encourage automakers to sell a wide variety of EVs, can push market share as high as 30 to 45 percent by 2030,” he adds.
The current US administration’s efforts to rollback Obama-era fuel economy rules would seem to imply that policies favoring EVs will remain status quo at best for now. That could mean China and Europe will speed past the US and Canada in the widespread adoption of electric vehicles.
While Axsen doesn’t share Musk’s unfettered optimism—possibly because he is not beholden to stockholders—he does think the drive to a zero-emission transportation system is navigable in the US and Canada.
“Though our current policies are not nearly up to the task, governments have proven options at their disposal that will get us where we need to go,” he wrote previously.
Image Credit: ShutterstockIsaac Davis, Staff Writer
Waking Times
Humans have tried just about every form of governance imaginable except for true liberty, which would honor the equality of all people without intervening in every aspect of life. Remarkably, we’ve seen numerous examples of just how bad and oppressive government can get, but many of us still hope and pray that human civilization will someday rise to our highest potential, no matter how dark the present looks.
At the age of 82, Dr. Ron Paul is moving into the twilight of his life, but his consistent message of understanding individual liberty and for unabashedly promoting it has struck a chord with millions of Americans in recent years. And while the Ron Paul Revolution may be over, Dr. Paul still offers us a guiding light. He is, in a very real sense, a uniquely American wisdom elder, the last of the true statesmen and spokespersons for meaningful freedom.
In a recent interview with Ryan McCormick of The Outer Limits of Inner Truth Radio Show, Dr. Paul was asked about the future beyond his own life, and what younger generations can do to push the cause of liberty.
McCormick: “How can we honor your legacy? How would you prefer us to act and honor your memory when pushing for the cause of liberty?” Dr. Paul: “Study the principles of liberty and understand why that’s the basic moral principle of civilization, and promote it. It’s based on tolerance, you know, tolerance and honesty. FREE ONLINE EVENT ONLY THIS WEEK: Learn how to use EFT and actually implement it in your own life. I think just promoting the cause of liberty has been my goal, and I think that should be the goal of all individuals. I also believe that those of us that have finally come around to believing it without being arrogant about it, we have a greater moral responsibility, and this would include people like you and your audience that, I’m sure have a much better understanding than the average person on the street, so I’d put a little bit of pressure on them, in a polite way, in saying, you know, you understand that your ideas are very valuable, so you should participate in spreading that message the best way you can.”
Essentially, Dr. Paul is saying that moral ideas matter deeply in these times, that they are universal. He is hinting at the notion that the principles of liberty are the one thing which can unify us, and that to see this come about, those of us who understand this have an obligation to participate in the information war to the fullest. For, a radical shift in favor of these unifying principles is our best hope of overcoming the creeping fascism and tyranny we see in America today.
Listen to the entire interview here:
Read more articles from Isaac Davis.
About the Author
Isaac Davis is a staff writer for WakingTimes.com and OffgridOutpost.com Survival Tips blog. He is an outspoken advocate of liberty and of a voluntary society. He is an avid reader of history and passionate about becoming self-sufficient to break free of the control matrix. Follow him on Facebook, here.
This article (America’s Last True Statesman Tells You What You Can Do to Stop Fascism and Intolerance) was originally created and published by Waking Times and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Isaac Davis and WakingTimes.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this copyright statement.Exclusive: The CIA is fighting congressional demands to release a report on its covert program for torturing “war on terror” suspects, even as the spy agency contemplates a reorganization that could give the covert-action side more ways to bend the truth, writes ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern.
By Ray McGovern
“CIA may revamp how it is organized” announced a front-page Washington Post headline leading into an article based on remarks by unnamed “U.S intelligence officials” to the Post’s Greg Miller. The anonymous officials were authorized to share some of the contents of a Sept. 24 letter from CIA Director John Brennan to CIA staff, in which Brennan says, “The time has come to take a fresh look at how we are organized as an agency.”
On Brennan’s orders, senior agency officials were put to work on what Miller reported would be “among the most ambitious [reorganizations] in CIA history.” But Miller’s sources emphasized that the activity was in its preliminary stages and that no final decisions had been made; the proposed changes might be scaled back or even discarded.
But the reorganization story on Thursday with its suggestion of CIA “reform” came at an opportune time to possibly distract attention from another behind-the-scenes battle that is raging over how and indeed whether to release the findings of a five-year Senate Intelligence Committee investigation into the CIA’s use of torture during George W. Bush’s administration and how the agency lied to Congress about the efficacy of torture techniques and their humaneness.
A New York Times article on Friday by Mark Mazzetti and Carl Hulse described a Donnybrook at the White House on Thursday, with Senate Democrats accusing White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough of acquiescing in CIA attempts to redact the report so thoroughly that its conclusions would be undermined.
The Democratic members of the Senate intelligence Committee are said to be in high dudgeon. But some may have mixed feelings about release of the report because it would surely reflect poorly on their own failures as congressional “overseers” of the CIA.
Recent press reporting would have us believe that the main bone of contention revolves around if and how to use pseudonyms of CIA officers involved in torture, though that seems implausible since there are obvious workarounds to that concern. In past cases, for instance the Iran-Contra report, numbers were used to conceal actual identities of entities that were deemed to need protection.
Ex-CIA General Counsel Spilled the Beans
Hat tip to the New Yorker’s Jane Mayer, who took the trouble to read the play-by-play of testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee by former CIA General Counsel (2009-2013) Stephen W. Preston, nominated (and now confirmed) to be general counsel at the Department of Defense.
Under questioning by Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colorado, Preston admitted outright that, contrary to the CIA’s insistence that it did not actively impede congressional oversight of its detention and interrogation program, “briefings to the committee included inaccurate information related to aspects of the program of express interest to Members.”
That “inaccurate information” apparently is thoroughly documented in the Senate Intelligence Committee report, which, largely because of the CIA’s imaginative foot-dragging, cost taxpayers $40 million. Udall has revealed that the report (which includes 35,000 footnotes) contains a very long section titled “C.I.A. Representations on the C.I.A. Interrogation Program and the Effectiveness of the C.I.A.’s Enhanced Interrogation Techniques to Congress.”
Preston also acknowledged that the CIA inadequately informed the Justice Department on interrogation and detention. He said, “CIA’s efforts fell well short of our current practices when it comes to providing information relevant to [the Office of Legal Counsel]’s legal analysis.”
As Katherine Hawkins, the senior investigator for last April’s bipartisan, independent report by the Constitution Project’s Task Force on Detainee Treatment, noted in an Oct. 18, 2013 posting, the memos from acting OLC chief, Steven Bradbury, relied very heavily on now-discredited CIA claims that “enhanced interrogation” saved lives, and that the sessions were carefully monitored by medical and psychological personnel to ensure that detainees’ suffering would not rise to the level of torture.
There’s more. According to the Constitution Project’s Hawkins, Udall complained and Preston admitted that, in providing the materials requested by the committee, “the CIA removed several thousand CIA documents that the agency thought could be subjected to executive privilege claims by the President, without any decision by [Barack] Obama to invoke the privilege.”
Worse still for the CIA, the Senate Intelligence Committee report apparently destroys the agency’s argument justifying torture on the grounds that there was no other way to acquire the needed information save through brutalization. In his answers to Udall, Preston concedes that, contrary to what the agency has argued, it can and has been established that legal methods of
interrogation would have yielded the same intelligence.
Sen. Udall has been persistent in trying to elicit the truth about CIA torture, but has failed. Now that he has lost his Senate seat in the November elections, he has the opportunity to do what Sen. Feinstein is too afraid to do invoke a senator’s Constitutional right to immunity by taking advantage of the “speech or debate clause” to read the torture report findings into the record, a tactic used most famously by Sen. Mike Gravel in 1971 when he publicly read portions of the Pentagon Papers.
Sen. Udall has said he would consider doing something along those lines with the torture report, and that is precisely what is needed at this point. It remains to be seen whether Udall will rise to the occasion or yield to the fear of ostracism from the Establishment.
A Terrible Idea
One of the issues to be addressed by the reorganization group that Brennan has set up reportedly is whether or not the agency should be restructured into subject matter divisions in which analysts and clandestine operators work together.
There are far more minuses than plusses in that kind of structure. Greg Miller cites the concerns expressed by his sources over the potential for analysts’ judgments to be clouded by working too closely with the operators. Miller quotes one officer who worked in the Counter-Terrorism Center, which is being cited as the template for reorganizing the rest of the CIA.
The former CTC officer speaking from personal experience said, “The potential for corruption is much greater if you have analysts directly involved in helping to guide operations. There is the possibility for them to get too close to the issue and to be too focused on trying to achieve a certain outcome.” Like targeting/killing suspected “militants” by Hellfire missiles from drones, rather than pausing long enough to try to discern what has made them “militants” in the first place and whether killing them is a major fillip to recruitment of more and more “militants.”
Or take Iran, for example. If the leaders of a new Iran “issues center” are focused on sabotaging Tehran’s nuclear development program, how much visibility will be given to analysts who are trying to discern whether there is enough evidence to conclude that Iran is actually working toward a nuclear weapon.
As some may recall, in November 2007 an honest National Intelligence Estimate concluded unanimously and “with high confidence” that Iran had stopped working on a nuclear weapon four years earlier in the fall of 2003 and had not resumed work on a nuclear warhead.
The importance of such independent analysis cannot be overestimated. In that particular case, the Estimate played a huge role in preventing the war with Iran planned by Bush and Cheney for their last year in office. Read what Bush himself writes in his Decision Points about how that “eye-popping” NIE deprived him of the military option:
“But after the NIE, how could I possibly explain using the military to destroy the nuclear facilities of a country the intelligence community said had no active nuclear weapons program?” (Decision Points, p. 419)
Split the CIA in Two
There are examples galore of the important value of keeping analysts free from leaders and pressures more in favor of operations than cogent intelligence analysis. Indeed, there is a strong argument to split the CIA in half and let the covert operations part, which President Harry Truman said he never intended to be joined with the analysis part of the agency, go its own way
The Defense Department and Air Force can surely find extra chairs for those CIA killing-by-drone aficionados not already at the Pentagon. And “regime change” specialists could likely find space with others engaged in similar work at the National Endowment for Democracy or the State Department.
It is of transcendent importance to insulate the serious analysts from politically motivated managers and directors or other easy-to-manipulate bureaucrats who are enmeshed in covert operations. Harry Truman, who established the CIA, had very strong thoughts about this for very good reason.
Truman’s Edict
On Dec. 22, 1963, exactly one month after President John Kennedy was assassinated, former President Truman published an op-ed in the Washington Post titled “Limit CIA Role to Intelligence.” The timing was no coincidence. Documents in the Truman library show that nine days after Kennedy was murdered, Truman sketched out in handwritten notes what he wanted to say.
The op-ed itself reflected Truman’s |
the occasion, Perseus replied, rashly and inexplicably, “the Gorgon’s head.” When the king held him to his answer, Perseus’ adventures began.
Stock elements from folklore confuse the tale. Perseus must conquer other dreadful creatures, who hold key information to his quest. Nymphs give him magic gifts—winged sandals, a cap of darkness, a bag to hold the Gorgon’s head. The divine patrons Hermes and Athena instruct him to avoid the Gorgon’s petrifying gaze by averting his eyes, and in some versions of the story he uses his polished shield as a mirror to go about his work. When Perseus finds the Gorgon sisters they are sleeping.
As he strikes off Medusa’s head with his sword, two creatures are born from her bloodied neck: an undistinguished warrior named Chrysaor, who (as his Greek name suggests) possessed a golden sword; and, more impressively, the winged horse Pegasus. The two surviving Gorgons give pursuit, but aided by his magic gifts, Perseus escapes to other adventures that include rescuing the Ethiopian princess Andromeda from a sea monster and using the head of the dead Medusa to turn his enemies to stone. Finally, to adorn her fearsome panoply, Athena sets the Gorgon head on either her breastplate or the aegis, the latter being an enigmatic icon of terror and power possessed by Zeus but loaned occasionally to other gods.
It is an odd story, and all its details do not seem to belong to the same narrative. Perseus’ elaborate magic gifts, for example, are not essential, given that he finds and kills Medusa while she and her sisters are sleeping and that he enjoys the protection of two powerful divinities to elude capture. No explanation is given for what inspired Perseus to offer the Gorgon head in the first place—no aspect of the tangled story suggests any previous connection between him and them. And why kill her at all if she is living at a safe remove by the distant shores of Ocean?
A weak explanation for the killing is given in a work traditionally ascribed to Apollodorus, which although composed as late as the first or second centuries, draws from the writings of Pherecydes, a mythologist of the fifth century BC. According to this work, “Medusa alone was mortal; for that reason Perseus was sent to fetch her head.” In other words, the reason to kill her was that she could be killed. The author adds, however, and seems to be quoting a second source, “it is alleged by some that Medusa was beheaded for Athena’s sake; and they say that the Gorgon was fain to match herself with the goddess even in beauty.” The jealousy of gods and goddesses was notorious, and mortals who dared to compare themselves with their immortal betters were variously turned to stone, saw their children killed, were flayed alive, or drew undying hatred down upon their race, to cite just a few cases. Still, the warrior goddess Athena is not a usual candidate for purely feminine jealousy. Some scholars have speculated that this feminization of Medusa was inspired by a desire to make more credible—or palatable—Hesiod’s assertion that she was the mother of Pegasus by Poseidon, who lay with her “in a soft meadow amid spring flowers.” More likely, however, as Socrates believed, “such explanations are...the inventions of a very clever and laborious and not altogether enviable man,” who “must explain the forms of the Centaurs, and then that of the Chimera, and there presses in on him a whole crowd of such creatures, Gorgons and Pegasus.”
The earliest images of the Gorgon, found on reliefs and painted vases, depict a disembodied head with staring eyes and a fat tongue protruding from a gaping mouth. The face is fringed with tight curls and very often—and importantly—a beard. On vase paintings, the Gorgoneion often serves as the central embellishment of a warrior’s shield. Remarkably, whether painted or sculpted, the Gorgon face is always shown face forward, staring at the viewer head-on—a striking fact given the Greek convention for depicting characters, human and divine, in profile.
Eventually, the Gorgons acquired bodies, but the uneven variety of these suggests that early artists were traveling blind and that the stories that guided them described only the Gorgon head: one image even shows Medusa with a horse’s body. In all cases, whether the Gorgons are embodied or not, emphasis is placed squarely on the head. When Medusa’s sisters are shown as complete Gorgons, possessed of heads and bodies and wings, giving chase to Perseus, their striding legs and pumping arms appear in classic profile, but their Gorgon heads are turned to stare out at the viewer. In both painted and sculpted representations, the head is neckless, seemingly jammed, as though in afterthought, directly onto the creatures’ trunks.
The Desperate Man, self-portrait by Gustave Courbet, 1843–45. © Luisa Ricciarini / Leemage / Bridgeman Images.
Over time, Medusa, if not her sister Gorgons, became less monstrous, more human, and specifically more feminine. By the late fifth century BC, Medusa has acquired a neck. After the fourth century BC, she is recognizably a woman, and is shown in conventional profile. Along the way she has also acquired her distinctive locks of snaky hair.
Although snakes were associated with Medusa from her earliest evocations—the Gorgons, after all, were sisters of Viper and Serpent—Medusa’s snake hair was for a long while only a tentative feature. It was the Roman poet Ovid, writing in the early first century, who gave the attribute currency. In his Metamorphoses, Ovid wildly embellishes Medusa’s story to accord with the romantic, titillating tenor of his poem. In his telling, Perseus, his ordeals behind him, relaxing with other nobles at a feast, is asked why Medusa, alone of the Gorgons, has snaky hair. “Because, O Stranger,” Perseus replies,
Beyond all others she
Was famed for beauty, and the envious hope
Of many suitors. Words would fail to tell the glory of her hair, most wonderful
Of all her charms—A friend declared to me
He saw its lovely splendor.
Medusa’s beauty attracted Poseidon, who, in the coy language of one nineteenth-century translator, “attained her love,” which is to say raped her, in the temple of the virgin goddess Athena. Athena, enraged by this violation of her purity, “turned her head away and held her shield before her eyes.” To punish the crime, she changed the Gorgon’s beautiful hair to serpents. Poseidon returns unscathed to the sea, and Athena places the Gorgon head upon her breastplate.
The Medusa’s story, in all its variety, has given rise to an extraordinary range of interpretations. Feminist scholars see the paralyzing force of Medusa’s head as a token of her rage, and the myth as a whole about the impulse to punish powerful women. Freudians, on the other hand, interpret the snakes as pubic hair, and the decapitation of this female creature as, somehow, signifying castration. “The sight of Medusa’s head makes the spectator stiff with terror, turns him to stone,” Freud wrote. “Becoming stiff means an erection. Thus in the original situation, it offers consolation to the spectator: he is still in possession of a penis.”
More straightforward theories scour mythologies of other lands. The Gorgon represents the evil eye, or the solar disk, or a monster that devours the sun. The fatal glare of the Gorgon head reflects the Semitic tradition of a god whose glory none can see and live. The Gorgon is the mother goddess who originates from the Assyrian snake demon, as represented by a bearded, snake-brandishing female appearing, for example, on a Luristan bronze. Also from Assyria is the story of Gilgamesh, whose exploits include taking the head of Humbaba, the terrifying god-appointed Guardian of the Cedar Forest, a creature depicted in art as a monstrous, grimacing head.
The essential features of the Gorgoneion—bulging eyes, grimacing face, protruding tongue—are shared by monstrous creatures of other cultures. The Indian Kirtimukha, or “Face of Glory,” for example, appears in painted and sculpted forms on temples, statues, and over entryways. Bes, the stocky dwarf god of ancient Egypt, shares many Gorgon traits, including a grotesque head with protruding tongue, a fringe of beard, and face-on presentation. The wide-staring face in the Aztec calendar stone, dating to about 1479, is also Gorgon-like in appearance.
Some explanations take inspiration from the natural world. The octopus, for example, has the appearance of a disembodied head with wide-staring eyes surrounded by snaky locks of hair. The Gorgon is a lionlike beast indigenous to the Libyan Desert. It is a thundercloud, a volcanic eruption, the ocean roar. Medusa’s origins lie in the Perseus constellation, whose blinking star evokes her “evil eye.” One theory speculates that grotesque clay masks were used as part of a ritual, possibly for young male initiates, at a cult to Perseus discovered at Mycenae.
All such explanations are based on certain features of the Gorgon head, but none accounts for all her traits, and many cite as evidence Gorgon features that are demonstrably late, such as the snakelike hair. To isolate the origin of the Gorgon’s petrifying terror, it is necessary to pare back centuries of accretions reflecting terrors peculiar to each passing age and stare down the original Gorgon—the grotesque, bulging-eyed, disembodied head.
The first evocation of the Gorgon head comes not from art but from literature. Hesiod, as we have seen, gives the parentage of the Gorgons in his Theogony, but his is not the earliest literary reference. That honor, as so many, lies with Homer, whose epic Iliad, dated to around 730–700 BC, describes the Gorgon in two telling passages.
The first occurs when the warrior goddess Athena prepares to enter the battle between Greeks and Trojans as it boils around the city of Troy. An unabashed champion of the Greeks, Athena girds herself to face her brother Ares, the murderous god of war, who is an ally to the Trojans.
And Athena, daughter of Zeus of the stormy aegis,
let fall her rippling robe upon her father’s floor,
elaborate with embroidery, which she herself had made and labored on with her own hands,
and putting on the cloak of Zeus who gathers clouds,
she armed herself for tearful war. Around her shoulders she flung the tasseled stormy aegis,
a thing of terror, crowned on every side with Panic all around,
and Strife was on it, and Attack, and chilling Flight,
and on it too the terrible monstrous Gorgon head,
a thing of awe and terror, portent of Zeus of the stormy aegis.
The Gorgoneion makes a second Iliadic appearance in an extended bravura description of another arming scene, that of Agamemnon, leader of the Achaeans and Argives, as Homer calls the Greeks.
Then he took up his man-surrounding, much-emblazoned forceful shield,
a thing of beauty, around which ran ten rings of bronze,
and on it twenty pale-shining disks of tin,
and in the very center was one of dark enameled blue.
And crowning this a bristling Gorgon face
stared out with dreadful glare, and Fear and Flight about her;
and the shield’s baldric was of silver, and on it
a blue-dark serpent writhed, with three heads
turned in all directions, growing from a single neck.
The function of the Gorgon head on the panoply of the warrior goddess and king of men is clear. Both carry it to arouse Fear and Flight and the swirl of such emotions as undo even courageous men in battle. For a mortal like Agamemnon, the Gorgoneion bolsters the protective attributes of his man-surrounding shield. Its purpose is apotropaic—meaning, in its original sense, “to turn away.” It serves as a protective talisman by frightening off, or averting, dangerous forces. In blunt purpose, then, the Gorgoneion is in the same category as gargoyles and scarecrows; in later centuries, it was in fact used on tiled roofs and temple structures to frighten off birds.
Illustration from an 1890 edition of Kyosai’s Pictures of One Hundred Demons, by Kawanabe Kyosai. © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, Mary and James G. Wallach Foundation Gift, 2013.
Yet while the function of the Gorgon head is straightforward, the question still begging is why the object is effective. Greek mythology claimed a menagerie of outlandish monsters: the fire-breathing Chimera; Scylla with her six necks; Cerberus, the many-headed hound guarding the gates of Hades. Why would the bloated face of the Gorgoneion be a more appropriate emblem for a warrior’s shield than, say, snarling Cerberus, monstrous keeper of the very gates of hell?
In a wide-ranging study of the Gorgon head, scholar Stephen Wilk was riveted by a forensic textbook’s description of the physical transformation undergone by a dead human body over the course of several days. Gases cause tissues to swell, “the eyes bulge and the tongue protrudes.” Forensic photographs reveal that even hair undergoes a change, rising in strange coils and rings around the bloated face. From all the manifold images traditionally marshaled, none so dreadfully resembles the Gorgon head as the face of human death.
Battlefields are never pretty sights—not in poetry, not in mythology, and certainly not in real life. Agamemnon’s arming scene, as a poetic case in point, is the prelude to one of the Iliad’s most savage battle sequences. In the ensuing rampage, Agamemnon smites off a warrior’s hands, then his neck, then sends the maimed trunk rolling like a log through the battle throng. As he rages like “obliterating fire” through the enemy lines, screaming, his invincible hands spattered with gore, “the heads fell of fleeing Trojans.”
Heads are rolled in the course of casual slaughter, and sometimes, too, as acts of more calculated savagery. When the Greek hero Patroclus falls in battle, a bitter fight ensues between Greeks and Trojans for his body. The Trojan hero Hector, generally depicted as his country’s high-minded protector, begins to “drag at Patroclus, so as to cut his head from his shoulders with his sharp bronze sword, / and after hauling the corpse away, to give it to the Trojan dogs.”
An ugly sight, a man who’s afraid. —Jean Anouilh, 1944
In warrior cultures throughout history, the taking of an enemy head stands as the supreme act of triumph. The single act achieves the total humiliation of the vanquished. More darkly, it effects the obliteration of his personhood, the instant transformation of a human being into an object of horror. Today, even in the twenty-first century, the acts of ISIS have poked at embers that we believed civilization had buried long ago to demonstrate the primal efficacy of this talisman of terror:
Peneleos drawing his sharp sword
drove it through the middle of the neck of Ilioneus, and struck to the ground
his head with its helmet; and still the heavy spear
was fixed in his eye. And holding it up like the head of a poppy
Peneleos flaunted it before the Trojans and spoke, vaunting:
“From me, oh Trojans, tell the beloved father
and the mother of haughty Ilioneus to wail in their halls...”
So he spoke; and a trembling beneath their limbs seized them all,
and each man looked about him, to see how he might escape sheer destruction.
If the Gorgoneion originally and unambiguously represented a severed human head, not only are its peculiar physical features convincingly explained, but also its striking presence on Athena’s war gear. Above all, this conjecture conjures the dread object’s power to petrify—to turn to stone—all who gaze upon it. Mythology and ritual often preserve, and even honor, the potency of dark acts that a historical people themselves repudiate. The most terrifying conceivable object, the Greeks well knew, was not a snake-haired monster of imagination, but the concrete work of human hands.Mission Reports
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Navy satellite hoisted aboard Atlas 5 launch vehicle
BY JUSTIN RAY
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
Posted: July 8, 2013
Updated: Slight adjustment to launch window announced
The second satellite in the orbital assembly of the U.S. Navy's new mobile communications network was being loaded atop its United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket booster today at Cape Canaveral.
File image of first MUOS being lifted atop Atlas. Credit: United Launch Alliance
Liftoff is scheduled for July 19 during a morning window of 8:48 to 9:32 a.m. EDT (1248-1332 GMT) from Complex 41. At nearly 15,000 pounds, the Mobile User Objective System satellite is a hefty cargo requiring the most powerful version of the Atlas 5 to carry the payload into a highly elliptical geosynchronous transfer orbit. The 551 configuration of the Atlas features five strap-on solid-fuel boosters and the five-meter-diameter nose cone. Previous flights have included hurling NASA's New Horizons probe to Pluto and Juno to Jupiter. ULA created this cutaway illustration that shows the elements of the rocket. It will be the fifth Atlas 5 of the year, the 39th in the past decade and the second for the MUOS series following the successful first deployment in February 2012. The Atlas 5 and its Centaur upper stage will deliver the MUOS 2 spacecraft into a preliminary orbit about three hours after liftoff, allowing the Lockheed Martin-built satellite to begin its independent series of maneuverings to achieve a geosynchronous orbit 22,300 miles above Earth. MUOS is a next-generation space communications system that utilizes commercial 3G cell phone technology to provide voice, data and video services to military troops on the move. Each MUOS satellite is likened to a cell tower in the sky to serve ships, submarines, aircraft, land vehicles and terminals in the hands of troops. The design enables increases in the number of users and amount of communications that can be routed to military forces in contrast to current satellites. When completed by 2017, the MUOS constellation will feature four primary birds and one spare in orbit to ring the planet and provide capacity, availability and global coverage for mobile military communications like never before.
An artist's concept of MUOS. Credit: Lockheed Martin
MUOS 2 arrived in Florida on May 13 after being flown on an Air Force C-5 transport aircraft from Lockheed Martin's satellite factory in Sunnyvale, Calif. Unloading at the Shuttle Landing Facility, the craft was taken to the commercial Astrotech satellite processing campus in nearby Titusville for final testing, the loading of propellants and encapsulation within the rocket's payload fairing. Crews early Monday moved the satellite across Kennedy Space Center and down to the Vertical Integration Facility where the Atlas awaited the arrival of its cargo. MUOS was hoisted atop the rocket to begin the connection process and complete the assembly of the 206-foot-tall launcher. A tip-to-tail electrical check, called the combined systems test, will be run this week to verify all is in readiness for flight. Rollout of the Atlas 5 aboard its mobile platform to the launch pad is planned for July 17. The launch team will initiate the seven-hour countdown in the early morning hours of July 19.At least two Iranians have been killed in combat in the central Syrian province of Hama, according to Iranian officials. The Assad regime and its allies are attempting to counter a major insurgent offensive, which was launched earlier this month in the northern part of the province.
The two recently killed Iranians were members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) Basij paramilitary, according to Iranian media. The Basij is an all-volunteer force whose members can undergo military training by the IRGC’s ground forces branch. The IRGC commands the Basij and its members have deployed to Syria and Iraq as part of IRGC-led expeditionary forces.
Saeed Khajeh Salehani, whose death was announced on Mar. 25, was the commander of a Basij base located in a county on the outskirts of Tehran and had four tours in Syria under his belt, according to officials. The following day, officials announced the death of Hossein Moez-Qolami, who was a member of a Basij based in the capital.
Pro-regime forces, including Harakat al Nujaba (an Iranian-controlled Iraqi militia) and the Tiger Forces have deployed to bolster the northern Hama front against the opposition assault. The insurgents include a number of jihadist, Islamist and Free Syrian Army-branded groups. Al Qaeda’s joint venture, Hay’at Tahrir al Sham, is playing a significant role.
The death of the two Iranians indicates that elements of the IRGC’s ground forces have continued to deploy to Syria. Since the early phases of the Syrian war, that IRGC branch has been augmenting the Qods Force, which is the Guard’s extraterritorial arm. Regular Iranian forces operate alongside the IRGC-led foreign militias and other pro-regime fighters. The IRGC prefers to rely on foreign proxies as foot soldiers, with Iranian officers advising and leading complex operations. However, the Guard’s top command has not hesitated to inject its forces in larger numbers, such as during its peak deployment from the fall of 2015 to mid-2016.
Amir Toumaj is a independent analyst and contributor to FDD's Long War Journal.
Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here.i want color, not b&w! Reply
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we all know what happened at his 18th Bday. Drama!
explain this, too.
thanks <3 Reply
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His friend allegedly raped a girl at the party Reply
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i know right, i wanna see the ginger. :( Reply
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damn what the fuck my vagina has a strict no gingers policy but this guy is a strong exception Reply
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probably because it's black & white lol Reply
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lol KStew in ur icon. Reply
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sexy sexy (a-ha!) Reply
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That Snape gif always fucking pulls me into any post. Reply
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lol saaaame here. Reply
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i love how the snape.gif is becoming oblig on all HP posts. gives me an excuse to stare at alan rickman. Reply
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ikr?
even though i just watched sense and sensibility so you'd think id have stared at him enough Reply
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LMAO! omg bb! i just watched it too! i've been on a rickman fix since HBP came out. Reply
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my birthday is the same day as his, only i will be turning 19 Reply
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Mine too, except I'll be 25. Reply
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explain bday...... Reply
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the only ginger i'd ever do Reply
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as far as celebrity crushes go, i only like rupert and alexander skarsgard. both are great. Reply
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unf Reply
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Is that a crossword on the back of the Daily Prophet? I wanna do it! 21 down...HE-WHO-MUST-NOT-BE-NAMED. Reply
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LoL Reply
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Remember how at the end of HBP he (spoiler warning/highlight) sits around doing absolutely nothing while Harry/Hermione have a ~moment~? lol :( Reply
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Dude, he was like the little loner sitting on the steps. I hated the ending, lol. Poor thing. Reply
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It made me so sad. I put it in white font 'cause Rupert's part is so essential to the plot I'd hate to spoil the movie for anyone. ;) And icon-love! <3 Reply
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thats because screenwriter kloves is a fucking h/hr fangirl tool and inserts ~moments~ between them every chance he gets.
thats probably why the evil harry/hermione kiss will be in the next movie. Reply
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i know!
he's just as important and moment worthy :( Reply
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The ends to the last 3 movies were so bad. They've all tried to create some type of closure by having the golden trio saying something like "Everything's going to change now, isn't it?" or "We have something that Voldemort doesn't have: something worth fighting for". Reply
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=( i did NOT like that last scene. Reply
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despite how much i love harry/hermione, i was wtfing that whole scene.
i was like if he doesn't come over and at least throw his hands around their shoulders i will be so pissed
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FUCK HIM AND HIS EMMA WATSON/HERMIONE OBSESSION. Reply
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god it rages me. Reply
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IKR I mean we joke at how much he is ignored, but I didn't actually expect them to be so blatant about it. I mean Hermione even had to say what he thought for him to be acknowledged. Reply
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If someone told me after I watched the first HP that I'd want to do Ron in a few years I'd laugh in their face.
Look at me now. Reply
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mte :/ Reply
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LinkAccording to a 2017 poll, 44 percent of American adults use marijuana on a regular basis. The dried blossom of cannabis sativa and cannabis indica plants, marijuana has been used for centuries as an herb, a medicine, as hemp for rope-making, and as a recreational drug.
Did You Know? Before the 20th century, cannabis plants in the U.S. were relatively unregulated, and marijuana was a common ingredient in medicines.
As of 2018, the U.S. government claims the right to, and does, criminalize the growing, selling, and possession of marijuana in all states. This right is not given to them by the Constitution, but by the U.S. Supreme Court, most notably in their 2005 ruling in Gonzales v. Raich, which again upheld the right of the federal government to ban marijuana use in all states, in spite of the dissenting voice of Justice Clarence Thomas, who stated: "By holding that Congress may regulate activity that is neither interstate nor commerce under the Interstate Commerce Clause, the Court abandons any attempt to enforce the Constitution's limits on federal power."
Brief History
Recreational use of marijuana was thought to have been introduced in the U.S. early in the 20th century by immigrants from Mexico. In the 1930s, marijuana was linked publicly in several research studies, and via a famed 1936 film named "Reefer Madness" to crime, violence, and anti-social behavior.
Many believe that objections to marijuana first rose sharply as part of the U.S. temperance movement against alcohol. Others claim that marijuana was initially demonized partly due to fears of the Mexican immigrants associated with the drug.
In the 21st century, marijuana is illegal in the U.S. ostensibly due to moral and public health reasons, and because of continuing concern over violence and crime associated with production and distribution of the drug.
In spite of federal regulations, nine states have voted to legalize the growth, use, and distribution of marijuana within their borders. And many others are debating whether or not to do the same.
Pros and Cons of Legalization
Primary reasons in support of legalizing marijuana include:
Social Reasons
Prohibition of marijuana is unwarranted government intrusion into individual freedom of choice.
Marijuana is no more harmful to a person's health than alcohol or tobacco, which are both legal and widely used, and regulated by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration.
Marijuana has proven medical benefits for patients suffering from a host of ailments and diseases, including cancer, AIDS, and glaucoma.
Crime and violence, both within the U.S. and at the U.S.-Mexico border, are greatly increased due to illegal selling and buying of marijuana. Legalization would logically end the need for such criminal behavior.
Law Enforcement Reasons
According to the FBI Unified Crime Statistics, 587,700 people were arrested in 2016 for marijuana-related crimes, more than for all violent crimes like murder and rape combined. As a result, marijuana arrests place an undue burden on our judicial system.
Drug busts of youth for marijuana offenses often carry harsh penalties that can cause undue social harm with lifelong consequences.
Fiscal Reasons
Marijuana is one of America's top-selling agricultural products. According to the Colorado Department of Revenue, combined four-year sales of marijuana for that state since it legalized cannabis in 2014 has now topped $4.5 billion.
"... mainstream pundits like Fox News' Glenn Beck and CNN's Jack Cafferty have publicly questioned the billions spent each year fighting the endless war against drugs," per the San Francisco Chronicle in 2009.
If marijuana was legalized and regulated, an estimated $8 billion would be saved annually in government spending on enforcement, including for the FBI and U.S.-Mexico border security.
Primary reasons against legalizing marijuana include:
Social Reasons
Much in the same way that pro-life advocates seek to make abortion illegal for all based on moral grounds, so too do some Americans wish to make marijuana illegal because they believe its use is immoral.
Long-term or abusive use of marijuana can be harmful to a person's health and well-being.
Second-hand smoke from marijuana can be harmful to others.
Many allege that regular marijuana use can lead to the use of harder, more harmful drugs such as heroin and cocaine.
Law Enforcement Reasons
Some opponents of legalizing marijuana believe that individuals involved in illegal buying and selling of the drug are more likely than average to be involved in other crimes and that society is safer with marijuana offenders incarcerated.
Law enforcement agencies don't want to be construed as supporting drug use.
There are no significant fiscal reasons against U.S. legalization of marijuana.
Legal Background
The following are milestones of federal marijuana enforcement in U.S. history:
Prohibition, 1919 to 1933: As the use of marijuana became popular in response to alcohol prohibition, conservative anti-drug campaigners railed against the "Marijuana Menace," linking the drug to crime, violence, and other bad behaviors.
1930, Federal Bureau of Narcotics established: By 1931, 29 states had criminalized marijuana.
Uniform State Narcotic Act of 1932: This act pushed the states, rather than federal authorities, to regulate narcotics.
Marijuana Tax Act of 1937: People who sought certain medical benefits of marijuana could now do so freely, provided they paid an excise tax.
1944, New York Academy of Medicine: The esteemed institution bucked current thinking by putting out a report finding that marijuana does not "induce violence, insanity or sex crimes."
Narcotics Control Act of 1956: This piece of legislation set mandatory prison sentences and fines for drug offenses, including for marijuana.
1960s Counter-Culture Movement: U.S. marijuana use grew rapidly during this time. Studies commissioned by Presidents Kennedy and Johnson concluded that "marijuana use did not induce violence."
1970: Congress repealed mandatory penalties for drug offenses. Marijuana was differentiated from other drugs. Per PBS, "It was widely acknowledged that the mandatory minimum sentences of the 1950s had done nothing to eliminate the drug culture that embraced marijuana use throughout the 60s... "
1973, Drug Enforcement Agency: President Nixon created the DEA to enforce the controlled substances regulations and laws of the United States.
Oregon Decriminalization Bill of 1973: In spite of federal regulations, Oregon becomes the first state to decriminalize marijuana.
1976, Conservative Christian Groups: Led by Rev. Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority, rising conservative groups lobbied for stricter marijuana laws. The coalition grew powerful, leading to the 1980s "War on Drugs."
The Controlled Substances Therapeutic Research Act of 1978: By passing this act in its legislature, New Mexico became the first state in the Union to legally recognize the medical value of marijuana.
Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986: Pushed for and signed by President Reagan, the act raised penalties for marijuana offenses and established harsh mandatory "three strikes" sentencing laws.
1989, New "War on Drugs": In his Presidential Address of September 5, George H.W. Bush outlined a new strategy to combat the evils of drug use and trafficking, led by Bill Benett, the nation's first-ever drug policy director.
1996 in California: Voters legalized marijuana use for cancer, AIDS, glaucoma, and other patients, via a doctor's prescription.
1996 to 2018, nationwide: The war on drugs continues, yet marijuana is either legalized for consumption, legalized for medical use, or decriminalized in 42 states.
February 25, 2009: Attorney General Eric Holder announced that "federal agents will now target marijuana distributors only when they violate both federal and state laws," which effectively meant that if a state had legalized marijuana, the Obama administration would not override state law.
Cole Memorandum of 2013: US Attorney General James M. Cole conveys to federal prosecutors that they should not expend resources prosecuting state-legal marijuana businesses, except in the case of one of eight law enforcement priorities, such as distributing pot to minors or across state lines.
2018: Vermont becomes the first state to legalize recreational cannabis by way of the state legislature.
January 4, 2018: Attorney Jeff Sessions rescinds a trio of Obama-era rules, including the Holder and Cole memorandums, which had adopted a policy of non-intervention in marijuana-friendly states.
Moves to Legalize
On June 23, 2011, a federal bill to fully legalize marijuana was introduced in the House by Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) and Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA.) Said Congressman Frank to the Christian Science Monitor of the bill:
"Criminally prosecuting adults for making the choice to smoke marijuana is a waste of law enforcement resources and an intrusion on personal freedom. I do not advocate urging people to smoke marijuana, neither do I urge them to drink alcoholic beverages or smoke tobacco, but in none of these cases do I think prohibition enforced by criminal sanctions is good public policy."
Another bill to decriminalize marijuana across the country was introduced on February 5, 2013, by Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO) and Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR).
Neither of the two bills made it out of the House.
The states, on the other hand, have taken matters into their own hands. By 2018, nine states and Washington, D.C. had legalized recreational use of marijuana by adults. Thirteen additional states have decriminalized marijuana, and a full 30 allow its use in medical treatment. By January 1, 2018, legalization was on the docket for another 12 states.
Federal Push Back
To date, no U.S. president has supported the decriminalization of marijuana, not even President Barack Obama, who, when asked at a March 2009 online town hall about marijuana legalization, laughingly demurred,
"I don't know what this says about the online audience.” He then continued, "But, no, I don't think that is a good strategy to grow our economy.” This in spite of the fact that Obama told the crowd at his 2004 appearance at Northwestern University, "I think the war on drugs has been a failure, and I think we need to rethink and decriminalize our marijuana laws."
Almost one year into Donald Trump’s presidency, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, in a January 4, 2018 memo to United States Attorneys, rescinded the Obama-era policies discouraging federal prosecution of marijuana cases in those states where the drug was legal. This move outraged many pro-legalization advocates on both sides of the aisle, including conservative political activists Charles and David Koch, whose general counsel, Mark Holden, blasted both Trump and Sessions for the move. Roger Stone, President Trump’s former campaign adviser, called the move by Sessions a “cataclysmic mistake."EXCLUSIVE: HBO has given a pilot order to Cold War spy drama The Missionary. Emmy-winning Breaking Bad co-star Aaron Paul is in talks for the lead in the project, from film/TV writer Charles Randolph (The Interpreter) and producer Stephen Levinson as well as best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell and frequent Levinson collaborator Mark Wahlberg.
Set in Berlin in the late 1960s, The Missionary, written by Randolph, centers on a young American missionary (Paul) who becomes involved with the CIA. Randolph and New Yorker writer Gladwell |
’s No. 4 receiver, giving him a good chance to make the roster once again.
USA TODAY Sports
But then the 2014 draft came around, and Keim put Brown in a precarious position by giving head coach Bruce Arians the speedy receiver he craves for his vertical attacking offense.
Third-round pick John Brown has been wowing everyone who has laid eyes on him ever since.
Having to battle with bottom-dwelling receivers such as Brittan Golden, Dan Buckner and 2014 sixth-round pick Walt Powell for the fifth and potentially final receiver spot on the 2014 roster, Jaron Brown suddenly had a hill to climb just to keep his cleats hung in the home locker room.
In the three weeks since the Cards camp opened, all he has done is solidify the receiver corps by getting open often, catching everything thrown his way and mixing in an acrobatic catch or five.
He made it clear against the Minnesota Vikings last week who the fifth receiver would be when he turned three catchable targets into two receptions for 86 yards. The first reception was a wide receiver screen he took down the left sideline for 51 yards with great blocking help from the rookie, John Brown.
Courtesy AZCardinals.com
The second took place later in the game, when backup quarterback Drew Stanton lofted a deep ball down the left sideline toward Jaron. The pass was a bit underthrown, but the receiver made the adjustment and the highlight reel with a fully extended, pluck-it-from-the-top-shelf grab for 35 yards.
Courtesy AZCardinals.com
Jaron will make the roster as the fifth receiver this season. If he keeps improving, however, is it possible he jumps Ginn as the No. 4 down the road? Arians spoke of Jaron’s confidence in talking with Darren Urban of AZCardinals.com:
“I don’t care if it’s Patrick (Peterson), Cro (Antonio Cromartie), or who’s on top of him,” Arians said. “He’s developing a confidence factor to become a really solid player.”
Quarterback Carson Palmer echoed that sentiment: “That is the kind of confidence he is playing with right now and that’s the confidence we have in him because he consistently shows us quarterbacks that he will make a play for us,” Palmer told Urban.
Through two preseason games, Jaron has four receptions on five targets for 101 yards (25.3 YPC) and a touchdown while playing mostly against first- and second-team defenses.
Hannah Foslien/Getty Images
He needed a team to believe in his ability—a franchise that could afford to give him time to develop the talent hidden beneath the big lump of clay he was as a receiver coming out of Clemson.
Keim and Arians believed in him enough to give him that chance, and now the second-year wideout has the cue-ball couple looking like geniuses while making a positive impact on the field for the Cardinals.
And it’s not as though he will be hidden this season. Yes, there is an immense amount of talent ahead of him on the depth chart. But with so much talent—and opposing defenses will have to focus attention on the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Michael Floyd, John Brown and even tight end John Carlson—Jaron Brown will get his opportunities in select situations to do what he’s been doing all offseason.
If he makes plays when those opportunities arise, he could soon become a player people know as Jaron—and not simply as “the other Brown.”
Follow @NFLChurchIs riding a small wave surfboard sinful? All that extra foam, that shortened length, that user-friendliness... it can certainly make your edges a little softer, kill off a little of your need to push harder. But goddamn it, if surfboards designed for summer-centric waves aren't the most pleasurable little objects. They're a quiver requirement for most everyday surfers now, especially those who live in metropolitans and need something that'll inject some vibrance into a very dull city beach rip bowl.
But, which one is most suited to you? Every shaper worth their dust has a step-down, fish or twin in the range, and the choice can be overwhelming. So, because Stab and Surfstitch live to give, we took Taj Burrow, Craig Anderson and Chippa Wilson to a north coast NSW location, gave them seven anonymous surfboards and had them test and review the crafts.
Now, Stab In The Dark, this ain't. But, the premise is similar: We painted the boards black, and randomly assigned each a deadly sin by which to recognise it. This way, we (attempt to) eliminate pre-conceived brand notions.
However, where this differs most from SITD, is that these surfboards were plucked straight from the rack. They weren't necessarily handshaped by each brand's marquee shaper, though, some may have been – we don't know. And that's the beauty of this. We wanted to make this as relevant to the everyday surfboard consumer as possible. We used what the majority of you are buying. And our hope is that we can help you make more informed choices.
Pride: JS
Envy: Chilli
Anger: Vampirate
Gluttony: Haydenshapes
Lust: Channel Islands
Sloth: Rusty
Greed: DHD
(Board art by Jack Barnes)Comet dust particles may be small, but they come in large numbers. COSIMA Principal Investigator Martin Hilchenbach shares some impressive facts about the instrument’s performance, and reflects on the personal highlights of the team during Rosetta’s mission.
Rosetta’s dust analysing instrument COSIMA (COmetary Secondary Ion Mass Analyser) has had a busy two years at Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko: 31 000 dust particles collected at the last count (mid-August 2016). And as Martin puts it “..which are soon to be returned to the surface of the comet!”
Impressively, one single COSIMA team member, Sihane Merouane, identified and labelled all imaged particles and compiled the archive list, and 6053 particles now have proper names – the first assignments given for COSIMA and the wider Rosetta team members and their families. According to Martin, it would take around five hours to read out the list of names assigned to the particles on just one target. There have been 21 targets in total exposed.
And these targets are small – just one centimetre square each. Of course, the comet dust is even smaller; COSIMA is optimized to study particles a few tens to hundreds of micrometres in size – although the largest particle imaged by COSIMA exceeded 2 mm!
The grains were identified in 9522 snapshots made by the COSIMA microscope, and selected grains were analysed with a secondary ion mass spectrometer. That is, they were fired at with a beam of indium ions, sparking individual ions (secondary ions) from their surfaces, which were then analysed by the mass spectrometer. This process reveals the composition of the grains, which in turn contributes to our understanding about the composition of the primordial matter from the early Solar System.
While at Comet 67P/C-G COSIMA fired its ion beam 8 billion times, resulting in the detection of 35 million silicon secondary ions, 2.8 million carbon ions, 13 million sodium ions and 1 million magnesium ions, as well as generating 34 595 secondary ion mass spectra.
Martin notes: “We had to take a break with these particular measurements after 3 770 secondary mass spectra, between mid autumn 2014 and spring 2015, in order to restore the primary ion gun subsystem which operated outside of the nominal operational parameters. Thanks to the outstanding achievements of Andreas Koch, Laurent Thirkell, Jouni Rynö and Henning Fischer, we could continue using the gun and collected a further 30,825 mass spectra.”
Reflecting on how the team’s personal lives have evolved over the course of the mission, Martin notes that 7 team members and their spouses have collectively had 12 babies since Rosetta launched in 2004. He also notes that all the software written for the COSIMA development, testing, operation and archiving since 1998 has spanned 12 programming languages, more languages than spoken by the 59-strong COSIMA team.
For the software savvy readers amongst you, the 12 programming languages and the number of lines written in each are as follows:
4989 lines in Assembly
80718 lines in C
58591 lines in Erlang
37899 lines in Forth
16659 lines in Fortran
6510 lines in IDL
6510 lines in Julia
84 lines in KSC
909 lines in Octave
7288 lines in Python
4452 lines in SQL
21232 lines in Tcl/Tk
(That’s a total of 245 841 total lines of software code since 1998!)
Programming is not the only thing that happens on Earth while COSIMA is busy collecting dust. The COSIMA team have prepared and worked with 304 reference model test targets for secondary ion yield calibrations as well as instrument parameter fine tuning, and the vacuum pumps of the COSIMA reference model has operated for 102,720 hours.
Like many of Rosetta’s instruments, COSIMA was on the drawing board from an early stage. Martin recalls: “One team member was already involved with Rosetta and COSIMA in 1984, in the very first meeting of the science study team of what was then the “Comet Nucleus Sample Return” cornerstone mission of the newly defined Horizon 2000 program of ESA. In the early 1990s, the mission evolved into a comet rendezvous mission dedicated to the characterisation of cometary material. One of the key arguments at that time was that if we could not bring cometary samples back to the laboratory on Earth, then we should take key laboratory instruments to the comet. COSIMA, along with many other instruments, was already part of the discussion then, and we’re very happy with how it’s all worked out!”
On summing up the highlights of COSIMA’s discoveries, Martin concludes: the tiny bits and pieces of dust particles collected in the coma of Comet 67P/C-G revealed their heterogeneous composition, their fragility and their close family relation to interplanetary dust particles.
This post is part of a series that looks behind the scenes of the instrument teams to find out what it was really like “living with a comet” for two years.
COSIMA stories featured on this blog
Profiling COSIMA’s dust grain family
First release of Rosetta comet phase data from four orbiter instruments
COSIMA: Meet the family
COSIMA watches comet shed its dusty coat
COSIMA detects sodium and magnesium in a dust grain called Boris
COSIMA catches cosmic dust
COSIMA checked out and ready for collecting comet dustConnect with us: Facebook | Twitter
Some recent mentions of CYOB in the press and social media!
It really is the handsomest kit for making bitters at home.
The fine mesh strainer is custom machined to nest into the funnel.
The kit includes everything you need to make bitters for yourself and loved ones.
A few delicious recipes that call for bitters. For these and more recipes, visit HellaBitters.com
Simply put, bitters create layers of flavor and structure that just wouldn’t exist without them. They’re like salt and pepper for your drinks. A few dashes add flavor and character to your favorite cocktails, seltzer water and are great additions to your cooking adventures as well.
We brought this project to kickstarter because we believe in it and we can’t do it alone. The Craft Your Own Bitters kit has sizable upfront manufacturing costs well beyond the resources of a startup like ours. We’ve invested all we can. Crowd-funding this project is the most viable option we have. We’re really proud of this kit and believe our community will be as excited about it as we are.
You get to choose exactly which swag you want when the project closes successfully. Please help us get there by pledging and sharing!
You get to choose exactly which swag you want when the project closes successfully. Please help us get there by pledging and sharing!
A lot of research goes into curating the perfect components and flavors.
Here's a look at the packaging design process. Before and After.
Hella Bitter is an all-natural craft bitters company committed to being the premium alternative to mass- produced and often artificially flavored extracts. What began in a mason jar has evolved in just a few years into one of the fastest growing craft bitters companies around. Founded in Brooklyn, and thriving in NYC, our passion for quality has been there since the beginning and it's how we went from being a weekend project, to a bitters company in serious pursuit of the delicious.
As we've grown we've never lost sight of the craftsmanship of our products. It's a quality we believe belongs behind every bar and in the cabinets of every kitchen. Whether it’s a classic cocktail, a brand new recipe or a do-it-yourself kit, Hella Bitter is there to make your life more delicious.The irony seems lost on tea-party stalwart Michele Bachmann.
The former candidate for the 2012 Republican nomination for president said in an interview this week that Americans “aren’t ready” for a female president.
“I think there was a cachet about having an African-American president because of guilt,” the winner of the 2011 Iowa Straw Poll said. “People don’t hold guilt for women.”
The comments came after she was asked about Hillary Clinton’s chances to win the presidency in 2016. Clinton’s gender, along with her ties to President Obama and the Benghazi attack, might be enough to lure voters to the Republican ticket, Bachmann claims.
But public polling seems to suggest the opposite of Bachmann’s claim on American readiness for a female president. A poll from last May showed that 86 percent of Americans think the United States is ready to elect a female president.
For a woman, though, who was criticized on several occasions for the amount of makeup she wore to debates and events — the type of sexist criticism that is reserved mainly (remember John Edwards’ hair?) for a female candidate — along with being introduced on a late-night TV show to the tune of Lyin’ Ass Bitch, it’s no surprise that the presidential run left a bad taste.The Node.js Foundation has taken the Express Node.js framework under its wing.
Express will be a new incubation project for the Foundation. IBM, which purchased Express maintainer StrongLoop last September, is contributing the code.
“Express will function as it’s own separate entity; similar to how the Node.js Foundation supports Node.js through open governance with a technical steering committee, mentors and contributors that will in effect support the framework,” wrote Mikeal Rogers, community manager of the Node.js Foundation, in an email.
Express is a toolkit for building web applications and frameworks. It is often used in conjunction with Node. It can be installed through NPM (the Node Package Manager). It is often used alongside the MongoDB database and AngularJS frontend framework. Express has been the most popular Node framework. It has been downloaded over 53 million times in the past two years, five times in the last month alone.
The release cadence and number of Express will be determined by its contributors, according to Rogers. “Traditionally those users and contributors have preferred stability to new features,” he wrote.
Part of the reason for allowing the foundation to oversee Express is to build a diverse contributor base, which is important given the framework’s popularity.
The software is used within PayPal’s open source kraken.js, an enterprise extension of Node. It also provides fundamental capabilities to Sails.js MVC (Model-View-Controller) Web framework and Loopback, a Node.js API framework.
The Foundation’s incubation process will provide Express an open governance and contribution agreement, which should appeal to organizations that rely on Express who may be worried about one vendor dominating the future direction of Express.
“As part of the incubator, mentors will work with the Express contributors to for an ‘Express Technical Committee’ whose membership is solely made of the contributors to Express and related dependencies,” Rogers said. “That technical committee will decide who its chair is, if they feel a chair is necessary. When Express graduates from incubation they may also elect a representative to the Node.js Foundation technical steering committee.”
Express was originally developed by TJ Holowaychuk, who more recently created the Apex framework for the Lambda serverless computing service. Like Node itself, the Express framework is minimal, providing a clean interface to include additional features as plug-ins.
The Node.js Foundation was founded a year ago in order to be an independent governance body to manage the software, which provides a server-side runtime for JavaScript. Projects under the Node.js Foundation Incubator Program receive assistance and governance mentorship from the Foundation’s Technical Steering Committee and related working groups.
IBM is a sponsor of The New Stack.A diplomat working in the London embassy of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) left his post for a third country earlier this month, South Korean media reported on Tuesday, citing an anonymous source.
“A DPRK diplomat in London is going through procedures to seek asylum in a third country,” the JoongAng Ilbo said. “The DPRK Embassy made belated attempts to figure out the diplomat’s whereabouts, but has failed.”
The report said the unnamed diplomat had been previously tasked with keeping track of North Korean defectors who had settled down in London’s environs, as well as regularly handling consular services.
The diplomat, who was not named and alleged to have left with his wife and children, had also been requested by Pyongyang to prepare measures to counter the UK’s increasing criticism of North Korea’s human rights violations, the JoongAng said.
According to a list of diplomats provided by the UK government, excluding Ambassador Hyon Hak Bong, there are five North Korean officials working in the embassy.
The diplomats who matched the JoongAng’s description can be narrowed down to Minister Thae Yong Ho and Third Secretary Ryu Kyong Jun, with the rest working in unrelated fields to consular work.
Two tour industry insiders, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity in talking on the subject, said that Minister Thae was the previous and sole point-person for visa issues at the embassy.
HIGH LEVEL DEFECTION
“A high-level defection, if confirmed, will be deeply embarrassing for the regime,” said John Nilsson-Wright, Head of the Asia Program at the London-based Chatham House think tank.
“London has always been an important diplomatic priority for the DPRK given the amount of personnel stationed there and the considerable resources devoted by the regime to maintaining its presence there,” he said. “The intelligence benefits to the UK and its allies from such a deflection are likely to prove valuable.”
Current North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, appointed this May, is the former DPRK Ambassador to London. A source familiar with North Korean foreign policy told NK News in July he maintains close relations with current Ambassador to London Hyun Hak Bong.
Longtime North Korea watcher Dr. Andrei Lankov said either fears about elite purges or increased awareness of the difficulties facing the North Korean state could have prompted the development.
“North Korean elites who can make a cool-headed assessment of the future of Korean peninsula may believe that the current system might fall at some time,” said Dr. Lankov. “As they are perfectly well aware of how they would be treated after the collapse, leaving before the fall is a very rational choice.”
Lee Young-jong, the JoongAng journalist behind the revelation, told NK News on Tuesday he had “heard it from an anonymous source inside North Korea”.
“It seems like authorities working in the South Korean government, Blue House, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs are sharing information regarding this case.”
Neither the public relations offices of the Ministry of Unification and Ministry of Foreign Affairs would either confirm or deny NK News’ inquiries about the issue on Tuesday.
Main picture: NK NewsAn article debunking the myths of low-fat dieting is the most popular scientific research paper of 2017.
This article, suggesting that it is in fact too much sugar and too many carbohydrates that will make you gain weight, has topped the annual Altmetric Top 100 papers of 2017, which names the most popular scientific studies of the year based on online activity.
The list is compiled by London company Altmetric, which analyses the online performance of scholarly literature. The term “alt-metrics” is short for “alternative metrics”, and refers to the practice of rating papers on things like social media mentions and online citations, rather than simply looking at citations in other journals.
To compile the list, Altmetric looked at a range of measures including mainstream news media references, Wikipedia citations, social media mentions and performance in scholarly spaces such as post-publication peer-review forums and patient advocacy groups. This image shows how the top-rating article performed on this range of alternative measures.
Source: Altmetric
Other popular papers this year include studies looking at a new genome editing procedure, and how being treated by a female physician may save your life. Of the top 100, 53 were in the field of medical science. Biological science (17), earth and environmental science (nine), and studies in human society (eight) were the next most popular.
“While the top 100 is intended for a broader audience, the data behind it has a serious purpose – to make viewing and analysing the online conversation surrounding research outputs easy for researchers, institutions, publishers and funders alike,” said Euan Adie, founder of Altmetric.
“In so doing, we aim to enable discussions around the full impacts of research, beyond traditional impact scores.”
The top 10 most popular scientific research papers of 2017
Access the full top 100 here.(I am getting ready to wash a resident’s open wound. While I am putting on my gloves, the resident sees that I am wearing a ring that marks me as a member of a certain Christian sect. It is a sect that many other Christians do not consider to be Christian, and there is a fair bit of prejudice towards us.)
Resident: “Is there anyone else who could do this?”
Me: “[Coworker] is the only other person on the unit today qualified to do this. Is something wrong?”
Resident: “Your ring. I don’t want to be touched by one of you demons. You’re a sex-crazed cult.”
Me: “I am sorry you feel that way, ma’am. If you’re uncomfortable with me, I can certainly get [coworker].”
Resident: “I’m so glad you’re here. Her lifestyle is just so sex-crazed and evil. It’s frankly un-Christian!”
Coworker: “You do know that she is a virgin who has never smoked or drank in her life and carries a picture of Christ in her wallet, right?”
Resident: *speechless*
Coworker: “Oh, and one more thing. I’m an atheist, I live with a man I’m not married to, and I have three kids.”An Open Letter to the Man Who Accosted Me in an Attempt to Sell Me a Power Balance Bracelet in the Mall
Dear Man Who Accosted Me in an Attempt to Sell Me a Power Balance Bracelet in the Mall,
Maybe it was empathy that drove me to respond; I’ve worked my share of mall kiosks.
There was also that countenance I took for desperation in your sweaty, bloated face, as you nodded at me knowingly and waved me down, asking how I was “doing tonight.” That look, matched with your ill-fitting polo shirt and front-pleated khakis, evoked a sort of sublime pity in me. If only I’d known how misplaced my pity was! Whatever the reason, I took those tentative steps away from my wife and entered your world; a perfect maelstrom of Dadaistic thaumaturgy.
“Can I have a moment of your time?” you asked. I responded in the affirmative.
You held up a rubber-band bracelet with a little hologram sticker affixed to it, not unlike the one on my debit card.
“This Power Balance Bracelet,” you announced, “can help you with your balance.”
You went on to explain that the bracelet could do this because it was “made out of ions” and that the little sticker on it contained “minerals” that would “go into” my bloodstream. You then explained that all electronic devices emitted ions, and that these ions are what cause us to dodder about off-balanced like a pack of drunken mules.
“If that’s what I think it is,” you said tapping the plastic bag containing my purchase from the video game store, “then it’s giving off ions, too. As we speak.”
I had not suspected this second-hand copy of Harvest Moon for the Nintendo Gamecube of such sinister behavior. You opened up an previously unimagined world of possibilities. Humbled by your willingness to engage in such a Newtonian dialogue with me, I interrupted you to gain clarification. “What exactly is an ion?” I asked, abashedly.
I will never forget your baffling, measured reply.
“Science.”
Your single word apparently put my question to rest. Embarrassed by my ignorance, you endeavored to teach me. It was then that you proceeded, with outstretched arms, to lay your hands upon me. Like a man tenderly instructing his lover on the finer points of the bergamask, you ordered me to lift my right arm. This I did, keeping it at an angle perpendicular to my body.
You then told me to place my feet exactly together. All it took was a severe look from you to tell me that my feet were not aligned as precisely as they ought to be. I struggled to push them somehow closer together. For a moment I was afraid you’d collapsed in a fit of rage, but you had only thrown yourself on the floor in order to inspect my feet. When you arose you placed your hands on my outstretched arm with the whispered admonition, “Lift your left leg.”
This I did as you began to apply downward pressure upon my extended arm. Your furrowed brow and grunts of exertion, so animalistic in their kinetic force, at first frightened, then intrigued me. I knew you would probably cause me to topple like so many crumpled Sbarro wrappers placed atop the overflowing trash receptacle. And yet, I stood firm. I have never been known for my sense of balance but as I stood there on one foot with my arm outstretched, the people in line at Pretzel Maker occasionally witnessing our dance, I was a veritable Douglas fir of stability.
You sputtered a spent sigh and ceased pushing. As you let go of me I lowered my leg and arm, eagerly awaiting an explanation for what had just transpired between us. How had I stood firm without the talismanic bracelet to assist me? I received a solemn nod from you as you explained, “Sometimes the bracelet has an effect even if you’re not wearing it. Sometimes you just have to be near it.”
I didn’t purchase a bracelet that day, for money would only have cheapened the transcendental moment. Our encounter was brief; we were two ships passing in the night. But I left the mall that day questioning the very foundations of all I had learned before; science, religion, self-hood, ions.
I was, at last, awake.
Thank you for opening my eyes,
Giordano LahaderneA complaint has been filed against chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s daughter by Delhi’s former chief secretary Omesh Saigal. This comes a day after Kejriwal told a gathering of auto drivers that his daughter had offered a bribe to an officer at a Regional Transport Office (RTO) for processing her driving licence.
Retired IAS officer Saigal, who served as the chief secretary during 1998-2001, mailed his complaint to the Delhi government’s anti-corruption branch asking the officer to check the ‘veracity of the news reports’ and ‘take action as per the law.’
President of the Bhagat Singh Kranti Sena, Tajinder Singh Bagga has filed a similar complaint with the Delhi Police commissioner. Bagga has also sent a copy of the CD which has footage of the CM making the statement.
On Monday, reports were published after Kejriwal claimed that though his daughter had offered a bribe without revealing that she is the daughter of the chief minister, the officer had refused to accept the bribe when he saw she had a cell phone.
Saigal has written that the offence falls under section 12 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 which states that whoever abets any offence under Sec 7 or 11 whether or not that offence is committed is consequence of that abetment, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than six months but which may extend to five years...’
“I was not present at the gathering. If the news report is true and Kejriwal did make those claims then it is an offence. A crime has been committed and it is the duty of every citizen to inform the police when a crime comes to his notice,” he said.
Saigal said if the ACB officials do not take any action on his complaint he would approach the CBI. “I will file a complaint with the CBI if the Delhi ACB does not do act. They will have to check the authenticity of the report and file an FIR if this is true,” he said. Kejriwal had made the comments in the backdrop of the ACB acting on numerous complaints of officers demanding bribes. He told the gathering in Burari corruption had come down by 70-80% because of his government.
First Published: May 18, 2015 23:46 ISTNot exactly Black Rock, but the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, which conducted a hearing today titled: “Climate Change: It’s Happening Now.” That title alone will prompt a snicker from all knowledgeable people; climate change has been happening for millions of years, and will continue for as long as the Earth exists. Watts Up With That has a roundup; the stars of the show were Roger Pielke Jr. and Roy Spencer. You can watch the proceedings here if you’ve a mind to; they go on for close to four hours. (Be aware that there is a fair amount of dead air at the beginning; otherwise you might think that the link isn’t active.)
One of the highlights was when the assembled panel of experts was asked whether any of them could support Barack Obama’s claim that global warming has been accelerating over the last decade:
Warmists were asked: “Can any witnesses say they agree with Obama’s statement that warming has accelerated during the past 10 years?” For several seconds, nobody said a word. Sitting just a few rows behind the expert witnesses, I thought I might have heard a few crickets chirping.
Heh. You can count on Obama to be wrong about pretty much everything.
You can read Pielke’s prepared testimony here and Spencer’s here. This is from Dr. Spencer’s testimony:
The most indefensible claim regarding climate change from an observational point of view is that severe weather has increased. Meteorologists like me have long known that public perception of weather is skewed by short memories and increasing media sensationalizing of weather disasters. During globally cool conditions in 1970 a tropical cyclone (hurricane) killed 500,000 people in Bangladesh. Records of such storms killing hundreds of thousands of people extend back to 1582. In contrast, as of this writing, it has been a record 7+ years since a major (Cat 3 or stronger) hurricane has hit the U.S. mainland. New research from northwest Florida, based upon coastal sediments, suggest that the past 600 years has been a period of weaker hurricane activity compared to the 1,000 years before that (Brandon et al., 2013). All of these facts indicate the huge amount of natural variability in tropical cyclones which exists and confounds attempts to determine whether tiny global energy imbalances caused by humans have any noticeable effect. … There is little or no observational evidence that severe weather of any type has worsened over the last 30, 50, or 100 years, irrespective of whether any such changes could be blamed on human activities, anyway. Long-term measurements of droughts, floods, strong tornadoes, hurricanes, severe thunderstorms etc. all show no obvious trends, but do show large variability from one decade to the next, or even one year to the next. While the 2003 heat wave in France and the 2010 heat wave in Russia were exceptional, so were the heat waves of the 1930s in the U.S., which cannot be blamed on our greenhouse gas emissions. While it is true that storm damage of manmade structures increases over time, this is due to socioeconomic reasons: there are simply more manmade targets for severe storms to hit.
From Dr. Pielke’s testimony:
Hurricanes have not increased in the US in frequency, intensity or normalized damage since at least 1900.
Much more at the links.Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic pay parity bill from coming to the floor today, arguing that the measure was not the right answer to gender discrimination in pay.
In a 52-47 party line vote, Democrats failed to secure the 60 votes necessary to advance the measure.
At a press conference before the vote, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said that nearly 90 percent of all Americans support pay parity and 77 percent of Republicans support it.
“Once again Republicans across America can recognize what’s fair. Every place except Republicans in Congress,” Reid said.
Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), who led the charge for the bill, decried the GOP filibuster. “The majority should rule in the United States Senate,” she said.
The GOP opposition to the bill, including from the female GOP Senators, appeared to be more about the potential lawsuits that might arise from the pay parity bill than about the idea of equality itself.
Besides requiring employers to pay men and women the same wages for similar jobs as long as they have similar credentials, the bill would allow women to sue for punitive damages, and employers could not bar employees from talking about their wages with each other.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) told reporters before the vote that she opposed the bill because existing laws already allow women to sue for pay inequality. Collins also questioned whether the pay gap was due to discrimination or other factors.
In 2009, Congress passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which ensured that women who have been discriminated against can sue for back-pay regardless of when they find out about the discrimination. It reversed a Supreme Court decision that made pay discrimination suits harder to file.
Steven T. Dennis contributed to this report.At yesterday’s meeting of the Seattle Area Haskell Users’ Group, I talked briefly about my very recent experimentation with Haskell’s new module system, namely Backpack. I’ll briefly discuss what I’ve done so far right here.
The main thrust of my experimentation was to work through Edward Yang’s “Try Backpack” tutorial. For reasons that I gave up trying to figure out, I could not compile Edward’s examples, so I wrote my own from scratch. Here are the contents of the project and a brief description of each file:
foo.bkp : the Backpack file itself
This describes four units:
foo-indef : defines the signature Str and a module Foo that implements a function theLength in terms of Str
: defines the signature and a module that implements a function in terms of foo-int : defines a concrete implementation of the Str signature in terms of Int
: defines a concrete implementation of the signature in terms of foo-string : defines a concrete implementation of the Str signature in terms of String
: defines a concrete implementation of the signature in terms of main : defines the Main module that consumes theLength using both foo-int and foo-string
Makefile : the build definition
Since Stack does not yet support Backpack, I opted to use Stack just to manage the GHC compiler installation, and to describe the build of the project using a good old-fashioned Makefile.
To build the project:
make
stack.yaml : the Stack configuration file
This specifies which resolver and compiler version to use.
To install the correct version of GHC:
stack setup
The project also contains basic documentation about how to build on Windows, Linux and macOS.
I have a few questions about Backpack which I’ve not found any answers to yet:
How do I move my Haskell code out of the.bkp file and into separate.hs files?
file and into separate files? How am I really supposed to build this kind of project?
Happy Backpacking!The autopsy of a teenage girl fatally shot by Denver cops found that the 17-year-old had two wounds to the left side of her chest, another on her right thigh and one to the pelvis.
The coroner ruled Jessica "Jessie" Hernandez's death a homicide and said two bullets were recovered, adding that the wounds to her right thigh and pelvis were likely from a single bullet. None of the shots were fired at close range.
Jessica was killed on Jan. 26 in a confrontation with police who were responding to a report of a suspicious vehicle. Two officers approached the car on foot after they determined it was reported stolen, the Denver Police Department said in a statement.
Authorities said Hernandez drove the car, which had four other teens inside it, into one of the officers and struck him on the leg. Both officers then fired and shot Hernandez multiple times, she was taken to a local hospital where she was pronounced dead.
Attorneys for the family of Jessica Hernandez said the report shows she was shot from the driver's side, and contradicts police statements that she was driving at officers when they fired.
"The report shows that Jessie was shot from the driver's side of the car and not from close range," attorney Qusair Mohamedbhai said in a statement. "These facts undermine the Denver Police Department's claim that Jessie was driving at the officers as they shot her."
A friend of Jessica's who was in the passenger seat during the incident had previously told BuzzFeed News that officers were standing next to the car, not in front of it, when they shot. Trina Diaz, 16, also said the officer was hit only after Jessica was struck.
The Denver Police Department declined to comment on the autopsy's findings and Mohamedbhai's statements. |
Lee’s lawyer, Tonja Carter, a longtime friend who took over the writer’s affairs from Alice Lee, a lawyer who'd served as a protector and confidante.
“We’re just as stunned as you all are”
Since the switch, Carter has restricted what visitors can see Lee, accused the Monroe County Heritage Museum of exploiting her, charged her former literary agent of duping her, and denounced the 2014 book “The Mockingbird Next Door: Life with Harper Lee” in which writer Marja Mills documented her late-life friendship with the Lee sisters.
“There has been some concern over the past year, is it Miss Lee or is it her handlers?” said Melinda Byrd Murphy, director of the Alabama Center for Literary Arts, which is based in Monroeville. “I don’t have an answer.”
In Tuesday’s announcement, HarperCollins Publishers quoted Lee as saying she hadn’t realized the manuscript for “Go Set a Watchman,” still existed, but was “surprised and delighted when my dear friend and lawyer Tonja Carter discovered it.”
Publisher Jonathan Burnham told the AP he was “completely confident” Lee was fully involved in the deal, but acknowledged that he had no direct contact with her. The deal, he said, was managed through Carter and literary agent Andrew Nurnberg.
In the end, despite the worries about Lee’s intentions, the new book brings an exciting new chapter to Monroeville. Stephanie Rogers, executive director of the Monroe County Heritage Museum, said she was “thrilled” at the prospect of promoting and selling “Go Set a Watchman.” The announcement coincided with the sale of tickets for the museum’s annual theatrical production of “To Kill A Mockingbird.” Tickets are getting snapped up faster than usual, she said. “We’re just as excited about this as the rest of the world,” she said.
Murphy said she’s already pre-ordered the book, and along with countless people around the world, can’t wait to read it — even though it was written before “Mockingbird,” and could very well be of inferior quality.
“Even if it’s not the read we thought it would be, at this point, do we really care?” she said.
“My perspective has been this: I just wish her well.”Maybe you have noticed the strangely implausible similarities between the cobbled-together platforms of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. On the surface, they represent opposite extremes. But in their celebration of the nation state as the people’s salvation — their burning calls to overthrow the existing elites and replace them with a more intense form of top-down rule — they have much in common.
Remember that the Nazis and Communists hated each other in the interwar period and, of course, fought each other to the bloody end in the war itself. After the Nazis lost control of the nations they conquered, the Communists swept in, trading one tyranny for another.
To imagine that these systems somehow represent polar opposites is bizarre. Both systems extolled the primacy of the state. Both practiced economic central planning. Both upheld the nation over the individual. Both created a cult of leadership. Both experiments in top-down social order ended in calamity and massive violations of human rights.
How could these two systems, so similar in operation, be so antagonistic? I guess you had to be there.
Back to the Past
Oddly, we are there now. When it comes to politics, it’s the 1930s all over again — or at least an updated version.
We are actually living through a period in which the revolutionary left and the revolutionary right have merged — fighting the establishment to make government bigger — in a way that is mostly lost on their respective supporters.
Sanders and Trump differ on particulars, though where exactly is not quite obvious. Yes, Trump is against gun control, and Sanders extols it. Sanders wants to pillage the rich, and Trump doesn’t want to be pillaged. Sanders makes a big deal about global warming, and Trump doesn’t seem to take it seriously.
But those are the tweaks and idiosyncrasies in an overarching system on which they both agree: the nation state as the central organizing unit of life itself. They have different priorities on who it should serve and where the state should expand most.
But they agree on the need to protect and enlarge state power. Neither accepts any principled limits on what the state may rightfully do to the individual. Even on big issues where one might think they disagree — healthcare, immigration, and control of lands by the federal government — their positions are largely indistinguishable.
And yet, they and their supporters loathe each other. Each considers the other an enemy to be destroyed. This is not a fight about power as such but about in whose service it will be used.
Most of their supporters don’t see it that way, of course. They imagine themselves to be rebels fighting power itself, however they want to define it: Wall Street, the party establishment, the paid-off politicians, the bureaucracy, the billionaires, the foreigners, the special interests, and so on.
But notice that neither attacks government authority as such. Both aspire to use it and grow it for their purposes.
The Marketing of Control
Insight here is provided by F.A. Hayek in The Road to Serfdom, published in 1944 (another time when such issues were pressing), clarifying that the difference here is not in substance but style.
“The conflict between the Fascist or National-Socialist and the older socialist parties must indeed very largely be regarded as the kind of conflict which is bound to arise between rival socialist factions,” he wrote. “There was no difference between them about the question of it being the will of the state which should assign to each person his proper place in society.”
What is the difference? It was a matter of the demographics of political support and the differing classes in society that expected to benefit from a total state. The old socialists sought support from within working classes and depended heavily on the support of intellectuals.
The new form of socialists were supported by the young generation, “out of that contempt for profit-making fostered by socialist teaching.” These people “spurned independent positions which involved risk, and flocked in ever-increasing numbers into salaried positions which promised security.” They were demanding a place yielding them income and power to which their training entitled them but which seemed perpetually out of reach.
Though he was talking about 1930s Europe, it seems like a good description of Sanders supporters, who overwhelmingly come from the youngest voters. Betrayed by the educational system, stuck with a bleak job outlook, burdened with debt, trapped in a broken healthcare market, feeling like the system is rigged against them, they have turned to the politician who promises heaven on earth through the pillaging of the wealthy elites.
Then you have the fascist and national socialist right, with its own forms of scapegoating and its own class appeal. This approach says: your troubles are due to the outsiders, the immigrants, the media elite, the Muslims, the intellectuals and their political correctness.
The appeal, then as now, is a new form of identity politics based on nation and race. To them, the idea of equality is a mere cover for a power grab, a subversive trick to further the interests of the elites and nefarious “others.”
Replace Failure with Failure
As Hayek reminds us, neither faction emerged in a vacuum. “Their tactics were developed in a world already dominated by socialist policy and the problems it creates.” But instead of viewing the problem as statism itself, they push for state power to be used in a different way.
The New York Times reported that: “Iowa Republican caucus-goers are deeply unhappy with how the federal government is working,” but, for some reason, many GOP voters have yet to figure out that the military, the surveillance state, and immigration control that they love are the government they claim to hate.
Last Gasps
Why pay attention to this circus at all? It’s fascinating to watch the crackup of the old failed political order. It is happening to both parties and also to the public sector they scrabble to control. Their promise of better living through bigger bureaucracies has flopped.
Meanwhile, in our daily lives, the future is with borderless distributed technologies, managed not by zero-sum elections but by the digital marketplace. This is what is turning the world upside down.
Still, the political sector continues to exist, and becomes more unstable and ridiculous by the day. You can see this as tragic and terrible, or fun and delightful. I remind myself daily to choose the latter route.The Trump administration’s deepest impact on domestic climate policy might have little to do with its efforts to dismantle the Clean Power Plan or its decision on the Paris accord.
Instead, the coming battle over the future of the Energy Department could prove far more significant for the United States’ long-term efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Among energy experts, there is broad agreement that the world still needs major technological advances to halt global warming, like better batteries to integrate larger shares of solar and wind power into the grid, or carbon capture to curb pollution from cement plants.
Historically, the Energy Department has nurtured these kinds of innovations, conducting basic research in its network of 17 national laboratories and aiding private firms struggling to bring risky technologies to market. But those efforts would be drastically scaled back under President Trump’s fiscal 2018 budget proposal, released on Tuesday, which proposes to cut the agency’s energy programs by $3.1 billion, or 18 percent below last year’s levels.Rickshaw_Tom sent me a nice OrangeRed a couple days ago about how he is a procrastinator, but that my Arbitrary day gift was indeed in the mail. I got it today and I couldn't wait to open it.
Inside the USPS Priority box were 3 DVD's of some of my favorite movies and the best part is I didn't own any of them, YAY ME! Thor, Kick-Ass and Captain America. I love them, and I can't wait to watch them all again, especially Kick-Ass, I haven't seen that in a long time. He also sent along a Spider-Man storybook for my son, which I thought was pretty cool, Thanks for that, my wife is reading it to my son while I type this.
Rickshaw_Tom also included a sticker and a business card, he is an actor/comedian and I'm guessing he drives a rickshaw which I think is pretty awesome!
Thank you so much Rickshaw_Tom, This was an Arbitrary Day Success!“You've caught me at an exceptional time,” says Jarvis Cocker, on the phone from London earlier this month. The iconic frontman just wrapped up a day of lyric writing at his label Rough Trade’s offices and he’s feeling particularly inspired. “I think of myself as a volcano,” he muses, “most of the time, there is no real discernible sign of life as I sit on a couch or walk down the street. But underneath the surface, the magma is bubbling, and eventually, it produces a record, or a song, or whatever. I'm trying to make that happen now.”
He declines to elaborate on the in-progress material or how it will be released—“when it’s done, I'll decide what to do with it”—but as we wait for the lava, as it were, to flow, it’s a good time to look back on the 51-year-old’s legacy as the leader of Pulp. After breaking up in 2002, the band reconvened in 2011 for a host of ebullient gigs that showed little signs of the rust and desperation that commonly come along with such reunions. Thankfully, New Zealand director Florian Habicht decided to mark the occasion by filming their triumphant homecoming gig at Sheffield’s Motorpoint Arena on December 8, 2012. The resulting feature, Pulp: A Film About Life, Death and Supermarkets (which is now available digitally and playing in select theaters across America), is not merely a concert movie, but instead a chronicle of the group’s history as well as a brilliant character study of Sheffield itself.
Along with interviews with Pulp's five members, Life, Death and Supermarkets sees Habicht talking with fans from around town, who offer casual profundity on the band’s music and simple, everyday life. There’s a heavily-accented newsstand man who loves to sing “We Are the Champions”, a grey-haired, wheelchair-bound woman who prefers Pulp over Blur, a soft-spoken American mom who flew across an ocean to see her heroes in their hometown. These are the sorts of beautifully real people Cocker often sings about in his sly-yet-heartfelt songs, and Habicht captures their humble charm perfectly.
Though the Sheffield show provided a fine capper for Pulp’s career, Cocker doesn’t rule out more gigs down the line—at this point, he’s wise enough not to rule out anything, really. “There are no plans to play again for the foreseeable future,” he says, “but then again, I can't strictly say that it will never happen. I wouldn't advise people to hold their breath, though.”
Pitchfork: Even though Sheffield is Pulp’s hometown, I was surprised by the broad range of your fanbase there—everyone from grandmothers to little kids were familiar with the band and had something to say about it.
Jarvis Cocker: That was a pleasant surprise to me, too. You would expect it to be just hipsters, but it really wasn't. [laughs] When Pulp first started off [in the 1980s], we had this idea of being a pop band. In England, pop is rank now, but up until about 20 years ago, interesting things would happen within that arena—it was a pastime that a lot of the population participated in. You would get things like Laurie Anderson going to #1 with "O Superman", and then the next week it would be ABBA. It was a really mixed thing. So we always wanted our music to connect with a wide body of people, just because that's what pop music meant to me. I was quite into the fact that everybody could participate. It wasn't an elitist thing. Now, there's more stuff, but it's also spread-out more. There's lots of little scenes that operate really intensely in their own world, but aren't that visible to the mainstream. Maybe that's better. I'm still trying to work that one out.
Pitchfork: Do you still feel a responsibility to speak for the everyday sorts of folks who were interviewed as part of this film?
JC: I've never thought, “Oh, I've got to write songs about normal people or real life.” When people set out to write a song aimed at the common man—I mean, I don't even believe that that person exists—that's when you get really horrible, preachy, vague, waffly songs. I hate those songs. If you want to be a creative person, the big thing is to locate your own creative voice, which can be quite difficult. When I went to art college, I would read books about famous artists of years gone by and think, “Oh, well, if I went and lived in Marrakech and ate only oatmeal and bananas for a year, I'd become really artistic,” as if there's some kind of recipe. But instead of looking off into the distance, try and concentrate on your immediate surroundings and you will find that you already have a unique take on the world. It's just that you might not recognize it. The key to locating it is by being specific and writing about the details of situations, because a detail proves that you were actually there and lends authenticity to what you're writing. And the weird thing is that, by being more specific, it opens things up and makes it universal.
Watch a scene from Pulp: Life, Death and Supermarkets:
Pitchfork: How would you describe the general character of Sheffield?
JC: Sheffield is not as outgoing as other northern England cities, like Manchester and Liverpool. If you go up and try to start a conversation with someone in Sheffield, they'll probably hate you or they'll just not talk to you. They're not the friendliest people in the world, so I was quite amazed that [director Florian Habicht] actually managed to get people to trust him and open up and say a little bit about themselves, because in my experience that's quite difficult. I was born there and I'm still waiting for some of the people I know to open up. They probably never ever will.
I have not lived in Sheffield for 25 years so, for me, one of the joys of the film was to see that it still had the same kind of personalities that I remember from when I was there. Like those two old women who were going on about, "I like dancing,” “She can't dance." Just funny. There's a certain attitude of just getting on with life. If you're in a band or think of yourself as a slightly creative person, you can get quite self-indulgent, so sometimes it's nice to have those people who bring you down to earth, but in a pleasant way.
And musically, Sheffield has always punched above its weight, from the Human League to Def Leppard—though they were from a posh part of town, so please don't blame us for them.
Pitchfork: The film features interviews with some young fans from Sheffield, which made me wonder what you were like as a kid growing up in the city.
JC: I was a very shy kid, which is the reason my mother got me a job at a fish market, which they show in the film, because she thought it would make me more sociable and toughen me up a little bit. In a way, she was right. I never would've chosen that job at all. It was smelly and pretty unpleasant, but the people who worked there were funny. That experience did have quite a formative effect on me, because it just showed me a different side to life. And my shyness was probably one of the reasons why I wanted to be in a band. I thought it would help me mix with people. I've got better with social situations as I've got older, but even now, if I know I've got to go out to a place where there's gonna be quite a few people and have to make conversation, I'll start getting nervous.
Pitchfork: Your own son is 11 now, does he have any interest in music yet?
JC: He's been playing the drums since he was about 5, though I never encouraged him to be a drummer. I always told him that was a bad idea because you're at the back and the girls can't see you, and the other members of the band always tell you that you're playing too loud or speeding up all the time. But he didn't seem to be bothered about that.
You just gotta let people decide what they wanna do. That's the main thing that I'm grateful to my own mother about. When it came to the end of school and all my friends went off to university, I said that I wanted to stay behind and try to make music my life, and she allowed me to do that. The best thing you can give someone is the freedom to make their own mind up—and then, if it's not working out 5 years later, you can give your opinion. I would love for my son to do something useful, like be a scientist or a doctor, but in the end it's gonna be up to him to decide what he wants.
Pitchfork: But you of all people should know that musicians can sometimes be as useful to people as scientists.
JC: I don't know about that. It can be entertaining, hopefully. I'm happy with what I decided to do with my life, but I know it's not significant.
Pitchfork: You recently said that the sentiment behind "Common People"—upper-class people envying working-class life—doesn't resonate the way it did when the song came out in the mid-‘90s, because ideas of class have shifted.
JC: Yeah, a more appropriate song now would be "Royals" by Lorde, because the working class isn't the same as it used to be in England and America, as far as people actually making things in factories—all that happens in other countries now. It's more like a consuming class, or just people without much money. In the olden days, there was such a thing as working-class culture and things like music came from that, because it was entertainment made by people in a different sector of society. And that had a vitality to it. Sometimes, people from the upper class or middle class would be jealous of that vitality and want to live in that world a bit. But now, certain sectors of cities in the UK are just very rough places. I can't imagine anybody going, "Wow, I'd really like to live like that." So that thing which existed the '50s, '60s, and '70s, where people would search for this energy in lower class things, is maybe gone.
Pitchfork: Do you lament how it seems like less and less bands are coming from working-class backgrounds?
JC: I don't really care what someone's background is; creativity can come from any background. But there have been certain things that have happened within UK society over the last few years—for instance, art colleges used to be a place where people with not-so-good grades could go, and historically a lot of bands in the UK came from art colleges because you had a bit of freedom to create there. But that's gone now because it's quite expensive to go to art college. No one would ever go just to hang out and vaguely see whether they could form a band. Stuff like that is keeping that sector of society a bit out of the conversation, which I resent because, if that had been the story 30 years ago, then I wouldn't have been able to do what I did with my life. My basic position is that the more mixed the society and the more mobility there is in it, the better. That's what makes things interesting. When you get a homogenous society, it's very, very dull, whether that's all working class or all upper class, because everybody thinks the same, everybody looks the same.
Pitchfork: As someone who’s maintained a creative lifestyle for about 30 years now, what advice would you give to someone who’s considering that path now?
JC: One of the problems of our modern world is that there's a lot of things to work through, but, at some point, everybody should take a pause from that and make something, so that it's not just all one-way traffic. Human beings aren't meant to be solely consumers—eventually, something has to come out. Otherwise, I don't really see what the point of all that consumption is. The idea behind watching things and listening to things is that it stirs something within you, and hopefully that will stimulate you to then create your own thing.
I love the Internet, but it's hard not to get lost in it. It's not like a book where you start and get to the end. It’s like we’ve found a way to encapsulate all of human knowledge within one thing only to learn that you can’t do that. It's an overabundance of information. Ultimately, it must be quite tough to be confronted with that. If you wanted to be a creative person and you are confronted with the sum product of mankind's creativity up to this moment in history, that's pretty daunting, like, “Where can I fit my voice in amongst all that?”
Pitchfork: Yeah, the idea of making something new can seem pointless because you know it's going to be thrown on top of this endless pile of stuff.
JC: What people have to make sure of is that they're not replicating something that already exists. You really have to ask yourself: “Is there a point in me doing this? Has this already been said before? Is this moving things along or is this just adding to the giant pile of junk that's already there?” Social commentators give this kind of idea names like “cultural gridlock,” where things like music don’t seem to be developing so much. It's not like the music of 1994 is that different than the music of 2014—and that's 20 years worth.
But I believe that humans adapt to circumstance. The Internet is quite an unprecedented circumstance, so it's going to take people a while to get their heads around it. You read things about writers, for instance, who get computer programs so that they can't surf the Internet when they're supposed to be writing. People are learning that you've got to find some way of shutting things off in order to give your own mind a chance to produce something. It's interesting that most gadgets are called “iPhone” and “iPod,” with that "i" prefix, which is ego. But most creativity is not ego-led—a lot of it comes from the unconscious. So if you’re always checking your email or updating your Instagram profile, you're not just looking out the window, daydreaming. You've got to let the subconscious in—that's my main message to the world. I sound like I've been reading too many self-help books, don't I?
Pitchfork: How would you gauge the importance the Internet has had on culture in general in the last 20 years?
JC: The Internet and mobile phones are probably the most significant cultural changes that I'll witness in my lifetime. I was born between formats, so I can remember life before and after. In some ways, it's positive. Say you're traveling on the Underground here in London, late at night—before, you would always be pretty nervous that you might get beaten up by somebody. A lot of violence just stems from boredom. People would get on a train and think, "I've got 20 minutes. What should I do? Oh look, there's somebody over there that looks weird. I'll go beat them up." But now, people are just on their phones. They're not bothered about you. They don't even really know that you're there. They'll just check through some emails and play Candy Crush. In a way, it's probably a big reason why there's less violence now. Having said that, the next time I go on the tube, I'll probably get beaten up.By Steven Goddard
The Arctic sun has now passed its peak, and is starting its decline towards the horizon over the next 90 days.
All four (JAXA NSIDC DMI NORSEX) ice extent measurements now show 2010 as below 2007. You can see in the modified NSIDC map below that the regions which are below the 30 year mean (marked in red) are all outside of the Arctic Basin and are normally ice free in September, so it is still too early to make any September forecasts based on extent data.
The modified NSIDC map below shows ice loss (in red) during the last nine days. There has been very little change in the Arctic Basin.
The modified NSIDC map below shows ice loss (in red) since early April. According to JAXA, this is about 5 million km².
The modified NSIDC map below shows ice loss (in red) since early April. According to JAXA, this is about 5 million km².
The modified NSIDC map below shows ice loss (in red) since 2007. According to JAXA, this is about 500,000 km². Areas in green have more ice than 2007.
There has been a strong clockwise rotation of wind in the Beaufort Gyre, which is pulling ice away from the land around the edges of the Beaufort, Chukchi and East Siberian and Laptev Seas.
http://www7320.nrlssc.navy.mil/pips2/archive/mag/2010/mag_2010062200.gif
The video below shows changes in PIPS ice thickness and extent during June. You can see the ice rotating clockwise and concentrating in the center of the Arctic Basin.
During the last 10 days, PIPS shows that Arctic Basin ice volume has dropped close to 2007 and 2009 levels. Volume has increased by about 40% since 2008.
Average ice thickness is now the highest for the date during the last five years. This is due to the compression of the ice towards the interior of the Arctic Basin.
Ice offshore of Barrow, Alaska is showing little signs of melt so far.
‘
http://seaice.alaska.edu/gi/observatories/barrow_sealevel/brw2010/BRW_MBS10_overview_complete.png
The current break up forecast calls for July 5.
http://seaice.alaska.edu/gi/observatories/barrow_breakup
Temperatures north of 80N have been persistently below normal this summer.
http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/plots/meanTarchive/meanT_2010.png
There are still no signs of melt at the North Pole, with temperatures running right at the freezing point – and below normal. Normally there has been surface melting for several weeks already.
http://psc.apl.washington.edu/northpole/webphotos/noaa2-sml.jpg
Arctic Basin ice generally looks healthier than 20 years ago.
I’m forecasting a summer minimum of 5.5 million km², based on JAXA. i.e. higher than 2009, lower than 2006.
Meanwhile down south, Antarctic ice is well above “normal” close to a record maximum for the date.
http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/IMAGES/seaice.recent.antarctic.png
The video below shows the entire NSIDC Antarctic record for the last 30 years.It looks like a heart beating
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RedditBrain Scans Show Some Remain Deeply In Love For Decades
The brain scans tell the story of love.
Stony Brook University researchers looked at the brains of Bernstein and 16 other people who had been married an average of 20 years and claimed to be still intensely in love. They found that their MRIs showed activity in the same regions of the brain as those who had just fallen in love.
Social psychologist Arthur Aron says that researchers simply didn't believe those who claim to feel intensely for each other after decades of marriage.
"But in survey after survey we always have these people who have been together a long time and say they are intensely in love. It was always chalked up to self-deception or trying to make a good impression," he said.
What I'd like to know: Do the people who maintain this feeling for decades carry genetic variants that have coded for them to bond much more heavily than the average person? I'd like to see these people compared with people who've been divorced at least twice using vasopression and oxytocin genes for starters. The delivery of vasopressin receptor gene therapy into the ventral pallidum of male voles made them more monogamous. In the future I expect some ladies will surreptitiously deliver gene therapy into the brains of their boyfriends to get them to stay around. But if the guy is already playing the field he might bond to another women he's bedding. So use of this sort of therapy requires careful staging to achieve the desired outcome.
Another future option: Women who want to stay in love forever who have the bonding brain genes could test prospective mates to choose guys who have the genes that'll keep them in love for a long time.Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally, Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2016, in Clive, Iowa. A war of words over Donald Trump’s “deplorables” is intensifying as Republicans and Democrats fight to score political points over Hillary Clinton’s charge that millions of the New York billionaire’s supporters are racist, sexist and homophobic. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Trump Isn’t the First President to Go to War With the Press
It’s no secret that President Donald Trump’s adversarial relationship with the news media has them up in arms, especially after the omission of several outlets from an informal press gaggle last week. Both right- and left-leaning pundits have condemned Trump, with some going as far as saying that he’s headed on a path to a dictatorship.
Trump, for his part, has said that the “fake news media … is the enemy of the American people.” The press corps, for their part, have collectively hyperventilated. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer has followed the president’s lead, and actively admonishes reporters during daily briefings.
The Washington Post’s new masthead, in a likely nod to Trump, claims that “Democracy dies in darkness,” while New York Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet, wrote an opinion piece after Spicer barred CNN, the Los Angeles Times, Politico, BuzzFeed, and the Times from an informal press conference (although the White House denied it). “Nothing like this has ever happened at the White House in our long history of covering multiple administrations of different parties,”Baquet wrote.
Throughout history, U.S. presidents and politicians have often had contentious relationships with the press—so it shouldn’t be a surprise to them if Trump, in his typical bombastic fashion, does the same. The media should take a more realistic approach. When Trump nudges the so-called window of appropriate discourse—the range of ideas the public can accept—with tweets and press conference comments, outlets have basically followed his lead with a “the-end-is-nigh” headline.
Trump Isn’t ‘Unprecedented’
But Trump isn’t the first president in this country’s history to go to war with the media.
George Washington, the first president, noted that he thought he was treated unfairly in newspaper articles of the time, describing early reporters as “infamous scribblers” and commented once that he was “tired to the marrow” of being “buffeted in the public prints by a set” of reporters who criticized him.
Reporters of the age even claimed Washington, who was heading a brand-new experiment in governance after the turmoil of the American Revolutionary War, had dictatorial aspirations.
And newspapers, like the American polity itself, have always favored one politician over another. While Trump’s methods—including tweeting out 140-character blurbs to tens of millions of people—are new, the grievances aren’t.
John Adams was quite concerned about a partisan press—but the second president went too far with the 1798 Sedition Act. It made publishing criticism of the government against the law. Those who “write, print, utter, or publish … any false, scandalous and malicious writing” against the U.S. government could be jailed or fined. With Adams in mind, Trump’s verbal assaults on the press are hardly “unprecedented,” as is frequently foisted onto the public by members of the media today. Trump hasn’t violated individual protections under the first amendment of the constitution by making criticism of his administration an illegal act.
Like Adams, Washington abhorred the press.
By his second term, Washington frequently criticized the press of “the grossest, most insidious mis-representations.” According to a letter he wrote to Jefferson, the press made “such exaggerated and indecent terms as could scarcely be applied to a Nero; a notorious defaulter; or even to a common pickpocket.”
Two centuries later, Trump told top CIA brass that journalists are “among the most dishonest human beings on earth” while tweeting on a weekly basis that the New York Times, CNN, and others push out “fake news” about him and his administration.
While Washington might be far more eloquent than Trump, the contempt is the same.
Jefferson was no saint himself and viewed newspapers as a tool to be used in meeting his political goals. Along with James Madison, the third president started one of nation’s first partisan newspapers, the National Gazette in 1791, which was used to attack Alexander Hamilton and the Washington administration.
“For god’s sake, my dear sir, take up your pen, select the most striking heresies, and cut him to pieces in the face of the public,” Jefferson said to Madison, telling him to attack Hamilton under a false pen name in the newspaper (“fake news,” anyone?).
The paper ran a story with the headline, “The Funeral of George Washington,” speaking of the potential of Washington being executed for exercising too much authority. When Washington gazed on the front page, he was incensed, and Washington, according to Jefferson, “got into one of those passions when he cannot command himself.” But Washington never expressed his anger in public, according to historical accounts.
“He is also extremely affected by the attacks made and kept up on him in the public papers. I think he feels those things more than any person I ever yet met with,” Jefferson wrote Madison of Washington.
More than any other person until perhaps President Trump two centuries later, who tweeted: “The failing @nytimes has been wrong about me from the very beginning … [they] “got me wrong right from the beginning and still have not changed course, and never will. DISHONEST.”
The failing @nytimes has been wrong about me from the very beginning. Said I would lose the primaries, then the general election. FAKE NEWS! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 28, 2017
Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.state of the United States of America
Coordinates:
Interactive map of Connecticut
Connecticut ( ())[11] is the southernmost state in the New England region of the United States. As of the 2010 Census, it has the highest per-capita income, Human Development Index (0.962), and median household income in the United States.[12][13][14] It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capital is Hartford and its most populous city is Bridgeport. It is part of New England, although portions of it are often grouped with New York and New Jersey as the Tri-state area. The state is named for the Connecticut River which approximately bisects the state. The word "Connecticut" is derived from various anglicized spellings of an Algonquian word for "long tidal river".[15]
Connecticut's first European settlers were Dutchmen who established a small, short-lived settlement called Fort Hoop in Hartford at the confluence of the Park and Connecticut Rivers. Half of Connecticut was initially part of the Dutch colony New Netherland, which included much of the land between the Connecticut and Delaware Rivers, although the first major settlements were established in the 1630s by the English. Thomas Hooker led a band of followers from the Massachusetts Bay Colony and founded the Connecticut Colony; other settlers from Massachusetts founded the Saybrook Colony and the New Haven Colony. The Connecticut and New Haven colonies established documents of Fundamental Orders, considered the first constitutions in America. In 1662, the three colonies were merged under a royal charter, making Connecticut a crown colony. This was one of the Thirteen Colonies which rejected British rule in the American Revolution.
Connecticut is the third smallest state by area,[16] the 29th most populous,[17] and the fourth most densely populated[ |
Falling into unbelief, nations decayed and died. That the elevation of national culture depends on the perfection of religion is understandable.
From time immemorial Russia was a nation of Orthodox Christianity. Her principal creative national-linguistic nucleus always confessed the Orthodox faith. (See, for example, D. Mendeleev’s statistical data. On Knowledge of Russia. Pp. 36-41, 48-49. By the beginning of the 20th century Russia counted around 66% Orthodox population, around 17% non-Orthodox Christians, and around 17% non-Christian religions – some 5 million Jews and Turco-Tatar peoples.) Here is why the spirit of Orthodoxy always defined and still defines so much and so deeply the fabric of Russia’s national creativity.
By the gifts of Orthodoxy all Russian people have lived, have been educated, and have found salvation over the course of centuries. They were all citizens of the Russian Empire – both those who forgot these gifts and those who didn’t notice them, renouncing and even blaspheming them; citizens belonging to other Christian confessions; and other European peoples beyond Russia’s borders.
We would need an entire historical study for an exhaustive description of these gifts. I can point to them only by a brief enumeration.
The whole basic composition of the Christian revelation was received by Russia from the Orthodox East in the form of Orthodoxy, in the Greek and Slavic languages. “The great spiritual and political revolution of our planet is Christianity. Within this sacred element the world disappeared and was renewed” (Pushkin). The Russian people experienced this sacred element of baptism and investiture into Christ the Son of God in Orthodoxy. It was for us what it was for the Western peoples before the division of the churches; it gave them that which they subsequently lost, and what we preserved; for this lost spirit they begin to turn to us now, shaken by the martyrdom of the Orthodox Church in Russia. Orthodoxy set at the foundation of the human being the life of the heart (feelings, love), and contemplation deriving from the heart (vision, imagination). Herein lies the deepest distinction from Catholicism, which brings faith from will to reason, and from Protestantism, bringing faith from reason to will. This distinction, defining the Russian soul, remains forever; no “Unia,” no “Eastern Rite,” and no Protestant missionary activity can remake the Orthodox soul. The entire Russian spirit and way were made Orthodox. Here is why when the Russian people create, they seek to see and express that which they love. This is the basic form of Russian national being and creativity. They were raised by Orthodoxy and girded by Slavdom and the nature of Russia. In the moral sphere, this gave the Russian people a living and profound sense of conscience; a dream of righteousness and holiness; an accurate perception of sin; the gift of a repentance that renews; the idea of ascetic catharsis; and an acute sense of “truth” and “lies,” good and evil. Hence the spirit of mercy and popular, caste-less, supra-national brotherhood so characteristic of the Russian people, sympathy for the poor, the weak, the sick, the oppressed, and even the criminal (See, for example, Dostoevsky’s Diary of a Writer for 1873, Article III “Environment,” and Article V “Vlas”). Hence our monasteries and Tsars who love the poor; hence our hospices, hospitals, and clinics created through private donations. Orthodoxy cultivated in the Russian people that spirit of sacrifice, service, patience, and loyalty, without which Russia would never have withstood its enemies and built an earthly home. In the course of all their history, Russians have learned to build Russia by “kissing the Cross” and to draw upon their moral strength in prayer. The gift of prayer is Orthodoxy’s best gift. Orthodoxy affirmed religious faith upon freedom and earnestness, connecting them as one; with this spirit it informed the Russian soul and Russian culture. Orthodox missions sought to bring people “to baptism” “through love,” and in no way through fear (From Metropolitan Makary’s instruction to Archbishop Gury in 1555. The exceptions only confirm the basic rule). Hence comes from Russian history precisely that spirit of religious and national tolerance that Russian citizens of other confessions and religions evaluated by its merit only after revolutionary persecutions of faith. Orthodoxy brought to the Russian people all the gifts of the Christian sense of justice – a will to peace, brotherhood, justice, loyalty, and solidarity; a sense of dignity and rank; a capability for self-control and mutual respect; in a word, all that which can draw the state nearer to Christ’s commandments. Orthodoxy nourished in Russia the sense of a citizen’s responsibility, that of an official before the Tsar and God, and most of all it consolidated the idea of a monarch, called and anointed, who would serve God. Thanks to that tyrannical rulers in Russian history were a complete exception. All humane reforms in Russian history were inspired or suggested by Orthodoxy. Russian Orthodoxy faithfully and wisely resolved a most difficult task with which Western Europe almost never coped – to find a correct correlation between the Church and secular power, a mutual support under mutual loyalty and non-encroachment. Orthodox monastery culture gave Russia not only a host of righteous men. It gave her her chronicles, i.e. it set a foundation for Russian historiography and Russian national consciousness. Pushkin expressed it thus: “We are obliged to the monks for our history, and consequently our enlightenment” (Pushkin’s “Historical Notes,” 1822). We mustn’t forget that the Orthodox faith was long considered the true criterion of “Russianness” in Russia. The Orthodox doctrine on the immortality of a person’s soul (lost in contemporary Protestantism, interpreting “eternal life” not in the sense of immortality of the soul, which is seen as mortal); on obedience to higher authorities for the sake of one’s conscience; on Christian forbearance and laying down one’s life “for one’s friends” gave the Russian Army all the sources of its knightly, individually fearless, selflessly obedient and all-conquering spirit, which developed in its historical wars and especially in the teaching and practice of Aleksandr Suvorov – and was often recognized by great captains of the enemy (Frederick the Great, Napoleon, etc.). All Russian art has derived from the Orthodox faith, from the beginning nourishing within itself its spirit of heartfelt contemplation, prayerful soaring, free forthrightness, and spiritual responsibility (See Gogol’s “What, Ultimately, is the Essence of Russian Poetry?” and “On the Lyricism of Our Poets.” See my book Foundations of Artistry. On the Perfect in Art.) Russian painting came from the icon; Russian music was fanned by Church singing; Russian architecture came from the mason-work of cathedrals and monasteries; the Russian theatre was borne from the dramatic “acts” on religious themes; Russian literature came from the Church and monastics.
Has everything been numbered here, everything mentioned? No. We still have not spoken of Orthodox elders; Orthodox pilgrimages; of the significance of the Old Church Slavonic language; Orthodox schooling; and Orthodox philosophy. But all that is still impossible to exhaust.
All of this gave Pushkin the basis to establish the following as an unshakable truth: “The Greek confession, separate from all others, gives us a special national character” (Pushkin’s Historical Notes, 1822). Such is the significance of Orthodox Christianity in Russian history. This is how those savage, unheard-of persecutions of Orthodoxy, which it now endures from the Communists. The Bolsheviks understood that the roots of Russian Christianity; the Russian national spirit; of Russian honor and conscience; Russian state unity; the Russian family; and Russian sense of justice – are set namely in the Orthodox faith, and therefore they attempt to uproot it.
In the struggle with such attempts, the Russian people and Orthodox Church have brought forward entire hosts of confessors, martyrs, and holy martyrs; and at the same time they have restored the religious life of the age of the catacombs everywhere – in the forests, in the ravines, in the villages and cities. For twenty years the Russian people have learned to concentrate in silence, to cleanse and forge their souls before the face of death, praying in whispers and organizing Church life in persecutions, strengthening it in secret and silence. And at present, after twenty years of persecution, the Communists had to admit (winter of 1937) that one-third of city residents and two-thirds of the population in the villages continue to openly believe in God. And how many from the remainder believe and pray in secret?
Persecutions are awakening within the Russian people a new faith, one full of new strength and new spirit. Suffering hearts are restoring their ancient, age-old religious contemplation. And Russia will not only not leave Orthodoxy, as her enemies in the West hope, but will be strengthened in the sacred foundations of her historical being.
The consequences of the Revolution will overcome its causes.Rudi Dornbusch, the late renowned MIT professor, once famously said of the Mexican Central Bank that he could understand it having made mistakes. After all, its board members were only human. However, what he could not understand was how the same people could have made the same mistakes time after time.
On considering the global asset bubbles that the Federal Reserve has been inflating over the past 18 months by its unprecedented balance sheet expansion, one has to wonder whether the same might not be said of the Fed as was said of the Mexican Central Bank. Since this now has to have been the third time in the past 15 years that the Fed has blown asset price bubbles through its excessively easy monetary policy stance. And seemingly the Fed learns nothing from the subsequent bursting of these bubbles. Rather, despite increased signs of global market frothiness, it continues to expand the size of its bloated balance sheet, which now exceeds a staggering $ 4 ¼ trillion.
The recently released Annual Report from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the Basel-based bank of the world's central banks, provides a slew of data supporting the view that excessively buoyant global financial markets have become largely disconnected from the rather lackluster global economic performance of recent years. Despite the most mediocre of economic recoveries, global equity markets have skyrocketed to new record highs and volatility indices have sunk to all-time lows. Meanwhile, global credit markets too have reduced interest rates for risky borrowers both in the corporate high-yield market and in the European economic periphery spaces to levels that almost certainly do not price in historic probabilities of default.
A further indication that global markets might have become disconnected from underlying economic and political fundamentals is that they appear to have been largely unfazed by a confluence of increased global risks. In particular, it is striking how markets have shrugged off the tectonic changes now taking place in the oil-rich Middle-East's political landscape with the resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism. It is also striking how markets have minimized the geopolitical risks associated with the Ukraine crisis and how they have downplayed the likelihood of any renewed intensification of the European sovereign debt crisis at the very time that the European economic recovery sputters and Europe's deflation risk rises.
Fed Chair Janet Yellen's repeated denials that US and global equity and credit markets might be overly frothy would seem to underline the point that the Fed keeps making the same mistake of first denying and then underestimating the cost of asset price inflation. It does so by basically restricting its policy focus to unemployment and goods price inflation to the exclusion of asset price inflation. The Fed did so first with the technology bubble at the start of the 2000s and then again with the housing and credit market bubble in the mid-2000s. Currently it seems to be doing so yet again with the global equity and credit market bubbles.
In a manner reminiscent of former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan in the run up to the bursting of the US housing and credit market bubble in 2007, Ms. Yellen subscribes to the view that it is not the role of policymakers to identify much less to pop bubbles in the early stages of their formation. Rather, in her view, what policymakers should do is to carefully regulate the banks through leverage requirements or loan-to-value requirements to ensure that the financial system is resilient enough to withstand the bursting of bubbles should that actually occur.
A problem with Ms. Yellen's approach is that rather than using interest rate policy as a means to remove the proverbial punchbowl before the financial market party really gets going, her forward guidance that interest rates will be kept low for a protracted period of time and will not be used to deflate bubbles gives the markets a green light to keep on partying. This raises the real risk that the asset price bubbles across global credit and equity markets -- which she herself grudgingly now acknowledges might be forming - could become all the more pronounced. It also raises the risk that once again the Fed might be underestimating the impact of the bursting of these bubbles. Especially if it affects the parts of the financial system that are beyond the Fed's regulatory reach.
Only time will tell whether the BIS is right in sounding the alarm again, as it did prior to the bursting of the US housing bubble, or whether Ms. Yellen is right in being as sanguine as she appears to be today about global financial market risks. Sadly, however, the clues all seem to be pointing in the direction of the BIS being right in its concern about the current frothiness of US and global asset markets. This suggests that we should brace ourselves for yet another rough ride in global financial markets when interest rates eventually start to be normalized.Its like yet again another unrealeased Nintendo 64 game has surfaced and all we can say is Yippee Ki Yay Mother, what, wait?! sorry, I forgot where I was for a second. Die Hard 64 from Bit studios was originally planned for a 1999 release via Fox Interactive and was never actually shown to press or the public. There were hints at the time the game existed but that was really all it was, just hints. But it would now seem that an Assembler Games forum member who also revealed a cancelled game called Riga has in his hands a very early playable demo of a version of Die Hard 64. The game is for all purposes a first person shooter and would lay down the blueprint for the Playstation One game Die Hard Vendetta.
The guys over at Retro Collect reached out to the forum member and here is what he had to say:
“The game is far from complete, and is split into three roms. Each rom has got about 8 levels and around 3 of them are playable in each rom (the rest are test levels, or unfinished levels with no enemies at all). The levels playable include the prison riot, the hospital, LA street, the police department. The maps are quite big, and fairly impressive for the Nintendo 64; for instance in the LA street level you have few streets and you can go inside some buildings, but you dont have any pedestrians or cars running in the street. It feels a bit empty, but this is a very early game. All cutscenes are missing and beside the “yippee ki yay!” and “that must hurt” voiced by Bruce Willis, there is no dialogue at all. Even in the most completed level you have a lot of funny glitches. It was really a work in progress – and you can tell.
“Beside that you still have a lot here. You have few melee weapons – a knife, baseball bat, police stick, tazer, and your fist. Firearms I found include a hand gun, Uzi, M-16, a sort of automatic shotgun and a few other generic machine guns. What’s really cool is that you can dual wield weapons. In terms of gameplay, you can climb ladder, push buttons, jump, crouch, crawl on the ground, and you can also lean around corners. You have also some kind of unfinished ‘bullet time’ effect with the camera rotating around the bullet – a bit like Max Payne.
“The field of view is quite narrow but I guess thats standard in an N64 shooter, and the controls seem to be quite complicated to get used to. I guess I lost my skill with modern shooters’ auto aiming, but it was really hard to shoot the enemies!”DETROIT -- Being nominated for the Lady Byng Trophy implies that the player is passive and not overly physical.
That is not the case with Detroit Red Wings forward Pavel Datsyuk, who has managed to combine the criteria of “sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct’’ along with an element of grit to dominate the balloting for the award in recent years.
Datsyuk was named a finalist again Wednesday. He has an opportunity to become the first player in NHL history to win the trophy in five consecutive seasons.
With his lightning quick hands, Datsyuk has become a master of stripping opponents of the puck without drawing many penalties. He has a penchant for throwing his shoulder into would-be checkers to maintain puck possession. He had only 18 penalty minutes, along with 27 goals and 70 points, in 80 games in the regular season.
Martin St. Louis of Tampa Bay and Brad Richards of Dallas are the other finalists. The winner will be announced June 23 at the NHL Awards Show in Las Vegas.
Only one other player, Frank Boucher of the New York Rangers, has won the award four years in a row (1927-28 to 1930-31). Boucher won it seven times in eight seasons.
Detroit goaltender Jimmy Howard is expected to be named a finalist Thursday for the Calder Trophy as top rookie. On Friday, Nicklas Lidstrom has a chance to be a finalist for the Norris Trophy as best defenseman, which he has won six times.After the World Health Organization declared glyphosate, the main ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide, to be “probably carcinogenic,” the biotech company quickly countered the claim, saying the research is biased and inaccurate.
And of course, it would, for RoundUp is its best-selling weed killer. Who cares if it causes cancer, right?
Well, scientists from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry have published a study damning the effects of glyphosate, and there is no way the corrupt company can refute this evidence.
In the study, a correlation between parental exposure to the toxic herbicide Roundup and an increased chance of offspring developing brain cancer was found. Specifically, parents exposed to the toxic concoction up to two years before giving birth are more likely to see their offspring develop brain cancer. That’s not all – the chances double if that’s the case.
As Natural Society shares, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry is a branch of the US Department of Health and Human Services specializing in illnesses caused by toxic substances.
These results from the US Atlantic Coast Childhood Brain Cancer Study have been published and compared against control groups in multiple states.
The researchers specifically stated:
“We included 526 one-to-one–matched case–control pairs. Brain cancer cases were diagnosed at < 10 years of age, and were identified from statewide cancer registries of four U.S. Atlantic Coast states. We selected controls by random digit dialing. We conducted computer-assisted telephone interviews with mothers. Using information on residential pesticide use and jobs held by fathers during the 2-year period before the child’s birth, we assessed potential exposure to insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides...”
It was concluded that if either parent had been exposed to Roundup during the two years before the child’s birth, the chances of the child developing cancer were increased. That means it’s not just exposure to the mother that matters, as might easily be assumed since indications of breast milk contamination recently made news.
The health of both parents is essential. If either a man or a woman have not taken care to purify and detoxify their own body before conception, it is guaranteed a child born from the two will inherit those genetic weaknesses and be more predisposed to illness later on in life.
Because glyphosate-containing herbicides are still rampantly used, the task to ‘get healthy’ and remain that way can be quite a difficult task. Roundup is primarily used on ‘Roundup Ready’ crops, so this is just one more reason to ban GM crops and opt for organic, unprocessed, whole foods.
With this recent study, will it only be a short period of time before the cancer-causing concoction is banned?
Share this news and comment your thoughts below.
This article (Monsanto’s Glyphosate-Containing Herbicide Linked To Brain Cancer In Children) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author and TrueActivist.comSAN DIEGO - Gov. Jerry Brown endorsed ex-Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher for San Diego mayor Monday, while David Alvarez gained support of top school officials and Kevin Faulconer touted the backing of ex-Mayor Jerry Sanders.
"Nathan Fletcher will make an excellent mayor,'' Brown said. "I came to know Nathan when he was in the state Assembly. He and I worked together on tax reform, stimulating jobs and balancing the state budget.''
The governor called Fletcher "a solid leader who brings people together to get things done.''
Fletcher has won support from numerous statewide and legislative leaders, including Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, state Superintendent of Instruction Tom Torlakson and Assembly Speaker John Perez, D-Los Angeles.
Fletcher, Alvarez and Faulconer are leading in the polls for the Nov. 19 special election in which San Diegans will choose someone to finish the term of Bob Filner, who resigned in disgrace Aug. 30. If no one wins more than 50 percent of the vote, a runoff between the top two vote-getters would be held early next year.
Alvarez, a city councilman, was endorsed by San Diego Unified School District Board of Education President John Lee Evans and trustees Richard Barrera, Kevin Beiser and Marne Foster, along with Greg Robinson, a member of the San Diego County Board of Education.
Alvarez had previously received the backing of the San Diego County Democratic Party and the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council.
Faulconer, also a City Council member, rolled out his first television advertisement of the campaign, which features Sanders, who is now the CEO of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce.
The ex-mayor says in the commercial that he worked closely with Faulconer to reform the city's debt-ridden pension systems and that the councilman will use the savings to repave streets, heighten police patrols and increase hours of after-school programs, if elected.
"I worked with Kevin Faulconer for seven years,'' Sanders says. "Kevin Faulconer knows there's no Democrat or Republican way to fill a pothole, he's about getting things done."
Faulconer has also been endorsed by the San Diego County Hotel-Motel Association, the San Diego chapter of the California Restaurant Association, and his Republican colleagues on the City Council, among others.
To view PDF documents, Download Acrobat Reader.As one gunman ran out of the office of Charle Hebdo magazine in Paris, he raised his right index finger in a gesture that has been adopted by radical Islamists, including al-Qaeda.
The single finger alludes to the "tawhid", namely the Muslim belief in the oneness and unity of God. It can be taken to invoke the first half of the Muslim statement of faith: "There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his messanger".
The gunman is shown striding towards the camera, raising his right finger and carrying an AK47 assault rifle in his right hand.
The attackers who killed 12 people in and around the office of Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris acted with a skill and calmness that bears all the hallmarks of advanced military training.
They were also fully equipped for their murderous task. Photographs taken at the scene show two men clad entirely in black, their faces concealed by balaclavas. Each one is armed with an AK47 automatic rifle.
They wear army-style boots and have a military appearance and manner. One of the men wears a sand-coloured ammunition vest apparently stuffed with spare magazines. Some reports suggest that an attacker was also carrying a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.
The men attacked the magazine’s headquarters with clinical precision, killing their victims and then shooting two police officers in the street outside.
Amateur footage shows them using classic infantry tactics. They move along the street outside the office working as a pair: one advances while the other gives cover.
Instead of spraying automatic gunfire, they fire two aimed shots at each target – a pattern known as “double-tap” firing – thereby conserving their ammunition.
The men talk to one another calmly and are clearly determined to inflict as much bloodshed as possible. At one point the footage picks up one man shouting "Allahu Akbar" - or "God is great".
According to one witness, the terrorists shouted that they were from "al-Qaeda in Yemen". Cédric Le Béchec, a 33-year-old estate agent, told a French news website that the attackers approached another man in the street saying: "Tell the media that this is al-Qaeda in Yemen". Yemen is the base of one affiliate of the terrorist network usually known as "al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula".
Other shocking footage shows the moment when they realise that one policeman is lying wounded on the pavement. They calmly approach the injured victim and, while one terrorist gives cover, the other kills the officer with a shot to the head.
Then the attackers are shown driving away in a black Citroen DS. They do not race off in a way that would draw attention; instead they depart in a controlled manner. Later, they tried to cover their tracks by abandoning this vehicle and hijacking a second car.
The fact that they were clearly following a careful escape plan – which appears to have worked so far - is further evidence of their ability.During World War II, a number of sports leagues were left with depleted rosters as players went off to war. 70 years later, we take a look back at how two NFL teams had to temporarily merge into a team that was known as the “Steagles” in today’s installment of Throwback Thursday.
Exactly 70 years ago today, the “Steagles” played their final game.
For one lone season in 1943, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Philadelphia Eagles merged their rosters to form what was officially called the Phil-Pitt Eagles-Steelers Combine. Several weeks after the announcement, a Pittsburgh Press editor gave the team the unofficial nickname that would stick: The “Steagles.”
Due to U.S. involvement in World War II, many NFL rosters were decimated by players heading overseas to serve in the armed forces. According to a 2007 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article, the Steelers, who were coming off the first winning campaign in team history, only had six players left under contract heading into the 1943 season.
Rather than shut both teams out, the league approved a merger between the two, with Steelers coach Walt Kiesling and Eagles coach Greasy Neale both leading the combined roster.
Via the Post-Gazette:
All of the 25 players on the roster were required to keep full-time jobs in defense plants. One of Pittsburgh’s players, Ted Doyle, worked at Westinghouse and figured out later he was a small part of the Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb, according to Matthew Algeo’s book Last Team Standing. And even though it was a merger, the team practiced in Philadelphia and wore green and white uniforms. That color scheme was worn in the two home games played at Forbes Field, which were wins over the Cardinals on Halloween and over Detroit on Nov. 21. Four home games were played in Philadelphia, where the team went 2-1-1.
In his 2006 book, Algeo goes through the team’s season in great detail, including the adversarial relationship between the two coaches, as Kiesling ended up coaching the team’s offense and Neale the defense. With completely different coaching approaches, it would be like Bill Belichick and Rex Ryan suddenly having to share a sideline.
Despite the uniquely shrinking pool of players to choose from, some men who might not be eligible for war still had qualifications that allowed them to play football.
Via Last Team Standing:
The minimum height (60 inches) and weight (105 pounds) went unchanged throughout the war. The maximums – 78 inches and “overweight which is greatly out of proportion to the height” – went unchanged too, winning deferments for a handful of oversized football players, notably Green Bay’s Buford “Baby” Ray, a six-six, 250-pound tackle. Likewise, some defects were deemed unacceptable no matter how dire the need for soldiers. A host of maladies large and small – ulcers, perforated eardrums, high blood pressure, diabetes, chronic sleepwalking – earned otherwise able-bodied men an automatic 4-F classification, rendering them unfit for military service but not for professional football.
Many of the Steagles players actually had wanted to go to war, but were held back by some of the above qualifications. One Eagles tackle had bleeding ulcers while another lineman was born deaf in his left ear and was discharged from pilot training. A Steelers receiver was blind in one eye. Several players had bad knees.
There was a special bond among the Steagles’ 4-Fs, who believed, in some small way, they were contributing to the war effort. If they couldn’t fight the war, at least they could take people’s minds off it.
“The fans really liked it. Attendance picked up,” Steelers chairman Dan Rooney, who as an 11-year-old boy would often ride the train with the team, told the AP in 2004. “People were looking for things to do and it worked out pretty well.”
So this ragtag group came together and despite living in separate cities, playing for dual coaches and working full time factory jobs, managed to compile a 5-3-1 record heading into their final regular season game versus the Green Bay Packers. With a win, the Steagles would set themselves up for a first-place tie in the four-team Eastern Division if the Redskins could beat the Giants the following week.
The team kicked off its game in Philadelphia’s Shibe Park in front of nearly 35,000 spectators, with fans in Pittsburgh listening on the radio. The Steagles went into halftime trailing 17-14 and after falling behind 31-14 to close the third quarter, rallied to narrow the deficit to 31-28 with less than five minutes left. After a key Steagles fumble, future Hall of Famer Don Hutson caught a one-handed 24-yard touchdown pass to seal the Green Bay victory.
Later that night, on December 5, 1943, Algeo writes that the team held a farewell banquet at the Hotel Philadelphian. It was the last time the team would be together, as the Eagles would field a full roster the following season while the Steelers would merged with the Chicago Cardinals in 1944 and go 0-10 as a squad called “Card-Pitt.”
In 2003, six of the nine surviving members of the team were honored during a pregame ceremony prior to an exhibition game between the Eagles and Steelers at Heinz Field. Only three players from that 1943 team are still alive, with quarterback Allie Sherman the youngest at 90 years old.To date, over 500 communities in the U.S. have passed measures against the controversial form of oil and gas extraction known as fracking. But a comprehensive new study by our allies at the Sierra Club shows that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) could undermine momentum to ban fracking nationwide and block climate-destroying pipelines.
That’s because the TPP would let foreign corporations sue the United States when communities defeat the fossil fuel industry at the ballot box, or in statehouses and Congress, giving polluters a powerful financial weapon to overturn democracy.
Controversial corporate trade lawsuits are a new avenue to attack federal, state and local policies aimed at fighting dirty energy and reversing climate change. Under NAFTA, a U.S.-based natural gas firm has already sued Canada for $119 million over a fracking moratorium in Quebec. TransCanada has sued the United States for $15 billion for blocking the Keystone XL pipeline.
Sierra Club’s Climate Roadblocks study shows how the TPP and the proposed trade deal with the European Union still under negotiation (known as the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership or TTIP) pose even greater threats to the climate movement. These two trade deals would give 1,000 U.S.-based subsidiaries of 100 foreign fossil fuel companies new rights to sue — for money damages — over climate policies.
Together these companies have generated more than 20 percent of historical greenhouse gas emissions, and include the eight largest private greenhouse gas polluters outside the United States. To give them the power to overturn grassroots movements to protect communities from further pollution is absolutely abominable.
How the TPP Could Block Popular Measures Related to Energy and Climate Change
Even worse, the TPP could be used to block future anti-fracking policies. Merely threatening to file trade lawsuits has a chilling effect on the democratic process at the state or local level — no jurisdiction wants to get drawn into a multi-million or multi-billion-dollar trade tribunal lawsuit.
The study also shows how the TPP could be used to attack efforts to prevent offshore drilling and campaigns to block gas and oil pipelines. TPP investment rules could let foreign oil and gas companies with gas leases on public lands sue for damages if Congress passed the Protect Our Public Lands Act, which would prohibit fracking on federally owned land.
Congress must reject the TPP and its attempt to roll back the popular movement to reverse climate change. Take action to stop the TPP today!
The TPP would basically let foreign gas and oil companies call the shots on fracking, pipelines and climate concerns. These companies could bring investor-to-state lawsuits over new laws or policies that curb their ability to profit from spewing greenhouse gases. Congress must reject the TPP and its attempt to roll back the popular movement to reverse climate change. Take action to stop the TPP today!Rockhip might not be a household name like the big three in NVIDIA, Qualcomm, or Texas Instruments but they’ve been around plenty long and are ready to aim for higher standards in 2012. Rockchip processors have been found in multiple chinese, or cheaper Android tablets as of late but in 2012 they are set to release a new improved Cortex A9 dual-core, and follow it with their own quad-core come Q3.
The new quad-core will be known as the RK32xx and for now we don’t have any additional details regarding full specs, clock speeds, or an actual release date but another quad-core option is more than welcome. We have the NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core available now, and Samsung, Qualcomm, and TI all have their own coming later this year. Rockchip could beat them to market, but we’ll have to wait and see.
Their processors usually find their way into cheaper or budget friendly tablets, but that doesn’t mean they are of low quality. They just are a cheaper alternative to some of the others. This year Rockchip is seeking Google’s approval so devices running their CPU can have full Google support with the Play Store, and other Google Apps. Many come with Google apps hacked-on from the Chinese markets, but this will make them official.
With details still light on Samsung’s Exynos quad-core, as well as TI’s we could see Rockchip possible enter the market around the same time to tighten the competition. Would you be interested in a budget friendly quad-core tablet running Rockchip?
[via Liliputing]Countries that are not members of OPEC have been the main source of production growth in the last three decades, as new fields were discovered in Alaska, the North Sea or West Africa. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, new opportunities emerged in Russia and the Caspian Sea.
Analysts at Barclays Capital said last week that non-OPEC supplies were “seemingly dead in the water.” Goldman Sachs raised similar concerns last month, saying that growth in non-OPEC supplies “can no longer be taken for granted.”
At the same time, oil consumption keeps expanding at a faster clip than production. Demand is forecast to increase this year by 1.2 million barrels a day, to 87.2 million barrels a day. In the United States, the world’s most oil-thirsty nation, consumption has actually fallen a bit because of the economic slowdown.
But that drop is being offset by growth in other countries. World consumption is projected to rise 35 percent, to around 115 million barrels a day, in the next two decades. Most of the growth will come from China, India and oil-producing countries in the Middle East, where retail fuel prices are subsidized, encouraging wasteful consumption.
“What is disturbing here is that things seem to get worse, not better,” an analyst at Goldman Sachs, David Greely, said. “These high prices are not attracting meaningful new supplies.”
Oil rose 23 cents Monday to $118.75 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Longer-term oil futures, dated for 2013, now trade at $108 a barrel, a strong indication that investors see little cause for prices to drop in the next five years — partly because of low expectations about production growth.
The outlook for oil supplies “signals a period of unprecedented scarcity,” an analyst at CIBC World Markets, Jeff Rubin, said last week.
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Oil prices might reach more than $200 by 2012, he said, a level that would probably mean $7-a-gallon gasoline in the United States.
Some regions are simply running out of reserves. Norway’s production has slumped by 25 percent since its peak in 2001. In Britain, oil production has plummeted 43 percent in eight years. The North Sea is now considered a dying oil basin. Alaska’s giant field at Prudhoe Bay has declined 65 percent since its peak 20 years ago.
In many other places, the problems are not located below ground, as energy executives like to put it, but above ground. Higher petroleum taxes and more costly licensing agreements, scarce manpower and swelling costs, as well as political wrangling and violence, are making it much harder to raise production.
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“It’s a crunch,” said J. Robinson West, chairman of PFC Energy, an energy consulting firm in Washington. “The world is not running out of oil, but rather it’s running out of oil production capacity.”
Recently, the case that has attracted the most attention is Mexico, the second-biggest exporter to the United States, which seems increasingly helpless to stem the collapse of its largest oil field, Cantarell. Last week, the country’s state-owned oil company, Pemex, said that production had fallen 300,000 barrels |
addition to a large tree from Emerald Pool, stating that 'the culprits had resorted to considerable labor to drag this tree to the pool and shove it in.'
We can only hope that continued efforts toward public education will reduce further damage to these special features that are such an important part of Yellowstone. Perhaps studies such as the recent one on the hot springs will help visitors understand that our actions, even those that may seem relatively harmless, can have a big impact on park resources.
There's Still Plenty to Learn About Yellowstone
This research also offers a reminder that there's still plenty to learn, even in a park that's been studied as extensively as Yellowstone.
"When we started the study, it was clear we were just doing it for fun," Vollmer said. But the trio of scientists quickly discovered there was very little in the scientific literature on the subject. "That's when things got interesting, Vollmer continued."
"We didn't start this project as experts on thermal pools," Shaw noted. "We started this project as experts on optical phenomena and imaging, and so we had a lot to learn."
"There are people at my university who are world experts in the biological side of what's going on in the pools," Shaw said. "They're looking for ways to monitor changes in the biology'when the biology changes, that causes color changes'so we're actually looking at possibilities of collaborating in the future."Nitrate: an Open Source Test Case Management System
Alexander Todorov, Mr. Senko Ltd, http://MrSenko.com
Nitrate is an open source test plan, test run and test case management tool that is written with Python and Django. It was initially created to replace Testopia, a test case management extension for Bugzilla. Nitrate has a lot of great features, such as Bugzilla and JIRA integration, QPID messaging, fast test plan and runs search, powerful access control for each plan, run and case, and XML-RPC APIs.
Web Site: https://github.com/Nitrate/Nitrate
Version tested: 3.8.18.x
System requirements: Python 2.7, MySQL, Django
License & Pricing: GPL 2.0, subscriptions from $200/mo
Support: GitHub issues tracker in upstream project, commercial support from http://MrSenko.com
User tutorial: http://nitrate-mrsenko.readthedocs.io/en/latest/tutorial.html
Demo server: available upon request
Background
The Nitrate test case management system (TCMS) has been internally developed by Red Hat and released to GitHub in late 2014. It has enjoyed moderate development since then and frankly appeared to have been abandoned until recently. The project is currently experiencing a revival with new developers working on it. Current contributions are coming from three organizations and mostly deal with cleaning up technical debt and minor bug fixes.
Nitrate has been developed as a substitute for Testopia and reuses an important part of its database schema. Data migration between the two should be relatively straight forward but I don't have first hand experience with that.
Why do I need a test case management system
“If it is not in the TCMS then we don't do it”!
The above motto has been the paradigm driving the development of Nitrate. The system aims to serve as a canonical source of information about testing that is useful to managers and used on a daily basis by people involved with software testing. I have used Nitrate to create and document 100+ test plans, including over 1000 new test cases, around 2000 executions across different builds and more than 20000 individual test case executions over the last few years.
Nitrate is the central hub to provide you with information about your testing activities. This is the place to assign individual tasks to testers in your team as well as to produce reports and analyze your testing processes.
You need a TCMS system so you can collect information about testing in your organization. This tool will answer questions like:
Is testing of the product complete?
Are we ready to ship?
How did this bug get into production?
How are we testing a particular product feature?
Having all of this information is the basis on which your QA team can start delivering continuous improvements to the testing process!
Nitrate doesn't care about what types of testing it is used for. You can document automated or manual cases, integration or unit tests, performance tests, etc. All of them are distinguished by categories which are defined by the user and don't have special meaning within the system. This means that it is possible to model any kind of testing process within Nitrate.
Installation
Nitrate is a Django-based application and as such doesn't have many requirements for its installation. The recommended way is to install it inside a Python virtualenv and serve it either with Apache or Gunicorn (plus Nginx). The documentation also describes how to create a Docker image for Nitrate and to host this on Google Cloud Engine.
Currently Nitrate requires a MySQL or a MariaDB database for historical reasons. However there is an ongoing effort to make it completely independent of any database engine. I have environments which use SQLite for development and PostgreSQL for production.
Terminology
Nitrate uses the following terminology:
Test Plan – a high level document that should not include specific testing steps. Instead a Test Plan should identify which features of a product will be tested. A Test Plan contains a Document section and then sections with Test Cases, execution history and others. You may use an IEEE 829 formatted test plan for the Document section but this is just a recommendation and depends on your organization.
(click on figure to enlarge)
Test Case – outlines a set of conditions, or variables, under which the tester verifies whether an application or a software system meets particular criteria. In Nitrate, a Test Case represents an item of work, something which needs to be tested and the results of that documented. A Test Case is mostly free form text with added fields like category, priority, component, etc. You may use Given-When-Then grammar or 1-2-3 steps or anything else that works for you.
(click on figure to enlarge)
Test Run – Test Runs are created for a specific Test Plan and product build. Only Test Cases with a status of CONFIRMED will be added to the Test Run. A Test Run can be assigned to any user in Nitrate. Individual test cases inside a Test Run can be tested and commented on by other users as well.
(click on figure to enlarge)
Test Case Run – represents a particular execution of a Test Case. Each Test Case Run is tied to a Test Case (what has been tested), has a build and product (which software version was tested) and a status (whether is PASSED, FAILED or something else).
(click on figure to enlarge)
Learning curve
Nitrate is relatively easy to learn. Inexperienced users will need 30 to 60 minutes to learn how to work with Nitrate. Once I introduced Nitrate to a group of students that were training to become QA engineers and they were able to document test plans, test cases and mark test results by the end of the class.
First you create a Test Plan and start adding Test Cases to it. After you are done, you may ask another team member to review your cases. Peers can comment on test cases or set their status to CONFIRMED when they are satisfied with how the case looks.
Test execution and reporting starts with the creation of a Test Run for a particular Test Plan. This test run includes a list of cases to be tested and links to a particular build of the product. A team leader or manager can assign test runs to other team members for execution.
When the actual testing has been performed, either manually or automatically, the test case entry inside the test run is marked as PASSED or FAILED and the tester moves on to the next item.
Some of the coolest features in Nitrate are:
Everything assigned or managed by you is available in Nitrate's home page. This makes finding things very easy;
WYSIWYG editor, TinyMCE at the moment, for test plan document and test case descriptions;
Cloning: every test plan and test case can be cloned and later the clone edited. This is very helpful when you have to create a lot of identical artifacts quickly;
When executing testing you can bulk update statuses and comments. This is particularly useful when working on large test plans, that include many test cases and you have an issue, failing or blocking a large portion of these cases. In this case simply select all of them and bulk update them;
Automatically expand the next test case inside a test run. When you select this checkbox, it will automatically open the next test case when a test case status is updated. This is a great time saver when working with manual test cases and executing them in the same order in which they were documented;
XML-RPC API for various integrations and automatic updates;
Automation and Integration
Nitrate comes with an XML-RPC interface and a Python package to talk to it. The client-side library consists of a high-level Python module which provides natural object interface, a low-level driver which allows to directly access Nitrate’s XML-RPC API and a command line interpreter that is useful for fast debugging and experimenting.
By itself Nitrate is not capable of scheduling or executing any automated test scripts. It is a place-holder for test scenarios (referred to Test Cases within Nitrate) and additional metadata like product, version, build, etc. It is possible to mark a particular scenario as automated, via a checkbox and also add the name of the automated script which implements the testing steps. There is also the possibility to add notes, tags, categories and priorities to test cases.
If you want to start automated test cases directly from Nitrate, you will have to create a test runner, which is specific to your infrastructure and use-case. For example if you are describing Selenium test cases, you may reference the Selenium script in the Script field of the test case and use tags to mark on which browsers the test case needs to be executed. Then your test runner needs to extract this information from Nitrate via its API and instruct your Selenium infrastructure, like SauceLabs, what to do. The pipeline described below uses a similar approach.
At the moment I am not aware of any such test runners being available to the open source community and the general public. However, I am willing to work with folks who would like to integrate Nitrate into their workflow and don't mind sharing the results on GitHub!
One particular environment I have been part of and where Nitrate is heavily used, it is integrated in the following pipeline:
A build service prepares the new product build and sends notifications via a message queue. At the same time Nitrate is updated to include a record of the new build;
A Jenkins server picks up the notification from the message queue and searches its job configurations for jobs related to that particular product. Then Jenkins kicks off automated test jobs, which are executed either on Jenkins nodes, OpenStack instances or external test lab when it comes to integration testing for complex products. Which test scripts and where they are executed is information that is stored in Nitrate. It is read via XML-RPC and augmented with the current build properties. There is a custom test runner responsible for this. While testing is running, Jenkins updates Nitrate and sets the status of these particular cases to RUNNING. Jenkins also adds comments with URLs to the system executing the test job (for inspection, log collection, debugging, etc);
This environment uses a dedicated test harness which is aware of the entire infrastructure stack. Once a test is completed, regardless of its result (PASS, FAIL, etc), the test harness updates the result in Nitrate;
Failures are reported to the bug tracker automatically and cross-linked with Nitrate as well.
Example of pipeline integrating Nitrate (click on figure to enlarge)
After all automated and manual cases have been completed, a report to the stakeholders is made. This report includes short status info, links to new or existing bugs and free notes by the QA manager responsible for the product. This is generated via a helper script extracting information from Nitrate and then sent via email.
Team velocity is also automatically calculated via a script and used for capacity planning. Again this is used mostly by the QA manager.
In this setup, the initial creation of test plans in Nitrate and their linking with Jenkins jobs are done manually. In this environment this is usually done when setting up testing for a new product. All subsequent test plans for that product are created as children of the master test plan and all of the test cases are extracted automatically by the test runner. Based on values from Nitrate, the Jenkins job knows how to schedule more jobs and kick off automated tests when necessary.
Reporting
Nitrate has an integrated reporting functionality which is mostly used by managers. There are two main reports: overall and testing.
The overall report provides a high-level information about specific product: how many test cases were tested and what the results look like. It is possible to display the results per version, per build or per product component. Each detailed view shows stats about Plans, Cases and Runs and a Progress with passed/failed cases.
Product overview report (click on figure to enlarge)
Product builds report (click on figure to enlarge)
The testing report is used to extract more information about testing. It is possible to filter the results per product, version, build and execution dates. There are several available views showing testing status per tester, per case priority and plan tag. In addition views can be grouped by build and plan where applicable. Each of the testing report views displays stats about different test cases statuses (PASSED, FAILED, BLOCKED, IDLE, etc).
Per tester report (click on figure to enlarge)
Testing report per plan and build (click on figure to enlarge)
In case you need additional report you may build them yourselves using the XML-RPC API or contact Mr. Senko for help.
Conclusion
Nitrate is an open source test case management system that is easy to use. It is suitable for small and large teams alike and is aimed to be one of the building blocks of your testing infrastructure. The XML-RPC API allows you to integrate and automate Nitrate in pretty much any way you can imagine. Nitrate is the center piece of daily QA operations and is also useful to managers and stakeholders who need reports about testing progress and status. Because Nitrate is built with Django and Python, you can easily find developers who will maintain it in-house. Another option is to purchase a support subscription if your team doesn't want to get involved.
Related Resources
This article was originally published in March 2017
Click here to view the complete list of tools reviewsAfter losing four of five East Coast primaries on Tuesday, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders suggested that he could best serve his supporters and his agenda by fighting to make the party platform more liberal.
“This campaign is going to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia with as many delegates as possible to fight for a progressive party platform that calls for a $15 an hour minimum wage, an end to our disastrous trade policies, a Medicare-for-all health care system, breaking up Wall Street financial institutions, ending fracking in our country, making public colleges and universities tuition free, and passing a carbon tax so we can effectively address the planetary crisis of climate change,” Sanders said in a statement.
He made no mention of pushing forward in the fight for the nomination against front-runner Hillary Clinton, though he also did not announce he would leave the race and in fact rallied on election night in West Virginia, which holds its primary in two weeks.Bitwage, a California-based Bitcoin payroll firm, has released the first international Bitcoin payroll debit card. With the release of this card, employees and contractors using the Bitwage system can withdraw and spend US dollars, Euros, and British Pounds directly from the blockchain. For those who work outside of the US, the UK and Europe, the cards can pay out in local currency.
Under a partnership with Xapo, a California-based Bitcoin wallet provider, Bitwage is able to send the debit cards to more than 170 countries.
Once a user signs up with Bitcoin and signs up for the international Bitcoin payroll debit card, they have account created on Xapo, unless they already have a Xapo account. Users can then select to have their payrolls sent to their Xapo account, which stores their Bitcoins until they spend them using the debit. Users will be able to check balances and history directly on the Bitwage website.
This initial launch is in beta, meaning that everyone who registers will receive free Bitcoin debit cards. Bitwage says that although the cards cannot currently be sent to the United States, the debit cards work nearly anywhere in the world, including the United States. The company is working to be able to send cards to the U.S.Image by blmurch
As promised in my first post about this game, this is my recap of the first session of my new zombie campaign: All That Remains.
First thing’s first: Here’s a link to the audio of the session, courtesy of The Gamer’s Haven.
This being the first session of this campaign, I wanted to really make sure that I made it apparent that this game was going to be different than the previous, more traditional campaign that I had been running. To that end, I ran the entire session in a modified way, jumping from character to character until they made it to safety.
To accomplish that, I used something like an initiative count, but each character had slightly more than the usual amount of time to act than one would usually get in a round of combat. The net result was that each players was very interested in what their character was going to do, but they also paid good attention to what was going on with each of the other players. Normally my group will get a little distracted during combat, but what group doesn’t? This was a nice change of pace.
A final note in the form of how I statted the zombies: I didn’t, really. I never had a single stat written down for any of them, really. This came from a combination of wanting to keep things a little more free-form, and needing to run this game sooner than I thought I was going to (I was expecting to have a couple more weeks to plan, but you go with what you’ve got).
We’re playing the second session tomorrow night, and I hope find good, but different ways to capture the zombie-feel of the game. It should be fun, especially since no one has no idea what’s really going on…
Insert evil laugh here…
[tags]rpg, zombies, gaming, podcasts[/tags]A Black Friday, 2012, protest against Wal-Mart in Secaucus, N.J. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)
It’s an odd thing we Americans do: The day we stay home and give thanks for what we have butts right up against a day when we go out and try and get a bunch of other stuff at low prices. And with six fewer shopping days this year and sales still down as a result of the recession, retailers are asking more from the low-wage workers who staff their stores. At the same time, with ongoing cuts to the safety net, these low-wage workers have even less to be thankful for this November.
But some workers, from Target to Whole Foods, are making their voices heard.
“Largest mobilization”
Wal-Mart has been in the eye of the gathering storm. The store’s employees are protesting at 1,500 stores today in what organizers are calling “one of the largest mobilizations of working families in recent history.” They point out that, even as the company earns $17 billion annually, Wal-Mart still continues to pay its workers poverty-level wages.
“We know that this company can do more with $17 billion in profits. We know the Walton family can do better with $44 billion in wealth,” Martha Sellers, a California Wal-Mart employee, said today.
Wal-Mart was the subject of large protests during last year’s Black Friday as well. In the wake of the protests, the retailer punished some workers by firing them for violating their stores’ attendance policies. But the National Labor Relations Board ruled earlier this month that the reprisals were illegal, and ordered Wal-Mart to reinstate the workers and award them back pay. It also noted that Wal-Mart couldn’t threaten to punish its employees for protesting or striking.
This year, the protests’ organizers want the retail giant to commit to paying its full-time workers $25,000 a year. More than half of the store’s full-time, hourly employees make less than that, the chain’s CEO, Bill Simon, told Goldman Sachs last month.
The cost of low-wage work
The store’s low-wages weigh heavily on the social safety net. A May congressional report found that “a single 300-employee Wal-Mart Supercenter in Wisconsin may cost taxpayers anywhere from $904,542 to nearly $1.75 million per year, or about $5,815 per employee. Wisconsin has 100 Wal-Mart stores, 75 that are Wal-Mart Supercenters.”
But low-wage workers also have less help available to them this year than during recent Thanksgiving holidays. Food stamps have been cut, leaving recipients to exist on $1.40 per meal. The payroll tax increase at the beginning of this year also hit workers hard.
And some employers’ attempts to “help” low-wage workers without actually raising their wages have resulted in embarrassment — McDonalds faced criticism earlier this year for an online guide to budgeting that encouraged its workers to get a second job, and Wal-Mart recently drew cries of outrage when a Canton, Ohio, store asked its low-wage workers to donate food to help its other low-wage workers.
Black Friday on a Thursday
The Wal-Mart protests come as many more stores have rolled Thanksgiving and Black Friday into one. The Associated Press reports:
Macy’s, J.C. Penney and Staples will open on Thanksgiving for the first time. Toys R Us will open at 5 p.m., and Wal-Mart, already open 24 hours in many locations, will start holiday deals at 6 p.m., two hours earlier than last year. In recent years, some retail employees and their supporters have started online petitions to protest stores that open on Thanksgiving — but shoppers keep coming.
But such potentially profit-maximizing moves like this may not even be worthwhile. Consumer confidence is shaky this year, and the push to get customers to come out for the lengthened shopping weekend may backfire.
“In many cases, they’re doing so much business that provides very little margin that they’re really not generating enough business to really be worthwhile anymore,” Marshal Cohen, the chief retail analyst with NPD group, a consumer market research firm, told NPR’s Morning Edition. “They’ve only created an even greater level of promotion, rather than what used to be high-volume based on profit margin.”
Reuters notes that whether retailers’ Black Friday gambits succeed is largely dependent on the wealthiest Americans.
Some say retailers’ fortunes depend a lot more on wealthier shoppers who have benefited from rising share and home prices this year. “There are two sides to the story. If you look at households with over $100,000 of income, those folks are going to spend twice as much as people of incomes under $100,000,” said FTI Consulting’s Steve Coulombe.
It’s a fitting metaphor for an increasingly divided country. New York Times labor reporter Steven Greenhouse yesterday quoted Chardé Nabors, a mother of two who works as a $9-an-hour cashier at Sears in Chicago, and who can’t afford a Spider Man doll her 3 year-old son wants.
“I’m here watching shoppers buy all these items, and I’m working to help these people, and I can’t even buy my children the same products,” Nabors said.
The less Americans are paid, the less they can spend. And as the recovery drags on, Sellers, the California Wal-Mart employee, is quick to point out that low wages aren’t helping. “We can’t raise our families on these poverty wages,” she said. “And we can’t support local businesses and the economy without enough money in our pocket.”
The Huffington Post is aggregating video and tweets on the strikes here.Wake Island. That was the map DICE put in the demo. A crescent shaped rock in the Pacific Ocean, it was home to a dusty airfield and no more than a dozen threadbare shacks housing some rusty tanks. The dangerous waters surrounding this lonely lump of sand included a submarine, battleship and, most spectacularly, a fully driveable aircraft carrier.
In what has to be one of the least subtle battle tactics ever hatched, an optimistic player on the attacking Japanese side could try and drive this gigantic steel behemoth away from its anchored position, with the vain hope that the defending Americans wouldn't notice. Though this would inevitably result in the feared American war cry: "You bastard! That's cheating! I thought we agreed no ships! Come on, I have to have my dinner soon!"
Battlefield 1942 came out in 2002. I was a typical scruffy teenager with a silly haircut, and my best friend Rushi was the same, only his was even sillier. Hoovering up demo discs on the covers of gaming magazines, we'd play anything and everything. That is, until we installed the Wake Island Multiplayer demo for the first time, and anything else instantly became irrelevant.
Neither of us had played anything like it. Driving and shooting? Flying? And aircraft carriers? What madness was this? We began playing it every spare hour we had a chance, joining pitched battles already in progress, lending our combined skills to either side, a couple of kids eager to prove their worth. Thundering across the bay in a leaky boat and chasing down errant grey flags of contested control points became a regular after school activity. However, playing these matches was only a part time interest. Most of the time, we didn't have such important concerns.
1942 was the game that broke my habit of reloading after every bullet fired.
Most of the time, we'd play.
We'd start up a private server, just the two of us, and experiment with the wonky physics engine for the noble purpose of fun. Together we found out that if you stand atop a half-track tank and blew it with dynamite, the resulting explosion would propel you high enough into the air to give you just enough time to activate your parachute before you hit the ground with a heavy thud.
It would hurt, but it was survivable. It therefore served as an excellent launch pad as one of us would drive the ill-fated half track towards a cliff top ridge mined with TNT, the other clasping the detonator in his hand while trying to keep balance on top of the fast moving armour. Reaching the summit at top speed, the driver would bail out and the rider detonate, blowing the transport to pieces and sending the rider into a giggling miniature base jump, following the tumbling blackened remains of the tank.
With vehicles came races. Lining up two Willy jeeps on one end of the island, one of us would throw a grenade into the distance, the explosion signalling the start of a point-to-point speed race. These usually barely lasted longer than the first narrow bridge. Of course, there was that one time I planted land mines before the race started and allowed Rushi to take the lead. Actually, that happened several times. Sorry.
I remember the afternoon we finally, finally managed to get torpedoes to work, triumphantly sinking the battleship. I remember the day I was flying overhead in a bomber, trying to reduce his tank to scrap metal and he nailed a cannon shot straight into my propeller, scattering me over the beach.
It was that joyful blend of real world equipment and sandbox fun videogames allow us to play with. It was a war game many players took very seriously, as I saw whenever I joined a legitimate server. But for myself and Rushi, we were forever just a couple of boys playing soldier.
The driving physics were always a little buggy.
Loading it up now reveals a much slower pace than what I've grown accustomed to. This was a game, after all, that gave the rocket launcher-wielding anti-tank class a single solitary pistol to defend himself with. The pared down loadouts seem oddly barren compared to today's never-ending cascade of weapon unlocks and bonus XP. Still, that same spartan feel results in a lean, stripped down team, the roles of each class cemented in their function. That anti-tank trooper isn't going to win many infantry fights, but any roaming Tigers should better watch out.
Airplanes also had a more refined attitude. The dignified propeller driven skies above Wake Island are a far cry from the afterburner-fuelled rampages that take place above the Caspian Boarder. The fighter planes and dive bombers of 1942 swooped above the battlefields, delicate birds, and could even stall if pushed too high too sternly. Rushi and I spent entire evenings just wheeling through the skies of Wake Island, learning to fly. Dogfights were common, but more often we'd try to nail that upside down loop the loop under the bridge, inevitably giggling at yet another sudden hard water landing.
Further hours were spent seeing just how high we could fly, circling ever upwards into the bright blue skybox, leaving the ocean behind, vanishing far below us. Dogfights up there above the clouds took on a strange, ethereal quality, as I'd soon forget which direction gravity was in. Not that it was hard to rediscover - on many occasions, we'd simply bail out of the planes and freefall back to earth, the discarded aircraft careening around us like paper planes in the wind. Apt, since if you'd freefall far enough, the American pilot would scream "Geronimo!" followed by a very long and messy sounding fart.
This all fed back into the sense of play the game had waiting for us after school was done for the day. We would only ever capture points in order to spawn the Japanese vehicles, pitting Eastern wisdom against American muscle in contests of speed and strength. Maybe if we put enough landmines here, we can launch the jeep over the tank? Can we try to surf on the airplane wings again? Go on, I'll drive, you stand on the wings. No, try going prone, that seemed to work better last time. Come on, it'll work this time. Yes, I promise not to drop you.
God damn it, Rushi.
Bullets had travel time, forcing you to lead your sniper shots. Or was that just my old modem?
I did buy the full game, eventually. I played it obsessively, for months, and I bought the two expansion packs with my pocket money and played them obsessively too. First Road to Rome and then the much more entertaining Secret Weapons of WW2, which had me watching its glorious intro over and over again, the perfect sequel to the perfect original. Once more, the demo for this new adventure was to become our playground, featuring a snowy forest level with a central control point that afforded the owning team the use of jetpacks.
We used to play it as a Capture the Flag match, in keeping with the series' origins as Codename Eagle, DICE's first efforts depicting multiplayer vehicular mayhem. There was nothing more exhilarating than managing to push the wheezing motorbike up that one particular rocky mountain into the game-breaking out of bounds territory, to then circle around the entire map, skating the death zone, and come rocketing down through the enemy base to grab their flag and make a daring getaway lanced by outraged enemy gunfire.
Hit detection and world interaction was always fuzzy, but players found ways to take advantage of the loopholes in the maths. Tapping Z while running forwards wouldn't just make your soldier go prone, it would hurl your soldier onto his stomach into the dirt. I never really bothered using the increased accuracy to fight with, because if you dived to prone at the top of a hill, the ropey physics engine would transform you into a frictionless toboggan, sliding over the ridge and down the sheer drop with the feeling that you were starring in your own personal action movie.
There was one time where I did feel like the hero that saved the day. Through dumb luck, I had managed to be the last soldier on my team alive. All control points on the map taken by our dreaded adversaries, and that meant no teammates could spawn. Alone, no reinforcements possible, hunted by the enemy, I hurried towards a lone control point, the invisible eyes of my entire team spectating my movements. If I died, it was game over for the good guys. No pressure, right?
So of course I managed to capture the control point, ushering in a wave of vengeful troops. It felt pre-destined: I was the lone soldier, the hero of the hour who comes and saves the day. It was my finest moment: reverting their flag to grey immediately signposted my presence to the enemy but prevented them from spawning at that crucial point. It left me to kill soldier after soldier after soldier, pick up their weapons, find a lucky medic kit and feverishly heal myself between loosing off rockets at a prowling tank. Of course I captured the point. I was the hero, if only for a brief moment.
Highway to the danger zone.
That's the best part about Battlefield. Every person who's played any of the Battlefield games has a story similar to that. One soldier who makes his presence known on the battlefield. The king of the server, or maybe just the hill, just for a moment. Winning the battles, even if the war was lost.
I visited Rushi recently. We hadn't seen each other for quite some time, and had grown distant. We're older now, have sensible haircuts, boys trying to play at being more mature. As he was preparing lunch, going on about some work related nothingness, I quietly installed the Wake Island demo on his laptop and loaded up a game. I turned up the speakers as I spawned, a lone Japanese soldier on his aircraft carrier, floating off the shore of that familiar crescent shaped rock.
"Is that Battlefield?" Rushi asked, as I turned the laptop screen towards him. Smiling, he took control and ran over to one of the planes, climbed in and started her engines. "Oh man," he grinned. "I remember this." Picking up speed, the plucky little fighter plane flew along the deck, taking off once again, majestic, into the sunny blue skies. Almost immediately, Rushi crashed it pathetically into the ocean.
We laughed, a couple of distant friends transformed instantly back into silly teenagers. "Go on, spawn", I prompted. "Have another go. You'll soon get the hang of it again."
The servers for the Battlefied 1942 Wake Island demo are still up. Maybe you'll find us there, but we'll be too busy playing soldier to fight.Background The Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) implemented the Applied Epidemiology Fellowship (AEF) in 2003 to train public health professionals in applied epidemiology and strengthen applied epidemiology capacity within public health institutions to address the identified challenges. The CSTE recently evaluated the outcomes of the fellowship across the last 9 years.
Purpose To review the findings from the outcome evaluation of the first nine classes of AEF alumni with particular attention to how the fellowship affected alumni careers, mentors’ careers, host site agency capacity, and competencies of the applied epidemiology workforce.
Methods The mixed-methods evaluation used surveys and administrative data. Administrative data were gathered over the past 9 years and the surveys were collected in late 2013 and early 2014. Descriptive statistics and qualitative thematic analysis were conducted in early 2014 to examine the data from more than 130 alumni and 150 mentors.
Results More than half the alumni (67%) indicated the fellowship was essential to their long-term career. In addition, 79% of the mentors indicated that participating in the fellowship had a positive impact on their career. Mentors also indicated significant impacts on host site capacity. A majority (88%) of alumni had worked for at least 1 year or more in government public health environments after the fellowship.Share. New character and car models, plus a better draw distance. New character and car models, plus a better draw distance.
Exit Theatre Mode
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is coming to mobile devices in December, but it isn't a direct port of the PS2 classic. The updated version of San Andreas features "remastered graphics including dynamic and detailed shadows, greater draw distance, an enriched color palette, plus enhanced character and car models."
Additionally, Rockstar has included new contextual controls, a new touch-screen control scheme, controller support, and modified the checkpoint system, so you likely won't have to restart entire missions when failing -- a great design decision for a mobile game, indeed.
San Andreas is coming to iOS, Kindle, Windows Phone, and Android devices next month. Until then, check out the various San Andreas cameos in GTA 5.
Exit Theatre Mode
Mitch Dyer is an associate editor at IGN. He's currently reading Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut. Talk to him on Twitter at @MitchyD.Beginning with 10 vehicles, the scheme aims to replicate the success of the "Boris Bike" cycle hire network for electric vehicles by expanding across the city. The scheme has already proved a hit with Parisians, who can pay as they go in 3,600 Bollore cars across the French capital.
The London launch has been delayed by the complications of securing cooperation from dozens of borough councils and the need to repair the Source London electric car charging network.
A subsidiary of the Bollore conglomerate, BluepointLondon, last year acquired Source London, which was meant to provide a coherent network for emissions-free motoring but fell into disrepair amid arguments over who was responsible for maintenance. BluepointLondon has since spent more than £10m reinstating and expanding the network to 1,000 charging points.
The electric car scheme, branded BlueCity, is now ready to enter customer trials from January, a spokesman said. It will expand to up to 40 cars by mid-February and by summer Mr Bollore aims to have 100 of the distinctive vehicles on London’s roads.
Detailed pricing is yet to be decided but it is understood rates of around £5 per half hour rental are under discussion.
The Bollore conglomerate has committed to sinking as much as £100m into the scheme, with no plans to profit directly. Its early aim is to encourage the use of electric vehicles and establish charging infrastructure. The company has invested heavily in battery manufacture.More than 100 artists and academics call on the city of New York to censor public art memorializing figures they dislike.
The petition sent to the Mayoral Advisory Commission on City Art, Monuments, and Markers cited the Big Apple’s professed “tolerance and equity” in justifying the censorship. The signatories include members of the faculty of Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, as well as CUNY, Barnard, NYU, and other schools located in the city. The statues the group seeks to remove include ones of Christopher Columbus and Theodore Roosevelt.
The letter singles out a memorial of Roosevelt outside the American Museum of Natural History as deserving of removal. The artists and academics describe it as “not simply a free-standing statue of the 26th President, but rather a grouping of figures: Roosevelt on horseback, flanked by subordinate figures on foot, one Black (African by appearance) and the other Indigenous (in a stereotypical Native American cast but with an |
right of John’s thread. The system will automatically distribute one reputation score into John’s account. The more positive votes John receives, the higher reputation scores he gets. Same applies to when John replies to an existing thread.
Alternatively, if John posts a thread that is disliked by Tom, and he sends a negative vote by clicking the down-arrow at the bottom of John’s thread. The system will automatically deduct one reputation score from the balance in John’s account till it reaches zero. The more negative votes John receives, the few reputation scores he gets.
2.Who can Vote?
You have to be a registered forum user for a minimum of 3 days;
You have to post a minimum of 5 threads before you can vote;
You can vote a maximum of 20 times (positive and negative in total) each time;
You have a maximum of 300 votes (positive and negative in total) each month.
3.When does Asch Coin (XAS) Reward Results Get Published?
Every Saturday 11:00pm Beijing Time.
Admin will then publish a list of reputation scores users have, and reward users with XAS based on their reputation scores.
4.How does Asch Coin (XAS) Reward Get Calculated?
Asch community offers a total of 466 XAS coins weekly for the reward distribution. The total amount of XAS coins may fluctuate slightly depending on each week’s progress.
The amount of XAS per User = (Newly Increased Reputation Scores per user / Total Reputation Scores from all users in that week) * 466 XAS
Newly Increased Reputation Scores = Current Reputation Scores – Reputation Scores that have been rewarded
**5.How does the System Retrieve the Reputation Scores?**5.
System runs a program to automatically refresh the list of registered users right before the reward distribution time.
System runs a program to refresh the XAS wallet address filled out by each user under “About Me” in the account setting. If the address format is not valid, you will have to wait till the next reward cycle in order to receive the rewards. Make sure you follow the instructions on how to correctly fill out the XAS wallet address. See below instructions in Section 6.
Once you fill out the XAS wallet address correctly plus you have earned reputation scores for the past week, the system will automatically calculate the reputation scores that each user has, and generates a document to be published on the forum.
Users are expected to receive the XAS reward in your wallet 24 hours after the reward result is published.
Note:
You will see two types of status for the reputation scores in your account: Rewarded or Not Rewarded.
“Rewarded” means the system has recorded your reputation score(s) and has deposited XAS into your wallet with the address you provided.
“Not Rewarded” means that system has not yet deposited XAS to your account.
It means you will never lose the XAS rewards that you have earned based on the reputation scores you have. It’s up to you whether or not you want to “deposit” XAS rewards to your wallet for that particular reward cycle. As long as you correctly put your XAS wallet address under “About Me” in the account setting, you should be able to be rewarded during that reward cycle. If you decide not to “deposit” XAS rewards to your wallet in the current reward cycle, simply change the value under “About Me” to anything else instead of your wallet address.
**6.What Can I do in order to Receive XAS Rewards?**6.
Correctly fill out your XAS wallet address under “About Me” in the account setting. Remember to put the address only, and no other characters allowed. Failure to do so can stop you from receiving XAS rewards in your wallet on time.
Frequently visit Asch forum, post high quality threads, propose recommendation/suggestion, and wait for receiving XAS rewards weekly!
Instructions on how to fill out the wallet address:
You can follow the steps indicated in the below images:
Step 1: Go to your account setting:
Step 2: Put your XAS wallet address under “About Me” without any additional characters:
**7.FAQ:**7.
Q: When does the Reward Cycle Start?
A: It starts from 11:00pm, October 21st, 2017, and it will be on weekly basis moving forward. Every Saturday 11:00pm Beijing Time.
Q: If I filled out the XAS wallet address and received XAS rewards in week 1, but in week 2 before Saturday I changed the wallet address to something else rather than the correct wallet address. Can I still get the rewards for week 2?
A: No. The system refreshes and records your address every time right before the reward cycle starts.
Q: Similar to the above question, say I filled out the XAS wallet address and received XAS rewards in week 1, but in week 2 before Saturday I changed the wallet address to something else rather than the correct wallet address. Then in week 5 I decided to change my wallet address back to the correct one. How many weeks of rewards do I get?
A: The system will reward you from week 2 to week 5, based on the newly increased reputation scores during the mentioned time period.
Q: Can I change my wallet address to a different new address to receive XAS rewards?
A: Yes, system refreshes and records your new address each time right before the reward cycle. So you will receive the rewards under your new address.
Q: How can I get more reputation scores?
A: Post more high quality threads – either new threads or replies to existing threads in order to get more positive votes from other users!
Have fun!
ASCH Community
16 Otc. 2017The Packers - largely due to punter Tim Masthay - allowed just 8 punt return yards to Devin Hester. Credit: John Klein
By of the
Green Bay - Tom Crabtree was the hero of the day for the Green Bay Packers special teams unit Thursday night.
But failing to recognize what punter Tim Masthay accomplished against one of the best returners in NFL history would be like complimenting a brat vendor for his product without thanking the guy who cooked it.
Crabtree's touchdown might not have meant anything if it weren't for Masthay limiting Chicago's Devin Hester to 8 punt return yards in the Packers' 23-10 victory at Lambeau Field.
Masthay averaged 47.6 yards per punt, but more importantly blasted the ball high and inside the 20-yard line on three of his five punts. Hester returned two for gains of 1 and 7 yards, fair caught one and watched another bounce out of bounds at the Chicago 17.
The other was a touchback.
"I thought Tim was outstanding," special teams coach Shawn Slocum said Friday. "I thought he punted the ball very well. He had a couple of long, high balls. I thought he was very effective."
Crabtree made his mark with a 27-yard touchdown reception on a fake field goal. The guy who flipped it to him was Masthay, who now has a perfect career passer rating of 158.3.
Holding Hester in check was particularly valuable early in the game when the Packers offense was struggling. None of Masthay's first three punts - all in the first quarter - was returned.
Perhaps the best punt - and definitely the most risky - was one Slocum allowed to be kicked in bounds with 4 minutes, 19 seconds left in the game and the Packers ahead by 13. Rather than order Masthay to punt the ball out of bounds so Hester didn't have a chance to return it, he let him hit one of his end-over-end "drop" punts.
If Hester had returned that for a touchdown, Crabtree's touchdown would have been long forgotten and Slocum would have gone from genius to idiot in the time it took the Bears star to run 83 yards. But Hester managed just 1 yard.
"I actually stressed him (Masthay) a little bit," Slocum said. "We used the drop punt and that's about as far as we've used that in that situation. It was OK because Robert ( Francois) got down there pretty quick."
In two games, Masthay is averaging 47.9 yards gross and 41.7 net. Only three of his 11 punts have been returned and seven have landed inside the 20.
Health matters
Coach Mike McCarthy said he expected wide receiver Greg Jennings to be ready for the Seattle game Sept. 24.
Jennings was held out of the Bears game because of a groin injury after not practicing the entire week. McCarthy said Jennings, who was listed as doubtful, did not attempt to run before the game to see if he might be able to play.
Jennings suffered the injury late in the San Francisco game and with just four days before the Bears game, the medical staff did not want to risk him worsening the injury. He'll have had two weeks to heal by the time the Seahawks game rolls around.
McCarthy said end C.J. Wilson (groin) also should be available for Seattle.
Linebacker Nick Perry apparently injured his wrist in the San Francisco game and wore a protector on it Thursday night. He was not on the Packers' injury report during the week.
Coordinator Dom Capers said the plan was to get Erik Walden snaps at Perry's position anyway, but Perry appeared to have trouble using his wrist in tight quarters and was limited to spot duty.
Sam's spot
After a slow start in training camp, cornerback Sam Shields has worked himself all the way into a starting spot.
Shields took over for Jarrett Bush against the Bears and wound up matched against the 6-3, 216-pound Alshon Jeffrey, Chicago's rookie receiver. Shields held Jeffrey to one catch for 7 yards, although some of the credit has to go to the Packers' fierce pass rush.
"After looking at the game last night, I thought Sam had one of his best games since he's been here," Capers said. "Obviously we matched up. We had Tramon ( Williams) going with ( Brandon) Marshall. And most of the time he had some help whether it be inside, outside or over the top help.
"So Sam was on his own a lot of times on Jeffery. And I thought he really did a nice job."
Close but no cigar
Offensive coordinator Tom Clements said he wouldn't necessarily call passes that Jordy Nelson, Jermichael Finley and James Jones failed to catch as drops, but he acknowledged that if the passes were caught the offensive day might have looked a lot better than it did.
Nelson clearly dropped a slant route on third down on the first series. He failed to haul in a deep ball in Bears territory on his fingertips on the third series. On the fourth series, Finley dived for a ball down the middle of the field and while the ball hit his hands, he was unable to complete the catch.
"There was the early one that would have allowed us to continue on a drive," Clements said. "Then there was over the middle; would have been a difficult catch. Tight throw. Hopefully, we make more of those catches than we don't."
Finally, Jones had a chance to score on a 23-yard pass, but after making a twisting leap for the ball, let it skim off his hands.
"It was a little high," Clements said. "His arms were extended and it hit his hands, but it was a tough catch. It was slightly overthrown, but over the course of the season hopefully you make more of those than you don't."
His aim isn't true
The first two games have not been vintage Aaron Rodgers.
The guy who set the NFL record for highest passer rating in a single season ranks 17th with an 89.9 mark. He has already thrown two interceptions, a third of what he threw all of last season.
"This is a new year," McCarthy said. "There’s new things, a new center (Jeff Saturday). Every year’s different."
McCarthy said he suspects opponents spent a lot of time studying Rodgers in the off-season to figure out how to slow him down.
"This is a new season, and frankly after two games whether it’s how many times a guy’s played in a game, how many times a guy’s touched the ball, is he tackled, his quarterback rating, to me things don’t really sort themselves out until probably Week 4 or 5,” he said. “So I’m not concerned about Aaron Rodgers."
Let go
Over the past week, tackle Mike McCabe and linebacker Vic So'oto, two players who were waived from injured reserve, cleared waivers. Both are free agents.TOKYO (Reuters) - The Japanese government is seeking information after reports a Japanese freelance journalist is being held hostage in Syria and has been threatened with execution, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said on Thursday.
Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga speaks during a joint Japan-U.S. meadia briefing about the process of U.S. forces consolidation in Okinawa, at Tokyo December 4, 2015. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said this week it had received information that an armed group holding journalist Yasuda Jumpei hostage had started a countdown for an unspecified ransom to be paid and had threatened to execute or sell him to another group if their demands were not met.
RSF said in a statement on its website that Yasuda was kidnapped in July by an armed group in an area controlled by the militant Nusra Front, al Qaeda’s Syria wing, shortly after entering Syria earlier that month.
It urged the Japanese government to do what was needed to save Yasuda.
Suga said the Japanese government knew of the case but was not aware of any fresh developments.
“Given the nature of the matter, I would like to refrain from commenting on details,” he told a regular news conference.
“The safety of our citizens is an important responsibility of the government, so we are making every effort and making full use of various information networks,” Suga said.
The Islamic State militant group beheaded two Japanese nationals - a self-styled security consultant and a veteran war reporter - early this year. The gruesome executions captured the attention of Japan but the government said at the time it would not negotiate with the militants for their release.
Seiko Noda, a senior ruling party lawmaker, told Reuters this week that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s defence policy shift to allow the military to fight abroad for the first time since 1945 could be used by militants as an excuse to attack Japan.
Noda is hoping to become Japan’s first female prime minister after Abe’s term expires.
Laws enacted in September will allow Japanese forces to help friendly countries, such as the United States, under attack based on the Abe administration’s reinterpretation of the constitution. Such collective self-defence was banned by previous governments as a violation of the post-war charter.President Obama's approval numbers are higher than any time since 2012, with more approving of his job performance than not, according to a new poll.
A majority of voters, 51 percent, approve of Obama's job performance in the Fox News poll released Tuesday evening, while 46 percent disapprove.
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The last time Obama's approval rating was at 50 percent or better in the poll was in October 2012, a month before he won reelection, when approval was also 51 to 46 percent.
Obama's high approval in the last year of his tenure has allowed Democrats to rely on him going after Donald Trump Donald John TrumpREAD: Cohen testimony alleges Trump knew Stone talked with WikiLeaks about DNC emails Trump urges North Korea to denuclearize ahead of summit Venezuela's Maduro says he fears 'bad' people around Trump MORE, the Republican vying to replace him as president.
Obama, whose plans to campaign on behalf of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonREAD: Cohen testimony alleges Trump knew Stone talked with WikiLeaks about DNC emails County GOP in Minnesota shares image comparing Sanders to Hitler Holder: 'Time to make the Electoral College a vestige of the past' MORE were postponed after the mass shooting at an Orlando gay club, tore into Trump's rhetoric and proposals involving Muslims on Tuesday in scathing remarks.
"He’s been one hell of a lousy president. He’s done a terrible job," Trump fired back.
The Fox survey found that while Obama's personal approval rating has risen, views about his administration in general are more dim though have improved over the past two years, according to the poll.
Forty-nine percent of voters say his administration has made America weaker, while 40 percent say it's made America stronger. In June 2014, 55 percent said it had made the U.S. weaker and 35 percent said stronger.
On the economy, 37 percent say policies his administration has advocated have helped, while 35 percent say they've hurt the economy and another 27 percent say they've made no difference.
The survey of 1,004 registered voters was conducted June 5–8 via landlines and cellphones with an overall margin of error of 3 percentage points.SHARE THIS INFOGRAPHIC ON YOUR SITE WITH THE FOLLOWING CODE:
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What is big data?
Big Data is a phrase used to describe the massive volume of both structured and unstructured data collected and stored. Big data is valuable to businesses because it opens the door to breakthroughs – a better understanding of their industry, and customers.
Structured data vs. unstructured data
According to Waterford Technologies, there are over 2.7 Zettabytes of data exist in the digital universe, as of 2017.
Some of this data is structured; written in a way that machines can easily understand like spreadsheets and data from machine sensors.
Unstructured data is more difficult to collect and process but gives a better depiction of a person. Consider this type of unstructured data, Waterford Technologies has aggregated:
YouTube users upload 48 hours of new video every minute of the day.
205 billion email messages per day means almost 2.4 million emails are sent every second.
Brands and organizations on Facebook receive 34,722 Likes every minute of the day.
100 terabytes of data uploaded daily to Facebook.
According to Twitter’s own research in early 2012, it sees roughly 175 million tweets every day and has more than 465 million accounts.
30 billion pieces of content shared on Facebook every month.
CSC predicted in 2013, that data production will be 44 times greater in 2020 than it was in 2009.
All of this data means something. And businesses are determined to find exactly what that is. Though it seems there are great differences in ability to use the information. As of 2012, only 23% of organizations had assessed an enterprise-wide big data strategy. The research firm International Data Corp. is forecasting that the market for Big Data will grow at an annual rate of 23% through 2019.
What can banks do with this data?
Big data is still very much an unknown.
Most professionals understand there is an application for the data, but figuring out how to put it to work remains a challenge. The finance industry, in particular, understands the eventual advantages. Bankers want to understand client behavior and market trends to make logical and customizable decisions.
According to a survey conducted by Dell and Intel:
76% of banks believe data will help improve customer engagement, retention and loyalty
71% of banks think big data will increase revenue
And 55% of banks think real-time view of data will provide a competitive advantage.
The information can help banks target resources more effectively. Here are some specific examples:
Determining risk
According to an EY white paper in 2014, 72% respondents believe big data can play a key role in fraud prevention and detection.The survey includes 466 interviews across 11 countries in a variety of industries. The primary job titles are specific to legal, finance, and compliance. 90% believe forensic data analytics can improve risk assessment.
Lending Club currently uses big data to assess the risk of consumers through online applications. Data points, both structured and unstructured like:
What time of day a form is filled out
The makeup of their social media friends list
Income level
Credit score
Demographic and geographic details
Are all used to compile a true risk assessment.
Targeting consumers, strategically
Consumers can experience increased conveniences in banking and financial services through the use of big data.
Banks are starting to use data to determine where a customer is in their buying cycle. They then are able to make geographically specific and customized offers to their customers.
For instance, after close observation of a potential borrower, a bank can make targeted offers to customers who could be in the home or auto market in the next 30 to 90 days.
As the ability to read unstructured data becomes easier, this will become a more accurate and widely-used practice.
Predicting and preventing fraud
Big data allows banking institutions to understand the patterns of activity among their customers. With a more robust picture of consumer use, it’s easier to identify outliers and therefore predict crime.
HSBC, for example, is among the leaders in the industry when it comes to taking preventative measure. Harvard Business Review explains how they have improved fraud detection, false-positive rates, and fraud case handling by using analytics to monitor the use of millions of cards in the United States.
Risks for future use
While there are clear upsides to the use of big data in the finance vertical, there are also risks. As the volume of big data continues to grow, organizations are faced with:
Security and compliance problems
Big data is valuable on the black market. As organizations purchase and store more, they become more liable to protect personal information.
Data theft and attacks are growing. They are more common and more damaging than ever. JP Morgan Chase and Equifax for example, are two of the most damaging breaches in the last two years.
Inability to process data correctly
Data is difficult to interpret, and without proper internal hierarchy and process to handle the information, it’s easy to miscalculate or mismanage data. Poor data can cost 20%–35% of a business’ operating revenue.
Outpacing IT capabilities
In order to keep pace with security measures, IT becomes an increasingly important role. It is projected that data is growing by 40% per year and IT spending is lacking at only 5% growth.
Expenses for a company
Data collection, aggregation, storage, analysis, and reporting all cost money. The more reliant a company becomes on their data, the more costs they can expect to incur.
Predictions for future applications
AI and big data will change how we work with financial advisors. Machine learning can analyze unstructured data, including social media, intracompany communication and linguistics beyond human ability. Robo-advisers, or algorithm-driven financial planning services with little to no human supervision, may become more accurate and compliant.
Blockchain technology has the ability to be a game-changer. Essentially, blockchain is a public ledger of transactions. Transactions in the blockchain cannot be altered, providing the potential for fully transparent, fully trustworthy financial advice in real-time.Before nursing home patient Carmencita Misa became bedridden, she was a veritable “dancing queen,” says her daughter, Charlotte Altieri.
“Even though she would work about 60 hours a week, she would make sure to go out dancing once a week — no matter what,” Altieri, 39, said. “She was the life-of-the-party kind of person, the central nervous system for all her friends.”
A massive stroke in March 2014 changed all that. It robbed Misa, 71, of her short-term memory, her eyesight and her mobility — and it left her dependent on a feeding tube for nourishment. Altieri, who has two small children, is unable to provide the 24-hour care her mother now gets at a Long Beach, Calif., nursing home three miles away — all of it paid by Medi-Cal, California’s version of the Medicaid program for low-income people.
But advocates for the elderly now worry that Misa and other low-income seniors who receive long-term care in facilities or at home could see their benefits shrink or disappear under Republican-proposed legislation to cap federal Medicaid contributions to states. The proposal is part of a broader GOP plan to repeal and replace former President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act.
“My mom is getting the basic of basic care,” Altieri said. “If they cut it, I don’t know what to do.”
Use Our Content This story can be republished for free ( details ).
Nationwide, Medicaid provides long-term care and support to more than 2 million low-income seniors. The program, funded jointly by the federal government and the states, pays more than half of all long-term care in the country — “more than Medicare, private long-term care insurance and out-of-pocket spending combined,” said Matt Salo, executive director of the National Association of Medicaid Directors.
And, he said, it’s the only public program that offers such care on an ongoing basis. The Medicare program — for people 65 and older — provides only limited long-term care to those who need it after being hospitalized.
The GOP bill, scheduled for a vote on the floor of the House on Thursday, would transform Medicaid from an open-ended system, in which the federal government matches state spending, to one in which it provides a fixed amount to each state, either through a lump-sum payment or on a per-capita basis.
In an attempt to overcome opposition to the bill among some Republicans, GOP leaders agreed Monday to add the option of a lump-sum payment, known as a block grant.
They also amended the bill to allocate additional money for elderly and disabled people on Medicaid. But Eric Carlson, a directing attorney in the Los Angeles office of the nonprofit group Justice in Aging, said such an allocation would not offset the wide funding gap created by caps on federal spending.
“It doesn’t matter whether it’s a block grant or per-capita cap,” Carlson said. “Either way the federal government is setting a hard limit on federal funding available, and states are going to be forced to make due with whatever is sent to them, and it’s not going to be enough.”
Carlson is co-author of a paper released by Justice in Aging that says capping federal Medicaid spending, with either per-capita funding or block grants, would harm older Americans, in part by forcing states to cut services for them “to the bone.”
“Federal payment for Medicaid would drop sharply, resulting in fewer services for everyone who relies on Medicaid, including older adults who account for over 22 percent of all Medicaid spending,” the report predicted.
In 2015, Medicaid spending topped $552 billion nationwide, including more than $85 billion spent on Medi-Cal enrollees, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. (KHN is an editorially independent program of the foundation.)
Under the GOP proposal, nursing care in a facility would remain a guaranteed Medicaid benefit, though states could reduce how much they spent on it if they were forced to economize. And Republicans might well attempt to loosen or undo federal program requirements with subsequent legislation that would give states more control.
Such a shift would “decimate Medicaid’s current guarantee of adequate and affordable care,” according to the Justice in Aging paper.
In the meantime, states could do away with benefits not guaranteed under federal law, which include at-home nursing, personal care — which Medi-Cal covers for qualified beneficiaries — and even inpatient and nursing care in mental health facilities for the elderly.
A report released last week by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office suggests states might cut provider payments or eliminate some of their optional services to fill the funding gap left by the restricted flow of federal money.
Oren Cass, a senior fellow with the Manhattan Institute who specializes in anti-poverty law, doesn’t believe that means the GOP plan would necessarily harm elderly Medicaid beneficiaries.
“A state that wants to continue the spending it does on the elderly can do that if it would rather make cuts elsewhere,” he said. “Or it can put up more of its own money.”
Cass said that having more flexibility might appeal to California legislators and health care leaders.
“If you ask California today whether it would rather have Donald Trump run its Medicaid program or run it itself, I think most people there, especially liberal people, would say they would rather have the state making the rules,” he said.
For now, however, the debate over the GOP bill is largely speculative, since there may be enough Republicans with serious concerns about the legislation to sink or significantly amend it.
The CBO report shows the bill would reduce federal budget deficits by a cumulative $337 billion over a decade. The CBO also projected that the bill, if passed, would leave 14 million more people uninsured next year than under current law and 24 million more by 2026.
The cost savings may not be enough to overcome the reluctance of many conservative Congress members who call the bill “Obamacare Lite” because it retains some of the most popular features of the Affordable Care Act.
As the debate heats up in Washington, Charlotte Altieri of Long Beach remains hopeful that her mother’s nursing home care will be spared any cuts.
“We’re not at some grandiose nursing home right now,” she said, “Where are we going to find one that costs less than this one?”
This story was produced by Kaiser Health News, which publishes California Healthline, an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation.A Dutch man who risked his life to save a Jew during the Holocaust gave back a medal he received for his actions in order to protest Israel’s actions in Gaza.
Henk Zanoli, 91, returned his medal to the Israeli embassy in The Hague after a member of his family died in an Israeli strike in Gaza, the Haaretz daily reported Friday.
Zanoli and his mother were recognized by the State of Israel and its Holocaust commemoration authority, Yad Vashem, in 2011 for hiding a Jewish child in their home from 1943 to 1945.
A great-niece of Zanoli is a Dutch diplomat whose husband was born in the al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza. Last month an Israeli bomb killed several members of his family, Haaretz reported.
“It is particularly shocking and tragic that today, four generations on, our family is faced with the murder of our kin in Gaza. Murder carried out by the State of Israel,” Zanoli wrote in a letter to the embassy explaining his decision to return the medal. “For me to hold on to the honour granted by the State of Israel, under these circumstances, will be both an insult to the memory of my courageous mother who risked her life,” and to relatives in mourning in Gaza, he added.
This story "Dutch Man Who Saved Jews During the Holocaust Returns His Medal" was written by JTA.CALLING BORDERS a “living and ever-changing phenomena”, Mexico’s Ambassador to India Melba Pria said borders have their own cause-and-effect migration dynamics which are unlikely to be changed by “artificial actions” — a reference to US President Donald Trump’s plans to build a wall along the US-Mexico border.
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In an interview to The Indian Express, Pria said if the US cracks down on H1B visas, Mexico will be “more than happy to have Indians relocate to Mexico”. She said “it is time to diversify our trade relations, and we are focussed on seizing that momentum for more Mexican companies to turn their attention to India”. Excerpts:
What is your view on Trump’s policy of building a US-Mexico border wall?
The view from Mexico is that a border, particularly one as busy, rich and lively as the border we share with the US, should be a place for interaction, prosperity and shared development. Our focus has been on establishing bridges for good neighbourly relations and the use of technology and infrastructure as allies to promote secure spaces.
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During a telephone conversation, the presidents of Mexico and the US agreed to cease talk on the possible financing for a wall, in order to continue the dialogue on core aspects of the bilateral relation. This is proof that both countries are committed to maintaining their dynamic and complex relationship, despite any differences. The most important agreement reached during that telephone conversation, and one of Mexico’s solid beliefs, is that better results can always come from negotiation, as opposed to unilateral measures.
Will building a physical barrier stop immigration from Mexico?
Borders are a living, ever-changing phenomena: they obey their own cause-and-effect migration dynamics, which are unlikely to be changed by artificial actions. To overcome the problem of illegal immigration, it is necessary to address the causes and work on achieving prosperity for the entire continent.
There are several kinds of migration flows from Mexico, which have contributed to the prosperity of the US: it is estimated that the work of Mexicans represents 8 per cent of the American GDP. More than 570,000 businesses in the US belong to Mexican immigrants, which create jobs and generate around $17 billion every year in revenue. Over half-a-million Mexicans are high-skilled migrants studying or employed as doctors, engineers, and many other professions.
Moreover, the trend indicates that there are more Mexicans leaving the US than entering. A report by Pew Research showed that from 2009 to 2014, more than a million Mexicans left the US to return to Mexico, while an estimated 870,000 Mexicans moved to the US, resulting in an outflow of about 140,000 people.
Will such nationalistic and protectionist policies of the new US government be effective?
Both Mexico and the US are sovereign nations and one of Mexico’s main priorities is to interact with our neighbour as such. Therefore, specific policies of the US are not for Mexico to comment. Nevertheless, the economic value of Mexico as a trade partner to the US should be undeniable: the volume of trade between both countries is estimated at over $1,400 million per day, which means that Mexico and the US trade around $500,000 million per year.
In Mexico, we value the relationship with the US that we have built over several years and we are convinced that working together, we will be able to continue to move in the right direction. The dialogue with the new administration is just beginning and we will place all essential topics on the table. That means trade of course, but also immigration, border security, and the illegal traffic of drugs and weapons. Overall, Mexico will always have a commitment to the well-being of all Mexican citizens and respect for their human rights.
What is the possible impact on India-Mexico relations?
There have been Mexicans coming to India for some years now, with the intent of doing business in this promising market. The current situation has made it even clearer that it is time to diversify our trade relations, and we are focussed on seizing that momentum for more Mexican companies to turn their attention to India. Businesses have this way of advancing by themselves: increasing our trade and investment relations makes human exchanges automatically follow.
If the US does enforce some of its harsher immigration proposals, for instance, regarding H1B visas on which Indian IT companies are heavily dependent, we will be more than happy to have Indians relocate to Mexico. They will find that in Mexico, they are able to continue caring for the American market within the same time zone, at lower costs, with visa ease for their foreign talent and access to a pool of local skilled labour.
Our city of Guadalajara is already becoming a technology hub with the presence of at least 10 major Indian IT companies like TCS and Infosys.
What are the lessons learnt from the current episode?
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Although there has been intense media buzz on the actions of the new US administration, the truth is that so far it has focussed on proposals and speculation, and there are not many concrete policy actions yet on which to comment. More than imparting lessons, I would say that Mexico will always believe in the importance of having concerted actions when dealing with disagreements between neighbouring nations. It will always be more effective to have solutions come from dialogue and negotiation than from unilateral imposition.Once a year the ramen chain Kagetsu produces a limited edition veggie ramen dish that is served for only a month or two. This year’s 2011 vegetarian ramen started in April, and it is delicious! As well as the ramen they have also produced a vegetarian gyoza side dish.
To try it visit your local Kagetsu quick before it is over. They are heavily promoting this dish right now with flags, posters and staff t-shirts. My local Kagetsu looks like this, and your local one probably looks similar.
To find your local one you can look at the Kagetsu ‘Shop List ’, which is all in Japanese, but if you can’t figure it out Google Translate may be of some help.
When you go in you’ll need to pay for your food and drink using one of these machines. You don’t pay the staff direct for your food.
Put your money in first. The machines takes coins from ¥10 and above, as well as ¥1000 notes. It doesn’t take larger notes so make sure you have enough change. On this machine the buttons for the veggie ramen and gyoza are on the second and third rows at the very left. The veggie ramen are ¥750, and the veggie gyoza are ¥300. The drink buttons are on the bottom right. It is fairly obvious from the photos on the machine. For each button you press you get a paper ticket, and when you have paid for all your food you hand the tickets to a member of staff and sit down.
They have table seating areas for groups as well as benches for people who are eating by themselves. There are various condiments on the table (soya sauce, chilli sauce, dashi, etc). If you are vegetarian make sure you don’t put the fish sauce on your food.
The lady in all the promotional leaflets, posters, flags and t-shirts is 未唯mie, a Japanese actress and singer. The advertising for this veggie ramen is aimed at health conscious women, rather than vegetarians. These veggie ramen dishes are much lower in fat, and higher in vegetables than traditional ramen, so the advertising pitches them as a healthier option.
After a short wait the veggie ramen and gyoza arrive. First here is a close up of the ramen. It contains about 30 different kinds vegetable! It also contains some kind of algae that is meant to be good for you. It isn’t obvious from the photo, but under all those veg are thin green noodles (the ramen). You can eat the noodles and veg with your chopsticks, and there is a spoon for the soup.
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th before Gary Vines intercepted a Benson Jordan pass in the end zone in the third overtime to secure Henderson's second consecutive undefeated regular season.
Henderson State head coach Scott Maxfield improved his record to 6-2 against the Tigers. Maxfield has the best winning percentage among all HSU coaches who have faced OBU at least four times in their career. In his ninth season at HSU, only Sporty Carpenter (8-9-2) and Jimmy Haygood (8-8-2) have more wins than Maxfield against OBU.
Leading 31-21 at the end of three quarters, OBU rallied back and took a 35-31 lead after an 8-yard run by Chris Rycraw and a 67-yard punt return by Etauj Allen with 5:48 remaining in the game.
Kevin Rodgers, who completed 29 of 43 passes for 460 yards and six touchdowns, did not panic and orchestrated a 15-play, 78-yard scoring drive. On 3rd-and-goal from the 5, Rodgers hit Israel Valentin for the go-ahead score with 1:08 left to play.
Jordan then put a drive together of his own and was able to get the ball into field goal range for Matthew Ehasz, who booted a 24-yarder as time expired to force overtime.
In the first OT, it only took Henderson four plays to score as Rodgers connected with Darius Davis for a 9-yard score.
OBU, 7-3 on the season, then answered as Rycraw scored from 8 yards out to make the score 45-45.
The Tigers then regained the lead in the second overtime possession as Jordan scored on a 1-yard run.
Again, Rodgers went to work hitting Davis on a fourth-and-5 for 17 yards down to the OBU 3. After three failed attempts to get into the end zone, Davis' number was called again on fourth-and-goal as Henderson's all-time leading receiver made another acrobatic catch to tie the score at 52-52.
In the third overtime, Rodgers an d Corey Chappell connected for a 16-yard gain down to the OBU 10. The Reddies then turned to the ground game as Daniel McCoy gained two yards on his first attempt, and then scored on an 8-yard run.
Davis then caught the two-point conversion, tipping the ball up and pulling it down to give the Reddies the 60-52 advantage.
OBU moved the ball down to the Reddie 11 before the Tigers were called for an offensive pass interference call, putting the ball back to the 26. On four th-and-18 from the 21, Jordan's last pass was tipped and pulled down by Vines, much to the delight of the Reddie faithful who flooded A.U. Williams field in celebration.
No. 1 Minnesota State-Mankato 73, Upper Iowa 7
FAYETTE, Iowa -- Top-rated Minnesota State-Mankato secured its second consecutive undefeated regular season Saturday afternoon as it downed Upper Iowa 73-7.
With its win, MSU-Mankato improved to 11-0 on the season and has now won its past 22 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference games dating to Week 1 of the 2012 season. The win also gives the Mavericks the NSIC regular season championship for the second consecutive season.
MSU-Mankato posted a new single-game-high 73 points, breaking the previous record of 70 points set against Peru State (2007) and Upper Iowa ('12).
The Mavericks dominated on offensive side of the ball all day long as they posted touchdowns on each of their first 10 drives.
The Maverick rushing attack accounted for 526 of MSU-Mankato's 633 total yards of offense. MSU-Mankato's 526 rushing yards finished just 11 yards shy of the single-game record of 537 rushing yards set against North Dakota in the 1986 season. `
Senior Jon Wolf finished his day with a career-high 201 rushing yards to go along with two rushing touchdowns. Sophomore Mitch Brozovich also made an impact at the quarterback position, rushing for four rushing touchdowns. Sophomore Chad Zastrow notched a career-high 162 rushing yards, as well, to go along with one touchdown carry.
While the Mavericks offense kept rolling, the MSU-Mankato defense also didn't miss a beat as it limited the Upper Iowa rushing attack to -2 rushing yards, and 161 passing yards on the day. The Peacocks managed just 13 first downs as Upper Iowa was kept scoreless until the 3:31 mark of the fourth quarter.
Upper Iowa's lone score of the game came on a 12-yard touchdown pass from Cole Jaeschke to Lucas Hefty.
No. 2 Northwest Missouri State 51, No. 19 Missouri Western State 21
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. -- Second-ranked Northwest Missouri State beat No. 19 Missouri Western State 51-21 on Saturday to win the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Association. Northwest finished the regular season 11-0 overall and 10-0 in the MIAA, going through the conference undefeated for the first time since 2006.
Missouri Western finished the year 8-3 and 7-3 in the conference.
Northwest started the day off with a seven-play, 80-yard drive capped off by quarterback Trevor Adams' 1-yard scamper. After Clint Utter score on a 6-yard grab from Adams, the Bearcats went up 14-0 which is where the first quarter ended.
The Griffons responded with a 12-play, 85-yard drive that took up more than six minutes to start the second quarter after Northwest turned the ball over. Raphael Spencer scored on a 1-yard run to cut the Bearcats' lead in half. The Bearcats went ahead 21-7 after Reuben Thomas' 25-yard touchdown reception.
Missouri Western had a chance to cut the lead even more late in the opening half, but a blocked field goal gave the Bearcats the ball, and they finished it with another score. Kicker Simon Mathieson made it 24-7 right before half with a 36-yard field goal.
In the third quarter, a three-and-out hurt the Griffons chances of completing the comeback. Northwest made it worse after Adams scored from 2 yards out with 9:33 left in the third stanza. Another score added on to the 24-0 run for the Bearcats.
The Bearcats were led by Robert Burton's 16 carries for 105 yards.
No. 3 Colorado State-Pueblo 38, Western State 13
PUEBLO, Colo. -- Colorado State-Pueblo came into the game on Saturday in a familiar position; being in control of its own destiny in the final week of the regular season.
All it had to do was get past the Western State Mountaineers during the fifth annual Hall of Fame Game
The ThunderWolves defeated the Mountaineers 38-13, clinching the outright Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference title for a third consecutive season and all but securing the top spot in the NCAA Division II playoff seeding.
"It's pretty special, we've done something only a few teams ever done," head coach John Wristen said. "If you told us when we started this in August, this chapter of this team, I didn't know whether we were prepared to do it. These kids kept playing, and playing hard each week and we kept getting better. I'm very proud of them."
Early in the third quarter, wide receiver Paul Browning broke the single-season receiving mark of 994 yards, which was set by John Trahan in 1982, following a 38-yard touchdown reception.
"It was a goal for [Saturday], but I tried not to focus in on," Browning said. "I tried to focus on getting this win so we could get another championship."
Browning finished the game with five receptions for 96 yards and one touchdown, finishing the regular season with 50 receptions for 1,012 yards and 10 touchdowns.
The ThunderWolves (11-0), who came into the game as the ninth-ranked team in Division II in total offense with 519.2 yards per game, finished the game with 511 yards total.
In addition to Browning's record-setting performance, QB Chris Bonner, who is also a Harlon Hill award nominee, finished the game with 309 yards and two touchdowns on 17-for-24 passing. Bonner finished a record-breaking regular season with 3,116 yards passing, 30 touchdowns and eight interceptions.
No. 5 Minnesota-Duluth 39, Northern State 7
ABERDEEN, S.D. -- It wasn't the start Minnesota Duluth had anticipated, but the finish is all that mattered for the Bulldogs on Saturday. Northern State jumped out to an early 7-0 lead by marching 87 yards on three plays, but UMD pretty much took control after that as the No. 5 Bulldogs rattled off 39 consecutive points and whipped the Wolves 39-7 to close out the 2013 regular season.
The win was the eighth in a row for UMD, which improved to 10-1 and all but assured itself a spot in the NCAA Division II playoffs for a sixth consecutive year.
Freshman quarterback Drew Bauer registered a rare touchdown double -- running 8 yards for one score and hauling in a 15-yard pass from sophomore wide receiver Justin Fowlkes on a trick play for another six points -- while Austin Sikorski rushed 14 times for a game-high 129 yards and found the end zone once. With that effort, he surpassed 1,000 yards for the first time in his career (he now has 1,102 yards on the season) and cracked the 100-yard rushing barrier for the 10th time as a collegian.
Half of the passes Bauer completed on the day (he was 16 of 26 for 171 yards) landed in the capable hands of junior wide out Zach Zweifel, who equaled a career-high with eight receptions. The Bulldogs, who led 19-7 at the half and 25-7 after three quarters before icing the game with a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns by senior running back Chaz Thomas and senior wide out Austin Selvick, rolled up 468 yards of total offense (260 on the ground).
On the other side of the football, UMD limited the Wolves (4-7 overall) to just 57 rushing yards and 205 yards overall.
The Bulldogs, who are unbeaten in their past six confrontations with the Wolves, have now won nine consecutive regular-season finales. They also hiked their all-time Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference North Division record to 36-2.
Missouri Southern State 35, No. 6 Pittsburg State 21
PITTSBURG, Kan. -- The streak is no more as Missouri Southern State defeated No. 6 Pittsburg State 35-21 on Saturday in the Sonic Miners Bowl at Carnie Smith Stadium.
Southern (7-3, 5-3 Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Association) won for the first time against PSU (9-2, 7-2 MIAA) since 1993 and for the first time in Pittsburg since 1983.
The Lions rushed for 372 yards and had 415 yards of total offense. The Lions defense forced punts on PSU's first five possessions and held the Gorillas to just 229 yards total, including only 95 yards on the ground. PSU came into the game averaging 239 yards on the ground and 483 yards total per game.
The Southern defense limited Pitt State to just 13 first downs in the game, while the Lions had 22. Southern won the time of possession battle holding the ball for more than 37 minutes, while limiting the Gorillas to a little less than 23 minutes with the ball.
Offensively, Jay McDowell rushed for 119 yards on 23 carries and found the end zone twice. Jocqui Davis and Terrence Allen had a rushing touchdown of their own.
The Lions scored on five of their 11 possessions in the game.
Southern ended the season with seven wins for the first time since the 1993 season when the Lions won the MIAA. The Lions broke school records for rushing yardage (3,684) and rushing touchdowns (42), both of which were set last season. Southern also broke the single-season rushing attempts record with 597 on the season, besting the mark of 581 set last year.
No. 7 Shepherd 41, Concord 33
ATHENS, W.Va. -- Redshirt-freshman quarterback Jeff Ziemba completed 14 of 15 passes for 231 yards and three touchdowns, all to junior wide receiver Justin Ford, to lead Shepherd to a 41-33 win against Concord in Mountain East Conference action Saturday at Callaghan Stadium. The win clinches the inaugural MEC title for the Rams.
Ziemba team with Ford on scoring strikes of 31, 45 and 32 yards. Ford had four receptions for 108 yards.
Redshirt-fresham Jabre Lolley rushed for a game-high 103 yards on 25 carries. He scored on runs of 6 and 5 yards.
Shepherd gained 409 yards of total offense, while Concord totaled 408.
Brian Novak completed 17 of 28 passes for 239 yards and two touchdowns for Concord. He also ran for a 7-yard score.
Shepherd improved to 10-0 (9-0 in the MEC) in recording its fourth undefeated regular season. Concord fell to 8-3 and 7-2.
No. 8 Ohio Dominican 40, Malone 13
CANTON, Ohio -- Ohio Dominican capped off an undefeated regular season with a 40-13 win at Malone on Saturday, clinching the program's first Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship. The Panthers closed the regular season with a 10-0 record, including 9-0 in the GLIAC.
The Panthers stretched Division II's longest win streak to 15 consecutive games.At NerdWallet, we adhere to strict standards of editorial integrity to help you make decisions with confidence. Many or all of the products featured here are from our partners. Here’s how we make money
In recent years, STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) have become increasingly prominent, both in education and employment.
The National Science Foundation reports that the percentage of freshmen at four-year universities who intend to major in a science or engineering field increased to about 39% in 2012 after remaining stagnant at about 33% from 1995 to 2007.
Growing interest in STEM fields reflects trends in the job market. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average salary in 2014 for occupations in STEM fields was about $81,000, which is 72% higher than the $47,000 average salary for all occupations. As well, the growth in the STEM job market is expected to continue to outpace other sectors: From 2010 to 2020, employment in science and engineering occupations is projected to increase 18.7%, which is higher than the 14.3% estimated rate of growth for all occupations.
Although STEM jobs have experienced significant growth in industry size and wages, certain cities are more attractive to STEM graduates. To find the best places for STEM grads, NerdWallet analyzed the following factors in 354 of the largest U.S. metropolitan areas:
Size of the STEM industry. We examined the number of STEM jobs for every 1,000 employees in each metro area with 2014 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Income for STEM jobs. We looked at annual mean salary for STEM jobs in each area. We also analyzed median rent as a cost-of-living metric to see how far the average income goes in each place.
For more career and postgrad information, check out NerdWallet Grad.
Key findings
Computer and mathematical occupations lead the way. Most of the high-ranked places on our list, such as the metro areas around San Jose, Boulder and Seattle, are tech hubs known for their sizable computer-related job markets with occupations such as programmers, developers and network architects. Computer and mathematical occupations are the most prevalent and lucrative of STEM fields — they make up 52% of all STEM jobs and have an average salary $83,970, compared with $81,520 for all engineering and architecture jobs, and $70,070 for all life, physical and social science occupations.
STEM job markets are strongest in coastal states. There are prominent STEM areas throughout the U.S., but the strongest ones are on both coasts — from California and Washington to Florida, North Carolina and farther north.
On the chart below, use the selector to see data about the number of STEM employees in an area, the average salary, median rent in each place and the overall score.
Best places for STEM grads
1. Huntsville, Alabama
Known as Rocket City thanks to its history with space flights and the aerospace industry, Huntsville is the STEM heart of the South. The metro area’s first overall rank on this list is powered by its prominent STEM industry and high salary relative to a low cost of living. Huntsville, which also ranked highly in NerdWallet’s Best Places for Engineers and Best Places for Tech Jobs, is home to NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, the Army Aviation and Missile Command and Cummings Research Park, the second-largest research park in the world. The University of Alabama in Huntsville is also a major center for technology research — over half of the school’s graduates earn degrees in engineering or science.
2. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California
The heart of Silicon Valley has been a hub for technology and innovation for years. The San Jose metro area boasts the largest STEM job market in the country, with 185 of every 1,000 occupations belonging to STEM fields. And although the median rent here is the highest of all U.S. metros at $1,640 a month, the average STEM salary of $117,783 is also higher than anywhere else. Major tech giants like Apple, eBay, Yahoo, Intel and Adobe Systems are all headquartered here.
3. Boulder, Colorado
The Boulder metro area features one of the most prominent STEM job markets in the country, thanks to growth in its technology and aerospace industries. About 140 of every 1,000 jobs belong to a STEM occupation. Some of the largest employers in the area include IBM, Oracle and Ball Corp., which also includes Boulder-based Ball Aerospace & Technologies. The University of Colorado Boulder, a large public research university and the largest college in the state, is home to a Center for STEM Learning that focuses on improving STEM education for students and the local community.
4. Durham-Chapel Hill, North Carolina
The Durham-Chapel Hill area is home to two powerhouse research universities, Duke and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Both are among the most prominent research universities in the nation, so it’s no surprise that the region is also a hub for STEM jobs. Near Raleigh, the area’s Research Triangle Park is one of the world’s largest research parks and home to hundreds of companies as well as other colleges.
5. Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, Washington
The job market in the Seattle metro area features 121 STEM employees for 1,000 jobs, making it one of the largest STEM centers in the U.S. Also, the average annual STEM salary in Seattle is among the highest in the nation at $98,493. The region’s largest employers include Microsoft and Amazon, while the Boeing Co. is the major presence in Seattle’s aerospace industry.
6. Kennewick-Pasco-Richland, Washington
Although Seattle gets most of the attention when it comes to tech and innovation in the Northwest, the Tri-Cities, a region about 200 miles inland, is a major research center featuring a powerful STEM workforce. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Battelle Memorial Institute, Energy Northwest and ConAgra Foods are large employers here that hire a number of workers in STEM fields.
7. San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City, California
The San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City area north of Silicon Valley shares a lot of similarities with the valley, including the prevalence of tech jobs. The region boasts 108 STEM employees per 1,000 jobs and the second-highest STEM salary of all places (as well as the third-highest cost to rent). Google, Twitter and LinkedIn and the ever-growing number of startup companies regularly hire STEM grads.
8. Washington, D.C.-Arlington-Alexandria, Virginia, Maryland and West Virginia
The nation’s capital and surrounding metro area are home to about 117 STEM workers for every 1,000 jobs, and these employees make an average salary just shy of six figures. In addition to a plethora of tech companies, the region also boasts initiatives such as the DC STEM Alliance, which provides resources to boost STEM education locally.
9. Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, Texas
Houston’s proportion of STEM workers is higher than average and its mean STEM salary of $94,826 is boosted by a relatively low median rent and cost of living. Booming industries in the region include aerospace, energy, biotechnology and life sciences, with ExxonMobil and Shell Oil Co. among its top employers. The University of Houston features a STEM Center that focuses on attracting students to STEM careers at a local and national level.
10. Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, Florida
This Florida metro area earns its spot on our list thanks to a sizable STEM industry (89 STEM employees for every 1,000 jobs) and a low cost of living (median rent is just $876). The region boasts a high concentration of tech workers due to the prevalence of defense, aerospace and technology companies.
Best places for STEM grads data
Methodology
Here’s how we calculated the score for each of the 354 largest U.S. metro areas:
STEM employees per 1,000 total jobs are 50% of the score. Data are from the Bureau of Labor Statistics May 2014 Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan Area Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates. Annual mean wage for STEM jobs is 25% of the score. Data are from the Bureau of Labor Statistics May 2014 Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan Area Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates. Median gross rent for each place is 25% of the score. Data are from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2013 American Community Survey.
This study analyzes data for all jobs classified as computer and mathematical occupations, architecture and engineering occupations or life, physical and social science occupations.
Huntsville, Alabama, image via iStock.A Multnomah County jury on Thursday awarded $25 million in a low-tar tobacco verdict against Philip Morris.
Ten years ago, a county Circuit Court jury awarded $150 million for punitive damages in the case after finding Philip Morris deceived a low-tar cigarette smoker into thinking she'd chosen a healthier alternative. A judge later reduced the amount to $100 million and
the award because of the way the jury was instructed to deliberate.
how reprehensible the tobacco maker's actions were in causing the death of Salem resident Michelle Schwarz. The jury could have awarded up to $300 million. Jurors were not told about the original verdict of $150 million.
An attorney for Schwarz's estate, Chuck Tauman, said he was pleased with Thursday's verdict.
Juror John Vanvleet, 49, said the award amount was a compromise by the jury.
"Eight of us were on the very low end and four of us were on the high end," he said. "We came to a benchmark where we settled."
The benchmark discussed ranged between $25 and $50 million, Vanvleet said. He declined to elaborate on the factors that went into the decision.
--HARIPUR: According to unofficial results compiled from all polling stations, Pakistan Muslim League – N's Babar Nawaz won the race for the National Assembly seat from Haripur's NA-19 constituency, with Dr Raja Amir Zaman of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) coming in at second place, DawnNews reported.
Per consolidated unofficial results from all polling stations, Babar Nawaz bagged 116,624 votes with PTI's Zaman accumulating 78,512 votes.
Voting for the by-election in National Assembly constituency NA-19, Haripur, ended peacefully at 5pm Sunday with no reported disruptions.
While nine candidates are contesting for NA membership from the constituency, the real contest is between BabarNawaz of the PML-N and Dr Raja Amir Zaman of the PTI.
The by-election garnered attention after it was announced that biometric machines will be tested at 30 polling stations. An official of the Election Commission of Pakistan told Dawn that biometric machines would be used to authenticate voters before issuing ballot papers at polling stations as part of a pilot project.
Read: Biometric machines to be tested in Haripur by-poll today.
He said the success of biometric machines would determine if it was viable to spend billions on introducing the device in the next general election.
The official said the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra), Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and a cellular network provider (Ufone) would render technical assistance in this regard. The pilot project, he added, was in line with suggestions of political parties as had been conveyed by the Electoral Reforms Committee of Parliament.
To ensure a peaceful environment during polling, soldiers of the Pakistan Army had also been stationed in the constituency in addition to policemen, while the local administration had imposed section 144 to ban exhibition of weapons.
In the May 2013 general election, Dr Raja Amir Zaman was declared the returned candidate from the NA-19 constituency after securing 116,979 votes against PML-N’s Omar Ayub’s 114,807. A recount was ordered, but Dr Zaman remained the successful candidate, though his original victory margin of 2,172 was reduced to 1,304.
Consequently, Ayub challenged the result before an election tribunal, which, in its judgement on Dec 31, 2013, ordered re-polling in seven stations instead of declaring the election void.
The tribunal’s order was challenged by Dr Zaman before the apex court, which dismissed the same. Consequently, he filed a review petition against the judgement, which was accepted and his opponent was de-seated.
Take a look: SC orders re-election in Haripur's NA-19.
Omar Ayub later announced he would not contest the by-poll, saying he was looking after his mother who was seriously ill.
“My mother is not well. She is bed-ridden and it is my prime duty to look after her. It is difficult for me to participate in the by-elections.”
Read: Omar Ayub to stay away from NA-19 by-election.OTTAWA — Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre has launched an electronic petition calling on the "government of Canada to condemn Prime Minister [Justin] Trudeau's $10.5 million payment to Omar Khadr."
The Ottawa MP's petition, E-1194, states that the Canadian government "did not force Omar Khadr to fight for the Taliban and murder a U.S. medic," that "the Canadian government had no role in his subsequent incarceration," and that "the people of Canada owe Omar Khadr no compensation."
In an email to HuffPost, Poilievre said he was launching the petition to "give voice to the millions of Canadians outraged with Justin Trudeau's decision...
"At the very least, Trudeau should have made the case against the payout and let a judge decide."
Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during a news conference during the G20 leaders summit in Hamburg, Germany on July 8, 2017.
The petition, launched Thursday at 4:01 pm, is open for signatures until Nov. 10. At press time, 20 individuals had signed it.
A similar petition by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation garnered more than 133,000 signatures over nine days, the group said on Thursday.
"When we launched this petition... our hope was to convince the government to change course," federal director Aaron Wudrick said in a statement. "It was very disappointing to learn that the government quietly rushed through the payment....
"Let there be no illusion: a large majority of Canadians don't buy the government's line that they had 'no choice' but to hand Khadr $10.5 million."
That is, however, precisely what Trudeau told reporters on Thursday when asked about the Khadr payout.
Let there be no illusion: a large majority of Canadians don't buy the government's line that they had 'no choice' but to hand Khadr $10.5 million. Aaron Wudrick
The prime minister said he understood Canadians' concern about the settlement.
"In fact, I share those concerns about the money. That's why we settled," he said. "If we had continued to fight this, not only would we have inevitably lost, but estimates range from 30 to 40 million dollars that it would have ended up costing the government. So this was the responsible path to take."
Khadr is the former Guantanamo Bay inmate who was captured on an Afghanistan battlefield in 2002 at age 15 and accused of throwing a grenade that killed U.S. special forces soldier Chris Speer and blinded another American soldier.
Khadr pleaded guilty to five war crimes before a military commission, but later recanted, saying he only agreed to the plea in order to return to Canada. He also said he was tortured during the decade he spent at Guantanamo Bay.
Todd Korol/Reuters Omar Khadr attends a news conference after being released on bail in Edmonton on May 7, 2015. Khadr was once the youngest prisoner held on terror charges at Guantanamo Bay.
In 2010, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Khadr's Charter rights had been breached, that Canadian intelligence officials had obtained information from Khadr under "oppressive circumstances," including extreme sleep deprivation, and that they illegally shared evidence with the United States.
The Conservatives, who in government refused to advocate for Khadr's repatriation and fought to keep him behind bars after he returned to Canada in 2012, have hammered Trudeau over the decision last week to issue an apology and a reported $10.5 million settlement in response to a $20-million suit Khadr originally filed in 2004.
When governments fail to respect people's rights, we all end up paying. Justin Trudeau
Andrew Scheer, the new Tory leader, said he would have fought Khadr's lawsuit in court rather than award millions to someone his party sees as an "admitted terrorist." Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said the government has already spent nearly $5 million in legal fees.
On Thursday, Trudeau said the lesson to draw from the Khadr case is that "when governments fail to respect people's rights, we all end up paying."
"The measure of a society, of a just society, is not whether we stand up for people's rights when it's easy or popular to do so, it's whether we recognize rights when it's difficult, when it's unpopular," he said.
With files from the Canadian Press
Also On HuffPost:North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un attends a ceremony at the plaza of the Kumsusan Palace in Pyongyang on April 25. (Photo11: Korean Central News Agency via KNS/AFP/Getty Images) Story Highlights Meetings planned with rival South Korea collapsed
The National Defense Commission said talks should ease tensions
North Korea has threatened nuclear war in recent statements
PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — After months of threatening to wage a nuclear war, North Korea did an about-face Sunday and issued a surprise proposal to the United States, its No. 1 enemy: Let's talk.
But the invitation from North Korea's National Defense Commission, the powerful governing body led by leader Kim Jong Un, comes with caveats: No preconditions and no demands that Pyongyang give up its prized nuclear assets unless Washington is willing to do the same — ground rules that make it hard for the Americans to accept.
Washington responded by saying that it is open to talks — but only if North Korea shows it will comply with U.N. Security Council resolutions and live up to its international obligations.
"As we have made clear, our desire is to have credible negotiations with the North Koreans, but those talks must involve North Korea living up to its obligations to the world, including compliance with U.N. Security Council resolutions, and ultimately result in denuclearization," U.S. National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said in a statement. "We will judge North Korea by its actions, and not its words and look forward to seeing steps that show North Korea is ready to abide by its commitments and obligations."
North Korea's call for "senior-level" talks between the Korean War foes signals a shift in policy in Pyongyang after months of acrimony.
Pyongyang ramped up the anti-American rhetoric early this year after its launch of a long-range rocket in December and a nuclear test in February drew tightened U.N. and U.S. sanctions. Posters went up across the North Korean capital calling on citizens to "wipe away the American imperialist aggressors," slogans that hadn't been seen on city streets in years.
The U.S. and ally South Korea countered the provocations and threats by stepping up annual springtime military exercises, which prompted North Korea to warn of a "nuclear war" on the Korean Peninsula.
But as tensions began subsiding in May and June, Pyongyang began making tentative, if unsuccessful, overtures to re-establish dialogue with Seoul and Washington.
Earlier this month, it proposed high-level talks with South Korea — the first in six years. But plans for two days of meetings last week in Seoul dramatically fell apart even before they began amid bickering over who would lead the two delegations.
Meanwhile, the virulent anti-American billboards plastered across the city were taken down. And on Sunday, as scores of people fanned out across Pyongyang to help carry out the latest urban renewal projects in the capital — landscaping and construction — the National Defense Commission issued a statement through state media proposing talks with the U.S. to ease tensions and discuss a peace treaty formally ending the Korean War.
North Korea fought against U.S.-led United Nations and South Korean troops during the three-year Korean War in the early 1950s, and Pyongyang does not have diplomatic relations with either government. The Korean Peninsula remains divided by a heavily fortified border.
Reunifying the peninsula was a major goal of North Korea's two late leaders, Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, and is a legacy inherited by current leader Kim Jong Un. North Korea is expected to draw attention to Korea's division in the weeks leading up to the 60th anniversary in July marking the close of the Korean conflict, which ended in an armistice. A peace treaty has never been signed formally ending the war.
Across Pyongyang, signboards at construction sites are marked with a countdown to July 27, giving laborers a deadline for retiling the roof of the People's Palace of Culture, renovating the Korean War museum, and planting trees and grass meant to beautify the city for the milestone anniversary.
For the nation's leaders, July 27 may well be their deadline for drawing the United States to the negotiating table to discuss a peace treaty.
But for Washington, there will be no talks just for talks' sake, officials say.
Speaking on CBS television's "Face the Nation" show Sunday, President Barack Obama's chief of staff, Denis McDonough, said Washington has been "quite clear" that officials support dialogue and have engaged Pyongyang in talks in the past.
But "those talks have to be real. They have to be based on them living up to their obligations, to include on proliferation, on nuclear weapons, on smuggling and other things," he said. "And so we'll judge them by their actions, not by the nice words that we heard yesterday."
He said smooth talk will not help Pyongyang evade U.N. sanctions supported by Moscow and Beijing, North Korea's two traditional allies. U.N. Security Council resolutions ban North Korea from developing its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
Earlier this year, Kim Jong Un enshrined the drive to build a nuclear arsenal, as well as expand the economy, in North Korea's constitution. Pyongyang, estimated to have a handful of crude nuclear devices, says it needs to build atomic weapons to defend itself against what it sees as a U.S. nuclear threat in Korea and the region.
The National Defense Commission reiterated its refusal to give up its nuclear ambitions until the entire Korean Peninsula is free of nuclear weapons, a spokesman said in a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency.
"The denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula does not only mean 'dismantling the nuclear weapons of the North'" but also should involve "denuclearizing the whole peninsula, including South Korea, and aims at totally ending the U.S. nuclear threats" to North Korea, the spokesman said.
The U.S. denies having nuclear bombs in South Korea, saying they were removed in 1991. However, the U.S. military keeps nuclear submarines in the region and has deployed them for military exercises with South Korea.
After blaming Washington for raising tensions by imposing "gangster-like sanctions" on North Korea, the spokesman called on the U.S. to propose a venue and date for talks — but warned against setting preconditions.
Washington has been burned in the past by efforts to reach out to Pyongyang.
Months of behind-the-scenes negotiations yielded a significant food-for-disarmament deal in February 2012, but that was scuttled by a failed North Korean long-range rocket launch just weeks later.
———
Associated Press writers Youkyung Lee in Seoul, South Korea, and Tom Strong in Washington, contributed to this report.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/167GUd4SALMAN Abedi reported his teacher at school for Islamophobia because he condemned suicide bombers, it has emerged.
The Manchester attacker – who slaughtered 22 people at a concert by pop-star Ariana Grande on Monday – studied at Burnage Academy for Boys between 2009 and 2011.
Google Streetview 7 Burnage Academy for Boys in Manchester, where Salman Abedi studied
AP:Associated Press 7 Abedi is said to have been part of an Arabic-speaking 'clique' at school
Abedi was part of an Arabic-speaking “clique” during his time at the school, The Times reports.
He is believed to have been part of a group of teens that became upset when one of their teachers brought up the topic of suicide attacks.
The teacher “asked what they thought of someone who would strap on a bomb and blow people up”, according to a source quoted by the paper.
Most read in news Exclusive DARK PAST Homeless man doused in water by rail staff KILLED man who splashed him with paint MOMO NO-NO Momo Challenge in 'Peppa Pig and Fortnite vids' as YouTube and Instagram slammed TREE OF TERROR Mum horrified to learn what the strange 'pods' were hanging from branches SUICIDE WARNING What is Momo and how can parents protect their children? |
1985-1986???, R.I.P.
-sound like Sodom Т1983, evil chaotic Death/Thrashа
Rehearsal /1985 / rehearsal tape
Blasphemer - rehearsal track / 1986 / rehearsal tape
Amon (Czechia), 1988-1995, from 1995 to 1999 Цknown under the name Amon Goeth, after this in 2000 again turn the name Amon
-the first demo was evil and raw Black Metal in the Hellhammer vein (really good stuff for me)
-second demo a more Death/Black Metal, after this they come to typical old-school Death Metal with some atmospheric keyboards
-do not confuse with Pre Deicide band and Death-Black band from Switzerland
as Amon:
Realm of Evil / 1989 / demo
-Black metal like Hellhammer
Book of Death / 1990 / demo
Alive in Hell / 1995 / MC live album
-a more Death/Black Metal
as Amon Goeth:
Call the Master / 1995 / LP / [Nazgul's Eyrie Productions]
The Worship / 1997 / CD / [Nazgul's Eyrie Productions]
-old-school Death/Black Metal here
As Amon again:
In the Shade of Death / 2000 / CD / [self realized]
-old-school death metal with atmospheric keyboards
Zrozeni Smrti / 2002 / CD / [Barbarian Wrath] (Re-released together with 6 more tracks taken from the 1992 demo???)
Angel Death ( Italy ), 1985-1993, R.I.P.
-the first demo was typical Black Metal of 80th, like Bathory Т1983-84 mix Venom С1982
-the latter stuff more Unholy Death-Grind like Blasphemy, Morbosidadа
Death to christianity / 1986 / demo
-like Bathory mix Venom
Gore (Blood of War) / 1991 / LP
Exorcism the Pain / 1993 / LP
7ФEP / 1995 / (I think itТs not official, the bootleg stuff )
-like Blasphemy, Morbosidad
Angkor Vat ( Uruguay ), 1988-???, R.I.P.
-Killer Black/Death/Doom!!!
Southern Blood / 1989 / demo '06/1989
Anschluss ( Brazil ), 1986-???, R.I.P.
-brutalа raw Death-Black/War Metal with typical brazilian sound: Holocausto, Mutilator.
Demo / 1986 / demo tape [3 songs]
Demo / 1987 demo tape [4 songs]
Live at Noise Pub, Americana СMay, 13th, 1987 / live tape
Archenemy ( USA ), 1984-1986, R.I.P.
-very raw and noisy Satanic Death-Black Metal
-do not confuse with other modern Arch Enemy from Sweden
Rehearsal / 1985 / demo (3 songs: Escape Death, Poison, Blood Lust)
Archgoat (Fin), 1990-1993, R.I.P., alive again in 2005
-brutal satanic Black/Death metal similar Von mix. Beherit
Jesus Spawn / 1992 / demo
Angelcunt - Tales Of Desecration /??? / LP
Penis Pervertor / 1992 / live demo (horrible sound)
live In Riihimaki, Finland / 1992 / live tape
live In Kuopio, Finland / 03-13-1993 / live tape
Arsenic ( USA ). 1985-????, R.I.P.
-very dirty and raw Unholy Death-Thrash, sound something between the early Slaughter (Can) mix. Voor (Can)
First Blood / 1985 / demo #1
Agressa ( Brazil ), 1987-???, R.I.P.
-sound like Mutilator, Vulcano in typical South-American vein
Demo #2 / 1987 / demo tape
Agressor ( Brazil ), 1987-???, R.I.P.
-and again, the typical Sourth-Americal sound, brutal Death-Black
- Rehearsal 29-03-1987. reh.tape
Armageddon ( Poland / Warsaw а ), 1985-1988, R.I.P.
-very raw, sick and evil Black-Death Metal with screaming vocals, similar early Poison С1985 УSons of EvilФ
-the band bring a pure aggression Black-Death metalа with blasphemous, satanic lyrics
-actually, the band not recorded some demos or albums, only one rehearsal tapes.а
-do not confuse with other Armagedon from Poland (with one УdФ letter) which played typical Death Metal in the beginning of 1990
-the band played the united live shows with next polish bands: Astaroth, Exorcist, Prosector, etc.
-the band recorded next evil songs: Antichrist, Black Force, Slaughter In Bethlehem.
Rehearsal / 1986 / reh.tape
Armmagedon ( Brazil ), 1986-???, R.I.P.
-the first band of Silvio SDN from Mutilator, the sound in the same vein
Genocidio / 1986 / demo tape
rehearsal / 09-1986 / reh.tape
live In Metal House, Belo Horizonte, Bra, 26-10-1986 / live tape
rehearsal / 29-03-1987 / reh.tape
Astaroth ( Poland ), 1985-1987, R.I.P.
-Blackened Speed/Thrash Metal with satanic/occult lyrics
live at School / 1986 / live tape
live in Stegny / 1986 / live demo
Queen of the Night / 1986 / demo
Astaroth / 1987 / demo
Astaroth ( Columbia ), 1985-1987, R.I.P.
-Black-Thrash of 80th
Aullido Sepulcral / Guerra de Metal / 1985 / 7ФEP а
Athrow ( Brazil ), 1986-???, R.I.P.
-Satanic Death-Thrash with typical Brazilian sound
Slaughter of Angels / 1986 / demo
Authority (Rus) (pre Draugwath),а 1990-1991, R.I.P.
-Sound like Blasphemy, satanic Death-Grind
Demo #1/ 1990 / demo
Demo #2 / 1991 / demo (unreleased???)
Azagthoth ( UK ), 1987-???, R.I.P.
-Unholy Raw Death Metal like Possessed, Necrovore
Shredded Flesh / 1987/ demo
Barbatos ( Japan ), 1987-1999, R.I.P.
-the project of Abigail member, the same sound I think
-they are recorded the first tape already in 1987, but the other recordings was only in 1998-1999???
rehearsal / 1987 / reh.tape
Beherit (Finalnd), 1990-1996, R.I.P.
-early stuff was Evil and Brutal Chaotic Primitive Black Metal, the most evil black metal band of early 90th
-the latter in 1995 was disbanded and last member Nuclear Holocausto began to plays the strange primitive Ambient music two year time, after this the band is R.I.P.
-before the Beherit the band has names: Horny Malformity in 1988-1989, Pseudo christ in 1989-1990 and played Satanic Grind
-the band members also was played in bands: Black Crucifixion (Raw Black Metal like Beherit) Ц members: Nuclear Holocausto, Black Jesus???; Goat Vulva (Black-Noise-Ambient) Ц members: Nuclear Holocausto,????; Suuri Shamani (Noise-Ambient) Ц members: Nuclear Holocausto???
Putrid Rehearsals / 18-03-1990 / reh.tape
Morbid Rehearsals / 28-03-1990 / reh.tape
Goatlord Rehearsal / 1990??? / reh.tape (poor quality, 2tx. only)
rehearsal С17-09-1990 / reh.tape
Live / 1990 / 7"EP
live In Rovaniemi Т27-04-1990 / live tape
Seventh Blasphemy / 1990 / demo #1 (the demo include the Sarcofago cover УSathanasФ)
Demonomancy / 1990 / demo #2
live In Nokia, Finland Т08-03-1991 / live tape
live In Finland С1991 / live tape
Live At The "Day Of Darkness Festival" Oulu, Finland 23-08-1991 / live tape (was re-released on bootled CD in 199??)
The Oath of Black Blood / 1991 / LP & CD / [Turbo Music / USA ]
Unreleased Studio Tracks / 1991 / Promo
Dawn Of Satan's Millennium / 1991 / 7ФEP
live Joensun 08-02-1992 / live tape
live Riihimaki 08-21-1992 / live tape
Promoа / 1992 / promo tape
Drawning Down the Moon / 1993 / CD / [Spinefarm Records / Finland ]
-here was the Evil and Brutal Chaotic Primitive Black Metal
H418ov21.C / 1994 / CD [Spinefarm Records / Finland ]
-not blackа metal here just primitive strange ambient stuff with some soft guitars and some vocals.
Electric Doom Synthesis / 1995 / CD
-here the mix of industrial-ambient
Werewolf Semen and Blood / 1996 / 7ФEP
-again black metal, may be itТs old recording???
Beast of Beherit (Complete Worxxx) / 1999 / CD (old stuff, re-released)
Black Fucking Sodomy -Holocausto Is God / 1999??? / MC & CD (bootleg???)
Beast Of Damnation / 2000 / CD (bootleg)
Black fucking sodomy!(Lives 91-94) / 2000 (Bootleg CD)
Ghost Of Death / 2002 / CD (old stuff, the Bootleg CD)
Bestial ( Brazil ), 1989-???, R.I.P.
-brutal Death-Black in the South-American vein
аProphecies / 1989 /demo
Bestial ( France ), 1985-???, R.I.P.
-Monotove Primitive Black-Death Metal similar VON, especially guitar sound.
-ex. Morsure (Fra)
Demo / 1986 / demo
Bestial Summoning ( Holland ), 1990-1992, R.I.P.
-very evil and chaotic raw Black Metal influenced by the bands like Christblood (Isl.), Beherit, Goat Vulva, Black Prophecies, some parts on the demo С1991 was slowly like Necro Schizma
-one of the most evil band of early 90th
rehearsal / 1989??? / (6 tracks here)
rehearsal / 1990 / reh.tape
rehearsalа / 1991 / reh.tape
Rehearsal (6 tracks)
jam session / 1990 / reh.tape
Sodomistic Rituals / 1991 / demo
Live Venray 06.26.1992 / LP
sinbreeders / 1992 / reh.track
Promo 1992 / promo tape (4 tracks)
The Dark War Has Begun / 1992 / LP
The Dark War Continues / 2002 / CD [label???] (re-released old stuff, include the some reh. tracks from 1990-1991, not full first demo, live LP Т92 and LP tracks С92)
Black Death ( Norway ), 1986-1988, renamed to Darkthrone in 1988
-Blackened Raw Thrashcore with scream vocal and with some Hellhammer/Celtic Frost influences
-doа not confuse with US speed metal band of 80th
Demo #1 / 1987 / reh.demo (also known under the title УThrashcoreФ)
Demo #2 /1988 / reh.demo
Black Metal ( Holland ), 1990-1991, R.I.P.
-sound like Hellhammer with Beherit style vocals
Pentagram / 1991 / Demo
Black Metal Front ( Germany ), 1987-???, R.I.P.
-Primitive dirty Black-Noise of 80Тs with very rehearsal sound
-ex. Acrid (Ger)???
This Is Black Metal / 1987 / reh. track [sep/1987, 5 min]
Black Majesty ( Italy ), 1985-1987, R.I.P.
-Sound like Venom and Voor, but more raw with rehearsal sound
Nocturnal Nightmare / 1985 / demo
Authors of Evil / 1986 / demo
Black Mass ( Brazil ), 1988-???, R.I.P
-raw Black-Death similar early Bathory with some brazilian sound.
The Last Mass / 1989 / demo [2 songs]
Black Mass ( Norway ), 1985-1986, R.I.P.
-typical Black Metal of 80th, some similar the early swedish Morbid Т87 (with Dead)а
Promo tape / 1986 / demo (the demo include Celtic Frost cover УDeathroned EmperorФ)
rehearsal tape / 1986 / reh.demo (only one song УBorn on the Dark SideФ)
Black Prophecies ( Italy ), 1987-1990, R.I.P.
-sound like Goatlord mix Hellhammer, really good Black Metal band of 80th, and sure, the cult too
Azathoth / 1988 / demo (very raw chaotic and evil, some similar Beherit )
Unholy / 1989 / reh.demo
Turning Crosses Towards Hell / 1990 / demo (like Goatlord mix. Hellhammer here)
Blasphemer ( Brazil ), 1988-1989, R.I.P.
-Satanic Blasphemous Death/Thrash Metal, typical brazilian 80th sound.
УHeadthrashersФ Live / 1988 / Split LP (with bands Cova, Necromancia, MX; 2 trx. of Blasphemer)
а
Blasphemer ( Norway ), 1986-???, R.I.P.
-primitive Black Metal with very dirty rehearsal sound and with Hellhammer influences.
Voice Of Dead Babbs / 1986 / rehearsal demo
Bloodvomit ( USA ), 1985-???, R.I.P.
-ultra raw Death Metal/Grind
Triumph Of Death / rehearsal track '1986 [Hellhammer cover]
Bloodvore ( Germany ), 1988-???, R.I.P.
-ultra raw, ultra aggressive, ultra fast Death-Grind with rehearsal sound
Macabre Dismemberment / 1988 / demo#1 [5 min // very short songs 5-7 sec.]
Bloodslaughter ( Germany ) (pre-Slaughterhammer), 1985-198,а was renamed to Slaughterhammer in 1987
-sick and morbid Death Metal band, actually, the one of theа first bands who used the sick gore lyrics
live Elmshorn jun/1986
rehearsal '1986 / reh.tape
rehearsal 06/mar/1987 / reh.tape
rehearsal 24/may/1987 / reh.tape
rehearsal jan/87 / reh.tape
Cannibalistic Massacre / 1987 / reh.demo #3
Brainstorm ( Ukraine ), 1991-1996, R.I.P.
-Evil chaotic Black-Death, very raw sound
-after the R.I.P. one member formed the band Graal which played Progressive Atmospheric Death
LordsЕ / 1992 / 7ФEP & MC / [View Beyond Records]
???? / 1996 / 7'EP / [View Beyond Rec.] (3 live tracks, Russia, Gomel С1995)
Butcher ( Brazil ), 1988-???, R.I.P.
-unholy Death-Thrash in the South-American vein
Demo / 1988 / demo
Butchery ( Brazil ), 1988-???, R.I.P.
Rehersal / 1988 / rehearsal tape [3 songs]
Cerbero ( Argentina ), 1985-???, R.I.P.
-raw Satanic Heavy Metal with groul-death-matalish vocals!!!
-do not confuse with Brazilian heavy metal band from 80Тs with same name
Live at Casal Calvino / 1986 / live tape
Chakal ( Brazil ), 1987-199???,???.
-traditional Brazilian Death-Thrash with morbid sick lyrics
ChildrenТs Sacrifice / 1986 / demo (one track demo)
Living with the Pigs / 1985 / 7ФEP
live in BH / 1986 / live tape
Abominable Anno Domini / 1987 / LP (the best stuff of the band)
The Man of His Own Chakal / 1990 / LP
Deadland / 19?? / CD (not anymore clean death-thrash on this album, now thrashcore with some elements of progressive metal)
Checker Patrol (Nor/Fra/Ger), 1986-???, R.I.P.
-thrashcore with some Celtic Frost influences
-the project of members from Assassin (Ger), Agressor (Fra) and Mayhem (Nor)
-with Mayhem members was recorded only first demo
Demo / 1986 / demo tape
-the info about other demos not available
Cthonium ( Greece ), 198?-???, R.I.P.
-sound like Black Prophecies mix Beherit
-the one bandТs track was available on some compilation in the end of 80Тs
Rehearsal /1992 / reh.tape
The Final Congregation / 1993 / demo
Christblood ( Iceland ), 1989-1990, R.I.P.
-very raw and chaotic Black Metal, like Beherit, Bestial Summoning
Massacre in Heaven / 1990 / demo
Curriculum Mortis ( Peru ), 1988-???, R.I.P.
-Death-Black Metal similar Death Yell with some Heavy Metalish sound, and not so brutal as DY
Sentencia De La Muerte / 1988/ demo
Damnation ( Canada ), 1985-???, R.I.P.
-Brutal Satanic Death-Thrash, sound something between early Possessed 1984-85 mix. Obscurity (Swe) С87
Speed Anarchy / 1986 / demo
Aggressive Repulsive Symphony / 1987 / demo
Dark Feast ( Finland ) (pre Barathrum), 1990-1991, was reformed
-sound like early Beherit, Goatvulva
Hail Satan / 1991 / rehearsal
Rehearsal 13-04-1991 / reh.tape
Darkа Satan (???), 1985-???, R.I.P.
-teutonic Thrash Metal with satanic lyrics
Sodom & Gomorrah /1985 / demo
Deathchamber ( UK ), 1985- 1987, R.I.P.
-Unholy Death Metal, very raw and primitive sound
Legions of Blasphemy / 1986 / demo
Death Attack ( Germany ),а 1985-1986, R.I.P.
-Sound like Hellhammer, but more noisy and raw.
-Recorded just one reh.tape
-After the R.I.P. the band members founded bands Protector, Incest, etc.
Rehearsal / 1986 / reh.tape [3 tracks including Intro]
Death Attack ( France ), 1985-???, R.I.P.
-primitive Black-Grind/Black-Noize, similar Rotten Angel (Bra)
Blood Virgin / 1986 / demo [songs: Massacre, Death Attack, Poisoning Blood, Thrash_ Kill_Death, Fuck Off And Die, Power Of Death, Sacrifice And Terror]
Death Tripper ( USA, Tx), 1985-1987, R.I.P.
-Satanic Thrash Metal with bad drunkard vocals
Live at the Cameo, 09-28-1985 / live tape
Burnt Offering / 1985 / demo
Canis Major / 1986 / demo
Death Yell ( Chile ), 1989-1992, R.I.P.
-brutal and evil Black/Death metal
live Santiago, Chile 12-30-1989 / live tape
live Lautaro, Chile 11-24-1990 / live tape
Vengeance from Darkness / 1989 / demo
Morbid Rites / 1990 / 7ФEP
Split Beherit/Death Yell /??? / 7ФEP
Defunct ( Russia ), 1990-1992, R.I.P.
-Satanic Death Metal
??? / 1991 / MC / [MetalAgen Records]
??? / 1992 / MC / [MetalAgen Records]
Demonos Jetblack ( Finland ), 1991-1992
-some stuff was primitive Black Metal like Bestial Summoning, Goatvulva, some songs was more raw Blackcore sound
-Project of Barathrum member Demonos Sova
Ange De La Mort / 1991 / Demo
-primitive black metal here like BS
Necro Sodomy / 1992 / rehearsal
-more blackcore sound here
Desecration (USA), 1984-1989, R.I.P.
-Unholy Death/Thrash
-Possessed side project, they only released some demos between 1984-89
-Chris Reiffert played gigs with them in their erlay days
Psycho / 1985 / demo #1
The Summoning / 1986 / demo #2
Desexult ( Denmark ), 1986-???, R.I.P.
-Sound like Possessed
Evil Courier / 1986 / demo #1
Detonic ( Hungary ), 1984-1986, R.I.P.
-Black Metal in the vein of old Bathory and Venom
Demo / 1985
Distorted Hell (Ger), 1988-???, R.I.P.
-Black-Noize without vocal and drums
-no more info available
D.E.T.H. ( Brazil ), 1985-???, R.I.P.
-ultra raw and brutal Black-Death Metal with typical South-American sound
Hell / 1986 / demo [1song]
Rehersalа / 1987 / rehearsal tape [songs: D.E.T.H., SatanТs Prince of Death, Death to the False Metal, Hell, Agony, LetТs Rats Die]а
Live at Metal House, Belo Horizonte С1987 / live tape [the tape includes the Possessed cover УSatanТs Curse]
D.T.H. (Chi), 1987-???, R.I.P.
-Brutal Satanic Death-Black Metal, typical South-American sound like Pentagram, Vulcano, Exterminator
Death To Humanity / 1988 / demo #1
Evil (Poland), 1981-1982, R.I.P.
-NWOBHM with satanic lyrics
-ultra raw sound with Blackened vocals
-Was renamed to Evil Army in 1983
Demo / 1982 / demo
Evil Army (Poland), 1982-1983, R.I.P.
-Speed/Thrash Metal with satanic lyrics
-ultra raw sound with Blackened vocals
Demo / 1983 / demo
Evil Blood (Yugoslavia), 1984-1989, R.I.P.
-typical Black Metal of 80th (blackened thrash sound may be)аа
-the band recorded several demos between 1984-1989
Midnight in a Sodom /а??? / demo tape
Evil Christ (???), 1985-1986, R.I.P.
-Ambient Black-Noise of 80th
Demo / 1986 / demo
Evoked Doom ( Germany ),а 1985-1987, R.I.P.
-early rehearsal was Black-Noise like Abruptum mix Hellhammer reh.Т1981
-some tapes was Chaotic Black-Grind like Rotten Angel (Bra), Pseudochrist (pre-Beherit)
-the latter stuff evil and primitive 80th Blackcore/Thrashcore sound mix with horrible horror intros
-the band members УSharonФ and УZombieФ had the own underground Black/Death/Thrash metal Zine called УDeathfuckФ with Archenemy (US/Tx), Acrid, Semen of Satan interviewsа
-one of the unknown forgotten cult
Satan's Empire / 1985 / rehearsal
Satan's Empire / 1986 / 2nd rehearsal
-here was Black-Noise like Abrutum mix. Hellhammer reh.Т1981, no drums here, just morbid screams and noise guitar
Back From The Bad Days / 1986 / demo [the demo includes the Semen of Satan cover УBlack Dark NightФ/ full tracklist: Hell On Earth, We Will Die, Torture, Torture, Torture!!!,???, Anti-America (USA) Song, Fuck Off And Die, Fuck Japan´s Girls, Strange Noise On A Tape,а Black Dark Nigth (Semen of Satan cover), I Like Killing, Scher Is A Fucking Jerk,а We Are Sick Of Dum Fuck´s, Do You Want To Suck My Dick?, 666 Fuck Iron Maiden, Get It Your Dead,?Is?, Au, Da, Da, Da, Hey, Hey, Goodbye ]
-here was sound like Rotten Angel (Bra), Pseudochrist (pre-Beherit)
Studio rehearsal / 1986 / reh.tape ( one УDeathfuckФ track only)
Demo / 1986
-here is evil and primitive Blackcore/Thrashcore with horrible intros from movie Zombie-2
Evoker (Holland), 1987-1989, R.I.P.
-Hellhammer mix Necro Schizma sound, very raw and evil
-The band was reformed, some members founded Asphyx
Insurrection of Doom / 1988/ demo (the demo include Hellhammer аcover)
Exmortes (Holand), 1988-1991, R.I.P.
-first 7ФEP was primitive monotone Black-Death similar VON with distorted groul-vocals
-other stuff after 1990 was Chaotic Black-Noize
Fuckin' Nightmare / 1989 / 7"EP
Hear The Saw... Coming Near / 1990 / 7"EP
Lord of Temptation / 1990 / demo
Total Hate / 1991 / Split demo with Apator (Hol)
Extemporize (???), 198???-???, R.I.P.
-Sick Black-Noise band
-no more info available
Fantom (Hungary), 1986-1989, R.I.P.
-typical Black Metal of 80th, sound similar the Hungarian Tormentor and Bathory С1984
аLucifer jelenj meg! / 1987 / demo
Flames of Hell (Iceland), 1986-1987, R.I.P.
-sound: Hellhammer mix Venom with harsh screaming vocal like Burzum С1991)а
-The band of two brothers
-one member removed to England in 1989???
-they are released only one LP and after this R.I.P.
-And, yes, one on the forgotten cult too!
Fire and Steel / 1987 / LP /[Draconian Records]
Flames ( Greece ), 1985-1994???, alive again in 1998???
-Evil and unholy Thrash Metal
-the one of the most eldest and cult greek band
Made In Hell / 1985 / LP
Merciless Slaughter / 1986 / LP
Live in the Slaughterhouse / 1987 / live LP
Summon The Dead / 1988 / LP
Last Prophecy / 1989 / LP
live tracks / 1993 & 1994 / (not official tape recording, available only through demo tape traders)
In Agony Rise /??? / CD
Freddy Krueger (Gre), 1988-???, R.I.P.
-Blackened Thrashcore like Evoked Doom demoС86
-pre-Morbid Execution (Gre)???
rehearsal / 1988 / reh.tape [2 tracks]
Friends with Satan (???), 1987-???, R.I.P.
-Satanic Thrash Metal
Demo #1 / 1987 /demo
Ghostrider ( Italy ), 1984-1986, renamed to Necrodeath in 1988
-Killer Raw Thrash Metal with unholy satanic lyrics
The Exorcist / 1984 / demo
Mayhemic Destruction / 1986 / demo
Grave Robber ( Norway ), 198???-???, R.I.P.
-raw Black Metal???
-no more info available
Greffwe ( Sweden ), 1986-1989, R.I.P
-typical Black Metal of 80Тs, Black-Thrash sound
-P.S. I thing this band is never exist!!! // I see the info on Уmetal-arcivesФ and here the joke bandТs member photo and covers making in Photoshop 5.0. ver.., hahaha!!!, if this band is really never exist let me know, I shall delete it from my list.
Bloodhunting / 1986 / demo
The Burning Of Priests / 1989 / demo
Goatlord ( USA ), 1986-1991, R.I.P.
-slow and chant Black-Death metal, influenced by Hellhammer.
-the second vocalist had the project Doom Snake Cult??? which played Apocalyptic Black-Doom metal similar Goatlord too
Forever Black Dwell In Hell / 1987 / demo #1
Sodomize the Goat / 1988 / demo #2
Rehearsal '17-02-1988 / reh.tape
Unrealesed Album '1989 / unr.stuff
Promo / 1991 / promo tape (two tracks only)
Reflections of the Solstice / 1991 / CD
Goatlord / 1992 / CDа (album 1991with other artwork and bonus track)
The Underground Church /??? / bootleg???
Gomorha ( Holland ), 1988-1990, R.I.P.
-Mortuary Black-Doom of 80th
Gomorha Hordes / 1989 / demo #1
Grave Hill ( Switzerland ) (Pre Hellhammer), 1980-1981, R.I.P.
-NWOBHM sound, but very raw and with satanic lyrics
??? / 1980 / reh.demo
Guardian (Poland), 1986-1989, R.I.P.
-boring raw Black-Death, similar Imperator (Pol) but not so power-full and brutal
Demo / 1988
Resurrection and Beastliness of Mental / 1989 / demo
Guerrilha ( Brazil ), 1987-???, R.I.P.
-sound in the vein of Vulcano, Mutilator
-they are played the joint live shows with Vulcano, Mutilator in 80th
-no more info available
Hammerhead ( Switzerland ) (pre Hellhammer, ex. Grave Hill), 1980-???, reformed???
-I only know what the band recorded the some rehearsal tapes and after this R.I.P. and reformed to Hellhammer
-One metal maniac told to me what the recordings from this period not saved and available somewhere
Hell (Ger), 1985-1990, R.I.P.
-Sound like Bathory С1985
-Destruction members,а Schmier on vocals
Demo / 1984 / demo
Satanic Death / 1985 / demo
The Fall of god / 1990 / demo
Hell ( UK ), 1982-1984???, R.I.P.
-musically NWOBHM with Satanic/Occult lyrics
-The vocalist of band Dave Halliday commited suicide
Hell / 1982 / demo
Save us from thoseЕ / 1983 / EP
Demo / 1986 / demo (A rerecording of "Plague and Fire" from their 1982 demo + 2 new songs. Improved sound quality and the vocals seem more matured)
Hell ( UK, 2rd band), 1984-1985, R.I.P.
-80Тs Black-Noise band, very primitive and ultra raw sound
-do not confuse with NWOBHM Hell from UK too
-one tape trader told to me what he got this demos from one tape-trader from UK in 1986, itТs was his own band and officially never exist and distributed // the demo tape Necrophagy С1985 has only 3 tape traders on earth. Other recording had only one tape trader, and he stop the all trades now.
Dismember the Rotting Corpse / 1984 / demo
Necrophagy / 1985 / demo
Die a Painful Death / 1985 / demo
Resurrection of Evil / 1985 / demo
Kill Everything / 1985 / demo
Violent Black Master / 1985 / demo
Battalions of Frenzy / 1985 / demo
Horrible Noise / 1985 / demo
Hellfire (France), 1984-1986, R.I.P.
-sound like Hellhammer, very raw, hellish and evil
-do not confuse with pre Merciless band from Sweden, and with some modern black and heavy bands.
Demo / 1984 / demo
Rehearsal / 1985 / reh.tape
Rehearsal / 25/01/1986 / reh.tape
Hellfire ( Sweden ) (pre-Merciless), 1986-1987, renamed to Merciless in 1987
-typical Black-Death Metal of 80th
-sound like Merciless, but a more raw
-do not confuse with other 80th Hellfire from France and with some modern bands with same name
Rehearsal 11-07-1986 / reh. tape
Demo 08-1986 / demo tape
Hellsaw ( Belgium ), 1986-1987, R.I.P.
- Morbid, chaotic, raw Black-Noise/Black-Grind
-some recordings have sound like Necro Schizma (reh.tapes), but very primitive and raw, just very distorted slow guitar and tormenting screams here, no drums
-some recordings have sound like Pseudochrist (pre-Beherit) -very primitive and raw Black-Grind
-some band members was in MSD band, also Black-Noize
-last recordings was guitar-noize sound, without vocals and drums
Demo #1 / 1986 / demo
Aggressive... / 1986 / demo #2 (jul.86) [here was sound like Necro Shizma, but more primitive raw and sick without drums]
radioshow radio 2440 / 1986 / promo??? ( Geel 11aug.С86)
rehearsal / 1986 / reh.tape (aug.86)
live In The LivingЕ / 1986 / live tape (13sep.С86)
Exorcism Shall Fail / 1986 /а demo #3 [like Pseudochrist (pre-Beherit) - very primitive and raw Black-Grind]
Macabre Butcherism / 1987 / demo #4 (26mar.Т87) (the pure noise on this tape, no vocals, no guitar riffs, no drums)
rehearsal / 1987 / reh.tape (30mar.Т87)
Screamtime For... / 1987 / demo #5 (19apr.Т87) [guitar-noize sound, without vocals and drums]
Hellish Torment (USA), 1984-1986, R.I.P.
-Actually, first band who played chaotic primitive Black Metal, sound like Beherit mix. Goatvulva with harsh distorted vocal and primitive drum machine
-the band renamed to Hellhouse in 1990???
Kill Your Mother / 1986 / demo (short demo, 2 songs only, but very dark and evil)
Helhammer (Ger), 1983-1984, (pre-Evoked Doom), renamed to Evoked Doom in 1984
-Sick Black-Noize
-the band name writes as Helhammer with one УLФ latter
demo/reh.tape / 1983-1984
Hellhouse ( USA ), 1990-???, R.I.P.
-ex. Hellish Torment, with same sound, similar Goatvulva
Alive After Death 1986 / demo (springТ86)
Demo / 1990 / demo (re-recorded demoТ86???)
Hellpreacher (USA / Tx.), 1985-1987, R.I.P.
-Satanic Thrash Metal, sound like Sodom С1983-85.
-Necrovore drummer here
live '11-01-1985 / live tape
live in San Antonio С18-07-1986 / live tape
Bloodbath / 1986 / reh.track
Resurrection / 1987 / demo
Holy Death (Ger), 1988-???, R.I.P.
-Black-Noise band without drums with Possessed like voice.
Demo / 1988 / demo
Holocausto ( Brazil ), 1985-1989, R.I.P???.
-early stuff was Brutal Death-Black 80th with traditional brazilian sound, a later Цthe more Trashcore sound, and from |
included the ones that were coached by Scott Arniel and Claude Noel, coaches who spent time with the Manitoba Moose when they were the Canuck affiliates.
I met up with Alain Vigneault at the NHL draft in June to disuss the phenomena:
CC: When you get a guy into your line up like Manny Malhotra, do you know from the pro scouting staff that he’s a guy that can start, say, 90% of his shifts in the defensive zone? AV: Well, the guys that are pro obviously I know a little bit more and I feel certain guys are better suited for different situations. I like my offensive players to, if I can, start them in the offensive zone and my more defence-oriented guys I’d start in the defensive zone. I just feel it gives us a better chance in such a competitive league. CC: Is that your own individual belief? Because in the organization, it seemed that Scott Arniel and Claude Noel were doing the same things when they got their NHL jobs. AV: I think each guy has his own mindset and really, what his team can do the best. And then you just got to put the players in situations where they can succeed if that’s the case guys have confidence and they go out and they do their jobs.
I don’t take Vigneault at face-value when he said that this was his idea. Mike Gillis is a Moneyball disciple, and one of the things I found interesting in that book was general manager Billy Beane’s effort to subvert manager Art Howe. Beane was so determined to get the under-valued players he signed in the summer in the lineup that he even traded one of the players Howe was starting ahead of them in the lineup. When Howe negotiated a contract extension after taking an un-talented team to the playoffs in 2002, Beane released him. I think Gillis works in that mindset.
Randy Carlyle though, is a bit different. He’s had a bit of a tendency to zone-match in his past, dabbling in it although not to the extent he is this season. He was the man who wanted to re-vamp the dressing room, and was a driving force in the Leafs signing Jay McClement in the summer.
The problem that Carlyle has run into is that there are so many centremen on the team, even after cutting Tim Connolly and trading Matthew Lombardi, that Steckel, who saw a lot of first line minutes last season, became a healthy scratch most nights. That’s interesting since last season, Steckel was the player who took the most face-offs in the defensive zone relative to the offensive zone: he took 342 defensive zone face-offs to 210 in the offensive end, a sizeable difference.
Tyler Bozak, meanwhile, got 331 offensive zone starts and Mikhail Grabovski got 279. Those offensive opportunities helped those two centre the top two offensive lines, although the Leafs play so much in their defensive end that as a team, they generated a lot more defensive zone starts. Nonetheless, Bozak and Grabovski were each able to start 30 more times in the offensive zone than the defensive, thanks to the work done by Steckel, and to a lesser degree Tim Connolly, proud owner of 274 defensive zone face-offs.
This chart shows my way of calculating “zone matching”. It’s the difference in offensive and defensive zone starts by the top defensive centre subtracted by the difference in offensive and defensive zone starts by the top offensive centreman on each team. I’ve compared the Leafs each year to the Canucks since 2010, to show the Canucks’ meteoric rise in ‘zone matching’ and to show that the Leafs are catching up to the Canucks in strategy:
The 2013 numbers are based on an 82-game schedule since the starts are considered cumulative.
In 2011 and 2012 for the Canucks, the top defensive centreman was Malhotra and offensively, it was Sedin. The Leafs have been all over the map this way.
If the season were to go 82 games at the rate each Leafs centreman is starting in the offensive and defensive zone, this is what it would look like:
Offensive Defensive Difference Nazem Kadri 353 299 54 Tyler Bozak 369 402 -33 Jay McClement 297 467 -170 Mikhail Grabovski 254 549 -295
Something’s not right here.
How come Mikhail Grabovski, who has led Leafs centremen in even-strength scoring for the last two seasons the primary defensive option?
I’ve talked about the defensive unit of Grabovski with Nik Kulemin and Jay McClement on his wings soaking up tough competition. Obviously, it has restricted the offensive output of that line, Grabovski’s current hot-streak aside. Bozak plays 20:43 a night and has a 56.4% face-off rate. Grabovski plays 16:51 a night and has a 51.0% face-off rate.
Would it not make more sense to simply flip the roles of those players, play Bozak on the line with McClement and Kulemin as a tight checking line that plays lighter shifts? I think Grabovski, who is a better shooter, skater and passer than Bozak, would be much better off playing alongside Phil Kessel and James van Riemsdyk, or you could move Nazem Kadri up to the that line and give Grabovski second-line minutes with Clarke MacArthur.
It’s lineup optimization, and while there’s a tendency to ignore the Leafs’ struggles because they’re 12-8 this season, that’s mostly because of their goaltending. The team is third worst in the NHL in overall puck possession as measured by Fenwick Tied, a statistic that is better at predicting final standings than record is after 20 games.
There are improved components of the Leafs forward lines, and even with the fourth line that sees five minutes a night and only rare, rare shifts in the third periods, there are three good forward lines. Carlyle is using a better offensive player in Grabovski to shelter a worse offensive player in Tyler Bozak, despite Bozak’s face-off abilities, arguably his strongest asset, mirroring those of Manny Malhotra who was so instrumental in helping the Sedins producing into their 30s.
Bozak has impressed me with his defensive ability this season, but Grabovski is the better offensive player and ought to be playing as such. The words “lineup optimization” are more often thrown around by the marketing guru that runs our sister site Canucks Army, but they’re easily-transferable concepts that could be applied to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Let Grabovski play offense, let Bozak play defence, and the Leafs will improve as an overall unit.Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill and Jesse Eisenberg finally got some recognition for their work in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, but maybe not the kind they were looking for.
All three actors took home Razzie Awards for their performances in last year’s DC blockbuster, with Eiesenberg crowned the Worst Supporting Actor of the year for his portrayal of Lex Luthor. Affleck and Cavill beat out stiff competition to take home the award for Worst Screen Combo, and the movie itself took home two awards for Worst Screenplay and Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-Off or Sequel.
Batman v Superman did not, however, take home the top prize for Worst Picture, losing out to Hillary's America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party.
The Razzie Awards — otherwise known as the Golden Raspberry Awards — began in 1981 with the intention to celebrate the worst films of the year. The awards are announced every year on the eve of the Oscars, film’s biggest award show night.
Neither Affleck, Cavill or Eisenberg have said anything about their awards, but the teasing surrounding Batman v Superman since before the film was even released has been widely reported on. Affleck reportedly told people he felt humiliated by the reception the film got. Since the release of Batman v Superman, Affleck has dropped out of writing and directing his own stand-alone Batman movie for Warner Bros.
The full list of Razzie recipients can be seen below.
Worst Picture:
WINNER: Hillary's America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party
Nominees:
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
Dirty Grandpa
Gods of Egypt
Independence Day: Resurgence
Zoolander No. 2
Worst Actor:
WINNER: Dinesh D'Souza [as Himself] Hillary's America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party
Nominees:
Ben Affleck / Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
Gerard Butler / Gods of Egypt & London Has Fallen
Henry Cavill / Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
Robert De Niro / Dirty Grandpa
Ben Stiller / Zoolander 2
Worst Actress:
WINNER: Becky Turner [as Hillary Clinton] Hillary's America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party
Nominees:
Megan Fox / Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows
Tyler Perry / Boo! A Madea Halloween
Julia Roberts / Mother's Day
Naomi Watts / Divergent Series: Allegiant & Shut-In
Shailene Woodley / Divergent Series: Allegiant
Worst Supporting Actress:
WINNER: Kristen Wiig / Zoolander 2
Nominees:
Julianne Hough / Dirty Grandpa
Kate Hudson / Mother's Day
Aubrey Plaza / Dirty Grandpa
Jane Seymour / Fifty Shades of Black
Sela Ward / Independence Day: Resurgence
Worst Supporting Actor:
WINNER: Jesse Eisenberg / Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
Nominees:
Nicolas Cage / Snowden
Johnny Depp / Alice Through the Looking Glass
Will Ferrell / Zoolander 2
Jared Leto / Suicide Squad
Owen Wilson / Zoolander 2
Worst Screen Combo
WINNER: Ben Affleck & His BFF (Baddest Foe Forever) Henry Cavill / Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
Nominees:
Any 2 Egyptian Gods or Mortals / Gods of Egypt
Johnny Depp & His Vomitously Vibrant Costume / Alice Through the Looking Glass
The Entire Cast of Once Respected Actors / Collateral Beauty
Tyler Perry & That Same Old Worn Out Wig / Boo! A Madea Halloween
Ben Stiller and His BFF (Barely Funny Friend) Owen Wilson / Zoolander 2
Worst Director
WINNER: Dinesh D'Souza and Bruce Schooley / Hillary's America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party
Nominees:
Roland Emmerich / Independence Day: Resurgence
Tyler Perry / Boo! A Madea Halloween
Alex Proyas / Gods of Egypt
Zack Snyder / Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
Ben Stiller / Zoolander 2
Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-Off or Sequel
WINNER: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice: Dawn of Justice
Nominees:
Alice Through the Looking Glass
Fifty Shades of Black
Independence Day: Resurgence
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows
Zoolander 2
Worst Screenplay
WINNER: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
Nominees:
Dirty Grandpa
Gods of Egypt
Hillary's America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party
Independence Day: Resurgence
Suicide Squad
Barry L. Bumstead Award (for the movie that lost a lot and cost a lot)
Misconduct (cost $11 million and made $15,150)
Razzie Redeemer AwardThe following is a script from “Ask Ohio” which aired on Oct. 23, 2016. Scott Pelley is the correspondent. Henry Schuster, producer.
In these final two weeks, Hillary Clinton is leading in most of the states that will decide the presidential election but in the one state that nearly always gets it right she is in a dead-heat with Donald Trump. We decided to ask Ohio what it thought because Ohio has picked the winner in every election since 1964. And no Republican has ever won without Ohio. All of the issues converge on the Buckeye State, especially foreign trade which is undermining industry. Among the steel mills, suburbs and inner city of Cleveland, we found a political identity crisis as the state that nearly always predicts the president becomes unpredictable.
2016 candidates: "Out of touch" vs. "far detached"
A job at the mill was a birthright, in Lorain, Ohio, for 121 years. In 1895, the spark of the American century ignited the blast furnace. And the plant, two miles long, forged the rails, the drilling pipe, the weapons and the wonders of the 20th century.
Carlos Hernandez: Oh, my it was wonderful, we were making steel. We were making money.
Making steel was all Carlos Hernandez knew for 28 years. But seven months ago he, and 542 others, punched the clock for the last time as cheap Chinese steel helped silence the furnace in a new century that he fears may not be America’s.
Carlos Hernandez: It was just a funeral procession coming out to the gate knowing that you’re never was coming back. You know, we sacrificed time with our families to try to make this company succeed, you know. And, this is what it’s come to. Just a ghost town. Just a rusted, empty, meaningless place right now
The “meaning” of this election is chewed over at George’s family restaurant where the roof, there, beyond the sign, hyphenates the name of the place into “U-Rant” and do they ever.
Carlos and Aury Hernandez CBS News
Aury Hernandez: Trump…I don’t trust him. You imagine if he’s the president of the United States? What he’s gonna do behind closed doors with women, with his secretaries, or his, you know?
Carlos Hernandez: You mean like Bill Clinton did?
Aury Hernandez: It’s done and over with. Why you keep bringing it up?
Carlos, for Trump, and Aury, for Clinton, have been married 36 years. They’re hoping for 37.
Scott Pelley: I’m sorry I wasn’t there when you two sat down together to watch the first debate.
Carlos Hernandez: Oh, we couldn’t sat together.
Aury Hernandez: No he sits in his bedroom--I sit in front of the TV.
Carlos Hernandez: And then we come back and forth and argue-- argue.
Aury Hernandez: I go over there--
Scott Pelley: You couldn’t watch the debate together?
Aury Hernandez: No.
Carlos Hernandez: No.
Aury Hernandez: No.
Two candidates, three decades on 60 Minutes
Carlos and Aury are raising two grandchildren. He’s on unemployment but they’re going broke slowly on her fast food salary.
Carlos: It just shows how we’re losing our jobs. How are things are moving away. You know, everybody’s saying about how illegal aliens are coming in and-- and-- and taking our jobs and stuff like that. Well, the jobs are moving. They don’t need to come here anymore; jobs are going to them.
Scott Pelley: And so when you hear Donald Trump saying the same thing about jobs, what do you think?
Carlos Hernandez:That’s what resonates with me, what he has to say.
But it doesn’t with Aury.
Aury Hernandez: Uh-uh. No.
Scott Pelley: Why not?
Aury Hernandez: I don’t trust him.
Scott Pelley: He’s talking about bringing the steel industry back, bringing the coal industry back.
Aury Hernandez: Hillary can do that. We can do that.
Scott Pelley: Stop those jobs from going to Mexico.
Aury Hernandez: That’s what he says. I just don’t trust him; I don’t like him. And I don’t believe in him at all.
Scott Pelley: When you hear Donald Trump say those things that he said on that videotape about women, how do you get past that? How can you get past that?
Carlos Hernandez: It’s awful what he said, but I come from a steel industry. We all say things that we wouldn’t be proud of saying in front of other people but he didn’t say it to a-- he-- he was talking with another guy. It was words, it wasn’t action.
Scott Pelley: Aury, do you feel the same way?
Aury Hernandez: No, I do not. Trump is a liar, number one. Number two, he’s constantly on Hillary about Bill Clinton. And Bill Clinton is not running for president. Another thing that we’re past and we should just forget about it is the whole email thing. It’s done and over. She apologized, it’s done. Just move on.
Carlos Hernandez: Yeah, but that …
Aury Hernandez: I let you talk.
Scott Pelley: But the text of the speeches that she gave to Wall Street high rollers. And she said, “Well, you know, in this world you have to have a public position and you have to have a private position.” That feeds in to that sense that many people have that she’s not trustworthy.
Aury Hernandez: I believe in her, I do. Compared to him, that he’s so-- such a pig, ‘cause to me he’s a pig.
This is Ohio in a Buckeye shell, the most even split in any state – people divided in their marriages and even within themselves.
Scott Pelley: You are as Republican as they come.
Cyndra Cole: I am.
Scott Pelley: Social conservative. Very religious. You are not with Donald Trump.
Cyndra Cole: I am not.
There’s none of the rust in white clapboard Portage County.
Cyndra Cole CBS News
Cyndra Cole, mother of four with one on the way, has managed Republican campaigns.
Scott Pelley: You’re sitting in this interview rooting for your party’s nominee to lose.
Cyndra Cole: Is that bad? Is it’s bad, right?
Scott Pelley: You tell me.
Cyndra Cole: Yeah.
Even the lawn is divided where her neighbors have made their stand.
Cyndra Cole: The very first time that I very sincerely said, “I will not vote for that man,” was when he mocked the reporter with special needs.
“I think that the Republican Party can survive a Donald Trump candidacy. I have a really hard time believing that the Republican Party can withstand a Donald Trump presidency.” Cyndra Cole
Cyndra Cole: I had a really hard time with that, because as the mother of a child with special needs I know how hard we work every day for her to do things that others take for granted. And for somebody to trample on that I just think that’s inexcusable.
Scott Pelley: And it says what about character?
Cyndra Cole: A lot.
Scott Pelley: In your view, is Donald Trump doing lasting damage to the Republican Party?
Cyndra Cole: I think that the Republican Party can survive a Donald Trump candidacy. I have a really hard time believing that the Republican Party can withstand a Donald Trump presidency.
Scott Pelley: You might vote for Hillary Clinton.
Cyndra Cole: I may
Scott Pelley: Are you voting for Hillary Clinton or against Donald Trump?
Cyndra Cole: You see, that’s where I have a really big problem with this election. I don’t want to be voting against somebody I want to vote for somebody. I want them to tell me; I want Hillary Clinton to tell me what she’s going to do for my daughters. Not just because she’s the first female president of the United States, but because she cares about women in a way that men can’t understand.
Scott Pelley: But you’re listening.
Cyndra Cole: I’m listening. I’m trying. I’m really trying.
Scott Pelley: You’re trying to get to the place where you can vote for the Democratic candidate?
Cyndra Cole: Yes.
Scott Pelley: And you can’t believe you’re saying that to me.
Cyndra Cole: I cannot believe that I’m saying that.
At Parkside Church, Cyndra Cole and her family run into Republican orthodoxy. Tommie Jo Marsilio was once a county commissioner.
Tommie Jo Marsilio: I trust Donald Trump. I trust him to protect this nation and keep my family safe. And I trust that he will not engage in behaviors that are concerning to me.
Scott Pelley: You have a daughter who’s 15.
Tommie Jo Marsilio: I do.
“I trust Donald Trump. I trust him to protect this nation and keep my family safe. And I trust that he will not engage in behaviors that are concerning to me.” Tommie Jo Marsilio
Scott Pelley: What do you tell her when she hears these things that Donald Trump has said about women?
Tommie Jo Marsilio: Actually, before I had an opportunity to tell her anything, she gave me her opinion which I thought was astute. And she said, “You know, sometimes guys say things that are stupid. And I think that’s an example.” She says, “Mom, don’t you think everybody makes mistakes?” And I said, “Yes. I do.”
Scott Pelley: Why is Hilary Clinton not a more attractive candidate to you?
Tommie Jo Marsilio: I don’t trust her.
Scott Pelley: What has she done that leads you to find her untrustworthy?
Tommie Jo Marsilio CBS News
Tommie Jo Marsilio: I think the better question is what has she done to make me trust her? And the answer’s probably nothing. The emails are a problem. And I hate to be so bold about it. But it seems like there’s one cover-up after another. Certainly Benghazi was mishandled so, mishandling a situation to start with is bad enough but when you have a sustained pattern of behavior over a period of years, I just don’t trust anything she says. I don’t believe she’ll keep my family safe.
[Voice: Let us go to the house of the Lord, I will bless the Lord.]
For Clinton to have more than a prayer in Ohio, she needs enthusiasm among African Americans.
Scott Pelley: And you think African Americans in Ohio are gonna go to the polls in the numbers they did for President Obama?
Jawanza Colvin: That’s our job is to make sure that they do.
Pastor Jawanza Colvin spreads the gospel of the ballot around his Olivet Institutional Baptist Church. Hillary Clinton spoke here. Donald Trump was not invited.
Scott Pelley: But isn’t this exactly what Donald Trump is arguing, that the Democrats have let your community down, so why not make a change, take a chance?
Jawanza Colvin: Well, I think the question is, what’s the alternative? I have not heard anything from Mr. Trump, and have not heard anything in terms of his rhetoric that offers anything of promise. Just even the language that he used, “The African Americans,” just the language itself, to me evokes a notion of distance, and disconnect.
Colvin worked the neighborhoods to get out the vote. Lisa Tolbert said, “Count on me.”
Scott Pelley: Do you feel a difference in your enthusiasm in this election as opposed to the last one and the one before that, when Barack Obama was running?
Lisa Tolbert CBS News
Lisa Tolbert: That was a historic election. That was, you know, you finally had a good candidate. And he happened to be black. So that gave it an extra excitement. This is a necessity.
Scott Pelley: There was nobody who was gonna keep you outta the polls--
Lisa Tolbert: Right. This is a necessity.
Scott Pelley: Are you enthusiastic about Hillary Clinton? Or are you just voting against Donald Trump?
Lisa Tolbert: I don’t know if I’m very enthusiastic about her. I do think she’s qualified. Looking at her resume, she is qualified.
Scott Pelley: But you’d really like to have another option.
“I don’t know if I’m very enthusiastic about [Clinton]. I do think she’s qualified. Looking at her resume, she is qualified.” Lisa Tolbert
Lisa Tolbert: If there was another option. And I believe she could do the job.
Scott Pelley: When African Americans vote in large numbers in Ohio, Ohio votes Democratic. And when they don’t come to the polls, Ohio votes Republican. What’s gonna happen?
Lisa Tolbert: I’m gonna pray that they come to the polls. I’m gonna--
Scott Pelley: But you’re not feeling that groundswell.
Lisa Tolbert: I’m not hearing it.
Greg Sedar: I think it’s kind of voting this time we’re gonna have to pick one or the other and it’s kind of like picking a seat on the Titanic. I’d rather have other choices.
These men and Lisa Tolbert should have Hillary Clinton in common. This is the United Steel Workers Local 1104 and the only picture of a president on the wall is FDR. At the door, the leadership backs Clinton. But a sign doesn’t paper over jobs lost to trade and the outrage of laid-off men.
Scott Pelley: So show of hands, how many Trump voters do we have? OK. There are three. And Hillary Clinton voters?
Tom Morris: I’m undecided. I’m not sure which one I want to vote for yet.
Carlos Hernandez joined Greg Sedar, Wayne Townsend, Tom Morris and Craig Cooper.
Scott Pelley: Craig, what did you want to hear in the debates?
Craig Cooper: Just basically that-- you know, that-- that they’re starting to watch out for us as Americans. It just seems like they’re so involved with themselves that we as a people don’t matter anymore. We’re just, you know, we’re here as pawns and they want our votes and after they get our votes they’re like, “OK, thank you. See you later. Bye.”
These men are in a college program to retrain workers who lose their jobs due to trade deals. Greg Sedar looked a little lost—like a farmer in the dells.
Back row, from left: Carlos Hernandez and Greg Sedar. Front row, from left: Tom Morris, Wayne Townsend and Craig Cooper CBS News
Greg Sedar: It goes back to the days when Democrats were always for unions and Republicans were against. We’re-- we’re-- need jobs and we’re-- we’re desperate enough we’ll take ‘em whoever is gonna give ‘em.
Wayne Townsend: The idea of getting a good job like we have at a young age and working it for 30 years and getting the American dream of having a house, a car and a child and a family and retiring at a decent age before you’re too old and too crippled to enjoy it, is gone because of trade deals.
Craig Cooper: I’ve said for the last couple months there’s billions of people in the United States and these are the two best people that we can get to lead us? I just find that hard to believe. I really do.
[At the Yum Yum Shop: That one is peanut butter Oreo. What kind do you want buddy?]
Ohio nearly always picks the president because it’s a mix of American ingredients, part North, part South, part farm, part factory. But for those shopping this time, 2016 is like making a choice when they’re fresh out of your favorites.
Scott Pelley: I wonder, on November the 8th is there any chance you’re just gonna say to yourself, “You know what? I’m gonna sit this one out.”
Cyndra Cole: No. I have to at least go to the polls to vote for Rob Portman.
Scott Pelley: The senator of Ohio, the Republican senator of Ohio.
Cyndra Cole: Yes, yeah.
Scott Pelley: You’re interested in the down ballot races.
Cyndra Cole: I’m very interested in the down ballot races. And I think that’s one of the ways that we as Republicans can overcome a Hillary Clinton presidency.
Scott Pelley: So there’s an even chance at least that you’re going to vote for Hillary Clinton and then vote for Rob Portman in hopes that he can stop her policies?
Cyndra Cole: Yes.
Scott Pelley: And that is politics in 2016.
Cyndra Cole: It is. Yes.Big changes are coming soon to Second Life's much-debated, much-derided user interface, according to Linden Lab CEO Rod Humble, who recently stopped by the popular Second Life user forum SL Universe to mention this. The changes will merge the current Basic and Advance modes, something that's already been announced, but that's just the start. Specifically:
For the UI changes. First you will see a merge of the modes. (Basically click to move + new camera coming into Advanced which you can turn to [the] old way if you like.) That should be end of this month [October]. Next, a large GUI change for all our users. Yup, we are taking another crack at UI design again... (Moria drums)
Yes, Rod Humble mentioned Moria drums, because that's how he rolls. Maybe he believes a lot of these changes will be greeted by a dramatic rumbling from the hardcore user base. And I love how he concludes:
So in fairly short order you will be enjoying a new Linden Lab UI AND new features to help things run amok in-world. Good or bad it will be glorious!
Emphasis mine. My guess (and hope) is that Second Life's viewer will look much more like The Sims 3, the hit Electronic Arts PC game which Humble lead developed, before coming to Linden Lab. (The Basic version of the viewer already looks decidedly more Sims-like.) Whatever the big changes, here's to glorious ones that aren't just incremental.Well, we’ve solved our latest credit card validation problem and it seems like a good time to give a quick recap of the lessons we’ve learned during this whole sordid process. Things that nobody bothers to tell you, not even the people you’re paying to do just that. This is 2008, but credit card processing is a technological throwback to the Dark Ages.
Things nobody bothers to tell you, version 1:
The web sites for credit card processors & merchant account services are completely useless. Do not try to use them, not even the big fish that everybody respects (e.g. Authorize.net). You will only waste your time. Instead, call their tech support. We’ve found their human support to be unfailingly friendly and helpful, at least when it comes to answering direct questions rather than making suggestions (hence the Stuff Nobody Tells You). The hold music’s so beyond awful it enters into laughable, though. If you want to process AmEx, you have to call them directly, set up an account with them, and then talk to your merchant account service. Just because your CC processor’s interface shows you that AmEx is active, and your merchant account people tell you that everything is systems go, doesn’t mean there aren’t hidden things you have to do to, you know, actually process cards. Or that the errors will be helpful. Address verification (AVS) is voodoo. Not real science. AVS is inclined to reject real, valid cards all the time, even when you don’t count “user errors” (e.g. your bill says Apt 4 and you put #4). D’oh. Test charges are pretty much unavoidable. So, since AVS essentially doesn’t work, the way to verify a card is to make a tiny charge on it and then void the transaction. It’s not a charge you’ll ever collect on, but it’s not exactly a hold either. To us, it’s a bit squicky to think that this is the only way to verify a credit card number in this, the 21st century. Some banks will reject small test charges. About 10% of cards used to sign up were declined. Thanks to Stuff item #6, we couldn’t tell why from the error reports. Nobody could tell us why, either. We called Auth.net and they had no suggestions. We only found out as fast as we did because one would-be customer, our friend (& tasty designer) Johnny Bilotta, called his own bank to ask if there was a problem. Trying to be considerate internet citizens, we had set our test charge to $.01. His bank told him they reject small test charges under $1.00, but our credit card processor never thought about it. Even though it’s their business. Useless buggers. Errors are incomprehensible and your credit card processor is useless at helping you solve validation issues. The error you’ll get in most cases is General error. In other cases, you may get Declined, but there’s no way to tell why. Calling your CC processor won’t help you, either, because in many cases, they can’t get more information than you’ve already got. In other cases the phone reps just aren’t trained in spotting what must be common problems (e.g. the low test charge). When you ask why stuff doesn’t work, even due to Stuff Nobody Told You, they think you’re kinda dumb. Despite the support being, as we said, unfailingly friendly, there are always these awkward pauses when we’ve asked about Stuff Nobody Told Us. For example, when we called and said “So our account says we can accept AmEx but they’re all being rejected. Can you help us?” The nice lady asked, “Well, are you set up for AmEx with your merchant services provide?” and I said “No, what do you mean?” Awkward pause ensues. The lady assumes she is speaking with a polite nitwit and then the rest of the conversation takes twice as long as it would have if she hadn’t thought I had a room temperature IQ. Which is too bad, because there’s no documentation or on-ramping process that tells you this, and nobody thought to mention it, either, when I asked if I made the calls to both Auth.net & the merch acct people to ask “Hey, we’re going to live. Do we have everything in place?” last week.
That’s all for now, but I’m sure there will be more.Share Share Shares 0
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People won’t shut the fuck up about Tom Brady not going to the White House. And it’s bringing together the two worst type of people – race baiters and Patriots haters.
Seriously, what can’t people understand about this? Tom Brady didn’t go to the White House because it was beneath him. Anyone who thinks Tom Brady and Obama are on the same level is delusional. Any idiot can do what Obama does. He has a team full of advisors and secretaries he delegates responsibility to. He doesn’t write his own speeches. He doesn’t make a decision without conferring with a million people first.
But Brady? No one can do what Tom Brady does. He is a God amongst men. When Brady unleashes a strike to an undersized receiver to an undersized receiver, we get a new set of downs. When Obama unleashes a drone strike to an undersized terrorist, a bunch of civilians die. With Brady there is no collateral damage. Oh yea, and Brady has to make his decision in a matter of seconds while being chased by 300 pound steroid freaks. Obama confers with a room full of experts who tell him what to do.
Obama and Brady aren’t even in the same universe. Brady could do what Obama or any other President does with his eyes closed. Obama wouldn’t last five seconds doing what Brady does.
There’s no reason for Brady to go to the White House. If anything Obama should’ve made an appointment to see him, or at least checked with Brady first to make sure the White House trip would fit into his schedule. Do you think if Brady invited Obama to Carnival he’d take him up on that? Nope. So why should Brady drop everything he’s doing to visit Obama? Anyone who thinks the President of the United States is more important than Tom Brady is an idiot.
Up until now it was the butthurt Patriot haters whining about “disrespecting the office.” Typical. They hate us because they ain’t us. I expected nothing less.
But now the race baiters are jumping in. Enter Stephen A. Smith. Here’s what he had to say:
“Why do I feel like if George W. Bush or Bill Clinton or somebody was president, why do I feel like Tom Brady would have been there then? Is it just me? Is it just me? I haven’t heard anybody but me mention it either. I haven’t heard anybody but yours truly mention this.”
Hey Stephen A – you haven’t heard anyone mention it yet because it’s an embarrassingly dumb thing to say. And make no doubt about it, he was making a reference to race here. Because he specifically said that Brady would’ve gone if it were Bush or Clinton in office – members of different political parties. So Stephen A doesn’t think Brady did it for political reasons, he thinks he did it because he’s racist. It’s probably the same reason TB12 throws to Julian Edelman more than Aaron Dobson.
It’s just so perfect because it’s Stephen A. Smith saying it too. This is a guy who doesn’t mind creating racism where it doesn’t exist, but has no problem stroking the ego of the biggest asshole in the HISTORY of sports – Floyd Mayweather.
Mayweather is the biggest piece of human garbage on the planet and it’s not even close. He did 90 days in jail a couple years back for an incident involving an ex-girlfriend named Shantel Jackson, who was living in a home owned by Mayweather with her two children. She was dating NBA guard C. J. Watson. Here’s what happened when Floyd found out:
Mayweather returned around 5 a.m., accompanied by another man, both of who were let in by one of Mayweather and Harris’s children. Harris was asleep on her living room couch when she was jarred awake by the sound of Mayweather screaming at her about texts he had found from Watson on her cell phone.
When Harris admitted that she was seeing Watson, Mayweather exploded. He punched her repeatedly in the rear of her head, pulled her off the couch by her hair, and twisted her arm. He screamed that he would “kill” Harris and Watson, that he would make both “disappear.” Harris screamed for her children Koraun and Zion, aged 10 and 9, to call the police. Mayweather turned to the kids, according to the police report, and yelled that he would “beat their asses if they left the house or called the police.”
Koraun tried to run up the stairs, but Mayweather’s associate blocked his path |
tsofinstagram A photo posted by Nutmeg (@nut_the_mutt) on Jul 18, 2016 at 8:42am PDT
12. This Doodle and Husky pair are enjoying Corona Heights Park together
13. An Afghan Hound making a new friend at the Upper Douglass Dog Park
Found a new park that's not scary and there's all kinds of new friends, like Nico the #afganhound! A photo posted by Charlie Mieuli (@shycharliedog) on Jul 16, 2016 at 9:06am PDT
14. This Schnauzer at Precita Park just wants to say hello
15. This good-looking pack at Crissy Field is giving #squadgoals
16. Is this Brussels Griffon at Fort Funston responsible for the background graffiti?
17. This pup at Crissy Field is ready for his close-up
Happy #Sunday furpals! #goldengatebridge #morningfog #summerfun #beachday A photo posted by Oscar the Westie mix (@oscarelli_oscaroo) on Jul 24, 2016 at 6:38am PDT
18. These Pit bull besties are having a blast at the Mission Bay Dog Park
A photo posted by Frances (@dogswag) on Jul 15, 2015 at 7:53pm PDT
19. Winston the Goldendoodle has made a new friend (no one tell Winston that it’s a tree)
Went on a hike and made a new friend! #goldendoodle #dogsofinstagram #pareidolia #sterngrove A photo posted by Winston Theodore (@winston_theodore) on May 16, 2015 at 2:30pm PDT
20. Sasha the Sharpei living her best life at Lafayette ParkWings of the Raven
Two new 24-member dungeons arrive with this update, including the brutally difficult end-game raid: Skybreak Spire. In addition, a new Legendary upgrade path, streamlined Evolution paths, 6v6 Clan rankings, and a new generation of Legendary accessories round out the highlights for Wings of the Raven.
Learn more on our update overview site, or scroll down to the patch notes for the full details.
Evolution Streamlining
We’re drastically changing the weapon upgrade and Evolution paths leading up to and beyond Silverfrost, allowing new and returning players an easier and quicker way to catch up, and a smoother transition to the Evolution system once reaching max level.
Be sure to learn all the details to understand how these changes affect you.
Wings of the Raven Instances
Only the most coordinated and well-prepared players will be able to attempt Skybreak Spire, an elite new tier of true raiding being introduced to Blade & Soul. For everyone else you’ll be able to tackle an alternate dark realm of the great Naryu Empire in Dawn of Khanda Vihar, and attempt to defeat increasingly difficult enemies in this new 24-member instance.
Get a quick overview of both of these instances in our recent article.
Wings of the Raven 2.11 Patch Notes
General
Weapon and Accessory progression has been overhauled.
The Blade & Soulmate event is now live and will run from February 8 through March 1. Complete the daily quest "Blade & Soulmate" at Jadestone Village to receive Love Potion and Heart's Desire Boxes, which contain the Chocolate Heart event currency. Exchange Chocolate Hearts through the Event Items tab in Dragon Express to receive the following rewards: Flawless Sparkling Hongmoon Hexagonal Amethyst Daywatch Outfit Excellent Experience Charm Heart Fireworks Fortune Potion Additional Chocolate Hearts can be earned through the Daily Dash as well as certain bundles of items on the Hongmoon Store.
The 64-bit client is now available. If you would like to run the 32-bit client, please select the option from the Blade & Soul Launcher.
Daily Challenge quests have been updated for Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Reduced Health and Regeneration for monsters in Viridian Coast, The Cinderlands, and Moonwater Plains as well as some monsters in Silverforst Mountains.
Raids
Dawn of Khanda Vihar, a weekly 24-member raid instance, is now available and can be accessed from southern Khanda Vihar. Warning: Entering Dawn of Khanda Vihar while part of an Alliance that has defeated Meganura will cause you to be saved to that instance ID.
Skybreak Spire, a weekly 24-member raid dungeon, is now available and can be accessed from northern Khanda Vihar. Warning: Entering Skybreak Spire while part of an Alliance that has defeated the first boss Venomsky Drake will cause you to be saved to that instance ID.
Weekly raid lockouts expire at 6 AM server time every Wednesday.
Tower of Infinity
The Tower of Infinity - Season of Triumph Season 1/3 has begun and will run from February 8 until March 22.
Tower of Infinity - Season of Triumph tickets are now required to enter the Tower of Infinity.
New Soul Badges are now available from the Tower Trader NPC Gang Chiwon as well as the second Premium Membership tab in Dragon Express.
Weekly and Seasonal rewards have been updated.
Fury Tokens can now be traded and sold on the Marketplace.
Items
Galaxy Weapons can now be upgraded to Stage 9.
Baleful and Seraph Weapons can now be upgraded to Stage 10.
Legendary Raven Weapons are now available and can be upgraded from Baleful or Seraph Stage 10 to a maximum of Stage 6.
Octagonal and Flawless Brilliant Hongmoon Octagonal gems are now available via the Transmutation menu.
PvP
6v6 Clan Battlegrounds are now available on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays from 8 PM - 10 PM server time.
6v6 Clan Battleground Season 1 has begun and will run from February 8 through March 22. 6v6 Clan Battleground rankings can be viewed in the F11 menu. Weekly and Seasonal rewards have been added.
3v3 Tag Match Season 5 has begun and will run from February 8 through March 22.
Whirlwind Valley Season 5 has begun and will run from February 8 through March 22.
LocalizationA company owned by Liberal Party identity Matt Daniel lobbied Canada Bay council for an extension to a proposed rezoning that would have benefited Liberal MP John Sidoti as joint owner of a commercial property.
On Tuesday it was revealed that Mr Sidoti failed to include in his latest declaration to Parliament his part ownership of the property at 120 Great North Road, Five Dock, which will potentially benefit from a rezoning decision supported by Liberal councillors.
Mr Sidoti's septuagenarian parents, Catherine and Richard Sidoti, are joint owners of the property. The rezoning proposal, which has been sent to the planning department, includes a new lane behind the property that would give it valuable rear access for the first time.
Following the revelation Mr Sidoti, who is the MP for Drummoyne and parliamentary secretary to Premier Gladys Berejiklian, updated his register of interests and apologised for the "oversight".Back in April this year, Melbourne hosted the second Global Atheist Convention, a follow-up to the gathering of thousands of atheists from around the globe that took place there in 2010. Both events featured the most prominent of the so-called New Atheists, Richard Dawkins.
To believe Dawkins, and many of the other speakers at the conference, you'd think there is a deep gulf between science and religion, that the two are intractably at loggerheads and have nothing useful to say to each other.
But this is at odds with what many other theologians, philosophers and scientists tell us. They say science and religion are both quests for truth dealing with different aspects of human experience. This is well summed up in Galileo's famous statement that 'the Bible tells us how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go'.
He in turn was quoting an eminent churchman of his time, historian and curial official, Cardinal Cesare Baronio. Both these men, one on the side of science, the other on the side of religion, recognised the legitimacy of both.
Chris Mulherin, featured here on Eureka Street TV, similarly has a foot in both camps; an Anglican clergyman with a substantial academic background studying and lecturing in science and the philosophy of science.
He is now doing his doctorate on the relationship between scientific and theological ways of knowing. He argues they are different but complementary ways of understanding, and summarises the difference by saying that while science deals with mechanics, religion deals with meaning.
Mulherin's first degrees, both from the University of Melbourne, were in Mechanical Engineering and English and Philosophy. Following this he gained a Master of Science, also from the University of Melbourne, on the philosophy of science, with his thesis focusing on the nature of scientific knowledge.
Next he gained a Bachelor of Divinity with honours from the Melbourne College of Divinity. He was ordained an Anglican minister, then worked for 12 years, from 1994–2006, as a university chaplain and minister in Argentina.
After returning to Melbourne, he began his doctorate at the MCD University of Divinity. He now lectures at Catholic Theological College and the Anglican Ridley College, tutors at the University of Melbourne, and is a minister at St Jude's Anglican Church in Parkville.
Since 2010 Mulherin has worked as a freelance writer and contributor to ABC Radio National. He wrote a very thoughtful blog for the ABC analysing and commenting on the 2010 Global Atheists Convention.
He has also written about very personal events in his life. In 2010 he wrote a moving and eloquent account for Eureka Street of the passing of his son, Ben, who died from cancer. He spoke not only of the course of Ben’s illness, but also with depth and clarity about the grieving of the whole family.
He often speaks at conferences, has penned scores of articles for popular and academic journals, and has contributed chapters to three books: Knowing and Being: Perspectives on the Philosophy of Michael Polanyi; Hermeneutics and the Authority of Scripture; and, most recently, God and Science: In Classroom and Pulpit.
Peter Kirkwood is a freelance writer and video consultant. He has a Master's degree from the Sydney College of Divinity.Hubrisween is a yearly event, in which several bloggers review horror and monster movies in alphabetical order leading up to Halloween. During this period, the Web of the Big Damn Spider will suspend its usual policy of focusing exclusively on spider-related materials in order to have enough content to participate. Regular eight-legged posting will return in November.
Directed and written by Eric Weston
Starring Clint Howard, R.G. Armstrong, Joe Cortese, Richard Moll
The decade is changing over from the 70s to the 80s, and Happy Days is still on the air and a big part of the American mass media consciousness. Every knows who Ron Howard is, and he’s just started dabbling in movies. Problem is, you can’t get him for yours. What do you do? Hold on. Doesn’t he have a brother?
He does indeed. Clint Howard is Ron’s younger brother, and in my opinion the better actor. He takes more interesting roles anyway. Case in point: Evilspeak, in which he plays an unpopular cadet in a military academy. That’s an understatement. Stanley is despised by some of the other students. He’s an easy target — orphaned, poor, clumsy, short, a bit chunky, and already balding. All of that except for orphaned, poor, chunky, and balding applied to me as a kid, so of course I identify with Stanley.
That’s what makes this film so interesting. Because this is one of those horror films were the protagonist is the monster. Like poor Lawrence Talbot, you just can’t side against him even as he’s killing people. Unlike the Wolf Man, Stanley thinks he knows what he’s doing.
Let me back up. See, Stanley gets punished for being the target of bullies, and he’s ordered to clean the cellar of the church on campus. Nothing good comes from cleaning church cellars, and sure enough Stanley finds a hidden room and an ancient tome. Fortunately it’s in Latin, so he can’t do anything stupid like read it aloud. Too bad he’s a geek, who can make a crappy terminal computer translate it. It is, of course, a book of dark magic; left in this case by Father Esteban (Richard Moll), excommunicated from the Catholic Church and exiled from Spain centuries ago. Stanley’s terminal plugs into Esteban, and before you can say “angry nerd” Stanley is a dark sorcerer unleashing unholy Hell on campus.
Evilspeak attained some notoriety from being on England’s “Video Nasties” list of banned films. It’s bloody and Satanic, and it’s impossible to take seriously. It is also quite a bit of fun, and better than you might expect from such an oddity. Just don’t watch it on your computer, though. You never know.President Trump said he’ll be “very angry” if Senate Republicans aren’t able to pass a bill to repeal and replace ObamaCare, as GOP leaders get ready to unveil their updated legislation.
Trump said Republicans have been promising for years that they’d repeal ObamaCare, and now with Republicans controlling Congress and the White House, he said he’s “waiting” to sign a repeal bill. If Senate Republicans aren't able to pass their bill, known as the Better Care Reconciliation Act, he said that’d be “very bad.”
"Well, I don't even want to talk about it, because I think it would be very bad. I will be very angry about it and a lot of people will be very upset,” Trump said during an interview with Christian Broadcasting Network’s Pat Robertson.
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“But I'm sitting waiting for that bill to come to my desk. I hope that they do it. They've been promising it for years. They've been promising it ever since ObamaCare, which is failed. It's a failed experiment. It is totally gone. It's out of business, and we have to get this done.”
Senate GOP leaders are expected to reveal their updated bill on Thursday, with the hopes of bringing on more conservative and moderate senators who are opposed to the initial bill. With at least 10 Republican senators opposed, leadership delayed a vote that was scheduled for late June.
A Congressional Budget Office score on the updated bill is expected to be released on Monday, with a potential vote set up for next week. On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellHouse to push back at Trump on border Democrats block abortion bill in Senate Overnight Energy: Climate protesters storm McConnell’s office | Center-right group says Green New Deal could cost trillion | Dire warnings from new climate studies MORE (R-Ky.) warned his colleagues not to block the Senate from taking up the bill. Republicans can only afford to lose two senators, with Vice President Pence casting the tiebreaking vote.
When asked if McConnell can get the bill through the upper chamber, Trump said, "He's got to pull it off. Mitch has to pull it off. He's working very hard. He's got to pull it off."When waiting for an organ transplant, patients have a lot to worry about: whether the body will fight against the organ, the effects immunosuppressant drugs could have on their bodies, and the foods and activities they'll have to give up.
Researchers are trying to change that by using a technique to fill a donor organ with a patient's cells so that their bodies are more likely to accept the new organ instead of treating it like a foreign object. This would be welcome news for the 120,000 people on organ transplant waiting lists in the US alone.
Miromatrix Medical, a small business funded by the National Science Foundation, is testing out a method to strip existing cells from an organ—a process called perfusion decellularization—by pumping solution through blood vessels in the organ. After about two days, the organ is still structurally sound, but it doesn't have any cells left inside and has turned stark white.
Then, when a patient has been selected for the transplant, the organ would be pumped full of the patient's cells. Miromatrix Medical states they should incorporate into the organ and should be fully functional. By using an existing organ for the base, rather than 3D-printing an organ scaffold, it already has existing pathways for getting oxygen and nutrients where they need to go.
"People have been trying to create this ultimate goal, this panacea of a whole, functional organ," but the field has struggled with getting nutrients into the organs to keep them alive, Dominique Seetapun, Miromatrix Medical senior project development scientist said in the company video.
Seetapun said the new technique is an improvement on previous methods that dipped organs in detergent solutions that often broke down the organ's structures and led to complications when new cells were introduced.
Get six of our favorite Motherboard stories every day by signing up for our newsletter.On Thursday, a slew of retailers posted monthly same-store sales. They were described best as a "mixed bag." There was no obvious trend in terms of up or down, even within specific categories of retailers. But bulls on the economy should be disappointed.
For one thing, notes Mike "MISH" Shedlock author of Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis, the same-store sales gainers benefited by the general reduction in store locations. Essentially, survivorship bias is skewing the numbers. If somehow you could take into account all the locations that had been shuttered, you'd see that things were much worse.
And there's evidence for this, notes Mish. State sales tax collections remain depressed, with no indication of a rebound. That, more than the corporate numbers, is the key thing to pay attention to.
And with states thirsting for cash, this is a crucial problem that will play out in terms of further budget cuts, and a further drag on the economy.
Ultimately it's all about jobs. Without a jobs recovery, there will be no consumer recovery, and without a consumer recovery, there's little reason to be excited about the market or the economy.
Now don't miss: 24 depressing pieces of economic newsMarc Benioff, the philanthropist and billionaire founder of Salesforce, may have been the angriest man at last week’s Code Conference, held at the Terranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.
Onstage, Benioff launched into a fervent monologue, calling out the audience for failing on a range of social initiatives. The income discrepancy was growing, and techies were being too stingy. Benioff called out conference presenter Re/code for not having a charitable component, and asked people there to raise their hands if their companies had charity programs. Fewer than half did.
“You’ve got to show that we are part of the solution, not just part of the problem,” said Benioff, his voice rising in intensity.
San Francisco, the heart of the tech industry, now has the fastest-growing income inequality in the country, a gap on par with Rwanda’s. This has led to range of protests, including those that have begun targeting public tech symbols like Google’s commuter shuttle buses.
The connection between inequality and the tech industry may be fair: Innovation tends to make things more efficient, so fewer people can accomplish more work (in the Bay area, the WhatsApp texting service sold for $19 billion with 55 employees, while the Gap, worth about the same, has 136,000 employees).
So, what did the wealthy and influential attendees at Code — which was held at a secluded and exclusive beachfront resort — think about income inequality, the housing shortage, and whether tech was to blame or not?
The responses were varied, but the most common answer — no surprise, perhaps — was that tech wasn’t the cause of San Francisco’s income gap, but rather the best solution.
“Tech is solving the problem, because now we have these new qualified, nonprofessional market verticals,” said Mike Jones, CEO of Science and former CEO of Myspace. “You’re qualified to drive a car, but not professionally doing it. Congratulations, boom, you’re making [a] $90,000-a-year average Uber salary.”
For DogVacay, one of Science’s investments, for example, Jones said the company’s highest-rated dog-sitters were people who had never worked in the industry before. “People like enthusiasts who are just doing it because they enjoy it,” he said.
Scott Cook, one of the founders of Intuit, also mentioned new taxi services like Lyft as potential boons for a new middle class.
“There are so many new employment opportunities for people now … the tech community being the backbone building that industry, and tech community being the customers,” he said. “You need wealth to create wealth.”
Jeff Jordan, a partner at Andreessen Horowitz and former top eBay exec, was standing next to Cook, and nodded in agreement. “I call them ‘people marketplaces.’ For me, it started with eBay and realizing that a million people were making an income off of it.”
These jobs, however, could become automated. After Google debuted its self-driving car at the Code conference, Travis Kalanick, the founder of Uber, mentioned that there could be synergy in the future.
“The reason Uber could be expensive is because you’re not just paying for the car, you’re paying for the other dude in the car,” he said, referring to the driver, who could be rendered obsolete in the self-driving future.
Philip Engelhardt, managing partner of PhilQuo Ventures, said he thinks smartphones have begun to level the playing field for ambitious young people, in a version of the “pull yourself up by your own bootstraps” meme.
“The consumer has never been an educated part of the species, but once we dropped smartphones in their hands, they started to feel empowered,” he said. “And you know one of them is going to be one of the kids whose single mother got a smartphone at work, and she’s taking night classes. He takes that thing and goes online and learns to code and has a vision of an app that no one else has. In the old days, he had that vision alone on a plain in India with skinny cows all around him, and he couldn’t do anything about it.”
Some at the conference said they felt that tech was unfairly pilloried by protesters of the Apple and Google buses.
“Boo-hoo, tech,” said former Apple executive and current venture capitalist Jean-Louis Gassée, who rubbed his eyes to mime crying. “We are not that bad.”
Still, some executives said they were quite worried about income inequality.
Mark Pincus, the founder of gaming company Zynga, said the income gap is a problem that had been worsening for a long time, but people are only just starting to notice it.
“A lot of these tech success stories were happening in the South Bay for a while, but now that tech’s moved up to the city, instead of people building enormous homes hidden in Woodside, now you can see [it here],” he said.
He noted that he and Benioff have been involved with the Tipping Point charity, which has had significant success convincing tech companies to donate.
Another tech-favored charity is Code.org, founded by Hadi Partovi, who argued that one part of the problem is that students aren’t being trained for programming jobs, which are proliferating.
“Computer science degrees are literally the best kind of degrees, by far,” Partovi said in an interview, noting that 90 percent of high schools don’t offer the course. “If you heard 90 percent of schools wouldn’t allow black students or women to code, you’d be up in arms.”
Zander Lurie, the founder of nonprofit CoachArt, said that when tech executives do donate, they don’t give enough, considering their wealth.
“When you look at the wealth creation and the impact they have, I don’t think it’s enough, at all,” Lurie said. “You don’t want to be the only castle in the slum.”
Some attendees at the conference said they thought the situation was more serious.
“The existential crisis we face as a country is rising inequality and mobility decreasing. We argue technology is a major factor in that,” said Joe Green, the founder of FWD.us, and perhaps one of the most vocal activists in tech. “At some point in the future, the nature of work will physically change. Androids will build androids. Then what will we do?”
So, the time of machines taking over is here? “We’re in this inflection moment, and it is not inevitable that people continue to support the system as is.”
Did he mean that a revolution was coming?
“I don’t think it will be a violent one. But yes, I think there will be a big shift,” Green said. “And it won’t come from the 55-year-old factory worker, but the 22-year-old with pretty good grades who can’t get a job.”
Later, at lunch on a long lawn under white tents, Marc Benioff elaborated on his feelings about his industry giving back. Does this make him tech’s arm-twister for do-gooding?
“Somebody has to be,” he said.
“Throughout history, where we’ve seen jobs getting eliminated, we’re also seeing jobs getting created. Potentially, with the data sciences, we’ll see jobs eliminated at a faster rate than they’re created,” he added. “And everyone here has been so lucky … it’s all the same — another wave of entrepreneurs, another wave of investors, still stingy.”
“We’re a stingy, stingy industry,” said Benioff, as he walked away.Jackie Chan. Embraer
Jackie Chan has a new toy in his collection.
Earlier this year, the movie icon took delivery of a new Embraer Legacy 500 business jet. This is not Chan's first private jet, nor is it his first Embraer. Chan, a brand ambassador for the Brazilian airplane maker, took delivery of an Embraer Legacy 650 in 2012. His new plane is the first Legacy 500 to be delivered to a Chinese customer.
"The Legacy 500 features our best-to-date technologies and it incorporates designs that maximize passenger comfort and fuel efficiency," Marco Tulio Pellegrini, Embraer Executive Jets' president and CEO, said in a statement.
Chan seems equally enthused about the newest addition to his fleet. "I'm so thrilled to receive this Legacy 500, a state-of-the-art executive jet," he said in a statement.
He continued:
In the past few years, my Legacy 650 has brought me fantastic traveling experiences and great convenience, allowing me to do more acting and philanthropic works around the world. I'm sure that the performance of the new Legacy 500 will again exceed my expectations, and become a comfortable mobile home and office for me.
According to Embraer, Chan is expected to use his Legacy 650 for transoceanic flights while the Legacy 500 will be used for shorter trips. Here's a closer look at Chan's Embraer Legacy 500:Wait Until You Read the Disgusting Charges This Virginia Day Care Instructor Was Convicted of Committing
When we found out that two New Jersey day care professionals had been charged with organizing Fight Club-inspired battles with their young students back in September 2015, we were incredulous. The how and — more importantly — the why dumbfounded us, and yet, it's happened again.
Virginia day care teacher Sarah Jordan has been found guilty on more than a dozen counts of child cruelty, assault, and battery for operating a similar fight club with the toddlers at Minnieland Academy since 2013.
In a Prince William County trial, witnesses accused Jordan of abusing toddlers by stepping on their toes, tripping them, and spraying them with hoses. She would then encourage the students to enact a similar violence on each other.
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Parents of many of the victims said they noticed a change in their students since they began attending Minnieland Academy — with many of them suddenly becoming fearful of water, being increasingly more violent, and losing a significant amount of their self-esteem. Even worse: in an interview with WUSA, one parent said that Jordan had appointed her own son as the class bully.
Jordan's fellow teacher and alleged accomplice, Kierra Springs, will go to trial for similar charges next month.NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Panama Papers financial scandal is going to Hollywood.
Streaming service Netflix said on Tuesday it had acquired the rights to a book written by two German investigative journalists and was turning it into a feature movie to be produced by John Wells.
It is the second proposed movie on the scandal that thrust tax havens and transparency into the spotlight after the details of hundreds of thousands of clients’ tax affairs were leaked from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca in April by an anonymous whistleblower.
American director Steven Soderbergh is also producing a movie about the scandal based on a different book, the upcoming “Secrecy World” by U.S. reporter Jake Bernstein, Hollywood industry publications reported earlier this month.
The Netflix film will be based on the account of German journalists Frederik Obermaier and Bastian Obermayer, the first to break the story. Netflix said it had acquired exclusive rights to their June book “Panama Papers: Breaking the Story of How the World’s Rich and Powerful Hide Their Money.”
Ted Sarandos, chief content officer of Netflix, said in a statement he was confident the movie would “deliver a gripping tale.” The International Consortium of Journalists, whose members also worked to bring the Panama Papers to the public, are also collaborating on the film.
Wells is the producer and director of movies and TV shows including “The West Wing” and “August: Osage County.” The movie’s director, release date and casting are yet to be announced.
The Netflix project is the latest foray by the streaming giant into original movie production following the success of its original TV content, including award-winning shows like “House of Cards” and “Orange is the New Black.”How I Became a Better Writer…and You Can Too!
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This is the last post in Better Writing Month. Please don’t remind me it’s no longer April 😉
Writing skills are funny. You could spend years studying ‘important’ literary works, deconstructing obscure texts, and writing post-colonial analyses of Salman Rushdie books…but still be a mediocre writer.
I speak from experience.
One English degree earned, hundred of books read, thousands of pages written…and I still can’t spell onomatopoeia without a spell checker.
However, over the past two years, I have become a much better writer. I’m no Joyce Carol Oates, but compared to where I was when I finished university, the difference is like comparing Spam burgers to Kobe steaks.
Did I climb a mountain, talk to an oracle, and receive sage advice? No. Did I deconstruct even more texts? No. Did I go back to university for more education? Hell no. I’ve had enough post-colonial/post-structuralist/marxist/feminist/post-deconstructionist theory for one thousand lifetimes.
How did I become a better writer?
The answer will shock you. Hold your breath…
I developed the habit of writing. Every. Damn. Day.
While doing research for Better Writing Month, I became sucked into a swirling red vortex of articles on writing. Most of these articles say write everyday. Thanks for the letter postmarked Obvious City. But how does one develop the habit of writing every day?
Developing the daily writing habit is the hard part.
But once you have it, writing everyday is easy, natural, and as necessary as breathing.
Before I developed the daily writing habit, I wrote about 2,000 words per month…even though I wanted to write more. I simply couldn’t do it. After I developed the habit, I started writing over 2,000 every day (without writer’s block, excessive procrastination, etc.) Again, the difference is like spam and kobe.
Like curling, kayaking, and fly herding, writing is a mental game. Developing the discipline to practice is difficult. Writing without an audience (or without the immediate feedback of academia) is difficult. But when you write every day, the effect is like compound interest; your skills build and multiply over time. You do become a better writer. Plus you’ll learn the secret of creative inspiration.
Please don’t think I’m bragging. I’m still a 3rd-rate hack with ambition. And please don’t think I’m saying the development of the daily writing habit is the only way to become a better writer. Reading one book a week, taking writing classes, getting feedback and critiques, reading books on writing, all these will help (some more than others). And of course, everybody’s different; what works for me mayn’t work for for you.
How did I develop the daily writing habit?
Well, I met this guy in a graffiti-covered alley. He wears a hoodie, his eyes are always bloodshot, and he carries little glass vials
If you want to develop the habit of daily writing, you need a routine or a system that makes you write everyday. You need to be writing with some purpose or goal. Just saying you want to write every day doesn’t work. At least it never worked for me. I tried for years. Finally I tried something a little more regimented and structured…and it worked.
I found structure and regimentation in two different ways:
Nanowrimo (past two years): Write 1,667 words a day for a month. Easy, but damn hard. The end product is unpublishable drivel, but that’s not the point. The real payoff is a the discipline you learn and the skills you pick up along the way. Check out 10 Lessons Learned from Nanowrimo.
Before I started blogging, I set up a thirty day challenge to write a 1,000 word article every day. By the time I hit thirty articles, I could write faster and better than before.
I know I dramatically improved my writing because, at the end of each project, I wrote and revised test pieces and compared the results. For Nanowrimo, the before-and-after was a chase scene. If the before wasn’t so pitiful I’d post a before-and-after sample. Same for the articles. Spam and kobe.
For me, hitting daily word counts for a minimum of thirty days burned the daily writing habit into my brain like a branding iron on a cow’s flank. Thirty days is kind of an arbitrary number to establish a new habit, but it seems effective. Some people claim a new habit is established in as little as twenty-one days. Here’s an interesting Google answers entry on this topic.
If you want to develop the daily writing habit…
Set a daily word count goal or target.
Create a visual way to measure your progress (calendars, spreadsheets, % complete bars).
Hit your wordcount goal every day for 30 days.
Write for an audience (even if it’s in your head).
That’s it. Soon you’ll develop a routine and experience positive creative inertia. That’s all you need to do to begin to develop the daily writing habit.
Set a goal. Write towards that goal.
Every. Damn. Day.
If you enjoyed this fine post, join Happenchance on Facebook, subscribe to Happenchance for more creative techniques, or hit one of the fancy social media buttons below to share it with your friends. You know they’ll appreciate it.I was in my late thirties before it struck me that there was something odd about the tableau I have in my mind of a familiar living-room, armchair, my father in it, silvery hair, moustache, brown suede lace-ups, and me, aged six or so, sitting on his knee. The layout is correct – I have been back to the block of flats and sat in the living-room of the flat next door, with the same floor plan. Door in the right place; chair I’m sure accurate, a burgundy moquette; patterned carpet; windows looking out onto the brick wall of the offices opposite. My father looks like my father in pictures I have of him. I look like … well, actually I don’t have any pictures of me at that age. But I’m sure I looked pretty much like the memory I can call up at will. It’s not particularly interesting as a memory. Nothing special is happening. It could be a painting, or a photograph, except that I shift about as a child does sitting on her father’s knee. Here’s the thing, though: I can see the entire picture. I can, you may have noticed, see myself. My observation point is from the top of the wall opposite where we are sitting, just below the ceiling, looking down across the room towards me and my father in the chair. I can see me clearly, but what I can’t do is position myself on my father’s knee and become a part of the picture, even though I am in it. I can’t in other words look out at the room from my place on the chair. How can that be a memory? And if it isn’t, what is it? When I think about my childhood, that is invariably one of the first ‘memories’ to spring up, ready and waiting: an untraumatic, slightly-moving picture. It never crossed my mind to notice the anomalous point of view until I was middle-aged. Before then it went without saying that it was a ‘real’ memory. Afterwards, it became an indicator of how false recollection can be.
Memory has always been a worry to us. The thing we feel sure makes us ourselves (no memory, no me) is also something we know to be treacherous, overaccommodating, fugitive: delightfully and fearfully unreliable. We’re stuck inside our own heads with our recollections (or old photos and now videos that have become memories) and there is no way, except sometimes by trusting to the probably unreliable memories of other people, to be absolutely sure that we know what we think we know, or are who we think we are. That anxiety about the accuracy of our grasp of our past selves accounts for the way many other alarming aspects of being alive have become attached to the subject of memory; the theme changes and goes through cycles over time (law, war, politics, medicine, family, sexuality), but always serves to remind us to worry about the consequences of never being quite sure of what we and others remember. People have thrown all the expertise they can find or invent at the problem. We have asked shamans, clairvoyants, hypnotists, historians, scientists, surgeons, law-makers, artists and writers, social psychologists and psychoanalysts to investigate the truth, the facts, the interpretations, so to reassure us about the mechanism and reliability of remembering, but, as Alison Winter’s deft study of 20th-century memory controversies concludes, |
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Photos: Euro 2012: The best photos Euro 2012: The Best Photos – Polish fans hold up banners before the Euro 2012 match between Poland and Greece. Hide Caption 364 of 370
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Photos: Euro 2012: The best photos Euro 2012: The Best Photos – Greek and Polish fans cheer for their teams before the match. Hide Caption 366 of 370
Photos: Euro 2012: The best photos Euro 2012: The Best Photos – Mascots Slavko, left, and Slavek, right, pose before the match between Poland and Greece. Hide Caption 367 of 370
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Photos: Euro 2012: The best photos Euro 2012: The Best Photos – Fans attend the Dutch team's training session. Hide Caption 369 of 370NWHL 2017-18 Season Preview and News
Season Opening Weekend
The third season of the National Women’s Hockey League begins on Oct. 28th. All four of the NWHL’s teams will compete on opening night. The season opener features the Metropolitan Riveters hosting the Boston Pride at the Prudential Center. In the second contest, the Connecticut Whale hosts the defending Isobel Cup Champion Buffalo Beauts at the Terry Conners Ice Rink. It is safe to say many are excited about another season.
Season Info
This season will consist of all four teams playing sixteen games during the regular season. The end of the NWHL regular season is Saturday, March 10th. The season consists of one game a week with the exception of a home and home series Jan. 20-21, 2018. The Boston Pride and Metropolitan Riveters are the two teams who compete in the home and home. The regular season breakdown is one Friday night, nineteen Saturday and twelve Sunday contests.
With the exception of two neutral site contests, all games will be held at the teams home rink. The four teams home rinks are the Warrior Ice Arena which is home to the Boston Pride. The Buffalo Beauts home Ice is the Harbor Center. The Connecticut Whale’s home Ice is the Terry Conners Ice Rink. The RWJ Barnabas Health Hockey House is the Metropolitan Riveters home Ice.
The two neutral site games feature the 2016-2017 Isobel Cup Champion Buffalo Beauts. On Nov. 4th the Beauts square off against the Riveters in Rochester. Then on January 14th, the Beauts and Whale square off in Pittsburgh.
The NWHL All-Star game will be held in an NHL city that will be named at a later date. The All-Star game weekend is Feb. 10-11, 2018. New this year, the NWHL will have a “Game of the Week” live streamed on twitter @nwhl.twitter.com. The broadcast schedule will be announced at a later date.
New Jersey Devils/Metropolitan Riveters Partnership
In another exciting development for the NWHL, the New Jersey Devils and Metropolitan Riveters have entered into a first of its kind partnership. To kick off the partnership the Riveters and Pride compete before the Devils square off against the Arizona Coyotes on Saturday, October 28th. The ultimate goal of the partnership is to increase girls and women’s hockey in New Jersey and the Riveters home territory.
By making the women’s game more visible, these partnership increase development opportunities to help grow the NWHL. Along with community projects, the players will coach and instruct the girls and women in local hockey programs.
By helping the Riveters operations, the Devils and Prudential Center will enhance the Riveters marketing, sales, events, and facilities. And for the attendees of the Riveters games, the game experience will be taken to a new level. With the Devils partnership, the Riveters rebranded to a new uniform with Devils colors. Also, select Riveters games will be featured on the Devils digital network One Jersey Network. This will bring more attention to the NWHL, Riveters and women’s hockey in general.
Support the NWHL
Women’s hockey is growing every year. It’s thrilling hockey. The talented ladies play a fast-paced game that’s loaded with exciting action at both ends of the ice. Skating, passing, shooting, offensive and defensive play, stellar netminding the hockey in this league is as good as any league in the world. If you live in one of the teams home markets. If you’re looking for a winter weekend getaway do yourself a favor and attend an NWHL game. Support the league, your favorite team, and your favorite player. Help to keep the league going and growing for the many girls and young women whose dream it is to one day play in the show.
Embed from Getty ImagesVictims of the Rotherham child exploitation scandal are suing the council and police for £14 million after a damning report condemned “blatant failings” that allowed Asian gangs to prey on 1,400 children as young as 11.
Council bosses were accused of turning a blind eye to 16-years of abuse for fear of being labelled racist, while senior police officers dismissed many of the victims as “undesirables” who were not worthy of protection, the report claimed.
Now solicitors representing some of those whose lives were blighted by the years of sexual exploitation are launching a class action, demanding damages which could run into tens of millions of pounds.
At least 15 girls, who were aged 13 and 14 at the time of the abuse, are seeking £100,000 each, but further claims are expected to follow in the wake of the shocking report by Professor Alexis Jay.
David Greenwood, of Switalskis Solicitors, said in each of the cases he was representing the authorities had clear evidence and opportunities to prevent the sexual exploitation.
He said: “The girls we represent were given gifts and phones by these men, taken for rides in fancy cars and once under their spell the violence and the sexual abuse began.
“One girl was forced to commit robberies, these were men who should have been on the police radar. They told the police and social workers and their cries for help were ignored. Their lives have been ruined and many of them are still in fear of these gangs.
“We have served letters on the council to negotiate a settlement. If the cases are challenged by the council they could take another 18 months, if not then it could be over in six-months.
“The victims could be compensated on average by around £100,000 based on other cases across the country. It is hard to say how many will come forward. I have a team of specially trained lawyers speaking with the girls. This is probably the biggest child exploitation case in the country so far.”
Professor Jay’s report was commissioned after a gang of five Asian men were jailed in 2010 for the grooming and sexual exploitation of teenage girls in Rotherham.
Since then there have been similar scandals in other towns and cities including Rochdale, Derby and Oxford.
In her 153 page report, Professor Jay described how young girls were groomed by gangs of mainly Asian men before being gang raped and beaten.
They were often picked up from school or children’s homes by men who pretended to be their boyfriends, but instead plied them with drink and drugs.
When they attempted to escape, they and their families were threatened with extreme violence, and in at least one case a teenager was doused in petrol and told she would be burned alive if she cooperated with the police.
At least a third of the 1,400 cases identified in the report were known to the authorities but little or nothing was done to intervene and prevent the abuse.
Three previous reports outlining the scale of the problem in Rotherham were suppressed or ignored by the council and police, but despite the failings no one is expected to be sacked.
Rotherham council’s chief executive Martin Kimber said he did not have the evidence to bring disciplinary action against anyone still working for the local authority.
The council leader Roger Stone resigned following the publication of the report, but the region’s elected Police and Crime Commissioner, Shaun Wright, who was the cabinet member responsible for children’s services in Rotherham between 2005 and 2010 has so far refused to take responsibility.
Downing Street has described the levels of abuse in Rotherham as “appalling” and Education Minister Nick Gibb has said those who made policy decisions that contributed to the scandal “should be held to account”.Vladimir Putin, rather suddenly, is shifting from Good Czar to Bad Czar in the minds of the Russian people. A telltale sign—even more startling than growing street demonstrations against his rule—was the jeers that greeted his appearance at a recent martial-arts fight in Moscow. Putin, as his image makers have incessantly reminded since their man scaled the Kremlin heights eleven years ago, is an ardent sportsman with a black belt in judo. The mostly-male throng at the “no rules” fight was supposed to be his kind of he-man crowd—and until now, it has been.
The possible downfall of the autocratic Putin—now prime minister, with plans to return to the presidency in elections in March—might look like an opening for the forces of liberalism in Russia. Putin, after all, is their bête noire—and it is the liberals, more than any other faction in Russia, who have steadfastly and courageously, at cost to their lives, pointed out the endemic corruption and the abuses of power at the core of his rotten regime. The crowds now chanting “Putin is a thief!” are echoing a staple liberal refrain.
But a post-Putin era is unlikely to be a liberal one. Russian liberalism—which identifies itself with Western-style democracy—has a tepid mass following, its ranks consistently overestimated over the last twenty years by ever-hopeful Western governments, analysts, and journalists. And the current groundswell of protest, while promising on the surface, looks more like a popular rejection of a strongman who has overstayed his welcome—not like a rejection of the model of strongman rule.
IN THE MOST RECENT parliamentary elections, in which Putin’s United Russia party snagged a woeful (though still largest) share of about half the vote, the liberal Yabloko party just managed to crack 3 percent. (The Communists, in second place, got about 19 percent.) Yes, the election was something less than “free and fair” and yes, Team Putin, since 2000, has routinely stigmatized Yabloko as a foreign, anti-Russian presence. But even at the peak of its influence, in the early 1990s, just after the crack-up of the Soviet Union, Yabloko never got more than 8 percent of the vote.Introduction (Read This First)
A style guide for writing about transgender people is practically an oxymoron. Style guides are designed to create absolutes—bringing rules and order to a meandering and contradictory patchwork quilt of a language. Yet there are no absolutes when it comes to gender. That’s why this is a radical copyeditor’s style guide. Radical copyediting isn’t about absolutes; it’s about context and care.
There are profound reasons for why the language that trans people use to describe ourselves and our communities changes and evolves so quickly. In Western culture, non-trans people have for centuries created the language that describes us, and this language has long labeled us as deviant, criminal, pathological, unwell, and/or unreal.
As trans people have fought for survival, we have also fought for the right to describe ourselves in our own language and to reject language that criminalizes, pathologizes, or invisibilizes us. Just as there is no monolithic trans community, there is also no one “correct” way to speak or write about trans people.
How to use this guide:
Treat it as general guidance, not concrete rules. Focus on how to practice care toward people whose experience of gender is different from yours. Consider context. Language choices completely depend on context: medical environments versus online dating, young children versus elders, USA versus Australia, and so on. Recognize, in particular, that the language used within trans cultural contexts can be far more nuanced than the language outsiders use to describe trans people and trans experiences.
How not to use this guide:
Do not use this guide to harshly police or shame others’ language choices. Do not use this guide to tell trans people that they are using incorrect language, regardless of whether you yourself are trans or not. A general best practice should never supersede a trans person’s right to use whatever language feels best to them. Do not care more about words than you do about people.
The purpose of this guide is to help people of all gender identities and experiences practice more care toward those on the margins. Trans people must be understood as the authorities on ourselves and the language used to describe us. Not only does this mean that cisgender (non-trans) people need to practice humility and care toward trans people, but it also means that trans people—particularly those with educational, financial, and/or racial privilege—need to practice humility and care toward other trans people—particularly those who are folks of color, low-income, less educated, and/or elders.
If you are trans, I highly recommend inoculating yourself against the temptation to police other trans people’s language by reading “words don’t kill people, people kill words” and the glossary introduction “there is no perfect word,” both by Julia Serano, as well as “I Was Recently Informed I’m Not a Transsexual,” by Riki Wilchins.
Note: Like all style guides, what follows is about language usage, not definitions; for a comprehensive glossary of transgender-related terminology, check out this one from Julia Serano.
Also note: This guide was written in a U.S. context. Although the general guidance in it is broadly applicable, the specifics may differ in other countries.
You can also download this guide as a PDF and show your gratitude by making a donation!
Transgender Style Guide
Section 1. Correct/current usage of transgender-related language
1.1. Transgender is an adjective.
Use: transgender people; a transgender person
Avoid: transgenders; transgendered
1.2. Transgender is not a sexual orientation.
Correct terms in a trans context: gender; gender identity and expression
Incorrect terms in a trans context: sexual identity; sexuality
Avoid: Are you straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender (pick one)?
1.3. Transition is the correct word for the social and/or medical process of publicly living into one’s true gender.
Use: Chris transitioned at age 32; the transition process
Avoid: Chris is transgendering; Chris had a sex change; Chris had “the surgery”; Chris became a woman
1.4. Transgender does not refer only to binary-identified trans women and men. Many trans people (35%) are non-binary.*
Use: transgender people; people of all genders
Avoid (in reference to all trans people): transgender women and men
In popular culture, transgender is often exclusively used to refer to binary-identified trans women and men (those who were assigned male at birth and identify as female, or vice versa). Yet transgender actually refers to all those whose gender identities do not align, according to societal expectations, with their birth-assigned sex. This includes non-binary people—those who do not identify (exclusively or at all) as women or men.
Out of respect for the fact that the word transgender is so often used in ways that (incorrectly) do not include non-binary people, many people say trans and non-binary people when referring to all those whose gender identities are different than what might be expected based on their birth-assigned sex. But because this phrasing reinforces the idea that trans does not inherently include non-binary people, better, more recent options include binary and non-binary trans people and trans people, binary and non-binary alike.
⇒ Does trans have a different meaning from transgender? In brief, yes and no. In most formal writing, trans is considered simply an abbreviation of transgender, but in trans communities, trans has been increasingly taking on a unique meaning for many people, one that is more inclusive of all those whose gender identities differ from their birth-assigned sex. The variants trans* and trans+ have also been used to serve this purpose. Trans* came about in the 1990s and had a huge but relatively brief spurt of popularity in the early 2010s. Trans+ is a more recent variant that plays on the trend of adding a plus sign to terms like LGBTQ to denote greater inclusion. In an international context, according to UK-based oatc: “trans is equally used as an abbreviation of transsexual, transgressive, transexuale, transexuelle, travestie, etc., and to encompass all those, and the thousands of other, equally valid, and often much valued, terms used across the world’s cultures, where transgender can sometimes be a culturally imperialist term.”
1.5. The terms gender nonconforming and non-binary are not synonyms.
Gender nonconforming refers to a person whose gender expression (by way of dress, mannerisms, roles, career, and/or lots of other things) does not conform to stereotypical gender expectations for someone of their gender. Examples of gender nonconforming people might include masculine women, effeminate men, women pilots, male ballet dancers, and young girls with short hair.
Non-binary, or gender non-binary, refers to a person whose internal sense of self is not exclusively woman/female or man/male. Some non-binary people identify as both woman and man (e.g., bigender people), some identify as a different gender entirely (e.g., genderqueer people), and some do not identify with any gender (e.g., agender people).
Many people are non-binary in terms of identity and also gender nonconforming in terms of expression, but plenty of other people are only one or the other. It’s important not to use these terms interchangeably.
⇒ A note on gender variant, gender expansive, gender creative, gender diverse, gender fabulous, etc.: Many terms have sprung up over the years to refer to the full spectrum of those who are gender nonconforming and/or non-binary. Best practices include avoiding terms that carry a negative connotation (e.g., gender deviant) and avoiding using terms inaccurately (e.g., diverse doesn’t mean “different from the norm,” it just means “varied,” so gender diverse should refer to a group of folks with varied genders, not a single person or a group of people whose gender is different from the norm).
1.6. Transgender is a descriptive term, not (usually) a gender and not always an identity.
Use: transgender people; transgender history or identity
Avoid: people who identify as transgender; man, woman, or transgender (pick one)
Transgender means having a gender identity that does not align, according to societal expectations, with one’s birth-assigned sex. Cisgender means having a gender identity that does align with one’s birth-assigned sex. Just as cisgender is a descriptive term, not a gender itself, so too is transgender a descriptive term. Some genders include woman, man, genderqueer, two spirit, agender, and bigender, for example. Transgender is not, for the vast majority of people, a gender, and while some people identify as trans, or as trans women or trans men, others do not consider being trans a part of their identity, and identify solely as genderqueer, or women, or men, for example. Some people describe themselves as a “woman of transsexual experience” or a “man with a history of gender transition,” as additional examples.
Section 2. Bias-free and respectful language in reference to transgender people
2.1. Avoid language that reduces people to their birth-assigned sex or their (assumed) biology.
Use: assigned female at birth; assigned male at birth
Avoid: born a woman; born a man; biologically female; biologically male; genetically female; genetically male; pre-op; post-op
2.2. Avoid treating transgender people as though we have “a condition.”
Use: Monique is transgender; being transgender is not a crime
Use: gender dysphoria
Avoid: Monique has transgenderism; transsexualism/transsexuality is a sin
Avoid: gender disordered; gender identity disorder (outdated)
Note that throughout history, in order to gain access to medical interventions such as gender-affirming hormones and surgery, many trans people have been forced to prove they have a psychiatric and/or medical condition that requires treatment, which has often meant using the language of the medical field regardless of whether that language feels authentic. Language around diagnoses, pathologization, and access to health care is complex and differs from country to country.
2.3. Avoid language that puts more value on being or appearing cisgender (not trans), or that carries judgments or biases around how public a person is about being trans.
Use: openly transgender; not openly transgender
Avoid: passes; stealth; you’d never be able to tell
Although some trans people use the terms stealth and passing, it’s not appropriate for non-trans people to use this language unless they are explicitly asked to by a trans person. As Janet Mock has eloquently spoken to, terms like these imply that trans people who are perceived as cisgender (or not trans) are engaging in deception simply by being themselves. See also 2.10.
⇒ A note on out and closeted: Coming out is the process of becoming aware of your authentic identity and/or sharing that identity with others. A trans man who has transitioned is fully out as a man; whether or not he chooses to share his gender history with others is irrelevant. Being closeted means denying one’s identity to oneself and/or others, but if one’s identity is man and one is living life fully as a man, one is out. When a person shares that they have a history of gender transition, that is a disclosure, not an act of coming out.
2.4. Names, pronouns, and prefixes
2.4.1. Always use a person’s correct name, pronouns (or lack thereof), and prefix (if any). Always.
Use: Avery dyed zir hair; Lynn loves their grandson; Monica is her own best advocate; Marcus drove gher car with care; Xander tied hir shoes; Sam ate Sam’s lunch at Sam’s apartment
The first and foremost way to respect and honor a trans person’s personhood is to respect the language they use to refer to themself. Trans people have been forced to forge new paths in language in order to carve out space for our very existence. Because there are more than two, three, four, or five genders in the world, there are more than two, three, four, or five pronouns, and all are equally valid—including some people’s choice to be referred to using no pronouns at all.
2.4.2. Using a trans person’s birth name or former pronouns without permission (even when talking about them in the past) is a form of violence.
Use: Bridget knew from the age of 3 that she was a girl.
Avoid: At the age of 3, Bob announced that he was a girl. After transitioning, Bob—now Bridget—threw out her old clothes.
Some trans people do use a different name and/or pronouns to talk about themselves prior to transition, but this is rare. Unless you are told differently, only use a person’s true/current name and pronouns, even when writing about them in the past.
2.4.3. Pronouns are simply pronouns. They aren’t “preferred” and they aren’t inherently tied to gender identity or biology.
Use: pronouns; personal pronouns; she/her/hers; he/him/his; they/them/theirs; ze/zir/zirs; Sam/Sam/Sam (and any other pronoun or combination)
Avoid: preferred pronouns; masculine pronouns; feminine pronouns; male pronouns; female pronouns
As J. Mase III once succinctly put it, “my pronouns aren’t preferred; they’re required.” A person’s correct pronouns are not a preference; neither are pronouns inherently masculine, feminine, male, or female: for example, a masculine person could use she/her/hers pronouns and a female person could use they/them/theirs pronouns.
2.4.4. Respect singular they as a personal pronoun and use it appropriately.
Use: Elizabeth loves their cat; they are a big cat lover; they did something nice for themself yesterday
They/them/theirs has shot up in popularity in recent years as a personal pronoun for non-binary people. Despite what your third-grade English teacher might have told you, there is nothing incorrect about using they singularly. In fact, they is taking off in a way that ze or per or co or any of the hundreds of other invented pronouns never did precisely because of its existing “off-label” use as a singular pronoun (see 3.1).
Many dictionaries have addressed and/or endorsed this use already, including Merriam-Webster, the Oxford English Dictionary, and the American Heritage Dictionary; the American Dialect Society voted singular they 2015 Word of the Year; and in March 2017 AP style got on board as well.
When using singular they, verb conjugations follow the same rules as those for singular you: they did, they are, themself / you did, you are, yourself.
Note that although many non-binary people go by they/them/theirs, many others go by different pronouns (see 2.4.1). If a non-binary person goes by ze/zir/zirs, for example, referring to zir using they/them/theirs is still an act of mispronouning. Note also that binary people’s potential discomfort with new word usage must not take priority over the pain non-binary people experience when we are mispronouned and/or misgendered. See Grammarly for more.
2.5. Respect the diversity of language that people use to describe themselves.
It is a human tendency to try to make sense of the world by categorizing things, including people—but gender, in its true diversity, defies categorization. Biology is incredibly varied, and the meaning we draw from it is even more so. As noted in the introduction to this guide, trans people must be understood as the ultimate authorities on ourselves and the language used to describe us, even when doing so goes against things like style guides (this one or any other). When writing or talking about an individual person, this means finding out what language that person uses to describe themself and never assuming what language is correct or best without asking. Something as seemingly small as the difference between trans man and transman can have enormous significance to a person.
2.6. Practice particular sensitivity around culture-specific language related to gender identity and expression.
Gender is culturally constructed, which means that there isn’t a set, finite number of gendered experiences that transcend language; rather, cultural context is everything when it comes to gender. For example, two spirit is a beautifully complex term that doesn’t entirely translate outside of North American Indigenous cultures; just as terms like hijra, māhū, fa’afafine, and many others aren’t fully translatable outside their cultural contexts. Similarly, terms like stud and aggressive are terms that are specific to Black culture.
Historical context is also important. For example, it’s undeniable that Joan of Arc did not conform to the gender norms of her day, but describing her as transgender isn’t accurate, because today’s cultural understanding of what transgender means can’t be applied to people from a different era without knowing how they understood themselves in their own context.
2.7. Practice particular sensitivity around bodies and anatomy.
Avoid: female-bodied; male-bodied
Some trans people refer to themselves as being female-bodied or male-bodied, but this is never appropriate language for cisgender people to use. Trans folks employ all sorts of wonderfully creative language to refer to our body parts, and it is important that others—particularly our loved ones and medical providers—respect and mirror that language.
This isn’t just about respect. For people with gender dysphoria, referring to our anatomy—particularly reproductive anatomy—using language that we don’t associate ourselves with can be deeply triggering and traumatic.
So, when referring to trans people, if you are someone (like a medical provider) who needs to refer to our anatomy, find out what language we use and/or use generic and broad terminology (e.g., genitals, reproductive organs, and chest) instead of gender-loaded words (e.g., vagina, penis, and breasts). See 3.4 for more on sensitivity around anatomy-related language, and if you are a medical provider, check out these ten tips and standards of care from RAD Remedy for more.
2.8. Affirm that trans women are women, trans men are men, and non-binary people are non-binary.
Use: all women, including trans women; cis and trans men; cisgender people
Use: Maria, a woman from Nogales; non-binary students; Zed is an agender young adult
Avoid: women and trans women; normal people; real men; biological women
Avoid: Nogales resident Maria, who identifies as a woman; students who consider themselves “non-binary”; Zed identifies as agender
A consistent way that trans people’s identities are invalidated is when trans women and men are treated separately, linguistically, than cisgender women and men and when language is used to describe trans people’s genders, names, or pronouns that undermines them or calls them into question. Ashley Dejean’s article “How Journalists Fail Trans People” powerfully speaks to this.
As an example, a cis woman would never be described with the language “Mary Beth identifies as a woman” (one would just say “Mary Beth is a woman”), so using this language for a trans woman marks her as different and undermines her gender. Another example of invalidating language treatment is the use of “scare quotes” to set off the words trans folks use to describe ourselves.
2.9. Don’t sensationalize or nonconsensually disclose a trans person’s gender history.
For the majority of modern history, mainstream forces have treated (and written about) trans and gender nonconforming people as freakish, deviant, mentally unwell, and criminal. The media has been the primary source of sensationalizing and nonconsensually disclosed information about us. This context is vitally important.
Many trans people simply want to be able to live their lives as men, women, or non-binary people. If a person’s gender history isn’t relevant, don’t mention it (unless they want you to). And never disclose details related to a trans person’s gender history (such as their birth name or the sex they were assigned at birth) without consent. Doing so is at best gossip and at worse violence, and communicates that the person isn’t really who they are presenting themself as today.
2.10. Never use language that paints trans people as deceptive for living as our authentic selves.
Avoid: her secret was discovered; he disguised himself as a woman; she fooled everyone; no one knew the truth; the lie was exposed
Not only is there a long and storied history of trans people being perceived as deceitful simply for living our lives and being ourselves, but the choice to not disclose details of one’s past or anatomy has been used as justification for brutality toward and murder of trans folks (see: the infamous “trans panic” defense), so it is extra important to avoid any language that gives the impression that a trans person who chooses to keep details of their gender history private is lying, deceptive, or false, as Gwendolyn Ann Smith has powerfully written about.
Instead of secret or truth, try history or past. Instead of closeted or disguised, try private or nondisclosure. See also 2.3. regarding passing and stealth, as well as the note that follows about out and closeted.
2.11. Don’t perpetuate or validate trans-exclusionary hate or prejudice.
This should go without saying, but just in case it’s not clear, there aren’t two balanced sides to the story of whether or not trans people have the right to exist in public, in the words of Laverne Cox. Anyone writing about trans people has a moral obligation to do no harm, and this includes not perpetuating or validating perspectives that are harmful to trans people. For example, in discussing anti-trans legislation, writers often repeat prejudiced language (such as “bathroom bill”) or try to present “both sides” in ways that ultimately lend credence to hate, intolerance, or ignorance. Don’t do this. Trans lives and dignity are not up for debate.
⇒ A note on “TERF”: TERF stands for “trans-exclusionary radical feminist” and refers to people (most of whom are older, white, cis women) who believe that trans women are actually men. As a (feminist) radical copyeditor, I reject the idea that there is anything radical or feminist about this violent perspective, so I don’t use the term “TERF.”
Section 3. Sensitive and inclusive broader language
3.1. Recognize that there are more than two genders. Use singular they in a generic sense and avoid the language of gender opposites.
Use: Honor each person’s truth about their identity; everyone; people of all genders; siblings; kindred
Avoid: Honor each person’s truth about his or her identity; men and women; the opposite sex; both genders; brothers and sisters
Using they/them/theirs to refer to a person whose gender is unknown has a long and fairly consistent history in the English language, and many different people have documented how using they in both singular and plural fashion is grammatically correct, just as you can be used in both singular and plural fashion. Doing so is an essential way to create linguistic space for the existence of non-binary people.
3.2. Do not use LGBTQ or its many variants (LGBT, LGBTQIA+, etc.) as a synonym for gay.
Use: LGBTQ people versus non-LGBTQ people
Avoid: LGBTQ people versus straight people
If you’re using an acronym that includes trans people, it’s important to actually include trans people in the context of what you are writing about. For example, if you’re only writing about people in same-sex relationships, or if you’re trying to refer to everyone with a marginalized sexuality, don’t use LGBTQ. Some trans people (15%) identify as straight.* LGBTQ and straight/heterosexual are not, therefore, opposites, and should never be treated as such.
3.3. Recognize queer as a valid sexual orientation.
More trans people identify as queer (21%) than any other sexual orientation.* Although mainstream style guides and dictionaries have refused to recognize the evolution of this word, writing sensitively about trans people requires honoring the language we use to describe not only our genders but also our sexualities. Queer is a complex word with many different definitions, and in the context of trans communities, it must be recognized as a valid identity term.
3.4. Decouple anatomy from identity in your language.
Contrary to popular belief, anatomy is not inherently female or male. First, intersex people exist, and the Intersex Society of North America once estimated that as many as 1 in 100 bodies differ biologically from what is considered standard for females and males. Second, because of the existence of trans people, there are plenty of men who can get pregnant and women who need prostate exams (as just two examples).
What this means is that words like women and men do not speak to universal truths about bodies or experiences. Using women as shorthand for all people who can menstruate or get pregnant, or MSM (“men who have sex with men”) as a population at risk for many sexually transmitted infections, as two examples, is neither accurate nor inclusive of trans people.
When language inextricably links anatomy and identity, it does harm to those whose anatomy doesn’t align with norms and assumptions. In the examples above, promoting prenatal care exclusively to women keeps pregnant men and non-binary people from accessing care, and lumping trans women into the “MSM” category (and keeping trans men out of it) creates a barrier for vital trans-inclusive HIV research, prevention, and services.
Being mindful about not linking identity and anatomy doesn’t mean stripping identity from our language entirely. It just means keeping trans people (binary and non-binary) in mind when considering who you are actually talking about and how to refer to them. Context is everything, and determines whether you should say trans and cis women, women and trans people, or pregnant people, for example.
3.5. Embrace the fact that language can evolve quickly.
The language of gender identity and expression is evolving at lightning speed. This can easily feel overwhelming to some people and results in every sort of reaction, from knuckling down and resisting language changes to throwing up one’s hands in despair to becoming judgmental or dismissive of new (or old) words and the people who use them.
There’s another way. Choose to celebrate this rapid evolution of language because of what it means: that people who have been marginalized for centuries are finding ways of reclaiming agency and legitimacy; that those of us who have been written out of existence are finding ways to rewrite reality to make room for our true selves. The purpose of language is to communicate, not to regulate.
A final note
A style guide can never serve as a replacement for being in relationship with the real people you are writing about. If you are writing about trans people—whether you yourself are trans or not—always do so from a place of relationship. Don’t assume; ask. Always bring in additional trans perspectives on what you’ve written—across lines of gender, age, race, class, ability, and sexuality. Never fall for the trap of thinking that a single trans person can represent or speak for the breathtaking diversity of all of those who are encompassed by the word transgender. If you do nothing else, this one thing will always steer you right.
What did I miss? Comment below! Want to ask a radical copyeditor something? Contact me! Want to show your gratitude for this guide? Please make a donation!
You can also download this guide as a PDF.
Want more resources? Check out GLAAD’s transgender media reference guide, written specifically for journalists. Journalists can also read “Covering the Transgender Community” by Sara Morrison to learn what it takes to do it well. And as before, if you’re looking for a comprehensive glossary of transgender-related terminology, check out this one from Julia Serano.
*Note: Data from The Report of the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey (National Center for Transgender Equality, 2016).
**Last updated July 12, 2018. Grateful thanks to all those who have offered edits and additions to this style guide, including Teo Drake, Danni Green, Lex |
Manager Paul Wiedefeld said in a statement: “The actions we are taking today are all in the interest of our customers’ and employees’ safety, and will help us return to service once the storm passes and the snow is cleared.”
Metro said that it will use its tunnels to store railcars during the weekend to protect them from damage from the weather.
The MetroAccess program for transporting people with disabilities also will stop making outbound trips at 1 p.m. and cease all service at 6 p.m. Friday.
Read more:
How to prepare for this monster storm
How to protect your house, car and pets
The laws and fines for not shoveling snow in the D.C. areaWhen it comes to India, most of the world thinks of the densely populated cities of Mumbai and Delhi. Images of the uber rich, skyscrapers, luxury cars set against a backdrop of extreme poverty come to mind.
Of the 1.2 billion Indian people, 700 million still do not have access to banking services. Yet it has been proven that banking services can immediately increase the living standards of the poor. People are able to save, get small loans to open businesses, get paid faster, free up time and more.
Though they don’t have bank accounts, you know what all those people have? Mobile phones—960 million of them. This is why we believe India will become the most banked country in the world by 2020.
Why Indians Lack Banking
1. Most people live an average of 8 hours away from a branch.
2. Setting up an account requires a lot of paperwork and can take weeks to months
3. The cost structures of traditional banks make it non-scalable to offer accounts to small depositors.
4. 90% of spending is done with micro-businesses (smaller than small businesses) where cash is preferred.
5. There is a massive cost to convert people from cash to banking; $15 per sign up and $15 to train. For businesses, $500 to install and train people on a terminal.
6. Personal finance happens in small increments which banks think are not worth it.
For us in the West, our regular checking accounts can run $15 per month for just basic services. This is because our infrastructure is not efficient and the banks need that to support the system. Given the low income of most Indians, this existing model is impossible to scale in the region.
Changes Are Creating a New Model
Now let’s get to why we should all bet big on India (and also South East Asian countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, etc):
1. Each year 20 Million Indians enters the middle class, the equivalent of the adult population of Canada. This group is educated and open to new technologies and methods.
2. The Aadhaar Card is a system created by the Government that makes it extremely quick to identify people and thus vastly reducing the amount of paperwork needed to set up accounts.
3. Using retail outlets to offer services and educate customers leads to branchless banking. This is similar to how retail outlets became points of connection for mobile operators in India.
4. Banks haven’t examined their costs infrastructure like mobile operators did. There are huge opportunities for cost reductions, therefore making it profitable to service small depositors.
5. Government financial disbursements are going electronic. This will force people to go electronic too.
Mobile Operators Will Become the New Banks
In addition to the above trends, the biggest thing to make banking explode in India is Mobile Operators. Kenya’s M-Pesa showed that mobile operators can become banks. Kenya, a population of 40 million people, went from three million bank accounts in 2007 to 20 million in five years.
In August, the Reserve Bank of India granted 11 new banking licenses, and two of them were mobile operators: Airtel and Vodaphone. With both having banking licenses, there will be a huge impact both within India and outside.
As an example, let’s look at Remittance. India is the number one country in the world for remittance. $70 billion every year is sent from migrant workers back to their loved ones. Imagine Scotiabank telling their Indo-Canadian customers that they can now send money right to their families at affordable rates and speed. Instead of going to a Western Union, they can log on to their account and send the funds right to their relative’s phone in India.
Before the receiver could receive it to their phone but then they had to find a way to off board the money to use it in a real setting. Now they have the funds on hand and can use it to pay for things directly without needing to convert airtime. In addition, small Indian entrepreneurs who make products can sell them internationally and have funds sent right to their Airtel Bank. There is no need to go through intermediaries. Just think what Etsy in India might look like.
Without legacy systems in place, the Asian countries have already leapfrogged the west in mobile use and now they will do the same with innovative banking technologies. Mobile operators as banks is just the start, mobile wallets will explode and then comes distributed ledgers and new networks. for the brave, bold, and stubborn there are many reasons not to be deterred by the short-term challenges in developing nations.FADE IN:
EXT. BATTLEFIELD, MID-WORLD
IDRIS ELBA and his dad DENNIS HAYSBERT are the only guys left alive after a battle during what looks like THE CIVIL WAR but ISN’T.
IDRIS ELBA
Shit, our nemesis Matthew McConaughey is lurking somewhere, waiting to finish us off! Let’s do that mantra we have, which allows us to focus our minds during the heat of battle!
DENNIS HAYSBERT
You mean the one that takes nearly a full minute to say, and is therefore useless during the heat of battle?
IDRIS ELBA
That’s the one. I’m sure Matthew can just do a crossword or something while he waits for us to finish.
MATTHEW McCONAUGHEY shows up and KILLS DENNIS by TELLING HIM TO DIE, and simply CATCHES IDRIS’S BULLETS out of the air.
MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY
That’s right, I can force suggest people to death and guns are useless against me, since I have the powers of the people who’ve slept with Jessica Jones! Lucky for you you’re inexplicably immune to my brainwashing, so I’ll just have to let you go.
IDRIS ELBA
But later we reveal you can shoot fire out of your hands. Am I immune to your fire also?
MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY
Uh, I guess?
IDRIS ELBA
How about all these guns lying around that you could shoot me with? Am I immune to them too?
MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY
(waves hands)
You know what, this is all just a DREEEAAAMMM WOOOOO
INT. TOM TAYLOR’S APARTMENT, KEYSTONE EARTH, NOT THAT ANY VERSION OF TAYLOR’S CHARACTER SHOULD EVEN EXIST ON KEYSTONE EARTH BUT WHATEVER
Indeed some TEENAGER in NEW YORK CITY called TOM TAYLOR wakes up from that DREAM.
TOM TAYLOR
Mom, these constant visions, they’re trying to warn me! There’s a Dark Tower which is the nexus of the whole multiverse, and it’s in trouble! In Algul Siento, the prison in Thunderclap, The Man in Black and his Taheen minions are using Breakers to destroy the Bear-Turtle Beam, which will topple the Tower and leave us all stranded in todash space!!
KATHERINE WINNICK
(reading script)
What? In my copy everything you just said has been crossed out except “Dark Tower... in trouble”. I’m pretty sure we’ve thrown out basically all of Stephen King’s impenetrable mythology.
TOM TAYLOR
Oh no, don’t tell me we’ve taken his sprawling, four-thousand page western fantasy action horror post-apocalyptic sci-fi fairytale epic, and boiled it down into a generic ninety-minute Eragon/Seventh Son/The Seeker: The Dark is Rising YA piece of shit about a kid who discovers powers and fights an evil guy who wants to rule the universe.
KATHERINE WINNICK
I’m afraid so. Now, because of all your weird-ass dreams and their attendant craziness, your evil bastard stepdad has decided to have you institutionalized.
NICHOLAS PAULING
Hey, don’t go pinning that evil-stepfather crap on me just because I’ve suggested that maybe a kid suffering from constant nightmares, psychotic delusions and bouts of uncontrolled violence might need professional help.
TOM TAYLOR
You fools, those psychiatrists are really kidnapping extra-dimensional rat people wearing human masks!! The fact that you don’t believe my deranged, paranoid blitherings makes you the WORST PARENTS EVERRR!!!
TOM flees the FAKE PSYCHIATRISTS, retreating to a CREEPY ABANDONED HOUSE.
TOM TAYLOR
Fortunately my most recent nightmare conveniently directed me to this plot-advancing house.
(house tries to eat him)
Hey, cut it out you stupid house.
(house cuts it out)
Well that was worthwhile. Oh look, an interdimensional portal machine!
He types in some COORDINATES and jumps through the PORTAL.
TOM TAYLOR
Those coordinates were also handily provided by my psychic dream! Yes I’m sure glad those premonitions showed me point-by-point how to-
EXT. DESERT, MID-WORLD
The portal dumps TOM into the middle of the DESERT.
TOM TAYLOR
(looking around)
...get stranded in a featureless wasteland without the first clue where I’m supposed to go. Wonderful. Oh well, guess I’ll pick a direction at random and just start wandering aimlessly until I blunder into Idris.
He successfully DOES THIS.
TOM TAYLOR
Hi, Idris! How goes your soul-and-sanity-destroying Ahab-like quest for the Dark Tower?
IDRIS ELBA
Actually that motivation was somewhat interesting, so we’ve ditched it in favor of a stultifyingly by-the-numbers “me want kill Matthew” plot.
TOM TAYLOR
Matthew McConaughey? Yeah, I’ve had psychic visions about that guy.
IDRIS ELBA
Some kid wanders out of nowhere and tells me he has information that could help lead me to Matthew?! That’s way too good to be true, and EXACTLY the kind of manipulative shit a trickster villain like Matthew would try to trap me with! Let’s go, stranger I immediately trust!
TOM TAYLOR
Er, aren’t you supposed to be a jaded and wary-
IDRIS ELBA
Nope, the movie version of Roland doesn’t have ANY character traits. I’m just a guy who does whatever things will take us closer to the end of the movie. Now, we need some psychics to make sense of your visions, and since we’re in the ass-end of nowhere without any sign of civilization, naturally we’ll find a psychic village full of psychics right on the other side of this forest.
TOM TAYLOR
Forest? We were in a huge desert...
IDRIS ELBA
Well now there’s a forest. Whatever, it’s fine, let’s just do this thing.
They trek through a FOREST which contains the ruins of an ancient THEME PARK, because this alternate universe is also in the future or something. Then when they camp for the night, TOM is awoken by his MOM calling to him.
KATHERINE WINNICK
Tom! What’s going on? I managed to track you down to some abandoned house and there was this weird portal, and now I’m here, I don’t understand...
TOM TAYLOR
(to camera)
See now, if some demon creature wanted to assume a form to lure me to it, this would be the logical way to go. Want to know what it actually tried to pull in the actual movie?
TOM’S DEAD DAD
Hi, Tom! It’s me, your dad, who died in a fire and whose burned remains you buried in the ground years ago! Well it turns out that instead of getting burned, I actually went to an alternate universe and now here I am hanging around some creepy forest. Doesn’t that make all kinds of sense? Bring it in, buddy!
But IDRIS wakes up and SHOOTS TOM’S FAKE DEAD DAD and it turns into some kind of GOOPY CGI BLOB! Then he SHOOTS IT SOME MORE and it turns into a DEAD BLOB.
IDRIS ELBA
Phew, that was a close thing. No harm done at least.
(skin turns weird mottled color)
(paralyzed down one side)
Oh, well, I guess I did get just a teeensy bit impaled on one of its tendrils of goop. Maybe I’ll give it a passing mention to somebody when we get to Psychicville.
(organ failure)
You know, if we have time.
(heart stops)
TOM TAYLOR
Sheesh, you and your chronic underacting. Then again, it’s not surprising that we’re shrugging off your vaguely X-Files-ish infection considering we don’t even seem all that concerned about the impending destruction of all universes.
INT. EVIL LAIR
MATTHEW is in his COMMAND CENTER, surrounded by FLUNKIES such as JACKIE EARLE HALEY.
MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY
The fact that Tom has eluded us with such boring, tension-destroying ease suggests that he may have the kind of psychic power I need to harness so I can blow up the Dark Tower and end the universe!
JACKIE EARLE HALEY
I thought you wanted to TAKE OVER the universe?
MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY
Actually I want to destroy it, then take it over. It’s a logical plan, shut up! Anyway, use your power to taste psychic abilities - which is a thing you have, apparently - to test this sample of Tom’s blood.
JACKIE EARLE HALEY
(licks blood sample, ew)
Holy shit! Tom has like a billion midichlorians, he must be a stereotypical YA pseudo-messiah!
MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY
I knew it! We should go capture him so I can plug his brain into my psychic zappy-machine!
(pause)
But do to that, I must recharge my evil energies. And sometimes you gotta go back to actually move forward. I don't mean going back to reminisce or chase ghosts, I mean going back to see where you came from. I know there are those who say you can't go back. Yes you can. Just have to look in the right place.
(winks)
(vanishes to other dimension)
(returns)
Aaah, that's better.
INT. CALLA BRYN STURGIS MAYBE?
In the PSYCHIC VILLAGE, PSYCHIC CLAUDIA KIM is MIND-MELDING with TOM.
CLAUDIA KIM
Holy shit! You have like a billion midichlorians, you must be a stereotypical YA pseudo-messiah! Matthew’s gonna want to plug your brain into his psychic zappy-machine!
TOM TAYLOR
Okay thank you, we have established all that several times in fact. This movie only has like five plot points, do we really need to keep hammering them home like this?
CLAUDIA KIM
Kinda. With the story and characters as paper-thin as they are, all we really have to fill out the time is excessive exposition and gratuitous monster attacks, so-
IDRIS ELBA
OH NO, MATTHEW HAS SENT MONSTERS TO ATTAAAACK US!
A bunch of SCARECROW-LOOKING DUDES charge into the town to try and kidnap TOM, but IDRIS shoots them all.
IDRIS ELBA
Damn, we need to hurry up to New York so we can reach Matthew’s headquarters and kill him, I don’t know how many more of these not-dangerous-seeming-at-all attacks we can withstand!
CLAUDIA KIM
Fortunately this random farming village happens to have one of those convenient portal machines in the middle of it, because seriously we all just want to shortcut this entire plot so we can end this movie and get on with our lives.
IDRIS ELBA
(sprinting through portal)
Yes fucking PLEASE! Oh and uh, since that attack on your village just now makes it clear that Matthew knows about you helping us, you should probably hide somewhere far away, immediately.
CLAUDIA KIM
Pfft, or what? Matthew will use his evil sorceror powers to interrogate and kill me?
IDRIS ELBA
Yes. If you stick around that is obviously what he will do.
CLAUDIA KIM
I’d like to see him try!
(sees him try)
(dies)
INT. HOSPITAL
Having reached NEW YORK, IDRIS and TOM finally bother having IDRIS’S BLOOD POISONING seen to.
DOCTOR
There you go, we gave you a shot of penicillin and now your infection and paralysis and even your impalement wound have all been instantly fixed forever. That’s how antibiotics work!
TOM TAYLOR
Neat! Now Idris, I’d like to go check on my mother, but on the way do you think you could whip up a few minutes of half-assed Tarzan’s New York Adventure-style hijinks?
IDRIS ELBA
Well that seems like the kind of thing that would only really work with a character with any actual personality or charm, but I’ll give it a shot.
(drinks soft drink)
I somewhat like this beverage.
(rides bus)
I have no opinion about this.
TOM TAYLOR
Yeah, this is something that should never have been attempted.
They get to TOM’S APARTMENT, only to find that MATTHEW has already stopped by and VAPORIZED TOM’S MOM!
TOM TAYLOR
OH NOOOO!!! Since Matthew knew we’d come here, he killed my mother so that I’d find her remains, shoot off random psychic energy in my distress, and thus allow them to track the psychic burst and pinpoint my location!!
IDRIS ELBA
Okayyy... it seems like a simpler plan would have been, “since Matthew knew we’d come here, he waited for us to show up”.
TOM TAYLOR
That’s a fair poi
(captured by Matthew’s minions)
IDRIS ELBA
Or he could have just waited for us at his headquarters, as we were literally planning to show up on his doorstep. Dude didn’t even have to leave the house.
INT. EVIL LAIR
MATTHEW has strapped TOM into a MACHINE which is sucking out his PSYCHIC BRAIN ENERGY and firing it at the DARK TOWER.
MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY
Bwa ha ha, I’m finally achieving my evil ambitions! All we need is for Idris to not show up, so I’m presuming we shut down the portal from New York? It’s a machine, so we can just turn it off and then Idris will have absolutely no means of getting here.
JACKIE EARLE HALEY
True, true... but why don’t I just try to beat him up instead? I have super fighting powers, apparently!
MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY
Really? Okay then, I’m guessing then your character isn’t just some weedy CEO like in the books?
JACKIE EARLE HALEY
Who the fuck even knows!
(chuckles, shrugs)
JACKIE goes to the NEW YORK side of the PORTAL and starts fighting IDRIS! They BOTH seem to have vague amounts of SUPER-STRENGTH and INVULNERABILITY all of a sudden!
JACKIE EARLE HALEY
While this scene makes no sense, at least after that crappy blob demon and those boring scarecrow guys, you finally have a formidable opponent to fight! You’ll have to show some serious skills to defeat-
(is run over by a random car, seriously he gets killed by total accident wtf)
IDRIS goes inside to kill MATTHEW and save TOM.
IDRIS ELBA
Take this, Matthew!
(shoots at Matthew)
Oh right, he can catch my bullets. But can he still catch them... NOW?
(shoots at Matthew)
Hmm, it would seem so. Oh, I know! What if I... SHOOT at him?
(shoots at Matthew)
Well that didn’t work. Fortunately I still have a trick up my sleeve!
(shoots at Matthew)
MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY
You know what they say: when all you have is a hammer, and all the nails are completely hammer-proof evil sorcerors, then you’re useless and you suck.
He hurls HALF A TON OF CONCRETE at IDRIS, who fortunately is still JUST INVULNERABLE ENOUGH to get INCAPACITATED but not DIE.
TOM TAYLOR
Come on, Idris, you can still win! Just do that interminable mantra thing!
IDRIS ELBA
Oh right, that badassery-increasing chant that I’ve been using in battle since I was like twelve, how could I forget? Seriously, how could I possibly forget, it’d be like Popeye forgetting about the existence of spinach. Oh, but Matthew, this is gonna take a while, so if you don’t mind...
MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY
(sighs)
Sure fine, I’ll just hold this fireball in my hand for the next forty-five seconds instead of using it to incinerate you. Let’s drain even MORE energy out of this snoozefest, I’m amazed it’s even possible.
MATTHEW stalks up to IDRIS as slowly as humanly possible. Finally IDRIS finishes droning through the mantra, and it fills him with DETERMINATION!
IDRIS ELBA
Aha, and now I’ll shoot a bullet at you, which you’ll try to catch, but then I’ll fire a SECOND bullet at a wall so that it ricochets INTO the first bullet, knocking it out of the way of your hand and into your heart! Clever, huh?
MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY
So your plan relies on the second bullet actually catching up to the first, even though it was fired later and is traveling towards me by a more indirect route?
IDRIS ELBA
It might be physically possible. Maybe we live in the Wanted universe, you don’t know.
MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY
Pfft, that’s so ridiculous that, even though up til now I’ve had the common sense to pay close attention to your ricocheting bullets on the off chance they were intended to achieve something, I’ll completely disregard this one and-
(perforated)
Dead-a-chump?
(dies)
IDRIS pulls TOM out of the MACHINE.
IDRIS ELBA
Well Tom, now you have nothing tying you to your old life. Wanna stay with me in Mid-World, to do the TV series they still hilariously claim is gonna happen?
TOM TAYLOR
Actually this movie is supposedly a sequel to the TV show that doesn’t exist yet. As well as being a canonical sequel to the books, despite contradicting them on almost every conceivable level.
IDRIS ELBA
What? That’s gibberish.
TOM TAYLOR
Look on the bright side, maybe that’ll mean that if the show does happen, it’ll be based on the actual stories from the books, and thus actually stand a chance of being good!
IDRIS ELBA
Tom, Tom, Tom. In one of the Dark Tower novels the bad guys are a bunch of robots in Doctor Doom cosplay. They ride robot horses and attack farmers with lightsabers and weaponized Golden Snitches, before finally being defeated by a bunch of housewives who throw dinner plates at them.
TOM TAYLOR
...Oh. Fuck it then, let’s just hope some other Stephen King adaptation comes along that’s a million times better, so we can forget this piece of shit ever existed.
END.SHARANA, Afghanistan (Reuters) - When 18-year-old Fawzia was convicted of elopement and adultery, a local Afghan court in the southeastern province of Paktika sentenced her to jail.
She soon discovered that she would not be serving the 18-month sentence in a government-run prison, but in the house of a tribal elder where she would work as an unpaid domestic servant, entirely under his control.
“I was treated like an animal and kept like a slave,” Fawzia told Reuters in Sharana, the provincial capital of Paktika.
Released briefly from detention because she was sick, she declined to be formally identified for fear of reprisals from the elder’s family. Fawzia is a familiar name by which she is known to relatives and close friends.
“What I have suffered, I pray that no woman should ever suffer,” Fawzia said.
In Paktika, a poor, religiously conservative and underdeveloped province sharing a rugged border with some of Pakistan’s most lawless areas, there are no detention centers for women.
Afghanistan’s overcrowded prisons have frequently been singled out for international criticism.
But for thousands of women, conviction and punishment bypass the formal legal system entirely and are decided by local councils or village elders, as the federal government struggles to impose judicial authority in remote regions.
Restoring fundamental women’s rights was one of the main objectives of the international community in Afghanistan, where the hardline Islamist Taliban banned girls from school and women from work.
Fawzia’s case shows how hard-earned freedoms won since the Taliban was toppled in 2001 have barely penetrated many areas.
ELDERS’ “PROPERTY”
The U.S. State Department’s most recent Human Rights report, published in April, noted that “the formal legal system often was not present in rural areas” and gatherings of local elders were the main means of settling disputes.
“They also imposed punishments without regard to the formal legal system,” it said.
Some 850 women are imprisoned in official detention centers in Afghanistan for crimes ranging from murder to drugs and “moral crimes”, said Alim Kohistani, director of Afghanistan’s prison service.
Fawzia poses for a picture as she spends her jail term in one of the tribal elders' house in Paktika province, Afghanistan July 27, 2016. Picture taken July 27, 2016.REUTERS/Stringer
But that number does not include those held in informal detention.
“There could be thousands of other women kept in unofficial places across the country in the absence of proper jails,” Kohistani said, adding that the government tolerated the situation but could do little to change it.
“We do our best to help them whenever needed and review their cases on time and make sure their rights are not violated,” he said.
While not all women held this way are mistreated, they have little legal recourse to get complaints heard, and human rights activists say the scope for abuse is wide.
“From sexual abuse to other forms of unjust and inhumane acts, these women become a tribal elder’s property,” said Zalmay Kharote, a rights activist working in Paktika.
Some 95 percent of girls and 50 percent of women imprisoned in Afghanistan were accused of “moral crimes” like running away from home or “zina” - extramarital relations, according to a report from Human Rights Watch.
Though tried in a provincial court, Fawzia has been in the custody of the tribal elder since 2015 and lives in a hut adjoining his house, washing and cleaning for his family, she said.
She did not specify if she had been sexually abused, an issue which carries a huge, potentially deadly, stigma in Afghanistan. But Fawzia did say that she was alone and cut off from her family.
“This is not like a proper prison where you can see your mother, your sister or they can bring something for you,” she said, covering her face with a woolen scarf.
“RULE OF LAW CANNOT TOUCH THEM”
Paktika has seen little benefit from tens of billions of dollars in international aid pumped into the country over the past 15 years, despite which the central government has struggled to contain a stubborn Taliban insurgency.
Bibi Hawa Khoshiwal, head of the women’s affairs department in the province, said women convicts were being sent to tribal elders as well as to the homes of the few female police officers.
“We admit that it is not legal, but we do get letters from the tribal elders guaranteeing to treat them well. But in some cases they don’t,” she told Reuters.
Khoshiwal said only 16 criminal cases involving women reached the courts in Paktika last year, while dozens of others, in which women were either victims or perpetrators of alleged murder and abuse, were settled by tribal elders.
Slideshow (2 Images)
Khalil Zadran, a powerful elder in Paktika, said he saw no problem in being the custodian of women prisoners and he had never mistreated women who were held at his home. His second wife is a woman who served a jail sentence in his house.
“When a woman is sentenced, the governor or the police chief call me and ask me to keep the woman in my place as long as it is necessary,” he said, leaning on an AK-47 assault rifle as he spoke. “I do this to serve my tribe... I can keep as many women as it takes.”Sen. Gary Peters (Photo: Max Ortiz / Detroit News file)
Washington — With two colleagues, Michigan Democratic Sen. Gary Peters led a letter signed by a bipartisan group of 23 senators urging the Trump administration not to slash the budget of the U.S. Coast Guard by 12 percent, or $1.3 billion.
President Donald Trump is expected to send his first proposed budget to Congress on Thursday, including the reported Coast Guard cuts and a 97 percent reduction in the $300 million a year in the initiative to clean up the Great Lakes.
The senators, 20 Democrats and three Republicans, stressed the role Coast Guard plays in protecting the nation’s borders, conducting counter-terrorism and other patrols, last year seizing a record-breaking 416,000 pounds of illegal drugs worth more than $5 billion.
In Michigan, the Guard operates a fleet of six ice cutters to ensure the movement of vessels on the Great Lakes and three air stations, as well as conducting search and rescue missions and directing boat traffic on the lakes.
“We are concerned that the Coast Guard would not be able to maintain maritime presence, respond to individual and national emergencies, and protect our nation’s economic and environmental interests. The proposed reduction … of 11.8 percent would directly contradict the priorities articulated by the Trump administration,” particularly Trump’s desire to invest in the military, wrote the senators, including Michigan’s Debbie Stabenow, a Lansing Democrat.
“We urge you to restore the $1.3 billion cut to the Coast Guard budget, which we firmly believe would result in catastrophic negative impacts to the Coast Guard and its critical role in protecting our homeland, our economy and our environment.”
The senators, in the letter to Office of Budget and Management Director Mick Mulvaney, underscored that the Guard’s budget has declined steadily for seven years with, for instance, its acquisition budget falling more than 40 percent from 2010 to 2015 and its fleet of cutters and patrol boats “aging at an unsustainable rate with little prospect of replacement.”
The cuts could jeopardize progress toward securing funding to build a new heavy ice breaker for the Great Lakes authorized by Congress in 2015.
The senators also warned against a plan to decommission two specialized counterterrorism Coast Guard teams focused on maritime security, saying the move would reduce the Guard’s ability to conduct port security and other maritime infrastructure protection operations.
Peters, the new ranking Democrat on the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries and Coast Guard, said the proposed cuts are counter-intuitive to Trump’s focus on securing the nation’s borders.
“The reason for these cuts is to build a wall on the Southern border, and Donald Trump has failed to get the Mexican government to pay for it, as he promised the American people,” Peters said in an interview.
“He can’t deliver on that promise, so now he’s expecting the American taxpayers to pay for it, and in the process we’re going to cut an important agency that’s responsible for protecting our borders across the country. We have more maritime borders than we have land borders, and the Coast Guard is critical for that.”
Peters also stressed the importance of the Coast Guard’s role in patrolling Arctic waters, which are seeing more international commercial activity, including by Russian vessels.
“Right now, the leading force in the Arctic is the Russians – they have the ice breakers and a very large presence. And the only folks that counter the Russians are the United States Coast Guard,” Peters said. “I don’t know why he wants to let the Russians basically dominate the Arctic but, if that’s what he wants to do, the best way to do it is to cut the Coast Guard budget.”
Read or Share this story: http://detne.ws/2mGWdscA couple of months ago I took my teenage daughter to the doctor for an ear infection, and came home with a prescription for the antibiotic Cipro. I've taken it before myself, and thought nothing more about it - until I read the fine print in the insert that said it wasn't recommended for patients under 18. That made me call the advice nurse, who assured me there was nothing to worry about. It also made me dig a little deeper, and start asking questions.
And then a couple of weeks ago the New York Times came out with a scary blog post about Cipro and related antibiotics, and I really began to wonder.
The Frightening History of Fluoroquinolones
Some of this isn't news, exactly. (Except that the message doesn't seem to be getting through.) For at least 15 years, patients, doctors and pharmacology experts have been warning about the dangerous and potentially deadly side effects of fluroroquinolones, often referred to as quinolones or FLQs in the health field.
Fluoroquinolones are extremely powerful antibiotics, developed to treat serious respiratory tract infections such as hospital-induced pneumonia, and other antibiotic-resistant or potentially deadly infections. (Cipro received major press when it was prescribed to postal workers and soldiers to prevent anthrax infection.)
Infectious disease experts consider them to be an antibiotic of last resort, to be prescribed only when first-line antibiotics such as penicillin fail to work, or in cases of extreme, life-threatening infection, or for certain bacteria known to respond best to quinolones. However, many doctors now go to Cipro and Levaquel first, prescribing them for ear infections, sinus infections, urinary tract infections, and many other common bacterial diseases.
The most common American antibiotics in this class are Cipro (Bayer). Levaquin (Johnson & Johnson), and Avelox (Bayer) - generics are ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin, and moxifloxacin, and others with the word "flox" in them. Lots of antibiotics have side effects, but what makes quinolones so much riskier is that the side effects caused aren't necessarily temporary; they can cause severe and permanent disability.
Just a few listed on the drugs' warning labels or named in studies:
Toxic Psychosis
Neuropathy
Retinal Detachment
Tendon Rupture
Muscle Damage
Seizures
Heart Arryhthmias
Abnormal Liver Function
Kidney Damage
Neurotoxicity was one of the first side effects reported. As far back as 2001, Indiana University Professor David Flockhart, considered one of the foremost experts in fluoroquinolone-related side effects, published research linking quinolones to neurotoxicity.
Flockhart also had this to say: "...as many as a third of patients taking a fluoroquinolone will experience some sort of psychiatric side effect, such as anxiety, personality change or confusion...The psychiatric effects of the fluoroquinolones are underappreciated by the medical profession as well as by the public."
Also in 2001 Jay Cox of the University of California, San Diego, published research demonstrating the potential of fluoroquinolones to cause peripheral neuropathy. Since then, Cox since then has been documenting "terrible, catastrophic reactions" to Cipro, Levaquin and other drugs in the class in a newsletter.
Even earlier, in his 1998 book Bitter Pill, journalist Stephen Fried documented his wife's reaction to Floxin, one of the earliest of the quinolones (now pulled from the market), and his family's journey to get her condition recognized and treated.
The most recent researched, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in April, linked fluoroquinolones to retinal detachment, which can cause temporary or permanent blindness.
Cipro and Levaquin now carry "black box" warnings for tendon rupture and for the potential to exacerbate the autoimmune condition myasthenia gravis.
The Numbers
The statistics on adverse reactions to Cipro, Levaquin and others aren't considered complete because of the way the FDA's database is constructed; the FDA considers its system to reflect about 10 percent of the actual incidence. Even so, there have been 2,500 documented deaths resulting from the major quinolones and 45,000 cases of side effects. Websites like Hurt by Levaquin and Surviving Cipro have sprung up as forums for those who consider themselves victims of the drugs.
The Business Side
Even with generics on the market, Levaquin is still one of Johnson & Johnson's top sellers; Levaquin sales were 1.5 billion in 2010. However, J&J faces a mounting pile of lawsuits filed by those who believe they were injured by the drug. The drug-maker has strengthened warnings about Levaquin's dangers multiple times since the medication gained approval in 1996, and continues to stand by the drug's safety.
Here is the quote I received from Shaun Mickus, Director of Product Communication for Janssen Pharmaceuticals, which owns Johnson & Johnson: "LEVAQUIN is part of an important class of anti-infective prescription medications that have been used for more than 20 years to treat infections, including those that may be serious or life threatening. When used according to the product labeling, LEVAQUIN has been proven to be a safe and effective medication."
In January 2012, Harrington Investments of California submitted a shareholder's proposal to J&J management asking the company to make changes to address the health and financial concerns of patients harmed by |
servers to running virtual instances in the cloud was a game changer for startups that embraced the technology a decade ago. Suddenly, the cost of running complex infrastructure was accessible to even the most cash-strapped business allowing for a competitive advantage over traditional hosting of physical servers. Now, with blockchain applications taking off, incentivized nodes are giving business a new competitive advantage by facilitating the outsourcing of servers. By structuring a competitive incentive model, business can outsource their infrastructure by compensating anybody who is interested in and capable of running a server.
The evolution of open-source funding
When most open source projects get started, they rely on free labor. If the project is successful or shows potential, we occasionally see outside funding. Recently we’ve seen blockchain applications like Dash self-funding development through a share of the blockchain reward.
But what about the infrastructure?
Don’t ignore your infrastructure needs
Addressing infrastructure needs is difficult even for a well-funded private start-up. For open-source, decentralized projects that rely on a robust network for security, a plan for attracting participation is crucial. A failure to address infrastructure needs early on can lead to a stalled project.
Incentivize participation
Unless you plan to rely on volunteers to run your network’s infrastructure, you will need to incentivize participation. Volunteer participation might be a good initial strategy, but as a long term solution, reliance on volunteers is not viable.
Come out to hear my presentation where I’ll talk about some strategies for encouraging participation.Пока в Германии размышляют над тем, нужно ли публиковать «Майн кампф» Адольфа Гитлера, в некоторых европейских странах возникают разногласия, из-за которых создается впечатление, что Вторая мировая война продолжается до сих пор. Теперь, когда поколение людей, которые принимали непосредственное участие в той войне, постепенно исчезает, не пришло ли время политикам перестать использовать ее в своих целях.
Давайте вспомним сообщения, недавно появившиеся в СМИ:
• Лидер французской ультраправой партии «Национальный фронт» Марин Ле Пен (Marine Le Pen) публично поссорилась со своим отцом, основателем этой партии Жаном-Мари Ле Пеном (Jean-Marie Le Pen), заявившим, что газовые камеры были лишь «исторической деталью» Второй мировой войны. Она назвала это «политическим самоубийством» и решила снять его кандидатуру с региональных выборов, однако все это было очень похоже на политический спектакль, который должен был доказать избирателям, что «Национальный фронт» больше не исповедует ксенофобские взгляды (Ле Пен-старший до сих пор остается почетным председателем партии).
• Греция озвучила окончательную сумму (279 миллионов евро) репараций, которые она требует от Германии за ущерб, нанесенный Греции нацистским режимом. Хотя Германия не собирается платить, президент России Владимир Путин выразил свою поддержку Греции, передав греческому премьер-министру Алексису Ципрасу историческую греческую икону, похищенную нацистами во время Второй мировой войны.
• В России в отношении владельца магазина игрушек было заведено уголовное дело за то, что в его магазине продавались игрушки с нацистской символикой. Роскомнадзору, правительственному органу, отвечающему за цензуру, пришлось выступить с официальными разъяснениями: его представители подчеркнули, что простая демонстрация свастики без намерения пропагандировать нацизм — это не преступление. Между тем, российское государственное телевидение и политики продолжают эксплуатировать воспоминания о Второй мировой войне, чтобы оправдать войну на Украине.
• Украинский парламент принял решение признать Украинскую повстанческую армию и ряд других группировок времен Второй мировой войны в качестве «борцов за независимость Украины», что делает незаконными публичные нападки на них, а также дает их членам и их семьям право на определенные льготы. Между тем, в этом законе, с радостью встреченном националистами, не упоминается о том, что в прошлом Украинская повстанческая армия оказывала поддержку немецким оккупантам и помогала им уничтожать украинских евреев.
В 2015 году все это звучит крайне неестественно. Если Марин Ле Пен придет к власти, и вдруг окажется, что она всегда была согласна со своим отцом относительно Холокоста, она не станет снова открывать газовые камеры. Существует масса веских причин не голосовать за «Национальный фронт» — это все еще ксенофобская партия — помимо уроков Второй мировой войны.
Современная Германия имеет такое же отношение к нацистскому рейху, как современная Греция — к царям Спарты, и именно поэтому она вовсе не должна выплачивать Греции такие астрономические суммы. Игрушечные солдатики — а также нацистская символика и форма — сами по себе не представляют никакой угрозы, несмотря на то, что представителям моего поколения на подсознательном уровне они кажутся отталкивающими. А парламентам не стоит делать выводы относительно того, кто был, а кто не был героем 75 лет назад, потому что их задача заключается в том, чтобы писать современную историю, а не переписывать главы прошлого.
Политики слишком долго используют Вторую мировую войну, чтобы вызывать определенные эмоции и заручаться поддержкой граждан в продвижении своих зачастую разрушительных идей. В настоящий момент пропагандистский аппарат Путина пытается изобразить отказ большинства западных лидеров приехать в Москву на парад в честь празднования 70-летней годовщины победы над нацистами как предательство альянса эпохи Второй мировой войны. На самом же деле лидеры западных стран таким образом выражают свой протест против вмешательства Путина в дела Украины (в прошлом году он приехал на празднования Дня победы в Крым, который незадолго до этого Россия аннексировала).
В этом году истекает срок защиты авторских прав на «Майн кампф» Адольфа Гитлера, и перспектива публикации этой книги в Германии вызывает очередную волну переоценки уроков Второй мировой войны. Возможно, этим моментом стоит воспользоваться, чтобы окончательно отказаться от использования темы этой войны в политических дискуссиях.
Автор «Майн кампф» умер 70 лет назад. После его смерти союзники передали все его имущество Баварии, власти которой до сих пор препятствовали публикации этой книги на немецком языке. В 2013 году они отказались профинансировать проект мюнхенского Института новейшей истории, в рамках которого эту книгу в 700 страниц должны были опубликовать вместе с 1300 страницами научных комментариев: тогда еврейские группы решительно выступили против этого проекта, и дело приобрело политическую окраску.
Несмотря на все преграды, институт намеревается выпустить эту книгу в начале следующего года. «Комментарии к “Майн кампф” — это не только научная задача, — говорится на официальном сайте института. — Вряд ли можно найти какую-либо другую книгу, столь же перегруженную мифами, а это вызывает отвращение и страх, любопытство и гипотезы и создает ауру таинственности и запретности».
Они правы. Публикация «Майн кампф» в рамках научного проекта может стать подходящей отправной точкой для того, чтобы положить конец различным табу и их использованию в политических целях. Усовершенствованная версия закона Годвина должна применяться к политическому и законодательному дискурсу: в современном контексте никто не должен упоминать о Второй мировой войне, побежденных нацистах или союзниках-победителях. Символика и униформа прошлой эпохи, которую лидеры и интеллектуалы сегодня так любят использовать, это всего лишь реквизиты для маскарада. Эти люди слишком молоды, чтобы знать, о чем на самом деле они говорят.
Материалы ИноСМИ содержат оценки исключительно зарубежных СМИ и не отражают позицию редакции ИноСМИ.J.Crew’s legendary chairman and chief executive Mickey Drexler is asking for help to turn around his ailing chain, The Post has learned.
Drexler, who is credited with the Gap’s success in the ’90s, has been working with consultant McKinsey & Co. on developing a new business plan for the preppy J.Crew retail chain, two sources with direct knowledge of the situation said.
Private equity firms TPG Capital and Leonard Green & Partners, with Drexler, own J.Crew and the dynamics of the partnership are changing.
“I think there was a lot of deference to Drexler and that is now over,” a source said.
Meanwhile, to give it more time and latitude to fashion a revival, the retailer may soon hire a bank to explore the idea of buying back its bonds — currently trading at 38 cents, a source said.
J.Crew has a little over $2 billion in debt: a $1.5 billion loan maturing in 2021 and $500 million in bonds maturing in 2019.
The company has basically no free cash flow, according to a Barclays analyst report. However, as of July 31, it had an untapped $320 million credit line and $49 million in cash.
If it buys all its bonds for its market price of $209 million, there will be no maturities for five years, giving Drexler and crew time to make the brand fashionable again.
“The perception of the chain in the eyes of the customer has been compromised,” one of the sources said. “J.Crew realizes it needs to get more comfortable clothes and be more like Lululemon.”
Among the changes on the table:
A greater emphasis on activewear and less on tailored clothing. Last week, J.Crew announced its first activewear line in partnership with New Balance.
Being able to replenish popular items quicker. J.Crew is weighing the formation of a team to address faster production times, one source said.
Possible greater focus on online sales that could result in the closing of some stores, the source said.
TPG has had two very different experiences with Drexler, 72, a Bronx High School of Science alum.
David Bonderman’s firm in 2003 recruited Drexler to run J.Crew amid much fanfare. The move helped TPG’s fund turn its $133 million 1997 J.Crew investment into $930 million by the time it fully exited in 2009, TPG’s fund documents show.
In 2010, J.Crew’s performance fell and TPG a year later made a contrarian investment in partnership with Drexler, buying the then-listed company for the second time.
However, TPG’s much larger $650 million fund investment has returned only $357 million in fees and dividends, according to fund documents.
The fund’s stake in J.Crew is worth very little considering the company’s bonds are trading at distressed levels. Debt typically gets paid before equity. Combined, TPG funds over almost 20 years have invested $783 million in J.Crew and realized $1.26 billion, according to fund documents.
Both TPG and J.Crew declined to comment.Hello guys and gents whats up well whats up is that I just completed another amazing map with the help of ibxtoycat for giving me the idea and Silverstonery who helped with some stuff xD and today its A Lava Rain Challenge map designed for the hard core minecraft players to challenge them to the core!
the goal is to save as many villagers as possible with-out dying from lava rain and as soon as the world loads you are on a ticking timer before the lava rain hits the ground so you better act fast and be extremely careful and be smart about every dissension you make it' Because every second counts and if you make even the smallest mistake and you will lose a precious villagers life so have fun and download now!
Recommended: playing in Rendering distance 2-7 chunks
on Peaceful if not then your a perfect MC savage!
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Website:At last weekend's Wonder Con, IGN caught up with James Wan, The Saw and Furious 7 director who has Aquaman on his to-do list, as well as Robotech. In a brief conversation, Wan discusses maintaining elements of the original material, especially its much loved "Macross Saga."
As announced last June, Robotech will adapt Harmony Gold's localization of Tatsunoko-produced mecha anime The Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross and Genesis Climber MOSPEADA. with Gianni Nunnari and 300's Mark Canton producing and Michael Gordon (300, GI Joe) writing the script. Frank Agrama of Harmony Gold, which is the original intellectual property rights holder, will executive produce.
via Forbes
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Scott Green is editor and reporter for anime and manga at geek entertainment site Ain't It Cool News. Follow him on Twitter at @aicnanime.By now you’ve learned the U.S. Senate didn’t pass a basic universal background check for firearms purchasers. Not even for folks in the market for Bushmaster’s infamous AR-15 “assault-style” semi-automatic rifle. That’s the weapon of choice for today’s mass-murdering psychopath, by the way. The big “Nay” vote on Capitol Hill came despite a stream of polls showing over 90% of Americans in support of reasonable background checks on those who wish to acquire these and other deadly weapons.
“You’ll shoot your eye out, kid!”
Recently, my nephew and niece came to Cherry Hill for a visit. I got their favorite junk food, toys and books to make the trip extra special. The previous December, after watching A Christmas Story, Santa brought my 9-year-old nephew a BB gun. It was his favorite toy so I figured, why not? What could go wrong? I had a BB gun at his age and grew up to become a gun-skeptic liberal. Maybe the same would happen with my nephew, I reasoned to myself while stocking up on kid-friendly cereal at the grocery store. And with Dick’s Sporting Goods Store right next door it wasn’t hard to just pop on over and pick one up! Brilliant!
While strutting into the “Outdoor” section of Dick’s, convinced I’m the coolest uncle in the world, I quickly noticed a BB gun marketed for girls. A hot-pink little number, it stood out among the bright orange and camo-colored hunting gear. Why not get one for my niece as well? I’m all about equality, right? And irony. I still have to chuckle at the thought.
Not so fast there, partner.
“You’ll need a license for that,” the clerk informed me when I asked to see a modestly-priced BB gun. Surprised but undaunted, I whipped out my drivers license and slid it across the counter. At which point it was obvious to me that it was obvious to him I’m not a gun person.
“To buy a gun in New Jersey you need a Firearm Purchaser ID Card from your Township’s police chief. Even a BB gun. Can’t even take one down to show you without it.”
For better or worse, there would be no BB gun that day. Not for me anyway. Without a comprehensive criminal background check first I couldn’t buy one. I couldn’t even look at one. Not even a pink one.
But it’s just a toy I thought, my cool-uncle strut quickly vanishing.
By the time I reached my car, I was actually a little bit mad. It seems the only thing I fancy less than guns is being told I can’t have a gun. I decided then and there as a matter of pride that I couldn’t go another day without a Firearm ID and drove straight to the Cherry Hill police station to make it happen. Nothing was gonna stop this drama queen from getting that damn pink BB gun.
Some hurdles make perfect sense. Others seem deliberatively provocative.
The application for a NJ Firearms Purchaser ID Card is long, needlessly arbitrary and (ultimately) ineffective.
Some questions seemed reasonable: Was I a felon? Do I currently have a drug or alcohol problem? No and no. Easy enough.
Other queries, while logical, felt a bit more invasive: have I ever struggled with drugs or alcohol at any point in the past? Yes, I was in rehab a dozen years ago (a fact I must reveal or risk perjury.) Also, can I provide three references to vouch for my mental health and psychological stability? Um sure. What ‘s a few secrets between me and the Government? But seriously, why not ask my doctor? Wouldn’t that be a more sensible way to determine my mental fitness versus contacts I curate for you?
For reference, I chose my retired USMC Dad, a neighbor and a friend, each of whom wrote the Police Chief stating my fitness to purchase a firearm. I basically told them what to write because they asked for guidance, I told them to tell the truth. But what’s to keep someone (ahem, “a bad guy with a gun,” perhaps) from lying? As if someone willing to commit mass murder cares about perjuring himself.
Pressing my case.
The finger-printing portion of the process was an ordeal unto its own.
First of all, the Cherry Hill Police didn’t do it on site, I’d have to make an appointment in two weeks to get my prints done elsewhere at some for-profit private business. Meanwhile I’m asking myself why do I have to pay some private company $57.50 to get my prints taken across town when they could just do it for free there at the station? Since when do cops not take finger prints? Besides, in two weeks my niece and nephew will be back in Texas so it’s all a moot point. Right? Hell no. I was pretty dug in by then.
Put me and my fingerprints on the schedule, I told the Chief! Besides it was gonna take me that long to get my references all signed, sealed and delivered. I may not end up purchasing a gun I recall thinking. But I am gonna get the license to purchase one.
Two weeks later I got my prints taken, alongside a waiting room full of parolees and dead beat dads. I know this because I heard them discussing their, um, status when they checked in after me.
Lovely. I’m there to comply with the law while everyone else is there because they broke the law. What’s wrong with this picture? It’s a wonder I didn’t walk out of there with a complex about Government overreach. Like someone was coming to snatch the guns I don’t even really want. It’s probably my own irrational snobbery, but it all kinda made me feel like a little bit less of a citizen.
Suddenly I caught a big whiff of whatever it is that make gun nuts so, well, nutty.
All this for the very same toy BB gun I had as a 6-year-old.
All in all, it took 4 1/2 weeks before my firearm permit finally arrived in the mail. I was surprised it didn’t include a picture, which seemed curious, given the paces applicants are put through. I hadn’t planned to buy the BB gun, but now felt compelled to test the new ID see if they’d ask for a license (or something with a photo) as well. They didn’t. I could’ve been anybody. I think I started banging my head on the counter at that point.
But that’s what it’s like to get a gum permit in Chris Christie’s New Jersey. In fairness, many of our goofy gun laws preceded his administration. But Christie’s been in office over three years and he’s supposed to be getting the government out of our lives, right? (Note to Marco Rubio and Rand Paul: feel free to cite me in your oppo research.)
“A hot mess”
Based my limited experience, it seems like when gun laws are written (mostly) by liberals (like me) who don’t feel connected to gun culture you might end up with a hot-mess-of-a-law that makes it needlessly complicated for law-abiding tax-payers who wish to comply with the rules to acquire a gun for any non-crazy reason. That’s our current model in New Jersey. Our model which I believe is broken.
On the other hand, the gun laws coming out of Washington DC are dictated by the NRA to conservative handmaidens in the House and Senate who are beholden to tea party whack jobs primary voters and the gun lobby. The idea of some deranged lunatic assembling a deadly cache in a McDonald’s parking lot is chilling and infuriating. With 40% of firearm transactions happening off the grid (via straw purchasing, for example,) it’s simply too easy for stupid people to get guns in America. And we have the NRA and Republicans in Congress to blame for it.
And that’s why, despite the Senate stalemate, we must work for a more robust universal background check for anyone in any state who chooses to purchase a firearm. We don’t need another (Columbine, Aurora, Newtown, Tucson, et al) to prove why background checks are so critical.
I just hope the national model for firearms screening won’t follow New Jersey’s reactionary template.It's no surprise that plants clean up our air, but just how much of a positive impact they can have on urban pollution is now more clear.
New research, which was published this week in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, shows that green walls and other plant infrastructure (as simple as trees and bushes and as complex as green walls) could reduce pollution in urban environments by as much as 30 percent. According to the researchers, green infrastructure -- specifically green walls of grass, climbing ivy, and other plants -- is more than 10 times more effective at reducing pollution than previously thought.
"Urban canyons," where streets are surrounded by tall buildings made of concrete and glass, were the focus of the study. It's in these urban areas where people are exposed to the highest levels of pollution. When researchers used computer models to show the impact of plants in these street canyons on pollution compared to plants in parks or on roofs, green walls were the most effective at removing pollution. Street trees, on the other hand were less effective in street canyons because they trapped pollution at ground level, but were effective on less polluted streets. The researchers also suggest "green billboards" as a way to increase the amount of plants in street canyons.
"Up until now, every initiative around reducing pollution has taken a top-down approach – scrapping old cars, adding catalytic converters to cars, and bringing in the congestion charge – some of which have not had the desired effect," said Rob MacKenzie, a professor at the University of Birmingham and one of the authors of the study, in a news release. "The benefit of green walls is that they clean up the air coming into and staying in the street canyon – planting more of these in a strategic way, could be a relatively easy way to take control of our local pollution problems."
[h/t BBC]
Photo: Flickr/Bill Anderson
This post was originally published on Smartplanet.comHe’s gonna punch out any black women who try to grab the mic from him
The most memorable moment from Donald Trump’s short press conference: he said Bernie Sanders was “weak” when he allowed #BlackLivesMatter protesters to take the microphone at his rally… and actually threatened to physically fight them if they tried to do the same thing to him.
The exact quote: “I don’t know if I’ll do the fighting myself or if other people will.”
This is what I tweeted right after hearing this amazing statement:
Trump just threatened to physically fight with #BlackLivesMatter if they try to disrupt his rally. — Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) August 11, 2015
And this is what makes Trump popular with the right wing base; he’s an egomaniacal bully and a caveman, and he’s right up-front about it. The enraged goons who comment at right wing websites are going to love this statement.
Would you pay to see Donald Trump go one-on-one with #BlackLivesMatter?
A video clip:
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Read more Paul Daniels dies: Tributes from around the world as magician dies aged 77
Legendary Teessider and magician Paul Daniels passed away today.The 77-year-old was born and raised in South Bank and was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour in February.He became interested in magic at the age of 11 after reading 'How to Entertain at Parties' whilst on holiday.
His big break in the business came in 1970 after finishing second on Opportunity Knocks, which led to him appearing on The Wheeltappers and Shutters Social Club alongside Bernard Manning.
By 1979, Paul had his own show'The Paul Daniels Magic Show' which ran for 14 series until 1994 - becoming a massive part of anyone who grew up in the 80s and 90s.
With a career spanning over five decades, there are plenty of brilliant moments to relive - and here are five of our favourite moments of magic from Paul Daniels...
You'll like this... not a lot, but you'll like it.
Rabbit Capers
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A pretty brilliant twist on the classic rabbit-from-the-hat trick.
We've got to admit, Paul is a sight to behold with a full and luscious head of hair!
The Vanishing Elephant
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It's one thing making a ball disappear - it's another to make a person vanish.
Making a five-tonne Indian elephant vanish into thin air is pretty impressive!
Chop Cup
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One of the funniest pieces of magic ever.
Paul Daniels totally dazzles us with just an egg and a cup - oh, and a lemon and an orange!
Aces in a wine glass
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Card tricks are the staple of magic, so Daniels decided to change things a bit and hinder himself.
Nope - we're not talking about his rather fetching suit! We've no idea how he manages to pull all those aces out of that wine glass.
Magic Billiard Balls
Paul Daniels billiard ball trick
There's nothing really overly exciting about billiard balls is there?
However, you won't be able to take your eyes off this trick - or the rather dashing Debbie McGee who assists in the tricks finale.2013 Canadian Arctic Expedition Silver Dollars for 100th Anniversary
A new series of silver coins from the Royal Canadian Mint commemorates an important milestone in the history of the nation.
100th Anniversary of the Canadian Arctic Expedition Silver Dollars celebrate the voyage of discovery in Canada’s High Arctic.
Included as part of the celebration are a proof silver dollar, a selective gold-plated silver dollar also in proof and a brilliant silver dollar.
"The Canadian Arctic Expedition was one of our greatest adventures of the early 20th century and we are delighted to bring back the spirit of exploration and discovery by devoting our 2013 Proof Silver Dollar to its 100th anniversary," said Ian E. Bennett, President and CEO of the Royal Canadian Mint.
These commemorative silver coins depict reverse designs emblematic of the Canadian Arctic Expedition which took place from 1913-1916. The expedition vastly expanded information related to Canada’s Northern areas. It resulted in the charting of unknown land masses, countless new specimens for scientific study and a better understanding of the people who called Canada’s High Arctic their home.
2013 Canadian Arctic Expedition Proof Silver Dollars
Offered as the flagship of the Mint’s 2013 collector coin program, the 100th Anniversary of the Canadian Arctic Expedition Proof Silver Dollar has a maximum mintage of 40,000. The strike appears as the 54th issue in the Royal Canadian Mint’s line of proof silver dollars.
Shown on the silver coin reverse is a design by Canadian artist Bonnie Ross. Photographic documentation taken during the Arctic Expedition inspired the design. It depicts a group of three men by a sled with a team of eager canines. A stylized image of a compass serves as the skyline and horizon of the scene.
These silver coins are in 99.99% pure silver and ship in a maroon flock-lined clamshell case. Pricing is CAD $59.95.
2013 Canadian Arctic Expedition Brilliant Silver Dollars
The 100th Anniversary of the Canadian Arctic Expedition Brilliant Silver Dollar depicts the same reverse design as described for the above proof coin. This includes an image of three men pictured with a dog sled team.
Mintage of the brilliant silver coin is 20,000. The Mint presents each encapsulated coin in a maroon flock-lined clamshell case. Pricing of the release is CAD $54.95.
2013 Canadian Silver Proof Set
Included as part of the 2013 Silver Proof Set are seven different silver coins struck from 99.99% pure silver. The highlight of the set is an Arctic Expedition Proof Silver Dollar with selective gold plating.
Gold-plating also appears on the $1 and $2 coins of the set. The mintage is 25,000. Pricing is CAD $229.95.
2013 Arctic Expedition Commemorative Silver Coins and the 2013 Silver Proof Set are available online at www.mint.ca or by calling 1-800-267-1871 in Canada and 1-800-268-6468 in the United States.
In addition to the silver coins, the Royal Canadian Mint also offers a 2013 $100 Canadian Arctic Expedition Gold Coin for $599.95. For more information, visit the Mint’s website or read this coin news article.Last week, before the 2014 Masters began, one of my friends, a former professional golfer, wondered whether the game would be compelling to watch in five or ten years, when Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are no longer perennial threats at the majors. “I guess we’ll get all we want of Jordan Spieth,” he said dispiritedly, referring to the twenty-year-old phenom who is ninth in the World Golf Rankings. Nothing against the youngster or his game, my friend explained; it was just that Spieth, who was three years old when Woods won his first Masters, is a product of golf’s Tiger revolution, exhibiting the same flawless swing, the same athletic fitness, the same mercenary demeanor on the course—but a copy, in the former pro’s estimation, without the gloss of the original.
This weekend at Augusta National, my friend got a taste of the future of golf that worries him. Tiger withdrew before the tournament started, to recuperate from another surgery. Phil, not quite a year removed from his masterful win at the Open Championship, looked sluggish and missed the cut. Adam Scott, the defending champion, was a nonfactor by Sunday. And Jordan Spieth became the youngest player ever to make the final twosome at the Masters, with a chance to be its youngest champion. (Tiger, the current record holder, was twenty-one when he won his first, in 1997.) CBS made sure you didn’t forget it: history was happening, viewer.
But Spieth botched the last few holes on his front nine, and by the turn found himself trailing Bubba Watson, the 2012 champion. After hitting it in the creek on the short par-three twelfth, Spieth made an admirable bogey to keep himself within reach, but, at the thirteenth tee, a patron-free narrow of Augusta greenage framed by Bob Ross levels of blooming flower, Watson pounded a three-hundred-and-sixty-six-yard drive, made birdie, and solidified the lead that he maintained for the remainder of the inward nine.
With the win, his second green jacket in three years, Watson joins Mickelson as the only left-handed golfers to win multiple majors. There isn’t much to parse from this bit of trivia, but it does underline the theme of Bubba’s career: an opposition to standard.
This was never more apparent than on Sunday, when Watson, with his homebrew swing that’s generously referred to as “unorthodox,” played alongside the younger, sleeker, technically proficient Spieth. Spieth’s swing is a newly paved freeway through the heartland: smooth, straight, efficient, dependable. Watson’s is the spotty two-lane through the backwater. It’s tangled and indirect, a mess of rough road that seems to surprise Watson as much as anybody when it leads to the desired location. Watson is the longest hitter on tour, and when he puts his full weight into the driver, as he did on the thirteenth on Sunday, his follow-through is all recoil. After contact, Watson’s hands jerk and twitch, his feet dance away from the target, his eyes plead for the ball to do right.
Spieth plays with an effortlessness that is no doubt the result of great effort. He’s the Federer of golf right now: fluid motions, no sweat glands, an air of calm superiority. He lost the green jacket to Watson on Sunday, tying for second place with Jonas Blixt, but did so with a grace that belied his years. “That was fun, but at the same time it hurts right now,” Spieth said in his post-round interviews on Sunday, adding that he would learn from the experience and move forward with his game—evidence that Spieth is perhaps as precocious with cliché as he is with sport. More, he managed a few smiles—an improvement, to be sure, on the Tiger blueprint.
Above: Jordan Spieth, at the Masters. Photograph by David Cannon/Getty.Every summer for the past five years, ESPN The Magazine has released an issue dedicated solely to the admiration of the human body as it relates to athletes.
The Body Issue, as it’s known, features a variety of professional athletes in a handful of different sports posing in various tastefully nude positions.
This year’s edition hits newsstands on July 12 and features Marlins slugger Giancarlo Stanton, San Francisco 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick, beach volleyball gold medalist Kerri Walsh Jennings, and “the Manimal,” Denver Nuggets power forward Kenneth Faried.
Listed below are other athletes that will be included in the spread.
- Matt Harvey, RHP New York Mets
- Swin Cash, four-time WNBA All-Star
- Courtney Force, drag racer
- John Wall, point guard for the Washington Wizards
- Vernon Davis, San Francisco 49ers tight end
- John Isner, professional tennis player
- Sydney Leroux, forward USWNT
- Carly Booth, pro golfer
- Joffrey Lupul, Toronto Maple Leafs left wing
- Elena Hight, Olympic snowboarder
- Agnieszka Radwanska, Polish professional tennis player
- Chris Sharma, rock climber
- Daila Ojeda, rock climber
- Miesha Tate, UFC mixed martial artist
- Marlen Esparza, Olympic boxer
- Tarah Gieger, professional motocross racer
- Gary Player, 77-year-old golf legendRemember the Volkswagen's E-Up! concept from 2009? The company just announced that it plans to launch a production version of the tiny EV at the Frankfurt Motor Show this fall. It's been tweaked a little since we last saw it, with proper seating for four (vs. 3+1 on the concept), a revised snout and updated wheels. Under the hood you'll find an 18.7kWh lithium-ion battery pack and a 60kW electric motor which provide a range of 150km (93 miles) with a respectable top speed of 84mph and a leisurely 0-62mph time of 14 seconds. The car supports quick-charging to 80% capacity in just 30 minutes via DC but also handles traditional AC circuits thanks to a Combined Charging System. The E-Up! will join the existing Up! and Eco-Up! (natural gas) models in Volkswagen's lineup, but it's unclear if the company plans to bring the EV to the US. Hit the source link below for the full PR and some additional photos.Beast Mode by Zaytoven and Future hit us hard at the beginning of 2015. The nine-track project was accompanied with some hits many say they hold high in Future’s catalog. “Lay Up,” “Peacoat,” and “Real Sisters” are some of the songs that proved Future to still be in his creative zone. With a second installment in the works, we get word of an interesting feature.
Drake is confirmed to be on the second installment of Beast Mode. Titled |
are receiving extra training ahead of the exhibition, and visitors will receive the numbers of support helplines with their tickets. But if he regards all this as an extra burden, he isn’t letting on. “My trustees are fully aware and supportive,” he says, firmly. Is he nervous about what lies ahead? The current atmosphere is – I surely don’t need to tell him this – censorious. People are easily offended, and disinclined to consider nuance; the mob can be whipped up in as long as it takes to send a few tweets. “As a curator, it’s very interesting,” he says. “This is brilliant work, and we’re exploring a fascinating question. But we don’t have the cushion of being a national organisation: we don’t receive public funding; we are a small charity that depends on visitors and philanthropy. As the museum’s director, I need to minimise the risks to the organisation.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest A nude sketch of Gill’s daughter Elizabeth from 1927. Photograph: Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft
These are anxious times for those who want to make and show “difficult” art, the kind that attempts to push the boundaries of taste and perception. Increasingly, work is being pulled from public view at the last minute, either because of advice from the police, who may demand huge sums from galleries in order to guarantee the public’s safety (£36,000 was one figure mentioned to me), or because the institution involved simply ran scared of responses to it. One thinks of Exhibit B, an installation by the South African artist Brett Bailey, which was cancelled by the Barbican in 2014 after protests (the work, intended by the artist to explore the issue of colonial racism, involved black actors dressed in chains), or of Isis Threaten Sylvania, a piece by the London-based artist Mimsy, which in 2015 was removed from an exhibition celebrating freedom of expression at the Mall galleries after police raised security concerns (it comprised a series of satirical tableaux featuring the Sylvanian Families toy figurines dressed as terrorists).
Eric Gill, long dead and widely considered to be one of the greatest and most influential British artists of the 20th century, seems at first to stand apart from all this – and indeed, in the years after MacCarthy’s biography was published, his reputation only grew. However, following the revelations about Jimmy Savile and others, the atmosphere has begun to shift. In 2014, for instance, the Daily Record reported that some local people were demanding the removal of Gill’s statue of St Michael the Archangel in St Patrick’s Catholic Church, Dumbarton, because it had been “made by a paedophile”. Even in Ditchling, where connections to the Gill family still run deep and where the Museum of Art + Craft is so important to the community, these headlines will spring up. “Villagers furious over plinth for paedophile sculptor”, screamed the Argus last year when, via a retrospective planning application, some locals objected to a sign recognising Gill as the sculptor of Ditchling’s war memorial on the grounds that seeing his name in such a place “sickened” them (the plinth, erected by the Royal British Legion, was eventually removed, on grounds connected to planning permission).
Naturally, the people doing all this objecting often know very little about Gill, save for the fact of his paedophilia, and they trade in misinformation and hearsay. One of those I speak to while researching this piece, for instance, tells me confidently of a protest against Gill’s work by some university students (this, she says, was how she first learned of his abuse of his daughters). But when I try to confirm her story, it pretty much crumbles to dust.
With this in mind, Hepburn’s decision to mount Eric Gill: The Body might be thought rather brave – and certainly this is the word I hear repeatedly from those who support his project. “My overriding sense is that this is quite brave,” says Alistair Brown, a policy officer at the Museums Association. “It’s a test case.” But still, I wonder. Is it courageous, or is it merely foolhardy? And what consequences will it have in the longer run both for Gill’s work and those institutions that are its guardians? Is it possible that Hepburn, in fighting his own museum’s “self-censorship”, will start a ripple effect that ultimately will see more censorship elsewhere, rather than less? And once Gill is dispensed with, where do we go next? Where does this leave, say, artists such as Balthus and Hans Bellmer? Even if their private lives were less reprehensible than Gill’s, their work – that of Balthus betrays a fixation on young girls, while Bellmer is best known for his lifesize pubescent dolls – is surely far more unsettling.
In March, having met with Hepburn three times, I contact some of the big institutions represented at the workshop day. Will the staff who attended talk to me about what kind of precedent the Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft might be setting? What happens next first irritates and then slightly alarms me. Those involved want to go through their press offices, which I understand; but once I am in contact with said press offices, I’m informed that no one is willing to speak to me in person – everyone is far too “busy”. Instead, I must email my questions, which they will answer in kind. I suggest this is a somewhat blunt way of discussing issues that are both very sensitive and highly complex. But it is no good. I will just have to await their (presumably) carefully vetted statements.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Wooden doll, carved by Eric Gill for his daughter Petra, 1910. Photograph: Ditchling Museum of Art and Craft
Most forthcoming is Melissa Hamnett, a curator of sculpture at the V&A. She notes, in her email, that there is an argument that today’s culture has become fixated on biography, and that looking at the work itself is paramount. But she veers away from tackling the issue of what impact the Ditchling show might have on future Gill shows, except to say that she hopes more institutions will be “willing to participate in difficult conversations about Gill’s life in relation to his work”. However, this is positively unguarded compared with what I hear from Stuart Frost, head of interpretation at the British Museum. When I ask if it is sometimes easier not to show an object at all than to tell its full history – a reflection of my worry that this is where the Ditchling project will end up taking us – he comes back with the following: “There is usually a great deal of discussion, debate and deep thought involved in interpreting challenging objects. All of this takes time and resources that museums invest into well-researched and thought-out projects and displays that then enable an object to be considered for display.” I don’t know which question this collection of words is an attempt to answer, but it surely isn’t mine.
The first institution I contact, the Tate, has already had its share of controversies in this area. In 2009, it removed Spiritual America by Richard Prince – in essence, a photograph of a photograph of a 10-year-old Brooke Shields – from its imminent Pop Life show after a visit by the Metropolitan Police; in 2013, it removed 34 prints by Graham Ovenden from its online collection after the artist was convicted of charges of child indecency. But it also has a large collection of work by Gill, including, on permanent display, a sculpture now known as Ecstasy (1910-1), one of the models for which was the artist’s sister Gladys, with whom he had an incestuous relationship that lasted most of his life. Perhaps, then, I should not be surprised when the gallery will only give me a bland, unsigned comment. “Tate’s policy for interpretation is to be open and factual regarding the biography of artists,” it reads. “If Tate is mounting a major exhibition on an artist then there would be detailed biographical information in the interpretation and catalogue. When showing works in the Collection displays there is limited space for fuller biographies, which can be found on Tate’s website.” Somehow, though, I am surprised – or at least, disappointed. And is this robotic press release even wholly true? I look up Ecstasy on the gallery’s website, where I am told all about the influence of Indian art on its creation, but nothing whatsoever about Gladys. The last major Gill retrospective, incidentally, was at the Barbican in 1992. (It defined Gill not by his private life, but as a key figure in early modernism, and a leading advocate of the techniques of “direct carving” later taken up by Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore.)
Could a project such as Hepburn’s lead, paradoxically, to more censorship? “I know what you’re talking about,” says Julia Farrington, associate arts producer at Index on Censorship (and another delegate last October). “The kind of care Nathaniel is taking, the kind of resources he is putting in, is potentially a deterrent to others. You can see that people might just quietly remove Gill’s work [rather than go down the same route themselves].”
It is to do, she thinks, with risk aversion. Her organisation has recently received funding from Arts Council England to do more work in this area. “ACE has finally woken up and smelt the coffee, having helped to create an atmosphere of risk aversion themselves. They are very timid, you see. Their funding priorities are to do with an organisation’s business case and its audience development. Freedom of expression is low priority; it’s just an add-on.”
She talks of the Heckler’s Veto and the Daily Mail effect, both of which, coming from left and right, are having a paralysing effect on arts managers. “A pattern is emerging,” she says. “We don’t yet live in a police state: they can’t shut down a show unless it is breaking the law; they can only advise. But the police are very cautious, and if you ignore the advice that something is even only potentially inflammatory, you could be arrested yourself.” It’s a difficult choice: act the censor, or pay the price.
Who, in this climate, will speak up for Gill the artist? Fiona MacCarthy has written vividly of the summer of 1986, when she spent weeks in the Gill collections in the Clark Library at UCLA, reading his diaries. It was there that she found the entries about the incest with his sisters (he may have had a relationship with Angela as well as Gladys) and the sexual abuse of his daughters, and his sexual experiments with a dog. But she has never made any secret of her profound admiration for his work. And whatever she learned in those diaries was always balanced by the fact that she had met so many of those who knew and loved Gill, including his daughter Petra Tegetmeier, who grew up to be a talented weaver and to lead a productive and happy life (experts will insist that she internalised her trauma, but that wasn’t how she thought of it, and I think we must allow her this).
When I contact MacCarthy, she tells me she has watched in “dismay” as the fact of Gill’s abuse of his daughters has grown to become the thing that defines him. “My book was never a book about incest, which is what one would imagine from many hysterical contemporary responses,” she says. “It was a book about the multifaceted life of a multi-talented artist and an absorbingly interesting man.” As people demand the demolition of his sculpture in public places – the Stations of the Cross in Westminster Cathedral, Prospero and Ariel at Broadcasting House – she asks where this will end: “Get rid of Gill, but who chooses the artist with morals so impeccable that they could take his place?”
She has, moreover, serious doubts about the latest approaches to his work. “There’s also the question of whether today’s curators are really equipped to deal with all the possible nuances of the sexual aberrations in the lives of artists, and how to interpret these to the viewing public. I am afraid that in relation to Gill, we are already in the realms of farce. For instance, the curator of the current Arts Council England-funded exhibition at Two Temple Place in London – Sussex Modernism: Retreat and Rebellion – makes the preposterous suggestion that Gill’s move to Sussex was motivated by his wish to set up ‘cloistered communities away from prying eyes’. [Most would argue the move was brought on by his Fabian leanings, his suspicion of London, and his conviction that “life and work and love… should all be in the soup together”.] “I would not deny that Gill’s sex drive was unusually strong and in some cases aberrant,” she says, “but to reduce the motivation of a richly complicated human being to such simplification is ludicrous.” Reducing art to a matter of the sexual irregularities of the artist, she believes, “can only in the end seriously damage our appreciation of the rich possibilities of art in general”.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Cathie Pilkington, who has created a piece responding to Gill’s work. Photograph: Alun Callender
Like MacCarthy, I can’t wholly endorse what the Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft is about to do, for all that its show will include – and here I, too, will speak up for Gill – some of the most exquisite and tender work ever made in this country (if it makes people think about child abuse, this says more about the times in which we live than the work itself).
But I think Hepburn may have one ace to play, in the form of Cathie Pilkington RA, a sculptor he has commissioned to make a piece responding to Gill to run alongside the show. Her installation is, from what I have seen of it so far, going to be remarkable. (Its title is Doll for Petra, after the strange object we met at the start of this piece: Pilkington was the woman with the striking haircut and forthright manner at the workshop day.) Even better, its maker, who is deeply engaged with Gill’s work, is unafraid to attempt to articulate both its mysteries and its controversies.
“The doll is a central device in my work,” she says. “So when Nathaniel told me about Petra’s, I was hooked. Intuitively, I said yes to the commission. I ran towards it. The work has its own life, and I couldn’t keep myself from that engagement. Whatever anyone else said to me – and people did warn me off – I kept returning to it.”
Her installation, central to which are five scaled-up versions of the head of Petra’s doll (one decorated by her 11-year-old daughter, Chloe), will explore different aspects of Gill’s practice, and the way we are inclined to project his life on to his work, sometimes in contradiction of the facts: “The tendency – if there is a picture of a figure – is to chuck all this interpretation on it… it can’t just be a beautiful drawing or a taut piece of carving. But sometimes it is. Where, I’m asking, is Petra in all this? There are aspects to her life apart from the fact that her father had sex with her.”
Pilkington doesn’t feel that knowing Gill’s biography spoils our enjoyment of his work: if anything, it only deepens it; and in the coming weeks, she won’t shy away from telling people so. “This is a bit hard to say,” she tells me, in her east London studio, surrounded by body parts and unseeing eyes, “but the thing I feel behind all of Gill’s work is the libidinous drive of being an artist. When he carved his first figure, he wrote down in excited detail what it felt like to breathe life into material. It was sexual and intimate and God-like, this making of things that could be living, breathing bodies.” She rubs the tips of her fingers together. “That complete obsession: it’s what draws us to Gill, whether we like it or not.”
•Eric Gill: The Body is at Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft, 29 April–3 September
Eric Gill: life and legacy
1882 Born in Brighton, Arthur Eric Rowton Gill is one of 13 children. He studies at Chichester Technical and Art School, before becoming a trainee architect in London.
1903 Gives up his apprenticeship to pursue letter cutting, calligraphy and monumental masonry.
1904 Marries Ethel Hester Moore, with whom he has three daughters, Elizabeth (Betty), Petra and Joanna.
1910 Now living with his family in Ditchling, Sussex, Gill begins carving stone figures. His first major success, Mother and Child, comes two years later.
1913 Converts to Catholicism. According to his biographer, Fiona MacCarthy, he regarded his C of E upbringing as too easy-going, craving instead a more strict religious authority.
1924 Leaves Ditchling with his family, settling in the ruined Benedictine monastery at Capel-y-ffin in the Black Mountains of Wales.
1928 Gill sets up a lettering workshop and printing press at Pigotts near Speen. He goes on to create the typefaces Perpetua and Gill Sans. The latter appears on the front covers of Penguin Classics.
1940 Dies of lung cancer in Harefield hospital, Middlesex.
1989 Fiona MacCarthy’s biography is published and contains revelations about Gill’s private life, based on evidence from his private diaries. Gill’s adulteries and his sexual abuse of his daughters, Petra and Betty and incest with his sister Gladys, become public knowledge.
1992 A retrospective at the Barbican establishes Gill’s place in modern British art
1998 Margaret Kennedy, a campaigner for Ministers and Clergy Sexual Abuse Survivors, calls for the removal of Gill’s Stations of the Cross in Westminster Cathedral. “The very hands that carved the Stations were the hands that abused,” Kennedy says.
2017 Eric Gill: The Body opens at Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft on 29 April.The next Sony software rollout for Xperia Z Ultra, Xperia Z1 and Xperia Z1 Compact starts right about now*…
We’ve been working to build new Sony experiences on Google’s KitKat release to create some neat / sweet features (if we say so ourselves) – in addition to a few performance tweaks here & there, some of the functionality you can look forward to includes:
Google’s Android 4.4; KitKat as standard – bringing performance & UI optimisation…
We’ve added our tweaked Status Bar and Quick Settings… now more intuitive and customisable (and pretty easy on the eye)… cleaned up to ensure you only get the notifications you really need
If you’ve got a Sony PlayStation 4, you might recognize our new user interface – we’ve added the same sleek launch animation and livewallpaper across the lock and home screens
We’re also uplifting Sony’s entire native app portfolio to the latest versions – bringing tweaked / improved / current experiences for (to name but a few): Messaging, MyXperia, Smart Connect, Small apps, TrackID, TrackID TV, Sony Select, Smart Social Camera and…
Sony’s Media apps: WALKMAN, Album and Movies, with Sony Entertainment Network cloud service integration* – a more converged and full Sony entertainment experience – Sony Entertainment Network & PlayMemories integration with a more intuitive UI, better download speeds, and more!
Our unique custom interface experience: “Xperia Themes”, with downloadable UI packs from Sony Select – skin up to 280 assets across your Xperia smartphone with a variety of styles, and more to follow soon…
Next up, we’ll start rolling Android 4.4 KitKat for Xperia Z, Xperia ZL, Xperia Tablet Z – and Xperia ZR – from mid-Q2.
And… we’re also excited to tell you that we’ll make Android 4.4; KitKat available for Xperia T2 Ultra, Xperia E1 and Xperia M2 – we’ll be back with more details; bespoke feature sets and timings as things progress.
*As usual, timing & availability may vary by market & carrier(tl;dr: There’s a lot going on, and I have some sage, if painful, advice for those who think Mozilla is just ruining your ability to do what you do. But this advice is worth exactly what you pay to read it. If you don’t care about a deeper discussion, just move to the next article.)
The last few weeks on Planet Mozilla have had some interesting moments: great, good, bad, and ugly. Honestly, all the recent traffic has impacts on me professionally, both present and future, so I’m going to respond very cautiously here. Please forgive the piling on – and understand that I’m not entirely opposed to the most controversial piece.
WebAssembly. It just so happens I’m taking an assembly language course now at Chabot College. So I want to hear more about this. I don’t think anyone’s going to complain much about faster JavaScript execution… until someone finds a way to break out of the.wasm sandboxing, of course. I really want to be a part of that.
ECMAScript 6th Edition versus the current Web: I’m looking forward to Christian Heilmann’s revised thoughts on the subject. On my pet projects, I find the new features of ECMAScript 6 gloriously fun to use, and I hate working with JS that doesn’t fully support it. (CoffeeScript, are you listening?)
WebDriver: Professionally I have a very high interest in this. I think three of the companies I’ve worked for, including FileThis (my current employer), could benefit from participating in the development of the WebDriver spec. I need to get involved in this.
Electrolysis: I think in general it’s a good thing. Right now when one webpage misbehaves, it can affect the whole Firefox instance that’s running.
Scripts as modules: I love.jsm’s, and I see in relevant bugs that some consensus on ECMAScript 6-based modules is starting to really come together. Long overdue, but there’s definitely traction, and it’s worth watching.
Pocket in Firefox: I haven’t used it, and I’m not interested. As for it being a “surprise”: I’ll come back to that in a moment.
Rust and Servo: Congratulations on Rust reaching 1.0 – that’s a pretty big milestone. I haven’t had enough time to take a deep look at it. Ditto Servo. It must be nice having a team dedicated to researching and developing new ideas like this, without a specific business goal. I’m envious. 🙂
Developer Tools: My apologies for nagging too much about one particular bug that really hurts us at FileThis, but I do understand there’s a lot of other important work to be done. If I understood how the devtools protocols worked, I could try to fix the bug myself. I wish I could have a live video chat with the right people there, or some reference OGG videos, to help out… but videos would quickly become obsolete documentation.
WebExtensions, XPCOM and XUL: Uh oh.
First of all, I’m more focused on running custom XUL apps via firefox -app than I am on extensions to base-line Firefox. I read the announcement about this very, very carefully. I note that there was no mention of XUL applications being affected, only XUL-based add-ons. The headline said “Deprecration of XUL, XPCOM…” but the text makes it clear that this applies mostly to add-ons. So for the moment, I can live with it.
Mozilla’s staff has been sending mixed messages, though. On the one hand, we’re finally getting a Firefox-based SDK into regular production. (Sorry, guys, I really wish I could have driven that to completion.) On the other, XUL development itself is considered dead – no new features will be added to the language, as I found to my dismay when a XUL tree bug I’d been interested in was WONTFIX’ed. Ditto XBL, and possibly XPCOM itself. In other words, what I’ve specialized in for the last dozen years is becoming obsolete knowledge.
I mean, I get it: the Web has to evolve, and so do the user-agents (note I didn’t say “browsers”, deliberately) that deliver it to human beings have to evolve too. It’s a brutal Darwinian process of not just technologies, but ideas: what works, spreads – and what’s hard for average people (or developers) to work with, dies off.
But here’s the thing: Mozilla, Google, Microsoft, and Opera all have huge customer bases to serve with their browser products, and their customer bases aren’t necessarily the same as yours or mine (other developers, other businesses). In one sense we should be grateful that all these ideas are being tried out. In another, it’s really hard for third-parties like FileThis or TenFourFox or NoScript or Disruptive Innovations, who have much less resources and different business goals, to keep up with that brutally fast Darwinian pace these major companies have set for themselves. (They say it’s for their customers, and they’re probably right, but we’re coughing on the dust trails they kick up.) Switching to an “extended support release” branch only gives you a longer stability cycle… for a while, anyway, and then you’re back in catch-up mode.
A browser for the World Wide Web is a complex beast to build and maintain, and growing more so every year. That’s because in the mad scramble to provide better services for Web end-users, they add new technologies and new ideas rapidly, but they also retire “undesirable” technologies. Maybe not so rapidly – I do feel sympathy for those who complain about CSS prefixes being abused in the wild, for example – but the core products of these browser providers do eventually move on from what, in their collective opinions, just isn’t worth supporting anymore.
So what do you do if you’re building a third-party product that relies on Mozilla Firefox supporting something that’s fallen out of favor?
Well, obviously, the first thing you do is complain on your weblog that gets syndicated to Planet Mozilla. That’s what I’m doing, isn’t it? 🙂
Ultimately, though, you have to own the code. I’m going to speak very carefully here.
In economic terms, we web developers deal with an oligopoly of web browser vendors: a very small but dominant set of players in the web browsing “market”. They spend vast resources building, maintaining and supporting their products and largely give them away for free. In theory the barriers to entry are small, especially for Webkit-based browsers and Gecko: download the source, customize it, build and deploy.
In practice… maintenance of these products is extremely difficult. If there’s a bug in NSS or the browser devtools, I’m not the best person to fix it. But I’m the Mozilla expert where I work, and usually have been.
I think it isn’t a stretch to say that web browsers, because of the sheer number of features needed to satisfy the average end-user, rapidly approach the complexity of a full-blown operating system. That’s right: Firefox is your operating system for accessing the Web. Or Chrome is. Or Opera, or Safari. It’s not just HTML, CSS and JavaScript anymore: it’s audio, video, security, debuggers, automatic updates, add-ons that are mini-programs in their own right, canvases, multithreading, just-in-time compilation, support for mobile devices, animations, et cetera. Plus the standards, which are also evolving at high frequencies.
My point in all this is as I said above: we third party developers have to own the code, even code bases far too large for us to properly own anymore. What do I mean by ownership? Some would say, “deal with it as best you can”. Some would say, “Oh yeah? Fork you!” Someone truly crazy (me) would say, “consider what it would take to build your own.”
I mean that. Really. I don’t mean “build your own.” I mean, “consider what you would require to do this independently of the big browser vendors.”
If that thought – building something that fits your needs and is complex enough to satisfy your audience of web end-users, who are accustomed to what Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge, etc., provide them already, complete with back-end support infrastructure to make it seamlessly work 99.999% of the time – scares you, then congratulations: you’re aware of your limited lifespan and time available to spend on such a project.
For what it’s worth, I am considering such an idea. For the future, when it comes time to build my own company around my own ideas. That idea scares the heck out of me. But I’m still thinking about it.
Just like reading this article, when it comes to building your products, you get what you pay for. Or more accurately, you only own what you’re paying for. The rest of it… that’s a side effect of the business or industry you’re working in, and you’re not in control of these external factors you subconsciously rely on.
Bottom line: browser vendors are out to serve their customer bases, which are tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions of people in size. How much of the code, of the product, that you are complaining about do you truly own? How much of it do you understand and can support on your own? The chances are, you’re relying on benevolent dictators in this oligopoly of web browsers.
It’s not a bad thing, except when their interests don’t align with yours as a developer. Then it’s merely an inconvenience… for you. How much of an inconvenience? Only you can determine that.
Then you can write a long diatribe for Planet Mozilla about how much this hurts you.Photo by E.Hanazaki Photography/Getty Images
In December, the University of Michigan released the results of a survey that, among other things, asked Middle Easterners what style of dress was appropriate for women to wear in public. Participants were invited to choose between various styles of Muslim head coverings, like burqas, chadors, and niqabs. The results showed that people from conservative nations like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan generally favored the face-concealing niqab, while most Egyptians, Tunisians, Turks, and Iraqis preferred traditional hijabs, which cover the hair and leave the face exposed.
These results aren’t particularly surprising, and neither is the fact that Middle Eastern women and men largely shared the same preferences. Though some Westerners associate Muslim religious head coverings with the oppression of women, many Muslim women view the hijab—a blanket term used to denote any form of traditional head covering—as a source of empowerment. During the Arab Spring–inspired protests against Hosni Mubarak, some Egyptian women wore hijabs to protest a ban against headscarves on state television.
According to Shereen El Feki, a researcher and the author of Sex and the Citadel: Intimate Life in a Changing Arab World, many young Muslim women cover themselves to gain more independence from their parents. “They feel that their parents think these girls are good Muslim girls, therefore they don’t exercise as much vigilance and the girls get more latitude in their lives,” she told me. “They may get to travel, they may get to move around, and they have more mobility.”
Another common misconception about head coverings is that it is always worn as a statement of extreme religious modesty. “The women wearing hijab who I spoke to for my book have just as much sexual desire,” said Shereen. “Women put on hijab for a variety of reasons, not just to desexualize themselves.”
In her book, Shereen describes young Egyptian women who regularly cover their hair, necks, and shoulders, yet walk down the streets of downtown Cairo in stiletto heels, makeup, and tight jeans. “They’re like fantastical birds-of-paradise arrangements,” she told me. “On one hand, they’re trying to conform to what was the increasingly conservative climate. On the other, they’re young women, so they want to be attractive to men.”
The hijab certainly doesn’t protect women from sexual harassment. A UN survey that made the rounds on the internet last summer said that 99 percent of Egyptian women experience some form of sexual harassment, though most of them cover their heads.
Thanks to longstanding cultural and religious traditions, sex is rarely discussed in many Middle Eastern countries, even between married couples. In spite of this, Arab women have found creative ways to signal their desires to their husbands. Lingerie shops throughout the region sell all kinds of lacey and racy items and Syria in particular is known for outrageous intimate apparel. The Secret Life of Syrian Lingerie, a 2008 book by Malu Halasa, describes fur-lined panties and underwear that come equipped with fake flowers and birds. According to Halassa, shops continue to sell lingerie in Damascus despite the turmoil and conflict there.
In more conservative Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia, niqabs are popular in public forums, but in private it’s another story. Weddings are sometimes segregated by gender, which leaves the women free to wear extravagant gowns with plunging necklines. “Women from the Gulf are some of the best customers of haute couture,” said Shereen. Their wedding parties are showrooms of beautiful potential brides, clad in the latest fashions for their friends—among them the mothers of would-be suitors.
When dress codes are loosened in these situations, security is tightened. Shereen told me that photos are prohibited at such parties, and guests are required to check their phones at the door to protect the women’s privacy. “It’s a very complex dichotomy between the public and private,” she told me. “It’s night and day in many cases.”
@notsovanillaTwo women have been charged with murder and attempted murder after attempting an exorcism on four young children. News4's Shomari Stone has the latest on two recently-released 911 calls in the case. (Published Monday, Jan. 20, 2014)
Police were called to a Germantown, Md. home just hours before the bodies of two young children were found in what officials are calling an attempted exorcism.
A 911 caller alerted police to a situation at a Germantown home late Thursday evening. He said he spotted a baby inside of a blue Honda left alone for approximately 45 minutes.
"The mother came out and said she had something going on that she didn't want her baby to be in danger in the house," the caller said.
911 Calls Released in Germantown Murders
We're hearing the 911 calls that brought police to a disturbing scene in Montgomery County, where two women are accused of murdering two children and severely wounding two others. (Published Monday, Jan. 20, 2014)
During the call, the man says he was approached by two women from the home who chased him down, while one of the women talked to herself.
Police have not released what happened during their response to the home that night.
Another neighbor contacted 911 just after 9 a.m. Friday when she saw a bloody knife next to a blue Honda, with its passenger side door open.
Exorcism Questioned in Double Murder
News4's Darcy Spencer reports on new details of a double murder in Germantown. (Published Saturday, Jan. 18, 2014)
"The windows of the house are open and I heard a lot of noises in the night, I heard a lot of jumping," the caller said.
When police arrived, they found the bodies of 1-year-old Norell N. Harris and 2-year-old Zyana Z. Harris. Two other children, Taniya Harris, 5, and Martello Harris, 8, were found injured and have been hospitalized.
Within hours, their mother, 28-year-old Zakieya Latrice Avery, was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted first-degree murder. The following day, 21-year-old Monifa Denise Sanford was arrested on the same charges.
Police tell News4 the two women believed they were performing an exorcism and described the scene as "very bloody."
Avery and Sanford are due in court Tuesday.Photo
When Sarah Palin arrived at the governor’s mansion in Juneau, Alaska, for the first time in December 2006, she wore a pink turtleneck, a preppy track jacket and what appeared to be a knockoff Burberry scarf. She had often campaigned in fleece. Introduced as Senator John McCain’s running mate in Dayton, Ohio, in August, she wore red pumps that cost $89 from Naughty Monkey, a brand whose target audience is teenagers.
As a vice-presidential candidate, Ms. Palin’s look — which has apparently undergone a costly makeover — has not changed dramatically from a “Working Girl” formula of authoritative jackets paired with feminine skirts that seem calculated to suggest that she is ready to go to work on Day 1.
The Republicans spent about $150,000 on a clothing makeover for Ms. Palin and her family, according to financial disclosure forms. But looking at the before-and-after photos, it was not readily apparent what Ms. Palin got, exactly, from her shopping spree at Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue.
What the number $150,000 suggests is that Ms. Palin traded up to designer versions of the clothes she wore before stepping onto the national stage, a surprising implication for a candidate who emphasizes her appeal to working-class voters.
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“My first reaction when I heard about this was, ‘Honey, I could have dressed you for a lot less than that,’ ” said Cindi Leive, the editor in chief of Glamour magazine, which asked readers on Wednesday to vote in an online poll whether the expenses were too high; 72 percent said they were. “In general, she looks terrific,” Ms. Leive said, “but if you asked me to figure out where the $150,000 went, I’m not sure I could tell you.”
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It is not yet clear whether Ms. Palin chose her new wardrobe or worked with stylists and other advisers, or what message her clothes were intended to broadcast. In fact, most of her bracelet sleeve jackets are so generic-looking that they could have come from any of the favored designers of Washington politicians: Oscar de la Renta, Escada and St. John.I’m sure glad that all the exposure of the activities of the IRS and Lois Lerner have put an end to using the IRS as a tool to attack administration critics. The crisis clearly is over, citizens.
The producer of a new movie that criticizes Obamacare |
wrinkle cream? Of course you wouldn’t.
So what the heck was More thinking? The monthly magazine for “women of style and substance” just announced its “Women with More” contest to celebrate the wide-ranging accomplishments of readers across the country. Contestants must submit a photo and an essay explaining why they have more ambition, style, beauty or passion than, well, other women.
The first 300 entrants get a bottle of Roc Retinol Correxion Deep Wrinkle Serum. The top four winners get a New York photo shoot and a complete Roc skin-care package.
Wrinkle cream.
Take that in for a moment. A magazine dedicated to celebrating the complex lives of mature professional women thinks that the best way to honor them is to help them try to look younger.
And I was having such a good week.
Two women in the 2016 presidential race and, for the moment, no one was talking about their looks. A female comic performed at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. The new attorney general — the first African American woman in that job — was finally confirmed.
Exactly the sort of subjects More likes to highlight in its thick, glossy pages. Founded in 1998, it was the first upscale lifestyle magazine explicitly marketed to women over 40. The editors redesigned the magazine five years ago to include 30-something readers, and again this year to draw in more high-end subscribers and advertisers. The average reader is 48 years old, and the new editorial focus will be on “reinvention.”
“We are a magazine for who we like to call ‘the fabulous women,’ ” editor in chief Lesley Jane Seymour told Women’s Wear Daily in January. “We like to keep it to those women who are professional, managerial, with really high income.” She also named Betsy Fischer Martin, former executive producer of “Meet the Press,” the magazine’s Washington editor. All things considered, an encouraging sign for women of a certain age.
And then, the wrinkle-cream contest. Which says everything about the schizophrenic reality of women and aging.
“Chasing youth is a war I’m not going to win,” said cover girl Téa Leoni, 48, in the magazine’s March issue. “It’s not like I’m thrilled to turn around and catch my can in the mirror, but I can see now how much of my happiness could be a victim of trying to stay young and desirable. And it feels like peace and victory to be relieved of that burden.”
The irony is that Hollywood never lets a middle-aged woman — even one playing the secretary of state, as Leoni does on CBS’s “Madam Secretary” — lay that burden down. Comedian Amy Schumer just did a devastating R-rated bit on the expiration date of women in show business, that flip-the-switch moment when an actress goes from love interest to someone’s mom.
And it’s not just actresses. Politicians and television anchors of both genders know exactly how high-definition cameras highlight age and imperfections. There is more pressure on women to look young to keep their jobs, but plenty of men and women in Washington have hedged their bets with Botox, fillers and plastic surgery.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that. In fact, I’m very laissez-faire when it comes to personal choice. You want to drop $160 on La Mer skin cream? Your money. A nip or tuck? If it makes you happy, although too many women end up looking like caricatures of themselves. Personally, I’ve been wary of facelifts since “The First Wives Club” author Olivia Goldsmith died after suffering complications from a minor chin tuck.
We all — men and women — have our vanities, large and small, and the only question is how much they dominate our lives. As a woman long past 40, I’m bombarded by cultural messages that I could look better, which is always defined as thinner and younger. Once, during a black-tie gala, I sat next to a prominent plastic surgeon who proceeded to enthusiastically detail the various ways he could improve my face. It was... memorable. And kind of hilarious.
I asked More why, of all the prizes they could give, the editors chose beauty products. Roc is the contest sponsor, publisher Jeannine Shao Collins explained in a statement, and the brand perfectly aligns with the magazine’s goal of “celebrating confident, successful and beautiful women, both inside and out.” But apparently we need help: The products, she said, are “dedicated to enhancing women’s confidence as they age.”
It’s human nature to fuss over a gray hair or a frown line, and little comfort when a well-meaning friend repeats the trope, “Wrinkles add character.” Mostly it means we’re getting older, with all the gifts and challenges that age brings. But it’s demeaning when a women’s magazine tells me that the reward for that wisdom and experience is wrinkle cream. That the best way to age is to not look old.
Here’s the secret that magazines don’t tell you: People who love you don’t care about your wrinkles. People who don’t value you or can make money off you do care about your wrinkles — and want you to care, too.
These are the things I worry about: My son’s happiness. Being a good mother and friend. The economy. Income inequality. Urban violence. Partisan name-calling. The Islamic State. Retirement. Cruelty to children and animals. The pile of unread novels beside my bed. And, yes, wrinkles when I see a harsh reflection in the mirror, but I worry more about heart disease and breast cancer, because crow’s feet won’t kill you.
So I’m skipping the magazine contest. All entries must include a non-refundable $25 processing fee, so even the first 300 who get the $23 wrinkle cream are out $2, according to my calculations.
Instead, in honor of all the moms, aunts, sisters and friends who want more for their lives, I’m donating $25 to the Jeannette Rankin Women’s Scholarship Fund, which is named after the first woman elected to Congress and helps low-income women 35 and older complete college.
Happy Mother’s Day to all you beautiful, stylish, ambitious, passionate women — wrinkles and all.Shree Ghatak Muhuri has become the first transgender woman to legally marry in Kolkata, India’s second-biggest city.
The 30-year-old married her childhood ceremony Sanjay Muhuri in a lavish ceremony on Saturday which is believed to be a first in the state of West Bengal.
The couple met 16 years but Shree said she was very confused about her feelings because she was still presenting as a boy.
‘I was in class VIII when I began getting attracted to Sanjay,’ she told Enewsroom.
‘It was just like any woman gets attracted towards a man. But it was so confusing for me.
‘Being a woman trapped in a man’s body, made feel lonely, strange and bad at times.
‘Making things worse was the fact that there was no one in my family to understand my feelings.’
The couple can now live openly
The couple had an unofficial wedding last year after Shree underwent gender reassignment ceremony.
‘It was a social marriage. Back then I didn’t have any documents supporting my transition, so we went ahead with a social wedding,’ she said.
‘It took me about a year’s time to get my gender identity sorted out on papers. And now that it’s done, we decided to get our marriage registered.’
Shree admits to facing discrimination growing up and keeping her relationship with Sanjay under wraps until she transitioned because he faced ridicule at work.
‘You know, even today, there is so much stigma associated with being a trans woman,’ she said.
‘Despite the law of the nation giving us an identity, we have to face a lot of apartheid.
‘Initially our families were very much opposed to us getting married. They were worried about what people would say.
‘But once I underwent the surgery, to be what I had always been – a woman, my in-laws welcomed me with open arms.’A lot of governors want to be the next president, and already they're starting to make a similar case: Vote for me. I created jobs.
Already last week, Jeb Bush's new Super PAC, Right to Rise, bragged that Bush's "limited government approach helped unleash one of the most robust and dynamic economies in the nation, creating 1.4 million net new jobs" in Florida while he was governor.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry is likewise mulling another campaign. If he does run, you can expect him to once again run on his economic record, as he did in 2012.
Of course, Governors Mike Pence, Mitt Romney, Chris Christie, and Democrat Martin O'Malley could all use the same argument if they get in, too.
And while the narrative of job growth on their watch might get voters' attention, a close look at the numbers reveals more nuance than what these candidates might give in a stump speech. No surprise there.
Here at Vox, we ran the numbers, tallying up job growth in states during the time period a likely 2016 candidate was in the governor's mansion. The result: all of the candidates have positive numbers they can use. From Texas to New Jersey to Wisconsin, employment did in fact grow. But then, during much of the time these governors were in office, there was job growth nationwide. And if much broader economic forces were at work, that raises the question of just how much credit these candidates can take.
Here's a rundown of what happened in key Republican states and an assessment of just how much they can take credit:
The basic numbers
We tallied up total job growth for the governors who are getting the most buzz in the 2016 race. The below chart shows the total percent change in a state's employment level versus the percent change in the national figure during a given governor's term. What it shows is that within the broad field of candidates is a wide range of economic success stories:
Of course, Rick Perry has been governor for 14 years, whereas Mike Pence has only been Indiana's governor for two years. So let's look at ratios of job growth rates. The below chart shows the ratio of job growth in any given candidate's state to that in the country as a whole.
One thing this allows you to do is make a rough divide between governors who outdid the rest of the nation and those who didn't. Anyone with a ratio greater than 1, then, did better than the US as a whole, while less than 1 means worse. This means Christie, O'Malley, and Romney don't have the hottest numbers to tout. Meanwhile, Bush, Jindal, and Perry perhaps have the strongest cases for themselves — Perry in particular had job growth four times the national rate. Since Perry took office in December 2000, for example, Texas has added 2.2 million new nonfarm employees to its rolls, growth of more than 23 percent. Both of those figures are impressive, but is he really directly responsible for creating those jobs?
"Accidental" job growth
Already a potential 2016 candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, has raised the question. At a May 2014 press conference, Cruz took aim at Texas Gov. Rick Perry and politicians taking credit for their state economies more broadly.
"There isn't a politician in this country who's responsible for the economic growth we have," Cruz said, as reported by the Dallas Morning News. "The economic growth has come from the private sector, it's come from entrepreneurs. Nothing drives me crazier than politicians who run around talking about the jobs they've created."
This may well be one dividing line in the 2016 campaign field: that between governors claiming credit for state job growth and national-level legislators, like Cruz, poking holes in that story.
And Cruz does have a point: governors may preside over great economic growth, but they're rarely responsible for it...at least, not the lion's share of it.
"Governors and state legislatures often give themselves huge credit for accomplishments that are in fact more accidental," says Gary Burtless, a senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution. For example, he adds, "The governor of Texas looks great in years that the price of oil is high or rising."
So when oil prices were booming up until these last few months of Perry's term in office, he has looked really great on "job creation." Likewise, during Bush's tenure in Florida from 1999 to 2007, the state population grew by nearly 17 percent, compared to the national level of 8 percent. That kind of population growth fuels growth in construction, as more homes and office buildings are needed. That undoubtedly contributed to economic growth. (And Bush left office right before the housing bubble popped, crippling the Florida economy even more than much of the rest of the nation.)
This brings up another important point, Burtless adds: "For the economy as a whole, there are ups and downs. And I think the gyrations up and down are even bigger at the state level than the national level, and that's because states tend to specialize in something."
So Texas, for example, will reflect the fortunes of the oil industry far more than the finance industry. Ohio will be more manufacturing-dependent than any other state. And that means Perry and Kasich will have different stories to tell, even though Perry has nothing to do with the price of oil and Kasich can't help that manufacturing employment is only slowly creeping back.
Bigger forces than any state
A governor can do things to encourage a state's economy, of course. Having lower taxes or a better education system than the state next door might lure in some residents or businesses. Making smart budget decisions likewise will boost a state's credit rating, which in turn makes it easier for the state to finance the things it wants to spend on.
"Governors clearly have an impact on budget and tax policy matters, and they also influence the economic development strategy for their states," says S&P analyst Robin Prunty. But she, too, emphasizes the huge factors outside a governor's control: "There are other issues outside of a policymaker's influence, such as the individual state economic profile and macroeconomic conditions, which will also influence economic growth and development."
Indeed, a state's economy is subject to not only the whims of markets like housing and oil, but the national-level economy and policies.
In the last few years, states have benefited from a slowly strengthening recovery and national-level polices connected to that recovery. Jindal and Perry, both in office when Congress enacted President Obama's stimulus bill in 2009, likely benefited from that infusion of spending and jobs. Likewise, the Fed's extraordinary measures during and after the financial crisis helped stabilize the nation and have also eased lending, making borrowing and homebuying easier.
Jeb Bush may be the first governor to tout his state's economic record on the 2016 campaign trail, but he's not the last. And as these sorts of statements multiply along with the field of candidates, it's always a good idea to treat these claims with skepticism.David Attenborough’s blockbuster nature series Planet Earth II is “a disaster for the world’s wildlife” and a significant contributor to planet-wide extinctions, a rival natural history producer has claimed.
The BBC programme concluded in December and drew audiences of more than 12 million viewers but presents “an escapist wildlife fantasy” that ignores the damage humans are doing to species everywhere, according to Martin Hughes-Games, a presenter of the BBC’s Springwatch.
The BBC’s Planet Earth II did not help the natural world | Martin Hughes-Games Read more
In a direct attack on Attenborough’s flagship series, which features a soundtrack by the Hollywood composer Hans Zimmer and became the most-watched nature programme in 15 years when it was broadcast last month, Hughes-Games said the makers had ignored evidence of mass extinction, most recently from the World Wide Fund for Nature and the Zoological Society of London, which reported last year that between 1970 and 2012 there had been a 58% decline in the abundance of vertebrates worldwide.
“These programmes are still made as if this worldwide mass extinction is simply not happening,” he said. “The producers continue to go to the rapidly shrinking parks and reserves to make their films – creating a beautiful, beguiling, fantasy world, a utopia where tigers still roam free and untroubled, where the natural world exists as if man had never been.”
The result is that Attenborough and others “are lulling the huge worldwide audience into a false sense of security,” he said. “No hint of the continuing disaster is allowed to shatter the illusion.”
Attenborough, however, did use the series to make an impassioned plea for greater conservation. At the end of the final episode he spoke of “our responsibility to do everything within our power to create a planet that provides a home not just for us, but for all life on Earth”.
He has also insisted that his programmes enable an increasingly urbanised global population to remain in touch with nature. “More people are out of touch with the natural world than have ever been,” Attenborough said at a press conference to launch the series in October. “But since we depend on the natural world, understanding it is absolutely paramount. Television can provide that link better than ever before, in some ways. Fifty years ago, there was hardly a species on [Planet Earth II] that anyone would have seen. Now everybody has. It’s remarkable, and it’s valuable.”
The BBC declined to comment on Hughes-Games’s criticism that the impression of pristine wildlife Attenborough’s shows create was misleading.
“Even as Planet Earth II was being broadcast, it was reported that elephant and lion numbers were tumbling, and last month it became clear that the giraffe could be heading towards extinction, with numbers plummeting by 40% in the past 15 years,” Hughes-Games said.
There is, however, also evidence of improving fortunes for some species. Tiger numbers are thought to be increasing and the giant panda has recently been removed from the list of endangered species.
Hughes-Games said he was not arguing that programmes such as Planet Earth II should not be made. He said “fantasy should be balanced by reality” and urged the BBC to commit to making more wildlife programmes that overtly address conservation.
Hughes-Games proposed injecting conservation themes into TV dramas and children’s programming. He said: “As a matter of urgency, a development team should be set up to think how the reality of what’s happening to wildlife worldwide can be portrayed in innovative ways, integrated in dramas, in children’s shows – in collaborations with producers like Aardman Animations, perhaps, or video diaries of inspirational people working with animals.”Few details revealed about progress of Sodo arena or refurbishing KeyArena and the Tukwila project could need a renewed commitment from its main backer, Ray Bartoszek. Meanwhile, the Bellevue project is dead.
Inside sports business
The puck dropped last week on another season for the National Hockey League, with no immediate prospects of it coming to this region.
Around here, we specialize in dropping the ball, not the puck. At least, that’s how it appeared when arena groups in Sodo District, Tukwila and Bellevue failed to apply for NHL expansion by a July 20 deadline.
Lead investors pulled out in Tukwila and Bellevue while Victor Coleman, potential NHL owner and partner for Sodo arena builder Chris Hansen, balked at applying.
So, where are we?
Well, months of public records requests and interviews show that while the Sodo and Tukwila projects continue, Ray Bartoszek could soon be out as the Tukwila venture’s head honcho.
The Bellevue project, arguably the grandest, is dead with no revival plans. It turns out, that project required a $200-million commitment from Bellevue and city officials were debating whether they could accommodate it.
Here in Seattle, the Sodo project breezed through local design hearings in September. The real test will be a Seattle City Council vote — likely early next year — on removing a street to accommodate the arena.
Public records show Chris Gregorich, until recently chief of staff to Mayor Ed Murray, dialogued regularly with Coleman’s group ahead of the NHL’s deadline.
A week before it became public knowledge Coleman would not apply for expansion, his representative, sports consultant Jeff Marks of Premier Partnerships, requested a July 9 conference call with Gregorich and city officials. Marks emailed Gregorich that the call would “discuss next steps and bring you up to speed on the NHL expansion application process and timing and what our team is thinking around the process.’’
Marks said in an interview Coleman told the city during the call he wouldn’t be applying for a team since he couldn’t control whether Hansen gets his arena approved.
The following Tuesday, Gregorich forwarded Marks a new report from late-June on KeyArena: stating the venue required less space than previously thought for NHL and NBA and could be repurposed for only $285 million.
You’d think that would be huge news, given the city already owns KeyArena and new venues typically cost $500 million. But for some reason, the city kept quiet about those findings for three months.
Media members only discovered the report last month via public records requests. Coleman last spring mused about seeking alternative sites if he couldn’t reach a deal with Hansen. But Marks says Coleman remains committed to Sodo and isn’t seeking alternatives.
Marks did say financial negotiations between Coleman and Hansen remain unresolved. But he says Hansen has an optimal location, is nearing approval and would be an ideal partner.
Additional public records have been requested by The Seattle Times since July pertaining to Gregorich, Murray, Coleman and their NHL plans. But the city has delayed completing the request several times and says further documents may not come before Oct. 31.
That’s only a few days before Nov. 3 elections for Seattle City Council. With the arena a controversial topic, talk about alternative sites could negatively impact candidates supporting the city’s positive position on the Sodo location.
Murray’s office won’t comment, so until more documents are released, that’s what we have.
Hansen spokesman Rollin Fatland, asked about the report and whether Hansen and Coleman are still partnering, replied: “Chris Hansen has had discussions with Mr. Coleman and others but has never ‘partnered’ with anyone yet.’’
Stay tuned.
In Tukwila, Bartoszek’s camp says his lead investor bailed around July 3.
Public records show that by July 9, Bartoszek had imported former NBA general manager David Kahn to review his project. Kahn teaches sports business at New York University and worked at the same law firm as NHL commissioner Gary Bettman.
A source close to the project says Kahn continues as an unpaid consultant.
Records show Bartoszek’s group has met with Boeing representatives about arena-related ventures, like using their neighboring land for additional parking space.
Tukwila officials were caught off guard when Bartoszek didn’t apply for a team. Records show Mayor Jim Haggerton and top city planners kept asking through the July 20 deadline whether Bartoszek needed a letter of support for his application.
Tukwila spokeswoman Rachel Bianchi says the city merely assumed Bartoszek was applying and nobody thought to confirm it.
By mid-July, Bartoszek agreed to pay up to $350,000 to the city for consulting fees, in $50,000 installments, as bills came due for environmental impact studies of the project. But projected expenses are now pushing those limits, meaning a renewed commitment from Bartoszek could be needed. I’m told we’ll know by month’s end whether he’ll continue on, depending on his landing new investor money.
If Bartoszek pulls out, Tukwila’s project could go the way of Bellevue’s.
Public records from Bellevue show a major sports and entertainment project in Wilburton District was pushed by landowner IntraVest Development of Arizona and longtime NHL deal-broker Jac Sperling.
But they wanted a $200-million commitment up-front from the city. Bellevue officials had discussed tax options and paying for infrastructure like a parking garage to satisfy that condition.
Sperling, IntraVest and others met city planners and lawyers July 1 to discuss a Memorandum of Understanding for an arena.
Mayor Claudia Balducci and city council further discussed the situation July 6 in a closed executive session. On July 9, consultant Sue Sander of Normandeau Associates, who had done environmental impact statements for Safeco and CenturyLink Fields, offered to help Bellevue complete one in seven months to beat the Tukwila project’s fast-tracked timeline.
But then, a key investor pulled out and the Bellevue group collapsed. A source says the group had courted Las Vegas based venture capitalist Mark Arioto, CEO of R Squared Alpha Fund, but whether he was the balking investor is unclear.
Arioto did not respond to interview requests.
For now, the NHL has yet to approve expansion anywhere and is said to still want to come here — perhaps by relocating a troubled franchise. But as always, the wait continues to see whether an arena gets approved someplace before pucks drop on future NHL seasons.The ongoing agitation surrounding the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, was sparked off by an event at the institution highlighting the plight of the Kashmiri people. Before delving into the depths of the debate, it may be pertinent to remember a few forgotten persons.
I will begin with two names and a question which (to my mind) are as significant as the grievances of Kashmiris and non-Kashmiris about the Indian justice system.
The two names are Mohammad Maqbool Sherwani (aged 19, died 1947) and Ravindra Mhatre (aged 48, died 1984). The question concerns the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from their homes in the Valley. Why are they not a part of Left-wing concerns about Kashmir?
Sympathisers of Maoist revolutionary politics may consider four names—Francis Induwar (died 2009), Kenduka Arjun (died 2010), Lucas Tete (died 2010), and Niyamat Ansari (died 2011). What happened to them and why did they die? These names and the question signify an experience of injustice. For that reason alone, they deserve the attention of the defenders of democracy.
Now let us take a look at what is happening in Delhi:
Police protection, Delhi version
The most striking image of the times we inhabit is the photograph of a young accused person being brutally assaulted in the premises of a prominent court in New Delhi. He was in the custody of the police, hence under the indirect protection of the court.
We are being intimidated in broad daylight by persons who do not care a whit for reasoned speech—let alone the law.
His assailants were lawyers, who have bragged about their deeds, and are known for their proximity to senior leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Most of them have not been charged for what is a clear offence under the IPC Section 325.
The ruling party spokespersons routinely deploy the platitude that the law will take its course. Typical of its behaviour in matters such as the murder of professor MM Kalburgi in August, they make a perfunctory disapproval of hooliganism, and then produce belligerent justifications for their violence. None of them show the slightest remorse or compunction for what even a village constable would recognise as a criminal offence.
We are being intimidated in broad daylight by persons who do not care a whit for reasoned speech—let alone the law. All we hear these days is a reminder of the heavy price we shall pay for opposing prime minister Narendra Modi, the Sangh, and their “development agenda”.
The Delhi Police operates under the union government and was responsible for the raids on the JNU campus as well as the acts in the court premises. Some of its decisions have now been shown to have been taken on doctored evidence.
The National Human Rights Commission has declared the assault on JNU students union president Kanhaiya Kumar to have been planned. The home minister’s utterances were akin to those of a con artist, so we need not be surprised by those of his followers.
We may also assume that these acts have the approval of the union cabinet—and that we are now under the grip of a government that has no respect for the rule of law.
The situation will worsen because the private army that controls the government is bent upon revising the foundational statutes of the Indian republic.
It also adheres to an ideology that justifies violence in the name of patriotism. Violent attacks, disruptions, and dire threats by Hindutva-oriented vigilantes and legislators are occurring on a daily basis across India.
The ruling party has shown itself to be no different from the Maoists whom it routinely condemns. But whereas the Maoists have proven incapable of capturing state power, the Hindutva ideologues believe they have done so. Let us see if the Indian public will endorse this belief.
This is serious enough to bear repeating: the government of India is enabling, condoning, and encouraging vigilante violence and hooliganism. Controlled mobs now operate under state protection.
‘Anti-nationalism’
Most of the slogans heard on the JNU campus expressed unobjectionable Left-wing and feminist demands.
However, there were some that spoke of a long war for the break-up of the country. There were other calls that could be confusing to anyone not familiar with the term “oppressed nationalities” that has been part of communist vocabulary since 1917. So the current political agitation marks the intersection of many controversial themes, ranging from definitions of the nation to constitutional and legal matters.
There were other calls that could be confusing to anyone not familiar with the term “oppressed nationalities”.
Some bare facts need recapitulation.
Some students attracted to Maoism and including those who believe in “self-determination” for Kashmir, and were agitated over the execution of Afzal Guru, held an event to commemorate the latter.
Denied permission due to objections from one student group, they used the good offices of the union, whose president belongs to the All India Students Federation—the student wing of the Communist Party of India, the moderate wing of the communist movement. This is the party of the late Satyapal Dang, one of India’s staunchest secularists and fighters against terrorism in Punjab in the 1980s and ‘90s. (I wonder if our home minister has heard of him).
As the event unfolded, some began shouting belligerent slogans—let us leave aside the question of who started it. As often happens, when ideologues wish to hurt each other by methods short of physical assault, they say things designed to cause maximum emotional pain. Both sides—the ultra-nationalists and those rooting for self-determination—proceeded to do this. Some persons alleged to be outsiders also shouted the objectionable slogans referred to above.
The ultra-nationalists used their contacts in the central government to facilitate police intervention. Some of them now regret the consequences of what has ballooned into a nasty confrontation. I appreciate the fact that the three Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad office-bearers who resigned from their posts disagreed with the habit of painting all Left-wing students with the same brush.
Similarly, all people who object to slogans calling for the break-up of India also cannot be painted with the same brush. I too object to such a slogan—although I don’t think it calls for police action unless there is a direct incitement to violence. We know many people calling for and indulging in violence who seem to have no fear of police action.
Something similar took place on Feb. 10 at the Delhi Press Club, where persons who stand for Kashmiri self-determination used the good offices of a lecturer who booked the venue for them, but who does not share their political vision. He is now been targeted—along with three other retired teachers from Delhi University—for collusion with so-called anti-national elements.
In both cases, persons of democratic persuasion were used to facilitate expressions of extreme beliefs. As far as I can tell, they had no idea of what was about to transpire, and their own statements at these gatherings were attempts at lowering the pitch and calming the atmosphere. A kind of verbal “guerrilla action” was undertaken by some radical activists who—it would appear—were unconcerned with the repercussions. They did not care that people who do not support their politics, but helped them because of their commitment to free expression, would be paying the price.
To use well-meaning people for your purposes via subterfuge can bear terrible consequences. It is unfair to those well-meaning people. It typifies the belief that the end justifies the means.
Some of us are so consumed by anger that we feel justified in doing this. But it is not an ethical course of action and brings your politics into disrepute. It is similar to what happened in Kandhamal in 2008 when the Maoist party murdered the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s Swami Laxmanananda and left the common people to face the communal violence unleashed by the Sanghis who blamed “the Christians” for the murder.
It targets all democratic protest for being anti-national, seditious, and so on. This is what is happening now in India’s capital.
In the spiral of violence unfolding in so-called insurgent districts, the state utilises the opportunity provided to it by extremists to suppress opposition from all quarters. It targets all democratic protest for being anti-national, seditious, and so on. This is what is happening now in India’s capital.
Unscrupulous TV anchors are adding fuel to the fires of “patriotic” indignation—some of them behaving as flag-bearers for a hysterical version of nationalism. As a supreme court bench said recently, “Moderation is a forgotten word today in all spheres of life”.
Self-determination and violence
There is also the tangled issue of self-determination, a term many people use as if it were an axiom. It is not. The idea of democracy is linked to the concept of identity. “Demos” is the term for “the people” in “the rule of the people”. The slogan of self-determination carries the implicit presupposition that we know who “the people” are before we speak of their right to “self-determination”.
Ideologically defined boundaries of the self are presupposed in the practice of democracy. This issue is related to the birth of the nation-state and the notion of sovereignty. Let me add here that the multiplication of sovereignties is not a solution to the violation of human rights, nor should it be conflated unquestioningly with the concept of democracy. In some cases, it might worsen the situation.
Identity is a matter of power, interest and definition. For example, the slogan that Kashmiris have a right to self-determination implies that the identity of Kashmiris is self-evident. The moment the identities of Kashmiri Pandits and Sikhs, Ladakh’s Buddhists and Jammu’s Dogras, Gujjars, and Bakerwals, are brought into the argument, the presumptive nature of unilateral definitions becomes evident.
Who is included in, and who is excluded from the “self”, and why? Is it all very clear to us, or does it deserve a discussion?
Given that this agitation has highlighted the plight of the Kashmiri people, let us examine some facts that tend to get left out of Leftist concerns. Some amongst us remain aggrieved by the execution of Maqbool Butt on Feb. 11, 1984. They need to remember the kidnapping and murder of the Indian consular official Ravindra Mhatre, in Birmingham, on Feb. 6 the same year.
It does not behoove a state to make vengeful decisions, but it does not help matters if we forget significant facts. We may also mention in passing the names of BJP politician Tikka Lal Taploo, Judge NK Ganjoo (who had tried Maqbool Butt); and journalist, PN Bhat—all three murdered in late 1989 by warriors of Kashmiri self-determination.
The best metaphor for violence is a black hole—the place that swallows up everything in its vicinity.
I have often reiterated my belief that the question of violence is—or should be—the crux of the political debate. Militarism has emerged as the ground shared by enemies. The militarist appropriation of martyrdom is a deeply patriarchal gesture. Violence is a never-ending spiral. The best metaphor for violence is a black hole—the place that swallows up everything in its vicinity. Once again, therefore, I will remind all ardent supporters of political causes that violence feeds on itself.
Apart from their other numerous “actions”, the Maoists murdered two policemen who were in their custody, both of them tribals—Francis Induwar (beheaded in 2009) and Lucas Tete (shot in 2010). Kenduka Arjun, secretary of the Chasi Muliya Adivasi Sangh in Orissa, was murdered by Maoists in 2010. They also beat to death Niyamat Ansari, a Mahatama Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act activist, in front of his family in 2011. I will not go into the implications of the derailment of the Jnaneswari Express in 2010, which cost 148 lives.
On communal issues, let us remember Taslima Nasrin, the author who defended religious minorities in Bangladesh, and was hounded out of Kolkata in 2007 by fanatics who browbeat the Left Front government. Perpetually under threat, she finally had to leave India.
On the price paid for dissent, let us remember T P Chandrashekharan, a dissident Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader in Kerala murdered in 2012 for setting up an alternative left group.
A week ago, on Feb. 15, a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh cadre named Sujith was murdered inside his house in front of his parents. The accused in both these cases belong to the CPI (M).
There are many more examples, cutting across party lines. Whatever we might think of our political opponents, do not such actions undermine democracy? Do they not indicate that we live in a dangerously authoritarian culture?
As regards Afzal Guru, like many others, I too felt that the trial process and submission of evidence raised several disturbing questions; that life imprisonment would have been a fairer sentence, and that he should not have been executed. I was severely perturbed by the phrase “collective conscience of the nation” appearing in a court judgment sentencing a man to death. I wrote about this well before the judgment, and about the death sentence, which I oppose in principle, whether it is handed out by judges or revolutionaries, sanghis, or jihadis. People have every right to criticise judgments without being accused of contempt—have not the ultra-nationalists also criticised judgments they did not like? Such criticism should be couched in temperate language, but we remain within our rights to make it.
The Pandit issue
Going on from |
the way you actually saw it, you couldn’t see the true essence of it’s core dopeness. It’s basically comics fight crack, and it is amazing it has never really caught on super well in superhero comics, which have a history of dialog during fights–but not much in the way of anything as keen as what you would see in even the most basic of boys adventure manga. Anyways.
So those are the colors.
Yellow: Quiet
Blue: Loud
Red: Emcee
Oh yeah. I also put in some circles so you could track the combination movements stitching together the beats.
Check on that page how he speeds up the page with the first panel, just to drop it on the last two panels as he brings in the actual threat. He stores up so much momentum with that top panel and it’s all there behind Makie’s back. She’s got a whole page’s worth of weight behind her back. Also Makie’s “these boring pitiable fools, who dare try to take up the mic against me” look. That should have been a red emcee panel–but I think the angle of her head plays into the motion in the panel right after it–so I think it’s more of a pair with that panel and is the sinew which bolts the top panel to the last one.
The great thing here is that our expectations because of the previous page was Makie unleashing holy hell on this guy–but Samura delays it for a page–and transfers that motion into Makie’s leap. He’s not giving us what we expected there. There’s a cognizance there.
The pose in the top panel is almost a Makie signature pose. Also sexual imagery like whoa. And he didn’t even have to go T/A broke back to do it. There is no tangible difference between fight scenes and sex scenes in comics.
Check the windup on that knee to the guy’s face. That’s coming off her planted leg, which you can see she’s building momentum into with the swivel of that lead leg. And then even as the blood is still flowing up out of the guy’s face as he pulls back, Makie is already ramming her blades into the sides of his head. And again with that face.
And there’s your payoff. But then Samura pulls us back from the fight, and lenses it through Anotsu’s perspective. We go from really being right in the middle of the fight, to being far enough away from it to see it as the miraculous thing it is.
I love the juxtaposition there of Anotsu saying that Makie is dancing for him, but then other dude is the guy we see watching–and we see the horror on his face. It gives what Makie is doing more of an edge, more of a horror, than if we had gone back to Anotsu or Rin there.
We then see the same butchering that Makie is doing almost incomprehensibly close–and obscured by more chunky blacks.
We come back out to Anotsu and:
Look at how much softer this page is compared to the one where the other dude is watching Makie. The style of Samura’s drawing has changed to reflect a momentary narrative shift and moment. And THAT, is your climax.
And then there’s shit like this…which…I don’t even want to talk about:
That’s some “I might as well just go back to making talking head comics” shit.
Anyways. Dark Horse puts these books out stateside, and do a great job at it. Probably skip the volume that has 90 percent of the Demon’s Lair arc(except for the end fight)–but otherwise…the covers are worth owning too. Samura has an insane palette of oranges, blues, and purples. Yeah go get those. If this were a longer thing about Samura I’d talk about how he changed up his style midway through this book. But who gives a crap really.
AdvertisementsThis year, The Body Love Conference is ready to drown out the New Years resolutions to "get skinny" for the sake of making your body culturally appropriate and is challenging you to Smash the Scale instead!
What is Smash the Scale about?
Well, Smashing the Scale isn't necessarily about destroying metal, although any girl (and guy!) at this incredible shoot would tell you that is incredibly liberating. Instead it's about making a conscious decision to detach your worth from that number on your scale. Smashing the Scale isn't about being unhealthy. It's about deciding what your definition of beauty is and knowing that it is enough. Smashing the Scale isn't about exclusion either; you may not understand the concept or be interested. And that's totally okay. Leave us to our crowbars and keep on trucking. We'll always be rooting for you. Smashing the Scale isn't about anger, but instead the joy of calling society on the carpet and telling it how it is. And
Smashing the Scale isn't about being perfect at loving yourself, but rather about making a personal commitment to starting your self love journey. Smashing the Scale is much bigger than it sounds, it's the most empowering thing you can do.
Try doing it for you.
It's so needed in this
, conventional beauty obsessed world we live in.
I'm Smashing the Scale this year because today was dark and it had everything to do with hating my body and I'm done with this roller coaster. I'm Smashing the Scale because I deserve a life free of self hate. I'm Smashing the Scale because while I'm an international advocate, I still have days where I binge and purge. I'm Smashing the Scale because I'm tired of feeling so terrible in my skin that I can hardly think. I'm Smashing the Scale because I've had enough of the toxic guilt that makes me physically ill. I'm Smashing the Scale because when I went in for a birth control appointment and the doctor skeptically asked if I ever exercise I was so dumbfounded by a lifetime of shame and I struggled to explain that yes, actually I do. Quite a bit. I'm Smashing the Scale because I've been dieting since I was 10 years old and that has done irreversible damage to my psyche and body. I'm Smashing the Scale because my sister deserves a role model that loves herself just as she is. I'm Smashing the Scale because my Mother looks to me for self love guidance and I want to be able to support her as well. I'm Smashing the Scale because I'm starting to have MORE GOOD DAYS THAN BAD and this is blowing my mind. I'm Smashing the Scale because I'm making a promise to myself that I will love my body and take care of it. I'm Smashing the Scale because I still have a $100 bottle of diet pills from over a year ago, and I don't know why I'm hesitant to toss it. I'm Smashing the Scale because these thoughts of self-loathing are not mine; they are someone else's that's been taught. I'm Smashing the Scale because I reject that which I haven't created, and I get to decide who and what I am. I'm Smashing the Scale because I KNOW that it's possible to get to a place where you love yourself 100% and I'm determined to make it there. I'm Smashing the Scale this year because this is one step towards that future.
This entire week will be dedicated to sharing our stories about why we've decided to Smash the Scale this year. Why we've decided to separate our value as a human from the number on a scale. Why we've decided to define our OWN beauty and not buy into what others tell us we should be.
We want you to join in!
There are multiple ways to do so:
2.) Share your story on 1.) Blog about it, and share your link on The Body Love Conference Facebook. I will also share on The Militant Baker's Facebook and keep an updated roster at the end of this post2.) Share your story on The Body Love Conference Facebook or in the comments here on this blog. Post it on our wall or post below! We want to read and share both on The Body Love Conference FB and The Militant Baker's. We want you to have a platform in which to announce your mission.
4.) Tweet and tag @BodyLoveConf. Hashtag the shit outta your posts with #SmashTheScale. Instagram us here
This is a resolution revolution and we want you to be part of it.
So who is Smash the Scale for?
For every girl bent over a toilet, worshiping at the altar of thin. For every teen who cries herself to sleep at night because she’s not good enough and doesn’t know why. For every child who didn't know they were fat until someone told them. For every woman who hopes that happiness is on the other side of that pill bottle. For every person who's stopped eating when they're still hungry. For every woman who hopes that happiness is on the other side of that pill bottle
time. Or maybe this time. For every woman that thinks she’ll be worthy of love if her thighs were smaller. For every woman that holds back tears while she tries on jeans. For every child with a Weight Watchers chart on their bedroom door. For every man who's been told to put his shirt back on. For every teen who starves for a gap. For every skinny girl accused of anorexia and every fat girl that’s called lazy.
For every person who looks down at a number for so long that they forget to look up at the world.
For you.
Choose your weapon.
Smash the Scale.
And with it, all obligation, expectation and guilt.
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fascist(Logan Bowles/USA Today Sports)
The Nationals are off Tuesday, the lone off-day of spring training
VIERA, Fla. — Wilson Ramos knows he has played only seven games since he underwent Lasik surgery to correct his vision. But despite the small sample size, the catcher believes the procedure has already made a noticeable impact. Earlier in the week, sitting at his locker halfway across the clubhouse, he pointed to the bulletin board with daily schedules and proclaimed that he could see that now when he couldn’t before. He smiled broadly.
Crouched behind the plate, Ramos said he is seeing pitches better. In the batter’s box, the 28-year-old said the same is happening. He can more clearly see the difference between curveballs, change-ups and sliders now, and any split second improvement in vision can mean the difference between striking out and taking a pitch.
Ramos insists that his 6 for 18 with two home runs — including a solo shot he added Monday — and only three strikeouts is a direct result of the improvement in his eyesight.
[The key to winning the National League East? No mercy for Braves and Phillies.]
“I can see the difference now,” he said after Monday’s game. “I can recognize the pitch well and not swing at bad pitches. That make [me] feel comfortable and excited because before I was swinging at everything, balls or strikes. I was feeling very mad sometimes because I’d say, ‘That’s a very bad pitch. Why am I swinging?’ Now I feel more comfortable at the plate. I know it’s [seven] games after surgery but I can see the difference. I feel more comfortable.”
Ramos had his healthiest season in years in 2015, but his offense cratered with more playing time. He posted his worst offensive season, hitting.229 with 15 home runs, 68 RBI and a career-worst.616 OPS over 128 games. He also struck out 20 percent of his plate appearances, the highest mark of his six-year career. He is entering his walk year- and his potential final season in Nationals uniform — so his eyesight improvement comes at a fortuitous time.
“I feel more excited because now I feel amazing at the plate,” he said. “I can see the ball really really well. That help me to feel more confident at the plate. Just to swing at balls in the strike zone and not swing at bad pitches. I want to help my team. I want to do a better job than last year.”
[Nationals to sell naming rights for Nationals Park]
On defense, Ramos said he is seeing the ball better, too. He had a strong defensive season, in some ways, last season so it wasn’t affecting him that.
Even then, “sometimes before, I lost the ball blinking,” Ramos said. “Sometimes I lost the ball. Now, it feels better. That’s amazing.”
In the offseason, Ramos trained even harder than ever for this season. He ate healthier and hired a trainer. He lost fat and added muscle. Two rival scouts noted that Ramos looks in better shape this spring. Before games started in spring training, Ramos went home and worked out even more. The successes — and especially the failures — of last season are driving him.
“Could be his eyes,” Manager Dusty Baker said. “Could be his weight. He’s in the best shape of his life. I don’t know if it’s his eyes or not but I know, if you can’t see, you can’t hit.”
DAYS UNTIL OPENING DAY: 13"We are extremely proud to partner with one of the most storied franchises in all of sports,” said Mark Kaufman, founder and president of Athletico. “Teaming up with the Detroit Red Wings is a natural step for the support of the Athletico brand and our team with our recent expansion into Michigan. We are looking forward to a strong relationship with the Red Wings for many years to come.”
The partnership includes signage within Joe Louis Arena for all Red Wings games and Olympia Entertainment events. Additionally, the Red Wings will partner with Athletco to hold a social media contest with a VIP experience sweepstakes awarded to the winner. The VIP experience will include four tickets to the Red Wings home game on Wednesday, Jan. 20 against the St. Louis Blues and a postgame player meet-and-greet.
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It was a fitting tribute to the first measure Obama signed into law as president, which gave employees more time to sue their employers and claim discrimination -- an achievement that may not have been possible without Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Ledbetter, an area manager at a Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company in Alabama, claimed discrimination when she sued after discovering she was being paid less than men in the same position. But the Supreme Court ruled against Ledbetter in 2007, saying that she had to bring the suit within 180 days of when she first started getting paid less, as Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act requires.
MCT via Getty Images President Barack Obama signs the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in 2009, a measure that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had pushed for.
That's where Ginsburg came in. In a sharply worded dissent, she argued the majority had overlooked the way pay discrimination works.
"The Court’s insistence on immediate contest overlooks common characteristics of pay discrimination," she wrote. "Pay disparities often occur, as they did in Ledbetter’s case, in small increments; cause to suspect that discrimination is at work develops only over time. Comparative pay information, moreover, is often hidden from the employee’s view." Ginsburg added that employees might be hesitant to claim pay discrimination, especially if they hold a role more commonly occupied by another gender, because they don't want to cause a stir.
She called directly on Congress to amend Title VII and took the unusual step of reading her dissent out loud from the bench in an effort to draw attention to the issue. As The New Yorker's Jeffrey Toobin noted in a 2013 profile of Ginsburg, she also rewrote the dissent she read from the bench in language more accessible to the general public. The dramatics, Toobin wrote, gave the relatively unnoticed case national attention.
In 2009, Congress did amend the law, which now resets the clock for employees to sue after each individual paycheck.
Also on HuffPost:Monday’s 5.3-magnitude earthquake southwest of Trinidad in southern Colorado is being called rare but “consistent with the region and historic activity in the area,” and so far no official connection is being made to gas drilling — or hydraulic fracturing — of relatively shallow coal-bed methane gas reserves in the area.
But such a connection to so-called “fracking” and the disposal of fracking fluid in the local gas fields has been investigated by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in the past. A September 2001 swarm of earthquakes prompted a USGS investigation.
“In recent years, a large volume of excess water that is produced in conjunction with coal-bed methane gas production has been returned to the subsurface in fluid disposal wells in the area of the earthquake swarm,” the USGS report reads. “Because of the proximity of these disposal wells to the earthquakes, local residents and officials are concerned that the fluid disposal might have triggered the earthquakes.
“We have evaluated the characteristics of the seismicity using criteria proposed by Davis and Frohlich (1993) as diagnostic of seismicity induced by fluid injection. We conclude that the characteristics of the seismicity and the fluid disposal process do not constitute strong evidence that the seismicity is induced by the fluid disposal, though they do not rule out this possibility.”
In March, Arkansas oil and gas regulators instituted an emergency moratorium on fracking to determine whether injection wells might be behind a swarm of earthquakes in that state. Fracking involves injecting large quantities of water, sand and often undisclosed chemicals into natural gas wells to fracture rock formations and free up more gas. The water is then stored in holding ponds on the surface for re-use in future “frack jobs” and is later re-injected into disposal wells.
In June, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced seven sites for an ongoing retrospective study of the impacts of fracking on drinking water supplies. One of the sites is in the Raton Basin in Las Animas County, Colo., scene of Monday’s earthquake.
And Walsenburg, 35 miles from the quake in Huerfano County, in the past has had to issue assurances to its residents that municipal water is safe despite contamination of well water from gas-drilling activities.SALT LAKE CITY — When J.D. Goates was 17 and newly graduated from high school, he decided that he had had enough.
His thoughts of suicide, which had begun when he was 8, had become stronger. He was ashamed of being bisexual, especially because his Mormon church told him that homosexuality was abhorrent. His classmates and even his teachers in northern Utah heaped scorn on people like him. When he came out to people he thought were his friends, he was crushed by the hostility of some of them. With both his parents away on business trips, he tried to take his life.
“I thought, ‘If I’m going through this hell now, is there a greater reason for all of this?’” Goates said. “And I came to the decision that there wasn’t.”
Goates’ suicide attempt failed, and now he is a 23-year-old senior at Brigham Young University. But many young people in Utah and across the country haven’t survived.
Between 2006 and 2014, the suicide rate among Americans 19 and under rose from 2.18 to 2.75 per 100,000 people. At least 36 states have experienced an increase, but the problem is especially dire in Utah, where the suicide rate rose from 2.87 to 6.83 during that period.
Among the possible causes cited by suicide experts is a decline in the use of psychiatric medicines and the rise of cyberbullying. Whatever the reasons, a number of states, over the past five years, have adopted measures to try to reverse the trend.
In Texas, for example, a 2015 law requires the state health department to identify and publicize the best practices used in all states for suicide prevention. All public school teachers, counselors and principals in the state must receive training in how to recognize and address signs of suicide risk in students, and schools must notify parents if there’s a concern their child might be at risk for suicide.
New York established an office to coordinate all state suicide prevention activities. The state also provides extensive training for teachers and staff, as well as student peer groups, in how to identify children who seem to be in distress and direct them to adults who can connect them to mental health services. Last month, Wyoming established a statewide crisis text line for residents considering taking their own lives, especially teens.
And most states now deploy suicide response teams to schools where a student has committed suicide. Research has shown that publicity surrounding a suicide can prompt others, particularly young people, to take their own lives.
“You have to do everything to prevent contagion,” said Greg Hudnall, who created a program that trains Utah students to recognize classmates who seem isolated or depressed and direct them to help or tip off counselors or teachers.
It’s one of several steps Utah has taken since 2012 to try to stem the tragedies, including mandatory suicide prevention training for teachers and parents and similar outreach to pediatricians, coaches and others who interact with young people.
“For Utah, more has happened on the suicide prevention front in the last three years than in the 20 years before that,” said Doug Gray, a psychiatrist at the University of Utah who has studied suicide for more than two decades.
While the numbers continue to rise, Gray and others think the prevention efforts are making a difference. But some suicide experts and advocates for children think certain factors in Utah forestall more effective youth suicide prevention efforts.
The state has few restrictions on gun ownership, which suicide experts link to higher rates of suicide, and it has resisted expanding Medicaid eligibility, which critics say would make mental health services more available to those at risk for suicide. Utah also restricts discussion of homosexuality in the classrooms, which gay rights advocates argue further stigmatizes gay students, who are already more vulnerable to suicidal impulses.
Youth suicide declined in the 1990s, which many suicide researchers attribute to the growing use of antidepressants. But that trend came to an abrupt end in the mid-2000s, when the youth suicide rate began its upward trajectory.
Suicide rates are much higher among older Americans than they are among teens: For every 100,000 people, in 2014, there were 19.4 suicides among 40- to 59-year-olds, compared with 2.75 among those 19 and younger.
Some suicide experts, like Gray, associate the rise with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s warnings, starting in 2003, that the use of antidepressants may increase the risk of suicide in teens and adolescents.
The warning, Gray said, persuaded many pediatricians and family practitioners to stop prescribing the drugs to their young patients with depression. Some studies have linked higher rates of teen suicide to the decreased prescribing of antidepressants.
There may be other factors at work in Utah. Studies have found higher suicide rates in areas with low population, where people are more likely to be depressed and mental health services may be less accessible. Utah public schools are barred by law from “advocating homosexuality,” which, critics say, discourages any candid conversation on the subject.
Those “laws exacerbate the stigma that LGBTQ students experience,” said Troy Williams, executive director of Utah Equality, a gay rights organization.
The state does not track suicides by sexual orientation. Like all states, Utah periodically asks students whether they have considered suicide or made attempts, as well as if they take drugs, use alcohol, smoke cigarettes or are sexually active. Starting next year, those surveys will include questions about sexual orientation.
Some child and gay rights advocates say the Mormon church, which dominates the state’s culture, and its doctrinal objection to homosexuality, cause deep distress to young gay people, like Goates, who see themselves as outcasts who will fail to live up to the ideals of their church of marrying and having large families.
“The church is essentially telling gay youngsters, you are outsiders and will always be outsiders,” said Terry Haven, deputy director of Voices for Utah Children, a child advocacy nonprofit. “Of course there will be consequences from that message.”
A spokeswoman for the church, Kristen Howey, declined to address the question of whether the church’s views on homosexuality contribute to the greater suicide risk among LGBTQ youth. But she called suicide “tragic, no matter the explanation or circumstances.”
“We are concerned about the physical, emotional and mental challenges our members face, and the church is actively pursuing ways to help, including online resources and local leader training,” Howey said. “We invite youth, parents, friends and church leaders to take action to become informed on this subject, and we encourage communities to continue to partner on prevention and intervention.”
But the Mormon church has not become less tolerant of homosexuality in recent years and none of the other explanations account for the steep increase in youth suicides in Utah since 2006. State officials admit they are confounded.
The best guess, state officials say, is an increase in cyberbullying and increased computer screen time, which some suicide experts hypothesize is either a symptom of increased isolation or a cause of it.Kevin Morris texted his principal last Wednesday night and asked that she not come by for an evaluation the following morning—he wouldn't be teaching. Instead, Morris, the boys basketball coach at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, had something else in mind.
So on Thursday he pulled out the bleachers in the gymnasium, rolled out the projector, pulled down the big screen and found the site he was searching for on his laptop. The 150 students who arrived at 1 p.m. were there for weightlifting or aerobics or P.E., but by 1:30 they all had settled in for the show: Former Apalachee star Kamar Baldwin was about to make his NCAA tournament debut.
Some of these students had sat in these same bleachers and watched as Baldwin collected accolade after accolade. He had started on the Wildcats varsity squad as a freshman, had been named all-state from his sophomore through senior seasons, had earned Georgia's Region 8-AAAAA Player of the Year award twice and had left school with 2,593 points—the most ever for a Barrow County player. From their seats, they could see his framed No. 44 jersey on the wall above a basket, retired before he graduated. But they weren't looking at the ceiling; they were staring at the screen as Baldwin and his Butler Bulldogs took on the Winthrop Eagles in Milwaukee.
(Getty Images)
They whooped and hollered as Baldwin snagged a steal off Winthrop's Bjorn Broman not a minute into the game, as he blocked a shot not five minutes in and as he drained the three that extended Butler's lead to 11 with about six minutes to go in the first half. As the halftime buzzer sounded, so did the bell signaling the end of the school day. But after the crowd had dispersed and the projector had been disassembled, Morris and five current players huddled in his office and crowded around his 15-inch laptop to watch Butler advance with a 12-point win.
Baldwin finished with seven points, six rebounds, two assists and two steals. His statistics weren't amazing, but the group nonetheless left Morris' office in awe. The players had believed all along that Baldwin would succeed in college basketball one day, but now they marveled anew at how a 6-foot 3-star recruit from their tiny, 15,000-person town had become an impact Division I starter so soon.
Before Kamar Baldwin could form words or even memories, basketball was central to his life. His mother, Kay Holloway, who had played point guard in high school and for a year at Shorter University in nearby Rome, Georgia, was the girls coach at Winder-Barrow, the only other high school in Barrow County—and Apalachee's chief rival. By the time he turned two and could string a sentence together, Kamar implored his mother to let him start playing basketball.
"Eventually," she jokes, "I had to put a ball in his hands just to shut him up."
(Photo courtesy of Kay Holloway)
At three, Kamar was so hooked that he talked the director of his day care into buying him a ball and a hoop so that he wouldn't have to spend the better part of each day away from the game. His mother would come to collect him after work and find him instructing his peers on proper dribbling technique. When she brought him home, he'd step in front of the Fisher-Price hoop in his bedroom and hoist shots until his tiny arms failed. By the time he turned four, he was playing organized basketball at the YMCA. His mother coached the team.
Just two years later, Morris brought his son, Ethan, to the YMCA for a game. As Ethan played, Morris found himself distracted by a kid on the next court over—he couldn't tell whether the boy was left-handed or right-handed, but he knew for certain he was going to be a big-time player. Since there are only two schools in Barrow County, he knew he had to find the boy's family and ask an important question: Did they live in Winder-Barrow's district or Apalachee's? His mother, herself a special education teacher, gave him the good news about her son.
"I wouldn't say I was recruiting then," Morris says, "but I was definitely excited."
(Photos courtesy of Kay Holloway)
Around that time, Kay—who hadn't married Kamar's father, Greg Baldwin—began dating Jamie Holloway, a sheriff she'd first met when they were both basketball players at Shorter. As their relationship grew serious, Holloway invested more and more time refining Kamar's burgeoning basketball skills. They'd pass hours on the driveway, mimicking Chris Paul's dribbling techniques and forming a sharp shooting stroke.
"At first, I hated it," Kamar says. "I'd feel like I mastered something, and then we'd do it again and again—for hours, for days. Now I understand how much that helped to shape me."
The only gap in his young career came in third grade. Two times that year, his mother was called in for a teacher's conference: Kamar was becoming the class clown. She told him that if she had to make another trip to the school, she wouldn't allow him to to play basketball that year. When the third call came, he protested the suspension, but it stood.
"I hated not being able to play, but I'm glad they didn't give in," Kamar says. "I carry that lesson with me to this day."
When Morris finally got Kamar on his court, for a four-day camp the summer after Kamar's suspension, he played him with fifth- and sixth-graders and marveled at how ahead of the curve he was. Morris gave Kamar a nickname that year: The Franchise.
"When we heard Kamar was coming, we celebrated like we'd just gotten into the Sweet 16."
—Butler head coach Chris Holtmann
But Baldwin soon learned that being the best player in Barrow County wasn't enough to help him achieve his dream of playing college basketball. In eighth grade, after having dabbled in football (as a quarterback) and track (he ran the 400-meter dash and hurdles), he decided to focus exclusively on hoops.
He and Jamie Holloway, by now his stepfather, drove to Atlanta, about 45 minutes away, to try out for the Atlanta Celtics AAU team—a program that had helped develop NBA stars like Dwight Howard and Josh Smith. At the tryout, coach Derrick Dickerson pushed Baldwin to his limits, physically and psychologically. Dickerson made him do pushups until his arms felt like spaghetti noodles and told him he might never make it on this team—or even out of Barrow County.
"He came into my practice like he was pretty good," Dickerson says, "and I blasted him. I got in his face. I called him a prima donna."
In the truck on the way back to Winder, Holloway cut the silence with a question: "Do you want to go back?"
How Baldwin responded convinced Holloway that his stepson would reach his basketball potential: "Yes, sir."
For the rest of high school, Baldwin learned to balance his experience with his two basketball teams. With the Celtics, he developed slowly, coming off the bench behind highly touted recruits like Kobi Simmons, a 5-star who plays for Arizona, and Alterique Gilbert, a 4-star who plays for UConn.
(Photo courtesy of Kevin Morris)
At Apalachee, Baldwin was a legend, sometimes scoring as many as 23 points in a row for his team and averaging a double-double in his final three seasons. In his senior year alone, he scored 29.6 points per game and added 10.8 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 3.7 steals.
As his game grew, so too did the crowds. Morris estimates attendance went from about 400 fans a game in Baldwin's freshman year to nearly 1,000 during his senior season. And when Winder-Barrow came to the gym, it was standing room only.
But with each passing year, two things about Baldwin's game remained consistent: He was stellar on defense and a consummate teammate. Newspaper clippings, Dickerson says, often misstated Baldwin's height as 6'3" or 6'4"—he was 5'11" in high school—because his 6'6" wingspan and penchant for picking pockets made him appear taller than he was. And Baldwin never pouted when he was pulled from games.
"In fact," Dickerson says, "he'd often whisper to the guy who replaced him, 'Pick up where I left off. Go get 'em!' That's just how he was raised. His family worked for everything they had. His game, like his upbringing, is blue-collar."
There was one time each year when Baldwin was a little selfish: March. Whether he was with his mom or his dad, everyone in each family—he has three younger siblings on his mother's side and two on his father's—knew not to expect much TV time. Baldwin spent every free minute taking in the NCAA tournament. And one particular year now stands out in his memory: 2010.
(AP)
That March, a scrappy Horizon League team made its first of two consecutive trips to the national championship game, and Baldwin begged his mom to let him stay up past his bedtime to watch the spellbinding finish. After Gordon Hayward missed what would have been the game-winning shot by inches, Baldwin went to bed deflated.
"I was rooting so hard for Butler to beat Duke," Baldwin says. "I always loved the Cinderella story."
Baldwin didn't think much about Butler, a school 9.5 hours north of Winder, until he received a call from Butler staffer Emerson Kampen during the summer before his senior year. Emerson had gone to Dallas to scout some other players but decided on a whim to stick around for an Atlanta Celtics game instead of heading back to his hotel room to relax. Even though Baldwin was coming off the bench, Emerson was captivated by the player who was displaying ferocious defensive intensity during his third game of the afternoon.
"He wasn't a self-promoter," Emerson, now Butler's men's basketball analyst, says. "But he played the game the right way. I knew as soon as I saw him that he would fit in at Butler."
When head coach Chris Holtmann visited Winder later that summer, he agreed. The Bulldogs were playing catch-up in recruiting because Holtmann had only been promoted from interim coach to the permanent job in January, and it had been challenging to get players to commit to a coach to whom the school hadn't yet committed.
"Anyone who thinks this team is an underdog doesn't know the history of Butler basketball."
—Kamar Baldwin
For Baldwin, the only challenge was convincing himself that he could handle living so far away from family—and living in the snow. He accepted Butler's scholarship in August of his senior year.
"We had just lost two all-conference guards," Holtmann says. "So when we heard Kamar was coming, we celebrated like we'd just gotten into the Sweet 16."
Baldwin soon gave them even more cause to celebrate. In the second game of this season, Butler was tied at 68 at home against Northwestern with 12.9 seconds left. Baldwin calmly handled the inbounds pass, slipped behind a screen, crossed over his defender, the 6'8" Gavin Skelly, and hit a 20-foot step-back jumper to seal the win. In the process, he also earned his first "Onions!" call from Bill Raftery.
In their dorm room suite later that night, Joey Brunk, a freshman forward, and Avery Woodson, a senior guard, wanted to celebrate, but Baldwin demurred. He had no interest in spending any time talking about himself.
The next day, when Holtmann called Baldwin into his office to explain that there would be a comedown, that he wouldn't end every game of his college career with the winning shot, he found a freshman who had already comfortably moved on from the biggest moment of his college basketball career.
(Getty Images)
Though he never begged to be in the starting lineup—"I'm just as happy being a cheerleader on the bench as I am being on the floor," he says—Baldwin's play made the argument for him early on. After just nine games, he had wormed his way into the starting lineup, capable of combining stellar defense—watch him help seal Butler's home upset of Villanova on January 4 by snagging a steal off Big East Player of the Year Josh Hart and finishing with a reverse layup—with impossibly athletic offense, like his behind-the-head-layup in a win at Xavier on February 26.
As he became Butler's biggest impact freshman since Hayward in 2008-09, the Bulldogs surpassed some expectations of their own. Picked to finish sixth in the preseason Big East poll, they wound up in second place, behind only NCAA tournament No. 1 overall seed Villanova.
Though it'd be easy for a player like Baldwin, undersized and under-recruited, to buy into the notion that he and his team are the sleepers in this tournament, he doesn't think about labels.
"I've never thought about myself as an underdog," Baldwin says. "I just love to play, so I play. And anyone who thinks this team is an underdog doesn't know the history of Butler basketball."
Milwaukee was too far a drive—or too expensive a flight—for most folks from Winder. But Friday afternoon, Kay and Jamie will drive to Memphis, Tennessee, for the South |
/signal, put/take, inc/dec, or acquire/release. This is also true for other constructs.
For the matter of demonstrating, I'll show how a semaphore can be used.
From a code structure and quality point of view, this is just throw-away back-of-napkin code, so don't take any of this seriously as a proper design -- just notice the ideas.
Here's a simple Stargate SG-1 inspired classic producer-consumer model:
require 'java' java_import 'java.util.concurrent.Semaphore' SEM = Semaphore. new ( 10 ) class Gouauld def say_work! puts "Human, kree!" sleep ( 1 ) SEM. release end end class Human def build_pyramid puts "Yes, master" SEM. acquire sleep ( 2 ) end end 4. times do Thread. new do g = Gouauld. new loop { g. say_work! } end end 10. times do Thread. new do h = Human. new loop { h. build_pyramid } end end sleep 100
Resulting in an imbalanced producer-consumer relationship (Jaffas not keeping the pace with humans)
Human, kree! Human, kree! Human, kree! Yes, masterYes, master Yes, master Yes, master Yes, master Yes, master Yes, master Yes, master Yes, master Yes, master Human, kree!
Countdown Latch
This is very similar to a real life latch in its behavior, just that you can set a number which is counted down on. Every thread can signal that it has done its intended work, by counting down on the latch once. When it hits the latch, it will be forced to wait on it. Once all required threads hit the latch, and it is fully counted down, everyone (all threads) is set free at once.
A unique property of the latch is that it is one-time one-use. Once the latch is open, you can't reset it.
A synchronization aid that allows one or more threads to wait until a set of operations being performed in other threads completes.
require 'java' java_import 'java.util.concurrent.CountDownLatch' latch = CountDownLatch. new ( 4 ); 4. times do Thread. new do sleep rand ( 3 ) latch. count_down latch. await puts "[ #{ Time. now. to_i } ] #{ Thread. current } boo!" end end sleep ( 5 )
By the way, my use of sleep(X) to wait for all threads isn't that encouraged in real code. In your real code, you should Thread.join to enforce waiting for other threads.
[1347019958]#<Thread:0x4c0ce83d> boo! [1347019958]#<Thread:0x636323cc> boo! [1347019958]#<Thread:0x1c3590e> boo! [1347019958]#<Thread:0x400ba709> boo!
Cyclic Barrier
A barrier is similar in its behavior to the latch, only that you can reset it. It may be also called Rendezvous on other platforms or languages, just so you have a better reference.
There are many more, but I'll leave the rest to you, I guess you get the drift.
require 'java' java_import 'java.util.concurrent.CyclicBarrier' barrier = CyclicBarrier. new ( 4 ); puts "kill me with CTRL-C" loop do 4. times do Thread. new do sleep rand ( 3 ) barrier. await puts "[ #{ Time. now. to_i } ] #{ Thread. current } Come on... what are you waiting for? kill me!" end end sleep ( 5 ) end
As with the countdown latch, this example lends itself to be very similar (except the Predator reference :), but now we can re-enter this barrier as many times as we want.
The output clearly shows that all threads are in concert, every time they pass the barrier.
kill me with CTRL-C [1347020546]#<Thread:0x53635a08> Come on... what are you waiting for? kill me! [1347020546]#<Thread:0x3dea1661> Come on... what are you waiting for? kill me! [1347020546]#<Thread:0x1fabedfd> Come on... what are you waiting for? kill me! [1347020546]#<Thread:0x50958d49> Come on... what are you waiting for? kill me! [1347020552]#<Thread:0x929750e> Come on... what are you waiting for? kill me! [1347020552]#<Thread:0x6e4a084c> Come on... what are you waiting for? kill me! [1347020552]#<Thread:0x65639ad4> Come on... what are you waiting for? kill me! [1347020552]#<Thread:0x6ed4b575> Come on... what are you waiting for? kill me! ^C
Wait a Minute
But here's something to think about. Do you really want real concurrency?
The truth is, you can still do quite a lot of work in the work loads we're handling in startups, enterprises, and web in general, without resorting to utilizing real concurrency. This is primarily due to the fact that most of your work is I/O-bound.
You make a database query, munge the data, generate output and stream it to clients. Much of this is I/O, and given that I/O is several orders of magnitude slower than memory operations (code), MRI Ruby has quite a bit of time to allocate to other threads.
Or you make one or more Web API requests, get the data, save it to the database, and stream it to the clients. Again tons of I/O.
This is why MRI Ruby will still serve you well into which ever task you have in hand in this domain. But, you will absolutely need real concurrency if you hit a performance plateau, and, by then, you'll probably be an expert in this field.
But hey! You'll never get to experience the JVM with JRuby as your language of choice, and it’s really great so try it out!.Welcome to Thraben University, the ultimate resource for Death and Taxes. As a teacher and judge, I am always seeking to educate. This site is a repository of the knowledge I’ve gained over the years by watching some of the greatest players pilot the deck, by discussing the deck on MtG:Salvation and The Source, and through my own play experiences. In particular, I’d like to thank Finn, creator of D&T, for allowing me to replicate and edit some of his content in various places across the website. If you are new to D&T, please click here for a general introduction.
I’m aware that the website menu doesn’t work well on mobile devices, and I know that the website isn’t necessarily the prettiest thing. That being said, I’m doing my best to promote Legacy and provide a useful resource for players. You can catch me live every Monday and Wednesday at ~7:00 PM Eastern time on Twitch as well as Saturday mornings (time variable). You can also check out my videos on Youtube
-Phil GallagherAmazon has acquired Whole Foods in a record-setting $13.7 billion deal. In its review of the deal, the FTC is looking into allegations against Amazon of tampering with comparison prices. (Amazon founder and CEO Jeffrey P. Bezos owns The Washington Post). (Jhaan Elker/The Washington Post)
Whole Foods is known for its human touch: smiling cashiers, bakers offering free samples, baristas pouring kombucha on tap. Amazon is known for replacing stores with Web pages and workers with algorithms.
On Friday, the companies got engaged: Amazon announced plans to purchase the upscale grocery chain in a deal valued at $13.7 billion.
Now, at a time when retail jobs are already in free fall, worker advocates worry that many of Whole Foods' 90,000 employees may be next.
Amazon opened a grocery store last year in Seattle that allows customers to buy food without talking to anyone. The surveillance-heavy building’s sensors can detect someone leaving with, say, a carton of milk and bill their Amazon account.
Whether Amazon intends to replicate or even approximate that model at Whole Foods is unclear. A representative for Amazon — whose founder and owner, Jeffrey P. Bezos, also owns The Washington Post — said it had no plans for automation. And even if the company sheds in-store employees, a restructuring could involve new hiring elsewhere.
A representative for Whole Foods said no layoffs would come as a result of the merger but did not comment on future employment plans. (A store manager told a Post reporter she could not interview employees at a D.C. locaion.)
Unlike employees at other large grocery chains, Whole Foods workers are not unionized — chief executive John Mackey has said the company is not “anti-union” but “beyond unions” — and the union representing grocery workers said the merger puts those employees at risk.
“Amazon’s brutal vision for retail is one where automation replaces good jobs,” Marc Perrone, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, said in a statement Friday. “Sadly, the hard-working men and women who work at Whole Foods now face an uncertain future.”
[Amazon has a patent to keep you from comparison shopping while you’re in its stores]
Whole Foods has endured a rough couple of years, dismissing about 1,500 workers in 2015 after posting a stretch of dismal earnings.
Still, the company is the 30th largest retailer in the United States, with 431 stores nationwide. Whole Foods is known for paying better-than-average wages and extending generous benefits packages to its employees. Workers receive 20 percent off groceries at the store and, after 800 service hours, full-timers become eligible to pay insurance premiums between $0 and $20 per paycheck, depending on their years with the company, per the Whole Foods website.
Elise Gould, a labor economist at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., said cashier jobs represent an important part of the economy. They’re spread out across the country and employ workers of diverse backgrounds and ages.
“These are jobs that can help support a family,” Gould said.
The country’s retail jobs, though, have seen a recent slowdown in growth. From now through 2024, employment of cashiers is expected to grow 2 percent while the average for all occupations is projected to jump 7 percent.
The number of cashier jobs in 2015, meanwhile, was the same as the number in 2005, though U.S. employment overall had increased by 7.6 million over that period, according to the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“Advances in technology, such as self-service checkout stands in retail stores and increasing online sales, will continue to limit the need for cashiers,” the BLS notes on its website.
[From the A&P to Amazon: The rise of the modern grocery store]
A 2013 study from Oxford University predicted that 47 percent of jobs in the United States could be performed by machines over the next two decades, and cashier roles carry an especially heightened risk. That’s because the work involves a heavy pattern, which computers can pick up easily, and is already being automated at stores across the country, such as CVS. A recent survey from the Pew Research Center found that, even in the age of automation, employers desire workers who can connect well with other people.
Outside a Whole Foods in the nation’s capital Friday, John Casey, a 52-year-old real estate developer, explained why he visits the store nearly every other day. “I don’t shop online,” he said, sitting before a platter of rotisserie chicken. “I like to come in and see people. The cashiers know me as a regular.”
Rebeka Ryvola, a 30-year-old World Bank employee, echoed his sentiment over a plate of vegan salad. “I just love interacting with people,” she said. “I get connections with people here, and I hope that doesn’t change.”
Ryvola said that at the CVS next door, however, the automated kiosks tend to save her time in line.Mike Cassidy, president of Coach Atlantic, told the EUB he plans to launch the new Tri-Maritime Bus Network on Dec. 1. (Matthew Bingley/CBC)
A new Maritime bus service has been given the green light by the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board to begin operating next month.
The EUB has approved "in principle" the routes, schedules and fares applied for by Coach Atlantic Transportation Group Inc. in New Brunswick, a decision released Thursday states.
"The purpose of this advisory note from the board is to permit the applicant to proceed with the work necessary to ensure its New Brunswick line run operation will be operational as of Dec. 1, 2012."
A more detailed decision is expected to be released soon.
Coach Atlantic had received approval from the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board earlier this month and it already offers services between Charlottetown and Summerside.
The new Maritime service, which will be called the Tri-Maritime Bus Network, is expected to offer passenger and parcel service within New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.
Opposed by Acadian Lines union
Glen Carr, of the Amalgamated Transit Union, is calling for a public inquiry of the EUB decision. (Matthew Bingley/CBC)
Coach Atlantic had already been granted a licence to replace the existing inter-city Maritime service, Acadian Lines, which is folding its operations at the end of November.
But the EUB, which regulates carrier services in the province, held a public hearing in Saint John on Wednesday to go over the proposed routes, schedules and fares.
Coach Atlantic president Mike Cassidy told the board he hoped to replace the current Acadian Lines service, but drop some routes and bring busing to other parts of the province in the future.
"Those void areas are Saint John into St. Stephen, the road between Fredericton and Miramichi, and of course in what we call northern New Brunswick, where we have Bathurst, Dalhousie and Campbellton," Cassidy said.
Acadian has said it lost millions of dollars providing service in the Maritimes and can't make a profit in the region.
Cassidy said he has a different business model, which includes a plan for minimum and maximum number of runs during the week, as well as fuel surcharges.
Call for public inquiry
Glen Carr, the president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1229, which represents Acadian Lines employees, contends the approval process was flawed and wants a public inquiry.
"My main concern is the way the Energy and Utilities Board had kept denying Acadian any changes they wanted," Carr told CBC News. "They denied David Anderson from Advanced Shuttle Services in P.E.I."
Carr had opposed Coast Atlantic's application during the EUB hearing.
He said some of the same routes Coach Atlantic wanted to drop were the same ones Acadian Lines had been asking to cut for years.
"And a new company comes in and all of a sudden everything's great. Let's just change all the rules and regulations and give it to another outside private company. Does it make sense?"
Carr had argued if the EUB had been more flexible in allowing Acadian to cut service on less profitable routes, the company may have made more money and 100 employees might not have been out of work.MANILA — A pregnant 16-year-old girl from Las Piñas City is among the latest victims of Zika virus infection, according to the Department of Health.
“@Dok_Pau confirms second pregnant #Zika; 16 year old from Las Pinas City; had skin rash & fever at 32nd week of her pregnancy; No ultrasound,” DOH spokesperson Dr. Eric Tayag said in his Twitter account.
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“Total number of #zika in #ph is 33 including 2 pregnant cases (Cebu & Las Pinas),” he added.
The 16-year-old patient was among the 10 new cases the DOH reported on Tuesday, but the DOH did not immediately divulge that the patient was pregnant because health officials were still awaiting confirmation.
The first pregnant woman from Cebu who contracted Zika virus has undergone two ultrasounds and showed no abnormalities in her pregnancy.
“She’s okay, she’s still being monitored. She has undergone two ultrasound and so far, still normal. She’s expected to give birth in January,” DOH Secretary Paulyn Ubial said.
Of the 33 cases, 12 were recorded in Iloilo; four in Bacoor, Cavite; three cases each in Mandaluyong and Calamba, Laguna; two cases each in Antipolo, Las Piñas and Muntinlupa; one each in Cebu, Quezon City, Makati, Caloocan, and Manila.
Region 6 (Western Visayas) has the highest number of recorded cases in the Philippines, followed by the National Capital Region, Region 4-A (Calabarzon), and Region 7 (Central Visayas).
According to Ubial, only these four regions have recorded cases of Zika virus but the DOH, along with local government units and the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM), continue to monitor samples from regional offices nationwide. SFM
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MOST READIn 2017, app stores saw record revenues and downloads. Across both iOS and Android platforms, downloads grew by 15 percent year-over-year to reach nearly 50 billion worldwide, taking total revenue to $15 billion.
Google Play and the Apple App Store are the most widely used mobile marketplaces across the globe. It’s because of this duopoly that they are able to impose a 30% cut on all purchases, app downloads and in-app items alike.
AppCoin wants to change this by utilising Blockchain technology, disrupting the traditional app economy. This economy is worth nearly $77 bln today and may double by 2020.
What problems will it solve?
The app economy is highly inefficient due to many intermediaries between the users and developers. It’s constructed by single entities that provide highly centralised platforms. These platforms offer distribution, discovery and financial transactions but have frustratingly non-transparent policies.
These entities are also responsible for maintaining the apps and games on the store, but also enforcing security measures and guaranteeing the integrity of every transaction made. Just like many other centralised systems, this model is flawed. Malware-plagued downloads, inaccessible in-app purchases for low-end markets, data leaks and privacy concerns are a few reasons why the user experience on mobile marketplaces are increasingly filled with risks and inconveniences.
In a nutshell, there are three crucial functions of app stores: advertising, in-app purchases and app approval. Aptoide wants to move these three functions to the Blockchain and revolutionise the mobile app industry with its supercharged app store protocol, AppCoins. AppCoins will act as a medium of exchange between end-users and developers, improving user experience and market efficiency through immutable smart contracts.
How will they be solved?
In order to make advertising more transparent and affordable, AppCoins will eliminate middlemen by creating a new method to acquire users that will make CPI (Cost per Installation) campaigns obsolete. They’re calling it CPAt (Cost Per Attention). This new model allows a developer to directly reward a user for spending at least two minutes inside the app. The user earns AppCoins, which are stored in their wallets, and can be used to make in-app purchases.
Blockchain will also help AppCoins’ team to reach the two billion smartphone users who do not have the necessary payment methods to do in-app purchases. With their new model, users will be rewarded by CPAt campaigns, by which they can earn AppCoins and spend them inside their favourite game or app.
With the use of Blockchain, app approvals will be made universal and more transparent through a developer reputation system. Their reputation will be validated by financial transactions on an auditable public ledger. A dispute system will be created so that AppCoins’ owners can create rankings for developers and the apps they publish.
The ICO
AppCoins is an ERC20 token that will be issued and used as the primary medium of exchange in the AppCoins protocol. App stores utilising this protocol will pay out 85% of the advertiser’s costs to the app users in the form of AppCoin tokens.
The pre-sale ended successfully, distributing over 20 million AppCoins. In total, including the pre-sale and public sale, 40 percent of the 700 million AppCoins tokens will be distributed.
The remaining tokens will go towards the App Store Foundation (15%), bootstrap strategies and key partnerships in the apps economy (20%), Aptoide (15%) and the key contributors to AppCoins idea (10%).
The token is valued at $0.10 with a hard cap of $28 million.
The Team
The Aptoide Android App Store was developed back in 2009 as a flexible, open and free alternative to Google Play Store which now has around 200 million users worldwide that downloaded more than four billion apps and games.
Conclusion
AppCoins is supported by Aptoide, one of the world’s most popular app stores. It is highly likely that with the elimination of intermediaries, developers will be able to realise greater returns on investment, increase the monetisation potential of their product, and directly communicate with their customer base.
For more information on the ICO, please visit https://appcoins.io. We also recommend reading the Whitepaper to further understand their roadmap and technology.GlitchBreaks 1.02 is out with all bugs fixed and some great user requested features! I've been helping out with the beta on this one to make sure all of the bugs with 1.0 have been resolved. Seal of Approval goes here.
Among the new features is that the GlitchPad is more dynamic! It will now glitch-out wherever the playhead is instead of going back to the loop start. This is a lot of fun!
Also requested and implemented is Index tracking. Now when you're going wild on the glitch pad, reverse, or loop mod GlitchBreaks will keep track of where it would be in the beat. As soon as you lay-off the glitching it will snap back to the correct time position. This makes it much easier to get some good sounds out of the app, since it will be keeping the beat!
Here's a recent track I did while tinkering with the beta:Some might say that Mathematica and A New Kind of Science are ambitious projects.
But in recent years I’ve been hard at work on a still more ambitious project—called Wolfram|Alpha.
And I’m excited to say that in just two months it’s going to be going live:
Mathematica has been a great success in very broadly handling all kinds of formal technical systems and knowledge.
But what about everything else? What about all other systematic knowledge? All the methods and models, and data, that exists?
Fifty years ago, when computers were young, people assumed that they’d quickly be able to handle all these kinds of things.
And that one would be able to ask a computer any factual question, and have it compute the answer.
But it didn’t work out that way. Computers have been able to do many remarkable and unexpected things. But not that.
I’d always thought, though, that eventually it should be possible. And a few years ago, I realized that I was finally in a position to try to do it.
I had two crucial ingredients: Mathematica and NKS. With Mathematica, I had a symbolic language to represent anything—as well as the algorithmic power to do any kind of computation. And with NKS, I had a paradigm for understanding how all sorts of complexity could arise from simple rules.
But what about all the actual knowledge that we as humans have accumulated?
A lot of it is now on the web—in billions of pages of text. And with search engines, we can very efficiently search for specific terms and phrases in that text.
But we can’t compute from that. And in effect, we can only answer questions that have been literally asked before. We can look things up, but we can’t figure anything new out.
So how can we deal with that? Well, some people have thought the way forward must be to somehow automatically understand the natural language that exists on the web. Perhaps getting the web semantically tagged to make that easier.
But armed with Mathematica and NKS I realized there’s another way: explicitly implement methods and models, as algorithms, and explicitly curate all data so that it is immediately computable.
It’s not easy to do this. Every different kind of method and model—and data—has its own special features and character. But with a mixture of Mathematica and NKS automation, and a lot of human experts, I’m happy to say that we’ve gotten a very long way.
But, OK. Let’s say we succeed in creating a system that knows a lot, and can figure a lot out. How can we interact with it?
The way humans normally communicate is through natural language. And when one’s dealing with the whole spectrum of knowledge, I think that’s the only realistic option for communicating with computers too.
Of course, getting computers to deal with natural language has turned out to be incredibly difficult. And for example we’re still very far away from having computers systematically understand large volumes of natural language text on the web.
But if one’s already made knowledge computable, one doesn’t need to do that kind of natural language understanding.
All one needs to be able to do is to take questions people ask in natural language, and represent them in a precise form that fits into the computations one can do.
Of course, even that has never been done in any generality. And it’s made more difficult by the fact that one doesn’t just want to handle a language like English: one also wants to be able to handle all the shorthand notations that people in every possible field use.
I wasn’t at all sure it was going to work. But I’m happy to say that with a mixture of many clever algorithms and heuristics, lots of linguistic discovery and linguistic curation, and what probably amount to some serious theoretical breakthroughs, we’re actually managing to make it work.
Pulling all of this together to create a true computational knowledge engine is a very difficult task.
It’s certainly the most complex project I’ve ever undertaken. Involving far more kinds of expertise—and more moving parts—than I’ve ever had to assemble before.
And—like Mathematica, or NKS—the project will never be finished.
But I’m happy to say that we’ve almost reached the point where we feel we can expose the first part of it.
It’s going to be a website: www.wolframalpha.com. With one simple input field that gives access to a huge system, with trillions of pieces of curated data and millions of lines of algorithms.
We’re all working very hard right now to get Wolfram|Alpha ready to go live.
I think it’s going to be pretty exciting. A new paradigm for using computers and the web.
That almost gets us to what people thought computers would be able to do 50 years ago!Tucker Spars With BLM Supporter: 'I'm Trying to Take You Seriously, But I Can't
Tucker: CNN Silent After Commentator 'Incited Rage' at Antifa Rally
Tucker Carlson reported that the Southern Poverty Law Center published a comprehensive list of Confederate symbols in the United States.
Those symbols include statues, parks and even schools.
Carlson and journalist Tyler O'Neil discussed how the SPLC has gone from a legitimate organization to one that "defames organizations with which they disagree."
Tony Perkins' Family Research Council, an Evangelical organization was listed by them as a "hate group," and anti-extremism activist Maajid Nawaz has also been targeted.
The SPLC said the 1500 places stand "with the potential to unleash more turmoil and bloodshed" like that in Charlottesville, Va.
Carlson said that no student of the schools named after Confederate figures "deserves to have to go to school... when there's a violent outbreak of protests [there]."
Carlson also played tape of several recent acts of vandalism against such symbols, like a Confederate statue in North Carolina and a Christopher Columbus bust in Yonkers, N.Y.
In the latter case, Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino (R) said the defacing of statues like the one in Yonkers is "out of control and must come to an end."
"The persons responsible... will face serious legal action for their crimes," the White Plains, N.Y. legislator said.
Watch more above.
Jesse Jackson: Trump 'Would Not Qualify to Get Into Jesus' Kingdom'
AFL-CIO's Trumka Blasts Trump: Our Supporters in WH 'Turned Out to Be Racist'Several quality relievers are available. The best one is David Robertson, who was once considered a lock to return to the Yankees. That chance diminished when the team chose not to extend him before he had a full season as a closer under his belt. It grew even less likely when Dellin Betances, his setup man, outpitched him all season. Although he is no Mariano Rivera, Robertson is a top-shelf reliever who will command a lot of money from the Yankees or a team like the Detroit Tigers, who are looking to revamp their bullpen.
The next tier of available relievers includes those with experience closing games like Sergio Romo and Francisco Rodriguez. A safer bet for production worthy of a new contract may be Andrew Miller, a former top prospect, who thrived in a setup role for the Red Sox and the Orioles this season.
The Expendables
There comes a time for players when potential can no longer excuse a lack of production. A number of players appear to have hit that wall going into free agency this season.
It may finally be time to abandon the hope that Josh Johnson, the Toronto right-hander, can remain healthy. Johnson often dominated in the short stretches that he managed over the years, but he has started 30 or more games just three times in nine seasons, and various maladies seemed to catch up with him last season as he posted a 6.20 earned run average in 16 games.RICHMOND — A Democratic state senator Wednesday called on Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) to step down over a growing gifts scandal, becoming the first elected official to directly demand his resignation.
“I don’t see the purpose of the governor continuing in office when the trust between his office and Virginians has been so eroded,” Sen. Barbara Favola (Arlington) said Wednesday morning, shortly after making similar comments in a TV interview with Bruce DePuyt. “When you’ve broken that ethical bond, I don’t know to what purpose he can really execute the activities of his office effectively at this point.”
Favola made her comments in response to a story in Wednesday’s Washington Post that Virginia businessman Jonnie R. Williams Sr. had given $70,000 to a corporation owned by McDonnell and his sister, a $50,000 check to first lady Maureen McDonnell and $10,000 to their daughter, Jeanine, to help defray the costs of her May wedding. Those gifts or loans came on top of $15,000 that, as The Post reported in March, Williams provided to cover the catering at the wedding of another McDonnell daughter, Cailin, in June 2011.
McDonnell spokesman Tucker Martin declined to comment. McDonnell has previously said that he has done nothing wrong and provided no favors to Williams in exchange for any gifts.
McDonnell and his wife have helped Williams promote Star Scientific’s nutritional supplement, Anatabloc, with personal appearances by the first lady and a launch party at the governor’s mansion. But McDonnell has said their efforts have been in line with what they would do to boost any Virginia business.
View Graphic Timeline: Star Scientific and Gov. McDonnell
House Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford) dismissed any talk of resignation as “partisan political potshots.”
“What has he done other than perhaps not report some things on time?” Howell said, referring to financial disclosure forms that did not include some of the gifts.
Favola went further than Sen. Chap Petersen (D-Fairfax), who on his blog last week called on McDonnell to return the gifts and fully explain them to the public or resign. Petersen repeated that call on his blog Tuesday night when the Post story went online.
“I’ll repeat what I stated in writing one week ago: it’s time for the Governor to come clean on all these gifts, return the retail items, and make this right,” Petersen said. “Otherwise, it’s time to step down.”
Favola also went further than House Democratic leaders did in a telephone news conference organized Wednesday morning in response to the Post report. House Democratic Leader David Toscano (Charlottesville) and chairman Mark Sickles (Fairfax) called on McDonnell to explain the gifts and loans, but did not call for his resignation. Sen. Mark R. Herring (Loudoun), the Democratic nominee for attorney general, struck a similar note in a conference call of his own.
“Just tell everybody what’s been going on,” Sickles said. “Why loans were made, why careful procedures were made to have technical compliance with the letter of the law, apparently in a lawyer’s view, but certainly not in the spirit of the law.”
Asked directly about whether he would demand McDonnell’s resignation, Toscano said federal and state investigations into the matter need to first run their course.
“Until we have more information, we’re not ready to make that request,” Toscano said. “Every day more revelations emerge and give us more cause for concern, but we want to see where this investigation goes.”
While expressing confidence that the governor can and should weather the controversy, Howell said the matter had exposed weaknesses in state law governing gifts to elected officials.
Virginia has one of the most lax ethics laws in the nation, allowing office-holders to accept gifts of unlimited value so long as they annually report any worth more than $50. It does not require disclosure of gifts to immediate family members.
When news of the $15,000 wedding payment first broke in March, McDonnell said there had been no need to disclose it because it was a gift to his daughter, not him. Since that time, The Post has reported that Williams treated Maureen McDonnell to a designer clothing shopping spree in New York City and gave the first lady a $6,500 men’s Rolex watch that she, in turn, gave to the governor.
In response, some Democrats have called for dollar limits on gifts. In his first public comments on the matter, Howell said Wednesday that he doesn’t think that is the answer.
“Money and influence, unfortunately, is part of politics, and it’s not going away,” he said. “And efforts to limit it often have the unintended consequence of driving it underground.... I really like what we do in Virginia, and have done successfully for some time. We believe disclosure and transparency is more effective than more heavy-handed regulations.”
That said, Howell contended that the law should be changed to address gifts to relatives if they are provided by someone with a political or business relationship with state government. Office-holders do not have to disclose gifts provided directly to them if the giver is a personal friend. Howell said that policy probably should be changed if the friend has political or business interests with the state.
Howell said he has asked members of the House Republican caucus to come up with ideas for amending ethics law for the purpose of proposing legislation in the 2014 session.
Ben Pershing contributed to this report.David Warner has revealed teammate Steve Smith predicted the freakish dismissal of Pakistan batsman Fawad Alam in the third ODI in Abu Dhabi.
Alam's wicket in Australia's thrilling one-run win had fans checking the rulebook after a clever piece of fielding from Smith.
Quick Single: Maxwell pulls off mission impossible
Fielding at first slip, Smith bolted to the leg-side when he saw Alam shape to lap sweep as the ball from spinner Xavier Doherty travelled down the pitch.
Alam, unaware that Smith had moved positions, swept the ball straight into the hands of the fieldsman and the Australians celebrated.
The move is legal after an adjustment of the ICC's playing conditions, with skipper George Bailey saying after the match that the Aussie players were aware of the recent change.
Quick Single: Smith catch sparks controversy
And Warner has revealed that Smith, who scored 190 runs in the three-match ODI series, actually predicted the dismissal.
"I was fielding at backward point, and generally, wherever you’re fielding, and you see the batsman go to do something, you premeditate and you assume the ball is going to go in that position," Warner told Big Sports Breakfast.
"I think (New Zealand captain) Brendon McCullum did it last year or the year before – it might have been in the IPL – and they changed the rule to when the bowler lets go of the ball, and you see the batsman do that (begin to play his shot), you can move.
"So when you look at the replay, (Smith) didn’t move until the bowler let go of the ball, and that's just great cricket awareness.
"(Smith) actually said to Brad Haddin: 'He's going to try and lap (sweep) here, one of these balls, and I'm going to try and stop it'.
"And that ball, it actually happened, so it was a bit of a freak thing.
"Lucky it didn't go to first slip!"
The adjustment of the law can be found in the ICC Match Officials' ODI Almanac 2014-15, which was used for the first time in this series.
The new law states: "As long as the movement of a close catching fielder is in response to the striker's actions (the shot he is about to play or shaping to play), then movement is permitted before the ball reaches the striker."
Quick Single: More on the ICC's rule change
Alam, who was apparently unaware of the rule change, initially stood his ground before finally leaving the playing arena with an angry swipe of his bat at the boundary rope.
Bailey confirmed his players knew the rule had been altered.
"I could tell there was confusion because the umpires came together," said Bailey.
"We knew the rule had changed … and to be honest, as it should.
"As a batsman you're allowed to switch-hit, you're allowed to do whatever you like.
"All he's done is anticipate where the ball's going to go.
"As a cricket lover, you're just moving well in the field aren't you?
"It would be really sad if that went out of the game because I think that's a spectacle. That's a great thing to be able to see."I’m always on the lookout for interesting Chinese fonts and uses of Chinese characters, so the characters in this poster for an M.C Escher exhibition really stood out.
M.C Escher was an artist famous for incorporating optical illusions into his artwork. |
startups fail to beat their declared projections.
Thus, venture investors are going to push every single one of their portfolio company CEOs to swing for the fences. Mediocre growth doesn’t give investors the returns they need to keep their job as a VC, so there’s little incentive for them to accept anything other than an all-or-nothing strategy with each company.
It’s better for them to have a strikeout than a single because the only way to hit grand slams is to push portfolio companies to swing as hard as they can.
So, what does that mean? Here’s a scenario: You’re one year into your relationship with your new VC investor and things are good, but not great. You’ve grown the company’s revenue 40 percent in the last year, but nowhere near the 150 percent your original plan projected you to achieve.
You’re thinking that, since you have only nine months of cash left on the books, the smart thing to do is scale back your burn rate and continue to grow at 40 percent. Your VC, on the other hand, tells you to increase your burn rate to ramp up your growth, to increase the likelihood that you'll attract additional financing. Even though you know that it’s likely your company will run out of cash as a result, there’s not much you can do.
If you manage, by some miracle, to get your growth rate back over 100 percent and thread the needle with an additional round of financing, you’ve made it through the gauntlet. If you fail to hit the numbers, your VC will cut losses and focus on the rest of his or her portfolio companies, whose CEOs are getting the job done.
5. You are putting your payout at risk.
When VCs invest in your company, they structure the investment with preferred stock. This class of stock carries all sorts of preferences for the venture investor, including a liquidation preference. This dictates how much money must be returned to the investor before you, as a common shareholder, see a single penny.
Here's another example: Your company raised $10 million from a venture investor. That venture investor has written into your agreement that he will get two times his investment back before common shareholders see any proceeds from a sale. This is called a two-times liquidation preference, and it means that you owe your investors $20 million before you see a dime.
If you hit that grand slam and sell your company for $100 million, you’re in great shape: Your investors will get their $20 million and you'll get to split $80 million with the rest of the shareholders. However, if you hit a snag and are forced to sell the company for $18 million, guess what? Your investor will get all $18 million, and you'll get nothing. Unfortunately, this is one of the more likely outcomes for companies that have raised VC funding.
Related: VC 100: The Top Investors in Early-Stage Startups
It's also yet another reason to be very, very careful about whom you choose for a VC partnership, if in fact you need one at all.Just as the GOP was struggling to recover from Rick Santorum’s self-declared crusade against the “dangers of contraception” in this country, along comes Rush Limbaugh with an offensive and ignorant series of attacks on Sandra Fluke, a young woman who testified recently regarding the financial cost of birth control for female students at Georgetown’s law school. The school, which is part of a Catholic-run university, does not cover the cost of contraception under its student health plans.
Watch the video:
Now, there is a reasonable policy debate to be had over whether religious institutions should be required to cover the cost of contraception for women. (Georgetown actually does cover contraception for its female employees.) Indeed, the Obama Administration’s U-turn on the issue shows there are active election-year pressures on both sides of that issue. But Limbaugh’s rants are way outside the bounds of that debate and are deeply damaging to Republicans.
(MORE: Senate Blocks Republican Contraception Measure, but the Debate Can’t Be Voted Away)
First, equating contraceptive use with sluttiness is not a winning approach, politically speaking. Virtually all sexually active women in America use some form of contraception at some point in their lives, reports the Guttmacher Institute. That includes 98% of sexually active Catholic women. Limbaugh defenders are arguing that what he’s really saying is that demanding contraceptive coverage is what makes a woman a slut. But Limbaugh actually called Fluke a “prostitute” and said she was “essentially saying that she must be paid to have sex.” This conflation of small-government polemics and hostility to female sexuality reveals a pretty creepy sexual fantasy on Limbaugh’s part; politically speaking, it’s just plain nuts.
Second, Limbaugh’s observations on the subject of contraception put into words the very stereotype some in the GOP have been attempting to shed — a pre-1950s ignorance not just of the social and civil rights benefits of contraception but of how it even works. Memo to Limbaugh: you don’t take the pill every time you have sex. If you have sex once or twice a month and prefer oral contraception to other methods, whether for health, personal or other reasons, you still have to be on the pill all month. Limbaugh’s ignorance of the mechanics of contraception resonates with what female voters will see as an ignorance of its social benefits. Despite Santorum’s arguments that contraceptive use leads to moral apocalypse, teen pregnancy is down thanks to contraception’s expanded availability and use. More broadly, the progress of women’s equality in society over the past 50 years has been partly attributed to the rise of female control over contraception in the mid-20th century.
(MORE: Conflict Over Obama’s Contraception Rule Intensifies)
Limbaugh and Santorum’s hostility to contraception will appear to many female voters as an attempt to roll back 50 years of progress for women. Limbaugh’s final over-the-top assertion — that if Fluke wants to be paid by taxpayers for sex, he “want[s] something in return,” namely, that she post videos online of herself having sex — just ties up the whole alienating package with a big “Vote for Obama” bow. No wonder John Boehner and GOP women everywhere are scrambling to try to undo the damage. Obama, for his part, has already realized where his interests lie in this fight. He called Fluke to offer his support.Bax is a POSIX shell execution wrapper for the fish shell. Use it to run bash utilities, replaying environment changes in fish without leaving the comfort of your session.
Installation
Install with Fisher (recommended):
fisher add jorgebucaran/fish-bax
Not using a package manager? Copy bax.fish to any directory on your function path. set -q XDG_CONFIG_HOME; or set XDG_CONFIG_HOME ~/.config curl https://git.io/bax.fish --create-dirs -sLo $XDG_CONFIG_HOME /fish/ functions /bax.fish To uninstall, remove the file.
System Requirements
Background
You need to run a script in bash and want to preserve changes in the environment, e.g., modifications to the $PATH, exported and unset variables, and so on. What do you do? Nuke the current session.
$ exec bash -c " $commands ; exec fish "
This is not a rare pattern. Fork a POSIX shell, run your scripts there, inherit the environment in fish. And if you're content with that, you're all set, grab it and off you go. Any caveats? Unfortunately, yes.
For starters, there's no way to preserve the last command exit status in the new shell. You'll lose the entire state of your session; history may not sync up correctly if you have fish running in other terminal tabs, local variables are gone. Fish takes a little while to start up. Moreover, things fish is configured to do on startup like running configuration snippets or displaying a custom greeting, may not be appreciated. If jobs are running in the background, they'll be terminated too.
To solve this problem, we run your commands in bash, capture the environment changes and reproduce them in fish, so you don't have to exec -away your session. Now you can have your cake and eat it too.
Usage
Use bax followed by the bash commands you want to run.
$ bax export PYTHON=python2
That will set the environment variable PYTHON in your session.
$ env | string match " PYTHON=* " PYTHON=python2
Use double quotes (or single quotes to avoid variable substitution) to enclose multiple commands separated by a semicolon. Here's an example that downloads the latest Node.js release using creationix/nvm.
$ bax " source ~/.nvm/nvm.sh --no-use; nvm use latest "
Changing the current directory in a subshell leaves you back where you were when you exit. Bax switches directories instead. To move backward through the directory history use cd - or prevd as you usually would.
$ bax cd ~ $ pwd /Users/jorgebucaran
Bax supports bash aliases too. While it's unrealistic to handle every possible way of defining an alias, typical cases like command shortcuts work out of the box.
$ bax alias g=git $ g init Initialized empty Git repository in ~/Code/fish-bax/.git/
Bax is not infallible. Interactive utilities, such as ssh-add are not currently supported.
License
MITQuebec politicians have passed the provincial government’s controversial religious neutrality bill with a vote of 66-51.
READ MORE: Quebec’s Bill 62 aims to impose religiously neutral public service
It was tabled by Justice Minister Stephanie Vallée in 2015 and applies primarily to public services.
“In every legislation, there is a risk of it being contested by people who don’t agree with it,” she said.
“It’s a bill that’s respectful of civil rights.”
The vote on religious neutrality bill passes 66 – 51; all opposition parties voted against it #polqc #bill62 — Raquel Fletcher (@RaquelGlobal) October 18, 2017
It would require citizens giving and receiving services to do so with their faces uncovered — something opponents argue directly discriminates against Muslim women.
Some estimate there are about 50 women who cover their faces with a niqab or burqa in the province.
READ MORE: Will Quebec stop fighting over religious symbols?
They will no longer be able to take a city bus or go to a public school or CEGEP.
Anyone affected can apply for court-ordered religious accommodation, but it is not yet sure what the criteria will be.
WATCH: NDP’s Jagmeet Singh believes Bill 62 ‘violates human rights’
READ MORE: Quebec Liberals table religious neutrality legislation, promise to better detect radicalization
The bill was initially intended for provincial employees, but was extended to include municipal and public transit workers this year.
WATCH BELOW: Debating religious neutrality
Opposition parties voted against the hotly debated Bill 62, saying it doesn’t go far enough and should extend to authority figures like judges and police officers.
READ MORE: Quebecers ready to put charter of values to rest
Advocacy groups say they will challenge the law in court.
Quebec is the first jurisdiction in North America to ban religious face coverings for public services.
— with files from The Canadian Press.
rachel.lau@globalnews.ca
Follow @rachel_lauTalk show host Chelsea Handler ripped Donald Trump in an interview at Variety‘s Entertainment and Tech Summit this week, calling the Republican presidential candidate a representation of “everything that’s wrong in the world.”
The star of Netflix’s Chelsea told Variety co-editor-in-chief Andrew Wallenstein that as far as selecting material for her weekly show, it doesn’t get better than the 2016 presidential race.
“What are we gonna do with Donald Trump when he’s gone?” Handler said. “I don’t know that I want him to go away. It’s great to have a person like that represent everything that’s wrong in the world.”
“It’s always a good thing to be able to look at somebody and be like, ‘That’s the worst thing that could happen,'” she added. “And I think we should keep him in the spotlight. Not as president, obviously, but, you know, as The Apprentice or whatever that show is called.”
The 41-year-old comedian has been extremely critical of Trump this year. In April, Handler posted a semi-nude picture to her Instagram account in which she posed with the phrase “Donald Trump is a butt hole” scrawled across her back.
The comedian has also posed with a piñata bearing the likeness of the Republican presidential contender, and, in an April Fool’s Day post this year, expressed hope that Trump’s campaign “has all been a f*cking joke.”
Spent my day in Aguascalientes trying to find a good tree for this asshole. pic.twitter.com/7oSuvfrnRk — Chelsea Handler (@chelseahandler) April 3, 2016
Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaumSeven months after 22-year-old Colten Boushie was shot and killed in a farmyard near Biggar, sparking a heated debate about racism and rural crime in Saskatchewan, a nearby municipality wants the federal government to relax laws governing defence of people and property.
Delegates at the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM) annual convention on Tuesday voted 93 per cent in favour of the RM of Kindersley’s resolution asking the association to lobby for expanded “rights and justification” for concerned property owners.
The resolution “disgusted” Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN) vice-chief Kim Jonathan, who said it was unnecessary and could lead to “more violent confrontations and (the) deaths of more innocent people.”
The west-central RM’s deputy reeve Lionel Story said while he doubts the resolution will lead to substantive change, it is nevertheless needed to correct a legal imbalance for landowners confronted by “out of control” rural crime and limited policing.
“You’re going to spend a lot of time and money on legal battles (if you use force),” Story said. “You’re going to have a good chance of winning your case, but you’re going to be punished by the courts for protecting your property, your home and your family.”
While the best option remains retreating and calling 911, it often takes time for police to respond to rural properties and landowners should not be criminally charged for using “no more force than necessary to solve (their) situations,” he added.
Rural crime and policing has been a major issue for SARM, which represents all 296 RMs in the province, since Boushie’s death led to second-degree murder charges against 55-year-old Gerald Stanley and widespread reports of farmers carrying guns for protection.
Story said while the resolution is not a direct response to Boushie’s death, the Aug. 9 incident showed dangerous situations can and do happen. Expanded self-defence rights would cause criminals to “think twice” before making decisions, he added.
Speaking to reporters in November, SARM president Ray Orb said the association does not condone vigilantism under any circumstances. Instead, he said, SARM was eager to help government and RCMP develop a new rural policing strategy.
Orb said Tuesday he expects a caucus committee convened in late November and led by Saskatchewan Party MLA Herb Cox to make “a number of recommendations” on rural policing in the coming weeks, and that SARM consults regularly with the RCMP.
Saskatchewan’s Justice Minister Gordon Wyant told reporters Tuesday that while he was not surprised by the resolution, which reflects rural Saskatchewan’s frustration, the government will not support legislation “where people could take the law into their own hands.”
“We’re all concerned about the rural crime in Saskatchewan — we hear it every day from people. We’re working toward (solving) it, and that’s why Mr. Cox was tasked with doing this work,” he said, adding that community-based initiatives are the best answer.
Chief Bobby Cameron, of the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations, said while misconceptions about indigenous and non-indigenous people are not new, Boushie’s death exposed “ugliness … tension and anger” in Saskatchewan that only education can repair.
“We understand protecting your property, protecting things like that,” Cameron said. “But in all honestly, let’s get back to the human spirit — is a tractor tire or a stolen vehicle worth killing someone? I don’t think so … We’ve got to continue working together.”
—With Leader-Post files from D.C. Fraser
amacpherson@postmedia.com
twitter.com/macphersonaMedia baron and chairman of Essel Group, Subhash Chandra, on Saturday said the company’s media outlets, including news channels and newspapers, will not provide any coverage of the ICC Champions Trophy game between India and Pakistan. He said the media organisation was boycotting the match in “support of our armed forces”.
“Government made it clear that terror and talks can’t go together then how come terror and cricket can go together,” Chandra, a Rajya Sabha MP, said in a series of tweets on Saturday morning. He said all channels, news portals, newspapers under Zee Media – including Zee News, Zee Hindustan, WION, DNA – will not cover any news on the match.
Zee News, Zee Hindustan, WION, DNA and all other news channels from Zee Media will not be covering any news about India Pak match — Dr. Subhash Chandra (@subhashchandra) June 4, 2017
“Producers stopped casting Pakistan actors, similarly, Pakistan banned our TV programs,” he said, adding that if Afghanistan can stop cricketing ties with Pakistan following the recent Kabul attack, why can India not do the same. The channel plans to show stories of “actual heroes” at the time when the Indian cricket team will be playing “with the enemy”, he said. “Rather than outraging after terror incidents, after ceasefire violations and casualties of Armed forces, it is better to act now,” he said.
Chandra said Zee Media would have a special series for the entire Champions Trophy later, but will exclude the India-Pakistan match from it. “In this match, we are supporting the Indian Army,” he said.
Meanwhile, Zee News Editor-In-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary urged for viewers’ support in this move by the channel. “Bat, ball and bombs cannot go together,” he tweeted.
Bat,ball&bombs can not go together. @ZeeNews will be blacking out today's India-Pak and will not report it.Hope our viewers will support us! pic.twitter.com/O4XtsjGbFk — Sudhir Chaudhary (@sudhirchaudhary) June 4, 2017
On June 2, Chandra had tweeted saying the Board of Control for Cricket in India should have refused to play the match with Pakistan. “[This] would have given strong message globally, after all, it’s money which they care about,” he said.
India and Pakistan are set to face each other in their ICC Champions Trophy group match on Sunday in Birmingham, England. Last week, Sports Minister Vijay Goel had said that there would be no cricketing ties between India and Pakistan until cross-border terrorism ended. “We have, however, no say on multilateral events [ICC tournaments],” he had said.
Last year, following the Uri attack in September, Chandra had said Zee’s channel Zindagi was going to stop broadcasting Pakistani television shows.
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Let's tell our Army that the people for whom they risk their life are more interested in supporting them than cheering for cricket match — Dr. Subhash Chandra (@subhashchandra) June 4, 2017
We can't be selective in our patriotism where at one end we outrage over Pak actors in our movies and at other hand we play cricket — Dr. Subhash Chandra (@subhashchandra) June 4, 2017It’s that time of the year again. The annual “unofficial but, come on, let’s be serious” Pac-12 North Championship game.
While, much like last year, Saturday’s contest between Oregon and Stanford lacks the earth-shattering, game-of-the-century vibe of 2011 or 2013, both teams enter this game playing their best football of the season with the title of “Best in the West” still up for the taking.
Sure, the Cardinal could lose on Nov. 14 and still secure a spot in Levi’s Stadium with a win over Cal the following week or with some help from the Ducks, but there would undoubtedly be something unsatisfying, almost unwholesome, about losing to Oregon along the way.
In a true testament to the stew of hatred that this rivalry brews, this game feels like a championship unto itself. As has been the case every year going back to 2009, the road to West Coast supremacy arrives at the crossroads of The Farm and Tracktown, USA.
With the renaissance of the Vernon Adams-led Ducks, who amassed a school record 777 yards last week — an especially impressive feat considering the offenses that have preceded it — as well as the continued maturation of the Cardinal on both sides of the ball, Stanford-Oregon again has the high-stakes and spectacular football we’ve come to expect from what has easily been one of the most compelling rivalries of the decade.
And, naturally, with the intrigue and excitement surrounding this game, the obligatory talking points, the sweeping generalizations that try to articulate to us why we admire this game in the first place, have resurfaced in paragraph, soundbite and 140-character form.
We’ve all had the traditional narrative of this game seared into our subconscious: a battle of flash vs. form, between an offense that runs at breakneck speed and one that literally tries to break your neck, the contrast between Cardinal red and highlighter yellow.
In reality, the complexion of this game is much more intriguing. Stanford will spread you out and dump the ball to a playmaker in space far more often than any tidy journalistic report would have you believe. Oregon boasts a 230-pound bruiser in Royce Freeman who looks like he was genetically engineered to run power down your throat 40 times a game. I can’t be the only one who loses sleep at night imagining what Bryce Love would look like in forest green leading that offense in hyperdrive. Anyone who calls the Ducks “soft” in the trenches has yet to take a good look at DeForest Buckner.
The point is that Stanford-Oregon spills over the traditional distinctions and standard cues we’ve reserved for talking about this rivalry. Nonetheless, this game is special and the enmity on the field is real, but not because of some desire to win a philosophical battle on the essence of football or lay claim to the title of the nation’s most resurgence program.
Instead, the Stanford-Oregon clash has mattered — and will again matter in 2015 — because of the fact that this game does have serious consequences. Nothing quite christens a budding rivalry quite like having your hopes, dreams and everything you’ve worked so hard for stripped away in matter of 60 exhilarating minutes.
Both teams know the feeling well. In 2011, a Cardinal squad 7-0 in conference play (the same record Stanford brings into this year’s matchup) ran directly into the teeth of Chip Kelly’s chainsaw as the undefeated Ducks, just like the year before, ended Stanford’s dream of a national title. Meanwhile, the Cardinal returned the favor in 2012 and 2013, the latter of which in a performance so thoroughly dominant that Marcus Mariota was reportedly spotted sobbing into his father’s arms after the game. One has to think that Andrew Luck felt that same, sinking pain two years earlier.
That’s why this game is so compelling: It brings a Heisman trophy-winning quarterback to his most vulnerable, crushing dreams left and right. With consequences come great football and with great football comes consequences.
Although last year’s game — an Oregon blowout no matter how you slice it — lacked the excitement of its predecessors, don’t forget that even the best series have their duds. But for every 42-12 and 49-0 Alabama victories in 2011 and 2012, we get treated to the “Kick Six” of 2013. The best rivalries can’t stay dormant for long.
As Stanford and Oregon stride toward their clash this Saturday, peaking at the right time, we might be in for another one of those special treats that reminds us just how good football can be. The North is up for the taking.
Vihan Lakshman is more excited than a kid in a candy shop for Saturday’s matchup between Stanford and Oregon. Give him tips for keeping his composure when he’s doing the live broadcast of the game at vihan ‘at’ stanford.edu.Ethereum believers have a reason to celebrate, as Ether price traded above $100.00 against the US Dollar and 0.060BTC versus the Bitcoin.
The ETH/BTC pair surged higher and was able to break a key hurdle at 0.060BTC.
The pair is still trading with a bullish bias, showing no major sign of a pullback.
The ETH/USD pair achieved an important milestone, and traded above the $100.00 level.
Technically, the 2-hour chart indicators have reached overbought levels, but showing no sign of a correction.
Ether Price to Continue Higher?
In yesterday’s analysis, we discussed how the $100.00 target looks a real possibility in ETH/USD, considering the current trend. The pair gained momentum during the past two sessions, and surpassed the $89.20 high.
The best part was Ether price breaking an important milestone level at $100.00 (market average). A new all-time high was formed at $103.67 from where a short-term correction was initiated.
The ETH/BTC pair also enjoyed more than 10% gains, and was seen trading above 0.060BTC. The overall market sentiment for Ether is bullish, and there are chances of further upsides in the near term.
Looking at the 2-hour chart, there is a minor rejection scenario near $100.00, but it may not last long. On the downside, there is a bullish trend line formed with support at $95.00. It also represents the 23.6% Fibonacci retracement level of the last wave from the $81.00 low to $103.00 swing high.
However, the most important support is formed near $82.00-80.00. The stated levels may now act as a pivot zone, and can be considered as a strong barrier for a downside move.
When we move to the 6-hour chart, it looks like the ETH/USD pair has started a consolidation around the $100.00 level. An initial range support is found just above $95.00, and may play a major role in today’s price action.
There is also a major bullish trend line reaching $95.00, suggesting the importance of the mentioned level. Overall, there can be a minor dip in ETH/USD, but the $95.00 support level might hold losses in the short term, spurring an attempt to move towards $105.00.Alexander Calvert is new to the world of “Supernatural,” but his character was cemented as integral to the show’s overall mythology from the minute he appeared.
The son of Lucifer (Mark Pellegrino) is half-human and half-angel and has more powers than his father. But while producers of “Supernatural” have pointed out that deep down Jack also carries an ancient wisdom from his heritage, Calvert is focused on portraying the “newborn” nature to the nephilim who is a grown man in stature but a baby when it comes to the awareness of the world. “He’s got a fun optimism,” Calvert says.
In his first episode, Calvert was focused on “getting to enjoy all of the new things he got to experience from a nougat chocolate bar to observing everything for the first time [and] to just notice where the light is.”
Jack claimed Castiel (Misha Collins) as his father, despite being sired by Lucifer, and Calvert can’t deny there have been some parallels in how Jack explores the new world around him to how Castiel did when he first stepped foot on earth in the fourth season of “Supernatural.” “I’m just trying to be truthful about what I think this could be like,” he says of Jack’s exploration.
Related Jared Padalecki on ‘Supernatural’ Season 13: Sam Wants Redemption for Jack
Without Castiel to guide him, Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) have stepped in. Although Sam is the one actively trying to help Jack, Calvert shares that he thinks his character feels a connection to both brothers equally.
“What’s interesting to me is each episode is looking to who I relate with more. In some episodes I really relate to [Sam] and in others I really relate to Dean,” he says. “I kind of imitate Dean in how he eats and how he drinks a beer, and there’s these little moments where you kind of see yourself in both parents. Jack’s trying to figure himself out while he’s getting to know the only two real figures in his life.”
The Winchesters will continue to be Jack’s main guide in the story, and though they are not perfect, Calvert says Jack is not looking for an alternative at this point. “He has a lot of empathy for Sam and he really relates to Dean as well because he sees how the loss of Dean’s mom has really affected Dean. Sam is pushing forward and hoping for the best, but Dean is really reeling in these few episodes,” Calvert says.
Jack will, however, start to do his own research into who he is to understand why he can do the things he can do (like heal immediately from tattoos and stab wounds alike). “At this point I’m still focused on the very minutiae of getting to know myself,” Calvert says. “Jack is very curious about his own lineage and the world itself. He’s definitely searching on his own as well as going with Dean and Sam.”
Because there are dangerous beings hunting him, Jack will often be taken along on Sam and Dean’s hunts. The third episode, “Patience,” for example, will see Jack having to “test himself and learn his capabilities” quickly in order to help out when the Winchesters are called to help their family friend Missouri (guest star Loretta Devine) protect her granddaughter (guest star Clark Backo) from a wraith (guest star Jon Cor) who is targeting psychics.
But Calvert says it is a slow process for the “big ball of energy” that is Jack to begin to understand, let alone control the power he has. That means the Winchesters aren’t training him to re-open the rift any time soon, but it also means he isn’t letting the power go to his head.
“I think everybody kind of wants to fit in and searches for someone they can relate to, so I don’t think he’ll just get rid of them. I think he has a real desire and quest to be a part of a family, and they’re it for him,” Calvert says.
Of course, the eventual return of Castiel will throw a curveball into that dynamic. “What would it be like to meet the father you never knew? It would be a pretty incredible moment for Jack,” Calvert says, noting Jack hopes Castiel is someone to whom he will be able to relate even more. “It would help his search to figure out who and what he is.”
“Supernatural” airs on Thursdays at 8 p.m. on the CW.Go here, scroll to the bottom of the page, and you’ll find out that the woman who gave us the Fire of the Dog and the Lake also heads an ad provider called “Common Sense Media.” Among the customers of the latter is BP, which pulled ads from ThinkProgress sites (which use Common Sense Media ads) after
ThinkProgress climate editor Brad Johnson reported on The Wonk Room that big oil giant BP has been engaged in a “massive greenwashing campaign, which includes months of full-page advertisements in national and regional newspapers, radio spots, television commercials, and Internet ads on websites including ThinkProgress.org.
Which is the long way of saying that Jane Hamsher is quite obviously accepting money from BP. Why is that important? Because according to Hamsher, anyone who takes money from the oil company is guilty of selling out:
Carbon cap and trade was a scheme cooked up by BP and Enron lobbyists in the mid nineties. BP has subsequently dropped millions of dollars into the coffers of green groups to pave the way for it. Obama’s cry to pass Kerry-Lieberman as punishment for BP is not only highly ironic, it’s also illustrative of just how broken our national discourse around environmental issues has become. Until progressive groups successfully address the challenge of funding themselves independent of the elite individuals and institutions that act as enforcers of a corporate agenda, they will not be able to successfully advocate for progressive causes. Any success they might have will mean that their funding dries up, and they will cease to exist.
Get that? FOX News is against cap & trade because it’s Teh Global Socializams™, but Hamsher opposes a perfectly moderate way of limiting carbon dioxide emissions because it’s just part an eeevil “veal-pen captivation” of big green for sinister purposes:
But the Sierra Club isn’t alone. The Nature Conservancy is one of many environmental groups who have received enormous funding from the oil companies. The Sierra Club and the Audobon Society have also formed partnerships with BP. That money is there expressly to buy their good will at moments like this. And then there’s the National Resources Defense Council…
I feel so sorry for Tbogg and Marcy Wheeler. They’ve got a boss I wouldn’t wish on anybody."For years we were collecting a debt retirement charge but we never retired any," said Bryne Purchase, an associate professor of economics at Queen's University and a former deputy minister of finance under the Tories.
"This is the sleight of hand," added Purchase, who was also deputy minister of energy under the Liberal government.
"They never crystallized those numbers, never said, 'This is how much we're going to collect and once we've collected that we can retire the debt retirement charge.'"
When Ontario Hydro was broken up, the government expected $13.1 billion in revenues and payments in lieu of taxes from OPG and Hydro One, which reduced the residual stranded debt to $7.8 billion.
A debt retirement charge of 0.7 cents a kilowatt hour was added to all electricity bills starting in 2002, which raised about $940 million a year.
The residual stranded debt, administered by the Ontario Electricity Financing Corp. (OEFC), increased to $11.9 billion in 2004, after the previous Tory government froze electricity prices in May 2002, which the Liberals, who took office in 2003, did not lift until March 2004.
"We have a stranded debt because of mistakes made by the previous Conservative government, frankly," said Finance Minister Charles Sousa.
The rate freeze cost about $900 million, but the government also had to lower its "over-estimation" of expected OPG revenues, adding $4.4 billion to the stranded debt in 2004. It increased again in 2011 to $5.8 billion from $5.4 billion because of lower returns from Hydro One and OPG and because of OPG's high pension costs.
"When the revenues fall, then the residual stranded debt goes up accordingly because they have to make up for the difference," said Sousa.
Energy sector analyst Tom Adams said "there's no way to confirm the truth or otherwise" about the government's statements on the residual stranded debt.
"There's a huge transparency problem here," said Adams. "The key missing ingredient is the underlying financial plans behind their projections around the date when the residual stranded debt will be paid off."
The province was paying 8.9 per cent interest on the OEFC's long term debt in 1999, which was down to 5.4 per cent — or about $1.45 billion a year — in 2014.
The government did not issue a single update on revenues raised by the charge on hydro bills until 2012, when it reported the residual stranded debt was $4.5 billion. The law required only that the finance minister determine the amount of stranded debt "from time to time" and make that determination public.
The auditor general reported the Electricity Act allows the OEFC to use the debt retirement charge "for any of its responsibilities for servicing and managing the stranded debt, and not just for the retirement of the residual stranded debt."
"It's a giant slush fund effectively," said Purchase. "Lots of other liabilities have been added in as a result of various manipulations the government has made."
Sousa denied the costs of other projects were added to the stranded hydro debt, but the Opposition said enough was collected over the years to have paid off the debt in 2011 and eliminate the charge on electricity bills.
Interim Progressive Conservative Leader Jim Wilson said the Liberals were using the money for other things, while NDP energy critic Peter Tabuns said even members of the legislature can't determine if other debt was added to the hydro file, and perhaps the auditor general should review the matter.
The Liberals plan to remove the debt retirement charge from household electricity bills on Jan. 1, 2016 — business and industrial customers will keep paying it until 2018 — which will eliminate hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue.
"The only way they're going to be able to keep OEFC able to service its bond obligations is to create a new electricity tax," predicted Adams.
The Canadian PressBill Gates did not become the world’s richest man by making foolish investments. Now Gates and venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, Tao Invest, Kleiner Perkins and Foundation Capital among others, are betting that the Aquion battery, invented by Jay Whitacre of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, has a high-tech future. The Aquion battery costs the same as a lead-acid battery, but lasts twice as long.
Aquion Energy was founded in 2007. Kleiner Perkins, the first firm to invest in Aquion Energy, partner emeritus Ray Lane said, “We are expecting Aquion Energy’s commercial launch in 2014 to be disruptive to the world of stationary energy storage. It is a testimony to Aquion’s team and innovative technology that it has been able to attract these high-quality investors. The company is well positioned for impressive growth in the burgeoning global market for energy storage.”
Aquion Energy, flush with $55 million from Gates and other venture capitalists, has taken over a disused factory near Pittsburgh, where Sony TVs were once made, to begin production of the battery, with full-scale production slated to begin later this year. The factory is supposed to start shipping products to early customers by June and eventually expects to create 400 jobs by the end of 2015.
The environmentally friendly battery, unlike those utilizing lead, is made of inexpensive materials including manganese oxide and water. While it functions similar to a lithium-ion battery, the Aquion battery uses sodium |
a time while secretary of state.
The Clinton campaign did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment.
Though he would not confirm whether he would want a personal stake in a Clinton prosecution, Giuliani stood by the evidence he believes is enough to cause significant setbacks for Clinton.
"I've prosecuted a lot of cases. I've never seen one with more evidence against Hillary and her whole band of co-conspirators. I see it as a racketeering case," he said.
The New York Reublican, an outspoken Donald Trump supporter, has repeatedly condemned Clinton and deemed her untrustworthy based on her alleged mishandling of classified information.The underlying arithmetic of federal politics has finally caught up to Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau. He will be pressed by the 60 per cent of the electorate who consistently vote against the Conservatives to disclose what he plans to do to dislodge Stephen Harper if he wins a minority this fall. For 18 months after Trudeau won the leadership, the Liberals maintained a healthy lead in the polls over the Conservatives and the NDP. It looked like he had a chance to form a majority government. But his high-wire act is being shaken by a Conservative resurgence.
For 18 months after Justin Trudeau won the Liberal leadership, the Liberals maintained a healthy lead in the polls. Now that is being shaken by a Conservative resurgence. ( Sean Kilpatrick / THE CANADIAN PRESS )
An aggregate of polling firms has the Conservatives and Liberals in a virtual tie at 32 per cent. The NDP are trailing at a consistently low 20 per cent. This level of support sees the Tory’s winning 136 seats compared to the Liberal’s 128. While a week can be a lifetime in politics, the Conservatives look like they could form at least a minority government in the fall election. Why is this likely to happen? First, let’s look at the fundamentals of federal politics that have persisted for decades. Under our first-past-the-post electoral system a party can win a minority government with as little as one-third of the popular vote — if the seat distribution is in their favour.
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From 2006 until today the united-right Conservatives have commanded between 36 per cent and 40 per cent of the popular vote. That’s been enough to form two minority governments and one majority. It’s been made possible by one of Harper’s major accomplishments. He united the Reform, Alliance and Progressive Conservative parties into a right-wing juggernaut that still maintains a solid core of supporters representing about 30 per cent of the popular vote. During the last three elections the Tories were able to add 5 to 10 per cent to their core from the ranks of mushy-middle voters. Each time at least 60 per cent of the electorate did not support the Conservatives. They spread their support between four other parties. Together the centre-left New Democrats and Liberals enjoy the support of about 50 per cent of the electorate. They jockey with each other for second place. One rises to about 30 per cent support (where the Liberals are now), then falls back to 20 per cent (where the NDP are now). The Bloc Québécois and Green party are far behind in third and fourth place. With a divided left facing a united right, the only way either the Liberals or NDP can gain power is to increase their popular support by at least 10 percentage points over their best showing in the last three elections. Trudeau has had support at this level for months.
But the fundamentals have reasserted themselves. The lesson for the parties on the left should be apparent by now: co-operate or lose. Doing the same thing again and again and expecting different results is the definition of insanity. And, the current opposition leaders, suffering from varying cases of ideological hubris, seem determined to go down the same road again.
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NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair said recently he’s willing to consider forming a coalition government with the Liberals after this year’s election. On the surface this offer looks like Mulcair is proposing something hopeful for those who want to oust Harper. But in reality the NDP have no chance of forming the next government. By promising to consider a coalition, Mulcair is simply trolling for votes by telling the electorate that if they vote NDP they can be assured of co-operation talks with the Liberals. Trudeau is keeping his powder dry. But his popularity is melting in the absence of compelling policies and a government furiously fanning the fear of foreign and domestic terrorism. The Liberals, like the NDP, have to be thinking about what they’d do if their parties finished with the second and third most seats and the Conservatives with less than a majority. This time the government-weary 60 per cent of the electorate will insist on knowing what Trudeau and Mulcair plan to do. Will they form a coalition like the one that governs the United Kingdom, where the Conservatives and Liberal-Democrats govern together by sharing cabinet seats? Will they join in a Policy Accord similar to the one entered into by the Liberals and NDP in Ontario in 1984? Or will they agree in advance to “co-operate” and field a single alternative candidate to defeat the federal Conservatives in key ridings? These options have gained traction with Canadians. The social media group Leadnow.ca and Internet activist organization Avaaz.org boast nearly 700,000 members between them. Both groups support the idea of the Liberals, NDP and Green party holding joint nominating meetings in Conservative-held ridings in this fall’s election. They also want electoral reform. This time the disenfranchised 60 per cent who have voted against Harper for three elections won’t be patient. They will press opposition leaders during the election to commit to the co-operation they plan if there’s a chance to return Canada to a progressive agenda. R. Michael Warren is a former corporate director, Ontario deputy minister, TTC chief general manager and Canada Post CEO. r.michael.warren@gmail.com
Read more about:10:50pm: Taijuan Walker would have been the fourth player in the trade package to the D'Backs, reports Jon Heyman of CBS Sports (via Twitter). Walker, a 20-year-old right-hander, was ranked as the 20th-best prospect in the sport by Baseball America prior to the 2012 season, though he struggled pitching at the Double-A level last year.
7:40pm: The Mariners offered a four-player package to the D'Backs, according to Scott Miller of CBS Sports. Arizona would have received Nick Franklin, Charlie Furbush, Stephen Pryor and one of Taijuan Walker, Danny Hultzen or James Paxton.
6:06 pm: Diamondbacks outfielder Justin Upton invoked his limited no-trade clause to reject an agreed-upon deal between the D'Backs and Mariners that would have sent Upton to Seattle, reports Ken Rosenthal and Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports. The M's were prepared to give up "a package of young talent" in the trade, a return that Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic has heard was "substantial" (Twitter link).
Though several teams have been linked to Upton over the last two seasons, the Mariners seem to be the first to propose a deal that has gotten the D'Backs to agree to move the 25-year-old outfielder. As Rosenthal/Morosi note, the trade rejection could be gamesmanship by either Upton or the D'Backs — Upton could be trying to control where he ends up, or the Snakes are sending the message that if Upton wants to leave Arizona, his only option is Seattle. The Mariners, Blue Jays, Red Sox and Cubs are the four teams on Upton's current no-trade list, according to ESPN's Jerry Crasnick (Twitter link).
The Braves and Rangers are still pursuing Upton, and we've heard in recent weeks that such teams as the Mets, Padres, and Orioles have also been in engaged with trade talks with the Diamondbacks.Mort: /môrt/ noun; origin: French; translation: death.
Writers, musicians, artists, actors, etcetera since the beginning of time have been fascinated and consumed with the concept of death, making it the apex of their life’s work. They do this by channeling its power and manipulating it into something constructive and creative – and alive. Living, breathing, moving art.
This is exactly what AGLORY has done on their Mort EP.
Music nowadays should make you feel something other than what you feel without music. Some choose to listen to music that makes them happy, some sad, some angry, some joyful, it goes on. AGLORY’s music makes you feel uncomfortable – a dark, distant, destructive, out-of-body experience type of uncomfortable; makes-you-scoot-to-the-edge-of-your-chair-and-hold-your-head-in-your-hands kind of uncomfortable. The kind of uncomfortable feeling you’ve never reached with music before. Pushing you over the edge kind of uncomfortable. A welcomed sense of insanity kind of uncomfortable.
The way I see it, ultimately, this is every artist’s goal: taking you to that boiling point and then turning up the heat a little more. Playing with extremes in a clear, concise, new, and unique way.
I’ll say it again: This is exactly what AGLORY has done on their Mort EP.
This EP transcends genres. It isn’t any one thing specifically; it isn’t more of one genre than it is another. This is another thing that I feel is any musicians goal, and that may be a pretty obvious statement but I believe it holds true. Yes, bpm and general sounds can be an indication of a genre but modern day musicians shouldn’t be sitting down and saying “I want to make ________.” They should pull inspiration and creativity straight from their soul instead of trying to fit into a certain formulaic mold.
This is exactly what AGLORY has done on their Mort EP.
The French duo has created a violent, unforgiving, and hellish soundscape that elicits its own sense of beauty and musical honesty within the storylines of death. It isn’t difficult to see that these ideas have spawned from an extremely genuine and introspective place for the two. Unhinging and unleashing this extremely veracious artform is not easy for an artist to do — it comes with an unavoidable sense of vulnerability. The uncanny thing about this EP is that that vulnerability translates onto the listener, evoking real emotions while creating a new, fictional, and unfamiliar world around you. This dark fantasy world only exists while you’re listening to the EP, then fades away until you’re forced to face your own reality once more. You may not be the same after.
Anthony Lladosa and Geoffray Cauchy are the two masterminds behind AGLORY, and they were generous enough to tell the story of Mort track by track to give you a look into their world:
We are proud to present our new EP, consisting of four pieces telling four stories in common with death. This new EP is probably the most personal piece of work we have created so far. We were honored to work with Matt Lombard for the cover, an awesome visual artist who understood our vision. The first track “ITC” is a tribute to one of our favorite songs from Michael Jackson (In The Closet) and the introduction of the EP. “Abattoir” is the second piece, more violent and quicker; it’s a song we composed to express the similarities between clubs and slaughterhouses. In substance and in form, two things very close for us. The third track “Wasted” tells the story of a girl who innocently goes out one night just for a drink, and falls into a downward spiral of decay, drugs, alcohol, and after-parties… until she destroys herself to the point of being close to death. Finally “Mort” is the last song of the EP, the conclusion. Probably the most violent piece, we do not need to describe this one, it speaks for itself, and ends the story on a high.
Yes. High. That’s exactly how Mort should make you feel from start to finish. The brute and vigilante musical aesthetic of this death-focused pièce de résistance will leave a lasting impression on you, and we’re pleased to offer a FREE download of the EP for 24 hours. Listen and download below and prepare yourself for total sensory stimulation.
Click here to download AGLORY’s Mort EP free for 24 hours via ToneDenOne of State Street's bright spots has been the reuse of the former Carson Pirie Scott flagship store.
Joseph Freed & Associates restored the giant old retail landmark, designed by Louis Sullivan, converting the building into offices, a restaurant and retail. And now, five years after Carson's departure, a new CityTarget store opens Wednesday in the historic space.
Design-wise, it is a tricky thing bringing the retailer — and its famous red bull's-eye logo signage and color scheme — into one of the world's most celebrated pieces of architecture. But the marriage seems pretty good so far. The Target logo in the rotunda's second-story window is just the right size.The store looks bright and inviting and the signage is visible but doesn't overwhelm the building.
Given the cast-iron storefront restoration by Harboe Architects returned the original proportions to the shop windows, it's good to see the CityTarget take advantage of all that glass to allow passersby to look deep into the store — rather into just a window display box:
City landmarks officials should also be commended for standing up for the 1899 masterpiece and insuring the right balance between the old and the new.
CityTarget, a new concept aimed at urban areas, is about two-thirds the size of the typical big-box Target. Stores also open today in Los Angeles and Seattle — all in existing buildings.1. Director David Fincher claimed in an interview that there is a Starbucks coffee cup in every scene, other than the one in which a coffee shop is destroyed.
2. Tyler Durden flashes up on screen four times before he is formally introduced to the audience – at the photocopier at the narrator’s work, in the corridor outside the doctor’s office, at the testicular cancer meeting, and as Marla leaves the meeting.
3. Marla Singer’s (Helena Bonham Carter) infamous pillow talk line "I haven’t been f--ked like that since grade school" was originally supposed to be "I want to have your abortion." However Laura Ziskin, president of 20th Century Fox deemed it far too controversial and ordered Fincher to rewrite it. He agreed, but only if he wouldn’t be made to change it again. Ziskin went along with the deal and so, despite finding the new line even more shocking than the first, couldn’t pull it from the film.
4. Contrary to popular belief, Edward Norton’s character is not called Jack. The name comes from a magazine he and Tyler read early on in the film and make references to throughout. Edward Norton’s character doesn’t have a name at all, but is commonly referred to as the narrator.
5. There are several hints throughout the film about the twist at the end. For example, when Tyler and the narrator ride the bus together, only one fare is charged. When Tyler and the narrator get drunk and hit golf balls off the side of cars, although Tyler hits first, the alarm isn’t triggered until the narrator hits. Another, earlier hint occurs when the narrator makes a call to Tyler from a phone box after his apartment is blown up. When the phone rings back, the camera zooms into the handset and a sticker reading ‘No Incoming Calls Allowed’ is visible.
6. In order to look as realistic as possible, Bob’s (Meat Loaf) fat suit was filled with birdseed to replicate sagging flesh. It weighed over 100lbs.
7. Brad Pitt was keen for his parents not to see the film, but they insisted. However, they promptly changed their minds after watching the chemical burn scene.
8. Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk was inspired to write Fight Club after he was beaten up on a camping trip for complaining to his neighbours about the noise. When he returned to work the next day with a bruised face, nobody asked him what had happened and instead pretended not to notice. Palahniuk believed the reason behind this was that nobody he worked with was willing to engage with him on a personal level because they simply didn’t care enough.
9. After the standard copyright warning on the DVD, another warning appears on screen for just a second. This second warning is from Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt):
10. Helena Bonham Carter requested that all her makeup was done by the artist’s left hand as she didn’t believe that her character, Marla Singer, would be good at, or particularly concerned with, neat and well done make up.
11. In the scene where the narrator first punches Tyler, Edward Norton was supposed to fake hit Brad Pitt. However, the director took Norton aside and secretly instructed him to deliver a real punch – prompting an equally real reaction from Pitt.
12. Helena Bonham Carter and Brad Pitt spent three whole days recording orgasm sounds for their unseen sex scene.
13. Both Brad Pitt and Edward Norton undertook basic training in Taekwondo, boxing, and grappling, and also studied hours of UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) programming. They also both took soap making classes from boutique company Auntie Godmother.
14. In an eary scene, Brad Pitt appears in an advert for Bridgeworth Suites on the narrator's television.
http://rantsofadegenerate.blogspot.co.uk/2011_12_01_archive.html
15. During rehearsals, Brad Pitt and Edward Norton discovered that they both shared a passionate hatred for the new Volkswagen Beetle. So, for the scene where they destroy various cars with baseball bats, Pitt and Norton both insisted that one of the cars was a beetle.
16. Helena Bonham Carter had to wear huge platform heels in order to close the height gap between her and Edward Norton. Norton is 6ft tall, while Bonham Carter is just over 5ft.
17. The breath in the cave scene is actually Leonardo DiCaprio’s breath from ‘Titanic’ composited into the shot.
18. After beefing up for his role as a neo-Nazi in American History X, Edward Norton then had to lose almost 20lbs for his role as the narrator, as he believed his character was "wasting away, falling apart."
19. When the narrator is writing and sending haikus from his desk at work, the names on the email list are actually those of crew members and production assistants.This year I have apparently spent a good deal of time trying to harm society in the most mundane ways imaginable. I was the subject of a Fish and Wildlife sting operation (long story), had my car stolen (it was found again), fell and broke my wrist (it's rumored I was evading the police), became a felon because of a clerical error, got my first speeding ticket (seven over), and among a few non-criminal things, I lost my full-time job not too long after receiving my Arb and Arb Plus matches.
My match, Modus Pwnins, and his accomplice, Toezap, went all vigilante-justice and sent a box full of excuses to not leave the apartment. Oh, sure, there was a fancy little note about sending me "a bit of cheer" for my upcoming job hunt, and something about how cute my daughter is, but I see what's up here:
This is clearly an attempt to keep me chair-locked so my unlawful attitude doesn't further infect the world.
They sent really good coffee, chocolate, more chocolate, candy, and a lovely mandala coloring kit. Of course, I'm already a redditor so the likelihood of me leaving my laptop was already slim- but this almost definitely ensures the public at least another week free of my criminal genius.
But just when you thought you had me cornered- OH NO! Look out world! I already have an interview this week! And you better watch me close- who knows what dastardly deeds I might attempt while I'm out. Maybe I'll forget to sort my recyclables, or cross the street without looking!!!! MUWAHAHAHAHA!!!
Seriously- this box was a joy to open, and I'm sorry it took me so long to post. Thank you so much for your thought- and thanks to Toezap for the field support! Your packaging job was amazing- nothing melted (I would have eaten it anyways)- your serious effort really paid off! The girl-child has already broken into the treats after reading that I was supposed to share! We had a World Market in town but it closed and a couple of these items are things we really miss. You guys are awesome!On Saturday, we discovered that the IRS targeting of conservative groups didn’t start in 2012 and wasn’t limited to a few rogue low-level agents. Senior officials became aware of the practice at least as early as June 2011, including the top lawyer for the IRS. Today, the Wall Street Journal and Reuters report that an upcoming IG report will show that the practice first began in the 2010 midterm cycle (via TPM):
But questions continued to swirl about the failure of IRS officials to disclose the problems until the inspector general’s report was about to become public. The timeline contained in the draft report indicates that IRS scrutiny of tea-party and other conservative groups began as early as 2010 and came to the attention of Ms. Lerner, the head of the tax-exempt-organizations division, at least by the following year. The report’s timeline indicates that the criteria were changed to be more neutral in July 2011 after Ms. Lerner “raised concerns.” The criteria for heightened scrutiny continued to evolve over the next year or so, even as complaints from tea-party groups—and questions from GOP lawmakers—mounted over IRS inquiries to various groups about their activities.
Lerner seems to have deliberately misled Congress, which was demanding answers after receiving a raft of complaints about aggressive IRS agents:
Letters from Ms. Lerner in April and May 2012 responding to questions by Republican lawmakers made no mention of the problems that had surfaced in the IRS unit. According to the draft report, on April 24 and 25 of last year, officials in Ms. Lerner’s office were reviewing “troubling questions” that had been asked of organizations, including “the names of donors.”
One way the IRS attempted to throw people off the trail was by subtly changing their search criteria. They started off by looking at Tea Party groups, but then expanded to any group unhappy with the administration’s performance:
When tax agents started singling out non-profit groups for extra scrutiny in 2010, they looked at first only for key words such as ‘Tea Party,’ but later they focused on criticisms by groups of “how the country is being run,” according to investigative findings reviewed by Reuters on Sunday. Over two years, IRS field office agents repeatedly changed their criteria while sifting through thousands of applications from groups seeking tax-exempt status to select ones for possible closer examination, the findings showed. At one point, the agents chose to screen applications from groups focused on making “America a better place to live.”
Who knew that motive was so sinister? Does the IRS want America to be a worse place to live? If so, they’re well on their way with this scandal.
Reuters mentions Friday’s announcement ahead of the report:
After brewing for months, the IRS effort exploded into wider view on Friday when Lois Lerner, director of exempt organizations for the IRS, apologized for what she called the “inappropriate” targeting of conservative groups for closer scrutiny, something the agency had long denied. At a legal conference in Washington, while taking questions from the audience, Lerner said the agency was sorry. She said the screening practice was confined to an IRS office in Cincinnati; that it was “absolutely not” influenced by the Obama administration; and that none of the targeted groups was denied tax-free status.
In retrospect, this looks like a strategy to spin the report ahead of its release. Rather than wait for the results to drop like a bombshell in the media, the IRS sent Lerner out for damage control, admitting to as little as possible while sounding as though the agency was taking responsibility for their errors. That way, when the report did come out, the media could proclaim it “old news,” taking a page from Jay Carney’s Benghazi scandal strategy, and castigate anyone demanding more answers and drawing the obvious conclusion that the Obama administration has politicized the IRS.
Unfortunately, that strategy didn’t work very well. Lerner turned out to be a very poor choice for that job, bungling the media handling badly enough that the media ended up more annoyed than mollified. Mostly, though, this is news that’s just not spinnable. The report now appears to implicate the highest levels of the IRS in either misleading or outright lying to Congress, and raises questions about how exactly this effort got put into place at all. They basically threw gasoline on a fire that would have exploded anyway, making the conflagration even more eye-catching as a result.
Update: The New York Times’ headline focuses on the real scandal — “I.R.S. Focus on Conservatives Gives G.O.P. an Issue to Seize On”. If you pay for the subscription, presumably you get the audio of the Gray Lady weeping over this blow.
Update: Jon Karl also reported this morning that it’s been going on for three years:
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ABC News has obtained a draft of a soon-to-be-released investigative reporting showing that the Internal Revenue Service began targeting conservative groups as far back as 2010 and that senior IRS officials in Washington have known about it for almost two years. Last week, we learned that the IRS was targeting groups with “tea party” or “patriot” in their names, but it goes beyond that, ABC’s JONATHAN KARL reports. The draft report, conducted by the IRS’s internal watchdog, says the agency was tracking groups who’s goals included, quote “limiting government” and “educating on the Constitution and Bill of Rights” and that, “criticize how the country is being run.” Friday, the White House says it had it no idea the IRS was targeting Tea Party-allied groups.
That little game Lerner played isn’t fooling anyone. This is going to get very ugly very quickly. Here’s the question, though — can anyone put any reliance on this Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute this corruption? I think we’re heading into special prosecutor territory.Microsoft’s giant conference room computer, the Surface Hub, is ready for you to own and will be available to businesses from July 1 starting at $6,999.
That starting price will get you the 55″ model but you can upgrade to a massive 84″ version for the low price of $19,999.
The Surface Hub is a giant computer built into a touch-screen display that runs Windows 10 and is optimized for video calls, multitouch collaboration using OneNote and Office as a team.
It features support for multiple pens to be used onscreen at the same time and has dual cameras and microphones onboard.
Microsoft is now competing with Google’s conference room offering, a small box running Chrome but sans-screen, that retails for just $999.
➤ Microsoft Surface Hub [Surface Blog]
Read Next: Microsoft drops price of Xbox One to $349, introduces 1TB model
Read next: Get the Mobile-First Developer's Bundle - and pay what you want!Drake, it turns out, is the king of brevity, at least when it comes to his song titles. ( Steve Russell / Toronto Star )
“Hello,” pop stars of the world: we’re “Sorry” if this sounds “Rude”, but it’s become clear “Here” that long song titles are simply no longer in “Style.”
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A new study by Priceonomics proves that we’ve entered a brave new era of brevity in pop music, where one-word wonders keep the charts “Happy” and long-winding tune names “Don’t” often “Work.” “The music industry has gotten very precise and they do every little thing at the margins to make the chances of the investment succeeding as high as possible,” says Dan Kopf, who authored the study. Yes, pop music is losing its characters, and a look through history shows it was a long road to such short titles.
Single-word singles are charting more and higher like Pharrell Williams "Happy." ( Christopher Polk )
Kopf found that single-word titles comprised only 8.8 per cent of Billboard Hot 100 songs in the 1960s, a decade that featured such No. 1s as “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay.” That number climbed to 9.7 per cent in the 1970s, 11.1 per cent in the 1980s and 13.2 per cent in the 1990s. With the turn of the millennium, the brevity movement really found momentum. In the 2000s, 19.9 per cent of charting singles featured a one-word title and, so far this decade, it’s an unprecedented 23.2 per cent.
And single-word singles aren’t just charting more, they’re charting higher. Since 2010, 28 per cent of songs reaching the top 20 had a one-word title. The age of pithy pop extends beyond just the one-word hits; the average length of a Hot 100 song title has shrunk from 3.76 words in the 1960s to 2.72 this decade.
Its become clear long song titles are no longer in and one-word titles are taking over, which is the case for Justin Bieber's "Sorry." ( Mat Hayward )
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Kopf figures it’s the economy fuelling all this newfound economy. “I believe it’s the result of the Internet and the digital age, and the emphasis on the single away from the album,” he mused. The all-time King of Curt is Drake, whose average of 2.47 words per song title renders the perennially ahead-of-the-curve rapper the most succinct star in the 50-year-plus period Kopf examined. Taylor Swift is just behind him with 2.48 words per title, followed by Justin Bieber (2.53), Rascal Flatts (2.68) and Madonna (2.82). “Drake is sort of the ultimate modern pop artist, and he seems so aware of what works and what people are looking for in contemporary music,” Kopf said. Well, he has competition in concision from Vancouver garage-punk duo the Pack A.D., who produce songs that are fat-free, in both sound and title.
Garage punkers Becky Black, left, and Maya Miller are Pack A.D., which performs short songs with even shorter titles. ( HANDOUT )
Their last album, 2014’s Do Not Engage, averaged 1.6 words per song title, and 2011’s Unpersons a mere 1.5 words per title. “We always take the song titles from the chorus... and we’ve been very guilty of using one or two words on repeat in our choruses,” laughed drummer Maya Miller, whose band just released the single “So What.” “It’s what gets stuck in your head, I guess,” she said. “It seems to me you want it to be short. Usually, it’s easier for people to only read one or two words instead of five or six. Maybe you assume no one has time for five or six words.” At the other end of the short-and-sweet spectrum lies Toronto fuzz-folk outfit the Wooden Sky.
Toronto's band the Wooden Sky is also known for its short-and-sweet song titles. "Maybe it makes sense that things are becoming shorter and feeling more disposable," said singer Gavin Gardiner ( HANDOUT )
Their most recent record, 2014’s Let’s Be Ready, let its hair down with 4.0 words per song. Singer Gavin Gardiner had never really pondered the issue at any, you know, length. “Song titles, book titles, or short stories: (long titles) seem to add more gravity or weight,” he suggested. “Maybe having a long title makes it feel less disposable. Maybe it makes sense that things are becoming shorter and feeling more disposable.” Still, with a new album in the works, that’s not his last word on the subject. “Maybe I’m just going to have to change my attitude on things,” he said with a laugh. The long and short of it: Billboard Brevity By the Numbers Shortest-titled single on Hot 100, week of March 26, 2016: “No,” Meghan Trainor (No. 11) Longest-titled single on Hot 100, week of March 26, 2016: “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” Shawn Mendes & Camila Cabello (No. 71) Number of single-word chart-toppers in the 2010s: 17 Shortest-titled chart-topper of the 2010s: “E.T.,” Katy Perry Longest-titled chart-topper of the 2010s: “We are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” Taylor Swift All-time longest-titled chart topper (words): “You Don’t Have to Be a Star (To Be in My Show),” Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. (1976) All-time longest-titled chart topper (letters): “Indian Reservation (The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian),” Paul Revere & the Raiders (1971) Number of one-word Beatles songs to make the Hot 100: 5 Number of one-word songs featuring Drake to make the Hot 100: 20
Read more about:CD Projekt RED, or CDPR as it’s affectionately called by fans, has been often hailed as an exemplary developer when it comes to post-launch support of their games.
Dating back all the way to the first two The Witcher games, the company released Enhanced Editions that delivered substantial and free updates to owners of the base games. With The Witcher III, they went above and beyond giving 16 free DLCs to the community before publishing two massive and widely acclaimed paid expansions, Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine.
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In the past couple months, CDPR made PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox One X fans even happier by providing enhancements patches that would exploit the power of the new consoles.
On PS4 Pro, The Witcher III now runs at 4K resolution via checkerboard rendering with improved Anisotropic Filtering and Ambient Occlusion. However, it’s the more recent Xbox One X patch which is truly remarkable, possibly delivering the best visuals yet for the game when factoring in the HDR support, a first for The Witcher III (coming in January for PS4 Pro, while there are no current plans to add it for PC).
4K mode delivers a stable, essentially stutter-free 30FPS experience even in the most taxing areas. Not only The Witcher III on Xbox One X looks sharper than it ever did on consoles, it also provides higher quality shadows and higher resolution textures on top of the improvements already seen on PS4 Pro.
You can take a look at the amazing gameplay we captured in 4K HDR below, straight from the Xbox One X console. Watch it preferably with an HDR display to get the best result.
Not content with just delivering a 4K mode, CDPR also added a performance mode that unlocks the frame rate up to 60FPS on Xbox One X while lowering the resolution dynamically as needed. 4K mode is actually more stable if you dislike frame rate variation, but it’s nonetheless great to have a performance option.
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It is mindboggling to consider how CDPR could do this for the community even though their game isn’t really being updated anymore while major multiplayer titles are still missing their upgrades.
Rockstar’s GTA Online, EA’s Battlefield 1 and Ubisoft’s Rainbow Six Siege are our prime suspects. These games are still raking in millions upon millions in revenue between DLC, Season Passes and/or microtransactions, despite having launched years ago. What’s more frustrating is knowing that smaller developers have often talked about how easy it was to get their games running on PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox One X, with the latter console receiving the most praise for its software development kit (SDK). For these massive studios, it should be basically child’s play.
Let’s begin with EA’s Battlefield 1, which is the minor offender in this list. That’s because it actually launched with support for Sony’s PlayStation 4 Pro last year. The World War 1 themed multiplayer first-person shooter runs at dynamic 1800P resolution with checkerboard rendering on PlayStation 4 Pro, thus delivering a vast improvement over the dynamic 1080P resolution available on the base PlayStation 4 console. The developers even added High Dynamic Range (HDR) support earlier this year on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One S.
However, it’s been almost two months since the launch of Microsoft’s Xbox One X console and Battlefield 1 developers have been completely silent on whether the game will ever be properly enhanced for the new machine. That’s really disappointing for Xbox One X fans, especially those who have recently purchased the Battlefield 1 Revolution (currently priced at $24 on Microsoft’s Store for Xbox One) which consists of the base game and the four expansions included in the Premium Pass. It’s doubly a shame since DICE have already supported Xbox One X with this year’s Star Wars Battlefront II game, which means there’s certainly no lack of expertise and knowledge of the hardware to be called into question.
Ubisoft’s Rainbow Six Siege is another major multiplayer first-person shooter whose support for the enhanced consoles released by Microsoft and Sony is completely AWOL.
While the latest installment in the tactical FPS franchise didn’t make a big splash when it first debuted two years ago, Rainbow Six Siege eventually became Ubisoft’s banner title for their Game as a Service model. With continuous improvements and regular content additions, the player base grew steadily while the eSports side thrived.
Only three weeks ago we reported that over 25 million players have played the game across all platforms. Ubisoft is already selling the Year 3 Pass and yet there’s no news of any patches coming to PlayStation 4 Pro and/or Xbox One X. These players are once again left in the dark despite their clear interest in playing the game well beyond 2018.
At the top of our list, there’s none other than Rockstar’s GTA Online though. It’s quite easy to explain why. In the latest financial report (FY Q2 2018), Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick proudly announced:
Our positive momentum continued in the second quarter, enabling Take-Two to deliver another period of better-than-expected operating results. Grand Theft Auto Online delivered its best quarter yet, Net Bookings from Grand Theft Auto V grew year-over-year.
This is just the latest achievement in a seemingly endless streak. Grand Theft Auto V is now the best-selling game of all time in the U.S. when combining physical and digital sales |
also been suspended in Ferguson. According to Argus Radio’s live stream, peaceful protesters were being mass arrested and hauled away on camera.
Freedom of the press has now basically been revoked in Ferguson as well. A “free speech area” was set up by police where press “were allowed” to report from. However, this area has now been closed and all journalists have been forced to leave the area or face arrest. Most live streaming journalists are in the process of relocating as I write this article.
Emphasis is being made by police that only “credentialed” journalists are allowed at the new press area being set up. The 1st amendment, however, makes no mention of freedom of the press requiring a license or credential, as it shouldn’t.
The unrest and grass-roots coverage of it in Ferguson shows the dire need for citizen journalists on the ground to portray an unadulterated view of the reality of the situation.
As I predicted in an article earlier today, the added presence of National Guard troops only served to increase tensions, not “preserve the peace” as was claimed,
“In response to this escalation, Governor Nixon has ordered the National Guard to Ferguson to suppress this rebellion in the small town, which may lead to an even greater amount of human rights abuses and violations of the 1st amendment. As more militarization of this conflict pours in, it’s likely that tensions will escalate further and that more violence will occur. Activists are expecting a near-martial law situation on the ground in Ferguson”
Below I’ve embedded a live twitter feed so that our readers can find working live stream video from inside the protest areas if they become available in Ferguson; which I was unable to locate at the time of writing this article. If I find a reliable feed I will update this article to include it.
A press conference should be happening any moment and can be seen here:
Reddit’s live wiki covering the Ferguson protests is also a good resource for up to date information and can be found here.
More potential live streams can be found on Revolution-News.com and TheRundownLive.com
This article is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author and TheAntiMedia.org. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to receive our latest articles.
Pin 79K Shares-July 26, 2012-
Daily Grind: Our Slammed Lego Volkswagen Bus
Mike Burroughs
Several months ago, we found ourselves here at the STANCE|WORKS office, discussing the pastimes we had as kids. As car enthusiasts and gearheads, we knew there must be something we all had in common. While video games, sports, and friends all had their place, we were aiming to find what made us who we are today. As individuals who eat, sleep, and breathe automobiles, modification, and fabrication, perhaps there was something we shared through our upbringing. Legos were my favorite toy as a child, and it just so happened that Andrew and Cody felt the same. The mere mention of the name "Lego" sent the three of us into a spiraling conversation, and we knew immediately that perhaps Legos are to blame for where we find ourselves today.
As a child, I had more legos than I could count. Every dollar I had as "allowance" went to the biggest set I could afford at the time. Boxes and boxes full of the colorful little bricks resided under my bed, and I can still recall the distinct jingle-clicking of rowing a hand through a pile of Legos in search for that one piece. They were an essential part of my childhood, and I'd bet that goes for many of you as well. The innocence of a child's imagination running free is something few things can truly capture, and Lego bricks are one of them. Bricks became space ships, cars, creatures, and more. The possibilities were endless, and I'd say it's no far stretch to say that Lego cultivated the desire to turn wrenches in many of us.
Lego has been around since 1949 and has produced the famous interlocking bricks most of us have come to know and love since 1958. Today, Lego stands tall as one of the most popular and recognizable toys in the world. Their production is staggering; Lego produces an immense 1140 bricks every second, totaling up to an unfathomable 36 billion per-year. Their themed sets range from adventures in the wild west to slaying dragons in the middle ages, to under-sea exploration, and seemingly everything in between. Sets include characters from Star Wars, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, and countless other cult icons. Lego even operates six theme parks across the world.
Yet in the midst of everything the Lego company is up to these days, someone had the bright idea to do something that is, in our eyes, rather special. In continuing with the popularity of Legos, the Volkswagen Type 2 Bus is one of the most widely known and loved cars in history. The Kombi, or Transporter, both formal names of the truck, has been in production for more than 60 years, and is easily one of the most recognized and appreciated cars to the general public. Children and adults alike love the simplicity and classic bread-loaf shape of the camper, and is both symbolic and synonymous with the hippie and peace movement.
The masterminds at Lego have idolized the bus even further, commemorating it by creating a 1,332-piece, unbelievably accurate, model. Every detail is there, from the collapsing table and fold-down rear seat, to the adjustable steering column and pivoting throttle and brake pedals. Drawers and shelves inside mimic real life, and the camper top raises and lowers flawlessly. It's almost inviting, reminding us of cool summer afternoons in a VW bus, enjoying some shave-ice. The sink, the closet, the plaid window curtains and checkered floor, the features are far beyond impressive.
However, in some sense, the VW T1 Camper Van kit is far more than just an homage to an automotive classic; it's an homage to gearheads everywhere, and the inner child in each of them. It's been more than a decade since any of us here at S|W have found ourselves sitting on the floor, clicking together Lego pieces. As we grow older and time becomes a commodity, the allure of Lego's latest offerings take a back seat to real world responsibilities. After all, I can't see myself buying an alien space ship to put together in my spare time. However, Lego's VW bus finally gave us a reason, or rather, an excuse, to jump back into the world of our favorite toy.
Oxer and I found ourselves sitting on the floor cross-legged, following the step-by-step instructions, laughing about how much fun we were having. Getting older hadn't changed the fun in the least. We finished the truck after a day of building and goofing off, only to realize Lego left out one final, but very important detail. If we at STANCE|WORKS were going to have a bus, there's no way we were going to leave it at stock ride height. When we purchased the VW, we snagged a couple of other small kits that piqued our interest, but with the bus completed and a mission ahead of us, we had to cannibalize them.
We're not one to go cutting away at the bus, so we decided to stay true to life and "do it the right way". A set of hinges and new axles allowed the rear to squat down, and we even mimicked the excessive camber any slammed aircooled VW fan knows and loves so well. The front took some thinking, but we'd have to say we're rather proud. Our bus now has the ability to turn, which the original incarnation didn't possess. More importantly though, is that our front suspension is adjustable, meaning that, in a sense, the bus can raise and lower itself. A little shaving of the front tires and our little red Lego Volkswagen sat flat on the ground.
After some Lowly Gentlemen decals (or 'deckles', if you're Australian like Oxer), we knew we had to snap some photos to share our latest creation. What had brought us an immeasurable amount of joy has earned its place on our homepage. Perhaps we've established our roots; what drives us to create in every sense of the word. Here we are, 20 years later, playing with Lego toys once again. All we're left wondering is "Hey, Lego, when are you going to make us a BMW?"ETH/USD and ETH/BTC recovered most their losses this past week. Going forward Ether’s price may trade higher.
The ETH/BTC also recovered well after a dip below 0.045BTC.
A crucial bullish trend line on the daily chart prevented downsides at $78.00 and may continue to act as a major support.
The ETH/USD pair after a correction towards $78.00 found support and currently moving higher.
Technically, the 2-hour chart are consolidating above their mid-lines in the bullish territory.
Ether Price to Trade Higher?
The past seven days were mostly bearish for Ether, as the price corrected lower against both the US Dollar and Bitcoin. The ETH/BTC pair fell well below 0045BTC before recovering above 0.050BTC.
Similarly, the ETH/USD pair fell sharply from the $98.00 swing high to well below $80.00. A low was formed at $78.74 from where the pair started a recovery.
There is a crucial bullish trend line on the daily chart at $78.00, which acted as a major support and preventing further losses. At the moment, the price is trading above the trend line support and may trade higher in the near term.
It seems like a short-term corrective structure was completed at $78.00 since it is near the 23.6% Fibonacci retracement level of the last wave from the $42.00 low to $103.00 high, at the very least the first wave of A-B-C pattern was over at $78.00.
The next move in Ether price mostly depends on how well buyers gather momentum above $90.00. If they succeed in keeping ETH/USD above the highlighted trend line support for a long time, there are chances of a sharp rise towards $100.00.
The 2-hour chart suggests that the pair is consolidating above the $87.00 support area with resistance at $93.00-93.50. At the moment, the pair is approaching the range resistance and is in the fith wave inside the channel structure.
Should ETH/USD breaks past $93.00 and an H2 close above the stated level takes place, the pair may gain momentum and continue pushing higher.
On the downside, we need to keep an eye on $87.00. A break below it might push the price towards the daily trend line support, which holds the key for the current bullish trend.Pele's stunning claim: There is no racism in Europe because the teams are full of blacks
By Ashley Gray for MailOnline
Pele has made the extraordinary suggestion that racism does not exist in European football because 'the teams are full of blacks'.
The world's most celebrated player of all time claimed that allegations such as those made against John Terry and Luis Suarez were exaggerated.
And the 71-year-old Brazil legend even contradicted his autobiography by insisting he had never suffered racism as a footballer.
The greatest: Brazil legend Pele is the most celebrated player of all time
Not going by the book: Pele's racism claim contradicts his autobiography
FIFA president Sepp Blatter was forced to apologise this week after initially claiming there was 'no racism' in football, comparing insults to other foul language, which could be settled at the end of the match with a handshake.
And Pele seemed to support Blatter's original view by saying: 'When I played, opponents in the domestic league would grab my ass, they cursed my mother and my wife, but I didn't have racism.
'I never had this problem. Now, any little thing is racism. It's absurd.
'When I arrived in Sweden (to play the World Cup in 1958) only Brazil had black players. Today, with the advent of technology, this fuss about racism has expanded.
'I guess that it is necessary for the player to speak, for the press to report. Now any little thing is racism. They put much emphasis on this.
Accused: Luis Suarez (left) and John Terry (right) are embroiled in race rows
'The European teams are full of blacks. How can there be racism?'
However, Tokyo Sexwale, the former anti-apartheid activist who was dragged into the racism row when FIFA's PR machine released photographs of Blatter embracing him, suggested Pele had told him of different experiences.
'Great players like Pele and (Cameroon striker Samuel) Eto'o have suffered racism in football,' said Sexwale in the aftermath of the Blatter row.
'I have had conversations with both players in my capacity as member of the (FIFA) anti-racism committee and they told me painful stories.'
Centre of the storm: FIFA president Sepp Blatter was forced to apologise last week after suggesting that on-pitch racism should be solved by a handshake
And in his autobiography, Pele, the three-time World Cup winner recalls an occasion when Argentina supporters abused the Brazil team he was part of.
'They chanted "Macaquitos de Brasil" (Brazilian monkeys) at us. It got our adrenaline going but I was never really that bothered by this sort of racist chanting.'
Liverpool striker Suarez is expected to deny charges brought by the FA over allegedly racially abusing Manchester United defender Patrice Evra.
Chelsea and England captain Terry remains under investigation by the police and the FA over allegations he racially abused Queens Park Rangers defender Anton Ferdinand.For more than 6 months engineers and designers at Google have created new VR experiences every week, on a mission to figure out what works and what doesn’t.
The tests provide Google’s internal team at Daydream Labs valuable first-hand experience on the path to developing a competitor to the Gear VR, which is powered by Facebook’s Oculus. Those 60 experiments developed over more than half a year became the subject of a session at Google I/O providing some very helpful insights to get Android developers jump-started into VR development with the upcoming Daydream platform.
If you have a half-hour to spare and plan on making a Daydream app, the video embedded above is certainly worth a watch. Using what looks like a combination of Vive equipment and Google’s own internal prototype hardware for Daydream, the experiments cover a range of ideas (including how to shut up trolls) that hint at some of the cool VR applications we might eventually see on phones that meet Google’s specifications.
Here’s are some of my favorites from the session:
Storytelling and design can be very easy to do in VR
Near the end of the presentation Google shows quick glimpses of very powerful concepts that show the company is thinking far beyond games when it comes to the usefulness of VR.
One of the magic powers of VR is the ability to design a whole building within a few minutes, like a set of Lego on a table, and then teleport inside of it to experience the way the space feels at real-world scale. The experiment is a hint that far more than just trained architects will be using the technology to create homes in the future.
Another experiment showed a person animating an entire story in VR the same way a child would play with toys. All you have to do is hit record, move around the toys, and then playback to record a computer generated scene. With skill, practice and additional tools, the approach could offer a hint at the way future stories are conceived.
Simple avatars can be very expressive
This is obvious if you’ve ever played a social experience in Gear VR, but very simple avatars (even a cardboard box with blinking googly eyes on it) can seem like it is alive if it is animated by real-life hand and head movements.
This means that with the right tools and a solid Internet connection, multiplayer VR experiences should become increasingly easy to make.
VR can bring out your inner playfulness…
And it’s a lot of fun to watch happen.
Job Simulator (review) on the Vive is one of the best examples of this on the market today, but a short clip showing a Google VR team member seemingly dancing and then sprawling on the floor while immersed in a VR experience underscores the sense of playfulness that can be unlocked in some of the best software.
Here is two people rocking out together in VR:
Vibration feedback is effective combined with visuals/sound
Whether it’s a first bump or drum typing game, vibration feedback can be used to enhance the feeling of presence within an experience.
Tagged with: Daydream Labs, design, google, presence, storytelling"I answer yes to the invitation of Stephen Bannon, CEO of @realDonaldTrump presidential campaign," Le Pen tweeted
I answer yes to the invitation of Stephen Bannon, CEO of @realDonaldTrump presidential campaign, to work together. https://t.co/tPSoY5A2vS — Marion Le Pen (@Marion_M_Le_Pen) November 12, 2016
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The 26-year-old is a member of France's National Front Party, a conservative party that takes a hardline stance against immigration. She is the granddaughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of the National Front, and the niece of Marine Le Pen, who currently serves as the party's president.
The Hill has reached out to Trump's transition team inquiring about any potential plans to work with Le Pen.
Bannon, who served as the Trump campaign's chief executive officer, previously worked as the chairman of Breitbart, a conservative website that also takes a hardline stance against immigration.San Diego police are investigating the death of a male SDSU student who was found unresponsive at approximately 8:30 a.m. on Friday at the Phi Kappa Theta house, according to SDSU Police Chief John Browning.
The San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office identified the deceased as 20-year-old Barzeen Barzanji, a junior at SDSU.
Browning said Barzanji was not a member of the fraternity.
Barzanji lived in an apartment in Santee, according to the medical examiner.
San Diego police spokesman Jim Johnson said his department's homicide division had not been called in on the case, which would have occurred if the fatality had appeared suspicious. An autopsy was tentatively scheduled for Saturday, April 21.
SDSU students who are in need of support can receive counseling through SDSU Counseling and Psychological Services, said Browning.
In a statement, SDSU President Elliot Hirshman said, "we are deeply saddened by the news of the death of one of our students this morning."
"Any loss of life in our community is tragic and I encourage each of you to support each other during this difficult time," the statement said.
City News Service contributed to the information in this report.
To view PDF documents, Download Acrobat Reader.Like many first generation diaspora Tamils, I grew up not really speaking Tamil. I spent the majority of my college years and early adulthood chastising my parents for not having taught me when I was young. Being an adult made it much harder to learn a language. Being an adult also made me responsible for my life choices. I wanted to speak Tamil.
When I first began learning Tamil, I could not maintain a conversation longer than two minutes. I can now tell stories about my day, navigate travel in Tamil speaking countries by myself, and express opinions on medium-weight topics. The following are what helped me learn Tamil.
1. Get rid of all shame and embarrassment
I reached an emotional tipping point where I NEEDED to know Tamil. At that point, I decided feelings of shame or embarrassment had no place in my life. I will speak Tamil anywhere I can, with anyone I can. I make mistakes all the time. I get laughed at. When that happens, I take note of what I was trying to say when the person laughed. Later I will ask my Amma what I said wrong. If the person is a friend, I ask them directly.
2. Make time to learn
I read an article many years ago about how we make time for things that matter. It changed my life. I don’t have time to learn Tamil; I make time to learn Tamil.
There was a point where I was taking three classes a week: one hour Skype with my Amma, one hour Skype with a teacher in Toronto, and one hour in person at the local Indian Tamil Sunday school* (my peers were 8 and 9 year olds).
This morning, I put in 20 minutes of learning online. Later I’ll do some reading, and tonight I’ll probably watch a Tamil film. On days that are busier, I might text a few friends in Tamil and use a learning app for 2 minutes while I’m on the toilet. I give myself no excuses. If I want to make time, I will.
It was very important to me that my Tamil sound like Ilankai Tamil. With that said, I found the Indian Tamil school very helpful for my grammar. Grammar is the same everywhere.
3. Combine interests
I love plants. When I started learning Spanish, I got a job at a gardening store where everyone spoke Spanish. I found that combining interests increased my internal motivation to learn. I don’t know any Tamil gardening stores, so instead I like to watch and read stories I already know in English that have been translated into Tamil. Knowing the plot makes it easier to pick up on what’s being said, plus I am able to laugh and enjoy.
Currently, I am watching “Rush Hour” (available on YouTube) and reading Harry Potter (available on Amazon). Learning songs is also a fun way to go.
4. On reading and writing
I am not a purist. The point of a language is to connect and to communicate. You don’t need to read in order to be able to do this. With that said, I chose to learn reading and writing for a few reasons.
Tamil, unlike English, is pronounced exactly as it is spelled. I wanted to pronounce things properly. For that I needed to be able to read. We are a people of writers. Whether it’s Uthayan or Ponniyin Selvan, I wanted access to our stories and this part of our culture. Themed reading is a great way to learn, because vocabulary repeats. When I started, I put my focus on politics in the East and North of Sri Lanka, reading short online news articles. Very quickly, I began to pick up key words (அரசாங்கம்/government, பாராளுமன்றம்/parliament, ஐக்கிய நாடுகள் சபை/United Nations). I was then able to incorporate these words into my spoken vocabulary. Many people feel frightened or overwhelmed by reading, but the truth is reading is largely word recognition. How many of these words are you actually sounding out right now? My guess is none. Because the words I’m using are all very common words, you’re most likely scanning and recognizing. I have found that as my vocabulary expands, my reading gets faster. I learn new words while reading, so my speaking improves. It’s a positive feedback loop.
5. Learn your learning style
I am a tactile-visual learner. I do best if I can see what I’m learning and also if I can involve my body. Writing things out works for me (with a pen and paper, not computer). In person conversations are best. Then Skype, then phone. I don’t always have access to the resource that works best for me (Amma and I live 300 miles apart, so our classes are on Skype), but it’s helpful for me to know.
I am not a student who can study for hours on end. I do best with diversity in my learning. I often combine my Tamil studies with other work. I will do maybe 20 minutes of one of my Tamil online courses (focused attention). Then I’ll practice a Tamil song I’m trying to learn (playful learning). Then I might work on a piece of writing which has nothing to do with Tamil (creative/mental stimulation). Then I'll take a 7 minute dance break (physical release). Like that, I’ll go back and forth between activities to optimize my energy and attention.
6. Take control of your classes
All of the teachers I’ve had are native Tamil speakers – a great resource. None of them have had any actual training on how to teach a language. When I first started taking classes, I would feel overwhelmed and confused by their teaching styles – which was frustrating, because at the time, I was paying for classes.
It’s been my responsibility to understand how I need my classes to be set up and to then train my teachers to teach me in a way that matches my learning style. I know that I learn best with a tangible structure and repetition. Here are some things I’ve done with my Amma in the past few months:
I made a list of every type of verb conjugation I could think of in English (for example, I go/I went/I would have gone/I will have gone/I might go, etc). Each week, I selected one verb I wanted to learn and we put the verb through this list. Not all English conjugations exist in Tamil, and some Tamil conjugations exist which do not exist in English. பட்டது/pattathu often gets put at the end of sentences. I understood it when it was said, but I didn’t understand how to use it. I asked my Amma to say as many sentences as she could using பட்டது/pattathu while I made a list. We then worked backwords to make sense of the pattern. My Amma identified that I couldn’t create phrases such as “the book I gave”, “the book that was there”, “the book I left”. She created drills for me, starting with just the phrase (the book I gave) and expanding into full sentences (Where did you put the book I gave you?). I set the limit on how many new phrases she could introduce each class. We started with 4 and each class she could introduce 1 or 2 more. For all things, I ask my Amma how to say things formally as well as colloquially. I do my best to learn both distinctly, so that I can use the correct one in the correct context.
7. Cry
I have cried so much in the process of learning Tamil. If your parents are anything like mine, you also were raised to set very high expectations for yourself. Often unreasonably high. Not meeting those expectations has sometimes felt like the end of the world. Add to that the emotional urgency of wanting to converse fluently with my monolingual, Tamil-speaking family, the deep-rooted desire to maintain a connection with the island, our people. I have gone through waves of feeling sad, helpless, stupid.
I am learning how to be gentle with myself. I have taken breaks from learning Tamil when it has felt too overwhelming. I always come back. I have made peace with the fact that learning this language may be a lifelong journey. I show up, I do the work, I cry, I start over.
Resources:
Created by Sendhil Cheran, formerly learntamil/tamilclass.com: http://www.ibiblio.org/learntamil
Penn State: http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/plc/tamilweb/
101 Tamil Verbs: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1619494035/ref=rdr_ext_tmb I've not bought this book, but I'm considering it.
Memrise is a website and also an app. They have classes in both Tamil and transliterated Tamil (Tamil written in English). My favorites are: https://www.memrise.com/course/99440/tamil-conjunctions-and-connecting-words/ https://www.memrise.com/course/569080/more-tamil-words/ https://www.memrise.com/course/52328/intermediate-and-advanced-tamil/
You can find Tamil language films with or without subtitles on YouTube, Netflix, and my recent fave HeroTalkies.
Italki and HelloTalk are both apps which allow you to connect with native speakers in order to do a language exchange/practice.
These are only a few. There will certainly be more. I'd love to hear about them as you find what works for you.
Related articles: Why It’s Important to Learn Tamil The Astonishing Links Between Tamil and Japanese Why Don’t Tamils Speak Tamil? What is Arwi (Arabic Tamil)?The “Sinister” Side of Central Bank-Issued Digital Currency
A. Hannan Ismail Blocked Unblock Follow Following Mar 1, 2017
Some things are moving faster than others.
Representatives of more than 90 central banks met in June 2016 at an event organized by the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
The three-day Conference on ‘Policy Challenges for the Financial Sector’ included discussion on distributed ledger technologies in banking.
This month the Bank of International Settlements observed that distributed ledger technology in banking has a long way to go. Others believe that they shouldn’t bother.
Meanwhile, there is rapid movement taking place on another front.
It’s coming and it’s coming fast.
Central banks around the world are either exploring or taking the first steps towards establishing digital versions of national (or “fiat”) currencies.
Central bank-issued digital currency is under consideration in Canada, China, Sweden and the United Kindgom. India withdrew 86 per cent of all cash as legal tender in November 2016.
1.27 billion people were given four hours notice.
Last month, we saw early signs that the European Central Bank is considering the feasibility of “digital-based money.”
Commercial banks are taking the first steps to issue their own crypto-currencies, such as Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd.
International organisations lead the chorus of support for related initiatives toward the digitization of cash.
Alongside the International Monetary Fund and World Bank is the Alliance for Financial Inclusion, while the United Nations Capital Development Fund hosts the Better Than Cash Alliance.
Organizations dedicated to advancing the technology and its adoption are emerging. They include E-Currency, the sole purpose of which is to promote “central bank-governed digital fiat currency.”
Influential individuals are lending their support by calling for a ban on cash in its large denominations. They include Professor Kenneth Rogoff of Harvard University, a former Chief Economist of the IMF.
Rogoff is sought after by central banks and is the author of such works as The Curse of Cash.
In case his view on the matter wasn’t clear from the title of his book, he followed it up in the Wall Street Journal with ‘The Sinister Side of Cash.’
Numerous official sources, as well as commissioned works, have laid out the benefits of central bank-issued digital currency.
The Foundery blockchain team at FirstRand Bank Limited in South Africa lay out the case in their paper, ‘The Advent of Crypto-banking: A New Paradigm for Central and Commercial Banking.’
It describes central bank-issued digital currency as a hybrid form of monetary value. It combines a bearer instrument (such as cash) with a registered instrument (for instance, bonds, equities or money held in a digital savings account).
The paper goes on to explain:
The crypto instrument is a digital hybrid instrument with characteristics of both bearer and registered instruments: it’s similar to a bearer instrument because the holder of a digital private key is the presumed owner of the value it controls, and it’s also similar to a registered instrument because that value is recorded on a ledger (albeit a distributed one).
The paper is revealing. It makes three central claims that are worth testing, even challenging.
First, the paper assumes that human beings are instinctively competitive to the point of violence. It implies that societal interpretation of value is the product of a zero-sum game.
The authors present a scenario in which a hypothetical hunter in the distant past risks violent conflict or the loss of land when s/he leaves it to search for food.
This is a straw man argument. There is little evidence in the archaelogical record that suggests nomad hunter-gathers occupied fixed habitats for any extended period of time.
It is also unlikely that human civilization would have progressed to its present (albeit troubled) state if the only outcomes of dispute were absolute loss or violence, or both.
This is a simplistic representation, and reduces human interaction to naked competitive choice. It is not a credible basis on which to make a case for trusted third parties.
Second, the paper assumes that we live in a world ceteris paribus (that is, where all other things are equal).
Unfortunately, we don’t. Equilibrium is a theoretical premise for modelling. It does not survive its first contact with a world in which uncertainty and complexity prevail.
Indeed, all other things are very far from equal at present.
Oligopolistic power dominates political systems, pushing back against democratic accountability.
Debt overhangs continue to depress consumer demand; a glut of supply in commodities and tradable goods creates deflationary pressure; and companies prefer to write off debt or buy back their stocks rather than invest.
Central banks have stepped in to finance borrowing at interest rates so low that it has unleashed a war between speculators and savers (and savers are losing, badly).
In the ceteris paribus world, this is not supposed to happen. Central banks seem to have become both cause and casualty, misallocating resources to shore up a system and losing credibility while doing so.
Third, the paper makes a leap of faith to suggest that central bank-issued digital currency can bring trust to a trustless distributed ledger, and moderation to negative human instincts.
For instance, it makes a case for banks to serve as “trusted intermediaries” to verify ownership, and even to safely retain private keys. This without any reference to the separation of deposit and investment functions, or to fractional reserve banking.
Is any of this credible or desirable?
The main case for central bank-issued digital currency boils down to the following:
It can combat numerous ills, including illicit financial flows, money laundering, organized crime and terrorist activity; It can help to address tax evasion, which could enjoy popular support; it could also stabilize and even increase the tax base; and It can promote financial inclusion.
Most of the voices advocating for central bank-issued digital currency do not, in my view, draw sufficient attention to the following:
First, cash has played little or no part in the largest financial crimes in history.
These include the rigging of the London Inter-Bank Offer Rate (or ‘LIBOR’), in which several of the world’s most prominent banks were complicit and are responsible.
These institutions siphoned off gains from a derivatives market that was worth between US$300 and US$350 trillion. Their misdemeanors extends to securities and commodities fraud, corporate fraud, and mortgage fraud.
Accountability? Fines aplenty but no criminal action of significance. In the United States, the latest ‘Financial Crimes Report’ of the Federal Bureau for Investigation available online dates from 2011. They appear to have been discontinued.
Second, unaccountable institutions with new and far-reaching powers over money are quite capable of intruding into the lives of people and groups.
Imagine programmable money issued by central banks directing what you can and cannot do.
If you live a lawful life you might maintain that you have nothing to fear, in the same way as you do not mind the harvesting of your personal data on the promise that it makes you safe.
Then, one day, your money is ‘turned off’ because of some infraction that you may or may not have committed.
Mass, digitized surveillance makes this possible today. A central bank-issued digital currency can very, very easily become another tool of social control.
Third, and to address the above, the United Nations World Summit for the Information Society +10 year review in 2015 laid out what people across the planet need from a digital world.
Any steps taken in building the digital world must protect and promote human rights: the central purpose of technological innovation.
Information and communication technologies need to have broad-based benefits for society (and not narrowly for the State or for commerce).
Closing the digital divides, including between women and men, are a sine qua non for human progress.
We need an ‘enabling environment’ that is open, accountable and that can confer full-spectrum benefits to all sections of the community.
Digital innovation needs to build confidence in security, not just for the state, but for individuals, communities and companies.
The way it is all governed must give voice to all: not just institutions and technologists and entrepreneurs, but citizens who can hold public entities to account; and consumers who can do likewise to private entities.
It is unclear if — or to what extent — central banks and actors advocating for a ban on cash are applying these considerations.
Central banks and international financial institutions represent — and work for — creditors first and people second. That is why they can be serially wrong with so little direct consequence.
Western creditors were morally and economically wrong about the African debt crisis in the 1980s and 1990s. They were wrong with the Asian financial crisis in the 1990s. They have been wrong with the crisis in the Eurozone.
They continue to misdiagnose the nature of the current “balance sheet recession.” You cannot overcome debt and debt trauma with more supply.
In each episode the negative human consequence has been large and manifold.
These are monumental failures.
Their effects can be measured in the spike in suicides, social dislocation and delinquency, structural levels of unemployment and under-employment, inter-generational inequality, environmental degradation, demonisation of minorities, political reaction, and so on.
This is the backdrop against which we are invited to trust the banking system with central bank-issued digital currency against.
“Sinister?” I’m not sure. I don’t think demonisation helps. The only thing I can say is that central bank-issued digital currency is a huge deal.
A huge deal that needs a big discussion.Dear Reader, As you can imagine, more people are reading The Jerusalem Post than ever before. Nevertheless, traditional business models are no longer sustainable and high-quality publications, like ours, are being forced to look for new ways to keep going. Unlike many other news organizations, we have not put up a paywall. We want to keep our journalism open and accessible and be able to keep providing you with news and analysis from the frontlines of Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World.
Iran’s massive funding of terrorist groups that endanger Israel was exposed in shocking detail by IDF Military Intelligence chief Maj.- Gen. Hertzi Halevi on Wednesday.
Speaking at the IDC Herzliya Conference, Halevi revealed that Iran is funding Hezbollah to the tune of $75 million a year, while paying $50m. of Hamas’s budget and approximately $70m. to Islamic Jihad.
Connecting Hamas’s alliance with Iran to recent criticism of Israel for the humanitarian situation in the Gaza strip, Halevi placed the blame for a lack of construction supplies and the |
-Briggs system, you can see how this might get confusing. (“Am I a Judger because I use judging functions? Wait, how is it that I’m using a perceiving function but I’m a Judger?” and so on.)
What does a “perceiving” function and a “judging” function do?
Perceiving functions help us input new information as well make sense of and understand how that information impacts us and the world around us.
Judging functions help us evaluate that new information and make decisions.
We started calling perceiving cognitive functions “learning processes,” and judging cognitive functions became “decision-making process.”
For most people, it’s way easier to grasp the phrase “learning process” than “perceiving cognitive function.” It’s also easier to use the phrase “decision-making process” than “judging cognitive function.”
Instead of using the term “eight Jungian cognitive functions” (which I will say when I want to sound smart), I now say, “You have eight mental processes. Four of them help you learn new information, and four help you make decisions based on that information.”
Easy peasy, and an easy inch-by-inch introduction into waters that can get intimidatingly deep.
As for the nicknames of the functions, themselves, we probably spent about six months (or longer, actually) finalizing which names we would eventually use.
There’s a great Mark Twain quote, “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote you a long one instead.” The more concise something is the more time it takes (if it’s going to be quality), and we knew we couldn’t rush these nicknames.
We divided the functions into judging and perceiving, using the foundation of what’s actually happening with the function to guide the process.
For example, as mentioned before, perceiving processes are ultimately helping the user to learn new information. Of course, from there each function branches out into really intricate and beautiful expressions. But if you chart the different roads back to their base, you can get an idea of the ‘root’ of the function.
We chose not to name the 8 processes based on what they do, but rather the etymology of the process. Why does each function work the way it does? Naming them based on the results is a losing game – they all do multiple things for us! For example, Introverted Feeling could be called “conviction.” But it could also be called “identity” and “sympathy,” because it helps facilitate all of these things. Authenticity, however, is the decision making criteria the process is using – what feels right and is true to me? – and so is closer to its ‘root’.
The Four Learning Processes
Introverted Sensing: “Memory”
We nicknamed Introverted Sensing “Memory.”
This may be the one that causes the most confusion, since people automatically assume that means anyone using this function has a good memory.
We considered renaming it multiple times, but couldn’t get past the fact that people use this process to learn new information based on their memories.
Introverted Sensing wants reliable information. That’s its ‘guiding star’, so to speak, which is why SJs seem so insanely tied to personal experience and expert opinion. (Well, ‘insanely tied’ from the perspective of this ENTP/Si inferior.)
Both Sensing functions use their sense perceptions to gather information.
But Introverted Sensing doesn’t just take in information in the moment, it’s introverted, or inwardly directed. That means it captures the direct sensory experience and ruminates over it later. Which makes total sense, because what is more ‘reliable’ than a direct sensory experience that you get to spend time thinking about?
A captured experience that can be reviewed later is a memory, the basis of this process.
So, when considering Introverted Sensing as “Memory”, please keep in mind we’re not referencing a skill or talent (i.e. possessing a good memory). We’re referencing the actual noun, itself: a memory.
Extraverted Sensing: “Sensation”
Extraverted Sensing, like both Sensing functions, uses the sense perceptions to gather information.
Unlike Introverted Sensing (aka “Memory”), it’s not an inwardly-expressed process. There is no imposed timeline of capture info and process later. It’s extraverted, and therefore can get into the action in the moment. Think of it as ‘real-time kinetic’.
This is why we nicknamed the function “Sensation.”
Where “Memory” seems more interested in information that is reliable, Extraverted Sensing seems to be more interested in what’s verifiable.
And what is more verifiable than something with which you are directly interacting?
Focus and attention is then given to immediate sense impressions, and all of the instruments which pick up sensory stimuli are honed in on and heightened.
Sensory instruments in the body are casually known as our ‘senses’ and the real-time feedback they give us are sensations.
Interestingly, I was speaking with Dario Nardi a few years ago and when he and his research team were doing brain scans on SPs it was observed that the Extraverted Sensing process shows up as a ‘tennis hop.’ Just as a tennis player hops back and forth in anticipation of the ball going in any unpredictable direction, Extraverted Sensing is always ready for the world to throw something unpredictable at it. This is part of why SPs can be such adrenaline junkies, in particular Se dominants. Their minds are always ready for something intriguing or exciting to happen anyway, that when it DOES it’s massively satisfying.
Introverted Intuition – “Perspectives”
Intuition doesn’t work like the Sensory functions.
Both the intuitive processes are more focused on ‘what’s behind the curtain’ which, by definition, can never be directly experienced.
So, in order to speculate on the things that can’t be directly known, both intuitive processes become spectacularly good at advanced pattern recognition.
You get clues on what’s behind the curtain by picking up on the data points you can see, and then forming patterns to make speculative leaps.
Like Introverted Sensing, Introverted Intuition does this in a ‘ruminatory’ fashion because it’s also introverted, or inwardly expressed. Which patterns are available in the ‘inner world’ of a human being? Since all the action is taking place in the brain, the patterns that become the most interesting are the ones that form in the mind.
Our beliefs, thoughts and feelings are casually called “perspectives,” since they are our subjective ‘take’ on how the world works.
Introverted Intuition is focused on the patterns that form those perspectives, and over time it starts to see the ‘pattern of the patterns’. Meaning, if my mind forms patterns in this way when given certain information and stimuli, then it’s a pretty safe bet others are, too.
This is why users of Introverted Intuition aren’t married to their own perspectives. They can take a meta-perspective and understand the ways in which we’re the same and different on a cerebral level. The nickname “Perspectives” seemed to at least direct people to the root of how this complex process works.
If “Memory” likes reliable information and “Sensation” wants verifiable information, it could be said that “Perspectives” loves deep insight.
Extraverted Intuition – “Exploration”
Like Extraverted Sensing, Extraverted Intuition is focused on real-time interaction with the world around itself, but like Introverted Intuition it’s focused on the patterns that emerge in the outer world.
What if I touched this button, what would happen then?
How about if I pulled this toggle switch?
What if I said this thing to that person, how would they respond?
Patterns are discovered in the environment by placing things in novel juxtapositions, by searching places and concepts that haven’t yet been explored.
It could be said that Extraverted Intuition sees the world as 6 foot tall grass and it’s got a machete in its hand.
The instinct and desire to explore new territory is irresistible, and if the sense of novelty isn’t satisfied an NP will quickly (ENxP) or slowly (INxP) find themselves slip into depression.
That’s why we felt “Exploration” was the best nickname for this process – the best pattern recognition system for the outer world is to mess with everything that can be messed with, and to explore, explore, explore.
“Memory” likes reliable information
“Sensation” wants verifiable information
“Perspectives” loves deep insight
“Exploration” focuses on novelty and new connections
The Four Decision-Making Processes
Every process does multiple things for the user, and none of these nicknames can fully encompass all of the aspects of the function.
Again, this is about tracking the etymology back to its origin. Just like the perceiving functions are all about how the process learns new information, the judging functions will be about the criteria the function uses to make decisions.
All of the decision-making processes think in ‘should’ terms.
How should the world be?
How should we behave as people?
What should I be doing in this situation?
What should I be doing in most situations?
What should my life look like?
“Should” statements mean projecting our values on the world, which we do by focusing our attention on different criteria to establish those values.
Extraverted Feeling – “Harmony“
Extraverted Feeling, like both feeling processes, makes decisions based on how things are impacting people on an emotional level. It turns its attention to feelings in the ‘outside world’, or other people’s feelings.
As humans we are a symphony of emotions and every interaction with other human beings turn into miniature jam sessions.
We project our feelings outward onto each other all the time, with truly fascinating results. We can use our feelings to communicate intimacy and love, and we can use them to create the kind of drama that has us throwing chairs on syndicated television when we discover that we are NOT the baby’s father.
For a process that is focused on the nuanced interplay of these emotional dances, the most satisfying result is one of simpatico: I’m emotionally okay with you and you’re emotionally okay with me.
Sometimes we do this by creating unspoken social contracts in order to establish how not to step on each other’s toes, and sometimes we do this by pretending everything is okay when it’s not.
Generally, Extraverted Feeling does this by being interested in and making sure everyone is getting their needs met.
The most sophisticated expression of this process is acknowledging that emotional confusion is part of life and in those moments ‘the way out is through’, or conflict resolution.
Ultimately, Extraverted Feeling isn’t about avoiding all conflict, it’s about guiding our way through these conflicts in order to get the to true goal: “Harmony.”
Introverted Feeling – “Authenticity“
Introverted Feeling, like Extraverted Feeling, uses human emotion as its criteria for making decisions. But as an introverted process, it is inwardly turned. The focus is on how things are impacting the individual on an emotional level, making the subjective human experience endlessly interesting.
Like talking to a room full of people, we have many parts inside of ourselves and they’re not always on the same page.
There are parts of us that want to go to the gym and other parts that want to sit around and watch The Biggest Loser while eating ice cream. (As Jack Black recently said, “I want a hot body. But I also want tacos.”)
When a decision point comes, Introverted Feeling is about checking in with all those inner parts and voices to determine what feels the most in alignment with oneself.
This can be confusing, and sometimes Introverted Feeling only knows the ‘right’ decision after it’s been made – because that’s when the voices of protest or support become the loudest.
Ultimately, Introverted Feeling is about listening to all those voices within and making the choice that feels the most in alignment with their true “Authenticity.”
If Harmony asks, “How do I get everyone’s needs met,” then it could be said that Authenticity asks, “What feels right to me?”
Extraverted Thinking – “Effectiveness“
Extraverted Thinking, like both thinking processes, focuses on impersonal criteria for making decision.
Metrics, analysis, and data points are the focal point, and Extraverted Thinking is the outer world expression of this.
There is a quote I’ve seen many times that says what can’t be measured can’t be managed, and management is of great interest to Extraverted Thinking.
Measurements are how we know we’re getting closer to our goals, and they give us the ability to test/iterate how we go about things.
Since Extraverted Thinking is intrinsically fascinated by measurements, goal setting and improvements, ultimately streamlined systems that deliver results become their guiding star.
Over time there is a focus not just on efficiency, but also on sustainability.
A system that works well but breaks quickly can be of use for a time, but it’s a true bother to recreate systems which don’t abide by Pareto’s Principle (or the 80/20 rule): focus on the 20% of whatever is getting you 80% of your results.
A system that honors Pareto’s Principle while at the same time requiring small amount of management to continue producing those results leads us to our nickname: “Effectiveness.”
If Harmony asks, “How do I get everyone’s needs met,” and Authenticity asks, “What feels right to me,” then it could be said that Effectiveness asks simply, “What works?”
Introverted Thinking – “Accuracy“
Much like Extraverted Thinking, Introverted Thinking focuses on impersonal criteria to make decisions. However, this is an introverted process, and so it is inwardly turned and expressed.
All of the introverted processes (as you have probably pattern recognized) are subjective to the individual, and Introverted Thinking is no exception to this rule.
So, how does one understand metrics, analysis and data points subjectively? You do it by ‘making sense’ of something for yourself.
This is true rationalization, the ability to reason through a subject or concept within one own’s understanding, even if it doesn’t match ‘outer world’ data.
For example, Einstein understood the data points of quantum physics long before there was outer world ‘evidence’ to support it. The concepts just ‘made sense’ to him, and when he shared them they ‘made sense’ to other people, too.
Sometimes evidence precedes understanding, and sometimes understanding precedes evidence.
For Introverted Thinking, ‘getting’ something is the litmus test. This is a trap, though, which Introverted Thinking instinctively understands.
How does one ensure that what makes analytical sense isn’t simply confirmation bias? The only way to remove confirmation bias is rigorous and merciless clean-slicing of data.
This is done through constantly scanning for inconsistencies and incongruities, the way a computer system may regularly scan for viruses.
This doesn’t mean that the Introverted Thinking process will always be right – far from it.
But that’s its ultimate goal – information purified from incongruities, inconsistencies and biases which produce clean concepts and an understanding of how things work. For this reason, we chose a nickname that indicates the fundamental goal of this function making decisions: “Accuracy.”
Harmony asks, “How do I get everyone’s needs met?”
Authenticity asks, “What feels right to me?”
Effectiveness asks, “What works?”
Accuracy asks, “What makes logical sense to me?”
We understand that there are many other nicknames we could have chosen for these functions – believe me, we cycled through a LOT of them.
So, we created a framework and stuck with it: the four perceiving functions would be based on the foundation of how the process learns, and the four judging functions would be based on the desired outcome the function has when it’s evaluating criteria to make decisions.
-Antonia
Want to learn more?
Discover Your Personal Genius
We want to hear from you. Leave your comments below…Seven out of 26 Schengen countries have emergency border controls in place, including Germany. On Friday, the Commission said it wanted them all lifted no later than December.
Under the Schengen agreement, 26 countries allow passport-free travel without border checks. But seven of those have re-introduced internal border controls since September in to help stem the most significant migration flows Europe has seen in decades.
Open internal borders are seen as a major achievement of European integration that improved travel, tourism, trade and supply chains across the bloc, boosting growth.
But the commission's plan also calls for a new European border and coast guard to start operating in the summer to secure the bloc's external borders. Overwhelmed Greece is to receive more support in securing its border with Turkey.
EU Commissioner Dimitris Avramopolous, who presented the plan on Friday, said managing Europe's borders was essential.
The Commission warned that the border checks introduced by Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Norway and Sweden could cost the bloc's economy up to 18 billion euros ($19.7 billion) due to higher costs for the transport of goods by road. Workers would lose time crossing borders and tourists could be discouraged from traveling within Europe, the Commission predicted.
The EU is scrambling to come up with a plan to manage the influx of migrants, mainly from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. So far this year, more than 135,000 arrived in Europe - mostly through Greece - after more than a million people entered the bloc in 2015.
The Commission's announcement comes ahead of an EU summit with Turkey on March 7, which is aimed at finding ways to deal with migrants crossing into the EU via Turkey.
Watch video 01:36 Share Schengen collapse would cost EU dearly Send Facebook google+ Whatsapp Tumblr linkedin stumble Digg reddit Newsvine Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/1I07C Schengen collapse would cost EU dearly
ng/kms (Reuters, dpa)With the recent surge in value of cryptocurrencies, ordinary people and traditional investment firms are paying more attention to the space. The market cap of cryptocurrencies has grown from less than $30 billion in March 2017 to over $110 billion in June 2017, and this is just the beginning. Cryptocurrencies are quickly becoming a new global market for assets, similar to stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and government backed-currencies.
But the immediate settlement of currency transfer on blockchains (such as Bitcoin and Etherium) is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it’s incredibly efficient at money movement; on the other, it allows bad players to transfer your cryotcurrency with the same speed. And if the wrong person gets unauthorized access to your cryptocurrency holdings and transfers the currencies to their own wallet, there will be no getting it back.
As a result, among new investors in the space, there is a concern about giving money to new, unproven, and non-regulated online-only cryptocurrency wallet providers. And that opens up an opportunity for traditional banks. You already trust them with your life savings, so you will likely trust them with your cryptocurrency holdings.
It would take an enormous investment for banks to move into this space. But here are some reasons they should consider it:
They can address a real pain point for their customers: Cryptocurrency investors are concerned about trusting recently established organizations to hold their assets. Banks are reliable alternatives because people trust them. Banks entering this space will solve a real financial problem for their customers and will deepen and reinforce their relationship.
They will stay relevant: Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin might become more popular than government backed currencies one day. The only way for a bank to stay relevant in that future is to secure their relationship with the cryptocurrency holder today. As time goes on, new players will slowly earn a reputation for safety and security and will present a threat to existing financial institutions. Now is the time for banks to secure those relationships while they still have an advantage over existing and entering players.
They will start learning by doing: Cryptocurrencies are here to stay. Banks must start learning how these markets operate and discover the right business models for their organizations before fintech companies make them irrelevant. A great way to do so is to get their feet wet by getting involved and forcing themselves to start learning.
What exactly can banks offer in this ecosystem? Will ordinary people just want a cryptocurrency wallet from a trusted name? Will they want a cryptocurrency checking or savings account to pay for their daily purchases? Will they treat cryptocurrencies as a long-term asset similar to gold? No one knows the answers to these questions, but banks will get closer to the right answers by getting involved today and offering a solution that allows them to monitor the behavior of customers who hold cryptocurrencies.
They can help shape the future of cryptocurrency regulations: Banks can influence the future of cryptocurrencies by putting more pressure on governments to regulate the industry. While the lack of regulation in the industry creates concerns for banks looking to enter this space, the sooner they get into the cryptocurrency holding business, the sooner they can start pressing regulators and government for more guidance on how cryptocurrencies should be treated and the sooner they can develop their own policies if needed.
Banks have a small window of opportunity to jump into the cryptocurrency space. In a few years, cryptocurrency wallet providers will have gained enough trust and credibility that they will make banks that did not reinvent themselves irrelevant. Now is the time that banks have a competitive advantage over cryptocurrency wallet and trading companies to solve a real problem for their customers. The good news is that the number of individuals and organizations in this space is limited today so banks can test various business models and learn from their customers while cryptocurrencies evolve to become a reliable asset.
Bijan Shahrokhi is a senior product manager in the financial industry. He previously was cofounder and CEO of Virtual Next.By Josh Dzielak, Developer Advocate at Algolia.
Algolia helps developers build search. At the core of Algolia is a built-from-scratch search engine exposed via a JSON API. In February 2017, we processed 21 billion queries and 27 billion indexing operations for 8,000+ live integrations. Some more numbers:
Query volume: 1B/day peak, 750M/day average (13K/s during peak hours)
Indexing operations: 10B/day peak, 1B/day average (spikes can be over 1M/s)
Number of API servers: 800+
Total memory in production: 64TB
Total I/O per day: 3.9PB
Total SSD storage capacity: 566TB
We’ve written about our stack before and are big fans of StackShare and the community here. In this post we‘ll look at how our stack is designed from the ground up to reduce latency and the tools we use to monitor latency in production.
I’m Josh and I’m a Developer Advocate at Algolia, formerly the VP Engineering at Keen IO. Being a developer advocate is pretty cool. I get to code, write and speak. I also get to converse daily with developers using Algolia.
Frequently, I get asked what Algolia’s API tech stack looks like. Many people are surprised when I tell them:
The Algolia search engine is written in C++ and runs inside of nginx. All searches start and finish inside of our nginx module. API clients connect directly to the nginx host where the search happens. There are no load balancers or network hops. Algolia runs on hand-picked bare metal. We use high-frequency CPUs like the 3.9Ghz Intel Xeon E5–1650v4 and load machines with 256GB of RAM. Algolia uses a hybrid-tenancy model. Some clusters are shared between customers and some are dedicated, so we can use hardware efficiently while providing full isolation to customers who need it. Algolia doesn’t use AWS or any cloud-based hosting for the API. We have our own servers spanning 47 datacenters in 15 global regions.
Why this infrastructure?
The primary design goal for our stack is to aggressively reduce latency. For the kinds of searches that Algolia powers—suited to demanding consumers who are used to Google, Amazon and Facebook—latency is a UX killer. Search-as-you-type experiences, which have become the norm since Google announced instant search in 2011, have demanding requirements. Any more than 100ms from end-to-end can be perceived as sluggish, glitchy and distracting. But at 50ms or less the experience feels magical. We prefer magic.
Monitoring
Our monitoring stack helps us keep an eye on latency across all of our clusters. We use Wavefront to collect metrics from every machine. We like Wavefront because it’s simple to integrate (we have it plugged in to StatsD and collectd), provides good dashboards, and has integrated alerting.
We use PagerDuty to fire alerts for abnormalities like CPU depletion, resource exhaustion and long-running indexing jobs. For non-urgent alerts, like single process crashes, we dump and collect the core for further investigation. If the same non-urgent alert repeats more than a set number of times, we do trigger a PagerDuty alert. We keep only the last 5 core dumps to avoid filling up the disk.
When a query takes more than 1 second we send an alert into Slack. From there, someone on our Core Engineering Squad will investigate. On a typical day, we might see as few as 1 or even 0 of these, so Slack has been a good fit.
Probes
We have probes in 45 locations around the world to measure the latency and the availability of our production clusters. We host the probes with 12 different providers, not necessarily the same as where our API servers are. The results from these probes are publicly visible at status.algolia.com. We use a custom internal API to aggregate the large amount of data that probes fetch from each cluster and turn it into a single value per region.
Downed Machines
Downed machines are detected within 30 seconds by a custom Ruby application. Once a machine is detected to be down, we push a DNS change to take it out of the cluster. The upper bound of propagation for that change is 2 minutes (DNS TTL). During this time, API clients implement their internal retry strategy to connect to healthy machines in the cluster, so there is no customer impact.
Debugging Slow Queries
When a query takes abnormally long - more than 1 second - we dump everything about it to a file. We keep everything we need to rerun it including the application ID, index name and all query parameters. High-level profiling information is also stored - with it, we can figure out where time is spent in the heaviest 10% of query processing. A syscall called getrusage analyzes resource utilization of the calling process and its children.
For the kernel, we record the number of major page faults (ru_majflt), number of block inputs, number of context switches, elapsed wall clock time (using gettimeofday, so that we don’t skip counting time on a blocking I/O like a major page fault since we’re using memory mapped files) and a variety of other statistics that help us determine the root cause.
With data in hand, the investigation proceeds in this order:
The hardware The software Operating system and production environment
Hardware
The easiest problem to detect is a hardware issue. We see burned SSDs, broken memory modules and overheated CPUs. We automate the reporting of the most common failures like SSDs by alerting on S.M.A.R.T. data. For infrequent errors, we might need to run a suite of specific tools to narrow down the root cause, like mbw for uncovering memory bandwidth issues. And of course, there is always syslog which logs most hardware failures.
Individual machine failures will not have a customer impact because each cluster has 3 machines. Where it’s possible in a given geographical region, each machine is located in a different datacenter and attached to a different network provider. This provides further insulation from network or datacenter loss.
Software
We have some close-to-zero cost profiling information obtained from the getrusage syscall. Sometimes that’s enough to diagnose an issue with the engine code. If not, we need to look to profiling. We can’t run a profiler in production for performance reasons, but we can do this after the fact.
An external binary is attached to a profiler, containing exactly the same code as the module running inside of nginx. The profiler uses information obtained by google-perftools, a very accurate stack-sampling profiler, to simulate the exact conditions of the production machine.
OS / Environment
If we can rule out hardware and software failure, the problem might have been with the operating environment at that point in time. That means analyzing system-wide data in the hope of discovering an anomaly.
Once we discovered that defragmentation of huge pages in the kernel could block our process for several hundred milliseconds. This defragmentation isn’t necessary because we keep large memory pools like nginx. Now we make sure it doesn’t happen, to the benefit of more consistent latency for all of our customers.
Deployment
Every Algolia application runs on a cluster of 3 machines for redundancy and increased throughput. Each indexing operation is replicated across the machines using a durable queue.
Clusters can be mirrored to other global regions across Algolia’s Distributed Search Network (DSN). Global coverage is critical for delivering low latency to users coming from different continents. You can think of DSN like a CDN without caching - every query is running against a live, up-to-date copy of the index.
Early Detection
When we release a new version of the code that powers the API, we do it in an incremental, cluster-aware way so we can rollback immediately if something goes wrong.
Automated by a set of custom deployment scripts, the order of the rolling deploy looks like this:
Testing machines
Staging machines
⅓ of production machines
Another ⅓ of production machines
The final ⅓ of production machines
First, we test the new code with unit tests and functional tests on a host that with an exact production configuration. During the API deployment process we use a custom set of scripts to run the tests, but in other areas of our stack we’re using Travis CI.
One thing we guard against is a network issue that produces a split-brain partition during a rolling deployment. Our deployment strategy considers every new version as unstable until it has consensus from every server, and it will continue to retry the deploy until the network partition heals.
Before deployment begins, another process has encrypted our binaries and uploaded them to an S3 bucket. The S3 bucket sits behind CloudFlare to make downloading the binaries fast from anywhere.
We use a custom shell script to do deployments. The script launches the new binaries and then checks to make sure that the new process is running. If it’s not, the script assumes that something has gone wrong and automatically rolls back to the previous version. Even if the previous version also can’t come up, we still won’t have a customer impact while we troubleshoot because the other machines in the cluster can still service requests.
Scaling
For a search engine, there are two basic dimensions of scaling:
Search capacity - how many searches can be performed?
Storage capacity - how many records can the index hold?
To increase your search capacity with Algolia, you can replicate your data to additional clusters using the point-and-click DSN feature. Once a new DSN cluster is provisioned and brought up-to-date with data, it will automatically begin to process queries.
Scaling storage capacity is a bit more complicated.
Multiple Clusters
Today, Algolia customers who cannot fit on one cluster need to provision a separate cluster and create logic at the application layer to balance between them. This is often needed by SaaS companies who have customers growing at different rates, and sometimes one customer can be 10x or 100x compared to the others, so you need to move that customer to somewhere they can fit.
Soon we’ll be releasing a feature that takes this complexity behind the API. Algolia will automatically balance data a customer’s available clusters based on a few key pieces of information. The way it works is similar to sharding but without the limitation of shards being pinned to a specific node. Shards can be moved between clusters dynamically. This avoids a very serious problem encountered by many search engines - if the original shard key guess was wrong, the entire cluster will have to be rebuilt down the road.
Collaboration
Our humans and our bots congregate on Slack. Last year we had some growing pains, but now we have a prefix-based naming convention that works pretty well. Our channels are named #team-engineering, #help-engineering, #notif-github, etc.. The #team- channels are for members of a team, #help- channels are for getting help from a team, and #notif- channels are for collecting automatic notifications.
It would be hard to count the number of Zoom meetings we have on a given day. Our two main offices are in Paris and San Francisco, making 7am-10am PST the busiest time of day for video calls. We now have dedicated "Zoom Rooms" with iPads, high-resolution cameras and big TVs that make the experience really smooth. With new offices in New York and Atlanta, Zoom will become an even more important part of our collaboration stack which also includes Github, Trello and Asana.
Team
When you're an API, performance and scalability are customer-facing features. The work that our engineers do directly affects the 15,000+ developers that rely on our API. Being developers ourselves, we’re very passionate about open source and staying active with our community.
We’re hiring! Come help us make building search a rewarding experience. Algolia teammates come from a diverse range of backgrounds and 15 different countries. Our values are Care, Humility, Trust, Candor and Grit. Employees are encouraged to travel to different offices - Paris, San Francisco, or now Atlanta - at least once a year, to build strong personal connections inside of the company.
See our open positions on StackShare.
Questions about our stack? We love to talk tech. Comment below or ask us on our Discourse forum.
Thanks to Julien Lemoine, Adam Surak, Rémy-Christophe Schermesser, Jason Harris and Raphael Terrier for their much-appreciated help on this post.Jimi Hendrix could play the guitar with his teeth; I can barely play it with both hands. Some people pick one up and just strum away, but the rest of us have to suffer through newly callused fingertips. You know how it is — you get a guitar, promise yourself that you’re going to practice every day, and you do, you really do, at least for the first week or so. Then you have other things to do. Missing one practice won’t do anything, and one day without practice becomes seven in a row. Before you know it, your guitar is snug in its case in the corner, slowly gathering dust, until you dredge it out to repeat the process six months later.
Instinct, the new, free guitar-teaching website founded by Blake Jennelle and Brian Stoner, aims to help us escape the cycle with intuitive, interactive lessons. The web app is not meant to replace real-life guitar teachers. Instead, it is a supplement, with easy to follow instructions and performance tracking to keep fledgling musicians motivated.
The interface is best described as scrolling guitar tab. The website uses your mic to read exactly which notes you play, as well as correct you when you make a mistake. For more on upcoming features and what the scoring system looks like, check out the interview below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkIi-uMS7Qg
Some choice excerpts from the interview:
Q: Where did you get the idea for Instinct?
Blake: I actually got into music as an adult. Guitar was the first instrument I ever tried to learn and I failed, uh, three times as a kid because it’s so hard to learn on your own. And then as an adult I’m more into the piano, but in the process of trying to learn the guitar it was a real struggle. This was like the fourth time I was trying to learn the guitar and I asked Brian, because he’s been playing since he was five, you know, is there anything out there that can help? I’m playing, am I playing the right note? Is my rhythm off? Like all these sort of basic things. Is there a computer program that would tell me that? There wasn’t, so that’s how we started Instinct.
Q: Do you need any special equipment?
Brian: No. The whole premise for starting this was there’s a lot of people who’ve tried to do it and they’ve built these elaborate controllers, MIDI translators and sensors and you’ve seen things like the gTar and other things out there. We just want to use the regular laptop, the regular microphone people already have, and the regular guitar that’s sitting in their closet, and you pull it all together and it just kind of works. No new purchases.
Q: When can we learn Call me Maybe?
Blake: If we wanted to post those songs on our site, we would obviously want to have licensing in place. Right now all of our songs are in the public domain. We’re very collaborative in our mindset in general, and we’d certainly like to license the popular content. Basically the songs that you listen to every day on your iPod.
Brian: We’re really early on, we just want to kind of put it out there with some basic content, show people what it is, and then kinda take it from there.
Instinct is expecting an open beta soon. For now you can sign up for the closed beta here.A great project for common sense preparedness is setting up a Get Home Bag. You just need to look at the news to see several times a year, where due to natural or man made disasters people are forced to wait out a cold and uncomfortable night in their car, or need to abandon their vehicles and hoof it home. The wild winter storms in the Northeast and the South saw people having to seek shelter from the storm’s fury in Home Depots and Wal-Marts. 9/11 and the Blackout of 2004 had thousands on foot walking out of New York City. A Get Home Bag filled with some carefully chosen gear and supplies can help mitigate some of the uncertainty and add a whole lot of comfort to a trying time.
Build A Get Home Bag
When building a Get Home Bag it is important to understand what it is and what it isn’t. A Get Home Bag is a small and highly portable emergency kit. It is filled with gear and supplies that will sustain you on a walk or drive home in event of an emergency. It isn’t a Bug Out Bag (for a great post on Bug Out Bags check out Graywolf Survival) or a long term head for the hills bag. It won’t get you through the Zombie Apocalypse but it will keep you semi-comfortable on cold snowy night when you can’t get home or will put some food in your belly while walking home during a big blackout.
Choosing A Get Home Bag
One of the most important aspects of building a get home bag is choosing the actual bag. There are a few different styles of bag to choose from but the best bags all have some common elements.
Tough – A good bag will be made of quality materials. It will be reinforced at the weak points and will have overbuilt zippers and buckles.
– A good bag will be made of quality materials. It will be |
No witnesses have been identified, but the resolve of the protest has only strengthened. In an opinion piece published in the Aftonbladet newspaper on Sunday, the organizers of the "hijab outcry" ('hijabuppropet') urged Justice Minister Beatrice Ask to take measures to "ensure that Swedish Muslim women are guaranteed the right to personal safety and religious freedom, without being subject to verbal and physical attacks."
"In addition, we demand that responsible politicians actively draw attention to and fight the structural discrimination that affects Muslim women. We believe that's reason enough in a country where the number of reported hate crimes against Muslims is on the rise—and where women tie their headscarves extra tight so that it won't get ripped off—for the prime minister and other politicians to take action to stop the march of fascism," the authors wrote.A WOMAN died after receiving serious burns to 75 per cent of her body from hot water in a hospital shower, a court has heard.
Jan Mary Proctor, 56, was admitted to the Flinders Medical Centre in February 2008 after she had collapsed at her home several times in the preceding week.
Deputy State Coroner Anthony Schapel is hearing evidence about the circumstances of Ms Proctor's death on February 22 - a week after she was first admitted.
The court heard Ms Proctor was suffering from multiple illnesses including alcoholic liver disease and her mobility was severely restricted by the time she was hospitalised.
She required assistance to move.
Counsel assisting the Coroner, Naomi Kereru, said before being transferred from one ward to another, a nurse took Ms Proctor to a shower and put her in a shower chair.
The nurse left the area and returned up to 10 minutes later to find the bathroom filled with steam.
"Ms Proctor was slumped in the shower chair and her skin was noted to be peeling from her chest and stomach," Ms Kereru said.
Ms Proctor sustained burns to 75 per cent of her body and she was transferred to the burns unit at the Royal Adelaide Hospital that day.
After going into septic shock, Ms Proctor later died from multi-organ failure.
Ms Kereru said the hot water could reach temperatures of up to 60C but a thermostatic regulator was not operating in that shower at the time and the emergency alarm also encountered issues.
The level of assistance Ms Proctor received while showering was also a concern, Ms Kereru said.
"(There is a question as to) whether it was appropriate for Ms Proctor to be left in the shower on a chair for the period that she was," she said.
In giving evidence today Ms Proctor's sister, Karen Fitzgerald, said she was shocked to see her loved one experience so much difficulty in moving the day before the accident.
Ms Fitzgerald said she helped her sister move from a chair to her hospital bed, but it was a "gruelling" process and Ms Proctor required constant breaks.
"My view was that if something had gone wrong when she was in the shower chair, I don't think she would've had the capacity to sort it out," Ms Fitzgerald said.
"I wouldn't have trusted her level of mobility... I wouldn't have thought she could be unattended at all."
The inquest continues.As a child, I dreamed of diving head first into Roald Dahl's famous chocolate river. As an adult, I still do. Every. Single. Day.
Here are five other Fictional Foods That I Wish Were Real (in no particular order because truly, I want them all):
5. Harry Potter's Butterbeer
Continue Reading
Let us just look at the name: Butterbeer. Butter. Beer. I mean, I rest my case.
It's supposed to taste like butterscotch and it gets House-elves drunk. How could I not want this?
I can see it now: I'm sitting in the back corner of the Leaky Cauldron. I have a mug full of hot Butterbeer in one hand and a wand I use to trip any Slytherin that walks down Diagon Alley in the other. It's dark and cold but the butterbeer and being planked by Fred and George Weasley are keeping me warm. They each don't know it, but I'm playing footsies with both of them under the table. Life is perfect.
Did that get a little creepy? Whatever. Ginger twins are hot.
Luckily for us all, there are several recipes for Butterbeer floating around the Net, like this one with Woodchuck cider and homemade butterscotch from Alamo Drafthouse.
4. Willy Wonka's Mushroom Caps
What right-minded individual hasn't longed to stick their face directly into one of the giant cream-filled mushroom caps from Willy Wonka's famed factory. The man was clearly a goddamn nut job, so you know this shit was good.
I think the filling would taste like a mix between vanilla frosting, whipped cream, marshmallow and white chocolate mousse topped with magic. And that cap like some sort of trippy, delicious candy -- maybe like those circus peanuts, but without the shitty taste.
Anyway, I'd eat the crap out of them and finish it off with whatever crack juice was in those buttercup teacups.
I really want every single thing from the book and movie. Even the one starring Johnny Depp. Don't even get me started on the chocolate bars with the golden tickets inside. I can do this all day. Seriously.
3. SpongeBob's Krabby Patties
I want to go to the Krusty Krab, not to hang out with SpongeBob Squarepants (because honestly, I find his voice annoying and I think he's kinda gross), but to take a bite out of that sweet, sweet Krabby Patty that Mr. Krabs has been peddling to SB & Co. like crystal meth since the inception of the show.
The Krabby Patty is your basic cheeseburger, but with a kicker in the secret sauce, so secret that only two people know the ingredients in it -- Mr. Krabs and his mother.
I want to believe there's crab in it, but nothing has been confirmed. I hate secrets. God, I want this burger.
2. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle's Pizza
Tell me you've never wanted a slice of the pizza from TMNT. Go ahead. I don't believe you.
Maybe it was the way the cheese oozed or the pepperoni was so perfectly red; maybe it was my unrequited love for all things Ninja Turtle; or maybe it was just the fact that I was a chubster. Whatever it was, that pizza always got me.
I also love that it looked the same no matter what crazy stoner shit it was topped with. I appreciate consistency.
On another note, I did not just price out a TMNT Pizza Thrower on eBay. I swear.
Honorable mention on the subject of pizza: The pizza from the 1988 film Mystic Pizza because 1) I love pizza and 2) its slogan is "A Slice of Heaven" and I believe them. The movie was titled after a pizza shop of the same name in Mystic, Connecticut. So yes, this place exists...and yes, they sell the pizza frozen at stores all over the place... but I'll probably never go there....or buy the frozen pizza. So.....
1. The Flintstones' Brontosaurus Ribs
If I'm ever in Bedrock and stuck in a car where I have to actually drive using only the power of my feet, I'm pushing myself and whoever is with me to that drive-thru diner from the closing credits of the Flintstones cartoon.
I don't care what it takes. I don't care if my car tips over from the shear weight of the rib. I don't care if it costs me my rock necklace. I don't even care if I get sauce all over my brand-new wooly-mammoth dress. All I care about is eating the ribs of a giant, meaty brontosaurus.
Also, I wouldn't mind going to a RocDonald's or Bronto King.
Who's coming with me?
Follow Eating Our Words on Facebook and on Twitter @EatingOurWordsImmunotherapy, or the use of a person’s own immune system to treat an infection or disease, has recently been at the forefront of cancer research. In a new study, researchers found that a form of immunotherapy could produce a “significant clinical response” in 70 percent of patients with a particularly deadly type of cancer known as multiple myeloma. These results not only highlight the potential of this exciting new field but also the importance of further immunotherapy research.
The study, published online in Nature Medicine, was conducted by researchers from the University of Maryland Medical Center. Twenty patients with an advanced form of multiple myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cells, underwent a stem cell transplantation of their own stem cells before being injected with around 2.4 billion genetically altered immune system T cells.
Healthy immune systems work by detecting antigens, the byproducts of bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens. Once these antigens are detected, the immune system produces antibodies to fight off and destroy the disease. Unfortunately, cancer has a way of evading the immune system. But with this form of immunotherapy, the researchers were able to use the genetically altered T cells to spot cancer and avoid evasion.
For the study, the patient’s T cells were genetically engineered to contain a receptor for a tumor antigen known as cancer-testis antigen (CT antigen), two of which are present in about 60 percent of patients with advanced myeloma. With the CT antigen receptor, the T cells were equipped to spot the myeloma and subsequently employ the immune system to find and destroy it. The results showed that 14 out of 20 patients (about 70 percent) had a near-complete or complete response three months after treatment; median progression-free survival was 91.1 months, while the overall survival lasted 32.1 months.
Although the study was small, the results are significant, study author Dr. Aaron P. Rapoport said in a press release. “The majority of patients who participated in this trial had a meaningful degree of clinical benefit. Even patients who later relapsed after achieving a complete response to treatment or didn't have a complete response had periods of disease control that I believe they would not have otherwise experienced. Some patients are still in remission after nearly three years."
Along with the impressive response to the immunotherapy treatment, no major side effects were reported in any of the patients. This suggests the treatment not only works but also poses little health risk.
There are an estimated 24,000 new cases of multiple myeloma in the United States each year. And although the cancer is treatable, it remains incurable. Currently, chemotherapy and autologous stem cell transplants remain the most popular treatment options for people with multiple myeloma. However, even with these treatments, long-term responses remain low and median survival rates range between three to five years. Rapoport says the findings represent a strong foundation for further research into the uses of cellular immunotherapy for treating multiple myeloma, with hopes of one day extending survival.
Immunotherapy has tremendous potential as a cancer treatment. Speaking to Sky News, Roy Herbst, chief of medical oncology at Yale University Cancer Center, said immunotherapy may be an “effective cure” for all cancers. His sentiment is supported by results from a June study, which investigated an immunotherapy medication as treatment for patients with advanced melanoma. Over half of the patients involved in the study saw a significant reduction in tumor size.
As scientists complete more research in this exciting field of cancer treatment, the important role of immunotherapy will likely become clearer. According to Herbst, it’s only a matter of time before immunotherapy replaces chemotherapy as the standard for cancer treatment.
Source: Rapoport AP, Stadtmauer EA, Binder-Scholl GK, et al. NY-ESO-1–specific TCR–engineered T cells mediate sustained antigen-specific antitumor effects in myeloma. Nature Medicine. 2015.Brett LoGiurato/Business Insider TRENTON, Fla. — Casey Mitchell points them out, one by one.
"There are seven people packing that I see right now," Mitchell says.
Mitchell is standing on the Trenton High side of a rivalry high school football game with Chiefland High. When Mitchell says "packing," he means that they are carrying guns.
One... two... three... four...
"Actually, not sure about that one," he says. He finds a seventh one anyway.
The point, Mitchell tries to make repeatedly to a reporter from New York, is that what would be crazy to people in New York isn't crazy in Florida. Mitchell is a constituent of Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.), who has made waves as a freshman congressman for saying things that are deemed controversial.
Yoho's latest questionable remark is on the issue of the debt ceiling, which he doesn't think should be raised because of a belief that hitting it would "bring stability to world markets." Economists in New York and elsewhere feel differently about that. The Treasury Department has warned of economic calamity rivaling anything outside of the Great Depression.
"Again, the tsunami is the debt ceiling debate," Yoho said in an interview. "And you saw where I stand on that. Not raising the debt ceiling is not an automatic trigger for a default.
"I want to say that again, so you get it right. Not raising the debt ceiling is not an automatic trigger for default."
When you talk to his constituents, it's not hard to understand where those feelings come from.
The vast majority of those in Yoho's district — one that is heavily rural and conservative outside of the liberal Gainesville and blue Alachua County — are driven by the belief that the nation's debt is out of control.
Some are to the "right" of Yoho — they believe the nation should have to balance its budget and that the debt ceiling should never have to be raised again.
Rep. Ted Yoho, when he was sworn into Congress. AP Some are to the "left" — though they are aware that failing to raise the nation's $16.7 trillion debt ceiling could bring economic calamity, they believe that the mentality of "kicking the can down the road" will only delay the inevitable doom of a piling-up national debt. Better to get it out of the way now.
Many are united, though, in their steadfastness against increasing the nation's borrowing limit, whatever the reason.
Mitchell, for one, is an example of how strongly the residents of North Central Florida feel about the ongoing fiscal debates in Washington. He is a livestock inspector for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He is furloughed from his job because of the federal government shutdown. If Monday comes and goes without a resolution, he'll miss a paycheck.
And if Republicans get some kind of concession in a deal that really addresses spending, Mitchell says it will have been worth it.
"We need to break the cycle of dependency on government," Mitchell said. "We are enslaving people. There are three generations... that have been enslaved by the government. There's almost no going back."
---
In a crowd of hundreds of people at the biggest high school rivalry game in the area, it takes about 15 people to find a detractor. One of them is John, a retired school administrator who didn't want to give his last name.
"There are poor old ladies who are worried about their Social Security checks," he said, adding that he's also worried about his own check. "We need to get this over with."
John voted for Ted Yoho in the 2012 election. A lot of people in Yoho's district voted for him — he won the general election by a landslide after pulling off a huge upset of 24-year incumbent Republican Rep. Cliff Stearns in the primary.
Part of the reason that Yoho made waves on the national scene and shocked Stearns in the primary is due to his average, everyman reputation and the fact that, being in the community for 20-plus years as a large-animal veterinarian, he knows a lot of people.
Yoho doesn't practice anymore — but sometimes, when a patient comes calling, he'll still do a favor. Kat Cammack, Yoho's chief of staff, says he'll occasionally still be fresh off a flight into Gainesville, in Washington-clad suit and tie, when he'll get a call from someone asking if he just has a couple seconds to take a look at a minor problem with one of their animals.
He almost always has a couple seconds.
This is the type of personality that won Yoho a seat in Congress. But once in a while, people like John wish Yoho would just say no. John is a registered Republican, and he's worried about the future of the Republican Party beyond Florida's District 3.
"Find another way. Win elections," John said. "If you keep going like this, you're not going to win one for a long time."
---
Therein lies the problem. As Jeremiah Tattersall exasperatedly puts it, Yoho is living in an echo chamber with people just like him. That's what happens when you win a district drawn in such a way that you win 65% of the vote.
"You answer to birthers. You answer to people who seriously believe you're like Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks and would be standing next to them," said Tattersall, a field staff of the North Central Florida Central Labor Council, a group that opposes Yoho and often demonstrates against him.
"And you answer to people who don't believe the debt ceiling is a real thing."
Tattersall is right. If you walk up to 20 people at random at various points in this district, there's a good chance that at least 15 will appreciate the fight in which Yoho is participating on their behalf in Washington. The economists' warnings, the temporary Wall Street freak outs — nothing has tempered their willingness to engage in this battle.
Why aren't you concerned about defaulting?
"The people who are saying that are using scare tactics," said Todd Newtown, the clerk of the Circuit Court in Trenton.
It's almost a unanimous consensus among economists.
"Well, sure, the Ivy League liberals..."
Caroline Vickers Brett LoGiurato/Business Insider There are more than a few Republicans and conservatives who agree that breaching the debt ceiling and risking default would be dangerous, no?
"I think they've bought into the scare tactics."
Brainwashed?
"Sure, brainwashed."
Conversations like these are aplenty.
What do you think would happen if we breach the debt ceiling?
"I think it would be like the opposite of the bailout of GM," said Caroline Vickers, a Trenton resident, referring to the auto industry bailout of 2008 and 2009. "We shouldn't have done that. If you make poor decisions, you have to suffer the consequences."
"We stop borrowing now, and start spending with what we have," added David Biddle, a state committeeman in the Florida GOP. He theorized that there is enough revenue coming in every day that it would force Washington to make tough spending choices on the fly.
"There's a scare tactic out there that if we breach the debt ceiling and default, there's just no more money coming in, and that's just not the case," Biddle said. "There's money to be allocated different ways. And maybe you have to make some cuts somewhere that might not make everybody happy, but at some point, you have to say, enough is enough."
So what can we cut?Social Security? Medicare?Those are the big, long-term problems on our docket.
"No one's going to cut Social Security or Medicare. That's another scare tactic," Biddle said.
So what can we cut now?
"You can start with foreign aid. Cut that out. You can cut, you know, federal arts..." Biddle said.
"There are a lot of grants," adds Bob Clemons, a director of finance for the local school board.
"Grants. There's a lot of grants," Biddle confirms.
There's a pause for about 10 seconds.
"It's a big problem," Clemons said.
"It is. It is," Biddle said.
Biddle comes back a little while later. He says that the government shutdown has helped show that there can be significant cuts in the federal workforce.
"There are no non-essential employees in the private sector," he said.
Laurie Newsom, the president of the Gainesville Tea Party and a small-business owner, has a four-point plan to cut spending.
One: Get rid of the Department of Education and Environmental Protection Agency. States can take over those functions and have the ability to regulate their environmental practices, she said. Two: Get rid of the Federal Communications Commission. Three: There are a few little things that can be cut, such as cutting some funding for the National Institutes of Health and the CDC's tracking of flu season.
Fourth is the big one: Get rid of Obamacare. This would, in the short term, increase the deficit, but Newsom thinks it would be worth it for the economic growth and certainty it would provide small businesses.
"Now, a lot of people will say, this is a pipe dream," she said. "Well, I don't think it is.... And if we don't have some sort of leverage, like the debt ceiling, it's not going to happen."
--
Brett LoGiurato/Business Insider At a Gainesville, Fla., Starbucks coffee shop, a man performs the audacious duty of signing a petition.
The petition is the second in a recent series from Starbucks, which urges those in Washington to proverbially "Come Together" and compromise on a solution that won't screw up a still-fragile but recovering economy.
Thirty-one others, so far, have signed this petition. Why? Why sign a petition in Gainesville, Fla., on the eve of crisis — one that has virtually no chance of reaching his representative, let alone Congress as a whole?
"They need to do something about this," said the man, who also only wanted to be known as John for this story.
John, a retired former mechanic, is a registered Republican who voted for Ted Yoho. He supports the fight Yoho is carrying on. And despite his empty plea on the petition, the ultimate solution he supports is one that doesn't involve a lot of coming together.
"The only thing I'll say is that I don't like that Obamacare," he said.[1] The Arch Street wharf, where the first cluster of cases was identified
During the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 in Philadelphia, 5,000 or more people were listed in the official register of deaths between August 1 and November 9. The vast majority of them died of yellow fever, making the epidemic in the city of 50,000 people one of the most severe in United States history. By the end of September, 20,000 people had fled the city. The mortality rate peaked in October, before frost finally killed the mosquitoes and brought an end to the epidemic in November. Doctors tried a variety of treatments, but knew neither the origin of the fever nor that it was transmitted by mosquitoes (which was not verified until the late nineteenth century).
The mayor and a committee of two dozen organized a fever hospital at Bush Hill and other crisis measures. The assistance of the Free African Society was requested by the city and readily agreed to by the members, based on the mistaken assumption that native Africans would have the same partial immunity to the new disease as many had to malaria, the most common source of fever epidemics during the summer months.[2] Black nurses aided the sick and the group's leaders hired additional men to take away corpses, which most people would not touch. Blacks in the city died at the same rate as whites, about 240 altogether.
Some neighboring towns refused to let refugees in from Philadelphia, for fear they were carrying the fever. Major port cities such as Baltimore and New York had quarantines against refugees and goods from Philadelphia although New York sent financial aid to the city. The once thriving city soon became distraught under the raging epidemic, leaving many to fight for their own lives.
Beginnings [ edit ]
In the spring of 1793, French colonial refugees, some with slaves, arrived from Cap Français, Saint-Domingue. The 2,000 immigrants were fleeing the slave revolution in the north of the island.[3] They crowded the port of Philadelphia, where the first yellow fever epidemic in 30 years began in the city in August.[3][4] It is likely that the refugees and ships carried the yellow fever virus and mosquitoes. It is transmitted during mosquito bites. The mosquitoes easily breed in small amounts of standing water. The medical community and others in 1793 did not understand the role of mosquitoes in the transmission of yellow fever and other diseases. Physicians and other survivors of the epidemic wrote extensively about it trying to learn from the crisis.
In the ports and coastal areas of the United States, even in the northeast, the months of August and September were considered the "sickly season," when fevers were prevalent. In the South, planters and other people wealthy enough usually left the Low Country during this season. Natives thought that newcomers especially had to undergo a "seasoning" and were more likely to die of what were thought to be seasonal fevers in their early years in the region.[5] Philadelphia then was the temporary capital of the United States, and the government was due to return in the fall. President George Washington left the city.
The first two people to die of yellow fever in early August in Philadelphia were both recent immigrants, one from Ireland and the other from Saint-Domingue. Letters describing their cases were published in a pamphlet about a month after they died. The young doctor sent by the Overseers of the Poor to treat the Irish woman was perplexed, and his treatment didn't save her.[6]
A 2013 book by Billy G. Smith, professor of history at Montana State University, makes a case that the principal vector of the 1793 plague in Philadelphia (and other Atlantic ports) was the British merchant ship Hankey, which had fled the West African colony of Bolama (an island off West Africa, present day Guinea-Bissau) the previous November, trailing yellow fever at every port of call in the Caribbean and eastern Atlantic seaboard. See: The Ship of Death: The Voyage That Changed the Atlantic World.[7]
Epidemic declared [ edit ]
After two weeks and an increasing number of fever cases, Dr. Benjamin Rush, a doctor's apprentice during the city's 1792 yellow fever epidemic, saw the pattern; he recognized that yellow fever had returned. Rush alerted his colleagues and the government that the city faced an epidemic of "highly contagious, as well as mortal... bilious remitting yellow fever."[8] Adding to the alarm was that, unlike with most fevers, the principal victims were not the very young or very old. Many of the early deaths were teenagers and heads of families in the dockside areas.[9] Believing that the refugees from Saint-Domingue were carrying the disease, the city imposed a quarantine of two to three weeks on immigrants and their goods, but was unable to enforce it as the epidemic increased its reach.[10]
Then the largest city in the US, with around 50,000 residents, Philadelphia was relatively compact and most houses were within seven blocks of its major port on the Delaware River. Docking facilities extended from Southwark south of the city to Kensington to the north. Cases of fever clustered at first around the Arch Street wharf. Rush blamed "some damaged coffee which putrefied on the wharf near Arch Street" for causing the fevers. Soon cases appeared in Kensington.[11] As the port was critical to the state's economy, the Pennsylvania governor, Thomas Mifflin, had responsibility for its health. He asked the port physician, Dr. James Hutchinson, to assess conditions. The doctor found that 67 of about 400 residents near the Arch Street wharf were sick, but only 12 had "malignant fevers."[12] Alarmed by what Rush and others told him, Mayor Matthew Clarkson asked the city's medical society, the College of Physicians, to meet and advise the city's government and citizens how to proceed.
Rush later described some early cases: On August 7, he treated a young man for headaches, fever and vomiting, and on the 15th treated his brother. On the same day a woman he was treating turned yellow. On the 18th a man in the third day of a fever had no pulse, was cold, clammy, and yellow, but he could sit up in his bed. He died a few hours later. On the 19th a woman Rush visited died within hours. Another physician said five persons within sight of her door died. None of those victims was a recent immigrant.[13]
The College published a letter in the city's newspapers, written by a committee headed by Rush, suggesting 11 measures to prevent the "progress" of the fever. They warned citizens to avoid fatigue, the hot sun, night air, too much liquor, and anything else that might lower their resistance. Vinegar and camphor in infected rooms "cannot be used too frequently upon handkerchiefs, or in smelling bottles, by persons whose duty calls to visit or attend the sick." They outlined measures for city officials: stopping the tolling of church bells and making burials private; cleaning streets and wharves; exploding gunpowder in the street to increase the amount of oxygen. Everyone should avoid unnecessary contact with the sick.[14] Crews were sent to clean the wharves, streets and the market, which cheered those remaining in the city.[15] Many of those who could left the city.
Elizabeth Drinker, a married Quaker woman, kept a journal for years; her account from August 23 through August 30 tells the quickening story of the spread of the disease in the city and the rising toll of deaths. She also describes the many people leaving the city.[16]
Temporary hospitals [ edit ]
Like all hospitals of that time, the Pennsylvania Hospital did not admit patients with infectious diseases.
Bush Hill. The Seat of Wm. Hamilton Esqr. near Philadelphia, by James Peller Malcom. Bush Hill was the country seat of James Hamilton by this time., by James Peller Malcom. Bush Hill was the country seat of James Hamilton by this time.
The Guardians of the Poor took over Bush Hill, a 150-acre estate farther outside the city, whose owner William Hamilton was in England for an extended stay. Vice President John Adams had recently rented the main house, so yellow fever patients were placed in the outbuildings.[17][18] Nurses were hired to treat patients, under orders by young physicians from the city, who were to visit on a daily basis.
The end of August was not traditionally a busy time in the city. Many families who could afford to or who had relatives in the countryside lived elsewhere during that hot month. Beginning in September, shipments generally increased with the arrival of fall goods from Britain. In 1793, the Federal Congress was not scheduled to resume session until November, but the Pennsylvania Assembly met in the first week of September. Founded by the Quaker William Penn, the city was the center of Quaker life in the United States. The Yearly Meeting of the Society of Friends was scheduled to be held in the third week of September.
Panic and refugees [ edit ]
Between the College's advisory on August 25 and the death of Dr. Hutchinson from yellow fever on September 7, panic spread throughout the city; more people fled. Between August 1 and September 7, 456 people died in the city. On September 8, 42 deaths were reported.[19] An estimated 20,000 people left the city through September, including national leaders.[10] The daily death toll remained above 30 until October 26. The worst seven-day period was between October 7 and 13, when 711 deaths were reported.[19]
Some neighboring towns had patrols on the roads to prevent entry by refugees. The major ports of Baltimore and New York prevented refugees from entering and quarantined them and goods from Philadelphia for weeks.
The publisher Mathew Carey published a short pamphlet later in the fall in which he described the changes that had occurred in the life of the city:
"Those who ventured abroad, had handkerchiefs or sponges impregnated with vinegar of camphor at their noses, or smelling-bottles full of the thieves’ vinegar. Others carried pieces of tarred rope in their hands or pockets, or camphor bags tied round their necks.... People hastily shifted their course at the sight of a hearse coming towards them. Many never walked on the footpath, but went into the middle of the streets, to avoid being infected in passing by houses wherein people had died. Acquaintances and friends avoided each other in the streets, and only signified their regard by a cold nod. The old custom of shaking hands fell in such general disuse, that many shrunk back with affright at even the offer of a hand. A person with crape [mourning crepe], or any appearance of mourning, was shunned like a viper."[20]
Black nurses [ edit ]
The College of Physicians' advisory implied the fever was contagious and people should avoid contact with its victims although "duty" required that they be cared for. Yet in families, when the person with the fever was a mother or father, they could forbid their children from coming near them. Rush knew of Dr. John Lining's observation during the 1742 yellow fever epidemic in Charleston, South Carolina, that African slaves appeared to be affected at rates lower than whites; he thought they had a natural immunity. Writing a short letter to the newspapers under the pseudonym "Anthony Benezet," a Quaker who had provided schooling for blacks, Rush suggested that the city's people of color had immunity and solicited them "to offer your services to attend the sick to help those known in distress."[21][22] Richard Allen and Absalom Jones recalled their reaction to the letter in a memoir they published shortly after the epidemic:
Early in September, a solicitation appeared in the public papers, to the people of colour to come forward and assist the distressed, perishing, and neglected sick; with a kind of assurance, that people of our colour were not liable to take the infection. Upon which we and a few others met and consulted how to act on so truly alarming and melancholy occasion. After some conversation, we found a freedom to go forth, confiding in Him who can preserve in the midst of a burning fiery furnace, sensible that it was our duty to do all the good we could to our suffering fellow mortals. We set out to see where we could be useful. The first we visited was a man in Emsley's alley, who was dying, and his wife lay dead at the time in the house, there were none to assist but two poor helpless children. We administered what relief we could, and applied to the overseers of the poor to have the woman buried. We visited upwards of twenty families that day—they were scenes of woe indeed! The Lord was plentiful to strengthen us, and removed all fear from us...[21]
In order the better to regulate our conduct, we called on the mayor the next day, to consult with him on how to proceed, so as to be the most useful. The first object he recommended was a strict attention to the sick, and the procuring of nurses. This was attended to by Absalom Jones and William Gray; and, in order that the distressed might know where to apply, the mayor advised that upon application to them they would be supplied. Soon after, the mortality increased, the difficulty of getting a corpse taken away, was such, that few were willing to do it, when offered great rewards. The black people were looked to. We then offered our services in the public papers, by advertising that we would remove the dead and procure nurses. Our services were the production of real sensibility—we sought not fee nor reward, until the increase of the disorder rendered our labour so arduous that we were not adequate to the service we had assumed.[21]
Allen noted in his account that because of the increase in mortality, he and Jones had to hire five men to assist them in removing corpses, as most people avoided the sick and the dead.[21] In a September 6 letter to his wife, Rush said that the "African brethren... furnish nurses to most of my patients."[23] Despite Rush's theory, most of the city's people of color were not immune to the fever. Many of the slaves in Charleston in 1742 could have gained immunity before having been transported from Africa, by having been exposed to yellow fever in a mild case. People who survived one attack gained immunity.[24] A total of 240 blacks died, in proportion to their population at the same rate as whites.[10]
Controversy over treatment [ edit ]
Given the limited resources and knowledge of the times, the city's response was credible. The medical community did not know the natural history of yellow fever, a viral infection spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito. Efforts to clean the city did not defeat the spread of the fever as the mosquitoes bred in the clean water. Philadelphia's newspapers continued to publish during the epidemic, and through the doctors and others tried to understand and combat the epidemic. On September 7, Dr. Adam Kuhn advised patients to treat symptoms as they arose; he had studied medicine at the University of Uppsala in Sweden.[25]
Rush claimed that he tried Kuhn's and Steven's stimulating remedies, and his patients still died. He recommended other treatments, including purging and bloodletting, and published his theories. The hope offered by any of these treatments was soon dashed when it became clear that they did not cure the disease, and the doctors' competing claims demoralized patients.[26]
In his 1794 account of the epidemic, Matthew Carey noted that other doctors claimed to have used calomel before Rush and that "its efficacy was great and rescued many from death." Carey added that the "efficacy of bleeding, in all cases not attended with putridity, was great."[27] Rush taught the African-American nurses how to bleed and purge patients. Allen and Jones wrote that they were thankful that "we have been the instruments, in the hand of God, for saving the lives of hundreds of our suffering fellow mortals."[28] Rush's brand of medicine became the standard American treatment for fevers in the 1790s and was widely used for the next 50 years.[29]
Rush's claim that his remedies cured 99 out of 100 patients have led historians and modern doctors to ridicule his remedies and approach to medical science. Some contemporaries also attacked him. The newspaper editor William Cobbett attacked Rush's therapies and called him a Sangrado, after a character in Gil Blas, who bled patients to death. In 1799 Rush won a $5,000 libel judgment against Cobbett.[26]
Government responses to crisis [ edit ]
The responses of the various levels of government in the city varied. The Federal government had no authority to act and Congress had not been in session since June. President Washington and his cabinet |
to us that some version of mereological essentialism must be true…’ (69). In the remaining pages of the paper Chisholm presents a view according to which extreme mereological essentialism is true — but only for what he calls “primary objects”. Ordinary or “vulgar” objects such as tables and ships are not primary objects. Each such vulgar object may be understood to be a gradually evolving sequence of primary objects. The vulgar object is constituted by different primary objects at different times. Vulgar objects can gain and lose parts across times and possible worlds. Mereological essentialism is not true for them.
Chisholm strongly suggests that he thinks that vulgar objects occupy a decidedly lower rung on the ontological ladder. In a discussion of an example involving a statue and a hunk of metal that temporarily constitutes it, he suggests that we might be content to say that the hunk of metal is a primary object and that this hunk of metal temporarily has the property of being statuesque. In the strict and philosophical sense, it would be acceptable to say that there really is no such thing as “the statue”. Yet another possible view would maintain that the statue is merely a mode of the hunk of metal. This too would diminish the ontological status of the statue, though it would not banish the statue entirely. This latter “modal” view is explicitly defended in Chisholm's 1986 “Self-Profile” in [RMCp].
Chisholm discussed these problems in a number of papers and chapters. He did not always defend precisely the same combination of views, but certain elements seemed to persist. He steadily maintained a commitment to mereological essentialism for ontologically fundamental physical objects; he tried in various ways to account for facts about persistence, enumeration, and reidentification of ordinary objects by appeal to what he took to be ontologically more fundamental facts about real “substances”. Chisholm's work on these topics was remarkably provocative. Some have suggested that David Lewis's development of counterpart theory was intended (among other things) to provide a metaphysical account of the structure of possible worlds that would avoid the strange implications that Chisholm described.
A reader starting out with [B&IV] for the first time might not anticipate how it is going to end. Indeed, even as the reader patiently works his way through definitions, principles, remarks about what Brentano might have said, etc., the eventual point remains in the background. Nevertheless, as becomes clear in the final pages, the book as a whole may be seen as one long argument for a distinctive solution to the problem of evil.
Chisholm starts by explicating some of Brentano's idiosyncratic metaphysical views. Soon, however, Chisholm turns to some central ethical doctrines. Perhaps the first among these involves the introduction of the concept of correctness. In the first instance, we think of certain judgments as being correct. Thus, for example, suppose it now seems to me that I am seeing something red. If I judge that I am now seeing something red, it will be clear to me that my judgment is correct. If another person judges that I am not seeing something red, it will be clear to me that his judgment is incorrect. A similar thing could happen in the case of a judgment to the effect that all squares are rectangles. If I make that judgment with full understanding of the concepts of squareness and rectangularity, it will be clear to me that my judgment is correct. Brentano evidently made use of this concept of correct judgment in an attempt to explain the notion of truth.
Chisholm claims that Brentano extended the application of the concept of correctness so that it would apply to emotions as well. On Chisholm's view, emotions are analogous to judgments in certain ways. Corresponding to the notion of affirmation or “positive judgment” we have the notion of love, or positive emotion. Corresponding to the notion of denial we have the notion of hatred, or negative emotion. In addition, there is the concept of preference. If I love one thing and hate another, then I prefer the one to the other. Similarly if I love one thing and am neutral about (neither loving nor hating) the other, then I prefer the one to the other. And if I am neutral about one thing and hate the other, then I prefer the one to the other. So we have the concept of preference as well.
Suppose I feel some pleasure. Suppose I love the fact that I am feeling that pleasure. Suppose my love of this pleasure is intrinsic — I love the pleasure “in and for itself”. If I reflect on this situation, I may recognize that my love is correct. This seems to mean, roughly, that I can see that it is appropriate, or fitting, for me to feel this strong pro-attitude toward this experience. The feeling of pleasure deserves, or merits, this sort of positive emotional reaction. If another person were to hate that pleasure, or were to feel an equally strong anti-attitude toward it “in and for itself”, his hatred would be incorrect. We can just see that a feeling of pleasure does not deserve this sort of negative emotional reaction.
Chisholm prefers to formulate these claims about the fittingness of certain emotional reactions to certain objects by appeal to a fundamental concept in his ethics. This is the concept of requirement. Instead of saying that it is correct, or fitting, to have a certain emotional reaction to a certain object, we can say that contemplation of that object requires that emotional reaction. With these concepts at our disposal, Chisholm suggests, we can define all the central concepts of ethics ([B&IV], 53).
To say that one thing A is intrinsically better than another thing B, according to Chisholm, is just to say that, for any person, x, contemplation of just A and B by x requires that x prefer A to B. Consider the fact that there are stones. While of course we might be glad that there are stones in virtue of their usefulness, it would not be correct to love this state of affairs for its own sake. Mere contemplation of this state of affairs does not require either love or hate. It seems to be intrinsically neutral. An intrinsically good thing is one that is intrinsically better than a neutral thing; an intrinsically bad thing is one such that an intrinsically neutral thing is intrinsically better than it. Thus according to Chisholm we may define intrinsic goodness, badness, and neutrality entirely in terms of preference and requirement.
In some cases a complex state of affairs contains some good parts and some bad parts. We can assign positive numbers to the good parts and negative numbers to the bad parts in order to represent their respective amounts of intrinsic value. The intrinsic value of the whole state of affairs may just be the sum of the values of those parts. In such cases Chisholm would say that the positive value of the good parts is “balanced off” by the negative value of the bad parts.
In other cases the interaction among the parts is not in this way just a matter of summation. Chisholm asks us to compare two cases. In Case 1, I take pleasure in what I take to be Smith's pleasure. In Case 2, I take an equal amount of pleasure in what I take to be Jones's pain. So here we are comparing two instances of pleasure. Imagine that they are alike in what we may call the “raw amount” of pleasure involved. They differ in that one is pleasure in something good whereas the other is pleasure in something bad. Chisholm stipulates that the objects of these pleasures (Smith's pleasure and Jones's pain) are “intentional objects” — I take them to be happening, but I may be mistaken. Maybe they are just figments of my imagination.
Following Brentano (and Moore as well) Chisholm assumes that pleasure in the good is extra good, while pleasure in the bad is not so good. In these cases the value of the whole is either greater than, or less than, the sum of the values of the parts. (Since Jones's pain is an intentional object of my pleasure in Case 2, its actual occurrence is not entailed by the fact that I take pleasure in it; hence, according to Chisholm, it is not a “part” of the that larger state of affairs.) As a result, Case 1 is better than Case 2 in spite of the fact that Case 1 and Case 2 contain the same parts, with the same values. The difference in value arises because of the appropriateness of the object of pleasure in Case 1, and the corresponding inappropriateness of the object of the pleasure in Case 2.
Case 2 illustrates what Chisholm calls “the defeat of good”. Case 2 contains a good part and no bad part; but the value of the whole is less than the value of the good part. Somehow, the value of the good part has been defeated without being balanced off.
The defeat of evil would occur in a case in which some state of affairs contains a bad part that is worse than the whole, even though the whole does not contain any good part that balances off the evil of the bad part. Consider Case 3 in which I take pain in what I take to be my bad behavior. The badness of my pain may be mitigated by the fact that the object of this pain is something that requires that pain be taken in it — my own bad behavior. But it is possible that I am mistaken about my bad behavior; maybe it never really happened. Thus, Case 3 does not contain that bad behavior as an actual part. The state of affairs may have no good part to balance off the badness of my pain, and yet it may be, as a whole, not as bad as its worst part. (It may be neutral; or even good.)
In the final five pages of [B&IV], Chisholm turns to theodicy. He raises the question whether an omnipotent, omniscient, and benevolent deity could create a world that contains some things that are intrinsically evil. Standard theistic answers are quickly rejected. (1) We cannot claim that evil is just an illusion, for in the case of pain (for example) it is evident to the one who suffers it that it is genuinely evil. Nor can we say (2) that some evils are required as means to good. For if God is omnipotent, he could find a way to produce the good without making use of the evil means. (3) Some might say that God produces only “positive” states, such as experiences of pleasure. The evil in the world occurs in “negative” states, and these are not due to God's creative efforts. But Chisholm points out that the negation of a good state is neutral, not bad. Furthermore, the actual existence of pain is not a mere negation. It is as “positive” as the existence of pleasure. (4) Some have claimed that God gave us freedom, which we then misused. Thus, it's not God's fault that there is evil in this world. But this “free will defense” is quickly rejected. The problem is that if God is omnipotent, he could have created a different world in which we always freely choose to act in the better way. Surely there must be such a world; surely it must be better than the actual world in which we freely misbehave. Why didn't God actualize a world like that?
Chisholm then sketches his own solution to the problem of evil. He says ‘Some of the evil in the world is necessary for the enhancement of goodness. And the rest of the evil is defeated’ ([B&IV], 100). In a characteristically careful way, Chisholm does not assert that all the evil in this world is actually to be explained in this way. He restricts himself to suggesting that Brentano would have said such a thing, and that the conceptual machinery he has developed shows us how it is possible that the world could contain some evil even though the world was created by an omnipotent, omniscient, and benevolent god. Whether the evil in this world is in fact defeated is another question. Chisholm concludes by saying ‘The wise theodicist, I should think, would say that he doesn't know’ ([B&IV], 102).
One of Chisholm's most influential critical papers in ethics is “Contrary-to-Duty Imperatives and Deontic Logic”. A number of philosophers had noted the analogy between statements of necessity (e.g., ‘it's necessary that red things are colored.’) and statements of obligation (e.g., ‘it's obligatory that promises are kept.’) They also noted the structural similarities between the alethic modalities of necessity, possibility, and impossibility and the deontic modalities of obligation, permission, and prohibition. It's natural to think that alethic necessity can be understood as truth at all possible worlds. So, by analogy, some suggested systems of deontic logic in which obligation would be understood as truth at all morally perfect worlds. Statements of permission (and prohibition), would be taken to mean respectively truth at some (or no) morally perfect worlds. This generates a straightforward deontic logic.
Chisholm recognized, however, that any system based on those assumptions (and making use of the standard connectives) would be unable to express certain familiar and important facts. Among these is the fact that in many cases our moral obligations depend essentially upon our moral failings. For example, a person might have a moral obligation to apologize for some misbehavior — yet obviously he would not be apologizing in a morally perfect world, since in such a world he would not have misbehaved in the first place. Presumably, there are no apologies in a morally perfect world. If we let ‘O(Smith apologizes)’ express the idea that there is a moral obligation for Smith to apologize, then the imagined semantics would apparently be unable to account for the possibility that the statement could be true. Smith does not apologize for anything at any morally perfect world.
Chisholm sketched a situation in which a person, (we can call him ‘Smith’), had (a) an obligation to go to the aid of his neighbor, (we can call him ‘Jones’). Assuming that it would be best to notify Jones beforehand, Chisholm imagined that (b) Smith also had a conditional obligation to notify Jones in advance if he was going to come to his aid. On the other hand, (c) if he was going to fail to come to Jones's aid, then Smith's obligation would be to avoid telling him that he was coming to his aid. Finally, Chisholm assumed that (d) Smith was going to fail to come to Jones's aid.
There is nothing incoherent or even surprising about the situation Chisholm described, yet there seemed to be no adequate way to express these statements in any extant system of deontic logic. No matter how the obligation operators, material and formal conditionals, temporal restrictions, etc. were juggled, the formal-language sentences simply did not preserve the logical features of the familiar ordinary language sentences. Consider, for example, the following sentences:
(a1) O(Smith goes to the aid of Jones) (b1) O(Smith goes to the aid of Jones → Smith tells Jones he is coming) (c1) ~(Smith goes to the aid of Jones) → O(~Smith tells Jones he is coming) (d1) ~(Smith goes to the aid of Jones).
Chisholm pointed out that in many extant systems of deontic logic, there is a general principle (“deontic detachment”) that would validate the inference from (a1) and (b1) to:
(e1) O(Smith tells Jones he is coming)
While (c1) and (d1) entail:
(f1) O(~Smith tells Jones he is coming)
The conjunction of (e1) and (f1) is a near contradiction, telling Smith that he both has an obligation to warn Jones, and also that he has an obligation not to warn Jones. If we assume that if you have an obligation to do something, then you don't have an obligation to avoid doing it, we can derive an outright contradiction. Other possible representations of the situation fail to preserve other logical features of the original sentences.
Perhaps Chisholm was thinking that this puzzle could be solved by appeal to a system of deontic logic based on the notion of requirement. Maybe he thought that a good way to represent the sentences in question would be to say (a) that Smith had a non-overridden requirement to go to the aid of Jones; but that (b) that if Smith were going to go to the aid of Jones, then this fact would require that Smith notify Jones in advance; and furthermore (c) that if Smith were not going to go to the aid of Jones, then this fact would require that Smith not notify Jones in advance. Finally, there is the stipulation (d) that Smith is not going to go to the aid of Jones. This solution to Chisholm's puzzle would be of greatest interest if it could be shown not only to provide a suitable semantical interpretation for the four cited sentences, but also to pave the way to a complete system of deontic logic adequate for the expression of statements of conditional obligation.
Chisholm's paper had a profound impact. It provoked renewed interest in the logic of obligation. Several philosophers began working on new systems of deontic logic. Many of these new systems incorporated a new idea — conditional obligation. This was intended to provide a formal representation for the thought behind such statements as ‘if you don't do what you ought to do, then you ought to apologize’.
As we noted above in Section 10, Chisholm offered an account of the concept of intrinsic goodness by appeal to the concept of requirement. In some places, Chisholm defended the idea that a thing is intrinsically good (bad) when contemplation of just that thing requires that the contemplator loves (hates) it. But Chisholm wanted to go much further. In his discussion of these matters in [B&IV] Chisholm remarks:
This way of defining intrinsic value, then, makes use of the concept of requirement. And there is reason to think that the concept of requirement is the central concept of ethics. It yields adequate definitions of the basic intrinsic value concepts. And it has the following advantage as well: It provides a way of reducing the concepts of the theory of value (“axiology”) to those of ethics (“deontology”). ([B&IV], 53)
In a couple of papers, Chisholm tried to show how the central concepts of axiology and deontology can be defined by appeal to this one fundamental concept of requirement. These papers provide beautiful illustrations of one of Chisholm's most characteristic philosophical procedures — the clear definition of a tangle of related concepts by appeal to a small set of undefined primitives. In this instance, he tries to explain confusing and problematic concepts in the realm of ethics. He makes use of just a few undefined concepts. One of them — requirement — seems to carry all of the distinctively normative burden. (It would be interesting to compare Chisholm's efforts on behalf of requirement in ethics with his efforts on behalf of more reasonable than in epistemology. The projects seem to illustrate the same methodological propensity.)
In “The Ethics of Requirement”, Chisholm uses ‘pRq’ to abbreviate ‘p would require q’. The relevant concept of requirement is operative in the statement ‘If I were to promise to meet you for lunch that would require my meeting you for lunch.’ An actual requirement for q comes into being when q is required by something, p, and p actually occurs. Thus, if I actually did promise to meet you for lunch, then there is a requirement that I show up. But even if actual, the requirement is defeasible. It may be overridden. When an action is actually required in this way, it counts at least as a prima facie obligation. If I meet an injured stranger on the way to lunch, and I alone am qualified to tend to his injuries, then this further state of affairs overrides my prima facie obligation to meet you for lunch. In light of this, Chisholm defines all-in, or all things considered, obligation as non-overridden requirement. In other words:
q is all things considered obligatory = df ∃p(pRq & p occurs & ~∃s(s occurs & ~((p&s)Rq)))
This concept of obligation is not restricted to actions. It is a concept of the “ought to be”. In order to explain the “ought to do”, Chisholm introduces another operator, ‘A’. ‘Ap’ expresses the idea that a person S succeeds in bringing about the state of affairs p. Making use this further expression, Chisholm defines the ought to do by saying that the statement that S ought to bring about some state of affairs p just means OAp.
Once we have a definition of all things considered obligation, it is easy enough to define permission, forbiddenness, and gratuitousness. Chisholm does this in the expected ways.
A person has a prima facie obligation to do something when his doing it is required by something that happens. An all-in obligation arises when there is a non-overridden requirement for him to do it. Chisholm claims that this helps to solve the puzzle about conflicts of obligation. Obviously, there can be conflicts of prima facie obligation. But there cannot be conflicts of all-in obligation.
In addition, Chisholm attempts to apply his conceptual scheme to some other long-standing puzzles in ethics. Among these is a puzzle about supererogatory action. A supererogatory action is supposedly one that is “beyond the call of duty” — something that would be outstandingly good to do, but permissible to fail to do. Consequentialists have a hard time explaining how there could be any such things, since they typically say that duty requires us to do the best we can. How can there be anything “beyond” that? And how could it be permissible to fail to do such a thing, if it is “extra good”?
Chisholm proposes to explain this by saying that a certain action is supererogatory when its “object” absolutely ought to be, but its agent is neither obligated to bring it about nor to refrain from bringing it about. He uses ‘PAq’ to abbreviate ‘S is permitted to bring about q’, where permission is understood to be the absence of obligation to refrain:
S's doing q is supererogatory = df Oq & P~Aq & PAq
In subsequent papers, Chisholm made further claims about the usefulness of his concept of requirement.
Chisholm continued to work on a multitude of philosophical projects over a period of many years. Though his central convictions remained relatively stable, he steadily revised the details of his formulations in light of criticism from others and as a result of his own reconsideration. Thus it is difficult to identify any chapter or paper as containing the final, official version of his view.
Nevertheless, there are several more or less fundamental Chisholmian doctrines. In what follows, we sketch some of these doctrines. For each, we list some things that Chisholm wrote in which he discussed the doctrine in question. We also list some papers by others in which they offer criticism of Chisholm's view.
In epistemology, Chisholm took as his fundamental primitive concept the idea we express when we say that believing p is more reasonable for S than believing q would be. He tried to define other terms of epistemic evaluation by appeal to this one. Furthermore, he assumed that we in fact do know many of the things we take ourselves to know. He thought that a person can be justified in believing many foundational propositions about his own current mental state. He took one of the central projects of epistemology to be the formulation of epistemic principles that would show how we become justified in believing things about the external world, the past, and other problematic things on the basis of this present, internal, self-oriented foundation.
An early formulation of Chisholm's view can be found in [PPS]. Subsequent formulations were presented in the three editions of [TK] as well as in [FK]. [FK] is a collection of essays in epistemology. Some were newly written for [FK], but most were slightly revised versions of articles that Chisholm had already published. [FK] is thus a comprehensive presentation of Chisholm's distinctive views in epistemology.
Three excellent critical discussions are Heidelberger 1969, Foley 1997, and Sosa 1997.
In metaphysics, Chisholm maintained that certain things are genuinely persisting “substances”. Such things literally last through time and survive changes in their properties. Each person is such a being, retaining his or her strict identity over time. On the other hand, ordinary physical objects can be said to persist only in an extended sense. Since it has undergone changes of parts, today's chair is only “loosely identical” with yesterday's chair. Chisholm thought that a complex thing could strictly persist only if it retained all of its parts. Thus, he endorsed mereological essentialism. He thought that persons would have to be ontologically simple in such a way as to permit strict identity over time. Thus, we are not to be identified with our bodies.
An excellent presentation of Chisholm's views on these matters can be found in [P&O], as well as in his papers “Is There a Mind-Body Problem?” (1978) and “On the Simplicity of the Soul” (1991). Chapters 4, 6, 7, and 13 of [OM] are especially helpful. For a brief final discussion of the metaphysics of persons, see “Persons and Their Bodies: Some Unanswered Questions” (1996).
For a penetrating critical discussion of Chisholm's metaphysics of persons, see Quinn 1997.
Another metaphysical view that evidently fascinated Chisholm is libertarianism. According to this view, there is a special sort of causation in which an event is caused at least in part by an agent. When an agent thus “imminently” helps to bring about some effect, his doing so is not determined by antecedent causal conditions. Thus, he freely makes something happen. This makes genuine moral responsibility possible.
An early defense of this libertarianism can be found in “Freedom and Action” (1966). Another classic statement of the view can be found in Chisholm's “He Could Have Done Otherwise” (1967). Chisholm discussed these ideas in greater detail in Chapter II of [P&O] and then again in Chapters 1 and 2 of [OM].
Chisholm's views in ontology underwent steady pruning. In an earlier period he believed in necessarily existent states of affairs some of which might occur and recur. He also believed in times, though not in “concrete events”. Later he abandoned times and recurrable states of affairs in favor of a sparser ontology including “one shot” states, but lacking times. The earlier view can be found in “Events and Propositions” (1970), and “States of Affairs Again” (1971), and Chapter IV of [P&O]. The later view appears in “Events without Times: An Essay in Ontology” (1990). See also Chapter 16 of [OM] and Chapter 10 of [RTC].
Kim 1979 contains a very helpful critical exposition of Chisholm's early view. Both views are discussed in Brandl 1997. See also Zimmerman 1997.
Chisholm was dubious about such things as sense data, appearances, the “looks” of things. He defended a different view about the ontology of perception. An amusing early paper on this topic is “The Problem of the Speckled Hen” (1942). A more extended discussion, including a presentation of Chisholm's preferred theory of appearing, can be found in Chapter 8 (“Sensing”) of [PPS]. More than forty years later, near the end of his career, Chisholm made some final remarks about appearances in Chapter 13 of [RTC].
Chisholm steadily thought there is something fundamentally right about Brentano's Thesis — the idea that the psychological somehow involves intentionality, and that in this respect it is unlike the purely physical. Chisholm discussed this idea in his early paper “Sentences about Believing” (1955–6). He discussed it again in Chapter 11 (“Intentional Inexistence”) of [PPS]. A summary statement of the view can also be found in Chisholm's article “Intentionality” (1967). Chisholm returned to this topic in Part IV (Chapters 10–14) of [OM].
Two excellent critical discussions of Brentano's Thesis are Sanford 1997 and Kim 2003.
The term ‘Chisholm's Paradox’ has been credited to Graeme Forbes in his “Two Solutions to Chisholm's Paradox” (1984) The topic has been discussed extensively; see, for example, Salmon 1996. In his discussion of the mereological version of the puzzle, Chisholm mentions Chandler 1966. Lewis 1986 is essential reading here. A good discussion of the whole problem of transworld identity can be found in Mackie 2008.
One central Chisholmian view in ethics is the idea that all the main concepts of ethics can be defined by appeal to the concept of requirement. He defends this idea in his early paper “The Ethics of Requirement” (1964) and then again ten years later in “Practical Reason and the Logic of Requirement” (1974). The idea is briefly mentioned, but not developed, in [B&IV] 53.
For quite a long time Chisholm thought that the fundamental bearers of intrinsic value are states of affairs. He also thought that in some cases, the value of a state of affairs could be defeated by that state's occurrence within some larger context. In this he seemed to be working out some ideas of Brentano and Moore. One of Chisholm's most moving presentations of this view can be found in hChipotle's food safety woes are not over.
The chain confirmed Tuesday that several customers who ate at a Chipotle Mexican Grill in Sterling, Virginia, reported symptoms of norovirus after eating at the chain.
So far eight cases between July 14 and July 17 were reported to iwaspoisoned.com, a website that allows users to report when they get sick after eating at a restaurant. Business Insider was alerted to the issues at the restaurant by the site, and then published a story. Customers reported symptoms such as vomiting, severe stomach pains, diarrhea, dehydration and, in some cases, hospitalization.
Jim Marsden, Chipotle's executive director of food safety, said that the company has notified local health department officials of the incident.
"Norovirus does not come from our food supply, and it is safe to eat at Chipotle. We plan to reopen the restaurant today," he said in a statement Tuesday. "We take every report of illness seriously. In accordance with our established protocols, our team is working to ensure the safety of our customers and employees, including voluntarily closing the restaurant yesterday to conduct a complete sanitization."
The company's shares plummeted more than 5 percent after reports of the incident surfaced.
It has been two years since a string of food safety incidents battered sales and scared away diners. While the beleaguered burrito chain has returned to profitability and its same-store sales have begun trending in a positive direction, its successes have been overshadowed by a data breach, overtime pay lawsuits, drug charges being brought against a senior manager and, now, another an outbreak of illness.
"This is the last thing Chipotle needs," Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, told CNBC. "Even if it is an isolated incident, it brings back memories of previous food scares and has the potential to damage the brand. Chipotle has worked hard to overcome previous issues, but it is still in recovery mode and this could be a very unhelpful setback. Fairly or unfairly, this is just the latest in a long line of 'issues' which give the impression that Chipotle is a poorly run and managed brand."
However, Maxim analyst Stephen Anderson doesn't think that this outbreak will have a huge impact on Chipotle in the long run. He said that norovirus "is not all that uncommon among restaurants" and can be spread by a sick employee or customer.
Some of Chipotle's previous issues were caused by E. coli outbreaks, which are typically the result of problems in the food supply chain and can lead to widespread customer illnesses.
Prior to the reports of norovirus in Virginia, Anderson upgraded his rating on the stock to buy from hold, and lifted its price target to $470 from $440. He said that he would not be changing that rating.79 Shares 0
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As I write these words, Palestinian journalist Mohammad Alqiq is on the eighty-second day of his hunger strike, and may well be taking his last breaths, protesting his illegal and unjustifiable arrest by Israel. As this humanitarian drama is taking place, the Israeli media is obsessed with some infantile rivalry between Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Israeli President Rivlin, arguably, two of the stupidest men in the Middle East, and typically, the story of Alqiq barely gets mentioned. This of course is no surprise. The Israeli media is a combination of tabloid garbage and self-righteousness justifying Israeli crimes. In fact, trying to watch the news via the Israeli media is all together a mind numbing experience, making Fox news seem like serious journalism.
With very few exceptions, the Israeli media reports as though their heads are so deep in the sand they can’t tell if it’s day or night. The racist segregation enforced by Israel is so effective that as an Israeli you can spend an entire lifetime living minutes away from Gaza and know nothing about Gaza other than what is offered by the Israel media. Unless it is commending the Israeli forces for their courage in fighting Hamas terrorists, or perhaps reporting about a funeral of a soldier who gave his or her life defending us from Hamas terrorists, there is rarely a word about the conditions in Gaza.
Lately, the Israeli press is obsessed with the fact the former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is going to jail. Olmert was tried and after many years convicted for corruption that took place during his term as mayor of Jerusalem and now, finally after appeals and delays he is in jail.
Olmert will serve his prison term in a special VIP section of a minimum security prison. Because he is a former PM and needs secret service protection, a special secure section was built for him in the prison. So the Israel media ponders whether he will be lonely, will the odors and sounds of prison bother him. They also remembered to point out that Israel already has a former president behind bars and had a former cabinet member.
The Olmert story demonstrates the dishonesty which plagues Israeli society and is typical of the Israeli media. Olmert was Prime Minister during the Israeli massacre in Gaza that began in December 2008. A massacre Israel named “Cast Lead.” Ehud Olmert is a war criminal. He was directly responsible for the murder of at least one thousand and five hundred men, women and children in Gaza. He is responsible for untold thousands who were injured and made homeless in Gaza. But he was only charged for stealing money and will serve a symbolic nineteen-month prison sentence and not the life sentence a war criminal of such proportions deserves. But in Israel murdering Palestinians is not a crime.
No one in the Israeli media asked how is it that this war criminal was not charged with murder but only a symbolic corruption charge. This is because other than Gideon Levi and Amira Hass who write for Ha’aretz daily, there are no dissenting voices in the Israeli media. Even Ha’aretz, a liberal establishment paper is read by very few people, many of whom live abroad. What one learns from the Israeli media is that Palestine does not exist, Gaza had disappeared long ago, and all there is to write and talk about is tabloid news. On occasion, when a Palestinian breaks out and attacks an Israeli they take a moment to report the incident and they might even follow up with an “in-depth” report. For example, there was a report recently on Israeli television’s channel 10 called “Children Terrorists” looking into the reasons behind the phenomenon or young Palestinian child-terrorists.
This report conveniently glides over the fact that there is no such thing as “child-terrorists,” at least no Palestinian ones. There is a phenomenon of Israeli soldiers, police and plain civilian vigilantes murdering young Palestinians and then claiming that they were “terrorists.” There is no reference in the report that Israel has declared a war on Palestinian children, arresting and abusing children on a regular basis, as a policy. There is however “in-depth analysis” as to the influences that radicalized them. The reporters went into Shuafat refugee camp near Jerusalem to see these children first hand. In one instance, as the camera shows young children in the street, the reporter says: “these children know the ones who infiltrated Jerusalem intending to commit acts of terror. In fact, thousands of these children have been arrested and interrogated by the security forces.”
The sleight of hand in which the lies are perpetuated is indicative of the Israeli PR magic show. The reporter is admitting that these children are constantly harassed by the police, though he leaves out that this is done without their parents being present and without access to a lawyer. The actions of the security forces are, of course “justified” and “prove” that there is indeed such a thing as a “Child-terrorist.” The report goes on to talk about the danger in which brave soldiers and police officers find themselves due to the incitement against them on Palestinian websites and by Palestinian extremists. Though it does not explore the possibility that young Palestinians may be driven from time to time to attack armed soldiers and police officers because of the constant harassment, beating and killings of Palestinians by the army and the police. Admitting that this is the case would make it clear that it is not terrorism but legitimate resistance.
There is constant debate in Israel whether or not the security forces do enough to fight Palestinian resistance. Most people agree that the Israeli military is not killing enough Palestinians and that the politicians are too weak and therefore the Palestinians continue to kill Israelis. Some voices, from time to time tell a different story. Ha’aretz newspaper just came out with a story that it is because of the Israeli army’s policy of leniency that the current uprising is not worse. “Had the army killed more Palestinians” they tell us, “or reduced the number of Palestinians allowed to work in Israel far more Palestinians would likely |
labor organization or as a definition of a union organizing tactic, contends Stewart Acuff, former organizing director for the Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA).
“I have a lot of experience in labor organizing and nobody uses that terminology,” Acuff says. “We do talk about minority unions—and by that I mean organizing a workplace when you only have a minority of workers supporting the union, not as a racial classification for the workers themselves."
"Minority union organizing can be effective," he says, so it is the likely target of the Price-Isakson legislation. “It’s pretty easy to imagine the meeting over at the Chamber of Commerce when they talked about attacking minority unions,’” he offers with a sarcastic chuckle. "The first thing they had to do was come up with a different name, because it would just look so terrible if the headlines said ‘Chamber Attacks Minority Unions.’ So, instead we get ‘Chamber Defends Against Micro-Unions."
Acuff, who has worked as an organizer with the UWUA and the Service Employees International Union, adds that most unions are not especially worried about the Price-Isakson initiative because it seems unlikely to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate.
Indeed, the House passed a similar version of the Price legislation in 2011 only to be ignored by Senate Democrats. Even in the unlikely event of Senate passage, it would face a certain veto from Obama, he says. “This bill is a little like the House repealing Obamacare for the 37th time or abolishing abortions again—it’s all for show for Tea Partiers back home and doesn’t have much impact anywhere else,” Acuff says.
Nevertheless, this attack on labor organizing rights deserves some attention, according to Acuff. With almost all legal protections for worker organizing now under attack, he says, spirited pushback is essential to restoring the influence of unions in the broader workplace.Anti-US protests staged at 11 KFC branches in China: report
Chinese people who blame Washington for an international tribunal's dismissal of Beijing's maritime claims have called for a boycott of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) in protests outside branches in 11 cities, reports said.
Crowds gathered to wave placards and shout anti-US slogans outside restaurants stretching from the northern province of Hebei to Hunan province, some 1,600 kilometres (1000 miles) away on Monday, internet portal Sohu said.
"Get out of China, KFC and McDonalds," one protestor's banner read.
Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) is a potent symbol of American capitalism in China, the world's most populous country, with over 4,000 branches ©Johannes Eisele (AFP/File)
Chinese state-media blamed the US for encouraging the Philippines to take a dispute over China's claims in the South China Sea to an international tribunal, which last week said Beijing's stance had no legal basis.
KFC is a potent symbol of American capitalism in the world's most populous country, with over 4,000 branches.
The protests began last weekend in Hebei, before spreading to large provincial capitals in the south such as Changsha and Hangzhou, Sohu said.
They highlight how foreign firms can be hit by bouts of nationalism in China.
As tensions flared between Beijing and Tokyo over disputed islands in 2012, some consumers boycotted Japanese cars and protesters smashed vehicles in the street.
French supermarket chain Carrefour also faced calls for a boycott in 2008 after the Beijing Olympic torch relay was disrupted in Paris.
China sees tens of thousands of protests a year, usually over domestic issues, and police often disperse them by force.
But in some cases Beijing has permitted large protests by its citizens aimed at foreign countries.
Police sealed off roads leading to the Philippine embassy in Beijing last week apparently to prevent people from gathering, and have reportedly taken a dim view of the KFC demonstrations.
Sohu reported that police in Jiangsu province in the east had ordered KFC stores to close to prevent disturbances.
A video posted on the Weibo social media service showed blue-uniformed policemen at a protest outside a restaurant in northern China tearing down banners.Adam Scott is expanding his relationship with HBO.
The Parks and Recreation alum has been tapped to co-star in limited series Big Little Lies, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
From David E. Kelley, the comedic drama centers on three mothers (Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman and Shailene Woodley) of kindergartners whose apparently perfect lives unravel to the point of murder. Scott will play Ed Mackenzie, the stable and loving husband to Madeline (Witherspoon) whose approach is to play it safe.
Based on Liane Moriarty's book of the same name, the drama hails from David E. Kelley (Boston Legal, Ally McBeal) who is writing the limited series. HBO landed the project in May following a bidding war with Netflix.
Kidman and her Blossom Films banner, as well as Withersppon and her Pacific Standard shingle, optioned the rights to the twisty thriller/soap and No. 1 New York Times best-seller, which was published in July, as a potential feature film before refocusing the drama for television.
Kelley, who most recently served as showrunner on CBS' Robin Williams-Sarah Michelle Gellar comedy The Crazy Ones, is attached to pen the series via his David E. Kelley Productions banner. Kidman and Witherspoon will both exec produce alongside Kelley. Exec producers include Kelley, Witherspoon and Pacific Standard's Bruna Papandrea, Kidman and Blossom Films' Per Saari. Australian novelist Moriarty will serve as a producer on Big Little Lies. She previously penned best-sellers What Alice Forgot, Three Wishes, The Hypnotist's Love Story and The Husband's Secret.
Big Little Lies expands Scott's relationship with HBO, where the actor-producer and his wife, Naomi, set up comedy Deep S.I.X. via their Universal Television-based Gettin' Rad production company.
The HBO comedy marked the latest sale for Gettin' Rad, which also is prepping Donuthead and Buds for NBC. The company also is behind indie feature The Overnight, which bowed in the summer. They're in post on their second feature, Other People, which will open at Sundance. On the acting side, Scott stars in Universal and Legendary's Krampus and wrapped production on My Blind Brother. Scott is repped by WME, Rise Management and attorney Wendy Heller.Psychiatrists are granted the authority to commit patients involuntarily to treatment based on three guiding principles: harm to self, harm to others, and evidence of significant mental deterioration to the extent that the individual is unable to practice self care in his/her own best interest. While the former risks can be ascertained by explicit threats made by the patient, the latter evidence is often gleaned from self-reported or eyewitness accounts of the patient’s concerning behaviors. To date, I have personally witnessed Donald Trump make threats against not just individuals but entire sovereign nations, and heard eyewitness accounts from individuals who report victimization at his hands. It is widely held public knowledge that he rarely sleeps, and spends the wee hours of the morning in fits of rage out of proportion to his perceived slights. It is widely known that he hasn’t supplied comprehensive medical records, has a family history of Alzheimer’s in a first degree relative, and that his children have yet to allow him alone with anyone but themselves. It is widely known that he has yet to demonstrate sufficient knowledge of any of the major issues facing America or the world, and that he immediately becomes defensive and accusatory when confronted with the expectation that he should if he wants to be president. As Hillary Clinton so aptly stated, he’s easily baited and temperamentally unfit. If Donald Trump were a patient in the ER, I would be expected to intervene.
And yet, we as a nation stand paralyzed and in awe of a slow moving train wreck in progress. I can’t help but be reminded of the numerous families that remain apprehensive and reluctant to agree to proactive measures, even in the face of the crisis that has befallen them. Despite the reality that no one’s gotten any sleep or peace, and their loved one is on a rampage destined for destruction, they hesitate to act and often inadvertently prolong everyone’s suffering in the process. They contain the dysfunction for as long as they can, rather than face hard truths about their new reality. As such, these families are a microcosm of America in the aftermath of Election 2016.
How do we reconcile the fact that 52 percent of voters over age 45 selected Donald Trump at a time when the aging Baby Boomer cohort will become more heavily reliant upon the Social Security and Medicare that the Republican party is determined to privatize and destroy? Why aren’t they able to practice self care in their own best interest, and why are we as a nation standing idly by while they endanger us all? Lady Liberty is ailing, yet we allow her to languish. At what point do we take the keys away from people who continually drive us into a ditch in the interest of individual and public safety? It is no coincidence that half of Fox News viewers are 68 or older, or that they’ve fallen prey to fake news propagated in service of the Republican party, as evidenced by their disastrous decision on November 8. As a nation, we’ve allowed our parents and grandparents to be exploited by political forces that use their votes to inflict harm upon the social safety net, and the general welfare. We continue to allow ourselves to be lead astray by deferring to the political will of people who lack sufficient insight and judgment to choose progress over propaganda.
Yet again, our country and the world have been entrusted to a man who hasn’t demonstrated the mental and behavioral stability to keep himself, let alone the rest of us safe. After eight years of steady, even-handed leadership from a president often labeled too “professorial,” “calm,” and “aloof,” it’s a wonder we haven’t yet drawn a connection between his stability and our prosperity.
It’s also a wonder that people who claimed to be suffering from severe anxiety just voluntarily committed themselves to strife at the hands of Instability-in-Chief, and we aren’t yet treating it like the emergency it is.A Gretna man who opened his front door to masturbate to the sight of a woman arriving at work across the street inadvertently pleasured himself in full view of a pair of Kenner Police detectives, according to an arrest report. Louis Buras, 70, of 229 Lavoisier St., Gretna was booked Thursday with obscenity, according to an arrest report.
The detectives were parked outside of a non-profit children's center located across the street from Buras' Lavoisier Street home sometime before 9 a.m., waiting for an appointment there, according to the report. They were still in the car when Buras, clad in just a T-shirt and boxer shorts, opened his front door to watch a female employee of the center.
Buras then allegedly pulled down his boxer shorts and began masturbating as he watched the woman, the arrest report said. At one point, he pulled up his shorts and walked away from the open door. But detectives said Buras returned and began masturbating again until the woman went inside the center.
The detectives called in Gretna Police and accompanied the officer to Buras' door. When informed of the allegations, Buras denied any wrongdoing. He told officers he was only scratching himself, the arrest report said.
Buras was released Thursday from the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center in Gretna on a $10,000 bond. He declined to comment Friday when contacted by telephone.Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs has changes its regulations prohibiting top employees from making political contributions to now include the campaign of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, reports online magazine Politico.
Read more
The investment giant extended its political restrictions to the partners, according a company email, as quoted by the magazine.
“Effective Thursday, September 1, all partners across the firm are considered'restricted persons' as defined by the firm's Policy on Personal Political Activities in the US. As outlined below, restricted persons are prohibited from engaging in political activities and/or making campaign contributions to candidates running for state and local offices, as well as sitting state and local officials running for federal office,” the bank wrote to its employees.
The step aims to prevent “inadvertently violating pay-to-play rules, particularly the look-back provision, when partners transition into roles covered by these rules,” according to Goldman.
The bank also warns about serious penalties for breaking the new rules. They include fines as well as a ban on the firm from doing business with government clients in a particular jurisdiction for a period of at least two years.
Goldman Sachs Bans Employees from donating to Trump...This is what we're fighting against folks! pic.twitter.com/4zzZXyqYgi — CorrectTheRecord (@ShillForHillary) September 7, 2016
Goldman said the measure was “meant to minimize potential reputational damage caused by any false perception that the firm is attempting to circumvent pay-to-play rules, particularly given partners' seniority and visibility.”
All failures to pre-clear political activities are taken seriously and violations may result in disciplinary action, the bank states.
Goldman Sachs Bans Employees from donating to Trump campaign
Thanks!
Now everyone is going to Vote for Donald Trump pic.twitter.com/4KoFdBsUzq — Bergeron | Hotep ✘ (@VinnieVagabond) September 7, 2016
The pay-to-play rule was introduced by the US Securities and Exchange Commission six years ago following a series of scandals over money managers allegedly trying to influence state officials to win investment management business, including arranging political contributions.
"Goldman Sachs Bans Employees" Thank you. You just helped Trump become president. #TrumpPence16 — Walter (@20belowzer0) September 7, 2016
Goldman’s email does not specifically mention Donald Trump or his political activity. However, the memo cited by Fortune Magazine defines “the Trump-Pence campaign as an example of one Goldman partners can no longer support.”
“Among the type of donations that are banned are any federal candidate who is a sitting state or local official (e.g., governor running for president or vice president, such as the Trump/Pence ticket, or mayor running for Congress), including their Political Action Committees (PACs),” the media reports.
Goldman Sachs Bans Employees from donating to Trump. Slippery slope to your employer filling out the ballot for you... — (((Cheryl Noll))) (@cherrycola28) September 7, 2016
The rules introduced by Goldman Sachs after Trump chose Indiana Governor Mike Pence, a sitting state official, as his running mate, prohibit donations to politicians running for state or local offices, as well as donations to state officials who are seeking federal office.
READ MORE: Clinton’s tax returns show income hit, dubious donations
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton doesn't hold office and her running mate, vice presidential pick Tim Kaine is a US senator. Neither would be subject to the rules.NEW YORK (AP) — In a historic change, the Boy Scouts are announcing plans to admit girls into the Cub Scouts starting next year and to establish a new program for older girls using the same curriculum as the Boy Scouts.
Under the plan announced Wednesday, Cub Scout dens — the smallest unit — will be single-gender, either all-boys or all-girls. The larger Cub Scout packs will have the option to welcome both genders if they choose.
The program for older girls is expected to start in 2019 and will enable girls to earn the coveted rank of Eagle Scout.
Boy Scout leaders say the change is needed to provide more options for parents. The Girl Scouts organization has criticized the initiative, saying it strains the century-old bond between the two groups.First look at Code Vein, Bandai Namco’s new action RPG
The Unreal Engine 4 action RPG from Bandai Namco's God Eater team.
The latest issue of Weekly Famitsu is now available, providing our first look at Code Vein, the new Unreal Engine 4 action RPG from Bandai Namco led by key God Eater staff Keita Iizuka (producer), Hiroshi Yoshimura (director), and Yusuke Tomizawa (team leader).
Code Vein is set in the near future, where the earth’s crust was pierced by the “thorns of judgment” and everything fell to ruin. The setting of the game is “Vein,” a closed society where a people known as “Revenants” just barely managed to survive.
Although Revenants possess supernatural powers, it came at the price of losing the majority of their memory. When low on blood, a Revenant’s humanity will decay, and since that would result in them turning into a monster called a “Lost,” they must continue to suck up blood.
The player will become a member of the Revenants, and while working together with allies, explore the world of Vein where countless Losts of all types, big and small, wander about. In doing so, players will draw near the full story behind the birth of the Revenants and the mysteries of Vein itself, a city fallen to ruin by the thorns of judgment. Will the cause of the ruin be connected to the birth of the Revenants? What is the truth that awaits them on this desperate journey?
One of the biggest features of Code Vein is the existence of a “Buddy.” When exploring Vein, you can take along a single Buddy. By sharing the sense of accomplishment of defeating strong enemies and overcoming the point of death, that feeling evolves into something special. You’ll witness Vein’s variety of faces—from mountainous regions enclosed by ice to caves and underground shopping areas—as you travel alongside your Buddy. There will even be dark areas full of dangers. Pay attention for the Losts lurking in the darkness of these aras while relying on the little amount of light you have available. Having a Buddy enables you to use tactics such as setting a decoy. Other than the sense of security a Buddy offers, they also come with great merit.
Revenants will have access to a variety of weapon types. These are mainly close combat weapons such as great words and one-handed swords. But since the attack action is different depending on the type of weapon, you can choose a weapon that fits your style.
Blood Veils are Revenant-original equipment that suck up the blood of Losts. It usually takes on the form of clothing, and although it has aspects of armor, it has an exclusive mechanism that appears during blood sucking. Additionally, it transforms the mask of the user into a more violent form. The blood of the Losts obtained through the blood sucking mechanism of a Blood Veil is transported into the user’s mouth through a pipe in the equipment. There are several types of Blood Veils, and you’ll be able to play out a variety of tactics by combining them with your weapons.
One kind of Blood Veil forms sinister claws shaped like gauntlets on the user’s right hand. It has short reach, but can suck up blood fast in close combat. Once the Blood Veil develops on the right hand, the user’s mask also starts to transform, covering half of their face with a blood sucking mask. By piercing your right hand into the enemy, you can suck up their blood. The method of blood sucking is unknown for this type of Blood Veil, but it may be that there is a mechanism in the palm or arm.
Screenshots in the magazine show another type of tailed Blood Veil. A girl is pictured activating it, her eyes shining red when doing so, and her mask changing shape before piercing enemies from a distance.
Tempered Blood is Revenant-exclusive technique. After successfully landing a blood sucking attack, you an activate this action using the blood obtained from Losts. Tempered Blood offers an abundance of effect variations, including strengthening yourself, weakening enemies, and direct attacks. Figuring out how to successfully land blood sucking attacks and when to use Tempered Blood in battles against Losts are key to exploring Vein and clearing dungeons.
One example of Tempered Blood is as follows: a large amount of blood shoots out of the ground like pillars and attacks the enemy. This is an effective technique when facing several opponents. And given that a Revenant’s weapons are generally meant for close combat, this is a useful way to strike from a distance.
Development on Code Vein is currently 35 percent complete. The game is due out worldwide for unannounced platform(s) in 2018. An official announcement will be made tomorrow, April 20, across Bandai Namco’s western and Japanese divisions. A teaser trailer was released last week.
Thanks for the scans, Famigeki.DETROIT -- When JaCoby Jones picked up the phone Monday night, he heard Triple-A manager Lloyd McClendon on the other end:
"Hey kid, what are you doing?"
It was 11:30 p.m. Jones told McClendon that he was watching television.
As it turned out, Jones had a big day ahead of him. McClendon informed him that he'd be making his major league debut for the Detroit Tigers the next night against the Chicago White Sox. It was the news Jones had been waiting to hear since he was a young kid.
Then Jones made a phone call, which he called "probably the best call I've ever had in my life." His mom was in tears. His dad could be heard over the din in the background. His parents scrambled to book flights from their home in Mississippi.
Tigers third baseman JaCoby Jones is doused by teammates James McCann and Justin Upton following Tuesday's 8-4 victory. AP Photo/Carlos Osorio
After a whirlwind day of travel, they made it in time to see their 24-year-old son debut at third base. More importantly, they were in the stands when Jones recorded a storybook moment in the sixth inning. He notched his first hit with an RBI double that gave the Tigers a 4-3 lead and sparked the offense to an 8-4 victory.
Television cameras panned to his family's section after the hit. Jones' mom, overcome with emotion, was beaming and bouncing on her toes in excitement for her son.
"That's probably one of the biggest things I can think about right now," Jones said. "My parents being here for that moment for me. It's just, I don't know how to describe it. It's amazing. Just getting on a plane to come up here and watch me, for all those years they put up with me, traveling and everything, it's amazing. I'm glad they got to be up here for it."
Jones has experienced a lot in the past 13 months. He was traded to the Tigers at the 2015 deadline in the deal for closer Joakim Soria. He was suspended 50 games in the offseason for his second positive test for a drug of abuse. It hasn't been a smooth path to the big leagues. But when Jones arrived Tuesday night, those things were not on his mind.
"Something I'll never forget, my first big-league hit," Jones said. "It's just something you work hard for to get here, and to get it on the first night, it's simply amazing."
Jones, who is known for both his athleticism and his versatility (he can play third base and center field and considers shortstop his natural position), followed his clutch hit with another RBI in the seventh inning. That made him the first Tiger since Hank Riebe on Aug. 26, 1942, to record two or more hits and two or more RBIs in his major league debut.
"Very excited for him," manager Brad Ausmus said. "Every major league player remembers their first hit. It's something he'll never forget, and it was nice his family was here to see it. The fans welcomed him even before he was announced for his first at-bat."
The fan reception for Jones when he approached the plate in the second was so overwhelming that he almost stepped out of the batter's box.
"It says a lot about [the Tigers fans]," Jones said of the ovation. "I'm pretty sure they were just stoked because it was my major league debut, so I'm pretty sure everybody was yelling for that. But, yeah, the fact that they were just screaming, cheering me on. It was a great feeling."Germany, France, Ohio and Arizona
It was a busy night for the AMS and IMO (International Meteor Organization) that started early around 16:50 Universal Time (UT) with a fireball in the skies over Germany. Over 1180 witnesses reported to the AMS/IMO database within the first few hours of the event. Les than five hours later, near the weastern shores of France witness reported another significant fireball at 21:30 UT.
While excited fireball observers in Germany, France, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg and Italy were filling out their forms, two significant fireballs fell over the United States during the hours of 01:40 and 03:30 UTC. The first over Arizona and the second over Ohio.
In total the AMS/IMO collected, grouped and analyzed over 1320 witness reports spanning these 4 fireballs in the 10 hours that followed the events.
If you witnessed one of these events and/or if you have a video or a photo, please
Submit an Official Fireball Report In French – In German – In Italian If you want to learn more about Fireballs: read our Fireball FAQ.
Taurid or not Taurid: that is the question
Are the events related or simply coincidence. Could these events be part of the Taurid meteor shower which peaked this past Saturday? Associated with the comet Encke, the Taurids are actually two separate showers, with a Southern and a Northern component. Both branches of the Taurids are most notable for colorful fireballs and are often responsible for an increased number of fireball reports from September through November.
The first analysis conducted by former IMO president Dr. Juergen Rendtel of the Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam from the raw data shows that the events that occurred over Arizona and France cannot be linked to the Taurids: the Arizona event was moving from North-West to South-East while the French event was moving from North-East to South-West. However, the events over Germany and Ohio fit the Taurids direction (East->West) and the low inclination angle at the time of the sightings! Note that the East-West direction is related to the Taurids only because the fireball occurred in the local evening. Later in the night or towards the morning the direction is different, of course.
Nov 14th 16:48 UT – Blue Fireball over Germany
The fireball that flew over Germany on Nov 14th around 16:48 UT is the most reported fireball event from Europe since the AMS and the IMO launched the international version of the AMS fireball form. Translated in 31 languages, this form potentially allows the whole population of the globe to report such events. So far, we received over 820 reports about this event from at least 7 different versions of the form: not only from the AMS and the IMO versions but also from the forms we customized for local organizations such as the French Networks Reforme and Vigie-Ciel, the Swiss organization Fachgruppe Meteorastronomie, the german organization Arbeitskreis Meteore e.V. and even from the Italian Network PRISMA.
Below is the 3D trajectory of the event (available in KML format from the Event#4299-2017 page):
This event has been caught on several dash cams:
Nov 14th 21:32 UT over France
The French event occurred over the city of Bordeaux (West of France) and it has been reported so far from about 20 witnesses. This event has been caught on cam by the french camera network FRIPON that is a member of the citizen science project Vigie-Ciel and by the French allsky amateur network BOAM.
We should receive more details about this event anytime soon. As stated above, this event doesn’t seem like being part of the Taurid Meteor Shower. The event has been caught by 10 cameras of the French Network (Toulouse, Angers, Talence, Sabres, Carcassonne, Aurillac, Hendaye, Saint Bonnet Vert, Coulounieix-Chamiers and Mauroux).
Nov 15th 03:28 UT over Arizona
The AMS received 85 reports so far about this event that occurred over Arizona. We didn’t receive reports only from Arizona but also from California, Nevada, Utah and New Mexico.
This event has been caught on at least two dash cams shared via the AMS Fireball report:
As stated above, the first estimated 3D trajectory doesn’t make this fireball a good candidate for the Taurid Meteor Shower. Traveling from North-West to South-East, the visible path of the fireball ended somewhere east of Happy Jack, AZ.
Nov 15th 01:49 UT over Ohio
We received 34 reports so far about this event that occurred over Ohio but was also reported from Michiga, Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. Just like the German event, this fireball was travelling East to West. The first estimation of the 3D trajectory shows that the visible path of the fireball ended somewhere over Greenfield, OH.
Unfortunately, we didn’t receive any photo or video of this event yet. If you witnessed one of this event and/or if you have a video or a photo, please
Submit an Official Fireball Report.
Vincent Perlerin Vincent Perlerin, PhD used to be a researcher in Computational Linguistics. He is now a software developer, a web designer, a community manager, an illustrator and many other things. He is working on the American Meteor Society under the supervision of Mike Hankey. Vincent is the lead developer of all the AMS projects. He's also the lead developer of the International Meteor Organization Website and the IMO online Databases management system.The third week of the Season 3 ladder challenge is over. Join if you haven’t already!
If you are new to the ladder challenge, learn more here or sign up!
Note to our loyal readers: Weekly updates will be on hiatus next week.
Raffle Winner
Congratulations, dippikana! You win one month of Elite Membership!
Remember, every week you have a chance to win 1 month of Elite Membership if you play 20 games!
Progress Update
Congratulations BucketHeaD, the one player to reach level 7!
Level Players Games Slackers! 34 89 1 50 341 2 25 294 3 57 1150 4 35 1295 5 19 1089 6 17 1734 7 1 196
We would like to note that from now on, level 7 requires 110 games instead of 150.
Top 5 players for this week are:
Name Games BucketHeaD 169 Statix 237 iMarine 127 Dom 124 Fate 121
Clan Challenge Update
Every week, dozens of players battle in the Clan Challenge to represent their clan. Visit the clans listing and see how well your clan is doing!
Clan Players Games Games This Week Games Per Player TAW 47 1162 308 24 ETL 17 535 129 31 ConFed 38 425 128 11 Core 6 350 142 58 Allin 17 326 137 19
We’ve changed back to all-time instead of per week, but the top 5 all time clans will also show how many games they played this week.
Statistics
We pulled average completion time for upgrades per each league this week. Check to see how your upgrade timings compare for the average of your league!
League Average Stim Research Time Bronze 12:36 Silver 12:26 Gold 11:22 Platinum 10:59 Diamond 10:54 Masters 10:59 GM 10:26
Stim is researched a full two minutes and ten seconds faster in Grandmaster then it is in Bronze!
League Average Chitinous plating Timing Bronze 29:55 Silver 31:19 Gold 22:19 Platinum 23:23 Diamond 22:22 Masters 21:22 GM 22:05
It looks like 22 is fairly standard from gold league and onwards.
League Average Storm Timing vs Terran Bronze 20:52 Silver 19:09 Gold 17:12 Platinum 16:57 Diamond 16:11 Masters 16:12 GM 13:36
Colossi openers probably drag the average storm timing downwards, meaning the faster average for Grandmaster could simply be because more Grandmaster players open Storm first.
Special Replays
Remember to tweet your replays to @sc2replaystats on twitter if you want them featured in this post!
Chattiest Replay
Chattiest replay was Fate vs ReMiix: http://sc2replaystats.com/replay/735390
A snippet:
ReMiiX 03:30 you think i dont know what poland is? ReMiiX 03:40 t+t Fate 03:41 95% of americans dont :p ReMiiX 03:54 nahh we arent that bad Fate 04:00 yes u are
Read the rest here!
Hero Units
This week we have a 72 kill Void Ray and 52 kill Oracle.
I don’t know if the Zerg was a smurf trolling or someone trying out TheStaircase, but this Zerg player just sent endless waves of no-speed Zerglings at the unfortunate Protoss player. Watch the Protoss Heroes try to hold them off here: http://sc2replaystats.com/replay/737345
Base-trade Replay
At the start of the game, the map looked like this:
At the end, it looked like this:
Watch the crazy game here: http://sc2replaystats.com/replay/721595
If you are a producer of video content and would like to assist sc2replaystats.com by creating a promotion video for next season of the ladder season, get in touch with us at contact_us@sc2replaystats.com!
If you have any suggestions for what statistics you would like to see next time, let us know! Tweet @Sc2replaystats or send an email to contact_us@sc2replaystats.com!
- Sc2replaystats.com staffMy memes santa is the best damn rage infused ball I have ever had the pleasure of being vaguely acquainted with! They snail mailed me what I am sure was an amazing card that somewhere along the line got eaten by USPS gremlins. I had nothing to post so reported no gift, knowing that Santa did their best.
Then they sent me a gift (!!) to make up for it going missing!? WHAT!? Also my santa is someone I have seen around on r/Secretsanta though not had the pleasure of speaking with until now.
So you know what this Hedwig owl is much more of an uplifting meme than a card could ever hope to be. I am so happy right now, I just can't stand it. After a long day of work, it was the best possible thing to come home to! It is now proudly on my bookshelf, looking amazing.
You went way overboard and I don't know how to tell you how grateful I am to you! Hedwig is my favorite and you got me something so damn nice, he looks so beautiful! I think Hagrid would agree too!
Thank you for the lovely gift and over the top generosity. I have been really down lately and you swooped in to save the day!!
Below are some photos to try to showcase my sincere thanks. I will also update should your card arrive after taking a very scenic route.
Thanks for keeping the magic alive my friend!!Fox News has put into heavy rotation the internal fight inside the FBI and Justice Department over an investigation into the Clinton Foundation. Devlin Barrett at The Wall Street Journal also filed a story last night. The liberal media reaction was: “What breaking story?”
Will the liberal media just act like the Democratic servants they look like in the Wikileaks emails and continue to ignore these revelations as something on the Murdoch Machine thinks is news?
The Wall Street Journal story is headlined “Secret Recordings Fueled FBI Feud in Clinton Probe: Agents thought they had enough material to merit aggressively pursuing investigation into Clinton Foundation.”
Barrett began:
Secret recordings of a suspect talking about the Clinton Foundation fueled an internal battle between FBI agents who wanted to pursue the case and corruption prosecutors who viewed the statements as worthless hearsay, people familiar with the matter said. Agents, using informants and recordings from unrelated corruption investigations, thought they had found enough material to merit aggressively pursuing the investigation into the foundation that started in summer 2015 based on claims made in a book by a conservative author called Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich, these people said. The account of the case and resulting dispute comes from interviews with officials at multiple agencies.... The roots of the dispute lie in a disagreement over the strength of the case, these people said, which broadly centered on whether Clinton Foundation contributors received favorable treatment from the State Department under Hillary Clinton. Senior officials in the Justice Department and the FBI didn’t think much of the evidence, while investigators believed they had promising leads their bosses wouldn’t let them pursue, they said.... Justice Department officials became increasingly frustrated that the agents seemed to be disregarding or disobeying their instructions. Following the February meeting, officials at Justice Department headquarters sent a message to all the offices involved to “stand down,’’ a person familiar with the matter said. Within the FBI, some felt they had moved well beyond the allegations made in the anti-Clinton book. At least two confidential informants from other public-corruption investigations had provided details about the Clinton Foundation to the FBI, these people said. The FBI had secretly recorded conversations of a suspect in a public-corruption case talking about alleged deals the Clintons made, these people said. The agents listening to the recordings couldn’t tell from the conversations if what the suspect was describing was accurate, but it was, they thought, worth checking out. Prosecutors thought the talk was hearsay and a weak basis to warrant aggressive tactics, like presenting evidence to a grand jury, because the person who was secretly recorded wasn’t inside the Clinton Foundation.
As for Fox, a summary on Real Clear Politics added up the breaking revelations from Bret Baier last night:
1. The Clinton Foundation investigation is far more expansive than anybody has reported so far and has been going on for more than a year. 2. The laptops of Clinton aides Cherryl Mills and Heather Samuelson have not been destroyed, and agents are currently combing through them. The investigation has interviewed several people twice, and plans to interview some for a third time. 3. Agents have found emails believed to have originated on Hillary Clinton's secret server on Anthony Weiner's laptop. They say the emails are not duplicates and could potentially be classified in nature. 4. Sources within the FBI have told him that an indictment is "likely" in the case of pay-for-play at the Clinton |
complicated. Here are a few thoughts and tips to put things in perspective.
So, you’re a Latter-day Saint youth, you’re 16 or older, and you’re able to start dating in groups (see For the Strength of Youth [2011], 4). Yet for some reason you’re numbered among the many in this age-group who don’t date. Why? Well, the reasons can be broken down into two basic categories: “I just don’t want to date” and “I would like to date, but there are obstacles.” Let’s look at both of these groups.
I Just Don’t Want to Date
This group has various reasons for not wanting to date—for instance, they’re preparing to leave on missions and don’t want to be distracted, or they just plain don’t feel comfortable or ready to date. The fact is, dating is not something every teenager absolutely needs to do.
Now, keep in mind that dating can have benefits. As For the Strength of Youth says, “It can help you learn and practice social skills, develop friendships, [and] have wholesome fun” (4).
If you don’t want to date, you shouldn’t completely shun members of the opposite sex, of course. Look for other ways to make friends with them and gain the social skills associated with dating (for instance, Mutual, youth conference, and other activities that help you get to know people in a wholesome setting), because later, “as you enter your adult years,” you should “make dating and marriage a high priority” (For the Strength of Youth, 5).
I Would Like to Date, but There Are Obstacles
Some obstacles to dating have always been around; others are new and culture-specific. Let’s look at seven common obstacles and see if there are any solutions to them.
1. There’s nobody to date around here.
Of course, unless you live alone in the middle of a vast desert or something, this isn’t literally true. So what’s really going on?
Well, for instance, you may look around and see an utter lack of datable people, meaning those “who have high moral standards and in whose company you can maintain your standards” (For the Strength of Youth, 4). Though this is unlikely, if it is true, then you’re probably right not to date.
“When you are old enough, you ought to start dating. It is good for young men and young women to learn to know and to appreciate one another. It is good for you to go to games and dances and picnics, to do all of the young things. We encourage our young people to date. We encourage you to set high standards of dating.” —President Boyd K. Packer
More common is the feeling of many LDS teens that the only people they can ask on dates are the few other LDS teens in their area, because the non-LDS teens might misunderstand your intentions (see obstacles #2 and #3), and it would take a lot of awkward explanation and coaching to get them to understand and accept the way LDS teens are counseled to date. If you are in this situation, you could deal with it in one of two ways: (1) make the effort to plan some group dates with good people you know, taking care to ensure that everyone’s expectations are the same, or (2) don’t date but still seek out friendships and wholesome fun with a variety of people. As you counsel with your parents, leaders, and your Heavenly Father, you’ll be guided to make good decisions.
2. Around here, “dating” implies a physical relationship, and I don’t want that reputation.
In many places throughout the world, when youth walk down the halls of their schools, they see quite a few of their classmates hugging, kissing, and so on. For the passersby, it can be quite uncomfortable. But for LDS teens, it also makes dating awkward because this kind of behavior is often what’s expected of “dating couples.” So, for instance, if you were to tell people that you went on a date with so-and-so, they may assume that you and so-and-so had started a physical relationship.
What to do? The best thing is to let your standards be known so that nobody gets the wrong impression about you or the person you go out with. Not dating is also an option, but even then, people ought to know what your standards are. (See also obstacle #3.)
3. “Mormon-style” dating (going out with different people) just isn’t done around here. It’s all about boyfriend-girlfriend relationships. You’ll get a bad reputation if you date around.
This is a tough one, because the culture of much of the world is following a trend in which boy-girl interactions among teens center around “relationships.” So if you tell people you went on a date with Person A one week and then went on a date with Person B a couple weeks later, they might think that you’re cheating on Person A or that you’re just promiscuous. So what do you do?
Well, you could try to educate people and change their attitudes and judgments (maybe show them the “Dating” section in For the Strength of Youth), or you could go ahead and date the way you’ve been counseled to date and just ignore everyone else’s comments. One thing is certain: you should make sure everyone knows what your standards are, regardless of whether you date or not. There should be no question about your character. Then, if you decide to date, people will be less likely to whisper.
4. No one ever asks me out.
This is a very common feeling for young women, who are told that “young men generally take the initiative in asking for and planning dates” (For the Strength of Youth, 5). Sometimes it seems that there aren’t a lot of guys who are asking girls on dates or that only certain girls are getting asked out. Whatever you do, don’t ever let these thoughts affect your feelings of self-worth. Not being asked out on dates may be difficult, but it’s not a reflection of your value as a person. Some youth just don’t want to date, so you shouldn’t take it personally if they’re not asking you out. Of course, girls can occasionally ask guys on dates too, so you may consider getting together with other young women to organize a group date—just to get the ball rolling. No matter what, your value as a child of God is eternal and has nothing to do with whether you’re being asked out on dates.
“Choose to date only those who have high moral standards and in whose company you can maintain your standards. … Plan dating activities that are safe, positive, and inexpensive and that will help you get to know each other.” —For the Strength of Youth
5. I’m too shy.
Shyness is a very real and sometimes crippling feeling for many people. If you’re interested in overcoming your shyness so that you can have the confidence to start dating, there are some things you can do. Remember that you are a child of God and ask Him for help. Also remember to breathe and to smile at others. You also must be willing to leave your comfort zone and practice. As you take small steps and don't give up, you can learn how to be more outgoing.
6. Dating is too expensive.
For the Strength of Youth encourages you to “plan dating activities that are … inexpensive” (4). However, in some places there seems to have emerged a dating culture in which formal and elaborate—and therefore expensive—dates are the norm. This need not be the case (see obstacle #7).
Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles once gave some advice to young single adults that also applies to teen dating: “The meaning and significance of a ‘date’ has … changed in such a way as to price dating out of the market. I saw this trend beginning among our younger children. For whatever reason, high school boys felt they had to do something elaborate or bizarre to ask for a date, especially for an event like a prom, and girls felt they had to do likewise to accept. In addition, a date had to be something of an expensive production. …
“All of this made dating more difficult. And the more elaborate and expensive the date, the fewer the dates. … Gone is the clumsy and inexpensive phone call your parents and grandparents and I used to make. … Cheap dates … can be frequent and nonthreatening, since they don’t seem to imply a continuing commitment” (“Dating versus Hanging Out,” Ensign, June 2006, 12–13).
7. It seems like a lot of work to put together a group date—arranging the group, asking people, planning the activity, and so on.
Sometimes this feeling comes from the unrealistic expectation of what a date should be (see obstacle #6). But sometimes it can seem rather daunting to put forth all of the effort needed just to pull off a simple group date. It doesn’t have to be complicated, though. For instance, simply getting together to play board games and eat popcorn can make for a great evening. (For additional creative, inexpensive dating ideas, see “Fun Dates That Don’t Break the Bank.”) If you believe the effort is worth it, go for it. And even if you’re not so sure, give it a try. In some way or another, these experiences will prepare you for the future, and you may just have a good time.
More on Dating
For advice, stories, videos, answers to questions, and more on dating, visit the Dating For the Strength of Youth page. You can also get more information on dating in the February 2014 and April 2010 New Era.
This article originally appeared in the February 2014 New Era.LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - With more British men wanting to take an active role in raising their children, are workplaces preventing fathers from spending more time at home, asks an inquiry launched on Monday, with men’s rights groups calling for a “childcare revolution”.
A man and child walk by the sea in Brighton, southern England April 20, 2011. The unseasonably hot April weather follows the UK's driest March for 60 years, according to the Met Office. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor
MPs want to know the barriers that prevent men from sharing parental duties, from lack of workplace flexibility to attitudes towards fathers taking paternity leave, and how that affects the gender pay gap.
Flexible working for both men and women — including job shares, and working from home — is key to addressing the gender pay gap, according to the Women and Equalities Committee, which monitors the performance of the government’s Equalities Office.
“Many fathers want to take a more active role in caring for their children,” committee chair and Conservative MP Maria Miller said in a statement.
“(The committee) is now asking whether fathers are being failed in the workplace. Clearly more needs to be done.”
Men’s rights groups say the current paternity package of 139.58 pounds ($170) a week was not enough for families to live off, meaning men had little choice but to keep working.
Rigid gender stereotypes were also part of the problem as many fathers are stigmatised for going on parental leave, said Matt O’Connor, founder of rights group Fathers4Justice.
“Dads need to feel that they can take parental leave and be encouraged to do so. We need to ditch this baggage that says ‘men go to work, women stay at home’. It’s rubbish, change it, it’s antiquated,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
British parents are the worst in the developed world for sharing childcare duties, with fathers spending 24 minutes with their children for every hour that women do, according to a 2016 report by UK charity The Fatherhood Institute.
Sweden — where fathers are encouraged to take three months of paid parental leave and the number of working women is the highest in the EU — won the top spot for gender equality among families, the report said.
Nearly 40 percent of British fathers would rather earn less, however, if it allowed them to spend more time with their families, another report by work-life charity Working Families and childcare provider Bright Horizons, said.
But with nearly a fifth of British fathers regarding their employer as unsympathetic about childcare, attitudes at work need to change, Mubeen Bhutta, head of campaigns and policy at Working Families, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation on Monday.
“We’re seeing a beginning of a generational shift where we’ve got a new generation of fathers who want to do things differently to perhaps how their fathers managed their work-life balance,” she said.
“But we’re not necessarily seeing the corresponding changes in UK workplaces.”
The Women and Equalities Committee has previously called for fathers to be granted three months of well-paid leave as an incentive to help with childcare, and for mothers to be encouraged to return to employment after time out of the labour market.
On average women earn 19.2 percent less than men in Britain. Despite the government’s pledge to end the pay gap within a generation, it has remained more or less the same for the past four years with women over 40 hardest hit, the committee says.Radical Salafist Islamists are infiltrating German asylum shelters and attempting to indoctrinate the new arrivals, a politician in the city of Bremen has warned. Senator Ulrich Mäurer said the prospect of radicalisation among young Muslim refugees was a growing threat given the sheer numbers of people arriving in the country.
The Salafist movement is an ultra-conservative orthodox stream within Sunni Islam that follows the doctrine known as Salafism. Adherents take a fundamentalist approach to Islam though literal translations of the Koran.
In January, Germany’s intelligence chief, Hans-George Maassen, said the number of active Salafists in the country had grown from 3,800 to 6,300 in three years, according to Deutsche Welle. Now they are trying to increase their number by approaching newly-arrived asylum seekers.
“We have in recent weeks increased seen attempts by Salafists to register as workers in refugee camps,” Mr Mäurer told the German news magazine Focus. He said they used the Salafi organisation “Islamic Cultural Centre” as cover, before rolling out prayer mats and offering Arabic-speaking men food and ideology. He estimated Bremen had around 360 of the extremists living in its precincts.
The State Office for Protection of the Constitution has warned that number could double by year-end if the movement was not stopped by asylum centre operators
“We have informed the operators, who shall thereupon issue such prohibitions”, said Mäurer. The city will also check so-called barring orders to prohibit Salafists from staying near migrant accommodation.
In “Guidelines for reception facilities in Bremen” the city outlines how caregivers can recognise radicalisation. Refugees stuck in an “identity crisis”, it states, leading to an “increased risk of receptiveness to Islamist ideology or to radicalise accordingly” will be especially vulnerable.
The head of German intelligence, Hans-Georg Maaßen, warned last month that radical Muslims in Germany are canvassing the refugee shelters looking for new recruits. He said:
“Many of the asylum seekers have a Sunni religious background. In Germany there is a Salafist scene that sees this as a breeding ground. We are observing that Salafists are appearing at the shelters disguised as volunteers and helpers, deliberately seeking contact with refugees to invite them to their mosques to recruit them to their cause.”
The editor of the newspaper Neue Westfälische, Ansgar Mönter, reports that Salafists in Bielefeld, a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, have already infiltrated refugee centers in the area by bringing toys, fruits and vegetables for the migrants.
Mönter said “naïve” politicians are contributing to the radicalisation of refugees by asking Muslim umbrella groups in the country to reach out to the migrants.
Mönter points out that the main Muslim groups in Germany all adhere to fundamentalist interpretations of Islam and are anti-Western in outlook. Some groups have ties to the Muslim Brotherhood while others want to implement Sharia law in Germany. According to Mönter, politicians should prohibit these groups from establishing contact with the new migrants.Buy Photo Cincinnati Police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell addresses Cincinnati City Council's Law Committee on Monday. (Photo: The Enquirer/Patrick Reddy)Buy Photo
Cincinnati took its first step Monday to suspend patrols by University of Cincinnati police officers on city streets.
City Council's Law Committee voted to suspend the agreement that allows University of Cincinnati police officers to patrol city streets.
Cincinnati Police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell agrees with the suspension.
Full council will consider the pause Wednesday.
The suspension comes after former UC Police Officer Ray Tensing fatally shot Sam DuBose during a traffic stop July 19 about a half mile from campus. Tensing has been indicted on a charge of murder.
University data reviewed by The Enquirer shows 62 percent of traffic stops issued by campus police went to black motorists and pedestrians last year. That’s up from 43 percent in 2012. The total number of tickets handed out by UC police also rose sharply, from 286 in 2012 to 932 so far this year.
"It's appropriate to take a pause and hammer out an agreement,"said Christopher Smitherman, Law Committee chairman.
The city signed a memorandum of understanding that allows the off-campus patrols in 2009 that largely gives UC officers the authority to police in city of Cincinnati and enforce laws.
Blackwell has met with UC Police Chief Jason Goodrich to talk about what a new agreement would look like.
NEWSLETTERS Get the News Alerts newsletter delivered to your inbox We're sorry, but something went wrong Be the first to be informed of important news as it happens in Greater Cincinnati. Please try again soon, or contact Customer Service at 1-800-876-4500. Delivery: Varies Invalid email address Thank you! You're almost signed up for News Alerts Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. More newsletters
There has been no talk of disbanding the UC police department, as Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters has called for, Blackwell said.
"We have had very good conversations about how we build out of this and what the MOU would look like," Blackwell said.
"I agree with UC President Santa Ono when he says we need to be involved with them," Blackwell said. "But to do traffic enforcement of residents -- and it largely appears to be minority residents -- we certainly we don't want that to continue. We don't need that to continue."
Read or Share this story: http://cin.ci/1SCwfmCWhile dangers from the sea were exposed after the 26/11 Mumbai attack, India is also highly vulnerable from the air with a patchy radar coverage, ageing air protection systems and a modernization plan that had floundered over the years. With the ministry now reviewing the national air defence plan and procuring the Russian S 400 ‘Triumf’, some of the concerns would be addressed. Besides the S 400, which would at the earliest be delivered by 2019-20, India is in the process of inducting a range of systems to defend the skies. This includes a desi missile shield for protection against nuclear attack, an Israeli `Spyder’ system for the air force, the indigenous Akash area defence system, besides an upgrade of the old trusted air defence guns. A look...Designed to counter a variety of threats from hypersonic cruise missiles, to UAVs, airborne early warning aircraft, stealth fighters and even precision guided munitions. The S 400 is the latest of a long range of highly successful air defence systems that have been the biggest threat to western aircraft across the world.The S 400 is a unique system that incorporates four types of missiles. Carried on mobile launchers, these missiles engage targets at the following ranges – 120 km, 200 km, 250 km and 380 km. Can engage multiple targets up to a range of 380 km. Tracks targets using a mobile phased array radarProcurement of the Russian system is under progress. The first five units to be bought expected to cost $ 6.1 billion, the most expensive air defence system ever bought by India. Deliveries of the S 400 are not expected before 2019-20 as Russian lines currently are churning out systems for their own requirements. Besides, the production line is booked at least till the end of 2018 due to a Chinese order for 6 systems.Designed to protect India against a nuclear attack. The Indian missile shield is a two layered system. Planned fi rst for New Delhi, the govt will give the second one to Mumbai. The shield is being designed to take down incoming missiles fi red from as far as 5000 km away.The shield will fi rst attempt to stop incoming missiles outside the atmosphere – a range of 80 km and up – and a second fail safe interception within the atmosphere at a range of less than 50 km. Swordfi sh radars, developed with Israeli assistance, will track incoming ballistic missiles from a distance of over 800 km & to direct multiple interceptions to the target.While DRDO started the project with a test in 2006, the missile shield really took off between 2009-12 with a series of tests – both endoatmospheric (interception within earth’s atmosphere) and exoatmospheric (outside the atmosphere). Target date for induction was 2014 but project has slowed down with just one unsuccessful test in 2014 after the interceptor missile did not explode. India has placed two long range radars to track incoming nuclear missiles near the national capital region. Project being accelerated.A major project cleared by the Modi government in its fi rst months in power was to set up a $ 1 billion facility by DRDO to manufacture the vital seekers that direct missiles to their targets. The facility, which is expected to come up near Hyderabad, is critical for the missile shield that requires the production of several dozen missiles an year.Low level quick reaction missiles for the air force to protect its vital bases and installations. To replace ageing Russian systems, four units have been ordered. Likely to be inducted from 2017.15 KM: Rs 10,000 crore MR SAM project signed in 2006 in collaboration with DRDO & IAI was to be ready for the air force by the end of 2014. However, several delays including a failed missile test pushed the project back by at least three years. The air force is likely to get the system at the earliest by 2017, leaving gaping holes in its air defence cover.70 KMAkash Weapon System is an indigenously developed supersonic short range surfaceto-air missile system designed to counter a variety of aerial threats including fast moving aircraft, helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles up to a maximum range of 25 km and an altitude of 20 Km. The mobile area defence system can engage multiple targets simultaneously. 15 squadrons on order by air force, besides two regiments by the Army.15 KMBy Carmen George for The Fresno Bee
FRESNO, Calif. (The Fresno Bee)—A Fresno Armenian pastor is among many now calling for the resignation of Fresno Unified School Board President Brooke Ashjian after he equated LGBT activists to Ottoman Turks.
The Rev. Ara Guekguezian said the LGBT community, which is on the margins of society, should not be compared to Turkish officials who carried out the Armenian Genocide.
“If the Ottoman Turks say, ‘We are trying to silence you or marginalize you or demonize you,’ that is frightening because eventually they end up killing you,” Guekguezian says. “When someone in the margins says, ‘Don’t talk about that, it marginalizes me, it demoralizes me,’ it’s a very different thing. It doesn’t come from a place of power.”
Ashjian’s comments came at the end of a five-hour board meeting Wednesday night after dozens responded to comments he made last month about the LGBT community.
Here is video of the full statement http://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/education/article169137202.html (Video courtesy of Fresno Unified School District/The Fresno Bee).
“It is sad, they like the Ottomans are trying to be the thought police,” Ashjian said, reading from a two-page statement he wrote. “They are trying to make people of faith second-class citizens, as they seek to silence our voices in the public square. Just like what my grandparents and millions of other grandparents had to endure at the hands of the Ottomans before escaping to America.”
Guekguezian said Ashjian’s comments also minimalize the horrors of the Armenian Genocide. As many as 1.5 million Armenians were killed from 1915 to 1923 by the Turkish government and its allies.
Guekguezian has “strong opinions” about the way Fresno Unified is doing business and caring for children. “I can’t believe how sensitive, how immature, how fenced in, how weak they are. If they are that weak, they shouldn’t be in a position of leadership.”
Guekguezian is pastor of First Congregational Church of Fresno, also known as the Big Red Church, which describes itself as an “open and affirming” church for all people. Guekguezian attended Wednesday night’s meeting to support the LGBT community.
The controversy began when Ashjian talked to The Bee about the California Healthy Youth Act, a law requiring schools to teach unbiased and medically accurate sex education, including lessons on birth control, abortion, and LGBT relationships. In a story published Aug. 4 in The Bee, Ashjian said “you have kids who are extremely moldable at this stage, and if you start telling them that LGBT is OK and that it’s a way of life, well maybe you just swayed the kid to go that way.” Ashjian, who is Mormon, also said, “It’s so important for parents to teach these Judeo-Christian philosophies.”
Mark Scoffield, a fellow member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Fresno, was among those at Wednesday’s meeting. When asked if Ashjian’s decision to compare LGBT activists to Ottoman Turks was fair, Scoffield said he didn’t know because he’s not Armenian, but that he liked Ashjian’s comments about religious freedom and freedom of speech.
Jess Fitzpatrick, co-chair of Trans-E-Motion, said Ashjian has a right to freedom of speech, but that “we have the ability as a community to come together and say, ‘We don’t want that [speech] to be representative of us.’”
The Armenian Genocide reference seems to be an attempt by Ashjian to “pull the Central Valley heartstrings, but in a really nasty, cynical way,” Fitzpatrick said. “I hope that people can recognize it for what it is. It’s a total prey on their emotions.”
This article was published in The Fresno Bee on Aug. 24.Note: some of Tyagi's emails have been edited slightly due to his convoluted style of writing. It is often unclear where he is quoting material I said versus his own reply. He also will inject "Rahul Tyagi Wrote:" into his mails, making it appear as if it is quoted from a previous mail, when in fact it is the new reply. You can download a raw copy of the mail spool for the unedited mail to verify. All edits on this page are for style only, and do not alter content.
From: Rahul Tyagi (officialrahultyagi@gmail.com) To: security curmudgeon (jericho[at]attrition.org) Date: Mon, 28 May 2012 13:39:44 +0530 Subject: Thanks For Getting My Book Jerico I have mailed you few months back to have a look on my book, but you said that time that you are busy, but i am happy to send you this copy. and hope you will like it. Thanks -R-
From: security curmudgeon (jericho[at]attrition.org) To: Rahul Tyagi (officialrahultyagi@gmail.com) Date: Mon, 28 May 2012 03:12:57 -0500 (CDT) Subject: Re: Thanks For Getting My Book Jerico On Mon, 28 May 2012, Rahul Tyagi wrote: : I have mailed you few months back to have a look on my book, but you : said that time that you are busy, but i am happy to send you this copy. : and hope you will like it. Not sure when I will get a chance to read it, but figured I should grab it while available.
From: Rahul Tyagi (officialrahultyagi@gmail.com) To: security curmudgeon (jericho[at]attrition.org) Date: Mon, 28 May 2012 13:49:52 +0530 Subject: Re: Thanks For Getting My Book Jerico : :Not sure when I will get a chance to read it, but figured I should grab : :it while available. Rahul Tyagi Wrote: I would love if you personally check my book and give a independent review please if you can get some time i'll be very thankful to you.
From: security curmudgeon (jericho[at]attrition.org) To: Rahul Tyagi (officialrahultyagi@gmail.com) Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2012 19:26:22 -0500 (CDT) Subject: Re: Thanks For Getting My Book Jerico On Mon, 28 May 2012, Rahul Tyagi wrote: : I would love if you personally check my book and give a independent : review please if you can get some time i'll be very thankful to you. Did you write all of the material in this book yourself?
From: Rahul Tyagi (officialrahultyagi@gmail.com) To: security curmudgeon (jericho[at]attrition.org) Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2012 12:14:49 +0530 Subject: Re: Thanks For Getting My Book Jerico : Did you write all of the material in this book yourself? Rahul Tyagi Wrote: Yes from 17 chapters i tired my best to contribute from my side i contributed 92% of whole book, 5-8% part of the book is contributed by some of my students and some other friends, and two chapter cum articles are from guest writers Mr. Rishab Dhangwal(RFI Attack) and AMarjit Singh.( Wireless Attacks).
From: security curmudgeon (jericho[at]attrition.org) To: Rahul Tyagi (officialrahultyagi@gmail.com) Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2012 01:46:58 -0500 (CDT) Subject: Re: Thanks For Getting My Book Jerico On Fri, 15 Jun 2012, Rahul Tyagi wrote: : : Did you write all of the material in this book yourself? : : Rahul Tyagi Wrote: Yes from 17 chapters i tired my best to contribute : from my side i contributed 92% of whole book, 5-8% part of the book is : contributed by some of my students and some other friends, and two : chapter cum articles are from guest writers Mr. Rishab Dhangwal(RFI : Attack) and AMarjit Singh.( Wireless Attacks). I saw the couple of pages by Dhangwal on RFI, which you credited at the end. After skimming the firt half of the book this afternoon, I have to ask again. Are you sure you wrote everything else in this book, other than the two sections you identified?
From: Rahul Tyagi (officialrahultyagi@gmail.com) To: security curmudgeon (jericho[at]attrition.org) Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2012 12:35:27 +0530 Subject: Re: Thanks For Getting My Book Jerico Rahul Tyagi Wrote: As i told you before 92% of the book is written by me, and rest 5-8% except rishab and amrjit's articles were contributed by some of my students and my friends.Like some of spamming portion and wireless security portion where contributed by my students.
From: Rahul Tyagi (officialrahultyagi@gmail.com) To: security curmudgeon (jericho[at]attrition.org) Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2012 12:39:00 +0530 Subject: Re: Thanks For Getting My Book Jerico Rahul Tyagi Wrote: Hope you like the first portion of my book, i tried my best to deliver the best content in a easy way for the readers
From: security curmudgeon (jericho[at]attrition.org) To: Rahul Tyagi (officialrahultyagi@gmail.com) Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2012 11:06:01 -0500 (CDT) Subject: Re: Thanks For Getting My Book Jerico On Fri, 15 Jun 2012, Rahul Tyagi wrote: : Rahul Tyagi Wrote: As i told you before 92% of the book is written by : me, and rest 5-8% except rishab and amrjit's articles were contributed : by some of my students and my friends.Like some of spamming portion and : wireless security portion where contributed by my students. How about the section on SQL injection and Cross-site Scripting?
From: Rahul Tyagi (officialrahultyagi@gmail.com) To: security curmudgeon (jericho[at]attrition.org) Date: Sat, 16 Jun 2012 20:51:56 -0700 Subject: Re: Thanks For Getting My Book Jerico : How about the section on SQL injection and Cross-site Scripting? Rahul Tyagi Wrote:- Jerico can you please list all the section on which you have any problem, that would be easier for me to reply in single stance. and reply for this SQL Injection and Cross Site scripting i wrote that but to increase the section people behind book added more content.
From: Rahul Tyagi (officialrahultyagi@gmail.com) To: security curmudgeon (jericho[at]attrition.org) Date: Sat, 16 Jun 2012 21:22:28 -0700 Subject: Re: Thanks For Getting My Book Jerico The chapters which are from my hand not from any friend, content adder and others, are listed below you can check it out. 1. Introduction to Ethical Hacking 2. Information Gathering Techniques 3. Advance Google Hacking 4. Trojan and Backdoors 5. Binder and Crypters 7. Spamming and Email Forging techniques (Spamming section contributed by Miss dox my friend and forging techniques are all from me.) 8. Email Hacking 9. System Hacking 10. Stenography 11. Basics of Python 12. Virus 13. Proxy Server and VPN 14. Pentration Testing 15. Metasploit Framework 16. Hacking Mobile Phones 17. Wireless Network Attacks (By Amarjit Singh)
From: security curmudgeon (jericho[at]attrition.org) To: Rahul Tyagi (officialrahultyagi@gmail.com) Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2012 16:36:11 -0500 (CDT) Subject: Re: Thanks For Getting My Book Jerico On Sat, 16 Jun 2012, Rahul Tyagi wrote: : : How about the section on SQL injection and Cross-site Scripting? : Rahul Tyagi Wrote:- Jerico can you please list all the section on which : you have any problem, that would be easier for me to reply in single : stance. and reply for this SQL Injection and Cross Site scripting i : wrote that but to increase the section people behind book added more : content. I mentioned two specific chapters for you to reply to, and you have no said several times that you wrote it. In fact, you did not. You plagiarized the material from other people. Chapter 6, page 38 - SQL injection (2 paragraphs) taken from verbatim from http://www.imperva.com/resources/glossary/sql_injection.html. The full page of text on "simple bypass authentication from frontend" was taken from http://www.cmswire.com/cms/web-cms/how-they-hack-your-website-overview-of-common-techniques-002339.php or another article. Chapter 6, pages 39-42 - XSS section is all taken verbatim from http://projects.webappsec.org/w/page/13246920/Cross%20Site%20Scripting. The only edits you made were to the example URLs, to try to conceal the fact that it was not your work. These are not the only sections that contain material you plagiarized from other sources. Do you understand what an author does, specifically writing original material OR properly citing material taken from other places? Are you familiar with plagiarism? If you are, then why did you lie to me?
From: security curmudgeon (jericho[at]attrition.org) To: Rahul Tyagi (officialrahultyagi@gmail.com) Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2012 20:08:51 -0500 (CDT) Subject: Re: Thanks For Getting My Book Jerico On Sat, 16 Jun 2012, Rahul Tyagi wrote: : The chapters which are from my hand not from any friend, content adder : and others, are listed below you can check it out. I have finished reviewing the book. Based on a pretty quick check, there are over 20 instances of plagiarized content that I found. Given that a sizable portion of the book consists of large screenshots and very little text, it makes up a substantial amount. I am curious to receive a reply to my previous mail regarding this. For the parts that you appear to have written, it is clear that you have about the same grasp on "hacking" as Fadia and others. That is, you don't know the topic very well. Some of your claims and explanations make it clear that you do not understand how hacking has been done historically, nor do you go past the initial script kiddy junk that many people have been peddling for years. Other than your very basic familiarity with Backtrack, I don't think you understand a fraction of the topic. If I were to make a list of all the mistakes and shortcomings of the book, it would take me a full day or more. Every single part of this book seems to be junk honestly. Selling it under the advertising and claims you make on your web page is a disservice to your readers. The fact that you or Fadia teach people 'hacking', which is little more than glorified Windows tricks and how to use simple Windows programs, is laughable and in my opinion, borderline fraud. jericho
From: Rahul Tyagi (officialrahultyagi@gmail.com) To: security curmudgeon (jericho[at]attrition.org) Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2012 21:56:29 -0700 Subject: Re: Thanks For Getting My Book Jerico Well i respect your words jerico but i am nt agree with your last comment that it is junk, for a person who still do no know what is IP address, how can |
, convenient and enjoyable bicycling for all people in the East Bay. For more biking resources, go to www.ebbc.org.Who is the best goal scorer in NHL history? Three weeks ago I adjusted Alex Ovechkin’s goals to see how many he would have hypothetically had through the first 800 games of his career if he had played from 1979-89 (a high-scoring NHL era). I used a statistic I created called goal share per game and it provided some worthy insight.
Now I’ve taken this stat a little further to explore some other great NHL goal scorers. Unlike before, I will also be adjusting for their games played in each season so we can get some more accurate numbers.
The 15 players I focused on were: Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Brett Hull, Gordie Howe, Mike Bossy, Alex Ovechkin, Maurice Richard, Pavel Bure, Phil Esposito, Marcel Dionne, Jaromir Jagr, Jari Kurri, Jarome Iginla, Bobby Hull, and Teemu Selanne.
An explanation of Goal Share Per Game
Let’s say Player A averaged 1 goal per game over his career, while Player B averaged 2 goals per game over his career. If that was the only information available, many people will obviously say that Player B was a better goal scorer than Player A.
But, if I told them that Player A played his career in an era in which an average of 2 goals were being scored per game while Player B played his career in an era in which an average of 8 goals were being scored per game, they may re-consider.
Goal Share Per Game = Individual Goals Per Game / Total Goals Per Game.
Player A’s Goal Share Per Game would be 50% (1/2).
Player B’s Goal Share Per Game would be 25% (2/8).
It’s a simple formula that can help you compare different scorers with respect to the amount of goals that were being scored per game during the era they played in. Of course, the amount of goals scored every NHL game has fluctuated a lot over time.
This is largely due to the change in the size of goaltenders. Goalies are now both taller and have bigger equipment. Players have less net to shoot at, and it is a lot harder to score. That’s why it is important to take this into account when comparing forwards who played at different times.
The results
By looking at career goal per shares, it’s unfair to make comparisons between players. For example, Mike Bossy only played from ages 20-30, while Gordie Howe played an NHL season at age 52. This would put Howe at an obvious disadvantage; he played a season well out of his prime, while Bossy played nearly his entire career during his prime. We need to account for aging curves.
Simply put, I am only comparing the prime 800 games of each player’s career to determine the best goal scorer in NHL history. The numbers in the table below represent the highest 800 game average Goal Share Per Game they achieved in their career.
I am using 800 games as the benchmark number because Ovechkin is currently 800 games into his NHL career. Most fans are interested in seeing where he ranks amongst the all-time greats.
I’d like to note that Bossy only played 752 career games and Bure only played 702 career games, so I had to take their entire career numbers.
PLAYER NAME GOAL SHARE PER GAME Mario Lemieux 11.67% Alex Ovechkin 11.32% Bobby Hull 10.99% Phil Esposito 10.68% Wayne Gretzky 10.63% Brett Hull 10.58% Pavel Bure 10.55% Jaromir Jagr 10.39% Maurice Richard 10.30% Mike Bossy 10.18% Gordie Howe 10.07% Teemu Selanne 9.33% Jarome Iginla 9.01% Marcel Dionne 8.76% Jari Kurri 7.86%
As you can see, Lemieux leads the way with the highest Goal Share Per Game. Alex Ovechkin is up there as well, with the second highest Goal Share Per Game. Bobby Hull sits in third place.
The extremely high-scoring eras Kurri, Bossy, and Gretzky played in certainly did not help their Goal Share Per Game numbers.
Among the highest single season goal shares per game, Mario Lemieux had a Goal Share Per Game of 15.9% over 60 games played in 1992-93, and Phil Esposito had a Goal Share Per Game of 15.6% over 78 games played in 19970-71.
Who is best goal scorer in NHL history?
He may be 10th on the NHL All-Time Goals Leaders, but I truly believe that Mario Lemieux is the best goal scorer in NHL history. Not only does the data support that, but it’s facts such as the following that leave no doubt in my mind.
After battling cancer, chronic back pain, and tendinitis throughout his career, Lemieux retired in 1997. However, he unexpectedly came out of retirement in 2000, and after missing 3 full seasons, the 35-year-old Lemieux scored at nearly a goal-per-game rate, recording 35 goals in 43 games (this was the highest goals-per-game average that season).
It was also good for an insane 14.76% Goal Share Per Game.
The data
I have attached the excel spreadsheet I used to make all of the computations. GPG = Goals Per Game. The boxed areas represent the prime 800 games of their careers; only this area was used to calculate the Goal Share Per Game for each player shown in the table above.Linux kernel updated to 3.1, brings cool new features
If you are a Linux fan, you will like this. The Linux kernel has been updated to version 3.1 and with the update comes some nice new features that will make Linux more usable for different things. Two main new features have been added to version 3.1 of the kernel that will give Linux geeks something new to play with.
The first of the new features is support for Wiimotes. With motion controls baked in, the kernel can be used for all sorts of things you can control with your Nintendo remotes and more gaming support. The second new update is the addition of NFC technology. Those are the two big tweaks, but the new update also has more to offer.
Other changes include improved support for Intel Ivy Bridge and Cedar Trail platforms. Power management is also improved. Better power management means that battery life will be longer in devices running the new kernel. The new kernel is available for download right now.
[via Engadget]“If you look at how things are manufactured at every other scale other than the human scale–look at DNA and cells and proteins, then look at the planetary scale–everything is built through self assembly,” he says. “But at the human scale, it’s the opposite. Everything is built top down. We take components and we force them together.”
Tibbits is a research scientist in MIT’s department of architecture, but his title belies the radical nature of his work. At MIT, he’s developing materials and objects that can be programmed to assemble themselves. In 2011, he set up a lab to experiment with 4D printing, a process that uses 3D printers to produce material that will grow and change on its own. Since then, the Self-Assembly Lab, which Tibbits runs with co-director Jared Laucks, has been experimenting with a series of materials that can be “programmed” to self-construct. They’ve come up with flat-pack furniture that can build itself, for instance, as well as the textile that could make self-lacing sneakers possible.
Now, in collaboration with designer Marcelo Coelho, who runs an eponymous design studio in Cambridge, Tibbits and his team are applying their work to consumer electronics.
Still in its infancy, their new project explores how with a few components, a source of energy, and the right interactions, a cell phone could “build itself,” without the need for human or even high-tech automation. Not only does the project demonstrate Tibbit’s research into self-assembly on a practical level, it could also have major implications on manufacturing.
Depending on the speed of the tumbler, it can take under a minute.
The original impetus for the project was MIT professor David Mellis’s DIY cell phone, which began as a series of open-source instructions for a basic cell-phone design using only $200 in parts. Mellis made the project into a kit, which got Tibbits and his team thinking: “What are the components of this, and how can we make it assemble itself?”
Fast-forward a couple years from when Mellis’s phone was released, and Tibbits and his lab have a rough prototype for the self-assembled cell phone. It’s composed of six parts that assemble into two different phones. The parts are put into a tumbler (think of something like a cement mixer) and tossed around until the parts click together into the phones. Depending on the speed of the tumbler, it can take under a minute. Here’s a video showing it in action:Health Reform Quiz
The health reform law promises to deliver big changes in the U.S. health care system. But, as with other sweeping pieces of legislation, it can be hard to get the real facts about what it does. And it is all too easy for misinformation about the law to spread. Take our short, 10-question quiz to test your knowledge of the law, and then share your results with friends on Twitter or Facebook. Get Started Share Quiz
1 Will the health reform law require nearly all Americans to have health insurance starting in 2014 or else pay a fine? No, the law will not do this Yes, the law will do this Don't know. Starting in 2014, most U.S. citizens and legal residents will be required to obtain health coverage, or pay a penalty.
2 Will the health reform law establish a government panel to make decisions about end-of-life care for people on Medicare? No, the law will not do this Yes, the law will do this Don't know. No such panels exist.
3 Will the health reform law give states the option of expanding their existing Medicaid program to cover more low-income, uninsured adults? No, the law will not do this. Yes, the law will do this. Don't know. As enacted, the ACA calls for the expansion of state Medicaid programs beginning in 2014 to cover nearly all individuals under age 65 with incomes up to 138% of the federal poverty level ($15,856 for an individual or $26,951 for a family of three in 2013).
4 Will the health reform law allow undocumented immigrants to receive financial help from the government to buy health insurance? No, the law will not do this. Yes, the law will do this. Don't know. Under the ACA, undocumented immigrants will remain ineligible for Medicaid and will be ineligible for the premium tax credits.
5 Will the health reform law increase the Medicare payroll tax on earnings for upper income Americans? No, the law will not do this. Yes, the law will do this. Don't know. It increases the Medicare Hospital Insurance (Part A) payroll tax on earnings for higher-income taxpayers (more than $200,000/individual and $250,000/couple) by 0.9 percentage points from 1.45 percent to 2.35 percent, beginning in 2013.
6 Will the health reform law require employers with 50 or more employees to pay a fine if they don't offer health insurance? No, the law will not do this. Yes, the law will do this. Don't know. Yes, the law will do this.
7 Will the health reform law cut benefits for people in the traditional Medicare program? No, the law will not do this. Yes, the law will do this. Don't know. In fact, it improves certain benefits, such as coverage of preventive services, and closes the Medicare drug coverage gap known as the "doughnut hole."
8 Will the health reform law provide financial help to low- and moderate-income Americans who don't get insurance through their jobs to help them purchase coverage? No, the law will not do this. Yes, the law will do this. Don't know. Tax credits will be available to eligible U.S. citizens and legal immigrants who purchase coverage in the new health insurance exchanges and who have income up to 400% of the federal poverty level ($45,960 for an individual or $94,200 for a family of four in 2013).
9 Will the health reform law create a new government-run insurance plan to be offered along with private plans? No, the law will not do this. Yes, the law will do this. Don't know. The existing Medicaid program will be expanded to cover more low-income people, government regulation of the health insurance industry will be increased, and tax credits will be provided to make private health insurance more affordable for people.
10 Will the health reform law create health insurance exchanges or marketplaces where small businesses and people who don't get coverage through their employers can shop for insurance and compare prices and benefits? No, the law will not do this. Yes, the law will do this. Don't know. Yes, the law will do this.Vietnam games and movies often rely heavily on old chestnuts like "Paint It Black" or "Fortunate Son" to capture an era. One Vietnam game enlisted some dude from Sweden instead.
Shooter Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Vietnam features a loading song that's referred to informally as the "Operation Hastings loading song". Commenters on forums knocked heads and searched frantically to find the song that every Battlefield Vietnam player could not get out of their heads. Thing is, that's actually not the name of the song.
It's "Memphis Guitar Soul" by Anders Lewén.
Lewén is a journeyman musician, cutting tracks with his Swedish blues band "Knock Out Greg & Blue Weather" and his own group "Anders Lewén & Trickbag". Check out the life of the hardworking Lewén as he shows his brilliance on the guitar at a local bowling alley.
Rather than being lazy and typical, the Swedish developers behind Battlefield found a guy who plays one of the most memorable and moving guitar riffs in years. Maybe the developers didn't want to pay big money to use the Stones or CCR. Good thing they didn't, because Memphis Guitar Soul sums up the turbulent 60s just as well as the bands who were there.
[Pic: Facebook Thanks exaliburps!]But McGill supports the 62 percent pay increase the legislature gave itself in 2007 because means lawmakers are now less susceptible to taking bribes, the paper reported.
Regarding teacher pay, McGill said: "It's a Biblical principle. If you double a teacher's pay scale, you'll attract people who aren't called to teach. To go in and raise someone's child for eight hours a day, or many people's children for eight hours a day, requires a calling. It better be a calling in your life. I know I wouldn't want to do it, OK?"
Read the full story from the Times-Journal
DEKALB COUNTY, Alabama -- Giving Alabama teachers a big pay raise could go against the Bible, state Sen. Shadrack McGill (R-Woodville) said recently at a prayer breakfast in north Alabama, according to the Times-Journal of Dekalb CountyThe right-wing media is in a transition phase, as it comes out of eight years in the opposition and morphs into the new mainstream. With it, the most popular and influential commentators — many of whom are young and inexperienced — must adapt as well and live up to the expectations placed on them.
These “conservakids,” as Townhall’s Kurt Schlicter terms them, use their youthful energy to spread a conservative message to other young people in particular and fight the misconception that conservatism is incompatible with younger generations. Conservakids are fond of humor and creative ways to convey their message to a young, easily-distracted audience but the mediums they use can have serious tradeoffs. Social media is an easy breeding ground for short viral videos by popular commentators, which are often flashy and fun, but also can leave out necessary arguments and substance.
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For instance, the “Final Thoughts” videos by Tomi Lahren, former commentator on The Blaze, amassed millions of views thanks to the convenience of the share/retweet buttons. Millennials enjoy her provocative sound bites and flashy graphics, but it is important to properly balance entertainment and the pursuit of knowledge.
As millennials quickly become a dominant force in politics (after all, not only are we the largest living generation, we now practically equal Baby Boomers in our size of the American voting public), we inherit the mantle of political activism, and we must do so responsibly and wisely. Thanks to the internet, we have the methods to reach a massive audience and convey our ideas in entirely new ways. While we can be entertaining, witty, and hard-hitting, we should first be educated and grounded in the message we convey.
.@TomiLahren explains why she's pro-choice: "Stay out of my guns and you can stay out of my body, as well." pic.twitter.com/0kFXJ7oL9L — The View (@TheView) March 17, 2017
As a “conservakid” myself, I am all too aware of how powerful a popular Twitter page or an entertaining viral video can be to advance a cause. People like me, who without social media would otherwise not have a platform, now have the ability to influence others in seconds. It is important to push out a message, but more important to ensure that we do not allow our own arrogance or vanity to taint our work. Millennial-age journalists and commentators must learn, read, and listen before promoting agendas and talking points we may not fully understand.
This doesn’t mean taking the fun out of communication, which proved effective at bringing people into the movement, but it means having popular commentators that devote themselves to honesty and integrity.
Lahren’s ban from The Blaze — which came after she came out publicly as pro-choice despite a recent history of pandering to her fanbase with pro-life messages and tweets — should be a wake up call for those who are in, or aspire to be in, the same position to better develop their own ideas about life and politics. As we get older, our positions on some issues are bound to change, but this should be the result of gaining more knowledge and insight as opposed to simply telling an audience what they want to hear or picking a position that will amount in more fame.
@TomiLahren killing unborn children is wrong. It's a shame you didn't have the courage to say so when surrounded by liberals. — Mollie (@MZHemingway) March 19, 2017
Even more concerning than Lahren’s decision to call her pro-life fan base hypocrites, is a 2016 interview with the Daily Caller in which she said: “I’m not a reader. I don’t like to read long books. I like to read news. So I couldn’t tell you that there was a book that I read that changed my life.”
If the conservative movement’s future includes leaders who do not read, and cannot even recommend a good book to others, then I am fearful about the future of conservatism. To assume that the news alone, or others’ opinions of it on social media, is sufficient to understanding conservative thought or how the world has operated in the past and in the present is immature and dangerous. Aspiring conservative millennials look up to people like Lahren as role models. Such a position of influence should not be taken lightly.
As young people, we lack wisdom and will gain it by admitting this and learning from our own experiences. In order to prove ourselves worthy of the platform we hold, we must compensate for our youth by actively seeking knowledge.
Does this mean that young conservatives should not seek an audience at all, as many now argue? It depends. If young commentators can place their ideology in a broader context beyond just their Twitter page, and can offer a track record of honest, insightful commentary, their age should not be a disqualifier. In contrast, if a commentator’s only claim to fame is a pretty face, quick wit, and overenthusiastic use of the retweet button, they should think twice about the position of influence they seek.
As James Madison once wrote: “Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”
“Conservakids” should seek out knowledge above showmanship. In an age where information is distributed in 140 characters and short videos, we are effectively spreading our message and growing in numbers. We must now take our role seriously and holding ourselves to a higher standard, one that requires us to adequately educate ourselves before educating others. Our message should be guided by those who have gone before us, adapted for the modern times.
So conservakids, get out your books and start reading.
Kassy Dillon is a junior at Mount Holyoke College studying International Relations and Middle Eastern Studies. She is the MHC College Republican President, the Massachusetts YAL state chair, and she is also the founder of LoneConservative.com She can be found on Twitter at @KassyDillon.
The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the views of The Hill.In the most cringe-worthy story of the week, a British hipster who describes himself as a “hopeless, sarcastic romantic” (whatever that means) has actually attempted to crowdfund love.
For himself.
Tom Packer, a bartender and ‘occasional writer’ from Norwich, is using the crowdsourcing site Indiegogo to try and raise enough money for 13 dates – and they’re not cheap.
The 26-year-old, who claims to “adore dating,” considers “£ 100 a fair enough average,” for a “personal date.”
“I like the personal touch,” he says.
“I like making it an event, something to get nervous and butterfly [sic] and excited about.”
Indeed. Tom claims to have had his “fair share of right swipes,” and says he once hit the streets of London with mistletoe attached to his head “in an attempt to find a special someone.”
Incredibly, that didn’t work, so Tom has turned to the internet to test out the allegedly-popular theory that it takes thirteen dates to find love.
Presumably this means that he needs to raise at least $2430, unless of course Indiegogo users shoot for the deluxe deal that Tom is offering; while 100 quid will get you a “guaranteed date” with this over-inked, bearded hack, paying five times that amount will get you a date and a poem.
Here is a sample of some of the quality work the lucky, presumably stupidly rich, lady can expect:
“Stronger than any deity, more changeable than the tides
“I’d give my honour, my dignity, my sanity
“For a life in which love resides.”
Frighteningly, Tom has already raised $425.
Source: Inidiegogo
Author: Nick Alexander. Approving editor: Simon Black
© Nine Digital Pty Ltd 2019I met Adam DeVine after seeing him in his standup comedy show in Madison, Wl last Friday night. He was super nice and a really great guy! I told him I miss him on Modern Family because he was my favorite guest star ever on the show and l loved Andy’s relationship with Haley and his bromance with Phil. He told me that the creators asked him to be a series regular, but he turned them down because he was too busy with Workaholics. I told him he should do it now that Workaholics is ending. He joked that he should go crawling back to them begging and pleading to them to let him back on the show. I laughed and said that I just really want Haley and Andy to end up together. He said he wanted that too.
I like knowing the creators wanted to add Andy as a series regular, making him really part of the family on the show. It just sucks that after Adam informed them he couldn’t do it, they decided to drop his character completely from the season; instead of using him like they did before as a special guest star, which allowed him to work on both shows at the same time. It’s frustrating that it seems to be all or nothing with them when it comes to Andy. I just hope they will ask Adam again when his work schedule opens up some more and he can actually do it this time. Or, at least invite him back as a special guest star because I really miss Andy and want him back on the show.On August 4, Fox News Washington correspondent James Rosen reported that the budget reconciliation process Democrats have "threatened" to use to pass health care reform legislation is an "arcane parliamentary tactic" and that it "is, as a matter of law, used only for budget bills to achieve deficit reduction." In fact, during the Bush administration, the Republican majority frequently used reconciliation to pass major initiatives not aimed at deficit reduction, including then-President Bush's tax cuts.
From the August 4 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Bret Baier:
ROSEN: Prompting these renewed fears about a breakdown in bipartisanship were remarks Monday by Democrat Charles Schumer of New York, who threatened the use of arcane parliamentary tactics to bypass a potential GOP filibuster and secure final passage on a simple majority vote. SCHUMER [audio clip]: These plans will likely be considered only as a last resort, but make no mistake about it, they remain on the table. No matter what happens, we're going to enact health care reform by the end of the year. ROSEN: The tactic Schumer threatened to use is known as reconciliation. It is, as a matter of law, used only for budget bills to achieve deficit reduction. To use it on health care legislation means the Democrats would likely have to break up their agenda into at least two separate votes. And the budget committee's ranking Republican told Fox News there will be a showdown with the GOP.
Republicans repeatedly used reconciliation to pass Bush tax cuts
GOP passed 2001 tax cuts through reconciliation. The Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001, which provided for tax cuts and prevented tax increases, was passed through the reconciliation process. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that the bill, as cleared by Congress, would "reduce projected total surpluses by approximately $1.35 trillion over the 2001-2011 period."
GOP passed 2003 tax cuts through reconciliation. The Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003, which accelerated previously enacted tax cuts and provided for additional tax reductions, was passed through the reconciliation process. The CBO estimated that the bill, as cleared by Congress, "would increase budget deficits... by $349.7 billion over the 2003-2013 period.
GOP passed 2005 tax cuts through reconciliation. The Tax Increase Prevention Reconciliation Act of 2005, which prevented tax cuts from expiring and raised the Alternative Minimum Tax exemption, was passed through the reconciliation process. The CBO estimated that the bill, as cleared by Congress and signed by the president, would "reduce federal revenues... by $69.1 billion over the 2006-2015 period."
In reports, media have ignored Republicans' past support of the tactic
In quoting GOP criticism of reconciliation, media have ignored their past support of the tactic. Media Matters for America has documented a pattern of journalists uncritically quoting Republican senators criticizing the decision to use reconciliation as overly partisan, without noting that the senators they are quoting -- including Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT) -- voted to allow the use of the budget reconciliation process to pass legislation during the Bush administration, including the tax cuts.
Reconciliation not "as a matter of law" limited to deficit reduction
Reconciliation process can be used for changes in mandatory spending or revenue programs. The budget reconciliation process is defined by the U.S. House Committee on Rules as "part of the congressional budget process... utilized when Congress issues directives to legislate policy changes in mandatory spending (entitlements) or revenue programs (tax laws) to achieve the goals in spending and revenue contemplated by the budget resolution."The men’s rights movement and its academic offshoot “New Male Studies” are considered in light of the turn to affect. I argue that affective utterances, “I feel,” become phallic in the men’s rights movement and function in a defensive mode. Unlike the phallus as guarantor of masculinity, which is currently up for debate, the affective utterance cannot be denied—that is, affect is wholly subjective. However, we can, as theorists, ask questions about how and why affect is being used.
Bawer, B. 2013. “ A Joke of a Men’s Studies Center.” FrontPage Magazine: http://frontpagemag.com/2013/bruce-bawer/a-joke-of-a-mens-studies-center/print/. Accessed February 2015.
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Google ScholarJulius Randle
College: Kentucky
Age: 19 years old
Height: 6’9″
Weight: 250 lbs.
Position: Power Forward
NBA Comparison: David Lee
Easily one of the most polarizing NBA prospects in this year’s draft class, Kentucky power forward Julius Randle shined in his first and only year in college, averaging 15 points and more than 10 rebounds per contest. While he started the season highly regarded as the best power forward in the country, much of his hype seemingly died down after Kentucky struggled during the regular season, despite his solid performance. Nonetheless, Randle was the star of this Kentucky team, and proved his value in the NCAA Tournament.
While he is still very limited in many aspects of his game, Randle is still perhaps the most NBA-ready player in this draft, and is locked-in as a top-10 pick.
Strengths:
At 6’9″ and 250 lbs., Julius Randle has great size for a power forward, and tremendous upper-body strength that is not often seen. Finishes well at the rim, even through contact. His reliable mid-range jump shot also |
िधाता ।
जय हे, जय हे, जय हे, जय जय जय जय हे । Jana-gana-mana-adhinayaka jaya he
Bharata-bhagya vidhata.
Jaya he, Jaya he, Jaya he,
Jaya jaya jaya jaya he. Jana-gana-mana adhināyaka jaya hē
Bhārata bhāgya vidhātā.
Jaya hē, Jaya hē, Jaya hē, jaya jaya jaya jaya hē.
English translation [ edit ]
Translation by Tagore, dated 28 February 1919 at the Besant Theosophical College. Refer to The Morning Song of India. Wikisource. for the translation of the full poem. Primary sources available in the "Gallery" section.
Thou art, the ruler of our minds, of all people
The dispenser of India's destiny!
Thy name rouses the heart of Punjab, Sindh, Gujarat
and Maratha, of the Dravida and Odisha
and Bengal; It echoes in the hills of Vindhya and the
Himalayas, and mingles in the music of Ganga and Yamuna
and is chanted by the waves of the Indian sea.
They pray for thy blessings and sing thy praise.
The saving of all people waits in thy hands,
Thou dispenser of India's destiny.
Victory, Victory, Victory to the.[15]
Gallery [ edit ]
Tagore's translation of Jana Gana Mana on February 28, 1919 at the Besant Theosophical College
Page 1 of Tagore's translation of Jana Gana Mana on February 28, 1919 at the Besant Theosophical College
Page 2 of Tagore's translation of Jana Gana Mana on February 28, 1919 at the Besant Theosophical College
Early or original score of Jana Gana Mana
Controversies [ edit ]
In Kerala, students belonging to the Jehovah's Witnesses religious denomination were expelled by school authorities for their refusal to sing the national anthem on religious grounds, although they stood up respectfully when the anthem was sung.[16] The Kerala High Court concluded that there was nothing in it which could offend anyone's religious susceptibilities, and upheld their expulsion. On 11 August 1986,[17] the Supreme Court reversed the High Court and ruled that the High Court had misdirected itself because the question is not whether a particular religious belief or practice appeals to our reason or sentiment but whether the belief is genuinely and conscientiously held as part of the profession or practice of a religion. "Our personal views and reactions are irrelevant." The Supreme Court affirmed the principle that it is not for a secular judge to sit in judgment on the correctness of a religious belief.[18]
The Supreme Court observed in its ruling that[19]
"There is no provision of law which obliges anyone to sing the National Anthem nor is it disrespectful to the National Anthem if a person who stands up respectfully when the National Anthem is sung does not join the singing. Proper respect is shown to the National Anthem by standing up when the National Anthem is sung. It will not be right to say that disrespect is shown by not joining in the singing. Standing up respectfully when the National Anthem is sung but not singing oneself clearly does not either prevent the singing of the National Anthem or cause disturbance to an assembly engaged in such singing so as to constitute the offence mentioned in s. 3 of the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act".
In some states, it is mandatory that the anthem must be played before films played at cinemas. On 30 November 2016, the Supreme Court ordered that all cinemas nationwide must play the national anthem, accompanied by an image of the flag of India, before all films, and that patrons were expected to stand in respect of the anthem. This was intended to instill "committed patriotism and nationalism".[20] The order was controversial, as it was argued that that patrons who chose not to participate would be targeted and singled out (as was the case in an incident publicized in 2015, which purported to show a group of patrons (identified by the YouTube uploader as allegedly being Muslims) being heckled by other patrons for not standing during the anthem. On 10 February 2017, two Kashmiri citizens (which included an employee of the state government) were arrested under the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971 for not standing during the anthem at a cinema, in the first such arrest of its kind made by a state government, and other incidents of violent outbreaks associated with.[21][22][23]
A cinema club in Kerala (whose film festival was required to comply with the order, leading to several arrests) challenged the order as an infringement of their fundamental rights, arguing that cinemas were "singularly unsuited for the gravitas and sobriety that must accompany the playing of the national anthem", and that the films screened would often "be at odds with sentiments of national respect".[24]In October 2017, Justice Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud questioned the intent of the order, arguing that citizens "don't have to wear patriotism on our sleeve", and it should not be assumed that people who do not stand for the anthem were any less patriotic than those who did. In January 2018, the order was lifted, pending further government discussion.[25][26][27]
Historical significance [ edit ]
The composition was first sung during a convention of the Indian National Congress in Calcutta on 27 December 1911.[28] It was sung on the second day of the convention, and the agenda of that day devoted itself to a loyal welcome of George V on his visit to India. The event was reported thus in the British Indian press:
"The Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore sang a song composed by him specially to welcome the Emperor." (Statesman, Dec. 28, 1911)
"The proceedings began with the singing by Rabindranath Tagore of a song specially composed by him in honour of the Emperor." (Englishman, Dec. 28, 1911)
"When the proceedings of the Indian National Congress began on Wednesday 27th December 1911, a Bengali song in welcome of the Emperor was sung. A resolution welcoming the Emperor and Empress was also adopted unanimously." (Indian, Dec. 29, 1911)
Many historians aver that the newspaper reports cited above were misguided. The confusion arose in British Indian press since a different song, "Badshah Humara" written in Hindi by Rambhuj Chaudhary,[29] was sung on the same occasion in praise of the monarch. The nationalist Indian press stated this difference of events clearly:
"The proceedings of the Congress party session started with a prayer in Bengali to praise God (song of benediction). This was followed by a resolution expressing loyalty to King George V. Then another song was sung welcoming King George V." (Amrita Bazar Patrika, Dec.28,1911)
"The annual session of Congress began by singing a song composed by the great Bengali poet Ravindranath Tagore. Then a resolution expressing loyalty to King George V was passed. A song paying a heartfelt homage to King George V was then sung by a group of boys and girls." (The Bengalee, Dec. 28, 1911)
Even the report of the annual session of the Indian National Congress of December 1911 stated this difference:
"On the first day of 28th annual session of the Congress, proceedings started after singing Vande Mataram. On the second day the work began after singing a patriotic song by Babu Ravindranath Tagore. Messages from well wishers were then read and a resolution was passed expressing loyalty to King George V. Afterwards the song composed for welcoming King George V and Queen Mary was sung."
On 10 November 1937, Tagore wrote a letter to Mr Pulin Bihari Sen about the controversy. That letter in Bengali can be found in Tagore's biography Ravindrajivani, volume II page 339 by Prabhatkumar Mukherjee.
"A certain high official in His Majesty's service, who was also my friend, had requested that I write a song of felicitation towards the Emperor. The request simply amazed me. It caused a great stir in my heart. In response to that great mental turmoil, I pronounced the victory in Jana Gana Mana of that Bhagya Bidhata [ed. God of Destiny] of India who has from age after age held steadfast the reins of India's chariot through rise and fall, through the straight path and the curved. That Lord of Destiny, that Reader of the Collective Mind of India, that Perennial Guide, could never be George V, George VI, or any other George. Even my official friend understood this about the song. After all, even if his admiration for the crown was excessive, he was not lacking in simple common sense."[30]
Again in his letter of 19 March 1939 Tagore writes:[31]
"I should only insult myself if I cared to answer those who consider me capable of such unbounded stupidity as to sing in praise of George the Fourth or George the Fifth as the Eternal Charioteer leading the pilgrims on their journey through countless ages of the timeless history of mankind." (Purvasa, Phalgun, 1354, p. 738.)
However, his clarifications on the controversy came only after the death of the Emperor George V in 1936, as Tagore himself didn't want to contradict it during the lifetime of the Emperor. Further, Tagore accepted the Knighthood on Jun 3rd on the birthday of Emperor George V in 1915 for his poetry and songs. The Knighthood was bestowed to Tagore on the wish of the Emperor George V, who was made to believe that the song 'Jana Gana Mana' was composed eugolising the Emperor.
Tagore was hailed as a patriot who wrote other songs too apart from "Jana Gana Mana" lionising the Indian independence movement. He renounced his knighthood in protest against the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh Massacre. The Knighthood (i.e. the title of 'Sir') was conferred on him by the same King George V after receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature for "Gitanjali" from the government of Sweden. Two of Tagore's more politically charged compositions, "Chitto Jetha Bhayshunyo" ("Where the Mind is Without Fear", Gitanjali Poem #35) and "Ekla Chalo Re" ("If They Answer Not to Thy Call, Walk Alone"), gained mass appeal, with the latter favoured by Gandhi and Netaji.[citation needed]
Regional aspects [ edit ]
Another controversy is that only those provinces that were under British rule, i.e. Punjab, Sindh, Gujarat, Maratha, Dravid (South India), Odisha/Utkal and Bengal, were mentioned. None of the princely states – Kashmir, Rajasthan, Hyderabad, Mysore or Kerala – or the states in Northeast India, which are now integral parts of India were mentioned. But opponents of this proposition claim that Tagore mentioned only the border states of India to include complete India. Whether the princely states would form a part of a liberated Indian republic was a matter of debate even till Indian Independence. 'Dravida' includes the people from the south (though Dravida specifically means Tamil and even then, the same consideration is not given for the south since there are many distinct people whereas in the north each of the distinct people are named) and 'Jolodhi' (Stanza 1) is Sanskrit for "seas and oceans". Even North-East which was under British rule or holy rivers apart from Ganges and Yamuna are not mentioned to keep the song in its rhythm. India has 29 states, 7 union territories.
In 2005, there were calls to delete the word "Sindh" and substitute it with the word Kashmir. The argument was that Sindh was no longer a part of India, having become part of Pakistan as a result of the Partition of 1947. Opponents of this proposal hold that the word "Sindh" refers to the Indus and to Sindhi culture, and that Sindhi people are an integral part of India's cultural fabric. The Supreme Court of India declined to change the national anthem and the wording remains unchanged.
On 17 December 2013, MLA of Assam, Phani Bhushan Choudhury cited article of 'The Times of India' published on 26 January 1950, stating that originally the word 'Kamarup' was included in the song, but was later changed to 'Sindhu' and claimed that Kamarup should be re-included.[32] To this, the then minister Rockybul Hussain replied that the state government would initiate steps in this regard after response from the newspaper.[32] The debate was further joined by the then minister Ardhendu Dey, mentioning 'Sanchayita' (edited by Tagore himself) etc. where he said Kamrup was not mentioned.[32]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]Overview
New proposals for Barclays Cycle Superhighway Route 5 between Oval and Belgravia:
TfL and Westminster City Council are consulting on new proposals for Barclays Cycle Superhighway Route 5 (CS5) between Oval and Belgravia. Proposals include a segregated two-way cycle track between Oval and Pimlico and three different options for the route between Pimlico and Belgravia. Please visit tfl.gov.uk/cs5 to view and comment on the new proposals. Consultation closes on Sunday 14 September 2014.
Consultation on proposed junction improvements at Oval:
TfL is proposing to substantially redesign four junctions around Oval station to improve conditions for cyclists. Please visit tfl.gov.uk/oval-triangle to view and comment on the proposals. Consultation closes on Sunday 17 August 2014,
Information on CS5 consultation in December 2012:
In December 2012, we consulted on proposals to introduce Barclays Cycle Superhighway Route 5 (CS5) between New Cross Gate and Victoria.
Having analysed the responses to consultation and reviewed the proposals in light of the Mayor’s new Vision for Cycling in London, we decided to substantially recast the previous proposals for some sections of CS5. An update on our delivery of the route is below. Further details of the consultation and our response to it can be found in our Response to consultation.
CS5 between Oval and central London:
We are developing revised proposals for the section of Barclays Cycle Superhighway Route 5 (CS5) between Oval and central London. Consultation is planned for summer 2014.
CS5 between Oval and New Cross:
The New Cross – Oval section of CS5 will open when we have finalised our previously-announced plans for semi-segregation. Semi-segregation will see all the bus and mandatory cycle lanes on this part of the route separated from the general traffic using measures such as cats’ eyes, rumble strips, traffic ‘wands’, or a combination. As the Vision stated, semi-segregation is our preference where we cannot do full segregation because it would cause too much disruption to buses. Semi-segregation is not being done immediately as we are trialling which form of separation works best.
The previously-announced road layout changes are largely complete (except as outlined in sections 6, 9 and 15). These changes include new cycle and bus lanes, road resurfacing, and new junction layouts. We will review these layouts as part of our work to install semi-segregation, to see if they can be even further improved for cyclists. Green cycle surfacing will be used until this part of the route is ready to be opened as a Barclays Cycle Superhighway.
We introduced a new 20mph speed limit in Camberwell town centre and an extended 20mph speed limit in New Cross in March 2014. Additionally, we are proposing a new 20mph speed limit in Peckham town centre, and will consult on this in summer 2014.
Major junction improvements at Oval – by end of 2015:
We are developing substantial, fully-funded changes to the Oval junction to bring about safety and urban realm improvements for all road users. We will consult on our plans here in 2014. We have therefore revised our previous proposals for the junction and will now deliver initial improvements here as part of Phase 1. Please see page 19 of the Response to consultation for more details.
The full route of CS5 will be completed to the standards outlined in the Mayor’s Cycling Vision by the end of 2015.
CS5 east of New Cross
We are working with Lewisham Council to explore the feasibility of extending CS5 east of New Cross. We will deliver the previously-announced proposals as far as the junction of Queen’s Road and New Cross Road, as we continue to develop improved proposals for the route east of that point.
New Quietway route in parallel to CS5
We are in discussions with the relevant local authorities with the intention of developing a high-quality cycle route on low-traffic back streets running parallel to CS5.
What did we consult on?
Consultation on CS5 has now closed. The consultation ran between 3 December 2012 and 13 January 2013 (consultation on CS5 in Camberwell ran from 24 January to 8 March 2013).
The new route proposed substantial changes to the road layout to improve safety for cyclists, including:
More space for cyclists and buses, through reallocation of road space
New mandatory cycle lanes, all at least 1.5 metres wide
Improvements for cyclists at 52 junctions, including new Advanced Stop Lines, cycle feeder lanes, and speed reduction measures
An innovative cycle ‘early-start’ facility at Vauxhall Bridge Road/Millbank to help cyclists get ahead of traffic
Banning some turns for cars and lorries to reduce conflict with cyclists
Extended 20mph speed limit in New Cross
Original proposals
Find out more about what we originally proposed for each section of the route by clicking the links below. These designs do not reflect the changes outlined in the Response to consultation.
► Section 1 – Vauxhall Bridge Road north (Neathouse Place to Charlwood Street )
► Section 2 –Vauxhall Bridge Road south (Charlwood Street to Millbank)
► Section 3 – Vauxhall Bridge Road / Millbank junction
► Section 4 – Vauxhall Bridge
► Section 5 – Vauxhall Gyratory
► Section 6 – Kennington Oval / Harleyford Street
► Section 7 – Oval Junction
► Section 8 – Camberwell New Road
► Section 9 – Camberwell Green
► Section 10 – Peckham Road west (Benhill Road to Southampton Way)
► Section 11 – Peckham Road east (Lyndhurst Way to Peckham Bus Station)
► Section 12 – Peckham High Street / Queen's Road west (Peckham Bus Station to Carlton Grove )
► Section 13 – Queen's Road (Carlton Grove to Pomeroy Street)
► Section 14 – Queen's Road east (Pomeroy Street to Pepys Road)
► Section 15 - New Cross (and other local cycling improvements in Lewisham)
Construction work
We plan to start work in July 2013. We’ll write to local residents before undertaking work. The route is planned to open in 2014.Fossil fuel production on U.S. federal lands took another dip during fiscal year 2012, even as energy production nationwide soared to a record high, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
During fiscal year 2012 — which ended last Sept. 30 and is the most recent period for which the agency’s data is available– federal lands produced 17.1 quadrillion British thermal units of fossil fuel energy, the lowest level in at least a decade. That was a 3.7 percent decline from the year before.
In addition to a drop in coal production, federal-land fossil fuel output suffered from continuing declines in oil and natural gas production offshore, including the Gulf of Mexico.
Energy Information Administration: United States will fall from world’s top oil importer this year
For most of the past decade, a third of the nation’s fossil fuel production has come from federal lands. But that share has fallen during the national shale boom, which has occurred largely on privately owned property.
During fiscal year 2012, less than 28 percent of domestic fossil fuel production was on federal land.
Oil production on federal land was a hotly debated issue during the 2012 presidential election. In the fiscal year ending in September 2008, federal lands produced 565 million barrels of oil. That rose during the first two years of the Obama administration, hitting 723 million barrels in fiscal year 2010, the highest level since at least 2003. But that growth has since reversed, falling to 596 million barrels in fiscal year 2012 — just slightly higher than 2008 production.
Federal-land production of natural gas plant liquids also has risen during that period, from 104 million barrels in fiscal year 2008 to 114 million barrels in fiscal year 2012. But coal and natural gas production has fallen. About 4.3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas was produced on federal lands in fiscal year 2012, a 30 percent drop from fiscal year 2008. And coal production fell 8 percent during that time, to 442 million tons.
Also on FuelFix:
New oil platforms rise high to reach deepThe Pamir, Hindu Kush and Tian Shan mountain ranges and the Syr Darya and Amu Darya rivers border a region in which two world religions, Islam and Christianity, collided, astronomy blossomed and eminent doctors taught. Central Asia is one of the eternal hot spots in world history, a place where Darius I and Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan and Tamerlane left their marks. The British and Russian colonial powers followed suit when they embarked on the "Great Game," a bitter struggle over natural resources and strategic bases.
The Great Game was adjourned at the beginning of the 20th century. But after 1920 an even more brutal dictator, Josef Stalin, put his stamp on the region when he redrew the borders of Central Asia. Stalin created five Soviet republics, carving up traditional trading zones, and settled areas in the process. His goal was to weaken and sow discord among the region's Muslim ethnic groups and thus make them less of a threat to Moscow.
The seeds of ethnic strife had been sown. They began to sprout when the vast Soviet realm was dissolved and its republics became independent nations, separated by unnatural borders. Former US National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski once referred to Central Asia, a hotbed of conflict and, in Brzezinski's view, one of the most strategically important parts of the world, as the "Eurasian Balkans."
Today the major powers' interests in the region range from military bases for waging the war against the Taliban to oil and gas pipelines and drug prevention. One of the most important heroin smuggling routes passes through a part of Central Asia controlled by Islamists.
For these reasons, the world is now witnessing a new version of the Great Game, this time involving both the former players, Russia and Great Britain, and new players, the United States, China and Iran. None of the countries within their field of vision is stable, eccentric dictators are in control almost everywhere, corruption is rampant and many nations are at odds with their neighbors. After several coups and ethnic unrest, Kyrgyzstan is leaderless. Kazakhstan, rich in natural resources, feels pressured by China. Islamists in Tajikistan have renewed their fight against the regime, and in Uzbekistan, a major cotton exporter, the opposition is brutally persecuted.
In a new series, SPIEGEL describes the worrisome situation in Central Asia, a region where American historian Kenneth Weisbrode fears "a massive storm could be brewing."
Part I: Kyrgyzstan Has Become an Ungovernable Country
Part II: Nazarbayev Dictates a Bright Future for Kazakhstan
Part III: Appeasing the Uzbek Dictator
Part IV: Hubs for Gas and Militaries
Part V: An Islamist Uprising in TajikistanAt the beginning of January, during a Senate discussion about the future of Obamacare, Bernie Sanders brought a visual aid to the floor. It wasn’t a pie chart or health insurance statistics. It was a tweet.
In the missive from May 2015, Donald Trump announced that under his presidency, there would be no cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security. Appealing to other Senators, Sanders read the tweet aloud as a direct quote from Trump like a lawyer presenting evidence. “[Trump] didn’t say it once in the middle of the night,” Sanders said. “He didn’t say it in an interview. This was a central part of his campaign.”
A tweet on paper, not on screen
Sanders argued that when it comes to Trump, who uses Twitter like a press room, every tweet can be taken as an official political statement. But this idea isn’t limited to the president of the United States. What is said on social media extends into and has an impact on the real world. The printed tweet — silly as it looks — is a useful reminder of that.
At the Women’s March last month, in Washington, DC and around the world, printed tweets bobbed up and down march routes alongside thousands of other marker-scrawled protest signs. And last week, Trump’s press secretary Sean Spicer refuted a tweet from Obama’s national security advisor in a press conference. And, as hard proof of the tweet’s existence, there the tweet was, clutched in Spicer’s fist, printed onto a 9 x 11-inch piece of paper.
Ok here is the gif of @PressSec holding up a printed tweet. pic.twitter.com/zxU67neZDu — Tom Namako (@TomNamako) January 30, 2017
You could argue that the act of printing out a social media post feels like a step backwards; isn’t there a reason these things live online and not in a scrapbook? Seeing a tweet in the wild for the first time is like seeing someone act out a diary entry for a public audience: disorienting and maybe even a little embarrassing. We’re so used to seeing tweets in a digital context that slapping them on paper seems dated.
But there is utility in turning a tweet from a digital artifact into a physical one, and it has surfaced most obviously in the political world.
For one thing, tweets are often direct quotes. (Even if you recognize that many politicians have social media teams to man their Twitter accounts, implicit in each tweet is some kind of approval by the person whose name is attached to it.) The only mediator is the platform — no media intermediary necessary. And because each tweet is timestamped, and there’s no way for the tweeter to edit (other than deleting), a tweet is a tiny capsule of its creator’s stance at a particular moment.
Tweets are more casual and more accessible than, say, a voting record or a 45-page PDF of a bill. Even the people who don’t use Twitter (and that’s most people) know what a tweet looks like, and the connotations that come with that design: a concise missive straight from the source.
A tweet is also digestible, a bite-sized version of someone’s beliefs and ideologies from the present and the past. At protests of Trump’s recent Muslim ban this past weekend in New York City, one common poster was a print-out of a 2015 tweet from Vice President Mike Pence, which seemed to contradict the president’s executive order.
Calls to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. are offensive and unconstitutional. — Governor Mike Pence (@GovPenceIN) December 8, 2015
Because of Twitter’s feed design, tweets often come across as ephemeral: released and quickly buried by thousands of other messages. Printing a tweet fishes the quote from the Twitter stream, and mounts it on paper. The process gives the tweet a permanence it might not have had otherwise.
Our online behavior and our offline identities aren’t as separated as we once thought. For both citizens and politicians, printing out tweets is a way of holding those in power accountable for what they say — even when it’s 140-characters or less.That didn't take long. The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Richard Burr (R-N.C.), is backing off on trial-balloon legislation he floated Thursday that would criminalize Apple's or any other firm's refusal to assist the government's encryption efforts.
The change of heart comes on the heels of a whirlwind week surrounding the encryption debate—a week in which a federal judge ordered Apple to aid the authorities in unlocking an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters. Soon after came Apple chief Tim Cook's angry response to the order alongside much public debate, and Burr's proposal followed on Thursday.
A Burr spokeswoman said on Friday, however, that the lawmaker is "studying" whether to "tighten rules about encryption."
"Chairman Burr is not considering criminal penalties in his draft encryption proposals," his spokeswoman, Rebecca Watkins, told Ars in an e-mail on Friday.
In a USA Today op-ed on Thursday, Burr wrote that Apple has "wrongly chosen to prioritize its business model above compliance with a lawfully issued court order." His op-ed came a day after NSA Director Michael Rogers said the Paris attacks "would not have happened" without crypto.
Burr was referring to the iPhone used by Syed Rizwan Farook, who along with his wife was responsible for the December terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California. That iPhone has been seized by the FBI. Federal prosecutors succeeded in getting a court order on Tuesday to compel Apple to aid the government in unlocking that phone. A federal judge agreed that a 1789 law required Apple to write software to remove Apple's restrictions on password guessing, which would allow the authorities to brute-force attack the phone to gain access.
Apple is resisting and has until February 26 to respond formally to the court order. Congress has not passed a law requiring such assistance, but the All Writs Act allows judges to issue orders despite Congressional silence on an issue.Not to be confused with Ahmad D. Brooks
Ahmad Kadar Brooks (born March 14, 1984) is an American football outside linebacker who is currently a free agent. He played college football at Virginia, and was drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals in the third round of the 2006 NFL Supplemental Draft. He has also played for the San Francisco 49ers and Green Bay Packers.
Early years and personal [ edit ]
Brooks attended C. D. Hylton High School in Woodbridge, Virginia, which he helped lead to two VHSL state championships during his three-year tenure (1999–2001). Brooks battled injuries throughout his high school career, but he had a very productive year in 2001—he had 207 tackles (144 solos), including 34 for loss, and he also rushed for 848 yards and 10 touchdowns while averaging 12.6 yards per carry. The semifinal loss to Thomas Dale High School of Chester, Virginia in 2001 was the only Hylton loss in three years in which he played. He was named as USA Today's National Defensive Player of the year after the 2001 season. He participated in the 2002 U.S. Army All-American Bowl game.
Considered a five-star recruit by Rivals.com, Brooks was listed as the No. 1 outside linebacker in the nation in 2002.[1]
His father, former Washington Redskins defensive tackle Perry Brooks, died in March 2010.[2]
College career [ edit ]
Following high school, Brooks spent one year at Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, Virginia a military post-graduate school before enrolling in the University of Virginia in the fall of 2003, where he played for the Virginia Cavaliers football team. He earned a starting position as a freshman and finished the year with a career-high and team-leading 117 tackles. He also had four sacks, six passes defensed, 10 tackles-for-loss and 15 quarterback pressures. He had a career-high 12 tackles vs. Pittsburgh in the Continental Tire Bowl, including a key stop early in the contest to complete a goal-line stand.
During his sophomore year at the University of Virginia he was one of three Butkus Award finalists, which goes to the best linebacker in the country. He played in 12 games, earning All-America honors after totaling a team-leading 90 tackles, with eight sacks, two interceptions, 11 quarterback pressures and 10 tackles-for-loss. Earned Atlantic Coast Conference Defensive Lineman of the Week honors for his performance against the Maryland Terrapins.
He played in six games as a junior, with 27 tackles (10 solo), including one sack, plus four passes defensed and five quarterback pressures. He missed games 1-3 while rehabbing from knee surgery performed following his sophomore campaign. He missed other games due to various injuries throughout the 2005 season. He was involved in several off-field problems and was eventually dismissed from the team following the season.
Professional career [ edit ]
Cincinnati Bengals [ edit ]
Brooks entered the NFL Supplemental Draft following his junior season at Virginia and was selected by the Bengals in the third round on July 13, 2006. He made his NFL debut September 24 at Pittsburgh (no statistics). As a rookie, he played in 11 contests (Games 3-9, 11-12, and 16), with starts at Middle Linebacker in Games 5-9. He had 46 tackles, with one sack, 2 passes defended, and one special teams tackle.
In the 2007 season opener on Monday Night Football against the Baltimore Ravens, Brooks was the starter. Brooks ended the game with six tackles, a sack, and a forced fumble. In the first series of the game against the Cleveland Browns in week 2, Brooks tore his groin muscle, which ended his season.[4] He was placed on injured reserve on November 7, 2007.[5]
Brooks was waived by the Bengals on August 30, 2008 during the final roster cuts.[6]
San Francisco 49ers [ edit ]
On August 31, 2008, Brooks was claimed off waivers by the San Francisco 49ers. The team released linebacker Dontarrious Thomas to make room for Brooks. The 49ers waived Brooks on November 29 to make room for wide receiver Chris Hannon, but re-signed Brooks on December 2 after Hannon was waived. On December 2, 2009, San Francisco 49ers head coach Mike Singletary mentioned that Brooks would be used increasingly during pass rushing situations.[7] In week 14, Brooks recorded single-game career-highs of 3 sacks and 2 forced fumbles against the Arizona Cardinals.
Brooks recorded career highs in both tackles (50) and sacks (7) during the 2011 Regular Season. He led the 49ers into the postseason where they lost to the New York Giants in the NFC Championship.
On February 28, 2012, Brooks signed a six-year contract extension worth $44.5 million, with $17.5 million guaranteed. During the 2012 season, Brooks had 35 tackles, 2 forced fumbles, an interception, 6.5 sacks, and 6 passes defended in 16 games started. He again led the 49ers into the postseason and this time, Super Bowl XLVII but the 49ers lost to the Baltimore Ravens by a score of 31–34.[8]
On November 20, 2013, Brooks was fined $15,750 by the NFL for a controversial roughing the passer penalty in which Brooks struck the neck of New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, the same quarterback off whom he scored his first touchdown. This fine was later overturned.[9]
On December 13, 2015, during a game with the Cleveland Browns, Brooks was disqualified from the game due to excessive aggression and blatant personal fouls against the other players.
Brooks was released by the 49ers on August 25, 2017.[10]
Green Bay Packers [ edit ]
On September 3, 2017, Brooks signed a one-year deal with the Green Bay Packers.[11]
NFL statistics [ edit ]
Regular season [ edit ]
Year Team GP GS Tackles Interceptions Fumbles Total Solo Ast Sck SFTY PDef Int Yds Avg Lng TDs FF FR 2006 CIN 11 5 31 21 10 1.0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2007 CIN 2 2 6 5 1 1.0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 2009 SF 14 0 21 20 1 6.0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 2008 SF 15 1 31 29 2 5.0 0 2 1 32 32.0 32 0 0 0 2011 SF 16 16 50 35 15 7.0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 2012 SF 16 16 46 34 12 6.5 0 6 1 50 50.0 50 1 2 0 2013 SF 16 16 60 52 8 8.5 0 7 1 22 22.0 22 0 1 1 2014 SF 13 13 30 25 5 6.0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 2015 SF 14 14 42 28 14 6.5 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2016 SF 16 16 53 41 12 6.0 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 2017 GB 12 5 19 13 6 1.5 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Total 145 104 389 303 86 55.0 0 32 3 104 0 50 1 12 2 Source: NFL.com
Postseason [ edit ]
Year Team GP GS Tackles Interceptions Fumbles Total Solo Ast Sck SFTY PDef Int Yds Avg Lng TDs FF FR 2011 SF 2 2 6 4 2 1.0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 |
if your aim is to be a monster reader you will want to sink your teeth into both books.
I actually prefer the Louis Bellson book ‘Modern Reading Text in 4/4’ over Syncopation. It doesn’t include a quarter note bass drum which makes the melodies far more difficult to read. I also find the exercises in the Bellson book a bit more musical. That is not meant to be a critique on Syncopation, just my opinion.
My advice would be start on Syncopation then move onto the Bellson stuff.
In all 4 videos here I’m just playing the first 4 bars of pg.16 From the Bellson book different ways but at the same tempo.
– Play melody (straight)
– Play melody (swung)
– Play melody as accents (straight), fill in 8th notes
– Play melody as accents (swung), fill in 8th notes
– Play melody as flams/accents (straight), fill in 8th notes
– Play melody as accents (straight), fill in 16th note doubles
– Play melody as accents (swung), fill in 8th note triplets
– Play melody as accents (straight, RH lead), add 16th note singles
– Play melody as accents (swung), add in 16th note triplets (doubles)
Here’s the same approach on the kit. Still working on one surface but introducing a left foot ostinato.
Finally a couple more videos utilizing the accent/melody pattern and orchestrating it around the kit.
Let me know how you use these great teaching materials!
Take it easy.Yesterday, I hit an interesting milestone that I have ‘meandered with intent’ towards for several years. I reached 9.9 faction standing for the Minmatar Republic.
Now, this in and of itself is hardly something to shout about. In fact, many dedicated mission runners get to this stage a hell of a lot quicker than I did. But what makes this particular milestone interesting, is that at 9.9 standing towards a number of factions, you are entitled to toot your Loyalty Horn, hand in some tags to an NPC, and have a 2 run BPC of said faction’s battleship delivered thusly to your active ship’s hangar:
It’s ME20 as well, so that’s pretty cool. And the tags I needed to hand over only cost me 5 million ISK!
Almost Free Stuff? In MY EVE?
It’s more likely than you’d think.
This is not just for battleships either. I have previously tooted my horn for faction cruiser and faction frigate BPCs as well.
The reason I’m even mentioning it, even though it is documented online, is that every time I do hit one of these thresholds, someone I happen to be talking to at the time has no idea that these kinds of offers exist. So, for the sake of further exposure, I’ll explain a bit about it here.
Firstly, you need some decent standings towards a faction:
8.5 for frigates
9.2 for cruisers
9.9 for battleships
Even though in the above-linked article, it mentions that skills count towards the standings requirement, historically, these was not the case – at least it wasn’t when I got my cruisers, so I am going to err on the side of caution and speculate based on my own personal experience that skills don’t count. I’m happy to change this text if someone can confirm that they do now count, however – I’m not here to misinform!
Once you have these standings, you need to buy 30 Silver, Gold, or Diamond tags for the frigate, cruiser and battleship offers respectively.
For the Minmatar ships, you need to fly on over (with the tags in your cargohold) to the Hjoramold gate in Barkrik. The locations of the agents for other factions are also listed in the article I linked to, above.
Mutama Czeik deals with the Republic Fleet Firetail
Thora Desto deals with the Stabber Fleet Issue
Makor Desto deals with the Tempest Fleet Issue
I’m not sure what tags are needed for some of the factions’ ships, and the information is sorely lacking on the EVElopedia article. Perhaps someone in-the-know could add it?
So there we have it. Hopefully the information will be useful to somebody someday!24 MoneyGang Music Video View Full Caption
NEAR WEST SIDE — A music video shot during a raucous gang party that brought 1,000 people to the Near West Side last weekend shows men and children flashing guns while others party and drink in the middle of residential streets as police idly sit by.
The party that spilled into the streets near Touhy-Herbert Park June 18-19 was so out of control, police struggled to shut it down, 27th Ward Ald. Walter Burnett Jr. said last week. The 25 Chicago Police Department squad cars that eventually were sent to the scene weren't enough to break up the party of more than 1,000 people, he said.
RELATED: 1,000-Person Gang Party Too Big For Police In 25 Squads To Stop, Ald. Says
The 24 MoneyGang music video, shot by videographer Kyro Kush and uploaded to YouTube Thursday, shows the massive all-night party just two blocks west of the United Center on a street lined with homes. Along with the artist and song title, "Fathers Day Picnic" is included in the video's title — a reference to a permitted gathering earlier in the day that is an annual tradition in the park in the 2100 block of West Adams Street.
In the nearly four-minute video, men are seen flashing handguns and semi-automatic weapons. Some scenes appear to show boys or teens pointing guns directly at the camera. Hundreds of people crowd in the streets among lines of cars, drinking, smoking and dancing as the blue lights of police squad cars flash in the background. Other scenes show men drinking on the hood and through the sunroof of a car driving down the street.
"We Money Gang," a man raps. "All my n-----s got guns... ready to pop a n-----."
Very young children also can be seen watching or dancing in the street in the video in multiple scenes of the late-night party.
Women are seen twerking while standing on the hoods of cars, and in one scene, a man rides a mini motorbike right up to the tailgate of a Chicago Police SUV, its lights flashing.
The West Adams Street street sign and other neighborhood identifiers, including the gateway to the defunct Jelly Bean Garden, can be seen in the background. In another shot, a sign noting the park closing time — 9 p.m. — is shown as well as uniformed officers standing nearby.
[YouTube/Kyro Kush]
A screenshot of DNAinfo Chicago's original story about the 1,000-person party flashes at the end of the video.
Some people in the music video also can be seen in separate camera footage taken that night.
The Police Department is aware of the video and is reviewing it, Frank Giancamilli, a Police Department spokesman, said Friday evening.
No arrests have been made in connection with the party, Giancamilli said.
Burnett, whose ward includes Touhy-Herbert Park, watched the video after DNAinfo sent him a link.
"We're lucky that no one got hurt," he said. "It also looks like a total disregard for the police. If they don't get a handle on this, it can get worse and [it] may be too late."
Earlier this week, he said police on the scene were outnumbered.
"It's not just an inconvenience, it's very dangerous," Burnett said. "When you have that many people drinking, getting high, anything can happen."
Although it's in Black Disciples territory today, the gangs that hang out in the park and organize the large parties include members from the Gangster Stones, Traveling Vice Lords, Four Corner Hustlers, Gangster Disciples and the Black Disciples, Burnett and police said.
[YouTube/Kyro Kush]
Despite calling for police and politicians to address notoriously loud and sometimes violent gang parties for years, neighbors living near Touhy-Herbert Park report that the latest massive all-night party was worse than ever.
While the party itself sparked a few fights caught on security cameras, six people were shot on the Near West Side on Father's Day. One of the shootings, injuring a 29-year-old man, occurred at 11:10 p.m. on Adams Street, just two blocks west of the park.
Minutes later, two more men were shot standing in the 2500 block of West Jackson Boulevard, a half-mile from the park, police said.
RELATED: Near West Side Shootings Wound 6 People Sunday, Police Say
In August 2015, one neighbor described the ongoing issues at the park as a never-ending "turf war" between the neighbors who care for their block and a group of gangbangers who party at all hours of the night in the park, attracting violence and illegal activity.
Two schools — Dett Elementary and Chicago Bulls College Prep — border the park.
RELATED: Loud Gangbangers Party All Night Long at Near West Side Park, Neighbors Say
RELATED: Raucous, 200-Person Gang Parties Ruining Park — Can Parking Ban Stop Them?Martin Anthony Lunde (born September 20, 1958), better known by his ring name Arn Anderson, is an American road agent and retired professional wrestler and author. His career has been highlighted by his alliances with Ric Flair and various members of the wrestling stable The Four Horsemen in the National Wrestling Alliance and World Championship Wrestling. After his retirement worked as producer for WWE until 2019. On March 31, 2012, Anderson was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as a member of the Four Horsemen.
Career [ edit ]
Early career (1982–1984) [ edit ]
Lunde began his career in early 1982, trained by Ted Lipscomb (Allen), spending much of the year wrestling in various independent wrestling companies across the United States, including a minor run in Mid South Wrestling for Bill Watts 1982-1983[2] By the middle of 1983, he made his way to Southeastern Championship Wrestling, an NWA affiliated promotion operating out of Tennessee and Alabama. Taking the name of Super Olympia, Lunde soon became a member of Ron Fuller's Stud Stable before the year was out. Lunde saw success in the tag team ranks by winning the NWA Southeastern Tag Team Championship three times with Mr. Olympia and once with Pat Rose throughout 1984. It was also here in this promotion that Lunde met and began what would become a lifelong friendship with Ric Flair. By the end of the year, however, Lunde left the company and joined Mid South Wrestling based out of Shreveport. Lunde's time in Mid South was coming to an end, and during a TV taping the Junk Yard Dog mentioned to Bill Watts, the owner of Mid South Wrestling, that Lunde looked like an Anderson. Watts called Jim Crockett and convinced him to book Lunde.
Jim Crockett Promotions/World Championship Wrestling [ edit ]
Becoming an Anderson (1984–1985) [ edit ]
Lunde made his way to Jim Crockett, Jr.'s Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, based in the Virginias and the Carolinas. By this time, the company extended its range into Georgia after rival promoter Vince McMahon purchased Georgia Championship Wrestling. There was a strong physical resemblance between Lunde and Ole Anderson, who had achieved legendary status in the Georgia and Mid-Atlantic territories as a tag team wrestler. Ole noticed that Lunde's style was a no nonsense approach in the ring and specialized in working over a part of an opponent's body throughout the match, much like Ole himself. Anderson agreed to work with Lunde, helping to hone his capabilities, and re-formed the Minnesota Wrecking Crew with Lunde replacing Gene Anderson and taking on the name of Arn Anderson, Ole's kayfabe nephew. The team quickly became a force in the territory by capturing the NWA National Tag Team Championship in March 1985.[2] Arn and Ole defended the titles throughout the year, with their highest profile match being part of the card for Starrcade 1985 on Thanksgiving night. The Crew successfully defended the titles against Wahoo McDaniel and Billy Jack Haynes.
The Four Horsemen (1985–1988) [ edit ]
In the latter half of 1985, the Andersons formed a loose knit alliance with fellow heels Tully Blanchard and Ric Flair, as they began to have common enemies. The foursome frequently teamed together in six-man, and sometimes, eight-man tag matches or interfered in each other's matches to help score a victory or, at least, to prevent each other from losing their titles. The alliance quickly became a force within the territory, working in feuds against some of the biggest stars in the company like Dusty Rhodes, Magnum T.A., The Road Warriors and the Rock 'n' Roll Express. Anderson also saw success as a singles wrestler on January 4, 1986 by winning the vacant NWA Television Championship.[2] Simultaneously, Anderson was still one half of the NWA National Tag Team Champions and, even though Crockett promotions abandoned the National Tag titles in March, Anderson's success as a dual champion elevated his status within the territory. It was also during this time (in 1986) that the Andersons, Blanchard, and Flair began calling themselves The Four Horsemen with James J. Dillon serving as the group's manager.[2] Anderson also had a tremendous ability to do interviews to further the storylines he participated in. His ability to improvise in interviews allowed him to coin the "Four Horsemen" moniker for the stable, as he likened their coming to wrestle at an event and the aftermath of their wrath as being akin to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and the name stuck. Anderson continued his reign as NWA Television Champion for most of the year, holding the championship for just over 9 months before losing it to Dusty Rhodes on September 9, 1986.
The first real setback with the Horsemen occurred at Starrcade 1986 after Anderson and Ole lost a Steel Cage match to The Rock 'n' Roll Express, with Ole getting pinned. The subsequent storyline positioned Ole as the weak link within the team, possibly attributed to his age. Ole's position with the group was only further weakened after he decided to take two months off after Starrcade. After Ole's return in February 1987, the other Horsemen turned on him and threw him out of the group, resulting in Ole incurring numerous attacks over the next several months. Afterwards, Ole was replaced with Lex Luger and the Horsemen resumed their dominance of the company.
Teaming with Tully Blanchard (1987–1988) [ edit ]
As a member of the Horsemen, Anderson continued to be involved in high-profile angles within the company. By mid-1987, Anderson and fellow Horsemen Tully Blanchard began regularly competing as a tag team and rose quickly through the tag team ranks.[2] The duo faced the Rock 'n' Roll Express for the NWA World Tag Team Championship on September 29, 1987 and were victorious.[2] This win further solidified the group's dominance in the company as Lex Luger was the reigning NWA United States Heavyweight Champion and Ric Flair spent most of 1987 as the NWA World Heavyweight Champion, losing it to Ron Garvin in September, only to regain it at Starrcade 1987 on Thanksgiving night. Anderson and Tully continued to feud throughout the rest of the year and first few months of 1988 with the Road Warriors, the Rock 'n' Roll Express and the Midnight Express being their most frequent rivals.
By December 1987, Luger had defected from the Horsemen and began a heated feud with the group, with Ric Flair especially. In early 1988, Luger formed a tag team with Barry Windham and began challenging Anderson and Blanchard for the NWA World Tag Team Championship. The bigger, stronger team of Windham and Luger were eventually successful, winning the titles on March 27, 1988. The reign would be short lived, however, as Anderson and Blanchard regained the titles less than a month later after Barry Windham turned on Luger during their match and joined the Horsemen. Though Anderson and Blanchard were two of the biggest stars in Crockett's company, they were frequently in dispute with Crockett over their pay. Despite the fact that the two, along with the Horsemen, were helping to generate millions of dollars in revenue for the company, they considered themselves to be underpaid. Their last contracted match with the company took place on September 10, 1988 when they dropped the NWA World Tag Team Championship to the Midnight Express before leaving for the WWF.
World Wrestling Federation (1988–1989) [ edit ]
Anderson and Blanchard left Crockett's company to join Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation. Upon being named the Brain Busters, the team took Bobby "The Brain" Heenan as their manager and quickly began rising through the tag team ranks, eventually coming to challenge Demolition for the WWF Tag Team Championship. On July 18, 1989, the Brain Busters won the titles, ending Demolition's historic reign of 478 days; the match would air on the July 29 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event. Although they would lose the titles back to Demolition just over three months later, the Brain Busters continued to be a force in the WWF's tag team division.[2]
Return to WCW [ edit ]
World Television Champion (1989–1990) [ edit ]
In December 1989, Anderson left the WWF and went back to WCW.[2] Blanchard was slated to return as well but WWF accused him of testing positive for cocaine. Crockett's company was now called World Championship Wrestling and was under the ownership of billionaire mogul Ted Turner. Anderson helped to reform the Horsemen and he quickly found success in the company, winning the NWA World Television Championship on January 2, 1990.[2] Anderson remained the champion almost the entire year before dropping it to Tom Zenk. Zenk's reign would be short lived, however, as Anderson regained the title, having been renamed the WCW World Television Championship on January 14, 1991.[2] His third reign with the title was also considered successful as he held the title a little more than five months before dropping it to "Beautiful" Bobby Eaton on May 19, 1991. Afterwards, with Horsemen members Ric Flair and Sid Vicious gone to the WWF and Barry Windham having turned face, Anderson entered the tag team ranks of WCW.
World Tag Team Champion (1991–1993) [ edit ]
In the summer of 1991, Anderson formed a tag team with Larry Zbyszko and they called themselves The Enforcers. After competing for several months and moving up in the tag team ranks, they successfully captured the WCW World Tag Team Championship on September 2, 1991. The reign would be short lived, however, as they lost the titles roughly two and a half months later to Ricky Steamboat and Dustin Rhodes. Anderson and Zbyszko went their separate ways shortly afterward. Anderson quickly rebounded from his split with Zbyszko and formed a tag team with Beautiful Bobby Eaton, a long-time friend and best known for his time as one half of the Midnight Express. At this point, they were members of Paul E. Dangerously's Dangerous Alliance. They quickly moved up the tag team division and were soon a threat to Steamboat and Rhodes. Anderson and Eaton quickly won the titles on January 16, 1992 and defended the titles against all comers for the next four and a half months before losing the titles to The Steiner Brothers in May.[2]
Four Horsemen reunion (1993–1994) [ edit ]
In May 1993, Anderson joined Ole Anderson and Ric Flair to re-form the Four Horsemen. The Horsemen introduced Paul Roma as their newest member. Although athletic and a skilled in-ring competitor, Roma had spent much of his career as a jobber in the WWF. As part of an interview segment for the Ric Flair and the Four Horsemen DVD, Triple H stated that he thought the addition of Roma made the membership the weakest in the history of the group, and Arn himself referred to Roma as "a glorified gym rat". Although Anderson and Roma won the WCW World Tag Team Championship in August, the group quickly split and was seen as a dismal failure by WCW.
The Stud Stable, Four Horsemen reunion (1994–1997) [ edit ]
Anderson remained a regular, on-screen performer in WCW over the next few years. He wrestled as a face, even teaming with Dustin Rhodes to feud with the Stud Stable. However he turned heel again and betrayed Rhodes by rejoining Col. Rob Parker's Stud Stable in 1994 with Terry Funk, Bunkhouse Buck, "Stunning" Steve Austin and Meng.[3] The Stud Stable feuded heavily with Dusty and Dustin Rhodes until late 1994 when Funk left. In early 1995, Meng eventually left to join the Dungeon of Doom.
Anderson's last championship run began on January 8, 1995 after winning the World Television Championship from Johnny B. Badd. Anderson helped restore the prestige of the title, which he held for just over six months before dropping it to The Renegade. He briefly feuded with long-time friend Flair, and was assisted by Brian Pillman in his efforts. However, it was a swerve to reunify the Horsemen with Flair, Anderson, Pillman, and a partner to be named later (who ended up being Chris Benoit).
By the end of 1996, Anderson rarely competed in the ring as years of wear and tear on his body finally started to catch up with him.
Retirement (1997) [ edit ]
On the August 25, 1997 episode of Monday Nitro, Anderson formally announced his retirement from the ring.[2] While standing in the ring, surrounded by Ric Flair and newest Horsemen members Steve McMichael and Benoit, Anderson declared that his last official act as the "Enforcer" for the Four Horsemen was to offer his "spot" in the group to Curt Hennig, as he was forced to retire due to extensive neck and upper back injuries. He worked a couple tag matches afterward, including teaming with David Flair on an episode of WCW Thunder, but his physical involvement was extremely limited in those bouts.
On the September 14, 1998 edition of Nitro, alongside Steve McMichael, Dean Malenko, and Chris Benoit, Anderson ceremoniously reintroduced Ric Flair to WCW after his 12-month hiatus. In doing so, they reformed the Horsemen who then feuded with WCW President Eric Bischoff. Flair won the presidency of WCW from Bischoff on the December 28, 1998 episode of Nitro followed by winning the WCW World Heavyweight Championship at Uncensored 1999 and turn heel in the process. Anderson remained Flair's right-hand man during this time as he attempted to keep Flair's delusional hunger for power at bay.
In 2000, Anderson was a member of the short-lived Old Age Outlaws. Led by Terry Funk, the group of veteran wrestlers battled the revived New World Order. WCW was purchased by the World Wrestling Federation in 2001, ending Anderson's tenure there.
World Wrestling Entertainment / WWE (2001-2019) [ edit ]
Not long after the closing of WCW, Anderson became a road agent for WWF, renamed World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in May 2002.[2] He occasionally appears on WWE television trying to, with the help of other WWE management, pull apart (kayfabe) backstage brawls. Before the WCW/ECW Invasion storyline, Anderson took up color commentary for a WCW World Heavyweight Championship match between Booker T and Buff Bagwell, WCW Cruiserweight Championship match with Billy Kidman and Gregory Helms as well as another WCW Championship match between Diamond Dallas Page and Booker T, which would be his only appearances as a commentator in WWE. He made an appearance on Raw in 2002 delivering a video to Triple H before he was supposed to renew his wedding vows to then-heel, Stephanie McMahon. Anderson was also assaulted on Raw by The Undertaker leading up the Undertaker vs. then-babyface, Ric Flair match at WrestleMania X8. During that bout, Anderson made a brief in-ring appearance, delivering his signature spinebuster to The Undertaker. He would later turn heel once again by helping Ric Flair in his feud with Stone Cold Steve Austin, leading to Austin literally (kayfabe) urinating on him. Several months later he became a face once again and attempted to help a then-babyface Flair gain (kayfabe) sole ownership of WWE during a match with Vince McMahon, but backed down from a confrontation with Brock Lesnar, who entered the ring to assist McMahon.
Anderson made a special appearance at the October 2006 Raw Family Reunion special, in which he was in Ric Flair's corner for his match against Mitch of the Spirit Squad. Anderson was in the corner of Flair, Sgt. Slaughter, Dusty Rhodes, and Ron Simmons at Survivor Series 2006, where the four faced the Spirit Squad, but was ejected from the arena during the match. On the March 31, 2008 Raw, Anderson came out to say his final goodbye to Ric Flair and thank him for his career. At the No Mercy event, he was backstage congratulating Triple H for retaining the WWE Championship against Jeff Hardy. On an episode of Smackdown Live in August 2016, Anderson made an appearance as one of the people asked by Heath Slater to be his tag team partner for the tournament to determine the inaugural winners of the WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship. Anderson refused to help Slater upon learning that he was not Slater's first choice as a tag team partner. On the August 8, 2017 episode of Smackdown Live, Anderson made a guest appearance on Fashion Police, revealing himself to be the one who destroyed Breezango's toy horse, Tully, and boasting he was the best horse from the Four Horsemen, and that "Tully" should have been named "Arn". On February 22, 2019, after WWE hired several producers, it was reported Anderson left the promotion.[4][5]
Personal life [ edit ]
Although he was billed as such at various times, Arn is not related to Gene Anderson, Lars Anderson, Ole Anderson, C.W. Anderson or Ric Flair. He was given the Anderson name and was originally billed as Ole's brother, and then later billed as Ole's nephew, because of his resemblance to Ole in appearance and wrestling style and billed as Ric Flair's cousin. Flair is not related to any of the Andersons, but he is a longtime friend of Arn.
In 1993, Anderson was involved in a brutal stabbing incident during a WCW tour of Europe. On October 27, 1993, in Blackburn, Lancashire, Anderson and Sid Eudy were involved in an argument at a hotel bar. Anderson threatened Eudy with a broken bottle. After being sent to their rooms by security chief Doug Dillinger, Eudy later came to Andersons door armed with a chair leg. A pair of safety scissors was introduced into the brawl by Anderson, with Eudy receiving four stab wounds and Anderson receiving twenty, losing a pint and a half of blood. The fight was broken up by WCW wrestler 2 Cold Scorpio, who was credited with saving Anderson's life. Neither man pressed charges against the other, and British police declined to do so since both men were leaving the country. Eudy was later fired over the incident.[6]
As stated in his biography, in a match in 1994, Arn was thrown into the ring ropes. The top rope broke from the turnbuckle, but he was able to land on his feet. Six months later, the same event happened again, but this time he landed full-force on to the concrete and hit his head, neck, and upper back. He never took time off to heal. As time passed, with no down time, the injuries worsened. In his biography, Anderson states that the first sign of problems was, during a match, his left arm suddenly went numb and unresponsive. Later on, they found a rib, possibly torn away from the spine during the accident, was popping in and out of joint, causing shoulder discomfort and weakness.
Upon seeing his chiropractor in Charlotte, North Carolina, and consulting medical experts in Atlanta, Georgia, the damage was found to be much more severe and surgery was deemed the only option to keep his left arm functioning at all. Surgery occurred in Atlanta in late 1996 (resulting in a left posterior laminectomy of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th cervical bones and a fusion of the 7th cervical and 1st thoracic bones) and was successful in repairing most of the damage, but there does remain some muscle weakness, loss of fine motor control, and loss of muscle mass in his left arm. He spent many weeks in the hospital during that time, crediting his recovery to his wife, his physical therapist, and the fact he did not want his children to be fatherless. However, he would be readmitted in March 1997 with symptoms akin to cardiac arrest and pulmonary failure, but was released soon afterwards.
In popular culture [ edit ]
The Comedy Central series Tosh.0 has referred to Anderson on a regular basis beginning with its October 15, 2009 episode featuring a backyard wrestler redemption. Host Daniel Tosh stated that real wrestling is all about "showmanship and tights", and that if "being a great technician were all it took, then Arn Anderson would be the most famous wrestler in the world". Tosh has continued to "call out" Anderson, even referring to a gap between mentions as "(going) easy on you". Tosh's March 6, 2012 memorabilia dump included a signed Arn Anderson action figure.
Other media [ edit ]
His book, Arn Anderson 4 Ever, was released on April 30, 2000.
Arn Anderson has appeared in WWE Legends of WrestleMania and WWE '12 as a legend. He later appeared in WWE 2K16 (as DLC) and WWE 2K17 as a member of The Enforcers with Larry Zbyszko.
Championships and accomplishments [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Books [ edit ]
Autobiography: Anderson, Arn. Arn Anderson 4 Ever: A Look Behind the Curtain. Kayfabe Pub Group, 1998Henri Bonneau, known as one of the legendary producers of Châteauneuf-du-Pape wines, has died at the age of 78.
(Picture credit: Wine-Searcher)
Tributes began on social media on Tuesday (22 March) after news of the death of Henri Bonneau, who has been described as a ‘legend’ and the dean of Châteauneuf-du-Pape.
Born in 1938, Bonneau was a 12th-generation vine grower. He was regarded as one of the last old-timers making old-fashioned wines in a cellar in the centre of the village – where one could walk into another world.
‘I met Henri Bonneau at the beginning of my career as a winemaker during Christmas 2003,’ Isabel Ferrando, from Domaine Saint-Préfer in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, told Decanter.com.
‘He received me on 23 December for a tasting, which lasted six hours.
‘Henri was funny, mischievous, naughty, a great man, tender and so Provencal, and his modernity hid in his encyclopaedic knowledge of wine, cellar work and vines,’ Ferrando added.
Bonneau began making wine in 1956 on 13 different parcels covering six hectares, with 5.25 hectares in the La Crau area and 0.25ha in Courthezon, to the north of Châteauneuf-du-Pape.
His wines were aged in a combination of old foudres, demi-muids and barrel and were a blend of 90% Grenache with Counoise, Mourvèdre and Vaccarèse in four different cuvees: Henri Bonneau, Marie Beurier, Réserve des Célestins and a very ripe, port-like Cuvée Spéciale only in great vintages.
Domaine Bonneau’s wines are among some of the most expensive on the market from the area. Berry Bros & Rudd was this week selling a magnum of Réserve des Célestins 2007 for £775 (US$1,101).
More to follow.GameStop Corporation, or just alluded to as GameStop, is an American computer game, buyer hardware, and remote administrations retailer. The organization is headquartered in Grapevine, Texas, United States, and works 6,457 retail locations all through the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Europe. The organization’s retail locations principally work under the GameStop, EB Games, Motu Patlu Games and Micromania brands.
Notwithstanding retail locations, GameStop additionally claims Kongregate, a site for program based computer games; and Game Informer, a computer game magazine; Simply Mac, an Apple items affiliate; and Spring Mobile, an AT&T remote affiliate. It likewise works Cricket Wireless marked retail locations as an approved specialist. Cricket is an AT&T brand prepaid remote retailer. J. Paul Raines is GameStop’s CEO, and Daniel DeMatteo serves as official director.We review binary logistic regression. In particular, we derive a) the equations needed to fit the algorithm via gradient descent, b) the maximum likelihood fit’s asymptotic coefficient covariance matrix, and c) expressions for model test point class membership probability confidence intervals. We also provide python code implementing a minimal “LogisticRegressionWithError” class whose “predict_proba” method returns prediction confidence intervals alongside its point estimates.
Our python code can be downloaded from our github page, here. Its use requires the jupyter, numpy, sklearn, and matplotlib packages.
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Introduction
The logistic regression model is a linear classification model that can be used to fit binary data — data where the label one wishes to predict can take on one of two values — e.g., $0$ or $1$. Its linear form makes it a convenient choice of model for fits that are required to be interpretable. Another of its virtues is that it can — with relative ease — be set up to return both point estimates and also confidence intervals for test point class membership probabilities. The availability of confidence intervals allows one to flag test points where the model prediction is not precise, which can be useful for some applications — eg fraud detection.
In this note, we derive the expressions needed to fit the logistic model to a training data set. We assume the training data consists of a set of $n$ feature vector- label pairs, $\{(\vec{x}_i, y_i)$, for $i = 1, 2, \ldots, n\}$, where the feature vectors $\vec{x}_i$ belong to some $m$-dimensional space and the labels are binary, $y_i \in \{0, 1\}.$ The logistic model states that the probability of belonging to class $1$ is given by
\begin{eqnarray}\tag{1} \label{model1}
p(y=1 \vert \vec{x}) \equiv \frac{1}{1 + e^{- \vec{\beta} \cdot \vec{x} } },
\end{eqnarray}
where $\vec{\beta}$ is a coefficient vector characterizing the model. Note that with this choice of sign in the exponent, predictor vectors $\vec{x}$ having a large, positive component along $\vec{\beta}$ will be predicted to have a large probability of being in class $1$. The probability of class $0$ is given by the complement,
\begin{eqnarray}\tag{2} \label{model2}
p(y=0 \vert \vec{x}) \equiv 1 – p(y=1 \vert \vec{x}) = \frac{1}{1 + e^{ \vec{\beta} \cdot \vec{x} } }.
\end{eqnarray}
The latter equality above follows from simplifying algebra, after plugging in (\ref{model1}) for $p(y=1 \vert \vec{x}).$
To fit the Logistic model to a training set — i.e., to find a good choice for the fit parameter vector $\vec{\beta}$ — we consider here only the maximum-likelihood solution. This is that $\vec{\beta}^*$ that maximizes the conditional probability of observing the training data. The essential results we review below are 1) a proof that the maximum likelihood solution can be found by gradient descent, and 2) a derivation for the asymptotic covariance matrix of $\vec{\beta}$. This latter result provides the basis for returning point estimate confidence intervals.
On our GitHub page, we provide a Jupyter notebook that contains some minimal code extending the SKLearn LogisticRegression class. This extension makes use of the results presented here and allows for class probability confidence intervals to be returned for individual test points. In the notebook, we apply the algorithm to the SKLearn Iris dataset. The figure at right illustrates the output of the algorithm along a particular cut through the Iris data set parameter space. The y-axis represents the probability of a given test point belong to Iris class $1$. The error bars in the plot provide insight that is completely missed when considering the point estimates only. For example, notice that the error bars are quite large for each of the far right points, despite the fact that the point estimates there are each near $1$. Without the error bars, the high probability of these point estimates might easily be misinterpreted as implying high model confidence.
Our derivations below rely on some prerequisites: Properties of covariance matrices, the multivariate Cramer-Rao theorem, and properties of maximum likelihood estimators. These concepts are covered in two of our prior posts [$1$, $2$].
Optimization by gradient descent
In this section, we derive expressions for the gradient of the negative-log likelihood loss function and also demonstrate that this loss is everywhere convex. The latter result is important because it implies that gradient descent can be used to find the maximum likelihood solution.
Again, to fit the logistic model to a training set, our aim is to find — and also to set the parameter vector to — the maximum likelihood value. Assuming the training set samples are independent, the likelihood of observing the training set labels is given by
\begin{ |
that some high-end hotels see bookings from Mac users hugely out of proportion with their user share on Orbitz.The targeting efforts are part of Orbitz's "predictive analytics" efforts -- using gathered data to offer more tailored results to shoppers in order to generate more revenue.Bid By Outside Gun Groups to Torpedo Local Pennsylvania Gun Laws May Be Nearing an End Harrisburg is one of a handful of cities that held fast against a flurry of lawsuits seeking to undo its gun ordinances. It just scored a major victory.
A long legal battle over whether anyone in the U.S. can sue a Pennsylvania town to overturn a local gun ordinance — even if they don’t live in the state — may have reached a turning point.
In late March, a Pennsylvania federal judge ruled that a gun group, Firearm Owners Against Crime, doesn’t have legal standing to sue to overturn two gun ordinances enacted by Harrisburg. Those laws, which were allowed to stand, bar guns in local parks and prohibit the discharge of firearms in the city.
The ruling comes nine months after an appellate court declared unconstitutional a 2014 law — Act 192 — that permitted outside groups, like the National Rifle Association, to sue municipalities with gun laws tougher than those on state books. Pennsylvania, along with most other states, doesn’t allow cities and towns to enforce more restrictive gun laws, a legal concept known as preemption. But until Act 192, a plaintiff had to live in the specific city with the gun ordinance in question, and had to prove they were “injured” by it.
Act 192 ushered in the most aggressive firearms preemption blitz in the country. The law held that if a plaintiff wins a preemption challenge, the town must pay damages and all legal costs. But if the town won, the plaintiff did not face that same financial burden.
Fearing expensive lawsuits, nearly 100 Pennsylvania municipalities scrambled to roll back their gun ordinances. “We’re basically being forced to repeal these laws at gunpoint,” Det Ansinn, the president of the Doylestown Borough Council, wrote on his Facebook page when the act passed.
But some larger cities that could better afford the cost of litigation held fast. A legal firestorm ensued.
Just days after 192 passed, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Lancaster sued top state elected officials. The NRA then sued those cities. Harrisburg was sued by both Firearm Owners Against Crime, which is a local gun group, and a Texas-based outfit called U.S. Law Shield.
Harrisburg lost the initial rounds of the legal fight. In February 2015, a state court struck down three of the city’s five gun ordinances: a requirement to report a lost or stolen gun within 48 hours, a prohibition on the possession of firearms by anyone under 18, and a ban on gun sales and transfers during a state of emergency.
That left two ordinances still in effect: the ban on guns in local parks and a prohibition on the discharge of firearms in the city. The fight over those laws was taken up in federal court. On March 24, Judge Yvette Kane dismissed the lawsuit brought by Firearm Owners Against Crime, ruling the group did not have legal standing to sue.
Preemption, in the constitutional context, refers to the pecking order of legislation: Federal trumps state; state trumps local. It was pioneered as a policy-making strategy by the tobacco companies in 1965, when the industry used preemption to challenge new local clean air ordinances that were stricter than federal standards.
The gun lobby began using preemption as a tool in 1980s, when the NRA, working in conjunction with more extreme gun-rights groups, filed a flurry of lawsuits challenging local firearm ordinances. Since then, the number of states passing laws totally or partially barring cities and towns from having their own gun rules has jumped from seven to 45.
In its original form, Act 192 never addressed preemption, or firearms — it set penalties for scrap metal thefts. But right before the vote, a GOP lawmaker attached to it a four-year-old gun bill that removed the requirement that a plaintiff must be directly affected by a gun ordinance to sue over it, opening the door for anyone to sue any Pennsylvania town.
There are more than 2,600 municipalities in Pennsylvania. Supporters of Act 192 argue that replacing a patchwork of rules with unified state standards protects gun owners from inadvertently violating local laws when carrying their weapons across town lines.
“I think a lot of lawmakers agreed with the premise that they need a unified firearms code,” says Jeff Dempsey, program director for Ceasefire PA, which helped organize cities and legislators to serve as plaintiffs in the lawsuit brought by Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Lancaster. “What they didn’t agree with was having cities targeted financially.”
The stitching together of two unrelated subjects may prove to be Act 192’s undoing. A state court, ruling in June, held that the law was unconstitutional on the basis that it violates the single-subject rule, which says legislation may only address one main issue.
Arguments regarding the constitutionality of Act 192 are being heard in Pennsylvania Supreme Court, and a decision is expected by the summer.
[Photo: Wikicommons]1 of 9 View Caption
Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune Staff photos of the Salt Lake Tribune staff. Kurt Kragthorpe. Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune Oregon Ducks wide receiver Darren Carrington II (7) dives unsuccessfully for a pass, with U Oregon wide receiver Darren Carrington (7) leaps over Washington defensive back Budda Baker as Washington's Darren Gardenhire (3) Oregon wide receiver Darren Carrington, right, comes down with a touchdown catch over the defense of Washington defensive back Sid Oregon's Cameron Hunt, left, celebrates a touchdown made by Darren Carrington (87) during the second half of a Pac-12 Conference c Oregon wide receiver Darren Carrington, left, celebrates his touchdown with tight end Pharaoh Brown during the second half of the Oregon's Darren Carrington (7) beats Arizona State's Kweishi Brown (10) to the end zone for a touchdown during the first half of a Washington defensive back Brian Clay, right, prepares to tackle Oregon wide receiver Darren Carrington during the second half of a Oregon wide receiver Darren Carrington, front, scores under pressure by Florida State defensive back Trey Marshall during the secoRobert Grodt was a volunteer medic at the Occupy Wall Street protests in 2011, when he pulled Kaylee Dedrick, who had just been pepper-sprayed in the face, out of the crowd to treat her.
The pair quickly hit it off, and when video of Ms. Dedrick being sprayed in the face captured the world’s attention, the spotlight turned to their budding romance. They again garnered media attention the next year, when they had a daughter — quickly nicknamed “Occubaby” — because she was conceived in the protest camp in Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park where the pair had been camped out.
But then he made a dangerous decision that few young Westerners have made — joining a Kurdish militia fighting in the Syrian War.
On Monday, Kurdish fighters announced that Mr. Grodt died on the outskirts of Raqqa, Syria.Imagine a place where you could go to completely escape the constant distraction of online life? A remote island where all digital devices are confiscated on arrival and where you are returned to a simpler way of life?
In this RTÉ Radio 1 Comedy production, comedy writer and producer Colm Tobin visits a boutique digital detox centre on the island of Carnananaunachán to follow the journey of Holly (Stefanie Preissner) and Declan (Aidan O’Donovan), a smartphone-dependent couple from Dublin.
Holly is a self-styled social influencer and online opinion manipulator who lives with her partner Declan, a trainee barber in one of Dublin’s hippest grooming salons. They have created a popular personal brand for themselves online and since doing so have found themselves becoming increasingly dependent on their phones. Declan has signed them up for this digital detox bootcamp in an effort to get Holly to put the phone down and pay him more attention. But she has no idea what he has signed them up for.
Once they reach the shore, our pilgrims set forth on a very unconventional course of treatment designed to reprogramme them to appreciate the simpler things in life. This programme is run by the eccentric pairing of Brother Ponzi Fantastic (Barry Murphy) and his matriarchal sidekick Bean Ní Shuilleabháin (Deirdre O’ Kane).
Over the course of the next seven days, Colm Tobin observes the couple’s journey as they are led through a series of increasingly surreal treatment modules from cloud appreciation to appreciating your food without having to photograph it and share it online first. When Holly breaks one of the most fundamental rules of the programme, however, things start to get uncomfortably real for the couple and the bizarre series of events that follow could shake their relationship to its very core.
Surviving Ireland was written, produced and performed by Aidan O'Donovan & Colm Tobin and featured Stefanie Preissner, Deirdre O'Kane and Barry Murphy.
Recording was by Liam Geraghty and Rachel Ní Chuinn with Sound Supervision by Mark Dwyer.
Surviving Ireland is a Turnip & Duck Production for RTÉ Radio 1 and was produced in association with Kite Entertainment
First broadcast March 17th 2017
'Documentary on One is the home of Irish radio documentaries and the largest library of documentary podcasts available anywhere in the world. We tell stories in sound, mostly Irish ones, and each documentary tells its own story'LAS VEGAS – UFC welterweight Stephen Thompson has a hard time signing off on champion Tyron Woodley’s claim that he’s not promoted because of race.
When Woodley spoke about the issue in a side-by-side interview with ESPN.com, Thompson found himself thinking about exceptions to that claim.
“Jon Jones, one of the biggest stars in the UFC at the time,” Thompson (13-1-1 MMA, 8-1-1 UFC) cited to MMAjunkie during a media day in support of his UFC 209 rematch with Woodley (16-3-1 MMA, 6-2-1 UFC), which takes place March 4 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. “Anderson Silva. … He’s the GOAT. I’m looking at these fighters, and to me, (they) haven’t been treated any differently.
“But I haven’t seen (Woodley’s) side. I haven’t been around him, and haven’t seen what’s going on with the UFC. But who doesn’t know Tyron?”
Thompson indicated the root of Woodley’s concerns might be found in financial issues rather than his treatment. But he wouldn’t say definitely whether the champ is right or wrong.
What Thompson will say is that Woodley is making a mistake if he’s not putting all his focus on their rematch. The two fought to a majority draw just two months ago at UFC 205, and Thompson emerged from that fight with greater confidence in his abilities.
“I’m looking at Tyron saying, ‘Focus on the fight. Just focus on the fight. Don’t worry about all this other stuff until after,'” he said. “Because I want to fight the best Tyron Woodley.”
To hear more from Thompson, check out the video above.
And for more on UFC 209, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.It had been rumored for months. And yet, when the Saints traded star wide receiver Brandin Cooks to the Patriots in March, it was one of the most shocking circumstances of this offseason.
With the two teams set to play one another today at 1 p.m. ET, let's take a look back at how this trade -- which netted New Orleans the 32nd overall pick in the 2017 NFL Draft -- went down.
According to multiple sources informed of the situation in New Orleans, Cooks was dealt because of a combination of his unhappiness with his role, his doubts that aging quarterback Drew Brees could get him the ball deep, the Saints' frustrations with Cooks focusing on his numbers and their disbelief he should be paid like a top receiver.
In a matter-of-fact meeting with coach Sean Payton deep into 2016, Cooks laid out his issues. The Saints got through the season, then dealt Cooks.
It started in the one-point win over the Chargers last year, when Cooks had just three catches. He was spotted being grumpy in the locker room despite the victory, which rubbed some in the organization the wrong way.
They knew it was going to be a problem.
Then, Cooks had no catches in a blowout victory over the Rams when the Saints scored 49 points. It was a big game for the team, and Cooks took the opportunity to use the aftermath to clamor for more targets.
"Closed mouths don't get fed," he told reporters. That week, reports (including from NFL Network) discussed the two sides parting ways in the offseason.
Internally, when Payton discussed the issue with Cooks, the receiver never left satisfied. The longtime coach pacified the issue, telling Cooks he'd get targets. And the following week he did -- a season-high seven catches the next week. But Cooks felt the elephant in the room -- Brees' arm strength not enabling him to find Cooks deep -- couldn't be talked about on any level.
That was frustrating to him, though personally and professionally he loved Brees. The situation and Cooks' feelings were addressed with Payton, his receivers coach John Morton, offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael and general manager Mickey Loomis. Some talks even began in the preseason.
To the Saints, Cooks appeared to be more concerned about himself than the team. In addition, the Saints knew Cooks eventually wanted to be paid like a top receiver -- something they weren't willing to do. As a result, trade plans started shortly thereafter.
Now, he'll try to show his former team what it is missing. Meanwhile, the Saints will be starting Ryan Ramczyk at left tackle -- who they selected with the pick they acquired from the Patriots.
Follow Ian Rapoport on Twitter @RapSheet.Signup to receive a daily roundup of the top LGBT+ news stories from around the world
Citing an announcement in May by President Obama that gender reassignment surgery would be covered by social health care scheme Medicaid, Louisiana Treasurer John Kennedy has called for the scheme to be “fixed”.
Writing for Daily World, Kennedy notes the estimated cost-per-patient for gender reassignment, and that Medicare would potentially follow suit in providing the surgery.
He also suggests the surgery, used in cases of gender dysphoria, should be removed from the scheme, claiming the state can’t afford to support it.
He wrote: “On May 30, President Obama directed Medicare to begin paying for ‘gender reassignment surgery,’ commonly known as sex change surgery, which costs between $25,000 and $75,000 per patient depending upon the gender chosen. Medicaid will likely follow, as it usually tracks Medicare’s coverage provisions, according to articles in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal.
“This additional cost is yet one more reason why Louisiana needs to fix its Medicaid Program before we can no longer afford it.”
The treasurer goes on to give further arguments against the social health care, and suggests that providing gender reassignment surgery under such schemes is not “wise” or “effective”.
“Taxpayers who are asked to pay are entitled to also ask whether their money is being spent wisely and effectively,” he continues.
Married same-sex couples are now able to apply for Medicare benefits regardless of in which state they live, it was announced in April.
A US public consultation on whether Medicare and Medicaid should cover gender reassignment surgery was last year put on hold, with the Department of Health and Human Services saying they must first consider a challenge to Medicare’s definition of the surgery as “experimental”.It may sound like a load of old bull but a farmer who claims to have lost his iPhone up a cow’s bottom tops a list of unusual mobile phone insurance claims.
A farmer claims to have lost his iPhone inside a cow (Picture: Alamy)
The agriculturalist from Barnstable in Devon, said he was using a torch app on his iPhone 3GS while assisting a cow giving birth before it disappeared out of sight.
When the man in his 30s was eventually reunited with his smartphone it was too damaged to use, leading to his bizarre insurance claim.
A close second on the strange list, revealed by MobileInsurance.co.uk, was from a Nottingham woman who said she accidentally baked her Nokia 6303i inside a Victoria Sponge cake.
A lost iPhone tops the list of claims (Picture: Getty)
A woman in her 20s using her BlackBerry Bold as an adult toy and a couple dropping a phone in the ocean while re-enacting the a scene from Titanic also made the list.
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MobileInsurance.co.uk executive John Lamerton said he had seen a lot of ‘weird and wonderful claims’ from customers.
He added: ‘I’m not sure how some of them even came about, particularly in the case of the farmer and the cow.
‘Mobile phones are only going up in price now, so it pays to have them insured for as many scenarios as possible.
‘Judging by these claims, you really never know what you might need to claim for.
‘My advice would be to just use the phone as a phone and not as an ingredient in a cake or a firework for that matter.’
The top ten weirdest claims made:
1. Lost inside a cow
2. Baked into a cake
3. Flushed down a lavatory
4. Snatched by a seagull
5. Blasted by fireworks
6. Stolen by monkeys
7. Dropped from a tree
8. Thrown at a boyfriend
9. Worn out by ‘intimate’ use
10. Dropped overboardCan a simple T-shirt set a team on a path toward victory? Vikings coach Mike Zimmer believes so.
When Vikings players arrived at the team facility on Monday, they were greeted by a shirt at their lockers. The front of the shirt featured an NFL logo and the text "NFC North". The back had a blunt message: "BEAT GREEN BAY".
The 7-2 Vikings have a one-game lead over the slumping Packers with a huge division matchup on tap for Sunday in Minnesota. The Packers have won the NFC North in each of the past four seasons.
"Just walked in this morning and saw it. So it's a nice shirt," defensive tackle Linval Joseph told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. "This is a big week. Green Bay is a very good team. We just have to execute small ball and 8-2."
When asked on Monday who was responsible for the shirts, Zimmer responded: "Me."
"We're making way too big a deal out of it. It's just a T-shirt," Zimmer added, per ESPN.com. "You can go down to the store and print them up. It's not a big deal."
T-shirt motivation isn't a new tactic for NFL coaches. Back in the summer of 1999, I visited Jets camp and saw coaches and players wearing white T-shirts with the Jets logo on the front and "START OVER" in green lettering across the back. I bought one of the shirts because 19-year-olds don't know how to spend money.
A few weeks later, Jets quarterback Vinny Testaverde blew out his Achilles in the first half of the season opener, effectively ending New York's season before it began. START OVER was a failure for Bill Parcells. Perhaps Mike Zimmer will be met with greater fortune.And a Pinch of Python
Next semester I am a lab TA for an introductory programming course, and it’s taught in Python. My Python experience has a number of gaps in it, so we’ll have the opportunity for a few more Python primers, and small exercises to go along with it. This time, we’ll be investigating the basics of objects and classes, and have some fun with image construction using the Python Imaging Library. Disappointingly, the folks who maintain the PIL are slow to update it for any relatively recent version of Python (it’s been a few years since 3.x, honestly!), so this post requires one use Python 2.x (we’re using 2.7). As usual, the full source code for this post is available on this blog’s Github page, and we encourage the reader to follow along and create his own randomized pieces of art! Finally, we include a gallery of generated pictures at the end of this post. Enjoy!
How to Construct the Images
An image is a two-dimensional grid of pixels, and each pixel is a tiny dot of color displayed on the screen. In a computer, one represents each pixel as a triple of numbers, where represents the red content, the green content, and the blue content. Each of these is a nonnegative integer between 0 and 255. Note that this gives us a total of distinct colors, which is nearly 17 million. Some estimates of how much color the eye can see range as high as 10 million (depending on the definition of color) but usually stick around 2.4 million, so it’s generally agreed that we don’t need more.
The general idea behind our random psychedelic art is that we will generate three randomized functions each with domain and codomain, and at each pixel we will determine the color at that pixel by the triple. This will require some translation between pixel coordinates, but we’ll get to that soon enough. As an example, if our colors are defined by the functions, then the resulting image is:
We use the extra factor of because without it the oscillation is just too slow, and the resulting picture is decidedly boring. Of course, the goal is to randomly generate such functions, so we should pick a few functions on and nest them appropriately. The first which come to mind are and simple multiplication. With these, we can create such convoluted functions like
We could randomly generate these functions two ways, but both require randomness, so let’s familiarize ourselves with the capabilities of Python’s random library.
Random Numbers
Pseudorandom number generators are a fascinating topic in number theory, and one of these days we plan to cover it on this blog. Until then, we will simply note the basics. First, contemporary computers can not generate random numbers. Everything on a computer is deterministic, meaning that if one completely determines a situation in a computer, the following action will always be the same. With the complexity of modern operating systems (and the aggravating nuances of individual systems), some might facetiously disagree.
For an entire computer the “determined situation” can be as drastic as choosing every single bit in memory and the hard drive. In a pseudorandom number generator the “determined situation” is a single number called a seed. This initializes the random number generator, which then proceeds to compute a sequence of bits via some complicated arithmetic. The point is that one may choose the seed, and choosing the same seed twice will result in the same sequence of “randomly” generated numbers. The default seed (which is what one uses when one is not testing for correctness) is usually some sort of time-stamp which is guaranteed to never repeat. Flaws in random number generator design (hubris, off-by-one errors, and even using time-stamps!) has allowed humans to take advantage of people who try to rely on random number generators. The interested reader will find a detailed account of how a group of software engineers wrote a program to cheat at online poker, simply by reverse-engineering the random number generator used to shuffle the deck.
In any event, Python makes generating random numbers quite easy:
import random random.seed() print(random.random()) print(random.choice(["clubs", "hearts", "diamonds", "spades"]))
We import the random library, we seed it with the default seed, we print out a random number in, and then we randomly pick one element from a list. For a full list of the functions in Python’s random library, see the documentation. As it turns out, we will only need the choice() function.
Representing Mathematical Expressions
One neat way to represent a mathematical function is via…a function! In other words, just like Racket and Mathematica and a whole host of other languages, Python functions are first-class objects, meaning they can be passed around like variables. (Indeed, they are objects in another sense, but we will get to that later). Further, Python has support for anonymous functions, or lambda expressions, which work as follows:
>>> print((lambda x: x + 1)(4)) 5
So one might conceivably randomly construct a mathematical expression by nesting lambdas:
import math def makeExpr(): if random.random() < 0.5: return lambda x: math.sin(math.pi * makeExpr()(x)) else: return lambda x: x
Note that we need to import the math library, which has support for all of the necessary mathematical functions and constants. One could easily extend this to support two variables, cosines, etc., but there is one flaw with the approach: once we’ve constructed the function, we have no idea what it is. Here’s what happens:
>>> x = lambda y: y + 1 >>> str(x) '<function <lambda> at 0xb782b144>'
There’s no way for Python to know the textual contents of a lambda expression at runtime! In order to remedy this, we turn to classes.
The inquisitive reader may have noticed by now that lots of things in Python have “associated things,” which roughly correspond to what you can type after suffixing an expression with a dot. Lists have methods like “[1,2,3,4].append(5)”, dictionaries have associated lists of keys and values, and even numbers have some secretive methods:
>>> 45.7.is_integer() False
In many languages like C, this would be rubbish. Many languages distinguish between primitive types and objects, and numbers usually fall into the former category. However, in Python everything is an object. This means the dot operator may be used after any type, and as we see above this includes literals.
A class, then, is just a more transparent way of creating an object with certain associated pieces of data (the fancy word is encapsulation). For instance, if I wanted to have a type that represents a dog, I might write the following Python program:
class Dog: age = 0 name = "" def bark(self): print("Ruff ruff! (I'm %s)" % self.name)
Then to use the new Dog class, I could create it and set its attributes appropriately:
fido = Dog() fido.age = 4 fido.name = "Fido" fido.weight = 100 fido.bark()
The details of the class construction requires a bit of explanation. First, we note that the indented block of code is arbitrary, and one need not “initialize” the member variables. Indeed, they simply pop into existence once they are referenced, as in the creation of the weight attribute. To make it more clear, Python provides a special function called “__init__()” (with two underscores on each side of “init”; heaven knows why they decided it should be so ugly), which is called upon the creation of a new object, in this case the expression “Dog()”. For instance, one could by default name their dogs “Fido” as follows:
class Dog: def __init__(self): self.name = "Fido" d = Dog() d.name # contains "Fido"
This brings up another point: all methods of a class that wish to access the attributes of the class require an additional argument. The first argument passed to any method is always the object which represents the owning instance of the object. In Java, this is usually hidden from view, but available by the keyword “this”. In Python, one must explicitly represent it, and it is standard to name the variable “self”.
If we wanted to give the user a choice when instantiating their dog, we could include an extra argument for the name like this:
class Dog: def __init__(self, name = 'Fido'): self.name = name d = Dog() d.name # contains "Fido" e = Dog("Manfred") e.name # contains "Manfred"
Here we made it so the “name” argument is not required, and if it is excluded we default to “Fido.”
To get back to representing mathematical functions, we might represent the identity function on by the following class:
class X: def eval(self, x, y): return x expr = X() expr.eval(3,4) # returns 3
That’s simple enough. But we still have the problem of not being able to print anything sensibly. Trying gives the following output:
>>> str(X) '__main__.X'
In other words, all it does is print the name of the class, which is not enough if we want to have complicated nested expressions. It turns out that the “str” function is quite special. When one calls “str()” of something, Python first checks to see if the object being called has a method called “__str__()”, and if so, calls that. The awkward “__main__.X” is a default behavior. So if we soup up our class by adding a definition for “__str__()”, we can define the behavior of string conversion. For the X class this is simple enough:
class X: def eval(self, x, y): return x def __str__(self): return "x"
For nested functions we could recursively convert the argument, as in the following definition for a SinPi class:
class SinPi: def __str__(self): return "sin(pi*" + str(self.arg) + ")" def eval(self, x, y): return math.sin(math.pi * self.arg.eval(x,y))
Of course, this requires we set the “arg” attribute before calling these functions, and since we will only use these classes for random generation, we could include that sort of logic in the “__init__()” function.
To randomly construct expressions, we create the function “buildExpr”, which randomly picks to terminate or continue nesting things:
def buildExpr(prob = 0.99): if random.random() < prob: return random.choice([SinPi, CosPi, Times])(prob) else: return random.choice([X, Y])()
Here we have classes for cosine, sine, and multiplication, and the two variables. The reason for the interesting syntax (picking the class name from a list and then instantiating it, noting that these classes are objects even before instantiation and may be passed around as well!), is so that we can do the following trick, and avoid unnecessary recursion:
class SinPi: def __init__(self, prob): self.arg = buildExpr(prob * prob)...
In words, each time we nest further, we exponentially decrease the probability that we will continue nesting in the future, and all the nesting logic is contained in the initialization of the object. We’re building an expression tree, and then when we evaluate an expression we have to walk down the tree and recursively evaluate the branches appropriately. Implementing the remaining classes is a quick exercise, and we remind the reader that the entire source code is available from this blog’s Github page. Printing out such expressions results in some nice long trees, but also some short ones:
>>> str(buildExpr()) 'cos(pi*y)*sin(pi*y)' >>> str(buildExpr()) 'cos(pi*cos(pi*y*y*x)*cos(pi*sin(pi*x))*cos(pi*sin(pi*sin(pi*x)))*sin(pi*x))' >>> str(buildExpr()) 'cos(pi*cos(pi*y))*sin(pi*sin(pi*x*x))*cos(pi*y*cos(pi*sin(pi*sin(pi*x))))*sin(pi*cos(pi*sin(pi*x*x*cos(pi*y)))*cos(pi*y))' >>> str(buildExpr()) 'cos(pi*cos(pi*sin(pi*cos(pi*y)))*cos(pi*cos(pi*x)*y)*sin(pi*sin(pi*x)))' >>> str(buildExpr())'sin(pi*cos(pi*sin(pi*cos(pi*cos(pi*y)*x))*sin(pi*y)))' >>> str(buildExpr()) 'cos(pi*sin(pi*cos(pi*x)))*y*cos(pi*cos(pi*y)*y)*cos(pi*x)*sin(pi*sin(pi*y*y*x)*y*cos(pi*x))*sin(pi*sin(pi*x*y))'
This should work well for our goals. The rest is constructing the images.
Images in Python, and the Python Imaging Library
The Python imaging library is part of the standard Python installation, and so we can access the part we need by adding the following line to our header:
from PIL import Image
Now we can construct a new canvas, and start setting some pixels.
canvas = Image.new("L", (300,300)) canvas.putpixel((150,150), 255) canvas.save("test.png", "PNG")
This gives us a nice black square with a single white pixel in the center. The “L” argument to Image.new() says we’re working in grayscale, so that each pixel is a single 0-255 integer representing intensity. We can do this for three images, and merge them into a single color image using the following:
finalImage = Image.merge("RGB", (redCanvas, greenCanvas, blueCanvas))
Where we construct “redCanvas”, “greenCanvas”, and “blueCanvas” in the same way above, but with the appropriate intensities. The rest of the details in the Python code are left for the reader to explore, but we dare say it is just bookkeeping and converting between image coordinate representations. At the end of this post, we provide a gallery of the randomly generated images, and a text file containing the corresponding expression trees is packaged with the source code on this blog’s Github page.
Extending the Program With New Functions!
There is decidedly little mathematics in this project, but there are some things we can discuss. First, we note that there are many many many functions on the interval that we could include in our random trees. A few examples are: the average of two numbers in that range, the absolute value, certain exponentials, and reciprocals of interesting sequences of numbers. We leave it as an exercise to the reader to add new functions to our existing code, and to further describe which functions achieve coherent effects.
Indeed, the designs are all rather psychedelic, and the layers of color are completely unrelated. It would be an interesting venture to write a program which, given an image of something (pretend it’s a simple image containing some shapes), constructs expression trees that are consistent with the curves and lines in the image. This follows suit with our goal of constructing low-complexity pictures from a while back, and indeed, these pictures have rather low Kolmogorov complexity. This method is another framework in which to describe their complexity, in that smaller expression trees correspond to simpler pictures. We leave this for future work. Until then, enjoy these pictures!
GalleryThe Nexus One, also known as the Google Phone, has been causing a stir this month after details began to emerge about the project. Earlier today, we learned that the phone will likely be revealed on January 5 at a Google press conference (which we will be covering).
Information on the phone's already starting to leak through the Google gates, though. Screenshots obtained by gadget blog Gizmodo reveal one of the most important details about the device: its price.
The screenshots seem to be the future landing pages for the Google phone. It will apparently go live soon at google.com/phone and be the sole portal for purchasing your very own Nexus One. And while we cannot verify the accuracy of these screenshots, the information presented makes sense.
Here are some of the key details you should know:
- Price: $530 unsubsidized and unlocked (ouch!), $180 subsidized on the T-Mobile network with a 2 year contract. - Rate Plan: $79.99 per month on T-Mobile, which includes unlimited texting/MMS and web data, along with 500 minutes. This seems to be the only plan available, even if you're already on another plan with T-Mobile - Purchasing: You can buy up to five Nexus One phones per Google account. - Cancellation: If you cancel within 120 days, you have to pay the subsidy difference ($350) or return the phone to Google.
The subsidized price makes it competitive with the iPhone and the Verizon Droid, but we won't know how well the phone sells or if people will pay the $530 price tag for an unlocked phone until it launches. Let us know what you think of the price in the comments.
[via Gizmodo]Chemical Compound Shows Promise as Alternative to Opioid Pain Relievers Drug targeting a protein complex containing two different types of opioid receptors may be an effective alternative to morphine and other opioid pain medications.
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A drug targeting a protein complex containing two different types of opioid receptors may be an effective alternative to morphine and other opioid pain medications, without any of the side effects or risk of dependence, according to research led by the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. The findings are published in July in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Morphine is still the most widely-used pain reliever, or analgesic, in people with severe pain, but chronic use can lead to addiction and negative side effects such as respiratory issues, constipation, or diarrhea.
In a previous study published in Science Signaling by Lakshmi Devi, PhD, Professor of Pharmacology and Systems Therapeutics at Mount Sinai, researchers identified a therapeutic target called a GPCR heteromer, which is a protein complex that is made up of two opioid receptors called mu and delta. They also showed that the heteromer is abundant in the area of the brain that processes pain, and is the likely cause of morphine tolerance and side effects.
In the current study, Dr. Devi carried out high throughput screening in collaboration with researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to identify which small molecules might act on the signaling pathway associated with this protein complex. Researchers found one compound called CYM51010 that was as potent as morphine, but less likely to result in tolerance and negative side effects. Dr. Devi’s team is currently developing modified versions of this compound that may have potential as analgesics with reduced side effects.
“GPCR heteromers have been suggested to represent powerful targets for improved, novel therapeutics with reduced adverse effects in people with severe pain,” said Dr. Devi. “However, there are presently no chemical tools that allow us to investigate their role in vivo. Our work represents a promising step in this direction, providing results that pave the way towards a new understanding of the function and pharmacology of opioid receptor heteromers.”
Dr. Devi and her team are currently working with co-author Marta Filizola, PhD, Associate Professor of Structural and Chemical Biology at Mount Sinai, to learn how CYM51010 binds to the protein complex. Armed with this information, they hope to modify the compound to treat pain without the development of dependency. They also plan to restrict their benefit to the gastrointestinal system and treat diarrhea associated with irritable bowel disease that is unresponsive to existing therapies.
This study was supported by National Institute on Drug Abuse Grants R01-008863 and K05-019521.
About The Mount Sinai Medical Center
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,” he said.
Centuries ago, Andijan was a hub on the fabled Silk Road trade route linking Asia and Europe; these days, it is a somewhat gritty industrial city of about 350,000. With its desert-like climate, the city seems poles apart from Kalmar for Uzbek refugees.
Uzbekistan's first daughter accused of pocketing $1bn in phone deals Read more
In 2004, the year before the massacre, Sweden had 441 recorded Uzbek refugees. That number more than doubled to 964 in 2005, and today stands at 3,477.
Another refugee in Kalmar said that for many of his compatriots, the difficulties of making a new life in exile had proven disillusioning.
“No one trusts anyone right now. No one trusts the democracy of Europe. No one trusts Uzbekistan. No one wants to talk with anyone,” he said, sipping coffee at a shopping mall and occasionally glancing around to check for eavesdroppers. “People just want to be quiet. No one can find a good life for us, so we have to do it ourselves.”Two years after releasing "Just Me" -- sans last year's viral sensation, "If You're Ready to Learn" -- Brian McKnight returns with his 15th studio album, "More Than Words" (March 19).
In anticipation for the release of the full-length, The Juice is exclusively premiering the singer's second single, "4th of July." Listen below.
As Brian McKnight debuts the self-written and produced by track, his first single, "Sweeter," remains at No. 12 on Adult R&B Songs chart for three weeks to date.
"More Than Words" also features Colbie Caillat on the title track."We were on a plane together, and I didn't realize who she was 'cause I don't know anybody's face," he told Billboard in November. "We started talking, then she came by my house and we wrote this really great tune."
Brian McKnight didn't think of radio when creating "More Than Words," but instead went with what felt right to him. "I kinda went back to that period between '88 and '94 where I felt like I was the most creative, without being hindered by powers that be," he said. "I was no longer going to try to hinder myself to what I thought was going to be on the radio. I went back and listened to the first three albums I made and tried to figure out what was special about them, why people keep going back to them. I think it was because I didn't know what I was doing. I had no idea if they were going to play it on the radio or anything. All I did was write songs, so that's what I got back to."Victor Wooten returns with Bass Extremes on Oct. 21 to San Jacinto College Central
Steve Bailey, left, and Victor Wooten of Bass Extremes will perform on Oct. 21 at San Jacinto College. Steve Bailey, left, and Victor Wooten of Bass Extremes will perform on Oct. 21 at San Jacinto College. Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Victor Wooten returns with Bass Extremes on Oct. 21 to San Jacinto College Central 1 / 1 Back to Gallery
Five-time Grammy award winner Victor Wooten will return to San Jacinto College Central to present Bass Extremes, a collaboration with Steve Bailey, on Oct. 21 in Slocomb Auditorium.
This exclusive performance will also feature Derico Watson on drums. The concert begins at 8 p.m. with doors opening at 6:30 p.m.
Wooten and Bailey formed Bass Extremes in 1993.
Bailey is a pioneer of the six-string bass, having shared the stage with Jethro Tull, Willie Nelson, Ray Price, Billy Joe Shaver and others.
Wooten has performed with such artists as The Dave Matthews Band, Prince, India Arie, Bruce Hornsby and Chick Corea. He is also a founding member of the super-group Bela Fleck and the Flecktones and recently formed his own record label, Vix Records.
Voted Bassist of the Year three times by Bass Player Magazine, Wooten also lends his talent toward music education through giving lectures, workshops and hosting camps.
This event is sponsored by the San Jacinto College Foundation and the Audio Engineering Organization.
All proceeds will go to the Brittany Williams Scholarship Fund, which pays tuition for audio engineering students.
Last year's Wooten concert raised $16,000 for the college's scholarship fund. This year's goal is to endow the fund.
Tickets for the Bass Extremes performance are $25 for advance purchase and $30 at the door on the day of the show.
Students may purchase their tickets for $10 through bassextremes.brownpapertickets.com.
San Jacinto College Central Campus is located at 8060 Spencer Highway in Pasadena, Texas. For details, visit www.sanjac.edu/wooten or call 713-269-0865.Treasury secretary Luis Videgaray says ‘emphatically and categorically’ that Mexican government will not pay for Donald Trump’s proposed border wall
Mexico makes first direct response to Trump: We're not paying for border wall
The Mexican government has made its first direct response to Donald Trump’s pledge to build a wall along the two countries’ border and make Mexico pay for it.
“I say it emphatically and categorically: Mexico, under no circumstance is going to pay for the wall that Mr Trump is proposing,” the Mexican treasury secretary, Luis Videgaray, said late on Wednesday to Milenio television.
The wall proposal by the Republican presidential hopeful has been criticized widely and fiercely in Mexico, but the government itself has tried to avoid commenting directly on the issue until now.
Trump is leading the Republican presidential contenders and has used especially tough talk on immigration.
His comments came one day after Francisco Guzmán of President Enrique Peña Nieto’s office told reporters that the government would not engage in verbal duels with US candidates. Instead, he described a plan to reach out with information to campaigns through Mexican consulates in the US.
Former Mexican presidents Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderón had already derided the idea and compared Trump to Adolf Hitler.
“Building a wall between Mexico and the United States is a very bad idea, it is an idea based in ignorance and that is not supported by the reality of North American integration,” Videgaray said. He said there was no way that Mexican taxpayers could pay for that sort of project.
Since he launched his campaign last summer, Trump has taken aim at Mexicans, saying they bring crime and drugs to the US and are “rapists”.
Mexico’s answer until now had been to remind Americans of the economic contributions made by their citizens and Mexican-Americans. The two countries’ trade amounts to more than $500bn annually.If there is one thing I know, it's that the 1% loves a crisis. When people are panicked and desperate, that is the ideal time to push through their wishlist of pro-corporate policies: privatising education and social security, slashing public services, getting rid of the last constraints on corporate power. Amidst the economic crisis, this is happening the world over.
There is only one thing that can block this tactic, and fortunately, it's a very big thing: the 99%. And that 99% is taking to the streets from Madison to Madrid to say: "No. We will not pay for your crisis."
That slogan began in Italy in 2008. It ricocheted to Greece and France and Ireland and finally it has made its way to the square mile where the crisis began.
Many people have drawn parallels between Occupy Wall Street and the so-called anti-globalisation protests that came to world attention in Seattle in 1999. That was the last time a global, youth-led, decentralised movement took direct aim at corporate power. And I am proud to have been part of what we called "the movement of movements".
But there are important differences too. We chose summits as our targets: the World Trade Organisation, the IMF, the G8. Summits are transient, they only last a week. That made us transient too. And in the frenzy of hyper-patriotism and militarism that followed 9/11, it was easy to sweep us away completely, at least in North America.
Occupy Wall Street, on the other hand, has chosen a fixed target. And no end date. This is wise. Only when you stay put can you grow roots. This is crucial. It is a fact of the information age that too many movements spring up like beautiful flowers but quickly die off. It's because they don't have roots. And they don't have long term plans for how they are going to sustain themselves. So when storms come, they get washed away.
Being horizontal and deeply democratic is wonderful. These principles are compatible with the hard work of building structures and institutions that are sturdy enough to weather the storms ahead. I have great faith that this will happen.
Something else this movement is doing right: You have committed yourselves to non-violence. You have refused to give the media the images of broken windows and street fights it craves so desperately. And that tremendous discipline has meant that, again and again, the story has been the disgraceful and unprovoked police brutality.
But the biggest difference a decade makes is that in 1999, we were taking on capitalism at the peak of a frenzied economic boom. Unemployment was low, stock portfolios were bulging. The media were drunk on easy money. It was all about start-ups, not shut-downs.
We pointed out that the deregulation behind the frenzy came at a price. It was damaging to labour standards. It was damaging to environmental standards. Corporations were becoming more powerful than governments and that was damaging to our democracies. But to be honest with you, while the good times rolled, taking on an economic system based on greed was a tough sell, at least in rich countries.
Ten years later, it seems as if there aren't any more rich countries. Just a whole lot of rich people. People who got rich looting the public wealth and exhausting natural resources around the world.
The point is, today everyone can see that the system is deeply unjust and careening out of control. Unfettered greed has trashed the global economy. And we are trashing the natural world. We are overfishing our oceans, polluting our water with fracking and deepwater drilling, turning to the dirtiest forms of energy on the planet, like the Alberta tar sands. The atmosphere can't absorb the amount of carbon we are putting into it, creating dangerous warming. The new normal is serial disasters: economic and ecological.
These are the facts on the ground. They are so blatant, so obvious, that it is a lot easier to connect with the public than it was in 1999, and to build the movement quickly.
We all know, or at least sense, that the world is upside down: we act as if there is no end to what is actually finite: fossil fuels and the atmospheric space to absorb their emissions. And we act as if there are strict and immovable limits to what is actually bountiful: the financial resources to build the kind of society we need.
The task of our time is to turn this round: to challenge this false scarcity. To insist that we can afford to build a decent, inclusive society – while at the same time respect the real limits to what the earth can take.
What climate change means is that we have to do this on a deadline. This time our movement cannot get distracted, divided, burned out or swept away by events. This time we have to succeed. And I'm not talking about regulating the banks and increasing taxes on the rich, though that's important.
I am talking about changing the underlying values that govern our society. That is hard to fit into a single media-friendly demand, and it's also hard to figure out how to do it. But it is no less urgent for being difficult.That is what I see happening in this square. In the way you are feeding each other, keeping each other warm, sharing information freely and providing health care, meditation classes and empowerment training. My favorite sign here says "I care about you". In a culture that trains people to avoid each other's gaze, to say "Let them die," that is a deeply radical statement.
We have picked a fight with the most powerful economic and political forces on the planet. That's frightening. And as this movement grows from strength to strength, it will get more frightening. Always be aware that there will be a temptation to shift to smaller targets – like, say, the person next to you. Don't give into the temptation. This time, let's treat each other as if we plan to work side by side in struggle for many, many years to come. Because the task before us will demand nothing less.
Let's treat this beautiful movement as if it is the most important thing in the world. Because it is. It really is.
• This is a version of a speech delivered on Thursday, that first appeared in print in the Occupied Wall Street JournalThe American star striker is an active campaigner for women’s equality off the field and has set her sights on becoming the world’s leading player on it, having taken the plunge with a six-month loan spell at Lyon
On a cold, grey January day in Lyon the fire of Alex Morgan’s ambition is obvious. She has already spoken of her desire to become the best female footballer in the world and, a long way from the winter sunshine of Florida, to adapt to a new culture in France. Morgan arrived in Lyon just a few days into 2017, after she had been pursued on Twitter by Jean-Michel Aulas, the president of Lyon. Aulas made it clear that signing the American star striker would underline Lyon’s commitment to a women’s team which won the French title, domestic cup and Champions League treble last season.
USA forward Alex Morgan to join European champions Lyon on loan Read more
Morgan’s drive might be matched by Lyon but the 27-year-old World Cup winner and Olympic gold medallist, who has scored 73 goals in 120 games for the USA, stresses how many more important battles are still to be won for women’s football. “It’s great to see women standing up in their own line of work and fighting for fair value,” she says after name-checking Jennifer Lawrence and Taylor Swift. Such starry allies suit Morgan, who has more than 2.8 million followers on Twitter, but there is also a wearying grittiness to the struggle for equality in women’s sport.
“We’re trying to do the same thing and we’ve come a long way. But it gets exhausting having to do this every day, every week. Our male counterparts have not had to fight as much – so sometimes you feel a little exhausted always having to prove yourself and show your worth.”
Morgan rolls her eyes when I say how odd it is that sportswomen are having to fight so hard for parity in 2017. “Sometimes it feels a little redundant and I wish we didn’t have to fight so hard. But you see female actresses and singers standing up for themselves as well as women in general. A woman earns an average 73 cents to the male dollar in the US. So there’s still a long way to go. There’s hope in the fact that so many people know about our struggle in football – with the CBA [Collective Bargaining Agreement] and our fight for equal pay. The fact that the agreement was such a big deal last year showed how much the women’s game has grown.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Alex Morgan, right, in action for the USA against Japan last June. Photograph: Jason Miller/Getty Images
In her new European setting Morgan is note-perfect in always saying “football” rather than “soccer”. But semantics do not really matter when the issues within the women’s game in the US are so tangled that Morgan speaks of “a crisis”. She stresses that the dispute between US Soccer and the national team, with the players calling for a fairer structure in relation to the men’s squad, could lead to strike action.
“It’s necessary for change sometimes,” Morgan says of a possible strike. “It wouldn’t be the first time women decided to strike. Colombia and a couple of other countries might do the same. And Australia didn’t play us a year ago because of the same battle. We were supposed to play them in a few weeks and they decided not to get on the flight because they weren’t getting paid what they were worth – or anywhere close.
“To force a change sometimes you need to stand up. You know what you’re worth – rather than what your employer is paying you. We’re not scared. To move the women’s game ahead we need to do what’s necessary. I feel other national teams are looking at us for that guidance.”
Morgan laughs wryly and says “Where do I start?” when asked for a potted history of the US dispute. But she then speaks clearly. “As a national team we have a collective bargaining agreement and from 2001 we’ve had a salary-structured contract because there hasn’t always been a league for national players. So US Soccer has funded the players by giving them an annual salary. Moving forward we would love to keep that consistency in being paid [by the federation] but we want to close the gap between men and women.
How turmoil in US women's soccer could drive players to Europe Read more
“It’s difficult because we are probably the first national team to get a salary. We’re also probably the highest paid in terms of a women’s national team. But do you compare us to other women’s national teams or to the US men? Do you compare us to clubs? With US Soccer also funding the NWSL [National Women’s Soccer League] it’s very intertwined and hard to understand from the outside.
“But the fight is about receiving equitable treatment – not just pay. Our CBA ended last month so right now we’re locked with the status quo. Neither US Soccer nor us have submitted anything that says they’ll lock us out or that we will strike. We’re hoping to reach agreement – but there eventually needs to be pressure from one side to meet in the middle.
“We don’t have a World Cup or Olympics to use as leverage while we negotiate a new contract. But we have an important tournament coming up [in March]. The SheBelieves Cup brings France, England and Germany to the US. Before we play those matches we want to get a deal done so we can move on.”
The fact that women’s soccer still struggles for parity in the US – where it is such a popular sport – indicates the depth of the battle facing the female game globally. Morgan is forthright when she considers Fifa’s attitude to women’s football and its decision to stage the 2015 World Cup on artificial pitches. “We took it very personally because it was an insult. They had never done that for the men – and they never would. The men wouldn’t stand for it. We tried to take a stand and we brought in lawyers and tried to bring it to court in Canada. Lots of players were involved internationally. But it was too late to change anything.
“At least we won the tournament and a concession from Fifa that they will never do anything like that again. But it’s also about the win bonuses for the champions or even the teams who finish second, third or fourth. It’s about the amount of fans who watch and the amount of security the women get compared to the men. It’s about the amount of marketing dollars spent promoting the World Cup.
“I understand there’s much more money in the men’s game. But Fifa spent so much time on the men they now need to focus a little more on us. I would like to close that gap even if I’m not expecting it to be equal. I’m not expecting there to be a huge jump and the win bonus to be $35m when, for the women, it’s $2m. I don’t think the entire world respects women in sport. But if Fifa start respecting the women’s game more, others will follow.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Alex Morgan holds us her new shirt during a press conference as part of her official unveiling at Lyon. Photograph: AP
Morgan’s decision to immerse herself in European football, at least for an initial six-month loan from Orlando Pride to Lyon, is motivated by a desire to “improve my game” as she seeks to become the world’s best female footballer. “I still have a way to go. I hope to get there this year or next year. I’ve been able to step up in big moments in the 2012 Olympics and the World Cup. But before I’m able to be the best player in the world, I need to be in the world’s best XI. The start of that is training with the world’s best [club] team.
“I would like to win the Ballon d’Or for women. But every top professional should have that ambition. We’ve just seen the 2016 award [won last week by Morgan’s US team-mate Carli Lloyd]. Carli was up against Melanie Behringer [of Germany] and Marta [the Brazilian who previously won the award five years in a row]. They’re three of the world’s best players – but others can compete with them.”
Morgan has star appeal and this past weekend L’Équipe ran a six-page magazine cover story on her. “That’s heartening, isn’t it,” Morgan says, “because you expose not only yourself but the sport as a whole.”
The 20 greatest female football players of all time Read more
It’s still difficult for Morgan as she tries to learn French – and after just a few days she admits she has not moved far beyond “bonjour”. She is also missing her husband, Servando Carrasco, a defensive midfielder for Orlando City, and their dog Blue. “My husband found it hard as well because we are finally in the same city [Orlando] after six years of playing professionally in different cities. But I told him I need to challenge myself and evolve as a player. He ended up not only supporting me but feeling like it was necessary for me.”
At least her established role as one of the world’s best players means that Morgan, as an American, will not suffer the prejudice that afflicted her countryman Bob Bradley during his brief managerial spell in the Premier League with Swansea. “I was cringing and felt really bad for him,” Morgan says of Bradley. “I didn’t feel like he had enough time. He couldn’t bring in any of his own [coaching] guys and it was a little cruel and unfair.”
More than 26 million people in the US watched Morgan and her team-mates win the 2015 World Cup final – a much larger television audience than for the men’s team. But Morgan points out that most women playing the game professionally, but not at national level, have to work in additional jobs. “They have to do that for five months a year because our season is only seven months long. They definitely need to find jobs, whether that’s soccer clinics or camps or an actual desk job. The minimum salary when we started the League four years ago was around $6,000. It’s improved a little and players receive housing so that helps. But even now the minimum salary is barely liveable. That’s why you’re seeing players retiring at 25 – before their prime.”
How would Morgan improve pay for women’s soccer in the US? “Accessibility is important. Having games on TV and that sort of marketing is crucial. Sometimes I’ll be walking through Orlando and people recognise me and they ask if I’m here for the national team. They don’t understand they have a women’s club team in their own city. I get that it’s only been a year but awareness hasn’t been great.
“The NWSL is our baby because we’ve seen two leagues in the US fold. Players, coaches, owners and fans want it to succeed. And just because I’m playing in Europe the next six months doesn’t mean I will stop caring about football back home. I’m going to be very active in our fight for the new agreement.”
Morgan’s allegiance to the US means she smiles when reminding me that the 2019 women’s World Cup final will be held in the very same Lyon stadium where we now sit. Her aim is to win that tournament in her adopted French home. But, in terms of winning the wider battle for women’s football, can equality be achieved soon?
“That’s the hope. Ten years? I don’t know. Twenty years I see as definitely doable. Fifa has to do a lot more to evolve our game because women in sport aren’t respected equally around the world. Our current battle in the US will get resolved but I don’t believe the fight will ever end globally for the women’s game. We will always have to fight for our rights.”For the past two days, a series of rolling political protests have taken place across Australia. Known as the March in March, the movement has rallied specifically against the Abbott government and more broadly against the coalition’s policies – like the forced incarceration of asylum seekers – that Labor also supports. Demanding “decency, accountability and transparency”, the marches have already mobilized upwards of 100,000 people, with the march in Melbourne yesterday – at which I spoke – attracting an estimated 30,000 participants.
The marches have caused controversy within Australian politics, not merely because their anti-coalition sentiments have predictably inflamed the political right. In the Herald-Sun, Andrew Bolt hit peak froth to schedule, while the young Liberal ranks on Twitter have spent a sleepless night scanning rally photographs to demonise thousands of considered adults with one or two pictures of surly teenagers who bore unwisely-worded banners. Yet while it’s understandable that as a target of policy criticism the Labor Party chose to keep its head down, the Greens were also a more subtle presence than usual in the marches, and activist group GetUp! all but invisible. Intriguingly, despite organizing around explicit principles of “humanity, decency, fairness, social justice and equity”, the movement actually attracted consternation from Australia’s establishment left, with Simon Copland writing in Guardian Australia that the movement didn’t offer “credible alternatives” beyond “tearing the government down”.
Certainly, the March in March’s early claim to rally a “voice of no confidence” in the Abbott government had unfortunate echoes of the embarrassing Convoy of No Confidence that rallied the marginal right against Julia Gillard. The aim, however, was not to agitate for an actual no confidence parliament vote in the prime minister, as the Convoy cavalcade sought of Gillard. Rather than revealing an extremist political programme, the slogan was simply the awkward expression of an unexpected and inexperienced movement.
The emergence of March in March is both a hopeful story for progressive Australia and a phenomenon that the right ridicules at its peril. Abbott had reached a hundred days in office, and discontent at the rapid pace of policy change from a coalition that had promised “no surprises, no excuses” was fermenting. A single tweet from a supermarket employee in regional Victoria suggesting a “march in March” gained currency as a Twitter hashtag, appealing in its sentiments of organizing against political frustration with “some kind” of anti-government direct action.
As more was revealed about the treatment of asylum-seekers on Manus Island, moral anger outstripped the political, and a movement of tweeters who were outraged by the Liberals, ashamed by Labor and uninspired by the Greens expanded their desire for an activist outlet to Facebook. Someone emailed GetUp! to seek support for a rally … and they never heard back.
Five key organisers – from Geraldton in Western Australia, Daylesford in Victoria, the Blue Mountains, Kempsey and Broken Hill in New South Wales, none of whom had ever met beyond social media – began organizing anyway. The catalyst to plan the rallies was feminist group Destroy the Joint’s “send tampons to Morrison” campaign, which convinced the group of the effectiveness of social media in activism. Via Twitter and Facebook, a geographically decentraliszed plan for rallies emerged.
These were not greatly experienced activists – the Melbourne rally organizer did not even own a mobile phone. But those who think that the movement lacks a “credible” programme or is crowded with too many issues are missing the point. The organic, decentralized movement of non-partisan mass participation is its programme in itself. All of March in March’s many policy positions are simply an electoral yearning for community values – of inclusion, infrastructure and sustainability – to be the informing principle of government policy.
As a movement that has landed more than 100,000 Australians on the streets because they feel excluded, ignored, neglected and abandoned by Abbott’s government, Abbott’s blurted retort that the only march he knew about “was St Patrick’s Day” was as politically idiotic as it was galvanizing. Political parties are no longer the channel of activism in this country; they have become its target. To ignore those willing to nationally organize and march is to ignore those willing to fundraise, leaflet, doorknock and campaign to bring about the representation they feel is denied them. Or have the Coalition forgotten so soon the lessons of Indi?CALGARY — Tensions are escalating between two rival women's hockey organizations, as the Canadian Women's Hockey League is challenging the National Women's Hockey League's rights to the trademark "NWHL" in Canada.
A CWHL spokesperson confirmed the challenge filed with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office.
The Ontario Women's Hockey Association, which operated a different National Women's Hockey League in Canada and the U.S. from 1999 to 2007, joined the CWHL's challenge.
"The contestation of the NWHL trademark... are standard business procedures designed to protect the CWHL's name and intellectual property rights within Canada," Sasky Stewart told The Canadian Press in an email Wednesday.
A challenge to the trademark hasn't been filed in the United States. The CWHL's move may be to block potential NWHL expansion into Canada.
The current four-team NWHL, based in the United States, has played one season. That league has until June 13 to counterfile.
"We have been advised by counsel that the opposition proceedings in Canada are without merit," NWHL commissioner Dani Rylan said.
The NWHL committed to pay its players with a salary cap of US$270,000 per team, which works out to an average of $15,000 per player.
The CWHL doesn't pay its players, and now faces pressure to do so to prevent players defecting to the U.S. league.
The CWHL rose from the ashes of the previous National Women's Hockey League which ceased operations in 2007. Now a five-team league with one in Boston, the Clarkson Cup championship trophy has been awarded for seven seasons.Image copyright Reuters
Swiss voters go to the polls this weekend in a nationwide referendum on whether to introduce what would be the highest minimum wage anywhere in the world.
If approved, employers would be obliged to pay workers a monthly minimum of 4,000 Swiss francs (£2,680; $4,470) - which works out as just over £32,000 ($53,600) a year.
Trade unions say the measure is necessary because of the very high living costs in big Swiss cities such as Geneva and Zurich.
Earlier this month, tens of thousands of workers demonstrated in both cities.
Many of them are angry that while neighbouring France and Germany already have minimum pay levels, Switzerland, which is one of the richest countries in the world, does not.
'Rents are astronomical'
Florinda Pereria, who works as a housekeeper in Geneva, says her experience proves that surviving on less than 4,000 francs a month is simply not possible.
Image caption Florinda Pereria is one of those who wants a higher minimum wage
"Rents are astronomical, health insurance is incredibly expensive, food is incredibly expensive.
"I'm working 60 to 70 hours a week to reach that, and even that is barely enough," she says. "Frankly I think it's verging on slavery."
Recent studies do show that, among people claiming benefits in Switzerland, a significant number are doing so not because they have no work, but because they are not being paid enough to make ends meet.
This has been a key element in the campaign in favour of a minimum wage, with supporters arguing that the Swiss welfare system is being forced to subsidise businesses which refuse to pay a living wage.
'An own goal'
But business leaders and the Swiss government have been campaigning hard against the proposal.
Higher salaries would mean higher prices Urs Gfeller, Swiss farmer
They point to Switzerland's low unemployment and high standard of living for the majority as evidence that the Swiss way of doing things is successful, and in no need of change.
"I think it's an own goal, for workers as well as for small companies in Switzerland," says Cristina Gaggini, director of the Geneva office of the Swiss business association, Economiesuisse.
"Studies show that a minimum wage can lead to much more unemployment and poverty than it helps people.
"And for very small companies it would be very problematic to afford such a high salary."
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The latest polls suggest almost two-thirds of voters are against the proposal
'We'd go to the wall'
Small businesses, and in particular Swiss farmers, are especially worried that being forced to pay their staff 4,000 francs a month would price their products out of the market.
Organic farmer Urs Gfeller believes he and many others like him risk being put out of business.
"Higher salaries would mean higher prices. People would have to pay more for their vegetables and farm produce," he told Swiss television.
Swiss monthly living costs One-bed city centre flat: 1,800 francs
Utilities: 100-200 francs
Health insurance: 300-400 francs
Public transport: 50-70 francs
Restaurant meal for two: 100-150 francs
"Then cheaper produce would be imported from other countries, Swiss farmers would be finished - we'd go to the wall."
In fact, most of Switzerland's low-paid workers operate in the service industry, in hotels and restaurants, and the majority are women.
Trade unions point out that the fear over cheaper imports does not really apply to Swiss hotels and restaurants, whose customers might be happy to pay a little bit more in order to know those serving them were being paid a living wage.
Public fury
Swiss business leaders hope their campaign will persuade a majority of voters to reject the minimum wage, but they remain very uneasy at growing public criticism of the way they do things.
A referendum last year, known as the 'fat cats initiative' limited executive bonuses and golden handshakes.
This followed public fury that some business leaders, most notably Swiss bankers, continued to earn huge salaries even as the banks themselves were losing money.
Image copyright Reuters Image caption This poster urges voters to reject the minimum wage proposal
Another vote, which was designed to ensure that bosses could earn no more than 12 times the salary of the lowest paid in their company, was narrowly defeated last November.
However, the campaign served to focus attention yet again on the high salaries paid to some chief executives.
So before this Sunday's votes have even been counted, some Swiss businesses are already quietly introducing higher salaries, among them supermarket chain Lidl, with fashion retailer H&M set to follow.
Continuing debate
Meanwhile Switzerland's electrical and mechanical engineering industry has shown it understands that some areas of Switzerland, most notably Geneva and Zurich, have exceptionally high costs of living, and has agreed to regional minimum wages.
The latest opinion polls indicate the 4,000 SFr-a-month proposal may be rejected.
But even if the minimum wage is defeated this time, the debate about fair pay in wealthy Switzerland will not be going away.
Coming soon, there will be a referendum on a guaranteed basic income for all Swiss, whether they work or not.FUN WHEEL CHALLENGE will bring free wifi and interactive color matching game for WORLD OF COLOR - WINTER DREAMS
Theis a new interactive color-matching game that guests will be able to play while they wait forto begin. Guests will be able to connect to a new special restricted-use public wi-fi that opens the game automatically in a mobile browser.The Fun Wheel basically turns into a giant game of SIMON as it begins to flash a sequence of colors that you then tap in the same order on your phone. If you tap the complete sequence in the fastest time over everyone else in the audience, you get to control the colors that will appear on the Fun Wheel.The new wi-fi network will be called "PierGames" and no downloads required are require to play the game, simply open your phone's mobile browser to play. The games begin each night approximately 30 minutes before the start of WORLD OF COLOR - WINTER DREAMS.Quote:
Lux Ferre 1212:
I was thinking on some basic bits for a kit for an AD Ninja, since it's been noted by quite a few people that it's very odd that there isn't one. While most of the ideas I came up with were alright, the idea for his Ult I was quite fond of and would like your input on. As a note to give it some context, for his lore I saw him as an outcast of the clan of which Shen is a member, here to hunt him down and destroy his precious balance. Thus he focuses on fear, misdirection, and darkness. Also, numbers are less my strong suit than concepts.
Stand Divided (I know it's cheesy, but I couldn't help it):
Cooldown: Relatively long. I'm thinking in the over a minute range, and not lower than a minute even at max rank.
Duration: Short. Possibly need to be very short, depending on how many gamebreaking scenarios you better-qualified folks can come up with for it than I've been able to. I'm thinking in the 4-10 second range, but then again maybe I'm being too conservative.
For the duration of Stand Divided, enemies no longer grant each other sight through the fog of war. Individual summoners may only see the area that is exposed by their own individual champion. This includes no longer being granted sight by towers, buildings, or minions. Essentially you can only see around your own champion. The exceptions would be that any area revealed by a vision ward (specifically the stealth-breaking ward) would remain revealed, as would the area being revealed by any champion currently under the effect of an Oracle's Elixer.
I feel like it has danger to be abused in backdooring scenarios, but the idea of the minimap becoming dark and then hearing "An ally has been slain" and the confusion sown by this just tickles me enough that I had to run it by you.Yang takes the stand, points finger at wife: ‘It was her, not me’
by Wan Ting Koh
IT ENDED in just half an hour. The much anticipated testimony of The Real Singapore (TRS) co-founder Yang Kaiheng began today (April 6) in the afternoon but ended abruptly after his lawyer requested to postpone proceedings due to the medical condition of Yang’s wife, Ai Takagi, who was absent from court |
that Virtually Guarantee Human Extinction
Most pessimistic scholars base their predictions of impending environmental holocaust on a single technology. Some climate disruption experts, for instance, believe that it’s already game over for humanity. Other scholars, looking at the prospects of an all-out nuclear war, are convinced that it is precisely such a war that would spell our doom.
But one can also look at our environmental predicament as a whole. What happens when we combine the probabilities of all potential extinction events? To be sure, the biosphere is extremely complex and hence unpredictable. Still, some tentative order-of-magnitude estimates might be made:
Nuclear power: There are some 440 existing plants and some 60 are under construction. We had already three major disasters (Kyshtym, Chernobyl, and Fukushima), which would, when everything is said and done, involve permanent loss of previously habitable lands, increased radiation risks everywhere, and the death of millions, at the very least. We can confidently expect many more disasters because the technology is inherently risky. For instance, at the moment we have no idea where and how to store its ever-growing quantities of waste products. Will we survive Fukushima? Will we survive 10 more Fukushimas? Will we survive 50? Nobody knows. Let us be conservative and arbitrarily assign a 5% probability to human extinction caused by nuclear power catastrophes.
Nuclear war: Humanity has been under the shadow of nuclear war since 1945. How long can this continue before these weapons are unleashed accidentally or on purpose, especially by the madmen who now control Washington and Tel Aviv? Nuclear war, in turn, some experts feel, could spell human extinction. One educated guess of an all-out nuclear war taking place and causing human extinction: 10%
Climate Disruptions (see here for a holistic review): Besides the devastating but perhaps survivable impact of human tampering with the climate, there is also the risk of a runaway melting of vast amounts of methane—a very powerful greenhouse gas—and the consequent heating of the atmosphere to levels that would even fry our rulers in their underground hideouts. Conservative probability of this extinction event: 20%
Nanotechnology. Our masters and their compartmentalized Drs. Strangeloves are already unleashing all kinds of minute (around a millionth part of a millimeter or less than 10 millionth part of an inch) particles with strange and powerful properties. Like sentient computers and genetically modified organisms, nanotechnology often involves self-replicating entities. No one knows how that experiment is going to end, yet many doomsday scenarios can be imagined. For instance:
“Plants” with “leaves” no more efficient than today’s solar cells could out-compete real plants, crowding the biosphere with an inedible foliage. Tough omnivorous “bacteria” could out-compete real enough controlling viruses and fruit flies… bacteria: They could spread like blowing pollen, replicate swiftly, and reduce the biosphere to dust in a matter of days. Dangerous replicators could easily be too tough, small, and rapidly spreading to stop – at least if we make no preparation. We have trouble enough controlling viruses and fruit flies.
Such doomsday scenarios could stem from a “simple laboratory accident,” or from intentional malevolence. Let us arbitrarily say that nanotechnology only entails a 1% likelihood of human extinction.
An Awake Computer: According to some experts, we’re nearing the point where a computer or an interconnected computer network could become sentient. Such a remarkable scientific achievement could however be our only lasting legacy. We’re talking here, of course, about a Karel Capek’s R.U.R scenario of revolting self-aware computers. Here, for instance, is Stephen Hawkins:
The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race. It would take off on its own and re-design itself at an ever increasing rate. Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete, and would be superseded. If a superior alien civilization sent us a message saying, ‘We’ll arrive in a few decades,’ would we just reply, ‘OK, call us when you get here—we’ll leave the lights on’? Probably not—but this is more or less what is happening with artificial intelligence.
Let us ignore the Cassandras and assign such an extinction event a mere 3% likelihood.
Chemical contamination: Some parts of the oceans are already dead, at least for a while. The topsoil in most places is not as healthy as it used to be. Our bodies are loaded with a concoction of plentiful poisons–and this is just the beginning. How long till the point of no return? No one knows, but the possibilities are countless, intriguing, and worrisome.
Let me cite just one example: Some of the chemicals in our environment might have already caused a significant reduction in the quality and quantity of human sperm. What’s in store for us if this decline is real and if one day it reaches 10%, or 0 or if human sperm is damaged in some other way?
There are numerous untested chemicals out there, and thousands more will find their way to the environment and our bodies without the slightest regard for their potential consequences. Let’s be conservative and say that the probability of chemically-induced extinction is 20%.
Genetically-modified organisms: Some companies are busily creating chimeras that never existed on earth. How long can this go on before they unleash an extinction event?
The transformation of plant genetics is being accelerated from the measured pace of biological evolution to the speed of next quarter’s earnings report. Such haste makes it impossible to foresee and forestall: Unintended consequences appear only later, when they may not be fixable, because novel lifeforms aren’t recallable.
Let us give a 5% extinction probability caused by existing and yet-to-be-unleashed engineered, self-replicating, life forms.
Species extinctions: Besides busily creating new life forms, we are also destroying old ones. Let us forget aesthetics, morality, and potential future benefits of existing species, and just focus on their potential contribution to our extinction projections. We have no way of knowing whether biodiversity is a precondition of our own survival, and if so, what particular species are critical and what is the biodiversity threshold. So let us give this risk a mere a 1% probability of triggering human extinction.
Stratospheric Ozone Layer Depletion: This particular threat is receding, thanks to delayed but meaningful action. But we cannot declare total victory yet: extinction probability of 1%.
Other known risks: The list above is obviously incomplete. Let’s say that all other suspected risks (e.g., ocean acidification), carry a combined risk of 3%.
New technological breakthroughs: Another grave threat to our existence lies in unforeseen technological breakthroughs and in our propensity to rapidly adopt any profitable technology regardless of risks. Almost all the risks above originated in the last 70 years or so. As long as present trends continue, there is every reason to believe that science will give our corporations many more such potentially destructive gifts. Let’s arbitrarily (but not unreasonably) assign such gifts a 25% collective probability of causing humanity to perish.
*****
C
rowding seems to be negatively correlated with freedom, and it leads us to place less value on human life. For this discussion however, it would appear that the more people we have, all things being equal, the graver the dangers posed by some of the environmental problems mentioned above. And yet, for every person alive in 1800, we now have about seven. Every year, the world population grows by about 75 million, thereby aggravating our already severe environmental problems. We have been warned about overpopulation but have failed to take action—with the exception of China and countries that inadvertently have achieved zero population growth. Not only that, most scholars outside the ecological community, and most organized religions, still preach the false “be fruitful and multiply” doctrine.
It’s extremely difficult to make predictions about a system that is as complex as the biosphere. So all these probabilities convey possibilities, not certainties. Each one of these possibilities could be non-existent, lower, on the mark, or higher. Still, if we settle for the conservative estimates above and sum them up, we arrive at a frightening conclusion: Unless we stop fouling our nest, the probability that human beings (and most other life forms) will vanish from earth within the next couple of centuries or so could be as high as 94%.
Collective Heartlessness and Irrationality
T
he picture that emerges from our discussion so far is dismal: Sooner or later, an avid Russian roulette player blows his brains out. We can readily stop crossing the fingers of one hand while using the other hand to fire a partially-loaded revolver at our head.
To begin with, I’m convinced that the free citizens of democratic Athens—without our fancy technology—were on average happier and more curious and literate than we are. More to the point, they led far more meaningful lives. If given a choice, that is certainly the place I would have chosen to be born in (as a free male citizen).
But let’s say we buy into the false belief that dishwashers and cell phones make us happier (and I must admit that I enjoy owning a car, and that computers and the internet did enrich my life). Must these technologies spell human extinction? Absolutely not! If we were just ruled by decent people, or, better still, if we were our own rulers, we could have most of these comforts, have more money in the bank, enjoy better health and longer lives, and yet reduce by a wide margin the overall probability of our extinction. It’s that simple.
Here are three examples, all showing that, when it comes to the environment, we can often have our cake and eat it too.
I
the long run, nuclear power is probably not a net generator of electricity and it is not, on its own, economically viable (and even if it were, do we really need to split the atom in order to boil water?) It was created thanks to massive government subsidies to begin with, and spawned by the desire to remain supreme in war capability. Moreover, it now exists thanks to government largesse (e.g., since no insurance company in its right mind would insure nuclear power reactors, the nuclear industry says it will build them only if the taxpayers underwrite “ liability for future accidents.”)
All this was already absolutely clear by 1977 at the latest. Here are Ralph Nader and John Abbot (The Menace of Atomic Energy):
What technology has had the potential for both inadvertent and willful mass destruction... for wiping out cities and contaminating states after an accident, a natural calamity, or sabotage? What technology has been so unnecessary, so avoidable by simple thrift or by deployment of renewable energy supplies?
Or take climate disruptions. By the early 1990s, people like Amory Lovins and organizations like the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (both cited here), clearly showed that the USA alone could minimize that threat through conservation. Conservation then could in turn save Americans between $56 to 200 billion a year and vastly improve their health and quality of life.
We could, to give just one example of conservation measures, at the very least, triple gas mileage of the global fleet of cars and meaningfully begin to address the problem (as opposed to the Rothschilds’ various scams of making money from climate disruptions by doing … less than nothing). So why don’t we do it? Simple, the bankers who own the fossil-fuel companies are not content with the trillions they already have. If we increase gas mileage, oil price would go down to slightly above the cost of production. This would mitigate climate disruptions and save lives and money. But such steps would slow down the process of money accumulation by our rulers. Whenever such conflicts arise, the oligarchs almost always win.
Here is a 1996 academic essay:
For argument’s sake, a conservative and arbitrary estimate is adopted, assuming that the chances of adverse greenhouse consequences within the next century are 10%; of a cataclysm, 1%. Such chances, this review then conclusively shows, should not be taken, because there is no conceivable reason for taking them: the steps that will eliminate the greenhouse threat will also save money and cut pollution, accrue many other beneficial consequences, and only entail negligible negative consequences. Thus, a holistic review leads to the surprising conclusion that humanity is risking its future for less than nothing. Claims that the greenhouse controversy is legitimate, that it involves hard choices, that it is value-laden, or that it cannot be resolved by disinterested analysis, are tragically mistaken.
And so it goes, across the board. Genetically-modified crops are unhealthy, they are often soaked with poisons or they themselves produce poisons, they are the cause of many farmer suicides in India, and they pose health and financial risks to growers, consumers, livestock, and wildlife. They are permitted to exist because our political system is putrid.
And what about the potential benefits of such things as computers and nanotechnology? Well, if we can figure out how to develop them without risking our existence, and if we can create a political system that prohibits the vicious applications of technological advances (e.g., using computers to invade privacy and guide nuclear-tipped missiles), then such technologies could be pursued. If, on the other hand, as seems likely, they are inherently risky, a rational and compassionate species would renounce them.
Parting words
I
t takes novelists to fully grasp the irony and hopelessness of our plight.
In Karel Capek’s humorously pessimistic War with the Newts, sentient and prolific salamanders are encountered in some far-off bay. At first their discoverers offer them knives and protection from sharks in exchange for pearls. Gradually, however, many of the world’s nations avail themselves of these creatures for other purposes, including war. In a few years, the salamanders run out of living space. To accommodate their growing numbers, they flood countries, one at a time. To do this, they need supplies from other countries and from merchants of the soon-to-be ravaged country itself. Needless to say, the salamanders have no trouble securing everything they need. At the end, humanity is on the verge of sinking and drowning; not so much by the newts, but by its greed, shortsightedness, and colossal stupidity.
A similar conclusion is reached in Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle:
“And I remembered the Fourteenth Book of Bokonon, which I had read in its entirety the night before. The Fourteenth Book is entitled, “What Can a Thoughtful Man Hope for Mankind on Earth, Given the Experience of the Past Million Years?”
It doesn’t take long to read, The Fourteenth Book. It consists of one word and a period.
This is it:
“Nothing.”
NOTES
About the author Dr. Moti Nissani is an eminent thinker on interdisciplinary environmental issues. Using the Fermi paradox as a platform, he breaks down the fate of the human race and offers a simple and eloquent solution to preventing humanity’s extinction. Dr. Moti Nissani is an eminent thinker on interdisciplinary environmental issues. Using the Fermi paradox as a platform, he breaks down the fate of the human race and offers a simple and eloquent solution to preventing humanity’s extinction.
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[email-subscribers namefield=”YES” desc=”” group=”Public”]Actor tweets: Carlisle’s going to get away with it - AGAINCarlisle responds: I pray depression never bites
The actor Ralf Little has been heavily criticised after accusing the former Professional Footballers’ Association chairman Clarke Carlisle of not telling “the full story” in his interview about a suicide attempt last year.
Carlisle told the Sun that he had intentionally stepped out in front of a lorry in December in an attempt to kill himself, admitting: “I wanted to die.” The former Queens Park Rangers and Blackpool defender spent six weeks in hospital as a result of the injuries he sustained following the collision with a lorry on the A64, near York, on 22 December and returned home this week.
But the Royle Family actor Little, who lived with Carlisle for a brief period of time when he played for QPR, took to Twitter on Tuesday night to have his say. “‘Oh dear. Looks like Clarke Carlisle’s going to get away with it - AGAIN. #Teflon #nonstick,” before adding: “Seems people want context about previous tweet. So let me say, I know the full story and it’s not what’s portrayed in the media. That’s all.”
Ralf Little (@RalfLittle) Oh dear. Looks like Clarke Carlisle's going to get away with it - AGAIN. #Teflon #nonstick pic.twitter.com/cVMlcxMCvl
Those comments caused a number of Twitter users to get in touch with Little, accusing him of being insensitive. Carlisle later responded using the Twitter account of his wife, Gemma, and refused to be drawn into a slanging match. “Hi Ralf, it’s Clarke here. I have seen you once in 10 years,and that was to apologise for my repulsive behaviour as a young man,” he wrote.
MrsC (@gemmacarlisle) @RalfLittle Hi Ralf, it's Clarke here. I have seen you once in 10 years,and that was to apologise for my repulsive behaviour as a young man>
“I know you have you’re [sic] right to your opinion, but I’ve got to say, I sincerely hope that you’re not the same person you were 10 years ago, as I very much am not. I hope you are well, happy and enjoying your excellent career. I pray depression never bites x.”
In a TwitLongerpost, Little later said he and Carlisle had “history” which involved “money, lies … and all sorts of other stuff”.
“I don’t feel sad for Clarke any more, I was drained of that some time ago. Of course I wish Clarke a strong recovery – and not just from the crash. It would be a better world if he and all other sufferers of such an insidious disease could find a way to fight the good fight. There comes a point where it’s just frustrating to witness someone constantly hammering the pattern of destruction for those around – and I was once one of those around – only to see the destructive force make a moving and sincere apology … then do it again.”
Meanwhile, PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor has highlighted the help available to footballers following revelations about Carlisle’s latest battle with depression.
The introduction to the wellbeing section on the PFA website is written by Carlisle, who served as the organisation’s chairman from 2010-13. The PFA details a large network of counsellors, a 24-hour helpline and close links to the Sporting Chance clinic among its initiatives.
Carlisle’s revelations came on the day the PFA was showing its support for the TimetoTalk campaign, which encourages people to speak out about mental health issues.
Taylor, chief executive of the PFA, said: “Mental welfare and depression is something we have been quite concerned about for a number of years now and have acted on it, along with many other sporting organisations.
“This can be something that can affect all people in all walks of life but in sport as well. There have been a number of high-profile cases that everyone will be aware of.
“A booklet has gone out to all our members. We have a 24-hour helpline. We also have the Sporting Chance clinic that looks after players with such conditions and there are a number of mental health charities we support. We have approximately 30 counsellors who are available 24 hours to talk to any of our members, past and present, with such problems.”
Carlisle has said that by speaking out he hopes that others with issues will be encouraged to seek help.
Taylor said: “I think it is for every individual but we hope that by talking about such issues, publicly or privately, people can see there is a strong support network to help them.
“It is only possible to help them when they let people know of the problems, so we can do our best to try to address them with trained counsellors.”
Carlisle has now revealed that he was pulled over by police after a drinking and gambling spree sparked by news he was to lose his job as a pundit with ITV. It was the latest in a series of setbacks including the end of his football career and financial matters. That led to the suicide attempt, which Carlisle has described as his “lowest point”.
Taylor said: “We are very much aware of Clarke’s situation and have been involved in the recuperation process.
“He is in the broadcasting world now but that doesn’t mean to say he is not still subject to such issues.
“If they do arise, then of course he knows that we are here to help address them and try to get him back on track.”
• If you are suffering from depression, the Samaritans helpline on 08457 90 90 90 is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.This comprehensive guide about Microsoft Azure includes common use cases, technical limitations, and what to know before adopting the cloud computing platform.
Microsoft Azure... in less than two minutes Wondering what makes Microsoft's Azure cloud platform unique? Find out in less than two minutes!
The rise of cloud computing provides businesses the ability to quickly provision computing resources without the costly and laborious task of building data centers, and without the costs of running servers with unutilized capacity due to variable workloads.
Azure, Microsoft's cloud computing platform, launched in February 2010. In addition to traditional cloud offerings such as virtual machines, object storage, and content delivery networks (CDNs), Azure offers services that leverage proprietary Microsoft technologies. For example, RemoteApp allows for the deployment of Windows programs using a virtual machine, with clients on Windows, OS X, Android, or iOS using the program through a remote desktop connection. Azure also offers cloud-hosted versions of common enterprise Microsoft solutions, such as Active Directory and SQL Server.
This introduction to Microsoft's cloud platform will be updated periodically to keep IT leaders in the loop on new Azure services and ways in which they can be leveraged.
SEE: Cloud computing policy (Tech Pro Research)
Executive summary
What is Microsoft Azure? Microsoft Azure is a collection of various cloud computing services, including remotely hosted and managed versions of proprietary Microsoft technologies, and open technologies, such as various Linux distributions deployable inside a virtual machine.
Microsoft Azure is a collection of various cloud computing services, including remotely hosted and managed versions of proprietary Microsoft technologies, and open technologies, such as various Linux distributions deployable inside a virtual machine. Why does Microsoft Azure matter? Azure lacks upfront costs or an appreciable time delay in resource provisioning—capacity is available on demand. With a usage-based billing formula, Azure is a compelling option for enterprises transitioning from on-premise Windows servers to the cloud.
Azure lacks upfront costs or an appreciable time delay in resource provisioning—capacity is available on demand. With a usage-based billing formula, Azure is a compelling option for enterprises transitioning from on-premise Windows servers to the cloud. Who does Microsoft Azure affect? Azure can be utilized at any scale, from a garage startup to a Fortune 500 company. Because of the ease of transition, organizations with an existing Windows Server deployment may find Azure to be best suited to their needs.
Azure can be utilized at any scale, from a garage startup to a Fortune 500 company. Because of the ease of transition, organizations with an existing Windows Server deployment may find Azure to be best suited to their needs. When was Microsoft Azure released? Azure reached general availability in February 2010, with additional services and regional data centers being added continually since launch.
Azure reached general availability in February 2010, with additional services and regional data centers being added continually since launch. How do I get Microsoft Azure? New users receive a $200 service credit good for 30 days when signing up for Microsoft Azure; the credit can be applied toward any Microsoft-provided service. Additional discounts and credits are available for startups, nonprofits, and universities.
SEE: Special report: The cloud v. data center decision (free PDF) (TechRepublic)
Image: Microsoft
What is Microsoft Azure?
Microsoft Azure is a platform of interoperable cloud computing services, including open-source, standards-based technologies and proprietary solutions from Microsoft and other companies. Instead of building an on-premise server installation, or leasing physical servers from traditional data centers, Azure's billing structure is based on resource consumption, not reserved capacity. Pricing varies between different types of services, storage types, and the physical location from which your Azure instances are hosted.
For example, Storage pricing varies based on redundancy and distribution options. In the Central US region, hot locally redundant block blob storage (LRS-HOT), with 3 copies in one data center, starts at $0.0184 per GB. Geographically redundant storage (GRS-HOT), with 3 copies in one data center and 3 copies in a second geographically distant data center, starts at $0.0368 per GB. Read-Access GRS (RAGRS-HOT), which allows for read access at the second data center, starts at $0.046 per GB.
SEE: All of TechRepublic's cheat sheets and smart person's guides
In addition to the aforementioned storage, virtual machine, CDN, and Windows-related services, Azure also offers a variety of other services.
Microsoft, in coordination with hardware vendors such as Lenovo, Dell EMC, HP Enterprise, and Huawei, offers the Azure Stack appliance for use in hybrid cloud deployments. The Azure Stack appliance allows organizations to run Azure applications from the public Azure cloud while leveraging data hosted on-premise, as well as running the same services from the public Azure cloud on the Azure Stack platform.
Additional resources:
Why does Microsoft Azure matter?
Azure, like other cloud service providers, offers the ability to instantly provision computing resources on demand. Compared to the onerous task of planning and building an on-site data center, along with the requisite hardware upgrades, maintenance costs, server cooling requirements, electricity costs, and use of floorspace—particularly for offices with associated real estate costs—the savings can add up very quickly.
The benefits of Azure extend beyond cost control, however. The task of administering certain technologies such as Windows Server, Active Directory, and SharePoint can be greatly eased with the combination of Azure and Office 365. This frees up IT staff to work on new projects, rather than spending time on general system upkeep.
Microsoft is aggressively courting organizations to move AI compute operations into Azure. At Microsoft Build 2018, the company highlighted its move of Project Brainwave—an FPGA-based deep learning system built for real-time AI—into the Azure cloud service as a preview. Microsoft is also previewing an edge computing version of Project Brainwave, which are on-premises servers that act as Azure IoT Edge devices. Microsoft claims that a single AI server can process 500 images per second, with the company charging 21 cents per million tasks.
Additional resources:
Who does Microsoft Azure affect?
Organizations with an existing deployment of Microsoft technologies, particularly Windows Server and Active Directory, will find Azure to be a compelling upgrade. As Windows Server 2008 has reached the end of mainstream support, planning for a migration to cloud-hosted Azure services may be preferable to investments in new server hardware and Windows Server licenses.
As with any cloud service, the cost benefit is more real for cash-strapped startup organizations that lack the capital for provisioning hardware and associated costs of a traditional on-premise deployment, or leasing dedicated servers in a traditional data center. Because the billing structure of Azure is based on resources used, turning to the cloud allows a company's IT backbone to scale with corporate growth.
SEE: Job description: Cloud Engineer (Tech Pro Research)
Presently, 50 regions are available for use in Azure. Compared to AWS and Google Cloud Services, Azure has a wider reach in developing markets, with more regions across Asia Pacific, South Africa, and the United Arab Emirates. Of the currently deployed regions, 16 are located in the US (8 of which are government-use regions), 2 are in Canada, and one is in São Paulo, Brazil. In Europe, Germany has four, while the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Switzerland have two each, while Ireland and The Netherlands each have one. For Asia Pacific, China and Australia have four each, while India has three, and Japan and Korea have two. Hong Kong and Singapore host one region apiece. For the Middle East and Africa, South Africa and the UAE host two regions apiece.
Additional resources:
When was Microsoft Azure released?
The Azure platform was announced in October 2008, and reached general commercial availability in February 2010. Originally called Windows Azure, it was renamed to Microsoft Azure in July 2014. Additional service regions have been added continuously since the service was announced.
Azure Stack, the turnkey hybrid cloud solution offered by Microsoft and a number of hardware vendors, was first announced in May 2015. With the first technical preview in January 2016, organizations could use their own hardware as part of an Azure Stack deployment. This plan was subsequently walked back, with Microsoft requiring users to buy a prequalified Azure Stack system, under the belief that such offerings would perform better. Participating hardware vendors have continuously released new prequalified systems for use with Azure Stack.
Under Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Azure has expanded to include support for a variety of Linux distributions available in virtual machines on the Azure platform. Presently, CentOS, Clear Linux, CoreOS, Debian, Oracle Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SUSE Linux Enterprise, openSUSE, and Ubuntu are supported in the Azure platform, as well as FreeBSD. Additionally, Azure supports Docker images.
Microsoft and SAP have collaborated to make SAP's business software and services to run on Azure. At the Sapphire Now conference in 2018, Microsoft announced general availability of SAP HANA, noting that Azure offers "26 distinct SAP HANA offerings from 192 GB to 24 TB."
Additional resources:
What services compete with Microsoft Azure?
One of the core strengths of Microsoft Azure is the ease of transition for organizations looking to migrate from other Microsoft products, such as SharePoint, or integrate tightly with an existing Windows deployment. For those organizations, Azure is likely the most compelling option for a seamless transition to the cloud. Additionally, Microsoft also heavily touts compliance certifications for government users, noting that Azure was the first public cloud platform with a FedRAMP P-ATO.
In terms of scale, Google, Amazon, and IBM are certainly capable of handling any amount of data or compute tasks you can generate. Amazon Web Services, much like Amazon itself, aims to be everything to everyone; as such, AWS has the most extensive portfolio of cloud services of any public cloud provider. Google Cloud Platform's core strengths are in machine learning, big data tools, and extensive container support. For IoT, the cloud provider market is still wide open, with tailored solutions available from GE Predix, Samsung's ARTIK Cloud, and ThingWorx.
Additional resources:
How do I get Microsoft Azure?
The Microsoft for Startups program offers $10,000 per month of Azure service credits for one year for a total of $120,000. Eligibility is dependent on collaboration with a startup accelerator, with Microsoft partnering with over 200 startup accelerators in 47 countries.
Microsoft's Azure for Students program grants a credit of $100 to be used within 12 months, as well as access to over 25 free products, including Virtual Machines, File Storage, and SQL Databases for the first 12 months, while other products are always free. This offer is available to students and faculty 18 or older at a STEM-related field in a four-year educational institution.
In 2016, Microsoft pledged to donate $1 billion in cloud services to universities and nonprofit organizations over the next three years. Eligible organizations can register for free access at Microsoft Nonprofits.
For individual developers, new registrants receive a $200 platform credit applicable toward any Azure service, excluding third-party offerings in the Azure Marketplace. New users can register here.
Additional resources:Female members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party sat at their camp near the frontline of the fight against Islamic State militants south of Erbil, Iraq.
PARIS — Several Arab countries have offered to carry out airstrikes against militants from the Islamic State, senior State Department officials said Sunday.
The offer was disclosed by US officials traveling with Secretary of State John Kerry, who is approaching the end of a weeklong trip that was intended to mobilize international support for the campaign against the group.
“There have been offers both to Centcom and to the Iraqis of Arab countries taking more aggressive kinetic action,” said one of the officials, who used the acronym for the U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East.
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Kerry, who is in Paris to attend an international conference hosted by France on Monday on providing aid to the new Iraqi government, has already visited Baghdad; Amman, Jordan; Jidda, Saudi Arabia; Ankara, Turkey; and Cairo.
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During Kerry’s stop in Jidda on Thursday, 10 Arab countries joined the United States in issuing a communiqué that endorsed efforts to confront and ultimately “destroy” the Islamic State, including military action to which nations would contribute “as appropriate.”
U.S. officials said the communiqué should be interpreted as meaning that some, but not all, of the 10 Arab countries would play a role in the military effort.
The United States has a broad definition of what it would mean to contribute to the military campaign.
“Providing arms could be contributing to the military campaign,” said a second State Department official. “Any sort of training activity would be contributing to the military campaign.”
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Still, while the United States would clearly have the dominant role in an air campaign to roll back the Islamic State’s gains in Iraq, it is clear that other nations may also participate.
President François Hollande of France told Iraqi officials that his country would be willing to carry out airstrikes against the Islamic State in Iraq, senior Iraqi officials said.
“We need aerial support from our allies,” Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi of Iraq said during a joint news conference with Hollande on Friday. “The French president promised me today that France will participate in this effort, hitting the positions of the terrorists in Iraq.”
Prime Minister Tony Abbott of Australia has also said that his country will join the air campaign and is sending as many as eight FA-18 attack planes, as well as an early warning aircraft and a refueling plane.
The Australian aircraft will operate from the United Arab Emirates. Australia is also sending 200 troops, including commandos, to serve as advisers to Iraqi soldiers and the Kurdish peshmerga forces.
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The State Department officials, who asked not to be identified under the agency’s protocol for briefing reporters, did not say which Arab nations had offered to carry out airstrikes.
There are other ways Arab nations could participate in an air campaign against the Islamic State without dropping bombs, such as flying arms to Irbil in the Kurdistan region or Baghdad, conducting reconnaissance flights or providing logistical support and refueling.
The officials said the Arab offers were under discussion.
“I don’t want to leave you with the impression that these Arab members haven’t offered to do airstrikes, because several of them have,” the first State Department official said. “The Iraqis would have to be a major participant in that decision,” the official added. “It has to be well structured and organized.”
Iraqi officials have already offered some thoughts about what the next step should be. In recent weeks, the United States has focused its airstrikes on the defense of Irbil, securing the Mosul Dam and protecting the Haditha Dam.
But al-Abadi has asked the United States to take action on the Syrian side of the Iraqi-Syrian border to deprive the Islamic State of the safe havens it enjoys in that area. Massoud Barzani, the president of the Kurdish autonomous region, made a similar request in telephone call with Kerry on Saturday night, State Department officials said.
“The Iraqis have asked for assistance in the border regions, and that’s something we’re looking at,” the first State Department official said.
Iraqi officials have long experience working with the United States military and had appealed for U.S. airstrikes against Islamic State fighters in Iraq months before the Obama administration decided to conduct them.
But the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government has no experience in working with militaries from Sunni states in the Persian Gulf.
Arab nations have the capability to conduct air operations. Saudi Arabian planes participated in the American-led coalition that evicted Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi forces from Kuwait in 1991.
And the United Arab Emirates sent F-16s and Mirage fighters to join the 2011 international military intervention in Libya that eventually led to the ouster of Moammar Gadhafi.
Last month, the United Arab Emirates carried out airstrikes against Islamist allied militias in Libya, operating out of bases in Egypt. The Obama administration was not consulted in advance of that operation, U.S. officials have acknowledged.
While indicating a willingness to carry out airstrikes inside Iraq, France appears to have reservations about bombing targets inside Syria. But some Arab states appear to have no such inhibitions.
“Some have indicated for quite a while to do them elsewhere,” the first State Department official said. “But, again, we’ve got to sort through all that, because you can’t just go and bomb something.”
Iraq has a small air force and a limited capacity to deliver accurate airstrikes. The civilian casualties from some Iraqi attacks have been exploited by the Islamic State to try to mobilize popular support against the Iraqi government.
On Saturday, al-Abadi sought to reassure Sunnis that Iraqi forces would not risk civilian casualties by using artillery or conducting airstrikes against Islamic State targets in heavily populated areas.
“They have a very new air force,” a third State Department official said, referring to the Iraqi military. “Their targeting is not nearly as precise as ours, and they have made some real mistakes.”
Much of the air campaign is intended to support Iraqi armed forces that are still in the process of being reconstituted and new Iraqi National Guard units, which will include Sunni tribal fighters but which still need to be established. A Pentagon program to train and equip the moderate Syrian resistance also has yet to be carried out.
The time-consuming mission to train these ground forces is essential because they are needed to control territory after Islamic State fighters are pushed out, and the Obama administration has ruled out sending U.S. ground troops. But it will slow the pace of the campaign to contain, degrade and eventually destroy the group, a process that officials said last week could take three years.
“This is not the ’91 gulf war,” the first State Department official said Sunday. “It’s just a different type of campaign.”
Saudi Arabia has agreed to provide bases for training moderate Syrian rebels. U.S. officials say there have been similar efforts by other Arab countries, but declined to identify them |
ring.
Another commonly-cited reason to stick with the five-man rotation: pitchers thrive in defined roles and wither when confronted with variable or uncertain roles. This might be true for some pitchers, but to me, it seems that the role pitchers are most accustomed to is being the guy who tries to throw the ball past the hitter. Andrew Miller is an excellent example of this, as Tito Francona has used him in four different innings. Miller did not have a mental breakdown or suffer a terrible loss of talent as a result. There is something to be said for certain pitchers being more suited for certain roles, but I'm not asking Miller and Allen to throw 100 pitches in a game.
Detractors also point out that the Indians lose the ability to deploy Miller or Allen in high-leverage situations late in the game as a result of using them in the first. This is true, but the Indians already lose out on that opportunity when saving one of the two to close, or if they've pitched too many days in a row and require rest. Why not guarantee that they'll be used at a valuable time against the other team's best hitters?
Finally, the setup I've proposed can become an issue if the Indians get into a very high-scoring game and need to use many relievers. This is true, but is also already true of the standard setup. By limiting the number of pitches that any given player throws, the Indians can use them more often during the week. If Trevor Bauer throws 70 pitches on Tuesday, he ought to be able to throw 20 on Thursday and not suffer a major decline in skills during his next "start".
What are the alternatives?
If the Indians elect to continue using a standard rotation in the postseason (and the rest of the season), they'll rely on Kluber, Bauer, Clevinger, and Tomlin. I worry that with this rotation, the Indians won't be able to use its excellent bullpen arms in situations that can affect the outcome of a game. If the home team trails by 4 in the bottom of the seventh, they are only expected to win about 12% of the time. I'm not suggesting that Clevinger and Tomlin are destined to be miserable in the postseason, but if the Indians can make them more effective by limiting innings and keeping hitters off-balance with a different type of pitcher before them, they should do it.
The Indians are in a position to contend for the World Series. Given the current circumstances, I believe that this gives the team the best opportunity to do win it all.Look at that! Thats a proper line up of talent on one 12” right there. Yes indeed. Yes indeedly doodley. So I thought I would do a little blog about this one, because there are some things to say!
I have decided to announce the next two Kniteforce releases individually because I have words to blab about each one, and I am letting you know about them early because, in this case, two of the remixers have been silently and patiently waiting for a very long time, which was unfair of me really, very unfair, but circumstances meant that it couldn’t really be avoided.
So, previously On Game Of Kniteforce (cue music and flashbacks of scenes you already saw and want to fast forward through but you know if you do you will go too far and accidentally miss new material which will mean you have to rewind and thats just annoying so instead you will sit through the whole boring bit and maybe notice that some of it has been edited because that isnt quite how it happened but anyway.)
Dj Jeph won the remix competition I did in 2016. Way back then, I put up three tracks to remix, and a huge amount of people entered. My intention at the time was to release two brand new 12″ vinyl “Remixes” in the ongoing classic Kniteforce series, and leave it at that. 10 was a good number to stop on. So I had expected to choose 2 of the 3 tracks I put up in the competition, and that would be the end of it.
And then the competiton entries came in, and there was no way I could leave it at just the 2 winners – Ant To Be and Nicky Allen, so Dj Jeph was the third winner, hand picked as such by Alk-e-d himself.
Only there was a problem – I could not afford to release three 12” vinyls at once – doing two was a struggle. So I told Jeph that his remix would be delayed until the next two vinyls. And I started looking for a big name remix for that EP.
In the mean time, Alex Jungle sent me some amazing tunes, and I got to work on a new Luna-C vinyl. And as most of you will know, those ended up being the next two releases. These are likely arriving this week – please buy them lots of times lol:
KF66 – Alex Jungle – Elevate EP
KF67 – Dj Luna-C / Scartat / Gothika Shade – Things I Made With Things I Played With EP
Why did these two vinyls jump the queue? Because I did not want to have just 11 remixes in the “Remixes” series. 10 is okay to stop on. So is 12. 15 would be okay too, but yeah, thats not gonna happen lol. But 11? Nooooope. But if I was going to do 11 and 12 then I felt they needed to be released at the same time. However, I was not ready to do that. I had Jeph’s remix, and plans to get Saiyan in the studio, and that was it. I had spoken to The Fat Controller, and he was on board and had started work on his remix, but that was it, that was all I had. And I needed more – I needed another old skool artist that was great, had not appeared on the series before now, and was still working AND wiling to make something in the old school style. Thats actually a pretty hard thing to find in 2017.
Dont worry – I have found another headliner. I will reveal that next week and you can all die of excitement and shock (if you have survived this release’s news, that is) lol.
Anyway, where were we? Oh yes. So a month or so passed while I was still searching for another big name, The Fat Controller gave me his remix, and suddenly we were starting to get these remixes ready! His remix is superb by the way – a subtle rolling remix of 2 Croozin’s “Code Red”. Its a really classy remix, and I have to admit, I was a little surprised. I mean, obviously In Complete Darkness remains a timeless classic, but I wasn’t sure what I would get, and sort of expected a typical old skool remix – which would have been fine of course. Instead, he has taken the original tune and given it a classy rebuild, giving it depth and thoughtfulness while retaining a wry sense of humour. Obviously, I am thrilled with it, and I think history will show it to be one of the best remixes in the series.
So. Fantastic remix from Fat Controller. Full on jungletastic remix from Dj Jeph. Annnnddd…..nothing. Nothing else at all. Nada. Zip.
Which meant I had to ask both of them to just sit on their remixes. Say nothing, do nothing, don’t talk about it, just wait. This was very unfair really, and they both had to wait over 4 months. But wait they did, and grateful am I (spoken in Yoda fashion for no reason) – and now I am very happy to be able to finally reveal them both as the remixers on KF68.
And some of you are now wondering “How come I have read all this way with no mention of Justin Time?” Well, hang on a sec, I will get to that. Jeez. No patience have you (Yoda again).
I finally found another big name to remix for me on part 12, nearly died of excitement myself, and then had to find a third remixer for part 11, while at the same time setting up another competition for part 12. Yeah. Its been confusing.
As it happened, enough time had passed and Shane Saiyan was on his way to the studio, and so we got straight to work with a remix for the EP at the same time as we did the remix of Pilgrim for Scott Brown. Shane and I have done an excellent job, if I say so myself, which I do. Shane wanted to go for a slightly later style on the remix – nearer to 1996/97 than the others on the vinyl, which was great because it gives the EP a nice balance. So I let him do his thing and functioned more as an engineer than as an artist, like usual for when we work together.
I then commissioned another remix from a Kniteforce artist for part 12 (revealed next week, pop fans!) And I was all ready to go. Yup. Got the three remixers for each vinyl. Nothing more to do here. We are good! Relax.
The End.
Except….out of nowhere I was given a link to a Dj Poosie “Its Gonna Be” Remix by Justin Time. It was on Youtube, and had had a few hundred views. It had only been up for a week or two. And I was like “wait, what?” I had a listen and expected it to be some shit knock-off or something. But what I heard was waayyy to good a remix to have been done without the samples. And it was very…Justin Timey. The problem was, I had no recollection of a Justin Time remix of Dj Poosie. Ever. I certainly did not have a DAT of it. Thats not the sort of thing i would have lost, missed, or forgotten I owned.
So I contacted the Youtuber who uploaded it, and that mystery person was…Matt Carlton aka the one and only Justin Time lol.
It turns out, it was an official remix that I must have asked him to do at some point? I just don’t remember that ever happening, although Dj Poosie does. Look, I don’t know what happened, ok? Its a brilliant remix, and I didn’t release it for no reason at all, and fuck knows. Moving on….Justin Time very kindly dug through his old DAT tapes, and found the original, unmastered, fucking excellent remix. And I added it to this EP – partly because it makes an already amazing EP even better, but mostly because its a FUCKING ORIGINAL UNRELEASED JUSTIN TIME REMIX FROM BACK IN THE DAY. What? Im not gonna release that? Of course I am. Its brilliant. Its a brilliant remix. So it kinda had to be on here, you know? And yes, it breaks the rules because he appears twice in the series. So does Luna-C actually. But rules schmools, whatever.
So yeah. Thats the story of KF68, Remixes Part 11. Next week, KF69, Remixes Part 12!
Now, let me anticipate and answer your questions:
“When can I order this EP – I don’t even need to hear the tracks because obviously its the best thing ever?”
Soon. KF68 has been sent to be cut. When the TPs arrive and I have checked they are all fine, the pre-sale will start. I sent this one to be cut before the new vinyls arrived because I want to speed up the vinyl releases 🙂 So. Soon!
“Wait, even though I don’t need to hear the tracks, what are they?”
A1. 2 Croozin – Code Red (Fat Controller Remix)
A2. Dj Poosie – Its Gonna Be (Justin Time Remix)
AA1. Alk-e-d – Shining Bright (Dj Jeph Remix)
AA2. Dj Force & The Evolution – High On Life (Saiyan & Cru-l-t Remix)
“Actually, I do want to hear the tracks after all – where is the link to the soundclips?”
Nope. Sorry, no sound clips until the pre-order is up. BUT you can hear the Fat Controller Remix on his radio show, Tuesday 21st February:
The DJ Fat Controller’s #OldSkool Show live each and every Tuesday
4-6pm G.M.T. 5-7pm C.E.T.
Join us for a 2 hour magical mystery tour through Old Skool… All aboard!!!!
**********Available LIVE **********
TUNE IN APP/WEB:
http://tunein.com/radio/Dream-uk-s206512
DREAM FM website:
http://www.dreamuk.co.uk/
NU PERCEPTION website:
http://nu-perception.com/npr/
FACEBOOK LIVE VIDEO:
https://www.facebook.com/DjFatController
**********Get Involved***********
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/DJFatController
Or use the hashtag #OldSkool
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/DjFatController
Event Page:
https://www.facebook.com/events/692492487577370/
www.DJFatController.co.uk
And you can hear some of the other remixes from KF68 and KF69, as well as a full mix and an interview from me on Glowkid’s radio show on February the 28th – details next week!
“Can I still listen to the Youtube of the Justin Time remix?”
Nope, I asked him to take it down. Ha ha! I suck!
“Are there going to be amazingly amazing good things with these EPs?”
Yes. Yes there are! There will be 2 KFA EPs like last time – one will be the Remix Competition Winners 2 EP, and the other will be Remixes from the Kniteforce family!
“Are these remixes a direct result of the support we have given you with the last releases?”
Yes, absolutely.
“Any chance of new material from these remixers, especially Justin Time and Fat Controller?”
Yes, on both counts. Jay (Fat Controller) had been doing his thing for a while and we have spoken about a full Fat Controller release, and Matt (JT) has said he is cautiously interested. Incidentally, so has the remixer on KF69. Like I said to you all originally when I first restarted KF as a vinyl label – if you support these things, big things can happen. You are supporting, I am trying to make them happen. I want to be able to go to these remixers and say “your vinyl sold out, lets do an EP, eh?” because they will be down for that. So really, its up to you guys 🙂
No more questions? Good. I’m sleepy! Until next week then? 🙂A 12-year-old Texas girl started sneezing constantly about a month ago - and she hasn't stopped since.Katelyn Thornley sneezes up to 20 times per minute - that amounts to 12,000 times a day.She said it started in "little spurts" but has now lasted more than 22 days."I just am constantly in pain with, you know, my abdomen and my legs are hurting because I've been weak and I can barely eat," Katelyn described. "It's not fun at all."Doctors have already ruled out a virus and allergies, but they have no idea what is causing the sneezing or how to stop it.Katelyn said the only time she doesn't sneeze is when she's sleeping, and that's after she has taken Benadryl and listened to music to relax.She also says the sneezing has compromised her way of life, forcing her out of school and preventing her from playing her beloved clarinet.Her parents are now asking for anyone with any expertise in this field to please come forward and help their daughter live a normal life again.With 100 days remaining, the view from Betfair markets is crystal clear - Hillary Clinton will be the next US President. As Paul Krishnamurty explains, no favourite has ever lost from this stage of the race...
The predictive qualities of political betting markets have become an ever more salient talking point in recent years, based on a near perfect record in big elections. Since the inception of Betfair in 2001, the favourite from 100 days out to be Next President or party to win the most seats went on to win in every US or UK General Election.
That reputation took a knock when UK voters opted for Brexit in what turned out to be the biggest market of all-time but, as we enter the closing stretch of the US election, there is an immediate chance of redemption. With the 100 day threshold passed, Hillary Clinton remains an overwhelmingly strong favourite at [1.43], which equates to a 70% probability.
Those odds make Clinton the strongest ever favourite at this stage. Four years ago, Barack Obama was trading around [1.64], slightly longer than the same stage in 2008. In 2004, George W Bush headed a much tighter race. From around [1.8] at this stage, Bush even surrendered favouritism to John Kerry during the campaign and even on election night, before eventually winning well.
While 2004 shows that things can change during the campaign, that was the last time. Ever since Obama assumed favouritism - overtaking Clinton - in February 2008, nobody other than the eventual winner has headed our Next President market. Clinton has been favourite ever since the market opened.
She was actually trading shorter a few weeks ago, down to [1.31], prior to being strongly criticised by the FBI for the use of a private e-mail server. In the wake of that controversy, protests from Bernie Sanders' supporters at the Democratic National Convention and a post-GOP convention bounce for Donald Trump, her odds edged above [1.5] for the first time in months.
They are now shortening again, in the wake of what appears to be her own post-convention bounce. Clinton has now led four of the last six polls by 5% or more, with today's CBS survey showing a 7% swing to leave her 6% ahead.
In taking such a firm view, betting markets stand in contrast to numerous other models. For example only yesterday, the highly respected fivethirtyeight.com analysis rated it a 50/50 race. Only time will tell which indicator proves more reliable.
There is also no shortage of pundits arguing that this election will be different, citing several reasons. They argue that this is a unique cycle. Trump is like no other candidate in history and the 'experts' wrote him off for months.
Brexit also reinforced doubts about expert opinion, offering further evidence that voters in the Western world have never been more 'anti-establishment' and prepared to back outsiders. The same phenomenon explains Jeremy Corbyn's against-the-odds election as Labour Party leader, and probably re-election.
A further straw for Trump supporters to clutch lies in the candidate herself. Clinton is not popular, nor a great orator. She is the epitome of the hated political establishment. Many polls have shown her with a favourability rating below 50% - usually unimaginable and catastrophic, yet she can take solace from Trump boasting even worse unfavourables.
Still, given such historically unpopular candidates, there is plenty to play for. Unlike all those recent US elections, third party candidates are significant and could tip the balance. When Gary Johnson is included in the question, the latest RCP average shows Clinton a mere 0.9% ahead, with the Libertarian Party candidate on 7.5%.
Given all that, can we really trust the market? In my view, the answer is a resounding 'Yes', and I'm putting my money where my mouth is. Just as I consistently predicted Obama to win a second term, Clinton has been my strong prediction ever since first asked 12 months ago. The main race is only just starting and ultimately, the wisdom of crowds will prevail once again.
***
Follow Paul on Twitter and check out his website, Political Gambler.When GIGABYTE launched its G1 series of motherboards in 2011, it had a single audience in mind: gamers. Often, vendors that release high-end motherboards tout an excellent experience for overclockers, the general enthusiast and of course, gamers. But GIGABYTE decided to tone-down the overclocking focus for G1 and instead design a solution top-to-bottom that any gamer would like to have in their rig.
Thus far, we’ve taken a look at a couple of G1 motherboards, and overall, we’ve liked what GIGABYTE has done with them. The aesthetics might be a bit overdone as far as some folks are concerned, but this is a gaming product. Past that, the addition of gamer-targeted networking and audio makes the overall package rather sweet.
With its G1.Sniper 3, GIGABYTE continues the G1’s ongoing success and improves-upon a couple of things at the same time – to be expected, of course. It targets the Z77 platform, so that means current-gen LGA1155 are fully supported. Because Intel’s next-gen platform is seemingly right around the corner, this isn’t the timeliest review, but given GIGABYTE’s trends, if you like what you see here but would rather wait for Intel’s 4th-gen Core series, you can expect more of the same – and hopefully additional features tacked on.
It might not have the gun heatsink of the G1.Assassin 2, but the G1.Sniper 3 is still quite a nice-looking board – especially if you happen to dig green and black color schemes.
One of the first things I look for on any boards I review are A) the number of fan headers, B) their locations and C) if they are 3-pin or 4-pin – the latter tends to give better overall fan control, and really, if you have a 4-pin fan but your motherboard only offers 3-pin headers, that’s a problem. On the Sniper 3, there are 5 headers total, all 4-pin. Two are located at the bottom, next to the front panel connectors; two are found at the top (one at the left, the other to the right) and the final one is snuggled in beside the DIMM array.
I have no complaints here, although I personally would prefer one of the bottom fan headers to be situated closer to the I/O panel. Lately, I’ve been using AIO liquid CPU coolers with dual fans, and that means I need two fan connectors. Few motherboards lately have given me a hassle when trying to plug both of these fans in, but this board would. I’d require an adapter or an extension to make it happen. On the other side of the coin, though, your particular setup may favor this design. The only way vendors could cater to everyone is to put 2 fan headers on all sides of the board, but that’s easier said than done since each addition to a motherboard requires a rethinking of the trace design. That = $$$.
I’d also personally like to see a CMOS reset button on the back I/O panel rather than inside. If all you need is a simple EFI clear, it really sucks having to fish around inside of your chassis for the right button (which here, is crazy small).
For those interested, a rundown of the G1.Sniper 3’s specs and features:
GIGABYTE G1.Sniper 3 Architecture Intel Z77 (LGA1155) Form-Factor ATX (12″ x 10.4″) Memory Up to 4x8GB DDR3-2800 Multi-GPU 4-way NVIDIA SLI
4-way AMD CrossFireX Expansion 4x PCIe 3.0 x16 (Dual x16 or x16+x8+x8+x8)
2x PCIe 3.0 x1
1x Legacy PCI Storage 2x SATA 6Gbit/s (Intel)
4x SATA 3Gbit/s (Intel)
4x SATA 6Gbit/s (Marvell 9172)
1x mSATA Onboard Network 1x Qualcomm Atheros Killer E2200 Gigabit
1x Intel 82579V Gigabit
802.11 a/b/g/n Dual-band Wi-Fi Wireless Bluetooth 4.0 Audio 5.1-Channel Creative CA0132 “Sound Core 3D”
Input/Output + S/PDIF USB Back-panel: 2x USB 3.0 (Intel), 4x USB 3.0 (Via)
Internal: 4x USB 2.0 (Intel), 4x USB 2.0 (Via) Back I/O 2x 1Gbit/s LAN, 6x USB 3.0/2.0, 1x Optical S/PDIF, 6x Audio Jacks, VGA, DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort Features @BIOS, Q-Flash, Xpress Install, Xpress Recovery 2, EastTune, eXtreme Hard Drive, Auto Green, ON/OFF Charge, Q-Share, 3D Power, EZ Setup
For the sake of not being redundant, I won’t discuss the table directly, but instead tackle all of the components as we come across them with the help of our photos below.
First stop, the bottom right-hand side, where we are greeted to 10x SATA ports; 2 of which use Intel’s fantastic controller, and 4 using Marvell. For your OS drive, it’s important to make sure you’re plugged into Intel’s ports, as Marvell’s controllers are seriously lacking in SATA 6Gbit/s performance in comparison.
Also at the bottom here is a USB 3.0 internal header, mSATA port (to the left of the gray SATA ports), TPM connector and the two bottom fan headers.
Moving to the upper right-hand corner we can see the DIMM slots (to be expected, I’m sure), the second USB 3.0 internal header, EFI status LED (always gets a thumbs-up from me), power and reset switch along with a CMOS clear button.
In the shot below, we can see a relic from the past: a PCI slot. Why GIGABYTE feels the need to include such a thing on a gamer board, I’m not sure. We’ve reached a time when I can’t even remember the last time I used a PCI component – am I alone? Alongside that slot we have 4x PCIe x16 and 2x PCIe x1. Dual FireWire (another oddity) can be found at the bottom along with dual USB 2.0 headers and the front panel connectors.
This next shot exists for no other reason than to look good. And it does look good, doesn’t it? To justify it’s existence further, here we can see mounting holes, capacitors and chipsets. Exciting stuff.
As you’d expect, the area surrounding the CPU socket is sufficient for installing small and bulkier coolers alike.
At the back, we can find six USB 3.0 ports (two are Intel, four are VIA); a VGA, HDMI, DVI and DisplayPort for use with the IGP or Lucid’s Hydra; 2x LAN (one Intel, one Killer NIC); and a bevvy of audio ports. Oh – and continuing the legacy theme from earlier, a PS/2 port. This is one I can actually agree with, however, as USB buses can at times be finicky things, and the last thing you want to happen is to lose keyboard support when trying to troubleshoot a machine.
GIGABYTE’s G1.Sniper 3 comes in a larger-than-life box, and it’s because there’s quite a number of accessories packed in. Below, you can see the collection of paper materials, which includes the manual, some stickers and a poster.
Six SATA cables are also included alongside every possible graphics bridge you’ll need. Seriously – that’s quite the collection GIGABYTE has packed in here. For those who prefer to keep as much dust out of their PC as possible, there’s also the expected I/O protector.
It might be a gamer board, but there’s one thing the G1.Sniper 3 includes that most gamers don’t immediately think of: wireless. With this add-in card, you’ll be able to take advantage of the board’s dual-band Wi-Fi, which is quite nice. I’m currently dealing with a net issue as I just moved apartments and my ISP is slow, so it’s times like these when I really wish my board came with wireless as well so that I could, ahem, borrow a connection with greater ease.
For the sake of expansion, GIGABYTE includes both a 2.5-inch accessory and one for an internal slot. The first is to add two additional USB 3.0 ports to the front of your chassis, while the others add eSATA. I tend to appreciate these being modular when I don’t actually want them, but if I do, they tend to add clutter to the inside of your case. It’s a love it or hate it sort of deal.
Like ASUS’ P9X79 PRO motherboard that I tackled a couple of weeks ago, I’ve been using the G1.Sniper 3 for about two months and have sunk some good time into it. In all that time, I haven’t had an issue worth speaking of. Installation went fine, features worked as expected, and the configuration of the EFI was smooth – a subject we’ll tackle next.City of Reno officials are defending their decision to remove nearly 70 benches from a downtown park after critics of the recent redevelopment project accused the city of classifying homeless people as blight.
The city of Reno recently used $10,000 of its blight initiative fund to pay for a redevelopment project at the CitiCenter park across from the National Bowling Stadium. City Communications Manager Matt Brown said, "the area was not business friendly, was not friendly to citizens or tourists."
Brown said after receiving several complaints about the former bus station in downtown Reno, city officials removed 68 benches as part of a blight mitigation project. But he said, "the overall project was more than just the removal of the benches. The removal of the benches was actually of minimal cost to the city."
The majority of the city's $10,000 budget paid for filling empty planters with large boulders and installing iron spikes around them; but critics of the project accused the city of trying to push homeless people out of the CitiCenter by removing the benches many of them sleep on.
Mike Thornton is the executive director of Acting in Community Together in Northern Nevada (ACTIONN.) He asked, "how do human beings get defined as blight? I think that's really the big question here."
A News 4/Fox 11 reporter took that question to Matt Brown with the City of Reno. He said the city classified the area as blight rather than the people who frequent the park. Brown said, "the definition of blight is very open ended, broad, pretty general. I think the way to think of blight is you sort of know what it is when you see it."
When asked how the benches qualify as blight, Brown said, "the benches used to serve a purpose and that was because the sight used to be a bus station. So the purpose of those benches no longer applied."
Although Brown said the benches no longer serve the purpose, the city only renovated half of the planters in the area. 68 benches and 17 empty planters still remain on the other half of the park and Brown said the city does not have plans to remove any more benches.
Some are also asking why the city did not hold a public hearing about the bench removal project. In a statement, Brown said, "the overall project cost was minimal enough that it did not require a public hearing."
He added, "public discussion occurred when blight fund categories and purposes were defined before Reno City Council in June 2015. "
Meanwhile, Mike Thornton with ACTIONN said the project is an indicator of a bigger problem in Northern Nevada. "The benches are really a symptom of the overall problem, though they're indicative of an old mindset that says out of sight, out of mind."
Thornton believes the $10,000 could have been put to much better use. He hopes the bench removal project will shed light on the issue of homelessness in the Northern Nevada community. Thornton said, "how can we use redevelopment, job training, wages, housing and look at these things in a holistic manner to fix the structural problems that leave so many of our friends and our neighbors homeless?"The trailer for p.a.m.e.l.a. shows an extremely ambitious project, especially for a small team of four people. How did NVYVE, a company known for virtual architecture walkthroughs, spin off into video games?
Game development was always one of our ambitions, even from the creation of NVYVE, so it's always been something we've had in the back of our minds. We're able to build off our experience with development, lighting, UI design, etc; many elements like these are very important whether you're designing a game or an interactive walkthrough. So while we're a small team, we're not completely new to the process. That being said, we're definitely ambitious, and like to set goals that are sometimes just a bit beyond our abilities. Shoot for the stars and whatnot!"
The environment looks stunning in the trailer! Is the entire game set in the mall, or are there other locations as well?
Thanks! The environment is a hugely important aspect to p.a.m.e.l.a., as we're essentially designing an entire city within which the game takes place. Our announcement trailer showcases the Promenade, which is a large shopping area located towards the center of Eden. We have many areas planned, including residential towers, nightclubs, research labs, and security outposts. The goal is build a believable world that allows the player to absorb the culture and story of the city, while providing a ton of variety in terms of gameplay, looting, and visual identity."
Starting a game trailer with the King Lear quote "Striving to better, oft we mar what's well." certainly sets up an ominous caution against humanity's ability to completely mess things up. Does this function as a core philosophical concern in p.a.m.e.l.a., or is it a simpler set up as a fun excuse to blast zombie-like once-human enemies?
The ominous, cautionary tone is certainly a core theme in p.a.m.e.l.a.. We chose that quote because it really sums it all up, the whole balance of progress vs acceptance. Without spoiling anything, the events that happened on Eden prior to the game essentially boil down to a misguided pursuit of perfection. This is important not only from a thematic point a view, but also manifests in the ways that the residents of Eden behave. They've been afflicted by a horrible disease that causes uncontrollable bone growth, and are in a state of terrible agony. The important bit is that they aren't mindless zombies; their behaviours are governed by a personality system, meaning they may be docile, aggressive, or somewhere in between when confronted by the player. They're meant to be sympathized with, and serve as a somber reminders of the consequences of their actions. It's ultimately up to the player whether they want to avoid or combat the residents, and both of these paths will have their own results in the world."Jobseekers have been made to do compulsory unpaid work for up to four weeks after refusing to take part in the voluntary work experience scheme.
The revelation, supported by documents released through the Freedom of Information Act, calls into question the concessions made to the voluntary programme last month, which removed a two-week benefit sanction imposed on those dropping out of that scheme, as refusal to complete a placement on the compulsory scheme can lead to jobseekers' benefits being stopped for three to six months.
Others have reported being placed on mandatory work schemes just weeks after signing on to claim unemployment benefits.
Major employers, such as Tesco, and the business lobby group CBI met ministers last month amid mounting pressure on the voluntary work experience programme, which allows for unemployed people aged 16-24 to work unpaid for up to four weeks while continuing to receive benefits.
Businesses had come under fire from campaigners as it was revealed those dropping out of the scheme after a week faced their benefits being stopped. This pressure led to the withdrawal of the sanction.
However, several jobseekers who identified themselves to the Guardian and provided some details of their situations, allege they have been sanctioned through other means for refusing to participate in the voluntary scheme. As all are still either claiming jobseekers' allowance or are on still on their compulsory work placements, they have asked not to be identified.
One said he had initially accepted a voluntary placement under the belief he would be paid for the duration. When he learned he would not, he contacted his adviser.
"I asked her if it was too late to pull out, to which she responded with 'no'," he said. "I then told her that I indeed wanted to pull out of the scheme, and that I believed that I should have been informed more about the scheme as they had not told me that the store in question wouldn't be paying me."
A few weeks later, around seven months after first claiming his benefit, the jobseeker was placed on the mandatory work activity (MWA) scheme for four weeks – an unpaid placement of up to usually for a charity or public sector organisation. Jobseekers unemployed for less than a year are eligible for the scheme, and refusing to take part or dropping out of the programme leads to benefits being withdrawn for between three and six months.
The jobseeker believes his placement on the mandatory programme was linked to his attitude towards his adviser.
"I also told her that I believed that these private store chains should be hiring people, and not getting them to work at no cost to them," he said. "In hindsight, this is probably what led to me being put on the mandatory work activity scheme."
Another recounted dropping out of the voluntary work experience scheme – "the type of jobs were terrible" – and being given a two-week benefit penalty, only to be faced with a mandatory placement at a meeting soon afterwards, with a six-month benefit stoppage for refusal.
Another jobseeker provided details showing he had been placed on a compulsory work scheme just one week after refusing a voluntary work experience placement. Several other jobseekers, refusing to give specific details, reported similar experiences through Twitter and the Guardian's online submissions system.
The MWA programme was designed by the government to allow some jobseekers to "move closer to the labour market" and learn or re-learn disciplines such as timeliness, working under supervision and other work-related disciplines.
The government projected only around 10,000 jobseekers each year would be placed on the scheme, but by November 2011 – the latest set of statistics – MWA had overtaken the voluntary scheme, with 8,100 compulsory placements in the most recent month compared with 6,600 voluntary placements.
Guidance given to Jobcentre staff on mandatory work and obtained through freedom of information requests says advisers may, at their discretion, use dropping out or refusing to participate in voluntary schemes as grounds for MWA.
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To us as a democratic movement, the lesson of our history is very clear. It is what the peoples of Europe learnt during the turbulent decade of the 1930s, when fascism began its assault on democracy by launching a violent offensive against the Communists.
It is the same lesson that the people of the United States learnt during the decade of the nineteen fifties, when the forces of Macarthyism launched an assault aimed at undermining the democratic heritage of the American people, by conducting a virulent offensive against Communist and left opinion.
Theologians of the German Church understood these processes very well when they said the Christian Church did nothing when the Nazis attacked the Communists. And again the Church did nothing when the Nazis turned their brutal attention to the Socialists. And when the Nazis turned against Christian men and women of conscience, the Church found that there was nobody to defend it.
This is a mistake the ANC never made, because we understood that the banning of the Communist Party in 1950, was but a prelude to the suppression of all democratic opinion in our country. This is a lesson that those within the National Party, who consider themselves to be Democrats, need to learn very quickly.
The lesson they need to learn is that it was fundamentally wrong to have enacted the Suppression of Communism Act in 1950. The lesson they need to learn is that it is fundamentally wrong today to seek to build an atmosphere of democratic tolerance of different views by attempting to demonise those who choose to hold Communist opinions. Such a posture leads to one thing and one thing only, namely, the denial and suppression of democracy itself.
We are here today to participate with you in the public launch of the Communist Party, 40 years after it was banned. We do this because during the nearly 70 years of its existence, the Communist Party has distinguished itself as an ally in the common struggle to end the racial oppression and exploitation of the black masses of our country. It has fought side by side with the ANC for the common objective of the National Liberation of people, without seeking to impose its views on our movement.
It has been and is a dependable friend who respected our independence and our policy. Its members have been devoted Congressites who, as members of the ANC, have propagated and defended the policies of our movement, including the Freedom Charter, without hesitation. They have therefore given strength to our own movement, whatever their separate perspectives might be as an independent political formation.
Its leaders have been close friends and colleagues of the leaders of our movement. The general secretary of the Communist Party, comrade Joe Slovo, is an old friend. There is an old established friendship between his family and mine. We went to university together. We were co-accused in the Treason Trial of 1956 to 1961.
Over the years, we have shared the same views on fundamental issues to do with ending the criminal system of apartheid and the democratic transformation of our country. Today we share the same views about the vital importance and urgency of arriving at a political settlement through negotiations, in conditions of peace for all our people.
This personal and political relationship has been able to endure over the decades precisely because Joe Slovo and his colleagues in the Communist Party have understood and respected the fact that the ANC is an independent body. They have never sought to transform the ANC into a tool and a puppet of the Communist Party.
They have fought to uphold the character of the ANC as the Parliament of the oppressed, containing within it people with different ideological views, who are united by the common perspective of national emancipation represented by the Freedom Charter.
Even when we got together with comrade Joe Slovo and others in 1961 to form the People’s army, Umkhonto we Sizwe, we understood the specific role that Umkhonto had to play. We understood that despite the fact that state repression had compelled us to take up arms, this did not make the ANC a slave to violence.
We knew that the cadres who made up Umkhonto we Sizwe would have to be men and women who would respect the political authority of the ANC, and always proceed from the position that they took up arms precisely to help establish a democratic order in which the people would have the right to free political opinion and expression, without fear of intimidation from any quarter.
Such are the views of the men and women in who make up our glorious army. To suggest, as some are doing these days, that these outstanding sons and daughters of our people harbour ideas of unilateral military action against the peace process, is an insult manufactured by the enemies of democracy who have built conspiratorial nests within the interstices of the power structures of this country.
Everybody, including the government, also knows that the ANC is the political formation that determines the strategic use of the weapons in the hands of the People’s army. Our movement, which has a distinguished and unchallenged history of commitment to peaceful solutions, has itself never abandoned the strategy of non-violent struggle, even when the apartheid regime did everything in its power to make such struggle impossible. It cannot now turn against the peaceful resolution of the conflict in our country, precisely at the moment when such a peaceful resolution seems possible.
Those who today pose as experts on the structure and strategy of our broad movement for national liberation must understand these ABCs of our struggle. What these ABCs point to is the commitment of the alliance led by the ANC to do everything in its power to bring about a peaceful solution of the problems facing our country.
Dear comrades and friends:
The objective we have pursued since our formation 78 years ago remains unchanged. We must move with all possible speed to abolish the apartheid system and to transform South Africa into a united, democratic, non-racial and non-sexist country. We have entered into talks with the government for the realisation of these goals.
Because we have an urgent task to attain our emancipation, we insist that the talks must go on. Our freedom should not be postponed or denied simply because some people have a secret agenda to sustain an anti-democratic crusade against Communist opinion.
But we also insist that the talks must proceed in conditions of peace. Therefore the violence of the police against the people must come to an end. The violence of the black and white vigilantes against the people must come to an end. If it is genuinely interested in peace and negotiations, the government must act to bring about this result.
We wish to repeat here what the entire democratic movement of our country has said in the past – that in the context of an end to state violence against the people and a political process leading to the liquidation of the apartheid system, we ourselves are ready to discuss the suspension of our own armed actions to ensure that peace and stability prevails throughout our country.
We call on the government to respond positively to these positions, to abandon the attempt to create new obstacles by whipping up an anti-communist hysteria, to act in a responsible manner in the interests of all our people, in the interest of the cause of justice and peace.
Dear friends of the Communist Party:
We know we can count on you to stand with us as we pursue these goals. It is our profound desire that you, like all other political formations in our country, should be active participants in the historic process which should lead to the peaceful resolution of the problems confronting our country and people. We extend to you the best wishes of the People’s Movement, the ANC, and look forward to continuing co-operation in the common struggle to bring freedom, peace and security to all the people of our country.
The struggle continues!
Victory is certain!
Amandla ngawethu!
AdvertisementsKim Davis (ABC News)
In recent weeks, culminating with the push by an Alabama judge to be exempt from issuing marriage licenses to LGBT couples and the recent showdown over marriage licenses in Rowan County, Kentucky, Americans have heard a growing drumbeat of claims that laws and rules that apply to everyone concerning marriage and insurance coverage for contraception should not apply to certain people who object. In case after case, we have heard cries of religious liberty—often mixed with claims that our country faces a “war on Christians.” These claims rarely hold up to scrutiny, but if the exemptions they seek are granted they would come with serious consequences for women and LGBT citizens.
Religious colleges and other institutions claim that they should not even be required to tell the government when they decide to exercise their legal option not to include contraception coverage for their employees in insurance plans—an issue now likely to reach the Supreme Court because one (out of eight) federal appellate court has just agreed. A secular anti-abortion group claims that it should not have to provide such coverage to its employees because religious groups don’t, while several of the group’s religious employees want separate policies without such coverage even if their employer offers it, and a lower court judge agrees. An Alabama probate judge and a county clerk in Kentucky assert that they should not have to issue marriage licenses to LGBT couples despite the Supreme Court’s landmark Obergefell ruling on equal marriage rights. What opened the door for all this was the Supreme Court’s flawed 5-4 decision last year inBurwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., which rewrote much of the law on religious liberty.
Religious liberty exemptions before Hobby Lobby
Before Hobby Lobby, both the Supreme Court and Congress recognized that exceptions to neutral or generally applicable laws were appropriate for religious adherents under carefully limited circumstances. When a neutral law or rule created a “substantial burden” on a person’s “exercise of religion,” even though the law was not specifically targeted at religion, the law should not be applied to that person unless it was the “least restrictive means” of furthering a “compelling governmental interest.” So, for example, the Court ruled in Wisconsin v. Yoder that Amish families were exempt from a neutral law requiring high school attendance, since that requirement substantially burdened the Amish families’ ability to exercise their religion, including educating and acculturating their children, and the “compelling governmental interest” standard was not met. That was the Court’s interpretation of the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment, which the Court explained protected the free exercise of religion by individuals and religious institutions.
Congress became involved in two ways. Initially, in an attempt to avoid a substantial burden on religious free exercise, Congress sometimes granted or authorized religious individuals or institutions exemptions from generally applicable laws. The Supreme Court has approved narrow efforts to provide such carefully targeted exemptions to accommodate the free exercise of religion. For example, it rejected a challenge to the Congressional exemption of religious organizations from the general federal prohibition in Title VII against employment discrimination based on religion, pointing out that the exemption would prevent “government interference” with religious groups’ ability to “define and carry out their religious missions,” and that there is “no reason to require that the exemption comes packaged with benefits to secular entities.”
In addition, when a 5-4 1990 decision of the Court effectively eliminated the “substantial burden” test used in cases like Yoder as a matter of constitutional law, Congress overwhelmingly passed a statute in 1993 that restored that standard as a matter of federal civil rights law in the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The law specifically stated that its purpose was to “restore” the use of the substantial burden/compelling interest balancing test where persons’ “free exercise of religion was substantially burdened” by generally applicable laws or rules. As someone involved in drafting and helping promote RFRA’s passage, I can testify that this restorative purpose was clearly understood.
The Supreme Court Rewrites Religious Liberty Protections in Hobby Lobby
In June, 2014, however, a narrow 5-4 Supreme Court majority dramatically misinterpreted and effectively rewrote RFRA in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. In that case, the Court ruled that religious objections by a for-profit corporation’s owners could exempt the company under RFRA from providing insurance including contraceptive coverage to employees under the mandate of the Affordable Care Act.
To begin with, the 5-4 majority ruled, contrary to RFRA’s language and clear legislative history, that the law was intended to go far beyond “merely restor[ing] the balancing test” used in earlier cases, and provided “even broader protection for religious liberty than was available under those decisions.” As Justice Ginsburg explained for the four dissenters, that fundamental error led the majority to even more serious errors in distorting RFRA.
The change in prior law that has gotten the most attention was the majority’s ruling that a for-profit corporation could use RFRA to claim an exemption from a neutral law, even though the majority did not even try to explain how a for-profit corporation could “exercise” religion. As Justice Ginsburg pointed out in dissent, “no decision of this Court recognized a for-profit corporation’s qualification for an exemption from a generally applicable law, whether under the Free Exercise Clause or RFRA.”
Just as importantly, however, the 5-4 majority rewrote the “substantial burden” on “exercise of religion” requirement of RFRA. The majority ruled that this requirement was met because the contraceptive coverage requirement was in conflict with “the ability of the objecting parties to conduct business in accordance with their religious beliefs” that certain contraceptives are immoral. As Justice Ginsburg pointed out and as earlier cases made clear, however, that is the wrong question.
The question is not whether a religious adherent has a religious objection to a government requirement and can “conduct business” in accord with that religious view. Instead, the right question is whether there has been a substantial burden on the actual exercise of religion. That is precisely why the Court previously rejected the substantial burden claim in Bowen v. Roy that the government’s required use of Social Security numbers to administer benefit programs was invalid as applied to an individual who sincerely believed that it offended his religion. That requirement, the Court explained, did not directly affect what the religious adherent “may believe or what he may do” in exercising his religion, and thus did not constitute a substantial burden. Similarly, as the Court had explained in rejecting an Amish farmer’s claim in United States v. Lee that paying Social Security taxes violated his religious conscience, when “followers of a particular sect enter into commercial activity as a matter of choice,” the “limits they accept on their own activity as a matter of conscience and faith are not to be superimposed on the statutory schemes that are binding on others in that activity.” Based on religious liberty principles as understood up until Hobby Lobby, the employer’s religious objection to insurance coverage for contraception, particularly when the decision whether to purchase contraceptives was up to individual employees, simply did not constitute a “substantial burden” on the “exercise of religion.”
Justice Ginsburg’s warning that the majority was entering a “minefield” in Hobby Lobby has already proven true. That minefield has included claims to even broader ACA exemptions by religious non-profits, similar exemption claims by individual employees and non-religious anti-abortion groups, and claims of religious exemption from issuing marriage licenses to LGBT couples under Obergefell.
Religious non-profits make even broader exemption claims after Hobby Lobby
Even before Hobby Lobby, the Obama administration had provided a voluntary accommodation in ACA regulations for churches, religious colleges, and other non-profit religious employers, allowing them to opt out of providing contraceptive coverage for employees in their insurance plans, simply by filling out a government form and giving it to their insurer or notifying the government by letter, so that other arrangements could be made for their employees who wanted that coverage. Impelled by Hobby Lobby, however, a number of religious non-profits have objected to the accommodation and argued that simply requiring them to notify the government of their decision to opt out constitutes a “substantial burden” on their “exercise of religion” under RFRA and is invalid.
Until last month, every one of the seven federal appellate courts to have considered these RFRA claims has rejected them, often specifically focusing on the “substantial burden” issue. For example, the Second Circuit’s August decision inCatholic Health Care System v. Burwell explained, relying on prior Supreme Court decisions like Bowen, that the opt out notification requirement did not impair or substantially burden the non-profits’ “freedom to believe, express, and exercise” their religion. Instead, the court explained, the non-profits were effectively and improperly seeking “to control” their employees’ decisions concerning contraceptives by objecting to simply “identifying themselves as religious objectors,” going far beyond the protection provided by RFRA.
Last month, however, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld these RFRA claims in Sharpe Holdings v. U.S. Department of HHS. It ruled that the non-profit institutions’ claim that their “sincere religious belief” was offended was enough to prove a “substantial burden,” and that the courts could not even question this claim, effectively granting them the ability to control the decisions of their employees and the third-party insurers that would provide the insurance coverage. Under that logic, the Supreme Court should have allowed the religious adherent’s objection to the use of Social Security numbers in Bowen to have prevailed, despite the lack of substantial burden on the actual free exercise of religion.
The Supreme Court has already been asked to review a number of these decisions, and the split among lower courts caused by the ruling in Sharpe Holdings makes it much more likely that it will do so. Given that even the 5-4 majority inHobby Lobby pointed to the then-existing religious accommodation as a way to alleviate the purported “substantial burden” on for-profit corporations like Hobby Lobby, there is reason to hope that the Court will do the right thing in this instance. But the potential harm to female employees of non-profits across the country stemming from Hobby Lobby’s rewriting of RFRA is serious.
Contraception exemption claims from individual employees and non-religious non-profits
At the end of August, a ruling by a conservative lower court judge in Washington D.C. went even further on exemption claims concerning ACA-required contraceptive coverage. In March For Life v. Burwell, Judge Richard Leon ruled that individual religious employees who object to insurance policies that simply offer them the option of purchasing contraceptive coverage had to be offered an alternative under RFRA, and that a non-religious anti-abortion group had a constitutional right to opt out of providing such coverage to employees under its insurance plan.
The individual employees’ RFRA claim stems directly from the Court’s rewriting of RFRA and weakening of the substantial burden requirement in Hobby Lobby. Judge Leon ruled that there was a substantial burden in the case, based on the employees’ religious objection to “participating in a health insurance plan that covers contraceptives.” In other words, he equated being religiously offended by the plan with actually suffering from a substantial burden on religious free exercise, exactly as the Court did in Hobby Lobby. In the words of the Supreme Court and the Second Circuit, how does the fact that some other employees may choose to purchase contraceptives under a general employee health insurance plan substantially burden or impair the religious employees’ “freedom to believe, express, and exercise” their religion, since they can simply decline such a purchase? The short answer is that it doesn’t, as the D.C. Circuit will hopefully rule when the decision is appealed.
The other part of Leon’s decision is equally flawed and, more indirectly, is further fruit of Hobby Lobby. Leon ruled that March For Life, an avowedly non-religious organization opposed to abortion, should receive the same exemption from providing contraceptive coverage as religious employers whose objection is on religious grounds, because to treat them differently would violate the Equal Protection Clause. Leon’s opinion acknowledged and even quoted the Supreme Court’s decision rejecting a similar attack on the religious exemption from Title VII, but claimed this was different because part of the government’s rationale for the exemption for religious institutions – the fact that employees of such groups are less likely to want to use contraceptives – applies to non-religious groups opposed to abortion as well.
Leon’s opinion ignores the fact that the very government exemption regulation he relied on makes clear that an important reason for the exemption was quite specifically to accord with the long American tradition of providing an accommodation for religion itself. As the 2013 rule explains, part of its purpose was to “respect the religious interests of houses or worship and their integrated auxiliaries” and to provide an “accommodation” that is consistent with “religious accommodations in related areas of federal law” such as “Title VII.” As the Supreme Court ruled in the case upholding the Title VII religious exemption, as Leon acknowledged, there is “no reason to require that the exemption comes packaged with benefits to secular entities.”
Although Leon’s opinion is clearly wrong, the Hobby Lobby ruling may make the ruling on non-religious non-profits seem to make sense to some. Under the Supreme Court’s ruling, even apparently secular, for-profit corporations can claim an exemption from the contraceptive insurance coverage requirement based on the religious views of their owners. And no real “substantial burden” on “religious exercise” need be shown in the previously accepted sense; religious objection or offense to religious beliefs is sufficient. Under those circumstances, it may seem unfair to some that a dedicated secular non-profit organization, with serious but non-religious objections to contraceptive insurance coverage, cannot claim a similar exemption.
This claim illustrates one of the dangers of Hobby Lobby’s rewriting of religious liberty law. Under the previous understanding of the Constitution and RFRA, religious objections to general laws and rules should be treated differently and accorded special protection because of the importance in our country of avoiding substantial burdens by government on the free exercise of religion. But part of the price of that special treatment must be ensuring that religious exemptions are appropriately targeted and balanced against other interests so they are not abused and do not give rise to the claim that non-religious objections should be treated the same way. By making it so much easier to claim and obtain religious exemptions under RFRA, Hobby Lobby puts at risk the whole concept of special protection for religion in some cases.
Religious liberty exemption claims from issuing marriage licenses to LGBT couples
Finally, we can look at least in part to Hobby Lobby and previous Court rulings to understand the basis for the request by an Alabama probate judge that the state supreme court rule that he and other officials with religious objections should not have to issue marriage licenses to LGBT couples, as well as the similar claim by Kentucky clerk Kim Davis (and some of her deputies), despite the Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell. Judge Williams asserts that issuing such licenses offends his “religious principles” and that his religious liberty is substantially burdened, and indeed claims that the Supreme Court’s Obergefell decision should have “no force or effect” in Alabama in light of such religious objections. Davis claims that she is “substantially burdened” under a Kentucky version of RFRA, and under the Constitution, by the governor’s directive after Obergefell that all county clerks issue marriage licenses to same sex couples, because she strongly objects to such marriages on religious grounds.
These assertions harken back to Hobby Lobby’s claim of a “substantial burden” because its owners had religious objections to contraceptive coverage. As federal judge David Bunning explained in initially rejecting Davis’ claim, however, any burden is slight because she is being asked only to “signify that couples meet the legal requirements to marry” and she can continue to believe and practice her religion as she pleases. This echoes the Supreme Court in Bowen, since the directive does not restrict her ability to engage in “religious activities” as part of her religious “free exercise” or compel her personally to endorse same-sex marriage.
In fact, every court to have considered Davis’ claim has so far rejected it. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court rejected her attempts to stay the ruling against her, with the Sixth Circuit specifically pointing out that action by her to approve marriage licenses would be in her official capacity as county clerk that she has voluntarily chosen to assume, echoing the Supreme Court’s warning that when religious adherents engage in commercial (in this case governmental) work “as a matter of choice,” their religious beliefs “are not to be superimposed on the statutory (and in this case constitutional) schemes that are binding on others in that activity.” Of course, the fact that Davis is a public official and her refusal to perform her duties hurt everyone seeking a marriage license in Rowan County makes it even worse. Indeed, as the Court has also recognized, a person who claims a religious accommodation has no “right to insist that, in pursuit of their own interests, others must conform their conduct to his own religious necessities.” This principle that religious exemption claims not harm or impose religious views on third parties, which Justice Ginsburg criticized the majority in Hobby Lobby for not respecting, would clearly be violated by a ruling in favor of Davis or Williams, or by a holding allowing religious non-profits to effectively prevent their employees from obtaining insurance coverage for contraceptives by refusing to inform the government of their decision to decline such coverage.
Exactly how the Kentucky situation will be resolved in the end, with Davis’ deputies agreeing to issue marriage licenses but her claims pending on appeal, remains to be seen. As yet, there has been no ruling on Judge Williams’ petition, and the Alabama Supreme Court’s record on LGBT marriage is extremely troubling at best. But if the courts continue to adhere to appropriate principles on religious liberty exemptions, these public officials will lose and the claims of LGBT couples who had previously been denied marriage licenses will prevail. That result, along with the rejection of pending claims concerning contraceptive insurance coverage by religious and non-religious non-profits, may help prevent further damage from Hobby Lobby’s rewriting of RFRA and religious accommodation law. In the long run, only reconsideration or limitation by the Supreme Court of that ruling, or a decision by Congress to amend RFRA’s language to restore its original purpose, will truly repair the damage that has been done by the Court majority.
Elliot Mincberg is a Senior Fellow at People For the American Way."If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it." Some ascribe this quote to Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels; others say Hitler authored the idea. In Mein Kampf he did speak of the invention of a lie so "colossal" that few would believe that someone "could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously".
Whoever coined the idea, the point is this: controlling the narrative matters immensely.
Military prowess is not enough in this age. And the United States knows it. America's "other army" – its less visible but equally potent cadre of skillful lawyers (in government and even in private institutions) – dutifully got busy crafting appropriate international law narratives for the War on Terror. They realized that winning the battle for defining "legality" on the world stage was critical.
This is something states in the developing world would do well to understand. And particularly, governments of countries that bear the brunt of US military interventions touted as "self-defense" and "counter-terrorism" – Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq. Such states need to build intellectual-professional capacity to counter precedent-setting international legal arguments strategically employed (or better said: deployed) against them.
No contemporary political discourse provides us with a clearer illustration of this than the heated debate about the (ill)legality of drones and targeted killings.
For the past decade, the United States strategically weaved a narrative of legality around, apparently, "surgically precise" drone strikes. It confidently claimed that strikes fully complied with international law, even as Pakistan objected to them and evidence mounted that women and children had been killed.
Academics, including myself, argued against this simplistic black-and-white narrative. So did UN Special Rapporteurs and others. In contrast, there were many legal minds in the United States, often with a history of US military or government service, who agreed with the government. Rather controversial and unsettled legal arguments were swiftly dug up and supplied to justify and provide legal bases for geographically and temporally expanding the "War on Terror". This includes the idea of "co-belligerency" (wherein a third party state or non-state actor that does not declare neutrality can be considered a belligerent as well), and the unwilling or unable doctrine that says that since target countries can't or won't prevent threats against the US, attacks within their sovereign territory are legal.
Some lawyers in America were, for example, quick to simply assume Pakistani consent to drone strikes on the basis of highly circumstantial evidence. But, conversely, rather slow to recognize that "coerced consent" was a more fitting description of the facts. Other, similar patently obvious political realities were ignored. The hugely asymmetrical power of the United States vis a vis the nations it was attacking or "seeking" consent from, or the fact that hundreds of thousands of non-Americans – far, far, far more than Americans killed by terrorist groups – had been killed as a result of the exercise of "lawful" self-defense by the US since 9/11 – through drones and otherwise.
But this is not surprising. Perhaps the role of international law was not really to ensure equity in the international order or constrain force in accordance with the spirit of international law, but conversely, to provide strategic "legal" fodder for a state that seemed to have an insatiable appetite for undertaking "self-defense" abroad.
Thankfully, the legal debate is far more nuanced today than it was in previous years. Amongst others, UN Special Rapporteurs (pdf) and human rights organizations (pdf) have weighed in and exposed the fragility of the US narrative. In fact, even ordinary individuals who previously had no interest or knowledge of international law are now curious to know what global law says about interventions, drones and even military occupation.
So, kudos to the United States for, rather ironically and unwittingly, encouraging this unintended interest in international law in the global popular imagination.
When I visit Pakistan, people ask me, often with some indignation, how international law could grant the United States a license to unilaterally attack other states in a perpetual war in which so many Pakistanis, Afghans, Iraqis and others had died, even as the attacking state's nationals lived a comfortable "war-free" existence a couple of continents away? What, they asked, was the point of such law if it basically permitted interventions in sovereign countries?
I tell them the reality is that international law is not really that callous. It is self-serving, strategic interpretations that the United States constantly pushed through as part of its narrative that made it seem so. There's a difference between the law and the American "interpretations" of it.
But really, the long-term lesson for the people and governments of other third world states is this: don't underestimate the power of narrative and legal rhetoric in international affairs. Until you build capacity to counter the dominant narrative and promote competing interpretations of what is "legal" in international law, you will continually be outwitted in international affairs, not just on the battlefield.
Even Vladimir Putin – with all his shrewdly strategic talk of upholding international law in the New York Times – knows this.I probably don’t have to tell you that Austin is a vibrant, exciting place to live and work: with a killer live music scene, ubiquitous tacos, and barbecue that’ll make you weak in the knees, it certainly ranks near the top of my favorite cities in America list.
That said, one of the benefits of living in Austin has also been having opportunities to explore other parts of Texas, from Marfa to Houston. This past weekend, I decided to venture out of the Austin city limits to Dallas, a city I had only ever experienced through way too many layovers at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.
Though Dallas has its share of tourist destinations, my motivation was research-related. At the moment, I’m knee-deep in my Master’s Report, which explores representations of John F. Kennedy’s assassination in two video games, and how their odd, perhaps ethically questionable gamification of the event – an incredibly traumatic moment in American history – reconfigures and negotiates our understanding of history and politics. What kind of residue is left in our historical memory if we play these games? What do they do to our imaginations of power, official state accounts of history, our ability to interact with history and meaning-making? How do we understand history if we only experience it virtually?
But to me, a 25-year old, Kennedy’s assassination always felt remote, a moment in a textbook rather than a lived, traumatic experience. So I embarked on a journey to the place where it happened, to make it feel as real as it probably could to someone who was never there: Dealey Plaza, and the Texas State Book Depository, now a museum dedicated to Kennedy and the assassination.
The Sixth Floor Museum relies on an audio tour that guides you through various points of the exhibit, offering both pure narration of the museum’s holdings (mostly documents, photographs, and videos) and first-hand accounts from witnesses and public officials. After learning about Kennedy’s early life and initial moments of the presidency, I found myself standing in front of the window believed to have been Lee Harvey Oswald’s vantage point from where he fired three shots. But the museum does not permit visitors to approach or glance out that window at the street below: it is blockaded by glass, meaning I could not come within fifteen feet of the storied spot. Rats.
The second half of the museum explores the aftermath of the assassination through a relatively homogenous collection of artifacts – photographs, stills from the few films we have, newscasts – relayed largely through the media. And, based on those holdings, I really got a sense of how mediated the assassination was even for people living in 1963. This was partially out of necessity, as there was no quicker way to spread the word about the tragedy than over the wire and through news programs. But it’s also because several people in the crowd were snapping photographs to document the President’s presence in Dallas, a signifier of having been there when Kennedy was, too. They saw the president and the assassination through lenses; so do we.
The compulsion to document through photography and, in a few cases, through film, has invigorated debates about the true story of the assassination since 1963. The only reason folks have come up with detailed alternate theories and accounts of how Kennedy was killed – and why such theories remain contested, hashed over, pervasive – is because we can continually pore over photographs and film made by everyday citizens in Dallas.
Ironically, the museum does not permit photography or recording indoors, so a moment in history that remains salient in public consciousness due to those media halts further documentation through visual and aural media. After leaving the museum, I felt a sense of anxious incompleteness: I hadn’t documented my presence at this very fraught place except in scrawling a few notes in my notebook. I wanted to photograph, as a means of remembering the details of the exhibition and of signifying to myself and others that I had been to the actual place.
Of course, once I left the building, I spent some time photographing its exterior. I was struck by how moving being there was, but also how utterly familiar it was: I had seen all of it countless times before in the Zapruder film, in photographs, in the video games that I’m studying. And it was exactly as expected.
But in spite of that familiarity, there was also a pall cast over my experience of Dealey Plaza, the depository, the grassy knoll. At no point did I feel a stronger sense of sadness than I did when I first saw the white Xs painted on the street, signifying, “Kennedy was shot here and here.” Those Xs connected the assassination with actuality – it happened in this space, on this concrete, not in the virtuality of film and television and photography and video game. I did not expect to feel distressed, but the reality of the assassination was striking.
The significance wasn’t lost on the tourists who visited the area, too: several visitors asked to have their picture taken over or near the X, ostensibly to signify presence: “I was at this place. This is where it happened.” I was initially troubled by that impulse; who would want a memento of visiting the spot of a deeply tragic moment? Isn’t such a practice crass at best and unethical at worst?
But considering my similar impulse within the museum, and my motivations for coming to Dallas in the first place, I can’t judge these people. Documenting their presence there could be a means of connecting, of making the assassination more real to them. And in a cultural moment where mediation and removal from history and politics is the norm rather than the exception, an impulse to make history more personal is laudable.
At dusk, only 5 hours after I arrived in Dallas, I returned to Austin. But Austin lacks the aura of weighty historical trauma that permeates Dallas for me. Nevertheless, I find myself thinking back to the museum and the plaza with a measurable degree of real sadness.BERLIN (Reuters) - New solar power installations in Germany hit a record high last year but tapered off in the fourth quarter as subsidies were cut to curb costs to consumers, Environment Ministry data showed on Saturday.
Capacity grew by more than 7.6 gigawatt (GW), breaking the previous records of 7.5 GW in 2011 and 7.4 GW in 2010, and far above the 2.5 to 3.5 GW Berlin would like to see each year.
The solar boom has been encouraged by generous feed-in tariffs, which are guaranteed to generators for 20 years to encourage carbon free power to gradually replace fossil fuels.
But renewable energy has become politically divisive as businesses complain the shift away from nuclear power towards subsidized renewable is adding to consumer costs and jeopardizing economic growth.
The government agreed last year to cut the level of feed-in tariffs - the industry’s lifeblood as long as solar power is more expensive than conventional forms of energy to produce - in order to reduce the pace of installations.
Tariffs were cut by 2.5 percent a month between November 1, 2012 and January 31, 2013.
An Environment Ministry spokesman said installed capacity in the last quarter of 2012 was less than a fifth of overall installations last year.
He said 611 megawatts (MW) had been installed in October, 435 MW in November and 360 MW in December. “This shows that the amendment is working,” he said.
The ministry expects new solar power generating capacity of between 3.5 and 4 GW in 2013.
The share of renewable subsidies within the overall power bill rose 47 percent on January 1, 2013, to 5.3 cents a kilowatt hour, raising the subsidizing cost per average household by 60 euros ($79.10) to 185 euros for the year.
Private consumers bear the brunt of the costs of renewable energy subsidies after the government gave breaks to energy-intensive industry, cutting some of the green energy and network usage costs for companies.
The association of solar producers said on Tuesday its members supplied 8 million households with power, 45 percent more than in 2011, and accounting for 5 percent of total power usage.New Horizons may have spent nine years travelling nearly three billion miles to reach Pluto in the outer reaches of our solar system, but it may have only got there in the nick of time.
Data sent back by the probe has revealed Pluto's thin atmosphere is far more tenuous than had been previously thought and may actually be in the process of collapsing.
Previous measurements of Pluto's atmosphere had suggested the pressure on the surface would be around 15 microbars.
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New Horizons took dramatic images of the hazy atmosphere surrounding Pluto |
uninterrupted filming where Andrei Gorchakov, the protagonist, lights a candle, carries it across an empty pool, and sets it on a ledge before dying.
“Remember the candles in Orthodox churches, how they flicker. The very essence of things, the spirit, the spirit of fire.” –Andrei Tarkovsky
This scene conveys how life carries on from one person to the next. In Nostalghia, Andrei meets a mad man who hates the world but believes he can cure it if he can only carry a lit candle across his town’s mineral pool. The mad man never succeeds and eventually kills himself after leaving town and giving a speech asking people to grow kinder. But before he does that, he asks Andrei to complete his candle mission. Luckily for the poet, he finds that the town has drained the mineral pool.
In terms of The Witness, we’re seeing a scene where someone is trying to complete a seemingly meaningless task. He’s doing this because he believes it’s important, and he only thinks that because his dead friend convinced him it is worth seeing through.
It’s about one life building on top of another to accomplish a common goal. In that way, multiple generations of humans — all destined to have their flames flicker and go out — can have the spirit of their ideas outlive them.
The Witness reflects that by having you build ideas one on top of another until you’re equipped to defeat its challenges.
Thekla’s artists reference this idea using statues. The most notable example of this is one woman reaching down to pull up another (as long as you are looking from the right spot on the map).
Image Credit: The Witness
This visual trick has a woman up on a perch pulling another out of the ground. This is an important visual metaphor where the mountain represents the huddling mass of life. This is why the peak has statues of exhausted designers and craftsmen building their masterpieces on the summit of human accomplishments. It is also why the mountain leads to the finale.
The mountain reaches into the sky like humanity, but only if we reach higher if we look back and pull up the ideas that we identify as valuable and worth saving. At the top of the mountain we see the opposite happening where a woman is shouting at a man clutching a book. She is backing him off a cliff. This is because his ideas are something we don’t want any more, and he doesn’t get to stand on the summit with us any longer.
All this pushing and pulling happens because humanity and all life is a single entity, and an audio log on the mountain’s peak explains that clearly.
The excerpt is from Apollo astronaut Russell “Rusty” Schweickart. In it, he talks about how space travel changed him.
During his time with NASA, Schweickart has landed on the moon and performed extravehicular activities (EVAs) while orbiting the Earth. He’s seen our planet as a tiny blue marble surrounded in every direction by cold blackness. From where he stood, he could cover this world with his thumb. And all of that gave him a perspective about life and his place in it.
This led to him to wonder what he did to deserve that perspective, but he realized that it has nothing to do with him — and that was the most profound revelation:
“It’s not a special thing for you,” he said. “You know very well at that moment — and it comes through to you so powerfully — that you’re the sensing element for man. You look down and see the surface of that globe that you’ve lived on all this time, and you know all those people down there — they are like you. They are you. And somehow you represent them when you are up there. A sensing element. [You are] that point out on the end, and that’s a humbling feeling. It’s a feeling that says you have a responsibility. It’s not for yourself.”
The astronaut explains that he keeps using the word “you” because it was all of us that did that. It wasn’t him. It was we.
Schweickart is essentially saying that he was merely a witness on behalf of the rest of us. He was the eye of the single organism called life. And all of us make up the various parts of life’s body. And we all contributed in the journey that took the first single-celled organisms out of the muck and onto the surface of another world.
We did that. And your flickering, burning spirit is contributing to it.
Interpreting the truth is important to understanding it
But life doesn’t only advance through scientific knowledge, like Burke suggested in his video. And The Witness brings in theoretical physicist and Nobel prize winner Richard Feynman to make that point.
In 1964, Feynman, who worked on the Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb and investigated the Challenger shuttle disaster, gave a talk at Cornell University about the interconnecting hierarchies of life.
These hierarchies represent the ways we talk about the world. On the one end is scientific knowledge and fundamental principles. To the extreme side of the spectrum, you wouldn’t use words like “heat.” You’d say that “particles are jiggling in a rapid way and producing excess energy.” Because heat is a higher concept and not a way of describing what is happening at the most basic level.
The spectrum whips from those fundamental laws to abstract ideas like “hope” and “love” that have very little direct connection to the building blocks of reality. While one side is based on empirical data and the other is based on human experience and interpretation, Feynman says that we need both and everything in between to reach a more “ultimate” truth.
The Witness embraces this holistic approach. Making a game is about combining poetry and math, the humanities and the hard sciences, into an experience by humans for humans. You don’t do that if you think all that matters is scientific truth.
Truth isn’t a puzzle
The Witness is not The Da Vinci Code.
One of the most difficult videos to unlock is The Secret of Psalm 46. You can only find it by completing the final, random challenge room hidden inside the mountain. The clip is an hour-long talk from renowned Infocom and LucasArts designer Brian Moriarty from Game Developers Conference 2003, and it is about Easter eggs and digging for hidden secrets.
Moriarty details a history of Easter eggs in works of literature and classical paintings that goes back hundreds of years. He points out that humans are often wired to look for hidden things where they may not exist. This leads to quasi-numerologists “finding” hidden truths in the Bible, in the music of J.S. Bach, and in the works of William Shakespeare. Of course, no one can ever corroborate those discoveries.
People go on quests looking for codecs that will help them understand the “real” meaning of Shakespeare like they are heroes in the Dan Brown novel The Da Vinci Code. That’s a story where Leonardo da Vinci hides secrets about the Illuminati and the secrets of Jesus Christ in this paintings for future generations to uncover.
Moriarity points out that da Vinci, Bach, and Shakespeare are not crucial to Western civilization because they are burying messages in their creations for anyone with the right decoder. These people are important because they shaped the human understanding of art, music, and language.
Great games should do the same, which is why we probably won’t find out in 20 years that someone unlocked some new message inside of The Witness.
More important, this is a message that sometimes the search for truth can go wrong. It can lead you into bottomless pits that have no purpose.
This most often happens when you start with a belief or idea — like Shakespeare is really Sir Francis Bacon — and begin searching for patterns in the evidence to support that notion. The Witness doubles down on the perils of beginning a search with an answer or even a question in mind in a second clip from Feynman.
In 1981, the physicist gave an interview with BBC where he talked about why it’s important for people investigating the world to never predetermine what it is they’re trying to do. This leads him to criticize the “special stories” of religions, which are nearly always guilty or providing certain, single solutions for subjects that are impossible to prove.
As a counter to that way of approaching the world, Feynman suggests that you should assume that “everything is possibly wrong.” It’s easier to accept new experiences and new evidence if you are purely seeking instead of trying to match the world to your preconceived ideas.
You’ll never reach the truth but it’s still important to seek it
The Witness has a story. You might not believe that because it is easy to miss, but a narrative pops up in a handful of the audio logs.
In these clips we get to hear conversations between the voice cast: Ashley Johnson. Phil LaMarr. Matthew Waterson. Terra Deva. But they are not quoting anyone famous. Instead, they are playing the people who curated the audio for this island that actually exists in the reality of The Witness.
We hear them talk about visiting the island. They reference how it changed them and how it puts them in a “very susceptible state.” They also discuss lucid dreaming and memory suppression along with some sort of test.
Here are all six of the story clips:
Thanks to this Reddit post for helping me find these clips.
The plot is loose and leaves lots of room for you to fill in the gaps. It starts with LaMarr and Waterson arguing about whether or not to include some raw conversations. It then includes an example of that where Waterson embarrasses himself by asking Johnson if she wants a sandwich. Another audio log has the team discussing the difficulty of including atheists. And it ends with the actors talking about visiting the island and how it has changed them and has them thinking about things differently.
But the story and who these people are isn’t nearly as fascinating as what they say about their work. The most important thing here is the discussion about authenticity.
LaMarr is trying to convince Waterson about the benefits of including authentic conversations, and the reason he wants this is another important point about the game and about every clever person The Witness holds up as an example of intelligence.
“In context, [including our conversations is] perfect because we’re not lecturing from on high,” says LaMarr’s character. “These recordings are part of an endeavor built by human beings. They aspire to ‘Truth’ with a capital ‘T.’ But we have to remember that they cannot actually get there. We should be clear to the intrepid that we know this.”
This is The Witness shouting in your face that it is not presenting any answers because everything in the game is about truth-seeking and contemplation. Even the most religious pieces of audio, from someone like Nicholas of Cusa, dwell on how humans know nothing and should always keep looking.
And many of us need to hear the game say that because otherwise we’d assume that the final solution to all these ideas is still buried somewhere within.
As a bonus, LaMarr’s point that this is “an endeavor built by human beings” and a clip where Johnson wants to try the Cusa quote for herself after visiting the island tie the plot into the central theme of The Witness. This a team of people working together to find the truth of their performance. They are also always learning from one another and building new skills, and this enables them to build something better.
Stop seeking the truth
Finally, the last major point of The Witness is that you should stop seeking the truth. I know this sounds like it is counter to everything that has come before, but it comes with a caveat: Stop seeking the truth if what you are looking for is peace, love, and happiness.
The fifth and six videos from the theater room touch heavily on this. The first of these is a man on a stool who talks about nonduality. This is Rupert Spira, a British potter and philosopher. His ideas of nonduality (which Hal Holbrook touches on in an the sixth season of The Sopranos) is that you are already complete. You are an entity that experiences consciousness and knowing, and that is enough to make you feel at peace. And your searching only comes in to serve the separate self that exists in a body that you perceive as having sensations and compulsions that need quenching.
This is an abstract way of saying you are already happy, and you don’t need external input for love.
The Witness builds on this idea in the second of these two videos, which features spiritual leader Gangaji talking about how to achieve peace.
She says that you can find out who you are by ending your chase for a career, romance, truth. Instead, let calmness and silence overtake you, and that will reveal to you that you have everything that makes you complete.
At this point, The Witness is discussing subjects that are well removed from the act of playing The Witness.
It’s possible that Blow is suggesting that you are discovering silence in the moments when your mind creates the solution to a puzzle in your head. Or when you step away from the game, and come back to find that you immediately have the answer to something that was stumping you for hours.
But it’s also possible that we are on the other end of a journey. We started with Burke telling us that we should ask questions and believe in our ability to get the answers. But he never said that would make us happy. And Spira and Gangaji are here to remind us that an outward search isn’t the key to feeling peace and love — to find those resources, you’ll need to stop and remember what is within.
Awe
I think it might be easy to take the message of Spira and Gangaji as an antithesis that undoes the rest of The Witness. Both of them suggest that you stop looking in order to feel love and peace. But love, peace, and happiness are not the only things that fulfill us as human beings. If they are, and Blow knows this, why even make a game?
Well, you make a game because you want to inspire people with awe.
Throughout the game people like Einstein, Feynman, and Nicholas of Cusa have repeatedly revealed why we look for truth even if it won’t make us happy. But developer Moriarty puts it best in his Psalm 46 video when he tells us that we dig into things like Shakespeare and Bach because their creativity is a revelatory experience that fills us with awe.
And this search is what drives us to the edge and convinces us that we need to go even further — even if that is sometimes dangerous and cruel.
It was awe that pushed Schweickart into space. It was our species’s collective desire for something awesome that led to the atomic bomb. It was our need to describe the awe-inspiring experience of human life that led to the West adopting Shakespeare as its spokesperson.
And as pretentious as it sounds, I think that Blow was going for that with The Witness. You’ll have to decide for yourself if it approaches that, but I think it’s worth applauding the ambition.
Conclusion
None of this means The Witness is above criticism. But I think it’s worth figuring out what something means so that I can figure out what is wrong with it. I do this to myself. I’ll do it with this game.
But I do think that playing this and breaking everything down has changed me. It helped me realize that I don’t need to immediately attack every idea before I let myself fully embrace it and understand it. I shouldn’t deflect everything. Instead, I can let all new notions in, and then — once they are a part of me — I can lop off what doesn’t work.
That’s exactly what the process of figuring out puzzles in The Witness is like. You let every idea occur to you and you shave away what doesn’t work until you are left with a solution.
Outside of games, we don’t have absolute “solutions” — but we can still use these skills to grow, to learn more, and to search farther. Just like we use the absolute rules of games like football and soccer to help us figure out an indefinite world.
And I don’t know if that revelation is something that fills me with awe, but I do know that I like it.
Oh, and I fully understand it if all this seems like horseshit to you because you are too busy paying bills and having fun with friends.Have you ever wondered just how well your chickens can see? Or if they see in color or black & white? Or have you marveled at how they can spy a tiny bug or seed in the grass? Well wonder no more! I've assembled some fascinating facts about chicken eyesight for your reading enjoyment.
Chickens see basically the same way humans do - in color. They have a cornea and iris in each eye through which light enters before reaching the cones in the retina that sense the different colors. But that's about where the similarities end. Did you know:
Chickens possess not only the three basic color cones that humans do (red, yellow and blue) but also an ultra-violet light (UV) cone. This allows them to differentiate between and see far more colors and shades than humans can.
The UV cones help them to find shiny bugs, seeds, berries and fruits easily among non-UV reflecting grass and dirt.
A mother hen also uses her UV cones to sense which chicks are healthiest, since growing feathers reflect UV light. She can therefore determine which chicks are growing fastest and strongest, and devote more of her energy to them to ensure they survive, since they have a better chance over weaker chicks.
Chickens also have a motion-detecting cone in their eyes. This enables them to sense slight movements more easily such as bugs creeping through the grass or a predator lurking.
Because chickens' eyes are more sensitive to light than humans and can detect far more subtle motion, the use of artificial light can lead to pecking within a flock because the flicking of a light bulb that is invisible to us humans appears to them like a rotating disco ball (trust me, being under a disco ball would make me grouchy too!)
Because chickens evolved after the dinosaur age and didn't spend millions of years as nocturnal animals like many other species, their night vision is poor due to their low light sensitivity never having developed in the retina.
In addition to the upper and lower eyelids similar to that which humans have, chickens have a third eye lid called a nictating eyelid that slides horizontally across their eye instead of moving up or down. This membrane is transparent, so often while dust bathing or foraging in dirt, chickens will close the nictating eyelid to keep debris out of their eyes.
A chicken can use each eye independently on different tasks simultaneously.
Just before hatching, a chick turns in the shell so its right eye is next to the shell (and absorbs light through the shell) and its left eye is covered by its body. As a result the right eye develops near-sightedness to allow a chicken to search for food, while the left eye develops far-sightedness, to allow a chicken to search for predators from afar. That is why when a hawk flies overhead, you will notice your chickens tilt their heads with their left eye to the sky.
A chicken's eyes are about 10% of the entire mass of its head (conversely a human's eyes are only 1%) to allow them to see larger and more clear images.
Because their eyes are on the sides of their head instead of the front, chickens have a 300 degree field of vision without turning their head, compared to the 180 degree field of vision a human has.
Chickens can sense the presence or absence of light through the pineal gland in their brains, so even a totally blind chicken can still sense daylight as well as the changing seasons using the pineal gland.
So, now you know. Chickens see and sense far more than we as humans do. Fascinating animals, chickens.
Source:
The Eyes Have It by Julie Moore, Your Chickens Magazine, November 2013
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©2013 by Fresh Eggs Daily, Inc. All rights reserved.
You might have been told to use a red heat lamp bulb instead of a white one to prevent aggression and pecking issues in your baby chicks. This is because chickens are attracted to the color red. Chicks will instinctively peck at anything and everything and if they happen to draw blood or just irritate the skin, that can lead to the others attacking that injured chick. Using a red heat lamp makes everything red in the brooder appear gray instead.ITHACA, N.Y. — The swimmer who drowned Saturday in Fall Creek was an incoming freshman to Cornell, the university has confirmed.
After a five-hour search Saturday, New York State Police divers recovered the body of Winston Perez Ventura, who went swimming and did not resurface, police said.
Perez Ventura planned to study architecture. Back in December, the story of his acceptance to the Ivy League school went viral.
Winston was in Ithaca with fellow incoming students taking part in the on-campus pre-Freshman Summer Program, Ryan Lombardi, vice president for student and campus life said in an email to the campus community late Saturday.
"As a high school student, Winston participated in The Fellowship Initiative, an enrichment program for young men of color. He was an exceptional person who would have contributed greatly to our university community," Lombardi said.
Perez Ventura would have started classes in two weeks.
ABC News featured a story on Perez Ventura in December when he was accepted to the Cornell University College of Architecture, Art, and Planning. Perez Ventura was born in the Dominican Republic and came to the U.S. when he was 9 after his mother had gotten established first, according to the news report. His family is from the Bronx, New York.
Perez Ventura was part of Democracy Prep Harlem High School's first freshman class. In the ABC News video, friends and family crowded around a computer in December as Perez Ventura opened his email to see whether he was accepted to Cornell University. They room erupts in cheers when he says, "Yes." The video of his acceptance went viral.
At about 2:33 p.m. Saturday, Ithaca and Cornell University police officers and Ithaca firefighters responded to a report of a person who had entered the gorge to swim and had not resurfaced.
New York State Police also deployed a helicopter and a dive team to assist in the search.
Perez Ventura was recovered around 7:20 p.m. Police said no foul play is suspected.
In a news release, Acting Chief Pete Tyler urged people to be safe and obey posted signs in the gorges.
“The Ithaca gorges are so, so beautiful but they can be very dangerous if folks don’t obey the posted signs. I encourage everyone to please, please follow the posted signs on the gorge trails, especially those that prohibit trespassing and swimming. The signs are in place for no other reason than to keep folks safe when they enter our gorges.”
Several hours before the incident, the Ithaca Fire Department shared a safety message about the gorges, reminding people that there are "underwater currents, loose shale, and other dangers" that can make the gorges and other waterways dangerous.
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW
Support services are available for members of the Cornell community, Lombardi said.
"Please join me in keeping Winston and his family and friends in our thoughts as we process the enormity of this loss. Please also be sure to take care of yourselves and those around you over the coming days, and to seek support as necessary," Lombardi said.
There will be a community support meeting at 11 a.m. Sunday in the Cook House dining room on West Campus.
Support services are available to all members of the Cornell community. Students may consult with counselors from Gannett Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) by calling 607-255-5155. Students may speak with a peer counselor by calling EARS at 607-255-3277.
Employees may call the Faculty Staff Assistance Program at 607-255-2673. The Ithaca-based Crisisline is available at 607-272-1616. For additional resources visit caringcommunity.cornell.edu.
Featured image provided by Ithaca Fire Department.Array Methods (ECMAScript 2015) Sample
Available in Chrome 45+ | View on GitHub | Browse Samples
ECMAScript 2015 specification adds additional static methods on Array and instance methods on Array.prototype.
Array.from ( items [, mapfn [, thisArg ] ] ) #
The Array.from() method converts an array-like object to a true array. It takes an optional second parameter, which can be used to execute a map function on each element of the array that is being created.
Array. from ( new Set ([ 1, 1, 2, 3 ])); // [1, 2, 3] Array. from ( 'hello' ); // ["h", "e", "l", "l", "o"] Array. from ( 'hello', x => x. charCodeAt ( 0 )); // [104, 101, 108, 108, 111]
It comes in handy when dealing with the infamous NodeList returned by document.querySelectorAll.
var divs = document. querySelectorAll ( 'div' ); Array. from ( divs ). forEach ( function ( node ) { console. log ( node ); });
The Array.of() method creates a new Array instance with any number of arguments, regardless of their type.
Array. of ( 'hello' ); // ["hello"] Array. of ( 1, 2, 3 ); // [1, 2, 3] Array. of ( 'blink', 182 ); // ["blink", 182]
Array.prototype.copyWithin (target, start [, end ] ) #
The copyWithin() method copies the sequence of array elements within the array to the position starting at target. The copy is taken from the index positions of the second and third arguments start and end. The end argument is optional and defaults to the length of the array.
[ 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 ]. copyWithin ( target = 4, start = 0 ); // [0, 1, 2, 3, 0] [ 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 ]. copyWithin ( target = 0, start = 2 ); // [2, 3, 4, 3, 4]
If start is negative, it will be treated as length+start where length is the length of the array. If end is negative, it will be treated as length+end. [0, 1, 2, 3, 4].copyWithin(target=0, start=3, end=4); // [3, 1, 2, 3, 4] [0, 1, 2, 3, 4].copyWithin(target=0, start=-2, end=-1); // [3, 1, 2, 3, 4]
Array.prototype.fill (value [, start [, end ] ] ) #
The fill() method fills all the elements of an array between an optional start index and an optional end index with a static value. The start argument defaults to 0. The end argument defaults to the length of the array.
[ 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 ]. fill ( 5 ); // [5, 5, 5, 5, 5] [ 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 ]. fill ( 5, start = 2 ); // [0, 1, 5, 5, 5] [ 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 ]. fill ( 5, start = 2, end = 4 ); // [0, 1, 5, 5, 4]
Array.prototype.find ( predicate [, thisArg ] ) #
The find() method returns a value in the array, if at least one element in the array satisfies the provided predicate function. If not, undefined is returned. find() does not mutate the array on which it is called.
function startsWithLetterA ( element, index, array ) { if ( element. startsWith ( 'a' )) { return element ; } } var cuteNames = [ 'jeff','marc', 'addy', 'francois' ]; cuteNames. find ( startsWithLetterA ); // "addy"
Array.prototype.findIndex ( predicate [, thisArg ] ) #
The findIndex() method returns an index in the array, if at least one element in the array satisfies the provided predicate function. If not, -1 is returned. findIndex() does not mutate the array on which it is called.This summer, you can spend every free moment reading an amazing book — that's how many incredible tales are coming in the next few months. So get ready to escape into other worlds, other timelines, and mysterious cities where magic is as ordinary as a hairpin.
May
Seanan McGuire, Sparrow Hill Road (DAW)
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Bestselling author McGuire tackles the "hitchhiking ghost girl" myth, and turns it into a fascinating story told from the perspective of the ghost. When a man runs over a hitchhiking girl in the 1950s, trying to sacrifice her in a deal with the devil, he creates the legend of the ghostly hitchhiker. Only she's real, and she's spent 50 years trying to figure out how to get out from under the evil devil worshipper's thumb.
Hannu Rajaniemi, The Causal Angel (Tor)
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The last in the mind-bending, posthumanity epic that began with The Quantum Thief, The Causal Angel promises to wrap up the story of Jean de Flambeur, the rogue whose identity transcends bodies, physical space, and even time itself.
Mary Rickert, The Memory Garden (Sourcebooks)
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World Fantasy Award winning short story author Rickert has just published her first novel, and we're looking forward to it. From the jacket copy:
Sixteen-year-old Bay Singer doesn't believe the rumors that her eccentric mother, Nan, is a witch. It's just the gossip of their small town, Bay thinks, until two eccentric friends from Nan's past unexpectedly appear one afternoon. The curious reunion summons haunting memories: of an oath the three women took years ago, when they were girls themselves, and the devastating secret they promised to protect. What they unearth has already claimed one life, leaving Bay wondering who the real witches are, and who is truly wicked.
Jeff VanderMeer, Authority (Farrar Straus Giroux)
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In the follow-up to his haunting, weird science novel Annihilation, VanderMeer takes us inside the creepy, quasi-government bureaucracy known as the Authority. It's the group that sends people into Area X, which we explored through the eyes of an increasingly baffled (and insane) biologist in the last novel. Prepare for office job madness, combined with environmental science fiction the likes of which you've never known.
Jo Walton, My Real Children (Tor)
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Walton won the Nebula and Hugo for her last novel, Among Others. Now she's back with another emotionally intense tale which combines her greatest talents: subtle, smart alternate histories and powerful character studies. It's the tale of Patricia, a woman whose life diverges into two timelines (neither of which are exactly our own) after she makes a momentous decision after college. Now she's an old woman who is slowly losing her memory in an assisted living facility, trying to piece together what happened in her two lives — and why they have come together again.
Jim Butcher, Skin Game (Roc)
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It's the latest Dresden Files novel. Harry has to team up with his enemy Nicodemus Archleone to break into Hades and steal the Holy Grail. What could go wrong?
Jonathan Strahan, Reach for Infinity (Solaris)
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The latest in the "Infinities" series of short story collections edited by taste-maker Jonathan Strahan, this book includes new stories you won't want to miss by Karen Lord, Alasdair Reynolds, Pat Cadigan, Ken MacLeod, Kathleen Ann Goonan, Peter Watts, and more!
June
James SA Corey, Cibola Burn (Orbit)
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In the latest Expanse series novel, a newly-discovered alien technology allows humanity to colonize far beyond the solar system. But in their rush to take over worlds once ruled by a long-dead galactic civilization, independent groups of colonists make themselves vulnerable to powerful factions on corporate-funded colony ships. James Holden has been sent to make peace on these distant worlds, and finds himself in a lot deeper than he expected.
James Morrow, The Madonna and the Starship (Tachyon)
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In this satirical novel set in the 1950s, a group of skeptical alien crustaceans invade NBC studios, threatening to vaporize millions of "irrational" fans of a religious TV show. It's up to the Bill Nye-esque science TV personality "Uncle Wonder" to write a script that's so rationally absurd that the aliens will be deterred in their deadly mission.
Greg Van Eekhout, California Bones (Tor)
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We loved Van Eekhout's last adult novel, Norse Code, and we're ready for more of his swashbuckling, clever fantasy in California Bones. In an alternate Southern California ruled by magic, a gang of thieving misfits (with superpowers, of course) are about to go on their last, big job — for a crime boss in politically corrupt Los Angeles. It's a fun supernatural caper setup, and with Van Eekhout behind the wheel this is sure to be a great ride.
M.R. Carey, The Girl With All The Gifts (Orbit)
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M.R. Carey — whom fans might know better as Mike Carey, author of the Felix Castor novels, writes a bloody brilliant story of a group of very special children being educated in a bunker. You don't realize at first quite how special these children are, and what's happened to the world outside the bunker — but those are just two of the astonishing reveals in this endlessly absorbing novel.
Lauren Owen, The Quick (Random House)
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In the late nineteenth century, Charlotte ventures from the countryside into London, seeking her missing brother. He's a young poet who disappeared abruptly after being welcomed into high society. Charlotte quickly discovers her brother's new friends were actually connected with a secret supernatural society, whose members control both the political fate of England and the magical underbelly of its biggest city. This novel is already earning a lot of praise in early reviews for its literary treatment of traditional gothic fantasy themes.
Emmi Itäranta, Memory of Water (HarperVoyager)
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In a post-global warming world, Noria grows up in a northern European region controlled by China. She's training to become a tea master, a member of an elite group that knows where to find water in this drought-stricken future. But when her father dies, she finds herself in trouble with the local military — and has to decide whether to strike out on her own.
A.M. Dellamonica, Child of a Hidden Sea (Tor)
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Suddenly transported from the streets of San Francisco, a woman finds herself in Stormwrack, an ocean world of islands whose cultures and languages she's never encountered before. Now she has to navigate the complicated politics of Stormwrack, while figuring out whether she'll ever return home again.
July
Joe Abercrombie, Half a King (Del Rey)
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Hard fantasy author Abercrombie is back with a novel that critics are calling one of his best. Here's what the book jacket tells us:
Born a weakling in the eyes of his father, Yarvi is alone in a world where a strong arm and a cold heart rule. He cannot grip a shield or swing an axe, so he must sharpen his mind to a deadly edge. Gathering a strange fellowship of the outcast and the lost, he finds they can do more to help him become the man he needs to be than any court of nobles could.
Tobias Buckell, Hurricane Fever (Tor)
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Caribbean intelligence operative Roo is back in this intense sequel to global warming thriller Arctic Rising. In a world where the northern ice cap has melted, nations and companies struggle to control the valuable Arctic Seas. Once again, our cunning heroes are dealing with global conspiracy — and a mysterious weapon that makes squabbles over international shipping lanes look like child's play.
Charles Stross, The Rhesus Chart (Little Brown)
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In this latest entry in the Laundry Files series, Bob Howard is a new hire at England's supernatural threat management agency. Unfortunately, it seems that a local merchant bank has been infested by vampires — and it all stems from an eldrich financial conspiracy.
Paul Park, All Those Vanished Engines (Tor)
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This novel, which began as a multi-media art project, is a set of three interconnected alternate history stories, centered on key events in the Civil War, World War II, and a future where humans are grappling aliens from history. Laced with personal details from Park's own family background, this promises to be a mind-bending exploration of an America that never existed.
Erika Johansen, Queen of the Tearling (Harper)
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This much-anticipated novel is already being made into a movie starring Emma Watson. A nineteen-year-old, bookish princess returns from exile to claim her kingdom, and must grapple with the terrors of blood magic from the neighboring Red Queen — while also dealing with her own insecurities and her frivolous mother's legacy. An epic fantasy of the highest order, this book is packed with incredible battles and a little romance too.
August
Graham Joyce, The Ghost in the Electric Blue Suit (Doubleday)
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During the hottest summer on record, in the 1970s, a college student goes to work at a resort in an English seaside town where his father disappeared fifteen years before. As David finds himself drawn into an intense love triangle, he begins to notice weird things, like the mysterious figure of a man and a little boy walking on the beach. Oh, and there's a also a plague of ladybugs. Joyce is one of our favorite fantasy writers working today, and this book veers in and out of the supernatural to tell a story about how our personal histories can be the most terrifying form of magic.
Gemma Files, We Will All Go Down Together (ChiZine)
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A tale of gothic horror and evil witch bloodlines set in Toronto, this dark fantasy will take you from the wilds of the Ontario suburbs to a massive exorcism in downtown Toronto. How can you resist its lure?
John Scalzi, Lock In (Tor)
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In this near-future pandemic novel, bestselling author Scalzi tells the story of what happens when a meningitis-like disease leaves 1 percent of the U.S. population "locked in" — completely paralyzed, but still conscious and aware. New technologies allow these locked-in people to communicate via virtual worlds, and sometimes even by jumping into the brains of able-bodied people. What could go wrong? A lot, especially when the |
" their friends and associations, would cast disrepute on leftism in general. They arrest you to make you look guilty, and then they make you turn States Evidence to buy back your respectability.
They infiltrate communist Agents into Hollywood and Universities to create the dialectic of Hillary/Obama communism against the Trump Right.
The unending War against terror was created by Bill Clinton. It was not an accident by incompetents to collapse Iraq, Libya and Syria.
They infiltrate Wahhabi Radical Islamic terrorists into the USA and Europe to create the dialectic of Problem Reaction, Solution.
The solution for USA and Europe - the Totalitarian Police State!! Unless Trump changes his mind..
“Thanks to ideology, the twentieth century was fated to experience evildoing on a scale calculated in the millions - 280 Million people DEAD!! in the 20th Century - This cannot be denied, nor passed over, nor surpressed. How, then, do we dare insist that evildoers do not exist? And who was it that destroyed these millions? Without evildoers there would have been no Archipelago.
There was a rumor going the rounds between 1918 and 1920 that the Petrograd Cheka, headed by Uritsky, and the Odessa Cheka, headed by Deich, did not shoot all those condemned to death but fed some of them alive to the animals in the city zoos. I do not know whether this is truth or calumny, or, if there were any such cases, how many were there. But I wouldn't set out to look for proof, either. Following the practice of the bluecaps, I would propose that they prove to us that this was impossible. How else could they get food for the zoos in those famine years? Take it away from the working class? Those enemies were going to die anyway, so why couldn't their deaths support the zoo economy of the Republic and thereby assist our march into the future? Wasn't it expedient? (see movies, "Soylent Green", "In Time", "Jupiter Ascending" or "Cloud Atlas") That is the precise line the Shakespearean evildoer could not cross. But the evildoer with ideology does cross it, and his eyes remain dry and clear.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago
280 millions dead of war and torture in the 20th century!!
Now in Jupiter Ascending, a whole world is harvested for it's blood, for immortality for the elite..
The character of Charon, the hotel manager who assists Wick throughout the film, is an important one because, even though Charon is a figure from mythology, he symbolizes the division between the living and the dead, being the ferryman who takes souls to their eternal destination. This half-way-world of the hotel adds not only to the Christian symbolism of the film (when Viggo talks about God taking Helen, Wick's wife) but also the journey that Wick's own soul is on to find redemption and get his "personal issues" resolved.
In the scene above, when Wick asks Charon, "How good is your laundry?" and Charon replies, "No one is that good," it's Wick realizing that he has spilled more blood than he had intended, and he needs to atone for what he has done (cleanse his soul of the blood he has spilled). Charon's reply validates that Wick will have to atone for the blood, not just wash it away.
"Out, out damned spot" Lady Macbeth was talking about a deep energy blockage of Karma which would, "turn all the seas incarnadine"
John Wick, "How good is your laundry?" and Charon replies, "No one is that good,"
Only energy Enhancement can remove spots that other techniques cannot remove.
Energy Enhancement is the best of the best!!
Freud postulates, "All dreams are a fulfillment of a wish." Does Wick want his car stolen? Does he want his dog killed? Does he want to kill dozens of (87) people? Does he want Marcus killed? No, to all these.
What John Wick does want, however, is revenge, to overcome evil, to make amends, to clean karma, to clean house, to destroy the results of his previous collaboration with Satan, to destroy the evil which he himself helped to create and a way to channel the power of God by cleansing that evil.
"Lets all go and work for Satan because it's more convenient that way!" - American Beauty
This makes Viggo a "satan-figure" in Wick's "dream" (the plot sequence); what is it that verifies this? The church in Little Russia being used as a front for Viggo's vault (Viggo, as owner of the Church, becomes a "satan-figure" because the Church is set-up to work for him, not for God Himself) and that makes his son, Ioseph, an Antichrist-figure. In the violence that Wick deals out to both Viggo and Ioseph, does that make John Wick an anti-Christian film? No, just the opposite.
In addition to Viggo having the church in Little Russia as a front for his vault, containing money and political pedophile (Pizzagate) blackmail material, in this scene, when Wick has been captured by Viggo's men and Viggo talks to John (Viggo's back is to us, he faces Wick) Viggo tells Wick that God took Wick's wife away from Wick as justice for Wick's crimes, and that both of them are cursed men for what they have done. That's a pretty bold statement for Viggo to make because it testifies that Viggo believes in God, even though he has mocked the Church and Priesthood by using them for his own corrupt ends.
SATANISM WORLDWIDE FOR 10,000 YEARS - Links from current Satanists to ancient traditions - John Podesta & PIZZAGATE - the DEVIL Lady Gaga AND THE Cult of Marina Abramović Spirit Cooking THE SATANIC
We could say that John Wick is an example of Matthew 21: 28-32 and the parable of the two sons: a father asks one son to go work in his vineyard, and the first son says no, but later goes and does the work; the father asks the second son to go and work in the vineyard and that son says yes, but never goes to do the work; which son has done the father's will?
Wick is upset with losing Helen, and experiences a complete crisis, but that "dark night of the soul" is something we are all going to go through, and it's meant to test us to the Breaking Point, unless we have gained strength, purity and Wisdom by removing our Energy Blockages.
So that we can see further, later, that even with all this action it is not enough to remove the spot. For that, meditation and the Energy Enhancement Removal of Energy Blockages, the Energy Enhancement Removal of Karma is necessary. But it is a good start!!
At the end of the film, you know Wick is back on the right path. Please remember, as noted above, Wick has a tattoo of a Cross on his shoulder and the Praying Hands on his back (and there was a priest officiating at Helen's funeral) so, even if he is not a practicing Christian, he has a chamber of faith somewhere in his heart.
The interrogation scene is interesting because it suggests Viggo intends this to be the place where Wick dies (he gives the order for Wick to be killed): there is a cement mixer and the place is under construction with scaffolding and tarps. Then again, these construction tools are probably literary devices indicating that this scene is meant to "build up" and finish the construction of the narrative, specifically, putting in place Marcus and his "illegal" helping of Wick and Viggo's revenge against him.
What does Perkins symbolize? What Helen is not: the Dark Woman. Helen is a woman of love, Perkins is a woman for hire as are all the slaves who collaborate with Satan, who think they are getting ahead, those who have really joined in. Helen reminds us of the "ultimate woman" Helen of Troy, whereas Perkins will slip into an abyss and no one will mourn or remember her. Perkins, then, is an image of self-sabotage, choosing to live the dangerous life and forego the warning signs of impending disaster--like the fine she will have to pay for breaking the hotel rules--for a quick buck whereas John Wick becomes the vengeance of God, cleaning house for the father.
Granted, Wick has a gun to Perkins' head when he "persuades" her to give him something to have cause to keep her alive, even though Wick probably knows that Winston, the owner of The Continental will have her killed for breaking the rules; Perkins delivers, and Wick is so confident that Perkins tells him the truth of the church in Little Russia being a front for Viggo's vault, that he goes into the church shooting the "priest." When, then, Viggo shows up at Marcus' house and asks in person (rather than calling on the phone) for Marcus to kill Wick, and Marcus lies and tells Viggo he will, Marcus has, sadly, committed a greater crime than even Perkins committed. Marcus didn't have to lie, he could have said, "Thank you for offering me the contract, but I can't do it, we are friends," because there is no indication that Viggo would have had him killed for saying "no thanks."
But Marcus lying, even for his friend Wick, and then paying for his lie with his life validates the rigid structure of the film's morality scale also that we are what we are. Viggo is a bad guy.
He is Russian like the bad guys in Denzel Washington's movie The Equalizer (2014) - another movie like John Wick, are Russian and demeaning Russians is anti-Putin propaganda. "How can the leopard change it's spots?" ask the African elders. "Out, Out damned spot!!" says Lady Macbeth.
He is what he is, the Devil, and he does what he does.
Only John Wick can stop him.
In conclusion, John Wick is a great film on several levels, and the kind of film we need to be seeing right now to remind us of breaking away from the collective, not collaborating with evil, to remind us of individuality, pain and suffering, karma, the importance of free will, Divine Retribution and Divine Forgiveness and the necessity for cleaning our houses internally and externally.
When Wick calls to make dinner reservations for twelve people, - the twelve people he has just killed - and Charlie's Specialized Waste Disposal truck arrives, Wick has indeed removed waste from his life in terms of the emotional turmoil the men breaking in symbolize to his psyche, and the film calls for us to be willing to do the same in our own unconscious minds, reminding us that even a "action-flick" can aspire to the status of art when the proper tools are used so that we be thoroughly engaged and come out, like the hero, better for it in the end.
Although the just War and the good, sacred warrior are myths engrained in the human psyche, higher is the knowledge that revenge is circular. Karma is circular. What goes around comes around and the Devil, Energy blockages, demons, archons exist within all of us...
“If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”
― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956
"Everybody is the Shit of a shit, Mierde de la mierde; but if you want to change you are my brother, and I will help you any way I can" - Gurdjieff
“Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either -- but right through every human heart -- and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained. And even in the best of all hearts, there remains... an un-uprooted small corner of evil.
Since then I have come to understand the truth of all the religions of the world: They struggle with the evil inside a human being (inside every human being). It is impossible to expel evil from the world in its entirety, but it is possible to constrict it within each person.”
― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956
“Only those who decline to scramble up the career ladder are interesting as human beings. Nothing is more boring than a man with a career.”
― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956
“… What about the main thing in life, all its riddles? If you want, I'll spell it out for you right now. Do not pursue what is illusionary - property and position: all that is gained at the expense of your nerves decade after decade, and is confiscated in one fell night. Live with a steady superiority over life - don't be afraid of misfortune, and do not yearn for happiness; it is, after all, all the same: the bitter doesn't last forever, and the sweet never fills the cup to overflowing. It is enough if you don't freeze in the cold and if thirst and hunger don't claw at your insides. If your back isn't broken, if your feet can walk, if both arms can bend, if both eyes can see, if both ears hear, then whom should you envy? And why? Our envy of others devours us most of all. Rub your eyes and purify your heart -and prize above all else in the world those who love you and who wish you well. Do not hurt them or scold them, and never part from any of them in anger; after all, you simply do not know: it may be your last act before your arrest, and that will be how you are imprinted on their memory.”
― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956
“Bless you prison, bless you for being in my life. For there, lying upon the rotting prison straw, I came to realize that the object of life is not prosperity as we are made to believe, but the maturity of the human soul.”
― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956
http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/2944012-1918-1956
"This World is a Factory for the production of Enlightened beings" - Swami Satchidananda
"Find a Perfect Enemy" - Don Juan
“The only way to get smarter is by playing a smarter opponent.” - Fundamentals of Chess, 1883 - Revolver, and the removal of sub-personalities..
So, why did Keanu Reeves make the two movies?
The teaching on Karma is revived in the Keanu Reeves movie, "John Wick (2014)" where the bad guy says to Keanu that all the bad things that Keanu/John Wick did in the past are the reason his wife died, is the reason the bad guy's son killed John Wick's dog, is the reason he is back in the assassination game.
We understand that John Wick helped create this Evil.
His collaboration with the Devil helped create this Evil!!
And the love of his wife helped remove him from that.
But now it is time to clean house!!
You cannot totally overcome this with violence!!
This message comes out from sad Keanu's own life where his baby was stillborn, died in the mother's womb and one year later, the mother, Keanu's girlfriend and soul mate died in a car accident back around 2000.
Keanu's personal reflection on these happenings are the cause of the movie, "John Wick" and "Man of Tai Chi (2013)" written, Directed, and acted in by Keanu Reeves.
John Wick Chapter 2 - The Spiritual Warrior - Finger of God - Removes Satanic Demons, Cleans the Swamp - Move Bitch, Get out the Way!! Esoteric Movie Review by Satchidanand
"Man of Tai Chi (2013)" stars Keanu as Donaka Mark whose Satanic work is to find innocent and good men and turn them into bad people/murderers - This is the work of all people involved with the 10,000 years old Babylonian Satanic Cult.
This is a true reflection by Keanu on the work of the falsely created Satanic Cult whose main work is the degeneration of humanity and Ritual Sacrifice, "Lives for Satan" "The Blood is the Life"
The key to this World is that over thousands of years, energy blockages have infiltrated humanity.
Some people have more Energy Blockages.
Some people have less Energy Blockages.
ALL people have Energy Blockages.
Energy Blockages travel with us, lifetime to lifetime.
Satanists inject us, implant us, with Energy Blockages as part of their created Religion in order to control and vampirise us!!
Only by removing all energy blockages can you remove all your bad Karma!!
Only by removing all energy blockages can you become enlightened!!
Only by removing all energy blockages using Energy Enhancement can you remove all your bad Karma!!
Only by removing all energy blockages using Energy Enhancement can you become enlightened!!
ENERGY ENHANCEMENT IS THE BEST OF THE BEST!!
VAMPIRE ADDICTION IMPLANT BLOCKAGES ENERGY ENHANCEMENT ENERGY VAMPIRES DIRECTORY MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE STRONG TESTS ON THE PATH OF THE MASTERY OF RELATIONSHIPS - BLOCKAGES ABOVE THE CROWN CHAKRA CUT ONE OFF FROM CONSCIENCE AS IN PSYCHOPATHY, BUT BECAUSE THESE BLOCKED PEOPLE CANNOT ABSORB ENERGY FROM CHAKRAS ABOVE THE HEAD, ALSO MAKE IT NECESSARY TO VAMPIRISE ENERGY FROM ALL HUMANITY - ENERGY ENHANCEMENT TEACHES HOW TO STOP ENERGY VAMPIRES VAMPIRISING YOUR ENERGY
LILITH - The Psychic Sexual Connection Implant Energy Blockage - The Scarlet Woman THE ENERGY ENHANCEMENT LILITH SUCCUBUS INCUBUS DIRECTORY MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE STRONG TESTS ON THE PATH OF THE MASTERY OF RELATIONSHIPS - SEXUAL BLOCKAGE IMPLANTS FROM VAMPIRES CAN CONNECT FROM ANY PERSON, ANY DISTANCE - ENERGY ENHANCEMENT TEACHES HOW TO STOP ENERGY VAMPIRES VAMPIRISING YOUR ENERGY.
A Dark Truth with Andy Garcia and Forrest Whittaker - You know, they put fluoride in the water and leave the glyphosate in - on purpose!!
Guardians of the Galaxy - The Power of Life to overcome Evil
Captain America - The Winter Soldier - The Satanic Nazi Infil-Traitors
Kite - Pederasty and Drug Mind Control
THE HIDDEN ELITE, SATANIC SABBATEAN FRANKIST ROTHSCHILDS, VATICAN BANK, CZAR, RUSSIA, STALIN, MARX, HITLER, MAO, GALLIPOLI, ATTATURK
15-year-old Jack Harris (above) fought and died at Gallipoli.
The family's vicar, Everard la Touche, wanted Jack to go to war.
The vicar believed the war was a battle of good versus evil.
He promised the Harris family he would keep the young boy safe.
The story of Jack Harris.
The Satanic Hidden Elite, who planned World War I, purposely designed the Gallipoli Campaign so that it would fail.
HIDDEN HISTORY: THE SECRET ORIGINS OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR - GERRY DOCHERTY AND JIM MACGREGOR / Gallipoli - New Dawn Magazine
This Hidden Elite was said to be financed by the Satanic Sabbatean Frankist Rothschilds and their friends. The Satanic Sabbatean Frankist Rothschilds are the front for the Vatican Bank being in charge of all it's investments.
Luciferian Satanic Illuminati Kabbalist Sabbatean Frankists - CULT OF THE ALL SEEING EYE
THE BORGIAS, LIKE THE ROCKEFELLERS, ARE ONE OF THE GANG CLAN FAMILIES WHO STILL RULE THE WORLD THROUGH THE BRITISH EMPIRE, THE VATICAN, JESUITS, KNIGHTS OF MALTA, BRITISH EMPIRE PRIVATE CITY OF LONDON THOUSAND YEARS OLD ANCIENT MERCANTILE LIVERY COMPANIES, MASONS WORLDWIDE - ARISTOCRATIC AGENT MAO WAS A 33RD DEGREE MASON!! THE ROTHSCHILDS ARE THE BANKERS OF THE VATICAN!! JESUIT BLACK POPE CONTROLS THE 900 YEARS OLD INTELLIGENCE ARMY OF THE KNIGHTS OF MALTA (SMOM) GANG - SMOM MEMBERS - THE BUSH FAMILY, TONY BLAIR, GEORGE SOROS, HENRY KISSINGER, ALEXANDER HAIG..
Involvement in finance and industry.
The official version states:
In 1915, the Czar's Russia wanted its ally Britain to invade Turkey, which was on the side of Germany.
The idea was for the British and their friends to capture Istanbul.
The campaign began with a failed naval attack by British and French ships in February 1915.
British, French, Australian and New Zealand troops then landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula on 25 April.
By mid-October, the Allied forces had suffered heavy casualties and had made little headway.
The evacuation of the Allies began in December 1915, and was completed early the following January.
Churchill, whose mother was Jewish and whose father was the King of England, allegedly worked for the Satanic Sabbatean Frankist Jewish bankers. Churchill was rumoured to be a pedophile Satanist.
What actually happened was:
The Hidden Elite wanted the Czar to be toppled, so that Russia could be taken over by Jews and Sabbatean Frankist crypto-Jews.
The Hidden Elite wanted the Turks to continue their attacks on Russia.
The Hidden Elite wanted the eventual break up of the Ottoman Turkish Empire, to take Palestine and all the petroleum, - oil-rich Saudi Arabia and Iraq.
The Hidden Elite wanted Turkey, minus its colonies, to be taken over by its Commander at Gallipoli Kamal Attaturk, a Satanic Sabbatean Frankist crypto-Jew from Donmeh Salonica.
The Hidden Elite designed the Gallipoli campaign to fail.
Churchill, whose mother was Jewish, commanded the Gallipoli campaign and chose men for their ineptitude rather than their ability so as to promote Kamal Attaturk, a Satanic Sabbatean Frankist crypto-Jew from Donmeh Salonica who was in charge of the Ottoman campaign and later took over Turkey - with help.
Karl Marx wrote Das Kapital from his office in the British National Library in London given to him by MI6 - British Military Intelligence. Paid by Ambassador Urquhart, handled by Engels - designed to foment opposition to any government in the World, Socialism and Capitalism are simply false philosophies designed to control the masses.
Stalin and Fascist Hitler were British Agents designed to foment War, kill the masses, destroy infrastructure, create poverty. Hitler killed 25 millions. Stalin and his eugenic lysenkoism 65 millions. Mao was also a British Agent, 33rd Degree Freemason, handled by Yale Satanic Sabbatean Frankist crypto-Jews - he killed 80 millions.
Children bow to the pedophile warlords.
What is the purpose of the hidden elite?
To maintain their 10,000 years old dominance over humanity.
What are the methods of the hidden elite?
1. Infiltration of Satanism and Satanic Ritual into every part of society.
THE ENERGY ENHANCEMENT SECRET KNOWLEDGE OF LUCIFERIANISM AND SATANISM BY THE NEOPLATONIC ELITE Satanism, Luciferianism, Paganism, The Old Religion from Nimrod and Babylon and the Generational Family Gangs who created the Slave trading, Drug Smuggling Roman Empire, Venetian Empire, Dutch Empire, British Empire, Anglo-American Establishment, Vatican, Jesuits, Knights of Malta, New World Order... "The Principle of Poverty" and their creation, the Religion of Satanism, it's work of the Degeneration of Humanity, it's Ritual Human Sacrifice, "Lives for Satan", "The Blood is the Life" - it's War as it's Agent for this - 280 millions of people dead in the 20th century through war and torture!!
2. To hide Ancient Mind Control technology together with it's antidote, Meditation.
THE CONSCIOUSLY CREATED SATANIC CULTS WHICH MANAGE THE WORLD THROUGH THE TEN THOUSAND YEAR MIND CONTROL TECHNOLOGY OF HYPNOTISM, DRUGS, AND TORTURE..
Demonic Satanic Mind Control using Pedophilia, Torture, Drugs and Hypnotism to create Demonic MKUltra Sub-Personalities
Here is the latest in my series about the Effects of the, "Dark Side" on the Last Tens of Thousands of years of Modern Society.. It's solution and protection is Energy Enhancement Video Course and Live Courses..
Jesus says, "Stay away from Evil" and on the path of, "The Energy Enhancement Mastery of Relationships" be aware that bad people project energy blockages connected with the deepest satanic evil into all who meet with them. Having sex with these evil people, anyone at all evil, with any degree of evil, injects these evil, Addiction, Psychopathic, Energy Blockages even deeper.
In the same way being in the presence of good people who can project Angel Talents into your psychic body and who can dissolve your Evil Energy blockages is a very good thing...
1. Tantra and Homosexuality in Satanic Ritual Homo-Occultism
2. The Left and Right Hand Paths of Awakening Kundalini
3. In the House of the Strong Man, Satanic Sodomy is the Key - The Ritual Implantation of Energy Blockages
4. The Luciferian Religion's role in the Fall of Civilisations - The Role of Pagan Satanic Ritual Homo-Occultism in Causing the Fall of the Roman Empire and the Degeneration of Hitler's Germany
3. To perpetuate wars and make money by supplying both sides thus destroying infrastructure and killing the "beautiful and the gallant".
4. To maintain humanity in a state of poverty or continuous austerity, to poison humanity, to dumb down humanity, to fool them with propaganda to make them believe they are not under total control.
5. To destroy Science including fusion technology and cold fusion thus creating poverty.
The Suppression of Fusion Power Generation by the Oligarchic Satanic, "Principle of Poverty"
The True History of The Satanic Gang Families' Venetian Empire's Secret Agent Fra. Paolo Sarpi and his Operation against Liebniz to create Worldwide Poverty by Sabotaging Scientific Development with Satanic Scientific and Economic Empiricism
6. To promote the interests of elite Intra-species parasites - Satanists who through Satanic ritual have cut off from their hearts and God - had a consciencectomy and empathyectomy - such people as Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Larry Ellison, David Koch, Sheldon Adelson, Christy Walton, Michael Bloomberg, George Soros, Len Blavatnik, Alisher Usmanov, Mikhail Fridman, Leonid Mikhelson, Gennady Timchenko and Ronald Perelman.
7. To remember, as Satanist Leo Strauss believed, that "those who are fit to rule are those who realize there is no morality and that there is only one natural right - the right of the superior to rule over the inferior." As Marquis de Sade said, "No partners, only victims"
The religious leaders in Jesus’ day got rid of true prophets. The false religious spirit today will do the same. The false religious spirit causes people to flagellate their backs with whips.
A Russian branch of the Illuminati, called the Skoptsi, are famous for the self-inflicted tortures including castration that they carry out upon their bodies. The false religious spirit causes people to have self-abasement for the wrong motives. Discipline and faith are worthy things to have, but not if they are done out of only love for oneself rather than also love for one’s Creator.
Note that the Satanic Castration Ritual of Cybele and Attis (Adonis) is to create the Transhumanist Hermaphrodite as is the Ritual removal of breasts and ovaries by Satanic Priestesses such as Angelina Jolie.
This is why satanic alter sub personality Energy Blockages have such a hard time seeing what genuine religion has for them. They see the false religious spirit of false religion and they think falsely that Satanism has a more powerful form of religion.
Satanism is based upon legalism (the rituals have to be exactly so), and upon pride, and fear. To make an analogy, the false religious spirit is like a man or woman who dresses to get compliments rather than dressing nice to please their spouse. In other words, the man who wears something that offends his wife, because he wants other men to think he is macho, has a similar motivation as the false religious spirit.
The author of the false religious spirit is Satan, the author of death.
God wants people to choose things which are good and excellent and make their lives count for eternity.
THE SATANIC TOTALITARIAN FUTURE
On the flip side, the programmers like Mengele, who worship & serve Satan in their invocations, murder their victims in 4 ways of death-- mental, moral, spiritual, and physical death.
Agent Hitler was put into power by Western Oligarchs like Prescot Bush, Montagu Norman and MI6 in order to povertise Europe and Russia by War and the destruction of infrastructure so that both could later become vassal states of the Anglo-American Empire.
Before the second World War Mengele used to work for the Rockefellers Eugenics Program at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute. During the war he continued that work in concentration camps where he was named, "The Angel of Death" using torture to find the breaking point of human beings so that they would not die under torture, so that sub-personalities could be created at that breaking point of pain. Thus he became useful as a mind programmer for the CIA's MKUltra Program after the war as, "Dr Green"
ROCKEFELLER
They program four types of ongoing suicide into their slaves.
They bring them...
a. mental suicide,
b. moral suicide,
c. spiritual suicide,
d. push some alters to physical suicide, and program others to commit physical suicide.
They push their slaves into near death experiences--some alters die, and are discarded. Often, there are “dead” alters within a live System.
To perpetuate mental death, the programmers administer torture, drugs, hypnosis, false philosophies, and programming to wipe the truth out of the slaves mind.
This is mental murder.
Resistance to evil is the essence of life. By requiring their slaves to engage in the worst moral impurities, these parts lose their spiritual eyes. This is moral murder. (2 Peter 1)
For thousands of years Satanic Generational families have Mind Controlled all their members from a very early age, starting by sending to a public school, so that they can be easily controlled and so that the leader of the family - the firstborn through primogeniture, - can be broken and possessed by a Demon - usually at the age of twenty one - who then controls every member of the ancient generational family and all it's wealth, generation by generation for thousands of years.
Through the work of Eugenocidalist Generational Black Magician Mengele in Nazi SS Concentration Camps this Mind Control Process has been modernised, updated, more efficient, such that a three day visit to a hospital is sufficient for most politicians!!
Within the occult world, the entire study of demonology is wrapped around the geometric shapes that serve as focal points for angels and demons (such as made by crystals and pyramids).
Also the study of demonology involves the portals by which demons can enter the human body. A demon doesn’t have to be materialized (conjured up) to enter into a body.
Geometric shapes which are believed to attract demons are placed into the internal worlds of slaves. The will of the person also plays a role in the introduction of demons into the body. Torture attaches and layers in demons within the body. Sex and blood, animal and human sacrifices are used to attach powerful demons.
According to high level demonology, certain powerful spirits can only be manipulated if there are blood sacrifices. This may seem strange, however, the record (evidence) bears out that generational victims of possession who have had demons placed in via blood sacrifices are definitely controlled by more powerful demonic forces.
All of the chakra points, and the orifices to the human body serve as portals for the entrance of evil energies the mouth, ears, nose, anus, etc. are portals.
High influxes of demonic energy into the body is accompanied by a burning sensation. The Satanic "Mother of Darkness" - a Satanic Priestess - who is assigned to a child who is being programmed has to oil the child periodically to protect it from this burning. The goal to possess someone of spirits, or to be possessed by spirits has been practiced since the early times of mankind.
In Llewellyn’s New Worlds of Mind and Spirit magazine June/July 1994, issue #943, they write, “The golem of Prague is perhaps the most famous example of ‘practical cabala’--the use of cabala for magical cabala.” Scholem in his excellent treatise on the Cabala has an entire chapter about the Golem (Gollum from the Lord of the Rings). The golem were mind-controlled slaves created by the magick of the Cabala.
The Cabala, according to the best masonic authorities, including Albert Pike in his famous Morals and Dogma book is the basis of Freemasonry. By extension then, it is clear that the goal of having a mind-controlled golem has been the goal of Freemasonry, because that goal is the best example of practical cabala.
This is the paper trail, that lets us view the secret goals of the secret world of Freemasonry and Crowley's Ordo Templi Orientis - the OTO. There are Cabalistic grades within Freemasonry.
Sexual slaves were used by the higher and more occult Masonic rites - The 33rd Degree of the Ancient Scottish Rite and also the conjoining, "Palladian Rite" in the 19th century.
These Sexual slave "Whores of Babalon" in Crowley's terminology were subjected to trances and demonic possessions. They were subjected to all types of perverse sexual magical rituals in order to pass on their evil energies, their energy blockages, the Demons they were possessed by, to their Satanic Ritual Sexual partners so that they too could be taken over.
They and their Ritual partners then become, "Fleshly Gloves" for the Demonic humans..
- Who have been Ritually implanted with Energy Blockages in the Heart Chakra in order to cut themselves off from Compassion and Empathy.
- Who have cut themselves off from The highest Good Energies of Existence through being Ritually implanted with Energy Blockages above the Head in the Antahkarana. Thus unable to feed on the energies of God, they must, perforce, feed like vampires on the energies of humanity, - their cattle.
- Who have learned, - These teachings have been extant for thousands of years -
1. How to leave the body.
2. How to live outside the body in private universes in the Chakras above the Head in the Antahkarana.
3. How to enter and take over the body of another and thus live and interact with humanity over thousands of years.
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali - Book 3, Sutra 39. "By the loosening of the cause (of the bondage of mind to body) and by knowledge of the procedure of the mind-stuff's functioning, entering another's body is accomplished"
Carlos Castaneda, student of Shaman Don Juan, wrote many times of sorcerers who live outside the body in private universes above the head and who give meditational secrets in return for energy.
CARLOS CASTANEDA, DON JUAN, GNOSTICS, ARCHONS, DEMONS, ENERGY BLOCKAGE IMPLANTS, AND THE ENERGY ENHANCEMENT COURSE
Taught that this is the way of immortality Black Magician neophytes find that they have been lied to. That their psychic body degenerates. That they too are food for more powerful Black Magicians.
The Cabala also teaches this intercourse with demons.
CROWLEY
Theurgy is the skill or ability to invoke demons variously called angels of light, genii, spirits of various kinds, such as elemental spirits.
Demons come with a price and that price is blood and energy. Satanism and Luciferianism and other similar cults are blood cults and human sacrifice cults that require blood to be sacrificed to pull in certain demons.
For instance, blood may be taken from both the tongue and the genital area and mixed in a certain ceremony to invoke a particular demon. Demons are not bought with gold or silver, they are bought with blood. Some spirits are invoked by placing alcoholic enemas into the child. These children get totally intoxicated with alcohol, some to the point that they even die from the ceremony. This is all done to bring in particular demons.
The Spirit Choronzon and Typhon are critical spirits to place into a person for the Mind-Control to work. The Illuminati do not believe the Mind-control will work without the assistance of these spirits. Typhon and Choronzon do the tunnelling and the MPD work.
Ritual Homosexuality and Pedophilia are symptoms of the Satanic Religion and the Satanic Sex Addiction Blockage in Society. It was the arrest of the notorious Jewish born child serial killer Mr Dutroux in August 1996 that brought the Belgium Paedophile scandal to light. The rescue of the last Two young girls he kidnapped lead to an investigation of Dutroux. Five women who testifies anonymously in Belgium under the code name ”X” described a generational family underworld of Satanism, where Satanic Families pimped out their children for rape, pedophilia, sadomasochism, torture, cannibalism, snuff movies, and murder. They said that Satanic politicians, Bilderbuggers and other high placed members of society were involved.
An example of an important ritual to demonize the victim is the baptism of the child |
Intensivist at the Alfred ICU in Melbourne and is an Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor at Monash University. He is also the Innovation Lead for the Australian Centre for Health Innovation and the Chair of the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society (ANZICS) Education Committee. He has a passion for helping clinicians learn and for improving the clinical performance of individuals and collectives. After finishing his medical degree at the University of Auckland, he continued post-graduate training in New Zealand as well as Australia's Northern Territory, Perth and Melbourne. He has since completed further training in emergency medicine, clinical toxicology, clinical epidemiology and health professional education. He coordinates the Alfred ICU's education and simulation programmes and runs the unit’s education website, INTENSIVE. He created the 'Critically Ill Airway' course and teaches on numerous courses around the world. He is one of the founders of the FOAM movement (Free Open-Access Medical education) and is co-creator of Lifeinthefastlane.com, the RAGE podcast, the Resuscitology course, and the SMACC conference. His one great achievement is being the father of two amazing children. On Twitter, he is @precordialthump.The World Bank is helping corporations and international investors snap up cheap land in Africa and developing countries worldwide at the expense of local communities, environment and farm groups said in a statement released on Monday to coincide with the bank's annual land and poverty conference in Washington DC.
According to the groups, which include NGO Friends of the Earth International (FOEI) and international peasants' group La Via Campesina, decades of World Bank policies have pushed African and other governments to privatise land and focus on industrial farming. In addition, they say, the bank is playing a "key role" in the global rush for farmland by providing capital and guarantees to big multinational investors.
"The result has often been … people forced off land they have traditionally farmed for generations, more rural poverty and greater risk of food shortages", said FOEI in a separate report launched ahead of the World Bank conference.
The event, which promises to focus on "land governance in a rapidly changing environment", is billed as a forum to discuss "innovative approaches" to land governance challenges including climate change, the growing demand for key natural resources, and rapid urbanisation. But campaigners say the conference mistakenly focuses on how to improve large-scale land deals rather than on helping local communities to secure or retain access to their land.
The FOEI report suggests land grabbing is intensifying and spreading, especially in rural areas of Africa and Asia. "High levels of demand for land have pushed up prices, bringing investment banks and speculators into farming," it says.
"The World Bank's policies for land privatisation and concentration have paved the way for corporations from Wall Street to Singapore to take upwards of 80m hectares (197.6 acres) of land from rural communities across the world in the past few years," said the groups in a statement accusing the bank of promoting "corporate-oriented rather than people-centred" policies and laws.
In 2010, the World Bank spearheaded the development of new principles for responsible agricultural investment to better ensure that land deals respect local rights, livelihoods and resources; these guidelines have also been criticised for legitimising, rather than challenging, the global rush for land.
Allegations of land-grabbing have hit countries around the world and have been accompanied by growing concern about whether large-scale land deals are delivering promised income and employment for local people. This week, a coalition of NGOs and research institutes is expected to release the latest findings of the Land Matrix project, which has attempted to systematically document recent land acquisitions.
Current estimates suggest that 80-230m hectares of land have been leased or bought in recent years, largely to produce food, feed or fuel for the international market.
World Bank money has been involved in many recent international land deals, says the FOEI report. In Uganda, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the bank's private sector lending arm, contributed $10m for a project to clear 10,000 hectares of land for palm oil plantations on Bugala Island in Lake Victoria.
But FOEI research has shown that local people were prevented from accessing water sources and grazing land, suggesting that – despite promises of employment – many people have lost their means of livelihood.
Resistance to land grabs is growing: Harvard University has come under intense pressure to ensure its investments do not contribute to land grabs in Africa, while Iowa State University has withdrawn from a deal in Tanzania that could have displaced an estimated 160,000 people. In South Sudan, the government halted a land deal after local communities erupted in protest, saying their lands had been secretly leased to an American company.
This month, farmers and land rights activists from across Sierra Leone converged on the country's capital for a national assembly of communities affected by large-scale land deals, where groups launched a new civil-society watchdog to monitor agribusiness investments. The meeting followed the first international farmers' conference to tackle land grabs, held in Selingue, southern Mali, in late 2011.
On Tuesday, food justice activists, environmental organisations, students and Occupy Wall Street groups are set to gather in front of New York's Waldorf Astoria hotel to challenge the fourth annual Global AgInvesting (GAI) conference, where institutional investors and fund managers are meeting to discuss opportunities for agricultural investments overseas.
"Governments around the world need to stop land grabbing, not just try to mitigate its worst impacts. Governments must abide by their human rights obligations on land and drastically reduce demand for commodities such as palm oil from the west," said Kirtana Chandrasekaran, FOEI's food sovereignty co-ordinator.
David Kureeba, from the Ugandan national association of professional environmentalists, said: "People's rights to land [in Uganda] are being demolished. Small-scale farming and forestry that protected unique wildlife, heritage and food is being converted to palm oil wastelands that only profit agribusinesses."
Government officials, civil society, experts and the private sector will gather at the World Bank conference, which ends on Thursday, to discuss large-scale land aquisitions, land governance in the context of climate change, and rapid urbanisation.The California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA) announced Tuesday that it will give Caltrain one of 14 cap-and-trade grants focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving the state's public-transportation infrastructure.
Caltrain will receive $20 million in state Cap and Trade funds for its electrification project, which will replace the transportation agency's diesel equipment with high-performance electric trains, allowing Caltrain to provide faster, more frequent service along its 51-mile corridor between San Francisco and San Jose while reducing emissions, according to a news release.
The project, according to CalSTA, will reduce emissions by 97 percent by 2040, and reduce greenhouse gases by 176,000 metic tons of carbon dioxide a year.
"This is a transformative moment for transportation in the Bay Area," Silicon Valley Leadership Group President and CEO Carl Guardino said in a statement. "This project means more commute options and faster travel times for thousands of current Caltrain riders and it allows the system's ridership capacity to grow, preparing the corridor to connect to new BART stations in San Jose and Santa Clara."
The California High-Speed Rail Authority has committed $713 million to the $1.98 billion electrification project, according to the news release. The project will also be funded through a combination of federal, regional and member-agency contributions.
Caltrain's congressional delegation announced Monday that the electrification project was one of two projects accepted into the engineering phase of the Federal Transit Administration Core Capacity Program, which is expected to provide $643 million toward the project.
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Follow the Palo Alto Weekly/Palo Alto Online on Twitter @PaloAltoWeekly and Facebook for breaking news, local events, photos, videos and more.“Gorgeous, absurd, and socially productive, these are rare works of art.”
--Christopher Knight, Los Angeles Times
“Hooray for all the work, play, thought, and precious bodily fluids that went into making this ongoing art!”
--Donna Haraway, Science + Technology Studies Scholar, UC Santa Cruz
"The AIDS Quilt of global warming."
-- Lawrence Weschler, New York Institute for the Humanities
In 2005 twin sisters Margaret and Christine Wertheim began to crochet a coral reef. Today more than 7000 people have joined them in creating this ever-growing woolly wonder. More than 25 Crochet Reefs have been made around the world - in New York, Chicago, London, Melbourne, Oslo, Arizona, Indiana, Ireland, Germany, Latvia and elsewhere.
This vast handmade archipelago – resulting from more than 200,000 hours of human labor – is one of the most extensive community artworks ever. Collections of Crochet Reefs have been shown at major art galleries and science museums worldwide, including the Chicago Cultural Center, the Hayward Gallery (London), Science Gallery (Dublin) and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History (Washington DC).
For years, Crochet Reef Contributors have been asking us for a book. Now at last we'll have an explanation of all the scientific, mathematical and environmental concepts inherent in the project available in one place, along with lots of photos. In this Kickstarter campaign we offer the chance to obtain a beautifully illustrated book that documents this extraordinary fusion of art, craft and science.
Margaret Wertheim in the Fohr Satellite Reef, Museum Kunst der Westkuste, Germany.
The book will celebrate ALL the people who have been involved in this collective aesthetic achievement. All 7000+ contributors to all the Crochet Reefs around the world will be named in a specially designed chapter that will constitute an artwork in itself.
Your Kickstarter contribution of $55 or more assures you a signed, numbered, first edition. We plan to deliver books in October 2014.
The book will be written by Margaret and Christine, with additional essays by an art critic, a science historian and others.
Want to see more: Watch Margaret's TED Talk. Now seen by over 500,000 people.
Giant crochet coral - a woolly fusion of craft and geometry.
Why are we making a coral reef? Coral reefs the world over are dying out. Pollution, overfishing, tourism and now Global Warming are killing them off. Margaret and Christine grew up in Queensland, Australia, home state to the Great Barrier Reef. When they started their project they joked that if the GBR ever died off their crochet reef would be something to remember it by. In 2013 that joke is becoming a ghastly reality: If current trends continue reefs may soon stop growing altogether. All the CO2 we are pumping into our atmosphere not only warms the oceans but also makes them more acidic, which prevents corals from forming their bony structures. Scientists now talk about the Coke-a-Cola ocean. The decimation of coral reefs around the world is proof that climate change is real; it's here and now and destroying these critical marine environments.
The Crochet Coral Reef project was conceived as a direct response to climate change. It has mobilized people all over the planet to respond to this crisis in a powerful, constructive and collaborative way. The book will spread the word about climate change in a format that is highly accessible, scientifically astute, and visually stunning. Margaret is an internationally award-winning science writer and brings to the project 30 years experience covering scientific topics.
Why crochet is the mathematically necessary medium. All the frilly, crenellated forms seen in living reefs -- in corals, kelps, sponges and nudibranches -- are biological variations of hyperbolic geometry, an alternative to the Euclidean geometry we learn about in school. Though nature has been playing with these structures for millions of years, mathematicians spent hundreds of years trying to prove it was impossible. Sea-slugs effortlessly produce hyperbolic ruffles, yet it is notoriously difficult for humans to make models of this form. In 1997, Cornell mathematician Dr. Daina Taimina showed how it could be done with crochet and her models serve as important geometry-teaching tools. But nature never does anything mathematically perfect. By deviating from purely geometric models, the Wertheims and their community of crochet reefers have invented a vast taxonomy of crochet coral “species”. There is an ever-evolving crochet “tree of life.”
Parallel lines behave differently in Euclidean and hyperbolic space.
Crochet corals by moonlight.
Who's involved? In addition to the crochet reefs the Wertheims have personally curated through their Institute For Figuring, more than 7000 people have contributed to more than 25 "Satellite Reefs" in more than 10 countries. These gorgeous woolly installations are unique works of community art, sometimes giant in scale. They are made by people from all walks of life. Among contributors to the project there have been scientists, mathematicians, teachers, students, mothers, professional crafters, computer programmers, housewives, university professors, and prison inmates. Just as living reefs are built by millions of tiny coral polyps working together, so too Crochet Reefs result from vast collective effort.
Contributors constructing the Scottsdale Satellite Reef.
Why a book? The Crochet Coral Reef project is a new kind of global artistic experiment. Reef exhibitions have been seen by more than three million people. Now we want to honor in print, and for the historical record, the work of everyone who has participated. The book will serve as a permanent record of all the Crochet Reefs worldwide and will frame this outstanding example of radical craft within the context of science and mathematics.
We've taken the photos. The research has been done. The Orphiflamme Foundation has given us a grant to do the writing. We have found a wonderful young designer to work with and we're ready to go.
Branched Anemone Garden (from the collection of Lisa Yun Lee).
Why Kickstarter? We have been approached by several mainstream publishers about doing a book, but the only way to have full artistic control over its look and content is to do it ourselves. From the start, the Crochet Coral Reef project has been a self-propelled, community driven enterprise. We want to do the book in the same spirit, and we ask for your collaboration in making this possible. We need your assistance to fund the printing and design. We have sourced a printer who can do a first-class job at an incredibly reasonable price and our designer knows how to get the very best quality for a modest budget.
The first 1000 copies will be numbered and signed by Margaret and Christine.
The Bleached Reef, a crochet invocation of coral bleaching.
What we will do with the money what you get for your money. The funds raised from this campaign will be used to cover printing and the fee for hiring a designer.
-Everyone who gives $55 or more will get a signed and numbered, first edition. This includes postage within the USA.
-If you give $100 or more, you’ll also get your name in the book on our Donor page.
-Those who give at a higher level will be credited on a Special Donors page.
-Donors at the $200 level and above will also get a signed copy of the IFF's elegant little book A Field Guide to Hyperbolic Space. Written by Margaret, this provides a more in-depth look at hyperbolic geometry and Dr. Taimina's discovery of hyperbolic crochet. It contains how-to instructions for the basic crochet forms.
-Donors at the $1000 level and above will receive one of a Limited Edition set of crocheted hyperbolic models.
-Shipping is included in the price at all Reward levels. Because international postage for a book now costs $25, orders outside the US are $75. Please note that for the moment we are limiting international orders to 100 copies. If you live outside the USA, be sure to get in early. Once we reach our target of $27,000 we'll be able to release more for the international arena.
-We’ll put aside the first 300 numbered copies for Donors. Those who give at higher levels are guaranteed a low-number copy, which book collectors value.
Crochet sea creatures by Ildiko Szabo (L and R) and Helen Bernasconi (Middle).
Who are we? The Crochet Coral Reef is a project of the Institute For Figuring, a Los Angeles based non-profit, founded by Margaret and Christine Wertheim, that is dedicated to enhancing public engagement with science and mathematics by looking at the poetic and aesthetic aspects of these fields. Visit www.crochetcoralreef.org and www.theiff.org for more information.Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee reportedly hired the firm that assembled the infamous dossier that included salacious allegations about now-President Trump.
A lawyer who represented the campaign retained the Washington research firm Fusion GPS, which then hired former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele to dig up the unconfirmed dirt on Trump, according to the Washington Post.
The firm Fusion GPS had originally been funded by a still-unknown GOP consultant firm during the combative 2016 GOP primary.
Clinton lawyer Marc E. Elias retained the firm in April 2016 and continued to fund the work until just days before the presidential election, the paper said.
The dossier includes explosive allegations about Trump’s behavior and his connections to businessmen in Moscow.
A spokesperson for the DNC said the organization had nothing to do with research being conducted by the firm.
“Tom Perez and the new leadership of the DNC were not involved in any decision-making regarding Fusion GPS,” DNC communications director Xochitl Hinojosa said.
“But let’s be clear, there is a serious federal investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia, and the American public deserves to know what happened.”
Clinton’s former press secretary during the 2016 presidential campaign joked on Twitter that he would have dropped everything to help Steele’s investigation.
“I regret I didnt know about Christopher Steele’s hiring pre-election,” Brian Fallon tweeted.
“If I had, I would have volunteered to go to Europe and try to help him.”Jeremy Corbyn has vowed not to retire as Labour leader and said he was inspired by his father to continue working beyond the pensionable age.
He said his age, 66, was no barrier to appealing to younger voters and dismissed the prospect of quitting.
Corbyn’s opponents have questioned his stamina but he struck a defiant note, saying: “I’ve never gone through life with the intention of retiring. My dad didn’t retire. He died working. Not because he was forced to but because he wanted to. It’s a family thing”.
Corbyn was speaking to the Derby Telegraph as part of a visit to discuss Rolls-Royce engineering jobs in the city.
He insisted his plans to scrap the use of nuclear warheads on Trident submarines would not hit jobs at Rolls-Royce, where the reactors that power the vessels are manufactured.
He also defended his longstanding opposition to Trident over the course of 33 years as an MP.
“I have a life-time view that nuclear weapons are not a defence against anything. They are weapons of mass destruction and if ever used would only lead to greater mass destruction.”
He was speaking as it emerged the Commons vote on Trident renewal could be delayed until after the EU referendum, which is expected in June at the earliest.
It is thought David Cameron hopes to capitalise on Labour’s long-running internal debate on the weapons system by allowing it to continue through the summer.
Earlier this week Emily Thornberry, the shadow Defence Secretary, was criticised for an “embarrassing” speech at PLP meeting where she proposed unilateral disarmament – but she is in lockstep with Corbyn on the issue of nuclear weapons.The son of establishment GOP champion Jeb Bush – Jeb Bush Jr. — has openly allied with Democrats and Silicon Valley’s billionaires by supporting President Barack Obama’s DACA amnesty for 800,000 illegals.
Bush revealed his views in a tweet which touted the Chamber of Commerce claim that more migrants allow member companies to expand and hire more people:
The DACA program is in danger because candidate Trump promised to end it on “Day One,” because a group of 10 state Attorneys general has announced a pending lawsuit, and because Trump needs to pressure Democrats legislators and business lobbyists to accept his pro-American “RAISE Act” merit immigration reform.
The economic data cited by Bush is based on claims made by the open-borders, cheap-labor CATO Institute, the Democrats’ Center for American Progress and Mark Zuckerberg’s FWD.us, which has been derided by opponents as the “billionaires’ liberation front.”
According to its website, “FWD.us is mobilizing the tech community to promote policies that keep the U.S. competitive in a global economy, starting with fixing our broken immigration system and criminal justice reform.” The group was formed to push through the 2013 “Gang of Eight” immigration and amnesty bill because Democrats refused to help increase the flow of foreign tech-workers to CEO’s companies unless the CEOS backed their push to win citizenship for Democratic-leaning Latino and Asian illegal immigrants. That bill would have shifted more of the nation’s economic annual income from employees over to employers and investors, according to a 2013 report by the Congressional Budget Office.
The new joint CAP/FWD.US report says DACA’s end would be bad for the economy and illegal immigrants — but it also shows that Trump’s promise to end DACA will open up to 700,000 jobs to young Americans, including the 4 million Americans who will turn 18 this year. According to the study:
This report specifically finds that for every business day that DACA [two-year work permit] renewals are put on hold, more than 1,400 DACA recipients will lose their ability to work and could be let go by American employers. This could result in monthly job losses for more than 30,000 individuals each month. In total, if DACA is revoked, nearly 700,000 [illegal immigrant] individuals who are currently employed and contributing as a productive part of the American workforce would be stripped of their ability to work and could be fired over the course of the next two years.
The study was also leaked to Axios which reported:
The research comes from FWD.us, a pro-immigration reform group co-founded by Mark Zuckerberg, and the Center for American Progress, with data from the Cato Institute. They’re unveiling the findings this morning, but Axios got an advance look. The findings: 91% of DACA recipients, 700,000 people in total, are employed. If Trump ends renewals for the program, 1,400 people per business day will lose their authorizations to work.
Why it matters: Ending DACA wouldn’t mean all of the “Dreamers” would be deported. But it would mean they’d lose their ability to work legally, and that could have significant economic consequences.
Multiple studies by business groups admit that the loss of the illegal-immigrant labor force will pressure employers to compete for American workers by offering better wages and working conditions to all potential hire, including new immigrants, Latinos and disadvantaged African-Americans. That is not an immediate problem for Silicon Valley, partly because few of the DACA illegals work in professionals sought by high-tech firms, according to a recent study backed by the CAP.
That is not an immediate problem for Silicon Valley, partly because few of the DACA illegals work in professions sought by high-tech firms, according to a recent study backed by the CAP.
But the Valley CEOs will also lose political clout if DACA is ended. In likely 2018 and 2019 talks about an immigration reform, Democrats legislators will put a higher priority of restoring the DACA amnesty than on getting more high-tech workers for their Silicon Valley donors.
The last paragraph of the CAP/FWD.US study admits the impact on CEOs of DACA’s removal, saying “DACA was always designed to be temporary, but repealing the program without a process for individuals currently protected by it to continue to live and work in the United States will place an extreme hardship on U.S. businesses, on local communities, and on the American economy.”
Jeb Bush, the father, is also defending the DACA amnesty by tweeting a link to a pro-DACA editorial in the Miami Herald.
Come to DACA’s defense, Mr. Trump https://t.co/yqRcPAHpv8 With Presidential leadership, this can be resolved. — Jeb Bush (@JebBush) August 30, 2017
This story has been updated to emphasize that the job-loss tweet was sent by Jeb Bush Jr., not by Jeb Bush, the candidate in the GOP’s 2016 primary race.Things that didn’t happen in 2012.
Well, that’s it for 2012. Once again, Earth has passed an arbitrary point in its orbit that, for historical and cultural reasons, is considered significant; our chronological odometer has clicked again, to put us 2013 years from an event that almost certainly did not take place. Happy New Year, everybody.
This is the season when psychics confidently trot out their predictions for the coming twelvemonth, and skeptics get to snark about the failed predictions from the one just finished. Perhaps the best snarking is to be found at http://www.relativelyinteresting.com/2012-failed-psychic-predictions/ – but this is a game that anyone can play. I wanted, though, to look not just at the failed predictions, but the ones that were considered successes.
So I set out looking for a psychic who had made at least a minimal effort to document his hits. Enter one “Spiritman” Joseph Tittel, who bills himself as a spiritual medium, psychic clairvoyant, and medical intuitive – whatever that means. He comes out annually with a long list of predictions, subdivided into categories like a game of Trivial Pursuit; these are generated on his live blog radio spot on January 1st, transcribed onto his blog thereafter, and updated as each prophecy is fulfilled. The helpful commentariat on his blog and FB page also contribute suggested confirmations as they come up. I looked only at his blog.
It was a massive list for 2012: seventeen weather predictions, seventeen for celebrities, seven for the US economy, one long screed about Obama, and no fewer than sixty-seven “world” predictions, including natural disasters. Of the 109 itemized prophecies, either Tittel or his commentariat suggested “confirmations” for all of 32. As well, many items ramblingly included several different parts, each of which could be treated as a separate prediction. Even I, however, am not obsessive enough to tease them out and count them individually. What, for example, would one do with the following?
2: Major controversy erupts out of Alaska. Something to do with the political movement in Alaska. It involves the government & possibly the FBI. Alaska came to me several time which makes me believe they will have several major incidents that hit news headlines including weather related issues. Bizarre unexpected and unusual storms here and throughout the world. 12: Japan hit once more by large earthquake up to 8.1. This time I feel it hits more toward the northern west part of Japan. I feel that Japan will endure several major issues, including issues with China, along with several earthquakes. Most likely floods. Also many issues with water, floods. I see people boiling water. May be a total of three earthquakes that measure high on the scale… 48: Pakistan will cause the world great trouble as will other middle eastern countries like Iran and even problems with Russia. Russia & China buddy up and make it difficult for other surrounding countries as time progresses. W2: Extremely large and very unusual and unexpected dust storms begin to take place, especially during the summer and early fall months, one out of Arizona and/or New Mexico. Injures several and 7 causalities. India, China, Europe and Australia.
A quick summary will do for the failed prophecies that were specific enough to judge. The year 2012 did not see:
the assassination of a Norwegian or Cuban leader
the shooting of President Obama
another terrorist attack on a Russian subway system
a major volcanic eruption in July (“one of the largest we have ever seen”)
chaos and a new war in Cuba
a huge undersea earthquake resulting in one of the largest tsunamis ever seen
an American Airlines crash on a runway
the discovery of life on a new planet
three major accidents in space exploration
nuclear explosions in Iran or Israel
a change of leadership in Australia
two Chicago policemen charged with the murder of a boy
a small fire in the White House (unless he meant the White House Restaurant in Bucks, Alabama)
a new pope and a severe decline in the fortunes of the Catholic church
serious health issues for Queen Elizabeth (up to and including surgery and death) and Donald Trump
the FBI capture of a massively prolific serial killer (biggest since Manson and Dahmer)
the death of Jerry Sandusky by suicide or murder
a huge announcements by Elton John
a stroke for Regis Philbin
crutches for the unsinkable Betty White.
Another class of prophecies can be considered automatic fails – vague extrapolations about ongoing situations: the melting of the Arctic, Hulk Hogan’s health and legal issues, oil in the Gulf of Mexico, Lindsay Lohan’s train wreck of a life, nonspecific earthquakes in the Ring of Fire, the Brangelina soap opera, unrest in the Middle East, hurricanes in hurricane season, or tornadoes in tornado season. Duh. A power outage in Las Vegas? There were at least ten in 2012, none of them major, about the same as previous years. A major derailment in China or Japan, with a death toll of 101? There were twenty-seven derailments worldwide in 2012, none of them in China or Japan, and the total death toll was thirty-six. Etc.
And then there’s this:
W6: 2012 will mark off the year of one of the largest natural disasters that has ever been seen. I think this is weather related combined with the outbreak of some disease or bacteria. Not only will the impact of this disaster kill thousands, the aftermath will kill hundreds more due to disease. I cannot seem to pinpoint where this disasters takes place but feel the U.S. and Canada are safe from this one. Many get involved in trying to reach out and help the people impacted by this huge disaster. This would effect more then a hundred thousand people and possible even more like a half a million or more people. [Note: in a different version of this prediction, the figure is “millions”] It is possible that Africa will be effected by this and if not this they will also endure some major tragedy in 2012 that takes out many people at one time.
That’s a mighty big prediction – and could equally well be applied to flooding, drought, hurricane or monsoon, earthquake (Tittel elsewhere refers to earthquakes as weather phenomena), volcano, meteor impact, or something else entirely, followed by epidemics, as disasters often are. But, while 2012 had its full share of catastrophe and human misery, nothing approached being “one of the largest natural disasters that has ever been seen.” Fail, fail, fail. And even if such a calamity had taken place, what practical use would this remarkably silly prediction have been – except to allow Spiritman the pleasure of saying “I told you so.”
So much for the failures. Next up, I will take a wide-eyed and breathless look at Spiritman’s successes.Buy Photo The Regional Transit Authority of Southeast Michigan may consider extending the refleX express bus service to connect Wayne and Washtenaw counties. (Photo: Regina H. Boone, Detroit Free Press)Buy Photo
A rapid transit connection between Wayne and Washtenaw counties could still be in the works.
The possibility was discussed today during the first full meeting of the Regional Transit Authority of Southeast Michigan board since voters rejected the RTA millage request last week.
Ben Stupka, the RTA's manager of planning and financial analysis, said establishing a transit connection between the two counties, especially the job centers of Detroit and Ann Arbor, would fill a major need for the area.
"One of our large regional transit gaps is that connection between Washtenaw County and Wayne County," Stupka said after the meeting. "We want to start to bridge that gap."
No firm details have been established, and it's unclear when such a service could launch or how much it would cost. The RTA would need to seek grant funding.
The service could be developed as an expansion of the RTA-branded refleX service, which is a limited stop, express bus route on Woodward and Gratiot avenues that connects Detroit to the Somerset Collection in Troy and Mt. Clemens. Or it could operate as a refleX-like service.
►Related:RTA millage defeated by area voters
RefleX is operated jointly by the Detroit Department of Transportation and Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation — DDOT runs the Woodward line and SMART has the Gratiot line — at an estimated cost of $5.6 million per year. It began operating on Labor Day weekend and is expected to be a three-year pilot project, although it is only currently contracted through April. RTA, which was created in 2012, has a mandate to coordinate service among DDOT, SMART, the People Mover and the Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority.
Creating a transit connection for Wayne and Washtenaw counties in the near-term would reflect the comments of RTA officials and transit advocates who said they intend to continue working toward a regional transit system for southeast Michigan despite the millage defeat on Nov. 8. RTA Chief Executive Officer Michael Ford said he is "very committed to moving forward and getting something done" related to regional transit.
The millage would have funded the RTA's 20-year master plan, which called for, among other things, expanded local bus service, bus rapid transit and premium connections to Detroit Metro Airport from Macomb, Oakland, Washtenaw and Wayne counties as well as commuter rail connecting Detroit and Ann Arbor. It lost by a little more than 18,000 votes.
Paul Hillegonds, RTA board chair, noted the effort's "remarkable support."
However, he said voters in numerous other cities with more connected public transit systems than southeast Michigan had approved enhancements to their systems.
"At a time when Washington may be talking about new infrastructure money we fall back further in the line to take advantage of funding that goes beyond this region, and it just gives me, and I hope all of us, a great sense of urgency about the need to finish the task we've embarked on," Hillegonds said.
The next opportunity for the RTA to place a millage request on the ballot will be in 2018. Officials said they would be speaking with stakeholders and analyzing the election results in coming months as well as planning a retreat for board members. However, there was also a suggestion that the RTA talk not just to supporters but also to those who voted against the millage.
About half a dozen members of the public, including transit advocates, offered comments in support of the RTA plan, although the board was urged to make sure residents understand it in the future. Megan Owens, executive director of Transportation Riders United, said residents had demonstrated more support for a regional transit plan than they have in decades.
"This is far from over," she said.
But Jim Casha, an RTA critic from Norwich, Ontario, called the entire process a sham.
Contact Eric D. Lawrence: elawrence@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter: @_ericdlawrence.
Read or Share this story: http://on.freep.com/2fBj07hBalfron Tower is now one of the stately homes of England – a National Trust attraction no less. Recently it’s hosted an arts season, a Shakespeare play, and it’s provided live-work accommodation for twenty-five artists since 2008. And all that, to be honest, makes me sad because once Balfron was simply housing for the local people who needed it – although its size and style and big name architect did always get it special attention.
The site for what is currently the Brownfield Estate, in which Balfron is located, had been identified as early as 1951. The now truncated St Leonard’s Road was one of Poplar’s principal streets; the area as a whole comprised a dense grid of old and substandard terraced housing. The land was acquired in 1959 just as the new Blackwall Tunnel Northern Approach to the east was cutting its own brutal swathe through these old streets. In 1963, the London County Council asked Ernő Goldfinger – one of the most celebrated modernist architects of the day – to design the first buildings of the new development.
Rowlett Street Phase I, as the Balfron Tower was originally known, was built – by the LCC’s successor body, the Greater London Council – between 1965 and 1967 and officially opened in February 1968 by Desmond Plummer, leader of the GLC.
It is 26 storeys and 276 feet high – in plain construction terms, ‘an in-situ reinforced concrete cross-wall structure linked to the service tower by precast concrete bridges at every third floor’. (1) It contained 146 homes in all, 136 flats and 10 maisonettes. The maisonettes were located at ground level and on the 15th floor – the latter provides the distinct break which can be seen in the otherwise uniform façade of the Tower.
The idea of a service tower had been pioneered by Denys Lasdun at Sulkin House and Keeling House in the 1950s. Its advantage, as Goldfinger pointed out, was that ‘all noisy machines, including lift motors, water pumps, fire pumps, rubbish chutes, and the boiler house at the top, are completely insulated from the dwellings’. Noise within the flats was also reduced ‘sideways by a 9 inch concrete wall and top and bottom by a 1 foot thick concrete floor’. It wasn’t so easy to deal with the near-motorway just outside the block.
The service towers also contained two communal laundries and ‘hobby rooms’ for teenagers, one for table tennis or billiards and the other set aside – in language which must have been a little dated even for its time – as a ‘jazz/pop room’. Decades later, in a rather more authentic demonstration of youth culture, the Tower was home to pirate radio stations which made good use of its commanding height.
Goldfinger hoped that the large balconies provided for each home would provide a play area for toddlers; ‘a sunken play area with slides, towers, water and a sandpit’ was located at ground level with a day nursery to follow. He acknowledged that ‘common shopping and welfare facilities’ were lacking – as they were in so many estates in which councils understandably prioritised the immediate pressing need for roofs over heads. This, he said, was a problem which needed to be solved on ‘a political plane’.
As for the height of the block, Goldfinger was sure this was a positive: ‘The whole object of building high is to free the ground for children and grown-ups to enjoy Mother Earth and not to cover every inch with bricks and mortar’. (2)
Goldfinger was a larger-than-life character (to put it kindly) and this makes it easy to conflate the building and the man and see both as somehow ‘brutal’ – more concerned with a |
Frank was very proud of the issue that preceded the Kurtzman issue, and somehow thought that he earned the right to spend twice as much time on the Kurtzman issue because Kurtzman deserved more time and attention. That’s true, in theory, but you can’t run a magazine that way, so I explained to Frank that, no, he had the usual five to six weeks to put the Kurtzman issue together. The Journal was supposed to be monthly, but it was never monthly, and came out nine or ten times a year. You know, the editor of The New Yorker doesn’t get to put out the next issue two or three weeks later just because the issue he just put to bed was really good. Frank nodded and seemed to accept the logic of it, left and never came back.
Young: I was really upset and I wrote a scathing letter to Kim and Gary. If I had to do it all over again, I would have said these things in person. It was just a year’s worth of bottled-up frustration and rage. I found out later that some of the stuff I said about Kim and the way he treated people had some positive impact — I found out that he was being a lot nicer to people. I regret the harshness of the tone of that letter, but it was the best I could do at the time.
Groth: It’s always the delicate flowers who insist on their sensitivity in the face of the relentless negativity of the Journal office who write the bitter, five-page letters of resignation dripping with venom and bile. Frank Young’s ex post facto letter of resignation was a masterpiece of the genre.
Harvilicz: Then this Carole Sobocinski was hired, and that was like some nightmare that happened with her.
Yarger: Even when we were putting the Journal out weeks and months late, generally editors were a pretty devoted bunch, so I was used to a high level of commitment. They weren’t all as organized as they might have been, but they were committed. And Carole didn’t seem to have that same approach to the Journal, so it made my job a lot harder.
Boyd: I left right before Carole Sobocinski melted down. At first, we really got along, but after a while, I felt kind of used by her. We were barely speaking when I left. I wrote her a memo saying I wanted to keep writing Minimalism. She wrote back a terse note saying, “No, I’m taking it over. Give me all the minis you have to review.” I guess I could have gone to Gary or Kim and asked them, but I thought, “Fuck it.”
I had a huge box of unread minis that I put on her desk. She came down and said, “What do you expect me to do with all these?”
I said, “These are all the minicomics that people sent me. I think some are good enough to be reviewed, but it’s up to you now.” She told me to pull out the ones I thought were good. I laughed and said, “You have got to be kidding. I quit. I don’t work here anymore. You wanted this job, you’ve got it.” Then she gave Minimalism back to me — with a note saying I could continue writing it.
Later, when the whole Sobocinski thing exploded, Kim called me up and said, congratulations. You were the first person here that Carole hated.
Thompson: I’d grown to loathe Carole for several months before the blowup — I thought she was deceitful, lazy and self-serving — and had been urging Gary to fire her, but he stuck with her for some reason. He and I were having some of our periodic issues at the time and I have this suspicion she was playing those. She was very shrewd. What a horrible woman.
Eric Reynolds: I literally started at TCJ the day that Carole Sobocinski cleared out her desk, if memory serves. I may have even taken over her desk. Although we never worked together, her presence loomed that entire summer, as all of her subterfuge slowly came out and into focus.
K. Thor Jensen, cartoonist: I applied for the managing editor position at The Comics Journal in, I think, 1994. Might have been 1995. Of course, since my résumé was a paper route, opening mail on the night shift at the phone company and digging ditches for Labor Ready, I didn’t even get a call back. Prodded by my housemates, I called Fantagraphics and asked to talk to Gary.
When he wasn’t there, the receptionist — I forget who it was — asked if I wanted to leave a message, which I did. As best as I can remember it, it was, “This is K. Thor Jensen and you’re going to regret not hiring me as managing editor of the Journal because I can out-fight, out-fuck, out-type and out-proofread any of the fat-ass Colin Upton wannabes on your staff.”
A few months after that, when I had a strip published in the Journal, I used that as my biographical note.
Young: I don’t know everyone who’s edited the magazine since but I know a lot of people have gone through the same cycle of being the wonder boy or girl at first, and then at the end of their run they’re just the lowest form of scum on the earth and everything bad for the next six months is blamed on them.
Reynolds: The names of TCJ editors who left their position on good terms is a pretty small list.
Groth: I have to admit that I probably didn’t have much patience then — or now, for that matter — for Journal editors retroactively whining over how much work it was to edit the magazine. Was it a lot of hard work? Damned right it was. Is there anything worth doing that isn’t hard work? I don’t remember anyone I interviewed for a managing editor position telling me that the reason he (or she) was applying was because he wanted to put in a minimal effort and have an easy, cushy job. I would be very up-front about it: I told anyone who applied that it was a lot of work, a lot of hours and required a lot of dedication to the mission of the magazine. To me, devoting full time to editing the magazine would be a dream job. You’re given enormous (but not complete) autonomy, you have an opportunity to shape every issue, it’s intellectually stimulating, journalistically courageous and enormously rewarding. Financially, it was admittedly lousy, but it’s not like the magazine was ever a moneymaker and it was an opportunity you’re not going to find much in the real world to exercise your critical and intellectual faculties with few compromises or corporate considerations. Anyone who found this too much of a hardship wasn’t cut out for the job.
(continued on next page)PKK terrorists opened fire on an ambulance located at a gas station in Turkey's southeastern İdil district in Şırnak on Friday.
An employee at the gas station was injured. Abdulbaki Dim was then taken to a nearby hospital by the personnel of the shot ambulance.
The incident occured at around 12 p.m., Doğan news agency reported.
The ambulance personnel were at the gas station at the time of the incident to fill up the vehicle's tank.
The terrorists then started shooting towards the ambulance with long barreled weapons, from a nearby neighborhood where they dug many ditches and set up barricades.
The PKK, also considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the EU, resumed its 30-year armed campaign against the Turkish state in late July 2015.Second seed and 2009 champion Roger Federer is out of the French Open after a 6-4 6-3 7-6 (7-4) defeat to Stan Wawrinka in an all-Swiss quarter-final.
Wawrinka, 30, had lost all four of their previous matches at Grand Slam tournaments.
But the number eight seed overcame his 33-year-old Davis Cup team-mate to cause an upset at Roland Garros.
Wawrinka will meet home favourite Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the semi-finals following his win over Kei Nishikori.
Tsonga overcame a fightback by his Japanese opponent to win 6-1 6-4 4-6 3-6 6-3.
Wawrinka hails 'best match on clay'
World number two Federer was second best throughout against an inspired Wawrinka and failed to break serve in a Grand Slam match for the first time since the 2002 US Open.
Federer was broken in the third game of the first set and in the seventh game of the second set.
Stan Wawrinka finally got the better of Roger Federer at a major on his fifth attempt
When a couple of close calls went against him in the third set tie-break, Federer's hopes of adding to his haul of 17 Grand Slam trophies were over.
A forehand volley on his second match point propelled Wawrinka, the 2014 Australian Open champion, to his first French Open semi-final.
"Today was my best match on clay and it's an incredible moment for me," said Wawrinka.
"I'm playing good tennis and I'm really pleased to be in the Paris semi-finals for the first time.
"I'm a little bit surprised to win that match in three sets and the way I did, but it's a great feeling."
Federer eyes Wimbledon triumph
No sooner had Federer left Court Suzanne Lenglen than he was talking up his chances on grass at Wimbledon, which gets under way on 29 June.
"I'm already thinking what I'm going to do over the next few days, because Wimbledon is going to be a big goal for the season," said the seven-time Wimbledon champion.
Roger Federer won Wimbledon six times in seven attempts between 2003-2009
"That's where I want to play my best. It's a big goal for me. I want to win it, and I feel like my game is good.
"It's been solid, it's been positive, and I have just got to keep it up now."
Tsonga on song
It is 32 years since France had a home winner at Roland Garros but Tsonga's marathon victory over Nishikori kept hopes alive that could be about to change.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga's best result in the French Open was reaching the last four in 2013
The number 14 seed breezed through the first set and was leading 5-2 in the second when the match was interrupted for more than half an hour after a metal sheet from a giant video screen was blown off, crashing into spectators and leaving three with minor injuries.
Although Tsonga, 30, went on to claim the second set 6-4, 25-year-old Nishikori, the number five seed, took the game to a fifth set before Tsonga secured victory.
No Frenchman has won the title at Roland Garros since Yannick Noah in 1983.
"I am super happy. It was tough because he came back strong but I kept my head high," said Tsonga.German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks during a meeting at the lower house of parliament Bundestag on 2017 budget in Berlin, Germany, November 23, 2016. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany must increase defense spending towards 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday, but downplayed expectations it would meet this target in the near future.
“Our defense budget shows that we haven’t reached the point where we should be if we talk about the expectations of our NATO partners,” Merkel said in a speech to the Bundestag lower house of parliament.
“I know we still have a pretty long way to go to reach NATO’s 2 percent target for defense spending and I can’t promise we will get there in near future. But the direction has to be clear (...) that we approach this target and implement it.”Last Friday, for the first time in my adult life, I bought a new phone before the current phone had a chance to drown in a toilet or was mysteriously smashed to shit somewhere deep in blackout. I was punished for this pretense of competence.
My fingertips, and my heart, are filled with shattered glass. I haven’t even had the time to empirically complain about the purged headphone jack. Here are the things responsible for this incident:
Topshop MOTO Denim Western Jacket (grey) and its ridiculous front pockets which are sideways for some reason. Do not put your iPhone in these pockets. My iPhone fell out three times while I was walking today, but it always landed on its back. Until it didn’t.
and its ridiculous front pockets which are sideways for some reason. Do not put your iPhone in these pockets. My iPhone fell out three times while I was walking today, but it always landed on its back. Until it didn’t. A soft and clear Native Union case bought in a hurry at the Union Square Best Buy because I’m “responsible.” It’s not this case, but it’s very similar in the sense that the cover stops covering the glass screen a millimeter before the raised edge, making it just about pointless. Do not get this case. Get a hefty case. It’s ok. It looks fine. Don’t get any case that leaves your screen jutting out visibly. That’s naive.
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I should have seen it coming, and I did, in slow motion, as my phone landed face flat on the pavement with a soft crunch.
That’s that. I just hope I remembered to buy one of those new AppleCare plans. Messy.England have lost three of their opening four World Cup games
Captain Eoin Morgan blamed England's bowlers after their nine-wicket humbling by Sri Lanka at the World Cup.
England posted 309-6 but saw that overhauled with 16 balls left to suffer a third heavy defeat in four matches.
"We were way off the mark today," Morgan said. "When we are bowling well, it's a good attack but you can pick it apart when we're not bowling well."
Former England batsman Geoffrey Boycott said Morgan and coach Peter Moores have no "aura of leadership" about them.
Media playback is not supported on this device Cricket World Cup 2015: Geoffrey Boycott on 'average' England
Lahiru Thirimanne, who was dropped twice, and Kumar Sangakkara both made unbeaten centuries as Sri Lanka became only the second team to chase a one-day international target in excess of 300 for the loss of only one wicket.
This latest heavy defeat for England came after they were soundly beaten in their opening two matches against Australia and New Zealand with their only victory coming against Scotland.
"This is harder to take than those first two losses," said batsman Morgan. "I thought our score was about 25 above par.
"We created a couple of chances that went down, so that was disappointing."
England will almost certainly be eliminated if they lose either of their final two games against Bangladesh and Afghanistan, and Bangladesh beat Scotland on Thursday.
"It's not even a thought at the moment," said the 28-year-old left-hander. "We have two games to win to get us into a quarter-final."
Lakmal fined for bowling beamer Sri Lanka fast bowler Suranga Lakmal was fined 30% of his match fee by ICC match referee David Boon for bowling two beamers - high full tosses - at England's Jos Buttler in the 50th over of England's innings. Lakmal was taken out of the attack by the on-field umpire
The unbroken 212 partnership between Thirimanne and Sangakkara was Sri Lanka's third highest in World Cups
Worse than Afghanistan?
On a slow Wellington wicket, England continued with their policy of selecting four front-line seamers and omitting off-spinner James Tredwell, who is yet to feature at the tournament.
And opener Thirimanne said that composition of England's attack made the Sri Lanka chase an easier task.
"This wicket was really flat, with nothing for the fast bowlers," said the left-hander. "There was no seam, no swing. It helped a lot."
Thirimanne was also asked if the England attack was better than that of Afghanistan, who managed to take six Sri Lanka wickets when defending 232.
"To be honest, that day the Afghanistan bowlers did very well, even if there was a little bit in the wicket," said Thirimanne. "Today was easy for me."
England's World Cup bowling averages O M R W Av Econ Best Finn 29 3 200 8 25.00 6.89 5-71 Woakes 27.4 1 170 5 34.00 6.14 2-8 Root 8 0 50 1 50.00 6.25 1-27 Moeen 29 0 157 3 52.33 5.41 2-47 Anderson 29 0 182 2 91.00 6.27 2-30 Broad 29.2 1 184 2 92.00 6.27 2-66
England fans look away now
Media playback is not supported on this device Cricket World Cup 2015: England's defeat by Sri Lanka in numbers
England have lost nine of the 29 ODIs in which they have made 300 batting first, the worst percentage among Test-playing teams.
Eoin Morgan's side are only the second team to lose an ODI by nine wickets after posting 300 in the first innings.
Spinner Moeen Ali, who took 1-50 from 10 overs, was the only bowler with an economy rate lower than six runs an over.
England have taken only one wicket in their last two World Cup matches against Sri Lanka.
Paceman James Anderson's bowling average at this World Cup is 91. He has taken two wickets in 29 overs, conceding 6.27 runs per over.
On the bright side, England passed 300 in consecutive World Cup matches batting first for the first time since 1979.
Pool A table Team Played Won Lost N/R R/R Points 1 New Zealand 4 4 0 0 +3.59 8 2 Sri Lanka 4 3 1 0 +0.13 6 3 Bangladesh 3 1 1 1 +0.13 3 4 Australia 3 1 1 1 -0.30 3 5 Afghanistan 3 1 2 0 -0.76 2 6 England 4 1 3 0 -1.20 2 7 Scotland 3 0 3 0 -1.73 0
The Geoffrey Boycott verdict
"Sorry, but the coach and captain don't do it for me. If I was on their plane they don't give me an aura of leadership. I need more than that.
"I've played under quiet people like Mike Brearley. Excellent captain. He got his point over. Brian Close was in your face, Raymond Illingworth had a clever brain. You always felt 'fine, this guy is in charge, this guy has ideas, this guy has something going on in his head and some plans'.
"It's a results-orientated business. They are all nice lads with nice families but that is immaterial. If we can't cut it any better somebody has to pay the price. It happens in football. You have to inject something different into the team. If you are a captain, coach, bowler, batsman and you can't cut it you have to go."
Joe Root has scored four ODI centuries batting at number four
What did the other experts say?
Former England captain Michael Vaughan: "We are watching a era of cricket where if you are predictable you will end up with a predictable outcome..."
Ex-England spinner Graeme Swann: "A positive thing that can come of this World Cup is that maybe the top brass will realise just how out of date our approach is."
Former England batsman Kevin Pietersen: "Not the result I wanted waking up to. Joe Root must have played well - good stuff, bud!"
Former England coach David Lloyd: "Lots of criticism for England, rightly so., but come on, that was wonderful from Sangakkara and Thirimanne. A lesson."
The Sun's cricket correspondent John Etheridge: "Eoin Morgan's answers at press conference suggest England are obsessed with stats, par totals etc. Toss the laptop in the bin, play with instinct."
Listen to highlights from Test Match Special's and 5 live Sport's 2015 World Cup coverage.All Of Justin Bieber's Music Removed From YouTube Via 'Prank' DMCA Claims
from the not-so-funny dept
As a bunch of folks have been sending in a "prankster" was able to remove all of Justin Bieber's videos from YouTube by filing a bunch of bogus DMCA notices. While a lot of people find this amusing for one reason or another, it really highlights a key problem with the DMCA's notice-and-takedown process, which is a "censor now, deal with the consequences later" system. As has been pointed out in the past, it seems like this process is a violation of the First Amendment, in that it involves the shutting down of speech prior to any sort of due process or adversarial hearing. I'm still amazed that the DMCA doesn't allow for at least a notice-and-notice process, giving the uploader/host a chance to respond before the content is removed. In a case such as this, it would have prevented the removal. As for the "prankster," he might want to be careful. Filing totally false DMCA claims can open you up to serious legal penalties, and assuming that Bieber makes a fair bit of money from his videos on YouTube, his representatives probably have decent reason to go after the prankster. And that might not be a bad thing. In the process, perhaps they could establish greater precedence for the ability to punish those who file bogus DMCA takedowns.
Filed Under: copyright, dmca, first amendment, justin bieber, youtubeA scary midair incident over the weekend had the Chicago Bulls borrowing airplanes to get around this week.
On Saturday night, the Bulls were flying to Indianapolis for Sunday's game against the Pacers.
"Apparently a compressor in engine No. 3 had some trouble, and it sounded like it exploded, but I guess it's like a jet engine backfire, which is very loud," Bulls radio analyst Bill Wennington said Monday on ESPN 1000's "Waddle & Silvy Show." "Sparks fly out of it. It happened actually right after... the captain thrusts the engines forward and it revs up and starts to go, about three seconds after that you hear a 'Boom!' 'Oh, what was that, are we stopping?' The plane keeps going down [the runway] and you're thinking, 'Oh no, why aren't we stopping?'
"It was funny, because we're in the back of the plane, and the engines are right by us, and we hear it. They can't hear it [in the front of the plane]. And apparently they couldn't feel anything. And so we take off fine, and about five minutes later, two more booms, 'Boom!, Boom!,' and a couple people saw flames and sparks and stuff flying out [while looking out of] the window. We're all thinking, 'Well, it's been nice.'"
The plane turned around and landed back at O'Hare. The players were sent home and returned the next morning to fly to Indy on the Chicago Blackhawks' charter plane, which they used to return to Chicago after the game.
"Honestly, it was really scary," Bulls television analyst Stacey King told "The Waddle & Silvy Show" on Tuesday. "We thought we were going to go down. And so they turned us back around and got us back to the airport. We made it back safely.... So, thank God, we made it back and we were blessed to land safely.
"After getting on the ground that night, I was ready to get on a bicycle and ride to Indy. I was shook for a little bit."
King said the pilots did a good job of getting the plane back to the airport.
"I'm not going to sit up here and lie, if I had a teddy bear, I probably would have been grabbing it," he said. "It was a frightening situation. Our pilots did a good job of getting us back down. You can fly with one engine. We had an extra engine, so they had two engines left. So we weren't in any kind of danger as far as doing a nose dive. Whenever you see flames come out of an engine, that's a little bit scary."
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban lent the Bulls the Mavs' plane to fly to San Antonio on Monday night and to return after Wednesday's game. Bulls forward Lou Amundson tweeted his appreciation to Cuban for the lift.
"Our plane broke, @mcuban loaned us his, nice guy...," Amundson tweeted in the early hours of Thursday morning. Cuban later retweeted it.
Wennington said there was no panic on the plane Saturday.
"We turn around, everything was fine, other than that you wouldn't have known -- after the second boom the plane dropped and rattled a little bit -- but other than that you wouldn't have known anything was wrong, and we landed back safely," he said. "There's three engines on the plane, and everything was fine and it worked out, but while it's happening to you up there, and you're looking down and you're 10,000 feet in the air, you're thinking, 'Hmmmm.'
"It was amazing how quiet it was. Everyone was pretty serious about it. Everyone remained pretty calm, but you can see a lot of faces of concern and a couple of Hail Marys going up, but other than that, no [panic]."
The Bulls' plane is expected to be fixed and used for the rest of the season.There was little mystery about whether the Portland City Council would extend a temporary law requiring landlords to pay thousands in "relocation assistance" to tenants displaced by a terminated lease or rent increase. From the start of the council meeting last week, commissioners announced their commitment to the measure as one of several to address the ongoing housing emergency. The testimony of tenant after tenant recounting stories of staggering rent hikes only cemented their will.
The only mystery in all this was the absence of data to show this controversial policy actually works. Despite the law's adoption in February, the city has not tracked the number of landlords who should have paid the fees, whether tenants received payment and other basics. That deficiency didn't seem to bother the city council much, however. Without any clear information to show the law is working as intended, commissioners unanimously voted to extend the relocation law, with some pledging to make permanent an expanded version in December, as The Oregonian/OregonLive's Jessica Floum reported.
The city, in all fairness, isn't set up to track such transactions between private landlords and tenants. And the lack of data on this law isn't unusual: The city housing bureau is only now identifying the metrics the city must track and meet before it can declare its "housing emergency" over - two years after it was first established under former Mayor Charlie Hales.
Such shot-in-the-dark approaches to policymaking is one reason Mayor Ted Wheeler's decision to fund an Office of Landlord-Tenant Affairs seemed so promising. Such an office can disseminate information to landlords and tenants alike about rights and responsibilities. It can help mediate disputes, a less expensive option than having to go to court. And it can set up a rental property registry that not only gives the city critical data of the rental inventory, but also can show whether city policies are affecting that supply and achieving what they're meant to do. Unfortunately, the office and its objectives are still in the planning stages, with no authoritative data to share.
Editorial Agenda 2017
Boost student success
Get Oregon's financial house in order
Help our homeless
Honor our diverse values
Make Portland a city that works
Expand access to public records
________________________
Read more about the editorial board's priorities for Oregon.
In fact, some of the only data available about this policy shows that it may be making the housing crunch even worse. Since the passage of the relocation assistance ordinance, more than 400 single-family properties that had been used for rentals have been put on the market, said Jane Leo with the Portland Association of Metropolitan Realtors. While the association lines up with single-family-home landlords, city commissioners glossed over that statistic in their race to show solidarity with tenants.
Certainly, the city is under pressure to do something. Years of lackluster housing development have left the city short tens of thousands of available housing units to meet the soaring demand from newcomers as well as existing Portland residents. The tight market has put the squeeze on tenants who are having to pay higher rents or move farther from the city to find a place they can afford. And while private developers are now racing to build market-rate rentals, there's far less momentum for increasing the number of apartments priced specifically for low-income residents. The anxiety, instability and disruption are painfully real for families forced to move to new neighborhoods and schools, provided they can find an affordable place at all.
Oregonian editorials
Editorials reflect the collective opinion of The Oregonian/OregonLive editorial board, which operates independently of the newsroom. Members of the editorial board are Laura Gunderson, Helen Jung, Mark Katches and John Maher.
To respond to this editorial, post your comment below, submit an OpEd or a letter to the editor.
If you have questions about the opinion section, email Laura Gunderson, editorial pages editor, or call 503-221-8378.
Marshall Runkel, chief of staff for City Commissioner Chloe Eudaly, points out that as unfortunate as it is to lose any rental units, losing a few hundred when the deficit is as great as Portland's isn't going to dramatically worsen the shortage. Meanwhile, that relocation assistance is a lifeline to desperate tenants who have nowhere else to go.
His point is well taken. But it's also important to recognize that the ordinance is one of a slate of laws in Portland and Oregon that make it harder, not easier, to house people. Development fees, demolition requirements and proposed restrictions that dramatically curtail a home's square footage all make the math of building less and less attractive. And like it or not, there's no getting out of this housing emergency without adding tens of thousands of more housing units, something the city can't do on its own. Most of that housing will depend on private developers and investors choosing to put their money in projects and properties here in Portland, rather than elsewhere. The more barriers and costs that the city puts up will either increase the prices and rents or will discourage such investment completely.
Tenants understandably are advocating for policies that let them stay in their units for the same or less rent - no matter the reality of the market. They aren't tallying their landlords' rising utility costs, or estimating the hit to property taxes from the new bonds passed by voters. They aren't deliberating how the city will absorb the thousands of people who move to Portland each month. They are focused on how to stay in their homes in a market that's escalating crazily due to insufficient housing.
But that's what Portland city council is supposed to do: Look at the whole picture, evaluate the data and create sound policies that are tightly tailored to address the problem. Making permanent a policy without even considering the negative consequences will only turn this housing emergency into our new normal.
- The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board
This editorial expresses the opinion of The Oregonian/OregonLive editorial board, one of whose members owns a rental condominium unit.
This posting has been updated to clarify that the 400-plus units were put on the market, but whether they sold is not apparent from the information.London based photographer Jaroslav Wieczorkiewicz is known for taking high speed photography to the extreme. (And for poking at a $12K Profoto setup with a $500 Einstein).
Jaroslav’s latest endeavor involves nostalgia, naked girls and some incredibly well executed high speed photographs of milk.
The project aims at creating a pin up calendar inspired by the popular pinup calendars of the 40’s and 50’s. Only instead of clothing, the models are wearing milk. Milk frozen with high speed strobes.
As an inspiration, Jaroslav looks at illustrations done for pinup calendars by Gil Elvgren, Alberto Vargas, Greg Hildebrandt and more which were featured on Brown & Bigelow calendars.
While none of the milk is illustrated, it is created from layering splashes from hundreds of individual photographs. Each taken with (real) milk splashed across (real) bodies.
The lighting setup is made with an Einstein E640 bounced of a silver parabolic umbrella for key and another E640 shooting through a strip-light for kick.
Here is a look at 9 out of the 12 months, with 3 yet to be published photographs.
If you are in Lucerne, Switzerland this weekend you can join in on taking the last photo in a workshop. Or you can order the calendar starting November.
[Milky Pin-Ups | Jaroslav Wieczorkiewicz]Image copyright Reuters Image caption Vladimir Yevtushenkov's company Sistema said its dealings were "legal and transparent"
Russian billionaire Vladimir Yevtushenkov has been placed under house arrest on suspicion of money-laundering, prompting shares in his company Sistema to plunge.
The Moscow Exchange temporarily restricted trading in Sistema as shares in the oil and telecom group fell 37%.
The head of a top business group has questioned the reason behind the arrest of Mr Yevtushenkov, 65.
But President Vladimir Putin's spokesman denied any political motive.
Mr Yevtushenkov has an estimated fortune of $4.4bn (£2.6bn; 3.4bn euros), according to Forbes.
His AFK Sistema group owns Russia's biggest mobile operator MTS as well as oil firm Bashneft. Bashneft shares also fell by more than 20% on Wednesday and trading was temporarily restricted.
Russia's Federal Investigative Committee said he had been accused of money laundering that involved the illegal acquisition of oil assets in the BashTek group in the Russian republic of Bashkortostan. In 2009, Sistema bought six BashTek companies, which were then taken over by Bashneft.
If found guilty he could face up to 10 years in jail, reports say. Sistema said in a statement that the acquisition of BashTek was "legal and transparent".
Image copyright AFP Image caption Mr Yevtushenkov's arrest was compared with that of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, pictured
The arrest was immediately compared by Alexander Shokhin, head of Russia's Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, with the detention of another billionaire, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, in 2003.
The former owner of oil giant Yukos spent 10 years in jail before being pardoned and leaving Russia last December.
"Without doubt this looks very like Yukos 2.0, because the charges apply to the head of a company that paid $2.5bn for assets and is now accused of stealing shares and money-laundering," Mr Shokhin told Ria Novosti.
Yukos was at one point Russia's biggest oil company but its assets were eventually broken up, many of them bought by Rosneft, now the world's largest oil producer.
Rosneft was earlier this year reported to be keen to buy Bashneft.
The state-run oil and gas company is controlled by Igor Sechin, who for years has been a close ally of President Putin. Mr Sechin has been targeted by US sanctions in response to the crisis in Ukraine.
Mr Khodorkovsky, in an interview with Russian business daily Vedomosti, said the Sistema chairman's arrest involved "purely commercial interests" rather than political motives. It also showed that President Putin had lost control and was not aware of what was happening, he said.
Mr Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov said it was "absolutely untrue and absurd to try to paint this story with any political colours", Ria Novosti reported.History of Cream Ale
Cream ale, along with California Common and American pilsner, make up most of the short list of beer styles that can claim indigenous American origins. Interestingly all three of these styles originated in the 1800s and have some common characteristics. They are all light colored and share roots in the German brewing practice of lagering.
Cream ale’s birth in the latter part of the 1800’s could be called an innovation born of desperation. Up until the mid 19th century most brewing in America found its roots in English ale styles; porters, stouts, and milds. But this all changed with an influx of German migrants during the 1830s and 40s.
They came to escape military service and economic hardship. German brewing knowledge made the journey with them, and no sooner had they landed and gotten settled then they started brewing and selling their native lager beers. These light, crisp, thirst-quenching libations were a big hit, and by the mid 1870s were outselling ales.
Ale brewers needed to come up with something new to stay in the game. It would have to be something that could be brewed on their current systems, but be more lager-like then anything they were currently producing. Their answer: a broadly defined ale built around a flexible grist of six-row, two-row, and different adjuncts; fermented at slightly cooler temperatures with either ale or lager yeast — or perhaps both; and possibly aged for a short time, also at a cooler temperature.
The result was a beer resembling a kölsch; a young-drinking, lighter, crisper ale with low fruitiness. It also helped the ale brewers that their newfound contender could be produced significantly quicker than the lagers.
The populace responded well to this new creation and cream ale found a comfortable place in the American beer scene up until Prohibition. Post-prohibition brought a shift toward lagers conforming to a watered-down, mindless drinkability.
It’s like the American public forgot what beer once was and recreated it out of some half-formed, but not at all vivid memory, and the brewer’s conforming to the whims of commerce, changed to suit. Most ales where relegated to some obscure small corner of American beer history.
Today, most commercially produced cream ales are basically ale versions of the commercial lagers and have little in common with the pre-prohibition cream ale style. Craft produced examples cut closer to the historical line and, though still not overly popular, they have found a niche as a bridging beer.
For brewer’s, it can be a bridge to America’s own proud brewing |
or some other third party... While the wording of the petition requests a declaration that the Garden “may not ban” licensed individuals from carrying weapons at the facility, the practical effect of the request – and the relief sought – is simply a declaration that Evans, and similarly licensed individuals, may carry their respective weapons on the Garden’s premises. That relief, if granted, is simply a declaration of rights and requires no action on the part of the Garden or anyone else...
The trial court erred by dismissing Appellants’ request for declaratory judgment on the basis that it impermissibly asked the trial court to interpret a criminal statute and that it improperly compelled action by the Garden. Accordingly, the trial court’s order is reversed in this respect and this action remanded for further proceedings.
(Mike Frisch)
https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_profession/2016/05/the-georgia-supreme-court-has-reversed-in-part-an-order-entered-in-litigation.htmlMONROVIA (Reuters) - Three new cases of Ebola emerged in Liberia on Friday, a setback for a country that had been declared free of the disease on September 3 and also a blow for the wider region as it struggles to end an epidemic that has killed around 11,300 people.
The Ebola virus treatment center where four people are currently being treated is seen in Paynesville, Liberia, July 16, 2015. REUTERS/James Giahyue
The first of the new patients was a 10-year-old boy who lived with his parents and three siblings in Paynesville, a suburb east of the capital Monrovia, said Minister of Health Minister Bernice Dahn. Two direct family members have also since tested positive, officials said.
All six family members, as well as other high risk contacts, are in care at an Ebola Treatment Unit in Paynesville, she said.
“The hospital is currently decontaminating the unit. All of the healthcare workers who came into contact with the patient have been notified,” she told a news conference.
“We know how Ebola spreads and we know how to stop Ebola but we must remain vigilant and work together,” she said.
Bruce Aylward, who leads the Ebola response for the U.N. World Health Organisation, said the patient had no history of contact with an Ebola survivor or victim.
“The family obviously is at particular risk and is being investigated right now,” he told a news conference in Geneva, speaking before confirmation that two of the first patient’s siblings had also tested positive.
Liberia has seen more than 10,600 cases of the disease and 4,808 Ebola deaths since it was first announced in March, 2014, WHO figures show.
The virus has killed a total of about 11,300 people in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. Sierra Leone was declared free of the virus on Nov. 7 and Guinea has begun its countdown to the end of the virus.
The 42-day countdown to be declared Ebola-free starts when the last patient tests negative a second time, normally after a 48-hour gap following their first negative test.Joe Buck Live Starring Joe Buck Country of origin United States No. of episodes 3 Production Running time 60 min. Release Original network HBO Original release June 15 –
December 8, 2009 Chronology Preceded by Costas Now
Joe Buck Live was a talk show hosted by sportscaster Joe Buck. The show premiered on HBO on June 15, 2009, and ended on December 8, 2009, being cancelled three months later. It replaced Costas Now, which Bob Costas hosted for HBO until February 2009, when he left for the MLB Network.
First episode [ edit ]
The first guests to appear on the show were Brett Favre, Michael Irvin, Chad Ochocinco, David Wright, Paul Rudd, Artie Lange, and Jason Sudeikis. The episode drew attention for Lange's outrageous behavior and Buck's seeming inability to stop it.
Lange made remarks about Buck and Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo and called Romo's then-girlfriend, Jessica Simpson, a "fat chick" and compared her to Chris Farley. Lange continued to insult Buck after being asked to take his feet off the table, responding that "somebody should look natural on this show." Buck came back when Lange held a cigarette in his chin with no hands by saying "I think it's in chin number four." Lange then retorted by saying "Number four, the show you won't get to."[1] Lange went on to tell the flustered host, "you're out of your league, Buck... stick to play-by-play." Buck responded, "I know, believe me, it was right after this segment started that I realized that."[2] Coincidentally, Buck did not make it to show number 4, it was canceled after 3 episodes.
HBO Sports President Ross Greenburg said Lange "bordered on bad taste" with his "mean-spirited" tone. But according to Lange on the next day's Howard Stern Show, Greenburg told him to "go nuts" if Rudd and Sudeikis start to get boring.[3] Lange has since been banned from appearing on future HBO Sports shows, although he was in a pre-taped segment for the second episode of Joe Buck Live, where Buck runs away from Lange after accidentally running into him in Times Square.[4]
Two other episodes aired in 2009. In March 2010, Buck told a St. Louis radio station that HBO might be planning to cancel the program.[5] HBO subsequently confirmed the show's cancellation to Broadcasting & Cable.[6]
Second episode [ edit ]
Former NFL quarterbacks Dan Marino, John Elway and Joe Namath discuss sports; a round-table discussion features Jerry Jones and Mark Cuban; an interview with Curt Schilling. During an answer and question period with the audience, an audience member, Ryan Fernandez, jokingly questioned Marino's passing ability and produced a football. Marino instructed Fernandez to throw the ball to him. He then rocketed the ball back to Fernandez. Fernandez snagged the ball which prompted Joe Namath to remark, "Hellava Catch." Marino then beckoned for the ball again and gave it to two US Marines near the front row.Google is trying to give the text message an overhaul. It's partnering with major phone carriers including Sprint, T-Mobile owner Deutsche Telekom, Orange, and Vodafone to succeed SMS and MMS — the standards used to send text and picture messages — with a newer communications standard called Rich Communications Services, or RCS, which would let you send higher quality photos, start group chats, and potentially do a lot more in the future. It could, for instance, be used to enable video calling.
RCS could simplify messaging... or it could be another complication
None of those features sound all that exciting in 2016. Millions and millions of people already have access to these features (and more) on other messaging services, like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Line, and even Apple's iMessage. But the introduction of RCS could still help to simplify our communications mess. If it ends up being built into the default messaging app on new Android phones, then starting a video call with someone could one day be as simple as sending a text message — no more figuring out whether you want to use Skype, FaceTime, Hangouts, or so on.
For now, it's not clear exactly how RCS will be implemented, nor if it'll actually work across all carriers. Though the carriers in this partnership have agreed to converge on a single RCS standard, which will be supported by Android, the announcement suggests that they won't get there immediately. Instead, they'll "transition" toward the new RCS standard, which may take time. Additionally, two major carriers aren't listed in this announcement: AT&T and Verizon. And while T-Mobile's owner is listed, a T-Mobile spokesperson clarified to The Verge that this does not mean T-Mobile itself is involved. If those carriers don't come on board, that would be a critical issue for what's supposed to be a universal messaging standard.
Google is working on standardizing RCS with 19 phone carriers, as well as the GSMA, a group that represents hundreds of carriers worldwide. Though RCS has been in the works for years — and even available on phones here and there — a concerted push from Google with carriers' cooperation could be what it needs to finally take off. In a statement, Google communications products VP Nick Fox calls this partnership a step forward toward creating "a better messaging experience for Android users everywhere." But even if RCS does succeed, it'll have a hard time accomplishing what is likely the carriers' hidden goal: finding a revenue stream to replace text message fees. At this point, too many people use other apps for a standard like this to easily take over.
Correction February 22nd, 7:05PM ET: T-Mobile's video calling is not based on RCS, as this article initially stated. It uses a technology related to VoLTE. This article has also been updated to clarify T-Mobile's involvement (or lack thereof) in this partnership.This is a bit lengthy but please read it.
From the FAForums:
I believe I have been fired from my job due to being an atheist. I don’t know if I can prove it. I really don’t think I have any legal protection from what happened but if I do I want to know about it.
I am/was a high school English teacher at a high school in central Florida. I have been with the school for 3 years. I have had no reprimands of any kind. I have had no disciplinary actions and I have never been on any kind of improvement plan.
I teach both at-risk students and regular classes. My students have consistently scored better on state tests and maintained higher learning gains per year than is typical for these classes.
I am involved in school and community organizations. My students have worked after hours to create a large scale, 2-year project that created an outdoor classroom area and an art and poetry display for our school. This was recorded in the local newspaper. Parents, students and colleagues were all pleased with the outcome. My last yearly evaluation was perfect. I received the highest marks in all categories of evaluation. I have completed the National Board Certification process and I await my results this fall.
My personal record is also pristine. I do not engage in morally irresponsible behavior in any way. I do not have any “black marks” in my background. I have never done anything illegal. I have not even had a speeding ticket.
My relationships with my students are good. I have the expected number of disciplinary issues. That number is well within the average range for my school. I also maintain consistent contact with parents and family members at all time. I make my personal information available to all parents so that they can contact me at any time. I also make a point to contact every parent at least twice during a given term.
I do not outline my professional virtues as brag, but rather an indication that there are no performance-based issues that warrant my dismissal.
Neither is there an economic reason. My administrators stood up in a faculty meeting and announced that no teachers would be loosing their jobs due to budge cuts this year. They used this announcement to explain why teacher planning time was decreasing while class loads increase.
The only remaining likely possibilities are personal. Other teachers were kept on staff that have less effective history and greater difficulties with their occupation. I was let go despite a pristine record and strong performance.
I know that my atheism was common knowledge because it was discussed during lunch in the faculty lounge this past December. The conversation was not heated but people were bothered because I commented that maintaining a secular environment in schools was important because not everyone believed the same things. Maybe I should have just kept my mouth shut, but I naively believed my friends and co-workers would not get that excited about it. It did cause a small stir in the gossip chain for a while.
I also attempted to start a GSA club earlier in the school year. A student came and asked me to do it and I felt honor bound to agree. I knew my administrators wouldn’t like it but I also knew they were obligated to allow it. Ultimately the club fell through because of pressure from the administration. I gave in because I felt that they were correct in stating that the student in question was not responsible enough to handle such a controversial club.
I think the combination of these two things have led my administrators to decide I am not an appropriate fit for their school. I suspect that there is little that can be done. The evidence all seems circumstantial to me. No one ever said “you’re fired because you’re an atheist.” However, I do think that this is what happened.
My administrator withheld letters of recommendation from me while my county was doing the majority of the hiring at other schools. During that time I would have been given priority as an in-county applicant. I was not able to apply because the letters were withheld. Since then I have had one interview which went very well. I was sure I had the job. Then they called in my references and suddenly lost interest. I have not been able to even get an interview at the other high school in my county. I am afraid that I have not only been dismissed but also blacklisted.
I appreciate your time reading this long posting. If you know of any recourse that I may have in this situation I would greatly appreciate the advice.Suspect follows girls outside nightclub, spits in their face, urinates on the street
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
July 27, 2016
A migrant who sexually molested five young women in the Swedish town of Vimmerby on Sunday night told his victims, “I hate Sweden, I’m just here to f**k Swedish girls.”
A 20-year-old woman, who herself had been sexually assaulted by a migrant in a nightclub moments before when he pressed his genitals up against her, told the Daily Vimmerby about what she witnessed outside.
According to the woman, the migrant in his 40s who molested her in the nightclub began talking to another “foreigner” in his 20s.
This individual then followed the woman and her four friends outside before becoming aggressive and exposing himself.
The man then began screaming about how he hated Sweden and was only there to “f**k Swedish girls,” and spend their money according to the eyewitness.
The man then spat on the girls and began urinating on the street before police arrived and detained him.
The suspect is a 27-year-old man who is already facing deportation having had his claim for asylum in the country rejected.
The 20-year-old woman said that she was now afraid to walk the streets alone.
Sweden is one of the European countries enjoying the benefits of cultural enrichment since millions of migrants arrived on the continent over the course of the past year.
Earlier this month, numerous “foreign men” sexually assaulted women at an “anti-racism” musical festival, with one victim being raped “in the middle of the audience during a concert”.
Dozens of young women were also sexually assaulted at the Bravalla Festival in Norrkoping and the Putte i Parken music festival in Karlstad.
Police were also accused of covering up the mass molestation of women by Muslim migrants at a concert in Stockholm last summer.
We recently reported on comments made by Swedish Left Party politician Barbro Sörman, who stoked controversy by suggesting that it’s “worse” when Swedish men rape women compared to when immigrants commit sexual assaults.
Rapes in Sweden have skyrocketed by a shocking 1,472% since the mid-70’s, with 6,620 sexual assaults being reported to police in 2014 compared to just 421 in 1975.
“77.6 percent of the country’s rapists are identified as “foreigners” (and that’s significant because in Sweden, “foreigner” is generally synonymous with “immigrant from Muslim country”), writes Selwyn Duke. “And even this likely understates the issue, since the Swedish government — in an effort to obscure the problem — records second-generation Muslim perpetrators simply as “Swedes.”
Meanwhile, not far away in Helsinki, the number of sexual offenses reported has risen by 30 per cent over the course of the last year.
“Foreigners” accounted for almost 44 per cent of those sexual offenses, despite the fact that they only make up around 6 per cent of the population. The number of sexual offenses committed by foreigners has almost doubled in a year. Finland has accepted around 30,000 migrants in that time period.
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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor at large of Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com.
This article was posted: Wednesday, July 27, 2016 at 5:33 am
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Comment on this articleApple’s recently updated iPhone developer agreement explicitly states that apps for the platform must be originally written in C, C++, and Objective C. This new rule, which naturally created a firestorm of controversy, put a damper on Adobe’s plans to get apps developed in Flash onto the iPhone via its new Flash-to-iPhone compiler.
In response to Apple’s new developer agreement, Adobe Flash project manager Mike Chambers wrote in a blog post yesterday that Adobe would cease development on their Flash to iPhone compiler and would instead focus on other mobile platforms, like Google’s Android.
Chambers went on to call out Apple for attempting to keep the iPhone platform closed and locked down:
The primary goal of Flash has always been to enable cross browser, platform and device development. The cool web game that you build can easily be targeted and deployed to multiple platforms and devices. However, this is the exact opposite of what Apple wants. They want to tie developers down to their platform, and restrict their options to make it difficult for developers to target other platforms… As I wrote previously, I think that the closed system that Apple is trying to create is bad for the industry, developers and ultimately consumers, and that is not something that I want to actively promote.
And as luck would have it, Apple actually responded to Chambers comments via spokeswoman Trudy Miller.
“Someone has it backwards–it is HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, and H.264 (all supported by the iPhone and iPad) that are open and standard, while Adobe’s Flash is closed and proprietary.”
Check and Mate.
via CNET“I’m a free market guy. But I’m not gonna let this economy crater in order to preserve the free market system” – George W. Bush, December 17, 2008
At the heart of the present debate on how to address the continuing political stalemate and economic decay in America are some fundamental misconceptions about the nature and operation of the current system. Many Americans—and not just avowed conservatives—have been led to believe that it is possible to have a “free market” economy, and that the quest to reach it will generate greater prosperity and better social outcomes. Both beliefs are false.
It is highly unlikely that in the entire course of human history there has ever been a real-world economy comprised of completely “free” markets—that is, one in which all economic exchanges take place in the absence of any form of “coercion,” be it coercion between two parties (such as withholding information, fraud, corruption, non-payment, theft, slavery, price-fixing, etc.) or so-called “legal coercion” in the form of government taxation, regulation, subsidies, and so on. Certainly there are no examples in the modern capitalist era.
While pure mathematic models that control for variables and make certain assumptions (such as perfect competition) can suggest that in certain cases free markets may be optimal, in reality the notion of “peaceful competition of producers and suppliers…in which everyone benefits and where everyone’s living standard flourishes,” as the late Austrian School economist Murray Rothbard described it, has no historical basis. It ignores real-world power relationships, and is arguably completely unattainable given human nature. [1]
However, since the mid-1970s this free market myth has risen to dominance in economic and political decision-making in United States and has been exported around the world to developing countries and those transitioning out of communism. In the process, “government” has been labeled as the prime impediment to the achievement of this free market utopia. Thus deregulation, privatization, and market liberalization have been relentlessly pursued while moderate social democratic achievements such as retirement security, workplace safety, union rights, anti-trust enforcement, and public healthcare systems have been vigorously attacked. What has been the result?
The past four decades in the United States have been marked by starkly deteriorating social and economic trends: Income disparity has spiked; most people’s wages have stagnated; wealth has become more concentrated; personal debt has ballooned; poverty and child poverty have increased; incarceration rates have skyrocketed, and the list goes on. [2] Compared to much of the developed world (and even parts of the developing world), the United States now has far worse health, educational, and environmental outcomes. De-regulated financial markets have contributed to an increase in the number and severity of financial crises, culminating in the 2008 crash that cost the United States $2.6 trillion in lost GDP, $19.2 trillion in household net worth, and nearly nine million jobs. [3]
Moreover, as George W. Bush demonstrated during the financial crisis – much like Ronald Reagan before him, during the Savings and Loan crisis of the 1980s – when private corporations get into trouble and put the whole economy at risk, as is inevitable given the amount of profit-driven coercion occurring between private parties in a deregulated “free/r” market, the only entity that can save the system from collapse is the state. In essence, in so-called free market economies, profit becomes privatized while risk is socialized. Moreover, to pay for public bailouts of private corporations and system stabilizing interventions, the proponents of free markets subsequently insist on heavy doses of “austerity” to reduce deficits and debt—proposals that inevitably include further attacks on workers’ rights and the social safety net.
William Simon, President Nixon’s Treasury Secretary, once famously observed of those who preach free markets while rushing to the public treasury: “I watched with incredulity as businessmen ran to the government in every crisis, whining for handouts or protection from the very competition that has made this system so productive…always, such gentlemen proclaimed their devotion to free enterprise and their opposition to the arbitrary intervention into our economic life by the state. Except, of course, for their own case, which was always unique and which was justified by their immense concern for the public interest.” [4]
The Public Ownership Alternative
The free market utopia is in fact a banana republic, an individualistic Randian society in which a small group of extremely wealthy individuals, hidden away in gated communities and protected by their disproportionate influence of key functions of the state (the courts, political parties, and so on), control the vast majority of productive wealth and property while the rest of the population is forced to fight for an ever shrinking share of whatever scraps are left on the table. We are well on our way to this dystopia. The top 400 individuals in the United States now own a greater share of wealth than the bottom 180 million Americans put together. The top 1 percent now receive almost 20 percent of the nation’s income (up from around 10 percent in 1980). [5]
But if privately owned corporate capitalism produces such unpalatable results, what is the alternative?
One option would be a returned focus on establishing, preserving, and strengthening public ownership—broadly defined as forms of collective ownership that democratize wealth and or prioritize providing goods and services that benefit society (rather than ownership focused on exchange values and the profit motive). Traditionally, public ownership has been primarily conceptualized as ownership on different levels within the state. Such forms of public enterprise are in fact alive and well, and should be freed from the undeserved calumny of “free market” propagandists. However, in practice, there can be other forms of collective ownership outside of the state, organized around different “publics” at a variety of scales within the system. Such an expanded definition would encompass cooperatives and employee owned firms.
Despite being the epicenter of the modern free market myth, public ownership has a long history in the United States. Leaving aside the hundreds of millions of Americans who participate in collectively owned enterprises outside of the state, public ownership is widespread throughout the local, state, and federal levels of governance. Along with the Tennessee Valley Authority, 2,000 local public utility companies provide—together with cooperatives—around 25 percent of the nation’s electricity. [6] On the federal level, two of the most cost-effective health care entities in the United States—Medicare and the Veterans’ Administration—are run by the U.S. government. The largest pension manager in the country is also publicly owned: the Social Security Administration.
On the state and regional level, public ownership of highly successful commercial enterprises such as ports and airports are common. Similarly, the profitable and community benefiting Bank of North Dakota has been publicly owned since its formation in 1919 and has contributed more than $300 million in revenues to that state over the past decade. [7] Publicly owned roads, transportation networks, water systems, landfills (and methane capture plants), parks, hotels, loan funds, housing, schools, land management and development, investment funds, and so on exist in virtually every community in every state in the nation. And because they benefit the community in a variety of ways, keeping many of these activities in public ownership remains popular amongst local populations—even in traditionally conservative areas.
However, it is not sufficient to simply defend public ownership from privatization or even expand public ownership to other sectors of the economy and society. The criticisms leveled at large-scale public ownership historically by conservatives and capitalists were not without a grain of truth. Andrew Cumbers, a professor of geographical political economy at the University of Glasgow in the United Kingdom and a leading expert on public ownership, writes that “past and existing forms of public ownership have done little to deliver genuine economic democracy and public participation because they were, on the whole, over-centralized, bureaucratic, and lacking democratic participation.” [8] “Forms of public ownership in the future,” Cumbers concludes, “must be imagined and constructed [with] democracy at their heart.” [9] Without question, public ownership needs to be re-shaped and re-invigorated to reflect the values that serious progressives and socialists are fighting for—including democracy, participation, pluralism, transparency, and sustainability.
Possibilities for Public Ownership in the 21st Century
In recent years many new economic models with a strong worker-ownership/management component have emerged from real-world practice both as an alternative to the current corporate capitalist system and as a viable way to increase economic democracy and participation (see, for instance, Rick Wolff’s Democracy at Work and David Schweickart’s After Capitalism). However, in order to be genuinely pluralistic and systemically transformative, worker-ownership/management centered models must take into account the interests and rights of the wider community as well as issues of scale and planning. Here, incorporating other forms of collective ownership—including state-centered public ownership and community ownership—will be critical.
In this regard, one interesting new systemic model was recently proposed by Seth Ackerman in Jacobin magazine. In Ackerman’s model, publicly-owned investment funds and banks would operate a “tamed” capital market, thus resulting in autonomous companies that “no longer have individual owners who seek to maximize profits. Instead, they are owned by society as a whole, along with any surplus (“profits”) they might generate.” [10] Within this system of public ownership, firms could operate on appropriate scales and be managed in a variety of ways that could increase democratic participation—including management by their workers.
Another option builds upon recent real-world experiences. During the financial crisis and Great Recession, the U.S. government took over the failing private automaker General Motors, and reconstituted it in a way that involved public ownership (via the U.S. government, the Canadian government, and the Ontario government) and pseudo-worker ownership (via the United Auto Workers’ retiree health care VEBA). In the future, when the public is forced to bailout private corporations, the resulting publicly owned (or joint public-worker owned) companies could be restructured in ways that expand economic democracy and public participation and are re-oriented towards important, socially benefiting tasks; perhaps, for example, the domestic manufacturing of vehicles needed for the necessary expansion of high-speed rail and other mass transit networks. Such an orientation would reduce the country’s carbon emissions and fossil fuel usage, while at the same time providing stable, anchored, well-paid jobs in declining former auto producing communities.
In the wake of the most crippling economic downturn in 70 years, free market mythology is reaching its limits. Despite the fact that economic and political elites cling to the theories that have served them so well for so long, the utopian promises of the free market ring increasingly hollow and its contradictions and limitations have been laid bare for all to see. By contrast, a return to public ownership, especially in more pluralist forms, offers a demonstrably realistic alternative as well as a pathway towards the long-term development of a more just, equitable, and sustainable economic system.
Notes:
1. Murray N. Rothbard, “Free Market,” The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. accessed March 5, 2013.
2. For a more detailed analysis of some of these deteriorating trends, as well as source material, see the forthcoming book: Gar Alperovitz, What Then Must We Do? Straight Talk About the Next American Revolution (White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2013).
3. For the frequency and severity of crises, see: Charles Poor Kindleberger and Robert Z. Aliber, Manias, Panics and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises, 6th ed. (New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan, 2011), pp. 1 & 7; For the cost of the 2008/09 crisis see: US Department of the Treasury, The Financial Crisis Response: In Charts (Washington, DC: US Department of the Treasury, April 2012); Sarah Childress, “How Much Did the Financial Crisis Cost?” Frontline, May 31, 2012, accessed November 30, 2012.
4. William E. Simon, A Time for Truth (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1978), p. 196.
5. The income share (including capital gains) for the top 1 percent was 9.16 percent in 1973. In 1980 it was 10.02 percent. In 2011 it was up to 19.82 percent. See: Facundo Alvaredo et al., “The World Top Incomes Database,” Paris School of Economics, no date, accessed September 17, 2012.
8. Andrew Cumbers, Reclaiming Public Ownership: Making a Space for Economic Democracy (London, UK: Zed Books, 2012), p. 5.
9. Andrew Cumbers, Reclaiming Public Ownership: Making a Space for Economic Democracy (London, UK: Zed Books, 2012), p. 8.Mo Yan, winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature, has a deft way with similes: salty, sometimes gross, usually unexpected. Comparing women’s breasts to “ripe mangoes” is almost a cliché, but to describe the nipples as “rising gracefully, like the captivating mouths of hedgehogs” is arresting. Passengers disembarking from a train do so “like beetles rolling their precious dung.” A rich meal of pork lies on a man’s stomach, “churning and grinding like a litter of soon-to-be-born piglets.”
What gives Mo Yan’s novels their highly idiosyncratic tone is the combination of a great literary imagination and a peasant spirit. Howard Goldblatt’s translations catch this atmosphere brilliantly. The prose reads well in English, without losing a distinctly Chinese feel, but it is very far from the classical Chinese tradition. There is nothing mandarin, or even urbane, about Mo Yan’s work. He has retained the earthy character of rural Shandong, where he grew up in a farming family.
Like most of his stories, both “Sandalwood Death” and “Pow!” are set in a rustic place resembling Mo Yan’s native village in Gaomi County. Of “Sandalwood Death,” he has written that it might be less suited to sophisticated readers than “to hoarse voices in a public square, surrounded by an audience of eager listeners.” In fact, it is artfully written in the style of a local folk opera called Maoqiang, now almost defunct. One of the main characters is an opera singer. The rhythms, idioms and narrative techniques of Maoqiang are woven into the text in a seamless way that only a master storyteller can pull off. The art of telling stories is actually the main theme of both novels.
The narrator of “Pow!,” Luo Xiaotong, is a young man who has a horror of growing up, of entering the corrupt adult world where the powerful prey on the weak. As Mo Yan explains in his afterword, Luo is the reverse of little Oskar in Günter Grass’s “Tin Drum,” the boy whose body stops growing even as his mental age progresses. Luo has a child’s mind in a grown-up body. He is the sort of wise simpleton, a kind of Chinese Soldier Schweik, that often turns up in Mo Yan’s novels. When Luo looks at Aunty Wild Mule, his father’s mistress, he feels “like a boy of 7 or 8,” and yet “the pounding of my heart and the stirrings of that thing between my legs declare to me that I am that child no longer.” By observing the adults, Luo realizes that sex can lead people into some very dark places. And so he clings to a kind of innocence. But, as so often happens when the strain of growing up in a corrupted world becomes intolerable, innocence explodes in an act of extraordinary violence. “Pow” can mean two things: It is the bang of an old Japanese Army mortar, used by Luo to blow the adult world to smithereens; it also means to brag, to tell stories, and even, in Beijing slang, to have sex.Study shows pro-unionist Protestants aged under 40 turned off by ultra-conservative attitudes on gay rights and abortion
Younger pro-union Protestant voters in Northern Ireland are increasingly turned off unionist politicians due to their parties’ social conservatism on issues such as gay rights and abortion, according to a post-election survey.
While support among Protestants aged under 40 for staying in the UK remains solid at 82%, a majority of them no longer vote in elections for the Northern Ireland assembly or Westminster.
On liberalising the region’s strict anti-abortion laws, legalising gay marriage and supporting mixed religious marriages, the pro-unionist under-40s are far more liberal than the ultra-conservative Christian-influenced Democratic Unionist party, according to the University of Liverpool.
The research concludes there is a much broader divide between generations, with the most liberal sections of Northern Irish society not voting in local elections.
The university’s Institute of Irish Studies interviewed 1,155 voters across Northern Ireland’s 18 Westminster/Stormont constituencies. The Economic and Social Research Council Northern Ireland general election survey was carried out directly after voting in June.
Ahead of the climax of Northern Ireland’s Pride week and Saturday’s mass LGBT rally in Belfast, the survey found a huge majority of younger pro-unionist Protestants in favour of same-sex marriage. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK where gay couples cannot marry due to the continued vetoing of legislation by the DUP in the Stormont assembly.
Among the under-40 voters, 63% are in favour of same-sex marriage. For 18- to 40-year-old Protestants who don’t vote, the level of support is 72%.
On abortion, 52% of under-40s who do not vote are in favour of lifting the near total ban on terminations in Northern Irish hospitals.
Overall, 71% of 18- to 40-year-old pro-union Protestants would have no problem with a close relative marrying someone from the opposite religion.
One of the survey’s authors, Dr Peter Shirlow, said the findings showed a “massive inter-generational gap” between younger Protestant pro-unionists’ social attitudes and those of the traditionally conservative unionist parties in Northern Ireland.
Shirlow said the results should be a “wake-up call to the DUP” in terms of alienating younger unionists who are “far more liberal and tolerant on issues like gay rights and abortion”.
He said one of the major paradoxes of the survey was the disjunction between support to remain within the UK and indifference towards unionist political parties in the assembly.
For a lot of unionists, especially younger ones... the DUP’s social conservatism drives them away from their politics John O'Doherty
Among under-40 Protestants who do not vote in elections, only 47% support the Northern Ireland assembly and the Stormont executive, yet support for staying in the UK remains well over 80% for the same group.
Shirlow said: “You have the paradox here of younger Protestants being prepared to go out in a referendum or so-called border poll to vote and firmly support the union. However, a large section of the 18 to 40 Protestant electorate appears at the very least to be indifferent to politics at Stormont, especially on the unionist side.
“If you combine this section of the electorate’s liberalism on social issues like abortion, gay marriage and mixed marriage we conclude that the type of social conservatism of the DUP is putting off these voters.”
John O’Doherty from the Rainbow Project, one of Northern Ireland’s main LGBT campaign groups, said the survey results showed the DUP was in danger of finding itself “on the wrong side of history”.
He added: “For a lot of unionists, especially younger ones who are on the centre or centre left of politics, they cannot find a political home because the DUP’s social conservatism drives them away from their politics.”
The Belfast Pride rally on Saturday will hear calls from the platform at Customs House Square from the Love Equality movement for a new assembly to legalise same-sex marriage.
Ahead of the march, LBGT campaigners will hold a Pride breakfast where the chief guest will be Leo Varadkar, Ireland’s first gay taoiseach.
As a gay man, Davy Rea feels has no choice among pro-unionist parties. Photograph: Image provided
‘I am a unionist, I believe in equality – who can I vote for?’
If there was a referendum tomorrow on Northern Ireland’s future within the UK, Davy Rea would get out to vote.
The 33-year-old, from Glengormley in north Belfast, would put his X firmly on the ballot paper in favour of staying with Britain rather than a united Ireland.
Yet over the last few years in a plethora of elections to the Stormont assembly, local councils and even Westminster, Rae has been at times |
(Candida albicans, Staphylococcus aureus or β-hemolytic streptococci) and edentulism (often with overclosure of the mouth and concomitant denture-related stomatitis), and others.
Eczematous cheilitis [ edit ]
Also termed "lip dermatitis",[15] eczematous cheilitis is a diverse group of disorders which often have an unknown cause.[2] Chronic eczematous reactions account for the majority of chronic cheilitis cases.[2]
It is divided into endogenous (due to an inherent characteristic of the individual), and exogenous (where it is caused by an external agent). The main cause of endogenous eczematous cheilitis is atopic cheilitis (atopic dermatitis), and the main causes of exogenous eczematous cheilitis is irritant contact cheilitis (e.g., caused by a lip-licking habit) and allergic contact cheilitis. The latter is characterized by a dryness, fissuring, edema, and crusting.[16] It affects females more commonly than males, in a ratio of about 9:1.[17]
The most common causes of allergic contact cheilitis is lip cosmetics, including lipsticks and lip balm, followed by toothpastes.[17] A lipstick allergy can be difficult to diagnose in some cases as it is possible that cheilitis can develop without the person even wearing lipstick. Instead, small exposure such as kissing someone who is wearing lipstick is enough to cause the condition.[13]
Allergy to Balsam of Peru can manifest as cheilitis.[18] Allergies to metal, wood, or other components can cause cheilitis reactions in musicians, especially players of woodwind and brass instruments,[19] e.g., the so-called "clarinetist's cheilitis",[20] or "flutist's cheilitis".[21] "Pigmented contact cheilitis" is one type of allergic cheilitis in which a brown-black discoloration of the lips develops. Patch testing is used to identify the substance triggering allergic contact cheilitis.[4][23]
Infectious cheilitis [ edit ]
Infectious cheilitis[24] refers to cheilitis caused by infectious disease. The terms "Candidal cheilitis"[25] and "bacterial cheilitis"[26] are sometimes used, denoting the involvement of Candida organisms and bacterial species respectively. The term "cheilocandidiasis" describes exfoliative (flaking) lesions of the lips and the skin around the lips, and is caused by a superficial candidal infection due to chronic lip licking.[27] Impetigo (caused by Streptococcus pyogenes and/or Staphylococcus aureus), can manifest as an exfoliative cheilitis-like appearance.[27]
Herpes labialis (cold sore) is a common cause of infectious cheilitis.[21] A lesion caused by recurrence of a latent herpes simplex infection can occur in the corner of the mouth, and be mistaken for other causes of angular cheilitis. In fact this is herpes labialis, and is sometimes termed "angular herpes simplex".[28]
Granulomatous cheilitis [ edit ]
Orofacial granulomatosis is enlargement of lips due to the formation of non-caseating granulomatous inflammation, which obstruct lymphatic drainage of the orofacial soft tissues, causing lymphedema. Essentially, granulomatous cheilitis refers to the lip swelling that accompanies this condition. "Median cheilitis" may be seen, which is fissuring in the midline of the lips due to the enlargement of the lips.[29] Angular cheilitis may also be associated with orofacial granulomatosis.
A related condition is Melkersson–Rosenthal syndrome, a triad of facial palsy, chronic lip edema, and fissured tongue.[30] "Miescher’s cheilitis",[31] and "granulomatous macrocheilitis",[32] are synonyms of granulomatous cheilitis.
Drug-related cheilitis [ edit ]
Common causes of drug-related cheilitis include Etretinate, Indinavir, Protease inhibitors, Vitamin A and Isotretinoin (a retinoid drug).[12][33] Uncommon causes include Atorvastatin, Busulphan, Clofazimine, Clomipramine, Cyancobalamin, Gold, Methyldopa, Psoralens, Streptomycin, Sulfasalazine and Tetracycline.[12] A condition called "drug-induced ulcer of the lip" is described as being characterized by painful or tender, well-defined ulcerations of the lip without induration.[16] It is the result of oral administration of drugs, and the condition resolves when the drugs are stopped.[34]
Exfoliative cheilitis [ edit ]
Also termed "cheilitis exfoliativa" or "tic de levres",[12] is an uncommon[25] inflammatory condition of the vermilion zone of the lips, which are painful and crusted.[35] There is continuous production and desquamation (shedding) of thick, brown scales of keratin.[13][25] The keratin layer of the epidermis of the lips experiences a faster growth and death rate than normal and desquamates.[36] When these scales are removed, a normal appearing lip is revealed beneath,[25] although there may be associated erythema and edema.[35] The condition has not yet been attributed to any particular cause. Rarely are infections to blame.[35] In some individuals, there is an association with stress, anxiety, depression or personality disorders.[13][35] In one report, 87% of individuals had some form of psychiatric disturbance, and 47% had thyroid dysfunction, which in turn can cause psychiatric conditions like depression.[27]
Some cases of exfoliative cheilitis are thought to represent factitious damage, termed "factitious cheilitis" or "artifactual cheilitis",[24][25][27][28] and are related to repetitive lip picking or licking habits.[35] This appears as crusting and ulceration caused by repetitive chewing and sucking of the lips.[24] Some consider habitual lip licking or picking to be a form of nervous tic.[12] This habit is sometimes termed perlèche (derived from the French word pourlècher meaning "to lick one’s lips").[28] Factitious cheilitis is significantly more common in young females.[24][27]
Exfoliative cheilitis has also been linked to HIV/AIDS.[27] Management consists mostly of keeping the lips moist and the application of topical corticosteroids ranging from hydrocortisone to clobetasol. There have also been reports of using topical tacrolimus ointment.[16]
Cheilitis glandularis [ edit ]
This is a rare inflammatory condition of the minor salivary glands, usually in the lower lip, which appears swollen and everted.[16] There may also be ulceration, crusting, abscesses, and sinus tracts. It is an acquired disorder, but the cause is uncertain.[37][38] Suspected causes include sunlight, tobacco, syphilis, poor oral hygiene and genetic factors.[27] The openings of the minor salivary gland ducts become inflamed and dilated, and there may be mucopurulent discharge from the ducts. A previous classification suggested dividing cheilitis into 3 types based on severity, with the later stages involving secondary infection with bacteria, and increased ulceration, suppuration and swelling: Type 1, Simple; Type 2, Superficial suppurative ("Baelz's disease"); and Type 3, Deep suppurative ("cheilitis glandularis epostemetosa"). Cheilitis glandularis usually occurs in middle-aged and elderly males, and it carries a risk of malignant transformation to squamous cell carcinoma (18% to 35%).[27] Preventative treatment such as vermilionectomy ("lip shave") is therefore the treatment of choice.[27]
Plasma cell cheilitis [ edit ]
Plasma cell cheilitis is a very rare presentation of a condition which more usually occurs on the gingiva (termed "plasma cell gingivitis") or sometimes the tongue.[39] Plasma cell cheilitis appears as well defined, infiltrated, dark red plaque with a superficial lacquer-like glazing.[16] Plasma cell cheilitis usually involves the lower lip.[39] The lips appear dry, atrophic and fissured.[27] Angular cheilitis is sometimes also present.[27]
Other causes [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Media related to Cheilitis at Wikimedia CommonsInside every Disney theme park, you’ll find at least one booth—often more than one—stocked with information about Disney Vacation Club Resorts. A nice man or woman will hand you a brochure, offer to take you on a tour of model rooms, and talk you through a few different time-share options. Apparently, it’s a terrific deal if you want to bring your family back to Disney World every year.
Query: Why would anyone want to go to Disney World every year? You can pretty much see the whole thing in a week. OK, fine, kids might like it enough to go back again—once, or maybe twice. But this time share makes financial sense only if you return about seven times.
Holy frack! I’d go mental if I had to spend seven precious vacations trapped inside the Disney universe. But let’s put my personal feelings aside. Let’s say you’re a parent. Mightn’t it be better to broaden your children’s horizons just a tad? Like, maybe visit Canada—instead of just the Canada pavilion in Epcot?
According to Disney, there are more than 100,000 member families in the Vacation Club. These people have handed over all their foreseeable leisure time to the Walt Disney Co. It’s an astonishing decision, no? And it’s surely less about a destination than an ideology. We’ll call it Disneyism. These families aren’t choosing a vacation so much as a religion.
Walt Disney, the man, is a singular character in American history. He gets his start as an animator, then becomes a movie mogul, an amusement park baron, and eventually a mythmaker—a sort of unprecedented high priest of American childhood. By the mid-1960s, with his techno-utopian plans for the living city of Epcot, Walt had even turned into (in the words of anthropologist Stephen M. Fjellman) “a social planner and futurist philosopher.”
It’s these later incarnations of Walt that really fascinate me. The guy is sculpting the toddler id while also designing a domed metropolis with a monorail. How did this happen? A man who got famous drawing a cartoon mouse was now going to solve all America’s urban problems?
It’s hard to think of a comparable career arc. But as a parallel, evil-twin figure, consider Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. He was born 10 years after Walt, also in heartland America. His career likewise took off on the strength of mass-market entertainments (in Hubbard’s case, sci-fi). And then midcentury—during that Atomic Age moment when everything somehow seemed possible—he turned his attention to a grand, ego-gratifying social project of dubious utility.
Who knows what ambitions might have bubbled up in Walt if he’d lived past 1966. But I think one way to look at his life is as L. Ron Hubbard gone good. This is a long way of saying: Disney isn’t just a media outfit with some theme parks. It’s a worldview—sprung from the head of a lone, imaginative man. And ultimately, for the people who come back to Orlando year after year, it’s a church.
On my last day here, I visit the Magic Kingdom—the original and still best-attended of the Disney World parks. After walking down Main Street U.S.A. (a fake, turn-of-the-century boulevard lined with yet more Disney souvenir stores), I come upon the famous Cinderella castle. Fairy-tale spires everywhere. It’s so gleaming, it looks like they repaint it every night. (Over the last several years, furthering my Disney-as-religion theory, the castle has become a prime location for wedding ceremonies. Up to five weddings per day are held on Disney World’s grounds. Mickey and other characters will even attend your wedding reception. For a fee.)
As I get closer to the castle, I see the familiar Disney apostles (Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy) performing musical numbers on a stage, enthralling a large crowd. The lyrics to their songs shuffle around a few key words—dreams, magic, imagination, wonder—and weave them into some upbeat string arrangements. Hymns for the Disneyist congregation.
Many of the little girls watching this are wearing princess dresses (bought at those souvenir stores). For years, Disney must have sought a boys’ version of the princess obsession, and it seems they’ve finally found it—thanks to the blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean films. Lots of little dudes are running around in pirate costumes, waving plastic swords.
Disney has increasingly managed to find characters to leverage for each different demographic group. Tinkerbell, from Peter Pan, has been rebranded as the slightly saucier “Tink” and now graces T-shirts targeted at your tween daughter. Meanwhile, your death-metal son will be drawn to the skull-and-bones imagery of TheNightmare Before Christmas franchise.
Even adults wear Disney gear here. There are moms in Mickey ears and dads with giant sorcerer hats. This is a safe place for everyone to act like a kid, and I’ll admit there’s a certain sweetness about that.
I’m not a fan of the gender dynamic implicit in the princess/pirate split. (Visiting Mickey and Minnie’s side-by-side houses does little to reassure me on this score. Mickey’s house has a nonfunctioning kitchen and is full of sports equipment, while Minnie has a to-do list on her wall with the entries “Bake a cake for Mickey” and “Make a box lunch for Mickey.”) Still, my heart melts when I see a little girl wearing a princess dress while sitting in her wheelchair, beaming ear to ear as her even beamier parents take pictures.
I can understand why families love Disney World. And there’s nothing wrong with making kids happy. I just think we’d all be better off if we didn’t indoctrinate our kids in the Disneyist dogma.
After spending the past five days here, I’ve come to the conclusion that Disney World teaches kids three things: 1) a meaningless, bubble-headed utopianism, 2) a grasping, whining consumerism, and 3) a preference for soulless facsimiles of culture and architecture instead of for the real thing. I suppose it also teaches them that monorails are cool. So there’s that.
I end my day with the “It’s a Small World” ride. Yes, it’s a prime example of bubble-headed utopianism. Yes, it features animatronics, which are dated and lame. And yes, that song just never ends. No matter: The ride somehow manages to charm me anyway.
Designed for the UNICEF pavilion at the 1964 World’s Fair, it shows us children of many cultures all living in harmony. (A color-saturated, Pop Art harmony.) It’s an unassailable message, and there’s also something comforting in the ride’s retro simplicity. Our open-top boat floats along, and I love the gentle bump and redirect when it hits an underwater guide rail. I even have a soft spot for the music. (Though I prefer to reimagine it as a slow, melancholy ballad.)
As I leave the park, I decide that after all my cranky complaining, I’m glad my week came to an end this way. “It’s a Small World” makes for a nice, pleasant memory to finish on. I’m feeling positive about Disney again. And then there’s an incident on the parking tram.
I’m seated on the tram, ready to ride back out to the parking lot where my rental car’s waiting. The driver has already blown the horn and announced that no more boarding will be allowed. Suddenly, I notice a woman 20 yards away, running toward us.
The driver spots her too. The tram is in motion now, and he screams over the loudspeaker: “Ma’am! Stand back! There is no more boarding!” But the woman can see that there’s no real danger here—the vehicle is moving at, like, 3 miles an hour—and fer crissakes she doesn’t want to wait 15 minutes for another tram if she doesn’t have to.
The driver keeps shouting. The other passengers are tut-tutting at this rule-breaker. The tram keeps rolling. The woman is getting nearer.
As I watch all this, I start to think about the totalitarian seamlessness of Disney. The berms that hide the loading docks and the Dumpsters. The fireworks that go off every night at precisely 9 p.m. The impeccably G-rated entertainment. The synchronized rides. The power-washed streets.
“Ma’am!” the driver yells again, with real exasperation. She’s just a few strides away, with her eyes on that slow-moving prize. “Ma’am, there is no more boarding at this time!”
I can’t help but break into a satisfied grin as the woman hops up on the running board and takes a seat.Graham Yost, creator and executive producer of FX's "Justified," will be the Creative Keynote speaker of this year's New York Television Festival, joining previously announced participants including head writers of several late night shows, "Carrie Diaries" executive producer Candace Bushnell, and the cast of "Jersey Shore."
The festival highlights the work of independent writers and producers as they vie for several development deals. Yost follows last year's speaker, "Lost" co-creator Damon Lindelof, who offered a remarkably candid and detailed take on the creative process behind the series. Among his admissions, he said he longed to quit the show for years.
Also read: Damon Lindelof's History of 'Lost' (A Show He Longed to Quit)
This year's festival, the week of Oct. 22, features an opening night screening of the CW's midseason show "The Carrie Diaries," featuring Bushnell, whose books inspired the series. It will also include executive producer Amy Harris, and the show's star, AnnaSophia Robb.
Yost will speak Tuesday. The night will also feature a talk about political humor with the head writers of "The Late Show with David Letterman," "The Daily Show," "The Colbert Report" and "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon."
Wednesday will feature a farewell to "Jersey Shore" featuring the cast, MTV executives and the show's creator, Sally Ann Salsano.
Thursday will focus on Fox's new Tuesday comedy lineup, and will include talent from "The New Girl" and "Ben and Kate."Share. Once more into the fray. Once more into the fray.
We’ve covered Gears of War 4 extensively over the past month. As our August IGN First, we delivered a deep-dive into the DeeBees, the new robotic threat that stands in the way of JD and his pals. We’ve profiled the trio of heroes that you’ll be playing as. We’ve also done a couple fly-throughs of some of the maps that we’ll be playing in multiplayer come October 11th.
However, one thing we only teased was what Gears’ Horde 3.0 mode would have in store for us. Thankfully at PAX West 2016, five of IGN’s Gears fans got to go hands-on with the newest iteration of the classic mode. Here’s what two of us thought.
WATCH OUT OUR FULL 24-MINUTE, 10-WAVE ROUND BELOW.
Exit Theatre Mode
The Fabricator
ANDREW GOLDFARB: In Horde 3.0, the Fabricator is your best friend. Before the first wave, you and your team can place the Fabricator anywhere you’d like (as long as it isn’t against the wall), and picking a good spot is important to make sure you can get back to it safely once the madness of combat begins. Once the Fabricator is placed, it becomes a one-stop shop for weapons, fortifications, and even reviving your allies.
As you defeat enemies, they’ll drop a resource called Power, which is your currency for everything the Fabricator has to offer. You can use it to buy turrets and other offensive gear, or you can pick up things like barbed wire and decoys to help slow down the onslaught of enemies in each wave. While you can still revive downed allies who are wounded, when players are truly killed, you can pick up their COG tags and bring them to the Fabricator. In each wave, the price to bring back an ally goes up each time you revive someone.
This is such a smart way to give the team a sort of home base. The menu to build fortifications is quick and simple so you’re not distracted for long, and reviving a friend is instant as long as you have enough Power.
CHECK OUT THE AWESOME PAX COSPLAY GALLERY BELOW, INCLUDING AMAZING GEARS COSTUMES.
PAX West 2016 Cosplay 10+ IMAGES Fullscreen Image Artboard 3 Copy Artboard 3 ESC 01 OF 51 Amazing cosplay from the floor at PAX West 2016. 01 OF 51 Amazing cosplay from the floor at PAX West 2016. PAX West 2016 Cosplay Download Image Captions ESC
Class Warfare
MARTY SLIVA: One of the biggest changes I noticed to Horde 3.0 came before our match even started. Like a modern 2016 multiplayer shooter, Gears now has a series of classes that each of the five players can choose from before the round. These ranged from the traditional-Gears Soldier role (think Lancer, grenades, and the same penchant for stop-and-pop that you remember and love), to more specialized classes like the Sniper. However, the true variation in these comes from the Cards that you chose to assign to your character when you’re customizing your load-out.
As someone who’s played the series since its inception, I took a perk that gave me an additional damage bonus on a successful Active Reload. This gave me a satisfying bonus for the years I’ve spent perfecting the timing on this mechanic, which became more and more helpful as the waves of enemies became increasingly more challenging. While waves one and two were an absolute breeze, we found ourselves scrambling to revive one-another as we cleared the final few rooms.
Exit Theatre Mode
War Stories
AG: I played as a sniper, which made this feel different than any Gears I’ve played before. Normally, I’m used to up-close melee and shotgun play, but this time I found myself staying back and getting most of my kills right at the beginning of the wave when enemies still had some distance. I chose an Exploding Headshots card at the beginning and got ready to line up shots.
Our team breezed through the first few waves, but around the halfway point, we started to struggle a bit. I used my Longshot to take out the shields of some flying drones, then switched to scoping out the back line of enemies, hitting as many as I could with a headshot. Unfortunately, aside from just being a terrible shot in general, I also hadn’t been replenishing ammo between rounds, so my magazine was running low.
I wasted several of those shots on one particular jerk who was dodging back and forth for the entire round, to the point where I only had a couple shots left. As we neared the end of the wave, I finally caught him at just the right moment to take him out with my last bullet, and my exploding headshot not only took him down, but also another chump unfortunate enough to be standing next to him.
Exit Theatre Mode
MS: Playing through our 10 waves of Horde 3.0 brought back a deluge of amazing memories. Running straight into the chaos to revive a downed teammate provides a singular kind of rush. Likewise, finishing up a particularly-tough round, only to see that we had 25 seconds to scour the battlefield for our spoils of war, refill our ammunition, and head back to The Fabricator and buy some fortifications made for a tense scramble each and every time.
The moment that stood out most to me in our 25 minutes with Horde came right near the end in the final wave. We were battered, beaten, and low on ammo by the time the final enemy came rolling in, and man were we not ready for it. The Carrier is a slow, but massively-intimidating tank of a beast that crawls across the battlefield and spews out toxic spores in every direction that cling to surfaces and cause a ton of damage if you’re anywhere near them. The thing packed one hell of a punch and soaked up our bullets like they were nothing. As it pressed closer and closer to our Fabricator, the five of us were backed up into the starting corner of the map.
But this is where Gears is at its finest -- four pals and I surrounding a giant hulking beast, unloading everything we have into it, until finally the thing pops like the grossest piñata I’ve ever seen. Sure, there were a few stragglers left on the map, but at this point, we knew that we survived our first trip into Horde 3.0.
Exit Theatre Mode
As you can probably tell, we had an absolutely blast with our 25 minutes of Horde 3.0. Playing alongside four pals, cheering when we had one-another’s back, and screaming when we...umm...didn’t...made us remember why we fell in love with the original Horde back in 2008.LONDON (Reuters) - British retail sales shrank at the fastest rate in nearly seven years during the past three months, despite a pickup in February, adding to signs that a major driver of Britain’s economy is faltering after last year’s Brexit vote.
Major clothing retailer Next (NXT.L) underlined the shift, saying it was “extremely cautious” about its prospects, partly due to higher inflation, after reporting its first fall in profits since 2009.
Sterling’s fall last year of more than 15 percent against the U.S. dollar is causing British inflation to accelerate at its fastest rate in more than four years, and higher fuel prices are also squeezing consumers.
Retail sales in the three months to February contracted by 1.4 percent - a decline not seen since March 2010 - after a 0.5 percent fall in the three months to January, according to official figures.
But in February, there were some grounds for optimism. Sales volumes jumped after three months of falls, beating market expectations and pushing sterling to a one-month high against the dollar.
Related Coverage UK retail sales maintain steady growth in March - CBI
Monthly retail data is often volatile, however, and analysts tend to focus on the last three months.
“The underlying trend suggests that rising petrol prices in particular have had a negative effect on the overall quantity of goods bought over the last three months,” ONS statistician Kate Davies said.
Fuel in February cost 19 percent more than a year earlier, boosted by higher global prices as well as the weaker pound.
Unless growth in March is unprecedentedly strong, retail sales looked set to drag on the overall economy in the first quarter of 2017.
HSBC economist Liz Martins doubted the strength in February alone — when sales volumes rose 1.4 percent — would continue with consumer price inflation hitting its highest in more than three years last month at 2.3 percent.
FILE PHOTO: A market stall is seen between two High Street shops on Oxford Street in central London December 13, 2011. REUTERS/Olivia Harris/File Photo
“We could already be in negative real income growth territory. Against this backdrop, we stay cautious on the UK consumer story,” she said.
Separately, human resources consultants XpertHR said major businesses planned to raise wages by about 2 percent this year — little changed from 2016 and probably below inflation in 2017.
MIXED SIGNALS
The picture for consumer spending remains mixed.
The Confederation of British Industry said moderate sales growth continued in March and was expected to improve further, though spending was still a bit below average for the time of year.
Moreover, retail sales only represent about a third of overall consumer spending in Britain.
FILE PHOTO: A shopper enters a butcher's shop on the High Street in the centre of Seaford in East Sussex, southern England December 13, 2011. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo
The Bank of England said on Wednesday that spending on eating out and domestic tourism were doing well. Next also said some of its concerns reflected how Britons are spending more money on things other than clothes.
The BoE expects stronger business investment and exports to compensate for weaker retail sales this year, ensuring overall growth is little changed from 2016.
But BoE deputy governor Ben Broadbent said on Thursday that exporters were probably enjoying only a temporary “sweet spot” before Britain’s departure from the EU in two years’ time, which could make trade harder.
“Either the currency market is right about the consequences of Brexit, in which case the UK’s trading relationships will become less favourable; or it’s wrong, in which case sterling is likely to recover,” he said in a speech at Imperial College.No, you can’t predict the outcome of Canada’s 42nd federal election Benjamin Gregory Carlisle
The ability to forecast future events and plan for the future is a uniquely human skill, and a difficult one to master. Through a reframing of one’s memory known as Hindsight Bias, an event that was actually very surprising a priori may be perceived to have been predictable by a posteriori. Hence, I have attempted to quantify explicitly a sample of lay-forecasts of seat counts for the major political parties in the 42nd Canadian federal election.
Methods
Subjective probability distributions were collected using an online collection tool originally developed by Carlisle et al for the STREAM forecasting project. Predictors were shown a 20x20 grid, and allowed 40 “chips,” each representing 2.5% certainty, and instructed to place them in bins corresponding to ranges of seats that they predict will be won by each of the major five political parties. For example, if a forecaster placed 10 “chips” in the column labelled “0–16,” that would represent a forecast with 25% certainty that the party in question would receive between 0 and 16 seats in the House of Commons.
The forecast collection tool was available starting 10 days prior to the election, and was closed to new predictions at the time the first polls closed to voting. Forecasters were encouraged to make use of any external polls, articles or predictive models to which they had access, as this was meant to be a test of a person’s ability to produce a well-calibrated forecast of the election, not a test of the person’s memory.
Exclusions Forecasts were excluded if they appeared to not represent a good-faith attempt to provide a forecast, or if there appeared to be a fundamental misunderstanding of the forecasting task. Examples of excluded forecasts include: All cells left blank
All cells filled in
Alternating filled in and blank columns In the case of predictions where less than 40 chips were used, the used chips were re-weighted such that the sum of the probabilities of the used chips always equals 1. Forecasts of the Green Party and the Bloc Quebecois were not included in this analysis. These predictions were excluded because a grid of 20 ranges of approximately 17 seats per column does not allow for a sufficiently granular prediction space. Many forecasters placed 20 chips in the first column (the maximum allowed in a single column) and left the second column blank, while others filled the first two columns with 20 chips each, to use the allotted 40 chips. It was impossible to discern between those who would have used only the first column, had the option been explicitly given, and those who honestly meant to give a prediction that is twice as wide, and so these were excluded for simplicity.Image caption The Ciudad Juarez shooting was the latest in a series of attacks on partygoers
Gunmen in the Mexican city of Tijuana have shot dead 13 people at a drug rehabilitation centre, say police.
The attack appeared to be connected to the long-running violent conflict between drugs gangs in the the country, in which thousands have been killed.
On Saturday, 14 people, most of them teenagers, were shot dead at a party in the border city of Ciudad Juarez.
Last week, police in Tijuana destroyed 134 tonnes of cannabis - the largest drugs haul ever seized in the country.
The drugs, with an estimated street value of at least $340m (£214m), had been wrapped in 15,000 separate packages.
Police in Tijuana, just over the border from San Diego, California, said the latest killings happened when an armed gang burst into the Camino drug treatment centre in the city.
They lined the victims up and shot them with high-powered weapons, El Universal newspaper reported.
Drugs rehabilitation centres have been attacked by gunmen before - observers say the gangs accuse the clinics of protecting rival dealers.
Police also believe drug cartels use the clinics to recruit hitmen and smugglers, threatening to kill those who fail to co-operate.
'Indiscriminate'
Today it's them who are killed, and tomorrow who will be next Sister of shooting victim, Ciudad Juarez
The Tijuana deaths came as families mourned the 14 people shot dead on Friday night in Ciudad Juarez.
At least 10 people were also injured as the gunmen burst into the party, police said.
"The victims were in the backyard of the house having a party when hooded men, in dark uniforms and with rifles, arrived in several vans, broke in and began shooting indiscriminately at those inside," a police official told the AFP news agency.
Police said the victims were aged 14-20. There have been no reports of any arrests.
"This can't be happening. Today it's them who are killed, and tomorrow who will be next?" the sister of one of the victims told Reuters, as she attended his wake.
The attack was similar to one earlier this month, in which six people were killed at a party.
The Mexican police and army are struggling to control armed cartels operating in cities including Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez.
The Sinaloa and Carillo Fuentes Organisation (also known as the Juarez cartel) gangs are also competing in Ciudad Juarez over lucrative drug smuggling routes into the US, making the city one of the bloodiest front lines in Mexico's drugs war, despite the presence of some 4,500 police and soldiers.
More than 28,000 people have died in the drugs war since President Felipe Calderon ordered the army into the fight in 2006.
The policy has had some successes arresting drug lords, but that has not led to a decline in the number of killings, or the level of kidnappings, extortion and human trafficking that the gangs also engage in.The headline was published on a trusted news site that I read off of my iPhone. It stunned me into disbelief: "A 9.5 Magnitude Earthquake Destroys Central California, Splits State Into Northern and Southern Halves," it read. Fortunately for the inhabitants of the Golden State, this was not real news. Rather, it was some crafty misinformation that was wirelessly injected into my phone by a hacker named Samy Kamkar.
In our third and final episode of "Phreaked Out" we tackle the question of mobile phone security. With global smartphone ownership expected to hit nearly 1.75 billion by the end of 2014, the threat of phone attacks is becoming as democratized as ever. Anyone with a smartphone is exploitable; any smartphone can be compromised. The control we thought we had over our devices has increasingly eroded away. The sophistication levels of our mobile devices allow them to moonlight as spy tools capable of the absolute worst case scenario: turning on their owners.
It's a sobering reality that fascinates Kamkar. I met up with the security polymath—the same Samy Kamkar responsible for the virus that knocked out MySpace in 2005—at his Tony Spark-esque enclave in West Hollywood for a series of phone hack demos.
To begin, Kamkar recreated a man-in-the-middle mobile attack, whereby he created an unencrypted, wireless network that combines ARP and DNS spoofing intended to modify content on any phone that joins it.
The demonstration illustrated how eager our smartphones can be to automatically hop onto any previously accessed network. For example, by forging a commonly dubbed wifi name, such as "attwifi" or "Starbucks," Kamkar can dupe phones into thinking it's joining a secure network. He admits that this man-in-the-middle style attack is by no means cutting edge, but it still works because many phones are still susceptible.
Ever stop to think that phones can graduate from hacking target to hacking assailant? On the heels of Kamkar's headline-swapping trick, he showed us how phones and tablets can be instrumental in controlling drones that then hack each other in the sky. Our cameras were rolling for Kamkar's first ever, live demonstration of his zombie drone hack. He calls it Skyjack.
Here's how it worked: Kamkar spun up a "master" drone to detect any wireless signals from other exploitable drones (currently limited to the Parrot AR.Drone for now). Once a signal is identified, the master drone injects packets to the Parrot's unprotected network, enabling it to de-authenticate the target drone from its owner. In this case, Kamkar programmed the zombified drone to perform a flip once its controls were hijacked by the master drone.
Kamkar was inspired by Amazon's far-fetched but not implausible drone delivery service. Here, the phone or tablet-controlled Skyjack can exploit weaknesses in the open networks of some of today's drones. So think twice before ordering a pricey Leica M9 digital camera using Amazon's Prime Air drone service because a more spiteful hacker than Kamkar might just be able to reroute it to their doorstep. (To be fair, Amazon will likely have thought of this scenario by the time it brings drone delivery to market.)
Since the filming of Skyjack, Kamkar told us that he has developed a newer version of Skyjack that runs on 2.4GHz radio frequency, which can potentially control most drones on the market.
Glenn Wilkinson flies "Snoopy" over London's Hyde Park.
To further explore the gamut of phone hacks over wifi networks, our team went to London, England, to meet with Sensepost security researcher Glenn Wilkinson and his Snoopy drone. The software and hardware schematics of Snoopy allow it to fly over crowds of people, |
with its plan, letting its cars drive themselves in some conditions, it wouldn't be breaking the law.
The cars could, however, be kicked off the road if regulators aren't thrilled with the idea of autonomous vehicles roaming the country, says Bryant Walker Smith, an assistant professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law and affiliate scholar at the Center for Internet and Society, who studies self-driving vehicles. There are laws prohibiting reckless driving, for example, and "a state or local law enforcement agency could use these provisions to target" the cars "if they believed the vehicles to be dangerous." That could lead to a revoked registration, or refusal to register cars going forward.
There are no federal regulations in place yet, but based on a 2013 non-binding statement, NHTSA isn't hot on the idea of consumer operation of autonomous vehicles just yet. It "could also attempt to intervene if it has evidence that automated vehicles are not reasonably safe," Smith says.
And what about California, home to Tesla, where the Model S is popular enough to replace the grizzly bear on the state flag? Even with laws governing autonomous tech, it's not clear. It all depends on how the car's capabilities are defined, based on NHTSA standards, which rank automation from Level 0 (you don't even get cruise control) to Level 41 (think Minority Report). Level 2 cars offer some automation, including the combination of adaptive cruise control and lane centering. They're totally legal in California, says Bernard Soriano, deputy director of the state DMV.
But if the software lets the Model S operate like a Level 3 car, letting the human "cede control of all safety-critical functions" to a machine that can, say, change lanes on its own, then it's illegal. Cars with such capabilities, like the Audi A7 I piloted from Silicon Valley to Las Vegas, must be certified as test vehicles before they hit the pavement. You can't sell them to the public.
In those states that haven't yet moved to regulate autonomous cars, Smith says the reaction of regulators likely will depend on how the cars are received by the public, and how well Tesla communicates its intentions. "At this point broad public attitudes will matter as much if not more than particular legal language," he says.
California, for its part, is hardly anti-autonomous driving. It created its rules as a framework for the testing a whole slew of companies were already doing in Silicon Valley, and already is working on rules for allowing Level 3 cars on the market. "We're smack dab in the middle of them now," says Bernard Soriano, deputy director at the state's DMV. He would not offer an ETA, but says "we're close." That process includes the automakers, Soriano says. "We've been working very collaboratively with them and to their credit, they've been very open with us."
Tesla already has gone to legislative war with states that don't let it sell its cars through stores rather than independent dealerships, so don't be surprised if it unleashes its attorneys once again. But so far, it looks like this might be one of those times when seeking forgiveness beats asking for permission.
1Story updated March 20, 2015 at 18:45 EST to include the correct number of levels in NHTSA's autonomous driving scale.Just like June 28, 1914, it all started innocently enough Crazy John McCain was on MSNBC with Crazy Scientologist Greta Van Susteren and the subject of crazy came up:
Via The Hill:
“China is the one, the only one, that can control Kim Jong-un, this crazy fat kid that’s running North Korea,” McCain told MSNBC’s “For the Record with Greta.” “They’re the ones. They could stop North Korea’s economy in a week.
…
“He’s not rational, Greta,” he added. “We’re not dealing even with someone like Joseph Stalin, who had a certain rationality to his barbarity.”
Eventually, someone informed the DPRK government about the fact that MSNBC was a television channel and John McCain had said some hurty-hurt things and they responded:
As such guys as John McCain and Ted Cruz made a provocation tantamount to declaration of war against the DPRK, the DPRK will take steps to counter it. They will have to bitterly experience the disastrous consequences to be entailed by their reckless tongue-lashing and then any regret for it will come too late. They will have to be entirely responsible for their foolhardy tongue-lashing. It is, indeed, a burlesque making even a cat laugh for the dishonest elements of the U.S., the mastermind of all forms of terrorism worldwide, to label other country “terror-sponsor”.
And McCain responded:
What, did they want me to call him a crazy skinny kid? https://t.co/Ym3juRfBev — John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) March 29, 2017
McCain really isn’t all that right here. Kim Jong Un is fat and he is a sociopathic kid who could easily have a role in Game of Thrones but he’s not crazy or irrational. We may not understand his methods but that is more of a cultural issue than anything else. During my time in Korea and in discussions with Korean friends I found that the DPRK was considered very rational and it was the irrational US that scared the bejeezus out of them.
I’m not sure that it is good policy to do what McCain did, but, on the other hand, I’m not sure there are any good policy moves left to deal with the DPRK. The DPRK continues to produce nukes and improve its missile arsenal. Its economy is a shambles and kept afloat by Chinese charity and by its exports of meth and counterfeit currency and ballistic missiles. Even as I write this the DPRK is preparing for another nuclear test in between bouts of lobbing missiles in the direction of Japan. Everyone is hoping for a softish landing but I’m not sure that is much more than a hope.FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Former NFL star Chad Johnson was sentenced Monday to 30 days in jail for a probation violation in a domestic violence case by a judge who angrily rejected a no-jail plea deal after Johnson playfully slapped his attorney on the backside in court.
Johnson, known as Chad Ochocinco for his jersey number in Spanish during his playing days, had reached a deal with prosecutors calling for community service and counseling instead of jail. Broward County Circuit Judge Kathleen McHugh said she would tack on an additional three months' probation because Johnson had failed to meet with his probation officer during three previous months.
It was all set until Johnson, when asked by McHugh if he was satisfied with his lawyer Adam Swickle, gave the attorney a light swat on the rear -- as football players routinely do to each other on the field. The courtroom erupted in laughter and at that McHugh said she wouldn't accept the deal.
"I don't know that you're taking this whole thing seriously. I just saw you slap your attorney on the backside. Is there something funny about this?" McHugh said, slapping the plea deal document down on her desk. "The whole courtroom was laughing. I'm not going to accept these plea negotiations. This isn't a joke."
Johnson, 35, tried to apologize and insisted he meant no disrespect. Johnson was on probation after pleading no contest to head-butting his then-wife, TV reality star Evelyn Lozada, during an altercation last August. She quickly filed for divorce after barely a month of marriage and Johnson, a six-time Pro Bowl wide receiver, was immediately released by the Miami Dolphins. He didn't play at all last season.Of the three remaining Democrats seeking the party’s nomination for president, Hillary Clinton is clearly the most qualified. She has articulated a vision for the country that is both progressive and pragmatic and has demonstrated the ability and tenacity to achieve the ambitious goals she has set for herself and the nation.
She enjoyed great success during two terms as the U.S. senator from New York and improved America’s standing abroad during four pressure-packed years as secretary of state.
The people of New Hampshire know Hillary Clinton well and supported her during her previous run for president in 2008. Granite State Democrats and independent voters, having seen and heard Clinton with their own eyes and ears, have rejected the decades of distortions peddled by her political opponents. We know the real Hillary Clinton and we admire and respect her.
New Hampshire first got to know Clinton during her husband’s successful presidential runs in the 1990s. We continued to follow her career as first lady and as the two-term U.S. senator from New York. We respected her work following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 and the care she took getting health benefits for first responders sickened in the aftermath. We admired her leadership in the passage of the Lilly Ledbetter pay Equity Act, the first bill signed into law by President Barack Obama.
In 2008, Sen. Clinton made her case to voters in the New Hampshire presidential primary, and she won the contest, narrowly defeating Obama, then a U.S. senator from Illinois.
Obama rebounded from his New Hampshire loss and went on to win the presidential election. He quickly appointed Clinton secretary of state, recognizing his rival’s intelligence, impeccable work ethic and values.
The four years Clinton spent as our nation’s top diplomat, from 2009 to 2013, were volatile, with crises across the globe. She is credited as the architect of the crippling sanctions against Iran that led to the recent nuclear deal. She brokered a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. She was on the front lines of the tragedies and triumphs of the Arab Spring, learning hard and valuable lessons. Henry Kissinger, President Richard Nixon’s secretary of state, said she “ran the State Department in the most effective way that I’ve ever seen.”
Kissinger is not alone among Republicans who praise Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, until recently a presidential contender, called Clinton, “one of the most effective secretary of states, greatest ambassadors for the American people that I have known in my lifetime.”
Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the Republicans’ 2008 presidential nominee, said “Secretary Clinton is admired and respected around the world.”
Of all the candidates interviewed by our editorial board, both Republican and Democrat, Clinton was by far the most fluent in world affairs. As president there would be no learning curve. She would be in full command of the geopolitical challenges facing our nation from day one. And given the concerns about global instability and terrorism we place a high value on this competence.
Clinton’s critics portray her as highly partisan but during our editorial board meeting she spent a great deal of time complimenting Republican colleagues and seemed to truly enjoy sharing stories about finding common ground.
She praised President George W. Bush for his efforts fighting AIDS in Africa, noting his PEPFAR project (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) “saved tens of millions of people from dying from AIDS.” She talked about the support Bush committed to the state of New York following the 9/11 terrorist attacks “and he stuck to his word despite a lot of efforts to undo it.”
She spoke of working with former House Majority Leader Tom “The Hammer” DeLay to pass comprehensive foster care and adoption reform, because she knew that he shared her passion in that area.
When Clinton saw a chance to improve relations with Burma she approached then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell because she knew of his admiration for Aung San Suu Kyi, the nation’s embattled human rights leader. Together, Clinton and McConnell made progress opening up this country that had been closed to the United States for decades.
“What I did when I ran and was elected to the Senate twice, what I did as secretary of state, what I do when I’m in a position of responsibility is I’m able to bring people together across party lines,” Clinton told our editorial board.
“The president has to always be welcoming and embracing and deal with differences that are affecting the lives of Americans,” Clinton said. “So that’s my goal. I feel it very personally and strongly and that’s what I would try to do.”
It is safe to say that not since Dwight D. Eisenhower has there been a non-incumbent candidate seeking the presidency who is better known than Hillary Clinton.
As first lady she led the White House’s effort to implement health care reform and she took a beating as vested interests pushed back against “Hillarycare.”
But Clinton proved resilient. The defeat taught her valuable lessons and she put that knowledge to work in her husband’s second term, working with Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy and Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch to pass the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which insured millions of previously uninsured children.
She believes the lessons learned from her efforts to pass health care reform helped the Obama administration in its efforts to pass the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare.
If elected, Clinton said she’ll “build on and fix the Affordable Care Act,” which she calls “an historic achievement.”
“I want to get out-of-pocket costs down,” she said. “I have a plan to bring prescription costs down, and I don’t think we need to rip it up and start over.”
Clinton has published plans that are available for scrutiny on just about every challenge facing the nation today.
From national security to defeating ISIS; from reducing the cost of college to criminal justice reform; from climate change and green energy to cyber security and job creation; from gun safety to women’s health; Alzheimer’s and autism; Clinton has thought deeply about all these issues and has put forward pragmatic plans that her years of experience tell her can make it through Congress.
Hillary Clinton began her career as a young lawyer out of Yale working for the Children’s Defense Fund and she has spent her life fighting for children, for families, for the middle class.
As one of our editorial board members quipped, “In a dogfight, I’d want Hillary Clinton on my side.”
America faces great challenges. Whether this is the most important election of our lives only time will tell, but it would be hard to overstate the threats and opportunities facing our nation today.
Clinton's vision is bold and comprehensive. Government would create thousands of jobs by leading a transition off of fossil fuels. Everyone, rich or poor, could more easily go to college and get health care. These initiatives will bring a more sustainable future and broad based prosperity. But unlike her opponent, Clinton's plans are not all centrally planned and run by the government. They are collaborations: college students work to help pay for their education; energy companies have incentives to change for the good while a safety net is built for displaced coal-state workers. In the spirit of John F. Kennedy, government leads the nation toward big goals and taps the aspiration and ingenuity of individuals and the private sector. This is how America makes its greatest progress.
Clinton is by far the most qualified candidate seeking the Democratic nomination. If elected, she will be an outstanding president. We enthusiastically endorse Hillary Clinton in the New Hampshire Democratic primary.
Seacoast Media Group’s endorsements reflect the majority view of its 10-member editorial board, which includes three community advisers. In New Hampshire, SMG publishes the Portsmouth Herald, Foster’s Daily Democrat, Exeter News-Letter, Hampton Union and Rochester Times.Jones has insisted England players must challenge for their places and the Harlequins prop has just the competitive edge the England coach wants
Eddie Jones has said ever since he became England’s head coach that he needs to find players capable of challenging the current squad and forcing their way into the team, but his selection for June’s tour to Australia will largely be made up of the tried and tested after the last two months of the club season left him underwhelmed.
One uncapped player who impressed Jones during last week’s training camp in Brighton, which was not attended by players involved in the Premiership semi-finals, was the Harlequins prop Kyle Sinckler, whose club colleague and fellow front-rower, Joe Marler, will miss the trip to take some time out from the game.
The 23-year-old Sinckler, who took up rugby in Battersea when he was eight after being considered too aggressive for the football field, has shadowed the Wales and Lions tighthead Adam Jones at Quins this season, starting seven matches and making 20 appearances as a replacement. He came off the bench in the recent European Challenge Cup final against Montpellier in Lyon when his relish for the physical battle against the Top 14 side that contained a number of South Africans caught the England coach’s attention.
Eddie Jones expects attitude and instinct from the new England breed Read more
“Sinckler is the most interesting one for me,” says Jones. “There are areas of his game he needs to improve but he has competitive edges. He gave Harlequins exactly what they needed when he came on against Montpellier having been bullied. He looked to get on the front foot and he was not prepared to be bullied.
“He is from a pretty tough background so rugby means a lot to him and he plays the game for all the right reasons. He loves a sport that helped him get out of a difficult situation and he is a guy who could keep on developing really well. He is athletically gifted: a tighthead needs to be able to scrummage and they need a competitive edge, which Sinckler certainly has when he carries the ball.”
Sinckler scored four tries for Quins this season with two, against London Irish and Exeter, from long range as he showed a turn of speed not often seen from a tighthead prop, never mind one who weighs more than 19st. He joined Harlequins when he was 18 and has played for England at every age-grade from the under-16s.
“You could not ask more from Kyle as a ball-carrier and he hits some incredible lines,” says the Harlequins captain, Danny Care.
“He has worked hard this year with Adam Jones to get his scrummaging up to speed and he is good to have around the squad, a funny character who fits in with us well and I am sure he will do with England.
“He has got that added little bit up top where he wants to hurt people and he has the size to do it. He has the pace of a back and the power of a front rower, an explosive athlete. He showed how sharp he was with his try against Exeter when after 40 metres no one was catching him. If he gets a chance, he will not let anyone down.”
While Harlequins lost their European final, defeated 26-19 despite a valiant effort, Saracens flew home with the Champions Cup after beating Racing 92 comprehensively to become the first English club to take possession of the trophy for nine years. However, although Jones lauded the achievement, and the performances of his England grand slam winners, he believes rugby in the Six Nations is behind the southern hemisphere in terms of skill.
“Players get a lot of confidence from winning big games,” he says. “Saracens won all their games in Europe and that helps England. Some of the rugby I have seen over the last five or six weeks hasn’t added to the selection conundrum. Sinckler is the only one who has come out of left field. I haven’t seen anyone elevate their position massively from where they have been.
“If you look at the European Cup final and Super Rugby, they are at different ends in the spectrum of rugby. Last week’s final was like a physical game of chess; everything was organised and planned and there was little unstructured rugby. In fact, it was probably zero.
“Super Rugby is 90% unstructured. The best sides are able to play both ways and that is what I am looking for. At the moment I have to guess a lot about what players are capable of and I am hoping Henry Slade [the Exeter utility back] comes through because he has got a bit of everything once he gets his running game back.”Lubbock police came in contact with Daniels after a firearm was reported stolen from a Lubbock home Sunday, Stevens said. The people at the home said the suspect made a "very specific threat," Stevens said.
Police stopped a vehicle matching the suspect's, but the driver, Daniels, refused to let them search the vehicle. Police said there was not enough cause to search the vehicle and a drug-sniffing dog was unavailable, Stevens said.
Acting on a report that a student had been acting erratically and may have a weapon, university police made a welfare check at the student's room earlier in the night and found evidence of drugs and drug paraphernalia, university Police Chief Kyle Bonath said.
Daniels showed up to the room and was taken to the police station on the perimeter of campus on a drug charge.
According to an arrest-warrant affidavit, Daniels — who was not wearing handcuffs — was standing near an officer in the department's briefing room while he completed paperwork for Daniels' arrest.US telecom giant Comcast has announced a new blockchain platform focused on advertising.
The conglomerate said today in a news release that its advertising arm is partnering with Disney, NBCUniversal, Cox Communications, Mediaset Italia, Channel 4 and TF1 group on the project.
Dubbed the “Blockchain Insights Platform”, the project aims to make the advertising process more efficient and transparent by enabling marketers and networks to match their own customer data anonymously in order to determine which network program may have the best result for a certain product ad.
Marcien Jenckes, president of Comcast Cable’s advertising unit, said in a statement:
“This new technological approach would make data-driven video advertising more efficient and consumer data more secure. We’ll work with the participants in this initiative to improve ad planning, addressable targeting, execution and measurement, to ultimately create even more value for the television advertising industry.”
The news represents the telecom giant’s first formal foray into the blockchain space. The company has explored the tech in the past, however, as it once communicated with bitcoin startup 21 Inc about how it might tap the startup’s mining process to benefit its users.
The group projects an official launch in 2018, and is looking for other networks, distributors, device markers and marketers in the US and Europe to participate.
Image Credit: Joshua Rainey Photography / Shutterstock.comAn NYPD detective was suspended without pay after cops found a bound man being held for ransom in the garage of the officer’s Queens home, law enforcement sources said Saturday.
Veteran cop Ondre Johnson, 45, was taken into custody outside his Springfield Gardens home at about 3 p.m. Friday after the major case squad was tipped off about the kidnapped man and the demand for $75,000 ransom, the sources said.
According to police, the 25-year-old victim was kidnapped in front of his Cambria Heights home early Friday morning. Cops said that Jason Hutson pulled a gun and told the victim, “Don’t try anything funny or I’ll shoot you.”
Another accomplice then put a T-shirt over the victim’s head, tossed him into an SUV and took him to the garage behind the NYPD officer’s house, where they bound his hands with zip ties and his feet with rope.
One of the kidnappers then called one of the victim’s relatives, demanding $75,000 — but the relative recognized the kidnapper’s voice, cops said.
Once on the scene, cops found the victim bound — and went inside and found Hutson with zip ties on him, police said.
John Taggart for New York Daily News
Investigators also found two safes containing materials to make bogus credit cards, sources said.
Johnson, a 17-year veteran who worked for the Brooklyn North Gang Unit, was taken into custody after he identified himself as an officer, sources said.
Johnson said he shares the two-family home with his cousin, Hakeem Clark, 30, but knew nothing about the wild ordeal unfolding at the house, sources said.
He said his cousin lives in a separate apartment inside the home, and that he has no access to where the safes were found or where the kidnapping victim was being held, sources said.
Johnson avoided charges, but was stripped of his badge and gun as cops continue to probe the incident.
“He’s still not completely off the hook,” a source said. “Something is not right here. They’re going to try to find out what he was doing there and how he knows these guys.”
Four men — including Clark — were cuffed inside the house and taken into custody, sources said.
Clark and two others — James Gayle, 27, and Hutson, 27 — were later charged with kidnapping, attempting to collect ransom and criminal possession of a weapon, authorities said.
Alfredo Haughton, 24, was charged with kidnapping.
Clark and Gayle also faced charges for the paraphernalia used in credit card fraud, sources said.
Clark and Hutson were arraigned Saturday and held without bail. The other two were awaiting arraignment.
“We deny any involvement,” said Hutson’s lawyer, Lester Seidman.
The four men charged are no strangers to breaking the law, with prior records that include weapons charges and drug arrests. Hutson served more than seven years in prison for robbery before he was released last April.
The victim claimed that he didn’t know the suspected kidnappers or why they targeted him.
With Denis Slattery and Mark Morales
jkemp@nydailynews.com
Sign up for BREAKING NEWS Emails privacy policy Thanks for subscribing!Lawyer and potential General Elections candidate M Ravi was directed by the Law Society of Singapore to stop his legal practice pending a medical examination on 10 February 2015.
M Ravi then went to the Law Society office in South Bridge Road to appeal his case along with a camera person and at least two other individuals, one male and one female.
His visit to the office was recorded on video and uploaded onto YouTube. In the video, he claims that he had visited his doctor, Dr. Winslow, on 2 February and that his medical report was submitted to the Law Society. He added that he had just been part of a landmark case in the High Court ‘two days ago’.
The video is over 12 minutes long and a few notable portions include:
1:00 – 1:25 : M Ravi explains that he is at the office to present his response to the President of the Law Society.
1.35 – 2.15 : He questions a lady trying to leave the office. His female companion, holding a placard, tries to help unlock the door but ends up switching off and on several lights in the office.
3.35 – 3.45 : He offers his explanation of why he thinks the Law Society is asking him to stop his legal practice – it is because he wants to stand for elections.
3.50 – 4.05 : He says that the Law Society lost its independence and that it was no longer ‘without fear or favour’.
4.10 – 4.31 : He says that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has ‘started to fix me using the Law Society’. He also asked the PM and ex-Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew to sue him for defamation.
4.55 – 5.10 : He says that he is more capable than ‘LKY and Lee Hsien Loong put together’.
5.10 – 5.25 : He talks about God and Jesus and how Friday the 13th will be the ‘liberation of Singapore’.
8.40 – 9.40 : His female companion prevents K Gopalan, the Director of Representation and Law Reform at the Law Society, from leaving the premises. M Ravi at first responds by saying that he had no part in this. After K Gopalan reiterated that he had no interest to talk to the woman, M Ravi stepped in and helped him leave the premises.
The full video can be viewed here:Caltrain’s diesel locomotives standing by. Paul Kim/Flickr
For the past 20 years, as Silicon Valley workers have invented the apps and devices that define this young century, system engineers have sought to bring the Caltrain rail corridor up to date with the last one.
Transforming the Caltrain, which runs between San Francisco and San Jose, into an electric railway would be expensive, but it would bring benefits like cleaner, quieter trains (compared with today’s diesel locomotives), more efficient schedules, and increased passenger capacity. The last piece has come to seem especially necessary: The system’s ridership, which now tallies 62,000 riders a day, has doubled since 2009 and nearly tripled since 2004.
The $2 billion modernization project draws its funding from local, regional, and state revenues, plus a federal grant, two years in the making, that planners thought was all but approved. On Friday, this Core Capacity grant becomes eligible for a signature from U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao. It’s supposed to be a formality capping a long period of review at the Federal Transit Administration; contractors are in place to start work on electrification on March 1.
But that was before the California’s 14 GOP U.S. representatives asked Chao not to give the state the money, citing the connection between Caltrain electrification and the state’s larger, politically tempestuous high-speed rail project. The representatives want an audit of the state’s high-speed rail project before Caltrain can move forward.
For Californians, it’s an early test of a simmering fear that the state’s outspoken political opposition to the Trump administration might come with a price. More broadly, Chao’s decision will show the extent to which she—considered the most qualified of Trump’s Cabinet picks but also the one closest to the GOP power structure—will politicize DOT’s billions of dollars in grants. The letter, sent to Chao on Jan. 24, a week before her confirmation, is the rare effort by congressional representatives to deprive their own state of federal money.
It’s true that the high-speed trains between Los Angeles and San Francisco are currently slated to run over Caltrain’s soon-to-be-electrified tracks and that Caltrain’s state funding was made available by the Legislature’s 2012 grant of high-speed rail funds. But the Caltrain project has been part of the railway’s strategic plans since 1999 and has its own environmental review. In September, a judge in Silicon Valley ruled the projects were separate, calling electrification a “project of independent utility.”
Mimi Walters, one of the representatives who signed the letter, said in a statement provided to Slate that the letter did not oppose electrifying the corridor but “instead expresses serious concerns about the use of taxpayer funds for a project that is tied to high speed rail. … Taxpayers deserve accountability and transparency, which is why all high-speed rail funding should be put on hold, until a thorough audit of the entire project is completed.”*
For Walters and her fellow representatives, a project “tied to high-speed rail” is effectively the same thing as high-speed rail itself. The letter to Chao mistakenly claims that the California High Speed Rail Authority, or CHSRA, is seeking the electrification grant. It is Caltrain, not the CHSRA, that has applied for the electrification grant from the FTA.
High-speed rail has been a target of GOP politicians nationwide for the past decade, and the California project is no exception. The cause for the letter to Chao, though, was a Jan. 13 article by the Los Angeles Times reporter Ralph Vartabedian that alleged, citing a confidential Federal Railroad Administration report, that the project “could cost taxpayers 50 percent more than estimated,” just on the route’s first 118 miles of track.
In its response, the CHSRA wrote that Vartabedian mischaracterized both the document—which, as a risk analysis, was supposed to outline potential overruns and problem scenarios—and its conclusions about ongoing spending of stimulus funds.
But the L.A. Times “bombshell,” if overblown, was enough for the state’s Republicans to take their case to Washington in the hopes of finding a friendly face at the head of the DOT. Chao can sign off on $647 million for electric trains in Silicon Valley on Friday. She has two weeks. “Everything is ready to go,” said Seamus Murphy, the chief communications officer for Caltrain. Contracts have been issued. “All of the other boxes have been checked for the approval of the project. If we don’t get the grant finalized by March 1, then the project itself is in jeopardy of not being viable.”
The political calculus for Chao is complicated. Her boss, of course, campaigned on a platform of infrastructure improvement and just last week lamented America’s lack of high-speed trains. In a joint press conference last week with Trump, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe praised his stance on the transportation mode. “With President Trump taking on the leadership, I’m sure there will be major scale infrastructure investments will be made, including the high-speed train.” (Abe is trying to sell Japan’s maglev technology to the Northeast Corridor.) As the transportation writer Alon Levy observes, the Caltrain project is actually a bargain as far as Trump’s wish list of U.S. rail projects go, and would allow the railroad to serve up to 100,000 weekday riders by 2040, enabling population growth without stress on the region’s highways.
On the other hand, Trump has revealed nothing of his proposed infrastructure plan beyond vague talk of public-private partnerships, whose impact would be limited. One of the representatives who wrote the letter, Kevin McCarthy, is the House majority leader and a Trump favorite. (“Where’s Kevin? There’s my Kevin.”) Chao’s husband is Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has been a foremost opponent of Trump’s big infrastructure spending proposal. Wary of federal spending, McConnell also doubted that an infrastructure bill would be a good use of the party’s time and resources.
Caltrain electrification doesn’t really belong in the same breath as pie-in-the-sky infrastructure improvements—its signature from Chao at this stage is supposed to be assured. But it could be the administration’s first opportunity to fulfill one of the president’s fantasies: taking money away from California.
*Correction, Feb. 16, 2017: This post originally misspelled Rep. Mimi Walters’ last name.“An impossible mistake launched them into space -the adventure of their lives will be getting back home!”
Released less than five months after the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart just 73 seconds into flight, SpaceCamp – as many have put it – seemed destined to flop. Despite the trailer above boasting a “multi-million dollar box office”, in actuality the returns were much lower than expected and failed to cover the $18 to $25 million dollar investment that is said to have been pumped into the picture.
The film – about teenagers accidentally launched into space after a test-run goes awry – is more fondly remembered by children of the video store era, though. I can recall almost renting this one a number of times based off the conceit alone, though other reviewers have said the premise is “tough to accept” and noted the film as a “first-class mess.”
Not only that, the SpaceCamp bashing party extends right-on through to the cast themselves, as Wikipedia notes actress Lea Thompson claimed:
“We had T-shirts printed up that said, “SpaceCamp: It’s Not Just A Movie, It’s A Career.” Oh, actually, instead of SpaceCamp, it actually said SpaceCramp.”
A leaf era Joaquin Pheonix has yet to weigh in on the film – as far as I know!
Elsewhere in 1986, the movie business continued to boom with blockbuster releases such as Back To The Future, RAMBO, Top Gun and more. Other more niche genre films, though, weren’t so lucky – according to the Chicago Tribune:
Also on the funeral list are Fox’s $20 million ”Big Trouble in Little China,” ABC’s $25 million ”SpaceCamp,” and Tri-Star’s $25 million ”Labyrinth,” a Gothic fairy tale created by Jim Henson and George Lucas. Warner Brothers’ somewhat less expensive ”Under the Cherry Moon,” a $15 million movie starring and directed by the rock star Prince, had the double distinction of being a box-office failure and the summer’s most disliked movie by the critics.
Despite all of this, SpaceCamp – according to the aforementioned Thompson – proved even more influential than any dollar-figure could prove:
“I’ve had a lot of people come up to me and say that they became physicists or inventors, how much they loved that movie and how much it inspired them.”
So, have you seen SpaceCamp recently – and if so, what did you think? How does it stack up to other, more high-profile children’s sci-fi films of the era?
Put your comments in our discussion thread below!
Dan GormanHarry Hamburg/Associated Press Senator John Kerry could benefit if Republicans block a Susan Rice nomination as secretary of state.
The silence coming from Senator John F. Kerry about his interest in serving as secretary of state is deafening, but that does not mean others aren’t speaking up to his benefit.
Senator John McCain has joined Senator Lindsey Graham in vowing to do all they can to block the nomination of one possible Kerry rival, United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice.
Both argue she deliberately misled Congress about the circumstances leading to terrorist attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11 that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three others.
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Last week, a group of 97 House Republicans, organized by freshman US Representative Jeff Duncan, sent a letter to President Obama labeling Rice “unfit” for the post.
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McCain, an Arizona Republican, shares a special connection with Kerry as a fellow Vietnam War veteran.
Their relationship deepened as they pushed the United States to normalize relations with its former foe and account for prisoners of war. It has remained strong despite strain when Kerry ran for president in 2004, and McCain himself did in 2008.
Now, McCain’s complaints against Rice have the president assessing his appetite for a Senate confirmation battle.
There have been no such objections expressed about a potential Kerry nomination, giving flight to a range of speculation.
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One theory is that McCain is attacking Rice to help Kerry. The counterspin is more Machiavellian: McCain wants to hurt Rice so Obama will nominate Kerry, triggering a special election in Massachusetts for his Senate seat.
The beneficiary would be McCain’s fellow Republican Scott Brown.
He is about to surrender his title as the state’s junior senator, after losing his reelection campaign earlier this month to Democrat Elizabeth Warren, but has hinted he would run were Kerry to surrender his seat.
A McCain aide said the theories were “black helicopter stuff” and had no merit.
Scott Brown could become
a perpetual candidate
The possibility of Kerry resigning means Brown could be a perpetual candidate.
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The former state legislator from Wrentham burst onto the national scene in January 2010 by winning a special election to replace the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the Democratic icon.
Brown was entitled to serve out the remainder of Kennedy’s term, which expires in January, but that meant he immediately had to start running for the full |
as likely to share music that they had created or remixed, and also much more likely to post videos to YouTube. Perhaps this is part of the reason why men are more likely to watch videos posted to YouTube—after all, you can't just watch one Jackass-like skateboard stunt without posting your own response to it, can you?
Further reading:Obesity may increase adults’ risk for having dementia, according to researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Their analysis of published obesity and dementia prospective follow-up studies over the past two decades shows a consistent relationship between the two diseases.
Obesity increases the risk of dementia in general by 42 percent, Alzheimer's by 80 percent and vascular dementia by 73 percent, the new review suggests. Being underweight increases the general dementia risk by 36 percent. But researchers who carried out an international review of research since 1995 found no elevated risk in people who were normal or overweight.
“Our analysis of the data shows a clear association between obesity and an increased risk for dementia and several clinical subtypes of the disease,” said Youfa Wang, MD, PhD, senior author of the study and associate professor with the Bloomberg School’s Center for Human Nutrition. “Subjects with a healthy body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference saw a decreased risk for dementia than their counterparts with an elevated BMI or waist circumference.” Wang adds, “Preventing or treating obesity at a younger age could play a major role in reducing the number of dementia patients and those with other commonly associated illnesses such as Alzheimer’s disease by up to 20 percent in the United States.”
Lead researcher May A. Beydoun, along with Wang and H.A. Beydoun attribute these findings to a systematic review of 10 previously published studies that examined the relationships between dementia or its subtypes and various measures of body fat. Based on a pooled analysis of their findings from 7 of the studies, baseline obesity compared to normal weight increased the risk of Alzheimer’s disease by 80 percent on average. The team further concluded that being underweight also increases the risk of dementia and its subtypes. The studies cited in the meta-analysis were conducted in a number of countries, including the United States, Finland, Sweden and France, and contained middle-aged and older adults.
Previously published research defines dementia as not a single disorder, but a number of syndromes characterized by diverse behavioral, cognitive, and emotional impairments. The most common form is Alzheimer’s disease, with an estimated 5 million adults living with the disease in the United States alone.
“Currently, Alzheimer’s disease is the eighth leading cause of death among the elderly population in the United States. While more studies are needed to determine optimal weight and biological mechanisms associated with obesity and dementia, these findings could potentially decrease the number of people diagnosed with dementia and lead to an overall better quality of life,” said May A. Beydoun, a former postdoctoral research fellow at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
"Obesity and central obesity as risk factors for incident dementia and its subtypes: a systematic review and meta-analysis" was written by M. A. Beydoun, H. A. Beydoun and Y. Wang.
The research was funded by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.JetBlue has announced that it will update its fleet with new interiors, a new fully-connected in-flight entertainment system, and offer its passengers gate-to-gate FlyFi.
This is the first time in 15 years that the airline’s fleet of 130 Airbus A320 aircraft will undergo a cabin refresh.
“Travel preferences have changed in the last 15 years, and we’re investing in what customers want today. Our new cabin, combined with our award-winning customer service, is a powerful way for us to once again challenge the status quo,” says Jamie Perry vice president brand and product development.
Perry tells us that the timing of this refresh is ideal as the airline will soon celebrate its sixteenth birthday. The upgrade is also timed around the midpoint of the useful service life of the A320 aircraft which is about 25-30 years.
Customer surveys conducted by the airline showed that passenger satisfaction with JetBlue’s cabins on the A321 aircraft were “significantly higher than on the A320” on similar routes. “What we have seen is that the A321 aircraft is about 10% higher [in customer ratings] than the A320,” says Perry.
Fully Connected
JetBlue has also focused on keeping passengers fully connected gate-to-gate. With the introduction of its new internet-enabled in-flight entertainment (IFE) system from Thales—STV+—JetBlue will become the first domestic airline offer fully connected seat-back television. The new IFE system will offer 10-inch, 1280p, High-Definition capable touch screens, which is almost double the screen size available on JetBlue A320 aircraft today.
Because the STV+ (Streaming TV Entertainment) system is built on the Google Android platform, passengers will be able to pair their personal electronic devices to their in-seat embedded screen and play personal content.
JetBlue will also expand the number of DIRECTV television channels offered from 36 to more than 100, and will have the capacity to offer over 300 on-demand Hollywood films and other content stored on the aircraft’s local server.
To keep passenger devices powered throughout the flight, all seats will offer AC power outlets with USB ports.
Gate-to-Gate Wi-Fi
JetBlue will switch on its free FlyFi internet access gate-to-gate, giving passengers more time online or connected to The Hub—JetBlue’s content portal offering Amazon Prime entertainment—from the moment they board the aircraft.
“Our customers don’t want to switch off when they take off, so we are continuing to build on our investment in Fly-Fi,” says Perry.
JetBlue and Airbus will retrofit the airline’s A321 aircraft in the second half of 2016, and the A320 restyling will begin in early 2017 with a targeted completion date of 2019.
New Seats and LED Lighting
The airline will add economy seats to the A321 aircraft during the retrofit, bringing the total number of seats to 200, and reduce a row of seats on the A320 from 165 to 162. Perry says the reduction in pitch (distance between seats) for the A321 aircraft is minimal; down from 33″ in the existing A321 main cabin to 32″ in the new main cabin.
The space gained in the aircraft interior are the result of new ergonomic B/E Aerospace Pinnacle seats, and the installation of Airbus’ Space-Flex v2 galley and lavatory models, which will be installed on both the A320 and A321 All-Core aircraft.
The airline will further enhance the feel of the cabin space with the installation of LED lighting and a modern interior color palette.
Fifteen All-Core A321 aircraft will be reconfigured with the new Pinnacle seats to the new 200 passenger configuration. The cabin lay-out of A321 Aircraft that feature the airline’s premium Mint cabins will not change.A look at Easter Eggs from the last episode of Arrow.
Wondering what comic references you missed in last night's episode? Luckily Arrow Annotations is here to help, providing some additional notes and background info from last night’s episode. Arrow spoilers follow!
Full Disclosure: Due to some personal issues and a sound glitch during the first few minutes of the show, I was not as vigilant in tracking down Easter Eggs this episode. Sorry if I missed more than I usually do.
Edward Rasmus – E. Rasmus sounds like a reference to the Dutch philosopher Erasmus, although I have no idea why. Maybe somebody thought that humanism is akin to investment fraud?
Mr. Blank – This week’s villain was created for the TV show, but his origins can be traced back to the comics. This week’s villain was originally going to be an adaptation of Onomatopoeia, an assassin who perfectly imitates noises around him. However, Arrow’s producers were discouraged upon learning that Kevin Smith, the creator of the assassin, said in an interview that he didn’t believe the character would retain his edge in other media. So, instead we got Mr. Blank, who would have made a great recurring villain for the show.
The Moore Family – Possibly a reference to the great Bearded One, Alan Moore, of Watchmen, V for Vendetta and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Moore wrote a Green Arrow story called “Night Olympics” which featured Black Canary and Green Arrow being hunted by a guy named Pete Lomax during their nightly patrol. The story was intended as a riff of Frank Miller’s Daredevil.
Harbinger – Lyla’s codename is a reference to her comic book counterpart, whom we’ve talked about in past columns.
26 Bodies – Ollie’s put 26 (27 after Mr. Blank) bodies in the morgue. 26 is half of 52, a number DC is obsessed with.
Wonder Twins – The obvious comic reference of the week, the Wonder Twins were originally a Hanna Barbera creation for the Super Friends TV Show before eventually being eliminated in favor of more traditional superheroes like Cyborg and Firestorm. While a few people are probably quick to point out that the Wonder Twins didn’t snog like Roy and Thea do, the characters’ names are based off of Tarzan and his lady friend Jane. Gives those Wonder Twin incest jokes a little more credence, doesn’t it?
And that's all I found this week. I'm sure I'll be a little more vigilant next time. See you next week!carmenara
Aesthetic Design Champion!
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This is my second adventure mode "Shipception", which is, a ship constructed around another ship.
In this case, SS Bonaventure, a motor launch serves as the core of a larger 70m frigate; fuel tanks, resource storage and gathering modules, and the bridge are retained from the original ship.
Blueprints: Bottom of the post, or
The bridge of the frigate is located directly above that of the motor launch, allowing the original control space to act as a below-decks "CIC" with shield and weapon controls.
Armaments include 105mm dual purpose turrets ahead, and astern are a 24mm quad AA machine gun mount, and quad 40mm open turret.
Missile weapons include a rack of 6 short range VLS missiles, and four long range torpedo tubes concealed within the fantail.
The ship relies on its relatively small size for defensive capability; shield projectors are mounted on each 105mm and 40mm turret, but they have to be manually toggled between reflect or laser absorb mode. In addition, several laser warners and smoke generators allow improved survivability against energy weapon threats.
Top speed of the vessel in calm seas is about 38 knots thanks to the hydrodynamic bulge and stacked screws. Like the destroyers of old, it relies on speed and distance as its main defence and is lightly armored with a metal shell and selective interior armoring over critical spaces only. '
Series: My First Epic Fail Adventure
Before:
This thread: Bonaventure II Light Frigate
After:
This is my second adventure mode "Shipception", which is, a ship constructed around another ship.In this case, SS Bonaventure, a motor launch serves as the core of a larger 70m frigate; fuel tanks, resource storage and gathering modules, and the bridge are retained from the original ship.Blueprints: Bottom of the post, or Steam Workshop. The bridge of the frigate is located directly above that of the motor launch, allowing the original control space to act as a below-decks "CIC" with shield and weapon controls.Armaments include 105mm dual purpose turrets ahead, and astern are a 24mm quad AA machine gun mount, and quad 40mm open turret.Missile weapons include a rack of 6 short range VLS missiles, and four long range torpedo tubes concealed within the fantail.The ship relies on its relatively small size for defensive capability; shield projectors are mounted on each 105mm and 40mm turret, but they have to be manually toggled between reflect or laser absorb mode. In addition, several laser warners and smoke generators allow improved survivability against energy weapon threats.Top speed of the vessel in calm seas is about 38 knots thanks to the hydrodynamic bulge and stacked screws. Like the destroyers of old, it relies on speed and distance as its main defence and is lightly armored with a metal shell and selective interior armoring over critical spaces only. 'Before: SS Bonaventure Motor Yacht After: Light Cruiser (unnamed) built on a container ship hull.
Attached Files
SS_Bonaventure_II_Frigate.blueprint (Size: 132.98 KB / Downloads: 50) Website Find Reply
Glayn
Iron Shipwright
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Reputation: Posts: 753Threads: 79Joined: Jul 2015Reputation: 27 #2 I love that bow, really well done working that complex shape into the hull. I feel like you didn't give the stern as much attention though, and the superstructure is a bit dd the way it suddenly rears up as a block. Everything else makes me thing of a fast interceptor. Love how you arranged those recoil dampers on the turrets too! Website Find Reply
carmenara
Aesthetic Design Champion!
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I am not very handy with modern warship hulls, but civilian hull configurations, and pre-dreadnoughts seem to catch my fancy.
I'm working on the next adventure mode upgrade for the ship, which involves simply building a larger hull around the existing one and melding the two to become some sort of modern naval auxiliary vessel. It has a refinery at the fantail since I couldn't think of anywhere else to shoehorn the refinery complex into.
Some of the design features from Bonaventure II carry over, making a very odd blend of container ship hull and old gun cruiser weapons layout. This odd combination of civilian hull and naval warship superstructure started from my initial adventure boat which was an armed motor launch. Wanted an armed trawler next and built one around the motor launch, whereupon out of necessity a frigate style layout was built instead.
The cruiser's hull is much wider than normal as there is a double hull, double thickness cross section for survivability. It proven itself battling a Norge and surviving to tell the tale after an hour long stalemate in very bad weather. It currently only has 146mm quad turrets as primary gun systems but has some pop-up semi EMP missile launchers that managed to disable enough of the Norge's main guns for me to get away.
Thanks for your kind complimentI am not very handy with modern warship hulls, but civilian hull configurations, and pre-dreadnoughts seem to catch my fancy.I'm working on the next adventure mode upgrade for the ship, which involves simply building a larger hull around the existing one and melding the two to become some sort of modern naval auxiliary vessel. It has a refinery at the fantail since I couldn't think of anywhere else to shoehorn the refinery complex into.Some of the design features from Bonaventure II carry over, making a very odd blend of container ship hull and old gun cruiser weapons layout. This odd combination of civilian hull and naval warship superstructure started from my initial adventure boat which was an armed motor launch. Wanted an armed trawler next and built one around the motor launch, whereupon out of necessity a frigate style layout was built instead.The cruiser's hull is much wider than normal as there is a double hull, double thickness cross section for survivability. It proven itself battling a Norge and surviving to tell the tale after an hour long stalemate in very bad weather. It currently only has 146mm quad turrets as primary gun systems but has some pop-up semi EMP missile launchers that managed to disable enough of the Norge's main guns for me to get away. Website Find Reply
EnzeeeJ
Senior Member
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Reputation: Posts: 490Threads: 41Joined: Dec 2015Reputation: 2 #4 what makes this ship so good, i've tried adventure mode many times but i fail terribly everytime, what's your secret?
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Stelland1234
The Cpt. Of "Squirrel'Zed" Nation
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Reputation: Posts: 491Threads: 42Joined: Aug 2015Reputation: 1 #5 The first thimbnail makes me look at this as if its a snub boat... You know, one pf those you see in cjiödrebs games that had been squished togheter... XD
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Faction Fleet Thread: The nation of "Squirrel'Zed" is open for recruiting.(Faction Thread: http://www.fromthedepthsgame.com/forum/s...?tid=19101 Faction Fleet Thread: http://www.fromthedepthsgame.com/forum/s...?tid=19102 Find Reply
carmenara
Aesthetic Design Champion!
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Reputation: Posts: 3,093Threads: 144Joined: Jan 2016Reputation: 40 #6 (2016-06-06, 07:02 PM) EnzeeeJ Wrote: what makes this ship so good, i've tried adventure mode many times but i fail terribly everytime, what's your secret?
Assembling a 'just fast enough' ship to run away from the starting zone before anyone comes looking, having just enough firepower to get rid of pesky jets and thrustercraft, having just enough maneuverability to avoid heavy bombers.
Generally I try to engage at the outer edge of weapon effective range when attacking anything more powerful but slower, and sail in lazy zigzag patterns, changing course every time I see enemy CRAMs fire.
Keeping the range open means torpedoes are more efficient than APS spam, since I'm forcing the enemy to follow me and run headlong into anything coming out of my stern tubes. The range of a 1 or 2 fuel torpedo is absurdly long if you let them be slow. When they come within 2km missiles start flying off the racks and doing big salvo damage, and EMP warheads knocking important sounding things out.
The most entertaining parts are when something very large spawns in the middle of a cluster of warp gates and everyone fights over it leaving me to swoop in like a vulture and steal all the salvage while gunning everyone left down to scrap.
That, or having TG stuff try and chase me and run out of fuel 10 minutes later while having components blown off by a neverending stream of torpedoes.
Of course, you have to be careful of sudden strikes by heavy laser snipers and hypervelocity sabot spammers but the chance of running into them are relatively small, lasers are quite easy to counter with one click of the shield control ACB (plus smoke), and against sabot saboteurs, being large enough to weather the bombardment, plus angling your hull and shields so they have maximum deflection chance is the key to survival. Assembling a 'just fast enough' ship to run away from the starting zone before anyone comes looking, having just enough firepower to get rid of pesky jets and thrustercraft, having just enough maneuverability to avoid heavy bombers.Generally I try to engage at the outer edge of weapon effective range when attacking anything more powerful but slower, and sail in lazy zigzag patterns, changing course every time I see enemy CRAMs fire.Keeping the range open means torpedoes are more efficient than APS spam, since I'm forcing the enemy to follow me and run headlong into anything coming out of my stern tubes. The range of a 1 or 2 fuel torpedo is absurdly long if you let them be slow. When they come within 2km missiles start flying off the racks and doing big salvo damage, and EMP warheads knocking important sounding things out.The most entertaining parts are when something very large spawns in the middle of a cluster of warp gates and everyone fights over it leaving me to swoop in like a vulture and steal all the salvage while gunning everyone left down to scrap.That, or having TG stuff try and chase me and run out of fuel 10 minutes later while having components blown off by a neverending stream of torpedoes.Of course, you have to be careful of sudden strikes by heavy laser snipers and hypervelocity sabot spammers but the chance of running into them are relatively small, lasers are quite easy to counter with one click of the shield control ACB (plus smoke), and against sabot saboteurs, being large enough to weather the bombardment, plus angling your hull and shields so they have maximum deflection chance is the key to survival. Website Find Reply
EnzeeeJ
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Reputation: Posts: 490Threads: 41Joined: Dec 2015Reputation: 2 #7 (2016-06-07, 02:29 PM) carmenara Wrote: (2016-06-06, 07:02 PM) EnzeeeJ Wrote: what makes this ship so good, i've tried adventure mode many times but i fail terribly everytime, what's your secret? -snip-
thanks for all the tips, but as of now, i have never gotten to a warp gate and used it, it get unlucky alot and by that i mean SS jets and that kind of stuff. which causes me to dislike the adventure mode while i would really like to play it a longer time than 20 mins. and get somewhere with a decent/good ship thanks for all the tips, but as of now, i have never gotten to a warp gate and used it, it get unlucky alot and by that i mean SS jets and that kind of stuff. which causes me to dislike the adventure mode while i would really like to play it a longer time than 20 mins. and get somewhere with a decent/good ship
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dain
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Reputation: Posts: 7Threads: 0Joined: May 2016Reputation: 0 #8 @Enzeeej I kinda copied off Carmenara's motor launch at least on how to shape a hull and general size. I found that practicing quick building in the Vehicle Designer really helped me out..I can last like 45 minutes so far. Find Reply
carmenara
Aesthetic Design Champion!
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Reputation: Posts: 3,093Threads: 144Joined: Jan 2016Reputation: 40 #9 It will help a lot if you save right when you extracted all the starting RZ resources and build a basic speedboat hull.
If you get unfairly murdered just reload from there.
I also have a save file with a 1 million RP cruiser in a low difficulty area located in a high density area of many warp gates including a blue one next to the load position. Resource capacity is fully stocked with over 400k natural and 500k metal allowing you to expand the cruiser into a pocket battleship or raze it and make an airship out of it.
Not sure if it's cheating to share it but maybe will attract those frustrated to start playing from a large-ish hull they can load weapons onto and go to battle right away. Website Find ReplyCoordinates:
Tavarua Island Resort, Fiji
Tavarua is a heart-shaped island resort in Fiji. It has an area of 29 acres (120,000 m2). The island is close to the main Fijian island, Viti Levu, and is surrounded by a coral reef.
Activities on Tavarua include surfing, sport fishing, scuba diving, snorkeling and kayaking. There is also a pool, spa, workout facility and tennis court along with a restaurant facility and two bars.
There are seven main surfing breaks that are all available to guests staying at the all-inclusive island resort: Cloudbreak, Restaurants, Tavarua Rights, Swimming Pools, Namotu Left, Wilkes Pass, and Desparations which are all world-class waves. Cloudbreak, being the most famous of the surrounding waves, is a powerful left a mile off the island that breaks over coral reef. Beginning surfers can enjoy fun learning waves directly in front of the island at “Kiddieland.” The island hosts annual professional surfing competitions that can be viewed via webcast. The island is so popular throughout the surfing community thanks to its heart like shape and ability to handle waves ranging from two to twenty feet.[1]
References [ edit ]Mobile phone makers are scrambling to come up with a response to Apple's iPhone 4, which was just announced Monday (though we knew it was coming considerably before the announcement)--and it looks like Motorola may have come up with a pretty good one: a 2GHz smartphone by the end of the year.
Now Conceivably Tech reports that Sanjay Jha, CEO of Motorola's consumer business and mobile devices division, confirmed that the company will have a 2GHz smartphone by the end of the year. Jha spoke at the Executives Club of Chicago on Wednesday--at the same event where, last year, Steve Ballmer mentioned Microsoft's plans for "Project Natal."
Jha also spoke about the mobile devices industry, and predicted that within a few years most corporations will give their employees smartphones instead of notebooks. Jha did not elaborate any further on the upcoming 2GHz smartphone, though an anonymous Motorola executive told Conceivably Tech that the new phone will "incorporate everything that is technologically possible in a smartphone today." According to this executive, the phone will be Android based, and include a gyroscope and Nvidia Tegra-based graphics processor with full Flash 10.1 hardware acceleration.
The snappiest smartphones on the market today--including the Google Nexus One, HTC Evo, and the HTC Incredible--use a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. Apple is in the same league--the iPhone 4 features a 1GHz A4 processor. Qualcomm recently announced that it will be introducing dual-core smartphone processors--Snapdragon chipsets with two processor cores that run with speeds of up to 1.2GHz.
It's unclear what the 2GHz chipset in the new Motorola phone will be, but it looks like it will be at least twice as fast as any smartphone on the market today.
Watch out iPhone 4.Those rather loud and distressing noises emanating from the Better Together camp in the independence referendum sound suspiciously like the gnashing of teeth. They've been evident since it became clear to us all that David Cameron would be sticking to his guns and would not be engaging in a live television debate with Alex Salmond. For, whatever angst there might have been in the Yes camp at the British prime minister's refusal to go toe to toe with Scotland's first minister, it would have been as nothing compared to the creeping sense of hysteria that slowly began to engulf the executive of the No camp. As it dawned on them that one of their own serried ranks would now have to meet Salmond in verbal combat, they all must have shivered together in the manner of men who know that one of them must walk the plank.
"I think it ought to be you Alistair; after all, you are the Scottish secretary." "No Alistair, after you; aren't you supposed to be the campaign leader?" "And what about you, Gordon, after all you were the iron chancellor, were you not?" "And what about you Jim, you and your ridiculous Irn-Bru crate?" In the end, of course, it was Alistair Darling who drew the short straw, and so on Tuesday he will step blinking into the eye of Scottish Television's cameras at Glasgow's Royal Conservatoire to be confronted by the SNP leader.
Alistair Carmichael, I fear, would never have been seen in polite society again if he were made to go 15 rounds with the first minister. Gordon Brown's ego, meanwhile, would simply never permit its master to risk a defeat by a man he considers beneath him. If Salmond brings his "A game", as they say, it should all be over quicker than an English middle order collapse.
The first minister has been largely anonymous in the independence campaign thus far. This may have been partly due to the fact that he seems to be one of those public figures for whom prolonged exposure on our television screens does no favours at all.
He is very good, but he conveys a sense of knowing that he's very good: Scottish audiences like the first but not the second. In this, he has been unfortunate. Perversely, the absence of a consistent challenge by assorted unionist leaders, both at the dispatch box and in public life, has merely served to make him look more arrogant and smug than he probably is in real life.
Quite simply, the efforts of his opponents, and especially the Labour front-bench, have been utterly lamentable in seeking to give him a good game. The majority of them are simply not good enough, though Johann Lamont has occasionally stayed the distance.
The most likely explanation for his demure approach thus far in the campaign is simply that, with a little more than six weeks until 18 September, he is being introduced to the play at a time when he can operate at full tilt. In this way, the potential for him to run out of steam or to become an overfamiliar and potentially unwelcome presence is diminished.
Darling's only hope of matching his opponent (he will never better him) during this exchange and the second one to follow lies in disrupting the flow of debate. The former chancellor is a thoroughly insipid public speaker who engenders no passion or belief in what he is saying. His answers seem learned by rote and his continual blinking as he's delivering them makes him look unconvincing, like an understudy who's just been acquainted with the script owing to the leading man being incapacitated.
At some point, I would expect Darling to attempt to shout down his opponent by constantly interrupting him, a tactic that worked well for Lamont when she encountered Nicola Sturgeon in debate earlier this year. That, though, is where the chairman, Bernard Ponsonby, must come in. Scottish political broadcasting is blessed by having several excellent journalists, of whom Ponsonby and his BBC counterpart, Brian Taylor, are the finest. Ponsonby is harder than Taylor and can skewer politicians with sinister elegance. He was the man who chased a spectral George Osborne into his people carrier last year when the chancellor refused to answer proper questions about his supposed veto on currency sharing. He'll clamp down heavily on vacillating or filibustering.
Darling has had a lacklustre independence campaign. Watching him trying to prop up Osborne's empty veto on currency union little more than a year after he himself said that it would be the best option for both countries in the event of independence was especially excruciating.
He has allowed his approach to be dictated by Better Together's dismal Project Fear strategy when he ought instead to have adopted the message of David Cameron, his Conservative ally. Near the outset of the campaign, the prime minister declared that of course an independent Scotland could be a successful small nation but that he simply felt that it would do better within the union, a perfectly reasonable and mature position.
The nationalists, though, are in no position to be overconfident about their chances even if their man gets the better of Darling on Tuesday. They are often too quick to pat themselves on the back for "awakening the country from its slumbers" during their coast to coast tour de force in the nation's town halls. This will count for nothing if it is Darling, cast in the role of Geoffrey Howe's dead sheep, who is standing under a union jack with David Cameron on 19 September.
Salmond's main challenge during this debate will not come from any deft touch or rapier thrust from his opponent. Rather, the biggest obstacle he must overcome is his own self-confidence and sense of self-satisfaction. If he does begin to eviscerate Darling early in the proceedings, he must avoid any showboating or mock-exasperation or that smirking thing that he does like the swot who knows the answer but lets the class bampots make eejits of themselves trying to answer first.
It's not difficult to descend from intellectually robust to mere rodomontade and sometimes Salmond does it, especially when he dismisses sentiments he doesn't like as "bluff and bluster".
I expect Alex Salmond to defeat Alistair Darling soundly on Tuesday night, but it would be better for him if it wasn't too soundly.The Objectivist morality, Ayn Rand said, is based on the choice to live. A perennial question in Objectivism is whether (1) life is a value because one chooses to live, or (2) one should choose to live because life is a value.. When the question is posed in this form, (1) is the correct answer.
But what does this abstract issue mean in our actual lives as individuals? At this level, there is truth in both (1) and (2). The perennial search for the meaning of life shows that we do choose our lives because they are valuable. We will explore the sources of meaning in the primary purposes that shape our lives, the role of achievement and experience as elements of purpose, and the consequences of the loss of meaning. At the same time, our purposes can be tyrannical masters unless we choose them. We will explore the choice of the values one seeks to achieve as well as the experience of choice as one renews one’s commitment to those values—and to one’s life—day-by-day.
Outline
I. INTRODUCTION: THE CHOICE TO LIVE AND THE OBJECTIVIST ETHICS
II. THE PHILOSOPHICAL PUZZLE: DO WE CHOOSE TO LIVE BECAUSE LIFE IS A VALUE, OR IS LIFE A VALUE BECAUSE WE CHOOSE IT?
A. The nature of the alternatives
B. Is the choice to live subjective and arbitrary?
C. The choice to live and the objectivity of values
III. THE MEANING OF LIFE: CHOOSING ONE’S LIFE BECAUSE OF ITS VALUE
A. The paradox of meaning and its resolution
B. The content of one’s life
C. Primary purposes as sources of meaning
D. Achievement and experience as poles of purpose
E. The loss of meaning: depression and suicide
IV. COMMITMENT: VALUING ONE’S LIFE BY CHOOSING IT
A. The tyranny of purposes and bad faith
B. Choosing one’s purposes
I. INTRODUCTION
Atlas Shrugged, 944) In these words, in Atlas Shrugged, John Galt announces the new morality that "My morality, the morality of reason, is contained in a single axiom: existence exists—and in a single choice: to live. The rest proceeds from these." (, 944) In these words, in, John Galt announces the new morality that Ayn Rand offered to the world. What is the nature of this choice to live? What is its role in the moral philosophy of Objectivism and in our actual lives as individuals?
For those who are well-versed in Objectivist theory, the choice to live is a familiar concept. Even so, it seems remote. Is it relevant only to someone thinking of suicide? That doesn’t seem like a very promising place to start for a moral code that claims to be universal. When do the rest of us make this choice, and how? Do we make it once and for all, and then get on about the business of life? There is very little in the Objectivist literature that addresses these questions. A few scattered writings on the theoretical role of the choice. And nothing, as far as I know, about its practical meaning for our real lives. Yet I believe that it does have a practical meaning, a vitally important one. So I want to make a start today on understanding the choice to live and its role in Objectivism as a philosophy to live by.
Let’s start with a brief review of Rand’s ethical theory, in order to place this choice in its larger context. Ayn Rand observed that man is first and foremost a living being. As with all living beings the maintenance of his life is his ultimate goal. Life is conditional: any organism has to initiate goal-directed action to meet its needs; if it fails, it perishes. A worm needs soil with nutrients and water; if it doesn’t get these things, it dies. Human needs are much more extensive and complex—they include psychological as well as biological needs—but the same broad principle applies. If we fail to act successfully to satisfy our needs, the result is pain, sorrow, illness, ultimately death. As with all other animals, and indeed all organisms, life versus death is the fundamental alternative that humans face.
Unlike other animals, however, human beings have free will. We have the capacity to think about the range of possible actions that are open to us at a given moment, and to choose which action to take. And so, unlike other animals, we are not entirely creatures of our genes and our environment when we act in pursuit of goals. We are not instinctively committed to the pursuit of any particular goal, not even to that most basic goal of all, our own self-preservation. Human beings can act in systematically self-destructive ways, and even seek death directly.
Because we have free will, we need moral standards to guide our choices. A dog does not need morality because it does not make voluntary choices. And of course it is only because we have free will that we can be held morally accountable for what we do, praised for living up to the standards and blamed for failing. A dog does not choose its actions in the same way, and so can’t be blamed for doing what comes naturally.
What morality does for us is identify our basic needs as human beings, that is, the kinds of values we need to achieve in order to live and flourish, values like wealth and production, love and friendship, character and self-esteem. Morality also tells us the policies we need to follow in order to achieve these values, policies like rationality, honesty, productiveness—that is, the moral virtues. But if a person does not wish to live in the first place, all this is moot. As Rand put it, "Life or death is man's only fundamental alternative. To live is his basic act of choice. If he chooses to live, a rational ethics will tell him what principles of action are required to implement his choice. If he does not choose to live, nature will take its course." (“Causality vs. Duty”)
Morality, therefore, is not an end in itself. It’s |
are beginning to spread to the rest of Europe. In Brussels, Belgium, stands a compost plant and a flourishing garden. This is the experimental station of the International Jean Pain Committee, formed in 1978 by Frederik Vanden Brande, former Belgian secretary-general of the Council of European Townships, to publicize Pain's techniques.
Verdant Future
This station is the showcase of the Jean Pain committee, and its pride. But the committee has many other activities. It puts out brochures, gives lectures, and organizes twice yearly, two-week training programmes where 100-odd farmers, students, and environmental specialists from various parts of the world study grinding, composting,. and methane production procedures.
Both in France and abroad, Jean Pain's methods are destined to be applied over a wider field. Pain has devoted followers in Australia, the United States, Tunis, Latin America and Japan, The book he wrote with his wife, already translated into five languages, has sold 70,000 copies.
International energy expert Robert Giry, author of Is Nuclear Energy Useless?, predicts: "In our times of crisis, with European agriculture in danger of one day suddenly finding itself deprived of energy, the path opened by Jean Pain for the production of fertilizer, fuel and electricity could lead to a brimming future."
The simplest principles often underlie the most useful discoveries. Now, when soil exhaustion and the search for new energy sources are the leading brain-twisters in the developed societies, Jean Pain, the self-taught scientist with calloused hands, offers a commonsense solution: the green gold that's to be found almost everywhere in the world. It is here, under our feet; we have only to stoop down to gather it.
With thanks to Ramjee Swaminathan
See also (in French):
http://www.jean-pain.com/
Les broyeurs déchiqueteurs JEAN PAIN valorisation compost bois énergie
The methods of Jean Pain: Or another kind of garden, by Ida and Jean Pain, in English, self-published 1980, 88 pages, photos, out of print -- try second-hand bookstores online. French and German editions in print.
Composting -- The wheel of life
Chicken manure fuel (Harold Bate)
Methane Digesters For Fuel Gas and Fertilizer, With Complete Instructions For Two Working Models by L. John Fry
Nepal Biogas Plant -- Construction Manual
Back to the Biofuels Library
Small Farms LibraryFor the first time mouse pancreases have developed in rats, with islet cells used to cure mouse diabetes. This raises hopes we could grow human organs in pigs
Manfred Weis/Getty
TRANSPLANT waiting lists could become a thing of the past if we could find a way to grow human organs inside other animals. Now mouse pancreases have been grown inside rats – a first step towards a ready supply of organs for transplant.
When small parts of these organs were transplanted into mice with diabetes, it reversed their disease. This finding raises the prospect that someone needing a new liver, for instance, could have what is essentially their own organ grown to order inside a specially conceived piglet, within a year of providing a small skin sample. Pigs or sheep make the best candidates, because their organs are a similar size to ours.
Donor organs are in short supply. Only around 3 in 1000 people die in a way that makes them suitable as organ donors. In the UK, nearly a third of people who need an organ wait more than two years in poor health, and one in 10 die while on the waiting list.
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The shortage has prompted research into creating organs in the lab. Many of these methods involve stem cells, which can be encouraged to form most types of tissue using different mixtures of chemical cues and signalling molecules. However, growing large organs with complex three-dimensional structures and their own blood supply has proved far from easy.
Instead, Hiromitsu Nakauchi at the University of Tokyo, Japan, and his team used rat embryos as living incubators. They began by genetically modifying parent rats so their offspring would be unable to make their own pancreas. A few days after conception, they injected mouse stem cells into the tiny rat embryos, which developed as normal, except their pancreases mostly comprised mouse cells.
Once the rats reached adulthood, the team removed the pancreases and implanted clusters of these pancreatic cells into mice with diabetes. These clusters, or islets, restored the blood glucose levels of the mice to normal for over a year (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature21070).
This is the first time this kind of inter-species organ generation has successfully treated a medical condition. “It proved those pancreatic islets must be very functional,” says Nakauchi.
“This is the first time this kind of inter-species organ generation has treated a medical condition”
That doesn’t mean doing the same with whole organs in pigs and people is imminent, though. The team used clusters of cells, instead of transplanting whole pancreases, partly because the procedure is relatively easy.
As humans and pigs are less genetically similar than rats and mice, the growing organ might be attacked by the piglet’s immune system. The team found that the islet clusters contained some rat cells from other tissues, but that the mouse immune system seemed to kill these without harming the pancreas cells. However, this may be more dangerous if a whole, large organ is transplanted.
While the approach was used to cure mice with diabetes, people can already be treated with insulin. So the technique may prove more important for treating other diseases. New organs are more urgently needed for people with failing hearts, livers, lungs and kidneys, says Nakauchi.
So far, his team has managed to modify rats so they don’t grow a liver, so it should be possible to grow mouse liver cells for transplant in a similar way to the islet cells. But getting rid of the heart is likely to be more difficult, he says.
There are also ethical issues. Because the technique would involve inserting human cells into pig embryos, the adult animals could have some human brain cells. Does that mean we should give those pigs greater moral consideration? Ethicists will need to tackle such issues as research into such human-pig chimeras continues, says Bernhard Hering at the University of Minnesota. “We are crossing a crucial line here. But exciting papers always come with new questions.”
Researchers may be able to avoid creating pig-human brains by using human stem cells that have been genetically altered so they are incapable of forming brain tissue.
This article appeared in print under the headline “Can pigs grow human organs?”Law would make state, one of nine where repeal efforts are active, the 19th state to abolish capital punishment
New Hampshire could become the next American state to outlaw the death penalty, if lawmakers were persuaded by testimony this week which likened the state's criminal justice system to those of countries such as North Korea and Iraq.
A former New Hampshire supreme court chief justice, John Broderick, told a hearing of the state senate’s judiciary committee on Thursday that senators there – one of nine states in which repeal efforts are active – should vote to scrap a punishment that is used by brutal regimes.
"I hope New Hampshire does not miss this opportunity to stand up and stand out in the 21st century," Broderick said, according to the Associated Press. "We're better than that, as a people and as a nation. We value human life, even the lives of those who do evil things. I hope New Hampshire does not miss this opportunity to stand up and stand out in the 21st century."
The Democratic-held New Hampshire house last month convincingly passed a repeal bill proposed by Representative Renny Cushing, whose father and brother-in-law were both murdered. However, a much closer vote is expected in the Republican-controlled senate.
If passed, the law would make New Hampshire the 19th state to abolish the death penalty. It would apply only to future cases and not to the state’s only current death-row prisoner, Michael Addison, who was convicted of killing a police officer in Manchester in 2006.
Legislative attempts to repeal the death penalty are ongoing in some form in the state legislatures of Arizona, Delaware, Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio and Washington, according to the Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center.
However, Arizona’s Republican-controlled state senate is unlikely to approve a proposal by Democratic state senators to amend the state’s constitution to prohibit the death penalty. In Delaware, a bill to repeal the death penalty was narrowly passed by the state senate, but has languished in the state’s house judiciary committee since April last year.
A bill aiming to repeal the death penalty in Florida had its first reading on the floor of the state house of representatives last month. An identical bill has also been introduced in the state senate. However, repeal campaigners acknowledge that progress is highly unlikely, given the Republican party’s control of both chambers of the legislature and the governorship.
Hearings were heard in January on a repeal bill tabled in the state senate in Kansas, which has not executed any prisoners since the death penalty bill was reinstated in 1994. Repeal bills were introduced in both chambers of the Kentucky legislature in February this year, with legislators stressing that defending death penalty cases costs the state millions of dollars a year.
A pair of repeal proposals in the Missouri house and senate have not progressed since stalling last year. Democrats in Ohio introduced a bill to abolish the death penalty late last year.
“It is a punishment which has been shown to be administered with disparities across economic and racial lines while failing as a deterrent to violent crime,” Ohio representative Nickie Antonio wrote in February. However, with Republicans again controlling the state’s house, senate and governorship, repeal advocates are not optimistic.
Prospects are brighter In Washington state, where Governor Jay Inslee last month announced a moratorium that would halt any executions during his tenure. A state senate bill aiming to repeal the penalty altogether, which did not pass the legislature during the last session, is expected to be reintroduced.Fight fans can get an up-close look at this week’s UFC Fight Night 104 competitors on Thursday at open workouts.
UFC Fight Night 104 takes place Saturday at Toyota Center in Houston, and it airs on FS1 following early prelims on UFC Fight Pass.
Unlike most shows, the UFC isn’t hosting ceremonial weigh-ins on Friday. Instead, all fighters will hit the scale during the early and official weigh-ins, which are closed to the public. However, MMAjunkie will have live coverage beginning at 10 a.m. ET (9 a.m. CT local time).
However, fans can attend Thursday’s open workouts, which begin at 12:30 p.m. CT. They takes place at Henke & Pillot (809 Congress Ave. in Houston). Attendees include headliners Chan Sung Jung (13-4 MMA, 3-1 UFC) and Dennis Bermudez (16-5 MMA, 9-3 UFC), co-headliners Alexa Grasso (9-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC) and Felice Herrig (11-6 MMA, 2-1 UFC), and main-card opponents James Vick (9-1 MMA, 5-1 UFC) and Abel Trujillo (15-6 MMA, 6-2 UFC).
The official UFC Fight Night 104 lineup includes:
MAIN CARD (FS1, 10 p.m. ET)
Dennis Bermudez vs. Chan Sung Jung
Alexa Grasso vs. Felice Herrig
Abel Trujillo vs. James Vick
Volkan Oezdemir vs. Ovince Saint Preux
Marcel Fortuna vs. Anthony Hamilton
Jessica Andrade vs. Angela Hill
PRELIMINARY CARD (FS1, 8 p.m. ET)
Curtis Blaydes vs. Adam Milstead
Chris Gruetzemacher vs. Chas Skelly
Ricardo Lucas Ramos vs. Michinori Tanaka
Bec Rawlings vs. Tecia Torres
PRELIMINARY CARD (UFC Fight Pass, 7 p.m. ET)
Alex Morono vs. Niko Price
Daniel Jolly vs. Khalil Rountree
For more on UFC Fight Night 104, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.In a disparaging indictment on the affairs of Wall street and politics in Washington, noted academic and twice inductee of Time magazine 100 top most influential people in the world, Professor Jeffrey Sachs has gone on to say Wall st is essentially been run by crooks who have gamed the season and Washington has essentially abetted.
The stinging remarks come courtesy of a conference earlier this month the noted economist attended in Philadelphia where he went about calling a spade a spade.
nypost: Corruption, insider trading and criminal behavior are rampant on a vast scale on Wall Street today as financiers and Washington play the same greedy games that brought us to the brink five years ago, according to one of the world’s most influential economists.
Wall Street is full of “crooks,” and it never properly cleaned up its act after the financial crisis of 2007 and 2008, Columbia University professor Jeffrey Sachs told a distinguished gathering of bankers and professionals in bombshell remarks at the Philadelphia Federal Reserve building earlier this month.
And what’s causing this you may wonder?
Told Professor Jeffrey Sachs: ‘…….is “a docile president, a docile White House and a docile regulatory system that absolutely can’t find its voice.”
Continued the academic:
“What has been revealed, in my view, is prima facie criminal behavior.”
“It’s financial fraud on a very large extent,” the adviser to the World Bank and IMF added. “There’s also a tremendous amount of insider trading — you can even watch when you are living in New York how that works.”
And in case you think it’s all because one political party is playing games at the expense of the other, you’re wrong, they’re both playing games at the expense of society as a collective.
“We have a corrupt politics to the core, I am afraid to say, and... both parties are up to their neck in this. This has nothing to do with Democrats or Republicans,” Sachs told the Philadelphia conference, “Fixing the Banking System for Good.”
From there Professor Jeffrey Sachs went on to describe an environment of Wall Street buying off politicians with huge campaign contributions.
In the 2012 election cycle, political contributions by the securities and investment sector totaled some $271.5 million, compared with $176 million in 2008, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
“I meet a lot of these people on Wall Street on a regular basis right now,” Sachs told the conference, hosted earlier this month by the nonprofit Global Interdependence Center. “I am going to put it very bluntly: I regard the moral environment as pathological. And I am talking about the human interactions... I’ve not seen anything like this, not felt it so palpably.”
Continued the economist who by then had some in attendance gasping in shock and incredulity ….
Sachs said these same people on Wall Street are out to make billions of dollars, and believe nothing should stop them from doing that.
“They have no responsibility to pay taxes; they have no responsibility to their clients; they have no responsibility to people, to counterparties in transactions,” he said. “They are tough, greedy, aggressive and feel absolutely out of control in a quite literal sense, and they have gamed the system to a remarkable extent.”
Professor Jeffrey Sachs also went on to call Wall Street’s behavior “pathological,” and enabled by a culture of impunity. “They have no responsibility to pay taxes. They have no responsibility to their clients. They have no responsibility to people, counterparties in transactions. They are tough, greedy, aggressive, and feel absolutely out of control, you know, in a quite literal sense.”
You can read a partial transcript here, but the audio as recorded by Bill Still, the host of The Still Report, is also worth listening to if you don’t mind your ears exploding with shrapnel.
above image found here.
And then there was this comment on the web that caused me to wonder as well:
I think it’s been known to a majority for quite some time and it won’t change one iota. if there is no will in the political class, it’s not going to happen and wall street will continue to sell its basically flawed products to the market and avoid liability. it’s a bit strange that if you sell a ‘faulty’ toy of hazardous one to the market, there is recourse against the manufacturer but when goldman sachs sells a faulty, hazardous and toxic product to a a market of dupes there is no recourse to be had.Dylan Hockley died in Anne Marie Murphy's arms
Dylan Hockley Dylan Hockley Photo: Contributed Photo Photo: Contributed Photo Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Dylan Hockley died in Anne Marie Murphy's arms 1 / 1 Back to Gallery
Staring down the barrel of a rifle, Anne Marie Murphy pulled Dylan Hockley close to her, trying to shield him from the hail of bullets that would kill them both.
Dylan, 6, had special needs, his family said Monday. And Murphy was his "amazing" aide, they said. He loved her, pointing happily to her photo on the Hockley's refrigerator every day.
"We take great comfort in knowing that Dylan was not alone when he died," said his parents, Ian and Nicole Hockley.
Dylan and Anne Marie were among 26 students and school staff members who died in a mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown on Friday, killed by a lone gunman who had burst into their classroom.
Murphy's family said the Sandy Hook resident, originally from Katonah, N.Y., was "fun-loving," and "artistic," according to Newsday. She loved the outdoors and her family.
In Murphy's obituary, her family asked for donations to be made to the charity Autism Speaks.
The Hockley family, although devastated by their son's death, took the time to honor those who helped him.
"We cannot speak highly enough of Dawn Hochsprung and Mary Sherlach, exceptional women who knew both our children and who specifically helped us navigate Dylan's special education needs," Dylan's parents said. "Dylan's teacher, Vicki Soto, was warm and funny, and Dylan loved her dearly."
Soto, Hochsprung, the school's principal, and Sherlach, the school's psychologist, all also died Friday in the shooting, trying to help their students. Another staff member, Rachel D'Avino, was an intern who also helped special needs students. She was studying to earn a graduate certificate in the behavioral analysis of children with Autism.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with the other families who have also been affected by this tragedy," the Hockley family said. "We are forever bound together and hope we can support and find solace with each other."
Ian and Nicole, who have an older son, Jake, moved their family to Newtown from England two years ago, choosing Sandy Hook for the community and elementary school.
"We do not and shall never regret this choice," the Hockleys said. "Our boys have flourished here and our family's happiness has been limitless."
Dylan's family said everyone who met him, loved him.
"His beaming smile would light up any room and his laugh was the sweetest music," they said. "He loved to cuddle, play tag every morning at the bus stop with our neighbors, bounce on the trampoline, play computer games, watch movies, the color purple, seeing the moon and eating his favorite foods, especially chocolate. He was learning to read and was so proud when he read us a new book every day. He adored his big brother Jake, his best friend and role model."“Mutable state is the root of all evil.”
Erlang is a functional, concurrent programming language that was originally designed within Ericsson in the 1980’s. It was built to support distributed, fault-tolerant, non-stop applications suitable for telecommunications infrastructure.
Joe Armstrong is one of the designers of Erlang, and the chief architect of the Open Telecom Platform (OTP), a framework for building Erlang applications.
Questions
Why has Erlang persisted as such a popular tool for communications platforms?
In the domain of telecom, what were the valuable features of languages like Lisp and Prolog?
How did Erlang germinate?
Can you give a high level description for how someone using Erlang should be thinking about concurrency?
What are the advantages of functional programming languages?
Why did object oriented programming become so prevalent and so widely used?
How has the Erlang community changed over time?
Links
Sponsors
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Digital Ocean is the simplest cloud hosting provider. Use promo code SEDAILY for $10 in free credit.Clean Energy Patents Have Skyrocketed Due to Obama Administration Brains Upgrade
December 3rd, 2010 by Susan Kraemer
Inventors had long suffered a shortage of the skilled reviewers that had the technical expertize to evaluate the science. Patent decisions were taking 40 months. But the new and improved DOE added enough scientific experts to review more ideas faster. Among patents already in the queue, the next 3,000 patent petitions and about 25,000 more that had been gummed up in the works were eligible for the new sped-up review program.
Looks like that investment in patent-reviewing brains is paying off. An upward trend is clear by the beginning of 2010, according to the data from the Clean Energy Patent Growth Index.
And this quarter, a record number of clean energy patents have been granted.
Overall, among technologies, solar led clean tech with 88 solar patents, followed by wind with 71. Auto companies filed mostly fuel cell patents. GM filed 9 hybrid-electric vehicle patents and 30 for fuel cells. Samsung also went heavily into fuel cells with 21 patents, and a couple for solar technologies. GE filed 19 wind patents (and 3 for fuel cells).
Japan was far and away the world leader in non-US patents with 124, Korea was next with 35, Germany had 28, France and Taiwan had 9. China had just 6 and Denmark (where they already have plenty of clean energy) merely added 5.
Among states, Michigan for the first time beat California, with 54 clean energy patents to California’s 46. But regardless of who is inventing the solutions, all of these new patents are much needed for tomorrow’s world.
A big hand to all the new hires working for the Nobel prizewinning Steven Chu’s Department of Energy on a job very well done!
Image: Eddie Gehman Cohan
Susan Kraemer@TwitterCruz was joined by the first Democratic senator on the floor at around 9:00 p.m. as Illinois’ Dick Durbin came down. Durbin didn’t come just as a friend though. He questioned Cruz on whether or not he really wanted to shutdown the government, and whether Cruz really thought he had the votes to defund Obamacare. You can see video of their back-and-forth here:
Around 1:00 a.m., Cruz took time to talk about the religious liberty implications of Obamacare.
The floor speech has been going on for nearly 17 hours now. We missed a good chunk of it overnight. But here’s some of what happened:
From there, Cruz gave way to another question from Rubio, that is at least in part intended to be an answer to that question.
“There is no ideal that resonates more with the Hispanic community than the American dream,” Cruz said. “Has Obamacare made it harder to achieve the American dream?”
The idea here being that, the impact of Obamacare on businesses in general, and the Hispanic community in particular, could be so taxing that it wouldn’t have allowed the Rubios and the Cruzes to succeed in America.
Thanking Rubio for his time, Cruz said that “if Obamacare had been law, he might not be in the Senate right now.” He suggested that it may have prevented him from getting to represent Texas, as well.
His question for Cruz: Aren’t we also fighting today for American free enterprise?
“That’s what big government does, it traps people in the circumstances of their birth.” We should defund Obamcare because, Rubio said, “it undermines the American free-enterprise system.”
Marco Rubio, giving Cruz another break, spoke on why the American Dream resonates with the Hispanic community in America. He spoke specifically about how big government pushed Hispanics out of Venezuela and Cuba, and brought them to the freedom of places like Miami.
Cruz also compared Obamacare to the “socialized medicine” of Cuba. Getting a dig in on Michael Moore, Cruz said that “I’m not aware of one person getting on a raft from Florida and heading over to Cuba.”
“You have nothing to worry about if you have several high-paid lobbyists” at your call, Cruz said.
Sen. Cruz again claimed that, unless it is defunded, labor unions will eventually be exempted from Obamacare. “I believe if it doesn’t apply to everyone, it shouldn’t apply to anyone,” he said. Although, as bears repeating, there’s not much reason to think that claim will actually come true.
Roberts’ comments weren’t about Obamacare directly, but rather about how the Senate amendment process is currently working, particularly in regards to the Farm Bill. Roberts asked Cruz what kinds of amendments he would like to offer on a budget resolution that would impact Obamacare.
Roberts, who admitted to not sticking through the whole night, appeared on the floor Wednesday morning with a particularly loose tie and a question for Sen. Cruz.
Of course, it’s worth noting, Senate Republican leadership hasn’t been rushing to Cruz’s side so far. And Cruz’s co-senator from Texas, Minority Whip John Cornyn, didn’t have kind words for Cruz on Tuesday.
Calling Roberts an “old lion” of the Senate, Cruz said it was a “big, big deal” to have the Kansas Republican’s support on the floor. “It is one thing for the young turks, it was one things for those who have been dubbed the wacko birds” to be on the floor. But, Cruz said, having the support of some of these more senior Senators makes a difference.
Cruz also suggested support for removing authority from the IRS, and delaying the individual mandate—which would likely effectively gut the health care law. He then yielded for another question/statement from Pat Roberts.
“Different rules should not apply to Washington that apply to the American people,” Cruz said.
Answering a question from Pat Roberts, Cruz said he would support repealing the medical device tax and Sen. David Vitter’s subsidy amendment, which Vitter discussed on the floor with Cruz on Tuesday.
“The president wants 100 percent of Obamacare, as he wrote it, as Democrats wrote it, with no Republican input,” Sen. Paul said. What’s difficult with this statement, and with much of what Paul and Cruz have said over the last day, is that the Affordable Care Act was of course passed by Congress. And Republicans were given opportunity to offer input on the law, even though in the end none of them actually voted for it in the Senate.
So that’s Sen. Cruz, killing Joseph Gordon-Levitt, not quite beating out Marvel’s new T.V. show in terms of search interest Wednesday morning. But when you ask yourself why exactly Ted Cruz is spending so much time speaking, especially when it’s not even for an actual filibuster and he’s very unlikely to get any of what he wants on Obamacare, it’s worth keeping this chart in mind.
8:33 a.m.: How This Is Working Out for Cruz So Far
Cruz’s answer? Absolutely. Although, again, it’s actually very, very hard to imagine Obama agreeing to any of Cruz’s proposed changes to Obamacare. Especially where funding is concerned.
His question for Cruz: Do you see an opening for compromise with the president on the Affordable Care Act?
“If you can’t sell free health care,” Paul said, “there must be a problem with it.”
The people who gave you Obamacare are not bad people. They have big hearts, but sometimes, I think, not big brains.
Paul also got in a bit of a zinger on the authors of the Affordable Care Act:
“Justice Roberts loves Obamacare so much that I’m proposing Justice Roberts trot on down” and sign up for the exchanges, Rand Paul said on the floor Wednesday morning. Paul also knocked Obamacare’s mandates, saying that “when you hear the word ‘mandate,’ that’s not freedom. That’s government telling you have to do something.”
“Just like in the Star Wars movies, the Empire will strike back.” But, at the end of the day, Cruz said, “I think the rebel alliance, the people, will prevail.”
Okay, we’re getting a little delirious here. Comparing Washington D.C. to the empire and the movement against Obamacare as the “rebel alliance,” Cruz tried to pull off a Star Wars analogy. That includes putting on his best growl and saying, “Mike Lee. I am your father.”
“I think the president should take it,” Paul said. “I think Justice Roberts should take it “¦ If he’s going to take that intellectual leap to justify Obamacare, then he should take it.”
Extending the principle of David Vitter’s amendment, both Rand Paul and Ted Cruz spoke on the floor about how the president should be subject to his health care law.
8:50 a.m.: Cruz and Paul: Obama Should Be on Obamacare
As he did on Tuesday, Cruz decided to cite from Ashton Kutcher’s Teen Choice Awards speech. Video of the speech itself, and some background on it, can be found below.
Comparing himself to Rand Paul and Marco Rubio, Senator Cruz said that he is not hip. That he can’t attract people with earrings and Birkenstocks. But, he says, he can still quote Ashton Kutcher. “I will take it as a given that there is no politician on the planet who qualifies as cool.”
A little before 9, the senator began to read from Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. Cruz has previously referred to the author as one of his all-time heroes.
Senator Cruz suggested he would prefer to have a Senate with 10 Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and 10 Mike Lees, R-Utah, than what we have now. The implication here being that, in Cruz’s mind, while Sanders is not quiet about his far-left views, other Democrats may be hiding their true beliefs.
Of course, there’s a big difference between Hillarycare and Obamacare. Congress passed Obamacare. One of them became a law. The other didn’t.
Unsurprisingly, at this point we are getting a decent number of repeats of statements that were made last night. That’s, by his own admission, what Sen. Inhofe is doing right now in his statement on Hillary Clinton’s health care push in the ‘90s. But gotta imagine it’s nearly impossible to come up with 17 hours of original spoken content.
The Oklahoma Republican, who has spent much of the last day on the floor with Cruz, gave the Texas senator a brief reprieve for a question about single-payer health insurance, and whether or not that was Harry Reid’s goal all along.
What Cruz gets wrong here, though, is that Americans oppose defunding Obamacare if it means shutting down the government. And if that’s what this endgame looks like in the short-term, support for Cruz could erode.
“I can’t win. There’s no way I can win,” Cruz said. But, he said, when it comes to ultimately defeating Obamacare “I have faith in the American people.”
Cruz may have talked all night, but the national media for the most part ignored the speech — or at least didn’t give it front-page treatment this morning. He did, however, get major play in newspapers from his home state, like the Dallas Morning News or Houston Chronicle. Here’s a compilation of some newspapers from across the country.
Ted Cruz stayed up all night to fight ObamaCare. Obama went to bed while Ambassador Stevens was being murdered.
Lending support for Cruz over Twitter, the Texas congressman drew a stretch of a parallel between Cruz and Obama:
Of course, Cruz knows a thing or two about bucking party leadership. This is an area where the freshman senator speaks with some experience.
But let me also encourage any Democrats, there are worse things in life than a few harsh words being tossed your way. To be honest, that pales in comparison to the working men and women of this country who are suffering, who are losing their jobs, who are losing their health care, who are being forced into part-time work.
“Bucking your party’s leadership inevitably provokes a reaction. Inevitably provokes expressions, and often strong expressions of displeasure,” Cruz said. He continued:
“Fans of Rush Limbaugh know that ever year he reads something that his father wrote,” Cruz said. The Texas senator then proceeded to read the story from the radio host’s father. That can be read in full here.
Durbin responded, saying that he could not speak for the majority leader, and that Reid will do as he likes. The Illinois Democrat made it clear that he found the request surprising, and then went back to a conversation from last night about the health care exchanges.
Ted Cruz, speaking to an off-camera Dick Durbin, asked if Sen. Durbin could ask the Senate majority leader to come to the floor in order for Cruz to propose a series of unanimous consent requests.
11:10 a.m.: Will Harry Reid Come to the Floor?
Cruz then asked Durbin if he believed |
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