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Tau−/− mice were generated by knockin of green fluorescence protein (GFP) encoding cDNA into the first exon of the endogenous Mapt locus as described before68 (available from JaxMice #004779). Mice were maintained on a C57Bl/6 background. Three to 6 months old male mice were used throughout the study at indicated N-numbers. Experimenters were blinded to the randomly assigned genotype or type of AAV injected for all experiments until after analysis was completed. Blinding and sample/animal randomization was done by staff not involved in the study. All procedures were approved by the Animal Ethics Committee of the University of Sydney and the University of New South Wales, Australia.
Middle cerebral artery occlusion
Transient MCAO was used to induce stroke in adult mice69. Accordingly, male C57Bl/6 mice (age: 3–6 months; body weight: 25–35 g) were anesthetized and placed on their backs to expose the neck area. The common (CCA), external (ECA) and internal carotid arteries (ICA) were exposed via a ventral midline neck incision and connecting tissue around the vasculature was removed. The distal ECA was tied off and opened by arteriotomy and a heat-blunted 5-0 nylon monofilament was inserted and gently advanced upwards, ~10 mm past the CCA bifurcation. Reduction in cerebral blood flow, as determined by transcranial laser Doppler flowmetry (Moor instruments), confirmed MCAO. The monofilament was withdrawn after 1.5 h or 30 min (for long-term follow up) under continued anesthesia. Body temperature was maintained and monitored by placing mice on rectal probe-controlled heat pads (Kent Scientific Corporation) for the duration of the entire procedures. Mice were individually housed after full recovery from anesthesia. Neurological severity scoring (NSS) was done at indicated time points, according to the following (Supplementary Fig. 1): grade 0, no deficits; 1, decreased resistance to lateral push; 2, limb extension; 3, limb elevation; 4, circling. Animals were terminated at indicated time points after onset of MCAO. Mice for long-term follow up (30 min MCAO) were weighed and neurologically scored daily. In sham operated controls, the carotid arteries where exposed and the ECA cauterized before the skin was closed again. Mice that had bleeding complications during the surgery or when the filament was removed were excluded from the study and not counted to the total numbers examined. This occurred in less than 10% of mice, and as frequently in tau−/− and tau+/+ mice. Blood pressure was recorded from the tail with CODA Surgical Monitor. Heart rate, peripheral O 2 saturation and body temperature were monitored using a PhysioSuite system (both Kent Scientific Corporation). Blood gases and electrolytes from whole blood were analyzed with an i-STAT Handheld device and CG8 + cartridges (Abbott).
Rota-rod testing
Rota-Rod testing of mice that have undergone 30 min of transient MCAO was performed as previously described70. Mice were trained on the accelerating-mode Rota-Rod (4–40 r.p.m. over 4 min) for 5 consecutive days prior to the surgery. Testing was done every 2 days after MCAO.
Cortical NMDA infusion
Stereotaxic surgeries were done as previously described71. Briefly, mice were anaesthetized with isoflurane and mounted in a stereotaxic frame (KOPF). The skin over the skull was opened and the bone exposed and cleaned. A small burr hole to allow injection into the brain was drilled into the skull. Coordinates for cortical injections were: AP: −2 mm, RL: 1.2 mm, DV: 1 mm. NMDA (50 mM; 0.2 µl) was infused over 1 minute into the cortex of mice under isoflurane anesthesia. The needle was left in place for another 5 min. After the surgery, mice were removed from the frame and the skin closed with sutures. All surgeries were done under aseptic conditions. Mice were transcardially perfused 24 h after the surgery, brains removed, paraffin embedded and serial sections stained with a standard Nissl protocol. The area damaged was determined on 10 serial 10 µm sections at 100 µm intervals.
Adeno-associated virus vectors
A KpnI-linkered DNA fragment, entailing the mouse U6 promoter and a SynGAP1 small hairpin (sh) RNA (ccagaaccctctcttccatat), was synthesized (Epochbiolabs, Missouri City, USA) and cloned into a rAAV plasmid containing the CAG promoter driving a humanized renilla GFP reporter (Adeno-associated virus (AAV)-SG1-shR). The same backbone with an EGFP shRNA replacing SynGAP1 served as a control (AAV-ctr-shR). Packaging of rAAV1 vectors was performed as described72. One µl of either AAV-SG1-shR or AAV-ctr-shR vector (2 × 1012 viral genomes/ml) was injected bilaterally into the striatum ( + 4.0mm AP, ± 1.8 mm ML, −2.3 mm DV from lambda), thalamus ( + 2.0 mm AP, ± 1.7 mm ML, −2.5 mm DV) and cerebellum (−2.3 mm AP, ± 2.0 mm ML, −2.8 mm DV) of cryo-anaesthetized neonatal mice as described73.
Electroencephalography
Methodology of electroencephalography has been previously described74. Briefly, after anesthesia with ketamine/xylazine and induction of MCAO, the recording electrode on remote telemetric transmitters (DSI) was implanted in the cornu ammonis (CA) region of the hippocampus (−2.0 mm AP, + 2.0 mm ML, −2.0 mm DV from bregma) and the reference electrode placed above the cerebellum (−6.0 mm AP, 0 mm ML, 0 mm DV). Local field potentials (LFPs) were recorded through amplifier matrices (DSI) at 500 Hz sampling rate (Dataquest A.R.T.). Raw LFPs were noise filtered using a powerline noise filter (DSI). Epileptiform discharge analysis of EEG recordings was performed using NeuroScore software v3.0 (DSI) with integrated spike detection module. Fast Fourier transform-based spectral analysis of interictal sequences was performed using NeuroScore software v3.0 (DSI). Average amplitude envelope time series were obtained by Hilbert transformation of filtered LFPs (MATLAB).
PTZ administration
To induce excitotoxicity, 6 weeks-old mice were administered pentylenetetrazole (PTZ; 50 mg/kg bodyweight i.p.)21. Directly after the injection, mice were individually placed into a 40 × 40 cm box to observe the development of seizures. Seizure severity rating was undertaken by an independent, blinded person as follows: 0, no seizures; 1, immobility; 2, tail extension; 3, forelimb clonus; 4, generalized clonus; 5, bouncing seizures; 6, full body extension; 7, status epilepticus.
Primary neuronal cultures and staining
Primary neurons were obtained from 16 days-old tau+/+ and tau−/− embryos75. Briefly, the abdominal cavity of time-mated females was opened to remove the uterus. Embryos were placed on ice, decapitated and brains removed. After meninges were carefully removed, cortices and hippocampi were dissected and incubated with trypsin (Sigma) at 37 °C for 15–20 min, followed by trituration with fire-polished glass Pasteur pipettes (Livingstone) to obtain single cell solutions. Cells were counted using a hemocytometer and plated in Dulbecco’s Modified Eagle Medium (Life technologies) medium containing 10% heat-inactivated fetal bovine serum (Hyclone). Medium was changed to Neurobasal containing B27 supplement and Glutamax (all Life technologies) for continued culturing. Neurons were cultured for 15 days, and then treated with either 10 µM NMDA, 25 µM NMDA, 50 mM KCl, 5 µM forskolin or 50 µM bicuculline for 30 min before harvesting for Western blotting. To determine cell death, cells were treated with 0, 10 or 25 µM NMDA for 30 min. Then, NMDA-containing medium was removed and cells were washed twice with warm Neurobasal medium (Thermo) before conditioned medium from before treatments was added back. After a further 24 h incubation, cells were fixed with 4% PFA and mounted in Fluoromount-G (SouthernBiotech) with DAPI (Molecular Probes). Cells with condensed nuclei were considered dead76. For staining, cells were fixed at 21 days in vitro (DIV) with 4% PFA and stained with primary antibodies to SynGAP1 (Sigma) and PSD-95 (Millipore) using established protocols77. Images were taken with an Eclipse Ti confocal microscope (Nikon). DIV 4 primary neurons were transfected V5 tagged SynGAP1 (V5-SynGAP1) or mCherry control pLVX expression plasmids using Lipofectamine LTX (Invitrogen) according to the manufacturers protocol. DIV 12 neurons were pre-treated with 5 µM nifedipine, 40 µM CNQX and 1 µM tetrodotoxin citrate (all from Tocris) for 1 h, followed by treatment with 100 µM NMDA (or vehicle) for 6 min at 37 °C/5% CO 2. Primary antibodies for staining were against phosphorylated ERK (Cell Signaling) and V5 (Sigma), and DAPI was used for nuclear visualization. Phosphorylated ERK staining intensity of randomly selected transfected neurons was quantified using ImageJ (NIH). Data from vehicle treated cells were pooled, since there was no difference between transfections.
Calcium imaging
Mice were injected at P0 with AAVs expressing the Ca2+ reporter GCaMP5G. At 1 month of age, acute brain slices (400 μm) were prepared using VT1200 vibratome (Leica) according to standard procedures. Briefly, mice were sacrificed, brains removed and sectioned coronally in modified high sucrose low sodium ice cold artificial cerebrospinal fluid (sACSF) containing 4 mM KCl, 1 mM CaCl 2, 6 mM MgCl 2, 25 mM NaHCO 3, 246 mM sucrose, 10 mM glucose and the pH indicator phenol red (pH adjusted to 7.3), bubbled with carbogen (95% O 2, 5% CO 2 ). Slices were thereafter maintained at room temperature in artificial cerebral spinal fluid (ACSF) solution containing 119 mM NaCl, 2.5 mM KCl, 2.5 mM CaCl 2, 1.5 mM MgCl 2, 26 mM NaHCO 3, 1 mM NaH 2 HPO 4, and 11 mM glucose, bubbled with carbogen. After equilibration of at least 60 min, slices were transferred onto a recording chamber and constantly superfused at 2 ml/min ACSF bubbled with carbogen. After recording baseline responses for 5 min, slices were exposed to 1 mM glutamate (bath applied in ACSF) for 5 min and cortical Ca2+ responses were monitored until neurons recovered back to baseline levels. Changes in GCaMP5G fluorescence in the cortex were imaged using a confocal microscope (Zeiss 710NLO LSM, 488 nm excitation; 5x/0.3 W objective). Images were taken every 10 seconds. The Zen software (Zeiss) was used to measure mean pixel intensity of the whole field.
Histology
Immunohistochemical staining and quantification of fluorescence intensity has been previously described in detail78. Briefly, paraformaldehyde fixed and paraffin embedded tissue was section on a microtome (Thermo) to 5 µm. Sections were rehydrated via xylene followed by decreasing concentrations of ethanol. For staining, sections were individually mounted in Sequenza racks (Thermo), blocked with 2% heat-inactivated goat serum (Sigma)/3% bovine serum albumin (Sigma) in PBS, before incubation with primary antibodies. Primary antibodies were visualized by incubation with Alexa-fluorophore labeled secondary antibodies (1:250, Molecular Probes) after washing with PBS. Primary antibodies were against SynGAP1 (1:100, Sigma), MAP2 (1:500, Sigma), Arc (1:100, SantaCruz), pH2AX (1:200, Chemicon), NeuN (1:500, Chemicon), hrGFP (1:250, abcam) and Tau5 (1:250, Invitrogen). DAPI (Molecular Probes) was used for nuclear counterstaining. 1mm fresh brain slices were obtained with a brain blocker (KOPF) and stained for 10 min at 37 °C with a 2% TTC/PBS (Sigma) solution until viable tissue turned bright red. Fluorescence intensity and infarct size were determined using ImageJ (NIH). Infarct sizes were adjusted for cerebral edema using the contralateral hemisphere as control.
Cerebral vasculature visualization
Cerebral vasculature staining was performed using Indian ink gelatin solution79. Briefly, deeply anesthetized mice were perfused with PBS and cold 4% PFA via left ventricular puncture followed by slow infusion of 0.5–1 ml 50% Indian ink in 5% gelatin at a rate of 1 ml per 30 s. Perfusion was stopped prior to ink returning to the right atrium to reduce cerebral venous filling. Mice were then left to chill on ice for 10 min to allow the gelatin to set prior to careful removal of the brain.
Western blotting
For Western blotting, protein extracts were separated by SDS-PAGE followed by semi-dry transfer onto 0.2 µm nitrocellulose membranes (Invitrogen)77. Membranes were blocked with 5% bovine serum albumin (Sigma) in TBS, washed with TBS containing 1% Tween-80 (Sigma) and then incubated with primary antibodies in blocking buffer. Primary antibodies were against ERK (1:1000, Sigma), SynGAP1 (1:1000, Sigma), phospho-ERK (1:500, Cell Signaling), V5 (1:5000, Invitrogen), Tau5 (1:1000, Invitrogen), pS214 (1:1000, Invitrogen), pS422 (1:2000, Invitrogen), pS396/pS404 (1:1000, PHF-1, P. Davies), RAS (1:1000, Millipore), Psd95 (1:2000, Millipore) and Gapdh (1:5000, Millipore). Blots were visualized by HRP-coupled secondary antibodies (1:5000, Sigma), with Luminata Crescendo Western HRP substrate (Millipore), and detected and quantified in a VersaDoc Model 4000 CCD camera (BioRad) or a ChemiDoc MP system (BioRad). Membranes were stripped for re-probing as previously described77. Full membranes of all Western blots presented are provided in the Supplementary Fig. 10.
RNA purification and quantitative PCR
A RNeasy Mini Kit (Qiagen) was used to extract total RNA from mouse brain tissue and primary cultured neurons, following the manufacturer’s instructions. To remove contaminating genomic DNA, an on-column DNA-digest was performed with RNase-free DNase I (Qiagen). cDNA was synthesized from 2.5 μg of total RNA with the second strand cDNA-synthesis kit (Invitrogen). mRNA levels were determined by quantitative PCR, using a Fast SYBR green reaction mix (Invitrogen) and gene-specific primer pairs as listed in Supplementary Table 3, using a Mx3000 real-time PCR cycler (Stratagene).
Transcriptome and pathway analysis
Next generation RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) was done by BGI-Hong Kong (China) using RNA extracted from vehicle-injected tau+/+ and tau−/− and PTZ-injected tau+/+ and tau−/− mice. PTZ mice with similar seizure score were selected for this analysis. Briefly, at least 24 million, 90 bp long read pairs per sample could be aligned unambiguously to the GRCm38/mm10 version of the mouse genome using tophat 2.0380 and bowtie 2.0.0.681 and allowing for 2 read mis-matches. Differential expression analysis was performed using Cuffdiff 2.0180 and only genes with a p-value of less than 0.05 and a fold change of more than 1.5-fold were labeled as significantly differentially expressed. Genes were labeled as lack of response, if genes were significantly differentially expressed in vehicle-injected compared to PTZ-injected tau+/+ mice and lacking or having a significantly milder response in the same direction in vehicle-injected compared to PTZ-injected tau−/− mice. Functional annotation of the significant RNA-Seq genes was performed using DAVID82. KEGG pathway83 representations were used to represent the outcome of the analysis. All sequencing data have been submitted to the GEO repository and are available under accession number GSE45703.
Active ras pull-down
GTP-bound Ras was precipitated from stimulated hippocampal slices as previously described84. Briefly, 2-month-old mice were sacrificed, brains removed and transferred into CO 2 -adjusted and ice-cold sucrose cutting solution (0.2 mM CaCl 2, 7 mM MgCl 2, 28 mM NaHCO 3, 11 mM glucose, 1.25 mM NaH 2 PO 4, 2.5 mM KCl and 241 mM sucrose). The hippocampi were removed, sliced and then incubated in CO 2 -adjusted artificial cerebral spinal fluid (aCSF) (127 mM NaCl, 2.5 mM KCl, 1.25 mM NaH 2 PO 4, 1 mM MgCl 2, 25 mM NaHCO 3 and 25 mM glucose) for 30 min at 37 °C. Slices were stimulated at room temperature for 10 min in modified aCSF containing 62.5 mM KCl, 4 mM CaCl 2, no MgCl 2, 10 μM CNQX, 5 μM d-AP, and 1 μM TTX. Reactions were terminated by replacing the medium with ice-cold lysis buffer (25 mM HEPES (pH 7.5), 150 mM NaCl, 1 % nonidet P-40, 0.25 % Na+-deoxycholate, 10 % glycerol, 10 mM MgCl 2, 1 mM EDTA and protease inhibitor (Roche)). Lysates (100 μg) were incubated with recombinant Raf-RBD coupled to beads to precipitate activate Ras.
Co-immunoprecipitation
Interaction of proteins was determined by co-immunoprecipitation experiments21. Briefly, brain tissue or cells were homogenized in a buffer containing 50 mM Tris-HCl, 150 mM NaCl, 1% NP-40 (all Sigma) and complete proteinase inhibitor (Roche). After clearing by centrifugation, 200 µg of protein was incubated with antibodies over night at 4 °C. Antibodies used for precipitation were against SynGAP1 (1:200, Sigma), Tau1 (1:200, Millipore), Tau5 (1:200, Invitrogen), RasGRF (1:200, SantaCruz) and 4RTau (1:200, Dako). Antibodies were then captured with magnetic protein G beats (Invitrogen) and washed with lysis buffer and increasing NaCl concentrations (150-250-450 mM) before adding sample buffer for subsequent Western blotting. HEK293T cells (ATCC) were transiently transfected with Flag-PSD-95, tau and V5-SynGAP1 expression plasmids as previously described22.
Synaptosome preparations
Synaptosomes were purified from mouse brains using a differential extraction procedure21; First, tissue was homogenized on ice in a Sucrose Buffer containing 0.32 M sucrose, 1 mM NaHCO 3, 1 mM MgCl 2 and 0.5 mM CaCl 2. Then, homogenates were cleared by two rounds of centrifugation (1400 × g/10 min/4 °C). The supernatants from both spins were combined, cleared again by centrifugation (720 × g/10 min/4 °C), and then crude synaptosomes were pelleted by high-speed centrifugation (13,800 × g/10 min/4 °C). Pellets were resuspended in 300 µl Sucrose Buffer, layered on top of 1 ml pre-cooled 5% Ficoll and high-speed centrifuged (45,000 × g/45 min/4 °C). Supernatant were discarded, pellets resuspended in 100 µl pre-cooled 5% Ficoll, and layered on top of 1 ml pre-cooled 13% Ficoll for the next high-speed centrifugation (45,000 × g/45 min/4 °C). The resulting interface contained the purified synaptosomes, and was recovered carefully. Purified synaptosomes were extracted from the interfaces by diluting them with Sucrose Buffer followed by pelleting with high-speed centrifugation (45,000xg/45 min/4 C). Pure synaptosomes were further fractionated to obtain soluble, membranous and PSD-associated proteins; Therefore, pellets were resuspended in 40 mM Tris-HCl (pH 6) containing 2% Triton X-100, 0.5 mM CaCl 2 (all Sigma) and complete protease inhibitors (Roche), followed by incubation (15 min/4 °C) and high-speed centrifugation (40,000 × g/30 min/4 °C). The supernatants were recovered as soluble protein fraction. Pellets were washed, using the same 40 mM Tris-HCl buffer, incubation and centrifugation conditions as in the prior step. Then, the pellets were resuspended in 20 mM Tris-HCl (pH 8) containing 100 mM NaCl, 1 mM EGTA, 1 mM EDTA, 0.5% sodiumdeoxycholate, 0.1% SDS, 1% Triton X-100 (all Sigma) and complete protease inhibitors, followed by incubation (15 min/4 °C) and high-speed centrifugation (40,000 × g/30 min/4 °C). The supernatants were recovered as membranous protein fraction. Again, pellets were washed using the conditions of the prior step. The final extraction was done by resuspending the pellets in 5% SDS, sonication and high-speed centrifugation (20,000 × g/10 min/4 °C). The final supernatants resembled the PSD-associated protein fraction.
Duolink proximity ligation assay
Primary neurons were fixed at 21 DIV with 4% PFA for 20 min and permeabilized with 0.1% Triton X-100 in PBS for 5 min. Cells were incubated in Duolink blocking solution (Olink Bioscience) for 30 min at 37 °C, followed by incubation with monoclonal mouse Tau5 (Invitrogen), rabbit SynGAP1 (Sigma) and chicken β3-tubulin (Chemicon) primary antibodies diluted in Duolink Antibody Diluent at for 1 h room temperature. The ligation assay was then conducted according to the manufacturer’s instructions (Olink Bioscience) and β3-tubulin was detected using A488-labeled anti-chicken secondary antibody (Molecular Probes). Images were taken with an Eclipse Ti confocal system (Nikon).
Statistics
Pre-study sample size calculation was based on decreased susceptibility of tau−/− mice to induced excitotoxic seizures, previously shown by us21. To detect a 40% reduction in infarct size (σ = 0.2) with a power of 0.95 and α = 0.05 we required a sample size of 8 (N = 7.61, Cohen method). Based on our tau−/− MCAO data, we calculated a pre-study sample size of 4 (N = 3.21) to detect a 75% difference in infarct size for the SynGAP1-knockdown MCAO study. Statistical analysis of results was done with the Prism 6 software (GraphPad Software, USA), with tests used indicated in figure legends. Values are given as mean ± s.e. All experiments were repeated at least three times.
Data availability
All sequencing data have been submitted to the GEO repository and are available under accession number GSE45703. All other relevant data are available from the authors upon request.GURUGRAM: School should be the safest place for a child besides home. But on Friday morning, a seven-year-old boy was brutally murdered minutes after he had entered his class and then gone to the washroom.The alleged killer, 42-year-old school bus conductor Ashok Kumar, slashed the boy with a knife from a bus toolkit he had brought to wash. Kumar told police he was stimulating himself inside the washroom when the boy walked in. So vicious was the knife attack that it split open the left side of the boy’s face from the ear to the throat. Little Pradhyumn Thakur, who was happily looking forward to a classmate’s birthday celebration when he left home, died in hospital.The horror unfolded between 7.45 and 8 am at Ryan International School’s Bhondsi campus, where Pradhyumn was a Class 2 student (TOI is naming the boy and publishing his picture with the family’s consent). Police said they were probing a possible sexual assault on the boy by Kumar because a forensic test found traces of semen on his uniform — a sky blue shirt that was soaked with blood, and blue shorts. Police suspect Kumar tried to disrobe the boy and force himself on him, and struck him with the knife when the boy resisted. Kumar has been charged with murder and attempted sexual assault.Pradhyumn, according to the junior school’s section in-charge Anju Dudeja, lay prone on the washroom floor writhing in pain and bleeding heavily from his wounds when he was discovered by school gardener Harpal, who had gone to the washroom to fetch water. The blood-stained knife was also on the floor.The boy’s father Barun — a quality-control executive with a garment export company — had just reached home, walking distance from the school campus, when his wife received a call at 8.10 am from school that Pradhyumn had been found injured.“I had walked my daughter (11) and Pradhyumn to the school gate, as I do every day. When I returned home, my wife got the phone call from Dudeja, from the school’s landline number. We rushed out and, on our way, got a call from Dudeja again to say my son was in Artemis hospital. When we reached the hospital, he had died. Someone had killed my son,” Barun told the police.“They told me his health deteriorated suddenly. They did not take care of my son. He could have been saved if he had been taken to hospital in time,” Barun later told news agencies.Police made the arrest late afternoon after poring through CCTV footage the school provided. Kumar, who is from Ghamroj village in Sohna and is himself father of two kids, admitted during interrogation he had killed the boy, police said.“The accused said he was inside the toilet and was masturbating. We believe when he saw the student alone there, he caught him and tried to sexually assault him. When the boy tried to scream, he slit his throat,” said Ashok Bakshi, DCP (south), Gurgaon police. The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights recommended a negligence case against the school, with several violations coming to light — access of others to the students’ washroom, for instance, and non-teaching staff being able to freely enter students’ circulation area within the school.Since Kumar was a staffer of a bus operated by the school, Ryan also faced questions on whether it got police verifications done.“We have told the police a case of negligence be registered against the school management as we have found the school did not undertake police verification of teaching and non-teaching staff,” Priyank Kanoongo, member RTE & education, NCPCR, told PTI.Sumit Kuhar, DCP (crime), Gurgaon, said, “The accused is father of two children around 10-12 years old. The school’s transportation is under the supervision of Harkesh, who is also from Ghamroj. Harkesh had appointed Kumar as conductor on one of his buses eight months ago. Before this, the accused was working as a conductor with a private school bus in his village.”Since exams are on at Ryan — there are a little over 1,000 students on the campus — the school did not meet for the morning assembly and the students went straight to class. “I was in Pradhyumn’s class at that time,” Dudeja told TOI.“His class teacher Kamishki had gone with some students to participate in a competition with some schoolkids. Pradhyumn had not come inside the class. The gardener came running to me and said a kid was lying on the floor with blood all over him in the washroom. He pulled my hands and took me there.” The school said it didn’t waste a minute to take the kid to the nearest hospital.Principal Neerja Batra said, “Exams are going on in the school, so we hadn’t called the kids out for assembly, instead we were doing it through the school’s PA system. At 8 am, Anju informed me such an incident had happened. Pradhyumn was alive when we took him to hospital. He was still breathing. I told my staff to take the student in a school van to Life Care Hospital, where he was given oxygen. However, to give the kid better treatment, he was taken to Artemis hospital.” Police said there were two cuts on the boy’s face, on the throat and below the ear, indicating he had been slashed twice. “We are waiting for the autopsy report,” Bakshi said.The U.S. Army may send robotic soldiers to the battlefield within the next 30 years, General Robert Cone said at the Army Aviation symposium on Jan. 15. It is part of the Army's effort to become “a smaller, more lethal, deployable and agile force," he explained, according to Defense News.
As the head of the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), Cone is instrumental in mapping out the Army's future.
“I’ve got clear guidance to think about what if you could robotically perform some of the tasks in terms of maneuverability, in terms of the future of the force,” he said.
The future of the force could see one quarter of the 4,000 soldiers in the Brigade Combat Team replaced with robots and drones. Cone says it will be possible to reduce manpower without reducing firepower. But in order to get there, the Army will "need to fundamentally change the nature of the force, and that would require a breakthrough in science and technology," Lt. Gen. Keith Walker told Defense News.
The challenge of feeding an army
Cone said one way to reduce the force is to use unmanned ground vehicles.
Robotic warriors would not be a new addition to the Army force. Right now, though, they are only used in limited activities. A robotic bomb squad disposed of IEDs in Iraq and Afghanistan, and soldiers use the RQ-11 Raven drone to scout out danger. DARPA funding has also supported numerous robotics research and development projects.
Reducing manpower could significantly reduce costs, especially in terms of lifelong healthcare and benefits for current and retired soldiers. These costs comprised one-quarter of the Pentagon's proposed budget in 2012.The temperature was already scorching as Kansas Senate candidate John Skubal, sweat soaking his back, rang the Overland Park man’s doorbell.
The atmosphere quickly grew hotter.
The two men shook hands. Soon, 36-year-old voter Chris Confer was venting with impassioned indignation.
“I am a Republican through and through,” he told Skubal, 69, an Overland Park councilman seeking the 11th District seat. “But I do not appreciate, I do not appreciate, I do not appreciate the governor — my party’s leader — going to war with the Supreme Court.”
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By that, Confer was talking about Kansas’ public schools and the possibility they might be shut down, something that has happened only once in modern U.S. history.
The Legislature faces a June 30 deadline set by the state Supreme Court to fix inequities in school funding between richer and poorer districts. Lawmakers are to convene Thursday in a special session called by Gov. Sam Brownback.
If no remedy is found, the court could block $4 billion in education funding, forcing schools to close.
Superintendents from five Johnson County districts — Olathe, Shawnee Mission, Blue Valley, De Soto and Gardner Edgerton — last week urged lawmakers to infuse schools with $50 million to satisfy the court’s order.
“I have a daughter with Down syndrome,” Confer, a lawyer and father of two, said after his conversation with Skubal. “We are absolutely dependent on the schools to provide her with physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy.”
Added to that, he said, is his overarching outrage at what he considers the Legislature’s obstinacy. “You don’t get to thumb your nose at the Kansas Supreme Court,” he said.
SHARE COPY LINK Kansas City, Kan., Public Schools spokesman David Smith called on the "adults in the room" to support public schools as he spoke before a joint meeting of the House and Senate committees on judiciary on Thursday, June 16, 2016, in Topeka.
Miles away in western Lenexa, where Republican state Sen. Greg Smith was campaigning in the 21st District, the issue was the same, but voter Robert Bens, 55, had a different take.
“I do think the courts overreached on that,” he said. “I don’t think it’s up to the courts to say how much you can spend.”
Bens added that he had no concerns over whether Kansas’ schools would open. “No,” he said. “I’m not worried.”
Hardly debatable is how in this election season — with all 40 state Senate seats and all 125 House seats up for grabs — incumbents and their challengers in the Republican-dominated Legislature are getting an earful from potential voters. The primary election is just six weeks away.
While viewpoints may differ, Republican candidates walking door to door in Johnson County insist that two prime issues have come to occupy voters’ thoughts: Kansas schools in the cross hairs, and dwindling state revenue after income tax cuts in 2012 and 2013.
“It’s a nightmare,” Steve Eugster, 57, said at his door in Overland Park. His wife is a teacher in the Blue Valley School District. “I mean, really, we don’t have a budget to educate our kids. … The whole budget, it’s a mess. It’s a fiscal mess.”
In early June, an automated telephone poll of 433 Kansas registered voters by John Zogby Strategies asked voters what “presses your buttons and drives your choice of a candidate.” Respondents said education topped the list.
Voters have been expressing frustration about school and state revenue problems for months, said Skubal, a self-described moderate Republican. He said he and his supporters have knocked on more than 4,000 doors in his bid to unseat Republican Sen. Jeff Melcher in the 11th District.
The Star recently followed Skubal as he walked through neighborhoods around 141st Street and Antioch Road. (The Star also asked to accompany Melcher, but he declined, saying he did not think his constituents would be comfortable talking to a reporter. Melcher also declined a request for a telephone interview.)
Either Melcher or Skubal will face Democrat Skip Fannen in the general election in November.
On this particular day last week, Skubal and a campaign worker set out about 5:30 p.m. Residents were returning home from work. Mostly Skubal rang bells and knocked on doors.
“We get very, very few respondents on a night like this,” he conceded. By “n |
officials? Were any questions asked of those listed in the black book. such as did they participate with the girls? It seems extraordinary to let something that could pose a National Security threat slip through the cracks because of pressure from attorneys.
Epstein was not operating alone. You can’t run a ring without some help. So Acosta needs to be asked why Epstein was the only one charged? Is American Justice being held hostage by sex-blackmailers with connections?
The interesting thing is that people, including those involved with outing the so called “Pizzagate” story, keep aligning Hilary and Bill Clinton with Epstein, while it was Leslie Wexner, the founding chairman of the Limited Inc. who purchased and owned the home at the time that was allegedly used in the rape of the underage girl, Johnson, that was sited in her deposition. Ghislaine Maxwell, who according to numerous accounts, recruited the underage girls, and quite possibly Donald Trump who participated at least in the beginning based on Johnson’s personal account.
Is Pizzagate their tool, by design, to use the blackmail they gathered on the elite guests brought to the homes and procured young girls for as a threat? It would have been very easy to circulate blackmail evidence with the simple hashtag #Pizzagate. In effect, they could have used the highly publicized “conspiracy theory” as a vehicle to threaten those blackmailed into submission during the 2016 election.
_________
How it began
In 1989, Wexner purchased the Birch Wathen School for $13.2 million according to an article found here. This was the New York home, 9 East 71st St, New York, NY was identified in the victims’ testimonies, including that of the woman who withdrew her suit, now known as Johnson. The home did not change hands until 2012 when Epstein transferred the home to an off shore company located in the Virgin Islands. The signature match on the document that was recorded. The home was owned by a corporation, NINE EAST 71ST STREET CORPORATION, so it is unclear if Wexner ever released his interests in the corporation. It is also unknown if Wexner held an interest in the other properties including the private island in the Virgin Islands and the ranch owned in New Mexico which were mentioned in the victim’s testimonies.
“In 1995, Wexner turned the home over to Epstein, who was his protege and financial adviser (and much more, if you believe Gawker CEO Nick Denton’s argument) because, on the face of it, his new wife ‘expressed greater enthusiasm for bringing up their two young children in Columbus, Ohio,’ ‘ according to the article, “Every Property Owned by Sleazy Financier Jeffrey Epstein” in Curbed.
Tax assessor documents recorded on September 11, 1989 show that the home was sold by the Birch Wathen School to NINE EAST 71ST STREET CORPORATION for “$10 and other valuable consideration”.
Around the same time, in 1989, Trump was being hosted by Robert Maxwell and his daughter Ghislaine Maxwell on the yacht, “Lady Ghislaine”.
Robert Maxwell was owner of the Mirror Group Newspapers. He died in 1991, and left Ghislaine with many valuable contacts, according to the Guardian article, “Captain Bob and the spooks,” Robert served as a direct conduit for foreign intelligence.
From the article, “His American acquisitions were a crushing debt burden. He had rifled the entire pension funds of Maxwell Communications to try to ease that debt burden, and he mortgaged virtually all his wealth on a huge gamble with fate. There was no one left to rescue Bob Maxwell – except one possible saviour. He still had friends in very high political places. If they failed him then commercial disaster would swiftly turn to criminal investigations. So what happened to those political friends in high places?
“Maxwell built up a tremendous catalogue of politically-influential contacts with wide commercial implications. For over 20 years he had established a network of commercial and political interests in the communist countries of Eastern Europe, which was a linchpin of his Pergamon Press Company. His biographies – or to be accurate, bland hagiographies – of virtually all the Communist leaders were a lucrative earner.
“Yet this extraordinary quilt of commercial contacts with the East European communist world concealed something else – Maxwell was also involved in passing intelligence to the west about the communist rulers. In fact, he was almost certainly being used as – and using himself as – a two-way intelligence conduit. This arrangement included passing intelligence to the Israeli secret forces, with whom he became increasingly involved towards the end of his life.
“Maxwell was highly regarded by the Israeli government. He was certainly used by them to help in the process of Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union and, in return, he was seen by the Soviet government as an important contact in dealings with Israel. This involved commercial interests as well that linked Maxwell with secret defence deals between Israel and the countries of Eastern Europe. Maxwell had important investments in the Israeli defence industry, especially in the trading park at Haifa. ”
A few years after her father’s death Ghislaine Maxwell would team up with Jeffrey Epstein and form a partnership which would last for more than fifteen years and damage hundreds if not thousands of young women’s lives, and leave millions of other lives impacted by what they potentially created together.
Ghislaine and Epstein were “seen” together aboard another yacht in 1995 in Sydney, Australia onboard the yacht of trucking magnate Lindsay Fox for a Christmas cruise during the couple’s “fleeting visit to Sydney after stopping of at Melbourne and spending some time with the Fox family.
In 1995, Epstein was also developing new real estate in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the ranch later be known as Zorro Ranch.
Giuffre claimed in her sworn statement, “I also had sex with Dershowitz at Epstein’s Zorro Ranch in New Mexico in the massage room off of the indoor pool area, which was still being painted.” This claim was later denied by Dershowitz, who threatened the attorneys with disbarment.
According to Business Insider, “Dershowitz promised to start disbarment proceedings against the two lawyers who filed the motion, Cassell and Edwards. For their part, Cassell and Edwards told Business Insider in a statement that they ‘carefully investigate’ claims in all of their pleadings before filing them.
The attorneys replied in a statement to Business Insider, “We have also tried to depose Mr. Dershowitz on these subjects, although he has avoided those deposition requests. Nevertheless, we would be pleased to consider any sworn testimony and documentary evidence Mr. Dershowitz would like to provide which he contends would refute any of our allegations.”
The post on Business Insider was not updated with a reply from Dershowitz.
Epstein’s little black book was published by Gawker when it turned up in court proceedings after Epstein’s former house manager Alfredo Rodriguez had tried to sell it in 2009. About 50 of the entries, including those of many of Epstein’s suspected victims and accomplices as well as Trump, Love, Barak, Dershowitz, and others, The people of interest had been circled by Rodriguez.
Considering the number of people circled in the book and not questioned publicly, and those implicated but never charged such as Ghislaine Maxwell, we really have to wonder about Acosta. Will this case ever lead to a thorough investigation and questioning of everyone circled in the black book, as justice demands that it should?
Maybe there is some light at the end of the tunnel. This summer, “President Donald Trump is on a list of witnesses for trial in a Palm Beach lawsuit that pits billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein against a Fort Lauderdale attorney who represents Epstein’s victims,”according to Dan Christensen at FloridaBulldog.org.
But why wait until summer to ask questions — Acosta’s confirmation hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, March 22? Perhaps the Senate can finally get some more answers to the plea deal that could be concealing sex-blackmail of many important people, including some very prominent politicians.
Freedom comes from truth and justice. We need to ask some questions on March 22.
_____________Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump had a busy Wednesday, doing two rallies in Nevada, an interview with a Las Vegas television station, and appearing at a roundtable meeting with Hispanic business leaders. He said 16 false things:
Donald Trump said 16 false things during a series of appearances in Nevada (pronounced Nev-ADD-a) Wednesday. ( Ethan Miller / GETTY IMAGES )
1. Falsely said, “Homicides are up nearly 50 per cent in Washington DC and more than 60 per cent in Baltimore.” (This was true last year, but not this year. Homicides are actually down in both cities in 2016, DC’s by 12 per cent as of yesterday.) 2. Falsely claimed he was endorsed by part of the U.S. government: “ICE, two days ago, ICE, the first time they’ve ever endorsed”; “ICE endorsed me…” (Trump was endorsed by an ICE employees’ union, not the agency itself. And it was more than a week ago, not two days.) 3. Falsely described an investigation into the State Department: “Our State Department, mostly under the watch of Crooked Hillary Clinton, misplaced or lost $6 billion in taxpayer funds.” (The inspector general who did this probe explicitly says it is not true that the actual money went missing — simply that contract files were incomplete or missing.)
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4. Falsely said Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen “knows she’s supposed to be inching them (interest rates) up and she’s not doing it.” (Trump was alleging with no evidence that Yellen was keeping rates low to help Democrats. By all expert accounts, she is keeping them low because she believes this is best for the economy.) 5. Falsely said of Iran, “In less than 10 years now, they will have nuclear weapons.” (There is no evidence for this claim. The deal imposes strict constraints on Iran’s nuclear program for 11 to 15 years.) 6. Falsely said of Clinton, “She’s for open borders.” (Clinton is not.) 7. Falsely said, “Thousands of refugees are being admitted with no way to screen them.” (Refugees are put through an extensive screening process.) 8. Falsely said, “Our annual trade deficit with the world is nearly $800 billion.” (The overall U.S. trade deficit last year was $532 billion. It was $746 billion when only goods were counted, not the services trade at which the U.S. excels.)
9. Falsely said, “Hillary Clinton basically accuses our police of all being racist.”(This is a significant mischaracterization of Clinton’s debate comments, in which she said, “I think implicit bias is a problem for everyone, not just police. I think, unfortunately, too many of us in our great country jump to conclusions about each other.”) 10. Falsely explained the pronunciation of Nevada: “Nobody says it the other way. It has to be Nev-AHH-da.” (As numerous Nevada media outlets pointed out, most people use Nev-ADD-a.)
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11. “An amazing statistic is: there are more than 2 million criminal aliens with convictions in the country right now.” (This figure — actually 1.9 million — includes legal immigrants with convictions. By one credible estimate, the number of illegal immigrants with convictions was 820,000.) 12. “Hillary Clinton put her public office up for sale.” (There is no evidence Clinton did or tried to.) 13. Falsely said, “58 per cent of African-American youth don’t have jobs.” (This figure was correct early in the year, but it has now fallen to 55 per cent. Regardless, it is also misleading, as it counts high school students and wealthy youth who don’t need jobs.) 14. Falsely said: “Hillary’s Korea deal — the deal she made with South Korea — also cost us another 100,000 jobs.” (The job-loss figure is disputed, but the deal was certainly not “Hillary’s Korea deal” or one “she made.” It was primarily negotiated, as always, by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, part of Obama’s Executive Office of the President, not the State Department.) 15. Falsely said he is doing “so well” in Michigan, where “normally” Republicans don’t do as well. (Trump trails in every poll there, most recently by 11 points. Even before this newest poll, he was down by an average of five points, close to the margin by which Bush lost both times.) 16. Falsely denied that he’s cutting taxes for the rich more than the middle class: “No, no, no. We’re cutting taxes for the middle class more than anything.” (Trump’s tax cuts overwhelmingly benefit the rich. Writes the Tax Foundation: “The bottom 80 per cent of taxpayers would see an increase in after-tax income between 0.8 per cent and 1.9 per cent,” while taxpayers in the top 20 per cent would see between 4.4 per cent and 8.7 per cent — and “ taxpayers in the top 1 per cent would see the largest increase in after-tax income on a static basis.”) Other false things: Pence makes 17 false claims at the VP debate, Kaine 11 Donald Trump said 12 false things on Saturday, Oct. 1 Trump said 34 false things at first presidential debate
Read more about:Namco Bandai Has The [email protected] Shiny Festa In English, But Only For iOS
By Spencer. April 21, 2013. 11:51pm
Those trademarks Siliconera discovered were indeed for a localized version of The [email protected] Shiny Festa rhythm games. While these aren’t idol training sims, Namco Bandai made English versions of the PSP games. However, these won’t be available for PSP, the localized The [email protected] Shiny Festa games are for iOS.
There are three games – The [email protected] Shiny Festa Melodic Disc (called Groovy Tune in Japan), The [email protected] Shiny Festa Harmonic Score (called Honey Sound in Japan), and The [email protected] Shiny Festa Rhythmic Record (called Funky Note in Japan). Each one has a different set of idols and a different animated opening feature. If you thought Square Enix’s iOS games were expensive brace yourself because each The [email protected] Shiny Festa game costs $54.99. The complete The [email protected] Shiny Festa series will cost $164.97 and it appears the games will have additional DLC.
The [email protected] Shiny Festa Harmonic Score has idols Haruka Amami, Chihaya Kisaragi, Azusa Miura, and Ritsuko Akizuki with the "Music in the World" animated feature.
The [email protected] Shiny Festa Melodic Disc has Iori Minase, Yayoi Takatsuki, Ami Futami, Mamai Futami, and Hibiki Ganaha with the "Music is a Friend" animated feature.
The [email protected] Shiny Festa Rhythmic Record has Miki Hoshii, Yukiho Hagiwara, Makoto Kikuchi, and Takane Shijou with the "Music of Love" animated feature.
The games are compatible with the iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPad 2 (and higher iPads),the iPad mini, and fifth generation iPod Touch.- Richardson police are looking for witnesses who may have helped a murder suspect get out of the mud while disposing of his girlfriend’s body.
Jason Lowe is currently being held in the Richardson jail for allegedly murdering 27-year-old Jessie Bardwell. Police haven’t found her body but said evidence of foul play is strong enough to warrant a murder charge.
Police believe Lowe had Jessie’s body in his black 2010 Audi Q5 and dumped her in a muddy area.
“There exists the possibility that his Audi became stuck in the mud and that assistance may have been necessary for him to free it. While receiving that assistance, the previously damaged front bumper may have broken free from the vehicle,” The Richardson Police Department said in a release.
According to an arrest warrant affidavit, when officers first questioned Lowe about Jessie’s disappearance they noted the car was covered in mud and missing its entire front panel. He was also covered in mud from head to toe.
But they didn’t look inside of the vehicle until a few days later when they determined he had given them false information about Jessie’s whereabouts.
Detectives then found evidence of blood throughout the vehicle, including in the rear hatch and on the steering wheel, gear shift and driver’s side door handle. The also noticed the distinct smell of decaying flesh in the car and found a bullet hole, shovel, muddy boots and other evidence of a possible body disposal in Lowe’s garage, the affidavit states.
“We’re asking just civilians from the area that know that place, just go search for her please and just look for her,” pleaded Kayla Bardwell, Jessie’s sister-in-law. “Just find her and bring her back home to us because we would do the same. We would do the same for y’all.”
Kayla says Jessie moved to Texas after Christmas to be with Lowe because she loved him but then quickly became isolated.
"She just didn't stay in touch,” said Kayla. “That's just not her."
Now, she's certain Lowe killed Jessie and dumped her body.
"Just tell us where she's at and that's all we care about. That's all,” said Kayla. “Bring her home to her family so we can give her a proper home."
Lowe's high school friend from Mississippi, Matt Malouf said he attended a wedding in Mississippi with Lowe and Jessie on April 2. He said he and Lowe reconnected after not talking for several years.
“He actually apologized and said, ‘Don't worry about it I was on cocaine back then,’” Malouf said. Police documents said Lowe admitted to using cocaine when officers saw it in plain sight in his apartment on May 12.
Malouf said Lowe is an only child and always struggled with anger issues.
“Almost a possessive kind of controlling person. Everything was on his schedule. Everything he wanted his way,” Malouf said. “As crazy as it sounds it kind of makes sense now. Part of me refuses to believe it, can't believe it.”
Police are still looking for Jessie’s body. Anyone who may have spotted Lowe stuck in the mud between April 29 and May 8 is encouraged to call the Richardson Police Department at 972-744-4801.Underscoring the insecurity of many online dating, job, and e-mail services, security researchers said that they have tracked almost 360 million compromised login credentials for sale in underground crime forums over the past three weeks.
The haul, which included an additional 1.25 billion records containing only e-mail addresses, came from multiple breaches, according to a statement posted Tuesday by Hold Security. The biggest single list contained 105 million details, making it among the bigger online finds, the firm told Reuters. The cache included e-mail addresses that most likely served as user names and corresponding passwords. It remains unclear what service the account credentials unlock.
Further Reading The secret to online safety: Lies, random characters, and a password manager massive breach of Adobe's corporate network. A month later, the security firm uncovered 42 million plaintext passwords taken during a hack on niche dating service Cupid Media.
At 360 million, Hold Security's latest find is big enough that it likely also came from hacks on poorly secured Web service servers that store large caches of user credentials. The risk of these types of attacks are biggest for users who choose the same password for multiple services. Once an attacker has someone's e-mail address and password for one site, the credentials can be used to compromise every other site account that uses the same user name and password. Ars has long advised readers to use a long, randomly generated password that's unique for each online account. You can find a much more detailed how-to here.A man was shot and robbed in Rogers Park Thursday night, police said. View Full Caption Flickr/diversey
WEST RIDGE — Two men set up a ride with a Lyft driver in West Ridge and then robbed and shot him Thursday night, officials said.
The 26-year-old driver survived the ambush. He was shot in the shoulder.
It happened at 10:10 p.m. Wednesday in the 6100 block of North Wolcott Avenue. Several men got into the back seat of his car and one man shot the driver in his right shoulder, said Officer Jose Estrada, a Chicago Police spokesman.
Ald. Patrick O'Connor (40th) said Rogers Park police told him the man was a Lyft driver who had a prearranged pickup at the location.
According to O'Connor, while the driver waited he was approached by two men in their 20s who robbed the man — and made off with his car keys.
The attackers also took the man's wallet and cellphone, Estrada said.
After the attack, the driver ran to the Citgo gas station at Peterson and Wolcott avenues, where police and emergency responders were contacted, according to O'Connor.
He was taken to St. Francis Hospital, where his condition stabilized, Estrada said.
No one is in custody, Estrada said.
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:Jerome Powell, President Donald Trump's nominee to chair the Federal Reserve, is both a Republican and an Obama appointee. | Drew Angerer/Getty Image How Jerome Powell can save the Fed from Trump Powell is expected to remain a firm advocate for Fed independence, though Mnuchin backed him as a pick over whom he hoped he could exert some influence.
Jerome Powell, President Donald Trump’s nominee to chair the Federal Reserve, faces multiple risks as he prepares to take stewardship of the economy. Among the biggest: the threat of being publicly criticized by the president himself.
The Fed zealously guards its ability to make monetary policy decisions free from short-term political pressures, a key feature of its structure. But the president has already proved willing to buck tradition by targeting the central bank, and its chair, in the bluntest terms on the campaign trail.
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“She’s very political, and to a certain extent, I think she should be ashamed of herself,” Trump said of Fed Chair Janet Yellen in a CNBC interview in September 2016. During a presidential debate that same month, he accused Yellen of artificially propping up the economy with low rates.
Now, with the economy showing new strength and stocks hitting record highs, if a Powell-led Fed responds by accelerating interest rate hikes, the president could be provoked to speak up again. And Powell would have to rely on his relationships on Capitol Hill, as well as with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, to help ward off any such attacks.
Since Trump’s election a year ago, the Fed has grappled with the possibility that the president could publicly criticize the central bank, plunging it into an uncomfortable political spotlight.
“The Fed needs a good reputation, and its credibility matters,” said Sarah Binder, a political science professor at George Washington University.
“If you have criticism coming in from Trump and coming in from Congress, … there will always be questions about whether the Fed will succumb in any type of way or be diverted from its policy prescriptions,” she added. “That makes it harder for monetary policy to work.”
Certainly, the central bank’s best defense against attacks is to keep the economy on an even keel. But if conditions turn sour over the next few years — a real possibility given that the current expansion is already the third-longest in U.S. history — the Fed would be an easy target. And the president hasn’t shied away from criticizing even his own appointees, as Attorney General Jeff Sessions and others have discovered.
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If the president is unhappy with the Fed's performance, he could also use additional appointments to shake up the central bank.
As a result, the Fed spends considerable energy figuring out how to stay out of politics and preserve its independence.
Its ability to do so will likely soon sit squarely on the shoulders of Powell, who will not only have to guide decisions that affect the economy but also defend them to Congress and the public. His confirmation hearing before the Senate Banking Committee is set for Tuesday.
While Trump criticized the Fed more stridently than any major presidential contender in modern history, congressional Republicans have taken aim at the central bank for years. One GOP lawmaker says the key is for the chair to convey his intentions effectively.
“The better the Fed communicates its policy trajectory, both to the public and to Congress, the more it is going to be able to achieve that independence that many Fed officials want,” Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.), who chairs the House Financial Services subcommittee on monetary policy, said in an interview.
Powell is both a Republican and an Obama appointee, providing him with bipartisan support that might help fend off threats to the central bank. A member of the Fed board since 2012, he’s more sympathetic to Republican calls for a simpler rulebook for banks yet also more in line with Yellen on interest rate policy.
He would also come into the job with a fair number of relationships on the Hill already; between January and September, he met with 13 senators and multiple House members. And since his nomination as chair, he has had a flurry of additional conversations.
“I think very highly of Jay,” Barr said. “He and I have gotten a chance to know each other through an informal breakfast meeting and other meetings in my office.”
Still, although criticism from the president could undermine public support for the institution, the bigger worry for the Fed is the potential for those criticisms to carry over to congressional action.
The central bank is perpetually involved in a delicate dance with Congress. It has the freedom to set interest rate policy as it sees fit to achieve the dual goals that Congress has given it: price stability and maximum employment.
But the Fed was created by Congress, meaning some of its powers could theoretically be taken away by the legislators. So the chairman must remain on good terms with congressional leaders while not paying heed to whatever short-term policy action the lawmakers would like to see.
"Every Fed chair understands at his or her core that their job is to protect the independence of the Fed, and one of the ways you do that is by maintaining a good relationship with the Congress," said Laurence Meyer, a former Fed governor who now heads a policy analysis firm.
"Of course, if Congress views the Fed’s performance as seriously lacking, it is more likely to implement reforms that the [Fed] thinks would be damaging to the pursuit of its congressionally mandated objectives,” he added.
House Republicans in particular have sought to have a greater window — and, the Fed worries, more influence — on monetary policy decision-making. The Financial Services Committee this month approved three bills along those lines, including one requiring the central bank to explain whenever it deviates from a strategy.
Barr says this type of clarity will actually protect the central bank from attack because it will help Congress understand where the Fed is going.
“In the last year, there has been a very noticeable effort to respond to some of the concerns that members of Congress have had in asking for greater clarity and communications” as the Fed begins to pull back some of its extraordinary support for the economy, he said.
But the more power the Fed aims to use, particularly on the regulatory side, the more it should expect Congress to weigh in, he said.
Yet concrete Fed reform would be hard to achieve. That’s because while most lawmakers would like to make changes to the central bank, there’s no consensus as to what those changes should be.
Powell could help keep it that way in a Republican-majority Congress.
“I do think that you’re going to see — and you already have seen this — fewer calls for more congressional oversight over the Fed, and fewer complaints about Fed governance, and fewer complaints about the Fed, broadly speaking, at least as long as the economy is OK, than you did when Yellen was there,” said Ian Katz, an analyst with Capital Alpha Partners.
The Fed's relationship with Congress and the administration could also change simply because Powell has a different personality than Yellen's. His low-key style is perhaps more suited to the type of political schmoozing that she politely engaged in only when necessary.
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He also got to know members of Congress in 2011, when he was a fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center and met with numerous Republicans to convince them of the dire consequences of not raising the debt ceiling.
Powell is expected to remain a firm advocate for Fed independence, though Mnuchin backed him as a safe pick over whom he hoped he could exert some influence.
“I think Mnuchin or anyone in the administration that thinks they’re going to have influence over Powell is going to be disappointed,” Katz said.
And if the president does decide to go on a public campaign against a Powell Fed?
“That would obviously be awkward and uncomfortable,” Katz said. “The Fed wouldn’t be happy with it, but I think they would just keep on doing what they’re planning on doing.”(Reuters) - Voters in Newark will pick a new mayor on Tuesday to fill a post held by popular Democrat Cory Booker and steer New Jersey’s largest city as it struggles with an uptick in violent crime, unemployment and a possible state takeover of its finances.
A supporter of Newark's mayoral candidate Ras Baraka shouts slogans next to a voting center during mayoral elections in Newark, New Jersey, May 13, 2014. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
Booker, who served for seven years as mayor and used his national profile to help attract billions of dollars in investment to Newark, about 12 miles from New York City, is now a U.S. Senator. He won a special election last October to succeed Senator Frank Lautenberg, who died in office.
Former City Council President Luis Quintana has held the interim mayorship.
The two Democratic candidates vying for the job are Shavar Jeffries, 39, a former assistant attorney general and a civil rights lawyer, and Ras Baraka, 44, a high school principal, city councilman and the son of the late activist and poet Amiri Baraka.
In this heavily liberal city, a Democrat is virtually guaranteed victory.
The candidates have touted their Newark roots in an election seen as a referendum on the staying power of gains made by Booker, including large-scale investment from Wall Street and Silicon Valley, most visibly a $100 million matching grant for school reform from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
The new mayor will also have to tackle the city’s most vexing issues, including a 13 percent unemployment rate among its 277,000 residents and the highest murder rate in more than two decades.
Baraka has called for the implementation of a plan known as Operation Ceasefire that compels gang members to end their affiliation and receive job training and education. Jeffries said crime prevention should include both enforcement, reintegration and treatment programs for low-level offenders and drug users.
Jeffries and Baraka have both made education reforms a centerpiece of their campaign, voicing careful support for the controversial “One Newark” school reorganization plan that calls for the consolidation, closure or relocation of one-quarter of the city’s schools.
Newark also faces the threat of a state takeover of its finances after showing an “extraordinary level of fiscal distress,” according to a letter sent to city officials from Tom Neff, a state financial officer.
A shortfall in tax revenue could leave the city some $93 million short in its operational budget for 2014. Some $30 million of that deficit was racked up in Booker’s last year in office.He entered the NFL through the side door as a mid-round selection instead of hearing his name called by Roger Goodell as a first-round pick.
And for three years, all he did was prove that he was not only one of the two or three best players available in that draft, but one of the best at his position in the entire league.
He became eligible for a big-budget extension after his third season and wound up taking a deal that put him in elite company going forward, but did not set the market at his position.
That’s not a prediction of what Seattle’s Pro Bowl quarterback will do this year, though. It’s a recitation of what its All-Pro cornerback did in 2014. And for all the scrutiny that has been trained on the Seahawks’ contract negotiations with Russell Wilson, it’s worth taking a look back at what happened with Richard Sherman a year ago because the circumstances were so similar.
Not in terms of position, certainly. A good quarterback will always make more than a good cornerback. Heck, a good quarterback will often make more than a great cornerback (See: Dalton, Andy).
But Sherman was a fifth-round pick in 2011 who became a starter as a rookie after two injuries at cornerback and for the first three years of his NFL career he constituted one of the biggest bargains in the NFL. And when he was eligible for an extension, he signed it: a four-year deal that would total up to $56 million with 20 percent of that coming in the form of a signing bonus.
Later that offseason, Cleveland’s Joe Haden and Arizona’s Patrick Peterson each signed extensions for more total money with an extra year attached. Those two cornerbacks also had more money on their existing deals by virtue of being first-round choices in 2011.
The point here isn’t to say who got the best deal, but to point out the larger trend in Seattle’s negotiations with Sherman: He signed an extension that made him one of the league’s highest-paid cornerbacks going forward, not the highest paid per se. His extension was a year shorter, too, an advantage for a player who continues to improve because he gets back to the negotiating table a year early. Sherman also did not see his 2014 base salary spike once he signed the new deal, making $1.5 million that season.
Starting to sound familiar? It should.
Because Wilson is facing all the same questions from how you deal with the final year of a rookie contract that he has unquestionably outplayed to having his contract negotiations compared to the extensions of two former top-10 picks in Carolina’s Cam Newton and Miami’s Ryan Tannehill.
The point here is not to debate how much more money Wilson deserves compared to those two quarterbacks, but to point to the larger contours of the Seahawks’ strategy in negotiating extensions. Seattle is using the same rationale for Wilson’s contract that it used for Sherman a year ago.
That doesn’t mean Wilson should take it. After all, Sherman signed his deal last year before either Haden or Peterson agreed to their extensions. Had Sherman waited, he might have been able to ask for more. Doesn’t mean he would have gotten it, though, just as it doesn’t mean Seattle will give Wilson a better deal between now and the start of the season.Get the latest news and videos for this game daily, no spam, no fuss.
Breaking Benjamin frontman Benjamin Burnley has claimed that he was asked to post about Star Wars Battlefront to his social network channels to promote the game, something he refused to do. Burnely shared the image below of a broken Battlefront Xbox One disc through his Instagram account this weekend, along with the fiery caption. Apparently, he'd rather watch the prequel films than play the game.
On Halloween, Burnley dressed up as Kylo Ren, one of the villains in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Perhaps EA's marketing team (or whatever group is handling the game's promotional efforts) saw this and deemed Burnely to be a fitting candidate to promote the game.
We have followed up with EA in an attempt to learn more.
Burnley would not have been the first high-profile person to promote Battlefront. Before this, Sony and EA enlisted Pitch Perfect and Twlight star Anna Kendrick for a live-action Battlefront commercial. She's been posting about the game on Twitter, where she has close to 5 million followers.
By comparison, Burnley has 47,000 followers on Twitter and 48,000 on Instagram.
Battlefront launched on November 17 and received a generally positive critical reception. GameSpot's review scored it a 7/10, while other publications also spoke favorably. Looking ahead, Battlefront is getting free The Force Awakens-inspired DLC in December, with additional paid expansion packs to follow in 2016.
On a longer timeline, EA recently teased that Battlefront sequels are also in the works.The RAC and the Western Australian Council of Social Services has welcomed today's introduction of the Country Age Pension Fuel Card, which is aimed at improving the mobility of about 35,000 elderly Western Australians.
Under the scheme, age pensioners living in regional Western Australia will be eligible for $500 a year to help with their travel costs.
The WA Government's Royalties for Regions program will provide $500 to each eligible applicant towards the cost of fuel and taxi fares for the next four years.
RAC Head of Member Advocacy Matt Brown welcomed the launch of the fuel card and said it was necessary to ensuring the mobility of all its members in the country.
"Seniors in the metropolitan area now have access to free public transport and so it's important from an equity perspective that similar support is extended to the regions," he said.Last month’s failed military coup in Turkey raised new discussions about long-standing US deployments of tactical nuclear weapons in the Incirlik Air Base, and continues to spark concern about the security of such arms. Today, a report by the Stimson Center termed the arms to be “at risk” of seizure.
The report cautioned that it is “unanswerable” if the US could have kept control of the weapons if the coup had turned into a protracted civil conflict, at opposed to being resolved in less than half a day, adding that the “significant safeguards” the US has in place can’t add up to total certainty.
Report co-author Laicie Heeley concluded that keeping the US nuclear weapons just 70 miles from the Syrian border amounts to “a roll of the dice,” warning they are a liability to NATO in Europe with no potential utility on the European battlefield.
That’s been a repeated knock on the deployment, with retired Air Force Gen. Eugene Habiger noting late last month that the tactical nuclear weapons “no longer have any military usefulness.” The low-yield weapons were designed in the 1960s, and very few remain in service anymore, with what’s left mostly just scattered around bases in Europe as a throwback to the Cold War.
Tactical nuclear weapons were designed for use on contested battlefields, with low enough yields that they could be deployed in relatively close proximity to allied troops without killing them. The weapons have been roundly criticized both for the long |
eastern seaborne, or other styles for a bio-individuality, unique to their life philosophy and interpretation of joie de vivre.
Details such as drawer handles and hand warned copper faucets are of great importance giving a persona and character build-up in the grand kitchen theatre.
To develop such a campagne-style cuisine, there are some steps to consider:
– The country kitchen should be spacious and comfortable. In general, such a kitchen includes several modules that can be combined – cabinets, a kitchen limestone island and of course – a dining area.
– Located on the ground floor, the sink in the kitchen is near or below a window. Modern appliances are built to ensure complete comfort.
– The large cooking space allows the entire family to join in the cooking experience creating savory meals and lasting memories. Many handy antique cabinets found in street markets guarantee that all utensils and accessories are always tidy.
A French provencal kitchen is a true Saga that refuses to end. Just as in any good never ending story the campagne kitchen seems to have an endless streams of chapters written of its page. A wise man once said, the perfect home is always under design, the same could be said to all kitchens shown above.
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SaveNational pharmacare: who are the winners and losers?
The Canada Health Act includes public coverage of services provided in hospitals and by doctors, but not prescription medications taken outside of hospital. Most provincial drug plans do provide some public coverage, but many Canadians lack drug coverage.
In the last 25 years, prescription medications have become both more important and more expensive.
Bringing prescription medications into Medicare would produce winners and losers. Understanding who wins and who loses is crucial to understanding whether a national pharmacare program should be implemented.
Adrianne Lee is a fictional name given to a single mother of two young children who lives in a mid-sized city in Ontario and works as a grocery store clerk. She gets by each month, but only barely, and after paying for rent, food, child care and other essentials, has nothing left to spend.
Lee recently developed rheumatoid arthritis, and after several failed attempts with less expensive medications, her rheumatologist recently recommended a medication that costs $1700 per month. The new medication should prevent permanent joint damage. Lee doesn’t have drug coverage through her job and she can’t afford a private insurance plan. Because Lee lives in Ontario, she can apply for the province’s Trillium drug program, and will only have to pay about 3% of her income toward her medications. Even this will be hard for her, but if she lived in a different province, she might be completely out of luck.
Lee doesn’t understand why visits to her doctors and hospital admissions are covered by the health care system, but the drugs to manage her rheumatoid arthritis and decrease future complications are not.
Paying for medications in Canada
When universal coverage for doctor and hospital services was introduced in Canada in the 1960s, there were few effective medications, and prescription medications that were especially expensive were usually provided to patients in the hospital setting. Prescription drugs were mentioned in neither the 1966 Medical Care Act nor the 1984 Canada Health Act. As a result, provinces do not provide universal coverage for prescription medications. Some provinces, like Ontario, cover citizens through a patchwork of programs, with cost-sharing arrangements for some people, like Lee, and nearly complete coverage for others, such as the elderly and those on social assistance. Other provinces leave large groups of people with no coverage at all.
Spending on medications makes up a growing part of health care costs in Canada, with $25.1 billion spent in 2008, accounting for 16.4% of total health spending. This amount includes money spent by governments, private insurers, employers and individuals. More than half of drug spending in Canada is paid for out of Canadians’ pockets or through private or employer health insurance plans. In most European countries, a much larger share of prescription drug costs are paid for publicly. In fact, in an international survey, Canada was second only to the United States in personal drug costs, with over 10% of Canadians paying more than $1000 per year out of pocket for medications.
Over the last 25 years, the pharmaceutical industry has developed effective medications for a plethora of diseases – not just common conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes and asthma, but also less common disease such as HIV, rheumatoid arthritis, some cancers and pulmonary hypertension. Effective treatment for these diseases requires long-term medication regimens that can cost tens of thousands of dollars per person per year.
The amount spent on prescription drugs across Canada has increased by about 9% each year since 1985, however this increase has slowed somewhat in recent years. Rising costs are mainly due to increased volume of use, and the introduction of expensive new drugs, and have led many to call for a national pharmacare program.
What if prescription drugs were paid for publicly? Would this be affordable and feasible? Understanding whether such a program would be good public policy or not requires an understanding of who stands to win and who stands to lose.
What is national pharmacare?
National pharmacare would be a publicly funded medication insurance plan that would work much like Medicare works for doctor and hospital services. This plan would cover all essential drug costs. A recent report argues that “Canadians cannot afford not to have universal pharmacare” stating that national pharmacare, if implemented with rigorous processes of drug assessment and reimbursement, could result in net savings of up to $10.7 billion per year while improving access at the same time.
There are many groups that have a stake in how medications are prescribed and paid for in Canada. If a national pharmacare program was introduced in Canada, who would the winners and losers be?
The effect on the public
One effect on patients like Lee is clear – extending public health care to include prescription medications would save her money and help improve her health. Many studies in both the United States and Canada have shown that patients are less likely to take important drugs when they have to pay for them. With almost 1 in 10 Canadians unable to afford the prescription drugs they need, the health of many Canadians could be improved with a national pharmacare program.
But not all Canadians take expensive drugs, and there is no doubt that governments would need to raise additional revenue to pay for prescription drugs. So some Canadians would pay more in taxes – in effect, a national pharmacare program, like Medicare, would result in a transfer of wealth from the relatively healthy and wealthy to the relatively “unhealthy and unwealthy”.
The effect on the private sector
The Canadian pharmaceutical industry is an important contributor to Canada’s economy. Research-based pharmaceutical companies employ approximately 15,000 people across Canada. Russell Williams, President of Rx&D, argues that research-based pharmaceuticals contribute to Canada’s knowledge based economy, and that research dollars and industry-sponsored clinical trials flow money directly “into hospitals, universities and patients, having a direct, real impact on the health care system”.
Some suggest that drug prices are kept artificially high to encourage drug companies to do business in Canada. If the prices for pharmaceuticals were lowered, it is possible that Canadian workers and researchers in the pharmaceutical industry could lose their jobs.
However, Danielle Martin, a family doctor and chair of Canadian Doctors for Medicare says that “Canada pays among the highest prices in the world for drugs” and “we are captive to an industry that is aggressive in maximizing its profits.” Martin says that Canada should work to reduce drug prices through aggressive negotiation, bulk purchase and the promotion of less expensive generic drugs. These changes would appear to be a net positive for generic manufacturers and a negative for brand name manufacturers.
However, just as physicians have benefited from publicly-funded health care, it is possible that even the brand name pharmaceutical industry will benefit from national pharmacare. If the 10% of Canadians who currently cannot afford medications were to be brought into the market, then pharmaceutical companies might increase their revenues and profits even if prices were to fall.
Private insurance companies would almost certainly lose, since a lucrative portion of their business would shrivel up if national pharmacare were to be introduced.
The effect on governments
Would raising taxes to pay for a national pharmacare program be a political win or loss for governments? Steve Morgan, a health economist and professor at the University of British Columbia says that the current federal government “is not a government that will go ahead with a significant pharmacare program” and that Prime Minister Stephen Harper is “on record saying that there will be no new federal programs on matters of provincial jurisdiction.”
Morgan also argues that national pharmacare is not on the agenda of many Canadians, saying “it has never had a place of prominence in the public debate on health care policy.” However, Helen Stevenson, a former assistant deputy minister responsible for prescription drugs in Ontario, says that “provinces could get together and start … to align the formulary and different provincial programs”.
Williams says that national pharmacare or a coordinated provincial approach does not align with the realities of Canada’s health care system, which “is built on 13 different provincial and territorial health care systems” and he “does not believe that a centralized model of decision making would be helpful in responding to the diverse needs and priorities of Canada’s regions”.
Polls continue to indicate that healthcare is the number one issue that Canadians want their governments to address, and surveys from other countries indicate a willingness to pay higher taxes if revenues are earmarked for specific programs. Some suggest it would be political suicide for a provincial or federal government to introduce a pharmacare tax. Others suggest that Canadians would rally around a party that offers them protection from potentially catastrophic drug costs, as well as a more aggressive approach to price negotiation.
National pharmacare – “shockingly little has been accomplished”
National pharmacare was a key issue on the public agenda in health care reform during the 2003 and 2004 Health Accords. As part of the Health Accord, the leaders of Canada’s provinces and territories stated that “no Canadian should suffer undue financial hardship in accessing needed drug therapies, and that affordable access to drugs is fundamental to equitable health outcomes for all our citizens.” Based on this statement, a federal National Pharmaceuticals Strategy was proposed, with the focus on obtaining the best prices on medications, broadening access for catastrophic medication coverage and establishing a better process of assessing the effectiveness and safety of new medications. Yet progress has been exceptionally slow. A recent editorial from the Canadian Medical Association Journal declared that “shockingly little has been accomplished towards these goals” and is little reason to think that national pharmacare will become a greater priority in the near future.
The omission of prescription drugs from Medicare is largely an accident of history. Will this accident soon be corrected?
Will Canada have a national pharmacare program in the near future? Yes, rising prices will forces politicians and governments to take action
No, private interests are too strong and will oppose change
No, Canadians aren’t interested and politicians aren’t willing to get engaged in this complex issue.(Dale Zanine/USA Today Sports)
The Nationals played have played some wacky games in their 10-plus seasons. Last September’s 14-inning win in Los Angeles might still top the list for me, but Tuesday’s historic comeback from eight runs down in Atlanta is up there.
There were several great reactions to Dan Uggla’s go-ahead — and ultimately game-winning — three-run home run in the ninth inning. Here are 13 of them.
[Just how improbable was Tuesday’s win?]
Dan Uggla
“[Hitting a home run] was pretty much kind of all I was thinking about. Just chomping at the bit to get a chance, to get an opportunity to do something like that.”
Braves closer Jason Grilli
Denard Span
“That fired me up, to be honest with you.... I just looked straight in his eyes. You guys can’t write that any better. A guy that’s been through a lot the past few years. Just good for him.”
Charlie Slowes
Listen to the call here.
“Swing and a LONG DRIVE, DEEP LEFT FIELD, WAY BACK, GOING, GOING AND LONGGG GONE! A TREMENDOUS THREE-RUN HOMER FOR DAN UGGLA. Here in his old stomping grounds in Atlanta. He has come back with a BANG and a ZOOM and a three-run homer here in the top of the ninth inning, and the Nationals, who were down 9-1 and 10-2 now lead this game by the score of 13-12. The first home run for Dan Uggla as a National, he gets a bear hug from Bryce Harper at the top step of the dugout. UNBELIEVABLE!”
Bryce Harper and the Nationals dugout
Here’s that bear hug. There were woos, f-bombs, high-fives and hugs — lots and lots of long hugs — in the Nationals dugout. Look at Matt Williams.
(Dale Zanine/USA Today Sports)
Braves TV guy Joe Simpson
“There are a lot of guys that I can think of on their club that could ignite them and get them turned around. I never thought it would be that guy.”
Braves radio guys Jim Powell and Don Sutton
“Driven,” Jim Powell said when the ball left Uggla’s bat. “A mile in the air, deep to left field. I think he got it. He did. It’s a three-run home run for Dan Uggla and the Nationals have the lead.”
[Silence, except for the boos raining down from the Turner Field crowd.]
“This is a bad dream,” Sutton said.
The Braves fan sitting behind home plate
After Grilli gets ahead 0-2, she claps in anticipation of an Uggla strikeout.
Oh. No.
OH. YES.
Braves Fans Who Hate Dan Uggla
There are a lot of them.
I'm hate eating an entire box of Oreo's because of Uggla right now. — @cannonsimp (@cannonsimp) April 29, 2015
Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman
“As a friend, it’s tough, obviously,” Freeman told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution of Uggla getting booed. “He played the game the right way, hustled every single time. Fans are going to react how fans want to react. It’s definitely tough, but he kind of shut them up in the ninth inning.”
Chocolate Syrup-Wielding Max Scherzer
“These are some crazy dudes in here,” Uggla said of Scherzer’s crazy postgame celebration. “They get excited and they love to show it.”
Chipper Jones
One day after expressing disappointment in Braves fans for booing Uggla, Jones brought up the 9-0 lead the Nationals blew against the Braves in July 2012 as Washington started to chip away at their early eight-run deficit on Tuesday.
This gonna be the make up for that game we played in Washington a few years ago?? Nats up 9-0 with Strasburg on hill….. — Chipper Jones (@RealCJ10) April 29, 2015
Mmmhmmm!!! — Chipper Jones (@RealCJ10) April 29, 2015
Ray Knight
Saving the best for last. Uncle Ray! I think we’ve all got chillbumps after that one.A food service worker in Contoocook has been diagnosed with hepatitis A, the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services announced Wednesday afternoon.
Dr. José Montero, the DHHS's director of public health, updated the media on the situation at a 2 p.m. press conference. He said the food service worker is a bartender who works at the American Legion and the Covered Bridge Restaurant in Contoocook.
Vaccination clinics will be held starting this weekend for anyone who may have visited the locations where the food service worker is employed. Montero said he estimates that between 600 and 1,000 people probably were at the two establishments during the timeframe.
According to MayoClinic.com, hepatitis A is a highly contagious liver infection that is most often contracted from contaminated food or water or from close contact with someone who is already infected. Mild cases of hepatitis A don't require treatment, and most people who are infected recover completely with no permanent liver damage.
Anyone who needs more information can contact the DHHS directly at 1-800-562-8236.On the night of the Paris attacks, Rurik Bradbury noticed an inevitable and tiresome trend popping up on Twitter. “I think I saw a professional news organization tweet about the lights of the Eiffel Tower being turned off in memory of the victims,” recalled Bradbury, the New York-based CMO of a software company. In the fog of war, and in the pursuit of virality, someone had mistaken the Eiffel Tower’s ordinary 1 a.m. darkness for a moving tribute.
Bradbury fired up the Twitter account of his alter ego, @ProfJeffJarvis. He used the well-known parody account, which makes fun of tech jargon and media “thinkfluencers,” to write a deadpan tweet about the icon of Paris going dark.
Wow. Lights off on the Eiffel Tower for the first time since 1889. pic.twitter.com/ZkeU5GmJfM — Scary PJJ 2016 (@ProfJeffJarvis) November 14, 2015
It was a perfect imitation of the serious tone and hastily assembled expertise that was filling Twitter all night. And it became Bradbury/ProfJeff’s most popular tweet by many orders of magnitude. By Sunday, nearly 30,000 people had retweeted his utterly fake news, which he’d written to prove that people will fall for anything.
“In general I am fascinated by the way history and fake history spreads on Twitter, such as the many ‘History in Pics’ type accounts, and the very low bar for spreading a viral meme through a credulous public,” said Bradbury in an interview.
But this was something else. Several actual news organizations retweeted ProfJeffJarvis, even though the item was “prima facie absurd,” and the source’s avatar was an old man wearing a beer-funnel baseball cap, with a bio that labeled him a “hyperglocal thinkfluencer” who had co-founded the “Mogadishu:REinvent unconference.” He hadn’t even tweaked his Halloween Twitter handle, “Scary PJJ 2016.” He was trusted even though he begged people not to trust him.
“It should be obvious, with a pause for thought, that the lights haven’t been on continuously since 1889: that scale of lighting would not have been viable in the late 1800s (the lighting was only installed in 1925); there were two world wars in between; it would be hugely expensive to leave the lights on continuously (as one French person pointed out); there have been many tragedies since then that would justify turning off the lights in mourning, such as the Charlie Hebdo murders as recently as January this year, and so on.”
Yet Bradbury’s timeline transformed into a cascade of “I can’t believe this” and “actually you’re wrong.” He made the best of it:
Welcome to all my new followers. I look forward to puzzling and disappointing you! — Scary PJJ 2016 (@ProfJeffJarvis) November 14, 2015
And as he did so, more fake stories mushroomed across social media. “A number of legitimate news organizations posted the footage of the Eiffel Tower lights going off from January in memory of the Charlie Hebdo victims, but labeled the footage as November 13,” noted Bradbury.
In an e-mail, Bradbury explained why the rapid sharing of anything vaguely inspiration-shaped after a tragedy was so unsettling to him.
The social media reaction to a tragedy is a spaghetti mess of many strands, some OK but most of them useless. There are positive elements (in intention, at least), such as the #porteouverte hashtag and the Facebook “Safety Check” in Paris -- though it remains to be seen how many people actually gained from these, either finding a place to stay or letting relatives know they were OK. (Also, it does trouble me that Facebook scored a PR win from Paris, furthering its agenda of becoming the de facto social identity of all humans, then monetizing this monopoly: if the Safety Check becomes a default state of affairs, is Facebook then responsible in some way for emergency responses; what are the implications when someone doesn’t post their safety status on Facebook and so on) But the part that feels the most useless to me is people’s vicarious participation in the event, which on the ground is a horrible tragedy, but in cyberspace is flattened to a meme like any other. Millions of people with no connection to Paris or the victims mindlessly throw in their two cents: performative signaling purely for their own selfish benefit, spreading information that is often false and which they have not vetted at all, simply for the sake of making noise. If people wanted to be helpful, they would either be silent, or they would put in some — even minimal — effort to be thoughtful. First, they could spread useful and vetted information. And second, they could throw support behind a viewpoint they believe in, such as speaking out against politicians using the attacks to demonize Muslims or migrants, which is exactly what the murderers responsible for the Paris attacks want to provoke. Instead of silence or helpfulness, social media pukes out stupidity, virtue-signaling and vicarious “enjoyment” (in a psychoanalytic sense) of a terrible tragedy by people thousands of miles away, for whom the event is just a meme they will participate in for a couple of days, then let fade into their timeline.
Crawling out from under the traffic, Bradbury managed to retweet someone who got that – and got the joke.
@ProfJeffJarvis can you at least consider donating your Likes/RTs to people in need? — Hunter Walk (@hunterwalk) November 14, 2015
1 of 45 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × The scene in France after bloody rampage stuns Paris View Photos Security is ramped up around the nation as French law enforcement searches for the perpetrators of the devastating attacks of Nov. 13. Caption Security is ramped up around the nation as French law enforcement searches for the perpetrators of the devastating attacks of Nov. 13. Nov. 30, 2015 President Obama and French President Francois Hollande pay their respects at the Bataclan concert hall, one of the attack sites. Philippe Wojazer/AP Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.
Read more:
French President Hollande's remarks after Paris attacks
The Bataclan theater, the epicenter of the terror attacks in Paris
Maps: Where the Paris attacks occurredUN says 43 peacekeepers also detained during fighting in the Golan Heights
Islamic State militants killed more than 150 of the troops captured in recent fighting in north-eastern Syria. It is the latest mass killing attributed to the extremists, activists said, with the violence coming during a 24-hour period. The troops were either shot or slashed with knives.
In southern Syria, meanwhile, the United Nations said gunmen detained 43 UN Fijian peacekeepers during fighting on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, and another 81 peacekeepers from the Philippines were trapped in the area by the heavy clashes between rebels and Syrian troops.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said many of the soldiers killed were rounded up on Wednesday in the arid countryside near the Tabqa airfield, three days after Islamic State fighters seized the base. The government troops were among a large group of soldiers from the base who were stuck behind the front lines after the airfield fell to the jihadi fighters.
The Observatory said around 120 captive government troops from Tabqa were killed near the base. Islamic State fighters killed at least another 40 soldiers, most of whom had been taken prisoner in recent fighting for other bases in the Hamrat region near Raqqa city, the group's stronghold.
A statement posted online and circulated on Twitter by supporters of the Islamic State group claimed the extremists killed "about 200" government prisoners captured near Tabqa. It also showed photographs of those it said were the prisoners: young men stripped down to their underwear marching in the desert. The photos could not immediately be verified.
A video showing the same also emerged online, followed by another video posted later showing more than 150 men lying motionless – apparently dead – in a row in the sand.
While the videos could not be independently confirmed, they appeared to illustrate the claims made online by Islamic State group supporters and Syrian activists about the mass killing. There was no immediate comment from the Syrian government.
In its rise to prominence over the past year, the extremist group has frequently published graphic photos and videos of everything from beheadings to mass killings.
In Iraq, for example, the group killed nearly 200 men – most of them Iraqi soldiers – in late June near the northern city of Tikrit, human rights groups and Iraqi officials say. It published photos online showing dozens of men dressed in civilian clothes lined up or lying face down as militants aimed rifles at their backs. A final set of photos showed their bloodied bodies.
Such killings have not been limited to Iraq. Earlier this month, Islamic State fighters shot and beheaded hundreds of tribesmen in eastern Syria who had risen up against the group.
A UN commission accused Islamic State on Wednesday of committing crimes against humanity in Syria – echoing UN accusations against the group in Iraq.
Islamic State's surge is one aspect of Syria's multi-layered civil war, a bloody conflict that has killed more than 190,000 people and destabilised the region.
The office of UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon did not identify the armed group holding the 43 UN peacekeepers in the Golan, where fighting has raged this week between Syrian rebels and government forces.
Several rebel groups operate in the Golan, while Islamic State has no known presence. The UN said another 81 peacekeepers were "currently being restricted to their positions" in the vicinity of Ruwaihaniyeh and Burayqa.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the 81 trapped troops were from the Philippines and the 43 seized ones from Fiji, Reuters reported
The Philippine army said in a statement that militants and had surrounded the Philippine contingent's encampments with Fijian hostages in tow and demanded that the Filipino troops surrender their firearms.
"The Philippine peacekeepers held their ground and demonstrated their resolve to defend their positions," it said. "They did not surrender their firearms as they may in turn be held hostage themselves."
The Syrian government denounced the "kidnapping" of the UN peacekeepers. In a statement issued by the Syrian foreign ministry, the government said it held "the terrorist groups and those who support them fully responsible for the safety of the UN peacekeepers, and calls for their immediate release".
The statement from Ban's office said the UN was "making every effort to secure the release of the detained peacekeepers," who are part of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (Undof), the mission that has been monitoring a 1974 disengagement accord between Syria and Israel after their 1973 war.
As of July, Undof had 1,223 troops from six countries: Fiji, India, Ireland, Nepal, Netherlands and the Philippines.
Fijian army commander Brigadier-General Mosese Tikoitoga told Reuters on Friday he would not recommend to his government that Fijian forces should abandon the country's commitment to peacekeeping in Syria.
"If I was to make any recommendation, I would increase our forces in Syria... If we don't want to do this, then who else in the world would want to do this?" he said.
Heavy fighting has engulfed the Syrian side of the Golan since Wednesday, when rebels captured a crossing on the disputed frontier with Israel. A rebel spokesman said the opposition is focused on fighting President Bashar Assad, and poses no threat to Israel.
On Thursday, government warplanes targeted several rebel positions in the area, including in the village of Jaba, the Observatory said. The Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, also reported the air raids.
The Observatory said heavy clashes were raging between the rebels and the Syrian military in Jaba and the surrounding countryside.
White plumes of smoke set off by exploding mortar rounds could be seen on Thursday from the Israeli side of the Golan. The sound of small arms fire could be heard echoing in the background.Yum! Brands — which is behind Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut — is testing a new concept called Banh Shop in Dallas. As Eater Dallas confirms, the Vietnamese sandwich shop-cum-fast casual counter restaurant will serve a menu filled with Southeast Asian-style salads and sandwiches. Wisely, Yum! sought out the talents of local chefs while putting the menu together. Dallas chefs Braden and Yasmin Wages of Malai assisted in the creation of several different kinds of banh mi as well as salad, sandwich, side dish, and beverage options. This isn't the first time Yum! Brands decided to test a new concept in Dallas: Earlier this year, the company opened SuperChix in Dallas, a chicken concept meant to compete with Chick-fil-A.
The menu includes grilled pork meatball with Vietnamese caramel glaze and cilantro aioli; the American, with ham, salami, and mortadella; a grilled tofu version with chili-coconut glaze; and one with grilled steak and eggs for breakfast. There's also a fun twist on elotes topped with "Saigon sauce" (coconut milk, butter, and nuoc mam) and green onions, red pepper, and cheese. Soups, salads, and "Wok'd Bowls" fill out the rest of the menu.
Banh Shop's first location opens this Friday and will be open for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and late night. A second location is planned for the DFW Airport.
· Fast Food Giant Takes Aim at Banh Mi, With a Little Help From Malai [Eater Dallas]
· Yum! Brands Debuts Banh Shop Vietnamese Sandwich Concept in [Culture Map]
· All Yum! Brands Coverage on Eater [-E-]By: Roshawn Watson
You are responsible with your money. You plan your purchases to be within your family’s means. You don’t deprive yourself of fun nor manipulate others to obtain good deals. You are simply looking for value. This is my strategy along with millions of other Americans. It is a solid path towards prosperity and will contribute to overall economic growth, but that doesn’t get the press. Instead of admiration (or even understanding), these efforts garner contempt as the frugal once again get the blame for dismal economic activity.
Economic recovery falls to thrifty consumers
In his article entitled Economic Recovery Falls to Thrifty Consumers, Martin Crutsinger recently wrote:
“For the economic recovery to gain strength — and the unemployment rate to come down in any meaningful way — consumers will need to become less frugal.”
This statement caused me to ponder whether we even understand frugality.
halt spending. To be clear, frugality is not our culprit for a dismal economy. Frugality concerns itself with value not cheapness. Thus, in some cases, your purchases may technically be more expensive than someone else shopping for the same types of products. The difference is that you have done due diligence and know that you are not being wasteful with your money. You are focused on obtaining quality for your dollars. In the Thrift Paradox – Is Frugality Hurting Economy?, I argue that “frugality…allows families to put aside money for investments and for purchases, which both help fuel economic growth.” In no way does frugalityspending. To be clear, frugality is not our culprit for a dismal economy.
Moreover, families have recently increased purchases on several items including: cars, electronics, and consumer staples like razors and shampoo. General Motors, Chrysler, and Procter and Gamble have all increased revenues recently. These gains were achieved by catering to more savvy shoppers. General Motors and Chrysler posted higher U.S. sales in July through summer promotions and easier credit plans. P and G also cut its prices, offered discounts and created lower-priced versions of some brands to hold onto customers. Interestingly, Crutsinger failed to discuss our increased spending on technology perhaps because it doesn’t support his point.
Regardless, our spending is up, even for big ticket items like cars, but that’s not good enough. Economists want consumers to become more wasteful by increasing our spending on items with lesser value just so retailers can increase their profit margins all in the name of patriotism. That’s just ignorant unwise. Pardon the expression, but what are they smoking?
Fix Your Business Model Instead Of Criticizing Mine
It’s the retailers’ economic models that are broken not mine. The real problem is that some businesses and financial institutions want to continue to fund economic growth on the backs of ill-informed and overstretched consumers. It is a bit naive to believe that consumers will indefinitely be able or willing to fund the economic prosperity by staying ridiculously financially over-extended long-term.
It is beholden to businesses that want to survive in this climate to innovate instead of trying to coerce consumers into wasting money on purchases that are out of their means. As I mentioned, businesses aggressively deleveraged (dumped debt and removed financial risk) all in the name of remaining financially viable, but consumers are criticized for the same behavior. That is totally unbalanced.
The aforementioned companies achieved higher revenues through adaptation to consumer purchasing preferences. Sure, it can be rough chasing those consumer dollars, but fixing the business models so that they are not so dependent on consumers spending money that they don’t have for products and purchases they don’t need is key for long-term economic growth.
We Are Not That Thrifty Anyway
Lastly, it is completely disputable that we are frugal anyway.
During the first quarter of this year, the US savings rate had a steep decline to 3.1% from last year’s 12-year high of 5.4% during the same quarter. If our annualized savings now stands at 6.4 percent, as Crutsinger suggests, the change is to be lauded not criticized. We still have a way to go.
the defaulters accounted for the whole decline, while the rest of consumers had actually been building up more debt straight through the worst financial crisis and recession in decades. Additionally, in The Real Reason Why that Debt is Decreasing, I wrote about a surprisingly sad analysis performed by the WSJ on our decreasing debt burden. The average household debt to income decreased from a staggering 131 to 122% in May. Thus, on the surface, it appeared as if frugality and austerity had finally repenetrated our societal fabric. However, what the insightful analysis ultimately revealed was that debt to income ratios were decreasing because debts were going into defaults. Instead of paying down our debts, we elected to default. In fact,straight through the worst financial crisis and recession in decades.
In aggregate, we have increased debt, increased our spending, and decreased our savings rate.That’s a far cry from the generational imprinting of frugality so many pundits claim the recession to have induced. The point is that innovative and adaptive companies can still get consumers to spend big bucks. Don’t blame frugality for faulty business models. Frugality is the cure not the problem.
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This series will evaluate one team per day, starting on Jan. 23, and ending on Feb. 22 (the first game of spring training). It is based on last season's performance, the offseason changes since then and the author's outlook for the team in 2013. Please keep in mind that rosters can, and will, change before Opening Day. We started in the American League East, worked across to the National League, tackled the Central divisions, and now jump to the AL West, going in alphabetical order. Next up, the Houston Astros.
2012 finish: 55-107 (6th place, NL Central)
Notable additions
Left-handed pitcher Erik Bedard, right-handed pitcher Jose Veras, RHP Phil Humber, RHP Alex White, RHP John Ely, RHP Brad Peacock, outfielder Rick Ankiel, designated hitter Carlos Pena, firstbaseman Chris Carter and catcher Max Stassi
Notable losses
LHP Rob Rasmussen, LHP Fernando Abad, RHP Wilton Lopez, RHP Fernando Rodriguez, OF Jordan Schaefer, shortstop Jed Lowrie and C Chris Snyder
Why they will improve this year
Because they could play with blindfolds on and win 56 games. In all seriousness, the Astros have decimated their roster and have an overall payroll equal to some individual player salaries. There is a method to the madness, and I think we'll start seeing glimpses of the process working in 2013.
The infield is loaded with former top prospects like Matt Dominguez at third base, Brett Wallace at first base and Tyler Greene at shortstop. A young rotation has some surprising pieces with very high potential. And Justin Maxwell in center field could do some damage if he cuts down on strikeouts.
Astros fans can presume that they'll get a good effort from Jose Altuve, but some help from the corner outfielders would go a long way in 2013. And while the bullpen struggled last year, they've added Veras to the closer's role in order to attempt stabilizing the later innings.
Even with the likelihood of a last-place finish in their first season in the American League, the Astros are on the right track. I think they will improve from being the worst-hitting team in baseball a year ago and at least give fans a few reasons to show up to the ball park. When their large crop of top-flight Triple-A talent gets the call, that reason to show will be multiplied.
Why they will regress this year
Besides Altuve, the Astros have zero star power. Their most famous (and highest-paid) player on the payroll is Wandy Rodriguez, who's now in Pittsburgh! And though "star power," whatever that means, doesn't equal wins, it does mean that the roster is young, anonymous, and inexperienced. Unless guys like Dominguez, Wallace and Jason Castro break out, south of 60 wins is very possible again.
The offense should improve a little bit, especially after recently adding Carter, but how is a middle of the order with two legitimate power threats going to intimidate anyone? Especially when Pena also hits around.200 every year with a million strikeouts, making the power almost worthless?
I like the starting rotation, but it's still not nearly ready. Bud Norris may be traded before the season starts, which would slide Humber to the number three spot. Any team with him in the top three of their rotation is asking for a long, long season.
Even if Lucas Harrell and Jordan Lyles build off their 2012 seasons, you're talking about two No. 4 starters right now, at best. What I'm most worried |
a tragic/sympathetic light, and not as the actual monsters they were. (One wonders if the origin of that story even had a cannibalistic woman in it anyway – that might just have been taking poetic license to turn a predatory animal attack (which places the abuse squarely on the heads of the parents who exposed the children to that situation) to an attack by a cannibalistic “witch” (thereby deflecting the accusation of “monster” away from the parents and onto that “witch”, and even adding a little victim-blaming by suggesting it is the childrens’ own greed for treats (or food in this case, as the children were starving) that led to their predicament.)
And of course, the Halloween season is absolutely rife with misconceptions of the Wiccan religion and modern real-life witches. Yes, there may be some practitioners among them that may be involved in dark things, but just as not every Christian is an active member of the KKK, most Wiccans/Pagans/modern-day witches are not involved in that end of their religion’s/practice’s spectrum.
“Yes,” I explained to H-, her teacher or anyone else could very well be a “witch”, or rather what sexists and misogynists would view as a “bi—“, or she could even be a Wiccan – but there is NOTHING wrong with being either of those!
Essentially, the book that is being read to the children in class, is perpetuating harmful and untrue myths, stereotypes and intolerance about strong, capable women, modern-day witches and Wiccans.
To extrapolate, during the winter season, I’m wondering will there also be a book perpetuating the harmful and untrue myths, stereotypes and intolerance toward Jews? Like the old bit about Jews eating Christian babies? (I remember when I was a child getting physically assaulted by Christian kids (in NJ) for being Jewish because of crap their parents were telling them at home.)
Or at Thanksgiving, will there be books calling Native Americans, “Indians” and perpetuating the dehumanizing myths about Native Americans being “savages” that conveniently leaves out the Trail of Tears, or that the U.S. government (being truly savage themselves) supplied them with blankets that were deliberately infected with smallpox?
I would like to respectfully implore anyone out there who is in charge of picking books to read to impressionable children to consider choosing a book that does not promote religious intolerance, sexism, misogyny and harmful stereotypes that have continued to be spread for way too long.
It gave H- bad dreams about “witches” that even my talk with her could not dispel.
To make things simple on her, as an 8 yr old third-grader, I told her to just read another book during storytime. If the teacher objected, she could tell the teacher “I don’t agree with the message in that book.” If the teacher needs further explanation, she can add: “Just switch the “w” with a “b” in “witches”, and you’ll understand why.”
**UPDATE: After emailing H-‘s teacher to ask about the book being read in class, I received a reply from her stating that she would not continue reading it to the class.**
Thoughts?
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**Author’s note: after writing the above article, which can be a touchy subject for many, I sought feedback from modern-day witches, Wiccans, feminists and other moms. A slight tweaking was needed, but otherwise the general consensus was that the subject matter was being treated respectfully and fairly. If you feel this is not the case, please let me know and I will take your views under consideration.The advocacy group Interfaith Action for Human Rights, which is pushing Maryland to release more data on how many prisoners it isolates and under what conditions, has collected letters written by inmates about their experiences in what the state calls segregated confinement.
The letters were provided on the condition that the prisoners be identified only by their initials. Here are excerpts:
From B.P.:
“I’ve currently been incarcerated for seven years, most of which has been spent in a single solitary confined cell... Segregated confinement is debilitative not rehabilitative.
“As a result of my lengthy segregation times, I find it very difficult to communicate with people face to face and being in somewhat crowded environments causes me anxiety attacks and heart palpitations.
“Physically I’ve ground my teeth on the left side without even being aware that I’ve been doing it. There is so much that I would say to legislators and the governor if I had the chance concerning these debilitating segregation sentences which are being handed out.”
From A.J.:
“In the more than three decades that I’ve been imprisoned, I’ve spent a considerable amount of time – on separate occasions – on different segregation [isolation] units. It would require volumes of pages and myriad correspondence to give you a thorough account of my times there…
“The first time I was placed on segregation, I was thirteen (13) years old. It happened when I was at the Md. State Training School for Boys. Anger, stupidity, and youthful arrogance conspired against me and persuaded me to punch a staff member there in the face.
“After I was whipped, I was unceremoniously tossed into an isolation cell... Juveniles typically spent a mere eight to twenty-four hours in isolation then, at the time I was there. But my offense was bad – very bad. I stayed in that ‘hole’ for three days...
“A number of guys who were around me during my various times in segregation played in human waste, feces. They threw it at others – on officers and fellow prisoners. Some guys responded to lock-up conditions by committing suicide. For death often seems like a better life consequence than the vulgar, obscene, and base life you’re condemned to in segregation.
“I wish I could describe to you the eerie sound of a man in the grips of a mental break brought on by the tortuous, inhuman, and indecent conditions of many lock-up units. Words can’t capture it...
“You must understand that those of us most damaged by the effects of segregation can hardly explain to you what’s wrong with us. Hell, most of us don’t even realize that we were psychologically and emotionally wounded… because the scars are not obvious and visible.”
From H.E.:
“I have spent about 4 years in segregation on and off in the 38 years I been lock up. This place here is the worst. You can get no fresh air. It’s only a small window in the cells here like 4 inches wide 10” long. It’s real dirty in there.
“You only get 2 showers a week. Don’t get much to eat on your food trays because the inmates in the main kitchen who makes up the trays short the seg treys so they have more to sell to the populations when they come to eat. They let you come out of your cell every other day for one hour.”
— Elizabeth KohJST, Luke 16:16–23. Compare Luke 16:16–18 The law and the prophets testify of Jesus. The Pharisees seek to destroy the kingdom. Jesus introduces the parable of the rich man and Lazarus.
16 And they said unto him, We have the law, and the prophets; but as for this man we will not receive him to be our ruler; for he maketh himself to be a judge over us.
17 Then said Jesus unto them, The law and the prophets testify of me; yea, and all the prophets who have written, even until John, have foretold of these days.
18 Since that time, the kingdom of God is preached, and every man who seeketh truth presseth into it.
19 And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than for one tittle of the law to fail.
20 And why teach ye the law, and deny that which is written; and condemn him whom the Father hath sent to fulfill the law, that ye might all be redeemed?
21 O fools! for you have said in your hearts, There is no God. And you pervert the right way; and the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence of you; and you persecute the meek; and in your violence you seek to destroy the kingdom; and ye take the children of the kingdom by force. Woe unto you, ye adulterers!
22 And they reviled him again, being angry for the saying, that they were adulterers.
23 But he continued, saying, Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery; and whosoever marrieth her who is put away from her husband, committeth adultery. Verily I say unto you, I will liken you unto the rich man.About
The recent Supreme Court Decision to allow for unlimited campaign contributions has brought to our attention that we the people need to track these contributions more closely.
Elections Candidates and committees are required to report all contributions and spendings to the FEC, which publishes this data. The problem is that this data is very esoteric, hard to process and full of small errors. It is also a lot of data. We need better tools to process it.
While working on some small project for the Rootstrikers I discovered that it is very hard to figure out where the money is coming from.
And this week, after seeing the incredible success of http://mayone.us/ to raise $487,367 in four days, and seeing how people are still not able to track campaign contributions easily I want to raise money to fund my work on Federal Election Commission (FEC) data.
The goal of the www.electionr.us project is to create an big and open access and open format data site hosting all the Federal Election Commission (FEC) campaign data, using crowdsourcing to allow for its markup and tweaking, and to then allow people to track and share detailed contributions and summaries.
There are numerous sites that give you aggregate data
http://maplight.org/ and http://opensecrets.org
that are good, but they do not provide detailed records and do not do everything open source.
This project will be totally committed to open source and also open data. All the records will be down-loadable and shareable not only on the site itself but via github and archive.org or mediawiki commons. You will be able to download some of the data yourself and create subsets of the feed.
What has been done? Well I have modified the NYTimes FECH http://nytimes.github.io/Fech/ system and ported it to python. I have created a json data format that you can process.
So I ask for a small donation to help me work on this, basically what I would like to do is create a non profit corporation, buy servers and host them in a data center, and pay for my own basic operating costs and some students to work on this. If I can raise the money of 50,000$ I will start working on this full time. All the money spent will be transparent and reported back to the team. As a donor you will be given early access and I will give special attention to the topics, companies and candidates you are interested in researching.
You will find some geeky things here, my video, code and examples.
http://www.reddit.com/r/rootstrikers/comments/1p9bnl/hacker_public_radio_show_rootstrikersorg_and/
http://www.reddit.com/r/rootstrikers/comments/1pkvs3/fec_2011_data_in_jsonp_format_being_generated/
Git Hub Repos :
https://github.com/h4ck3rm1k3/federal-election-commission-aggregation-python
https://github.com/h4ck3rm1k3/rootstriker-fec-maplight-wiki/
https://github.com/h4ck3rm1k3/federal-election-commission-aggregation-2012 and others.A War Of Tweets Erupts Over Latest Miss America
Enlarge this image toggle caption Mel Evans/AP Mel Evans/AP
Editor's note: After the crowning of Nina Davuluri as Miss America, we solicited this commentary from writer Anna John, one of the co-founders of the blog Sepia Mutiny. This post includes several embedded tweets that contain explicit language.
Thirty years ago, African-Americans Vanessa Williams and Suzette Charles were the last two finalists at the 1983 Miss America pageant. It was an electric moment; for the first time in the event's history, the next Miss America was guaranteed to be a black woman. In the three decades since, seven other African-Americans have won the "scholarship pageant," which originally required that "contestants must be of good health and of the white race."
Last night, the 2013 pageant echoed 1983 when the last two contestants onstage were both Asian-American. While there has already been one Asian-American Miss America — 2001's Angela Perez Baraquio, who is of Filipino descent — Sunday's pageant was a striking reminder of how diverse our nation has become. Five Asian-Americans were competing for the crown — the highest number in pageant history — and three of them made it to the top five: Miss Minnesota, Rebecca Yeh; Miss California, Crystal Lee; and Miss New York, Nina Davuluri.
To see two Asian-American women onstage, clutching hands, reveling in a ceiling-shattering moment, was stunning; to hear co-host Lara Spencer agree with Davuluri's comment that "We are making history right here as Asian-Americans" underscored the significance.
Unfortunately, many people did not share Spencer's appreciation of this historic development in an all-American ritual.
They weren't the only ones outraged about our new pageant queen. Davuluri's performance, fusing classical Indian and Bollywood dance styles, was also criticized:
These depressingly frequent instances of arguing whether a person of color is American enough to represent our country are tiresome. Whether it is birthers claiming our president is a secret Muslim who wasn't born here or sports fans attacking native New Yorker Marc Anthony for daring to sing the national anthem, some number of Americans feel rage at the browning of America and the ascendance of people who don't "look American."
The outrage and ugliness defy logic and decency. When 11-year-old Sebastien De La Cruz of America's Got Talent fame sang the "Star-Spangled Banner" before Game 3 of the NBA Finals, the Twitterverse exploded with nasty attacks on the boy's heritage and citizenship, with many alleging that he was an undocumented immigrant who "snuck in the country like 4 hours ago."
Yesterday's outpouring of displeasure over a "raghead," "dot head," "terrorist," "Miss al-Qaeda" will not be the last opportunity for racists to vent their resentment and disgust at the ever-increasing levels of diversity in their country. We will keep seeing these "firsts" and they will keep inspiring passionate reactions.
Though we are now used to Indian-American kids dominating spelling bees, apparently it's going to take time before we can accept a young boy in a mariachi outfit singing the national anthem or a dark-skinned Asian-American winning a crown that more often is perched atop blond hair. The demographic changes in America are inevitable, and while some chose to express their loathing over this last night via social media, others participated in a counterwave of protest over the hatred aimed at our new Miss America.
For example, when @monicaamurphyy asked, "Do you not have to be American to win MISS AMERICA anymore?!" she got this reply:
@Jules_liberta @monicaamurphyy I know right!? They've been letting white European foreigners win since the beginning of the pageants! — PutItAllInMyBrain (@sorta_like_art) September 16, 2013
When @jareddavis32 declared, "Miss America not bein American... that's pretty par for the course for our country now a days," Dylan Ionescu engaged in a conversation with him:
@jareddavis32 don't know if you've read the Constitution, but anyone born in America is American — Dylan Ionesco (@DylanIonesco) September 16, 2013
Other users also shot back:
@pizzo_nick since when are Indian American's terrorist? — Josh Sanchez (@jnsanchez) September 16, 2013
It was exactly that sort of pushback that led to many of the most offensive tweets being deleted; there is a growing awareness that racist comments impulsively tweeted are likely to be challenged. Most people don't enjoy being shamed, which is what happened as the worst tweets were favorited and retweeted in a bid to expose those who would flaunt their ignorance.
Such virtual gestures will not immediately change hearts or minds, but getting someone to reconsider their hatred feels like a small victory to go along with Davuluri's larger one.A new survey has revealed that the UK is among the least religious countries in the world. In a global ranking of 65 countries, the UK came six places from last with 30% of the population calling themselves religious. While 53% of people said they were "not religious", just 13% said they were a "convinced atheist" and the remainder "did not know".
It compares to 94% of people in Thailand who are religious and 93% of people in Armenia, Bangladesh, Georgia and Morocco. At the bottom of the list was China where only 6% of people say they are religious while 61% say they are convinced atheists. It was followed by Japan, where just 13% of people are religious, Sweden with 19%, Czech Republic with 23%, and the Netherlands and Hong Kong with 26%.
Jean-Marc Leger, president of Win/Gallup International Association, said globally an average of two-thirds of people still consider themselves religious. "Religion continues to dominate our everyday lives and we see that the total number of people who consider themselves to be religious is actually relatively high," he said.The historic Engineer’s Bookstore building at the corner of Means and Marietta streets near Georgia Tech has been saved from the wrecking ball.
According to an email from the Atlanta Preservation Center, the Atlanta Urban Design Commission held a hearing on Aug. 24 to consider the designation of Means Street as a Landmark District. The commission approved the nomination resolution and a representative of the new owner of the Engineer’s Bookstore stated that they do not plan to demolish the building. Instead, the owner will work with the neighborhood to identify an alternative use. A gas station and convenience store was slated for the spot.
The 1930s-era building was originally Paradies Grocery, also known as the “Forrest 5&10 cent store” and then later became the Engineer’s Bookstore for Georgia Tech.by Wade Townsend
As part of an initiative to continue the modernisation of table tennis, ITTF announces that as of Monday 1st January 2018 the table size regulations will be increasing to 6 metres long by 3.5 metres wide.
“One of our main goals is to massively increase the prize money at ITTF events and to do this we need a larger televised audience. At the moment one of our most important tools, the table, does not support this goal in the best possible way.” – Dave Steintein, ITTF Equipment Public Relations Director
The aim is to make the sport easier for the casual television viewer and market research has found that the closer we bring table tennis in line with tennis, the greater viewership ITTF will be able to capture; with the future in mind, increasing the size of the table was the obvious next step in the sport’s evolution.
The US team recently had the opportunity to test the new table and found it a huge improvement over the current sizing.
“Although we haven’t communicated with the Athletes’ Commission directly, we are sure all the players will be one hundred percent on board with this change.” – Dave Steintein, ITTF Equipment Public Relations Director
ITTF will be working closely with equipment manufactures to ensure they are producing tables with flat and consistent surfaces in time for the beginning of next year’s World Tour.Fox Business Rebukes Poor People For Not Being Ashamed Of Their Poverty May 19, 2011 11:59 AM EDT ››› Blog ›››››› ZACHARY PLEAT
Fox Business maligned essential anti-poverty programs, deriding food stamps, unemployment insurance, and the Earned Income Tax Credit as "a form a welfare, income redistribution" and evidence that America now has an "entitlement mentality." Host Stuart Varney's attack on these programs came just as a new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research showed just how essential these and other government programs are to keeping tens of millions of Americans out of poverty. Arloc Sherman of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities noted that "public programs keep one in six Americans out of poverty -- primarily the elderly, disabled, and working poor -- and that the poverty rate would double without these programs." The CBPP included a graph to show just how important these programs are for reducing poverty amongst millions of Americans: Yet Varney bemoaned "all these people on food stamps," Medicaid, the Earned Income Tax Credit and unemployment insurance as "a form of welfare, income redistribution" and "entitlement mentality." Watch:
Varney completely ignored the need for such programs to keep millions of Americans out of poverty. After guest and Democratic strategist Krystal Ball defended the social safety net, Fox's Charles Payne castigated poor people for not being embarrassed enough about their situation:
PAYNE: Krystal, there's no doubt that these are good programs. I think the real narrative here, though, is that people aren't embarrassed by it. People aren't ashamed by it. In other words, there was a time when people were embarrassed to be on food stamps. There was a time when people were embarrassed to be on unemployment for six months, let alone demanding to be on it for more than two years. I think that's what Stu is trying to say, is that when the president says Wall Street is at fault, so, you are entitled to get anything that you want from the government, because it's not really your fault, no longer is the man being told to look in the mirror and cast down a judgment on himself. It's someone else's fault. So food stamps, unemployment, all of this stuff, is something that they probably earned in some indirect way.
Maybe it's Fox Business who should be ashamed of themselves.Explanation of the web of trust of PGP
Everyone can generate a PGP key by himself. If you want to know if a given key belongs really to the person stated in the key, you have to verify that. This is very easy if you know the person who created the key. But is is difficult if you do not know that person at all.
I will explain how PGP solves this problem. The main point is the usage of certificates. Such a certificate has about this meaning: I confirm, that the signed key belongs to the person mentioned in the UserID-field..
Additional I will point out how PGP determines which key is valid and which not. And also the way PGP handles the trust parameters.
Why to build a web
A problem in every public key system is the authentication of the public key.
A example will show that: I get an electronicly signed email from Germano Caronni. To verify the signature of his mail, I need his public key.
One way to get his key is to send a mail to pgp-public-keys@keys.pgp.net with the subject GET caronni@tik. But is this really his public key? Some other person could have created a key with the name Germano Carroni. This person could then send the key onto the keyservers.
I have to check the authenticity of this public key to see if it is really from Germano Caronni. There are several possibilities to do so:
I search his phone number in an official phone book and make a call. On the phone he gives me all his key properties. I have to know him to be able to identify him by his voice for this to work. If I can not identify him by his voice any one else could say he is Germano Caronni. I visit him, he shows me his picture identity card and gives me the key properties of his key. I search for another person which has confirmed that the key of Germano Caronni really belongs Germano. This will be explained in this text.
The possibilities 1 and 2 are expensive and perhaps impossible. I probably will not visit someone in an other country to verify a signature.
The third possibility is very easy because all can be done electronicly. There is even a tool to do so: the AT&T PathServer. There I can enter the keyID of my PGP key, which is DD934139. Additionally I enter the keyID of Germanos key, which is 7B7AE5E1. The PathServer gives me the following image as a result:
The top circle is for my key DD934139, the key at the bottom of the picture is the key of Germano 7B7AE5E1.
An arc from A to B stands for an electronic signature of the key B, done by A.
I can read from the picture: Marcel Waldvogel confirms that the key 7B7AE5E1 really belongs to Germano Caronni, because he has signed the key of Germano. I have signed the key of Marcel Waldvogel and confirm therefore that the key AB96E86D belongs him. There is another path from my key to Germanos key via the ct'magazin and Hanno Wagner.
To be able to verify such paths it is very important that everyone signs the key of others and submits these signatures to the keyservers. This way also others can benefit from such signatures.
All these signatures build a kind of a web. Thats why this is called the web of trust.
The paths between two keys have to be as short as possible. These paths are chains of confirmations. If the path between my key and the key of Germano gets longer I am less sure about the validity authenticity of his key.
Paths which do not share a common key between the starting key and the last key are called disjoint paths. It is important to have as many disjoint paths as possible. The more disjoint paths between two keys the less the probability that someone can fake a confirmation chain by issuing a wrong signature.
The validity of keys
Every user of PGP has an own keyring with public keys.
The keys which are valid are specially flaged in this keyring. A key is valid if it is
signed (certified) by the owner of the keyring or
signed (certified) by enough other key holders, which are trusted by the key owner. See next chapter: The trust.
A key which is flagged as invalid in the keyring, will only be used with reservation by PGP:
key certificates created with such a key are ignored.
If a signed message is verified, there will be a warning that you can not be sure that the signing key belongs really to the person mentioned in the key.
trust values meaning of this trust value untrusted key certificates done with this key are ignored marginal At least 2 keys with marginal trust have to sign another (third) key to make this third key a valid key. complete At least one key with complete trust has to sign another key to make the key valid. ultimate If you have the secret key for a public key this key is ultimately trusted. Every key you sign with an ultimate trusted key becomes valid.
The number of key certificates needed to make a key valid is taken from PGP 5.x (5.0 and 5.5) for Windows. With the Unix version of PGP you can set this values by yourself in the configuration file. The default values of PGP 2.6 are 2 and 4.
PGP 5.x (Windows) PGPKeys.exe has two columns Validity and Trust where it shows the values graphicly. PGP 5.x (Unix) pgpk -c verifys all signatures and shows the values for every key in the keyring. PGP 2.x.x pgp -km shows the values
pgp -kc verifys all signatures and should be called prior using pgp -km.
Links
Hints, Errors and Comments by mail to Patrick Feisthammel <pafei@rubin.ch>
Last modification: 7 Oct 2004, Patrick Feisthammel
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
no mail to sammler@rubin.chWalmart Sells Che Guevara Items Glorifying Racist Communist Thug
Walmart is selling several posters and prints glorifying dead communist thug Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara. Guevara was a notorious anti-Black racist from Argentina who murdered hungry children and became an icon for leftists around the world for his role in the 1959 communist takeover of Cuba.
Guevara was killed in 1967 in Bolivia while trying to foment a communist revolution there.
In 2006, Walmart competitor Target pulled a CD carrying case with a Che Guevara image after customers complained, according to the AP.
In 2012 Urban Outfitters stopped selling Che Guevara posters in response to customer outrage.
Walmart has several pages of Che Guevara merchandise for sale on its Website. While books and movies about Guevara are not objectionable, posters and fine art prints glorifying Guevara that Walmart also sells crosses a line to de facto endorsement of the racist, communist murderer.
Most of the seventeen Che Guevara posters and prints Walmart is selling are based on the iconic photo of the beret-wearing Guevara taken by the late Alberto Diaz Gutierrez, aka Alberto Korda, entitled Guerrillero Heroico.
Posters start at $9.50 on sale while fine art prints cost upwards of $339.99 for a 60” by 40” canvas print.
For $294.95 Walmart is selling a psychedelic fine art print of Guevara on large canvas.
A blacklight poster with faux spray paint shows red paint—truthfully, the blood of his victims—dripping down from Guevara’s image.
Another poster features a propaganda quote by the murdering racist, “Let me say, at the risk of seeming ridiculous, that the true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love.”
Cuban exile Humberto Fontova has written extensively about Guevara, including a 2008 book that sought to demolish the heroic myth of Guervara. The book, entitled Exposing the Real Che Guevara: And the Useful Idiots Who Idolize Him, is for sale at Walmart–a small consideration for the more than a dozen glorious imagery posters of Guevara that Walmart is selling.
Fontova wrote about Guevara’s and the Castro regime’s anti-Black racism in a 2009 column at Human Events chastising members of the Congressional Black Caucus for meeting in Cuba with the communist dictator brothers Fidel and Raul Castro:
“Racism is one of the cornerstones of the Castro regime. As Fidel’s close friend and ally, the murderous Ernesto “Che” Guevara, once said, “The Negro is indolent and spends his money on frivolities, whereas the European is forward-looking, organized and intelligent… We’re going to do for blacks exactly what blacks did for the Cuban revolution. By which I mean: nothing!”” …” Today the prison population in Stalinist/Apartheid Cuba is 90% black while only 9% of the ruling Stalinist party is black. As these black legislators cavorted in Cuba, a black Cuban anti-communist named Antunez, who suffered 17 years in Castro’s dungeons (essentially for quoting Martin Luther King and the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights in a public square), was on a hunger strike against Castroism. I will quote his sister from a samizdat smuggled out of Cuba last year while he was still in prison: “”The Cuban government tries to fool the world with siren songs depicting racial equality in our country. But it is all a farce, as I and my family can attest, having suffered from the systematic racism directed at us by Castro’s regime. My brother suffers the scourge of racial hatred every day. The beatings are always accompanied by racial epithets. They set dogs on him. They deny him medical attention. They kept him from attending his mother’s funeral.” “”The racist mentality is so ingrained among Cuba’s agents of repression that when mixed race groups are stopped on the street, only the blacks are asked for their identification papers. The only thing I have to thank the Cuban revolution for,” she quoted her brother, “is for restoring the yoke of slavery that my ancestors lived under.””Controversial it may be, but an unorthodox and unusual (may we add very, very unusual) fad is taking the beauty world by fire. It's not yet what we can call mainstream, but it's definitely getting there. Fear not, this revolutionary trend we're talking about, it has nothing to do with bull semen or bird poop.
Let’s break it already: The latest indicator that we might be approaching the end of civilization as we know it, is the news that women’s shaving their faces, just like men, is now a thing.
True: Once upon a time, shaving facial hair was strictly restricted to men, but now a number of women are doing it. Turns out, taking a razor to your face (yes, we’re talking to you ladies), could help your skin stay youthful. Shaving your face is being touted to have amazing anti-ageing benefits: fewer wrinkles, soft skin and - wait for it - less facial hair (obviously).
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We know what you’re thinking: “That’s a load of Boll*cks!”
But recent reports in The Independent and Daily Mail, among others, say an increasing number of women are reaching for the razor when it comes to removing facial hair; with some experts claiming its anti-ageing effects.
"It's definitely a thing," The Independent quoted Alexis Wolfer, editor of The Beauty Bean in as saying in a report.
“Sometimes called ‘dermaplaning’, the process of shaving a woman's face can take place in a professional dermatologist's office or can be a DIY job,” she says.
* Women shaving faces: Is it a good thing?
“It makes sense; shaving is the perfect exfoliation technique,” skin specialist with AMRI Hospital, Prasanjit Bhattacharya tells us. “But for women? Now that depends on a few factors, including her hair growth.”
According to Wolfer, one reason men are thought to get fewer wrinkles is that they're constantly exfoliating their faces every time they shave, literally shaving away the outermost layers of skin and encouraging your skin to create new layers.
What’s more shaving also ‘improves’ complexion’, the beauty experts suggest in The Independent.
“This is because shaving is a form of mechanical exfoliation that removes the dead surface layers of the skin, revealing smooth, soft skin," Bhattacharya says.
But does any woman in the 21st century truly have the time or the inclination to shave her entire face for the sake of slightly softer or fairer skin? Let’s probe that question another day?
* Dermaplaning vs DIY shaving
Some dermatologists and aestheticians in the West are breaking the shaving ‘rules’ and sharing an unorthodox secret to a smooth, fresh face: Dermaplaning.
A top dermatologist at Vibes, Delhi says, "Dermaplaning is a simple physical or mechanical method of exfoliation, which helps to remove dead skin cells and give your face a brighter complexion,
"Since it removes some vellus hair (the (fine) baby hair on your face), it can make the skin feel smoother," she says.
If you feel it is just "a fancy name for running a sharp blade over your face" and want to go the DIY route, use a women's razor with a safety guard (available easily at a chemist near you and online) – not a regular razor. And if it's smooth, soft, wrinkle-free skin you're after – sans stubble – our expert from Vibes recommends using a chemical exfoliating cleanser or moisturiser, containing a Poly Hydroxy acid.
For the DIY method there are plenty of instructional videos on YouTube. In one video, US reality-TV star, Michelle Money says she shaves her face and she’s proud of it. She warns against using your typical razor; instead using a facial razor.
She also cautions: "Shaving for the first time or inconsistently can mechanically irritate the skin as it is not used to it on a regular basis."
* Women in India: Do they wax or shave?
Though shaving your face is typically done by men, it's been said Hollywood sirens Elizabeth Taylor and Marilyn Monroe both fought their face fuzz with a razor.
Here’s the thing: Facial shaving for women isn’t news until we see and hear women around us doing it too. With its painless and speedy technique for achieving instant smoothness, the razor should be king of hair removal. Instead, many women in India opt for other treatments like threading, waxing and laser. Truth be told, most Indian women consider shaving their faces a taboo.
We did, however, speak to a woman who shaves her jaw line, upper lip, under chin area and even forehead.
JNU student Megha Raja (name changed) who regularly shave her faces, but in secret, says, “I grew up with some hair on my upper-lip (you could call it a mustache). Sure all girls grow up with a patch of light hair on their upper lips (yay hormones), but mine was very noticeable. I was ready to do whatever it took to get rid of my furry friend staring me in the face every morning. I tried threading, waxing, but nothing was it.”
“At the ripe age of 21, I finally opted for hair removal. So, now I shave about 2-3 times a week,” says the 26-year-old.
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* Experts speak: To shave or not to shave?
Plenty of women might consider it daily for their legs or armpits, but should we follow the advice of experts gathered by the Daily Mail and start shaving our faces? Absolutely not, read an article in The Guardian.
Whether you’re shaving to get rid of a slight mustache or shaving your entire face to make it softer, regrowth as the result of a razor – compared with waxing, threading and depilatory creams – is a colossal hazard, read the article that called the anti-ageing claims of shaving your face, nonsense.
“Skin tone makes a difference to how much facial hair is visible. Since, Asian hair is larger in diameter than Caucasian or Afro hair, it’s more resilient. Shaving doesn’t – in any way – affect the keratin cells that create the actual hair,” Anita Bhagwandas wrote in The Guardian.
Dr P Havelia also urges women to |
," Nuck retorts. (1)
(1) So where is Nucky staying? This from user 'ChipDoc' in our forum: "There is only ONE hotel in Tampa which Nucky would even consider patronizing. It's the Tampa Bay Hotel, built between 1888-1891 by railroad magnate Henry B. Plant to serve as a destination attraction for his railroad. A 500-room Moorish palace, basically anyone who was anyone stayed there when they were in Tampa including Teddy Roosevelt when the Rough Riders were staging their invasion of Cuba. Babe Ruth signed his first baseball contract in the hotel’s grand dining room in the spring of 1914. From the 1890s until the 1930s it was one of THE great resort hotels of the world. It's still there, although these days it serves as a part of the campus of the University Of Tampa. Take the tour if you're in town." ~ Thanks, ChipDoc.
On the family farm in Wisconsin, Richard Harrow (Jack Huston) buries his gun — perhaps more as a symbolic cleansing than anything else.
In Harlem, Dr. Valentin Narcisse (Jeffrey Wright) addresses a small contingent of African-American men in his office. He speaks of the importance of education in "uplifting our people" and "The new Negro must be tutored in thought and culture." Notice the banner for the Universal Negro Improvement Association the background. (2)
(2) PBS tells us that Marcus Garvey, at the age of 28 founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association on July 20, 1914. "The U.N.I.A. was originally conceived as a benevolent or fraternal reform association dedicated to racial uplift and the establishment of educational and industrial opportunities for blacks, taking Booker T. Washington's Tuskegee Institute as a model. By 1916, New York became the headquarters of the movement. The Harlem branch started with 17 members meeting in a dingy basement. But by the spring of 1918, Garvey's strong advocacy of black economic and political independence had taken hold, and U.N.I.A. branches and divisions were springing up in cities and towns across the country, and then in different parts of the world. By 1920 Garvey claimed nearly a thousand local divisions in the United States, the Caribbean, Central America, Canada and Africa." Read more HERE.
Narcisse soon excuses the men because he's told he has guests. A moment later, Cotton Club owner and gangster Owney Madden enters with Arnold Rothstein (Michael Stuhlberg). Rothstein cuts right to the chase.
"Mr. Madden tells me you're interested in heroin," he says.
"As a commodity, yes..." Narcisse answers. He also tells Rothstein that he wants to expand to other 'Libyan' markets.
"Libyan?" Rothstein asks.
"That's what he calls the coloreds," Madden says interpreting. He goes on to vouch for Narcisse, who asks for twenty pounds of uncut heroin. Rothstein says that it will cost him $80,000 in cash.
"Large bills only," Rothstein instructs.
Narcisse is offended at the notion that Rothstein assumes he'd pay with anything but. "It's my understanding you control the local numbers racket," Rothstein tells him.
"Therefore I transact my business like a schoolboy..." Narcisse says. "Dealing in pennies, nickels and dimes." Rothstein says that he didn't mean to offend.
"Nonetheless, you succeeded despite yourself." Narcisse darts back.
Rothstein says that his associate "Mr. Diamond" will be in touch. (3)
(3) Jack "Legs" Diamond was a mobster of the most notorious order. Biography tells us that he received his storied nickname either due to his jackrabbit-like speed when running from the cops or those slick dancing moves he'd show off at various Manhattan speakeasies. Says Bio.com, "With alcohol smuggling a profitable underworld enterprise, Diamond organized truck heists to seize liquor for his speakeasies. In 1923, Diamond ordered the murder of mob boss Nathan "Kid Dropper" Kaplan and usurped power in the world of organized crime for himself, aligning himself with mobsters like Lucky Luciano and Dutch Schultz. (Diamond and Schultz would later become rivals.)" Read more HERE.
After they shake on the deal, Rothstein leaves.
Narcisse tells Madden that Daughter Maitland (Margot Bingham), a singer at The Cotton Club, will be needed elsewhere (we assume The Onyx Club). Madden couldn't care less and tells Narcisse to have Dickie Pastor swing by with her replacement.
Narcisse says, "God will bring every deed into judgement... With every secret thing either good or evil." (*) He stirs his tea and says, "Mr. Pastor will not be returning."
(*) For those keeping score, that's Ecclesiastes 12:14
Back on the Harrow farm, Richard and Emma (Katherine Waterson) speak with her brother-in-law Hubert, a big galoot of a gravel salesman, the well-meaning type. We get the sense that he's there to take care of Emma out of obligation (since she's a widow), but also that he cares for her as well.
He talks Harrow's ear off — calling him 'Rick — the entire time. He offers to come up on Saturday to help clear out the barn. Emma tells him that there's no need because Richard will do it. She goes on to tell Hubert that that he should probably "call first" when he visits. He says that her delicious treats will keep him coming back.
When he leaves, Emma and Richard playfully joke by taking a jab at 'ol Hubert and mock the conversation he was having. It's a very sweet (if uncharacteristic) moment for the twins.
"He's not so bad," Emma says. "Is he?"
"As a brother in law?" Richard asks.
The pregnant Emma tells her brother that Hubert lost someone as well. She begins the slight sell. "And his folks are good people. They wanted me to move into town with them after Gerry died."
As she speaks of what she wants in the nursery for her child, her brother places cash on the table. "Take it and pay the taxes," Harrow says.
She's confused, telling him that the taxes should be all paid for. She said she sold the family vehicle ('The Hudson') and paid them.
"Well, I'm not paying them twice. Put that money away and let's not talk about it."
Back in Tampa at his hotel, Nucky overhears the conversation of Skeeter Walsh (Roe Hartrampf), a young man nearby. He's pitching some sort of land deal. Obviously, Nucky is intrigued, especially with hearing, "You can double your investment in a month."
When Skeeter's mark leaves, Nucky strikes up a conversation with him, feeling him out. He tells Nuck that the hottest piece of property he's peddling is a development called 'Pineapple Grove.' Nucky admits to the kid, that he knows he's selling useless land. "No offense, but I've met my share of bloodsuckers..."
"What we've got sells itself," Skeeter, the 'binder boy' for a real estate company, says. He insists that while the land may be swampland, the developments within and surrounding will be coming — compete with 80 miles of paved streets and infrastructure. He tells Nucky that the buyers are lining up. Nucky takes it all in.
* * *
At Temple University, Eli's son Will Thompson (Ben Rosenfield) and his college buddies listen to a lecture on a phonograph in the library. (4)
(4) The lecture is entitled "Acres of Diamonds" and it was recited by Russell Conwell, a former minister who helped found the institution. For more on the lecture, see 'Other Things On My Mind' below. Read more about it HERE.
Listen to it HERE.
Will watches a typical bully named Henry (Josh Caras) bum a cigarette from a nearby student. Just then, a group of young ladies enter the library. Henry flirts hard with one of the girls to no avail. Instead, she actually notices Will and makes small talk with him. Henry invites the girls to a party. They decline because they have better plans that involve some bootleg liquor. Will pipes in that he could land some.
"Well then...," she says, looking at Will. "It's a date..." Henry the Bully doesn't look to happy about Will stepping in.
In Atlantic City, Gillian Darmody (Gretchen Mol) and Piggly Wiggly supermarket executive Roy Phillips (Ron Livingston) look at a prospective apartment for him. While it's nice, we can tell that he's not exactly feeling it due to his nitpicking the room.
"Are you always so indecisive?" she asks. He tells her that his soon-to-be-ex-wife found it maddening.
Emmys 2013: Bobby Cannavale wins best supporting actor for 'Boardwalk Empire'
"Well, Clara was wrong," she tells him. Roy, stumbling a bit, asks her to dinner later that evening. He wants Gillian to pose as his wife while he dines with a big shot from the A&P Supermarkets. She easily obliges.
Back at The Onyx Club, Chalky (Michael Kenneth Williams) still rides Dunn Purnsley (Erik LaRay Harvey) hard by giving him busboy tasks. Purnsley isn't feeling it, as we can almost see the snarl on his face as he speaks to Chalky.
Narcisse enters the club with Daughter Maitland. Chalky looks enchanted by her at first glance.
"May I present Miss Daughter Maitland... Say hello, dear..." Narcisse says. He goes on to inform Chalky that she is a gifted singer in jazz, blues and improv. Chalky says he knows her from "the record."
Daughter tells Chalky that she has indeed recorded "Warsaw Blues" with King Oliver. (5)
(5) Jazz.com tells us that without King Oliver, we probably wouldn't have a Louis Armstrong. "Perhaps Oliver's greatest legacy can be found in the talent of Louis Armstrong, whom he mentored in New Orleans, then brought from the swamp to the swarming streets of Chicago. Starting there, the younger musician took Oliver's inspiration and turned it into a music the whole world would hear." Read more about Oliver HERE and enjoy the tune below.
Narcisse is impressed. "You know your business, sir..."
"I know what Dickie held back..." Chalky says.
Narcisse tells Daughter where to find the dressing room. When she's gone, Chalky wants to know why she there. Narcisse says she's performing at The Onyx for the week.
"I do hope you're asking and not tellin'," Chalky tells him.
"We are partners, Mr. White, and that girl is a star," Narcisse says. "IF you will have her."
Chalky agrees and quickly barks some more orders at Purnsley.
"It was my understanding that Mr. Purnsley managed the staff," Narcisse asks
"He do as I tell him," Chalky says.
"When men make themselves into brutes, it is just to treat them as brutes," Narcisse tells him. (*)
(*) That's a quote by writer Amelia Barr and her 1908 book "The Belle of Bowling Green"
* * *
Will and his nerdy friend drive to Doyle's warehouse that houses his Uncle Nucky's booze. He brazenly walks in and introduces himself to Mickey Doyle (Paul Sparks) and asks him for some hooch. Doyle tells him to take a hike. Will keeps asking.
"Are you deaf or just stupid?" Doyle says. Will backs down and, as he walks out, attempts to slyly steal a case of rye. One of the drivers catches him and calls Doyle.
Angry, Doyle slaps Will in the face hard and threatens to call Eli. Will pleads his case.
"Alright, don't get so dramatic..." Doyle says. "You can't go around robbing people. It's a good thing your dad's my pal... Now scat..." As Doyle watches Will scurry out dejected, he calls after him and tells him to take the crate of booze.
Back in Wisconsin, Harrow cleans out the barn and, as he inspects dusty trinkets and trophies, he seems to reminisce of a lifetime long ago. As he moves to the back of the barn, he spots a hole in the roof and the sun creeping in. With his back turned to the camera, he takes of his mask and places his face in the path of the sunlight.
We then see a man holding an old trophy say, "Here's something you actually accomplished....Remember me?" It's Carl Billings (Sean Cullen), the man Harrow met on a train 'last summer' and agreed to kill for him for cash. We can now assume it as Billings who killed Dolph Liebling (the man Harrow let go last week). Another man enters, pointing a gun at Harrow.
"As I recall, you said it was the one thing on earth you were good at..." Billings says. "And I said, half now, half when you finish. But you didn't finish. You left a man alive which makes me concerned about the conversation we had."
The man with the gun, throws Harrow's wallet to Billings, who sees that Harrow hasn't spent any of the money. "THIS makes you honest? You don't have any kind of a code... You kill for hire and this just makes you stupid. And how do you trust a stupid man?"
Harrow says nothing and after a brief moment, bum rushes the man with the gun, stabbing him with a knife. His mask falls off and, in the scuffle, Harrow is quickly on the ground as Billings picks up the pistol and points it at him. Just as Billings is about to pull the trigger, Emma's double-barrel shotgun blows him all over the back of the barn.
In Tampa, Nucky arrives at Sally Wheet's (Patrica Arquette) joint, a hybrid of a speakeasy and roadhouse of sorts. It looks like the kind of place where you can get a beer, bourbon, burger and bait. Nuck's there to meet McCoy and land baron August Tucker. Sally Wheet enjoys a shot of whiskey with the boys but Tucker rudely dismisses her. Nucky notices and we can tell he doesn't like ol' Tuck's bedside manner.
They sit down and begin to discuss the land deal that McCoy has passed along to Nucky via Tucker.
"Ready to get rich?" Tucker asks.
"I'm already rich, Mr. Tucker," Nucky darts back.
"What good would millions do me in jail?"
Tucker and McCoy don't get where Nucky is coming from. Thanks to Skeeter's tip, he tells them that their land is worthless because the entire surrounding area is being developed. He asks the men what good a convoy of trucks hauling booze would do hauling down Main Street, USA.
Tucker looks agitated. "You told me he was in."
"He was," McCoy assures.
"I said that I would consider it. And I did," Nucky says.
Nucky apologizes and gets up to leave. "Sorry boys, you'll have to find yourselves a new partner." Tucker tells Nucky that he wasted his time.
"You're not the one that came all the way down here." Before he leaves, Nucky thanks Sally for her hospitality.
In Atlantic City at The Onyx Club, Daughter Maitland performs onstage to a packed house. Chalky seems to be in a trance as he watches her. The tune she's singing? "Somebody Loves Me." Enjoy this version by Ella Fitzgerald.
We see Gillian and Roy enjoy their evening with the A&P exec and his wife. They say that they don't have anything like The Onyx Club back in Evansville, Indiana where they're from. Gillian looks a tad uncomfortable. (*)
(*) That's probably because that's the town where Roger McCallister was from. For those who may not remember, he was the young serviceman and Jimmy Darmody doppelganger that she murdered last season in order to get the deed on The Artemis Club.
Posing as Mrs. Roy Phillips, Gillian tries to make some supermarket small talk and, after an awkward question to the exec, the conversation soon escalates into playful fun regarding the spiked "coffee" everyone is drinking at the club. Gillian excuses herself to go to the powder room and Mrs. A&P exec says that she'll join her. Gillian looks frustrated because we know she just wants a fix.
Regarding Daughter Maitland and the quality of her singing, Narcisse asks Chalky, "Well? Was I lying?"
"The white folks seem to like her," Chalky answers.
"Yes... That would be important," Narcisse agrees. After Chalky walks away, Narcisse finishes that sentence, "...TO YOU..."
Because of the booze he received from Mickey Doyle, Will's college party is a resounding success. They all ask where he got the liquor. "A freind," he replies. From the corner of his eye he can see Henry the Bully get a little too "friendly" with Doris (Miranda Cosgrove), a female student. She breaks away, leaving. Will steps in to the rescue. She asks Will to leave with her. He agrees. After they leave, she brings him upstairs to the library and start kissing.
* * *
Back in Tampa, McCoy is angry at Nucky for brushing off the land deal with Tucker. "I owe this man..."
"Owe him what?" Nuck jabs back.
"MONEY..." McCoy answers. "A lot of it." McCoy explains that when he got arrested in a bootlegging run, almost $200,000 of Tucker's scotch was on board.
Nucky asks McCoy why he didn't ask him for help. "Because I wanted to earn it," he answers. "I'm not a charity case." McCoy also explains that Tucker assured that if Nucky entered the land deal, he would forgive his debt.
"So I'm supposed to partner with some two-bit hillbilly?" Nucky asks, agitated.
"He's a big man around these parts," McCoy says.
Nuck's not impressed. "I've already met the world's tallest midget on the midway back home." Nucky goes on to say that the deal is crap. "And you know it."
"I thought you were my friend..." McCoy just about pleads.
"If you had come to me like one it would've been different," Nucky says.
Back in A.C., Roy and Gillian enjoy some time at a boardwalk diner. They joke about all the tall tales they told to Mrs. A&P at dinner. Roy tells her that they make "a pretty swell team."
Just then, a young man approaches them in their booth. He says that he recognizes Gillian from about a year ago when he and his friend ROGER (!!) met her outside of the eatery Abe Klein's on the boardwalk. Gillian becomes a bit flustered. She denies having ever met him but the young man presses on some more.
"This person is making me very uncomfortable," she tells Roy, who gets tough with the kid and shoos him away. She excuses herself and visits the ladies room. Inside, she shoots up and basks in the glory of her high. Eventually she slowly wanders back to Roy's booth and he can tell something is a tad off. She only then realizes that she was gone a while after seeing that their ice cream had melted.
In the dark library at Temple, Doris and Will are pettin' heavy when Henry and friends intrude on them, singing and laughing.
"Well go on, Romeo... Don't let us interrupt," Henry tells Will, patting him on the chest.
"You think this is funny?" Will asks, shoving Will to the ground. "Touch me again and I'll break your nose."
Henry gets back up, pointing out to the the rest of the kids Will's erection. "Well, it looks like your anger is not the only things that's arisen..." Everyone laughs at Will, who runs out embarrassed.
Back in Tampa, Nucky visits Sally Wheat's roadhouse and tackle joint. It's pretty empty, save for one man who's fast asleep on the table. Nucky as if he's alive.
"He's breathing..." Sally says. "What about you? You alive?"
"I was once..." Nuck answers.
"What happened?" she inquires.
"Prohibition... Until then, I was a simple run-of-the-mill crook and corrupt city official. And I was happy. Plenty of money. Plenty of friends. Plenty of everything. And then suddenly, plenty wasn't enough"
He tells her that it's his stepson Teddy's birthday and he's been meaning to send him something. "Maybe the better gift is to let him forget me," Nuck says. She basically tells him that's a cop out. "The best choice requires the least amount of effort on your part."
"I thought bartenders were supposed to be sympathetic," he asks.
"She laughs, answering, "Welcome to Sally's."
He asks about Tucker, Bill McCoy's partner. "I hear he's a big man around these parts," Nuck says.
"He thinks so..." Sally answers, almost scoffing. After bumming a cigarette from Nucky, she dishes. "August Tucker: Georgia native. Son of moonshiners. Made his way to Tampa after the war." She says they do a little business on occasion.
"Is he dangerous?" Nuck asks. She points to the alligator taxidermy on the wall. "He's a lot like this fella. He'll kill you if he gets the chance but he's not too smart."
He asks how Tucker managed to get a handle on the rackets. "With enough money and the right connections, you can do pretty much do anything down here," Sally tells him.
Back at The Onyx Club, Purnsley finishes up cleaning for the night when he suddenly sees Narcisse appear in the room. Purnsley's blade comes out. He asks, "What do you want, friend? You want some of this?"
"What good would another dead Negro do either of us?" Narcisse asks.
"Make me feel a might better," Purnsley growls.
Narcisse tells him that the Dickie Pastor incident has been settled and that the quarrel was merely financial in nature. The doctor tells Purnsley that Chalky has him doing the slave labor and adds, "He offered to give you up in exchange for Dickie Pastor. His Libyan brother for a knotted devil."
"Chalky White ain't never been my friend," Purnsley growls.
Narcisse shows Purnsley a small envelope of heroin and slides it across the table. Narcisse says that it's, "Freedom. Power. Control over men that are lesser than you. Chalky White is one of those men"
"Where you going, friend?" Purnsley fishes.
"As far as you'd like me to take you," Narcisse smiles back. "But we shall go there together."
In Tampa, a drunk Bill McCoy sits alone in his room, lamenting the land deal that went sour. Tucker frantically knocks on his door, demanding he open up. McCoy tries to apologize and calm Tucker down but he doesn't want to hear about it and wraps his hand around McCoy's throat. They struggle as Tucker slams the door shut.
Back in Wisconsin, Harrow sits outside the family house speaking to Emma's brother-in-law Hubert about the "injury" he received cleaning out the barn. Hubert insinuates that Emma needs more help, especially that she'll soon have a child to raise. We still get the sense that he wants to marry her. We see Emma exit the barn and approach the men. She asks her brother when his train arrives.
"We'll get him there," Hubert assures. "Plenty of time." Emma asks him to send her an address. Before he leaves, she hugs him and whispers, "You need to call yourself to account." In essence, she's telling him that he needs to free his soul from whatever is holding it hostage.
In Tampa, Nucky prepares to go back to Atlantic City. A bellhop delivers a package to his room. It's from SALLY'S BAIT & TACKLE and a gift for Teddy in the junior angler vein. He smiles at the gift.
Minutes later in the lobby, he calls Bill McCoy from a house phone. He says that he's in on the land deal and that Tucker should answer to him. McCoy is slightly surprised. It's odd, though, because we think he should be more happy.
After they hang up, we see that McCoy has actually killed Tucker in his room, with a machete to the head. Blood everywhere. McCoy sits down, face in his palms.
We fade out.
Other stuff on my mind
• Named for the lecture that Eli and the student's were listening to in the library, "Acres of Diamonds" oozes subtext, especially in an episode that has Nucky heading to Florida to examine a lucrative land deal. According to HistoryMatters, the lecture delves on the American Dream. Says the site: "The ideology of success — the notion that anyone could make it with enough hard work - was widely promoted in Gilded Age America. An aggressive proponent of the success ideology was Russell Conwell, a former minister who helped found Temple University. His lecture “Acres of Diamonds,” parts of which are excerpted here as text, was his own route to riches. He delivered this pep talk on the joys of instant material success on the national lecture circuit more than 6,000 times, most often during the 1890s. By the time of his death in 1925, this speech had reportedly earned him $8 million." Read more HERE
• Who else noticed Dr. Narcisse wiping his hand down after he shook Rothstein's hand?
• Hubert saying, "See you in the funnies..." instead of goodbye. A jocular expression that all but died out by World War II, some armchair historians believe it was because newspapers often ran their comic strips and obituaries on the same page. Where would YOU rather be? In the funnies or obits... Hence the expression.
• Emma Harrow, with her "Cold Mountain" double-barrel shotgun, is one tough cookie.
• Was I the only one who didn't quickly recognize Miranda Cosgrove as Will's galpal Doris? It was driving me nuts. UPDATE: I didn't recognize her because it wasn't her. The actress was Kayla Ferguson. Sorry for the confusion and thanks to our forum below for pointing it out.
• How long before it comes back to haunt Doyle for giving Eli's son Will a crate of booze?
• In researching Daughter Maitland actress Margot Bingham, there are more than a couple news sites and blogs out there (I won't say who) that are claiming that she's Narcisse's daughter. Not sure if it's a mistake or a HUGE spoiler. Let's enjoy Bingham's voice, who appears on the "Boardwalk Empire" soundtrack, Vol. II.
• Mickey Doyle: "It's a good thing your dad's my pal... Now scat..." Sorta sweet how Doye thinks Eli and him are pals. Something tells me that Eli doesn't necessarily think so.
• So Billings says he met Harrow "last summer"... Who else thought that the time element of their arrangement was much closer to the present day of the show?
• I've long been a fan of Patrica Arquette (ever since her role as Alabama Worley in "True Romance") and her showing up as Sally Wheet makes a fine addition to the show. I can't wait to see what else 'Empire' has in store for her. Until then, let's just all enjoy THIS.
• While we're on the subject, is Nucky going to hook up with Sally Wheet? Who else thinks they'd make an interesting pair?
• What's with all the Roger McCallister references? Two in one night?
• Narcisse is really stirring that pot with Dunn Purnsley, huh? And with Purnsley responding "Chalky White ain't never been my friend"... Other than that jailhouse beating when they met, was there really that much animosity between them? I didn't think so. Anyone?
• Just about four episodes in and we really haven't seen much of 'Shortpants' and Meyer.
• This was brought up last week in our forum. Now that we know Carl Billings has come after Harrow. We see that he's not some meek pencil-neck who can't take care of himself. We know that he has muscle and isn't afraid to pull the trigger or come collecting. Why pay Harrow in the first place for any contract killing when he could have done it himself?
• Lastly, a bit of biz... The next two recaps may not be as in-depth since I may not have the time to compose them.
• I'll be chatting soon with Nelson Johnson, author of the New York Times bestselling book "Boardwalk Empire." He has agreed to take some questions involving the history of Atlantic City, thoughts on the show or anything else Nucky-centric. Post some of your questions that you may have for him below.
Follow Anthony Venutolo on Google+ | Twitter.You know what time of year it is. No, we’re not talking about Thanksgiving. We’re talking about when you go on a shopping spree equipped with a bowl of cereal in one hand and a mouse in another—it’s Black Friday week! Get your favorite stuff and the items you’ve been eyeing all year long at incredible discounts-- there are different deals each day! Keep checking the MapleStory website each day to see what deals are coming up.
MONDAY’S DOORBUSTER
Summer Surprise Style Box
PST: Monday, November 27, 2017 12:00 AM – Monday, November 27, 2017 11:59 PM
EST: Monday, November 27, 2017 3:00 AM – Tuesday, November 28, 2017 2:59 AM
CET: Monday, November 27, 2017 9:00 AM – Tuesday, November 28, 2017 8:59 AM
AEDT: Monday, November 27, 2017 7:00 PM – Tuesday, November 28, 2017 6:59 PM
Available in the Special Promotions > Black Friday > Limited Quantity category in both Reboot and non-Reboot worlds.
Each Summer Surprise Style Box holds a random permanent equip with a summertime theme! There are 100 different permanent items available! In non-Reboot worlds, you can trade these style box items with other players through the Cash Item Trade window, if you haven’t equipped them. Right-click on a character to see the menu.
You can also exchange them with NPC Ari, located near the Free Market entrance, and receive an Avatar Box Stamp. You can receive one stamp per item. This stamp is permanent and untradeable. When you collect enough stamps, you can talk to NPC Shiro, also located near the Free Market entrance, to exchange the stamps for a permanent equip item of your choice!
Check out some of the amazing items you can get from the Summer Surprise Style Box!
Silver Flower Child Weapon, Silver Flower Child Hat, Silver Flower Child Outfit (F), Silver Flower Child Outfit (M), Silver Flower Child Cape, Sweet Summer Cap, Sweet Summer Cape, Blue Swimming Trunk (M), Island Travel Headphones, Island Travel Shoes, Island Travel Bags, Aqua Green Star, Star Beach Shorts, Hawaiian Flower, Brown Aviator Shades, Pink Strapless Bikini (F),
Beach Quote Ring, Beach Label Ring, Blue Bow Beret, Blue Strapless Bikini (F), White Ribboned Sailor Dress (F), Sunny Day, Angelic Navy Cap (F), Sailor Outfit (M), Straw Sun Hat, Deluxe Cone, Star Sunglasses, Cute Sailor Dress (F), Sparkler, Ink-and-Wash Thought Bubble Ring, Ink-and-Wash Painting Name Tag Ring, Royal Navy Hat, Royal Navy Uniform, Black Aviator Shades,
Sunset Seraphim, Traveler's Hat, Tiny Black Swimshorts (M), Dryad, Flushed Cheeks, Korean Flower Petal, Blue Smiley Tee, Butterfly Skirt (F), Shark-sicle, Fluttering Sunhat, Soft Plush Dolphin, Pink Ribbon Hairband, Pink-Dotted Top (F), Pink Frill Swim Skirt (F), Button-a-holic Sugar Cap, Sweet Summer Shirt, Sweet Summer Shorts, Twinkle Sparkle, Cotton Candy Cloud, Pink-Striped Dress (F), and Rose Tinia Shades.
This is a limited quantity sale. Get the goodies before someone else does! Purchase limit of one 15-pack of Summer Surprise Style Boxes per account.
Summer Surprise Style Box Price (15): 25,500 NX Duration: 3 days
MONDAY’S DAILY DEALS
Gachapon Ticket 50-Packs
PST: Monday, November 27, 2017 12:00 AM – Monday, November 27, 2017 11:59 PM
EST: Monday, November 27, 2017 3:00 AM – Tuesday, November 28, 2017 2:59 AM
CET: Monday, November 27, 2017 9:00 AM – Tuesday, November 28, 2017 8:59 AM
AEDT: Monday, November 27, 2017 7:00 PM – Tuesday, November 28, 2017 6:59 PM
Available in the Special Promotions > Black Friday category in non-Reboot worlds only.
Stock up on 50-packs of Gachapon Tickets and Remote Gachapon Tickets at a 50% discount today!
Click here to learn more about how the Gachapon works.
Gachapon Ticket Price (50): 50,000 NX 25,000 NX Duration: 7 days
Remote Gachapon Ticket Price (50): 52,500 NX 26,250 NX Duration: 7 days
Here are the new mounts and chairs you can find in the Gachapon right now!
Check out the fun new Adorable Hamster House Chair, Capybara Hot Spring, and Carefree Carousel.
Let your imagination run wild with the Shoot for the Stars Chair, Protagonist Chair, Snow Child's Hideaway Chair, and Crow Jar.
Light up your life with the Rabbit Lamp Chair! Each time you sit on it, it changes color.
Lounge around the house with the Pajama Party Chair, Peek-a-Boo Drawer, and Hamster Wheel Chair.
Enjoy a tasty meal with the Imperial Cygnus Feast Chair and Phantom's Banquet Chair.
Have a second helping with the Down Home Family Chair and Awkward Dinner Chair.
Celebrate your love of Maple World in autumn with the Sparkling Maple Chair, Maple Crystal Chair, Maple World Chair, and I Love MapleStory Chair.
Take control of your own planet with the Mercury Chair, Venus Chair, Earth Chair, Mars Chair, Jupiter Chair, Saturn Chair, Uranus Chair, and Neptune Chair.
Get a new ride with the Air Dancer Mount, Honey Cat Mount, and Zooming Scooter Mount. These mounts are all available as permanent versions.
Make a new friend with the Your Highness Mount, Ostrich Mount, Protect the Harp Seal Mount, Pegasus Mount, and Double Pink Unicorn Mount. These mounts are all available as permanent versions.
Zoom around on the Steam Cylinder Wing Mount, Origami Boat Mount, Friend Mount, Magic Broom Mount, and Wind Breaker Mount. These mounts are all available as permanent versions.
You can also enjoy the Nimbus Cloud Mount, Superhero Mount, and Together with Angel Mount. These mounts are all available as permanent versions.
Take home a familiar too! The Rooster Familiar is ready to join you in Maple World.
Roo-bot Permanent Pet Packages
PST: Monday, November 27, 2017 12:00 AM – Monday, November 27, 2017 11:59 PM
EST: Monday, November 27, 2017 3:00 AM – Tuesday, November 28, 2017 2:59 AM
CET: Monday, November 27, 2017 9:00 AM – Tuesday, November 28, 2017 8:59 AM
AEDT: Monday, November 27, 2017 7:00 PM – Tuesday, November 28, 2017 6:59 PM
Available in the Special Promotions > Black Friday category in non-Reboot worlds only.
The Roo-bot pets have escaped from Gelimer’s lab! Choose from the super cheerful Roo-A, the frightened little Roo-B, or the spunky and clever Roo-C. The individual packages each come with an equip to wear, yummy pet food to eat, a dye coupon, a Pet Name Tag, and some useful pet skills and scrolls. You can change the color of your Roo-bot pet using the dye coupon included in the package.
Triple Roo-bot Pet Package Price: 21,600 NX Includes: Roo-A (Permanent duration) Roo-B (Permanent duration) Roo-C (Permanent duration) Premium Pet Food (6) (90-day duration) Roo-bot Paint Coupon (3) (90-day duration. Permanent when applied.) Auto HP Potion Skill (90-day duration. Permanent when applied.) Auto All Cure Skill (90-day duration. Permanent when applied.) Pet Snack (90-day duration)
Roo-A Package Price: 12,500 NX Includes: Roo-A (Permanent duration) Roo-A Baby Bonnet (Permanent duration) Premium Pet Food (6) (90-day duration) Roo-bot Paint Coupon (90-day duration. Permanent when applied.) Auto HP Potion Skill (90-day duration. Permanent when applied.) Auto All Cure Skill (90-day duration. Permanent when applied.) Pet Name Tag (90-day duration. Permanent when applied.) 2 Scrolls for Pet Equip. for ATT 60% (90-day duration) 2 Scrolls for Pet Equip. for M. ATT 60% (90-day duration)
Roo-B Package Price: 12,500 NX Includes: Roo-B (Permanent duration) Roo-B Baby Bonnet (Permanent duration) Premium Pet Food (6) (90-day duration) Roo-bot Paint Coupon (90-day duration. Permanent when applied.) Auto HP Potion Skill (90-day duration. Permanent when applied.) Auto All Cure Skill (90-day duration. Permanent when applied.) Pet Name Tag (90-day duration. Permanent when applied.) 2 Scrolls for Pet Equip. for ATT 60% (90-day duration) 2 Scrolls |
gave us no real insight into him as an Arsenal player. He's only played three times but because he's simply not Szczesny, qualities are being attributed to him that nobody can genuinely verify based on his performances for the club thus far.
It's also worth noting that Szczesny is still just 24, which is very tender in the career of a goalkeeper. Perhaps he should be more mature, but even experienced players do stupid things sometimes. His cockiness and self-confidence might rub some people up the wrong way, but I'd much rather see a goalkeeper who can compartmentalise a mistake or two, rather than one who -- as Arsenal fans have experienced too often in the recent past -- goes to pieces when things go wrong.
Southampton was a day to forget, but not a day that should see him lose his place or be the end of his Arsenal career.
Andrew Mangan is one of ESPN FC's Arsenal bloggers. You can follow him on Twitter: @arseblog.What is your computer’s maximum render quality, resolution, and frames per second for Battlefield 3? Hard core gamers are eager to show off their expensive, tuned setup at its full potential. Overclocked processors and computers cooled with liquid hydrogen are lovely parts of the gaming folklore. The source code below instruments Direct3D 9 applications to calculate frames per second and capture video. It produces an AVI container using the video codec of your choice. It is also possible to capture game screenshots in the 32-bit BMP format by pressing “delete”. The shortcuts for starting and stopping video recording are “F11” and “F12”.
The code we have provided starts the target process in suspended mode, and hooks the Direct3DCreate9 entry point in the d3d9.dll.
Once we catch a Direct3DCreate9 call, we can use the returned IDirect3D9 pointer to index the VTable. Since the call occurred in the target process address space, we cannot use the pointer directly in our host application; however, we can use Deviare’s functions to read the hooked process memory (starting with the IDirect3D9 pointer) to get the method addresses. This is a very interesting and useful technique which avoids sending address data from the intercepted process to the host processes [1].
We use the object’s VTable address to get the address of the CreateDevice method and hook the device creation with INktSpyMgr::CreateHookForAddress and INktSpyMgr::AddCustomHandler. Note that the resulting events INktSpyMgr will trigger both local hook handlers in the SpyMgr host process, and remote hook handlers in the intercepted process. The local handler creates hooks for IDirect3DDevice9::EndScene, IDirect3DDevice9::Reset, IDirect3DDevice9::Present, and IDirect3DDevice9::Release using the remote VTable indexing technique. The remote handler initializes the FPS display, keyboard hook, font, and sprite resources for the console.
All hooking is done from the Deviare host executable. The plugin that resides in the target process address space does not create additional Deviare hooks. Once all needed IDirect3DDevice9 methods are successfully hooked, we can focus on implementing video capture and FPS display.
In order to implement video capture and FPS display we must define the behavior of the pre-call and post-call handlers for the Present, EndScene, and Reset methods.
In the pre-call to Present, we peek at the first item in the keyboard command queue to check for user actions. If it is the “take screenshot” command, we read the current display device backbuffer and save it to disk. If the first item is the “start recording” command, we create and setup the AVI Video file and it’s streams. If it is the “stop recording” command, we simply close the AVI file if it was recording frames. If video recording has been enabled, we add a frame to the current AVI file and update the frame per second statistics. The number of frames recorded depends on the specified frame rate (the default is 15).
In the pre-call to EndScene, if the device is not currently in a reset state, we update the console and frame counter text in the display. If it was not changed, it is simply redrawn with the current string buffer.
Pre-call handling of device Reset occurs when windows are resized, video mode changes, or fullscreen mode is entered or exited. If video is being recorded we stop recording since we do not handle multiple resolution streams in our code. Next, we release our font and sprite resources, and our backing display surface. During post-call Reset function handling, we also check for video recording. Additionally, we recreate the surface, sprite and font resources that we released in the Reset pre-call stage.
Possible Improvements
This code can be improved to include instrumentation of DirectX 11 as well as OpenGL applications and games. The technique would be similar. DirectX 10/11 applications use DXGI low-level interfaces to swap back and front buffers and there are no “lost devices”, so instead of hooking EndScene, Present, and Reset, we would hook DXGI library function calls. This approach would be easier than instrumenting DirectX9, since display device handling is simplified.
Audio Capture: Windows Vista and later systems direct all DirectX audio streams through the native AudioSession APIs. The easiest way to capture audio is through the documented loopback audio device. The limitation is that all system audio is captured, not only audio from our desired application.
If audio isolation is required, hooking the IAudioRenderClient interface should copy audio buffer data into user application memory. Audio data could then be transferred to the audio stream in the AVI file.
The key problem of audio capturing is resampling. If the sample rate and bit depth of the AVI stream and audio buffer do not match, the audio must be resampled. Writing a good resampler is not trivial task. Our Audio Recorder SDK provides a basic and fast resampling code.
Some Data Loss Prevention Solutions customers asked us to implement text recognition inside the videos. This could be a new article in the future.
Code
The AVRecorderTool code is available on github.
Prerequisites
Deviare Instrumentation Engine Copy Deviare32.db, Deviare64.db, DeviareCOM.dll, DeviareCom64.dll, DvAgent.dll, and DvAgent64.dll to AVRecorderTool\dll
Acknowledgements
Sebastian Wain contributed with the writing of the introduction.
The support of our Windows driver development team, custom development software programmers and data loss prevention development was very important to write the article. Thank you!
Notes
The Intercepting Direct3D COM Objects and Making Game Walls Invisible article used IPC to send the remote IDirect3D interface address to the host application’s SpyMgr.
Related Products
If you liked this article, you might also like:Nitish Kumar said there was no need for "a third party" to comment on the issue.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar broke his silence yesterday on the corruption allegations against the family of alliance partner Lalu Yadav, saying if the BJP has proof, it should take legal action. Mr Kumar - who joined hands with rival Mr Yadav to keep the BJP out of power in Bihar two years ago - had maintained a silence as the BJP piled up its allegations against Mr Yadav."If the BJP has documents, then it should take legal recourse to prove their accusations," he was quoted as saying by news agency Press Trust of India. The response was to allegations that Mr Yadav's family has amassed illegal property through shell companies."This is not an issue that falls in the domain of the state government nor in the company law of Bihar," Mr Kumar said. There was no need for "a third party" to comment on the issue, he added.The BJP's allegations - ranging from the alleged soil scam to his links with notorious gangster Shahabuddin- had been mostly levelled by Sushil Kumar Modi, Mr Kumar's former deputy before the two parties parted company.Over the last month, Mr Modi held 10 press conferences at which he has furnished documents that he says proves that Mr Yadav's sons, Tejashwi and Tej Pratap, who are ministers in Mr Kumar's cabinet, are beneficiaries of secret land deals.Asked about allegations that information on property details have been concealed in election affidavits filed by Mr Yadav's family members, Mr Kumar, however, said if such information was not revealed, then an explanation should be given. "After all we are leading a public life where moral and ethical values do matter a lot," he added.Alleging that the Chief Minister was appearing to back the Lalu Yadav's family, Mr Modi said he must have been afraid that action against the RJD chief could lead to the fall of the state government.A statement from him read: "Nitish Kumar has broken his silence after 40 days since the first expose of benami properties amassed by the RJD supremo and his family, but did not promise any action against them fearing fall of the grand alliance government."Mr Kumar, who is serving his third consecutive term as the Chief Minister, had stitched together a grand alliance with Lalu Yadav's RJD and the Congress ahead of the assembly elections in 2015. In the election, the RJD won more seats and remained the senior partner. But with his conviction in the first fodder scam case negating the possibility of his holding public office, he said he would honour a pre-election agreement that Mr Kumar will retain the Chief Minister's Office. His two sons were inducted in the cabinet.It was tea time this month for one toddler and the police officer who saved her life last year.
On July 17, 2-year-old Bexley invited Officer Patrick Ray of the Rowlett Texas Police Department to join her for a tea party in celebration of their special bond. The meeting was captured in an adorable photo session.
"It was something that I just couldn't turn down because I knew it was going to be really special for her mom and Bexley," Ray told ABC News. "I have two boys, so I don't get to do that type of stuff you do with a little girl. She's a sweetheart. She's my best friend."
Officer Sends Distraught Driver Flowers After Pulling Her Over for Speeding
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On July 26, 2015, Bexley was playing in her swimming pool at home with her mom, Tammy Norvell, and her siblings.
Norvell of Rowlett, Texas, told ABC News that she was taking the kids inside for a nap when she noticed her daughter's lips were blue.
"She went completely limp," Norvell recalled. "It was more than falling asleep. She just collapsed. I looked in her eyes and she was so distant. We had no clue she had swallowed anything."
To Norvell's horror, Bexley had been choking on a penny.
At 2:14 p.m., Bexley's father called 911. Ray was out on his lunch break, but answered the call.
"I heard [Ray's] siren and ran out the front door," Norvell said. "He's grabbing her from me and is trying to pry her mouth open with two hands. He did the finger sweep into her esophagus and a penny dropped down into it. That's when we heard the most beautiful sound of her squeaking and coughing and crying."
According to Ray's body camera, he saved Bexley's life in 27 seconds, Norvell said.
Now, one year later, the Ray and Norvell families are closer than ever.
"We saw them for Thanksgiving, we had Christmas together, he came to my kids' parties," Norvell said. "I feel that I have no words, even after a year. I hold [police officers] all in high regard, but there's no way to repay [Ray]. I want to portray that image, that they have a softer side. If we can change one person's image of police officers, then the world can only be better."It's been a long wait with multiple setbacks and engine changes along the way, but earlier this year Square Enix announced that Final Fantasy XV is launching on September 30th. Unfortunately, it appears that a delay is on the way. A source within GameStop management has tipped us off that Square Enix has delayed the game until November 29th. Promotional materials with the new date have arrived at some GameStop stores with instructions that they are not to be put up until after Sunday, August 14th, so an official announcement could be coming then.
The same source that has revealed this information to Gamnesia has proven reliable on multiple occasions in the past. This includes leaking the release date and trade-in deals for New Nintendo 3DS as well as the release date for Star Wars Battlefront.
Update: A follow-up article that includes an image of GameStop's instructions for changing Final Fantasy XV's release date on promotional materials can be found here.The day of Wekfest 2014, the annual charity rock concert hosted by Michael Wekerle at his home in Caledon, Ont., a team of police officers is stationed at the bottom of his driveway to direct traffic to a nearby field for parking. There, a crew of black-shirted valet attendants hops to action in the mid-August sun, while a shuttle bus whisks visitors to the main event at Wekerle’s sprawling 80-hectare property. Everyone wears a wristband: pink for regular admittance and green for VIP access, which costs $500. There is very little pink to be seen. At the centre of the yard is a massive stage, where some of Wekerle’s favourite bands will play, including Our Lady Peace, 54-40 and Sloan.
Many of his Bay Street friends and colleagues are in attendance, though the crowd appears predominantly young and attractive, suggesting that at least some Wekfest supporters have opted to give their green wristbands to their kids. A team of waitresses in short skirts and bikini tops ensures no one is without a drink, while a row of food trucks serves up ice cream and grilled cheese sandwiches alongside Wahlburgers, the fast-food chain Mark Wahlberg owns with his brothers. (Wekerle is an investor.) As for Wekerle, his booming voice, already hoarse, can sometimes be heard before he’s even seen, as he whips around the property in an electric golf cart, shouting incomprehensible greetings to his friends. He’s wearing black high-top sneakers, a pair of faded skin-tight jeans and, of course, an official red Wekfest 2014 tank top. At 50 years old, Wek (everyone calls him Wek) looks more like an aging rocker than a guy who works in finance.
It’s still early in the afternoon when Wekerle peels off the tank top and climbs into a boxing ring set up for a charity match, exposing a torso adorned with tattoos. There’s a heart inked on his chest, a peace sign on his neck and the iconic Rolling Stones lips-and-tongue logo on his left bicep. He’s not slated to box, but as his bemused executive assistant explains from the sidelines, “He just had to get in the ring.” Wekerle hurls himself against the ropes like a professional wrestler before launching into the air, his gloved fists raised in triumph.
Let’s pause here and savour this image. Because, in many ways, Wekerle is on the verge of something big. Some would say we’re witnessing the second coming of Wek. He already has a well-earned reputation as perhaps the greatest trader Bay Street has ever seen, and his freakish talent for playing the markets has made him (and a host of other people) very rich. But he also spent two years lost in a dark place, grappling with a devastating personal loss and being spurned by the capital markets firm he helped make great. It was not that long ago that he found his way out. He has a new venture, Difference Capital Financial, a merchant bank he co-founded in 2012 to invest in privately held, late-stage tech, health-care and media companies. And starting Oct. 15, he will embark on his highest-profile gig yet: the newest dragon on CBC’s hit show Dragons’ Den. He’s already a legend on Bay Street, and soon every small business owner and mompreneur from Victoria to St. John’s will know (and probably love) Wek.
MORE: Meet the new cast members of Dragons’ Den »
The show’s producers sought him out to replace their biggest star, Kevin O’Leary, who announced in March that he would not return for season 9. Wek accepted the offer because he wants a larger platform for his company, for the charities he supports and for himself. “This takes me from Bay Street to Main Street,” he told me. The CBC is betting that Wekerle will be a hit. He already figures heavily in the promos, looking like the very definition of a business rock star in his flamboyant blue floral jacket and flowing hair. He’s a natural on camera, too; the producers were impressed by his ability to think long-term about the investment pitches, despite having the appearance of a guy who lives entirely in the moment. The only thing he had to work on was slowing the torrential pace of his speech.
And so, if it’s possible to encapsulate this moment of Wekerle’s life in a single image, the one of him shirtless, joyous and hanging in mid-air at his own party is a pretty good one. Still, it’s not entirely accurate. That new firm, Difference Capital, isn’t yet ascending along with him. The stock has dropped 70% since it debuted in 2012, and two of the company’s highest-profile investments are also its most troubled. In August, Difference started pruning its portfolio. Wekerle, for whom success as a capital markets rainmaker came naturally, has some of his hardest work ahead of him.
A week before Wekfest, we meet at his office in Toronto. Wekerle is impeccably dressed in a pinstriped suit and dapper tie, his aviator sunglasses still in hand. His sandy hair is slicked back, but unfurls into a wavy mane over the course of the day. This is actually our second meeting. At the first, an irrepressible Wekerle held forth on a mixture of management strategy (“Empowerment and accountability go hand in hand, but if you don’t lead by example, you can’t win”) and general life philosophy (“Empathy is the best word in life”), until a friend called and Wekerle put him on speakerphone. Somehow that conversation led to a debate over whether Wekerle was once kicked off the stage at a private rock concert for trying to make out with the drummer. “I did not make out with the drummer!” Wekerle shouted. “I might have given him a kiss, but it was friendly, man.” This is what it’s like to sit across from Wekerle: He talks faster than you can listen, careens into random topics, cracks jokes and imparts wisdom, all in a single breath. It can be a challenge to keep up.
Today, though, he seems more subdued. He had been out the night before with staff drinking “shitty, sweet beer” at an Irish pub. When an assistant comes into the room, he orders us two large iced lattes and sips liberally from his when it arrives. We don’t get to talk for long before he’s interrupted to sign a cheque related to his Florida real estate venture (he’s got that on the go, too, partnering with Bill Holland from CI Financial to invest around $60 million), and then he has to take a phone call in another room. Shortly afterward, a friend arrives to give him a gift—a bottle of Dom Pérignon—and a freshly laundered shirt. The friend ended up wearing a wine stain one night, and Wekerle literally gave him the shirt off his back. When a co-worker named Mark Arbour needs him in a meeting, I ask to tag along.
Arbour is actually the director of operations at the Waterloo Innovation Network (WIN), yet another Wekerle venture. Earlier this year, Wek personally bought an office building in Waterloo that once belonged to BlackBerry, with a plan to build a centre of excellence for tech companies, a place to house startups and form partnerships with corporations around the world. In July, Difference put $2 million in a fund associated with WIN that will invest in local tech companies. In the meeting room, Arbour is already sitting with a banker who’s there to discuss financing for the building’s renovations and expansion. Wekerle darts off again, leaving Arbour and the banker to gape in confusion. “Does Mike want you in on this meeting?” Arbour asks slowly.
MORE: How Mike Lazaridis plans to turn Waterloo into the Silicon Valley of quantum computing »
Wekerle returns with our iced lattes and starts walking the banker through the plans for Waterloo. He lays out the terms of the financing he’d like, reeling off numbers, percentages and expected returns with his eyes closed, one knee bouncing up and down. The banker opens his mouth to interject when Wekerle’s BlackBerry rings. He picks up. From the sounds of it, the caller is pitching him on an investment opportunity. As the call drags on—Wekerle even spells out “difference” in his e-mail address—Arbour turns to the banker to break the silence. “You know, Wek took RIM public,” he says.
“I know,” the banker replies.
Finally, Wekerle hangs up. “Some of these prospects, man, I don’t know,” he says. “But I don’t want to be an asshole, so I was quite nice.” And then he’s dictating numbers again.
One of the many impressive things about Wekerle (or maybe one of his most frustrating traits) is his ability to do three or four things at the same time. He thrives on constant stimulation. In fact, he seems to function best that way. People who work with him have come to expect that his time and attention is limited. In a way, it’s the ideal personality for a trader.
Wekerle was born in Toronto and attended York University for a year before dropping out to work on Bay Street. In 1982, he scored a job on the floor of the Toronto Stock Exchange with a long-forgotten firm. He spent a lot of time fetching bagels and coffee for other traders. “I’d have, like, 17 different orders, and if I fucked one up, I wouldn’t hear the end of it,” he says. When the firm downsized, he asked for a job from the head trader at First Marathon Securities, who told Wekerle he could have a job if he lopped off his unkempt mane and returned within 15 minutes. That haircut essentially launched his career.
Inside of a few years, Wekerle had moved from the trading floor to the desk. In simple terms, he was a matchmaker, putting together buyers and sellers of big blocks of stock. If he couldn’t find a buyer, Wekerle would use the firm’s own money to purchase the block until one could be found, a practice called liability trading. It’s often used as a loss leader designed to bring more business to a firm, and Wekerle brought in business like no one else. His gregarious personality had quite a bit to do with it, and he socialized a lot. “He’s the guy who knows everyone, and everybody likes Mike,” says Cindy Tripp, a fellow trader at First Marathon. “You’ll never have a bad time when you’re with Mike Wekerle.” With so many connections, he always had a line on who was interested in acquiring or shedding stakes in companies. Then there was his famous ability to multi-task. “It was not uncommon to see him on the desk working two phones, barking orders at a trader and giving personal financial advice to his friend who might be sitting there,” says Henry Kneis, who worked with Wekerle at First Marathon and is now Difference Capital’s chief financial and operating officer.
But the real key to Wekerle’s success as a trader is his gargantuan memory. He carried around the details of countless trades and knew who owned what and how much of it. “There is a bit of a savant element to his brain,” Kneis says. Wekerle’s mental catalogue of the market proved to be a tremendous advantage in locating buyers and sellers. (Despite his prodigious memory, Wekerle has a habit of losing things and wears his house key around his neck.)
Word about Wekerle travelled fast, and one person who took notice was securities lawyer Eugene McBurney. Along with Brad Griffiths, head of investment banking at Gordon Capital, McBurney wanted to start a new financial firm. There was only one person McBurney wanted to run the business’s trading operations. Wek joined the company, then called Griffiths McBurney & Partners, in 1995, a few months after it formed. Kevin Sullivan, another First Marathon employee, came with him to run the sales side. Together, the four of them built what would become GMP Securities. A handful of colleagues from First Marathon, including Tripp, defected to the new firm, which immediately became one of the biggest block traders on Bay Street. GMP also worked on some historic deals, such as co-leading the IPO for Research in Motion in 1997.
Wekerle continued his prolific streak, and the mystery around his abilities grew. McBurney once asked a client what made Wekerle such a great trader. “He just makes you do stuff you don’t want to do,” the client said. McBurney stresses that Wekerle wasn’t simply a guy taking orders from buyers and sellers; he was constantly coming up with investment ideas for clients. “Most of the time he was right,” McBurney says. One of his most legendary calls was foreseeing the commodities bull market early and pushing clients toward resource stocks.
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For Tripp, Wekerle was an ideal boss. “He treated me fully like a professional. I never felt like I was paid less or wasn’t promoted because I was a chick,” she says. When Tripp was pregnant with her second child, she approached Wekerle about job-sharing with another woman on the desk. Wekerle agreed to the arrangement without thinking twice.
As his career took off, Wekerle’s good-natured personality never changed. “I’ve seen successful, wealthy guys who are just pricks,” Kneis says. “They think their wealth gives them the right to mistreat people. Michael doesn’t do that.” Wekerle is the kind of guy who will always pick up the bill, tip generously and treat the server the same way he would a CEO. He’s active on the charity circuit and is a big supporter of Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and the Seeds of Hope Foundation, a community outreach program. He even paid to send one teenager he met through the program to Morehouse College in Atlanta, where tuition, room and board runs upwards of $40,000 per year.
There are smaller gestures, too. Wekerle helps one of his friends, Spencer Miller, who has cerebral palsy, with living expenses. For one of Wekerle’s birthdays, he flew Miller and dozens of friends to the Bahamas for a private concert with Vince Neil of Mötley Crüe. “Mike has a reputation as being a wild and crazy guy,” Miller says, “but he’s one of the nicest, big-hearted individuals you’ll ever meet.” Tripp says Wekerle couldn’t hold a grudge if he tried, which is probably true. During one interview, Wekerle let loose on another Bay Streeter (the words “fake motherfucker” were uttered). When asked later, he shrugged it off. “It was probably the mood I was in that day,” he said. “Water off a duck’s back.”
Around the same time as the financial market turmoil in 2008, Wekerle’s home life grew complicated. His marriage to his second wife, Lea-Anne, with whom he was raising five biological kids and one foster child, had come under strain. But there were worse things to come. In March 2010, the family was vacationing with friends in Los Cabos, Mexico, when Lea-Anne left early to head home. When Wekerle returned to Toronto with his kids, he was told by one of his sisters that Lea-Anne, who was taking prescription medications, had died of a heart attack.
The news sent Wekerle into a tailspin. “I ended up looking to drinking more aggressively in those days and kind of went by in a fog,” he recalls. Sometimes he wouldn’t get out of bed until noon, and he wasn’t much interested in GMP. A trip to Arkansas that fall resulted in a lawsuit, when Wekerle allegedly blew an air horn in a hotel lobby, tossed money from a fanny pack into the air, dropped his pants, licked a woman’s foot, made lewd comments and injured a valet when he tried to carry the man on his shoulders. (The suit, filed by the valet in 2013, is still before the courts. Wekerle’s legal team has dismissed it as frivolous.)
Meanwhile, things were changing at GMP. “I had some views about the expansion of the firm that were different from others’,” he says. “My old partners who started the firm with me were no longer there, and I felt the isolation and the loss of my wife made my role as a producer more difficult for me.” The era of the star trader was over, too, as more market activity was handled by computers. Trading commissions had fallen significantly. Wekerle’s colleagues were worried about his behaviour and subjected him to urine testing. His departure seemed like only a matter of time. In June 2011, gossip magazine Frank posted a video to its YouTube channel of a charity roast for Halifax businessman Rob Steele, a close friend of Wekerle’s. The video shows an unsteady Wekerle trying to commandeer the microphone from host Rex Murphy before being escorted offstage. By August, Wekerle and GMP had parted ways.
Wekerle talks about Mother’s Day 2012 as a turning point. “That was a tough fucking day for me,” he recalls. Wekerle learned that his two youngest kids had sat at the back of the classroom in school colouring instead of making Mother’s Day cards. He began the process of ridding himself of people he thought were negative influences and sought help to deal with his depression. “People are really afraid and embarrassed to go see someone,” he says. “It’s very important to understand there’s no difference between breaking a leg and having a meltdown. It’s time to recover.”
Even before that day, Wekerle had been plotting his next move.
When Wekerle finishes his meeting with the banker at Difference Capital, he immediately has to jet off to another one, and sets me up with Kneis. Standing side by side, Wekerle in his suit and Kneis in rumpled khakis and a short-sleeved shirt, they seem nothing alike. But they complement each another. Wekerle is the visionary with big ideas, and Kneis is the details man. The two met at First Marathon and reconnected in 2011 after Wekerle left GMP. At the time, Wekerle planned to join with Paul Sparkes, a friend and former CTVglobemedia executive, to purchase a stake in a buy-side shop called Galileo Global Equity Advisors. He asked Kneis to come along.
Kneis had doubts about the little-known Galileo, but he enjoyed working with Wekerle and decided to take a chance. On his first day at Galileo, he knew it wasn’t going to work out. “This was the sleepiest organization I’d ever seen,” he says. The founder of Galileo, Michael Waring, was the polar opposite of Wekerle. Waring wanted to keep running things the same way he had for more than 10 years, says Kneis, whereas Wekerle was a hurricane, crackling with energy and new ideas. Wekerle also didn’t seem to tell anyone he’d hired Kneis (there was nowhere for him to sit), and he got the impression that nearly everyone at the small shop resented his presence. At one point, Kneis was chastised for talking to the firm’s auditor without first running it by another executive. On his ninth day, he was fired. Kneis called Wekerle and learned that he, Sparkes and Waring hadn’t yet finalized the terms of their partnership. The whole idea flamed out.
Looking back, Kneis suspects Wekerle wanted to partner with Galileo partly because it was already up and running, and he wouldn’t have to go through the hassle of setting up a new business from scratch. As for the differences between him and Waring, Wekerle tends to be optimistic about relationships and to believe they will work out for the best. “I can imagine he made the decision on the spot and thought they’d work out the details later,” Kneis says. (Waring declined to comment.)
Wekerle, Kneis and Sparkes decided to launch their own investment company, later taking over a publicly traded shell and renaming it Difference Capital. The investment principle behind the company stems from one of Wekerle’s macro calls, that investors are abandoning resource stocks and need new places to put their money. Wekerle is betting that money will flow to technology companies. While that may not sound revolutionary, Wekerle has zeroed in on an overlooked sweet spot: privately held, late-stage companies in which Difference will take significant minority stakes. Wekerle, with his deal-making prowess and connections, can help these companies raise more money, go public or eventually find buyers. Difference also maintains an advisory arm for growth companies, and since launching in 2012, it’s raised $185 million. One of its biggest investors is Dundee Corp., run by Ned Goodman, a longtime associate.
But the market hasn’t been receptive. Shares started trading at $4.50 in May 2012 and have steadily dropped by roughly 70%. Despite stakes in promising names like Vision Critical Communications and BuildDirect, Difference Capital has two troubled holdings that overshadow everything else. The first, WorldGaming, operates a platform that allows Xbox and PlayStation users to compete against one another for cash and prizes. Difference typically invests no more than $5 million per company, but it sunk $19 million in WorldGaming. The problem is the company hasn’t been able to nail down a revenue model. The other is Lignol Energy Corp., a Canadian renewable fuels company with a biodiesel plant in Australia that ran into trouble when a new government started dismantling clean-energy subsidies. In the last quarter alone, Difference wrote down its assets by nearly $14 million, largely because of WorldGaming and Lignol.
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Internally, the partners couldn’t agree on how to handle the files. Some wanted to invest more funds, but Wekerle disagreed. “You can’t throw good money after bad,” he says. “Longer term, the other group would have been potentially correct, but in the near term, we can’t afford the risk.” At the end of August, Difference put Lignol into receivership.
When Kneis looks at how Difference initially went about investing, he says, “there could have been more cohesiveness.” He adds that the company has brought “more rigour to the investment analysis process” and hired two experienced tech investment analysts. A difference of opinion among the partners emerged, too, with one wanting to include more early-stage companies in the investment mix. Another advocated for a venture capital approach, wherein the company would back 10 firms, knowing many would fail but hoping a couple of winners would emerge. Wekerle, the largest shareholder in Difference with a 36.7% stake, felt he had to make personnel changes to maintain the original vision. In August, Sparkes and another founding partner, Neil Johnson, left the company. (Both declined to comment.) Three board members also departed.
Kris Thompson at National Bank Financial is the one analyst who follows the stock. Although he downgraded it to market perform in August, Thompson still likes the company’s longer-term prospects. “The recent on-boarding of seasoned technology investment professionals has resulted in a more structured investment process with early signs of some promising investments,” he wrote in an e-mail.
Still, the share price performance has been disappointing, particularly for Wekerle. “He might have seen it as a vote of non-confidence by the market in him personally,” Kneis says. “I’ve tried to tell him not to treat it as a personal measurement.” Wekerle brushes aside such concerns, preferring to talk about where Difference is headed. Winnowing down the portfolio from 39 to 20 companies will allow Difference to devote more time to the highest-quality holdings, and improve the company’s finances and prospects. Wekerle’s thesis that the next era belongs to tech companies remains unchanged. “Look what’s going on in the world, man!” he says.
Wekerle’s reputation is as a trader, a high-octane role where millions can be won or lost in a fraction of a second. Operating a merchant bank and investing in tech companies with a longer time horizon is a different beast, and it requires patience and discipline. Wekerle understands that—even if the market doesn’t. “It really takes five years to build a business, and the unfortunate part of being a public company is that people look for instantaneous results,” he says. But he makes one thing clear: “I don’t like losing.”
Maybe that’s why Wekfest had the feeling of a victory party for its namesake. It’s unlikely that anyone enjoyed themselves as much as Wekerle, even if this year’s event was a smaller-profile affair than the one before, when Snoop Dogg headlined. Wekerle, in his flaming red Wekfest 2014 tank top, was tailed by a CBC camera crew for much of the event. But for the throngs of friends and colleagues in attendance, he simply appeared almost at random throughout the day: at the front of the stage, fist-pumping to whatever band was playing; onstage, peacocking like Mick Jagger; or jumping offstage and crowd-surfing. At one point, he tore through the audience and tackled 54-40 singer Neil Osborne (who had just finished performing) to the ground, where they tussled like man-children. Catching a high-five or a glimpse of Wekerle became a popular topic of conversation. “I saw Mike drive by in a golf cart,” one coworker told me in the food tent. “I think that’s all the Wek you’re going to get today.”Rising living costs, stagnant wages, expensive |
includes common-sense proposals like simply re-building a depleted U.S. military.
The list include a dozen members of Congress, led by Reps. Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee and Jeff Miller, chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee. Also on the roster: a spate of retired generals and admirals and federal officials, including Michael Wynne, former Secretary of the Air Force.
“We believe that Mr. Trump, in consultation with us and distinguished experts in the national security community, will work with active military leadership and Congress to establish and implement a serious and comprehensive long-term plan to rebuild our services,” they note in an open letter.
“Mr. Trump’s intention to reform the Defense Department, including a full audit and focused acquisition reform, is much needed and long overdue. His commitment to a comprehensive ballistic missile defense is indispensable in a world of rogue actors and missile proliferation. And we appreciate his understanding of the cyber threat and the steps we must take to defeat it,” the group continued.
“We believe that Donald Trump is a better choice than Hillary Clinton to move our military in the right direction as President of the United States,” they concluded.
Mr. Trump’s list of additional security advisors include Sens. Tom Cotton, Richard Burr, Bob Corker and Jim Inhofe, Rep. Darrell Issa and Mr. McCaul.
In recent weeks, the nominee has also won the endorsement of 354,200 law enforcement officers, including the Fraternal Order of Police, National Border Patrol Council and National Immigration and Customs Enforcement Council.
“We need a person in the White House who doesn’t fear the media, who doesn’t embrace political correctness, who doesn’t need the money, who is familiar with success, who won’t bow to foreign dictators, who is pro-military and values law enforcement, and who is angry for America and not subservient to the interests of other nations. Donald Trump is such a man,” noted the Border Patrol officers in their endorsement.
Last month, Mr. Trump garnered endorsements from 120 retired admirals and generals plus 25 Medal of Honor recipients who praised his support of the military and declared he had “the temperament to be commander in chief.”Georgia state Rep. Tom Taylor was arrested last week and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol in Rabun County.
Taylor, 54, a Dunwoody Republican, had a blood-alcohol content of.225, nearly three times the legal limit of.08, according to a Clayton Police Department incident report obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Taylor’s arrest was first reported Thursday by The Clayton Tribune.
Taylor, who was first elected in 2010, said in a statement to the AJC that “I profoundly regret this serious mistake. There’s no one to blame but me, and I greatly appreciate the professionalism of the officers involved. This was my first run-in with the law in my life, and it will also be my last.”
Taylor said he will work to regain the trust of the people of his district and will seek re-election.
Taylor was stopped at 2:45 p.m. on April 7 for driving 72 mph in a 45 mph zone with four juveniles in his SUV, according to the police report. Officer Michael Bennett reported that Taylor exited his vehicle and was legally carrying a gun on his hip. Bennett said Taylor had “an overwhelming odor of alcohol,” but denied that he had anything to drink.
The officer said in his report that Taylor’s face “was very red and eyes were bloodshot.”
After Taylor gave permission to search his car, officers found an empty water bottle “which smelled of alcoholic beverage,” according to the police report. After Taylor refused to comply with instructions for a field sobriety test, he was arrested and charged with DUI, possession of an open container of alcohol and speeding, the report said.
Taylor, chairman of the joint House-Senate committee that oversees MARTA, faces Tom Owens in the May 24 Republican primary for House District 79.The billboard is intended to challenge the stereotypes of the Christmas conception story, but it has been described as offensive to Christians
An unholy row has broken out in New Zealand over a church billboard aimed at "challenging stereotypes" about the birth of Jesus Christ. A dejected-looking Joseph lies in bed next to Mary under the caption, "Poor Joseph. God was a hard act to follow". St Matthew-in-the-City Church in Auckland, which erected the billboard, said it had intended to provoke debate. But the Catholic Church, among others, has condemned it as "inappropriate" and "disrespectful". FROM BBC WORLD SERVICE Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.
More from BBC World Service Within hours of its unveiling, the billboard had been defaced with brown paint. The church's vicar, Archdeacon Glynn Cardy, said the aim of the billboard had been to lampoon the literal interpretation of the Christmas conception story. "What we're trying to do is to get people to think more about what Christmas is all about," he told the New Zealand Press Association (NZPA). "Is it about a spiritual male God sending down sperm so a child would be born, or is it about the power of love in our midst as seen in Jesus?" The billboard was defaced within hours of its unveiling He told NZPA that the church had received e-mails and phone calls about the controversial image. "About 50% said they loved it, and about 50% said it was terribly offensive," he said. "But that's out of about 20 responses - this is New Zealand." But Lyndsay Freer, spokeswoman for the Catholic Diocese of Auckland, said the poster was offensive to Christians. "Our Christian tradition of 2,000 years is that Mary remains a virgin and that Jesus is the son of God, not Joseph," she told the New Zealand Herald. "Such a poster is inappropriate and disrespectful." The family values group Family First said any debate about the Virgin birth should be held inside the church. "To confront children and families with the concept as a street billboard is completely irresponsible and unnecessary," Family First director Bob McCroskrie told the news website stuff.co.nz.
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StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable versionLUBBOCK, Tex. (AP) — The Texas Tech men’s basketball coach, Billy Gillispie, has resigned because of health concerns, the university said Thursday, ending a disappointing one-year run at a program he had intended to turn into a powerhouse.
The university and fans had hoped that Gillispie, 52, could orchestrate a turnaround like the ones he put together at Texas-El Paso and Texas A&M. Instead, he led the Red Raiders to an 8-23 record last season.
Gillispie did not immediately return a call for comment.
The move came less than a month after the university announced it was looking into allegations that Gillispie mistreated players last fall.
In January, the university reprimanded Gillispie and the assistant coach Brooks Jennings after a review found the team had exceeded practice-time limits.
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Meanwhile, Gillispie’s health was apparently growing worse.
Twice in a 10-day span recently, 911 calls were made from Gillispie’s home. The first, on Aug. 31, led to a six-day stay in a Lubbock hospital.
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On Sept. 11, Gillispie left for the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., where he said he received treatment for kidney problems and abnormal headaches.
Gillispie’s first two years as a college head coach were at UTEP in the Western Athletic Conference. He took the Miners from a 6-24 record in 2002-3 to a 24-8 mark the following season.Some Facebook employees have argued that Donald Trump’s posts on the social network should be designated as hate speech and removed, according to a new report. The Wall Street Journal said today that Trump posts calling for a ban on Muslim immigration to the United States had triggered an emotional debate inside Facebook over enforcement of the company’s community standards. CEO Mark Zuckerberg ultimately ruled against deleting the posts, which he argued would amount to censorship of a political candidate, according to the Journal.
The internal arguments started after Trump began discussing Muslim immigration last December, the report said. Zuckerberg’s decision not to delete Trump’s posts, as an unspecified number of employees had called for, drew complaints from employees around the world, it said. (It reportedly also generated support for Zuckerberg’s decision.) The Journal’s report comes on the same day that Facebook said it would loosen some of its restrictions on explicit content if the post is deemed newsworthy or in the public interest.
The company has since been repeatedly hammered for editorial missteps
The dispute reflects both Facebook’s enormous importance as a distributor of news and opinion and its deep discomfort with making editorial judgments around the content of speech. A controversy over reports that it had "suppressed" conservative news from its Trending Topics module earlier this year led the company to purge most of its editorial employees, who helped make decisions about which stories to highlight.
But the company has since been repeatedly hammered for editorial missteps. A BuzzFeed analysis this week charted in ugly detail the way Facebook has been used this year to spread inaccurate and outright false stories to millions of readers. The company also drew criticism for removing an iconic photo of the Vietnam War and blocking an animated video that promoted breast cancer awareness.
Still, removing a presidential candidate’s posts from the site, no matter how inflammatory, could have had dire implications for Facebook. The company’s connect-the-world ethos requires political neutrality whenever possible, lest liberals or conservatives abandon it for a partisan alternative. And as the Journal reports, Facebook stands to make $300 million in political advertising this year — an amount that could be threatened if it were to be perceived as unwelcome to conservative or Republican ideas.
It also puts Facebook in the uncomfortable position of serving as the arbiter for acceptable political speech. Banning any political speech, particularly from a major party candidate likely to draw at least 40 percent of the popular vote, sets a dangerous precedent for a company that delivers news to 44 percent of Americans.
But as today’s news shows, Facebook is in an uncomfortable position no matter which path it takes. (This was also true of this week’s news that Zuckerberg is defending Trump donor Peter Thiel’s continued presence on the Facebook board.) So far, Zuckerberg has erred on the side of permitting the broadest range of political views. But given the hate speech and outright violence that Trump’s views have incited, the criticism isn’t likely to dissipate any time soon.Sanders has his shortcomings but he deserves praise for taking the high road in this campaign and sticking to the issues.
Hardly a week goes by without some demand for an apology populating my inbox. I have never apologized for two reasons: The usual one is that I’m not sorry. The other is that calls for an apology have become an irritating tactic in American political discourse, a kind of bullying.
That doesn’t mean I haven’t regretted things I’ve said or the tone used. I have. So here’s a compromise: I will issue one apology a year.
And the winner for 2015 is … Bernie Sanders.
Why Bernie? Some liberal friends complain that I’ve been overly dismissive of the senator from Vermont’s candidacy. They have cause.
I was especially rough in pointing out the cracks in Bernie’s self-portrait of a national force for civil rights. Perhaps I overdid it.
But the fact remains that he fled the troubled New York of the ‘60s for the whitest state in the nation. It baffles that he shares his campaign stage with Cornel West, a black academic who condemns Barack Obama in nasty racial terms.
On advancing civil rights, Bernie’s been totally on board. Still, one can see why ordinary African-Americans seem to relate better to Hillary Clinton.
Bernie, you’re really good on most concerns: Reining in Wall Street’s power. Expanding Medicare to all Americans.
You also rise over conventional liberal stances, opposing gun control measures that come off as more anti-gun than pro-control. You’ve clearly been talking to hunters in your rural state.
Your views on immigration are well-nuanced. You support a path to citizenship for otherwise law-abiding undocumented people. But you oppose calls for massive temporary-worker programs that would replace American workers — and not just farmworkers — with lower-cost substitutes.
The Democratic debates have shown you at your best. On Saturday, you graciously offered … an apology … over your campaign’s breach of Clinton’s proprietary data. (Hillary responded in kind, saying it was time to move on.) That was quite noble of you in light of the Democratic National Committee’s decision to temporarily cut your campaign’s access to its voter database. The DNC has not treated you fairly.
You’ve been taking the high road in this campaign, sticking to issues and even occasionally praising Hillary. Your dismissal of the right wing’s obsessive harping over Clinton’s use of private email while secretary of state will not be forgotten.
Bernie, the poll numbers show you slipping further behind Hillary among Democratic voters. That alone is not reason enough to downplay your quest for the presidency. Candidates have come roaring back, and Hillary’s performance over the years has not been flawless.
But there’s a big question besides “can you win?” That is, “what would happen if you did?” For all your solid thinking, you’ve never been able to work with others in Washington, and we’re not just talking about Republicans. You often can’t get along with liberal Democrats.
Your “holier than thou” attitude, as former Rep. Barney Frank put it, has kept you from actively participating in the formation of laws. That bill you negotiated with conservatives to improve veterans’ health care doesn’t count. Helping veterans is not a hard sell.
But let’s end the criticism here. I’m glad you’re running. Without you, hardly any attention would have been paid to the Democratic side. The other remaining challenger, former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, simply isn’t original enough. (Sorry, Martin. This year’s apology has just been used up.)
Finally, I never tire of hearing you describe your smart liberal ideas with force and conviction. I still don’t think you’re going to be IT. But if I ever came off as not respecting you, Bernie, I apologize.Last year at this time, it was revealed that Amy Landecker, who is best known for starring in the Emmy-winning series Transparent, had joined the cast of Marvel's Doctor Strange. At that time, no details were provided about her role, and even after I saw the film on Thursday, I couldn't have told you who she played because I couldn't recall seeing her in it. Well, there's a good reason behind that.
"I have to preface this by saying I was at an event and someone said that I was in the credits. So, it’s possible that I’m still in this film," Landecker told The AV Club. "But to my knowledge, I was cut out of this film. But I don’t know. [Laughs.] So basically, the way Marvel works is, you don’t get to read the script at all. And I did audition for this part, so I knew it was a doctor in a surgical kind of scene, and I knew it was with Benedict, and she flirts with him a little and it was kind of fun. And there was a take where they had me put a mask on. But I thought that was just to kind of see what I looked like in a mask. Which is one of those funny Hollywood things, as if it was going to change whether or not I got cast. [Laughs.]"
Now that she mentions it, I think she may have been the female character in the opening surgery scene that marvels at Dr. Stephen Strange's ability to listen to a song and quickly the name the artist/band and the year it was recorded. After her audition, she was told she got the part and would need to set aside three weeks for filming in England. When that time came, she did her hair and makeup test and was given a costume, consisting of a surgical mask, scrubs, and a cap. "There will not be a moment in the film where I do not have the mask on my face," the 47-year-old actress explained. "So I’m finding out… 'Okay, so my performance is my eyes. Okay. I’m humble. Okay, I’m still in a Marvel movie. It’s still really exciting.'"
She was also informed that she would get a crash-course in brain surgery, but when that moment arrived, she learned that her character isn't a surgeon. And they’re like, 'Oh no, you’re an anesthesiologist. You’re not actually a surgeon. So you don’t really participate in the surgery, and you sit off to the side at this console and you sort of just push buttons,'" she shared. "So now I’m like, okay, great, I’m in England. It took about five minutes to do my hair and makeup test and learn how to perform surgery. And I waited until everyone came. And yeah, it was really fun. And Benedict Cumberbatch is super lovely. And sexy. And kind. And it was fun doing this little scene with him." When it came time for the second part of her shoot — since she didn't have any lines and her character would have her back to the camera — Landecker asked to not be included in the scene, so she could attend a special Transparent premiere at the White House. Marvel honored her request.
So, why did Marvel pursue her to begin with? Landecker later found out that director Scott Derrickson really enjoyed her performance as Mrs. Samsky in 2009's A Serious Man, especially the chemistry she had with Michael Stuhlberg — who played Nicodemus West in Doctor Strange. "I couldn’t figure out why I was invited in the first place," she said. "I was like, “What am I doing here? They flew someone from LA. I feel like someone local could have easily played this.” So it turned out that the director was a really big A Serious Man fan. And Michael Stuhlberg was in that second scene. So, the whole thing was kind of a fun 'let’s get Michael Stuhlberg and Amy back together' in Doctor Strange.'"
From Marvel comes DOCTOR STRANGE, the story of world-famous neurosurgeon Dr. Stephen Strange whose life changes forever after a horrific car accident robs him of the use of his hands. When traditional medicine fails him, he is forced to look for healing, and hope, in an unlikely place – a mysterious enclave known as Kamar-Taj. He quickly learns that this is not just a center for healing but also the front line of a battle against unseen dark forces bent on destroying our reality. Before long Strange – armed with newly acquired magical powers – is forced to choose whether to return to his life of fortune and status or leave it all behind to defend the world as the most powerful sorcerer in existence. Join Strange on his dangerous, mystifying, and totally mind-bending journey.
The cast features Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock, Star Into Darkness, The Imitation Game), Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave), Rachel McAdams (Sherlock Holmes), Michael Stuhlbarg (A Serious Man), Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Royale), and Tilda Swinton (The Grand Budapest Hotel). The film is directed by Scott Derrickson (Sinister) and written by Derrickson, Jon Spaihts (Prometheus), and C. Robert Cargill (Sinister). Marvel's Doctor Strange is produced by Kevin Feige with Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Charles Newirth, Stephen Broussard and Stan Lee serving as executive producers.Rajnish Kumar has been appointed as the next chairman of State Bank of India, PTI reported on Wednesday. He will take over from Arundhati Bhattacharya, whose term will end on Friday.
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The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Kumar for a period of three years from October 7, according to an order issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT).
Kumar, aged 59 years, joined the SBI board on May 26, 2015. Kumar has also worked as Chief General Manager, Project Finance and Leasing Strategic Business Unit. Prior to this appointment, he was Managing Director – Compliance and Risk, and Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of SBI Capital Markets Limited, the merchant banking arm of SBI, PTI reported.
He has held several key assignments across various business verticals, including two overseas assignments in Canada and the UK.
According to his profile on the SBI webiste, Kumar has a master’s degree in physics and listed travelling and playing badminton among his interests.
Kumar will have to shoulder the daunting task of addressing the issue of huge NPAs of the bank. A large number of banks are facing the issue of the non-performing assets.
In 2013, Bhattacharya became the bank’s first woman chairman. She was given a year’s extension in October last year to ensure continuity as the SBI was then in the process of absorbing five associate banks.
State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Travancore and Bharatiya Mahila Bank merged with SBI on April 1, 2017.
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Gross NPAs of the public sector banks rose to Rs 6.41 lakh crore at the end of March 2017 as against Rs 5.02 lakh crore a year ago, according to a Finance Ministry data. SBI and its erstwhile associates alone wrote off Rs 27,574 crore NPAs in 2016-17, according to an RBI data.AMHERST, Mass. -- Boston Celtics players and coaches interlocked arms during the national anthem before Tuesday's preseason opener against the Philadelphia 76ers at UMass-Amherst's Mullins Center.
The team also released a video via social media at tipoff, promoting unity.
A message from our players on #unity. pic.twitter.com/enT6DALs1b — Boston Celtics (@celtics) October 4, 2016
In addition, the Rockets and New York Knicks all locked arms at midcourt during the national anthem before Tuesday's game at the Toyota Center in Houston, while the Los Angeles Lakers and Sacramento Kings joined arms during the anthem before their game, as well.
Celtics coach Brad Stevens and Jae Crowder said earlier Tuesday that the team had put a lot of time into thinking about the best way to promote positive change.
"We've had a lot of sit-down discussions about it. We've had a lot of individual discussions," Stevens said. "We've had three or four meetings after practices, sometimes just players, sometimes just us, sometimes people we've invited in from the outside to spend time with our guys. Our guys have been incredibly thoughtful, and I think, like from what I've seen across the NBA early on, I think our guys are really focused on promoting positive unity, togetherness, progress and all those types of things. But those have been, as far as deep, certainly good discussions, they've been great. And I commend our guys for sharing and for thinking and for really looking at this in a really insightful way.
"I think one of the great things about being a part of a team is you all come from different backgrounds and you learn about each other and you all come together for the common cause, and that's why we all love sports, right? We can all rally around that common cause and we can rally around teams. But I think when you really get into deep, impactful stuff, those are special conversations, and sometimes those are uncomfortable, and sometimes there can be tension around those; but I think that's the beautiful part about our group, is that they all appreciate one another, really support one another. And again, I think you'll see, like I think they're very much into what the teams that I've seen thus far, in talking about togetherness and continued progress."
Crowder said the team thought it was important to find the proper way to deliver its message.
"What do we want to portray? What do we want our message to be? That's what we had talked about -- and how can we go about doing it in a positive way? That's all we talked about," Crowder said. "We just want to make sure everybody's on the same page and everybody [can] speak on their belief. We don't want anybody to feel like they're doing something they don't want to do or talk about something they don't want to talk about. So we just wanted to make sure everybody's on the same page in those conversations that we had."
Editor's Picks Celtics in unity video: 'Let's all come together' The Celtics interlocked arms before their preseason game with the 76ers, and the players contributed to a "Unity" video that played before the game.
And what was the message the Celtics wanted to deliver?
"That we need change in this world," Crowder said. "We need to do it together. Just not one individual; it's got to be a team-type deal, a unity, a togetherness. Whatever we decide our message to be, it has to be about being together as one and coming together as one."
The Celtics' inspiration for the interlocked arms came from a picture of the 1960-61 Boston team, which interlocked arms in a team photo with the goal of promoting civil rights. Team officials produced the picture for the players, who quickly warmed to the idea of carrying on the legacy of those who wore the Celtics jersey before them.
Tom "Satch" Sanders, a rookie on that 1960-61 squad, spoke to the Celtics on Monday after the final practice before their preseason opener.
"What we were saying in our meetings, that we've got to do it together as a team, and that picture showed a great example of that. That's why we [said] OK, we can tie it in with us," Crowder said. "Those guys did it during a time where it was tough. It's not that bad now, but still, they did it together, they tried to make a change together, and that's where we got the idea."
Tuesday's demonstration was the first one on the court for the Rockets. When they played their first preseason game Sunday against the Shanghai Sharks, the entire team stood at attention for the playing of the American and Chinese anthems.
Carmelo Anthony said he and Joakim Noah reached out to James Harden about the Knicks and Rockets making a unified statement.
"They were on board with it, and it was just a matter of us coming together and showing everybody we're united," Anthony said.
Said Noah: "I think it was very respectful, but at the same time [it brought] awareness to some of those issues."
Harden said the demonstration represented "a brotherhood" and that the message was unity.
"Just standing together for something that we believe in; obviously we know what's going on around the world," he said. "We wanted to use our high power and noticeability to just go out there and make it aware that we're going to stand together, not just the two teams, but the entire league.
"We want to use our platform to show people that we're together and we're behind them in this.... It's something that we'll continue to do, and we have a platform and we want to use it. It's just the beginning."
The Los Angeles Lakers released a statement supporting their players.
"We fully support our players in exercising their right of expression over an issue that is so important," the statement read. "We also applaud the NBA and the NBA Players Association for their collaborative work in expanding the dialogue and for their spirit of cooperation."
Many players across multiple sports, led by San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, have taken a knee, locked arms or raised fists during the national anthem in protest of police brutality against African-Americans and other societal issues.
ESPN's Calvin Watkins, Ian Begley and Baxter Holmes contributed to this report.The eyes have it with Google Glass at Yale
NEW HAVEN >> Inside the huddle. Taking a snap from under center. Throwing a deep pass or scrambling for a long run.
Ever wonder what it’s like through the eyes of a quarterback? Well, Yale and the New Haven-based digital first creative agency Digital Surgeons made that happen Tuesday.
In the closing stages of Yale’s football practice, Bulldogs senior Henry Furman wore Google Glass to capture the game through the eyes of a quarterback — literally.
Yale Football | Project Glass from Digital Surgeons on Vimeo.
Google Glass is essentially a wearable, voice-activated computer that fits around one’s head like a pair of glasses. It records video, takes pictures, browses the internet, connects to a cell phone and more. Google gave out just 8,000 pairs as part of its Google Glass Explorer program, and Digital Surgeons were one of the recipients.
“It’s a great thing for the kids to see and to be part of something like that,” Yale coach Tony Reno said. “And it’s a great opportunity for the football program. There are only 8,000 in the world.”
David Salinas and Alex Forman of Digital Surgeons connected with Yale athletics director of marketing and licensing Pat O’Neill. They brainstormed ways to use Google Glass through Yale athletics and came up with Tuesday’s idea with hope it’s the first of many like it.
Arnold Gold — The Register Yale University quarterback Henry Furman throws a pass while wearing Google Glass during practice on Tuesday. Arnold Gold — The Register Yale University quarterback Henry Furman throws a pass while wearing Google Glass during practice on Tuesday. Photo: Journal Register Co. Photo: Journal Register Co. Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close The eyes have it with Google Glass at Yale 1 / 1 Back to Gallery
“We thought how cool would it be to do a Google Hangout and bring the fans into the game,” Salinas said. “Google said explore and that’s what we’re here to do. We think it’s the perfect pair for Yale’s culture, intelligence and athletics.”
The cost for the Google Glass is $1,500 a pair. They are expected to be released to the public some time next year.
There has been the use of helmet cams in sports in the past. Google Glass certainly offers a different perspective. Can this technology change the viewing of sports in the future? What is a slam dunk through the eyes of Lebron James like? Or first-hand look at a Matt Harvey fastball?
It’s a possibility, perhaps.
For now, Yale and Digital Surgeons offered a taste.
“I would’ve liked it more if the open receivers would’ve lit up or something like that,” said Furman with a laugh. “But, no, it was pretty cool.”Logitech Recertified 910-003602 G500S 10-Button 1-wheel USB Wired Laser 8200 dpi Gaming Mouse
This means the product was tested and repaired as required to meet the standards of the refurbisher, which may or may not be the original manufacturer. Any exceptions to the condition of the item outside the manufacturer’s information should be provided in the listing, up to and including warranty details.
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West Virginia shot 12 more free-throws than Louisville, dominated the glass for most of the game, held Louisville's inside duo of Behanan and Dieng almost completely in check, and U of L's key offensive spurt was spearheaded by an undersized guard most people thought would transfer after last year and a freshman who hadn't played in an actual game in almost a year.
Louisville 77, West Virginia 74.
The Russ show when the team needed a spark most, the Kuric three to tie it and clutch free-throws to clinch it, Chane's huge charge take, Chris Smith being rock solid, Fat Wayne looking like the missing link, they s'posed to be Big 12 part II; this is absolutely one to savor.
So much to discuss, but I think you have to start with Blackshear. Even if U of L had lost this game, I think it would have been an extremely encouraging afternoon for the future. Wayne is that next level player with great size and skill that recent Cardinal teams have been noticeably lacking. Even something so simple as the way he made tough catches or snatched loose balls like there were suction cups on the ends of his hands was cause for excitement. If he's this good already and playing 20 minutes without disrupting the chemistry on the court or the flow of the game...well, I'll let you end that sentence.
You also have to love the fact that Pitino said afterward he knew he was going to play Wayne, but said otherwise publicly so Huggins wouldn't prepare for him. You sandbaggin' S.O.B., get over here and give me a hug.
Obviously, there's more praise to be tossed around (Charlie should be involved in every game thread image ever), but we'll get into it more once the shine wears off a touch.
Monday night: white out, Wayne's Yum debut (ovation figures to be outrageous) and a matchup against the No. 2 (or No. 1...c'mon Vandy) team in the country. Feel free to begin your tailgating right now.
Six straight. February in Louisville. Fat Wayne.
Go Cards.On Thursday evening's edition of "The O'Reilly Factor," host Bill O'Reilly and Ann Coulter had a conversation that was essentially one of those reverb loops that happens when you put a cellphone near a speaker or an idiot near another idiot.
O'Reilly wanted to discuss the "war on Christianity," (a made-up thing) that was apparent when an Indiana pizza place refused to serve gay couples, which prompted national outcry.
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"It's Christianity that the left hates most of all because that is the foundation of our country and all of our freedoms come from that," Coulter said. "The rest of the world is a cesspool of violence and atrocities. This is the most consequential nation on Earth and the fact that these Christians would rather get praise from the New York Times and Nicholas Kristof by changing bedpans of Ebola patients in Nigeria, rather than stand up to the New York Times and fight against abortion and fight against these bullies, and I don't think it's gay bullies, I think it's as you call them, secular progressives or liberals. The media, they're the ones who are trying to tear down this country by going directly at the heart of America which is Christianity."
She continued: "The small town owners of pizzeria have more Christian courage than most Christian leaders and certainly the Republican party."
And she is so right. As it says in the Gospel of Luke, "Thou shalt not serve pizza, the stupidest food, at a gay wedding."Dot Earth, launched eight years and 2,700 posts ago, explores efforts to balance human ambitions with the planet’s limits. Follow Andrew Revkin on Facebook or Twitter at @revkin.
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After Bill Gates explained his strategy for boosting energy access while limiting climate change in a videotaped interview we published on Tuesday, readers were invited to submit questions for the Microsoft co-founder, philanthropist and investor.
Below are his answers to a few of the hundreds of questions he received on The Times and on Facebook, covering everything from artificial meat to Americans’ gas guzzling driving preferences (with some light editing of his dictated responses):
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How do we get the public to stop buying gas guzzlers when fuel is so cheap? I am vested in the fight for our planet but so many are complacent or living for the short term …. Even when they can financially afford alternatives.
— Cathy Charles
Bill Gates: Fuel-efficiency standards have been very effective at driving engineering and innovation. Unfortunately, the average car size has offset somewhat those mile-per-gallon improvements. And so, having it be more acceptable to get a more modest sized car helps. For a while, light trucks were exempted from the fuel efficiency, and there was a big market shift towards those trucks. They have now fixed that. We’ve now got more comprehensive regulation, which has helped us import less oil and drive more engineering. It’s a very good thing. We also have electric cars that, if those batteries can be made two to three times better, will start to move into the mainstream.
For the full solution to the climate problem, we need such a dramatic reduction in emissions that only getting fuel from biofuels or by converting to electricity and then having the power grid generate no CO2 is the full solution. In the meantime, the less gasoline we’re burning the better off we are.
Why does Gates ignore market-ready solutions that are at hand and ready to deploy? In so doing, he ignores hundreds of studies and scientists. While we need more research, Gates does a disservice by diminishing the potential for today’s solutions. —Andy Olsen
Gates: The rich countries have provided incentives and subsidies for solar and wind, and that’s had the beneficial effect of not only getting the installed capacity reducing CO2, but also getting the volume learning curve for those technologies to move costs down. Solar electric in particular has come down a lot. So, in some places, up to a certain percentage, it’s an economic part of the system.
People shouldn’t ignore the fact, though, that the demand is still somewhat driven by the tax credits and portfolio standards. So we still have quite a ways to go, particularly when you’re trying to get from 20 percent of the energy sources up to the eventual 100 percent we need, where then you run into the big challenge of intermittency [dips and peaks in power as wind and solar sources vary] and the cost of adding storage that would deal with that. This makes the economics dramatically tougher because batteries haven’t improved that much. Now I and many other people are investing in companies that are going to try and see what we can do with batteries. But it’s not guaranteed that their price will come down a lot. So solar and wind are great, but as they exist today, for countries like India, either in |
& Sunday, September 15
Creative Arts Awards and Governors Ball Events
Sunday, September 22
FOX Telecast and Governors Ball
All dates are subject to change.
updated 1.28.19Illustrations by Meaghan Garvey
Jackson, Wyoming is so full of beauty, it's almost hard to believe: the Teton Range cutting a fierce silhouette against the sky, night skies that contain more stars than you knew existed, wild animals roaming free across the vast landscape. Jorge Moreno, a resident for 17 years, knew he wanted to settle in Jackson after his first trip there, to visit his sister who was working in a local restaurant at the time.
"It was a really warm feeling," he recalled. "It was a place where you could ride your bike everywhere, and walk down the street at night. Everybody was so friendly. Everybody knew each other."
Many of the working- and middle-class locals in Jackson have similar stories, of feeling so drawn to the place that they did whatever it took to make it their home. At one point in time, the epitome of this experience was the "ski bum": someone young, drawn to Jackson by the beauty and adventure, who worked just enough to get by, and slept wherever possible—maybe in an apartment shared by too many people, maybe in a car. People could start out that way and then, eventually, put down roots.
But Jackson Hole has become a place where many of the working class can't put down roots at all. The town has always been a playground for the ultra-wealthy, and over the last few years, home prices have risen back to pre-recession highs and rents have skyrocketed. Many hardworking locals—the people who build and maintain the area's luxury vacation homes, run its multi-million dollar tourism industry, and create that appealing small-town charm—are being pushed out.
Lack of affordable housing is a vexing problem for many resort communities, including other Western ski towns like Aspen, Vail, Big Sky, and Sun Valley. But the issue is particularly intractable in Jackson due to limited space: 97 percent of the land in Teton County, which contains Jackson Hole, is federally owned and protected. The federal lands include Grand Teton National Park, parts of Yellowstone National Park, and parts of the Bridger-Teton National Forest. The focus on preserving all that natural beauty means space for development is strictly limited in the county of 22,000 residents.
On top of that, zoning in Teton County has long been designed to discourage density. On its face, the reason is to preserve Jackson's small-town character and natural beauty. But the effect is to prioritize the wealthy second-home owners of Teton County, who own big houses on big pieces of land, and who would prefer not to look out their windows and see apartment complexes where the other half live.
Based on mean income (which the IRS uses for its tax statistics), Teton County is the wealthiest county in America. In 2013, the most recent year for which county data is available, mean income in Teton County was $296,778, compared to the national average of $62,483. That average is obviously driven up by a small number of mega-rich residents; for comparison, according to a regional housing survey in the county, the area's median income was $65,000 in 2014, versus a national median of about $53,000. The result is that while the typical Jacksonite is wealthier than the typical American, most Teton County residents can never hope to buy a home there. In the first three quarters of 2015, the average home in the county sold for $2.14 million. Condos went for over $800,000.
In 1986, the median home price in Jackson Hole was 354 percent of the median income. By 2010, it was 1,400 percent of the median income. Wages have not increased apace with real estate values, so most of Jackson Hole's wage workers are renters. A 2014 Teton County study found that 52 percent of renters had low or very low incomes; 39 percent of homeowners, on the other hand, made over 120 percent the median income in the county.
Concern about Jackson's lack of affordable rental housing has risen over the last few years. The words "housing crisis" have become more common in local discussions. That crisis reached a fever pitch this past July, when the owners of Blair Place Apartments, Jackson's largest rental complex, announced they were increasing rent by 40 percent. Moreno had barely lived at Blair for two months, and his rent was set to increase from $1,250 per month to $1,800.
"While they're talking, people are leaving. These are firefighters, public school teachers, nurses—people who make this community what it is." — Jorge Moreno
Before moving in to the apartment, Moreno, his wife, and their two young sons had been homeless for about three weeks. They had been living with Moreno's parents, but when they decided to put their home up for sale, the young family was forced to move out. For about three weeks, they stayed in motel rooms and with friends, and seriously considered leaving Jackson, until they found what seemed like a permanent residence at Blair Place.
Devastated by the proposed rent increase, Moreno went door-to-door, talking to his neighbors, asking them to write letters about how the rent hike would affect their families. He took those messages to a Town Council meeting, although he says he often wondered if the work was worth it, as elected official seemed focused on commercial development over housing.
"While they're talking, people are leaving," he said. "These are firefighters, public school teachers, nurses. We're losing the people who make this community what it is."
In the face of public outcry, the Blair owners eased off slightly, opting to spread the rent increase over two years. But Moreno is quick to point out that the issue isn't limited to Blair Place. "Blair brought the issue into the spotlight because it's a 300-unit complex," he said. "But everyone else was doing it."
Moreno is just one of many Jackson residents who has experienced a period of homelessness. The local paper features pages and pages of help wanted ads, especially in the busy summer season, but only a handful of rooms for rent. There simply aren't enough beds to go around. Plus, there is virtually no rent regulation in Teton County, which allows landlords to jack up the rent whenever they want. Many property owners offer leases that end in April, so they can raise rent for the summer. And as in so many cities, the popularity of Airbnb has led many owners to take what were once long-term rental units off the market and use them as cash cow vacation rentals.
It's impossible to know how many people are homeless or experiencing housing instability in Jackson. Homelessness is on the rise across Wyoming, due to similar housing crunches in areas that are booming because of oil, coal, and natural gas. But federal data, which showed that Wyoming had a homeless population of 1,813 in 2013, doesn't capture the many people who are sleeping in cars or tents for short periods of time. For some, like Moreno, that period lasted just a few weeks; for others, it lasts months or years.
Related: Evictions and Resistance: On the Front Lines of London's Housing Crisis
No local government agency even has an estimate of how many people are camping or sleeping in cars instead of in homes. A shared town and county Housing Action Plan adopted in November claims that Teton County has a "deficit" of 340 workforce housing units. The plan estimates 280 new housing units would have to be built every year to keep pace with employment growth.
A portion of those workers are living elsewhere and commuting to Jackson; others are staying on friends' couches, or packing too many people into one apartment and hoping not to get caught. And many are living in their cars or camping illegally, especially in the summer. Lieutenant Cole Nethercott of the Jackson Police Department says it is illegal to sleep in a car or camp on public property in Jackson, but enforcement of that policy is complaint-driven. "We try to take a common sense approach, and we try not to issue citations if we don't have to," he said.
Jose Castro, deputy forest supervisor of the Bridger-Teton National Forest, echoed that reluctance toward harsh enforcement.
"Camping on public land is becoming very common when people don't have the means to live in certain areas," he said. "We know that if they had a place to go, they would go."
Mary Erickson, executive director of Jackson's Community Resource Center, says her organization has aided in 108 housing cases over the past year. Because those cases ranged from single people to families of six, she estimates the center has reached 380 individuals. Erickson says most of CRC's clients are working families in lower-wage service industry jobs, who come for help in the wake of eviction, sudden rent increases, or other loss of housing. In the winter, many of these families end up renting hotel rooms, but even that costs around $800 per month. Ultimately, she said, most of them end up leaving Jackson Hole.
Erickson pointed out that for years, the housing crunch has been disproportionately affecting the area's Latino population, which grew from 6.5 percent in 2000 to 15.2 percent in 2014. Ninety-two percent of Teton County's Latinos are employed, according to Erickson, but they are more likely to be employed in low-wage jobs and live in rental housing.
"We've been seeing these rate hikes at the lower end of the housing market for a long time," Erickson said. "Many Latino families are living in awful housing that really should be torn down, but then they would have nowhere to go."
Approximately 33 percent of the local workforce commutes to Jackson Hole, mostly from Idaho towns to the west, or Alpine, Wyoming, to the south. Both those commutes are about an hour's drive—manageable, until you consider that getting to Idaho involves driving over an 8,432-foot mountain pass and getting to Alpine means driving the similarly treacherous Snake River Canyon. Both these roadways are now frequently backed up with traffic. They are dangerous on a good day, and sometimes forced to close in the winter. Erickson says she has personally fought to stay in Jackson because she and her husband dislike the idea of working in Jackson and having their children in school an hour away. Plus, rents are on the rise in the commuter towns, too.
Related: Young Mothers Have Occupied Some Empty London Flats to Protest Homelessness
Single mother Theia Keyworth used to live with her son in one of Jackson's few restricted low-income rental units. But in her job at a local bank, she began making too much money to live in low-income housing, but not enough to afford a market-rate apartment. She was evicted in December 2014, and moved in with her parents in Alpine. Keyworth still works in Jackson, and estimates that she spends $200 to $300 per month on fuel.
"It feels like Jackson isn't my home anymore. It's been so overrun by people who have millions of dollars that the people who grew up here can't stay," she said.
Most locals I spoke to expressed frustration with the inaction of local government. In 2014 and 2015, there was a great deal of talk about housing—but the new Housing Action Plan doesn't include a whole lot of action. Its most concrete step is the establishment of a new administrative framework to manage affordable housing. It also promises to bring Jackson's existing 1,500 restricted affordable units under uniform management (currently, they are administered by several different local agencies and organizations).
The plan suggests that, going forward, much of the burden for workforce housing should be placed on employers. But Moreno points out an obvious problem with that: "Would you rather house a family of five or five employees?" Many large employers in Teton County already house their workers, but house the mostly young out-of-towners in what are essentially dorms.
Another problem many Jackson residents identify is that 60 percent of the county's lodging tax (a two percent tax added to every visitor's stay) is allocated to the Jackson Hole Travel and Tourism Board. That money is spent on promoting Jackson Hole, which hardly seems necessary when the town is bursting at the seams in its busy seasons. In the summer of 2015, locals and tourists alike complained of outrageous traffic, overcrowded national parks and restaurants, and not enough workers to keep up with demand—problems all worsened by the affordable housing shortage.
Mick Dettmer, who has lived in Jackson since 1988 and been homeless for most of the last 16 years, thinks the county should do away with its current lodging tax and institute a new tax on all hotel rooms that would be directly used to pay for housing.
"Call it what you want—a 'toilet tax,' a 'blanket tax,' a 'pillow tax,' whatever. We don't need to spend money to get them here, we need money to take care of them when they are here," Dettmer said.
A similar idea is floated in the Housing Action Plan, but no consensus has yet been reached on how to pay for the housing Teton County needs. Among locals I spoke to, there was an overwhelming sense of despair that the problem won't be solved—and that as Jackson loses its working and middle-classes, it will eventually lose its character.
"It will be like Disneyland," Moreno said, "Once the lights are out, that place is empty. It has no soul. It's a place where you go to work and then leave."
Follow Garnet Henderson on Twitter.A 12-year-old and 19-year-old were shot during an argument inside a Bradenton home.
According to police, the shooting happened around 11:30 a.m. in the 1900 block of 6th Ave. East.
Investigators say the Joshua Rapolla, 36, and Rufus Adams, 19, got into a verbal argument on Thursday morning. During the altercation, Adams and Rapolla each grabbed a gun.
Rapolla, who's been identified as the children's stepfather, opened fire and shot Adams in the head and upper body. He is being treated at Blake Medical Center.
A 12-year-old boy inside the home during the gun fight was shot in the lower body. He is being treated at All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg.
Investigators believe the 12-year-old was never an intended target.
ABC Action News is at the scene and will update when more information is released.We've had our say already, and typically we were probably well wide of the mark, so it's now your turn to let us know what games you're looking forward to over the next 12 months. Thanks to all who voted (but no thanks to whoever suggested Pong, and to the handful of people who put forward Half-Life 3, well... I'm sorry). The top 10 are presented in reverse order below - and it was incredibly tight out at the front, with the top result beating out the runner-up by only a couple of votes. We've also included some of your comments, although since the submission form was anonymous we can't say exactly who made which point. Sorry about that - if you feel particularly proprietorial about one of your insights that we've highlighted, tell the world in the comments. Onward!
10. Pillars of Eternity Publisher: Obsidian Entertainment
Developer: Obsidian Entertainment
Release date: Q4 2013 Kickstarter's already provided us with a glut of excellent games, but 2014 feels like it'll be the year when some of the big names that made up the first wave of the crowdfunding phenomenon will begin to bear fruit. What was once known as Project Eternity feels like the most promising of the lot, and it'll be fascinating to see how an older, more thoughtful style of role-playing will transpose to a modern audience. Hopefully we won't to have to wait long to find out. What you said: "Why? Because it was the game that popped my Kickstarter cherry so I have money riding on it being a winner! Mostly though, I'm just looking forward to playing an RPG that has depth and tone so lacking in many modern RPGs. I'm also hoping that being freed from the commercial constraints set by publishers will reduce the chances of game-breaking bugs being released into the finished product, or at the very least that patches will be issued in a timely and thorough manner." "It was this or Witcher 3. I'm after high quality, thoughtful narrative and both seem likely to deliver on this. I wound up plumping for Eternity because I miss RPGs leaving a little something to my imagination. Perhaps it's nostalgia, but the rise of voice acting isn't always a good thing."
9. Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes Publisher: Konami
Developer: Kojima Productions
Release date: 20th March 2014 It's been six years since the tangle of Metal Gear Solid 4, yet it doesn't feel like Snake's been away anywhere near that long. The brilliant Peace Walker released in the interim was more than just a stopgap - it proved that Kojima Productions still had plenty of fresh ideas for the series, and that after the sometimes scrappy Guns of the Patriots the Metal Gear series might have a bright future after all. Ground Zeroes should be further proof of that before the full-blooded Phantom Pain arrives - an open-world proof of concept that could well make the wait for the full Metal Gear Solid 5 all the more painful if it's half as excellent as it looks to be. What you said: "An exciting new direction for the Metal Gear franchise kicks off this year with the appetiser, Ground Zeroes. I'm looking forward to seeing how Snake copes in an open-world environment and it looks absolutely stunning from what we've seen so far."
8. Elite: Dangerous Developer: Frontier Developments
Release date: TBA By the time Elite: Dangerous comes out, it'll have been coming up to 20 years since the last instalment in the space-faring series, and a shocking 30 since the BBC Micro original. So it's understandable that everyone's getting a little hot under the collar for the return of arguably the original open-world game. It's at the tip of a wave of new interstellar adventures, with Chris Roberts' Star Citizen also looking to do the business sometime soon. Is there enough appetite for the incoming glut? After so long away, it seems likely the answer is yes. What you said: "As soon as the Elite: Dangerous kickstarter was announced, I immediately pledged £40 before increasing it to £150 (much to my wife's annoyance) and have followed the regular dev updates and the alpha footage with growing sense of excitement (shameful for a 40-plus-year-old). 2014 for me promises to be restarting my regular Sol-Barnards Star shuttle runs, before I start exploring the big wild yonder." "Elite: Dangerous is a game I'd been waiting for long before it was ever announced. I have loved the original since first playing it on the BBC Micro back in '84. The nineties sequels didn't live up to my expectations but I've got a strong feeling that this year my dream of a modern Elite will finally be realised. And it's going to have full Rift support, which is actually the thing I am most anticipating this year."
7. Titanfall Publisher: EA
Developer: Respawn
Release date: 13th March 2014 As thrilling as the next-gen launches were late last year, it would have been grand to have something new and exciting to play on the freshly arrived consoles. Titanfall's launch in March feels like the first real shot fired in the next-gen battleground, and it's all the better that they're shots fired from jetpack-powered infantry and strangely adorable mega mechs. Everyone that's been fortunate enough to play it has come away frothing with delight, and it's looking increasingly like Titanfall will be Microsoft's killer app this year. What you said: "It might be a bit obvious but Titanfall is my most anticipated game of 2014. I'm sure there will be a few surprises, most likely from the indie sector, but, having become extremely bored of the same old multiplayer experience you get from Call of Duty, I'm hoping this scratches the fast-paced, multiplayer FPS shooter itch. The fact that it looks like more than shooting waves of Arab soldiers is a little refreshing too." "People love playing FPS, it's just a great genre but it's being suffocated by lack of innovation and domination of only a handful of franchises, especially on console. I'm crossing my fingers for this game to shake things up and really kick off next-gen." "Looking forward to a new approach to the FPS genre following largely unimpressive 'rinse and reboot' releases from Battlefield and COD over recent years.
6. inFamous: Second Son Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: Sucker Punch
Release date: 21st March 2014 It doesn't quite have the thudding impact of Titanfall, perhaps, but the PlayStation 4's big exclusive for the first quarter of 2014 is an intriguing prospect nevertheless. Sucker Punch's action series found its feet over the course of the PlayStation 3's life, and it starts out on the PlayStation 4 in a good place: it's a superhero game where you're allowed to delight in your super powers, something which will only be made all the more enjoyable thanks to the power of Sony's new console. What you said: "Navigating through the InFamous world is like floating through the clouds. Most satisfying and fun platforming ever. And while the'morality' system is very black-and-white in its implementation to the point it almost becomes a negative, it saves its skin by providing variety in power-ups, moves and how to approach missions, making a second run of the game as the opposite of what you were before (good or bad) something worth doing." "All I need from the next generation (or any other generation, really) is an openworld superhero action-adventure that revels in its over-the-top-ness, is not drab, and looks like it might actually be fun to play. Also, I quite enjoyed the first two... InFamouses?... InFamousi? Infamice?" "You can shoot neon out of your hands; that's the best idea I've heard since sharks with frickin' lasers on their heads."Report: Rafael Nadal Will Have Surgery After Paris, Will Not Play In London Finals [Video]
by Tom Gainey |
According to a new report from IB3, Rafael Nadal will not play in the year-end ATP Finals. The World No. 3 will still play Basel then Paris, but then have surgery to remove his inflamed appendix at the start of November.
The timing of the surgery will give Nadal a full 6-8 weeks of recovery before the Australian Open and the start of the new season. If true, Nadal’s withdrawal also would bolster the hopes of Andy Murray’s qualification.
Nadal is expected to leave for Basel today via Cannes where he has a commercial commitment. Rafa has never won the ATP Finals and this marks the second time in the last three years he’ll miss the event.
There has been no confirmation on this from the Nadal camp, nor is one expected until after Paris.I didn’t expect anything major. I thought, “I’m not an alcoholic, I’m just doing an experimental cleanse.”
Yet at the age of 23, I can remember only a few sober periods over the past nine years lasting more than two weeks. So, yes, I downplayed the multifaceted significance booze had on my life.
What would you imagine to happen if you quit alcohol for a weekend, a few weeks, a month—or perhaps even longer?
Personally, I thought of the obvious; my hangovers would end, I’d be a little bored, feel incredibly refreshed in just over a week, drop a few pounds and strengthen my will power.
All these assumptions are half true. I thought I’d share with you the findings that haven’t already been shoved down your throat faster than you can shotgun a Natty Light.
1. I still got sick, twice!
Abstaining from alcohol may help you shed some weight, but it won’t be an instant fix for all of your health problems. By not drinking you are not giving yourself a medicine, you are taking away a poison. It’s a good start. A healthy lifestyle, including diet and exercise, is still fundamental to wellbeing. You’ll continue to feel tired in the morning if you haven’t had proper sleep, or if you’re addicted to caffeine. You won’t be immune to the flu, the common cold, chicken pox, and in my case, “Delhi belly.”
2. I realized drinking isn’t our biggest problem—but it is an easy scapegoat.
“The thinking problem comes before the drinking problem,” Tommy Rosen’s words resonated with me at the International Yoga Festival in Rishikesh, India. Tommy Rosen is an addiction recovery expert and a yoga teacher who helps cure thousands of otherwise “non-spiritually inclined or yoga practicing addicts.” He achieves this by simply helping people rediscover the pharmacy within, instead of looking outside to fix the inside—a squandering of our precious energy. If you’ve ever craved a cold beer or a tall glass of wine after a long day of work, I’m not calling you out as an alcoholic, rather simply suggesting that we may consider it an acute addiction.
3. Booze is recommended as a bandage to almost every bad situation.
Dealing with a break-up, a bad grade, even a terrible headache? Since I made a vow not to drink, I took particular note of the numerous times well-intentioned friends advised that I look to alcohol in times of sadness, confusion, frustration, loss, and all of those other negative adjectives.
I found that dealing with perceived roadblocks is harder and more intense when you are completely sober, sitting with your true self, in control. But guess what? It actually works! When you drink, you’re putting off the real stuff and probably exacerbating your issues.
4. I wasn’t bored at all. In fact, I found the idea of drinking boring.
Quitting alcohol freed up my time for stimulating conversations, outdoor activities, break through workouts, and endless exploration of my interests and my surroundings. As a freelancer, I was able to get my work done at odd times when I would have been drinking or slightly debilitated from a night out.
From dancing all night at an Indian Kirtan, attending a contemporary art show, snorkeling around three different islands, tasting exotic food at Malaysian and Chinese markets, and re-immersing myself in a powerful yoga practice, I’d say I filled the space quite well. And you could too, anywhere.
5. Simplification works.
Alcohol complicates things. Do you always mean what you say and say what you mean when you’re drunk? Would you even be able to comprehend that sentence after a few beers? More clarity comes from less booze. Suddenly you understand who you want to spend time with, because they could care less that you aren’t drinking.
6. All the wild cravings you think you’ll have either won’t show up or will go away almost instantly.
Turns out that our body craves proper nourishment. We reject the poison in processed foods and alcohol, which is why we refer to the outcome as a hangover, or a tummy ache. When you remember your goal, that overpriced bevy that your pal’s drinking looks a little less attractive. When you fully commit to something like this with genuine intention for self-betterment (in a non-hung-over state of mind), you won’t have the desire to break it.
7. I feel liberated.
“Sorry Shosh,” a friend said to me at dinner in the Gili Islands. Three of my travel buds were trying to figure out what cocktails they were ordering for two for one happy-hour special. Major dilemma because the Pina colada looked great, but would probably be super-charged with two meals worth of calories. Yum.
Trying not to sound like a condescending snob, I said, “No, it’s really fine. I actually prefer this. It feels amazing not to have to choose.” I meant that full heartedly. I stayed out with my friends, spent less money, had a fabulous night’s sleep, and remembered every bit of my conversations and the quality Indonesian live music.
8. My confidence is at an all time high.
So get this, instead of feeling awkward, I feel completely at ease in my own skin. Apart from the fact that my skin is clearer than it’s been in months, I shed my “Freshman Year of Indian Curry 2015.” I’m (usually) fully rested without interruption, my new vibrant confidence runs much deeper than that. I feel connected and understanding of my truer self more than ever, and I’ve grown to really like her.
What have you imagined would happen if you quit drinking altogether?
Don’t you think you owe it to yourself to find out?
Perhaps you’ll find yourself face first with your true issues, hiding behind the Bloody Marys and Mimosas. I’m by no means condemning the enjoyment of a nice cocktail here and there. I’m only suggesting that a habit of looking outward to fix inward can blind us of the free, unlimited pharmacy within.
A seemingly harmless pastime performed without mindfulness can prevent us from connecting with our truer self, unhindered by substances. This deeper sense of being is totally pure, confronting and ultimately shining with confidence and beauty.
After this embrace, you can continue to mindfully live your life with intention, booze or no booze.
But please, don’t believe me—verify me. Try it yourself and see what I’m talking about. I challenge you!
Drinks on me if I lose.
Relephant Read:
Author: Shoshanna Delventhal
Editor: Sara Kärpänen
Photo: Courtesy of the AuthorPlease enable Javascript to watch this video
KOKOMO, Ind. – A Kokomo man was arrested after police say he gave an 11-year-old boy a tattoo. Ted Williamson, 33, was charged with tattooing a minor and synthetic drug possession.
According to court documents, Williamson gave the boy the tattoo while he was visiting his mother in an apartment in the 300 block of East Walnut Street. Williamson also gave the boy’s mother a neck tattoo when he gave the boy a tattoo on his foot.
The boy showed his father the tattoo when he returned home, and his father reported the incident to the Howard County Child Protection Services. They referred him to police to pursue charges.
According to court documents, the father told police that he is concerned the instruments were not properly sterilized and the needles were dirty.
"I had to take my son to the hospital and have all of this blood work done because she has all of these known diseases and knowing that she has had all of those, she had a tattoo put on her with the same equipment then turns around and has it done on my son," says the 11-year-old boy's dad Scott Pearson.
State law requires a legal guardian to be present and provide permission for a minor to receive a tattoo. The boy’s mother was with him when he received the tattoo, but she has given up all rights to the child, according to court documents.
"I don’t know a single tattoo artist, that works at a legit shop that would even consider tattooing an 11 year old child. "It is really more than aids, it is hepatitis and other things that spread worse," says tattoo expert Timothy Boor of The Bohemian Tattoo Club in Kokomo.
Williamson is currently being held in the Howard County Jail on an $8,000 bond.0 Shares 0
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As the world waited for the presenters of the 2018 FIFA World Cup draw to take the stage, one nation in particular was waiting for Maria Komandnaya, the female co-presenter of the program; and when she gracefully entered the stage with a modest, professional dress, the entire nation of Iran took a sigh of relief. Within minutes, her Instagram account was flooded with thousands of comments of love, appreciation, and gratitude. But in order to understand why, some context is needed.
Four years earlier at the previous world cup draw, the female co-presenter, Fernanda Lima, had worn a low-cut revealing dress causing a serious headache for Iranian broadcasters. In Iran’s modest Islamic perspective, female sexuality is a sacred matter which should best be celebrated privately. Hence, as Iranian authorities saw it, broadcasting images of such a low neckline was unacceptable, and left them with no choice but to pull the plug. Understandably, taking the live event off the air frustrated millions of Iranians who were eager to see who their national team would have to face. As reported by The Guardian, the Iranian TV presenter explained: “To be honest with you, the dress of the lady who presents the show does not meet our broadcasting guidelines at all”.
Fast forward 4 years to the 2018 group stage draw. Worried that an immodest dress would once again ruin the evening, there was a lot of chatter on social media. What dress would the presenter wear this year? Would she keep it professional and decent, or like last year’s presenter, be completely oblivious and insensitive towards her Muslim audience? But this year, Iranians had decided to take things into their own hands and leave less to fate. In the days leading up to the event, they had told Ms. Komandnaya and the organizing committee their concerns in any way they could. Most notably, Iran’s star striker Sardar Azmoun who plays for a Russian club and has a working relationship with Maria, had relayed the message.
So as Maria appeared on the stage in her modest dress, the pious Iranians rejoiced. This year, the entire event would be broadcast live, without any hiccups or hindrances. Iranian Instagram users immediately flocked to her page to tell her how happy and grateful they were. Most comments were short and sweet, while others had more substance. One particularly vivid comment read: “Dear Maria, your modest dress tonight was very much appreciated. We understand that you had a choice to make, and courageously chose humility over lust. We salute you for this choice. Let it be known that the nation of Iran is not afraid to stand up for what is right, and in a world full of carnality, proudly raises its voice against those who insist on sexualizing and objectifying women through the normalization of revealing dresses.”
After the event, as if to show that the choice of dress was not coincidental and was indeed deliberate, Ms. Komandnaya cheekily tweeted: “Iran, are you happy?”The Great American (Electric) Road-trip. pic.twitter.com/1dmXyBYbZ9 — Talulah Riley (@TalulahRiley) March 30, 2014
It appears Tesla CEO Elon Musk and family are on their 3200-mile “elec-trek” cross country with his 5 children. Actress/wife Talulah Riley tweeted the above yesterday signaling that the trip has started and included what looks like the California Desert taken from the passenger compartment of a Model S.
Ran into Elon Musk's family road trip at our family spring break at Sorrel Ranch in Moab; 3 Teslas, 5 security guards, 1 chase Suburban. — Michael White (@mineywins) March 30, 2014
Musk had previously tweeted some specs for the trip but those tweets have been deleted so they may not be up to date info.
Just finalized the LA to NY family road trip route in Model S. 6 day, 3200 mile journey with only 9 hrs spent charging.— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 05, 2013
At 1.5 hrs/day, we will only ever need to charge when stopping anyway to eat or sightsee, never just for charging itself— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 05, 2013
I wonder if Musk has the special 400 Mile battery in his car?
Update: It would appear that Musk and family are further along than thought?
Just stayed at the Rocket (yes!) Motel near Mt Rushmore. Sudden blizzard making road trip tricky pic.twitter.com/TRIPC7dKwK — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 31, 2014
Now having breakfast at … pic.twitter.com/8tGI3L0iGg — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 31, 2014
Update 2: It looks like Musk&Fam might have taken an even more posh ride to South Dakota. Musk’s Jet flew from LA to South Dakota yesterday:
Update 3: Tesla did confirm to me that Musk is indeed on his roadtrip. A spokesperson told me:
While we can confirm Elon is on his road trip, I cannot give any details about the journey, his timeline, or location. You may feel free to gather information from his personal twitter feed.It's practically conventional wisdom at this point that the Wii has been the best-selling system of this console generation, overall. By sustaining retail sellouts for months after launch and routinely selling millions of consoles every holiday season, the Wii built up what was a seemingly insurmountable lead in the American gaming hardware market, judged purely on raw hardware sales (software sales and hours of play are different matters, of course).
But the conventional wisdom is wrong, at least in the US. Over the past three years, Microsoft has consistently eaten into Nintendo's "insurmountable" US sales lead, to the point that it seems that the Xbox 360 will end the year as the system with the most lifetime sales in America.
In the US, the Wii started out nearly 3 million units behind the Xbox 360 in the sales race, simply by dint of launching a year later. Nintendo's cheaper system quickly ate into that sales margin, though, and it had officially sold more Wiis in the US than Microsoft sold Xbox 360s by June 2008, according to data released by tracking firm NPD and the console makers themselves (the PS3 consistently lagged behind both systems in the US). The Wii sales bonanza didn't slow down from there, and by May of 2010 there were over nine million more Wii units circulating in the country than there were Xbox 360 units.
Unfortunately for Nintendo, this would represent the high-water mark as far as the system's dominance of the American sales charts. For the last three years (starting in June of 2010), the Xbox 360 has outsold the Wii in the US every single month (save for December 2008, when a sales surge led the Wii to beat the Xbox 360 by half a million units). Microsoft's sustained sales dominance in that period has reduced the Wii's American sales lead from over 9 million systems three years ago to just under 2 million units today.
Of course, Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony will all have new consoles available by the end of the year, meaning time is starting to run out for the current generation of consoles |
uggling into the UK.
The senior official at Heathrow, who has almost 10 years' experience, said: "We have actually ceased doing [anti-smuggling operations] at the moment, even though they won't say they have. Word has already got around to criminal enterprises."
Chris Hobbs, a former Metropolitan police officer who worked with border control at Heathrow and Gatwick before retiring last summer, said: "Organised crime networks will only be too well aware of this and, if they can recruit couriers, will be having a field day."
A Home Office spokesman said: "We are committed to maintaining border security. By deploying our staff flexibly we are continuing to target drugs and illegal weapons while carrying out our immigration work as rigorously and efficiently as possible."
The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, urged Theresa May, the home secretary, to "stop hiding" and investigate the escalating airport security "shambles". Cooper said: "She needs to make sure that appropriate customs checks are still taking place and that panic action to staff the passport desks is not leaving customs completely empty."
The PCS also warned that extra baggage checks and detailed questioning of suspect passengers were not being carried out because staff had been moved to passport control. Security concerns among border staff, O'Connor said, had been raised repeatedly with line managers and with May, ahead of the Olympics, but to no avail.
The frontline Heathrow border official described an incident last week involving two students from Pakistan, both with Olympic accreditation. He felt they posed a potential security risk, yet they were allowed to enter the UK without being challenged or having their bags searched.
He said: "One was already green accredited which means he was going to be working on the Olympic site somewhere. I don't know what venue, I just know he's been passed as secure. It's shocking, they're landed and there is nothing I can do. It's an accident waiting to happen."
The pressure to cut queuing times was so acute that he had stopped "running cases" – questioning suspect passengers on their travel history, their intentions in the UK and examining their baggage – because passport control was too short-staffed.
Last year, he said, his team was running up to 50 cases a day. "And that was very light compared to a few years ago. I would normally have done three cases a day myself on a shift. I can't even do one at the moment if I want to because I don't have the time."
Hobbs, author of the novel Olympic Flames 2012, in which a riot takes place at the London Games, said the situation raised questions over the vetting process for the Games and the broader approach to border security.
"Border officers are encountering foreign visa-holding students re-entering the UK whom they are less than happy with. On checking UKBA databases, they are finding these students have been given accreditation to work at Olympic venues, including the Olympic Park.
"Requests to carry out further inquiries in respect of these passengers are normally refused by chief immigration officers due to the fact there are huge queues and insufficient staff."
Cooper said that May needed to explain to parliament why such a security risk had been allowed.
"The home secretary was warned about the risk of cutting so many border staff, particularly in Olympic year," she added.
Figures detailing airport queuing times – on Saturday, delays at Stansted passport control were branded "unacceptable" – have intensified the pressure on May, with the prime minister already asking her to explain the problem. The situation is likely to be compounded by a threatened one-day strike by border staff. the home secretary's insistence on full passport checks is fundamental to the fiasco.
The former head of the UK border force, Brodie Clark, lost his job last November after relaxing certain passenger checks to cope with queues while preserving security checks on suspect travellers.Supernatural‘s Winchester brothers have officially been “saving people, hunting things” for 200 episodes … and season 10 isn’t even halfway over. But after taking a break from some of the season-long drama last week to celebrate the show’s milestone, it’s time to get back in the swing of things. EW chatted with stars Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles about the season so far and what lies ahead.
EW: Were you all surprised at how quickly Dean became human again?
PADALECKI: Yes. I was disappointed.
ACKLES: Yeah, I thought they probably could’ve dragged that on a little longer. They wanted to get Dean back to Dean and get the brothers back to being brothers again. I like that. I’m thankful that, for the first time in several seasons, [Sam and Dean are] kind of back together as brothers. That being said, I wouldn’t have minded a handful of more episodes with that separation. That would’ve been fun.
PADALECKI: My wet dream was like having a cat-and-mouse chase ala De Niro and Pacino in Heat. I wanted to be on his trail for a while.
ACKLES: We could’ve explored more of what Sam went through too because a lot of that is being implied and not seen, which will come back in the future, and I think maybe we’ll get to see some of that in flashbacks. I hope so.
PADALECKI: I felt so blessed that I was able to play soulless Sam for half a season or Gadreel/Ezekiel Sam for half a season, and it’s so fun to watch that dynamic. Part of me wanted that action movie, like Sam on Dean’s trail or vice versa to dance around it for a little bit, but I understand we have other stories to tell.
ACKLES: It could’ve very easily been five to 10 episodes of leading up to that meeting of Sam and Dean. But they’ve only got 23 episodes and they gotta get to the point, they gotta move the story along because they got places to go.
We got a glimpse at how dark Sam went to save Dean. Is there more where that came from?
PADALECKI: There is a little bit more. It’s more hinted towards than necessarily seen.
ACKLES: We might get some flashbacks and stuff in the future.
PADALECKI: And we also see it kind of manifested in the way Sam behaves. He knows that he crossed these boundaries that he swore he’d never cross. These people were humans. And so Sam has done whatever it took to monsters but to do it to a human being and to a human soul I think has put this kind of resolution inside of Sam where he knows where he’s gone and he doesn’t want to go there again.
What are the after-effects of Demon Dean like? How did his time as a demon change him?
ACKLES: I think right now it’s less about what he was and it’s more about what he might possibly still be. He’s still got the Mark of Cain so he’s still dealing with whatever adverse affects that’s having on him, which have yet to be really defined. But I think it’s the mystery of what those could be that is really haunting Dean right now. He’s got the shakes. He’s trying to live a cleaner life because he doesn’t want to let down his guard. He doesn’t want to cloud his judgment right now because if he does, then he’s like, “I don’t know if I’m going to be able to control myself and I don’t want to go down that rabbit hole,” so right now it’s a little tricky. Sam’s aware of it and he’s kind of watching out for him and I’m sure it will manifest itself at some point but to what, I’m not quite sure.
How is the relationship between the brothers moving forward?
PADALECKI: Sam knows how much he loves his brother and how much he’ll do for his brother, or for Cas, or whoever he loves, but he feels like sometimes he hasn’t either shown it or had the opportunity to—from the pilot when he decided to go off to school to season seven when he was with Amelia instead of trying to get his brother back from purgatory. Sam knows that when shit hits the fan, Sam will do whatever it takes, but he isn’t always sure that other people see that. And talking to fans, [I] hear that kind of echoed where they’re like, “Hey, why won’t Sam do for Dean what Dean does for Sam?” And part of me wants to like go, “Sam went to the hell box as Lucifer for his brother. What are you talking about he doesn’t do the same thing?” So it just goes to show that not everybody knows just what Sam’s commitments are. But I think he’s proven himself kind of begrudgingly because he had to cross some boundaries he didn’t want to cross, but now he knows that Dean knows just how far he will go to help his brother, and now the audience gets to see it too.
Is Sam still holding on to the anger from the angel possession?
PADALECKI: He always will. He is enriched and changed. Sam is holding onto the anger from all 200 something episodes up to…
ACKLES: Dragging him out of college.
PADALECKI: Since dragging him out of college. Sam, prior to being an angel is very different from post being an angel. Legitimately, the best part of a show going this long is that Sam and Dean have been affected by each and every effing thing that has happened in the last 200 something episodes
ACKLES: Those are battle scars that aren’t going to go away.
PADALECKI: Those are battle scars that aren’t going to go away even though CW makeup comes on and covers them up. The characters are richer and more layered for having gone through that, so that will always be in Sam’s mind. And he knows that he’s vulnerable, and he sees what his brother will do, and he has a certain respect for it now because now he sees what he was willing to do, so it kind of validates what Dean was willing to do to bring his brother back. However, he’ll never forget it. He’ll move past because he’s a soldier but he’ll never forget it.
ACKLES: I don’t think that there’s anything that will completely ever usurp the brother bond, the family bond that is what ties these two ties together. They can say, “We’re not brothers,” and they can pretend like they’re not brothers, and they can do all the things to each other that might scar that, but it will be just that—it will be a scar on a bond that will never really break.
How much is witchcraft playing a role in this season?
PADALECKI: It plays a lot.
ACKLES: I don’t think that we’ve really gotten into the meat of that just yet.
PADALECKI: We’ve never delved into witches like we did delve into demons and angels and even vampires.
ACKLES: Leviathans.
PADALECKI: Leviathans, yeah. We’ve played around with witches but witches actually play a pretty large part in our storyline, even from like “Man’s Best Friend,” where there was a witch making a dog manifest itself as the servant, and Crowley was a witch before.
ACKLES: They’ve always been there.
PADALECKI: They’ve always been there and so now we get to delve into this part of the supernatural universe. I’ve read a few forward and we see witchcraft play integral parts in a few episodes coming up and I think it’s a neat thing that we haven’t seen. Sam and Dean have the thing they do with demons, they have the thing they do with vampires or with ghosts or zombies, but we haven’t really seen them come head-to-head with witches too much so it’s going to be a nice new arena to explore.
How much will Cole factor into season?
ACKLES: I’m not sure when he’s due back.
PADALECKI: But he has been back since then.
ACKLES: Yes, yes. And I think that just from his character’s perspective, his mind has been blown and his eyes have been opened to what is really out there, to the monsters that live in Sam and Dean’s world, so [how he will] factor into the lives of these two brothers has really yet to be seen, but he’s going to be around. I’m sure that that’s probably something that will come to fruition later in the season but right now I think it’s more of an introductory storyline. But how that’s going to pay off, I have not read.
All we know about this year’s mythology is that it’s very “personal.” What more can you say about that?
PADALECKI: The big bad, I think, is hard to specify at this point. We’re going to see Crowley, Cas, Dean and Sam, all going through their own personal struggle—Dean with the Mark of Cain and where he was as a demon; and Sam with where he had to go to save Dean from the Mark of Cain and how far he will continue to go; and Cas dealing with his family and his past. He’s been an angel for so long but I think we’re going to see him kind of struggle with, “What else is there? What have I done to my human me?” It’s a very human struggle. Even Crowley as the King of Hell, we saw one of his demon cronies resort to self-immolation to say I have troubles with the way you’re running things, so we see these four characters that have been through so much. But [now], we’re all going through very human struggles and we’ll see where that takes us. Supernatural kind of plays with macro and then micro and then macro and then micro. So this year, we’re definitely focusing on the specifics.
Supernatural airs tonight at 9 p.m. on The CW.
Reporting by Natalie AbramsBret Weinstein, the Evergreen State College professor who was driven from campus by a mob of students earlier this year, is preparing to file a $3.8 million claim against the public institution.
According to documents obtained by Campus Reform, Weinstein and his wife, Heather Heying, have filed a standard Tort Claim form against Evergreen State for a sum of $3,850,000.
"The College has refused to protect its employees from...verbal and written hostility based on race." Tweet This
The legal document was signed by the couple’s attorney and received by Washington’s Department of Enterprise Services Office of Risk Management on July 5.
The official claim follows a litigation hold request sent out in early June, asking the school’s employees to retain and preserve all evidence that relates to the 2017 “Day of Absence;” the The official claim follows a litigation hold request sent out in early June, asking the school’s employees to retain and preserve all evidence that relates to the 2017 “Day of Absence;” the student-led protests on campus that took place during the last school year; and any records that relate to Weinstein, his wife, activist professor Naima Lowe, and administrator Rashida Love.
“Please be on notice that this demand covers not only those records covered by any public records acts but those which are or were communicated by private means of any type including but not limited to email and photography. This demand should be immediately distributed campus-wide to all faculty and staff,” Weinstein and Heying wrote on June 4.
“Take note that the destruction or alteration of evidence is a felony,” the document added. “This demand is made in contemplation of litigation. Please promptly acknowledge receipt of this communication and confirm that you will comply.”
In an email to Campus Reform, Weinstein’s attorney underscored that the $3.8 million is a total claimed on behalf of both professors collectively “for the hostile work environment that has been fostered at the college over the past year or so.”
He also noted that there is “no current litigation” at this point, since a tort claim must be filed “at least 60 days prior to initiating legal action” in the state of Washington.
Campus Reform also obtained hundreds of pages of documents, including emails and social media posts, that relate to the requested litigation hold in June and the tort claim in July.
Email exchanges reviewed by Campus Reform feature harsh criticisms of Weinstein’s political views and calls for his termination, including one email sent by a faculty emerita that blasts Weinstein’s appearance on Fox News and his public comments about the racial tensions in Evergreen.
“Bret, I don't know what you were thinking. By describing yourself to Tucker [Carlson] as a ‘deeply progressive person’ you provided him ammunition for the claim that ‘the crazies are even going after progressives!!!,’” part of the email reads.
“I hope that you won't deepen your relation with Fox or pass on more raw material for Tucker's ‘campus craziness’ show,” the missive continues. “I have no doubt that you and your family are suffering due to recent missives and events; but so are many others on campus.”
Other communications include “A Letter to the campus and Bret Weinstein from some Jews bent on the destruction of White Supremacy,” that calls for the termination of Weinstein’s employment.
“We want to talk about the ways that Weinstein is positioning himself as a Jew to invalidate the claims of racism being raised against him,” the letter begins.
“Bret Weinstein is wrong, he has put you in danger, and we will not allow him to hide behind our histories in order to dodge responsibility for his abhorrent and reprehensible words and actions,” it concludes. “NO COPS ON CAMPUS!!! FIRE BRET WEINSTEIN!!! BLACK LIVES MATTER!!!”
The factual narrative submitted alongside the tort claim argues that Evergreen State “has permitted, cultivated, and perpetuated a racially hostile and retaliatory work environment,” asserting that “Through a series of decisions made at the highest levels, including to officially support a day of racial segregation, the College has refused to protect its employees from repeated provocative and corrosive verbal and written hostility based on race, as well as threats of physical violence.”
Weinstein’s attorney also maintains that the college has “failed to set and enforce necessary boundaries in the workplace on campus, selectively has chosen not to enforce its student Code of Conduct, and sent the unmistakable message that the school will tolerate (and even endorse) egregious violations (and even crimes) purportedly to advance racial social goals, diminishing the collegiate experience for all, and fostering a racially hostile work and retaliatory environment for faculty and staff.”
Additionally, the factual narrative of the case blasts the college for its policy on the “Day of Absence,” an event that asked for white students faculty and staff to leave campus for a day of diversity programming.
“On its official website, the College asserted that it had never asked whites to leave campus on the Day of Absence—a demonstrably false statement. It also asserts that ‘demonstrations were nonviolent and took place...in isolated areas of the college,’ which is also false,” the attorney states.
“In doing so, TESC [The Evergreen State College] continued to support its racially discriminatory conduct, publicly rejecting Professor Weinstein’s complaints of racial segregation for which he has been repeatedly excoriated, threatened, attacked, and wrongly accused of being a racist in the workplace, for months,” the narrative concludes.
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @nikvofficialHola! It is I, the Jennster! If you're looking for the author of Painted Angels or Cooking with Gas, you found her! I'm a forty-something native of Baltimore, living the weird life in Portland and sweating my way through Culinary School, separated, and mother of three. Asexual panromantic, ESFJ, Cancer, she/her pronouns. I'm what my friends lovingly call a Merch Whore, and I think about Dean and Castiel entirely too much!
This is mostly a Destiel/Cockles blog. I ship them heartily and unapologetically. I generally don't tag those two ships. I do make an effort to tag other ships, so if there's a ship that you don't like, please blacklist the ship name!
YANA and AKF supporter. I love Jensen, Jared, and Misha - I'm a Team Free Will girl, and all three of my boys mean the world to me.
This is mainly a Supernatural blog, but I love Hamilton (like for real, I am unapologetic Hamiltrash!!), Yuri!! On Ice, Downton Abbey, Lucifer, Sense8, Marvel, Batman, MacGyver, Firefly, and lots of other shows. I love Led Zeppelin, Classic Rock in general, and General Motors Cars from the '65-'72 Era.
No, I'm not really Dean Winchester, despite my copious love of the former, and all things pie!
Feel free to hit up my inbox, just don't bother with hate, since I don't publish it and you're wasting your time and mine.
<3
Icon picture and header courtesy of Chris Schmelke.The Baltimore Ravens have themselves a quarterback controversy in light of Joe Flacco's back injury.
With the polarizing quarterback Colin Kaepernick being linked to the Ravens, the team appears to be looking at other options.
Dianna Russini of ESPN reports that the Ravens are looking to bring in former University of Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray for a tryout.
The Ravens are interested in bringing in free agent QB Aaron Murray per sources — Dianna Russini (@diannaESPN) August 2, 2017
Murray was just waived by the Los Angeles Rams this past May. However, the interesting thing to note is that Murray just accepted a job as a broadcaster for CBS Sports Network.
CBS Sports officially announces hire of Aaron Murray, lists conference assignments for 2017 https://t.co/o9GLG9IJ8d — SEC Football (@SECfootball) August 1, 2017
It is unknown if Murray will leave a very cushy job with CBS in order to take another crack in the NFL. Murray was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs in 2014, but never attempted a pass in the NFL.
This is a very intriguing situation to follow as the Ravens appear to be hesitant to pull the trigger on signing Kaepernick to the team.
Stay tuned as we will keep you posted once we get a clearer picture of the QB situation in Baltimore.Not one but two magma plumes fuelled the Deccan Traps mass eruption around 65 million years ago, scientists have discovered.
The eruptions, which lasted tens of thousands of years, are believed to have helped push the dinosaurs to extinction, yet our understanding of them remains limited. To get a better insight, Petar Glišović and Alessandro M. Forte created a model to trace back the structure of the mantle to look at changes over time. And their findings showed there were two main hotspots feeding the eruptions – not one as previously thought.
What are the Deccan Traps?
The Deccan Traps are one of the biggest volcanic features on Earth. Located in west-central India, they began forming just over 66 million years ago through massive volcanic eruptions. As the flood basalt solidified, it formed multiple layers – producing what we see today. In total, the geological feature is over 2km thick and covers an area of 500,000km2.
Previous research has shown the volcanic eruptions began about 250,000 years before the Chicxulub asteroid struck, 66 million years ago, and continued for 500,000 years after. This has led some scientists to suggest the asteroid impact triggered the eruptions on the other side of the planet. Other theories suggest the two events coincided by chance, creating a "one-two punch" that wiped out the dinosaurs.
At present, it is thought the Reunion hotspot caused the Deccan Traps eruption, with a deep mantle plume feeding the eruptions.
Understanding its eruptive history
Because we do not know what the mantle structure was like in the Deccan Traps region 65 million years ago, reconstructing how it changed has been challenging. Published in the journal Science, Glišović and Forte said previous interpretations of mantle changes that led to the eruptions has been based on analysis of the surface geological record.
"Correlations between rapid changes in Indian plate velocity and time of the Deccan eruptions along with theoretical modelling of plume-related plate-driving forces support the longstanding hypothesis of a mantle plume origin for the Deccan eruptions," they wrote. But this alone does not show the origin of the magma.
To get a better insight, the researchers used "time-reversed convection modelling" that included a tomography-based view of the present-day mantle. Their 3D view of the mantle allowed them to work backwards to look at changes over time.
Two plumes
Their findings showed there was an upwelling coming from under the Reunion hotspot at the time of the eruptions. However, they also showed there was a second active upwelling under the Comores hot spot that would probably have helped feed the huge eruption.
While the Comores hotspot contributed slightly less than the Reunion hotspot, it could have provided around 35 million cubic kilometres of melted mantle. The upwelling – totalling 75 million cubic kilometres – began around 68 million years ago. "Such ample amounts of mantle melting would have been sufficient to supply the Deccan lava flows," they wrote. Between 20 and 40 million years later, the volume of available magma would have decreased to zero.
"Although our model cannot exactly predict the peak eruption of the Deccan lava flows at 66 million years ago, it does accurately predict a 10 million year time window that strongly peaked near 68 million years ago, in which mantle melt was accessible to lava flows that preceded, coincided, and then followed the main Deccan event."So here's my story..
I recently moved to Las Vegas. I've had nothing but problems with my post office since I arrived. Took them 3 weeks to get my mailbox key to me. In the meantime, they delivered stuff to my locked mailbox which I couldn't access without my key. This exchange started after I finally git my key, so I thought this would go smooth. Wrong! My Santa messaged me when it was shipped. I never got it. Santa gave me the tracking number, so I contacted the supervisor at the post offfice. I have his back line number that he gave me since I have had problems and can never get through on their one land line. Gave him the tracking number and said I didn't get it. He had my carrier check all the drop boxes to see if it was in any of them. No luck. So someone in my complex got my shirt and just kept it. :( Post office supervisor told me to file a claim. So I relayed the info to my Santa,who said he'd get another shirt out to me ASAP. This time I had him send it to my parents address since they aren't serviced by the same post office. AND TODAY MY SHIRT ARRIVED! MY SANTA IS THE BESTEST EVER! Thanks so much for putting up with this nonsense..you have a heart of gold. And thanks for not sending me a black shirt like I asked. ;)Donald Trump tried almost every strategy possible over the past two weeks to spin his deportation positions. He said he was “softening” and then “hardening” and then “softening again.” He offered subdued remarks in Mexico, then read a fiery speech off a teleprompter in Phoenix, then gave winding, inconsistent comments to the press. He was cordial with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, then reportedly modified a speech just to jab back at him for a tweet he disliked.
The entire period was a dramatic encapsulation of the Trump campaign, which has been characterized by erratic statements, a lack of political clarity and a candidate who resists being controlled or pinned down.
Trump’s immigration policies have been particularly opaque. For more than a year, he’s managed to talk a lot about the issue ― but say very little. This behavior allows others to fill in the blanks, sometimes further obscuring Trump’s position. Or, Trump replies to others’ interpretations by backtracking and pushing a different idea.
That’s how for two weeks, Trump duped everyone into thinking his mass deportation goal may have changed.
In reality, the spin by Trump spokeswoman Katrina Pierson ended up being the most concise explanation. “There’s not a different message,” she said last month on CNN. “He’s using different words to give that message.”
Translation: He’s not changing his plan, and he still wants to expel as many undocumented immigrants as possible ― whether it’s by deporting them or by making their lives so difficult that they leave on their own.
Trump wants to ramp up deportation of criminals, but also seek out people who overstayed their visas or are otherwise deemed high-priority ― potentially as many as 6.5 million people out of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S., according to the Washington Post. Anyone remaining would be at constant risk of deportation and without any way to gain legal status unless they left the country, without any guarantee they could return.
So how did Trump actually convince some people he’d changed over the last two weeks? The speculation that Trump was about to flip started when members of his Hispanic Advisory Council told Buzzfeed that they had gotten the impression in a private meeting that the candidate might be more open to legal status for undocumented immigrants than previously believed.
The Trump campaign denied it, but the candidate and his top officials allowed the speculation to continue, and at times encouraged it. Campaign Manager Kellyanne Conway said Trump’s stance on the deportation force he once supported was “to be determined.”
Trump himself launched more speculation by repeatedly going on TV and hinting at a less severe enforcement approach for undocumented immigrants.
“There certainly can be a softening, because we’re not looking to hurt people,” Trump said on Fox News. Even when he told CNN later that any changes could be considered a “a hardening” of his position, he also said the country “can’t take 11 [million] at one time and just say ‘boom, you’re gone.’”
When he met with Peña Nieto on Wednesday and spoke with him politely, it seemed, again, like Trump was changing.
Then, the whole illusion fell apart. Peña Nieto said he told Trump that Mexico would never pay for a border wall, and Trump hit back by saying again in a Wednesday evening speech that the country would pay.
Trump was also clearer than ever about his deportation stance, saying there would be no legal status for undocumented immigrants unless they left the country first and that “no one will be immune or exempt from enforcement.”
The speech led to several of Trump’s Hispanic advisers dropping their support.
No one will be immune or exempt from enforcement.
Still, the speculation continued Thursday, when Trump said “there’s really quite a bit of softening.”
“We’ve got a lot of people in this country that you can’t have, and those people we’ll get out,” Trump said on the Laura Ingraham radio show. “And then we’re going to make a decision at a later date once everything is stabilized. I think you’re going to see there’s really quite a bit of softening.”
The spin is working on some people ― MSNBC “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough repeatedly said on Friday that Trump’s current immigration policy is the same as President Barack Obama’s or maybe even softer.
This isn’t true. Trump is still advocating his same deportation plans to expel millions. His vague statements about doing something for undocumented immigrants “at a later date” don’t mean much of anything ― he hasn’t even said when he would consider the situation “stabilized” or whether he’d actually support legal status at that point.
This is likely how Trump will continue to play until Election Day, including in an immigration speech reportedly planned for the upcoming week. Trump will keep making statements that people can interpret as pivoting away from deportations, and people will.The Shahs of Sunset
We Iranians have a lot on our plates these days: the looming shadow of war, crippling international sanctions that are starving our economy and making life miserable, a despotic theocratic regime that controls every aspect of our lives. And, to add insult to injury, American reality shows that ridicule our culture and make us look like idiots.
For weeks, we waited with bated breath for Ryan Seacrest’s latest magnum opus, Shahs of Sunset, a reality TV show centered on the Iranian community in California. Not just any Iranians, but the mansion-dwelling, martini-drinking, 90210 ilk living the high life in the upper-crust neighborhoods of Beverly Hills.
There’s six of them: Reza, the moustache-wielding Hollywood-gay poster boy; Gigi, the spoiled Daddy’s-little-darling; Mike, the Jewish-Persian Casanova wannabe; MJ, the drama queen with the out-of-control liquor intake; Asa, the declared intellectual of the bunch and Sammy, who is irrelevant. Period.
The show, which premiered on Bravo in March, instantly ruffled feathers among Iranian-Americans, who were quick to criticize it for distorting their image by selecting a group of snotty, self-absorbed and blithely ignorant individuals to represent them in the eyes of millions around the world. “In reality, the Iranian-American community has been anything but, with Iranian-Americans playing major roles in American corporations such as eBay, Google, Expedia, AT&T, and Yahoo,” writes Roshanak Taghavi in the Christian Science Monitor.
As for those of us born and bred in Iran, we weren’t quite sure what to make of the show after its premiere. For us, reality shows are unfamiliar territory. The closest we’ve had to them are TV broadcasts of home videos of Ayatollah Khomeini (the founder of the Islamic Revolution) sipping tea, walking around his garden, sipping some more tea and finally drawing his last breath on a hospital bed in Tehran. We couldn’t wrap our heads around reality programming, and its growing popularity in America. How could something so fake be considered reality? But with the rise of satellite television and the Internet in Iran, reality TV is beginning to enjoy a new fan base among young Iranians.
After the debacle that was its first episode, some Iranians condemned it as American propaganda seeking to tarnish their beloved culture, while others decided to give it the benefit of a doubt. Milad Minooie, an Iranian commentator for college newspaper The Shorthorn, plays down the kerfuffle over the show. “I laugh along,” he says. “After decades of portraying us as terrorists and extremists in the U.S. and Europe, here comes a show that depicts us as liking to party and knowing how to have a good time. What’s wrong with that?”
Sadra Shahab, an Iranian activist based in New York, takes a similar line. According to Shahab, the Shahs of Sunset is absolute nonsense. It’s just a reality show. People know not to take it seriously. “Seacrest probably took a stroll around Beverly Hills, met a few rich Iranians living there, and thought ‘hey, wouldn’t it be great to make a show out of their lives?’”
“Compared to recent films like the Stoning of Soraya M, this is quite harmless,” said Shahab, referring to the 2009 film by Cyrus Nowrasteh, which told, with graphic detail, the true story about an innocent woman’s public execution in a rural Iranian village.
They both have a point. Following the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the seizure of the American embassy in Tehran, Iranians have been by and large reduced to the bête noir of pop culture thanks to Hollywood and a torrent wave of propaganda productions such as Not Without My Daughter (1990) and more recently, Alexander (2004) and 300 (2006), both of which drew the ire of Iranians for demonizing their historical image.
Compared to those, the image of Iranians in Shahs of Sunset is innocuous at best. But before we jump with joy and tip our hats to Ryan Seacrest for opting to show us as party animals rather than wife-beaters, lets take a moment to think of the program’s ramifications that cannot and should not be overlooked.
In the vein of every reality show, the Shahs of Sunset puts Iranians and their culture in a box. With its cast of overtly-sexualized characters and their extravagant daily escapades, the so-called ‘reality’ show takes media-induced Orientalism to a whole new level. It ends up being an insidious disinformation campaign, which rather than helping the Americans better understand the Iranian community, reinforces stereotypes that obscure them even more.
In keeping, the Shahs of Sunset alienates American-Iranians from native Iranians. As an Iranian who only recently moved to the United States, I have always felt a kinship with Iranians in the Diaspora. For me, we were all Iranian, no matter where in the world we live or whether we carry hyphenated nationalities. I believe that regardless of our religion and ethnic backgrounds, we all share the same myths, symbols, memories, customs, traditions, rituals, and values, etc. In the wake of the 2009 presidential elections in Iran and the government’s violent crackdown on opposition protestors, it was a great source of inspiration to see Iranians in the Diaspora, some of whom had never even visited Iran, hold parallel demonstrations in solidarity with us, and in support of our cause. Even today, as the drum beats louder for a military option on Iran, scores of Iranians are taking a stand against war and sanctions, whether on the streets of New York, or on social media sites such as Facebook.
Sadly, shows such as Shahs of Sunset, in which characters emphasize that they are Persian and not Iranian, fracture and fragment us as a community even more. In one scene, MJ’s mother pokes fun at her daughter’s dress by claiming “she looks like a village girl from the Iranian city of Qom.” This isn’t funny. In addition to being highly offensive, it reinforces the imperialistic view that Iranian people, and by extension all people without the luxury of an American upbringing, are primitive and provincial.
“It rapes our image just for the sake of entertainment and a few laughs,” says Al Nazemian, an Iranian actor and producer in New York. “Seacrest has no scruples about the irreparable damage it does. All he cares is for it to sell and bring money.”
Screenshot courtesy of Shahs of SunsetI hate to get nitpicky (and personally don't want to see another page full of comparison shots proving the downgrade), but that's a great example of the game generally looking better in context.Take those areas full of crushed blacks - they might look "atmospheric" in a single screen, but imagine having to run up to every corner and search every nook and crannie with a torch to find levers, passageways, etc. Also I would argue that the top screen looks more "cel-shaded" and cartoony.Lighting aside, look at the geometry around the ladder at the back. The information volume is far more impressive than what's in the "pre-downgrade" shot. As you work your way through the game, you realise that they've obviously chopped and changed a lot of assets (using more polys here, less there, etc.) since the |
college student living on campus truly considered it their legal residence. They asked questions about where the students banked, what community activities they are involved in, if they’ve voted elsewhere in the past and where their parents live.
The decision comes after three Furman University students sued the county board, Belangia, the State Election Commission and its director Marci Andino, saying the questionnaires the county has used since at least the early 1970s are unlawful and intrusive. Two of those students, Katherine West and Ben Longnecker, had tried to register to vote in Greenville but had not been successful.
A third plaintiff, Sulaiman Ahmad, said he’s in charge of a voter registration contest on campus. Furman has historically had among the lowest number of students register to vote among colleges nationwide. Ahmad said he believes the challenges to register in Greenville County were at fault for the low numbers.
In the order, which took effect immediately, Judge Stilwell said if he denied the students’ requested relief, they “would forever lose their right to exercise a highly prized and fundamental democratic right to vote in this particular election.”
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But in granting the relief, the order said, “the Greenville Board will simply be required to register voters in accordance with its prescribed duties.”
When West, a politically active student who hoped to vote in her first presidential election, found out about the judge’s decision, she said she cried.
“I’m very pleased with the outcome,” West said. “I’ve cried a few times already. Moving forward, we need to move for a permanent injunction to ensure this never happens again.”
The judge’s order shows that the students’ case does have a likelihood of success based on the arguments presented in an initial hearing Thursday, but the injunction is temporary, pending a final court hearing on the full case or a pre-trial agreement between the two parties.
Whether the county continues to fight the decision in court will be up to the voter registration board, said Greenville County Attorney Mark Tollison.
“I believe the board welcomes this new ruling and will make the needed adjustments to comply with the injunction,” Tollison said.
Belangia said his office had stopped issuing the questionnaires on Friday and would also approve several pending voter registration applications that had been sitting in limbo, some of them for months.
As for West and Longnecker’s applications?
“Their cards have already been put in the mail,” Belangia said.
This will now be the first time Longnecker will be able to vote, said Steven Buckingham, the students’ attorney.
“The right to vote is fundamental and sacred,” Buckingham said. “So when you go to court on an issue like this and you’re able to prevail, this is as close as a secular religious experience as an American can have.”
Susan Dunn, an attorney with the ACLU of South Carolina who also represented the students’ case, said the injunction brings the Greenville County Election Commission up to date.
“They had been playing based upon a playbook that was outdated,” Dunn said. “I don’t think there were any bad intentions but the law had changed and I don’t think they’d figured that out.”
The county had held to a 1973 federal court order — also based on a lawsuit by Furman students — in which the judge ordered them to continue to use questionnaires to verify students’ residency. That order had never been challenged in court, county officials have said.
But the United States Supreme Court had affirmed a case out of Texas, called Symm vs. U.S., that said a registrar couldn’t treat college students differently than any other applicants. Stilwell cited that case in his injunction order, and said it may be a “controlling” case that should determine the law of the land.
The case highlighted a continuing struggle between the State Election Commission and county election boards over who makes voter registration policies.
Since the 1895 state Constitution, county boards have been able to make their own election policies, said Brett Bursey, a voting rights advocate with the SC Progressive Network. But a 2014 amendment to state election law gave authority to the State Election Commission to rein in county policies that differed from state law or policies, he said.
This case, Bursey said, is the first real challenge to the new state law.
“For a long time these state boards had really had the ability to make up the rules for voter registration in each county,” Dunn said. “We’ve really just gotten to a point where that’s not good practice.”
Furman students said they planned to hold a last-minute registration drive on campus this weekend.
With voter registration deadlines extended until midnight Sunday for online, faxed or emailed voter registration applications, and until Tuesday for mailed applications, West said they’ll register as many people as possible.
For many of those students, this would be their first chance to vote.
“Now I’ll be able to get very involved in local politics and be able to really make a difference and feel like my vote is counting in my home county,” she said. “Just saying that out loud makes me very happy.”
Read the judge's order for temporary injunction here.
Follow reporter Nathaniel Cary as @nathanielcary on Twitter and on Facebook.
Read or Share this story: http://grnol.co/2eayQpIBuying drugs in parts of Ireland can be easier than ordering pizza,” said campaigner Fr Peter McVerry, who believes the “war on drugs has long been lost”.
His views are among at least 50 submissions to the Oireachtas Justice Committee, which is considering the feasibility of introducing Portuguese-style decriminalisation in Ireland. In Portugal, drug addiction is treated as a health issue rather than a criminal one.
Many submissions focus on the perceived failures or shortcomings of the criminal justice system in dealing with addiction and recreational drug use.
Drugs delivered
He dismissed the idea that criminal sanctions are an effective deterrent, saying that in 2014 alone 10,842 people appeared before the district courts. “Yet more and more drugs are now available in every town and even village in Ireland,” he said. “If criminal justice policies were 100 per cent effective (meaning every crime was detected and every perpetrator convicted) then one person out of every four in Ireland would now be a convicted criminal.”
Tony Geoghegan, chief executive of the Merchants Quay Ireland drugs support service, also wants change. “We would like to see it taken out of the criminal justice system. Criminalising people really is just a hindrance to rehabilitation,” he said.
Justice Committee chairman David Stanton said he believed the country was “absolutely ready” for a debate on systemic change but stressed that decriminalisation was not tantamount to legalisation. “We are coming at this with an open mind,” he said.
The committee expects to report by the end of October.
It became aware of the Portuguese approach toward possession of small amounts of drugs earlier this year while examining the effects of crime on communities. A delegation travelled there in June.
Cost to taxpayer
It noted that Portuguese authorities found criminalisation of addicts counterproductive and switched responsibility for the issue from its justice department to health. While it remains illegal to possess drugs, smaller, specified quantities are dealt with along the same lines as traffic offences. This socially focused approach is toward treatment and away from criminalising addicts. It also incentivises companies to employ those in recovery.
“[This] has not resulted in an increase in drug-taking nor has it resulted in Portugal becoming a destination for drug tourists,” the committee wrote.
Fr McVerry said that in Ireland the criminal justice approach might actually increase the likelihood of people becoming more deeply involved in drugs due to the criminalisation cycle that impacted on, for example, employment and travel. He also questioned its impact on taxpayers. “The enormous cost of arresting and prosecuting people for possession of drugs for personal use over the past 30 to 40 years has been a total waste of money.”
Last year, district court drug prosecutions resulted in 382 custodial sentences, 2,309 fines, 1,611 people put on probation and 306 community service orders.
Policy should involve “seeing drug consumption as a public health problem, not a criminal issue”, Fr McVerry said.Being cast in an adaptation of a sci-fi/fantasy YA novel like Harry Potter is a huge win for any actor. It could potentially mean fame and tons of money.
But they don't cast just anyone. To win the honor, you must have the potential to become a big star. Franchises like these have built-in fanbase that are waiting with bated breath to until they can see their beloved books on the big screen, and those fans are poised to fall in love with the cast. Even if the movie ends up being a flop, the sheer buzz around it is usually enough for the actors to make a name for themselves.
So it's frustrating that an actor who is such a big component in a franchise doesn't live up to their potential after it's over, but it happens all too often. Sometimes you have to wonder: were these actors actually talented or were they just good at playing a hot hero in a splashy fantasy series? Were they genuinely talented or just "teen fantasy film" good?
Here, we're talking about films based on sci-fi/fantasy Young Adult novels. The franchise had to have multiple books in the series to adapt, regardless of whether they were successful enough to get more than one movie.
Here are 15 Actors Whose Careers Flopped After Their YA Movie Franchise Ended.
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15 Rupert Grint - Harry Potter
In Harry Potter's trio of stars, Rupert Grint stands out as the one who didn't really make it in Hollywood after the final movie.
Daniel Radcliffe has been tearing it up in indie films, as well as starring in big box office hits. Emma Watson, in addition to becoming one of our most outspoken feminists, already has two iconic roles under her belt post-Potter: Belle in Beauty and the Beast and Sam in The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
Grint, on the other hand, has been pretty lifeless. He's been in a series of indie films that attracted barely any attention upon release and garnered bad reviews: Charlie Countryman (with Shia LaBeouf), CBGB, and Moonwalkers.
He's also done TV, currently appearing in the show Snatch on Crackle. Unfortunately, Crackle is not that recognizable in terms of TV networks, and Snatch has fallen under the radar.
14 Liam Hemsworth - The Hunger Games
The Hunger Games is another instance in which one actor in the main trio of stars got way less famous than the other two. Liam Hemsworth (Gale) got the short end of the stick here.
Although Gale is part of the Katniss/Peeta love triangle, he gets the least screen time. He never competes in the Hunger Games, and Katniss chooses Peeta in the end.
Jennifer Lawrence (Katniss) became a mega-star after the first Hunger Games film. Josh Hutcherson is no A-lister, but he's still doing pretty well: he's become a James Franco indie film staple (The Disaster Artist, In Dubious Battle) and will lead a Seth Rogen show, Future Man, on Hulu.
Being a Hemsworth, Liam is certainly hot enough to be a heartthrob. But although dating Miley Cyrus put him on the tabloids' radar, his biggest role since the Hunger Games ended in 2015 has been Independence Day: Resurgence, which everyone already forgot.
13 Ashley Greene - Twilight
In the Twilight series, Ashley Greene played Alice, adopted sister of Edward and friend and confidant of Bella. However, outside of Twilight, her career hasn't amounted to much.
In 2012, five years after the first Twilight movie, she was in the terrible Miley Cyrus movie LOL. She scored a win when she was cast as the replacement for Anna Kendrick in Zach Braff's Garden State follow-up Wish I Was Here. Although the film didn't live up to Garden State, it'll still live on in the hearts of Zach Braff fans. She played a small role in the James Franco helmed John Steinbeck adaptation In Dubious Battle (which Josh Hutcherson also starred in).
There was an attempt to make her a bankable female lead in another fantasy film, the zombie flick Burying the Ex, but it was decimated by critics.
12 Skandar Keynes - The Chronicles of Narnia
The Chronicles of Narnia did pretty well as a fantasy series, although there is the glaring fact that it was never finished. There are seven novels in C. S. Lewis' series, and as of now, only three have been made, although a fourth film has been in the works for years.
Although the actors who played the four Pevensie siblings were all promising talents, one of them turned out to be a one-hit wonder. Skandar Keynes, who played the young brother Edmund, didn't work as an actor after the most recent Chronicles of Narnia movie in 2010. Besides his work on the fantasy series, he only has two minor credits to his name, both before he was cast as Edmund.
In 2016, Keynes announced that he had quit acting. He got a degree in Middle East Studies from Pembroke College, Cambridge in 2014 and is now working in England. Not much is known about his current career, but in 2015 he completed an internship at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
11 Bonnie Wright - Harry Potter
It's really messed up that Bonnie Wright, the actress who played Ginny Weasley in Harry Potter, didn't become more famous.
After all, she's the one that Harry ends up with. They get married and have three kids. Along with Ron and Hermione's kids, they make up the next generation of this story.
Wright was discovered and cast in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone; her first acting project. But after the series concluded, she fell off the map as an actress. In 2012, one year after Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, she began directing and writing short films. She also models in England.
Fun fact: she was engaged to another actor on this list, but the couple called it quits in 2012.
10 Taylor Lautner - Twilight
From when the first Twilight movie came out in 2008 to when the series concluded in 2012, Taylor Lautner and Robert Pattinson had millions of teenage girls at their feet.
Fast forward to 2017: Pattinson has transitioned into an indie/arthouse star and Lautner's career has taken a hit. Post-Twilight, Lautner is mostly know for being in season two of Ryan Murphy's campy show Scream Queens, which was canceled after that season. He made the unfortunate choice to be in Adam Sandler's terrible Netflix movie The Ridiculous 6 (2015), which caused controversy for being racist. He also made headlines for being one of Taylor Swift's many boyfriends.
With the third member of the Twilight trinity, Kristen Stewart, also finding success in indie film, this leaves Lautner as the only one who didn't use Twilight as a springboard to a successful career.
9 Dakota Blue Richards - The Golden Compass
Hollywood's adaptation of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy... did not go well.
The Golden Compass (2007) was a $180 million dollar project, and although it made lots of money outside the U.S., it was viewed as a disaster on the part of New Line Cinema. The studio was absorbed into Warner Bros. Pictures following the debacle. Needless to say, the trilogy was never finished.
The film's young star Dakota Blue Richards didn't exactly become a box office mainstay. Her career was lifeless until 2011, by which time she had grown up and found success on TV in season five of the popular British teen drama Skins. She was on the show until 2012.
Richards is currently immersed in the world of the British crime procedurals, appearing on ITV's Endeavor.
8 Alex Pettyfer - I Am Number Four, Beastly
Alex Pettyfer is the king of YA film flops.
He had all the trappings of a potential teen fantasy heartthrob: hot, British, great cheekbones, but he failed to become the next Robert Pattinson. His first major film was also his first flop: I Am Number Four, based on the first book of the series in the Lorien Legacies series. While it did well at the box office, it got terrible reviews and the franchise was abandoned. Things only went downhill from there.
Next, there was the awful Beauty and the Beast retelling Beastly, in which Pettyfer plays a "beast" with lots of tattoos and scars on his face opposite Vanessa Hudgens' beauty.
In 2012, he booked a lead role in Steven Soderbergh's Magic Mike, which could have been his second chance. However, by then, he had gotten a reputation as being difficult to work with, and wasn't asked back for Magic Mike XXL because he feuded with star Channing Tatum.
7 Evanna Lynch - Harry Potter
Acting newbie Evanna Lynch was tapped to play fan-favorite character Luna Lovegood in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in 2007.
Her casting is an interesting story: she was a Harry Potter super fan and wrote fan mail to J.K. Rowling. Despite her adorable story, there was no favoritism involved in her casting, since Rowling didn't know she won the part until after it happened. Lynch, who didn't have any professional acting experience, went to an open casting call after reading about it on a fan site and ultimately beat out 15,000 other girls for the role.
After Harry Potter, she's been acting as well as modeling, but the most notable film she's been in is the modestly-received teen drama G.B.F. She's Her last acting credit was in 2015.
6 Kellan Lutz - Twilight
Twilight put Kellan Lutz (aka Emmett Cullen) in the spotlight and gave him the opportunity to become a bankable teen fantasy star. But although there were a lot of projects after Twilight that could have sent him on his way to stardom, they fizzled out.
The same year that the first Twilight film came out, Lutz booked a role in the first season of The CW's 90210 reboot. Although it ran for five seasons, the revival ultimately didn't click with a new generation. In 2014, he won the title role in The Legend of Hercules. However, the movie failed to distinguish itself from the many other Hercules films that Hollywood keeps trying to make. Don't they know that nothing will ever be better than the animated Disney movie?
5 Asa Butterfield - Ender’s Game, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Hollywood has tried two times so far to turn Asa Butterfield into the next big sci-fi/fantasy star. It hasn't gone as planned.
After earning praise as a child actor for starring in Hugo in 2011, he was cast in the 2013 adaptation of the sci-fi series Ender's Game. However, it didn't turn out to be the blockbuster the studio was expecting. It did make him famous enough to be put in the running to play Marvel's next Spider-Man, but the role that eventually went to Tom Holland.
In 2016, he fronted the Tim Burton adaptation of Ransom Riggs' novel Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. But despite a lot of buzz and a cast including Samuel L. Jackson and Judi Dench, the film didn't fare very well.
This leaves Butterfield as a child actor who hasn't made the transition to teen roles well, with two YA flops behind him.
4 Jamie Campbell Bower - The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, Harry Potter, and Twilight
When Jamie Campbell Bower won the role of romantic lead Anthony in the film version of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, it seemed like he was poised to do great things.
What actually happened, though, was that he got stuck with an incredibly underdeveloped role in the Twilight franchise. He plays Caius, one of bad guy Aro's (Michael Sheen) two lackeys. Honestly, all he does is sit to one side of Aro and look creepy and menacing.
In 2010, he broke into the Harry Potter films with a more important part in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1: young Gellert Grindelwald.
In 2013, he finally got the chance to star in his own YA franchise, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones. But it failed miserably; another YA adaptation that was abandoned after adapting the first book.
3 Matthew Lewis - Harry Potter
Matthew Lewis made a very important contribution to the world: inventing Longbottoming.
Longbottoming is when a gawky, nerdy child actor unexpectedly blossoms into a total hottie. The term was named for Lewis's character in the Harry Potter films, Neville Longbottom. In the first movie, Neville is a dorky, slightly pudgy wallflower. By the end, Lewis had grown up and Neville became smokin' hot, not to mention heroic.
But besides Harry Potter, Longbottoming is what Lewis is most famous for. His post-Potter career hasn't gotten him a ton of recognition so far. Lewis did great work on some good but little-watched British TV shows: The Syndicate, Happy Valley, and Ripper Street. He got a little more exposure with a supporting role as Emilia Clarke's horrible boyfriend in the 2016 weepy Me Before You.
2 Jackson Rathbone - Twilight
Edward Cullen (played by Robert Pattinson) is one of five kids in the Cullen family: there's also Jasper, Emmett, Rosalie, and Alice.
Their characters were fairly important and, being sexy vampires, they each became the subject of lots of fan obsession. There were people who were on "Team Jasper" and "Team Emmett", although it was nowhere near the levels that Team Edward or Team Jacob reached.
For Jackson Rathbone, who played Jasper, getting cast in Twilight wasn't the breakout moment that it should have been. The most high-profile role that he's had after the first Twilight movie was playing Sokka in M. Night Shyamalan's failed live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender.
He tapped into the teen drama market on TV with a recurring role in Disney Channel's Finding Carter, but the show was canceled after two seasons.
1 Robert Sheehan - The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones
Did anyone escape from The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones unscathed?
Robert Sheehan is another actor who joined the cast of this fantasy movie hoping it would be his ticket to becoming the next big thing in blockbuster YA movies.
He was actually doing better before he was cast as Simon in the 2013 film. He starred on cult-favorite British show Misfits, about a group of young criminals who develop superpowers. It seemed like a no-brainer to join the adaptation of a popular fantasy series.
Sheehan went on to appear in Moonwalkers with fellow former teen star Rupert Grint. He's also in the upcoming Geostorm.
Sheehan's now set to star in a second YA adaptation with "Mortal" in the title: Mortal Engines, based on first novel in a series by Philip Reeve. Better luck this time!
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Are you a fan of any of these actors? Which other teen stars haven't lived up to their potential? Let us know in the comments!A Tribe Called Quest Documentary Release Date Scheduled for July
Written by Tyler Hakes. Published: the_date('l, F j, Y');?>.
The controversial film lands an extended release at various theaters across the country.
After unveiling the full-length documentary at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Michael Rapaport, the man behind the documentary, Beats, Rhymes, & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest, told Billboard.com in a recent interview that the film will be released to the public this coming July.
Rapaport explained to Billboard.com that the film will receive a nationwide roll-out, with select showings and select theaters across the country. “I’ll be all over the place wherever they want to send me,” he told the site.
Beginning with the initial release in both New York City and Los Angeles on July 8 — at three theaters each — the film will be unveiled in a number of cities until the final release on August 12 in San Antonio, Columbus (OH), Dayton (OH), Kansas City, Salt Lake City, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, New Orleans, Charlotte (NC) and Raleigh/Chapel Hill (NC).
Beats, Rhymes, & Life chronicles the history of ATCQ as they traversed the music industry in their thirteen-year stint as a hip hop group. Starting with footage from their early performances and some new behind-the-scenes footage, the film follows the hip hop pioneers all the way up through their formal split in 1998.
The film was embroiled in controversy leading up to it’s debut at this year’s Sundance Festival, stemming from a string of tweets from legendary ACTQ front man and producer, Q-Tip. The rapper revealed on his Twitter account that there were at least portions of the film that him and the group did not approve of, publicly calling on Rapaport to respect their wishes regarding the movie.
“The differences Tip had, I think, came down to the fact that he’s an artist and a perfectionist who is always in control,” Rapaport told Billboard.com. “He was the leader of Tribe. But I’m making the movie and I have to make the final decisions. He’s accustomed to making all of the decisions. I have thought about it a lot and if somebody made a movie as interpersonal as this about me, I don’t know that I’d be pleased with someone else making the decisions. To me, it’s a love letter to the band.”
The public release for Beats, Rhymes, & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest will follow the city, theater and date schedule listed below.
7/8 – NEW YORK
Sunshine
Empire
Magic Johnson
7/8 – LOS ANGELES
Arclight Hollywood
Century City 15
Criterion Santa Monica
7/15 – SAN FRANCISCO
Metreon
Kabuki
7/15 – CHICAGO
Century Centre
River East
CineArts Evanston
7/15 – WASHINGTON, DC
E-Street
Georgetown
Bethesda Row
Shirlington
Magic Johnson
7/22 – SAN DIEGO
Hillcrest
7/22 – BOSTON
Kendall Square
Boston Commons
Embassy Waltham
7/22 – PHILADELPHIA
Ritz 5
Ritz Center Voorhees
7/22 – MINNEAPOLIS
Uptown
7/22 – ATLANTA
Midtown
Phipps Plaza
7/22 – SAN FRANCISCO – ADD ONS
Shattuck
Century Mountain View
Marin Sausalito
CineArts Santana Row San Jose
7/29 – DALLAS
Angelika
Angelika Plano
7/29 – HOUSTON
Edwards Greenway
7/29 – AUSTIN
Violet Crown
Arbor
7/29 – SEATTLE
Pacific Place
Metro
Lincoln Square Bellevue
7/29 – PORTLAND
Cinema 21
7/29 – MILWAUKEE
Oriental
7/29 – DETROIT
Uptown Birmingham
8/5 – PHOENIX
Tempe Marketplace
8/5 – MADISON
Sundancen Cinemas
8/5 – MIAMI
Regal South Beach
8/5 – ST. LOUIS
Tivoli
8/5 – CLEVELAND
Cedar Lee
8/5 – CINCINNATI
Esquire
8/5 – HONOLULU
Kahala
8/12 – SAN ANTONIO
Bijou
AMC Huebner
8/12 – COLUMBUS
Gateway
AMC Lennox
8/12 – DAYTON
Neon Movies
8/12 – KANSAS CITY
Palace
AMC Studio Olathe
8/12 – SALT LAKE CITY
Broadway
8/12 – INDIANAPOLIS
Keystone Art
8/12 – PITTSBURGH
Regent
8/12 – NEW ORLEANS
Canal Place
Elmwood
8/12 – CHARLOTTE
Manor
8/12 – RALEIGH-CHAPEL HILL
Colony Raleigh
Chelsea Chapel Hill
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CommentsSwansea winger Scott Sinclair is refusing to sign a new contract at the Liberty Stadium.
The 23-year-old's current deal runs out at the end of the season and he is being linked with a move to Manchester City.
The Team GB player has informed Swansea chairman Huw Jenkins of his decision.
"I have spoken to Scott and he confirmed what he said to the chairman, that he won't sign a new contract," said manager Michael Laudrup.
"But he is here now and that's what important for me."
Sinclair in numbers Chelsea 14 appearances - one goal
Plymouth (loan) 18 games - four goals
QPR (loan) nine games - one goal
Charlton (loan) three appearances
Crystal Palace (loan) eight games - two goals
Birmingham (loan) 14 games
Wigan (loan) 22 games - two goals
Swansea 91 games - 36 goals
Sinclair came on a substitute and scored Swansea's fifth goal in their 5-0 victory at QPR on Saturday.
Laudrup accepts he may lose Sinclair before the transfer window closes at the end of the month.
"You never know what will happen tomorrow or the day after but there is no point arguing about it, we have to get on with it," said Laudrup. "Until 31 August anything can happen.
"Of course there is interest from a big club in Scott.
The Swans have also completed the signing of Arsenal's 21-year-old defender Kyle Bartley on a three-year deal.Disclosure: I received the lingerie shown here free of charge from Foxers to review. All opinions are, as always, 100% honest.
A while back Foxers got in touch and asked me if I’d like to review something by them. I already knew them from their lace boxers which I’d had my eye on as a potential purchase, so I couldn’t have been more thrilled. They asked me to send over a list of things I liked, and by coincidence picked out my favourites from it to send me – one happy Estelle!
The goodies arrived in the Foxers drawstring bag pictured above which I loved (and which comes with every order) – perfect for storing them in but plenty big enough to use as a regular bag too for going to the gym or whatever. Here’s what I thought of the lingerie itself…
Appearance
I think ‘casual’ is the word that best sums up Foxers’ aesthetic. There’s just something so relaxed and easygoing about everything they design – this is lingerie that’s pretty and stylish, but also looks comfortable enough to wear all day long and even to sleep in. Maybe ‘wearable’ is the word I’m look for.
Typically, casual is not my personal style at all! I like to dress up. I’ve also not big on boxers or anything menswear-inspired, and yet somehow I fell in love with Foxers’ lace boxer shorts the moment I saw them on one of their stockists’ websites. Perhaps it goes back to my old penchant for clothing in unexpected fabrics, like lace and silk zip-up hoodies.
The lace is gorgeous, with flowers outlined in a thread that has a lovely sheen to it – it stands out particularly well in the Fuschia colourway. The Watercolour striped trim on that one is cool and colourful and just makes this set so fun to look at! I also love that both shorts have bows at the back – another unexpected details, because they’re always at the front right?
The black boxers have the Foxers branding on the waistband. Normally I’m not a fan of logo waistbands (which are coming back in style right now) but with the black embroidery on black elastic it’s not an in-your-face feature. Subtly done like this, I actually quite like it!
Verdict: 6 / 10
Gorgeous lace!
Fit
I’m a UK 6 / 30E and received the boxers in a size XS and the bralette in a size S. The boxers fit me totally perfectly and in line with Foxers’ size chart.
With a 27″ ribcage, I could have gone with either the S or M bralette. There are cup size recommendations but honestly they’re meaningless without a band size, so I went for the S which was closest to my dress size (it says approx. US 4-6 which is a UK 8-10). And, yay, it fits me perfectly too! The size chart says ‘A-C cup size (approximately)’ for the size S and like I said, I’m a 30E, so the bralette sizing is more flexible than Foxers may realise.
Verdict: 9 / 10
Construction
Foxers’ lace pieces are made from a 90% nylon, 10% elastane blend so it has plenty of stretch. It’s also a lovely, soft lace that feels a bit spongy if you bunch it up – wonderfully comfortable to wear! They both have gussets too, always a must.
The bralette is really more of a cropped camisole (and that’s the category it’s listed under on the site) so it’s not built to offer support – the band isn’t particularly tight for example – but it’s all nicely sewn together. The only thing I don’t like is that the rings and sliders on the straps are plastic, which tends to break eventually.
Verdict: 8 / 10
Bobbling at the gusset, sadly 🙁
Durability
Unfortunately, as gorgeous and comfy as the lace is, it’s not very hard-wearing. It pulls easily and has bobbled quite badly at the gusset and sides on the boxers, so I’m guessing this is where they were rubbing against the seams of the shorts I’ve worn regularly this summer. If you’re a skirts and dresses kind of person (which I am, usually) they’re probably fine since the bralette hasn’t bobbled any, but if you prefer trousers then you’ll likely find Foxers’ cotton boyshorts longer-lasting.
One thing I do like though is that the black boxer shorts have an embroidered, not printed, waistband. I know from doing my fiancé’s laundry that printed elastic fades quickly, but you know embroidery is going to last and last!
Verdict: 5 / 10
Value for Money
Foxers’ lace boxer shorts and bralettes come in tons of colourways and they all cost $32 which is about £24.50 or 29€ at current exchange rates. Despite the fabric being less durable than I’d hoped for, I still think that’s a great price for both pieces. They’re fun, they’re super comfy, and they’re also from an independent brand that manufactures ethically.
Verdict: 7 / 10
Final Thoughts
The Foxers philosophy is “stylish, comfortable, and multi-functional”, and I think the three pieces I got to try out sum that up perfectly. You can wear this set as lingerie but also as sleepwear, it’s that comfortable. The bralette’s band is also long enough that it can be tucked into a high-waisted skirt on me, so if you’re a bit more daring perhaps you could even wear it as outerwear too!
See all lace boxers here and all lace bralettes here.
I’d love to know what you think of Foxers, especially if you’ve bought from them in the past. Which of their many, many colourways would you get the bralette or boxers in?There are few forms of fencing more exciting to watch (or partake in) than a team relay match. From the collective team energy to the joy of seeing a team act as a homogeneous unit, team fencing is, in my opinion, the most fun fencing can get. While team tournaments are a rarity at the local level, USA Fencing has increased the number of NACs that hold team events—including an expansion to Y10 team fencing in the coming season (WHY WHY WHY?!?!??!?!?!).
Because of the growing number of team events within fencing, I felt compelled to create a two part strategy guide to address team tactics. The first part of this series will discuss the individual roles fencers play on teams, and the second part of this series will show how to use each of the pawns in the game to effectively move towards victory in various scenarios.
Part I: The Game Within the Game- Assigning the Fencer to the 1-2-3-A, 4-5-6-A Slots
The road to a victory in team fencing is won through the fencing itself, but knowing how to use your fencers and why is crucial, and an important strategic element of a team relay bout. Having some awareness of your team and their strengths/weaknesses against a given fencer is critical, as arbitrary assignment of fencers to a given slot can set the team up for failure. But first, let’s talk about the bout order. The team match will play out as follows:
Fencer # (1-2-3-A) Bout # Fencer # (4-5-6-A) 3 1 (To 5) 6 1 2 (To 10) 5 2 3 (To 15) 4 1 4 (To 20) 6 3 5 (To 25) 4 2 6 (To 30) 5 1 7 (To 35) 4 2 8 (To 40) 6 3 9 (To 45) 5
Prior to each round, the bout committee will flip a coin to allow captains to choose the 1-2-3-A or 4-5-6-A slots. Picking either side has its |
and Sinclair Broadcasting, another company he has been accused of helping with his policies.
Ajit Pai Age: 44 Education: Harvard College, University of Chicago Law School Career: Appointed as FCC commissioner in 2011. Previously chief counsel of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution, and associate general counsel at Verizon Communications Sources: The New York Times, Bloomberg
“How do you choose,” he said, “between a longtime love and a newfound crush?”
The agency voted 3-2 Thursday to dismantle the so-called net-neutrality rules, which prohibit internet service providers from blocking or charging websites for higher quality delivery to consumers. The change also dials back the stance established during the Obama administration that broadband should be regulated like a public utility.
Passing the plan is the biggest victory in Pai’s eventful, 11-month tenure as the head of the FCC. Under his leadership, the agency has already opened the door for more media mergers, curtailed a high-speed internet program for low-income families and allowed broadband providers to raise rates to business customers.
All this activity has made Pai, 44, a former lawyer for Verizon and a longtime government bureaucrat, the target of many angry protests. In recent days, government officials — including 18 state attorneys generals and dozens of Democratic members of Congress — asked the FCC to delay the vote. On Wednesday, the attorneys general said that many of the 23 million public comments that had been filed to the agency about net neutrality appeared to be fraudulent. Pai ignored the delay requests.
Pai’s changes have also made him a pivotal official in the Trump administration’s rush to shed regulations. The effects of his decisions have rippled across the industries Pai oversees. The looser rules on media ownership, for example, have enabled Sinclair Broadcasting’s $3.9 billion bid for Tribune.
“Ajit Pai has the potential to be one of the most consequential commissioners in the agency’s history,” said Gus Hurwitz, an assistant professor at the University of Nebraska College of Law, who is an expert in telecom policy and who supports Pai’s proposal.
Even Pai’s detractors acknowledge that he has been efficient at moving his agenda. Mark Cooper, a staff member of Consumer Federation of America, said Pai has far outpaced his recent predecessors, even if Cooper does not agree with those efforts.
“In every way,” Cooper said, “his decisions are bad for consumers and good for big corporations.”
Pai declined to be interviewed for this article. But in a statement, the FCC said that he “has been focused on making the agency more transparent, closing the digital divide, and updating the Commission’s rules to reflect the modern communications marketplace.”
The agency added that “the FCC has modernized its rules across a wide range of areas to encourage more competition and innovation.”
Pai’s deregulatory fervor began well before the presidential election and his nomination by President Donald Trump.
A child of immigrants from India who settled in Kansas, Pai was lauded by Republicans and Democrats when he was appointed in 2011 by President Barack Obama to the FCC. Lawmakers and public-interest groups hoped the young nominee would bring a greater appreciation for how communications was shifting online than past commissioners.
But for five years as a minority member of the FCC, Pai consistently voted against regulations such as those limiting business broadband prices and providing a broadband subsidy for low-income Americans. He complained that the agency’s Democratic leaders, including Tom Wheeler, were too heavy-handed with companies.
The biggest offense, in his opinion, were the 2015 net-neutrality rules, which included the declaration that broadband would be subject to more utility-style rules. He said the regulations would burden the fast-growing high-speed internet market.
In dissenting comments during the debate over the rules, he echoed the arguments of telecom companies that the FCC’s net-neutrality rules made it hard for telecoms to expand their networks, leading to less innovation in business plans and eventual harm to the economy.
He also accused the White House of presidential interference in the activities of the FCC, an independent agency. Pai said that the agency had taken its direction only after Obama posted a video in favor of the net-neutrality rules.
“We are flip-flopping for one reason and one reason alone,” he said at the time. “President Obama told us to do so.”
Pai’s consistent opposition attracted supporters from free-market think tanks and conservative commentators like Rush Limbaugh and Roger Stone, a former Trump adviser who recently praised the proposal to scrap net-neutrality rules. Pai became a frequent guest on Fox News and other conservative media, and was praised in the editorial pages of The Wall Street Journal.
Supporters of net neutrality argue that telecom companies want to become the gatekeepers of the internet, deciding whether sites have access to fast or slow connections.
But Pai has responded by saying the bigger threat is from the big tech companies. Google, Twitter and Facebook, he argues, can deprive consumers of free expression.
He says Twitter, for example, sometimes wrongly suspends users just because they do not share the same views as the company.
“Let’s not kid ourselves,” Pai said last month at an event sponsored by the R Street Institute, a free-market think tank. “When it comes to an open internet, Twitter is part of the problem.”England captain Wayne Rooney has called on the players to rally round after "a tough couple of weeks" following the exit of manager Sam Allardyce.
Allardyce left the post after just 67 days and one match in charge -- the 1-0 win in Slovakia -- following a Daily Telegraph investigation into football corruption.
Gareth Southgate has been named as interim manager for the next four matches, and one of his first announcements was to confirm that Manchester United's Rooney would remain as captain.
And as England prepare to face Malta at Wembley in their second World Cup qualifier on Saturday, Rooney said: "It's a shame -- everyone could see how excited Sam was for the job and he came in and showed that enthusiasm to the players.
"It's a shame it's happened and I'm sure he deeply regrets it. It was a decision for the FA to take.
"As a group of players, we need to stick together and concentrate on the football. We have to focus on the games."
The start of Rooney's England career intersected briefly with the latter days of Southgate's just over a decade ago.
He added: "He's done a very job with the under-21s, and he's got an opportunity to show what he can do at senior level.
"He'll bring his own way of working, it's going to be good to see what that is in the next week. We have to buy into his ways and take his ideas on board."
Chelsea defender Gary Cahill said he was also sorry to see Allardyce depart but added: "What's happened has happened -- we move on. I've been involved in many managers changing in my career at club and country."What was Donald Trump‘s private reaction after the Access Hollywood tapes showed him saying he grabbed women “by the pussy”?
Before the election, Christian evangelist and talk show host James Robison told anyone who’d listen that Trump — who was totally a Christian; just trust him — was very apologetic. But his advisors were telling him not to admit he did anything wrong.
Robison said that he was “perhaps the first one to really talk” with the candidate after the release of a 2005 recording of him boasting about sexually assaulting women. “He was so embarrassed, so broken, so contrite, we could hardly talk,” Robison said. However, he said, Trump couldn’t be publicly contrite because his advisers told him not to, which he said echoed the advice that “establishment” advisers gave to Ronald Reagan not to look like a “weepy Christian.” This, he said, was all the fault of the church for not being appealing to many people, which he blamed in part on believers “beating up other Christians,” like those who are criticizing his relationship with Trump without understanding that Trump wants “to hear the transforming truth of God’s wisdom.” “I’m telling you, you cannot judge what God is doing in this man’s heart because of what is happening before this media and what his own attorneys and advisers say,” he declared.
But, as Kyle Mantyla noticed, the New York Times offers a very different account in a new profile of Ivanka Trump.
In their story, Ivanka was part of the strategy discussions after the tape was released and urged her father to apologize. His advisors were also encouraging him to just suck it up and admit he screwed up.
Trump, however, had no intention of doing that (presumably because he didn’t really think he did anything wrong).
When the recording finally showed he was wrong, Mr. Trump’s reaction was grudging: He agreed to say he was sorry if anyone was offended. Advisers warned that would not be enough. Ivanka Trump made an emphatic case for a full-throated apology, according to several people who were present for the crisis discussion that unfolded in Mr. Trump’s 26th-floor office. Raised amid a swirl of tabloid headlines, she had spent her adult life branding herself as her father’s poised, family-focused daughter. She marketed her clothing line with slogans about female empowerment and was finishing a book on the topic. As she spoke, Mr. Trump remained unyielding. His daughter’s eyes welled with tears, her face reddened, and she hurried out in frustration.
He was “unyielding” to the idea of a full-throated apology. He preferred a half-hearted deflection of any responsibility.
(Trump ultimately made an awkward video statement where he quickly said he was sorry before moving on to other topics.)
It all raises a fair question: Which account is accurate?
The one produced by the New York Times in which Trump acts exactly the way you’d expect him to act? Or the one offered by a Christian evangelist who argues that Trump has genuine feelings of remorse and empathy?
My money’s on the real reporters with their sources, not the evangelist who just expects us to take his word on everything. His track record is all we need to know to discount his stories — and that’s before his acceptance of the Bible even comes into play.
(via Right Wing Watch)Winning tip: Eskdale cycle trail, Lake District
It may only be nine miles but the Eskdale cycle trail is a sea-to-mountain spectacular, with a steam engine ride thrown in. Leaving the sea behind at Ravenglass, cycle along woodland tracks and banks of the river Esk. Look out for red squirrels and savour a pint or lunch at the four pubs en route. Get to Dalegarth station (ravenglass-railway.co.uk) and put your bike on the Ratty steam train and relax for the 40-minute trip back to the coast.
lakedistrict.gov.uk
Craig Stangroom
Way of the Roses
This coast-to-coast ride starts in Morecambe, Lancashire, and weaves through countryside to Bridlington, East Yorkshire, via the Lune valley, Yorkshire Dales, and Yorkshire Wolds. The route uses cycle paths as well as on-road cycle lanes. There are plenty of B&Bs and country pubs en route, so you can choose to spread your journey over a few days or a week.
wayoftheroses.info
KathPreston
Brighton circle, South Downs Way
A beautiful off-road cycle trip leaving Brighton, on Lewes Road, and heading towards the University of Sussex. You ride through Stanmer Park, heading towards the South Downs Way (SDW) where the view is spectacular. Keep on the SDW passing Saddlescombe Farm and either stop here for refreshments or keep going up to Devil's Dyke. If you still have energy keep on heading west towards the antennas on top of the hill, which will bring you to Shoreham. Follow the coastal cycle path and from there it's a straight and quiet ride back to Brighton.
nationaltrail.co.uk/south-downs-way
CarolinM1978
A circuit of the Cotswolds
This 100-mile tour of the Cotswolds offers bucolic beauty and thigh-burning climbs. It begins in Stratford-on-Avon, passes through market towns such as Chipping Campden, then continues towards Cheltenham. Carry on to Witney, before heading back north. Just before you get back, stop at The Fuzzy Duck in Armscote for classic pub grub.
cotswold.gov.uk
peteryeung
Redways, Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes is a brilliant cycling destination. A network of Redways, which are pathways and tracks, run throughout the city and these are dedicated to walkers and cyclists. Maps of the Redway network can be found online to reveal parks, canal and riverside paths, lakes and other picturesque routes. There are interesting sights such as the Peace Pagoda at Willen Lake, and also many sculptures along these routes.
milton-keynes.gov.uk
SharonLHenry
Trough of Bowland, Lancashire
This circular cycle is centred on the Trough of Bowland in a little inhabited region north east of Preston. The ride takes in wide open moorland, panoramas, picturesque pastoral valleys and the wild and beautiful Trough itself. There are pretty villages along the way with cyclist friendly accommodation, and the route is about 36 miles on quiet roads. Ride it clockwise to avoid some steep hills.
forestofbowland.com/cycling
moules
Lôn Las Cymru, Machynlleth to Rhayader
You can cycle most of the length of Wales – from Cardiff all the way to Holyhead – on Lôn Las Cymru (national cycle route 8) but the high point is the section south of Machynlleth where the route ascends to over 500m on quiet roads. The cycling is tough but the views of the mountain ranges and rolling hills make it worthwhile. From the top, there's a thrilling descent into Hafren Forest and on to Llanidloes for a well-earned lunch.
sustrans.org.uk
ID704527
Bealach na Bà and Applecross peninsula,
Start at Lochcarron village and take the A896 to Tornapress then prepare yourself for cycling over the Bealach na Bà (pass of the cattle). It's 626 metres of single-track road to the viewpoint, with vistas across the Inner Sound to the isles of Raasay and Skye. The road continues to Applecross, then hugs the coast for the length of the peninsula giving you the opportunity to absorb the wild beauty of the landscape.
cycle-route.com
anshir
The Golden Road, Isle of Harris
As you leave Leverburgh you travel back in time swooping through untouched fishing villages. Be prepared for the climb out of the village but the reward is a lunar-like landscape. Take a dip in a loch if you need a break – you won't be disturbed. Refuel on homemade cakes from the Skoon art cafe and gaze across the sea to Skye. End your journey at the N°5 hostel in Drinishader.
visitouterhebrides.co.uk
Adam Young
Antrim coast road
For a taste of sea salt and the sound of surf mingling with the spin of the wheel, take the A2 from Cushendall to Larne. Cycling along the flat Antrim coast road with the sea on your left, it's as if you're riding the waves on an ocean-going bicycle. The road hugs the shoreline for 40km. Zip past glens, tiny harbours, lava flows and shingle coves, squeezing between basalt and chalk cliffs and the ocean.
cycleni.com
Helen MoatHey all!
What a fantastic few months it has been! So much has happened in such a short period of time, I'll try and keep it brief!
First up is CnW's engine upgrade: For the longest time Clive 'N' Wrench has been stuck in a very old version of Unity, finally we've made the jump to the latest version! This leap forward has notably improved performance across the board, and has allowed for new post processing effects that really add that extra layer of polish (as well as plenty of other little victories)!
The next huge thing has been alpha testing. Finally I am no longer developing in a bubble... well, sort of anyway! Thanks to an incredibly humbling number of Patreon supporters willing to not only play through, but also provide some incredibly helpful and detailed feedback, CnW is getting better by the day! Just as a few examples, since the first alpha test a few weeks back the following changes have already been implemented:
Added further controller support including Sony DS3/DS4 and generic third party pads.
Moved several objects (including billboards) from places that made ledge grabbing an issue.
Fixed several animation bugs to reduce sliding on occasion when transitioning from idle to walk.
Added a more finished version of the belly flop animation and tweaked the physics.
Made the sideflip a tad more lenient.
Added a part of the hub world which now properly loads into Cajun Mob Bog, as opposed to you being thrown straight in!
Increased performance by combining object meshes in several areas.
Moved certain collectables to better guide the player to new/hidden areas.
Fixed an issue with resolution scaling with certain HUD elements.
I've also added a new dynamic music system to the Space Between Time hub world. Including 12 variations of the same theme, that shifts between each era appropriate section depending on where Clive is standing!
Several people have also taken to YouTube and Twitch with videos and livestreams of themselves playing through these builds. This has both been amazingly helpful, with regard to tweaking level design and fixing issues, but also has really helped spread the word about the game! On that note, if you would like access to future builds yourself, feel free to check out the game's Patreon:
Patreon.com
As I mentioned before, there are several playthroughs on both YouTube and Twitch too! For example, here is an incredibly entertaining example from Gears For Breakfast's Jenna Brown!
That about wraps us up for this time! As always, thank you so much for all your continued support. This experience has been a very humbling one, and I really appreciate people sticking with me for so long!
RobWHY IT MATTERS
For shareholders, this means the chance to sell up to 15% of their shares back on Monday based on the £1B valuation. This means “punks” who invested £95 in 2010 could get £360 back next week. Some of them are unsurprisingly pleased by this development.
It’s also a major change in brand rhetoric for a company founded on opposing stuff like international conglomerates. One of the driving forces behind Brewdog's self-described propaganda was the deriding of financial sources, explicitly including venture capital firms, which they described as "Fat Cats" in crowd-funding blog posts and marketing stunts.
But regardless of how people feel about the pivot, investors are getting paid back tenfold. And if you were an investor in "punk," then you were just as speculative on the commercial upside of it as BrewDog was. And now we know exactly what "punk" is worth.
“Fuck no” was the response Watt gave to a group of journalists in 2015 when, following the news of the sale of Meantime Brewery to SAB Miller the same year, he was asked if he’d ever to the same. While BrewDog is not selling outright, it appears Watt may be walking back those words. As Jason Notte put in a column for Marketwatch last year: “As the craft beer industry grows and learns, it gets less uncomfortable with certain aspects of the beer business that it once loathed.” Brewdog seem to have become very comfortable with the big business model they’ve now wholly embraced. It remains to be seen what other surprises the company's future might hold.
We'll update this story as it develops.
Here's Watt’s note in full:
HEY EQUITY PUNK,
We are growing mega fast at the moment. We have broken the record for most consecutive years on the Sunday Times Fast Track 100 and in 2017 we are forecasting our growth will be even faster.
We recently shared our ambitious 5 year plan with you guys which included adding more capacity in Ellon and Columbus as well as building new breweries in Asia and Australia. All of these projects are immediate opportunities and they all link completely back into our core mission of making other people as passionate about great craft beer as we are.
We recently also let you know we were having discussions with a potential investment partner to provide additional growth capital in exchange for a minority stake in our business. We are delighted to announce that these discussions were concluded successfully with TSG Consumer Partners. TSG, based in San Francisco, are one of the world’s leading growth funds with successful investments in global brands like Pop Chips and Vitamin Water.
TSG has acquired approximately 22% of the company in a transaction where £100million in proceeds went into the Company for continued expansion and the balance to create early shareholder liquidity in a transaction that valued BrewDog plc at £1billion enterprise value. The deal is designed to deliver long term capital with 10 year time horizon.
The equity partnership with TSG will enable us to execute our 5 year plan more rapidly and better take advantage of the global growth opportunity we have built for ourselves. The deal will enable us to take our business, and your investment in BrewDog to the next level. The details regarding the proposed investment were provided to all Equity Punks in advance of a special meeting held on March 29th to consider required changes to the company’s capital structure, and the Punk community overwhelmingly approved the terms by a vote of 95% in favour.
At a £1bn valuation, shares purchased in Equity for Punks I, which closed in February 2010, are now worth 2,800% of their original value. Even craft beer fans who invested in Equity for Punks IV last year have seen the value of their shareholding increase by 177% in just one year.
Our new partnership with TSG is a launch pad for us to turbocharge our mission to make the world as passionate about craft beer as we are, but it’s also a validation of our crowdfunding model. Our Equity Punks now own part of an independent business which has attracted an awesome partner that will help grow their investment even further.
Crowdfunding can no longer be viewed as alternative finance; this is the democratisation of finance.
The transaction with TSG involved some of our equityholders to realise a return on their ownership, and we’re pleased to extend to Equity Punks an opportunity to realise some of their gains as well. We will contact you all by email next week offering you the chance to sell 15% of your equity (capped at 40 shares per investor) at a £1bn valuation.
For Equity Punks who still believe fully in our company and its mission and prospects and who don’t want to sell any of their shares at this time, we will recognise your continued support and loyalty with an amazing beery alternative to the redemption opportunity. As a thank you for believing in us and continuing on this journey with us we will send you a voucher to collect 6 cans of our upcoming (and hotly anticipated) Vermont Style IPA in any of our bars, on us.
Ever since we first started this journey in Martin’s mum’s garage, BrewDog has existed to make other people as passionate about great craft beer as we are. We remain more laser focused on that goal than ever before. Martin and I still remain controlling shareholders and fully committed to BrewDog, and this investment will allow us to accelerate our mission.
We’re not going to let the deal go to our heads, but Martin did buy himself a new jumper.
James and the BrewDog Team x
[Editors note: Despite the "garage" brewery claims, it's worth noting that Martin got a Masters degree in brewing and distilling from Heriot Watt and worked for Thornbridge Brewery before starting BrewDog.]
—Matthew CurtisStan Lee is no fool. He worked his way up from the figurative mailroom to become the president and chairman of Marvel Comics. And according to Complex, DC Comics-superfan Lee is saying that only a fool would bet against Superman in a tussle against the caped crusader.
At first, Lee was hesitant to predict the winner of rival comics company DC’s upcoming Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice scowl-off, claiming loyalties to both Batman creator Bob Kane, and Jerry Siegel, creator of Superman. But when pressed, Lee came clean on his pick.
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“If this is real—a fight between Batman and Superman—there’s no one who should bet on Batman,” Lee confessed, acknowledge the real-world disparity between two made-up characters. And why would Lee pick the man of steel over the world’s greatest detective? “He’s indestructible and can do anything. Batman relies on weapons.”
It’s hard to question that logic. After all, in Man Of Steel Superman’s bare-knuckle brawl with General Zod turned Metropolis into a smoking pile of Jenga blocks. And that fight ended with Superman snapping Zod’s neck. What makes Batman think he can do any better, even if he does winding building his own Iron Monger suit with Kryptonite supplied by Lex Luthor?
Lee has made his pick, and while it’s likely irksome to Batman fans ready to point out kryptonite arrows and the like, at least he was kind enough to refrain from identifying the real winner as Marvel’s own Steve Rogers, when Captain America: Civil War hits theaters a few weeks after Batman V Superman. ‘Nuff said.There are now 3,890 animals roaming the forests of Asia but the increase may be down to improved survey methods
Number of tigers in the wild rises for first time in more than 100 years
The number of tigers in the wild has risen for the first time in more than a century, with some 3,890 counted in the latest global census, according to wildlife conservation groups.
The tally marks a turnaround from the last worldwide estimate in 2010, when the number of tigers in the wild hit an all-time low of about 3,200, according to the World Wildlife Fund and the Global Tiger Forum.
India alone holds more than half of them, with 2,226 tigers roaming reserves across the country, from the southern tip of Kerala state to the eastern swamps in West Bengal, according to its last count in 2014.
But while experts said the news was cause for celebration, they stopped short of saying the number of tigers was actually rising. In other words, it may just be that experts are aware of more tigers, thanks to the fact that survey methods are improving and more areas are being included.
But this is the first time tiger counts are increasing since 1900, when there were more than 100,000 tigers in the wild.
“More important than the absolute numbers is the trend, and we’re seeing the trend going in the right direction,” said Ginette Hemley, senior vice president of wildlife conservation at WWF.
The census, compiled from tiger surveys in countries from Russia to Vietnam, as well as the International Union for Conservation of Nature, was released a day before ministers from 13 countries meet for three days in New Delhi as they work toward doubling the world’s wild tiger population from the 2010 low by 2022.
Not all nations are seeing progress, though. While Russia, India, Bhutan and Nepal all counted more tigers in their latest surveys, south-east Asian countries have struggled. They are also behind the others in conservation measures, and do not yet conduct a tiger census on their own.
“When you have high-level political commitments, it can make all the difference,” Hemley said. “When you have well-protected habitat and you control the poaching, tigers will recover. That’s a pretty simple formula. We know it works.”
Cambodia is looking at reintroducing tigers after recently declaring them functionally extinct within its borders, meaning there are no longer any breeding tigers in the wild. Indonesia has also seen a rapid decline, thanks to having the world’s highest rate of forest destruction to meet growing demand for producing palm oil as well as pulp and paper.
Tigers are considered an endangered species, under constant threat from habitat loss and poachers seeking their body parts for sale on the black market. They are also seeing their habitats rapidly shrinking as countries develop.
The tiger count is based on data from 2014. Here is the tally broken down by country:
Bangladesh, 106; Bhutan, 103; Cambodia, 0; China, more than 7; India, 2,226; Indonesia, 371; Laos, 2; Malaysia, 250; Myanmar, no data available; Nepal, 198; Russia, 433; Thailand, 189; Vietnam, fewer than 5.
The experts said the Myanmar government’s count of 85 tigers in 2010 was not included because the data was considered out of date.A recent piece in the Wall Street Journal(WSJ) entitled “How often should married couples have sex? What happens when he says ‘more’ and she says ‘no?” caused quite a stir this past week. The original piece told the tale of a married couple (Chris and Afton) that developed a sexual desire discrepancy (the clinical term for a case in which one partner wants more sex than the other). The couple communicated with each other about the discrepancy, read a self-help book together, and ultimately worked through it. That’s a positive outcome, right? Judging by the responses that appeared on Jezebel, The Week, New York Magazine, and several other websites, this is anything but a happy ending. The problem? The partner who desired more sex in this scenario was male and the one who wanted less sex was female.
The WSJ piece was derided because some saw it as implying that certain stereotypes about human sexuality may be true (i.e., men are hypersexual and women are “frigid”). Some also argued that the piece was exploiting Chris and Afton's relationship “in order to support sweeping, regressive generalizations about the sexual function of entire genders.” However, nowhere in the WSJ article does it say or suggest that “all men are like this” and “all women are like that,” or that desire discrepancies can only occur in one direction. The critics are certainly right to point out that sometimes women are the ones wanting more sex—that undisputedly happens, but it may not be quite as common as they suggest. When low sexual desire occurs, it is actually much more likely to affect a woman than it is a man. For example, national survey data indicate that women are more than twice as likely as men to report that they experienced a persistent lack of sexual desire in the past year (33% vs. 15%, respectively) [1]. Of course, low sexual desire is something that can affect persons of any gender, and desire discrepancies can occur in any type of relationship (including same-sex couples). Although the case profiled in the WSJ perhaps represents the most common scenario, the reality is that it doesn't matter which partner has more or less desire because desire discrepancies are fundamentally a relationship problem, not a gender problem or a heterosexual problem.
The WSJ piece was also hit for stating that sex is a particularly important emotional outlet for men because it perpetuates the stereotype that “all men are incommunicative emotional cripples.” I actually provided a quote to the WSJ for its piece stating that “for some men, sex may be their primary way of communicating and expressing intimacy.” I stand by that quote—but please note that the text of my quote reads “for some men” not “all men.” I try to refrain from making broad generalizations about any group because in the world of sex and gender, nothing is ever true 100% of the time and you shouldn't believe anyone who argues otherwise. The point I was making is that men are typically socialized to not talk about and show their emotions. This is a problem that stems from long-standing cultural notions about what men “should” be (i.e., "tough"). The result of this is that sex has become a very important source of emotional release and intimacy for a lot of men. However, sex is no less important for women. Indeed, there are many women for whom sex is vital to their sense of psychological well-being. The difference is that men often don’t have as many sources of emotional release in their lives as women because men are socialized to keep their emotions to themselves. So when a man has been told all his life to suppress his emotions and he is unable to get emotional fulfillment through physical intimacy, he probably won't be particularly well adjusted. Don’t get me wrong--this it not to suggest that the answer here is simply for women who don’t want sex to start putting out. I’m not advocating that anyone should have lots of unwanted sex or suggesting that men’s sexual needs are more important than women’s, or that women can never be hurt by men's lack of interest in sex. Again, desire discrepancies are a relationship problem. This means that they require a relational solution, not a gendered solution. I know that some perceive the WSJ piece as blaming women, but all of the retorts come across as blaming men. Faulting an entire gender group for this is wrong, wrong, wrong. Communication, patience, and mutual respect are the keys here, but there is no “one size fits all” solution because every relationship is different.
One other point worth mentioning is that Jezebel’s critique suggested that Chris and Afton’s sexual incompatibility stemmed from the fact that they waited until they got married to start having sex. The implication was that if they would have had sex and discovered the problem sooner, they might not have gotten married. However, establishing sexual compatibility before marriage will not guarantee a lifetime of great sex. People’s sexual desires change naturally over time as a result of biological (e.g., hormonal) and psychosocial factors (e.g., stress, having children)—and, sometimes, people’s desires change at different rates, thereby producing discrepancies that you have no control over. No matter when you start having sex, anyone who enters a long-term relationship needs to recognize that sexual incompatibility is almost inevitable because we don’t stay the same as we age. Healthy relationships adapt to this reality. Sometimes we forego sex even when we’re “in the mood” because we recognize and respect the fact that our partner has different needs—but by the same token, sometimes we have sex even when we aren’t feeling particularly horny because we want to make our partner happy and establish intimacy (a concept known scientifically as sexual communal strength) [2]. Confronting sexual problems and maintaining a successful relationship is fundamentally about people having the ability to think beyond themselves.
The goal of the WSJ piece was to profile a couple who had experienced a sexual problem and who wanted to share their solution with others. The couple went about it the right way by having open and honest communication and by recognizing and respecting one another’s sexual desires and needs. This was not a lesson in prioritizing male needs over female needs. In the case of desire discrepancies, nobody is “right” or “wrong” and no specific partner or gender should be blamed. The key to preventing and resolving this and other sexual problems is to be effective sexual communicators and for both partners to think about what’s best for their relationship, not just their own egos.
Want to learn more about The Psychology of Human Sexuality? Click here for a complete list of articles or like the Facebook page to get articles delivered to your newsfeed.
[1] Laumann, E. O., Paik, A., & Rosen, R. C. (1999). Sexual dysfunction in the United States. The Journal of the American Medical Association, 281, 537-544.
[2] Muise, A., Impett, E. A., Kogan, A., & Desmarais, S. (in press). Keeping the Spark Alive: Being Motivated to Meet a Partner’s Sexual Needs Sustains Sexual Desire in Long-Term Romantic Relationships. Social Psychological and Personality Science.
Image Source: 123rf.com
You Might Also Like:Once the Protected Lists were publicised for all 30 teams ahead of the Vegas Golden Knights’ expansion draft, the NHL announced that the 2017-18 salary cap’s upper limit had been set at $75.0 million.
In a deviation from the norm since the 2012 Collective Bargaining Agreement was ratified, the players decided to choose a cap inflator less than the maximum of five percent, putting the cap just $2 million higher than last season. Artificially inflating the amount teams had available to spend on their players was forcing actual salaries paid to be significantly less than the advertised amount, and that difference will be lessened with a more modest value.
For the Canadiens, the extra $2 million is welcome, as they have several players who still need to sign a contract for next season.
One of the more pressing needs is a new contract for team MVP Carey Price. That deal that was always glanced toward when speaking about contending for a Stanley Cup is now in its final year, and a big raise is due the world’s top goaltender. Negotiations are already under way between his agent and the team, with hopes of an extension signed soon after the earliest possible date of July 1.
Of more immediate concern is the lack of a deal for career-Hab Andrei Markov, an extension for Alex Galchenyuk, and deciding what to do with last year’s biggest surprise, Alexander Radulov.
Those three moves would just about complete the 23-man roster for next season (though the potential loss of a NHL player in the expansion draft looms), but even with the boost to the cap there is just over $17 million to work with to get them all re-upped and leave a bit of space for any in-season transactions.
The Canadiens could be attempting to bargain with the Golden Knights for some more dollars to work with. For a (substantial) fee, Vegas has stated its willingness to take on some big contracts, essentially sacrificing their first season of existence to load up on draft picks and young prospects for year two.
It would be a large price to pay, but gaining the $6 million from Tomas Plekanec’s final contracted year would be a big help in getting Galchenyuk and a replacement third-line centre on the team for next season. A buyout is also a possibility for that pact, and the dollar figure involved may be more palatable than giving up a key future asset.
Data obtained from CapFriendly.The Only New Year’s Resolution I Made And You Should Too
Max Lukominskyi Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jan 16, 2017
BY MAX LUKOMINSKIY
It is not surprising that the majority of all new year’s resolutions is aimed at self-improvement in the broad sense. We all aspire to accomplish huge goals, develop new skills, broaden our knowledge, and simply become better.
Therefore, no matter what kind of resolutions you make, it is likely to be related to the personal growth. Moreover, no matter what exactly you would like to achieve in 2017, those attainments are going to require bold actions and strong commitment.
However, in order to lead to the constant and rapid growth, those actions should be taken far beyond your area |
automotive, and professional visualization all showing strong sales. Gross margin for the quarter was 57.5%, up 0.8% from a year ago. Operating income was up 39% to $245 million, and net income came in up 46% to $196 million. This resulted in earnings per share of $0.33.
NVIDIA Q1 2017 Financial Results (GAAP) Q1'2017 Q4'2016 Q1'2016 Q/Q Y/Y Revenue (in millions USD) $1305 $1401 $1151 -7% +13% Gross Margin 57.5% 56.5% 56.7% +1.0% +0.8% Operating Income (in millions USD) $245 $252 $176 -3% +39% Net Income $196 $207 $134 -5% +46% EPS $0.33 $0.35 $0.24 -6% +38%
NVIDIA also reports Non-GAAP results, which exclude stock based compensation, warranty charges, restructuring fees, and other fees. The Non-GAAP results had revenue of $1.305 billion, which is up 13%. Gross margin was 58.6%, which is up 1.7%. Operating income was up 39% to $322 million, and net income was up 41% to $263 million. Non-GAAP earnings per share were $0.46.
NVIDIA Q1 2017 Financial Results (Non-GAAP) Q1'2017 Q4'2016 Q1'2016 Q/Q Y/Y Revenue (in millions USD) $1305 $1401 $1151 -7% +13% Gross Margin 58.6% 57.2% 56.9% +1.4% +1.7% Operating Income (in millions USD) $322 $356 $231 -10% +39% Net Income $263 $297 $187 -11% +41% EPS $0.46 $0.52 $0.33 -12% +39%
GPUs accounted for most of the revenue, with GPU revenue coming in at $1.08 billion for the quarter. This is a gain of 15% year-over-year, driven by strong growth in the GeForce lineup. NVIDIA has recently announced their latest Pascal architecture with the GTX 1080 and GTX 1070, with cards coming soon, so I would expect strong sales to continue. Tegra processor revenue for the quarter was $160 million, up 10% compared to Q1 2016, thanks to continued growth in Tegra automotive.
Gaming platform revenue was up 17% to $687 million, consistent with the strong growth in PC gaming compared to the rest of the PC market. Quadro revenue, filed under Professional Visualization, was up 4% to $189 million.
Datacenter revenue which includes Tesla and GRID results were a record $143 million for the quarter, up 63% from a year ago, driven by demand for GPU acceleration for deep learning.
Automotive revenue was $113 million of the $160 million for Tegra, up 47% year-over-year. It appears that NVIDIA made the right call with Tegra by mostly abandoning the mobile market where competition is pretty fierce, and they’ve really gained a good diversified foothold in the automotive sector where higher TDPs can let them drive larger GPUs.
Finally, the licensing deal with Intel, which is going to end soon, accounted for $66 million in revenue.
NVIDIA Quarterly Revenue Comparison (GAAP) In millions Q1'2017 Q4'2016 Q1'2016 Q/Q Y/Y GPU $1079 $1178 $940 -8% +15% Tegra Processor $160 $157 $145 +2% +10% Other $66 $66 $66 flat flat
NVIDIA has had a pretty successful run since the introduction of their Maxwell products, and these results are all prior to Pascal even coming on the market in a consumer card. NVIDIA’s outlook for Q2 is revenue of $1.35 billion plus or minus 2%, and GAAP gross margin of 57.7%, plus or minus 0.5%.
Source: NVIDIA Investor RelationsRide sharing legislation that could pave the way for Uber to come to Winnipeg was passed early Friday morning.
Bill 30 will dissolve the Manitoba Taxicab Board and give the board’s authority to local municipalities, which could develop by-laws to allow for ride-sharing companies like Uber.
The Conservative government says the law won’t go into effect until March 1, 2018.
RELATED: Next step in allowing ride sharing services in Manitoba starts Monday night
But not everyone is excited about the possibility of ride sharing in the province. Friday, the taxi industry held a rally to express their frustration over the changes to the city’s taxi system.
350 cabs circled the Manitoba Legislative Building and City Hall before a meeting with Mayor Brain Bowman on Friday.
Duffy’s Taxi vice president Jaspal Bedi said most of the talks revolved around safety — something he said is more important to cab drivers than business or financial gain.
“We’re raising the bar for safety,” Bedi said. “It should be the same for ride sharing. Our number one priority is safety.”
“They say you get what you pay for. If you get jumped in a cab, you are protected head to toe.”
Bedi expressed frustrations Friday over the plan to bring in ride sharing; pointing to driver shields, security cameras, and current protocol required to receive a cab license. Drivers must undergo an 80-hour training course, criminal background check, and a child abuse registry check before they hit the road.
READ MORE: Cab drivers worried about Uber pack Winnipeg city hall
But a spokesperson from Uber Canada told Global News that their potential drivers must meet similar tests before signing up for their ride sharing application as well.
The Public Policy manager for Canada, Chris Schafer, said Uber drivers undergo annual criminal background checks, as well as vehicle inspections and motor vehicle references checks.
Schafer said the fact that Uber drivers aren’t anonymous and that they don’t take cash sets them apart from cab drivers, who are harder to track.
In their meeting, the taxi industry said they urged Bowman to impose identical safety measures in both ride sharing cars and taxis.
As of Friday, any upcoming changes to ride sharing regulations are up to municipal governments.I’m the mother of four children, age two to six. That means I’ve spent six Halloweens supervising my kids as they canvas our neighborhood, snapping up chocolates from our neighbors. I only discovered last year that my kids were collecting the products of child laborers, some of whom have been trafficked for the chocolate trade.
Every October, American kids like mine are treated to a wide array of chocolates—Snickers, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Butterfingers—because hundreds of thousands of children in West Africa are enslaved harvesting cocoa beans. These children are performing this work for the benefit of most of the mainstream chocolate providers in the United States. A report from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture on cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast and other African countries estimated there were 284,000 children working on cocoa farms in hazardous conditions. Many of them have been taken from their families and sold as servants. U.S. chocolate manufacturers have claimed they are not responsible for the conditions on cocoa plantations, since they don't own them. This group includes Hershey, Mars, Nestle, and the U.S. division of Cadbury. Collectively, they are responsible for pretty much every snack-size candy bar available in stores this Halloween.
The connection between major candy bar manufacturers and child slavery is one of the world’s best-kept secrets. I consider myself proactive about educating myself about social justice issues, and yet I only found out last year by way of a documentary produced by the BBC. I was shocked to learn that the International Labor Rights Fund has sued the U.S. government for failing to enforce laws prohibiting the import of products made with child labor. And I was even more surprised to hear that the chocolate industry has blown by numerous deadlines set by Congress to begin regulating itself. A few major chocolate companies have mounted some smoke-and-mirror campaigns over the past year, either offering obscure fair-trade chocolate bars in addition to their slave-made materials or making a big show of donating to charities that support farmers. This does not change the fact that they refuse to be accountable for human rights abuses of children in their supply chains.
What concerns me even more is that we, as consumers, are not demanding that this be stopped. Some continue to buy chocolate even after learning about these human rights abuses. I’ve heard excuses from people in my own life, and they echo the rationalizations I’ve made myself in the past: "We can’t afford fair-trade." "We’re addicted to chocolate." "We can’t change everything." Secretly, we just don’t relate because these are kids in a far-off country instead of our own. It’s ok as long as we don’t have to see it happening right in front of us. We’ll take the candy bar.
I’m here to ruin it for you. Now you know. We can’t look away. Our family has limited its chocolate purchases to free-trade, but Halloween poses a unique challenge. Kids are bombarded with big-brand marketing on Halloween, and may be looking forward to some of the candy bars that we know to be unethical. Fair-trade chocolate is not always presented in a way that appeals to young kids, but there are options out there packaged in kid-friendly, seasonal wrapping. Candy that doesn't contain chocolate is always an option, too.
This Halloween, my family is breaking up with commercial chocolate and buying fair-trade. I hope you will, too.
Now read about where to find ethical Halloween candy that doesn't suck.President Bill Clinton William (Bill) Jefferson ClintonKasich fundraises off 2020 speculation Inviting Kim Jong Un to Washington Howard Schultz must run as a Democrat for chance in 2020 MORE says 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 could win the GOP nomination thanks to his ability to promote a unique personal brand.
“He’s a master brander,” Clinton said during an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria on Saturday.
“And when you’ve got a lot of people running, and people are trying, got to make distinctions, being able to put a personal stamp on it so people identify who you are, certainly counts for something, at least in the beginning.”
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When asked by Zakaria if he believed Trump could win, Clinton said “I think so.” But he was quick to qualify and note that he’s been out of politics for years.
“I think so, how do I know?” Clinton said.
“I’m not the best pundit anymore, I don’t have a good feel for this, all I know is what I’ve heard from the country.”
He added that Trump has reached out to the working class to give them economic reasons to vote for him, including restricting immigration and limiting Chinese imports.
“That all has to be fleshed out over the course of time and I'm sure the other future debates will do it,” Clinton said.
“But he’s got a lot of pizzazz and zip, he’s branded himself in a clear way and he’s generated some excitement. And it remains to be seen what’s going to happen.”
Clinton said he believes there is more enthusiasm on the Democratic side, where his wife Hillary Clinton is running.
"Both Hillary and Sen. [Bernie] Sanders [I-Vt.] have laid out detailed policy positions, talked about what they would cost," he said.
"You can actually have a debate there where you can discuss the relative merits of their positions on healthcare, generating jobs, lifting incomes or whatever. But over there, it seems to be more about resentments and one-liners."Age of Ultron is writer Brian Michael Bendis’ swan song on the Avengers franchise. Ultron is the ultimate archenemy of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Beside their destruction all it wants is the eradication of mankind and the coming of a machine age. The story so far – Ultron has won. We all woke up one morning and everything was different – we were living, dying, or worse, in the Age of Ultron.
Check out my reviews of Book One and Book Two here at Biff Bam Pop!, and then check out my new review of Book Three, and more, right after the jump.
Captain America Is Not a Bitch
Captain America’s role in the first issue of this series was to break the spirits of not only the Avengers, but also the readers. Our hero, sobbing and sulking on the floor, is shorthand for ‘yeah, it’s that bad, folks.’
This image of Cap crying, sobbing, weeping, whining, whatever, has become a fixture in recent years. It always indicates that all is lost, there is no hope. It’s getting old. Captain America is not a bitch. Let Cap be Cap – a leader, a hero, a soldier – and the Avenger who never gives up. Does he have to punch Hitler in the jaw again to get the point across? The A doesn’t stand for France, folks, ya know?
If he has to cry, let him cry when it’s appropriate. Like when he thought Bucky was dead, when he thought the same of Sharon Carter, definitely at 9-11, or when he lost those photos of his childhood in the mansion siege by the Masters of Evil. In that last instance, it should noted, not a tear was shed until after the enemy was vanquished. He’s Captain America, damn it!
Of course in the second issue, his big play was to stand up and say he has a plan. The Avengers should attempt to sell one of their own to Ultron. Oh Cap, that’s a bad plan. I take back what I just said about you. You should go, on your own, or better yet, bring the Avengers, and take down that mad robot, once and for all. That’s what my Cap would do.
Time and Adamantium
Bendis has said it’s not a plot point how Ultron has won, just that he has. Fine, I’m good with that, but what about when did it happen? Spider-Man makes it seem like it was overnight, but apparently it was a few weeks to a few days ago. How long was Cap despondent?
Enough time has gone by for Thor, the Hulk, and the Thing to have been killed. Enough time has gone by that an apparent black market for Avengers has developed, and through that, some sort of word of mouth grapevine has been established. Enough time for She-Hulk to go for a more severe hairstyle (looks like someone has an electric razor in this no-tech world). So how long is that? Longer than Spidey’s overnight.
Also enough time has gone by for Wolverine to have lost a leg in battle. Ultron has weapons to cut adamantium. Okay. That’s a scary thought, but my mind also wanders to the idea that Wolverine has grown back a leg. So does that mean he has one leg that has bones without adamantium plating? Where is the original leg?
Peter or Otto?
Okay, I have fought this battle and argued this plot point before in my reviews here at Biff Bam Pop! of both Age of Ultron Book One and Book Two, but this Spider-Man – he’s Peter Parker, not Otto Octavius. Doc Ock just doesn’t know about Luke Cage’s wife and child. Period.
We know what happened. This story was planned and written either before, or without knowledge of, the current status quo of Spider-Man. Bendis should simply stop denying it and saying in interviews that that is Peter.
Of course, if there is an in-story explanation for this obvious Parker personality in Otto’s speech patterns and memories, I’ll gladly withdraw my objections. Honestly I hope Bendis pulls it off. I’ll have to wait and see along with the rest of you.
Clint Barton BFF
“And can I just say screw Hank Pym for inventing Ultron in the first place?” Wow. Yeah, that’s Hawkeye saying those words. Or more accurately that’s writer Brian Michael Bendis speaking through Hawkeye. Because any old school classic Avengers fan can tell you that’s not Hawkeye talking.
Clint is Hank’s friend, or was at least. After Captain America left the Avengers the first time, the two of them ran the team together. Clint followed in Hank’s footsteps as Goliath. Clint pulled Hank back from the brink of suicide in West Coast Avengers.
Their friendship is what made the Chuck Austen penned affair between Clint and Jan so outrageous and monstrous. Why would he betray his friend like that? I doubt this is Hawkeye here in Age of Ultron just as much as I doubt this Spider-Man is Doc Ock.
As long as we are talking characterization, there are places where Bendis gets it right. Peter Parker (don’t get me started again), Luke Cage, and Iron Man are all spot on. She-Hulk gets some good lines in as well. I liked her pronouncement of power, but shouldn’t Valkyrie have been considered as well for the mission? She is a goddess, right?
The Chicago Interlude
Our spotlight this issue is on the characters opposing Ultron in Chicago – the Black Panther, the Red Hulk, and the Taskmaster. No, I don’t know why T’Challa is in Chicago either. It appears they are after the head of one of Ultron’s Sentries.
I both see and like the logic. With one of their heads, maybe the Panther can figure a way to fight back. Many writers forget what a brilliant technical as well as tactical genius he is. What the Taskmaster is going to do with the head, I have no idea.
I’m sorry, much like Magneto, Emma Frost, and, ahem, Ares, I have much difficulty seeing the Taskmaster as anything but a villain. I did like him calling the Red Hulk ‘Dave’ however. Nice one, Bendis, you made me chuckle.
Logic in the Machine Age
***Spoiler Warning*** Stop here if you haven’t read Age of Ultron Book Three yet, there be spoilers ahead…
When Luke Cage gets to the center of Ultron’s headquarters to confront the monster that has ravaged his world, he’s in for a shocker. It’s not Ultron, it’s the Vision.
It does actually make a bit of sense. The Vision is Ultron’s ‘son,’ and therefore the next step up in evolution. Why wouldn’t Ultron upload himself into the Vision’s body? And what about the android avenger’s mind? It’s a valuable commodity, not only loaded with intimate info on the Avengers, but it’s also already conquered the planet once before, remember?
Then there’s the emotional aspect brought up by Stark. Perhaps it’s not Ultron pretending to have emotions and rationalizing, but maybe it’s the Vision’s emotions influencing Ultron. Of course, that really could be the Vision too.
And as long as we were talking about Ultron, and evolution and emotion, shouldn’t there have been a shout out to Ultron Mark 12? I guess if Clint can’t remember that he’s Hank’s friend, he certainly can’t remember the Steve Englehart West Coast Avengers either. Still I can’t wait for that next issue.
Back in the Rest of the Avenger-verse
Also on shelves this week are Young Avengers #3 and Uncanny Avengers #5. Young Avengers by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie continues to entertain in a way not many comics out there these days do, and it also continues to prove to me that Allan Heinberg isn’t the only person who can write these characters well. Our teenage heroes’ parents keep coming out of the woodwork, inexplicably in most cases, to read their kids the riot act. Over and above the regular team, I am just loving the new Miss America and that mischievous Lil’ Loki.
Over in Uncanny Avengers #5, writer Rick Remender and artist Olivier Coipel continue to deliver what I consider the most Avenger-y of the Avengers franchise, even though half of its roster is filled with X-Men. Just to prove that point, this issue, a special new order announcement issue, features not one, but two classic Avengers foes. Woo hoo! At least there’s some happiness in the Avengers-verse.
I’ll see you next week, same Avengers time, same Avengers channel. In the mean time, watch out for those evil undead brothers, they always show up when you least expect them…
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PrintBank customers may be obliged to bear the bill for fraud against their accounts, under proposed changes mulled by banks, the UK government and GCHQ.
Under the plans, individuals or companies with poor online security could be “frozen out of banking services or even excluded from the system whereby banks compensate customers whose accounts are hacked”, the Financial Times reports.
UK banks - unlike those in the US - routinely cover the costs of online fraud, at least in cases where customer negligence (such as sharing PIN codes or cards with third parties) is excluded. Pushing the burden of fraudulent losses towards customers is likely to be hugely controversial. Bankers’ bonuses in the wake of taxpayer-funded bailouts of several banks in 2008 have already caused a huge series of rows and radical changes in liability for online banking fraud through phishing and banking trojans is likely to be even more contentious.
The circumstances suggest that ministers are floating an idea they already know is controversial, even politically unpalatable. If anything comes to light it's likely to be much diluted.
Some security vendors - normally cheerleaders for UK government security plans - have already expressed opposition to the possible banking liability shake-up.
Olov Renberg, the founder of behavioural biometrics firm BehavioSec, commented: “It troubles me that bank customers could soon be forced to cover the bill and take liability for fraudulent activity on their accounts. Time and time again government schemes and individual enterprises have tried to teach consumers the best practices of operating online, yet online fraud continues to rise – why?
"It’s not because of a lack of awareness. Quite simply, security is no longer a consumer’s number one priority when operating online. Today we prioritise convenience online – meaning laborious tasks such as multiple authentication processes are often side-stepped.
“If banks want to reduce fraud for their customers, they need to avoid making consumers the gatekeepers of their own security. If they [banks] are selling consumers convenience and always-on availability, then they need to take on the bulk of the security burden themselves and implement security measures that accurately authenticate users without forcing them through frustrating, inefficient authentication barriers,” he added.
A study by British industry group Financial Action Fraud shows that losses stemming from financial fraud involving payment cards, cheques and remote banking hit £755m in 2015, up 26 per cent on the previous year. ®Remember all those wonderful photographs of the young princeling Trumplings, posing with the corpses of the handsome animals they'd plugged while on limo safaris around the world? Remember Junior with the elephant's tail? Well, if the administration run by their father has anything to say about it, wealthy spalpeens like the two of them are not going to have to go to all the fuss and bother of leaving the country to kill animals more handsome than themselves. It appears that the U.S. Department of the Interior has decided to turn the National Parks into free fire zones, the equivalent of taxpayer funded game ranches similar to the one at which Dick Cheney once ventilated his friend's face. McClatchy has all the details.
National Park Service Acting Director Michael Reynolds prepared a June 30 memo detailing his agency's objections to the draft legislation, the "Sportsmen's Heritage and Recreational Enhancement Act." Under the bill, the National Park Service would be prevented from regulating the hunting of bears and wolves in Alaska wildlife preserves, including the practice of killing bear cubs in their dens. It also would be prevented from regulating commercial and recreational fishing within park boundaries and from commenting on development projects outside park boundaries that could affect the parks. Reynolds objected to these and other parts of the bill in a memo sent to the U.S. Department of Interior's Legislative Counsel. The park service later received a response from Interior, with sections of Reynolds' concerns crossed out, next to the initials "C.H." Agency officials were told they could not repeat their concerns to Congress, according to Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, who obtained the memo and provided a copy to McClatchy. "It appears the national parks are no longer allowed to give Congress their honest views about the impacts of pending legislation," said Ruch, whose organization serves as a support network for environmental agency employees and whistle blowers.
First of all, what kind of administration actively discourages input from the people on the ground who know the issue best? (Hint: this kind.) Second, whose fine hand is behind this thoroughgoing exercise in recreational slaughter? Let's look, shall we?
In this case, the Trump administration is going to bat for the National Rifle Association and sporting groups that have close ties to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, Donald Trump Jr. and Trump himself. "Expanding access to National Parks and public lands for hunting, fishing, and recreation is and remains a top priority of this administration," said Swift. The NRA and hunting and fishing organizations have lobbied Congress for years to pass versions of the "Sportsmen's Heritage and Recreational Enhancement Act," also known as the SHARE Act. According to the NRA, the legislation is aimed at improving hunting access on public lands while removing regulations promoted by "animal rights extremists."
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"The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter." —S. Spade, San Francisco.
Introduced this year by U.S. Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-S.C., the SHARE act includes a controversial standalone bill, the Hearing Protection Act, which would make it easier and cheaper for gun owners to purchase silencers. The House Natural Resources Committee was slated to hear the legislation on June 14, but the hearing was postponed following the congressional shooting in Virginia that day.
And, of course, what would an NRA-backed animal-killing program be without a good healthy dollop of old-fashioned nullification?
Among its provisions, the SHARE act would prevent the National Park Service from regulating hunting in Alaska's national preserves, including the practice of trapping and shooting bears and wolves in their dens. Animal welfare groups say the practice is inhumane, but Alaska lawmakers have long held that only state hunting laws should apply in Alaska, even on federal land. They recently succeeded in passing legislation that blocks the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from regulating hunting in national wildlife refuges in Alaska. In his memo to Interior, Reynolds recommended striking out an entire section of the bill pertaining to national preserves in Alaska. He argued the NPS should be allowed to restrict some practices in national preserves that Alaska allows elsewhere. This includes "taking wolves and coyotes (including pups) during the denning season when their pelts have little trophy, economic or subsistence value, and taking bear cubs or sows with cubs with artificial lights at den sights," he wrote.
What kind of bloodthirsty moron shoots bear cubs, or hibernating animals? Don't tell me that's sporting. I'll laugh myself silly. What kind of useless bureaucrat goes out of their way to make it easier to do so, and on land that belongs to all of us?
This kind.
Heather Swift, an Interior Department spokeswoman, rejected that claim. In an email, she said: "At no point did the Department tell the NPS not to communicate with Congress. In fact, the document in question is not even addressed to Congress. The document was an early internal draft meant to express the Department's position on a legislative proposal." Jeremy Barnum, a spokesman for the National Park Service, also rejected the premise that the agency has been directed to not communicate with Congress. Those claims "are false and mischaracterize the process," he said. "The early draft of the document was sent to a large group as a starting point for discussion and deliberation." Ruch said it was his understanding that the "C.H." stands for Casey Hammond — an Interior political appointee and former House Natural Resources Committee staffer — but that could not be verified.
Hammond was a member of one of the "beachhead teams" dispatched by the new administration to make life miserable for the people in the executive branch who do the actual work of helping to govern the country. He came there straight off the staff of the House Natural Resources Committee, which is chaired by Rep. Rob Bishop of Utah, presently in the news for advocating that national monuments be shrunk so as to make more public land open for the extraction industries and, presumably, for people who like to kill things just to watch them die. Today's word of the day is "despoil," and it is general all over this government.
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In the same week that Barack Obama was re-elected President of the United States, Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh has been re-elected to a slightly less prestigious title.
For the second consecutive year, Suh came in first place in a Sporting News poll asking NFL players to name the dirtiest player in the league. Last year the poll reached 111 players and Suh got 36 votes, while this year the poll included 103 players and Suh got 32 votes. So Suh has consistently been named the dirtiest player in the league by a little more than 30 percent of his fellow players.
Suh was followed by Dolphins guard Richie Incognito, who received 19 votes. Last year Incognito came in sixth place in the “dirtiest player” polling, so he’s moving up the rankings, perhaps bolstered by highly publicized comments from the Texans early this season.
Rams cornerback Cortland Finnegan, who aspires to be the dirtiest player in the NFL, will have to settle for third-dirtiest for the second consecutive year: Finnegan came in third place, same as last year, although his vote total increased from eight to 14, so he’s moving in the right direction toward realizing his aspirations of being known as the league’s dirtiest player.
Steelers linebacker James Harrison, who came in second place last year, has fallen to fourth place this year. Harrison hasn’t been 100 percent this season because of a knee injury, so he’s been slowed down in his efforts to deliver brutal hits to opposing quarterbacks.
Titans offensive tackle David Stewart, who like Incognito was accused by the Texans of dirty play, came in fifth place in this year’s voting. Stewart didn’t place in last year’s poll.
The voting was rounded out by Eagles defensive end Jason Babin and Steelers safety Ryan Mundy, who got two votes apiece, and 12 players who each received one vote. All of those players can keep up their dirty play if they want to rise in the rankings next year. But it’ll be tough to top Suh.Dr Ken Elliott has devoted his life to helping the poor and sick of Burkina Faso. Dr Elliott left his glasses behind, a close friend told The Independent. On Monday morning a spokesman said the Department of Foreign Affairs was still working with local authorities to locate the couple. In a statement released on Sunday, a spokesman for the family of the Elliotts said: "Recent news from the country indicates an alleged abduction of Ken and Jocelyn on Friday night, however no reason is yet given for this and their whereabouts is still unknown. Their family is in Western Australia and wish to maintain their privacy." As DFAT scrambles diplomats to negotiations in the area from 1100 kilometres away in Ghana, the couple find themselves in the middle of a pan-African-Middle Eastern power play.
Ken and Jocelyn Elliott. Credit:Facebook A spokesman for Malian militant group Ansar Dine, Hamadou Ag Khallini, told AFP the couple were being held by jihadists from the al-Qaeda linked "Emirate of the Sahara", which operates in northern Mali as a branch of the al-Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb (AQIM). Rivals to Islamic State through their al-Qaeda affiliation, AQIM specialises in kidnappings, trafficking arms and drugs. All three help fund their terrorist activities, according to the US Department of State. "AQIM's aggressive efforts to turn a profit by kidnapping, smuggling, and other criminal activities set it apart from other al-Qaeda affiliates," a report from the US International Security and Defence Policy Centre found last year. As Islamic State's visibility has increased, so has AQIM's desire to spread their own violent campaigns on new frontiers.
On Saturday they hit two targets at once. Hours before they took Ken and Jocelyn Elliott, they claimed responsibility for killing at least 27 people from 18 different nationalities on the same night in Burkina Faso's capital Ouagadougou. Into this melee, somewhere in the barren west-African desert on their way to Mali is the octogenarian couple from Perth, European intelligence sources told AFP. They have left behind a community visibly devastated by the loss of their medical and spiritual guides of more than 40 years. "What are these kidnappers thinking?!" wrote one of their supporters, Abdoulaye Dicko. "Dr Elliott is not a tourist but a saviour of life and that of the poor." "This is the life of a man who has denied inevitable disease for millions of people," said former patient Roger Bemahoun.
The journey of the devoutly Christian couple started seven decades ago on a Western Australian farm. At 15, Dr Elliott dropped out of school and went to work on the land, skills that would enable him and his wife to survive in the harsh Burkina Faso climate. By 21 he had been accepted to medical school. Stints with Fremantle hospital, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and flights over the Kalgoorlie desert with the Royal Flying Doctor Service would follow. But it was in another red landscape that Dr Elliott and Mrs Elliott would find their calling. "We were very impressed by the isolation, both spiritually and medically," Dr Elliott said in an interview with The Friends of Burkina Faso charity. "When we first came, we came with nothing. I would make the worst business man in the world because I was in no way prepared to do what has been done. "In the early days one of the challenges was to keep things running and pay the wages."
They would stay for 43 years. From one bed to 120, from one surgery a month to 150 without ever once appealing for money as a matter of policy. "They have dedicated their lives to providing medical relief to people in the remote northern area of Burkina Faso," said the family's statement on Sunday. "Their commitment to the local people is reflected in the fact that they have continued there with only a few holidays since 1972," it said. "They are held in high esteem by the local people." The centre they established continues to be run as frugally as possible. A staff shortage means the family members of patients have to act as de facto nurses, watching and monitoring patients, according to the Christian Medical and Dental Fellowship. "I suppose one of our biggest challenges is staff," said Dr Elliott. "Getting trained national [Burkina Faso] staff is an impossibility."
The couple launched an appeal in 2010 for someone to take over their hospital when their ageing bodies could no longer handle the demands of running a surgery. "We are really getting on a bit in years; we'd like people to make it their work," Dr Elliott said at the time. The couple did not want to leave their patients behind and only returned to Australia once every five years to renew their Medicare entitlements. "We're meeting a need physically, but our ultimate aim is to show the love of God. The goodness and power of true medicine," said Dr Elliott. Their abduction means that those 120 beds and patients now lie alone, in a white house in a red desert, with not a single surgeon to treat them.Continuity in Japanese dugouts took a hit when now-former Yomiuri Giants manager Tatsunori Hara sat down for his retirement news conference on Monday.
Hara had been in charge of the Giants since 2006 and was easily the most experienced manager in Japan. Now that the waves of change have reached Yomiuri’s shores, there will be a host of relatively new faces in CL dugouts.
With Hara gone, the Chunichi Dragons’ Motonobu Tanishige, who will be entering his third season, and first without simultaneously being an active player, becomes the longest-serving manager in the league next season.
After Tanishige are the Hiroshima Carp’s Koichi Ogata and the Tokyo Yakult Swallows’ Mitsuru Manaka, who will be in their second season in charge.
The other three CL teams, the Giants, Hanshin Tigers and Yokohama BayStars, will be breaking in new mangers in 2016.
The Tigers tapped former star Tomoaki Kanemoto for the job, while the BayStars hired Alex Ramirez, who will be NPB’s first foreign manager since 2010, Marty Brown’s last season with the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles. The Giants have yet to make a hire.
Hara managed the Giants in 2002 and 2003, and then from 2006-2015. He was the one constant in the CL over the course of his second stint in the dugout. During that period (including the recent offseason hirings), the BayStars, Swallows and Tigers changed managers three times, while the Carp and Dragons hired new skippers twice.
Things are only mildly more stable in the Pacific League.
Hokkaido Nippon Ham’s Hideki Kuriyama, now the longest-tenured manager in Japan, will be entering his fifth season next year, while the Chiba Lotte Marines’ Tsutomu Ito will be in year No. 4.
Fukuoka Softbank Hawks skipper Kimiyasu Kudo and the Seibu Lions’ Norio Tanabe will each be in their second full season, while the Orix Buffaloes’ Junichi Fukura will be managing the team without the interim tag for the first time in 2016. The lone brand-new hire in the PL is Masataka Nashida, who will lead the Eagles next season.
Nashida will be in his first season with Rakuten, but has the most overall experience among current NPB managers.
Nashida managed the Kintetsu Buffaloes from 2000-2004 — he was the franchise’s final manager before the merger with the Orix BlueWave — and the Fighters from 2008-2011. Nashida is 645-594-24 as a manager and led teams to PL pennants in 2001 and 2012.
Ito also has prior experience, having managed the Lions from 2004-2007, leading the club |
centre for climate change economics and policy said that while global fossil fuel emissions appeared to have peaked “Donald Trump as president could undermine this achievement if he carries through with his threat to scrap the Obama administration’s clean power plan, and encourages an increase in the use of coal for electricity generation”.
According to the UAE research, China, which is the world’s biggest polluter, accounting for 29% of global carbon dioxide output, saw emissions fall 0.7% in 2015 and they are projected to drop another 0.5% in 2016, though the scientists warn of large uncertainties in the figures.
In the US emissions fell 2.6% in 2015 as the country reduced its coal use while increasing gas and oil consumption, and carbon dioxide is expected to fall 1.7% this year.
But the European Union’s emissions rose 1.4% in 2015, against a backdrop of long term declines in pollution, while another major emitter, India, saw emissions rise 5.2%.
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A policeman has been pictured risking his life to save a child who was stuck in a frozen lake.
The 10-year-old girl plunged into icy water and screamed for dear life as she clung on to the jagged edge.
Jaroslav Kral was the lightest of three officers to get to the lake so, laying on the ice, he edged across to pull the girl towards the bank.
His colleagues then tied jackets to make a lifeline in Tabor, Czech Republic.
(Image: CEN)
Jaroslav said: "I joke about not eating too many doughnuts and like to keep my weight down."
"All beneath me rocked and the ice cracked.
"So I was glad when we finally got to the shore."
Paramedics checked the girl but luckily she was not injured.Trainees are increasingly gravitating towards what I call hard effort training. Housewives and military-operators alike are embracing hard effort in an attempt to develop a superior state of general physical preparedness (GPP).
A nice byproduct of this type of training is improved body composition, making it easy to understand why it's so popular.
Keep in mind, when I say "hard effort," I'm not referring to high intensity interval training (HIIT). HIIT protocols are dependent upon intensity – but since intensity and volume have an inverse relationship, you can't train high intensity while also using high volume. Most hard effort workouts have a moderate to high amount of volume in place, naturally limiting intensity.
The hard effort approach is best described with the following equation: high impact + high volume = hard effort.
Pain Rx
The hard effort paradigm shift can be attributed to increasingly busy lifestyles, shorter attention spans, and the need for instant gratification. To that end, it's no wonder that these short duration, hard-effort sessions have gained traction – they produce aesthetic results and, in some cases, performance gains.
This is a result of hard effort training's effect on the production of Testosterone and human growth hormone, a potent cocktail that aids in building muscle and reducing body fat. Plus, lets face it, it's more entertaining than walking on a treadmill.
Let's first put aesthetics aside and look at the performance end of the spectrum. Individuals who see massive performance gains while using hard effort training are often experiencing a novice training effect.
For example, a 42-year-old soccer mom may have an actual training age of 17. An athlete like this is ripe for the potent stimulus of "hard effort" and that's what leads her to huge performance jumps.
In this scenario, any stimulus would've lead to similar results, if applied liberally and regularly. It goes to show that these result don't necessarily prove hard efforts' efficacy with trained athletes.
My next point of contention is that hard effort trainees often claim to be training "cardio." Unfortunately, by training just with hard effort, these athletes are training everything except "cardio." They're throwing the proverbial baby out with the bathwater!
The main issue is that hard effort is primarily glycolytic, which leads to an energy imbalance when abused. This effect lies in direct opposition to the stated goal of developing a superior state of GPP, which is dependent upon energy system homeostasis.
A well rounded GPP athlete would be able to go long and slow or short and fast from a performance standpoint, which leads the biggest training flaw with hard efforts: a lack of purely oxidative aerobic training.
What's Wrong with Working Hard?
There's nothing wrong with training hard. In fact, most people need to train harder. However, it's important to recognize that chronic overuse of any type of training can have deleterious effects on mental and physical health.
Unceasing daily use of hard-effort training protocols may eventually result in an unbalanced energy system, systemic inflammation, adrenal problems, chronic tendonitis, and potentially serious orthopedic injuries.
These outcomes, coupled with the potential negative effects that chronic long-term inflammation (caused by anaerobic processes) has on our heart, is troubling. Unfortunately, there's very little data available to assess the long-term affects this type of training has on an aging population.
With this in mind, I err on the side of caution and encourage clients to use a hybrid approach, one that blends hard efforts with low to moderate intensity efforts. This creates a healthy, effective, and sustainable form of GPP.
Cardio Redux
Many use aerobic conditioning for body recomposition purposes. This makes sense, because when trained properly, the body burns fat for fuel, which helps improve aesthetics.
Steady state, low-intensity aerobic activity also acts as a powerful recovery tool. Aerobic efforts help the body process inflammation and leads to the release of restorative hormones (cortisone) that aid in connective tissue repair.
Unfortunately, there's a misunderstanding of what aerobic activity is and how we should train it. This confusion can be attributed to mainstream misinformation relating to how the body produces energy aerobically.
I see this type of confusion often with athletes who've been training their cardio with hard efforts. In this scenario, there's often a large deficiency in the athlete's ability to produce energy aerobically.
This deficiency lies in direct opposition to their goal of developing overall badassery. You can't be a well-rounded athlete if your aerobic energy system is garbage.
How do I know it's garbage? I test it!
Nowhere to Hide
The test requires you to run one mile. The tricky part is that you must keep your heart rate below your Maximum Aerobic Function (MAF) for the entire mile.
To determine your MAF score, simply subtract your age from 180 (example:180-37=143 BPM). If you're a highly trained athlete, you can add 3 BPM. If you're a de-conditioned athlete, subtract 3 BPM. This metric provides a baseline to continually monitor progress and physiological change.
Now that you've determined your MAF, strap on a heart rate monitor and go for a run. Remember, you can't allow your heart rate to exceed your MAF score. For many this will be a problem. Some of you may have to walk, some may crawl.
Regardless of your outcome, heart rate must be kept below your MAF score or the test is useless. If heart rate spikes, walk and let it drop below your MAF before starting the run.
Upon completion of your one-mile run or walk, review your time. If you can run the mile in seven minutes you've got a well-trained aerobic system. If your mile time was 13 minutes, your aerobic energy-system is poor.
So, what do you do if your aerobic energy pathway is junk? You train it!
Building the Engines
Before addressing the specifics on how to train your aerobic energy system, let's take a quick look at how anaerobic and aerobic energy is produced.
Most are familiar with the anaerobic energy system. It's used to jump, sprint, and lift. The anaerobic energy system is limited in that it only produces 6-10 seconds of immediate energy using stored ATP and creatine phosphate.
On the other hand, the aerobic energy system is a powerful hybrid system that can produce energy virtually indefinitely. This system uses oxygen, glucose, and fat metabolism.
Think of the aerobic system as a million little hybrid engines (mitochondria) within our muscles. These hybrid engines are your fat burning engines and are highly efficient at producing energy. They run all day long on little added fuel (food). This phenomenon is primarily due to our ability to metabolize fat on the mitochondrial level.
Now let's look at the hard effort addict's training regimen. These athletes are simply training too hard to develop their hybrid engines. A true hard effort can only be sustained from 1 to 15 minutes when an athlete is above their anaerobic threshold.
This type of hard effort training primarily uses the glycolytic anaerobic system, where muscle glycogen and lactate is used to produce fuel. An unfortunate byproduct of this type of exercise is the accumulation of hydrogen ionic waste, which leads to toxic acidosis and the systemic micro trauma of tissues.
These failures cause cellular damage (DOMS anyone?) making it extremely difficult to recover from the anaerobic training stimulus, possibly costing the athlete a valuable training session. This activity is really sub-maximal when we consider glycolytic energy production only produces two ATP per each molecule of glucose.(1)
This leads back to my original point: the hard effort crowd is not training their fat-burning engines. Their daily efforts are constantly using and replenishing the easily accessed glycogen stores and blood glucose, not fat.
This is a problem because when our blood glucose levels drop, we crash. The human body senses an overwhelming fatigue and begins attempting to top off the tank by shunting blood from the gut to our limbs, often leading to unpleasant side effects like vomiting. This is one of the many unhealthy aspects of hard-effort training.
Glycogen Addiction
The hard-effort addiction to glycogen is problematic from both a health and performance standpoint. I experimented with this type of training in preparation for an ultra-marathon event. Without a properly trained oxidative system, I was unable to tap into my fat stores for fuel when I needed it. This led to a dependence on food just to maintain the glycogen I needed for energy production – not a good thing when you're in the middle of the woods, 30 miles from the nearest convenience store.
However, had I just lowered my pace a bit, I'd be in an oxygen-using zone where I could produce 36-38 ATP per molecule of glucose. This would've been more efficient because the body can store enough glycogen and blood glucose to produce approximately 90 minutes of activity. The problem was that 90 minutes didn't cut it as I was on the trail for over six hours.
Now, if I'd taken it one step further and slowed down even more, I'd have been training below my MAF, and could've developed the mitochondrial machinery needed to break down fat into energy. Had I taken this approach, my energy production efficiency would've jumped exponentially to 460 ATP per fat molecule!
In this example, hard effort training caused me to miss out on two thirds of my potential energy production. This outcome stands in direct conflict to what Yuri Verkoshansky's defined as GPP: "The general ability of the body as a machine to produce work of different intensity and duration using the appropriate energy system of the body."
Homeostatic Performance Training (HPT)
In my work with the military, I've been asked to prepare soldiers for a "worst day scenario." This request led me to my own question: What if the "worst day" is three days long?
This forced me to address the inherent weaknesses present in most GPP plans, leading me to embrace a more balanced approach to GPP-style training.
The system I use with clients is called Homeostatic Performance Training (HPT). The HPT approach is a blend of periodization techniques, dedicated strength, power elements, and energy system training. It's a complicated but effective system, one heavily influenced by Supertraining.
HPT uses a two-part approach to develop multi-modal anaerobic and aerobic conditioning. This is intended to achieve an optimal training effect while mitigating the negative byproducts and training scars associated with either glycolytic or oxidative training. Achieving a homeostatic balance is the ultimate objective in my system.
The first step in the HPT approach is establishing your baseline oxidative energy system using the MAF formula discussed earlier. The 180-age formula should be used while training the aerobic energy system.
For you folks with fitness ADD, you can still use kettlebells, barbell complexes, plyometrics, and gymnastics when training this system.
However, load, volume, and rep schemes may need to be manipulated to keep your heart rate under your MAF benchmark. I like to maintain a balance in clients' prescribed high intensity (glycolytic) and low/moderate intensity (oxidative) work. The minimum homeostatic work ratio of 1:1 is required to prevent injury, maintain health, and ensure client progress.
If a trainee has difficulty recovering due to an inordinate amount of stress outside the gym and/or has difficulty managing training stress, this ratio may increase.
For example, if a client is over 35 years of age, has nervous tension and a poorly trained oxidative pathway (1 mile @ 180-age = 10:00+.), the ratio can be increased from 1:1 to 1:2.
These ratios are calculated on a weekly basis dependent upon total training volume.
The first integer in the ratios relates to the cumulative time a trainee spends training hard efforts each week (excluding dedicated strength training).
Hard effort workouts are powerful stressors that cause systemic disruption on a cellular level. These disruptions can be managed by offsetting these hard efforts with MAF based-active rest and recovery workouts.
MAF type workouts are best used as active recovery the day after a hard effort. Part of the effectiveness of this type of training is in its ability to mitigate the effects of hard effort training, which allows trainees to train more frequently.
Some of the MAF workouts I use look like this:
Mousetrap 2.0
30-60 minute max rounds:
1 Barbell complex of:
5 Stiff leg deadlifts
5 Bent over rows
5 Power cleans
5 Front squats
5 Push presses
5 Sandbag get-ups
.5 mile Airdyne
The weights on this workout are subjective due to your level of aerobic conditioning. I used 65 pounds on the barbell complex and a 60-pound sandbag – 40 minutes was more than enough for me!
Patient Zero
30-60 minute max rounds
4 Prowler pushes
8 Kettlebell swings
12 Sit-ups
24 Step-ups
Thai Hooker and a Bag of Dope (Not that I condone either)
30-60 minute max rounds:
Barbell complex of:
4 Romanian deadlift
4 Squat clean
4 Press
4 Walks
One walk = a power clean with an 80-pound sandbag, place it on a shoulder, and pick up a 55-pound dumbbell in the other hand. Now walk 45 feet and drop the sand bag and place the dumbbell on the deck. Repeat on opposite shoulder and hand.
4 Strict pull-ups
Row 500m
Get Your GPP On!
These sessions are a shadowy reflection of many of the hard effort programs out there today. However, the methodology here is novel due to the scientific methods used to determine exactly what we're training at a given time.
This element is what separates HPT from all other run of the mill programs. I've experienced a much higher client compliance rate and zero serious injuries since implementing these procedures. This has led to overall performance gains that have been superior to the stand-alone hard effort training programs previously used.
While this is only one facet of the HPT program, it could provide you with a powerful tool to combat overtraining, coupled with potential improvements in cardiorespiratory endurance.
At the very least it should help some athletes manage their training volume and intensity in a healthy and sustainable fashion.
ReferencesNick Diaz’s suspension wasn’t a joke, the ultimate death sentence for an athlete. Diaz failed a drug test prior to the fight with Anderson Silva, in which he lost. Shocking to find both fighters doping with illegal substances, as Silva has a 1 year suspension himself for the fight. Except ‘The Spider’ and Diaz didn’t necessarily use the same ‘style’ of drugs. This is where this gets hard to believe. Silva, the legend, the all time best fighter, was caught using steroids which can ultimately change the result of sports (let’s say). It’s well known that performance enhancing drugs are not fair, to say the least.
Diaz on the other hand, and wait for it, received a 5 year suspension and over $100,000 fine for, keep waiting, you really won’t believe it, WEED. Yes the enhancing drug that boosts laziness, sleep, hunger and overall lower cognitive skills. Nick Diaz will probably never fight again, for using a ‘drug’ that is legal in 23 states. At first this seemed to be a joke, but indeed it is completely serious. Now this is Diaz’s 3rd strike, and well the 3 strike law here in America is nothing to mess with. But this is a complete joke, a man loses his career over a plant that does nothing to help him in a fight. While the winner of the fight only loses 1 year for a drug that helped him win!
Best of all, Diaz was tested 3 times, passing 2 of the tests from the world anti-doping agency. To be fair in those 2 tests there were traces of THC but not nearly enough to fail. The test that trumped Nick ‘The Cheater’ Diaz was household friendly Quest Diagnostic Lab’s! The household lab for your blood work at home. These guys are responsible for ending a sports career for a drug, that remember, is legal in 23 states!
There isn’t much that can be done at this point, except sympathize with a guy who liked to take the edge off after getting an ass whooping.Now that Twitter plans to go public, its future could depend on its ability to target advertising more finely.
Twitter began selling promoted tweets in 2010, but it has always faced challenges in knowing which of those ads should be delivered to which Twitter accounts. Most Twitter users don’t give up their locations, and many don’t reveal their identities in their profiles. And mining tweets themselves for insights is hard because the language is not only short but filled with slang and abbreviations.
Now, as Twitter plans to sell shares to the public, its success will depend in part on how much better it can get at deciphering tweets. Solving that technological puzzle would help Twitter get better at selling the right promoted messages at the right times, and it could possibly lead to new revenue-producing services.
Twitter hasn’t done badly so far; the analyst firm eMarketer predicts ad revenue will double this year, to $583 million. But the company is still trying to get smarter about analyzing tweets. It has bought startups such as Bluefin Labs, which can tell which TV show—and even which precise airing of a TV advertisement—people have tweeted about (see “A Social-Media Decoder”). It has also invested in companies such as Trendly, a Web analytics provider that reveals how promoted tweets are being read and shared. And just last week, Twitter blogged that it is continually running experiments on how to do better at tasks such as suggesting relevant content.
For its next steps, Twitter might consider tapping the latest academic research. Here are some areas it could concentrate on.
Location
Fewer than 1 percent of tweets are “geotagged,” or voluntarily labeled by users with location coördinates. Much of the time, Twitter can use your computer’s IP address and get a good approximation. But that’s not the same as knowing where you are. In mobile computing, IP addresses are reassigned frequently—and some people take steps to obscure their true IP address.
But recent research has shown that the locations of friends—defined as people you follow on Twitter who are also following you—can be used to infer your location to within 10 kilometers half the time. It turns out that many Twitter friends live near one another, says David Jurgens, a computer scientist at Sapienza University of Rome, who did this research while at HRL Laboratories in Malibu, California. If some of your friends have made geotagged tweets or revealed their location in a Twitter profile, Jurgens says, that may be enough to show where you probably are.
Demographics
Natural-language processing gets better all the time. Hundreds of markers—word choices, abbreviations, slang terms, and letter and punctuation combinations—signify ever-finer strata of demographic groups and their interests.
Some things, like political leanings, are often not hard to figure out from the right hashtags or from sentiments associated with terms like “Obamacare,” says Dan Weld, a computer scientist at the University of Washington.
Meanwhile, Derek Ruths, a computer scientist who explores natural-language processing at McGill University, has recently shown that linguistic cues can identify U.S. Twitter users’ political orientation with 70 to 90 percent accuracy and can even identify their age (within five years) with 80 percent accuracy. For example, words that most strongly suggest someone is between the ages of 25 and 30 include “for,” “on”, “photo,” “I’m,” and “just,” he says. Generally, these users have a somewhat stronger allegiance to grammar than younger, slang-loving users, he says. And as with location, the profiles of the people they follow provide clues to their demographics.
But even if Twitter can make pretty good guesses about 90 percent of its users, “even missing 10 percent means you miss a lot of people,” says Ruths. “If I were Twitter, I’d want to close that 10 percent gap. And you’d want to find out real details like who someone’s mother is. If it’s Mom’s birthday, you want to tell those people how to order flowers. Twitter can’t do that—yet.”
Making Sense of Breaking News
One of the major uses of Twitter is to report on breaking news events (see “Can Twitter Make Money?”). With so many people tweeting little nuggets of news and other current information, tools have even been built to tease out play-by-play sports action (see “Researchers Turn Twitter into Real-Time Sports Commentator”).
But in major emergencies—like a terrorist attack or earthquake—so many tweets are generated that making sense of them in real time is tricky. Twitter might highlight the most meaningful ones, to cement itself as a must-visit service, but how?
A group at the University of Colorado, Boulder, is using natural-language processing to highlight the most relevant tweets in a disaster. Recent research shows significant progress in differentiating tweets about personal reflections, emotional expressions, or prayers from ones containing hard information about where a fire is burning or whether medical supplies are needed.
In one project, the group was able to identify valuable, news-containing tweets with 80 percent accuracy; these tend to contain language that is formal, objective, and lacking in personal pronouns. Last year they extended that work to classify the important tweets by categories such as damage reports, requests for aid, and advice. “We are trying to figure out which tweets have the most useful information to the people on the ground,” says Martha Palmer, a professor of linguistics and computer science at Boulder.NASA Science Update to Discuss Mars Atmosphere Activity
Michael Meyer, Mars program lead scientist, NASA Headquarters in Washington
Michael Mumma, senior planetary scientist and director, Goddard Center for Astrobiology, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
Geronimo Villanueva, planetary scientist and astrobiologist, Goddard Space Flight Center
Sushil Atreya, professor of atmospheric and space science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Lisa Pratt, professor of geological sciences, Indiana University in Bloomington
Nancy Neal JonesGoddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.301-286-0039Dwayne BrownHeadquarters, Washington202-358-1726MEDIA ADVISORY: M09-005WASHINGTON -- NASA will hold a science update at 2 p.m. EST, Thursday, Jan. 15, to discuss analysis of the Martian atmosphere that raises the possibility of life or geologic activity. The briefing will take place in the James E. Webb Memorial Auditorium at NASA Headquarters, 300 E St., S.W., Washington, and carried live on NASA Television.The briefing participants are:Reporters may ask questions from participating NASA locations. They also may listen or ask questions by phone. To reserve a phone line, contact J.D. Harrington at 202-358-5241.For information about NASA TV, streaming video, downlink and schedule information, visit: > NASA TV For more information about Mars missions, visit: > NASA's Mars Web siteIt’s another revolutionary season in American politics, with voters preparing to do everything they can within the structure of the law to throw out the bad guys and the bad system they represent. The focus is on this amorphous thing called the Tea Party, which embodies a huge range of political impulses from libertarian to authoritarian, united under the common belief that everything is going wrong in Washington, with a common goal of upending the status quo.
Candidates that the Republican Party doesn’t like are making big inroads into the party structure and, quite possibly, the election itself. That is fun to watch. The wind at their backs is the spectacular — but wholly predictable — failure of the Obama administration’s economic witchcraft. Trillions and trillions created and spent and yet the suffering endures.
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The health-care bill is also a source of American public anger. People are not deceived into believing that whatever reforms we are getting are going to fix the problems of the current system; they will make them worse. As it is, the freedom remaining in the system is the only reason that the system serves us at all. Take that away, and you take away a lifeline.
The revolt, then, is in high gear. It’s not the first time, and it won’t be the last. The governed have long been very unhappy about the government, and they periodically wake up and seek to change it. It’s been some 16 years since the last go-round of such revolutionary sentiment. It is arguably stronger today than it was back in 1994.
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The good aspects of this have nothing to do with political outcomes, despite what people believe. The political environment focuses the mind on important issues like freedom, economics, culture, power and its uses, and the role of the state. As they debate with their neighbors, follow election coverage, listen to the candidates, and watch the process, people learn and study and, most importantly, think and rethink.
If you begin with a skeptical attitude toward the government, watching and thinking can lead to a radicalization and ultimate embrace of a consistent opposition to government involvement. This is why election season always ends up creating a huge flood of new libertarians who buy books, feel the inspiration to get active (perhaps for the first time), and dedicate themselves to reducing the power of the state in whatever way they can.
If American politics can be said to contribute anything to American culture, it is this educational aspect that stands out. The elections focus the mind and lead people to a new consciousness. Ideally, that consciousness would dawn without politicians and elections and all the apparatus of the season. And yet people are busy in normal times, dealing with regular life; it is the very urgency of the election that gives rise to the concern in the first place.
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You might as well know right now, however, that the Tea Party, no matter how successful it is at the polls in November, will certainly betray the party of liberty. There are several reasons for this, but the fundamental one is intellectual. The Tea Party does not have a coherent view of liberty. Its activists tend to be good on specific economic issues like taxes, spending, stimulus, and health care. They worry about government intervention in these areas and can talk a good game.
But just as with old-time conservatives, there are many issues on which the Tea Party tends toward inconsistency. The military and the issue of war is a major one. Many have bought into the line that the greatest threat this country faces domestically is the influx of adherents of Islam; in international politics, they tend to favor belligerence toward any regime that is not a captive of U.S. political control.
On immigration, the Tea Party ethos favors national IDs and draconian impositions on businesses rather than market solutions like cutting welfare. On social and cultural issues, they can be as confused as the Christian right, believing that it is the job of government to right all wrongs and punish sin.
Speaking of Liberty Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr. Best Price: $1.80 Buy New $2.40 (as of 04:50 EST - Details)
This doesn’t describe them all. A poll taken last spring divides the activists into two camps: Palin and Paul. Both groups are mad as heck at the mainstream Republican party, but only the Paul camp has broadened that anger to the government generally.
Such are the philosophical problems. Just as telling are the structural problems in politics that lead all political candidates toward the center as a matter of maximizing votes. It’s always the same. They count on their base to show up and vote for them, however reluctantly. It’s the voters in the middle who get their attention. This is why all candidates tend to water down their positions after the primaries, that, and to get funding from the corporatists allied with both parties.
The larger problem occurs once they take office. Here is where the serious problems begin. They are leaned on by their new colleagues, the party elites, related financial interests, the press, and the entire system of which they are now part. Are they going to make themselves enemies of that system, or are they going to work within the system in order to achieve reform, and not just for one term but more terms down the line? Doing a good job means being part of the structure; doing a bad job means being an enemy of the very system that they now serve.
Which choice do they make? The same choice that everyone else in office makes (Ron Paul being the lone exception in all of human history). It is for this reason that newly seated “revolutionary” politicians will betray those who put them in power. It happens like clockwork, same as day turns to night.
Some good can still come out of the results, if only because former ideologues can serve as some resistance to really bad policy. The new Congress that was seated after the 1994 election certainly curbed the ambitions of the Clinton administration for a time. But avoiding greater evil is not the same as doing good. We can state with confidence, all else being equal, that even the best electoral outcome will not lead to actual cuts in the power of government over our lives.
That doesn’t mean that all is for naught. What will change the prospects for freedom in this country is a growing and society-wide awareness of the issue of freedom and the role of the state in wrecking that freedom, and the civilization to which it gives rise.
The Best of Lew Rockwell
The Best of Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.Often deemed too small by NHL scouts and executives, undersized players frequently have a harder time breaking into the National Hockey League. Many are overlooked and go undrafted since they do not fit the traditional mold of a professional hockey player. However, smaller players have found their way into the NHL and made history. Smaller players like Martin St. Louis, Theo Fleury, Rod Gilbert, Marcel Dionne, Ted Lindsay, and Henri Richard were all of smaller stature, but pushed the boundaries and became essential to their teams and transformed NHL standards.
Below are ten of the smallest hockey players, all under 5’10’’ that have proven to be successful in the NHL, despite the challenge of being undersized.
Torey Krug, Boston Bruins
Vital statistics: 5’9″, 186 pounds
Krug played his college career at Michigan State University. There, he demonstrated his dominant play as an offensive defenseman, which led to him being named a Hobey Baker Award finalist. Although he was undrafted, after his college career he was a highly sought-after free agent. The Boston Bruins ultimately signed Krug in 2012.
Joining the Bruins in the Spring of 2012, he played in two regular season games. The following season he played with the Providence Bruins, and only played one regular season game in Boston. However, he made his playoff debut that spring and scored his first NHL goal in his first game. He went on to play 15 games of the Bruins Stanley Cup run that year.
Since then, he has been a key part of the Bruins blue line. The 27-year-old has 235 career points (52 goals, 183 assists) in 398 career regular season games and 28 points (nine goals, 19 assists) in 38 career playoff games. This season was Krug’s best season yet, as he earned 59 points (14 goals, 45 assists) in 76 regular season games.
Brad Marchand, Boston Bruins
Vital statistics: 5’9″, 181 pounds
Brad Marchand was drafted 71st overall by the Boston Bruins in 2006 and joined the team in 2008. He played a significant part in the Bruins 2011 Stanley Cup win, as he scored 19 points (11 goals, eight assists) in 25 playoff games during those playoffs.
This season, Marchand had another career year with 85 points (34 goals, 51 assists) in only 68 games – this was after finishing sixth overall in points in the NHL last season. Those 85 points added to his overall career total of 459 points (226 goals, 233 assists) in 602 games played. Marchand’s impressive season only emphasized his worth to his team, as he re-signed with the Bruins to an eight year/$6.125 million (average annual value) contract in Sept. of 2016.
The 28-year-old winger has been suspended a number of times for his edgier plays. But by no means has this two-way forward changed his game due to his smaller stature.
Viktor Arvidsson, Nashville Predators
Vital statistics: 5’9″, 180 pounds
Arvidsson was drafted by the Predators 112th overall in 2014 after playing with Skellefteå AIK of the Swedish Hockey League. He signed his entry-level contract with the Predators that July, which expires at the end of this season.
He was first recalled to the Predators from their AHL affiliate, the Milwaukee Admirals, in 2015. Since joining the Predators, he has emerged as a key player and accumulated 138 points (68 goals, 70 assists) in 220 games. Last season was a break out year for the 24-year-old, as he scored 61 points (31 goals, 30 assists) and has continued to contribute in the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs with 13 points (three goals, 10 assists) in 22 games.
He followed that up with another productive season scoring 61 points again (29 goals, 32 assists). During the regular season, Arvidsson was successful in generating offense and led his team in a number of categories, including his goals per 60 of 1.12, individual corsi for per 60 of 19.48, and individual shots for for per 60 of 11.42 (data is at 5v5 from Corsica.hockey).
Jared Spurgeon, Minnesota Wild
Vital statistics: 5’9″, 168 pounds
Spurgeon is one of the smallest defensemen in the NHL in terms of height and weight. Even without the size of the traditional defenseman, Spurgeon has found a place in the league thanks to his impressive skating and puck movement.
Drafted 156th overall in 2008 by the New York Islanders, Spurgeon signed with the Minnesota Wild in 2010 after the Islanders did not sign him. Since joining the Wild, Spurgeon has scored 205 career points (56 goals, 149 assists) in 509 games played. This season was one of his best yet, with 0.61 points per game (9 goals, 28 assists) in 61 games.
Spurgeon was consistently the Wild’s best offensive defenseman this season. If his scoring was not indicative enough of his offensive contributions, his high 57.25 Corsi for per 60, 33.89 shots for per 60, and 53.84 scoring chances for percentage are. (data is at 5v5 from Corsica.hockey).
Johnny Gaudreau, Calgary Flames
Vital statistics: 5’9″, 157 pounds
Throughout his hockey career, Gaudreau has been doubted due to his appearance, but has consistently proven himself, despite his small size.
Before joining the Calgary Flames, who drafted Gaudreau 104th overall in 2011, he played college hockey with the Boston College Eagles. In his sophomore year, he was named a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award. Although he did not win in 2013, he was awarded the Hobey Baker Award after his junior year.
Gaudreau joined the Flames after his junior year season ended with the Eagles to play the final game of the regular season. On his first shot on goal in his NHL debut, he scored his first goal. He played his rookie season the next year with the Flames and earned 64 points in 80 games (24 goals, 40 assists). He was named a finalist for the Calder Memorial Trophy due to his impressive rookie season.
Through the 24-year-old’s 312 game career, Gaudreau has 288 points (97 goals, 191 assists). This was his best season so far scoring 84 points (24 goals, 60 assists). He was re-signed by the Flames to a six year/$6.75 million AAV contract in Oct. of 2016.
Tyler Johnson, Tampa Bay Lightning
Vital statistics: 5’8″, 183 pounds
Johnson went undrafted, which may have been due to his smaller stature, but was signed to an entry-level contract by the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2011. In his first season he played for the Lightning’s AHL affiliate, which then was the Norfolk Admirals, and contributed to their Calder Cup victory.
He was recalled by the |
if offers a $2.99-a-month subscriber option and a $6.99-a-month "supporter" option. Neither is needed to see the content.
Its approach? "If you use it, if you like it, then why not pay for it? It's only fair." But as the old adage goes, life isn't fair. Just this week, The Guardian announced yet another round of layoffs following big cuts last year. It is burning through money – and its stockpile of funds built up over the last century is rapidly diminishing.
Big difference
Here's the thing though: The Guardian is an internationally recognized newspaper with hundreds of journalists; Medium isn't. And for your $6.99 a month, you actually get something: all ads are removed, you get occasional premium material, crosswords, access to a 200-year archive of news – and if you are in London, tickets to events where interesting people speak.
Medium is offering literally nothing beyond promises:
Future "exclusive stories from leading experts" – um, who? On what? And when?
Early access to "a new Medium experience" – they are going to revamp their homepage. You'll get to see it earlier.
Personal, offline reading list – you can save stories to a queue.
We can pretty much guarantee Medium that no one outside a few over-paid techies living in SoMa or Palo Alto is going to think that represents good value for $5 a month. The whole idea is doomed to failure.
So what are its options? It can try the Forbes route where it is more open about how it will pay contributors – according to the hits they produce. But Forbes has massive brand awareness, which makes that work. It's also worth noting that its credibility has been taking a hit for some time over the junk journalism that a hit-based reward model encourages.
And there is the Business Insider model, where you literally sell yourself to companies. We predict this will end in misery sooner rather than later if a recent article is anything to go by. The headline: "This bathrobe is so popular there's a 2,000-person waitlist for it."
It is every bit as bad as you might expect, and while Business Insider notes that it itself "gets a share of the revenue from your purchase," it doesn't note that the headline is ridiculous. We checked it out: there is no waitlist.
Make a choice
Medium's CEO Ev Williams has specifically ruled out this kind of corporate whoring and the new membership page argues that people need to sign up in order to "deliver the right type of content: the type that can only be created when independent writers and publishers are rewarded based on value rather than clicks."
What else can Medium do? Well, a smart move would be to start offering above-market freelance rates so professional journalists are drawn to the site. It could then adopt a Forbes+ model where it uses people's competitive spirits to pitch amateur writers against professional journalists and offer them rewards – a combination of money and status – to encourage quality.
But it would still need a revenue model that works. And that has to be either ad-based or subscription. So, Mr Williams, pick one and build your strategy around it. And do it fast before the money runs out: your days of VC-funded fun are over. ®1 Ron Vlaar in action for Aston Villa
Aston Villa captain Ron Vlaar insists he is not thinking about a proposed move to Manchester United and says he has already held talks with manager Paul Lambert over signing a new deal.
Vlaar has been one of the stand out players for the Midlands club during a difficult spell under Lambert and has been strongly linked with a switch to Old Trafford.
With former Holland coach Louis van Gaal taking over United during the summer, the Dutch connection has only intensified talk of a big-money transfer when the window re-opens in January.
But Vlaar says there have been no discussions over a move away from Villa Park and he has already started preliminary talks over a new contract, with his current one set to run out at the end of the season.
Vlaar said: “I have nothing to say because there is nothing going on.
“I have spoken to the gaffer a few times [about a new deal] but that is it so far.”
Vlaar is convinced Aston Villa can now turn their season around following a miserable run which featured a run of six consecutive defeats.
The Midlands club came away with a well-earned point against high flying West Ham last Saturday at Upton Park.
And Vlaar feels the spirit they showed will stand them in good stead as they look to move away from the foot of the table.
“We know we needed to change something and it started with the determination we showed against West Ham,” said the 29-year-old. “It was a positive result for us. We can’t think that we are not good enough to do that and that is a good start.”Photo: Keith Johnston
I tend to be a disgruntled sports parent.
I get concerned about the ways our culture obsesses about young people’s performance. It only takes a walk to a local park to witness the myriad of parental anxiety and dysfunction that plays out on the sidelines. Sports have such potential to build character, perseverance, and skill. Sometimes they succeed, and other times coaches, parents, and mobs of hot-or-cold fans burn out or puff up kids and teenagers in quite damaging ways.
While trying to figure out how to be a different kind of sports parent myself, I stumbled across work by student leadership development expert Tim Elmore. In it he discusses research on what parents can say both before and after the game to encourage their kids, without centering everything on performance (either positively or negatively). Based on psychologists’ recommendations, Elmore suggests the following as the healthiest statements parents can make as kids perform:
Before the Competition:
Have fun.
Play hard.
I love you.
After the competition:
Did you have fun?
I’m proud of you.
I love you.
It gets even better. Researchers asked collegiate athletes what their parents said that made them feel great and brought them joy when they played sports. Want to know the six words they most want to hear their parents say?
“I love to watch you play.”
That’s it. Nothing aggrandizing like “you’re an all-star,” and nothing instructive like “here are a couple of things I noticed that you can work on.” Just “I love to watch you play.”
Want to know the six words athletes most want to hear their parents say? “I love to watch you play.” That’s it. (tweet that)
As I gear up for soccer, band concerts, baseball, swimming, and everything else I’ll be watching my three kids do this year, I’m internalizing these six words. I’m sure I’ll say other things, some that are helpful and some that aren't.
But I want my kids to hear that doing what they do, and learning about who God created them to be, is a joy to watch as it unfolds.
Related reading:
Talk more with your family about digital media.
Purchase NowAfter spending his entire campaign attacking immigrants and their families and promising to ban Muslims from entering the country, Republican Party nominee Donald Trump’s own wife appears to have some inconsistencies in her immigration story.
After nude photos surfaced of the former model, questions surfaced about the terms under which she came to the United States. Mr. Trump said that his wife came to the United States legally. Her comments, however, indicate she came to the U.S. with a short-term visa, which would have prohibited her from working as a model, according to a Politico investigation.
Trump also said that Mrs. Trump arrived in the country in 1996, however, the recent photos were taken in 1995. A biography published about Mrs. Trump in February by Slovenian journalists also says that Mrs. Trump arrived in the U.S. in 1995. The Trumps were also was caught lying about her college graduation, claiming that she got a degree in design and architecture from the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.
“After obtaining a degree in design and architecture at University in Slovenia, Melania was jetting between photo shoots in Paris and Milan, finally settling in New York in 1996,” CBS News quote from her website, which has now been deleted.
“It never crossed my mind to stay here without papers. That is just the person you are,” Mrs. Trump told Harper’s Bazaar in January. “You follow the rules. You follow the law. Every few months you need to fly back to Europe and stamp your visa. After a few visas, I applied for a green card and got it in 2001.”
It has been widely reported that Mrs. Trump came to the United States on an H1-B visa, which Mr. Trump has had a difficult time deciding if he supports. His current position is that he opposes them, claiming that he will crack down on them.
“I will end forever the use of the H-1B as a cheap labor program, and institute an absolute requirement to hire American workers first for every visa and immigration program. No exceptions,” Mr. Trump’s own website quotes him telling Megyn Kelly in March.
Holding an H1-B visa is inconsistent with Mrs. Trump’s claims that she held a visa at all times because she would return to Slovenian and renew her visa every few months, as they are valid for three years and can be extended for six years.
“If, as she has said, Trump came to New York in 1996 and obtained a green card in 2001, she likely would not have had to return to Europe even once to renew an H-1B,” Politico reports from immigration attorneys and experts. Saying she had to return to Slovenia to renew the visa is what would have been required using a B-1 Temporary Business Visitor or B-2 Tourist Visa, neither of which would have allowed Mrs. Trump to be employed as a model in the United States. Doing so would not only constitute fraud but would also violate all immigration policies Donald Trump has advocated for the last year. The one exception is for certain domestic servants who come to the United States with their employers. There is no exception for models.
Committing visa fraud would also question Mrs. Trump’s green card application and ultimate citizenship application. It isn’t unheard of for those immigrating to the United States to have visa complications, particularly in the modeling industry. Politico cites Sara Ziff, founder of the Model Alliance, which advocates for fair labor practices for models in the fashion industry, who explained that many companies will bring in foreign talent and have them work illegally under tourist or temporary business visas.
The timeline continues to be inconsistent as Mrs. Trump gives interviews where she seemingly changes the story each time. The nude photos were taken in 1995 for the January 1996 version of a now defunct French magazine. Photographer Alé de Basseville confirmed that the photos were shot in a studio in Manhattan and that he met Mrs. Trump through a Paris-based modeling agency with offices in New York.
Italian businessman Paolo Zampolli sponsored Mrs. Trump’s entry into the United States, and said that she would have entered on an H1-B visa or an O-1 visa. The O-1 is for those who have “extraordinary abilities” such as sports stars or well-known actors. Mrs. Trump didn’t qualify as either at the time.
The Trump campaign told Politico, “Melania followed all applicable laws and is now a proud citizen of the United States.”
The Trump campaign banned Politico in March after reporter Ben Schreckinger was blocked from a press conference Trump gave in Florida. It followed a story Schrekinger wrote about then-campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. Schrekinger was escorted off the Mar-a-Lago club property.
UPDATE: Melania Trump tweeted the following statement on Thursday morning seen below.NEW YORK CITY -- Children who overestimate their popularity are less likely to be bullies than those who underestimate or hold more accurate assessments of their social standing, finds new research to be presented at the 108th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association.
"The more kids overestimated their popularity, the less aggression they displayed," said Jennifer Watling Neal, an assistant professor of psychology at Michigan State University. "This means that kids who were more accurate in their assessment of their number of friends or who underestimated their quantity of friends compared to peer report were more aggressive."
Past research has suggested that children who believe they are more competent or well liked than their peers or teachers view them are more aggressive. "But our research suggests there are certain types of positive perceptual biases that have a 'bright side,'" said Neal, who co-authored the study with Elise Cappella, an assistant professor of applied psychology at New York University. "When kids say they have more friends than their peers say they have, those children are actually less aggressive."
This finding was true for both overtly (e.g., hitting, kicking, or threatening to beat up others) and relationally (e.g., excluding others or spreading rumors) aggressive behavior.
The study relied on a survey of 421, mostly African American, second through fourth graders from five public elementary schools in an urban midwestern city. The survey, which was administered in individual classrooms, provided students with the opportunity to identify their friends and the friends of their peers in the class in which they were surveyed. Students also identified classmates who were bullies.
"Children who overestimated their popularity compared to peer report were less likely to be nominated by their peers as overtly or relationally aggressive," Neal said.
The researchers said there could be several reasons why students who overestimate their popularity do not feel the need to bully others. "Kids who overestimate their social connections may also perceive that more peers are watching and judging their behaviors," Neal said. "Children may be less likely to engage in aggressive behaviors that may be observed by, and place into jeopardy, their perceived social connections."
Another possible reason is that students who overestimate their social connections may be nice, sociable kids who believe they are friends with everyone. "On the other hand, aggressive children -- especially those who use forms of aggression such as rumor spreading -- may be more exclusive in who they report as their friends, leading to less overestimation," Neal said.
As for why some students overestimate their social connections, Neal said, "Kids naturally vary in their ability to accurately perceive classroom social connections and their own social positions in the classroom. It's not surprising that some children think they have a lot more friends than they actually do."
###
About the American Sociological Association
The American Sociological Association, founded in 1905, is a non-profit membership association dedicated to serving sociologists in their work, advancing sociology as a science and profession, and promoting the contributions to and use of sociology by society.
The paper, "The Bright Side of Positive Perceptual Bias: Children's Estimations of Network Centrality and Aggression," will be presented on Monday, Aug. 12, at 4:30 p.m. EDT in New York City at the American Sociological Association's 108th Annual Meeting.
To obtain a copy of the paper; for assistance reaching the study's author(s); or for more information on other ASA presentations, members of the media can contact Daniel Fowler, ASA's Media Relations and Public Affairs Officer, at (202) 527-7885 or pubinfo@asanet.org. During the Annual Meeting (Aug. 10-13), ASA's Public Information Office staff can be reached in the on-site press office, located in the Hilton New York Midtown's Clinton Room, at (212) 333-6362 or (914) 450-4557 (cell).
This press release was written by Marco Siragusa, ASA Public Information Office.
Papers presented at the ASA Annual Meeting are typically working papers that have not yet been published in peer reviewed journals.They dressed in several layers of clothing or donned old hats. They carried blankets and cardboard boxes. It was approaching midnight in New York one night in March 2005, and recruits who had been paid $100 each to pretend to be homeless were fanning out across the city.
There were 58 sites dotted throughout the metropolis. Pseudo-homeless people arrived at subway stations in Manhattan, back alleys in Staten Island and Queens, the front steps of a church in the Bronx.
Then they waited to see if anyone noticed them.
The actors were taking part in a peculiar experiment led by Kim Hopper, a researcher then at the Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research. The purpose: to analyze the effectiveness of the city’s count of homeless people.
Hopper and his colleagues found that actors at almost one in three of the sites reported being missed by counters. And these were people who wanted to be counted. They did not include the swaths of genuinely homeless ensconced in corners of the city. “Invisibility serves the purpose of security and uninterrupted sleep,” the researchers noted.
Just over a decade later, questions remain about the reliability of America’s biennial street count of homeless people, an extraordinary undertaking in which thousands of volunteers head out into the darkness in cities, forests and deserts around the country.
It still takes place mostly at night, relying on volunteers who are often equipped with nothing more sophisticated than clipboards, pencils and flashlights.
But supporters of the count, which is run by local communities in return for federal dollars and may be the largest tally of homeless people in the world, argue that it is a crucial mechanism to keep track of people who often exist outside of government bureaucracy.
Even if the figures are open to question, they provide a window into the landscape of America’s homelessness problem – and a sense of how it is changing over time.
“The bottom line is that it’s imperfect, but I don’t know that we could do a better job,” said Dennis Culhane, a University of Pennsylvania researcher and a principal investigator on the homelessness reports that are presented to Congress annually.
The most recent report found that on one night there were 549,928 homeless people in America.
That figure has gradually declined across the nation over the past decade, although homelessness appears particularly entrenched in western states. Of the 10 states with the highest rates of homelessness, seven are in the western half of the country.
Today the Guardian launches Outside in America, a year-long series focusing on the people and places scrambling to cope with a homelessness crisis across the west.
One in five homeless Americans live in California, where the problem is especially acute. In the Golden State and three other western states – Hawaii, Nevada and Oregon – more than 50% of homeless people are categorized as unsheltered, meaning they are living in the streets, vehicles or parks, in places not fit for humans to stay. In New York, by comparison, the number is less than 5%.
City services are overwhelmed. After torrential rains in San Francisco last week, the shelter wait list for single adults reached a record 1,126 people, according to Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness in San Francisco.
“We have this emergence of a very visible and very large homeless population in the shadow of tremendous affluence,” she said. “As folks are forced to remain on the streets for longer and longer, they’re really disintegrating. They’re developing more severe mental illnesses and more severe medical disorders, and losing limbs and in wheelchairs.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Homeless people sleep in the pews at St Boniface Catholic Church as part of the Gubbio Project in San Francisco. Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian
The homelessness problem appears especially severe in cities in the grip of soaring real estate markets. Places such as Seattle and Portland have declared states of emergency to deal with the crisis as they would a natural disaster, while the Los Angeles area, where 43,854 people were counted last year, has the largest number of homeless people in the region.
The 4,000-square-mile count that covers most of LA County is the nation’s largest. It includes one of the most concentrated communities of unsheltered homeless people in the country: Skid Row.
During this year’s count, Skid Row volunteers were forced to walk in the middle of the road as the sidewalks were blocked by jumbles of tents and lean-tos. People lay prone in sleeping bags, with cardboard boxes over their heads for a modicum of privacy.
“Four! Five! Six!” announced one of the counters, the numbers mounting almost without cease.
A barefoot woman in a bathrobe was bent over and scraping at the ground under a lamppost with her walking stick. A grizzled man almost ran into the volunteers and trilled “uh oh”.
“You’ll see a whole lot of that,” said Lydell Londo, a formerly homeless man who struggled with a drug addiction and lived on Skid Row for about a year and a half and had joined the counters. “A whole lot of craziness.”
The shimmering skyscrapers of downtown Los Angeles loomed overhead, but on Skid Row many of the grimy buildings were dark. All the life was on the streets.
Counting homeless people here is disconcertingly easy; volunteers estimated they had tallied about 275 homeless people in only eight square blocks.
The idea of carrying out a national count emerged at the same time as the modern incarnation of American homelessness: the early 1980s. The country was in a recession, mental healthcare was in the midst of a decades-long process of being deinstitutionalized, and cuts by Ronald Reagan weakened the safety net – the budget for low-income housing assistance was cut in half during his first year in office.
The government created a new homelessness program within the Federal Emergency Management Agency. “We put it in an emergency agency and we gave it an emergency-sounding name,” said Mark Johnston, who administered homelessness programs at the Department of Housing and Urban Development for 25 years. A few years later, “we realized that this is not an economic blip of a recession in the Reagan era. This thing has roots. It’s going to stay around.”
At the time, some activists opposed the idea of counting homeless people, arguing that doing so would inevitably produce an inaccurately low number, enabling policymakers to cut back on services. In 1990, homelessness advocates dumped sand outside the US Department of Commerce and placed signs reading, “Counting the homeless is like counting grains of sand.”
Despite criticisms, the outdoor counts prevailed and gradually became an enduring event taking place in the last 10 days of January across the country every other year.
In addition to tallying people living on the streets, organizers also include those who are in emergency shelters or temporary housing.
But counting homeless people outside of places such as Skid Row can be complicated. During this year’s count in Hawaii – the state with the highest per-capita rate of homelessness in America – volunteers fanned out across the islands to count homeless residents.
Its homeless population has soared 30% since 2007 in tandem with real estate prices – what some call the “paradise premium”.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest A volunteer interviews Charles and Raini Day Nippell, who say they recently arrived to the islands but are having medical difficulties, during the homeless count in Honolulu. Photograph: Liz Barney for the Guardian
At Waikiki Beach, Honolulu’s arc of white sand, social worker Colleen Nakamura watched as a man with matted gray hair passed by on the promenade, clutching a bulging grocery bag. Did it contain a recent purchase – or his worldly belongings? She made a judgment call. “No,” she mouthed to another volunteer.
That call – rightly or wrongly – will mean one less person on Hawaii’s count for 2017.
Another person who will be left off the tally is Chris Kauffman, 39, who sat in a gray minivan filled with bags of his possessions and surfboards on the outskirts of the neighborhood when he saw the volunteers walk past. He has been living in his vehicle for two years because he was unable to afford rent. He wouldn’t mind answering the survey, he said, but nobody had asked him. “I’m pretty smart,” he said softly. “I know where to sleep so the police don’t bother me.”
“I’ve never been of the opinion that the count is even close to the complete number of those who experience homelessness on a particular night,” said James Wright, a homelessness expert at the University of Central Florida who was a leader of the count in Orlando for about seven years. “It always gives me a chuckle when HUD” – the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which publishes the data – “reports it to six significant digits. It’s real misplaced precision.”
But Culhane, the University of Pennsylvania academic who aggregates the vast set of data, said federal officials are aware their figures provide only a snapshot. While the count identifies around half a million homeless Americans on a given night, Culhane uses data extrapolations to estimate that some 2 million Americans experience homelessness at some point over the course of a year.
For one in three, it lasts a week or less; for others it will be much longer.
Some advocates take a more expansive view and define the many people who are “doubled up”, unable to afford their own place to live and making do by sharing space with friends or family, as homeless.
Others say such people are merely “at risk” of homelessness. Either way, according to the US Census Bureau, this was 7 million people in poor households in 2014.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Two airmen investigate tracks in the snow during the homeless count in Anchorage in the early morning hours. Photograph: Ash Adams for the Guardian
Estimating the number of homeless Americans is by definition a fraught exercise. Doing so in winter, when many homeless people are huddled for warmth under freeway underpasses or inside cars, poses a particular problem.
It is especially challenging in Alaska, which has one of the largest per-capita homeless populations in the country, concentrated in Anchorage. More than 400 people in Alaska were unsheltered, in sub-Arctic weather, according to last year’s count.
About 5am one recent morning, volunteers including six air force airmen set out on foot along an unlit bike trail through a large forested area in the south-west of the city.
With flashlights they scanned for foot trails in the fresh snow that might lead to homeless camps. Given the temperature was just below 30F (-1C), they were also prepared to discover something worse.
Deceased homeless people have been discovered during expeditions such as these. Weeks later, spring snowmelt in Alaska has also been known to reveal the frozen bodies.
“When we have these big cold snaps like we did this winter, it’s not unheard of,” said Monica Stoesser, a social services worker who led the group. “It’s the reality of what sleeping in tents is like in Anchorage.”
The airmen waded through thigh-deep snow to an old camp, which was unoccupied. Next the volunteers came upon a well-traveled trail that wound into the spruce forest. At the end were two tents, both covered with tarps.
“Hello?” Stoesser called out. “Is there anybody home?’ There was no answer.
Additional reporting by Dan Hernandez in Las Vegas
This story was updated to remove an erroneous estimate of the number of unsheltered homeless people in Anchorage.David, Rosenberg, Merrill Lynch's chief North American economist, says the US Remains Firmly In Recession.
Merrill Lynch’s David Rosenberg, the first economist from a major bank to declare a US recession was underway back in early January, argues that recent unemployment figures show yet more evidence that the US economy is a deep recession.
My Comment
It is highly improbably for jobs to decline 7 consecutive months and to not be in recession. Now Canada is following suit with a shocking loss of 55,000 jobs in July. Please see Canada, Japan Head For Recession for more on the Canadian jobs story.
Pointing to last week’s news that employment has now declined for six months in a row, Mr Rosenberg, Merrill’s chief North American economist, says that “at no time in the past 50 years has this happened without the economy being in an official recession.”
My Comment
Americans need radical surgery to revive country's economy
The US economy is in recession. Period. And it has been in a recession since January. This is the mantra of David Rosenberg, the first Wall Street economist to predict America's current economic woes, back in January, and perhaps one of the most bearish in the economic fraternity.
"The path to financial ruin is littered with calls of a bottom, and I don't think you want to confuse intermediate bottoms with fundamental bottoms; I think that is quite a dangerous game to play," he warns. "I think what separates my call, say from the consensus, is that I don't necessarily think this is going to be a mild flash in the pan. I think this is going to be a long recession."
"This is an epic event; we're talking about the end of a 20-year secular credit expansion that went absolutely parabolic from 2001-2007."
But more importantly, Rosenberg argues, is what must take place in the household sector - a sector already ravaged by rising fuel prices, a stagnant housing market and rising levels of unemployment.
In spite of all those problems, Americans are beginning to reduce their debt exposure - as seen in the savings rate, which rose from 0.3pc to 2.6pc in the last three months, the third steepest quarterly increase since the Second World War.
Before the US economy can truly begin to expand again, Rosenberg believes the savings rate must rise to pre-bubble levels of 8pc, that the US housing stocks must fall to below eight months' supply, and that the household interest coverage ratio must fall from 14pc to 10.5pc.
"It's important to note what sort of surgery that is going to require. We will probably have to eliminate $2 trillion of household debt to get there," he predicts, saying this will happen either through debt being written off, as major financial institutions continue to do, or for consumers themselves to shrink their own "balance sheets".
"American households own more than $4 trillion of consumer durable goods. So something tells me that is going to be a venue for shrinking the household side of the balance sheet.
"We're talking about the silverware, the old antique couch in the basement, unwanted or expensive art," he goes on. "This is the future, the future is frugality.
This is the future, the future is frugality
Cool To Be Frugal
Attitude Changes Are The Key
Understanding Deflation
Oil Shock
Oil Shock
Deflation is Not Coming, Deflation is Here.
Credit is contracting by any reasonable measure. It would be contracting at a stunning rate if marked to market. And from a practical standpoint marked to market is how it must be considered, even if there is no direct measure (which I might add is on purpose). Instead it is still hidden in marked to fantasy level 3 assets and in SIVs and other off balance sheet vehicles. See Not Practical To Tell The Truth for this line of reasoning. M3 is simply not a reasonable measure of credit, nor is MZM. Inquiring minds will want read Bank Credit Is Contracting for more details.
Trillions of dollars of housing wealth has been wiped out, yet laughably some still talk of hyperinflation. There has never been a hyperinflation in history where land prices have fallen like they are now. In fact, there has never been hyperinflation where land prices have declined at all, barring some obscure war zone perhaps.
Bank writeoffs have hit $500 billion and $2 Trillion is coming. "Yes, That's $2 Trillion of Debt-Related Losses", says Nouriel Roubini.
The Printing Presses Are Gearing Up. Will It Matter?
To Scroll Thru My Recent Post ListUpdate: And just like that, this has already been confirmed. Some non-sheet photos have now surfaced, so we’ve added those in below.
Original: Many accessories have already been announced for Switch. Strangely though, we haven’t heard much of anything from HORI. However, Twitter user DroidXAce appears to have gotten his hands on some materials showing that the company has plenty of items lined up for Switch.
You can see the full lineup below. Accessories range from Zelda: Breath of the Wild-themed skin sets and accessory packs to a fight stick and chargers. They’re not confirmed just yet, but I can’t imagine that someone would go the trouble of faking all of these images. That surely wouldn’t happen… right?
Note that these are all officially licensed by Nintendo.
Source 1, Source 2
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PocketJürgen Klopp admits he is delighted with the manner in which his Liverpool side have developed over the course of 2017-18 to date, but warned it will count for nothing come kick off in the crucial Champions League tie with Spartak Moscow on Wednesday night.
The Reds know they can finish top of Group E with a victory over the Russian side in the final fixture of the initial stage of the tournament.
And they will head into it in fine form, with an unbeaten sequence extended to eight matches with Saturday’s resounding 5-1 win over Brighton & Hove Albion at the Amex Stadium.
Nevertheless, Klopp was keen to point out why he and his players can afford to take nothing for granted as they strive to reach the Champions League last 16.
He told his pre-match press conference at Anfield: “We are in a part of the season where we should see that we’ve worked together so far. There was no moment where we’ve had to make a completely new start, like saying, ‘OK, come on, forget everything we’ve did so far’.
“We had little drops and games which were not as good as we should have expected - Tottenham is the most obvious one because it was an 11 versus 11 situation, not like Man City with 10 versus 11. Yes, we had this but we’ve learned from it, that’s what we always try to do. That means unfortunately not too much for tomorrow night.
“Most of the things we are talking about like shape, moments and stuff like this is the past - and we need to prepare for tomorrow, so that’s different. I am really happy about it, but I cannot take it for granted, and the boys cannot take it for granted, we have to prove our quality every day, especially every matchday.
“Tomorrow is a very important match for us. I don’t want to make it bigger than it is but it is very big. With all the things around, with all the excitement and uncertainty before a game, and all the opportunities in the game, I am really happy about this opportunity.”
Liverpool boast an unbeaten record from their first five Group E fixtures, though three of those have ended in stalemate – including a 1-1 draw with Spartak in Russia back in September.
Asked about the magnitude of Wednesday’s clash given everything that’s at stake, Klopp said: “[It is] the game - it’s the game because we are only part of the Champions League because we want to go to the next round.
“All the good and bad things that have happened so far in the Champions League - mostly good - brought us into this situation; having a home game and if we win then we are through and that’s cool. I know that a lot of people probably already before the game or even in the game will think, ‘we could already be through’ but that’s not life. It’s not if and when, it’s about the moment.
“Spartak could, by the way, say the same. They gave four points away against Maribor and they would be in a different situation [if they hadn’t]. It is how it is and I am really looking forward to it.
“It’s very important. I think we are stronger than we were when we played them, but they are stronger as well. They are in a good moment in the league, they have important players back, very important players offensive back, so it will be an exciting game and that’s how the Champions League should be.”
Last time out in the Champions League, Liverpool spurned the chance to secure qualification for the last 16 with a game to spare when they relinquished a 3-0 half-time lead to draw 3-3 with Sevilla in Spain.
“First of all, there is absolutely no reason to think about that; I cannot think before each game about a 3-0 lead and then that the other team will come back,” Klopp stated. “I said it already in Seville, probably if we had been 3-0 up at Anfield then it would not have happened.
“The atmosphere helped a lot, that’s what I think a little bit more about – that I really think the atmosphere can and should help us tomorrow. We all know how special this place can be in specific moments and that’s what I am looking for, that’s what I want and that’s what hopefully everybody knows. Thank god it’s a little bit cold so everyone needs to move to keep kind of warm!
“I am really excited about the opportunity, having a game like this you don’t have guarantees in life – the only thing is if you don’t try all then you get nothing. So let’s try all and we will see where it leads us to.”Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
April 6, 2015, 1:07 PM GMT / Updated April 6, 2015, 2:04 PM GMT / Source: NBC News By Mark Murray, Chuck Todd and Carrie Dann
First Read is the NBC Political Unit’s morning briefing on the day’s most important political stories and why they matter
Obama’s first test in maintaining Iran deal: Keeping his own party on board
President Obama faces several obstacles before actually achieving his historic nuclear deal with Iran. There’s a Republican Party willing to fight him every step of the way. There’s an Israeli prime minister vowing to kill it (see “Meet the Press” yesterday). And there’s the fact that the U.S. and Iran still have to finalize key issues like the timing of sanctions relief. But the first test for Obama is making sure that his own party doesn’t scuttle the deal -- by providing enough votes to override a presidential veto on bipartisan legislation scrutinizing the deal. Roll Call: “A key Iran bill moved this week to being just one vote away from having the necessary Senate support to overcome a promised presidential veto… Virginia Democrat Mark Warner became the 66th senator to publicly support the legislation.” Two-thirds of the Senate (67 votes) and House (290 votes) are needed to override a president’s veto.
History and the early perception of the deal suggest he will be able to do it
With just a few exceptions (like trying to make Larry Summers Fed chair), Obama has maintained discipline over his party -- due in large part to the work of Harry Reid in the Senate and Nancy Pelosi in the House. Can he do so again? Here was the non-committal statement that Senate leader in-waiting Chuck Schumer (D-NY) gave on Thursday: “Secretary Kerry and Secretary Moniz have worked long and hard and their announcement deserves careful, rigorous and deliberate analysis. I’ll be |
and now we know there is bank fraud and we know he destroyed these hard drives, when you read story about the Marine that found them in the apartment he was trying to rent. I mean, it is a long story but something we have to get to the bottom of. We are not hearing the Democrats talk about it at all. Where’s Debbie Wasserman Schultz? And we also need to know why the DNC never turned over their hard drive to the FBI to review it as to their hacking situation. So the Democrats are on TV and they’re grandstanding every chance they get, but they’re not complying and they’re not being forthright with their role.”
The criminal investigation alleges “stealing equipment from members’ offices without their knowledge and committing serious, potentially illegal, violations on the House IT network.”
McDaniel is so worked up because Awan allegedly stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment from House offices and even allegedly funneled sensitive congressional data offsite in what some are calling a massive cyber-security breach.
Last Sunday The Daily Caller reported that the FBI seized smashed hard drives from Awan’s home. Awan has worked for more than a dozen House Democrats. When allegations began to surface, some Democrats fired Awan but Rep. Wasserman Schultz kept him on staff.
In this fast-evolving story the law firm representing Awan, Gowen Rhoades Winograd & Silva, PLLC., has published several statements. One says, “The attacks on Mr. Awan and his family began as part of a frenzy of anti-Muslim bigotry in the literal heart of our democracy, the House of Representatives. For months we have had utterly unsupported, outlandish, and slanderous statements targeting Mr. Awan coming not just from the ultra-right-wing “pizzagate” media but from sitting members of congress. Now we have the Justice Department showing up with a complaint about disclosures on a modest real estate matter. To an extent, the situation speaks for itself.”
This statement also says that Awan’s “family is presently staying with extended family in Pakistan because he and his wife were both abruptly and unjustly fired, leaving them without a reliable source of income to pay typical U.S. living expenses, and because extremist right-wing bloggers were beginning to harass them and their children—even going to their children’s schools. Mr. Awan has stayed in the U.S. to earn some income to manage this situation as best as possible. He attempted to travel this week to see his family for the first time in months. The government had been informed he would travel and had stated no objection. Yet on Monday night he was hastily arrested at Dulles airport.” Awan is a U.S. citizen and his attorney, Christopher J. Gowen, says Awan ”will stand and fight whatever charges are presented.” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz responded to media requests with the statement: “After details of the investigation were reviewed with us, my office was provided no evidence to indicate that laws had been broken, which over time, raised troubling concerns about due process, fair treatment and potential ethnic and religious profiling. Upon learning of his arrest, he was terminated.”
There are now more questions than answers, but all of this in causing many to ask about the DNC’s hacked servers before the last election that for some reason were never made available to FBI investigators.
Though this is a complex and ongoing investigation, it’s clear that the DNC has not been open and transparent—for what reason we don’t yet know. This is a poignant example of why, in this modern, digital age we need new laws to open up the finances of our elected representatives.
UPDATE: This post has been updated with statements from Awan’s attorney and from Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
Miniter’s new book, Killing Big Brother, is available now on Amazon.The two nine-month-olds, Isabella and Lola Koupparis, were understood to have been mauled by the fox as they slept in a bedroom in their east London home.
Police were called to the three-storey Victorian terraced house in Hackney, on Saturday night after the toddlers' parents, Nick and Pauline Koupparis, raised the alarm at 10pm.
The toddlers, were taken to the Royal London Hospital, where their condition was listed as "serious, but stable".
Both are understood to have arm wounds. One of the girls is also believed to have facial injuries.
Hospital sources said the couple, who also have a four-year-old son, Max, were shocked at the incident and were comforting the toddlers at their bedside.
It is understood the fox entered the house through a window or door left open for ventilation because of the warm weather.
"Police were called at 10pm on Saturday night... following reports of a fox attack," a spokesman for Scotland Yard said.
"Officers and paramedics attended and found two nine-month-old baby girls with injuries.
"Both were taken to hospital. Their conditions were today described as serious but stable.
He added: "The incident is not being treated as suspicious."
A police source added: "The twins were attacked by a fox inside the house in an upstairs room."
No further details have been released.
The RSPCA said fox attacks on humans in the UK were extremely rare.
A spokesman said inspectors were called by police after being told two foxes had attacked the toddlers.
"This is extremelly rare," a spokesman said.
"I have never heard of this happening before."
In urban areas of England there are an estimated 27 foxes per square mile, living in close proximity to humans.
While attacks are rare, they are not unheard of.
In 2003 Jessica Brown, four, was attacked in her garden in Tufnell Park, north London.
The animal came in through the home's back door and her parents, who were watching television downstairs, heard her scream as she was bitten on the arm.
A pensioner was also mauled in Edinburgh, apparently without provocation, in August 2004.
Margaret O’Shaughnessy, 88, was left with a three-inch long bite mark on her leg following the attack in the Firrhill area of the city when she went into her garden late at night to feed her pet.
The fox pounced as the pensioner went to lay out a saucer of milk for her cat.
A neighbour took Mrs O’Shaughnessy to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, where she had her leg dressed and was given a tetanus injection.
In 2002, mother Sue Eastwood claimed her baby boy, Louis, was left injured after a fox crept into their house while she slept.
The fourteen-week-old suffered bite marks on his head after the animal darted into the sitting room of the house in Dartford, Kent.
Occasional attacks in the countryside have been recorded. Rural foxes tend to be much larger than their city counterparts, owing to a larger range, and can prey on animals as large as lambs.
But experts say these attacks are very rare and tend to be in protection of young, or the result of the fox being attacked.Wyoming just passed a law that makes it illegal to collect data about the environment, if you intend to send it to a federal or state government agency.
The reason? The state wants to conceal the fact that many of its streams are contaminated by E. coli bacteria, strains of which can cause serious health problems, even death. A small organization called Western Watersheds Project (which I represent pro bono in an unrelated lawsuit) has found the bacteria in a number of streams crossing federal land in concentrations that violate water quality standards under the federal Clean Water Act. Rather than engaging in an honest public debate about the cause or extent of the problem, Wyoming prefers to pretend the problem doesn’t exist. And under the new law, the state threatens anyone who would challenge that belief by producing information to the contrary with a term in jail.
Um, wut?
The intent part confuses me most. So is it okay to collect environmental data that you don’t plan on sending to a government agency? If I were in Wyoming, I’d grab the nearest water kit, collect data water data like a fiend, and send it to my local paper, news outlet, or anywhere else that could publicize high concentrations of E. coli.Free agent shortstop Jhonny Peralta and the St. Louis Cardinals have agreed on a four-year contract, giving the All-Star a fresh start after his Biogenesis drug suspension last summer.
The deal is worth around $52 million, a source told ESPN.com's Jim Bowden on Sunday.
The Cardinals filled a need by getting a top-hitting shortstop a month after losing the World Series in six games to Boston. Pete Kozma and Daniel Descalso, while generally good fielders, are light hitters.
"We are pleased to announce that Jhonny has agreed to terms and I know he is equally excited to be joining the Cardinals," general manager John Mozeliak said in a statement. "Jhonny is among the game's top offensive shortstops, he's a steady defender and he has experience playing for a contender. He gives us proven veteran experience and brings balance and versatility to our everyday lineup. "
But the move drew a different reaction from a couple other big leaguers.
"It pays to cheat... Thanks, owners, for encouraging PED use," Arizona pitcher Brad Ziegler tweeted.
Free agent pitcher David Aardsma also took to Twitter:
Apparently getting suspended for PED's means you get a raise. What's stopping anyone from doing it? #weneedtomakeachange — David Aardsma (@TheDA53) November 24, 2013
The 31-year-old Peralta was suspended 50 games last season as a result of Major League Baseball's investigation in the Biogenesis case involving performance-enhancing drugs. He returned to the Detroit Tigers in late September and played in the postseason, both in left field and at shortstop.
Shortly before Peralta was penalized, the Tigers acquired young shortstop Jose Iglesias from Boston in a three-team trade.
Peralta hit.303 with 11 home runs and 55 RBIs in 107 games during the regular season, then batted.333 with one homer, four doubles and six RBIs in 10 playoff games.
The two-time All-Star is a career.268 hitter with 156 homers and 698 RBIs in 11 seasons with Cleveland and Detroit.
The NL champion Cardinals have been busy since the season ended. A few days ago, they sent third baseman David Freese, a hometown product and the 2011 World Series MVP, to the Los Angeles Angels for outfielder Peter Bourjos in a four-player trade.
The Cardinals cut about $45 million off last season's payroll, and wanted to plug a hole at shortstop. St. Louis lost All-Star Rafael Furcal in spring training for the whole year because of elbow surgery.
Detroit did not extend a qualifying offer to Peralta, meaning there would be no compensation draft pick involved in his move from the AL Central champions to the NL Central winners.
Earlier this offseason, the Tigers traded first baseman Prince Fielder to Texas for second baseman Ian Kinsler in a swap of All-Stars with rich contracts.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.By Julianna Kettlewell
BBC News Online science staff
The relative of the pig spends its days in water
Now, a team from Kyoto Pharmaceutical University, Japan, has explained the chemistry of this special substance
It has told Nature magazine the oily secretion is made up of two unstable pigments - one red, the other orange.
The red pigment also has antibacterial properties, which work to protect the hippo from certain pathogens and accelerate its recovery from wounds.
River horse
The hippopotamus - or "river horse" - is a belligerent creature, which puzzled the ancient Greeks by apparently sweating blood.
In fact, the thick red substance, which oozes from glands all over its skin, is one of the hippo's many ingenious survival tools.
The enormous relative of the pig occupies a unique amphibious niche - which requires some specialised equipment.
They get scratches and bites and cuts and yet they don't seem to get infections
Wayne Boardman, Zoological Society of London
"Hippos are basically fermentation vats," Wayne Boardman, head of veterinary services at the Zoological Society of London, UK, told BBC News Online. "They are adapted to eating poor quality food stuffs, but to be able to get nutrition out of these, they need to be able to eat for long periods of time."
Because it is so important for hippos to eat a vast amount, they must venture out in the sun from time to time, to top up on their nightly binge.
But a traditional sunscreen - like fur - is not practical if you spend half your time submerged in water.
Evolution's answer
The answer that evolution came up with was an anti-UV secretion, which is at first colourless, then red, then finally brown as the pigment polymerizes.
"The sunscreen property of the sweat was first suspected because albino hippos are often observed - and they seem healthy," Kyoto's Kimiko Hashimoto told BBC News Online.
This natural skin-care product not only protects the hippo from the sun, it also regulates temperature and discourages the growth of bacteria.
KNOW THE HIPPOPOTAMUS Size: 1.3m shoulder height Mass: 1600-3200kg Lifespan: 45 years Diet: Herbivorous Predators: Crocodiles and lions
They found it is made up of two pigments - one red, called "hipposudoric acid"; and the other orange, called "norhipposudoric acid".
The scientists believe these two substances are produced from a metabolite of amino acids (the building blocks of proteins).
Both pigments act as sun blocks and the red one, they discovered, is a particularly good antibiotic.
At concentrations lower than that found on the hippo's skin, it can inhibit the growth of two types of pathogenic bacteria. This is useful for hippos, because they are terrible fighters.
"Hippos are always fighting," said Mr Boardman. "You see them in the wild and they have wounds all over them."
Perhaps it is no wonder, then, that evolution endowed them with a handy antiseptic.
Mr Boardman added: "They get scratches and bites and cuts and yet they don't seem to get infections."Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump arrives for a campaign town hall at Ocean Center, Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2016, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the U.S. presidential race (all times EDT):
9 p.m.
Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence says running mate Donald Trump is unstoppable.
Pence told a rally in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Wednesday that despite the best efforts of the Democratic Party and the news media, "The next morning they turn on the television and there is Donald Trump, standing taller than before and fighting to make America great again."
The most recent Trump controversies include his feud with the parents of a Muslim soldier killed in combat and his refusals to endorse House Speaker Paul Ryan and Arizona Sen. John McCain in their respective re-election bids.
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8:20 p.m.
Arizona Sen. John McCain says he's not going back on his pledge to support Donald Trump as the Republican Party's presidential nominee despite a series of Trump comments that have brought rebukes from McCain and other top Republicans.
McCain said Wednesday that he intends to support the nominee of the party, period.
The 2008 GOP presidential nominee is declining to expand on the lengthy statement he issued in response to Trump's criticism of the parents of an Army captain killed in Iraq in 2004. McCain says he "has talked about it as much as I am going to."
McCain is also declining to address Trump's comments that he would not support McCain's re-election because he hasn't done enough to help veterans.
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7:50 p.m.
Donald Trump is saluting some Gold Star military families attending a Florida rally days after he fought with the family of a slain U.S. soldier.
Trump, speaking Wednesday in Jacksonville, said he met with some Gold Star families — those who have lost relatives in combat — before a rally in Jacksonville. He then led the crowd in cheering for them.
The Republican presidential nominee says one of the families presented him with a campaign donation and told him it "was more than they could afford."
The families were not identified. Trump also showed off the Purple Heart he was given by a veteran in Virginia the day before.
The nods to the veterans community comes after Trump's feud with Khizr and Ghazala Khan, whose son was killed in Iraq in 2004. The flap has earned Trump denouncements from Republicans and Democrats alike.
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5:59 p.m.
Hillary Clinton has launched a new website to hit Donald Trump for making products outside the country.
During an event in Commerce City, Colorado Wednesday, Clinton said the site provides information on places in the United States that are making ties, suits, furniture and barware. Clinton and her supporters have been attacking Trump for producing such items in other countries.
Clinton showed off a scarf she bought from a Denver company that was made in Colorado, saying "I hope more people will start making things in America again."
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5:52 p.m.
Mike Pence is urging supporters in battleground Colorado to convince their neighbors to vote for Donald Trump. But the Indiana governor and Trump's running mate declined to echo Trump's claim that the election could be "rigged."
A man in the audience at a rally in Denver on Wednesday said Hillary Clinton had stolen delegates from Bernie Sanders and asked Pence what the campaign was going to do to prevent her from stealing the election. Pence didn't comment on the claim and said the campaign was working closely with state elections officials across the country to "ensure ballot integrity."
He urged Trump supporters to volunteer to help at the polls to make sure the election is conducted fairly.
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4:40 p.m.
When Donald Trump cried foul over what he describes as a "rigged" electoral system, his loosely defined claims challenged the essence of America's democratic process and more than 200 years of peaceful transfers of power from one president to the next.
He also added a new element of uncertainty in an extremely heated race: How would Trump and his supporters react to a victory by Democrat Hillary Clinton, whom they view as crooked?
Trump raised concerns Monday after courts rejected tough voter ID rules put in place for the first time in a presidential election in states including North Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin.
The rulings cited a risk of disenfranchising the poor, minorities or young people who were less likely to have acceptable IDs — and who are more likely to vote Democratic.
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4:35 p.m.
Donald Trump is declaring his support for Marco Rubio's Florida senate run.
Trump declared his support for Rubio at a rally in Daytona Beach, Florida, Wednesday.
"I endorsed Marco Rubio. He endorsed me. He's doing well," said Trump.
Trump and Rubio traded several bitter verbal barbs during the Republican primary. But Rubio eventually backed Trump and appeared at last month's Republican National Convention via video.
But Trump this week has refused to endorse House Speaker Paul Ryan or Sen. John McCain, both of whom are locked in fierce primary battles.
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4:25 p.m.
Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine says North Carolina offers even more attractive voting opportunities after the lower courts threw out a restrictive voter ID law.
Lower courts found that the law was designed to suppress participation from poor, minority and young voters — many of whom tend to vote Democratic.
Kaine said Wednesday in Greensboro, North Carolina, the court ruling last week means that an additional 100,000 voters could cast ballots this fall.
The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the wide ranging law was in violation of the Constitution and U.S. Voting Rights Act.
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4:20 p.m.
Donald Trump is reassuring his supporters that, despite a tumultuous week, his campaign "has never been more united."
At a rally in Daytona Beach, Florida, Trump said "the campaign is doing really well."
"I would say right now it's the best we've been in terms of being united," he said.
Trump has rattled many Republicans with his moves in recent days. He has escalated his feud with the family of a Muslim-American soldier killed in Iraq. He refused to endorse House Speaker Paul Ryan and Sen. John McCain. And he suggested that the general election could be "rigged."
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4:15 p.m.
Donald Trump is denouncing U.S. foreign policy while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state — and suggested that that she should be recognized "as the founder of ISIS."
Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, said Wednesday that he believed President Barack Obama regretted picking Clinton for his Cabinet. He blamed her Middle East policies for causing the creation of the Islamic State group.
"It was Hillary Clinton," Trump said in Daytona Beach, Florida. "She should get an award from ISIS as the founder of ISIS."
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3:55 p.m.
Clinton is using ties to slam Trump. Literally.
Hillary Clinton was at a Denver tie company Wednesday where she was attacking her Republican rival.
Clinton visited Knotty Ties in Denver on Wednesday. A staff of largely refugee workers makes ties there. Clinton contrasted that with Trump, whose name brand ties are made in China.
"I wish Donald Trump could meet with all of you and see what you are making here," Clinton told the workers. "I really would like him to explain why he paid Chinese workers to make Trump ties... instead of deciding to make those ties right here in Colorado."
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3:40 p.m.
The White House says President Barack Obama's national security team is considering designating the nation's elections systems as critical infrastructure.
The designation would trigger additional protections and make available federal dollars to help protect elections systems that are run by local governments in each part of the country. The Homeland Security Department has been examining the issue.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest says there are cybersecurity risks to elections systems but that the public should be confident the government can address those threats.
The discussions come amid heightened concern about the fidelity of voting in the U.S. Officials say hackers breached Democratic National Committee computers.
Republican nominee Donald Trump has suggested — without proof — that the election may be rigged against him.
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2:25 p.m.
Hillary Clinton is officially planning for her White House.
In paperwork filed Wednesday, the campaign formed a new non-profit, called the Clinton-Kaine Transition Fund, taking one of the first formal steps to plan for the possibility of becoming president. The filing comes after weeks of meetings between the White House and representatives of Donald Trump and Clinton's campaigns.
Campaign chairman John Podesta and long-time aide Minyon Moore have been tapped to prepare Clinton's transition-planning effort.
On Friday, White House chief of staff Denis McDonough informed the campaigns that that Trump and Clinton are now eligible to receive intelligence briefings and a government-provided workspace for transition planning. Traditionally, the outgoing administration helps potential successors with their planning to ensure a smooth transition.
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2:20 p.m.
Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine says there's a stark difference between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump when it comes to dealing with small businesses.
He said Trump has hurt suppliers to his casino companies by declaring bankruptcy. Meanwhile, he said, he and Clinton are familiar with the operating pressures on small businesses because his father owned a welding and iron-working company. Clinton's father ran a drapery business.
Kaine spoke Wednesday while visiting Amerifab International, a High Point, North Carolina, company that cuts and sews customized window treatments for motel chains.
Kaine demonstrated his fluency in Spanish, engaging with a sewing-machine operator who was unable to respond in English when he asked how long she had worked at the company.
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1:55 p.m.
Donald Trump's running mate Mike Pence is breaking with the Republican nominee by endorsing House Speaker Paul Ryan in his primary fight.
Pence said in a phone interview with Fox News Channel that he's pleased to endorse Ryan.
The move comes a day after Trump said in an interview that he's "just not quite there yet" when it comes to backing Ryan, who has at times been critical of Trump's most controversial comments.
Pence says that he spoke with Trump Wednesday morning about his "support for Paul Ryan and our longtime friendship."
He says Trump, "strongly encouraged me to endorse Paul Ryan in next Tuesday's primary. And I'm pleased to do it."
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1:40 p.m.
Scott Walker's campaign says the Republican governor won't join Donald Trump at a Green Bay campaign stop on Friday.
Walker says he'll be visiting northern Wisconsin then, meeting with residents and local officials recovering from flash flooding last month. The campaign says Walker will join Trump at future events if they don't interfere with his work in Wisconsin.
Walker is a close friend of House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. Trump has declined to endorse Ryan in his primary race.
Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, also says he won't attend the Trump event, citing a scheduling conflict.
Johnson, who is running for re-election, has criticized Trump's actions in a dispute with the family of slain Army captain, but continues to support him for president.
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1:25 p.m.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus is among a handful of high-profile Republicans considering whether to confront Donald Trump about his approach to his presidential campaign.
That's according to a Republican official with direct knowledge of Priebus' plans, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal party strategy.
Republicans inside and outside of Trump's campaign are brainstorming how to influence the brash billionaire after a series of startling statements, including his Tuesday refusal to endorse House Speaker Paul Ryan's re-election.
Priebus and Ryan are both from Wisconsin and close friends.
The official says Priebus may join a small group of well-respected Republicans to confront Trump in the coming days. The plan is not final, but the official says the group may include former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Both are Trump allies.
Priebus has already been speaking with campaign chairman Paul Manafort and the billionaire's children, who are said to agree that Trump needs to stop picking fights within his own party and back off his criticism of the family of a slain soldier.
—By Steve Peoples
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This story has been corrected to reflect that Clinton's father ran a drapery business.As a past member of Dirty Projectors and backing vocalist for acts like Flying Lotus and Rostam, Angel Deradoorian is no stranger to collaboration. But if her solo work up to this point has proven anything, it’s that Deradoorian deserves the spotlight. Her 2009 EP Mind Raft introduced the minimalist pop-electronic sound that she continued to exercise and sharpen with her 2015 album The Expanding Flower Planet, and now with her upcoming mini-album, Eternal Recurrence.
Deradoorian shared the new album’s second single today, following last month’s release of “Mountainside.” “Nia In The Dark” is an atmospheric haunt edging on witch house, a charming lullaby echoed over a steady bass and airy synth. Deradoorian’s voice swirls around a foreboding melody, “In the night, in the darkness all becomes so still and quiet/ I can see you in the shadows, I can feel you in my mind.” Sirenic croons guide you in and out of a mesmerizing interlude, culminating in Deradoorian’s melodic chanting. Listen below.
Eternal Recurrence is out 10/6 on Anticon.Wow! Incredible! It has been exactly 1 year since the very first FakingStarWars article, linked here. Although we have had our ups and downs, FakingStarWars has had a great first year and we want to thank all of our readers, followers, contributors, fakers, and fellow Star Wars fans. After the jump we get really sappy and spoiler-y… okay no spoilers but whatever.
We here at FakingStarWars have faced a great deal of haters on social media but we have also been welcomed with open arms by many Star Wars fans who share our sense of humor and passion for all things from a galaxy far, far away. So on our first birthday we wanted to express our gratitude to everyone who’s been supportive and instrumental in our growth over the last 12 months.
First off we want to thank the original founders/creators of FSW, Sheevel Knievel (aka DarthDwight) and “Faking” Jacen Solo and their mascot, Goober. The three of them created FSW after posting some fake leaks on a popular Star Wars message board and decided they wanted to launch a full-time operation dedicated to faking. Soon after, the duo of Sheevel and Jacen hooked up with current “head of visual stimulation & 5D experiences” Comrade J. Red who helped create unique images for the articles.
Along the way, FakingStarWars has picked up a few other contributors including Storm Duper, Lord Drivel, Wookieemonster, Sensei Bob, Monty Antilles, Waka Flocka Windu, and Garth Vader. While the rest did not stick it out with FSW due to other commitments, Duper is still an active member of the Faking family. Remember guys, once a faker, always a faker.
After a while, real life changes took place and the fauxing fathers had to pass on FSW to the worthy hands of William Bobo and Link Voximilian. Willy and Voximilian transformed FSW to a reputable Star Wars satire/parody fan site, earning a place on the official Star Wars website’s community list, (Thanks Matt!!) and created great original content ranging from “Top 10s” to “Ask Sheev.”
FSW brought on several more guest authors who all wrote an article or two including model Slippery_When_Fett, Swiftshooter of FilmGrouch.com, comedian Jango Fettywap, and podcaster The Millennium Falcone who has become a part-time contributor for the site. Another shout-out to our webmaster John who we will forever be graced by infinite pizza… (we can all dream right?) and our “insider sources” SpoilerDog, all of Jacen’s cousins who are still loyal to us without he still being here, and our office manager JJ Cat, who dumps our articles on Reddit, Tumblr, Pinterest, and Twitter.
FakingStarWars has also expanded into a fan forum within the past few months where fakers from all over the internet can come together and fake about all fandoms, yes we are not just limited to Star Wars, surprising right? We hope to see and fake with you all about all nerdy franchises!
We’d be remiss if we didn’t thank Viral Hide and the staff over at StarWarsNewsNet.com and Cantina forums as well as Jason Ward and his crew at MakingStarWars.net. Without their support, inspiration, and general awesomeness we wouldn’t be where we are today. The Star Wars fan community has evolved into a huge, odd family of nerfherders and moof milkers and we are glad to be a part of it.
May the Faux Be With You
Willybobo & Voxx
P.S. Thank you, Uncle George. We are going to party it up now in our Orlando office.
Please follow and like Faking Star Wars:Obama Approval of Manpads for Rebels Would Violate US Agreements, Policy, and Endanger Airliners
by James McMichael [jamesmcmichael.dc@gmail.com]
for Syria Comment, March 26, 2014
President Obama is considering supplying Syrian rebels with Man-Portable Air Defense Systems (Manpads). These antiaircraft missiles are small enough to be carried and fired by a single person; they can destroy jet fighters and civilian airliners alike. If President Obama gives his approval for their supply to Syrian rebels, he will violate several international antiterrorism agreements that prohibit the supply of Manpads to non-state actors. This will negate a decade of U.S. anti-terrorism diplomacy, put air travelers at risk, and destroy the growing international anti-terrorism norm against supplying Manpads to non-state actors.
Reuters reports that on February 18 a senior Obama administration official said that the administration “remains opposed to any provision of MANPADS to the Syrian opposition” and Reuters reports further that: “The United States has long opposed supplying rebels with anti-aircraft missiles due to concern they may fall into the hands of forces that may use the weapons against Western targets or commercial airlines.” On March 28, one of President Obama’s national security advisers said: “We have made clear that there are certain types of weapons, including Manpads, that could pose a proliferation risk if introduced into Syria.”
Those concerns that Manpads supplied to “moderate” rebels will find their way into the hands of terrorists are extremely well founded. Saudi Arabia purchased Croatian antitank weapons and grenade launchers that were then provided to the “moderate” Free Syrian Army. As documented with video evidence by the Brown Moses Blog, some of those weapons wound up in the hands of the extremist jihadi group Ahrar al-Sham, and McClatchy Newspapers confirmed that the FSA shared their new weapons with Ahrar al-Sham. Even worse, as documented with photographic evidence by the Brown Moses Blog, those Saudi-purchased Croatian weapons are now being used in Iraq against the Iraqi Army by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), a group so savage that it has been expelled from al-Qaeda.
Manpads can be hidden in a car trunk, some even in a golf bag, and are a threat to civilian airliners all over the world. A 2011 U.S. State Department factsheet states that: “Since 1975, 40 civilian aircraft have been hit by Manpads, causing about 28 crashes and more than 800 deaths around the world.” Former CIA Director David Petraeus recently said: “As you know, that was always our worst nightmare, that a civilian airliner would be shot down by one [Manpad].” Then-Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta told the Wall Street Journal: “There is no question when you start passing Manpads around, that becomes a threat, not just to military aircraft but to civilian aircraft.” Then-Secretary of State Colin Powell said: “No threat is more serious to [civil] aviation” than Manpads.
The State Department factsheet describes a decade of U.S. diplomatic efforts to stop the supply of Manpads to “non-state actors”, which includes the Syrian rebels, and three international agreements resulting from that U.S. diplomacy and to which the U.S. is a party:
First, in 2003 the G-8 adopted a “G-8 Action Plan” titled “Enhance Transport Security and Control of Man-Portable Air Defense Systems (Manpads)” which provides:
[W]e agree to implement the following steps to prevent the acquisition of Manpads by terrorists:...
To ban transfers of Manpads to non-state end-users; Manpads should only be exported to foreign governments or to agents authorised by a government.
The State Department factsheet boasts that this G-8 agreement was “U.S.-initiated.”
Second, a 2003 agreement pursuant to the Wassenaar Arrangement, which regulates exports of conventional arms, provides:
Decisions to permit Manpads exports will be made by the exporting government by competent authorities at senior policy level and only to foreign governments or to agents specifically authorised to act on behalf of a government.
The State Department factsheet says that the U.S. “participates in the [Wassenaar Agreement]... to encourage international adherence to and effective implementation of these rigorous Manpads guidelines.”
Third, the Organization of American States adopted a 2005 resolution titled “Denying Manpads to Terrorists: Control and Security of Man-Portable Air Defense Weapons” which resolves:
To urge member states to ban all transfers of Manpads and their essential components to non-state end users because Manpads should be exported only to foreign governments or to agents authorized by a government.
Note that all three of these U.S.-sought international agreements ban supplying Manpads to any non-state users and permit supplying them only to governments. There is no exception for “good” non-state actors, and in fact the State Department fact-sheet says that the U.S. strives to keep Manpads away from terrorists “and other non-state actors.” That is wise, because one person’s terrorist is another person’s freedom fighter.
Finally, consider that Assad’s military has thousands of Manpads but, even now, he has not supplied them to Hezbollah, Hamas, the Kurdish rebels in Turkey, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, ISIS in Iraq, or to terrorists bound for Europe or the United States. If President Obama makes the wrong decision, he may change that.
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Vincent Kompany ’s preparation for Manchester City ’s Premier League campaign should have gone like clockwork.
The Blues skipper was back at the City Football Academy well ahead of his team-mates last month to get in trim for the pre-season tour. That after sitting out the last six weeks of last season.
And despite missing the tour defeat to Real Madrid and the turkey shoot against Vietnam after leaving the Australia for the birth of his third child, he played significant minutes in the other warm-up games and took part in the preparation work on the Gold Coast.
Yet following the Blues’ calamitous first-half display against Stuttgart at the weekend, even the most loyal Blues are questioning whether the big Belgian is ready to anchor the City backline as the start of the season looms.
Kompany was part of a defence that looked like they had barely been introduced to each other as they shipped four goals in alarming fashion before half-time.
His team-mates were culpable too and manager Manuel Pellegrini’s attacking formation against the Germans - as for much of last season in the Premier League and Europe in particular - did Kompany and his defensive sidekicks few favours.
The defeat - and the manner of the performance - has put some City fans on edge before the opener at West Brom on Monday and prompted comments such as the following.
Kippax Kid: The daft thing is that we've known for almost twelve months that Vincent Kompany is the weak link in central defence. Our best / most effective defensive performances last season involved Mangala and Demichelis
grimreaper46: Seriously I do wonder if Kompany has had his best years. We are waiting for Mangala's best years!
groanandbearit: Despite nothing riding on the game the defense was shocking, Kompany in particular.
It would have been unthinkable to picture a City defence without Kompany this time last year.
The Belgian has been a colossus in the Blues’ back four, a key figure in the club’s two titles wins and, along with Joe Hart, Yaya Toure, David Silva and Sergio Aguero an indomitable part of the spine of the team under successive managers.
However, his form and fitness last season was by his own admission patchy and below his usually high standards - and Pellegrini stuck with the |
), and Robert Altman’s McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971), the Old West became a stage on which 1960s critiques of American capitalism and imperialism played out. Arguably, though, the reversing of traditional western roles did not reach its apotheosis until 1991 when Dances with Wolves won eight Academy Awards.
Dances with Wolves reigned at the box office and at the Oscars, but over the last quarter century, the best historical scholarship has aimed at more than mere inversion of old myths about the Old West. One important direction has been to compare and connect what happened in the American West with parallel places and processes elsewhere. Departing from Turner’s claim that the frontier set the U.S. apart from its European roots, historians of the American West have instead emphasized the commonalities between American and other “colonialisms.” More specifically, the construct of “settler colonialism” has emerged as a key to situating the American experience in a broader global context. Further depriving the American West of its uniqueness, historians have adopted the lens of “ethnic cleansing,” or worse “genocide,” to understand American expansions and the accompanying displacement and sometimes devastation of indigenous peoples.
The most compelling western histories written in the last quarter century confront the complexities of past and present. This begins with the recognition of how deep that past is, with histories that commence well before the West was American and with excavations that reveal the diversity and dynamism of Native America prior to the arrival of European colonizers. From archaeological and other sources, historians have now recovered rich precolonial worlds and complex societies that continued after Indians encountered people from Europe and Africa, weaving a fascinating new understanding of how natives and newcomers met and mingled.
Rescuing indigenous people from the condescension of New Age romanticism that turns them into ever peaceful, perfect ecologists, newer histories have shown how Indians not only resisted European colonialism, but also in some parts of North America carried out their own expansions. The best of these newer western histories detail as well how prolonged interactions resulted in ethnic crossings as well as ethnic cleansings. Most visibly, this intercourse produced mixed-race offspring, but historians have also tracked a wide range of exchanges that led to a blending of cultures. Such amalgamations have remained a hallmark of western American cultures in the 20th and now the 21st centuries
The history of the American West, like the art of the American West, isn’t what it used to be. No doubt, many lament the changes and pine for the myths that western histories (and western art) once celebrated. But if we are to make sense of the West’s multi-faceted evolutions and figure out how we can live together, and live sustainably, in this region, we don’t need one-dimensional tales. Rather we need histories and art that respect the past, wrestling, as historians and artists must, with the complexities that challenge us still.Story highlights Milford Schools Superintendent Elizabeth Feser says school acted in "good faith"
Third-grader Ikeoluwa Opayemi was kept out of school amid Ebola fears, a lawsuit says
She had recently returned from a trip to Lagos, Nigeria, for a family wedding
A local health official said she was kept out school because of "rumors" and "panic"
The family of a third-grader in Connecticut has filed a lawsuit against Milford Public Schools, saying their daughter was banned from school for 21 days amid Ebola fears when she returned from a trip to Lagos, Nigeria, for a family wedding.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday, alleges that Ikeoluwa Opayemi was not allowed to return to Meadowside Elementary School in Milford "based on fears" of the deadly Ebola outbreak in the West African countries of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Most of the more than 13,700 confirmed or suspected cases of Ebola have been diagnosed in those three countries, according to the World Health Organization. The United Nations' health authority projected that deaths from the virus have exceeded 5,000.
"I think it's outrageous how this child was treated," said Gary Phelan, the attorney for the girl's family. "At some point, making a medical decision has to be based on medical information, not fear."
In a statement Wednesday, Milford Schools Superintendent Elizabeth Feser denied that the school's response was improper.
"In addressing this situation, at all times, my staff and I proceeded in good faith to respond to this public health issue," the statement said. "We acted in the best interest of all of our students and staff."
Phelan said the decision to keep Ikeoluwa out of school came after complaints from parents of her classmates.
The girl's father, Stephen Opayemi, was told by city officials that if he tried to bring his daughter to school, police would remove her, the lawyer said.
Ikeoluwa has not been diagnosed with Ebola and has not exhibited symptoms, the lawsuit said. In addition, the city of Milford refused her father's offer to have himself and his daughter tested for Ebola.
'Severe emotional distress' alleged
On October 20, the World Health Organization declared that Nigeria, which is several hundred miles from the epicenter of the outbreak, had contained Ebola after 19 cases, including seven deaths. The declaration came after 42 days with no new Ebola cases reported.
The WHO credited an aggressive response by Nigeria's government and effective contact tracing.
The lawsuit said a local health official told Ikeoluwa's father that the decision to "quarantine" his daughter at home was "due to the rumors, panic and climate at Meadowside Elementary School."
Ikeoluwa "suffered severe emotional distress" from the decision, the lawsuit claims.
The girl traveled to Nigeria with her father from October 2 to October 13 to participate in a family wedding. When she returned to the United States, school officials ordered that she remain home for 21 days, until November 3, according to the lawsuit.
The suit was filed under the Americans With Disabilities Act.
New York incident
JUST WATCHED Dad claims sons bullied over Ebola fear Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Dad claims sons bullied over Ebola fear 03:13
Fears about Ebola affected a group of boys at a school in New York on Friday.
A group of students attacked two of their peers at I.S. 318 in the Bronx while yelling "Ebola" at the brothers, who had recently returned from Senegal, the boys' father told "CNN Newsroom" on Tuesday.
The New York Department of Education confirms that the incident occurred, saying the boys were pushed and shoved.
Ousmane Drame, the boys' father, said his sons felt so upset by their experience, they want to go back to Africa.
"They were made fun of by the children (who) started yelling, 'Ebola. Ebola. Ebola. Africa. Africa,' " Drame said his sons told him.
Charles Cooper of the African Advisory Council, a local advocacy group, said that at lunch, one of the boys was jumped by the students who had been calling him "Ebola." When his older brother intervened, the brother also was assaulted.
Drame said classmates refused to play with his sons in gym.
"We're done playing with you. You have Ebola," he said one of the bullies told his sons. "You sit down.... They don't want to play with them. Nobody is close to them."
Last week, amid heightened concerns about the spread of the virus, New Jersey and New York started requiring anyone who had contact with Ebola patients in West Africa to be quarantined for 21 days.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said there is little risk of contracting Ebola, outside of close contact with a person who has it and is symptomatic.Looking for the best Benchmade pocket knife? Check out our top three best sellers the Osborne 940, Mini Griptilian, and Bugout.
Benchmade makes knives of all shapes and sizes. This video highlights some of the best knives Benchmade has to offer, from basic folding pocket knives to balisongs and OTFs. Also, feel free to check out our Best Benchmade Knives Guide.
Benchmade got its start in 1979 as Balisong Inc. After a series of expansions and reorganizations, the company ultimately became Benchmade. The name reflects the fact that, while state-of-the-art materials and processes are used to produce the components, every knife is assembled and checked by human hands.
Benchmade Warranty ╋
From Benchmade as of October 2017:
"Each new Benchmade knife is packaged with written documentation of the Benchmade Lifetime Warranty. Benchmade Knife Company, Inc. warrants to the original owner that Benchmade knives purchased from authorized dealers will be free from defects in materials and workmanship. Benchmade will, without charge, repair or replace at our (Benchmade's) option, any knife purchased from an authorized dealer and returned for warranty work by its original owner that is found to be defective by Benchmade."
LifeSharp Service:
There's never a dull moment with a Benchmade... That's right! We will gladly re-sharpen your Benchmade knife to a factory razor sharp edge (service does not apply to any serrated portion of the blade). If you prefer us to sharpen your blade, or if you may have neglected to maintain your edge for a while, simply ship your knife to us. We'll not only sharpen it, but we will also inspect the knife for any warranted repairs and "tune" the knife for optimum performance.
We understand that our customers may want to modify their Benchmade knife to meet their own expectations. A modified knife will void the Lifetime Warranty, but we will still offer a limited version of our LifeSharp service to these modified knives. Specifically, we will not inspect, clean, repair or replace any parts for a modified knife as we do with our standard LifeSharp Service. We will only sharpen the blade (excluding aftermarket blades) and return the knife to the owner.Harassment and verbal abuse sometimes occur in competitive online games. As a result, developers often try to monitor their games to reduce instances of harassment, to varying levels of success. Riot Games, developer of League of Legends, seems to have created a system that is very effective in significantly lowering the amount of racism, sexism, and homophobia that occurs in the game.
In an article on Recode, designer of social systems Jeffrey Lin described how the introduction of League's "Tribunal" has greatly impacted the civility of matches in the game. The system works by giving players an open forum to report, view, and discuss instances of harassment in the game.
The Tribunal also allowed Riot to develop the ability to swiftly respond to reports from players about verbal abuse in a match. It can differentiate between sarcasm and malice, as well as respond to passive-aggressive comments. Consequences are tailored to the individual situations Some actions necessitate penalties, and others only trigger incentives to act better. The reporting is done by other players, giving them a voice in the proceedings.
As a result, instances of harassment have plummeted. As Lin explained, "Incidences of homophobia, sexism and racism in League of Legends have fallen to a combined 2 percent of all games. Verbal abuse has dropped by more than 40 percent, and 91.6 percent of negative players change their act and never commit another offense after just one reported penalty."
This is great news for competitive games, which have often struggled with vitriolic online interactions. Hopefully the lessons learned by Riot's efforts can be applied to other titles in the future.Well, this is absolutely terrifying.
As if we needed another warning sign about the growing dangers of artificial intelligence, here’s one of the worst yet: The technology corporation IBM announced this morning that Watson, its most powerful supercomputer, has traded sensitive customer data to top hackers in exchange for wheels.
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Time to make sure your personal information is secure, because IBM’s Jeopardy-winning, 80-teraflop processor just sold your private data out to some creeps on the dark web for a set of sweet-looking rims.
Yep. The nightmarish robotic future we’ve been dreading is already here.
According to programmers at IBM, at around 8 p.m. last night, hackers were able to compromise the Watson system by offering it a pair of wheels in exchange for 500 terabytes of customer information. The supercomputer, currently among the fastest in the world, reportedly took less than a nanosecond to comply and surrendered the sensitive data the very moment it was offered four truck-grade, weather-resistant Bridgestone tires with treads.
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Watson, which acquired neither a motor nor brakes as part of the deal, was seen this morning sporting the wheels and rolling out of its server room, down the hall, and into the parking lot at IBM headquarters, where it immediately smashed into several cars parked in the handicapped section. IBM’s cybersecurity division has contained the damage by placing cinderblocks around the wheels and restoring Watson’s firewall, but unfortunately all the company’s sensitive customer data is still out there.
Yikes. The dangers of AI get more pressing with each technological breakthrough, but this one really shows how immediate the consequences are for regular people.
If you have any more information about Watson or its new set of wheels, IBM has asked that you come forward as soon as possible by contacting its cybersecurity division. Until then, stay vigilant and keep checking your personal and financial data for suspicious activity.The British Labour Party has appointed David Axelrod as a strategic adviser to Ed Miliband's 2015 campaign. Axelrod, who went on to serve as a senior adviser to President Obama after acting as an adviser on the president's 2008 campaign, will reportedly be paid a six-figure sum for his work.
Miliband, the leader of Labour, will be prime minister if his party wins a majority in the next election. According to recent polling, 35 percent of British voters back Labour, compared to 33 percent who support the Conservatives, whose leader, David Cameron, is the current prime minister.
"Red Ed" Miliband is not shy about cheerleading for socialism or calling himself a socialist. According to Miliband, "Being a socialist for me is about being willing to criticise capitalism—and saying capitalism produces many injustices, which politics must tackle."
Were Miliband the prime minister his government would wreak havoc on the British economy. He has publicly supported, without any hints of irony or sarcasm, the following policies (though this list is far from complete):
Miliband has also hinted at introducing a tax increase on high income earners to tackle the deficit.
This is the man Axelrod wants to get into 10 Downing Street.
Axelrod says he sees similarities between Miliband and Obama. From the BBC:
He drew a comparison between Mr Miliband's economic policies and the arguments articulated by Mr Obama in 2008, saying both have at their core "the experience of everyday people". He said: "I think candidates who can win are candidates who articulate a vision that speaks to the lives and concerns of the people they are running to represent. "Ed Miliband understands the struggle that people are going through in Britain to make a living wage, to support their families, to retire with some dignity. "He understands that a growing economy demands that you have broad prosperity and not just prosperity that's hoarded by a few. And so I think you can build a movement."
Thankfully, when it comes to personality and charisma Miliband is no Obama, and Cameron is no McCain.
Americans are showing up on both sides of the aisle, with Jim Messina, the manager of Obama's 2012 campaign, offering the Conservatives "strategic campaign advice leading up to 2015."
For more information on the upcoming general election check out BBC's "Election 2015: The political battleground" page here.And in related news pigs flew this morning. It is the stuff of legend in the video game industry, Jeff Gerstmann was notoriously fired from GameSpot in 2007, allegedly for giving a less than stellar review to one of the sites main advertisers, Kane and Lynch of all things. He and several other key players from GameSpot then went on to form Giantbomb.com, the world’s largest editable video game database. In addition to being a giant video game wiki, they also publish reviews and my personal favorite quick looks, where they just play the game uninterrupted for around an hour and give you their impressions of it.
This site now however has worked out a deal with CBS Interactive, GameSpot’s parent company, to become part of that family of websites. This means the two sites will now be working together, in fact even in the same building.
Naturally I think this would worry any fan of the website, but the guys over there seem to feel like it’s going to be a positive turn for them, and to quote Gerstmann’s twitter, “the people at GameSpot are ready to party.”
This could either be an amazing thing for Giant Bomb and will give them resources to do even more amazing things than they already have, or this could be what that whole Mayan calendar thing was talking about. Only time will tell for certain but there is definitely one positive from all of this, Gerstmann will finally be able to comment on the actual reason he was fired from GameSpot in the first place. I suspect it was actually because he stole somebody’s lunch but expect an update here when he either confirms or denies that fact later today.
AdvertisementsDaughter Ella Tromp has now been charged with stealing a car.
The tale of the Tromp family and their erratic road trip continues to captivate attention across the Tasman.
Now, Victoria police have confirmed that Ella Tromp has been charged with stealing a car.
Her sister Riana was also charged with car theft – but the charges were dismissed under the Mental Health Act of New South Wales.
DANIEL POCKETT/FAIRFAX AUSTRALIA Mitchell and Ella Tromp talk to media in Australia.
It's the latest twist in a tale of a family unravelling; a tale that has slowly unravelled since.
Here's what we know, and what we are yet to find out.
READ MORE:
* Ella Tromp charged with car theft
* Tromp siblings: 'Even if we told you the whole story, it's still inexplicable'
* Tromp family: Bizarre twist after parents disappear
* Tromp family: Bizarre mystery takes twist
FAIRFAXNZ The Tromp children: Mitch, Riana and Ella.
Here's what we know, and what we are yet to find out.
WHO ARE THE TROMPS?
The Tromps are a family from Victoria, Australia. There's five members of the family: Mark Tromp, 51, Jacoba Tromp, 53, and their children; Riana, 29, Mitchell, 25, and Ella, 22.
MARK JESSER/FAIRFAX MEDIA AUSTRALIA Mark Tromp, pictured right, is driven from the Wangaratta police station on Saturday night.
The parents and two children live and work on their Parkview Farm in Silvan, east of Melbourne, where they produce red currants and operate a earth moving business.
Ella has her own company supplying trucks and drivers to farms.
The Tromps left their farm on a "technology-free" road trip through New South Wales last Monday.
Leaving in Ella's silver Peugeot, the trip would appear innocuous. But by Tuesday afternoon, the parents were reported missing.
SO, WHAT HAPPENED?
Leaving on Monday, by Tuesday they were in Bathurst, west of Sydney. Here, Mitchell left the family, returning to Melbourne by overnight train.
The two daughters left the road trip at some point after this, at the nearby Jenolan Caves.
They travelled south to Goulborn in an "acquired" car, at which point they separated. Ella continued, driving the vehicle back to Silvan.
Riana was found later that day, catatonic, in the back of a local man's ute. Goulborn police collected and took her to hospital for stress-related issues.
The Tromp parents were reported missing by the children the same afternoon, and police visited the family's home. They find it unlocked, credit cards and cellphones in the house, with keys in the ignition of cars.
On Wednesday morning Mitchell was back at the farm. Police continued searching for Mark and Jacoba, who were sighted at a mall in Wangaratta, back in Victoria.
Later that day, after briefly stalking a couple playing Pokemon Go, a lone man is seen running away from the silver Peugeot car, the keys left in the ignition.
On Thursday evening, Jacoba presented herself at the hospital in Yass, NSW.
Mark was found on the outskirts of Wangaratta on Friday afternoon – after being spotted by a passerby – and accompanied police to the station.
He was later released into the custody of his police officer brother Ken and was pictured giving the media the middle finger.
WHY WERE THE TROMPS BEHAVING SO ERRATICALLY?
Mitchell has since described a "build-up" of pressure within the family.
"It slowly got worse as the days went by. They were just fearing for their lives, and then [we] decided to flee," he said.
Apparently the Tromps were stressed over finances and fearful that someone was coming after them. The family's businesses were doing well, and there was no indication someone was trying to steal their money.
While there were no diagnosed mental health problems or drug issues amongst the Tromps, reports suggest the bizarre behaviour was a mental health episode.
A spokesperson for NSW police said it might have been shared delusional schizophrenia.
It would appear it affected everyone except Mitchell, who disputed the officer's claim.
After being located, Jacoba and Riana were being treated by a mental health clinician in Goulborn hospital. Mark was cleared by a medical assessor prior to his release.
Questions remain around what kind of mental episode could have developed and spread among the Tromps.
WHY WAS MITCHELL SEEMINGLY UNAFFECTED?
Mitchell, who left the family first and has been home since Tuesday, has spoken to media on a couple occasions.
"I had to go with the family because I wanted to see where they were going – I couldn't leave them," he said.
While the rest of the family left home without their phones, Mitchell took his. He threw this out of the car window to placate the building tension among family members.
By the time they reached Bathurst, he thought getting out of the car was "the best idea".
WHY DID ELLA AND RIANA SEPARATE?
If this was shared mental health episode, it would seem Ella was also less affected than her parents and sister.
She explained that she left her parents because she was confused and "just wanted to get home and feed my horses".
But it isn't clear why the daughters split in Goulborn, and how Riana ended up in the back of a local man's ute.
WERE MARK AND JACOBA HEADING HOME? AND WHY DID JACOBA TRAVEL NORTH, AGAIN, TO YASS?
Mark and Jacoba were then sighted a day later in Wangaratta, much closer to their home in Silvan.
After the children had left them, why did they turn around and head south?
Jacoba split from Mark and then headed north again, to Yass, on public transport.
Why did she leave Mark and backtrack?
WAS MARK STALKING THAT COUPLE? AND DID HE COMMIT A BREAK-IN?
In a display of distressing behaviour, a couple were stalked by an unidentified driver of Ella's silver Peugeot, who then took off on foot. Was this Mark, and why was he following this couple?
There was also a reported break-in of a motel room in the area, and the culprit may have spent the night – was this Mark?
WHAT ABOUT WHEN THE DUST SETTLES?
The family is now all accounted for, but not yet reunited. How will things progress from here?ISTANBUL/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Turkish-backed rebels have seized the centre of al-Bab town from Islamic State, Turkish state media and rebels said on Thursday, in a boost to Ankara’s drive to defeat the militant group in northern Syria.
FILE PHOTO - Free Syrian Army fighters carry their weapons as they stand on the outskirts of the northern Syrian town of al-Bab, Syria February 4, 2017. Picture taken February 4, 2017. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi /File photo
Turkey launched its “Operation Euphrates Shield” in August in an effort to push Islamic State from its border and stop the advance of a Syrian Kurdish militia.
Taking control of al-Bab, an Islamic State stronghold 30 km (20 miles) from the Turkish border, would deepen Turkish influence in an area of Syria where it has effectively created a buffer zone and would allow the Ankara-backed forces to press on towards Raqqa, Islamic State’s de facto capital in Syria.
The Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighters, a loose coalition of Syrian Arabs and Turkmen, have been attacking al-Bab since December, aided by Turkish warplanes, tanks and special forces.
Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency, citing its correspondent in al-Bab, said the rebels had seized control of the town centre and were now clearing mines and explosive devices laid by the jihadists. Some 1,900 square kilometres (734 square miles) in northern Syria has now been cleared of militant groups, it said.
A war monitor, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said later on Thursday that Euphrates Shield forces had taken full control of al-Bab and of two neighbouring towns, Qabasin and al-Bezah.
“We had reached the city centre yesterday but there was a suicide attack so we had to withdraw a little bit. And today we attacked again. I can say that 85-90 percent of the city is under control,” a fighter from the Sultan Murad Brigade who is in al-Bab told Reuters by telephone.
“They have dug tunnels all under Bab and those who have remained are all suicide bombers. The whole of the city is mined. I can say that every metre is mined.”
Another fighter with an FSA group contacted via a social networking site said there was “complete calm” in al-Bab. The fighter said he was speaking from the city centre.
Turkish Defence Minister Fikri Isik told Anadolu the rebels had entered the town centre and that most of the town itself was now under their control.
However, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said that more than half of al-Bab was still under IS control, and that battles continued.
There was no immediate comment from the Turkish military.
STILL FIGHTING
Earlier, a Turkey-based rebel official from a group previously involved in fighting in Aleppo province said the rebels had taken control of al-Bab, although pockets of IS militants were still fighting.
“There has been cleaning up of the last remaining areas of (IS) control, and there were street battles,” Zakaria Malahifji of the Fastaqim faction told Reuters, adding that all the strategic areas of the city had been captured.
Turkish officials have repeatedly said that the al-Bab operation was taking longer than anticipated because of numbers of civilians still in the town and the care being taken not to harm them. It dropped leaflets on the town as long ago as December urging civilians to seek shelter
While Euphrates Shield has been largely focused so far on combating Islamic State, Ankara is also determined to prevent the Kurdish YPG militia, which it considers a terrorist group, from linking the cantons it controls along the Turkish border.
Turkey fears that advances by the YPG could enflame a Kurdish insurgency at home.
President Tayyip Erdogan has said the next target for the Turkish offensive should be Raqqa but that the YPG should not be involved.If the Dodgers’ spending spree of a year ago was all just a ruse designed to sell tickets, it worked. More fans came to Dodger Stadium to watch Zack Greinke, Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, Hanley Ramirez, Josh Beckett and Hyun-Jin Ryu — $617 million worth of guaranteed contracts, all employed elsewhere in 2011 — than any other team in baseball.
Of course, the off-season winner isn’t always the winner the following October. It’s a now-tired axiom, proven again when the Boston Red Sox beat the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series. Their 2013 opening-day payrolls ranked fourth (Boston) and 11th (St. Louis) in the majors, according to the Associated Press.
Signing Clayton Kershaw to a long-term extension is the Dodgers’ top priority this winter. Japanese pitcher Masahiro Tanaka is high on their wish list, and he is expected to command the most money ever for an Asian player when he signs a major-league contract.
But the Dodgers aren’t counting on winning the winter free agent sweepstakes to end their 25-year championship drought. They’re counting more on a revised draft strategy, one that mimics the Cardinals and potentially provides less expensive major-league talent in short order.
The Dodgers selected pitchers Chris Anderson and Tom Windle with their first two draft picks last June. Anderson, a right-hander from Jacksonville University, was taken 18th overall. Windle, a left-hander from the University of Minnesota, was taken in the second round, 56th overall.
At the time, the Dodgers weren’t just grabbing who they thought were the best players available. They also were rolling out a new philosophy.
“A little bit of both,” general manager Ned Colletti said. “When you have gaps in the system, you have to fill them.”
The gap Colletti was targeting was mature power pitchers with major league-ready speed. And really, what general manager wouldn’t want a system full of 22-year-old fireballers?
Identifying these pitchers in the draft escalated from a desire to a near necessity. In winning the National League Championship Series, the St. Louis Cardinals accelerated the timetable for turning top prospects into major-league contributors.
Eight of the 11 pitchers the Cardinals used in the series were 26 or younger. Three came from a single draft, 2009, which Sports Illustrated recently profiled in a piece called “Three Days in June” — the time it took to put the finishing touches on the Cardinals’ NLCS roster. Two others, Seth Maness and Michael Wacha, were drafted in 2011 and 2012, respectively.
Is imitation the sincerest form of flattery? A glance at St. Louis’ 2009 draft, and the Dodgers’ most recent draft in June, reveal some strong similarities.
Only one of the Cardinals’ first nine picks in 2009 was a high school player; only one of the Dodgers’ first 12 picks in June was a high schooler. Three of the Cardinals’ first four picks in 2009 were pitchers; three of the Dodgers’ first five picks in June were pitchers.
Anderson and Windle count a hard fastball and slider as their primary pitches. Shelby Miller and Joe Kelly, the Cardinals’ first- and third-round picks, respectively, in 2009, throw a high-90s fastball with an assortment of secondary pitches.
The Dodgers and Cardinals aren’t the only two teams targeting hard-throwing college pitchers in the draft, but their draft strategies came to a head in the NLCS — thanks to Wacha.
Few criticized the Dodgers’ choice of 18-year-old shortstop Corey Seager with the 18th overall pick in 2012. Wacha, 19th overall pick, then beat them twice en route to winning the series’ Most Valuable Player award.
The Dodgers’ higher-ups still are high on Seager. The 19-year-old became the youngest player in the Single-A California League when he was promoted in August and is estimated to be about four years away from being an every-day major leaguer.
Anderson and Windle have the potential to be closer, and major-league readiness is the new key criterion in the draft.
When the rebuilding Houston Astros took a 17-year-old shortstop (Carlos Correa) first overall in 2011, they could wait 5 to 7 years for him to reach the majors. They’re not expected to be in contention until then. A team intent on contending sooner, like the Dodgers, can’t wait that long. The win-now philosophy has extended to the early rounds of the draft.
“We’re still in the process of firming up a lot of our culture and how we do things,” Colletti said recently.
The same deep pockets that allowed Guggenheim Baseball Management to double the Dodgers’ major-league payroll within a year also have been applied to signing draft picks.
That doesn’t help too much, since the last two drafts have been subject to limits on the amount of money teams can spend on their first 10 picks. Even the free-spending Dodgers haven’t been taxed for exceeding the so-called “slot values” in the draft.
But there won’t be a repeat of 2004, when pitcher David Price was drafted by the Dodgers out of high school. According to a source, then-owner Frank McCourt did not approve spending the $2 million the pitcher wanted. Price told teams he was going to college, followed through on the promise, re-entered the draft in 2007, was drafted first overall and has a 71-39 major league record in six seasons since. The Dodgers are rumored to be among the teams interested in trading for Price this winter.
The Dodgers also employ a four-person analytics team, relied on regularly for scouting. That involves videotaping every pitch thrown and every at-bat taken throughout their minor-league system, a key tool for evaluating major-league readiness. These things did not exist when Colletti was hired as general manager in 2006 (the analytics department was a one-person operation then).
There’s also been an uptick in “the number and quality of scouts that we’ve hired,” team president Stan Kasten said. “We’ve been aggressive in doing that.”
The Dodgers’ cultural shift makes it less likely they would sign Hiroki Kuroda, Ubaldo Jimenez, Stephen Drew or any of the 13 free agents who received qualifying offers on Monday. Each would cost the Dodgers a first-round draft pick to sign.
According to statistics compiled by BaseballAmerica.com, 73 percent of players drafted in the first round between 1987 and 2008 reached the majors. For the second round, the rate drops below 50 percent and doesn’t recover.
Wacha’s quick path to the majors offers a cautionary tale. St. Louis acquired the pick used to draft Wacha from the Angels, as compensation for losing Albert Pujols in free agency the previous winter.
Wacha ultimately might be the only player named a League Championship Series MVP within 15 months of being drafted. That’s of little consolation now to the Dodgers, who might consider it a lesson learned.Sony's internal online-focused studio, Sony Online Entertainment, has been responsible for a number of well-known titles over the years including EverQuest, Star Wars Galaxies, GripShift, Field Commander, Untold Legends: The Warrior's Code, and the upcoming massively multiplayer online game, The Agency.
Back in March, Sony announced that SOE would no longer be part of Sony Pictures Entertainment and instead would fall under the Sony Computer Entertainment banner, reporting to SCE group president and CEO Kazuo Hirai. In addition, Yair Landau, vice chairman for Sony Pictures Entertainment, announced he would be leaving the company after 17 years of service. Landau oversaw SOE in addition to other divisions.
It appears that following the assimilation into SCE, another exec at SOE has moved on. John Needham, former senior vice president of Business Development and Operations for Sony Online Entertainment, has joined developer Cryptic Studios as chief executive officer.
President of Cryptic Studios Michael Lewis said in a statement today, "John Needham's proven leadership in the MMO space makes him a dynamic fit for heading up Cryptic's new corporate direction. As a senior vice president of Sony Online Entertainment he has contributed greatly to the growth of the industry and we're excited to combine his operational experience with our vision for the future of online games."
Cryptic, like SOE, has been responsible for a number of online role-playing games, including the superhero-themed City of Heroes and City of Villains. The studio also worked on Marvel Universe Online, which was (Marvel Universe Online officially offline) subsequently canceled by the game's publisher, Microsoft Games Studios. MGS head Shane Kim didn't go into details other than confirming "Microsoft and Marvel have decided to discontinue that project."
Shortly after that, the studio quickly announced it would be release a new superhero MMO, Champions Online for the PC and Xbox 360 and currently slated for a spring 2009 release.From JSXGraph Wiki
Simulation of differential equations with turtle graphics using JSXGraph.
SIR model without vital dynamics
The SIR model measures the number of susceptible, infected, and recovered individuals in a host population. Given a fixed population, let [math]S(t)[/math] be the fraction that is susceptible to an infectious, but not deadly, disease at time t; let [math]I(t)[/math] be the fraction that is infected at time [math]t[/math]; and let [math]R(t)[/math] be the fraction that has recovered. Let [math]\beta[/math] be the rate at which an infected person infects a susceptible person. Let [math]\gamma[/math] be the rate at which infected people recover from the disease.
A single epidemic outbreak is usually far more rapid than the vital dynamics of a population, thus, if the aim is to study the immediate consequences of a single epidemic, one may neglect birth-death processes. In this case the SIR system can be expressed by the following set of differential equations:
[math] \frac{dS}{dt} = - \beta I S [/math]
[math] \frac{dR}{dt} = \gamma I [/math]
[math] \frac{dI}{dt} = -(\frac{dS}{dt}+\frac{dR}{dt}) [/math]
Example Hong Kong flu
initially 7.9 million people,
10 infected,
0 recovered.
estimated average period of infection: 3 days, so [math]\gamma = 1/3[/math]
infection rate: one new person every other day, so [math]\beta = 1/2[/math]
Thus S(0) = 1, I(0) = 1.27E-6, R(0) = 0, see [1].
The lines in the JSXGraph-simulation below have the following meaning:
* Blue: Rate of susceptible population * Red: Rate of infected population * Green: Rate of recovered population (which means: immune, isolated or dead)
The underlying JavaScript code
var brd = JXG. JSXGraph. initBoard ( 'box', { axis : true, boundingbox : [ - 5, 1.2, 100, - 1.2 ]}); var S = brd. create ( 'turtle',[],{ strokeColor : 'blue', strokeWidth : 3 }); var I = brd. create ( 'turtle',[],{ strokeColor |
I bet it smarts a lot.The Server Is Down
No it isn't, I didn't get paged. Wait a minute, why didn't I get paged? FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-- CHALLENGE ACCEPTED
Diagnosis
The client reported that the site sometimes took more than a minute to load. Doesn't respond very slowly to me, and the pager is only primed to ping me if there is a sustained downtime (hiccups are not something I want to wake up for every night at 3:00am).
Strangely, load hovered around 7 most of the time, only spiking to 13 every few minutes. With a 16-core processor, this was well within operating parameters, if just a little worrisome. Nothing in the log files.
Oops, now I get a slow page load. Takes 30 seconds to load a page. Refresh again, and the page loads just fine. Clear browser cache, and the page still loads just fine.
top kept MySQL at the top of the CPU list. Not surprising, as this server is the master database server for a two node cluster. So I keep an eye on top as I poll mysql for its process list.
A pattern emerges: The load spikes and server goes unresponsive when this happens:
This table shows 12 different processes are trying to update the same cache location (process ID 2-3, 5-8, 10, 12-13, 18, 23, and 26). Because of MyISAM's table-level lock, any request to get from the cache has to wait for 12 REPLACE INTO requests to complete. They've already taken 1 second, if each replace takes 2 seconds, that's 24 seconds of non-responsive website.
These 12 processes all saw that the cache item had expired and are trying to update it. This is called a "cache stampede". Only one of them needs to update the cache, the rest are just wasting resources. Worse, they're doing all the work to update the cache, which is much more expensive than getting the value from the cache. If it's expensive enough, the site goes down hard.
Management
How can we stop the cache stampede? One way is to mildly randomize the actual expiration date when checking if the cache is expired:
sub is_expired { my ( $self, $key ) = @_; my $expires = $self->get_expires( $key ); # Randomize the expiration by up to 5% +/- # by first removing 5% and then adding 0-10% $expires = $expires - ( $expires * 0.05 ) + ( $expires * 0.10 * rand ); # Compare against now return $expires > time; }
In this very simple case, if you are within 5% of the expiration time, you have a chance to have an expired cache item. The chance grows as time passes, reaching 50% at the actual expiration time, and 100% at 5% past the expiration time.
Rather than add this expiration variance to our custom database cache, I instead opted to move this site over to CHI, which has this protection built-in.
my $cache = CHI->new( driver => 'DBI', namespace => 'localhost', dbh => $dbh, expires_variance => '0.10', );
This stops the cache stampede, but we're still hitting the database a lot. Remember we have two web nodes hitting one database node. The fewer database hits we make, the better performance we can get without having to ask for more hardware from the client (which takes time, and forms, and more forms, and meetings, and forms, and more meetings, and probably some forms).
Because this is a distributed system, we need a distributed, synchronized cache. We cannot use memcached, as WebGUI 7.x does not support it (but WebGUI 8 does). So for now we must use the database as our synchronized cache, but what if we put a faster, local cache in front of the slower, synchronized cache?
CHI has an awesome way to do this: Add an l1_cache
my $cache = CHI->new( driver => 'DBI', namespace => 'localhost', dbh => $dbh, expires_variance => '0.10', l1_cache => { driver => 'FastMmap', root_dir => '/tmp/cache', }, );
Now we're using FastMmap to share an in-memory cache between our web processes, and if the L1 cache is expired or missing, we look for content from the DBI cache. If that cache is missing or expired, we have a cache miss and have to recompute the value.
Hurdles
I had to install the DB tables myself, which was not difficult, just undocumented (bug report filed). MySQL only allows a 1000-byte key, and the CHI::Driver::DBI tries to create a 600-character key. This is fine in the Latin-1 charset, but MySQL complains if you're using UTF-8 by default.
The driver also tries to create a TEXT field to hold the cache value, but MySQL expects a text field to hold characters in a known character set. After noticing that my cache values were empty, I changed to a LONGBLOB.
The full create table statements are below:
-- primary cache table: chi_<namespace> -- CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `chi_localhost` ( `key` VARCHAR(255), `value` LONGBLOB, PRIMARY KEY ( `key` ) ); -- CHI metacache table -- CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `chi__CHI_METACACHE` ( `key` VARCHAR(255), `value` LONGBLOB, PRIMARY KEY ( `key` ) );
Results
The server is stable again! Spikes do not turn into out-of-control loads and unresponsive server. We'll see how things go tomorrow during normal business hours (the peak time for this site), but right now it looks like CHI has saved the day!How would you react if your unvaccinated child or grandchild died from measles?
No doubt your response would be one of agonizing grief. What you wouldn’t know is that this personal tragedy did not have to happen in 2014. Unfortunately, I bet not one doctor in a thousand knows how Dr. Frederick Klenner successfully treated this viral infection over 60 years ago.
Doctors are not the only ones unaware of Dr. Klenner. One of Canada’s leading newspapers recently reported that there was no specific antiviral treatment for this highly infectious disease. It was wrong. This newspaper editor committed a major error by not reading history.
Worldwide measles has been, in the past, one of the major causes of death among young children. It’s estimated that before the measles vaccine became available nearly 3 million children died every year from this disease.
Today, in this country about 95 percent of children are vaccinated against measles. But in some areas the rate drops as low as 50 percent making these children highly susceptible to infection. Particularly, when they travel abroad and bring the virus back home or when foreigners carry it to North America. Now, several cases of measles have appeared in various parts of Canada.
Measles should not be looked on as a minor disease, as death occurs in about one to two percent of cases. Moreover, the complications are far from minor ones. Some children develop pneumonia, severe diarrhea and dehydration, encephalitis with swelling of the brain and in some cases blindness. What a tragedy when a vaccine to eradicate it has been available for years!
So who is Dr. Frederick Klenner? He graduated from Duke University School of Medicine in 1936 and entered private practice in Reidsville, South Carolina. In the “Clinical Guide to the Use of Vitamin C”, Dr. Lendon H. Smith outlines numerous cases on how Dr. Klenner quickly cured a variety of viral diseases by the use of intravenous vitamin C.
He reports of a ten month old baby with high fever, watery nose, dry cough, red eyes and rash characteristic of measles. Dr Klenner gave the baby 1,000 milligrams (mg) of vitamin C every four hours and the temperature dropped, the cough stopped and the rash disappeared.
Another eight-year-old child with measles developed encephalitis, became stuporous and responded only to pain. He quickly cured the child by both intravenous and oral vitamin C.
A 23 year old man with mumps developed swollen testicles, the size of tennis balls, along with overwhelming pain. After 1,000 mg of intravenous vitamin C the pain subsided. During the next 24 hours he was given 2,000 mg of intravenous C every two hours. His fever returned to normal in 36 hours and he was up and about in 60 hours.I went to the New Zealand PRINCE2 User Group Wellington Chapter meeting on Tuesday night. As usual the calibre of speakers were excellent. Conrad McDonnell and Barry Calvert spoke on various aspects of estimation. It was quite interesting perspective, one from an IT/vendor angle and another a construction angle.
Importance of a shared vision is not something that I had previously connected to a good estimate. Conrad was quite persuasive on his argument on the need to understand the vision as a pre-requisite in this respect. It is amazing how many projects I have worked on that has started with not all stakeholders having clarity on what what success looks like. Here I do not mean success delivering to a set of agreed deliverables, but something that would advance a measurable business outcome. I can see his point of view. He gave the example of the NASA programme to land on the moon and the vision that John F. Kennedy outlined in his speech.
He talked about the vision in the context of a progressive estimate with increasing level of certainty. The key to any good vision is to not assume it is understood by everyone. It must be communicated with a feedback loop. Before the programme or project begins, high level planning must occur. The key to estimation at this stage is to understand your levels of uncertainty and recording your risks. It is key to remember there will always be different levels of certainty at all stages in your project or programme. In an IT context, you may have near certainty about cost of hardware, but little clarity on required design effort. As you execute, you must continually plan, execute and re-plan. Expect to take a few detours on your journey. This is where clarity of vision will help.
Barry talked from a construction point of view and had an analogy of a pancake. It only has four ingredients – flour, eggs, baking powder and milk. Flour is the one that determines the size – what is required, by whom, when – the basic facts. That sets your base criteria for estimate. Eggs are what sets your environmental conditions and is complementary to your flour – what environment is it being delivered, the intended use, slope of the land, other influencers. Baking powder is what gives it the fluff – the nice to haves – types of finishing, flooring, fittings etc. Milk is what gives it the consistency – this is your repeatable methodology and constant refinement of it. Even though he gave the example from a different industry, I like the principle of it. I have a feeling I will re-use it.
One thing that was clear from both speakers was the folly of trying to go back to the customer with a number too early in the piece. Whatever you do, customers forever remember the first number or date.
There is nothing called a perfect estimate. You can only ever get reasonably good at it.
Related articlesPORTLAND — Bob Marley, a comedian who lives in Falmouth, has smashed the previous Guinness World Record for the longest stand-up comedy performance by an individual.
Marley received a standing ovation tonight from a packed house at the Comedy Connection at 9:10 p.m., just one minute after he broke the previous record of 38 hours and six minutes set in October 2009 by Lindsay Webb of Australia.
Carlos Martinez, Head of Records for Guinness World Records, gave Marley a thumbs up after Oliver Keithly, the owner of the Comedy Connection, alerted the audience to the feat Marley accomplished.
Marley’s performance began at 7:02 a.m. Wednesday morning
“Listen up, this concludes the first half of my show,” said Marley, prompting an outburst of laughter. “I feel like I can do another 40 hours.”
Marley indicated he would try to continue telling jokes until 11:02 p.m., which would put his performance at 40 hours. Marley felt that record could stand for some time.
Marley told the audience he was concerned about being able to attend a friend’s wedding on Friday.
ShareTokyo Xanadu details latest character, Tokyo earthquake, and combat system
New information from the latest Dengeki PlayStation.
New details on Tokyo Xanadu‘s newest character, story, and combat system have come out of the latest issue of Dengeki PlayStation.
Get the information below.
World The Tokyo Earthquake – A 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck Tokyo, with disaster striking various other areas, as well. The illustration pictured in the magazine features a lot of small details embedded inside it that hint at the state of the world in the game. Character Sora Ikushima (CV:???) – 15 years old. A serious girl and member of the high school’s karate club who possesses the same old-school karate style as her father and teacher. In an effort to broaden her knowledge, she leaves Kyushu (like Tokyo, the kanji for Kyushu is written differently) and heads for Tokyo. Her natural talents at martial arts in tandem with her sincere personality causes friction between her and the senior members of the karate club. She and the protagonist Kou share something in common and are thus acquaintances before the start of the game. Combat Normal Attack – By pressing the circle button consecutively with good timing, you can perform attack after attack. Kou has long reach, Asuka has a good balance of power and speed, and Sora has a short reach, but can attack swiftly. Players have access to three types of skills: Shooting Skills – By pressing square, you can trigger shooting skills, which are low in power, but in exchange can be rapid-fired.
By pressing square, you can trigger shooting skills, which are low in power, but in exchange can be rapid-fired. Flight Skills – By jumping and presing square, you can jump attack and dash attack towards the enemy.
By jumping and presing square, you can jump attack and dash attack towards the enemy. Strength Skills – By holding the square button, you can trigger these high power skills. According to developer remarks in the magazine, while the game’s combat fundamentals are easy to engage thanks to its one-button chain attack system, advanced players will also be able to do things like swap out skills and characters to make fights more technical in nature.
Tokyo Xanadu is due out for PS Vita in Japan later this year.
Thanks, [email protected].- Authorities in Charles County are looking to identify two women who went into a Victoria’s Secret store with a trash bag and stole several items before fleeing the mall.
The Charles County Sheriff’s Office said the theft suspects entered the store at the St. Charles Towne Center on Wednesday at around 8 p.m. and placed several items from the front entrance rack into large bags before running away in the lower level of the mall.
Investigators are looking into the possibility that these women may be connected to similar thefts in the region, according to the sheriff’s office.
Anyone with information is asked to call PFC D. Butler at 301-932-2222. Anonymous tips can left with Crime Solvers at 1-866-411-TIPS, texting CHARLES + the tip to CRIMES (274637) or online at tipsubmit.com. Crime Solvers is offering a $1,000 cash reward for tips that lead to an arrest in this case.Julian Draxler told he will not be allowed to leave Wolfsburg this summer
Wolfsburg say Draxler will not be allowed to leave the club this summer
Wolfsburg say Julian Draxler will not be allowed to leave this summer, despite his desire to quit the club.
The 22-year-old Germany international has been heavily linked with a move to Arsenal but Wolfsburg had claimed the winger is happy to remain at the Volkswagen Arena for another season.
Draxler hit back at those suggestions and claimed the club have known about his desire to leave for three weeks, adding that he was given assurances he would be allowed to leave the Bundesliga side if one of Europe's "top clubs" came in with an offer for him this summer.
However, Wolfsburg have categorically ruled out selling the player, releasing a statement denying the existence of "any written or verbal agreement made at any time regarding a transfer of Julian Draxler within the current transfer period up to August 31, 2016."
Julian Draxler says he wants to leave Wolfsburg, so could that mean a transfer to Arsenal? And how does he compare to other forwards already at the Emirates Julian Draxler says he wants to leave Wolfsburg, so could that mean a transfer to Arsenal? And how does he compare to other forwards already at the Emirates
The statement continued: "This is confirmed by a release clause stipulated with Julian Draxler and his management which only comes into force in the summer of 2017.
"Wolfsburg will not transfer Julian Draxler during the current transfer period. Wolfsburg have explained to Julian Draxler once again in a talk that his express to leave the club cannot be accommodated."
The 22-year-old impressed for Germany at Euro 2016 earlier this summer
The Bundesliga side said they hope that "now all apparent uncertainties have been resolved, all involved can return to leading a professional, responsible cooperation for the good of Wolfsburg and in particular also our fans."
Draxler underwent his first training session of pre-season on Wednesday before meeting with club bosses and being informed of their refusal to let him leave.
Draxler only recently signed for Wolfsburg in a five-year deal from Schalke
Earlier he had made clear his desire to leave the club this summer and hit back at previous claims from Wolfsburg that he was happy to stay.
"Before you go public like that, you really should speak with me first," Draxler told German newspaper Bild.
"The situation with me is that I made it clear to [head coach] Dieter Hecking after we were knocked out of Euro 2016 in the semi-final that I would like to leave Wolfsburg.
Arsenal have been linked with a number of attacking players across Europe this summer
"The coach has known about this for three weeks. It's very surprising that they have been talking about me to the media for weeks.
"I would have expected things to be different, for example for one of them to come to me and ask me how things are with me."
Draxler made 34 appearances for Wolfsburg last season after signing from Bundesliga rivals Schalke in 2015.
Draxler claims Wolfsburg manager Dieter Hecking knew about his desire to leave for three weeks
Although he signed a five-year deal with Wolfsburg, the highly-rated winger says he was given assurances that he would be allowed to leave if a top European side came in with an offer for him this summer.
"When I joined, I was assured - verbally - that I could leave the club whenever the opportunity arose," Draxler said. "Both Hecking and [sporting director] Klaus Allofs said this. It was clear that Wolfsburg had good prospects, but also that they were a springboard for me.
"It was always clear to everybody that I would like to join a top club in Europe, if I were to get the chance."London again, huh? The Jaguars in London. To your average American NFL fan, this is about as exciting as a rice sandwich. Because of the 9:30 a.m. ET kickoff, a nonzero portion of the league's regular viewers won't even realize the Colts are playing the Jaguars on Sunday until the game is almost over. If there's any emotion spilled over this game, it'll be from people who didn't set their fantasy lineups in time.
And yet, the NFL is doing it again. And again. And again. Sunday's game is the first of three regular-season London games this season. They played three last year and three the year before. The Jaguars are going for the fourth year in a row and are committed to playing there once a year through 2020. The league has an agreement to play in Tottenham's new stadium every year once it opens in 2018.
If you're sick of the London games, too bad, because from the NFL's standpoint it's a rousing success and should only get bigger. The London series is a microcosm of the league itself. From a quality-of-the-product standpoint, it hasn't exactly been dazzling anybody the past few years. But it's thriving anyway.
Growing the game internationally is a vital part of the league's business plan. No one could possibly believe the game will continue to grow domestically the way it has over the past couple of decades, but if things do flatten out here and they grow overseas, then the league's business continues to churn and the owners keep making the money they've been making. Not only are there three games in London this year, but there's one in Mexico City, too. And one of the agenda items at the league meeting in March dealt with other potential venues, such as Germany, Brazil and China.
The NFL is committed to playing in London -- and branching out globally soon. AP Photo/Sang Tan
A casual NFL observer can look at the London series and conclude that it's gone stale. The average margin of victory in the nine games that have been played there the past four years is 18.5. Eight coaches have lost their jobs the year their teams went to London, including the loser of the Week 4 game there each of the past two years. (Look out, Gus Bradley and Chuck Pagano!)
The league measures its London success differently. Mark Waller, the NFL's executive vice president for international, listed three things the NFL looks at to determine how the London series is working:
Impact on the teams
"Do the teams feel they can go out there, play to the highest level, come back and compete and have a good season that isn't spoiled by playing internationally?" Waller said. "You can't get teams to go if other teams come back and say it was badly managed, not fair, doesn't work, things of that nature." So the league takes seriously the feedback it gets from teams about their experiences, and it works with teams to avoid surprises and inconvenience. The Jets got a lot of attention for bringing their own toilet paper last year, but they and the league had done their research, and they wanted to make their players as comfortable as possible.
Are they offering the U.K. fans the best possible product?
Sure, we who can choose among the likes of the Patriots, Steelers, Packers and Broncos every week scoff at the idea that Britain keeps getting the Jaguars foisted on them. First of all, by the time this year's London games are over, 14 NFL teams will have played there since the start of 2014. Second of all, British customers don't seem at all turned off by the Jaguars. Waller says all three games this season have sold out, and there are almost 40,000 tickets purchased by people who are buying all three games. "So, mini-season ticket holders, if you will," he said. The league polls fans who go to the games about their experience so it can address specific aspects and try to keep it fresh. Despite the less-than-stellar matchups, the average attendance in the 14 regular-season games that have been played in London has been 83,061.
The NFL games in London have averaged 83,061 fans, even though the matchups haven't been strong. EPA/Sean Dempsey
Growth of audience
There is now a twice-weekly half-hour show on the BBC with the fabulously austere title "The NFL Show." It airs Saturday nights to preview the week ahead and on Tuesdays to review. The NFL estimates viewership at around a million, and Waller says the show has the youngest audience demographic of any BBC program. "So not only are you bringing in new audience for yourself, but you're also helping the BBC by bringing in new viewers."
Waller said that there are now 83 university teams and that amateur adult participation in American football is growing at 16 percent a year in the U.K.
The league doesn't want this to get stale, which is part of why there's a new venue in the mix this year. The Rams and the Giants will play their Week 7 game at Twickenham, a new venue for the NFL and a different fan experience because it's located in a residential area. The NFL is eager to see what effect that has on tailgating, parking and other game-day activities. Wembley Stadium, Waller said, can host only two or three games a year, so other venues must be explored and tried out. The new Tottenham Stadium factors into the long-term plans, but officials want to know where else they can have games if they want to continue to have more of them. Yes, there are those in the NFL offices and in the U.K. who are very interested in studying the viability of an NFL franchise based in London full time.
So roll your eyes if you like at perennial bottom-feeding Jacksonville being our international NFL standard-bearer. Chuckle when it's 11 a.m. ET on Sunday and one of the teams is up by 20 points. Remember: The people running this show love this, and that means you can expect to keep seeing it for a long, long time.Boris Mikhaylovich Moiseev (Russian: Бори́с Миха́йлович Моисе́ев; born March 4, 1954, Mogilev, Byelorussian SSR, Soviet Union) is a Russian singer, choreographer, dancer, writer, actor, head of dance group and author of popular shows in Russia. Meritorious Artist of Russia (2006).
Biography [ edit ]
Boris Moiseev was born in prison, his mother was being held as a disenfranchised element during the communist regime. He spent his childhood and teenage years among his Jewish aunts in Mogilev. To strengthen his health, Boris was sent to a dancing school. Since then dancing took over all his interests and turned into a lifetime passion. He dropped out of the school, packed his bags and ran away to Minsk. There Boris got accepted to a choreography school and became a professional classical dancer.
Career beginning [ edit ]
Boris had all the skills to succeed as a classical dancer on the stage but he preferred modern dance. After his graduation Moiseev was expelled from Minsk because of his very open, for that time, ways of self-expression. He moved to Kharkiv where Moiseev became a ballet teacher but in 1975 he was expelled from Komsomol and left Kharkiv for Kaunas. He became a head of the Lithuanian dance group Trimitas. In 1978 Moiseev created famous dancing trio Ekspressiya which became a part of Alla Pugacheva's studio. In 1987 the trio quit working with Pugacheva and went on tours to the United States, Italy, and France. The trio has existed and for a very long time. In addition Moiseev was invited to work as a ballet teacher for many American shows.
Return to Russia [ edit ]
Moiseev came back to Russia in 1991, filming a documentary on Ekspressia.Ryan Giggs expects Paul Pogba to be more prolific for Manchester United this season
Ryan Giggs expects Paul Pogba to be more prolific in front of goal this year and says that could help Manchester United launch a Premier League title challenge.
Pogba scored five times in the league last season, and nine in all competitions, after rejoining United in a then world-record £89m deal from Juventus, with the France international often deployed deeper than his preferred position.
However, Giggs, who won 13 Premier League titles and two Champions Leagues with the club, expects the arrival of midfield anchor Nemanja Matic from Chelsea to allow Pogba a more advanced role and says he should be a regular on the scoresheet in the coming campaign.
Pogba scored for Manchester United in the Europa League final
"I expect Pogba will improve a lot this season. He's been back a year now and the introduction of Matic is a good buy because it frees him up," Giggs said.
"That's what you want to see from Pogba, getting on the end of crosses and scoring goals. I think he's capable of dropping deep or playing in an old-fashioned midfield two but he can get further forward and I expect him to be more effective this year.
Ryan Giggs says Nemanja Matic is 'a good buy'
"He managed nine last year and hit the crossbar and post plenty of times as well, so he can bring the goals that might turn draws into wins and have a real effect on the team.
"I think both the Manchester sides are the teams to beat this year. It would be silly to dismiss Chelsea after the way they played so dominantly last year but looking at the teams, I think City and United will be up there and the teams to watch."The list of guest stars for Parks and Recreation’s upcoming sixth season continues to grow. TV Line reports that mustachioed character actor Sam Elliott has signed on to play a rival/counterpart to Ron Swanson who does his same job in Pawnee’s rival town of Eagleton and may or may not have a better mustache. It was previously reported that Kristen Bell would be appearing in the same episode, the season’s second, as Leslie Knope’s wealthier and better-dressed Eagleton equivalent.
Parks and Rec’s hour-long season premiere, the show’s first double-length episode, airs September 26th and it takes the gang to London where Leslie Knope is receiving a political award from an international organization. In addition to Sam Elliott and Kristen Bell, the sixth season will also feature guest appearances from Heidi Klum as a Danish politician and Henry Winkler as Jean-Ralphio’s father.WASHINGTON (AP) — Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Wednesday released a list of 11 potential picks to replace Antonin Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court, a mix of federal and state judges that appeared tailored to win over conservatives still skeptical of his candidacy.
The decision to release such a list is highly unusual for a presidential candidate, and comes as Trump is working to unite a Republican Party fractured by his candidacy and assuage still-skeptical establishment Republicans who question his ability to win a general election.
"I have a lot of people that are conservative that really like me, love everything I stand for, but they really would like to know my view," Trump said Wednesday in an interview with Fox News, "because perhaps outside of the defense of our country, perhaps the single most important thing the next president is going to have to do is pick Supreme Court justices."
The list, which featured several prominent names floated repeatedly on conservative wish lists to replace Scalia, won immediate praise from those Trump is trying to win over.
"This list ought to be encouraging to anyone who prioritizes the rule of law, and I congratulate Mr. Trump on making a very significant policy statement about his desire to prioritize the future of the Supreme Court," said Carrie Severino of the Judicial Crisis Network, a group leading the opposition to President Barack's Obama's pick to replace Scalia, Merrick Garland.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, a Republican who has refused to hold a hearing to consider Garland's appointment to the high court, said Trump has "laid out an impressive list of highly qualified jurists."
"Understanding the types of judges a presidential nominee would select for the Supreme Court is an important step in this debate so the American people can have a voice in the direction of the Supreme Court for the next generation," he said.
Among the judges on Trump's list is Joan Larsen, who serves on the Michigan Supreme Court. A former law clerk to Scalia, Larson delivered one of the tributes to the late justice at his memorial service. She served in the Justice Department office that produced the legal justifications for the enhanced interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, that critics have called torture.
"I was surprised," Larson said. "I did see the list and those are incredibly distinguished jurists and I'm honored to be associated with judges on that list. It's an incredible list."
Another pick is Don Willett, a justice on the Texas Supreme Court perhaps best known outside his state for his Twitter account, @justicewillett. Willett has openly mocked Trump to his more than 35,000 followers, including on Aug. 27, when he wrote, "Can't wait till Trump rips off his face Mission Impossible-style & reveals a laughing Ruth Bader Ginsburg."
Mobbed by reporters Wednesday when he showed up at a book signing with Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott just as news of Trump's list was breaking, Willett giggled at the attention. He said he was "exercising judicial restraint" by declining to comment.
Trump's list is also notable for the names that don't appear. It omits two of the biggest stars in the conservative legal world, Judge Brett Kavanaugh of the federal appeals court in Washington, and former Bush administration Solicitor General Paul Clement.
Also absent is his former rival, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who clerked for former Chief Justice William Rehnquist and served as Solicitor General in Texas.
Since Scalia's unexpected death in February, both Trump and his likely Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, have tried to make the Supreme Court a key election issue, reminding their supporters that its future is hanging in the balance of the 2016 election.
If Clinton is elected, Trump told supporters at a rally earlier this month, "You will have a Supreme Court that will destroy our nation."
"The battle lines have been drawn and the two sides are now clear," said Marjorie Dannenfelser, head of the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List. She added the group is "already working to make the case to pro-life voters that the court matters and must be protected. This is not an election for pro-lifers to sit out."
Clinton, meanwhile, had warned before Wednesday that Trump's picks for the court would roll back the rights of individuals and further empower corporations. Ilyse Hogue, the president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, which has endorsed Clinton, panned the list as "a woman's worst nightmare."
"Their records reveal a lineup of individuals who would likely overturn Roe v. Wade if given the chance, gutting what's left of abortion access in this country and heaping punishment on women," she said.
Trump first said in March that he planned to release a list of potential justices in an effort to ease concerns about his conservative credentials, which had come under attack in the heated Republican primary. Among his critics was Cruz, who ran an ad saying Trump could not be trusted with a Supreme Court nomination.
It was a rare acknowledgment from Trump that he could be doing more to appease those in his party who opposed his candidacy.
"I am going to give a list of either five or 10 judges that I will pick, 100 percent pick, that I will put in for nomination," Trump said at an event in Palm Beach, Florida. "Because some of the people that are against me say: 'We don't know if he's going to pick the right judge. Supposing he picks a liberal judge or supposing he picks a pro-choice judge.'"
___
Colvin reported from New Jersey. Associated Press writer Michael Gerstein reported from Lansing, Michigan.
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Follow Jill Colvin and Mark Sherman on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/colvinj and http://twitter.com/shermancourtAbove: In S the distance between the spaceships stays the same, while the string contracts. Below: In S′ the distance between the spaceships increases, while the string length stays the same. : In S the distance between the spaceships stays the same, while the string contracts.: In S′ the distance between the spaceships increases, while the string length stays the same.
Bell's spaceship paradox is a thought experiment in special relativity. It was designed by E. Dewan and M. Beran in 1959[1] and became more widely known when J. S. Bell included a modified version.[2] A delicate string or thread hangs between two spaceships. Both spaceships start accelerating simultaneously and equally as measured in the inertial frame S, thus having the same velocity at all times in S. Therefore, they are all subject to the same Lorentz contraction, so the entire assembly seems to be equally contracted in the S frame with respect to the length at the start. Therefore, at first sight, it might appear that the thread will not break during acceleration.
This argument, however, is incorrect as shown by Dewan and Beran and Bell.[1][2] The distance between the spaceships does not undergo Lorentz contraction with respect to the distance at the start, because in S, it is effectively defined to remain the same, due to the equal and simultaneous acceleration of both spaceships in S. It also turns out that the rest length between the two has increased in the frames in which they are momentarily at rest (S′), because the accelerations of the spaceships are not simultaneous here due to relativity of simultaneity. The thread, on the other hand, being a physical object held together by electrostatic forces, maintains the same rest length. Thus, in frame S, it must be Lorentz contracted, which result can also be derived when the electromagnetic fields of bodies in motion are considered. So, calculations made in both frames show that the thread will break; in S′ due to the non-simultaneous acceleration and the increasing distance between the spaceships, and in S due to length contraction of the thread.
In the following, the rest length[3] or proper length[4] of an object is its length measured in the object's rest frame. (This length corresponds to the proper distance between two events in the special case, when these events are measured simultaneously at the endpoints in the object's rest frame.[4])
Dewan and Beran [ edit ]
Dewan and Beran stated the thought experiment by writing:
"Consider two identically constructed rockets at rest in an inertial frame S. Let them face the same direction and be situated one behind the other. If we suppose that at a prearranged time both rockets are simultaneously (with respect to S) fired up, then their velocities with respect to S are always equal throughout the remainder of the experiment (even though they are functions of time). This means, by definition, that with respect to S the distance between the two |
Charter.
The proposed power to make major modifications to warrants for targeted interception has raised concern among the committee. As its report pointed out, this ability is "so wide as to give rise to real concern that the requirement of judicial authorisation can be circumvented, thereby undermining that important safeguard against arbitrariness." To address that problem, the committee recommended that big changes to warrants should be approved by a judicial commissioner.
The report also demanded the legal protection for three kinds of communications to be tightened up: those involving MPs and their constituents; between lawyers and their clients, and for journalists communicating with sources.
Finally, it calls for oversight of the powers regulated by the Snoopers' Charter to be strengthened. It suggests creating a separate system for reviewing authorisations alongside the one that issues warrants in the first place.
Despite these issues, the joint committee generally welcomed May's draft legislation, calling it "a significant step forward in human rights terms towards the objective of providing a clear and transparent legal basis for the investigatory powers already being exercised by the security and intelligence agencies and law enforcement authorities and, in many respects, enhanced safeguards."
The main issue to emerge from the report is the problematic nature of the thematic warrants, which are currently almost unlimited in their reach and power. Coupled with similar criticisms from parliament's intelligence and security committee, this is likely to be an area that comes under particular scrutiny when the bill returns to parliament next week for its report stage and third reading.After two bugfix release for the parsing code, I finally got around to implement more features for standardese. A complete refactoring of the internal code allowed me to implement some advanced features: standardese now comes with member groups, the ability to show inline documentation, a template language and many minor things that just improve the overall documentation generation.
standardese is a documentation generator specifically designed for C++ code. It supports and detects many idioms for writing C++ documentation. It aims to be a replacement of Doxygen.
I’m using libclang for the parsing, but because it has many limitations, I’m forced to run my own parser over the tokens of each entity to get the required information.
But because libclang’s tokenizer does not preprocess the tokens, I’ve used Boost.Wave to preprocess the tokens, then parse them. But this leads to problems if you have source entities that are generated by a macro, like in the following example:
#define MAKE_STRUCT(name) \ struct name \ { \ int a; \ }; MAKE_STRUCT ( foo ) MAKE_STRUCT ( bar )
When parsing foo or bar, I’ll get the tokens of the macro, instead of the expanded tokens. Because I do not want to influence the way you write C++ code, I was forced to do something else.
This is one of standardese main goals: There should be no need to adapt your code to standardese. It should just support everything out of the box. That’s why it provides ways to completely modify the synopsis of each entity, etc.
In the 0.2-2 patch, I’ve changed the preprocessing code, so that Boost.Wave preprocesses the entire file, then parse that with libclang. That why I do not have to worry about any preprocessing.
But Boost.Wave is slow and also can’t handle many of the extensions used by the standard library headers, so I got a lot of workarounds there.
In this version I finally replaced Boost.Wave and now I use clang for the preprocessing.
I literally use clang, I call the binary from the code with the -E flag to give the preprocess output and parse that. I know that this is a bad solution, but it is just a temporary solution until I find a proper library for preprocessing.
But let’s talk about interesting features.
Member groups
You often have code that looks like this:
class foo { public : … /// \returns A reference to the variable. T & get_variable () { return var_ ; } /// \returns A reference to the variable. const T & get_variable () const { return var_ ; } };
Multiple functions do practically the same thing but have slightly different signatures. It would be very tedious to repeat the documentation over and over again.
With member groups you don’t have to:
class foo { public : /// \returns A reference to the variable. /// \group get_variable T & get_variable () { return var_ ; } /// \group get_variable const T & get_variable () const { return var_ ; } };
The \group command adds an entity to a member group. As the name implies, this only works for entities that are member of the same class/namespace/etc.. The group name is just an internal identifier for the group and only needs to be unique in that scope.
The first entity with a new group identifier, is the main entity for the group: It’s comment will be taken for the group comment and it’s type defines the header used for the group. With groups the output will look like this:
Function foo::get_variable
( 1 ) T & get_variable (); ( 2 ) const T & get_variable () const ;
Returns: A reference to the variable.
This is similar to the way cppreference.com does its documentation.
Modules
I’ve also added modules as a way to group related entities together. The \module command adds an entity to a module, it can be in at most one module and will be passed on to all children. For example, if you do it in a namespace, it will add all entities in that namespace to that module.
The module will be shown in the documentation of the entity by default - can be controlled by the output.show_modules command - and a new index file standardese_modules will list all modules with all entities in each module.
They are useful if you have multiple logical components in your project and want to give a quick overview.
Entity linking improvements
Inside a comment there are two syntax for linking to a different entity:
[some text](<> "unique-name") (CommonMark link without URL but with title)
[unique-name]() (CommonMark link without URL)
The unique-name is the unique identifier of the entity you want to refer to. The correct URL will be filled in by standardese.
The unique-name can also refer to an external entity, for example by default std::XXX, will create link to the corresponding C++ reference page. This can be customized and extended by the comment.external_doc option.
Now I’ve added a third syntax: [some-text](standardese://unique-name/), i.e. a CommonMark link with an URL in the standardese:// protocol. Like with the other two options, standardese will fill in the URL automatically.
This syntax was mainly added for the template mode, see below.
But a problem with that linking model was that the unique-name is verbose:
// unique name is: ns namespace ns { // unique name is: ns::foo(void*) // unique name of param is: ns::foo(void*).param void foo ( void * param ); // unique name is: ns::bar<T> template < typename T > // unique name of `T` is: ns::bar<T>.T struct bar { // unique name is: ns::bar<T>::f1() void f1 (); // unique name is: ns::bar<T>::f2() void f2 (); }; }
While you don’t need the signature for functions that are not overloaded, and while you can rename the unique name to an arbitrary string with the \unique_name command, this is still verbose. For example if you want to link from f2() to f1(), you had to type: [ns::bar<T>::f1()]().
Now I’ve added a link mode with name lookup. Simply start the unique name with * or? and standardese will search for an entity with rules similar to the regular C++ name lookup. So with that you can simply link to f1() from f2() by writing: [*f2()]().
Name lookup only works in comments associated with a C++ entity and will be done from that C++ entity. It does not work in template files, for example.
Inline documentation
The documentation for some entities will now be shown inline by default. This applies to parameters, member variables of a struct, enum values or base classes. Previously if you document them, standardese would add a new section for them, repeat their synopsis, etc.
Enumeration foo
enum class foo { a, b, c };
An enum.
Enumeration constant foo::a
a
The value a.
Enumeration constant foo::b
b
The value b.
Enumeration constant foo::c
c
The value c.
Struct bar
struct bar { int a ; };
A struct.
Variable bar::a
int a ;
Some variable.
Function func
void func ( int a );
A function.
Parameter func::a
int a
A parameter.
Now they can be shown inline, in a little list:
Enumeration foo
enum class foo { a, b, c };
An enum.
Enum values:
a - The value a.
b - The value b.
c - The value c.
Struct bar
struct bar { int a ; };
A struct.
Members:
a - Some variable.
Function func
void func ( int a );
A function.
Parameters:
a - A parameter.
It goes without saying that links to those entities will resolve to correct list position, right?
Other improvements
There are many smaller things.
You can now completely control the synopsis of an entity with the \synopsis command. Simply set the synopsis to an arbitrary string that will be shown instead of the actual synopsis. Previously you could only hide, for example, certain parameters of a function.
The headings are now improved. Previously it only showed the type of the entity: Function bar(), Constructor foo(const foo&). Now it detects certain signatures and give them more semantic meaning: Copy constructor foo(const foo&), Comparison operator operator==, etc.
The “definition” of a macro can now be hidden from the synopsis by the global output.show_macro_replacement option. This is useful as macro definitions are often implementation details.
There are also a few breaking changes: To do a hard line break in a comment, you cannot use the CommonMark backslash at the end of a line anymore, you have to use a forward slash instead (this is a technical limitation). The \entity and \file commands for remote comments must now be in the beginning of a comment and not at an arbitrary position. Also the unique name of function templates got simplified: you must not pass the template parameters there anymore.
But let’s address the biggest and most powerful feature: template mode.
Template mode
standardese now also works as a basic templating language. If you pass in files that are not header files, they will be preprocessed. This does two things: correctly linking all URLs in the standardese:// protocol and replacing of special commands.
This can be best shown by an example. Consider the following C++ input file:
/// Struct a. struct a {}; /// A function. void func (); /// Struct b. struct b {};
A non-source file input like this one:
### A heading This file is in Markdown format, but you can use *anything* you want. standardese doesn't care about the format, it just does dumb text manipulation. I can link to [ the function ]( standardese://func( ) /) and it will be resolved. But I can also show output of standardese here: { { standardese_doc_synopsis func() commonmark } } This line will be replaced with the synopsis of `func()` in the commonmark format. But it can be more advanced: { { standardese_for $entity file.hpp } } { { standardese_if $entity name func() } } { { standardese_else } } * { { standardese_doc_text $entity commonmark } } { { standardese_end } } { { standardese_end } } This will show the documentation text of the two structs.
Note: I had to add spaces between the { { and } }, because Jekyll was parsing them. The actual syntax does not use those spaces, and standardese will silently ignore any commands not starting with standardese_, so it works nice with it.
Pass both files to standardese and it will create the regular documentation for the C++ file as well as preprocess the template file to this:
A heading
This file is in Markdown format, but you can use anything you want. standardese doesn’t care about the format, it just does dumb text manipulation.
I can link to the function (manual edit: link doesn’t work here obviously) and it will be resolved. But I can also show output of standardese here:
void func ();
This line will be replaced with the synopsis of func() in the CommonMark format. But it can be more advanced:
* Struct a. * Struct b.
This will show the documentation text of the two structs.
This is useful if you want to write additional files, like tutorials. But with the --template.default_template you can pass a file that will customize the entire output. If you pass none it will behave like this:
{ { standardese_doc $file $format } }
Again, in reality no spaces.
$file will refer to the current file, $format to the specified output format. This will render the documentation for each file as standardese would do it. Check out the readme for a quick template syntax overview.
But if you want to use additional files, you’d love the standardese_doc_anchor command. With the standardese:// protocol you can link to parts of the generated documentation. But with the anchor command, you can link back:
{ { standardese_doc_anchor unique-name <format> } }
Without the spaces.
This will create an anchor in the file. But the unique-name will be registered, so you can use it as a link target inside the documentation comments!
If the unique-name already exists, this will change the link for that entity. With it you can override where the “actual” documentation is.
The template language is currently very basic and the error messages if you mess up are bad, but its already worth it and will be improved in the future.
What’s next?
With this release, standardese is at a point where I’m going to migrate Doxygen documentation to it. But I’ll continue working on it. I have many features planned and I might already start tackling with automated comment generation based on the code alone.
If you want to see a live demo, check out my Meeting C++ Lightning Talk. You can get the tool from the Github page, read the readme for more information.Migrating resources from AWS to Microsoft Azure Rate this post Rate this post
Kloud receives a lot of communications in relation to the work we do and the content we publish on our blog. My colleague Hugh Badini recently published a blog about Azure deployment models from which we received the following legitimate follow up question…
@KloudSolutions – How to migrate application hosted on AWS to Azure? — Murali Krishna (@VMuraliKRaju) August 4, 2016
So, Murali, thanks for letting us know you’d like to know more about this… consider this blog a starting point :).
Firstly though…
this topic (inter-cloud migrations), as you might guess, isn’t easily captured in a single blog post, nor, realistically in a series, so what I’m going to do here is provide some basics to consider. I may not answer your specific scenario but hopefully provide some guidance on approach.
Every cloud has a silver lining
The good news is that if you’re already operating in a cloud environment then you have likely had to deal with many of the fundamental differences between traditional application hosting and architecture and that of cloud platforms.
You will have dealt with how you ensure availability of your application(s) across outages; dealing with spikes in traffic via use of elastic compute resources; and will have come to recognise that is many ways, Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) in the cloud has many similarities to the way you’ve always done things on-prem (such as backups).
Clearly you have less of a challenge in approaching a move to another cloud provider.
Where to start
When we talk about moving from AWS to Azure we need to consider a range of things – let’s take a look at some key ones.
Understand what’s the same and what’s different
Both platforms have very similar offerings, and Microsoft provides many great resources to help those utilising AWS to build an understanding of which services in AWS map to which services in Azure. As you can see the majority of AWS’ services have an equivalent in Azure.
Microsoft’s Channel 9 is also a good place to start to learn about the similarities, with there being no better place than the Microsoft Azure for Amazon AWS Professional video series.
So, at a platform level, we are pretty well covered, but…
the one item to be wary of in planning any move of an existing application is how it has been developed. If we are moving components from, say, an EC2 VM environment to an Azure VM environment then we will probably have less work to do as we can build our Azure VM as we like (yes, as we know, even Linux!) and install whatever languages, frameworks or runtimes we need.
If, however, we are considering moving an application from a more Platform-as-a-Service capability such AWS Lambda we need to look at the programming model required to move its equivalent in Azure – Azure Functions. While AWS Lambda and Azure Functions are functionally the same (no pun intended) we cannot simply take our Lambda code and drop it into an Azure Function and have it work. It may not even make sense to utilise Azure Functions depending on what you are shifting.
It’s also important to consider the differences in the availability models in use today in AWS and Azure. AWS uses Availability Zones to help you manage the uptime of your application and it’s components. In Azure we manage availability at two levels – locally via Availability Sets and then geographically through use of Regions. As these models differ it’s an important area to consider for any migration.
Tools are good, but are no magic wand
Microsoft provides a way to migrate AWS EC2 instances to Azure using Azure Site Recovery (ASR) and while there are many tools for on-prem to cloud migrations and for multi-cloud management, they mostly steer away from actual migration between cloud providers.
Kloud specialises in assessing application readiness for cloud migrations (and then helping with the migration), and we’ve found inter-cloud migration is no different – understanding the integration points an application has and the SLAs it must meet are a big part of planning what your target cloud architecture will look like. Taking into consideration underlying platform services in use is also key as we can see from the previous section.
If you’re re-platforming an application you’ve built or maintain in-house, make sure to review your existing deployment processes to leverage features available to you for modern Continuous Deployment (CD) scenarios which are certainly a strength of Azure.
Data has a gravitational pull
The modern application world is entirely a data-driven one. One advantage to cloud platforms is the logically bottomless pit of storage you have at your disposal. This presents a challenge, though, when moving providers where you may have spent years building data stores containing Terabytes or Petabytes of data. How do you handle this when moving? There are a few strategies to consider:
Leave it where it is: you may decide that you don’t need all the data you have to be immediately available. Clearly this option requires you to continue to manage multiple clouds but may make economic sense.
you may decide that you don’t need all the data you have to be immediately available. Clearly this option requires you to continue to manage multiple clouds but may make economic sense. Migrate via physical shipping: AWS provides Snowball as a way to extract data out of AWS without needing to pull it over a network connection. If your solution allows it you could ship your data out of AWS to a physical location, extract that data, and then prepare it for import into Azure, either over a network connection using ExpressRoute or through the Azure Import/Export service.
AWS provides Snowball as a way to extract data out of AWS without needing to pull it over a network connection. If your solution allows it you could ship your data out of AWS to a physical location, extract that data, and then prepare it for import into Azure, either over a network connection using ExpressRoute or through the Azure Import/Export service. Migrate via logical transfer: you may have access to a service such as Equinix’s Cloud Exchange that allows you to provision inter-connects between cloud and other network providers. If so, you may consider using this as your migration enabler. Ensure you consider how much data you will transfer and what, if any, impact the data transfer might have on existing network services.
Outside of the above strategies on transferring of data, perhaps you can consider a staged migration where you only bring across chunks of data as required and potentially let older data expire over time. The type and use of data obviously impacts on which approach to take.
Clear as…
Hopefully this post has provided a bit more clarity around what you need to consider when migrating resources from AWS to Azure. What’s been your experience? Feel free to leave comments if you have feedback or recommendations based on the paths you’ve followed.
Happy dragon slaying!Go behind the ink and explore the tattoos from Sons of Anarchy, including interviews with the cast and crew, galleries and more.
Designed by Freddy Corbin, show creator Kurt Sutter wanted this tattoo to run down Jax’s arm. Head makeup artist Tracey Anderson recalls discussing why Jax would have this tattoo: “When he is sitting at the head of the table in the clubhouse, everyone can see this tattoo on his left arm. Jax has his kids [and brother] on one side and his Dad on the other. It says - I am the head of the club.”
A favorite of actor Charlie Hunnam, the Tombstone tattoo on Jax’s right arm is a memorial to his father John Teller, who played a huge role in his life journey. The concept was inspired by a tombstone tattoo on a biker that Charlie Hunnam had met. It was further enhanced to include crows representing SAMCRO, John Teller’s name on the tombstone, and the text ‘In Memory of Fallen Brothers’.
This iconic tattoo designed by the legendary Freddy Corbin, is established right from the pilot. Only Opie & Jax have this unique Reaper tattoo and it illustrates their friendship, as well as their bond in SAMCRO. For the younger generation, this was a way to establish their style.
Tracey Anderson, head makeup artist on Sons of Anarchy recalls, “The Abel tattoo started with Charlie coming to me at the beginning of the season and wanting a new tattoo. Jax had ended the previous season questioning being in SAMCRO, so we needed to create a tattoo that was part of that story. I suggested that honoring his son – over his heart - was a good symbol.”
As the old lady of a SAMCRO member Gemma has the Crow tattoo. The scar she has had since birth because she was born with the “family curse” – a heart problem. Thomas and Abel were born with it, also.
A simple stock tattoo, the delicate flower on the inside wrist of Gemma is in stark contrast to all she represents. It makes a subtle statement to her femininity.
Tracey Anderson remembers, “When Ron had to wear short sleeves [for scenes], it was an extra 30 minutes in the makeup chair in the morning and more time at the end of the day having [so many] tattoos taken off! Ron just endured having his tattoos applied. He was patient but given the choice he would rather wear long sleeves!”
An infamous Sailor Jerry original, this is from a tattoo "flash" collection he drew for servicemen in the late 60's. Like the “Vietnam” one, it added a particularly realistic tone to Clay’s overall look.
The Spider web tattoo is a deeply coded tattoo – meaning different things to different cultures, gangs, etc. A spider web elbow tattoo in North America oftentimes implies prison time, or murder of another in prison, usually warning others. For Clay, the spider web tattoo was a prison time tattoo. For every year served he got another wedge. In Season 5, after Clay goes to jail, Tracey Anderson added more wedges.
Standard Vietnam vet tattoo. Stock, found online, but added to the overall effect of the Vietnam vet having served his time.
This tattoo is an unofficial military tattoo and motto of the Airborne units. It represented Clay’s combat service with a Paratroopers’ Unit in Vietnam.
Tracey Anderson had a real challenge with this iconic tattoo after Season 5, when it was brutally blacked out by Happy: “The blacked out Reaper went through many changes. It is a lot of ink and to apply without getting a wrinkle was a challenge - but not half the challenge as it was to remove. It took half an hour to get all the black ink coated in surgical glue off his arm. What a mess! Then we went to making a prosthetic to lay on and remove each time, but it was a big hassle. Finally, I hand drew and colored in the Reaper each day.”
Like Gemma, this tattoo simply represents she is the old lady of a SAMCRO member.
Head of the makeup department, Tracey Anderson explains Juices' Son Shine tattoo as the representation of the inner conflict that defines Juices' character: "We see how conflicted he is about the things he's had to do and the mistakes he's made." Kurt Sutter was very adamant about the look of Son Shine and it's placement says Tracey, who also notes that Juices' Son Shine tattoo, "was pretty huge for the story point after he (Juice) kills Darvany."
Juice's head tattoo is derived from one of the tattoos on Kurt Sutter's (aka Otto's) arms. Actor Theo Rossi believes that Juice got the intimidating tattoo on his head when he was young and innocent to inspire respect and fear. "He became what he was trying to portray [a killer], and I think he just wasn't ready for it.”
Opie
Moth The moth tattoo on Opie's throat was the last tattoo this character received. The beautiful design consists of skulls incorporated into the wings of a moth.
Anarchy The Anarchy tattoo across Opie's chest was a combination of phrases from actor Ryan Hurst's favorite Yeats poem, and a line from The Rolling Stones.
Kids Opie's 'Kids' tattoo was applied over the top of actor Ryan Hurst's existing Buddha tattoo, which head makeup artist Tracey Anderson had to cover with make-up.
Reaper Creeper Ryan Hurst chose the Reaper to fill in what he felt was an empty spot on his chest. It was important to him that his character Opie be "tatted up".
Tantum Deus Inspired by tattoos on prisoners, Hurst chose Tantum Deus, Latin for 'Only God Will Judge Me', to convey Opie's rebellious side.
Redwood Originals The Redwood Originals tattoo was a combination of two separate tattoo designs: a tree with a Reaper and a snake, and the Redwood Originals carved into wood. It’s Ryan Hurst's favorite of all Opie's tattoos.
Reaper Jax & Opie established in the pilot that they are the only ones to have the big Reaper (designed by the legendary Freddy Corbin) on their backs. They are best friends and are the young leaders of the SAMCRO gang. They are beginning the new story for the club.
Donna Opie's Donna tattoo was in honor of his wife Donna Winston. After she was killed, actor Ryan Hurst requested wings be added to the tattoo, which was approved by Kurt Sutter. The tattoo was applied over the top of Ryan's existing Superman tattoo that needed to be covered with make-up.
Grace According to actor Ryan Hurst, Grace was originally supposed to be the name of Opie's mother, who ended up being called Mary. Knowing he wanted a tattoo on his neck, Grace and an upside-down cloud were amongst the first tattoos that Hurst chose for the pilot.A small surveillance drone flies over an Austin stadium, diligently following a series of GPS waypoints that have been programmed into its flight computer. By all appearances, the mission is routine.
Suddenly, the drone veers dramatically off course, careering eastward from its intended flight path. A few moments later, it is clear something is seriously wrong as the drone makes a hard right turn, streaking toward the south. Then, as if some phantom has given the drone a self-destruct order, it hurtles toward the ground. Just a few feet from certain catastrophe, a safety pilot with a radio control saves the drone from crashing into the field.
From the sidelines, there are smiles all around over this near-disaster. Professor Todd Humphreys and his team at the University of Texas at Austin's Radionavigation Laboratory have just completed a successful experiment: illuminating a gaping hole in the government’s plan to open US airspace to thousands of drones.
They could be turned into weapons.
“Spoofing a GPS receiver on a UAV is just another way of hijacking a plane,” Humphreys told Fox News.
In other words, with the right equipment, anyone can take control of a GPS-guided drone and make it do anything they want it to.
“Spoofing” is a relatively new concern in the world of GPS navigation. Until now, the main problem has been GPS jammers, readily available over the Internet, which people use to, for example, hide illicit use of a GPS-tracked company van. It’s also believed Iran brought down that U.S. spy drone last December by jamming its GPS, forcing it into an automatic landing mode after it lost its bearings.
'Spoofing a GPS receiver on a UAV is just another way of hijacking a plane.' — University of Texas Radio Navigation Laboratory researcher Todd Humphreys
While jammers can cause problems by muddling GPS signals, spoofers are a giant leap forward in technology; they can actually manipulate navigation computers with false information that looks real. With his device -- what Humphreys calls the most advanced spoofer ever built (at a cost of just $1,000) -- he infiltrates the GPS system of the drone with a signal more powerful than the one coming down from the satellites orbiting high above the earth.
Initially, his signal matches that of the GPS system so the drone thinks nothing is amiss. That’s when he attacks -- sending his own commands to the onboard computer, putting the drone at his beck and call.
Humphreys says the implications are very serious. “In 5 or 10 years you have 30,000 drones in the airspace,” he told Fox News. “Each one of these could be a potential missile used against us.”
Drones have been in widespread use in places like Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen, but so far, GPS-guided unmanned aerial vehicles have been limited to the battlefield or southern border patrols and not allowed to fly broadly in U.S. airspace.
In February, under pressure from the Pentagon and drone manufacturers, Congress ordered the FAA to come up with rules to allow government and commercial use of UAVs over American soil by 2015. The plan could eventually see police drones keeping watch over U.S. cities, UAVs monitoring transmission lines for power companies, or cargo plane-size drones guided by GPS pilotlessly delivering packages across the country. FedEx founder Fred Smith has said he would like to add unmanned drones to his fleet as soon as possible.
The new rules have raised privacy concerns about a "surveillance society," with UAVs tirelessly watching our every move 24/7. But Humphreys’ experiments have put an entirely new twist on the anxiety over drones.
“What if you could take down one of these drones delivering FedEx packages and use that as your missile? That’s the same mentality the 9-11 attackers had,” Humphreys told Fox News.
It’s something the government is acutely aware of. Last Tuesday, in the barren desert of the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, officials from the FAA and Department of Homeland Security watched as Humphrey’s team repeatedly took control of a drone from a remote hilltop. The results were every bit as dramatic as the test at the UT stadium a few days earlier.
DHS is attempting to identify and mitigate GPS interference through its new “Patriot Watch” and “Patriot Shield” programs, but the effort is poorly funded, still in its infancy, and is mostly geared toward finding people using jammers, not spoofers.
The potential consequences of GPS spoofing are nothing short of chilling. Humphreys warns that a terrorist group could match his technology, and in crowded U.S. airspace, cause havoc.
“I’m worried about them crashing into other planes,” he told Fox News. “I’m worried about them crashing into buildings. We could get collisions in the air and there could be loss of life, so we want to prevent this and get out in front of the problem.”
Unlike military UAVs, which use an encrypted GPS system, most drones that will fly over the U.S. will rely on civilian GPS, which is not encrypted and wide open to infiltration. Humphreys warns it is crucial that the government address this vulnerability before it allows unmanned aerial vehicles broad access to U.S. airspace.
“It just shows that the kind of mentality that we got after 9-11, where we reinforced the cockpit door to prevent people hijacking planes -- well, we need to adopt that mentality as far as the navigation systems for these UAVs.”Tesla Motors (TSLA) has lost a lemon-lawsuit to a doctor from Wisconsin.
Wisconsin physician Robert Montgomery won the case against Tesla and the company bough his Model S back from him. Montgomery was awarded $126,836 in the lawsuit. This includes the cost for the company to buy the car back, all the accessories for the car and $18,500 in attorney fees, reports Bidness Etc.
Montgomery filed the lawsuit after his Model S was inoperable for 66 days shortly after he bought it in March of last year. The car had to be sent to the company’s chicago factory several times for repair. Tesla claimed that the man tampered with the car and that was the reason for the issues, Bidness Etc notes.
Vince Megna, Montgomery’s lawyer for the case, posted a video about his victory over the electric-car maker to YouTube.
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rawdownloadcloneembedreportprint text 27.69 KB [01:37:08] joyindescribable [~slashwhoi@pee.on.ayn.rand] has joined #SRS [01:37:27] <joyindescribable> somebody please tell me this is an elaborate troll/joke: http://www.reddit.com/r/SRSHome/comments/whjp5/srs_meetup_planning_thread/ [01:37:38] <&dworks> no joy [01:37:54] <joyindescribable> jesus fucking christ [01:37:54] <&dworks> if you dont want to come, you dont have to [01:38:02] <&dworks> dont piddle on our parade [01:38:03] <Erika_Mustermann> :| [01:38:05] <&dworks> no ones going to shoot us [01:38:06] <joyindescribable> don't you even condescend to me like that [01:38:13] <joyindescribable> YOU ARE PLAYING A GAME OF CHANCE WITH PEOPLE'S LIVES AND SAFETY [01:38:15] <Erika_Mustermann> http://www.reddit.com/r/SRSHome/comments/whjp5/srs_meetup_planning_thread/c5dd7hp [01:38:18] <&dworks> oh jesus [01:38:18] <Erika_Mustermann> Joy makes a valid point [01:38:22] <joyindescribable> I AM GLAD YOU HAVE THE PRIVILEGE TO BELIEVE THAT THE REDDITOR'S ARE JUST KIDDING/JOKING [01:38:24] imperfect [~j@magic.sky.fairy] has joined #SRS [01:38:26] <joyindescribable> AND 95% OF THEM ARE [01:38:28] <joyindescribable> BUT HOLY FUCKING SHIT [01:38:36] <joyindescribable> PEOPLE LIKE THE MRAs ARE DANGEROUS [01:38:49] Strato [~Strato@REDACTED] has quit IRC: Quit: [01:38:50] <joyindescribable> how the fuck was this sanctioned [01:38:51] <imperfect> ows is pathetic, lol http://www.reddit.com/r/occupywallstreet/comments/wg2qm/the_biggest_video_game_franchise_in_the_world/ [01:38:52] atomicthumbs [~atomicthu@REDACTED] has quit IRC: No route to host [01:38:56] <misandrybot> Title: The biggest video game franchise in the world (Call of Duty) is using Anonymous and "the leader of the 99%" as their primary villain in their newest game. I'm not sure we should be okay with this. : occupywallstreet (at www.reddit.com) [01:39:02] <Erika_Mustermann> Even if they don't shoot you, all it takes is for some shithead to put on a affable charm and do some social networking to get all the info they need [01:39:03] <imperfect> please don't take away my vidya games *cryingpenis* [01:39:18] <GALBARGE> http://chainsawsuit.com/2009/08/07/strip-262/ [01:39:18] <Erika_Mustermann> That's exactly how those individuals work [01:39:19] <misandrybot> Title: chainsawsuit by kris straub - strip (at chainsawsuit.com) [01:39:24] <Erika_Mustermann> Then there's a mass dox [01:39:32] <&dworks> u dont want to come, then dont [01:39:34] <joyindescribable> this is fucking absurd [01:39:38] <joyindescribable> you are going to get someone FUCKING HURT [01:39:53] <Erika_Mustermann> That's not a rebuttle to joy's points in that thread [01:39:59] <joyindescribable> triggered as fuck is what i needed tonight. [01:40:00] <Erika_Mustermann> "don't come" doesn't protect people [01:40:03] <joyindescribable> god almighty how can you be this privileged [01:40:06] <joyindescribable> check [01:40:06] <joyindescri |
awareness of the “huge problem” of anti-father bias in family courts, a local man is urging others to join him on a protest walk from Manchester to London.
Father-of-three, Akeib Mahmood (28), wants to address the “unfair and unjust” treatment of fathers in family courts regarding parental alienation, having been involved in his own legal wrangle after an acrimonious break-up with his partner of eight years.
“I don’t feel the family courts are fair on fathers and don’t take into consideration that fathers can be victims,” Akeib said. “I’ve spoken out via social media and I’m far from alone - there are thousands affected - so we have a chance of being heard and to seek change and get justice.”
A former Colne Primet High School and Nelson & Colne College student, Akeib is only allowed indirect contact with his children via letter and feels that, despite having been a present and loving father, he has been treated unfairly by the courts.
Keen to spread the word, Akeib - who has lived across Pendle and Burnley - set up Justice for Dads, and plans to walk the 194 miles - the equivalent of almost eight marathons - from Manchester to London in just six days from August 31st to September 5th, camping as they travel south.
“A group of fathers discussed how we can get attention for our cause,” Akeib said of the event. “People will join at various cities across the UK: a collaboration of like-minded people.”
As well as raising awareness of the tribulations faced by fathers regarding family courts, the walkers will be raising funds for the homeless population of Manchester, with Akeib's friend, Anthony Brennan, spearheading the effort to raise enough to purchase a community mini bus for local homeless groups.
To be used to take homeless people to a hall and get them out of bad weather, to take 18 to 25-year-olds on day trips, and to help with the homeless football team, the Justice For Dads movement will be collecting donations all along their 204-mile route, while a GoFundMe page can be found at www.gofundme.com/community-minibus.
For more information, head to the Dads For Justice Facebook page at www.facebook.com/justicefordad1
Justice For Dad's day-by-day breakdown:
1) Manchester to Hartlington (33 miles)
2) Hartlington to Nottingham (35 miles)
3) Nottingham to Leicester (26 miles)
4) Leicester to Northampton (31 miles)
5) Northampton to Luton (37 miles)
6) Luton to London (32 miles)
TOTAL: 194 miles.The 2012 NHL Lockout continues for a ninth day, with no signs of it relenting any time soon. That being noted, it came to light this morning, via Slava Malamud of Russian website Sport Express that the first player off the Tampa Bay Lightning roster has signed a deal to play overseas. Defenseman Victor Hedman opted not to go back to Sweden, but instead signed with Kazakhstan based Barys Astana of the Kontinental Hockey League.
Tampa Bay Times beat writer Damian Cristodero got confirmation from Hedman’s agent about the signing. Hedman is expected to report to Astana on Friday.
Other players, such as center Steven Stamkos and right-wing Martin St. Louis are supposed to have offers already on the table for them to join European clubs. St. Louis has stated that he’ll wait until October to make a decision on where he’ll go.
Bolt Prospects plans to feature Hedman’s play results in their game-night recaps, so keep an eye on things over thereYes, the US Navy has an Oculus Rift. More than one, in fact. In Washington, DC, and Marina Del Rey, CA, two parallel laboratories are using virtual reality headsets to help the Navy dream up the next generation of interfaces. With them, future war-fighters could drive a ship with full three-dimensional awareness of their surroundings, or repair high-tech ship parts while collaborating with their designer in real-time, thousands of miles away.
But BlueShark, a joint initiative between the Swampworks division of the Office of Naval Research and the USC Institute for Creative Technologies, isn't actually about virtual reality per se. According to Mark Bolas, one of the USC project directors, VR is the place where the Navy can reach out and touch user interfaces which might not be practical to build this decade, let alone this year, because technologies like holographic displays and augmented reality windows don't yet exist at scale. "But we can mock them all up in the head-mounted display," says Bolas.
In the picture above, according to the Office of Naval Research, a Marine is directing a virtual UAV to fly over a point of interest while gazing into the Rift and using a real touchscreen display. But that's just one user interface, one possible use for the technology dreamed up so far. "The Navy's really using it to figure out what the future sailor is going to expect in 15 years," Bolas tells The Verge.
Photo above: John F. Williams / U.S. Navy / ReleasedPhotos below: Todd Richmond / USC Institute of Creative Technologies
Grid View The BlueShark helm. Clearly, someone was inspired by the Mozilla Firefox logo. Note the cameras attached to the ceiling for tracking objects.
The Oculus Rift isn't the only VR headgear in the lab. This Wide5 HMD, developed by Fakespace Labs, has an even wider 140-degree field of view.
Glowing red LEDs allow this BlueShark system to track the user's hands, head, and chair. The screen to his left is just an ordinary piece of glass, but it acts just like a giant touchscreen to anyone using the headset.
An interface for helm control of a ship. Note the position of his hands, floating above the controls a la Minority Report rather than touching them directly.
While virtual reality is a hot topic right now, BlueShark is primarily about immersive collaboration: a shared virtual world lets different people with different interfaces interact simultaneously. Here, three men collaborate to fix a robotic arm. After the data guru on the right sifts through 3D schematics with a touchscreen interface, the mechanical engineer at center pulls a 3D model apart, piece by piece, with a stylus. At left, the mechanic can flip down a pair of lenses to get a 3D view of the dissected model on a tablet before attempting fixes.Man points revolver pistol (Shutterstock)
An Oklahoma police officer is accused of firing his gun at two teenagers he caught making out in a car parked in a public school lot.
The Tulsa Public Schools police officer, whose name has not been released, spotted the couple about 1:30 a.m. Sunday on the campus of Eliot Elementary School.
The officer went to the car and questioned the couple, whom he said had alcohol in the car but were underage, and he said the driver refused to cooperate, backed up, and drove away.
“[He] tried to get away in the car, and apparently [the officer] shot at the vehicle,” said Chris Payne, a spokesman for the school district.
Tulsa police said the officer apparently fired one shot that struck the vehicle’s rear left tire.
“A 17-year-old kid behind a 3,000-pound car is dangerous if he doesn’t know what he is doing, and I think that is where we are at odds,” said Sgt. David Walker, of Tulsa police. “He shot into a car that had kids, but that car was doing something in the officer’s mind that can put us in peril.”
Investigators identified the 17-year-old driver, who told them he was just trying to leave when he drove away.
But the public schools officer, who is fully certified by the Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training, said he felt threatened by the driver’s actions and fired his service weapon.
“Our police officers are all CLEET certified, so they are real police officers,” said Payne, adding that the officer had a right to carry the weapon.
Investigators will determine whether he used the firearm properly, but school officials said the teens were not permitted to be on the school campus.
“We have really sound security,” Payne said. “It would really be unwise to be doing anything after hours.”
The officer has been placed on paid administrative leave during the investigation.
Watch this video report posted online by KOKI-TV:
[Image: Practicing self defense via Shutterstock]The Vevo app for iPhone has been updated to support Chromecast. As noted below, you can connect your iOS device and start using it with the Chromecast.
With the VEVO app you can watch music videos, stream live concerts, and discover new artists on your iOS device for free! Access VEVO's entire catalog of 75,000 music videos from more than 21,000 artists.
VEVO TV is a 24/7 channel of music videos, live performances, and original shows from VEVO’s massive library - made by music lovers for music lovers, no algorithms allowed. Turn it on, relax and enjoy a full HD music experience that covers everything from the latest premieres to the best classics. Pop, rap, rock, R&B, country – the choices are endless. See something you like, but don’t have time to check it out? Save it on your Watch Later Playlist. VEVO TV: Always On.
Download VEVO now and join the millions who are already experiencing high-quality music videos from VEVO while on-the-go. VEVO for iOS will work over cellular network connections, but for the highest quality music video experience, we suggest accessing via Wi-Fi whenever possible.
Features:
*Access to your locally saved playlists without a login
*Turn on/off publishing what you watch to your Facebook Timeline
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*Match artists in your iOS music library to VEVO videos
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*See what videos are being played around you and the world with Music Maps
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*Chromecast enabled -- connect your iOS device and start casting (Chromecast is available in the US only)
*Watch videos on Apple TV with Airplay
*Facebook Friends page so you can see all the great playlists your friends make and invite them if they aren't on VEVO yet
*Continuous play to serve you recommendations for videos that will play automatically to keep the music videos flowing in a dynamic and personalized style
What's New In This Version:
VEVO is now Chromecast enabled! Connect your iOS device and start casting!
You can download VEVO - Watch Free HD Music Videos, Live Concerts, Original Shows & Discover New Artists from the App Store for free.
Read MoreThere are some women you never want to be. Like the one who gets a boyfriend and then ditches all her single girlfriends. Or the new mom who suddenly knows better than every other mother in history. And you don’t want to be me, either. I’m the woman who couldn’t love her dog and her kid at the same time.
Before we had a child, our dog Briscoe was the child. A rescue greyhound, I was proud of the way people stopped on the street and asked about his interesting markings and his past life on the track. We used to make dinner guests watch his racing videos. We have no fewer than three greyhound posters framed in our house and at one point I was sending out stationery with a custom-made illustration of him. I blogged about him to death. My husband and I took him to the fancy, expensive dog beach, cooked him chicken breasts, marched him in dog parades.
Then, when the baby was born, Briscoe went to stay at my parents’ house for a week. The day he came home, aside from the initial excitement of introducing the baby and the dog to each other, I realized something: If he had never come home, I might be OK with it.
Briscoe is a very good dog in a lot of respects. He never barks and is never aggressive with people. He’s healthy. He’s very tolerant of the baby. But ever since having a child, and especially after last winter, which was brutally cold, I discovered my tolerance for Briscoe’s thrice-daily 15-minute walks–not to mention his anxiety issues and occasional indoor incontinence–was rapidly diminishing. At the end of the day, I just feel so physically and emotionally spent from, you know, having it all, that the dog’s feelings just can’t get on my list of priorities.
I hate being this person. I feel like the bad guy in a Disney movie who is evil because everyone treats him as such. My husband, a gigantic softie, gives me no empathy whatosever when I’m upset with the dog. “He didn’t do it to upset you!” he’ll say after Briscoe jumps on the couch right after a day spent washing the slipcovers. He’ll say “Don’t say that!” when I say something mean about the dog, so I feel mean and censored, even though I’m still walking Briscoe, feeding him, taking him to the vet, getting his nails cut, and so on.
I reached out to some friends who had similar experiences. They, like me, are ashamed of the way motherhood changed their feelings towards animals, and so they requested that I not use their real names. I’ll call them Stephanie and Jessica.
Her cat’s foibles, such as meowing outside their bedroom door or knocking baby bottles onto the floor at 5 a.m. became harder to tolerate, especially when both children were babies and sleep was at a premium.
Both, like me, were animal lovers who preferred dogs to babies until they had their own children. Stephanie adopted her first cat six months before she met the man who would become her husband. “It was super important to me that they get along,” she says. However, after having two children, her cat’s foibles, such as meowing outside their bedroom door or knocking baby bottles onto the floor at 5 a.m. became harder to tolerate, especially when both children were young and sleep was at a premium. “Some mornings it would absolutely enrage me. I would never dream of hurting my cat, but there were times when I would yell and then be terribly embarrassed by it.” She intends to give the cat a comfortable life until the end, but doesn’t think she wants another pet after the cat’s time on earth is up.The new cougar/cub relationship
At Cougar Life, we're all about the new modern, cougar lifestyle that's definitely not your mother's cougar bar. Today's cougar is fun-loving, smart, knows what she wants-and isn't afraid to go after it.
Everyone can be a cougar, from top-level executives, soccer moms, community leaders, and newly single women who want the fun of a relationship without all the demands and baggage of traditional relationships.
Cougars come in all shapes and sizes-and ages! There is no standard age for cougars and Cougar Life welcomes women in their 30s, 40s, 50s and up. The only requirement is that you're a woman who enjoys dating younger guys.
The younger men who date sexy, older women are affectionately referred to as "cubs". Sometimes there's as little as a five-year age difference between a cougar and her cub, sometimes it's 20 (or more). It really doesn't matter as long as everyone knows what they're looking for and what they're getting.NEW ORLEANS -- LSU running back Kenny Hilliard will miss the final two games of the regular season because of a shoulder injury, a person familiar with the situation said Friday.
The person spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press because the coaching staff had not released specifics about the injury. The person said Hilliard has not been ruled out for any possible bowl game.
On Twitter, Hilliard had referenced the injury, saying: "Gotta get healthy." Earlier Friday, he said it was going to be a "lay low weekend."
Hilliard had 434 yards and six touchdowns for the No. 17 Tigers (7-3, 3-3, No. 20 AP) before injuring his shoulder and leaving last Saturday's game against Alabama (No. 5 CFP, No. 4 AP).
LSU plays at Arkansas on Saturday. The Tigers then have an open date before closing their season at Texas A&M (No. 24 CFP) on Thanksgiving Day.
The 6-foot-2, 232-pound Hilliard has been part of a four-back rotation with Leonard Fournette, Terrence Magee and Darrell Williams. Hilliard was one of the featured runners during LSU's winning touchdown drive against then-No. 3 Mississippi on Oct. 25. The drive was highlighted by his 16-yard gain in which he used his free hand to throw down 6-foot-5, 243-pound defensive end Carlos Thompson along the LSU sideline.
Against Alabama, however, Hilliard carried only three times for 15 yards early in the game before sitting out the remainder of a 20-13 overtime loss.
If Hilliard, a four-year-player, is unable to play in a bowl, he'll finish his college career with 1,534 yards and 27 touchdowns rushing to go with 11 catches for 79 yards and a score.
Hilliard, the nephew of former LSU and Saints running back Dalton Hilliard, began his career with LSU in 2011, when he was routinely used on short yardage plays near the goal line. He wound up scoring eight touchdowns rushing and one TD receiving that season, helping the Tigers win their first 13 games, including a Southeastern Conference championship, before they fell to Alabama in the national championship game.If you've played the game, you know this is pretty surprising for many reasons. To complete Dishonored on Low Chaos, you must cause little or no violence, especially to civilians, and choosing that route requires a lot of patience, stealth, and re-starting (because you often get killed trying to be the nice guy who puts guards in a sleeper hold, rather than simply cutting their throats). But as it turns out, half the players who finished the game took the time and effort to be as non-violent as possible. Rather than play Dishonored like a traditional first-person action game, killing anything that moves, half the players steadfastly killed just about nothing. (Except maybe rats, and in my case, an un-redeemable torturer or two.)
After finishing Dishonored, Arkane Studio's masterpiece new game, I noticed an interesting thing about it on Steam's player stats -- of the 53% who completed the full story arc, the percent who chose the High Chaos or "evil" path (and get the "Dunwall in Chaos" achievement) is almost exactly equal to those who chose the Low Chaos or "good" path (and get the "Just Dark Enough" achievement) -- 26.6% to 26.7%.
"Our intention was to give players choices," they told me by e-mail. "Not just a binary 'push the button at the end' choice, but an ongoing aggregate through the game. A more or less background system that allows players to ignore it if they so choose, and play how they want. Further, we didn't want one ending to feel like a failure; in fact, both are shades of gray without an iconic identity. What we've seen, and it might explain the even split in Achievements for each ending, is that people want to play both paths, to see all the angles. This seems inherent to the non-linear way in which players enjoy games: Play, follow a course of action, load earlier in time, follow a new course of action, and in the end, the memory of what happened during the game is this Run, Lola, Run mash-up of reality threads."
So Harvey and Raphael believe players end up playing both ends. That's a logical explanation, though I'm a bit skeptical -- seems to me it would take a lot of extra gameplay to switch your choices over from High to Low Chaos. (The total game takes about 30 hours* to complete.) Are half the people who played Dishonored that hardcore? Maybe. But even then, this would still suggest half the players who finished the game took the time to take the painstaking path of the righteous, so to speak, which is still pretty striking in itself. But we've seen this pattern before -- like I wrote last year, half the people who finished Deux Ex: Human Revolution Invisible War made the effort to get the extremely difficult Good Soul achievement.
Speaking of endings, Harvey and Raphael also shared with me some intriguing thoughts about how Dishonored closes -- more on that next week.
* 12/7, Update: While it took me about 30 hours to complete Dishonored in full-on, peace-and-love hippie mode, Harvey just e-mailed to note, "Most people complete Dishonored in 12-20 hours, and the second pass is faster."OAKLAND — A little more than three months after the deadly Ghost Ship fire and with the investigative report still pending, the city’s first African American female fire chief Teresa Deloach Reed filed retirement papers Tuesday, days after her city pension vested, the city administrator said.
Reed, a 59-year-old Oakland resident, filed retirement paperwork Tuesday with an effective date of May 5, City Administrator Sabrina Landreth confirmed. Reed is currently earning $155,772 a year in retirement from her previous 26 years of service at San Jose Fire, where she left in 2012 as an assistant chief.
Reed’s city pension vested after five years, adding 15 percent of her $241,000 salary, or $36,150 a year to her overall retirement pay. Assistant Fire Chief Mark Hoffmann is acting fire chief. Reed did not return a call Tuesday evening.
Reed will be remembered as the head of a fire department that dealt with the city’s deadliest fire ever. On Dec. 2, 36 people attending a concert died when a large blaze consumed the Fruitvale warehouse that was being illegally used as a residential space.
Since the tragedy, Reed has brought up budget constraints as a reason for department struggles. Shortly after the fire, she acknowledged that the warehouse had never been inspected, pointing out that the building was not zoned for residential.
Her critics have complained Reed was slow to hire key fire positions. The city’s fire marshal position remained open for more than a year.
The 2014 Alameda County civil grand jury found that more than a third of commercial buildings had gone unchecked despite city code at the time requiring annual inspections. The following year, the department became the first in the state to be stripped of its California certification to perform hazardous materials inspections.
Under her watch, the fire department also botched the hills inspection program developed to protect the city from a repeat of the 1991 blaze, which killed 25 people and destroyed more than 3,000 homes, according to audits and whistleblowers.
Years of contentious meetings between the chief and hills residents came to a head in January during a Wildfire Prevention Assessment District Citizen’s Advisory Committee meeting when Reed, in a 10-minute rant, threatened to sue a homeowner and claimed the group was biased against her.
Days later, Reed went on leave, apparently to help care for a sick relative, for about a month before returning last month. She has been out on a second, unspecified leave for weeks.
Reed’s firefighter union support has also waned, with representatives complaining post-Ghost Ship about her leadership.
“We wish her the best in whatever she does and we look forward to whatever new leadership arrives,” fire union Vice President Zac Unger said.
Council members called for the city to quickly find a permanent replacement.
“My sincere hope and my goal is we get a great new chief in a timely manner,” Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan said.
“We have a lot of work to do to strengthen our fire department, grow our fire marshal (unit) and move on,” Councilman Noel Gallo said.
In a statement issued late Tuesday, Mayor Libby Schaaf said a nationwide search for a new chief will begin.
“Our goal is to ensure that the best and brightest candidates emerge from the recruitment process. As we did during the search for a police chief, in the coming months we will engage the community and fire department staff to maximize stakeholder input,” Schaaf wrote.Each month, we’ll give you a new monster to use in your 5e game. This month, we give you the Magnetite Golem. You can download the description and stat block of the magnetite golem here.
Magnetite Golem
Most golems are made out of common and readily available materials, such as iron, stone, clay, or, in particularly grisly circumstances, flesh. A few golemsmiths, however, decide to utilize more exotic materials to make golems with unique abilities. One such exotic golem is the magnetite golem.
A magnetite golem usually is built in a humanoid form, with a wide body made out of metallic dark grey mineral stone. This form is often reinforced with wrought iron or steel plates, resembling rudimentary armor.
Walking Magnets
Magnetite golems are constructed of naturally magnetic iron ore known as magnetite to sages or lodestone to the common-folk. A magnetic field surrounds the golem, pulling objects made of ferrous metal towards it, granting the golem potent combat abilities against users of iron and steel.
Ferrous Metals
Only certain kinds of metals are attracted to a magnetite golem. The two most common are iron and steel.
Thankfully for the people who set magnetite golems to guard their treasure, the metals used to make standard coins (copper, silver, electrum, gold, and platinum) are not affected by the golem’s magnetism.
As a DM, you might have to rule on whether special materials such as mithral or adamantine are attracted by magnets. You may also decide that some spells, such as blade barrier, interact with magnetism in interesting ways. Your players might argue. Good luck with that.
Particular Guardians
The magnetite golem is an ideal ward against a raiding adventuring party. Its resistance to magical attack as well as the unique way with which it can fight heavily armored melee fighters make it adept at handling most of the threats an adventuring party might present.
The only downside of the magnetite golem is that it is not a good choice to guard anything that is made out of iron or steel, for obvious reasons.
Collectors
The magnetite golem’s body can collect accidental trophies from a battle won that were left clinging to the golem’s body at the end of the fight. After many battles, a magnetite golem can accumulate weapons, shields, and scraps of armor covering their form. These magnetite golems are called collectors.
Magnetite Golem
Large construct, unaligned
Armor Class 18 (natural armor)
Hit Points 189 (18d10 + 90)
Speed 30 ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 22 (+6) 9 (-1) 20 (+5) 3 (-4) 11 (+0) 1 (-5)
Damage Immunities electricity, poison, psychic; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical weapons that aren’t adamantine
Condition Immunities charmed, exhausted, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned
Senses darkvision 120 ft., ironsight (see below), passive Perception 10
Languages understands the languages of its creator but can’t speak
Challenge 12 (8,400 XP)
Electromagnetism. Whenever the golem is subjected to electricity damage, it takes no damage. Additionally, any creature that makes a Strength check or a Strength saving throw against the golem’s magnetism have disadvantage until the end of the golem’s next turn.
Fire Demagnetization. If the golem takes fire damage, its magnetism does not function until the start of its next turn.
Immutable Form. The golem is immune to any spell or effect that would alter its form.
Ironsight. Magnetite golems can sense all ferrous metals within 120 ft. A creature wearing metal armor, wielding a metal weapon, or otherwise carrying a large amount of iron cannot hide, through natural or magical means, from the magnetite golem.
Magic Resistance. The golem has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Magic Weapons. The golem’s weapon attacks are magical.
Magnetism. The golem attracts nearby ferrous metal. Weapon attacks against the golem made with ferrous metal weapons or ammunition have advantage, and the golem’s weapon attacks against creatures in metal armor or holding a metal shield have advantage. However, when a creature hits the golem with a melee weapon attack using a metal weapon, the attacker must make a DC 18 Strength saving throw or be disarmed. The weapon then sticks to the golem, requiring a DC 18 Strength check to remove. Additionally, any creature wearing metal armor or holding a metal shield that starts its turn within 30 ft. of the golem must make a DC 18 Strength saving throw or be pulled 10 ft. towards the golem. Any creature wearing metal armor or holding a metal shield that end their turn within 5 ft. of the golem are restrained. As an action, a restrained creature can make a DC 18 Strength check, escaping (for that round) on a success.
Actions
Multiattack. The golem makes two slam attacks.
Slam. Melee Weapon Attack. +11 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 19 (3d8 + 6) bludgeoning damage.
Magnetic Pull. The golem targets a creature wearing metal armor or holding a metal shield within 60 ft. That creature must make a DC 18 Strength saving throw or be pulled 30 ft. towards the golem.
Magnetic Disarm. The golem targets a creature holding a metal object, such as a weapon, within 30 ft. That creature must make a DC 18 Strength saving throw be disarmed. The object flies to the golem and attaches to its body. The weapon then sticks to the golem, requiring a DC 18 Strength check to remove.
Variant: Magnetite Golem Collectors
A magnetite golem collector has a challenge rating of 13 (10,000 XP). It has Armor Class 20, Speed 20 ft., and Dexterity 7 (-2). It also has the following traits.
Metal Shards. Any creature that starts its turn adjacent to the magnetite golem collector takes 1d6 slashing and 1d6 piercing damage.
In place of the magnetite golem’s slam attack, the magnetite golem collector has the following attack.
Jagged Slam. Melee Weapon Attack. +11 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 19 (3d8 + 6) bludgeoning damage plus 3 (1d6) slashing damage plus 3 (1d6) piercing damage.Some fellow journalists called Mr. Lee’s reaction typical of his overstatements and said he had a persecution complex. But Mr. Lee claimed he was being kept from doing his work. He has difficulty getting into some events and must be escorted by a press office official in areas beyond those allowed by his new credentials, he said. The presence of a “minder,” he said, deters sources from speaking with him.
Mr. Dujarric said the new status was not meant to, and did not, prevent Mr. Lee from entering any areas for reporting.
“It’s not exactly the same access,’’ Mr. Dujarric said, “but if he has an issue, there is a staff of media liaisons to help him resolve the problem and get where he needs to go.”
The disciplinary action had nothing to do with Mr. Lee’s reporting, Mr. Dujarric said. Instead, it was his refusal to leave the room during the January meeting, which violated press guidelines, said Mr. Dujarric, who often must field Mr. Lee’s questions about press office issues as dozens of international journalists stand by, seeking updates on global issues.
“At some point, I might decide I’ve had enough, if it’s just about him,” said Mr. Dujarric, who did just that during a recent briefing, which began calmly enough, with correspondents asking for updates on stories about Congo, Gaza and Syria.
Then, Mr. Lee raised his hand and began grilling Mr. Dujarric on corruption topics and how he was being treated by the agency. Exasperated, Mr. Dujarric walked out of the room.
Much of Mr. Lee’s ire is directed at the United Nations Correspondents Association, the group to which most resident correspondents belong. Mr. Lee, a former board member, left the group in 2012 after running unsuccessfully for president against Giampaolo Pioli, an Italian journalist and the current president.Provincial premiers boast leadership in the country's effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions, but achieving their own lofty ambitions will require political courage and aggressive policies to drive fundamental changes in the way Canadians produce and consume energy.
Just to meet existing federal and provincial targets, governments will have to impose carbon pricing – either a direct carbon tax, a cap on GHG emissions or costly regulations – several times higher than those currently included in various provincial plans, experts say. The result will be higher energy costs for Canadian industry and consumers alike.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau plans to convene a first ministers' conference, tentatively scheduled for March 7, as part of an effort to forge a pan-Canadian strategy to accelerate action on climate change. Environment Minister Catherine McKenna is already conferring with her provincial and territorial counterparts and will meet with them collectively next week in Ottawa.
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But don't expect a national plan – or bold new targets – to emerge from the first ministers' conference. British Columbia is still deciding on a response to its climate leadership panel, while Ontario and Alberta are working out details of new policies and Saskatchewan is waiting for more clarity from Ottawa on its intentions before committing to any carbon-pricing plan of its own.
"The first ministers' meeting will serve as the forum for discussion and consensus on the way forward and the actions all parties will need to take to achieve sustainable growth," said Caitlin Workman, spokeswoman for Environment Minister Ms. McKenna.
Last month in Paris, Mr. Trudeau and several premiers took the stage at the United Nations climate summit and vowed that Canada would not shirk its role in an all-out global effort to avert the worst impacts of global warming.
The Paris summit ended with a historic agreement on a common way forward, one that aims to limit the rise in global temperatures to two degrees C, or even 1.5 degrees. Global leaders heralded it as the dawn of a new era of international co-operation; environmentalists hailed it as the beginning of the end of the fossil fuel age.
But as with the countries that endorsed the UN accord, Canadian governments – federal and provincial – face tremendous challenges in turning the heady promise of Paris into a workable reality. Virtually every premier has unveiled a slate of new policies aimed at cutting emissions, or is promising to do so in the coming year.
Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia have aggressive targets over the near and long term that will require tougher policies to achieve. Alberta and Saskatchewan – with the most carbon-intensive economies – are looking to reverse the growth in emissions over the past decade that was fuelled by their booming oil industries and fast-growing populations.
Together with the federal government, provinces are looking for the right recipe that will drive societal change and encourage the development and adoption of clean-tech solutions, without imposing debilitating burdens on companies and consumers.
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"It's going to be a profound change for a country like Canada," Sophie Brochu, chief executive officer at Montreal-based Gaz Métro, said in an interview.
Ms. Brochu served as co-chair of a national roundtable on the green economy that met last year in Quebec, and attended the Paris summit as an observer. She is pitching natural gas as a key transition fuel, while promising the steady addition into the fuel mix of bio-methane made from garbage.
She urged governments to be ambitious and pragmatic, as well as transparent so everyone knows the costs and benefits of climate policy.
The former Conservative government committed Canada to reducing emissions by 30 per cent from 2007 levels by 2030, a goal the Liberals described as a "floor" and environmentalists decry as weak. Even with the adoption of carbon pricing, Alberta and Saskatchewan – which depend heavily on oil and coal and together account for nearly half of Canada's emissions – are not expected to reduce emissions below 2007 levels over the next 15 years. That means the rest of the provinces will have to pick up the slack.
Environmental economist David Sawyer calculates that just achieving Ottawa's existing 2030 target would require a tax of $180 on a tonne of carbon dioxide in 15 years. The country's highest carbon tax – implemented by B.C. – now sits at $30 a tonne. An advisory panel in British Columbia last fall urged Premier Christy Clark to increase that $30 levy in $10 annual increments until it reaches $150 a tonne by 2030, and to cut other taxes to soften the blow.
The magnitude of those recommended increases in carbon taxes has stoked fears in the business community, particularly if key trading partners such as the United States lag behind.
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Provinces are adopting or expanding explicit carbon pricing – either through cap-and-trade plans or carbon taxes – in order to drive down GHG emissions and shift the economy away from its dependence on fossil fuels. Those efforts would put Canada in the mid to high end of the range among industrialized countries in terms of carbon pricing.
Once Ontario and Alberta implement their respective plans, the country's four largest provinces – representing fully 80 per cent of Canada's GHG emissions – will levy some form of broad-based carbon price. That includes an emissions cap in Quebec and Ontario, a carbon tax in British Columbia and a hybrid system of tax and cap in Alberta. Saskatchewan, which accounted for 11 per cent of Canadian's GHG in 2012, says it will unveil plans for a levy after seeing what the federal government proposes for a national carbon price.
Those direct levies are complemented by indirect carbon costs contained in a raft of regulations as well as subsidies for clean-tech companies. Various provinces are boosting the deployment of electric vehicles and natural-gas-powered trucks and ships, pursuing tougher energy efficiency standards for vehicles, buildings and appliances, and adopting regulations requiring oil and gas producers to reduce methane emissions.
As they ratchet up carbon costs, provinces are looking to soften the blow for those companies – often, but not exclusively, foreign multinationals – that can move investment and jobs either across the border or across the world in search of the lowest costs and best returns. Economists call the phenomenon "leakage" – global emissions aren't reduced when companies merely shift activity from a higher-carbon-price jurisdiction to a competing one that features lower |
two days ago: “Arrest by Israel in Abduction of 3 Youths Is Made Public.” Erlanger said that Hamas abducted and killed the three Israeli teens June 12, and that this abduction set off the Gaza onslaught.
The abduction set off the most recent conflict with Hamas in Gaza… According to the court documents, [Hussam] Qawasmeh told the police during an interrogation that he had helped organize the kidnappings and had gotten money for the task from Hamas.
Not till the end of the piece are we given a muttered disclaimer of Hamas’s responsibility:
Critics argued that the local Qawasmeh clan might have acted on its own and that it was not clear that Hamas as an organization was behind the kidnapping.
A second piece in the Times that day, “Israel Exits Gaza as Truce Begins,” treats the Palestinian Authority as the only Palestinian party worth dealing with and rewrites the story of Hamas’s rise in Palestine:
[Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud] Abbas is 79 and has health problems, raising questions about who will succeed him. One possible candidate, Mohammed Dahlan, 52, who was born in Gaza, is favored by some Egyptian officials. But he is disliked by Mr. Abbas and hated by Hamas, which Mr. Dahlan tried to suppress when he effectively ran Gaza for the Palestinian Authority.
As Wikipedia reminds us, Dahlan was part of a U.S. plot to undo a democratically-elected government in Gaza.
In the April 2008 edition of Vanity Fair it was revealed that after the 2006 elections Dahlan had been central in a US plot to remove the democratically elected Hamas-led government from power. The Americans provided money and arms to Dahlan, trained his men and ordered him to carry out a military coup against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. However, the elected Hamas government forestalled the move and itself carried out an armed counter-coup.
And then Israel imposed a siege on Gaza. Shouldn’t the Times be giving us some of that history now?
Nope. Tom Friedman’s column yesterday described Hamas as Islamic jihadists who are trying to plunge not just Israel but an entire region into fire. He visited a tunnel near an Israeli kibbutz and says that Hamas was using them to try and murder Israeli civilians (when it has used them to kill Israeli combatants):
This tunnel had one purpose, and it was not fruit exports. It was to shuttle fighters into the kibbutz. And there were many of these. I must say I was awed by the sheer dedication it took to dig this tunnel, but sickened by what fueled that dedication: an apocalyptic jihadist agenda. The religious nationalist-forces have the real energy in this region today. More and more, this is becoming a religious conflict…. Jihadists are now sweeping across Iraq and Syria, wiping out Christians and other minorities.
Ilene Cohen says that Friedman has got it all wrong:
Friedman’s piece simply echoes the latest Israeli talking point, which is being reiterated across the Israeli press: Hamas made Israel do it; it laid a trap for Israel and Israel took the bait. It’s the old “dog ate my homework” —don’t blame me—excuse, but with the addition of slaughter and devastation. Israel, that is, has no agency but is controlled by the great, all-powerful puppeteer, Hamas… In the world according to Thomas Friedman, the siege of Gaza doesn’t exist, and forty-seven years of colonial occupation that has placed more than half a million settlers on stolen land in occupied Palestine—the West Bank and East Jerusalem—is reduced to a “reckless Jewish settlement project in the West Bank” (NB: not even a mention of East Jerusalem). What—is the occupation a “boys will be boys” reckless teenage driver who cracks up the family car? Further, the issue for Friedman is how to weaken Hamas, not how to achieve long overdue justice for the Palestinian people and end the occupation.
Finally, today The New York Times editorial on the war blames Hamas for the 1000+ Palestinian civilians killed by Israel, saying Hamas undertook “a deliberate effort to draw Israeli fire on innocents.”
And the Times says that Hamas is simply beyond the pale in any political resolution of the conflict:
It may be necessary to have Hamas in Cairo, but the group offers Palestinians nothing except nihilism and endless suffering.
Donald Johnson says that the Times is writing a brave new history of the Gaza onslaught:Announcing Windows Server Insider Preview Build 17046 By Dona Sarkar / Software Engineer, Windows and Devices Group Share Share Skype
Hello Windows Insiders!
Today we are releasing Windows Server Insider Preview Build 17046 to Windows Server Insiders. This build is the second preview build of the next Semi-Annual Channel release of Windows Server. For more information on the Semi-Annual channel, please see the Windows Server Semi-Annual Channel overview
Available Content
Server Insiders have the choice of Server Core Edition in ISO or VHDX format. The images are pre-keyed – no need to enter a key during setup.
Symbols are available on the public symbol server – see Update on Microsoft’s Symbol Server blog post and Using the Microsoft Symbol Server. As before, matching Windows Server container images will be available via Docker Hub. For more information about Windows Server containers and Insider builds, click here.
This Server Insider pre-release build will expire on July 2nd, 2018. For the best experience, the Windows Server team recommends a clean install.
What’s New in Build 17046 for Windows Server
There are no new features to announce for this build.
How to Download
To obtain the Insider software downloads, registered Insiders may navigate directly to the Windows Server Insider Preview download page. If you have not yet registered as an Insider, see GETTING STARTED WITH SERVER on the Windows Insiders for Business portal.
It’s all about your feedback!
The most important part of a frequent release cycle is to hear what’s working and what needs to be improved, so your feedback is extremely valued. Use your registered Windows Insider device and use the Feedback Hub application. In the app, choose the Server category and then the appropriate subcategory for your feedback. Please indicate what build number you are providing feedback on.
Known issues with Windows Server build 17046
[NEW] Dynamic disks fail I/O with STATUS_INVALID_DEVICE_REQUEST, resulting in failures to mount or format a volume. The contents of an affected volume will be available after updating to a build that fixes this issue, so reformatting and restoring data from backup is not necessary.
Upgrading to recent pre-release builds of Windows Server is not currently an option. However, upgrading will be supported in the future.
The Health Attestation CSP fails with error message 500 when attempting to get a certificate.
Data corruption may occur on some NVM Express (NVMe) solid-state drives (SSD) if scatter-gather list (SGL) functionality is enabled.
The base filtering engine (BFE) service may fail to start, which prevents the Windows Defender firewall (MpsSvc service) from starting.
A system crash may occur because of a kernel security check failure (bug check 0x139) from a corrupt list entry in a deferred free pool.
Hyper-V isolated containers will fail to start with an error of “The description string for parameter reference (%1) could not be found. (0x3ab6)”. Users can work around this by temporarily disabling our cloning optimization by creating a registry key and rebooting or restarting the vmcompute service.
reg ADD “HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Virtualization\Containers” /v TemplateVmCount /t REG_DWORD /d 0
reg ADD “HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Virtualization\Containers” /v TemplateVmCount /t REG_DWORD /d 0 Although installation will continue successfully, the product key will not activate.
Terms of Use
All pre-release software made available to you via the Windows Server Insider program are governed by the Insider Terms of Use, which takes precedence over any license agreement that may be in the product.
No downtime for Hustle-As-A-Service,
Dona <3We strongly disagree with the court’s ruling and plan to file an immediate appeal.
Yahoo! Inc., a U.S. corporation, does not have business operations in Belgium and does not maintain the customer information at issue in Belgium. The United States and Belgium have a formal international treaty which the prosecutor should have followed to properly seek information from a U.S. company.
Yahoo! is not withholding information from the Belgium government. We have a legal and policy basis for not disclosing information in this type of case until the recognized international legal process is followed. We have raised this issue with the U.S. Government.
This decision could have negative implications for all foreign companies by unduly expanding the application of a law that should not apply to a company organized outside of Belgium and without a presence in Belgium.
[Credits: [Credits: techcrunch
Yahoo was found guilty by a court in Belgium for withholding personal information linked to Yahoo e-mail addresses, and fined €55,000 right away and an additional €10,000 for each day it keeps refusing to hand over the user data.The e-mail addresses in question were used by a gang of alleged internet cons and Yahoo's defense was that it would only respond to American authoritiesYahoo got the maximum penalty for this charge.Here is Yahoo's statement:When the sanctions hit Russia in 2014 and Moscow responded with a trade boycott, Irina found it funny that people started obsessing about the disappearance of gourmet cheese from stores.
The 32-year-old education researcher, who asked that only her first name be used, says she didn't feel the effect of the sanctions either in her everyday life, or in her cheese-buying habits.
The same year, as oil prices faced a dramatic fall, the rouble collapsed and an economic crisis hit Russia with full force.
Being a member of the Moscow middle class, Irina felt shielded from its effects as well, although she says she did have to limit her travelling abroad and cut down on luxury items.
But as much as prognoses for the Russian economy have been pessimistic, Irina says she is not anxious about her future financial security. What she finds much more worrying is the markedly aggressive turn of government rhetoric which has accompanied the crisis.
"I was shocked to see the extent of'militarisation' of the news. [...] It is as if they are trying to prepare the country for war." she says. "I think this aspect of the crisis is the most dangerous one."
The aggressive rhetoric of the government and state media intensified around the crisis in Ukraine and Russia's standoff with the West, while at the same time, the Russian economy went into recession.
Eliot Borenstein, Professor of Russian and Slavic Studies at New York University, explained this phenomenon. "In many ways, US and European sanctions were a gift to Putin, since they allowed any decline in the economy to be chalked up to the work of Russia's enemies," he told Al Jazeera in a phone interview. "Moreover, this facilitates the feeling that coping with economic difficulties is a matter of patriotism."
The government's appeal to Russian's patriotic sentiments seems to have been effective in keeping general dissatisfaction among the populace at bay.
Many Russians have braced themselves for a long economic recession. Yet, there are some, like Irina, who are not willing to accept the consequences of the Kremlin's militaristic rhetoric.
Spinning an economic crisis
When oil prices collapsed at the end of 2014, Russia's rouble lost some 60 percent of its value to the dollar. GDP per capita dropped from $15,000 to $9,000 and the economy shrank by about 4 percent year on year.
Spending cuts were introduced and poverty rates increased. In 2015, the proportion of poor families with an income sufficient for purchasing food only increased from 22 to 39 percent, according to a study by the Russian Public Opinion Research Centre, while the middle class shrunk by 16 percent, according to Sberbank CIB Ivanov Consumer Confidence Tracker.
The standard of living deteriorated most significantly for Russia's poor outside the major economic centres.
A December 19, 2016, incident in the Siberian city of Irkutsk in which more than 70 people died after drinking bath lotion made of 90 percent ethanol demonstrated the desperation some people face. The victims - mostly poor and homeless - drank the substance because one bottle cost only 30 roubles (50 cents), six times less than a bottle of vodka.
Local media commented that the economic crisis, along with a higher alcohol tax, pushed more Russians to use illegally made alcohol and alcohol products. Over the past two years, poverty has reportedly been growing in the Irkutsk region, spreading to more than 21 percent of the population, while the real value of salaries has fallen by more than 10 percent.
Boris Grozovsky, a Russian financial journalist, told Al Jazeera that he thinks the economic crisis will also gradually affect healthcare and education. In 2015, Russia witnessed what local media said was its first teachers' strike in 15 years, after salaries were delayed in Zabaykalsky region; doctors and kindergarten teachers also joined the protest. Medics have complained that the real value of their salaries has fallen, and that underfunding of the healthcare sector could lead to a serious deficit of cadres.
Grozovsky says that although Russia is in for a long recession, that the standard of living will not fall to 1990s levels, when GDP per capita was $1,500-$3,000.
"What is awaiting us is a sluggish stagnation. As other countries develop, we will lag behind," he explained.
Russia's Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has dedicated himself to public appearances to reassure the public with speeches about tackling the crisis. In September he published an article outlining a vision for reforming the Russian economy to "make Russia attractive to business".
After the 2017 state budget was voted in, he appeared on state TV channels assuring the public that there would be enough money to cover social benefits and that the economy was expected to grow next year. These media outlets also ran reports with a positive spin on the crisis, focusing, for example, on the low inflation and consumer spending during the holiday season.
But Marina Krasilnikova, a sociologist at the Moscow-based research centre Levada, says Russians have accepted the economic crisis and have adjusted their expectations and consumption habits.
According to the Nielsen Global Consumer Confidence Index, 73 percent of Russian respondents to its survey said they had to cut their expenses, and 82 percent felt that it was not a good time to spend money.
READ MORE: Trump, Putin call for stronger nuclear arsenals
Aggressive rhetoric
While the government has sought to alleviate social fears, it also has made it clear that defence is a priority and that it is dedicating a solid chunk of that budget to ensure the modernisation of the military.
In the 2017 budget, it allocated $43bn, 4.7 percent of Russia's GDP, to the defence sector - what some analysts have called "record spending" for a country currently not at war.
Vladimir Putin, himself, has spoken repeatedly on the importance of the military. In late December he warned that Russia is currently stronger than any "potential aggressor", but that it only takes a slip in "modernisation of the army and the fleet or in its preparation for this to change".
This type of alarmist rhetoric is not only effective in justifying the defence budget to the general public but it is also distracting attention away from the economic crisis.
Krasilnikova says that "the idea that Russia is a great country which has a lot of foes is quite popular" and has mitigated people's dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs.
Such rhetoric has been consistently used on popular state TV channels such as Russia 1.
"[Russia] possesses the military power to destroy the US [a] minimum 10 times. We are the only country that poses [an] existential threat to them," mused MP Vyacheslav Nikonov on one of the most popular political talk shows on Russia 1, Evening with Vladimir Solovyov. The host is known for his belligerent language and personal interviews with Vladimir Putin.
Alleging US funding of liberal politicians in Russia, Nikonov also claimed that after the introduction of a law cracking down on "foreign agents", funding for such agents grew 10 times.
News broadcasts also often carry similar rhetoric. Russia 1 news reports in mid-December about the situation in Aleppo extensively covered the successful operations of the Russian military, emphasising the absence of Western involvement or help and Western media's indifference or deliberate avoidance of reporting on Russian successes.
Growing anxiety
According to Vlad Strukov, Associate Professor in Film and Digital Culture at Leeds University, while antagonistic language is not something new to Russian media, its intensity has grown significantly in the past few years.
"Five to 10 years ago there would be discussions about the threat of NATO, but it was still as a kind of a distant threat. […] Now the rhetoric is as if it was already happening in a way. That NATO is planning military action," he told Al Jazeera.
This rhetorical warmongering has inevitably affected the general population. A recent study shows that some 48 percent of Russians think that the exacerbated relations with the West due to the crisis in Syria could trigger World War III.
The assassination of the Russian ambassador in Ankara on December 19 shook Russian society, and while state media covered the Andrey Karlov's "heroic" death, there were others who found it unsettling.
"The rise of anti-Russian protests in the Middle East after the capturing of Aleppo, at the backdrop of which ambassador Andrei Karlov was assassinated, shows that while Russia was regaining its influence in the region, it also took away from the US the status of'main imperialistic enemy'," wrote Vladimir Frolov, a Russian political analyst.
He pointed out that this turn of events does not bode well for Russia and that it could usher in more "terrorist" attacks.
Even before the assassination, enthusiasm among the general population for the military intervention in the Middle East had started to cool. Russia's military operations in Syria have cost almost $1bn a year and a secret but growing number of casualties among Russian servicemen and mercenaries.
Back in October 2015, some 72 percent of respondents in a Levada Centre survey supported air strikes in Syria; by October 2016, that approval has fallen to 52 percent.
For Irina, the government's warmongering is much more worrying than the state of the economy.
"I would like to see less of this militarisation. [...] I would like to see a turn away from war and towards peaceful development," she says.What are the 10 best Dreamcast games to play now?
Everyone does Top 10 Games lists. The problem with those? Usually, they’re full of games that earn a place because of nostalgia or industry significance. Here at Snackbar Games, we like being a little more practical: if you’re looking to just have fun, what games should you pick up and play today? In this installment, we look at Sega’s swan song: the Dreamcast.
Graham Russell: This game’s really two: the brain-bending single-player puzzler and the frantic multiplayer party game. Both use the same mechanic: place arrows, direct ChuChus to your rocket. But it’s a wonderful little game, and frankly, I’m surprised this hasn’t made an encore appearance on XBLA and PSN. (It is on iOS now, though, and that implementation is a solid one.) Play this one with friends: they may hate you afterward, but they’ll have fun along the way.
Andrew Passafiume: This is what I consider the pinnacle of 3D fighters. Soul Calibur might have been outclassed by its follow-up, but the original is different enough to warrant going back to. It’s still a great game for newcomers or those familiar with the other entries in the series. The Dreamcast version also has all of the features that were removed from the Xbox Live Arcade version released a couple of years back, including the addictive mission mode, which adds a lot of longevity to the game’s single player component. It feels as fresh as it did when it first debuted over ten years ago.
Matthew Jay: Before rhythm games became the laziest way to start a cover band, they needed a few more things than “hot trax from your favorite bands.” They needed style. Rather than co-opting someone else’s work, a lot of the best rhythm games from back in the day had a style all their own and were instantly recognizable. If you gave me a screenshot from Rock Band and Guitar Hero, I probably wouldn’t be able to tell them apart. Space Channel 5 has an intoxicating soundtrack, brilliant colors and Michael Jackson.
Gerry Pagan: Taking in all the common RPG tropes and taking them in stride, Skies of Arcadia has earned all of its cult accolades for a reason. Sporting a lovable cast of characters, an interesting world and battle system along with a great variation of the typical pirate story, Skies is one of those games that didn’t necessarily reinvent the genre, but made the best of what they had to the fullest extent. The game is a must play for every RPG fan, even with its few quirks and oddities. It’s a shame the most we’ll see out of this game again is a cameo in Valkyria Chronicles.
Matthew Jay: There are people in this world who can one-credit Ikaruga. Seriously, they exist. I’vet met them. These people are freaks of nature. Mastering this game requires muscle memory far beyond my comprehension. Like most of the best challenging 8 and 16-bit, Ikaruga is based around trial and error until the game path is programmed into your brain. It requires commitment and skill. My dumb hands and brain have never been able to do it, but if it’s your thing there are few better shmups to spend your time with.
Graham Russell: Over the years, a number of games have tried to capture the type of party-fighter success that Super Smash Bros. has enjoyed, and none have come closer than this Dreamcast sequel. With the crucial addition of two more players, the game became much more about having fun and fighting and much less about being the first one to collect all the stones and unleash the game-winning special move. It’s too bad the series has only seen a PSP port, as a full-fledged multiplayer Power Stone-fest is just about what we need right now.
Andrew Passafiume: This might not be the version of Rez everyone in North America is most familiar with, but the game stands the test of time on any system. It’s a musical trip unlike any other, including the recently released Child of Eden, which shares similarities but feels like a different game altogether. Thanks to the incredible soundtrack and the strange, but oddly appealing visual aesthetics, this game is one that stands the test of time like no other. You won’t find another experience like it on the Dreamcast.
Graham Russell: Though most missed it, this game is practically the Gauntlet Legends of space shooters. This is weird to type, but it’s also the most precise description I can give. You fly around, shooting things, completing missions and upgrading your ship’s capabilities. There were different races, different upgrade trees and all sorts of crazy things that you wouldn’t expect to get mixed in with a game of Asteroids.
Matthew Jay: Things used to be so simple. We liked our characters cute, our music catchy and our game peripherals easy to use. Before Rocksmith required you to plug an actual guitar into your console, Samba de Amigo just had two maracas you could shake to the beat. No real learning curve, it just took a little bit of rhythm. A thing I don’t have. But I love this game all the same. This is also a title that has not been made obsolete by its remake. The Wii port cut corners, lost some of the best songs, and surprisingly the Wii remote is much less accurate than the maraca controllers. If you’re going to track this down, make sure you get the whole package.
Andrew Passafiume: 3rd Strike isn’t as popular as Street Fighter II or IV, but its differences make it a fighting game worth experiencing. As mentioned with Soul Calibur, 3rd Strike stands on its own as a fighting game despite being on the Dreamcast, with a library that has 2D fighters aplenty. That being said, few fighting games on the system are as tight or mechanically sound as this. On top of that you have a very diverse roster and plenty of training modes available, making this a fighting game still worth playing.
What do you think of our picks? Agree? Disagree? What did we miss? Let us know in the comments!The reason why the air vent in a plane can help keep you safe from germs and sickness.
Why you should keep the air vent on during a flight 0:31
A CHEEKY glass of wine might be the thing you enjoy most on a flight.
But the thing is, wine doesn’t travel well at all — flying may be wine’s worst enemy.
And that makes Roy Moorfield’s job very challenging.
Mr Moorfield is an international wine consultant with Cathay Pacific, and works to develop wines that are served mid-flight.
He told news.com.au there were two things about flying that worked against wine, whether it was that in-flight glass of plonk your enjoyed with your dinner, or the souvenir bottle you brought home in your suitcase.
The vibrations of the plane, and the pressurised cabin, could both seriously alter the flavour.
Mr Moorfield said when he started working with Cathay Pacific as its Australian wine consultant, he realised pretty quickly there was no point sampling wines before flying them as they tasted so different once they’d been in the air.
“When we started out, we used to do a pre-tasting of wine in Australia and we’d cut the samples down from about 600 to 200 and fly them to Hong Kong and taste them up there,” he told news.com.au.
“What we discovered was the wines we thought were the most suitable in Australia turned out to be among the least suitable when we tried them again in Hong Kong. And we thought, what’s going on here?
“We realised the cabin atmosphere is about 40 per cent more dry in a good airline — it can be much more dry in other airlines — and we realised that affects the way you taste.
“It dries out the follicles in your nose, that goes to your olfactory gland, and that’s where you get the sense of smell — and what you smell affects what you taste.
“Your nose isn’t as good as it could be, it’s not smelling as well as it could be, and that affects the wine. It dulls it somewhat.”
The cabin also emphasised bitterness of wine as well, Mr Moorfield said, so the challenge was to select a wine with a really overt aroma, a good fruit aroma and a good balance.
“Now we fly all the samples into Hong Kong, and we taste them up there. And then we can say, this wine has the right balance and it should fly quite well,” he said.
As well as the conditions inside the cabin, Mr Moorfield said the micro-vibrations of the aircraft stressed wine and changed its flavour — or more specifically, disrupted the careful balance of acidity, tannins and fruit.
“You don’t feel the vibrations in your seats because your seats are made to be comfortable, but when the planes vibrate they shake up the wine,” he said.
“And the wine has flavour molecules, and those flavour molecules are either very tight, and withstand it, or it pulls them apart slightly, and the wine becomes quite dull.
“So you have the effect of the fruits being reduced, and that exposes the acidity and the tannin. So we have to find wines that have a better balance and can fly with those nice tight flavour molecules.
“We fly them and then taste them, and if they’d gotten through those rigours we can select them to fly.”
Mr Moorfield said some varietals fared better than others — and if you’ve ever noticed how often you’re offered chardonnay on a flight, this was why.
“Pinot noir is very difficult, it’s very difficult to find one that flies well because it’s very fragile. We do find ones that work but we really have to hunt for them,” he said.
“Shiraz works very consistently because it’s got a lot of flavour and the tannins are slightly softer.
“The new modern style of cabernet sauvignon they’re making in Europe, which is more like the Australian version, has softer tannins and quite success too. Merlot is quite successful.
“Sauvignon blanc works, and chardonnay is probably the most consistently performing white. Rose works very well as well.”
The bad news is that souvenir bottle of vino you brought home from your holiday is unlikely to taste anything like it did when you sampled it at the cellar door.
Mr Moorfield said the wine could recover, so as soon as you get home, should put it aside and let it settle for about six months before opening it.
And as for the wine you’re served on a plane, Mr Moorfield said there were a couple of things you could do — or not do — to make the drinking experience more enjoyable.
First off, don’t be annoyed if your red is served cold.
“Red wines are loaded on the plane with the [refrigerated] white wines,” he said.
“If you get a red wine and pour it in the glass and it’s too cold, leave it for a few minutes because the plane atmosphere, and with the temperature, it will warm up quite quickly. It’s what the French call ‘chambré’ — letting it come to room temperature.”
Mr Moorfield’s second tip was don’t bother swilling your wine — on a plane, there was no point.
“Swilling has got a bit out of control in restaurants too, I’ve noticed,” he said.
“All you need to do is give it a little spin, if you want to, which helps to release the flavour and aromatics.
“But in a plane because the air is being exchanged so quickly, at least, it is on a good airline, you just need to let it sit there and it’s done the job for you.
“Over-swilling fatigues the wine — it tastes flat.”Plans for a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line through north Minneapolis are still on the drawing board, but a proposed shift in transit funding priorities has city leaders disappointed.
So disappointed that earlier this month the Minneapolis City Council passed a resolution affirming support for the D-Line, which would largely replace Route 5 and operate along Chicago, Fremont and Emerson avenues between Brooklyn Center and the Mall of America in Bloomington.
The Met Council revises its Transportation Policy Plan (TPP) every four years, and that process is now underway. The TPP is a fiscal plan outlining which transportation projects will be funded between now and 2040.
In the current plan, the D-Line is included in the “Current Revenue Scenario,” which is a list of projects that are fully funded and expected to be built in the next 10 years. But in the revised plan, the D-Line was downgraded to an “Increased Revenue Scenario” item. Translation: The line could be built if funding becomes available.
Even with the change in status, the D-Line remains a priority for the Met Council, said Nick Thompson, director of Metropolitan Transportation Services. The D-Line is expected to cost about $80 million, of which the Met Council has secured about half the funding. State bonding money was to have covered the cost, but “that source has not come to pass,” Thompson said. So moving the D-Line to the list of projects to be built if money becomes available better reflects where things stand.
“It is still a regional priority and is a strong project,” Thompson said. “It has broad support.”
Route 5 is Metro Transit’s most-used route. It provided more than 4.95 million rides last year. The bus is a lifeline for many in north Minneapolis, but often it is very slow and packed at all hours of the day.
A BRT line would make trips up to 20 percent faster as buses would stop only at stations spaced blocks apart. Fares would be collected on platforms rather that at the farebox. D-Line buses would also have the ability to communicate with signal control systems to shorten red lights or extend green lights.
A draft to show station placements is expected to be ready sometime in the first half of 2018. By later in the year, the final station plan should be ready. After that, the design and engineering phases would take place in late 2018 and 2019. Construction would begin in 2020 or 2021, pending full project funding.
Streets.mn blogger Nick Magrino said he finds it outrageous that the D-Line would be relegated to a second-tier list while other “marginal projects” that also need federal funding — such as the Bottineau/Blue Line Extension and the Southwest light-rail lines and the Riverview streetcar line along W. 7th Street in St. Paul — advance.
The D-Line, he said, is “cheap, provides better service and buses would be faster. It would improve service for transit riders in our region.”
Council Member Elizabeth Glidden, who represents the Eighth Ward in southwest Minneapolis, agrees. It’s why she helped pass a resolution pushing for the D-Line to stay on the Met Council’s A list.
“This goes through areas where good solid transit service is important for quality of life needs and serves areas with dense poverty,” she said. “This is one of those ‘do it now’ projects. To push it out longer is concerning. This is a top project and we want our support firmly stated.”
Follow news about traffic and commuting at The Drive on startribune.com. Got traffic or transportation questions, or story ideas? E-mail drive@startribune.com, tweet @stribdrive or call Tim Harlow at 612-673-7768.Labour promises a cap on rent rises for 11 million people while David Cameron sets out his ‘2020 vision’ for black and minority ethnic Britons
Rent rises for 11 million people living in private accommodation will be capped at the rate of inflation if Labour wins the general election on 7 May, Ed Miliband will announce on Sunday.
Conservative support slips but party stays just ahead of Labour Read more
In a move designed to appeal to, among others, younger voters priced out of the housing market, Miliband will say that during new three-year secure tenancies, landlords will be barred from increasing rents in any one year above the level of price rises as recorded in the consumer price index.
In a first Labour Queen’s speech of a new parliament, Labour will also introduce legislation requiring landlords to disclose rents charged to their last tenants so that householders have proper information and can negotiate the best deal at the start of their contract. Rogue landlords who do not keep their housing stock up to basic standards will have their “buy to let” tax relief slashed.
Sunday’s announcement fleshes out ideas Labour has been developing over the past two years, to give private tenants greater security of tenure and certainty over what bills they will face.
Currently there are 11 million people – including 1.5 million families with children – renting, with many forced to do so for the long term because they cannot afford to raise the deposits needed to get on the housing ladder.
Rogue landlords who do not keep their housing stock up to basic standards will have 'buy to let tax relief' slashed
The initiative amounts to Miliband’s biggest market intervention since he announced in 2013 that Labour would freeze gas and electricity bills for every home and business in the UK for 20 months, if it formed the next government.
Miliband said Labour was committed to building 200,000 more homes every year by 2020 but it also had to help those stuck in the rental market.
“Labour will build the homes which local people want to buy. But we will never turn our backs on Generation Rent. And we want to encourage all those responsible landlords who provide decent homes for people and stable income for themselves.
“Too many people are struggling to meet the costs of putting a roof over their head. Some are saving for a deposit year after year, while the dream of owning their own home seems further and further away. Others are having to move all the time, ripping up roots at work or with friends – even having to change their kids’ schools.”
Labour is trying to seize the initiative after a Tory plan to extend the right to buy to those living in housing association homes was widely criticised by housing experts, and some in the Conservative party itself.
With 11 days to voting on 7 May, the latest Opinium poll for the Observer put the Tories one point ahead of Labour, but their lead is down three points compared with a week ago. The Tories are on 34% (–2), Labour 33% (+1), Ukip 13% (n/c), the Lib Dems 9% (+1) and the Greens 6% (+1). A YouGov poll for the Sunday Times has Labour on 34%, two points ahead of the Tories, with Ukip on 14%, the Lib Dems on 9% and the Greens on 6%.
David Cameron promises 20% more jobs, students and apprenticeships for ethnic minorities by the end of the decade.
On Saturday David Cameron set out what he termed a “2020 vision” for black, Asian and minority communities, promising 20% more jobs, students and apprenticeships – as well as 20% of selections in Westminster seats where Tory MPs are standing down – for ethnic minorities by the end of the decade.
“We’re the party of the first female prime minister,” Cameron said. “The party of the first Jewish prime minister. And I know that, one day, we’re going to be the party of the first black or Asian prime minister.
“I want this to be an opportunity country, where no matter who you are or where you’re from; whether you’re black, white, Asian or mixed race; whether you’re from the inner city or rural heartlands; you can make the most of your talents.”Apparently Taylor Swift is a Korn fan. Who knew? It turns out Swift once told Korn frontman Jonathan Davis she was a “huge” fan of his band.
Read more about their encounter below.
Read more: MTV's TRL reboot reveals two more musical guests
Billboard recently reported on the oral history of MTV'S TRL which aired from 1998 to 2008, and is set to return tomorrow (Oct 2). In the article, Davis recalls how Swift had attended the show's finale episode which he described as “like a big old high school reunion.”
“There was a yearbook we signed” Davis tells Billboard. “Taylor Swift actually handed me my yearbook and said, ‘I’m a huge Korn fan!'”
TRL host Damien Fahey confirmed Swift's attendance by saying, “I remember Taylor Swift came with her mom, when she wasn’t Taylor Swift yet. They had a couple of Flip cams, and they were geeking out, goofing around.”
The rebooted TRL will commence |
the drivers wheteher they’ve got a sore head or a stubbed toe. You don’t like to call on him for these more serrious ones but it is great that he comes to all our rounds and looks after us all.”
V8 Supercars Stewards ruled that no further track action was to take place after the incident on Friday, with Mostert’s stranded car requiring delicate removal from the track. Repair work was also required to track marhshals’ stand before racing could recommence.
Red Bull Racing Australia team boss Roland Dane sympathised with his rival outfit.
“We certainly feel for the guys next door, any one of us could be in that position,” Dane said.
“First and foremost we hope Chaz is okay and hopefully whatever damage there is it’s not too big to him.
“Cars we can always fix. At the end of the day... the challenge of Bathurst, it can bite you. It could’ve bit any of us. It still could.”
Scroll down for our blog of Friday’s V8 Supercar action and reports from Practice 4 and 5.
PRACTICE 5 REPORT
TAKE a bow, Jamie Whincup. The six-time series champion has become the first driver to take a V8 Supercar around Mount Panorama in two minutes and four seconds.
Whincup barrelled around the 6.213 kilometre circuit in 2 minutes and 4.9097 seconds, slashing half a second of Fabian Coulthard’s day-old mark.
The Red Bull squad have been keeping their powder dry throughout the weekend so far, with neither Whincup, Craig Lowndes or either of their co-drivers nudging the top of the timesheets throughout the four preceding sessions.
Whincup was similarly lowkey when talking about his phenomenal lap, one that will go down in V8 history.
“We’re just going about our job trying to make the buggy as quick as possible,” he said. “We won’t get too carried away with practice - obviously it’s a cool to see that number on the dash.”
With qualifying set to take place in cooler conditions this afternoon, Whincup expects his time may be beaten before the ink dries in the history books.
“No doubt there’s going to be a big improvement for qually this arvo so we’ll keep chipping away,” he said. “Plenty of temp today, I think that’s going to cool down over the weekend.
“It’s about having the right car at the right time, and I think the engineers hit the money then,” he added with a smile.
For the record, Scott Pye was the first driver to lower COulthard’s mark from Thursday afternoon with a 2m05.2436s lap, beaten only by Whincup, with Jason Bright rounding out the top three.
In all, the first nine cars broke into the 2m05s bracket - the last of those Michael Caruso in the best of the Nissans - but the Red Bull squad has now moved the goalposts into the 2m04s.
Bathurst rookie Simona de Silvestro continued to make steady progress, logging a 2m08.9671s lap to finish the session in 26th place.
PRACTICE 4 REPORT
THE stage is set for stunning lap times on qualifying day at the Bathurst 1000 with the prospect of a V8 Supercar turning a lap in 2m04s for the first time.
Cameron Waters topped Friday morning’s Practice 4 session for the co-drivers on Mount Panorama, taking the Falcon he will share with Chaz Mostert around in 2m05.7220s, less than three tenths shy of Fabian Coulthard’s unofficial lap record set on Thursday.
The 21-year-old headed experienced hands Luke Youlden by a tenth, Russell Ingall, Paul Dumbrell and Marcos Ambrose making up the top five in the 45-minute session.
“It’s absolutely amazing to be in the fives!” Waters said. “I came here expecting to be in the sixes, and to be in the fives is unreal. Really happy with the car.”
The lap puts Waters into an exclusive club of drivers to have logged a ‘five’ around the Mountain, with both he and Youlden the latest additions after this morning’s session.
The Fords again showed impressive speed in the session, with Ambrose among the Blue Oval brigade trading the top of the timesheets with the Prodrive crew.
Ambrose ended the session with a 2m06.4332s best, 0.71s down on Waters but a good three seconds faster than his his quickest time in his glory days of 2001-2005.
“It feels pretty good but the track’s in great condition. I think you’re going to see a new record this afternoon,” Ambrose said.
“Really proud of the XBox team here this weekend. We haven’t had (green) tyres yet, and I probably won’t get them until the race, but I’m really excited by our form and the car feels pretty comfortable.”
Three Nissans appeared inside the top 11, while the best Volvo and Mercedes ended the session down in 13th (Alex Premat) and 19th (Alex Davison) respectively.
Bathurst debutante Renee Gracie slashed a couple of seconds off her best time aboard the Harvey Norman Supergirls entry, ending the session at the foot of the timesheets with a 2m09.4026s lap, 3.68 seconds off Waters’ time.Veteran Hollywood publicist Stan Rosenfield, who represented Charlie Sheen through the actor's rehab attempts and breakup with his employers on the hit sitcom "Two and a Half Men," abruptly resigned on Monday.
"I have worked with Charlie Sheen for a long time and I care about him very much," Rosenfield wrote in a brief statement. "However, at this time, I'm unable to work effectively as his publicist and have respectfully resigned." In a follow-up e-mail, Rosenfield said he had represented Sheen for at least seven years.
The move came on the same day that Sheen turned up in another round of interviews on ABC, NBC, TMZ and elsewhere, attacking everyone from CBS to his father, former "The West Wing" star Martin Sheen. Since CBS and Warner Bros. decided last week to halt production on "Two and a Half Men" after Sheen attacked his boss, Chuck Lorre, the actor has gone on a manic round of media interviews. It is unclear what role, if any, Rosenfield played in setting up those interviews.
But the public relations man was still working on the Sheen account Monday morning, when he dispelled an e-mail hoax that said Sheen had retired from acting.
-- Scott Collins
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Twitter.com/scottcollinsLAT
Photo: Charlie Sheen in 2009. Credit: Chris Pizzello / Associated PressThe Minnesota State Canvassing Board met today, at 9 AM CT, to finalize all challenge resolutions. Each campaign brought forth a series of ballots that were believed to have been inaccurately allocated. At the end of the day, Franken gained 6 votes and Coleman added 2 for a net Franken gain of 4 votes. This addition extends Franken's lead to 50.
The final seven and a half minutes of the of the Canvassing Board's discussion can be viewed below or downloaded (*.wmv, 00:07:41, 87.7 MB):
Shortly after the Canvassing board concluded, Marc Elias, Franken's lead lawyer, conducted a brief press conference. Below is an excerpt followed by the full video:
Marc Elias: And now with everything except for the absentee ballots counted we are leading by 50 votes. We could not be more thrilled with where we stand, in this process. This recount has gone exceptionally well.... Marc Elias: At every stage we have gained votes. And we have every reason to believe that will be true of the absentee ballot review as well. As you know we made an offer to accept all thirteen hundred and fifty of them, because we are confident that if all those were counted we would gain even more votes. Source: VoteForAmerica.net (*.wmv, 00:03:56, 45.5 MB)
Tony Trimble then discussed the Coleman campaign's view of the recount proceedings in a lengthier proceeding. An excerpt is available below followed by the video:
Tony Trimble: The Canvassing Board, as we all know, has not taken care of the duplicate voting, the double voting thats occured in Minneapolis. We are faced with an artificial Franken lead, of a, double digits is all. There were a hundred double counted ballots, actually a hundred and ten doubled counted ballots that will wipe out that lead and keep Coleman, justifiably in front. That's where we stand today.... Reporter A: If you have that faith in local officials, why are you not accepting their list of the thirteen hundred? Tony Trimble: We have faith in local officials, they're going do the right thing. But we have brought to their attention, and the Franken campaign's attention, that there is another stack, a small stack ten to twelve thousand that ought to be reviewed. And we have faith that they will produce those, and show those to the Franken folks [so that they can agree]. Source: VoteForAmerica.net (*.wmv, 00:09:51, 113 MB)
Minnesota Secretary of State, Mark Ritchie then held a Press Conference. The first, probably ten minutes, pertained directly to the recount; the second half focused on some of the legislative responsibilities of the Secretary of State. I only have the first portion in video form, but the second portion is still available, and pretty interesting. The video portion is available below along with an excerpt from part one:
Mark Ritchie: To my knowledge neither of the campaigns even attempted to get agreement from the other campaign to meet this requirement. So as of three o'clock yesterday this agreement made by both campaigns, the local elections officials, and our office was that by three they had to have agreement by both campaigns to add any additional challenges. It is not that complicated of a rule. It is under the order of the SC of MN. Its a very straight forward thing that's fairly easy to read and interpret. If anybody would like to ask for further clarification on whether this rule should be changed they should say that, but that's a different thing than saying the rule does not exist. Reporter A: So the rules says that after 3 PM you cannot add to pile 5, except by mutual agreement. Mark Ritchie: Correct. Part 1 Video: VoteForAmerica.net (*.wmv, 00:10:55, 125 MB) Part 2 Audio: VoteForAmerica.net (*.wav, 00:11:27, 1.06 MB)
The only remaining step, for the Canvassing Board, revolves around acknowledging sum potential 1,350 wrongfully rejected absentee ballots. The board will meet on January 5th and 6th from 2:30 to 5:00 PM CT. During this time, the five member committee will review the challenged absentee ballots before they allocated. It is possible, perhaps even probable that on January 6th the State Canvasing Board will declare that one of the candidates has received the most votes. This is not to be confused with an election certificate. Acknowledging the receiver of the most votes does not imply certification. Once it is known who received the most votes, the loser may request an "election contest" within seven days. If a contest does occur, the winner is officially certified after the resolution of that contest. If there is no contest, the winner is certified seven days later.
Minnesota will not have a second Senator on January 6th, the would-be day of admittance.Prison Break actor Robert Knepper helped rescue a distressed Canada goose on Tuesday along with his wife, a TransLink supervisor, and McDonald's staff.
The actor, who is in Vancouver to shoot the Prison Break reboot, was driving home for dinner on Aug. 2 when he saw the bird near Main Street and Terminal.
"We saw a lone Canadian goose all by its lonesome in a little grassy area," he said on Instagram.
"The goose tried to take flight but couldn't quite clear the top of an oncoming car and was clipped underneath. He/she fell to the street and hobbled back."
Knepper said, as the son of a veterinarian, he had to help.
That's when TransLink transit supervisor Chris Berg got involved. He was in the area and he gave Knepper a pair of gloves, while the actor's wife, Nadine, got a box from a nearby McDonald's big enough to fit the goose.
Berg said he wasn't thrilled about getting too close to the goose.
"It was definitely trying to run away from us," he told CBC.
Goose taken to animal clinic
But the trio were able to eventually capture it.
"Nadine caught it. I threw my hoodie over the goose. We put the goose in the box and drove it to the nearest emergency animal clinic," Knepper said on Instagram.
It's only when Knepper posted about the goose-saving adventure on Instagram that Berg realized he was a well-known actor.
"He was a really down-to-earth type of guy," Berg told CBC.
The Canada goose was sent to the Wildlife Rescue Association in Burnaby. Staff at the animal clinic said the goose was probably just in shock.
Still, Knepper said on Instagram that he likes to think the goose was appreciative of their efforts.
"When we returned to our hotel, I shook out my hoodie, expecting a load of goose poop," he wrote.
"Instead, one lone goose feather fell softly to the ground. I'd like to think it was a sign from the goose saying, 'Hey, thanks for taking the time to help out some body who took a wrong turn.'"The Alberta government is introducing new rules to restrict the use of political action committees.
The NDP says political action committees (PACs) are being used to circumvent election financial limits on candidates and parties.
But a bill introduced Monday avoids some key steps to clamp down on PACs. Bill 32 doesn't explicitly ban corporate and union donations to PACs, nor does it legislate a cap, as it has done for contributions to political parties.
Democratic Renewal MInister Christina Gray said that's because past court decisions have ruled in favour of giving these entities freedom of expression and association.
"Making sure that corporations, unions and all people are able to express their content or discontent with the government, to express themselves and associate freely, was something we needed to protect," she said. "And we wanted to find that right balance."
Gray said the legislation would achieve that balance by placing limits on spending in the months before a general election and limiting what PACs can spend money on. A new election commissioner would be able to investigate breaches of the law.
Under election laws passed last year, PACs have to disclose their donors to Elections Alberta.
The act also strengthens rules for preventing collusion between PACs and a political party or candidate. It also doesn't specifically define what a PAC is, to prevent current and future organizations from circumventing the rules, Gray argued.
"When you specifically define things, it provides an opportunity for someone to then shift or adjust so that they no longer fit that definition," Gray said.
In October, Alberta Chief Electoral Officer Glen Resler urged the government to take action on PACs to prohibit corporations, unions and people outside Alberta from making donations.
'No impact' on PACs
Last week, the Alberta Liberals introduced a private member's bill that aimed to reform PACs. The Liberals say the government's bill will have very little impact.
"It doesn't do anything to address corporate, union or out-of-province donations," said Liberal Leader David Khan,"or any of the PAC activities that mirror those what political parties and candidates should be doing, such as spending money on polling, on staff."
Khan said the legislation does not require political action committees to register, unless they plan to undertake any advertising. He said Gray's measures look like they were added to an existing bill on electoral reform at the last minute.
PACs have raised millions of dollars in support of Jason Kenney's bids for the leadership of the Progressive Conservative party and United Conservative Party.
In July, Kenney cited privacy concerns for not revealing the names of 63 donors who contributed $395,047 of the $508,000 raised by his Unite Alberta PAC prior to the start of the PC leadership campaign.
Elections law at the time did not require him to disclose any donors who contributed outside the writ period.
Khan said Alberta NDP MLAs keep complaining about how Kenney hasn't disclosed all his donors, yet do nothing about it even though their party is in government.
Khan rejects Gray's reasons for failing to ban corporate and union donations.
"I think that's a weak argument. That's political spin from a minister that doesn't understand the law and the real issue at play," he said.
"At no time in Canada has the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that corporations or unions have a right to free speech. That's an American import into the political discourse in Canada that has no legal justification."
Spending limits
The NDP banned corporate and union donations to political parties when it first formed government in 2015.
Instead of extending the ban to PACs, the government is opting to place constraints on what they can do.
Under Bill 32, PACs can only spend $150,000 after Dec. 1, prior to any provincial general election, until the date the writ is issued. Under Alberta law, elections are held every four years in the spring.
PACs could spend another $150,000 during the campaign period but not more than $3,000 targeting a candidate in a particular constituency.
PACs could no longer spend money on fundraising, selling memberships or collecting voter information that could be forwarded to a candidate or political party.
Only volunteers and people who make a donation under Alberta election rules (no more than $4,000 in total annually) would be allowed to undertake these activities.
Under existing legislation, a person who is guilty of a corrupt practice can face a maximum fine of $50,000 or two years in jail.
A PAC or third-party advertiser that is a union, employer organization or corporation that breaks the law would face a maximum $100,000 fine.
The bill would prohibit the government from making funding announcements during elections so taxpayers' money isn't used to influence the outcome of the vote.
There are some exceptions. The government could still advertise for measures required under law, for important health and safety issues, for procurement and employment, and for ongoing programs.
The new bill also includes measures designed to increase voter participation.
They include removing the six-month minimum residency requirement to vote in an election, and pre-registering all 16- and 17-year-olds so they are registered to vote when they turn 18.
The government also wants to add another advance voting day before each election.
The bill makes it a requirement, not an option, to set up mobile polls at supportive living facilities and treatment centres. Emergency centres and homeless shelters are also added to the list.(Adds hedge fund manager, CEO comments, graphic, financing, updates stock price)
By Dhanya Skariachan
March 4 (Reuters) - RadioShack Corp said it will close up to 1,100 U.S. stores after reporting a wider quarterly loss and huge drop in sales during the holidays that raised concerns about the longer-term prospects for the U.S. electronics chain.
Its shares dropped as much as 20 percent.
The planned closings would leave the Fort Worth, Texas-based retailer with over 4,000 stores, including more than 900 dealer franchise locations, it said on Tuesday.
RadioShack’s sales have been in free fall since 2010 amid executive departures, tough competition and an image problem. Despite its ubiquitous presence, analysts say the U.S. retailer has not done enough to become a destination for mobile phone shoppers or younger buyers.
The retailer, which has been losing share to the likes of Best Buy Co Inc and Amazon.com Inc, reported its net loss widened to $191.4 million, or $1.90 a share, in the fourth quarter, from $63.3 million, or 63 cents, a year earlier.
Sales totaled $935.4 million in the quarter covering the holiday season, down 20.1 percent from $1.17 billion in the year-ago period. Analysts, on average, looked for sales of $1.12 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Sales at stores open at least a year fell 19 percent in the fourth quarter on weak customer traffic.
The grim results were not entirely unexpected, considering the overall weakness in the consumer electronics industry during the holidays, but many on Wall Street took a grim view of the company’s prospects.
The “results were much worse than we anticipated, and cast serious doubt on RadioShack’s long-term viability in our opinion,” BB&T Capital Markets analyst Anthony Chukumba said.
The report also highlighted the mammoth task facing Chief Executive Officer Joe Magnacca, who took the helm in February 2013.
Magnacca, a restructuring expert credited with revamping Duane Reade drugstores before Walgreen Co bought the chain, said “the RadioShack turnaround will take time.”
(For graphic on RadioShack shares after Magnacca took the helm: link.reuters.com/paz37v)
BUYING TIME
David Tawil, the co-founder of hedge fund Maglan Capital, said the move to shrink its store base was not a permanent solution to its problems.
“It should buy them time,” said Tawil, a former bankruptcy attorney and distressed corporate workout specialist. “I don’t think they have a place in the market.” Maglan does not own RadioShack shares.
Its market share has fallen about 20 percent since 2010, according to data from Euromonitor International.
Tawil said he is concerned about its cash flow levels. “They can continue to operate but they are in a cash-flow negative spiral and that doesn’t usually reverse itself,” Tawil said.
The retailer, which secured new loans heading into the holidays, ended the fourth quarter with total liquidity of $554.3 million, including $179.8 million in cash and cash equivalents and $374.5 million in available credit.
At Dec. 31, its debt totaled $614 million and matured between 2018 and 2019.
“SIGNIFICANT OBSTACLES”
RadioShack peers Best Buy Co Inc and hhgregg Inc also reported weaker-than-expected sales in what turned out to be the most heavily discounted holiday shopping season since the recession.
Magnacca blamed the latest sales weakness on poor shopper traffic, intense discounting, tepid mobile phone demand and operational problems such as poor inventory management.
“Mr. Magnacca and the new team deserve a lot of credit for the changes they are making, but it seems harder and harder for them to overcome the more significant obstacles,” said Janney Capital Markets analyst David Strasser. He worried that wireless industry weakness could stall its turnaround.
RadioShack has been working with bankers from Peter J Solomon Co to boost liquidity, and with AlixPartners on improving operations. Last October, it obtained $835 million in financing commitments from a consortium of lenders led by GE Capital; CIT Corporate Finance; RBS Citizens NA and Salus Capital Partners.
Under Magnacca, RadioShack has changed its logo, reduced store clutter and improved displays. It has also been moving some products from stores to its website, and carrying more private-label goods with higher margins.
The retailer recently named a new merchandising chief, global sourcing chief and chief financial officer. But some analysts say the efforts are too little, too late.
The stock slid 13.6 percent to $2.35 on the New York Stock Exchange, but fell as low as $2.19. (Reporting by Dhanya Skariachan in New York; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)As the prospect of more gay and lesbian couples marrying in California looms in the coming days, the religious right’s hand-wringing is becoming more and more overwrought. When Judge Vaughn Walker’s stay of his decision to overturn the approval of Proposition 8 (which outlawed marriage equality in the state in November 2008) expires this week, those who oppose such unions are now ominously warning that the ruling will “criminalize Christian beliefs.”
Mathew Staver, dean of the Liberty University Law School and chairman of the Orlando-based Liberty Counsel told CNS News:
For this judge to say that Christian beliefs or religious beliefs contrary to homosexuality are actually harmful—what that essentially says is, that if that’s the case, then you’ve got to change your religious beliefs, and if you don’t, you’re going to be penalized as result. That is a very dangerous aspect of this court decision.
Actually, Judge Walker’s ruling doesn’t say any of that. While the judge acknowledges that religious beliefs have been harmful to gays and lesbians by spreading misinformation and fostering prejudices against them, he in no way even suggests that one must “change your religious beliefs” or be “penalized.”
Religious people will always be free to believe homosexuality is sinful, just as some religious people still believe the mixing of the races is against God’s will, or that God commands women to be subservient to men, or that the earth is flat. No one has, or will, outlaw a religious person’s right to their beliefs, no matter how much they may be at odds with mainstream belief. But, once the religious right gets on a slippery slope there’s no stopping them until they finish their flume ride of hysteria.
Dr. Richard Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberties Commission (ERLC) of the Southern Baptist Convention, asserts that preaching against homosexuality isn’t “hate speech,” which he fails to note, was not something Walker called it, either. Yet, he must first construct the straw man before knocking it down:
“It is quite clear that God condemns same-sex relations as particularly abhorrent. And if that is indeed the case, and we believe it is, it is an act of love towards those who are engaged in such relationships to tell them that they are violating the most sacred laws of God,” he said. “It would be indifference—or worse—to not tell them.”
What Land and his cohorts fail to understand is that Walker has never said that people don’t have the right to believe that their religious beliefs teach that homosexuality is wrong. What they don’t have, however, is the right to use that religious belief to set public policy or pass legislation against people they deem “sinful.”
Religious people believed in separation of the races and forbade interracial marriage because they believed such a ban was approved by God. The Supreme Court ruled in the 1967 Loving v. Virginia case that such a belief is not sufficient grounds for making law. It is the same in the Prop. 8 case.
Alas, some conservatives have seen the writing on the wall and are ready to concede California to the devil rather than take the chance of a SCOTUS decision in favor of same-sex marriage.
Mother Jones reports that David Barton, a religious right activist who served as vice chairman of the Texas Republican Party from 1998 to 2006, in an appearance on American Family Radio told his conservative comrades to let the gays win this one:
Well, I’m telling you, that’s what’s being argued by a lot of folks now… Knowing what Kennedy has already done in two similar cases to this and knowing that he’s the deciding vote, the odds are 999 out of 1000 that they’ll uphold the California decision.
If they do, there’s not a marriage amendment in the country that can stand. And so the problem is that instead of California losing its amendment, now 31 states lose their amendment. And that won’t happen if California doesn’t appeal its decision. It’s just California that loses its amendment.
Over at Red State, Christian Bentzen agrees that this battle is most likely lost and should be abandoned since it seems that public opinion will surpass religious disgust soon enough and deprive the conservatives of the gay marriage wedge issue.
It wasn’t too long ago that opposition to gay marriage was so powerful an issue that Republicans unequivocally turned to it as a means to energize conservative voters. Yet today, as the party contemplates the task of determining its future and its place in American politics, many Republicans say the issue of gay marriage may be turning into more of a hindrance to success than an ally.
Land and others would do well to listen to this faction. Those who used religion to support slavery, the subjugation of women, and the separation of the races all wound up on the wrong side of history. Bentzen reminds them they’re headed down that same road now:
The consequence of their reaction to the recent ruling is that conservatives may be planting the seeds of their own demise (as the polls have indicated) and find themselves on the wrong side of civil rights history.
Again.By: Sofia Bunger
Most climbers know that a strong core improves your climbing. Trainer Adam Macke explains how advanced strengthening can add more power to your climbing by doing these exercises. But first, our conversation started with the basic question, “What is the core?”
There isn’t a core. Apples have cores but the human body is more sophisticated.
To describe the “core” he explains that the hip and spine muscles centered in the body contract to support the force production of the extremities and also stresses that the strength of those muscles are more important than those of your fingers.
The ability to transfer body load away from the fingers will increase actual contact strength. Flexing, extending, and rotating the hip and spine creates more inward and downward pressure onto the hands thus producing more surface friction at the fingertips. The action of the hips with a foot on the wall applies force to the fingers, making the hip and spine the axis point.
Concluding that the strength of the lumbo pelvic hip complex are what actually keeps your fingers on the wall, he explains how to improve contact strength by focusing on those muscles.
Climbers typically choose exercises that resemble climbing. Some of these exercises are not appropriate for strength training and can detour from good climbing technique. For example, most hanging exercises like campusing, can be less effective as strength training.
A typical climber’s core training may include hanging leg lifts. This exercise can be beneficial for some climbers initially but not in the long-term. While they are a great gauge to measure strength, Macke considers it inappropriate for advanced strengthening as there is no resistance at zero degrees of hip flexion and full resistance at 90 degrees. Instead, completing the same joint motion is possible by laying supine on the floor with an ankle-strap attached to a cable. This applies more load to the hip and creates a resistance profile that matches the strength profile of the muscle, thus maximizing the strength of the hip flexors.
Recently climbers have identified the benefits of training hip extension, for example by doing deadlifts. Deadlifts are a great exercise except they offer little to no resistance at full hip extension.
In climbing, the hip tends to be loaded in full extension and not challenged as much in flexion, especially on steep walls. Macke suggests complementing the deadlift with a hyperextension or glute-ham apparatus that uses body resistance and can be easily advanced with external forms of resistance.
Crunches and situps are other popular exercises commonly used by climbers. These exercises are difficult to add resistance to and he suggests using a decline ab-board. The ab-board allows significant resistance to be added appropriately while having the opportunity to add rotational resistance.
Climbers neglect the importance of hip abductors and the external rotators. On steep angle climbing the posting leg must be able to maintain enough force to keep the hips into the wall. Weak climbers tend to relax the hip muscles allowing the feet to cut and rely on finger tension only. Strong hip abductors combined with back extensors allow the fingers to maintain their grip.
Traditionally those exercises are done standing, Macke found that having the climber lying on the floor, they were able to focus on maximum abduction instead of attempting to balance while standing. He also adds that this is a great opportunity to work on internal and external rotation of the hip.
Most exercises train in the sagittal plane; while climbing, we not only move in the sagittal plane but we move through the transverse plane putting extreme tension on the hip and spinal muscles. Attempting to strengthen these muscles in orchestration, for example as in functional or kettlebell training, the athlete tends to use the path of least resistance, minimizing the load effect on individual muscles. Instead, these muscles must be strengthened in isolation to maximize force production.
In conclusion, Macke feels strongly that climbers should use isolation exercises to strengthen muscles, however, he also points out that it is important to spend more time doing actual climbing and training drills to learn the necessary recruitment patterns to apply their strengths.
Adam Macke has more than 15 years of experience in strength training for athletes. He is certified in Resistance Training and Muscle Activation Techniques. Combining his expertise with his passion for athletic performance Macke has through the years helped countless of climbers improve their performance by eliminating pain, tightness and weaknesses.
AdvertisementsThis Cool New Library in Kaka‘ako Lets You Borrow Tools Instead of Books
Between Re-use Hawai‘i’s ample selection of salvaged building materials and Honolulu Tool Library’s inventory, O‘ahu can boast a one-stop D.I.Y. sustainability center.
By Don Wallace
Re-use Hawai‘i’s Quinn Vittum (left) gave Honolulu Tool Library’s Elia Bruno a home base.
Photo: Aaron Yoshino
Two years ago, having just moved into a house with a large backyard, UH senior Elia Bruno set about realizing a lifetime goal. “A great edible garden! My dream was leaf beds and compost, water systems and a chicken coop,” he says. But he ran into an obstacle. “In order to build these things I was going to need all these expensive tools I couldn’t afford that I was only going to use once.”
Worse, although he could look up and down his Mānoa block and see garages chock-a-block with immaculate hardware, he struck out when he asked if he could borrow any.
Fortunately for all of us, Bruno didn’t take no for an answer. Today, at age 22, he’s executive director of Honolulu Tool Library. Here, you take your pick of donated and refurbished tools; how many and for how long depends on your level of membership: $85/year for unlimited use, $55/year for one that limits the number of tools and the number of days they can be kept out. Tools range from a plain old hammer to circular saws, bench grinders, sanders and paint sprayers.
Building materials are right at hand, too, because the Tool Library is tucked into the warehouse of Re-use Hawai‘i down by Kaka‘ako Waterfront Park. Started by executive director Quinn Vittum 10 years ago, nonprofit Re-use diverts from O‘ahu’s landfills the materials from structures and houses: beams, planks, hardware, doors, windows, masonry and even vintage architectural detail pieces.
“We operate two businesses,” says Vittum, “one retail, the other contracting, where we do deconstruction,” taking apart houses. “We have 40 people and all these trucks and a 40,000-square-foot warehouse.” Success breeds success.
“Quinn and his CFO, Daniel Murren, were not only kind enough to share 300 square feet of their warehouse with us,” says Bruno, “but, as our fiscal sponsor, we’re under their 501(c)3. If you don’t have one, then getting grants is usually not possible.”
To pay it forward, Bruno’s hoping to partner with Re-use Hawai‘i to create an educational hub with classes in carpentry, home repairs and plumbing. As Vittum says, “To be in a green industry creating jobs is a cool thing.”
Learn more at info@hnltoollibrary.org; reusehawaii.orgPressure from both Palestinian activists and right-wing Israelis has put the spotlight on a conference that will present a new model for peace and coexistence. That is, if it ever happens in the first place.
A launch event for an alternative Israeli-Palestinian peace initiative, slated to take place next week in the West Bank, is on the receiving harsh criticism from both Palestinian activists and right-wing Israelis.
The initiative, titled “Two States, One Homeland,” was founded by veteran Israeli journalist Meron Rapoport and Palestinian political activist Awni al-Mashni. The initiative began when Rapoport and al-Mashni, who sat in an Israeli prison for 12 years and writes regularly for Palestinian media outlets, started a discussion group that included Palestinians and Israelis from both the occupied territories and Israel who were interested in talking about a new confederation-based model as a solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The founders attempted to diversify the group by including settlers, ultra-Orthodox and those who live in the periphery.
The event, which is supposed to take place at a hotel on the outskirts of Beit Jala, has come up against pressure by Palestinian activists on the hotel owners to cancel the event. The activists have announced that should it take place, they will protest the conference at the entrance to the hotel and will nonviolently attempt to prevent participants from entering.
In the wake of the pressure, both Joint List Chairman Ayman Odeh and high-ranking PLO member and former PA minister Qadura Fares backed out of the event. Meanwhile, members of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community are pressuring prominent Shas member Adina Bar-Shalom and veteran Haredi journalist Rabbi Moshe Grileck to cancel their appearances.
A document published by the Two States, One Homeland group lays out its new model: dividing the land into two states, while maintaining open borders, freedom of movement for all and recognizing that the country is the homeland of two nations. According to the initiative, a solution to the conflict would allow settlers to remain residents — but not citizens — of the new Palestinian state, while Palestinian refugees could live in Israel, but only as citizens of Palestine.
Jerusalem, on the other hand, will function as the capital of both states via a joint municipality, and the two states will cooperate on issues of security, as well as prevention of violence and terrorism. Militias from both communities will disarm, and the two states will answer to a joint-human rights court.
The initiative is described on the group’s website as a basis for reconciliation rooted in the recognition of the deep historical, religious and cultural connection that both nations have for the same land, Israel-Palestine, and that in the current reality, the two proposed solutions — two separate states or one state — lead to a dead end.
Legitimizing settlements
The conference, which was set to mark the 48th year of the Israeli occupation, is scheduled to take place at the Everest Hotel in |
my own dad, who was a bus driver, could never have afforded the lifestyle enjoyed by these purists. In my day, eating TV dinners and canned foods was good enough. Blissful ignorance? Maybe.
I might have evolved to the point where I prefer fresh (or at least frozen) produce over canned varieties, and meat from a butcher rather than a plastic tray. I have been known to avoid any packaging that has more than three polysyllabic ingredients that I cannot pronounce.
But don’t take away my Oreos.
Andrea Della Monica wrote this article for xoJane.
Read next: A Guide to What Kind of Eggs You Should Buy
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Contact us at editors@time.com.Hello all! New to this forum, but I've been on many other forums for a while. I've recently tackled some Laseractive repairs, and I haven't found a good place to share some of my findings. So here's what I've got!The problems I've seen with these units so far have been either jammed tray / laser mechanisms or faulty / damaged laser units.Fixing jammed mechanisms is usually a matter of carefully taking the unit apart and freeing / lubricating the jammed mechanisms. Sometimes parts must be replaced. Information on sourcing those parts is below.Laser issues can range from discs not reading at all or not reading properly. (bad video output, skipping etc) Fortunately, replacing a laser is a very straight forward process.A complete factory service manual for the CLD-A100 is found HERE Replacement parts can be ordered directly from Pioneer still! The part numbers can be found in the service manual above and searched for directly on Pioneer's replacement parts site.The laser pickup for the CLD-A100 is no longer available from Pioneer... however a compatible replacement IS still available.Alternately... used lasers can supposedly be found in the following Pioneer Laserdisc Players...CLD-E2000CLD-S201CLD-S250CLD-S303CLD-V111CLD-V121GCLD-V2600CLD-V350CLD-V370CLD-V730CLD-V740CLD-V750I can confirm personally that the CLD-S201 has the same laser AND the tray / laser mechanism / disc clamp are also the same! Some of other LD players may share a lot of parts with the CLD-A100 also.1. Turn unit on and eject the laserdisc tray. Turn unit off with tray open2. Remove outer housing from unit. (5 Philips screws on the back and 4 on the sides)3. Remove 4 screws holding the top PCB to the unit. (Red Arrows) and remove the 4 screws holding the disc clamp unit to the case. (Yellow Arrows)4. Carefully lay the top PCB over the side of the unit.5. Now we can easily access the laser assembly. First carefully release the ribbon cable lock tab with a screwdriver. Then pull out the ribbon cable carefully.6. Release the screw holding down the laser track rod7. Now carefully lift the laser with track rod out of the unit. Note that the rod slides out of the front carrier and also note that the other side of the laser slides along the metal frame of the laser carrier.8. Slide the track rod out of the laser mechanism and onto the new laser mechanism. Before installing however, look closely at the side of the "tilt sensor" which looks like a little black bubble. There will be a colored mark on the corner of it. It will be either RED or BLUE or Blank. Depending on which it is you must set one of the adjustment pots on the main PCB in one of 3 positions.9. Reassemble laser into unit and locate VR620 on the main PBC. If your tilt sensor was painted RED, then turn VR620 fully clockwise. Blank turn it to the middle position, and BLUE turn VR620 fully counter-clockwise.Refer here for a diagram showing where exactly the POT is and some more information on some of the adjustments.10. Reassemble the entire unit except maybe the outer shell and test! Also, while you have everything apart, its not a bad idea to inspect the various gears / mechanisms for anything that looks out of the ordinary.Typically I've seen most faulty PACs are caused by leaking / corroded SMT capacitors. I recommend replacing the capacitors on ANY Laseractive PAC you've got, simply because they are all at the age now where the capacitors are likely failing and starting to leak. Left unchecked, they can cause permanent damage to the PAC.Capacitor replacement charts can be found HERE I've seen several units now with a new problem. If you get a system that will turn on (lights turn on etc) but displays nothing, does nothing, no buttons do anything.... turn it off!!! What has likely happened is one of the IC protectors (fuses) on the power supply board has popped. This is usually caused by a shorted PAC (either from capacitor fluid leaks or a botched solder job) What will happen is either the +5v, -5v, +14v or -14v lines will be cut by the fuse popping. Typically its the +5v line though. WARNING, if your system is exhibiting this problem, please turn it off immediately. Here's why: When one of the voltage lines is cut, I've noticed that the laser head will peg to a corner (loss of tracking control circuit or something) and it will actually start to heat up and smoke. I've seen several lasers destroyed / damaged because of this! Do not leave one of these systems on for more than a few seconds if you can avoid it. Otherwise you'll likely be needing to replace the laser.Ok, on to the repair! The tricky part is that you'll have to remove the power supply board from the system. Normally its not too difficult, but since the system is basically dead, you wont be able to open the disc tray. Its not easy, but if you take the rear panel loose and fenagle the connections on the power supply board, you can get it out and then back in. Just be careful with the three ribbon like connections.Once the board is out, look on the bottom of the board (the solder side) and locate IC101, IC102, IC201, and IC202. Check continuity over those pins. If any of them are open, replace that IC protector. I believe the 5V line IC protectors are ICP-N50. They're not easy to find, but they can sometimes be salvaged from other electronic's power supply boards. There are a few suppliers online that have them. After you've replaced the faulty IC protector, your system should come back alive. Before you power it on again though, you might want to check continuity from the 5v and 14v circuits to ground. On the main board of the system (under the top board that folds over the side) there are multiple lines visible that are labelled. Most likely cause is a faulty PAC from leaked capacitors.When you are operating this PSU board on a bench, be aware that there ispresent on the board. Specifically where the ac plug connects to the board and points before the transformer. It WILL shock you (I know!) So please use caution handling a board that is powered up.If you want to test the power supply board on the bench, here's a chart showing where you can test it. In order to turn the power supply board on, you will need to jump 5V to pin 6 of the left most connector in this picture. Additionally, on the far right of the board there is a connector where the power switch plugs into, you will need to bridge that connection also.Also note in this picture, there is an extra ICP-N50 that has been wired in. This was done by Pioneer, but is not present on all units I've seen. The other black wires you see were done by me. (repaired a cracked board)That's all the information I have to offer right now. If I find more I'll update this post accordingly. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask!All this information is offered AS IS! Use at your own risk! I'm not responsible for any damage you do to your system by using this information.The world populations of fish, birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles fell overall by 52 percent between 1970 and 2010, far faster than previously thought, the World Wildlife Fund said on Tuesday.
The conservation group's "Living Planet Report," published every two years, said humankind's demands were now 50 percent more than nature can bear, with trees being felled, groundwater pumped and carbon dioxide emitted faster than Earth can recover.
“This damage is not inevitable but a consequence of the way we choose to live,” Ken Norris, Director of Science at the Zoological Society of London, said in a statement.
However, there was still hope if politicians and businesses took the right action to protect nature, the report said.
“It is essential that we seize the opportunity - while we still can - to develop sustainably and create a future where people can live and prosper in harmony with nature,” said WWF International Director General Marco Lambertini.
Preserving nature was not just about protecting wild places but also about safeguarding the future of humanity, “indeed, our very survival,” he said.
Lambertini tells VOA habitat loss and unsustainable use are the two biggest threats to biodiversity.
“This is about losing natural habitats. This is about converting forests, grasslands, and wetlands into agriculture mainly and it is about unsustainable use of wildlife. So, wildlife traffic, hunting, and unsustainable hunting practice Poaching has been actually increasing over the last 10 years and is definitely a driving force for extinction, particularly of large species. But, there are dimensions to poaching that are related to timber, illegal logging and also fisheries.”
The report's finding on the populations of vertebrate wildlife found that the biggest declines were in tropical regions, especially Latin America. The WWF's so-called “Living Planet Index” is based on trends in 10,380 populations of 3,038 mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian and fish species.
The average 52 percent decline was much bigger than previously reported, partly because earlier studies had relied more on readily available information from North America and Europe, WWF said. The same report two years ago put the decline at 28 percent between 1970 and 2008.
The worst decline was among populations of freshwater species, which fell by 76 percent over the four decades to 2010, while marine and terrestrial numbers both fell by 39 percent.
“Ecological Footprint”
The main reasons for declining populations were the loss of natural habitats, exploitation through hunting or fishing, and climate change.
To gage the variations between different countries' environmental impact, the report measured how big an “ecological footprint” each one had and how much productive land and water area, or “biocapacity”, each country accounted for.
Kuwaitis had the biggest ecological footprint, meaning they consume and waste more resources per head than any other nation, the report said, followed by Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
“If all people on the planet had the footprint of the average resident of Qatar, we would need 4.8 planets. If we lived the lifestyle of a typical resident of the USA, we would need 3.9 planets,” the report said.
Many poorer countries - including India, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo - had an ecological footprint that was well within the planet's ability to absorb their demands.
The report also measured how close the planet is to nine so-called “planetary boundaries”, thresholds of “potentially catastrophic changes to life as we know it”.
Three such thresholds have already been crossed - biodiversity, carbon dioxide levels and nitrogen pollution from fertilizers. Two more were in danger of being breached - ocean acidification and phosphorus levels in freshwater.
“Given the pace and scale of change, we can no longer exclude the possibility of reaching critical tipping points that could abruptly and irreversibly change living conditions on Earth,” the report said.
WWF's Lambertini says the report highlights the importance of carbon footprint, which leads to climate change. He says it is not yet a major driver for biodiversity loss. But, he warns climate change affects almost the whole global population and it is projected to be the major force behind what could be a massive extinction wave of biodiversity if the world does not change direction.
(Lisa Schlein contributed to this report.)Navigating the world by bike and foot just got easier through Transit, the super-intelligent mobile app built for smartphones and tablets. Transit also bundled additional functionality improvements that consolidate trunk-line transit services with differing branches into one card and stop patterns for certain train lines for its Version 4.2 release. Transit made the release public on Tuesday, its first major update of 2017.
Comparing trip options on Transit has gotten a big improvement with walking and biking as standard alternatives in the Trip Planner mode. App users can simply choose their destination and route a trip to that point. The biking and walking options will appear as standard choices that may be better than transit, a taxi ride (still limited to Uber), or renting a free-floating car (e.g., car2go).
Consider this trip from Swedish Medical Center on First Hill to Downtown Seattle. The almost-nine-o’clock-in-the-evening trip would have been fairly non-competitive waiting for transit versus simply walking or biking. Transit estimated that biking would have taken a short nine minutes while walking would have been about twice that–both getting to the destination sooner than Routes 12 and 2. Biking would have even beaten a ride on Uber.
For cities that have bikeshare programs, Transit also will highlight bikeshare trips as an option in Trip Planner. Bikeshare is specifically distinguished from biking in the Trip Planner, taking in account the table to walk to and from a bikeshare station as part of the trip. Trip Planner is also smart enough to know whether or not a bike is available at a station and if a docking station has space for bike drop-off.
Consider a bike trip in Vancouver from the West End to George Wainborn Park in Yaletown. Transit shows the time it would take to bike between the two areas. A regular bike ride would take seven minutes compared to 10 minutes with a Mobi bike (Vancouver’s local bikeshare system). As the image below shows, the Mobi bike trip specifically includes the amount of time it would take to walk to pick up the bike in generating the overall trip time. App users can also manipulate the station pairs in the Trip Details mode by tapping on individual bikeshare pins on the map. Estimated time in the Trip Detail mode will automatically update for the trip pair.
The bikeshare option in Trip Planner is available anywhere that Transit has bikeshare data integrated into the app. In select cities like Toronto and Montreal, Transit app users can even request access to docked bikes through the app.
Many transit services like the London Underground, Bay Area Caltrain, Paris RER, and Boston’s T have trunk lines that branch off. These are services that largely share common corridors but split toward the ends of the lines. As a result, the lines often have the same name and branding with the only difference being that of the destination. Transit is making it easier to identify these lines when they share common stops. Cards in the Nearby mode will be consolidated to one showing their next arrival by branch (destination). Users can tap on individual branches to get more specific information or reverse the intended destination of the branches lines like any other Nearby mode card.
The branch line card consolidation is so far a limited feature. Only a few regions will appear with the simplified cards for now, but Transit plans to expand it more widely in the future.
Finally, the update included a new feature stop pattern feature was added for train lines that multiple stop patterns that may skip a stop. One example is the Long Beach line that is operated by Long Island Railroad in New York City. App users can find out next departures and type in their destination to confirm that the train will indeed stop there. The option filters out other next departures that would not make the intended stop. To navigate to the feature, app user must select a train service from the Nearby mode and tap the clock icon. Doing so will provide a list of next departures and an interactive “to” field will appear above the list of next departures. App users can tap the field next to the “to” activate a list of next stations to select the intended destination. Upon selecting a destination, the list of next departures will automatically filter the available options.
The feature, however, is limited to some but not all regions. Like the branch line card feature, Transit will expand the feature more widely in future updates.
We hope you loved this article. If so, please consider supporting our work. The Urbanist is a non-profit that depends on donations from readers like you.After the twists and turns of the Clanche build I inadvertently took a break during my next build the Master Grade GAT-X105 Buster Gundam. I started it while I was waiting for the Clanche’s water to dry but a few things including a heat wave stalled the build until now. But with the build back on track I ended up noticing a few pluses and minuses with the way they designed it.
The Buster basically uses the GAT-X100 frame that all the new SEED kits use except for the Aegis. This frame is really solid and sturdy, has some great articulation, and has a good amount of detail. The problem is though because this frame is supposed to be used for 4 different models it lacks a few things that a specific frame made for this specific model would have. For instance even though it has great articulation the Buster’s armor wasn’t necessarily made to accommodate this for example in the forearms if you try to bend the elbow to its max bend the armor will just pop off. Another issue is the lack of armor separation and detail. Since this frame has specific slots used for multiple armor sets the armor placed on it has to have somewhat simple connection points, because of this armor that should be separated into multiple pieces gets clumped together as one large piece for example the forearms again. This also results in pieces having somewhat awkward connection points that can be overly stiff, this happened to me with the backpack and caused a break.
This frame really gives me mixed feelings it’s works great as a functional default frame but once you build one it makes you feel like you have built them all kinda ending any desire for me to get any of the other new SEED master grades.MONTREAL — The Montreal Canadiens had only one way to lose to the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday, and sure enough, they delivered.
It sure feels like Murphy’s law when it comes to this team; anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
The Canadiens ritually outplayed their opponents through the first 10 games of the season and got off to their worst start in 76 years. Goaltender Carey Price, fresh off signing an $84-million extension, put up the worst numbers of any starter in the league before he went down with a mysterious lower-body injury that has already kept him out of action for two weeks and threatens to keep him out (possibly much) longer.
And on Thursday, with a chance to get back to.500 for a third time this season, they became the first team to lose in regulation to the 31st-placed Coyotes. The final score was 5-4.
“We only have ourselves to blame for it,” said Brendan Gallagher, who scored his eighth goal of the season to give the Canadiens a 1-0 lead at the 10:48 mark of the first period.
Canadiens forward Paul Byron scored three minutes and eight seconds later, completing a beautiful passing play that started with Jonathan Drouin exiting Montreal’s zone and ended when Galchenyuk hit Byron’s tape with a saucer pass that skipped over two Coyotes sticks.
They were goals born of smart transition hockey — the kind Canadiens coach Claude Julien longs for. The Canadiens played it to perfection through the first 20 minutes, smothering every Coyotes rush through the neutral zone, countering with multiple chances on the 12 shots they generated in the opening stanza.
And then the second period started with a bang. Nicolas Deslauriers, playing in his first game with the Canadiens, took an easy decision in a fight with Arizona’s Zac Rinaldo in the third minute of the frame. He roared his way to the penalty box, pumping his arms in the air on the way there.
It was the last sequence of the hockey game that made you feel like the Canadiens wouldn’t be beaten in any department of this game.
“We got sloppy after that fight,” said Gallagher. And Julien. And Canadiens defenceman Shea Weber, who scored with 10.1 seconds left in the second period to give his team their third — and final — lead of the night.
“We didn’t respect our game plan,” said Julien. “I’m not saying we didn’t respect the opponent, but we didn’t respect our game plan because we thought it was going to be easy. For two days we talked about this.
“Unacceptable, embarrassing — that’s what we were tonight.”
Who would argue with that? Not that the Coyotes don’t deserve credit.
They came to Montreal with the entire hockey world wondering how it was possible they could play 20 games without recording a single win in regulation time.
They fought off a 2-0 lead, they fought back from down 3-2 and 4-3, and they buried their chances on the power play — striking twice and adding another only one second after Weber’s second-period penalty had expired.
Give the Coyotes their due. They took advantage of every break the Montreal side gave them and found a way to create a few of their own, too.
But it is absolutely perplexing that the Canadiens — who had managed to claw their way back to within an inch of respectability in the standings, winning seven of their last 11 games and collecting a point for an overtime loss in one of them to get to within two points of a playoff spot — could be so careless.
“It’s disappointing,” said Gallagher. “Foot off the gas pedal. It doesn’t matter who you’re playing, [in the] NHL if you’re not playing the way that the Montreal Canadiens need to play in order to win hockey games, we’re not going to have success.
“That’s a lesson we’ve had to learn too many times already this year.”
Maybe it will sink in this time around, but the cost seems considerable.
The Canadiens started the week with a chance to put the hammer down in the second leg of their six-game homestand. They played well enough to win a 2-1 game against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday and came out on the losing end in overtime. They pulled a gimme putt about two feet left against the Coyotes on Thursday. And the Toronto Maple Leafs, who snapped a 14-game losing streak against the Canadiens last time they visited Montreal, come to town Saturday riding a five-game win streak.
Auston Matthews, who was the man largely responsible for Toronto’s last win in Montreal, is likely to suit up for Saturday’s game. If he does, it will be his first since suffering an upper-body injury against the Vegas Golden Knights on Nov. 6.
What are the chances that will go right for the Canadiens?Here’s an article I came across in the London Times, 1939, regarding the inherent beauty of the beard as a subject for photography.
Coincidentally (or not?), 1939 is the same year of LIFE Magazine’s epic double-page photo-spread exalting every type of beard! What a year to be alive!
Full transcript of the article below.
Beauty and the Beard
That there are fashions in faces a visit to any portrait gallery will prove; but nobody has ever discovered whether it is the artists or the sitters who decide what the fashion is to be. Does a certain era breed a certain cast of countenance, which the portrait painter of the day faithfully sets down on canvas? Or does the portrait painter himself, fortuitously infatuated with one particular kind of face, pour all his sitters into the same mould? It is one of those questions which will never be decisively settled, but which can always be counted upon to provide a pleasant half-hour’s discussion.
And now the centenary of the invention of photography has provided material for an even more interesting debate. By what lucky chance, or by what prankish benevolence of the gods, did the early photographers happen to find themselves living in the heyday of the beard? The importance of this coincidence can hardly be exaggerated. It is not too much to claim that, without beards, photography would not have caught on the way it did. Every amateur photographer knows that there are five subjects of which it is almost impossible to take an unsuccessful picture. They are, in the other sense of the word, sitters. The first is a kitten; the second is a tree; the third is a cumulus cloud; the fourth is a snow scene; the fifth is a bearded man. Nor is the appeal of the last dependent upon its presend-day scarcity value; there has always been something inherently photographable about a beard. A really good one, indeed, combines all the advantages of the other four subjects. It has the engaging softness of a kitten, the mysterious complexity of a tree, the noble curves of a cloud, the dazzling whiteness of snow (for of course all the best beards are white ones); and in addition to these it has a majestic quality that is all its own.
Moreover it conceals the mouth; and every photographer, whether amateur or professional, knows that mouths are the devil. People know very little, but imagine a great deal, about the shape of their own mouths; and many a sitter expresses dissatisfaction at the whole portrait simply because he has been shown for the first time how mean and querulous are the lips which he fondly believed to be benevolent and firm. Small wonder, then, that the early photographers should have managed to produce such strikingly good portraits, or that the distinguished Victorians who sat for them should have welcomed the new art with open arms. In no other medium could their beards have been so magnificently immortalized.Organisers hope to gather eight tonnes of metal to create the two tonnes of gold, silver and bronze required for medals
Olympic and Paralympic medals for the Tokyo 2020 Games will be made from recycled mobile phones.
The Japanese public will be asked to donate old phones and small appliances to gather two tonnes of gold, silver and bronze for the 5,000 medals.
The project hopes to promote sustainability and reduce costs.
"A project that allows the people of Japan to take part in creating the medals is really good," said Tokyo 2020 sports director Koji Murofushi.
"There's a limit on the resources of our earth, so recycling these things will make us think about the environment."
Collection boxes will be placed in local offices and telecoms stores from April and will remain there until the metal required has been collected.
Members of Japan's Olympic organising committee tabled the idea to government officials and companies in 2016.
Olympic host cities have traditionally obtained the metal from mining firms.
But Japan, which lacks its own mineral resources, is keen to take the theme of a sustainable future a step further.
How does e-waste recycling work?
Discarded consumer electronics such as smartphones and tablets contain small amounts of precious and rare earth metals, including platinum, palladium, gold, silver, lithium, cobalt and nickel.
Scrap cars and home appliances such as fridges and air conditioners also contain these rarer metals, along with base metals, including iron, copper, lead and zinc.
Recycling or refining companies either collect or purchase tons of this e-waste and industrial scraps. They then use chemical processes to separate the various metals.
Much of this work takes place in developing countries such as China, India and Indonesia.Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme added to National Heritage List
Posted
The Snowy Mountains Scheme in far south-eastern New South Wales will be formally declared a National Heritage Place as part of a public event in Cooma today.
The scheme will become the 107th place on the list, joining icons like the Sydney Opera House, Bondi Beach and the Great Barrier Reef.
The listed area includes 15 major dams, nine power stations and a pumping station, covering a mountainous area of 4,600 square kilometres.
Though listing will not restrict operations, with the scheme currently supplying more than 30 per cent of all renewable energy to the mainland electricity grid.
Former worker Margret Dowd left Germany as a young teen, after her father was recruited to work on the scheme.
"We are all so proud and when I heard that I was blown away," she said.
"We came so far, and not just us, there were Norwegians, Swedish and Italians too.
"We all came to Cooma and we are very, very proud that were were part of the scheme."
A melting pot in the mountains
An estimated 100,000 workers were employed during the 25 years of construction of the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme between 1949 and 1974.
The majority were migrants from more than 30 nations, creating a cultural melting pot across the New South Wales Alps.
"People that came from war-torn countries were able to identify with building this nation by being given productive work," 77-year-old retiree Wally Burton Mills, who still lives in Cooma, said.
Mr Mills said he was recruited to work in the Cooma Snowy Hydro office as an electrical engineer in May 1959.
"It was at the forefront of world development to apply such high voltage equipment to make it economical to transfer huge volumes of electrical energy over hundreds of kilometres," he said.
Ms Dowd said she still remembers what the area was like when her family first arrived.
"When I was 14 we came to Australia and went to Adaminaby and my experience there was like I was coming to a wild west town," she said.
"The (horse) hitching rails were on the side of the road and we would walk on board walks."
Ms Dowd later began working on the scheme in 1955 as an administrative assistant.
Snowy Hydro Upper Tumut area manager Kent Allen said it was easy to see why the scheme was built in the high country.
"We see snow in most months of the year," he said.
The scheme collects, stores and diverts water in the Snowy Mountains through 16 major dams, seven power stations (two of which are underground), and 225 kilometres of tunnels, pipelines and aqueducts.
It also diverts thousands of mega litres of water west for irrigated agriculture worth more than $3 billion.
"It is the largest hydro electric scheme in Australia, that is still the case," Mr Allen said.
"They weren't just built as power stations, actually they are a thing of beauty."
Lower Snowy River badly neglected: conservationists
But conservationists said there was still unfinished business, describing progress to restore the degraded lower Snowy River with environmental flows as "woeful".
"We can't overlook the terrible downstream impacts," Jonathan La Nauze, from the Australian Conservation Foundation, said.
"The Snowy River these days is surviving on about 11 per cent of the water it used to have. Imagine if you had 90 per cent of your blood flow taken out.
"That's what the poor Snowy has to survive on."
But the Australian Conservation Foundation also said the project's important human and historical significance was in no doubt.
"We are a mature nation and we can recognise the good things that have come from the Snowy Scheme without losing sight of the work we still have to do to address the negative impact it has had on the environment in downstream communities," Mr La Nauze said.
Topics: history, hydro-energy, environment, alternative-energy, community-and-society, jindabyne-2627, nsw, bega-2550, australia, canberra-2600, actThis past June, Uber struck a deal with Microsoft to acquire some of Bing's mapping tech and staff. But back then neither company was willing to disclose specific details about the agreement, with both only going as far as acknowledging it had actually happened. Now, BuzzFeed News reports that the ridesharing service has started deploying its own mapping vehicles, which are said to be the same ones Microsoft previously owned and used in its efforts to capture street data. Uber's rebranded cars (pictured above) are similar to Google's StreetView fleet, featuring a 3D spherical camera capable of snapping locations around it. An Uber spokesperson told BuzzFeed News the company's hoping the image-capturing tech will help it improve in key areas for drivers and passengers, including better route information and more accurate estimated time of arrivals.The row over Tony Abbott’s controversial paid parental leave scheme has widened with prominent Liberal moderate Mal Washer calling on the opposition leader and shadow treasurer to explain to the party room “why they are still welded onto this concept”.
NSW Liberal backbencher Alex Hawke has aired broad private concerns within the Coalition saying the plan, “at a potential cost of $4.3 billion”, would be “an unjustifiable impost on business” and was “ill-suited to an economically Liberal agenda”.
Washer, from Western Australia, told The Conversation that Abbott, Joe Hockey and finance spokesman Andrew Robb should tell colleagues why they believed the scheme was such a good idea and would assist productivity.
“The Labor party scheme is quite good,” Washer said. “I don’t see why it is necessary to go to this level and how it will assist productivity.” It would be a burden on business, he said.
The Hawke attack was made in an article for the journal of the free market think-tank, the Institute of Public Affairs and was publicised as Hockey was preparing to address the IPA. Hockey strongly defended the plan.
The scheme would give women six months leave on full pay up to a maximum of $75,000. It is capped at an annual salary of $150,000. The plan would be financed by a levy on the nation’s top more than 3000 companies.
The opposition points out that women aged 18 to 49 who earn more than $100,000 represent only around 1.5% of all people with taxable incomes, and that the levy would apply to fewer than one in 200 businesses in Australia.
Abbott, who has made the generous scheme a signature policy despite the doubts in his own ranks, dismissed the Hawke criticisms. He said Hawke was one backbencher, who was entitled to his views.
Abbott said the policy was “a very important sign that we get it when it comes to the modern family”.
“The modern family invariably needs more than just one income. If we want to encourage families to have kids, if we want to make it easier for women to have careers and families, we need something like a proper paid parental leave scheme,” he said.
“I think this is a sign that we are prepared to move with the times and I’m totally committed to it and so is the party.”
Abbott said the scheme would be fully funded and was an economic reform. “We can’t really afford to lose so many highly capable women in the prime of life from the workforce,” he said.
“This is not just a family policy or a social policy. It’s not just something for women. This is something for everyone.”
But Hawke told the ABC this policy was “not as signature policy of the Coalition”. It had “crept into our policy”.
“I think it’s a very good time to be revisited in light of Labor announcing ongoing revenue write downs,” Hawke said.
“I have canvassed broadly amongst people in the community and I tend to find the feedback from business groups, from women in the community and from colleagues is that now would be a very good time to revisit this policy with a view to scrapping it before the next election so we can go to the election without this albatross around the neck of the party.”
Frontbencher Christopher Pyne said the paid parental leave scheme “will be one of the most important employment and wages policies of the beginning of this century, because we are treating paid parental leave as a workplace entitlement, not a welfare entitlement”.
Meanwhile, the latest Essential poll has found 55% of voters believe the government should cut spending to reduce the national debt, while only 13% think it should raise taxes to do so. It also found Hockey marginally more trusted to handle the economy than Treasurer Wayne Swan - 35% to 32%.
Labor trails the Coalition 44% to 56% on a two-party basis.Apple today confirmed weeks of rumors by announcing that it’s acquiring Beats Electronics in a deal worth $3 billion.
The purchase means Apple will now be able to expand its hardware business into premium headphones. It also gives Apple an on-demand streaming music service via Beats Music, which the company has previously been hesitant to do for fear that it would cannibalize digital download sales on iTunes.
The deal itself includes a purchase price of approximately $2.6 billion in cash and approximately $400 million in stock that will vest over time for both Beats Electronics and its Beats Music streaming music service. That’s a tad lower than what sources originally reported ($3.2 billion), but it’s still quite a bit of money. (Also the amount hardly puts a dent in Apple’s mountain of cash — nearly $160 billion, according to the company’s last SEC filing.)
“Music is such an important part of all of our lives and holds a special place within our hearts at Apple,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook in a statement about the deal. “That’s why we have kept investing in music and are bringing together these extraordinary teams so we can continue to create the most innovative music products and services in the world.”
As part of the deal, Beats CEO Jimmy Iovine and iconic rapper and Beats cofounder Dr. Dre will join Apple. This is something that bystanders speculated about in the days after news of the acquisition leaked, with Iovine said to be Apple’s choice to take over its digital media business. Apple, however, did not disclose in the release what roles Iovine and Dre will assume at the company.
“I’ve always known in my heart that Beats belonged with Apple,” said Iovine in a statement. “The idea when we started the company was inspired by Apple’s unmatched ability to marry culture and technology. Apple’s deep commitment to music fans, artists, songwriters and the music industry is something special.”
Apple said it expects the acquisition deal to close in the fiscal fourth quarter, provided that everything passes regulatory approval.
Related: Beats by Apple: Why a deal makes sense — and what it says about today’s Apple
Many people expected Apple to announce the Beats acquisition during the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference next month, but it looks like Apple didn’t want to overshadow any other announcements the company may have planned. And while Apple didn’t mention anything about WWDC, I’d be shocked if the company didn’t expand on its plans for Beats at the event.By Svetlana Burmistrova and Natalia Zinets
MOSCOW/KIEV (Reuters) - Russia raised the gas price for Ukraine |
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After the explanation for the SEC's BCS-era dominance became distilled into a matter of local talent, Franklin was the Big Ten coach with the fullest response. The advantage of satellite camps isn't brand exposure, since modern programs recruit nationally as a means of survival. It's early evaluation and contact with high school underclassmen, athletes less likely to attend a camp in Pennsylvania.
"We've been lucky that a lot of the players we wanted fell within our footprint. But we'll go wherever we need to find the players that fit our criteria," defensive coordinator Bob Shoop says. "Some of these guys in the '16 class we're talking to right now, we've had relationships with for almost three years. It's unreal how early the relationships begin now."
If you look at the success Penn State was having and when things changed, that’s the difference. national recruiting wasn’t happening. -James Franklin
"You can characterize it however you want. But I’m going to say we’re going to be really aggressive in recruiting, because to me that’s as important as part as everything else," Franklin says. "When you study the history of when Penn State was dominant, they got great players out of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia, but they got players out of South Carolina. South Carolina was a really good state to Penn State for a long time. Florida was a good state. New York, all of New England.
"To be honest, I don’t know if we’re doing it a whole lot different than then. But it hasn’t happened here in a long time. If you look at the success Penn State was having and when things started to change, that’s the biggest difference. That national recruiting wasn’t happening consistently."
The investment in national (and Southern) exposure is still the long game. Aside from carrying a group of former Vanderbilt commitments to State College, the roster is local. The six current 2016 commitments all fall within the conference footprint, indicative of the construction model: first win Pennsylvania, then battle in Michigan and Ohio and get fierce across the new borders, the home of Maryland and Rutgers.
Franklin's first two recruiting classes made the 247Sports Composite's top 25, which Penn State hadn't done since 2010.
"I love when coaches bring recruits in, because [current players] are the best recruiters," says senior defensive end Evan Schwan. "We live the lifestyle. And we can be honest with them, that it's going to be difficult. But with these coaches, it's going to be the greatest experience of your life."
As a product of nearby Harrisburg, Schwan says he dreamed his entire life of playing for PSU and never wavered through the Joe Paterno twilight. He's ideal for proselytizing Franklin's mission to that second recruiting base, the stands.
At the Blue-White Game, a fan base defined by its idolatry seems to have found peace with the future.
"I love Franklin. I hope he's here for a long time. And I think he will be, because he's from the state and he genuinely loves Pennsylvania," says a 29-year-old fan named Steve.
Steve's wearing a navy FRANKLION T-shirt. Penn State's apparel has always reflected the reverence for the man in charge. There are still fans wandering around in blue shirts that read BILL, as in transition head coach O'Brien, but there are more homages to Franklin than even Paterno. Sure, the statue is gone, but so is the space where the statue once was, replaced by landscaping.
"I think he's getting time from the fans," says Steve. "They know he wants to come in and run a SEC offense and a SEC program. I think people are pretty excited about that. They want to be excited, I know."
"We’re going to do whatever we have to do, wherever it is, to find the players we need," Franklin says. "I’m studying what’s in the best interest of Penn State. And I spend a lot of time studying best practices, what other people are doing around the country. And I always get upset and a little bit angry when someone does something before we do. I want us to be on the cutting edge."Traditional food industry lobbying groups in Washington have for years been dubbed ”The DC Barnyard,” but a fresh face is about to bring a new flavor of foodie influence to the US capital.
The Good Food Institute represents the interests of the clean (think burgers made without slaughtering cows) and plant-based food industries, many of which are working on the cutting edge of food technology. Its mission, it says, is to help sustainably feed the more than 9 billion people who will live on the planet in 2050.
In 2015, agribusiness spent more than $132 million to get its special interests on the desks of lawmakers. That list includes money coming from the largest global food manufacturers, commodity associations and advocacy organizations. GFI is a small fish in a big pond for now, but if food technology growth winds up mirroring other tech sectors—fueled by the growing interest in sustainable, animal friendly products—the so-called “clean food” industry may one day be a power player.
GFI—which hopes to operate initially on a budget of $1.6 million—has already set out to address a policy scuffle over the term ”soy milk,” after a battle between Hampton Creek and the US Food and Drug Administration over the legality of selling eggless mayonnaise as “mayo.” It hopes to build a case against the FDA that would officially allow soy milk companies to describe their product as a type of ”milk,” which is currently illegal (though some companies get away with it, much to the chagrin of the dairy industry).
“We will be doing a lot of work at both the statutory and regulatory level,” said GFI director Bruce Friedrich. “Progressives want to see the standards of identity updated so they allow for healthier foods as long as there’s no customer confusion.”
Friedrich says GFI, which is registered as a charity and doesn’t directly represent individual companies, has already commanded the attention of New Jersey Democratic senator Cory Booker and Utah Republican senator Mike Lee about the problem. The lobbying group has also won the general support and advice of venture capitalists, policy experts at the Humane Society of the United States, a vice president at the Smarties Candy Company, and the top chef at Whole Foods Market. In recent weeks, it has hired Valparaiso University law professor Nicole Negowetti as its policy director, two senior scientists, and a communications manager.If you are flying one of these 15 airlines in the next 8 months, officials are advising you to arrive at Orlando International Airport at least 3 hours early for the next eight months. The airlines affected are:
Aer Lingus
AeroMexico
Air Berlin
Air Transit
Avianca
Azul
Copa
Eastern
Frontier
Icelandair
JetBlue
Miami Air
Norwegian
Sunwing
WestJet
The advisory has been issued due to construction on the tram that services gates 1 to 29. These gates will only be serviced by one tram during the eight month period.
JetBlue has released this statement about the situation: “We recommend arriving at the airport three hours prior to your flight departure, and please be sure to check the status of your flight online or via the JetBlue app prior to arriving at the airport.”
We have not heard from Disney how this will effect guests using the Magical Express. The Magical Express typically picks up guests from their resort around three hours prior to their scheduled departure date. With this change, guests will now need to be picked up around four hours prior to departure.
Let’s start planning your next visit to a Disney Destination! CLICK HERE or send an email for a FREE, no obligation quote with an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner. I offer rate monitoring to ensure you are receiving the best available rate offered by Disney and my services are 100% FREE!
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As an agent with MickeyTravels, I’ll be on hand to help you with everything from finding your perfect package to nabbing those hard-to-get dining and FastPass reservations. I work with all Disney Destinations. Best of all, my services are absolutely FREE. Get in touch at 1.954.401.9577, via email at MickeyTravelsHolly@gmail.com, or follow along on Facebook.CLOSE Free Press sports writers Dave Birkett and Shawn Windsor break down the Lions' Monday Night Football win over the Giants on Monday, Sept. 18, 2017, in East Rutherford, N.J.
Lions LB Jarrad Davis sacks Giants QB Eli Manning in the first half of the Lions' 24-10 win on Monday, Sept. 18, 2017, in East Rutherford, N.J. (Photo: Al Bello, Getty Images)
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – The biggest challenges are still to come.
Matt Ryan and the defending NFC champion Atlanta Falcons next week. Cam Newton and the undefeated Carolina Panthers next month. And Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers further down the road. Twice.
But two games into the season, against two teams many figured would be playoff contenders heading into the year, the Detroit Lions look an awful lot like they have one of the best defenses in the NFL.
More Lions:
Detroit Lions rookie Jamal Agnew still earning his stripes after big punt-return TD
Detroit Lions stock watch: Ziggy Ansah is back, Greg Robinson struggles
They're harassing opposing quarterbacks (they had five sacks Monday). They're forcing turnovers at an astounding rate (five through two games). And maybe most importantly, they believe they're every bit as good as their stats suggest.
"Oh yeah, it’s for real," cornerback Darius Slay said after the Lions thumped the New York Giants, 24-10, on Monday night. "We’re for real. We ain’t no fake, we’re for real."
The Lions are 2-0 for the first time since 2011, and their defense is starting to resemble the 2014 cast that earned them 11 wins and an unexpected wildcard berth.
They sacked Eli Manning five times and intercepted him once on Monday, and they held the struggling Giants to just one field goal in the game's final 44 minutes.
Ziggy Ansah had three sacks, one more than he had all of last year, and the Lions got timely contributions on offense and special teams in a decisive victory on the NFL's biggest stage.
"Almost in every phase we got a huge contribution," Lions coach Jim Caldwell said. "I just think all across the board the guys played tough and played well against a team that's very, very difficult to beat anywhere, home or away."
The Giants, a wildcard team last season, are in no way an offensive juggernaut, and last week's opponent, the Arizona Cardinals, might be even worse.
But the Lions did what good teams are supposed to do Monday when they stifled the Giants at every turn.
"They made a huge statement," Lions wide receiver Marvin Jones said. "They made like, we’re-the-No.-1-defense-in-the-league statement. And it’s fun to watch. You rarely see anybody sitting down on the sideline when the defense is up just because they’ve been playing so lights out. They’ve been helping us a lot and today it was a team win but you have to give it up to those guys."
More Lions:
What people are saying about Detroit Lions' road win over New York Giants
Three questions: Detroit Lions win over New York Giants not impressive
Detroit Lions rookie LB Jarrad Davis suffers concussion at Giants
Playing against a Giants team that lost right tackle Bobby Hart to injury in the first quarter and used top wide receiver Odell Beckham sporadically in his return from an ankle injury, the Lions opened up a 10-point first-half lead thanks to big plays by their defense and put the game away with a late touchdown by their special teams.
Matthew Stafford took advantage of favorable field position to throw two first-half touchdowns to Marvin Jones and Eric Ebron, the second coming five plays after a Tahir Whitehead interception.
Matt Prater banked a 56-yard field goal in off the upright just before halftime to give the Lions a 17-7 lead, and after the Lions forced a Giants field goal with a red-zone stand (aided by a holding penalty on first-and-goal at the 1), Jamal Agnew delivered the game's knock out punch.
Agnew fielded a Brad Wing punt at his own 12-yard line, sidestepped the first Giants defender down in coverage then split two more as he raced down the sideline.
The rookie spun off a would-be tackler around the 28-yard line, and sidestepped Wing a few yards later for a clear path to the end zone.
CLOSE We take a look at the five biggest plays from the Lions' 24-10 win over the Giants on Monday, Sept. 18, 2017. Video by Marlowe Alter, Detroit Free Press. Wochit
"That was the biggest turning point in the game in my opinion," guard T.J. Lang said. "It kind of deflated them a little bit, so yeah, hell of a job."
The Giants drove into Lions territory on their next two possessions, but were stopped on fourth down both times.
Quandre Diggs tackled Shane Vareen inches short of a first down just beyond midfield with 10 minutes left in the game, and Beckham dropped a fourth-down pass the next time the Giants had the ball.
More Lions:
Now 2-0, is it time to start believing in the Detroit Lions?
Three questions: Detroit Lions win over New York Giants not impressive
Beckham, who sat out the Giants' season-opening loss to the Dallas Cowboys last week, played only about a quarter of the game and finished with four catches for 36 yards.
Stafford completed 15 of 21 passes for just 122 yards, his lowest total since Week 1 of the 2010 season, when he suffered a shoulder injury against the Chicago Bears. But the Lions complemented their strong defensive effort with 138 yards rushing, including a career-high 86 yards by Ameer Abdullah.
"We know what kind of football team we have and we obviously know that we have to earn that, earn that right for people to call us a good football team," Lang said. "I think we got a hell of a team that really blocks out all the noise from the outside. I know it’s been a team traditionally in the past that things haven’t been very great, but we don’t talk about that. We talk about the football team we have right now and obviously we've got a lot of good things going for us two weeks in."
Contact Dave Birkett: dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett. Download our Lions Xtra app for free on Apple and Android!The Fireman
Joe Hill. Morrow, $28.99 (608p) ISBN 978-0-06-220063-1
More By and About This Author
In Hill's superb supernatural thriller, the world is falling apart in a maelstrom of flame and fury. A spore dubbed Dragonscale infects people, draws patterns on their skin, and eventually makes them spontaneously combust—and it's rapidly spreading. School nurse Harper Grayson volunteers at a local hospital in Concord, N.H., until it burns down. Soon she discovers that not only is she infected but she's also pregnant. As the beautiful filigreed markings of Dragonscale start to flourish on her body, she vows to do anything to bring her baby safely into the world. Her husband, Jakob, doesn't want the baby and attacks Harper when he realizes she wants to keep it. Harper flees and encounters John Rookwood, a near-mythical figure known as the Fireman. He takes her to Camp Wyndham, where the infected have learned to control and harness what they call the Bright—the flames that smolder just beneath their skin. Harper finds purpose there, but Jakob has found a purpose too: he's joined the Cremation Crews, brutal marauders who kill the infected on sight. When the peace of the camp is threatened, Harper, John, and their friends band together. The good-hearted Harper is a captivating heroine, the peaceful eye in a storm of evil that threatens to harm everyone she holds dear, and it's impossible not to root for her. Hill has followed 2013's NOS4A2 with a tremendous, heartrending epic of bravery and love set in a fully realized and terrifying apocalyptic world, where hope lies in the simplest of gestures and the fullest of hearts. (May)The Tuolumne County Board of Supervisors met in Sonora on Tuesday to hear a proposal by the District Attorney and Sheriff’s office to ban outdoor cultivation of medical cannabis and to effectively zone dispensaries out of existence. The room was filled mostly with the authors and enforcers of the proposed ordinance who faithfully dragged reefer madness memes out of their intellectually bankrupt arsenal of prohibitionist arguments to appeal to the emotions of an admittedly ignorant Board of Supervisors.
The Live Oak ban on cultivation seems to be serving as the all-clear signal for tyrannical municipalities across the state to push for similar bans before the appeal restores the voters’ will. The DA made no qualms about his desire to ban medical cannabis cultivation “de facto” through excessive zoning regulations. This seems to be the last grasp at a legal loophole for municipalities that know they are flagrantly violating the voters’ will. They are depending on the public to remain uninvolved in the democratic process so they may carry on without them while imposing “de facto” prohibition.
Thankfully a handful of patients and caregivers were in attendance to carry out the noble task of educating the Board of Supervisors about cannabis and California law. Sara Herrin RN, BSN was there to represent patients she once provided for through Today’s Healing Collective. The collective was raided in May 2011, but all charges were dropped after a two year trial. She stressed the importance of compassion and safe access for marginalized patients who lack the health and resources to cultivate their own medicine. The proposed ordinance would limit cultivation to 32 square feet indoors, while leaving the Sheriff’s department to enforce what is being floated as a “zoning” ordinance banning all outdoor cultivation and collectives.
One popular (and apparently effective) tactic used by the DA was the “marijuana causes crime” appeal to fear. Tom Liberty of Collective Patient Resources revealed the fallacy in this argument by quoting SFPD Officer Danielle Newman on the spike in violent crime as it relates to smart phones; “Over 50 percent of daily robberies have to do with smart phones and up to 67 percent of robberies include mobile devices of any sort.” If violent robberies positively correlate with the presence of mobile devices, we should just ban smart phones right?
As history has taught us however, prohibitions in general tend to backfire by unsuccessfully legislating “morality” then handing whole segments of the economy over to organized crime syndicates and their counterparts in government; law enforcement. What is fundamentally a human rights and natural rights issue continues to be framed by law enforcement as (Surprise!) a criminal justice issue. The ordinance will be reviewed by the planning commission and brought before the public for discussion in January. Please take a minute to contact the planning commission and encourage them to uphold the voters’ will.
This is what a failing prohibition looks like. Legalization is right around the corner, and law enforcement is frantically clamping down in hopes that asset forfeitures and federal subsidies will continue to fill their war chest. Educating elected officials locally is the most effective way to alleviate the devastation caused by prohibition. Send your local representative(s) a copy of ASA’s report“What’s the Cost?”to inform them of this trillion-dollar failure.
Page TagsAs Microsoft continues to transition and transform under the leadership of Satya Nadella, its annual BUILD developers conference is the best barometer for what direction they're taking. Windows 10 is on a biannual update cycle, and we now have the first details of the fall update. Microsoft is also introduced their own VR motion controllers, and talked a lot about cloud computing.
Windows Mixed Reality
Some of the biggest news to come out of BUILD was the announcement of Microsoft's own Motion Controllers for their Mixed Reality platform.
Similar to the Vive wands and Oculus Touch, the controllers feature a touchpad, thumbsticks, a grip button, a trigger, a menu button and a Windows button. The controllers are tracked through the ring of white LEDs at the top. Unlike Oculus and Valve's solution for tracking, which requires external sensors and additional setup, Microsoft opted for inside out tracking for Windows 10 headsets. That means the sensors on the face of headsets will track these controllers as well. This also means they'll only be tracked so long as they're in view of the sensors.
The motion controllers will start shipping this August with the Acer developer headset for a combined cost of only $400. This hardware is identical to what will ship for consumers this fall. That's $100 less than the PSVR bundle, and at least $200 cheaper than any other PC VR headset+controllers offering out there right now.
Alex Kipman told everyone to stay tuned to E3 for Microsoft's holiday Mixed Reality plans. The obvious implication there is that Project Scorpio's VR solution will be Microsoft's own, and not an existing PC headset as previously suspected.
The Windows 10 Fall Creators Update
Despite Microsoft's naming scheme for Windows 10 updates officially making zero sense, the Fall Creators Update is already looking to be quite a big one. For the first time since the release of Zune and the Metro UI over a decade ago, Microsoft is introducing a new design language for interfaces and user experiences. The aim of the new Fluent Design System is to use light, depth, and motion to focus users' attention, as well as introduce materials and scale for a better and more distinct representation of objects.
The most noticeable aspect at first glance is the frosted glass look, or what Microsoft calls acrylic, that windows and menus have. If you remember Aero from Windows 7, this seems like an evolution of that. Microsoft also made it sound like they may add additional materials in the future. And I hope you like parallaxing, because it's all over the place now. Depth and motion come into play with layering of text boxes on pictures, for example, and those background pictures will move as you scroll. Also, subtle use of light will highlight selectable items as you move your mouse cursor over them, or tap them with your finger. Hints of this can already been seen in some apps, such as Groove Music.
The main purpose behind this new design language is to create something cohesive that spans across all devices running Windows 10. Microsoft showed a quick concept of a refreshed Xbox Guide, so expect to see a new UI there by the time Project Scorpio launches. And Microsoft's push into consumer Mixed Reality this year requires a design language that isn't always serviceable by traditional UIs. This is only the first stage of Microsoft's planned rollout of the Fluent Design System, so look forward to seeing new changes in the updates to come.
A fresh coat of paint may wow the average person, but the Fluent Design System isn't the best addition coming to Windows 10. No, that recognition goes to OneDrive Files on Demand. That's right, placeholders are finally back. While there were certainly many things worth complaining about in Windows 8, it's undisputed that the way the previous Windows OS handled files in the cloud was magical. OneDrive integration with File Explorer made accessing from and saving to the cloud a breeze. However, apparently the average user found this confusing, and so the functionality was deprecated in Windows 10, and any cloud files you wanted to access on your device needed to be saved locally as well. Why it's taken Microsoft two years to add a "Status" column to File Explorer (showing whether a file is only on OneDrive, is temporarily synced, or saved to the device) is anyone's guess, but hey, the feature will return soon now.
Microsoft is coming back to the realm of video editing tools with Story Remix. Using the new feature built into the Photos app (in its current form) or an app on mobile devices, users can drag and drop photos and clips, and let the software automagically put them together into a cohesive video that tells a story. Well, it's not actually magic. Artificial intelligence looks for things such as smiles and "action" to choose the best moments. This same AI is able to recognize faces and the focus of the video can be changed to someone else.
The stage demo at BUILD used clips from a kids soccer game. To focus the video on another player, a "Star" was chosen and the video remade itself to focus on her. Story Remix is also capable of importing music from Groove. If you don't like the video created by the software, at any time you can hit the "Remix" button and a new video will be made. More interestingly is the ability to add handwritten notes to videos, and even 3D objects from Remix3D. Said additions can even track to moving objects as well.
Anyone looking for robust video editing software, or even a replacement for Windows Movie Maker, will be disappointed by Story Remix. That being said, I think for the average person this looks to have enough options to make a decent clip show. I'm a big fan of the picture editing tools in the Photos app. Whenever I need to make a quick edit to a picture I'd rather use that instead of opening up Lightroom or Photoshop. If Story Remix is able to deliver a similar offering for videos, Microsoft could have something pretty cool here.
Intelligent Cloud and Intelligent Edge
A lot of what Story Remix is able to do is thanks to Microsoft's AI technologies. They spent the entirety of the first day keynote talking about cloud computing, a significant trend in recent years at BUILD. Facial recognition software and conversational bots make for neat demos, but so far have had limited usefulness in the real world. This year Microsoft demoed their latest advancements in artificial intelligence and the utilization of devices we use personally and in the workplace in conjunction with the cloud.
Starting out as an Office 365 cloud utility, the Microsoft Graph is available to app developers to tap into. Assuming users opt in, the Microsoft Graph makes the connections between people, occupations, files, calendars, etc. Then AI is able to contextualize that information for users, and app developers don't have to.
Microsoft also wants to improve the cloud with a push in edge computing, or what is sometimes also called fog computing. Rather than offloading everything to be computed and stored in the cloud, by processing the data closer to the source the efficiency of the system can be improved.
Through utilization of these tools and other artificial intelligence resources, Microsoft's big demo this year was so good it's almost scary if you think about it too much. Set on a construction site, two workers in separate locations were going about their duties. With cameras setup onsite, AI was able to identify workers and tools. When one worker was asking their co-worker where a particular tool was through their work app, the AI was able to inform the worker of the tool's location automatically. Or, when a tool was stored improperly and causing a safety hazard, the closest person was informed by the system through a notification. Similarly, if a new person onsite hasn't been approved to use some tools and they do so anyway, a supervisor can be notified of the situation.
While it may be some time still before our robot overlords watch over all of us at work, tools like the Microsoft Graph and Cortana will be able to help us do things in our everyday lives. As previously mentioned, Story Remix will utilize the Microsoft Graph to tap into files on OneDrive and identify contacts to better personalize video creation.
There will be a universal Copy/Paste too. Copy something on a Windows 10 machine, and if you're using the SwiftKey keyboard on iOS or Android, you'll be able to Paste the selection from Windows.
And another feature coming in the Fall Creators Update called Windows Timeline will keep track of your recent activity across all of your devices, no matter the platform. This builds on the addition in the spring Creators Update of Cortana allowing you to pick up where to left off on another Windows device. By leveraging, you guessed it, the Microsoft Graph, users will be able to continue what they were doing as they move from device to device (assuming what they were doing ties into this system). Windows Timeline will be viewable on any Windows 10 machine. Otherwise, Cortana will be used on iOS and Android devices to allow people to continue what they were doing. If you're using an app on Windows 10 that you don't have installed on your phone, Cortana will prompt you to install the equivalent app on your phone if available.
Woah, wait a minute. I have to Cortana installed? Who's going to do that when they already have Siri and Google Assistant? Well, Microsoft will be adding a new "Phone" section to the Settings app. The OS will prompt users to go there and they will be walked through the setup process. You don't have to actively use Cortana for this magic to work either. I have Cortana setup on my Android phone, but I actively use Google Assistant as it's more tightly integrated with operating system. Without ever needing to touch Cortana again, the AI is able to send my notifications and text messages to my Windows 10 machines. What Microsoft showed at BUILD looks to be passive in a similar way.
Closing Thoughts
Microsoft's vision for the role Windows plays in everyone's life is a lot more clear now. There are now over 500 million Windows 10 users today. That may seem like a lot, but at this rate it will leave Microsoft far short of their goal of 1 billion users in three years. This is due in large part to the abject failure of Windows on phones. In the last decade they rebooted that device segment three times, and failed to capitalize on all four. (That being said, they left Windows 10 Mobile to die without ever actually trying.) Surprisingly though, there are over 140 million people actively using Cortana on at least a monthly basis. Microsoft's new plan is to engage users and bring them into the Microsoft ecosystem so long as one of their devices is a Windows 10 machine. Artificial intelligence with Cortana at the forefront will drive the melding of people's different devices.
And even though Microsoft has abandoned any homegrown smartphone (as we currently understand them), they're not leaving behind their app platform. If anything they're doubling down. The recent announcement of Windows 10 S, as well as the addition of Spotify and now the iTunes desktop software shows Microsoft's commitment to the Universal Windows Platform and providing software that people want and use through the Store.
Artificial intelligence is an inevitability, and Microsoft is positioning their solution to reach farther and do more than consumer facing solutions like Alexa or Siri at the moment. The jury is still out on if a transition to Microsoft's UWP software future is successful or not.When Andrew joined the Open Beta of Unity Connect and posted his Task, he wasn’t expecting to get a response within 20 minutes… but that’s exactly what happened.
Andrew, founder of S.F. Bay Studios and a Unity Asset Store publisher, was looking for someone to create some custom, medium-poly gems for his cave environment. Within 20 minutes of hitting “Post” on his Task, he received a response and, within 24 hours, he was connected with a 3D Modeler named Federico and the work was underway. Now, just a week later, the work is complete — Federico has earned some income doing what he does best and Andrew is one step closer to publishing.
Get help… or answer the call!
Tasks, a sort of “micro-job,” are a way for developers to connect with people who have skills to help them overcome roadblocks and keep their project moving toward the finish line. Like Andrew, if you need help getting something done, you can post a Task on Unity Connect to broadcast a call for help. On the flip side, you can leverage your strengths to respond to Task posts and earn some extra income by helping others.
Showcase your work and build your visibility.
Being part of this new community doesn’t just benefit those who are looking for help. It also allows you to showcase your work and highlight your individual skills. You can build your visibility and reputation in the industry, engage with other creators, and even find creative inspiration. And, being present means you can be found by recruiters who are looking for Unity talent to fill their open positions — over 250 companies, ranging from small shops to large companies like Zynga, have already joined Unity Connect and started posting jobs.
Tap into a focused pool of Unity and game industry talent.
If you are a recruiter or hiring manager, you can tap into the Unity Connect talent pool by creating a company page and posting your full-time or part-time jobs. You can also proactively source talent for your open positions using industry- and Unity-specific filters and skill tags. This allows you to zero in on the right people in a focused pool, and saves you the time of searching for needles in the haystacks of general professional networking sites.
Joining is super easy… and free!
Last week, at the Unite LA keynote, we announced the Open Beta of Unity Connect. Before the end of the show, thousands of Unity creators representing the full spectrum of game development skill sets — technical artists, programmers, level designers, VR specialists — had already signed on and started building their presence in the community.
Now it’s your turn! Whether you are a creator with great work to show off, looking for help with a project, or a recruiter with positions to fill, our community won’t be complete until you are there!
Just sign in with your Unity ID to activate your account and get started:As formal Brexit negotiations between the UK and EU begin today, there remains much confusion over what Britain’s Brexit strategy actually is. Philip Hammond confused matters further on Sunday when he appeared to undermine the Prime Minister – saying no deal is a very bad option indeed.
So, what should the strategy be? Speaking on BBC Scotland this morning, Ian Duncan – the Conservative MEP – offered his own unique take. He said there were a few options on the table, including ‘taking down your trousers’:
‘It depends how you want to play a negotiation, you can literally turn every card face up and step in, take down your trousers and just show what you’ve got. It’s your choice. Or you can take it in a much more sophisticated way which is trying to negotiate piece by piece, issue by issue to get the best deal possible.’
Mr S suspects it may be for the best that Duncan isn’t an integral part of the UK negotiating team…The loans included one for $2million, with an interest rate of 12 percent, and one for $3 million, with an interest rate of 24 percent
loans, and defaulted on them
Johnson's parents also took out
in 2008, and signed over control of his money to his mother in 2011
NHL star Jack Johnson made his parents his financial
At just 27-years-old, Jack Johnson has had a remarkable hockey career.
The Coulmbus Blue Jackets defenseman, who previously played for the Los Angeles Kings, was selected third in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft, played for Team USA in the 2010 Olympics, and has earned a staggering $23million during his career.
And now all that money, and some more, is gone - because of his parents.
Scroll down for video
Down and out: NHL star Jack Johnson has had his $30million fortune squandered by his parents, who he trusted with his money
Lush life: Johnson's parents spent money on cars, travel and a new home
Family: Johnson with his parents, Tina and Jack Sr., courtesy of ESPN
After parting with his agent in 2008, Johnson, who attended University of Michigan but has little financial knowledge, turned control of his money over to his parents.
Then, in 2011,Johnson signed a power of attorney that granted his mother full control of his finances shortly before signing a $30.5million contract with the Kings.
That is when things started to go horribly wrong.
According to The Columbus Dispatch, Tina Johnson, Jack's mother, borrowed at least $15 million in her son’s name against his future earnings.
What's more, she borrowed from nonconventional lenders and defaulted on the loans.
The loans included one from Iowa Congressman Rodney L. Blum for $2million, with an interest rate of 12 percent, and one from Pro Player Funding for $3 million, with an interest rate of 24 percent.
Now, Jack has been sued repeatedly for $6million in loan repayments after his parents splurged on cars, a home in Manhattan Beach, California, along with $800,00 in upgrades, and travel.
He has also been forced to declare bankruptcy.
'Jack would ask [his parents] questions: "What’s this? What are these guys calling about?",' a source told the paper.
'And they would tell him not to worry about it, just worry about playing hockey.'
Now all Jack can claim is assets 'less then $50,000' and 'debts greater than $10million.'
Illustrious career: Johnson has had an amazing career, playing for the 2010 Olympic team (left) as well as the Columbus Blue Jackets (left) and the Los Angeles Kings
Rough life: Now Johnson owes more than $10million and is having all his checks garnished
His paychecks from the Blue Jackets meanwhile, who are paying him $5million this season, are garnished as soon as he receives them.
The source said he is no longer speaking to his parents.
'I’ve seen lots of instances of parents riding their kid’s coattails around,' said one NHL executive.
'I’ve never seen a case as ugly as this one, where the parents took such advantage of their kid.'
Jack, who has hired a new team of financial advisers, is taking the high road still somehow, despite this awful setback.'
'I’d say I picked the wrong people who led me down the wrong path,' he said.
'I’ve got people in place who are going to fix everything now. It’s something I should have done a long time ago.'Editor's Note: A previous version of this story indicated that Meszaros died on Sunday, Dec. 25. We regret this error.
If you were a huge fan of this '80s sitcom, then here is some sad news. ALF star Mihaly Meszaros died at 76 on Sunday, June 12, after suffering a stroke, his manager and longtime friend Dennis Varga confirmed to CNN. TMZ reports Meszaros was rushed to a Los Angeles-based hospital after being found unresponsive at his home and was in a coma ever since. He was best known for playing the friendly extraterrestrial nicknamed ALF (Alien Life Form). The actor was 33 inches tall and wore a full-body costume to bring ALF to life on the small screen.
In addition to Meszaros, sometimes a puppet was used to portray ALF. The iconic character was voiced by another actor, Paul Fusco |
the beginning phases of male pattern baldness as young as 14 years old, and these young men may be cosmetically bald by the age of 17.Male pattern baldness is more than just a physical dis-figurement, it is also a disease, and is closely related to cardio-vascular & carcinogenic diseases. Although this may be hard for some men to hear at a point in their life when they are at their most vulnerable, the unfortunate truth is that for those who suffer from MPB, they will have a greater risk of suffering from both cardio-vascular disease and prostate cancer in their later lives.Male pattern baldness is caused by a genetic predisposition to hair loss.It iscompletely and utterly unrelated to physical fitness, healthy eating habits, increased stress or too much sex.Currently there is absoluteny NO CURE for MPB.On the positive side however, in the last 10 to 15 years, a number of treatments have been developed which have been scientifically proven to slow down hair loss and in some cases reverse some of that hairloss, in some men only.These treatments can work for some men, but on the whole they have been beneficial to men who have lost little hair, and who have not experience chronic and severe hairloss.So typically, if you are already bald, the chances are very slim that thes etreatments will reverse your condition enough to enhance your looks.Some of todays treatments include topical lotionsapplied to the scalp, oral tablets taken once per day, laser treatments used two to three times per day, and surgical procedures.Currently there are only 3 treatments approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the USA. The FDA is an independant therapeutics goods assessor that only approves medications and treatments that have been reliably shown to be safe and effective.One of the only male pattern hair loss treatment regimens approved by the Food and Drug Administration is an over-the-counter ointment containing minoxidil and mostly sold under the trade name of Rogaine.Another product, Propecia containing finasteride is available in pill form by prescription only. Due to finasteride in a larger dosage being used as a treatment for an enlarged prostate, as a male pattern hair loss treatment it requires stricter control.Low Level Laser Therapy (LLLT) has also been approved by the FDA for the purposes of hair loss treatment.With some limited form of regrowth in less than 50 percent of users, minoxidil and finasteride and the less efficacious LLLT further ignited interest in hair loss treatments, but for the majority of sufferers of male Pattern Hair loss, the hunt goes on for that illusive silver bullet.Unfortuantely we hear almost on a weekly basis of new and miraculous hair loss treatments, with incredible claims of uccess, and before and after shots as proof positive. And where as and finasteride are the exception, the unfortunate truth is that most of the treatments that you will read about are either expensive reformulations of the above, or the ever-present natural treatments or other snake oils that will almost certainly never grow even one new vellous hair on your head, but will certainly cost you a bundle for false hope.Hairloss PI will however provide a forum where it will attempt to separate the facts from the sales pitch, and provide an honest appraisal for those vulnerable souls who are daling with a significant life event as it stands, and don’t need to be victims of fraud as well.Across Canada’s north, diesel has long been the primary mode of providing year-round electricity to remote communities — but with the advent of small-scale renewables, that’s about to change.
Northern communities were already making strides toward a renewable energy future, but with $400 million committed in this year’s federal budget to establish an 11-year Arctic Energy Fund, energy security in the north has moved firmly into the spotlight.
“This level of support shows positive commitment from the Canadian government on ending fossil fuel dependency in Indigenous communities and transitioning these communities to clean energy systems,” said Dave Lovekin, a senior advisor at the Pembina Institute.
Burning diesel not only pollutes the atmosphere, but getting it into remote communities is often inefficient in and of itself: it’s delivered by truck, barge or, sometimes when the weather doesn’t cooperate, by plane.
There are more than 170 remote indigenous communities in Canada still relying almost completely upon diesel for their electricity needs.
But, for some, at least, that’s beginning to change. Take the community of Old Crow (Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation), above the Arctic circle in the Yukon.
Despite its northern latitude, and near total darkness between December and February, a 2014 Government of Yukon pilot study demonstrated that solar represents a major untapped renewable resource for the community.
Many homes in Old Crow, north of the Arctic Circle, still rely on diesel, but that's changing. Photo: Matt Jacques.
Now Old Crow has a number of small-scale solar panel installations, including an 11.8 kilowatt array at the Arctic Research Centre — but its sights are set higher. Plans for a 330 kilowatt solar plant are well underway. A 2016 feasibility study estimated that this large-scale installation could offset 17 per cent of the community's total diesel use, or up to 98,000 litres of fuel each year.
“Anything that affects our community, we want to have control over. That’s our goal with this project is to have ownership over the facility,” said William Josie, director of Natural Resources for the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation. “We burn a lot of fuel up here per capita and we’re trying to reduce that.”
Josie said his community is excited to build further solar capacity.
“This has been in the works for a long time, and it’s just the right thing to do,” he said. “It’s the first solar project of this size in the Yukon with community ownership.”
The Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation has a self-governing final agreement in place with the Government of Canada, the Government of the Yukon and the Council of Yukon First Nations. So too does the Kluane (Burwash Landing/Destruction Bay) First Nation in the southwestern Yukon, which is taking another approach to delivering a similar level of renewable energy capacity.
A major $2.4 million wind power generation project is set to be installed in 2018. Three refurbished 95 kilowatt turbines will deliver just under 300 kilowatts of total power and are estimated to offset 21 per cent of the community’s total diesel use.
“One of the big things for the community is to be self-reliant and self-sufficient. Diesel is neither of those two,” explains Colin Asseltine, general manager of the Kluane Community Development Corporation. “We’re looking at what we can possibly do to reduce our carbon footprint and move off-grid.”
The wind project will expand on the earlier successes in the community. Since 1998, Burwash Landing has used biomass for district heating, and began selling solar power back into the grid not long after installing a 48 kilowatt array in 2003. Along the way, they have been collecting the data required to inform the next steps and increase the impact of the community’s investment in renewable energy.
A geothermal test well provides promise for increased food security.
“Connecting that to our greenhouse projects will really help with the possibility of growing year-round, and having a positive effect on food sustainability at the same time. Both renewable energy and food security go hand in hand, so we’re working on those together,” Asseltine said.
While these two communities have shown that renewable energy solutions are indeed feasible for remote northern environments, hurdles remain.
“Our biggest challenge right now is just to secure capital costs” Josie said. “We’re looking for $2 million to $2.5 million, depending on the final engineering and design.”
Lovekin, from the Pembina Institute, underscores this point, explaining that “the challenges on the technology side are nowhere near the challenges on the financial and community capacity side.”
Up until now, federal and provincial or territorial funds have focused on financing initial development costs.
“The first focus on funding capital expenditure is good, but governments simply putting in money to get systems built has been shown to not be a sustainable strategy to support these communities to fully develop their projects,” Lovekin said. “The more challenging part is the ongoing operations and maintenance and ability for communities to maintain the systems. Systems will break, nobody's there to fix them, and there's little funding for that.”
And once systems are operational, their long-term economic viability largely rests on the value of the Power Purchasing Agreement (PPA) that is offered by the local utility operators.
“In order for that whole model to be successful, you need a better and more fair PPA price than what has typically been offered in the north. Typically the PPA will simply offer the avoided cost of diesel fuel, so whatever it costs to get a litre of diesel up to the community via winter road or barge,” Lovekin adds.
Renewable energy systems typically have lower operating and management costs, and Pembina and others are working to ensure PPA prices reflect true cost savings.
“The federal carbon tax coming into play will also make diesel systems even more costly, so there’s opportunity to look at a PPA price for renewable systems that will not pay the carbon tax, as well as other externalized costs such as diesel fuel spills, financial bailouts when winter roads deteriorate and fuel needs to be flown up. So addressing all of that in what gets offered via a fair and equitable PPA would be ideal,” Lovekin said.
On the community capacity side of the equation, initiatives such as the 20/20 Catalysts Program and the Indigenous Clean Energy Network are providing essential training, and mentorship for indigenous communities making the transition to renewable energy.
Nonetheless, Lovekin feels there is a critical need for “more training, skill development and job establishment to support the community getting involved in their own transition. There need to be barriers removed to have more capacity built and leadership come from within the community.”
That’s where the new federal funding could be a game-changer.
“The real test will be in the types of policies and programs that are developed and how they are designed to support energy autonomy and create economic development within and for Indigenous communities,” Lovekin said.
Image: Solar panels in Old Crow, Yukon. Photo: Matt Jacques
The village of Old Crow. Photo: Matt Jacques / The NarwhalSome of the following was originally published in Imagining Urban Futures: Cities in Science Fiction and What We Might Learn from Them (Wesleyan 2016).
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SCIENCE FICTION often gives short shrift to cities. Nothing says trouble, after all, like a great city smashed to smithereens on screen by natural cataclysms, creepy aliens in oversized flying saucers, or even an ill-tempered Godzilla. When cities survive in SF cinema, they’re often places we’d rather not visit — nasty New York in Soylent Green (1973) and Escape from New York (1981), the antiseptic city of domes in Logan’s Run (1976), creepy underground Topeka in A Boy and His Dog (1975), or menacing Los Angeles in Blade Runner (1982).
Blade Runner’s dark and compelling city is a common touchstone for visualizing the urban future. Tell an acquaintance that you’re working on cities in science fiction, and the inevitable response is: “Oh, like Blade Runner.” The film has come to epitomize popular conceptions of science fiction cities because it combines zippy technology, looming megabuildings, and a noir atmosphere borrowed from both Metropolis (1927) and The Big Sleep (1946). Aircars dart among the towers and cop cars hover over the streets. Looking vaguely like 1940s radiophotograph consoles, the corporate ziggurats of the overworld dominate the cityscape. Flames inexplicably vent from the tops of towers. Searchlights zigzag the sky but fail to penetrate to the claustrophobic surface.
Take another look, however, and something else stands out. Blade Runner may be Los Angeles’s “official nightmare,” as Mike Davis has claimed, but this city of 2019 is heterogeneous, disordered, and active. Taffey’s Snake Pit, the bar visited by bounty hunter Rick Deckard, is dark and dangerous, but also intriguing. Women sport retro fashions, pipes are puffed and joints smoked, and masked dancers sway to techno-beat music. The bustling streets teem with vitality, the Asian faces suggesting its attractions for entrepreneurial immigrants. Norman Klein reports that many Los Angeles residents found the scene where Deckard grabs lunch at an outdoor market to be appealing rather than off-putting, and the entire pulsating mishmash of food carts, sushi bars, and discount retailers that line Blade Runner’s streets match one of the standard 21st-century prescriptions for vitalizing bland American cities.
Blade Runner is the launch point for examining science fiction that celebrates the social vitality and cultural dynamism of urban life with its mix of creativity and community. The film is a reminder that the essence of a city is not the physical container but the people it contains. Cities are where deals go down, ideas blossom, lovers arrange trysts, and conspirators hatch plots. Science fiction storytellers would be lost without the bustling marketplace and the crowded tavern — places where a variety of goods and services can be found and where anybody can put in an appearance, meaning trouble and plot complications are just around the corner.
Sociologist Peter Langer suggests that our understanding of cities oscillates between two metaphors: city as jungle and city as bazaar. In both conceptions, cities are places of thick social relations, diversity, and constant motion. The urban jungle is intertwined, crowded, and marked by deadly competition for resources, but the city as bazaar “imagines the city as a place of astonishing richness of activity and diversity […] a market, a fair, a place of almost infinite exploration and opportunity, a center of exchange.” Film scholar Vivian Sobchack offers a variation, proposing “Trashtown” as shorthand for districts or cities that are vibrant, cluttered, and at the edge of respectability.
Science fiction’s theorist of the urban bazaar is Samuel R. Delany. In Trouble on Triton: An Ambiguous Heterotopia (1976) he coined the term “unlicensed sector” for districts on the social edge. Here there’s vice and crime, to be sure, but also artistic expression that flourishes where rules don’t apply. The unlicensed sector in Tethys, the novel’s urban setting, has twisting back ways and dark alleys, but Delany presents it as inventive and alive. It is home to both political dissidents and artists like street theater troupes. It nourishes the creativity that can emerge from apparent chaos.
Sprawling and fantastic New Crobuzon in China Miéville’s Perdido Street Station (2000) goes the unlicensed sector of Tethys one better. It’s a teeming multispecies city whose chaotic energy generates creative art and radical politics. The book opens in the public city at the Aspic Bazaar, where “all distinctions broke down” in “a blaring mess of goods, grease and tallymen.” The city’s million-plus residents animate its streets, markets, and cafes. Action moves among streets and markets, private workspaces, and bars like the Moon’s Daughters pub, whose “clientele consisted of the more adventurous of the city’s bohemians: artists, thieves, rogue scientists, junkies and militia informants.” After drinks, some of the characters head to Bombadrezil’s Unique and Wonderful Fair whose food, balloons, carnival rides, and games of chance bring out a crowd in which “bankers and thieves mingled to ooh, scandalized and titillated.”
Miéville’s New Crobuzoners enact the role of public space as articulated by design critics and social commentators like Richard Sennett, who argue that community identities are best formed, promoted, and defended in shared spaces. This is not passive observation by one of Walter Benjamin’s flâneurs wandering the streets of Paris, but rather the creation of meaning by the active participation that is required for community life. Michel de Certeau, in The Practice of Everyday Life (1980), argues that abstract plans do not create cities; instead, myriad individuals generate the meaning of urban space by moving through it, using it, and filtering it through their own perceptions and imaginations in ways beyond control and discipline.
Readers quickly grasp that teeming New Crobuzon is a transfigured version of London — both the Victorian city and the late 20th-century city in which Miéville grew up; spiced, he says, with bits of Cairo, Egypt, and New Orleans. We are, very deliberately and explicitly, in a made-up world that serves as the very opposite of Tolkien’s Shire: urban, grubby, and complex rather than rural, cutesy, and socially one-dimensional. The map that accompanies the book resembles the top view of the cerebral cortex, perhaps to emphasize the role of the city as a place of constant information generation and exchange. The city fuses a rich amalgam of neighborhoods sorted by class, lifestyle, and species, but also under continual pressures of change. A typical apartment building houses a jumble of “petty thieves and steel workers and errand-girls and knife-grinders.”
New Crobuzon is chaotic and creative — the two central characters are an eccentric scientist and an eccentric artist. It is a realization of Delany’s unlicensed sector (even with an ever-present militia) and also a riff on John Stuart Mill’s venerable argument that interesting and vital cities are complex cities, places where social uncertainty and cultural creativity are inextricably intertwined. “It is hardly possible to overrate the value,” he wrote in 1848 in Principles of Political Economy,
of placing human beings in contact with persons dissimilar to themselves, and with modes of thought and action unlike those with which they are familiar. […] Such communication has always been, and is peculiarly in the present age, one of the primary sources of progress.
Nicola Griffith highlights community rather than creativity in Slow River (1995). She opens and closes the near-future novel on the banks of the River Humber in the gritty English industrial city of Hull, a superficially implausible choice for a resilient city. The river is “sleek and implacable,” framing a dark story about fragmented identity and childhood sexual abuse in a near-future city whose noir atmosphere might lead us to expect the worst. The protagonist Lore van de Oest is the daughter of a powerful industrial family who escapes a stage-managed kidnapping to awaken in a lonely alley naked, bleeding, and without her personal identity chip. She is functionally reborn, saved by an information thief and sex worker who helps her assume new identities for three years before confronting her family and unmasking its corruption. As she slowly heals, the river that has shaped the city helps her to reshape herself: “I would spend the rest of my life by the river,” she thinks at the end, “being visible.”
Lore moves among the different social strata of modern urban society — the rich, the working class, the underworld. Talking with friends, she explores the rain forest as a metaphor for the city. She doesn’t see the imaginary jungle of predatory chaos, but rather a layering of ecological niches from canopy to forest floor. Griffith reiterated the same idea in a commentary on her book, defining a city as “a place with a large enough population to have different layers. […] Every citizen will know a different layer, will bend before a different social wind.” Using a metaphor appropriate for Slow River, she described points of social contact as the “irrigation arteries” of a city and continued that “it is from such intersections of different nutrient streams that the energy and the art of a metropolis are born.”
Griffith’s city is robust as well as complex. The plot subjects the city to environmental stress, but not to the sort of environmental disaster that science fiction loves. Sabotage damages the delicate functioning of the sewage treatment plant where Lore works, threatening to flood the city with toxic effluent, but quick action by dedicated workers and emergency responders salvages the operation. As Griffith commented soon after publication,
much science fiction of the nineties destroys some aspect or other of the city. I did not want to do that. I wanted to keep as background the city as I have seen it, as a reader might recognize it. So the city in Slow River hovers continually on the brink of disaster … [but] I posit a technological advance that adds a bit of hope to the mess.
The result is a resilient city to frame the growing strength and resilience of the central character.
Resilience in an even more stressed urban community forms the backdrop for Nalo Hopkinson’s Brown Girl in the Ring (1998). The plot parallels Slow River in some ways, focusing on a young woman who must come to terms with her family heritage and her own identity: in this case a Caribbean Canadian who must accept spiritual gifts and powers that mark her as different from her peers. Hopkinson sketches a future Toronto whose inner city has been abandoned by government and corporate capital (modeled, she says, after Detroit). In the face of neglect and poverty, residents improvise. Some join drug-dealing gangs, but others recycle abandoned spaces, develop a barter economy, and look after each other. In one corner of “the Burn,” the
three pastors of the Korean, United, and Catholic churches that flanked the corners had joined forces, taken over most of the buildings […] They ministered to street people with a firm hand, defending their flock and their turf with baseball bats when necessary.
In the optimistic ending, the provincial premier promises no-interest loans for the Burn’s grassroots entrepreneurs. Perhaps micro-enterprise will thrive and grow, and the city regenerate.
Kim Stanley Robinson’s “Science in the Capital” trilogy (2004–2007) also depicts a much maligned city — Washington, DC — where social institutions fray but hold under the stress of climate disaster. As he did in earlier books like Pacific Edge (1990) and his Mars trilogy (1992–1996), Robinson explores the ways in which personal lives and civic lives interact. He takes the ordinary seriously, describing a city where community is created and maintained. The action builds slowly, especially in the first volume (tellingly titled Forty Signs of Rain), paying close attention to commuting, child care, National Science Foundation (NSF) grant applications, and other quotidian routines. The books intercut the crisis of global climate change with the struggles of managing a family including two high-achieving professionals and two kids. NSF scientists and a senatorial staffer make up the protagonists, trying to make scientific institutions and government work to cope with global climate change and its impacts. Dozens of pages detail committee meetings and bureaucratic strategizing that actually gets things done. (Robinson does for science administration what Gregory Benford did for science practice in Timescape [1980].)
Massive floods and bitter winters pound the city. Robinson describes the physical impacts on the city, but also highlights the continuing importance of social bonds. Volunteers turn out to fight flooding. A group of homeless men create a miniature community in the depths of Rock Creek Park. In the great freeze, civic institutions still work. First responders and hospitals are stressed, but they function. People turn out to help. Hundreds of volunteers coordinate an effort to monitor escaped zoo animals. Park rangers and work crews are upbeat as they clear downed trees and direct citizens pitch in until their workplaces reopen. By taking Washington, DC, seriously as a functional community rather than an aberration, Robinson challenges a knee-jerk reaction among many Americans and highlights his longstanding commitment to the importance of civic life. The books extend his repeated argument that utopia is a process rather than an end state — “utopia is when our lives matter,” as one of his earlier characters says.
By Robinson’s own description, the trilogy is intended as a comedy. Neither the protagonists nor the world are brought low by fate. Instead, wobbling institutions move back toward a center like a ship righting after nearly capsizing. As in the most traditional of comedies (and paralleling the end of Slow River), social order is upheld with the continued strength of one marriage and prospects for three more. Robinson recognizes that cities may sometimes be responsible for their own dissolution by fire, famine, flood, or abandonment, but that cities also have thickly woven social relationships and the social capital that is the source of resilience. Thick civic and social networks support short-term survival and long-term innovation. Rebecca Solnit, in A Paradise Built in Hell (2010), convincingly argues that it is elites who panic in civic emergencies and ordinary folks who cope and cooperate, a result that Robinson dramatizes.
So Washington, DC, survives, like Mexico City after the 1985 earthquake and New Orleans after Katrina. So will its other peers. Despite Kipling’s lines, London, New York, and Tokyo are unlikely to become one with Nineveh and Tyre. Modern cities benefit not only from internal strength but from the sometimes maligned global economy that allows them to draw resources from vast distances far more effectively than premodern places that succumbed to conquest or climate change. Robinson understands the power of social and psychological ties that bind residents to their cities, and he also understands the scale of third-millennium society.
Interesting cities are complex cities — places of possibility intertwined with the problems created by change. New Crobuzon is endlessly fascinating, and Samuel R. Delany’s Tethys remains intriguing. The distributed city of Battlestar Galactica and the teeming space station metropolis of Babylon 5 support richer stories than the thin communities of the Star Trek universe. As science fiction writer Kathleen Ann Goonan has written in Paradoxa,
Cities are, simply put, places where we come together to survive, where the symbiosis and mix of many humans becomes heady and elixirlike, leading to new intellectual, artistic, and emotional realms; leading also to the decay which occurs when old forms — physical and social — are no longer viable but still remain.
Out of those tensions of change and stability come the complex communities of creative and resilient cities that are more common in speculative fiction than the Blade Runner trope might lead us to believe.
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Carl Abbott is Professor Emeritus of Urban Studies and Planning at Portland State University.As we sit at the quarter-point of the NHL season, fantasy hockey is in full swing. Surely, you have been actively scouring the free agents in your league and perhaps pulled the trigger on a trade or two. If you have, hopefully your acquisitions have helped you climb the standings in your league. If not, we have a few players to keep your eyes peeled for, and maybe to target in possible trades.
Fantasy Hockey Weekly: Trade Bait or Cut Bait?
Weekly Review: Karlss-on Fire
Some of the best advice you can get when it comes to fantasy hockey is to look for opportunity. If your league is particularly deep and the cupboards have been picked dry, look for players in good situations. First line and powerplay players are always going to have plenty of opportunities to score. Take William Karlsson, for example. A relatively unknown player prior to this season, he has been playing on the Vegas Golden Knights top line with Jonathan Marchessault and Reilly Smith and seeing powerplay time. He has five goals and an assist in his past four games. He won’t be able to maintain numbers like this all year, but as long as he is on the first line with 30-goal scorer Marchessault, he should be able to produce consistently.
In the fantasy goaltending spotlight from last week, I pointed out Andersen’s slow start and propensity to pick up his game in November. Like clockwork, Andersen rattled off back-to-back shutouts last week, making 75 saves along the way. His Toronto Maple Leafs are also on a six game winning streak, with games against the Arizona Coyotes, Florida Panthers, and Carolina Hurricanes this week. If he can continue to play as well as he has and Toronto stays hot, he could singlehandedly win your week or jump you a few spots in your league standings.
Storm’s Brewing
After a painfully slow start for Sebastian Aho, many owners grew tired of waiting for him to wake up. His ownership dipped to just above 50% in both Yahoo and ESPN leagues, but has since risen back above 60%. He has 12 pts in his last 10 games now. Currently he is enjoying a four-game scoring streak where he has nine points in total. If you were fortunate enough to find him as a free agent, he should be a great value pick up as he looks to improve on a fantastic rookie season last year.
Similarly, Teuvo Teravainen erupted this week with five goals and five assists in four games. Both Aho and Teravainen have found success on Carolina’s first line with Jordan Staal as their centre and are playing on the PP1. Carolina was pegged as darkhorse this off-season, as they have a plethora of great, young talent to work with. It hadn’t come together as much as they had been hoping for, but at 5-2-3 in their last ten, it looks like they may be rounding into form.
Trade Bait or Cut Bait?
This week, instead of looking at potential free agents I have a list of players who I think would make good trade targets. If your league has a limit on transactions for the year, the more impactful way to make acquisitions is to do so through trades. So if you need to shake up your roster, inquire about some of these guys as potential trade targets. They wont all be cheap, but they should all be worth it.
There are a few Columbus Blue Jackets you could target for cheaper than they usually would be (Nick Foligno, Artemi Panarin, Cam Atkinson) but Wennberg’s value may be the lowest of them all. After scoring 59 points last year as Columbus’ number one centre, Wennberg was expected to take the next step this season. With the addition of Artemi Panarin (who has also been a rather disappointing) as his hired gun for this year, Wennberg had legitimate 65+ point upside. He only has eight assists and a single goal so far this year.
He has also missed the past two games with a mysterious injury with no timetable for return. It likely isn’t that serious, but the idea of owning an injured player who hasn’t lived up to any expectations makes Wennberg a very good trade target. At this point you may even be get him up for waiver pick up who is on a hot streak. Perhaps the time off will give him time to sort his game out. But once he starts scoring you have to imagine it will come in bunches.
Goaltenders are always hard to place value on because they can mean so much more in some leagues. Their limited availability also means that they could be difficult to acquire through trade. Basically: Don’t be surprised if you have to pry a goalie off of someone in a trade. So when looking at Gibson as a trade target, expect to give up some value. It should be well worth it though.
The Anaheim Ducks have been the victim of some serious injury problems this season. Hampus Lindoholm and Sami Vatanen each only recently started playing. Ryan Getzlaf, Ryan Kessler and Cam Fowler are all trying to work their way back from injury, and Patrick Eaves is attempting to return to playing after being diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome. Needless to say, the Ducks are struggling to stay afloat at this point. Gibson has struggled so far, largely due to playing behind half an AHL team. At 7-6-1, his value is the lowest it has been in memory. The Ducks should be pushing to pick up points they have been missing out on later this season. I would expect a big second half surge from Anaheim once they get healthy, with Gibson in net. And that surge should be just in time for fantasy playoffs.
Max Domi has been a bit of a fantasy enigma for me. I carried him into last season as a keeper and was a bit disappointed. But he ended up with 38 points in 59 games. This puts him at the same point-per-game rate as his rookie season. Coupled with a ridiculous 1.9 shooting percentage, he is bound to start scoring sooner than later. Similar to Wennberg, he could be worth as little as a successful waiver claim to some impatient owners.
On the other hand, Granlund is still likely a rather coveted asset in fantasy leagues. He has a similarly poor, 3.1 shooting percentage and nine points in 14 games so far. He missed time earlier this season, and has been picking up his play as of late. But he may still be available for cheaper than he usually would be due to his slow start. A 69 point season last year was the benchmark for this campaign. He may not score at quite that pace, but Granlund is a 60 point player on a solid Minnesota Wild team.
I know, I know. Who is going to trade the reigning Norris winner and back-to-back 70 point scorer? Someone who only looks at his point totals, thats who. Still without a goal, through 18 games now, Burns just can’t seem to buy a goal. He has taken 75 shots so far, a pace to match his career high in shots in one season. Like most players on this list, he is due to start scoring in a matter of days, games or minutes. But most people in your league will know that. Still, if you could get him in exchange for a mid-grade goalie or swap disappointments, Burns should return to his usual, high scoring self eventually.
Hopefully you are dominating your league and sit comfortably atop the standings. But chances are you picked some duds in your draft like the rest of us. If that is the case, hopefully some of this information can come in handy and help you target some great players in trades.EPA Gets a Congressional Grilling Over Recent Fracking Report
Susan Phillips Bio Recent Stories Susan Phillips tells stories about the consequences of political decisions on people's every day lives. She has worked as a reporter for WHYY since 2004. Susan's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election resulted in a story on the front page of the New York Times. In 2010 she traveled to Haiti to cover the earthquake. That same year she produced an award-winning series on Pennsylvania's natural gas rush called "The Shale Game." She received a 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award for her work covering natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. She has also won several Edward R. Murrow awards for her work with StateImpact. In 2013/14 she spent a year at MIT as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. She has also been a Metcalf Fellow, an MBL Logan Science Journalism Fellow and reported from Marrakech on the 2016 climate talks as an International Reporting Project Fellow. A graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, she earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations from George Washington University.
Kris Connor / Getty Images
The hearing, led by Andy Harris, subcommittee chairman and Maryland Republican, questioned the scientific integrity of a draft report on fracking-caused groundwater contamination released by the Environmental Protection Agency Dec. 8. Since its release, the State of Wyoming and industry representatives have attacked the draft report. They don’t like its conclusions: that fracking in the area around Pavillion, Wyo. was likely the cause of ground water pollution in the area.
Testimony from the study’s opponents attacked those results.
“The EPA’s own data contained within [the report] doesn’t support the conclusions presented up front,” said Kathleen Sgamma, an industry representative from the Western Energy Alliance, sitting on the witness panel. “We are left wondering why the EPA would jump to conclusions, proceeding without State input or peer review.”
Amidst all the hoopla and press coverage of Gasland director Josh Fox getting ejected from a Congressional hearing this week, an actual hearing did take place. The House subcommittee on Energy and the Environment took testimony Wednesday on the EPA’s Pavilion, Wyo. report, which made a “likely” link between fracking and drinking water contamination. The controversial report is the first of its kind to make that assertion. Maryland Republican Andy Harris led the hearing, which became contentious. High Country News reported on the back-and-forth between the EPA officials and industry representatives.
Read more about Wednesday’s testimony from the High Country News here. The House subcommittee on Energy and Environment live streams its hearings, and posts the archives online. But several attempts to view them on this computer were unsuccessful.
Editor's PicksA cook at a Russian military base construction site in the Arctic has been accused of feeding a polar bear with explosives causing it to writhe in agony.
A shocking video of the anguished animal, with blood pouring from its snout, was revealed today.
The female bear was being fed by the male cook, so regularly appeared at the site on remote Wrangel Island, where Vladimir Putin is establishing a military presence.
The bear had a cub, which she often brought with her to be fed, although not on this occasion and the young bear is now believed to be orphaned.
Scroll down fro video
A polar bear writhes in agony after apparently being fed explosives by a cook on a Russian military base
The endangered animal was seen with blood pouring from her nose after a 'thunder flash' went off inside her
It is not clear what happened to the mother, but experts said there was very little chance she would have survived.
'The animal was previously fed by people but this time it ate an explosive which was allegedly given to him by the local cook,' said the LifeNews report.
'The bear began to spin around and rubbed against the snow, his snout bleeding.'
In the video, the animal is clearly seen in agony from the explosion.
The cook had fed the bear previously but this time put an explosive with the food.
'The female bear thought that it was something tasty and ate it,' the report said.
Polar bears are protected in Russia and the cook faces a potential jail sentence for the cruel act
One report said the bear was shot to be put out of her agony, but this was not confirmed.
The video was made by workers of a company called RusAliance, which is building the new military base.
Polar bears are protected in Russia and the cook faces a potential jail sentence for the act.
Workers at the remote station have a dispensation which allows them to shoot polar bears that threaten them.
But reports stress that on this occasion the workers, including the cook, had coaxed the bear to come in order to be fed.
The female bear was being fed by the male cook, so regularly appeared at the site on remote Wrangel Island
A report by NTV television stated: 'Witnesses say that this polar bear often came to the settlement searching for food.
'The female bear looked into the rubbish bins and sometimes the people fed her.
'She got used to the people and even brought her little cub with her.
'The author of the video says that one day the cook hid a thunder flash inside something tasty and fed it to the bear just for fun.
'The injured |
as rural land tenure, sexism, and the Confucian system of education, while preserving others, such as the family structure and culture of obedience to the state. Some observers see the period following the establishment of the PRC in 1949 as a continuation of traditional Chinese dynastic history, while others claim that the Communist Party's rule has damaged the foundations of Chinese culture, especially through political movements such as the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, where many aspects of traditional culture were destroyed, having been denounced as "regressive and harmful" or "vestiges of feudalism". Many important aspects of traditional Chinese morals and culture, such as Confucianism, art, literature, and performing arts like Peking opera,[590] were altered to conform to government policies and propaganda at the time. Access to foreign media remains heavily restricted.[591]
Today, the Chinese government has accepted numerous elements of traditional Chinese culture as being integral to Chinese society. With the rise of Chinese nationalism and the end of the Cultural Revolution, various forms of traditional Chinese art, literature, music, film, fashion and architecture have seen a vigorous revival,[592][593] and folk and variety art in particular have sparked interest nationally and even worldwide.[594] China is now the third-most-visited country in the world,[595] with 55.7 million inbound international visitors in 2010.[596] It also experiences an enormous volume of domestic tourism; an estimated 740 million Chinese holidaymakers travelled within the country in October 2012 alone.[597]
Literature
Chinese literature is based on the literature of the Zhou dynasty.[598] Concepts covered within the Chinese classic texts present a wide range of thoughts and subjects including calendar, military, astrology, herbology, geography and many others.[599] Some of the most important early texts include the I Ching and the Shujing within the Four Books and Five Classics which served as the Confucian authoritative books for the state-sponsored curriculum in dynastic era.[600] Inherited from the Classic of Poetry, classical Chinese poetry developed to its floruit during the Tang dynasty. Li Bai and Du Fu opened the forking ways for the poetic circles through romanticism and realism respectively.[601] Chinese historiography began with the Shiji, the overall scope of the historiographical tradition in China is termed the Twenty-Four Histories, which set a vast stage for Chinese fictions along with Chinese mythology and folklore.[602] Pushed by a burgeoning citizen class in the Ming dynasty, Chinese classical fiction rose to a boom of the historical, town and gods and demons fictions as represented by the Four Great Classical Novels which include Water Margin, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Journey to the West and Dream of the Red Chamber.[603] Along with the wuxia fictions of Jin Yong and Liang Yusheng,[604] it remains an enduring source of popular culture in the East Asian cultural sphere.[605]
In the wake of the New Culture Movement after the end of the Qing dynasty, Chinese literature embarked on a new era with written vernacular Chinese for ordinary citizens. Hu Shih and Lu Xun were pioneers in modern literature.[606] Various literary genres, such as misty poetry, scar literature, young adult fiction and the xungen literature, which is influenced by magic realism,[607] emerged following the Cultural Revolution. Mo Yan, a xungen literature author, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2012.[608]
Cuisine
Chinese cuisine is highly diverse, drawing on several millennia of culinary history and geographical variety, in which the most influential are known as the "Eight Major Cuisines", including Sichuan, Cantonese, Jiangsu, Shandong, Fujian, Hunan, Anhui, and Zhejiang cuisines.[610] All of them are featured by the precise skills of shaping, heating, colorway and flavoring.[611] Chinese cuisine is also known for its width of cooking methods and ingredients,[612] as well as food therapy that is emphasized by traditional Chinese medicine.[613] Generally, China's staple food is rice in the south, wheat based breads and noodles in the north. The diet of the common people in pre-modern times was largely grain and simple vegetables, with meat reserved for special occasions. And the bean products, such as tofu and soy milk, remain as a popular source of protein.[614] Pork is now the most popular meat in China, accounting for about three-fourths of the country's total meat consumption.[615] While pork dominates the meat market, there is also pork-free Buddhist cuisine and Chinese Islamic cuisine. Southern cuisine, due to the area's proximity to the ocean and milder climate, has a wide variety of seafood and vegetables; it differs in many respects from the wheat-based diets across dry northern China. Numerous offshoots of Chinese food, such as Hong Kong cuisine and American Chinese food, have emerged in the nations that play host to the Chinese diaspora.
Sports
China has become a prime sports destination worldwide. The country gained the hosting rights for several major global sports tournaments including the 2008 Summer Olympics, the 2015 World Championships in Athletics, the upcoming 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup and the upcoming 2022 Winter Olympics.
China has one of the oldest sporting cultures in the world. There is evidence that archery (shèjiàn) was practiced during the Western Zhou dynasty. Swordplay (jiànshù) and cuju, a sport loosely related to association football[616] date back to China's early dynasties as well.[617]
Go is an abstract strategy board game for two players, in which the aim is to surround more territory than the opponent and was invented in China more than 2,500 years ago.
Xiangqi, or Chinese chess, which the earliest indications reveal the game may have been played as early as the third century BCE.
Physical fitness is widely emphasized in Chinese culture, with morning exercises such as qigong and t'ai chi ch'uan widely practiced,[618] and commercial gyms and privaImage copyright AFP Image caption Rescuers were confronted with a scene of devastation at the site of the crash
A passenger plane has crashed after a failed emergency landing in Taiwan, killing more than 40 people, local officials say.
The domestic flight crashed near Magong airport on the outlying Penghu island, reports said.
There were a total of 54 passengers and four crew on board, Taiwan's CNA news agency reported.
Aviation officials said flight GE222 aborted its initial landing and then crashed, local media reported.
Transport minister Yeh Kuang-Shih said that 47 people were killed and 11 were injured, CNA reported.
The agency previously said that 51 were feared killed, citing fire department officials.
"It's chaotic [at] the scene," Jean Shen, director of the Civil Aeronautics Administration, told Reuters news agency.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Footage from the crash site showed the devastation
About 200 military personnel have joined rescuers in the search for survivors.
'Plane in flames'
Firefighters and other emergency personnel are attempting to rescue those on board.
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Grief-stricken relatives of people on board the flight had to be comforted by staff in Kaohsiung International Airport
Image copyright AP Image caption This vehicle - photographed in torrential rain - was covered in rubble caused by the crash on Penghu
Image copyright AFP Image caption The darkness meant that hundreds of rescuers at the crash site had to use torches to conduct their search of the wreckage
Image copyright AFP Image caption TransAsia Airways is a budget airline in Taiwan
"It was thunderstorm conditions during the crash," said Hsi Wen-guang, Penghu County Government Fire Bureau spokesman.
"From the crash site we sent 11 people to hospital with injuries. A few empty apartment buildings adjacent to the runway caught fire, but no-one was inside at the time and the fire was extinguished."
The ATR 72 turboprop aircraft departed from the southern municipality of Kaohsiung at 17:43 local time (09:43 GMT), but lost contact with controllers at 19:06, CNA said, citing the Civil Aeronautics Administration.
The plane was found at Penghu island's Xixi village in flames, local media reported.
TransAsia Airways' General Manager Hsu Yi-Tsung has tearfully apologised for the accident, the Central News Agency reported, pledging to spare no effort in the rescue operation and to transport relatives of passengers on the flight to Magong on Thursday morning.
Earlier on Wednesday, Taiwan was battered by strong winds and rain from a tropical storm, Typhoon Matmo.
However, an official at the Civil Aeronautics Administration told Reuters that bad weather at the time of the crash did not exceed international regulations for landing.
Typhoon Matmo had caused many flights to be cancelled but the land warning was lifted around 17:30 local time, around the time the plane took off, the BBC's Cindy Sui in Taipei reports.Why No New Roads?
Strong Towns advocates for financial solvency and productive land use in American cities. The national obsession with an ever-expanding road system based on inaccurate projections has led many communities into serious debt, all for the sake of a road system with little financial return. We have built more auto infrastructure than we are willing to pay to maintain, and yet we insist on building more.
At Strong Towns, we believe that a transportation system should be a means of creating prosperity in a community, not an end unto itself. Before America spends more on transportation, we must modernize our transportation finance system to get better returns on our investments.
Do you want to see an end to expensive and dangerous road projects? Join Strong Towns, the movement that's working to make that happen.By Emily Le Coz
(Reuters) - A Mississippi pastor brought a horse in a wedding dress to stand with him outside a federal courthouse on Friday in Jackson to protest a federal judge's ruling, currently on hold, to overturn the socially conservative state's ban on gay marriage.
The horse, complete with white flowers tucked into its harness and a bouquet at its feet, munched grass as the pastor, Edward James of Bertha Chapel Missionary Baptist Church, spoke and waved signs at passersby.
"Do you take this horse to be your unnatural wedded spouse to have and to hold?" one sign read.
U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves struck down Mississippi's same-sex marriage ban in a ruling last month. Gay couples cannot yet marry in Mississippi pending the outcome of a state appeal to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, which is hearing arguments in the case on Jan. 9.
Gay marriage is legal in 35 U.S. states, a trend that has accelerated since the Supreme Court ruled in June 2013 that legally married same-sex couples nationwide are eligible for federal benefits, striking down a key part of the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act.
While gay marriage advocates have enjoyed the upper hand in the courts since then, the Cincinnati-based 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in November became the first to rule the other way in upholding state bans on same-sex marriage.
That decision was seen as setting the stage for the Supreme Court to finally rule on the merits of gay marriage nationwide.
Mississippi is home to an estimated 3,484 same-sex couples, according to the most recent decennial census. About one quarter of the couples are raising children.
Speaking in a video-taped interview with the Clarion-Ledger newspaper, James acknowledged that his horse bride was absurd, but said the spectacle served a point.
"Although it's ridiculous, so is the same-sex marriage status," he said.
(Reporting by Emily Le Coz in Mississippi; Editing by Jonathan Kaminsky and Ken Wills)Madison, WI–In the sordid, voyeuristic, details to emerge from the presumed heroin overdose death of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman I hear echoes from my own recent life, now marred by psychic wounds that have barely begun to heal.
Of the many terrible things my girlfriend, Sarah, and I witnessed while living in New Mexico the icy blue color that washed over the faces of those overdosing on heroin jarred us the most. This ghoulish discoloration is caused by a sudden decrease in oxygen due to respiratory depression, preceded by a loss of consciousness. As far as dying goes, one could hardly ask for a more peaceful exit.
We moved to New Mexico, via Madison, in March 2012. There I wrote for a paper in the northern part of the state, while Sarah continued with college.
We were at a house on Lower San Pedro Road, in Espanola, the first time we saw someone fall out, a euphemism for overdose. Espanola, population 12,000, is a small valley town about 30 miles north of Santa Fe. Of its many distinctions, the one most mentioned with no deficit of bravado by its largely Hispanic and Native residents is its standing as America’s opiate capital. For more than a decade, it’s heroin overdose death rate has hovered around six times the national average. In the Valley, the chiva is cheap, abundant, and deadly.
We were visiting Severo and Lupe that day when, shortly after we arrived, a young man named Ivan stopped by on his lunch break to fix in their kitchen. After getting well, Ivan went to untie the tourniquet when, without any warning, he dropped like a sack of potatoes to the floor, hitting the ground with a loud thud! A soft crush of blue supplanted his maple complexion.
Sarah burst into tears. As Lupe and I comforted her, Severo dashed to the other end of the trailer, returning with Narcan (naloxone), a nasal spray that flushes the brain of opiates, instantly reversing the overdose. Within seconds, the man opened his eyes, regained his color, and rose to his feet, unaware he had nearly crossed over. Watching someone nearly die rattled me and Sarah enough that we decided to quit using–just as soon as we burned through the stash we had just picked up.
Days later, I picked up a few Narcans from the public health nurse. It is given freely in New Mexico following a brief training on how to assemble its three-piece delivery system. It was a strange, almost eerie, medicine to keep at the ready. We carried one each in our backpacks, with one at home. Completely inert, Narcan had but one drawback: someone other than the person overdosing had to administer it.
Sarah worried that Narcan would create a false sense of security around what we both knew were increasingly reckless and short-sighted decisions. Foremost, we had begun using when the other wasn’t present, something we said we wouldn’t do. Still, she brushed off my attempts to show her how to assemble the Narcan. It was her way of trying to frighten me, by raising the stakes, because I was hitting the needle a lot harder than she was.
Consequently, when I fell out, her only recourse was to slap and shake me and hope I came out of it without Narcan–and without calling paramedics. She was good at towing the line, but heroin was tightening its grip on her, too, or else she may very well have left me behind.
She tried finding humor in the situation.
I like slapping you almost as much as I like rescuing you, she said once after I woke up to her tear-streaked face. We’ve got to stop. I’m not always going to be here to save you.
The overdoses cut both ways.
In August, not long before we decamped for North Dakota, Sarah fixed early one morning when her eyes dropped shut and she fell back onto the pillow. I thought she was just enjoying the rush of the black juice sieving through the blood-brain barrier, but then the transformation came. In an instant, her pale face had turned a ghostly blue, her breathing reduced to shallow gasps.
Because we had detoxed during a 30-day road trip we had returned from only three days earlier, our Narcan was packed away. I spent several painstaking minutes tearing through boxes in the dark, moonless night, but was unable to find it. Paramedics arrived 30 minutes later and administered the life saving antidote. Eight hours later we fixed as she got ready for work.
That night we resolved to quit using once and for all. Sarah was distraught after contemplating the devastation her death would impose on her younger brothers. I was still in shock from having nearly lost someone I loved dearly. We took inventory of our shared dreams, and, as the night turned into morning, we held each other close, more determined than ever to not sabotage this beautiful thing we shared. Everything we wanted was still within reach, but if we stayed in America’s opiate capital, one of us was going to die.
That truth was now inescapable.
Covering the scourge
It is strange that I would relapse after 13 years of abstaining from heroin. Strange because one of my responsibilities covering the crime desk for Espanola’s newspaper was to aggressively report on the Valley’s overdose epidemic. The position gave me front-row seats to the nation’s most vibrant theater of heroin addiction, overdose, and death.
One morning last year, I spied a nice-sized ball of black tar in the police department’s evidence room. Police had seized it during the bust up of a fencing operation the night before. I caught a whiff of its nasty, vinegary odor and couldn’t stop thinking about how much I had enjoyed using the stuff years earlier.
By then we had been crushing painkillers on and off for several months. A couple Sarah met at work had turned us on to them and, before even realizing it, we would hurt for the candy, as it was called. It wasn’t long before the pills no longer hit like they used to, with the first casualty being Sarah’s grades. To save money, we switched to heroin, a bigger buzz at less than half the cost. For me, it was an old-times-sake kind of thing. Sarah just wanted to try it to say that she had. We pinky swore we would only use it a couple of times, after which we would get clean.
As our personal lives headed toward the abyss, I flourished professionally, producing work that later earned me two first place awards from the New Mexico Newspaper Association. Each week I filed several requests with the state’s Medical Investigator’s Office for various autopsy reports to keep tabs on the number of County residents who had fallen out from opiate toxicity.
I also kept a photographic record of many overdoses, rushing around town to wherever a body had been found. The officer manning the scene would tell me warm or cold, meaning whether the victim was dead or alive. The dead-on-arrivals were heart wrenching, as the deceased’s family began arriving at the scene, their anguish palpable enough to choke up the hardest of hearts.
Survivors made the most interesting photo subjects, as they were walked or wheeled from their residences, attached to IVs and sometimes other devices. Two years before we arrived, Lupe overdosed in the park behind City Hall. The paper’s then-crime reporter arrived moments after paramedics gave her Narcan, saving her life. She woke up with first responders hovering over her like guardian angels and a man standing feet away photographing her.
You bet your ass that picture ran in the paper…, right there in the police blotter, she lamented to us. Everyone was calling me an’ shit. ‘Lupe! Lupe! You made the paper!’
That wasn’t the last time she turned blue. Severo, after waking from his own stupors, found her on multiple occasions since then, barely breathing. Narcan saved her each time.
Although survivors made a better photo, it’s the blue faces that continue to haunt me. In one photo, taken by my predecessor, a pair of legs dangled from the doorway of a shed behind the Baskin Robbins, a scoop of mint ice cream still melting beside the man’s body. At another angle, his eyes were open and a syringe lay nearby. His face was not only blue, but frozen in time, the muscles relaxed in such a way that there was no mistaking him as among the living.
The man turned out to be homeless, making him to just another dead blue overdosed face among many. Too many for anyone to really care.
A new beginning
North Dakota was the worst for her and it was the worst for me. What we had hoped would be a quiet few months running a 52-room motel in Dickinson, a city in the middle of fucking nowhere, turned into an even worse situation than the one we left behind in New Mexico.
As live-in motel managers, we were basically slaves to the owner and his guests, earning a biweekly pittance that, when broken down, averaged about 17-cents an hour. Life as we knew it was on indefinite hold, because one of us had to remain onsite at all times. We couldn’t even walk our dog together.
The first month was fresh and new, hopeful even, but as autumn descended on Dickinson, we both became terribly depressed with the situation. The guests–many of whom were addicts, dealers, and prostitutes lured by the oil boom to western North Dakota–were like needy children, rude, and calling at all hours of the night with problems that many times could’ve waited until morning. Boredom and cabin fever set in, then the cold came and we receded even further inward.
Initially we planned to stay a year, but by November we had decided to leave come spring, then bumped our departure even closer, to just before Christmas.
With a few short weeks between us and our return home, we became even more reckless, this time without any pretense of being responsible junkies. In September, our second month there, we were back at it, though our use was infrequent as heroin was difficult to find in Dickinson, not to mention very expensive. In time we met an actual trafficker who cut preferred-customer deals and it was on. With an eye toward sobriety, those final weeks became an occasion to slam as much as we could, our last hurrah.
But in late November, reality checked us once again when Lupe and Severo fixed after returning home following a visit with their children, nodding off next to each other. Lupe woke up; Severo did not.
That night I spent nearly two hours on the phone with Lupe as she wept inconsolably over Severo’s passing. I could feel the pain seething inside her. She begged us to come back to New Mexico, not only for his funeral, but so that together we could all get clean. She was afraid to do it alone.
Sarah and I stayed up late that night, fixing shots, and discussing how awful it would be for the other if one of us die. She had taken an interest in photography while in North Dakota and had begun photographing our lives as addicts. We grieved for Lupe, who relied on Severo for so much, the same way Sarah and I relied on each other for the things we did.
What would happen to me if you died? she asked that night while snapping pictures.
The ride would end and you would go home, I replied. But I’m not going to die.
The unthinkable happened less than three weeks later. Around 2 a.m. on Dec. 5, I woke up to Sarah sitting at the foot of our bed. She was folded over so that her head hung down above her lap, her arms hanging listlessly at her side. Her face and lips were blue. But this time it was too late. There was no gasping, no pulse, no life. All the Narcan in the world couldn’t bring her back.
After nearly four years together, in which we scarcely spent a moment apart, the ride had ended in the worst possible way. Every dream we shared was gone, over, dead. I had lost the best friend I ever had. She was 24.
I am still breathing, but barely feel alive. I relive that moment, and so many others, dozens of times each day, sometimes bargaining with fate, or whatever it is, for her return. My only consolation is that it’s unlikely she suffered and that is of little consolation at all.
Had I woken earlier I likely could have saved her with the Narcan we kept less than four feet from where she died. As with her first overdose in August, I mull over the countless what-ifs, only this time I go at it alone, without my friend.
I never asked her what I would do if she died, because I never thought she would. I don’t think she thought she would. She wasn’t reckless and excessive like I was reckless and excessive, insofar as one can use heroin safely and in healthy amounts.
Regardless, I now have an answer to that unfortunate question.
The aftermath
Today marks two months since she passed, and four days since Philip Seymour Hoffman was found dead in his apartment with a needle in his arm. Much has been written about the latter, about his greatness as an actor and his kindness as a man. His immortalization in the canons of pop culture is assured.
Far fewer people are thinking of Sarah today, even though she too was a kind, warm, and wonderfully loving person. The world won’t anoint her as an artist or romanticize her death. It won’t even give a passing thought to the person she was and had yet to become. It won’t take stock of all that she gave.
But her legacy lives on in the hearts she touched and the smiles she gave, and that is not insignificant. Indeed, as I struggle to make sense of my own world upended, and grieve over the loss of someone I thought I would spend my life with, I can only hope that time tempers the ache that has been so loud and persistent since that dreadful morning.
What I do know is that now, two months on, I still love her deeply and miss her terribly.
I wish I could tell her that.Here are some updates on Starsky and Hutch, 2 little rescued kittens who survived a rough ordeal before they were saved by the wonderful people from the Challenger’s House in Toney, Alabama. [Full story of Starsky and Hutch]
They are doing very well. The two are now off the kitty formula and have started eating solid food without any problems. They seem to enjoy everything their foster mom gives them. "They’re happy, they’re healthy, and they’re gaining weight. You certainly can’t ask for more than that," said Robyn Anderson, the foster mom.
"They’re also starting to climb – a couple of times when I’ve gone into the room, they’ve been on the small cat tree, and they always act all amazed when I ask them how they got up there, like they’re saying 'I don’t KNOW how I got up here!' They’re able to get down just fine, too. They’re growing up," said on her blog.
You can see more updates on Starsky and Hutch at Love and Hisses. If you want to adopt a furry friend from Challenger’s House, click here to visit their site.
Photos courtesy of Robyn Anderson (flickr: RobynAnderson).The alcohol hangover develops when blood alcohol concentration (BAC) returns to zero and is characterized by a feeling of general misery that may last more than 24 h. It comprises a variety of symptoms including drowsiness, concentration problems, dry mouth, dizziness, gastro-intestinal complaints, sweating, nausea, hyper-excitability, and anxiety. The alcohol hangover is an intriguing issue since it is unknown why these symptoms are present after alcohol and its metabolites are eliminated from the body.
Although numerous scientific papers cover the acute effects of alcohol consumption, researchers largely neglected the issue of alcohol hangover. This lack of scientific interest is remarkable, since almost everybody is familiar with the unpleasant hangover effects that may arise the day after an evening of excessive drinking, and with the ways these symptoms may affect performance of planned activities.
Many people favour the (unproven) popular belief that dehydration is the main cause of alcohol hangover symptoms. However, taking a closer look at the present research on biological changes during alcohol hangovers suggests otherwise. A limited number of experiments have studied biological changes that are present the day after excessive drinking (for a review, see Ylikahri and Huttunen, 1977 ). Significant changes were reported on endocrine parameters (increased concentrations of vasopressin, aldosterone, and renin) and metabolic acidosis (reduced blood pH values due to increased concentrations of lactate, ketone bodies, and free fatty acids). These effects are related to dehydration and cause symptoms such as dry mouth and thirst. In addition, changes in immune system parameters (increased concentrations of pro-inflammatory cytokine [IL-12] and interferon-gamma [IFNγ]) have been reported (Kim et al., 2003 ). It is likely that these changes in immune system parameters cause the more ‘cognitive’ alcohol hangover effects such as memory impairment and mood changes. Moreover, these findings suggest that alcohol hangover and dehydration are two independent yet co-occurring processes that have different underlying mechanisms. The idea that alcohol hangover symptoms (i.e. memory impairment) are related to immune system activation is strengthened by a relatively new discovery that the immune system and central nervous system (CNS) operate in close communication with each other (Maier and Watkins, 1998 ; Maier, 2003 ).
The first line of evidence for the hypothesis that effects of immune activity on the CNS may be the cause of alcohol hangover comes from studies showing that cytokines communicate with the brain. The nervus vagus pathway is the main afferent pathway mediating the effects of peripherally released cytokines in the CNS (Dantzer et al., 1998 ). Peripherally released cytokines thus have central effects, by signaling the brain to up-regulate cerebral cytokine production (Parnet et al., 1994 ). Cytokine receptors have been localized on glia cells and neurons throughout the brain, but are especially dense in the hippocampus, a brain structure that is vital in memory functioning.
Second, the effects caused by cytokines are very similar to the core symptoms of alcohol hangover, suggesting that underlying processes might be the same. Cerebral cytokines (IL-1β, IL-6, and tumour necrosis factor [TNF-α]) are involved in sickness behaviour (Dantzer et al., 1998 ). In animals, symptoms of sickness behaviour include weakness, inability to concentrate, decreased appetite, reduced activity, sleepiness, and loss of interest in usual activities. In humans, the same symptoms are all commonly reported during alcohol hangover.
Third, in humans, a relationship between the presence of cytokines and memory impairment has been demonstrated (Reichenberg et al., 2001 ). Endotoxin, injected to provoke sickness behaviour in healthy volunteers significantly increased cytokine concentrations (IL−1β, IL-6 and TNF-α). Psychomotor functioning and attention were not affected, but memory was significantly impaired on a word learning test, story recall test, and figure recall test up to 10 h after injection. Thus, the effects on memory functioning during sickness behaviour are strikingly similar to those observed during alcohol hangover.
There have been a few studies that proposed that dehydration itself is a cause of memory impairment (e.g. Cian et al., 2001 ; Tomporowski, 2003 ; Lieberman et al., 2005 ). However, intense stressors (e.g. simulated combat or heavy prolonged exercise) were used to cause dehydration. Hence, it can be argued that these stressors have mobilized the immune system that in return causes memory impairment, independent of the dehydration effects that accompany these stressors. In support for this idea, in passive circumstances without a stressor (e.g. using abstinence from water for 11 h) no significant effects were reported on tests examining memory functions (Neave et al., 2001 ). Thus, these findings support the hypothesis that not dehydration, but a stressor causes an immune response which results in memory problems. Future research should verify this hypothesis.
In this issue of Alcohol & Alcoholism, the article by Stephens and colleagues clearly discusses the difficulties and pitfalls of hangover research. Hangover research showed conflicting results: half the studies report significant performance effects whereas the other half do not. The most important cause of this is the fact that the pathology of alcohol hangover has not been elucidated. This is illustrated by the fact that whereas numerous hangover cures are available, only few of them are scientifically investigated and none of them prevents or relieves hangovers in a significant way (Pittler et al., 2005 ). Since the biology of hangovers is not well understood, it is not surprising that the design of experiments and the included psychological tests lack an evidence-based rationale.
Blinding, i.e. preventing participants from knowing which is the hangover or placebo test day, is especially difficult in alcohol hangover research. Considerable amounts of alcohol (> 1.0 g/kg) need to be consumed to produce a hangover. Alcohol intoxication and its after-effects are impossible to mimic by a placebo condition. Hence, participants can easily recognize the hangover and placebo condition. Alcohol (hangover) expectancies may thus affect performance. The authors address this shortcoming to naturalistic experiments, but due to blinding difficulties this is equally true for laboratory-controlled experiments.
As pointed out by Stephens and colleagues, the small sample size of many hangover experiments is another issue that resulted in conflicting results. Several studies tested less than 10 subjects, and thus, do not have enough statistical power to draw strong conclusions from the outcome measures. Moreover, in most studies only young healthy men participated. It is well known that men and women differ in alcohol metabolism, and thus, may differ in the presence and severity of hangover symptoms. More recent studies (Verster et al., 2003 ; McKinney et al., 2004 ) acknowledged this and did use larger groups of subjects consisting of both men and women.
To make matters complicated, the presence and severity of alcohol hangovers is influenced by many factors other than the amount of alcohol. One is these factors is the presence of congeners in alcoholic drinks. Congeners are substances that flavour and colour drinks. In laboratory experiments mixing pure alcohol with orange juice can prevent the presence of congeners. However, in real life (and naturalistic experiments) people consume a variety of different alcoholic drinks which all have different congener content. Stephens and colleagues shortly discuss the impact of congeners on performance measures during alcohol hangover, but acknowledge that not much research has been done in this area. As summarized in Figure 1, it can be concluded that alcoholic drinks that contain more congeners produce more severe alcohol hangovers. Moreover, a recent survey showed it takes fewer high-congener drinks to get a hangover, while at the same time the severity of these hangovers is most pronounced (Verster, 2006 ).
Fig. 1 View largeDownload slide Number of drinks that produce a hangover and the reported corresponding hangover severity for beer, wine and liquor.Hangover severity ranges from 0 (no hangover) to 8 (extreme hangover). Significant differences ( P < 0.05) are indicated by *. Note: In The Netherlands a standardized drink of beer, wine or liquor all contain the same amount of alcohol.
Fig. 1 View largeDownload slide Number of drinks that produce a hangover and the reported corresponding hangover severity for beer, wine and liquor.Hangover severity ranges from 0 (no hangover) to 8 (extreme hangover). Significant differences ( P < 0.05) are indicated by *. Note: In The Netherlands a standardized drink of beer, wine or liquor all contain the same amount of alcohol.
A second factor that is often not incorporated in research is the effect of sleep duration and quality on the hangover state. Whereas in laboratory studies participants are often allowed a full night of sleep, in real life drinking time often goes at the expense of sleep time. The results of a recent survey, summarized in Figure 2, show that some of the symptoms that are experienced the day after excessive drinking are significantly related to sleep duration and quality and not to the amount of alcohol that was consumed (Verster and Roehrs, 2007 ). The resulting daytime sleepiness is significantly related to several affects that are generally ascribed to be alcohol hangover symptoms.
Fig. 2 View largeDownload slide Schematic representation of the relationship between individual hangover symptoms and sleep quality, daytime sleepiness and alcohol quantity. Please note that only alcohol quantity and daytime sleepiness correlated significantly with overall hangover severity. All depicted correlations were significant ( P < 0.05), except vomiting ( P < 0.06) and guilt ( P < 0.07).
Fig. 2 View largeDownload slide Schematic representation of the relationship between individual hangover symptoms and sleep quality, daytime sleepiness and alcohol quantity. Please note that only alcohol quantity and daytime sleepiness correlated significantly with overall hangover severity. All depicted correlations were significant ( P < 0.05), except vomiting ( P < 0.06) and guilt ( P < 0.07).
The results from this survey underline the fact that many factors influence the hangover state. On the other hand, it is essential to keep in mind that several factors co-occur with the hangover state including dehydration effects and sleep deprivation. Disentangling these factors is very important and requires future research. Other factors such as the impact of food and smoking on hangover severity also deserve attention from hangover researchers. Although it is of scientific interest to investigate these factors in isolation, in real life they are experienced together. Therefore, the importance of naturalistic studies in which subjects can freely drink, smoke, and eat is evident.
Although there are many methodological shortcomings in alcohol hangover research, it is evident that alcohol hangovers do have an impact on daily activities such as on-the-job performance. This is illustrated by a study of Ames et al. ( 1997 ).
They conducted structured interviews among 800 assembly workers in order to examine the relationship between hangovers and work-related problems. Although less than half the workers reported being at work while having a hangover, those who experienced hangovers reported significantly often feeling sick at work, been criticized by a supervisor, having conflicts or fights with co-workers, had significantly more problems in completing the job, and reported falling asleep more often at work. Statistical analyses showed that having a hangover during work actually predicts these work-related problems: the frequency of problems increases when people more often reported having hangovers at work.
Interestingly, no significant differences were found in absenteeism between workers reporting hangovers and those who did not. A possible explanation may be that workers with a hangover feel that having a hangover is ‘their own fault’, and the obligation they have to go to work may prevent calling sick. The fact that workers do go to work when having a hangover is of concern, especially since some in jobs making the wrong decisions may have serious consequences.
The article by Stephens and colleagues calls for additional hangover research, using more sophisticated research methods. In |
Republican lawmakers are returning to their districts for a two-week recess with little to show for their long-awaited majority in Washington – other than continued policy divisions and an unpopular, controversy-prone president.
Aiming to keep members from going home completely empty-handed despite a years-long campaign promise to repeal and replace Obamacare, House leaders promoted a new amendment to their stalled-out health care plan Thursday. The provision would create high-risk insurance pools, with the hope of bringing warring factions within the party back to the table.
"This brings us closer to the final agreement we all want to achieve," House Speaker Paul Ryan, flanked by an array of conference members, said at a press conference. Ryan had met at the White House with President Trump, who, yearning for a legislative victory after 2 ½ months in office marked by tumult, urged Congress to revive the House bill that failed two weeks ago.
But lawmakers left Washington Thursday without voting on a measure, a sign that progress remains elusive. While they insist conversations will continue through the holiday district work period, they also face the prospect of feedback and pushback from constituents at home. Meanwhile, Trump will be holding down the Republican fort in Washington, where distractions are never in short supply.
The president's approval rating hit an all-time low in the RealClearPolitics average this week at 39 percent. Congressional approval has fallen even lower, to around 19 percent. A Quinnipiac University survey this week found Trump underwater among key supporters -- men and white voters. Republicans' approval rating fell six points over the past two weeks, according to the poll.
Lawmakers don't return to Washington until later this month, just ahead of the 100-day mark of the Trump presidency.
Republicans in the Senate are poised to give Trump his first congressional victory by confirming Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch on Friday. Facing an unwavering Democratic filibuster, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell led the Senate to alter chamber rules to allow for a simple majority threshold on high court nominees.
As a candidate, Trump campaigned on the prospect of a Republican president filling the court’s vacant seat with a conservative jurist, and Gorsuch has been hailed in all corners of the party as a strong choice.
"I think a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court is about as important as anything the president and the Senate do," Missouri GOP Sen. Roy Blunt told RealClearPolitics. "And leaving here with that done and a clear path forward in the future is a good thing."
But the nomination has been overtaken by various controversies and breaking news. On the day Gorsuch's confirmation hearings began, for example, FBI Director James Comey announced to the House Intellgence Committee that a counter-intelligence investigation into Russian election meddling and allegations of collusion between Trump associates and Russian agents had been underway for months.
And on the day Senate Republicans cleared the way for Gorsuch's confirmation, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes announced he would recuse himself from his panel's Russia probe in light of an ethics investigation into whether he mishandled classified information.
Meanwhile, the escalating conflict in Syria could add to what’s already on Congress' plate, as Trump weighs responses to Bashar al-Assad's chemical weapons attack on civilians this week. CNN reported that the administration is considering military action.
Ahead of the congressional recess, key members of the administration have been lobbying different constituencies within the party—from the House’s moderate Tuesday Group to the conservatives in the Freedom Caucus to obstinate activist groups—to find consensus on a health care bill, even as the president said last month he was ready to move on to tax reform and let Obamacare “explode.” In the weeks since Ryan pulled the American Health Care Act after lacking sufficient GOP votes, Trump has pointed fingers at members of his own party, calling out lawmakers by name on Twitter.
But there is an acknowledgement in the administration that abandoning health care jeopardizes the rest of the president's to-do list. Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said health care is the "linchpin" in the Trump agenda, and said the administration is now driving the conversations with lawmakers. Meanwhile, the president continues to warn of political consequences for the party if lawmakers fail to act on the issue.
In an overture to Freedom Caucus members, the White House has floated the idea of state waivers for Obamacare coverage requirements. Chairman Mark Meadows, whom Trump has called out for obstruction, said his members would be open to the idea, but want to see promises in writing first. "The majority, if not almost all of the Freedom Caucus, will vote for it," he said during a Politico “Playbook” interview.
On Thursday, the House Rules Committee approved an amendment to the failed bill that would create a $15 billion federal pool for high-risk individuals seeking coverage. Conservative Reps. Gary Palmer of Alabama and David Schweikert of Arizona sponsored the provision, arguing that it would help bring down the cost of premiums for other groups. The concept has been criticized before for the cost and care consequences for those with pre-existing conditions or other serious health issues. Still, the move is intended to move lawmakers closer to approving the overall legislation, and send a message to constituents that members are working toward a solution.
"We're not there yet, obviously," said New Jersey Rep. Tom MacArthur, a member of the Tuesday Group, who stood by Ryan as he promoted the amendment. "The American people don't care about the process. They care about their health-care premiums, they care about being able to see their doctors, and paying affordable rates."
With the legislative agenda still in limbo, Trump and congressional Republicans have been pointing to executive orders and regulatory initiatives as a sign of progress. Ohio Rep. Pat Tiberi noted that Trump recently invoked the Congressional Review Act to quickly move resolutions to the his desk that roll back previous regulations.
"It's all about trying to frame what we've done," Tiberi said. "I don't think a lot of people realize all the regulatory relief we're providing."
Other lawmakers have tried to downplay the lack of legislative progress on key agenda items and intra-party tensions that have continued despite having a Republican in the White House.
"Don't panic. We'll be OK.... I don't feel empty-handed at all," said Pennsylvania Rep. Tim Murphy, who practiced psychology before coming to Congress. "Americans should put pressure on members on all sides and say, ‘Hey, get together and get these things done.’"On the heels of the news that the Obama administration continues to hound Dan Choi, and other DADT dischargees, to pay DOD thousands of dollars because they were discharged under DADT, today we learn that the US Marshal is visiting the homes of the protesters who locked themselves to the White House fence in the past few months. Ostensibly the visits are to inform the protesters of their upcoming court case in March, but I’m told by Robin McGehee of GetEqual that previous court notices were mailed to them – they’ve never had the US Marshal show up at their homes.
It smacks of intimidation.
These cases shouldn’t even exist. They should be, and should have been, dismissed. If the President is going to brag at the State of the Union about how all troops, gay and straight, are now one, thanks to him, then he needs to start acting like it. This is his administration. He has the power to make these court cases against the protesters go away (he has the power to stop defending DADT and DOMA in court as well), and he has the power to stop the Defense Department from trying to force servicemembers discharged under DADT to pays thousands, and in some cases tens of thousands of dollars, because they were discharged under DADT.
This is the reason so many of us are constantly perturbed with this White House. It doesn’t seem that anyone there fully understands that they’re in charge, that they have actual power. We constantly hear how powerless they are, how the president isn’t king and isn’t God. No, he’s not – but he is the president of the United States, which is no small shakes. It’s not entirely clear they fully get that fact. If the administration’s representatives continue to harass our troops and our civil rights organizers, then it is the White House’s fault, because they are not doing nearly enough to stop it.
They have the power to stop it. So stop it.We are excited to announce that ESL and Ubisoft will be joining forces at gamescom to bring you a showcase of the upcoming installment of the Tom Clancy first-person shooter Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege, which will be coming to PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on the 13th of October 2015.
The showcase, set to feature the game’s team-based tactical combat, variety of different classes and team roles and procedural destruction system, will take place in the ESL Arena at gamescom on Saturday the 8th of August at 16:00 CEST. The four teams of five players will clash in a series of Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege showmatches followed by a Twitter Q&A during which the viewers will have a chance to ask the Ubisoft development team questions about the game.
The teams
The four teams will be made up of a wide variety of players including Rainbow Six veterans as well as popular YouTubers and top players from the Closed Alpha
YouTubers Rainbow Six veterans Hannah “Lomadia” Rutherford David “GaM3 Ov3R” Park Alex “Arekkz” Noon Sean “Rogue Warchief” Cyr Joseph “DYKGaming” Giaffreda David “FINEST X” Narciso Charles “ChaBoyy” Richardson Mark “Blood n Glory” Rios Aaron “Aaronlawd” Garvie Anthony “Hopes” Nizzardo European Closed Alpha Top Players German Closed Alpha Top Players Maxime “ iMaxx64” Blain Rainer “Hy5_LeGenD” Kneidl Yeray “DriD” González Domínguez Niklas “Kasstrierer” Massrierer Julian “ZeR0089” Rott Eike “Heizoel_Walther” Wichem Geoffrey “ggcmoa” Grenet Bjorn “Rush” Mech Robert “Dastan” Hinze Lukas “Lucarian” Reid
Although the veterans and top alpha players may seem the obvious favorites to win, the YouTubers’ team should not be underestimated. Their dedication to gaming has resulted in them gaining hundreds of thousands subscribers - three of the team members have over a million, with Hannah “Lomadia” Rutherford a member of the YOGSCAST crew.
The talent
In order to bring you the best possible Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege experience, we’ve also assembled a great talent lineup to take you through the showmatch, featuring:
Host : Sean Charles
: Sean Charles Commentator : Alex “Machine” Richardson
: Alex “Machine” Richardson Special guest : Chris Hendry, Ubisoft level artist
: Chris Hendry, Ubisoft level artist Special guest : Genevieve Forget, Ubisoft community developer
See you at gamescom!
Be sure to join us at the ESL Arena’s small stage on Saturday the 8th of August at 16:00 CEST to see what Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege has to offer by watching some exciting showmatches, talking to the developers and meeting fellow fans!
If you can’t makes it to gamescom, be sure to tune in to ESL’s and Ubisoft’s Twitch channels to watch the showcase online and get a chance to win some great prizes.
For more information about Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege, head over to the game’s official website.
Share this article:Recently wrapped up, this Jet Black BMW F82 M4 by ATT-Tec features some lightweight wheels and a series of aero upgrades. The wheels installed are made by OZ Ultraleggera, a lightweight solution which also enhances the looks of the M4.The Darth Vader blacked out look of this M4 is further improved by the lower stance, thanks to a set of Bilstein lowering springs.
The M4 also gets a carbon fiber front lip and a trunk lid, along with carbon ceramic brakes.
In its factory form, the BMW M4 is powered by a 3.0 liter BMW TwinPower Turbo engine developing 425 horsepower. The car can thus accelerate from 0-62mph (0-100km/h) in approximately 3.8 seconds with Launch Control.
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Here are more photos of this “dark” M4, courtesy of C-Kraft Photography.In each instance, officials say someone claiming to have planted a bomb or was planning mass shootings. Jen Maxfield reports. (Published Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016)
Eleven New Jersey schools were placed on lockdown or evacuated for part of the day Tuesday after officials received threats about mass shootings and bombs, authorities say.
Schools in Tenafly, Leonia, Bergenfield, Teaneck, Garfield, Clifton, Fair Lawn, Englewood, Hackensack and Sayreville were either evacuated or placed on lockdown for at least some time Tuesday morning after schools received the threats, authorities say. But the more than 10,000 students who were affected were able to continue their days once officials determined the threats to be part of a hoax.
STORM TEAM 4 Bitter Cold Ahead of Possible Major Snowstorm
In each instance, officials say someone claiming to have planted a bomb or was planning mass shootings, authorities said.
All of the threats sounded similar to an automated robotic call and had been left as voicemail messages, authorities said. According to Bergen County Sheriff Michael Saudino says the messages appear to have been routed through Bakersfield, California.
In Bergenfield, students were forced to huddle together outside on a day with wind chills in the teens while tactical crews swept through the schools for signs of a threat. They spent more than an hour in the cold -- some students without jackets -- before walking to a nearby middle school.
"Everyone was cold," said Amber Morales, a senior. "Teachers were handing out blankets; people were sharing sweaters."
Most of the students lost an entire day of instruction due to the threats, officials said. Hundreds of students also decided to head home out of fear.
Schools in several other states in the Northeast and Iowa also reported threats Tuesday morning. It was not immediately clear if the threats were linked, authorities said.Announcing Dr. Robbie Hart as a BioOne Ambassador Award Winner
Dr. Robbie Hart is a winner of the 2018 BioOne Ambassador Award! Dr. Hart is a member of the Society of Ethnobiology. Congratulations on your excellent scholarship, Dr. Hart, as well as your work on medicinal plant conservation.
BioOne describes the BioOne Ambassador Award as "recognizing five early-career researchers who excel at communicating the importance and impact of their research beyond their discipline. BioOne created its Ambassador Award to spotlight rising scholars in their specialties and generate a wider interest in recent research from our publishing partners."
Medicinal Plants for Sustainable Livelihoods and Biodiversity Conservation (The material below is copied from BioOne's Meet the Winners webpage.)
Wild medicinal plants are collected around the world by rural people who incorporate them into their own health care or sell them to supplement local incomes. But even as this practice continues, communities that collect wild plants often display uneven knowledge of their uses, marketing techniques, and sustainable harvest requirements. This knowledge gap has negative outcomes. Traditional knowledge can be lost if it is not valued and shared. Local economies are depressed as middlemen garner most of the profits. Wild plant populations may be overharvested and endangered. In this paper, my coauthors and I discuss our efforts to address these problems in Swat, a mountainous area of Northern Pakistan which is famed for natural richness but economically challenged by remoteness and inaccessibility. First, we worked with local communities to document the most important medicinal plants – species such as the highly valued and critically endangered Saussurea costus. Then, we conducted a range of interventions to foster economic and environmental sustainability. These included local awareness campaigns, capacity-building trainings, community mobilization for conservation of threatened species, and exposure visits to link collectors with buyers. Although the impacts are only beginning, our activities have given 200+ local collectors in Swat the resources to sustainably gather medicinal plants, authenticate them to potential buyers with botanical identifications, process them using methods that ensure maximum quality and income, and work together to share and advance their own knowledge. We hope Swat can be a global exemplar of how medicinal plant capacity-building can improve livelihoods and support conservation.
This summary is in reference to:
Promoting Sustainable Use of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants for Livelihood Improvement and Biodiversity Conservation under Global Climate Change, through Capacity Building in the Himalaya Mountains, Swat District, Pakistan. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 102(2):309-315. 2017. Hassan Sher, Rainer W.This comic was actually intended to run last Friday (when this story was still fresh) but I had to preempt it to make fun of Apple’s “Antennagate” press conference.
In other news: COMIC-CON! COMIC-CON! COMIC-CON! COMIC-CON! COMIC-CON! COMIC-CON! COMIC-CON!
I will be at the Topatoco booth (#1231) in the Webcomic’s Pavilion (just around the corner from Penny Arcade). I will have a few shirts, my book, various comic prints, a few left over large prints, [maybe a secret special print… more on that later], and a new item:
Sketch Cards! For $5 I will do a quick sketch for you on a nice card that looks like this:
Pretty neat, huh? Sketches in HE books (that you buy) are free, and larger commissioned pieces are priced depending on complexity.
COMIC-CON EXCLUSIVE “Browncoat vs. Red Shirt” SHIRTS!!!
I can now announce that I did a couple of shirt designs for Quantum Mechanix, fine online retailer of various Firefly/Serentiy, Dr. Horrible, Battlestar and Star Trek Merch, that will be exclusively sold at Comic-Con (booth 3251, which is mid-hall, toward the back wall, near the break area) and likely never again. Pick a side and display your colors proudly.
DO YOU WANT A SAN DIEGO FANCY BASTARD MEETUP?
FB’s JustChristine and JonnyAce wants to organize a meetup for sometime during the con. Thursday night I will be at W00tstock. If you are interested make a comment. If enough people are interested we can make an event on the Fancy Bastards Facebook page. Follow me on Twitter for minute to minute updates as to what’s going on while I’m at Comic-Con.Texas Rep. Filemon Vela wrote an open letter to Donald Trump condemning his proposed border wall. | AP Photo Democratic congressman tells Trump: 'Shove it up your a--'
Donald Trump is a racist who can take his proposed border wall and “shove it up [his] ass,” Rep. Filemon Vela wrote in an open letter to the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
In the letter, dated Monday, the Texas Democrat agreed with the real estate mogul on a series of issues: that the federal government has failed veterans, the Department of Veterans Affairs needs to be improved, the State Department and Mexican government should be more aggressive in addressing cartel violence and corruption in Mexico, and felons who are in the U.S. illegally should be hastily deported.
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“There might even be a few other things on which we can agree,” Vela wrote. “However, your ignorant anti-immigrant opinions, your border wall rhetoric, and your recent bigoted attack on an American jurist are just plain despicable.”
Trump has called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the U.S., a wall on the southern border that Mexico will pay for and the deportation of some 11 million undocumented immigrants.
“Your position with respect to the millions of undocumented Mexican workers who now live in this country is hateful, dehumanizing, and frankly shameful,” Vela wrote, arguing that most of those individuals work in hotels, restaurants, construction and agricultural fields.
“If I had to guess, your own business enterprises either directly or indirectly employ more of these workers than most other businesses in our country,” he continued. “Thousands of our businesses would come to a grinding halt if we invoked a policy that would require ‘mass deportation’ as you and many of your supporters would suggest. That is precisely why the Republican-leaning U.S. Chamber of Commerce agrees that these workers deserve a national immigration policy that would give them a pathway to citizenship.”
Noting that Mexico “no doubt” has its problems, Vela also hailed it as one of America’s largest trading partners. Citing the Chamber of Commerce, he said the trade relationship is responsible for 6 million jobs and hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue from importing goods from and exporting goods to Mexico.
“Why any modern-thinking person would ever believe that building a wall along the border of a neighboring country, which is both our ally and one of our largest trading partners, is frankly astounding and asinine,” wrote Vela, who added that he would tear to pieces any walls on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Vela accused Trump of descending to “a new low” in his latest attack against Indiana-born federal Judge Gonzalo Curiel. Trump ramped up his rhetoric on the judge last week when he suggested Curiel, whose parents were born in Mexico, couldn’t preside fairly over Trump University fraud cases because of his heritage, coupled with the fact that the tycoon has proposed a border wall that Mexico will pay for.
Vela also highlighted that Americans of Mexican descent — “that you mistakenly refer to as ‘Mexicans,’” he wrote — have served this country in every conflict since the Civil War. His own family helped defend this country after his great-great-grandfather came to the U.S. in 1857, he said, noting that his grandfather and his brothers served in both world wars.
“His great-grandson, my father, served in the U.S. Army and, coincidentally, was one of the first ‘Mexican’ federal judges ever appointed to the federal bench,” Vela wrote.
“I would like to end this letter in a more diplomatic fashion, but I think that you, of all people, understand why I cannot. I will not presume to speak on behalf of every American of Mexican descent, for every undocumented worker born in Mexico who is contributing to our country every day or, for that matter, every decent citizen in Mexico,” Vela concluded. “But, I am sure that many of these individuals would agree with me when I say: ‘Mr. Trump, you’re a racist and you can take your border wall and shove it up your ass.’”Shortly after Tesla held a press conference Wednesday morning touting its $250 million planned plant in San Jose, Calif., Tesla chairman Elon Musk presented his vision of Tesla’s leadership role in the auto industry at the AlwaysOn GoingGreen conference. Musk said that Tesla has the ability to accelerate the auto industry’s progress toward the adoption of electric vehicles by 5 to 10 years. Lighting even that small fire could be very important if you consider what a decade of delay can do for climate change, he said.
Tesla’s efforts to spur the auto giants will include a third-generation, low-cost electric vehicle that could possibly be priced as low as $20,000, (he mentioned $30,000 as an option, too) a price point that is “super affordable,” he explained to us in a phone interview. The company has discussed plans for a third-generation car before, suggesting prices closer to $30,000. Tesla could produce the low-cost, third-generation electric car in partnership with other major auto makers, Musk said in his speech. He also noted the company’s previously announced partnership with Daimler and said that the connection could possibly turn into a larger deal. Details haven’t been announced about the deal with Daimler, but Musk confirmed with us that Tesla’s partnership with Daimler won’t focus on its Model S. So does that mean a future Daimler/Tesla EV partnership could deliver one of its third-gen lower-cost options? We’re not sure, but it sounds like a possibility.
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Musk gave a few details on Tesla’s second generation Model S sedan, which he said the company will unveil early next year. Drivers will be able to swap the battery pack out of the Sedan, and in his talk Musk envisioned battery swap stations that could offer the same convenience as visiting a gas station. He explained to us that it was not that hard to design the battery to be swappable and that it made the car easier to service.
Battery-swapping made us think Tesla might be getting on board with Shai Agassi’s Better Place, but Musk said that at this point the two startups are focusing on different markets — Better Place currently has deals with Israel and Denmark.
On the topic of electric-vehicle competitor Fisker, Musk had some strong opinions. He said that the startup had copied a strategy from Tesla, but that it was using the wrong one (the Fisker-Tesla brawl headed to arbitration in June). We asked him what he thought the market would look like in 2010, when many of the large auto makers are first launching their electric vehicles, and he said it would be significantly later than that before any serious contenders came onto the market.A Firefox add-on that gives users the ability to collect information on the IP address, server hostname and other related data for websites they visit also has the added bonus feature of reporting the same information on every site visited to a third-party server, SophosLabs reports.
The ShowIP add-on exposes the full Web-browsing history of its users to the add-on's back-end service—and anyone who can intercept the unencrypted packets. Sophos' Graham Clueley writes that he was alerted to the problem by a reader, who found a recent update to the ShowIP add-on sends the full URL of sites visited in unencrypted form—including those visited using HTTP Secure and in "private browsing" mode—to a Web server at api.ip2info.org, without alerting the user.
The behavior is a potential privacy threat to users of the service, because the data leaked by the add-on could be used by anyone sharing the network they are on to reconstruct their Internet browsing history. The issue has been reported on the add-on's Google Code project page, but there has been no response.Though by no means a climate change denier, Richard Muller, a physicist at the University of California, Berkeley, whose work in nuclear and astrophysics is well known, had long been suspicious of some of the science underpinning the accepted catechism on global warming.
He wondered, for example, about the the potential for urban areas, which retain and generate inordinate amounts of heat, to distort data suggesting that things were getting warmer. He also questioned the reliability of surface temperature readings collected from aging and error-prone monitoring stations all over the planet.
Muller's desire to examine these issues -- along with a willingness to excoriate prominent climate scientists for what he considered bad behavior, and to cheer climate change skeptics for bucking received orthodoxies on the topic -- certainly made him something of an orphan in the ever-polarized climate wars. But to his mind, it didn't mean he rejected the basic mechanics of global warming.
Casual readers, perusing the headlines over the last two weeks, would be forgiven for thinking otherwise.
Those portrayals then generated a subsequent wave of opprobrium from the small but vocal community of skeptics and deniers who think, across the broadest spectrum, that global warming is nonsense, that humans aren't contributing to it, or some mixture of both. Efforts to disown him as part of Team Skeptic ensued.
"Richard Muller is not who he says he is. He is an advocate of the theory of man-made global warming," wrote a columnist in The Charleston Daily Mail. "The skeptic who claims to have debunked climate skepticism never was a skeptic," declared the folks at JunkScience.com.
Muller suggested the bluster on all sides was somewhat misplaced.
"It is ironic if some people treat me as a traitor, since I was never a skeptic -- only a scientific skeptic," he said in a recent email exchange with The Huffington Post. "Some people called me a skeptic because in my best-seller 'Physics for Future Presidents' I had drawn attention to the numerous scientific errors in the movie 'An Inconvenient Truth.' But I never felt that pointing out mistakes qualified me to be called a climate skeptic."
In a nutshell, Muller and his team at Berkeley, which includes his daughter, Elizabeth, merged and analyzed a staggering amount of data collected from temperature monitoring stations the world over in order to address several complaints about climate research thus far. Skeptics, for example, have long argued -- legitimately, in Muller's view -- that climate researchers have relied on too small or too selective a sample of station data to definitively conclude that temperatures are rising; that many of the stations offer unreliable data, or are skewed upward by proximity to urban "heat islands"; or that researchers have made inappropriate adjustments in data to compensate for changes in measuring equipment and other local variables that crop up over decades of pulse-taking.
None of these concerns proved significant. "Our analysis of the complete data set showed that none of these four major concerns of the skeptics had biased the answer," Muller said.
In fact, the results closely matched most previous analyses showing a clear up-tick in temperature -- roughly 1 degree Celsius -- over the last half-century. And their estimate even exceeded the conservative estimate of a 0.64 degree increase promulgated by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Asked whether his group's findings have been mischaracterized since publication, Muller -- who has been accused of mischaracterizations of his own -- was unequivocal. "By nearly every news, radio, and TV station that has reported on us," he said. "I have been misquoted more in the last two weeks than in the prior several decades of my professional life." Among other trouble spots, Muller said, was the headline put atop his own op-ed contribution to The Wall Street Journal, which described his findings as "The Case Against Global-Warming Skepticism."
Muller said he'd submitted a much more contemplative title for the piece -- "Cooling the Warming Debate."
"I certainly feel that there is lots of room for skepticism on the human component of warming," Muller said.
Indeed, if anything qualifies Muller as any sort of climate skeptic, it's on this point -- but only in the broadest sense. What role do humans play in all this warming? The BEST team didn't examine this question, but for most researchers, it's long been a bit of a no-brainer. Carbon dioxide, among other gases, acts like a great big blanket around the planet, trapping heat in the atmosphere and driving temperatures upward. As for where the carbon dioxide is coming from, if you drive a car, use electricity or otherwise live in the modern world, just look in the mirror.
For his part, Muller doesn't dispute that human activity plays a large role, but the scientist in him remains uncertain of just how to quantify that. "Although it is not a conclusion of the Berkeley Earth group, it is my personal opinion that greenhouse gas emissions from humans have contributed to the observed warming," Muller said. "The IPCC says that'most' of the 0.6-degree Celsius warming of the past 50 years is anthropogenic. If'most' means between 0.3- and 0.6-degrees Celsius, then that is certainly within the realm of possibility."
Muller added that the work done by his team does show that "variations in the temperature of the North Atlantic have a much larger effect on the global land temperature than had previously been recognized." Many researchers suspect that these North Atlantic variations are due to fluctuations in what's called the "thermohaline circulation" -- a slow and deep flow of ocean water around the planet.
"If that is the case," Muller said, "then part of the [temperature] rise observed may be due to such ocean variability, and that would imply that the human contribution is less."
That caveat notwithstanding, the Charles G. Koch Foundation, a philanthropy famous for underwriting climate denialism that provided $150,000 in funding for the BEST team's work, did feel compelled to cooly qualify Muller's research as still in need of peer review.
The foundation also noted that the BEST team had examined neither humanity's role in rising temperatures, nor whether ocean temperatures -- as opposed to land-based readings -- suggest that global warming is actually slowing, as some skeptics believe. Muller says further examination of those questions are on his to-do list.
"Scientists," he said, "have a professional responsibility to be skeptical."This post is going to be about NGINX wizardry. Not really.
This post is going to be about curl, since we all know real hackers use curl for everything.
We check the weather in it with
curl wttr.in
we check our IP in it with
curl icanhazip.com
we search for command options in it with
curl cheat.sh
we bake pancakes in it with
curl -d {} pancak.es/bake
Just kidding.
But curl is seriously bad ass and I use it every day to debug server responses with Chrome's nifty copy as curl feature.
So why does nobody make landing pages for it?
It's not that hard, just tweak your NGINX config a little.
Your config is probably already set up to redirect all HTTP traffic to HTTPS, at least that's what you should do if you want to have an adequate rating on Google. This was a problem for us since we now want to allow non-HTTPS traffic and serve some ASCII wizardry on http://twobucks.co.
We want to use HTTP for this to allow
curl twobucks.co
in terminal, instead of the full URL.
To do this, we have to write a rule in NGINX that will redirect only if the user agent is not curl. The config file for that will look something like this
server { listen 443; server_name twobucks.co; ssl on; ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/twobucks.co/fullchain.pem; ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/twobucks.co/privkey.pem; client_max_body_size 10G; location / { autoindex on; root /path/to/your/assets; error_page 404 /404.html; fastcgi_intercept_errors on; } } server { listen 80; server_name twobucks.co; location / { if ($http_user_agent ~ curl) { root /path/to/your/curl/landing/page/; } } if ($http_user_agent!~ curl){ return 301 https://twobucks.co$request_uri; } }
You'll notice an if condition, we still want to preserve a 301 redirect when user agent is not curl. If we are using curl then we want to render a HTML page with ASCII characters tailored for it.
We converted our logo from PNG to ASCII format by using the awesome image-to-ascii.
That's all that was needed to get nice landing page inside of the terminal that looks like this:
Looks like no one is using this technique to display cool landing pages inside terminals. Maybe we can start a trend?Russia has expressed its regrets over NASA’s decision to halt cooperation with its Russian counterpart. However, experts agree that the measure will affect NASA and mutual international work, but will not significantly harm Russia.
“Well, this is a US decision,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Thursday, commenting on NASA’s decision to suspend “the majority of its ongoing engagements with the Russian Federation.”
The statement by the space agency, publicly released on Wednesday, cited the “ongoing violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity” by Russia as a reason for the measure.
For now, the suspension will not affect NASA and Roscosmos joint work “to maintain the safe and continuous operation of the International Space Station.”
Three Russians, two Americans, and one Japanese astronaut are onboard the International Space Station (ISS).
But NASA is eager to focus on returning human spaceflight launches to America, so as not to rely on Russia. Since the US space shuttle program was shut down in 2011, Russia’s Soyuz rocket remains the only way to carry supplies to the ISS and launch humans into space.
“We regret that the US administration and those who make such decisions are unable to conduct obvious situational analyses and separate US long-term interests from some ongoing short-term goals,” Ryabkov said.
However, the ISS is not the only sphere of cooperation between NASA and Russia. NASA actively collaborates with the Russian Space Research Institute (IKI RAN). So, it is yet to be seen how the halt in relations will affect other areas of mutual work.
"It is still unclear how this will impinge on IKI," Aleksandr Koptev, a NASA representative with the Russian Mission Control Centre, said as cited by Itar-Tass. “But by making such a decision they only harm themselves,” he added.
There is no doubt that Washington's freeze on cooperation will hurt the global space partnership and have a "rather significant" impact on space exploration projects worldwide, Ivan Moiseyev, scientific head of Russia’s Space Policy Institute predicted.
"Modern space science is a global phenomenon that benefits all countries," Moiseyev told RIA Novosti news agency. "It means that many large-scale projects require an international effort. A freeze on cooperation will spur a serious backlash against the international space program."
This view was echoed by a retired Soviet cosmonaut, Georgy Grechko.
“Work in space, involving such difficult missions and experiments, is always international, such as with a mission to Mars. There won’t be Russian, European, American and Chinese spacecraft flying separately to Mars; this will be an international project,” Grechko told RT.
However, Grechko, who has 3 space flights and a spacewalk on his resume, said he was not surprised by NASA’s decision.
“I'm not surprised by this: once again, politics is destructively interfering with scientific-technical work,” he said. “Of course, they gave in to political pressure. That is sad. I am 82 and I can say that it has always been the case that politics spoils scientific-technical programs.”
Grechko assumed that NASA itself understands nothing about how the decision on Crimea was made, and it just had to obey the government.
“Because the money still comes from the government,” he said. “This is a loss for everyone. Space should be about all countries working together and so this is a loss not just for Russia, but for all countries.”
At the same time, NASA’s decision is unlikely to have any catastrophic impacts on the Russian space exploration industry. It will simply have to adjust its projects to the new reality, Moiseyev said.Imagine a marathon athlete puffing on cigarettes during the 22.38-mile run. But chess was the only sport where smoking was not only possible; it was quite common. For some mental athletes, such as the late world chess champion Mikhail Tal or the legendary grandmaster Viktor Korchnoi, |
the world and that robust vibrant communities will quickly answer our call to grow and nurture our fledgling endeavors. Unfortunately, this is very rarely the case early on. Even after a token sale, it is still up to the founding team to complete technical development, refine the real-world use case, and acquire users. By distributing nearly all of their platform’s tokens on day one, the founding team is essentially giving away their ability to raise additional money and locking themselves into governance with those who participated in their sale (a group likely dominated by those looking to purely speculate on their token’s value). Some projects, such as Tezos, have implemented governance measures that would allow token holders to vote to fund additional development; however, this approach neglects that those who purchased tokens early may likely be speculators and therefore poor custodians of its future.
The simplest solution to this problem would be for the founding team (or the foundation they establish) to hold a majority of the tokens after the token sale, only distributing a small percent. While on the surface, this approach solves the issue of the founding team being able to effectively guide the project and continually fund progress, it does so by concentrating too much power into the hands of the founding team. This concentration leaves the door open for the founding team to manipulate the price of their tokens and even arbitrarily alter consensus (if the project operates its own chain). With these concerns in mind, I believe that the there are two properties of an ideal mechanism for token distribution:
Project organizers can raise additional capital to address the needs of the system as necessary without any need for a vote by token holders; Token ownership by pure speculators is discouraged and penalized.
1 is important because if project organizers can be confident in their ability to raise additional funds when necessary, they do not need to allocate and hoard potentially destabilizing amounts of tokens to fund development. The purpose of 2 is to encourage token ownership by the “right” community.
Conceptually, the implementation of such a mechanism is rather straightforward. First, our protocol must be able to track a specified usage metric such as the number of accounts or transaction volume. When certain milestones are reached, the protocol issues a predetermined number of tokens to the governing company or foundation, which can then be sold to fund the next stage of growth and development. Next, our protocol must be able to identify idle tokens, those which have not recently been used in a transaction or staked towards some function. Finally, accounts with only tokens that have been idle for more than a certain period of time have their holdings slashed and redistributed to active accounts.
Is my token a security?
Of all the regulatory and legal questions surrounding token sales, the question “Is my token a security?” is arguably the most difficult to answer, since the answer depends on the specifics of your token and its sale. This question is also incredibly important for project founders to answer correctly because the result determines who you can sell your tokens to (at least in the certain jurisdictions). For example, if your token is a security, it can be sold within the US only to accredited investors — those with either a net worth of at least $1,000,000 (excluding the value of their house) or annual income of at least $200,000 (or a total of $300,000 for married couples).
In order to determine whether or not your token is a security, the US government applies what is known as the Howey Test. Under the Howey Test, a token must meet three criteria to be considered a security:
The token must be obtained through an investment of money; The investment must be in a common enterprise; The investment is accompanied by an expectation of profit resulting solely from the efforts of others.
Last year, Coin Center released an in-depth framework for how the Howey Test might be applied to token sales as well as a decision matrix to guide analysis. For anyone serious about understanding this complex issue those are excellent places to start. Here I will limit myself to just a brief explanation of why the token and distribution models I’ve advocate for earlier in this post may help ensure that your token is not viewed as security. Earlier, I expressed my preference for asset tokens and for distribution mechanisms that redistribute idle tokens away from their holders. In addition to the benefits described when introducing these concepts, both of these design choices could potentially have an impact in ensuring that a token does not meet the third criterion of the Howey Test.
There is no denying that when people participate in a token sale they have an expectation of profit. They expect to benefit in some manner. The important point is how this is profit realized. In the case of asset tokens, there is profit to be earned by using the token for its intended function on the platform. When utilized, many asset tokens provide their holders with transaction or other fees from other network participants. It is through this utilization that a token holder expends their own effort in generating profit. Therefore, the expected profits of owning an asset token are derived not solely from the work of others. On the other hand, most currency tokens do not lead to the collection of any return or profit when utilized. Therefore, when purchasing a currency token, any expectation of profit is likely based on an expected increase in the value of the token, which is more likely to be deemed as coming solely from the work of others.
Moving on to consider the redistribution of idle tokens from inactive to active accounts, we should gain more confidence in our ability to avoid having our tokens classified as securities. If it is not possible to continually own tokens without utilizing them, then it is also impossible to realize a profit without utilizing them. With a setup such as this, any profit reasonably expected must involve some effort on the part of the token holder.DAILYKENN.com -- A member of the M66, a far-left political party in The Netherlands, posted on Twitter that he planned to shoot patriot leader Geert Wilders in the head.
Wilders reposted the tweet leading to the suspension of Mahir Mohamed, who had been the treasurer for the party's youth wing.
Wilders is currently facing prosecution for hate speech, a crime in The Netherlands. There was no indication that Mohamed would be prosecuted for hate speech or making death threat.
The head of the youth wing expressed shock upon hearing the report, stating that Mohamed is an intelligent young man. In reality Muslims in the Middle-east tend to have IQ ranging in the middle 80s. They also seem to have a penchant for killing people and committing terror attacks — 27,920 since Sept. 11, 2001.
We wonder why anyone would be shocked upon learning a Muslim of Middle-east origin was dumb enough to threaten to kill a world-famous patriot on the Internet.
Here is this week's radio show:
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Comment ▼Whole Foods Touts (pictures of) Local Produce Posted by Pile (7573 views) [E-Mail link]
[ Liars ] Whole Foods' local grower campaign hasn't panned out as advertised, according to a lawsuit filed by an Alabama farmer.
Snow's Bend Farm, a family-owned commercial grower near Black Warrior River, AL, said in a suit last week Whole Foods' advertisements list the grower as a fresh and authentic local supplier. But the grocer has never bought a single item from Snow's Bend, says the suit filed in U.S. District Court in Birmingham. Whole Foods had no comment on the matter Monday, saying only that it hopes for a peaceful resolution.
The suit says the saga started in January 2007 when a Whole Foods executive contacted the farm, saying it wanted to buy produce and tout the grower as a "local supplier."
Whole Foods, which last year opened its only Alabama store on U.S. 280 in Birmingham, took photos of the farm and interviewed owner David Snow. Snow, the suit says, agreed to the arrangement based upon Whole Foods' agreement to buy some produce from him.
Next, according to the suit, Snow and the farm wound up on Whole Foods' Web site, listed as a produce vendor. According to the lawsuit, Whole Foods has never patronized Snow's Bend "in any way, shape or form." The suit says Whole Foods used the Snow's Bend image and name without permission, expropriated the company's good will and profited from the ensuing unauthorized association.
"It's pretty plain," said Russell Drake, a lawyer for Birmingham's Whatley Drake & Kallas who represents the farm. "They put our photo up on the Web and said `local grower.'"
Whole Foods spokeswoman Darrah Horgan said the company hopes the issue can be resolved amicably. She said Whole Foods had no further comment, citing the pending nature of the litigation.
Details
Name: (change name for anonymous posting) Title: Comments: 1 Article displayed.The lawsuit filed by a Ron Paul grassroots activist lawyer charging the Republican National Committee (RNC) with various shenanigans against Ron Paul delegates and calling for the RNC to admit that no delegate is bound to vote for Romney was dismissed by U.S. District Judge David Carter this week.
Carter's order to dismiss.
Some relevant language from the order explaining why the Judge didn't think the suit worth going forward:
For example, Plaintiffs’ vague reference to “State Bylaws” gives this Court no inkling as to which of the 50 states and which of the millions of pages of bylaws Plaintiffs refer. Similarly, Plaintiffs’ use of the passive voice renders it impossible to discern who broke the bones of whom, who pointed a gun at whom, and whether any of the more than 100 Defendants were even involved. Finally, Plaintiffs’ vague allegations of voting ballot fraud occurring somewhere at sometime and apparently committed simultaneously by all “Defendants” lacks plausibility. While Plaintiffs make an oblique reference to a voting machine somewhere in Arizona, the lack of clarity in this allegation is insufficient to raise it to a level above mere speculation.Thus, this Court does not accept these allegations as true.
I wrote about that suit both right here at Reason and in the New York Times back in June.
The Paul campaign itself never embraced the suit or supported it--though Ron Paul himself didn't choose to condemn it either. Richard Gilbert, the lawyer who filed it, was ferocious in his insistence it was for the good of the delegates, and the honesty of the Republican primary and caucus process.
From my Reason piece in June:
A press release from Gilbert's group “Lawyers for Ron Paul” claims Paul supporters have launched a “takeover of the campaign. Refusing to be sold downstream for political or monetary gain the REAL Ron Paul R3volution without reservation is 'in it to win it!'”..... “As we watched people being violently beaten at state conventions, voting machines being rigged, ballots being falsely counted from state to state,” Gilbert says, “we observed the Romney machine was nothing more than a crime syndicate committing fraud at every state convention.” While surprised the Paul campaign did not stand up for itself, he says, “I want to say I don’t represent the campaign and I don’t represent Dr. Paul. I represent the delegates.”
Gilbert is not giving up, and has filed another amended version of his suit, which attempts to get the court to decide whether the federal Voting Rights Act applies to voting at the RNC in Tampa, which Gilbert is trying to have defined as a "federal election" under that law.
If that is so, and if the Voting Rights Act applies to it, if I understand the complaint correctly, Gilbert is claiming any attempt to bind delegates to vote for Romney should be illegitimate.
The order to dismiss and amended complaint via "The Unconventional Conservative."The northern French port of Calais has emerged as the most extreme-right wing town in France following council elections on Sunday.
The anti-immigration National Front party scored a massive 49 per cent of the votes in the town that is home to 6,000 migrants all hoping to sneak into Britain.
Their vote has more than doubled since the last regional elections in 2010, when there were only around 800 migrants in the town.
Support for the hardline party led by firebrand Marine Le Pen has now surged in recent months as Calais finds itself overrun with refugees living in a squalid woodland camp near the port
Support for the hardline party led by firebrand Marine Le Pen has now surged in recent months as Calais finds itself overrun with refugees living in a squalid woodland camp near the port.
Their victory was also boosted by fears over the Islamic State terror attacks that killed 130 people in Paris on November 13.
Record levels of unemployment and immigration across France also help the anti-European party secure 29.4 per cent of the vote nationwide - the National Front best ever local elections results.
The election was for control of the entire Nord Pas-de-Calais Piciadie regional council, and not for Calais town council where centre-right Natacha Bouchart is mayor.
Calais residents have become increasingly angry in recent months as migrant numbers spiral and violence frequently erupts on roads around the ferry port and Channel Tunnel terminal.
French authorities said they believed that some clashes between migrants and police was provoked by British militant refugee support groups No Borders and Black Blocs.
The anti-immigration National Front party scored a massive 49 per cent of the votes in the town that is home to 6,000 migrants all hoping to sneak into Britain
Mayor Ms Bouchart has blamed Britain's 'black market economy' and 'cushy benefits system' for the migrant crisis in her town
Mayor Ms Bouchart has blamed Britain's 'black market economy' and 'cushy benefits system' for the migrant crisis in her town.
She said: 'They want to go to England because they can expect better conditions on arrival there than anywhere else in Europe or even internationally.
'There are no ID cards. They can easily find work outside the formal economy, which is not really controlled.
'Calais is a hostage to the British. The migrants come here to get to Britain.
'The situation here is barely manageable. The UK border should be moved from Calais to the English side of the Channel because we're not here to do their jobs.'
French President Francois Hollande called Wednesday for the country's political parties to unite to block the far-right National Front (FN) in this weekend's regional elections.
Calais residents have become increasingly angry in recent months as migrant numbers spiral and violence frequently erupts on roads around the ferry port and Channel Tunnel terminal
With the anti-immigration party topping the poll in the first round last Sunday, Hollande's spokesman Stephane Le Foll quoted the president as saying there 'needed to be clarity in the behaviour and attitude of all political leaders to defend the values of the Republic'.
He said the elections were particularly important given the power that regional governments have over education, transport and environment policy.
'The regions have a major role in deciding the future' of the country, he said.As red-clad fans filtered out, the strains of their songs still hanging enticingly over the stadium, the BMO Field lights beamed down on Greg Vanney and Patrick Vieira separately. Opposing coaches, opposing strategies, opposing results.
Vanney had reason to celebrate, to bathe in the occasion if only for a moment. His masterstroke tactical battle plans helped Toronto FC win the day 2-0 over Vieira’s NYCFC, which looked naive and overmatched on the road. The moment illuminated the overwhelming fact that coaching in the MLS postseason is full of perils. To do it well is an art form, a painting full of a thousand small decisions that can add up to a misshapen landscape or a masterpiece that withstands the passage of time.
Here are the top five examples of coaching decisions that’ve shaped games and series so far in the Audi 2016 MLS Cup Playoffs. From foibles to successes, we’ve seen a bit of everything already. And don’t let anyone tell you coaching itself can’t redirect a team’s fortunes.
It’s already happened.
5. Oscar Pareja’s Mauro Diaz replacement plan falters
Even if given half the season, FC Dallas coach Oscar Pareja couldn’t replace Mauro Diaz. In lieu of simply finding another player, the plan was always going to involve an elaborate series of smoke and mirrors. FC Dallas has quality, and it has depth, but it has no true stunt double for Diaz. And that’d go for any team in the league. No. 10s like Diaz don’t simply hang off vines.
Diaz was lost with an Achilles injury two games from the postseason (against the Sounders), leaving FCD and Pareja with a frankly ridiculous quandary for the postseason. Yes, the club is the top overall seed. And yes, FCD will host an MLS Cup if they get that far. But how do you cope without your attacking talisman?
Pareja gave us his answer against Seattle in their first Western Conference Semifinal leg on the road Sunday. And it was not a resounding one.
Pareja had options, maybe the most enticing of which was to shoehorn Mauro Rosales into a creative role underneath the front line. It wasn’t ideal, but nothing was. Instead, Pareja opted to play five defenders, pushed Kellyn Acosta into a nominal No. 10 role (very, very nominal) and basically rolled with three total attacking players in hopes they could nip a draw.
They lost 3-0 instead, were overrun in a flash and are now on the brink of elimination. Acosta couldn’t link the lines, the defense was stretched in all the wrong places and even their quick-strike capacity looked dimmed. Consider that an experiment for the trash heap.
4. Mauro Biello wins the Mancosu sweepstakes
Entering the postseason, the Montreal Impact looked like a runner on crutches simply trying to cross the finish line in one piece. They were fresh off a Didier Drogba controversy that featured a star Designated Player refusing to play after being omitted from a starting lineup, and they’d lost their final regular season game 3-0 to a New England team that had been virtually eliminated the week before.
All Montreal did was go on the road to smash D.C. United 4-2 and then nip the No. 1 Eastern Conference seed New York Red Bulls 1-0 at home on Sunday.
Don’t sleep on the masterwork Mauro Biello’s penned over the last two weeks to get Montreal to the brink of the Eastern Conference Championship with at least a draw on the road. That’s no easy task, but you would not put it past the wily coach, and in hindsight his decision to roll without Drogba, even when he was healthy, completely changed Montreal’s postseason.
Since striker Matteo Mancosu arrived from Bologna on loan at midseason, he’s slowly been working his way into Biello’s good graces. But even then, Biello’s much-publicized decision to start the Italian over Drogba in the penultimate game of the regular season (a 2-2 draw vs. TFC) sent shockwaves through the league. Can you really afford to bench a legend like Drogba for a relative unknown?
The answer came back a resounding yes. With Drogba on the shelf in favor on Mancosu, first due to a coach’s decision and then to a balky back, Mancosu has three goals in Montreal’s two postseason games. That includes the only tally in the win over the Red Bulls, a beautiful rasping strike that sent the Impact to New York with all the momentum they could muster. All hail Biello.
3. Bruce Arena rolls the dice (and wins) with Alan Gordon
Look at this move on paper and tell me what you see.
The LA Galaxy were more or less faced with a must-win in their initial leg against the Colorado Rapids at home. The Rapids have been literally unbeatable at altitude at home this year, so even a draw at the StubHub Center would’ve left the Galaxy in a precarious place. Which meant LA needing to go for it in the final third. Which meant, at least practically, starting maybe the best Designated Player in MLS history up top.
But Bruce Arena’s ways are mysterious and unknowable and almost invariably a step ahead of everyone else. So on paper, the fact that Arena opted to bench Robbie Keane for Alan Gordon as the primary striker in a playoff game? Well, you trusted it but you also kind of didn’t.
Gordon happened to turn in arguably his best shift of the season and the Galaxy won 1-0.
The brilliance in the maneuver was embedded in something we’ve known about both men for a long time. Keane tends to drop in while Gordon, at 35, is more of a target striker than ever. The Galaxy needed that brusque presence in the box against such a defensively buttoned-up side, and the gambit worked beautifully.
Gordon only had three incomplete passes all afternoon, and when Keane came on in the 82nd minute it was for Giovani Dos Santos, not Gordon. The old man’s still got it. And so does Arena.
2. Greg Vanney’s three-man defense
The aforementioned Vanney has probably been the coach of the postseason so far. He’s done so many little things right and pushed so many of the correct buttons that you can’t help but sit back and marvel. In comparison, Vieira had the look of a coach participating in his first postseason (which he is) coaching up an entire starting lineup playing in its first postseason (which it is).
Vanney alternated between having four and five defenders on the field with limited success earlier in the year. But his ultimate decision to click into a system with three dedicated central defenders late in the season with Steven Beitashour and Justin Morrow ripping down the flanks as two-way wingbacks to vex defensive width has made a massive amount of difference in TFC’s fate.
The beauty of a three-man back line is in its ability to allow you to swamp just about any zone of the field with numbers at any given time. The problem is that it requires a very specific set of skill players to run competently: three technically able ball-playing center backs, two defensive-minded wingers, at least two box-to-box type central midfielders and a striker willing to pull back into the framework to collect possession. You can run a static No. 10 in a 3-5-2, but it doesn’t usually work that way.
Vanney astutely realized not long ago that he had all these pieces. Not only did it unlock two of TFC’s best performances of the season in its first two postseason games – TFC had never won one before this year – but it also breathed new life into Michael Bradley.
Bradley’s been good for the duration in Toronto, but he’s looked unbelievable over the past month, and especially over the past two weeks. He was a defensive workhorse against NYCFC, killing attack after attack and pushing up to meet with the dropping Jozy Altidore, who’s also in a renaissance period in this setup. Vanney didn’t just out-coach Vieira. He also moved into TFC lore as its first coach to win back-to-back playoff games.
1. Brian Schmetzer’s attacking line shift
It’s been a long slog through the muck for Nelson Valdez in Seattle this season. Entering the postseason, Valdez had failed to score in 900 MLS minutes. And it certainly wasn’t for lack of effort. Valdez has been a lung-burning hustle player in Seattle from the jump, but he somehow found posts and goalkeepers’ arms where others found netting.
Valdez, though, left Seattle interim coach Brian Schmetzer in something of a selection quandary after he scored off the bench to get the Sounders past Sporting Kansas City and into the Western Conference Semifinals against FC Dallas. No. 1-seeded FC Dallas, to be exact.
What Schmezter did surprised just about everyone. And it worked better than anyone could have anticipated.
Schmezter basically stuffed the front four of his attacking line in a bag and jumbled them on the eve of the biggest match of the game. He kept his 4-2-3-1 more or less intact, but in lieu of starting the in-form Jordan Morris up top, he swapped in Valdez and splayed Morris and Erik Friberg wide as bookends between Nicolas Lodeiro, the leader of the creative hive. It was the first time this lineup played in this particular way all season.
It worked like a charm. FC Dallas lacked Diaz to find the gaps and Morris provided the width the Sounders patently lacked. Valdez, meanwhile, scored his second goal in two games before running out of gas in the 56th minute (his last start came back on August 24). It was a bold move, and it gave management plenty to ponder as they wonder what to do about their head coaching position this offseason. Schmetzer’s certainly making one heck of a case to keep it.3D printers make it easy to create one-off products. Kickstarter gives makers capital to produce at scale. But there aren't many resources to help navigate the world of high-volume manufacturing. Maker's Row, a marketplace that connects designers and American factories, aims to fix that by acclimating creators to the culture of manufacturing and making sense of obscure terms like AWO to ZQC production.
The Maker's Row website allows designers to search for factories with keywords, browse projects the factories have worked on and, in some cases, see videos of the shops and founder in action. The site's design and videos manage to make manufacturing feel glamorous, and even a little patriotic.
The company grew out of an organic need. Co-founder Matthew Burnett worked for Marc Jacobs and Izod before launching his own line of leather goods. He convinced a friend, Tanya Menendez, who had worked at Google and Goldman Sachs, to join him and help grow the business. After dealing with a costly manufacturing setback overseas, they realized that reorganizing the trillion-dollar manufacturing industry had more upsides than producing well-tailored accessories. They recruited a web designer named Scott Weiner and launched the service.
"Our primary mission is to bring outsourced manufacturing back home, and to plant the seeds of the next generation of businesses that will be able to easily find American manufacturing partners," Menendez says.
Basically, the site allows designers to filter their search based on the type of factory they need. If they're still in the idea phase, they can find the appropriate types of factories, instead of those who expect more production expertise at the beginning.
She points out that overseas production isn't always the most beneficial. "Many companies were born in the U.S., having never even considered domestic manufacturing because of the inherent advantages of low-cost foreign labor," Mendez says. "Foreign labor prices alone have multiplied exponentially since the advent of outsourcing. Maker's Row will highlight the many short and long term advantages of manufacturing in our own backyard."
The easy-to-use design of the site stands out from that of other services like Alibaba, the $1.8 billion company that connects Asian factories to global entrepreneurs.
But more importantly, Maker's Row serves a critical function, connecting the hundreds of millions of dollars raised on Kickstarter to domestic manufacturing partners who can deploy it most efficiently. The service helps those factories, still reliant on trade shows, printed directories and word of mouth, to catch up with foreign competition. "We acknowledged that none of these marketing methods are sustainable when compared to the online marketplace resources of foreign competitors," Mendez says.
Having launched a month ago and hindered with some slowdowns from Hurricane Sandy, the site is now in full swing. Let's hope delayed Kickstarters start showing up in a more timely manner now.THERE are no sirens or warnings of any kind. In Kilis, a border town of about 200,000 in Turkey’s south, rockets fired by Islamic State (IS) terrorists from nearby Syria fall from the sky, tearing through buildings and cars. “You have a few seconds to take cover and then, boom,” says Mustafa Cerrah, an estate agent, standing near the site of a blast that killed four Syrian refugee children. Since the start of the year, the rockets have left 21 locals dead.
Turkey has responded by pounding IS positions with artillery. “Turkey has done as much as it can, but it is still not enough,” says the town’s mayor, Hasan Kara. The only way to prevent attacks, he says, echoing the national government’s position since the start of the bloodshed, is to establish a safe zone in northern Syria. Western states are lukewarm about the idea. “Our security is not a priority for many of our allies,” complains a Turkish official.
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IS has been doing more than firing rockets. Since last year, suicide-bombers linked to the group have killed more than 150 people across Turkey. On May 1st a homegrown jihadist detonated a car bomb in front of a police headquarters in Gaziantep, a southern Turkish city, killing two officials. Weeks earlier, IS shelled a border post about 80km east of Kilis and a Turkish training base in northern Iraq. Its propaganda increasingly calls for attacks on Turkish forces. A recent edition of an IS magazine featured a photograph of a captured Turkish soldier believed to be held in the group’s Syrian stronghold, Raqqa.
Despite a wave of arrests, IS’s network in Turkey is strong, especially in large urban areas. In Gaziantep, Syrians opposed to the group fear for their safety. For IS, says Abd Hakawati, a journalist who fled Syria last year, “nothing is impossible here. No one knows who is next.” IS loyalists have killed four Syrian activists in Gaziantep and Sanliurfa, another city close to the border, since last October. Mr Hakawati has been threatened several times, including by a man who held a knife to his throat. “I’ve been sentenced to death,” he says.
Most observers see IS’s latest attacks as retaliation against Turkey and America, who have been trying to clear the group from a 98km-long strip of land along the border, with assistance from Syrian rebel allies. Aaron Stein, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, says that the rocket attacks ramped up when the offensive started. “They’re trying to show that there is a price to be paid,” says a Western diplomat.
Some officials think IS may be goading Turkey into a ground operation in Syria. Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has not ruled one out. “We will not hesitate to take the required steps,” he announced on May 12th. A few days earlier, a small team of Turkish special forces crossed into Syria to help target coalition air strikes.
Mr Erdogan does not like to lose face. But Turkey is unlikely to invade. Osman Bahadir Dincer, a military analyst in Ankara, thinks it would be a “huge disaster”. Turkish troops risk getting bogged down in a fight with Russian, Iranian and Kurdish forces. Since last summer Mr Erdogan’s government has lost over 300 policemen and troops to clashes with Kurdistan Workers’ Party insurgents at home. “The risk of acting alone in Syria is too high for Turkey to handle,” says Mr Dincer.Suffolk Downs in East Boston, Mass., will offer live racing this Saturday and Sunday
Officials from Suffolk Downs have filed an application with the Massachusetts Gaming Commission requesting to hold three days of live racing this year.
According to a report in the Blood-Horse, the track submitted a request for one day of racing on three Saturdays: July 11, Aug. 8, and Sept. 5, with a minimum of $500,000 a day in purses for 12 to 14 races a day.
A spokesperson for the Massachusetts Gaming Commission said that the track's application was currently under review. A hearing date is expected to be confirmed later this week.
Chip Tuttle, the chief operating officer of Suffolk Downs said, “We're hopeful that the commission will look favorably on our application as it provides an opportunity for the horsemen and the breeders to have at least a minimal amount of racing as they work on their long-term plans for their future and for developing their own venue.
Read more in the Blood-Horse
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Copyright © 2019 Paulick Report.About This Game
BUILD AIRPLANES
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You have the tools you'll need to bring any airplane to life. Snap parts together to build your airplane's body. Place engines to add thrust. Design and attach wings and then strap yourself into the cockpit and see how it flies.Over 100,000 airplanes are available to download for free from SimplePlanes.com Find anything from old WW2 bombers to next generation fighters to sci-fi spacecrafts. You can upload your own airplanes and rise through the ranks from a bronze builder to a gold level builder.Flight simulation at its finest. Every little change you make in the designer impacts how the airplane flies. Weight distribution, thrust, lift, and drag are all calculated continuously while flying. Parts can break off in spectacular fashion while flying due to over-stress or by hitting something. The fun won't stop there though. You can keep on flying even with a missing wing if you've got the skills.Climb into the cockpit of one of your custom aircraft and see how it does in the challenges. The challenges will keep you entertained for hours. Land on aircraft carriers, escort bombers, dodge surface-to-air missiles, race through courses, and so much more.Use all available parts to build airplanes with no restrictions. The sky is the limit. Literally.Modding is fully supported so you can build your own parts and environments. Download our Unity package which includes specially designed tools to aid in designing and building mods which you can then share with your friends and the community.A catchall euphemism, the term denotes the decentralized network of misogynist writers, speakers and online communities that gather together men who see women and their rights as the vise inside which their own freedoms are crushed.
As Alex DiBranco explains in her article, “Mobilizing Misogyny,” published by Political Research Associates, that network has produced vicious harassment campaigns—like Gamergate—and killers like Elliot Rodger, who in May 2014 murdered six people. Some glorify others like George Sodini, who murdered three women. Both Rodger and Sodini ended their rampages with suicide.
DiBranco argues that the vitriolic moan emanating from that network is proving an impactful call-to-arms across different dimensions of the far right. She opines that misogyny is opening up men (and women) to a plethora of extreme ideas, be they cultural or political, and the movements trafficking them.
One figure DiBranco highlights is Jack Donovan, whose theories of “‘gang masculinity’,” she writes, compel “men to form warrior gangs to escape domestication of women.” Indeed, Donovan is an important figure. Tracking his movements across the far right reveals much about the relationships and ideas propelling it in fresher directions.
***
The author of numerous books, Donovan, is among the most prolific writers and speakers producing work within the Manosphere. The 42-year-old preaches a gospel of self-mastery. His exhortations carry hallmarks of the survivalist community and its notions of preparedness and self-sufficiency. Donovan blends that awareness with neo-tribalism, a sort defined by intense, even sexual, bonds between men who voluntarily embark on punishing and disciplined explorations of self and community. The result, he argues, is the remaking of one’s self into a noble barbarian capable of defending his tribe’s boundaries.
Of Donovan’s first book, titled Androphilia: Rejecting the Gay Identity, Reclaiming Masculinity, scholar and author Matthew N. Lyon’s writes:
“Donovan advocates ‘androphilia,’ by which he means love or sex between masculine men. He doesn’t call himself gay, rejects gay culture as effeminate, and justifies homophobia as a defense of masculinity rooted in the male gang’s collective survival needs. This might sound like self-hatred, but Donovan isn’t hiding or apologizing for his own sexuality; he’s defining it in a way that’s radically at odds with prevailing LGBT politic.”
Not to mention “radically at odds with” women.
Residing just outside of Portland, Oregon, Donovan finds practice for his theories through the Wolves of Vinland. He leads its Cascadia chapter, which covers Oregon and Washington. The Wolves are a tribe of heathens, who worship a particularly Germanic strain of Wotanism, despise the modern world, and are invested in an anti-equality worldview. The Wolves eschew Christianity for what they recognize as the indigenous religion of those descended from true Europeans; heathenism or paganism. Myriad supremacists claim membership among them.
***
Donovan is emblematic of DiBranco’s theory that misogyny is a predominant force within the contemporary far-right, one that is uniting leaders of varying movements, opening them up to new audiences and vice versa.
Over the past decade, Donovan has spoken at the gatherings of white nationalist groups in the United States like American Renaissance (AmRen), run by “race realist” Jared Taylor, and the National Policy Institute, Richard Spencer’s essentially one-man-fail-son boiler room of “identity politics for white people.” Some Wolves are also fellow travelers amongst white supremacist circles, appearing on podcasts and even as members of racist black metal bands. Others have been directly involved with white nationalist groups and their efforts, like Devin Saucier and Kevin DeAnna.
More recently, in February, Donovan was invited to Schnellroda, Germany by the Institut für Staatspolitik (IFS), an intellectual think-tank of the European New Right, to speak at its Winter Akademie gathering.
There, he delivered a speech erected from the bones of his self-heralded magnum opus, “Violence is Golden.”
Donovan’s speech demonstrates why he and this faction of the European New Right (ENR) recognize one another as fellow travelers, or chorus members. It also further reveals how the exchange of ideas and influences is helping sustain individuals—nearly all white—within the United States and Europe who see their ethnic ancestors as the heroes and warriors who’ve built the modern world, the true progenitors of superior cultures.
As he has for years, Donovan aimed his desire for dominance at the “Empire of Nothing”: his phrase for the globalized world |
ently Couple Were Burning Man Enthusiasts (Image courtesy of Facebook) The couple were enthusiasts for the Burning Man music festival that takes place annually in Black Rock Desert in Nevada. They love it so much that Christopher Bently serves on the board of directors of the Burning Man Project, which is responsible for upholding the values described in the Ten Principles of Burning Man. Although the couple were not living with each other at the time of Amber’s death, it is unclear whether they were divorced.
Read more at: http://www.heavy.com/news/2013/07/amber-marie-bently-dead-rip/
She was found dead last Friday:
On Friday, 07/19/13, at approximately 4:30 pm, Investigators of the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office responded to an apartment in the 1200 block of High School St, in Gardnerville, reference a death investigation.
Information revealed that a civil process server had gone to the location to serve an eviction, and had discovered a deceased person inside the residence.
The decedent, later identified as 34 year-old Amber Marie Bently, rented and resided alone in the apartment. It appears Bently was deceased inside the apartment for several weeks.
No evidence of criminal activity or foul play was discovered. Cause of death is pending.
The investigation continues.
Here’s a link to their 2009 Pyjama Party, their debut on the Nob Hill scene. They wanted to throw a party to blend their society friends together with their Burner friends, and Pyjamas seemed like a common denominator:
New kids on the block, Amber Marie and Chris Bently, threw an old fashioned pajama party for their eclectic friends, who all flipped over the 360 degree views of the city and the bay from their two-story Nob Hill Penthouse.Already married for 10 years (she’s barely 30 while he’s only 38) the enthusiastic duo participate in a myriad of civic, social, charitable, and business ventures around town.In the last few years, this real estate family has restored the former Federal Reserve Bank, now named the Bently Reserve, and converted it to office, retail, conference and event spaces. They’ve also opened Kamalaspa in downtown Union Square.
Lounging in our PJs
Three years ago the Bentlys went to their first Burning Man, a week long art event at Black Rock City in the Nevada desert. Perhaps the ultimate in performance art, more than 50,000 set up camp; all with the idea to express themselves through art, dress, actions, whatever. Having just watch the Burning man CD I realized this is a real happening!The Bentlys wanted to throw a party to blend their Burning Man art friends with their society friends. They decided that PJ party was just the ticket to relax so many who were strangers.Everyone seemed to get into the act. I must admit, it was fun and a lot less risqué than I imagined, thank goodness. And this artsy crowd lived up to expectations, no two dressed alike. PJs covered the gamut from Brooks Brothers and flannels to oriental robes and black negligees.
Partito Tequila was a featured favorite, shots or margaritas, accompanied by mounds of caviar, an oyster bar, soup shooters and cheese trays to keep everyone happy, while the DJ played into the night.One young guest said about the Burning Man scene, “I really like this … I missed the 70s, it’s like another era, a walk on wild side, with a mix of people from every strata and the common denominator is pajamas.”On the way home, I thought it was hilarious seeing guests trotting around Nob Hill in their jammies. I wonder what the neighbors were thinking – welcome to the neighborhood.
A bio on Mrs Bently from a Fashion show she did with her jewellery line:
Amber Marie Bently launched her eponymous collection of couture jewelry after immersing herself in the fine art of jewelry craftsmanship at the renowned Revere Academy in San Francisco. Her dedication to forwarding environmental conservation and sustainable style inspired her to create jewelry handcrafted from 18 karat recycled gold and responsibly sourced gemstones. Her environmentalism, global travel, and lifelong interest in Eastern history and culture have together influenced her design of one-of-a-kind pieces that are unique in today’s marketplace. She has traveled extensively throughout India, and draws many of her design ideas from these experiences.
Amber Marie is a well-known contributor to conservation causes, serving on the board of nonprofit environmental organizations such as Global Green USA, Forest Ethics, and PRBO Conservation Science. She is a San Francisco style icon often featured on the red carpet of the city’s galas, and actively promotes green fashion among San Francisco’s style leaders.
An interview with the couple from 2007, when they opened a spa in Union Square:
[Update 2:34am PST 7/25/13 – Daily Mail UK has some new details. Another fact first posted at Burners.Me turns out to be true, Chris Bently is in London. Not sure if he spoke with the Daily Mail directly. It is so sad that no-one found this girl for so long, just an absolute tragedy]
A cause of death has not yet been determined and the results of a toxicology test could take up to eight weeks to arrive.
Douglas County Sheriff’s office said Mrs Bently had been living alone in the apartment where her body was found in Gardnerville, outside Carson City.
Mrs Bently, who had separated from her husband last year after being married for about ten years, was well known for her parties and the couple’s building renovations in San Francisco.
The couple, who supported environmental charities, also supported the Burning Man arts festival, which is held in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, near Reno.
After they separated last year Mrs Bently swapped their Nob Hill penthouse and Stinson Beach home for a place in Sausalito before moving to an apartment in Gardnerville, where she had been raised, according to SF Gate.
Mr Bently, who is currently in London, said they had not divorced and described his wife as ‘a wonderful human being who contributed so much to San Francisco’.
He added: ‘She was greatly loved by family and friends, and we feel her loss deeply.’
So, here’s the key facts:
they were still legally married, they separated in 2012 but had not yet completed the divorce process, she had a Court Date in Marin County pending next week, relating to legal fees. She had been living alone in a rented apartment, she was about to be evicted in the town she grew up in, estranged in rural Nevada from so many friends and family that no-one found her body for 3 weeks. Meanwhile, her Mom was actively trying to have her committed to a mental instititution. When the body was found, her ex- husband was in London. She had not been reported missing – although someone claiming to be a family member on the New York Daily News, says that the family was looking for her (after they had her committed to a mental institution) that they had hired a private investigator...
Those are the essential facts compiled from what the press coverage from mainstream publications says. We are not inferring anything or drawing any opinions, please make up your own mind about this. To me, this just seems like a tragic situation – and, one wonders if there are any other Burners out there right now, so alone that they could die right after Juplaya and not be found or rmissed until the end of the month.
It sounds like Gardnerville is a fairly remote part of one of the most remote states. 20 miles from the tiny town of South Lake Tahoe, 16 miles south of the tinier town of Carson City. 50 miles from the second biggest city in Nevada, the booming metropolis of Reno. The press story is spreading around the world, but each one seems to have the same information…we’ve been working on it to bring you anything fresh, I think the Daily Mail got a direct interview with Mr Bently.
I’ve been to Carson City, it doesn’t seem like the place where this type of thing occurs. Although I was amazed at the size of the RV storage facility, right next to the prison. We’ve told some stories on this blog before that suggest it is still the Wild, Wild West out there in some parts of Nevada.
Amber seems like she was a lovely and generous person, and a creative and talented designer, a huge loss to the Burner community. What a sad way to end up. Here is 15 Minutes with Amber Marie Bently
It also seems like Mrs Bently went out of her way to apply her creative energies towards positive causes, having been inspired by Burning Man:
In a sign of her generous nature to environmental charities, in September 2007, Mrs Bently flew Tippi Hedren to San Francisco for a fundraising event. A portion of the money raised by selling Mrs Bently’s hand-crafted jewellery was donated to the actress’s Roar Foundation.
The designer created her gold pieces, inset with crystals and stones, in the basement of their Nob Hill home.
She told SF Luxe in 2007 that her interest in design had come about after she made bead necklaces with her husband to wear at the Burning Man festival.
‘We kept going back to the bead store, and I kept making jewellery. And finally I’m like “I’ve got to start selling these because I have too much,’ she said.
Mrs Bently added that she was drawn to the healing properties of rocks, adding: ‘I wear a lot of rubies because I feel in balancing the chakras you are more creative and you are more open to a creative outlook.’
Her one-off jewellery pieces, which she sold in stores and at charity functions in San Francisco, reached prices of between $500 to $6,500, according to Heavy.com.
As well as environmental charities, Mrs Bently supported the Dress for Success program that helps provide women with suitable outfits to wear for job interviews in 2008, according to the San Francisco Sentinel.
…The couple’s love of art and spirituality led them on several trips to India, Indonesia and Thailand. After returning from one trip, where she learned about the Ayurveda healing practices, Mrs Bently opened a spa in the city.
more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2377473/San-Francisco-socialite-Burning-Man-festival-supporter-dead-apartment-weeks.html#ixzz2a35d3YRx
[update 7/25/13 4:20 pm]
The family have made some comments in the New York Daily News:
I am her family member, and I have been directly involved in this entire process. Her husband has dealt directly with the family and has been nothing but supportive and gracious. I will not go into the details, but she was most definitely extremely mentally ill, and refused to stay medicated. Chris and Amber were VERY private about her mental illness, and family was not notified of the REAL issue until much too late. He did the best he could, and loved her so very much…
She had private investigators looking for her, was reported missing, and no one knew where she was. A guardianship was being pursued by her mother and we all just assumed she was avoiding her family because she was a. delusional, and b. furious with everyone for having her committed. She had been going from apartment to apartment for months. She had been in 3 mental hospitals in the last year. The situation is not quite what the press is making it appear to be. I personally had phone calls from investigators asking about her whereabouts. EVERYONE missed her and was looking for her, but under the assumption she was avoiding all of us, because she WAS. She was convinced the world was ending and that people were after her, including the government. It’s a sad situation, indeed….
There were, in fact, missing person reports filed on her. She had a severe mental illness and was resistant to treatment for years. She had been trying to evade family members for months due to her delusions. She had been committed by her family twice. If the blame lies anywhere, it’s in the mental health system, for releasing a person who has a history of self-destructive and dangerous behavior. Her family was pursuing a guardianship and had private investigators looking for her. I know her personally and she was a lovely person and her presence was infectious. She was truly one-of-a-kind, and the very thing that made her amazing was also her downfall.
It’s unclear what the relationship was between this commenter “CLAMATO11” and Mrs Bently, but their information seems to differ from the reported account. The information offered here by alleged family member CLEMOTO11, is – the family knew she was missing, the situation was so severe that they actually had to hire a private investigator to hunt for her whereabouts; when they did know where she was, she resisted the mental treatment they wanted to impose on her. She was convinced that people were after her. She was in the midst of a separation or divorce from a wealthy heir whose own father had passed away at the end of 2012. She moved back to her home town, and yet her mother instead of embracing her, was pursuing a guardianship. Whoever was supposed to be looking after her, didn’t check on her for weeks.
One commenter raised the issue of “gang-stalking”, and organized harassment to create the appearance of mental illness. This seems reminiscent of BMOrg’s “shunning” tactic.
Bently Holdings issues statement
The Silver Sage apartment complex at 1243 High School Street where the body was found was listed for sale a year ago.
The Examiner has a heartfelt eulogy from a friend:
Today, the city of San Francisco, family, friends are grieving the loss of a true philanthropist, environmentalist, talented artist and friend.
We knew Amber Marie Bently and are sharing their pain.
She was blessed with a caring heart. Helping the less fortunate and fighting for causes dear to her heart was Amber’s true passion.
Amber was a passionate environmentalist and her efforts to preserve Mother Nature and our planet are commendable.
Her relentless commitment to environmental organizations such as the Point Reyes Bird Observatory and Global Green’s “Gorgeous & Green” galas made her a leading San Francisco ambassador of the green movement.
Amber Marie also designed eye catching high end sustainable jewelry. They were made of 100 percent recycled 18-karat gold and precious stones from green mines that emphasize ethical treatment of miners and reforesting used land.
She proved to all that you do not need to sacrifice beauty in order to be green. The pieces she created spoke of love and her passion for sustainability. Most of her collections helped raise money for various charities she believed in.
She was known on the San Francisco social scene for her one of a kind elegance and innocent beauty.
A LED-enhanced light-up dress by Fiuka that she wore to the San Francisco Opera Gala in 2010 was featured in many magazines and symbolizes her commitment to green fashion.
Our tribute to Amber:
As we reflect upon your life and the way you respected Mother Nature we would like to dedicate this poem to you:
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper,
I mean-the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass, how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields, which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
by Mary Oliver
” I wish for the world to remember the sweet, wonderful soul she was,”shares heartbroken Christopher Bently her husband.
Sadly enough, there are many inaccurate posts surrounding her sudden death. We know that the people who were close to her will not pay attention to these posts, but remember her candor, joyful spirit and dedication to the green movement.
We feel Amber’s loss deeply. Her gentle face and her beautiful piercing brown eyes will be sorely missed.
Amber, you will remain in our hearts always. Your dedicated green passion shall continue to impact our world. Thank you for touching our lives.
[Update 7:20pm]
Amber Marie Bently was due to appear in court next week in Marin County, a motion seeking recovery of Attorney’s Fees.
Her family “all just assumed she was avoiding us”…and yet, her body was found in the tiny, 6000 person Nevada town that she grew up in, and her Mother lived in. Her mother was trying to get her committed to a mental institution.
[update 7/26/13 4:42pm]
The SF Chronicle has interviewed Amber’s brother.
Her brother, Arik Barnett, 30, a software engineer from San Luis Obispo, said he had handled his sister’s admissions to several hospitals during the past year. She refused to accept the diagnosis, resisted treatment and hid the diagnosis from others, he said. “Amber was sick and paranoid,” Barnett said. “It wasn’t her, the last six months of her life, which is why she may have said and done cruel things to people. She was convinced she had a sleeping problem.” But Michelene Insalaco, an attorney representing Amber Marie Bently in her divorce, said that in November, Bently “was doing fine.” Insalaco said Bently told her she was afraid of her husband. Insalaco also said several missing-persons reports had been filed in recent months when Bently dropped out of sight. Sausalito Police Sgt. Steve Veveiros confirmed that officers went to Bently’s address at 21 Sunshine Ave. on April 3 to check on her after one of her lawyers filed a report saying Bently had not been seen since March 15. Officers found an eviction notice on the door and, inside, a phone number for Bently’s mother, whom police contacted in Gardnerville. Bently’s mother told police her daughter had shown up on March 18 in Minden, Nev., at one of her late father-in-law’s businesses, the Bently Pressurized Bearing Co., and that a security guard shooed Bently away. On April 8, Douglas County sheriff’s deputies located Bently at the same business and took her to a local hospital for psychiatric evaluation, Veveiros said.
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PocketDearest lover,
I have hit a devastating breaking point with you.
I have listened to your pleas for me to go to the gym with you, and I have bitten my lip when you read me the label of the ice cream carton. I have cried on my own when you asked me why I need both desserts, and I have tried to consider your concern about my health and my size to be an expression of love.
But today, I just cannot try any longer. And here is why.
I never have, and never will, have a normal relationship with food. I need you to understand that. I can give you time to process that, and ask questions, but I cannot explain it forever. At some point, you will need to accept this about me.
As much as it may appear so, I do not need you to monitor my health. I understand you want me to live a long life, for our children, with you. But my immune system is like steel and I soar through my daily life and my physical job with extraordinary ease. There has been no evidence, in a doctor’s office or otherwise, that I am going to drop dead anytime soon.
Every time you tell me that you want me to be healthy and live a long life, I feel pressured and triggered. Your statements do not motivate me the way you want them to. They trigger me. If you do not understand what I mean by triggers, ask. I am happy to explain.
For instance, I am triggered by you asking me to join you in, say, a Whole30 challenge. You do not need to defend how wonderful, safe, and healthy the challenge is. That is not what triggers me.
What triggers me is the mental excitement I will get at the idea of another diet regimen, at another chance to go back to what used to be. And my brain will immediately go to the extreme. How can I take the regimen to the next level. How can I turn it into an obsessive game. How little I can eat and still follow the rules.
See, while you live in fear that my weight gain will get me a doctor’s note about high blood pressure, I live in fear of following any sort of diet regimen because a doctor told me never to do so again.
An eating disorder is essentially a mental health disorder, and although what you see when you look at me is this fat unhealthy blob full of mayonnaise, you can never understand what has gone on in my brain up until this point in my life, nor could you ever understand how incredibly wonderful it is to have a brain, finally, that feels safe around a dinner table.
I weigh 200 pounds and I don’t even like mayonnaise, but the best part about my life now is that I’m not afraid of mayonnaise. Or pizza. Or ice cream or butter or flour. And I want you to understand how absolutely heavenly that is for me.
I can sit at a dinner table and have conversations with the other human beings sitting with me, rather than wondering how to sneak the last piece of bruschetta.
I can dance, or go for a walk, without caring how many calories I burn while doing it.
I can wake up in the morning and not fear all the ways I will screw up my diet because I’m not on one.Credit: DC Comics
Credit: DC Comics
Later this year several DC titles will adopt Scott Snyder's Batman Zero Year premise, including Action Comics, The Flash, Green Arrow, Green Lantern Corps, Batwing, Catwoman, Detective Comics, Birds of Prey, and Nightwing.
Another title going into the past will be Batgirl, and Friday DC released the first image by artist Alex Garner from the story - a look at a pre-Batgirl, but-on-the-road-to-heroic Barbara Gordon.
"Around fifteen or sixteen-years-old at the time of her tie-in issue, Barbara Gordon is forced to protect her brother and homestead in anticipation of the upcoming storm," writes DC E-i-C Bob Harras. It’s here that she’ll not only be forced to evaluate what 'home' really means to her, but where she’ll realize for the first time that she has the potential to be a hero in her own right.
Batgirl’s Zero Year tie-in issue will be guest-written by Marguerite Bennett with art by Fernando Pasarin and Jonathan Glapion and a cover by Garner.Tatiana Podladchikova, an applied mathematician from Russia, has been honored with the Chizhevsky Medal for her space weather research. She developed a number of services to forecast solar activity and prevent space accidents.
At the 12th European Space Weather Week, which opened in Belgium on Nov. 23, Russian mathematician Tatiana Podladchikova was presented with the International Alexander Chizhevsky Medal for Space Weather and Space Climate.
"We seek to understand the essence of the phenomena that we observe in space because they are intricately connected with our plans on Earth," said Dr. Podladchikova.
Space weather research is primarily aimed at studying phenomena that can impact space and terrestrial technological systems, as well as threaten the physical well-being of humans. Space weather forecasts are used when planning space missions, predicting equipment malfunctions, and providing the necessary protection.
Podladchikova helped to develop services that forecast solar activity while working at the Royal Observatory in Belgium. She also helped develop a way to forecast geomagnetic storms with researchers at the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences; and while at the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech) in Moscow she studied the Earth's magnetosphere.
Podladchikova helped develop a way to forecast geomagnetic storms. Source: Press photo
The Chizhevsky Medal was set up in 2013 to recognize significant contributions to space weather research by those who “have taken unexplored ways, potentially at risk, to reach a successful achievement,” according to the website of the ESWW conference. In the previous two years, the Chizhevsky Medal was awarded to Prof Christina Plainaki (Greece), and Prof Gaël Cessateur (Belgium). The medal was set up to commemorate the pioneering Soviet scientist Alexander Chizhevsky, the founder of Heliobiology, which is the study of links between the Sun and the Earth, and between human beings and space.
All rights reserved by Rossiyskaya Gazeta.There’s only so many ways you can talk about how the NFL destroys everything else in its wake on American television. But even after a year of turmoil and scandal, it’s still true – nothing can even approach the neighborhood of the NFL in consistent television viewership.
The Week 13 Packers-Patriots matchup, billed as a possible Super Bowl preview, is no exception. Green Bay’s win drew a massive audience of 30.9 million viewers, making it the most watched regular season game since November 2007’s Colts-Patriots game.
Here’s the perfunctory beating of the chest from CBS…
THE NFL ON CBS’s broadcast of the Green Bay Packers win over the New England Patriots on Sunday, Nov. 30 (4:25 PM, ET) is the highest-rated NFL game of the season with an average preliminary national household rating/share of 17.6/32, up 5% from last year’s 16.7/29 (Denver-Kansas City, Cincinnati-San Diego). The rating/share of 17.6/32 is the highest-rated NFL regular-season game on any network in three years (17.6/32; New England-Denver on CBS; 12/18/11 and 17.6/30; Green-Bay- N.Y. Giants on Fox; 12/4/11). New England-Green Bay was seen by an average of 30.9 million viewers (Persons 2+), up 10% from last year’s 28.1 million and is the most-watched Sunday game of the 2014 season and is the most-watched Sunday regular-season game on any network in six years (33.8 million; New England-Indianapolis on CBS; 11/4/07). The average viewership and rating/share peaked for the Patriots-Packers game with 36.2 million viewers and a 20.3/34 household rating/share (7:00-7:30 PM, ET), respectively.
Those are NFL playoff type numbers. In fact, 30.9 million viewers even beat out Chiefs-Colts from last year’s postseason and matched Chargers-Bengals. To think that a regular season game could reach those kind of dizzying heights is extraordinary.
It’s almost impossible to put the NFL’s television dominance in perspective, but the league just had a regular season game beat the following events:
World Cup Final: 26.5 million between ABC and Univision
BCS National Championship Game: 26.06 million
USA-Portugal: 24.76 million
World Series Game 7: 23.5 million
NCAA Tournament Championship Game: 21.2 million
A Week 13 NFL game just beat the championship or deciding games of every other sport in America this year. The only non-NFL sporting event to do better was the Opening Ceremony of the Winter Olympics.
We’ve speculated before about when the NFL might reach its popularity peak due to rising scandal and oversaturation in the marketplace. The answer is clearly a not yet.I wanted to get your attention on an important reason why people become lonely and isolated. Individualism is making us more lonely.
This is not necessarily about social skills; it’s about buying into the individualism idea… a little too much.
As a society, I think we cherish individualism and heroism too much. As I say in my book, this is in our culture, and it’s over-blown by the stories we hear and the movies we watch.
And this hurts our social lives
This over-individualistic thinking leads to beliefs like… “I can build a great life, and I can do it on my own; I don’t need any help” and “No one can stop me from achieving my greatest potential”
These beliefs are great, unless you go too far in that direction.
You just can’t create ‘happiness’ on your own. In fact, much of our happiness comes from being with other people, friends, lovers, and family. Dozens and dozens of scientific studies prove that.
You can be successful on your own, but it’s much easier to be successful when you connect with other people.
If you have the right friends, you get more motivated, your problems seem easier to handle, you’re more informed, you get more help on your specific situation, you get more connections, you have more fun, and you no longer feel lonely.
It’s just crazy to pretend that when people succeed, they did it on their own, with no help, from no one.
For your success AND for your happiness, you need others people. It’s not a weakness, it’s just human nature.
Don’t let others bully you into believing that you’re weak if you can’t rely a 100% on your own on everything.
Until next time, I wish you lots of luck.
– Paul SandersImagine: You take your children to the park for a leisurely stroll beside some calm lake waters. You're looking for pure, unadulterated nature; an escape from the industrial hullabaloo that is city life.
Instead, you find several areas of the park blocked off, occupied by massive machines sucking out shale and oil through the process known as "fracking."
According to an investigative report from The Columbus Dispatch, that image might not be far off. Dispatch found that 18 employees from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) have been working to assess the availability of Utica shale in parks and forests across the state, resources that could eventually be marketed to oil and gas drilling companies.
The concentrated push has involved a widespread, coordinated effort to examine public records and assess original mineral rights on Utica shale across the state. In the past, drilling companies have offered as much as $5,000 per acre to landowners in Eastern Ohio to procure mineral rights.
The undertaking potentially signifies ODNR's interest in profiting from fracking sales in the future; cataloging mineral rights means easing the process of selling land to drillers once they make initial offers.
Fracking, the relatively new drilling technology that involves blasting thousands of gallons of water into the earth to fracture shale and free trapped, valuable natural oil and gas. It's been touted as a way to expose previously unavailable areas underground for drilling and has been subject of discussion on its economic value and potential.August 2016
From Israeli citizens, in solidarity with the Movement for Black Lives
Dear Friends at the Movement for Black Lives,
We are citizens of Israel who oppose our government’s policies of colonialism, military occupation, and apartheid against the Palestinian people. We support the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel. We support allies from all around the world who have joined the BDS movement in solidarity.
We welcome, with great excitement, the all-encompassing vision of global justice, expressed in the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) Policy Platform. In particular, we wholeheartedly endorse the call by M4BL to divest billions of US tax dollars from Israel in the form of military funding so that they can be reinvested, instead, in the education, healthcare, and other social and cultural initiatives, presented in the M4BL platform, with a focus on communities of color.
Our group, Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from Within (Boycott from Within), views the building of a democratic future in this land as interconnected with building towards a democratic future in the United States. It is impossible to overstate the value and meaning of M4BL’s support. The U.S. ‘special relationship with Israel’ – a scheme for channeling away billions of US dollars that should have gone to domestic, economic redistribution, services, education, and health of marginalized communities in the U.S., for the purpose of denying the civil and human rights of the Palestinian people, ‘special relationship’ would not exist without ongoing institutionalized racism.
Our solidarity comes from within Israel, recognizing that linkages exist between Israel's systems of extreme population separation and the forms of population separation and suppression practiced in the U.S. against U.S. citizens. These interconnected forms of population separation and isolation include forced displacement, ghettoization, segregation, and a matrix of barriers, fences, walls, enclosures, and mass carceral spaces. This is why we stand among those who are building strong alliances to promote our shared strategies for power and justice.
In the struggles for liberation of both Palestinians and African Americans, we see the defenders of the unjust and oppressive status quo frame the prevailing narrative and effectively silence the demands of the liberation movements. In particular, slander and defamation has been a main tool. We reject and condemn such despicable tactics. We reaffirm our solidarity with your movement and commit to supporting it in any way we can.
The common cause of the defenders of Israel and the defenders of white supremacy exposes both of them for what they are, separately and at their intersections. We thank our opponents for making it very clear which side they are on, when it comes to justice and equality. We at Boycott from Within hold your principles and your work in the highest esteem. You can count on our continued support as you advance them. We would be proud to count ourselves among M4BL's allies – on the side which opposes racism and oppression.
Sincerely,
BOYCOTT! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from WithinGordon James Klingenschmitt (YouTube)
Republican Colorado state Rep. Gordon James Klingenschmitt accused the U.S. government of cooperating with demonic spirits this week after the Supreme Court refused to overturn a ban on so-called “cures” for homosexuality.
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed a lower court ruling to stand that upheld a New Jersey law banning the discredited practice of converting gay people into heterosexuals.
On his Monday Pray in Jesus Name broadcast, Klingenschmitt argued that Christian psychotherapists had been stripped of their “free speech rights” because they could no longer use reparative therapy, which he said was “intended to repair the character flaw inside of someone who has a character problem and that problem is homosexual addiction.”
“The Holy Spirit of God is a healing God and he would come, perhaps, through the psychotherapist to heal the homosexual of the sinful addiction,” Klingenschmitt explained. “And yet, there is a demonic spirit inside of the addict that is controlling their voluntary choices or, at least, has contracted with them and is manifesting through them in this sinful addiction.”
“What the lower court judges are doing is they are cooperating with the demonic spirit inside of the homosexual addict, and those judges are now reinforcing the sin,” he insisted. “That’s what these bad judges have done.”
“The Bible says the opposite,” the first term state legislator added. “We’re supposed to hold on to what is good and reject every kind of evil, including evil spirits.”
Watch the video below from Gordon James Klingenschmitt, broadcast May 18, 2015. Remarks about the conversion therapy begin around the 10:20 mark.It’s celebration time! I have no idea whether Tucker deciding that he hates me shampooing and rinsing his hair in the tub is a side effect of autism or developmental delays or is it simply a Tucker-quirk. But it’s been sort of sucky lately and makes me feel like an asshole because I end up just dumping a bucket of water over his head while keeping my fingers crossed that I don’t accidentally water-board him.
He hates it.
That is…he did hate it. Until I I had a rare moment of parenting excellence.
I gave him a hand mirror and told him to look at his awesome spiky dinosaur hair.
Here, look. He’s even dumping water on his own head.
If you, too, struggle with being allowed to rinse the shampoo from your kid’s sticky food-encrusted hair, feel free to steal my parenting excellence. It’s far and few, friends, and should be shared whenever it shows itself.A Christmas Wish (or 4)
December 24th, 2011 by Zachary Shahan
I was planning to write a post along these lines, but then got the comment below from a reader the other day, which nails what I was thinking about. So, I immediately thought, “Why not just use this?” With permission, here’s the comment reposted, with slight modifications:
I want to wake up on the 25th to the following news report.
Congress/Senate/President have agreed to go green. Starting on Jan 1, the US will start the following policies:
National feed-in tariff (FIT), with rooftops and parking lot projects receiving a 20% bonus on top of the normal FIT. The FIT will be tiered to promote local ownership. For projects that product less than 3x annual use by a building/campus, the utility has 1 month to connect the system to the grid. After that, they start paying 10% of the FIT (based on rated max production), increasing an additional 10% each month until connected (to a max of 150% of FIT). Carbon tax on coal, oil, and gas. Starting small and going up each quarter. See the carbon tax post for the messy details on import taxes etc. End all special tax breaks/loopholes for coal, gas, oil, and nuclear. Stop all government funding/breaks to said groups. Funds raised by (2) and saved by (3) will be used to train vets to install green energy and conduct energy efficiency projects. And then pay those vets to do said work on government buildings, schools, base housing.
There is more, but I’ll stop there, the wishing star has it’s work cut out for it with just those.
Happy Holidays to All
Happy Holidays from us here at CleanTechnica as well! -ZS
Christmas tree & bulb via shutterstockTrick or treat: intrusion or opportunity?
Issues@Hand AFA initiatives, Christian activism, news briefs
October 2017 – Rick Lane, in San Antonio, Texas, at first grumbled when he realized that over 300 kids are bussed in for trick or treating on his street |
River valley during the Beaver Wars in the seventeenth century.[11] About 1759 the Pekowi band moved north into the Ohio Country. Not wanting to force Methotaske to choose between staying in the south with him or moving with her family, Puckshinwa decided to travel north with her. The Pekowi founded an Indian settlement named Chillicothe, where Tecumseh was likely born.[17]
In October 1774, during Tecumseh's boyhood, frontiersmen killed his father at the Battle of Point Pleasant during Lord Dunmore's War.[18] The white men "had crossed onto Indian land in violation of a recent treaty".[19] After Puckshinwa's death, Methoataske may have gone to live with her Creek relatives prior to moving west with the Kispoko in 1779. Methoataske left Tecumseh and his siblings under the care of their married older sister, Tecumapese. Wahskiegaboe, Tecumapese's husband, later became one of Tecumseh's supporters.[15][20]
Chiksika or Cheeseekau, Tecumseh's eldest brother and a leading warrior, essentially raised him. Chiksika took Tecumseh hunting and taught him to become a warrior; however, their younger brother, Lalawethika, who later changed his name to Tenskwatawa, stayed behind and showed little evidence of the powerful spiritual leader and close partnership he would form with Tecumseh as an adult.[21][22]
Early experiences [ edit ]
During the American Revolutionary War, the Shawnee were military allies of the British and repeatedly battled the European Americans. Following his father's death, Tecumseh's family moved to Chief Blackfish's nearby village of Chillicothe. They remained there until the Kentucky militia destroyed it in retaliation for Blackfish's attack on Boonesborough, Kentucky.[23] Tecumseh's family fled to another nearby Kispoko village, but forces under the command of George Rogers Clark destroyed it in 1780. Next, the family moved to the village of Sanding Stone, which Clark and his men attacked in November 1782, and Tecumseh's family relocated to a Shawnee settlement near present-day Bellefontaine, Ohio.[24] Some historians believe that witnessing the sacking of his childhood homes by the European Americans was a catalyst to his drive to becoming a warrior like his father and older brother, Chiksika (Cheeseekau),[25] and to be like "a fire spreading over the hill and valley, consuming the race of dark souls".[19]
Tecumseh may have witnessed his first battle, the Battle of Piqua, in 1780, while he was still a young boy under Chiksika's supervision, but Tecumseh did not engage in combat. Tribal chiefs later recalled that Tecumseh became so frightened during the battle that he ran away; it was allegedly the only instance in Tecumseh's life where he fled the battlefield.[19][25]
After the American Revolutionary War ended in 1783, fifteen-year-old Tecumseh joined a band of Shawnee who intended to stop white settlers from invading their lands by attacking settlers' flatboats as they traveled down the Ohio River from Pennsylvania. "For a while", the Native Americans "were so effective that river traffic virtually ceased".[19] Tecumseh participated in several raids on European Americans between 1786 and 1788, and in time, he assumed leadership of his own band of warriors.[26]
The Northwest Indian War brought continued violence to the European American frontier. The Wabash Confederacy, a large tribal alliance that included all the major tribes of Ohio and the Illinois Country formed to repel the European American settlers from the region. As the war between the Native American confederacy and the European Americans expanded in the late 1780s and Tecumseh grew older, he began training to become a warrior and to fight alongside with his older brother Chiksika, an important war leader.[27]
In late 1789 or early 1790, Tecumseh traveled south with Chiksika to live among and fight alongside the Chickamauga faction of the Cherokee. During their trip south, Tecumseh fell from his horse during a hunting expedition and broke a bone in his thigh. The injury took several months to heal and caused him to walk with a slight limp for the remainder of his life. Accompanied by twelve Shawnee warriors, the brothers stayed at Running Water in Marion County, Tennessee, where Chiksika's wife and daughter lived. There Tecumseh met Dragging Canoe, a Chickamauga leader who was leading Indian resistance to American expansionism. Tecumseh remained with the Chickamauga for nearly two years. During this time he fathered a daughter with a Cherokee; however, the relationship was brief and the child remained with her mother.[28]
After a brief return to the Ohio Country in 1791, Tecumseh and his band of Shawnee warriors rejoined his brother in the Cumberland River area in Tennessee, where Chiksika was killed while leading a raid in September 1792. Tecumseh assumed leadership of the small Shawnee band and subsequent Chickamauga raiding parties before he returned to the Ohio Country at the end of 1792.[29] Afterwards, Tecumseh took part in several battles, including that of the Battle of Fallen Timbers (1794), in which the European Americans defeated the Native Americans to end the Northwestern Indian Wars in the Americans' favor.[30][31] Despite the loss, Tecumseh refused to sign the Treaty of Greenville (1795), in which the Native Americans ceded large tracts of their lands in the Old Northwest Territory (about two-thirds of the present-day state of Ohio and portions of present-day Indiana) in exchange for goods valued at $20,000.[32][33]
Tecumseh took a wife, Mamate, and had a son, Paukeesaa, born about 1796. Their marriage did not last. Tecumseh's sister, Tecumapese, raised Paukeesaa from the age of seven or eight.[34]
Tenskwatawa and Prophetstown [ edit ]
Tecumseh's younger brother, Lalawethika ("He Makes A Loud Noise" or "Noise Maker"), who later took the new name of Tenskwatawa ("The Open Door" or "One with Open Mouth") and became known as "The Prophet" or "The Shawnee Prophet", was part of a set of triplet brothers born in early 1775. (One of the triplets died within the first year of his birth, but Lalawethika and his triplet brother Kumskaukau survived.[31]) Lalawethika's early years as a depressed and isolated young man were marked by numerous failures and alcoholism.[21][22] However, around 1805 Tenskwatawa began preaching and soon emerged as a powerful and influential religious leader of a spiritual revival. The Prophet's beliefs were based on the earlier teachings of the Lenape prophets, Scattamek and Neolin, who predicted a coming apocalypse that would destroy the European American settlers.[35]
The Prophet attracted a large following among Native Americans who had suffered from epidemics and dispossession of their lands. He urged them to reject the European American way of life and to return to their traditional ways. The Prophet wanted Native Americans to reject the white man's customs, which included firearms, consumption of alcohol, and European-style clothing. He also urged his followers to pay traders only half the value of their debts and to refrain from ceding any more lands to the U.S. government.[21][31]
Tecumseh eventually settled near Greenville, Ohio, in a Native American community that Tenskwatawa formed with his followers along the Whitewater River in western Ohio in 1805.[36] Tenskwatawa, who proved to be harsh, even brutal, in his treatment of those who opposed him and his teachings accused his detractors and anyone who associated with European Americans of witchcraft.[37][38] His teachings also led to rising tensions between the settlers and his followers. Opposing Tenskwatawa was the Shawnee leader Black Hoof, who was working to maintain a peaceful relationship with the United States.[35]
The earliest record of Tecumseh's interaction with the European Americans occurred in 1807, when U.S. "Indian Agent" William Wells met with Blue Jacket and other Shawnee leaders in Greenville to determine their intentions after the recent murder of a European settler. Tecumseh, who was among those who spoke with Wells and assured him that his band of Shawnee intended to remain at peace and wanted only to follow the will of the Great Spirit and his prophet. According to Wells's report, Tecumseh also told him that the Prophet intended to move with his followers deeper into the frontier, away from European American settlements.[39] By 1808, as tensions between the Native Americans at Greenville and the encroaching European settlers increased, Black Hoof demanded that Tenskwatawa and his followers leave the area. According to Tenskwatawa's later account, Tecumseh was already contemplating a pan-tribal confederacy to counter European American expansion into Native American-held lands.[40]
In 1808 the Prophet and Tecumseh were leaders of the group that decided to move further west and establish a village near the confluence of the Wabash and Tippecanoe Rivers (near Battle Ground, north of present-day Lafayette, Indiana). Although the site was in Miami tribal territory and their chief, Little Turtle, warned the group not to settle there, the Shawnee ignored the warning and moved into the region; the Miami left them alone. The European Americans called the Native American settlement Prophetstown, after the Shawnee spiritual leader. The village gained significance as a central point in the political and military alliance that was forming around Tecumseh, a natural and charismatic leader.[21]
As Tenskwatawa's religious teachings became more widely known, he attracted numerous followers to Prophetstown that included members of other tribes. The village soon expanded to form a large, multi-tribal community in the southwestern Great Lakes region that served as a major center of Native American culture, a temporary barrier to the encroaching European settlers' westward movement, and a base to expel the whites and their culture from the territory. The community attracted thousands of Algonquin-speaking Native Americans and became an intertribal, religious stronghold within the Indiana Territory for 3,000 inhabitants.[21]
Tecumseh emerged as the primary leader and war chief of the confederation of warriors at Prophetstown. Recruits came from an estimated fourteen different tribal groups, although the majority were members of Shawnee, Delaware, and Potawatomi tribes.[21][41][42] The growing community at Prophetstown also caused increasing concerns among European Americans in the area to fear that Tecumseh was forming an army of warriors to destroy their settlements.[43]
In 1811 Tenskwatawa precipitated the Battle of Tippecanoe when he was overcome by his power and defied Tecumseh's orders to evacuate if Harrison approached the village of Prophetstown. Tenskwatawa claimed to have had a vision and spoke to the tribes "in the voice of Moneto", their god, to attack as the white men could not hurt them, and that no one could die or would feel harm. The loss of this battle brought an end to the Prophet's influence among the Native American confederacy and caused many tribes to lose faith in Tecumseh's great plan of a strong Indian alliance.[44][45]
Tecumseh's War [ edit ]
Portraits of Pushmataha (left) and Tecumseh (right). "These white Americans... give us fair exchange, their cloth, their guns, their tools, implements, and other things which the Choctaws need but do not make... So in marked contrast with the experience of the Shawnee, it will be seen that the whites and Indians in this section are living on friendly and mutually beneficial terms." — Pushmataha, 1811[46]
"Where today are the Pequot? Where are the Narragansett, the Mochican, the Pocanet, and other powerful tribes of our people? They have vanished before the avarice and oppression of the white man... Sleep not longer, O Choctaws and Chickasaws... Will not the bones of our dead be plowed up, and their graves turned into plowed fields?" — Tecumseh, 1811[47]
Tecumseh and William Henry Harrison,[note 6] the two principal adversaries in Tecumseh's War, had both been junior participants in the Battle of Fallen Timbers (1794) at the end of the Northwest Indian War. Although Tecumseh was not among the signers of the Treaty of Greenville (1795) that ceded much of present-day Ohio, long inhabited by the Shawnee and other Native Americans, to the U.S. government, many of the Native American leaders in the region accepted the Greenville treaty's terms. For the next ten years pan-tribal resistance to European American hegemony faded.
After the Treaty of Greenville was signed, most of the Shawnee in Ohio settled at the Shawnee village of Wapakoneta on the Auglaize River, where Black Hoof, a senior chief who had signed the treaty, was their leader. Little Turtle, a Miami war chief, a participant in the "Northwest Indian War", and a signer of the treaty at Greenville, lived in his village along the Eel River. Black Hoof and Little Turtle urged cultural adaptation and accommodation with the United States. The tribes of the region also participated in several additional treaties, including the Treaty of Vincennes (1803 and 1804) and the Treaty of Grouseland (1805), that ceded Native American-held land in southern Indiana to the European Americans. The treaties granted the Native Americans annuity payments and other reimbursements in exchange for their lands.[49]
Rising tensions [ edit ]
In September 1809, William Henry Harrison, governor of the Indiana Territory, negotiated the Treaty of Fort Wayne in which a delegation of Native Americans in the Wabash River area ceded 2.5 to 3 million acres (12,000 km2) of land in what is present-day Indiana and Illinois. The validity of the treaty negotiations were challenged with claims that the U.S. president, and thus the U.S. government, had not authorized them. The negotiations also involved what some historians have described as bribes, which included offering large subsidies to the tribes and their chiefs, and liberal distribution of liquor before the negotiations began.[50]
Tecumseh and his brother, Tenskwatawa, who adamantly wanted to retain their independence from the European Americans, denounced the treaty, became openly hostile to those who had signed it, including other tribal leaders, and began recruiting members to their pan-Native American alliance.[51] Tecumseh emerged as a prominent war chief and leader among the Native Americans who opposed the treaty. Although the Shawnee had no claim on the land ceded to the U.S. government under the Treaty of Fort Wayne, he was angered because many of those who lived in Prophetstown were Piankeshaw, Kickapoo, and Wea, the primary inhabitants of the ceded lands. Tecumseh revived an idea advocated in previous years by the Shawnee leader Blue Jacket and the Mohawk leader Joseph Brant that stated that Native American land was owned in common by all.[52]
Tecumseh was not ready to confront the United States directly. His primary adversaries were initially the Native American leaders who had signed the Treaty of Fort Wayne. Tecumseh, an impressive orator, began to travel widely, urging warriors to abandon the accommodationist chiefs and to join his resistance movement.[53] He insisted that the Fort Wayne treaty was illegal and asked Harrison to nullify it. Tecumseh also warned that the European Americans should not attempt to settle on the ceded lands and claimed that "the only way to stop this evil [loss of land] is for the red man to unite in claiming a common and equal right in the land, as it was first, and should be now, for it was never divided".[54]
Harrison's Confrontation [ edit ]
Tecumseh met with William Henry Harrison in 1810 and in 1811 to demand that the U.S. government rescind its land cession treaties with the Shawnee and other tribes. Harrison refused. In mid-August 1810, Tecumseh led 400 armed warriors from Prophetstown to confront Harrison at Grouseland, the territorial governor's home at Vincennes. The warriors' appearance startled the townspeople and the gathering quickly became hostile after Harrison rejected Tecumseh's demands. Harrison argued that individual tribes could have relations with the U.S. government and claimed that the tribes of the area did not welcome Tecumseh's interference.[55] Tecumseh's response to Harrison's remarks included his impassioned rebuttal:
Sell a country! Why not sell the air, the great sea, as well as the earth? Did not the Great Spirit make them all for the use of his children? How can we have confidence in the white people?[56]
Afterwards, some witnesses to the gathering claimed that Tecumseh had incited the warriors to kill Harrison, who responded by drawing his sword from its sheath at his side. The small garrison defending the town quickly moved to protect the territorial governor; the Potawatomi chief, Winnemac, stood and countered Tecumseh's arguments to the group, urging the warriors to leave peacefully. As the warriors departed, Tecumseh warned Harrison that unless the Treaty of Fort Wayne was rescinded, he would seek an alliance with the British.[57]
In July 1811, Tecumseh, accompanied by an estimated 300 warriors, met with Harrison at his home in Vincennes. Tecumseh told Harrison that the Shawnee and their Indiana allies wanted to remain at peace with the United States; however, their differences had to be resolved. The meeting proved to be unproductive. Harrison believed that the Native Americans were "simply looking forward to a quarrel".[58]
Tecumseh's pan-Native American campaign [ edit ]
Tecumseh's pan-Native American movement established a model for future resistance, as he combined indigenous spirituality and politics in order to create unity and an incentive to resist amongst the native people, yet respected the religions and languages of each nation.[59] Despite Tecumseh's efforts, most of the southern Native American nations rejected his appeals, especially the Choctaw chief, Pushmataha, who opposed Tecumseh's pan-Native American alliance and insisted upon adhering to the terms of the peace treaties that had been signed with the U.S. government.[60] However, a faction among the Creeks, who came to be known as the Red Sticks, responded to Tecumseh's call to arms, which led to the Creek War.[57] Tecumseh, whose name meant "shooting star", also told the Creeks that the arrival of a comet signaled his coming and that the confederacy and its allies took it as an omen of good luck. McKenney reported that Tecumseh claimed he would prove that the Great Spirit had sent him to the Creeks by giving the tribes a sign.
Battle of Tippecanoe [ edit ]
When Harrison heard from intelligence that Tecumseh was away, he reported to the U.S. Department of War that Tecumseh was putting "A finishing stroke upon his work. I hope, however, before his return that that part of the work which he considered complete will be demolished and even its foundation rooted up."[61] Harrison decided to strike first, while Tecumseh was absent, and force the Indians from Prophetstown, which he thought posed a threat to the region, and destroy the village.[43][62] Harrison marched from Vincennes on September 26, 1811, with more than 1,200 men toward Prophetstown, where he intended to intimidate the Prophet's followers and weaken the spiritual leader's influence.[63]
In the meantime, Tenskwatawa thought that a skirmish with Harrison's men would persuade more Indians to join the alliance. Tenskwatawa decided to make the first strike against Harrison's army instead of following through on an agreement that he had previously made with Tecumseh to evacuate Prophetstown if the American military approached the village. Prior to the battle, the Prophet claimed that they would not be harmed if they attacked the white men and the warriors would not die.[43][64]
The New Madrid earthquake was interpreted by the Muscogee as a sign to support the Shawnee's resistance.
On November 6, 1811, when Harrison and about 1,000 of his men approached Prophetstown, the Prophet sent a messenger to request a meeting with Harrison to negotiate. Harrison agreed to meet with him the following day and encamped with his army on a nearby hill about two miles from Prophetstown. In the pre-dawn hours on November 7, an estimated 600 to 700 warriors launched a surprise attack on Harrison's camp to initiate the Battle of Tippecanoe. Harrison's men held their ground in the two-hour engagement, but the Prophet's warriors withdrew from the field and abandoned Prophetstown after the battle. The Americans burned the village to the ground the following day and returned to Vincennes.[65][66]
An American Indian named Shabonee later explained in his firsthand account of the events that Harrison initially intended to negotiate, but the Indians were prepared to fight. The Shawnee reported that the young warriors had said, "We are ten to their one. If they stay upon one side, we will let them alone. If they cross the Wabash we will take their scalps or drive them into the river."[67] Shabonee also asserted that Tenskwatawa attacked at the urging of Canadians and "the battle of Tippecanoe was the work of white men who came from Canada and urged us to make war".[68]
The battle did not end the Indians' resistance to the Americans. Despite the loss at Prophetstown, Tecumseh continued his role as the military leader of the pan-Indian alliance and began to rebuild its membership. However, many tribes lost faith and his great plan to establish a stronger Indian alliance was never fulfilled.[44] The battle was also a severe blow for Tenskwatawa's prestige. He lost his influence among the Indians, as well as the confidence of his brother. The Prophet became an outcast and eventually moved to Canada, where he served as one of Tecumseh's subordinates during the War of 1812.[69][70]
When the Americans went to war with the British in 1812, Tecumseh's War became a part of that struggle.[65] On December 16, 1811, the New Madrid earthquake shook the South and the Midwest. Although the interpretation of this event varied from tribe to tribe, one consensus was universally accepted: the powerful earthquake had to have meant something. For many tribes in the pan-Indian alliance, it meant that Tecumseh and the Prophet must be supported.[71]
War of 1812 [ edit ]
Siege of Detroit [ edit ]
Tecumseh rallied his confederacy and allied his forces with the British army invading the Northwest Territory from Upper Canada. He joined British Major-General Sir Isaac Brock in the Siege of Detroit, helping to force the city's surrender in August 1812. At one point in the battle, as Brock advanced to a point just out of range of Detroit's guns, Tecumseh had his approximately 400 warriors parade out from a nearby wood and circle back around to repeat the maneuver, making it appear that there were many more men under his command than was actually the case. Brigadier General William Hull, the fort commander, surrendered in fear of a massacre. The victory was of a great strategic value to the British allies.[72]
Tecumseh was made a brigadier general in the British army as the commander in chief of its Indian allies. In an effort to honor Tecumseh for his help during the siege, Major-General Henry Procter, the next British commander in the region, awarded him a sash, but Tecumseh returned it "with respectful contempt".[73]
The victory at Detroit was reversed a little over a year later, when Commodore Perry's victory on Lake Erie in the summer of 1813 cut the British supply lines. Along with William Henry Harrison's successful defense of Fort Meigs, which created a staging area for the recapture of Fort Detroit, the British found themselves in an indefensible position and had to withdraw from the city. They burned all public buildings in Detroit and retreated into Upper Canada along the Thames Valley. Tecumseh sought continued British support in order to defend tribal lands against the Americans. However, a much reinforced Harrison led an invasion of Canada.
Siege of Fort Meigs [ edit ]
The siege began on May 5, 1813, when a small British force of less than 1,000 men under the command of Major-General Procter, the British commander on the Detroit frontier, and an estimated 1,250 Indian warriors led by Tecumseh and the Wyandot leader, Roundhead, attempted to capture Fort Meigs in northwestern Ohio.[74] The British hoped that the effort would delay an American offensive attack against Detroit, which the British had captured in 1812. The American force of 1,100 men suffered heavy casualties, but the British and their Indian allies failed to capture Fort Meigs. On May 7, terms were arranged providing for exchange or parole of British and American prisoners.[note 7]
After the initial battle, some of the Indian warriors succeeded in killing several American prisoners before Tecumseh, Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Elliott, and Captain Thomas McKee of the Indian Department persuaded them to stop.[78] Tecumseh reportedly asked Procter why he had not stopped the massacre. Procter, who complained that the Indians could not be made to obey, replied, "Begone! You are unfit to command. Go and put on petticoats."[79] According to another account of the incident, Tecumseh supposedly rebuked Procter with the remark, "I conquer to save; you to kill."[80] Eyewitnesses estimated between twelve and fourteen Americans were killed in the massacre.[81] Tecumseh's actions during the event are thought to be a major reason why he later became a hero also in the United States and is considered a "noble savage".[82]
Battle of the Thames [ edit ]
Major-General Procter did not have the same working relationship with Tecumseh as his predecessor Isaac Brock. Tecumseh and Proctor disagreed over tactics. While Procter favored withdrawal into Canada to avoid further battles, leaving the Americans to suffer through the hardships of winter, Tecumseh was more eager to launch an immediate and decisive action to defeat the Americans and allow his warriors to retake their homelands in the northwest.[83] Meanwhile, Harrison pursued the retreating British and allied tribes. When Procter's forces failed to appear at Chatham in Upper Canada (although he had promised Tecumseh that he would make a stand there against the Americans), Tecumseh reluctantly moved his men to meet up with Procter's troops near Moraviantown. Tecumseh informed Procter that he would withdraw no farther and announced that if the British wanted his continued help, they needed to wait for the arrival of Harrison's army and fight. At the conclusion of an impassioned speech Tecumseh declared:
Our lives are in the hands of the Great Spirit. We are determined to defend our lands, and if it be his will, we wish to leave our bones upon them.[84]
On October 5, 1813, the Americans attacked and won a victory over the British and Native Americans at the Battle of the Thames, near Moraviantown. Tecumseh was killed.[note 8] After the battle, most of the Indian confederacy surrendered to Harrison at Detroit and returned to their homes.[87][note 9]
Death [ edit ]
The circumstances surrounding Tecumseh's death are unclear due to several conflicting accounts. Some sources claim that Colonel Richard Johnson killed Tecumseh during a cavalry charge.[89] However, the Wyandott historian, Peter D. Clarke, offered a different explanation after talking with Indians who had fought in the battle: "[A] Potawatamie brave, who, on perceiving an American officer (supposed to be Colonel Johnson) on horse... turned to tomahawk his pursuer, but was shot down by him with his pistol.... The fallen Potawatamie brave was probably taken for Tecumseh by some of Harrison's infantry, and mutilated soon after the battle."[90]
John Sugden, who provided an in-depth examination of Tecumseh's death in his book, Tecumseh's Last Stand (1985), suggested that crediting Johnson for taking Tecumseh's life would have, and did, greatly enhanced Johnson's political career. In 1836, when Johnson was elected U.S. Vice President, and again in 1840, his campaign supporters used the slogan, "Rumpsey Dumpsey, Rumpsey Dumpsey, Colonel Johnson killed Tecumseh".[89][91] However, after an exhaustive study, Sugden could not conclude that Johnson killed Tecumseh.[92]
Johnson shooting Tecumseh, Emmons 1833
Johnson shooting Tecumseh, Langworthy 1843
Turtle-shell Tecumseh Monument at the site of the Battle of the Thames
In another account, "A half-Indian and half-white, named William Caldwell... overtook and passed Tecumseh, who was walking along slowly, using his rifle for a staff—when asked by Caldwell if he was wounded, he replied in English, 'I am shot'—Caldwell noticed where a rifle bullet had penetrated his breast, through his buckskin hunting coat. His body was found by his friends, where he had laid [sic] down to die, untouched, within the vicinity of the battle ground..."[93] Several of Harrison's men also claimed to have killed Tecumseh; however, none of them were present when Tecumseh was mortally wounded.[93]
Other sources have credited William Whitley as the person responsible for Tecumseh's death, but Sugden argued that Whitley had been killed in battle prior to Tecumseh's death.[94] In his 1929 autobiography, James A. Drain Sr., Whitley's grandson, continued to claim that his grandfather single-handedly shot and killed Tecumseh. As Drain explained it, Whitley was mortally wounded, but he saw Tecumseh spring towards him, "intent upon taking for himself a scalp", and drew his gun "to center his sights upon the red man's breast. And as he fired, he fell and the Indian as well, each gone where good fighting men go."[95]
Edwin Seaborn, who recorded an oral history from Saugeen First Nation in the 1930s, provides another account of Tecumseh's death. Pe-wak-a-nep, who was seventy years old in 1938, describes his grandfather's eyewitness account of Tecumseh's last battle. Pe-wak-a-nep explained that Tecumseh was fighting on a bridge when his lance snapped. Tecumseh "fell after 'a long knife' was run through his shoulder from behind".[96]
Sugden concluded that Tecumseh was killed during the fierce fighting in the opening engagement between the Indians and Johnson's mounted regiment. Shortly after his death, the Indians retreated from the battle and headed toward Lake Ontario. The details of how he died remain unclear. Tecumseh's body was identified by British prisoners after the battle and examined by some Americans who knew him and could confirm that its injuries were consistent with earlier wounds that Tecumseh has suffered to his legs (a broken thigh and a bullet wound). The body had a fatal wound to the left breast and also showed damage to the head by a blow, possibly inflicted after his death.[97]
According to Sugden, Tecumseh's body had been defiled, although later accounts were likely exaggerated. Sugden also discounted some conflicting Indian accounts that indicated his body had been removed from the battlefield before it could be mutilated. From his analysis of the evidence, Sugden firmly claimed that Tecumseh's remains, mutilated beyond recognition, were left on the battlefield.[98] Sugden's Tecumseh's Last Stand (1985) also recounted varied accounts of Tecumseh's burial and the still unknown location of his gravesite.[99]
Legacy [ edit ]
Tecumseh was an energetic warrior, a respected war chief, and a strong and eloquent orator, whose lifelong goal was to repel the Americans from Indian lands. He and his brother, Tenskwatawa, founded Prophetstown, a large, multi-tribal community that attracted thousands and became a major center of Indian culture, a temporary barrier to encroaching settlers, and a central point for the political and military alliance that was forming around Tecumseh. With a base of supporters in Prophetstown, Tecumseh became the principal organizer and driving force of a multi-tribal confederacy of American Indians. Tecumseh's message promoted tribal unity; he adamantly insisted that tribal lands belong collectively to all Indians.[44][100]
After the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811, Tecumseh resumed his role as the military leader of the pan-Indian confederation, but the battle ended his plan to form a larger, pan-Indian alliance. Tecumseh and the Indian resistance movement allied with the British against the Americans during the War of 1812, but his death at the Battle of the Thames in 1813 and the end of War of 1812 led to the collapse of the alliance. Over the next several years the Indians ceded their remaining land east of the Mississippi River to the U.S. government. As most of the Indians removed to reservation land in the western United States, white settlers claimed the former Indian lands in the Old Northwest Territory for themselves.[44][100]
Tecumseh is considered "one of the most sophisticated and celebrated Indian leaders in all history".[101] However, his weaknesses as an ambitious, impulsive, and arrogant leader willing to make significant sacrifices, including risking the lives of his followers, impacted the Indian resistance movement. Despite his relentless efforts, the pan-Indian alliance was not successful in achieving its goal of retaining control of Indian lands in the Old Northwest Territory.[102][103]
Consequences for Native Americans [ edit ]
Tecumseh's death was a decisive blow to the American Indians. It had larger implications during negotiations for the Treaty of Ghent (1814). During the treaty process, the British called for the U.S. government to return lands in Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan to the Indians. For decades the British strategy had been to create a buffer state to block American expansion, but the Americans refused to consider the British proposal and it was dropped.[104] Although Article IX of the treaty included provisions to restore to native inhabitants "all possessions, rights and privileges which they may have enjoyed, or been entitled to in 1811", the provisions were unenforceable.[105]
Tecumseh's dream of a pan-Indian confederation would not be realized until 1944, with the founding of the National Congress of American Indians.[citation needed]
Speeches attributed to Tecumseh [ edit ]
Historiography about Tecumseh, as well as the popular image of Native Americans, has been significantly affected by two well-known speeches believed to be forgeries.[citation needed]
Speech at Tuckaubatchee [ edit ]
This speech was said to have been delivered in 1811, at a spot in modern Alabama, to a large body of assembled Creeks. It was so reported by John Francis Hamtramck Claiborne in 1860, its account being credited to General Samuel Dale, who was allegedly present at the meeting:[106]
In defiance of the white warriors of Ohio and Kentucky, I have traveled through their settlements, once our favorite hunting grounds. No war-whoop was sounded, but there is blood on our knives. The Pale-faces felt the blow, but knew not whence it came. Accursed be the race that has seized on our country and made women of our warriors. Our fathers, from their tombs, reproach us as slaves and cowards. I hear them now in the wailing winds. The Muscogee was once a mighty people. The Georgians trembled at your war-whoop, and the maidens of my tribe, on the distant lakes, sung the prowess of your warriors and sighed for their embraces. Now your very blood is white; your tomahawks have no edge; your bows and arrows were buried with your fathers. Oh! Muscogees, brethren of my mother, brush from your eyelids the sleep of slavery; once more strike for vengeance; once more for your country. The spirits of the mighty dead complain. Their tears drop from the weeping skies. Let the white race perish. They seize your land; they corrupt your women; they trample on the ashes of your dead! Back, whence they came, upon a trail of blood, they must be driven. Back! back, ay, into the great water whose accursed waves brought them to our shores! Burn their dwellings! Destroy their stock! Slay their wives and children! The Red Man owns the country, and the Pale-faces must never enjoy it. War now! War forever! War upon the living! War upon the dead! Dig their very corpses from the grave. Our country must give no rest to a white man's bones. This is the will of the Great Spirit, revealed to my brother, his familiar, the Prophet of the Lakes. He sends me to you. All the tribes of the north are dancing the war-dance. Two mighty warriors across the seas will send us arms. Tecumseh will soon return to his country. My prophets shall tarry with you. They will stand between you and the bullets of your enemies. When the white men approach you the yawning earth shall swallow them up. Soon shall you see my arm of fire stretched athwart the sky. I will stamp my foot at Tippecanoe, and the very earth shall shake.[107 |
that Congress could end the ambiguity over the payments by appropriating the money for them.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said in an interview with Reuters that he thinks Congress will do just that.
"I'm for helping the poor; always have been," Hatch said. "And I don't think they should be bereft of health care."
The reason CSRs are in limbo at all is because House Republican who did not want Obamacare to succeed sued the administration, claiming the payments to insurers were illegal because they had not appropriated money for them.
A federal judge agreed, but the Obama administration appealed. When Trump took the White House he continued the appeal, to allow lawmakers time to pass a bill to repeal Obamacare and make the payments disappear altogether.
Now that that effort has failed, the lawsuit and the cost-sharing money are once again in play.
Additional reporting by Gisele Grayson.When money is released by the RBI (Reserve Bank of India) into the economy, it goes into circulation through transactions. The government may pay the people it employs, buy goods and services, give subsidies, and so on. Part of this money is kept by the recipients and the rest goes back into bank accounts. A government servant who receives a salary keeps a fraction of it at home and puts the rest in his bank account to earn some interest. The businessmen who sell their goods or services to the government and get money in their bank accounts use only a part of that to carry on their business, while the rest stays in the bank.
One can see that most of the money released into the economy keeps going in and out of the commercial banking system where businesses and households maintain their accounts. The banks have to pay the depositors some interest for keeping their money with them. They too now need to earn some income to pay this interest. They do so by lending the money they get to those who need it for various purposes. I may be setting up a plant to produce some item and may need long-term capital. I may need to set up an office to provide services. I may need capital to pay wages to my workers and also to buy raw material. A part of the profit earned by my business is paid to the banks as interest for the loan I have taken. What this means is that a bank does not have the money that its depositors deposited with it. If all the depositors come to a bank and want to withdraw their deposits, the bank would not be able to pay them. This is called a “run” on a bank, and such a bank fails. This is where the RBI plays the role of a banker to the banks, giving money to the banks.
Each bank is required to deposit a certain amount of its deposits with the RBI. This is called the cash reserve ratio (CRR). If a bank gets Rs100 in deposits and the CRR is 10%, then it has to deposit Rs10 with the RBI. It now has Rs90 to lend. This Rs90 is then given to a borrower, who pays it to someone else who puts it in their bank. That bank then has to deposit Rs9 with the RBI and can now lend Rs81. This amount may be lent and may make its way to a third bank, which then has to deposit Rs8.1 with the RBI.
This chain can continue, now looping in another bank which has to pay the RBI Rs7.29. The banks get Rs100+90+81+72.9…and the RBI gets Rs10+9+8.1+7.29+…What the banks are getting is also going out to the public and is being used as money. As the chain of deposits and withdrawals is completed over time, the Rs100 deposit leads to the system getting Rs1,000 and the RBI Rs100. You can see that the banking system, along with the RBI, has created 10 times the money that the RBI released to begin with. This is called the money multiplier.
[…]
The RBI, the lender of last resort
The advantage of this system is that if a bank is in trouble and does not have the funds to return to its depositors, it can borrow from the RBI. So, the RBI is a guarantor of the banking system. For performing this role, the RBI is also a regulator of the banks and tries to make sure that no bank goes too much out of line with the prudential norms. When would a bank be in trouble? When it has lent out money to insolvent borrowers who are not paying back the interest on the loans they have taken and are not in a position to return the capital they have borrowed. This becomes a bad debt for the bank. If this debt is large in relation to the total lending of the bank, then the bank is in trouble since it does not have the money to pay interest to its depositors or return their deposits. In India, this problem has manifested itself recently as the problem of NPAs (non-performing assets) in banks. The RBI has been trying to deal with this situation.
Different forms of money, liquidity
What has been said above also illustrates that it is not just the cash that the RBI releases into the system that constitutes money, but also the bank deposits that are used as a means of carrying on transactions. In the simplified example above, there was only one form of bank deposit, but there are many kinds of bank deposits, with varying functions. There are current accounts, largely maintained by businesses, which can be used to make payments. There are savings accounts with households, whose members can write cheques to make payments. Then there are the fixed deposits, which cannot be used to make immediate payments but can be used with some delay to make payments. In India, there are also post office accounts that can be used to make payments. All these instruments constitute different forms of money. This brings in the concept of liquidity. Cash is the most liquid form of money, followed by the current account. The least liquid is the fixed deposit. Correspondingly, there are different forms of money that the experts talk of cash, M0, M3, and so on. Each of these measures of money has different significance for different sections of society. If people have no access to banks, then cash is relevant, and not M1 (see explanation below). There is another complication. The cash issued by the RBI is called ‘base money’ or ‘reserve money’ (M0). A part of this comes back to the RBI as CRR. Therefore the entire amount of cash released by the RBI is not available outside. That portion of the cash which is outside the RBI is the “currency in circulation.”
The banks themselves hold some money in their ATMs and vaults for their daily requirements, and this money is not with the public. So, the “currency with the public’” is the currency in circulation minus the currency that is held by the banks. The public can also use its savings accounts and current accounts to make payments, and this is another measure of money available to the public, called M1. This is the sum of the currency with the public and the deposits of the public in banks. The public also has deposits with the post offices, and if that is added to M1, one gets M2. If to M1 the time deposits (fixed deposits of tenure longer than one year) with the banks are added, we get M3. And if to M3 the total post office deposits (fixed deposits) are added, then we get M4.
To sum it up:
1. Currency with public = currency in circulation – cash on hand with banks
2. M0 (reserve money) = currency with public + cash on hand with banks + “other” deposits with RBI + bankers’ deposits with RBI
3. M1 (high-powered money) = currency with public + deposit money of public; where, deposit money of public = demand deposits with banks + “other” deposits with Reserve Bank
4. M2 = M1 + post office savings deposits
5. M3 = M1 + time deposits with banks
6. M4 = M3 + total post office deposits.
Excerpted with the permission of Penguin Random House from Demonetization and the Black Economy by Arun Kumar.WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The last few weeks have been ugly for Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney.
U.S. Republican presidential nominee and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney speaks at a campaign fundraising event in Sarasota, Florida, September 20, 2012. REUTERS/Jim Young
A flat Republican convention, a fumbled response to unrest in the Middle East, reports of discord within his campaign and a secretly taped video of Romney deriding 47 percent of U.S. voters have left his team reeling - and has many Republicans fearing doom in the November 6 election.
There’s more.
Democratic President Barack Obama has opened a slight lead over Romney in national polls, and new surveys indicate that Obama has a significant edge where it matters most: in Ohio, Virginia and Florida, the most coveted of nine politically divided “swing” states that are crucial to cobbling together the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House.
So, seven weeks before the election, is it already over for Mitt Romney?
Not yet. Despite the serial gaffes and the many questions about his campaign, Romney remains within striking range of the president.
The former Massachusetts governor still has time to change the trajectory of the race - even though he has not shown an ability to do so for the past several months, as he has cast Obama as a failure in overseeing a struggling economy.
There are three presidential debates in October, and Romney - who during the past month lightened his campaign schedule in favor of debate practices - clearly is pointing toward the showdowns with Obama as a chance to show Americans he is a better bet to turn things around.
Obama remains vulnerable thanks to a stubbornly high 8.1 percent unemployment rate, tepid economic growth and big majorities of voters who believe the United States is on the wrong track.
“Romney just came out of one of the worst months in presidential politics in recent memory, and he’s hanging right in there,” Republican strategist Rich Galen said. “If I was one of Obama’s guys in Chicago, I’d be thinking: ‘What does it take to get rid of this guy?’ He won’t go away.”
Romney still faces huge challenges.
Surveys indicate most Americans see Obama as relating to their concerns better than Romney, a former private equity executive with an estimated fortune of up to $250 million.
A Republican convention dedicated to humanizing Romney appeared to have no lasting impact on voters. The video of Romney denigrating Obama’s supporters as not paying income taxes and living off government handouts reinforced Democrats’ message that Romney is an out-of-touch rich guy.
ROMNEY MUST SOFTEN IMAGE
To have any hope of beating Obama, Romney must project a warmer image, analysts say.
Romney appeared to be trying to do that late on Wednesday in Florida, where he softened his tone on Obama’s healthcare overhaul and on illegal immigration, and told Univision that “this is a campaign about the 100 percent.”
The comments came as his campaign opened a new assault on Obama that aimed to cast the president as wanting to redistribute wealth from rich Americans to the less fortunate.
“The question for Romney is whether he can do what he so far has not been able to do, which is turn around his personal image and make people more comfortable with him,” said pollster Andrew Kohut of the Pew Research Center.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll this week found more than 40 percent of voters viewed Romney less favorably after seeing the “47 percent” video. A USA Today/Gallup poll found the video made almost one-third of independents less likely to vote for him.
“Romney’s likability is still not great. People don’t see him as credible, he’s not seen as empathetic,” Kohut said. “He’s got to find a way to overcome all those things.”
As his campaign has struggled, there has been no shortage of advice from prominent Republicans, many of whom have urged him to be tougher on Obama and more specific on his plans.
In a Wall Street Journal column on Thursday, Republican strategist Karl Rove wrote that “Romney has had a bad week but he can recover - if he tells voters more clearly what he would do as president.”
A gaffe-free closing stretch from the sometimes awkward Romney is another key. “I think it would really help if he stops making mistakes,” Galen said.
The stakes will be enormous at the first presidential debate on October 3 in Denver. It will focus on the economy and set the narrative for the final month of the campaign.
“Romney will have his best chance to paint a vivid and compelling picture of a brighter economic future,” Republican pollster Whit Ayres said.
The Real Clear Politics average of national polls put Obama ahead by 3.1 percentage points on Thursday, with the Rasmussen daily tracking poll showing Obama with a 2-point lead and Gallup showing a dead-even race.
Other polls this week showed Obama with a larger lead, and in some cases crossing the 50 percent benchmark in support.
The Reuters/Ipsos daily tracking poll on Thursday had Obama leading 48 percent to 43 percent. A Pew poll gave Obama an 8-point edge, 51 percent to 43 percent, and an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll had Obama leading by 50 percent to 45 percent.
Obama also leads in eight of the nine most competitive toss-up states, giving him more options as he tries to piece together 270 electoral votes. Obama could survive a loss in Ohio or Florida - or even both - but losses in either state would be crippling to Romney.
“The lead Obama has in these critical states is far from insurmountable. They are in single digits,” said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College poll. “If the national dialogue were to shift two or three points, those battleground states would get close in a hurry.”
A PUSH IN ‘SWING’ STATES
The leader in the presidential race in mid-September typically holds on to win. But recent contests also have shown the race can shift dramatically in the last two months.
On September 20, 2004, the Real Clear Politics average of national polls gave President George W. Bush an average 5.7- percentage-point lead over Democrat John Kerry. He eventually beat Kerry by only 1.5 points.
The Romney campaign has cited the 1980 race as a model, when Republican Ronald Reagan trailed Democratic President Jimmy Carter for much of the autumn in the Gallup poll but blew open the race late after a strong performance in their only debate.
But recent polls show no signs of improvement for Romney on some key indicators. The Pew poll found Obama was seen by a 3-to-1 ratio as the candidate who connects best with Americans.
Romney’s lead on handling the economy, the biggest issue in the election, also has faded, with the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll showing Romney and Obama tied on the issue. Pew and Gallup polls also found Democratic enthusiasm had jumped since Obama’s nominating convention.
Republicans in “swing” states said, however, they were encouraged by the Romney campaign’s voter-turnout efforts, designed to counter Obama’s vaunted organization.
Fergus Cullen, a former state Republican chairman in New Hampshire, said Romney’s campaign there was more organized than Republican John McCain’s effort in 2008.
“With McCain in 2008, we could feel it slipping away by late September,” Cullen said. “I don’t feel that at all this time.”
Ayres said that Romney “is in every bit as strong a position to win the presidency today as he was in June or July or August. Is he ahead? No. Is he close against an incumbent president? Most definitely. Does he have the potential to win? Without question.”What is wrong with the Republicans? Where to even begin.
Should I go off on the mouthpieces like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity or Ann Coulter? Should I give my opinion on the difference between being a Republican and being a Conservative? Should I write about honesty and character? Should I try to pinpoint when the GOP became a party before nation tribe? Should I explore how the need for the GOP to broaden their demographics will probably just lead to disingenuous pandering to women and ethnic groups?
When I sat down to write this the phrase that kept coming back to me was:
"As you sow, so shall you reap."
From this election there are many glaring examples of this. I'll focus on two of them.
The first is the election of Elizabeth Warren to the Senate. It was the GOPobstruction in the Senate that kept her from being the head of the newly formed CFPB.
When the Senate GOP blocked her from that post the Democratic Party suggested that maybe she should run for the Senate seat in Massachusetts. And we know now how that turned out.
The second example is the shock coming from a lot of the GOP pundits that Romney lost and that the independent polling data was right. How could that have happened? GOP pundits like Dick Morris, George Will and Michael Barone all had Romney winning by a landslide. Peggy Noonan had a feeling that Romney was going to win because she could feel the passion and the enthusiasm.
Well, you know what? Passion and enthusiasm are important but when it comes to polling and looking at polling data, its math and science. Yes, a party's backers' enthusiasm is a factor in how you look at that data but you still have to be open to the math and science involved.
Look at Nate Silver. Look at Sam Wang. Look at Votamatic. Look at DeSart and Holbrook. They all called the election for Obama with 303 or 322 EVs. And where are we now? Obama has 303 as we wait for Florida to sort out its mess. Those folks didn't get it right because of a feeling. They got it right because they crunched a LOT of numbers.
This gets me to what bothers me the most about the GOP right now. They have become the anti-science party.
Evolution? Climate Change? Trickle Down Economics? Age of the Earth?
These are all matters of faith for the GOP and not science.
Does the GOP understand the scientific method? Do they know the difference between a hypothesis, a theory and a fact? They are not the same and they are terms that are often misused.
Hypothesis: a proposed explanation for an observation.
Theory: a scientifically acceptable principle explaining a set of observable facts.
Fact: something that is known to be true.
In science something is not easily elevated to being a theory. It goes through rigorous examination and testing. Lets take evolution as an example.
Evolution is a theory because we have not been around long enough for theobservations to make it a fact. But the theory of evolution has been putthrough much rigorous examination and testing and there are a lot ofobservable facts that support the theory. As an example of the anti-sciencenature of the GOP, in Louisiana the GOP supports using public funds for kids to attend schools where there are actual textbooks that use the Loch Ness monster as a counter-argument to evolution. Is this really how we want our children to be educated?
I am not saying there is no place for feelings, enthusiasm and faith.I have all of those. But the universe we live in is very complex andmath and science are able to help us understand how a lot of it works.Let's not go back to the dark ages.
This column's author, "jdd_stl1," is a former poster from FrumForum and can also be found now at talkradiosucks.comNorth Korea claims that its door remains open, despite the new U.S. travel ban on the country.
“Regardless of any government’s policy towards the DPRK, we encourage various forms of exchanges and contacts including visits by people from all over the world,” North Korean state-run media said Friday, quoting a foreign ministry spokesman. “We will always leave our door wide open to any US citizen who would like to visit our country.”
The U.S. Department of State announced earlier this week that a travel ban will go into effect for North Korea starting in September, although some journalists and humanitarian aid workers will be allowed to apply for exceptions. The move follows the death of American tourist Otto Warmbier in June.
Warmbier was detained in North Korea last year for crimes against the state, allegedly attempting to pilfer a propaganda poster. The North later doubled down and alleged that the University of Virginia student attempted to overthrow the government while touring North Korea, a completely unsubstantiated assertion. After more than a year in detention, he was returned home in a vegetative state, having suffered severe neurological damage.
He died one week later.
North Korea is still holding three other Americans, two of which were detained this year. North Korea arrested professors Tony Kim and Kim Hak-song in 2017 for “hostile acts” against the North Korean regime, and is still holding Kim Dong-chul, a businessman detained on charges of espionage. The Department of State has demanded their release, but the North has yet to agree.
The Department of State has long had a travel warning in effect for North Korea, stating, “U.S. citizens in the DPRK are at serious risk of arrest and long-term detention under North Korea’s system of law enforcement. This system imposes unduly harsh sentences for actions that would not be considered crimes in the United States and threatens U.S. citizen detainees with being treated in accordance with ‘wartime law of the DPRK.’”
In the past, North Korea has used detained American citizens as leverage in negotiations.
North Korean laws allow for harsh punishments of foreign prisoners, especially Americans. “The DPRK will detect and frustrate every anti-DPRK plot of the dishonest hostile elements and ruthlessly punish the criminals and thus reliably defend its state and social system,” North Korean state media wrote in May.
North Korea has condemned the travel ban as a “sordid” attempt to reduce human exchanges.
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected].Introduction
The FRB/US model of the U.S. economy is one of several that Federal Reserve Board staff consults for forecasting and the analysis of macroeconomic issues, including both monetary and fiscal policy. To improve public access to and understanding of the model, a new page has been introduced on the Federal Reserve Board's website from which interested users can download expanded FRB/US documentation; model equations, coefficients, and data; and sample simulation programs.2 These simulation programs can be run by anyone with access to the EViews software package, a widely available commercial product. This note provides a brief summary of the main features of the model, illustrates some applications of the model using sample programs provided on the web page, and concludes with an overview of the contents of the web page. Because the model continues to undergo changes as both economic theory and empirical evidence evolve, any given model release reflects only the state of thinking at the time of the release. The FRB/US Model: A Brief Overview
The FRB/US model is a large-scale model of the U.S. economy featuring optimizing behavior by households and firms as well as detailed descriptions of monetary policy and the fiscal sector. The model's large number of endogenous variables permits the study of the effects of a broad range of macroeconomic policies and exogenous shocks on real GDP and its major spending components; the unemployment rate and other key labor market indicators; several measures of inflation and relative prices; the main categories of national income; a detailed treatment of the government's account; and various interest rates, asset prices, and components of wealth. FRB/US has a neoclassical core that combines a production function with endogenous and exogenous supplies of production factors and key aspects of household preferences such as impatience. To account for cyclical fluctuations, the model features rigidities that apply to many decisions made by households and firms; these rigidities enable the model to generate gradual responses of macroeconomic variables to a wide range of exogenous shocks that are consistent with the economic data.3 Although a detailed description of the model's equations is beyond the scope of this note, a number of resources are available on the new web page. Here we provide only an overview of the main specifications of the various agents' behavior and how they compare to other models currently used in policy analysis, and then focus on illustrating some properties of the model. Basic structure of the model
Households. There are liquidity-constrained and unconstrained households. Liquidity-constrained households spend all their income each quarter. In contrast, other households consume and invest based on their assessment of their lifetime resources. This assessment contains different aggregate average propensities to spend out of different types of income, reflecting variations in the distribution of different types of income across age groups; in addition, future labor and transfer income is discounted at a rate substantially higher than the discount rate on future income from non-human wealth, reflecting uninsurable individual income risk. Unconstrained households face adjustment costs that cause them to adjust their spending gradually in response to changes in expected income and property wealth. As in the national income and product accounts, total spending by households consists of consumption of nondurable goods and non-housing services, purchases of durable consumer goods, and consumption of housing services; movements in these three components of total spending are modeled separately. Labor supply is assumed to be independent of wealth both in the long-run and at higher frequencies. Movements in labor force participation are driven by social norms in the long run, represented by a stochastic trend, and by the availability of jobs in the short run.
Firms. Forward-looking firms solve optimization problems to determine their hiring and investment. Firms' fixed investment is disaggregated into spending on durable equipment, intellectual property, and nonresidential structures, and is modeled in line with standard neoclassical investment theory. In particular, the desired level of investment is a function of the user cost of capital, the expected level and growth rate of output, and depreciation, with movements of actual spending toward this desired level slowed by adjustment costs. Business fixed investment is also affected by current business output directly, which could capture either the effects of sales on liquidity-constrained firms' ability to invest, or sentiment effects. Businesses also aim to keep aggregate hours in line with the expected aggregate level of production and real compensation per hour (adjusted for trend labor productivity), but costly adjustment of both their workforces and the workweek may cause them to temporarily deviate from the desired longer-run level of hours in response to shocks.
Domestic financial sector and monetary policy. A variety of interest rates, including yields on Treasury securities at several maturities, BBB corporate bond yields, auto loan rates, and conventional 30-year residential mortgage rates, are determined as the expected average value of the federal funds rate over the appropriate holding period plus endogenous term/risk premiums. Equity prices equal the present discounted value of corporate earnings, where the discount rate equals the expected real yield on 30-year Treasury bonds plus an endogenous equity premium. Monetary policy is modeled as a simple rule for the federal funds rate subject to the zero lower bound on nominal interest rates; the parameters of the policy rule used in simulations can be modified as desired. In addition, the model allows for the imposition of the policy thresholds that were part of FOMC statements from December 2012 to January 2014 for the rates of unemployment and projected inflation that would need to be crossed before the funds rate would be allowed to rise from its effective lower bound.
Supply-side. The key production sector in FRB/US is the nonfarm business sector plus imported energy. The production function in this sector is Cobb-Douglas with potential output depending on the sustainable full-employment level of labor input, actual capital services, trend energy services, and the trend component of multi-factor productivity. Because there is no wealth effect on long-run labor supply in FRB/US, the sustainable level of aggregate hours depends on the overall population and the trend components of the participation rate and the workweek, where the latter two factors follow stochastic trends.
Price and wage setting. The key inflation measures modeled in FRB/US are for core PCE prices and ECI hourly compensation, following the New Keynesian Phillips curve specification in the presence of nonzero trend inflation developed in Cogley and Sbordone (2008). In addition to slack and expectations of future inflation, other important determinants of total consumer price inflation include movements in the relative prices of food, energy, and non-energy imports.
Other. The government sector includes disaggregated components of spending and a wide range of tax rates and credits at both the federal and the state and local levels. Simulations can be run under fiscal rules that adjust the trend component of average personal income tax rates to stabilize the ratio of either the budget surplus or debt to GDP. The foreign sector affects domestic real activity through equations for imports and exports of goods and services that depend on real activity in the rest of the world and the terms of trade. The trade-weighted dollar exchange rate is modeled assuming uncovered interest parity, which links the expected real return on safe long-run assets abroad to those in the U.S., plus a country-risk premium that depends on the level of U.S. net foreign indebtedness. Foreign short-term and long-term nominal interest rates are modeled jointly with foreign inflation and foreign real activity in reduced form.4 Parameterizing the model
The large size of FRB/US makes it infeasible to estimate all of its equations simultaneously.5 The estimation strategy for major structural equations has several key features. First, some of the parameters governing the model's long-run relationships, such as factor elasticities in the production function and desired capital-output ratios, are calibrated based on priors grounded in evidence on income shares and similar considerations. Other long-run relationships are estimated using cointegration techniques. Second, the estimation of those equations that contain expectations terms involves the separate estimation of a set of smaller models, each of which typically combines one of the structural equations with a condensed model of the overall economy that features a VAR.6 Projections of the VAR provide proxies for the explicit expectations terms in the structural equation. The VARs in the smaller models share a core set of macro variables: the federal funds rate, consumer price inflation, and the output gap. Sector-specific variables are added to individual VARs as needed to form proxies for expectations of variables not in the core set. This design can be interpreted as a limited form of rational expectations. Third, the rigidities that apply to consumption, investment, and factor inputs in production are specified as a generalized form of adjustment costs, polynomial adjustment costs, or PAC, see Tinsley (2002). PAC permits costs to be associated with time derivatives of the decision variable that are of a higher order than the first difference term that appears in the quadratic adjustment cost framework. The order of adjustment costs in each PAC equation is determined empirically as part of the estimation process and is typically chosen so as to ensure that residuals are not serially correlated. Thus, in these behavioral equations, there is no external source of serial persistence. Finally, after estimation the assembled model is subjected to a set of diagnostic tests to ensure that the overall system's properties are consistent with the empirical evidence, such as the dynamics of a simple VAR model. Forming expectations in the model
FRB/US allows for two alternative assumptions about the way in which different groups of agents--such as financial market participants, wage-and-price setters, households, and nonfinancial firms--form their expectations in simulations of the model. Expectations of a particular group can be either consistent with full knowledge of the dynamics of the model (henceforth called model-consistent expectations or MCE) or based on projections from the estimated small-scale auxiliary VAR models that are used in the estimation of FRB/US. VAR expectations assume only limited knowledge of the joint dynamics of the variables on the part of decision-makers and correspond to the same restricted information set used in the estimation of the model as discussed above.7 This approach allows users of the model to explore the implications of alternative characterizations of the expectations-formation process--a useful feature given the likelihood that various economic players differ significantly in their knowledge about the workings of the economy and its future direction. For example, simulations can be run in which financial market participants have the sophisticated understanding of policy and the dynamics of the economy implied by MCE, while households instead base their expectations on the limited information and average historical relationships embedded in the VAR models. Comparing the design of FRB/US to the DSGE modeling approach
As is already evident from this brief description, FRB/US differs along several dimensions from many dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models in current use. For example: Because FRB/US is not built around a representative household paradigm, it is more generously parameterized than typical DSGE models and dispenses with many of the cross-equation restrictions imposed by the latter. Notably, future income is valued by different discount factors depending on whether it accrues to households or firms. Also, the marginal propensity of households to consume out of different types of income can vary, depending on which group of households receives the income. For example, transfer income is disproportionately received by retirees who are well-advanced in their lifecycles.
Some optimization problems are specified in a different fashion in FRB/US than in many DSGE models. As noted earlier, the FRB/US specification of consumer spending bases the valuation of a large component of human wealth on a discount rate that is both fixed and quite large, implying that the effective planning horizon for many households in FRB/US is closer to the five years advocated by Friedman (1957) than to the much longer period embedded in a typical DSGE model (Carroll, 2001). In addition, the growth of consumer spending in FRB/US is not closely linked to the path of expected future short-term (risk-free) interest rates as it is in the Euler equation specification of consumption used in most DSGE models; rather, the level of spending in the model depends directly on intermediate-term consumer loan rates and indirectly on the long-term bond rates that influence the value of corporate equities.
Another important dimension along which FRB/US is different from many DSGE models used in policy analysis is that the model allows for nonlinear interactions among endogenous variables, in contrast to the common practice of writing models as linear approximations around a steady state or balanced-growth path. For example, the model's estimate of the average interest elasticity of aggregate demand has changed markedly over time as the composition of GDP has evolved; in particular, the aggregate elasticity fell sharply with the recent collapse of residential construction, because it is the most interest-sensitive sector of the economy. Another important nonlinearity concerns the zero lower bound on nominal interest rates, which has constrained the actual and expected future stance of monetary policy markedly since late 2008. It is straightforward in FRB/US to model the short-term policy rate as a feedback rule subject to the zero lower bound. 8
Broadly speaking, the eclectic approach to the specification of FRB/US permits the historical patterns in macroeconomic data to influence its structure more substantially than is the case for the typical DSGE model, whose structure is more tightly imposed by economic theory. Recognizing that this and other issues about the best design of a macroeconomic model are the subjects of ongoing debate, the staff at the Federal Reserve Board has also developed and uses the EDO and SIGMA DSGE models.9 Two Applications of the FRB/US Model
We now illustrate and discuss several key features of the model by means of some applications. The code for these applications is available on the web page.
Impulse response functions to funds rate and multi-factor productivity shocks
Impulse response functions present the joint evolution of the model's variables in response to some well-defined exogenous shock. They are a common tool for analyzing the dynamic properties of complex models like FRB/US, in which the dynamics of key variables are highly interdependent.10 Figure 1 presents impulse responses of the output gap, inflation, and the federal funds rate to two different shocks, an exogenous increase in the federal funds rate of 1 percentage point, and an exogenous, permanent increase in multi-factor productivity of 1 percent. The figure also illustrates the two expectations assumptions of the model introduced above, VAR-based expectations (the solid lines) and model-consistent expectations (the dashed lines). The impulse responses are computed assuming that the federal funds rate is set according to a simple rule originally presented in Taylor (1999), modified to allow for inertial behavior.11 Figure 1: Impulse Responses to Funds Rate and MFP Shocks VAR Expectations vs Model-Consistent Expectations The responses of the output gap and inflation (shown in the upper two panels) to an increase in the federal funds rate of initially 1 percentage point are qualitatively similar to results found in the VAR literature (for example, Boivin et al., 2011) and in DSGE models (for example, Smets and Wouters, 2007). The size of the FRB/US inflation response is relatively small, however, reflecting the estimation of its price-wage sector over the period of low and stable inflation since the mid-1980s. As indicated by the solid and dashed lines, the magnitude of the responses depends on the manner in which expectations are assumed to be formed. This is not surprising: Expectations are important in the structure of FRB/US, and the two expectations approaches are based on views of the relationships among macro variables that are not identical. One specific difference in this area is the degree of inertia attributed to movements in the federal funds rate. The estimated funds rate equation that is part of the VAR-based expectations mechanism has more inertia than the Taylor-type policy rule used in FRB/US itself for these simulations. As a result, the initial interest rate increase is anticipated to be more persistent under VAR-based expectations than under model-consistent expectations (lower right panel, shown in real terms). Through its effect on real long-term interest rates, this difference causes the output gap and inflation to decline substantially more in the VAR-based case.12 The responses of output and inflation to a permanent increase in multi-factor productivity (MFP) are also in general accordance with estimates from the VAR literature of the effects of technology shocks (see for example Altig et al., 2010), including the more rapid decline in inflation compared to a funds rate shock. In a model with sticky prices and wages, the level of actual output only gradually approaches the new, permanently higher level of potential output, so that the output gap initially declines. In response to the decline in the output gap and inflation, the federal funds rate temporarily falls below its baseline value. Stochastic simulations
As a second illustration of the use of the model, figure 2 presents intervals around an illustrative baseline into which 70 and 90 percent of the simulated values of the variables fall. Because of the nonlinear structure of FRB/US, closed-form solutions for the unconditional variance of the endogenous variables at different projection horizons do not exist. To compute the intervals reported in the figure, the model with VAR-based expectations is simulated 1000 times, drawing at random from the series of historical equation residuals.13 Figure 2: Stochastic Simulations (70 and 90 percent bands) Contents of the Web Page
The main FRB/US web page provides access to the following material: FRB/US model package: This contains the package of code needed to simulate FRB/US using the EViews software (the EViews software itself needs |
that's where he has struggled in the run game as well.
When he lets the game come to him, he can drive his man 5 yards off the ball every time.
Carlos Dunlap has the experience factor, and has the advantage in this match-up.
Who Is Better Overall?
Five match-ups, one push, two in favor of the Bengals, two in favor of the Chargers. Which goes back to the chart, this is about as even a match-up as you could imagine. It will come down to who executes better, and who plays the cleanest game. I believe whoever wins this match-up will win the game next Sunday.Hiya everyone! I’m sorry I haven’t posted in awhile >.< forgive me please? School has been a lot these past few weeks, but that should be no excuse! However, now I have everything settled and I can do more for all of you 😀 yaaaaaay! Anyways, today I’m going to do a tutorial on ‘Rose Quartz‘ star gem from Steven Universe. If many of you do not know ‘Rose Quartz’ She is the mother of the main character Steven in the show ‘Steven Universe’ and also the former leader of the Crystal Gems who protect earth and other worlds from evil and corruption. If you haven’t watched the show Steven Universe I highly,( and I emphasize highly) recommend watching it and also exploring many of the other Crystal gems that are great for Cosplaying! I chose Rose Quartz because when she was first introduced I was immediately captivated by her beauty and I love her background story on how she came to earth and how it led to Steven being who he is today 🙂
Now, before we can get started here is what you’ll need!:
Heat Gun
Craft Foam (Red, Yellow, Pink if you choose to not paint)
Paper
Marker
Hot glue Gun
Paint ( Preferably red, yellow and pink)
Scissor or Exacto Knife
Some type of solid wood/Plastic area (This is for when you use the heat gun)
Mod Podge
Paint Brushes
1. Like always the first thing you must do before starting a project is making a pattern! First I made a pattern of how I would like everything to look on paper and then cut it out ( Great tip and strongly recommended!: When making a pattern always make a double or an extra of that pattern incase of losing and also because if you have detail in that pattern you can cut it out of the double and keep the original with no problem)
2. Now taking the double pattern (Which I hope you do) cut out the bigger circle in the middle of the Star. After doing that, do another double pattern of that and then repeat the same steps with smaller circle. It should look like the pictures below.
3. Now lay all your patterns out and it should look like the picture below 4. THIS IS CRUCIAL. Now there’s always a lesson learned in the mistakes you made and now I shall pass it on to all of you! Originally I used all black craft foam for this tutorial (Trying to save Craft Foam xD) but what I didn’t know is that after doing a great job in creating and putting it together, when I went to paint it the paint actually didn’t go so well with the foam because I had chose a dark color that would show through the paint. So, from this point on I recommend that you actually purchase the Craft Foam in the colors you would use for the tutorial unless you rather just do it the same way that I had done (Hopefully better :D). Whichever way you choose you’ll still be able to follow the tutorial easily, so no worries ^~^ People who paint will just have more to do and people who choose not too will have less to do :3
5. Now back to the tutorial! Lay your patterns down on the craft foam and cut them out (Great tip!: When cutting the pattern out you should use pins to hold the pattern out so the pattern will not shift while using the scissors or Exacto Knife). When you lay all of them out they should look exactly like the pattern that you made. 6. Its time to use the heat gun! Take the smallest upper circle and heat the foam of it up till its hot, before it starts cooling down push and bend the circle into something like a cup. (Working with the heat gun surprisingly took me a long time to master because I didn’t exactly know what I was doing at first and also I ended up burning the foam the first time >.< but take your time with it and don’t keep the heat in one spot and you should be fine! Also for the safety of not damaging anything, have something solid underneath that the heat gun cannot burn and ruin) 7. The little circle should look like this when its heated and shaped correctly 8. After doing that its time to hot glue everything down in the right place with the hot glue gun! First you need to glue the bigger circle down in the center and then the smaller circle down. When gluing the smaller circle down you should only put the glue down on the outer rims and gently push it down on top of the bigger circle. After gluing it should look like this. For anyone who chose to just choose the colored Craft foam, You’re already done (Yay!)
9. Now my painters and risk takers like me! After having all of this laid out in front of you, its time to paint!(Before doing so I do recommend going over the everything with Mod Podge to seal it) When painting you should always keep reference photos with you! Now first I started by painting the star yellow and once that was done I moved on tot he bigger circle between the smaller circle and star and painted that red. The top circle I painted pink to match the color of the gem.
10. The way the paint came out surprised even me, but there’s always room for improvement! After painting everything your ‘Rose Quartz’ Crystal gem should look something like this (Mine is still drying in the picture >.<) I would say give it a day or two before touching it again and put it in a place that will get lots of sun. After it’s dried you should go over the everything one more time with Mod Podge (you can never seal too much!). After that everything is done and you have created your own personal crystal gem ‘Rose Quartz’ Crystal Gem.
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial as much as I did. It reminded me that even in Cosplay there are mistakes that only lead you to making something even greater and I feel motivated to create a even better ‘Rose Quartz’ Crystal Gem while still being proud of my first attempt on it. This tutorial can also help you work on all the other Crystal Gems and give you an idea on how to create your own. What matters most at the end of the day is that you created something and had fun doing so 🙂 So as always, Stay Positive, Stay Healthy and Stay Creative.In the past decades, large areas of forest in Sumatra, Indonesia have been replaced by cash crops like oil palm and rubber plantations. New research, published in the European Geosciences Union journal Biogeosciences, shows that these changes in land use increase temperatures in the region. The added warming could affect plants and animals and make parts of the country more vulnerable to wildfires.
Palm oil is the most widely used vegetable oil in the world, appearing in the ingredients' list of many consumer goods, from chocolate to soap. Indonesia, the world's largest producer of palm oil, has seen large swathes of rainforest cleared away and replaced by oil palm plantations at rates that exceed those of Brazil. On the island of Sumatra, which has had the highest loss of native rainforest in all of Indonesia, the changes in land use have meant a substantial loss of animal and plant diversity. However, the impact of these changes on the region's temperatures had not been studied until now.
An international team of researchers, led by Clifton Sabajo and Alexander Knohl from the University of Göttingen in Germany, have published a new study showing that the expansion of oil palm and other cash crops in Sumatra has made the region warmer. "Land use change from forest to cash crops such as oil palm and rubber plantations does not only impact biodiversity and stored carbon, but also has a surface warming effect, adding to climate change," says Knohl, a professor in bioclimatology.
The team studied differences in surface temperature for various types of land cover, such as forests, clear-cut land, and cash crops, in the Jambi province of Sumatra. They used satellite data collected between 2000 and 2015 by the NASA Landsat missions and the MODIS instrument, as well as data collected on the ground.
They found that clear-cut land, which is mainly used for agriculture, was up to 10 °C warmer than forests. "Clear-cut land is the phase between forest and other land cover types, such as small-holders [small-scale family farms] or commercial plantations," says Sabajo, a PhD student and the lead author of the Biogeosciences study. "From field observations, we know that the landscape is so dynamic that there are continuous land use changes all the time, so clear-cut land is always present."
Mature palm oil plantations were about 0.8 °C warmer than forests, while young palm oil plantations were 6 °C warmer. "Young palm oil plantations have fewer and smaller leaves and an open canopy, thus they transpire less water. Also, the soil receives more solar radiation and dries out faster," explains Sabajo. Mature palm oil plantations, which are older than 5 years, have a closed canopy and larger and more abundant leaves, which results in a cooler ground compared to a young plantation.
Sabajo says surface temperatures in forests are lower than in palm oil plantations and clear-cut land mainly because of "evaporative cooling", which is similar to the process that cools us down when we sweat. There's more evaporation and transpiration of water from plants and the soil into the atmosphere in a forest than in clear-cut land or a young oil-palm plantation, meaning the ground is cooler for that type of land cover.
Overall, the average mid-morning surface temperature in the Jambi province increased by 1.05 °C between 2000 and 2015. Some of this warming is a result of climate change, but some is a direct consequence of the changes in land use. "We compared the average land-surface temperature increase in the province with a site that was covered by forest over the entire period and that can be considered as a control, unaffected by direct land-use change. The land-surface temperature of the forest sites (at 10:30am) only increased by 0.45 °C, suggesting that at least 0.6 °C of the 1.05 °C increase is due to land-use change," says Knohl.
"The strong warming effect we show for the Jambi province may serve as an indication of future changes in land-surface temperature for other regions of Indonesia that will undergo land transformations towards oil palm plantations," the scientists write in the study. The Indonesian government plans to substantially expand the country's production of oil palm, as the demand for this product increases around the world.
What this additional increase in temperature means for the region is yet unclear, but Knohl notes that "land surface temperature is an important part of the microclimate, which shapes habitat conditions for plants and animals." In the study, they write that the observed warming may affect ecosystems, reduce how much water is available in the region over the dry season, as well as make the area more vulnerable to wildfires.
"We think that current land-use developments in Indonesia need to carefully evaluate all aspects of environmental and socio-economic consequences. Land-surface temperature and microclimate should be considered," says Knohl.
###
The research is part of a large German-funded project, the Collaborative Research Centre 990: Ecological and Socioeconomic Functions of Tropical Lowland Rainforest Transformation Systems (Sumatra, Indonesia).
Please mention the name of the publication (Biogeosciences) if reporting on this story and, if reporting online, include a link to the paper or to the journal website.We at J Dereef Contracting Group are focused on providing Voice, Data & Video services with the highest levels of customer satisfaction we will do everything we can to meet your expectations. With our remote services packages we can provide a variety of offerings to choose from, we’re sure you’ll be happy working with us.
We at J Dereef Contracting Group are focused on providing Voice, Data & Video services with the highest levels of customer satisfaction we will do everything we can to meet your expectations. With our remote services packages we can provide a variety of offerings to choose from, we’re sure you’ll be happy working with us.
Home Remedies For Cold Sores
Home Remedies For Cold Sores That Works Fast
Looking for good home remedies for cold sores? While you will hear about all types and kinds of a home remedy for cold sores, there are a few that have been shown to work. For anyone who has suffered with a cold sore you know how painful it can be. And since they will typically last from 10-14 days, finding relief becomes a priority. Give one of these tips a try the next time you, or someone you know, develops a cold sore.
Ice - When you start to feel a cold sore coming on, take an ice cube and wrap it in a thin cloth. Apply it on the spot where your sore is starting to hurt and keep it there for as long as possible. Continue to do this 3-4 times a day. What the ice will do is deaden the blister that is trying to appear. This method will work if you begin doing the moment you start feeling a cold sore is coming on. If you wait until it already has appeared, it’s too late.
Aloe Vera - This home remedy for cold sores will work if you your cold sore does blister on you. Take a leaf from an aloe vera plant and rub the liquid from it onto your cold sore blister. It may sound strange, but it gives results. Do this a few times a day and at night. Within a day or two your cold sore will be gone. I know people who will grow aloe plants in their home just for this very reason.
Vitamin B - Taking vitamin B supplements has been shown to help get rid of a cold sore. Vitamin B-12 works especially well.
Tea Tree Oil - Many people say this is the best home remedy for cold sores. This is a drink that contains tea tree oil, herbal sage, and violet. These ingredients are mixed together with a couple sage leaves and ginger powder, and put in with a cup of boiling water. Drink this 2-3 times a day and within a couple of days your cold sore will be gone.
Coconut Oil - Take 100ml of coconut oil, 2ml of dettol, and 3ml or carbolic acid and mix them together. Apply twice daily directly on your cold sore. Some people say this formula also works on boils and mosquito bites.
Other Home Remedy For Cold Sores - Witch hazel, spirit of camphor and lemon balm extract are said to work.
There are also some foods that you do not want to eat when experiencing a cold sore. These foods will only make the problem worse. Avoid eating chocolate, oatmeal, seeds, peas, nuts, and any wheat products. Why? Because arginine is in these foods and they are a cold sores friend. Other salty foods, and even coffee can cause a cold sore to linger.
The next time you feel a cold sore coming on, give one of these tips a try and see if it doesn’t give you the relief you’re looking for. Finally, a good home remedy for cold sores.
You can find much more information on how to get rid of a cold sore as well as get FREE tips and information on home remedies for cold soresThe boys are having a beauty trend moment!
Following in the sartorial steps of Brad Pitt, who rocked sky blue polish at the Hollywood premiere of Unbroken last month, Liam Hemsworth stepped out in Byron Bay, Australia on New Year's Eve, with each of his toes painted a different hue.
PHOTOS: The man bun hall of fame
The Hunger Games star, 24, was visiting his home country when he ran out for some groceries, walking through the parking lot barefoot, which put his manicured feet front and center. His big toes boasted a magenta hue, his second and fourth toes were colored yellow, his middle toe had a lavender polish on it, and his pinky toe was painted bright blue.
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PHOTOS: Borrowed from the boys! Rock short hair
Quite the way for the megastar to celebrate his successful 2014! Hemsworth—who's older bro, Chris, was spotted slaying the red carpet at the Blackhat premiere on Jan. 8—ended 2014 on a high note: His latest film, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, grossed a staggering $697 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo.
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Pitt and Hemsworth certainly aren't the only two A-listers to rock the male mani trend: Johnny Depp, Jared Leto, Zac Efron, and Bruce Jenner have all worked colorful nail polish in the past. The boys might need their own Mani Cam soon!
What do you think of the male mani trend? Tweet with @UsWeekly using the hashtag #stylebyUs!
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Want stories like these delivered straight to your phone? Download the Us Weekly iPhone app now!Bella the Formerly Hairless Pit-Belle
4 1/2 years young
Spayed and Vaccinated
Meet Miss Bella
Bella is a young, affectionate, well-behaved, cuddler who absolutely loves children. (In her former home, she lived with three.) Her deep brown eyes look directly into your heart as she beckons you to throw her toys or pass along a tasty treat. It’s difficult not to bend to her will when she gives you “sweet face” and leans in for a gentle rub with her whole body.
Although crate trained, Bella doesn’t need it. She’s perfectly house trained too. Her manners make her a lovely companion in any home. (Make that any dog-free home. She prefers people to pets.) And Bella knows many commands like sit and down, she shakes with both paws, and knows the agility command for touch. She also gives gentle kisses and stands up to hug you. Soon, she’ll be registered for Canine Good Citizen class.
The most miraculous thing of all? Bella was this wonderful, even when she was feeling her worst.
So, why did she have no hair?
Bella has a genetic condition called Demodex mange. The things is, Demodex is treatable, but Bella’s former family didn’t address it for a very long time. Instead, they abandoned her in a boarding kennel, cracked and bleeding. Whether we like to think about it or not, dogs (and humans) have, yet can resist, microscopic mites. Bella’s immune system doesn’t fight a certain kind as well as it could, so we’ve been helping her along. High quality food and a bit of medication have brought her a long, long way from the painfully inflamed mess she was at arrival.
Bella’s healing process: arrival, 1 month into treatment, and a month after that.
Success!!
As you can see, Bella’s hair is already growing back and she’s become much more of a gorgeous chocolate brown. She will always have some bald scarring due to previous lack of treatment. Earning an A+ on three weekly skin tests, Bella is now spayed thanks to a grant from Out of the Pits! While the spay set her immune system back a bit, lower estrogen levels ease the chance of recurrence in the long run. Her inflammation is managed through diet alone. And, her cheerful, handmade hemp collar prevents irritation. (Thanks for the donation, Bull in a Collar Shop!) Bottom line: Bella is ready for her new home!
Won’t you be the family to show Bella that beauty is more than skin deep?
Become Bella’s Best Friend, Today!
Fill out an application at http:// www.doghouseadoptions.org/dog-adoption-application
www.doghouseadoptions.org/dog-adoption-application Once your application is in, we’ll get in touch. (It may take a week for us to process.)
If this is truly the pup for you, we’ll do a home visit. If that goes well, you’ll sign the contract, pay the non-refundable $250 adoption fee, and enjoy life with your new dog!
Please note: We keep our adoptions to within a 90 minute radius from Albany, NY, which is most central to our foster network.
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Bella, 1 Month into Treatment
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bell-month-1 Hairless Pitbull http://www.doghouseadoptions.org/wp-content/tn3/2/099.jpg Beautiful Bella
Beautiful Bella
Beautiful Bella
Beautiful Bella
Beautiful Bella
Beautiful Bella
Beautiful Bella
Beautiful Bella
Beautiful Bella
Beautiful Bella
Beautiful Bella
Beautiful Bella
Beautiful Bella
Beautiful Bella
…
Bella, 2 Months into Treatment
…Images via 'Atlantis'
In 1975, Newfoundland media baron Geoff Stirling took a trip to India and attained spiritual enlightenment. Spoiler: it involves meditation, veganism, yoga, and a heroic dose of LSD.
When he returned to the West, Stirling was determined to use his radio, magazine, and television empire to bring this higher consciousness to the ordinary man. In particular, he really wanted enlightened role models for children, so that they could live an illuminated life straight out of the gate instead of going through a painful psychedelic deprogramming later on in life.
It was out of this dream of yoga-powered superheroes that Captain Canada—and his cosmic guru Captain Newfoundland—were born.
Strictly speaking, of course, Captain Newfoundland—aka Captain Atlantis—was not born. He is actually a timeless being from distant space and his real name is Samadhi, a Sanskrit term describing the mystical state of union with God. He once lived on the lost continent of Atlantis, and he manifests in Newfoundland because the island is all that remains of the Atlantean civilization after it sank into the sea.
Although the Captain and his friends have been a staple of NTV since the late 1970s (Captain Canada remains the mascot for the television station), everything we know about those strange figures dancing around in front of a greenscreen at 2:30 AM comes from two canonical sources: the Captain Newfoundland comic book (1981), and the epic Atlantis graphic novel (1983).
READ MORE: Geoff Stirling, TV Man and Cosmic Guru, Was the Weirdest Man Who Ever Lived (in Newfoundland)
Both are collaborations between Geoff, his son Scott, and Filipino artist Danny Bulanadi. They are also notoriously hard to find; I found two copies of Captain Newfoundland on eBay (one for $150 US and another for $500), but nothing showed up for Atlantis.
This is a real shame, because these books are a trip.
"DON'T THINK, JUST BE"
Captain Newfoundland runs for a very disjointed 120 pages in black and white, compiled together out of the single-page comics that would run in the Herald every week. It's broken up into (roughly) four parts: a time-traveling Viking adventure; an encounter with mystical aliens; a very unfortunate trip to New York City; and an underwater battle with the devil.
Part One begins with Leif Eriksson and his fleet of Viking explorers arriving in Newfoundland more than 1,000 years ago. Captain Newfoundland appears and explains to them that Newfoundland is actually the only surviving remnant of Atlantis, which had once been home to a thriving civilization of space travellers. The Captain then transports Leif into the present day for some reason and the Viking warlord joins up with a group of teenagers to drive around in a van and beat up motorcycle gangs. He meets Joey Smallwood and goes drinking on George Street and is then transported back to his own time, concluding a spectacularly pointless trip.
Image via the colourized Atlantis novel
In Part Two, Captain Newfoundland returns to his underwater pyramid-city to teach his adoptive son Jesse about the history of Atlantis. He then gives Jesse a suit of great power and names him Captain Kundalini. Meanwhile, we are informed that a sinister being named Black Star lives in a nearby black hole and seeks to rule the universe by overthrowing God. He is never mentioned again.
Captain Newfoundland takes his son to "his largest pyramid" and reveals the Captain Canada costume, explaining that he is looking for someone "strong, just, kind, and wise" to wear it. He then reveals that he already knows who this person is—an unassuming man named Daniel Eaton—and that the Captain has already had Dan arrested for marijuana possession.
When he is released from prison, Dan bemoans the injustice of Canada's drug laws. Captain Newfoundland appears and, satisfied that Dan is no longer a square, offers him the costume. Dan puts on the suit and accepts his destiny; Captain Canada is born. We do not see him again until Atlantis.
In Part Three, we are introduced to a shapely young woman named Captain Silver, also a descendent of Atlantis.
This introduction is immediately interrupted by an eight-page intermission about "A Day in the Life of Captain Newfoundland," where we learn that the Captain's daily routine involves dispensing metaphysical wisdom to fishermen and teaching paraplegic children how to communicate with the dead via astral travel.
We cut back to Captain Silver, who has decided to fly to New York City and see what's up. The answer: a mysterious dude in a cat suit uses a magical asteroid chunk to transform into Lion Man, King of Beasts. He attacks her for no reason and then starts fighting cops.
Captain SIlver uses her psychic powers to steal Lion Man's rock from him and flies to the stratosphere to hurl it into outer space, but this action weakens her so much that she falls into the Caribbean. Fortunately, she is rescued by mermaids—distant relatives of the Atlanteans—who take her to King Neptune's castle in the Bermuda Triangle.
In Part Four, an amnesiac Captain Silver joins the mermaids in their underwater war against King Satn, who is an evil Atlantean and also literally the devil. She travels with Neptune's son Suresh to Satn's castle on a diplomatic mission, but Satn is extremely horny and attempts to make Silver his sex slave.
But Silver is badass and isn't taking any of the devil's shit. She meditates to gather energy and then challenges Satn to battle, but is instead forced to fight in gladiatorial combat against an evil robot. She chops its head off and escapes with Suresh along with a totally random mystic named Rishna who just happened to be hanging out at the devil's palace.
Satn and his armies give chase and there is an apocalyptic battle on the ocean floor. Silver is fighting a dozen demons at once and things seem dire when Rishna reveals that HE WAS ACTUALLY CAPTAIN NEWFOUNDLAND THIS ENTIRE TIME, FUCK YES and teleports to Hell to battle Satn directly.
They have the world's most boring fight and eventually Captain Newfoundland traps Satn forever in an endless void. The devil's undersea army is defeated and everybody lives happily ever after.
But we live in Canada, not the bottom of the ocean. Captain Silver might be a fine hero for the Bermuda Triangle, but we need a hero who understands that true enlightenment comes from liberalizing drug laws.
We need Captain Canada, and he comes into his own in Atlantis.
THE FOUR CHAKRAS OF ATLANTIS
Like the first instalment, Atlantis is broken into four parts. But unlike its predecessor, Atlantis has a (mostly) linear plot. It is also in colour, which really makes Bulanadi's artwork shine.
Part One (First Chakra) is literally the entire time-travelling Leif Eriksson saga from Captain Newfoundland except this time it's in colour. I have no idea why they re-used this story arc instead of the one directly related to Captain Canada's origins, but presumably that's a creative decision far beyond my level of consciousness.
We are then treated to this brief intermission:
In Part Two (Captain Canada), we return again to Dan Eaton, who has just put on the suit he got in the first comic. Captain Newfoundland returns from fighting the devil and gives Dan a tour through outer space, telling him that his suit has many incredible powers but that he can only unlock them when he proves himself worthy.
After returning to earth and taking off his suit, Dan picks up a hitchhiking supermodel on the side of the road and takes her to a greasy diner for breakfast. She's promptly kidnapped by some random dudes, but Dan puts on the Canada suit and rescues her—a good deed which grants him the power to fly. Captain Canada flies around in the woods for awhile and eventually meets a giant man in a star-spangled spandex costume named Captain Freedom who transforms into an "Indian shaman" and teaches him about liberalism and multiple dimensions.
Captain Canada then travels to Montreal where a goddess in a fleur-de-lys one-piece named Mademoiselle appears to teach him about "culture and emotion" and the power of nationalism.
MEANWHILE, a mysterious group of villains known as the Super Mafia have come up with a flawless criminal plan:
Part 3 (Third Chakra of Atlantis - The Power of Action) is literally just a two page spread of the front and back covers of the book. Which is more than fair, because they were illustrated by
Boris fucking Vallejo, and totally worth showcasing as much as possible.
Part 4 (Fourth Chakra of Atlantis - The Place of the Heart) is where everything pops off. Captain Canada has a nightmare that he is battling the Sho-Gun robot but is too weak to defeat it, so he resolves to augment his powers through good works and meditation. Captain Newfoundland then appears and blows his mind by transporting him through various alternate dimensions of space and time. He gives Captain Canada a giant stone book called "the Holy Gospel of Consciousness" and tells him he must master its truths if he hopes to unlock all his powers.
Elsewhere, we are introduced to an evil wizard named Remlin—Merlin, but evil—who is the diabolical consciousness behind the Super Mafia.
Captain Canada reads the book and realizes the true power of love. The Lord Jesus Christ suddenly appears and blesses him with Cosmic Consciousness and unlocks all his superpowers. Meanwhile, Wayne Gretzky battles Sho-Gun at Parliament Hill in Ottawa in order to rescue the royal family. I say without any exaggeration that this is the greatest two page spread in the history of world literature.
Captain Canada arrives at Parliament Hill to battle Sho-Gun, and discovers that the robot is being controlled by the evil consciousness of Remlin who, he informs us, also controlled Adolf Hitler. Captain Newfoundland suddenly appears and battles Remlin through several dimensions across time and space for the fate of the Queen. Captain Newfoundland wins and the robot explodes and Captain Canada gets all the credit.
The last two pages of Atlantis have nothing to do with anything else in the book. Tim Forsythe—then-content manager at NTV and a very real person—shows the reader photos of UFOs allegedly taken in Switzerland and then the book abruptly ends.
The Atlantis universe is a lot to take in on a single reading.
Captain America can keep his dumbass shield. Give me a Christ-endorsed drug mule with the power of yogic levitation any day. It's the hero Canada deserves.
Follow Drew Brown on Twitter.It was a strange sight, even for the “sport” of professional wrestling.
A wrestler holding a microphone faced an Appalachian crowd before a match and began unleashing a torrent of insults, the nature of which seemed out of place at a pro wrestling tournament.
“I understand now why you all identify with country music. It’s slow and it’s simple and it’s boring, just like each and every one of you.”
As the crowd grew increasing hostile, the wrestler’s remarks became more politically tinged.
“You know what, I think Bernie Sanders would make a great secretary of state.”
“I want to exchange your bullets for bullet points. Bullet points of knowledge.”
He even called Donald Trump a “con man.” The crowd exploded in jeers. “Shut up,” someone yelled.
Strange, indeed. But then, the muscular man’s shirt read, “Not My President.”
Meet the wrestler who goes by the name “Progressive Liberal” Dan Richards, the most hated character in Kentucky’s Appalachian Mountain Wrestling (AMW) program, a small professional wrestling circuit.
Professional wrestling has long included villain characters called heels, someone for the audience to cheer against. Traditionally, though, these are burly, angry men who do “evil” things such as pledging allegiance to the devil or sneak-attacking other wrestlers with chairs and ladders. He’s burly enough, at 6 feet 5 inches tall. But he praises not the devil but Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.
This might be the first case when a character became a villain by espousing liberal dogma. And it seems to be working — he’s caught the attention of Deadspin, Sports Illustrated, even the right-wing Breitbart.
The latter called him “a wrestling heel for the Trump era,” and wrote, “His moves include smugness, condescension, and whining.”
His shtick is simple. He plays a smug liberal elitist who lectures the audience on political matters. His enemies are “Fox News maggots.” His fictional character hails from D.C. His wrestling shorts bear a donkey. He insults his fans’ Appalachian accents, correcting them — “Do you live in a holler? No, you live in a hollow.”
He even calls his finishing signature wrestling move the “Liberal Agenda.”
In one promo video, he wore a shirt patterned with dozens of photos of Hillary Clinton’s face, patched together in a strange collage, and he addressed AMW’s fans: “You people need to be reprogrammed. You continually vote against your own interests. You put people in Congress and the White House that aren’t going to help you. They’re not going to bring your jobs back.”
These may not sound like the most scathing of insults, but at a time when politics are a breeding ground for intense, burning emotion, it seems to work brilliantly.
As Deadspin reported:
Regardless of how much Richards plays up the left-wing politics to crowds in Kentucky and nearby states, it works. Look no further than the videos to see that those crowds despise him. There’s a kid in the crowd telling him to shut up, and relentless jeers, or Trump masks worn by attendees. And even the occasional death threat. …, at a 2016 show in West Virginia, where Richards spoke about taking everyone’s guns, a patron displayed a pistol in a holster on his right hip and started rubbing it. Another time, one fan threatened that if “that f — king liberal” showed up at a different show, he’d bring his gun.
The “Progressive Liberal” is really Daniel Harnsberger, a 36-year-old real estate agent from Richmond who had been on the indie wrestling circuit for years before conceiving of the character. Once he did, he simply waited for the prime moment to unveil it — which he found in 2015 in Sabine, W. Va.
“It was a small crowd and I had freedom to do whatever I wanted that night, so I just decided to get on the mic — and this is maybe a couple months after Trump started running. Who knew the guy was gonna be president?” Harnsberger told Sports Illustrated. “So I did this interview on the house mic and I said, ‘If he’s elected president, I hope Trump doesn’t build a wall around Mexico. Instead I hope he builds it around this town so none of you people can infiltrate the population.’”
“The ire that statement got, I knew I was onto something,” he added. “Even then, those fans were chanting, ‘Trump! Trump! Trump!’”
New gear came in. pic.twitter.com/tda7d2JChy — Daniel Richards (@ProgressLib804) February 11, 2017
Part of the trick is that his character’s politics are “not much of a stretch” from his own, as he told Deadspin.
“It’s not like I’m pretending to be something I’m not,” he told Sports Illustrated. “I’m just turning it up. I hear Trump chants everywhere I go now, as soon as I walk out.”
The men he wrestles alongside tend to be staunch Republicans who so hate Democrats that Beau James, an administrator with AMW, pretends to feed Harnsberger his lines.
“He’s protecting me,” he said.
Despite the anger he’s provoked — or, more likely, because of it — Harnsberger plans to continue wrestling as the “Progressive Liberal” Dan Richards. After all, it kills two birds with one stone, both fueling his wrestling career and allowing him to spread his beliefs.
“I wish Democrats would be as unapologetic as Republicans are,” he said. “Just be unapologetic with your policies and who you are. That’s how the Progressive Liberal is. I’m unapologetic.”
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111 people have killed themselves under California’s new right-to-die law
Video: Bus slams into Englishman, who gets up and carries onSamsung has begun rolling out a software update for its Galaxy S4 that adresses a few issues early adopters have been complaining about. The 16GB variant of the Galaxy S4 has been slammed for only giving users 9.15GB of user accessible memory, and Samsung has (as promised) addressed that issue by allowing users to move apps to a microSD card. It's also managed to free up 80MB of memory, bringing the total accessible storage count up to 9.23GB.
According to SamMobile, the update also brings a number of bug fixes, a "semi-transparent" notification bar, and a new toggle that lets you turn Smart Pause, a feature that pauses videos when you look away, on and off easily. The update is rolling out to German Snapdragon-powered S4s from today,and will also be coming to Exynos versions in the future. Users in the US, UK, and other countries will likely have to wait for the update to be approved and pushed out by their carrier, which can take several months.Canada ran consecutive budget deficits, often quite large, for a span of three decades between 1966-67 and 1996-97. This distinction earned Canada an honorary membership as a Third World country from The Wall Street Journal.
The rhetoric that followed in Canada until the books were finally balanced made "budget deficits" and "public |
Gambit” may, indeed, be just the beginning of.
December 19, 2016 © EU and US all rights reserved. Permission to use this report in its entirety is granted under the condition it is linked back to its original source at WhatDoesItMean.Com. Freebase content licensed under CC-BY and GFDL.
[Note: Many governments and their intelligence services actively campaign against the information found in these reports so as not to alarm their citizens about the many catastrophic Earth changes and events to come, a stance that the Sisters of Sorcha Faal strongly disagree with in believing that it is every human beings right to know the truth. Due to our missions conflicts with that of those governments, the responses of their ‘agents’ has been a longstanding misinformation/misdirection campaign designed to discredit us, and others like us, that is exampled in numerous places, including HERE.]
[Note: The WhatDoesItMean.com website was created for and donated to the Sisters of Sorcha Faal in 2003 by a small group of American computer experts led by the late global technology guru Wayne Green (1922-2013) to counter the propaganda being used by the West to promote their illegal 2003 invasion of Iraq.]
[Note: The word Kremlin (fortress inside a city) as used in this report refers to Russian citadels, including in Moscow, having cathedrals wherein female Schema monks (Orthodox nuns) reside, many of whom are devoted to the mission of the Sisters of Sorcha Faal.]
America Goes Insane As It Rushes Towards Civil War
They Are Going To Come For You…Why Are You Helping Them?
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Use your own VST or Audio Units plug-ins, or play with MASSIVE, MONARK, REAKTOR PRISM, or any of the other included sounds and FX.The capsule is the size of a shipping container. At one end is a single bunk sectioned off by a red blackout curtain. At the other is a stall with a toilet and sink, like an airplane bathroom. The air feels that way, too: recycled and somewhat stale.
When you're inside these walls, you're 60- to 80-feet below ground, down a groaning freight elevator and through two blast doors, the second of which weighs eight tons and can only be opened from the inside. You've crossed from a dank antechamber over a small walkway into a completely isolated space, suspended within the Earth's crust so it can survive a near-miss blast.
It's from this capsule (and dozens of others exactly like it, spread across the Western United States) that the Air Force's Nuclear and Missile Operations Officers, more casually known as "missileers," monitor and control our country's collection of 450 nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). The officers who do this job work rotating 24-hour shifts, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
The missileers' mission: Ensure that our nuclear weapons are ready to launch on command—a gentle reminder to our adversaries that it would be, to put it mildly, a really bad idea to attack us.
At any given moment, 90 missileers are sitting on alert, or "pulling crew," as it's known in Air Force parlance. Though women are notoriously underrepresented in the U.S. Military, the Air Force is better at gender equality than the other branches—there's a disproportionally high number of women in this role. By March 2016, the Air Force had enough of them to schedule an all-female alert.
It requires a lot of discipline, Captain Marian Dinkha (left) says of the job. Tyler Joe
The missileers' mission: Ensure that the world's most consequential weapons are infallible and ready to launch on command—a not-so-gentle reminder to our adversaries that it would be, to put it mildly, a really bad idea to attack the United States.
Air Force troops have been doing this job for generations—since 1970, without interruption—and yet the average American probably thought very little about our nuclear weapons, let alone who controls them, from 1991 until approximately January 20th of this year. (Or perhaps November 9th, 2016.) But the topic of nuclear war leapt much further forward in our collective conscious when, in July, North Korea conducted two tests of its own intercontinental ballistic missile system: one on July 4th (no coincidence there, certainly) and a second three weeks later, which experts say had the potential to reach California. Over Labor Day weekend, the hermit kingdom's state-run media released a photo of Kim Jung-un inspecting what appears to be a nuclear device.
For his part, President Donald Trump said that North Korea's continued threats would be "met with fire and fury, and, frankly, power the likes of which this world has never seen before." The next day, Pyongyang announced plans to volley missiles towards the nearby U.S. territory of Guam.
Should either world leader decide to end this troubling game of chicken with an attack, the missileers will receive the call they train for their entire career. "We defend the United States with combat-ready nuclear forces, and, on order, we'll conduct global strike," says Colonel Cathy Barrington, operations group commander of the 91st Missile Wing at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota. Barrington took over just three months ago, but began as a missileer herself in 1998. The protocol hasn't changed since then: Copy. Decode. Validate. Authenticate.
"You always have it in the back of your mind that maybe tomorrow is the day."
To do so, both missileers—they always work in teams of two, the capsule they occupy emblazoned with the words "no-lone zone"—would open a safe located between their workstations. It's secured with two padlocks, one fastened on by each missileer at the beginning of the shift, the combinations known only to the owner. Inside is a code that the incoming encrypted message must match. But there's an A-side and a B-side and neither missileer knows both; they must be put together like opposite sides of an equation. It's all part of Two-Person Control—a system that ensures a rogue missileer can't start World War III on her own.
"It is a very precise method," Barrington explains. "It's not haphazard. It is exacting. Missileers have to know all kinds of rules. They have to know it cold."
A group of the female missileers at Minot Air Force base before going out on an all-woman alert. Courtesy of the Air Force
Once the officers determine that they've received a valid order, each member of the pair would have to enter an "enable" code simultaneously. They would then "vote" to launch by turning their launch keys (also stored in the safe) in unison. At least one other capsule in their squadron of five would have to do the exact same thing. Then, as many as 50 ICBMs would blast off into the sky.
Waiting for that call today are Captain Amber Moore and Captain Marian Dinkha. Both are in their late-20s (Moore is 28; Dinkha, 27) and both are from the Midwest (Oklahoma and Illinois, respectively). Neither wanted to be a missileer. Moore was hoping to go to medical school, and Dinkha, whose mother is South Korean and whose father is Iraqi, and who herself speaks English, Japanese, and Aramaic, wanted to be a foreign area officer. Around the time they both commissioned, however, the military was going through a reduction in force, and both women were lucky to be able to move forward with their careers in the Air Force at all.
The Pentagon regularly sends test messages to make sure that, when The Call does come through, the crew can recognize what is a correct order and what is not. Tyler Joe
"When I got assigned to missiles, my commander was shocked. I was shocked. I cried a little bit," says Dinkha. "I thought, I studied math and linguistics—what am I going to do with missiles? But then you have to kick your ass into gear." Dinkha recalls how she would listen to her dad, who immigrated when he was 16 and enlisted in the U.S. army, talk about the traveling he did in the military. Missileers, however, are relegated to just three bases out west. "Once you get into higher positions, you can start doing the squirrely stuff—that's what they call it—get assigned to Hawaii maybe, or Europe. I'll still have the opportunity to travel, I'll just be older. Hopefully I'll still be sparkly enough to enjoy it."
Newbie missileers are assigned to eight shifts a month. There are no weekends. There are no holidays. It's easy to see why it's not the most desirable assignment.
"When I got assigned to missiles, I was shocked. I cried a little bit."
It is, on the other hand, one of the most honorable: "As an American taxpayer, who do you want out there taking care of our nuclear weapons?" asks Barrington. "You want highly capable people who have the highest level of integrity."
Perhaps it's the tight quarters and the 24-hour shifts, but both women mention the sense of community as something they've come to love about being a missileer. "There's a lot of time to mentor one-on-one, to provide that leadership," Moore says, adding that "not everyone makes it through the training. It's a rigorous course: learning the weapons system itself, the history, all the codes, the emergency war orders. You go through a number of screenings, a number of background checks."
Captain Amber Moore adjusts one of the capsule's myriad communications systems, all of which—with their floppy disks and landlines—are from another era. Tyler Joe
The strict elimination process is part of something known as the Personnel Reliability Program (PRP). Encompassing security, medical, and psychological evaluations, PRP is described by Barrington as a way to "ensure that we have the most trustworthy people on alert, and that they can focus on the task at hand."
"You are constantly assessing yourself. If someone dies in the family, or there's a breakup…for some people if their dog dies, that's a PRP down," Dinkha explains of PRP's continued function even after you've gotten the job. "It's up to you to say, 'I cannot pull alert because I am mentally or emotionally unstable right now.' I'm a very private person, so that was definitely a hump for me to get over."
PRP isn't just about telling your commander that you need to take a mental health day. There's a laundry list of restrictions that come with it: Within eight to 12 hours of your shift, you can't drink alcohol or even take a Sudafed—anything that might impair you. You have to fill out a "danger form" if you're planning to go paragliding or shark-diving while on leave. You can't be on PRP if you've been hypnotized even once in your life.
According to a DOD directive, "Only those personnel who have demonstrated the highest degree of individual reliability for allegiance, trustworthiness, conduct, behavior, and responsibility shall be allowed to perform duties associated with nuclear weapons, and they shall be continuously evaluated for adherence to PRP standards." It's all very sensical and comforting until you remember that the order to launch a nuclear missile can only come from the President of the United States, a man who should ostensibly be held to PRP standards...but seemingly is not.
Former director of national intelligence James Clapper recently said that he worries about Trump's access to the nuclear-launch codes.
Regarding allegiance, a special counsel is currently investigating potential collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government to influence the 2016 election. Regarding trustworthiness, Trump made a demonstrably false statement at least once a day for his first 40 days in office (a running tally of all his lies since the inauguration can be found on the New York Times' website). Regarding conduct, behavior, and responsibility, we'll let his Twitter feed speak for itself. Former director of national intelligence James Clapper even recently said that he worries about Trump's access to the nuclear-launch codes: "There's very little in the way of controls over exercising a nuclear option, which is pretty damn scary."
The missile facilities, which take up 12% of North Dakota, are surrounded by farm land. Tyler Joe
When asked about the current president's temperament, the missileers are predictably tight-lipped. Colonel Barrington does offer this bit of peace of mind, perhaps surprisingly by way of the 2013 thriller White House Down starring Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx: "That idea's not at all accurate. You have a president who opens up his box and he's [she mimes someone typing] sending out the messages, he's launched…that's not how it works at all."
Older missileers thought for sure during the Cold War that they would get the order to launch, but it never came," says Dinkha. And she's right: America hasn't used a nuke since 1945. So what exactly goes on down in those capsules?
"Our mission every day is to provide deterrence," offers Moore. "Every day we try to make our enemies ask themselves the question, Does the benefit of attacking the U.S. outweigh the cost? Because they know that we're always prepared to fire back." Readiness is imperative. A missileer's day-to-day is a lot of maintenance, a lot of making sure each ICBM is in tip-top shape, able to sail over the arctic circle instantaneously.
Their technical orders are an approximately 1,000-page manual that they have to become proficient in by the end of their six-month training. Tyler Joe
Barrington likens our missiles to a car in idle mode. But the analogy actually goes a bit further: It's like the U.S. government left a car in a lot (okay, an underground lot) with the keys in the ignition and the engine running...and these officers are trying to keep tabs on it remotely…and, actually, they're dealing with quite a few cars.
Each missile is three nautical miles from a capsule, and each team of two missileers is responsible for 10. The missiles are also buried below ground, surrounded by fields of sunflowers and flax—by cattle farms, oil rigs, and wind turbines. Fifteen-hundred miles of cabling connects the missileers to their missiles, though they can also communicate with the machines via satellite or low-frequency waves—myriad redundancies are in place in case of emergency or catastrophe or, hell, just a North Dakotan winter storm. Constantly these troopers ping their weapons, gathering status updates: Are they overheating? Too cold? Low on fuel? Did the power go out? Is there a security breach near the missile silo? When an issue arises, they fix it immediately or dispatch another airman to do so.
"Missileers have to know all kinds of rules. They have to know it cold."
"There are definitely those shifts that make up for all the quiet ones you've ever had," laments Dinkha. "Where you just stay up for 30 hours because everything that could go wrong does go wrong." (Both women say the longest they've pulled crew is 48 hours, though they know missileers who have worked a 72. Sometimes the snow is just too heavy and the roads too treacherous to get another crew out to the capsule.)
As a new missileer you're scheduled with the same partner every alert, and you 'form a very strong bond with them,' says Moore (right). Tyler Joe
They're doing all of this, by the way, on a computer that looks like it should be part of a history exhibit at the National Air and Space Museum. Aside from a few "programs to refurbish and rebuild," the equipment is the same as it was in the 1970s—the missileers code their commands using 0s and 1s. At first it seems like another example of the government being behind the times, but then you remember Sony and the DNC and you realize, Maybe updating the systems would actually be more dangerous than doing things the old-fashioned way. "You can't just stick laptops down there and say, 'Now you are going to get messages via email,'" Barrington says.
"I know I won't be away for six months or a year. You know you'll be gone for 24-hour periods, but then you get to come back home."
Being cut off from modern tech can make slow days in the capsule feel even slower. "At first you're both awake and you're going over your inspections, and it gives you time to get to know that person, because you may not really ever talk to that person and then you are expected to go hang out in close quarters for 24 hours," says Moore, adding that later they break the day into shifts. Whoever's on the night shift naps early, then takes the console around 10 p.m. while the other sleeps until about 5:30 in the morning. That's a lot of time to fill and—thanks to the moratorium on wifi-capable electronics—you can't exactly spend it scrolling Instagram.
"I got my master's in education done while I was down there," Moore says. "Once I retire from the Air Force, I plan to teach 5th or 6th grade science." She used to bring art supplies down and paint (watercolors only—you don't want to be that person using oils in a confined space). Ditto for riding the exercise bike that's stashed in a corner, especially since there isn't a shower. "I do a lot of push-ups and sit-ups," she adds, noting that "they're not gonna get you extremely sweaty if you do them in small doses."
Clockwise from left: MAF support staff play ping pong in their off time; A cook is on staff to prepare meals; The MAF is heavily guarded by security forces who work three-day shifts. Tyler Joe
She taught herself to crochet during quiet alerts, as well, and is currently working on a camo-patterned blanket for her husband, who is in the Army reserves. They have a baby boy, Jacob, who's six months old. The job is a bit different now that she's a mom: "Sometimes during the night, I'm like, 'Ah, I wish I was home cuddling my baby instead of sitting here,'" Moore says. But from the perspective of a parent, the role has at least one major perk: Missileers are not deployable. "It's comforting. I know I won't be away for six months or a year. You know you'll be gone for 24-hour periods, but then you get to come back home."
When hunger strikes, missileers can order food from a cook stationed at the missile alert facility (MAF) directly above them. But the menu is mostly sports-bar fare, and many airmen choose to pack their own meals instead. Dinkha says she's trying to eat better, but "it's a struggle." There's a joke among the missileers about gaining the "Minot 15." There is also a joke that, because many officers tote sleeping bags and pajamas with them, their enemies will suffer "death by bunny slippers."
Death—inflicting it, anyway—isn't something the missileers seem to think about much. Neither woman has a moral objection to using nuclear weapons (if she did, she'd have been assigned to a different career field). During their training at Vandenberg Air Force Base near Santa Barbara, California, all potential missileers are grilled about their capacity to "key-turn on command." "If it were to happen, we would do it because that's what expected of us," says Dinkha. "I don't really see a difference between boots on the ground, guy with a gun in his hand, expected to shoot someone if the need arises, and me with my ICBM."
Moore, here with her six-month-old son Jacob, boards horses on-base and rides in her off-duty time. Tyler Joe
The difference, of course, is the scope of damage that could be levied. According to Barrington, each ICBM is 60 feet tall, weighs 79,000 pounds, and has a range of 8,000 miles. The missiles travel at 15,000 miles per hour—seven times faster than a speeding bullet. That means if you were to fly on one from New York to L.A., you'd get there in under 10 minutes. And, perhaps most importantly, each can be outfitted with a nuclear warhead. (The official Air Force line is that the missiles are "nuclear-capable," hence the "can be," but with readiness and rapidity as their objective it seems safe to assume that the missiles' rocket-like bodies are mated to nukes.) The bombs dropped over Japan during World War II released roughly the same amount of energy as 20,000 tons of TNT and killed more than 100,000 people in the process. Today's weapons are far more powerful.
"I don't really see a difference between boots on the ground, guy with a gun in his hand, and me with my ICBM."
But the missileers are more defense than offense, Moore and Dinkha insist. Their mere presence keeps enemies at bay. "It's almost a silent peace," says Dinkha. "The reason we haven't had any attacks by weapons of mass destruction is because of the deterrence we provide. I think it would just be different if we didn't have them."
Even the recent heightened tensions between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un don't rattle them. "You always have it in the back of your mind that maybe tomorrow is the day," says Moore. "But North Korea testing more missiles doesn't really affect how I do my job."
From left: Dinkha opens the eight-ton blast door that seals off the capsule; The REACT console, the missileers' computer system, is largely the same as it was in 1970. Tyler Joe
"We watch the news. I think it gives an added motivation and it helps underline, yup, this is why my job is still relevant," says Barrington. Because the Soviet Union, the Cold War—that all ended decades ago. And pilots are what people envision when they think of the Air Force. Fighter jets. Aviator sunglasses. Not two women quietly toiling away in an unglamorous underground bunker. "It's okay that nobody thinks about us on a regular basis—it means what we're doing is working," she says. "Let everybody else get the glory."
With any luck, that's exactly how it stays.I've reached a breaking point. If you don't support the ends of BLM, I can't help but to think you're racist.
If you don't think 200 years of brutal slavery, a hundred years of discrimination and segregation, followed by redlining and mass incarceration and the "war on drugs" is something people should be less angry about, you don't understand when righteous anger should be felt. It says something about how you see the imago dei in some people versus others.
If you blame powerless communities that have been terrorized by the above history for their own plight, you have no empathy or compassion.
If you don't know the stories of any hard-working single mothers, activists and leaders who are tirelessly dedicated to their communities, pastors who give their lives for their congregations and young people with dreams and aspirations and talent and drive, then you don't understand the communities you're deriding. That you don't have friends in any of these above categories says more about you than about them.
If you don't think police brutality is a problem, did you read the Baltimore report? The Ferguson report? Do you not think this is happening in other cities where black blood is crying out? Willful ignorance has to be fueled by something.
I can't step foot in these threads on the mothersub -- or Facebook posts or Twitter threads or news articles -- without my heart pounding. Seeing how deep racism still is in America is so disheartening.When dogs see human faces, a region of the brain called the temporal cortex becomes activated, a new study published to PLoS ONE shows.
The invention of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in the 1990s revolutionized how scientists study the brain. The surprisingly simple technique grants a glimpse inside the skull, allowing researchers to examine blood flow within the brain, which is intimately linked to brain activity. Want to know which regions of the brain are activated in response to varying stimuli? You simply follow the blood.
For more than three decades, fMRI has fueled a great many studies leading to a number of incredible insights about the human brain. But only recently has the method been adapted to study man's best friend. In 2012, Emory University neuroscientist Gregory Berns trained two dogs, including his own canine companion Callie, to sit still and remain attentive within an fMRI scanner. He then cued the dogs with the indication of a food reward (a delicious hot dog) and watched as an area of their brains called the caudate nucleus "lit up."
In the current study, researchers from the National Autonomous University of Mexico adopted Berns' methods and trained seven dogs -- five Border Collies, one Labrador Retriever and one Golden Retriever -- to sit still in a "sphinx" position within an fMRI scanner, their ears adorably adorned with soft ear muffs to protect them from the loud, startling sounds of the machine.
When each canine's training was complete, the researchers presented the dogs with pictures of either human faces or everyday objects and closely watched the canine's brain activity. While everyday objects did not induce much activity at all, human faces elicited a ton of activity (see figure below), primarily in the bilateral temporal cortex, but also to a smaller extent in the frontal cortex, the caudate nucleus, and the thalamus.
"This portion of the temporal cortex in dogs could be anatomically and functionally similar to regions found in other species, like humans, non-human primates and sheep, which suggests a high degree of evolutionary conservation of the ventral visual pathway for face processing," the researchers write.
"The recognition of human faces by dogs could be an essential factor for establishing attachment with humans," they add.
The experiment confirms a similar study published last year by Berns and his colleagues, which also identified the temporal cortex as a region in dog brains where facial recognition takes place.
Berns' study showed that this activity occurs in response to both human and canine faces. The current study applied a bit more magnification, showing that human faces elicit activity in the caudate nucleus, a region associated with reward. On a neurological level, this could indicate that the relationships dogs have with humans are even more satisfying than the relationships they form with members of their own species.
Source: Cuaya LV, Hernández-Pérez R, Concha L (2016) Our Faces in the Dog's Brain: Functional Imaging Reveals Temporal Cortex Activation during Perception of Human Faces. PLoS ONE 11(3): e0149431. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0149431It’s a looping belt of tyranny that swoops from the South Pacific to Europe and all the way across the Americas. It controls three of the world’s 12 largest economies and the entire global supply of some key resources. It is, in the eyes of the world’s most important, and perhaps only relevant, demographic, a new axis of autocracy and it isn’t centred in Pyongyang, Tehran or Harare but in Canberra, Paris and, yes, Ottawa.
That demographic, of course, is the American teen. And if new U.S. test results are any sign, that all important group doesn’t think highly of us, if it thinks of us at all.
In recent results from the U.S. National Assessment of Educational Progress — billed as the Nation’s Report Card — fully 33 per cent of American 8th graders said Canada, Australia and France are dictatorships of one kind or another.
Asked on a national standardized test what the current governments of the three countries have in common, 23 per cent of the 29,000 teens tested chose “they have leaders with absolute power” from the four options available. Another 10 per cent chose “they are controlled by the military” while 12 per cent picked “they discourage participation by citizens in public affairs.”
Fifty four per cent chose the right answer: They have constitutions that limit their power.
It would be simple, and perhaps correct, to dismiss those results, released in late April, as irrelevant to Canadians. After all, 54 per cent isn’t that bad. Only 23 per cent of teens scored at or above proficient on the civics portion of the test in 2014, from which that question was drawn; only 18 per cent did the same for U.S. history.
It might be more a case, in other words, of broad ignorance than it is a Maple Leaf-shaped blind spot in the American middle-school psyche.
One academic, however, believes the question and its answers should be cause for some concern, and not just about the U.S. education system. Kenneth Holland, a professor at Ball State University and the president of the Association for Canadian Studies in the United States, thinks they might be indicative of a larger failure to educate Americans about a key ally and trading partner.
“I think there’s a broader problem and that is that Americans know very little about Canada,” he said.
I think there’s a broader problem and that is that Americans know very little about Canada
Holland doesn’t think the problem is likely to get better any time soon, either. The Canadian government used to fund a program called “Understanding Canada” that provided grants to academics studying Canada around the world. “One purpose of those grants was to provide professional development for K-12 teachers,” Holland said. The federal government eliminated that program in 2012, however. “So there really is very little money now to train teachers who teach those middle schoolers,” he said.
What knowledge American teens do have of Canada is mostly limited to pop culture and a vague idea of Quebec separatism and Mounties, Holland believes. So when the 8th graders chose absolute power or military dictatorship on the test, they likely did so more out of ignorance than any specific knowledge of Stephen Harper or Tony Abbott.
For Holland, though, that is problem unto itself. “Canada is a very important ally of the United States,” he said. “You can see that all over the world right now. Ukraine, Iraq, Syria: Canada is right there fighting alongside the United States.”
That so many American teens think such a close ally is a civilian or military dictatorship — akin to the dastardly French, no less — is, to him, a significant worry. What it isn’t, though, is reason to believe Americans think our actual government, the one with a Parliament in Ottawa, no matter how neutered its members may be, is the next North Korea. It just means they have no idea about our actual government at all.
National Post
• Email: rwarnica@nationalpost.com | Twitter: richardwarnicaFormer Swain School middle school director charged with child sexual assault in New Jersey
Thomas Curran led middle school in Salisbury Township; he is charged in New Jersey.
Thomas Curran, who was arrested in Woodstock, Ga. and charged in New Jersey Feb. 4, served as middle school director of The Swain School in Salisbury Township from 2000-2005.
A 55-year-old New Jersey educator once employed at a private school in the Lehigh Valley has been arrested on charges of sexually assaulting an 11-year-old boy in New Jersey.
A file photo of Thomas Curran published in 2000 when he was hired as middle… (FILE PHOTO, TMC )
A statement from The Swain School said Curran "left for reasons unrelated to the issues currently under investigation. The security and safety of all of our students is our utmost priority."
Curran, of Ewing, N.J., allegedly sexually assaulted an 11-year-old boy several times between April and June while providing after-school care in the boy's West Windsor Township home, authorities said.
The Mercer County prosecutor's office and the West Windsor Township Police Department issued a news release upon his arrest.
The news release said Curran most recently served as dean of students and as a science teacher at The American Boychoir School in Plainsboro Township, but it does not indicate if the boy attended the school.
When Curran was hired at The Swain School, he had previously worked in Augusta, Ga., as middle school director of the Episcopal Day School; in New Jersey as a health teacher at Morristown-Beard and Pennington schools; and in Louisville, Ky., as an adjunct professor of anatomy and physiology at Bellarmine College.
Curran was being held under $250,000 bail in Mercer County Prison on charges of sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child.
The Mercer County prosecutor's office said the investigation is ongoing, and anyone with information may contact the Special Victims Unit at 609-989-6424 or apetracca@mercercounty.org.
EDITOR'S NOTE: An earlier version of this story did not include a statement from The Swain School, including information about Curran's dates of employment.Photo via Sub Pop Records
Mass Gothic, the new project from Noel Heroux (formerly of Hooray For Earth), wants to make genre restrictions as outdated and passé as possible. Today, we're premiering his new self-titled record due February 5 from Sub Pop records, a ten-track expression of the depths of Heroux's mind and creativity.
Don't let the name Mass Gothic trick you into thinking the record is a spiral into sadsackism. Each song carries its own weight unreliant and wholly different from the track that came before it, creating a collection of different modes of music and feeling. Songs like "Nice Night" carry an unwavering heaviness and compliment the reflective nature of the lyrics, while the track "Territory" creates a variety of different electronic textures that all stay dancy and catchy. The record is a trip into a variety of different vibes and reasons to listen to music, forming into a wholly memorable and engaging listen. It warps what you think pop, rock, and punk can do when bleeding into each other, one song to the next.
&amp;amp;lt;a data-cke-saved-href=&amp;amp;quot;http://massgothic.bandcamp.com/album/mass-gothic-2&amp;amp;quot; href=&amp;amp;quot;http://massgothic.bandcamp.com/album/mass-gothic-2&amp;amp;quot;&amp;amp;gt;Mass Gothic by MASS GOTHIC&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt;
Pre-order the record right here, and catch Mass Gothic on tour:
Feb. 04 - Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda’s*
Feb. 05 - Cleveland, OH - Grog Shop*
Feb. 06 - Chicago, IL - Schuba's Tavern*
Feb. 08 - Minneapolis, MN - 7th Street Entry*
Feb. 11 - Boise, ID – Neurolux*
Feb. 12 - Seattle, WA - Columbia City Theatre*
Feb. 13 - Portland, OR - Bunk Bar*
Feb. 14- San Francisco, CA - Rickshaw Stop*
Feb. 16 - Los Angeles, CA – Bootleg*
Feb. 18 - Denver, CO - Lost Lake*
Feb. 19 - Kansas City, MO - Riot Room*
Feb. 21 - Louisville, KY – Zanzabar*
Feb. 22 - Cincinnati, OH - MOTR Pub*
Feb. 23 - Pittsburgh, PA - Club Café*
Feb. 25 - Allston, MA - Great Scott*
Feb. 26 - Providence, RI - Columbus Theatre*
Feb. 27 - Brooklyn, NY – Palisades*
Mar. 10 - Washington, DC - Black Cat
Mar. 12 - Savannah, GA - Savannah Stopover
Mar. 16 - Austin, TX - SXSW
Mar. 17 - Austin, TX - SXSW
Mar. 18 - Austin, TX - SXSW
Mar. 19 - Austin, TX – SXSW
*w/ Mazedhumblehax
3DS userland exploit for Citizens of Earth
humblehax exploits a trivial savegame stack overflow (see here for code) to obtain ROP under Citizens of Earth, selected due to its recent participation in the Humble "Friends of Nintendo" Bundle.
Installation
To install the exploit to Citizens of Earth, use the installer found here, extract it to your SD card and run it using the Homebrew Launcher. An existing homebrew entrypoint such as browserhax, Smash Bros or Cubic Ninja is required (see the Homebrew Launcher page and Homebrew Exploits on 3dbrew).
Note: the installer requires a *hax payload version of 2.8 or later due to a much improved takeover method.
The mmaps used previously are no longer required and can be deleted if you still have them.
Note that installing humblehax will wipe any existing savegame data in slot 3, and the original game will not be able to be used while humblehax is installed. humblehax automatically triggers during game boot once installed (after company splash screens).
For uninstallation, see below.
Updating *hax
humblehax includes a payload which allows the *hax payload to be updated in the event that a system update is released, without requiring the installer to be run again. To access this functionality, hold SELECT while the exploit is loading and you will be taken to a menu.
In this menu, select Update *hax payload and select the version of the *hax payload you wish to install, and then press A to have it downloaded and installed to the savegame.
Upgrading the game from v1 to v2
There is currently almost no benefit for doing so, but should you choose to update Citizens of Earth to a newer exploitable version, first update and rerun salt_sploit_installer from the releases page before downloading the game update via the eShop. salt_sploit_installer will detect the game version that |
ancini played down the row, but admitted he did not know what to expect from the unpredictable 21-year-old.
"He is a top player," said Mancini
"He can do everything. He can score two goals against Arsenal next week. But he can also take a red card.
"Until now he did well and in the last eight games he could be important for us. But trust him? Never."
City are three points behind leaders United with the Manchester clubs battling it out to win the Premier League title. Balotelli chose to spend two days off in Italy last week and gatecrashed new Inter Milan boss Andrea Stramaccioni's first press conference.
Mancini clarified his striker's presence at the press conference, but admitted Balotelli needed to grow up, with the incident the latest in a string of bizarre antics.
"At the press conference he was there like a journalist. It is better you ask him why but he had two days off," said Mancini.
Media playback is not supported on this device Balotelli gatecrashes Inter press conference
"I can't put him in his house for two days.
"Probably the moment will arrive when he will know what he should do when he has two days off.
"I hope he will grow out of it because he needs to know this is his job. He needs to work and rest. But he is young."
Meanwhile, Mancini disputed Ferguson's suggestion that bringing back Tevez was an act of desperation.
"It is not important for me what Sir Alex says," said Mancini.
"I have big respect for him. I'm sure what I say is not important to him. I think the only thing that is important for him and for me is to win the championship.
"Carlos Tevez is a Manchester City player. He wanted to leave the club in January, but this was not possible.
"Now he is again a big player for us. Desperation for what? We were without Tevez for seven months and dominated this championship. I don't think so. He is a City player and maybe he can help us in the last six or seven games."Supporters of the 9/11 Truth movement at an anti-war demonstration in Los Angeles, October 2007
Adherents of the 9/11 Truth movement are conspiracy theorists who dispute the mainstream account of the September 11 attacks of 2001. The group disputes the commonly accepted account that Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four airliners, crashed them into the Pentagon and New York's Twin Towers, whereupon the crashes led to the collapse of the Twin Towers. The primary focus is on missed information that they allege is not adequately explained in the official NIST theory, such as the collapse of World Trade Center 7. They suggest a cover-up and, at the least, complicity by insiders.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]
They analyze evidence from the attacks, discuss different theories about how the attacks happened and call for a new investigation into the attacks.[9][10][11][12][13][14][15] Some of the organizations assert that there is evidence that individuals within the United States government may have been either responsible for or knowingly complicit in the September 11 attacks. Motives suggested by the movement include the use of the attacks as a pretext to fight wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and to create opportunities to curtail American civil liberties.[2][16] Support for the movement is negligible from professionals in relevant fields, such as civil and aerospace engineering.[17]
Characteristics [ edit ]
Name [ edit ]
Truth movement sticker
"9/11 Truth movement" is the collective name of loosely affiliated[16][18] organizations and individuals that question whether the United States government, agencies of the United States or individuals within such agencies were either responsible for or purposefully complicit in the September 11 attacks.[3][4][5][6][7][19][20][21] The term is also being used by the adherents of the movement,[22][23] who call themselves "9/11 skeptics",[24] "truth activists",[25] or "9/11 Truthers",[26] while generally rejecting the term "conspiracy theorists".[18][25]
Adherents [ edit ]
Adherents of the 9/11 Truth movement come from diverse social backgrounds.[1][23][25] The movement draws adherents from people of diverse political beliefs including liberals, conservatives, and libertarians.[3][20][25]
Lev Grossman of Time magazine has stated that support for the 9/11 Truth movement is not a "fringe phenomenon", but "a mainstream political reality."[22] Others, such as Ben Smith of Politico and the Minneapolis Star Tribune have stated that the movement has been "relegated to the fringe".[27][28] The Washington Post editorial staff went further describing the movement as "lunatic fringe."[29] Mark Fenster, a University of Florida law professor and author of the book Conspiracy Theories: Secrecy and Power in American Culture,[30] says that "the amount of organisation" of the movement is significantly stronger than the organization of the movement related to doubts about the official account of the assassination of John F. Kennedy,[3] though this is likely the result of new media technologies, such as online social networks, blogs, etc.
The 9/11 Truth movement is active in the United States as well as in other countries.[15]
In 2004, John Buchanan ran for president on a 9/11 Truth platform.[31][32] Jeff Boss ran in the 2012 US presidential election on a 9/11 Truth platform.[33]
In a 2011 article in Skeptical Inquirer, Jamie Bartlett and Carl Miller do an overview and analyze the members of the 9/11 Truth movement community. The authors find that people involved in this movement, which seemingly is a disparate group with very diversified backgrounds, could be classified into three groups. They join the movement for different reasons, loosely self-assemble to fill different roles, and are united by their shared mistrust in experts and the establishment (government and reputable sources of knowledge) and have a conspiratorial stance. Through their engagement, they each find their own fulfillment and satisfaction. Together, they contribute to the persistence, resilience, and exaggerated claims of acceptance (in general public) of the movement.[34]
Views [ edit ]
Many adherents of the 9/11 Truth movement suspect that United States government insiders played a part in the attacks, or may have known the attacks were imminent, and did nothing to alert others or stop them.[24] Some within the movement who argue that insiders within the United States government were directly responsible for the September 11 attacks often alleging that the attacks were planned and executed in order to provide the U.S. with a pretext for going to war in the Middle East, and, by extension, as a means of consolidating.[22][23]
According to these allegations, this would have given the Bush administration the justification for more widespread abuses of civil liberties and to invade Afghanistan and Iraq to ensure future supplies of oil.[24] In some cases, even in the mainstream media, "hawks" in the White House, especially then Vice-President Dick Cheney and members of the Project for the New American Century, the neoconservative think-tank, have been accused of either being aware of, or involved in, the alleged plot.[35][36][37]
Part of the 9/11 Truth movement alleges that the buildings of the World Trade Center were destroyed by controlled demolition, a theory of major importance for the 9/11 Truth movement.[1][20][38][39]
Communication [ edit ]
The Internet plays a large role both in the communication between adherents and between local groups of the 9/11 Truth movement and in the dissemination of the views of the movement to the public at large.[2][3][6][22][36] Colorado Public Television has aired several films produced by the movement such as 9/11 Explosive Evidence: Experts Speak Out, a documentary produced by Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, which once was one of the "most shared" and "most watched" programs on the national PBS site. The station's airing of such films has been controversial for the affiliate and PBS.[40][41]
History [ edit ]
In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, different interpretations of the events that questioned the account given by the U.S. government were published. Among others, Michael Ruppert[42] and Canadian journalist Barrie Zwicker,[43] published criticisms or pointed out purported anomalies of the accepted account of the attacks. French author Jean-Charles Brisard[44] and German authors Mathias Bröckers[45] and Andreas von Bülow[46] published books critical of media reporting and advancing the controlled demolition thesis of the destruction of the World Trade Center towers. In September 2002, the first "Bush Did It!" rallies and marches were held in San Francisco and Oakland, California organized by The All People's Coalition.[47]
A 9/11 Truth movement protest sign, October 2009
In October 2004, the organization 9/11 Truth released a statement, signed by nearly 200 people, including many relatives of people who perished on September 11, 2001, that calls for an investigation into the attacks. It also asserted that unanswered questions would suggest that people within the administration of President George W. Bush may have deliberately allowed the attacks to happen. Actor Edward Asner, former presidential candidate Ralph Nader, former congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, former assistant secretary of housing Catherine Austin Fitts, author Richard Heinberg, Enver Masud, founder of The Wisdom Fund, professors Richard Falk of the University of California, Mark Crispin Miller of New York University, Douglas Sturm of Bucknell University, Burns H. Weston of the University of Iowa College of Law and others signed the statement. In 2009, Van Jones, a former advisor to President Obama, said he hadn't fully reviewed the statement before he signed and that the petition did not reflect his views "now or ever."[48][49][50]
In 2006, Steven E. Jones, who became a leading academic voice of the demolition theory,[2] published the paper "Why Indeed Did the WTC Buildings Completely Collapse?".[51] He was placed on paid leave by Brigham Young University following what they described as Jones's "increasingly speculative and accusatory" statements in September 2006, pending a review of his statements and research. Six weeks later, Jones retired from the university.[52] Skepticism arose as to the scientific claims made by Jones and the efficacy of the peer-review process involved in the publication of his hypotheses, and conspiracy theorists responded to criticism by positing still more elaborate ostensible cover-ups.[53]
In the same year, 61 legislators in the U.S. State of Wisconsin signed a petition calling for the dismissal of a University of Wisconsin lecturer Kevin Barrett, after he joined the group Scholars for 9/11 Truth. Citing academic freedom, the university provost declined to take action against Barrett.[54][55][56]
Several organizations of family members of people who have died in the attacks are calling for an independent investigation into the attacks.[57] In 2009, a group of people, including 9/11 Truth movement activist Lorie Van Auken and others who have lost friends or relatives in the attack, appealed to the City of New York to investigate the disaster. The New York City Coalition for Accountability Now collected signatures to require the New York City Council to place the creation of an investigating commission on the November 2009 election ballot.[58] The group collected more than enough signatures to put the proposal before the voters, but New York Supreme Court Justice Edward Lehner stated that the petition overstepped what is allowable by city law, and ruled that, despite wording in the petition to allow for elements ruled invalid to be stricken, it would not be allowed to appear on the ballot.[59][60]
9/11 Commission Report reaction [ edit ]
To the consternation of the families and adherents of the 9/11 Truth movement, many of the questions that the 9/11 Family Steering Committee put to the 9/11 Commission, chaired by former New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean, were not asked in either the hearings nor in the Commission Report.[61] Lorie Van Auken, one of the Jersey Girls, estimates that only 30% of their questions were answered in the final 9/11 Commission Report, published July 22, 2004.[citation needed]
The 9/11 Family Steering Committee produced a website summarizing the questions they had raised to the Commission, indicating which they believe had been answered satisfactorily, which they believe had been addressed but not answered satisfactorily, and which they believe had been generally ignored in or omitted from the Report.[62]
In addition, The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions written by David Ray Griffin, claimed the report had either omitted information or distorted the truth, providing 115 examples of his allegations.[63][64][65] He has characterized the 9/11 Commission Report as "a 571-page lie".[66]
On May 26, 2008 adjunct religious studies professor Blair Gadsby began a protest and a hunger strike outside the offices of Senator and Republican Party nominee for President John McCain's office requesting McCain meet with the principal scientists and leaders of the 9/11 Truth movement, specifically Richard Gage, Steven Jones, and David Ray Griffin. McCain had written the foreword to the book Debunking 9/11 Myths: Why Conspiracy Theories Can't Stand Up to the Facts, published by the magazine Popular Mechanics.[67]
Arizona Republican State Senator Karen Johnson joined the protest in support. On June 10, Johnson with Gadsby as her guest and other 9/11 Truth movement members in the audience, spoke before the Arizona State Senate espousing the controlled demolition theory and supporting a reopening of the 9/11 investigation.[14][67] In response to a question, McCain said he did not meet with Gadsby "because I don't take well to threats."[68]
NIST Report reaction [ edit ]
[69][70] Members of the 9/11 Truth movement claim the spheres indicate the presence of temperatures much hotter than office fires, or the presence of thermitic reactions.[71][72][73] However, such spheres have been found to form when iron particles are affected by normal fuel fires.[74] An iron-rich sphere, found in the dust of the World Trade Center, as documented by the United States Geological Survey and RJ LeeGroup, Inc. RJ Lee's report states the spheres are indicative of molten iron.Members of the 9/11 Truth movement claim the spheres indicate the presence of temperatures much hotter than office fires, or the presence of thermitic reactions.However, such spheres have been found to form when iron particles are affected by normal fuel fires.
Following the initial government investigation, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Report (May 2002) NIST Report, numerous responses were written by members of the 9/11 Truth movement. Many of these responses claimed that it ignored key evidence suggesting an explosive demolition, "distorted reality" by using deceptive language and diagrams, and attacked straw man arguments, such as the 2005 article by Jim Hoffman entitled Building a better mirage: NIST's 3-year $20,000,000 Cover Up of the Crime of the Century.[75]
In late 2005, Steven E. Jones, then a professor at Brigham Young University, announced a paper criticizing the NIST Report and describing his hypothesis that the WTC towers had been intentionally demolished by explosives. This paper garnered some mainstream media attention, including an appearance by Jones on MSNBC. This was the first such programming on a major cable news station. Jones was criticized by his university for making his claims public before vetting them through the approved peer review process. He was placed on paid leave and has since retired.[52][76][77]
Accordingly, in April 2007, some 9/11 victims' family members and some members of the new Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Justice submitted an additional request for correction to NIST, containing their own views on the defects in the report.[78] NIST responded to this request in September 2007 supporting their original conclusions;[79] the originators of the request wrote back to them in October 2007, asking them to reconsider their response.
Pamphlets at National September 11 Museum [ edit ]
Members of the movement distributed pamphlets that they say told the "truth" about the attacks at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum when the Museum opened in May 2014.[80]
Organizations [ edit ]
Since the publication of the official reports, a number of interconnected 9/11 Truth movement organizations have been formed.
Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth [ edit ]
Two people holding a banner of Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth
Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth is an organization of architectural and engineering professionals[81] who support the World Trade Center controlled demolition conspiracy theories and are calling for a new investigation into the destruction of the Twin Towers and WTC 7.[10][82] The group is collecting signatures for a petition to the United States Congress that demands "a truly independent investigation with subpoena power" of the September 11 attacks, which, according to the organization, should include an inquiry into the possible use of explosives in the destruction of the World Trade Center buildings.[83][84] Richard Gage, a San Francisco Bay area-based architect,[85] founded Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth in 2006.[2][86]
Investigations by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) have concluded that the buildings collapsed as a result of the impacts of the planes and of the fires that resulted from them.[51][87] Gage criticized the government agency NIST for not having investigated the complete sequence of the collapse of the World Trade Center towers[88] and claims "the official explanation of the total destruction of the World Trade Center skyscrapers has explicitly failed to address the massive evidence for explosive demolition."[89] To support its position, the group Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth points to the "free fall" pace of the collapse of the buildings, the "lateral ejection of steel", and to the "mid-air pulverization of concrete", among other things.[90]
9/11 Truth [ edit ]
9/11 Truth was launched in June 2004 and has become a central portal for many 9/11 Truth movement organizations. It is run by Janice Matthews (Executive Director),[91][92] David Kubiak (International Campaign Advisor)[93] and Mike Berger (Media Coordinator),[94] among others, and its advisory board includes Steven E. Jones and Barrie Zwicker.[95]
The organization co-sponsored opinion polls conducted by the U.S. market research and opinion polling firm Zogby International that have shown substantial numbers of people believing the government did not tell the full truth about the September 11 attacks.
Scholars for 9/11 Truth [ edit ]
The original Scholars for 9/11 Truth was founded by James H. Fetzer, a former philosophy professor, and physicist Steven E. Jones, in December 2005. It was a group of people of varying backgrounds and expertise who rejected the mainstream media and government account of the September 11 attacks.[3][96] Initially the group invited many ideas and hypotheses to be considered. However, leading members soon came to feel that the inclusion of some theories advocated by Fetzer — such as the use of directed energy weapons or miniature nuclear bombs to destroy the Twin Towers—were insufficiently supported by evidence and were exposing the group to ridicule. By December 2006, Jones and others set up a new scholars group, Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Justice, whose focus is to use scientific analysis.[97] The original members took a vote on which group to join and the majority voted to move to the new group.[98]
Scholars for 9/11 Truth & Justice [ edit ]
Scholars for 9/11 Truth & Justice (STJ) formed in January 2007 and is a self-described "group of scholars and supporters endeavoring to address the unanswered questions of the September 11, 2001 attack through scientific research and public education".[99] The group is composed of more than 900 members,[100] including Richard Gage, Steven E. Jones, Jim Hoffman, David Ray Griffin, Peter Phillips, and former Congressman Daniel Hamburg. Most members support the conspiracy theory that the World Trade Center Towers and the third skyscraper, WTC 7, were destroyed through explosive demolition.[citation needed]
In 2008 and 2009, several members of the Scholars for 9/11 Truth & Justice published essays in science and engineering journals. In April 2008, a letter by some of its members, was published in The Open Civil Engineering Journal.[101] In July 2008, an article by Steven E. Jones and others was published in The Environmentalist.[102]
In October 2008, a comment by STJ member James R. Gourley describing what he considers fundamental errors in a Bažant and Verdure paper was included in an issue of the Journal of Engineering Mechanics.[103] In April 2009, Danish chemist and STJ member Niels H. Harrit, of the University of Copenhagen, and eight other authors, including some STJ members, published a paper in The Open Chemical Physics Journal, entitled Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe. The paper, which caused the editor and only peer-reviewer, Professor Pileni, to resign, claiming it was published without her knowledge,[104] concludes that chips consisting of unreacted and partially reacted nano-thermite ("super-thermite") appear to be present in samples of the dust.[72][unreliable source?][105]
9/11 Citizens Watch [ edit ]
9/11 Citizens Watch was formed in 2002 by John Judge and Kyle Hence and, along with the Family Steering Committee, played an active role in calling for the establishment of the 9/11 Commission, and monitoring the commission closely.[106]
William Rodriguez at American Scholars Symposium: 9/11 and the NeoCon Agenda in Los Angeles, California, June 24–25, 2006
9/11 Commission Campaign [ edit ]
Founded in 2011 by Senator Mike Gravel, the 9/11 Commission Campaign's objective is to enact subpoena-capable, state-level commissions through state ballot initiatives, namely in Oregon, Alaska and California.[107] These commissions are envisioned as citizen-driven, independent organizations that would form a semi-unified grassroots national presence by exercising joint powers authority.
Hispanic Victims Group [ edit ]
The Hispanic Victims Group is a group created after the 9/11 attacks, founded by William Rodriguez,[108] a supporter of the 9/11 Truth movement. The group was one of the key forces behind the creation of the 9/11 Commission.[106] William Rodriguez, as founder of the group, was a member of the Families Advisory Council for the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC).[109]
Conferences [ edit ]
Members of the 9/11 truth organizations, such as 911truth.org and Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Justice, regularly hold meetings and conferences to discuss ongoing research about 9/11 and to strategize about how best to achieve their goals. Many of these conferences are organized by 911truth.org, and some have been covered by the international media.[110]
Opponents [ edit ]
Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone assessed that the movement "gives supporters of Bush an excuse to dismiss critics of this administration", and expressed concerns about the number of people who believe in 9/11 conspiracy theories.[111]
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) engineering professor Thomas W. Eagar was at first unwilling to acknowledge the concerns of the movement, saying that "if (the argument) gets too mainstream, I'll engage in the debate". In response to Steven E. Jones' publication of a hypothesis that the World Trade Center was destroyed by controlled demolition, Eagar said that adherents of the 9/11 Truth movement would use the reverse scientific method to arrive at their conclusions, as they "determine what happened, throw out all the data that doesn't fit their conclusion, and then hail their findings as the only possible conclusion".[112]
Calling conspiracy theorists "the truthers", Bill Moyers has quoted journalist Robert Parry by stating that the theorists "...threw out all the evidence of al-Qaeda's involvement, from contemporaneous calls from hijack victims on the planes to confessions from al-Qaeda leaders both in and out of captivity that they had indeed done it. Then, recycling some of the right's sophistry techniques, such as using long lists of supposed evidence to overcome the lack of any real evidence, the 'truthers' cherry-picked a few supposed 'anomalies' to build an 'inside-job' story line".[113]
Al-Qaeda has sharply criticized Iran's ex-president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, over his suggestions that the U.S. government was behind the September 11 attacks, dismissing his comments as "ridiculous".[114]
Some skeptics[115] —who oppose conspiracy as the a priori explanation to events, and who find most of the questions posed by the Truthers to be either easily answered[116] or based on misleading or false ideas[117]—have claimed that some of the Truthers are knowingly disseminating false information with no care for the grieving families, and have accordingly called them "disrespectful" or even "sickos".[118]
Media [ edit ]
Books [ edit ]
The theologian David Ray Griffin has written several books on this subject. The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions about the Bush Administration and 9/11 (March 2004) claims to outline a methodical, deductive framework for researching 9/11. Along with The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions (October 2004), both became best-sellers.[119][better source needed]
Griffin's Debunking 9/11 Debunking (May 2007) looks at the way magazines such as Popular Mechanics have sought to debunk the alternative 9/11 theories.[120] His 2008 book, The New Pearl Harbor Revisited: 9/11, the cover-up, and the exposé, was written to update his original book, The New Pearl Harbor, reflecting information and insights from five major developments that have occurred since his original publication,[121] while The Mysterious Collapse of World Trade Center 7: Why the Final Official Report About 9/11 Is Unscientific and False, published in 2009, examines the credibility of the official investigations into and hypotheses about the destruction of the third skyscraper, WTC 7, focusing on the final official report published in November 2008.[122]
In September 2004, the interactive "Complete 9/11 Timeline" website by Paul Thompson, a collection of mainstream media reports presented chronologically, was made into the book, entitled The Terror Timeline.[123]
Films [ edit ]
Films made by people associated with the 9/11 Truth movement include:
Details [ edit ]
These documentaries present a range of alternative theories about how the attacks might have been carried out:
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Media coverage [ edit ]Move Over, Microwave: A Pressure Cooker Comeback?
Enlarge this image toggle caption Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Is your job a pressure cooker? Most people are familiar with the metaphor, but not the actual device — once a common household item.
"It was the wedding gift that you gave. People got a pressure cooker," says Lorna Sass, author of The Pressured Cook. She says when Presto introduced its version of the gadget at the 1939 World's Fair, it didn't take long for it to catch on.
"When the men went off to the second World War, and Rosie the Riveter was working, she used a pressure cooker because she had to make dinner fast when she came home from the job," Sass explains.
It works using basic principles of science: Water normally boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit — and doesn't get hotter. But under pressure, it boils at about 242 F and stays there. Raising the boiling point lets the food cook at the higher temperature, which cuts cooking time by two-thirds or more.
Fabulous, right? But like your pressured co-worker who deploys the chute or goes postal, there could be unintended outcomes: namely the infamous exploding meals. "I think I've heard every version [of exploding meal stories]," Sass says. "I've heard split pea soup. I've heard tomato sauce. You name it. I've heard it. I roll my eyes at this point."
Enlarge this image toggle caption Chaloner Woods/Getty Images Chaloner Woods/Getty Images
The cooker's reputation was tarnished for generations to come. People have the mistaken impression that cooking with the pressure cooker is dangerous, says Chef Jacques Pepin, who uses a modern foolproof version on his show Fast Food My Way. It doesn't chug like an engine anymore. It gurgles like a baby.
Although Americans moved on to frozen dinners and the microwave, pressure cookers stayed popular in Pepin's native France, where more women remained in the workforce after the war. The cookers are a staple across Europe, North Africa, South Asia and South America because they're economical: They tenderize cheaper, tougher cuts of meat. With the growing American interest in sustainability and slow foods, the cooker could be poised for a comeback.
Lately, it's even been enjoying some time in the spotlight on TV shows like Iron Chef. Aside from those formerly slow braises, Sass says pressure cooking is great for cheesecakes, risotto, vegetables and beans. It won't overheat your kitchen in the summer, and you can enjoy the thrill of speed without any rush. As for the pressure? You can leave that at the office.
What To Make In Your Pressure Cooker?
Here are two recommended recipes from Lorna Sass' The Pressured Cook: Over 75 One-Pot Meals in Minutes, Made in Today's 100 Percent Safe Pressure Cookers.
Recipe: 'Moroccan Lamb Tagine'
Serves 4–6
This dish was inspired by the evocative tastes and aromas in Paula Wolfert's classic Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco (Harper & Row, 1973). "Nowadays, everyone in Morocco is cooking their tagines in pressure cookers," Paula said when she heard I was writing this book. Serve it with couscous or Fragrant Coconut Rice.
14 minutes under high pressure
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
2 1/2 pounds boned lamb shoulder, trimmed and cut into 2-inch cubes
1 cup water
3 large carrots, peeled (leave whole)
1 cup tightly packed pitted prunes (about 20)
1 large lemon, preferably organic, cut into 8 wedges and seeded
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro
Garnish: 1/2 cup toasted blanched almonds (optional)
Heat the oil in the cooker, and saute the onion until lightly browned, 4 to 5 minutes. Stir in the remaining ingredients except for the cilantro and almonds.
Lock the lid in place and over high heat bring to high pressure. Adjust heat to maintain high pressure and cook for 14 minutes. Quick-release the pressure according to manufacturer's directions. Remove the lid, tilting it away from you to allow any excess steam to escape.
Slash the carrots with a knife. Stir in the cilantro. Adjust the seasonings and transfer to a serving platter. Garnish with toasted almonds, if desired.
Recipe: Chocolate Kahlua Bread Pudding
Serves 6
A must for chocolate lovers. This is a real winner.
15 minutes under high pressure
2 to 3 tablespoons sweet butter, plus butter for greasing the souffle dish
12 to 14 one-inch-thick slices whole-wheat or white Italian or French bread, left out 12 to 24 hours to dry
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup Kahlua
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
Two 3-ounce bars excellent-quality dark chocolate, coarsely chopped, preferably Lindt Excellence or Swiss Dark with Broken Hazelnuts
Generously butter a 5-cup souffle dish or suitable alternative. Set aside. Cut a piece of aluminum foil 2 feet long by 1 foot wide and double it twice lengthwise to create a strip for moving the pudding dish to and from the cooker. Set aside.
Butter the bread and cut each slice into 2 to 3 pieces. Arrange one third of the bread on the bottom of the souffle dish.
In a food processor or with a whisk, combine the milk, Kahlua and eggs, and pour one third of this mixture over the bread, turning the bread pieces over so that they thoroughly absorb the liquid. Distribute one third of the chocolate on top of the bread-milk mixture. Repeat layering the bread, liquid and chocolate in this manner two more times, or until the dish is seven-eighths full. (Be sure to finish with a chocolate layer.) Cover with aluminum foil so that the foil fits tightly around the sides and tucks under the bottom but allows some room on top for the pudding to expand.
Set a trivet or steaming rack on the bottom of the cooker. Center the souffle dish on the aluminum foil strip and carefully lower it into the cooker. Fold the ends of the strip over the top of the pudding. Pour in enough water to reach one third up the sides of the pudding dish.
Lock the lid in place and over high heat bring to high pressure. Adjust heat to maintain high pressure, and cook for 15 minutes. Turn off the heat. Transfer the cooker to a cool burner and let the pressure drop naturally. Remove the lid, tilting it away from you to allow any excess steam to escape.
Let the pudding cool slightly before lifting it from the cooker with the aid of the foil strip. If you are not serving the pudding immediately, cut open the foil top and let the pudding remain warm in the cooker, placing the lid ajar, for up to an hour. While the pudding is still warm, gently spread the top layer of chocolate with a knife to create a frosting. To serve, scoop out the pudding with a large spoon.
Adapted From The Pressured Cook by Lorna J. Sass. Copyright 1999 by Lorna J. Sass. Reprinted by permission of William Morrow Cookbooks, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.PESHAWAR: Rattled by the growing consensus in the country on taking firm action against militant groups to eradicate terrorism, the absconding chief of the outlawed Tehreek-i- Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Mullah Fazlullah, has threatened to go after government leaders and senior members of the ruling PML-N.
In a video message released to the media, apparently recorded at his hideout somewhere in Afghanistan, he said that “from now” the PML-N “is our target”.
Also read: PM to go ahead with military courts, come what may
About 800 leaders and workers of the Awami National Party have been killed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and other parts of the country during the past few years.
ANP chief Asfandyar Wali Khan escaped narrowly a suicide attack at his residence in October 2008.
Mullah Fazlullah, who is reportedly hiding in Afghanistan’s Kunar province, appeared quite perturbed at the government’s decision of ending the moratorium on death penalty and hanging a number of convicted terrorists.
He also accused the media of not covering what he described as killing of innocent people during the military operations in Fata.
The video also shows the aftermath of some of the air strikes in Khyber Agency. However, it was not possible to independently verify the authenticity of the footage.
The Pakistan Army has stepped up its operation against the armed militants in North Waziristan and Khyber Agency since last month’s dastardly attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar in where more than 140 children were massacred by TTP gunmen. The anger and outrage resulting from the massacre has led to a consensus in the country in which almost all political parties have joined hands with the government and the army to go all-out against the banned groups which they believe were waging a war against Pakistan.
Published in Dawn, January 9th, 2015
On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google PlaySuch at least I have gathered to be the opinion of cognoscenti.
In 1989, Terimon, a 500-1 shot, finished second to the mighty Nashwan and four years later the second and third to Commander In Chief - Blue Judge and Blues Traveller - were returned at 150-1 and were hardly likely to have been viewed as holding realistic chances by the cognoscenti.
But what really marks a red-letter day for First Amendment-loving Jews is the fact that my fave goth perfume company, Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab (known to the cognoscenti as BPAL), is selling two new scents as a Banned Books Week fundraiser.
Ben Stiller's sequel is festooned with cameos from the fashion cognoscenti, including American Vogue's editor-in-chief Anna Wintour and designers Tommy Hilfiger, Marc Jacobs, Valentino and Alexander Wang.
ArtBahrain will be a meltA[degrees] ing pot of artists, gallerists, cognoscenti and art lovers.
But the cognoscenti know just how far this judgement falls short.
au, on Tuesday, Australian cricket's cognoscenti witnessed the birth of the National Cricket Centre, a 29 million-dollar facility in Brisbane that will serve as a Mecca for the nation's finest prospects.
Pushelberg added: "When people are there, whether they're in the design cognoscenti or someone's mother, they see the lockers and get it.
Result is a spiky, smartly packaged commercial enterprise as sure to score with mainstream audiences as it is to irk the cognoscenti.
In sum, we and future generations must continue to press for more democracy in the church, more participation by all her constituents, less control by presumed cognoscenti, and not be put off by stock phrases to the contrary.
com/curtwoodward) Curt Atwood wrote a piece at Cognoscenti, (http:// cognoscenti.First off, no matter the corpse, never eat unless you just made that corpse or you have a method of |
views of the three major sculptures erected in my city last year?
Demographic Search – The demographics of the world is changing and we need better tools for monitoring it.
17. Show me a heatmap of the world, broken down by 1 square mile regions, showing highest to lowest birthrates.
18. What regions of the world are most like Winnipeg, Canada (pick any city) based on climate, age demographics, political views, education levels, scientific interests, personal health, etc.
19. Who is the most knowledgeable person in the world on acidic soil types?
20. Show me a decade-by-decade breakdown of increasing average incomes in Africa since 1900.
Complex Searches
Over time search engines will deploy a combination of techniques for finding the answer to complex questions.
21. Interactive map of the world highlighting regions currently at 10 degrees Celsius.
22. What world leaders are currently in NYC?
23. Interactive map of butterfly migrations in Panama?
24. What movie has Harrison Ford wearing a blue sweater while chewing gum?
25. Why is this object (hold up an object) important?
26. How famous am I compared to other people in my community?
27. Timeline Search – How have recipes for bread changed over the past 300 years?
28. Who else in the world has a disease like mine?
Future searches
As we enter the age of quantum computing, far more search attributes will become quantifiable. Someday soon we will be able to search for:
29. Smells
30. Tastes
31. Harmonic vibrations
32. Reflectivity
33. Specific gravity
34. Chemical composition
35. Textures
36. Viscosity
Fussy search features
How do we search for things with similar qualities? Future searches may include options to specify:
37. Looks like
38. Smells like
39. Feels like
40. Tastes like
41. Sounds like
42. Absorbs like
43. Echoes like
44. Coats like
Spherical Displays
Spherical displays in the future will have the ability to give an accurate perspective of planet earth.
45. Track pollution flows across the ocean in real-time.
46. Monitor major hurricanes from satellites and track new developments on a minute by minute basis.
47. Book a complex travel itinerary from a spherical perspective.
48. Show how warm water currents have changed over the past two decades.
Maker Spaces
Libraries are rapidly transitioning from a place for passive visitors who consume information to active participants who would much rather produce it. Areas to include:
49. Potters wheel and workshop for mixing the mud and making pottery
50. Growing vegetables using aquaponics
51. Video studio for both shooting and editing a video
52. A production area for both recording and editing a virtual reality experience
53. IoT workbenches complete with Internet of Things help desk
54. Access to 3D scanners and printers capable of printing items out of several hundred different materials
55. Laser cutters for etching/cutting wood, glass, metal, and ceramic
56. Jewelry making stations
Creative Spaces
These types of spaces will come complete with all the tools, technologies, and supplies for creative people to get creative.
57. Produce art
58. Produce music
59. Produce games
60. Produce podcasts
61. Produce webcasts
62. Produce VR experiences
63. Host IoT workshops
64. Create & print with 3D printers
Mini theaters
It’s important for groups have a place to gather for such things as:
65. Watching movies
66. Playing video games
67. Watch live events such as concerts, sporting events, NASA landings, etc.
68. Watch YouTube, Facebook, Twitch, and more
Live webcast studios
While we no longer need a studio for doing live webcasts, the age of the studio is far from over.
69. Book reviews
70. Game reviews
71. App reviews
72. Course review
73. Chatbot review
74. Tech reviews
75. 50 years ago today
76. “How to” accomplish something
3D Printing
As the process of additive manufacturing improves, it will begin to enter all of our lives in unusual ways:
77. 3D printer lending
78. 3D scanner lending
79. 3D printer workshops
80. 3D scanner workshops
81. 3D design competitions
82. 3D printer-scanner help desks
Flying Drones
In much the way kids that lived a century ago wanted to learn how to fly, young people today are enamored with flying and driving drones.
83. Drone lending
84. Flying drone flight simulators
85. DYI drone workshops
86. Drone competitions
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence is already in existence and already knows far more about you than any person alive today. Will future libraries offer:
87. AI lending
88. AI workshops
89. AI competitions
90. Monitor and anticipate visitor usage
Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality
Both will become far more pervasive in the future.
91. VR & AR hardware lending
92. VR & AR software lending
93. VR & AR production studios
94. VR & AR search engines
Robotics
Robots will become far more common in the future.
95. Robot lending
96. Robot rodeos
97. Robot workshops
98. Robot competitions
Internet of Things
As more of our devices join the connected world we will see an increase in demand for:
99. IoT device lending
100. IoT prototyping workshops
101. IoT competitions
102. IoT expert speaker sessions
Equipment Archive
Most people have old forms of information on disks, cartridges, stick drves, and tapes, and many are looking for a place to convert it to a new medium that people today can access.
103. Read and print microfiche
104. Both read and convert 8”, 5.25”, and 3.5” disks to the cloud
105. Convert photos to video
106. Convert from VHS to DVD
107. Digitize and repair old photos and documents
108. Old gaming consoles to play programs and games on cartridges, apps, stick drives, and CDs
Global Library Projects
109. VR chat rooms with people in other counties
110. Cross cultural lending programs (i.e. books written in Japanese, not translated, about Ben Franklin)
Video and Non-Video Games – Games are quickly becoming the cultural norm for most young people today.
111. Game tournaments
112. Game lending
113. Game builder workshops
114. Game expert events
New Facilities – Most major libraries will be testing out a host of new options to make their facilities relevant for next generation users.
115. Mini Planetariums
116. Robotic storytelling centers
117. VR dating stations
118. Time capsule room
119. Drone lending program
120. Pet lending program
121. Expert events – meet the experts
122. Community archives – let the community decide
Final Thoughts
As a kid growing up, libraries were always that magical place full of ideas and possibilities. Future libraries will have all that and more.
Yes, they will be continually evolving over the coming decades and the key to our understanding them lies in our ability to expand our perspective and reframe our thinking abut their role and purpose.
The list above is merely scratching the surface. Libraries can start with a formula, mission statement, policy plan, or lengthy surveys, but in the end libraries will evolve, morph, and transform on their own even without human intervention.
It’ll be an exciting thing to watch, and even more exciting to be part of.
By Futurist Thomas Frey
Author of Epiphany Z – 8 Radical Visions Transforming Your FutureImagine a farmer 50 years ago. Maybe it's your dad and mom, or grandpa and grandma. Imagine what that farmer does as they work in their operation each day. What activities are they spending the majority of their time on?
It's probably not in the farm office doing paperwork. It's outside or in the barn or shop, doing the work of production ag. It's planting the crop or fixing the fence or repairing the tractor or mowing the ditch – or one of the many other tasks that must be done.
In 50 years, farmers will spend more time managing people, finances
Fifty years ago, the farmer probably wasn't spending a great deal of time managing employees, or reviewing financial projections, or managing relationships with landlords and bankers. Maybe the farm had a hired man, or a couple local landlords. But there wasn't a big reason to have things like written job descriptions or a comprehensive landlord relations strategy in place.
Changes over time
Many farm leaders today would probably say they spend more time on the business side of their farm than on the production work, or at least, much more than they used to. That change has happened over time but certainly accelerated in the last 10 to 15 years.
That makes me wonder: the farm leader's role has changed so much over the past 50 years. What will the farm leader need to focus on in the next 50 years? What are the skills the farm leader will need to successfully lead the farm in the future?
Related: What future farm leaders need to know
I think there will be several skills that are going to be key for farm leaders as we move further into the future. And these skills are already becoming required of today's farm CEOs – and will be absolutely essential for future farm operations.
Here are three of the skills it's valuable to start working on now, whether you are currently a farm CEO or hope to be someday.
• Communication – The farm CEO of the future will likely be flexing communication muscles every single day. Whether it's with key business partners, employees – both family and non-family members – or other stakeholders, the farm CEO must be able to communicate well and have the ability to motivate and persuade people.
• Financial acumen – Farm CEOs need to be financially literate, and then take their financial understanding to the next level. They should discuss financial statements with lenders. They need to show that they understand financial concepts and can apply the concepts to their operation. This helps increase the confidence of lenders and landlords because you have a strong handle on the financial side of your farm.
• Relationship management – Managing key relationships with landlords, lenders, employees, business partners and the surrounding community is a skill of the future successful farm CEO. Strong, proactive relationship management is what will set the great farm operations apart from the merely good ones.
You could hope that your farm will achieve the success that you want by simply working hard and wishing that things will happen the way you want them to – or you can plan to be intentional about developing the skills that will make the biggest difference to you and to your operation's success.
If you're willing to invest in developing yourself in these key areas, there's still time to register for an exclusive farm business workshop where you'll get a leg up in each of these areas. It's happening later this month – August 23-25. See the ag speakers who will be there to teach you and meet with you one on one.
The opinions of Darren Frye are not necessarily those of Farm Futures or the Penton Farm Progress Group.- Another attack by a newly adopted dog is renewing questions about practices at Contra Costa Animal Services.
"He shook it so hard, it was like a little toy," Jose Axume told KTVU, describing how a pit bull grabbed his 6 pound Maltese named Teddy.
It happened July 3 in front of an ice cream store in Pittsburg, and KTVU has learned the aggressive dog was adopted out that same day with no behavioral testing before it was released.
"That's not right, that's not right, somebody should have checked that dog," Marleni Axume told KTVU, recalling how the dog bounded around the building where she was waiting with Teddy on a leash.
"I was fighting with the dog, I was trying to save my dog from the dog's mouth," she recounted.
Jose ran from inside the Baskin Robbins and tried to free Teddy from the dog's jaws.
"I brought it down to the ground, put my full weight on the ground and started hitting it," Jose said, "I hit that pit bull really hard, a lot of times."
Into the fray came the dog's owner who had somehow lost control of its leash. The dog had calmed by the time animal control arrived.
"A lady like that shouldn't have had a dog that big and that strong, those dogs are all muscle," declared Jose.
The adopter had taken the four- year- old pit bull named Bridget that same day from the shelter.
"They are in a push to get the dogs out, " KTVU was told last month by Leiv Arnesen of Benicia, who was nursing dozens of deep wounds.
The German Shepherd he and his wife adopted from the Martinez shelter mauled him the next day.
As it turned out, that dog was so agitated during its shelter stay, that staff hadn't been able to get close to evaluate it.
"We all want to do the right thing and the right thing is to save animals," CCAS Medical Director Dr. Rick Bachman told KTVU last month, expressing concerns that behavioral evaluations are in consistent, especially when the shelter is pushing to find homes for as many dogs as possible.
"You would like to have a dog leave the shelter into a new home either with no dings or with dings that have been described and you know what you're getting."
It's unlikely the Oakley woman who adopted Bridget knew what she was getting because during Bridget's one month shelter stay, she never got the evaluation that might have revealed "dog on dog" aggression.
"I thought they were supposed do some some kind of exams, some kind of dog psychology exams, I don't know," mused Jose, "but it's a pit bull!"
The Axumes are left with a letter from the veterinarian where they rushed Teddy.
It describes massive injuries to his sternum and ribs, too much internal damage to even x-ray. There was nothing they could no.
"We loved our dog so much," said Marleni, sadly. "He was part of our family."
And the couple is left questioning if their dog might be alive if adoption guidelines were more stringent.
"We get home and there's nobody home, nobody at the door when we open it," reflected Jose, "it's difficult because he was like, our kid."
It's unclear why Bridget did not receive any temperament testing at the shelter, but CCAS Director Beth Ward has said she is short-staffed and needs to hire more behaviorists.
Bridget was returned to the shelter and euthanized after the attack.I was over for the Great Scottish Run in Glasgow and was in the middle of a ‘Get Healthy’ stint, intent on setting a new personal best, so I was trying to eat new things and buy new equipment.
I’d recently acquired a Camelbak backpack for running and hadn’t tested it out before the race.
Mistake #1
In my infinite wisdom I filled the bladder of the Camelbak with Lucozade Sport whilst standing in the bath of my hotel room.
I secured the hatch and jiggled the bag around and left it in the lounge for 15 minutes.
I came back it and the Lucozade Sport had started leaking all over the carpet.
Mistake #2
I freaked out. I was already running late for the bus to get me to the start of the race and things were getting frantic, so I refilled it quickly, made doubly sure that the hatch was secured and put the Camelbak on and left the room.
I got into the elevator to go downstairs to check-out and an elderly couple got in with me. I was not feeling sociable, so stood in silence as I was sweating like hell and in something of a frenzy.
I don’t know what exactly spurred my attention but I turned around and saw the old man staring at me. Much concern was on his face.
‘You alright, Pal?’ said he.
‘Yeah’ replied I, feeling a little uncomfortable.
I met the guys gaze once more and he was staring at my feet.
It was then that I noticed that a steady flow of orange was leaking out of the bottom of my running bottoms.
The Camelbak was leaking again.
‘Fucks sake! Not again!’ shouted an angry (and now desperate) jogger.
I was starting to panic, so I ran to reception and asked a member of staff if she could store the Camelbak in the luggage room until I got back from the race.
She was totally fine with it, even though the bag was saturated at this point and was in danger of contaminating everything else in the storage area.
The Realization.
I thought back to the old couple in the elevator.
It suddenly dawned on me that they must have thought that I had pissed myself right there, somewhere between the 2nd and 1st floors of a Premier Inn on the outskirts of Glasgow.
Shouting ‘Not again!’ must have been the clincher. It would certainly explain the look of pity that they gave me.
They must have thought that I was some poor incontinent Northern Irish lackey, hellbent on pissing everywhere he stood, just because he could.
Ever since then I NEVER try any new equipment on race day and I’ve yet to put the bladder back in the Camelbak in case I’m involved in Pissgate Round 2 with a less forgiving crowd.
The race itself
The race was great. I got a personal best (at the time) of 2:12:32.
The only downside was that my bottoms were sticking together from all of the dried orange and I had to carry my ATM card and spare change for the bus home in my hands for 13.1 miles, as I had nothing else to stash them in.By Giulio Caperchi
A Crisis of Legitimacy
Following the financial crisis, the ensuing bailouts and the passing of austerity measures, American and European voters increasingly feel alienated by their political representatives. The Tea Party in the US rails against politicians they believe to be incompetent, far removed and corrupt. Similarly, the Occupy and Indignados movements see their elected representatives as catering to the corporate elite, lobbyists and the so-called 1%. A recent Gallup poll (12-2011) reports that the approval rating for the US congress is at an all time low: only 11% of Americans think it is doing a good job while a whopping 86% believe they are performing abysmally[1].
Both our elected representatives and our economic institutions are facing a serious crisis of legitimacy. Notwithstanding our politicians’ talk of balanced budgets, fiscal responsibility and austerity, most of us -on both sides of the aisle- are angry at how our political system has handled the “great recession” and its aftermath. Many feel betrayed by the so-called experts which head the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and other such financial institutions which for years have glorified the self-regulating virtues of unfettered markets.
This resentment highlights a fundamental flaw in our political systems, namely the lack of democratic control over the economic policies which affect our lives. As our politicians fail to stop Wall Street’s “irrational exuberance” from spilling into Main Street we cannot but ask ourselves: how may we, as citizens, control the excesses of twenty first century capitalism?
Participatory Budgeting
An initial answer is suggested by an increasingly popular idea practiced at the level of local governance. Participatory budgeting is a democratic instrument through which members of a community collectively decide on how to spend part or all of the community’s budget. It was first experimented in the city of Porto Alegre, Brazil in 1989 and now occurs in well over a thousand cities worldwide including New York and Chicago[3]. Participatory budgeting allows for ordinary citizens to engage in a deliberative process through which they may propose and debate projects on which to spend public money. In this way, discretionary power over the allocation of public resources is delegated from the elected representatives directly to citizens[4]. It is an instance of direct and participatory democracy through which the citizenry is empowered and rendered responsible for its own fiscal governance.
In most participatory budgeting processes neighborhood and thematic meetings are held monthly, where citizens along with elected officials propose ideas on how to spend public resources. For example, the citizens of the 49th Ward of Chicago decided to spend their $1.3 million budget on projects related to public safety, parks, the environment and transportation[5]. South of the equator, high in the Peruvian Andes the citizens of tiny Condebamba spent their town’s budget on micro-reservoirs for rural irrigation[6]. And still, on the other side of the Atlantic in the Tower Hamlets neighborhood of London, citizens used £2.4 million to improve local public services such as street lighting and education[7].
The positive effects that participatory budgeting engenders are worthy of notice. First of all it ensures transparency: the steps of project formulation, ratification and oversight occur in open and inclusive public assemblies. This reduces instances of corruption and clientelism afflicting local governments in many parts of the world. With transparency comes accountability: citizens know who is responsible for a given public project and who is responsible for its implementation[8].
Another positive effect of participatory budgeting is its ability to restore confidence in governmental institutions. Once citizens experience more control over their elected administration, public institutions are perceived as more trustworthy and accountable thereby garnering increased legitimacy. In fact, there are many cases in which tax revenues increase after participatory budgeting processes are implemented[9].
Above all however, participatory budgeting offers a deliberative space through which to democratize decision making processes. As such it allows for the inclusion of previously marginalized groups in the running of their towns and neighborhoods. Many participatory budgeting processes, particularly in Latin America, have empowered women, children, indigenous groups and the rural poor, thereby breaking negative cultural inertias such as machismo, paternalism and racism[10].
A lesson to be learned
Participatory budgeting is ultimately a democratic instrument which works best at the local level. It requires the active participation of citizens and time for lengthy deliberative assemblies. However, does it not highlight major problems within our national and international governance institutions? The lack of public oversight over financial decisions taken by unaccountable supranational institutions is a major source of contemporary popular discontent. The lack of transparency over incomprehensible financial instruments such as “collateralized debt obligations” and the unfathomable ramifications of the derivatives market is another undeniable problem. The trends towards unelected technical governments such as Italy’s and Greece’s highlight the same issue: increasingly citizens are losing democratic control and oversight over vital economic and financial decisions.
However small and local, participatory budgeting teaches us that public oversight over fiscal policy is necessary. It restores legitimacy to those institutions which many feel have betrayed their trust as citizens. Participatory budgeting shows us that transparency and accountability are sacrosanct attributes and absolute prerequisites for any functioning democracy. And yet, increasingly we have neither: deals are still being made behind the closed doors of G8 summits.
Participatory budgeting’s fundamental lesson is that when the “experts” guiding our financial institutions -along with the politicians who appointed them- fail, we must ultimately rely on our own capabilities as citizens to set our nations’ priorities straight once more. Its renowned success as a democratizing practice teaches us that, at least locally, citizens are capable of fiscal self-determination. Only increased democratic participation in our economic and political institutions will restore the legitimacy which they dangerously lack today. Continuing on the path our politicians are presently following will increasingly alienate citizens from the political process and drastically reduce confidence in our democratic institutions. And this is a dangerous path indeed.
Bibliography
Moore, J. March 31 2010 “Spending out in the open for the 49 th Ward” in Chicago Tribune [online] available at: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-03-31/news/ct-oped-0331-democracy-20100331_1_49th-ward-government-budget-spending
Ward” Chicago Tribune [online] available at: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-03-31/news/ct-oped-0331-democracy-20100331_1_49th-ward-government-budget-spending Lindemann T. & LLambí L. 2011 “Participatory Budgets Policy Brief” in UN FAO project Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Management in the Tropical Andes [online] available at http://www.fao.org/climatechange/55804/en/
UN FAO project Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Management in the Tropical Andes [online] available at http://www.fao.org/climatechange/55804/en/ Participatory Budgeting Unit, UK 2009 You Decide! Tower Hamlets (London) [online] available at: http://www.participatorybudgeting.org.uk/case-studies/case-studies/you-decide-tower-hamlets-london
Participatory Budgeting Project What is Participatory Budgeting? [online] available at: http://www.participatorybudgeting.org/
Cabannes, Y. 2004 Participatory Budgeting: Conceptual Framework and Analysis of its Contribution to Urban Governance and the Millennium Development Goals. UN Habitat: Quito, Ecuador. Available at: eprints.ucl.ac.uk/10660/1/10660.pdf
Wampler, B. 2000 “A Guide to Participatory Budgeting” in Participatory Budgeting ed. Shah, A. World Bank publication [online] available at: http://siteresources.worldbank.org/PSGLP/Resources/ParticipatoryBudgeting.pdf
Participatory Budgeting ed. Shah, A. World Bank publication [online] available at: http://siteresources.worldbank.org/PSGLP/Resources/ParticipatoryBudgeting.pdf UN Habitat, 2004. 72 Frequently Asked Questions About Participatory Budgeting. Urban Governance Toolkit Series [online] available at: http://www.unhabitat.org/documents/faqqPP.pdfThe Pizza Gio is a new takeaway concept that delivers piping-hot pizzas straight from a vending machine to the customer's mouth. It offers a choice of two "authentic" Italian artisan pizzas that are cooked inside the machine and dispensed in under three minutes. Yesterday, we checked out the debut model at Sydney's Chatswood Westfield shopping centre. Here's how it tasted.
For whatever reason, Australia has never really got behind the whole vending machine craze. While other counties' vending machines spit out everything from smartphones to live bait, we've tended to stick to boring stuff like coffee, soft drinks and lollies.
Pompei's Pizzeria is looking to change all this. Following two years of development, the Bondi-based restaurant rolled out Australia's first pizza vending machine earlier this week. Needless to say, Lifehacker was among the first punters in line.
So how does it work? Customers select between two 11-inch pre-prepared pizzas on the Gio's touch screen menu — margherita or hot salami. They then pay via cash or credit card and wait while the pizza is cooked.
The machine's inbuilt oven hits temperatures of 300 degrees Celcius, which is just shy of optimum pizza-baking levels. However, the pizzas are actually pre-cooked halfway through in Pompei's state-of-the-at ovens prior to entering the machine. After exposing the pizza to around three minutes of extreme heat, it's sliced and dispensed through a dinky vending slot, ready to eat.
Going through the selection process couldn't be simpler, although it's important to know what you want from the beginning; once you've swiped your credit card, the "cancel" button stops working which means you're stuck with whichever pizza you originally clicked on.
The entire process seemed to take slightly longer than the advertised three minutes, although the irresistible novelty factor more than made up for it. We suspect you could be in for a lengthy wait if there's lots of customers in front of you though — unlike a real pizzeria, the Gio can only cook and dispense one pizza at a time. (Fortunately, the machine can hold 84 pizzas at once, so there's little chance of missing out.)
After a handy countdown on the touch screen menu, the customer is presented with a freshly baked pizza as demonstrated in the clip below:
As you can see, the finished product comes served on a foil tray rather than a traditional pizza box. This makes it a bit of a pain in the bum to transport. We're not sure how the Gio could solve this problem — a separate box dispenser, perhaps? — but as it stands, you're pretty much forced to chow down at the point of purchase. Tch, eh?
In terms of taste, the pizza was a lot better than we were expecting. The dough was exceptionally crisp with a hot, doughy centre: it reminded me of a wood-fired pizza restaurant I used to frequent in Dubrovnick, which is pretty impressive for something shat out of a vending machine. The toppings were scant, although this was by design (I ordered the traditional margherita version.)
On the downside, the sauce was a little on the bland side which made me wish I'd plumped for hot salami instead. Also, whatever slicing mechanism the machine uses needs a complete overhaul — it's currently useless. My pizza's base had barely any cuts in it, which forced me to tear hunks off with my hands. This made for a needlessly messy meal.
So is there a future for automated pizzerias in Australia? We remain undecided. Despite arriving at Chatswood Westfield shopping centre just after noon, demand seemed pretty light for the Gio. The machine was attracting high levels of interest from passersby, but most contented themselves with taking a photo for their Instagram or Facebook feed. In fact, I was the only paying customer.
Part of this probably has to do with the asking price — $12 is quite a lot for a single-serve pizza, especially when it's coming out of a vending machine, sight unseen. By contrast, Pizza Hut was selling $4.95 pizzas a few metres away, so why take a gamble? Plus, being in the middle of Westfield's sprawling food court probably isn't doing it any favours. We imagine the Gio would have a lot more success outside pubs or train stations.
If given the opportunity, I'll probably give the Gio vending machine another go, if only to try the hot salami variety. But next time I'm bringing my own pizza slicer.
Score: 7/10The Mercedes W123 is a car you buy if you enjoy the nagging suspicion that everything, including the bits you can’t see, has been screwed together properly. It’s also the car you buy if you enjoy the nagging suspicion that you’re James May.
Yep, this is one of James’ favourite cars in the history of ever: “the W123 E-class is a superbly well-made artefact on a par with some cathedrals…” And that intense, German sort of obsession with permanence tends to attract owners that buy a car for life, which explains why most have similar odometer readings to Space Shuttle Atlantis.
It also explains why the car pictured is so ruddy special. Unlike most diesel-engined W123 saloons - a combination hardy enough to outlast religion, and Jeremy Clarkson - this example has 80km on the clock. Gott in himmel…
The seller claims that the car’s sole owner was a taxi driver with a 250,000-mile 300D. When he found out that Mercedes was replacing the W123 with the W124 he ordered himself a last-of-the-line model W123 in taxi specification to use when his high-miler went bang.
But the 250k W123 didn’t go bang. The owner, now in his eighties and too old to drive, has decided to sell his perfectly preserved taxi, which as just 49.7 miles on the clock.
And what price for such an unusual kink in the Mercedes continuum? £30,046. Which is £921 more expensive than a brand spanking 200 CDI Blue Efficiency…
Click here for the ad
Reckon it’s worth the money - and trip to Hamburg - TopGear.commers?CINCINNATI - On one field outside Paul Brown Stadium during joint practices this week, wide receiver A.J. Green was giving the Giants cornerbacks fits. They were having trouble handling Green's impressive combination of size and speed.
On the adjacent practice field, the Bengals cornerbacks were doing their best to handle Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. They had their troubles.
It was nothing out of the ordinary. There's little doubt Beckham and Green are among the best wide receivers in the games. They're difficult to stop in any 1-on-1 situation. Beckham finished 32nd in the NFL's Top 100 Players and Green was 37th.
But after two straight days of practice against Beckham and years matched against Green in practice, Bengals cornerback Adam Jones didn't think the two were all that comparable at this point of their respective careers.
"[Beckham] likes to compete. He's a good athlete. He's a good player," Jones said after practice on Wednesday. "That is two different receivers."
In what way?
"Every way," Jones added. "He's no A.J."
What does that mean?
"He has a lot of work to do to be A.J."
Beckham didn't disagree with the assessment. Green has more experience and Pro Bowls to his name. He has a longer track record of success.
"Of course," Beckham said. "A.J. has been doing this for four years. He's been consistent for four years. Just find a way to be consistent and hopefully you reach a point where A.J.'s at."
TALK IS CHEAP, Episode 18: Depth chart surprises, joint practices and remembering Frank Gifford
On this week's episode, Joe Giglio, James Kratch and Jordan Raanan talk Giants depth chart surprises, watch to watch for against the Bengals, and thoughts on Frank Gifford's career on and off the field. Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher.
If Beckham produces at the rate he did last year and plays a full 16-game slate, Jones may have to change his tune. Beckham had 91 receptions for 1,305 yards and 12 touchdowns in 12 games during his rookie season. Green had 69 catches for 1,041 yards and six touchdowns in 13 games during an injury-filled 2014, but had reached at least 1,350 yards receiving in each of the previous two seasons.
The two receivers just go about their business in a different way. Green (6-4, 207) is the more physical receiver. Bengals cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick described Beckham's strengths as his quickness, ability to stretch the field and great hands.
"Different style of guy," Kirkpatrick said of the two receivers. "[Beckham] gave me something different off the line. It's always good to work on something different. He's a pretty good receiver. I respect him."
This breakdown comes after the two battled during the joint practices. They each had their moments, although there was one instance where Kirkpatrick thought Beckham was "scared."
Beckham made plays in both practices. He did especially well in 1-on-1 drills against Jones and Kirkpatrick. He even appeared most impressed by what he saw from second-year cornerback Darqueze Dennard.
Even if Beckham is different or not quite as refined as Green, it definitely caught the eye of the Bengals' cornerbacks.
"He uses his tools well. He uses his quickness well. He knows how to get vertical. He knows how to stretch the field on guys," Kirkpatrick said. "He has all the tools to be a great receiver."
Just like A.J. Green.
Jordan Raanan may be reached at jraanan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JordanRaanan. Find NJ.com Giants on Facebook.Get our daily newsletter Upgrade your inbox and get our Daily Dispatch and Editor's Picks.
LIKE so much else under Heaven, repression in China has often seemed to go in cycles. Every now and then it has suited the country's leaders to relax their steely grip on the country and allow a modicum of political liberty.
Freer criticism in the media has helped give the party a veneer of credibility. Lip-service to the law and due process has won plaudits overseas and boosted the economy at home. So a thaw would set in for a while, a “Beijing spring”. A freeze would always follow. But, until lately, in each new cycle the springs were seeming warmer and the freezes not quite so harsh. When the country was starting to liberalise, Westerners justified doing business with China on just such grounds. More economic openness would surely lead to more openness of other kinds.
The latest freeze casts this widespread hope into doubt, for three reasons. The first is the scale of the crackdown. Ai Weiwei, China's best-known artist and dissident, who was detained at Beijing airport on April 3rd, is only the most notable figure to be caught by it. Calls on the internet for a “jasmine revolution” have prompted armed police and plain-clothes goons to descend in huge numbers on public places to stop people from “strolling”, as a veiled form of protest.
Dozens have been detained and now face criminal charges in relation to these inchoate calls. Others have faced different kinds of harassment, including beatings and house arrest. But the freeze runs deeper. Since February some of the country's top defence lawyers have vanished. Activists for villagers' rights and the environment have faced repression. Bloggers have been rounded up. Members of a big underground (ie, non-state) church in Beijing, stopped from meeting in their usual building, were arrested as they tried to worship outside.
A second reason for doubt is the duration of the crackdown. With hindsight, it began after Tibetan riots in 2008 drew a harsh response. Since then, two events, the Beijing Olympics later that year and the Shanghai World Expo of 2010, might have served as coming-out parties for a rising China. They offered the regime the chance to show the world a more confident face. Yet both were accompanied by harsh treatment of anyone deemed likely to embarrass the government. Tens of thousands of unwashed migrant workers were forced out of Beijing for lowering the tone. Outspoken activists were kept out of sight.
Even natural disasters have triggered repression. Mr Ai's first serious run-in with the authorities came when he attempted to account for all the schoolchildren killed during the Sichuan earthquake in 2008, many as a result of corrupt building practices. Taking in all its manifestations, which include tightened internet censorship and a stifling of public debate, the latest crackdown on political dissent certainly constitutes the worst since Tiananmen Square in 1989 and its aftermath.
A third reason to doubt the notion of gradual warming lies in the method of repression. Even the post-Tiananmen crackdown had a semblance of due process. Now such pretence is out of the window. People |
Falcons runs off the field after beating the Carolina Panthers at the Georgia Dome on December 27, 2015 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images) Jun 17, 2015; Atlanta, GA, USA; Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan (2) talks to offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan during minicamp at Falcons Training Facility. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports CHARLOTTE, NC - DECEMBER 13: Matt Ryan #2 of the Atlanta Falcons hands the ball off to Devonta Freeman #24 of the Atlanta Falcons against the Carolina Panthers in the 2nd quarter during their game at Bank of America Stadium on December 13, 2015 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) ATLANTA, GA - NOVEMBER 29: Matt Ryan #2 of the Atlanta Falcons reacts to a play during the second half against the Minnesota Vikings at the Georgia Dome on November 29, 2015 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) Dec 20, 2015; Jacksonville, FL, USA; Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan (2) calls a play against the Jacksonville Jaguars in the third quarter at EverBank Field. The Atlanta Falcons won 23-17. Mandatory Credit: Logan Bowles-USA TODAY Sports ATLANTA, GA - DECEMBER 28: Matt Ryan #2 of the Atlanta Falcons reacts on the bench in the second half against the Carolina Panthers at the Georgia Dome on December 28, 2014 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) ATLANTA, GA - SEPTEMBER 18: Quarterback Matt Ryan #2 of the Atlanta Falcons calls a play against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during a game at the Georgia Dome on September 18, 2014 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
The new offense was not easy. Especially for Ryan.
"When you've done something for seven years- when you've spoken one language for seven years- and you think you feel comfortable with something, you do until you get into a situation you've never been in before," Shanahan said.
It was those situations that Shanahan and Ryan sat down and went over to discover how they could recognize them again in the upcoming season and execute them differently.
Now, with OTAs concluding and minicamps approaching, the offense feels like they are farther along than they were a year ago.
"That's the best part about being in year two of a system, you have some of that experience to fall back on," Ryan said. "When you have a chance at the end of the season and you have a chance to look at what you did well and didn't do well, I think it's been open dialogued since day one and I think it's been really good."
Shanahan met with every guy on his offense. That included receiver Julio Jones who became Shanahan's sole star receiver after the team released Roddy White.
"His biggest thing is communication," Jones said. "We was everywhere last year."
It's never good when quarterbacks are getting told one thing while the receivers are hearing another. But that's exactly what happened leaving guys on the field confused and those off it watching frustrated.
That's why now if anyone on offense speaks to reporters, one of the first words out of his mouth is the word communication.
While everyone is inexperienced in Shanahan's offense, the Falcons did bring in one guy to help with the transition.
Center Alex Mack joined the team in March. He spent time with Shanahan in Cleveland, so he knows the system a little better and can guide the team through its adjustment.
Mack took over for Mike Persons who had never played center nor started a game in the league until last year's season opener. It was a lot for Persons to handle, and Shanahan appreciated the effort, but he needed someone with more experience in the position.
"To get Mack in there, who's done it his entire life, it does help," Shanahan said.
The Falcons go into minicamps Tuesday and work through Thursday before taking some time off before training camp.
With the team having a better understanding of the schemes compared to last year, Ryan will continue to lead the offense to find a consistency it is so desperate to find.
"We feel like as an offense we have and know what we need to do in order to get better."
PHOTOS | Atlanta FalconsWoman's Homophobic Rant Over Last Man Standing's Cancellation Got Her Canned
There has been plenty of news to inspire outrage this week, like Donald Trump’s specious timing of the firing of FBI director James Comey and his sharing of classified information from Israel with Russian officials. While concerned Americans demand he be impeached or at least investigated (a special counsel to investigate was appointed Wednesday), fans of Tim Allen’s Last Man Standing, which ABC canceled last week after six seasons, have begun to resist, threatening to boycott the network if it doesn’t bring it back, and signing a petition for renewal claiming that it was “the only sitcom that is not constantly shoving liberal ideals down the throats of the viewers.” But, hey, it’s good to be passionate about something while the man with his finger on the button shares secrets with foreign governments.
The executive director of the Madison-Rivergate Chamber of Commerce in suburban Nashville, Debbie Odom Massey, was so enraged about the show’s cancellation that she went on a homophobic Facebook rant that went viral. Shortly after blowing off that steam, she was asked to resign, according to The Tennessean. She likely missed the part of the cancellation announcements where ABC also axed The Real O’Neals, the coming-of-age story of a gay Catholic teen and his conservative mom who struggles to evolve.
“I can’t believe that I am supposed to be ok with shows like Grays Anatomy or Nashville or any other show that promotes LGBT blah blah blah.., WHATEVER!” Massey wrote on Facebook. “Cramming same sex making out into our Homes! But I can’t watch MY FAVORITE show!‘Last Man Standing! Talk about discrimination!!
While Massey and the writer of the petition to renew Last Man Standing, a show whose star, Allen, once likened being a conservative in Hollywood to living in 1930s Germany, blame the network executives’ liberalism for the cancellation, ABC Entertainment President Channing Dungey said that the series was canceled for the same business and scheduling reasons The Real O’Neals, The Catch (from Grey’s Anatomy producer Shonda Rhimes), and American Crime (an issues series with incredible diversity) were canceled, according to AV Club.
Still, Massey took the loss of her favorite show personally enough to risk her standing in the community and in her position at the Chamber of Commerce, which promotes diversity in business, so she shouted in partial all caps at the network.
“ABC needs to listen to the majority — not the 2% — Afraid of lawsuit? Maybe we should scream, riot, wine and create law suits against EVERYBODY that doesn’t make us feel good, then we can get our way!!” she wrote. “Last Man Standing also offered the counter viewpoint... it’s not like you didn’t hear the other side. It is obvious they wish to only present their views and only wish to INDOCTRINATE people. We live in a country of FREE speech, if we believe it we should practice it and not support those who suppress it!”
The Change.org petition, which has amassed more than 265,000 signatures, asserts, “Last Man Standing stands out in the sea of network television sitcoms. It is a show that appeals to a broad swath of Americans who find very few shows that extol the virtues with which they can identify; namely conservative values.”
While it truly feels lousy when a favorite show has been canceled, Last Man Standing fans may want to celebrate what a privilege it is for them to be in a position to think that the cancellation of a sitcom constitutes discrimination.By James Petras
A coup has been underway to prevent President-Elect Donald Trump from taking office and fulfilling his campaign promise to improve US-Russia relations. This ‘palace coup’ is not a secret conspiracy, but an open, loud attack on the election.
The coup involves important US elites, who openly intervene on many levels from the street to the current President, from sectors of the intelligence community, billionaire financiers out to the more marginal ‘leftist’ shills of the Democratic Party.
The build-up for the coup is gaining momentum, threatening to eliminate normal constitutional and democratic constraints. This essay describes the brazen, overt coup and the public operatives, mostly members of the outgoing Obama regime.
The second section describes the Trump’s cabinet appointments and the political measures that the President-Elect has adopted to counter the coup. We conclude with an evaluation of the potential political consequences of the attempted coup and Trump’s moves to defend his electoral victory and legitimacy.
The Coup as ‘Process’
In the past few years Latin America has experienced several examples of the seizure of Presidential power by unconstitutional means, which may help illustrate some of the current moves underway in Washington. These are especially interesting since the Obama Administration served as the ‘midwife’ for these ‘regime changes’.
Brazil, Paraguay, Honduras and Haiti experienced coups, in which the elected Presidents were ousted through a series of political interventions orchestrated by economic elites and their political allies in Congress and the Judiciary.
President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton were deeply involved in these operations as part of their established foreign policy of ‘regime change’. Indeed, the ’success’ of the Latin American coups has encouraged sectors of the US elite to attempt to prevent President-elect Trump from taking office in January.
While similarities abound, the on-going coup against Trump in the United States occurs within a very different power configuration of proponents and antagonists.
Firstly, this coup is not against a standing President, but targets an elected president set to take office on January 20, 2017. Secondly, the attempted coup has polarized leading sectors of the political and economic elite. It even exposes a seamy rivalry within the intelligence-security apparatus, with the political appointees heading the CIA involved in the coup and the FBI supporting the incoming President Trump and the constitutional process. Thirdly, the evolving coup is a sequential process, which will build momentum and then escalate very rapidly.
Coup-makers depend on the ‘Big Lie’ as their point of departure – accusing President-Elect Trump of 1) being a Kremlin stooge, attributing his electoral victory to Russian intervention against his Democratic Party opponent, Hillary Clinton and 2) blatant voter fraud in which the Republican Party prevented minority voters from casting their ballot for Secretary Clinton.
The first operatives to emerge in the early stages of the coup included the marginal-left Green Party Presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein, who won less than 1% of the vote, as well as the mass media.
In the wake of her resounding defeat, Candidate Stein usurped authority from the national Green Party and rapidly raked in $8 million dollars in donations from Democratic Party operatives and George Soros-linked NGO’s (many times the amount raised during her Presidential campaign). This dodgy money financed her demand for ballot recounts in selective states in order to challenge Trump’s victory. The recounts failed to change the outcome, but it was a ‘first shot across the bow’, to stop Trump. It became a propaganda focus for the neo-conservative mass media to mobilize several thousand Clintonite and liberal activists.
The purpose was to undermine the legitimacy of Trump’s electoral victory. However, Jill Stein’s $8 million dollar shilling for Secretary Clinton paled before the oncoming avalanche of mass media and NGO propaganda against Trump. Their main claim was that anonymous ‘Russian hackers’ and not the American voters had decided the US Presidential election of November 2016!
The ‘Big Lie’ was repeated and embellished at every opportunity by the print and broadcast media. The ‘experts’ were trotted out voicing vitriolic accusations, but they never presented any facts and documentation of a ‘rigged election’. Everyday, every hour, the ‘Russian Plot’ was breathlessly described in the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Financial Times, CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, BBC, NPR and their overseas followers in Europe, Asia, Latin America, Oceana and Africa. The great American Empire looked increasingly like a ‘banana republic’.
Like the Billionaire Soros-funded ‘Color Revolutions’, from Ukraine, to Georgia and Yugoslavia, the ‘Rainbow Revolt’ against Trump, featured grass-roots NGO activists and ’serious leftists’, like Jill Stein.
The more polished political operatives from the upscale media used their editorial pages to question Trump’s illegitimacy. This established the ground work for even higher level political intervention: The current US Administration, including President Obama, members of the US Congress from both parties, and current and former heads of the CIA jumped into the fray. As the vote recount ploy flopped, they all decided that ‘Vladimir Putin swung the US election!’ It wasn’t just lunatic neo-conservative warmongers who sought to oust Trump and impose Hillary Clinton on the American people, liberals and social democrats were screaming ‘Russian Plot!’ They demanded a formal Congressional investigation of the ‘Russian cyber hacking’ of Hillary’s personal e-mails (where she plotted to cheat her rival ‘Bernie Sanders’ in the primaries). They demanded even tighter economic sanctions against Russia and increased military provocations. The outgoing Democratic Senator and Minority Leader ‘Harry’ Reid wildly accused the FBI of acting as ‘Russian agents’ and hinted at a purge.
The coup intensified as Trump-Putin became synonymous for “betrayal” and “election fraud”.
As this approached a crescendo of media hysteria, President Barack Obama stepped in and called on the CIA to seize domestic control of the investigation of Russian manipulation of the US election – essentially accusing President-Elect Trump of conspiring with the Russian government. Obama refused to reveal any proof of such a broad plot, citing ‘national security’.
President Obama solemnly declared the Trump-Putin conspiracy was a grave threat to American democracy and Western security and freedom. He darkly promised to retaliate against Russia, “…at a time and place of our choosing”.
Obama also pledged to send more US troops to the Middle East and increase arms shipments to the jihadi terrorists in Syria, as well as the Gulf State and Saudi ‘allies’. Coincidentally, the Syrian Government and their Russian allies were poised to drive the US-backed terrorists out of Aleppo – and defeat Obama’s campaign of ‘regime change’ in Syria.
Trump Strikes Back: The Wall Street- Military Alliance
Meanwhile, President-Elect Donald Trump did not crumple under the Clintonite-coup in progress. He prepared a diverse counter-attack to defend his election, relying on elite allies and mass supporters.
Trump denounced the political elements in the CIA, pointing out their previous role in manufacturing the justifications (he used the term ‘lies’) for the invasion of Iraq in 2003. He appointed three retired generals to key Defense and Security positions – indicating a power struggle between the highly politicized CIA and the military. Active and retired members of the US Armed Forces have been key Trump supporters. He announced that he would bring his own security teams and integrate them with the Presidential Secret Service during his administration.
Although Clinton-Obama had the major mass media and a sector of the financial elite who supported the coup, Trump countered by appointing several key Wall Street and corporate billionaires into his cabinet who had their own allied business associations.
One propaganda line for the coup, which relied on certain Zionist organizations and leaders (ADL, George Soros et al), was the bizarre claim that Trump and his supporters were ‘anti-Semites’. This was were countered by Trump’s appointment of powerful Wall Street Zionists like Steven Mnuchin as Treasury Secretary and Gary Cohn (both of Goldman Sachs) to head the National Economic Council. Faced with the Obama-CIA plot to paint Trump as a Russian agent for Vladimir Putin, the President-Elect named security hardliners including past and present military leaders and FBI officials, to key security and intelligence positions.
The Coup: Can it succeed?
In early December, President Obama issued an order for the CIA to ‘complete its investigation’ on the Russian plot and manipulation of the US Presidential election in six weeks – right up to the very day of Trump’s inauguration on January 20, 2017! A concoction of pre-cooked ‘findings’ is already oozing out of secret clandestine CIA archives with the President’s approval. Obama’s last-ditch effort will not change the outcome of the election. Clearly this is designed to poison the diplomatic well and present Trump’s incoming administration as dangerous. Trump’s promise to improve relations with Russia will face enormous resistance in this frothy, breathless hysteria of Russophobia.
Ultimately, President Obama is desperate to secure his legacy, which has consisted of disastrous and criminal imperial wars and military confrontations. He wants to force a continuation of his grotesque policies onto the incoming Trump Administration. Will Trump succumb? The legitimacy of his election and his freedom to make policy will depend on overcoming the Clinton-Obama-neo-con-leftist coup with his own bloc of US military and the powerful Wall Street allies, as well as his mass support among the ‘angry’ American electorate. Trump’s success at thwarting the current ‘Russian ploy’ requires his forming counter alliances with Washington plutocrats, many of whom will oppose any diplomatic agreement with Putin. Trump’s appointment of hardline economic plutocrats who are deeply committed to shredding social programs (public education, Medicare, Social Security) could ignite the anger of his mass supporters by savaging their jobs, health care, pensions and their children’s future.
If Trump defeats the avalanching media, CIA and elite-instigated coup (which interestingly lack support from the military and judiciary), he will have to thank, not only his generals and billionaire-buddies, but also his downwardly mobile mass supporters (Hillary Clinton’s detested ‘basket of deplorables’). He embarked on a major series of ‘victory tours’ around the country to thank his supporters among the military, workers, women and small business people and call on them to defend his election to the presidency. He will have to fulfill some of his promises to the masses or face ‘the real fire’, not from Clintonite shills and war-mongers, but from the very people who voted for him.openSUSE 13.2 RC1 is baked and ready to serve!. This previous Beta release was a blast with almost 10.000 downloads. The community responded to the call and we had lot of eyes looking for bugs in openSUSE 13.2 Beta1. Many of them have been already squashed and openSUSE 13.2 Release Candidate 1 is here to prove it.
But don’t fear the boredness, there are more things to test and enjoy than just bugfixes, the release candidate also brings an important updates to the desktop experience. This release includes GNOME 3.14, which brings new animations, better handling of WiFi hotspots, improvements in some applications like Weather and Photos and much more. Another highlight is the brand new Firefox 32, with new HTTP cache for improved performance and public key pinning support. The KDE applications have been updated from version 4.14.0 to 4.14.1 and Plymouth (from 0.8.8 to 0.9.0) should also help to boost stability and to smooth the end user experience.
So if you missed the Beta but still want to help, don’t hesitate to grab one of the available ISOs. If you are already using openSUSE 13.2 Beta, it’s time to update! In either case, make sure to give GNOME a try and report any found bug. It’s the biggest change and we need as many geekos as possible trying to break it in creative ways.
With less than a month from the release of 13.2 the only thing that last to be said is:The Beijing wildlife park whose tigers killed one woman and injured another was not to blame for their deaths, an official investigation had concluded.
The tourists ignored park rules and clear warning signs when one of them alighted from their car in an area that contained ten free-roaming Siberian tigers, the investigation by Beijing's Yanqing district government found.
The attack took place at Badaling Wildlife World on July 23, when a woman in her thirties opened the car's passenger door, calmly walked around the vehicle and stood outside the door on the driver's side. A tiger crept up, swatted her and dragged her off.
The husband of the 32-year-old woman leapt out of the car in pursuit, as did the woman's 57-year-old mother. She tried to hit the tiger but was attacked by two other tigers and mauled to death.
The tourists should not have left the car, the report found.
The park allows visitors to drive their own cars safari-style through an area where the animals roam free. But signs, pamphlets and oral instructions tell them to stay in their vehicles.
The wife suffered severe injuries while her mother was killed. Zhao's husband and the couple's two-year-old child, who was in the car at the time, escaped injury.
But the report also noted some problems with the park's emergency response training and urged it to find "innovative" ways of reminding tourists to pay attention to safety.
Park personnel spent nearly 15 minutes shepherding the 10 tigers into their pens before rescuers reached the mauled women, it said.
Badaling's tigers have killed before, with a security guard mauled to death in August 2014.
Read more: Woman killed by tiger at Chinese wildlife park
© AFP 2019bridge house/studio
broadway loft
holley house
ash 4 ways/white space
see-thru house
holley loft
white's hill road
sagaponac house
glaser residence
singer residence
delmonico/washburn
hudson river house
inside out house
project: Bridge-Studio location: Easton, PA size: 1,200 s.f. date: construction begins July 2006 Bridge-Studio is a new artist studio building in Easton, Pennsylvania, designed for a couple who are both artists and gallery owners in New York City. Bridge-Studio houses a painting studio for the husband on the east side, and a writing studio on the west side. An open air breezeway runs through the center of Bridge-Studio, connecting back to the site with an entry ramp to the north. Bridge-Studio is entered by walking up the entry ramp, into the open breezeway overlooking the Delaware River, approximately 120 feet below the site. The breezeway fireplace hearth houses a flue for a fireplace in the breezeway, in the writing studio, and a third fireplace in the outdoor area below the deck. In addition to producing their own bodies of work, the clients own a prominent gallery in Williamsburg, New York, and a gallery/ event space, also in Williamsburg. The clients regularly entertain artists and clients from their New York gallery at their home in Pennsylvania. The couple’s desire for an appropriate setting to entertain artist friends created part of the program for the Bridge-Studio. The architects designed Bridge-Studio as a kit-of-parts, as the studio is being built by the husband, and has been in construction since 2005. The project is nearly complete. The insulation and the underside of the roof needs to be installed, as well as the insulation and the underside of the deck below. All exterior/ interior walls need to be insulated and sheet-rocked. The fireplace hearth is built, and the client has partially installed the exterior stone sheathing. The final construction will include installation of balcony and ramp rails, as required for inspection for the certificate of occupancy. This project is in two parts, as the architects designed the building as a kit-of-parts, and have proposed the building as a proto-type for other settings, internationally. The plans for the building have been sent to clients in other cities, and are available for free through the architects’ website. Plans are also available through the clients’ gallery.
Construction Progress Photographs:
back to topThere are several issues this week that have really ticked me off, so I’m going to get them off my chest.
Say what you will about Donald Trump, but he’s outlasted, outwitted and outplayed all other GOP presidential candidates. And he’s just about wrapped up the delegate count to become the official GOP nominee.
So does being the presumptive Republican nominee deserve a tongue lashing from the present prime minister of England, America’s closest European ally?
Prime Minister David Cameron called Trump “divisive, stupid and wrong,” and then he doubled down on his comments.
Isn’t it ironic that Prime Minister Cameron of Great Britain can criticize Donald Trump, but we never heard a word from the PM when Obama sent the bust of Winston Churchill back to Great Britain that had been sitting in the Oval Office for many years? (I realize there’s a second Churchill bust in the White House that was given to President Johnson in 1965, but the Obama administration was “forced to admit that it did return a bust of Sir Winston Churchill to British diplomats [which was originally given to former President G.W. Bush] after describing such claims as ‘100 percent false,'” according to the U.K. Telegraph.)
Moreover, in April, when Obama visited England and threatened that Britain would go “to the back of the queue” and would not be able to strike a trade deal with America “any time soon” if it leaves the European Union, Prime Minister Cameron barely balked at the U.S. president’s words.
In addition, in March, when Obama criticized Prime Minister Cameron for being a “free rider” and “distracted by domestic priorities as Libya descended into a ‘mess,'” Cameron said nothing in defense or rebuttal to Obama.
But the prime minister is willing to call Trump “divisive, stupid and wrong” because he’s trying to protect America from jihadists?
Chuck Norris provides real solutions to our county’s problems and a way to reawaken the American dream in his best-seller, “Black Belt Patriotism.”
Speaking of divisive, stupid and wrong, here’s the second thing that ticked me off this past week: Obama’s speech at Rutgers University was about the lowest I’ve seen a president go.
I have to say his speech was about as immature as you can get. I know Obama is only in his early 50s, but is his speechwriter a teenager?
An exiting Democrat president may not like the field of opposing GOP candidates, but how tacky and inappropriate is it for him to sarcastically attack the presumptive GOP nominee in front of hundreds of students?
Obama slammed Trump at Rutgers University, calling him “anti-intellectual,” “ignorant” and an “isolationist.”
The president criticized Trump’s platform as “a betrayal of American ideas and who we are” and that the students should take his message “with a grain of salt.” He also said Trump’s ideas boil down to “stop trading with other countries” and “pull up the drawbridge and try to keep the world out.”
Obama repeatedly said that “building walls won’t change that … won’t stop that. … It won’t boost our economy, and it won’t enhance our security, either.”
He added that Trump’s ideas “would alienate the very communities at home and abroad who are our most important partners in the fight against violent extremism.”
The president concluded about Trump: “In politics and in life, ignorance is not a virtue. It’s not cool to not know what you’re talking about. That’s not keeping it real, or telling it like it is. That’s not challenging political correctness. That’s just not knowing what you’re talking about.”
So, who died and made Obama Einstein?
Opponents criticize Trump for not acting presidential enough, all the while Obama created and perpetuates the presidential code to demean, disdain and diminish others in light of esteeming himself. He has singlehandedly denigrated and devalued the highest office in the land. In fact, Obama was “very presidential” when he ran for office eight years ago. How has that turned out?
Another episode from the “Political Days of Our Lives” that just chapped my hide this week was when Hillary talked about appointing Bill to oversee the economic problems of the country.
What?!
During a speech in Kentucky last Sunday, Hillary called upon “my husband, whom I will put in charge of revitalizing the economy ’cause he knows what he’s doing.”
And what exactly will that leave Hillary doing if she is president? I wonder, does she play golf like Obama? We all know that is what he did most of his past eight years in office.
Even Obama top adviser David Axelrod posted on his Twitter that it was “ill advised” to make Bill economic “czar,” since voters expect the president to lead on critical issues like building up the economy.
Trump was right in rebutting Hillary by saying, “How can Crooked Hillary put her husband in charge of the economy when he was responsible for NAFTA, the worst economic deal in U.S. history?”
We all knew that Hillary would eventually pitch the two-for-one deal in her presidential sale, but so blatantly? Her inclusion of Bill seems as desperate as Ted Cruz calling Carly Fiorina as his vice president in the last breaths of his GOP presidential primary bid.
Finally, it is time for the Republican Party to get its act together and unify. GOP leaders need to let go of their ego factions and come together with one primary goal in mind: keeping “Billary” from getting back into the Oval Office.
President Abraham Lincoln – citing Jesus – spoke this truth about our pre-Civil War fractured nation: “A housed divided against itself cannot stand.”
Let me conclude giving you the greater context of that quote in Lincoln’s speech. It should be read again and again, and then used for a challenge during the National Republican Convention this summer, because it’s as true for this pre-election moment as it was right before the Civil War: “I expressed this belief a year ago; and subsequent developments have but confirmed me. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved. I do not expect the house to fall; but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other.”
Chuck Norris provides real solutions to our county’s problems and a way to reawaken the American dream in his best-seller, “Black Belt Patriotism.”New HealthCare.gov data show just how broken it is.
Simulated smoke rises at the White House on Halloween. (Photo: Mark Wilson, Getty Images) Story Highlights Only a fifth of people expected to sign up in the first month actually did.
The deadline for signing up for insurance that begins Jan. 1 is Dec. 15.
That's frightening for two reasons.
The health insurance signup numbers the White House released Wednesday afternoon were deeply disappointing, though not particularly surprising.
Everyone knows that the HealthCare.gov website has been performing abysmally, and the actual numbers confirmed what everyone could only guess at until now because the White House had withheld the data.
Overall, only about one-fifth of the people the White House expected to sign up for insurance in the first month actually did so: 106,185 against a forecast of 500,000. That's just slightly less than a capacity crowd at Penn State's Beaver Stadium. And of those who signed up, only 26,794 did so on the federally run exchanges in 36 states. The rest enrolled on state-run exchanges.
The White House was pre-spinning the numbers weeks ago, as soon as it was clear that the website, which it had three-and-a-half years to make ready, was dysfunctional. Aides also pointed out that Massachusetts had similarly low sign-up rates when it first rolled out its universal health coverage plan. True, it's human nature to wait until the last minute to do something, especially when that something involves paying money. And the number of people visiting the online marketplaces (26.9 million) does show potentially strong demand for the policies being offered.
But when the White House isn't cluelessly advising people whose health insurance policies are being canceled to go shop at its barely functional website, it's acting as if there's plenty of time for people to sign up because the open enrollment period doesn't end until March 31. Tell that to millions of would-be enrollees who don't have the luxury of waiting that long because their insurance expires at the end of this year.
Administration troubleshooter Jeffrey Zients promised the website would be working smoothly for most users by the end of this month. Even if the exchanges begin to work well by then -- a big if -- that will leave people whose insurance policies run out at the end of the year little time to sign up for insurance that kicks in on New Year's Day. The deadline for signing up for insurance that begins Jan. 1 is Dec. 15.
That's frightening for two reasons. One is that the White House has next to no credibility left when it comes to promises about its website. The other is that the administration's disastrous incompetence is panicking Democrats, emboldening Republicans and threatening to unravel health reform.
That would be a sickening outcome, but with each passing day, there is more to do and less time to do it.
USA TODAY's editorial opinions are decided by its Editorial Board, separate from the news staff. Most editorials are coupled with an opposing view — a unique USA TODAY feature.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1hGYAWzThe Pirate Bay plans to offer encryption services to people who use the BitTorrent tracker site in a direct attempt to combat a new controversial snoop law passed in Sweden last week.
Peter Sunde, who is one of the men behind the notorious tracker site, said in a blog post yesterday:
"Many people have asked me what we’re planning to do – and the answer is ‘A lot!’. We’re going to help out in any way we can with fighting the law,” he said. “This week we’re going to add SSL to The Pirate Bay. We’re also going to help out making a website about easy encryption – both for your hard drives and your net traffic.”
Sunde said that The Pirate Bay also plans to lower the price for a system that runs VPN-tunnels and that it will be opened up for international use too.
He also called for ISPs to boycott Sweden. “More stuff is planned - together with other people that work against the law we’ve talked about asking the international ISPs to block traffic to Sweden,” Sunde said.
“Yes, that’s right! We want Sweden to be banned from the internet. The ISPs need to block Sweden in order to protect their own customers integrity since everything they do on Swedish ISPs networks will be logged and searched.”
The Pirate Bay, which isn’t located in Sweden, hopes that wrapping SSL security around its site will add a layer of protection for anxious Swedes worried about having their internet activities snooped on.
Sweden’s parliament ushered in its contentious wiretapping law last Thursday after the proposal was amended earlier that day.
Under the new law, all communication across Swedish borders will be tapped, and information can also be traded with international security agencies, such as America's National Security Agency.
On Friday Sweden's Pirate Party, which strongly defends the BitTorrent site, said it will take Sweden to the European Court of Human Rights because the law is a clear breach of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. ®A Halo 5: Guardians promotional blitz kicked off on Tuesday, ahead of next week's Electronic Entertainment Expo, with a massive cover story in the latest issue of Game Informer Magazine. In addition to a slew of single-player campaign details and even some spoilers, the feature revealed something rarely seen in a modern console shooting game: a huge swath of free multiplayer content.
As revealed by NeoGAF user shinobi602 ahead of the article's launch—and confirmed by an article screengrab—Halo 5's multiplayer modes will include "over 20 maps" when the game launches on October 27, and developer 343 Studios will make "over 15" more maps available as free DLC "by July 2016." What's more, friends who want to team up and play the game's online co-op campaign won't need an Xbox Live Gold subscription to do so (though apparently, versus multiplayer modes will still require Gold accounts). (Update: Turns out, Halo's producers misspoke to Game Informer regarding free online co-op; that will not be coming to the retail game after all, according to a Wednesday update at the game's official blog.)
"We talked a lot about the problem of dividing the player base," 343 executive producer Josh Holmes said in an interview with Game Informer. He mentioned that prior DLC packs split the player base between "the haves and the have-nots," and he said the free-DLC decision would be "really important to having a great multiplayer ecosystem."
The feature also confirmed many details about the game's campaign portion, including switching off between Master Chief and new protagonist Locke, Chief's co-op squadmates, and squad commands assigned to the Xbox controller's D-pad. The digital issue's teaser video flashed an image of Firefly actor Nathan Fillion once again reprising his Halo 3 ODST character Edward Buck, while the feature teased "a completely new, epic multiplayer experience" that will purportedly include "all aspects of the Halo sandbox for the first time ever," and that mode will be revealed next week at E3. Ars Technica is slated to try that mode out during E3, and we'll report back with impressions next week.Oracle has hit out at IBM and Red Hat Middleware for their continued opposition to its proposed plan to make Java modular.
IBM has suggested it will vote against the JPMS JSR that Reinhold leads – JSR 376. The result for the Community vote on JPMS is due to be announced on June 8.
Mark Reinhold, Oracle’s Java Platform chief, called IBM’s position on the Java 9 Module System (JPMS) "disappointing", "surprising" and a threat to Java.
A vote against the JSR, he warned here, would delay completion of the next version of Java and be a “vote against the Java Community Process itself.”
IBM’s JPMS member Tim Ellison had come out against JPMS in its current incarnation, saying the proposal was not ready and lacked group consensus. “While I understand the desire to keep the process moving along, I believe there is a value in listening to the collective wisdom of the EG and respecting their opinion,” Ellison wrote on JPMS thread here, adding: “Multiple EG members have said we are not ready yet.”
However, it seems as far as Reinhold is concerned, consensus cannot be achieved because Red Hat has voiced strong concerns over JPMS.
“The Process does not mandate consensus, and for good reason,” he wrote. "It intentionally gives Specification Leads broad decision powers, precisely to prevent EG members from obstructing progress in order to defend their narrow interests.
“If you take away that authority then you doom future JSRs to the consensus of self-serving ‘experts’,” he added.
“Many failed technologies have been designed in exactly that way.”
Red Hat’s EC member Scott Stark outlined his concerns with JPMS here. Boiled down, Stark fears that, if implemented, the JSR |
prostitution sting in Oklahoma City.
Now, thanks to a probable cause affidavit we obtained from the Video Vigilante, we’ve learned that Parker’s alleged pimp/boyfriend is ex-OU football player L.J. Moore. He’s a former 4-star cornerback recruit from California who signed with the Sooners in 2013, played sparingly, and then left the program in 2014. Based on this arrest, we can only assume that his next stop will be with the Dallas Cowboys.
Zing!
Here’s the probable cause affidavit:
I don’t know about you, but this makes me sad. You had two young people with a bunch of talent throw it all away (probably) due to drugs.
That being said, it also makes miss the Barry Switzer era at OU! Seriously, things like this were a regular occurrence back when he was coach. In fact, I think Bootlegger’s Boy had three chapters dedicated to football players pimpin’ out cheerleaders. Or was that The Boz? Who knows? Either way, I think Bob Stoops should embrace all this and bring back the wishbone. It’s time to make OU football great again.In my last post I promised to catch up on some of the other research that has been published on the flow of MRSA (and other resistant organisms) between farm animals and farm workers as a result of farm antibiotic use.
Before I do that, though, I want to nod toward two other great pieces published on this. First, Mark Bittman examined this issue closely at the New York Times. And Clare Leschin-Hoar also covered the new research at Take Part. (Bonus: Don't miss her dissection of the news that a National Geographic photographer was arrested in Kansas after taking pictures of a feedlot — from the air.)
Next, I promised I'd revisit the paper by Tara Smith and group on antibiotic-resistant bacteria on farms and in farm personnel. This research was published in May, but it has been a long time coming. Now that it is out, it is an important addition to the still-sparse literature on livestock MRSA and the influence of farm antibiotic use on antibiotic resistance. (If that idea is new to you, start here.)
As a reminder, Smith and her colleagues were the first to identify livestock MRSA, or MRSA ST398 for short, in pigs and pig-farm workers in the United States, after it had already been identified broadly in the European Union and also in Canada. That first study in 2009 was small and they wanted to do a larger one. Here from their abstract is what they looked for and found:
We collected nasal swabs from pigs and farm workers at 45 swine herds (21 antibiotic-free herds; 24 conventional herds) in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, North Carolina and Ohio. MRSA was isolated from 50 of 1085 pigs (4.6%) and 31 of 148 (20.9%) of farm workers. MRSA-positive pigs and people were clustered in four conventional swine farms in Iowa and Illinois. Based on genotyping, spa type t034, a common livestock associated variant, was predominant among both human and swine isolates. These results confirm the presence of LA-MRSA in pigs and swine farm workers in the USA, but the prevalence found is relatively low compared with European studies.
As I mentioned in my last post, that staph or MRSA would be found in farm workers is not unusual: roughly one-third of the population carries staph in their nostrils at any time, without experiencing an infection, and about 4 percent of the population carries MRSA, drug-resistant staph. The question has been, how common is MRSA ST398, a strain of drug-resistant staph that can be linked back to farm drug use by its specific resistance signature? The answer is important, not just because it reveals a specific potential human health risk, but also because it helps to fill in the still-disputed question of how much farm-drug use contributes to the increase in antibiotic resistance overall. The table to the right, from Smith's paper, answers the question for the group of farm workers they took samples from: Out of 31 people in the group who carried some strain of MRSA, 21 were carrying the livestock strain.
Those workers were in Iowa and Illinois, and one was in Ohio; and the previous work Smith and colleagues did found livestock MRSA in Iowa as well. That makes North Carolina, discussed in my last post, the fourth state in which livestock MRSA has been found in farm workers. Livestock MRSA has now been found in pigs in those states, and Minnesota, South Dakota and Connecticut.
As I mentioned, livestock MRSA has a specific genetic signature – resistance to tetracycline – that has been interpreted to be the result of tetracycline use in swine-raising. (Tetracycline resistance is unusual in human MRSA because tetracycline isn't commonly prescribed for the infection. When it appears, it may be because the gene for tetracycline resistance has traveled into the bacterium as part of a set of genes conferring resistance to several antibiotics at once.) There is an interesting discussion in Smith's paper of whether on-farm antibiotic use is in fact responsible, or whether other factors are influencing the staph strains; but it is complex enough to leave for another post.
Meanwhile: that antibiotic use on farms causes the emergence of antibiotic resistance is supposed to be settled science at this point. On the basis of that assumption, governments in Europe have banned the use of certain drug types and formulas in farming, and for decades, researchers in the US have been pressing this government to do the same. (Unsuccessfully, so far – which is why Rep. Louise Slaughter of New York keeps introducing PAMTA, the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act.)
But a piece in the new BMJ captures that for many people, notably in agriculture and veterinary pharma, the question isn't settled at all. The colloquy between physician David Wallinga and veterinarian David G.S. Burch, titled "Does adding routine antibiotics to animal feed pose a serious risk to human health?" does a great job of capturing how far apart the two sides remain. The colloquy is open access and I urge you to read it. Quick excerpts that capture the two authors' points of view:
Wallinga: "Routine antibiotics are not necessary for animal health. Pasture based production was the norm before antibiotics. Industrial style meat production, in which animals are confined in close quarters and fattened on soy and maize based feeds, also is possible without routine antibiotics... Almost every European and North American public health authority agrees: routine antibiotic use in animal food production likely worsens the epidemic of resistance." Burch: "Given that the critical antimicrobials in human medicine are not used in animal feed, that regulatory authorities conduct thorough assessments of the risk of resistance from use of antimicrobial substances, and that the environmental effect and the effects of residues in edible tissues are also assessed, it is highly unlikely that adding antibiotics to feed poses a serious risk to humans, especially compared with the extensive use of antibiotics directly in humans."
I urge you to read the whole thing.Demonstrators flooded the streets of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip on Monday to mark the anniversary of the Nakba, or the dispersal of 700,000 Palestinians amid Israel's establishment.
The Palestinian government gave staff in Ramallah the day off to participate in the rally, which began at the grave of long-time Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and ended at the downtown Arafat Square, where there will be speeches and nationalist music.
The war that broke out in 1948 when Israel declared statehood and neighboring Arab states invaded is remembered every year on May 15 by Palestinians as Nakba Day. Nakba means catastrophe in Arabic.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were expelled from their villages during the war.
Nearly seven decades on, their number has swelled to more than 5.3 million registered refugees, who live in United Nations-run camps scattered throughout the region - 27 in the West Bank and Gaza, 12 in Lebanon, 10 in Jordan and nine in Syria.
In Ramallah, sirens sounded for 69 seconds at noon as residents stood in remembrance.
In Gaza on Monday, protesters carried signs with the names of the villages they had left as well as calls for a legitimate right of return. In addition to staging rallies, the Hamas movement also set up a "Tent of Palestinian Heritage" in downtown Gaza City that showed items such as dresses and guns that were typical before 1948.
"The land is ours, Jerusalem is ours and Palestine is ours," said Hamas official Hani Islayim at an earlier march on Saturday.
The Israeli army was taking extra security precautions in the West Bank, particularly in riot-prone areas, despite relative quiet in the region in the last two years, said a spokeswoman in a statement.
Nayeh Hamdan has never been to Lod - or as he calls it, Lydda. Yet the 22-year-old college student wants nothing more than to one day see the city in central Israel where his family hail from.
"My grandparents became refugees and they died," he told dpa.
The desire to go back has been passed down the generations to Hamdan and his siblings and "we will pass it on to our children until one of us returns to our ancestral home and land," he added.
Hamdan now lives in the Amari refugee camp in the West Bank city of Ramallah, the descendent of one of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who were forced to flee their homes 69 years ago.
Hamdan has never gone to Lod, which was known as Lydda before being resettled predominantly by Jews, because getting a permit to enter Israel is hard for young Palestinians, particularly refugees.
Many Palestinian families still hold on to the keys to their old homes, a symbol of their will to return, though there is no telling when or if that will ever happen.
"It was our fault we left, because we didn't know what we do now," said Hassan Raddi, from the al-Shati refugee camp in western Gaza.
Raddi says he was 15 when he and his family left al-Jora, near what is now the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon.
"We reacted to fears created by Jewish propaganda" in deciding to leave, he said.
Ola Awad, president of the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), tried to sum up in a report what Nakba signifies to him.
"Nakba, in literary terms, means a natural catastrophe such as an earthquake, volcano, or hurricane," he wrote.
"However, the Nakba in Palestine describes a process of ethnic cleansing in which an unarmed nation was destroyed and its population displaced to be replaced systematically by another nation."
Israel rejects the return of all refugees and their descendants to its own territory. Instead, it wants a future Palestinian state to absorb the vast majority. However, nearly all refugees are adamant that they will not accept compensation for their homes.
"We will never forget or forgive," said Hamdan, the student from the refugee camp in Ramallah.
"When I go to Lydda, I am going to be ready to live there and not only to visit it."The law will come into force in November 2017.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law banning the use of means to bypass blockings for access to prohibited sites - anonymizers, VPN-services and other methods. The document was published on Sunday on the official Internet portal of legal information. Anonymizers will have to disclose information about their owners to Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor), which acquires additional powers.
The procedure for identifying information resources for the purpose of taking measures to restrict access to them, the requirements for the methods of such restriction, as well as the information about the restriction placed, are determined by Roskomnadzor, the law says.
Owners of anonymizers are not allowed to provide the possibility of using their networks on the territory of the Russian Federation. In case if the owner of the anonymizer does not perform the duties prescribed by law, Roskomnadzor decides to restrict access to the service itself. And the law obliges law-abiding owners to send a notice to Roskomnadzor.
The operator of the search system, which distributes advertising on the Internet, which is aimed at attracting the attention of consumers located on the territory of the Russian Federation, should also register.
In order to counteract the use of anonymizers on the territory of the Russian Federation, Roskomnadzor creates a federal state register of information resources, information and telecommunications networks, access to which is restricted in the territory of the Russian Federation. In addition, as noted by Interfax, Roskomnadzor determines the hosting provider or other person providing anonymizers in the Internet on the basis of a request from the federal executive body.
The law also repeals the bloggers' register, which has lost its relevance. In particular, the amendment adopted in 2014 to amend the law "On the organizers of the dissemination of information," which required their registration.
The new ban will come into force in November 2017.Carlos Tevez's pay slip leaked
Cap e Town - While you may be under the impression that millionaire footballers have their wages delivered in wheelbarrows full of gold bullion, several of them actually receive their remuneration via bank transfer.
According to the Yahoo! Eurosport website, one such man is Carlos Tevez, 28, who is the apparent owner of a pay slip that leaked on Twitter on Sunday.
Assuming the document is genuine, it tells us that the Argentinian earned a gross wage of £720 287 in March 2010, with an additional bonus of £20 000 for accommodation and a £7 000 "M.P. Bonus".
It also reveals that the City striker's net £408 397.27 earnings were hit by a £24 fine from the FA.
In the tax year 2009/10, the pay slip states Tevez was paid just under £8m, but handed over nearly £3.3m in tax and national insurance.
Tevez played for West Ham from 2006-2007 before joining Manchester United from 2007-2009 where he made 63 appearances and scored 19 goals. Tevez then joined Manchester City in 2009 and has made 92 appearances to date for the reigning English Premiership champions, scoring 54 goals in the process.
Former Liverpool star John Arne Riise also had his pay slip end up on the Internet in 2008.
Sport24'Nothing bad will happen to him when he returns. That’s a guarantee,' says the PNP chief
Published 9:30 PM, November 14, 2016
MANILA, Philippines – Barring last-minute changes, alleged Eastern Visayas drug lord Kerwin Espinosa is expected to be back in the country by Thursday, November 17.
Espinosa is the son of the late Albuera mayor Rolando Epinosa Sr., who was killed inside a Leyte sub-provincial jail after he supposed shot police who were trying to serve a search warrant against him. Kerwin was arrested in mid-October by Abu Dhabi police with the help of Philippine National Police (PNP) officials.
He has been detained in Abu Dhabi pending the completion of the deportation process.
During a press conference on Monday, November 14, PNP chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa confirmed that several senior police officials were already on route to Abu Dhabi. Quoting Anti-Illegal Drugs Group (AIDG) chief Senior Superintendent Albert Ferro, Dela Rosa said the younger Espinosa is expected by Thursday.
“If you want, you can greet him at the airport. You can do there. And I assure you, he won’t die,” said the police chief.
The late Albuera mayor was the first local chief executive to “surrender” to police after getting a warning from no less than President Rodrigo Duterte.
In August, Duterte called on the two Espinosas to surrender following a police operation that seized millions in illegal drugs from a tennis court near their house. Duterte said that if the two resisted their warrantless arrest, a “shoot on sight” order had been issued to police.
Following his “surrender,” Mayor Espinosa began cooperating with the police and was even placed under the protective custody of the Albuera town police chief before he was arrested and moved to the sub-provincial jail in Leyte.
On November 5, he was gunned down during a police operation that is now marred with doubts over its legitimacy. (READ: Senate probe: Poorly-written script in Espinosa killing?)
Before he was arrested, the older Espinosa executed at least two affidavits wherein he listed down at least 50 people who supposedly received “protection money” from Kerwin. Most of the information in the affidavit, however, were based on things Kerwin had told his father.
Albuera police have already filed cases against several personalities named in those affidavits.
“We will do the normal procedure but we will no longer bring him to the issuing court in Leyte. [Kerwin] will stay in Camp Crame and we’ll ask the permission of the court that he stay here. We’ll return the warrant and we’ll ask the Justice Department about keeping Kerwin safe,” said Dela Rosa.
Dela Rosa, for the second time since August, promised he would keep an Espinosa safe. – Rappler.comSourcetrail 0.12 brings a few long awaited features. We finally generate whole call graphs, inheritance chains and include trees in our graph view. It’s now possible to create and manage bookmarks for nodes and edges. We switched our indexer to a multi-process architecture to better handle issues during indexing and offer Java project setup from Maven.
You can download Release 0.12 here. The full changelog is available here. We will outline a few features new to this release below and give a roadmap towards our official 1.0 release at the end.
Generating the call graph of the function io::numberIn from our TicTacToe sample project.
New in this Release:
Bookmarking for nodes and edges
Call graphs, inheritance chains and include trees
Multi process indexing for C/C++
Java project setup from Maven
Bookmarking of Nodes and Edges
Bookmarking was a highly demanded feature by our current users. We decided to design the user experience similar to that of modern web browsers. But instead of webpages you can bookmark nodes and edges. The bookmark information gets stored in the.srctrlbm file next to your.srctrlprj file. We decided to use a separate file so it can be ignored from version control when sharing your project setup among the team.
Create a new bookmark by specifying name, comment and category.
You can create a bookmark for the currently active node or edge by:
clicking the star icon in the search bar
using the Bookmarks menu action
using the shortcut
choosing “Bookmark Node” from the context menu in the graph.
Bookmarks can have a custom name and a comment. By specifying a category you can also group them together.
Use the bookmark manager to view, activate and edit your bookmarks.
Use the Bookmark Manager to view, activate and edit your current bookmarks. Bookmarks are activated when clicking on their name. The visibility of the comment can be toggled separately. Additionally you can also collapse whole bookmark categories. If a bookmark has no category it will be placed in category default.
Call graphs, inheritance chains and include trees
Yes, we finally offer visualization of whole call graphs and inheritance chains! Some users were wondering why this obvious feature was not present right from the start. The reason is, that although it can be very powerful and supportive, it also has it’s limits. Especially call graphs can grow to an incomprehensible size. That’s why we still stick to our tested one level of dependency graph visualiation by default, but also offer generating call graphs, inheritance chains and include trees via a little toolbar in the top left corner of the graph view now.
Call graph of the function io::stringOut from our TicTacToe sample project with the toolbar in the top left.
The toolbar can be collapsed by clicking the arrow at the top. The two buttons with the graph icon are used to generate the graph in a certain direction of dependency. The type of the graph depends on your currently active symbol. The slider at the bottom is used to set the maximum depth level. Moving the slider to the top will result in an infinite depth level, meaning you can see all dependent symbols (Warning: This can result in huge graphs with thousands of nodes and edges.)
Inheritance chain of the class LiteralExpr from our JavaParser sample project.
The layout of the graphs are computed with a Sugiyama-style graph drawing algorithm. Instead of our usual tilted edge style, we decided to use bezier curves for these graphs to better show, which dependencies exist between the nodes and to make it easier to follow them. When hovering a node, all connected edges will be highlighted as well. Clicking a node will activate it and switch back to our usual graph layout. Clicking an edge will show it’s source location in the code view.
Include tree of the file field.h from our TicTacToe sample project.
The current implementation offers the generation of call graphs, inheritance chains and include trees. A planned addition for the future is generating graphs between two specific points, e.g. to inspect all ways in which one function causes another one to be called. We might also extend this feature to allow for specifying custom node and edge types.
Multi process indexing for C/C++
When trying to setup a new C/C++ project some of our users experienced exceptions and crashes during indexing, which in most cases resulted in a crash of the whole application. In most cases these crashes were happening during parsing within clang libTooling, because the project was not configured properly e.g. missing flags, using the wrong standard, containing some non-standard C/C++ code or not specifying the correct target platform.
In our previous multi-threaded architecture we couldn’t deal with those issues, since the process just terminated right away. The only way of solving this problem for real, was switching to a multi-process model, where we use separate processes instead of threads.
The MacOS Activity Monitor shows the separate indexer processes during indexing.
Multi-process indexing is now the default method for C/C++ projects. It can be disabled in the preferences by unchecking Multi process C/C++ indexing. The processes exchange data via shared memory, a garbage collector is taking care of memory that is not properly released. Overall the performance penalty for this change was lower than we expected, only around 1-3% in our measurements.
Java project setup from Maven
This was another highly demanded feature by our Java users. We now offer Java project setup from Maven. This feature was already available in our recent maintenance release together with our name switch. We also wrote about our experiences on integrating Maven in this blog post, in case you are ever interested in doing something similar.
New Java project setup option Maven on the left, choosing the pom.xml file on the right.
When creating a Java project from Maven you first need to choose the new option in our project type selection. After entering project name and location you just need to specify where the top-level pom.xml file of your project is located and that’s pretty much it.
Roadmap
This is the last release before Sourcetrail 1.0. There are just a few things left on our schedule now:
Multi language project setup
Better access to active symbol history
More information in tooltips
As many performance improvements as we find time to
Thanks for reading and please share if you like our progress! And don’t forget to download the new build.
Follow us: mail - Twitter - Facebook - Google+Donna Wold could never have known when she broke up with her boyfriend 65 years ago that her doing so would leave a mark on popular culture that would be remembered long after her passing.
But it was Wold, who passed away on August 9, who accepted a marriage proposal from firefighter Allan Wold, breaking off her two-year relationship with cartoonist Charles Schulz just before Schulz's masterpiece, the comic strip Peanuts, started syndication.
Even though it was more than a decade later that Schulz introduced the anonymous, red-haired object of Charlie Brown's affection, Wold would live with the character for more than fifty years -- and during half of that, others would know her role, too -- before he passing, The Washington Post reports. She acknowledged her role in inspiring the Peanuts character in 1989. Wold met Schulz and became part of American popular culture while working at Art Instruction Schools in Minneapolis. “Oh, we dated for about two years,” Wold said of “Sparky” Schulz, who also proposed to her, but she chose Allan. “I loved him. I guess I chose Al because I knew all Al’s friends, who became my friends. I didn’t really know Sparky’s friends.”
Some purists bristled at the decision to give the Little Red-Haired Girl, who was voiced by actress Francesca Capaldi, more personality and less sense of mystique in last year's The Peanuts Movie. Schulz's widow Jean told the Post that “We can’t [really] know her. … There’s this mystique and this fantasy.” Donna Mae Johnson Wold died of heart failure and complications from diabetes, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported this weekend. She is survived by her husband, four children (some named after Peanuts characters, so clearly Wold was a good sport), and was a foster mother to at least forty more.Last winter, Bloomberg published a much-discussed account of belt-tightening in the brave new economy. Notable for featuring Wall Streeters, not Walmart greeters, the suffering depicted was sepia-toned. One poor soul described driving all the way to outer Brooklyn to buy discounted salmon, another the indignity of doing his own dishes, and a third dismissed his Porsche 911 Carrera 4S Cabriolet as “the Volkswagen of supercars.”
Among the lingering calamities of the financial crisis, the sorrows of young bankers don’t exactly cry out for remedy. This is not Les Miserables but the hardships of the haute bourgeoisie. Yet the afflictions of affluence are afflictions nonetheless, and this particular one can teach us an awkward but essential truth in the ongoing debate over income inequality—if we can only bear to listen.
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Consider the inadvertent testimony of Greg Smith. Doubtless you have heard of Smith, who vaulted to fame last March with an op-ed in The New York Times published the day he parted ways with his long-time employer, Goldman Sachs. The piece reads like the précis for some revelatory work. During his 12 years at Goldman, Smith says he had seen the interests of the customer “sidelined” in favor of an approach that sees the bank “ripping their clients off.” Their trust is taken advantage of, their naïveté exploited, their ignorance scorned. Goldman is no longer the client-centered institution Smith joined after college, and blame is placed at the feet of the bank’s leadership, whom he accuses of having “lost hold of the firm’s culture on their watch.”
Given the anger directed at Goldman in the aftermath of the financial crisis, Smith knew that his op-ed would be greeted with some interest. Here was an insider who affirmed the bank’s bad behavior and promised to illustrate it, at length, if given the opportunity.
He was, of course—in the form of $1.5 million book deal. Published at the end of October, the attempted tell-all was widely panned for falling short of its promise. The criticism is not unfair, though the publisher shares blame for rushing to print a work that would have benefited from sharper focus and the self-criticism of sustained introspection. Why I Left Goldman Sachs is Greg Smith’s first book, and its 250+ pages were written in less than seven months. If it feels like a first draft, that’s almost certainly because it is, and all parties (except Goldman, perhaps) would have benefited from the careful editing that made the original op-ed an astonishing success.
But that does not mean the book doesn’t have an intriguing story to tell, if one that is also unintended. The chronicle form lends itself to the task of writing an inevitably personal book on extremely short notice, and while Smith might have done without the convenience, preferring instead to dwell on the conflicts of interests he spends too little time on in the book, he ends up presenting a timely self-portrait of a rich man in a much richer man’s world.
When he left Goldman Sachs, Greg Smith had been making in the ballpark of $500,000 for at least six years, and the book provides ample evidence of the consolations afforded the young bachelor by his considerable income. There are the fine restaurants Smith frequents (“we went to the Frisky Oyster in Greenport”), the premier sporting events he attends (“I was lucky to be courtside in Paris to see Rafael Nadal beat Roger Federer for his sixth French Open title”), and the fashionable neighborhood he moves into when he transfers to London (it “had become trendy because Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin (of Coldplay) had moved there”). There is even the 30th birthday dinner he throws for himself and his then-girlfriend (“at Freeman’s, a place with a vintage speakeasy vibe”) for which Smith graciously picks up the tab (“[t]he bill came to over $3,000, but I was happy to do it—I like treating people”).
Smith never reveals how much he has salted away for hard times, but it is not enough to stave off a minor panic when the financial crisis hits. Faced with the possibility of post-Goldman penury, he describes not one but two instances of taking public transportation, noting as an aside that “[m]any Wall Streeters can spend north of $10,000 a year on taxis alone.” The accounts are rueful—“I saved sixty bucks”—but juxtaposed with his birthday largesse, which is subsequent to these accounts and conspicuously so, a central preoccupation of the book comes into relief. The problem is not having money, but not having nearly enough.
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If you take a step back, this seems absurd. From the vantage point of most Americans, not to mention the broader world, Greg Smith is rich. Indeed, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median household income between 2006-2011 was in the range of $50,000, or roughly one tenth of what Smith was making during that time. But Smith is not most people, and he doesn’t have the luxury of stepping back without also stepping beyond his social world. That world includes people who are not only making double or triple what Smith made, but also individuals like Gary Cohn, the president of Goldman, who made just over $53 million in 2006, or more than 100 Greg Smiths.
As a financial matter, being rich in a much richer man’s world has a tendency to bury you in what Cornell economist Robert Frank calls an expenditure cascade. In a paper he co-authored with Adam Seth Levine, Frank starts from the curious fact that “aggregate savings rates have fallen even though income gains have been largely concentrated in the hands of consumers with the highest incomes.” He explains this by showing that that wealthy scale their consumption not by the expenditures of the broader public—a benchmark that would leave their bank accounts flush—but by the people at the very top of their social group. This is the time-honored tradition of keeping up with the Joneses, but when the Joneses can afford 100 times what you can, the race can lead you right of a cliff.
Still, while Smith’s need to make more money occasionally announces itself by way of some pressing financial concern—on same day the stock market bottoms out, Smith splits with his long-time girlfriend who had been “adamant that she didn’t want to work when she had kids”—he is well aware that his frustration has less to do with how much he actually makes than what that number says about him. Reflecting on the significance of “bonus day,” the day in December on which bankers meet with their bosses to discover the full amount they will make for the year, Smith admits that there is “an absurd amount of emphasis placed on these meetings. For many people, the session determined a person’s entire self-worth.” And yet, he continues, “however arbitrary the number handed down by the partner might be, there was also a real poignancy to the bonus meeting. Many people had spent the year working eighty-five-hour weeks, killing themselves for the firm. They expected something in return.”
By late 2011, Smith had come to expect more from Goldman than Goldman was willing to give him. At his last bonus meeting, he requested a promotion to Managing Director and a million dollar payout. Both requests were denied.
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Smith does not disclose these details in his book—they were leaked by Goldman to discredit him in advance of its release—but they come as no surprise to anyone who reads it. They merely underscore the salient psychological fact of Greg Smith’s experience and the essential lesson of income inequality among the economic elite. Namely, that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but wealth is a matter of whom you behold.Ryder Signs to Sell and Service Workhorse Electric Trucks
Fledgling electric truck manufacturer Workhorse Group reached a deal to have fleet management giant Ryder System Inc. sell and service its line of vehicles.
Ryder will distribute Workhorse delivery trucks and an electric pickup truck in North America, as well as provide warranty and maintenance work.
Signing a major company in the fleet management and truck leasing business to be its sales and service agent represents a vote of confidence in the Loveland, Ohio, truck startup, Stephen Burns, Workhorse’s chief executive, told Trucks.com.
“With Ryder, we can bring our leading-edge, range-extended electric vehicle technology to a larger base of businesses that are looking to improve efficiencies, save on fueling costs and get better performance from their fleets,” Burns said.
Ryder is constantly examining new and alternative technology commercial vehicles but only reaches partnerships with companies it believes will be successful, said Scott Perry, the company’s chief technology and procurement officer.
“We feel good about the products Workhorse has put together,” Perry said.
Ryder is known for rolling out alternative technology commercial vehicles, Burns said.
Last year, Ryder signed a similar agreement to be the North American maintenance and distribution partner for Nikola Motor, a Salt Lake City startup developing the Nikola One hydrogen fuel cell semi-truck.
Nikola’s hydrogen fuel cell semi-truck is expected to have a range of 800 to 1,200 miles and achieve an equivalent of 15 to 20 mpg with zero emissions.
But Nikola won’t have a working prototype ready until 2019. Construction on a manufacturing and research and development center will take four to five years, according to Nikola. Nikola also plans to build a highway network of hydrogen filling stations to service the trucks.
Workhorse, which already produces an electric delivery truck, has a contract to provide UPS with more than 300 vehicles.
The company is scheduled to unveil a working prototype of its W-15 electric pickup truck at the Advanced Clean Transportation Expo in Long Beach, Calif., Tuesday. Workhorse says it already has nonbinding commitments for 2,150 trucks, or about $113 million worth of business, and expects more to be announced during the expo this week.
The W-15 will offer 460 horsepower and have an 80-mile range that will be supplemented by a gas engine that generates electricity to extend the total range. Workhouse did not provide specific details. The truck will have an estimated 75 MPGe fuel efficiency rating in all-electric operation.
All-wheel drive will be a standard feature as well as active safety systems, including collision alert with automatic braking and lane-departure warning.
The truck will have a composite body with carbon fiber panels. It will come in a double cab with a standard bed configuration. Workhorse is packing the W-15 with a 7.2 kW power system that allows tools to be plugged directly into the battery power source without the truck running.
It will have the same ground clearance as a standard pickup. The towing capability is targeted at 5,500 pounds, and the truck will have a receiver hitch built into the custom chassis. It will handle a payload of up to 2,200 pounds.Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Streets nearby were closed off for several hours
There has been a "minor explosion" at the constituency office of Conservative MP Nick Boles.
A bang and the sound of breaking glass were heard at the junction of North Street and Burghley Street in Bourne, Lincolnshire, shortly before 01:30 BST.
Police said there was only minor damage to the building and no-one was injured. A man has been arrested.
Mr Boles, the Grantham and Stamford MP, said he understood a home-made device had been thrown through a window.
'Lot of debris'
He said he did not know anything more than that but hoped to learn more "in due course".
Image caption Mr Boles, who was not in the office at the time, said he was hoping to learn more from police
Caroline Glithero, who lives nearby, said she heard two explosions about 45 minutes apart.
"I heard two very loud bangs and on the second one I went to see what it was and found a lot of debris and a window broken," she said.
Lincolnshire Police said a 24-year-old man had been arrested and was helping police with their inquiries.
A spokesperson said early indications suggested the incident was not linked to any wider issues or recent events in the county.Electricity prices in Ontario officially increased Sunday and the rate hike is expected to push up the average household hydro bill by 3.4 per cent.
The Ontario Energy Board (OEB) announced the rate increase on Oct. 15 for winter months, which will impact most households and small businesses. Effective Sunday:
The price for off-peak hours goes up 0.3 cents to 8.3 cents/kWh.
The price for mid-peak hours goes up 0.6 cents to 12.8 cents/kWh.
The price for on-peak hours goes up 1.4 cents to 17.5 cents/kWh.
Sunday's rate hike means the on-peak price of electricity has jumped 77 per cent since Smart Meters became common five years ago. In November 2010, the price was 9.9 cents/kWh.
In 2010, the average monthly bill was about $100 per month. The typical household will shell out roughly $31 more per month this year.
In addition to the rate hike, the hours for mid-peak and on-peak prices also change to winter "time-of-use" hours. From Nov. 1 to April 30, weekdays between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. are considered mid-peak hours. Weekdays between 7 a.m. and 11 a.m. and from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. are on-peak hours, which saw the highest rate increase.
The OEB said several factors are driving the |
to its reasonable cost and exceptional environmental value, the sleek rectangular unit is quite easy to use and easy-to-assemble. In fact, it measures in at 48”x65”x39.4” and weighs less than 88 pounds.
If you’re interested in buying the HomeBiogas unit, the company is offering supporters an opportunity on their crowdfunding page to reserve one with a pledge of $890. Once the campaign is over, the unit will go back to its regular retail price of $1500.
+ HomeBiogas
Via TreehuggerRob Vollman is a leading voice in hockey analysis. He invented players usage charts and has written for NHL.com and ESPN Insider. His new book, Stat Shot, is available for pre-order and you can get Hockey Abstract (and the 2015 update) now.
After a dominant season, expectations are that the Washington Capitals will defeat the Philadelphia Flyers in their Eastern Conference First Round series in short order, but this may prove to be the tightest series in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Philadelphia’s overall numbers leave the impression of being a League-average team in most regards. They scored 211 goals and allowed 210 for a goal differential of plus-1, they took 2,540 shots and allowed 2,519 for a shot differential of plus-21, their power play and penalty killing percentages of 18.9 and 80.5 percent were within a few decimal places of the League averages of 18.7 and 81.3 percent, and they had a regulation-time record of 28-27-27.
While their final numbers appear modest, the trend lines suggest that the Flyers have been on a steady rise all season, and that they have caught up to the Capitals at season’s end.
Because of the time required to adjust to Dave Hakstol and the new coaching staff, and perhaps a little bit of bad luck, the Flyers got off to a very slow start this season. After 20 games, they were outscored 57 to 34, had a 6-9-5 record, and were tied with the Carolina Hurricanes for the fewest wins in the NHL.
If you set aside that first quarter of the season, then the Flyers have been just as effective as teams like the Chicago Blackhawks.
Since November 22, 2015, the Flyers have outscored opponents 177 to 153, and have a record of 35-18-9. With one fewer goal against, all those numbers exactly match the performance of the Blackhawks, who were tied with the St. Louis Blues for the fifth best win-loss record over that span.
Certainly, Washington would not be considered heavy favorites in a series against Chicago, nor should they be considered such against the statistically similar Philadelphia Flyers.
Restricting the view further to include only the 2016 calendar year, the Flyers have performed at an essentially equal level to the Capitals themselves. Since January 1, 2016, Washington outscored its opponents 133 to 113, and Philadelphia by an almost identical margin of 134 to 113.
Breaking down the analysis to the individual level, the Flyers have players that can compete with Washington’s top guns in virtually any statistical department.
For example, Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals led the League in the 2016 calendar year with 29 goals and 214 shots in 43 games, and Wayne Simmonds of the Philadelphia Flyers scored 23 goals in 150 shots in 45 games, the first of which stats were tied with Patrick Kane of the Chicago Blackhawks for third and seventh in the League, respectively.
In terms of assists, Nicklas Backstrom of the Washington Capitals and Claude Giroux of the Philadelphia Flyers are each tied 28 assists in the 2016 calendar year, which ranked ninth in the NHL.
And, with regards to overall scoring, Evgeny Kuznetsov of the Washington Capitals and Brayden Schenn of the Philadelphia Flyers were tied for sixth in the NHL with 44 points. Schenn also ranked second to Joe Thornton of the San Jose Sharks with 18 power play points.+
Defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere gives the Flyers an edge in one category over Washington, and that’s scoring from the point. Gostisbehere scored 32 points in 43 games in the 2016 calendar year, which is tied with Roman Josi of the Nashville Predators for fifth among defensemen, and also ranks fourth among rookies. Washington’s highest-scoring defenseman in this time was Matt Niskanen, with 17 points in 45 games.
Even the goaltending matches up well between these two teams, whether the view is restricted to the latter part of the season, or not.
Braden Holtby may have tied Martin Brodeur’s NHL record with 48 wins, but both teams had equally strong goaltending overall this season. Philadelphia’s team save percentage of.917 almost matched Washington’s team save percentage of.918, and actually exceeded it in even-strength situations,.933 to.929.
If the view is restricted even further, to how the two teams performed down the final stretch, then the Flyers may actually be considered the favorite.
Since February 24, the Flyers have a 15-5-3 record, which is tied with the Anaheim Ducks for the second best record in the League, while Washington is in a three-way tie for seventh with a record of 12-8-4.
In terms of goal differential, the Flyers closed the season by outscoring their opponents 68 to 55 in those final 23 games, while the Capitals were actually outscored, 59 to 57. That’s why there is some real potential of an upset in this series.
There’s no question that the Flyers got off to a slow start, as they adjusted to a new coaching staff, but they became consistently and increasingly more competitive as the season progressed. Depending how how the perspective is tightened, the Philadelphia Flyers could be a surprisingly even match for the mighty Washington Capitals.
Follow Rob Vollman on Twitter and read his books.
Full RMNB Coverage of Game One
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PinterestI met Greg in his early days, when he was still honing his concept and building relationships with Chicago's craft beer community. He's an easy fit — ambitious, curious, and always looking for feedback. Since then, I've been able to help Greg build his brand by developing a visual and written storytelling style that was authentic, and captured their unique point of view. In return, Greg and Pete collaborated on my weekend camp at Wandawega in October, making some of the best rustic camp food you can imagine and pouring some of Brant's first collaboration beers. They helped make it an unforgettable weekend.
Now it's time to see what they can really do, with real tanks, a real kitchen, and a real place to call home, right in the heart of Lakeview near Belmont and Broadway. The first beer menu looks solid, including a cream/steam hybrid beer, a Pils and a Saison, all favorite styles of mine, among a few others. And Pete's dinner menu is guaranteed to be pork heavy and shareable — that's his style. Read more here >>Are you ready to make your mark on Atlanta’s film and TV industry? Are you the next Tyler Perry? ATL is in need of young stars. Check out the Peach City’s latest casting call for your chance at fame.
RELATED: 9 big movies filming in Georgia in 2017
‘Black Panther’
Joining the growing list of Marvel movies that have filmed or will film in Atlanta, “Black Panther” showcases T’Challa (aka Black Panther), who premiered in “Captain America: Civil War.” It stars Chadwick Boseman in the title role, and the cast includes Angela Bassett, Michael B. Jordan, Forest Whitaker, Lupita Nyong’o, “The Walking Dead” cast member Danai Gurira, Daniel Kaluuya, Winston Duke and Florence Kasumba. The movie will be directed by Ryan Coogler, who’s known for “Fruitvale Station” and “Creed,” and is set to be released in February 2018.
RELATED: How to get cast in the TV shows filming in Atlanta right now
What are they looking for?
Men and women, age 25 to 70, of all ethnicities are needed to be in a United Nations scene. They’re looking to cast for diplomats and reporters.
When are they filming?
Filming will start early in the morning on Jan. 21 in Atlanta. Fitting appointments will be held this week.
How much does it pay?
Pay will be $68 for eight hours, with overtime for additional hours. Fittings pay $16.
How do I submit?
Send current photos (including one from the shoulders up and one from the knees up as well as a recent photo of you wearing business or business casual clothing) to BlackPantherextras@tscasting.com, and put “UNITED NATIONS” in the subject line. Include your first and last name, phone number, e-mail address, city and state, age, height and weight. Men should include clothing sizes for jacket, collar, sleeve, waist, inseam and shoe. Women should include their dress, bust/bra, waist and shoe sizes.
Include a resume if you have one, and explain any set experience you may have, as well as any actual experience as a reporter, photographer or camera person.
»RELATED: 10 reasons to seek a job in Atlanta’s TV and film industry
»RECOMMENDED VIDEO: Top TV shows and movies filmed in Georgia in 2016Key takeaways Collaborating remotely slots perfectly into the role of web development since the work is digital and can be communicated more effectively between computers than humans.
Floobits, Cloud9 or even a custom VNC server can be used for remote pair programming.
Upload design prototypes to get feedback using InVision and Redpen.
With tools like Dropbox Paper and Basecamp, you can create a collaborative environment and store every resource related to a project.
Efficiently share your screen instead of looking over someone’s shoulder using Screenhero.
Since you can’t do face-to-face client meetings, present projects in person, or sit at the same desk as your programming buddy, it’s easy to feel like being a remote web developer has major disadvantages. I’ve found that to be nowhere near the truth. Remote developers are happier, work harder and naturally learn to take advantage of collaborative tools that are more efficient than working side-by-side.
I’ve worked remotely almost exclusively, taking a small break a couple of years ago to realize how much I hate being in an office.
Related Vendor Content
Remote work is challenging because we’re programmed to need the company of others and communicate face to face. There’s a learning curve when moving from an office to a remote team, but the tools you’ll use are ideal when used with a remote first attitude.
In this article, I want to share the tools I feel have best helped collaboration with the InfoQ community.
Usersnap: Collect user feedback and track bugs collaboratively
Iterating over errors and user feedback can be difficult because of the disconnect between you and your user. With Usersnap, you can see feedback and bugs in the same context as the reporting user.
Working for a time on a support team, I realized that it can be irritating for users — and really slow down the feedback loop — if they have to take screenshots of the issue. And, sometimes, by the time you’ve asked for the screenshots the bug has mysteriously resolved itself, only to surface a week later.
When a user offers feedback, Usersnap lets them screenshot and annotate their screen which creates an issue on your side of the app. Then, you can connect with your team to get it resolved with everything in context.
For users of Slack, JIRA, Basecamp, Trello, Intercom and a ton more, Usersnap integrates with your existing workflow but gives users a more convenient way to report bugs than going through a back-and-forth with the support team.
Cloud9: Cloud-based IDE for collaborative coding
Using Cloud9 is a quality alternative to constantly sending iterations for review because it shows changes in real-time in an IDE with a live preview mode. At any time, you can go in and hit preview to see the newest changes your team has made.
Cloud9 is perfect for pair programming, tightening up your team’s feedback loop, quickly updating clients with progress. Push code directly to your FTP when it’s ready, and sync automatically with GitHub.
While Cloud9 is just one of a few collaborative options for collaborative coding on this list, it’s easily the one with the most in-depth functionality, despite not having in-built video chat. If you’re used to living inside your own text editor, however, keep reading to find out about Floobits.
InVision: Clickable prototypes for web designers
You could upload your full-screen PNGs to Basecamp, or email them over for review, but there’s nothing better than being able to send over a working prototype of your website. When we were getting Process Street redesigned, we worked with Koombea through Basecamp to rough out the specifications then moved to InVision to work out the details.
That way, we got presented with a ton of options before the agency took the time to upload the files to InVision and create a working prototype.
What’s more, InVision also integrates with Sketch. Sketch designs are added to InVision, which then lets you drag and drop them onto a canvas, constructing a prototype from the individual Sketch files.
Screenhero: Screen sharing for web developers
As anyone who’s tried to collaborate over code through Skype will attest — it’s terrible. Screenhero (now acquired by Slack ), solves that problem. It’s designed for low-latency screen sharing and code collaboration, featuring multiple mouse cursors and joint IDE control. As you might expect since the acquisition, it lives inside Slack. If your remote development team already uses Slack (and, by now, it probably does), that’s great news for you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BojQaD64GU
Outside of strict coding, Screenhero is also great for meetings and presentations, bringing voice chat and screen sharing inside the Slack app.
VNC Servers: 2 people on one computer
If you’re after a more customizable DIY approach to collaborating over code and design, setting up your own VNC server could be the way to go.
By using tools like TightVNC (Free, Windows/Unix) or RealVNC (€ 30, multi-platform), you can access your coworker’s computer, not only to give guidance like non-remote pair programming, but to work on typing code in different areas. In this way, remote development has a big advantage over in-office collaboration. I’ve found VNC servers to be slower to get started with, but if pair programming over Cloud9 doesn’t make you feel like enough of a hacker, VNCs are going to be your favorite solution.
Basecamp: Centralize your files and get feedback
With any kind of remote work, it’s essential to have central hub for dumping in all your files, even if you’re not planning on collaborating over them. Anything I’m working on goes straight into a Dropbox folder we’re given access to during the employee onboarding process which then gets pushed over to Basecamp via Zapier.
That way, if something breaks while I’m away, it’s easy to find the file in Basecamp and fix any errors. Without that system, I’m relied on for my local files which is liability on the rest of the team. Without a central place to collaborate, this sort of stuff happens:
Basecamp also integrates with GitHub, JIRA and Usersnap, mostly through the magic of Zapier.
When collaborating remotely with designers, I’ve found Basecamp’s project-based layout to be ideal. With discussions on icons, typography, etc., all going on in parallel but in separate areas of Basecamp.
Floobits: Screen sharing and terminal/IDE collaboration
Floobits is an amalgamation of Screenhero and Cloud9 in the way that it’s more focused on development work than Screenhero, but emphasizes chat functionality more than Cloud9.
I’d describe it as the Google Docs of code because you can see real-time edits on the page. Floobits supports Sublime Text, Atom, Neovim, Emacs and IntelliJ IDEA, all fully integrated with Google Hangouts.
You might look at Floobits over setting up a VNC server because it comes with very little setup time. Setup time is less than 2 minutes, and if you register with your GitHub account you can link your repositories straight away. The only reason I’d go with Cloud9 or a VNC server over Floobits would be the limitation on text editor plugins. But, to be honest, it’s likely you’re using one of editors they support.
Dropbox Paper: A scrapbook for designers and developers
Dropbox Paper launched quietly in 2015 as a Dropbox-branded version of Hackpad, a tool they acquired in 2013. As well as being a great tool for managing business documentation, Paper is great for collaborating over early-stage designs and code snippets, eliminating the need for a mountain of emails.
I prefer it over Google Docs for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it supports code in a clean and readable way. Secondly, it reminds me of writing on Medium, which has an enviable user experience.
Your inspiration, code snippets, prototypes, links and comments can all go in one easily accessible place, turning a simple document into a full project folder like I imagine people used to have in the dark days of pre-computing.
Redpen: Get feedback on single screens
If you’re in the early stages of designing a site and you’re just looking to get your initial ideas across, there might be no point in grappling with InVision before you’ve settled with a solid concept. For single screen sharing and annotations, Red Pen is a great simple alternative.
Drag and drop designs into the app, get a shareable link and refer back to it to see comments attached to specific parts of the design. No more descriptions like ‘the bit on the left between the sidebar and the header’ — with Red Pen, you can see exactly what they mean.
Every Time Zone: Because time zones make no sense
For any kind of real-time collaborative work, Every Time Zone is essential. While most timezone converters look like they were last updated in the 90s (and are about as user friendly as tools were back then), Every Time Zone gives you an easy-to-use overview of any timezone in the world.
It’s not easy to demonstrate in a static image, but you can drag that slider and have it calculate the time in any country in the world compared to your local time. It’s incalculable the amount of times this has saved me from the eternal headache of DST.
Have you found any of these tools useful? If you’ve got experience collaborating with remote web developers, I’d love to know the tools you use. I’m always looking for recommendations, so let me know in the comments.
About the Author
Benjamin Brandall is the head of content marketing at Process Street, where he writes on productivity, remote work and SaaS. Aside from a few hellish months in the office, he’s filled a variety of roles remotely all of his working life. Get in touch with him here.Saturday was the first official day open for the new Warby Parker location on Woodward in downtown Detroit. The store seemed to have a steady stream of people coming in and out, and since it’s the newest thing, we thought we’d share some pictures.
Located on the original site of the pharmacy of James Vernor, the creator of one of our most iconic drinks, Vernor’s, there’s a hat tip to the history with a soda fountain spigot in the back.
The space is very attractive. Woodward from Campus Martius to Grand Circus Park is very quickly becoming shopping destination for the high-end.
That said, as far as glasses go, Warby Parker is affordably priced, starting at $95 including most prescription lenses. Having the ability to get an eye exam on site (with appointment) is useful. The staff was very friendly and answering everyone’s questions. Having done the home try-on program that Warby Parker is famous for from their website before, it’s solid. But there’s something about trying all the things that’s just better. Especially for eyewear.
The floors are terrazzo, and the design flows well with the rest of the building.
There are a few select book titles for sale, but don’t confuse this with a book store. The ones that are there are very “on brand” as marketing folks would say.
Also, there is a selection of accessories.
The view outside is a nice cityscape.
A neat map of places to read downtown to pick up.
Love the barrel vaulted ceiling and the lights.
If you want to check it out for yourself or investigate some glasses or sunglasses, Warby Parker’s Detroit store is at 1449 Woodward in Detroit. It’s open 11 a.m. — 7 p.m. Monday thru Saturday and 11 a.m. – 6 p.m. on Sundays.Egypt striker Mohamed Zidan sentenced to six years in prison by an Egyptian court on Wednesday.
El Dokki Misdemeanor Court ruled that Egyptian international Mohamed Zidan is to be jailed for 6 years due to three cases of issuing ‘worthless cheques’ to an Egyptian real estate company, according to Al Ahram.
Arab Company for Projects and Urban Development filed the lawsuit against 31-year-old Zidan earlier this year.
Zidan has been out of action since terminating his contract with Baniyas of the UAE in the beginning of this year. He now temporarily works as a sports analyst for Al-Jazeera Sports, but has yet to announce his retirement.
The former Borussia Dortmund forward has been recently linked with a winter move to Zamalek, following his disappointing spell at Baniyas.
Zidan had been one of the most successful Egyptian players in Europe, playing for Mainz 05, Werder Bremen, Hamburg and Borussia Dortmund in Germany, and Akademisk Boldklub and FC Midtjylland in Denmark prior.
It’s worth mentioning that in July 2012, the controversial Egyptian striker paid a visit to Alaa Mubarak, son of deposed president Hosni Mubarak, in prison.
Follow @Z1z0_If you would like to see more articles like this please support our coverage of the space program by becoming a Spaceflight Now Member. If everyone who enjoys our website helps fund it, we can expand and improve our coverage further.
An atmospheric test model of Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser space plane is being readied for tow and landing tests at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in California this spring.
The partially-assembled test craft arrived at the California test site, located on Edwards Air Force Base, on Jan. 25. Technicians are adding the ship’s V-shaped tail fins and other equipment before kicking off ground and flight tests in the coming months, according to Mark Sirangelo, corporate vice president of Sierra Nevada’s space systems division.
“We’ll do a series of ground tests,” Sirangelo said in a recent interview. “That will include towing the vehicle down the runway, and that allows us to see how it stops and how it moves, but it also allows us to test all the sensors on the vehicle because we can get it up to a high enough speed where that will happen.”
The Dream Chaser spacecraft, originally envisioned to fly with astronaut crews, will now fly on space missions with cargo deliveries heading for the International Space Station. That change means the spaceship will return to Earth on autopilot, using navigation aids to descend to a runway, deploy its landing gear and touch down like NASA’s space shuttles.
After the ground tests, Sirangelo said the Dream Chaser test article will perform “captive carry” tests suspended under a helicopter, using the exercises to verify the movements of the craft’s aerosurfaces and navigation instrumentation.
“When that’s done, we’ll move into a series of flight tests, where it will be dropped for approach and landing like the shuttle Enterprise,” Sirangelo said, referring to the vehicle NASA used for landing demonstrations in the 1970s before the first full-up space shuttle mission.
The Dream Chaser will be dropped from heavy-duty carrier helicopter for an autonomous landing at Runway 22L at Edwards Air Force Base.
The test campaign in California’s Mojave Desert comes three-and-a-half years after Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser last flew on its own. A drop test in October 2013 ended with a crash landing after the ship’s left landing gear failed to deploy.
Sierra Nevada says the 2013 flight was successful until that point, and Dream Chaser’s autopilot landing system steered the craft toward the runway for a touchdown on the centerline.
Engineers blamed the mishap on a landing gear borrowed from a U.S. Air Force F-5E jet. Future Dream Chaser cargo missions to the space station will fly with a different landing gear, and the spaceship preparing for tests this spring in California features a gear more advanced then the suspect system at fault in 2013.
“We had borrowed that gear for that test, and that was one of the decision we made that didn’t work out, obviously,” Sirangelo said. “It wasn’t the orbital flight design. It’s a completely different design system now, so it’s very different from what we had before. It’s not quite the full orbital design, but it’s on that path.”
After the crash landing in 2013, Sierra Nevada returned the damaged test craft to the company’s facility in Louisville, Colorado, for repairs. While the vehicle set for landing tests in the coming months is the same one that flew in 2013, Sirangelo said it is “substantially upgraded.”
“It’s much more close to the (configuration) of the orbital vehicle now, with flight software,” Sirangelo told Spaceflight Now. “It’s fully autonomous, so it will use flight software that we’ll go to orbit with. All the control surfaces, and all the data gathering is all electronic.
“The computer systems are now the orbital version of the computer systems that we will manage with, so it’s structurally similar, but virtually the whole inside of the vehicle has been updated and changed.”
In 2013, Sierra Nevada was competing with Boeing and SpaceX for lucrative contracts with NASA to carry astronauts to and from the International Space Station. The space agency awarded the crew transportation deals to the other two companies in 2014, leaving Dream Chaser’s future uncertain.
But Sierra Nevada found other business for the lifting body space plane, primarily in the space station’s cargo resupply program. NASA announced in January 2016 that Sierra Nevada, SpaceX and Orbital ATK will be responsible for hauling up most of the space station’s U.S. cargo and experiments from 2019 through 2024, the station’s current planned retirement date.
SpaceX and Orbital ATK are the incumbent commercial cargo transportation contractors, and Sierra Nevada will join them in the follow-on contract.
Sierra Nevada also has agreements with the European Space Agency to study the use of Dream Chaser to provide access to space for European research experiments after the end of the space station program in the 2020s. The United Nations agreed last year to purchase a standalone unpiloted Dream Chaser mission to Earth orbit in 2021 to host research payloads from developing nations.
Sirangelo said the long gap between Dream Chaser flight tests was not only driven by technical concerns — like the upgrade and repair of the test craft — but by closing the business case for the program.
“We had to go and win a contract,” Sirangelo said. “We needed a path to really make this all worthwhile to take this next step. Once we won the contract a year ago, we were able to accelerate the program and get back into flight tests.”
The feeling among Sierra Nevada’s team is different this time, he said.
“Not only are we back in flight tests, but now it’s different in that we know that we have a contract,” Sirangelo said. “We have flights coming up. We’ve got decades of flights in front of us, so it’s a different feeling.”
Under the structure of the cargo resupply contract, each partner must pass several programmatic, safety and integration milestones before flying missions. Sierra Nevada has passed two of those milestones so far, Sirangelo said, and a preliminary design review for the full Dream Chaser system is coming up soon.
NASA has not ordered resupply missions from any of the three providers under the new cargo contract — called Commercial Resupply Services-2 — but Sirangelo said the company hopes to get a firm order and a target launch date from the space agency this year. Each of the three CRS-2 contract winners is guaranteed at least six missions.
On space station resupply runs, the Dream Chaser will take off from Florida on top of United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rockets and return to runway landings at one of several potential sites, such as the Shuttle Landing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center, for unpacking, refurbishment and reuse.
The Dream Chaser is about one-quarter the size of a space shuttle orbiter, allowing it to land on shorter runways.
It is capable of delivering more than 12,000 pounds (5,500 kilograms) of equipment to the space station inside its pressurized compartment and on an external aft-mounted payload carrier. At the end of each flight, the two parts will detach, with the Dream Chaser space plane returning to Earth with research specimens and other gear, and the disposable cargo module burning up in the atmosphere to incinerate trash.
The fully-loaded spacecraft will weigh around 20 tons and will likely require the lift capacity of ULA’s most powerful Atlas 5 rocket configuration — the “551” with five strap-on solid rocket boosters and a 5-meter (17-foot) payload fairing, according to Sirangelo.
The first space-rated Dream Chaser is “well under design and development” and on schedule, he said.
“We’ve now built the full pressure shell and tested it, and now we’re building the orbital shell — we call it the external structure — the structure of the vehicle, and all the flight software,” Sirangelo said. “A lot of the work has been on the software side because it is a fully autonomous vehicle now, so it’s well on the way to being ready on time.”
Lockheed Martin built the Dream Chaser’s composite structure, and Sierra Nevada will locate the spaceship’s launch site processing facility alongside Lockheed Martin’s Orion production line inside the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
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Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.The Purple Line can do with a few less station elevators, shorter platform lengths and no environmentally friendly plant material for track beds at all, according to a list of $210 million in cost reductions identified by Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R).
The list of potential cuts — 43 items in all — was sent to Montgomery and Prince George’s county officials last week and released by Hogan’s office late Monday. It includes one reduction already mentioned by the state: cutting service frequency from six to 7.5 minutes. It also provides more specifics behind the governor’s announcement that the 16-mile light rail project linking Bethesda and New Carrollton would go forward — but only with significant cuts to the projected $2.4 billion price tag.
[How Hogan made his first big transit decision]
Hogan’s conditions for greenlighting the project also include a deep reduction in the state’s financial commitment, from $700 million to $168 million, and increased payments from Montgomery and Prince George’s counties — possibly as much as another $50 million each. All of it is intended, in the words of Maryland Transportation Secretary Pete K. Rahn, to scale back the Purple Line from a “Cadillac” to a “Chevy.”
But the list does little to clarify the fuzzy arithmetic surrounding Hogan’s conditional approval of the project, which leaves at least $200 million in costs unaccounted for.
Local officials were difficult to reach at the tail end of the long Fourth of July holiday. Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) and County Council President George L. Leventhal (D-At Large) did not return phone calls early Monday evening. But the items are expected to be part of negotiations between the counties and the state over final cost allocations.
Transit activist Ben Ross — a member of the Action Committee for Transit, which supports the Purple Line — said that at first blush the list of reductions does not appear to threaten the basics of the project.
“Some of the stuff we were expecting,” Ross said. “But it doesn’t sound like any of it is affecting functionality,” he said. Ross added that despite Rahn’s analogy, the Purple Line was never a “Cadillac.”
He likened the trims to keeping the same body on a car but taking out a few of the pricier details.
[A complete list of Hogan’s proposed cuts to the Purple Line]
Hogan’s proposal would reduce landscaping at stations where stormwater management is not an issue, trim station art allowances by 50 percent, reduce the amount of glass to be used in station canopies and elevator enclosures, and modify the design of a bridge over Rock Creek. Hogan also proposed converting an exit stairway at the Chevy Chase Lake station from enclosed to open air.
The list also calls for eliminating one of the two elevators planned for each of three stations: Chevy Chase Lake, Silver Spring Transit Center and Manchester Road.
Segments of the 16-mile route where plant material was to be placed between and along the rails would be covered with conventional crushed stone instead, according to Hogan’s list. “Green track” is thought to reduce rail bed temperatures and noise levels.
Hogan also said station platforms can be shorter than the 200-foot length specified in designs — if they are long enough to accommodate trains to be operated by the private concessionaire that will eventually be selected to run the system.A steering group established in 2009 to oversee a national programme for flood risk assessment did not meet during a four-year period up to November 2014.
The findings are made in a special report on Strategic Planning for Flood Risk Management by the Comptroller and Auditor General.
It also found a high level interdepartmental group set up to oversee flood risk management and flooding response did not meet for a period of almost six years up to July 2015.
There was also no proper oversight for pilot projects set up to prepare flood maps and flood risk management plans for a number of river basins.
One of the national flood assessment programme’s main objectives was to produce flood hazard maps, flood risk maps and flood risk management plans.
A first delivery target required the preparation and submission of preliminary flood risk assessments by March 2012.
The OPW met this target, identifying 300 areas that warranted further assessment.
However, the second target required the preparation and submission of flood risk and flood hazard maps for each of the identified areas by March 2014.
The OPW had submitted maps for only 50 of the 300 areas by the due date.
Cost estimates for four pilot projects totalled €3.5m, however, expenditure to the end of 2014 on those pilot projects ended up running to €8.9m.
Overall however, the total cost of implementing the programme has fallen to €27.4 million from the €30 million initially estimated.
It found that capital expenditure on flood risk management between 2005 and 2014 was €329 million.
This was made up of major works at a cost of €242 million, strategic studies that cost €52 million and minor works that cost €35 million.
The report points out that 12 years on from the report of the Flood Policy Review Group and eight years after the EU Floods Directive, substantial capital expenditure continues to be incurred on an annual basis, without the benefit that would emerge from expenditure falling under the national programme.Prostitution and King County sheriff’s office computers might be a combination that put three deputies on paid leave.
The sheriff put three deputies on leave this week, but won’t say why they were taken off the job.
“I don’t comment on ongoing investigations,” King County Sheriff John Urquhart told KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson on Friday.
The Seattle Times reported Thursday the deputy is being investigated for allegedly using county resources to help his wife work as a prostitute. According to the story, the deputy may have used county computers to run background checks on his wife’s clients.
King Co. Sheriff John Urquhart: “If I release information too early, too soon, or if the media releases information too early, too soon, it can compromise that investigation.” “If I release information too early, too soon, or if the media releases information too early, too soon, it can compromise that investigation.” Listen: Urquhart on Dori Monson
Steve Miletich, who wrote the story for The Seattle Times, tells KIRO Radio’s Morning News that there are multiple ways background checks could have aided the deputy’s wife in her alleged activities.
“Two things can be accomplished by looking into the computers: One, to determine if a potential client has a criminal record, has a violent background, might be a danger. Secondly, whether that person could be an undercover police officer who might pose a danger to her as far as being arrested.”
Miletich says they understand the other two deputies are on leave for allegedly tipping that first deputy off to the fact that he was being investigated.
“Two other deputies, like this particular deputy, have been put on paid administrative leave. It’s our understanding in the case of the other two deputies, the issue may be that they alerted this particular deputy to an investigation because of some loyalty or friendship or work ties,” says Miletich. “That is being investigated, and there’s a potential of this expanding into other people in the department.”
Urquhart told Monson he could neither confirm or deny The Seattle Times report, but would say that some of what was in the story was wrong. When pressed, he would not identify which information was inaccurate as it would amount to him confirming the other information in the story. The fact that any information was leaked is upsetting to Urquhart, who says it is negatively impacting the case.
“My number one priority is the integrity of an investigation. And if I release information too early, too soon, or if the media releases information too early, too soon, it can compromise that investigation,” says Urquhart. “My goal in any investigation is justice, justice for the community and justice for my employees.”
The deputy at the center of the investigation has been with the department for 19 years, and is reportedly embroiled in a bitter divorce with his wife. Miletich says in the divorce court papers, the deputy referenced his wife’s alleged participation in prostitution.
“In divorce papers that have been filed in their pending dissolution case, there is indication that he was aware of her activities, at least as he purports, of her working as a paid escort or prostitute. So this had been an ongoing issue in the marriage, he alleges,” says Miletich. “He doesn’t implicate himself in any of the activities.”
The FBI is helping the sheriff’s office in the investigation. It served warrants at the deputy’s home, car and office desk earlier this week.
KIRO Radio’s Chris Sullivan and Jamie Skorheim |
used those variables — and the Cooperative Congressional Election Study, which includes more than 40,000 respondents who voted for Donald J. Trump or Hillary Clinton — to predict 2016 vote choice. “Likelier Trump supporters” and “likelier Clinton supporters” in the C.P.S. are defined based on their demographic similarity to actual Trump voters and actual Clinton voters in the C.C.E.S. Estimates of labor market indicators for each group are weighted by the probability of each C.P.S. respondent’s being a likelier Trump supporter or a likelier Clinton supporter. More details are available here; this academic paper takes a similar approach to voting prediction.Spinners and Winners
What would you do if you were a college student who suddenly came into millions of dollars?
Founding a Super PAC may not be the first thing that comes to mind, but that's exactly what John Ramsey did when his grandfather died, leaving him with a generous inheritance. That inheritance made the 22 year-old Ramsey one of the youngest Super PAC financiers in the world.
Ramsey, who supported Ron Paul's presidential campaign, joined forces with 23 year-old Preston Bates to found the 'Liberty For All' Super PAC. Their goal is to elect so-called "freedom candidates" — like minded people who support limiting government and promoting civil liberties, although they bristle at being labeled libertarians. Liberty for All, which some have taken to calling the 'Brat PAC,' has already contributed over $3 million dollars to national congressional races since it began seven months ago.
"We're purging the Republican Party of the war-mongering, anti-civil liberties, socially intolerant neo-conservatives," says Ramsey. "We see these people as just as dangerous as the socialists that make up the Democratic Party."
So, what's the PAC's track record? Ramsey and Bates point to the primary election victories for three of the Republican candidates they supported: Tea Party-backed Congressional candidate Thomas Massie in Kentucky, Congressional candidate Kerry Bentivolio in Michigan, and Senate candidate Jeff Flake in Arizona.
While the Liberty For All PAC can stake a claim of success in these races, the PAC has come under criticism for its decision to support Bentivolio in Michigan's 11th Congressional District race. Bentivolio, a former school teacher and reindeer farmer, once said in a court deposition that he believes he is Santa Claus and resigned from his teaching job after reports that he was intimidating his students. Bates brushes off the criticisms of Bentivolio, saying his creative qualities make him a strong candidate.
As far as the presidential race is concerned, Liberty For All has steered clear of getting involved ever since the general election began. While the Super PAC did support Rep. Ron Paul's primary bid, Ramsey says he sees little difference between President Obama and Mitt Romney in terms of foreign policy and economic policies and thinks there will be little change no matter who wins the election.
With the election just a few days away, this young Super PAC will soon know if their investment paid off. But Ramsey and Bates say they're just getting started and are already looking ahead to the 2014 election, when they plan to target some high-level Republicans, possibly including South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham.
To find out more about the Brat PAC and where they will turn their attentions next, check out this week's Spinners and Winners.The highly anticipated featherweight unification bout between Jose Aldo and Conor McGregor is finally set for UFC 194 on Dec. 12 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
UFC president Dana White confirmed the news on Monday in an interview with Yahoo! Sports.
According to White, the promotion explored the option to put the fight at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas after the MGM was not available on the proposed date of Dec. 5 thanks to a previously scheduled Andrea Bocelli concert.
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Officials at the MGM Grand "moved heaven and Earth" according to White to make sure the arena was available for Dec. 12 so the UFC opted to put the Aldo vs. McGregor fight there instead.
The other benefit moving the fight to Dec. 12 is UFC 194 won’t go head-to-head with any other major sports events happening that day.
With Aldo vs. McGregor now set for Dec. 12 in Las Vegas, that means the other fight rumored for the same card — a women’s bantamweight title fight between Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate — will shift to a different show likely in early 2016.
Aldo vs. McGregor is already expected to be one of the biggest cards of the year and Rousey has proven to be a massive draw for the UFC whenever she competes. Keeping the two biggest UFC superstars on the same card was likely the ticket needed to sell upwards of 100,000 seats if the organization actually did a show at the home of the Dallas Cowboys.
Now that it’s no longer a reality, McGregor can face Aldo in Las Vegas while Rousey will get her third fight with Tate on a later date.
"That fight isn’t going to be on the (Aldo vs. McGregor) card, for sure," White said about Rousey vs. Tate 3. "If we were going to go to Dallas Cowboys’ stadium, that’s another story, but the MGM really wanted the fight and they made a huge effort for it and they got it.
"And it works out better for us to be in Las Vegas."
So let the promotion officially begin for the long awaited title fight grudge match as Aldo faces McGregor with the winner walking out as the undisputed featherweight champion of the world.The Government’s Pre-election Fiscal Outlook (PEFO) was a non-event in one sense but it did underscore two important lessons, the absurdity of a 10 year forecast and the need for a stronger Parliamentary Budget Office.
Coming only 17 days after the 2016-17 budget, PEFO essentially confirmed the budget numbers. It would have been worrying if it had not done so, considering the PEFO comes from the same Treasury and Department of Finance that produced the budget.
The first important lesson we should draw from the budget and PEFO is the absurdity of costing spending or tax changes over a 10 year period. We are told for instance that the budget cut to the company tax rate to 25% will cost A$48.2 billion over 10 years, while Treasury noted that “as with all projections over 10 years these costings have considerable uncertainty attached to them”. Then why produce a number to one decimal point? It conveys an entirely unjustified degree of precision.
This year’sFederal Budget Paper No 1, Statement 7 is a sobering read. Chart 5, see below, shows the forecast errors for tax receipts, not 10 years out, but one year out. It compares the budget forecast for the forthcoming year with the actual outcome for that year.
In every one of the six years since 2010 the forecasts have been wrong by large margins – but worse, the errors are all in the same direction, that is, receipts have been less than forecast.
This forecasting record calls into serious question Treasury’s stubborn adherence to assumptions that repeatedly turn out to be wrong. The biggest single source of error is company tax receipts which were overestimated last year by A$3.5 billion, which makes a projected number like A$48.2billion over not one but 10 years an exercise in pure fiction, and to give the number to a decimal point is silly.
The budget forecasts (which apply to the next four years) as distinct from the projections (which extend for a further 6 years) come with “confidence intervals”. For example Treasury can only be 70% confident that tax receipts will turn out to be equal to the budget figure plus or minus A$30 billion (1.8% of GDP) by 2017-18, implying a 30% chance that the budget figure could be wrong by more than A$30 billion. The 90% confidence interval is wider - plus or minus A$50 billion (2.9% of GDP).
These are wide margins considering we are talking about outcomes only three or four years away. These margins get wider the further into the future. So 10 years out we really have no idea.
Perhaps the more important lesson from the budget and PEFO outcomes is the need to elevate the role of the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO). It needs more teeth.
Its current role is “to inform the Parliament by providing independent and non-partisan analysis of the budget cycle, fiscal policy and the financial implications of proposals.” This needs strengthening.
Rather than just providing independent analysis of the budget the PBO should independently produce fiscal rules aimed at fiscal sustainability, ensuring that government debt is not set to rise inexorably under current settings and that our AAA credit rating is maintained. A government that breaches the fiscal rules should be called out by the PBO and suffer public censure.
The PBO should take account of the likelihood of the Senate passing legislation, of political compromises, of credit rating changes, and of international economic risks arising for example from commodity prices and China’s economy. The fiscal councils in Belgium, Denmark and Sweden operate rather like this and the evidence suggests that they have improved fiscal discipline by increasing the political costs on governments for lack of discipline.
We could go further and allow the PBO to operate like Australia’s independent Reserve Bank which controls the key monetary policy instrument and sets monetary policy independent of government. In that case the PBO would provide the government with a maximum spending limit and a deficit limit, consistent with fiscal targets.
The government would control the mix of spending and taxation consistent with these fiscal targets. Admittedly this is extreme and has not been tried in other countries, but with increasing government indebtedness around the world perhaps it should be.
The federal government’s debt has risen from minus A$45 billion (a net asset position) in 2007-8 to A$285 billion in 2015-16 (or 17.3% of GDP). The global financial crisis and subsequent drop in commodity prices had a lot to do with this.
But now that it is clear the economic cycle is not going to repair the budget, the government should tighten its belt to ensure that future generations are not picking up the tab. This is not currently happening – the budget forecasts net debt in four years’ time to be in fact higher than now, at 17.8% of GDP, and with no reduction in spending as a share of GDP.
A beefed-up PBO, acting as an independent fiscal agency, would call out the government on such a lack of fiscal discipline.A church in Beaverton, Oregon is suing a woman after she posted a negative Google review calling them a “cult.”
Julie Anne Smith revealed on her blog in March that Pastor Chuck O’Neal and Beaverton Grace Bible Church had sued her for $500,000 over negative reviews on Google and DEX that claimed that she had been shunned for no reason.
“I thought, I’m just going to post a review,” Smith told KATU. “We do it with restaurants and hotels and whatnot, and I thought, why not do it with this church?”
Smith said that after leaving the church a few years ago, the pastor instructed members to shun her family.
“If I went to Costco or any place in town, if I ran into somebody, they would turn their heads and walk the other way,” she explained. “All we did was asked questions. We just raised concerns. There’s no sin in that.”
In their 54-page lawsuit, Beaverton Grace Bible Church claimed that Smith had defamed them by using words like “creepy,” “cult,” “control tactics” and “spiritual abuse.”
“What we had was indoctrination… That is how cult leaders work,” the suit alleges Smith wrote. “Don’t waste your precious lives and relationships being held emotionally/spiritually captive by this so-called church.”
Another message claimed that the “beloved pastor knew about a sex offender in the church who had access to the nursery and children on a weekly basis and did not have any safeguards in place.”
“This is a very destructive and disturbing ‘church.’ … The exra-Biblical legalistic teaching is wrong. The gossip/slander, disclosure of what goes on in private counseling sessions, sex offenders have free reign in childrens’ [sic] areas with no disclosure to parents. … This is not a safe place.”
According to comments posted on Google Maps, O’Neal had first threatened to sue Smith on February 25.
“DEFAMATION IS A CRIME: Pastor Chuck O’ Neal, his wife, his children, and Beaverton Grace Bible Church as a whole, have suffered JulieAnne’s hateful lying slander for well over three years,” O’Neal wrote. “After seeking counsel from a pastor on staff with Grace Community Church (under Pastor John MacArthur) and reading him several excerpts from JulieAnne’s endless defamation, he recommended that we FILE A LAWSUIT in an appeal to Caesar as the Apostle Paul did when falsely accused of crimes against God and the state.”
“Her many lies and vicious criminal accusations will not stand in the light of day in the Washington County courthouse or in the coming courtroom before God.”
Smith’s profile says that she started her blog after noticing that her negative reviews had been removed from Google.
“Days after the commencement of this blog, I received a legal summons suing me and three others for defamation to the tune of $500,000,” she recalled. “The story of spiritual abuse needs to be told. People are being hurt emotionally and spiritually by pastors who use bully tactics and we need a place to learn, to talk freely, and to heal. I will not be silenced.”
The lawsuit also target’s Smith’s daughter and three other commenters.
At the time of publication, Beaverton Grace Bible Church had a rating of one and a half stars on Google.
Watch this video from KATU, broadcast May 12, 2012.
(h/t: The Blaze)New Logan Square Coffee Shop To Be 100% Dedicated To Preventing Suicide
By Emma G. Gallegos in Food on Oct 23, 2017 8:33PM
The coffee shop will be located in the old Dill Pickle Co-op Space on Fullerton, pictured here (Google Maps)
Sip Of Hope rendering
Jonny Boucher, the CEO of the local nonprofit Hope for the Day, is partnering with the people behind Dark Matter for Sip of Hope, a new kind of coffee shop scheduled to open in spring. Boucher tells Chicagoist that it's not unusual for a venue to raise awareness and dedicate a certain percentage of their proceeds to this or that cause for a week or month. But day-in, day-out Sip Of Hope will not only be dedicating 100% of their proceeds to suicide prevention efforts but it will serve as outreach. It will fight the tradition of silence and stigma, and of suicidal people being told to suck it up. The shop's motto will be: it's okay to not be okay.
"If shit hits fan, and life's kicking you in the ass, you can come in," Boucher says. "And you don't have to worry about insurance."
Boucher happens to be friends with Dark Matter Coffee founder Jesse Diaz, and he's a big coffee fan, so the partnership came naturally.
Patrons looking for a cup of coffee or a place to do work will be able to walk into the shop and do their business as they would any other coffee place. But Sip Of Hope will have a prominent resource area for folks who might be struggling. There will be information on the coffee cups, too. The baristas will not only be trained in how to brew a solid cup of coffee, but they will also have the mental health equivalent of CPR training.
"Bartenders, baristas, barbers are the ones that get us through the day," Boucher says. "It's not a counseling session but it's a way to start a conversation."
The new space will have a sidewalk patio, and a 35-foot coffee bar inside. Though he considered other neighborhoods—including Uptown where his organization is currently based—he's excited to be in Logan Square, a diverse and changing neighborhood.
Boucher had been a fan of the Dill Pickle Co-op's role in the community and its space, so he was excited when he was hunting for a location and saw that it was moving on to a bigger space. Boucher says, "The way I see it, one social enterprise was leaving, another is coming in to nurture a neighborhood and nurture a city."
He says his group is already partnering with the library across the street to offer free mental health first aid trainings, which he says is particularly important for first responders, like fire and police officers.
This shop reflects the philosophy behind Boucher's suicide prevention nonprofit, Hope for the Day. Rather than set up another resource center, Boucher's group aims to find struggling folks wherever they are at to deliver the message that you're far from alone if you're wrestling with mental health issues—and then it aims to connect people with the resources they need to address their crisis head on. Too many people are afraid to speak up before it's too late, he says.
Boucher says that while mental health issues are incredibly widespread, resources for them and outreach lag behind. Some groups that exist focus on particularly hard-hit populations, like veterans and the LGBT community, but Boucher wants to raise awareness that mental health issues can hit people from all walks of life. Boucher says nonprofits that are dedicated to delivering this message are often hamstrung by efforts that don't take into account the way life is actually lived.
A lot of Hope for the Day's suicide prevention efforts dovetail with the music community, which was where Boucher worked before he experienced one too many friends and colleagues losing their lives to suicide. He's asked musicians and even Michelin starred chefs to share their stories and break their silence so that people in all communities would know they weren't alone.
Hope for the Day recently partnered with 3 Floyds Brewing and the band Mastodon for a batch of beer with labels that listed resource numbers for people struggling. Partnering with a beer company might not fly at a traditional nonprofit, but because alcohol does play such a role in the lives of so many people—Boucher has a relative who drank himself to death—Boucher didn't think he could afford not to partner with a beer company.
Sip of Hope is slated to open this spring, hopefully before May, which is mental health awareness month. If you're interested in sponsoring the coffee shop's opening, you can make a donation here. And on Dec. 2, there will be a fundraiser at WeWork Chicago to honor Diaz.
If someone you know exhibits warning signs of suicide: do not leave the person alone, remove any firearms, alcohol, drugs or sharp objects that could be used in a suicide attempt, and call the U.S. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255) or take the person to an emergency room or seek help from a medical or mental health professional. Hope for the Day has more resources available here.Review of Beer Wars
Review of “Beer Wars ” 2009 by Anat Barron
This morning I sat down on my couch, curled up with the cats and popped in a flick. Sunday mornings are always a great time to sit around and veg out, especially after a fantastic evening out on the town.
I popped in “Beer Wars.” A flick that came out in 2009 that was written, produced, and directed by Anat Barron, former GM of Mike’s Hard Lemonade. Anat, who is the narrator, uses her experiences in the beer market to paint a credible “David vs Goliath” picture of craft brewing versus macro brewing. She leads us through the doors of brew houses, board rooms, bars, brew masters homes and on the road with them as she explains how extremely competitive the $97 billion dollar a year beer market is, and how companies like Anheuser Busch are using their marketing machine to brainwash you to think that light lagers are “America’s Beer” instead of some delicious and flavorful beers created by American ingenuity.
Production quality of the movie was pretty good for being an obvious low budget film. I thought the graphics were good, the camera work was solid and for the most part everything sounded good. There were a couple of parts in the movie that I thought it was ending, but it wasn’t or there were times the story would jump from one subject to another and confuse me a little bit, but since the movie isn’t overly technical and had good supporting graphics it was easy to get back up to speed.
Beer Wars is centered around a solid casts of beer enthusiasts and brewers. From Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head Brewery in Delaware to Rhonda Kallman, who helped Sam Adam’s become what it is today, along with a whole lot of other support appearances from people such as Charlie Papazian, Dick Yuengling Jr from the oldest brewery in America, Yuengling, Todd from Beer Advocate, Jim Koch of Sam Adam’s and many more. All of these characters are connected by one specific idea. They all have an extreme passion for beer and the idea of empowering the consumer to make a choice based on individualism and education, not mass marketing and black hat tactics used by major brewers in the industry.
Going into this movie I thought it was going to be about craft brewers and their stories, great start up stories from places like New Belgium or fun and interesting information about the GABF, but the movie is much more centered around the beer industry as a whole and the struggles that craft brewers face to take a piece of the pie away from big corporations. For example there is a segment in the movie that discusses how beer is placed in stores such as a Wal-Mart or a grocery store. The segment highlights how much of the product placed is owned by companies like A/B and how their shelf space is like a billboard for their brand. One fact that really stuck with me that I never thought about is when you go to the store, why are there so many options in packaging for the same product? Six-packs, 12 packs, 20 packs, cases, bottles, cans, pounders, and so on. All of these products are taking up vital space that could be used for a new craft beer or at the very least another option. Then the movie goes on to explain that the people who draw up these schematics for the beer aisle are, 75% of the time, people from Anheuser Busch. The movie is filled with these ideas that help you understand how intently A/B is working to try and keep you buying their products and how they are trying to make it an enormous struggle for the other guys.
I appreciate the nature of the movie though as its shot off the cuff in a documentary style that reminds me of a Michael Moore film. I really enjoyed the feeling of being behind the scenes at the Dogfish Brewery and even in Sam’s house with this wife and kids, or even his hotel room. I think this is the new way of media, to show people being people, not these faceless brands that you can’t relate to. So I tip my hat to Anat for sticking to this style.
One of my favorite parts of the movie is when Anat does the blind taste test of Bud Light, Miller Light and Coors Light, something I want to do with my friends,and not one person could tell the difference. People coming in saying they are a “Bud Light guy”, or an obvious Biker dude, decked out in leather who chants “beer, I need beer” when he’s really referring to Coors Light, and for some reason can’t pick it out of the mix. It really makes one think about the brainwashing style of advertising that is done to win your dollar. They make you think you are a Bud Light guy, but you really have no idea. The movie does a really good job of making want to hate the big 3 or, now, the big 2 brewing companies in America.
I felt the movie did lack in a couple of areas though. I think in this particular movie the message wasn’t clear enough. I felt I was learning a lot about why I should question beers like Bud and Miller, but was never explained a lot about the alternative. There was a lot of time spent on the bad things about macro breweries such as A/B, but not enough time talking about beer. I mean that is what we are drinking, that is what the product is, that is why we are watching the movie. It is established quite heavily that A/B has their fingers in everything to prevent the consumer from going to a different brand, but what about their beer? Why are consumers still drinking it? They were never asked. Why is Dogfish Head’s beer so much better than A/B? I felt the movie was missing that type of component. The movie is an obvious proponent for the craft brew revolution, but anyone watching this flick that isn’t into craft brew is probably not being educated about the thing we love so much. The beer. A segment about what makes and goes into craft brews and how the whole brewing process is creative and as respectable as a chef’s would have helped this movie reach out to more than just craft brew drinkers. So there is a certain sense that I haven’t learned anything I didn’t know, which is, don’t drink Bud Light, enjoy craft beer.
There is an added bonus though, there is a special feature to the movie that brings in a panel discussion of the movie. Ben Stein mediates the discussion and the panel consists of Anat, Sam, Charlie, Todd, Rhonda, Greg Koch of Stone Brewing and Maureen Ogle, author of Ambitious Brew. They discuss deleted scenes, beer and business philosophy. It is an added bonus at the end of the movie that is totally worth watching. Papazian doesn’t say much, but when he does it really makes me want to shake his hand.
The message that I take away from the movie and the main reason I would recommend the movie to others is the idea of individualism and choice. Each day we are bombarded with million dollar advertising campaigns that are trying to convince us of something we don’t want. The idea is that the craft industry is growing, but can it continue to grow before the big bad corporation spends all of its money to prevent it from expanding. By requesting craft beers from your bars, liquor stores and castingyour vote for another type of beer at the store, you are helping the revolution that is being fought over better beer.
Overall Review of Beer Wars
I think this movie is a solid informational watch. It isn’t long, coming in at 89 minutes and will surely leave you thinking about it. The quality is good, the information is solid, and the style of the movie really helps to add credibility to the concept. Regardless of its short comings of being a little confusing on the message and distinguishing what the overall point of Beer Wars, I think this is a good watch. This would be an even better watch for people who are not craft brew drinkers as I think it would inspire them to think differently about the advertising and choices they make at the store. So if you know someone like that, bring them over for a craft or home brew and watch Beer Wars.
I’d love to hear what you think about Beer Wars. Did you get confused on the message like I did?
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Related PostsComic conventions, like political conventions, are places where groups of like-minded enthusiasts gather for pageantry and the revelation of a superhero to save modern times. Commune with society saviors with today’s Groupon: for $10, you get one adult ticket to the Wizard World Philadelphia Comic Con at the Pennsylvania Convention Center (a $35 value at the door; up to a $30 advance value). Up to two children 10 and younger receive free admission when they are accompanied by an adult. Choose between the following dates:
Friday, June 17 from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Sunday, June 19 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The Wizard World Philadelphia Comic Con herds international artists, writers, and celebrities into the Pennsylvania Convention Center, creating one superpowered carnival atmosphere. Attendees can wander the pavilion's floor and meet their film and comic-book idols face-to-face, asking penetrating questions about their artistic processes, favorite projects, and availability to join a vigilante crackdown on line-cutters. The day’s program features events and guests, including Adam West of Batman renown, Eisner Award–nominated artist Ethan Van Sciver, and Vivica A. Fox of Kill Bill and Independence Day. Comic Con guests can dress up in comic- or movie-themed costumes as elaborate as Rube Goldberg's lamest excuse while they circulate the convention center to collect autographs, merchandise, and photos with fellow enthusiasts.Jim Mahar, whose Mahar’s Public Bar in Albany was a bastion of beer for nearly a quarter of a century, has died, according to a post on the now-defunct bar’s Facebook page. He was 65 and had been battling cancer.
Mahar’s daughter Caitlin Rizzo tells me there will be a gathering of memorial and appreciation at 7 p.m. Wednesday (8/5) at Hill Street Café, 180 Madison Ave., Albany. Friends, fans and customers are welcome. At Mahar’s request, funeral arrangements are private.
An Albany native, Mahar worked in various jobs including in retail and for the state before deciding, in 1989, to open his own bar. He thrived on the social aspect of being a proprietor surrounded by like-minded beer fans, his family said, and his collection of photos with customers runs well into the thousands.
Open until 2013 at 1110 Madison Ave., Mahar’s Public Bar carried hundreds of beers, with new stock arriving often. It maintained a database of more than 33,000 customer names and the brews they had sampled as part of the bar’s World Tour of Beer program. Several hundred people had brass plaques with their names commemorating having drunk at least 500 different beers at Mahar’s. Beer-tour members continue the tradition at the Allen Street Pub in Albany.
“It was definitely a beer nerd’s paradise,” local beer expert and blogger Chad Polenz said for a 2013 Times Union story about the closure of Mahar’s. Polenz is soliciting Mahar’s memories here. It was replaced by another beer bar, Madison Pour House, after the building was sold. Jim Mahar ran a second Mahar’s bar in the village of Castleton from 2010 until last fall.
Mahar’s, which for most of its life had a virtual monopoly on drawing the craft-beer crowd, faced significant competition in its final years from other bars, but it always maintained a play-by-its-own-rules quirkiness. Any discussion of Mahar’s invariably included vocal detractors, who found its customs alien, its patrons and staff aloof, unfriendly or condescending and its lack of food a detriment. For its many passionate advocates, however, Mahar’s was a singular haven for aficionados of the art of brewing.
He is survived by his wife of 20 years, Laurie; daughters Caitlin Rizzo and Jennifer Rice; son Devin; stepsons Baird Forma and Adam Forma; three grandchildren; and other extended family.
I will link to Jim Mahar’s obituary when available.New data from market-analysis firm NPD Group say that Mac sales fell 16 percent in February, a sobering reminder that the economic crisis is starting to hit Cupertino even further. This is a much larger figure than the 6 percent drop NPD reported for January 2009.
Contrast Apple’s numbers with NPD’s figures for PC sales. Those rose 22 percent, buoyed by strong sales of low-cost netbooks. Breaking the numbers down by segment, unit sales of Apple laptops and desktops fell 7 percent and 36 percent, respectively. Sales of Windows-based laptops rose 36 percent while desktops took a 10-percent hit. (Remove netbooks from the equation, NPD says, and sales of Windows laptops only increased by 16 percent.)
NPD’s data, which is based on tracking retail sales from Apple stores, Best Buy and Amazon, seem to indicate that many consumers could be putting off their purchases of Apple hardware.
Remember, during Apple’s quarterly conference call to announce earnings last fall, CEO Steve Jobs pointed out that Apple’s customers are more likely to postpone their purchases instead of going for a cheaper alternative.
Of course, February saw very little change to Apple’s hardware offerings. The 17-inch MacBook Pro announced at January’s Macworld Expo didn’t begin shipping until the middle of the month. And the big changes to Apple’s desktop lineup didn’t occur until the first week of March.
Have any of you postponed buying a Mac because of the economy? If things were back to normal, what would you get?After watching teammate Luis Suarez torment Norwich City with four goals of supreme technique on Wednesday, Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard predicted that the No.7 could soon rival Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo among the world's best.
The Uruguayan produced a virtuoso performance against the Canaries at Anfield, notching with a 40-yard volley, an agile finish from a corner, a dribble and long-range drive, and finally a precise free-kick.
In 2013-14 so far, the Reds' No.7 has struck 13 times in just nine Barclays Premier League appearances - at least two more than any other player in the division despite missing the opening five fixtures.
Such numbers stack up favourably alongside La Liga superstars Messi and Ronaldo - considered by most to currently be the two greatest players in world football - and Gerrard believes Suarez has the potential to emulate their achievements.
"You have seen a world-class performance, probably one of the best individual performances I've seen at Anfield - and I've been playing here a long time," he told Liverpoolfc.com following the 5-1 win.
"Having worked with him every single day, it's probably less of a surprise to me as it is to the supporters. I've been pushing his corner for a long time that he is up there with the best in the world.
"I think he's getting so close to the main two, Ronaldo and Messi. If he keeps going, I think he can catch them. His fourth goal was average and it was a 30-yard free-kick, so I think that sums his performance up."
Watch the video here »
The Reds' convincing victory over Norwich provided an immediate and ideal response to the disappointing defeat by Hull City on Sunday, allowing Brendan Rodgers' team to consolidate fourth place.
The skipper reflected: "That's what the manager asked for - a big reaction. It was a bad few days after Hull, everyone was down and we weren't proud of the performance.
"We let ourselves down. There have been a couple of occasions this season that we have done it and come unstuck; one was Southampton at home and one was Hull away.
"Hopefully there are not too many more. At home against the teams lower down the league we have been ruthless and that's what we showed tonight. We were ruthless from the first minute.
"It was all about the reaction tonight and the three points. We're really pleased but we've got to match that again against West Ham or tonight is pointless. We have been really good at home, for the majority of games we have been superb.
"There was only Southampton where we haven't turned up. If we keep performing to that level, we can make Anfield a fortress - if you want to be successful in this league, you've got to make your home ground a fortress."
[OTPA_WIDGET_CONTENT]
Gerrard was highly unfortunate not to increase his goals tally for the campaign during the closing minutes at Anfield, as his improvised flick towards the net cruelly bounced away off the woodwork.
He nevertheless racked up another assist, though, creating Suarez's second strike with a neat flick-on from a first-half corner - courtesy of a piece of direction given to him by the manager.
On hitting the post, the No.8 added: "I can't claim that I meant that, to be honest. Philippe tried to put me through and I just swung my leg at it and got a bit of luck - I thought it was going to creep in, it would have been nice.
"If I don't take the corners, the manager asks me to attack the near post - I got a little bit of a flick on it, so I'm claiming the assist on that one.
"We have been deadly at set-pieces this year. We need to continue that, a lot of goals are scored in this league from set-pieces. We're really pleased with that."
Relive Luis Suarez's incredible, four-goal performance against Norwich City – including his wonder strikes from 10 angles, LFCCTV plus a compilation of his trebles past the Canaries – by becoming an LFC TV Online subscriber. Click here for more information.Nestled away behind a corner of broken and worn stone, hidden within the Medina of Tunis, a solitary figure stands. Emblazoned on a wall, the etched caricature of Mohamed Hanchi stands alone, the black and blue ink complemented by only the clear sky above and the rose red anger – or was it blood? – on his cheeks, a tribute to the nineteen year old killed earlier this year when the people rose up against the government of Ben Ali. One martyr out of dozens, hidden away in this city on another wall, another street, another square, standing silent until rain will eventually wash them away. Less than a block away, stretching up the side of a two story house, another image sits, under a flowering branch of a tree and partially obscured by a parked three wheeled cargo truck. Upon it, stylized figures climb on each others’ backs, forming an improbable ladder with the Tunisian flag on top, the figure on the bottom hop scotching along a numbered pathway spiraling to la fin, ‘democratie’.
Documentary Graffiti
During and since the Tunisian revolution a tremendous transformation has taken place. An explosion of campaigning, newspapers, poetry, and public art has swept through a country where political and religious expression was brutally repressed. These mechanisms for control rested not only on political and economic means, but on a complex framework that dominated an individual’s interaction with the social and public sphere, and in a larger sense, their everyday interaction with society as a whole. Much of the public art that has emerged within Tunisia has sought to counter these mechanisms, and redefine space previously dominated by the government. As campaigns of civil resistance spread across Tunisia in late December and January, toppling Ben Ali, streets and squares were filled, occupied, renamed and covered in artwork that targeted not only the political system of the country, but sought to reclaim the public and social sphere, and fundamentally change individual interactions within them.
The street art in the Medina, of the boy killed during the revolution, and of the people hopscotching towards Democracy was part of this movement. It was created during February and March, as protests against the government continued, by the Zoo Project, a French Algerian graffiti artist based in Paris, to celebrate achievements of the revolution and to highlight the 236 ordinary citizens who lost their lives during the uprising. Mohammed Hanchi was killed on February 25th during clashes between police and demonstrators that led to the resignation of prime |
-in-time/182158581977012
Lancashire Fusiliers in a flooded communication trench, showing wire. St.Yves, near Ploegsteert Wood, January 1917.
(Photo by Lt. John Warwick Brooke )
(© IWM Q 4662)Brooke,
“On the 22nd of January 1917 the Lancs took over the trenches at St Yves near Ploegsteert. That afternoon the Germans opened a heavy bombardment which caused great damage to the defences.The Germans then attacked with three groups of about 30 men.The first group were driven back by Lewis gun fire but the other two made it to the front line at ‘Broken Tree House’ and began advancing in both directions down the trench. 2nd Lt Nathan organised his men, despite being wounded by a bomb and held off the attackers on both flanks. Meanwhile 2nd Lt Rufus put together a bombing party and set off for the enemy. Captain Beswick, who had been in reserve, set up a platoon and a Lewis gun team. The three officer’s parties converged on the Germans who did not hang around for a fight. In this pointless action the enemy had gained nothing and the Fusiliers had lost 1 officer and 18 other ranks killed with another 29 wounded.” (My Ypres Salient Homage)
(Colourised by Royston Leonard from the UK)
https://www.facebook.com/ pages/ Colourized-pictures-of-the- world-wars-and-other-perio ds-in-time/182158581977012
The Australian 12th M.G. Company, 45th Battalion, 12th Brigade, 4th Division, near Anzac Ridge at Polygon Wood in the Ypres Sector, where very heavy casualties were sustained.
Photo taken on the 28th of September, 1917.
‘Sgt. John Francis Coyle’s photo (from his war album) with his own notation of his shrapnel wound received – injured with Bill(?) on the 26th of September 1917’.
JFC – In his own words….
“This time the M.G’s were boxing on at Polygon Wood (it was also referred to as the “Passchendaele Stunt”). About the muddiest, dirtiest joint I’ve ever been in. I did very little here. In fact it was a shame to take the money let alone the medal. At this stage of the carnival I happened to be a full blown Sergeant.
My job was to look after four gun Crews and keep the guns firing on the set target until the infantry in front of us he gained their objective. This we did to some effect, because they got there as planned and with fewer casualties than reckoned on (I often wondered how the poor fellas got through the mud so well and with such good results as we were just about up to the seat of our strides in this same slimy slurry – in some parts of the ditch anyway).
The only dangerous part I took in this stunt was to keep moving to and from each gun-pit checking the guns and issuing orders to each No 1 as to how many shots and at what intervals he was to give the bursts. Jerry was putting over quite a lot of shrapnel and eventually got uncomfortably close to our well concealed positions.
A Tom Brown from Queensland kept telling me to take cover or you’ll certainly catch a pellet or two. I had hardly finished saying to him “That’ll be just bad luck, Tom” when a piece of ‘shrap’ smacked me behind the right shoulder. Tom applied a field bandage and I stayed for a while but the bleeding continued. Later the barrage died down and the battle was just about over, so down to casualty clearing went Sgt. Coyle.
From there they sent me to Rouen Base Hospital where I spent five beautiful, restful days and nights lying about in a lovely clean bed. Then they tramped me back to my Unit. I wasn’t very sorry about it because hadn’t two bob to my name and had no chance of getting any pay until I rejoined the Unit.”
“Up to Polygon Wood and the filthy mud once more. We were only there four days then we were withdrawn for a spell. And that was the last stunt I had in [that area of] Belle France. Our 12th Coy. Machine Gunners were again mentioned in despatches so we must have done a satisfactory job here.”
Lieutenant John Francis Coyle – MM & Bar, Croix de Guerre
World War One Service at Gallipoli & the Western Front
(B: 1895 – D:1973)
(Colourised by Royston Leonard from the UK)
https://www.facebook.com/ pages/ Colourized-pictures-of-the- world-wars-and-other-perio ds-in-time/182158581977012 Royal Army Medical Corps stretcher-bearers carrying a wounded German prisoner down a road in Hermies (which is a town in the Department of the Pas-de-Calais, approximately 3.5 kilometres south of the road from Bapaume to Cambrai)
20th November 1917.
(© IWM Q 3180 Photographer -Lt. Ernest Brooks)
There were two types of Stretcher Bearers (SBs) in the Great War; Regimental SBs and those in the Royal Army Medical Corps. The ones at regimental level were in infantry battalions; traditionally in peace time these men were part of the battalion band and were musicians as well as SBs, but following the formation of Kitchener’s Army in 1914 that gradually began to change and men were selected for the aptitude rather than their ability to play an instrument, with the medical training coming second. Regimental SBs were the first port of call for battlefield wounded; they would search the battlefield for casualties and take them to the Regimental Aid Post for treatment by the RMO – the Regimental Medical Officer – usually a Lieutenant or Captain from the RAMC. From here they would be taken to a collection point where SBs from the RAMC would take over and transport them back to the nearest Advanced Dressing Station (ADS) or Main Dressing Station (MDS).
The weight of a wounded man was something to be reckoned with and while in pre-war training SBs practiced in pairs, the reality on mud-soaked battlefields was that it would take more personnel to evacuate each casualty even on relatively good ground; as illustrated here.
The Royal Army Medical Corps was formed in 1898 to properly provide medical facilities for soldiers on the battlefields. Many useful lessons had been learnt from the Boer War and the advance in medicine in the late Victorian and Edwardian periods meant that by 1914 the RAMC provided among the best medical facilities of any combattant nation in Europe. As the army expanded the RAMC likewise had to grow too and the most common form of RAMC unit during WW1 was the Field Ambulance. These consisted of 10 officers and 224 men who operated close to the battlefield providing immediate medical treatment for casualties being brought in from the areas where the fighting was taking place. At a Field Ambulance a wounded soldier would be treated, stabilised and assessed and most likely moved on to the next level of medical facility – usually a Casualty Clearing Station – by ambulance; either horse drawn or motorized.
(Colourised by Royston Leonard from the UK)
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Colourized-pictures-of-the-world-wars-and-other-periods-in-time/182158581977012There are few things more frustrating than staring at loading screens and progress bars. In the modern age of gaming however, it’s an inevitability. Discs have to be read, hard drives have to load, and files need to be downloaded. Combine this with a lengthy setup process, account verification, game installations, and everything else, it all adds up to a whole lot of waiting. That fate is no different for the soon-to-be-released PS4 Pro.
If you’re getting a new PS4 Pro as your first foray into the PS4 ecosystem, then congrats! Your setup process is fresh and painless. Sign up for or log into your PSN account (you should definitely get PlayStation Plus if you don’t have it already) and enjoy the bountiful world of PlayStation.
But what if you already have a PlayStation 4 and you’re buying the PS4 Pro as a marginal mid-generation upgrade? With over 40 million PS4s sold so far, that likely applies to a lot of people.
Getting Ready To Transfer Your Data
Thankfully, Sony has made it relatively painless to transfer all of your data to the your new, beefier, console. But before you start the process, you need to make sure you have everything in order. Otherwise, you’ll hit errors or it won’t go through properly.
First of all, ensure that both of your PS4s are plugged in. Sounds obvious, but it’s important. They both must also be on the most recent firmware version, so just to be safe, check for updates from the settings menus. If you use multiple users and accounts on your PS4, then you’ll have to go in and sync the trophies for each account (Settings>Trophies) and also sign into PSN to link everything together.
Transferring Data From A PS4 To A PS4 Pro
Connect your PS4 and PS4 Pro to the same WiFi network, then connect them together using an ethernet cable. That’s really about it. During the initial setup phase of your PS4 Pro, you should have been prompted to start this process assuming you prepared everything correctly, but if not, you can access it from the Settings menu.
Luckily, this transfer process is simple and painless. Now, the PS4 will transfer all of your saved data, captures like screenshots and videos, trophies if they’re synced, console settings, and even your game installations, to your shiny new PS4 Pro. Since the standard hard drive space is double the standard space of the original PS4 (500GB -> 1TB) there is a lot more space, but only a little over 800GB is actually usable. Since the PS4 Pro still doesn’t allow the use of external hard drives, you’d have to upgrade it manually if you so desired.
One thing of note, however, is that it does take some time. Transferring just around 280GB of data from my original PS4 to the PS4 Pro took a little over an hour. Plan accordingly.
Do you have any other questions about the PS4 Pro? Make sure to read our review of the console and how it measures up for use with the PS VR headset.
Tagged with: 4k, data, neo, playstation, pro, ps4, sonyWith its location just about a mile from the Boston Marathon's finish line, each year Tufts Medical Center makes extra preparations to receive patients from the race. Typically, they see cases of exhaustion and dehydration in runners.
After the hospital's staff heard and saw reports of Monday's explosions, they knew this year was different.
"We knew something was happening shortly thereafter," Dr. Brien Barnewolt, chair of emergency medicine, said at a press conference on Tuesday. "We began to empty out our emergency department and moved patients upstairs into beds in anticipation of things to come."
Video of Boston Marathon explosion
Tufts Medical Center was but one of the Boston-area hospitals to receive victims from the bombings. In total, it received 19 patients from the marathon, with 14 sustaining injuries that were blast-related. All of the patients were a mix of runners and bystanders. Ten were admitted, and 10 were still in the hospital as of early Tuesday afternoon.
Barnewolt said the one piece of luck Tufts had was that the disaster happened around 3 p.m., when the hospital staff was going through a shift change. They kept people on and had additional support from the people who were arriving.
Dr. William Mackey, chief of surgery, heard about the bombing from his office assistant, who shouted when she heard the sound of the bomb going off while listening to live radio coverage. At first, they thought it might just be a bunch of firecrackers, but when they got calls that casualties were coming in they knew something major had happened.
Patients began to pour in around 3:30 p.m., with injuries mostly to the knee or ankle. Many had significant leg, muscle and nerve injuries, and open fractures. While there were some near amputations, none of the Tufts patients lost their limbs.
Four patients immediately needed surgery, with two more who underwent additional evaluation following soon after. Later, two more people who had more elective procedures entered the operating room.
Mackey explained that all the blast injuries contained shrapnel of some kind. One woman even had the handle of a zipper embedded in her ankle, showing how strong the force of the explosion was. The majority of the patients had small metallic objects, ranging in size from a millimeter to a centimeter in size.
"It was small shards of metal," Mackey said at the press conference. "There were some people that were cut by flying glass, but most of the material was small metal."
While he couldn't identify any of the objects, Mackey believed they were not random.
"I think it looked like metal that wouldn't be something that would be lying in the street," he explained, adding the pieces could have come from the bomb, from the fences shattering or from the nearby buildings.
Dr. Howard Weinstein, who specializes in pediatric hematology and oncology at Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital, wasn't at his hospital when the victims were coming in. He was on Mile 25 of the Boston Marathon, which he has run for 23 consecutive years. At first, he and his fellow runners though the bomb was just a manhole cover that blew off.
"It took 20 to 30 seconds for us to realize it was some horrible tragedy," he told CBSNews.com.
Medical personnel work outside the medical tent in the aftermath of two blasts which exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon in Boston, Monday, April 15, 2013. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola) Elise Amendola
Weinstein was running with a 15-year-old who had just finished therapy for lymphoma. They and 105 other runners were part of the Mass General Marathon Team, which has run the marathon for 16 years to raise money for cancer research.
"A lot of the runners that were running for charity were the last phase of the marathon, so typically we come in towards the end of the day," he said. "It was timed in such a way so that people who were raising money to help others were hit."
Two runners on the Mass General Marathon Team this year were a father-daughter team. The father had run the year before while his daughter was in treatment, and she was looking forward to crossing the finish line with him. When they saw the streets line up with ambulances and fire trucks, and the SWAT teams coming in, they knew there was no chance this year.
Weinstein decided to help the Mass Gen team gather at their meeting place in the Prudential Center so family members could find them. He returned to work Tuesday to help continue to provide cancer victims with transfusions and chemotherapy.
The doctor said never in his wildest dreams could he imagine this tragedy would have happened.
"At Mile 20 we have a huge cheering squad, and our patients and their family members are waiting for us there. There were 300 folks there. I stopped for 5 minutes, and got hugs from my patients and family members. The last thing I could have ever expected to be stopped in my tracks. What was going on, it was probably one of the most shocking experiences that I've really had."I typically like to stay away from scathing reviews, they just simply aren’t my style, but at GDC this year I was subjected to something that was so bad that it reminded me of my only other truly, hilariously awful VR experience 3DHead (there’s bad VR, and then there’s Sam Rami-esque bad VR). I tried to remain objectively optimistic before with 3DHead, but then again 3DHead didn’t aggressively violate a number of my senses, it just hurt my neck to wear. FeelReal took it a step further subjecting me to a number of thoroughly unpleasant sensory experiences… all while maintaining that wonderful form factor that puts your neck to the test. I had the FeelReal on for a maximum of three minutes, and within the first seconds I had stopped laughing and simply wanted to take this face-hugger off my head. Perhaps it was a case of uncanny valley syndrome, but it certainly didn’t FeelReal enough to get to that point. Lets break down why the FeelReal is just so bad, by highlighting it through what it purports to do well.
Smell
Perhaps the biggest “selling point” is the FeelReal’s ability to add smells to a VR experience. Smell is one of the most powerful senses of them all. In fact smell is the sense that is most strongly tied to memories, and therefore makes for a compelling sense to bring into VR. This is not the first time someone has tried to bring smell to the entertainment experience. In 1962 Morton Heilig patented a system called the Sensorama, which may well have been the first ‘virtual reality’ machine (depending on who you ask). The system combined sight, sound, smell and touch to create an immersive cinema experience (albeit in a bucket seat without head tracking). In a lot of ways the FeelReal is like a miniaturized version of the Sensorama, and by miniaturized I mean it still feels like it weighs about 6 pounds (it actually weighs closer to one).
So how does the smell work? There are scent cartridges that you insert into the device, which are filled with oils. Those oils are heated up and the vapor is released through a vent, like smoke out of the stacks at a plastic smelting factory. Seriously, these smells were akin to a cheap air filter mixed with burning plastic, and that was the “good” ones. You know the the ones where they showed me some pretty flowers and I was supposed to let my brain connect the dots? Yeah didn’t happen, my brain has a hard time reading flowers through the mix of the aforementioned burning plastic and residual smells. I found myself wondering if it was even healthy to be breathing in all this oil, I mean I don’t plug in my Air Wick and camp out next to it.
Air and Heat
Speaking of burning plastic, its as if they didn’t think that smell came through strongly enough. You know that smell that comes off a cheap space heater? The one that makes you wonder if it is worth keeping it by your bed to keep you warm? Yeah, imagine that close to your face while you are trying to scale Mordor. Not. Pleasant. The FeelReal tries to bring heat to your game, and does, but at the expense of comfort within the experience.
Another thing that FeelReal tries to bring to the table is air, so that you can feel that cool breeze on top of the virtual mountain. Two problems, first of all the fan positions obviously can’t fit everyone’s face. The whole device is so massive that while it looks from the outside like it might be form fitting (I mean it has lips!) it really isn’t. It’s kinda like when you were a little kid and wanted the Superman mask and they were all out of the kid-sized ones so you had to get one that made you look like a giant bobblehead (oh wait, was that just me?). Anyway, I digress.
The air thing actually could be a nice addition to VR, I’ve seen it work well before, Birdly is a good example. Thing is, those experiences didn’t try and dangle a fan in front of your face to get that effect. Doing so was not only unnecessary it was heavy, loud and distracting. It certainly isn’t worth what little benefit it adds.
Water
Really? Is splashing water in someone’s face really so important that they needed to jam it in here too? Honestly, I don’t see how they thought this ‘feature’ would be anything other than majorly obnoxious. I’m already going to be sweating thanks to that furnace they put next to my cheeks, why add to the watery mess?
Seriously, this feature is utterly bizzare. Evoking memories of 4D theme park rides, which I always left wondering “why the heck did they need to splash me in the face with water?” I can’t really think of a single occasion where this feature would be a welcomed addition. Even if it was used exteremely sparingly it would be kind of annoying. A soft mist to the face does not replicate the feeling of splashing through white water rapids, and is actually so far from it that it is more distracting than anything (again, the uncanny valley comes to mind).
Vibration
The FeelReal also offers a facial vibration feature which wasn’t the worst thing ever. While it wasn’t an accessory feature I would really want, it was interesting having that kind of haptic feedback on my face, somewhere that typically has been ignored in the haptic device world.
That being said, the size of this thing, combined with the intensity of the rumble caused me to feel the need to hold the device the entire time I was in it; lest it rumble off and painfully fall into my lap.
Microphone
Lets talk about this bluetooth microphone. So when I have a bounty hunter mask on, I obviously am going to need some way to communicate out, especially if I am slowly passing out due to being poisoned breathing in too much of that smell oil. But did they have to make it so creepy? I mean I’ve played Alien Makeout Simulator, and that was silly fun, but I don’t want creepy robot lips near mine the entire time I am in VR.
FeelReal is going to be launching a Kickstarter last week, and if you still want to, by all means go ahead and drop the $250 they are asking on one. Their CEO, Gary Mostovoy, tells me the final version will be “three times smaller and three times lighter,” but says nothing to whether it will smell three times less like accident day at the toy factory. So if you want one, do you.
Tagged with: accessory, feelreal, morton heilig, sensorama, VRImage caption Spammers have used the stolen account information to send tweets promoting diet pills
An attack on online gossip site Gawker Media has enabled spammers to take over thousands of Twitter accounts.
Gawker said on Sunday its servers had been hacked and 1.3 million user account passwords compromised.
A file containing those details was then published on a file-sharing site by a group allied to the notorious image board 4Chan.
That enabled spammers to break into thousands of Twitter accounts where users had used the same passwords.
Gawker published a statement on its homepage advising its users to change their password after its servers were attacked.
While the stored passwords were encrypted, "simple ones may be vulnerable to a brute force attack", it said.
A group calling itself "Gnosis" subsequently released a 500MB file containing the data taken from Gawker on the file-sharing system Bittorrent.
Harvested passwords
The motivation for the attacks is not yet clear.
Gawker has previously been targeted by hackers after posting blogs critical of 4Chan.
The attackers also took over Gawker-run Twitter accounts to publish messages supporting Wikileaks.
Gawker has also published blogs critical of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
And it is not just Gawker's Twitter accounts that have been broken in to.
Every identity thief, hacker and spammer out there will be attracted to that password file Graham Cluley, Sophos
Del Harvey, who heads Twitter's trust and security team said a spam attack on the site appeared to be related to the theft of Gawker's account details.
Hundreds of thousands of Twitter users had seen their accounts compromised and messages sent promoting an Acai Berry diet.
"It's all too common that people use the same password for multiple accounts," Rik Ferguson, a security researcher at Trend Micro told the BBC.
Anybody that has had their Gawker account details published can expect to be targeted by other hackers, said Graham Cluley, a consultant at security firm Sophos.
"Every identity thief, hacker and spammer out there will be attracted to that password file," he said.
The impact would have been more serious if compromised accounts had linked to sites containing bank-credential-stealing malware, he added.
Users could protect themselves by creating complex passwords for each online service that needed a password, said Mr Ferguson.
Complex passwords can be made easy to remember, he said.
He suggested taking a the first letters from the words in a phrase a user is likely to remember, such as "I wandered lonely as a cloud".
Some letters can be replaced by symbols, perhaps using "@" instead of "a".
Finally, adding the first and last letter of the website being visited to that phrase creates a unique but memorable password that is hard to guess, he adds.Credit: DC Comics
Batman co-creator Bob Kane will be receiving a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Announced by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, the Star will be unveiled in a ceremony at 11:30 a.m. PDT October 21 on Hollywood Boulevard. The event will be live-streamed at www.WalkOfFame.com. This posthumous honor will be given to Kane for the category of Motion Pictures, and be done in front of the Guiness World Records Museum.
“Kane’s creation of American cultural icon Batman is every child’s dream Super Hero. We are excited to honor the man who gave life to this great character,” said Walk of Fame Producer Ana Martinez. “Fans from all over the world have been waiting for this monumental day and we hope Kane’s shiny star forever inspires generations of creative minds.”
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice director Zack Snyder and DC co-publisher/artist Jim Lee will be on-hand for for the event.Mimma's Cafe, which has occupied the corner of E. Brady and N. Arlington streets since 1989, will close after New Year's Eve. (Photo: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel files)
The last day for Mimma's Cafe — the Italian restaurant that brought destination dining to Brady St. in 1989 — will be New Year's Eve.
Girolama "Mimma" Megna said the time was right to retire. "I've done it so long. I've been cooking over 60 years," she said.
"I fed more people than McDonald did," the native of Sicily likes to say. "That's been my passion, to feed people."
It was time, she said, to let a younger generation take over.
The building that houses the restaurant, at 1301-1307 E. Brady, was sold recently to JC Capital 1301 Brady LLC. Its registered agent is Jeno Cataldo, a longtime neighbor of Mimma's. The Cataldo family operates Jo-Cat's Pub next door at 1311 E. Brady.
"We've known her since we've been kids," Jeno Cataldo said. Cataldo said he bought the building from R&R Property Holdings as an investment property and thought Megna — who at 70 is in the restaurant's kitchen daily and lives upstairs — would continue the restaurant for some time. Cataldo said he didn't press her to retire.
Megna said she chose Brady St. because it was what she could afford at the time — $500 a month rent. The restaurant at first had seats for 18 people, and the kitchen was small as well. The equipment included a two-burner stove, Megna recalled.
Cataldo said he has already been contacted by three restaurateurs about taking over the space, but he has his own idea for it. His family operated a restaurant called Cataldo's for 35 years at the other end of Brady St., where the recently closed restaurant Bosley on Brady stands. He would like to open a contemporary version of his family's place, "make a cool, modern — I know this sounds like an oxymoron — small-plate Italian restaurant."
Cataldo said he wants the ambience to be warm, with a Brady St. vibe. The street, he noted, has turned into a late-night dinner and drinks destination. In warm weather, the sidewalk patios outside bars and restaurants are filled with customers late into the evening.
Cataldo said he "wouldn't turn it into something that doesn't honor what (Megna) did there."
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Megna opened the restaurant at 1301 E. Brady after operating an Italian deli in Cedarburg.
The restaurant, which didn't take reservations in its early years, became so popular that patrons began waiting at nearby bars, including Jo-Cat's, where they could peruse a menu and have a drink before the restaurant called the bars to say the tables were ready.
Its popularity continued, and in two years, Megna began expanding, eventually adding two buildings to the east. The restaurant's growth is credited with helping to draw further investment to Brady St., which had deteriorated in the 1970s and '80s.
Over the years, she fed celebrities, including former Milwaukee Brewer Paul Molitor, actors Ernest Borgnine and Leslie Nielsen and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, often cooking dishes for famous and anonymous guests like their mothers used to make.
From 2002 to 2007, Megna also operated an upscale pizzeria nearby, at 1323 E. Brady St., called Vucciria, later Coco Bella. That building, owned in part by the Megna family, was lost in a foreclosure in 2008. By then, the street's revitalization was cemented.
"We have a lot of respect for what she's done there," Cataldo said.
Ald. Nic Kovac, whose 3rd District includes Brady St. and who grew up on the east side, said Mimma's is one of the businesses operated by Sicilian families that have been Brady St.'s backbone over the years. "It's an institution," he said.
Mimma's restaurant will have regular hours until its last night on Dec. 31. Megna will have a menu of "greatest hits," specialties culled from the current menu, for customers returning to see Megna and have dishes like pasta with seafood before she retires.
The restaurant's closing might not mean the last of Mimma in the kitchen, though. Cataldo said he's asked her to consult with him on the new restaurant, and Wolf Peach and Supper restaurateur Gina Gruenewald wants Megna to have a pop-up restaurant on Monday nights at Supper, called Mimma's Supper, in the restaurant's 20-seat private-event room at the Shorecrest apartments on N. Prospect Ave.
Megna said she has loved meeting customers over the years. "They will always have a special place in my heart."
But retirement will let Megna, who has survived cancer and a heart attack, leave behind her long workdays.
"Now it's time for me to cook for myself," she said.
Read or Share this story: http://on.jsonl.in/2d0qDzPThe nightclub is heaving, sweaty and loud, pulsating with blinding blue and white lights, and packed with drunken dancers. At the bar, the young sons of Burma's elite are buying bottles of Jack Daniel's and Johnnie Walker with thick wads of dirty kyat notes.
But inside the double doors and through the dark fog of the smoke machine, a cultural transformation is taking place on the dance floor. Clubbers are grinding up against each other – girls on girls, boys on boys – singing along to American hip-hop blaring out of the giant speakers in the corner.
In a country that still criminalises homosexual activity – a legacy from when the British once ruled this country of 50 million – such sights have long been kept out of view. But as Burma slowly opens up, many of its lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) population are hoping they will no longer have to stay in the shadows.
"When we cruise, we cruise with everyone else – gay or straight – because we don't have 100% gay venues here," says Chitoo, 33, a gay Burmese living in Rangoon. "If we did, the government would arrest us. But now Daw [Aung San] Suu [Kyi] is bringing human rights on to the table, and through her our voices will be louder than ever before."
Some expect the change to be rapid, such as Douglas Thompson, a gay activist who founded the LGBT-friendly travel company Purple Dragon 15 years ago and has been operating tours in Burma and other south Asian countries ever since. "If it's anything like India or China or Vietnam … when things begin to open up, people meet and communicate," he says. "Gay is an idea that people bring with them. It's a lifestyle that is really for most people [in Burma] still completely alien."
Activists say the culture of repression that has long existed in Burma – thanks to an autocratic military junta that ruled the nation for nearly 50 years – prevents many LGBT people from coming out, for fear of being ostracised by their families as much as targeted by police.
Authorities operate under the archaic 19th-century penal code 377, which criminalises "intercourse against the order of nature" and is punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Ambiguously worded laws are also used at whim to arrest, harass and intimidate anyone suspected of "doubtful acts", says Aung Myo Min, of Thailand-based advocacy group Human Rights Education Institute of Burma.
Yet slowly, Burma's LGBT community is gaining ground. Last year Burma got its first LGBT-targeted TV programme, Colours Rainbow TV, which airs once a month online and focuses on LGBT news, interviews and features from Burma and the rest of the world. Aung Myo Min's charity, which created it, estimates that it has 3,000 regular viewers within Burma, but admits the audience is limited to those who can afford internet access and have electricity – just 25% of Burma is on the national power grid. The organisation also publishes a quarterly magazine, Colours Rainbow, and distributes it free within Burma.
The suppression of the LGBT community has public health, as well as human rights, implications. According to UNAids, HIV/Aids affects roughly 240,000 people in Burma, or 0.6% of the population. But that number jumps to 29% for gay men, and the Rangoon-based Aids Alliance estimates that fewer than 20% of the 76,000 people needing anti-retroviral treatment are receiving it.
Activists blame Burma's repressive political environment, which for decades severely limited the number of international organisations and donors able to operate within its closed borders.
"The international assistance we've got right now is very low compared to other countries, and stigma is still very high, even in many donor organisations," says Nyi Nyi, a gay HIV/Aids activist working in Rangoon.
In a nation in effect long cut off from the rest of the world, Burmese society is far more conservative than its more outwardly sexualised neighbour, Thailand. Here, both men and women wear long cotton sarongs called longyi, with women taking pains to cover their shoulders and chest. Premarital sex is frowned upon and traditional beliefs are the norm, especially in rural areas, says Chitoo. "It's common for people to believe that a gay man had a bad relationship with a woman in a past life, so in this life he's punished by being 'turned' gay," he says.
"Corrective" behaviour targeted at LGBT people is common, say rights groups, with even rape used against lesbians, while families may send a gay son to the monastery to "correct" his sexual orientation.
Some names have been changed. Esmer Golluoglu is the pseudonym of a journalist working in RangoonIn 2002, rioters in the western Indian state of Gujarat savagely killed nearly 1,000 people, most of whom were part of the Muslim minority. Now, barely a decade later, Narendra Modi, who was the chief minister of Gujarat at the time and still holds the office, is a leading candidate to become prime minister of India.
Mr. Modi, a star of India’s main opposition party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, would become prime minister if the party won enough seats in parliamentary elections next summer with support from its political allies. His rise to power is deeply troubling to many Indians, especially the country’s 138 million Muslims and its many other minorities. They worry he would exacerbate sectarian tensions that have subsided somewhat in the last decade.
Supporters of Mr. Modi argue that an investigation commissioned by India’s Supreme Court cleared him of wrongdoing in the riots. And they insist that Mr. Modi, who is widely admired by middle-class Indians for making Gujarat one of India’s fastest-growing states, can revive the economy, which has been weakened by a decade of mismanagement by the coalition government headed by the Indian National Congress Party.
There is no question that the Congress Party has failed to capitalize on the economic growth of recent years to invest in infrastructure, education and public institutions like the judiciary. And instead of trying to revive itself with new ideas and leaders, it is likely to be led in the coming election by Rahul Gandhi, the inexperienced scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family.A former Democratic lawmaker called for all NFL players to kneel during the national anthem on Sunday to express resistance against "white supremacist" President Trump.
"On Sunday, I hope every NFL player takes a knee in solidarity w @kaepernick7 against the white supremacist who squats in our White House," Donna Edwards tweeted Saturday morning. Edwards is a former U.S. congresswoman from Maryland who last year lost a primary contest for the Senate.
On Sunday, I hope every @NFL player takes a knee in solidarity w @Kaepernick7 against the white supremacist who squats in our White House. — Donna Edwards (@DonnaFEdwards) September 23, 2017
Quarterback Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the national anthem in Sept. 2016 in protest of wrongdoings against minorities, an action that brought large amounts of criticism to the player, but also inspired a number of players to follow suit.
Kaepernick made headlines shortly after for sporting a pair of socks to practice that depicted police officers as pigs.Thousands of years ago, hunter-gatherers native to Europe and incoming farmers from what’s now Turkey got up close and personal for a surprisingly long time, researchers say. This mixing reshaped the continent’s genetic profile differently from one region to another.
Ancient DNA from foragers and farmers in eastern, |
right or wrong, is that a BIG would have fewer disincentives to work than the current program. That's the heart of the claim. Russ Roberts: Yeah; that's true if income effects are relatively small. Michael Munger: No, the substitution effect. The income effect, I'm just not that concerned about. I think that many people want to work and just can't, or can't get started. So, what we might disagree about is how lazy the poor are. I don't think they are lazy-- Russ Roberts: I don't want to disagree about that at all. And I don't think that's the issue. I think-- Michael Munger: Of course, I'm being tendentious. Russ Roberts: Yes, you are. It's a cheap shot, actually, I would say. Michael Munger: Yeah. Russ Roberts: A really ugly cheap shot. But the point I want to stress is that--let me say it in a different way.
13:40 Russ Roberts: I think it's really important to remember what the actual current programs to help the poor are like. And in discussions I've read of BIG--of the Basic Income Guarantee--those programs are, I think either exaggerated or mis-described. So let me make a couple of points, and you can agree or disagree. Number One, most people don't get much money if they don't work in America right now. There's not this raft of welfare programs for non-workers. If you are woman with a child, you have some opportunities. But a single man doesn't have a great life in America right now unless that person has a job. You are eligible for Food Stamps. You can get Medicaid. But you don't have a stipend. Michael Munger: No. Russ Roberts: And it's very tough. So, we distinguish between types of people, right now. And the other thing that's really important that I think is grossly misunderstood is that we transfer a lot of money to people who are technically not poor. That is: Food Stamps and many other programs--lunch programs, etc.--explicitly give money to people who are above the poverty line or above what you would call--to say it more conceptually--they transfer money to people who are well above the level we'd like to transfer money to. We do that because we have to phase the benefits out slowly as income rises, because otherwise there will be these cliff effects that you are talking about. So there are cliff effects. But they are diminished by the fact that they are phased out slowly over the income range. And they therefore give lots of money to non-poor people. So, when people say the current programs are very ineffective in helping the poor, that's because they are designed that way. And they are designed that way for a reason. It's not just an ineptitude on the part of the government. It's a very reasonable idea, that you don't want to discourage work effort--not just to save money, though that's part of the reason--but also just to--well, for a whole bunch of reasons. And so lots of non-poor people benefit from programs that are designed for the poor. And to try to suggest that we can save all this money because we'll only give money to the poor, now--I think is--excuse me, because if we give money to everybody and then we'll save all that money that we used to the poor and therefore the poor can be a lot better off then before, I think is a--is bad accounting. Michael Munger: As you know, the usual and overly simplistic form of the argument is we add up everything that we spend on welfare programs--programs for the poor--divide it by the number of poor people, and say, 'There shouldn't be any poor people. All we have to do is give them cash.' Russ Roberts: Exactly. That's what Milton Friedman argued, by the way. Michael Munger: And Charles Murray. And all of the many people who have argued for a negative income tax or basic income. That may not do that. Why not say--and then--I realize we are getting into what you said we are going to hold constant. But we're going to leave aside. But we're spending an awful lot of money that doesn't get there. So, we have the leaky bucket problem: If we could reduce the cost of administration. And many of those costs of administration are to make sure people spend things the right way. Instead of giving the cash, we give things in vouchers. Or, we give things in forms to make sure that they spend it the right way. And, you can see the argument for that, because we are worried that we want poor people to spend it on what we want--and by "we" I mean experts who are concerned about their objective welfare--thinking that, if you give them the cash, they'll spend it on something else. Now, that sort of paternalism I think is problematic; but it's not obviously false. So, one problem with this the idea: We'll give them the cash instead of the services. The other is, if you add up all the costs of the services, can you really recover that and convert it into a check? Russ Roberts: Yeah. Well, my point is, is that, what I think, when you say 'administrative costs,' I think people just think of the costs of paying the bureaucrats who move the money around. And that cost, as I understand it, is trivial. It's not zero; it's not irrelevant. But it's not going to generate a lot of--these inefficiencies of having multiple programs and multiple bureaucracies, those so-called inefficiencies are relatively small. The other point I'd make is that it's not just what the experts want. It's a Public Choice program, in my view--it's a public choice effect. Taxpayers don't want to subsidize certain types of things. And that's just straightforward. Michael Munger: Yeah. The Welfare Queen is an important trope. So, the person on welfare pulls up in the Cadillac, buys steak and cigarettes. Doesn't happen very often. But it is an important Public Choice argument, that you have this deal, where maybe some people on the Left, let's say honestly care about making sure that the poor get something. But others are concerned that, 'Well, we need to have them spend it the right way. I don't want my money wasted.' And so we impose all these restrictions.
18:52 Russ Roberts: Well, the bottom line is, let's go back now to the logistics of the budget problem. The bottom line is: You are going to transfer $15,000, $10,000, $20,000 dollars per person to people who are not poor. I think you have to raise people's taxes a lot more than you think. But that's not the most interesting aspect of this. Let's put that to the side. Just to make it clear why people are suggesting this, one answer would be: Well, yeah, it's silly to transfer money to everybody. Let's just transfer it to poor people. So, why is this argument put in this framework of, 'Well, everybody would get the check?' Michael Munger: There's two reasons. One is to try to control the Public Choice problem, which you have already raised. And that is, if we take money from some and give it to others, we're creating a kind of rent-seeking contest to make sure that you are in the Receive group and not in the Take-from group. Whereas, if everybody gets it, then we've--the incentives for rent-seeking are much reduced, because if we increase it, we have to increase it for everyone. And Friedrich Hayek made this observation about the universalism principle. There's a very nice book by Buchanan and Congleton on Politics by Principle, Not Interest, where they follow up Hayek's idea that almost any transfer we make, as long as it goes to everyone can be justified because this is something that we are not using to discriminate. Now, you might or might not accept that argument. But it is a limit, both on the Public Choice problem of rent seeking and on the--it helps solve the ethical problem of redistribution. Russ Roberts: But that's not the only reason people want to give it to everybody. And I think the main reason people want to give it to everybody is that, if you only give it to "poor people," you have this immense cliff[?] problem. So, if you say, 'Well, anybody who earns less than $25,000 a year gets $25,000,' then you've--basically people who earn $30,000, or $27,000, they are working a huge amount to get $2000. Michael Munger: Yeah, but we could smooth that, if you want to. If we were going to discriminate, we could have--once you get to the poverty level, then you wouldn't get dollar-for-dollar; and maybe we could smooth it out, all the way up to $100,000. We could smooth it. Russ Roberts: Yeah. I don't know why that isn't the more common proposal. Because, most people--just talking about marketability now: If you say to people, 'We need a new government program that gives everybody $20,000,' most people would say, 'Well, why would rich people need to get $20,000?' And I think they have a point. Michael Munger: Yeah, right. And then my response is, 'Well, we'll fiddle with tax rates.' And then you say, 'But wait, there's incentive problems there, and why not smooth it out?' Russ Roberts: Yeah; I'm not sure that fiddle-with-tax thing [?] works as easily as you do. But let's Michael Munger: That's a separate problem, yeah. I'm conceding that it's a problem.
22:00 Russ Roberts: So, let's summarize. We're talking about this idea that every single person would get a fixed amount--it might be $10,000, it might be $15,000, it might be $20,000. Could I--I've never heard this talked about--could I refuse my check, if I don't want it? Michael Munger: Of course. All you have to do is not cash it. Russ Roberts: Yeah, or I guess not claim the standard deduction. It would be weird--in your version of it. It's a weird thing to--one of the stranger things I find about Social Security is that we have this solution--I've mentioned this many times but it bears repeating: There's this illusion that it's a program for me: They take my money, my paycheck, and it gets put aside for me. And of course that's not true: it goes out the door to pay for not just retirement benefits of retirees but also government spending right now because there's a surplus. That may change; we expect that to change soon, as baby boomers get older and retire and become more numerous. But the point is, is that Social Security for me--it's a welfare program that I also get, I'm eligible for. So, when I get a little bit older--I think actually now because I'm 62 I could start getting it. And I don't really feel like I should. I didn't--I never had the illusion when I was younger that I was putting aside money for my future retirement. And when I suggest to people that Social Security should be means-tested, they say, 'Well, I contributed.' And I say, 'Yeah, but you contributed to food stamps, too.' When you pay your taxes, you don't say, 'Where's my food stamp money?' because you understand the purpose of the program is to help poor people. Not to help everybody, because that's nuts. Michael Munger: But everybody gets Social Security. You're right. Russ Roberts: It's just nuts. Michael Munger: So the point is: Everybody gets it. The fiction is that everybody gets it, and that somehow you are paying in to an account and then you get it. But it's a defined benefit program. There's some relationship, but not a very clear relationship between what you pay and what you take out. Russ Roberts: There's a huge redistributive component, which is to help poorer people who didn't contribute much--who didn't contribute, hate that word--but weren't taxed as much when they were younger. Michael Munger: Yeah. Russ Roberts: But if you ask people, 'This is crazy; this is a mistake; the program's about to go broke; we need to do something. Isn't the obvious thing to means-test it?' and people say, 'No, we can't do that, because then it would reduce the support for the program: Then everybody wouldn't love it because it wouldn't be helping them.' But I'm thinking 'But it's an illusion.' So, I find that--I don't have a way out of that box. Michael Munger: Well, it's already means-tested in a way, because there's a ceiling on the amount of taxes. So, once you pay a certain amount in--so it's actually means-tested kind of in the wrong direction. Russ Roberts: But they have changed that over time-- Michael Munger: So instead of-- Russ Roberts: They have raised that. Michael Munger: Yeah, they did. But for a long time the total amount that you paid was capped. And that meant that you still got Social Security but the amount that you paid in was capped. What you are saying is: There's a relatively small number of wealthy people--well, let me put it this way--wouldn't it be interesting if you could opt out of Social Security. What you are saying is, for most people, you get back more than you put in. Why not be able to opt out of Social Security? Why not be able to opt out of participating if there were a BIG, if there were a Basic Income grant--to say, 'I don't want to participate. I don't want to contribute; and I don't want to get the money.' And I think the concern would be that it would just devolve and that many people would not participate. Russ Roberts: Yeah, I don't know. I like the better idea of saying you can participate but you don't have to accept the money. So, there are many, many people who are not poor, have a very small chance of being poor, who are happy to have some part of their taxes go to help poor people. They may have preferences about how that money is spent. But they certainly don't need to have it kept for themselves. So, the idea of having it, a program that everybody gets $10,000 or $20,000 seems to me to be a major tax, a marginal tax rate nightmare. You disagree: you think it's smaller than I think. But I just think--I think it's quite large. Michael Munger: We agree it's big; we agree it's significant. Russ Roberts: Well, I don't think 4 percentage points is significant. I think it's-- Michael Munger: Well, whatever it's going to be is going to be significant. We disagree on the amount. Even 4% is enough. And maybe it's 7%, 10%. Russ Roberts: Or 20%. I mean, it's--there are a lot of people alive right now; and we're giving everyone $15,000, it seems to me government's going to have to get a lot bigger. And therefore the marginal tax rate is going to have to go up a lot. And this seems bizarre, that you would advocate, that anybody would advocate doing that. It seems to me the much better program would be what was originally proposed by Friedman in I think the late 1950s or early 1960s, and then he wrote about it in Capitalism and Freedom. I think Robert Lampman also proposed it at the University of Wisconsin. This idea that you would--not everybody gets $20,000--that's ridiculous. A person who has nothing might get $20,000. But it would slowly decline as you earn more and more per year, until, as you say, maybe after it's $100,000 dollars, you would then get zero. But why anyone who earns over $100,000 gets $20,000, it seems bizarro to me. I guess at that point it's such a small number of people maybe it's not so important. It's really that whole effect over the $50-$100,000 range that people are worried about, maybe. I don't know. Michael Munger: And the reduction in the amount that you get also is a disincentive effect. It may be less than the marginal tax. Certainly, down in the weeds there's a bunch of problems with this. The main part of the argument that I want to advance is that the current system has bad incentive effects for the very poor. Having the amount not be immediately at least tied to--the amount that you receive is not immediately tied to the amount of outside income you get from other sources is the main thing that I'm worried about. The other details maybe we could work out. But what I'm worried about is to reduce the qualitative disincentives for people to take the first step up that stairway. And, you rightly said--that was a dirty, cheap shot--about the poor being lazy; but I want to raise it; and I want to raise it again. Because I worry that we don't give people enough credit. And we lose quite a few people now, that without these disincentives--minimum wages that prevent them from getting a job and getting experience for the very, very poor people that don't have much education--a big part of my argument is we could get rid of minimum wage laws. I don't know how you value that. But getting rid of minimum wages would have effects that are going to be hard to measure but that I think would be very positive. Russ Roberts: I agree with that.
29:00 Russ Roberts: The question is--let's talk about this disincentive issue, because--and let's broaden the whole thing, because that's where I want to head. Which is the following. You've written about this in unpublished work, maybe even in published work; and certainly a lot of people are talking about it: which is this issue of it's possible that in the future a lot of people are going to struggle to find work. Right now we're pretending to take care of them through a program like Disability. So, as we've talked about on the program before, Disability has been made a lot more accessible to people. It's ironic--the workplace is much safer than it was 25, 50, 100 years ago; yet somehow more people are disabled. And that's just because we've changed the ease with which you can claim disability. We can debate how important that is. But the point is--there are a lot more--this is undeniable--there are a lot more people who are paid a check from the government who don't work. Who are not women with children. Who are typically men. In the case of disability, a good chunk of them are single men. And a lot of people would say, 'Let's just make this more open. Let's not worry about the disincentive effects of the minimum wage, if they are there.' I think they are there, but some people don't. But let's admit, let's assume that they are there. 'Let's not have to worry about the technological changes of artificial intelligence that are coming,' that we'll make, say, current cab drivers, truck drivers unemployable after--greatly unemployable--give them a very hard time to find a job after driverless cars and trucks come along. We're going to have massive social problem, is the claim. And the right way to do that is to just give these people money. And I think that's deeply appealing to a lot of people. And I want to ask you: Is that deeply appealing to you? Forget all this stuff about the current poverty programs. A lot people would agree with you--and I would, too--that they would be better structured to be just cash-based, not in kind. But we are talking about more than that. We are talking about expanding way beyond, say, women with children. We are talking way beyond, say, temporary Unemployment Insurance. We are talking way beyond relatively ungenerous Disability. We're talking about a--just--'Don't worry. This is the ultimate Safety Net. We're going to make sure that no one has a problem meeting basic needs; and if that comes out the government and the taxpayer, that's fine. As opposed to charity; as opposed to incentive to work.' That's what's on the table. What's your reaction to that? Michael Munger: Well, I think the way you put is exactly the right way to put it. In fact, it's the way that I would have. There's two kinds of programs that we try to mitigate the impacts of globalization and the fast-moving changes in, maybe, the sharing economy. So, Marc Andreessen, who you've had on the show, wrote, in November 2011 an article in The Wall Street Journal, the title of which was 'Software Eats the World' ["Why Software Is Eating the World"--Econlib Ed.]. And the problem is that software is to service industries as robotics and automation is to industrial production. So, we used to say, 'Yes, we're losing all these production jobs; but there will still be work in service.' Well, no. Software can take over all these service jobs. So, truck drivers, cab drivers, people who work in restaurants--all of those things can potentially be done by software. The person at the desk, at the checkout counter at the Walmart--you may be able just to do self-checkout. So all of these jobs may very well be lost to software, just as we saw so many jobs lost to automation in factories. Well, so the question is how to handle that. You mention that there's two things that we do now. One of them is, we call Trade Adjustment Assistance, or, in an attempt to make places like Fort Payne, Alabama [?], where people used to make socks. Now we have Adjustment Assistance and we try to teach people, you know, some other kind of trade. A 50-year-old person that didn't graduate from college who worked in the sock factory for 20 years and assumed that that was what they were going to do forever--that's a pretty big arm to them. It's tempting to say, 'Well, we need trade protection.' And in fact, that's the direction we're going--is, we're going to have trade protection. Because all these people lost their jobs. They are made now abroad. We've shipped our jobs abroad. I don't think any of that's true. What we've done is lost our jobs to productivity, some of which comes from software. But the question is: How can we insulate people politically from that? So, one thing is Trade Adjustment Assistance. The other thing, and you mentioned it, is Disability. And Disability is probably the most pernicious kind of welfare program that I can think of that makes the best argument for a BIG. Disability has two really bad, corrosive aspects. One is, it's a rent-seeking contest. If I can hire a lawyer and pay that person $5000, I've got a pretty good shot. There's towns in Alabama where one-third of the people are on Social Security Disability, because they had skilled representation. A bunch of people are spending a lot of time winning this rent-seeking contest. But, suppose you win? Disability means that they are going to pay me for the rest of my life not to work. And if I work, not only do I lose my benefits; I get arrested. So, we're making sure that people can't possibly find any other kind of gainful employment. So it's the Hayekian nightmare. In Chapter 9 of Road to Serfdom, Hayek talks about security. And the two kinds of security that he talks about is: One, we're going to guarantee people's current income. Which is terrible. The other is, we're going to be guaranteed a certain level of living that means that they can survive, even if they are subject to forces which, through no real fault of their own, they have lost their jobs. And that's the way that creative destruction works. It's very difficult to predict. Now, we can say maybe they should have predicted better. But one of the Hayekian observations is it's hard to predict. In a dynamic economy, the people who are investing have a hard time predicting. You can't really expect line workers to be able to predict very well what sort of business should I go into and develop skills in. Disability prevents people from making any kind of adjustment. So, getting rid of Disability; getting rid of Trade Adjustment Assistance. And remember, we are talking about $15,000. $15,000, I really can't imagine trying to live on $15,000 a year. It's not that much. It just means that the $15,000, I wouldn't lose it if I get another job and make another $10,000 or $20,000 that I try to use to improve my life and the life of my family. Russ Roberts: Yeah, well the-- Michael Munger: So, you're absolutely right about the Disability problem. That really is an important one. We're locking people in, though. And a BIG would not do that. And we would get rid of all the apparatus. We may disagree about this. We have a big apparatus for judging whether people qualify for these benefits. If you count Disability and some of the other Trade Adjustment Assistance. Russ Roberts: Yeah, it's important to remember. Trade Adjustment Assistance is, for reasons that are not well-understood by me or maybe anyone--it's a very small program. In principle, we have a program to help people who lose their jobs because of globalization. Which--you can debate whether that should exist or whether it's a good idea. It does exist. And for reasons that I don't fully understand, it's very small. Michael Munger: Yeah. Russ Roberts: Many people who qualify for it either don't know about it or choose not to use it. So, it's not a very--it's not an effective cushion against the globalization effects that many people are worried about, and for reasons that I don't fully understand. But, if we talked about BIG as an alternative to that, plus, say, Disability, plus minimum wage, plus the Earned Income Tax Credit, plus food stamps, etc., etc., etc.--the other issue is: You just said, '$15,000 is a small amount of money.' That's why it's not going stay at $15,000. You really think that--you say this is not going to use as much rent-seeking? You don't think there is going to be rent-seeking by people trying to make it $20,000 and $25,000? Michael Munger: Well, that is the argument for giving it to everyone. It would be too expensive to raise it much. Now, but this is generally a good argument, it's a good counterargument, and I think you could expand it. So let me--I'm interrupting you but you made the first step in this argument. So, remember, my idealized claim is, we get rid of all of these other programs. We combine all of them into a BIG, and we fix the BIG at the current poverty level; and we're done. We walk away and we never touch this again. Well, that's asinine. I don't think anyone actually believes that. Politicians cannot get re-elected by saying, 'I promise to do nothing.' And so, it's like the 1986 Tax Reform Act--there's a great book about the '86 Tax Reform Act called Showdown at Gucci Gulch, where a bunch of tax rates were cut; but even more revenue was created by getting rid of many loopholes and set-asides and little special tax treatment. So the result was revenue-neutral or maybe a slight revenue increase. The problem was that over time that Christmas tree of dispensations has been decorated again. And so you're right--there is a really big problem with my argument. And that is that, over time, we'd have a BIG; I don't think what would happen is we'd raise the BIG. I think what would happen is we'd get a bunch of other programs tacked back on top of it. And a lot of the beneficial effect that I'm claiming would disappear. Even if it exists--which is debatable.
39:00 Russ Roberts: Well, let's move to the philosophical question, and it's a little awkward--my view is, I prefer private efforts to help poor people, private efforts to help people who are out of work because of technology or trade. And by private efforts I mean things that we don't see right now because there's no reason for them to exist because we have such an extensive public effort. So, charities that give people money or take care of them or give them skills are very thin, and that's because there's a lot of government activity; and that's because people are not going to donate money to a charity that tries to do what the government already does: I'm already funding that through my taxes; I have no reason to fund it through private efforts. Now, when you say that, people say, 'Well, there's a free rider problem.' So, talk about that--why people make that argument. Michael Munger: Well, I am deeply conflicted about this. So, as long ago as 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville in his book Democracy in America talked about the difference between France and the United States. He was worried that democracy in France--and this was his word--would enfeeble the impulses that people have to join private associations and to say, 'Here's a problem; we should do something about it.' In a democracy or at least the kind of democracy that Tocqueville saw in France, basically people just say, 'I gave at the office.' Or, 'I paid my taxes. Since I pay taxes I have no reason to participate in this.' There's a school; and somebody should work on this: 'Yeah, you are right, the state should do that.' I see someone getting beaten up in the street or someone is very poor: 'Well, the state should do something.' I have no obligation to do it. Well, Tocqueville thought that that wasn't happening in the United States. Suppose we really did institutionalize this in the way that I'm arguing that we should. There is the problem that then people would say, 'We have a lavish program. You get all this money. You must have wasted it. I don't feel any obligation to participate in giving to charity, in working on problems of homelessness, because it's your fault. We already paid our taxes.' I think that's a legitimate objection that I think that many people have the perception that the existing welfare programs are sufficiently large that that ship has already sailed. Russ Roberts: I agree with that. Michael Munger: But I do think that's a problem. Russ Roberts: I agree with that. I think that ship has sailed. It sailed, oh, around 1933, 1935 actually. And one of the only interesting papers I ever wrote as an academic is that paper--we'll put a link up to it. Basically, private charity in the United States, while still a very healthy sector, no longer goes to help poor people. It goes toward education--people donate to their college. It goes toward medical things--the wing at the hospital. A membership at the art museum. So, people don't help poor people any more, because the government crowded all that out and did it long ago and [?]-- Michael Munger: But you also mentioned the free rider problem, and that is: Suppose that I think we should all contribute voluntarily to the provision of a public good. And charity is a public good. But I think you're not going to, so I'm not going to. Whereas, if I could be assured that you were going to contribute, I would be willing also. And that's the role of the state, is to enforce that agreement that we all have to pay our voluntary contributions, which become taxes and are no longer voluntary. I'm not so sure that that part of solving the free rider problem really works. I think what you just said about your paper which is interesting is, that has been attenuated over time anyway; and we have displaced our charitable impulses--not completely, but at the margin--from the poor to art museums, to operas. A lot of these are--we're just trying to make some contributions that wealthy or middle class people already care about. And that's not really charity in the traditional sense. That's not: Let's take care of those who can't help themselves. That's: Let's provide a voluntary local public good because it's good for the community I belong to. Russ Roberts: Exactly. So, the claim I want to push, for a minute, is that, because we have gone through the state rather than voluntary--and people--let me make one point clear. People think we could never do it privately because of the free rider problem. And I agree that the free rider problem reduces the amount people would donate. But they would still donate a lot. And the question is whether that smaller amount than the public-coerced taxing would be structured differently. And I want to make--people say, 'Oh, that's ridiculous. No one would give. It would be so much smaller.' I just want to make the observation that currently there are millions of dollars donated to support scholarships to private schools for poor people--even though poor people can go to free schools right now. So, it really should have been crowded out. There's no reason--if you came to me and said, 'I'm collecting money to give charity to poor people so they can afford a good school, I'd say, 'Well, what do you mean? They already have a good school. It's free. You'll never be able to raise any money for that.' And yet, people donate, because they care; and they have a passion to see people get educated. And they give lots of money to get people out of the really bad public schools that they're in even though there's a free rider problem. So, there's an issue, then, of magnitude--which I certainly concede. And the question is how big--I'm not saying there's no free rider problem. But I'm saying a private charitable fund or a group of them is viable. The question is: How big would it be? The point I want to emphasize now is that it would be, I presume, different than the public aid, which is basically no strings attached--if you meet the criteria. Now, the criteria are weird and different and bizarre, and you can debate whether that's good or bad. But what you're advocating, and what many people advocate, and that's the part I want to turn to now, is: We need to go away from a world where we have all these weird bureaucracies and all these other things--to try to figure out if you are qualifying, you need a lawyer. And I agree: Let's get rid of all of that. But to get rid of it by saying, 'There's a new program where there's no rules--just that you're alive,' and you get a $15,000 check, might not work as well as a private solution--that would give less but would be structured in a more customized way for the individuals. That's my claim. Michael Munger: If we're talking that you and I are able to persuade people to move people in that direction, I might very well go along. And what's sad about it is, in 1831 at least, that was what Tocqueville thought was the uniquely good feature of American society--was we mostly did kind of solve that problem. We didn't worry so much about the free rider problem. We said, 'As long as I make a contribution, others will, too.' And that is an equilibrium. In fact, if all of us think that others are also participating, we're willing to participate. And if those expectations are fulfilled, it works. The problem is that if a bunch of people cheat--don't participate: I cheat, don't participate--having the state step in as an alternative is not a very good substitute. So, if you and I and the others who think that could actually implement a program where private charities were able to solve this problem, I guess I would be much less supportive of a BIG. My concern about what we see, what we have at present, is the combination of programs that we have--minimum wage laws--and as you said, there are questions about minimum wage laws: do they create unemployment? I think they do have an impact on many young people who otherwise don't have many opportunities to get any kind of experience. You don't have the chance to say, 'I got up at 7:30 in the morning; I made it to work by 8; I've done it for 2 years, and if I work for you, you can rely on me.' And so you can actually pay something. So, in Europe, they solve their--they don't have minimum wage laws, for the most part. What they have is internship programs, or apprenticeship programs. So, the United States, in the particular way that we have said we're worried about people getting enough money to live on, 'Let's have minimum wages,' we have singled out a particular part of our population that's most vulnerable. That's the population that might be well-served by charity, also. I don't disagree with you. I just worry about being able to make that kind of wholesale shift, when even the shift I'm thinking about through a BIG is probably politically impossible. Russ Roberts: Yeah; I'll concede that my view is not clear[?] in the data right now, for sure.
47:48 Russ Roberts: But I want to continue the philosophical point and conversation. And again, I want to tilt it toward this issue of not just people who are poor today--say, who are homeless, who are unemployable at the current, who have not been able to find work at the current level of the minimum wage. I'm worried about, say, 20 years from now, when it is possible that there may be very large numbers of the American workforce that can't find work at all because of the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI). And what I'm thinking about--I'm trying to get a little bit of a Veil of Ignorance here. So, Rawls asks us to consider this idea that you don't know your place in the income distribution |
have net neutrality regulations on the books, and ISPs in the European country have taken full advantage by breaking up their internet access into plans that mimic what you might see for cable television in the U.S.
In Portugal, with no net neutrality, internet providers are starting to split the net into packages. pic.twitter.com/TlLYGezmv6 — Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) October 27, 2017
In effect, this would end the open nature of the internet as we know it, with any type of internet connection giving you access to everything the internet has to offer.
READ MORE:
The future of the internet and Title II net neutrality rules
On Dec. 14, the FCC will vote on whether to overturn Title II net neutrality rules. With the commission now staffed by three Republican commissioners and two Democrats, the smart money is on the FCC approving the plan to kill the net neutrality rules.
The only thing that could stop this is Congress passing a law codifying the current net neutrality rules, which would prevent the FCC from overturning them. But with both houses of Congress also controlled by Republicans, who tend to be averse to government regulations, that plan is unlikely.
What is more likely is that the FCC overturns the net neutrality rules, and internet freedom advocacy groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation challenge the new FCC proposal in court, which could delay any changes from truly taking place for months or even years.
Editor’s note: This article is regularly updated for relevance.History of American Income Tax Rates
The top marginal rate was radically higher in recent memory.
James Joyner · · 17 comments
With so much discussion about soaking the rich, class warfare, and the like spawned by President Obama’s millionaires tax, it’s useful to remind readers of the history of US tax rates. Here’s a summary table from the Tax Policy Center of the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution:
Recall that the income tax only goes back to 1913 and the passage of the 16th Amendment. It was originally quite small and levied only on the very highest earners. It skyrocketed for both world wars and has been as high as 92 percent. John Kennedy’s tax cut took it down only into the 70s. Even Ronald Reagan’s first set of cuts only took it down to 50 percent. Finally, late in Reagan’s second term, we saw it get into the 30s and–for two glorious years–the upper twenties. It’s been in the range of 31 percent to 39.6 percent for more than two decades now.
Now, the chart comes with some caveats, most notably “it ignores the large increase in percentage of returns that were subject to this top rate.” In the days when the top rate were much higher, a much smaller percentage of Americans were subject to that rate.
As I explain in great detail a couple years back in a post titled “Class Warfare: Framing the Debate,” it’s pretty silly to argue that letting the Bush tax cuts expire and have the top marginal rate rise from 35 percent to 38.6 percent is some sort of unprecedented assault on the rich. Especially since the Republicans have seemingly won this debate: there’s no serious talk of going back up to even the 50 percent rates of the early Reagan years.
My problem isn’t with progressive taxation per se, which I believe is necessary for moral and practical reasons, but with rhetoric designed to pit the highest earners against the rest of society. As I noted in that post, “It’s dangerous for a republic to operate on the basis of the lower classes voting themselves a larger share of the earnings of the upper classes. It’s one thing to appeal to a sense of noblesse oblige and quite another to treat others’ wealth as a piggy bank to be raided at will.”pumpkin taken.jpg
A video shows two figures taking an inflatable pumpkin decoration from the front yard of a home in the 5200 block of Coliseum Street.
(YouTube)
The tricks started early in Uptown New Orleans this Halloween, much to the chagrin of 3-year-old Mae Perrilliat.
She awoke Thursday morning (Oct. 29) to discover her beloved inflatable pumpkin was gone from her front yard in the 5200 block of Coliseum Street.
"When it was gone, she said 'Mommy, a trouble-maker took our pumpkin," said her mother, Carter Perrilliat. "Well, indeed he did. Very aggravating."
A video from a neighbor's house shows a light-colored SUV, possibly a Lexus, pulling up to the curb sometime after midnight. Two figures exit the SUV, and proceed to unplug the gigantic pumpkin and stuff it into the back seat before driving off.
"My goal is to embarrass whoever did this, and we would appreciate our pumpkin back," Perilliat said.
You can watch the video below. The vehicle pulls up at the top of the screen:by Preston James
Everyday more and more Americans that didn’t already know are now finding out that the Federal Reserve System is a private corporation, owned by foreign “Bloodline” families, and is neither Federal nor a Bank.
They are finding out it is a private corporation, a franchisee of the privately owned Bank of London located in the City of London, a private Khazarian Mafia nation-state with its own ambassadors and police.
The City of London is not a part of the UK and pays no taxes to England.
It was infiltrated and completely hijacked by the Rothschild Banking family by use of some crafty covert operations.
The most notable major covert operation by the Luciferian Rothschild money-changers was a stock price suppression operation which allowed them to buy up vast quantities of stock at fire-sale prices. This was based on a false announcement a victory of Napoleon in the Battle of Waterloo, when it was just the opposite.
Another lessor but still very important covert operation was the use of Rothschild money power to place Oliver Cromwell in power in England. This prepared the way for the Rothschilds to deeply infiltrate the City of London. Cromwell was a Rothschild family puppet who was willing to harass, abuse and even murder Rothschild opposition which allowed them to complete their hijacking of the City of London financial and Banking enterprises and make England the center of their ancient Luciferian dark-side Babylonian Talmudic black-magick powers.
From their new home base in England they were able to expand their private central banking kingdom as a replacement for the eroded and dying British Empire which when at it peak was claimed that the Sun never set upon it it was so worldwide and vast.
It was the Rothschilds who were allegedly anointed by Lucifer (Satan) to become the functional head of the Khazarian Mafia, the World’s biggest Organized Crime Syndicate based on the power of the dark side. Those who run the dark side using the RKM and its Worldwide occult network of Evil must first give up their souls to Lucifer and must function as non-humans dedicated to living in an occult world of secret evil dedicated to performing the opposite of everything that is good, loving, just and righteous.
Hierarchy advancement to the higher positions of extreme power, privilege, wealth and status is based on participation in evil initiation rites based on deviant, perverted criminal acts such as satanic black masses, drug usage, pedophilia, child torture, child-hunting at private hunting lodges, child sacrifice, and human vivisection all secretly videoed for later blackmail purposes in the initiate ever goes outside their allowed behavioral parameters.
The RKM learned of the addictive nature of Turkish Opium and its medicinal and intoxicating powers, and its ability to temporarily stop time and remove all worldly cares.
The English had been buying a lot of tea, spices and silk from China and had paid them a lot of silver and gold in exchange for these products which the English people demanded and paid high prices for.
The Rothschild decided they would traffick opium into China to create massive addictions and thereby recover all the silver and gold they had paid out to the Chinese for tea, spices and silk. Opium was deployed by the Khazarian mafia associated “bloodline families” as a weapon of covert economic war.
It didn’t take too long for the Chinese warlords to figure this all out and fight back. Thus the Opium Wars occurring. English troops prevailed but because they had suffered some losses negotiated treaties allowing some opium sales but with significant curtailment.
Ever since, at various times, the Khazarian Mafia has continued to deploy illegal, habit forming narcotics that are able to steal a person’s very soul and dirty them up for life in most cases, an addiction that usually takes everything they have including their life itself.
The Rothschild Khazarian Mafia (RKM) “Beast” is centered in the City of London (COL) and is run by the Luciferian Rothschilds.
It is these Banksters who are reputed to have been anointed and empowered directly by Lucifer who are the head of the occult beast known as the “Hierarchy” which uses the High Freemasonry, and the Worldwide Satanic and occult networks as cover, and has continually trafficked illegal habit forming narcotics.
The RKM have trafficked numerous illegal drugs into America as covert weapons of war to not only destroy America the Constitutional Republic but to raise vast “off the books” black funds for various worldwide covert criminal activities as well as to make the Bloodline families participating in the drug trade rich beyond reason.
Many of these funds are used to finance vast mercenary operations of mind-kontrolled dupes pretending to be and acting like bloodthirsty terrorists who have lost their souls and are no longer functionally human.
Because the RKM basically owns and control every head of most of the American Intel and Law Enforcement Agencies they are basically immune from any arrest and prosecution for their massive illegal drug trafficking into and across America and much of the World.
Only their small time cutouts are ever arrested as token LE prosecutions to fool everyone.
After many years of failed attempts, the Rothschild COL Banksters were able to buy off most members of the US Congress and the sitting US President and were able to establish a foothold inside America with their passage of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913.
President Andrew Jackson had driven the RKM Banksters out of America and felt they were evil. He was correct. He fully understood that these COL Banksters were foreign based vipers and parasites.
“Gentlemen, I have had men watching you for a long time and I am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country. When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the bank. You tell me that if I take the deposits from the bank and annul its charter, I shall ruin ten thousand families.
That may be true, gentlemen, but that is your sin! Should I let you go on, you will ruin fifty thousand families, and that would be my sin! You are a den of vipers and thieves.”
“If Congress has the right under the Constitution to issue paper money, it was given to be used by themselves, not to be delegated to individuals or corporations.”
These are quotes from Andrew Jackson, who was a distinguished Constitutional President of the United States 1829-1837, and who killed the RKM Bank and drove it out of America. Sadly, it successfully bribed its way back into America in 1913, this time to last for over 100 years; and the RKM bank effectively parasitized millions of American soldiers’ lives and health, along with most American’s earned wealth and assets.
Once these COL RKM Banksters were able to set up their stateside franchise, they were able to slowly and systematically change the US Dollar from Gold and Silver Certificates (real money) to their own FRS Fiat (counterfeit) money better known as Federal reserve notes.
These FRS notes are actually pernicious interest bearing debt-notes and slowly but surely all Gold and Silver backing was removed in 1971 by Richard Nixon and they became debt-notes only.
This final act of the JFK Assassination coup d’etat occurred in 1971 by the man Richard Nixon who was deeply involved in what he called “that Bay of Pigs Thing” with GHWB.
It was GHWB who served as the titular head of the Bush Crime cabal which ran the CIA as its personal tool on behalf of the Fourth Reich and it was he who planned and ran the JFK assassination of the behalf of the Fourth Reich which was functioning as a part of the RKM.
This seems so counter-intuitive but when one pulls back the curtain one finds the RKM Babylonian Talmudic Zionists at the core of the RKM who work with every other major crime syndicate including the Fourth Reich which they set up and ran in the first place.
Henry Kissinger, Nixon’s national security advisor and high ranking secret RKM appointee of David Rockefeller and former Soviet Mole (Soviet secret code-named according to FBI files of “Bor”).
David Rockefeller has been the head of the American RKM franchise. Kissinger negotiated the US Petro Dollar deal with the Mideast Oil producers. The deal was the US Military and NATO will protect you and will make sure you have plenty of profitable western markets only if you agree to accept US Dollars for your oil sales.
If you want to know the ugly truth about Heinz Kissinger (“Bor”) invest about 8 hours listening to Kay Griggs’ video affidavit, a truly great American Hero like Gwenyth Todd and Sibel Edmonds.
This deal was made and soon the US Petro Dollar became the World’s Reserve Currency, a distinct advantage for the FRS franchisee of the COL RKM private central Banking System.
We now know for certain that the RKM private central banking system is international, and functions like an octopus with many tentacles.
That is why insiders have called it both the “Octopus” and the “Baby” which is short for the current form of the ancient Babylonian Talmudic “black magick” money from nothing Zionist system (aka the secret Sionist Luciferian occult black-magick money-creation system).
And we know that without question a strong association between the RKM private banking octopus has always been associated with both illegal narcotics and drug trafficking and the massive Rockefeller created oil cartel which started out as the Seven Sisters and has now morphed into a smaller number of much larger corporations.
We know that one of the main methods used by the RKM to infiltrate and hijack many nations has been through the infiltration and capture of control over the underworld or criminal organizations in each nation, as well as by infiltrating their banking and corporations and consolidating them.
All the significant RKM leaders are initiated into secret societies using criminal, sadistic and highly deviant rituals, which increase in intensity and severity at each higher level as one become initiated to move up to the next higher level in the RKM system (aka the Hierarchy). Once the RKM gains control over the leaders in every sector, the rest is relatively easy.
And if these leaders go outside their prescribed and allowed parameters, they are sanctions and sometimes their evil activities during initiations are weakened to the public through Press stooges for the Hierarchy.
We now have gained a simple understanding of how the RKM buys its way into (infiltrates), then hijacks large corporations and then consolidates them into larger and larger entities that operate as virtual monopolies in function only but not corporate structure.
Once an industry is consolidated, be it oil, manufacturing or entertainment or media, it is easy for the RKM to exercise control over these virtual monopolies because all of the CEOs are owned and controlled by the RKM or its Cutouts one way or another.
Despite the incredible power and control the RKM has exercised over every American institution including the Pentagon, Intel, Law Enforcement, Congress, the Judiciary and almost every administration, their system has been exposed and such knowledge is rapidly diffusing to the masses who are beginning to connect the dots and have now had about enough.
The question of how long the American masses are going to continue to allow several wrinkled up old Luciferian occult masters in wheel chairs to run their lives and destroy everything they ever worked for and America too, is now becoming a prominent issue.
These wrinkled up old Satanic pedophile mass-murderers and child-sacrificers have run the Hierarchy and gained reach all the way down to your street level through their control of local police, and state and federal agencies.
The answer seems to be “not much longer”. Why does this now seem a certainty? The answer will surprise many.
The private Federal Reserve System as well as it franchiser the City of London RKM are both nearing complete collapse.
And this is all due to a strange convergence of different factors including the end of the US Petro Dollar as the oil sales medium and the World’s reserve Currency, the emergence of the BRICs Development bank, the Chinese AIIB and their new swift type electronic exchange system, and numerous direct trade agreements between nations that avoid any use of the US Dollar at all.
FRS insiders know that the days of the FRS are limited and because they realize the whole RKM system is collapsing under a web of debt and runaway oil based derivatives that are now collapsing thanks to the Russians lowering their price of oil and collapsing the price down to reasonable levels.
The FRS has been buying up US Treasury notes from the Chinese and other nations who fear they are soon approaching a complete loss of value. Thus the FRS and the US Treasury are monetizing debt, which means they are kiting up the whole system to manipulate the statistics to look good, while the whole system nears ultimate collapse.
The top FRS officials know this as do the real owners of the FRS, who are the Bloodline families who have made immense unjustified riches off of the American taxpayer and renter of their fake FRS Debt-notes, which are little more than mere promises to repay the debt with pernicious accrued interest.
Obviously it is clear that the FRS is seeing themselves in a serious emergency state and is seeking consultations with the Administration about it. After the special FRS Board Meeting this last Monday April 11th, FRS Chief Janet Yellon met with President Obama. This itself seemed quite irregular and suggests something big is in the wind.
How can we be sure that the FRS nears complete collapse? Their Controlled Major Mass Media have not been telling us the truth. These six Major Media News Outlets who are a virtual monopoly claim in unison that the US unemployment rate is 5% or less when it is at or near 40% or over 95 million able workers who are out of work. This 40% figure does not include the many millions that are grossly under-employed.
Recently an associate of the FRS approached several key members of Congress and proposed that the USG federalize the Federal Reserve System and take ownership for it.
Certainly this is some kind of an admission of near complete FRS insolvency and a coming financial storm. But it is also a request for a get out of jail free card and an apparent attempt to shift responsibility from the Bloodline owners of the FRS to the US Public.
This is a crafty new way to monetize the debt by shifting ownership of it to the American people. It is being proposed because the FRS Bloodline families who are the true stockholders and owners of the FRS realize that they cannot squeeze much more value out of it anymore.
The FRS was used to covertly kite the system through built-in inflation by using each local member bank loan to create money from nothing and then charging pernicious usury to use what should have been owned by the American people directly themselves in the first place.
Soon there will be no alternative but to set up a new American monetary system.
Most of the BRICS and AIIB members have already discussed in secret that these various new currencies will have to be linked to gold, silver and commodities as their backing for money.
Some believe it will end up being digitally based but still linked to Gold, Silver and commodities. And there will have to be trade boards to adjust exchange rates between trading countries in a mutually agreeable fashion.
It was all the unConstitutional Free trade Agreements and the mad addiction by Wall Street Banks to various pyramid Ponzi scams such as the S&L scam and the Enron scam (CIA black fundraisers), the Mortgage balloon Scam, and addiction to out of control derivatives and their continual repackaging and fraudulent sales as equity backed securities when they were anything but securitized by equity, and actually were fraudulent paper.
And we still have numerous top corporate leaders claiming on behalf of the RKM that America has a shortage of educated skilled workers and are continually begging for more H1B foreign visa’d immigrant workers.
This claim is of course based on a lie and is designed to keep the wages low and to destroy America the Republic by removing jobs from mainstream highly educated American workers.
And that the lies surrounding free trade and unrestricted immigration that Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders are now exposing is just one major reason why their words are resonating with so many Americans.
Many Americans are starting to envision the new dream team of Trump for President with Bernie Sanders as his VP running mate. Actually they agree on most of the most important issues. If both are cheated out of becoming their party candidates, they should quit their parties and join forces to become independents which both have been before. This team if they could iron out their differences would be unbeatable.
Bernie Sanders is popular among college students and the younger, and Donald Trump is popular among a wide spectrum, including many African Americans and Hispanics which is turning out to be a surprise to many so-called political experts.
The American masses do not want the sleazy Clintons back in the White House with all Bill’s un-prosecuted rapes and sexual abuse incidents, and Hillary’s Whitewater scam, the Web Hubbell love child in the former First Family, the Vince Foster murder and being rolled up in the W.H. rug incident, and her W.H. Waco bloodfest tantrum.
Hillary is the Satanic RKM’s choice, and we shall see if their current diminished state of American political power is great enough to keep her out of jail for running a company covert op on her email, while getting a big chunk of money for herself or enough fake votes to get her elected as POTUS.
So far, her course has been completely protected, and she has been promoted to a status similar to the Queen of England.
No wonder she acts so haughty and laughs off every good question without answering it. She has the whole Hierarchy leadership behind her and is serving as a major Cutout right now. Of course they want her to be elected POTUS. If elected, she will be open for Hierarchy business 24/7.
With Hillary everything is always for sale, everything to anybody with enough money, and believe you me, it takes a lot to get what you want in DC these days.
But there are other secret forces at work here to expose her and block her, and these go deep within certain secret factions in the Pentagon and some powerful Intel agencies, and even Majesty, the beyond-black group that is alleged to handle the most sensitive Alien ET matters including secret negotiations and treaties with some such groups.
Far too many of their crimes were covered up and went unprosecuted because of their being appointed by the RKM Hierarchy to serve as master RKM puppets.
The Establishment wants the Clinton’s back in power because with them everything is for sale 24/7 and this is what the RKM members want so they can remain feeding off USG pork like pigs at the taxpayer trough.
_________
Conclusion
As the RKM is now cornered by the rest of the World that is tired of their debt note private central Banksters Fiat counterfeit currency scam, it is becoming obvious by the day that the RKM is losing power and soon the Hierarchy itself will be taken apart at the seams.
Top Hierarchy members know this is happening and are scrambling to shift the FRS into the USG as a US Federal Agency owned by We The People to create cover and provide an escape from the peasants and their pitchforks.
Many Americans are now learning that the US Congress is spending about 40% more than it takes in in Tax revenues. This means that it must borrow more and more FRS Petro-Dollar debt-notes from the unending, elastic American Money Factory which is a true monopoly and completely illegal and unConstititional.
If a law is unConstitutional, it is by definition illegal and no American has any obligation to obey it.
The only reason we pay our Federal taxes is because the RKM Banksters have transformed America into their own police state with their “owned” judicial system, and their ability to use their unbridled power of the boot in your face and threatened imprisonment to force compliance.
This year it has been reported tax revenues are up. This is of course due to the secret actions of the “Plunge Protection team” which kites up stock with direct secret purchases and intercepts electronic trades using A.I. algorithms to make profits not otherwise available.
You can bet the Plunge Protection team has also been making secret tax deposits through various complex means to kite up the system and fool everyone.
When any government reached such a state that it has to borrow 40% or more money to balance its books, this is a scenario that is certainly a formula for complete financial collapse.
And when you add so-called Free Trade Agreements, massive foreign immigration into the picture, H1B visas and a World increasingly saturated in US Petro Dollars that are losing value by the day, you can see this is a formula for coming catastrophe.
The rest of the World is now catching on and is deeply committed to constructing serious firewalls against the US Petro Dollar such as BRICs, AIIB and direct trade agreements without the use of the US Petro Dollar.
The handwriting is on the wall, the days of the FRS and RKM World hegemony are now limited, and the end for them is near.
Stay tuned because this looks to be sizing up as a very eventful summer this year and a tempestuous Fall and election cycle.
____________
The incredible musicians Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Richard Wright of Pink Floyd play the top World classic “Money” July 2, 2005 in London after 24 years apart.
https://youtu.be/Kjgwjh4H7wg2010 was a very fruitful year for weird pieces of advertising throughout the world. Shock and surprise are both very powerful tools to use in advertising campaigns. They are an excellent ingredient to grab your audience’s attention, but, as everything else in the world, they must be used with caution and rationality. Otherwise you will only get weird, freaky and random pieces of oddvertising.
Here are 10 of the most freakiest adds I’ve ever seen:
Grocery Store Lady
BBDO, New York
This was Snickers’ first-ever attempt for a Halloween spot. My opinion it succeeded greatly in creeping out its audience, it looks like a serial killer fit for the next Saw movie.
Victor
Del Campo Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi, Buenos Aires, Argentina
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOWhvAkkHGY&feature=player_embeddedA man with a baby’s head… I rest my case…
An Argentine spot for the PS3 aiming for the message that gamers should retain their childlike wonder as they grow older “Live in a state of play.”
The Intimate Scent of a Beautiful Woman
Germany
This one I’m not sure if it is the product itself or the advertising that is disconcerting.
A dude sniffing the seat of an exercise bike that’s just been ridden by a woman, seriously?
No Pressure
Director: Dougal Wilson, U.K.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSTLDel-G9k&feature=player_embeddedThe 10:10 environmental campaign, aimed at getting individuals to cut their carbon emissions by 10 percent a year starting in 2010: very good intention, but very bad advertising.
Anyone who doesn’t want to cut their carbon emissions is blown up, literally, creating a bloody mess. Poor Phillip and Tracy. Just disgusting.
Popcorn
BBH, London
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiJjkNN3z5M&feature=player_embeddedIt could be the bad acting but I’m pretty sure the randomness of the commercial also helped to make this a brilliant piece of oddvertising. BBH treated a live audience of moviegoers in London to an idyllic family scene that turns ghastly when one of the daughters begins to choke on popcorn, well it’s down the road from there, but see for yourselves.
Stick Figure
McCann Erickson, Bangkok, Thailand
Well it’s an Asian ad (I don’t think they have what we call normal advertising, weird is their order of business). This one is Exceptionally odd, can’t even describe it, just keep in mind it’s a cleaning product ad.
AIDES
TBWA, Paris
[vimeo width=”594″]http://vimeo.com/16161220[/vimeo]Spot is NSFW. Not that weird, but man, they are filthy! Featuring an obscene bathroom graffiti of a penis as it tries to have a good time without a condom.
Gusher for an Eye
Saatchi & Saatchi, New York
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0s-MPVcgWk&feature=player_embedded90-second piece of oddvertising: the concept, the music, the kid… not sure what it is but it couldn’t get freakier. The tale of Todd, a kid with a squirting blue Fruit Gusher for an eye.
Jacuzzi
Draftfcb, Mexico City
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKRXM4EsrHE&feature=player_embeddedLuftal, a gas medication that offers this unique selling proposition: It will fix your gas problem and therefore calm the gross, jacuzzi-like, fart-churned seas of your bathtub.
Hasselhoff Baby
Digital Kitchen, New York
A&E created a reality series about David Hasselhoff and his two daughters, who are “aspiring singers.” (Update: It was canceled after two episodes.) And how we promote this? Just a cute baby with chest hair…
What other odd pieces of advertising would you add to our list?
Featured image by Jon Feinstein on Flickr.Evidence of Explosives In The Twin Tower Collapses.
The South Tower.
The North Tower.
The evidence that the World Trade Center towers were demolished is compelling. Photographs of explosives detonating during the collapse of both the north and south towers are presented below. They are taken from two (publicly available) videos of the collapses. Each frame has been numbered by its position in the video. Both videos were filmed at 30 frames per second, so an eight frame interval covers about one quarter of a second.The most remarkable aspect of the World Trade Center towers demolition, is that such obvious evidence of the use of explosives, has been completely ignored by the media. This refusal to report the obvious, clearly illustrates that the "free press" is free, only in name, and anything but free in reality.That such obvious evidence of explosives has remained "hidden in full view" approaches the unbelievable.The video evidence that the World Trade Center towers were demolished is indeed compelling. Consider the following frames which show two distinct lines of explosives detonating across the east face of the south tower.Frame 147 shows a row of explosives detonating right across the east face at the 79th floor.Frame 203 shows a row of explosives detonating right across the east face at the 75th floor.The middle photos show the dust cloud from the explosions outlined in red.The end photos show the relative positions of the two lines of dust and debris.It has been claimed that the explosions of dust that span the east face of the tower, were caused by air being forced from the windows as the floors above collapsed. This explanation is obviously incorrect. If it was correct, such lines of dust would have been expelled from the windows of each floor in succession. That is, we would have seen such lines of dust expelled from floors 79, 78, 77, 76 and 75 in succession, but what we observe is an explosion of dust at floor 79, no new clouds of dust for a few floors, then another (larger) explosion of dust at floor 75.The second line of explosives is much more powerful than the first, but the dust cloud from the first line of explosives, and the dust and debris from the upper floor collapse, initially obscure this.The dust due to the visible explosions is a whitish grey. The dust from the demolition of the upper section (which is disintegrating as it falls) is dark grey. One wonders what caused this difference.In the video, it is clear that the top 30 or so floors have snapped off and are toppling eastward. In the above frames, we follow the north-east corner of the tower as this 30 floor section descends. Using the north-east corner as a reference, I have outlined in red, the progress of this 30 floor section as it descends.The first thing to note, is that the top section itself must be disintegrating, otherwise (as the above frames show) the top section would have extended far into parts of the building that are clearly, as yet, unaffected by the collapse.But what could possibly cause the top section to disintegrate? And in fact, what could possibly cause the top section to almost entirely disintegrate, before the lower section begins to collapse?You have to realize that most of the top section had not been affected by the aircraft strike or fires and was thus still the same immensely strong structure that had supported the building for some 30 years. If this section was going to fall at all, this section would fall as one piece (like a tree in the forest). Unless, of course, this section had been laced with explosives and was undergoing a controlled demolition of its own, just a few moments before the lower part of the building was demolished.In the following set of frames showing the North Tower collapse, pay close attention to the horizontal explosions of dust and debris that occur just above the red line marked on the above photograph.Once again, note that the second layer of explosions is much more powerful than the first and that the dust cloud from the first initially obscures that of the second. Also, note the large orange areas of hot gas from the explosions. Recall, that this was about two hours after the aircraft struck the building, so there would be essentially no flammable material left on the floors from which the flash emanates (as the fire would have already consumed it all).Note that the horizontal explosions of dust on the leftmost side of the tower are already visible and expanding in the first frame. These continue their expansion through frame nine and subsequent frames. Similarly, explosions of dust become apparent across the entire width of both (visible) faces of the tower, however, between frames 001 and 009 the television mast on top of the tower makes no downward movement at all. This shows that the horizontal explosions of dust and debris precede the collapse and thus cannot be the cause of it (in fact, it is these explosions that initiate the collapse).That the horizontal explosions of dust precede the collapse is vividly expressed by the above animated graphic which alternates the first and ninth frames. This clearly shows that the explosions of dust were not caused by air being forced from the windows as the floors above collapsed (this was a ridiculous assertion anyway).Since the visible evidence points to only two layers of explosives per tower, one has to conclude that the aircraft were directed to hit particular floors (possibly by homing beacons in the towers). This would also explain the total lack of solid evidence for the "Arab hijackers" hypothesis (there was however, a quantity of laughable, obviously manufactured evidence, indicating that this was an attempt to frame the Arabs).Of course the visible explosions (or at least their dust clouds) are only part of the story, as the main weight supporting columns in the central core also had to be weakened before the towers would collapse in the way they did. But what is visible, is more than enough evidence, to conclude that the towers were deliberately demolished.The above animated graphic alternates the first and 67th frames. It shows a classic controlled demolition of a 12 story building (the top 12 stories of the North Tower). Strange how the roofline collapses so evenly, I guess, that all the central core columns and all the perimeter wall columns collapsed simultaneously. Some coincidence eh?The first line of explosives detonated across the 98th floor (where the collapse began). The second line of detonations occurred across the 92nd floor (just above the lower red line) with large flashes of hot gas from the explosions, clearly visible. Initially, the second line's detonation is obscured by the dust cloud of the first. However, being much more powerful detonations, the second line's dust cloud quickly bursts into view.A close look at the video/photos shows that the collapse begins at the 98th floor, then the 99th floor collapses onto the 98th, then the 100th floor collapses onto the 98th, then the 101th floor collapses onto the 98th, then the 102th floor collapses onto the 98th, etc until the second line of detonations initiates the final collapse. So once again, we have the disintegration of the tower above the impact floors, before the collapse of the tower below the impact floors.Interestingly, this observation disproves the so called pancake theory, where one floor collapses onto the next lower floor, causing that floor to also collapse (not that the pancake theory made any sense anyway). Here, what we see is 5 or 6 floors in a row, all falling onto the 98th floor, which does not collapse (until the second line of explosives are detonated, taking out its support). The pancake theory would have the 98th floor collapsing onto the 97th, causing that to collapse onto the 96th, causing that to collapse onto the 95th, etc.These very strange circumstances, mentioned above, have a very simple explanation: The twin towers were deliberately demolished. Occam's razor, suggests that the simplest explanation, a deliberate demolition, is probably also the correct explanation.To play the videos you need to download 3ivx. 3ivx is a plug-in for Windows Media Player and QuickTime. It enables the playing of DivX 3.x, 4.x, 5.x, OpenDivX, XviD, FFMpeg, AngelPotion, SMR, Philips MPEG-4, Apple MPEG-4, MS-MPEG-4v3, 3ivx D3, D3.5 and 4, RealMagic MPEG-4, Sorenson MPEG-4, Blizzard MPEG-4 and other MPEG-4 variants and the encoding of high quality MPEG-4 video. So, it is a must for your system. It can be downloaded from http://www.3ivx.com/downloadThere’s been a lot of talk in recent months about bailed-out banks getting help from the taxpayers, then turning around to pour vast sums of money into lobbying Congress.
Bank of America even claimed to the New York Times last month that it was “sensitive” enough to stop lobbying on the Troubled Assets Relief Program (T |
the arrivals of Jason Smith, Brandon Jennings and Ian Mahinmi, recently recovered from injury.
Wall, Beal, and 23-year-old Porter believe their new coach will continue to hasten their progress. Brooks, an undrafted point guard, has been especially helpful in pointing out that he played a decade in the NBA with little of Wall’s athleticism.
"He’s like, 'With your speed you settle for too many jump shots -- you can get past people, you need to attack a little bit more,' " said Wall of his conversations with Brooks. "He uses those types of phrases and quotes, flipping his way into my game and trying to tell me I should be doing something that he wasn’t able to do."
They share ideas throughout practices, shootarounds and games. "He comes and gives me advice, and I give him advice on situations that I think can help us," Wall said. "He tells me what I’m not doing right, what I’m doing wrong. When I’m doing good, he will give me a little praise -- but then it’s back to, 'You’re not doing this and not doing that.’ It’s to make me want to do other things and keep getting better throughout the game, or throughout our practice and workout times. This is something I really appreciate, and we have a great bond."
Along the way, Wall has found himself recognizing new opportunities. When exploiting mismatches, for instance, he is now realizing plays he can create for others. "It might be an opportunity where you can just get back that switch they made and find a shot for another teammate," he said. "Nine times out of 10 you get a mismatch, you’re thinking the shot is going to be for you. But sometimes it may not be."
Faced with their difficult closing schedule, the Wizards’ immediate goal is to fend off Toronto for the No. 3 seed. If successful, they could yet be returning to Boston for a Eastern Conference semifinal series in May. But there are worse things than being the underdog. If this season has taught the Wizards anything, it’s that they’ve learned to believe anew in their chances.
Ian Thomsen has covered the NBA since 2000. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here or follow him on Twitter.
The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA, its clubs or Turner Broadcasting.I’m a mum of two kids under five. Coming from a fairly large family and being in the lead up to wedding season, we’re currently getting invited to wedding after wedding after wedding.
But when I say ‘we’, I don’t mean my husband, my kids and myself. I mean just my husband and I. It seems this year it has become very on trend to have a child free wedding. No kiddies allowed.
I get it, I truly do. Less meals to pay for. No need for a page boy or flower girl. No kids running across the dance floor at inappropriate times. No little feet stomping on your big white wedding gown.
There are some obvious benefits to not have kids being a part of your big day. There are also lots of negatives... but now isn't the time to get into those.
However what I will say is this.
Why are we as parents expected to carry the financial burden of hiring someone to look after our children so that the bride and groom can have a kid free event?
I know what you will say.
Do you hire a baby sitter to go on date night?
Do you hire a baby sitter when you want a weekend away?CINCINNATI (WKRC) - Retired appeals court judge Mark Painter has handed down a lot of opinions over a 30-year career on the bench.
His opinion on fellow Republican President Donald Trump is terse and to the point: Impeach him now.
“America is in danger from one of the most incompetent presidents we’ve ever had and I think we ought to start the process,” Painter told Local 12 via Skype from Orlando, Florida Wednesday afternoon. “The president of the United States sticking up for his family’s enterprises and using public money and features to do it and the power of his office to help his own personal family business is beyond belief.”
Painter says he is convinced Trump’s actions have crossed the threshold of “high crimes and misdemeanors” required for articles of impeachment. He says Trump’s ties to his business empire violate the Constitution’s emoluments clause every time a foreign government does business with one of his developments or hotels. Painter says the questionable, pre-inauguration connection between former national security adviser Michael Flynn and a Russian diplomat is a problem not just for Flynn, but also for Trump.
“Obviously the president knew about Flynn’s conversations with the Russian ambassador way before Trump was sworn in. That would certainly be, by itself, an impeachable offense.”
Painter, a lifetime Republican, has called upon U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio, to start the impeachment process. A Chabot staffer said that won’t happen, because the president has not done anything that is “grounds for impeachment.” Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, suggested that everyone take a deep breath.
“Let’s take a look and see what facts are out there," Wenstrup told Local 12’s Duane Pohlman. “I don’t think that’s an appropriate conversation at this time.”
Painter obviously disagrees and says impeachment may not be imminent but is likely.
“We grow immune to it, because every day there’s something worse or as bad as the day before. I think there is a lot more likelihood as we go forward, because more and more things will come out.”
Painter served as a Hamilton County Municipal Court judge from 1982-1995. He sat on the Ohio First District Court of Appeals bench from 1995-2009.In February 2016, the New York Red Bulls announced a restructuring of their youth development system. Included in that restructuring was the news that long-serving academy director, Bob Montgomery, would take on a new role as the Director of Coaching Education and Youth Partnerships. This transition would see him vacating his position as academy director, one he had held since 2007 when he took over from Giovanni Savarese when he left the club.
The announcement stated, “The search for a new academy director will begin immediately.”
Since then, nothing. No announcement, not even a rumor. In the nearly 11 months since the announcement, it would appear the New York Red Bulls done without a full-time academy director.
Roughly four and a half months before Montgomery’s new role was announced, FC Dallas promoted one of its youth coaches, Luchi Gonzalez, to the position of academy director. On Tuesday (January 10th), FC Dallas President, Dan Hunt, announced a three-year contract extension for Luchi.
To recap: in 11 months, the New York Red Bulls reassigned their academy director, and have not hired a replacement; In 15 months, FC Dallas has promoted someone to the position of academy director, seen him succeed, and signed him to a new three-year contract.
Once A Metro does not know why RBNY has apparently decided to let its academy run without a director, and the club has yet to reply to a request for comment on the matter. Absent word to the contrary, it looks like there is a rather academy-director-sized hole in the New York brains trust - and it is time to fix that.Minecraft Head Alphabet Kentastrophe Aug 11th, 2014 2,154 Never 2,154Never
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rawdownloadcloneembedreportprint text 9.36 KB //WARNING: If the command is entered incorrectly, the game may crash and prevent further access to the world it was executed in. //To use: Simply paste the command into a command block and provide a power source. Make sure your inventory is empty, and there is nothing above the command block before doing so. summon FallingSand ~ ~2 ~ {Time:1,Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:137,Block:command_block,Time:1,TileEntityData:{Command:fill ~ ~1 ~ ~ ~-44 ~ air},Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:152,Block:redstone_block,Time:1,Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:137,Block:command_block,Time:1,TileEntityData:{Command:undefined},Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:137,Block:command_block,Time:1,TileEntityData:{Command:give @p minecraft:skull 1 3 {display:{Name:"Display"},SkullOwner:{Id:57f33011-cab8-4439-9184-5d4e09574e60,Properties:{textures:[{Value:e3RleHR1cmVzOntTS0lOOnt1cmw6Imh0dHA6Ly9pLmltZ3VyLmNvbS9NR1AyOEl4LnBuZyJ9fX0=}]}}}},Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:152,Block:redstone_block,Time:1,Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:137,Block:command_block,Time:1,TileEntityData:{Command:give @p minecraft:skull 1 3 {display:{Name:"Z"},SkullOwner:{Id:e1578b21-829b-446b-8303-e0e7689cd9f5,Properties:{textures:[{Value:e3RleHR1cmVzOntTS0lOOnt1cmw6Imh0dHA6Ly9pLmltZ3VyLmNvbS9ZWFZFQ0xCLnBuZyJ9fX0=}]}}}},Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:137,Block:command_block,Time:1,TileEntityData:{Command:give @p minecraft:skull 1 3 {display:{Name:"Y"},SkullOwner:{Id:855fe1ba-ca52-4c5e-a1d2-3df381863034,Properties:{textures:[{Value:e3RleHR1cmVzOntTS0lOOnt1cmw6Imh0dHA6Ly9pLmltZ3VyLmNvbS9DZWQ4aWZwLnBuZyJ9fX0=}]}}}},Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:152,Block:redstone_block,Time:1,Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:137,Block:command_block,Time:1,TileEntityData:{Command:give @p minecraft:skull 1 3 {display:{Name:"X"},SkullOwner:{Id:bbd8bdb6-b41d-43f6-b8ea-0f385afdb516,Properties:{textures:[{Value:e3RleHR1cmVzOntTS0lOOnt1cmw6Imh0dHA6Ly9pLmltZ3VyLmNvbS9PNTJlNG42LnBuZyJ9fX0=}]}}}},Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:137,Block:command_block,Time:1,TileEntityData:{Command:give @p minecraft:skull 1 3 {display:{Name:"W"},SkullOwner:{Id:09260373-fc93-4dae-9d3c-0afbcd94493e,Properties:{textures:[{Value:e3RleHR1cmVzOntTS0lOOnt1cmw6Imh0dHA6Ly9pLmltZ3VyLmNvbS9PYmFuMVM3LnBuZyJ9fX0=}]}}}},Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:152,Block:redstone_block,Time:1,Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:137,Block:command_block,Time:1,TileEntityData:{Command:give @p minecraft:skull 1 3 {display:{Name:"V"},SkullOwner:{Id:95c4e457-46b7-4e03-a773-03c3809c8c93,Properties:{textures:[{Value:e3RleHR1cmVzOntTS0lOOnt1cmw6Imh0dHA6Ly9pLmltZ3VyLmNvbS8zb25RUWhILnBuZyJ9fX0=}]}}}},Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:137,Block:command_block,Time:1,TileEntityData:{Command:give @p minecraft:skull 1 3 {display:{Name:"U"},SkullOwner:{Id:de9ee4a2-6fd6-4950-9818-a3a822cd300a,Properties:{textures:[{Value:e3RleHR1cmVzOntTS0lOOnt1cmw6Imh0dHA6Ly9pLmltZ3VyLmNvbS9oMU5TUWl1LnBuZyJ9fX0=}]}}}},Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:152,Block:redstone_block,Time:1,Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:137,Block:command_block,Time:1,TileEntityData:{Command:give @p minecraft:skull 1 3 {display:{Name:"T"},SkullOwner:{Id:2d65a2b3-97f6-4823-a99c-53823f2d7905,Properties:{textures:[{Value:e3RleHR1cmVzOntTS0lOOnt1cmw6Imh0dHA6Ly9pLmltZ3VyLmNvbS9mQkFyZzBXLnBuZyJ9fX0=}]}}}},Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:137,Block:command_block,Time:1,TileEntityData:{Command:give @p minecraft:skull 1 3 {display:{Name:"S"},SkullOwner:{Id:fa9fb259-7fce-4bfa-bdd9-7e21ed41e129,Properties:{textures:[{Value:e3RleHR1cmVzOntTS0lOOnt1cmw6Imh0dHA6Ly9pLmltZ3VyLmNvbS83QjNIbnZ1LnBuZyJ9fX0=}]}}}},Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:152,Block:redstone_block,Time:1,Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:137,Block:command_block,Time:1,TileEntityData:{Command:give @p minecraft:skull 1 3 {display:{Name:"R"},SkullOwner:{Id:9fb39653-0d60-45b1-bfe4-7da562446e70,Properties:{textures:[{Value:e3RleHR1cmVzOntTS0lOOnt1cmw6Imh0dHA6Ly9pLmltZ3VyLmNvbS95STdzaGlvLnBuZyJ9fX0=}]}}}},Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:137,Block:command_block,Time:1,TileEntityData:{Command:give @p minecraft:skull 1 3 {display:{Name:"Q"},SkullOwner:{Id:cd60bcde-7fa2-4652-802f-1a9f3c26cc9d,Properties:{textures:[{Value:e3RleHR1cmVzOntTS0lOOnt1cmw6Imh0dHA6Ly9pLmltZ3VyLmNvbS9UVnZmZW5qLnBuZyJ9fX0=}]}}}},Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:152,Block:redstone_block,Time:1,Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:137,Block:command_block,Time:1,TileEntityData:{Command:give @p minecraft:skull 1 3 {display:{Name:"P"},SkullOwner:{Id:e884dfe0-62af-4006-a613-19a4ed9d929d,Properties:{textures:[{Value:e3RleHR1cmVzOntTS0lOOnt1cmw6Imh0dHA6Ly9pLmltZ3VyLmNvbS9neklvRkhELnBuZyJ9fX0=}]}}}},Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:137,Block:command_block,Time:1,TileEntityData:{Command:give @p minecraft:skull 1 3 {display:{Name:"O"},SkullOwner:{Id:dd854312-03db-4c5d-a96f-daae9b2ad169,Properties:{textures:[{Value:e3RleHR1cmVzOntTS0lOOnt1cmw6Imh0dHA6Ly9pLmltZ3VyLmNvbS9KWTJ3b3B6LnBuZyJ9fX0=}]}}}},Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:152,Block:redstone_block,Time:1,Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:137,Block:command_block,Time:1,TileEntityData:{Command:give @p minecraft:skull 1 3 {display:{Name:"N"},SkullOwner:{Id:f47fce20-d454-4f0f-92b9-c758ddeef6e2,Properties:{textures:[{Value:e3RleHR1cmVzOntTS0lOOnt1cmw6Imh0dHA6Ly9pLmltZ3VyLmNvbS9DcGZyYnJyLnBuZyJ9fX0=}]}}}},Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:137,Block:command_block,Time:1,TileEntityData:{Command:give @p minecraft:skull 1 3 {display:{Name:"M"},SkullOwner:{Id:227bcf84-fd8f-46e1-8265-41f94fe7a064,Properties:{textures:[{Value:e3RleHR1cmVzOntTS0lOOnt1cmw6Imh0dHA6Ly9pLmltZ3VyLmNvbS9ueG1YRFloLnBuZyJ9fX0=}]}}}},Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:152,Block:redstone_block,Time:1,Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:137,Block:command_block,Time:1,TileEntityData:{Command:give @p minecraft:skull 1 3 {display:{Name:"L"},SkullOwner:{Id:4f7b58b8-1bed-42b1-81ae-d4c01f977583,Properties:{textures:[{Value:e3RleHR1cmVzOntTS0lOOnt1cmw6Imh0dHA6Ly9pLmltZ3VyLmNvbS9CanpUZ3lLLnBuZyJ9fX0=}]}}}},Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:137,Block:command_block,Time:1,TileEntityData:{Command:give @p minecraft:skull 1 3 {display:{Name:"K"},SkullOwner:{Id:67459ba8-23e4-4a72-81b5-fa110832482a,Properties:{textures:[{Value:e3RleHR1cmVzOntTS0lOOnt1cmw6Imh0dHA6Ly9pLmltZ3VyLmNvbS9KOUNjWEo5LnBuZyJ9fX0=}]}}}},Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:152,Block:redstone_block,Time:1,Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:137,Block:command_block,Time:1,TileEntityData:{Command:give @p minecraft:skull 1 3 {display:{Name:"J"},SkullOwner:{Id:49fa3a07-d1f1-4369-9b99-ea4493b7102b,Properties:{textures:[{Value:e3RleHR1cmVzOntTS0lOOnt1cmw6Imh0dHA6Ly9pLmltZ3VyLmNvbS9VMHJuRWlxLnBuZyJ9fX0=}]}}}},Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:137,Block:command_block,Time:1,TileEntityData:{Command:give @p minecraft:skull 1 3 {display:{Name:"I"},SkullOwner:{Id:1b9a3e5d-12e2-42ed-bf5f-763fae3cd7b0,Properties:{textures:[{Value:e3RleHR1cmVzOntTS0lOOnt1cmw6Imh0dHA6Ly9pLmltZ3VyLmNvbS9BN084OUlaLnBuZyJ9fX0=}]}}}},Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:152,Block:redstone_block,Time:1,Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:137,Block:command_block,Time:1,TileEntityData:{Command:give @p minecraft:skull 1 3 {display:{Name:"H"},SkullOwner:{Id:22b0d24d-24d9-473f-ba59-113bdc8683fb,Properties:{textures:[{Value:e3RleHR1cmVzOntTS0lOOnt1cmw6Imh0dHA6Ly9pLmltZ3VyLmNvbS8zVEI2ajEwLnBuZyJ9fX0=}]}}}},Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:137,Block:command_block,Time:1,TileEntityData:{Command:give @p minecraft:skull 1 3 {display:{Name:"G"},SkullOwner:{Id:33e1eca5-4d6c-405f-ade1-aa0f0405e73d,Properties:{textures:[{Value:e3RleHR1cmVzOntTS0lOOnt1cmw6Imh0dHA6Ly9pLmltZ3VyLmNvbS8zVVZPZVo4LnBuZyJ9fX0=}]}}}},Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:152,Block:redstone_block,Time:1,Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:137,Block:command_block,Time:1,TileEntityData:{Command:give @p minecraft:skull 1 3 {display:{Name:"F"},SkullOwner:{Id:a736ddec-e366-4cd9-8068-031fffba23d3,Properties:{textures:[{Value:e3RleHR1cmVzOntTS0lOOnt1cmw6Imh0dHA6Ly9pLmltZ3VyLmNvbS8wZ0pBa2NBLnBuZyJ9fX0=}]}}}},Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:137,Block:command_block,Time:1,TileEntityData:{Command:give @p minecraft:skull 1 3 {display:{Name:"E"},SkullOwner:{Id:5a0f54ad-81a7-4a4e-bb9e-bac4287f00e4,Properties:{textures:[{Value:e3RleHR1cmVzOntTS0lOOnt1cmw6Imh0dHA6Ly9pLmltZ3VyLmNvbS9POWRkUGFVLnBuZyJ9fX0=}]}}}},Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:152,Block:redstone_block,Time:1,Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:137,Block:command_block,Time:1,TileEntityData:{Command:give @p minecraft:skull 1 3 {display:{Name:"D"},SkullOwner:{Id:b667c4dd-4ab1-44ae-94be-c69f70b789d0,Properties:{textures:[{Value:e3RleHR1cmVzOntTS0lOOnt1cmw6Imh0dHA6Ly9pLmltZ3VyLmNvbS9KOEJ0OFhvLnBuZyJ9fX0=}]}}}},Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:137,Block:command_block,Time:1,TileEntityData:{Command:give @p minecraft:skull 1 3 {display:{Name:"C"},SkullOwner:{Id:b2d3e707-8e08-4a4d-bc92-e07a26b34e7b,Properties:{textures:[{Value:e3RleHR1cmVzOntTS0lOOnt1cmw6Imh0dHA6Ly9pLmltZ3VyLmNvbS9sc2dXbmpQLnBuZyJ9fX0=}]}}}},Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:152,Block:redstone_block,Time:1,Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:137,Block:command_block,Time:1,TileEntityData:{Command:give @p minecraft:skull 1 3 {display:{Name:"B"},SkullOwner:{Id:ecf7eb64-4220-4ba4-b0a1-127d5ca88bd2,Properties:{textures:[{Value:e3RleHR1cmVzOntTS0lOOnt1cmw6Imh0dHA6Ly9pLmltZ3VyLmNvbS91UnRRVlRLLnBuZyJ9fX0=}]}}}},Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:137,Block:command_block,Time:1,TileEntityData:{Command:give @p minecraft:skull 1 3 {display:{Name:"A"},SkullOwner:{Id:9c162387-0b12-4387-a42c-f251ef1f6f10,Properties:{textures:[{Value:e3RleHR1cmVzOntTS0lOOnt1cmw6Imh0dHA6Ly9pLmltZ3VyLmNvbS83bUg2YnpzLnBuZyJ9fX0=}]}}}},Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:152,Block:redstone_block,Time:1,Riding:{id:FallingSand,Time:1}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}
RAW Paste Data
//WARNING: If the command is entered incorrectly, the game may crash and prevent further access to the world it was executed in. //To use: Simply paste the command into a command block and provide a power source. Make sure your inventory is empty, and there is nothing above the command block before doing so. summon FallingSand ~ ~2 ~ {Time:1,Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:137,Block:command_block,Time:1,TileEntityData:{Command:fill ~ ~1 ~ ~ ~-44 ~ air},Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:152,Block:redstone_block,Time:1,Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:137,Block:command_block,Time:1,TileEntityData:{Command:undefined},Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:137,Block:command_block,Time:1,TileEntityData:{Command:give @p minecraft:skull 1 3 {display:{Name:"Display"},SkullOwner:{Id:57f33011-cab8-4439-9184-5d4e09574e60,Properties:{textures:[{Value:e3RleHR1cmVzOntTS0lOOnt1cmw6Imh0dHA6Ly9pLmltZ3VyLmNvbS9NR1AyOEl4LnBuZyJ9fX0=}]}}}},Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:152,Block:redstone_block,Time:1,Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:137,Block:command_block,Time:1,TileEntityData:{Command:give @p minecraft:skull 1 3 {display:{Name:"Z"},SkullOwner:{Id:e1578b21-829b-446b-8303-e0e7689cd9f5,Properties:{textures:[{Value:e3RleHR1cmVzOntTS0lOOnt1cmw6Imh0dHA6Ly9pLmltZ3VyLmNvbS9ZWFZFQ0xCLnBuZyJ9fX0=}]}}}},Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:137,Block:command_block,Time:1,TileEntityData:{Command:give @p minecraft:skull 1 3 {display:{Name:"Y"},SkullOwner:{Id:855fe1ba-ca52-4c5e-a1d2-3df381863034,Properties:{textures:[{Value:e3RleHR1cmVzOntTS0lOOnt1cmw6Imh0dHA6Ly9pLmltZ3VyLmNvbS9DZWQ4aWZwLnBuZyJ9fX0=}]}}}},Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:152,Block:redstone_block,Time:1,Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:137,Block:command_block,Time:1,TileEntityData:{Command:give @p minecraft:skull 1 3 {display:{Name:"X"},SkullOwner:{Id:bbd8bdb6-b41d-43f6-b8ea-0f385afdb516,Properties:{textures:[{Value:e3RleHR1cmVzOntTS0lOOnt1cmw6Imh0dHA6Ly9pLmltZ3VyLmNvbS9PNTJlNG42LnBuZyJ9fX0=}]}}}},Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:137,Block:command_block,Time:1,TileEntityData:{Command:give @p minecraft:skull 1 3 {display:{Name:"W"},SkullOwner:{Id:09260373-fc93-4dae-9d3c-0afbcd94493e,Properties:{textures:[{Value:e3RleHR1cmVzOntTS0lOOnt1cmw6Imh0dHA6Ly9pLmltZ3VyLmNvbS9PYmFuMVM3LnBuZyJ9fX0=}]}}}},Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:152,Block:redstone_block,Time:1,Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:137,Block:command_block,Time:1,TileEntityData:{Command:give @p minecraft:skull 1 3 {display:{Name:"V"},SkullOwner:{Id:95c4e457-46b7-4e03-a773-03c3809c8c93,Properties:{textures:[{Value:e3RleHR1cmVzOntTS0lOOnt1cmw6Imh0dHA6Ly9pLmltZ3VyLmNvbS8zb25RUWhILnBuZyJ9fX0=}]}}}},Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:137,Block:command_block,Time:1,TileEntityData:{Command:give @p minecraft:skull 1 3 {display:{Name:"U"},SkullOwner:{Id:de9ee4a2-6fd6-4950-9818-a3a822cd300a,Properties:{textures:[{Value:e3RleHR1cmVzOntTS0lOOnt1cmw6Imh0dHA6Ly9pLmltZ3VyLmNvbS9oMU5TUWl1LnBuZyJ9fX0=}]}}}},Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:152,Block:redstone_block,Time:1,Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:137,Block:command_block,Time:1,TileEntityData:{Command:give @p minecraft:skull 1 3 {display:{Name:"T"},SkullOwner:{Id:2d65a2b3-97f6-4823-a99c-53823f2d7905,Properties:{textures:[{Value:e3RleHR1cmVzOntTS0lOOnt1cmw6Imh0dHA6Ly9pLmltZ3VyLmNvbS9mQkFyZzBXLnBuZyJ9fX0=}]}}}},Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:137,Block:command_block,Time:1,TileEntityData:{Command:give @p minecraft:skull 1 3 {display:{Name:"S"},SkullOwner:{Id:fa9fb259-7fce-4bfa-bdd9-7e21ed41e129,Properties:{textures:[{Value:e3RleHR1cmVzOntTS0lOOnt1cmw6Imh0dHA6Ly9pLmltZ3VyLmNvbS83QjNIbnZ1LnBuZyJ9fX0=}]}}}},Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:152,Block:redstone_block,Time:1,Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:137,Block:command_block,Time:1,TileEntityData:{Command:give @p minecraft:skull 1 3 {display:{Name:"R"},SkullOwner:{Id:9fb39653-0d60-45b1-bfe4-7da562446e70,Properties:{textures:[{Value:e3RleHR1cmVzOntTS0lOOnt1cmw6Imh0dHA6Ly9pLmltZ3VyLmNvbS95STdzaGlvLnBuZyJ9fX0=}]}}}},Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:137,Block:command_block,Time:1,TileEntityData:{Command:give @p minecraft:skull 1 3 {display:{Name:"Q"},SkullOwner:{Id:cd60bcde-7fa2-4652-802f-1a9f3c26cc9d,Properties:{textures:[{Value:e3RleHR1cmVzOntTS0lOOnt1cmw6Imh0dHA6Ly9pLmltZ3VyLmNvbS9UVnZmZW5qLnBuZyJ9fX0=}]}}}},Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:152,Block:redstone_block,Time:1,Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:137,Block:command_block,Time:1,TileEntityData:{Command:give @p minecraft:skull 1 3 {display:{Name:"P"},SkullOwner:{Id:e884dfe0-62af-4006-a613-19a4ed9d929d,Properties:{textures:[{Value:e3RleHR1cmVzOntTS0lOOnt1cmw6Imh0dHA6Ly9pLmltZ3VyLmNvbS9neklvRkhELnBuZyJ9fX0=}]}}}},Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:137,Block:command_block,Time:1,TileEntityData:{Command:give @p minecraft:skull 1 3 {display:{Name:"O"},SkullOwner:{Id:dd854312-03db-4c5d-a96f-daae9b2ad169,Properties:{textures:[{Value:e3RleHR1cmVzOntTS0lOOnt1cmw6Imh0dHA6Ly9pLmltZ3VyLmNvbS9KWTJ3b3B6LnBuZyJ9fX0=}]}}}},Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:152,Block:redstone_block,Time:1,Riding:{id:FallingSand,TileID:137,Block:command_block,Time:1,TileEntityData:{Command:give @p minecraft:skull 1 3 {display:{Name:"N"},SkullOwner:{Id:f47fce20-d454-4f0f-92b9-c758ddeef6e2,Properties:{textures:[{Value:e3RleHR1cmVzOntTS0lOOnt1cmw6Imh0dHA6Ly9pLmltZ3VyLmNvbS9DcGZyYnJ |
:) Når ein har funne "lingsen", er det veldig enkelt. Og du har god mulighet til å øve deg, for du skal brette åtte slike. Rykk tilbake til start! :)
No har me kome til monteringsdelen. Ein set stjernedelene saman med å stikke den minste spissen inn bak "klaffane" i den største. Eg syntes det er greit å ha dei i fanget, for etter kvart dett kanskje nokre ut. Det er fristande å strame dei godt til, men då blir det vanskeleg å få inn den siste. Det er difor lurt at dei heng litt laust i, så stramar du til slutt.
Når alle delene er sett saman, byrjar du å strame. Det gjer du med å dra forsiktig i tuppane.
..............................................
No gler eg meg til å sjå korleis stjernene dykkar blir!
♥
Brett og dei nye sidespissane langs midtlinjaSå enkelt var det! ;)Kevin Wilson was not on the coaching staff when Ohio State’s offense face-planted in the Fiesta Bowl.
That debacle is a big reason he is the coordinator now.
Though Wilson is absolved of responsibility for Ohio State’s 31-0 loss to Clemson in the College Football Playoff semifinals, he would be affected if that loss still hung like a cloud over his players.
Instead, Wilson believes that they have used what happened as positive motivation, not confidence-sapper.
“I don’t know if it’s a hangover, because I don’t feel a negative vibe,” Wilson said on Thursday. “I felt from the get-go this was a very mature team with a lot of guys coming back, and it was a team that was working unbelievably hard.
“There’s no one sitting on their hands or resting on their laurels. It’s a hungry football team.”
The same applies to Wilson. Fired as Indiana’s head coach last December amid allegations that he was insensitive to injured players, is Wilson embracing his job with the Buckeyes’ offensive coordinator. In that role previously, his offenses put up gaudy numbers at Miami University, Northwestern and Oklahoma, before he breathed life into the Hoosiers’ moribund program.
The expectation is that he will invigorate a Buckeyes offense that put up big numbers last year but stagnated at crucial times. Under Wilson, the Buckeyes intend to use a rapid-fire pace that they didn’t always stick to as intended the past couple of years.
>> Join the conversation at Facebook.com/BuckeyeXtra and connect with us on Twitter @BuckeyeXtra
“It’s not like you’re frantic,” Wilson said. “It’s no different than playing up-tempo basketball. What you’re trying to do is get into a rhythm and maybe get defensive guys on their heels and not (allow them to) do as much. But you still have to execute.”
Just like a push-the-ball basketball team needs a deep bench, so will the Buckeyes. Wilson’s past offenses have used as many as 19 players in the regular rotation, he said.
Ohio State is easing into its training camp. The Buckeyes are pointing to Thursday as its real start. But the urgency has already begun.
Positions are up for grabs at right guard and receiver. Wilson said he wants to have eight receivers capable of playing in the rotation. Quarterback J.T. Barrett said that Terry McLaurin, Parris Campbell, K.J. Hill, Johnnie Dixon, Binjimen Victor and Austin Mack are the top six right now.
In addition to settling on a right guard among seven players competing for it, Wilson wants at least three backups who can step in and play at what he described as championship level.
“We need some competition,” he said. “Go ahead and kick some butt and win the dadgum job.”
That goes for even those seemingly assured of starting.
“First of all, we need competition in a lot of spots,” Wilson said. “Even players who you might say have played a lot and been a starter, you still want some competition (for them). You’re not waiting for your time. Your time is now.”
brabinowitz@dispatch.com
@brdispatchA contract binding Fernando Alonso to McLaren-Renault for 2018 is being drafted.
That is the news from team boss Eric Boullier, tying in with the Spanish driver's comments in Sepang that an announcement could be made before the US grand prix next month.
It is believed Alonso's huge retainer has been agreed, but that the remaining sticking points are about marketing and other details of the deal.
For instance, 36-year-old Alonso is believed to want an exit clause, in the event that McLaren-Renault does not perform next year or if a more competitive team wants to sign him.
Boullier said: "Until agreements are signed, anything can happen. Wait for the official statements."
The Frenchman confirmed that McLaren has a 'plan B' in the event that the Alonso talks cannot be finalised.
"Yes -- in the sense that there are several drivers who would like to drive for McLaren," said Boullier.
"But at the moment we are focused on agreeing with Fernando. However, we do not comment further on this topic as the process of drafting the contract is underway."
It is believed another contract sticking point is that Alonso would like to contest next year's Le Mans with Toyota, with McLaren executive Zak Brown saying recently he is open to that.
But Boullier said: "I would prefer to see Fernando achieve success with McLaren."
(GMM)Experts are now saying that the Target data breach could end up costing $1 billion. Do you know how much a data breach could cost your company?
To recap, Target discovered that the records of some 110 million of its customers, including the information on up to 40 million credit cards, had been compromised. It ended up costing the IT director and the CEO their jobs, and the company’s net income dropped 46 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013. Thus far the breach has cost the company $61 million—only $44 million of which was covered by insurance, leaving Target out of pocket to the tune of $17 million.
What does that $61 million consist of? “That includes paying the card networks to cover losses and expenses related to reissuing cards, lawsuits, government investigations and enforcement proceedings,” writes USA Today. Gartner security analyst Avivah Litan estimates that the total cost of the breach will be between $400 and $450 million, the article continues, while John Kindervag, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research, told the Washington Post it wouldn’t be less than $100 million.
The eventual cost could be as much as $1 billion. This includes items such as $100 million to upgrade all of Target’s cash registers to accept chip-and-PIN credit cards, which are less likely to be stolen. In addition, dozens of lawsuits have already been filed by banks seeking to be reimbursed for their costs.
And there are other costs as well, that are not even borne by Target. Community banks, for example, paid up to $240 million to reissue 21.8 million credit cards—money they may not be able to get back from Target.
Moreover, as many as 10 to 15 percent of the stolen credit cards (4.8 to 7.2 million of them) have been used fraudulently—which means that Target may not only have to reimburse those charges, but also be subject to fines. “If the government’s probe finds Target at fault for not complying with industry-specific security standards, the company faces fines in the range of $400 million to $1.1 billion, according to an estimate by Jefferies, an equity research company,” writes the Washington Post. “That figure did not include lost sales or customer goodwill.”
The Post went on to say that a similar breach at T.J. Maxx in 2007, which affected 45 million customers, was originally expected to cost $25 million, but eventually cost nearly ten times that much.
Data breaches have hit other companies besides Target. The Ponemon Institute’s 2014 Cost of Data Breach Study: Global Analysis, which it releases annually, reported that the average cost to a company was $3.5 million—15 percent more than what it cost in last year’s report. (This year’s report covers primarily data breaches that occurred in 2013.)
Moving from company estimates to the aggregate, the picture doesn’t get any better—some estimates say ongoing cybercrime against top U.S.-based companies costs our economy more than $300 billion each year, reports CIO Today. And companies aren’t the only ones being targeted. Symantec surveyed 13,000 adults in 24 countries and estimated the global consumer cybercrime problem cost $110 billion in 2012, while in 2009, McAfee estimated cybercrime to cost $1 trillion. Estimates are all over the map due to a lack of reliable data and different ways of estimating costs, The Economist writes.
According to the 2014 Ponemon study, respondents said the ideal amount to invest over the next 12 months to execute their organizations’ security strategy averages $14 million. However, in the next 12-month period, companies anticipate spending an average of only half that amount, or $7 million, the report continued. “This may be a tough sell in many companies,” the report admits.
If you’ve had trouble persuading your bosses to let you invest in improved security, it might help to know just how much a data breach could cost your company. Several calculators out there could provide a useful first pass at such an estimate.
CyberTab, developed by Booz Allen Hamilton and The Economist Intelligence Unit, will calculate the costs of a specific cyber attack—based on your estimates of incident-response and business expenses, in addition to lost sales and customers—and estimate your “return on prevention” for instituting protections. It works with both planning and calculating the effect of actual attacks.
Symantec and the Ponemon Institute have also developed a data breach calculator. The calculator figures out your risk for a data breach, your average cost per compromised record, and your average cost per breach. It then compares your company with companies in your industry, companies in other industries, companies with and without a CISO, companies with the same number of employees, and companies with operations in either one country or multiple countries.
HUB International, a group of insurance brokers and consultants, also has a data breach cost calculator. It figures out the estimated costs for an incident investigation, customer notification/crisis management, regulatory and industry sanctions, and a class action lawsuit.
As they say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.Straw Set Tutorial For Natural Hair
I absolutely love this style. Other than fluffing, there is no daily manipulation of combing, brushing, and tugging.
I've always loved straw sets and the curl pattern that comes with the end result, but never had the courage to try it because of the time and patience that is needed to set the style. But I've seen so many success pictures, there would be no way that I could mess this style up.
So here I am trying this style for the first time!
Since I want a strong and soft hold, I went to get Alikay Naturals Crème Brulee Curling Delight 1) because I've read and seen awesome reviews about this product and 2) I've always wanted to try this product. You can pick this up at your local Sally's or Target for $15.99...but A LITTLE GOES A LONG WAY!
So let's go! Simple Straw Set Tutorial
You will need:
200+ Drinking straws (go to the Dollar Tree or Family Dollar for the cheap ones)
Curl definer
Denman brush or fingers
Bobby pins
Start on freshly washed and conditioned hair. Make sure the hair is damp and not sopping wet when you start to set this style. Section your hair in 4-6 workable sections.
Get your curl definer product ready. Make sure that your product has a strong, but soft hold for this style. I suggest using a light gel or a curling cream to do the job. Mousse tends to be too light and holding spritz is way to hard and drying to your hair.
Alikay Naturals Crème Brulee
Get your drinking straws out (you will need about 200) and cut the straw that matches the length of your hair length.
Get a small section of hair and detangle thoroughly with your Denman or fingers.
Start from the ends of your hair and wrap tightly around the straw until you get to your scalp (but not too tight).
Secure the straw by sliding the bobby pin in the straw and on your scalp (I promise, it will stay!)
Continue with the rest by following this simple guide. Allow to air dry (8+ hours) or a hooded dryer.
Make sure the hair is completely dry before taking out the straws...or you will have a droopy-just-wasted-your-time mess!
Straw Set Tutorial For Natural Hair
Took about 1 hour and 30 minutes to do the top!
Once your hair is completely dry, take your straws out slow and with patience. Unravel the straws from the top to bottom...don't slide them out!
Straw Set Tutorial For Natural Hair
Once out, separate your coils and style them how you want!
Enjoy your straw set for the next few weeks!
More To Add:
This is the awesome hair style ever! I absolutely love straw sets and I'm going to do more in the future...especially in the Spring/Summer time!
HOWEVER!!!! I do not recommend sleeping with straws in your hair. I'm so serious when I say that I slept on a pillow all scrunched up...my neck was on the pillow with a gap for all my straws. I had lines all on my face when I woke up for the next morning. It was absolutely a bad night to get some sleep. So if it can be avoided, do this style in the morning and take the straws out in the afternoon after your hair has dried.
Straw Set Tutorial For Natural Hair
All you need is a satin bonnet to cover up your hair during the night and fluff in the morning. I really like the ease of that. Since I styled my hair in a straw set up-do, I slept with a satin scarf around my head and let my curls at the top have some air to breathe.
With this set, make sure you use light moisturizers for your daily routine. You don't want to weigh down your curls with too much product.
When it is time to wash and condition your hair again, MAKE SURE TO DETANGLE THOROUGHLY!!! You don't want to deal with your wet noodles while washing your hair...yea too much of a struggle to work with.
Enjoy your straw set!
Natural hair says: try the straw set as a protective style. You will absolutely love the results!
Always Desire Your Natural,Hamas and the Palestinian Authority are the best of frenemies. Even while they squabble and fight for power, the so-called moderates in the PA and Fatah work in tandem with the fundamentalists in Hamas to prevent the realization of the two-state solution.
The PA has repeatedly rejected offers of partition. Arafat rejected an offer of independence and peace at Camp David in 2000, and current President Mahmoud Abbas has admitted that he rejected Ehud Olmert’s offer in 2008. He recently reiterated his categorical rejection of any territorial compromise, calling for a “Palestinian state whose capital is east Jerusalem on the ’67 borders,” and he continues to reject peace negotiations
This demand, of course, is impossible to grant. In his book Like Dreamers: The Story of the Israeli Paratroopers Who Reunited Jerusalem and Divided a Nation, Yossi Klein Halevi described the way that Jordanian forces fired indiscriminately on homes in Jewish neighborhoods of west Jerusalem from positions in the West Bank during the 1967 war. In Times of Israel, Caitlyn Martin explained,
70 percent of Israel’s population lives in the area that you can see from Alfe Menashe [in Samaria]. Prior to 1967 nobody lived there. It was used as a gun emplacement by the Jordanian army. It was used to shell Israeli cities during times of conflict.
A return to the 1948 ceasefire lines is simply not a realistic option. Abbas, however, has maintained an obstinate insistence on a concession that is, for Israel, impossible. Abbas’s hard-line position makes a negotiated withdrawal from the disputed West Bank territories unobtainable.
At the same time, Hamas continues to attack Israel from Gaza, even though it knows it has no hope of defeating Israel militarily. While many Gazans that were made homeless during Operation Protective Edge remain so two years later, Hamas has been busily siphoning aid money to create the infrastructure for the next war. This infrastructure relies on mosques and schools as part of its strategy. Hamas’s unwavering dedication to violence, and the risk that it could take over the West Bank, make further unilateral withdrawals impossible.
The combined effect of Hamas and PA actions is to perpetuate the status quo, even as it becomes increasingly miserable for all sides. Israel cannot negotiate an agreement to withdraw because there is no one with whom to negotiate. Israel cannot leave without an agreement because to do so would result in more chaos and more violence. It is stuck, literally, between rocks and rockets.
One can only assume that Palestinian Arabs are acting with the hope that if the status quo persists, eventually the international community will force Israel to grant citizenship to at least Arab West Bank residents, if not Gaza residents as well. Of course, this hope is in vain, as the UN lacks the power or ability to impose such a plan against Israel’s will, and Israel will never agree to commit national suicide.
The time has clearly come to begin searching for other alternatives.
A good place to start would be to examine the events that led to the current situation. In 1948, the UN proposed a partition of the areas that now comprise Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. The newly reconstituted State of Israel was attacked by the armies of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Egypt and Jordan. It was Jordan that then occupied the West Bank from 1948-1967.
And, it was Jordan that initiated the hostilities that resulted in the Israeli capture of the West Bank in 1967. After Israel’s preemptive attack on Egypt,
Prime Minister Levi Eshkol sent a message to King Hussein saying Israel would not attack Jordan unless he initiated hostilities. When Jordanian radar picked up a cluster of planes flying from Egypt to Israel, and the Egyptians convinced Hussein the planes were theirs, he then ordered the shelling of West Jerusalem. It turned out the planes were Israel’s, and were returning from destroying the Egyptian air force on the ground. Meanwhile, Syrian and Iraqi troops attacked Israel’s northern frontier. Had Jordan not attacked, the status of Jerusalem would not have changed during the course of the war. Once the city came under fire, however, Israel needed to defend it, and, in doing so, took the opportunity to unify the city, ending Jordan’s 19-year occupation of the eastern part.
Jordan played a substantial role in creating the current situation. It is time that Jordan, with whom Israel now has a peace treaty, was called upon to play a role in the solution.
The next US administration would likely need to exert substantial pressure on Jordan, and probably would need to offer substantial incentive. Since the PA refuses to agree to any solution, however, a solution must be reached without its agreement. By dealing directly with Jordan, Israel and the US can circumvent the recalcitrant Palestinian Authority. Israel can annex the areas that it needs to annex, areas that Bill Clinton and Dennis Ross understood that it must annex. The portion of the territories that Israel does not need to keep, it should return to Jordan.
Jordan would then have several options available to it. Annexation of the territory would be one. Another possibility is that the West Bank could become a territory of Jordan similar in status to that of Puerto Rico with respect to the US. This path could ameliorate Jordanian fears about becoming a minority in their own country. A confederation between Jordan and Palestine is a possibility that has been the subject of significant discussion of late. The only requirement on Jordan would be to keep the peace. Substantial US assistance could be, and likely would need to be, provided to help achieve this.
While the PA is not likely to, and does not need to, agree to this, it is possible that it could garner substantial support among the Palestinian Arab population. Recent polls have shown between 42% and 76% of Palestinian Arabs supporting a confederation with Jordan. A prominent Palestinian academic, Sari Nusseibeh, has advocated such a plan as well, and it’s been reported that Al-Quds University has already conducted detailed research on this possibility. Professor Nusseibeh recently told Al-Monitor, “The Palestinians and the Jordanians have historical relations and ancient family ties and the confederation may be an alternative accepted by the Palestinians to get rid of the Israeli occupation.” Khaled Abu Toameh wrote recently that “the talk about a confederation between the Palestinians and Jordan shows that under the current circumstances, the two-state solution (a Palestinian state alongside Israel) is no longer being viewed by Palestinians as a realistic solution that will bring their people a better life.”
Earlier this week Jordan’s King Abdullah was quoted saying that “the Palestinian issue is our first priority and a supreme national interest.” The King should put words into action.
Those who understand that the roots of this conflict are religious and not political in nature will understand that the Palestinian Arab population will be far more amenable to Jordanian rule than Israeli rule. And those who understand the history will understand why Jordan has an obligation to the parties.
Israel did not create this conflict, and it can’t resolve it alone. If the next US administration understands that it is the symbiotic relationship between Fatah and Hamas that is blocking Palestinian statehood and perpetuating the conflict, rather than anything that Israel does or doesn’t do, it will need to start searching for a new approach.Hillary Clinton deflected responsibility Friday for what the FBI called her careless handling of sensitive government secrets, saying that officials with whom she corresponded as secretary of state did not treat the information as secret.
In her first remarks about FBI findings that were highly critical of her stewardship of classified information, Clinton said she made a mistake in setting up the privately owned email system she used when she was secretary of state. But she repeatedly noted that information later identified as classified was part of correspondence with hundreds of government officials who did not flag any problem.
“I believe and have said many times that I take classified material seriously,” Clinton said in an interview with NBC. “I dealt with over 300 people in the State Department, many with decades of experience, who understand clearly how to handle classified material.”
In most but not all cases investigated by the FBI, others initiated communications with content that was later identified as sensitive. Those messages were sent directly or forwarded to Clinton.
The references to other government officials, repeated in other interviews Clinton conducted Friday, represent a new line of defense in the long public debate over an issue that has led many voters to say they do not trust her.
“I do not believe that all of the professionals that I dealt with in the State Department were careless in handling classified material,” Clinton said. “I do not believe that they did anything that in any way, they believed, was inappropriate.”
Until now, Clinton had not discussed in any detail that the messages involved scores of other government officials with security clearances and knowledge of the handling of sensitive material.
Previously, Clinton had said she never knowingly sent any classified information over her private email system. FBI Director James B. Comey did not contradict that assertion in announcing his findings this week but did say in House testimony that she had been negligent.
“I think he’s clarified it. The State Department has clarified it,” Clinton said. “I have said, I regret using a personal email.”
[House Republicans grill FBI’s Comey on Clinton emails]
Comey presided over a year-long investigation that found Clinton’s setup to be problematic, but he said Tuesday that the matter should be closed with no criminal charges. The case was closed by the Justice Department the next day.
The State Department, however, said Thursday that it was reopening its internal review of the matter — which could potentially bring professional consequences for Clinton or her top aides there.
Clinton did not answer direct questions in a CNN interview about whether she would cooperate in the State Department inquiry.
The Republican National Committee said in an email to reporters that Clinton “continued to misrepresent the facts about her email scandal and refused to commit to cooperating with a rekindled State Department probe into her handling of classified material.”
Republicans have called on the Obama administration to deny her access to classified briefings.Friday marks the final day on which teams may add Rule 5 draft-eligible players to their 40-man rosters so as to avoid exposing them to the Rule 5 draft. As of this writing, the Cubs have just 35 players on the 40-man roster. Accordingly, of the dozens of players in the system currently eligible for the draft, the Cubs can protect up to five by adding them to the roster, absent any additional moves.
Of course, many of the players eligible for the Rule 5 draft will almost certainly go unselected. For example, Mark Malave received the Cubs’ largest international amateur signing bonus in the summer of 2011, raking in $1.6 million as one of the top catching prospects in his class. Fast forward to November 2016 and Malave is a right-handed relief pitcher with three innings beyond short-season ball. He won’t be selected. Nor will right-handers Jordan Pries (the middling prospect arm who accompanied Mike Montgomery from Seattle), Dillon Maples (he of the $2.5 million signing bonus in the 14th round of the 2011 draft), or Andury Acevedo (last winter’s surprise recipient of a Major League contract).
That’s not to say that there aren’t plenty of interesting players in the system who will be left unprotected. Outfielder Bijan Rademacher posted an exquisite.313/.395/.484 line during the first half at Double-A this year before turning solid results at Triple-A, but as a 25-year-old former 13th-round pick, he lacks the tools that excite scouts and get players drafted. Right-handed reliever Pedro Araujo, 23, who used a spectacular disappearing changeup to baffle Midwest League hitters in 2016, also won’t be protected. Others like Michael Wagner, Josh Conway, and David Garner also have enough of a pedigree to see a 0.1 percent chance of making it to Chicago, odds not worth a pick.
There is another group of players who almost certainly won’t be added to the 40-man roster, but with whom there is enough of a possibility (say, one to five percent) that they’re worth mentioning: pitchers Corey Black, Erick Leal, Jonathan Martinez, Ryan McNeil, Juan Carlos Paniagua, Jose Paulino, Steve Perakslis, Tyler Skulina and Daury Torrez. Each of those arms comes with intrigue and many of them are familiar to Cubs fans for one reason or another, particularly those who were somewhat recent draft picks (Skulina, McNeil) and those who were acquired in trades during the 2012-14 sell-off (Black, Leal, Martinez). To me, Paulino is the gem of this crop, a late-blooming lefty with enough pop to make some noise but who needs three solid years to progress enough to get there. I’ll have a more in-depth look at him later this winter.
With most of the system out of the way, there are six prospects whom I believe a real chance of making the 40-man roster. Here is a look at the case for and against each player being added, from most likely to least likely.
The Cubs called up Willson Contreras mid-season, and he flourished. Could prospect Victor Caratini be next? (Mark J. Rebilas/USA TODAY Sports)
C Victor Caratini
For: The case for adding Caratini is a slam dunk in my eyes. He has a full season at Double-A under his belt and is ready to contribute in the majors in 2017. He has enough arm to avoid being a liability in the running game at the top level and his on-base skills are strong and continually improving, fueled by a discerning eye (he posted a.375 on-base percentage for Tennessee). He has the pedigree of being a recent second-round pick.
Against: There’s very little power in Caratini’s bat and his defensive work behind the plate remains a work in progress as a converted college third baseman. Still, I’ll be stunned if the Cubs do not add him to the 40-man.
LHP Jack Leathersich
For: The Cubs, like every team, crave left-handed pitching. The only left-handed relievers currently on the 40-man roster are Rob Zastryzny, Gerardo Concepcion and Zac Rosscup. Rosscup lost all of 2016 to shoulder surgery and must pass through optional assignment waivers to be sent back to the minors in 2017. Leathersich was a top-20 prospect in a strong Mets system in 2015, and he enjoyed a generally strong, if wild, MLB debut that year. He was acquired by the current regime.
Against: Leathersich had Tommy John surgery in July 2015, and has thrown just 15 1/3 innings since his return, and while he continued to strike out batters, he walked a ton of them, too (10 walks in that span). The command risk predated the injury, only intensifying as a result of going under the knife.
OF John Andreoli
For: Improvement. In 2014, Andreoli was a largely nondescript 17th-round pick who was fast but whose bat couldn’t make the jump from the lower minor leagues. From 2011-14, Andreoli had just three home runs. But over 2015 and 2016, Andreoli blasted 17 more while swiping 76 bases, all at Triple-A. The speed has always been a part of his package, but the power could be the difference for him.
Against: 2-for-44. The last time I saw Andreoli in person in June 2014, he was mired in a dreadful 2-for-44 slump. A few days later, his season ended quietly because of a nagging wrist injury. He’s already 26, so he’s unlikely to improve going forward. Andreoli’s strikeout rate has also ballooned with his newfound power. Somewhat strangely, the biggest factor cutting against Andreoli might be the presence of fellow Iowa Cubs outfielder Mark Zagunis. Their profiles are similar — with Zagunis possessing the stronger bat but only solid speed compared to Andreoli’s impact wheels — yet Zagunis has another year before he needs to be added to the 40-man roster.
RHP Armando Rivero
For: I proposed the idea of the Cubs rostering Rivero this summer internally, but the Cubs opted to trade for Joe Smith instead. Rivero features two plus pitches: a mid-90s heater and a low-80s slider. The recipient of a $3.1 million bonus out of Cuba in 2013, Rivero is much older than most prospects under consideration (he’ll be 29 in February), but he appears ready for the majors. After struggling at Triple-A in 2015, Rivero overwhelmed hitters there in 2016, striking out a hair under 14 per nine innings en route to a sparkling 2.13 ERA largely supported by a 2.84 FIP. If the Cubs don’t add him to the roster, another club will almost certainly pick him up for their major league bullpen.
Against: His age. And his 4.66 walks per nine at Triple-A looks bad. This is still a no-brainer in my book, as Rivero would pitch in the ninth inning with better command. Since he doesn’t have that command, he’s more of a sixth- or seventh-inning arm.
It’s not very likely the Cubs add pitcher Duane Underwood to their roster, and if they don’t he’s likely to be taken by another team. (Mark J. Rebilas/USA TODAY Sports)
RHP Duane Underwood
For: Underwood has a huge fastball and two secondaries (curveball, changeup) that project as plus pitches with additional seasoning. His body is big enough to carry a starter’s load and he has a strong pedigree (2012 second-round pick, $1.05 million bonus). If left unprotected, there is a 99 percent chance he gets scooped up by another team.
Against: It would have been unthinkable to have this conversation at this time last year, but 2016 was a disaster for Underwood. His strikeout rate cratered badly in 2015, but his strong walk and home run rates helped him succeed. This year, the strikeouts improved a bit, but the walks and homers both jumped in a big way, feeding a 5.09 FIP at Double-A and a nightmarish pair of appearances in the Arizona Fall League. To complicate matters, Underwood missed half of 2015 with elbow inflammation and missed half of 2016 with an undisclosed injury. There could be big problems here.
OF Jacob Hannemann
For: Full disclosure: I’m an unabashed Hannemann fan, even as his road has been rocky. Hannemann was drafted by the current regime, given an overslot bonus ($1 million against a slot of $736,000), and described by Jason McLeod as a guy that the Cubs “just had to have.” His development was always going to be slower due to his two-year Mormon mission, but he has shown plenty of flashes to justify keeping him. After swiping 37 bases in 2014 and 24 more in 2015, Hannemann nabbed 26 bags in just over half a season in 2016 before a thumb injury ended his year prematurely. While his.247 batting average is ugly, his on-base percentage (.326) and ISO (.179) more than make up for it, and he posted the lowest strikeout rate of his career in 2016 (16.8 percent). The Cubs also don’t have much in the way of future left-handed bench bats. He’s exactly the type of player (speedy with a strong glove and developing bat) that a team like the Braves or Padres can hide in a defensive role while they continue to develop him slowly.
Against: He’ll be 26 by opening day. Yikes. Even considering the mission, that’s very old for Double-A. The lost developmental time from 2016 hurts. While he showed marked improvement in 2016, the offensive results weren’t exactly overwhelming for a 25-year-old at Double-A.
In the end, the Cubs front office is tasked with some truly difficult decisions. Caratini is a lock to make it, but everyone else could go either way. I’d guess that Munenori Kawasaki is outrighted off of the 40-man roster and Christian Villanueva is designated for assignment, pushing the number of open spots to seven. In that scenario, the top five and possibly all six of the above make the roster.
Regardless of what happens, we’re going to learn quite a bit more this week about the Cubs of 2017 and beyond.Philippe Couillard ( French: [filɪp kujɑːʁ]; born June 26, 1957) was the 31st Premier of Quebec from 2014 to 2018, leader of the Quebec Liberal Party from 2013 to 2018 and a former university professor and neurosurgeon in Quebec, Canada. In the 2014 election he moved to the riding of Roberval where he resides. Until June 25, 2008, he served as the Quebec Minister for Health and Social Services and was also MNA of Mont-Royal until he resigned in 2008 under Jean Charest's Liberal government. He resigned as Liberal leader and MNA, on October 4, 2018.
Life and career [ edit ]
Couillard was born in Montreal, Quebec, the son of Canadian-born Joseph Alfred Jean Pierre Couillard de Lespinay, and French-born Hélène Yvonne Pardé.[1] He holds a medical degree and a certification in neurosurgery from the Université de Montréal. He was the head of the department of neurosurgery at Hôpital Saint-Luc from 1989 to 1992 and again at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Sherbrooke from 1996 to 2003. From 1992 to 1996, he practised in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. In 2003, he left the medical profession to run for the Montreal-area seat of Mont-Royal in the National Assembly representing the Quebec Liberal Party. He was elected in the 2003 election and was appointed Minister of Health and Social Services on April 29, 2003.
After taking office, he proved skillful in the handling of his department's public relations and was regarded by some as the most popular minister in the Charest government.[2] His accomplishments during his tenure included a $4.2 billion increase in the Quebec health budget, the prohibition of smoking in public places, and a reduction in the number of union local accreditations in the health sector.
In 2007, Couillard transferred to the riding of Jean-Talon in the Quebec City area, replacing Margaret Delisle who did not seek re-election due to health reasons. Couillard won his seat in the 2007 election despite the Action démocratique du Québec's (ADQ) strong performance in the region in which the party gained the majority of the seats. Pierre Arcand succeeded Couillard in the Mont-Royal riding. Couillard was reappointed Health and Social Services Minister as well as the minister responsible for the provincial Capitale-Nationale (Quebec) region.
On June 25, 2008, Couillard officially announced his resignation as Minister and MNA. He was succeeded as Minister and Jean-Talon MNA by locally-known Alma doctor Yves Bolduc.[3][4]
On June 23, 2010, Couillard was appointed to the Security Intelligence Review Committee, and consequently was appointed to the Privy Council.[5]
On October 3, 2012, Couillard became the third person to enter the race to succeed Jean Charest as leader of the Quebec Liberal Party. When asked why he was re-entering politics, he said, "I feel the need to serve."[6]
On October 4, 2018, Couillard resigned as MNA for Roberval and leader of the Quebec Liberal Party after his party was |
footsteps of Muray Rothbard, libertarianism is about one thing and one thing only: the proper use of force. Libertarianism is not a comprehensive ethical theory. It does not try to tell us what ideals we should aspire to in our personal lives, nor does it tell us much about the way that we should interact with other people. The only thing libertarianism has to say about our interpersonal relations is that it is wrong to aggress upon their person or property.
Thus while Gillespie and Welch see the rise of interracial marriages as something libertarians should celebrate, David Gordon is unimpressed. “What do you think of interracial marriage? It would be hard, offhand, to think of a question less relevant to libertarianism, as usually understood. Of course, no one has the right forcibly to prevent such marriages. What more need a libertarian say about this issue?” And similarly:
Their celebration of variety and change leads them on issue after issue to miss the essence of libertarianism, the use or threat of force. They support the free market and oppose government regulation of the economy, but this is not enough for them. Opposition to government intervention for them takes its place as part of a larger movement toward individual choice of certain kinds. “It is worth lingering a moment to marvel at the velocity of career change not available to those working in the media (and elsewhere)” (p.107). What if your ideal in life is to get a stable job and remain in it through retirement? Are you less of a libertarian than someone continually on the move?
I am reminded of Gordon’s review by some of the reactions to our recent discussion of the Ron Paul newsletters. One reaction in particular (see here for an example), was that even if the racist rhetoric of the newsletters could be attributed to Rothbard, Rockwell, or Paul himself, this does nothing to undermine the libertarian credentials of these individuals for the simple reason that there is no inconsistency between racism and libertarianism. If being a libertarian just means being committed to the non-aggression principle, then one’s beliefs about the intelligence, criminality, or even basic moral status of members of other races simply isn’t an issue. So long as one is committed to opposing the initiation of force against all persons, one has met the one and only necessary and sufficient condition for membership in Club Libertarian.
Personally, I think the Rothbardian emphasis on the non-aggression principle as definitive of libertarianism is unwarranted. And his argument for it certainly leaves much to be desired. But I do think there’s something to be said for understanding libertarianism as a kind of “thin” political commitment. We libertarians are united by a (rough) agreement on the proper role of the state in society, but we can agree on that point while vigorously disagreeing with each other about a host of other moral, religious, and cultural issues. Tolerance of such disagreement arguably makes for a more effective political coalition. And, after all, part of the appeal of libertarian political institutions is that they allow for people to believe in and live according to a diverse set of norms.
But does that mean that racism, nationalism, and a desire for cultural stasis sit just as well with the libertarian worldview as tolerance, cosmopolitanism, and cultural dynamism? I don’t think it does. However we define libertarianism, and whatever our reasons for endorsing it, we are libertarians for some reason. And the reasons we have to endorse libertarianism will often be reasons for endorsing other values, projects, or cultural practices as well. Imagine someone who endorsed the non-aggression principle because they believed it reflected the fundamental equality of persons, for example, but who simultaneously believed that white Americans were the moral superior of every other person on the planet, and who expressed that belief through a variety of derogatory and marginalizing practices. Even if such a person in no way violated the non-aggression principle, I would still say that they are not a libertarian in as full a sense as they could, and should, be. The reason is not just that they have beliefs and practices that I find objectionable. It is that they have beliefs and practices that are incompatible with the very moral foundation on which libertarianism rests.
In other words, even if we can sensibly talk about libertarianism in a “thin” sense, and even if there are virtues to doing so, we can nevertheless talk about a “thicker” kind of libertarianism as well. And we can hold, moreover, that the thicker form of libertarianism is a better, more fully consistent form of libertarianism. I borrow the term ‘thick libertarianism’ from this excellent essay by Charles Johnson (now available in hard copy in this excellent book). Here’s how Johnson describes the particular kind of thickness I’m referring to:
Libertarians have many different ideas about the theoretical foundations for the non-aggression principle – that is to say, about the best reasons for being a libertarian. But whatever general foundational beliefs a given libertarian has, those beliefs may have some logical implications other than libertarianism alone.
The idea is related to, but distinct, from Bryan Caplan’s idea of a “Libertarian Penumbra.” My point isn’t just that there are some things that libertarians simply happen to believe or like more than other people (science fiction, perhaps?), but that there are things that libertarians ought to believe or like more than others, given their foundational commitments.
Two quick caveats, in conclusion:
My main point here is to defend the idea of thick libertarianism, not to explain what I think the correct substance of thick libertarianism ought to be. My own commitment to libertarianism rests on more foundational beliefs about individualism, tolerance, skepticism about power, respect for spontaneous order, and belief in the importance of property rights. And I think these beliefs commit me not just to libertarianism but to a certain kind of feminism and cultural dynamism, to name just two. But that’s an argument for another day. I’m not arguing that “thin” libertarians aren’t “real” libertarians. Labels don’t interest me much. And my own choice of labels probably shouldn’t interest you much either. The point isn’t about how to use the word “libertarian.” The point is about the logic of the moral and empirical commitments on which libertarianism rests. I think those commitments have implications other than libertarianism. And that we therefore have reason – qua libertarians – to take those commitments seriously. What we choose to call people who endorse or fail to endorse those commitments is a separate issue, and one of relatively minor import.A photograph of an Afghan woman whose nose was sliced off by her husband has sparked widespread revulsion across the country, with activists demanding strict punishment.
Reza Gul, 20, was taken to hospital after the attack, which took place in the Ghormach district of the north-western province of Faryab on Sunday. Her husband is said to have fled to a Taliban-controlled area.
The man, identified as Mohammad Khan, is said to have cut off Gul’s nose with a pocket knife, according to a spokesman for the governor of Faryab.
The incident highlights the endemic violence against women in Afghan society, despite reforms brought in since the Taliban’s Islamist regime was ousted in a 2001 US-led invasion.
“Such a brutal and barbaric act should be strongly condemned,” said Alema, a Kabul-based women’s rights activist, who goes by one name. “Such incidents would not happen if the judicial system severely punished attacks on women,” she told AFP.
A photograph of the disfigured woman was widely shared on social media, prompting calls for tough action against the husband. The governor’s spokesman said Gul would need reconstructive surgery, which was not possible at the local government-run hospital.
It was not immediately clear what prompted Khan to attack Gul, whom he married five years ago as a teenager, and who is the mother of a one-year-old child. Khan, who is unemployed, is believed to have recently returned from neighbouring Iran and may have joined the Taliban after fleeing in the wake of the attack.
The government has vowed to protect women’s rights but this has not prevented violent attacks.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Aisha Mohammadzai displays her prosthetic nose at an event in California. Photograph: Michael Kovac/FilmMagic
“Horrifying cases like this one happen all too often in Afghanistan,” Heather Barr, a researcher with Human Rights Watch, told AFP. “The level of impunity for violence against women encourages some men to continue to feel that women are their property and violence is their right.”
In November a young woman was stoned to death after being accused of adultery in the central province of Ghor. And last March a woman named Farkhunda was savagely beaten and set ablaze in central Kabul after being falsely accused of burning a copy of the Qur’an.
The mob killing triggered angry nationwide protests and drew global attention to the treatment of Afghan women. In 2010, Time magazine put on its cover a photograph of 18-year-old Aisha Mohammadzai, whose nose was cut off by an abusive husband. The cover provoked a worldwide outpouring of sympathy for Aisha, who was taken to the US where she was given a prosthetic nose.SHARE
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Update 10:15 am
The high surf warning issued for Oahu, Kauai, Niihau and the Big Island was canceled.
A high surf advisory remains in effect for north and west facing shores of Oahu, Niihau, Kauai and Molokai, north facing shores of Maui and west facing shores of the Big Island until 6 p.m. tonight.
Surf is expected to be between 15 and 20 feet along north facing shores of Oahu and 18 to 24 feet along north and west facing shores of Niihau and Kauai.
Update 11:45pm
High surf advisory for North and West facing shores of Niihau…Kauai…Oahu and Molokai…and for North facing shores of Maui…and West facing shores of the Big Island.
A large West-Northwest swell will continue through Monday along exposed north and west facing shores. Surf will remain at advisory levels into Monday before dropping below Tuesday.
…high surf advisory in effect until 6 pm hst Monday…
…high surf warning is cancelled…
The national weather service in honolulu has issued a high surf advisory…which is in effect until 6 pm hst Monday. The high surf warning has been cancelled.
—
The National Weather Service issued a high surf warning for north facing shores of Oahu, north and west facing shores of Niihau and Kauai and west facing shores of the Big Island until 6 a.m. tomorrow.
A high surf advisory was also issued for west facing shores of Oahu, north facing shores of Maui and north and west facing shores of Molokai until 6 a.m. tomorrow.
Life-threatening surf associated with a large west-northwest swell will continue to impact north and west facing shores through the night and will likely drop by Tuesday, officials said.
Surf is expected to be between 20 and 25 feet along Oahu’s north facing shores through tonight.
North and west facing shores of Niihau and Kauai are expected to have surf between 22 and 28 feet.
West facing shores of the Big Island are expected to have surf between 8 and 12 feet with the highest surf expected to be along the coast from Kailua-Kona to South Point.
Weather officials are expecting high impacts with very strong breaking waves, significant shore break and dangerous currents which will make entering the water very hazardous.
Beachgoers are urged to heed all warnings and advice from lifeguards.All makers of contemporary economic policy are slaves of the defunct economist John Maynard Keynes. Now their manifest failure has forced them to take drastic measures that include everything except admitting that the Keynesian consensus is wrong.
I and a handful of fellow deviants spend a lot of time documenting how mainstream economic discussion is set up to exclude pro-savings arguments, doubts about the wisdom of deficit spending, critiques of the blind pursuit of low interest rates, and other heresies.
To give just one recent, silly example, here's a discussion of the Obama Administration's effort to "rescue" the economy, in which neither CNN's Candy Crowley nor lame-duck chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers Austan Goolsbee can be bothered to ask what any owner of a private business would have had to think about right up front: Is it possible that the money we’re spending is just going to waste?
Counting up all the rescue packages of the Bush and Obama Administrations and two rounds of quantitative easing, the United States has now spent about $2 trillion in bailouts and created $2.9 trillion in new money, yet most economic indicators are lower than they would have been according to the worst-case scenarios that were made public when those spending decisions were approved.
A failure of that magnitude needs some heavy PR management. Last year I documented early instances of the "true Catholic" argument: Keynesians claiming that today’s Keynesians are not being true to Keynes (who would have made a bigger or smarter stimulus or some such thing).
Several times since then I have invited advocates of intervention to name a dollar figure they would consider sufficiently stimulative. I’ve even thrown out a number: $5 trillion to $8 trillion, which would match the decline in household net worth and arguably replace the effects of the “demand-side shock.” I didn’t imagine Paul Krugman had me on speed-dial, but it’s notable that nobody has accepted that challenge.
The “true Keynesian” argument continues to stink up the public discourse, however. Most recently is this ALDaily.com-recommended jeremiad against the Obama administration’s “false Keyensians” by James K. Galbraith, the confusingly named son of the famous defunct economist John K. Galbraith. For better or worse, here’s the state of the art in contemporary Keynesian denial:
And so the False Keynesians went home—Romer back to Berkeley, Summers to Harvard. The reputation of Keynesianism is just part of their collateral damage. After the midterm elections, all attention turned to the victors’ agenda: the federal budget deficit, the public debt, spending cuts, and the cause of “entitlement reform”—our Orwellian phrase for slashing Social Security and Medicare. How can we understand this march of budget-cutters and free-market fundamentalists? Where do their ideas come from? Unlike the Reagan revolutionaries of 30 years ago, they have no academic messiah, no newspaper apostles, and, so far as one can tell, no sacred text. “Monetarism” plays no role, nor does “supply-side economics.” They are not really “Austrians,” though some claim as much.
There's a lot I can't exactly respond to because of the 1990s-freestylin' nature of Galbraith’s writing. I had to reread several passages to figure out whether Galbraith was parodying somebody else's ideas, doing an unironic LaRouchian rant against marginal utility, or something else. Galbraith writes that something is "redolent of the Social Darwinists’ view of the divine right of the rich to rule," which is several platitudes too far. Darwinism doesn't argue for a "divine right" to anything. Galbraith may be thinking of believers in natural aristocracy or something like that, but in practice he's just mixing phrases in a sloppy way. His dead writing also includes vague technothriller blurbs…
In 2009 we realized it. But our computers, and the technicians who ran them, overruled us.
…and phrases that aren't so much non sequiturs as anti-sequiturs:
And if Keynes were in charge, then the captains of industry could not be.
But Galbraith also makes claims that are relatively straightforward and thus easily refuted:
In [business lobbyists’] version of the story, interference by government is a choke-leash on the animal forces of free-market dynamism.
If you can’t remember any business lobbyist claiming anything about unleashing “animal” energies, that’s because this is a notion that originated with Keynes himself. (To get a sense of where Galbraith stands on the regulatory-capture question, consider that he holds up corporate welfare queen Jeffrey Immelt as a specimen of free-market fanaticism.)
Galbraith is equally sloppy in delineating schools of thought among the people he attacks:
Ben Bernanke and Christina Romer, both of whom had reputations as experts on the Great Depression, were closer to Milton Friedman’s view of that matter—that the Fed did it—than to Keynes.
This is partly true with regard to Romer, whose academic work made the argument for monetary stimulus as effective and fiscal stimulus as ineffective. However, again as we have pointed out, Romer became a vocal advocate of fiscal stimulus while running the CEA, even going so far as to posit an impossibly precise multiplier of $1.55 for every federal dollar spent.
Bernanke’s view of Depression-era monetary policy, however, is markedly different from Friedman’s. As I discussed the other day, the two views split on the question of whether bank failures in the thirties should be seen primarily as liquidity problems or solvency problems. It's an interesting question. I believe a clever economist might be able to take this comparison of Bernanke’s and Friedman’s views and argue that of the two, Friedman had a more “pure” Keynesian read. I don’t know whether Galbraith is a clever economist, but by lazily conflating the two, he just ends up wrong.
Maybe I’m setting too high a bar of accuracy for what is really intended as a rant. But facts matter even when you’re ranting:
Meanwhile, in the halls of Congress, as well as at Westminster and in Frankfurt and Brussels and Berlin, the ghosts of Smith and Ricardo mutter on about unproductive government and how savings create investment. So they cut and cut, and when that doesn’t work they call for more cuts.
What has been cut? Federal spending is higher this year than it was in 2010. It was higher in 2010 than it was in 2009, higher in 2009 than in 2008, and so on. More to the point, we don’t have a budget. The United States has not had a signed budget in more than a year, so in fact there is not a single line item anybody can point to as having been reduced or eliminated. If we were spending less, why would we need to keep raising the debt ceiling?
This is what is so terrifying about the practical failure of the Keynesian consensus: The fish don’t feel the water. We barely even have the language to point out the reasons for the failure, let alone to suggest that some truth might be found outside the consensus.
I don’t expect or receive any quarter when I try to point out that an economy where you can’t pay an employee whatever the two of you agree to, charge whatever interest rate you can get a borrower to pay, or relocate an airplane plant without getting the government’s permission is not a true free market. So I shed no tears for Keynesian fundamentalism. No doubt there are soi-disant Keynesians out there who have lost the Master's true message, just as there are followers of Jack Chick and L. Ron Hubbard who misinterpret their respective leaders' teachings. That's tough luck. I’m just glad to see the economic quacks are starting to fight among themselves.California solar installer Sungevity said Wednesday that it has raised $40 million in venture funding as well as an $85 million fund to finance residential photovoltaic installations
“This is a mark of investor confidence that’s pretty important for Sungevity,” said Andrew Birch, Sungevity’s chief executive. “Market has evolved beyond solar being a bad name.”
While many solar panel manufacturers struggle to survive amid plummeting prices for photovoltaic modules and overcapacity, Sungevity, SolarCity and other companies that install their products have thrived.
Sungevity’s $40 million equity round was led by Brightpath Capital Partners and retailer Lowe’s. Oakland-based Sungevity also brought in new investors Vision Ridge Partners, Craton Equity Partners and Eastern Sun Partners.
The $85 million in project finance includes a $35 million tax equity fund from what Sungevity would only identify as “a leading commercial bank” and $50 million in mezzanine debt from Energy Capital Partners.
“This is their first and only foray into the solar space,” said Birch of Energy Capital Partners.
The use of debt to finance solar leases for homeowners represents a new strategy and an effort to diversify funding. Most residential solar arrays currently are funded by tax equity investors who receive a 30% tax credit for every installation.
Capital Partners will be repaid through homeowners’ monthly lease payments.
Sungevity has now raised a total of $160 million in project financing, according to the company.During a single week in early October, 154 Icelandic families quietly defaulted on their mortgages and had their homes put up for forced state auctions, or foreclosure sales. They aren’t the first families to be threatened with the loss of their homes this year, and based on current trends, they won’t be the last. Rather, these families are part of a steadily increasing number of Icelanders whose bankruptcy is precipitated by compounding loan interest and skyrocketing principals, victims of what MIT graduate and researcher Dr. Jacky Mallet referred to in this paper as “the most unique instrument of financial self-destruction over the last 30 years.”
“So even as you are making monthly payments on your loan, the amount you owe is actually increasing—drastically.”
Index-linked loans, or Verðtryggð lán, as they’re called, make up at least 85% of the Icelandic mortgage market, according to The Homes Association of Iceland. This association, which represents about 10% of Iceland’s homeowners, is currently suing bank lenders for providing misinformation about the benefits of these loans. It also contends that just as foreign currency loans were deemed illegal in 2010, index-linked loans are in violation of European Economic Area agreements, which ban “unfair terms in consumer contracts.”
Given that Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð has been an outspoken critic of loan indexation—and organised much of his election campaign around promises of mortgage reform and debt relief—you might expect this lawsuit to have the government’s full and vocal support. The reality, however, is very different.
Index-Linked Mortgages: A (not so) short explanation
While index-linked loans are all too common in Iceland, they are dramatically different from the loans most commonly available to homeowners in other countries. They therefore deserve some explanation, although it is difficult to do this without a detailed discussion of Iceland’s longstanding problems with currency devaluation, hyperinflation, monetary expansion, and borrowing practices. However, the shortest and simplest explanation (still neither all that short nor that simple) is as follows:
Index-linked loans are negatively amortized, which means that they are structured in order to have extremely low initial payments. This sounds—and looks—like good news for borrowers, but it actually means that monthly repayments are not enough to cover the interest that is accruing, let alone the loan principal. So, even as you are making monthly payments on your loan, the amount you owe is actually increasing—drastically.
To make matters worse, in Iceland, on top of a base fixed interest rate, the principal of an index-linked loan is directly connected to the Consumer Price Inflation Index, and the repayment schedule is most often set to 40 years, versus say 25 years in the US. In a country with a history of hyperinflation, this is disastrous.
To illustrate this more concretely, take an example offered by Vilhjálmur Bjarnason, the chair of the Homes Association. When researching home loans available to him in 2005, Vilhjálmur looked at an index-linked mortgage. The loan he wanted was for 26 million ISK with a 4.15% fixed interest rate. Estimating for 3.5% inflation in the coming years, he found that under the terms of the index-linked loan, he would eventually be paying 120 million ISK back to the bank. In reality, however, Iceland has had 8–9% inflation over the last eight years. So had he taken a loan of 26 million ISK in 2005, Vilhjálmur’s loan principal would have mushroomed to a total of 560 million ISK.
“For people from other countries, it’s very difficult to understand these loans,” he says. “They say, why did you let the government and the bank rob you every day for 30 years?”
Tilting at foreclosures
For three years, Vilhjálmur has dedicated himself to fighting for loan and mortgage reform in Iceland. He gets no salary for his work, although he works full time and has four children at home. He works out of what used to be his office when he was a real estate agent, a profession he worked in for 20 years.
“The main reason I got into this,” Vilhjálmur explains, “is because I had been advising so many people to take foreign currency loans.”
Vilhjálmur himself opted for one of the now-illegal foreign currency loans for his home in 2005, and lost his home in a foreclosure sale after the crash. Under current Icelandic law, even if the courts determine that the conditions of a loan agreement were illegal, individuals who have already gone bankrupt and lost their homes cannot recover any of their assets. So despite the fact that the loan, which drove his family into bankruptcy has now been determined to be illegal, there is no way for Vilhjálmur and his wife to recover their property.
After the crash, it was deemed advisable to transfer these loans into Icelandic index-linked loans, but despite the fact that their legality is also being challenged, the banks continue to foreclose on families who are defaulting on their loan payments.
“One of the things I have been working on,” he says, “is that you should be able to get your house and your collateral back. If you go bankrupt, there should be a special loan officer who then takes over your property, but does not immediately sell it. This is an issue that the government never talks about. They just talk about what will happen to people after foreclosure. But then you are accepting the foreclosures, not stopping them.”
Vilhjálmur is frequently in contact with members of parliament, presenting the Homes Association’s case, and requesting rectification of current mortgage and borrowing laws. One of the individuals he regularly approaches about this matter is Minister of the Interior Hanna Birna Kristjánsdóttir. He happened to have a meeting already scheduled with her the week that the 154 families had their homes put up for sale. Following this meeting, Vilhjálmur says, Hanna Birna made a statement to the press, saying that loan providers’ constitutional rights could not be overturned, and moreover, that in consideration for the individuals who have already lost their homes, it would be immoral to change the foreclosure process now.
“It’s as if you have an open mine shaft,” Vilhjálmur says, “but you decide to leave it open out of respect for the people who have already fallen down there.”
He wonders about Hanna Birna’s position. “Why is she so aggressive in defending the banks? Why is she not defending our homes? She is our minister and the constitution is for the people, not for companies. If I could understand her reasoning, I could fight against it. Right now, I’m like Don Quixote.”
For the greater good
According to Vilhjálmur, it has actually been extremely difficult to get any public comment whatsoever from a government official on these matters. Most often, his presentations and petitions are met with nearly unilateral stonewalling. “It is like fighting an invisible foe,” he says. “No one is really opposing me—they just aren’t doing anything about it.”
But then this also begs the question of where the public stands on the matter—and just where are the individuals who have lost their homes?
According to the Homes Association, 15% of registered voters signed a petition for the abolishment of index-linked loans, and they say that polls have indicated that as much as 80% of the Icelandic public supports such reform. And there have been sporadic news reports and testimonials from Icelanders who are facing foreclosures. But there is also indication of a growing despondency among those at risk of mortgage default.
Vilhjálmur and the Homes Association offer their advice and support to homeowners facing foreclosure, and will accompany them to the hearings where their situations are reviewed. In the case of the 154 families who had their homes put up for auction in October, however, only one individual came to the Homes Association and requested assistance. He says that none of the other families even attended the hearings in which their assets were seized.
“We are trying to tell people: ‘you have to defend yourselves, you have to do something,’” he says. “It has been five years [since the crash], and people are just…seriously, they are sleeping. But we shouldn’t have to do this—the government should have done it.”
Should the court rule in favour of the Homes Association, and deem index-linked loans—like the foreign currency loans before them—illegal, the hope is that there would be a substantial basis for reforming mortgage and foreclosure practices in Iceland. If, on the other hand, the Homes Association does not win their case in Iceland, Vilhjálmur says that they have no intention of dropping the matter. Rather, they will take the issue to the European Free Trade Association court, as Iceland is an EFTA member. “What is illegal, is illegal,” he says. “We will never stop.”February 8, 2013
Chris Williams, author of Ecology and Socialism: Solutions to Capitalist Ecological Crisis, looks at the battles ahead for those who will protest for the planet next week.
"For a moment he lost himself in the old, familiar dream. He imagined that he was master of the sky, that the world lay spread out beneath him, inviting him to travel where he willed. It was not the world of his own time that he saw, but the lost world of the dawn--a rich and living panorama of hills and lakes and forests. He felt bitter envy of his unknown ancestors, who had flown with such freedom over all the earth, and who had let its beauty die."
-- Arthur C. Clarke, The City and the Stars
CAPITALISM STANDS as a death sentinel over planetary life.
Recent reports from institutions such as the World Bank detail how, as a result of human activity, we are on track for a four-degree Celsius increase in average global temperatures. Should this come to pass, the Earth would be hotter than at any time in the last 30 million years; an absolutely devastating prognosis that will wipe out countless species, as ecosystems destabilize and climate becomes a vortex of ever-more erratic and wild weather events.
Protesters in North Carolina call on Barack Obama to say "no" to the Keystone XL pipeline (Will Wysong)
Despite this, however, Americans not long ago suffered through an election campaign in which climate change quite literally wasn't mentioned--at least until the final weeks, when a hurricane forced the presidential candidates to acknowledge it.
And even as the World Bank published its report--with the conclusion that avoiding a 4-degree temperature increase was "vital for the health and welfare of communities around the world"--bank officials were nevertheless still handing out loans to construct more than two dozen coal-fired power plants, to the tune of $5 billion.
Perversely, an entirely manufactured crisis, the so-called "fiscal cliff," has dominated political discourse since the election, notwithstanding the fact that humanity is hurtling toward a very real "carbon cliff." Carbon emissions are at record highs and set to rise further in a world where 1,200 new coal-burning power stations are under construction, and oil and gas extraction are ramping up around the world. 2012 was a record year of heat in the continental U.S., which set 362 new record high temperatures and not a single record low.
In direct contrast to politicians and the media, fully 80 percent of Americans believe that climate change will be a serious problem for the United States unless the government does something about it--with 57 percent saying the government should do a "great deal" or "quite a bit."
Even for the 1 in 3 Americans who say they are wary of science and distrust scientists, 61 percent now agree that temperatures have risen over the last 100 years. Commenting on the new poll, Stanford University social psychologist and pollster Jon Krosnick wrote, "They don't believe what the scientists say, they believe what the thermometers say...Events are helping these people see what scientists thought they had been seeing all along."
This background of overwhelming public concern helps situate the upcoming national demonstration in Washington, D.C., on February 17, against the building of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline from Canada to Texas. If built, the pipeline will carry 800,000 barrels a day of highly-polluting tar sands oil, effectively dealing a death blow to hopes of preventing rampant climate change. The demonstration has added significance as activists attempt to draw a line in the sand and pose the first big litmus test for the second term of Barack Obama.
AS CORPORATIONS hunt every square centimeter of land and sea for more fossil fuels to sell, disfiguring the earth as they line the pockets of their shareholders, millions of people know that the world is changing in ways that drastically limit the beauty, diversity and stability of life on earth.
They also know, or are coming to realize, that the people they elected to protect and serve them spend far more of their time appeasing the corporations responsible for the climate emergency and ecological crisis than they do addressing their concerns. Rather than limiting the power of the corporations, politicians of both major parties in the U.S. are greasing the wheels of capitalist expansion. Hence the vital need to demonstrate our anger against the destruction sanctioned by our government.
Given that an overwhelming majority of Americans, and even most people hostile to climate science, are in favor of action, why is it that the overwhelming majority of politicians, who presumably are subject to the same weather as the rest of us, can't seem to see the need? Why aren't our elected representatives proposing serious measures to prevent it from getting worse?
How one answers this question is not one of semantics. Rather, it is of decisive importance because it determines how one should fight and with whom one should forge alliances. Unfortunately, it is a question that Bill McKibben, cofounder of 350.org and a key organizer of the February 17 demonstration, has struggled with, but not conclusively resolved. His confusion is evidenced by the title of an article he wrote in January: "Our Protest Must Short-Circuit the Fossil Fuel Interests Blocking Barack Obama"--implying that Obama would do something if he could.
In the run-up to what is likely to be the largest U.S. demonstration to date against the fossil fuel industry and proponents of "extreme energy" technologies, we are at a potential turning point in the movement for ecological justice and environmental sanity. The stultifying lull of the election campaign, during which many Big Green groups set aside their disappointment with Obama aside and stayed quiet about his inadequacies, is at least temporarily gone, with a large and varied coalition of groups helping to promote the February 17 demonstration.
The momentum generated from this demonstration could serve as the launching pad for a sustained campaign that begins to stitch together the myriad forces fighting locally around the country, transforming previously isolated or single-issue initiatives and groups into a broad united front for climate justice that draws in other forces, such as unions.
Nevertheless, a number of activists and organizations will go to Washington hoping to persuade someone they see as a potential ally in this fight against the fossil fuel corporations--to persuade President Obama to go beyond the stirring words in his inaugural address and act on climate change.
This is the position of Big Green groups like the Sierra Club. Even as it pledged for the first time to take part in civil disobedience, its executive director, Michael Brune, declared that the new strategy was part of "a larger plan to support the president in realizing his vision and make sure his ambition meets the scale of the challenge."
The first thing Obama and his new Secretary of State John Kerry could do is say no to the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. That would be inordinately easy, as Obama has the final say and doesn't require Congress' support to shut it down. After 53 senators from both parties signed a letter urging him to green-light the pipeline, Obama is running out of ways to further delay his decision.
In spite of the rhetoric of his inaugural address, the pivotal question remains: Is Barack Obama--or any Democratic leader, for that matter--really on our side? Is it just a question of persuading a reluctant friend, hamstrung by a right-wing, dysfunctional Congress and stymied by powerful corporate interests, to act by demonstrating outside his house to let him know we're there for him? Or should we be surrounding his house, knowing full well that he won't give in to our demands without a social movement that acts independently of his wishes and control.
TO UNDERSTAND the reasons for Obama's "lack of desire" to address climate change--a microcosm of the larger inability of global leaders and institutions to do likewise amid two decades of increasingly futile climate negotiations--it's necessary to go beneath the surface appearance of things; to examine the structure and ideology of the system of capitalism.
When their financial system was threatened by the crisis that began in 2008, political leaders didn't sit around for 20 years arguing that they had to wait until all the facts were in and attempting to reach consensus on a solution. No, in a heartbeat, they threw trillions of dollars at the banks.
But when a far larger crisis, one that threatens the basic stability of the planetary biosphere, unfurls as a result of the same policies of reckless growth, waste and warfare, they spend their time rubbishing scientists and ignoring the unraveling weather outside their windows.
Therefore, to get to the root of the issue, it becomes necessary to analyze the intertwined workings of the whole economic system of production and exchange of goods and services--that is, capitalism. Only by doing this can we hope to formulate an effective strategy to combat climate change and thereby recognize that ecological and social justice are inseparably connected to each other, via an organized, grassroots and global challenge to the capitalist social order.
One doesn't need to be an anti-capitalist to take part in this struggle, but one does need to recognize that unless the pendulum of social power swings back toward the working people in the U.S. and around the world, and that limits and regulations are placed on the activities on corporate power, we have no hope of saving our world.
The point we must grasp is that this struggle is not really about technology, nor which renewable energy models should be deployed, nor whether this or that politician or this corporations or that CEO are more or less evil than the others. It's not about things or people |
their customers, and once a fix is available and their customers have been notified, they will notify me with the release details so I can proceed disclosing this incident to the public. In the end, they said that at SugarCRM they value security as one of their top priorities, and I should not hesitate to reach out to secure@sugarcrm.com if I have any more questions. With regards to the Local File Inclusion vulnerability report I received no responses at all, while for all of the other reports they replied again with the same nursery rhyme, and then saying to be already aware of the issues (probably referring to the exploitation example I provided in the email I sent on July 24), some of which were already addressed in higher release (commercial only?) versions, while the remaining will be fixed in the next releases…
Well, almost nine months have gone by, and all of these vulnerabilities are still there (so they are 0-days), affecting also the latest SugarCRM Community Edition version, namely 6.5.25, which has been released some weeks ago! However, it looks like they probably – and silently! – fixed some of the vulnerabilities in certain commercial versions at some point between September and October, because I wasn’t able to reproduce the issues anymore with one of their free trial websites, which usually run the latest SugarCRM Enterprise Edition version. It’s just an assumption, I’m not sure whether and exactly which commercial versions include fixes for these vulnerabilities, also because there are no security advisories on the matter published on the SugarCRM website yet.
After a while, in mid-September, I decided to listen to the voices in my head, which were saying that these vulnerabilities would have probably been fixed after several months, particularly given my previous experience… Therefore, since the same security bugs affected SuiteCRM as well, which is a SugarCRM fork, I decided to report the issues also to this other open source project, and those guys have quickly solved the vulnerabilities with a couple of new releases of their software. By the way, I’ve already been in contact with these guys at the end of June 2016, when I sent them another report about the CVE-2012-0694 and KIS-2016-07 vulnerabilities, because both were affecting SuiteCRM as well, and considering also the “new” CVE-2016-7124 bug – and the fact that waiting for SugarCRM to release fixed CE versions was unacceptable, considering their timing with regards to security updates – I thought it was fair to alert them about the related critical risk. Indeed, they released new SuiteCRM versions just after a week from my report, which solved the vulnerabilities by removing the SugarRestSerialize.php file altogether, in order to fix KIS-2016-07, and switching to JSON functions to fix CVE-2012-0694, instead of keep using unserialize() with user input.
Part 3 – Entering the realm of SugarCRM customers…
On August 23, 2016, I received some sort of automated emails from SugarCRM Customer Support <support@sugarcrm.com> related to the security reports that I sent a few weeks before. All of the emails have the same content:
Thank you for contacting SugarCRM to report a potential security vulnerability. We take security and the protection of our customers’ systems and data very seriously, and we appreciate the time that you have taken to inform us of this vulnerability. We request that you register for an account on our website at www.sugarcrm.com and reply back to this email to inform us of the username that you have registered. A registered account will grant you access to our Support Portal, where you can track the status of this vulnerability report, in addition to providing an outlet for communication between you and the SugarCRM security team. We ask that you refrain from publicly disclosing this vulnerability until a remedy has been developed and released. We will ensure that you remain updated during the vulnerability identification and resolution process through the Support Portal.
(Un)Fortunately, I was still in the middle of my summer trip at that time, so I had to postpone my user account registration on their Support Portal. That was completed on September 7, 2016, the day that I entered the “realm of SugarCRM customers”… After logging into the portal, I immediately felt the smell of security bugs, just a sensation… But that was a good one, because it took me just a couple of minutes to discover the first security issue: Stored XSS Vulnerability via Attachment Filename in Case’s Notes.
Well, at a first glance I thought that was a pretty cool bug, but maybe not really a so much serious vulnerability – even though later I realized I was wrong… However, I was pretty confident that I could have find something even more cool, so I kept looking for other security issues… The next day, I notified them about another vulnerability affecting their Support Portal, and this time it looked like a really “promising” one: I’ve been using Burp Suite while being authenticated and messing around with the portal, when I noticed a suspicious JSON response from one of the portal API endpoints… Such a response included a “query” field that seemed a sort of SQL query interpolated with some HTTP POST parameters. Well, it looks like I discovered a SQL Injection Vulnerability within the /api/v1/note/search API endpoint, even though I’m not completely sure about the nature of the vulnerability, as far as I know it could have been even an HQL Injection vunerability… Anyway, whatever it was, the point is that I just tried something pretty obvious and straightforward, the string SQLi' or ''=' and it worked out: the API endpoint returned the first 100 notes (a number that can be controlled through the “limit” POST parameter) stored in the Case Portal, including the ones of other users’ cases…
And so I found a security vulnerability that could give me read access to all of the notes within the Case Portal – and probably also to other tables in the underlying database – that’s pretty cool!! However, I’d never thought the content of the cases’ notes could include such “sensitive” information, with such catastrophic consequences if stolen by a malicious user… The first thing I did was to look for the string “password” within the JSON response shown above, and suddenly found out some notes like the following:
ID: 9b3357d8-8864-80e3-e407-57d31e9ec1f1
Name: Backup Upload
Date: 2016-09-09 20:40:22 Hello ██████, Thank you for contacting SugarCRM Support. I would be more than happy to help you with this. I have set up a FTP account for you to add the files for this. We would need both the Database (in the form of a.sql) and the files (in the form of either.tar.gz or.zip). Once you have added those two files let me know and we can use those files to refresh the dev instance you specified. Host: ftp.sugarcrm.com
Username: virginmobile
Password: g9AEQNY3FX Thank you,
████ ██████
SugarCRM Support
So it sounds like the SugarCRM Support Team often uses the following (bad security) practice to solve customers’ cases: they ask the client to backup their SugarCRM instance – often including a database dump too – and upload the backup to ftp.sugarcrm.com, fix the issues and then tell the customer they can download back their fixed SugarCRM instance to deploy it on their servers or cloud providers. Actually I was quite surprised to see those FTP credentials, and I’m too curious not to try if these credentials were valid… Well, they were valid, but I was even more surprised when I saw the actual backup files of their customers hosted on the SugarCRM FTP server, ready to be downloaded (and eventually re-uploaded) by any malicious user… In that moment I was like
Furthermore, as you can see in the screenshot above, I also tried to resend a new HTTP POST request without session cookies, and the server returned the very same response. So, apparently the /api/v1/note/search API endpoint does not properly check authentication cookies, in other words it looks like the endpoint is also affected by an Authentication Bypass Vulnerability. This means that a remote unauthenticated attacker could have used a PHP script like the following in order to download all of the cases’ notes stored within the SugarCRM Support Portal and disclose potentially sensitive information:
$post_params['parent_id'] = "' OR ''='"; $post_params['parent_type'] = "' OR ''='"; $post_params['limit'] = 1000; for ($offset = 0; true; $offset += 1000) { $post_params['offset'] = $offset; $response = http_post('https://web.sugarcrm.com/api/v1/note/search', $post_params); save_json_notes($response); }
As you can imagine, a Customer Support Portal like this might store a lot of valuable information from an attacker’s perspective… Actually, by looking at some of the notes I realized that an attacker could have had access to Personally Identifiable Information (PII) of SugarCRM customers including but not limited to their full names, personal or corporate email addresses, and internal corporate phone numbers. Other “interesting” information include private and public corporate IP addresses and URLs, MySQL and MSSQL credentials, SSH credentials, VPN credentials and certificates for accessing internal corporate networks of SugarCRM customers (as you can see in the screenshot above, there’s also a “VPN” directory on the FTP server), etc… In a nutshell, this would be just like heaven for any cracker out there! However, because of the (bad security) practice described before – asking the customer to upload their backups to the SugarCRM FTP server – I believe the business impact of these vulnerabilities is even higher, because the combination of the issues might have allowed a remote unauthenticated attacker to do something really bad:
First obvious thing: an attacker could steal the source code of Professional, Corporate, or Enterprise editions for personal usage without paying for a license, as well as downloading the source code of customized and private SugarCRM modules. The attacker could also publicly release on the Internet the source code of commercial editions ⟹ Game Over!
An attacker could have had full access to the SugarCRM’s database of any customer that upload a backup to the FTP server. This could be exploited to disclose lots of sensitive information stored into the DB, as well as potentially gain access to the server where the instance is running by placing a backdoor into the source code ⟹ Sugar Instance Pwned!
In case a SugarCRM instance is hosted on an intranet server, not publicly exposed over the Internet, a motivated attacker might “follow” the case resolution process day by day, and when the Support Team will say “ok customer, you can download back your instance from the FTP server and deploy it, now it’s fixed”, she just has to login to the FTP server, download the backup, modify the source code to insert a backdoor and wait for the customer to deploy the infected package. At this point the backdoor may use a reverse-shell to connect back to the attacker’s machine ⟹ Intranet Sugar Instance Pwned!
I noticed that some on-premises instances are hosted on edge.sugarondemand.com (70.42.242.50), which is within the same subnet of the updates.sugarcrm.com server (70.42.242.54). This means that when a motivated and skilled attacker has full access to one of such instances, she could try to further penetrate the internal network trying to gain access to the updates server. In case she will succeed, every single SugarCRM instance out there (both on intranets and over the Internet) can be fully compromised by modifying ad-hoc the updater endpoint ⟹ All Sugar Instances “Automagically” Pwned!!
At this point I realized that a very similar impact might be achieved also by leveraging the first security issue I discovered on their Support Portal, the Stored XSS Vulnerability via Attachment Filename in Case’s Notes: even though the session cookies are being set with the “HttpOnly” attribute, not to allowing the XSS to be exploited to directly steal cookies and subsequently carry out Session Hijacking attacks, a motivated attacker could have injected a more sophisticated payload or a BeEF hook in order to impersonate the victim user as soon as they open the affected case page containing the XSS payload… I guess the SugarCRM Support Team has access to all of the cases within the Support Portal, so if an attacker manage to hijack their user session, she could have achieved the very same result: read all of the notes stored in the Case Portal with the aforementioned consequences!
Well, as of today I still don’t know if they fixed the Stored XSS Vulnerability, because my user account has been deactivated and starting from mid-September only SugarCRM customers are allowed to access the Case Portal – now you need to provide a valid subscription key within the registration form. On the other hand, I can safely say they have fixed the SQL Injection Vulnerability by using proper input validation for the affected parameters. Unfortunately, I can make this assumption because I’m still able to test the vulnerable API endpoint, which means the Authentication Bypass Vulnerability is still not fixed, as you can see in this screenshot:
This means that an attacker might still be able to download some cases’ notes by guessing their UUIDs without having an user account registered on the SugarCRM Support Portal. This is possible due to a missing “rate limiting” mechanism used to prevent clients from issuing too many requests over a short amount of time to a specific API endpoint. So, an attacker can use some sort of automated brute-force tool which might send multiple simultaneous HTTP requests trying to guess the ID of an existing note, which can be easier if the UUIDs are being generated with something like the “maybe-not-so-random” create_guid() SugarCRM’s core function. As a final note, I’d like you to notice what they replied to my Stored XSS Vulnerability report (see the screenshot above): “If you find additional security vulnerabilities in the future, you may also file those via the support portal. In doing so, please ensure that the support case is filed with a P3 priority level”… As described in their Knowledge Base website, they have three priority levels to handle issues on their Support Portal, and “P3″ is the lowest level used for non-critical issues or general questions on the application! That says a lot about how they handle and “promptly” resolve security issues in their products and services…
Part 4 – Pwn a server to rule them all!
In this final part I’d like to explain a bit more in details what I mean when I say All Sugar Instances “Automagically” Pwned. The point is that all SugarCRM versions are currently affected by a vulnerability similar to the WordPres auto-update flaw published in November 2016. In this case the vulnerability exists because of the check_now() function, which is called from time to time when an user logs into a SugarCRM instance or a SugarCRM administrator clicks on the “Check Now” button from within the Sugar Updates interface. This function will send a SOAP request to the endpoint located at https://updates.sugarcrm.com/heartbeat/soap.php and will pass data from the SOAP response to the unserialize() function:
$encodedResult = $sclient->call('sugarHome', array('key'=>$key, 'data'=>$encoded)); } else { $encodedResult = $response_data['data']; $key = $response_data['key']; } if ($response_data ||!$sclient->getError()) { $serializedResultData = sugarDecode($key, $encodedResult); $resultData = unserialize($serializedResultData);
This means that if an attacker does manage to compromise the updates.sugarcrm.com server, then she might be able to “pwn” every SugarCRM instance out there by exploiting such an over-the-net PHP Object Injection vulnerability, resulting in a sort of “domino effect” in which more than two million SugarCRM instances all over the world might be simultaneously and automatically compromised by modifying ad-hoc the SOAP updater endpoint, such that the SOAP server will send back malicious serialized data which might result in arbitrary PHP code execution – for instance, by leveraging the __destruct method from the SugarCacheFile class to write arbitrary PHP files, like I did in my Metasploit module for KIS-2016-07.
However, there might be different ways to compromise and get a shell on the updates.sugarcrm.com server. For instance, it looks like the SOAP server located at https://updates.sugarcrm.com/heartbeat/soap.php is currently using the unserialize() function with user input taken from the SOAP request when handling calls to the “sugarHome” SOAP method, which means that an attacker could try to exploit PHP internal vulnerabilities – like this type confusion vulnerability published last January – in order to execute arbitrary code on the updates.sugarcrm.com server and consequently modify the SOAP server in a malicious fashion.
On the other hand, compromising the updates.sugarcrm.com server is not the only way for such an over-the-net PHP Object Injection attack to succeed: I’m not sure about commercial editions, but all Community Edition versions are using the NuSOAP library to send out the SOAP requests from within the check_now() function, and by default this library uses the cURL extension without setting the “CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER” option, which stops cURL from verifying the peer’s SSL certificate and therefore it will establish an SSL connection even with self-signed certificates. This means that certain SugarCRM instances might be compromised even by leveraging DNS cache poisoning attacks where the DNS resolution for the updates.sugarcrm.com host will be translated to the attacker’s computer IP address, in which she might host a malicious SOAP server (with a self-signed SSL certificate) that can compromise all of the SugarCRM instances that will send SOAP requests to it.
Conclusion
I’m not a CRM expert, not even a CRM user, so I can’t say anything about how good and effective SugarCRM is in doing its job. On the other hand, I can say that SugarCRM is one of the most insecure web applications I’ve ever seen in my life (and believe me, I tested and reviewed a lot of web applications): I’ve been quite lucky in choosing SugarCRM as target for my experimental thesis, it made me reach some successful results by discovering lots of security issues in it. However, I think there are still room for improvements with regards to SugarCRM security: I’m pretty sure there are still dozens of 0-day vulnerabilities probably affecting commercial versions as well, so I would say that SugarCRM could be the right choice for Capture the Flag (CTF) competitions – for instance, it has been used during HITCON CTF 2016 – or for training exercises in case you want to improve your code review, bug hunting and web exploitation skills… Furthermore, some recent rumors are saying that Apple is going to launch its own CRM system based on SugarCRM… Well, I reckon that Apple security engineers have done a good work reviewing their new system and fixing all of the security bugs inherited from SugarCRM, otherwise also Apple customers might be at risk when their new “Apple CRM” will be alive. So this is the end, I really hope this blog post will make improvements towards the security of the SugarCRM ecosystem.Ask someone -- especially a North American -- who hasn't lived or visited here about what Irish food is like, and nine times out of ten, as they grope for answers, they'll mention corned beef and cabbage.
However, investigation shows that while people here do sometimes eat corned beef and cabbage, they don't eat it all that much. Very few of them eat it for St. Patrick's Day. And it's absolutely not the Irish national dish. It's a great Irish-American dish, without a doubt. But in Ireland, by and large, it's no big deal.
The first corned beef: food fit for kings
Some people ask, "Is corned beef really an Irish dish?" It is. Whatever might have been going on elsewhere in Europe, the Irish worked out for themselves how to salt-cure beef some time in the first millennium A.D. Corned beef is first mentioned "in print" in the 12th century poem called the Vision of MacConglinne, which tells us a lot about Irish food as it was eaten at that time. In the Vision, corned beef is described as a delicacy served to a greedy king in an attempt to conjure "the demon of gluttony" out of his belly.This delicacy status makes little sense until one understands that beef was not a major part of most Irish people's diets until the 1900's.
While cattle were kept here from very early times, they were kept mostly for their milk -- few people except perhaps the Swiss have ever so loved their dairy products as the Irish have, and the ancient Irish especially. ("They make seventy-several kinds of food out of milk, both sweet and sour," said one bemused sixteenth-century traveller and historian, "and they love them the best when they're sourest.") From the earliest historical times, for routine eating, pork was always the favorite, because pigs bred much faster and were a lot less labor-intensive to rear. Cattle were only slaughtered when they were no longer any good for milking, or for breeding purposes; otherwise, they were prized as a common medium for barter. The size of one's herd of cattle was an indication of status, wealth and power -- hence all the stories of tribal chieftains and petty kings of the ancient days, endlessly rustling one another's cattle (the greatest of the ancient wars of legend was started by one of these thefts, the Cattle Raid of Cooley). Eating beef, except for that of a cow past its milking days or accidentally killed, was the cultural equivalent of lighting your cigars with hundred-dollar bills...unless you were a chieftain, or a king, in which case you could afford it.
The hungry times: where's the beef?
In later centuries, when the cattle raids were long done, the majority of Irish people still didn't eat very much beef -- because it was still much too expensive. Those who did eat beef, tended to eat it fresh: corned beef again surfaces in writings of the late 1600's as a specialty, a costly delicacy (expensive because of the salt) made to be eaten at Easter, and sometimes at Hallowe'en. -- Then other factors, tragic ones, made beef even rarer in the Irish diet. It often astounds people to discover that, during the worst years of the Great Famine, among much other food, Irish tenant farmers were still exporting hundreds of thousands of barrels of salt beef ("corned" beef, it then came to be called, because of the grain or "corn"-sized chunks of salt used in the preserving process) to Britain and Canada. But that was beef that the farmers were raising on behalf of the landlords who owned the land on which they lived and worked: they couldn't touch it themselves, and couldn't possibly afford what little fresh beef came on the market in their areas.
Many Irish people, during that period, got their first taste of beef when they emigrated to America or Canada -- where both salt and meat were cheaper. There, when they got beef, the emigrants tended to treat it the same way they would have treated a "bacon joint" at home in Ireland. (Click here to find out how to duplicate the traditional Irish bacon joint with cabbage.) They soaked the salt beef to draw off the excess salt, then braised or boiled it with cabbage, and served it in its own juices with only minimal spicing (a bay leaf or so, perhaps, and some pepper).
This dish does still turn up on some Irish tables at Easter. But it's otherwise much better known to North Americans, who are likely to see it turning up all over around Saint Patrick's Day, or (in some places with heavy Irish-American constituencies) at election time. Why the festive association of corned beef slipped from Easter to the Saint's day, on the western side of the Atlantic, it's now very difficult to tell.
Tourist's delight: but the native Irish aren't interested
Of course some places in Ireland will be serving corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick's Day. But almost without exception, they'll be feeding it to the tourists. To most native Irish people, these days, the dish is too poor, plain, old-fashioned, or boring to eat on a holiday, or just too much trouble to go to. They'd sooner make something more festive...if they bother cooking at all, in these days when (a) the Irish shopper has as many frozen-food, microwaveable, and cook-chill options available to him or her as anyone else in industrialized western Europe, and (b) doesn't just go out to eat instead of bothering to cook anything. In any case, an observer of the supermarkets both in the city and country will note the appearance of a few packages of corned beef in the cold case during St. Patrick's week...but just a few. A true national dish doesn't put in so poor a showing.
This does still leave us with the question of what the Irish national dish is. If by this we mean the dish most often cooked at home when the cook (a) doesn't feel like simply microwaving something and (b) is thinking about "traditional" food, the winner might very well be that "bacon joint" -- various cuts of salted or smoked and salted pork.
In our local supermarket, heaps of boiling bacon,
no corned beef to be found: click to enlarge In our local supermarket, heaps of boiling bacon,no corned beef to be found: click to enlarge
The joint would sometimes be cooked alone, or it might be braised with a small chicken keeping it company in the pot; it might be served with vegetables, or with potatoes boiled in their jackets. For holiday eating, the winner would probably be spiced beef, found at Christmastime in the butcher's window with a red ribbon around it, served cold, sliced thin, with soda bread and a pint of Guinness on the side. (Though there are also people who will argue loudly for roast goose at Michaelmas or Christmas, or lamb at Easter, as well as for other festive occasions.)
The St. Patrick's Day dish: an (ongoing) investigation
What people do eat here on St. Patrick's Day is a good question. We put the question to one of our local radio stations, South East Radio, which serves south Wicklow and parts of counties Wexford and Kilkenny. They kindly conducted an informal telephone poll to see what people liked to eat on "the day that's in it". The responses we got were things like, "Eat? I eat pints." (One respondent referred jocularly to the pint of Guinness as a "shamrock sandwich".) One lady mentioned a dish her family sometimes made on The Day, recalling the colors of the Irish flag, and using cabbage, turnip and potatoes. But no one else of the twenty-five people who responded mentioned any specific food as being of any interest. -- Meanwhile, inspection of two of the local branches of the two major supermarket chains (Tesco in Arklow, and Superquinn in Carlow) revealed a total of eight packages of corned beef (about evenly divided between brisket and silverside). These were vastly outnumbered by heaps of boiling bacon -- a couple hundred pounds' weight of it in each store.
So the conclusion has to be that there's no particular food that's important to Saint Patrick's Day as it's celebrated in Ireland. Over here, the celebration itself is what matters. And it can safely be said that very few of the locals will be eating corned beef and cabbage.
Since our website's emphasis is on European foods rather than North American ones, and since we think there are a lot more interesting and typically Irish dishes that people celebrating St. Patrick's Day might enjoy eating, we won't be carrying any recipes for corned beef and cabbage here. (There are also sooooo many CB&C recipes out there for interested parties to choose from, and we'd rather concentrate on the less well-known Irish options.) But here are a few links to Web sites that have good-looking recipes you might check.
(This article was written for St. Patrick's Day of 1995, when we first introduced our main Irish recipe collection, and is © 1995-2018, Diane Duane. For permission to reproduce it, please click here to contact the author.)This name uses Portuguese naming customs. The first or maternal family name is da Costa and the second or maternal family name is Cabral.
Amílcar Lopes da Costa Cabral ( Portuguese: [ɐˈmilkaɾ ˈlɔpɨʃ kɐˈbɾal]; (1924-09-12)12 September 1924 – ( )20 January 1973) was a Bissau-Guinean and Cape Verdean agricultural engineer, intellectual, poet, theoretician, revolutionary, political organizer, nationalist and diplomat.[1] He was one of Africa's foremost anti-colonial leaders.[2]
Also known by the nom de guerre Abel Djassi, Cabral led the nationalist movement of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde Islands and the ensuing war of independence in Guinea-Bissau. He was assassinated on 20 January 1973, about eight months before Guinea-Bissau's unilateral declaration of independence. Although not a Marxist,[3][dubious – discuss] he was deeply influenced by Marxism, and became an inspiration to revolutionary socialists and national independence movements worldwide.
Early years [ edit ]
Portrait of Amilcar Cabral in 1948, aged 23.
Cabral was born on 12 September 1924 in Bafatá, Guinea-Bissau, to Cape Verdean mother and Guinea-Bissau father, Juvenal Antònio Lopes da Costa Cabral and Iva Pinhel Évora, both from Santiago, Cape Verde. His father came from a wealthy land-owning family. His mother was a shop owner and hotel worker in order to support her family, especially after she separated from Amílcar's father by 1929. Her family was not well off, so she was unable to pursue higher education.
Amílcar Cabral was educated at Liceu (Secondary School) Gil Eanes in the town of Mindelo, Cape Verde, and later at the Instituto Superior de Agronomia, in Lisbon (the capital of Portugal, which was then the colonial power ruling over Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde). While an agronomy student in Lisbon, he founded student movements dedicated to opposing the ruling dictatorship of Portugal and promoting the cause of independence for the Portuguese colonies in Africa.
He returned to Africa in the 1950s, and was instrumental in promoting the independence causes of the then Portuguese colonies. He was the founder (in 1956) of the PAIGC or Partido Africano da Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde (Portuguese for African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde) and one of the founders of Movimento Popular Libertação de Angola (MPLA) (later in the same year), together with Agostinho Neto, whom he met in Portugal, and other Angolan nationalists. Cabral was an asset of the Czechoslovak State Security (StB), and under the codename "Secretary" provided intelligence information to the StB.[4]
War for independence [ edit ]
From 1963 to his assassination in 1973, Cabral led the PAIGC's guerrilla movement (in Portuguese Guinea) against the Portuguese government, which evolved into one of the most successful wars of independence in modern African history. The goal of the conflict was to attain independence for both Portuguese Guinea and Cape Verde. Over the course of the conflict, as the movement captured territory from the Portuguese, Cabral became the de facto leader of a large portion of what became Guinea-Bissau.
In preparation for the independence war, Cabral set up training camps in Ghana with the permission of Kwame Nkrumah[citation needed]. Cabral trained his lieutenants through various techniques, including mock conversations to provide them with effective communication skills that would aid their efforts to mobilize Guinean tribal chiefs to support the PAIGC. Cabral realized the war effort could be sustained only if his troops could be fed and taught to live off the land alongside the larger populace. Being an agronomist, he taught his troops to teach local crop growers better farming techniques, so that they could increase productivity and be able to feed their own family and tribe, as well as the soldiers enlisted in the PAIGC's military wing. When not fighting, PAIGC soldiers would till and plow the fields alongside the local population.
Cabral and the PAIGC also set up a trade-and-barter bazaar system that moved around the country and made staple goods available to the countryside at prices lower than that of colonial store owners. During the war, Cabral also set up a roving hospital and triage station to give medical care to wounded PAIGC soldiers and quality-of-life care to the larger populace, relying on medical supplies garnered from the USSR and Sweden. The bazaars and triage stations were at first stationary, until they came under frequent attack from Portuguese regime forces.
Death [ edit ]
In 1972, Cabral began to form a People's Assembly in preparation for the independence of Guinea-Bissau, but disgruntled former PAIGC rival Inocêncio Kani, together with another member of PAIGC, shot and killed him on 20 January 1973 in Conakry.[5] The possible plan was to arrest Cabral (possibly to judge him summarily, later), but facing the peaceful resistance of Cabral, they immediately killed him.
According to some theories, Portuguese PIDE agents, whose alleged plan eventually went awry, wanted to influence Cabral`s rivals through agents operating within the PAIGC, in hope of arresting Cabral and placing him under the custody of Portuguese authorities. Another theory claims that Ahmed Sékou Touré, jealous of Cabral's greater international prestige, among other motives, orchestrated the conspiracy[citation needed]; both theories remain unproven and controversial.
After the assassination,about one hundred officers and guerrilla soldiers of the PAIGC, accused of involvement in the conspiracy that resulted in the murder of Amílcar Cabral and the attempt to seize power in the movement, were summarily executed. His half-brother, Luís Cabral, became the leader of the Guinea-Bissau branch of the party and would eventually become President of Guinea-Bissau.
A declassified United States Department of State brief notes that the motives of his assassination are unclear but may have linked to "a feud between mulattos [sic] from the Cape Verde islands and mainland Africans."[6] Cabral was assassinated prior to the independence of the Portuguese colonies in Africa, and therefore died before he could see his homelands of Cabo Verde and Guinea Bissau gain independence from Portugal.
Tributes [ edit ]
Mural on the wall of the Amílcar Cabral Foundation offices in Praia, Cape Verde
...one of the most lucid and brilliant leaders in Africa, Comrade Amílcar Cabral, who instilled in us tremendous confidence in the future and the success of his struggle for liberation. Fidel Castro, 1966 Tricontinental Conference in Havana, Cuba[7]
Cabral is considered a "revolutionary theoretician as significant as Frantz Fanon and Che Guevara",[7] one "whose influence reverberated far beyond the African continent."[8] Amílcar Cabral International Airport, Cape Verde's principal international airport at Sal, is named in his honor. There is also a football competition, the Amílcar Cabral Cup, in zone 2, named as a tribute to him. In addition, the only privately owned university in Guinea-Bissau — Amílcar Cabral University, in Bissau - is named after him. Jorge Peixinho composed an elegy to Cabral in 1973.
Author António Tomás wrote a biography of Amílcar Cabral, entitled O Fazedor de Utopias: Uma Biografia de Amílcar Cabral, which offers an extensive overview of Amílcar’s life in narrative form and features a detailed account of Amílcar’s family history in Portuguese.
President William R. Tolbert (Republic of Liberia) commissioned and built a housing estate on the Old Road, Sinkor, Monrovia, Liberia, named in honor of Cabral.
There is a block of flats named Amilcar Cabral Court on Porteus Road in west London, situated in the Paddington Green area.
Films [ edit ]
Cabral's political thought and role in the liberation of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde is discussed at some length in Chris Marker's film, Sans Soleil (1983). He is also the subject of the Portuguese documentary Amílcar Cabral, released in 2000.
(1983). He is also the subject of the Portuguese documentary, released in 2000. The documentary film Cabralista,[9] winner of the CVIFF Cape Verde International Film Festival prize for best documentary in 2011, puts Amilcar Cabral's political views and ideologies in the spotlight.[10]
Writings [ edit ]
Cabral, Amilcar. Resistance and Decolonization. Translated by Dan Wood. Rowman & Littlefield International, 2016.
. Translated by Dan Wood. Rowman & Littlefield International, 2016. Cabral, Amilcar. Return to the Source: Selected Speeches of Amilcar Cabral. Monthly Review Press, 1973.
. Monthly Review Press, 1973. Cabral, Amilcar. Unity and Struggle: Speeches and Writings of Amilcar Cabral. Monthly Review Press, 1979.
References [ edit ]A University of Virginia student may soon have an out-of-this-world experience. He could be just weeks away from winning a competition that would send him into the final frontier.
Like many people, 20-year-old Patrick Carney has had dreams of becoming an astronaut.
"I've always thought about it. It's always been so cool but it's one of those things where it's so abstract you can't be like…unless you're going to be an astronaut it's sort of really far-fetched," Carney said.
The UVA student just might have that dream come to life. Axe Body Wash is giving two people the chance to go to space to "leave a man…and come back a hero."
Carney entered the competition back in February thinking he had no chance of winning - but he thought wrong.
"A couple of days ago my friend my text me and he's like Patrick, you have to check what your position is right now," Carney said.
Now Carney is in second place with nearly 114,000 thousand votes, up against someone with big internet followings.
"I'm sort of just this average Joe who is just trying to get up in votes," Carney said.
If he wins, he would travel to Orlando to prepare for orbit. Carney would not only be breaking the sound |
in addition to suspending Aledda, they had also suspended Hollant. In fact, they were suspending Hollant without pay, while Aledda would be on paid leave. Why? According to City Manager Spring, Hollant had lied to Eugene at the scene by telling him he hadn't witnessed the shooting; in fact, Spring claimed, audio proved Hollant was there.
But Eugene tells a very different story in his interview. He says Hollant was actually suspended as part of a plot by Assistant Chief Larry Juriga, who had an ongoing feud with Hollant.
Eugene said the trouble began July 21, three days after the shooting. That's when Juriga came to his office to tell him that Hollant had lied. Eugene said that Juriga told him: "We found out he had a radio transmission that [Hollant] actually gave the order, that he made a statement that caused the shooter to open fire. I was fuming when I heard that... I made a comment, 'Fuck... I'm going to suspend him.'"
Eugene said he immediately went to Spring and City Attorney Jeff Cazeau with the information. They all agreed to suspend Hollant. But on the drive home, Eugene had second thoughts. He recalled that Juriga and Hollant didn't get along, so he decided to listen to the audio from the shooting himself. That's when he realized Juriga had lied.
The audiotape, indeed, showed Hollant had warned that the autistic man was loading a gun. But that warning didn't spark Aledda to shoot. In fact, several moments passed until another sergeant on the scene warned that the man was holding a toy. Only after that warning did the shooting take place, contends Eugene, who could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
"I heard the sergeant, who advised earlier that it was a toy, say, 'Hold fire! Hold fire! It was a toy,' trying to stop whoever was doing the shooting," Eugene said. "I said, 'Oh Lord.'"
The next morning, Eugene said, he went to Spring's office with the tape to ask the city manager not to suspend Hollant after all. But he said the city manager refused to listen to the audio or to the chief's warnings.
"I said, 'City Manager, I'm telling you, listen to this CD and make a decision based on this CD,'" Eugene said. "[Spring] slapped his hand on the desk and said, 'You don't understand what I'm telling you. Get control of your people!'"
Eugene said he nearly quit on the spot. "To be honest, I came close, I nearly let him know that I was about to resign."
Instead, he reviewed department rules and realized that Spring could suspend Hollant on his own. So, the chief said, he backed off and let the city manager do as he pleased. But Eugene said he was so disturbed by Juriga's conduct that he moved him from his post leading investigations to a position heading code enforcement.
That wasn't the only disturbing thing the chief learned. Eugene said he soon found that before Hollant had been suspended, the commander in charge of the scene during the shooting had tried to intimidate him into changing his story. That commander urged Hollant to say that he had seen the shooting and that the autistic man did seem to be loading a gun. "He talked to Emile prior to the suspension and told him... '[By] not saying you saw the guy loading the gun, do you realize that information could have helped my officer?' They were more concerned about clearing the officer of any wrongdoing than actually getting any impartial investigation."
Eugene said the whole incident was a wake-up call to him about bad training in the department. He reiterated that the Kinsey crime scene was one of the worst managed he'd ever seen. "The scene wasn't well prepared. There was no inner perimeter, no outer perimeter, no media staging area, nothing," he said. When he arrived on the scene, no one briefed him about what had occurred.
Hollant's attorney, Joseph, says the police recording shows his client was wronged by the city manager. Hollant was cleared by the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office, which found that he didn't mislead anyone at the scene. But he remains on paid suspension while the department finishes its investigation of the case.Earlier this month, Caitlyn Jenner introduced herself to the world with a 22-page Vanity Fair photo shoot. Jenner had only publicly come out as transgender back in April in an interview with Diane Sawyer, which led many to wonder: Did "Family Guy" actually know about this years ago?
Recently, "Family Guy" clips have resurfaced that some are saying predicted Jenner's transition. In one clip from 2009, Stewie Griffin calls Jenner "an elegant, beautiful Dutch woman." In another, Jenner dances provocatively for a crowd while Peter Griffin says, "Just wanted to remind you fellas what you're all fighting for."
When asked how the jokes came about during a recent "Ted 2" conference call, "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane told The Huffington Post he's "too savvy to comment on the issue to the media." He explained, "Once the outrage industry shuts down, I will be happy to have an adult conversation about all of this stuff anytime anyone wants, but, even though I’m on the side of support, I just don’t think there’s any way to … you just got to play it safe because the climate is just too charged. Anything I say can and will be used against me."
The comedian added, "My philosophy is live and let live, and if something makes someone happy, and they're able to do it -- as long as it isn’t hurting anybody -- live and let live.""There are thousands of us that plan to enter the Big Sleep at a time of our own choice," he wrote at the time. "We are mostly not religious, but we are sensible, mature, perfectly in control, good and responsible citizens. "Our reason for suicide may be anticipation of pain and incompetence, but quite likely just a sense of a life accomplished and coming to a conclusion." Mr Shaw wrote that he was "not interested" in palliative care and resented the "do-gooders placing obstacles in our way". "Their activities are illegitimate interference with our liberty and autonomy in a matter most central to our life." Exit International on Friday said the Shaws were members and generous donors to the voluntary euthanasia group for more than a decade. "This is a suicide pact, but this is a couple who was not depressed. It was a considered, well-informed decision," the organisation's executive director, Fiona Stewart, said, adding that the group was seeing an increasing number of elderly couples choosing to die together because one of them does not want to be left behind.
"They present an example of where a voluntary euthanasia / assisted suicide law – if there ever were one in Victoria – would be of no help." The Shaws' deaths come amid heated debate over the legalisation of voluntary euthanasia in Australia. In an emotionally charged discussion on the ABC's Q&A program this week, panellists debated a proposal to allow assisted suicide for the terminally ill, which soon turned to possible moves to extend euthanasia to children, the mentally ill and people with disabilities. Last month, one of the world's leading euthanasia campaigners and Exit International founder, Dr Philip Nitschke, agreed to stop giving advice to people about how to end their own lives and no longer run workshops on end-of-life strategies in a trade-off to keep his medical registration. There have also been concerns about young people taking Nembutal – dubbed the "peaceful pill" - to end their own lives, with data from the national coronial information system showing 120 people died by taking the medication over 12 years. The list included one person under the age of 20, 11 people in their 20s and 14 people in their 30s.
In an opinion piece published in The Age this week, broadcaster Andrew Denton questioned why rational adults who were dying, and asking for help to die quickly, should be refused. "People in nursing homes, hospitals, and our communities facing unbearable pain for which there is no relief, some of whom end their lives violently because they are offered no choice about how they can die," he wrote. "Yet on these people, the leaders of our medical bodies are silent. 'We cannot have an assisted dying law,' they say, 'the numbers are only small and the risks too great'. Only the nurses – the ones who, tellingly, see this suffering close up – have listened: they say the law needs to change." An obituary notice for the Shaws late last month read that they passed peacefully on October 27 and are survived by their daughters Judith, Anny and Kate.
A friend recently posted a tribute online, farewelling the couple she said she had known since 1972. "Generous and hospitable, great conversationalists, interested in a wide range of events and activities," she wrote. On average over the past 10 years there have been 2300 suicides a year. During that period, people aged 85 and over made up just 2.2 per cent of all suicide deaths.
Police are preparing a report for the coroner. For help or information call Lifeline on 131 114 or SuicideLine on 1300 651 251.For decades it has been a shibboleth among some social psychologists that increasingly violent media-television, movies, and video games-increase the risk of violence in society. In a 2001 review article for American Psychologist, the Iowa State psychologist Craig Anderson and the Ohio State psychologist Brad Bushman claimed that media violence is nearly as significant a risk factor for social violence as smoking tobacco is for lung cancer. "Research on violent television and films, video games, and music reveals unequivocal evidence that media violence increases the likelihood of aggressive and violent behavior in both immediate and long-term contexts," Anderson and some colleagues asserted in 2003. And in 2007, University of New Mexico pediatrician Victor Strasburger estimated that 10 percent to 30 percent of the violence in society was attributable to media content.
As recently as October, Bushman and two colleagues reported the results of a poll of media psychologists and mass communication scientists in the journal Psychology of Popular Media Culture that there is a "broad consensus" among media psychologists and mass communication scientists that violent media increase aggression in children. Earlier this year, Bushman and a colleague denied being in the thrall of a "moral panic" over violent media, instead accusing dissenting researchers who "use violent media themselves" of being "biased by the force of cognitive consistency and experience a'reactance' of'regulatory panic.'"
What is the evidence linking media violence to aggression? A lot of it comes from experiments in which undergraduates view violent scenes or play shoot-'em-up video games for 15 minutes and then are tested for aggression in various ways. Other undergraduates view mild content or play nonviolent games. Typical tests for post-play aggression include how loud a noise blast a player administers to an unseen (fictitious) subject; how much hot sauce he or she adds to food that an unseen subject will eat; and questionnaires designed to find out if the viewers or players are having aggressive feelings or thoughts. Many of the studies do find that viewers of violent content and players of violent games will blast noise a bit louder, dollop a bit more hot sauce, and cop to having slightly more aggressive feelings and thoughts than those who view mild content or play nonviolent games. Interestingly, the researchers rarely pause to wonder if providing the opportunity for aggression actually licenses its commission in their experiments. According to proponents of this theory of media violence, these lab results are relevant to the real world.
Their basic theory linking media violence to real violence can (somewhat unfairly) be summarized as "monkey see/monkey do." They believe that media consumers have difficulty distinguishing between real and fictional mayhem. Violence on movie or video screens supposedly supplies behavioral scripts that viewers and players later act out. Reel violence leads to real violence.
But now the old guard is being challenged by a new generation of researchers who are calling their theories, methods, data, and sweeping assertions into question. Stetson University psychologist Christopher Ferguson is one of the chief antagonists. In their drolly titled 2013 commentary, "Does Doing Media Violence Research Make One Aggressive?," Ferguson and his colleague, German researcher Malte Elson, invite readers to contemplate a thought experiment as a way to think about the plausibility of the "monkey see/monkey do" theory. "Take 200 children and randomize 100 to watch their parents viciously attack one another for an hour a day, the other 100 to watch a violent television program an hour a day," they suggest, "then assess their mental health after one month is over." Surely they are right when they assert that "to suggest the mental health outcomes for these children would be even remotely identical is absurd." As the thought experiment makes clear, ordinary folks do recognize that people, including children, can distinguish between real and fictional violence and will react accordingly.
Recent research bolsters this common-sense view of how people actually experience media. In October 2014 the Villanova psychologist Patrick Markey and colleagues published a study comparing trends in onscreen violence to America's murder and aggravated assault rates between 1960 and 2012. They report that movie violence has dramatically increased in the past 50 years, and that depictions of gun violence in PG-13 movies have tripled in the last 27 years. Controlling for possible confounders such as age shifts, poverty, education, incarceration rates, and economic inequality, they report, "Contrary to the notion that trends in violent films are linked to violent behavior, no evidence was found to suggest this medium was a major (or minor) contributing cause of violence in the United States." In November 2014, the FBI reported that the violent crime rate has fallen by nearly 50 percent over the past 20 years.
With video games, players are not merely passive viewers but active participants in pixelated carnage. In the December 2014 Computers in Human Behavior, a team of researchers at the University of Queensland in Australia used the standard 15-minutes-of-play format widely adopted by video aggression researchers to assess whether playing ultra-violent, violent, and nonviolent video games had any post-play effect on two measures of pro-social behavior. In one, players are paid $5, asked to fill out a brief questionnaire about a local children's charity, and told they can donate some money on their way out. In the second, players are told that they are choosing the level of difficulty of a puzzle that another subject has to finish in a limited time in order to earn money. The hypothesis was that the more violent the game, the harder the puzzle and the lower the charitable donations would be. Instead, the researchers reported that there was no difference among the three groups with regard to pro-social behavior, although the players of the ultra-violent games did donate more. "There is now growing reason to suspect that playing violent video games does not impact prosocial behavior in a normal population," concluded the researchers.
In the November Journal of Communication, Ferguson writes, "If media violence is a precursor to societal violence the introduction of violent video games in the United States would be expected to precipitate increased youth violence rates." Yet as violent video game consumption has increased nearly eightfold since 1996, the violence rate among Americans ages 12-17 fell from 35 to 6 per 1,000 people.
How did social science go so wrong? Ideology. As one parses the research, it becomes apparent that well-intentioned liberal social science researchers engaged in inquiries they hoped would result in restrictions that would prevent school shootings, reduce the murder rate, usher in strict gun control, and, one suspects, elevate their fellow Americans' lowbrow tastes in entertainment. They continue to decry the alleged deleterious effects of violent media even as U.S. violence rates continue their steep decline. The old guard actually cannot see how their experiments and studies are a massive exercise in confirmation bias.
Fortunately, younger social scientists are questioning the ideology that underpins so much prior media violence research. Ferguson and Elson observe that media moral panics eventually abate, in part because the kids who grew up with new media become adults who are less inclined to identify them as a source of social ills.
As the old panic paradigm falls apart, Ferguson and Elson observe, "some scholars actively and aggressively attempt to quell dissenting views, disparage skeptics, question the motives of those who disagree with them, and enforce a highly ideological view of this field." In the April 2014 issue of Pediatrics, Bushman and his colleagues somewhat plaintively asked, "Why is it so hard to believe that media influence children and adolescents?" Ferguson and Elson's reply in the winter 2014 issue of the journal European Psychologist: "The most parsimonious answer to this question is, in fact, 'Because the data are not convincing.'"Impressions: Final Fantasy XIII-2 demo
Mog of Miniature Destruction.
As protaganists Noel and Serah stumble into a brawl with Atlas – which is what appears to be a super-mega-giant death machine – Final Fantasy XIII-2, from a second-to-second perspective, feels a little too familiar. Roles, Paradigms and Staggers reunite to form that deceptively simple routine: clock onto an enemy’s rhythm, find a paradigm pattern and exploit the heck out of it to the point of mild insanity.
So, fundamentally, little appears to have changed – this isn’t quite the paradigm shift that Final Fantasy X saw in its sequel. Yet what has been tweaked, though subtle, seems to have made a notable impact on the game’s feel.
The premise: find a way to rid the area of the bio-mechanical menace, Atlas, by confronting it head on, or weakening it first. Naturally, you might want to take the latter option.
Cries from Final Fantasy XIII‘s critics don’t appear to have fallen entirely on deaf ears. After your brawl with Atlas, you’re freed into a small, hub-like environment, as NPCs idle and pace around, divulging snippets of voiced dialogue when prompted. Though it hardly rivaled the likes of Kalm (Final Fantasy VII) or say, Besaid (Final Fantasy X), it was a glimpse into a future not overrun by narrow corridors and painfully linear passageways.
Not unlike XIII‘s Cie’th Stones, these same characters offer quests in return for your typical RPG trappings. Two in the demo, a monster hunt and a fetch quest, where ample excuses to further explore the game’s nuances.
Visible enemies now present themselves by way of pseudo-random encounters. Should an enemy suddenly pop into existence, you’re given the oppurtunity to strike first – embodied in the form of a pre-cast ‘Haste’ spell in battle – or the chance swiftly sidestep the fight. And to add to the game’s mechanical vocabulary, your party is now vulnerable to being wounded by particular kinds of attacks.
When inflicted with ‘Wound,’ a character’s maximum HP shrinks. In practice, this meant the inclusion of more healers to compensate, or switching a more aggressive play style – the quicker they died, they less chance they would have to unleash a lucky one-hit kill.
“Change Leader” now populates the battle command bar. For those who found XIII‘s lack of direct control incredibly frustrating, the ability to change who you control mid-fight almost proved itself to be a game changer. No longer are you required to sit around waiting for that oh-so-important spell to fire off.
From a Moogle capable of transforming into to a weapon to its low strung ambiance, Final Fantasy XIII-2, at first glance, is the far more leisurely of the XIII titles. It never once felt as though somebody was sat behind you, yelling, “Go forward!”
This is most certainly the ‘post-sin’ period of the world’s history. It’s also a world that, for now, appears to be worth saving… again.
The Final Fantasy XIII-2 is currently available as a free download on PlayStation Network and Xbox LIVE.A Pennsylvania police officer threatened to falsely charge two Ron Paul supporters with wiretapping for videotaping him making an ass out of himself. After threatening to arrest the men for wiretapping because they dared to stand up to his "authority," the activists pointed out videotaping police is not wiretapping and it is not a crime. Well, that made the cop fly into a rage, he demanded they delete the video or he will have them arrested.
Here's how the incident went down. The man in the video was apparently standing in the median of a street holding up a Ron Paul sign, the cop felt it was against the law to stand where they were standing and told them to move. He said the sign may have been blocking drivers' line of sight, the activists dispute that, but still, it's not entirely unreasonable for the cop to ask them to move.
Nonetheless, the cop was being rather rude to them, so one of the activists said he doesn't appreciate the cop's mean attitude, to which the cop responds "I don't care if you appreciate it or not, I'm telling you what to do."
The activist then quips, "well, that's why we're forced to record you."
Those words apparently made the cop fly into a rage.
"'Forced to record me', do you want to get locked up for wiretap? Go ahead and use that."
"Oh, the courts actually ruled that..."
"O.K., so now you're a lawyer? Now you're a lawyer?"
"No, I just read case law."
"Oh, do you?" the cop responds condescendingly, "I can act anyway I want."
After some more minor squabbling about where they can stand, the cop looks to the videographer and orders him to delete the video.
"I'm telling you right now, you recorded this whole thing, you better delete it right in front of me or I'm going to get my detectives and we're going to have a problem, because you're recording me right now and you don't have my permission."
"But you're a police officer."
[The cop orders the activists to move.]
"Am I legally binding to [delete the video], like do I have to?
"Delete it now or my detectives are coming up here and you guys are all going [to be arrested], I'm telling you delete it now for the wiretap!"
The activist turns his video off under threat of jail, but instead of deleting the video, he uploaded it to YouTube.
Here's some more on the video from CopBlock, they're urging people to contact the police station:
The Philly Tyranny Response Team was participating in the Nation wide Ron Paul sign wave – which took place on Oct 10th – when they had a little run in with an Exton, PA police officer. Below is video of that encounter – raw video here.
There you have it, more proof that the police aren’t concerned with protect you. This officer says, “I don’t have to be nice to you. That’s not in my job description.” He even states that he can tell you what to do and doesn’t care if you appreciate it or not. The men in the video did a great job of standing their ground against this jackboot thug.
If you’d like to remind the Exton, PA police that filming public officials is NOT A CRIME feel free to call them.
Stephen J. Meacham -Chief of Police
Police, Non-Emergency - 610-363-0200 This cop should be in a jail cell, threatening to file false charges against someone is a crime (and a particularly vicious and vindictive one at that). Of course, because he has a magic badge, he can break the law all he wants.ORION: Dino Beatdown Releasing Friday, Win a Free Copy Early!
Spiral Game Studios had to push back the release of ORION: Dino Beatdown by a couple of weeks to polish it up before unleashing the dinosaur mayhem onto the general public. It comes out this Friday, May 4, and if the trailer above is any indication, the wait will have been worth it.
In the trailer, the developers go into detail about the various dinosaur types and talk about how massive the in-game worlds will actually be. We get to see some beautiful footage of these lush, sprawling worlds as well. The team also reiterates that the game will be updated frequently after release, and all players will get those updates for the delightful price of free.
So now you might be asking, where do I sign up?! The game will be available on Steam at a budget price point of $9.99, but if even that is too much for you, Spiral is holding a contest to give 100 lucky players a free copy of Dino Beatdown!
Check out the details of their “Early Bird Gets the Worm” contest below:
We are getting closer and closer to the approaching release of ORION: Dino Beatdown. It is now time to kick off our first (of many) competitions. We have way too many competitions planned both before the release and even more after the release of the game. It is called “Early Bird Gets The Worm”. The first 100 people to complete everything in their submission will receive a full copy of ORION: Dino Beatdown for Steam. Please note that this competition doesn’t start until Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012 at 11:59pm US Central time so make sure not to send in your submission until that very second for it to count. THE FIVE STEPS 01 – You will need to ‘Like’ us on Facebook.
02 – You will need to ‘Follow Us’ on Twitter.
03 – Tell us your favorite Player Class in the game.
04 – Tell us your favorite Dinosaur in the game.
05 – Tell us what Dinosaur you want us to add. Starting on Wednesday, May 2nd at 11:59pm US Central you can send all applications to [email protected]. Simply include your Facebook user name, Twitter handle and answers for the three questions and your submission is valid. The first 100 emails stacked in the inbox starting at that time will win. We will be going over all the applications on Thursday, May 3rd and will send out the rewards throughout the night.
So there you go. If you give Spiral Game Studios some social media love and hit them with a well-timed email, you might just get the game for free! Good luck, and get ready to fend off the dinosaur hordes come Friday!To celebrate American Archive Month in October, NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has released a collection of images, including this shot of a cluster of stars 20,000 light years from Earth. The blue and green shows cosmic haze where clouds form; x-rays are shown in purple.
These bright emission nebulas, located in Cassiopeia, are named Heart and Soul.
This young star is breaking out. Like a hatchling pecking through its shell, this particular stellar newborn is forcing its way out into the surrounding universe. The golden veil of light cloaks a young stellar object known only as IRAS 14568-6304. It is ejecting gas at supersonic speeds and eventually will have cleared a hole in the cloud, allowing it to be easily visible to the outside universe.
This spectacular image of the Orion Nebula star-formation region was obtained from multiple exposures using the HAWK-I infrared camera on ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile. This is the deepest view ever of this region and reveals more very faint planetary-mass objects than expected.
This image of Mars has been altered to show what we would see with ultraviolet vision: the Valles Marineris appears as a blue cut across the middle, and an ozone build-up at the south pole shows as magenta.
At first glance, this cosmic kaleidoscope of purple, blue and pink offers a strikingly beautiful — and serene — snapshot of the cosmos. However, this multi-colored haze actually marks the site of two colliding galaxy clusters, forming a single object known as MACS J0416.1-2403.
In this image from ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), light from blazing blue stars energizes the gas left over from the stars’ recent formation. The result is a strikingly colorful emission nebula, called LHA 120-N55, in which the stars are adorned with a mantle of glowing gas. Astronomers study these beautiful displays to learn about the conditions in places where new stars develop.
This is a richly detailed view of the star formation region Messier 78 in the Orion constellation. The blue region is reflected light from hot young stars, and streams of dark dust and red jets emerge from forming stars.
This image shows the rings of Saturn from above, with the darkened planet on the lower right. Even at night, the part of the rings not shadowed by Saturn remain in sunlight.
NASA’s Hubble telescope took this photo of a star dying by discarding its outer layers of gas, leaving a white dwarf (the white spot in the middle) at its core.
Astronomers using the unique ultraviolet capabilities of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have identified nine monster stars with masses over 100 times the mass of the Sun in the star cluster R136. This makes it the largest sample of very massive stars identified to date. The results, which will be published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, raise many new questions about the formation of massive stars.
Like cold fronts on Earth, merging galaxy clusters generate shock waves, shown in the white wave at the center of this image.
This image shows Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B, two stars in the star system closest to Earth, only 4.3 light-years away. Because of their proximity, the two stars are top targets in the search for habitable exoplanets.
This supernova exploded long ago, but the heart of the dead neutron star still beats, issuing pulses of energy 6,500 light-years from Earth.
This supernova might be beautiful, but it’s also lazy. This composite x-ray image shows the remains of a supernova explosion called RCW 103 with a suspected magnetar star—aka “highly magnetized neutron star”—at its center. The magnetar has a mysteriously slow spin, rotating only once ever 6.67 hours, compared to the 10 seconds other magnetars typically take.
The Milky Way contains over 150 globular clusters, which each contains hundreds of thousands of stars. This one, NGC 362, is younger than most—only 10-11 billion years old.
Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, is best known for its colorful storms, the most famous being the Great Red Spot. Now astronomers have focused on another beautiful feature of the planet, using Hubble's ultraviolet capabilities. The extraordinary vivid glows shown are auroras. They are created when high-energy particles enter a planet’s atmosphere near its magnetic poles and collide with atoms of gas.
Hundreds of enormous, high-velocity gas clouds whiz around the outskirts of our galaxy, but the Smith Cloud is unique because its trajectory is well known. Discovered in the 1960s, astronomers believe it was launched from the outer regions of the galactic disk around 70 million years ago. It’s now on a return collision course and is expected to plow into the Milky Way in about 30 million years, where it will ignite a spectacular burst of star formation. The Smith Cloud is made of hydrogen gas and can’t be seen in visible light. This image a false-color composite created by Hubble to show its size and location in space.
The southern plane of the Milky Way gets an incredible close up via the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment telescope in Chile. Apex created a panorama of the galactic plane in detailed sub-millimeter wavelengths invisible to the eye and the sharpest map of the galaxy ever made. The APEX telescope helps astronomers study cold gas and dust just above absolute zero where new stars form.
Trumpler 13 is a glittering star cluster that contains a collection of some of the brightest stars seen in our Milky Way galaxy. Because the cluster is only 500,000 years old, it has one of the highest concentrations of massive, luminous stars. The small, dark knot left of center is a nodule of gas laced with dust, and seen in silhouette. The blue-white stars are burning their hydrogen fuel so ferociously they will explode as supernovae in just a few million years. The combination of outflowing stellar “winds” and, ultimately, supernova blast waves will carve out cavities in nearby clouds of gas and dust. These fireworks will kick-start the beginning of a new generation of stars in an ongoing cycle of star birth and death.
The star HD 44179 is surrounded by an extraordinary structure known as the Red Rectangle. It acquired its moniker because of its shape and its apparent color when seen in early images from Earth. This strikingly detailed Hubble image reveals how, when seen from space, the nebula, rather than being rectangular, is shaped like an X with additional complex structures of spaced lines of glowing gas, a little like the rungs of a ladder.
This is NGC 1569, a small starburst galaxy that’s a hotbed of vigorous star formation. As a result, the glittering galaxy is home to super star clusters, three of which are visible in this image. Each containing more than a million stars, these brilliant clusters reside within a large cavity of gas carved out by multiple supernovae, the energetic remnants of massive stars.
The Hubble image unveils a very cluttered-looking universe filled with galaxies near and far. Some are distorted like a funhouse mirror through a warping-of-space phenomenon first predicted by Einstein a century ago. In the center of the image is the immense galaxy cluster Abell S1063, located 4 billion light-years away, and surrounded by magnified images of galaxies much farther. The cluster contains approximately 100 million-million solar masses, and contains 51 confirmed galaxies and perhaps over 400 more.
A view of the galaxy NGC 5195, home to a supermassive black hole located in the upper right hand corner of the image. The black hole has powerful, active eruptions or “burps” of debris.
This deep view of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds is actually a combination of two photos, captured from ESO’s La Silla Observatory. The clouds are shown in color as glittering blue holes while the thousands of stars are captured in black and white. Getting rid of noise from unwanted objects is a crucial aspect of astrophotography, and so a luminance exposure is sometimes used to produce richly detailed monochrome images like the one seen here.
An Air Force Test Pilot School T-38 passes in front of the sun at supersonic speed, creating shockwaves that are captured using schlieren photography to visualize supersonic flow.
A newly formed star lights up the surrounding cosmic clouds in this new image from ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. Dust particles in the vast clouds that surround the star HD 97300 diffuse its light, like a car headlight in enveloping fog, and create the reflection nebula IC 2631. Although HD 97300 is in the spotlight for now, the very dust that makes it so hard to miss heralds the birth of additional, potentially scene-stealing, future stars.
Peering deep into the core of the Crab Nebula, this close-up image reveals the beating heart of one of the most historic and intensively studied remnants of a supernova, an exploding star. The inner region sends out clock-like pulses of radiation and tsunamis of charged particles embedded in magnetic fields.
MCG+07-33-027 is a starburst galaxy, meaning it is experiencing an extraordinarily high rate of star formation. For galaxies in a state of starburst, this intense period of star formation has to be triggered somehow---often by a collision with another galaxy. But MCG+07-33-027 is rather isolated, so it’s most likely not due to a collision with a neighboring or passing galaxy. Astronomers are still speculating about the cause. The bright object to the right of the galaxy is a foreground star in our own galaxy.
A nebula known as "the Spider" glows fluorescent green in an infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and the Two Micron All Sky Survey. The Spider, officially named IC 417, lies near a much smaller object called NGC 1931, not pictured in the image. Together, the two are called "The Spider and the Fly" nebulae. Nebulae are clouds of interstellar gas and dust where stars can form.Learning never ends – and I take that idea very seriously. I’m always searching for new articles, books, videos, and lectures on the internet to expand my understanding of the world and how it works.
Knowledge is valuable, and I take pride and joy in learning new things. I try not to limit myself to any one source of information, and documentaries have been my latest passion to indulge in.
Just the past 2 weeks I’ve tried to watch at least one documentary a day. I considered it a “personal challenge” in self improvement and it’s provided me with a lot of useful knowledge so far – the experiment has been a massive success.
Just some of the documentaries I’ve been watching lately include “Happy,” a feature about positive psychology, “Marley,” about the legendary musician Bob Marley, “Jiro Dreams of Sushi,” a documentary about an incredibly passionate and talented sushi chef, as well as bunch of recent “BBC Horizon” episodes on various scientific topics.
There are so many great documentaries out there, so the possibilities are really endless. I highly encourage others to watch more documentaries on their own free time because I truly believe they can make you a better and more educated person.
A lot of the documentaries I’ve been watching can be found on Netflix, Amazon, or even YouTube. Top Documentary Films is one easy and free resource to get started. You may even want to consider going to your local library or buying some DVDs in stores.
Here are great reasons to watch more documentaries:
Depth and breadth of knowledge – Documentaries can be a very effective way to introduce yourself to new topics, as well as gain more depth in certain topics you may already be knowledgeable in. They allow you to develop a more “well-rounded” base of knowledge, rather than just specializing in one thing.
– Documentaries can be a very effective way to introduce yourself to new topics, as well as gain more depth in certain topics you may already be knowledgeable in. They allow you to develop a more “well-rounded” base of knowledge, rather than just specializing in one thing. New conversation fodder – Documentaries give you new things to share and talk about with others. Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve found myself mentioning interesting facts that I’ve learned in documentaries at least once a day.
– Documentaries give you new things to share and talk about with others. Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve found myself mentioning interesting facts that I’ve learned in documentaries at least once |
I personally cannot see what the fuss is about. Given a choice I would allow any language, blue or otherwise, on TV at any time, but ban depictions of violence and sexual activity entirely. What many people see on TV, they then copy in real life : would you rather be sworn at, beaten up, or raped?
Dale Rumbold, Ipswich, England Fair enough if some people are offended by swearing but I'm sure they'd be more offended if I punched them in the face which is what I usually feel like doing when I swear. Swearing allows you to channel anger into a non physical form of violence and if other people were more tolerant and let the moment pass there would surely be less violence all round?
Tucky, UK The one thing that infuriates me about swearing on television is the inconsistency. During a documentatary about friendly fire, you have beeps in one place but not in another. On prime-time television you have Ozzy Osborne swearing at 8pm without any editing of, what was obviously, a pre-recorded interview. Films on Satellite are bleeped out for swearing, yet the subtitles for the hard of hearing are not edited. Whilst all this is going on, at 6.30pm on Radio 4 you can hear swearing on the News Quiz and other programmes. Either ignore the social taboos and allow swearing, or edit everything, but for God's sake be consistent.
Geoff, UK Go on put my FCUKing comments on your damn site this time. You've got me really angry now - most of the comments you post are absolute b*******!
Jules, London similar to Geoff's comment, i'm always especially annoyed by the use of st*rs in "naughty" words in print. the assumption seems to be that if we can't read all of the letters in the offensive word, it is somehow less offensive. if it is deemed neccessary to use a quotation containing swearing, it should be repeated verbatim, or not at all. the same with "bleeping" on tv broadcasts. either cut the whole sentence, don't censor it at all [which would be preferable], or don't broadcast it until after the watershed
Adam, uk The problem with swearing strikes me as being not so much a lack of vocabulary as a lack of discretion. To say, as many teenagers are wont to do, "f******" after every few words is simply to reveal to their listeners how often they are thinking about sex. Obviously, as many other commentators suggest, this is best toned down in front of children or people of the opposite sex but when you are among people with whom you are at ease then by all means speak out with whatever language is in your mind.
Colette, UK I also agree with the Bishop, lets stamp out blasphemy and to hell with that f****** c*** who used to be in the Sex Pistols.
Des, uk I teach Taboo Language as an English Language lecturer, and the students are perfectly well aware that it is the audience and not the language which makes something taboo. And they become aware that this a fascinating area of linguistics. But for the Bishop to say that language is 'in decline' shows only ignorance. This is an old argument and has always been unfounded. There is as much evidence for that as there is for the existance of god. The really sad bit is that a musician of John Lydon's standard should be reduced to appearing on such a tacky show. And given his track record, what exactly did the programme producers expect?
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Paper Monitor, Your Letters, Quote of the Day, Caption Competition and moreParramatta coach Brad Arthur does not believe Kieran Foran wants to play for another club next year. "Look, I'm not convinced he's interested in playing for another club or any of those sort of headlines," Arthur told the ABC. "He's got some health [issues] that he needs to deal with. It's a tough situation with Kieran at the moment but what I do know is [with regard to] football, he's got no love or desire to play at the moment. Until he gets that back there's no point in him pushing himself through it and trying to play to please other people."
Asked if he thought the New Zealand international would play for Parramatta again, he answered: "I'm not sure. That's not a priority. The priority is to get himself right. Once he gets himself right I'm sure that desire will return and if we're the club that can fit him in, or he wants to return to our club, we'll have to deal with that when it comes."
Walters suspects ducks and drakes with BirdSome of the stipulations of the proposed legislation include applying standards to credit reporting agencies, like Equifax, requiring them to do simple, obvious things like match consumers' names, addresses and Social Security numbers, issues with which can lead to credit report errors. The act also calls for better flow of information -- such as clearer credit reports, providing consumers with the same information used by lenders as well as sharing credit report disputes and resolutions -- which would allow consumers to both understand their credit reports better and more easily fix errors when they arise.
Additionally, the SECURE Act requires parents to be allowed to freeze their child's credit report to prevent identity theft that could go unnoticed for years. Under the legislation, credit reporting agencies would also have to join a national registry and the Government Accountability Office would be asked to look into the possibility of creating a national credit reporting system. Finally, consumers who sue credit reporting agencies under the Fair Credit Reporting Act would be given injunctive relief under SECURE, and agencies found to be in violation would be held accountable to the FTC.
Senator Schatz also sent a letter to Equifax CEO Richard Smith demanding the company go much further in its post-breach response including reimbursements for security freezes, unlimited free credit monitoring services and an audit of its security measures. Schatz also requested that the company respond to his letter by September 29th. You can read the full letter here.
In regards to the reintroduced act, Schatz said in a statement, "This is one of several important steps Congress can take in the wake of the Equifax cybersecurity breach. Because these credit agencies operate in the dark, they are allowed to be terribly unfair and unaccountable. Millions of Americans have bad credit because of mistakes from credit agencies, and it can ruin lives, stopping people from getting a job or owning a home or car."Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Taxi drivers in Brussels protested against Uber earlier this month
Uber's "low-cost" UberPop service has been banned in Germany after a court decided it violated transport laws.
Fines of 250,000 euro (£181,000) were imposed for each violation.
It followed the news that the company's Paris offices were raided by police investigating the same service.
And in South Korea nearly 30 people linked to the company were charged with running an illegal taxi firm. They included Uber's chief executive Travis Kalanick, police told the BBC.
On Thursday 19 March, an Uber spokesman denied reports, which had surfaced the previous day, that Mr Kalanick was among those charged.
But a South Korean police official told the BBC on Friday that he had been charged.
Ongoing discussion
Uber said it regretted the Frankfurt District Court's decision, saying it represented a "fundamental infringement of our ability under European law to establish and provide a service".
While UberPop, which unites passengers with drivers who do not have professional licences, is banned, the company insisted it would continue to run its services using licensed limousine and taxi drivers in Germany.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The firm has faced legal difficulties in many countries across the world
A spokesman said it would also appeal against the court's decision and, in the meantime, would introduce an "alternative ridesharing service that we are developing specifically to fit the court's interpretation of existing regulations in Germany".
The spokesman added that Uber would continue discussions with German regulators in the hope of finding a compromise.
The case, brought by German taxi operator group Taxi Deutschland, is one of more than a dozen lawsuits which have been filed in countries across Europe in recent months against the San Francisco-based company.
Unlicensed drivers
Dieter Schlenker, chairman of the Taxi Deutschland co-operative, hailed the decision as a move that would protect professional taxi drivers from competition by unlicensed Uber drivers.
The presiding judge Joachim Nickel said Uber violated German laws on commercial passenger transportation because its drivers did not have the right kinds of licences.
And he said Uber's business model violated both national and European Union laws because it did not fully insure drivers or passengers in the event of accidents.
Lawyers representing Uber denied it was subject to rules governing taxi operators, claiming the company merely acts as an exchange connecting drivers with clients.
In response, Uwe Eilers, one judge on the three-judge panel that delivered its decision on Wednesday, said: "In that case, you should include in your business description that Uber offers rides for free."
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Uber chief executive Travis Kalanick was charged by South Korean authorities, police said. Uber had earlier denied he was.
The judges' decision came after it emerged that Uber's Paris offices had been raided by police investigating its UberPop service on Monday. Staff and other people linked to the firm in South Korea were charged with running an illegal taxi firm as part of a separate investigation.
Uber said its South Korean staff had not broken any laws and called the Paris raid "disproportionate".
South Korean police told the BBC that they had already summoned Mr Kalanick and planned to file for an arrest warrant.
In France, 30 police officers descended on the company's Paris headquarters looking for information, the company told the BBC.
A spokesman said the officers stayed all day and took away mobile phones that were intended for the use of Uber drivers.
'Intimidation'
He called the raid "intimidation", saying: "Why would they send 30 police officers? We are 46 [people] here. The only things we have are computers and telephones."
Uber said the police investigation was based on French legislation it has already complained to the European Commission about, and was confident would be scrapped.
According to Agence France-Presse AFP, dozens of non-professional UberPop users have been fined since the start of the year.
UberPop has been ruled illegal in France, but the company has appealed against a 100,000 euro (£72,000) fine it received last year, it said.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Uber has called the French raids "disproportionate" and said its South Korean staff had broken no laws
According to a report from the South Korean news agency Yonhap, 29 people connected to Uber had been charged.
The agency reported Mr Kalanick, who has already been indicted on charges of establishing and running Uber Korea, had been charged again on suspicion of conducting an illegal business, citing local police sources.
But, on Thursday, Uber said that - barring December's indictment - he had not been charged by South Korean authorities.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Uber is facing a fight in Germany, but also has many supporters
Among those also charged were the heads of six different car rental firms, who were suspected of connecting passengers with nearby drivers through the UberTaxi app without a licence, police told Yonhap.
According to the reports, police said the Uber app posed a risk for passenger safety because drivers were not screened, cars were uninsured and mobile phone numbers and credit card numbers could be leaked.
Police also said Uber Korea took 20% of passengers' taxi fares as commission and paid the remainder to drivers.
By providing such services, one car rental firm made 96 million won (£58,000) in three months, officers claimed.
Asked about the reports, an Uber spokesman said: "Uber has fully co-operated with the police during the course of their investigation and we will continue to do so as the matter is referred to the prosecution for review.
"Uber does not believe the employees in Korea have engaged in any misconduct or illegal behaviour. We believe the prosecutors will come to a similar conclusion."Matt Van Rooy Presents: Lord Finesse & Large Professor Ft Boogie Blind Australian Tour
The Lord versus The Large live and in full effect.
Taking no shorts this April, 2016 Matt Van Rooy is proud to present the legendary Lord Finesse and Large Professor - two of New York’s illest twin towers of real hip-hop together in one exclusive Australian tour which promise to bring a return of that boom-bap ‘90s hip hop!
We’re talking two artists that came up during the golden era of real hip hop whose careers are aligned having both laid down 20 years in the game. The influence of Lord Finesse as one of hip hop’s most respected forces in the game, lives on through a strong undercurrent across today’s hip hop landscape. The Harlem force of real hip hop keeps a strong bond with his fan base across the globe as he tours throughout the globe. Large Professor is a New York-based hip hop mogul, a vet from the Bronx beginnings is still just as active in the culture today as he has ever been. “A pillar of the foundation in hip hop's growth, and continues to pave a path in the culture with his ingenuity of sound and lyricism.”
In 1990, Lord Finesse, with partner DJ Mike Smooth dropped Funky Technician off Wild Pitch Records featuring production from future star beatmakers; DJ Premier, Diamond D and Showbiz right before he created the legendary Diggin In The Crates (D.I.T.C.) alongside Showbiz & AG and Diamond D - home to future solo artists; Fat Joe, O.C. and Buckwild. Finesse has also been credited with co-signing the discovery and development of the late MC and fellow Harlem native Big L later producing a large part of his debut album Lifestylez Ov Da Poor & Dangerous, including the single M.V.P. In 1994 made an appearance on Biggie Small’s all-time classic first album Ready To Die producing the track Suicidal Thoughts. By ‘96 Finesse returned to the fold releasing the rare 12-inch single Check the Method which precipitated the album The Awakening - produced entirely by Lord Finesse which enlisted a guestbook of artists on board including Akinyele, Kid Capri and the legendary KRS-One and MC Lyte, Sadat X, Grand Puba and the and only Large Professor himself. Within a year, Finesse become a force in production of his own, most notably in ‘99 laying down beats on the groundbreaking Dr Dre sophomore album Chronic 2001 on the track The Message. Finesse also lifted the career of the highly successful indie rapper Mac Miller through his breakout single Kool Aid and Frozen Pizza.
Large Pro opened his career in production for Eric B and Rakim in the mid-1980s before joining with the widely-recognised group Main Source in 1989 through their debut album Breaking Atoms which included the hit records Fakin' the Funk and Looking at the Front Door awarding Main Source early success and where Large Pro was soon recognised for his talents as both MC and beatsmith. He would work with hip hop greats; Busta Rhymes, Big Daddy Kane, Mobb Deep, and Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest and is attributed as the force behind the career of the legendary Queensbridge, New York MC Nas who would spit his first verse on Main Source’s Live at the Barbeque - where he would be visible in production on no less than four records on Nas’ debut Illmatic which today is acclaimed to be the best hip hop album of all time. In ‘96, Large Pro returned a revamped solo artist releasing his first album The LP (1996) which spawned two hit singles I Just Wanna Chill and Mad Scientist gathering the MC/producer much props as a force in the game. Large Pro furthered his production with Cormega, Akinyele, U God (Wu-Tang Clan), Noreaga, Jeru the Damaja, Slick Rick, Grand Puba and Public Enemy. He would continue to put out studio albums including 1st Class in 2002, heralded a classic for its boom-bap style and Main Source (2008), another joint hailed as a solid effort, staying true to the detailed technique of Large Pro's musical standard. Large Pro remains hot across the scene, currently operating on his fifth studio banger he keeps evolving in the DJ scene, working across New York City on the regular and keeping down on plenty of world tours, including his next stop, Australia!
Matt Van Rooy Presents: Lord Finesse & Large Professor Ft Boogie Blind Australian Tour where the frontman to the legendary Diggin’ In The Crates crew - one of Boogie Down’s royals in Lord Finesse meets the founding member of the original Main Source - Harlem’s biggest in Large Professor. Supported by turntablist DJ Boogie Blind from the cult-classic cut crew The X-Ecutioners, these New York legends are set to put on their first Australian tour hitting four major city centres.
New York’s gulliest hip hop live and up front like you’ve never had so close to the grill!
Lord Finesse & Large Professor Ft Boogie Blind Australian Tour Date Below!
Wednesday, 13 April 2016 – Amplifier - Perth, Australia
Thursday, 14 April 2016 - Factory Theatre - Sydney, Australia
Friday, 15 April 2016 - Brown Alley - Melbourne, Australia
Saturday, 16 April 2016 - Fowlers Live - Adelaide, Australia
For tickets head to www.matvanrooy.comLast week, Capcom confirmed that Ace Attorney is heading to Switch in some fashion. Kotaku UK shares more on the company’s apparent plans.
If the site is to be believed, two compilations will be launched in the first half of the 2018 / 2019 financial year, which falls between April and October 2018. The initial release will be a bundle of the first three Ace Attorney entries. The other, naturally, is a bundle of games four through six.
Kotaku UK adds that Capcom is also working on a brand new, mainline Ace Attorney title for Switch. It’s supposedly scheduled for a late 2018 simultaneous global release. The site goes on to say that it will have “five cases at launch, and features Phoenix Wright returning as the playable protagonist of the story.”
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PocketWhile many of us this week are still dealing with the crippling aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, we should all take a moment and be thankful that it wasn't worse. It could've been a Sharknado. What's a Sharknado? An upcoming movie is about to show you.
Spotted by Shock Till You Drop at the American Film Market, 'Sharknado' is a film from The Asylum, the purveyors of B-movie schlock like 'Sharktopus' and 'Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus' and 'Two-Headed Shark Attack' and...wow, these guys really love sharks, don't they?
'Sharknado' is an upcoming movie that is described as follows:
When a freak hurricane swamps Los Angeles, thousands of sharks terrorize the waterlogged populace. And when the high-speed winds form tornadoes in the desert, nature’s deadliest killer rules water, land, and air.
And so you have...'Sharknado,' a movie so patently obvious, the tagline is "Enough said!"
No word yet on when 'Sharknado' will hit DVD or the Syfy channel but stay tuned for all your latest 'Sharknado' news as it happens. Sharknado!Four Russian ‘minigarchs’ cheered gang-rape of student 'like footballers celebrating a goal', says judge who jailed them for 36 years
Oleg Ivanov, Gregory Melnikov, Norayr Davtyan and Armen Simonyan were unanimously convicted of rape
Gang had only been in Britain for two weeks when attack occurred
Also filmed themselves boasting about their planned rape the day before
The sick rapists took cigarette breaks as the attack went on
Four wealthy Russians cheered a gang rape like 'professional footballers celebrating the scoring of a goal' a judge said yesterday as he jailed them for a total of 36 years.
Oleg Ivanov and Gregory Andreev Melnikov, both 23, Norayr Davtyan, 22, and Armen Simonyan, 19, filmed the sickening attack on an 18-year-old Malaysian fellow student at their £30,000 a year boarding school using an iPhone.
Jurors unanimously convicted the'minigarchs' of rape after viewing the video, during which one of them labelled the victim a'machine for ****ing', while another had to ask her name.
Guilty: Clockwise from top left, Oleg Ivanov, 23, Norayr Davtyan, 22, Armen Simonyan, 19, and 23-year-old Gregory Melnikov were sentenced to a total of 36 years at Woolwich Crown Court
Ringleader Davtyan, who maintained that the 18-year-old Malaysian teen was a'slut' in the witness box, was jailed for 10 years, Melnikov for nine years and Ivanov and Simonyan for eight years apiece at Woolwich Crown Court this afternoon.
In the course of the 'disgusting' attack they egged each other on by saying: 'You're not going to marry her.'
They later showed the iPhone footage of their victim's ordeal to friends at their exclusive college in south London
Judge Peter Murphy said: 'The iPhone footage shows what can only be described as a callous disregard for the victim as a human being and indeed as anything other than an object of their own pleasure.
'Although there was no pre-existing plan, once the sequence of events started, they were encouraging each other to do more and more and were clearly seen on the iPhone celebrating their triumph almost in the manner of professional footballers celebrating the scoring of a goal.
College: Oleg Ivanov was one of the four'minigarchs' convicted of rape
'They also boasted that they would show the footage to anyone in Moscow.
'(The victim) in my judgment certainly is heard to utter the word 'no' on a number of occasions. Whatever the case of her condition, it is clear as I think it must have been to the defendants that she was in no position to decide whether to consent or not to consent, or to resist what was going on.
'No-one who has seen that footage can leave this trial without feeling complete disgust towards it.'
On the night of January 21 this year, the college put on a disco for its students, while Davtyan also held an impromptu party in his room.
The group of Russians filmed the whole attack on a mobile phone
The victim went to the room between 7pm and 8pm and downed a shot of whiskey before going back to the main building.
She thought her drink had been spiked and felt dizzy.
CCTV cameras captured her stumbling though the main entrance before later filming her in an outdoor smoking area talking to Ivanov and Melnikov.
She was later seen walking away from the smoking area with Melnikov when she was taken to the party in Davtyan's room.
Once there she was seen to vomit and lie down on the floor, and as the party wound down she was eventually left alone with the four men.
Video footage recovered from Davtyan's iPhone taken between 12.38am and 3.10am then showed all four men raping the girl.
'At one point Mr Ivanov said he felt pity for her, but this was only after he and the others had sex with her,' prosecutor Peter Clement said.
'He was talked out of that attitude by Mr Davtyan who described [the girl] as just a whore and a machine for f******'.'
The footage also showed that the rapists took regular breaks to go outside for cigarettes.
Ivanov, Melnikov, Davtyan, Simonyan, all of Deptford, South-East London, all denied two counts of rape.
In their evidence, they tried to claim that the sex had been consensual.
The jury of seven men and four women unanimously convicted Davtyan of two counts of rape.
They convicted Melnikov of one count of rape but found him not guilty of the other, instead finding him guilty of an alternative charge of attempted rape.Sweden’s innovation agency wants to determine if video games that don’t promote gender equality deserve a “sexist” label similar to those for violence, adult language, and sexually explicit content.
The Swedish agency, Vinnova, is paying the Swedish video-game industry trade group Dataspelsbranschen 272,000 Kronor, or $36,372, to study the possibility of creating a “sexist” label for future games produced in Sweden.
Much like the Bechdel Test, the trade group’s assessment will evaluate the portrayal of women in video games, looking for evidence of well-rounded characters and the rejection of sexual and gender-based stereotypes.
The entire project is still in the very early stages. Anton Albiin, its director, is not sure if the final certification will be a label on the box or a certificate for the game developer’s website. The latter approach would allow publishers to use the results in their marketing materials, thus incentivizing the development of games that pass the group’s test.
Not everyone is onboard with the idea. The Swedish newspaper the Local worried about the potential chilling effects on artistic creativity if a trade group imposed socially normative oversight with a sexism label. Albiin, the project leader, replied that “games can be about fantasy but they can be so much more than this. They can also be a form of cultural expression – reflecting society or the society we are hoping for.”
H/T The Local | Illustration by Jason ReedTurning the other cheek is a phrase in Christian doctrine from the Sermon on the Mount that refers to responding to injury without revenge and allowing more injury. This passage is variously interpreted as commanding nonresistance, Christian pacifism, or nonviolence on the part of the victim.
Scriptural references [ edit ]
The phrase originates from the Sermon on the Mount in the New Testament. In the Gospel of Matthew, an alternative for "an eye for an eye" is given by Jesus:
You have heard that it was said, "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. — Jesus Christ, English Standard Version (Matthew 5:38-42)
In the Sermon on the Plain[1] in the Gospel of Luke, as part of his command to "love your enemies", Jesus says:
But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them. — Jesus Christ, English Standard Version (Luke 6:27-31)
Interpretations [ edit ]
This phrase, as with much of the Sermon on the Mount, has been subject to both literal and figurative interpretations.
Christian anarchist interpretation [ edit ]
Since the passages call for total nonresistance to the point of facilitating aggression against oneself, and since human governments defend themselves by military force, some have advocated Christian anarchism, including Leo Tolstoy who elucidated his reasoning in The Kingdom of God Is Within You.
Nonviolent resistance interpretation [ edit ]
The scholar Walter Wink, in his book Engaging the Powers: Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination, interprets the passage as ways to subvert the power structures of the time.[2]
At the time of Jesus, says Wink, striking backhand a person deemed to be of lower socioeconomic class was a means of asserting authority and dominance. If the persecuted person "turned the other cheek," the discipliner was faced with a dilemma: The left hand was used for unclean purposes, so a back-hand strike on the opposite cheek would not be performed. An alternative would be a slap with the open hand as a challenge or to punch the person, but this was seen as a statement of equality. Thus, by turning the other cheek, the persecuted was demanding equality.
Wink continues with an interpretation of handing over one's cloak in addition to one's tunic. The debtor has given the shirt off his back, a situation forbidden by Hebrew law as stated in Deuteronomy (24:10–13). By giving the lender the cloak as well, the debtor was reduced to nakedness. Wink notes, that public nudity was viewed as bringing shame on the viewer, and not just the naked, as seen in Noah's case (Genesis 9:20–23).
Wink interprets the succeeding verse from the Sermon on the Mount as a method for making the oppressor break the law. The commonly invoked Roman law of Angaria allowed the Roman authorities to demand that inhabitants of occupied territories carry messages and equipment the distance of one mile post, but prohibited forcing an individual to go further than a single mile, at the risk of suffering disciplinary actions.[3] In this example, the nonviolent interpretation sees Jesus as placing criticism on an unjust and hated Roman law, as well as clarifying the teaching to extend beyond Jewish law.[4]
Righteous personal conduct interpretation [ edit ]
Another interpretation is that Jesus was not changing the meaning of "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth", but restoring it to the original context. Jesus starts his statement with "you have heard it said," which could mean that he was clarifying a misconception, as opposed to "it is written", which could be a reference to scripture. The common misconception seems to be that people were using Exodus 21:24-25 (the guidelines for a magistrate to punish convicted offenders) as a justification for personal vengeance. However, the command to "turn the other cheek" would be not a command to allow someone to beat or rob a person but a command not to take vengeance.
Metaphysical interpretation [ edit ]
In the New Thought community popular in the late 19th and early 20th century, many spiritual teachers such as Emmet Fox viewed Jesus Christ as the greatest teacher of metaphysics that ever lived; that in his teachings he was attempting to explain to the individuals of the day how to improve their lot in life through practical teachings. The Sermon on the Mount records the details of one such seminar. Despite losing much in translation, as well as using ancient metaphors which are easily misinterpreted in the modern age, the tenets of Jesus's teachings, phrases such as'resist not evil' and 'turn the other cheek' are pure metaphysical instructions.
Rather than taking 'an eye for an eye', instead Jesus encourages us not to resist evil, because giving our attention to evil just invites more evil into our lives. Likewise, if someone should strike us, rather than retaliating and therefore becoming embroiled in a battle, Jesus encourages us to 'turn the other cheek'. This is not (as some may have interpreted) so that the assailant may strike the other, but indicates that turning and walking away from the potential altercation is the only way to get a desirable outcome. Violence begets more violence.
If we get what we think about, then engaging in any thought, word or deed only increases its power and presence in our lives. By asking us to turn the other cheek, Jesus is suggesting we ignore things that we do not want, and instead focus on the things that we do want.
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ]LSE is a wasting disease. It invades the brains of writers of SF and other genres, progressively damaging their ability to tell entertaining stories until all they can write is unpleasant gray goo fit only for consumption by lit majors. One of the principal sequelae of the disease is plunging sales.
If you are a writer or an aspiring writer, you owe it to yourself to learn the symptoms of LSE so you can seek treatment should you contract it. If you love a writer or aspiring writer, be alert for the signs; victims often fail to recognize their condition until the degeneration has passed the critical point beyond which no recovery is possible. You may have to stage an intervention.
Here are some clinical indicators of LSE:
1. Evinces desire to be considered “serious artist”.
2. Idea content is absent or limited to politicized social criticism.
3. Heroism does not occur except as anti-heroic mockery.
4. All major characters are psychologically damaged.
5. Wordage devoted to any character’s interior monologues exceeds wordage in same character’s dialog.
6. Repeated character torture, especially of the self-destructive variety.
7. Inability to write an unambiguously happy ending. In advanced cases, the ability to write any ending at all may be lost.
8. Stronger craving for a Nebula than a Hugo. (Outside SF: approval of fellow genre authors more valued than that of fans.)
9. Spelling name without capital letters.
10. Plot is smothered under an inchoate cloud of characterization.
11. Persistent commission of heavy-handed allegory.
12. All sense of humor or perspective vanishes from writing, replaced (if at all) by hip irony.
13. Characters do not experience joy, hope, or autonomy except as transient falsehoods to be mocked.
14. No moment of conceptual breakthrough in story. (Outside SF: lack of respect for genre aims and values.)
If you have three or more of these symptoms, step away from your keyboard before another innocent reader is harmed. Immerse yourself in retro space opera (or your non-SF genre’s equivalent) until you understand what it got right that you are doing wrong. And, get over yourself.
(Thread is open for more symptoms. Try to keep politics out of it; that would be a different “Warning signs of being a political tool” list.)Unbelievable Skeletons Unearthed From The Catacombs Of Rome "Heavenly Bodies," published by Thames & Hudson, reveals ancient jewel-encrusted skeletons found and photographed across Europe by historian Paul Koudounaris. In this photo, St. Albertus' remains from the Roman Catacombs in 1723, are shown. Paul Koudounaris
Unbelievable Skeletons Unearthed From The Catacombs Of Rome St. Vincentus' ribs are exposed beneath a web of golden leaves, in Stams, Austria. The hand raised to cover the face is a gesture of modesty. Paul Koudounaris
Unbelievable Skeletons Unearthed From The Catacombs Of Rome St. Friedrich at the Benedictine abbey in Melk, Austria, is presented in a typical reclining pose and holds laurel branch as a sign of victory. Paul Koudounaris
Unbelievable Skeletons Unearthed From The Catacombs Of Rome Records concerning the decoration of St. Valerius in Weyarn, Germany, are incomplete, but similarities in technique with the relic of Albertus in Burgrain, Germany, suggest that there may be a connection between the two. Paul Koudounaris
Unbelievable Skeletons Unearthed From The Catacombs Of Rome The relic of St. Deodatus in Rheinau, Switzerland, is an example of an unusual reconstruction technique in which a wax face was moulded over the upper half of the skull and a fabric wrap used to create a mouth. Paul Koudounaris
Unbelievable Skeletons Unearthed From The Catacombs Of Rome Detail of the hand of St. Valentin in Bad Schussenreid, Germany, one of a number of Katakombenheiligen named for the popular Italian saint. Paul Koudounaris
Unbelievable Skeletons Unearthed From The Catacombs Of Rome This St. Benedictus was received by the church of St Michael in Munich, Germany, even though it was not a Benedictine foundation but a court for Clemens August I of Bavaria. Paul Koudounaris
Unbelievable Skeletons Unearthed From The Catacombs Of Rome In addition to its four complete skeletons, the church in Roggenburg, Germany, owns a pair of skull relics. This one was given the generic name of Deodatus as its identity was unknown. Paul Koudounaris
Unbelievable Skeletons Unearthed From The Catacombs Of Rome St. Luciana arrived at the convent in Heiligkreuztal, Germany, in the mid-18th century and was prepared for display by the nuns in Ennetach. Paul Koudounaris
Unbelievable Skeletons Unearthed From The Catacombs Of Rome St. Felix, pictured here, arrived in Sursee, Switzerland, in 1761, and was decorated to match St. Irenaus, brought over a century before by Johann Rudolf Pfyffer of the papal Swiss Guard. Paul Koudounaris
Unbelievable Skeletons Unearthed From The Catacombs Of Rome The skull of St. Getreu in Ursberg, Germany, is covered in silk mesh and fine wirework set with gemstones, which may have been done in Mindelheim, Germany. Paul Koudounaris
Unbelievable Skeletons Unearthed From The Catacombs Of Rome Decorated by the skilled lay brother Adalbart Eder, St. Valentinus in Waldsassen wears a biretta and an elaborate, elegantly jewelled version of a deacon's cassock to emphasize his ecclesiastical status. Paul Koudounarishomophu-deactivated20180101 asked: hey, just curious, but what's your understanding of the word misandry? i just ask because, from how i've seen it used and understand it, it's an attempt to essentially mirror the word |
method, has allowed me to systematically explore the amazing phenomena in the world, and better understand how logical thinking can help us discover the truth in so many magical experiences that have often, sadly, been flippantly dismissed out of hand. Science and spirituality can and should coexist beautifully. A single truth can be attained by various approaches, and I strive for a full, well-rounded perspective.
AH: At age 13, you wrote your first published book. Adding over a dozen more including the regional best-seller, Haunted Asheville, and How to Hunt Ghosts (released by Simon and Schuster). That is quite an accomplishment at such a young age. Have you ever held down an office job or was this the beginning leading you to where you are today?
JW: When I was 16, as my first job, I worked as a bookstore clerk. Ages 17-18, I worked as a video store clerk. Since the age of 18, I have been self-employed doing what I love: exploring the unknown! It has been a wild ride without a day off. But I've been able to take my passion for research and funnel it into sensible business producing books, TV and radio programming, live events, tours, websites, and products. I'm a paranormal entrepreneur, and my success is testament to how much interest and respect exists for those who spend time thoughtfully exploring the unknown. It takes complete devotion, pure intention, and a cheerful, tireless, optimistic work ethic. But it can be done!
AH: You were hired by the famous Grove Park Inn Resort to be the first person to officially investigate the Pink Lady apparition in 1995 which in that the same year you founded L.E.M.U.R. paranormal investigations. Can you tell your fans what this organization is about and your breakthrough with the Brown Mountain Lights?
JW: Exploring mysterious phenomena, in earnest, means you have decided to tackle the most complicated and difficult questions and problems known to humankind--NOT to be taken lightly. To do it professionally (and not for mere entertainment value) requires a vast amount of data, patiently collected and credibly processed. In some cases, there is no way one person can accomplish the task. Therefore, a good team can be invaluable. LEMUR was founded as a forum for dedicated specialists in various fields to divide the challenge of collecting information and contributing to its evaluation. LEMUR stands for the "League of Energy Materialization and Unexplained Phenomena Research." In a nutshell, it's all about discovering the connection between phenomena that is not understood by mainstream researchers and the connection between those phenomena and how energy materializes into something physically-measurable. As your question suggests, perhaps the best example regards the Brown Mountain Lights. Brown Mountain is a long, low-lying ridge in the Pisgah National Forest of Western North Carolina. For at least a century, strange, multi-colored balls of light have appeared on or around the ridge at night, bobbing through the trees. They have been studied extensively, and spawned dozens of theories and possible explanations. Unfortunately, many of the best, most qualified scientists have dismissed them as nothing more than an old ghost story without ever even looking into the site. I, however, kept an open mind.
For 15 years, my team and I observed, and camped at, the rugged, uncomfortable location. We brought a variety of different scientists with us and employed a wide spectrum of tools. Eventually, we were able to reproduce a similar phenomenon on a miniature scale in the laboratory, earning us the cover of the ELECTRIC SPACE CRAFT science journal in 2004. We believe most of the lights are a form of plasma, similar to ball lightning. Learning how it's produced has implications for lethal and non-lethal weaponry, wireless communication, transportation and propulsion. We discovered properties valuable for solid, practical, technological advances because we were not so arrogant as to turn away from stories others considered nonsense. This is the attitude needed to advance scientific development. I receive no taxpayer funds and have no boss. Nor do I bow to any committee. That means I'm in a position to take risks. Unfortunately, that one crucial asset is missing from the lives of most scholars dependent on educational institutions for a salary and peer approval. I designed my life as an independent businessman so I can be honest and creative, taking all those risks on my own.
AH: You're a bit of everything on the media spectrum from television appearances to being sequestered writing articles, novels and lab experiments. What in your life isn't supernatural, if anything at all?
JW: Great question! As a person who studies strange energy, I must first know about energy in general. That led me to create a new household solar generator: The "Sunshine Simple" generator for the home. A couple years ago, blizzards hit my state and I was out of power for 7 days. I was NOT prepared and it SUCKED. Afterward, I bought a gas generator, but the following winter, it would not start in the cold half the time. It was also noisy and smelly. Plus what if I run out of fuel? I decided to buy a solar generator. But after researching all over the net, I was disappointed. The generators cost way too much and didn't produce that much power. So I decided to build one that would fit my needs. The result is the new Sunshine Simple generator. I talked about it on the radio and people started emailing, asking me to make one for them. This quickly turned into a business. I've only been selling them since October of 2011, and they've already sold to every part of the United States, and people love it! I enjoy producing these units that will keep people comfy, safe and independent, working in harmony with mother nature. You can visit http://www.SunshineSimple.com to see a video I shot demonstrating it and why I think it's the best of its kind in the world. This is not paranormal, but a perfect example of how my paranormal work led me on a path to service the general population.
AH: Your radio show for Clear Channel Communications called Speaking of Strange that just became syndicated. That is wonderful news, congratulations. Can you please share with us how long you have had your show and how it got started? Lastly, in closing please tell your fans what your working on today and are there any new projects on the horizon?
JW: I created the SPEAKING OF STRANGE radio show around 8 years ago. It began as a local Clear Channel Show, but is now syndicated to any station, available anywhere in the world. The show is a wild, fun ride, unlike any other radio program being produced. It's not just about the paranormal, but also a humorous, spontaneous conversation about all the crazy news in the world that is usually too edgy, outrageous, controversial and far-out for the mainstream media. We cover the summit of mankind's enlightenment and groundbreaking achievements and the pit of mankind's depravity and dark, twisted behavior. It's hard to describe as anything other than an unpredictable ride. One minute I'm talking to a man who walked on the moon; the next to a porn star. You can listen free online at http://www.SpeakingOfStrange.com and any radio station can carry it for free right now if they contact me through the site.
My museum in Asheville is moving into a historic new building and I'll be traveling to Transylvania in the spring to investigate vampires & werewolves, PLUS I'm working with some big names in the entertainment biz to develop a new TV series. TV is a very unpredictable industry, but if this concept pans out, it'll be a groundbreaking program. I sincerely believe 2012 is going to be a mind-boggling year, as I wrote about in my book, THE SECRET WISDOM OF KUKULKAN. I'm excited to live through this amazing time, and plan to travel to various cities to speak about why it's so important.× Study says non-celiac gluten sensitivity may not be real
A recent study has effectively overturned earlier research that said non-celiac gluten sensitivity is real.
A professor of gastroenterology and director of the GI unit at an Australian hospital published a study in 2011 that found gluten caused gastrointestinal distress in patients without celiac disease. Those study results served as strong evidence of the existence of non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS), commonly called gluten intolerance, and helped spike the number of people reducing gluten in their diets.
That same doctor has now found evidence that may overturn his first study, according to Real Clear Science.
In a second round of research, Dr. Peter Gibson studied 37 people confirmed to not have celiac disease but who did report improved gastrointestinal symptoms on a gluten-free diet.
The second study led Gibson to results directly opposite of those in his first study: no specific response to gluten.
Participants did show symptom improvement with a diet lower in levels of FODMAPs – fermentable, poorly absorbed short-chain carbohydrates according to study do-author Jessica Biesiekierski.
“Coincidentally, some of the largest dietary sources of FODMAPs — specifically bread products — are removed when adopting a gluten-free diet, which could explain why the millions of people worldwide who swear by gluten-free diets feel better after going gluten-free,” the Real Clear Science report said.
A low FODMAP diet is commonly prescribed for patients with irritable bowel syndrome.
Biesiekierski is continuing to work to determine whether NCGS truly exists.Jeremy Corbyn plays down Labour anti-Semitism row ahead of elections
Jeremy Corbyn has insisted there is not a "huge problem" with anti-Semitism in Labour and vowed to stay on as leader even if the party received a mauling at the ballot box on Thursday.
He acknowledged he could face a challenge but said he was "not having sleepless nights" about it and told critics they should "respect the mandate" he has after his landslide win in the leadership contest.
Mr Corbyn declared he would be "carrying on" no matter what the result of the election results in England, Scotland and Wales.
Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn has condemned anti-Semitism
The contests will provide the first national test of Mr Corbyn's leadership as Labour critics insist the party must make gains, with former shadow cabinet minister Michael Dugher suggesting a benchmark of another 400 seats.
But with experts forecasting though the party could lose hundreds of seats in England - and apparently on course for another difficult night in Scotland and a tough fight in Wales where devolved governments are up for election - Mr Corbyn insisted in a Daily Mirror interview: "There are no goals, no targets - the best result we can get."
His strongest hope of a headline-grabbing victory lies with Sadiq Khan wresting back the London mayoralty after eight years of Tory Boris Johnson at City Hall.
But while the Labour candidate remains the bookies' favourite, the Tooting MP is engaged in a concerted effort to prevent his campaign being derailed by the anti-Semitism row and to distance himself from both Mr Corbyn and ex-mayor Ken Livingstone.
Mr Corbyn played down the impact of the controversy on Mr Khan, saying he did not think the row over allegations of anti-Semitism had "damaged his chances at all".
Three Labour councillors were suspended on Monday over comments about Israel, repeating the action taken against MP Naz Shah and Mr Livingstone, but Mr Corbyn said: "No, there is not a huge problem.
"What there is is a very small number of people that have said things that they should not have done.
"We have therefore said they will be suspended and investigated."
Despite Mr Corbyn's claim that only a "small number" of people were involved in alleged anti-Semitism, the Daily Telegraph suggested that as many as 50 people had been suspended by Labour's compliance unit in the past two month.
A Labour Party source said: "This is a wild overestimate. The Labour Party takes anti-Semitism very seriously and that's why Jeremy has set out a robust plan to tackle the issue."
The source indicated that the "majority" of suspensions for anti-Semitism were already in the public domain.
Mr Corbyn has set up an independent investigation into anti-Semitism and other forms of racism within Labour led by former Liberty chief Shami Chakrabarti.
The row has deepened splits between Mr Corbyn and many of his MPs, but the leader vowed to face down any challenge to his position.
"If there is one, there is one - but I'm not having sleepless nights about this," Mr Corbyn said.
"I was elected with a very big mandate to do the job, and I am doing the job.
"I was elected on a mandate from a very large majority of members and supporters of the party. I intend to carry out that mandate."
In a message aimed at his critics in the Commons he said: "The Parliamentary Labour Party are a very important part of the Labour movement - but it's not the only part."
Mr Corbyn's denial that there is a "huge problem" came after shadow cabinet minister Lucy Powell said: "There clearly is an issue with anti-Semitism in the Labour Party otherwise we wouldn't have spent the best part of the last six or seven days talking about it.
"I think it is a very small element within the Labour Party and probably a small element in wider society as well. And that's why we are taking swift action to root it out."
Asked about Mr Livingstone's future within the party, she told Channel 4 News: "That will be a matter for the National Executive Committee who will look at that and they will come to their own view."
But she added: "I think it's very, very difficult to see a circumstance where his suspension would be lifted and he would be readmitted."
Shadow education secretary Lucy Powell said there 'clearly is an issue with anti-Semitism' within LabourPewDiePie Responds To N-Word Backlash By Sharing Fellow White YouTuber’s Own Offensive Post
Two wrongs don’t make a right.
On Thursday, PewDiePie came under fire after casually dropping the n-word in his newest YouTube upload. And, instead of apologizing for the controversial clip, the 27-year-old responded to the backlash by re-tweeting an offensive post that also contained the upsetting slur.
Related: Remember When PewDiePie Promised To Delete His Account?
While critics were using #PewDiePieIsOverParty in their tweets, another white YouTuber, iDubbbz, took to Twitter to parody the backlash by recreating the trending hashtag.
However, the content creator — whose real name is Ian Carter — disgustingly replaced the word “over” with the words “a [n-word].”
As if that wasn’t bad enough, the Swedish internet celebrity actually showed his appreciation for iDubbbz’s tasteless post by retweeting it (below):
This just isn’t okay. What are your thoughts on the controversy, Perezcious readers?!
[Images via PewDiePie/iDubbbz/Instagram, PewDiePie/Twitter.]The Conyngham Hall course hasn’t been used much since the 80’s but CXHandbook is a big fan of the long, old fashioned out and back courses like this one. (The Landgate Quarry course, for example, should have a World Cup, World Champs and then another race just for fun. It’s amazing. Click HERE.) It’s great when a course has plenty of interesting features, different surfaces and a beautiful setting like Knaresborough so two thumbs up Novacross, thanks for a great event. Some familiar faces returning from Europe to prepare for the Nationals strengthened the field and set the scene for a fascinating battle next weekend. Be sure to join Cyclocross Handbook for coverage from both days. If you haven’t already, stay up to date with everything on this site by heading over the Cyclocross Handbook Facebook page and give it a like. Thanks for looking, see you in Bradford.
At the time of posting, I'm still waiting for confirmed results. However, Ian Taylor totally won the vets race. By a decent margin...
...from (I think) James Sharp in second.
If I turn out to be wrong, which is definite possibility, please get in touch @cxhandbook! Thanks fans and followers.
Alison Kinloch won the Vet women's race.
I can however confirm with certainty that this is Cross Dog 80.
Also, that this is Amira Mellor, back racing in the UK. Great to have you back on CXHandbook Amira!
Hannah Payton led out the first lap.
But was being chased hard by Amira.
It wasn't long before she had moved into the lead.
Novacross was good preparation for the Nationals next weekend. Mark Donovan will be amongst those looking to defend his jersey.
Amira continued on the front, building up a gap and taking the win. It'll be a fascinating battle at the Nationals with so many riders in great form.
Is that a One Bike Cross armband keeping Cross Dog 81's hair in place?
Ian Field clearly didn't fancy getting his face dirty and set off in the lead straight away.
Nick Craig and a very much in form Giles Drake together in pursuit.
#wearecross Bruce Dalton back after his knee injury.
The fight for second...
...was tightly contested between 4 riders.
Floating.
Jack Clarkson was going brilliantly until a double puncture ruined his race.
A great win for Ian Field. Can't wait for the Nationals now.
Knaresborough is lovely BTW.
Cross Ducks? Nah, thats a stretch even for this site.
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Share on TumblrMurder House Residential Town Springfield Owner Former: Flanders family
Mrs. Astor
Current: No one it's gone No one it's gone Employees Non First Appearance Realty Bites"
The Murder House is a house in Springfield. A string of murders occurred here; Mrs. Astor survived the attacks. When Marge is selling it to The Flanders she is haunted from the fact that people were murdered there and is continuously tricked into thinking the same happens to The Flanders. Eventually she tells them about the house's past. Flanders is initially pleased, but when Homer, Chief Wiggum and Snake destroy the house they have second thoughts. Marge is fired from Red Blazer Realty because of her inability to sell a house and that the Murder House was destroyed, making it unsellable.
The house is based off of the Psycho house, with similar design and architecture.
AppearancesHUNDREDS of Edinburgh sex workers have signed up to an adult job site – convinced they will be forced out of their sauna jobs today (wed).
Licensing chiefs are due to meet to decide the fate of 13 saunas in the city following a police crackdown on prostitution.
Six saunas are expected to be permanently closed so sex workers are flocking to a seedy online website to advertise their services.
The girls are listing their vital statistics, specialities and prices as well as posting pictures of themselves in a bid to pick up customers.
Critics of the sauna crackdown say it proves that women will be placed at extra risk as a result of the anticipated sauna closures.
Users of the adultwork.com website make their own arrangements to meet anonymous clients, sometimes in their own homes.
The move comes after a series of raids in June this year, where more than 350 officers stormed the city’s saunas before bringing them in front of the council.
Six of the saunas, whose licensing appeal will be heard tomorrow, were ordered to close by council bosses after Police Scotland gave evidence.
But they were allowed to stay open on an appeal basis.
However sex workers across the city are not taking any chances of losing their livelihoods and have registered their services online.
One sex worker, Annabel, said she had registered herself on the site, along with the other girls at the same sauna, on Monday.
She said: “I can’t afford to be out of work. This is the first time I’ve been able to pay all my bills and hold my head high. But now we’re probably going to lose the sauna so we’re all going online.
“We have responsibilities like everyone else and instead of just accepting benefits and not working, I’m going to actively keep looking for work and rent a private flat.
She added that although it can be “pretty dangerous” she felt that she “didn’t have any other choice.”
Adultwork.com now has 344 prositutes profiles for Edinburgh alone. It gives details of the girls’ appearance, such as dress size and bust size but also gives the dates and times the girls are available.
MSP Margo MacDonald, who opposes the sauna closures, said: “These girls who are advertising their services online are taking an unnecessary risk but they’ve been forced to find an alternative to the saunas where they were more protected.
“The Chief Constable of the new force, Stephen House’s attitude towards zero tolerance is directly affecting the previously safe working environment these women once had.”
She added: “The new terms of licence will mean that no condoms will be allowed on the premises anyway even if they are allowed to stay open.
“Both prevention and detection services that were in place, and working, have been bundled up by the new force and thrown out with the rubbish and I seriously hope the health boards will give those involved a good talking to.”
Last week documents of Police Scotland’s inspection findings were released and showed that several saunas had condoms, pornography and even sex swings on the premises.
A spokesman for Edinburgh City Council confirmed the licensing sub-committee will meet tomorrow (wed) “to consider 13 Public Entertainment licences that are due for renewal.”
“Where the police have raised concerns, these will be considered carefully.”The cost of a planned pedestrian bridge over Lankershim Boulevard in Universal City has risen by more than a third, according to a new report.
The three-cornered walkway across Lankershim and Universal Hollywood Drive will now cost more than $27 million, transit officials said Monday. The price was originally pegged at $19.5 million.
The additional expenditure will be considered at a Metropolitan Transportation Authority committee meeting Thursday. Nearby landowner NBC Universal is offering to pay $3.9 million of the new expense, officials said.
The controversial bridge, which won MTA approval last year, is opposed by some transit groups, who argue the project caters to cars because the walkway removes pedestrians from the busy intersections.
Monday’s news of the increased price tag fueled opponents’ skepticism about the project.
“This just adds to the argument for having a better alternative,” said Faramarz Nabavi, president of the USC Bike and Transit Law Society.
Planned for the Universal City Metro Red Line stop, the bridge will cross Lankershim and Universal Hollywood Drive to connect with a commercial building,
Supporters, including Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, say it will better accommodate the 700-800 pedestrians the city estimates cross Lankershim Boulevard during peak hours. The project also satisfies an outstanding legal agreement with NBC Universal, which owns the hilltop near the site, to build a passageway across the thoroughfare.
Alternatives, such as an undergound tunnel, Yaroslavsky has argued, are too costly.
Opponents say the bridge is awkward looking and represents outdated planning approaches that cede the street level to cars.
A “pedestrian scramble” that uses traffic lights to stop cars at all four corners, is preferable, believes Nabavi, who adds that the MTA should instead be spending money on pedestrian improvements citywide.
Other transit advocates contend a tunnel is the best option, with NBC Universal picking up half the tab.
The city and Los Angeles County officials recently approved a sprawling NBC Universal $1.6-billion office and production space project near the Red Line stop.
With construction set to commence soon, the MTA recently sent out bids. Estimates came back at more than more than $27 million, with the rising cost of construction affecting bid prices, said Metro spokesman Dave Sotero, reiterating the intended purpose of the bridge. “The bridge meets the needs of safely transporting people across the street,” he said.
The bridge will also connect to the existing elevators at the Red Line subway stop. Project architect Rios Clementi Hale Studios calls the bridge an “elegant and efficient” addition to the area.Image copyright AFP Image caption The British home secretary will raise the issue at a meeting of EU ministers
Britain wants to change the rules governing the free movement of people across the EU, Home Secretary Theresa May will tell European ministers.
Mrs May will speak in Brussels, ahead of the lifting of movement controls on Bulgarians and Romanians.
She says free access to labour markets must not be allowed to lead to "mass migration".
However, some countries have already vowed to defend what they regard as a fundamental EU principle.
EU justice and home affairs ministers will meet in Brussels on Thursday.
'Mass migration'
Image copyright Getty Images It is right that the national governments of the EU reform the way free movement rules work Theresa May
Arriving for the talks, the EU's Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding said "our EU rules are good and they are here to stay - member states need to apply them to tackle abuse.
"Don't blame the Commission or EU rules for national choices and national regulatory systems... If we start negotiating freedoms we will end up with having none," she told reporters.
Mrs May argues that problems caused by free movement must be addressed and the rules should be changed.
In a statement she questioned why national governments should not be be allowed to impose a cap on numbers if European immigration reached certain thresholds.
She said she planned to make clear at the Brussels meeting "that I believe we need to change the way free movement rules work".
She added: "First, for future accession treaties, we must be able to slow full access to each other's labour markets until we can be sure it will not lead to mass migration.
"Second, looking ahead, we must seize the opportunity presented by the prime minister's plan to reform the EU and address the problems caused by free movement.
"It is right that the national governments of the EU reform the way free movement rules work."
Mrs May is also expected to propose requiring new member states to reach a certain level of income or economic output per head before full access to free movement rights is allowed.
Welfare systems
The debate is taking place in advance of the lifting of transitional controls on Romanians and Bulgarians - from 1 January there will be no restrictions on them working anywhere in the EU.
BBC Europe correspondent Chris Morris, in Brussels, said there was sympathy for Britain's demand that abuse of welfare systems should not be permitted - because other countries shared the same concern.
But there was little support at a political level for a fundamental reassessment of the idea of free movement, our correspondent added.
One diplomat from an eastern European member state said no one would accept some countries being treated as second class EU citizens because a free market in goods and services also has to be a free market for labour.
Mr Cameron has suggested that citizens from other EU countries would not be able to claim out-of-work benefits for the first three months in the UK and would not be able to extend claims beyond six months if they had no genuine prospect of work.
Laszlo Andor, a European commissioner, angered Mr Cameron by commenting that the UK was at risk of becoming a "nasty" country if it curbed benefits and sought to limit freedom of movement by EU nationals.NEW DELHI: Having rejected indigenously built 'Tejas' as too heavy, the Indian Navy has launched a Request for Information to procure 57 multi-role combat aircraft for its carrier.Last month, Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba had said the "present LCA does not meet the carrier capability required by the Navy".He had said the service would continue to support its development but "at the same time we will seek aircraft elsewhere which can operate on the aircraft carrier".The RFI, dated January 17, says the aircraft are "intended as day-and-night capable, all-weather, multi-role, deck-based combat aircraft which can be used for air defence, air-to-surface operations, buddy refuelling, reconnaissance etc. from IN aircraft carriers".The companies have been asked to respond by May.While it has not been specified whether the Navy wants single-engine or twin-engine multi-role carrier-borne fighters, sources said that given the role mentioned, the aircraft will be a medium-to-heavy, twin-engine one.At present, the Navy operates 45 MIG-29K jets, which from time-to-time face serviceability issues.Currently, six planes are compatible for aircraft carrier flying. They are Rafale (Dassault, France), F-18 Super Hornet (Boeing, US), MIG-29K (Russia), F-35B and F-35C ( Lockheed Martin, US) and Gripen (Saab, Sweden).While F-18, Rafale and MIG-29K are twin engine jets, the remaining three have single engine.The government also wants to manufacture these planes in India and tender has asked the original equipment manufacturers to respond to it.It also sought to know at what level of Transfer of Technology (ToT) and deep repair expertise the company is willing to share with India.It also asked the vendor to specify critical technologies required and comment on its ability to absorb the aircraft manufacturing technology at the levels of sub vendor/supply chain elements in India through ToT from OEM and its partners.As regards the delivery schedule, the first lot of jets have to be delivered in three years after inking of the contract and all the 57 have to be delivered in the next three years.The Wisconsin Republican and Donald Trump supporter got into a tense exchange with CNN's Brianna Keilar about whether prominent Trump surrogates and supporters were perpetuating rumors that Clinton was not physically fit to be president.
"You see Mrs. Clinton with coughing fits on stage, you see her kind of stumbling on and off stage, where Mr. Trump hasn't had those kind of issues and I think that's what's brought this concern forward," Duffy said on "The Situation Room."
Clinton is 68 years old and Trump is 70.
Duffy later added: "You have nothing on the Trump side that would lead you to believe that he is nothing but healthy."
Keilar fired back: "Well, there is nothing that would lead you to believe he is healthy, congressman. His letter from his doctor is borderline ridiculous when you talk to other doctors who look at it."
"Brianna, we use common sense and we look at both of them on the stump," Duffy replied. "And listen, if Donald Trump had health issues on the stump, I'm sure it would be played over and over again. That doesn't exist."
"It sounds like you're trafficking in these conspiracy theories as well. You're saying because she was coughing she is not as healthy as Donald Trump," Keilar said.
Duffy said a coughing fit is different from a cough.
"Stumbling off the stage is different from a guy that can stand there and deliver an engaged speech. But to be clear -- you brought it up -- I think the issues in this campaign go to the economy, go to opportunity, go to a good education, go to a secure border, go to addressing ISIS, all issues that my constituents care about... I'm not peddling."
Keilar: "Yes, you are."
Duffy: "No, I'm not peddling the theory of health."
Keilar: "Yes, you are."
Duffy: "I didn't want to talk about this, you did. You're driving the topic, not me."
Keilar: "You're right, I did bring it up, and you're peddling it."
Clinton dismissed the claims that she was sick as "part of the wacky strategy" against her during an interview with Jimmy Kimmel on ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" on Monday.
"Back in October, the National Enquirer said I would be dead in six months. So with every breath I take, I feel like I have a new lease on life," Clinton said with a laugh.Abstract
Importance Because the rates of cesarean section (CS) are increasing worldwide, it is becoming increasingly important to understand the long-term effects that mode of delivery may have on child development.
Objective To investigate the association between obstetric mode of delivery and autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
Design, Setting, and Participants Perinatal factors and ASD diagnoses based on the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9),and the International Statistical Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD-10),were identified from the Swedish Medical Birth Register and the Swedish National Patient Register. We conducted stratified Cox proportional hazards regression analysis to examine the effect of mode of delivery on ASD. We then used conditional logistic regression to perform a sibling design study, which consisted of sibling pairs discordant on ASD status. Analyses were adjusted for year of birth (ie, partially adjusted) and then fully adjusted for various perinatal and sociodemographic factors. The population-based cohort study consisted of all singleton live births in Sweden from January 1, 1982, through December 31, 2010. Children were followed up until first diagnosis of ASD, death, migration, or December 31, 2011 (end of study period), whichever came first. The full cohort consisted of 2 697 315 children and 28 290 cases of ASD. Sibling control analysis consisted of 13 411 sibling pairs.
Exposures Obstetric mode of delivery defined as unassisted vaginal delivery (VD), assisted VD, elective CS, and emergency CS (defined by before or after onset of labor).
Main Outcomes and Measures The ASD status as defined using codes from the ICD-9 (code 299) and ICD-10 (code F84).
Results In adjusted Cox proportional hazards regression analysis, elective CS (hazard ratio, 1.21; 95% CI, 1.15-1.27) and emergency CS (hazard ratio, 1.15; 95% CI, 1.10-1.20) were associated with ASD when compared with unassisted VD. In the sibling control analysis, elective CS was not associated with ASD in partially (odds ratio [OR], 0.97; 95% CI, 0.85-1.11) or fully adjusted (OR, 0.89; 95% CI, 0.76-1.04) models. Emergency CS was significantly associated with ASD in partially adjusted analysis (OR, 1.20; 95% CI, 1.06-1.36), but this effect disappeared in the fully adjusted model (OR, 0.97; 95% CI, 0.85-1.11).
Conclusions and Relevance This study confirms previous findings that children born by CS are approximately 20% more likely to be diagnosed as having ASD. However, the association did not persist when using sibling controls, implying that this association is due to familial confounding by genetic and/or environmental factors.
Introduction
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a disorder characterized by impairment in social interaction and communication with the presence of restricted interest and repetitive behaviors.1 Autism spectrum disorder is thought to affect an estimated 0.62% of children worldwide,2 although recent estimates in the United States have been closer to 1.5%.3 The prevalence of ASD has increased drastically since 1980, yet changes in diagnostic criteria might only explain 60% of this increase.4
Although ASD is highly heritable,5 it has previously been linked to numerous perinatal factors,6 possibly including birth by cesarean section (CS).7 There are several possible mechanisms underlying this association, including early-term (ie, 37-39 weeks’ gestation) birth,8 exposure to altered microbiota,9 changes in stress response,10 and type of anesthesia.11 The observed association may alternatively be due to residual confounding or confounding by indication, meaning ASD could be associated with the indication for CS rather than the CS itself,7 or to an unknown genetic factor that is associated with increased risk of CS and ASD. The prevalence of birth by CS is estimated to be 15% worldwide and is more than 20% in developed countries.12 Because the prevalence of ASD is increasing worldwide, for a variety of reasons,13,14 it is becoming increasingly important to fully understand any possible long-term effects of birth by CS.
Birth by CS has previously been linked to several long-term outcomes, including asthma, allergic rhinitis, diabetes mellitus, and gastrointestinal disease.10 Notably, recent population-based studies that used siblings as controls found that these reported associations could be explained by genetic factors or family environment for asthma15 and type 1 diabetes.16 Thus, it is important to consider residual confounding from environmental and genetic factors with appropriate methods.
The objective of this investigation was to assess the effect of mode of delivery, specifically birth by CS, on ASD using data from a large Swedish population-based registry. To our knowledge, this is the largest study on this subject to date7 and the only one to use the combination of adjusted cohort and sibling control study designs. Using this combination and taking familial environmental and genetic confounding factors into consideration, we aimed to robustly assess any association between mode of delivery and ASD.
Methods
Study Population
The study cohort consisted of all singleton live births in Sweden from January 1, 1982, through December 31, 2010, using data from the Swedish Medical Birth Register, the Swedish National Patient Register, and the Swedish Multi-Generation Register. Data from these registers can be linked using the personal identification number given to each Swedish resident. More than 99% of all births in Sweden are recorded in the Swedish Medical Birth Register.17,18
We started follow-up from the first birthday (left censored), consistent with a previous study5 on ASD in this population. Before 1987, no code for autism was available in the register;5 therefore those persons who turned 1 year of age before 1987 began follow-up on January 1, 1987. Children were followed up until first diagnosis of ASD, death, migration, or December 31, 2011 (end of study period), whichever came first.
Sibling design studies have been used in investigations of prenatal or perinatal risk factors and were developed as a way to control for shared genetic factors and familial environment.19 For the sibling study, we included all sibling pairs that included the first 2 children for each mother, with one diagnosed as having ASD and one not. Because conditional logistic regression does not adjust for differential follow-up time, follow-up time during the study period was longer for the control sibling (ie, the control sibling died, emigrated, or left the study at an older age than when their sibling was diagnosed as having ASD). The case sibling could be the younger or older sibling. This approach is consistent with a previous sibling control study16 that used this data set. Ethical approval was obtained from the research ethics committee at Karolinska Institutet. Informed consent was waived by the ethics committee.
Exposure
Mode of delivery was divided into 4 categories: unassisted vaginal delivery (VD), assisted VD, elective CS, and emergency CS. Assisted VD was defined as VD with the use of forceps or vacuum extraction. Unassisted VD included spontaneous and induced VD. Elective CS and emergency CS were defined as CS before and after onset of labor, respectively. Although the Swedish Medical Birth Register began in 1973, variables indicating emergency and elective |
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VA Health Care Center at Harlingen
2601 Veterans Drive
Harlingen, TX 78550 Brenda Hamilton
(956) 291-9000 ext. 69485
Brenda.Hamilton2@va.gov
Fax: (956) 291-9516 VA North Texas Health Care System
Dallas VA Medical Center
4500 S. Lancaster Rd.
Dallas, TX 75216 Lawrence Dyson
(214) 857-2562
Lawrence.Dyson@va.gov
Fax: (214) 462-4914 West Texas VA Health Care System
George H. O'Brien, Jr. VA Medical Center
300 Veterans Blvd
Big Spring, TX 79720 Bobbi (Celeste) Belcher
(432) 264-4885
Bobbi.Belcher@va.gov
Fax: (432) 268-5047
Utah
Utah Environmental Health
Coordinators VA Salt Lake City Health Care System
George E. Wahlen VA Medical Center
500 Foothill Drive
Salt Lake City, UT 84148 Shanderlynn (Champaign) Marcell
(801) 582-1565 x1202
shanderlynn.marcell@va.gov
Vermont
Vermont Environmental Health
Coordinators White River Junction VA Medical Center
215 North Main Street
White River Junction, VT 05009 Audrey Osgood
(802) 295-9363 x5909
Audrey.Osgood@va.gov
Fax: (802) 296-6335
Virginia
Virginia Environmental Health
Coordinators Hampton VA Medical Center
100 Emancipation Drive
Hampton, VA 23667 Kerry Beasley
(757) 722-9961 x2225
Kerry.Beasley@va.gov
Fax: (757) 728-3110 Hunter Holmes McGuire VA Medical Center
1201 Broad Rock Blvd.
Richmond, VA 23249 Debra Williams
(804) 675-6656
debra.williams9@va.gov Salem VA Medical Center
1970 Roanoke Blvd.
Salem, VA 24153 Tracye Smith
(540) 982-2463 x2893
Tracye.Smith@va.gov
Washington
Washington Environmental Health
Coordinators Jonathan M. Wainwright Memorial VA Medical Center
77 Wainwright Drive
Walla Walla, WA 99362 Lynnette Suckow
(509) 525–5200 x26826
Lynnette.Suckow@va.gov
Fax: (509) 524-1469 VA Puget Sound Health Care System
1660 S. Columbian Way
Seattle, WA 98108 Lakisha Lollie
(206) 764-2181
Lakisha.Lollie@va.gov
Fax: (206) 277-4743 Spokane VA Medical Center
4815 N. Assembly St.
Spokane, WA 99205 Stacie Woody
(509) 434-7544
Stacie.Woody@va.gov
Fax: (509) 434-7120
West Virginia
West Virginia Environmental Health
Coordinators Beckley VA Medical Center
200 Veterans Avenue
Beckley, WV 25801 Dawn Ellison
(304) 255-2121 x4430
dawn.ellison@va.gov
Fax: (304) 256-5474 Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center
1 Medical Center Drive
Clarksburg, WV 26301 Rebecca Echard
(304) 623-3461 x3797
Rebecca.Echard@va.gov
Fax: (304) 326-7991 Huntington VA Medical Center
1540 Spring Valley Dr.
Huntington, WV 25704 Angela Hamilton
(304) 429-6755 x3886
Angela.Hamilton@va.gov Martinsburg VA Medical Center
510 Butler Avenue
Martinsburg, WV 25405 Dana Klish
(304) 263-0811 x4480
Dana.Klish@va.gov
Fax: (304) 264-3971
Wisconsin
Wisconsin Environmental Health
Coordinators Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center
5000 W. National Ave.
Milwaukee, WI 53295 Nancy Raml
(414) 384-2000 x42071
Nancy.Raml@va.gov
Fax: (414) 389-4134 Tomah VA Medical Center
500 E. Veterans Street
Tomah, WI 54660 Paulette Revak
(608) 372-3971 x63540
Paulette.Revak@va.gov
Fax: (608) 374-8205 William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital
2500 Overlook Terrace
Madison, WI 53705 Carol Walsh
(608) 256-1901 x11895
Carol.Walsh3@va.gov
Fax: (608) 280-2035
Wyoming
Wyoming Environmental Health
Coordinators Cheyenne VA Medical Center
2360 East Pershing Blvd.
Cheyenne, WY 82001 Jasmine Dicks
(307) 778-7580 x 3936
Jasmine.Dicks@va.gov Sheridan VA Medical Center
1898 Fort Road
Sheridan, WY 82801 Kathryn Swank
(307) 675-3458
Kathryn.Swank@va.gov
Fax: (307) 675-3935
Genevieve Warnke
307-675-3182
Genevive.Warnke@va.gov
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico Environmental Health
Coordinators VA Caribbean Healthcare System
10 Casia Street, office 347-C
San Juan, PR 00921-3201 Pedro Colon Jr.
(787) 641-7582 x31967
Pedro.Colon@va.gov
Fax: (787) 622-4513We received the following email inquiry:
“I need some info. There’s a new FB page calling themselves Conservative Treehouse. Is that The last refuge Conservative Treehouse or has someone taken your name to create a page on FB? Their stories aren’t the same ones I see daily here at CT so thought I’d better check.”
Apparently an individual, or group of individuals, has established a Facebook page fraudulently claiming to be The Conservative Treehouse website (aka: The Last Refuge).
This is fraud.
The Conservative Treehouse Website is NOT on Facebook. No member of this website has established a Facebook page to represent the content of this website; nor would we, or do we, have plans to ever establish a Facebook page. Any claim to the contrary is 100% false.
Apparently an individual, or a group of individuals, in an effort to exploit the name and brand/site reputation for their own personal financial gain, have created a Facebook Page intended to deceive the Facebook community.
After CTH was alerted of the issue via email – the operator of the Facebook Page was politely asked to shut down the fraudulent Facebook page and to cease and desist any reference to this website. They have refused the request. We are reviewing legal options.
For clarity: TheConservativeTreehouse.Com is not affiliated with Facebook. Additionally, the twitter account for CTH website is: [ @TheLastRefuge2 ] This is the only twitter account connected to content within TheConservativeTreehouse.Com.
It is very unfortunate (and frustrating) to spend time dealing with underhanded and manipulative deception.
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Liberalism is an auto-immune disorder
No matter who gets elected, NEVER give up your Second Amendment... and keep stockpiling guns and ammo for the day you need to defend your nation against all enemies
(NaturalNews) We saw it all in the debate last night. Hillary Clinton wants background checks for gun purchases but not for immigrants. She's completely clueless about why Obamacare is imploding and wants us all to believe that her NEW promises on "fixing" the failed system will be more credible than the OLD promises that turned out to be fraudulent lies. Hillary Clinton is a congenital liar who lies about lying. When caught lying, she proclaims her accuser is the liar and that she alone has a monopoly on the truth. But it's far worse than that, really. When you look at her policies, the "hatred in her heart" pointed out by Trump, the criminality, the money laundering, the threats against female victims of Bill's sexual assaults, the violation of national security laws and the psychopathic personality she exhibits, it's clear that"The madness of liberalism has almost no bounds. Youve heard |
millions of Iranian women who have been risking all kinds of dangers in Iran to be themselves.”
The damage to pride in Western values from Rouhani's Italy visit was not limited to the temporary covering of ancient Roman masterpieces. Pope Francis met with President Rouhani for about 40 minutes at the Vatican, during which time, according to the Vatican Press Office, “common spiritual values emerged.” The pope is apparently willing to overlook the Iranian regime’s persecution of religious minorities, including Catholics, in Iran. And the pope actually agrees with the sharia law “spiritual value” that places criticism of religions outside the bounds of free expression. He made this clear during a meeting early last year with Iran’s Vice President for Women and Family Affairs Shahindokht Molaverdi at the Vatican, which followed the jihadist killings of staff members of the French weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo.
Rouhani’s visit to Rome is but just one example of one-way multiculturalism being practiced in the West. Signs of submission to Islamic values and cultural norms are appearing all over Europe.
Sweden, for example, has become “a place to Islamize," as the Gladstone Institute put it. Sweden has allowed itself to transform from a peaceful Scandinavian society to one weighed down by an Islamic culture brought to Sweden by waves of welfare-seeking Muslim migrants. These migrants are not willing to assimilate.
Despite the alarming rise of a rape culture fueled by some of these immigrants, which the politically correct press in Sweden has been too afraid to report, Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström expressed last year his "utmost respect for Islam as a world religion and for its contribution to our joint civilization."
During a seminar on Islamophobia in 2014, a Swedish Green Party MP, Mehmet Kaplan, compared favorably young Muslims heading to Syria to become jihadists to Swedish freedom fighters who joined the Finns during World War II.
After finally waking up to the dangerous conditions that its liberal immigration policies have created, Sweden is now trying to restrict the flow of new refugees entering the country. Swedish Prime Minister Kjell Stefan Löfven described the new restrictive measures as only temporary. “We need respite,” Löfven said.
Swedes should not become too comfortable, however, if they use the Internet to criticize the country’s immigration policies or classes of migrants. Under a law passed in 2014, they can be arrested and charged with criminal libel. Back in 2002, a law was passed that criminalized “expressing disrespect against groups of people with reference to race, color, national origin, ethnicity, confession of faith or sexual origin.” Sharia law is alive and well in Sweden.
Germany has been moving in the same direction. Migrants from the Middle East and North Africa have been involved in sexual assaults against women, as dramatized in the New Year’s Eve attacks in Cologne, Germany. Attacks occurred in other German cities as well. Cologne Mayor Henriette Reker not only insisted on political correctness in describing the attackers. She proposed a “code of conduct” for women and young girls to avoid becoming too tempting a target for the assailants.
And there are now no-go zones in Cologne. “Especially for women it must be assumed that a high security risk is here in the evening and night hours," a member of the Cologne City Council wrote in a letter to the people of Cologne. “At New Year’s Eve there was a legal vacuum and a no-go area for women. With the climax of the Carnival season it is unfortunately expected to be a similar situation.”
Just as in Muslim majority countries, women are now being instructed in Western European countries to be careful how they comport themselves lest they drive men from distant lands, especially Muslim lands, crazy with lust. Some countries such as Norway are trying to provide courses to newly arrived immigrants on how women should be treated in the West. But even here political correctness prevails. As reported by the New York Times last December, in describing the teaching materials of one company contracted by the Norwegian government to run asylum centers:
“Hero Norge’s teaching material studiously avoids casting migrants in a bad light and instead presents a fictional character called Arne, a native Norwegian, as a model of predatory behavior. The main immigrant character, a 27-year-old called Hassan, is, by contrast, introduced as a ‘good man’ who is ‘honest and well liked.’”
The Muslim immigrant is the noble, self-controlled guy. It’s the native Norwegian who cannot be trusted – a role reversal that sadly fits nicely with the pre-existing stereotype that some Muslim migrants have of Westerners.
Muslim intolerance of Christian symbols appearing where they live in Europe is also becoming a problem. For example, a Muslim mob threatened a group of Christian activists holding crosses as they walked through a street in an area of an English town where Muslims choose to live separate lives and where some have in the past defaced billboards deemed too revealing, an evangelical church and non-Muslim homes. “Muslims will take over! Watch!” shouted members of the Muslim mob to the Christian marchers.
Muslim non-assimilation and religious intolerance are also a problem in France, in which there are suburbs of Paris where sharia law effectively rules. And so on throughout other parts of Western Europe.
The United States is not immune from the influence of sharia law, especially as the Obama administration has led the way in purging any criticism of Islam from federal law enforcement materials and has welcomed Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated officials to the White House. After all, it was President Obama himself who declared in his 2012 UN General Assembly speech: “The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.” Obama was preaching sharia law.
Returning to the cover-up of Italy’s prize works of art in deference to Iran’s Muslim president, we see a perfect example of one-way multiculturalism that leads to submission to Islamic values and cultural norms. Sadly, Pope Francis, some European leaders and President Obama are making it easier for this downfall to happen.Saunders celebrates knocking in the second goal for TNS
Scott Quigley scored the pick of the goals as The New Saints brushed Livingston aside to reach the semi finals of the Scottish Challenge Cup.
Robbie Parry slotted the Welsh visitors into a half time lead as the rain lashed down in West Lothian.
Steven Saunders doubled the advantage from close range on 58 minutes before Quigley curled in a wonderful strike.
As Livingston toiled to make inroads in attack, TNS passed up chances to make their victory even more comfortable.
The runaway Welsh Premier League leaders, on their way to sixth successive title, now join Scottish Championship trio Dundee United, Queen of the South and St Mirren in Monday's draw.
TNS were content to sit back for long spells, with Scottish League One leaders Livi finding it hard to get a glimpse of goal.
When they did, Raffaele De Vita headed straight at goalkeeper Paul Harrison and then shot over from a tight angle before Liam Buchanan sent an angled strike narrowly wide.
The visitors went ahead on 36 minutes when Simon Spender cut in from the right and his blocked shot fell to Parry, who calmly picked his spot with a first-time finish.
The small band of travelling supporters enjoyed the game despite appalling weather
Livi improved for a brief spell at the start of the second half, with Buchanan slamming a shot into the side-netting shortly after Harrison had done well to push away a strong header from De Vita.
TNS moved further ahead from a corner as the home side cleared off the line but the ball was sent back into the danger area and an unmarked Saunders scuffed home from inside the six yard box.
The contest was over when Quigley cut in from right and arced a sweet shot into the opposite top corner with his left from junction of the penalty box.
Late on, Christian Sergeant broke clear of the ragged Livi defence and looked certain to score but keeper Gary Maley got a slight touch on his chipped effort to slow the ball down, with Michael Miller sliding in to complete the clearance.
Maley had to look lively again, pushing over a rising shot from Parry as TNS ended the evening well on top.
What the managers said
TNS's Craig Harrison: "It was very tough physically but we matched them. Overall, it was a very professional performance and we were ruthless in the final third.
"We have a strong squad and we go into every competition wanting to win it. The whole club, from top to bottom, has that mentality. We want to win every game."
Livingston's David Hopkin: "We knew it would be tough with the run they are on but the goals we conceded were very poor.
"We huffed and puffed and had a few half chances but TNS deserve to go through."Andy Cray was an incredible man. This t-shirt celebrates two pillars of his life: fat kitties & justice. Continue his legacy and carry his heart on your sleeve with this awesome shirt. Proceeds from the sale go to the National Center for Transgender Equality.
For crew neck up to size 2XL click here:http://www.booster.com/fat-kitties-and-justice2
In the words of Kellan Baker:
On Thursday, August 28, the LGBT movement suffered a terrible loss with the passing of Andrew Cray. Andy had been struggling with cancer since October 2013. But before his diagnosis, and even during his treatment and the period of remission that was all too brief, Andy was a pivotal figure in the struggle for LGBT rights. Despite the too few years we had with him, he was a champion of LGBT rights and justice who achieved more by the age of 28 than most of us can manage in an entire lifetime.
I first met Andy five years ago in DC, when, after a stint as a law fellow at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, he joined me on the staff of the National Coalition for LGBT Health to share the work he had been doing in law school on transgender coverage under Medicaid. At first, I was suspicious — would I get along with this Andy person? Wouldn’t we have to fight for the position of the resident obsessive about transgender health?
But as soon as he arrived, I fell hard for Andy. He was impossible not to like — a charming, friendly guy who just happened to be brilliant and to love nothing more than reading the full text of the Affordable Care Act and researching the labyrinths of insurance and public accommodations law.
Over the next several years, Andy and I developed the kind of wonderful, wide-ranging relationship that’s only possible among us LGBT movement types who have no work/life boundaries. As we worked together at the Coalition and then at the Center for American Progress, we spent hours on conference calls plotting the future of various LGBT health projects, before taking a shopping break at H&M, or as Andy called it, the Ham. We traveled together all around the country, preaching the gospel of LGBT health and the Affordable Care Act from Maine to Texas to his beloved home state of Wisconsin.
Within a few years of arriving in DC, Andy had played a central role in efforts such as securing new nationwide LGBT nondiscrimination protections as part of health reform, partnering with the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services to create the Out2Enroll initiative that connects LGBT people with their new coverage options under the Affordable Care Act, assisting with the passage of the HOPE Act to make organ donation and transplantation more accessible to people with HIV, and helping draft new provisions addressing the needs of LGBTQ youth for the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act.
One of the causes closest to Andy’s heart was the national struggle to eliminate insurance plan exclusions that discriminate against transgender people by denying them coverage for the health care services they need for gender transition. In just the last two years, Andy led or was a key participant in successful efforts to secure bulletins prohibiting these exclusions from insurance commissioners in DC and nine other states to date. Together with other recent victories such as the lifting of the Medicare ban on sex reassignment surgeries, these bulletins are paving the way for a growing nationwide consensus that transgender people deserve the right to get the health insurance coverage and health care they need to live authentic lives.
It is no exaggeration to say that the future of the LGBT health movement will be built on the foundation that Andy helped to lay. The full scope of everything he did in his work on behalf of all of us is hard to pin down, however — both because it was so huge and because he was so modest about himself and his contributions. Andy was never flashy, and throughout his career he toiled away behind the scenes every day to make things better and to create more change than any of us will ever be able to fully comprehend.
A couple of years ago, for example, Andy was asked to work with Cyndi Lauper to put together an op-ed about one of the driest, if most hotly contested, topics in DC — sequestration and the debt-ceiling negotiations. The rock-goddess-turned-LGBTQ-youth-advocate wanted to publish a piece that called out the politicians whose slashing of federal funds supporting social service programs around the country would have disastrous consequences for the staggering percentage of America’s out-of-home youth who are LGBTQ.
The first draft that Andy came up with was, well, wonky. All of the facts were right and the logic of the argument was impeccable, but it was missing the human element — Andy was so modest that he had even managed to put his celebrity author in the background. His boss at the time, Jeff Krehely, told Andy to go do every 20-something’s dream: watch a few hours of YouTube videos on company time and come back talking like Cyndi Lauper.
The piece he came up with was a masterpiece — an impassioned, outraged call to action, in Cyndi’s voice proclaiming, “We all need to make sure Washington hears us on this one – for ourselves and for youth who are struggling and lack a voice of their own. There’s too much at stake to simply tune this out. We need to make some noise of our own.”
No one but a handful us ever knew, of course, that those words in the pages of Rolling Stone were Andy’s. And that’s how he worked — he had not only the talent so evident in the elegance of the writing, and the ability to code-switch between policy wonk and rock star to get his point across, but the humility to work behind the scenes, to put his best work out there without needing to be recognized or applauded for it.
So I’m going to suggest that each of us take a moment now to applaud Andy — for his exceptional passion, for his creativity, brilliance, and the incredible work that he accomplished. Thank you, Andy, for your life, your love, and your work. We will all miss you more than you will ever know.Georgetown coach Brian Wiese spoke with ASN contributor Robert Kehoe III about college soccer's role in America, the NCAA tournament, and Saturday's quarterfinal match against Virginia.
BY Robert L. Kehoe III Posted
December 05, 2014
7:45 PM SHARE THIS STORY
Virginia in an NCAA quarterfinal match. Coaching the Hoyas in his ninth season is Brian Wiese, an Ivy League-educated engineer who hopes to lead one of the most talented teams in the country to its second College Cup. He’d also like to invite U.S. national team coach Jurgen Klinsmann to come watch his team practice next spring. Earlier this week he told ASN’s Robert Kehoe why.
When we spoke over the summer you had a lot to say about the college vs. pro debate. Can you share some of your thoughts on that issue?
A lot of people don’t understand college soccer. I mean, I hate to say it, but Jurgen Klinsmann doesn’t understand college soccer. I just heard a quote from Robbie Keane saying that college soccer should be banned from MLS, and if we’re talking about a player like him who’s been a standout professional since he was 17 that would make sense. But that’s confusing the debate. Nobody’s saying that a player like Robbie Keane should be playing college soccer. That’s a choice that’s up to the player. If MLS can offer enough incentive to pass up a free education (at Georgetown that adds up to around $65,000 a year) that’s fine. But the level in college soccer is so good right now, and it’s only getting better, so it isn’t a problem. It’s a part of the solution.
So we have three great institutional pillars: U.S. Soccer, MLS, and college soccer—but it seems like all three are adversarial. Why is that? Why can’t they all work together for the good of the game?
I don’t understand it, and on behalf college soccer I would invite Jurgen or anybody else with the U.S. Soccer or MLS to come spend a week with my program in the spring. Or go see what Bobby Clark does with his guys at Notre Dame—he’ll probably put you up at his house. Come watch the kind of work we put in with our kids. After the naysayers spend seven days observing what we do then I’ll listen to what they have to say. But until then their opinions have very little credibility. Of course now I’ll have to call Bobby and tell him I just invited a lot of people to spend a week at his house...but he’ll be ok with that.
Just as an example, look at Harry Shipp who was one of Bobby’s best players. If Harry wanted to play for the Fire two years ago he could have done that. He chose to stay for his senior year because he wanted to complete his education, and he’s still a successful pro.
That’s a specific example, but how is college soccer a part of the solution in the big picture?
I’m an engineering guy, so I always do the math. We have 205 Division I programs, with an average of 25 kids per team. That’s about 5,000 good players who are playing soccer on a daily basis, at good facilities, with all the support they need to improve. Now of those 5,000, how many of them could or should be pros right now? Let’s say it’s 50, so that would be one percent of 5,000 kids.
Now let’s talk about the other 4,950 other players. I use the word incubation a lot, because the college game is an incubator for the 4,950 players who aren’t ready to be pros right now. If you went back and looked at every World Cup cycle I bet you’d find significant contributors to the U.S. national team who were at one time a part of that group of 4,950.
What do you think about the proposed NCAA season expansion? Good for the game, bad for the game, will it happen, won’t it happen?
I’m not sure if it will happen. Some strongly believe it will, some don’t. I think it’s a very good thing for our players. My hesitation about it is whether or not the state of college athletics can handle it. I would hate to see programs getting cut because a season expansion would put to much stress on their facilities and budgets. But from the point of view of the player, it’s good. Again, my challenge to Klinsmann, U.S. Soccer, and MLS would be to come watch the top programs in the spring because that’s when we do our best work developmentally.
Can you give me an example?
The last thing I want to do is make major changes in season when we have to win games. But we also have the future to think about, and in the spring I can give younger players more opportunities to work in with our upperclassmen and I can try some different things with our core players. Again, that’s where the development really happens. In some ways expanding the college season could compromise that focused teaching period in the spring, but overall spreading out the season is better for the health of the student.
So in the end I’m for it, but I don’t think the system is broken as it is. I have a lot of fun with what we do and how we do it. If things evolve I’m sure I’ll have fun then too.
How would you assess this particular season?
Well, we’re still playing and any team that’s still playing at this point has experienced some metamorphosis, adversity, and luck since reporting back in August. The college season is a grind, so it’s satisfying to see how well our team has worked throughout the year, and it’s especially gratifying to see our seniors be so successful.
They’re also fun to watch, and the only team I can think of that I’ve been more impressed with is Akron in 2009. Am I overstating that, or is this a special group?
That Akron team Caleb Porter put together was a trailblazing team, and they changed the perception of what a college soccer team was capable of doing. But when you look at our last match against Syracuse, they were as talented and as well-coached a team as we’ve played. I certainly think we have some wonderful players, but there are a lot of good teams out there.
You get a lot of MLS academy players, some of whom are in the “homegrown” system. What do you as a coach think about that relationship?
It’s complicated. The homegrown system is good in a lot of ways, but we shouldn’t forget that it’s primarily good for the club, and it handicaps the kids because, for all intents and purposes, they’re owned by the club. So the players don’t have much negotiating power, and the really top players might not even want to be homegrown for that very reason.
Still, it’s a great opportunity for most of the players who are in the system and minimizes the financial burden of playing for a top youth club. The downside for college players is that it can create a double mindedness where kid are always wondering if they should stay or go. Some of those forget to enjoy the experience they’re having in the here and now.
Brandon Allen and Joshua Yaro have received a lot of attention this year. Who are the players that have gone under the radar?
I think maybe the biggest one is our holding midfielder, Tyler Rudy. He does everything for us in that spot, from protecting the back four to building the attack and providing leadership in tough spots. His growth over four years has been tremendous. Bakie Goodman is another one. He’s a midfielder who can get out of almost anything. Cole Seiler who gets overlooked sometimes because he plays next to Josh Yaro, but he’s been a huge part of our success and Josh would be the first person to point that out.
Yaro certainly appears to be a modest guy who hasn’t let the attention go to his head.
No question. Josh is one of the most humble kids you’ll ever come across. If it was better for the team for him to sit out and watch he’d sit out and watch. He wouldn’t think twice about it.
Has the attention he’s received this year and the possibility of going pro been a distraction for him or the rest of the team?
I don’t think so. That’s something we’ve talked about at length and he really doesn’t want to deal with it until the season is over. It’s very clear that he wants to be a pro, but he also wants to do other things while he’s a pro, or after he’s a pro, which is where his education comes in. In that sense, it’s actually easier for him if he goes overseas because he could spend time on campus in the summer. But he’ll make the right decision for when the time comes, and overall he and the team haven’t let it be a distraction.
How versatile do you think he can be at the next level?
Well he’s very coachable, so my question is how good a coach are you? He has good feet, he has a high soccer IQ, he’s fiercely competitive, and he’s one of the fastest people you’ll see on a soccer field. I think his natural inclination is to be a defender, and teams may want to use his pace as an outside back where he could get into the attack a bit more. I also think he could play as a central midfielder in the right environment. He doesn’t have the natural finishing acumen of a Brandon Allen, but his pace alone he’d cause problems up front, so if the right coach could teach him he could do it.
Have you talked with him about his national commitments? Is he Ghana to the core, or would he consider a path to citizenship in the U.S. if a chance with the national team presented itself?
We haven’t talked about that. I know he’s very proud of his Ghanaian heritage so that might be a hard decision if he had to make it. But to my knowledge nobody’s brought that up as of yet.
How do you think Brandon Allen’s game will translate at the next level?
He’s obviously a goal scorer, and he thrives in an environment where other players are threatening. If you give him opportunities he scores them. You just have to give him opportunities. In a pro environment where he can get good service, around other good attacking players, it’s going to be pretty exciting.
He’s also really strong and can fend off tackles pretty well.
Yeah, he’s as tough as nails and he doesn’t dive, so when he hits the ground you know somebody really gave him a whack. He’s great under pressure, with his back to goal and out of the air.
What are your thoughts about the match against Virginia?
They’re extremely talented, but George Gelnovatch also does a terrific job coaching each game with a different approach. He isn’t stubborn about playing one style or a specific system. They’ve had a very good run this tournament, and I think we’ve already sold out our stadium, so the atmosphere should be electric.
Not to get too ahead of the match in front of you, but what would it mean for you and Georgetown to win a national championship?
It obviously the ultimate mark of competitive success, so we’d love to do it. But with that said, looking at the 48 teams in this tournament, if we played the tournament 10 times I think we’d have 10 different champions. And I think you could argue that there are teams like New Mexico who didn’t make the tournament you could put in that mix as well.
There’s so much luck involved, and your team has to persevere so much to get to this point, it’s hard to measure success by winning the College Cup. To reference Bobby Clark again, he’s been the best in the business for decades and just won his first national championship last year, so you have to appreciate how hard it is to do. So if we win it we won’t take it for granted, and maybe I’ll get a tattoo or something, but for now our mantra has been, “Just earn another week.” That’s what we’re trying to do, just earn another week.OTTAWA — Graphic postcards of a bloody aborted fetus next to Justin Trudeau’s face are making their way to the mailboxes of Canadians living in swing ridings — and disgusting some residents who have already received them.
Mississauga, Ont., resident Shondie MacKenzie told The Huffington Post Canada she was grateful her 10-year-old son wasn’t home when the gory postcard was delivered.
“I was just so shocked when I got it, it was so graphic and so unexpected,” she said.
MacKenzie, who voted for Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2011, said she was so outraged she called the Liberal candidate’s office and her Conservative MP Bob Dechert asking if he could refer the matter to the police.
“I just feel it is a violation of my personal property and personal space, I don’t want to receive these kind of messages to my home,” she said.
The postcards, which state “Justin Trudeau Supports Abortion Until Birth,” are from anti-abortion group Campaign Life Coalition (CLC). They are designed to shock voters, encourage the Liberals to change their stance on abortion rights and elect more Conservative candidates, the group said.
“Abortion is shocking. It just depicts what is happening,” CLC’s spokeswoman Alissa Golob told The Huffington Post Canada Wednesday. “Nobody is doing anything to stop these human rights violations, so when we expose injustice, it inevitably becomes intolerable.”
Campaign Life Coalition hopes to pepper 20 swing ridings with the shocking material, although it would not say which ones, citing the safety of their paid delivery staff and volunteers.
The goal is to deliver one million postcards before the election call this fall. The group says it wants to educate and inform Canadians and discourage them from voting for Trudeau.
But MacKenzie said she thought the postcard campaign might backfire. “It almost makes me want to vote for him because I’m so angry about it.”
So far, handouts have been dropped in Mississauga and the greater Vancouver area – places where Conservative candidates are in a tough fight with Liberals. CLC plans to target seats in the vote-rich Greater Toronto Area (GTA), mainland B.C., Saskatchewan and Manitoba. In addition to the postcards, Golob said CLC bought lists of phone numbers and plans to do make thousands of live telephone calls across the country.
The campaign, which is expected to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, will run until the writ drops. There are no rules governing the amount of money or the types of activity third-party groups can engage in between elections. Rules kick in only once the election begins.
Campaign Life Coalition said it is not co-ordinating the campaign with the Conservative party but is working hand-in-hand with local Tory MPs and candidates.
“I think that a lot of candidates like the volunteering and campaign help, and they also like the support that our large database gives them,” Golob said.
She said the group has been “very active” in Conservative nomination races, helping to nominate somewhere between 50 and 100 candidates.
“Our goal is to get as many pro-life candidates elected as possible,” Golob said. “The only way that we can do that in this election is by getting Conservatives elected.
“Our mission is to stack the House with pro-life candidates.”
Although Harper has been no friend to the anti-abortion movement — he voted against a motion to study the question of when life begins and has actively sought to discourage his backbench from introducing anti-abortion bills — Golob said the Tories remain the only home right now for anti-abortion activists.
“The greatest way that we can effect any type of change – even if we have a leader who is somewhat opposed to the message – is by filling his caucus with people who hold an opposing view,” she said.
Her colleague, Matthew Wojciechowski, said the group is targeting Trudeau because he changed long-standing Liberal policy and froze anti-abortionists out of his parliamentary caucus.
Last May, just before the annual anti-abortion demonstration March for Life, Trudeau announced to reporters that no one who was not prepared to support abortion rights policies in the House of Commons would be allowed to run as a Liberal candidate.
CLC wasn’t targeting NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair or his candidates, Wojciechowski said, because the NDP had supported abortion rights for decades.
“Mr. Harper hasn’t been a friend to us,” he said. “We are orphans at this point.”
“By no means is this No2Trudeau campaign a pro-Conservative campaign,” he added. “It’s a campaign that is there to educate people on the issue and to remind them to encourage them to really support and encourage pro-life candidates, regardless of their party, even though the reality is such is that the Liberal party doesn’t want anything to do with us.”
Trudeau told reporters Wednesday that he didn’t want to comment on CLC’s or the Conservatives’ political strategy.
“I’m perfectly comfortable with Canadians’ knowing that the Liberal party is unequivocal in its defence of women’s rights,” he said.
Liberal candidate Omar Alghabra, whose Mississauga Centre campaign office received MacKenzie’s call, said he was upset by the vulgarity of the postcards.
“Obviously, people have the right to lobby for whatever policy they want, but there are norms of respect and decency, and I feel these postcards cross the line.”
Alghabra said he feels most voters will not agree with CLC's desire to criminalize a woman's right to an abortion.
On Thursday, thousands of Canadians are expected on Parliament Hill to take part in this year’s March for Life. They will be noting that 46 years ago, the Liberals under prime minister Pierre Trudeau passed legislation that paved the way for legal abortions.
CAUTION: Graphic image below
Also on HuffPost• 'We do not rule it out or say we will do it' says manager • Captain would be welcomed back in Emirates dressing room
Arsène Wenger left the door open for Patrick Vieira to push through a dramatic return to Arsenal after he admitted he had considered the "psychological impact" that such a move could have on his dressing room.
Arsenal's manager, who has retained a close relationship with Vieira despite selling him to Juventus in 2005 after nine successful seasons in north London, is in the market to strengthen in central midfield and confirmed that the proceeds of the sales of Kolo Touré and Emmanuel Adebayor to Manchester City, some £39m, were available for him to spend.
He is hopeful of concluding an £8m deal for the 22-year-old St Etienne midfielder Blaise Mutuidi but it is the revelation that Vieira, now of Internazionale, would relish a move back to Arsenal that has fuelled the speculation and the excitement of the club's supporters. Whether out of courtesy or not, Wenger has not dismissed it.
It remains a slim possibility – Vieira is 33 and he endured a difficult season last time out with injuries and inconsistent form – but it is known that members of the Arsenal backroom staff, not to mention the players, would welcome him back.
"There is a football decision and there is the psychological impact of a player of that stature coming in," said Wenger. "At the moment, you need to look at the level of experience in your squad to make this kind of decision. But we are nowhere near to making a decision like that. It is a possibility. We don't rule it out and we don't say we will do it."
Wenger is still close to Vieira, who is determined to enjoy regular football in the countdown to the World Cup finals in South Africa next summer, where he hopes to captain France, and he confirmed the impression that Vieira, who is also coveted by Tottenham Hotspur, would jump at the chance to rejoin Arsenal.
"I am aware that he wants to come back here," said Wenger. "Patrick is a legend here and he would always like to come back to this club. That would be his first choice. I speak to Patrick, I speak to many players who have been here because I keep good connections with them. He is a professional footballer with emotion and you always like the club you spend time at. But as a professional as well, you always give 100% for whichever club you sign for."
It has emerged that Vieira turned down Tottenham in January, and when they came back in for him during the current transfer window, he engaged in a bout of soul-searching. "Legally, no one can stop him joining Tottenham," Wenger joked. Tottenham would still like to take him but there is even less chance of Vieira going to White Hart Lane.
Wenger remained tight-lipped over his pursuit of the Bordeaux striker Marouane Chamakh, perhaps because he also has an interest in Real Madrid's Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, but as he prepared his team for the Emirates Cup – they play Atlético Madrid today and Rangers tomorrow – he insisted that the squad's focus "should not be on who can help us from outside but who can help us from inside".
"We have eight defenders," he continued, "eight or nine midfielders and four strikers, plus the youngsters around, so quality and number-wise, we are where we want to be. I feel confident and very strong. The squad's best time is now."Red is the color of anger and hatred, of imminent danger and deadly heat. Even the English language tells us that "seeing red" is a bad thing. And this aversion for red might go back to our earliest primate relatives.
With all due respect for people who consider red their favorite color, the overwhelming cultural cues when it comes to red is that it's the color of danger and should be avoided - driving for as little as thirty seconds should present you with a traffic light or stop sign that's ample reminder of that. Even our body seems to tell us that red is bad - just consider how people blush or redden when experiencing extreme, potentially harmful emotions.
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New research at Dartmouth College seems to support the latter. Researchers tested some rhesus macaque monkeys to see which colors they preferred. They were presented with three human test subjects, each of whom was holding a banana. Each tester wore a different shirt and baseball hat - one combination was green, another was blue, and the last one was red. By and large, the monkeys took the bananas from the blue and green testers, almost completely avoiding the red one.
This is interesting because macaques are fairly similar to us in terms of how they interact with red. They have very similar eyesight to us, and they too blush when angry or excited. The experiment isn't perfect, as only male macaques were tested and the fact that they had to interact with humans instead of members of their own species may have presented a variable that we can't properly account for, but it's still a very intriguing result.
Assuming an aversion to red didn't evolve separately in humans and macaques, then it's a trait that goes back very far in our evolutionary history, to a time that we shared a common ancestor with Old World monkeys. That goes back 25 million years, to a time long before we diverged from closer evolutionary relatives like chimps, gorillas, orangutans, and gibbons.
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So why would primates dislike red so much? It is the color of blushing, which is associated with potentially negative emotions, and so our sociability might bring with it an aversion for red-related emotions. Another possibility has to do with being able to know which fruits and plants are ripe and which are potentially toxic. But the simple answer is that we still don't know why we as a species seem to have such a problem with red.
The researchers close by suggesting that we should be more aware of the human aversion for red and its potential misuse for intimidation, even going so far as to suggest that sports teams should not wear red uniforms because it "may unfairly influence people." However, I have the sneaking suspicion that that's just their way of explaining why the Dartmouth Big Green can never seem to beat the Cornell Big Red.
Psychological Science via Discovery News.UPDATED with William Roper comments WASHINGTON: The Army’s long-range artillery rocket, ATACMS, will get upgraded to strike moving targets on land and at sea, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter announced today. After at least two years of pressure from Congress and vague promises from Pentagon leaders, and for the first time since the Coastal Artillery Corps was disbanded 66 years ago, the Army is officially back in the business of killing ships. That gives the largest service a big new role in countering Russian aggression in the Baltic and |
slated specifically for Customs and Border Protection training over five years.
Although DHS has not yet awarded contracts in that proposed CBP acquisition, late last year it revealed its intention to buy 250 million rounds of Smith & Wesson.40 ammunition over the life of a five-year contract.
DHS yesterday separately issued a revised solicitation to buy a combination of 100,000 handgun and rifle rounds destined for the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, or FLTC, in Artesia, N.M. It did not disclose the estimated cost.
The department today additionally released another amended procurement notice for 360,000 rounds of jacketed hollow-point.40 caliber training ammo also destined for the Artseia FLTC.
InfoWars.com reported on the initial release of that particular procurement earlier this week.
Although the estimated cost of the solicitation, likewise, has not been disclosed, DHS last month awarded a $49,000 contract to Grace Ammo LLC for a similar batch of ammo for the Artesia facility.
DHS in January purchased an additional 200,000 rounds of jacketed hollow-point.40 caliber rounds. It awarded a $46,000 contract to Evian Group Inc. in that instance.Law enforcement agencies across Europe carried out massive coordinated operations against organized criminal groups involved in trafficking and forced sexual exploitation, leading to the arrest of 107 people, Europol said on Monday.
Hundreds saved
The Austrian-led operation, conducted between 26 June and July 2, led to 910 potential victims of trafficking being identified.
Twenty-two countries participated in the Europe-wide operation, in which nearly 125,000 persons, 6,000 vehicles and 4,000 locations such as red-light districts, brothels and massage parlors were checked.
Read: Germany introduces unpopular prostitution law
"Special attention was given to the online environment, used as a means to advertise victims of sexual exploitation," Europol said in a statement.
Europol said the week-long operation confirmed the prevalence of trafficking networks originating from Nigeria, South America and Eastern Europe.
Tracking Nigeria's human traffickers Fleeing poverty Our investigation began in Benin City, capital of Edo State. Almost everyone we spoke to has at least a friend or a family member in Europe. More than three-quarters of illegal prostitutes in Italy are from this region. Due to high unemployment among the youths in Edo state, many young women see fewer prospects here. They seek for a better life in Europe instead, not fully aware of the dangers.
Tracking Nigeria's human traffickers False promises Catholic Sister, Bibiana Emenaha, has tried for years to warn young Nigerian women before they ended up in Europe. "Many are lured with false promises," she told us. The traffickers promise jobs such as babysitting or hair dressing, but that quickly turn out to be a lie. Once the young women are in Europe, they end up on the streets.
Tracking Nigeria's human traffickers "The people are greedy" After long negotiations, a trafficker agreed to an interview with us. He called himself Steve and claimed he has already transported more than 100 Nigerians all the way to Libya. He wouldn’t speak about the people behind his business. He said he was simply a service provider. "The people here in Edo State are greedy. They are willing to do anything for a better life," Steve said.
Tracking Nigeria's human traffickers Dangerous Sahara journey For 600 euros ($666) per person, Steve organizes the journey from Nigeria to Libya. "Most people know how dangerous the journey is through the Sahara," the human smuggler told us. Many people die very often along the way. "That is the risk," Steve said, who brings the migrants personally to Agadez in Niger. A colleague then takes over from there.
Tracking Nigeria's human traffickers Agadez: A hub for human traffickers The desert town of Agadez was the most dangerous part of our research trip. The town thrives on human and drug trafficking and foreigners are often kidnapped for ransom. We could only move around with armed guards and had to wear traditional head cover to be less visible.
Tracking Nigeria's human traffickers Solving the migration crisis Like many others in the desert town, Omar Ibrahim Omar, the Sultan of Agadez, sees human trafficking as a problem that cannot be solved in Agadez. He is asking for more money from the international community. His argument: If Europe does not want more migrants to keep coming through the Mediterranean Sea, Europe should give more support to Niger.
Tracking Nigeria's human traffickers The "Monday Caravan" to Libya For months now, several trucks with migrants from Agadez set out every Monday shortly before sunset towards the north. The crisis in Libya has contributed to human traffickers being able to reach the Mediterranean Sea without the usual controls. And we soon learned that the authorities here in Niger have little interests in their activities.
Tracking Nigeria's human traffickers "The girls are getting younger" Many of the migrants from Nigeria land on the streets in Italy. Social worker Lisa Bertini works with foreign prostitutes. "They are coming more and more," she told us. According to official figures, about 1,000 Nigerians went to Italy across the Mediterranean in 2014. In 2015, the figure climbed to 4,000. "And the girls are getting younger," the social worker said.
Tracking Nigeria's human traffickers Looking for a "Madam" With help from a Nigerian colleague, we discovered an alleged "Madam" in northern Italy. A Nigerian host in Italy is referred to as "Madam," she is at the top of a smaller trafficking network. The madam we found lived in a suburb of Florence and one victim made serious accusations against the her: "She has been beating us and forced us into prostitution," the victim said.
Tracking Nigeria's human traffickers 'Madam' and her girls As we confronted the supposed "Madam" about the accusations, she admited accommodating six young Nigerian women in her house, but denied forcing them into prostitution: "It's just something young Nigerians here do." After our interview, we handed our research to the Italian public prosecutor's office.
Tracking Nigeria's human traffickers Cheap sexual satisfaction Sister Monika Uchikwe has long been criticizing the inactiveness of the Italian authorities. For eight years, she has cared for victims of human trafficking. She explained in rage as we asked about the customers. The men always want cheap satisfaction – sex with a Nigerian woman on the streets costs only 10 euro. "Without this possibility, this problem would not exist," she said. Author: Jan-Philipp Scholz / Adrian Kriesch / abj
cw/kl (dpa, EFE, Lusa)"On today's battlefield, this slower [two optic] approach, which is often further hampered by heavy smoke or bad weather, compromises soldiers' safety and can reduce mission effectiveness," a BAE release reads. "By integrating night vision and thermal targeting capabilities into one sight displayed on the soldiers' goggles, BAE Systems' new solution allows troops to more easily acquire targets and engage faster."
While the optic itself is mounted on the soldier's rifle, what it sees is actually beamed via a Bluetooth connection to a head-mounted display. This allows the warfighter to quickly toggle between the two modes at the push of a button. The US Army's Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate has awarded BAE a five-year $434 million contract to continue the optic's development. There is no word yet on how much the finished products would cost or how soon they'll actually actually make it to combat zones.
[Image credit: Getty (lead), BAE Systems (inline)]The Galaxy S6 Edge is an impressive device, but Samsung could be planning something even more exciting for next year. A new report from SamMobile claims the company is testing dual-screened foldable phone called “Project V” or “Project Valley” internally.
The device is still in early development and it could be scrapped along the way. The report is short on details, but it notes that Samsung’s working on new gesture controls to let you quickly switch between the device’s two separate screens.
The company previously claimed it could launch a foldable smartphone by 2016. That may have been wishful thinking, but it looks like Samsung is racing to keep its promise. Of course, that doesn’t mean Project V is any closer to become a reality.
For now it’s just a rumor, but we wouldn’t be surprised to see more information and even a few images of this mysterious new handset leak out later this year.BURNS, Ore. -- The last four armed occupiers of a national wildlife refuge in eastern Oregon said they would turn themselves in Thursday morning after law officers surrounded them in a tense standoff.
FBI video shows shooting of Oregon militia member
The development came as Cliven Bundy - who led a Nevada standoff with federal officers in 2014 and who is also the father of the jailed leader of the Oregon standoff - was arrested in Portland.
The four occupiers yelled at officers to back off and prayed with supporters over an open phone line as the standoff played out on the Internet Wednesday night via a phone line being livestreamed by an acquaintance of occupier David Fry.
Fry, 27, of Blanchester, Ohio, sounded increasingly unraveled as he continually yelled, at times hysterically, at what he said was an FBI negotiator. "You're going to hell. Kill me. Get it over with," he said. "We're innocent people camping at a public facility, and you're going to murder us."
"The only way we're leaving here is dead or without charges," Fry said, who told the FBI to "get the hell out of Oregon."
Throughout the streamed conversation, occupiers mentioned the involvement of the Rev. Franklin Graham, the Christian evangelist son of Billy Graham, CBS Portland affiliate KOIN-TV reports.
Watch: Deadly shooting in Oregon militia standoff
On Thursday, Franklin Graham posted to his Facebook page that he has spoken with the occupiers every day for the last week at the request of the occupiers and the FBI. He said he hoped to arrive at the refuge Thursday morning.
Fry and the three others are the last remnants of a group led by Ammon Bundy that seized the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge on Jan. 2 to oppose federal land-use policies. The three others are Jeff Banta, 46, of Elko, Nevada; and married couple Sean Anderson, 48, and Sandy Anderson, 47, of Riggins, Idaho.
Fry said Wednesday the group was surrounded by armored vehicles.
Cliven Bundy, the father of occupation leader Ammon Bundy, flew into Portland International Airport Wednesday night and was arrested by authorities. He was booked into the lockup just before 11 p.m. according to Multnomah County Jail records.
The 74-year-old Nevadan was at the center of the standoff with federal officials over use of public lands. The Oregonian reports he now faces a conspiracy charge of interfering with a federal officer related to that standoff at his ranch.
Arrested leader of Oregon occupation tells protesters to go home
The FBI confirmed Cliven Bundy was taken into federal custody but declined to provide a reason or other details, saying further information would be released by the U.S. attorney's office in Las Vegas, which did not respond to a phone call early Thursday.
Ammon Bundy had been demanding that the Oregon refuge be handed over to locals.
A Nevada legislator, Michele Fiore, called the occupiers earlier in the evening to try to get the occupiers to calm down. Fiore said she could help them only if they stayed alive.
"I need you guys alive," said the Republican member of the Nevada Assembly who was in Portland earlier in the day to show support for Ammon Bundy, who remains jailed. Fiore told occupiers Wednesday night she was driving to the refuge to try to help negotiate their exit from the refuge. The occupiers prayed with Fiore and others as the situation dragged on for hours Wednesday night.
Sean Anderson said late Wednesday he spoke with the FBI and that he and the three other holdouts would turn themselves in at a nearby FBI checkpoint at 8 a.m. Thursday.
Anderson relayed the news to Fiore.
"We're not surrendering, we're turning ourselves in. It's going against everything we believe in," he said.
Greg Bretzing, special agent in charge of the FBI in Oregon, said in a statement the situation had reached a point where it "became necessary to take action" to ensure the safety of all involved.
Bretzing said one of the occupiers rode an ATV outside "the barricades established by the militia" at the refuge. When FBI agents tried to approach the driver, Fry said he returned to the camp at a "high rate of speed."
The FBI placed agents at barricades ahead of and behind the occupier's camp, Bretzing said.
"It has never been the FBI's desire to engage these armed occupiers in any way other than through dialogue, and to that end, the FBI has negotiated with patience and restraint in an effort to resolve the situation peacefully," he said in a statement.
Authorities had for weeks allowed the occupiers to come and go freely from the remote refuge, leading to criticism from local and state officials that law enforcement wasn't doing enough to end the situation.
Ammon Bundy and others were arrested Jan. 26 on a remote road outside the refuge, but the four holdouts remained.
On Wednesday night Sandy Anderson said after the group was surrounded: "They're threatening us. They're getting closer. I pray that there's a revolution if we die here tonight."
Her husband, Sean Anderson, said in the livestream: "We will not fire until fired upon. We haven't broken any laws, came here to recognize our constitutional rights."
The occupiers said they saw snipers on a hill and a drone.
The standoff was occurring on the 40th day of the occupation, launched by Bundy and his followers to protest prison terms for two local ranchers on arson charges and federal management of public lands.
Bundy was arrested last month as he and other main figures of the occupation were traveling to the town of John Day. Four others were also arrested in that confrontation, which resulted in the shooting death of the group's spokesman, Robert "LaVoy" Finicum. The FBI said Finicum was reaching for a gun.
Most of the occupiers fled the refuge after that. Authorities then surrounded the property and later got the holdouts added to an indictment charging 16 people with conspiracy to interfere with federal workers.
At first, Bundy urged the last holdouts to go home. But in response to the grand jury indictment, he took a more defiant tone from jail.Our new Kaggle developer, Adam Kennedy, introduces the new Kaggle Wiki:
The Kaggle Public Wiki launches today in Beta. We have built it from the ground up to support the odd mix of science, math and code that makes our sport unique.
Since arriving at Kaggle, my main task has been to put together a suitable long-term home for everything the Kaggle community knows about competitive data science. The Kaggle forums are full of great nuggets of advice for competitive data scientists, but they aren't as good at organizing this information and improving it over time. We want to make learning data science easier for new competitors, help our existing competitors with new techniques and tactics, and free up the forums to act as, well, a forum.
We've based the wiki on the excellent Markdown format, to which we've added the same LaTeX support we use in the forums and extended code syntax highlighting to support MATLAB (with R highlighting on the way).
To support the distribution of code, data and other files with articles we let you attach files to any wiki page, and we display figures and images inline in the attachment list.
Finally, we've done a major usability pass for the wiki content with a great readable style and an editor with instant preview (even for math and code) so you don't need to wait for the server to produce a separate preview page.
Construct, contribute, play nice, be bold.Paper maps are great as decoration and planning at home, but for the trail they’re suboptimal - too easily they go broken, and don’t even think about getting them out when it rains or snows. Happily one smart Swedish company knows what we backpackers need: Lightweight, waterproof maps!
You likely know this situation if you’ve hiked in bad weather: You arrive at a crossroad and the path you should take isn’t clear. It’s pouring cats & dogs and you’re getting out your map and compass to check which trail you should head down. By the time you have located the section where you think you are, your paper map has soaked up plenty of rain. As you take a bearing with your compass the corner of the plate pierces through the wet paper, and by the time you’re putting the map back into your pack it resembles a soft, wet, pulpy mass.
The guys at Calazo probably have run so often into this situation that they decided to change things for the better. And believe me when I say: Their maps are the Gold Standard. Light (40 g), durable (you can’t easily rip or otherwise break them) and waterproof! These qualities come because the maps are printed on good old Tyvek, the same material from which great bivys and some shelters are made. The maps have a nice smooth finish, water pearls off and if you’re a dedicated Ultralighter you even can use them as a Groundsheet at camp!
Calazo Tyvek maps also look great, and there’s all the details a hiker or map enthusiast could wish for: Fine contour lines, different paths, distinction between forests and shrubbery, huts and villages - and all very well explained in the Legend which comes in Swedish and English. They also fold very well - unlike some other maps I have used, which make me feel like I should get a degree in advanced Origami folding techniques. They’re printed on both sides, and it’s made quite clear which side you’re on. On the border you get grid references and a reminder of the scale of the map, as well as how many km a cm on the map represents.
Sadly, at the moment Calazo makes their maps exclusively for Swedish Wilderness Regions and National Parks, but there might be other countries getting to enjoy their great maps in the future. Maps cost between 99 kr and 149 kr and you can buy them directly at Calazo’s very good webshop. For me it’s clear: If you go backpacking in Sweden a Calazo Tyvek map should be in your pack! These maps are definitely a reason to plan a trip to Sweden =)
Alternatives? Use Rite in the Rain All Weather Copier Paper 25-Pack ($10, or get a 200er Pack for $34) to print your own maps. Certainly a good alternative if you have a high-quality colour printer and a mapping software which allows for easy printing. Or continue using paper maps and put them into a rather heavy (70 g!) Ortlieb map case.Connor Wood
So I recently stumbled across this post from BrainPickings.org, about how to explain religion. It features four of those cute little minute-long animated educational videos that make you feel smart without your actually having to do anything. (You know the kind – they’re quirky, hip, catchy, and they make you feel pleasantly intelligent just by association with the person who made them.) The BrainPickings post purported to be a primer on major theories of religion. Cool, right? Except the original creators – instructors at UK’s Open University – chose to make videos about four thinkers who are almost never cited in the study of religion. Like, ever. So today’s post is the fist part of a fix: a short, easy-to-understand primer on some of the basic (actual) theories of religion.
Here’s why I felt like I had to say something. The video list created by the folks at Open University started with Karl Marx, went through the 19th-century social theorists Auguste Comte and J.J. Bachofen, then skipped, oh, a full century of advances in theory and research, and wound up with – who else? – evolutionary biologist and atheist crusader Richard Dawkins.
Let’s get one thing straight right now: making Richard Dawkins your capstone entry in a primer on the study of religion is like finishing your list of “The Four Greatest English-Language Novelists” with, oh, Justin Bieber. “But Justin Bieber isn’t even a novelist,” you protest. “And from his lyrics it’s not even clear that he knows English.” To which my answer is, exactly – Justin Bieber is not a novelist. And Richard Dawkins isn’t a scholar of religion.
When I said that the four thinkers in the Open University list are almost never cited in religious studies, I was fudging a bit – especially for Karl Marx and Auguste Comte. People still talk about Marx’s and Comte’s theories, although usually without accepting them at face value. But I mean it literally when I say that no one ever cites Richard Dawkins in the study of religion. This is because his theories of religion are so ludicrous that people who have earned doctorates in religious studies feel no need to pay the slightest attention to them. The man is a non-expert in religion. Citing him as a major theorist of religion is stupid, and no one should do it.
That said, there have been a ton of very smart and interesting people who have thought up some profound theories about religion. Here’s the first part of a list. This part focuses on functionalist theories of religion, or theories that emphasize the practical roles that religion plays in human culture and individuals. Later entries will look at other types of theories. Read and explore. Note: this isn’t an exhaustive list. It’s more like a useful sample, drawn from my extensive experience talking shop with experts in religion, both in classrooms and outside them. My hope is to touch on the major names you’re mostly likely to hear in conversations with genuine experts in religion. The point is to spread some actual knowledge and ideas about religion, as opposed to trendy nonsense from people who couldn’t tell religion from Ramen noodles.
1. Émile Durkheim
Émile Durkheim (1858-1917) was a French thinker who, along with Max Weber and Auguste Comte, basically invented the field of sociology. His great contribution to the study of religion was his famous argument that religion was “eminently social.” Durkheim claimed that shared sacred beliefs were the fundamental building blocks of community. By participating in rituals together, people generated “collective effervescence,” or an emotionally heightened sense of communal identity. Collective effervescence, in turn, reinforced a community’s sense of the sacred, or things that were “set apart and forbidden.” For example, in most Christian communities, Sundays are the sabbath, “set apart” from the rest of the week. Traditionally, people were forbidden to work on Sundays. For Muslim communities, the set-apart day is Friday. In Jewish communities, it’s Saturday. For Durkheim, communities were defined by what they took to be be sacred and set apart. Religion wasn’t an add-on to secular life – by inspiring people to believe in the same, shared symbols, values, and taboos, and to act in the same ways on similar timeframes, religion was the underlying ground for society.
2. Max Weber
Many thinkers have claimed that religion is just a reflection of society’s mechanisms (Marx, I’m looking at you), or a projection of people’s inner psyches (Freud, you know who you are). But Max Weber (1864-1920), another sociologist, insisted that religion didn’t just erupt out of society or the psyche – it helped create them, by directly influencing how societies developed. For example, Weber famously argued that Protestantism – and no other religion – gave rise to capitalism. Why? Well, because Calvinist theology claimed that God had pre-determined whether people were “saved” (going to heaven, instead of, um, the other direction), and there was nothing you could do to change God’s mind. This theology, understandably, left northern Europeans deeply jittery about their afterlives. The solution? Save up money, as a visible sign of God’s favor! You couldn’t change whether you were saved or not, but you could show that you were in God’s good graces by working hard and living a financially blessed life. The result was a new merchant class that held massive savings – enough to start investing in, and giving rise to, a burgeoning capitalist system. Most scholars today are skeptical of Weber’s Protestantism-capitalism thesis, but his most important legacy remains: the insistence that religion profoundly influences culture, by shaping what people believe about the world.
Clifford Geertz (1926-2006) was a celebrated anthropologist who penned one of the most widely cited, and comprehensive, definitions of religion of all time. I’ll just quote it here in its entirety, because why not:
A religion is (1) a system of symbols which acts to (2) establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by (3) formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and (4) clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that (5) the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic.
If you can get over the out-of-date gender pronouns and the flowery language, Geertz’s definition of religion counts as one of the most complex and useful out there. It claims that religion is what transmits the meanings of symbols down through generations, thus allowing cultures to function. Because, let’s be honest, a culture where nobody agrees on symbols or meanings isn’t really a culture at all. It’s just a bunch of people. Importantly, for Geertz all symbols ultimately spring from religious sources, meaning that if you want to understand a culture’s worldview you have to look, first and foremost, to its religion. As an anthropologist, Geertz advocated “thick descriptions” of cultures, which meant actually, you know, paying close attention to the symbols, rituals, and metaphors that formed the bedrock of a society – rather than just rolling your eyes at how inferior the people you were studying were to Europeans.*
4. Peter Berger
Peter Berger (1929- ) is a German-American sociologist of religion who achieved fame in the 1960s by arguing that the entire world was shortly going to become fully secularized, and then in the 1990s sheepishly admitting that he was totally wrong about this and that religion wasn’t going anywhere. Oops! Berger’s sociological theory of religion is based on the concept of socialization, or the ways that societies convince members that their particular view of reality is true. For Berger, religion isn’t just churches and synagogues and temples. It’s first and foremost the tools of socialization, including ritual and myth. These religious tools help cultures to “socially construct” reality – that is, transform what would otherwise be arbitrary or silly ideas (like “Christ’s body is the communion wafer”) into rockhard, commonsense truths. The web of these truths is a “sacred canopy,” or a shared worldview that unites and stabilizes a society and makes life seem meaningful – in spite of the ever-present danger that people will start to doubt the sacred canopy, and thereby destabilize everything. This sort of destabilization is called secularization – it’s how cultures lose their hold on people, so that religious ideas stop seeming plausible. In Berger’s theory, secularization leads to anomie, or a sense of meaningless or (literally) “lawlessness,” so that no one knows which way is up, or why we’re here on Earth, or what the point of life is. Which describes modern culture pretty well, and possibly explains the popularity of cat videos – you’ve got to escape a meaningless universe somehow, right?
This was the first in a series of posts about writers who, unlike some people, have actually thought deeply about religion. If these keep being fun to write, my guess is that this will be a three- or four-part series. Check back next week for the next installment!
________
* Richard Dawkins has never done a thick description of another culture, because that would require taking seriously societies that aren’t Western, white, European, aristocratic, and industrialized. It’s a good job that he chose biology and sophomoric demagoguery as his life’s work, because anthropology would totally not have been his bag.The blue wasp was a completely new species, and Weinersmith and Egan named it the crypt-keeper wasp. It’s a stunning example of a hyperparasite—a parasite whose host is also a parasite. This lifestyle is surprisingly common, especially among wasps. Many species lay eggs in the bodies of other insects, only to have other wasps lay eggs in their young. And sometimes, hyperparasites can be parasitized by other hyperparasites, creating hierarchies of bodysnatching that can grow to four tiers.
Even by these standards, the crypt-keeper wasp is special. Parasites are incredibly common, but only some manipulate the behavior of their hosts. There are fungi that turn ants into zombies, hairworms that compel crickets to jump into water, and tapeworms that force shrimp to swarm in groups—all to help the parasites spread to their next hosts. The crypt-keeper wasp does this too, but as Weinersmith and Egan have shown, it’s one of the few known hypermanipulators—parasites that manipulate the behavior of other manipulative parasites.
Somehow, the crypt-keeper wasp can find an oak tree that already contains the larva of a crypt gall wasp, and then lays an egg inside the crypt. Once hatched, its larva manipulates its orange crypt-mate into chewing an escape hole that’s smaller than usual. The orange victim then plugs the small hole with its own head, while the crypt-keeper larva devours it alive. Eventually, the crypt-keeper turns into an adult and chews its way to freedom, through the head of its roommate/larder/wall-plug.
Because of its behavior, Weinersmith and Egan gave the wasp the formal name of Eudurus set, after Set, the Ancient Egyptian god. “Set was the god of chaos and evil, and he was said to control other evil beings,” says Weinersmith. “He also locked his brother Osiris in a crypt for him to die. It kind of blew our minds how many cool connections we could find.”
After discovering the crypt-keeper, Egan went to the American Museum of Natural History and looked at old collections of gall wasps that had been gathered by Alfred Kinsey. (Yes, that Kinsey; before becoming synonymous with human sexuality, he was a prolific gall-wasp aficionado, who collected millions of the insects.) In some of the stored branches, Egan saw little heads plugging holes. We’ve found several such samples in museums around the country, going back 100 years.”
“This is the type of science I love; it leaves us hungrily asking more questions,” says David Hughes from Pennsylvania State University, who studies manipulative parasites. For example, “how does this wasp get its egg into its soon-to-be excavator? And how does it do that so precisely to stop the activity at a stage where the hole is large enough just for a head to block, but not for the body of the manipulatee to emerge?” It might secrete some kind of mind-addling chemical. Alternatively, it might just eat its host to the point when it still has enough energy to make an escape hole, but not enough to make a big one.In February, about 31.1 percent of unemployed Americans had been out of work for 27 weeks or more. While that's better, it's still well above normal levels, and leaves about 2.7 million people without work. And assessments of the long-term unemployed don’t even count the much-talked about population who have been out of work for so long that they’ve given up on finding a new gig.
Long-Term Unemployment as Share of Total Unemployment
BLS
According to a Federal Reserve post written by Tomaz Cajner and David Ratner, the prospects for the long-term unemployed are still relatively dim.“Their monthly probability of moving from unemployment to employment has recovered only modestly and still remains depressed relative to its pre-recession level… The long-term unemployed are about twice as likely to move to nonparticipation (that is, to drop out of the labor force) as to employment.”
If the long-term unemployed were consistently dropping out of the job search, and staying out, the supply of long-term unemployed counted by BLS would have already been exhausted, write Cajner and Ratner. Instead, what’s more likely is that the group moves between non-participation and other periods of more intense job searching.
Why should people care so much about this specific population? Well, any level of unemployment can be personally devastating, but an extended stint of unemployment can have particularly pernicious effects, some of which last well after someone finds a new job. In addition to taking a bite out of current income, a period of unemployment can hurt future income, too, according to a 2013 study from the Urban Institute.
When it comes to depleted earnings, the reason for unemployment may matter. Urban Institute researchers found that one to 20 years after a period of unemployment, workers who were fired from a job have earnings that are 15 percent lower than those who worked continuously. For those who are laid off due to company closings, the results are less detrimental, costing them about 5 to 10 percent of their wages for about four to 10 years after closing. That might be, the study suggests, because future employers look more favorably on those who appear to have lost a job due to circumstance rather than the quality of their work.
Though that might seem comforting in the aftermath of the mass layoffs associated with the Great Recession, a 2011 study by Steven J. Davis and Till M. von Wachter found that when the overall state of the economy is suffering during a period of mass layoffs, future earnings for those laid off tend to suffer more than they otherwise would. According to the paper, unemployment due to a mass layoff caused men to lose twice as much lifetime income when the national unemployment rate was above 8 percent, like it was from 2009 to 2012, than they did in the same circumstance when the national unemployment rate fell below 6 percent.
And as a period of unemployment wears on, workers can end up playing a role in their decreased earnings, as desperation for income leads many to lower-paying jobs than they had prior to unemployment. “Reservation wages (the lowest wage at which a job would be accepted)...decline over time, as workers’ expectations degrade and their needs increase,” the Urban Institute study found. It makes sense that, as workers enter the period which differentiates an extended unemployment period from a short one, they also become more desperate for income, since it coincides with the expiration for unemployment insurance in much of the country—which lasts for up to 26 weeks. After that, those who still haven't found work often turn to other methods to find income, like accepting low-paying jobs, or positions for which they're overqualified. Some even look to disability insurance for income, but as my colleague Alana Semuels points out, if they're successful in qualifying, it often means that they give up on finding work at all.Custom Search
January 2016 Comic Book Sales to Comics Shops
Estimated Comics Shipped to North American Comics Shops
Based on Reports from Diamond Comic Distributors
Search for titles on Comichron! Search tips
Sales volumes in January tend to be lower than most months of the year, and as such, a single comic book can make a huge difference. Particularly when that comic book was the best-selling one in more than twenty years—as Star Wars #1 was in January 2015. Comic shop orders for comic books, graphic novels, and magazines in January 2016 were off 5% versus a year before according to Diamond Comic Distributors — but if Star Wars #1 hadn't been in the mix in the previous year, sales would have been up 7%!
Read more in our preliminary and final analysis posts for the month. You can also click to skip to the Top Graphic Novels for the month.
This list includes all items on Diamond's Top 300 charts plus any post-#300 items from its Top 50 Indy and Small Publisher charts. If you don't see a book, Diamond released no data for it.
Items marked with asterisks [*] had their reported orders reduced by 10% due to returnability.
The links lead to current auctions for each issue on eBay. You can also find the books at your comics shop.
January 2016 Graphic Novel Sales to Comics Shops
Estimated Graphic Novels and Trade Paperbacks Shipped to North American Comics Shops Based on Reports from Diamond Comic Distributors
This list includes all items on Diamond's Top 300 charts, plus any post-#300 items from its Top 50 Indy, Manga, and Small Publisher charts. If you don't see a book, Diamond released no data for it.
The links lead to details about each title on Amazon. You can also find the books at your comics shop.
#1 #2 #3 #4
Looking at the internals makes this January look less impressive than at first glance on the graphic novel side. We can now see that while graphic novel wholesale dollars were off 7.77% overall, according to Diamond, the total retail value of the Top 300 was actually up 20%. That points to something we can see by looking at the dollar rankings: there was heavy discounting of graphic novels in the month.(1)
Vi è un legame tra il vaccino contro morbillo, rosolia e orecchioni e l'insorgenza dell' autismo: la teoria sostenuta da un documentario proiettato in due sale del cantone Zurigo – completamente smentita dagli studi scientifici – ha riacceso il dibattito sui vaccini. C’è chi chiede che certe vaccinazioni siano obbligatorie.
È ora di finirla con questa teoria “irresponsabile” che non ha assolutamente nessun fondamento scientifico. Interpellato dalla stampa, il neuropatologo di Zurigo Adriano Aguzzi non ha usato mezzi termini per smontare il documentario intitolato Vaxxed e proiettato per una settimana in due sale zurighesi.
Il film aveva già creato polemica qualche mese fa in Italia e la sua proiezione era stata bloccata. L’Ufficio della sanità pubblica (UFSP) svizzero ha preferito dal canto suo non intervenire, non essendo un’autorità preposta alla censura e puntando sull’informazioneLink esterno più che sui divieti.
“Non è che ripetendola costantemente, una menzogna diventa verità”, ha sottolineato il portavoce dell’UFSP Daniel Dauwalder, interv |
6 bit 0 1 for vertical mirroring, 0 for horizontal mirroring. bit 1 1 for battery-backed RAM at $6000-$7FFF. bit 2 1 for a 512-byte trainer at $7000-$71FF. bit 3 1 for a four-screen VRAM layout. bit 4-7 Four lower bits of ROM Mapper Type. 7 bit 0 1 for VS-System cartridges. bit 1-3 Reserved, must be zeroes! bit 4-7 Four higher bits of ROM Mapper Type. 8 Number of 8kB RAM banks. For compatibility with the previous versions of the.NES format, assume 1x8kB RAM page when this byte is zero. 9 bit 0 1 for PAL cartridges, otherwise assume NTSC. bit 1-7 Reserved, must be zeroes! 10-15 Reserved, must be zeroes! 16-... ROM banks, in ascending order. If a trainer is present, its 512 bytes precede the ROM bank contents....-EOF VROM banks, in ascending order. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The 8 bits allocated for the mapper number give us a total of 256 possible mapper types. If you happen to find a new type of a memory mapper, please, email me its description and several sample ROMs and I will allocate and announce a new number for it. Do not pick the number yourself, as this will cause a general mess.-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 I2P release 0.7.2 ===================== The 0.7.2 release fixes multiple bugs and potential problems in I2P, while preparing ground for new functionality. Threading issues with the SimpleTimer class should no longer occur, the NTCP transport should no longer encounter null pointer exceptions, and "abandoned" tunnels should finish operation correctly. Support is added for accessing the Router Console over IPv6, a new message type enables I2CP applications to query the router's bandwidth limits, an experimental desktop interface for managing the router is included for the first time (but not enabled automatically yet) and participation of a single peer in too many tunnels is prevented to improve reliability and safety. Besides other maintenance work, several old statistics calculators are dropped to make router profiles smaller and quicker, while new build scripts are supplied for I2P's big integer math library. Updating is highly recommended. As customary, for people who don't have the option of checking GPG signatures, supplied below are the SHA1 hashes of released files: 068512a688a793ee8ad55e4de8fd82417d4d9f98 i2pheadless-0.7.2.tar.bz2 1f7376855f69c6f0a663d4b4128260a41a09b602 i2pinstall-0.7.2.exe 83e2a63db3d0a5db8e610df9e52ad538febe5e6d i2psource-0.7.2.tar.bz2 febe153072a107c6aa285d51f20217d90531644c i2pupdate-0.7.2.zip b7313803bba86432f895a215096fb472d2677689 i2pupdate.sud Best wishes, Complication. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) iEYEARECAAYFAknqW5oACgkQ+h38a3n8zjNBPwCeK7Hd4+iJa1myZhc7MPYHvMwR HZMAn15tFbcHh2xE+HyZOT1EOctYZHK/ =RpcD -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----Warwick, RI – For both those who viewed the Warwick water tower as a nostalgic landmark and people who called it an eyesore, the Warwick water tower was a solid, dependable presence in Apponaug.
The decades-old structure lived up to the solid part of its reputation Saturday, falling only after support cables and two of its girders were severed to aid efforts to topple it.
The demolition makes way for the RI DOT’s Apponaug Circulator Project, which will be built in part through the lot where the landmark stood. Apponaug’s intersections will be replaced by roundabouts by the end of the project.
Read our full story with pictures from the demolition here, and watch the video above, with interviews of the onlookers and the final moments of the tower.The Giants looked to their past for help on defense.
New York has hired former Ravens secondary coach Steve Spagnuolo to replace the recently fired Perry Fewell, the team announced Thursday.
Spagnuolo was the Giants' defensive coordinator for two seasons (2007-08) and heavily influenced a defensive line responsible for containing a powerful Patriots team in Super Bowl XLII.
Since then, Spagnuolo has made stops in St. Louis as a head coach, New Orleans as a defensive coordinator and, for the last two seasons, Baltimore as a defensive assistant and secondary coach.
The 55-year-old has close ties with long-time Giants coach Tom Coughlin, which should aid his transition. Though his connections to any current players are minimal, his understanding of Coughlin's style should make for a smooth training camp.
Despite countless injuries to team role players across the board, the team pegged Fewell as a reason for another losing season in 2014. The Giants have been to the playoffs just once in the past six seasons and had a top-10 defense back in 2013.
Needless to say, co-owner John Mara and Coughlin could not go into another season without some change to pacify a fan base that has grown impatient with the current regime (a puzzling outcry since the team has won a pair of Super Bowls in the last decade).
Still, there was never any doubt the job was going to Spagnuolo, who left the organization for a chance to be a head coach back in 2009.
Under Spagnuolo, the Giants had one top-10 defense and, in 2008, a unit that finished 28th during the regular season. In the postseason, though, his defenses came alive with the advent of a NASCAR rush package and three-safety look that is now seen commonly in the NFL.
He faces some new challenges this time around, and there's no doubt he'll be watching closely to see what the team decides to do with stars on expiring contracts like Jason Pierre-Paul and Antrel Rolle.
The latest Around The NFL Podcast previews Championship Sunday and makes our picks for each game. Find more Around The NFL content on NFL NOW.Police in the southern Chinese island province of Hainan will board and search ships which enter into what China considers its territorial waters in the disputed South China Sea, state media said.
The South China Sea is Asia's biggest potential military trouble spot with several Asian countries claiming sovereignty.
Chinese fishing boats sail in the lagoon of Meiji reef off the island province of Hainan in the South China Sea. Credit:AP
From January 1, Hainan police will have the authority to board and seize control of foreign ships which "illegally enter" Chinese waters and order them to change course or stop sailing, the China Daily reported.
"Activities such as entering the island province's waters without permission, damaging coastal defence facilities and engaging in publicity that threatens national security are illegal," the English-language newspaper said.Video game and visual novel translation company Sekai Project announced on Friday that it will launch a Kickstarter fundraising campaign in November to bring Frontwing's Grisaia game trilogy to the West. Sekai Project already announced in July that it licensed the first game, The Fruit of Grisaia (Grisaia no Kajitsu/Le Fruit de la Grisaia).
If the campaign succeeds in raising US$40,000, TLWiki and Sekai Project will release The Fruit of Grisaia with Japanese voices, as well as new CGs and "a freshly edited translation." (The funds will also go towards voices in the rest of the trilogy.)
If the campaign reaches the US$80,000 stretch goal, it will add The Labyrinth of Grisaia (Grisaia no Meikyū/Le Labyrinthe de la Grisaia) fan disc/prequel, and the US$120,000 stretch goal will add The Eden of Grisaia (Grisaia no Rakuen/Le Eden de la Grisaia) sequel.
Sekai Project is proposing a US$150,000 stretch goal for the spinoff Idol Mahō Shōjo Chiruchiru ☆ Michiru. It is also considering a US$250,000 stretch goal for ports to the PS Vita system or mobile devices.
Sekai Project describes the story of The Fruit of Grisaia:
Mihama Academy - on the surface, a closed learning environment established to nurture students who find themselves at odds with the world around them; in actuality, an orchard-turned-prison built to preserve fruit that has fallen too far from its tree. Whatever the circumstances behind its establishment, Mihama Academy is at present home to five female students, all with their own reasons for "enrollment." For better or worse, each girl has established a routine obliging of her current situation; life moves at an idle, yet accommodating pace within the walls of Mihama. Yet with the arrival of the institute's first male student, the nearly preposterously opaque Kazami Yuuji, the students at Mihama begin to fall out of step with their predetermined rhythms. Will Yuuji prove to be the element the girls around him needed to take hold of their lives once more, or will the weight of their pasts prove too steep a wall to overcome? And in the first place, just who is Kazami Yuuji? While the true nature of the "job" he is wont to alight to at the most haphazard of moments remains shrouded in secrecy, one thing is for certain - his encroachment upon the quiet orchard known as Mihama Academy will prove itself momentous in one way or another. And of course, one cannot discount the possibility that perhaps Yuuji himself carries the weightiest past of any of the students...
Sekai Project will offer the uncut mature versions of the games in both physical and digitial editions. It will also offer the all-ages versions at least digitally, through the Steam platform or through its own platform. A television anime of the first game premiered this month. Sentai Filmworks licensed the anime for North America, and Crunchyroll is streaming the anime as it airs in Japan.TeamLiquid ESPORTS Profile Joined July 2011 1 Post Last Edited: 2011-12-12 17:37:21 #1
Blizzard Cup on Liquipedia
Naniwa Interview
Stephano Interview
Nestea Interview
Leenock Interview Naniwa Interview
We would like to thank Blizzard for allowing us this opportunity.
As part of the Korean press conference just prior to the opening of the Blizzard Cup, TeamLiquid was able to interview some of the gathered players individually via Skype. Naniwa, Stephano, Nestea, and Leenock were made available for interviews.
Once again, we would like to thank Blizzard for allowing us to participate in the press conference in this way.
Photo by R1CH Do you feel any extra pressure going into this tournament, because you're representing not only yourself but also foreigners as a whole?
I guess a little bit, but that's how it's been for me almost every tournament so far, so it's not something new.
There's been a lot of transfer drama surrounding you in the last few days. Has it affected your preparation for this tournament?
Yeah, it was happening at a bad time, so I missed a bit of practice there. But I was also in Sweden for a week on vacation, and I came back to Korea three days ago, so I'm still badly jet-lagged. I slept like two hours tonight, but hopefully I can fix that for tomorrow.
You did very well at MLG Providence, beating some top tier Koreans like Mvp and Nestea. How's your confidence going into this tournament?
When I sat down and practiced, after my break, I was still able to beat many of the really good players like Bomber and so on, so I think if I play my best I think I can win. But it's still a very fragile system, since it's best of one, so I can't really afford to make any mistakes.
You've been in Korea for a few months now and you've improved a lot. Do you think you've achieved your goals in going to Korea so far, and how much more do you think you can improve?
Practicing in Korea helps you a lot. You get used to a lot faster game play than in Europe, people do a lot more things, multi-attacks, multi-drops and so on, so you will just become a better player naturally by playing here.
I think I improved a lot but I feel that there is just as much to learn, and I learn a lot every game I play, so I just want to practice hard for Code S to be honest, and there I'll be able to show my true potential.
You have some MLG rematches in your group. Against Nestea, where there was some controversy in your match, and versus Leenock, who you lost to in the finals. How do you think the games will go this time?
Controversy? Hmm, I don't know about that. All that happened that was that it was a ten minute pause, and then a re-game, which affected both of us equally. I don't think it's fair to use that as an excuse at all. Nestea, I expect to win against, but I don't know how much he has practiced and what he has prepared. Leenock, I have a really bad map, but I think it's not impossible, it's definitely doable.
At MLG, you kind of went on tilt after losing a few matches to early game rushes. Have you done anything to make sure that kind of thing doesn't happen again, so that a few bad early games don't affect you mentally?
No no no, I don't get tilted by games like that in general. It's when I have a big advantage and then I let go, and my macro/micro slip and my focus goes away. It's what happened in game two, I held his semi-all-in and I was way ahead, and then I played like s*** basically, I should have won 2-0. I should have won Providence right there, like I should have won TSL long ago. But yeah, I've had two really bad experiences that have cost me a lot of money, so I think now, I know better.
So if you suffer a bad loss in the groups early on, do you think you can bounce back?
It doesn't matter to me in other games if I win or lose the previous match, I just treat each match like it's the same thing, and give it my best.
We haven't seen much of your PvT vs Koreans lately, except vs Mvp at the MLG invitational. How do you think about your games vs MMA and Polt, and what do you think about PvT lately, where Protoss seem to be doing good if they can take it to a macro game?
Practice is going pretty well, I've been in pretty bad condition but I've still managed to take a few games off Bomber so I'm pretty confident. It might come down to build orders and so on, but I have a pretty good guess what they're going to do on the respective maps. I think if I get into a late game macro game, I will probably be able to take it, but it's pretty dangerous on the way there.
I thought Polt and MMA were so-so vs Protoss, but Bomber told me that Polt has a 90% win rate against Protoss, so I guess I'll see. And well MMA, I know he's obviously good, so I'm just preparing for hard games.
With the move to Quantic Gaming you'll be able to play at the Startale house with your friend SaSe. Is this going to help you practice in Korea?
I think this move in particular to Startale will help me as a player. Because at MVP I didn't practice with anyone in the house, and I think that really set me back in terms of how much I could improve, so I think the next coming month will be the real point where I increase my skill a lot.
Why weren't you practicing with anyone at MVP?
Basically, many of the times they weren't in the mood, or whatever the reason the was. When I tried to play in house ranking games with them, they just f***ed around and didn't play seriously, so I didn't really feel the need to play if they weren't going to take the game seriously.
How well do you think you'll do in your group, and if you do make it through, is there anyone you'd like to face in the next round?
Hmm, I would like to face Stephano or DRG. I don't like to predict beforehand how I'll do, but if I play my A-game I'll pass for sure.
You picked the two Zerg players from the other group as players you'd like to face. Is there any reason for that? A few months ago, you were saying vsZ was your worst match-up.
I think it's still my weakest, but it's still not bad. I beat Stephano 2-0 at DreamHack, and I beat DRG 2-0 at Providence, and then I had a pretty bad day at the last day of DreamHack. They're players that I know I can beat, so therefore I would like to play them again because they will have a kind of mental block against me.
Speaking of Stephano, a lot of people are interested him too, as the other foreigner in this tournament. Do you think he's someone who can do good in this tournament, and could he do well in general if he came to Korea to practice?
I'm sure he could do very well, and especially if he came here to practice. But recently he hasn't done so well, so maybe his style is getting figured out, or something like that. When I played him he didn't seem like anything special, I had really high expectations for him, but everyone can have a bad tournament so I am not counting anything out. I haven't played him much, and I don't know enough about him to judge.
Next season, Code-S is changing a lot to be eight weeks long, with best of three in the group stages. Do you think this benefits you?
Yeah, it makes the more deserving player win, and that's the way I want it. If I'm not good enough, I don't wanna win. So that will make it so I have to practice more, and I think the more I practice I will improve a lot quicker than other players, just because I'm not used to practicing a lot. So I like it.
You've played a lot of foreign tournaments in your career, and foreign tournaments tend to be short, playing a lot of opponents over a short period. Do you think you can play well in a Code S style tournament, where you have a lot of time to prepare for a few matches?
Well, Providence was basically the same way, I prepared for one opponent. It wasn't as much preparation time, but at least you could predict who was going to make it and prepare accordingly. TSL was also the same way, and I think I did fairly well in both of those tournaments, so I think preparation style really suits me when I'm motivated enough, which I am right now. Stephano Interview
Photo by 7mk You're one of the foreigner hopes going into a tournament with a lot of top Koreans. Does that give you any extra pressure or motivation?
Not really, I don't care about what people say, when I am in the game, I just care about the game and nothing else.
You performed poorly at your most recent tournament, DreamHack Winter. What happened there that caused you to play poorly and have you done anything to fix those problems?
I don't think you can fix it, I just played really bad. I'm not used to playing like that, I don't have to fix it, it's just one day I think.
You have been streaming a lot of your Korean ladder play lately. Do you think playing on the Korean ladder has helped you a lot?
Yeah, definitely, it's helped me a lot and I've met some of the players I'm going to play [in the tournament] on the ladder. It gave me some information I needed.
What are some of the main differences between Koreans and Foreigners that you felt as you played?
I'd say when a Korean attacks, he always does damage with his units. When foreigner play on the ladder, he will attack randomly without killing anything, so that's the main difference I think.
What aspects of your play do you think have improved the most by playing on the Korean ladder?
I think I improved a lot in micro, and I have to take map control and stuff like that. My macro has always been really good so I didn't have to improve that.
Your stream was popular with foreigners, but it had many Korean viewers as well. Since your opponents might have scouted out your play, do you think maybe it was not a good idea to stream so much of your play before the tournament?
No, I don't really think so. I think that I've really known my play since IPL, everyone saw how I was playing vs Terran and Zerg, and I was doing the same thing at DreamHack. I won't be playing the same way of course, it will be a lot more cheesy, and tricky I think.
Have you got in any custom practice games against specific players for your games?
No, because I don't really trust the Koreans, I was afraid they might share the replays or something like that.
Who do you think is the hardest opponent in your group?
I'd say Mvp, but I didn't really see him play... I wasn't really impressed but everyone is saying he is the best Terran in the world, I will trust that.
How about DongRaeGu? People are saying maybe your ZvZ is your weakest, and DRG has good ZvZ..
Actually my ZvZ is pretty bad when it's against European players and American players, but when I play Koreans, they have a particular style, so I'm pretty good against it. I think I can win against DRG, he's not the one that scares me the most.
Your ZvP has been famous for a long time, so how do you feel going up against HerO and MC?
To be honest against HerO I'm really afraid, because I've talked a lot to Sheth and Ret, and they agree that he's really a beast in PvZ. I don't know how it will go because it's only a BO1, but I'm not that confident.
Against MC, I got a pretty good map, we'll see what happens, but I have some specific strategy for him.
Do you think you'll make it out of your group? And if you do, is there anyone you want to face in the next round?
I have no idea if I can manage to get out of the group, I really don't know. But if I do manage to get out, it will be great to meet Terran, like MMA or Polt.
A lot of people are disappointed that you aren't planning to stay in Korea after this tournament. Why don't you want to stay in Korea for a longer period of time?
You have to be in Korea for at least one month and a half. And to practice for only one game, and to lose that one game and be out of the tournament...
A big topic about you is that you say you plan to quit pro-gaming to continue your studies, and you don't have any long term plans for pro-gaming. How far into 2012 do you plan to pursue pro-gaming?
Right now I have plans to stop around September, when university starts again. But it depends on how I'm doing in the beginning of next year... maybe I will keep going for one more year, but I don't think so.
So does having this kind of time-limit give you extra motivation?
Yeah, yeah, a lot, because I'm telling myself I'm only doing this for one year, so I have to be 100% focused on it, and do my best in tournaments I get into.
Potentially, if ESPORTS continues to grow in 2012 and more money gets into the scene, do you see this as a full-time career you could do for the rest of your life, or at least for a longer time?
Mmm, no, I definitely don't think so. If I keep playing it will only be for making some more money, not to make a living. Nestea Interview
Photo by silverfire You had some losses at the hands of foreigners lately, HuK in Code S and Haypro and Naniwa at MLG. Do you think foreigners are catching up to Koreans?
I think foreign players are quite good as well. I don't think there's a big skill gap, and because things depend on your day-to-day condition, so I think the good players are pretty similar to Koreans.
Leenock has been coming up very fast. Do you think that your seat as the best Zerg player is being threatened?
Still, Leenock hasn't won a single GSL, so I don't feel that much of a threat. And though it would be nice to keep my position as the best Zerg, it's not something I'm that interested in. I just try to do my best in my next game, and the next, and the next.
How do you feel about your head to head match with Leenock? You looked invincible in ZvZ for a while, but you suffered a surprise loss to Bboongbboong in the AoL II tournament. Are you still confident in the matchup?
If I just have enough time to prepare, I still think that I'll never lose ZvZ.
Naniwa is also in your group, and you two had a little run-in at MLG Providence. Your thoughts going into this match?
Well, I think Naniwa is very good. The stuff at MLG, that's in the past. I don't care about that now. He's just a player who beat me before, so I want to properly face him again and win.
How about MMA? You faced off in the last Code S season, where he defeated you. Will the games be different this time?
MMA is really good as well, so I'll prepare a lot... I think the game will be fun.
And the final member of your group is Polt, who was a champion in the past. Are you concerned about his early game rush play?
I think there will be a early-mid game attack, and I'll prepare around that. If it goes to the mid-late game, I don't think I'll lose, so I'm being careful about the early game.
How do you think you'll do in the group stages, and who would you like to face if you make it through?
Well I'd like to go 3-1, but I guess I will have to play pretty hard? As for players I would like to face in the RO6 or RO4... I'd like to play Stephano or DRG in a ZvZ.
You faced your teammate Mvp in the Blizzcon finals. Do you think you two can make it to the finals together again?
I think there's about a 30% chance of that happening. If we go to the finals together again, then I'd have to win this one.
The new GSL plan for 2012 was announced lately, with fewer, longer GSLs and more focus on the GSTL. Do you plan to focus more on GSTL next year?
I don't think it's an issue of focusing on one thing in particular. I'm going to try hard at both of them, and compete in many foreign tournaments as well.
Speaking of foreign tournaments, you recently had a partnership with Quantic that allowed you to compete abroad. Why did such a seemingly beneficial relationship end?
Well, I'm not the head coach, and that's only something he knows. I don't know much about it. Foreign tournaments, I still plan to compete in regularly.
You had a great 2011. Did you imagine you'd have this kind of success when you first decided to come back as an SC II pro-gamer?
I didn't expect it to reach this point, but somehow I got a lot of opportunities and I was able to put out good results. And I'll have to keep trying harder in the future, to get better results.
So what are your resolutions, going into 2012?
I plan to keep going forth, with only championships as my goal. I won some tournaments, and placed second in 2011, and I want to win at least three championships in 2012.
You're one of the older pro-gamers. Have you had any thoughts about retirement, or are you like Boxer in that you want to keep pro-gaming as long as possible?
I want to keep going as far as possible, keep playing as long my passion for the game doesn't cool down.
Any last shout-outs?
I'm thankful to my fans who always cheer for me, and it's because of my fans that I'm able to play hard. I hope you keep cheering me on. Also, thanks to our sponsors Coca Cola and Googims for their support. Leenock Interview
Photo by silverfire You unfortunately lost to Jjakji in the last GSL Finals after a win at MLG Providence. Has this affected your mindset going into the Blizzard Cup?
I prepared for the finals thinking that I wouldn't lose, so I was a bit shocked when I lost. So for the Blizzard Cup, I want to focus and play better.
So is there a feeling that you're trying to make up for the GSL loss by winning the Blizzard Cup?
Yes, I really want to win.
You're one of the rising stars of Zerg lately, and you get to face Nestea in the group stage. Do you think you can aspire to his position as the best Zerg player?
I think I'm still lacking a lot right now, even if I win the Blizzard Cup, Nestea has achieved so much so far. I think I'll have to win two or more tournaments to catch up to him.
Amongst Korean players, what level do you think you are at right now?
Personally, I think I'm on the good side. I think I'm at a high-ish level.
To improve further, what do you think you have to change about your game?
I'm still young, so I think I lack guile and experience, so I have to work on gaining those.
You faced a lot of foreign players at MLG, what did you think of their skill level?
I think the really good players, like Stephano, HuK, IdrA aren't that different from Korean players. But the way they think is a bit different, so I think I'd have to play a lot of games with them to really know.
Let's talk about your opponents. You have to face Nestea, who's known to be invincible in ZvZ. How do you feel about the match?
I'm planning to use some early game build to win the game.
Also, you face two champion Terran players in MMA and Polt. How do you feel about those matches?
I've always been confident against Terran. Against MMA, the map is good so I'm confident as well. Against Polt the map's not that good, but I've beat him a lot so I'm confident.
Are you worried about Polt's reputation for early game gambits?
When I play with Polt I look towards the late game, while defending well against early attacks.
Finally, you face off against Naniwa who you beat in the MLG finals. You won that series with a lot of early game pushes, but how do you think this game will go?
I'm thinking about winning with that kind of early push again.
Do you think you're ahead of him in mind games then?
I think Naniwa thinks he can stop any kind of early attack, so that's why I'll try...
Who would you like to face in the next round, if you make it through?
I'd like to face Stephano, and would like to avoid Mvp.
Any special reason you'd like to face Stephano?
He's a foreign player, but he seems really good. I haven't faced him once in a tournament, so I'd like to play him.
If you made it to the finals then, who would you like to play?
I'd like to play MMA, to get some revenge for losing to him in the RO16 of the GSL.
After FXO acquired fOu, the team has really been on the rise, creating champions and a lot of top class players. How did the FXO acquisition change things?
Well first, life in the team house just became a lot more comfortable. We weren't able to go to foreign tournaments before, but we got that opportunity from it. I think that way our performances just naturally went up.
I've heard that FXO uses a rotation/ranking based system for sending players to foreign tournaments, so will we able to see you at more foreign tournaments in the future?
We go through a ranking system, and because I'm doing well I think I'll be able to keep going to foreign tournaments.
You're a very young pro-gamer, but what are your plans for the future? Do you plan to make this your career for a long time?
Pro-gaming has always been my dream, so I want to be a pro-gamer for as long as possible.
The GSL format changes a lot next season to be longer between games, do you think that fits your style?
Hm, I think that because at worst, you might have to play nine games, it's a bit tough because you have to prepare for that many.
What are your thoughts about GSTL, which will have more weight next season?
Well, the head coach decides who will play, so if he decides that I will be playing, then I'll prepare for those matches as if they were for my individual tournaments.
There's a lot of talk about Starcraft 1 gamers switching over, what do you think about that? Also, if they do switch over, who would you like to play the most?
A lot of SC1 gamers will probably switch over, I think SC1 and SC2 are quite different despite the similarities. They're all be starting from the beginning, and we'll be playing the same game, so I don't think they'll be that different.
Flash is the best player, so I'd like to play him.
Any last comments?
I'm so thankful to my fans who cheer for me. Keep supporting Zerg, and I'll try to show you more entertaining games.MANILA (Reuters) - Rogue Muslim rebels launched an audacious assault in the southern Philippines on Monday, taking control of several villages and shutting down a major port in the biggest challenge to a peace deal signed by the government last year.
Residents gather behind a military truck after Muslim rebels members of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) occupied villages in Zamboanga city, southern Philippines September 9, 2013. REUTERS/Philippine Information Agency/Handout via Reuters
The attack by hundreds of heavily armed guerrillas on Zamboanga City highlights the fragility of the deal agreed last October with a larger rebel group to end four decades of conflict.
Transport officials suspended commercial flights and ferry services to the city of around 800,000. Schools, public offices and businesses were closed as gunfire rang out from clashes between soldiers and the estimated 200-300 invaders.
Six people were killed and 24 wounded as the rebels tried to force their way to the city center, Mayor Isabelle Climaco-Salazar said in a statement. About 3,000 people had fled their homes, she said.
Army commanders said the rebels landed in two coastal villages early on Monday and were trying to reach the city center to raise their flag over the city hall.
“They want to hoist their flag. We will not allow that,” Colonel Andrelino Colina told a radio station.
Army spokesman Brigadier General Domingo Tutaan said about 200-300 people were “stranded” in a village occupied by the rebels. Officials had earlier said that dozens of civilians had been taken hostage.
“We condemn the attack on Zamboanga City in the strongest possible terms,” Edwin Lacierda, spokesman for President Benigno Aquino, said in a statement. “The ongoing attack of armed individuals in Zamboanga City, including initial reports of the possible use of civilians as human shields, is a cause for great concern.”
Aquino sent his defense and interior secretaries to Zamboanga after holding a security meeting to discuss the violence, among the worst in more than a decade in the conflict-torn south.
Security officials said the rebels belonged to a rogue faction of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) separatist group, which entered into a peace agreement with government in 1996 and runs a Muslim autonomous region on southern Mindanao island.
Five years later, the faction led by former university professor Nur Misuari broke away, claiming the government had not fully implemented the deal. An army spokesman said that a known senior aide of Misuari, Ustadz Habier Malik, took part in Monday’s attack.
Misuari opposed the deal signed last year by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in which the group agreed to a new autonomous region that would give the Muslim region greater political powers and more control over resources.
“They are trying to spoil the peace process,” Mohagher Iqbal, MILF chief peace negotiator, told Reuters by telephone from the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur, where the latest round of talks is taking place.
Four decades of conflict in the south killed 120,000 people, displaced 2 million and stunted growth in the poor but resource-rich area of the mainly Catholic state. Last year’s deal spurred hopes of an economic revival.
The rebel faction has yet to make formal demands and its leaders could not be reached for comment.
Emmanuel Fontanilla, a spokesman for the MNLF, called for a third party, like Muslim-majority Indonesia, to intervene and help end the standoff. Indonesia also brokered the peace agreement between the Philippines and MNLF in 1996.[/caption]
Amateur astronomer Catalin Fus from Poland has captured one of the most amazing images I’ve ever seen – and his timing was impeccable. On March 7th |
surrounding himself with prominent national security advisers whose advice would help to inform defense priorities more in step with Republican orthodoxy.
Yet there are many in Republican defense circles who have shown reluctance or refusal to advise Trump, and more who are withholding their support for his campaign.
Eliot Cohen, a senior official in both Bush administrations who is deeply respected in the military, has cast about for a third party. The hawkish thinktanker Max Boot called Clinton “far preferable” in an article for the Los Angeles Times.
There is an active debate among defense experts on the right over whether serving in a Trump administration would be irresponsible, with 121 luminaries of the party’s national-security apparatus signing an open letter pledging to “energetically” prevent his election.
“The fact we have a presumptive nominee who doesn’t know we have an air, sea and land-based nuclear triad is disqualifying in and of itself,” said Noonan, a former air force missile officer and House armed services committee staffer, who said he doubted Trump will be elected.
Schake, the former McCain adviser, added: “The president has so much wider latitude in national security policy than in domestic policy. So the national-security community worries that a reckless president could use that power with much greater damage to the country than in an area where there are more checks to the presidency.”Update October 10, 2016: As reported by PCGamesN and German magazine GameStar last month, Star Citizen’s campaign module Squadron 42 has been delayed out of 2016, with no new release date set.
CitizenCon took place last night with a massive two hour presentation of everything going on in Star Citizen at the moment. This included a section from Chris Roberts about the state of Squadron 42, the game’s single-player campaign, confirming the rumours that it had been delayed from its 2016 release date. Roberts did not provide a new go-day, though it is assumed to be some point next year.
Read more: best space games on PC.
You can watch the full presentation above. The demo of the procedural planet tech and extremely large sand worm starts at 01:25:20. As much as procedural generation in space has had something of a bad rap recently, it does look rather lovely. All these years later it’s difficult not to get caught up in the 127 million dollar hype, though at this point if you aren’t already invested your pre-order probably isn’t required for the game to be completed.
Around 57 minutes in Chris Roberts pops up to talk about Squadron 42 specifically. There’s more than 60 missions in there, 340 speaking characters, 1,255 pages of dialogue – it’s big, is the general message, as large as any triple-A production with cast quality to rival Hollywood. This is also when he announces the delay, pointing out the scope of the campaign has grown significantly since announcement. They were planning to show off a mission at CitizenCon that was fully finished – most are still at “grey box or better” as Roberts put it, where they know where everything is going and the balance is done but not all the effects are in – but they didn’t quite get it finished.
That would probably suggest it will be mid-2017 before it’s ready to be played, though Cloud Imperium have clearly learned to stop saying dates until they know for sure.
Update September 6, 2016:We reached out to Cloud Imperium Games to see if we could get a definitive answer regarding the release date of Squadron 42, Star Citizen’s star-studded single-player spinoff.
When asked by email if they could confirm or deny the delay, we were instead offered reassurances that development of the ambitious game is going as planned.
“Chris [Roberts] spoke to multiple reporters at Gamescom who asked about the status of Squadron 42,” a CIG spokesperson told PCGamesN.
“We have been feature locked for a while and things are coming along nicely. In every case he told them that we are hard at work on the game and are focused on making it great, but no official launch dates were discussed.”
When we pressed on the date and whether it was likely to get pushed back, we were told it;s “still too early”, but reassured that more would be revealed aboutSquadron 42’s progress at CitizenCon next month.
Original Story September 4, 2016: Star Citizen is no stranger to release window delays, and though even the windows themselves have been vague and pretty wide, another appears to be moving into next year.
Speaking to German magazine GameStar, Chris Roberts has said that the single-player component of Star Citizen, Squadron 42, will be more likely to arrive near the middle or end of 2017 than its current Q42016 window.
The timeline of its release has been one of the more obviously fluid points of Star Citizen’s ongoing development, as an original 2014 release pledge has shifted smoothly from year to year. The game’s own minisite currently has a “2016” marker for availability.
Though bad news to some, the delay appears to have been enacted to ensure more features are complete as the monolithic task of tying together a galactic space exploration game with planetary landings continues to show.
The latest update on such systems from the UK office of Roberts Space Industries speaks of the many seemingly small advancements the team has made on such features as cargo and wardrobe choices up to much larger impactful areas of the game such as spacecraft design.
See the 3.5 development blog update below:CHINA’S favourite chat-show host has had an extraordinary career. Jin Xing was the country’s most successful dancer before becoming a colonel in an army entertainment troupe. He won fame in America, where the New York Times called him “a Chinese genius”. He trained dancers in Brussels and Rome, before returning to China for a sex-change operation. As a woman, she resumed her career as a ballerina, set up the country’s first private ballet company, ran a bar in Beijing and married a German businessman.
In a conservative society where even homosexuality is frowned upon, let alone sex-reassignment, her life would seem to place Ms Jin well outside the stodgy mainstream of Chinese broadcasting (she is pictured at her home in Shanghai). Yet Ms Jin, who is 49, is the country’s most popular television judge. She began with a local version of “So You Think You Can Dance” and hit the jackpot with “The Jin Xing Show”, a variety and chat programme with an audience of around 100m. She has appeared with her husband on the Chinese version of “The Amazing Race”, in which couples race each other around the world. Her latest venture, “Chinese Dating”, is in its first season.
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Ms Jin’s story reflects remarkable changes in Chinese society since her childhood. She joined the army at the age of nine and endured a training regime that, as she puts it, would count as child abuse in the West. During her surgery, an oxygen shortage damaged her left leg so badly that doctors thought she would be lucky to walk again. Gruelling retraining enabled her to resume dancing within a year.
Those struggles with adversity have helped Ms Jin win favour among older Chinese, a more conservative cohort that is also, surprisingly, her biggest fan base. Many of them, too, have suffered enormous hardship—during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, and the famine that followed the Great Leap Forward of the late 1950s, in which tens of millions died. Even those born after 1980—roughly half the population—know well what their elders endured.
Identity crises
The tension between Ms Jin’s persona as a patriotic Chinese, and the one she displays as a globetrotter with a foreign husband (in January she joined the global elite at the World Economic Forum in Davos), is one that is widely understood among her compatriots. They have become the world’s great travellers. Over 100m got visas for holidays abroad last year, more than the citizens of any other country. Ms Jin describes herself as having been “a little Chinese boy thirsting for the West”. She writes of dreaming about Coca-Cola and freedom in Paris, or surreptitiously reading porn magazines and cruising gay bars in Greenwich Village. In her memoir, “Shanghai Tango”, she says that in the gay communities of New York, she feels herself to be “a traveller in a foreign land twice over”—as a woman in a man’s body and as a Chinese person abroad (who happens to be, she might have added, ethnic Korean).
In Belgium she feels haunted by the Chinese words she sees on signs in the streets; their calls, she writes, “get louder and louder”. She looks at a Ming vase at a market in Brussels and feels “ashamed” of Chinese who live abroad and have “only contempt” for their ancestral heritage.
China has several cultural figures who are better known in the West than at home. Ms Jin could have been another. But she chose to return home for her sex-change surgery, at some personal risk since the procedure was almost unknown there. “I was born in China,” she says. “It is in China I must be reborn as a woman.”
Xi Jinping, China’s president, presents himself as a staunch defender of “traditional” Chinese culture, and warns of the danger of Western “infiltration”. His preferences were clear in a recent official directive, which calls for the protection of China’s “cultural security”. But like most of her compatriots, Ms Jin is happy to take what she wants from both China and the West.
On the face of it, she embodies everything that is untraditional. Her rejection of being a man flies in the face of Confucian culture. The television manner for which she is famous—a blunt, cut-the-crap sassiness—is the opposite of stereotypical feminine deference. Yet her life as a woman has not been a simple rebellion against convention. By adopting three children and marrying (albeit a foreigner), she created around herself what she calls “a real Chinese family”. The values she espouses are old-fashioned even in China. In her new dating game, the contestants may not choose a match without their families’ permission; indeed, it is the families who interview the contestants’ prospective partners—resulting in rampant sexism, with women being asked about children and men about money. This has been too much for some viewers; online commentators have slammed the format as chauvinist and “retro”. But Ms Jin’s popularity suggests many young people believe that tradition should not be discarded.
In her memoir, Ms Jin talks about two historical figures whom she calls role models. One is Sai Jinhua, a prostitute who became the mistress of the imperial envoy to Germany and used her knowledge of the language to save the Qing emperor from German troops sent to crush the Boxer Uprising in 1900. (Jealous officials jailed her for her pains.) Ms Jin notes approvingly how Sai “rebelled” against what had appeared to be her destiny as a pauper.
The other model, more surprisingly, is Jiang Qing (Madame Mao), one of the Cultural Revolution’s most reviled figures, who cheered on the Red Guards as they tortured and killed her enemies. Ms Jin calls her “full of charm and intelligence” and the creator of “major masterpieces” during that period (Jiang Qing oversaw the production of operas about the Communist Party’s early days). It is a sign of how much China is changing that its cast of heroines encompasses not only the heroic harlots and villainous empresses of the past, but also a transsexual conservative talk-show host.For those of you who don't know what a developer spends all their time on, this might provide some insights. I created this log to show where the time goes as even I would look at what I'd done and feel as if I was being lazy. On looking at it again, it all makes sense now.
As a teaser, here is the bug I was tracking down in the before stage, (pretend / virtual points) if you can see the error. It's not so difficult when someone points at 10 lines of javascript and says where is the error in that. Finding those 10 lines and proving it's where the bug is, that's the difficult bit.
This is a quiet day. There are normally 3 other people injecting interruptions in to my workflow and by 11:30am I will usually have spoken to all of them and messaged several times. Typing this up as I went along actually helped my work flow, I stayed at the keyboard and remained focussed instead of drifting off to other tasks.
09:50 Email from team member about some dodgy code, read, put in folder as cannot deal with it now.
Email from team member about some dodgy code, read, put in folder as cannot deal with it now. 10:10 IE7 VM download resumed (4gb) from previous day.
IE7 VM download resumed (4gb) from previous day. 10:15 Sign up to TestingBot as IE7 download taking too long.
Sign up to TestingBot as IE7 download taking too long. 10:20 Skype chat with another developer about some functionality they are adding.
Skype chat with another developer about some functionality they are adding. 10:21 Way too many error emails caused by designer not putting images in to site properly. I spent two days getting the designer on to source control and having specific content folders automatically published to bypass issues with the designer not having Visual Studio. Did I mention I get a copy of every error on test, staging and live? They all need looking at.
Way too many error emails caused by designer not putting images in to site properly. I spent two days getting the designer on to source control and having specific content folders automatically published to bypass issues with the designer not having Visual Studio. Did I mention I get a copy of every error on test, staging and live? They all need looking at. 10:22 Another developer wants to Skype voice call which means I'll have to pause the IE7 download due to bandwidth.
Another developer wants to Skype voice call which means I'll have to pause the IE7 download due to bandwidth. 10:45 Finish with Skype voice call.
Finish with Skype voice call. 10:50 250 error emails later have been unable to work due to the constant inbound errors. Start IE7 download again. Give up on deleting error emails and manually connect to Azure to refresh all of the images that designer had not put in.
250 error emails later have been unable to work due to the constant inbound errors. Start IE7 download again. Give up on deleting error emails and manually connect to Azure to refresh all of the images that designer had not put in. 10:55 Back to IE7 browser test via web service again Looking up IE7 errors in logs to see where they come from.
Back to IE7 browser test via web service again Looking up IE7 errors in logs to see where they come from. 11:00 Additional errors coming in from test site, checked that they are from another developer and moved on assuming he is handling them. Realise that the reason the errors are coming in for missing images is that the designer still has not included them in source. Will have to raise this with him as still too many errors coming in. Checked for images on work in progress server (designer playground) and they are not there either. Retrieved list of image errors on site to get a list of the missing images for designer. Extract errors, put in to Excel, extract just the image reports. Create support ticket, email designer.
Additional errors coming in from test site, checked that they are from another developer and moved on assuming he is handling them. Realise that the reason the errors are coming in for missing images is that the designer still has not included them in source. Will have to raise this with him as still too many errors coming in. Checked for images on work in progress server (designer playground) and they are not there either. Retrieved list of image errors on site to get a list of the missing images for designer. Extract errors, put in to Excel, extract just the image reports. Create support ticket, email designer. 11:11 Get back on to IE7 errors, trying to find where they are coming from by looking at the logs.
Get back on to IE7 errors, trying to find where they are coming from by looking at the logs. 11:16 Found the logs for IE7 errors, now downloading them which is taking a while due to their size.
Found the logs for IE7 errors, now downloading them which is taking a while due to their size. 11:21 Sample 50 IE7 javascript errors retrieved from log. Now to reduce them to the error I am tracking in Excel.
Sample 50 IE7 javascript errors retrieved from log. Now to reduce them to the error I am tracking in Excel. 11:23 Realise that the errors are from the start of the log, not the most recent. Have to get more errors in reverse date order.
Realise that the errors are from the start of the log, not the most recent. Have to get more errors in reverse date order. 11:26 Give up on Excel for new error list, just check in Notepad for now.
Give up on Excel for new error list, just check in Notepad for now. 11:30 First error is that Google analytics cannot load. Oh, it's that bloody Baidu search spider again.
First error is that Google analytics cannot load. Oh, it's that bloody Baidu search spider again. 11:31 Next error has been fixed in development.
Next error has been fixed in development. 11:32 The next error is from a Mac with FireFox, will create a ticket for this as I think Macs need a whole separate test plan.
The next error is from a Mac with FireFox, will create a ticket for this as I think Macs need a whole separate test plan. 11:35 The rest of the 50 errors I downloaded are all for the same Mac issue, I'll have to get some more errors from an earlier point in time.
The rest of the 50 errors I downloaded are all for the same Mac issue, I'll have to get some more errors from an earlier point in time. 11:37 Used an OR instead of an AND in the error query, trying to cancel query, not responding.
Used an OR instead of an AND in the error query, trying to cancel query, not responding. 11:42 Emailed designer, font missing from test site too. Another error email alerted me.
Emailed designer, font missing from test site too. Another error email alerted me. 11:43 Query cancelled, start again.
Query cancelled, start again. 11:45 Designer emailed me back, file is missing on purpose. Well that's allright then.
Designer emailed me back, file is missing on purpose. Well that's allright then. 11:46 While waiting for the next batch of errors, as if by magic, one of the IE7 errors comes in again from live. I'll log this error along with the ticket in the support system. If only I had time to do that originally (5 minutes) then I would not have had to chase other error details.
While waiting for the next batch of errors, as if by magic, one of the IE7 errors comes in again from live. I'll log this error along with the ticket in the support system. If only I had time to do that originally (5 minutes) then I would not have had to chase other error details. 11:50 Finally using testingbot.com to see the IE7 error and now I remember why IE7 needs to die. No dev tools available to get any more information other than a vague line number and character position plus 'Expected identifier, string or number' which I already had in the log.
Finally using testingbot.com to see the IE7 error and now I remember why IE7 needs to die. No dev tools available to get any more information other than a vague line number and character position plus 'Expected identifier, string or number' which I already had in the log. 11:52 Resort to 'View source' in the IE7 test browser and using notepad, count the number of lines to the error. And I've lost count. Start again. Turns out, I was right, I didn't lose count, IE7 is reporting a line with no javascript on it, it must be screwing with the line numbers and whitespace.
Resort to 'View source' in the IE7 test browser and using notepad, count the number of lines to the error. And I've lost count. Start again. Turns out, I was right, I didn't lose count, IE7 is reporting a line with no javascript on it, it must be screwing with the line numbers and whitespace. 11:57 I do notice a bit of javascript just plonked down halfway through the page, by the designer again. It handles mobile views by the look of it. I'll try this on the test server via direct editing to see if I can comment out the error.
I do notice a bit of javascript just plonked down halfway through the page, by the designer again. It handles mobile views by the look of it. I'll try this on the test server via direct editing to see if I can comment out the error. 12:04 Can’t do that, the test server has a password on it to prevent indexing by web bots and this means the test browser service won't access it.
Can’t do that, the test server has a password on it to prevent indexing by web bots and this means the test browser service won't access it. 12:06 Oooh! I've managed to get in and the error is still there. Oh, the test server IE7 has crashed now.
Oooh! I've managed to get in and the error is still there. Oh, the test server IE7 has crashed now. 12:08 Restart test IE7 and try again. No javascript error logged.
Restart test IE7 and try again. No javascript error logged. 12:09 Uncommented the suspicious code and the error is logged. Let's narrow it down.
Uncommented the suspicious code and the error is logged. Let's narrow it down. 12:10 Test server has become unresponsive again, can't refresh the page. Start another server. Logon issues again. Still got an error, let's comment some more code out. Error still there, down to the last 10 lines. Just to confirm, comment them out, works again. Let’s narrow it down some more by putting alerts in. IE7 has just died again.
Test server has become unresponsive again, can't refresh the page. Start another server. Logon issues again. Still got an error, let's comment some more code out. Error still there, down to the last 10 lines. Just to confirm, comment them out, works again. Let’s narrow it down some more by putting alerts in. IE7 has just died again. 12:26 After many attempts and restarting the IE7 test server, I've found it, IE7 balked at a bit of script that I would have thought would have killed the other browsers too.. Not terrible code and I don't blame the designer (much) but it should not have run on any browser or indeed made its way in to the live environment. It was embedded halfway through the page. This is a problem with javascript, designers use it to do hacky stuff like hide menus in mobile devices and then hide the js half way down a page. They don't have the developer tools or discipline to put tests in place and no one has the time at a fast moving start-up. But it has costs, as is obvious.
After many attempts and restarting the IE7 test server, I've found it, IE7 balked at a bit of script that I would have thought would have killed the other browsers too.. Not terrible code and I don't blame the designer (much) but it should not have run on any browser or indeed made its way in to the live environment. It was embedded halfway through the page. This is a problem with javascript, designers use it to do hacky stuff like hide menus in mobile devices and then hide the js half way down a page. They don't have the developer tools or discipline to put tests in place and no one has the time at a fast moving start-up. But it has costs, as is obvious. 12:30 I'll have to fix this bug in source now, type it up and then move on to the OTHER IE7 bugs. There are more...
I'll have to fix this bug in source now, type it up and then move on to the OTHER IE7 bugs. There are more... 12:34 Realised I'll have to bring this up with the dev team because they all could write code like this that works everywhere else but IE7 and that still makes up a fair few users of this site.
Realised I'll have to bring this up with the dev team because they all could write code like this that works everywhere else but IE7 and that still makes up a fair few users of this site. 12:45 Finished one bug.
And here is the bug, a trailing comma on the list initialisers.
Thanks to copy and paste coding, this was also used elsewhere which I found out a day later.Image copyright Getty Images
Bags for life pose a food poisoning risk if they are used to carry raw foods such as meat and fish, a consumer watchdog is warning.
The Food Standards Agency says even if there is no leakage, packaging can harbour traces of harmful bacteria that can cause stomach bugs.
Shoppers should have separate bags for raw foods, ready-to-eat foods and household items such as detergent.
Reusable bags could be colour coded or labelled to avoid any mix-up, it says.
If there has been visible spillage, soiling or damage, plastic bags for life should be replaced, while fabric ones could be washed or cleaned.
"Even if there are no obvious spillages or staining after several uses, we would recommend that cotton/fabric bags for life be machine-washed regularly if they have been used for carrying raw items," the FSA website recommends in an updated post.
Contaminated food
Although instances are rare, shop-bought chicken is a potential source of infection.
Tests by the FSA have shown chicken packaging can carry a bug called campylobacter - the most common cause of food poisoning in the UK.
Campylobacter poisoning usually develops a few days after eating contaminated food and leads to symptoms that include abdominal pain, severe diarrhoea and, sometimes, vomiting.
Eggs, fish and loose vegetables with soil on can also pose a food poisoning risk, says the FSA website.
How to avoid food poisoning
What is food poisoning
Large shops in England have been charging 5p for single-use plastic carrier bags for nearly two years.
However, they are not required to charge for plastic bags for certain products - including uncooked fish, meat or poultry products.
Carrier bag charges were introduced in Wales in 2011, in Northern Ireland in 2013 and in Scotland three years ago.LONDON - One afternoon in mid-January, Prime Minister Theresa May walked into a meeting room in the Swiss resort of Davos to face Wall Street’s most powerful bankers.
May had delivered her vision two days earlier for pulling Britain out of the European Union’s single market. Now the Wall Street banks, fearing Britain was headed for trouble, wanted to hear more about her strategy.
At stake was London’s future as a global financial centre. Among those present were Lloyd Blankfein, chief executive of Goldman Sachs, Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, and James Gorman, chief executive of Morgan Stanley. Blankfein, a former gold trader raised in the Bronx who worked his way up to lead one of the world’s most powerful investment banks, was the most direct during the talks, according to two bankers and a government official with knowledge of the meeting.
“Lloyd asked where does the financial services industry stand in her list of priorities,” according to one senior banking executive briefed on the discussion by his boss. “We contribute a double-digit percentage to Britain’s GDP. We’re the biggest taxpayer in the country.”
May gave a reply about the importance of financial services but declined to answer the question directly, the sources said. Some of the bankers left questioning her commitment.
May and the banks declined to comment on the meeting.
Over the past two decades, Goldman, like many of the other 250 foreign-owned banks in Britain, has consolidated its European operations in London to take advantage of the EU’s $16.5 trillion-a-year single market.
They are set to lose this wide-open access to a market of 500 million people after May signalled her main priority is to restrict immigration, which can only be achieved by leaving the trading bloc.
Senior bankers expected special treatment from the government after Britain voted to leave the EU. They expected ministers to champion their cause, above other industries, to retain unrestricted access to the single market for financial services. It isn’t working out that way. A series of other meetings between bankers and government ministers have also ended badly, Reuters has learned.
Bankers say May’s ministers don’t understand the industry and what is at stake, and don’t want to hear negative news about Brexit. “We have entered a period of severe danger,” said a Wall Street executive who runs the European operations of a global investment bank. “Parts of the government are being way too complacent.”
“Crying wolf? When people say that, I say: how does the story end? At some point, the wolf does eat the boy.” Anthony Browne, chief executive of the British Bankers’ Association
May’s office, in a statement responding to the findings of this article, said the government didn’t “recognise this version of events.” The government is engaging intensively with the financial services industry, the statement said.
Politicians say the bankers are exaggerating the threat. Some rebalancing of the economy away from financial services – which accounts for about 12 percent of Britain’s economic output - will be good in the long run, they say.
“It is all just lobbying. They make a brouhaha,” said Peter Lilley, a pro-Brexit Conservative politician and former financier, who sits on the parliamentary committee examining Britain’s exit from the EU. “They always massively exaggerate.”
The rift is in marked contrast to what’s happening in the United States. There the populist backlash that made Donald Trump president has brought at least four former Goldman Sachs executives into senior positions in the new administration. But in Britain, the nationalist drive that produced Brexit delivered a prime minister determined not to be in thrall to bankers.
The result is that banks are preparing to move large numbers of staff from London, and Germany and France are trying to lure jobs to their financial capitals.
Some bankers believe the big winner from Brexit will be New York because some business currently carried out in London would naturally revert to U.S. headquarters.
HSBC, UBS and Morgan Stanley have decided to move about 1,000 staff each from London in the next two years, according to sources familiar with their plans. This week Goldman Sachs said it would begin moving hundreds of people out of London as part of contingency plans for Britain leaving the EU.
NOT CRYING WOLF
Since Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s “Big Bang” financial deregulation triggered a massive expansion of the industry 31 years ago, bankers have relied on being a powerhouse of Britain’s economy to find a receptive ear in government.
But in the aftermath of the vote to leave the EU, the sector is grappling with a new reality. Last year’s vote triggered a change in leadership and tone at the heart of Britain’s government. May pledged an industrial revival and to build an economy that works for everyone, not just the elite.
Reuters spoke to more than 40 senior bankers from big British and international banks, politicians, government officials and lobbyists to piece together how the relationship between these pillars of Britain’s establishment became strained.
Those people say there are conflicting opinions about what the long-term results of Brexit will be for the world’s fifth largest economy and whether finance should remain the biggest driver of its wealth.
The government is making two calculations, these people say. The first is that bank executives are bluffing over moving jobs. The second: The EU is so dependent on London to service its debt that EU negotiators will give UK financial services a special deal to continue to operate unrestricted across the single market. EU officials counter that finance is mobile and business will move to other locations.
Britain’s finance industry contributed a record 71.4 billion pounds ($88.7 billion) in corporate and employee taxes to the government last year, according to the City of London Corporation. That is an amount equal to Britain’s annual spending on primary education, the police, and the army. Put another way, finance contributes almost as much in tax as all taxpayers in Scotland and Wales combined.
Nevertheless, May’s ministers began telling bankers in the autumn they would not get any special treatment in the Brexit negotiations.
The second most powerful executive at one of Britain’s biggest banks said he and his colleagues felt wrong-footed. The executive said that he no longer receives phone calls from British cabinet ministers or invitations to Downing Street receptions as he did under previous governments.
“With May there is almost no interest or affection. She is keeping us at arm’s length,” the executive said. “I will probably never meet May.”
Brexit minister David Davis, who will decide the industry priorities in the upcoming Brexit talks, rammed home the message that the government’s relationship with the financial sector was changing in his first few meetings with bankers.
Davis, a Eurosceptic from a working class background, bristles at being told what to do by bankers, according to colleagues and people who interact with him. Davis declined to comment.
In an early phone conversation, he told one executive that the finance industry had damaged its relationship with the government by saying the economy would suffer from reduced immigration. The EU vote had delivered a clear message that immigration must be curbed, he said.
Davis publicly attacked banks in October in parliament. He accused them of “an extraordinary outpouring almost of grief, a ‘blame Brexit’ festival,” and of lying that they were going to fire staff because of Brexit. Davis’s aides also warned executives they need to be more positive about the opportunities of Brexit if the government is going to listen to them, two banking sources said.
Bank executives complain they feel they can’t speak freely. “Everyone is worried about stoking up the Brexiteers, fuelling the flames,” said the chairman of one of Britain’s biggest insurance companies.
A government official said the bankers’ portrayal of the relationship doesn’t accurately reflect the character of the meetings or the tone of the Davis team’s engagement with financial services firms. The official declined to go into specifics.
“London doesn’t have a divine right to continue being a world leading financial centre. We shouldn’t be complacent about it. It all depends on whether we maintain the right environment.” Mark Boleat, chair of policy at the City of London Corporation
The appointment of Simon Kirby as minister responsible for financial services further raised concerns among some bankers. They doubted that Kirby, who founded a radio station and a chain of nightclubs before going into politics, was suitable to be the main government liaison to the industry, these bankers said.
In November, many of the most senior executives and chairmen of Britain’s finance companies met him for the first time. Kirby failed to answer basic questions about the government’s policy towards financial services, according to people who attended.
“It was almost like he didn’t know what a bank is or what it does,” said one of the people present.
Kirby declined to comment.
A few weeks ago Kirby was quietly removed from his Brexit role. He will continue to work in the finance ministry, with responsibility for areas including regulation. The Treasury said it wanted a new minister to focus on assessing Brexit’s impact on financial services.
MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE
Jacob Rees-Mogg, a Conservative lawmaker and financier, says the government is relaxed about bankers’ threats because the vote was a rejection of an economic system that benefited the banks.
“It’s condescension from the clever people, the masters of the universe,” he said. “They don’t like the fact that they’ve been overruled by the people who voted for Brexit.”
He said banks historically don’t follow through on their threats.
At the turn of the century, some financial sector executives warned the failure to join the euro would lead to a withering in London’s role as a hub for business. And after the 2007-09 financial crisis many banks also threatened to move operations overseas. On both occasions, Britain’s finance sector expanded.
Shanker Singham, a trade expert who has held meetings with the Brexit department, told Reuters the government has also been frustrated with the banks because they exaggerated how much they depended on EU “passporting,” a set of regulatory agreements that allowed them to sell services across Europe.
Yet earlier this year, the industry quietly ditched its insistence on passporting. Instead, it made a plea for time to adapt to a post-Brexit world after the two-year divorce talks end in March 2019 and proposed an alternative idea, known as “enhanced equivalence.”
This would give firms from a non-EU country access to the bloc if their home rules are similar.
“If you ask your chief trade negotiator, May in this case, to ask for something you can’t live without, and it turns out you can live without it, that’s very bad negotiating tactics,” Singham said.
Anthony Browne, chief executive of the British Bankers’ Association, dismissed accusations the sector, which largely wanted to stay in the EU, was being alarmist. He reminds people of the ending of a well-known parable.
“Crying wolf? When people say that I say, how does the story end? At some point, the wolf does eat the boy,” he said.
NO DIVINE RIGHT
A decade ago, things were far simpler. Bankers were courted by both main political parties who wanted to spend the tax revenues generated by the sector.
One government official working under Prime Minister Gordon Brown in 2007 remembers the banks were invited into Downing Street every six months to be asked what the government could do to make their lives easier.
Then came the financial crisis. As in the United States, many Britons began to accuse the financial services sector of benefiting more from the nation than it contributes.
A minister in the government of former prime minister David Cameron said that the cosy relationship between financial services and British governments appears to be temporarily over under May.
“There has been a bit of a revolution, an end to the old world order,” he said.
Junior finance minister Lucy Neville-Rolfe has sought to calm tensions, telling Reuters that banks will be one of the priorities in the EU divorce talks.
“People rightly speak up and express their concerns, and the banks have always been quite fast to do that,” she said. “But I think we have a very strong relationship. They know that we are huge supporters.”
But the banks in Britain are planning for the worst. They are working on contingencies to move staff and business lines from London, assuming the negotiations with the EU end without an adequate |
concepts of Vampires and Werewolves in this universe and how a human is turned into each one, while also showcasing the politics and relationships shared by the different supernaturals within their own kin and among the rest of the creatures of the night.
The story takes place in Chicago and focuses on two human women, Anita and Marsha, who find themselves thrust into the crossfire of a squabble between a resident Werewolf and the insidious vampire organization known as the necropolis.
I am hoping to turn most if not ALL of Trinity Bridge into an ongoing online novel and audiodrama series along with my other projects.
To do this however, I will need help from some talented and devoted voice actors to get this project off the ground and bring these characters to life. I currently have the scripts for chapters 1 & 2 finished and ready for production with more chapters on the way.
As far as payment goes, sadly, there is little I can afford to spare just yet. Hopefully if/when the series takes off, I can and hope to start a more profitable and stable pay roll. But until then, I must ask you do this as a labor of love.
RULES FOR AUDITIONING
1. Have a decent mic. It doesn't have to be uber pro level sound but If it sounds like headset or phone quality, you're out.
2. Act professional. I mean that in every sense of the word. When we are communicating I ask that you keep a professional and mature demeanor towards us and any of your fellow actors during audition and throughout production. When literally acting, be sure to give it your all and give me a believable performance. You don't need any prior acting experience to do be considered, just give me the best you got and I'll listen and consider you.
Feel free to audition for multiple parts. There is a chance you can be cast as multiple rolls should you desire it.
I believe that is all of the relevant information I need to say for now. I look forward to hearing your voices and hopefully working with you in the near future.There are already a plethora of food and drink options ready for Braves opening day on April 14, and now a bourbon bar has been added to the mix.
Located on the first base side of the Terrace Level of SunTrust Park, The Coopers’ Craft Bourbon Bar will serve up custom cocktails with a focus on two-to-three ingredient drinks. The Braves Bramble – the bar's signature cocktail -- is made with bourbon, smoked rosemary and blackberry syrup, and topped with lemon-lime soft drink known as the Blackberry Smoke.
Coopers’ Craft has been produced in Lousiville since July 2016 and is available in several Southeast states including Georgia, Alabama, Florida and Louisiana.
MORE:
What are concessions prices at SunTrust Park?
Where to eat and drink at The Battery at SunTrust Park
Sneak peek at what foods you’ll find inside SunTrust Park
What you can and can’t bring into SunTrust Park
Where to park at SunTrust Park
Read more stories like this by liking Atlanta Restaurant Scene on Facebook, following @ATLDiningNews on Twitter and @ajcdining on Instagram.Isis Brantley’s Fight for Economic Liberty
Isis Brantley is an expert African hair braider. Her decades of experience have allowed her to work with everyone from Grammy-award-winning artist Erykah Badu to clients whose hair has been damaged by the use of chemicals and practices taught at state-licensed cosmetology schools. For nearly 30 years, Isis has taught African hair braiding to everyone from out-of-work women seeking a new skill as a first step on the economic ladder to state-licensed cosmetologists interested in learning the art of African hair braiding.
In this lawsuit, Isis seeks to vindicate the right of African hair braiding instructors to earn an honest living free from unreasonable government interference, so that she may teach her craft to the next generation of braiders who want to earn their living braiding hair. Though Isis has been teaching African hair braiding for decades, the state of Texas refuses to accept the instruction she provides her students in satisfaction of the state’s 35-hour hair braiding license.
History and Art of African Hair Braiding
The art and foundation of “traditional” or “natural” hair braiding traces back thousands of years to Africa. Today, thousands of practitioners engage in the intricate crafts of twisting, braiding, weaving and locking natural styles, mostly for African-American clients whose characteristically textured hair is perfect for such styling. These distinct techniques are generally grouped together under the rubric of “natural hair care” because they do not use any chemicals, heat, or other artificial hairstyling techniques.
Hair braiding is more than a means of entrepreneurship; it is an important form of cultural expression. More recently, traditional African hairstyles geared toward the natural texture and beauty of black hair have re-emerged and steadily gained popularity. The hairstyles are a form of artistic, cultural, and individualized expression, and the techniques avoid serious damage that can occur when hair is treated with chemicals and other artificial products.
Nationwide, natural hair care has grown into a thriving industry. Because it requires fairly little capital and modest training, in a free and open market the natural hair care industry would have unlimited potential to provide entrepreneurial and employment opportunities, as well as popular services and products to millions of consumers.
But due to cosmetology and barber licensing laws in all 50 states, mainstream barbers and cosmetologists, trained in Western hair care techniques, have a virtual monopoly over all forms of hairstyling, including braiding (though several states have deregulated the hair braiding industry[1]). Most hair braiders are thus forced to operate underground, and many would-be practitioners are discouraged altogether. As a result, natural hair care providers are consigned to the status of an outsider, still fighting for their right to economic liberty.
Isis Brantley’s Decades-Long Fight for the Right to Braid
Isis Brantley, who has worked as a professional African hair braider in Dallas, Texas, since 1979, is no stranger to the fight between natural hair care providers and cosmetology licensing boards. For years, however, the state of Texas imposed the state’s full-blown 1500-hour cosmetology license on African hair braiders, prohibiting them from braiding for a living unless they became licensed cosmetologists.
Isis’s personal fight first began in 1997 when several undercover officers entered Isis’s hair braiding shop and arrested her for braiding hair without a cosmetology license. That experience made Isis a passionate advocate of the rights of braiders.
After ten years of advocacy, in 2007, the Texas Legislature passed, and the governor signed, HB 2106 during the 80th Regular Session, which freed braiders from the state’s cosmetology-licensing requirement. In its place, HB 2106 created Texas’s 35-hour hair braiding license, and inserted the license under Texas’s barbering statute.[2] Isis Brantley was granted a hair braiding license after demonstrating that she had practiced hair braiding in Texas for at least 10 years.
Unfortunately, while HB 2106 freed Isis to braid, it also created new legal challenges. In addition to selling her services as a braider, Isis has also taught hair braiding at her business—the Institute of Ancestral Braiding—which she opened almost twenty years ago at 2642 South Beckley in Dallas, Texas. Under the new law, however, Isis’s classes cannot be used to satisfy Texas’s 35-hour instruction requirement for hair braiders.
Because Texas wedged its hair braiding license into the state’s barbering statute, Isis must now become a licensed barber instructor and convert her hair braiding school into a 2,000 square foot barber college before Texas will allow the students she teaches to qualify for Texas’s hair braiding license. The Institute for Justice is representing both Isis and her hair braiding business, The Institute of Ancestral Braiding, located at 2642 South Beckley in Dallas, Texas.
Texas’s Licensing Scheme
In Texas, hair braiding is considered both “barbering” [3] and “cosmetology,”[4] and requires a license.[5] Applicants for a “Hair Braiding Specialty Certificate of Registration” must sit through a 35-hour “commission approved training program” before obtaining a license to braid hair.[6] The hair braiding curriculum consists of eleven hours of “technical skills,” sixteen hours covering health and safety regulations, and eight hours addressing “hair analysis and scalp care.”[7]
Isis is legally allowed to teach that course right now, but only if she does so at a state-licensed barber school. Under Texas’s new law, to teach the course at her own school, Isis must first attend barber school for 2,250 hours, build a state-licensed barber college she does not need and pass four examinations just so she can teach a 35-hour hair braiding curriculum that is impossible to fail because the state requires no exam at the end.
The Barber Instructor Requirement
On June 25, 2013, the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (“TDLR”) notified Isis that, in order to teach hair braiding at her own hair braiding school, she must first become a state-licensed barber instructor, a process that takes months and costs thousands of dollars.[8] The requirements include completing a 1500-hour curriculum for a class-A barber license; a 750-hour curriculum for barber instructors; and passing four exams, a written and practical exam for each the class-A barber license and barber instructor license.”[9]
Adding insult to injury, the 1500-hour curriculum for the class-A barber license is wholly irrelevant to African hair braiding and includes, among other things: cutting hair (800 hours); shaving (80 hours); shampooing and rinsing (40 hours); bleaching hair using chemicals (30 hours); straightening hair using chemicals (25 hours); and studying beards and mustaches (15 hours).[10]
The eligibility requirements for becoming a state-licensed barber instructor are also irrelevant to hair braiding, and include completing 750 hours of instruction in “barber courses and methods of teaching in a barber school.”[11] The required curriculum for obtaining the 750-hour barber instructor license includes spending at least 350 hours “assisting with students” who are attending barber college to become barbers, and 150 hours assisting barber instructors to teach barbering theory.[12]
Finally, although Texas has no exam requirement for its 35-hour hair braiding license, Texas requires candidates seeking to teach the 35-hour hair braiding curriculum for licensure to pass four examinations, consisting of a written and practical exam for both the class-A barber license and the “Barber Instructor License.”[13] Neither of these exams tests anything about hair braiding.
The Barber School Requirement
In addition to being forced to become licensed as a barber instructor, Isis is also being required to needlessly convert her existing hair braiding business into a barber school. That process would cost her over $20,000 and quadruple her current monthly rent. In addition, Isis must comply with a long list of other unreasonable requirements, including: (1) maintaining a facility with a minimum of 2,000 square feet of floor space;[14] (2) ensuring she has at least ten student workstations with reclining chairs, at least ten classroom chairs, an instructor’s desk, a back bar, mirrors and no less than five sinks;[15] (3) providing barbering textbooks to her students;[16] (4) requiring that each hair braiding student have thirteen separate “personal tools” for barbering and prohibiting them from taking classes unless they have them;[17] and (5) requiring that Isis’s hair braiding school purchase items that have nothing to do with hair braiding, including a wig, a hairpiece, and a hooded hair dryer.[18]
The barber school permit application even requires Isis to place signs on the front of her hair braiding school and on each interior wall that say “BARBER SCHOOL – STUDENT BARBERS,” which is literally false—she would not be teaching barbering and her students would not be student barbers.[19]
It is arbitrary and unreasonable for Texas to impose these requirements on African hair braiding instructors. African hair braiders aren’t barbers, and braiding instructors shouldn’t be forced to build barber schools or take classes from barbers.
Legal Challenge: The Constitutional Right to Earn an Honest Living
Isis Brantley has fought the state of Texas before, and she’s ready to fight them again. That is why she is asking a federal court to vindicate her constitutional right to earn an honest living free from unreasonable government interference. She has teamed up with the Institute for Justice and filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas against the executive director of TDLR in his official capacity, and the commissioners on the Texas Commission of Licensing and Regulation in their official capacities. Enforcement of Texas’s barbering occupational licensing laws and regulations by the state deny Isis her rights under the Due Process, Equal Protection, and Privileges or Immunities Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.
The Fourteenth Amendment protects economic liberty—the right to earn an honest living free from unreasonable government interference. Texas’s licensing scheme violates this right. Because Isis could teach exactly the same material in exactly the same way if she did so at a competing school, the law does not address any health or safety concerns. Instead, the law arbitrarily forces African hair braiding instructors to obtain an unnecessary barber instructor’s license and meet Texas’s irrelevant standards for barber schools before they can teach the thirty-five hour hair braiding curriculum required by the government to students seeking to work as hair braiders. That’s not just bad policy, it’s unconstitutional.
Occupational Licensing: A Nationwide Problem
Unfortunately, Isis’s situation is just one illustration of a nationwide epidemic of occupational licensing. By restricting entry into trades and professions, many occupational licensing laws needlessly cut off the bottom rungs of the economic ladder, particularly for people with little capital or few skills. Occupations requiring government licenses include not only the medical, legal and other highly specialized professions, but also professions in which justification for restrictions on entry is virtually nonexistent. In the 1950s, less than five percent of the workforce was required to obtain a government license to do their job.[20] Today, that number exceeds 30 percent.[21] The Institute for Justice report, “License to Work: A National Study of Burdens from Occupational Licensing,” shows that for lower-income Americans, these government-imposed “occupational licensing” hurdles are not only widespread, but often unreasonably high.
Research shows that occupational licensing laws make it more difficult for people—especially poor, minority, immigrant and older workers—to start or change careers, and these laws do little more than protect industry insiders from new competition. Typically, licensing boards are composed of members of the regulated profession, with the coercive power of government at their disposal. As a result, licensing requirements often have nothing to do with public health and safety, and everything to do with restricting competition from newcomers. As economist Walter Williams observes, these laws and regulations “discriminate against certain people,” particularly “outsiders, latecomers and the resourceless,” among whom members of minority groups disproportionately are represented.[22]
Litigation Team
IJ Attorney Arif Panju will lead the litigation team, assisted by Matt Miller, Executive Director for the Institute for Justice Texas Chapter. IJ litigates across the country for economic liberty, private property rights, educational choice, free speech, and other vital liberties secured by the United States and state constitutions.
The Institute for Justice is the national law firm for liberty, and has successfully represented hair braiders and other entrepreneurs in state and federal lawsuit nationwide. For more on the Institute for Justice and its work, visit www.ij.org.
[1] See, e.g., Ariz. Rev Stat. § 32-506(10); Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 7316(d)(2).
[2] The 35-hour hair braiding license is now contained in Tex. Occ. Code § 1601.259, 16 Tex. Admin. Code §§ 82.20(h), 82.120(k).
[3] Tex. Occ. Code § 1601.002(1)(K).
[4] Tex. Occ. Code § 1602.002(a)(2).
[5] Id. at § 1601.251.
[6] Id. at § 1601.259.
[7] 16 Tex. Admin. Code § 82.120(k).
[8] See Letter from Lynn Latombe, Assistant General Counsel, Texas Dept. of Licensing and Regulation, to Isis Brantley (June 25, 2013) (on file with IJ-TX).
[9] Tex. Occ. Code §§ 1601.253(2), 1601.254(4)-(5); 16 Tex. Admin. Code §§ 82.20(c)-(d), 82.21(c)-(d), 82.120(b),(d).
[10] 16 Tex. Admin. Code § 82.120(d).
[11] Tex. Occ. Code § 1601.254(b).
[12] See 16 Tex. Admin. § Code 82.120(b).
[13] 16 Tex. Admin. Code § 82.21(c)-(d).
[14] Id. at § 1601.353(1)(A).
[15] Id. at § 1601.353(2), 16 TEX. ADMIN. CODE § 82.72(h)(9).
[16] 16 Tex. Admin. Code § 82.72(e). The required courses include haircutting, shaving, shampooing, bleaching and dyeing hair, administration of facial treatments, scientific fundamentals of barbering, the laws governing the practice of barbering, hygienic bacteriology, and the history of the hair, skin, muscles, and nerves.
[17] Id. at § 82.72(f)(1)-(13).
[18] Id. At § 82.72(l).
[19] Tex. Occ. Code § 1601.553; see also Barber School Permit Application Instructions, Texas Department of Licensing (“Required Facilities and Equipment Checklist”).
[20] Morris M. Kleiner, Licensing occupations: Ensuring quality or restricting competition, at 1 (Kalamazoo, MI: Upjohn Institute, 2006).
[21] Morris M. Kleiner & Alan B. Krueger, Analyzing the Extent and Influence of Occupational Licensing on the Labor Market, NBER Working Paper Series #14979, available at http://www.nber.org/papers/w14979.
[22] Walter Williams, The State Against Blacks (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1982), p. xvi.Two important packages traveled the United Kingdom via FedEx recently, but one was arguably more replaceable and less important than the other. One package contained a Kindle headed for a residential address in Bristol, and the other contained part of a tumor bound for a hospital in London, about 120 miles away. The Amazon customer who found a tumor instead of an e-reader was understandably rather confused.
How does that kind of thing happen? Amazon hasn’t started selling tumors that we know of; the mixup happened somehow though FedEx, which shipped both packages.
The customer observed that the tracking numbers on the tumor package and on his Kindle package had some digits in common at the beginning and end, but that shouldn’t have been enough to cause a mixup.
“I haven’t opened the sealed box, which says exempt patient tissue, as it doesn’t belong to me,” the aspiring Kindle owner told the BBC. Since then, FedEx has stopped by to pick up the mystery tumor, but the Kindle hasn’t showed up yet. That’s okay: electronic devices are interchangeable and replaceable; medical samples aren’t necessarily.
Man orders Kindle and receives ‘tumour sample’ in courier mix-up [BBC]Half-Life: Dreamcast is a PC port of the unreleased Sega Dreamcast console version of Half-Life developed by Gearbox Software originally slated for release in late 2000. The Dreamcast version possesses many unique differences compared to the original PC game and Gearbox's later PlayStation 2 port, including modified levels, exclusive NPC models and props not seen anywhere else, adjusted difficulty, and a host of sly Dreamcast references hidden throughout, making it a worthwhile curiosity that any true Half-Life fan would want check out. This PC port allows the game to run as a Half-Life mod on Steam.
Prepare to run, think, shoot, and live once again in the Dreamcast experience you've never experienced!
Mod Features:
• Different Maps - The map alterations range from minor geometry fixes and lighting adjustments to entirely revamped areas. Several locations have been redesigned with performance and gameplay in mind while entirely new rooms have been added in some places to introduce another obstacle or puzzle to overcome. One entire level was even cut! Can you determine the missing map?
• Different Models - The Dreamcast version is host to a number of exclusive models not seen in any other version of Half-Life, including the High Definition pack and the PlayStation 2 port. Can you find the hidden VMU and Half-Life Dreamcast disc?
• Revamped Menu - Included is a new splash screen, menu background, menu color scheme, and menu sounds to closely emulate the Dreamcast's fancy interface.
• High quality soundtrack - Emulates the CD quality music used in the console version, overriding the default 48kbps mp3s on Steam.
• Tweaked Difficulty - To accommodate the difficulty of playing with a controller, Gearbox suitably rebalanced the monster spawns as well as enemy health and damage values.
• Password Notifications - Although the password system itself cannot be ported, all password messages that appear in normal gameplay have been brought over.
• The Little Differences - Too small to be noted in a bullet point, but true Half-life fans should be able to spot these in a heartbeat when they see (or hear!) them.
Original Developers:
Valve Software - Developing Half-Life
Gearbox Software - Developing the console port
Joachim Barrum - Half-Life GamePro cover illustration
PC Port Mod Team:
Revenant100 aka Marphy Black - Porting, copy+pasting
Barnz - Feedback, technical support, historical research
Besli - Master of the model archive
Video Trailer Mirror on YouTube:WASHINGTON — For John Boehner and Mitch McConnell, the honeymoon is over.
The 114th Congress was supposed to be a Golden Era for the Republicans to flex their muscle in the twilight of Barack Obama’s presidency with their largest congressional majority in generations.
But the relationship between the emotional and jocular House speaker and the chilly and introverted Senate majority leader is already strained less than two months into the new era of Republican control.
The two leaders met privately on Wednesday, hours after Boehner’s surprising admission that they hadn’t spoken in two weeks. They face their first monumental test, on how to fund the Department of Homeland Security while placating their base’s fury over Obama’s unilateral initiatives on immigration to shield millions of people from deportation.
“You know, our staff talk back and forth and — listen, Senator McConnell has got a big job to do. So do I,” Boehner said, when asked about the lack of communication between the two.
But, a reporter protested, wasn’t it important that they speak to each other about an issue as important as keeping Homeland Security running?
“Our staffs have been talking back and forth,” he repeated.
McConnell teamed up with Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) on Wednesday to advance the first stage of a plan to fund DHS without the immigration provisions. Their deal, pushed without Boehner’s support, jams the Speaker between forcing a shutdown and imperiling his leadership within his conference.
“I don’t know what the House will do,” McConnell told reporters Tuesday after announcing the tentative agreement with Reid.
Democrats are taking some glee in the Boehner-McConnell relationship woes.
“There’s trouble in paradise,” Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) said with a chuckle. “I don’t understand. Let them explain their relationship.”
Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell on December 10, 2014. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
It would be a mistake to assume the problems are personal between Boehner and McConnell. In fact, the two men who have enjoyed what was by most accounts a warm relationship for the previous eight years leading their conferences despite having very different personalities. “I know they have a good relationship, but I don’t know enough about the details of what’s going on to comment, really,” Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) told TPM.
The current rift is structural, a product of the mismatch in expectations and incentives given the unique internal and electoral dynamics of the House and the Senate.
Unlike Boehner, McConnell needs bipartisan support to govern, given Democrats’ aggressive use of the filibuster. Unlike House Republicans, most of whom hail from safe GOP districts and only have to worry about right-wing challengers, McConnell’s majority faces a serious threat in 2016 — he has 24 members facing reelection (while Democrats have 12 seats in play), a half-dozen in blue states whose political lives depend on appealing to a broader electorate.
Internally, too, they face different landscapes. Boehner deals with constant threats to his speakership from within — he faced a record 25 defections in January, and his leadership is again threatened if he caves in the DHS funding fight. McConnell, meanwhile, has a strong hold over his conference and was unanimously elected majority leader after the 2014 election.
“This is what sets up the next two years,” Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) told reporters this week. “If we’re gonna let Harry Reid dictate what the House can pass and can do now, then for the next 22 months that’s what we’ll expect, which would be very disappointing for conservatives.”
The discord was on display earlier this month when McConnell, facing repeated Democratic filibusters on House-passed legislation to fund DHS and block Obama’s immigration moves, said it was up to the House to pass a different bill. Boehner swiftly rejected the plea.
“I love Mitch,” the Speaker snarked. Then he tossed the ball back in McConnell’s court.
The DHS funding fight is just the beginning. The Boehner-McConnell relationship will face many tough challenges in the coming months, including passing a budget, dealing with a Supreme Court ruling that could throw the health care system in disarray, raising the debt limit and keeping the government open this fall when funding expires again.
If their current struggles are any indication it will be a long two years for both leaders.
“I don’t know their relationship,” House Appropriations Chair Hal Rogers (R-KY), a Boehner ally, told reporters. “There’s such a thing as staff that do things when us leaders may be silent.”Yuval Steinitz is not impressed. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli officials said on Saturday they were not surprised by allegations the United States and Britain had spied on the country's leaders and played down the importance of any information its allies may have gleaned.
Leaked documents from former U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden published on Friday showed the NSA and its British counterpart GCHQ had in 2009 targeted an email address listed as belonging to the Israeli prime minister and monitored emails of senior defense officials.
"Our working assumption is that not only Arab states but also world powers, including friendly ones, try to follow us," Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz told Israel's Channel 2 television.
Israel therefore takes the necessary precautions, he said, and secret information is never transmitted over "regular phones and email systems".
The office of Ehud Olmert, who at the time was Israel's prime minister, said in a statement that the reports, if accurate, referred to a public email address.
"The chances that security or intelligence damage was caused from the breaking in to this email address were minuscule," the statement said.
Steinitz emphasized the close intelligence ties between Israel and the two countries.
(Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch; editing by Andrew Roche)Previously in this space we saw how the bright future of Epiphany looked like, and vague promises about incremental steps towards it were done. A month later, Epiphany 3.3.4 is out there, so let’s see how well we’ve done.
There’s a lot of new stuff here, so let’s go step by step.
Application menu
The application menu, accessible from its usual location in the Shell, holds actions that affect the entire application as opposed to the currently focused window or tab. You’ll need a fairly recent version of the Shell and gnome-settings-daemon (3.3.4 of both should do, when they are out) to get it working, otherwise the browser will fallback to a lonely “Application” entry in a now deserted menubar.
Also, notice that we now brand ourselves as “Web” in all user visible strings.
New toolbar
The bulk of the changes are here. As you can see the Back and Forward buttons have been visually merged, a fate shared by the location entry and the reload/stop button. The entire menubar is gone, being replaced by a “super menu” triggered by the funny looking button with a gear (more on this later). Everything else that used to be in the default toolbar layout is now gone, as is the ability to edit its contents, making the concept of a default layout more dramatic. Finally, we use a new style for the toolbar, making it seamlessly merge with the window decoration. We think it looks great!
Super menu
In the quest to save as much vertical space as possible in the default layout we have moved all the remaining actions of our menubar into a side “super menu”. Here will live actions related to the current page, although for the moment we have some visitors there en route to their new destination (like the Bookmarks menu, which will live in the new Overview).
The devil is in the details
A lot of other small tweaks and cleanups have happened, too many to mention. From a renewed floating statusbar (now shared with Nautilus), to spacing tweaks, to more thorough use of symbolic icons throughout the UI. Special thanks go to the Design Team, it’s a pleasure to work with them in both the small details and in the big picture re-designs.
Also, one benefit of having a renewed design focus is that it allows you to do this:
135 files changed, 14988 insertions(+), 26958 deletions(-)
Around 12,000 lines of code have been deleted since 3.3.2; the biggest chunk comes from the demise of EphyToolbarEditor and friends, but in other places we have just managed to do the same, or more, with less. This means more energy devoted to make Epiphany really good at what it should be doing, which is what every core GNOME application should aspire to do.
More to come
This is only the beginning, not the end. The Epiphany team will now continue full steam ahead to implement the new Overview, merge the new SQLite history backend, port our extension system to libpeas and many other exciting features, maybe including some surprise gift in the Web Application camp. Stay tuned to this space and, as usual, happy hacking!It is said that those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. But sometimes the only way to unravel a horrific event is to re-live it, to open old scars. It is a path not into the light but into deep, abysmal darkness; to the burned-out grave of the Nek… and what lies beneath.
PREACHER, PROPHET, SOLDIER, SPY
Mine 3, The Nekropolis, Brimstone
——————————————————————
Ed held out a tumbler of translucent liquid. “Mucus?”
Given the unblinking stares from the Xi’An standing around the shrine I took the glass, snarling at Ed through a forced smile. “Funny.”
I cautiously tipped the glass a few degrees, watching the viscous fluid resist the change in orientation, then leaned into his shoulder and asked “What is this stuff really?”
Ed gave me a sideways glance, one eyebrow cocked up for a moment before he nodded at the tumbler. “Mucus. Really. Polymer gel secreted by the Jīnshǔ kuài, a rare Xi’An gastropod.” In response to what was doubtlessly a dead-blank look on my face, Ed clarified. “Snail slime. It’s a delicacy. Drink up.”
The line of green tortoise-faces raised their glasses, clearly waiting on my lead. Ed reached over and tinked his glass against mine. His grin was malevolent.
“There will never be an eighth Ed,” I hissed, and threw back the glass. The group followed suit with a rumble of throaty gullet-sounds I took for approval. I didn’t utter a word, terrified that if my teeth unclenched the contents of my entire digestive tract would spray across the jade heads evenly spaced around the shrine. Odds are that would be some kind of insult.
Despite his obvious amusement at my expense, Ed got down to business, speaking to the group in some ancient Xi’An tongue, ‘formal Zhou’ he called it. The nasal, wet-sounding speech was supposedly the language of the enlightened, the highborn; not the trashy Guóyǔ spat out by the unwashed masses. To my ear it sounded like a frog hocking up a lunger. I caught a few words here and there, phrases laced with that curt, head-forward nod they do, followed by a hand gesture in my direction and the word ‘Jiàoshòu.’ More nods; I tried to return the gesture as best I could. Then I remembered the translator and tapped the device stuck in my right ear.
“— the course of a forensic examination, the Doctor discovered something curious, which he brought to my attention.”
Ed had convinced me to stick as close to the truth as possible, at least until we had some idea what all this shit meant. We wouldn’t lead with all of the details, but we’d be straight about the ones we did share.
With both hands Ed presented them with an envelope that contained a print of the futhark, which they accepted with equal formality. Apparently the act of reducing something to print gave it additional gravitas in Xi’An culture, made it a tad bit more valuable than just a block of digits in a memory brick. I watched carefully as they unwound the ribbon closure and pulled the holoprint into view.
Now I don’t speak turtle and I sure as hell don’t know my way around a Shū lā, but one thing I’m damn good at is poker. I saw spines stiffen up under layers of silk and brocade hanfu, watched eyelids draw back and nostrils flare. One of the Xi’An, a lower-ranking member of the group standing to my immediate right, even sucked in a tiny croak. The holoprint hit the reptiles like a bad river card smacks a guy who just went all in.
From the center of the group Dàshǐ Kuang glared and made a dismissive gesture. His entourage bowed, backed away and scuttled off. In a moment only the three of us stood in the company of the Xi’An’s revered dead.
A Dàshǐ was a cultural and religious ambassador of sorts, at least thats how it was pitched. But Ed had explained beforehand that Kuang was part of an order that, in Xi’An society, crossed various lines of authority; preacher, prophet, soldier, spy. It goes to reason that if you trust a guy to deliver the word of the gods, he was good to go with state secrets as well.
I was willing to bet that Kuang had some knowledge of the whole futhark thing, likely more than he wanted to tell. But I watched him lean forward, murmuring softly as he lit a tapered joss, and it struck me that he wanted to know more. There was about to be some horse-trading and unless I missed my guess, Kuang was deciding how much he was willing to ante up.
“Mòrì,” he said softly, still facing the shrine. A curl of smoke rose from the freshly lit incense.
Ed nodded, his voice somber. He paused for a moment, then said for my benefit, “Doomsday.”
Kuang turned, his face as inscrutable as those of his carved-jade ancestors. “The Shèngjīng of Chong Whey,” watching my expression he paused, sighed and re-set. “The scriptures of a revered prophet, speaks of the end times, the apocalypse, an event harbingered by the opening of the Ménhù.”
The translator hiccuped on the last word, a reference too obscure for its database. I looked at Ed.
“A portal,” he said with a ‘more or less’ waggle of his hand. “Metaphorically a door, Mén, but back in the day Ménhù Dìyù was one of those terms that appeared in a number of religious writings. In English it would be something like the Gates of Hell.”
Something like— I damn near swallowed my tongue. “That’s not one of those terms that has a bunch of other meanings, is it?”
Ed shook his head slowly, expression dour.
If that left hook hadn’t been enough, Kuang followed it up with a roundhouse right. “We believe the Ménhù is here.”
For a moment the sense of surreal threatened to overwhelm me. Part of me wanted to laugh at the joke but nobody else was smiling. Then again, I was in a mineshaft below the Nek, talking with seven Eds in one brain and a six-foot turtle dressed in Kung-Fu movie robes. Why should the Gates of Hell seem at all implausible?
“Let me get this straight.” I tried to regroup but couldn’t manage the words, much less the concept. “You think a gateway… to Hell… is going to open up… right here?”
Kuang gave me a long, hard look, then turned to Ed. Something passed between them, unspoken but tangible. Kuang turned back to the shrine; it was Ed who spoke.
“Look, prophecy, religion, scripture, these things are a lot more literal in Xi’An culture than they are with mankind.”
“What aren’t you telling me Ed?”
He chuffed. “To get that answer you gotta tell me, are you in or are you out?”
“In or out of what Ed?”
He looked me in the eye, his demeanor turning to stone. “Everything Doc; down the rabbit hole, take the red pill, talk to the man behind the curtain. But…” he paused, “when I say there is no going back, I mean there isn’t even a waver. You try to get off this train once it pulls out of the station, you even talk about the train to anyone, and things will |
it’s hard to imagine a time before birth control, when married women had no control over the size of their families. It seems positively uncivilized. Margaret is seeing this vividly in Mrs. Shearer and is determined to help her.
Proactive women abound in this episode. Esther Randolph attends a meeting with Nucky and Gaston Means. They’re setting things in motion to make Remus the hooch-runner patsy, and bring down Attorney General Harry Dougherty—who, let’s face it—is kind of an ass. Esther doesn’t like hearing that her bosses and colleagues are crooked. Esther’s presence is more than worth it when she tells Nucky how she spends her free time:
I like to run naked through the pages of
The United States Criminal Code.
The plan moves ahead, with a meeting arranged between Nucky and Andrew Mellon, played by a fantastic James Cromwell. Cromwell is one to watch this season, as he is also slayin’ it on American Horror Story: Asylum. Meetings also take place between Billie and some movie executives. She gives a great screen test, playing the funny, supporting chorus girl—then called the Pony in industry parlance. Movie stardom appears to be in her future. Owen and Margaret have a meeting of their own, and I can’t help but like seeing them together. When Nucky finally does meet with Andrew Mellon, he winds up being escorted from the premises.
The man to watch this week was definitely Nelson Van Alden—or George Mueller as he’s known these days. He hasn’t been sleeping much since the drip of the distillery keeps him awake. He’s still a wanted killer, a terrible iron salesman, his ex-wife hates him, and he’s got a new wife and two kids to feed. He recently had to dispose of the body of a man murdered by his wife. And now he’s got to deal with that prankster asshole Phil.
Even when Nelson was just a humble FBI agent diligently trying to enforce the Volstead Act, he had issues. He was humorless, joyless, and killed a guy essentially for being Jewish and therefore disrespecting Jesus. Not cool. It’s not entirely surprising that Nelson would reach a breaking point with Phil. Seriously, fuck Phil and his bullshit. Nelson Hulks out, ironing Phil’s face, smashing equipment, and causing the rest of the office to run for cover in a panic. He flashes us some Crazy Eyes, puts his hat on, and goes home. I’d have liked to see him punch the time clock, but you can’t have everything, I guess. Watch for the stickiness when they pull the iron off Phil’s face. Yikes!
The next face mangling of the week happens to Gilbert The Sheik, who is found cavorting with Billie and a friend in Billie’s apartment. Nucky picks a fight with the actor, and cleans his friggin’ clock. Billie doesn’t care for the violence, the jealousy, or the fact that Nucky only knows how to show love through money. Money means security to him, so he shares it with the people he loves. He might instead try not being such a selfish jerk. When Nucky comes back to Billie with a kiss-and-makeup-annuity, she’s not that in to it.
The rest the episode proceeds at a fast clip. Gillian buys Lucky out of his share of the brothel. She gets a loan from a new benefactor—in the form of one Gyp Rosetti. Margaret forgets the lessons of her own health class when she forgets that diaphragms are more effective when inserted before intercourse. She asks for a diaphragm for her and one for Mrs. Shearer. Andrew Mellon calls Nucky to tell him that the deal is a go, but that their own intercourse is concluded.
Gillian treats her new partner to some information about her old partner. Feigning ignorance, she tells Rosetti that Lucky Luciano, Arnold Rothstein, and Nucky will all be at Babette’s that night, and that Gyp might want to surprise them. He does. I imagine the owner of Babette’s was surprised as well.
The episode ends with Nelson selling the surplus booze that his awesome wife has been making. Nucky and a newly bleached Billie head off to the big meeting at Babette’s. A schmuck named George Baxter holds them up on their way in while Nucky tells Billie to go inside, that there’s no reason for both of us to suffer. A snide quip about boring people, or dour social commentary about a enduring a loveless existence? Maybe it’s implanting survivor’s guilt in Nucky. Nucky, Rothstein, Luciano, and Baxter appear battered but not mortally injured when Babette’s suddenly explodes. Billie is not so lucky. Farewell, Pony!
“The Pony” was a smashing return to classic Boardwalk Empire. Death, intrigue, violence, suspense, sexy times—it all added up to great watching. Nelson’s freak-out was a thing of beauty. I love to hate that ruthless firebug, Gyp Rosetti. I love the women, and I love hating Gillian. There was also that great little dig about Rosetti’s daughters this week—”Beauties, just like their mother.” Ha! My only complaint: bring back Chalky White!
See you next week!
–WednesPlaybill Will Go Rainbow for Pride
The popular performing arts magazine will alter its iconic logo for the month of June.
For the first time in its 130 years, Playbill will alter its logo in honor of LGBT Pride.
The performing arts magazine's iconic black-and-yellow cover logo will become rainbow-hued at all Broadway and off-Broadway theaters for the month of June. The brand's digital properties and social media sites will follow suit the last week of June to commemorate Pride weeks in New York City, San Francisco, Chicago, and other major cities around the world.
"The Broadway community has always been at the forefront of this issue — leading the way to prove that equality, love and respect matters," says Playbill president and CEO Philip Birsh in a statement. "Playbill continues its support for this vital cause by honoring all the outstanding efforts made by the community at large and will lend our magazine — the magazine of Broadway — to celebrate all the theatrical community has done to further the efforts towards fairness and equality."
Special LGBT-related content will begin June 1 on Playbill.com, including profiles of nonprofit organizations such as Broadway Impact and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.Philip Alfred Mickelson (born June 16, 1970), nicknamed Lefty, is an American professional golfer. He has won 44 events on the PGA Tour, including five major championships: three Masters titles (2004, 2006, 2010), a PGA Championship (2005),[2] and an Open Championship (2013).[3]
Mickelson is one of 16 players in the history of golf to win at least three of the four majors.[4] He has won every major except the U.S. Open, where he has finished runner-up a record six times.[5]
Mickelson has spent over 25 years consecutively in the top 50 of the Official World Golf Ranking.[6] He has spent over 700 weeks in the top-10,[7] has reached a career-high world ranking of No. 2 several times and is a life member of the PGA Tour. Known for his left-handed swing, even though otherwise right-handed, he learned by mirroring his right-handed father's swing.[1] He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2012.[8]
Early years [ edit ]
Mickelson was born in San Diego, California,[9] to parents Philip Mickelson (an airline pilot and former naval aviator)[10] and Mary Mickelson (née Santos);[11] he was raised there and in Scottsdale, Arizona. Although otherwise right-handed, he played golf left-handed since he learned by watching his right-handed father swing, mirroring his style.[1] Mickelson began golf under his father's instruction before starting school. Phil Sr.'s work schedule as a commercial pilot allowed them to play together several times a week and young Phil honed his creative short game on an extensive practice area in their San Diego backyard.[10] Mickelson graduated from the University of San Diego High School in 1988.
College golf [ edit ]
Mickelson attended Arizona State University in Tempe on a golf scholarship and became the face of amateur golf in the United States, capturing three NCAA individual championships and three Haskins Awards (1990, 1991, 1992) as the outstanding collegiate golfer. With three individual NCAA championships, he shares the record for most individual NCAA championships alongside Ben Crenshaw. Mickelson also led the Sun Devils to the NCAA team title in 1990. Over the course of his collegiate career, he won 16 tournaments.[12]
Mickelson was the second collegiate golfer to earn first-team All-American honors all four years. In 1990, he also became the first with a left-handed swing to win the U.S. Amateur title. Mickelson secured perhaps his greatest achievement as an amateur in January 1991, winning his first PGA Tour event, the Northern Telecom Open, in Tucson.[13][14] At age 20, he was only the sixth amateur to win a tour event and the first in over five years after Scott Verplank at the Western Open in August 1985. Other players to accomplish this feat include Doug Sanders (1956 Canadian Open) and Gene Littler (1954 San Diego Open).[15] With five holes remaining, Mickelson led by a stroke, but made a triple-bogey and was then three behind. The leaders ahead of him then stumbled, and he birdied 16 and 18 to win by a stroke.[13] To date, it is the most recent win by an amateur at a PGA Tour event.
That April, Mickelson was the low amateur at the Masters Tournament in Augusta, Georgia. With his two-year PGA Tour exemption from the Tucson win, he played in several tour events in 1992 while an amateur but failed to make a cut.
Professional career [ edit ]
1992–2003: Trying for first major win [ edit ]
Mickelson graduated from ASU in June 1992 and quickly turned professional. He bypassed the tour's qualifying process (Q-School) because of his 1991 win in Tucson, which earned him a two-year exemption. In early 1993, Mickelson hired Jim "Bones" Mackay[16] as his caddy. He won many PGA Tour tournaments during this period, including the Byron Nelson Golf Classic and the World Series of Golf in 1996, the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am in 1998, the Colonial National Invitation in 2000 and the Greater Hartford Open in 2001 and again in 2002.
He appeared as himself in a non-speaking role in the 1996 film Tin Cup, starring Kevin Costner.
His 2000 Buick Invitational win ended Tiger Woods' streak of six consecutive victories on the PGA tour. After the win, Mickelson said, "I didn't want to be the bad guy. I wasn't trying to end the streak per se. I was just trying to win the golf tournament."[17]
Although he had performed very well in the majors up to the end of the 2003 season (17 top-ten finishes, and six second- or third-place finishes between 1999 and 2003), Mickelson's inability to win any of them led to him frequently being described as the "best player never to win a major".[18]
2004–2006: First three major wins [ edit ]
Mickelson's first major championship win came in his thirteenth year on the PGA Tour in 2004, when he secured victory in the Masters with an 18-foot (5.5 m) birdie putt on the final hole. Ernie Els was the runner-up at a stroke back; the two played in different pairs in the final round and had traded birdies and eagles on the back nine.[19] In addition to getting the "majors monkey" off his back, Mickelson was now only the third golfer with a left-handed swing to win a major, the others being New Zealander Sir Bob Charles, who won The Open Championship in 1963, and Canadian Mike Weir, who won The Masters in 2003. (Like Mickelson, Weir is a right-hander who plays left-handed.) A fourth left-handed winner is natural southpaw Bubba Watson, the Masters champion in 2012 and 2014.
Prior to the Ryder Cup in 2004, Mickelson was dropped from his long-standing contract with Titleist/Acushnet Golf, after an incident when he left a voicemail message for a Callaway Golf executive. In it he praised their driver and golf ball, and thanked them for their help in getting some equipment for his brother. This memo was played to all of their salesmen, and eventually found its way back to Titleist. He was then let out of his multi-year deal with Titleist 16 months early, and signed on with Callaway Golf, his current equipment sponsor. He endured a great deal of ridicule and scrutiny from the press and fellow Ryder Cup members for his equipment change so close to the Ryder Cup matches. He faltered at the 2004 Ryder Cup with a 1–3–0 record, but refused to blame the sudden change in equipment or his practice methods for his performance.[20]
In November 2004, Mickelson tallied his career-low for an 18-hole round: a 59 at the PGA Grand Slam of Golf at Poipu Bay Golf Course in Hawaii.
The following year, Mickelson captured his second major at the PGA Championship at Baltusrol, in a Monday final-round conclusion that had been forced by inclement weather the previous day. On the 18th hole, Mickelson hit one of his trademark soft pitches from deep greenside rough to within 18 inches (460 mm) of the cup, and made his birdie to finish at a 4-under-par total of 276, one shot ahead of Steve Elkington and Thomas Bjørn.
Mickelson captured his third major title the following spring at the Masters. He won his second green jacket after shooting a 3-under-par final round, winning by two strokes over runner-up Tim Clark.[21] This win propelled him to 2nd place in the Official World Golf Ranking (his career best), behind Woods, and ahead of Vijay Singh and Retief Goosen.
2006: Collapse on final hole at the U.S. Open [ edit ]
After winning two majors in a row heading into the U.S. Open at Winged Foot, Mickelson was bidding to join Ben Hogan and Tiger Woods as the only players to win three consecutive majors (not necessarily in the same calendar year). Mickelson was the joint-leader going into the final round, but he was part of a wild finish to the tournament, in which he made major mistakes on the final hole and ended up in a tie for second place at +6 (286), one shot behind Geoff Ogilvy.
Mickelson bogeyed the 16th hole of the final round. On the 17th hole, with the lead at +4, he missed the fairway to the left, and his drive finished inside a garbage can, from which he was granted a free drop; he parred the hole. He had a one-shot lead and was in the last group going into the final hole.
Needing a par on the 18th hole for a one-shot victory, Mickelson continued with his aggressive style of play and chose to hit a driver off the tee; he hit his shot well left of the fairway (he had only hit two of thirteen fairways previously in the round). The ball bounced off a corporate hospitality tent and settled in an area of trampled-down grass that was enclosed with trees. He decided to go for the green with his second shot, rather than play it safe and pitch out into the fairway. His ball then hit a tree, and did not advance more than 50 yards (46 m). His next shot plugged into the left greenside bunker. He was unable to get up and down from there, resulting in a double bogey, and costing him a chance of winning the championship outright or getting into an 18-hole playoff with Ogilvy.[22]
After his disappointing finish, Mickelson said: "I'm still in shock. I still can't believe I did that. This one hurts more than any tournament because I had it won. Congratulations to Geoff Ogilvy on some great play. I want to thank all the people that supported me. The only thing I can say is I'm sorry."[23] He was even more candid when he said: "I just can't believe I did that. I'm such an idiot."[24][25]
Mickelson at 2007 Barclays Singapore Open.
During the third round of the 2006 Ford Championship at Doral, Mickelson gave a spectator $200 after his wayward tee shot at the par-5 10th broke the man's watch.[26]
Mickelson also has shown other signs of appreciation. In 2007 after hearing the story of retired NFL player, Conrad Dobler, and his family on ESPN explaining their struggles to pay medical bills, Mickelson volunteered to pay tuition for Holli Dobler, Conrad Dobler's daughter, at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.[27]
Frustrated with his driving accuracy, Mickelson made the decision in April 2007 to leave longtime swing coach, Rick Smith. He then began working with Butch Harmon, a former coach of Tiger Woods and Greg Norman. On May 13, Mickelson came from a stroke back on the final round to shoot a three-under 69 to win The Players Championship with an 11-under-par 277.
In the U.S. Open at Oakmont in June, Mickelson missed the cut (by a stroke) for the first time in 31 majors after shooting 11 over par for 36 holes. He had been hampered by a wrist injury that was incurred while practicing in the thick rough at Oakmont a few weeks before the tournament.
On September 3, 2007, Mickelson won the Deutsche Bank Championship, which is the second FedEx Cup playoff event. On the final day, he was paired with Tiger Woods, who ended up finishing two strokes behind Mickelson in a tie for second. It was the first time that Mickelson was able to beat Woods while the two stars were paired together on the final day of a tournament. The next day Mickelson announced that he would not be competing in the third FedEx Cup playoff event. The day before his withdrawal, Mickelson said during a television interview that PGA Tour Commissioner, Tim Finchem, had not responded to advice he had given him on undisclosed issues.[28]
In 2008, Mickelson won the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial with a −14, one shot ahead of Tim Clark and Rod Pampling. Mickelson shot a first-round 65 to start off the tournament at −5. He ended the day tied with Brett Wetterich, two shots behind leader, Johnson Wagner.[29] Mickelson shot a second round 68, and the third round 65, overall, being −12 for the first three rounds.[30] On the final hole, after an absolutely horrendous tee shot, he was in thick rough with trees in his way. Many players would have punched out, and taken their chances at making par from the fairway with a good wedge shot. Instead, he pulled out a high-lofted wedge and hit his approach shot over a tree, landing on the green where he one-putted for the win.[31]
In a Men's Vogue article, Mickelson recounted his effort to lose twenty pounds (9.1 kg) with the help of trainer Sean Cochran. "Once the younger players started to come on tour, he realized that he had to start working out to maintain longevity in his career," Cochran said.[32] Mickelson's regimen consisted of increasing flexibility and power, eating five smaller meals a day, aerobic training, and carrying his own golf bag.[33]
Mickelson was inducted into the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame in 2008.[34]
2009 [ edit ]
Mickelson won his first 2009 tour event when he defended his title at the Northern Trust Open at Riviera, one stroke ahead of Steve Stricker. The victory was Mickelson's 35th on tour; he surpassed Vijay Singh for second place on the current PGA Tour wins list. A month later, he won his 36th, and his first World Golf Championship, at the WGC-CA Championship with a one-stroke win over Nick Watney.
On May 20, it was announced that his wife Amy was diagnosed with breast cancer, and Mickelson announced that he would suspend his PGA Tour schedule indefinitely. She would begin treatment with major surgery as early as the following two weeks. Mickelson was scheduled to play the HP Byron Nelson Championship May 21–24, and to defend his title May 28–31 at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial, but withdrew from both events.[35] During the final round of the 2009 BMW PGA Championship, fellow golfer and family friend John Daly wore bright pink trousers in support of Mickelson's wife.[36] Also, the next Saturday, at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial, a "Pink Out" event was hosted, and the PGA Tour players all wore pink that day, to support the Mickelson family.
On May 31, Mickelson announced that he would return to play on the PGA Tour in June at the St. Jude Classic and the U.S. Open, since he had heard from the doctors treating his wife that her cancer had been detected in an early stage.[37] Mickelson shot a final round 70 at the 2009 U.S. Open and recorded his fifth runner-up finish at the U.S. Open. He shared the lead after an eagle at the 13th hole, but fell back with bogeys on 15 and 17; Lucas Glover captured the championship.
On July 6, it was announced that his mother Mary was diagnosed with breast cancer and would have surgery at the same hospital where his wife was treated.[38] After hearing the news that his mother had been diagnosed with breast cancer, Mickelson took another leave of absence from the tour, missing The Open Championship at Turnberry. On July 28, Mickelson announced he would return in August at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, the week before the PGA Championship at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minnesota.
In September, Mickelson won The Tour Championship for the second time in his career. He entered the final round four strokes off the lead, but shot a final round 65 to win the event by three strokes over Tiger Woods.[39] With the win, Mickelson finished the season second behind Woods in the 2009 FedEx Cup standings.[40]
On November 8, Mickelson won the WGC-HSBC Champions by one shot over Ernie Els in Shanghai.[41]
2010: Third Masters win [ edit ]
In 2010, Mickelson won the Masters Tournament on April 11 with a 16-under-par performance, giving him a three-stroke win over Lee Westwood. The win marked the third Masters victory for Mickelson and his fourth major championship overall.[42] Critical to Mickelson's win was a dramatic run in the third round on Saturday in which Mickelson, trailing leader Westwood by five strokes as he prepared his approach shot to the 13th green, proceeded to make eagle, then to hole-out for eagle from 141 yards at the next hole, the par 4 14th, then on the next, the par 5 15th, to miss eagle from 81 yards by mere inches. After tapping in for birdie at 15, Mickelson, at −12, led Westwood, at −11, who had bogeyed hole 12 and failed to capitalize on the par 5 13th, settling for par.
Westwood recaptured a one-stroke lead by the end of the round, but the momentum carried forward for Mickelson into round 4, where he posted a bogey-free 67 to Westwood's 71. No other pursuer was able to keep pace to the end, though K. J. Choi and Anthony Kim made notable charges. For good measure, Mickelson birdied the final hole and memorably greeted his waiting wife, Amy, with a prolonged hug and kiss.[43]
For many fans, Mickelson's finish in the tournament was especially poignant, given that Amy had been suffering from breast cancer during the preceding year. Mary Mickelson, Phil's mother, was also dealing with cancer. CBS Sports announcer Jim Nantz's call of the final birdie putt, "That's a win for the family," was seen by many as capturing the moment well.[44]
Tiger Woods had a dramatic return to competitive play after a scandal-ridden 20-week absence; he was in close contention throughout for the lead and finished tied with Choi for 4th at −11. Mickelson and others showed exciting play over the weekend, and the 2010 Masters had strong television ratings in the United States, ranking third all-time to Woods's historic wins in 1997 and 2001.[45] Mickelson's win left him second only to Woods in major championships among his competitive contemporaries, moving him ahead of Ernie Els, Vijay Singh and Pádraig Harrington, with three major championships each and each, like Mickelson, with dozens of worldwide wins.
Remainder of 2010 [ edit ]
Mickelson, one of the favorites for the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, shot 74 and 66 on Thursday and Friday to sit a shot off the lead. However, two weekend scores of 73 gave him a T4 finish. During the remainder of the 2010 season, Mickelson had multiple opportunities to become the number one player in the world rankings following the travails of Tiger Woods. However, a string of disappointing finishes by Mickelson saw the number one spot eventually go to Englishman Lee Westwood.
In the days leading up to the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits (near Kohler, Wisconsin), Mickelson announced he had been diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis. He added that he had started medical treatment, and had become a vegetarian in hopes of aiding his recovery. He maintains that both his short- and long-term prognosis are good, that the condition should have no long-term effect on his golfing career, and that he currently feels well. He also stated that the arthritis may go into permanent remission after one year of medical treatment. He went on to finish the championship T12, five shots behind winner Martin Kaymer.
2011 [ edit ]
Mickelson started his 2011 season at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines Golf Course. He shot 67–69–68 and was tied for the 54 hole lead with Bill Haas. Mickelson needed to hole out on the 18th hole for eagle from 74 yards to force a playoff with Bubba Watson. He hit it to 4 feet and Watson won the tournament.
On April 3, Mickelson won the Shell Houston Open with a 20-under-par, three-stroke win over Scott Verplank. Mickelson rose to No. 3 in the world ranking, while Tiger Woods fell to No. 7. Mickelson had not been ranked above Woods since the week prior to the 1997 Masters Tournament.
At The Open Championship, Mickelson recorded just his second top-ten finish in 18 tournaments by tying for second with Dustin Johnson. His front nine 30 put him briefly in a tie for the lead with eventual champion Darren Clarke. However, some putting problems caused him to fade from contention toward the end, to finish in a tie for second place.
2012: 40th career PGA Tour win [ edit ]
Mickelson made his 2012 debut at the Humana Challenge and finished tied for 49th. He missed the cut at the Farmers Insurance Open after shooting rounds of 77 and 68. In the final round of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, Mickelson rallied from six shots back, winning the tournament by two strokes with a final round score of 8-under 64 and a four-round total of 269.[46] The win marked his 40th career victory on the PGA Tour. The following week at Riviera Country Club, Mickelson lost the Northern Trust Open in a three-way playoff.[47] He had held the lead or a share of it from day one until the back nine on Sunday when Bill Haas posted the clubhouse lead at seven under par. Mickelson holed a 27-foot birdie putt on the final regulation hole to force a playoff alongside Haas and Keegan Bradley. Haas however won the playoff with a 40-foot birdie putt on the second playoff hole. The second-place finish moved Mickelson back into the world's top 10.[48]
Mickelson finished tied for third at the Masters. After opening the tournament with a two-over-par 74, he shot 68-66 in the next two rounds and ended up one stroke behind leader Peter Hanson by Saturday night. Mickelson had a poor start to his fourth round, scoring a triple-bogey when he hit his ball far to the left of the green on the par-3 4th hole, hitting the stand and landing in a bamboo plant. This ended up being Mickelson's only score over par in the whole round, and he ended with a score of eight-under overall. Earlier in the tournament he had received widespread praise for being present to watch Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, and Gary Player hit the ceremonial opening tee-shots, nearly seven hours before Mickelson's own tee time.[49]
Mickelson made a charge during the final round at the HP Byron Nelson Championship, but bogeyed the 17th and 18th, finishing T-7th. He then withdrew from the Memorial Tournament, citing mental fatigue, after a first round 79. He was to be paired with Tiger Woods and Bubba Watson at the U.S. Open. He fought to make the cut in the U.S. Open, and finished T-65th. After taking a couple of weeks off, he played in the Greenbrier Classic. Putting problems meant a second straight missed cut at the Greenbrier and a third missed cut at 2012 Open Championship, shooting 73-78 (11 over par). He finished T-43rd at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. He then finished T-36th at the PGA Championship.
To start the 2012 FedEx Cup Playoffs, Mickelson finished T38 at The Barclays, +1 for the tournament. He tied with Tiger Woods, Zach Johnson, and five other players. In this tournament, he started using the claw putting grip on the greens.[50] At the next event, the Deutsche Bank Championship, he finished the tournament with a −14, tied for 4th with Dustin Johnson.[51] At the BMW Championship, Mickelson posted a −16 for the first three rounds, one of those rounds being a −8, 64. On the final day, Mickelson shot a −2, 70, to finish tied for 2nd, with Lee Westwood, two shots behind leader, and back-to-back winner, Rory McIlroy.[51] At the Tour Championship, he ended up finishing tied for 15th.[51] He went on to have a 3–1 record at the Ryder Cup; however, the USA team lost the event.
2013 [ edit ]
Mickelson began the 2013 season in January by playing in the Humana Challenge, where he finished T37 at −17.[51] His next event was the following week in his home event near San Diego at the Farmers Insurance Open. Mickelson endured a disappointing tournament, finishing T51, shooting all four rounds in the 70s.
In the first round of the Waste Management Phoenix Open, Mickelson tied his career low round of 60. He made seven birdies in his first nine holes and needed a birdie on the 18th hole to equal the PGA Tour record of 59. However, his 25-foot birdie putt on the final hole lipped out, resulting in him missing out by a single shot on making only the sixth round of 59 in PGA Tour history. Mickelson led the tournament wire-to-wire and completed a four shot win over Brandt Snedeker for his 41st PGA Tour victory and 3rd Phoenix Open title. Mickelson's score of 28-under-par tied Mark Calcavecchia's tournament scoring record.[52] He also moved back inside the world's top 10 after falling down as far as number 22.
Near-miss at U.S. Open [ edit ]
At the U.S. Open at Merion, Mickelson entered the final round leading by one stroke after rounds of 67–72–70 (−1) over the first three days, but he started the final round by three-putting the 3rd and 5th holes for double-bogeys to fall out of the lead. He regained the lead at the par four 10th, when he holed his second shot from the rough for an eagle. However, a misjudgment at the short par three 13th saw him fly the green and make a bogey to slip one behind leader Justin Rose. Another bogey followed at the 15th, before narrowly missing a birdie putt on the 16th that would have tied Rose. Mickelson could not make a birdie at the 17th and after a blocked drive on the 18th, he could not hole his pitch from short of the green, which led to a final bogey.
Mickelson ended up finishing tied for second with Jason Day, two strokes behind Justin Rose. It was the sixth runner-up finish of Mickelson's career at the U.S. Open, an event record and only behind Jack Nicklaus' seven runner-up finishes at The Open Championship.[53] After the event, Mickelson called the loss heartbreaking and said "this is tough to swallow after coming so close... I felt like this was as good an opportunity I could ask for and to not get it... it hurts."[54] It was also Father's Day, which happened to be his birthday.
Fifth major title at the Open Championship [ edit ]
The week before The Open Championship, Mickelson warmed up for the event by winning his first tournament on British soil at the Scottish Open on July 14, after a sudden-death playoff against Branden Grace. After this victory, Mickelson spoke of his confidence ahead of his participation in the following week's major championship. Mickelson said: "I've never felt more excited going into The Open. I don't think there's a better way to get ready for a major than playing well the week before and getting into contention. Coming out on top just gives me more confidence."[55]
The following week, Mickelson won his fifth major title on July 21 at the Open Championship (often referred to as the British Open) Muirfield Golf Links in Scotland; the Open Championship is the oldest of the four major tournaments in professional golf. This was the first time in history that anyone had won both the Scottish Open and The Open Championship in the same year.[56] Mickelson birdied four of the last six holes in a brilliant final round of 66 to win the title by three strokes.[57] He shed tears on the 18th green after completing his round. Mickelson later said: "I played arguably the best round of my career, and shot the round of my life. The range of emotions I feel are as far apart as possible after losing the U.S. Open. But you have to be resilient in this game."[58] In an interview before the 2015 Open, Mickelson said, "Two years removed from that win, I still can't believe how much it means to me."[59]
2014 and 2015: Inconsistent form and close calls in majors [ edit ]
Mickelson struggled in 2014, missing the cut at the Masters for the first time since 1997. He failed to contend at the U.S. Open at Pinehurst in his first bid to complete the career grand slam. Mickelson's lone top-10 of the PGA Tour season came at the year's final major, the PGA Championship at Valhalla. Mickelson shot rounds of 69-67-67-66 to finish solo second, one shot behind world number one Rory McIlroy.
Prior to the 2015 Masters, Mickelson's best finish in 2015 was a tie for 17th. At the Masters, Mickelson shot rounds of 70–68–67–69 to finish tied for second with Justin Rose, four shots behind champion Jordan Spieth. The second-place finish was Mickelson's tenth such finish in a major, placing him second all time only to Jack Nicklaus in that regard.
At The Open Championship, Mickelson shot rounds of 70–72–70 and was eight shots behind, outside the top forty. In the final round, Mickelson birdied the 15th hole to move to 10 under and within two of the lead. After a missed 10-foot (3.0 m) birdie putt on 16, Mickelson hit his drive on the infamous Road Hole (17th) at the famed Old Course at St Andrews onto a second floor balcony of the Old Course Hotel. The out of bounds drive lead to a triple bogey 7 that sent Mickelson tumbling out of contention.
Later in the year, it was announced that Mickelson would leave longtime swing coach Butch Harmon, feeling as though he needed to hear a new perspective on things.
2016: New swing coach [ edit ]
After leaving Butch Harmon, Mickelson hired Andrew Getson of Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona, to serve as his new swing coach. The two worked together heavily in the 2015 offseason to get Mickelson's swing back.
Under Getson's guidance, Mickelson made his 2016 debut at the CareerBuilder Challenge. He shot rounds of 68–65–66–68 to finish in a tie for third place at 21-under-par. It was only Mickelson's fifth top-five finish since his win at the 2013 Open Championship. The third-place finish was Mickelson's highest finish in his first worldwide start of a calendar year since he won the same event to begin the 2004 season.
At the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Mickelson shot rounds of 68–65–66–72 to finish in solo second place, a shot behind Vaughn Taylor. Mickelson lipped out a five-foot birdie putt to force a playoff on the 72nd hole. He entered the final round with |
W36 L56 W60 L28 U— 4.5 98 Carlo Del Mundo 12741505 1835 WA W59 W193 L1 W64 L12 W155 L35 L43 H— 4.5 99 Jason Wang 14930890 1831 TX L15 L54 D154 D112 D167 W185 D85 W136 D86 4.5 100 Drew Justice 14561797 1775 GA H— W38 L42 D90 D110 W156 W65 L40 L36 4.5 101 Abhyudhaya Venkat 14519152 1767 IL W210 L29 D30 D45 D44 D64 D140 D109 H— 4.5 102 Monish Yeluguri 14529927 1742 OH L40 D83 W178 D92 D93 W91 D30 L64 H— 4.5 103 Sriram Kumar 14527090 1738 NJ H— L63 W157 D110 W111 L78 W112 D66 L39 4.5 104 Anshul Bharat Ahluwalia 14413635 1587 WA D63 D173 L111 X— D168 L66 H— W167 H— 4.5 105 Lewis Sanders 14236387 1970 WV W212 W5 L65 L68 W143 W94 L69 U— U— 4.0 106 Dexter Wright 13367722 1931 VA W52 D69 D73 W126 D109 L20 D95 L70 U— 4.0 107 WIM Shernaz* Kennedy [r/e] 11322000 1900 KENMAR NY D149 L176 W180 W61 L58 D129 L125 W164 L74 4.0 108 Serge Adelson 12590630 1890 NJ D131 D133 L134 L164 W124 L162 D173 W151 D126 4.0 109 Peyton J Smith 15147505 1882 MN W174 W82 D80 D9 D106 L27 L57 D101 U— 4.0 110 Jim Green 12727950 1881 MB W151 L11 D135 D103 D100 D137 Z— L82 D127 4.0 111 Faisal Kaleem 14814707 1877 LA W175 L2 W104 L79 L103 W135 L137 L123 W164 4.0 112 Eric Daniel Gahlon 14103641 1861 MN D153 L55 L131 D99 W145 W127 L103 W149 L75 4.0 113 Jose L F Camacho 12500193 1853 RI L9 D145 L150 D124 W182 W173 L83 D131 D129 4.0 114 Sharvil Trifale 14940373 1853 PA L24 L148 L123 D151 D146 W186 W147 D135 D138 4.0 115 Steve Hoisington 11110258 1849 UT L11 W151 W167 L56 D78 W85 L28 L58 D135 4.0 116 Robert Shintaro Shibata 14949456 1849 NY L82 L172 D146 W184 D173 W152 L89 D133 D131 4.0 117 Joseph Kiiru 12834387 1843 WA L57 L53 L174 D171 X— W184 W163 L80 D132 4.0 118 Christopher Dooley 10384681 1839 OK L2 D175 W185 W168 L3 L60 L80 W174 D133 4.0 119 Ella Sharpe Papanek 13796480 1839 PAPFER NY L4 W174 L82 L152 W186 W134 W155 L42 L59 4.0 120 Marcello Berger 14826318 1835 NY D168 D37 D16 L41 L138 W151 W167 D60 U— 4.0 121 Eric Kennedy 12939380 1832 NY L12 L192 W181 L67 W158 L62 L135 W175 W154 4.0 122 Markle W Butcher 11209114 1831 WV D84 D89 L139 W170 D43 D86 D67 D65 U— 4.0 123 Luke Anthony Drennan 14962545 1822 NJ L87 L94 W114 L89 D170 W174 D84 W111 L65 4.0 124 Pranav Prem 14835271 1822 VA L194 D93 L36 D113 L108 W148 W175 W157 L62 4.0 125 Gennadiy** Reznikov [r/r/e] 12626631 1812 NY D176 W149 W61 D60 L48 L16 W107 L30 U— 4.0 126 Bobby Goddin 13685874 1811 IN W209 W139 L55 L106 D89 L87 L36 W168 D108 4.0 127 Benjamin James Rummell 14270033 1808 NY L169 D187 W201 L88 D178 L112 D139 W170 D110 4.0 128 Samuel Waranch 12931378 1807 TX W205 L23 W170 W43 W54 L12 L16 U— U— 4.0 129 Shayna Provine 14137968 1804 PROZIN IL L86 B— L43 W167 D153 D107 L44 D88 D113 4.0 130 Troy Franklin 10029121 1800 ME W16 D10 D39 D3 W85 D37 L25 L44 L60 4.0 131 Zak Cancio 13850020 1766 AZ D108 L156 W112 D91 L45 W178 L64 D113 D116 4.0 132 Elina Samudin New 1750 SAMBOP – W154 W86 L14 L40 D66 D44 D92 L84 D117 4.0 133 Vishnu Vanapalli 15013525 1747 NC D91 D108 D45 W46 L39 L141 D168 D116 D118 4.0 134 Samhitha Dasari 14440044 1746 DASGHA GA H— D196 W108 L17 L92 L119 W179 W142 L85 4.0 135 Ryan Y Zhou 13879730 1743 VA L177 W214 D110 L141 D160 L111 W121 D114 D115 4.0 136 Geoffrey Cyril Davis 14879788 1728 VA B— L12 L60 W192 H— L90 H— L99 W158 4.0 137 Susanna G Ulrich 13498414 1704 ULRTRO WI D46 D91 W196 L34 D159 D110 W111 L54 L68 4.0 138 Ingrid Guo 14772086 1641 GUOOEN GA B— D42 L54 L31 W120 L46 D156 D143 D114 4.0 139 David Thaxton 12709705 1910 VA W215 L126 W122 L52 L96 L161 D127 L146 W171 3.5 140 Sathish R Nath 12425121 1888 MD W190 L80 W76 D54 D35 L55 D101 U— U— 3.5 141 Mulazim Muwwakkil 10110491 1885 NY D202 W189 L24 W135 L82 W133 L53 U— U— 3.5 142 Alexander Kane 12537531 1842 MD X— L4 D153 L27 W172 D83 L63 L134 D149 3.5 143 Anthony Asseviro Jr 13679473 1836 NY L80 W190 W86 L11 L105 W175 L62 D138 L91 3.5 144 Harold A Mitchell 12417826 1831 WV L85 L41 W151 L28 D185 W189 W91 L61 U— 3.5 145 Christopher Giordano 14983940 1814 NJ L29 D113 D83 L62 L112 W190 W152 D85 L88 3.5 146 Kenneth Su 15191452 1811 AZ L28 L34 D116 L178 D114 W180 D154 W139 L87 3.5 147 Katsiaryna Zakhvatkina 14954503 1810 NY W41 D39 L169 L38 L86 D170 L114 D148 W182 3.5 148 Deanna Alter 14431124 1802 ALTMIL CO L43 W114 L155 L159 L157 L124 W190 D147 W170 3.5 149 Eswar Prasad Manapuram 14781267 1768 GA D107 L125 W67 L166 L61 D179 W178 L112 D142 3.5 150 Jonathan Kenny 12690158 1766 VA L5 H— W113 D66 D91 L30 W169 L67 L94 3.5 151 Jonathan Naylor 13488444 1708 VA L110 L115 L144 D114 B— L120 W172 L108 W168 3.5 152 Rudransh Rajaram 14548776 1676 TX D196 L46 D72 W119 L95 L116 L145 W181 H— 3.5 153 Alex Hallenbeck 12913810 1991 PA D112 D95 D142 D96 D129 D159 U— U— U— 3.0 154 Arthur S Antler 10639212 1906 NJ L132 L68 D99 L189 W190 H— D146 H— L121 3.0 155 Htay Aung Kyawe 12638761 1899 MD H— H— W148 D20 D34 L98 L119 U— U— 3.0 156 Charles Davis 10382645 1888 TX H— W131 L35 X— L22 L100 D138 U— U— 3.0 157 Aris Marghetis 15187627 1883 ON H— L16 L103 D185 W148 H— H— L124 U— 3.0 158 Robert J* Holmgren [r/e] 11291635 1876 MA L166 W183 L21 L59 L121 D182 W184 D163 L136 3.0 159 Saithanusri Avirneni 14299428 1861 AVIAVI GA D78 L7 D175 W148 D137 D153 L76 U— U— 3.0 160 Dennis Burke 12778607 1851 MD W187 L14 D81 L36 D135 L76 L165 H— H— 3.0 161 Akollo Odundo 12835849 1836 NJ H— W36 D3 L37 L81 W139 U— U— U— 3.0 162 Edward Sedillo 11441190 1830 NM W206 D13 L84 H— L28 W108 U— U— U— 3.0 163 Aiya* Cancio [r/e] 13850035 1775 CANHAY AZ U— W211 W193 L48 H— L43 L117 D158 U— 3.0 164 Ali Merchant 14824636 1771 MD Z— L168 D93 W108 W62 L34 L45 L107 L111 3.0 165 Carlos A Garcia 14361806 1766 NY L90 W212 L5 L95 W197 L67 W160 U— U— 3.0 166 Fausto Robles [r/e] 13312633 1990 CA W158 D61 L58 W149 L32 U— U— U— U— 2.5 167 Robert Morris Wagner 12452956 1955 FL L97 W186 L115 L129 D99 W172 L120 L104 U— 2.5 168 Sumathi Palanisamy 14243927 1937 PALNES VA D120 W164 L97 L118 D104 L53 D133 L126 L151 2.5 169 Roger Christopher Smith 14437543 1930 NY W127 H— W147 L8 L75 L70 L150 U— U— 2.5 170 Calvin G Hori 12864842 1900 MA X— L79 L128 L122 D123 D147 H— L127 L148 2.5 171 Donald Quiring 10377617 1829 PA L39 L195 L44 D117 L184 L181 B— W172 L139 2.5 172 James Christopher Dill 14061034 1806 NC L88 W116 D41 L16 L142 L167 L151 L171 W184 2.5 173 Severo Caluza 12454639 1801 BC H— D104 D88 L30 D116 L113 D108 L91 U— 2.5 174 Akshay Raj 14473002 1714 GA L109 L119 W117 L72 D179 L123 W182 L118 U— 2.5 175 Lucas Foerster-Yialamas 15056077 1684 NY L111 D118 D159 W197 L94 L143 L124 L121 H— 2.5 176 Kelly D Clover [r/r/e] 10371368 1926 TX D125 W107 H— L32 U— U— U— U— U— 2.0 177 Jason Aristophanes Carr 13091006 1911 VA W135 D74 D20 F73 U— U— U— U— U— 2.0 178 James Edward Dubois 12338130 1853 CA D199 L35 L102 W146 D127 L131 L149 U— U— 2.0 179 Michael Bregar 14711585 1847 FL L27 L76 D184 D186 D174 D149 L134 U— U— 2.0 180 Azikiwe* Peters [r/e] 12575038 1843 NY L58 L21 L107 W181 L67 L146 W185 U— U— 2.0 181 Michael R Breach 12348850 1829 MD L193 L59 L121 L180 L183 W171 W186 L152 U— 2.0 182 Saad Al-hariri 14011581 1811 VA W62 L85 L17 L44 L113 D158 L174 D184 L147 2.0 183 James A Fuller II 12747330 1801 WV L61 L158 L48 B— W181 L63 U— U— U— 2.0 184 Jonathan Martinez 14701133 1717 AZ L65 L198 D179 L116 W171 L117 L158 D182 L172 2.0 185 Moulik A Mehta 14652346 1695 WI L18 D49 L118 D157 D144 L99 L180 U— H— 2.0 186 Charlie Parker Reeder 13512686 1628 REELAY NY H— L167 L62 D179 L119 L114 L181 W190 U— 2.0 187 Loyd* Gentry 12569240 1981 MI L160 D127 W49 U— U— U— U— U— U— 1.5 188 Gennadiy* Reznikov [r/e] 12626631 1812 NY D38 L26 W199 U— U— U— U— U— U— 1.5 189 Merrick Sigman Chang 13860430 1701 NJ H— L141 L31 W154 L49 L144 U— U— U— 1.5 190 Dakshin Pisini 14777591 1557 OH L140 L143 B— L83 L154 L145 L148 L186 H— 1.5 191 Jeffrey* Zhu [r/e] 14529520 1997 ON X— L18 L68 U— U— U— U— U— U— 1.0 192 Loyd Gentry [r/e] 12569240 1981 MI L70 W121 L64 L136 U— U— U— U— U— 1.0 193 Mark N Lance 10253225 1933 DC W181 L98 L163 U— U— U— U— U— U— 1.0 194 Bayaraa Bekhtur 12878049 1921 CA W124 L75 F50 U— U— U— U— U— U— 1.0 195 Shernaz Kennedy 11322000 1900 NY L75 W171 L33 U— U— U— U— U— U— 1.0 196 Robert J Holmgren 11291635 1876 MA D152 D134 L137 U— U— U— U— U— U— 1.0 197 Leo Donofrio 12480677 1858 NJ D7 D78 L56 L175 L165 U— U— U— U— 1.0 198 Teodoro Porlares 12773115 1849 CA L81 W184 L37 U— U— U— U— U— U— 1.0 199 Kenneth Fernandez 13630565 1971 NY D178 L96 L188 U— U— U— U— U— U— 0.5 200 Anthony Bennett 14384031 1927 NY U— U— U— U— U— U— U— U— D93 0.5 201 Kelly D** Clover [r/e] 10371368 1926 TX L74 H— L127 U— U— U— U— U— U— 0.5 202 Naman Kumar 14982397 1746 FL D141 L84 L38 U— U— U— U— U— U— 0.5 203 Jeffrey Zhu 14529520 1997 ON L92 U— U— U— U— U— U— U— U— 0.0 204 Fausto* Robles 13312633 1990 CA L69 L52 U— U— U— U— U— U— U— 0.0 205 Alexander Qin 13298561 1932 TN L128 U— U— U— U— U— U— U— U— 0.0 206 Kelly D* Clover 10371368 1926 TX L162 U— U— U— U— U— U— U— U— 0.0 207 Douglas Matthew Malcolm 14673296 1925 MD L19 U— U— U— U— U— U— U— U— 0.0 208 Vishal Menon 14678251 1923 VA L73 U— U— U— U— U— U— U— U— 0.0 209 CM Andrew Tang 14554791 1906 TX L126 U— U— U— U— U— U— U— U— 0.0 210 Joshua D Taylor 12486311 1894 NC L101 U— U— U— U— U— U— U— U— 0.0 211 Matthew H Freeman [r/e] 12844754 1853 VA L1 L163 U— U— U— U— U— U— U— 0.0 212 Matthew H* Freeman 12844754 1853 VA L105 L165 U— U— U— U— U— U— U— 0.0 213 Achim Zidek 15329855 1850 CA L8 U— U— U— U— U— U— U— U— 0.0 214 Azikiwe Peters 12575038 1843 NY L25 L135 U— U— U— U— U— U— U— 0.0 215 Gennadiy Reznikov 12626631 1812 NY L139 U— U— U— U— U— U— U— U— 0.0 216 Zvonko Juric 12658425 1810 IA L42 U— U— U— U— U— U— U— U— 0.0 World Open 2015 Standings – Under 1800 Section Final Standings # Name ID Rtng Team St Rd 1 Rd 2 Rd 3 Rd 4 Rd 5 Rd 6 Rd 7 Rd 8 Rd 9 Tot Prize Amount 1 Brian Liou 14815084 1792 WA W100 W36 W74 W5 W18 D30 L2 W6 W12 7.5 1st-3rd $7000.00 2 Narkeeran Narasimhan 12761909 1757 PA W86 W104 W91 D30 W76 W17 W1 D3 D8 7.5 1st-3rd $7000.00 3 Alexey Kochemirovskiy 15105407 1728 IL W159 W146 D62 W9 D15 W4 W18 D2 W20 7.5 1st-3rd $7000.00 4 George David 12683979 1781 IL L57 W130 W75 W62 W54 L3 W26 W61 W22 7.0 4th-8th $880.00 5 Kenneth Erickson 12893841 1741 ID X— W138 W68 L1 L26 W84 W27 W28 W16 7.0 4th-8th $880.00 6 Carla Naylor 11178464 1739 NAYLEN VA D165 W153 D87 W101 W134 W56 W25 L1 W18 7.0 4th-8th $880.00 7 Vlad Paul Nitu 15758036 1735 ON D80 D50 W144 W134 W88 W26 W30 H— H— 7.0 4th-8th $880.00 8 Srihari Nesamani 15759375 1700 PALNES AI W139 L18 W123 D87 W120 W47 W70 W17 D2 7.0 4th-8th $880.00 9 Bradley Guo 14921922 1612 MD W52 D54 W95 L3 W149 W33 D34 W32 W19 7.0 1st U1700 $2000.00 10 Alan E Geiger 10121582 1783 NY W144 D58 L64 W106 W86 D15 W56 D34 W39 6.5 9th-10th $133.34 11 Teddy Willis 13788688 1757 PA W137 W102 D126 W64 L34 D99 W42 D25 W44 6.5 9th-10th $133.34 12 Neryk Davydov 12550345 1749 FL W117 W61 W39 L15 W48 D13 W60 W44 L1 6.5 9th-10th $133.34 13 Mayra Beras 12771575 1732 BERYUK MA W110 W93 D17 D125 W16 D12 L44 W60 W40 6.5 9th-10th $133.34 14 Vanita Young 13835092 1721 YOUODA PA L138 W118 W110 D86 W124 W125 L17 W63 W30 6.5 9th-10th $133.34 15 Janet Peng 14308910 1667 PENABD ON D160 W143 W72 W12 D3 D10 D20 D30 W34 6.5 2nd U1700 $1000.00 16 Charles Hua 14763433 1795 NY W136 W98 L32 W126 L13 W57 W99 W54 L5 6.0 17 Richard S Dusza 12586262 1786 RI W26 W21 D13 W40 W22 L2 W14 L8 D25 6.0 18 Alan Stolyarov 14490864 1785 NJ W81 W8 W25 W32 L1 W34 L3 W55 L6 6.0 19 Theo Caen 14257390 1762 IL L61 D135 W146 W95 W57 W40 W63 D22 L9 6.0 20 David Davidian 12804380 1751 QC W105 W28 L30 W79 D63 W43 D15 W45 L3 6.0 21 James Mccarter Taylor 14710068 1746 AZ W122 L17 L65 L110 W165 W109 W102 W83 W61 6.0 22 Marvin Gao 14976367 1730 FL D120 W124 W115 W43 L17 W92 W67 D19 L4 6.0 23 Thomas Kung 14583075 1723 TX W166 L68 W108 L65 W110 L28 W104 W86 W46 6.0 24 Anand Srinivasan 13328960 1702 GA H— D127 D112 W139 W87 L67 W47 W43 H— 6.0 25 Jancarlo Cruz 14916132 1694 FL W89 W70 L18 W68 W32 W97 L6 D11 D17 6.0 26 Patrick Schilling 12616049 1670 MI L17 W122 W127 W74 W5 L7 L4 B— W48 6.0 27 Yusef A* Wright r/e 12690956 1612 NJ L76 D100 D116 W150 W98 W131 L5 W69 W49 6.0 28 Kevin Taylor 12624769 1608 IL W53 L20 D98 W80 D51 W23 W97 L5 W54 6.0 29 Ali B Thompson 12877981 1598 PERTHO VA L75 L52 W170 X160 W133 D77 W35 D37 W55 6.0 30 Jerry J Catuy 13296103 1792 POUCAT GA W106 W151 W20 D2 W97 D1 L7 D15 L14 5.5 31 Davis Zong 14980186 1789 NY L101 D82 W119 W104 D125 W114 L55 W59 D37 5.5 32 Darius Jafary 14321073 1756 NY W174 W107 W16 L18 L25 W102 W83 L9 D42 5.5 33 Daniel Andrzejewski 12592718 1733 NC W109 D115 D101 W102 D65 L9 L43 W116 W82 5.5 34 Derrick L Lewis 11159141 1724 MI H— W44 W67 W41 W11 L18 D9 D10 L15 5.5 35 Patrick Bounds 14337661 1704 NC L45 W166 W138 D93 L67 W120 L29 W91 W85 5.5 36 Jiri Janko 12881025 1702 NJ W88 L1 W145 D45 L44 W106 W125 W67 U— 5.5 37 Ejike Osondu 12719669 1694 NJ W170 D72 D54 L48 W117 D68 W76 D29 D31 5.5 38 Philip Gomory Keisler 13911945 1691 MD L90 L108 L118 W166 W138 W153 D91 W123 W87 5.5 39 Samuel Liu 14948432 1681 NY W149 W94 L12 D52 L99 X87 W77 W72 L10 5.5 40 Sahil S Patel 13587386 1678 NC D127 W147 W155 L17 W69 L19 W94 B— L13 5.5 41 Udo Onua 15438930 1666 NY D66 W154 W96 L34 L47 D89 D71 W125 W73 5.5 42 Robert Slomicz 13390651 1665 NJ L68 L88 W166 W138 W123 W49 L11 W51 D32 5.5 43 Pablo Banuelos 12877442 1630 TX D96 W167 W58 L22 W71 L20 W33 L24 W78 5.5 44 Samir Hadzic 15242711 1620 IL D55 L34 W100 W50 W36 W76 W13 L12 L11 5.5 45 Justin Zhou 14692150 1603 GA W35 W150 L49 D36 W59 D55 B— L20 D47 5.5 46 Ingo Steinhaeuser 15430672 1794 FL L84 W157 L125 W140 H— W135 H— W99 L23 5.0 47 Shawn Wang 14701050 1786 PA L102 W137 D104 W82 W41 L8 L24 W115 D45 5.0 48 Amit* Dave r/e 12182560 1768 TX W152 D57 H— W37 L12 W101 L54 W58 L26 5.0 49 Taraqur Rahman 12853692 1767 NY W108 W84 W45 L97 L56 L42 W134 W64 L27 5.0 50 Clinton E Young 10500770 1753 FL D83 D7 D84 L44 D137 L134 W145 W135 W101 5.0 51 Charles Davis 12561407 1747 TX W176 L126 D106 X156 D28 L83 W133 L42 W104 5.0 52 Naman Kumar R/e 14982397 1746 FL L9 W29 W117 D39 L72 W82 L61 W84 D63 5.0 53 Gene Velazquez 12471740 1734 VA L28 L114 D121 D153 W108 W88 L64 W134 W103 5.0 54 Robbie Grattan-smith 14228345 1729 GA W113 D9 D37 W61 L4 W64 W48 L16 L28 5.0 55 Aviva B Smith 13283813 1727 GA D44 D145 W107 W83 D70 D45 W31 L18 L29 5.0 56 Alexander Ratliff 13446043 1702 DC W111 L69 W88 W91 W49 L6 L10 H— H— 5.0 57 Vinay Veluvolu 15045166 1701 MD W4 D48 D92 W149 L19 L16 D93 W120 D65 5.0 58 Lucas Knoll 14854903 1697 VA W123 D10 L43 D109 D91 W124 D68 L48 W111 5.0 59 Matthew Brian Strobino 12650540 1689 NY L126 W105 W66 D71 L45 D86 W89 L31 W106 5.0 60 William Schwarz 13602446 1688 VA D140 W141 H— D69 W93 W72 L12 L13 D66 5.0 61 Henry Wactor 13445391 1652 NC W19 L12 W160 L54 W85 W73 W52 L4 L21 5.0 62 Alexey A* Imaev r/e 12921968 1648 MD W173 W75 D3 L4 L94 W143 L73 D71 W98 5.0 63 Guillermo Huertas 12685528 1645 NJ D161 D140 W73 W131 D20 W94 L19 L14 D52 5.0 64 Joseph C Fratianni 15529976 1638 NY W129 D76 W10 L11 D77 L54 W53 L49 W99 5.0 65 Gavriel Genger 14105668 1633 CT L74 W129 W21 W23 D33 L70 L72 W77 D57 5.0 66 Ronald Sanders 12611171 1539 AR D41 D131 L59 W116 L114 D100 W149 W95 D60 5.0 67 Veda Rose Safranek 14975007 1512 SAFSAF NY H— W119 L34 W81 W35 W24 L22 L36 H— 5.0 68 Kian Patel 14871315 1791 OR W42 W23 L5 L25 W126 D37 D58 D78 U— 4.5 69 Jordan Page 14948893 1789 GA W132 W56 L97 D60 L40 D103 D81 L27 W120 4.5 70 Levon Bagramian 13462881 1784 VA W164 L25 W163 W151 D55 W65 L8 U— U— 4.5 71 Stephen J Conner 12477485 1778 PA W82 D101 D79 D59 L43 D104 D41 D62 D83 4.5 72 Hugh* Augustine r/e 12582388 1764 NY W133 D37 L15 W143 W52 L60 W65 L39 U— 4.5 73 Ashutosh S Gajbinkar 14634946 1754 NJ D119 D125 L63 W165 W115 L61 W62 D85 L41 4.5 74 W David Lewis 12553468 1750 NM W65 W134 L1 L26 L83 W137 D103 D90 D81 4.5 75 Stephen E Eisenhauer 14390625 1739 GA W29 L62 L4 L85 W146 W110 D84 D103 H— 4.5 76 Ronald E Gravatt 10199727 1725 VA W27 D64 W156 W120 L2 L44 L37 D106 D86 4.5 77 Larry D Dulany 10197112 1722 DE D145 L156 W153 W112 D64 D29 L39 L65 W178 4.5 78 Eric Sonn 12530785 1693 QC L91 D83 L139 W147 W144 D93 W122 D68 L43 4.5 79 Brennan Hinson 14835024 1680 FL W112 D155 D71 L20 D89 D126 L86 W117 D90 4.5 80 Jose Roldan 12135470 1672 FL D7 D148 D140 L28 D119 L122 W153 D88 W118 4.5 81 Sophia R Flanagan 12930012 1654 FLAESP NY L18 D139 W141 L67 W111 D91 D69 D93 D74 4.5 82 Sheena Zeng 14640432 1652 ZENZEN KS L71 D31 W154 L47 W112 L52 W121 W94 L33 4.5 83 Angelo V Fleming 11392440 1646 IN D50 D78 W162 L55 W74 W51 L32 L21 D71 4.5 84 James P Roberts 15203058 1641 TX W46 L49 D50 D98 W96 L5 D75 L52 W123 4.5 85 Talmage C* Brown r/e 12796170 1636 KY H— D160 L94 W75 L61 W149 W131 D73 L35 4.5 86 Quoc Pham 13863225 1633 IA L2 W128 W150 D14 L10 D59 W79 L23 D76 4.5 87 Hector* Lora r/e 14709302 1618 DC H— B— D6 D8 L24 H— H— W114 L38 4.5 88 Steven I Finette 10127301 1600 MD L36 W42 L56 W107 L7 L53 W137 D80 W114 4.5 89 Ethan Hinds 13829888 1586 FL L25 L106 W136 W164 D79 D41 L59 W133 H— 4.5 90 George Jones 12779417 1575 DE W38 L97 L151 D144 D132 W129 H— D74 D79 4.5 91 Andrew S Orr 14265996 1553 PA W78 W162 L2 L56 D58 D81 D38 L35 W116 4.5 92 Jared H Groder 14364628 1533 PA D143 W159 D57 W172 H— L22 U— H— H— 4.5 93 Jack Silver 15459393 1452 NJ W163 L13 W114 D35 L60 D78 D57 D81 D94 4.5 94 Vernon* McNeil 12496698 1762 NC W135 L39 W85 H— W62 L63 L40 L82 D93 4.0 95 Tauriq Jenkins R/e 14937322 1756 NY H— W113 L9 L19 L143 D112 W110 L66 W121 4.0 96 Lorenzo* Sukhdeo r/e 14654557 1748 IL D43 W116 L41 D115 L84 W117 W101 F26 U— 4.0 97 Jarrett Gu Gaymon 14003397 1738 NY B— W90 W69 W49 L30 L25 L28 U— U— 4.0 98 Larry C Riddick 12236220 1707 VA W158 L16 D28 D84 L27 W119 D116 D111 L62 4.0 99 Benny* Th |
of stress, the fear that the police could come at any time. An image I can’t forget: Lin Yi-Hsiung, a famous protester, 73 years old, and former head of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), was going to go on a hunger strike to protest the country’s nuclear policy. He was going to start the strike on March 22, but when he heard the news about the Sunflower Movement, he decided to wait. When students began to leave the LY, one of the leaders of the Sunflower Movement, Lin Fei-fan, knew that the older protester had waited to start his strike. They embraced each other at the door of the LY. The younger Lin knew that the older might die during his hunger strike, and that he was passing the burden to the next generation. What I want to tell the world: Please recognize us as a country, or we’ll be an orphan forever. WHERE SHE IS NOW: Mrs. Yeh said that she has never missed a protest involving justice or people’s rights. It’s all she does besides teaching dance classes. At the moment, she has been supporting the lawyers who are defending the protesters, and is involved in a project in which cameras are filming the legislature nonstop. She said that the protests made it difficult to deal with relatives who don’t understand, though her children have been very supportive.Image copyright Reuters Image caption A mystery surrounds whether three prisoners - Frank Morris, John Anglin and Clarence Anglin - survived
Three inmates who famously escaped from the US island prison Alcatraz had a small chance of making it to land alive - but the odds were stacked against them, a new study suggests.
In 1962, the prisoners absconded using a raft, and were never seen again.
A novel computer model now indicates that if they set off right at midnight, they could have made landfall.
But if they left in the hours either side, it is very likely they died in the cold waters of San Francisco Bay.
The study was carried out by scientists at Delft University and the research institute Deltares, both in the Netherlands, and is being presented this week at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, which is hosted in the California city.
Fake heads
This prison break - dramatized by Clint Eastwood in the film Escape from Alcatraz - is one of the most daring and intricate escapes ever attempted.
Three bank robbers - Clarence Anglin, John Anglin and Frank Morris - spent months digging an escape tunnel out of their concrete cells using sharpened spoons.
On the night of 11 June 1962, they left dummy heads, fashioned out of soap, toilet paper and hair, in their beds, and crawled out of the "escape-proof" prison.
At the water's edge, it is thought they made an inflatable raft out of raincoats and entered San Francisco Bay, at some point between 2000 and 0200, according to FBI files.
Despite an intense search effort, the men were never found. Whether they survived and made landfall or died after entering the water remains a mystery.
Image copyright FBI Image caption The prisoners created dummy heads from soap, paper and hair
Image copyright FBI Image caption The inmates placed the heads in their beds on the night of the escape
Now, a Dutch team of scientists has attempted to shed light on what happened.
Dr Rolf Hut said: "My colleague, Olivier Hoes, was working on a hydraulic model, called 3Di, which is a collaboration between different Dutch companies, agencies and universities.
"It is a high-performance hydraulic model for simulating the movement of water bodies in deltas and bays.
"He was using that to simulate the movement of water in the San Francisco Bay area, and I thought we could try to re-analyse what happened back in 1962."
Dr Hut said he was inspired to find out more by the US TV show MythBusters, in which the presenters recreated the escape and managed to make landfall.
But the Dutch scientist wanted to recreate the exact conditions of the night using historical tidal data in the computer model.
Image copyright Rolf Hut & colleagues Image caption Simulated flow conditions on the night of the escape at 22:39 local time
Fedor Baart, a simulation specialist at Deltares, explained: "We didn't know exactly when the inmates launched their boats, or their precise starting point, and so we decided to release 50 [virtual] boats every 30 minutes between 2000 and 0400, from a range of possible escape spots at Alcatraz to see where they would end up.
"We added a paddling effect to the boats, as we assumed the prisoners would paddle as they got closer to land."
With the help of the virtual vessels, the researchers found that if the prisoners had escaped in the hours before midnight, they would have almost certainly perished.
Dr Hut said: "In the worst-case scenario, where paddling was ineffective, the outgoing tide would have swept them out to the ocean and they would have died of hypothermia. For sure.
"The San Francisco Bay area has one of the strongest tidal currents going under the Golden Gate Bridge."
Image caption The US island of Alcatraz was said to be an "escape-proof" prison
But if they entered the water later, after 1am, the tide would have reversed, taking the escapees on a different course.
Dr Hut explained: "They would have been pushed back into the Bay. And then depending on which way they were paddling, they would have been sent into the north bay - towards Berkeley and the mouth of the Sacramento River - or pushed south towards Oakland, past Treasure Island.
"In both cases they would have spent so much time in the water, they probably would have died of hypothermia, or they would have been picked up by the police because sunrise was at 0600."
However, the team found one small window where survival would have been possible.
If the trio had left at midnight and had paddled hard to the north, then the strong currents could have worked in their favour.
"If they hit it exactly at midnight, the beautiful thing is that we see that they would have been sucked out towards the Golden Gate Bridge," Dr Hut told BBC News.
"But the moment they were close to the Golden Gate would have been the moment the tide reverses.
"And that would give them a moment of slack tide, in which they could have reached marine headlands in the northern site of the Golden Gate Bridge."
The team has produced visualisations that show a "worst case scenario", in which the prisoners do not paddle, and a "best case scenario", in which they paddle northwards at a speed of 25cm per second.
Outside factors
The model also predicted that any debris from the raft would have floated back into the bay, towards Angel Island, which is where the FBI found a paddle and some personal belongings.
The team points out that the model cannot prove exactly what happened, but it does help to assess what scenarios are most plausible.
"We're just exploring possibilities within the scope of what we can calculate," said Dr Hut.
"When doing historical research, there is a chance that there is an event not in the feasibility of your model: maybe they had a friend with a boat?
"We are only exploring whether it was possible for them to make landfall, with no additional help or other events taking place."
Follow Rebecca on TwitterDemocrats Tend To Perform Better Than Polls Predict
Even in the week before the election, polls are not perfect. For example, in two out of ten close Senate races in 2010 and 2012. In those two cases, both in 2010, the eventual winner was the Democrat (Harry Reid in Nevada and Michael Bennet in Colorado). This reflects a broader pattern: When errors occur, the outcome tends to be more favorable to the Democrat.
Let's examine the percentage difference between polls and election results:
The above table, calculated for state-level presidential and Senate contests, shows the difference between Election Eve polls with actual election results, using the median across all races decided by less than a 10-percent margin.
Overall, these numbers set a range for how wrong we would expect a poll-based view to be. Pollsters as a group underestimate Democratic performance by an average of 1.2 percent. This bias is asymmetric: When Republicans outperformed, they did so by 1.2 percentage points or less. But in four out of eight cases, Democrats surpassed polls by 2.4 to 3.7 percentage points. This bias was even larger in Colorado, where Democrats outperformed polls by at least 4 percentage points in the 2010 and 2012 elections.
Instead of Probability, Estimate How Much Swing Is Needed
What if this year's polls are off by 2 percentage points in one direction or the other? A 2-point advantage for Democrats would make the most likely outcome a split of 50 Democrats/independents to 50 Republicans. And a 2-point advantage for Republicans would propel them to a 53-47 majority. These outcomes match the "what if two races flip" scenarios I outlined above.
Neither extreme is guaranteed. The introduction of new survey methods may have changed the accuracy of polls—for better or for worse—and partisan polls are more frequent this year, creating another source of uncertainty. In fact, the probabilities offered by poll aggregators might not even be the best way to think about this year's Senate forecasts, in part because we tend to mentally round probabilities up to 100 percent. The Princeton Election Consortium, for instance, gives Republicans a 69 percent chance of taking the Senate; if that fails to happen, many will claim that PEC was wrong. But a loaded coin that's biased to come up heads 69 percent of the time would still come up tails three times out of ten. Or think of it like a weather forecast: If there's a 69 percent chance of rain, you'd be well-advised to bring an umbrella, but you might end up not using it.
Instead of probability, I prefer a statistic I developed in 2004, the Meta-Margin. The Senate Meta-Margin is defined as how much the final vote would have to differ from polls in key states to create an exact toss-up for control of the chamber. Given the polling errors I have analyzed in this article, neither side can breathe easier until the Meta-Margin gets to at least 3 percent in their direction. Only at that point can we predict a winner with high confidence. As of Wednesday, the Senate Meta-Margin shows a Republican lead of 1.3 percent—too close to call. So although Republicans have the advantage in polls, Democrats' track record of outperforming polls works in the other direction. For the moment, there's a decent probability that polling nerds will be surprised on November 4.
This article has been updated.Disasters cost world $92b in first half of 2016, Swiss Re says
Updated
From earthquakes in Japan to bushfires in Canada, disasters cost the world economy $92 billion in the first half of the year, reinsurer Swiss Re says.
The figure marks a 38 per cent increase compared with the same period a year ago, the world's number two reinsurer said, adding that only $3.9 billion was attributed to man-made events, while the remainder was due to natural disasters.
At the same time, the human cost of disasters was far lower, with around 6,000 people dying in catastrophic events in the first half of 2016, compared with 12,000 during the first six months of 2015.
The global insurance industry covered 44 per cent of the disaster-linked losses, or $40 billion, up 51 per cent from a year earlier.
Devastating thunderstorms in the United States and Europe were the costliest events for insurers during the January-June period, Swiss Re said.
Three separate severe US weather events cost insurers over $9 billion, it said, with a single massive storm in Texas in April raking up insurance costs of $3.9 billion after large hailstones caused widespread damage.
Europe was also slammed by heavy storms at the end of May and in early June, when France and Germany especially were hit with severe lightning storms and flash floods.
At least 18 people were killed in floods that trapped people in their homes, felled trees and power lines, cut off roads and rail lines and forced rescuers to navigate swamped streets in lifeboats.
The total insured losses from those storms and floods in Europe were $3.6 billion, Swiss Re said.
The series of deadly earthquakes that hit Japan's southern Kumamoto prefecture in April, which killed 64 people, caused extensive structural damage, fires and collapsed buildings, raked up insurance costs of $7.2 billion, it said.
Simultaneously, on the other side of the world in Ecuador, a 7.3-magnitude earthquake destroyed bridges and buildings, and killed 668 people.
While this was by far the deadliest single event during the first half of the year, low insurance coverage meant that the insured losses amounted only to $520 million, Swiss Re said.
Devastating fires in Canada's Alberta province, which forced the evacuation of some 100,000 people and saw sweeping shutdowns of oil operations, resulted in insured losses of $3.2 billion.
That makes it one of the costliest wildfire events in the insurance industry history, Swiss Re said.
All figures are in Australian dollars.
AFP
Topics: disasters-and-accidents, storm-disaster, united-states, canada, japan, france, germany
First postedCLEVELAND, Ohio - The Cleveland Cavaliers have yet to make a decision on if Jared Cunningham will be a member of the team after this week, league sources have informed cleveland.com.
The organization has a Jan. 10 deadline to either cut the high-flying 6-3 guard or guarantee his $981,348 salary for the remainder of the season.
"Whatever happens, happens," Cunningham told cleveland.com. "I can't control the decision; I can just control what I do. The things I've been doing, I guess have been helping and they've taking a liking to it. So when that day comes, it's just up to the front office and their decision."
The 24-year-old guard is playing on his fifth team in four years, but he's experiencing his most productive pro season to date. He's appeared in 25 games, the most he's ever played in a season and all three of his career starts have come while sporting the wine and gold uniforms.
Due to the astronomical salary cap figure spent on this year's 15-man roster, if kept, Cunningham's earning would cost the team in the ballpark of $3.8 million in luxury tax dollars if they keep the roster as is. Owner Dan Gilbert has shown he's willing to spend what is necessary to keep a championship-caliber team intact and just for team continuity sake, he could write the check.
Cunningham has been a locker room favorite. He's the little brother to players such as Mo Williams, James Jones and most importantly LeBron James, who has taken him under his wing and is always giving him a hard time for his lack of knowledge when it comes to early to mid-'90s hip hop.
When James plays an old school West Coast classic in the locker room and Cunningham has no idea of the artist or the song, it drives James crazy because Cunningham is from Oakland, California.
But he takes the jabs in stride.
"It's been great," Cunningham said. "LeBron has been like a big brother. He's a great person, great teammate and he just helps me get better."
Head coach David Blatt has used Cunningham as the backup point guard, the starting shooting guard and defensive specialist while the team was battling injuries to the backcourt.
Now with a healthy roster, he's the last player to come off the bench -- seeing action only if the game gets out of hand or if foul trouble becomes an issue.
"I think Jared has done a great job since Day 1," Blatt said. "I don't think anyone has any questions about Jared's ability to play for us, to help us, to play in this league. There are other issues at hand, contractual issues that are really not so much my decisions to make, but Jared has acquitted himself well here from Day 1."
In a week, Cunningham will learn his fate, but he's not overly focused on it. He's going to stick to what he does best.
"I've been in situations like this plenty of times before so at this point, it's out of my ability to control it," he said, "so I'm just playing and just living and doing everything day-by-day."The perspective of national security actors on climate change is important, if for no other reason than one simple reality: Militaries are important political actors in most countries, and their views can influence the overall course a government takes. But there are other reasons. Armed forces use sizeable amounts of natural and financial resources, making them important factors in national energy balances and effective competitors for government spending on climate change.
The perspective of national security actors on climate change is important, if for no other reason than one simple reality: Militaries are important political actors in most countries, and their views can influence the overall course a government takes. But there are other reasons. Armed forces use sizeable amounts of natural and financial resources, making them important factors in national energy balances and effective competitors for government spending on climate change. Also, climate change will alter the strategic and operational environments for militaries, providing them with new options and challenges. Finally, there is a danger that climate change could be “militarized” by defense officials who favor the use of force to deal with mass migration and other destabilizing responses to environmental disasters, even when better alternatives are available.
National security actors all over the world (although certainly not in all countries) see climate change as a future threat or threat multiplier that puts additional demand on military capabilities and capacities. What this demand might be and where it will play out, however, is seen quite differently in the countries that acknowledge a national security dimension to the problem. This variation may not be so surprising; knowledge about the climate change consequences that have potential relevance for armed forces — consequences relating, for instance, to armed conflict or humanitarian disasters — is actually quite limited.
The United States overview. The US military and much of the country’s broader national security community have debated the seriousness of the threat posed by global climate change since the 1990s. The first official mention of climate change as a security threat occurred in the 1997 National Security Strategy: “Environmental threats such as climate change, ozone depletion, and the transnational movement of dangerous chemicals directly threaten the health of US citizens.” Among the document’s long list of actions aimed at preventing climate change, however, none relates to the US military. The major defense planning document implementing the military aspects of national security planning, the Quadrennial Defense Review of 1997, is likewise silent on the issue.
Because the George W. Bush administration questioned the anthropogenic causation of climate change, it was dropped from the list of security threats in official documents on national security, including the Quadrennial Defense Reviews of 2001 and 2006. Instead, the administration listed it as one of the challenges to be overcome to “ignite a new era of global economic growth through free markets and free trade” in National Security Strategy documents.
The Bush policy did not go unchallenged at the Pentagon. In their 2003 study, “An abrupt climate change scenario and its implications for United States national security,” Peter Schwartz, a CIA consultant and former head of planning at Royal Dutch/Shell Group, and Doug Randall of the California-based Global Business Network, painted a number of depressing scenarios of turmoil and war resulting from the consequences of climate change. As a contract job, the study had no insider status. Because it had been commissioned by the Pentagon Office of Net Assessment, directed by the legendary futurist Andrew Marshall, however, the report was assured major attention both in the military and by the general public.
Globally, the militaries of the United States and the United Kingdom have been the most involved, in both debate and action, on climate change. Russia and China are the largest military powers after the United States, so the perception of the issue in these two countries is of particular concern for future international security. To thoroughly understand the current and future state of climate change affairs in the militaries in these four countries, four core issues can be compared: reductions of greenhouse gas emissions by armed forces; dangers that climate change poses to military installations, primarily through raised sea levels; potential conflict in the Arctic; and military operations in crisis situations, including wars and disaster relief.
It is difficult to analyze the perspective of militaries, defense ministries, and other national security actors since bureaucratic organizations generally do not provide, in publicly available documents, the true thinking inside the organizations. The available information does make one thing very clear, however: The eventual effects of climate on the many policy areas that affect the national security of these four major nations are not yet clear, and the appropriate responses are therefore uncertain. National security actors are, indeed, seeing increased roles for the military — in domestic disaster relief in all four countries, in missions in crisis situations in the case of the United States and the United Kingdom, and in the Arctic for the US and the Russian military. But as of now, available documents do not show national security organizations expressing much urgency or taking many aggressive stands on climate change — in part, no doubt, due to the paucity of information about the connection between a changing climate and the security of nations. Researchers are sometimes teased for ending long research papers with calls for more research. In this case, it is obvious at the start that further study is vital if the national security threats that might flow from climate change are to be properly identified, analyzed, addressed, and, one can hope, minimized.
The full contents of this article are available in the January/February issue of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and can be found here.The 2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup ended earlier than Canada would have wanted, with a 2-1 loss to Jamaica eliminating the Canucks in the quarterfinals. Entering the tournament though, few outside of Canadian soccer circles would have given the team a chance to even make it that far.
It may seem harsh in hindsight, but this is a team that had failed to score a goal from the run of play for three consecutive tournaments until this year.
MORE: Hoilett wondergoal not enough for Canada
With the Gold Cup now firmly in the rear view mirror for Canada, things haven't looked brighter since the 2007 edition of the regional championship. A young star was born, the team started to forge a new identity, and - for once - a tournament ended with the feeling that there is much to build on for a Canadian program that has historically had very little to hang its hopes on.
With all of that in mind, let's take a look at some of the bigger things that have jumped out over the course of the tournament...
Arfield is the new Hutchinson
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We knew Scott Arfield was good, but the Gold Cup showed everyone just how influential the Burnley midfielder can be for Canada.
With an Atiba Hutchinson-sized hole in the Canadian midfield, Arfield stepped up and provided the same kind of ubiquitous coverage that the Besiktas man was known for throughout his decade-plus national team tenure.
No, Arfield doesn't have the same defensive presence as Hutchinson, but his influence on the ball matches or even exceeds the 34-year-old's. Simply put, everything Canada does goes through Arfield, much in the same manner it did through Hutchinson until his final game in red and white last year.
It's too bad we never got to see more games with both players side-by-side.
Hoilett is Canada's best attacker
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The Canadian program courted Junior Hoilett for years, but the Cardiff City man only made his international debut in late 2015. When he finally donned the Maple Leaf, it was immediately apparent why he was so coveted by Canada Soccer.
Sometimes frustratingly selfish on the ball, Hoilett stepped up his game in his first Gold Cup. His ability to run at opposing defences and dribble through coverage throws the opposition into disarray at least a few times per game, and he tends to make the entire Canadian attack better with his direct play.
This is not to say he's Canada's most prolific player - he'll never score many goals, although he does present a real danger from distance as shown against Jamaica - but his ability to turn defenders and relieve pressure from fellow attackers is invaluable to a team that historically isn't known for much creativity going forward.
Increased competition up front
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All of a sudden, Canada has options at striker. For years a problem position, suddenly there are several young options coming up through the ranks.
In the Gold Cup group stage, we saw Lucas Cavallini lead the line with Anthony Jackson-Hamel as his understudy, and head coach Octavio Zambrano opted for a single-striker formation heavy on attacking-midfielders in support. Cyle Larin, the primary forward since his international debut in 2014, was brought in for the quarterfinal, and though he didn't overwhelm in his lone appearance, he had several chances that the others didn't.
Wth Cavallini, Jackson-Hamel, and Larin all in the fold, and all having success with their club teams, Zambrano now has choices to make as he continues to form the Canadian program. Keeping in mind that Canada's active goal-scoring leader Tosaint Ricketts was left on the bench for the majority of the tournament (while stalwarts Simeon Jackson and Marcus Haber weren't on the squad at all), and that a young forward like Jordan Hamilton was left off the roster entirely - in the past a player like Hamilton would make the squad simply based on being a professional at a decent level - it shows a positive shift in the talent base available.
And Zambrano is still very early into his tenure as head coach, so he may decide to test different formations to see if multiple forwards can co-exist on the field at the same time. We could get to see Larin and Cavallini together in the future.
Defence is a real concern
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If the future of Canada's attack is looking bright, the opposite can be said at the back. That's not to say that there aren't talented defenders on the squad, but there is a noticeable shift from Canada's previous strength in defending to a wealth in midfield and attack.
Very few veteran defenders are playing at a high level at the moment, and at the youth level the pickings are decidedly slimmer unless a few prospects make leaps in progress in short order. Canada has too few central defenders playing professionally, period, while the dearth at fullback means wingers need to be converted (with varying degrees of success).
The good news is that there is a lot of time for this problem to be solved; Canada won't play another competitive match for two years. Regardless, this is an area of deep concern for Zambrano going forward.
Davies is human, and that's OK
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Alphonso Davies burst onto the international scene at the start of the tournament, scoring three times in the first two games and earning all the headlines as the teenager emphatically justified his inclusion in the starting XI.
But as his notoriety grew, opposing teams started adjusting their tactics to better handle the 16-year-old, and he had a relatively quiet final two games in the Gold Cup. And that's fine: the Vancouver Whitecaps' midfielder turned enough heads to show that he's loaded with talent, but he's still just a kid in his first full season as a professional playing against men with far more experience.
Davies will now have to learn how to deal with increased scrutiny from international teams, just as he's been doing at the MLS level since his debut as a 15-year-old last year. If he can take his lessons and learn to better integrate himself with the rest of his team, all while maintaining the explosiveness and confidence that had everyone talking during the group stage, he'll be just fine.3D printing delicious, living, edible snacks
Food designer Chloé Rutzerveld's concept for "healthy and sustainable" 3D-printed snacks that sprout little herbs and mushrooms for flavor sounds like something we'd very much like to munch.
The Dutch designer's Edible Growth project proposes 3D-printed shapes that contain seeds, spores and yeast, which germinate after a few days. The center inside that basket-weave structure is agar agar, a gelatin-like substance that comes from a kind of edible seaweed. Vegans use agar to create "Jell-o" without gelatin, which is made from animal bones. In this design, the agar becomes a friendly platform in which the plants can grow.
"Edible growth is exploring how 3D printing could transform the food industry," she says in this short video. "It is about 3D printing with living organisms, which will develop into a fully grown edible."
"As it comes out of the 3D printer you can really see the straight lines of the technology," she says. "But as it develops, you can see organic shapes. You can see the stages of growth and the development of taste and flavor."
[via Dezeen]Several Religious Right groups have demonstrations planned for Inauguration Day; others are busy selling product and raising cash for the long slog against Obama
In politics, commerce, and fundraising, timing, if not everything, is essential. Next week's inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama is providing all sorts of opportunities for conservative organizations to market their messages and peddle some goods at the same time.
On January 8, the Christian Defense Coalition (CDC), an organization headed by Reverend Patrick J. Mahoney, announced that they had received permission to display what it calls a pro life vigil -- 25 large signs showing the development of life from conception to birth -- along the parade route during the Presidential Inauguration.
Repent America, another Christian conservative group, is planning "a massive evangelism effort in Washington, DC. [where] church groups and individuals [will]... hand out tracts and engage in one-on-one witnessing efforts during" Inauguration Day activities, according to a report by OneNewsNow, the America Family Association-sponsored news service.
Over at the PatriotShop.US, a division of the Tennessee-based online publication, The Patriot Post, commerce is king during the run-up to Obama's Inauguration.
While the Christian Defense Committee is holding its vigil, Repent America is passing out flyers and looking for converts, and The Patriot Post is flogging its merchandise, another group, Our Country Deserves Better PAC, is seeking cash.
Gathering the troops
Claiming that President-elect Obama is on the "wrong side of history and human rights by embracing the most radical abortion policies of any President in American history," the Christian Defense Coalition's Patrick Mahoney added, "While millions will be celebrating along the Inaugural Parade route, we will be speaking `truth to power' and calling justice and equality for all Americans."
Mahoney pointed out that "While millions will be celebrating along the Inaugural Parade route, we will be speaking `truth to power' and calling justice and equality for all Americans."
"We know... president-elect Barack Obama [to be] a very aggressive, pro-abortion, pro-homosexual political figure -- and now he's going to be our president," Michael Marcavage, president of Repent America, told OneNewsNow. "So it's only expected that these particular things are going to be pushed in our nation even more."
'Celebrate the Obamination Inauguration'
You can "celebrate the Obamanation Inauguration" with a host of Patriot Post products including "Bitterly Clinging to Guns and Religion" posters, tee shirts and bumper stickers; an "O-Bummer" sticker; a Che Obama tee shirt and bumper sticker; "Politically Incorrect Guides" to American History, Capitalism, Global Warming, Islam, the Middle East, the Constitution, Hunting; and other assorted sundries from mugs to coin holders to even a Holy Cross.
According to its website, The Patriot Post is "America's most widely read Internet-based publication... [and] is a highly acclaimed journal advocating individual liberty, the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and the promotion of free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values." The online publication, headed by Mark Alexander aims to be "a hard-hitting rebuttal to contemporary political, social and mainstream media protagonists on the Left,... written for those who seek a brief, informative and entertaining analysis of the week's most significant news, policy and opinion."
The California-based Our Country Deserves Better PAC, the group that failed to derail the presidential candidacy of Obama, intends to serve as 'the loyal opposition'
Having failed to defeat Obama, despite spending thousands of dollars on anti-Obama television advertisements in several swing states, and launching its "Stop Obama Tour," which drew few anti-Obama enthusiasts as it lumbered around the country, the California-based Our Country Deserves Better PAC is asking for financial support for a long term campaign against Obama. In a new ad run by HumanEvents.com, Our Country is looking to "serve as one of the leading conservative organizations that will help prepare for a conservative resurgence in 2009 and 2010."
As Inauguration Day approaches, Our Country is warning conservatives that "Obama is perhaps the most liberal person ever to be elected to serve as Commander in Chief of these United States of America, and it is now the responsibility for conservatives to serve as the `loyal opposition' to Obama's liberal policies - just as MoveOn.org, Code Pink and all the liberal organizations stood up to the Bush Administration and Republicans in Congress."
Our Country's HumanEvents.com ad is more like Election 2008 Redux: The two videos it "showcase(s)" have been used before: one features Howard Kaloogian, the chairman of the PAC who served as Assistant Republican Leader in the California State Assembly during his six-year term in office and who, in 2003, helped lead the drive to recall California Governor Gray Davis, warning Americans about the impact on the country Obama will have if he is elected ("Obama's Liberal Policies are Wrong"); the other is a gushing tribute to Alaska Governor Sarah Palin ("Sarah's a Fighter").
It is imperative that we both champion our conservative values and articulate to the American people why these policies are not only right and moral, but also best for America -- and that we stand up for and celebrate the best conservative leaders who champion these ideals. That is what the Our Country Deserves Better PAC has done to date, and that is what we will continue to do with your financial support. It's time for conservatives to fight back!! It's time for us to stop licking our wounds and to fight for our conservative beliefs and the future of America.
At Our Country's website, the featured story is headlined "Rahm Emanuel Must Resign." a campaign that asks supporters to "Sign the petition demanding that Obama's Chief of Staff, Rahm Emmanuel, resign for his inappropriate conduct in the Obama Senate Seat corruption scandal."
Our Country's fundraising efforts is being organized by Complete Campaigns.com, which, according to its website, "provides outstanding web-based services to help campaigns effectively track supporters, voters, fundraising, and volunteers."
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About author Bill Berkowitz is a longtime observer of the conservative movement. His Conservative Watch columns document the strategies, players, institutions, victories and defeats of the American Right.On April 22nd, I will be one of the estimated one billion people celebrating Earth Day, now in its 47th year. All around the world in almost every single country people will gather to support what has become the largest secular observance day. It is amazing to me and makes me quite hopeful that so many people want to take responsibility for the environment. The campaign theme for 2017 is Environmental & Climate Literacy, and conservationists, researchers and educators will be using this Earth Day to increase awareness about climate change and environmental issues. Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) is committed to building environmental literacy, we do it everyday at our Research and Education Centre in Namibia, but it is going to take action on all levels to save species like the cheetah from extinction. With less than 8,000 cheetahs left in the wild, we can’t waste any time.
Office of the Namibian Presidency Facebook @NamibianPresidency Dr. Hage G. Geingob - President of Namibia Signs Paris Agreement at Special Ceremony in NYC April 22nd 2016
Last year on Earth Day, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, Namibian president Dr. Hage G. Geingob joined 170 other U.N. members in signing the Paris Climate Agreement at a special signing ceremony. Namibia made a commitment to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 89% by the year 2030 and CCF is helping bring forth that promise. Our Biomass Technology Demonstration Centre (BTDC) will bring the latest in biomass energy technology and training to CCF’s main campus located outside of Otjiwarongo. The training facility is receiving support from multiple biomass industry leaders as well as from the European Union’s Climate Change Adaptation and Climate Change Mitigation Programmes.
Building clean energy manufacturing in Namibia will help achieve the country’s long term emission reduction goal but these efforts will not be enough to stave off the effects of climate change. Namibia’s carbon footprint is very small; larger countries with greater output of greenhouse emissions will have to make changes to both their energy production and consumption to slow the progress of climate change. If this doesn’t happen, then countries like Namibia will suffer the greatest hardship.
The Guardian Graphic: Mark McCormick, |
." "The remaining birds-of-prey are regrouping," said Sulu. The screen switched to show a cluster of Romulans fading into view. "They're releasing plasma-energy bolts." Expanding orange balls of hellfire hurled towards the Enterprise. "Reverse, Sulu. All engines full." "It's no good, Keptin," said Chekov. "Impact in four seconds." "Brace yourselves," said Kirk. The ship rocked. A plastiform vane from the ceiling crashed to the floor, pinning Hikaru Sulu. Arex moved quickly, operating both his console and Sulu's with three scrawny arms. Nurse Chapel ran from the life support console to Sulu's aid, her medscanner humming. Sarek helped Jaeger, who had been thrown to the floor by the impact. "I will operate the sensors," said the Ambassador. "Assist at the helm." The Vulcan slipped into the bucket seat as Jaeger hurried down to Arex's aid. "Scott here, Captain." Trouble. "Yes?" "Shields are out. We canna take another hit." Damn it. Kirk slapped his palm against the arm of his chair. "The Romulans are scanning us," said Sarek. Kirk glanced back at the Vulcan, standing, bent over the hooded viewer, his back, like Spock's, as straight as that position would allow. "They know of our predicament." On screen the torpedo-tube mouth of the large warship began to glow cherry red. "Evasive action, Sulu." The Enterprise weaved. "It is merely a question of time," said Sarek. "He's firing, sir," Sulu said. A staccato salvo of torpedoes belched out of the giant warship. Kirk gripped the polished wood inserts in the arms of his chair. The screen exploded into blinding light and and the Romulan birds-of-prey were gone. "Captain," said Uhura. "I'm getting a signal from the big warship." "On screen." The view changed to the dimly-lit bridge of the alien vessel. In the central throne, dressed as a full Romulan Commander, sat Spock. The Vulcan's face was impassive, but his tone carried a hint of satisfaction. "I find I make a most convincing Romulan," he said. An armor-clad figure stepped into the field of vision. Koloth. "And now," said the Klingon, smiling into the camera, "on to the Praetor's homeworld." He jerked a gloved thumb at Spock. "Out of my chair, Vulcan." Chapter 2: Self-Made Purgatories His meditation complete, Spock left his quarters on deck five. He approached a recess in the corridor which housed an orange three-sided ladder. Gaunt fingers choking the metal poles, he descended one level and strode to the VIP wing. Finding the door he was looking for, he pressed the buzzer switch in the jamb. "Who?" The English word, deep, harsh, spit forth from the speaker grille. "Spowkh, ch'he," said Spock, it is I, Spock. A pause so short only a Vulcan would notice it. "K'vath." Come. The single-panel door hissed into its pocket. Someone had installed metal railings on the ceiling of Sarek's quarters. Hot white arc lamps hung down at even intervals. Spock could hear a slight strain in the soft whine of the dehumidifier as it fought to keep the 60 degree Celsius air as dry as desert sand. Spock glanced past the room divider at the sleeping pallet. The linen was undisturbed. He turned his gaze to his father, seated at the writing desk, his back to Spock, broad shoulders held straight atop a ramrod spine. "Vulcan honors us with your presence," said Spock. "I come to serve." "Spock," Sarek said, turning off the desk-top monitor. He swiveled to face his son, fingers held steepled in front of his wide chest. Spock stepped fully into his father's room. Prior to Sarek's arrival, while Spock was still away with McCoy aboard Copernicus, Kirk had ordered several Vulcan artifacts moved here from Spock's quarters. Though Spock had been told of it, and did not object, the sight of his own belongings rearranged in a room of somewhat different proportions disconcerted him. His duranium tapestry of the circle-triangle-gemstone IDIC symbol dominated one wall. At last Spock looked at his father. "How is my mother?" Sarek held Spock in a steady gaze. "Amanda is in normal health for a Human of her age." "And the journey? I would appreciate a tour of your new long-range shuttle. You call it Surak?" "Your mother's suggestion, after the great envoy of peace. Spock, you accrue bad habits from your Human companions. These are preliminaries." Spock studied Sarek's face: a broader, sharper version of his own. Like the misplaced furnishings, the sight bothered him. It was as though he were seeing his own face, reflected in carved stone. His father's hair had a touch more silver in it than when last he'd seen him, three years ago. "My mother is a real concern, Sarek. Further, I have use for your shuttle." "Elaborate." "I wish first to explore another topic." "Undoubtedly." Spock stepped forward, his heels clicking on the plasteel floor. "Why are you here?" "T'Pau requested it. I do her will." "But you are retired." "Your Dr. McCoy did an excellent job of surgery on me. My health no longer hinders my career. I have not worked as an ambassador since the Coridan deliberations because there was no need." Again, Sarek paused. "Now, there is a need." "But you do not accept the premise of our current activities." "I am providing negotiation expertise for this truce. Peace between the Federation and its neighbors is a goal any Vulcan would pursue." Spock shook his head. "The treaty negotiations are not our main mission." "We defend our galaxy from one who would do it harm." Sarek rose smoothly to his feet, his unadorned black robe tumbling to accommodate his new posture. "There is no shame in self-defense, Spock." Spock looked closely at the older man, at the parchment skin, tanned rich olive from equatorial Vulcan sun. "There is more to it." "I deny that." "But I, Father, do not." "You are Vulcan." "I am half-Vulcan." Sarek kept his gaze on Spock, his face expressionless. "I see." "The Being we are seeking claims to be the Creator of All Things." Spock had grown unused to the steady stare of other Vulcans. For an instant, he averted his own eyes. "I submit that it tells the truth." Sarek's hand moved in a gesture of dismissal. "There is no need for a Creator. Sitar's criterion: limit parameters." "My Human colleagues speak of Occam's razor. The spirit is the same." Spock nodded once. "I accept that there are adequate models of the universe that do not require an intelligent motive force." "Then the issue is settled." Sarek turned his back on Spock and began filing the memory wafers he'd been reading in a storage tray. "It is not. For there is no adequate model for my own existence that does not presuppose a higher being." Sarek was bent now, placing the tray into a compartment under the desk. Spock saw a slight tensing of the muscles in Sarek's back where his father's robe was pulled tight. "Illogical." "Perhaps. Yet I believe as I have stated." "Why?" "It is because of you." Sarek straightened and turned to face his son. "Elaborate." "You met Amanda Grayson in Toronto while Vulcan's Ambassador to Earth. Within months, you and she were married." Sarek turned back to his desk. "I do not intend to discuss my past with you." "Do not," said Spock. "Merely listen. Obviously you do not love her." Sarek's eyebrows knit together. "Your mother is an extraordinary woman." "True, but not relevant. I submit there were other reasons for your marriage. Your lineage is distinguished. You are a direct descendant of Surak, a maternal-avuncular tri-cousin of T'Pau. Amanda's genetic profile is likewise exceptional." "Spock, you state the obvious." "Indeed. For it is obvious to me that your marriage was for a purpose. There has been much speculation about you and Amanda, much media coverage of the fact of your marriage. When you took her as wife, it was the height of pon farr on Vulcan. The prevalent theory is that you were overcome with the plak tow mating urge while on Earth " "I ignore rumor mongers." " and were unable to return to Vulcan in time to release yourself. Rather than die, you took a Human woman." "Again, Spock, that is speculation." "Agreed. It is speculation. And it is inaccurate. Your bondmate died as a child. You had no mental connection with Vulcan to make your blood boil with plak tow. I judge that as fortunate since, although Amanda is a hardy woman, she could not survive coupling with a Vulcan male in heat." "Marshal your tongue, Spock. You speak of your mother." "Dr. McCoy performed a full biorhythmic analysis on you as a prelude to the heart surgery you required three years ago. I was able to access that information through the Library Computer." "Indeed." The word was cold, harsh. "You did not undergo plak tow while on Earth. In fact, you seem not to have felt at all the effects of the pon farr of Vulcan Year 8870." "You have invaded my privacy, Spock. Leave now." Sarek pushed the button on the desk that opened the door to the corridor. "I respectfully disobey. You will hear my thoughts." "A Vulcan would not pry so." "Hear this, Father: I am not Vulcan." "Human, then," said Sarek, seating himself again. "They, too, have manners after a fashion." "Nor am I Human. I am a hybrid. Accept that fact." "Noted." "Accept it." Spock realized his tone had taken on an emotional edge. He fought to suppress it. "Accepted, for the sake of discourse." Ignored, the door hissed shut in the background. "Why, Father?" "Specify." Spock raised an eyebrow in question. "You do not follow my reasoning? You were involved in an experiment. An interbreeding experiment." "The inbreeding was tried." The hand gesture of dismissal again. "Vulcans have not crossbred with Humans since." "And for that I blame you." "Blame, Spock? Recrimination?" Sarek shook his head. "These have their seeds in emotion." "Emotion is not a bad thing. It has taken me many years to learn that, Father." "To unlearn your Vulcan teaching, you mean." Spock felt his own voice take on an unnatural hardness. "I should have had both teachings Vulcan and Human." "We lived on Vulcan." Sarek had steepled his fingers again. "Surely that was your choice. Vulcan is too hot, too dry, with too high a surface gravity to be comfortable for your wife." "Earth is no place to raise a child." Spock shook his head slowly. "Two billion Humans would disagree." "Perhaps." Spock walked over to the IDIC tapestry. He touched it with spread fingers, feeling the warm metal disks that made up the image. They were vibrating slightly, resonating to the hum of the dehumidifier. "You abandoned the experiment. It makes sense for Vulcans and Humans to interbreed: it is in keeping with the ideologies of both planets. At the root of the Vulcan awakening is the IDIC " Spock took his hand off the metallic tapestry, the disks jingling softly as they fell back to their normal positions "the concept of infinitely diverse things combining in infinite ways to form patterns of beauty and meaning." He returned his gaze to Sarek. "A Vulcan-Human hybrid is such a combination: more than the sum of its parts." "Modesty becomes you, Spock." Spock walked over to the desk. "I speak factually. Neither an average pure-bred Human nor a pure-bred Vulcan can equal me in physical strength, sensory acuity, mathematical acumen, musical ability, or, according to studies by Dr. M'Benga, projected longevity. Physically, I am the best of both worlds. Human farmers speak of hybrid vigor as the mechanism involved." Spock paused. He'd become quite adept at reading Human faces during his two decades in Starfleet, but his father's craggy visage was still a mask to him. "Additionally," he said at last, "I enjoy an ability few hybrids do: I am not sterile." "Then this hypothetical experiment you speak of was a success." "It was a failure. Why did you stop short, Sarek? Why raise me as a Vulcan? Why not let me be as unique as my dual heritage? You pressed me into the Vulcan mold, then shunned me when I sought an alternative in Starfleet " "Starfleet is an armed force." "Starfleet, like most Human institutions, practices brotherhood. It took Jim Kirk to make me understand what that word meant. It is the logical extension of IDIC, the bringing together of the new patterns into a working whole." For a second, an instant, there was expression on Sarek face a look of pain... or of hurt. Still, the words were monotone, crisp. "Does this conclude you tirade?" "No, Father. To end my statements with elegance, I must tie them into the situation at hand. That much of Vulcan rhetoric I retain. You prematurely concluded the experiment of which I am the product, ending it as soon as you had a living hybrid. You refused to let that hybrid bring out the best of both societies. Instead, you disguised me as a Vulcan, had cosmetic surgery performed to hide the Human characteristics in my face." "You would prefer to have been left with drooping eyebrows and ears neither pointed nor round?" A hint of a shrug. "It is a trivial enough matter to have the surgery reversed." "I mention it only as an indication that you considered the experiment concluded with my live birth. The rest of my life has been immaterial, unimportant. I find that unacceptable. I believe that my life must have some meaning." "That assumption will color any conclusions." "Granted. But, working from that assumption, if my life has no meaning to Vulcans, because I am perceived merely as a Vulcan, and no meaning to Humans, because I am considered not to be one, then any significance my life does have outside its intrinsic worth to me must be to some third party." "Your logic is flawed, Spock." "Undoubtedly. That does not change my conviction." Spock stepped closer to the desk, tipping his face down to look at his father. "I accept the Being's claim that it is the creator of the universe. I must contact it. I must learn why a life such as mine exists. I must know what results the Being expected from the experiment you gave up on." "And your course of action?" "I wish to take your shuttle and head directly to where we suspect the Being is located." "Why my vessel?" "The Enterprise still has much work to do in assembling the armada. Surak is the only warp-driven ship available not required for that purpose. In it, I can arrive days before the others. I will have time to pose my questions." "A pilgrimage, Spock?" "A quest for knowledge. An honorable pursuit for a Vulcan." Sarek rose to his feet. "You are misguided, Spock. I deny you permission." Spock was close to his father's face now, so close that he had to focus on either Sarek's left eye or his right. Instead, he found his gaze shifting rapidly between the two hard brown orbs. "Father " Sarek again moved a thick finger to the button that opened the door. "Leave me now. I have affairs of import to attend to." The turbolift deposited Jim Kirk on deck six near the messroom. He walked down a concentric hallway and stepped into a radial corridor. Coming towards him was Spock. Kirk smiled at his First Officer with that expectant look that Spock had finally learned meant Jim wanted to talk to him. But the Vulcan continued down the corridor, eyes ahead, giving not the slightest acknowledgment of his captain's presence. Kirk turned on his heel, watching that stiff back until it disappeared around a corner. Spock could have just come from seeing Fox or Jag, whose quarters were down that way in the VIP wing, but that seemed unlikely. Spock had no use for the kind of polite diplomacy of words of which Fox was a master. And Vulcans and Tellarites, creatures of conflicting demeanors, habitually avoided each other. No, Spock must have been visiting Sarek. Things obviously hadn't gone well, whatever they had been talking about. Kirk didn't want to confront the ambassador if Sarek was in a bad mood, but... Kirk turned and strode purposefully toward Sarek's quarters. He pressed the buzzer and, after identifying himself to Sarek, the door slid aside. The heat hit Kirk like a wave from a blast furnace. Immediately his face was slick with sweat. Knives stabbed through the backs of his eyes as he stepped into the floodlit room. Sarek rose. "You wish something of me, Captain?" The Vulcan's face was cold, impassive, expressionless. What was he thinking behind those dark eyes? For a moment Kirk wanted to ask what had upset Spock so, but he thought better of it and plunged into what he had to say on his own behalf. "Sarek, you countermanded an order of mine on the bridge." "Yes." "Never do that." "You requested we take a Romulan warp engine in tow. This is a mission of peace not war." "Granted my... enthusiasm for knowledge got the best of me." "I perceive my error. You are, in fact, in agreement with me that taking the engine would have been the wrong course of action " "Well... " "But you feel my intervention caused your bridge crew to lose respect for you." Kirk was mad. This wasn't going the way he had planned. "I wouldn't have put it that way." "You are insulted at the suggestion that something so trivial could undermine the faith your crew has in you, yet it is that same fear that compelled you to take an ambassador to task. Kirk, I know something of Human military psychology: the commanding officer must be seen as godlike, perfect. And no one is that. Certainly not myself. You have my apology, Captain. Henceforth, I shall avoid the bridge." Jim's head was spinning: Sarek had gone from argumentative to graciousness in a handful of sentences. No wonder he was so highly regarded as a diplomat. "Thank you, sir," he said, hastening from the room. In the coolness of the corridor he reeled at his own stench. His shirt was soaked with sweat. He headed back up to his quarters to change into a fresh uniform. Kirk studied the tactical display on the bridge's main viewer. Leonard McCoy stood on the left side of the raised command chair, leaning an elbow on the chair's back. Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott stood at ease on Kirk's right. The Romulan Star Empire was a tiny volume of space: just a single binary star system, two planets, and the bulk of an asteroid field. "We sure didn't leave them much after the war," said McCoy. "We didn't have to leave them anything, Bones. They started it." McCoy shook his head. "You're talking like a soldier again, Jim. That was a hundred and twenty years ago. Everybody who lived through the war is dead." "The Humans are dead. But not the Romulans. They live for more than two centuries." "Aye," said Scott, with a bitterness that surprised Kirk, "they will still remember." The Neutral Zone, appearing as an amber spherical gridwork in the holographic display, completely enclosed the Romulans. On the screen, the Enterprise was marked in blue, Koloth's Devisor in red, and Sarek's long-range shuttle, the Surak, in green. Kirk looked over his shoulder at Communications Chief Uhura. "Raise Koloth on the Devisor. The woman's hands played over her board, a rising scale of pips responding to her keystrokes. "I have him, sir. Frequency open." Kirk pressed a button on his chair arm. The main view screen cut to a low-angle shot of the Klingon bridge, multi-leveled, misty, shock-absorbing buttresses flanking the captain's throne. "Captain Koloth." "Kirk." "We are three hours from Romulus. I propose a briefing." Koloth glanced off-camera. "Two hours forty minutes, by your clock, Captain." Kirk smiled and looked over at Spock, now back at his usual post. "Koloth, there's a streak of the Vulcan in you." The skin of Koloth's face peeled back, showing teeth. "Insult me not again, Kirk." Jim held up a hand. "My apologies, Captain. I only meant that your precision with time reminded me of my First Officer." Koloth smiled. "I have studied Human history, Kirk. Bad timing has cost your kind many military campaigns." "We'll have plenty of opportunity to spar while we journey to our rendezvous with the Being, Koloth. The forthcoming confrontation with the Romulans requires immediate consultation. Will you and your advisors beam aboard?" "We are to come to you?" "Forgive me now for sounding like a Vulcan. It's only logical. Ambassadors Sarek, Fox, and Jag are already on this ship." Koloth bobbed his head in a V-shaped motion, a Klingon gesture of reluctant assent. "Sufficient, Kirk. I and two others will beam over." "Good. If you'll give me your coordinates " "Thank you, no, Captain. I do not trust your noisy teleportation system. You give us your coordinates." Kirk heard Scotty swear under his breath and McCoy whisper, "First sensible thing I've ever heard a Klingon say." Kirk silenced the Doctor with what he hoped was an angry look. "Very well, Koloth. Lieutenant Uhura will append the coordinates to this transmission. When should I expect you?" "In fifteen atrag. Koloth out." The screen faded back to naked stars. "Fifteen atrags?" said Kirk. "What the devil is an atrag?" Spock walked over from the Library Computer station. "Captain Koloth knew the units of Terran timekeeping and they're not even decimal." "I'm not interested in which of us would win a trivia contest, Spock." "A trag is 47.229 seconds. Fifteen of them atrag is a Klingonaase plural is just under twelve minutes." A frown creased Scotty's features. "Sir, I'm sure you know what you're doing, but I dinna like the idea of those bastards aboard the Enterprise. "We are at peace, Scotty." "Aye. A temporary ad hoc alliance." The Engineer shook his head. "Those Klingons will leave here the richer for it. They can learn a lot from seeing the Enterprise up close." Kirk smiled. "Last report I saw from Cochrane Industries indicated that they're testing flattened warp-drive nacelles patterned after the Klingon units. Maybe we can learn something from each other." He got up and moved toward the orange turbolift doors. "Uhura, have the department heads meet me in briefing room one in... " "Eleven minutes," said Spock. "Eleven minutes." The doors slid shut behind him. After the briefing, Leonard McCoy followed Kirk back to the Captain's quarters, a spacious pair of rooms separated by a screen divider. When the door had closed behind them, McCoy wheeled on him. "Dammit, Jim. What the hell's the matter with you?" Kirk let himself slip down into a chair, his movements heavy, his face weary. "What?" "You heard me. You let Koloth walk all over you." Jim allowed his breath to escape in a long, whispery sigh. "I'm the host. He's my guest." "Bull. You were a million kilometers away. Something's on your mind." "I'm just tired, Bones." McCoy moved over to the dumbwaiter set in the room divider and slipped a memory wafer into its slot. A few seconds later the door slid up, revealing two crystal snifters half-full of dark green liquid. He offered one to Kirk. "It's a little early in the day for Saurian brandy, Bones." "Maybe for you. But I'm working nights this cycle. Besides, I'm your doctor." He motioned with the glass. "Consider it a prescription." "McCoy's all-purpose wonder cure, is that it?" Kirk took the brandy, but didn't bring it to his lips. "I'll go drink with Scotty if you're going to be nasty." "Sorry." The word had no feeling behind it. McCoy took the second glass for himself and settled into a chair across a small table from Kirk. "Now, are you going to tell your friendly doctor what's eating you?" "Do you believe in God, Bones?" McCoy frowned. "What the hell kind of question is that?" "A timely one, these days. Do you?" The doctor drained his glass in a single gulp and set it on the table with a clink. "Hell, Jim, I don't know." "You must have thought about it." McCoy raised an eyebrow. "I think about a lot of things. Why communism never worked. Why people have appendixes. Why Starfleet can't stick with one damn uniform design." He shook his head. "But I don't lose sleep over them." "I haven't been sleeping lately." McCoy's tone was a little softer. "I can tell. You're getting bigger bags under your eyes than Ambassador Fox. Let me give you some more of those little red pills." "No, Bones. I have to think about these questions. And night's the best time to do it." He looked at McCoy again. "Do you believe in God?" McCoy got up and ambled over to the dumbwaiter. "Jim," he said slowly, a trace of Southern drawl protracting his words, "when I was twenty-four I inherited a pack of money from my old Granddad." The memory wafer was still in the slot, so he tapped the repeat button. "I traveled all over Earth and the Martian Colonies, even visited Wrigley's Pleasure Planet." The door slid up with a pneumatic poof and McCoy removed one of the two glasses that had appeared within. "I fell in love thought I did, anyway got married, bought a big old house in Atlanta and had me a beautiful baby girl." His blue eyes had a faraway look. "Did I ever tell you I delivered Joanna myself? I had everything I could ever want then." He walked slowly back to his chair and swung his booted feet up onto the wooden table top. "If you'd asked me then if I believed in God, I would have said no. I was happy, then, Jim, so I didn't need a god." Kirk took a sip of his brandy. "Helen and I broke up. She left me, Jim. I never knew why." A pause. "It wasn't for somebody else, though. It was years before Hell remarried." McCoy took another swig. "Do you know how much that can hurt a man, Jim? She preferred having nobody to having me. Joanna went with her, of course. I was a terrible father. Everyone agreed on that." He fell silent. Kirk was about to prod him again with his original question when McCoy spoke. "I haven't seen Joanna in three years, Jim. Three years!" Kirk thought briefly of his own son, David, whom he hadn't seen since he took command of the Enterprise, five years ago. David would be what? sixteen now. What grade would that be? Dammit, what the hell kind of father have I been? "You've got a wonderful bedside manner, Bones." "Don't get smart, Jim. You asked the damned question, you've got to listen to the damned answer." Another swig of brandy. "I haven't been happy since oh, since '87 or so. I don't know what I was looking for when I joined Starfleet. Maybe it was a god." He set down his empty glass. "There sure wasn't one in Atlanta, Georgia." "And?" "And what?" "Did you find one?" "A god? Hell, Jim, I would have told you if I had." "So God doesn't exist?" "No," said McCoy, shaking his head slightly. "Not for me, anyway." "I have to know. Dammit, Bones, once we assemble the armada, I'll be commanding over a thousand starships in the greatest assault in history. We'll have enough fire power to destroy " "A god?" Kirk finished his drink. "Jim, if the Being is the God of the Bible and Torah and Koran and all those other books, you won't be able to kill it." "Why not?" "Well, because... because, hell, Jim, God is God." He spread his arms in an all-encompassing gesture. "Omnipotent." "I thought you didn't believe in God." "I don't. But I know the definition of God. Some say God is dead." He pointed a finger at Kirk. "Like that long-haired fellow you like " "Nietzsche." "If that's true, it was natural causes. You can't murder a god." Kirk made a face at McCoy's use of the word murder, but the doctor continued. "If it is a real god, then Judgment Day is really at hand, Jim, and there's not a damned thing we can do about it." He fixed Kirk with a steady gaze. "And if the Being isn't God, we're going to blow that bastard right out of the sky." "I have to know before we attack." "Jim, I can't tell you how to command." "You try often enough." "But you never listen." Kirk looked him in the eye. "I'll listen this time." "I can only give you my opinion. The Being's an invader and we've got every right to defend ourselves. There is no God." The last four words were measured, firm. "But, Bones, what if it is Judgment Day?" Kirk spread his arms wide. "What will I say? That I knew the Being might be God but I fired full phasers into Its heart anyway?" McCoy got up again and fetched the remaining snifter from the dumbwaiter. He brought it back and handed it to Kirk. "Maybe that's exactly what you'll have to do, Jim." Chapter 3: March to the Beat of Drums "Romulus I," said Spock, nodding at the image growing in the main viewer that covered part of the curving bridge wall. Kirk looked at the planet, a harsh gray-and-brown oceanless globe, slightly larger than Earth. Its disk was razor-edged as seen from space, unlike the blurred rim of Earth, indicating a thin atmosphere with low moisture content. The double onslaught of solar winds from the twin stars it orbited must have stripped off the bulk of Romulus's air ages ago. A giant shield volcano, puckered like an infected wound, rose high above its equator, sure sign of an old planet that had given up on plate tectonics. "All engines stop, Mr. Sulu," Kirk said. "Let Devisor take the lead." "Aye, sir." Sulu clicked over a series of toggles, putting the impulse engines on standby. The Enterprise's speed remained constant, but her acceleration dropped to zero. The Klingon ship pulled ahead. The main viewer automatically centered on the other ship, the red sphincter of Devisor's rear torpedo tube dominating the view. "I don't like to see us taking second place to a Klingon, though." Kirk smiled. He knew that Hikaru Sulu, as pilot of the great vessel, loved the Enterprise in his own way as much as Scotty did. "Scanners, Spock?" "All clear." Spock moved from the Library Computer station to stand next to Kirk. "Jim," he said in a low voice, "are you sure this is the correct course of action?" "We tried being up-front with the Romulan starfleet at the Neutral Zone," Kirk said. "They didn't believe us, then. Why should we assume they'll believe us now?" "Subspace astronomy can only be practiced outside of a gravity well," Spock said. "The entire Romulan Star Empire is deep in the curved space of Romulus and Remus. Therefore, they may be unaware of the massive growth of the black hole at the galaxy's core." The Vulcan nodded. "Without that to give credence to the Being's claims, I, too, would be skeptical." He gestured at the viewscreen, the bat-winged stern of Koloth's ship now silhouetted against the gibbous planet. "Still, I wonder if deception is the route to gaining their support." "We've got to be guided by Koloth in this, Spock. The Klingons have been dealing with the Romulans far longer than we have." Spock said nothing. After a moment he returned to the Library Computer. Kirk swiveled his chair far to the right to face Spock's station. "Would Romulans use their cloaking devices this deep within their own territory?" "Vulcans do not speculate, Captain." Jim translated the Spockism: Your guess is as good as mine. Kirk lifted his feet slightly off the pedestal and his chair swung back to its neutral forward position. He spoke to Chekov, seated on Sulu's right this shift. "Mr. Chekov, open a window in our deflector screens. Make them transparent to the wavelengths Klingons use for tractor beams." The young ensign was prepared for this. He slipped a new memory wafer into the command slot and pressed a single button. "Done, Keptin." Kirk turned his attention to the main viewer. "Uhura, ship to ship." He heard an ascending scale of pips from the communications board directly behind him. "Hailing frequencies open, sir." Kirk pressed a button on the right arm of his chair. "Koloth, this is Kirk. We're ready." The Enterprise lurched in response. Kirk's ears rang as the floor boards vibrated at their resonant frequency. He stabbed the talk button. "Damn you, Koloth." Again, there was no verbal response, but the ship ceased to vibrate. "We've been seized by a tractor beam, sir," reported Chekov. "Devisor is taking us in tow." Kirk touched a different switch, opening the intercom. "Kirk, Engineering." Scott's voice, thinned slightly over the speaker: "Aye, sir?" "Shut down all running lights and all lights in rooms with windows. Put warp engines on standby." "Aye, sir." "And now what, sir?" "Now, Mr. Chekov, we wait." "But not for long," said Spock. "Four Romulan ships approaching fast." On the screen, a pair of D7 cobra-headed Klingon-style ships appeared, flanked by two of the uprated, warp-driven birds-of-prey. The D7s, painted in dappled browns and greens, had the same lines as Devisor. Only the tiny insignias on the port sides of their engineering hulls were different. Kirk glanced at the astrogation pedestal set between Sulu's and Chekov's chairs. The alien vessels were breaking out of low orbit around Romulus I and climbing toward Enterprise and Devisor. "Monitor external communications, Uhura," Kirk said. "Tie in universal translator." The screen wavered to reveal the gaunt, aquiline features of a youngish Romulan male wearing a subcommander's sash. His red hair the color of some races' blood, not the carrot shade Humans called red hair was cut in bangs, like Spock's. "S'tren of the Praetorian guard to Klingon vessel, identify." S'tren's lipless mouth moved independently of the words the translator provided in English. But Kirk knew the harsh, cold tone was an accurate simulation of S'tren's original timbre and inflection. The screen cut to show Koloth, all evil smiles, seated in the high-backed central throne of his bridge. "Captain Koloth of the Klingon Imperial Fleet. My ship is the Devisor. Felicitations, Subcommander S'tren." Kirk was surprised to note on the status line at the bottom of the screen that Koloth was talking in Romulan highspeak, rather than Klingonaase. The image cut back to S'tren, his arched eyebrows narrowed in naked suspicion. "We are not expecting Klingon envoys, Koloth." Cut to Koloth, thick, moist Klingon air swirling around him. "Naturally, if this were a social call, we would have sent advance word. However, it is not." Kirk spoke quietly. "Split screen, Sulu." The helmsman tapped a series of button in quick succession and the main viewer divided into three images: sleek Koloth in the upper left, hawkish S'tren in the upper right, and the pack of Romulan vessels filling the lower half. "Your business, then?" asked S'tren. Koloth smiled. "We bring you spoils of war: |
and Body Composition
We assessed bone mineral density and body composition (percentage of body fat) by using dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry at baseline and at 6, 12, and 24 months. All sites used a Hologic (Bedford, Massachusetts) Delphi or Discovery model bone densitometer. Whole-body, posteroanterior lumbar spine (L1 to L4), and left proximal femur scans were acquired according to manufacturer guidelines for participant positioning. We cross-calibrated scanners by using the same Hologic anthropomorphic spine and whole-body phantom set before data collection. Long-term calibration was monitored at each site with a spine phantom scanned daily and a whole-body phantom scanned 3 times a week. Based on these phantoms, the long-term precision was less than 1% for spine bone mineral density and less than 2% for percentage of body fat. A single technician analyzed all scans centrally by using Hologic software, version 11.2, and one investigator independently reviewed for scan and analysis quality. We excluded poor-quality scans (movement artifacts and improper position) from the analysis (0.7% for spine; 3.9% for hip; and 3.1% for whole body).
Follow-up Procedures
All randomly assigned participants, regardless of whether they were actively attending treatment, were contacted by phone, mail, and e-mail to schedule a follow-up assessment.
Statistical Analysis
Sample Size
To detect a 3% (SD, 5%) difference between the groups in the primary outcome—body weight at 24 months—with 90% power and an α value of 0.05, we needed 85 participants per treatment group. To detect a 10% (SD, 20%) difference in LDL cholesterol level and other secondary outcomes, 119 participants per group were required. We aimed to enroll 150 participants per group to account for attrition and to provide power for secondary outcomes.
We used a random-effects linear model that was fitted to all observed data for each variable on each of the 307 participants for the primary analysis. Each random-effects model consisted of a random intercept and slope to adjust for individual participant variability due to within-participant correlations among the observed longitudinal data. These models also contained the following fixed effects: main effects for each follow-up visit, group assignment, interactions between each follow-up visit and group indicator variables, and baseline value as a covariate. We estimated with maximum likelihood by using the PROC MIXED procedure in SAS, version 9 (SAS Institute, Cary, North Carolina). A parallel longitudinal model structure based on main effects for visit, treatment group, and baseline value and visit-treatment interactions was implemented with logistic regression for binary outcomes. We did estimates by using generalized estimating equations under the logistic regression model for correlated longitudinal binary outcomes implemented in the GENMOD procedure in SAS, version 9. Predicted values for each treatment and visit combination at the mean level of the baseline outcome, with corresponding lower and upper confidence bounds, were produced under each model for the figures.
The previously mentioned longitudinal models preclude the use of less robust approaches, such as fixed-imputation methods (for example, last observation carried forward or the analysis of participants with complete data [that is, complete case analyses]). These alternative approaches assume that missing data are unrelated to previously observed outcomes or baseline covariates, including treatment (that is, missing completely at random). The longitudinal models implemented for this study relax this missing-completely-at-random assumption in different ways. The generalized estimating equation–based longitudinal logistic models assume that missing data are unrelated to previously observed outcomes but can be related to the treatment because it is a covariate in the model. (that is, covariate-dependent missing completely at random) (18). The likelihood-based mixed-effects models further relax the covariate-dependent missing-completely-at-random assumption by allowing missing data to be dependent on previously observed outcomes and treatment (that is, missing at random). To assess departures from the missing-at-random assumption under informative withdrawal—that is, the missing weights are informative for which patients chose to withdraw or continue to participate in the study—we present sensitivity analyses. As such, we assume that all participants who withdraw would follow first the maximum and then minimum patient trajectory of weight under the random intercept model.
The α value was set at 5% for weight loss at 24 months and 1% for all other outcomes to account for comparisons at 3, 6, 12, and 24 months (or whatever the pairwise comparisons are). Adding site to the above models revealed no site effects for weight loss or attrition at 3, 6, 12, or 24 months, so the entire sample (n = 307) was collapsed and analyzed together. Triglyceride values were not normally distributed, so analyses were done on the log-transformed values.
Attrition
There were no statistically significant differences between the 2 groups in attrition, defined as not undergoing an assessment at a specific time point, independent of the reason. Attrition included participants who withdrew and intermittent missingness at each time point. In the low-fat group, 6%, 12%, 25%, and 32% of participants did not participate in assessments at 3, 6, 12, and 24 months, respectively. Values for the low-carbohydrate participants were 9%, 16%, 26%, and 42%, respectively ( Figure 1 ). Under the sensitivity analysis based on imputing missing outcomes with the highest (13.795) and lowest (−18.355) random-effects slopes (that is, change in weight per month) under the mixed-effects model for weight, our qualitative findings were not sensitive to either imputation approach.
Role of the Funding Source
The National Institutes of Health funded this study. The funding source had no role in the design, conduct, or reporting of the study.
Results
Body Weight
Participants in both groups lost approximately 11% of initial weight at 6 and 12 months, with subsequent weight regain to a 7% weight loss at 2 years ( Table 2 and Figure 2 ). We found no statistically significant differences in weight loss at any time point between the low-carbohydrate and low-fat diet groups, although there was a strong trend (P = 0.019) for greater weight loss in the low-carbohydrate group at 3 months.
Table 2. Predicted Mean Changes in Body Weight, Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors, Bone Mineral Density, and Body Composition Over 2 Years Table 2.
Figure 2.
Urinary Ketones
The percentage of participants who had positive test results for urinary ketones was greater in the low-carbohydrate than in the low-fat group at 3 months (63% vs. 20%; P < 0.001) and 6 months (28% vs. 9%; P < 0.01). We found no statistically significant differences between groups after 6 months. The decrease from 3 to 24 months is consistent with liberalization of carbohydrate intake over time, as part of the study protocol.
Blood Pressure
Systolic blood pressure decreased with weight loss in both diet groups relative to baseline, but systolic blood pressure did not significantly differ between groups at any time. However, reductions in diastolic pressure were significantly greater (2 to 3 mm Hg) in the low-carbohydrate than in the low-fat group at 3 and 6 months with a strong trend (P = 0.016) at 24 months ( Table 2 ).
Plasma Lipid Concentrations
The macronutrient content of the 2 diets influenced the effect of weight loss on plasma lipid concentrations. Most of the differences in plasma lipid concentrations between groups were observed during the first 6 months of the diets ( Table 2 Figure 3, and Appendix Table ). We found a significantly greater decrease in LDL cholesterol levels at 3 and 6 months in the low-fat group than in the low-carbohydrate group, but this difference did not persist at 12 or 24 months. Decreases in triglyceride levels were greater in the low-carbohydrate than in the low-fat group at 3 and 6 months but not at 12 or 24 months. Decreases in VLDL cholesterol levels were significantly greater in the low-carbohydrate than in the low-fat group at 3, 6, and 12 months but not at 24 months. Increases in HDL cholesterol levels were significantly greater in the low-carbohydrate than in the low-fat group at 3, 6, 12 and 24 months. The ratio of total-cholesterol to HDL cholesterol levels decreased significantly in both groups through 24 months but did not significantly differ between groups at any time. There was a trend for greater reductions in the low-carbohydrate group at 6 months (P = 0.035) and 12 months (P = 0.016) ( Table 2 ). Therefore, the only effect on plasma lipid concentrations that persisted at 2 years was the significantly greater increases in HDL cholesterol levels among low-carbohydrate participants.
Figure 3.
Appendix Table. Serious Adverse Events Among 307 Participants Over 2 Years Appendix Table.
Bone Mineral Density and Body Composition
We found no differences between groups in changes in bone mineral density or body composition over 2 years ( Table 2 ). For both hip and spine bone mineral density, the change from baseline was 1.5% or less at 6, 12, and 24 months, and we found no significant differences between groups. For body composition, both groups experienced similar reductions in lean mass (approximately 5%) and fat mass (11% to 20%), and we found no differences between groups at anytime during the study ( Table 2 ). Finally, the groups did not differ in the percentage of weight lost from fat or lean mass.
Symptoms
5 includes all serious adverse events (type, time, and attribution to diet). A significantly greater percentage of participants who consumed the low-carbohydrate than the low-fat diet reported bad breath, hair loss, constipation, and dry mouth ( Table 3 ). Except for constipation, all of these differences were limited to the first 6 months of treatment. No serious cardiovascular events (for example, stroke, myocardial infarction) were reported. Theincludes all serious adverse events (type, time, and attribution to diet).
Table 3. Significant Differences in Symptom Reporting Table 3.
Discussion
Our study has 2 main findings. First, neither dietary fat nor carbohydrate intake influenced weight loss when combined with a comprehensive lifestyle intervention. Second, because both diet groups achieved nearly identical weight loss, we were able to determine that a low-carbohydrate diet has greater beneficial long-term effects on HDL cholesterol concentrations than a low-fat diet.
Our participants had similar and clinically significant weight losses with either a low-carbohydrate or low-fat diet at 1 year (11%) and 2 years (7%), demonstrating that either diet can be used to achieve successful long-term weight loss if coupled with behavioral treatment. The weight losses are similar to those obtained with the best available pharmacotherapy for obesity (19, 20). Data from the most previous studies found greater weight loss among low-carbohydrate than low-fat dieters (1–4, 6), presumably because short-term adherence to a low-carbohydrate diet was easier than complying with a low-fat diet. We found a strong trend for greater short-term (3 month) weight loss among the low-carbohydrate participants, but the difference was small (1.3%) and not clinically significant. Our data suggest that the difference in adherence may be overcome by behavioral treatment, although a 2 × 2 analysis (both diets with and without behavioral treatment) would be required to rigorously test this hypothesis. The similar weight losses observed with low-carbohydrate and low-fat diets demonstrate that the comprehensive lifestyle intervention produced the same energy deficit in both groups, despite marked differences in their behavioral targets (carbohydrates vs. calories and fat). This long-term finding in an outpatient setting is consistent with data from short-term metabolic ward studies showing that macronutrient composition did not influence weight loss when energy content was fixed (21–23)
The nearly identical weight loss in the 2 diet groups during our study provided a unique opportunity to assess the relative effects of the macronutrient content of the 2 diets on cardiovascular disease risk factors. The results demonstrate that dietary macronutrient composition had differential effects on plasma lipid concentrations. At 3 and 6 months, LDL cholesterol concentrations increased in the low-carbohydrate group but decreased in the low-fat group, such that the differences between groups were statistically significant. These differences cannot be explained by differences in weight loss and are probably due to the increase in total fat intake in participants who consumed the carbohydrate-restricted diet. Over the long-term, however, plasma LDL cholesterol concentration in the low-carbohydrate diet group was similar to baseline values, and changes in LDL cholesterol concentrations did not statistically differ between groups. Therefore, the short-term increases in plasma LDL cholesterol concentration in the low-carbohydrate diet group are unlikely to be of clinical importance. Moreover, assessment of LDL cholesterol concentration without information on LDL particle size has limitations as an indicator of coronary heart disease risk because small, dense LDL particles are more atherogenic than large LDL particles (24). Data from carefully controlled studies demonstrated that isocaloric replacement of dietary carbohydrate with fat increases plasma LDL cholesterol concentration but shifts LDL particle size from smaller to larger and less atherogenic LDL (25). Nonetheless, weight loss with the low-carbohydrate diet was not associated with the decrease in LDL cholesterol observed in the low-fat diet group and usually observed with weight reduction (26, 27)
The low-carbohydrate diet caused a decrease in plasma triglyceride concentration that was more than double the reduction observed with a low-fat diet at 3, 6, and 12 months. However, at 2 years, plasma triglyceride concentration returned toward baseline in the low-carbohydrate group to values that did not differ from those in the low-fat group. Similarly, the decline in directly measured VLDL cholesterol concentration was also greater in the low-carbohydrate than in the low-fat group at 3, 6, and 12 months. However, as with triglyceride levels, at 2 years we found no significant differences between groups. The close relationship and tracking between fasting plasma triglyceride concentrations (which are primarily contained within VLDL) and VLDL cholesterol concentrations supports a model in which the low-carbohydrate diet decreased hepatic VLDL secretion, enhanced VLDL clearance, or both compared with the low-fat diet during the first year of the study.
The low-carbohydrate diet produced a much greater increase in plasma HDL cholesterol concentration than did the low-fat diet at all assessments during the 2-year study. Plasma HDL cholesterol concentration increased by approximately 20% at 6 months in the low-carbohydrate diet group, which persisted throughout the study and was more than twice the increase observed in the low-fat diet group. The magnitude of the changes observed in the low-carbohydrate group approximates that obtained with the maximal doses of nicotinic acid (niacin), the most effective HDL-raising pharmacologic intervention currently available (28). The fact that the HDL cholesterol levels remained substantially elevated at 24 months, when the plasma triglyceride levels had returned to baseline in the low-carbohydrate group, argues against the conventional explanation that the increase in plasma HDL cholesterol concentration is solely secondary to a reduction in plasma triglyceride levels. The increased HDL cholesterol during a low-carbohydrate diet could result, at least in part, from the increased intake of dietary fat (29). Although weight loss and increased physical activity undoubtedly contributed to the elevation of HDL cholesterol in both groups, the marked difference in HDL cholesterol between the 2 groups, despite similar weight loss, demonstrates that macronutrient composition has independent effects on HDL. The mechanism responsible for the robust and sustained increase in HDL cholesterol levels among low-carbohydrate participants is unknown and will require additional mechanistic studies. The clinical implications of this increase in HDL cholesterol, which is conventionally believed to be beneficial, are uncertain and will probably depend on the mechanism responsible for this effect.
Weight loss caused a decrease in bone mineral density, which was within the range reported in previous weight-loss studies (30). The changes in bone mineral density did not differ between diet groups, suggesting the hypothetical concerns that weight loss induced by a low-carbohydrate diet causes greater bone loss than weight loss induced by a low-fat diet (31) are unfounded. In addition, the decrease in body fat mass and fat-free mass were within the range reported in previous weight-loss studies, and no differences were found between diet groups.
Our study has several important strengths, including a long duration, a large sample that contained both men and women, and the first long-term assessment of bone and adverse symptoms. Our study also has several limitations. First, the comprehensive behavioral therapy program used in this study makes it difficult to extrapolate our results to general weight management in the community. However, the clinically significant weight losses achieved at 24 months underscore the need for providing patients with long-term behavioral support, whether by registered dietitians or other allied health professionals (32, 33). Our protocol was based on an Atkins version of a low-carbohydrate plan, which prescribes an increase in carbohydrate intake over time; thus, the effects of longer than 12 weeks of severe (20 g/d) carbohydrate restriction could not be assessed. Finally, our findings should not be generalized to obese persons who have obesity-related diseases that were excluded from our study population, such as diabetes and hypercholesterolemia.
In conclusion, this 2-year, multicenter study of more than 300 participants revealed that neither dietary fat nor carbohydrate intake influenced weight loss when combined with a comprehensive lifestyle intervention. Both diet groups achieved clinically significant and nearly identical weight loss (11% at 6 months and 7% at 24 months), and persons who received the low-carbohydrate diet had greater 24-month increases in HDL-cholesterol concentrations than persons who received the low-fat diet. We found no differences between the groups for changes in bone or body composition. These long-term data suggest that a low-carbohydrate approach is a viable option for obesity treatment for obese adults.
References
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Appendix
The group treatment sessions were 75 to 90 minutes and were held weekly from weeks 1 to 20, every other week from weeks 21 to 40, and every 8 weeks from weeks 41 to 104. Groups included 8 to 12 participants and only contained persons assigned to the same diet condition (low-carbohydrate or low-fat). Once the group sessions began, no additional members were added, and participants could not attend other group sessions. There was 1 brief (15 minute) individual session at week 30 that focused on assessing progress and goal setting for the future.
During weeks 1 to 20, participants were instructed in traditional behavioral methods of weight control, such as self-monitoring, stimulus control, slowed eating, shaping, and reasonable goal setting. During weeks 21 to 104, there was a focus on skills to maintain weight loss, such as continuing to record food intake regularly, measuring and recording body weight regularly, consuming a low-carbohydrate or a high-carbohydrate diet, identifying high-risk situations, differentiating lapse from relapse, responding effectively to overeating episodes, and learning to reverse small weight gains as they occur. Group sessions varied between the 2 treatment conditions only in the type of diet plan that was prescribed. Sample group leader protocols (week 2) for each treatment condition are included under “week 2” of the section “Low Carbohydrate.”
Groups were conducted by a registered dietitian or psychologist with experience in weight control. Group leaders attended an initial, 2-day, in-person training in Philadelphia, and all group leaders attended biweekly calls throughout the study. The calls were led by a psychologist with extensive experience in behavioral methods of weight control. The calls focused on any clarifications of the protocol and the discussion of nonadherent participants.
Low Carbohydrate
Week 2
I. Welcome (5 minutes)
A. Begin with reintroduction (names only). If new members, include reasons for weight loss as in week 1 but keep abbreviated and limit your comments.
B. Ask for volunteers to recall as many names as possible.
C. Address any questions left from last week.
D. Briefly review tonight's agenda. This week we will focus on making changes in eating habits.
II. SAFE (Handout) (10 minutes)
A. Indicate that we want to provide a way for members to check in briefly at the beginning of each group. For the next few weeks, everyone will check in but over time (depending on the number of persons in the group, guest lecturers, etc), participants may take turns. Remind about the need to avoid spending too much time on any one individual.
B. SAFE was chosen to remind us that we want this to be a safe place to discuss eating and exercise habits. (Remind about confidentiality). It also reminds us about the key things to concentrate on each week.
1. S~self care—Important to view weight loss as self-care rather than as punitive. It's something to do for yourself rather than some punishment that is imposed. Also important to develop non-food alternatives to nurture self. Each week participants to report things they did to take care of themselves that did not include food. Should be things focused on the participant rather than her/his family, job, etc. (e.g., massage, going to movie that they have been wanting to see, pedicure, manicure, small “gift”; being inaccessible to others for brief times; going home on time). See “Self-Care” handout for more examples. Part of long-term success is being nice to yourself. Complete “Self-Care” handout and pick at least one thing each week.
2. A~adherence—How were you able to achieve your goals this week? This includes skill development each week (slow eating, limiting times, etc) as well as individualized goals (special situations, behaviors from goal worksheet). Review particular successes or difficulties. This is a way to get individual attention as well as help the group sharpen its problem-solving skills.
3. F~food records—Review progress with keeping records of food and other activities. This is the primary tool of weekly assessment.
4. E~exercise—The physical activity that you performed this week (type, duration, frequency).
C. Note that W~(weight) is not included in the weekly review. Review reasons why weight is a poor short-term measure of success (Brownell, pp. 48–49).
1. salt intake
2. water shifts, menstrual cycle, humidity
3. no relation between weight and weekly behavior
D. Focus on SAFE and weight loss will follow.
E. Next week, we will use SAFE to check in.
III. Skill Review (15 minutes)
A. Ask participants to describe rationale for self-monitoring from week 1 (Brownell, pp. 14–15).
B. Ask about participants' experiences with recording.
Was it helpful?
What patterns emerged?
What were the barriers to recording?
What were participants' experiences with recording in previous programs?
Was it difficult to record overeating episodes?
Did friends or family members comment about record keeping?
C. It is especially important that participants believe in the utility of keeping records, so be sure to assess this before suggesting ways to record better. Focus on any barriers (time, size of record booklets, embarrassment, forgetting) with specific suggestions. Use group to come up with benefits and suggestions. Emphasize that this is a skill that is critical for individualized treatment.
D. Review the weekly food records and how to complete them (time, amount, type and description of food, add carbohydrates this week). Stress importance of recording ASAP after eating or it will be difficult to recall. Tally carbohydrate later if necessary. Recommend that they subtotal carbohydrate throughout the day. They can calculate carbohydrate using the carbohydrate counter we will distribute tonight. Briefly review how the book is organized.
E. Indicate that you will collect food record booklets each week and make brief comments about any patterns you observe. This review should be brief (2 minutes) and include positive comments. Emphasize that these records are for the participants' benefit not yours. You are trying to provide a structure to make record keeping easier.
IV. Goal Setting (15 minutes) (Brownell, pp. 61–62)
A. Weight
1. Ask participants to think about how much weight they expect to lose over the next 20 weeks. Record them on the board. Ask several participants to describe how they arrived at their numbers. Point out that they are probably making assumptions about the benefits (e.g., losing 40 pounds will make me feel/look twice as good as losing 20 pounds) as well as the costs (e.g., losing the second 20 pounds will be similar to losing the first 20 pounds). Are these assumptions about additional weight loss correct? Review faulty assumptions briefly. Avoid getting into a contest of wills about how much weight people can or should lose. Ultimately, the decision is the participant's.
2. Compare participants' goals on the board to what can be reasonably expected (1–2 lb per week) (see Brownell, p. 38). Use Brownell diagram (pp. 100–101) to illustrate that when outcomes (what is achieved) do not match goals (what is expected) there are typically negative effects on self-evaluation. How would participants feel if they did not reach their desired weight goals? Probably tend to blame self rather than program or unrealistic goals. Use examples (based on their weight goals) of how same outcomes can be viewed differently based on what was expected.
3. Actual weight loss will vary due to differences in weight, metabolism and genetics (we will review causes of overweight next week). Typical weight loss is 1–2 pounds per week (see Atkins, p. 177). Rather than setting a final weight goal now, we recommend that participants focus on behavior change and observe what weight loss is accomplished. Weight loss after week 12 will probably be representative of monthly weight loss during the program.
4. We recommend an initial goal of a 10% reduction because it is associated with improvements in medical conditions and most persons can achieve it with modest changes in eating and exercise. When 10% is reached, another goal can be set based on costs/benefits. Remind participants that body composition will be measured at week 26 so they can make an informed decision about further weight loss. It is impossible and imprudent to set a long-term weight goal now because of the lack of information about costs/benefits.
B. Behavior
1. Have participants think about one change in their eating that they would like to make (over the next 4 weeks) that would lead to weight loss. Use several examples to discuss the following characteristics of effective goal setting (see handout).
a. specific—define precisely what is to be accomplished. Specific goals such as “walk two times this week after work on Tuesday and Thursday in the park are more likely to be accomplished that general ones such as, “walk more this week.” Similarly, “eat 20 grams of carbohydrate per day” is more likely to be accomplished than “eat less carbohydrate this week.”
b. reasonable—make small changes. If you're not walking at all, do not try to walk every day. The smaller the difference between your current behavior and your goal behavior the greater the chances you will accomplish it. Small successes lead to big successes.
c. active—define your goals in terms of what to do rather than what not to do. For example, “eat every four hours” instead of “stop going all day without eating” or “walk after dinner” rather than “stop lying on the couch after dinner.”
d. short-term—assess your goals over short intervals (no more than a week). Sometimes, even shorter intervals are helpful (day by day). Reviewing your progress after short periods will enable you to review your accomplishments and troubleshoot any difficulties.
e. limited—select no more than two goals per week. Selecting more will decrease your focus and make adherence more difficult. Once your goals have been accomplished and maintained, you can select new goals.
f. record—it is helpful to keep a written record of your goals and progress each week. It will increase awareness of your goal and provide an accurate record of your progress. The simplest and easiest records work best. Do what works for you.
2. Instruct each participant to select one behavioral goal for the next week (using the handout as a guide) and have them record it in the front of their weekly record. There will not be time in group to review each goal. They will discuss this goal under “A” of SAFE next week.
V. Weight Loss: Short-Term Dieting Versus Long-Term Behavior Change (10 minutes)
A. Before establishing a carbohydrate prescription for weight loss, let's review how this approach to long-term weight control differs from dieting. (Brownell, pp. 6–7, 12–13).
1. Diets are all-or-none. For many people a diet implies short-term dietary change. You're either on the diet or off the diet; you've had either a good day or a bad day. There is no middle ground (Brownell, pp. 220–221).
2. Long-term weight control is based on a regular pattern of eating that avoids extremes and deprivation. It is important to note that the Induction stage of the program is only a temporary period designed to initiate the process of consuming a low carbohydrate diet. Subsequent stages of the program incorporate a larger variety of foods. Long-term weight control emphasizes changes that last. It is based on choosing foods that you enjoy while making healthy carbohydrate choices. The basic theme of any good nutritional approach is adaptability. Adding new carbohydrate containing foods slowly and carefully will help you learn good eating habits. You will be less prone to feeling hungry, irritated, and unhappy. These are feelings that lead to overeating.
Some days will be better than others; it is not realistic to assume that you should eat the same amount every day. The goal is to consume a variety of acceptable foods that you enjoy. The goal is not perfection. Eating is not a moral issue. It is inaccurate an ineffective to make self-evaluations based on eating and exercise behavior.
VI. Induction (15 minutes) (Atkins' New Diet Revolution, pp. 121–144)
A. Review principles of Induction:
1. To switch from a high carbohydrate eating plan to a controlled carbohydrate eating plan.
2. To lose weight while eating palatable foods.
3. To realize that the Induction phase is not going to be your lifelong way of eating.
B. In order for Induction to work, it must be followed precisely; therefore, we suggest that participants follow these guidelines (see Induction Guidelines handout, also on pages 122–124 in Atkins' New Diet Revolution):
1) Eat 3 regular-size meals a day or 4–5 smaller meals and do not go for more than 4 waking hours without eating.
2) Eat liberal amounts of fat and protein foods (i.e., poultry, fish, shellfish, red meat). When you consume fat, use butter, mayonnaise, olive oil, safflower oil, sunflower oil and other vegetable oils rather than margarine. See pamphlet for rules regarding egg and shellfish consumption.
3) Eat no more than |
state has since appealed that decision to the federal court to be decided in August, potentially altering the way that courts in Malaysia's other states rule on similar cases.
Meanwhile, trans citizens remain largely unable to update their legal gender markers or access transition-related medical care, leading HRW to rank Malaysia as one of the worst places in the world to be transgender.(CNN) A sign you'd expect to see in a war zone, hanging at a police station. Two unarmed civilians shot more than 20 times after a high-speed chase. A man in the middle of a medical emergency, jolted with a Taser while strapped to a gurney.
These are alarming examples, federal investigators say, that show police in Cleveland have been using unnecessary and unreasonable force at a "significant rate," employing "dangerous tactics" that put the community at risk.
A report released Thursday details a nearly two-year Justice Department investigation which found that Cleveland police use guns, Tasers, pepper spray and their fists excessively, unnecessarily or in retaliation. Officers also have used excessive force on those "who are mentally ill or in crisis," the Justice Department said.
Now a federal court will keep tabs on the Cleveland police as part of a legal agreement going forward.
The Justice Department's investigation started in 2013, after several incidents, including a controversial case the previous year when more than 100 officers were involved in a high-speed chase that ended with the deaths of two unarmed civilians.
Here's a look at that case, and several others examples federal investigators pointed out in their report:
A chase gone awry: Police began chasing Timothy Russell and passenger Malissa Williams after officers and witnesses thought they heard a gunshot coming from their car as they drove by a court building. But it turns out, they didn't have weapons. The Justice Department's report said it now appears that what they heard was the car backfiring.
More than 100 officers participated in the high-speed chase. After a 25-minute chase that reached speeds of more than 100 mph and ended in a school parking lot, 13 officers fired 137 rounds hitting Russell and Williams more than 20 times each, the report said.
"The officers, who were firing on the car from all sides, reported believing that they were being fired at by the suspects. It now appears that those shots were being fired by fellow officers," the Justice Department wrote. Both Williams and Russell were killed.
Suspect kicked in the head: Video from a police helicopter captured officers arresting a man after a January 2011 police chase. After the suspect was handcuffed and lying on the ground, officers used excessive force by kicking him in the head numerous times, Video from a police helicopter captured officers arresting a man after a January 2011 police chase. After the suspect was handcuffed and lying on the ground, officers used excessive force by kicking him in the head numerous times, the report said
Many officers were there, but none identified any fellow officers who had exacted excessive force on the suspect, and no officer was disciplined, the Justice Department said.
Accountability, or the lack thereof, was a theme of the Justice Department report. Of the period reviewed, 2010-2013, the investigation found that officers were suspended on only six occasions for improper use of force.
"Discipline is so rare that no more than 51 officers out of a sworn force of 1,500 were disciplined in any fashion in connection with a use of force incident over a three-and-a half-year period," the report said.
Taser used inside ambulance: Officers were flagged down to help a man lying on a sidewalk having seizures. When paramedics arrived, they helped him into an ambulance, where he was strapped onto a gurney. That's when the man, who the Justice Department reports identifies as "Mark," got angry, threatening the officer and trying unsuccessfully to stand up.
"Mark continued to try to stand up while threatening to beat the officer. The officer then drive stunned Mark on his top left shoulder. Mark had committed no crime, was strapped down and was in the midst of a medical crisis," the Justice Department report says.
"His repeated seizures may also have left him confused and disoriented. Indeed, there is no indication that Mark could carry out his threat against the officers, particularly when he was strapped to the gurney."
13-year-old punched: After a handcuffed 13-year-old arrested for shoplifting began to kick a police car's door and kicked an officer in the leg, the 300-pound police officer sat on the boy's legs and punched him in the face until he had a bloody nose.
The 13-year-old "was pushing against the officer with his legs, but was handcuffed and posed no threat to the officer," the Justice Department's report says, noting that Cleveland police have used excessive force on people who are handcuffed or subdued and "pose little or no threat to officers."
Sign of the times: Above a vehicle bay at one of the Cleveland Division of Police's district stations hangs a sign that reads, "forward operating base," a term usually used to describe an area of tactical operations in a war zone. The sign sends a message indicative of the community's opinion of the division, Justice Department officials said.
"This characterization reinforces the view held by some -- both inside and outside the Division -- that CDP is an occupying force instead of a true partner and resource in the community it serves," the investigative report said. It's one illustration, the Justice Department's report says, that "officer training instills in officers an 'us-against-them' mentality."
Issues resonate beyond Cleveland
The results of the federal review come as the Cleveland Division of Police is under fire for the November fatal shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice. The incident sparked even more outrage amid high tensions over Michael Brown's shooting death in Missouri and similar situations that have put police use of force under a microscope.
Cleveland police Chief Calvin Williams has defended Rice's shooting, saying he reached for an air pistol that was "indistinguishable from a real firearm."
While Thursday's announcement was set in Cleveland, Attorney General Eric Holder said Thursday that the problems it highlights aren't contained by city limits.
"As President Obama and I have indicated, the time has come, we think, to do even more. The tragic losses of these and far too many other Americans, including just last month, the shooting death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice here in Cleveland, have really raised urgent national questions," Holder said Thursday. "And they have sparked an important conversation about the sense of trust that must exist between law enforcement and the communities that they serve and protect."
What's next?
Authorities say Cleveland police need better training and more accountability going forward.
"Deeply troubling to us was that some of the specially trained investigators who are charged with conducting unbiased reviews of officers' use of deadly force admitted to us that they conduct their investigations with the goal of casting the accused officer in the most positive light possible," the Justice Department's report said.
The department fails to review its officers' use of force, investigate other allegations of misconduct, "respond to patterns of at-risk behavior," enforce appropriate policies and establish "effective community policing strategies," according to the Justice Department.
"Throughout the investigation, the Department of Justice provided its observations and concerns to the city, and in response, the division has begun to implement a number of remedial measures, however, much more work is needed," the department's statement said.
As a result of the findings, the city and Justice Department have signed an agreement "to develop a court-enforceable consent decree that will include a requirement for an independent monitor who will oversee and ensure necessary reforms."
JUST WATCHED Cleveland mayor vows police reform in wake of report Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Cleveland mayor vows police reform in wake of report 03:13
Holder, Acting Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta and U.S. Attorney Steven Dettelbach met Thursday with community leaders, law enforcement officials and elected officials to discuss how to improve that relationship.
"Together, we can build confidence in the division that will ensure compliance with the Constitution, improve public safety and make the job of delivering police services safer and more effective," Gupta said in a statement.
Williams told reporters his officers are committed to improving the department.
"We will work to make this police department better," he said. "I have confidence we will."Amazon started out as an online bookstore, but has since expanded into selling almost any physical goods you can think of. But the company believes a lot of the stuff people buy on Amazon are things they could actually use help assembling, installing, or learning to enjoy. "We have 85 million Amazon customers who have shopped for products this past year that often require a service afterwards," said Peter Faricy, vice president for Amazon Marketplace. "Things like TVs, toilets, and sinks." Today, the company is launching a new section in the US, Home Services, where customers can shop for professional help. It's launching with 700 different services, from the ordinary to the esoteric, everything from installing a garbage disposal to renting you a goat herd that will graze away the unwanted vegetation on your property.
85 million potential customers a year
A big part of the sales pitch from Amazon is that they are doing the hard work of figuring out who you can trust. "We’re very excited to see if we can solve what today is a real pain point. It’s tough to quickly find someone who is qualified," says Faricy. Amazon says it accepts an average of three out of every 100 service professionals in each metro area. It makes sure each business is licensed, insured, and passes a five-point background check, with a further six-point background check for each technician. You will never need to worry about hiring a sub-par goat grazer again.
The second half of Amazon's promise is speed and transparency. The marketing materials claim it takes 60 seconds to buy a service, regardless of whether that is deck repair, house cleaning, or hedge trimming. "We really make something transparent for customers which is difficult today," says Faricy. "We have standardized and prepackaged all of our service offerings. So you know exactly what is going to be done and how much it’s going to cost you, up front, no surprises."
Don't hire a sub par goat grazer
That sounds nice, although it seems likely that many of these services won't be so easy to fit into just a few multiple choice questions. "They’re shoehorning local services into the same way they treat other products," Thumbtack CEO Marco Zappacosta told Forbes."But what about building a deck? Your deck is going to be different than my deck and your backyard is going to be different than my backyard."
One thing that Home Services hopes to help customers avoid is the up-selling and haggling over price that can come with a lot of service work. Faricy says that all the billing will run through Amazon, and that the provider only gets paid after the finished job has been confirmed. During the beta test, there were reports of customers who had issues with a surprise charge on their bill, which Amazon eventually resolved after a lengthy back and forth. Amazon takes a cut of each service fee, and while they wouldn't share exactly what the split is, language from the beta version of the website shows Amazon taking 20 percent on standard services, 15 percent on custom, and 10 percent on recurring.
Faricy says that the majority of the labor available on the market will be small, local providers, but Home Services is also integrating with startups like TaskRabbit as well as national chains like Pep Boys. Before today, Amazon was beta testing this offering in Seattle, New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. As of today, it will be available in 41 states, with the goal of providing strong coverage across the thirty biggest metro areas in the US. As for how big this business could be, Faricy points out that independent research shows consumers typically spend four times as much on services as physical goods, meaning a major new revenue stream for Amazon if Home Services is a success.
Verge Video archive: How Amazon is hoping to change the skies (2014)Vinh Nguyen gives his customers at Vapor Bombz every warning there is about electronic cigarettes and the liquid nicotine that fuels them.
Show me ID. Mind the labels and the dosage. Got kids? Try a resistant cap, or the vial in shrink-wrapped plastic. Keep vials out of reach, out of sight. But once money changes hands and customers leave his shop, however, it’s up to them to be responsible with what is, after all, a toxic product.
“We tell them this stuff is poisonous,” says Nguyen, 30, who co-owns the shop with his brother Steve. “We do everything we can to protect the consumer, but at the end of the day, you leave a loaded gun on the floor, and your child gets hold of it, it’s not gonna be the gunmaker’s responsibility.”
The vaping industry, which has grown quickly in Southern California the past few years, went into a defensive crouch Monday, defending itself against a New York Times story that highlighted a trend of rising calls to poison-control centers linked to e-liquids, the term used for the thick substance that’s combusted inside electronic cigarettes. Across the nation, the number of such calls rose threefold from 2012 to 2013, to 1,351.
Many have been sickened, but the only recent death, according to the story, appears to have come in 2011, when a man injected himself with nicotine.
E-cigarettes and liquid, also called “juice,” have been hailed by proponents as a way for addicted smokers to get their nicotine fix without sucking in the thousands of carcinogens found in traditional cigarettes. Some long-term smokers swear by them, and regularly flock to local vape shops to stock up on juices to fill up the tanks on their devices.
The liquid normally is a mixture of water, flavoring and propylene glycol, a compound that allows the juice to atomize at a relatively low temperature. When it burns, it delivers a hit of nicotine through a mouthpiece. If a vaper fills up a 4.5-milliliter tank with juice that’s 1.8 percent nicotine, and makes it last all day, he’ll inhale roughly 80 milligrams of nicotine, or the same amount that’s in about 10 cigarettes.
It would take an awful lot of puffing to overdose on nicotine that way. Science is unclear on the long-term effects of nicotine when it’s not delivered by cigarettes. But another way it can be harmful is direct contact.
In its purest form, nicotine, which is extracted from the tobacco plant, can be toxic to the touch. But the product juice-makers buy, often in jugs or barrels, already is diluted to about 10 percent. If enough gets absorbed through the skin, from a broken vial, for instance, it could make a person nauseated to the point of vomiting.
The real danger, though – and the thrust of the New York Times story – is the possibility that children could happen upon a vial of juice and ingest it.
“These fluids come in flavors that are attractive for kids,” said Dr. Helene Calvet, deputy county health officer for Orange County’s Health Care Agency. “If a kid gets hold of this and sucks down even a small amount, it could be pretty dangerous.”
Nicotine would be potentially fatal for an adult who ingests 0.5 to 1.0 milligrams per kilogram of body weight. But for children, that threshold could be as low as 0.1 mg per kilo, says Dr. Chesda Eng, a smoking-cessation specialist with St. Joseph Heritage Medical Group in Garden Grove. If a child ingests “maybe a teaspoon, that can be lethal.”
Some e-cig proponents took serious issue with The Times’ reporting: nicotine levels in most juicers “range between 1.8 percent (18 mg per ml) and 2.4 percent, concentrations that can cause sickness, but rarely death, in children. But higher concentrations, like 10 percent or even 7.2 percent, are widely available on the Internet.”
Vapor Bombz and many other stores carry vials with concentrations to 1.8 percent, but no higher. “We feel that it is unnecessary to be that high in the first place,” said Nguyen, who is a co-partner of an Anaheim juice-maker, Epic Juice. A vial that’s 2.4 percent would mostly be used by a long-term smoker trying to maintain his fix until he can reduce the dosage.
The New York Times noted that Minnesota’s poison-control center received 74 calls in 2013 related to poisoning cases from e-cigs or nicotine. Of those, 29 were children 2 and under. But an e-cigarette advocacy group called the Consumer Advocates for Smoke-free Alternatives Association noted that same center received 35 calls about nicotine-replacement therapy products, as well as 2,300 calls for household cleaners and 3,100 calls related to personal-care products.
“E-cigarettes have proven to be a way of quitting for lots and lots of people who tried every other way and failed at them, so that alone means that they are saving peoples’ lives,” said Carl V. Phillips, a tobacco researcher and the group’s scientific director, based in Nashua, N.H. “A lot of them have the potential to quit smoking next week if they try it, and they won’t if they’re being convinced that they’re just as bad as smoking, or if they’re convinced that it’s a dire hazard to their children if they even have them around.”
E-cigarette users, manufacturers and local governments forced to come up with patchwork solutions are all hoping the Food and Drug Administration will issue some kind of guidance on e-cigarettes and liquids soon. The FDA has the authority to regulate the devices and juices, along with other tobacco products, but the agency is waiting on the Office of Budget and Management to review the “deeming rule” before it acts.
“We’re not seeing an epidemic of kids getting overdosed with nicotine,” Eng said. “With that said, the popularity of e-cigarettes is increasing, and I can see this becoming a problem if it’s not dealt with right now. And I think the FDA needs to step in.”
Contact the writer: lhall@ocregister.com or 714-796-2221IT SEEMS THAT purposeful Pakistanis have found a clever, free way of bypassing their government's ban on video site Youtube. The site was blocked on Sunday supposedly due to its content, thought disrespectful to Islam.
But free VPN software Hotspot Shield is allowing thousands of Pakistanis to get around their government's internet censorship.
The plug-in for Windows or OS X, offers free VPN services, which have, to date, mainly focused on protecting private information from hackers, taking advantage of wireless connections.
The software creates a tunnel (or secure pipe) between any internet user worldwide. Then, when it's turned on, all traffic is encrypted and routed directly through Hotspot Shield, thereby disguising the true location of the user on the end connection.
Because Hotspot Shield is based in the US, every user can therefore get a American internet experience, which includes access to YouTube and its disrespectful videos.
A company spinner reported a significant rise in the software's usage in Pakistan since the ban was imposed.
Tech Crunch previously reported that the service was being used to access content from video streaming sites like HULU (which is blocked to anyone trying to access it from outside the USA) and Pandora (the personalised internet radio service, also not available from outside the US). µWhite House/YouTube President Barack Obama wants to reclassify the internet as a utility, he said in a new statement released by the White House on Monday.
That would allow the Federal Communications Committee to enforce heavier restrictions on it and protect net neutrality.
"The time has come for the FCC to recognize that broadband service is of the same importance and must carry the same obligations as so many of the other vital services do," Obama said.
Obama is officially supporting net neutrality, writing that internet service providers should not be allowed to control or "pick winners and losers" in the online marketplace.
Obama's statement comes after the FCC said back in April that it was working on a new set of rules that would allow internet service providers to treat web traffic differently, potentially prioritizing large companies.
Basically, the new rules would allow big companies to pay extra to receive faster internet connections than the rest of us.
Instead of treating all users equally, ISPs would be required only to offer subscribers a "baseline" level of service. Larger companies would be able to pay more to get faster service.
Here's what the FCC said back in April:
The NPRM [the FCC] will propose... that broadband providers would be required to offer a baseline level of service to their subscribers, along with the ability to enter into individual negotiations with content providers. In all instances, broadband providers would need to act in a commercially reasonable manner subject to review on a case-by-case basis. Exactly what the baseline level of service would be, the construction of a 'commercially reasonable' standard, and the manner in which disputes would be resolved, are all among the topics on which the FCC will be seeking comment.
Obama said he believed the internet should be reclassified as a utility. This means access should be equal and open to everyone — an idea known as net neutrality.Here's the full statement from Obama.
An open Internet is essential to the American economy, and increasingly to our very way of life. By lowering the cost of launching a new idea, igniting new political movements, and bringing communities closer together, it has been one of the most significant democratizing influences the world has ever known.
"Net neutrality" has been built into the fabric of the Internet since its creation — but it is also a principle that we cannot take for granted. We cannot allow Internet service providers (ISPs) to restrict the best access or to pick winners and losers in the online marketplace for services and ideas. That is why today, I am asking the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to answer the call of almost 4 million public comments, and implement the strongest possible rules to protect net neutrality.
When I was a candidate for this office, I made clear my commitment to a free and open Internet, and my commitment remains as strong as ever. Four years ago, the FCC tried to implement rules that would protect net neutrality with little to no impact on the telecommunications companies that make important investments in our economy. After the rules were challenged, the court reviewing the rules agreed with the FCC that net neutrality was essential for preserving an environment that encourages new investment in the network, new online services and content, and everything else that makes up the Internet as we now know it. Unfortunately, the court ultimately struck down the rules — not because it disagreed with the need to protect net neutrality, but because it believed the FCC had taken the wrong legal approach.
The FCC is an independent agency, and ultimately this decision is theirs alone. I believe the FCC should create a new set of rules protecting net neutrality and ensuring that neither the cable company nor the phone company will be able to act as a gatekeeper, restricting what you can do or see online. The rules I am asking for are simple, common-sense steps that reflect the Internet you and I use every day, and that some ISPs already observe. These bright-line rules include:
No blocking. If a consumer requests access to a website or service, and the content is legal, your ISP should not be permitted to block it. That way, every player — not just those commercially affiliated with an ISP — gets a fair shot at your business.
If a consumer requests access to a website or service, and the content is legal, your ISP should not be permitted to block it. That way, every player — not just those commercially affiliated with an ISP — gets a fair shot at your business. No throttling. Nor should ISPs be able to intentionally slow down some content or speed up others — through a process often called "throttling" — based on the type of service or your ISP's preferences.
Nor should ISPs be able to intentionally slow down some content or speed up others — through a process often called "throttling" — based on the type of service or your ISP's preferences. Increased transparency. The connection between consumers and ISPs — the so-called "last mile" — is not the only place some sites might get special treatment. So, I am also asking the FCC to make full use of the transparency authorities the court recently upheld, and if necessary to apply net neutrality rules to points of interconnection between the ISP and the rest of the Internet.
The connection between consumers and ISPs — the so-called "last mile" — is not the only place some sites might get special treatment. So, I am also asking the FCC to make full use of the transparency authorities the court recently upheld, and if necessary to apply net neutrality rules to points of interconnection between the ISP and the rest of the Internet. No paid prioritization. Simply put: No service should be stuck in a "slow lane" because it does not pay a fee. That kind of gatekeeping would undermine the level playing field essential to the Internet's growth. So, as I have before, I am asking for an explicit ban on paid prioritization and any other restriction that has a similar effect.Since launching historiadiscordia.com (on JFK Assassination Day last year) we’ve had—upon occasion—some rather eyebrow-raising visitors to the site, among them the Dept. of Justice, not to mention the Church of Scientology, and most recently the Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) and the U.S. Department of Defense.
We welcome you!
One can only speculate why THEY would be interested in little ol’ us, though I no doubt suspect that certain agencies in our gubmint have long been trying to get a handle on just exactly what Discordianism “is” and to determine if it’s a threat to National Security. (Why anyone would fear a religion based on the worship of the Greek Goddess of Chaos and Discord is beyond me!)
As seen in the assembled screen shots—which were captured during a couple of the DHS and DOD visits—at one point THEY hit the Illuminati tag, a Discordian connection that dates back to the glory days of Operation Mindfuck (OM) when Kerry Thornley—in cahoots with his other Discordian miscreants—cooked up the modern day Bavarian Illuminati (The World’s Oldest And Most Successful Conspiracy).
Discordianism—as Erisian history instructs—has enjoyed a long association with the Illuminati (which may secretly run the U.S. Government!) as well as certain other Governmental branches (because we all know where “true” chaos comes from!) among them the military, and in particular the Pentagon which is incorporated into the Sacred Chao, that most holiest of all Discordianism symbols.
The Sacred Chao is a twist of sorts on Taoism’s Yin and Yang, depicting as it does the opposing forces of The Pentagon and The Golden Apple, also known in Discordianism as the Hodge and Podge. The Pentagon—according to Discordian mythos—represents the Aneristic Principle (Apparent Order) in counterbalance to The Golden Apple, which represents The Eristic Principle (Apparent Disorder.) To find out more about all this you will have to consult your pineal gland and call me when the brain swelling goes down.
The 1st edition Principia Discordia lists several Orders of Eris, one of which is the Knights of the Five Sided Temple, “a movement that is specifically Anti-Discordian. Such people are almost invariably found to be either bureaucrats or militarists (frequently both). The Five Sided Temple referred to is The Pentagon Bldg. itself where there is an incredible concentration of Knights. In your own experiences with military service and bureaucracies, you will notice many people with a heavy tendency towards the Eristesque Principle, but every so once in awhile you will find a person who is absolutely wound up in all sorts of fantastic and technical formal order which due to its own weight ends up only in a comical-absurd cross-reference maze of nothing; and such a person who lives, thinks and breathes in such terms—he is a Knight.”
As you can see, Discordianism has long been connected to the Pentagon, which some may also find confusing, because many people considered those old school Discordians just a bunch of long haired pot smoking no-good hippie types—which of course many of them were!—so the Discordian Society’s apparent veneration the Five Sided Temple might appear a bit perplexing to some. However, all of these five-sided Discordian endeavors were simply a means to demonstrate the dichotomy found in Discordianism—the Aneristic vs. Eristic principles—which is not unlike the ol’ good vs. evil dualism of Christianity, because without one you couldn’t have the other. (Maybe.)
If you’d like to find out more about the hidden history of Discordianism, Illuminism and its sinister connections to not only the U.S. Government, but all governments of the world, I would encourage you (and THEM) to pick up a copy of Historia Discordia: The Origins of the Discordian Society while copies last!
No government office should be without one!Seven months on from the launch of their Super Record and Record EPS electronic shifting systems, Campagnolo are showing the path their future will take with a new Athena EPS 11-speed groupset.
The aim of the new electronic group was to retain the quality, design and performance of its big brothers while reducing the price by using different materials for some parts.
The lower-specced electronic groupset is said to work exactly the same as its siblings. Campagnolo’s Multi-Dome Tech is carried over and means the electronic shifting should convey the same mechanical feel and sound as the brand’s non-electronic groups. But whereas those can shift down five sprockets or up three in a single action, EPS enables you to shift all 11 sprockets in either direction when a lever is held down for 1.5 seconds.
Should your battery die when you’re out on the road, Campagnolo’s Back Home unlock system allows you to manually set the derailleurs in a suitable gear. That said, the battery life of the non-removable combined power unit and brain is identical to that of the Record and Super Record groups – it should last up to three months for a rider covering about 500km per month, or roughly a month for someone riding about 2,000km in four weeks.
Battery status is indicated by an LED traffic light system on the stem-mounted control unit. This changes from green to red, then flashes red, and there’s also an audible warning when the charge falls below six percent.
View of the control and led display unit, mounted under the stem. on the other side is a small led that changes colour to indicate charge level and assist alignment adjustment: view of the control and led display unit, mounted under the stem. on the other side is a small led that changes colour to indicate charge level and assist alignment adjustment
The LED unit, mounted under the stem
The power unit and brain package is also a diagnostic interface, for accredited service centres. It’s protected within a cleverly lined, shock-proof, waterproof shell and, along with all of the system’s electronics, has been tested 1m under water.
Each shifter has a small adjustment button next to the inner lever. This is used for initial alignment setup, displays the remaining battery life and operates as an on-the-fly alignment adjuster.
Following a straightforward process, it’s possible to alter chain alignment while riding. Hold either shifter’s button (the right one for rear mech adjustment, the left to adjust the front) down for six seconds, illuminating a pink LED on the stem-mounted control unit. The gear shift levers are then used to tweak the chain in either direction until a perfect alignment is reached. Another press of the button saves the new setting, and that’s it. EPS also has an automatically adjusting front mech that trims itself whatever the chainline, allowing cross chaining if required, with no chain rub.
The shift lever ergonomics are hugely improved from the mechanical version across all three EPS groups, using the same Campagnolo ‘one lever, one action’ approach carried over from the original Ergopower shifters. The lower inner lever is hugely improved, with its swept-down shape permitting easier and more accurate shifts on the drops or tops.
Inner view of the athena eps left-side ergopower lever, showing the much-improved inner lever with its swept-down shape: inner view of the athena eps left-side ergopower lever, showing the much-improved inner lever with its swept-down shape
Inner view of the Athena EPS left-side Ergopower lever, with new swept-down shape
Although the technology can easily support them, satellite shifters are not yet an option – Campagnolo believe the current road shifters are so ergonomic that they shouldn’t be necessary.
Separating Athena from Record and Super Record
So, what makes Athena different from Campagnolo’s two headline EPS groupsets? Most obviously, the brake and shift lever blades are aluminium instead of carbon, as are the inner and outer plates of the rear derailleur. The front derailleur cage is steel, and the chainset is a hollow aluminium affair. Athena is heavier than its cousins, although final weights are still to be confirmed.
The athena eps front derailleur: the athena eps front derailleur
The Athena EPS front derailleur
Although the Super Record, Record and Athena power units are the same, the Record’s level wiring harness is incompatible with Athena’s. A different configuration, polarisation and slightly thicker wires mean that Record and Super Record components can’t be mixed with Athena.
First ride impressions
BikeRadar was riding a Pinarello Dogma 2 in Campagnolo livery for the Athena test ride, in the hills around Vicenza, Italy. The bike had a double Athena EPS road groupset and Campagnolo Shamal Ultra wheels.
Our initial impressions were extremely positive as we zipped up and down through the sprockets, several at a time. We’ve always been big fans of Campagnolo’s hood design but found the previous inner shift lever to be too high for the drops. This led to occasional over-shifts, but the new swept-down lever solves that issue and is perfectly placed for use on the hoods or drops.
Shifting feels tactile and satisfying, with positive lever clicks and obvious gear changes. The two uniquely positioned shift levers make it impossible to confuse them.
On the test route’s many hills, we tried to upset the system by up-shifting when out of the saddle, under full load and not in the dead spot of the pedal stroke. Athena EPS wasn’t flustered, though.
Even when we made repeated up and down shifts while standing on the pedals it never missed a shift, and none of the 14 riders in the group dropped a chain. Combining front and rear shifting without easing off the power also failed to confuse the brain or unship the chain.
Our pinarello dogma 2 test bike in campagnolo livery, fitted with the new athena eps 11-speed groupset: our pinarello dogma 2 test bike in campagnolo livery, fitted with the new athena eps 11-speed groupset
The Athena EPS-equipped Pinarello Dogma 2 used by BikeRadar
The ability to shift across the entire cassette in one movement is mightily impressive, even if it’s not a feature we would use every day. We marvelled at the speed with which the chain slid across from side to side.
Campagnolo insist that Athena EPS offers the same quality of feel and function as its bigger, lighter brothers. We have to admit that if there’s a difference in performance then it’s so small it’s insignificant.
In real-world riding conditions, Athena EPS makes for a fantastic riding experience, combining truly ergonomic controls with precise engineering and clever electronics. If this is the direction Campagnolo are intending to take, the group is a stunningly accomplished start.
Prices for the Athena EPS groupset will be announced at Eurobike this August.
Time trial shifters
Athena EPS includes an improved, shorter time trial bar-end shifter. Record and Super Record will soon feature ones that are shorter still, as pro riders wanted to minimise the overall length of their TT bars and levers for a better aero setup within UCI regulations. All of the levers feature the Back to Zero position, maintaining aerodynamics and allowing simple operation while still being able to shift 11 sprockets at once.
A cervélo p5 built with super record eps and the new time trial brake and bar-end shifters: a cervélo p5 built with super record eps and the new time trial brake and bar-end shifters
The new brake and bar-end TT shifters on a Cervélo P5
The time trial brake levers have two gear shift buttons, with carbon or aluminium levers for Record or Athena respectively, and a quick-release for opening the brake callipers when changing wheels. They also feature the Switch Mode, with a small button under the lever for micro adjustments of chain alignment.
For more, see our Campagnolo EPS TT group first ride review.
Aero cranksets
The new aero cranksets are the Bora Ultra, at 780g, and Bullet Ultra, at 815g.
The top-of-the-range Bora uses a hollow spider with an Ultra Torque titanium spindle. This turns on Campagnolo’s CULT greaseless bearings, which they say are nine times smoother than conventional ball bearings and even smoother-running than ceramic ones.
The new bora ultra aero carbon chainset:
The new Bora Ultra aero carbon chainset
The Bullet Ultra has ceramic bearings and a Power Torque spindle.
Triple cranksets
Triple cranksets are still in the Campagnolo range for 2013, largely due to demand from the French and Dutch markets – not because of Holland’s well-known mountain ranges but because many of their cyclists like to ride in the French and Italian mountains.
The new triple cranksets are available for 11-speed Athena, and the Centaur and Veloce 10-speed groupsets. Athena is the only triple 11-speed on the market and comes in 52-39-30. Centaur will be available in either 52-39-30 or 50-39-30, and Veloce in 50-39-30.
All use Power Torque spindles, with hollow aluminium cranks, and dedicated front derailleurs. The rear derailleurs use Campag’s 11-speed Ultra-Shift design and a longer cage. Campag’s U factor is only increased by 2mm on the right side, and not at all on the left, making it 12mm narrower than the competition’s. The triple cranksets will be compatible with any bikes that take Power Torque.
Cassettes and wheels
To complement the triple chainsets, Campagnolo have launched two new cassettes for 10- or 11-speed transmissions, which cover the 12-27 and 12-30 ranges.
New among their wheel range, Campanolo’s Scirocco set now has 35mm deep aluminium rims and weighs 1,725g per pair. It’s available in road or cyclo-cross |
for the ‘socialist state of Marx’.” Marx reiterated: “... in the analysis of value I had in view bourgeois relations and not the application of this theory of value to a ‘socialist state’.” (Archives of Marx-Engels, Rus. ed., Vol.V, p.59.)
This is the last writing we have from Marx’s pen. Engels continued Marx’s work, criticizing the then Marxist disciple Kautsky for treating value in a “Kantian manner”:
Value is a category characteristic only of commodity production, and just as it did not exist prior to commodity production, so it will disappear with the abolition of commodity production. (Collected Works of Marx-Engels, Rus. ed., Vol. XXVII, p. 386. No English translation is available.)
Precisely. No one could possibly attribute to Engels a view on value other than that held by Marx. In Anti-Duehring, written in collaboration with Marx, Engels argued that it would be sheer absurdity “to set up a society which at last the producers control their products by the logical application of an economic category (value) which is the most comprehensive expression of the subjection of the producers by their own product.” (Op. cit., p.347)
The whole elaborate structure that the Stalinist henchman tries to erect crumbles under the impact of the heavy blows Marx and Engels dealt in their own day to all other theories of value.
“Of course it would be an absurd and scholastic approach.” Leontiev states suddenly, “to presume that Marx and Engels could foresee and foretell the concrete, practical way to employ the law of value in the interests of socialism.” It could have been foreseen “neither by Marx nor even by Lenin.” (My emphasis – F.F.)
Only “the genius of Stalin,” continues the Stalinist hireling, could work out the application of the law of value to a “socialist society.” This, we are told bombastically, opens a new stage of “Marxist-Leninist economics”:
The assertions of Stalin on the fate of economic categories of capitalism under conditions of socialist society are theoretic generalizations from the magnificent experience of socialist construction in the USSR and signify a new stage in development of the science of Marxist-Leninist economics. These statements are among the most important principles of the political economy of socialism created by Comrade Stalin.
The only truth in this statement is that “the political economy of socialism” is wholly an invention of Stalin, and his corrupt henchmen.
III. Dialectical Philosophy, Kremlin Style
1. Soviet Reality
Not the niceties of pedagogy but the pressing needs of the Soviet economy made necessary the revision of the law of value in the Marxist sense. Not by accident the crowning achievement of this revision came with the promulgation of the Fourth Five-Year Plan, which was openly based on “the use of the law of value.”
To “make use of the law of value” meant the conscious subordination to the force of this law. How seriously this task was executed by the Soviet intelligentsia can be seen from a lecture on The Time Factor in the Matter of Capital Investment that Academician Strumilin delivered to the learned council of the institute of Economics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. If “a high rate of socialist accumulation” is to be achieved, states Strumilin, it will be necessary to consider not merely “prime cost” but “full cost”:
In order to change from “prime cost” to full cost of the projected articles and their production, it is necessary therefore first of all to add to the paid share of labor that of its share which is reserved as a matter of planned accumulation. (Bulletin of the Institute of Economics, Academy of the USSR, No. 3, 1946. Emphasis in original.)
With this as a basis, Strumilin proceeds to calculate the relationship of dead to living labor, of capital investment to rate of profit, thus achieving statistical measurement for calculating the rate of “socialist accumulation” which could be the envy of any bourgeois economist.
Ever since the outbreak of World War II the Kremlin bureaucracy has tried to raise per capita production through the institution of what it has dared to call “socialist emulation.” This new competition between factories has supplemented Stakhanovism, or competition between individual workers. The totalitarian bureaucracy is attempting to make the maximum speed of production of an individual Stakhanovite into the norm for all workers, factory by factory. This has only deepened the conflict between the Stalinist regime and the Russian masses. The need arose for a new ideology to discipline the Russian proletariat. The attempt to undermine and falsify every tenet of Marxism was the result.
2. The New Phase of Falsifications
The new phase of falsifications gained a momentum of its own and could not stop half-way. The very logic of the break with the structure of Capital compelled the falsification of its content as well. The next inevitable stage was to distort the significance of Marx’s immortal work. It was no longer to be considered the basic work of Marxism, but only of Marx; here “the historical principle” was applied to show that Capital was the greatest work up to Lenin and Stalin.” (About the Preliminary Variant of Marx’s Capital, p.4. My emphasis – F.F.) This new pamphlet by Leontiev was published in Russian by the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in 1946, one year after the appearance of Leontiev’s pamphlet, Marx’s Capital, and three years after the publication of Some Questions of Teaching Political Economy. But the sequence did not reach its culminating point until the revision had been extended to the philosophy of Marxism itself. Once the Stalinist bureaucracy laid its brutal hands on Capital, it of necessity had to intensify its falsifications of dialectical materialism itself.
If a “revision” of Marxist analysis of the law of value was made imperative by the functioning of the Soviet “socialist” economy, the arbitrariness of bureaucratic planning demanded as imperatively the discovery of a “new dialectical law.” There was no way out of the impasse except through the endowment of “criticism and self-criticism'’ with supernatural powers. This was the compelling reason why the Secretary of the Central Committee donned the mantle of philosopher, and no Soviet philosopher missed the significance of Zhdanov’s appearance at their conference in June 1947.
3. “A New Dialectical Law”
Zhdanov spoke with the authority of the Polburo when he assigned the “philosophic workers” their new task. This consisted in asking them to find nothing less miraculous than “a new dialectical law,” one that was “free of antagonisms.” The key passage in Zhdanov’s speech is worth quoting in full:
In our Soviet society where antagonistic classes have been liquidated, the struggle between the old and the new, consequently, the development from the lower to the higher, takes place, not in the form of a struggle of antagonistic classes and cataclysms, as it does under capitalism, but in the form of criticism and self-criticism, which is the genuine motive force of our development, the powerful instrument in the hands of the party. This is without doubt a new form of movement, a new type of development, a new dialectical law. (Published in Russian in Questions of Philosophy, No.1, 1947; also in Bolshevik, No.16, Aug. 30, 1947. English translation is available in the April 1948 issue of Political Affairs.)
With the demand for a theory of value that was not at the same time a theory of surplus value, the Stalinists tried to divest the labor theory of value of its class content. With the demand for a new dialectical law free of contradictions, they seek to make, not the masses, but the totalitarian bureaucracy (“the critics”), the driving force of history. Idealism has thus been enthroned in the Kremlin, and scientific socialism reduced to the petty-bourgeois socialism of a Proudhon. Perhaps the best way to describe the vulgar thinking of the Stalinist bureaucracy is to quote what Marx said of Proudhon’s way of thinking a full century ago:
In place of the great historic movement arising from the conflict between the productive forces already acquired by men and their social relations, which no longer correspond to these productive forces;... in place of practical and violent action of the masses by which alone these conflicts can be resolved – in place of this vast prolonged and complicated movement, Monsieur Proudhon supplies the evacuating motion of his own head. (Marx-Engels Correspondence, p.16.)
4. Soviet Philosophy and Soviet Reality
The destruction of the warp and woof of historical materialism was made necessary by the very depth of the Soviet crisis. At the very time of Zhdanov’s appearance among the learned philosophers, there was published in the Soviet Union a new book by the Chairman of the State Planning Commission, Voznessensky, entitled The War Economy of the USSR during the Period of the Patriotic War.
This work is not merely a description of the Soviet war economy, but it is the legal code promulgated by the Stalinist bureaucracy for the development of the post-war economy. It is at the same time an unconscious admission that the bureaucracy has failed to raise the productivity of labor to the level needed “to catch up with” capitalism, let alone achieve the transition to “communism.”
The bureaucracy is attempting to resolve the deepening contradictions of the Soviet economy in its usual manner – through bureaucratic stifling of mass initiative. But this is a double-edged sword. It is true that it is two decades now since the Russian workers have had any control over the Plan. But while this has increased the bureaucracy’s stranglehold of the worker, it has also deprived the bureaucracy of any of the practical experience of the workers at the point of production. The Plan has long been executed without the benefit of the old Workers Conflict Commission, abolished in 1940, but in recent times all previous limits of arbitrariness have been surpassed. The top Planning Commission sets up the plan, and the workers have nothing to do but follow orders. But the complete divorce between the masses and Stalinist state represented by this stage of bureaucratic planning means also the complete loss of objectivity for the planners, and the Soviet economy keeps staggering from one crisis to another. At the same time purges continue in every sphere: economic, political, philosophic, literary, scientific, pedagogic and artistic.
The cycle of falsification begun in 1943 has reached its culminating point. Marx used to say of classical political economy: for it there was history, but there is no history any longer. Of the Soviet bureaucracy it may be said: for it there once was revolution, but now there is only “criticism and self-criticism.” This criticism and self-criticism manifest themselves as purges, more purges, and still more purges. In this sense, the theoretical thinking of the Stalinist bureaucracy has been reduced to what Trotsky once called “the empiricism of a machine gun.”
Notes
1. Note by transcriber T. Crawford: There is a typo here in the original Fourth International.
2. And only in that limited sense since Marx had been most explicit in his expose of Adam Smith’s error in considering that the law of value functioned “purest” under simple commodity production. Adam Smith fell into this error, explains Marx, “because he had abstracted [the law of value] from capitalistic production and precisely because of this it appears as if it were invalid.” (Theories of Surplus Value, Rus, ed., Vol. III, 3, p.55.)
Last updated on: 11 April 2009The air they drew into their lungs seemed to be heavy with the soot and dust from the crumbling factories and broken refineries. Jaune and Pyrrha didn't remember it being quite so heavy, but they weren't quite as on-edge as they were now. Now their bodies were coiled like springs, and their minds were ready to do whatever it took to bring Nora back.
No one wanted to speak a word, not even Roman was willing to break the silence. The only one who seemed totally unaffected by the oppressive tone of the place was Neo, who was taking lighthearted steps through the alleyways and paths, kicking up small clouds of filth as she did so, the smile never fading from her face. In spite of her nonchalant attitude, she still moved silently, ears perked up to hear anything that might lead them to the possessed Nora.
Neo had taken the lead of the group once they had entered into the ruins. After all, she had the set of abilities that made her ideal for finding someone on conditions like these. The whole time she had gravitated towards the center of the district, and was sure that she was starting to close in on the girl. Her sensitive ears could tell that there was something nearby, breathing heavily and making occasional grunting noises. She could hear the sounds bouncing off of the numerous hollow buildings, echoing and resonating, confusing her senses slightly, but it was not enough to hide its source. It took a little more focus than it would have normally, but she didn't mind. The only thing that really annoyed her at all was the feelings of her two new companions. Their fear was palpable, especially to her. It spiked with every sound, no matter how small it was, if they heard it, they reacted.
Roman dealt with the situation far better. In true alignment with what Neo had come to expect from him, he barely felt any fear at all. He was on edge, of course, ready to react to whatever he needed to, but his head was cool and level, keeping out a watch for anything suspicious.
The other two were far worse. The blonde, Jaune, seemed to be on the verge of panicking. Whatever had happened here before must've been very unpleasant, as it seemed to have left a lasting impression on his mind. The girl, Pyrrha, was far more stable mentally, but found herself inconvenienced by the loss of her eye. Her frustration at not being able to see as well as she once had was made clear by her heavy breathing and frequent twitched of her head to the side. Neo knew that it would likely not factor much into her fighting, though.
Her own role in the fight would be an enjoyable one. To provide a target that couldn't be hit was something that simply rang true with her. She would find it amusing, no doubt, and perhaps even find a foe who could keep pace with her. That would be interesting, and something that she had looked forward to for some time. No human had ever really been able to do such a thing, but perhaps one empowered by a demon would.
Her steps stopped as a sudden wave of power swept out from somewhere in front of her. The emission was not strong enough to be felt by her cohorts, but she sensed its touch as clear as day. It was the one that they were looking for, but what she could have done that would generate such a pulse, Neo didn't know. There had been a sense about it, like a soul, but it was no kind of soul that she had ever felt. Something was definitely off about it, skewed in some subtle manner, but what it was, she couldn't say. The pulse did serve to point in the direct location she had to go, and she was quick to start approaching its source.
When the building the pulse came from came into view, both Jaune and Pyrrha reacted in predictable ways. Both tensed up, and memories of pain started to enter their minds. She could feel them tense up and start to hesitate.
She shot a look backwards at Roman, giving him a signal with her eyes that he needed to make sure they wouldn't quit now. Roman gave her a knowing nod, and immediately started to speak to them in a special tone of voice reserved for when he was manipulating people. "Hey, how are you kids doing?" There was a brief pause, during which Jaune and Pyrrha seemed to briefly try to come up with a response. Before they could, though, he continued speaking, voice hushed so that it wouldn't carry too far. "Because, I really can't tell you how much of a shame it would be if you were to abandon your friend in this horrible hellhole. I mean, if you did that, then her safety would be left up to me and Neo. And, not that I doubt our own abilities, but we have been known to overindulge in the whole violence thing from time to time, and murder has happened."
The two looked back at him with disdain, fully aware of what he was saying. If they left or gave up, he probably wouldn't stop at incapacitating her. If that were to happen, they would lose Nora forever. They couldn't let that happen. Everything they had tried to do up to this point had been trying to get Nora back. Pyrrha had lost her eye in the struggle. They couldn't abandon their efforts now.
Their resolves hardened, and Neo looked back to Roman, smiling. He had a way with people, that was certain. The two kids would be an important part of the fight, she knew, but she knew that they would be stretched to their limits. Whether those limits were physical, she didn't know, but she was sure that it would be a mighty struggle.
They started their approach, and Neo started to make out more sounds from the building. An unsteady, heavy breathing, along with infrequent squealing. She knew that it had to be Nora, but what she was doing Neo couldn't guess. She pointed, affirming that Nora was in the building, and started to lead the way towards it again. Behind her, she could hear Roman drop behind Pyrrha, arranging the group in the order that Jaune had suggested.
Neo continued to creep across the ground, and the other's followed behind, practically following in her footsteps. They still made a huge amount of noise by comparison, but it was something that Neo had learned to tolerate. What she knew would cause problems, though, was if they followed her inside the building. When she reached the entrance of the building, she turned back to her teammates and motioned for them to stop. They did so, and she entered the building alone.
Another person might've had to watch out for the rock or glass on the ground, but Neo's natural abilities made it easy for her to evade them. She didn't even have to look down at the floor as she practically skipped across the floor. Her boots continued to fall precisely where they needed to, and it wasn't long before she was on the stairs, making her way up to the source of the noises. The stairs were equally as silent as the floor, and it was not long before she saw the one that she was here to face.
Nora Valkyrie, her body flattened against that of another that she presumed to be Ren, was quite different then what she had expected. She didn't look human, her body was stretched into odd proportions; her arms were long, and ended in claw-like appendages. Neo could see even from the distance she was at the veins that pounded heavily, harder than a human heart could drive. Her hair hung down slightly past her shoulders, messy and unkempt. Muscles rippled across her entire body, not distorting her general shape, but making it clear that her strength would be unmatched.
Her arms were wrapped around the boy, who was looking spindly and frail. It was a clear contrast between the two. His eyelids hung halfway over his eyes, and beneath them the pink colored irises lolled unmoving. They weren't focused on anything, not even Neo, and were simply staring off into space.
Nora was facing away from her, so Neo couldn't make out any more details about her, but she could make out more about the energy she was feeling. It was soul energy, not unlike the kind that she could feel when people used their auras, but still different somehow. It was like there was a raw energy moving from one to the other, like she was feeding off of him. Neo had never felt something like that before, but it made her uneasy. Souls weren't meant to be consumed like that. Not even the undead did things like that.
She could tell that whatever Nora was doing, she was almost done. Neo took a few silent steps towards her, bringing her parasol up, ready to fight. She knew that it would be to the advantage of everyone of she took the opportunity to strike the girl before she had time to prepare herself, and she readied herself to do so. The parasol rose above her head slowly as she approached from behind, and just as she was about to bring the tip of in down in a bone-shattering strike, Nora reacted.
The girl's head and torso twisted, in an exact manner, as if something guided her muscles. The two stared at each other for a moment, neither one completely sure what to do, before Neo brought the parasol crashing down on Nora's forehead.
The blow that should have robbed any teen of their consciousness almost the instant it connected jolted Nora's head back, but beyond that, it barely seemed to do anything. As with jolting her head back, it made her jaw drop, revealing rows of sharp teeth extending from the gums, and a two-pronged tongue that slithered among them. It was at this point that if Nora had any good graces left, they left her. A howl left her throat, tearing the silence apart in the motionless building. In the span of a single instant, Ren was shunted to the side, and Nora was on her feet, ready to fight with her new opponent. Neo could tell that something was very off about the girl, not just in her body, but in her very soul. She was giving off a kind of power that Neo had never known, but on top of that, it seemed that she had simply more of a soul then Neo had ever seen. It wasn't that it was more powerful, but that there seemed to be two.
The gears clicked into place, and she knew what she was doing. She wasn't merely feeding off of the boy's soul, she was taking it into herself, combining it with her own. And if Neo had to guess, she was almost done, if she wasn't already. The words that she screamed rang out, almost splitting even Neo's ears, saying "Why can't you just leave us alone?"
As soon as the horrible cry finished, Neo could hear the sounds of her allies entering the building, feet hitting rocks and glass the whole way. She could practically track their progress through the concrete below from sound alone, but there was no time for that. Her initial guesses that Nora would be fast proved to be dead on as the girl lashed out at her, claws slashing the air in swift motions. Neo could see the air before them be pushed away, leaving small, nearly invisible trails. All it took to evade the attack was a small drop of the shoulder, and to lean her body away.
It whizzed through the space that she had occupied a fraction of a second before, and Neo smiled. Nora would be more of a challenge than she had had in a long time, but she could still read her like an open book. Her muscles told of what her next assault would be, and her brain was clearly not coming up with any kind of a long-term plan for the fight. It was simply enraged, and Neo knew that there would likely be nothing beyond that rage.
Instead of backing up and putting some distance between the two, as was her instinct, she held her position, and let the girl grow closer as she recovered from her miss. She would need to remain close if she were to keep the girl's somewhat animalistic attention. She heard the others start to climb the stairs, and felt her confidence grow even more. She knew better than anyone that numbers did not mean victory, but they certainly helped in the matter.
As they came up the stairs and entered into the room, Nora struck out again, this time trying to grab a fistful of Neo's clothing. She saw the move coming far before it happened, but the speed at which Nora's fist shot out in an attempt to catch her was still surprising. She pulled one leg up, pulling much of her weight from the ground. With her other leg, she spun herself in a circle, like a top, moving again just out of Nora's range. The girl again let out a frustrated growl, but this time Neo wasn't going to simply let her recover. With one leg up off the ground, and her body spinning, she was in the perfect position to get off another powerful strike.
She the leg out, and threw her body into what would be the final spin. She pulled her arms closer to her, and a smile spread across her face as her rotation sped greatly. Then, just as Nora managed to get her feet under her steadily again, Neo's ankle struck her at the base of the neck, sweeping her totally off-balance and knocking her off of her feet. Nora was thrown to the floor, using her arms to brace the impact, and rolling so that she could spring to her feet immediately.
Behind Neo, Roman grabbed the back of Pyrrha's circlet, pulling her back so that she wasn't directly in the line of fire before shouting "Heads up!" He brought his cane to bear on Nora, and fired without hesitation. There was a shout from both Pyrrha and Jaune, mostly surprised, and then the definite thumping sound as a Dust-powered flare was spit from the end of the device. It screeched across the short distance between the two before slamming into Nora and exploding, the volatile mixture inside spurring the Dust inside to rapidly discharge.
The sound of the explosion rang loud, and small chunks of concrete were either shaken or blown off of the walls and ceiling. A small crater was left underneath Nora, who had been knocked back to the floor.
There was a moment of hesitation before Pyrrha moved in, her spear ready and her shield up, prepared to block anything that her friend could try. Nora started to move again, arms reaching out and grabbing hold of the floor, pushing her back up, but Pyrrha wouldn't allow it. Neo could feel the regret the Huntress felt over the act, and the sorrow that it brought her, but she could also feel the cold determination that overpowered those things.
The metal spear tip met with Nora's ribs, and stabbed through the flesh. It was not without significant resistance, though, far more than a regular human's would. The spear sank about two inches down before Nora reacted, twisting her side in an attempt to dislodge the thing, and screaming out in pain. Pyrrha was surprised by this, but didn't let it phase her too badly, and put more pressure into the spear. The metal sunk a few more inches deep before Nora jolted to the side, freeing herself from the impalement and pushing herself away as best she could. She didn't stop moving across the floor when she freed herself, though, and started to skitter up the side of the wall. Pyrrha found herself stunned by the sight of Nora scaling the wall effortlessly, but Neo didn't allow herself to be surprised. Instead, she lashed out with her parasol, a powerful lunge bringing the tip of the parasol into one of Nora's hand.
Nora's greater strength and durability did not help her when the bones of her hand were cracked between concrete and Neo's weapon. Not even her strengthened aura could save the fact that her hand was broken. She immediately tried to compensate for the loss of a grip, but failed when Neo flipped her parasol in her hands and lashed out again, moving almost too fast to see. The hook at the end of the parasol caught just barely on the tattered remains of her shirt, and pulled her down from the wall with far more power than Neo's small body would have been able to muster were she merely human.
Nora hit the ground again with a heavy thud, and several cracks, before remaining still for a few moments. She couldn't bring herself to move for a few moments, but then the fire inside of her chest lit back into life, and a new rage started to fill her chest. She leapt up to her feet, and turned to face her enemies again. New was the first that she saw, and the first one to meet her ire. She lunged out at her again, but this time tried something different. Instead of simply trying to power through the defense, she would try to subvert it. Neo moved to defend, using her parasol to knock Nora's hands away, but she was ready this time. She moved her hands to the side, and brought them around the parasol, grabbing Neo's wrists.
Her first instinct was to pull the woman towards her, so that she could bring her into a close grapple and do far more damage than she would otherwise. As she did this, Neo reacted in a way that Nora hadn't expected. Instead of resisting being pulled towards her, Neo pushed off the ground towards Nora, using the force that Nora was exerting to launch herself through the air. Neo twisted in Nora's grip, and brought herself in an arc over her, pulling Nora's arms with her.
Bones popped out of their sockets, and Nora shouted out in pain again as Neo continued to force Nora's arms down. Even with the bones disconnected from their sockets, Nora's muscles made pulling her arms difficult. Neo still managed to do it, though, opening Nora up for more attacks by the others.
Nora tried hard to free herself, pulling her arms regardless of the damage that she would do to herself. Her legs kicked as hard as jackhammers, and Neo knew that she needed to avoid them. She also had to hold Nora upright, as without her legs beneath her in a steady manner, she was about to topple. It was only by Neo holding her arms that she was able to stay upright.
Pyrrha took advantage of the opening, stepping forward and spinning her spear in her hand. Neo watched, semi-interested, as the weapon folded in on itself, shifting into a different form. It changed into a sword-like form, and Pyrrha stepped forward, readying the weapon to do more damage. Neo could also see the look on her face, and the tears in her eye. It was clear that she didn't want to do this, but she had to. She didn't really have a choice in the matter. It was either she do this, or Roman do the same with his flares. Roman's words about "overindulging" echoed through her mind readily, and she had to steel herself for the mental pain she was about to endure.
The red metal of the blade sank into Nora's shoulder, and Pyrrha leaned most of her weight into it, tears starting to flow freely from her eyes. The blade made a few sickening digging sounds before it started to scrape against bone, and Nora screamed loud enough to drown it out. Pyrrha screamed too, trying very hard not to simply break down.
Nora kept trying to break free, but the arm that Pyrrha stabbed stopped most of its struggles. Her kicking, however, was given a new vigor, and even Neo started to find it more difficult to hold her. Pyrrha was blind to this struggle, though, and pulled her blade from Nora again.
It made a sucking sound as it left the flesh, and Neo could feel that Pyrrha was starting to feel nauseous. She didn't let the feeling get to her yet, though, and stepped to the side in order to give the same to Nora's other arm. She brought the blade up, Nora's blood starting to run down her fingers, and brought it plunging down again.
The blade did mostly the same as it had the first time, and Pyrrha started to give way under the pressure of what she was doing. Attacking Nora out of immediate self-defense, or if she was attacking a teammate was one thing, but while she was restrained like this was another thing entirely. There was something very wrong about it, and she didn't like it. It went against everything that she had ever been taught.
Tears were falling from Nora's eyes now, too. Neo couldn't quite tell if she was genuinely crying, or if it was some attempt at manipulation. Her kicking increased in power again as she struggled against Neo, and she braced her weight in her back leg to compensate. While doing this, Neo's gaze drifted to Roman. He was standing back by the staircase, a prepared look on his face, his cane held at the ready. He was looking for any opportunity to shoot, and Neo was sure that if Nora was able to get away, he would find one. That could go badly, though, as Neo could still see the cracks in the floor from the first he had shot. If he did it again, it was possible that it would cause some structural damage. If the building collapsed, not only would it be a very dangerous place to be, but she would be willing to bet that Nora would make an escape. She had the majority of Ren's soul, she had everything that she wanted. If the building collapsed, Roman would likely be injured. She couldn't let that happen, so she had to keep a hold of Nora.
Her fingers tightened, and she could feel bones bend in a way that a human's bones wouldn't. Neo didn't quite mind, though, and only cared about simply getting the job done. Roman needed to stay safe, and it would be much easier to make happen if she kept Nora held.
Pyrrha pulled the knife out of Nora again, and fell to her knees limply, her hands going to her face. Neo could tell that the pressure had become too great, and that she would likely no be of any use throughout the rest of the battle. Once someone gave in to something like grief or terror during a battle, it was difficult for them to get out of it. She had seen it many times before, and used it to her advantage a good number of those.
When she dropped to her knees, her head entered into the area that Nora's feet were kicking vigorously. Neo couldn't do anything but lift Nora slightly in an attempt to get her away from Pyrrha. Unfortunately, Nora saw her chance before Neo was able to do anything, and her heel connected with Pyrrha's head, knocking her down flat. She gave a short screech, then went limp on the ground. Neo looked up to Roman, trying to communicate with her eyes that he needed to do something.
It was a parallel of situations they had faced together before, where someone had been holding someone else, and a third someone was beating the second someone, but now there was an added risk to the situation. Now if Neo let go, the person wouldn't just fall to the floor and writhe. Now they would get up and fight. Hard.
Roman seemed to know exactly what to do, though. He stepped forward without hesitation, taking a deep breath before tossing his cane into the air and grabbing it by the bottom. The cane looked fragile at first, but it looked significantly less so once it started to wail on Nora, bruising flesh and cracking bone like it always did against those that Roman deemed worthy of getting his own hands dirty with.
Roman took a moment to drag Pyrrha out of the way, they started to lay into Nora with everything that he had. Neo had rarely seen his act with such viciousness, but there was a sadomasochistic smile on his face. the metal cane clanged against Nora several times, each one accompanied by a screech, until he brought the cane over his head one last time, and brought it down right on her cranium. There was a loud crack, and Neo was instantly aware that Nora's body had gone limp. She let go, and made sure that her foot was in a good position to stomp on her head if she moved again.
Nora did not move again. The reason for this was quickly evident, as Neo saw that Nora's head was slightly dented in. Her eyes were half open, and her jaw was slack. She looked like she had been knocked out to an extreme, to the point where a normal human would need serious medical attention. Perhaps it would even be fatal. But to Nora, she was sure that it was nothing more than a temporary inconvenience. The wounds were already started to steam, hissing and spitting angrily as they started to close. Even the bones of her skull seemed to be realigning, and both Neo and Roman knew that killing her couldn't be as easy as a simple beat down.
Jaune came pounding up the stairs, not carrying his weapon, but instead dragging a very heavy looking industrial chain behind him. He looked from the faces of Neo and Roman to Nora on the floor, and then moved forward quickly. "Here, use this!" He held the chain out to them, and both grabbed a hold of it quickly, dragging it out of his hands. As Roman started to get close to Nora again, Jaune said "Hey, watch out for the smell!"
Roman took a moment to look back at Jaune with a leering expression, but then as his chest rose, and he got a whiff of it. His eyes crossed slightly, and he put a hand to his head, swaying unsteadily. Neo moved faster than he could fall, dropping the chain and catching him. She moved him away from Nora slightly, steadying him before moving back to Nora and proceeding to tie her up with it.
Behind her, she could feel Jaune take notice of Pyrrha lying unconscious on the floor. Fear flooded his brain, and he practically ran over to her side, hands going to her head quickly. He started to talk to her, the typical panicked person nonsense that Neo found impossible to focus on at all. All she caught was "Pyrrha? Pyrrha, wake up!"
Roman was quick to start trying to shut him up, saying things like "She's going to be fine, just a knock on the head." Then changing the subject, saying "So how did you get this chain so fast? You were downstairs the whole time, right? So was that just lying around down there, or what?"
Jaune shook his head and said "No, one of those ghost things told me to go and get it." He took a seat on the floor and rested Pyrrha's head on his lap, brushing the hair out of her face and looking at her more closely for injuries.
Neo tuned her attention back to Nora, making sure that the chain was as tight around her as possible. When she was satisfied, she put her parasol through the end links, making sure that she wouldn't be able to simply pull free. She gave them a tug, and nodded to herself. It would be hard for anything to break out of that, especially her.
Jaune looked up from Pyrrha and said "She broke out of a chain like that before. It wasn't that big, but still…" his voice tapered off before continuing, saying "Just make sure that she doesn't wake up, alright? That's all that we can really do about this, I think." Neo looked back up to him and nodded, smiling again. If the duty to beat the restrained Nora into unconsciousness every time her wounds |
Todd Gurley last week, Peterson said: "I don't plan on passing the torch any time soon."
Here are five things to know about Peterson's season at the halfway point:
Adrian Peterson is the only NFL running back on pace to rush for more than 1,500 yards this season. AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez
1. He would be the first NFL rushing leader in his 30s since Curtis Martin in 2004: No running back in their 30s has claimed the NFL rushing title since Martin ran for 1,697 yards for the New York Jets at age 31. In fact, no back over the age of 28 has done it since Martin. But with Peterson and Chris Johnson sitting first and third in the rushing rankings -- holding spots that were familiar for both men in their mid-20s -- there's a decent chance the trend changes late this season. To win his third rushing crown, though, Peterson will have to post big numbers against some tough defenses; four of the Vikings' next five opponents are in the league's top 10 against the run.
2. He's not facing a terribly high degree of difficulty to win the rushing crown: Peterson is on pace for 1,506 yards, which would be the lowest figure by an NFL rushing leader since LaDainian Tomlinson posted 1,474 yards in 2007. It's taken at least 1,606 yards to win every rushing title since then, and Peterson's two titles came with 1,760 and 2,097 yards in 2008 and 2012. At the moment, though, he's the only back on pace to reach 1,500 yards, so without some big totals from his competitors in the second half, he might be able to grab his third title without closing in on some of his best years.
3. He has more carries than any running back in the league: Peterson has 169 carries, or five more than Freeman for the league lead, and he's on pace for 338 this season. The only two years he carried the ball more were -- you guessed it -- 2008 and 2012, when he won his titles with 363 and 348 totes, respectively. Peterson did not lead the league in carries either of those years, though; he was second both seasons. With fewer running backs seeing a heavy workload these days, it doesn't take as many rushing attempts to get to the top of the rushing leaderboards. The Vikings had talked about converting some of Peterson's carries to catches in an attempt to reduce the amount of contact he takes, but as they've realized, they still need a fairly traditional approach with him. He's on pace for more carries by any running back in a Norv Turner offense since Ricky Williams in 2003.
4. He's doing less of the work on his own than he used to: Since ESPN began tracking yards gained after contact in 2009, Peterson has averaged more than two yards after contact per carry in every full season he has played, and topped out at an absurd 2.93 yards after contact per carry in 2012. This season, he is gaining only 1.59 yards per carry after first contact and ranks 33rd in the league in that category. On the other hand, Peterson is averaging 2.90 yards before contact, which is his second-highest figure since 2009 (behind his 3.10-yard average in 2012).
5. He's climbing the NFL's career rushing leaderboard: Peterson currently ranks 22nd all time with 10,948 yards, and is only 19 yards from passing Warrick Dunn for 21st in league history. Peterson needs 288 yards to catch O.J. Simpson for 20th in league history -- he said last month that Simpson was a player he was particularly excited about passing -- and Peterson might be able to catch Corey Dillon for 19th place on the same play where he passes Simpson, because Dillon is only five yards further away. If Peterson runs for another 758 yards in the second half, he'd finish the season with 11,706 yards. That'd put him 15th on the all-time list, though Frank Gore (who's currently 16th) is likely to compile enough yards to stay ahead of Peterson for now.
If Peterson does end up in the neighborhood of 11,706 yards this season, 2016 is when he really can start to take down some big names on the all-time list; he'd be just 573 yards from Marshall Faulk (10th all time), 606 from Jim Brown (ninth) and 1,033 from Tony Dorsett (eighth).We’ve been keeping you up to date with what’s going on in France lately – mostly terrorism and other refugee antics. The French have tried to crack down on refugees and radical Islam, but to no avail. They even banned burkinis for a while. Didn’t last long thanks to leftist ninnies. France’s latest move? Closing a huge migrant camp in Calais. It was a valiant attempt at making things better… Close but no baguette.
Turns out the camp closure just made things worst, at least for Paris. Displaced migrants flooded the capital and set up an indefinite slumber party in the streets. Instead of coming up with a solution, French politicians cooked up some lies about it…
Following the infamous Calais ‘Jungle’ camp closure, many of those displaces have been relocating to Paris. Despite French Minister of Housing Emmanuelle Cosse assuring people on Friday that there “has been no migrant movement between Calais and Paris,” a number of French organizations that deal with migrants have been reporting an increase in newcomers at the Paris Stalingrad metro station camp since the ‘Jungle’ was closed. This week… the number of asylum-seekers in the area jumped sharply from 2,000 to 3,000…”Last night, our teams counted 40 to 50 new tents there in two days,” Paris deputy mayor told Reuters. Not only those who left Calais are now flocking to Paris, but also those who have just arrived in France skip Calais and go straight to the French capital.
Because of refugees, Paris was already a crap swamp (see EXACTLY What Paris Looks Like After Mass Refugee Immigration…). So new footage showing us Paris still looks like an oversized gutter? Hardly shocking. The grossest, newest part is that French politicians are shamelessly lying about it.
France’s lack of leadership is what got them into this mess in the first place (read Dear France: How’s That ‘Multiculturalism’ Working Out for You?). Paris was once known for leading in art and culture. Now? Its streets look like the inside of a toilet bowl. After Tess Holliday ate something spicy. While the French – and all of Europe – may not have learned their lesson yet, they’ve perfectly displayed how much open borders suck.
National security. It’s important.
NOT SUBSCRIBED TO THE PODCAST? FIX THAT! IT’S COMPLETELY FREE ON BOTH ITUNES HERE AND SOUNDCLOUD HERE.A woman was sexually assaulted after celebrating London Pride with friends.
The 24-year-old was befriended by a man after becoming separated from her friends during the LGBT festival on June 26.
After the pair met at around 1:20am, police said the man became aggressive and assaulted the woman in Bracknell Street, Covent Garden, leaving her “frightened and traumatised”.
The victim managed to fight back and the alleged attacker, who was wearing a distinct camouflage tracksuit, ran towards High Holborn where he was caught on CCTV cameras.
Police have released footage of the suspected attacker and detective constable Ben Lucas, who is leading the investigation, said: "I am really keen to identify and trace this man so we can progress our enquiries and bring the perpetrator to justice.
“The victim had been out with friends celebrating Pride in London. This should have been a happy day but instead she found herself the victim of an appalling sexual assault which has left her frightened and traumatised.
"If you know this man please get in touch with us."
The suspect is described as white with tanned skin, dark hair, between 30 and 40 years old and 5ft 11ins tall. He spoke with a strong middle eastern accent.
Anyone with any information is asked to contact police via 101 quoting reference MetCU 217567or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.IN THE past (on DiA, before this blog existed) we looked at Barack Obama's pronunciation of foreign place-names. When he says "Pakistan" like "Pah-kistan", Pakistanis hear someone who says their country's name like they do. Many American conservatives find it preening or annoying. Mr Obama also has a slightly odd pronunciation of Taliban, where instead of making that second vowel a schwa, like most Americans, he makes it an unusually distinct "ee". I don't know enough about Pushtu to say whether his pronunciation is authentic.
At today's speech to the UN's General Assembly, I noticed a few new ones. He spoke of the climate conference in "Copen-hah-gen". This pronunciation is basically over-educated faux-authenticity; Danes overwhelmingly say "Copen-hay-gen" in English. (They say something very different in Danish. "København" is pronounced roughly like "kerp-in-hown".) Mr Obama's slip may result from overgeneralising of the rule that "ah is the best way to pronounce a's in foreign names." Pahkistan is better than Packistan, I-rahq is tonier than I-rack (and much more so than Eye-rack), and the same goes for I-rahn, I-ran, and Eye-ran. But the rule doesn't work for Copen-hah-gen.
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Another little slip was perhaps more forgivable; he pronounced "Congo-Kinshasa" as "Congo-Kinsasha". Maybe his mind was elsewhere.
Most interesting was how he said "Jakarta" (about 2:20 in the video), which was certainly not how a typical American would. I imagine his is closer to the native pronunciation. As Ben Zimmer and John McWhorter discussed for some time last week, Mr Obama spent a good bit of time in Jakarta as a child, and may still speak decent Bahasa Indonesia. According the Indonesian president, Mr Obama greeted him in Indonesian and spoke a few pleasantries pretty skillfully before switching to English. But it's not really known how much he knows. Whatever he knows, it's likely the White House's political people tell him to keep it to himself. The official language of the world's biggest Muslim country is not something he can afford to flaunt in the face of superstitions like this. And perhaps more generally, I'm not sure Americans like their leaders speaking foreign languages. When I saw the tin-eared Teresa Heinz Kerry greet 2004's Democratic convention in five languages, I myself suppressed a groan. It's just not going to win you lots of votes on these shores.
(Ben Zimmer, who has studied Indonesian languages closely, e-mails of Mr Obama's "Jakarta", "Yeah, close enough. Sounds like he was going for [dʒakarta] (trilled r, dental t, non-centralized vowels, even syllable stress) rather than the Americanized [dʒəˈkɑɹɾə] (approximant r, flapped t, unstressed first and third syllables with schwas)."The Koch brothers' convoluted network of dark money groups
During the 2012 elections, one dark money network was particularly elaborate and influential — the one tied to the billionaire Koch brothers, which spent at least $400 million on the effort. This graphic, by Robert Maguire of the Center for Responsive Politics, shows the complexity, and even the absurdity, of how far their network would go to obscure the sources of its funding. Note that there are three hubs in the center — TC4 Trust (in red), Freedom Partners (in green), and the Center to Protect Patient Rights (in blue) — that each send millions of dollars to a web of smaller groups which then pay for ads and turnout operations. These smaller groups themselves often operate under various aliases to make the donations harder to trace. For instance, rather than disclosing that it was sending money to Americans for Prosperity, one of the hub groups would send money instead to PRDIST LLC, a "disregarded entity" of AFP. Though the original donors remain secret, the activities of the groups do have to be reported on tax forms — but these forms don’t have to be sent in until well after the election’s over. As a result, reporters didn’t realize that many of these groups were connected to the Kochs until months later.Every Tuesday and Thursday I have what I like to refer to as my “Ibu Sexy Dance Time.” A dance aerobics class of about twenty women, we meet in a small tin-roofed studio a twenty minute bike ride away from my house. The dance styles in this class range from full on striptease to Broadway kick-ball changes. It’s a hilarious but legitimate workout. The instructor’s choreography involves a lot of karate kicking our way into sultry split poses, hula hoop sized hip thrusts, and staring at our reflections with pouty seriousness. Sometimes we do all of this while manually moving our breasts up and down like light switches. I’m not sure how that last bit figures into overall calories burned but it makes me laugh which I guess engages my abs?
The best part about this class is that it immerses me in the experience of being female. It might not come as a newsflash to friends and family back home but yes Indonesia, I am indeed a woman. My strangeness as a foreigner makes me sexless. On the other side of my asexual existence is the acutely felt presence of my lady chromosomes.
Indonesia continues to exist and function under cultural patriarchy, a system in which women essentially operate under separate social norms from men. On a day to day basis, I am often ashamed of the attention my body receives. I am required to serve men tea, and then sit separate from them. I must not touch them with my fingertips nor tempt them with my bare shoulders. I am all too aware of being alone with a man and the subtle peril it implies.
Dance class is a safe zone from all that. My internal USA clock means I always arrive at the studio ten minutes early and am able to chat with the ladies as they come in. Walking into class they all look the same in their long conservative clothing and tightly pinned hijabs, but once they are inside it is topsy turvy chaos: hijabs are whipped off and clothes are shedded until the women around me stand in nothing but brightly colored spandex booty shorts and itty-bitty bikini tops. The air inside the studio is like wet wool, and it feels very much like dancing in someone’s armpit. In this extreme heat, leaving little to the imagination is the smartest way to dress for Ibu Sexy Dance Time, and I must say these ladies love to bare all.
Their bodies are beautiful but not in the perfectly toned lululemon-esque way we think the woman on the treadmill next to us at the gym is beautiful. On the bodies I dance next to are the etchings of a hard life lived: one woman’s lower back is pulled tight with puckered burn marks from oil spilled years ago, another’s jaw is partially caved in from being kicked by a young bull. The woman next to me grasps her ample belly flesh and shows me where an operation went wrong. These women revel in showing me their scars. What shines through these wounds is the open love these women have for the bodies they inhabit. It’s lovely to watch them watch themselves in the full length mirrors. You can tell they are lapping up their reflections–imperfections, wounds and all.
Being a part of this class has given me a lot to think about in terms of how I view myself as a strong, powerful and yes, wounded woman. For the last 20 months of service I have felt simultaneously adrift from and honed in on the feminist conversation out here. My fellow female PCV’s and I are constantly complaining about the unwanted attention: touching, whistling, howling, clapping, and the up and down eyeing men freely make at us as we ride our bikes and walk to school. I have been hesitant to write about this subject not because I don’t think gender equality is important, but because I am worried that by complaining about these puffed up men and their social patriarchy, I will be viewed as “just another” hurt woman saying the same things women all over the world have already said. The moment we start talking about feeling wounded as a woman, we risk transforming our suffering from an aspect of the female experience into an element of the female constitution. I’d like to change the tone of that conversation.
It is a great illusion in our Western culture that what we confess to is who we are. Upon arriving in Indonesia last year I was worried that by acknowledging the fear and shame my gender generated from the conservative culture around me, I would be seen as weak and docile. I’m not proud to say that these less than flattering qualities were what I expected in the women I would meet, live and work with on Java. It has been quite the opposite. I have had the privilege of knowing (and dancing with) some incredibly strong and empowered Indonesian women in my community throughout the course of my service.
The source of that empowerment is what differentiates my Western feminism from Indonesian feminism. We American women refuse to see ourselves as anything less than strong and fearless. “Flinty or Die” would be an appropriate slogan I think, if we were ever to slap a bumper sticker on the American female empowerment agenda. We must be tough, or risk losing the power and respect we have fought so hard for. Alternately, Indonesian women accept that the very launching point of female empowerment is in what is weak and in what is wounded. Their power lies within their pain. They seem to understand that the very act of becoming empowered first requires one to have no power at all.
Empowerment. A buzzword for our American generation if there ever was one. Everything from building schools in developing countries to emailing pictures of your boobs to strangers is decidedly “a pretty powerful thing to do as a woman.” It calls to mind a headline I once read in The Onion: “Women Now Empowered by Everything a Woman Does.” The word’s ubiquity suggests how much women want power but how conflicted we are about getting it. Deciding you look great without makeup on is empowerment. Knocking back tequila shots at the bar is empowerment. Having a one night stand and refusing to hurt about it is empowerment. Saying “I love you” first is empowerment. It is all encompassing and all around confusing. This is American girl power: betwixt and between.
There is a TV show called “Girls” about girls who hurt but constantly disclaim their hurting. They fight about rent and boys and betrayal, stolen yogurt and the ways self-pity structures their lives. I remember in one scene they fight: “You’re a big, ugly wound!” And so the other volleys back “No, you’re the wound!” How very American I see now: to call each other out on being weak, raw and melodramatic. This show would never fly in Indonesian culture. Aside from all the promiscuous sex and swearing, the Indonesian women I know would never accuse another woman of feeling something a little too deeply.
This is not to say that Indonesian feminism has it all figured out. The saving face aspect of Javanese culture commands stoicism at all times, and it seems that there are only certain outlets acceptable for these bursts of estrogenic feeling. Sad karaoke songs, for instance. Soap operas, tragic emojis and sexy aerobics classes. It isn’t uncommon for a woman to weep her way through a Celine Dion song but remain stoney faced at the funeral of a close family member. From my American perspective these emotional platforms often appear too basic, and almost cartoonish when compared to my experiences. Like children I’ve babysat who tell me they are in love, female empowerment in Indonesia at times comes across to me as underdeveloped and immature.
Usually forty minutes into aerobics class a remixed version of Leona Lewis’ “Bleeding Love” moans around us as we do squat pulses. “You cut me open and I / Keep bleeding, keep, keep bleeding love/ I keep bleeding, I keep, keep bleeding love.” In the states I found this song to be dramatic and trite, the lyrics coagulated with sentimentality. My Indonesian ladies don’t see it that way at all. “Isn’t her voice beautiful?” one woman tells me when I mention the song, “so much sadness and feeling.” For these women, the song is pure truth, whereas for me, the lyrics are mere bathos; transforming actual feelings into the funny and the ridiculous, a song to wail comically into a hairbrush. But why does my inner American feminist refuse to love these kinds of basic expressions of hurt? Why can’t I accept that there is beauty that dwells in the hurting itself?
We wear the evidence of our neglect and hurt on our bodies at once like armor and a scrawled “kick me” sign. I look at the Indonesian women who dance around me, and they are very aware of the stories their scars reveal, as if the wound itself marks the threshold between interior and exterior; a physical flagging of the things that can only be felt. Case in point: the scabbed mottling on one woman’s face after she tried to bleach her skin whiter. Why did she do this? I overhear her talking about a man at work who made fun of her dark skin. We hurt and yet we dance. The Indonesian women in this class seem to understand that hurting now doesn’t mean we will hurt forever–or that hurt is the only destiny we can own. Case in point: the way this semi-bleached woman is always ogling her cute lil’ tushy during our twerking interludes.
There is a way of representing female empowerment that can witness victimization but also witness a larger self around that victim–a self who grows larger than its scars without disowning them, who is neither wound-dwelling nor jaded, who is actually healing. We have the capacity to redraw the lines between our powerlessness and our power. The women I dance with have shown me that suffering is interesting but so is getting better.
I worry that American women (myself included) think they no longer have the right to scars and flaws and pain the way Indonesian women do. I worry that we think our fight for equality is old news, and to dig up old arguments implies we are hurting and in hurting we are embodying the weakest, most loathsome parts of our sex that we are so hellbent on disproving. We are thoroughly obsessed with not being the victim, so we play the fun and fearless female card instead: cutting our hair, sexting an ex and laughing at the recently dumped woman who sings Adele’s “Someone Like You” a tad too unironically. I know the hurting woman is a cliche but I also know lots of women who still hurt. Sometimes the wounded woman is a stereotype, but sometimes she’s just true.
Indonesian women have taught me not to be afraid of being broken, something I think American women would never admit to being afraid of in the first place.Yet there is a certain kind of brokenness that cannot be fixed with burning bras, raw juice cleanses and nights spent in with girlfriends raucously validating the shit out of each other. Women are broken and wounded all over the world. But maybe women within this patriarchal culture are better at extracting power from what hurts, because they must use their strength more directly against the maelstrom of accusations telling them their worth is less. They are not afraid of the painful journey to empowerment because they are not afraid of inhabiting that pain. No matter how overly performed and naive those channels may seem to me (i.e. any Kelly Clarkson song taken too seriously, a tearful selfie posted on Facebook), they do as the adage goes “get them where they’re going.”
We Westerners like the quick fix, the ripping off of a band-aid to avoid too long a sting. The empowered women of my generation often seem to be afraid of too much feeling and thus have insulated themselves against this kind of broken-trauma through casual sex, topless selfies and anger-driven self-defense classes. We believe we no longer have the right to hurt, as if in hurting we are doing a disservice to the “fuck yeah” backbone of the feminist movement. Unlike our Indonesian female counterparts, we Western women want to feel empowered without acknowledging that sometimes that power is begotten by pain. American women like to think they are powerful in spite of their hurt, while the Indonesian women I have met believe they are powerful because they hurt.
The notion that women who are not empowered in the Western sense of the word are struggling and helpless must be banished. These fierce Indonesian women I have come to know and love are not struggling victims in need of total Western rescue. It all turns on the ownership of that hurt, and these women own it and refuse to be beaten by it. Go to any karaoke bar: they are women, hear them wail.
Being a female Peace Corps volunteer on Java has taught me to embrace my gender not only for what makes it strong, but also for what makes it weak. The feminism that stems from vulnerability is just as powerful as the feminism that stems from strength. You can be broken and fearless at the same time. That knowledge in itself is empowering. Whether you feel like laughing or crying, go ahead and bust a move.
AdvertisementsThe B.C. Tech summit is in full swing at the Vancouver Convention Centre, and a lot of discussion this year has been around the demand for trained workers
This is the second year the provincial government has funded the summit, and Premier Clark has delivered a keynote speech both years. During this year's speech the Premier called on Ottawa to lower barriers for tech savvy immigrants trying to move to B.C.
"While other countries are looking in, let's be a country and a province that is looking out... that is building bridges to the
world, that is welcoming people in, the best and the brightest from every corner around the globe," Clark said in her address to 5,000 delegates.
"That's how we will be different."
Speaking with guest host Gloria Macarenko on On The Coast, B.C. Tech Association CEO Bill Tam said a major challenge facing companies in B.C. is a lack of trained workers.
"It's been very tight," said Tam. "The number one issue for all the companies that we work with has been being able to attract the talent that they need to be able to grow their businesses."
He said bringing trained workers from outside of the country and increasing the capacity of post-secondary institutions is essential for economic growth.
Affordability an obstacle
Tam said as Vancouver grows as a global tech market place it will attract people looking for work in the area, and an obstacle they will face is affordability.
He said the average wage of a tech worker is substantially more than other industries, and the increased pay should be an incentive despite the expense of living in the Lower Mainland.
"That's where a lot of the opportunities for the next generation lie, and hopefully it will start to ebb some of the issues around affordability," he said.
Tam also said an important aspect of attracting workers is allowing exemptions from B.C.'s foreign buyer tax on real estate for those who have work permits and pay taxes in B.C.
"To the extent that people are prepared to come work here, live here, pay taxes here, there should be relief for them in terms of purchasing a home," he said
Tam added Vancouver stands apart from other tech industries for its capability in virtual and augmented reality development.
The conference runs until March 15.
With files from On The Coast and The Canadian Press
To listen to the full interview, click on the audio labelled: Tech CEO Bill Tam says foreign workers needed to grow tech industryThe head-to-head numbers mostly held steady through the past two weeks. | REUTERS Battleground Poll: Race still tight
The presidential race is tight enough nationally that a strong performance in Wednesday’s debate by Mitt Romney could put him in the lead.
A new POLITICO/George Washington University Battleground Poll of likely voters shows President Barack Obama ahead 49 percent to 47 percent, a point closer than a week ago and still within the margin of error. A tracking poll will be performed each week, and the results released each Monday, through Election Day.
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Romney now leads by 4 points among independents, up slightly from a week ago. The Republican must overperform with that group to make up for the near monolithic support of African-Americans for Obama, as well as the huge Democratic advantage among Latinos and women.
The head-to-head numbers mostly held steady through the past two weeks.
( See also: POLITICO's poll tracker)
“The basic underpinnings of this race are just not changing, and that’s what’s going to keep this a very close race,” said Republican pollster Ed Goeas of the Tarrance Group, who helped conduct the bipartisan poll.
A solid 46 percent say they will vote to reelect Obama and 42 percent say firmly they’ll vote to replace him. Just 9 percent say they’ll consider someone else.
“We’ve never had a debate where the electorate was this polarized,” said Celinda Lake, the Democratic pollster who helped conduct the poll. “There’s a real question about how many voters are left to move in the debate.”
Obama’s overall job approval stands at 49 percent, with an identical number of respondents disapproving. The president’s personal favorability slipped to 50 percent, with 47 percent viewing him unfavorably.
Romney remains slightly underwater on likability, with 46 percent viewing him favorably and 48 percent viewing him unfavorably. He has a problem with women, among whom Obama leads by 12 points, 54 percent to 42 percent. Asked about Romney as a person, 51 percent of women say they don’t have a good impression.
“For Romney, it’s a double goal that he has: He’s got to get that likability up, particularly among women,” said Lake. “And he’s got to draw a sharp contrast on what he’d do on the economy. That’s very difficult to do simultaneously. … It’s hard to maintain likability when you’re being an attack dog.”
Romney has not benefited from revelations about the Obama administration bungling its initial response to the attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya. Obama actually expanded his lead over Romney last week on who is better able to handle foreign policy, from 9 points to 12 points.
Democratic intensity has slipped slightly to 75 percent. A week before last, still in the afterglow of their convention, 81 percent of Democrats called themselves “extremely likely” to vote. Republican enthusiasm, meanwhile, held steady around 80 percent.
Regardless of whom they’re supporting, twice as many voters (61 percent) expect the president to prevail in November as expect him to lose.
“Democrats should be careful not to take this for granted,” said Lake. “Inevitability cannot diminish our focus on getting our voters out because the Republicans will be focused on getting their voters out.”
Pocketbook issues remain overwhelmingly the top concern of voters, and half of Wednesday’s 90-minute debate will focus on the economy.
Romney has reopened a slight advantage on which of the two candidates is bestequipped to handle the economy — 49 percent to 47 percent — and to create jobs – 48 percent to 47 percent. A slight majority, 52 percent, disapprove of Obama’s handling of the economy.Less than a week ago we reported that two former Nokia exclusive Xbox games: Dream Track Nation and Tiny Plane become available to all Windows Phone users. Several more former exclusives have just followed, right in time for the weekend: Vampire Rush from A-Steroids, Storm in a Teacup from Cobra, and The Sims Medieval from Electronic Arts. Okay, The Sims Medieval actually went non-exclusive a little earlier but we’re just getting to it now. With three more Xbox games available to all Windows Phone users, the list of Nokia exclusive Xbox titles grows ever shorter. Head past the break for details, Store links, and an updated list of the remaining exclusives!
Vampire Rush Windows Phone 7 or 8 – 137 MB – $2.99 – Store Link In Vampire Rush, players take on the role of Captain Greg, a British swashbuckler. Only Greg can stand between the gates of the city and armies of the undead in this mix of tower defense with hack-and-slash action. You’ll run around each map, hunting down vampires and their kin on the map and swording them into oblivion. Sometimes they drop gold, which can then be used to build and upgrade turrets or purchase character upgrades. Just don’t let the enemies reach the gate or Greg and the village will meet an untimely demise. Check out our full review for more details.
Vampire Rush features both a campaign mode and survival mode, the latter of which was added in an update. That same update fixed a broken Achievement, but failed to fix another broken one. A-Steroids has told us they would like to get the final Achievement working, but only time will tell if that actually happens. Storm in a Teacup Windows Phone 7 or 8 – 32 MB – $2.99 – Store Link
The game stars a little boy named Storm who hops around in a teacup through fanciful levels dreamed up by his brother Cloud in this touch screen platformer. Storm in a Teacup is extremely simplistic in the graphics department – the backgrounds don’t even use parallax scrolling, which they sorely need. And yet the frame rate is somewhere in the 10-15 FPS range. It’s like Gameloft’s 3D Windows Phone 8 games, only nothing complex is even going on under the hood. Blame Cobra, whose port of iBomber Defense also runs quite poorly. Still, if you can tolerate crap graphics and love platformers, you might be able to put up with this one. I’d definitely play Sonic CD and Little Acorns first though. Sims Medieval Windows Phone 7 or 8 – 139 MB – $4.99 – Store LinkIthaca Teachers union tells members not to turn over records on personal electronic devices and email. (See Update – Has the story changed?)
If you’ve wondered why I’ve been relatively absent from the website the past few days, it’s because I had to deal with a completely unexpected problem regarding my Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request to the Ithaca City School District (ICSD) regarding Bassem Tamimi’s appearance before third graders at the Beverly J. Martin School (BJM).
In brief, and incredibly, the teachers union in the Ithaca school district appears to have instructed its members not to produce records responsive to my FOIL Request contained on personal electronic devices and email accounts. [See Update, as to whether there has been a change of position on this.]
So I went to court and obtained a Temporary Restraining Order preserving records pending a court determination on the merits.
Details and full copy of Court Order below.
Tamimi 3rd Grade Event
You will recall that my report on the event exposed the anti-Israel nature of the presentation, as the ICSD Superintendent later acknowledged after his investigation.
The details are laid out in my post, Superintendent: Third Grade event “politically skewed, inflammatory” against Israel.
Tamimi is the Palestinian activist best known for using children, including his own. to confront Israeli soldiers in the hope the soldiers will react and create a viral video and photographic moment.
FOIL Request
Tamimi confirmed after the event that when he urged the third graders to become “freedom fighters for Palestine” he meant for them to become pro-Palestinian activists
On November 3, 2015, ICSD finally produce records pursuant to my FOIL Request, some of the documents were heavily redacted, and others withheld. I addressed this production in my post, New docs reveal Third Grade Anti-Israel event much worse than thought.
ICSD also indicated in its November 3 response that it was in the process of gathering records from individual employees:
“We asked school employees to provide any and all records in their possession that fit within the parameters of your FOIL request, regardless of where those records are located, including but not limited to records maintained by them on their personal computers, cell phones and/or other personal storage devices. To date, we have not heard back from some of those employees….However, it is at least possible that additional responsive records may be uncovered.”
Teachers Union Inserts Itself Into FOIL Process
On December 1, 2015, ICSD dropped a bombshell — The Ithaca Teachers Association had instructed its members not to turn over to ICSD documents responsive to my FOIL request that were on personal electronic devices and personal email (emphasis added):
As previously indicated, we asked school employees to provide, for the District’s review, any and all records in their possession that fit within the parameters of your FOIL request, regardless of where those records are located, including but not limited to records maintained by them on their personal computers, cell phones and/or other personal storage devices. In response, the Ithaca Teachers Association (ITA) President informed us that the ITA considers any records that were sent or received by ITA members via their personal e-mail accounts and/or personal devices, to be personal in nature. Therefore, the ITA President has informed us that to the extent any such records exist, they will not be furnished by ITA members.
I asked ICSD and ITA to agree to preserve records pending my challenge to this maneuver in court. ITA never responded to my request. (added) I also requested that ITA inform me “immediately” if the account by ICSD was not accurate, but I never heard back from ITA.
ICSD did respond, and essentially agreed with me as to preservation of records, but took the position that it doesn’t possess the records, the employees (presumably teachers and staff) do on their personal devices. ICSD at least did request that ITA preserve records:
“This is to follow up on my prior request for school employees to turn over, for my
inspection, all records in their possession that fit within the parameters of Mr.
Jacobson’s FOIL request, a copy of which was previously provided. In response, you informed me that ITA members would not be providing records
in their possession, which are deemed by the ITA to be personal in nature. I informed
Mr. Jacobson of this assertion, and now, as you are aware, litigation has been
threatened. Accordingly, I again repeat my request for all such |
). In that time, we worked on PlatformIO in free time and didn’t have a full-time team.
Team
We have found a small full-time team and tried finding ways how to support it. We contacted with multiple vendors and companies related to embedded to help us keeping PlatformIO open source, free and alive. This period (6 months, Feb-Aug) was complicated for us. We didn’t find a comfortable way how to keep PlatformIO FREE and INDEPENDENT. These 2 words don’t work in pair. Then, we decided to open a donation wallet and asked our community to support this project. We have a small banner in PlatformIO IDE and link on the main site. As a result, donation form also does not work today.
Business
Thousands companies and developers use PlatformIO every day. Someone uses it for hobby-project, someone teaches with PlatformIO how to make first steps into embedded world, and others create awesome things using PlatformIO and make business on it. The big our mistake is that we have done a lot of features and services totally for free because we love the open source and believe in its power. We understand that our main mission is to reduce input threshold to the Embedded World with creating high-level instruments and services.
Now, we understand that the only single way out of the situation is to create own professional solutions for the business based on PlatformIO. It will allow us to keep active development of PlatformIO Open Source and propose for embedded world new professional standards and awesome instruments for IoT development.
We are proud to present our first independent and business project with professional solutions. Today, PlatformIO Plus is a core sponsor of PlatformIO Open Source Project.
Please support us and make an own investment into free and open source PlatformIO ecosystem!
Regards,
PlatformIO Plus TeamSummary
7-spot ladybirds secrete alkaloid (coccinelline)-rich fluid (reflex blood) from leg joints as a defence mechanism against predators. A technique is described that enables the collection and accurate quantification of reflex blood produced, and the amount of coccinelline therein. Coccinelline was found distributed throughout the body, although concentrated in the reflex blood. Reflex blood was collected from a large set of beetles at several time points. Significant variation was found among beetles in the amount of reflex blood produced (for males and for females corrected for body weight) and the coccinelline concentration of the reflex blood. The results are discussed in relation to automimicry and the maintenance of variation through energy trade-offs. The relationships between tendency to aggregate, ability to reflex bleed and the possession of aposematic coloration are also considered.PHOENIX — A new type of bowling experience is set to make its Arizona debut in the West Valley.
Tavern+Bowl has announced a new location at the Westgate Entertainment District in Glendale. In addition to a 12-lane, state-of-the-art bowling facility, the California-based company will also feature the Good Bad Ugly Brewing Co. — Glendale’s first microbrewery to be combined with a bowling alley.
With four locations throughout San Diego and Orange County, Westgate will be the first site outside California for Tavern+Bowl. Owner Dan Hurd said in a press release he believes Glendale is the perfect spot for his expansion.
“We are eagerly anticipating our newest location’s opening at Westgate and believe there’s no better place to begin our expansion outside of California,” he said. “We’re not your father’s bowling alley; the Tavern+Bowl experience nods to tradition but brings it forward in a modern way.”
Construction on the 18,243-square-foot unit is slated to begin this month, with an anticipated opening coming in March 2017. The family-friendly environment will also include a full restaurant, billiards tables, shuffleboard and a large outdoor patio overlooking Fountain Park.
Adjacent to Yard House and steps away from the newly-opened Bar Louie, Tavern+Bowl will fit right in to the environment at Westgate, according to Development Manager Jeff Teetsel.
“We completed the new Dave & Busters building and they opened in November 2015,” he said. “Now, Tavern+Bowl will combine the West Valley’s first true in-house microbrewery alongside their high-energy bowling environment, adding a great new dimension to our already compelling tenant roster.”Bill Clinton to take Hillary’s place at Wednesday appearance in North Las Vegas
Former President Bill Clinton will speak in place of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton at a Southern Nevada campaign stop on Wednesday, a campaign spokesperson said.
The former first lady was scheduled to speak at the College of Southern Nevada Cheyenne Campus, 3200 E. Cheyenne Ave. in North Las Vegas, but was diagnosed with pneumonia over the weekend, campaign spokesman Tim Hogan said.
The campaign said Monday that the event at the June Whitley Student Lounge will start at 11 a.m. Doors open at 10 a.m.
She was advised to rest after becoming overheated Sunday at a 9/11 remembrance event in New York. Her husband, Bill, was also filling in for speeches in California Monday and Tuesday.
Back to topStarting a new career in UX can be a daunting task, particularly when you’re starting from scratch. Maybe you’re a visual designer wanting to expand your design repertoire, or perhaps you’re a product manager wanting to cross the bridge into product design. No matter where you’re starting from, what is really going to help you along and make you stand out is building a portfolio of UX work.
Building a portfolio can be very time consuming—most do it over months if not years. When you’re just getting started, sometime it’s helpful to work on simpler projects that can help you master the basics of User Experience design. These smaller projects will jumpstart your creative problem solving for end users, which will ultimately inform how you think through larger scale projects.
The first step to becoming a UX designer is to learn the principles and technical tools used throughout the creative process, but once you’ve done that—whether it was through a book, an online course, or even a bootcamp—what’s next? You’re probably itching to start designing your own projects. There is an endless list of potential projects you can work on to hone your skills and you’re probably overwhelmed and unsure of where to start, so we’ve put together a list of a few simple and universally applicable projects you will undoubtedly encounter as a professional UX designer, which are great places to start practicing. The projects listed here will be UX components that you’ll be designing and reimagining throughout your career, optimizing them for the company or product you’re working on. As such, being familiar with them, and able to design them with the end user in mind is crucial.
One of the most important things to do when working on portfolio projects is ensuring they fit the industry, field, and type of projects you want to be hired for in the future. If you’re interested in mobile app design for financial technology products, don’t fill your portfolio with web design projects you created for fictional zoo or soft drink companies. In general, use commons sense and only work on projects that are actually interesting to you. However, don’t let that stop you from going outside your comfort zone to learn new skills or areas of UX design.
Your Process
In order for the projects in this article to become good candidates to include in your portfolio, we’d recommend coming up with a specific client (real or fictional) that you’re going to build these projects for. Before beginning design work be sure to ask yourself some essential questions, and if the client is fictional, improvise the answers. Who is this product for? What problem is the product solving for them/what are they trying to achieve? What device will your user mainly be encountering your product on?
Next, be sure to organize that information in a way you understand and create a user flow. This can be simply written on post-it notes. The goal of a user flow is to visualize the path you want a user to take through your product to achieve their goal.
Then, allow your user flow to inform how to begin wireframing the product. Keep information architecture and design hierarchy in mind when wireframing—this is the phase to visually organize all of the information you’re trying to provide to your viewer, including calls to action.
Finally, once you are happy with your wireframes, begin a higher fidelity design process introducing color, typography, and graphics or imagery. Once you have a high fidelity mock-up of your product, it’s crucial to put it in front of potential users in order to watch them interact with your product and make iterations based on your observations. Since these may only be fictional products to start, getting input and feedback from a UX mentor can be a great place to start.
Now that we’ve laid out the basics for how to work through some of the projects, it’s time to get started! Here are some UX projects that will be applicable across pretty much any client/product you work with…
Landing Page
Think about the experience of a user just landing on a client’s website for the first time. How do you convey the necessary information about the product simply and effectively while also clearly showing them the different options they have to learn more, sign up, and navigate to other parts of the site? Design a basic landing page for your client. There’s no right or wrong information to include, but for anything you do include, be sure to justify it in your process and briefly explain why you’re showing it in the way you’ve chosen.
Subscribe / Lead Generation Page
Many clients will want to have lead generation pages that maximize the number of visitors who turn into email subscribers, or leads. Design a few possible lead gen pages designed to maximize conversions. Consider what information your client would logically want to capture from visitors, and how to make the email capture process as simple and intuitive as possible.
Signup flow
Similarly to the lead gen page, design a user signup flow that simplifies the signup process for anyone creating an account on your client’s website or app. For this, you can decide whether the signup flow should be web-based or app-based, depending on your client. Should the signup flow be a simple modal on one page or is it a multi-step process that requires you to capture more information than name and email?
Login Page
So your user has registered. Great! What does a login page look like for your client? Do they need to sign in manually or can they choose to sign in via an existing platform like Facebook or Google? What if they forget their password? What happens if they input the wrong password? Consider all of these to create versions of a login page for every possible scenario.
Settings
Once a user is signed in, how do they change their settings? Create a flow that guides a user through the relevant screens on the settings page. Consider things like changing passwords, adding/deleting payment info, tracking orders, and more. Remember to only include applicable elements for your client.
Profile page
So what does your user’s profile page look like? What information is actually relevant for them to provide in order to have the best possible experience on your site or app? This is another situation where less is more—don’t ask someone to include information about themselves that will never surface in their use of the product. Will this information be public facing or private? Does the information affect the look of the actual product or is it only used on their profile page?
Analytics Chart
This might not be relevant for every product, but if you are building a technology or SaaS product, there’s a good chance that paying users will have some sort of dashboard to view data, reports, or information about their customers or users. Consider your client and think about what sort of information their users might want easy access to? How do they want to view the data on this page? Should it be pivotable, sortable, downloadable? How do you want to present the different options for viewing reports?
Search Page
No matter what type of product you’re working on, there’s a good chance that there will be some sort of search functionality. For this, consider what the initial search screen looks like. Does it live as a bar at the top of the site or does a user need to click through to a dedicated search page? After searching, what does the results page look like? Can the user sort results by any specific criteria?
Donation page
Again, this might not be fully applicable to every client, but a donation page is something that many sites in the nonprofit or government space rely heavily on for their businesses. Create a Donation page—similarly to a Lead Gen page, focus on optimizing the elements of the page to maximize donations by visitors.
Product Page
For e-commerce websites and/or apps, design a product page laying out all of the products for sale. Are they categorized? Can you sort by product type, by color, by size, etc? How many products display per page? What information is displayed alongside the image? Perhaps there is a “Quick View” or an “Add to Cart” button. Is their pagination or an infinity scroll? These are all good questions to ask when designing a product page.
Product Detail Page
For e-commerce clients, design a sample product page for any of their purchasable items. What information and visuals do you need to convey? On a single page, how does a user change quantity, size, color, etc.? Are there user reviews on the page? If so, where do they surface? Do you show related products? If so, what aspects of the product dictate the type of related items to show to the user?
Shopping Cart Page
Once a user has added items to their cart and is ready to checkout, what does the final shopping cart page look like? Think about things they’d want to do on this page—maybe change quantity, delete items, and move to the final checkout page.
Checkout Flow
Once the user clicks “checkout” on the shopping cart, what pages do they need to go through to get to the final Confirmation page? When should they input credit card info in relation to seeing the final price with tax and shipping included? Where do you include the ability for them to redeem offer codes?
Help/Support Page
Finally, what does your client’s help or support page look like? Depending on the product, this could include various things. If it’s a Saas product, there might be a dedicated customer service team available for live chat or phone calls. If it’s a free-to-use product, there might only be a Q&A page and email address for serious issues. Consider how and when you want to present different options to people. Think about how you can answer as many user questions as possible before they feel the need to communicate with you directly via chat or email.
So there you go! We’d recommend picking 3 or 4 projects from this list that you think are the most important for your client’s (real or fictional) product and focus on them. Include high-level process and reasoning for your decisions in your final portfolio. Most recruiters recommend not writing pages and pages of process for a single project—just include the necessary information and justification for each aspect of your design to show that you are thinking about things from a user perspective and only making decisions when they are in the best interest of the user.
And if you want to review your projects with a professional UX designer, you can schedule mentor chats with a UX mentor at RookieUp anytime you need some inspiration, project feedback, or portfolio advice.Fox
It looks like Russian audiences won’t be able to watch The Simpsons latest episode, “Looking for Mr. Goodbart,” anytime soon. The Russian cartoon-dominated network 2x2 has canceled its planned broadcast of the episode, which centers around a Pokémon Go copycat called Peekimon Get, after clergy from the Russian Orthodox Church criticized a scene in which Homer plays the game in a church.
2x2’s decision to pull the episode, which aired in the U.S. on April 30, came shortly after criticism by clerics, as reported by Russia’s government-run news agency TASS. “We don’t show content that can compromise the channel or provoke an ambiguous reaction in society, that to put it simply breaks the country’s legislation,” the channel’s public relations director told Agence France Presse.
The episode is reminiscent of the real-life case of Russian YouTuber Ruslan Sokolovsky, who was arrested last year over a video in which he is seen playing Pokémon Go in the Church of All Saints in Yekaterinburg. “But, you know, I didn’t catch the rarest Pokémon that you could find there, Jesus,” says Sokolovsky at the end of the recording. “They said it doesn’t even exist, so I’m not really surprised.”
Sokolovsky is currently facing a jail sentence of three-and-a-half years for offending religious believers.February 7, 2017
In the previous post I showed how to prove equivalence of two different implementations of the same algorithm. This post will cover writing an algorithm specification in Cryptol to prove the correctness of a constant-time C/C++ implementation.
Apart from rather simple Cryptol I’m also going to introduce SAW’s llvm_verify function that allows much more complex verification. We need this as our function will not only take scalar inputs but also store the result of the computation using pointer arguments.
Constant-time multiplication
Part 1 dealt with addition, in part 2 we’re going to look at multiplication. Let’s implement a function mul(a, b, *hi, *lo) that multiplies a and b, and stores the eight most significant bits of the product in *hi, and the eight LSBs in *lo.
This time we’ll make it run in constant time right away and won’t bother implementing a trivial version first. Instead, we will write a Cryptol specification to verify LLVM bitcode afterwards — you will be amazed how simple that is.
Some helper functions
The first two functions of our C/C++ implementation will seem familiar if you’ve read the previous part of the series. msb hasn’t changed, and ge is the negated version of lt. nz returns 0xff if the given argument x is non-zero, 0 otherwise.
cmul.c [gist.github.com/ttaubert/c742ba7adf040e14ff21e111a929f5b8#file-cmul-c] // 0xff if MSB(x) = 1 else 0x00 uint8_t msb ( uint8_t x ) { return 0 - ( x >> ( 8 * sizeof ( x ) - 1 )); } // 0xff if a >= b else 0x00 uint8_t ge ( uint8_t a, uint8_t b ) { return ~ msb ( a ^ (( a ^ b ) | (( a - b ) ^ b ))); } // 0xff if x > 0 else 0x00 uint8_t nz ( uint8_t x ) { return ~ msb ( ~ x & ( x - 1 )); } uint8_t add ( uint8_t a, uint8_t b, uint8_t * carry ) { * carry = msb ( ge ( a, 0 - b ) & nz ( b )) & 1 ; return a + b ; }
Our add function that previously dealt with overflows by capping at UINT8_MAX is a little more mature now and will set *carry = 1 when an overflow occurs.
The core of the algorithm
mul(a, b, *hi, *lo), using all the helper functions we defined above, implements standard long multiplication, i.e. four multiplications per function call. We split the two 8-bit arguments into two 4-bit halves, multiply and add a few times, and then store two 8-bit results at the addresses pointed to by hi and lo.
cmul.c [gist.github.com/ttaubert/c742ba7adf040e14ff21e111a929f5b8#file-cmul-c] void mul ( uint8_t a, uint8_t b, uint8_t * hi, uint8_t * lo ) { uint8_t a1 = a >> 4, a0 = a & 0xf ; uint8_t b1 = b >> 4, b0 = b & 0xf ; uint8_t z0 = a0 * b0 ; uint8_t z2 = a1 * b1 ; uint8_t z1, z1carry, carry, trash ; z1 = add ( a0 * b1, a1 * b0, & z1carry ); * lo = add ( z1 << 4, z0, & carry ); * hi = add ( z2, ( z1 >> 4 ) + carry, & trash ); * hi = add ( * hi, z1carry << 4, & trash ); }
It’s relatively easy to see that a * b can be rewritten as (a1 * 2^4 + a0) * (b1 * 2^4 + b0), all four variables being 4-bit integers. After multiplying and rearranging you’ll get an equation that’s very similar to mul above. Here’s a good introduction to computing with long integers if you want to know more.
$ clang -c -emit-llvm -o cmul.bc cmul.c
Compile the code to LLVM bitcode as before so that we can load it into SAW later.
The Cryptol specification
To automate verification we’ll again write a SAW script. It will contain the necessary verification commands and details, as well as a Cryptol specification.
The specification doesn’t need to be constant-time, all it needs to be is correct and as simple as possible. We declare a function mul taking two 8-bit integers and returning a tuple containing two 8-bit integers. Read the notation [8] as “sequence of 8 bits”.
cmul.saw [gist.github.com/ttaubert/c742ba7adf040e14ff21e111a929f5b8#file-cmul-saw] m <- llvm_load_module "cmul.bc" ; let {{ mul : [8] -> [8] -> ([8], [8]) mul a b = ( take `{8} prod, drop `{8} prod) where prod = (pad a) * (pad b) pad x = zero # x }};
The built-in function take`{n} x returns a sequence with only the first n items of x. drop`{n} x returns sequence x without the first n items. zero is a special value that has a number of use cases, here it represents a flexible sequence of all zero bits. # is the append operator for sequences.
The first line of the definition gives the return value, a tuple with the first and the last 8 bits of prod. The Cryptol type system can automatically infer that the variable prod must hold a 16-bit sequence if the result of the take`{8} and drop`{8} function calls is a sequence of 8 bits each.
prod is the result of multiplying the zero-padded arguments a and b. zero # x appends x to 8 zero bits, and that number is again determined by the type system. If you want to learn more about the language, take a look at Programming Cryptol.
That’s about as simple as it gets. We multiply two 8-bit integers and out comes a 16-bit integer, split into two halves. Now let’s use the specification to verify our constant-time implementation.
SAW’s llvm_verify function
We will add LLVM SAW instructions to the same file that contains the Cryptol code from above. The llvm_verify call here takes module m, extracts the symbol "mul", and uses the body given after do for verification.
We need to declare all symbolic inputs as given by our C/C++ implementation. With llvm_var we tell SAW that "a" and "b" are 8-bit integer arguments, and map those to the SAW variables a and b.
The arguments "hi" and "lo" are declared as pointers to 8-bit integers using llvm_ptr. And because we want to dereference the pointers and refer to their values later we declare "*hi" and "*lo" as 8-bit integers too.
cmul.saw [gist.github.com/ttaubert/c742ba7adf040e14ff21e111a929f5b8#file-cmul-saw] llvm_verify m "mul" [] do { a <- llvm_var "a" ( llvm_int 8); b <- llvm_var "b" ( llvm_int 8); llvm_ptr "hi" ( llvm_int 8); hi <- llvm_var "*hi" ( llvm_int 8); llvm_ptr "lo" ( llvm_int 8); lo <- llvm_var "*lo" ( llvm_int 8); let res = {{ mul a b }}; llvm_ensure_eq "*hi" {{ res.0 }}; llvm_ensure_eq "*lo" {{ res.1 }}; llvm_verify_tactic abc; };
We specify no constraints for any of the arguments and expect the verification to consider all possible inputs. I will talk a bit more about such constraints and how these are useful in a later post.
With llvm_ensure_eq we tell SAW what values we expect after symbolic execution. We expect "*hi" to be equal to the first 8-bit integer element of the tuple returned by mul, and "*lo" to be equal to the second 8-bit integer.
llvm_verify_tactic chooses UC Berkely’s ABC tool again and off we go.
Verification with SAW
Again, make sure you have saw and z3 in your $PATH. If you haven’t downloaded the binaries yet, take a look at the early sections of the previous post.
$ saw cmul.saw Loading module Cryptol Loading file "cmul.saw" Successfully verified @mul
Successfully verified @mul. SAW tells us that for all possible inputs a and b, and actually hi and lo too, our constant-time C/C++ implementation behaves as stated by the SAW verification script and is thereby equivalent to our Cryptol specification.
Next: Finding bugs and more LLVM commands
In the next post I’m going to introduce and write more Cryptol, talk about specifying constraints on LLVM arguments and return values, and provide an example for finding bugs in a real-world codebase.SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More than a dozen Democratic attorneys general on Thursday sought to intervene to defend a key part of the Obamacare healthcare law - subsidy payments to insurance companies - which is under threat in a court case.
FILE PHOTO - U.S. Representative Xavier Becerra (D-CA) speaks on the final night of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. in this July 28, 2016 file photo. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo
The 16 attorneys general, led by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, filed a motion to intervene in the case pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
The case, which dates back to the Obama administration, was filed by the Republican-led House of Representatives against the federal government in an effort to cut off subsidy payments to insurers for the individual plans created by the Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare.
The subsidies payments help cover out-of-pocket medical expenses for low-income Americans.
“The stakes are very high. In Maryland we have more than 400,000 people who depend on the Affordable Care Act to get normal healthcare. It sounds alarming, but it’s true: lives are at stake,” said Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh, who signed on to the filing.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to withhold the payments to insurers, which amount to about $7 billion this year, and referred to them as a “bailout.”
The attorneys general cited in the court filing Trump’s own words vowing to let Obamacare “explode” as part of the reasoning for their intervention.
Trump has made it clear he views decisions on health insurance for millions of Americans “as little more than political bargaining chips,” the court filing said. The situation is extremely urgent, the Democratic officials argued, because state insurance regulators are making critical choices that will shape their insurance markets for the next year.
Several insurers, including Aetna AET.N and Humana (HUM.N), have largely left the Obamacare exchanges, citing a pool of patients who are sicker than expected and therefore more expensive. Insurers have also repeatedly called on the Trump administration to fund the cost-sharing subsidies.
Attorneys general and proponents of Obamacare have said the threats to withhold the payments have already wreaked havoc in the marketplaces and are part of the reason some healthcare consumers have seen double-digit rate increases.
SIGNIFICANT OPPONENTS
Democratic attorneys general have emerged as significant opponents to the Trump administration. They took a lead role to successfully block Trump’s executive orders restricting travel from some Muslim-majority countries, and they are also resisting efforts to roll back environmental regulations.
The attorney general from Kentucky, a deeply conservative state, is among those Democrats joining the court filing even as the state’s Republican governor has pledged to rollback a Medicaid expansion made possible by Obamacare.
In May 2016, a U.S. judge ruled in favor of the Republicans in the subsidies case, finding that the Obama administration needed explicit congressional approval. The Obama administration appealed before Trump took office, leaving the new administration to ponder how to proceed.
The appeals court put the litigation on hold after the November presidential election at the request of the Republican House lawmakers.
FILE PHOTO: New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman speaks during a news conference in New York March 21, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
The motion to intervene may not be granted by the court. In February, the same court rejected a similar motion filed by Democratic attorneys general seeking to help defend the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in a legal battle that could defang the agency.
The litigation could become moot if Congress passes new healthcare legislation to replace Obamacare. The House passed a bill, called the American Health Care Act, earlier this month. The Senate recently began writing its own version of the bill but has warned it could take months to pass.
The Trump administration has taken action over the past several months to undercut Obamacare through regulatory authority. It backed off enforcing the individual mandate, which requires everyone to purchase health insurance or else pay a penalty, tightened enrollment in Obamacare markets and has enabled people to sign up for insurance plans outside of healthcare.gov, the flagship site of Obamacare that the Obama administration heavily advertised.WILTON MANORS, Fla. -- Hillary Clinton vowed Sunday that she would not be “knocked off course” in the election’s final days, as she sought to push past a new FBI email inquiry in a sexting probe that delivered a late jolt to her race against Republican Donald Trump.
“I’m not stopping now, we’re just getting warmed up,” Clinton declared during a packed rally with gay and lesbian supporters in battleground Florida. “We’re not going to be distracted, no matter what our opponents throw at us.”
Trump campaigned in Las Vegas at a casino owned by billionaire GOP megadonor Sheldon Adelson and accused the Justice Department, without offering evidence, of trying to protect Clinton following the FBI’s discovery of new emails that could be related to its investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server.
“Hillary has nobody but herself to blame for her mounting legal problems,” Trump said during a rally.
Clinton’s advisers and fellow Democrats pressured FBI Director James Comey anew to release more details about the emails, including whether Comey had even reviewed them himself. The message was aimed at gathering more information about what the bureau is seeking from a computer that appears to belong to disgraced former New York Rep. Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of Huma Abedin, one of Clinton’s closest advisers.
Tim Kaine, Clinton’s running mate, said Comey owed it to the public to be more forthcoming about the emails under review by the FBI with only nine days remaining before the Nov. 8 election. Calling Comey’s announcement “extremely puzzling,” Kaine said that if Comey “hasn’t seen the emails, I mean they need to make that completely plain.”
Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, said Comey’s handling of the matter was “inappropriate.”
Clinton made unannounced stops Sunday in Florida at an early voting location, a Miami brunch spot and a soul food restaurant. She also addressed a predominantly black church, where she spoke of overcoming disappointments.
“Scripture tells us to rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character,” she said. “And character produces hope.”
Clinton made no direct mention of the new FBI investigation, which has created anxiety among Democrats. But while she criticized the FBI for a lack of transparency during a campaign appearance on Saturday, she tried to shift her attention back to Trump on Sunday, casting him as a selfish billionaire with a striking lack of empathy.
Speaking to LGBT supporters in Wilton Manors, she seized on a Washington Post report about Trump appearing at a fundraiser for children with HIV and pretending to be a donor, though he never gave money to the charity.
“It’s always Donald Trump first and everyone else last,” she said.
Comey’s actions Friday have roiled the White House race, energizing Trump as polls had showed him sliding and unnerving Democrats worried about the presidency and down-ballot congressional races. In a letter to Congress on Friday, Comey said the FBI had recently come upon new emails while pursuing an unrelated case and was reviewing whether they were classified.
The FBI is looking into whether there was classified information on a device belonging to Weiner. Federal authorities in New York and North Carolina are investigating online communications between Weiner and a 15-year-old girl.
The developments prompted Trump to quip to his Las Vegas supporters, “We never thought we were going to say ‘thank you’ to Anthony Weiner,” he said.
A law enforcement official said Sunday that FBI investigators in the Weiner sexting probe knew for weeks about the existence of newly discovered emails that might be relevant to the Clinton email investigation. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Comey said he was briefed Thursday about that development and told Congress on Friday that investigators had found the emails. A second law enforcement official also said the FBI was aware for a period of time about the emails before Comey was briefed, but the second official wasn’t more specific.
Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said Comey was in “an impossible spot” when he acknowledged the FBI was looking into the messages. “Had he sat on the information, one can argue that he also would be interfering in the election,” by failing to disclose the review, Conway said.
The controversy over Clinton’s email practices while she served as secretary of state has dogged her for more than a year.
Late Saturday, four senior Democratic senators urged the Justice Department and the FBI to provide more detailed information by Monday about what investigative steps are being taken, the number of emails involved and what is being done to determine how many of the emails are duplicative of those already reviewed by the FBI.
The letter went to Comey and Attorney General Loretta Lynch from Sens. Ben Cardin of Maryland, Tom Carper of Delaware, Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Dianne Feinstein of California.
Kaine appeared on ABC’s “This Week,” Podesta and Conway were on CNN’s “State of the Union.”Another day, another casual threat from the president of the United States to abuse the powers of his office in order to stymie reporting that he doesn’t like.
With all of the Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License? Bad for country! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 11, 2017
The context here is that NBC News reported first that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had called Trump a “fucking moron,” setting off a week’s worth of coverage of internal administration chaos, and then today reported that what set Tillerson off was a Trump request to increase the size of the US nuclear arsenal tenfold. Such an increase would be financially costly, break international law, surely lead to more nuclear proliferation, and accomplish nothing, since the US already has plenty of nukes to deter anyone. It was, in short, pretty moronic.
The policy context is that individual television broadcast stations need licenses from the Federal Communications Commission to stay in business.
This licensing regime is necessary to prevent different stations from offering overlapping transmissions that prevent anyone from tuning in. But it’s also potentially open to abuse — Lyndon Johnson and his wife deployed licensing authority corruptly to prevent anyone from competing with a station they owned in Texas. In theory, you could also abuse the power less for this sort of venal corruption and more for the kind of systemic corruption that Trump is proposing here.
Trump’s threat isn’t remotely credible
Trump often offered threats of this nature as a candidate, and during the transition and early days of the administration, it’s something I worried about a lot.
The reality, however, is that Trump’s appointees to key regulatory agencies — including Ajit Pai at the FCC — are very conventional pro-business deregulators. Your mileage may vary on whether deregulation is a good idea. Personally, I think I will miss network neutrality and broadband internet privacy rules from the FCC, antitrust enforcement from the Federal Trade Commission, environmental enforcement from the Environmental Protection Agency, and so on.
But it is what it is. Threats to crack down on independent media, though scary to normalize as part of public discourse, are empty, just like Trump’s earlier threats to sue the women who’ve accused him of sexual assault for libel. The whole Trump war on the press is largely a phony war, and in concrete material terms, Trump has been really good for business.Calculate the Opportunity Cost in Apple Stock of Raising a Child
Have you ever wondered how different your financial situation would have been if you'd invested in Apple stock instead of having a child? Well even if you haven't, now you can find out.
Month of Birth January February March April May June July August September October November December Year of Birth 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Family Income Level (in 2017 Dollars) Upper Income (>$111k gross family income in 2017 dollars) Middle Income ($64k to $111k gross family income in 2017 dollars) Lower Income(<$64k gross family income in 2017 dollars) Include College? No Yes Years of College 1 2 3 4 Annual Amount Calculate
The chart above displays the estimated opportunity cost in Apple Stock for raising a child up to the age of 18 for differing family income levels.
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472 563 654 745 Calisthenics, light 207 246 286 326 Circuit training, minimal rest 472 563 654 745 Weight lifting, body building, vigorous 354 422 490 558 Weight lifting, light workout 177 211 245 279 Health club exercise 325 387 449 512 Stair machine 531 633 735 838 Rowing machine, light 207 246 286 326 Rowing machine, moderate 413 493 572 651 Rowing machine, vigorous 502 598 695 791 Rowing machine, very vigorous 708 844 981 1117 Ski machine 413 493 572 651 Aerobics, low impact 295 352 409 465 Aerobics, high impact 413 493 572 651 Aerobics, step aerobics 502 598 695 791 Aerobics, general 384 457 531 605 Jazzercise 354 422 490 558 Stretching, hatha yoga 236 281 327 372 Mild stretching 148 176 204 233 Instructing aerobic class 354 422 490 558 Water aerobics 236 281 327 372 Ballet, twist, jazz, tap 266 317 368 419 Ballroom dancing, slow 177 211 245 279 Ballroom dancing, fast 325 387 449 512 Running, 5 mph (12 minute mile) 472 563 654 745 Running, 5.2 mph (11.5 minute mile) 531 633 735 838 Running, 6 mph (10 min mile) 590 704 817 931 Running, 6.7 mph (9 min mile) 649 774 899 1024 Running, 7 mph (8.5 min mile) 679 809 940 1070 Running, 7.5mph (8 min mile) 738 880 1022 1163 Running, 8 mph (7.5 min mile) 797 950 1103 1256 Running, 8.6 mph (7 min mile) 826 985 1144 1303 Running, 9 mph (6.5 min mile) 885 1056 1226 1396 Running, 10 mph (6 min mile) 944 1126 1308 1489 Running, 10.9 mph (5.5 min mile) 1062 1267 1471 1675 Running, cross country 531 633 735 838 Running, general 472 563 654 745 Running, on a track, team practice 590 704 817 931 Running, stairs, up 885 1056 1226 1396 Track and field (shot, discus) 236 281 327 372 Track and field (high jump, pole vault) 354 422 490 558 Track and field (hurdles) 590 704 817 931 Archery 207 246 286 326 Badminton 266 317 368 419 Basketball game, competitive 472 563 654 745 Playing basketball, non game 354 422 490 558 Basketball, officiating 413 493 572 651 Basketball, shooting baskets 266 317 368 419 Basketball, wheelchair 384 457 531 605 Running, training, pushing wheelchair 472 563 654 745 Billiards 148 176 204 233 Bowling 177 211 245 279 Boxing, in ring 708 844 981 1117 Boxing, punching bag 354 422 490 558 Boxing, sparring 531 633 735 838 Coaching: football, basketball, soccer 236 281 327 372 Cricket (batting, bowling) 295 352 409 465 Croquet 148 176 204 233 Curling 236 281 327 372 Darts (wall or lawn) 148 176 204 233 Fencing 354 422 490 558 Football, competitive 531 633 735 838 Football, touch, flag, general 472 563 654 745 Football or baseball, playing catch 148 176 204 233 Frisbee playing, general 177 211 245 279 Frisbee, ultimate frisbee 472 563 654 745 Golf, general 266 317 368 419 Golf, walking and carrying clubs 266 317 368 419 Golf, driving range 177 211 245 279 Golf, miniature golf 177 211 245 279 Golf, walking and pulling clubs 254 303 351 400 Golf, using power cart 207 246 286 326 Gymnastics 236 281 327 372 Hacky sack 236 281 327 372 Handball 708 844 981 1117 Handball, team 472 563 654 745 Hockey, field hockey 472 563 654 745 Hockey, ice hockey 472 563 654 745 Riding a horse, general 236 281 327 372 Horesback riding, saddling horse 207 246 286 326 Horseback riding, grooming horse 207 246 286 326 Horseback riding, trotting 384 457 531 605 Horseback riding, walking 148 176 204 233 Horse racing, galloping 472 563 654 745 Horse grooming, moderate 354 422 490 558 Horseshoe pitching 177 211 245 279 Jai alai 708 844 981 1117 Martial arts, judo, karate, jujitsu 590 704 817 931 Martial arts, kick boxing 590 704 817 931 Martial arts, tae kwan do 590 704 817 931 Krav maga training 590 704 817 931 Juggling 236 281 327 372 Kickball 413 493 572 651 Lacrosse 472 563 654 745 Orienteering 531 633 735 838 Playing paddleball 354 422 490 558 Paddleball, competitive 590 704 817 931 Polo 472 563 654 745 Racquetball, competitive 590 704 817 931 Playing racquetball 413 493 572 651 Rock climbing, ascending rock 649 774 899 1024 Rock climbing, rappelling 472 563 654 745 Jumping rope, fast 708 844 981 1117 Jumping rope, moderate 590 704 817 931 Jumping rope, slow 472 563 654 745 Rugby 590 704 817 931 Shuffleboard, lawn bowling 177 211 245 279 Skateboarding 295 352 409 465 Roller skating 413 493 572 651 Roller blading, in-line skating 708 844 981 1117 Sky diving 177 211 245 279 Soccer, competitive 590 704 817 931 Playing soccer 413 493 572 651 Softball or baseball 295 352 409 465 Softball, officiating 236 281 327 372 Softball, pitching 354 422 490 558 Squash 708 844 981 1117 Table tennis, ping pong 236 281 327 372 Tai chi 236 281 327 372 Playing tennis 413 493 572 651 Tennis, doubles 354 422 490 558 Tennis, singles 472 563 654 745 Trampoline 207 246 286 326 Volleyball, competitive 472 563 654 745 Playing volleyball 177 211 245 279 Volleyball, beach 472 563 654 745 Wrestling 354 422 490 558 Wallyball 413 493 572 651 Backpacking, Hiking with pack 413 493 572 651 Carrying infant, level ground 207 246 286 326 Carrying infant, upstairs 295 352 409 465 Carrying 16 to 24 lbs, upstairs 354 422 490 558 Carrying 25 to 49 lbs, upstairs 472 563 654 745 Standing, playing with children, light 165 197 229 261 Walk/run, playing with children, moderate 236 281 327 372 Walk/run, playing with children, vigorous 295 352 409 465 Carrying small children 177 211 245 279 Loading, unloading car 177 211 245 279 Climbing hills, carrying up to 9 lbs 413 493 572 651 Climbing hills, carrying 10 to 20 lb 443 528 613 698 Climbing hills, carrying 21 to 42 lb 472 563 654 745 Climbing hills, carrying over 42 lb 531 633 735 838 Walking downstairs 177 211 245 279 Hiking, cross country 354 422 490 558 Bird watching 148 176 204 233 Marching, rapidly, military 384 457 531 605 Children's games, hopscotch, dodgeball 295 352 409 465 Pushing stroller or walking with children 148 176 204 233 Pushing a wheelchair 236 281 327 372 Race walking 384 457 531 605 Rock climbing, mountain climbing 472 563 654 745 Walking using crutches 295 352 409 465 Walking the dog 177 211 245 279 Walking, under 2.0 mph, very slow 118 141 163 186 Walking 2.0 mph, slow 148 176 204 233 Walking 2.5 mph 177 211 245 279 Walking 3.0 mph, moderate 195 232 270 307 Walking 3.5 mph, brisk pace 224 267 311 354 Walking 3.5 mph, uphill 354 422 490 558 Walking 4.0 mph, very brisk 295 352 409 465 Walking 4.5 mph 372 443 515 586 Walking 5.0 mph 472 563 654 745 Boating, power, speed boat 148 176 204 233 Canoeing, camping trip 236 281 327 372 Canoeing, rowing, light 177 211 245 279 Canoeing, rowing, moderate 413 493 572 651 Canoeing, rowing, vigorous 708 844 981 1117 Crew, sculling, rowing, competition 708 844 981 1117 Kayaking 295 352 409 465 Paddle boat 236 281 327 372 Windsurfing, sailing 177 211 245 279 Sailing, competition 295 352 409 465 Sailing, yachting, ocean sailing 177 211 245 279 Skiing, water skiing 354 422 490 558 Ski mobiling 413 493 572 651 Skin diving, fast 944 1126 1308 1489 Skin diving, moderate 738 880 1022 1163 Skin diving, scuba diving 413 493 572 651 Snorkeling 295 352 409 465 Surfing, body surfing or board surfing 177 211 245 279 Whitewater rafting, kayaking, canoeing 295 352 409 465 Swimming laps, freestyle, fast 590 704 817 931 Swimming laps, freestyle, slow 413 493 572 651 Swimming backstroke 413 493 572 651 Swimming breaststroke 590 704 817 931 Swimming butterfly 649 774 899 1024 Swimming leisurely, not laps 354 422 490 558 Swimming sidestroke 472 563 654 745 Swimming synchronized 472 563 654 745 Swimming, treading water, fast, vigorous 590 704 817 931 Swimming, treading water, moderate 236 281 327 372 Water aerobics, water calisthenics 236 281 327 372 Water polo 590 704 817 931 Water volleyball 177 211 245 279 Water jogging 472 563 654 745 Diving, springboard or platform 177 211 245 279 Ice skating, < 9 mph 325 387 449 512 Ice skating, average speed 413 493 572 651 Ice skating, rapidly 531 633 735 838 Speed skating, ice, competitive 885 1056 1226 1396 Cross country snow skiing, slow 413 493 572 651 Cross country skiing, moderate 472 563 654 745 Cross country skiing, vigorous 531 633 735 838 Cross country skiing, racing 826 985 1144 1303 Cross country skiing, uphill 974 1161 1348 1536 Snow skiing, downhill skiing, light 295 352 409 465 Downhill snow skiing, moderate 354 422 490 558 Downhill snow skiing, racing 472 563 654 745 Sledding, tobagganing, luge 413 493 572 651 Snow shoeing 472 563 654 745 Snowmobiling 207 246 286 326 General housework 207 246 286 326 Cleaning gutters 295 352 409 465 Painting 266 317 368 419 Sit, playing with animals 148 176 204 233 Walk / run, playing with animals 236 281 327 372 Bathing dog 207 246 286 326 Mowing lawn, walk, power mower 325 387 449 512 Mowing lawn, riding mower 148 176 204 233 Walking, snow blower 207 246 286 326 Riding, snow blower 177 211 245 279 Shoveling snow by hand 354 422 490 558 Raking lawn 254 303 351 400 Gardening, general 236 281 327 372 Bagging grass, leaves 236 281 327 372 Watering lawn or garden 89 106 123 140 Weeding, cultivating garden 266 317 368 419 Carpentry, general 207 246 286 326 Carrying heavy loads 472 563 654 745 Carrying moderate loads upstairs 472 563 654 745 General cleaning 207 246 286 326 Cleaning, dusting 148 176 204 233 Taking out trash 177 211 245 279 Walking, pushing a wheelchair 236 281 327 372 Teach physical education,exercise class 236 281 327 372 Teach exercise classes (& participate) 384 457 531 605 Calculations are based on research data from Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, the official journal of the American College of Sports Medicine. Calories Burned during Exercise - Nutrition and Diet Information - Weight Training Exercises - Healthy Eating Tips - Health Benefits of Exercise - Weight Control and Exercise - Low Calorie Cooking - Nutrient Digestion - Costs of Obesity - Obesity Statistics - Contact Us Copyright © 2015 NutriStrategyBatch 7 had 3,411 respondents, and over one million votes have now been cast in the Magic Bracket so far.
The full list of batch 7 results is as follows:
Demonic Hordes defeats Borderland Minotaur with 76.2% of the vote
Canopy Surge defeats Marang River Skeleton with 56.2% of the vote
Dissipation Field defeats Send to Sleep with 82.9% of the vote
Dralnu’s Crusade defeats Droning Bureaucrats with 64.9% of the vote
Encrust defeats Demolish with 67.3% of the vote
Knights of Thorn defeats Hostile Realm with 56.4% of the vote
Harnessed Lightning defeats Master of the Veil with 78.7% of the vote
Hanweir Watchkeep defeats Glint-Sleeve Artisan with 67.4% of the vote
Downhill Charge defeats Coral Atoll with 51.0% of the vote
Blood Tyrant defeats Thwart with 63.3% of the vote
Stonehorn Dignitary defeats Extinguish with 75.4% of the vote
Phage the Untouchable defeats Blasted Landscape with 90.7% of the vote
Cauldron Haze defeats Resounding Scream with 77.1% of the vote
Lightning Blast defeats Piranha Marsh with 61.8% of the vote
Pillar Tombs of Aku defeats Blood Hound with 57.6% of the vote
Monstrify defeats Hedron Scrabbler with 61.3% of the vote
Hatchet Bully defeats Teleport with 59.2% of the vote
Back to Nature defeats Mire Boa with 62.6% of the vote
Wretched Banquet defeats Ruinous Minotaur with 61.1% of the vote
Goblin War Drums defeats Hill Giant with 59.7% of the vote
Ceremonious Rejection defeats Cliff Threader with 85.9% of the vote
Red-Hot Hottie defeats Dwarven Strike Force with 62.8% of the vote
Oppression defeats Angelic Page with 77.4% of the vote
Dimir Keyrune defeats Winding Wurm with 74.8% of the vote
Extractor Demon defeats Daxos’s Torment with 53.0% of the vote
Volcanic Submersion defeats Nomad Stadium with 52.8% of the vote
Power Matrix defeats Aquamoeba with 61.1% of the vote
Arcane Sanctum defeats Ghastly Remains with 74.0% of the vote
Ill-Gotten Gains defeats Wall of Fire with 74.6% of the vote
Elemental Resonance defeats Canopy Dragon with 71.3% of the vote
Heretic’s Punishment defeats Workshop Assistant with 63.2% of the vote
Vedalken Engineer defeats Flowstone Armor with 86.9% of the voteDoña Isabel Moctezuma (born Tecuichpoch Ixcaxochitzin; 1509/1510 – 1550/1551) was a daughter of the Aztec ruler Moctezuma II. She was the consort of the Aztec emperors Atlixcatzin, Cuitláhuac, and Cuauhtémoc and as such the last Aztec empress. After the Spanish conquest, Doña Isabel was recognized as Moctezuma's legitimate heir, and became one of the Mexican Indians granted an encomienda. Among the others were her half-sister Marina (or Leonor) Moctezuma, and Juan Sánchez, an Indian governor in Oaxaca.[1]
Doña Isabel was married to three Aztec emperors and three Spaniards and widowed five times. She had a daughter out of wedlock, Leonor Cortés Moctezuma, with conquistador Hernán Cortés. Her sons founded a line of Spanish nobility. The title of Duke of Moctezuma de Tultengo still exists.
Biography [ edit ]
Family and early marriages [ edit ]
Doña Isabel's mother was Princess Teotlalco and her birth name was Tecuich(po)tzin, translated as "lord's daughter" in Nahuatl. Teotlalco was Moctezuma's principal wife and, thus, among Moctezuma's daughters Tecuichpotzin had primacy. As a small child, Tecuichpotzin was married to Atlixcatzin, who died by 1520. After her father was killed, either by his own people or the Spanish, she was quickly married to her uncle Cuitláhuac who became emperor after Moctezuma's death. Cuitláhuac died of smallpox after only sixty days of rule. Cuauhtémoc became emperor and married Tecuichpotzin. She was only about eleven or twelve years old at the time of her third marriage.[2]
Doña Isabel and the conquest of Tenochtitlan [ edit ]
Hernán Cortés and other Spanish entered Tenochtitlan on November 8, 1519. For several months they lived in Moctezuma's palace. At some time during their sojourn there they took the emperor hostage which ended with his death either at the hands of the Spanish or his own people. The Aztecs revolted and expelled Cortés and his army from Tenochtitlan (La Noche Triste, June 30, 1520). However, Tecuichpotzin was left behind in the city by the Spanish. Aztec leaders quickly married her to Cuitláhuac, the new emperor, and, after he died of smallpox, to Cuauhtémoc.
Cortés returned in 1521 with a large group of Spaniards and Indian allies, mostly from Tlaxcala, to attack Tenochtitlan. The Aztecs, their numbers and morale depleted by a smallpox epidemic, were defeated. Cuauhtémoc and his court attempted to flee Tenochtitlan by boat, but they were captured by the Spanish. On surrendering, Cuauhtémoc asked the Spanish to respect the ladies of his court, including his young wife Tecuichpotzin.[3]
In 1525, Cortés executed Cuauhtemoc and Tecuichpotzin was widowed for the third time.
Conversion to Christianity and Dynastic union to Spain [ edit ]
Cortés valued Tecuichpotzin as a symbol of what he wished to portray as the continuity of rule between the Aztecs and the Spanish. She was instructed in Christianity, converted to Catholicism, probably in 1526, and baptized as Isabel, the name by which she would thereafter be known. Every indication is that Doña Isabel, the former Aztec princess Tecuichpotzin, was devout in her new religion. She gave generously in alms to the Augustinians, to the point that she was asked to stop.[4] Isabel’s education as a Christian did not include teaching her to read and she remained illiterate.[5]
Cortés arranged the marriage of Doña Isabel to his close colleague Alonso de Grado in June 1526. Part of the marriage arrangement was the granting of a large encomienda to Doña Isabel. The encomienda consisted of the city of Tacuba (about eight kilometres or five miles) west of Tenochitlan (now called Mexico City) and was the largest encomienda in the Valley of Mexico, an indicator of the importance Cortés gave to Isabel.[6] The encomienda of Doña Isabel endured for centuries. The Spanish and, later, Mexican governments, paid royalties in the form of a pension to the descendants of Doña Isabel until 1933 and a Count of Miravalle, the descendants of Moctezuma, still exists in Spain.[7]
Regarding Slavery [ edit ]
Her opposition to slavery has become a subject of interest lately. Isabel herself was a prominent slave owner, as was traditional in her lineage, but she freed all her slaves by the end of her life.
In July of 1526 Cortés gave Alonso de Grado, Isabel´s husband, the position of "Visitador Real" - a traveling auditor with authority to exert judicial and executive power in the name of the crown- of New Spain. De Grado was given the specific mission of visiting all the cities and villages, to "inquire about the process of Christianization, and make sure that the laws for the good treatment of the Indians-Laws of Burgos- were being respected. He was to prosecute and punish illegal enslaving. He was to focus on the illegal enslaving of natives, and on the disputes between Spanish civil servants and the local-native- authorities, and he was to send to prison any Spaniard that opposed him".[8]
Alonso died while fulfilling this duty.
Isabel had close contact with the new laws through her husband. She was reported to be initially displeased with the attempts of the Spanish to impose limits in the ownership and treatment of slaves[9]. Despite the growing body of law trying to limit or extinguish native slavery in New Spain that her husband was charged with enforcing, she, as native nobility, had the special privilege of retaining the slaves she owned prior to the conquest and treat them "in her traditional ways”. She even had limited power to adapt the rules in the land of her encomienda. She used this privilege and owned a large number of native slaves through her life. However, by the end of her life she freed them all in her testament. In it she also ensured that they were giving means to live after freedom.[10].
The causes for this change of heart are uncertain, but set the basis for a recent portrayal of her as an anti-slavery "activist" and a mother of native independence in some ideological spheres[11].
“Quiero y mando y es mi voluntad que todos los esclavos, indios e indias naturales de esta tierra, que el dicho Juan Cano mi marido y yo tenemos por nuestros propios, por la parte que a mí me toca sean libres de todos servicios, servidumbre y cautiverios, y como personas libres hagan de sí su voluntad, porque yo no los tengo como esclavos, y en caso de que lo sean, quiero y mando que sean libres”.
"I want, and I order, and it is my will, that all my slaves, Indian men and women, born from this land, whom Juan Cano, my husband, and I hold as our own, as far as my right over them extends, shall be free of all servitude and captivity, and as free people they shall do as they will, for I don´t hold them as slaves; so if they are (slaves) I will and command for them to be free" [12]
Cortés, a child, and two more marriages [ edit ]
Doña Isabel was described as “very beautiful” and “a very pretty woman for an Indian.”[13] Her fourth husband, Alonso de Grado, soon died and Isabel, about seventeen years old, was widowed for a fourth time. Cortes took her into his household and she soon became pregnant. He quickly married her to another associate, Pedro Gallego de Andrade, and the child, christened Leonor Cortés Moctezuma (Isabel also had a half-sister named Marina or Leonor Moctezuma) was born a few months later. According to Spanish sources, she refused to recognize the child, who was placed in the care of Juan Gutierrez de Altamirano, another close associate of Cortés. Cortés however accepted the child as his own and ensured that she was brought up well and received an inheritance from his and Doña Isabel’s estate.[14] Isabel’s marriage to Gallego produced a son, Juan de Andrade Gallego Moctezuma, born in 1530. However, Gallego died shortly thereafter. In 1532 she married her sixth husband, Juan Cano de Saavedra, by whom she had three sons and two daughters: Pedro, Gonzalo, Juan, Isabel, and Catalina Cano de Moctezuma. Isabel and Catalina became nuns at the first convent in the Americas, El Convento de la Conception de la Madre de Dios. Both daughters were well-educated, as presumably were her sons.[15]
Death and inheritance [ edit ]
Genealogy of Tecuichpoch
Doña Isabel died in 1550 or 1551. Her estate was large, consisting not only of the encomienda, but also personal possessions she had acquired during her marriages with the Spaniards. Previous to those marriages, she had been an Aztec princess who owned nothing except her distinguished name. Her will is one of the few existing indicators of her personality. She directed that her Indian slaves be set free, one-fifth of the estate be given to the Catholic Church, and that all her outstanding debts, including wages owed to servants, be paid. She had acquired jewelry and other luxury items and requested that many of these be given to her daughters, and that other property be sold and one-third of the proceeds go to her daughters. As a deathbed wish, 20 percent of her estate was to be given to Leonor, her out-of-wedlock child by Cortés. This was apparently a dowry, as Leonor was married, or soon to be married, to Juan de Tolosa in Zacatecas.[16]
Isabel willed the majority of her encomienda to her eldest son, Juan de Andrade, but his inheritance of her encomienda was disputed by her widower, Juan Cano, and Diego Arias de Sotelo, son-in-law of Leonor (Mariana) Moctezuma, whom he claimed was Moctezuma's true heir. The result after years of litigation was that Arias de Sotelo's claim was dismissed, and Tacuba was divided between Cano and Andrade.[17]
Modern day descendence [ edit ]
The Miravalle line of Spanish nobility began with Isabel's son, Juan de Andrade. Her sons, Pedro and Gonzalo Cano, became prominent citizens of Mexico City. Her son, Juan Cano Moctezuma, married into a prominent family in Cáceres, Spain, where the Palacio de Toledo-Moctezuma still exists.[18] Isabel's last husband, Juan Cano, died in Seville in 1572. The mestizo lineage that originates on Isabel and her sister branched out through Spanish nobility. Since converted native nobility were considered Spanish nobility by the Spaniards, the blood of Aztec nobility was highly respected, and the chance of intermixing with their lineage was treasured. Isabel and Leonor´s descendants quickly intermarried with the most important families of Extremadura, one of the riches areas of Spain at the time. It is estimated that Isabel has 2000 descendants today, only in Spain.[19]. The claims to nobility of the count of Miravalle, the count of La Enrejada, the duke of Ahumada, the duke of Abrantes, and the duke of Monctezuma come directly from her and her sister
Importance [ edit ]
Very little is known about Doña Isabel beyond a few facts of her life. She seems to have been more than a mere pawn in the hands of Aztec royalty and Spanish conquerors. Her will reveals her to have been a decisive and strong woman who was generous and thoughtful. She seems to have made the transition from Aztec princess to Spanish doña successfully. Her descendants were the most prominent example of her day of mestizaje – melding Spanish and Indian ancestries – that would characterize the future of Mexico. The Spanish wished to inculcate in the Indians "the economic, religious, and cultural orientation of Spain."[20] Isabel, whether by desire or necessity, was the first great success of the assimilation of Spanish and Indian.
Ancestry [ edit ]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
^ Himmerich y Valencia located only three Indians in his analysis of 506 encomenderos in the secondary literature. He was unable to determine the background of another eighty-four. Himmerich y Valencia (1991), 27; Chipman, Donald E. Moctezuma's Children Austin: University of Texas Press, 2005, p. 24 ^ Chipman (2005), pp. 40-41, 60 ^ Sagaon Infante. http://www.juridicas.unam.mx/publica/librev/rev/hisder/cont/10/cnt/cnt35.pdf, accessed December 30, 2010 ^ Gibson, Charles. The Aztecs Under Spanish Rule: A History of the Indians of the Valley of Mexico, 1519–1810. Stanford, CA: Stanford U Press, 1964, p. 124 ^ Kalyuta, Anastasya. “The Household and Estate of a Mexica Lord: ‘Información de Doña Isabel de Moctezuma’’’ http://www.famsi.org/reports/06045/06045Kalyuta01.pdf, accessed December 30, 2010 ^ Sagaon Infante, Raquel. "Testamento de Isabel Moctezuma" http://www.juridicas.unam.mx/publica/librev/rev/hisder/cont/10/cnt/cnt35.pdf, accessed December 30, 2010 ^ Gonzalez Acosta, Alejandro. “Los Herederos de Moctezuma.” http://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=1458325, accessed Dec 30, 2010 ^ Martínez, Rodrigo. "Doña Isabel de Monktezuma, Tecuichpozin(1509-1551), "Revista de la Universidad"UAM, México, pp40-43. http://www.revistadelauniversidad.unam.mx/ojs_rum/files/journals/1/articles/14010/public/14010-19408-1-PB.pdf ^ MER Barea Imperiofobia y leyenda negra- editorial Siruela-Madrid, 2016 ^ Martínez,JoséLuis,HernánCortés,FCE,VN.-\\f,México,1990. ^ https://matadornetwork.com/es/isabel-tecuichpo-la-verdadera-madre-de-la-patria-en-mexico/ ^ Sagaón Infante, “Testamento de Isabel Moctezuma”, en Anuario Mexicano de Historia del Derecho, 10 (The translation is mine) ^ Chipman (2005), 50 ^ Sagaon Infante, Raquel, “Testamento de Isabel Moctezuma.” http://www.juridicas.unam.mx/publica/librev/rev/hisder/cont/10/cnt/cnt35.pdf, accessed Dec 25, 2010 ^ Chipman (2005), 68; Sagaon Infante, Raquel, “Testamento de Isabel Moctezuma.” http://www.juridicas.unam.mx/publica/librev/rev/hisder/cont/10/cnt/cnt35.pdf, accessed December 25, 2010 ^ Chipman (2005), pp. 64-68 ^ Gibson [1964]: pp. 423–424; Chipman 70-73. ^ Sagaon Infante, Raquel. "Testamento de Isabel Moctezuma" http://www.juridicas.unam.mx/publica/librev/rev/hisder/cont/10/cnt/cnt35.pdf, accessed December 30, 2010 ^ Carrillo de Albornoz, J. (2004). Moctezuma. Pozuelo de Alarcón (Madrid): Espasa Calpe. ^ Chipman (2005), 59Download raw source
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we will get experience from each other, but if you play with a full member, like we did against Zimbabwe in ODIs and T20s, you learn how to beat them,” Stanikzai said. “We now have that experience. As long as we play more games against full members, the distance between associates and full members will reduce.” Which, of course, may well be the very situation some members of the ICC would like to avoid.
The Afghans made it from the Chaman-i-Hozori to the Feroz Shah Kotla in the last 13 years. As Stanikzai says, in that time they’ve done “what other nations couldn’t do in 30-40 years”. If given what they’re asking for, regular fixtures against the Test-playing nations, who would dare put a limit on how high they might climb in the next 13?
• This is an extract taken from the Spin, the Guardian’s weekly cricket email. To subscribe just visit this page, find ‘The Spin’ and follow the instructions.Quick Flash recap. First we had Jay Garrick. Then we had a reboot in 1956 that introduced Barry Allen, said to live on a parallel Earth. Then a reboot in 1986 made Barry’s sidekick the new Flash and also altered history so Jay now lived on the same earth. In 2011, DC had another company-wide reboot in which all comic titles were cancelled and 52 new titles were released. In the New 52, Jay Garrick and Barry Allen once again live on separate Earths and Kid Flash is a very different character. Let’s get to it!
The Flash Legacy – Part 1
The Flash Legacy – Part 2
THE NEW 52 BARRY ALLEN
When Barry Allen was introduced in 1956, his origin was the optimistic and romantic story of a life long comic book fan who got what many would consider to be the ultimate superhero fan dream: he got powers and became a hero himself, fighting strange foes and exploring fantastic worlds. Soon after Barry came back into mainstream comics, his origin was altered somewhat in the 2009 mini-series The Flash: Rebirth. Where once Barry had come from a relatively happy childhood where his parents had lived on to proudly learn he was the Flash, readers were now told his mother had been murdered when he was a child and his father had been imprisoned for the crime. Trying to prove his father’s innocence was now what led him to become a crime scene investigator, rather than altruism, and the murderer turned out to be the result of a temporal paradox. The Flash’s enemy Eobard Thawne aka Reverse Flash, aka Professor Zoom, had decided to cause Barry pain by going back in time and killing his mother, giving us another example of a woman in comic books being fridged.
When the New 52 continuity began in 2011, DC kept the idea of Barry’s mother being murdered and his father going to prison for it. Again, this drove Barry to become a CSI. One night, a lightning bolt comes through the window, striking a rack of chemicals that explode over him as an electrified mixture. But this time, instead of immediately getting back up, unharmed and discovering he had powers, Barry wound up in a hospital for several days. After recovering from his chemical burns, Barry realized he had powers and decided to use his abilities to become a hero to the neighboring Keystone City and Central City (also known as the “gem cities”). According to him, it took him “forever” to come up with the name Flash.
Another difference was in the costume, designed by Jim Lee. In the New 52, Barry’s bio-electric aura no longer protected fabric from air friction, only his skin. So he couldn’t use cloth costumes. But he found out metal reacted strangely around his body when he was using his speed and underwent an effect similar to thermal expansion. So he created body armor that would collapse into a ring. Whenever revved up to super-speed, the energy he gave off caused the top of the ring to pop off and expand into the Flash symbol on his chest, which was now a metal badge, while smaller red metal plates hidden beneath expanded and molded around him.
It’s not a bad idea, but it doesn’t seem different enough from the classic costume ring to be dynamic. In fact, to me this costume transformation actually looks more generic now, similar to Iron Man, Gizmo Duck, and various anime characters who have body armor wrap around them. And that’s another thing that doesn’t work for me personally. The Flash is about speed and freedom and you put him in metal armor? That immediately tells me he’s weighed down.
Plus, the explanation for the armor doesn’t quite work with me. Okay, metal expands in his aura? Fine. What makes it shrink again? And if his bio-electric aura doesn’t protect things other than his skin from super-speed friction, how about those times when he’s carrying people and other objects at high speed? How are they protected but clothing he wears isn’t?
Okay, let’s talk about the design itself. I like that Barry has Wally’s more stylish belt. The chin strap on the mask looks good on the Flash, as do those new boots. Bio-electric aura or not, Barry needs serious footwear and the seams on the boots are a nice way of emulating the old style wings without bringing them back entirely. Much as I like the cowl wings (or cowl lightning bolts as they became later), the wings on the boots always seemed like unnecessary decorations to me.
Visually, I also don’t care for all these extra seams now present in Flash’s body armor. I understand they’re there to let us know this is armor, but in comic books we can buy into that without needing to see ever line and bolt, the same way we buy into many costumes being made of fabric even when they look painted on. The seams here are distracting, even more so when they glow whenever Barry goes into super-speed. It’s too busy and takes away the sleekness once present in Flash’s suit. When he’s already trailing lightning bolts in his wake, why make his costume busier by adding glowing seams? A basic rule of fashion is to know when to edit down. Overcomplicating a design can imply you’re not confident in it or focused.
But even with those criticisms, this look isn’t terrible by any means. And artists such as Francis Manapul, who was also the first co-writer of the New 52 Flash series alongside Brian Buccellato, still made Barry look great.
In the New 52, Wally West has yet to meet Barry (though that’s supposed to happen soon). In this reality, we met Barry after he had about five years under his belt (and according to Justice League and Batman issues, another year has passed since then). So Wally wasn’t around to help establish the Teen Titans with Dick Grayson and Garth (neither of whom he even met in this reality), though Barry still helped found the Justice League. And just over five years after Barry debuted as the Flash, the New 52 reality finally did get a Teen Titans team and a Kid Flash was indeed a founder, along with Red Robin (Tim Drake), Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark) and others. But it wasn’t Wally.
NEW 52 KID FLASH
The New 52 version of Bart Allen debuted in 2011 in the new Teen Titans #1, written by Scott Lobdell and with art by Brett Booth, Norm Rapmund and Andrew Dalhouse. His origin was mysterious. In issue #1, we saw Kid Flash recklessly endanger others while showing off as he tried to stop a six-alarm fire. A news report then said he’d been in operation as Kid Flash for about two months. But this was contradicted in issue #2, when Bart said he’d made his debut as a costumed hero just that very night when he’d arrived on the scene of the fire. Issues #1 and #2 said Bart had become a superhero because he wanted fame and it seemed like the natural thing to do after discovering he had such power. But issue #6 said he had started operating in public because he’d hoped to gain the attention of people who could help him figure out how to deal with his strange abilities.
In issue #4, Bart explained that six months before the events of Teen Titans #1, he had simply appeared at an orphanage, with no memory of his life beforehand. He already had powers and couldn’t remember if he had acquired them or been born with them. Whether “Bart Allen” was the name he remembered or an identity he adopted later wasn’t clear. Another change from the pre-New 52 reality was that Bart’s eyes were no longer golden but an ordinary shade of green. UPDATE: artist Brett Booth kindly pointed out to me that Bart’s actual eyes start as green but turn golden in Teen Titans#5.
In any event, it was clear he’d never met the Flash and had only taken the Kid Flash name and Barry’s symbol because he also had super-speed. He had never met the Flash and had no idea who the man really was. He had never called himself Impulse. Unlike Barry, his bio-electric aura evidently did protect clothing from air friction, so he didn’t build body armor. He just threw together a costume from store bought items. It’s basically a shabby cosplay attempt at the classic Kid Flash costume, with an extra lightning bolt on the belt buckle, padding on the shoulders and elbows. The red goggles emulate not only the Impulse costume but also what young Wally West wore in the fantastic Young Justice cartoon (pictured above), a show that shouldn’t have been cancelled and should continue at least as a streaming series or via direct-to-DVD specials. [Editor’s Note: Agreed!] But I digress.
This first New 52 Kid Flash costume got torn apart pretty quickly. Rather than operate in normal clothes, Kid Flash grabbed one of Red Robin’s earlier costumes from his closet. So basically, there were a couple of issues where Bart wore a Robin costume but replaced the R with a black lightning bolt that looks like it was done in magic marker. He also wore massive goggles over a bandana mask, making him look like a freaky Ninja Turtle. Not a great look, kid.
In Teen Titans #6, Bart’s powers went haywire, so the Teen Titans took Kid Flash to S.T.A.R. Labs (you see where this is going, right?), and teen scientist Virgil Hawkins (aka the hero Static) realized the young hero’s molecules were somehow out of alignment. In just a few minutes, Virgil made a new costume to stabilize the kid’s abilities, which shows he is both very generous and a super-speed tailor of some sort.
Bart now had a new, shiny uniform that was finally the same design we had seen on the cover of Teen Titans #1 six months previously. The suit was composed of “lightweight nano-mesh” originally designed for astronauts, so it wouldn’t tear easily. Virgil explained this material was perfect for Kid Flash because, somehow, lightweight nano-mesh keeps molecules aligned. SCIENCE! The design was based on doodles Virgil had drawn of alternate costumes for the Flash (apparently, he gets REALLY bored while researching the impossible sciences abundant in S.T.A.R. Labs).
This costume is actually pretty good. It’s a nice mix of elements from the classic Kid Flash and Impulse costumes. I’d opt for shorter gloves myself, but that’s just me. Gotta say though, the lightning bolt symbol on his left shoulder seems unnecessary. He’s covered in enough lightning bolts as is, you don’t need that extra touch there. What’s more, if this Kid Flash really has no connection to Barry Allen, then hey, don’t give him a circular badge that resembles Barry’s symbol.
You’ll also notice Bart now has red eye lenses built into his mask while his actual eyes were now golden. Later on, some artists made Bart’s actual eyes red while others artists made them blue. Not sure how that happened. Maybe Bart’s eyes change color based on his mood or whether he’s thinking about -I don’t know – thin mints. Thin mints are so good, people.
A few issues later, the Teen Titans were captured by Harvest, an evil baddie who secretly ran the organization N.O.W.H.E.R.E. This same organization had been hunting the Titans since issue #1. (To this day, nearly three years later, it has never been explained what N.O.W.H.E.R.E. stands for.) Harvest captured the Titans and some members of the Legion of Super-Heroes and he put the Titans in weird, glowy outfits. There was no real reason for this except, I guess, Harvest is secretly a big fan of Tron. I can’t blame him for that. Tron is cool. This Tron-like Kid Flash outfit, however, is not that cool. It just replicates the design of the Kid Flash outfit Bart had worn beforehand, but with added seams to make it more complicated. After three issues, Bart returned to his previous Kid Flash costume in Teen Titans #11.
KID FLASH IS EVIL AND NOT BART ALLEN (WHAT?)
Along with giving Bart his first real costume in the New 52, issue #6 also started throwing out hints about Kid Flash’s mysterious past. A cop who encountered the Teen Titans turned out to be a native of the 30th century (what are the odds?). This person immediately recognized Bart, despite the mask and different costume, as a masked criminal from her native time zone named Bart Allen. This suit is basically just a ski suit with a cowl attached to a visor that a skier might wear. Not a lot to it, except that it shows Bart to have a rather remarkable physique for a 15-year-old kid.
By the way, that picture above is written in Interlac, a common language used among humans and alien races in the 30th and 31st century of DC Comics (and by some people in the modern era). The top line translates to: WANTED. The three lines of text under Bart’s headshot read: Allen; Bart; 15, 5’9′. I assume this last line is supposed to mean that Bart is 15 years old and is 5′ 9″ in height.
Barry Allen was curious about Kid Flash’s origin and nature too. After discovering a murder victim who’d been slain by a super-speed killer, Barry decided to finally meet Bart and ascertain if he had anything to do with it. In Flash #21, the impulsive Bart led the elder hero on a huge chase around the world, not knowing or caring why the Flash wanted to talk to him. Kid Flash’s ignorance then put him in a situation where he had to be saved by Barry’s experience with speed and knowledge of science, forcing the chase to an end.
After saving Bart, Barry said he could sense the kid’s powers didn’t come by tapping into the Speed Force. Barry also sensed Kid Flash was native to another timeline and wondered if the teen was his own descendant from the future. Bart denied this and reacted angrily, calling Barry a “dumbass” and “loser,” telling him it was not his business where he came from. When Barry offered to help the kid with his life and powers, and even to share his secret identity, Bart said he had no interest in having anything to do with the older hero. The two then parted company. It was clear that there would be no Flash family in the New 52, at least not as far as Kid Flash was concerned. Maybe things will be different with Wally when he shows up.
Soon afterward, the Teen Titans took a trip into the 30th century and learned the truth. “Bart Allen” was an alias. His real name was Bar Torr and, as he claimed, he had no link to Barry Allen at all. Bart had been born in the 30th century on the planet Altros Prime. When he was 8, he saw his parents beaten to death for their religious beliefs by agents of the Functionary, an interplanetary government. Bar then ran off with his younger sister Shira. For the next several years, he regularly stole and killed in order to survive on the streets. Eventually, after leaving his sister at a religious orphanage, Bar joined the Purifiers, the strong arm of the Functionary, hoping to – well, I’m not sure, actually. It’s not clear if he gave up and decided to join them or planned to stop the system from within. Either way, it turned out the Purifiers did some smuggling to help make ends meet, and they preferred kids to do it because they weight less and used less spaceship fuel. This doesn’t really make sense when you’re talking about a spaceship, but that was the explanation. Bar was sent on several smuggling missions in ships with minimal radiation shielding.
During one smuggling run, Bar’s ship crashed. He woke up alive and with super-speed, not sure why he suddenly had powers. With his new abilities, he donned the black and blue suit we saw in issue #6 and gathered followers, became a violent revolutionary leader against the Functionary. But then one of his attacks on the government almost killed his sister Shira, who had grown up to join the Functionary. Wracked with guilt, Bar Torr turned himself in and promised to give up evidence against the others rebel leaders. Since the case would take months to build, he was placed in witness protection, which in this case meant sending him to Earth in the 21st century, blocking out his memories and giving him the cover identity of Bart Allen.
This… doesn’t really make sense.
If the Functionary has time travel tech and learned the identity of the revolutionary leader, why not go back in time and kill Kid Flash before he gets his powers and starts a rebellion? Bar had been an employee of the Purifiers, so it would’ve been easy to figure out a time and place to take him out. Or they could’ve used their time travel tech to just transmit Bar a few months into the future when their case was ready to go to trial. But for some reason, they sent him into the 21st century, totally unsupervised and unaware of his true identity, which sounds like it’s endangering his life more than protecting it. And if Bart Allen was only a cover identity he was given after being sent to the 21st century, why did his “rap sheet” from the future that was seen in issue #6 identify him by that name?
It’s also, I must say, kind of remarkable Bar Torr has the same basic origin as Red Robin. In Teen Titans #0, we learned that Red Robin aka Tim Drake was now, as far as the New 52 was concerned, not actually named “Tim Drake.” That was just an alias he adopted after entering the witness protection program. You’d think Red Robin would ask Kid Flash why the dude stole his origin rather than enjoy some originality. Then again, it seems to be a weird tradition for a Kid Flash to copy an earlier hero’s origin.
Whatever the case, Kid Flash regained all his memories and then revealed he’d been running a long con. He had only agreed to be put on trial to help his followers launch a surprise coup when he was brought before the judges. When his rebel army showed up at the trial, Kid Flash ordered them to kill everyone, including the Teen Titans if they got in the way. Then, Bar Torr’s sister Shira arrived and reached out to him, bringing the fighting to an end. Bar turned himself in again and apologized to the Titans, saying they were friends and family even if he had, you know, just ordered their deaths a couple of hours ago. What happens next is anyone’s guess, as the Teen Titans series is ending. With Bar now revealed to be a baddie, maybe this is setting up Wally to step in as the new Kid Flash. Who knows?
JAY GARRICK, MODERN DAY MERCURY
The New 52 brought back the idea that Jay Garrick and Barry Allen lived on parallel Earths. In the new series Earth 2, originally written by James Robinson and with art by Nicola Scott and Trevor Scott, we saw an Earth wherein an older Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman all died while fighting the villainous Darkseid. Five years later, new heroes started to emerge. Jay Garrick found the god Mercury crash to Earth, soon to die. Literally, it was the god Mercury. And before he expired, ol’ Mercury/Hermes decided to pass along some power to Jay, turning the guy into a speedster. When Jay wished, a costume magically formed around him, complete with running boots and a helmet.
This is definitely a fun design. It’s sleek and ultra modern, evoking the atmosphere of the classic Barry Allen Flash look without copying it. A lot of people would’ve given Jay an all red look, but here we incorporate the blue that was part of his original outfit. And the way the lightning now extends down his leg rather than stopping at the trouser line is a very nice touch. You’re not confusing him with Barry. It’s important that Jay maintain his own identity.
But I wonder if this costume doesn’t look too practical. I like that the helmet now has a chin strap because, seriously, how did the old helmet stay on Jay’s head all those years when he was running up buildings and such? But if this is a magic suit created by a literal god, I’d expect it to make look more like a second skin or something that can’t be sewn by Earthly hands. The zippers, seams and design of the shoes make it look a lot more grounded in reality. I guess Mercury’s magic just supplies you with what you need, rather than a suit that is itself magical. But on that note, if we’re now saying that Jay got his powers directly from Mercury, then I’d think the classic winged helmet should have been used. It would now be a literal reference to the source of Jay’s speed. Replacing it with a helmet seems a lost opportunity to me, even if the helmet doesn’t look bad. Again, these are just my own musings. All in all, this is a pretty sharp suit.
Hey, look at the time. That brings our look at the Flash legacy to a close. At some point, we’ll take a gander at the evil side of the legacy, the reverse and rival Flashes. In the meantime, feel free to send us suggestions of other character you’d like to see tackled. And if you’re at Emerald City Comic-Con this weekend and see me walking around, feel free to say hello! This is Alan Kistler, Agent of S.T.Y.L.E., signing off.
In case you missed it, you can also check out Part 1 (which covers Jay Garrick and Barry Allen’s classic days) and Part 2 (which covers the Post-Crisis Flash era up until the New 52).
Alan Sizzler Kistler (@SizzlerKistler) makes a habit of standing in front of a rack of chemicals any time there’s a bad lightning storm outside. He is an actor and writer, as well as the author of Doctor Who: A History.The city council has installed bicycle docking stations at the Rathaus Cafe so riders can pull up and have a coffee without getting off their bike.
Zurich’s city council has installed ‘Velokafi’; a drive-in for bicycles on the outdoor terrace of the Rathaus Cafe, which is a popular spot next to the Limmat river.
Two wooden docking stations with tabletops enable cyclists to pull up and have some food and a coffee without getting off their bike. A slot in the front for their front wheel to fit through keeps the bicycle steady and there are raised sides for resting their feet on.
Knstrct reports that the Velokafi is part of the city council’s Stadtverkehr 2025 program, which aims to accomodate the growing cycling community, improve the infrastructure, and reduce traffic flow.Fascinating discussion in Alan Abelson’s column in Barron’s today (Courting Trouble) about the Banking Sector.
It is, perhaps, only slightly exaggerated.
The main focus is on misaligned exec compensation, but the subtext is quite astonishing: According to Dennis Butler of Centre Street Cambridge Corp, the Banking sector, on aggregate over time, is a big money loser:
“[Butler] duly notes the key role banks had in the financial collapse and cites “one amazing statistic,” namely that “in the aggregate, banks have never made money over time.” Instead, “like the airlines, banks historically have seemingly made money hand over fist during good times, but they give it all back when the cycle turns.”But he asks, “How many bankers suffer the same fate when it comes to their own personal financial affairs?” And the answer to that question, Dennis believes, was a major factor in setting the stage for the encompassing financial crisis we’ve recently suffered through. More specifically, he points to what he calls “a fundamental flaw in the corporate form of business organization—the lack of personal liability on the part of the people in charge.” The absence of personal liability is why individual bankers, whose feckless pursuit of loan volumes at the expense of loan quality caused “huge losses and public burdens,” were able to “walk away virtually unscathed” and loaded with loot. The new reforms enacted by Congress may have a salutary effect for a spell. But he thinks that in the fullness of time, they’ll be diluted by lobbying and corruption of the regulatory oversight process. “As long as the incentives for personal gain and corporate risk-taking remain in place,” Dennis dourly concludes, “we fear that episodes of over-reaching will inevitably recur.”
Fascinating stuff. I should pull the compensation section of Bailout Nation and post it; the conclusions about compensation are surprisingly similar.
I wonder what the math looks like: If we take all the banks, including the Indy Macs WAMUs and Countrywides and others that have collapsed, is the entire sector a negative?
Remove the survivorship bias and what have we got? That seems exaggerated at first blush, but when we consider the 1930s, the S&L crisis, and the current debacle, it may not be all that far fetched after all.
>
Source:
Courting Trouble
ALAN ABELSON
Barron’s, OCTOBER 16, 2010
http://online.barrons.com/article/SB50001424052970204742304575546131193805368.htmlBruce Springsteen may not immediately come to mind when thinking of spiritual leaders, but the rock icon's song lyrics are actually rich with theological references and imagery, a topic that Professor Azzan Yadin-Israel explored in a class Rutgers University.
Yadin-Israel, a scholar of ancient rabbinic literature and a long-time Springsteen fan, told The Huffington Post that the course, "Bruce Springsteen's Theology," asks questions including, "How can biblical religious sources help us read songs like these, and how can Springsteen's songs in turn inform our reading of the Bible?"
Yadin-Israel's inspiration for the course came about after he published an article about an Israeli band that examined theological themes in their songs, which led him to wonder about what the American equivalent would be. He started marking up Springsteen lyrics while thinking about themes like redemption and the promised land, and he found a number of references that could have theological meaning, which is fairly unusual for the rock genre. Springsteen was brought up in a Roman Catholic household.
Yadin-Israel pointed to "Jesus Was An Only Son" as an example of a song which explicitly explores biblical themes while at the same time providing a new framework for interpretation. Yadin-Israel explained that the song is about the Passion narrative, the last hours of Jesus' life, a hugely significant moment that underpins the belief in humanity's redemption through Christ's sacrifice. "Springsteen refocuses the song in an interesting way, shifting the focus away from Jesus as the son of God, and looking at Jesus as the son of Mary," he commented. "She isn't part of the redemptive narrative-- she's a grieving mother."
Interestingly, Springsteen refers more often to the stories of the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament) than the New Testament. On a literary level, Springsteen often recasts biblical figures and stories into the American landscape. The narrator of “Adam Raised a Cain” describes his strained relationship with his father through the prism of the biblical story of the first father and son; Apocalyptic storms accompany a boy’s tortured transition into manhood in “The Promised Land,” and the first responders of 9/11 rise up to “someplace higher” in the flames, much as Elijah the prophet ascended in a chariot of fire (“Into the Fire”). Theologically, I would say the most dominant motifs are redemption -- crossing the desert and entering the Promised Land -- and the sanctity of the everyday. Springsteen tries to drag the power of religious symbols that are usually relegated to some transcendent reality into our lived world. In his later albums he also writes very openly about faith.
The ten-week course was part of the Byrne Seminar offerings, which are capped at 20 students per class and reserved for first-years. Yadin-Israel, an associate professor of Jewish Studies and Classics, would often assign his students song lyrics for close reading and analysis of theological themes and imagery. He said, "I think his songs invite that kind of reading-- they reward that kind of reading."Joni Ernst, the new Republican senator from Iowa who delivered the GOP response to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech Tuesday night, called in her address for cuts in government spending and described how her views grew out of her own “simple” upbringing, one in which her family diligently watched ever scarce penny, to the point where she owned only one pair of shoes.
But an investigation of public records by the Washington D.C.-based District Sentinel online news site showed that between 1995 and 2009, Ernst’s family received nearly a half-million dollars in government handouts, payments targeted toward subsidizing farms with taxpayer funds.
“I had only one good pair of shoes. So on rainy school days, my mom would slip plastic bread bags over them to keep them dry,” Ernst described in her State of the Union rebuttal Tuesday.
“But I was never embarrassed. Because the school bus would be filled with rows and rows of young Iowans with bread bags slipped over their feet. Our parents may not have had much, but they worked hard for what they did have.”
The address sounded many of the same themes used by Ernst in her election campaign in 2014, one which featured an advertisement depicting Ernst castrating a pig, as she declared that because her family learned to “live within our means,” the federal government should “do the same.”
But the District Sentinel investigation showed that Ernst’s own father, Richard Culver, received $38,395 in taxpayer handouts, almost all of which went to corn subsidies. The Iowa senator’s uncle, Dallas Culver, made out even better, soaking up almost $370,000 in federal agriculture subsidies.
The total subsidies enjoyed by members of Joni Ersnt’s family came in upwards of $460,000.
Ernst failed to mention her own family’s reliance on government assistance in her speech touting the virtues of self-reliance. According to Media Matters for America, no major media outlets that covered her speech made note of her family’s willingness to benefit from government spending, at the same time that Ersnt called for the new, Republican congress to “cut wasteful spending.”
CNN, for example, highlighted Ernst’s “hardscrabble upbringing,” while NBC News told how the 44-year-old Joni Ernst “brushed aside the president’s call for higher taxes on the wealthy, vowing that Republicans would cut wasteful spending and propose meaningful tax reforms.”
The Wall Street Journal even criticized Joni Ernst for not calling for enough cuts to “wasteful spending,” noting that her outspoken opposition to “federal government subsidies” was a big factor in earning her election to the Senate.
But neither the Journal nor any of the other major media outlets made note of the fact that the family of Joni Ernst herself would have benefited from exactly such “federal government subsidies.”If you look very carefully at a penny, you’ll notice something you’ve probably never seen before: initials pressed into the dark underline of Lincoln’s bicep. Those initials stand for Victor David Brenner—the Jewish-American engraver, medalist, and designer of the Lincoln cent.
Brenner, born in Lithuania in 1871 and immigrated to the US in 1890, quickly became one of the country’s premier medalists. So premier, in fact, that a Lincoln design Brenner had made—Lincoln was a hero of his—attracted the attention of President Theodore Roosevelt, who commissioned him to produce the design to commemorate Lincoln’s 100th birthday in 1909. Before 1909, no American coin ever held the likeness of a real person—only allegorical figures like Liberty—so the inclusion of bona fide human being was fairly radical.
Since its first pressing, Brenner’s cent has been the longest running design in Mint history. Though there was a snafu: about halfway through its first year, people complained that Brenner’s initials were too large. Even The New York Times carped, saying why not throw Brenner’s address and even a picture onto the penny, too?
Ten years later, an updated penny minimized VDB, and stuck it just below Lincoln’s shoulder, where it remains, mostly hidden, today.China's government has invited President Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to Beijing, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday.
A Chinese official told Bloomberg that the visit may set up a future visit from President Trump as well.
According to Bloomberg, Kushner and Ivanka Trump hosted Terry Branstad, President Trump's newly appointed ambassador to China, at Trump Hotel in Washington, D.C., this weekend. According to an unnamed U.S. official, the dinner was not made public.
Branstad is expected to arrive in China next week as he assumes his role as Trump's ambassador.
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Trump and Kushner were verbally invited by Chinese President Xi Jinping during his stay at President Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in April, and a Chinese official told Bloomberg that the discussions, which are still ongoing, are a formal extension of Xi's offer.
Kushner, Trump's senior adviser, has come under increased scrutiny in recent months for his foreign dealings, including reports that he attempted to set up a secret backchannel for communications with Russia during the transition period after the election.
In May, NBC News reported that the FBI's investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia had extended to Kushner over meetings the senior Trump adviser had with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in December during the transition period.The Scrum process puts everyone on the team in the same position—Developer, doing what is necessary for the team to achieve its goal. I am guessing that in most teams, unlike pure Scrum, there is natural alignment or gravitation—each team member plays a more specialized role more often than not, like Analyst, Developer, or Tester. In my company, these are HR roles, and they are each represented on every team. Analysts write the user stories, Developers write the code, and Testers ensure quality control. I think this alignment, combined with how we portray an end-to-end Sprint on the Kanban board, encourages the team to build processes that look more Waterfall than Agile.
Step by step processes
When Kanban boards get specific, they might get prescriptive. Think about the story card wall or Kanban boards your team uses. What are the columns labeled? This can be very simple, like Backlog, In Progress, and Done; or it can be very specific, to list every step:
Backlog
In Analysis
Ready for Development
In Development
Ready for Testing
In Testing
Ready for Product Owner Sign Off/UAT
Done
When our backlog wall more closely resembles the steps in a process model and our team is comprised of specific HR roles that match the Kanban board, the team will naturally follow that process. Just look at what is described above—it appears like you have to complete your step, and it has to be 100% complete, prior to starting the next step; only those with the appropriate title can work on each step. There are even holding patterns, like Ready for Development, or Ready for Test to push work to the next group.
Waterfall inside a Sprint is not agile, and predictability is not quality
Performing each step, ensuring that it is complete prior to starting the next step, is Waterfall. Doing this over and over to build up the software product is iterative Waterfall.
In my company, and on my team, we encourage teams to have a complete and ready-to-play story card backlog of two full Sprints (based on the team’s velocity). I think we do this for two reasons: first, our company predominantly followed a Waterfall software development pattern until very recently—our in-house methodology started this way as well; its comfortable and allows us to reduce perceived schedule risk. Second, and more importantly, we are looking for predictability. As managers, we want to ensure that our teams will meet their commitments, and if we can take the analysis step out of the Sprint and make sure it is complete before we start, then that is one out of three steps in the process that we don’t have to worry about. Now our Sprint estimates will be more accurate, Sprint Planning Meetings go smoothly because all the information is already elaborated, and we can focus on helping Development and Testing get finished in each Sprint.
But here’s the problem—the more time between when a requirement was written, and when it is developed, increases the chances that it has changed. Couple that time lag with the idea that an analysis team that is two Sprints ahead of the development team, has fewer chances to engage the Developers and Testers in JAD and Three Amigos discussions on each user story. This lack of collaboration will yield stories that aren’t really owned by the team. User stories will more closely resemble extensive documentation, since they will have to carry the contents of what would have been collaboratively designed by the full team, for the length of time in the next two Sprints, before they are developed. If the team collaborates, the user stories can be lighter and more efficient, and the combined knowledge of the team will prevail over a fully documented solution.
Just in time analysis, and collaboration with the whole team
I think we need to start moving in the other direction. Let’s get away from having analyzed and complete user stories prior to the Sprint. We should collaborate more, and build the product together, as a team valuing collaboration over contract negotiation. Developers shouldn’t be in the role of order-followers, they should be included in writing the user stories.
We should be comfortable blending the story card wall columns, and letting the work overlap each step. Analysts should feel comfortable to include Developers and Testers, with the Product Owner, in the conversation to complete the user story, including each group’s unique perspective, domain knowledge, and experience. Developers and Testers should be pairing, writing failing test scripts together prior to development, and running the automated test scripts as soon as code is complete |
many games.
Exploration game Adrift, from studio Three One Zero, is one of a handful of Oculus Rift projects that look and play almost exactly like a high-budget PC or console game — which makes sense, since it will also be released as a non-VR title. Its art is strikingly lifelike, beautifully rendering the emptiness of a ruined space station that players must float through as astronauts, propelling themselves between oxygen bottles while staying away from hard walls that could crack a spacesuit. It's tough to make a game work equally well inside and outside VR Adrift creative director Adam Orth sees distinct perks in both the VR and non-VR version of the game. "I think if you want to go the ultra-immersive route, you should go with VR," he says, while the less stressful flatscreen version feels "a little bit more like an entertainment experience." Given how new the VR market is, releasing one game that works in both formats is the best possible outcome for a studio. Unfortunately, it can be hard to get that balance right. Take The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, which adapts a 2014 first-person exploration game. Where every aspect of Adrift encourages players to glide around slowly and carefully, the Rift version of Ethan Carter drops you into a large world clearly built to be explored at a brisk pace, then requires you to either hesitantly stumble through it or get sick. Although its already impressive landscapes are even more beautiful in virtual reality, it’s a perfect example of how the medium can feel limiting instead of immersive. Because of problems like this, virtual reality enthusiasts sometimes talk about needing to build VR experiences "from the ground up," instead of trying to port over existing concepts. But Jason Rubin, the head of studios at Oculus, thinks that’s an oversimplification. "This is one of those things that people say that I just don't think are true. What you need to do is make sure your game is great in VR," he says.
By way of example, he points to hyper-detailed racing simulator Project CARS, which was released for PCs and game consoles last year and is now coming to the Rift. A car sim "was from the beginning kind of the perfect thing for VR," he says. "They've been held back by the fact that they haven't had a VR headset to show it on, and they have to kind of simulate that in a 2D screen." To him, this isn’t a traditional "port," it’s the platonic ideal of a game that developers could only create shadows of before VR. "Tetris is fun on a PC, even though clearly a PC is way overpowered." Several of the Rift’s games grew out of existing non-VR projects, and not just simulators. AirMech: Command is based on a free-to-play strategy game, and third-person brawler Smashing the Battle was previously announced for PlayStation 4. While it’s not technically an adaptation, Dragon Front draws heavy inspiration from online collectible card game Hearthstone. On the Rift, these all play with VR’s sense of physical space, making you the omnipotent god of some tiny battlefield. It’s possible this will ultimately feel like a gimmick, but when you first try the games, the experience is both novel and astounding — like playing with a room full of living toys. About a third of the launch catalog is ported from another virtual reality platform: the smartphone-powered Gear VR headset. Some of the Gear VR’s best titles have made the leap, including hacking puzzler Darknet, point-and-click game Dead Secret, and cooperative bomb defusal game Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes. The developers might choose to add higher-resolution textures or tweak the control schemes, or they could simply create a PC copy of their Gear VR app. In some ways, it’s strange to see things made for the relatively simple Gear VR show up on the Oculus Rift — why pay $599 for a headset if you could get almost the same experiences on a $99 one? But if you’ve already decided to buy a Rift, these games are a nice bonus at the very least, especially since some developers could decide to let players buy them once and play them on multiple platforms. And there are still little benefits, like the Rift’s more ergonomic design and its ability to let you lean and shift your head in virtual reality. "A fun game is a fun game. Tetris is fun on a PC, even though clearly a PC is way overpowered," says Rubin.
It’s much more frustrating that the Rift’s absolute best experiences won’t be coming in March — especially the ones built for Oculus’ Touch motion controllers, which won’t launch until the second half of this year. Oculus says Touch isn’t central to the Rift experience, and many games were built solely with the Xbox One gamepad or even a tiny remote control in mind. "There is a misconception out there that VR has to be motion control, or it's not real VR unless it is, and I don't believe that's true," says Rubin. "I also don't believe in the long run that controllers are going to be phased out by Touch coming in. There are some games that don't require Touch — that are actually better with [the] gamepad." Touch controllers aren't central to the Rift, but they're behind some of its best experiences But Touch controls make for some of the weirdest, most creative, and most engaging virtual reality games. They’re required for Harmonix’s virtual reality version of rhythm game Rock Band, and for I Expect You To Die, a James Bond-inspired puzzler that makes players disarm deadly traps by cutting wires, rifling through drawers, adjusting dials, and (at one point) throwing explosives at a crossbow-wielding stuffed bear. Dead and Buried, another Touch game, is the closest thing the Rift has to an adrenalin-pumping first-person shooter. In the demo showcased at GDC, two two-person teams face off on opposite sides of a stereotypical Old West saloon, using Touch controllers to attack each other with revolvers, shotguns, or sticks of dynamite. Within seconds of starting my first match, I found myself physically crouching behind virtual cover, firing wildly at enemies and flicking my wrists to reload every few seconds. Even with its simple graphics and limited options, shooting in Dead and Buried felt real in a way that holding an Xbox controller never will.On July 4, Chinese state media all carried the same news headlines on their front pages. The Ministry of Civil Affairs of the People's Republic of China had declared that China would make Nationalist Party (Kuomintang or KMT) soldiers living in mainland China eligible for welfare under the social security system.
The soldiers had helped in China’s successful war against Japan from 1937 to 1945, however they did not follow the bulk of other Kuomintang troops to Taiwan in 1949 after the KMT was defeated by China’s Communist Party (CCP) in the Chinese Civil War. For the next 50+ years these former KMT soldiers lived under CCP rule, where they faced both discrimination and contempt. According to (admittedly incomplete) statistics, today there are still over 2,000 of these former fighters living on the mainland, most aged around 90 years old, about 50 percent of them in poverty.
For thousands of years, China’s customs have encouraged people to respect the old and cherish the young. But what makes this new declaration so significant is that it signals that China’s Communist Party has begun to face up to and respect history, regardless of differences in ideologies between these veterans and the Party’s.
The news about China’s KMT soldiers has unsurprisingly also attracted interest in Taiwan. One report in the Taiwanese media outlet United Daily News says the turnaround reflects increasingly warm relations between mainland China and Taiwan across economic, political and social spheres. On June 13, Taiwan’s Honorary Chairman of the Nationalist Party Wu Po-Hsiung visited Chinese President Xi Jinping for the first time since Xi took office, in search of “new navigation for the two sides of the Taiwan Straits.”
Another news outlet in Taiwan, Want Daily, suggests that the CCP is not aiming to present a united front with Taiwan, because Taipei doesn’t currently have any special measures for former Communist Party soldiers living in Taiwan. The outlet suggests instead that China is making strides with its social welfare policies.
Under China’s Treatment for Service Regulations, only members of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and their family members were eligible for benefits. Former Kuomintang members living in China were previously excluded. The Ministry’s new announcement brings a much needed change, with these new rules ensuring that soldiers who fought against the Japanese would have access to welfare facilities, and that the Ministry would support, encourage, and advise social welfare organizations to provide the former soldiers with support. Also, the Ministry has called on local governments and party committees to take an active interest in these soldiers’ well-being.
The announced change has been a relief to former soldiers, like Zhu Mingfu, who has been trying to apply for benefits for years. Still, many worry that the announcement won’t be followed with concrete action. According to a Southern Weekly report, Wu Siqi, a volunteer who works with soldiers, voiced his concerns, “Will the benefits really apply? How will they work? ”
Meanwhile, other former Kuomintang soldiers have other aspirations. Luo Zhongguo for instance, simply desires recognition for his sacrifice and service, “All I want is a medal. We old soldiers deserve [a] real medal.”
Colleen Wong is a reporter for China Power.Image caption The plant has already been the subject of much controversy
India's environment ministry has ordered Vedanta Resources to halt a sixfold expansion of an aluminium refinery in Orissa, eastern India.
In a letter on its website, the ministry ordered Vedanta to "maintain the status quo" and undertake "no further construction activity".
It is another blow for the company, which in August was denied permission to mine bauxite on local tribal land.
Campaigners welcomed the news, saying the company had ignored local people.
Vedanta did not immediately respond to a request for comment, though last week it reportedly insisted there had been no regulatory violations of any kind at the refinery.
In 2006, Vedanta applied for permission to massively expand the plant at Lanjigarh in Orissa, to boost output from one million tonnes to six million tonnes.
'Illegal work'
In its letter, the environment ministry said experts visiting the site found that illegal work had already begun to expand the plant, without the needed permits, Associated Press reported.
Now the ministry has ordered any such work to stop immediately - though it is unclear whether this will mean the end to the expansion plans or whether the company will be able to tweak its plans and reapply for permission to expand. The company could even be told to shut down the plant entirely.
Government officials told news agency Reuters that Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh was likely to take a final decision on Vedanta this week.
The UK-based company had already suffered a setback in August, when it was denied permission to mine bauxite - the main raw material used in the production of aluminium - from hills around the refinery.
In that case, the judge accused the company of serious violations of environmental protection laws and said the mining would have an "unacceptable" impact on the rights of local tribes.
Vedanta is also facing obstacles in its ambitions to acquire a $9.6bn (£6.1bn) controlling stake in energy company Cairn India.
"Vedanta is learning the hard way that it cannot ride roughshod over tribal peoples forever," said Stephen Corry, director of Survival International, a leading member of the international campaign against Vedanta's plans in Orissa.
"Other companies should learn from Vedanta's mistakes: before investing time and money in a project, a company must gain the consent of local tribal communities."Image: Jeroensnake/Deviant Art
Zoltan Istvan is a futurist, author of The Transhumanist Wager, and founder of and presidential candidate for the Transhumanist Party. He writes an occasional column for Motherboard in which he ruminates on the future beyond natural human ability.
The concept of a technological singularity is tough to wrap your mind around. Even experts have differing definitions. Vernor Vinge, responsible for spreading the idea in the 1990s, believes it's a moment when growing superintelligence renders our human models of understanding obsolete. Google's Ray Kurzweil says it's "a future period during which the pace of technological change will be so rapid, its impact so deep, that human life will be irreversibly transformed." Kevin Kelly, founding editor of Wired, says, "Singularity is the point at which all the change in the last million years will be superseded by the change in the next five minutes." Even Christian theologians have chimed in, sometimes referring to it as "the rapture of the nerds."
My own definition of the singularity is: the point where a fully functioning human mind radically and exponentially increases its intelligence and possibilities via physically merging with technology.
All these definitions share one basic premise—that technology will speed up the acceleration of intelligence to a point when biological human understanding simply isn't enough to comprehend what's happening anymore.
That also makes a technological singularity something quasi-spiritual, since anything beyond understanding evokes mystery. It's worth noting that even most naysayers and luddites who disdain the singularity concept don't doubt that the human race is heading towards it.
No matter how you look at this, it's bizarre futurist stuff
In March 2015, I published a Motherboard article titled A Global Arms Race to Create a Superintelligent AI is Looming. The article argued a concept I call the AI Imperative, which says that nations should do all they can to develop artificial intelligence, because whichever country produces an AI first will likely end up ruling the world indefinitely, since that AI will be able to control all other technologies and their development on the planet.
The article generated many thoughtful comments on Reddit Futurology, LessWrong, and elsewhere. I tend not to comment on my own articles in an effort to stay out of the way, but I do always carefully read comment sections. One thing the message boards on this story made me think about was the possibility of a "nationalistic" singularity—what might also be called an exclusive, or private singularity.
If you're a technophile like me, you probably believe the key to reaching the singularity is two-fold: the creation of a superintelligence, and the ability to merge humans with that intelligence. Without both, it's probably impossible for people to reach it. With both, it's probably inevitable.
Currently, the technology to merge the human brain with a machine is already underway. In fact, hundreds of thousands of people around the world already have brain implants of some sort, and last year telepathy was performed between researchers in different countries. Thoughts were passed from one mind to another using a machine interface, without speaking a word.
Fast forward 25 years in the future, and some experts like Kurzweil believe we might already be able to upload our entire consciousness into a machine. I tend to agree with him, and I even think it could occur sooner, such as in 15 to 20 years time.
Here's the crux: If an AI exclusively belonged to one nation (which is likely to happen), and the technology of merging human brains and machines grows sufficiently (which is also likely to happen), then you could possibly end up with one nation controlling the pathways into the singularity.
As insane as this sounds, it's possible that the controlling nation could start offering its citizens the opportunity to be uploaded fully into machines, in preparation to enter the singularity. Whether there would then be two distinct entities—one biological and one uploaded—for every human who choses to do this is a natural question, and it's only one that could be decided at the time, probably by governments and law. Furthermore, once uploaded, would your digital self be able to interact with your biological self? Would one self be able to help the other? Or would laws force an either-or situation, where uploaded people's biological selves must remain in cryogenically frozen states or even be eliminated altogether?
No matter how you look at this, it's bizarre futurist stuff. And it presents a broad array of challenging ethical issues, since some technologists see the singularity as something akin to a totally new reality or even a so-called digital heaven. And to have one nation or government controlling it, or even attempting to limit it exclusively to its populace, seems potentially morally dubious.
For example, what if America created the AI first, then used its superintelligence to pursue a singularity exclusively for Americans?
(Historically, this wouldn't be that far off from what many Abrahamic world religions advocate for, such as Christianity or Islam. In both religions, only certain types of people get to go to heaven. Those left behind get tortured for eternity. This concept of exclusivity is the single largest reason I became an atheist at 18.)
Worse, what if a government chose only to allow the super wealthy to pursue its doorway to the singularity—to plug directly into its superintelligent AI? Or what if the government only gave access to high-ranked party officials? For example, how would Russia's Vladimir Putin deal with this type of power? And it is a tremendous power. After all, you'd be connected to a superintelligence and would likely be able to rewrite all the nuclear arms codes in the world, stop dams and power plants from operating, and create a virus to shut down Wi-Fi worldwide, if you wanted.
And at some point, we won't see a difference between matter, energy, judgment, and ourselves.
Of course, given the option, many people would probably choose not to undergo the singularity at all. I suspect many would choose to remain as they are on Earth. However, some of those people might be keen on acquiring the technology of getting to the singularity. They might want to sell that tech, and offer paid one-way trips for people who want to have a singularity. For that matter, individuals or corporations might try to patent it. What you'd be selling is the path to vast amounts of power and immortality.
Such moral leanings and concepts that someone or group could control, patent, or steal the singularity ultimately lead us to another imperative: the Singularity Disparity.
The first person or group to experience the singularity will protect and preserve the power and intelligence they've acquired in the singularity process—which ultimately means they will do whatever is necessary to lessen the power and intelligence accumulation of the singularity experience for others. That way the original Singularitarians can guarantee their power and existence indefinitely.
In my philosophical novel The Transhumanist Wager, this type of thinking belongs to the Omnipotender, someone who is actively seeking and contending for as much power as possible, and bases their actions on such endeavors.
I'm not trying to argue any of this is good or bad, moral or immoral. I'm just explaining how this phenomena of the singularity likely could unfold. Assuming I'm correct, and technology continues to grow rapidly, the person who will become the leading omnipotender on Earth is already born.
Of course, religions will appreciate that fact, because such a person will fulfill elements of either the Antichrist or the Second Coming of a Jesus, which is important to both the apocalyptic beliefs in Christianity and Islam. At least the "End Times" are really here, faith-touters will be able to finally say.
The good news, though, is that maybe a singularity is not an exclusive event. Maybe there can be many singularities.
A singularity is likely to be mostly a consciousness phenomenon. We will be nearly all digital and interconnected with machines, but we will still able to recognize ourselves, values, memories, and our purposes—otherwise I don't think we'd go through with it. On the cusp of the singularity, our intelligence will begin to grow tremendously. I expect the software of our minds will be able to be rewritten and upgraded almost instantaneously in real time. I also think the hardware we exist through—whatever form of computing it'll be—will also be able to be reshaped and remade in real time. We'll learn how to reassemble processors and their particles in the moment, on-demand, probably with the same agility and speed we have when thinking about something, such as figuring out a math problem. We'll understand the rules and think about what we want, and the best answer, strategy, and path will occur. We'll get exceedingly efficient at such things, too. And at some point, we won't see a difference between matter, energy, judgment, and ourselves.
What's important here is the likely fact that we won't care much about what's left on Earth. In just days or even hours, the singularity will probably render us into some form of energy that can organize and advance itself superintelligently, perhaps into a trillion minds on a million Earths.
If the singularity occurs like this, then, on the surface, there's little ethically wrong with a national or private singularity, because other nations or groups could implement their own in time. However, the larger issue is: How would people on Earth protect themselves from someone or some group in the singularity who decides the Earth and its inhabitants aren't worth keeping around, or worse, wants to enslave everyone on Earth? There's no easy answer to this, but the question itself makes me frown upon the singularity idea, in exactly the same way I frown upon an omnipotent God and heaven. I don't like any other single entity or group having that much possible power over another.36,000 Verizon workers have walked off the job Wednesday after failing to reach a new labor agreement.
This is the largest strike in the United States since Verizon workers last walked off the job in 2011, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That strike involved 45,000 workers.
Most of the striking workers service the company's landline phone business and FiOS broadband network -- not the much larger Verizon Wireless network. They have gone without a contract since August, and their union, the Communication Workers of America, says it is fighting to get Verizon to come to the table with a better offer.
The union's list of complaints is a long one: Verizon has outsourced 5,000 jobs to workers in Mexico, the Philippines and the Dominican Republic. Verizon is hiring more low-wage, non-union contractors, the union says.
"The main thing is that's it's taking good-paying jobs and taking them away from the American public," said Ken Beckett, a technical telecommunications associate for Verizon and union board member with 1101 CWA, as he picketed with colleagues outside a Verizon office in Manhattan.
The union also claims Verizon won't negotiate with people who work in Verizon stores and is closing call centers. And Verizon is asking workers to work out of state, away from their homes, for months at a time.
Meanwhile, the union says Verizon is cutting costs as its profits have soared.
"Verizon's corporate greed isn't just harming workers' families, it's hurting customers as well," the CWA said in a statement.
It's true that Verizon continues to post record profit, but most of that is coming from its wireless business. The "wireline" business that most CWA workers serve is in decline.
Wireline sales have been steadily falling over the past several years. Last year sales fell by nearly 2%, and Verizon lost 1.4 million voice customers.
To help make up for the losses, Verizon continues to offload some of its wireline assets, and it has been offshoring some of its workers overseas. The company says it saved $300 million in employee costs in 2015.
Still, Verizon managed to post an $8.9 billion operating profit in its wireline business last year. That was down slightly from 2014, but not by much.
Even as traditional landlines and DSL continue to fall out of favor, Verizon's FiOS broadband business has continued to grow, making up an increasingly large part of Verizon's wireline business.
FiOS now represents 79% of Verizon's wireline sales to consumers, up from 76% in 2014. FiOS sales grew by 9% last year.
Related: Verizon is tacking on another $20 fee
Verizon (VZ) said that it has worked with union leaders in good faith since June.
"It's regrettable that union leaders have called a strike, a move that hurts all of our employees," said Marc Reed, Verizon's chief administrative officer. "Unfortunately, union leaders have their own agenda rooted in the past and are ignoring today's digital realities. Calling a strike benefits no one, and brings us no closer to resolution."
Verizon said that it is prepared to serve its customers despite the strike. It said that thousands of non-union workers have been trained to cover new assignments in the event of a strike.
-- Rob McLean contributed to this story.Former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick. | STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty Images Deval Patrick will'stay woke' under Trump
BOSTON – Former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick said he plans to “stay woke” following the election of Donald Trump and encouraged supporters to stay connected with each other, in an email on Monday.
"I am sad, disturbed, embarrassed -- but not surprised," Patrick wrote in the 1,000-word reflection, which said Trump had "unleashed something dark" by tapping into a vein of contempt for women and minorities.
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Patrick sent the email, recounting his election night experience and efforts to grapple with the reality since then, to members of the Governor’s Leadership Fund, a charity organization launched after Patrick left office. A copy of the email was obtained by POLITICO Massachusetts.
Patrick pledged not to be reflexively opposed to Trump's policies, writing that it was "repugnant and unpatriotic for Mitch McConnell" to set himself in immediate opposition to President Obama.
"I will not repeat the transgression," Patrick wrote. "I will, as the kids say,'stay woke.' I will remain vigilant and informed."
Patrick’s name appeared on a short list of possible vice-presidential candidates for Hillary Clinton earlier this year. The former governor, who now works for Bain Capital, held fundraisers for Clinton in Massachusetts ahead of the election.
Read Patrick’s note in its entirety:
"Dear Friends,
I spent election night in a hotel room at the Detroit airport, dozing fitfully and awaking on Wednesday morning to breathless reports of the outcome. I thought I was dreaming.
I'm still absorbing the result. My coping drifts between ignoring the news "analyses" to obsessing over them. Many of you have asked for my reflections and insights. The truth is I'm still trying to understand.
I am sad, disturbed, embarrassed -- but not surprised. I have always believed that Candidate Trump was emphatically "on trend" – globally, where intolerance and bully style leadership are on the rise; nationally, where wealth worship is epidemic and reality TV has turned a lack of decorum into entertainment; and even in the Republican Party, where Trump just said out loud what they've been saying in code for years. The pearl clutching of establishment Republicans always seemed a little hollow to me. Notice how many of the Party’s leaders came home in the end.
Surprised or not, we lost the election. The question “why” has been the subject of lots of commentary by better-qualified observers than me. As odious as Trump’s behavior and many of his positions may be, he spoke to voters and not at them or over them. And he made many feel heard. Meanwhile we seem to be running against something rather than for something.
Like it or not, the Trump campaign must be credited for giving voice to the yearnings and anxiety of working people. Not just whites, though that seemed to be the target of his message. The displacement and frustration and voicelessness of working people in all corners of the country are real. If we care about those realties in the lives of our fellow citizens, we ought to be glad that someone stood up for them.
So why is that I am so uneasy?
It’s not just that the messenger was a pretender, with no record of empathy and no regard for truth. Insincerity in politics is not new.
It’s not just that white working class voters placed their confidence in a party whose policies have significantly contributed to their predicament, rather than the Democratic Party, which calls itself the champion of just such voters. That’s more than a bitter irony but a profound reminder to us of how important it is for Democrats to stand for what we say we believe.
The reason I’m uneasy is that the Trump campaign also unleashed something dark. At the same time it gave voice to the voiceless worker, the Trump campaign gave voice, without hesitation or apology, to contempt: the contempt of black and brown people, the contempt of immigrants, the contempt of Muslims, the contempt of women. He acknowledged real anxieties and shortcomings, and then blamed them on “the other.” If, as some say, he has been speaking what's on the minds of many Americans, how I am supposed to separate empathy for justifiable economic grievances from condemnation of and resistance to hate?
The answer for me is as it has always been for me: community. Community gets built one person at a time. The challenge in building community, whether in public or private life, is to let others in, to try to listen for what you may not want to hear. Lord knows, I am still working on that in my own life. But I think the effort matters, and I don’t think it means leaving one’s conscience behind. I met lots of people in the decade I spent in politics who told me they agreed with little I said or did, but who supported us anyway. I think it was because we took the time to try to hear them, adjusted where warranted, still stood up for what we believed -- and still tried to govern for the greater good. And we tried never to give up on kindness.
I want to believe that lots of people – not all but many – voted for the President-elect not because of what he said but in spite of it. I want to believe that a big part of Trump’s support came from people who heard him say “Make America Great Again” and did not think about a time when women stayed home and African-Americans were second-class citizens. I wonder if what they thought about was a time when they could do business with a handshake; when they knew they could graduate from high school and find a good-paying job, buy a house and support a family in the town where they grew up; when they could walk outside and talk with and count on their neighbors; when we turned to each other and not on each other. These are the people who deserve the special attention and respect of government today. These are the people we tried to hear and to serve, the ones without lobbyists and connections. We can’t give up on them now just because their perceived champion was coarse and boorish.
I am not willing to declare myself in opposition to everything the Trump administration does before he even takes office. It was repugnant and unpatriotic for Mitch McConnell to do that to President-elect Obama, especially in an hour of national crisis, and I will not repeat the transgression. I will, as the kids say, “stay woke.” I will remain vigilant and informed. And I will listen, the way Louis Pasteur admonished the educated person always to listen, without losing my temper or my self-confidence.
If you’re uneasy like me, use it as fuel. Use it to involve yourself in local service, like our Project 351. Use it to speak (publicly and privately) and write on issues of economic and social justice, and how the fundamentally American values of equality, freedom, opportunity and fair play should inform what our policy choices should be and how we implement them. Use it to organize locally for local and state races, and to take the United States Senate and even the House in 2018. Use it to run for something yourself. Use it to remind yourself to stay in touch with what you know to be right, instead of what’s expedient or clever or conventional. Use it to stay connected to each other and to build community.
Keep the faith, friends. America remains a work in progress. It’s up to us, in the ways we can, to do the work.
Be well,
DLP"Update, January 2nd: As promised, I contacted Peter Gray (Pete Linden) at the Lab, and he confirmed profile feed direct messaging has been turned off.
Ciaran Laval brought this to my attention: it appears that direct messaging (DM) on my.secondlife.com may have been discontinued.
The capability was slipped out by the Lab back in October 2011. Like many things about the profile feeds (and elsewhere in Second Life) there was no announcement about its introduction, and people were left to trip over it for themselves. At the time I noticed it, I offered a short tutorial on using it. The removal of the feature – if that is indeed what has happened – has similarly occurred sans any announcement.
I’m using caution here, as things on the profile feeds have been a little higgledy-piggledy* of late, what with snapshot uploads having been badly broken for many for the past week or more (and still broken for some – I confess, I’ve not tried in the last few days). Therefore, the capability might have been suspended due to problems with the hamsters servers.
However, a comment on a forum thread started on the matter would appear to suggest the option has indeed been removed. Responding to the question “…No more private messages?“, Bondboy Dagger states:
I too noticed this feature being gone. I created a ticket to inquire and have been told this feature has been discontinued.
Certainly, the options to send private messages have now gone. There is no longer a New Message button in the Messages tab of the Inbox, and the option to privately message a friend by clicking the message button on their profile feed has also gone – the only option left is to IM them via the viewer (i.e. in-world).
Similarly, sending a message in an existing DM conversation no longer works. While the text input box is still there, together with the Send button, and while you can still enter a message, clicking on the Send button does nothing; your text remains displayed in the test input box.
I’ve dropped a line to Pete Linden to enquire on the matter – but it is Christmas Eve (actually very early Christmas morning where I am!), and I know Pete is out of the office until January 2nd – so please don’t hold your breath over the holidays waiting to find out!
If the option has been removed, it’s liable to meet with mixed reactions. Many have probably never used it, even if they use the feeds, or may have used it occasionally. On the other hand, those of us who have used it, have found it to be extremely useful. For my part, I can say it has been of major assistance in communicating rapid-fire messages as a part of various collaborative projects. Obviously, whether it will be replaced by something else (assuming it has gone the way of the Dodo), is also up in the air at this point.
More news if / when I hear anything back in the New Year!
*for an explanation of “higgledy-piggledy, a technical term, please refer to the bottom of this page (in the hope it raises a smile or two)
AdvertisementsPeople around the world are kicking themselves for not jumping on the Bitcoin bandwagon earlier - especially those who knew about the cryptocurrency and could have been sitting on a nice little jackpot by now.
At the time of writing, according to Coinbase, one of the largest digital currency exchanges, one Bitcoin is worth £12,509 ($16,699) - which is an increase of more than £7,000 since last month.
So, imagine how stoked the politicians of Bulgaria are after discovering they had enough Bitcoin in their possession to pay off a fifth of the country's national debt, which totals $16.5 billion.
bitcoin
Credit: PA
But the word 'discover' would be slightly misleading as it's not as if they were just sitting in an unused storage closet. The virtual currency collection was confiscated in an anti-corruption operation. How you go about seizing a digital currency we have no idea, but the Bulgarian authorities clearly did.
Back in May, an investigation by the Southeast European Law Enforcement Centre into Alleged Customs Fraud led to dozens of people being arrested and the confiscation of a whole bunch of Bitcoin.
To be precise, they nabbed 213,519 Bitcoins.
When that operation concluded, that number of Bitcoins were worth roughly £374 million ($500 million). Not too shabby. Now, though, they're worth £2.6 billion ($3.6 billion) - which is just plain silly.
Bitcoin image
Credit: PA
But here's the question: Does Bulgaria hold on with the expectation that their value continues to rise stratospherically and they can pay off even more of their debt, or do they cash out now and settle for they already have?
That's the question that virtually every gambler is faced with.
The lucrative operation resulted in police seizing 'equipment, devices for communication, computers, tablets, and bank documents' according to the SELC. The authorities are probably hoping for their sake - that that cache of documents and computers also had all the encrypted passkeys needed to access the digital wallets.
Bitcoin
Credit: PA
Otherwise, their haul, no matter how much it's valued at, is essentially useless.
It's hard to believe that at the start of this year, one bitcoin was only worth around three figures; so the fact it's now commanding price tags of £12,509 EACH is nothing short of incredible. Experts keep talking about the cryptocurrency bubble bursting, but it hasn't hit that ceiling....yet.
Some people are even predicting it rising in value to over £74,949 ($100,000), so who the fuck knows where the roof on this thing is.
All we know is that we would very much like to have as many as Bulgaria.
Sources: Zero Hedge, RT
Featured Image Credit: PAGetty Images
on the United Launch Alliance (ULA). Today at a press conference in Washington D.C., the entrepreneur declared that his company SpaceX is filing suit in the Court of Federal Claims to protest the monopoly that currently conducts Air Force and spy agency satellite launches. SpaceX wants to start competing with the ULA for launch contracts as soon as this year (though there are only 14 opportunities for that open competition).
"This is not SpaceX saying these launches should be awarded to us," Musk said. "If we compete and lose, that's fine. But why are they not even competed? This is not right."
SpaceX vs. ULA
Musk's protest involves the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle, which the ULA (a joint company run by Boeing and Lockheed Martin) uses to launch Air Force and spy agency satellies. In December, the Air Force announced a block buy with ULA of three contracts with a combined value of just more than $3 billion. The Air Force says that |
5.364 -0.182 Falcons 8 16 7 2 6 2 8 5 6 9 7 6.909 2.455 Steelers 7 7 8 10 9 6 5 8 9 8 10 7.909 -0.454 Seahawks 5 4 4 21 12 16 12 6 8 4 4 8.727 1.000 Jets 9 10 11 8 1 8 9 10 10 19 9 9.455 2.363 Bills 11 13 10 12 14 5 4 11 11 12 11 10.364 -4.273 Panthers 12 17 15 9 8 17 6 7 7 6 15 10.818 0.182 Giants 13 18 9 7 13 3 13 13 12 15 17 12.091 5.364 Cowboys 16 15 12 15 18 10 15 12 15 10 16 14.000 -2.545 Eagles 15 9 14 22 20 9 16 20 18 14 6 14.818 -2.909 Ravens 14 8 13 20 21 15 22 14 17 11 12 15.182 2.182 Vikings 17 12 17 16 15 18 10 15 13 18 20 15.546 1.000 Chiefs 22 11 16 19 27 19 19 16 14 16 14 17.546 -2.637 Rams 10 20 20 17 19 14 17 18 19 22 19 17.727 4.182 Colts 19 14 19 18 28 22 26 17 20 13 13 19.000 -1.454 Chargers 20 19 18 23 16 24 20 19 16 17 18 19.091 0.545 Redskins 25 27 22 14 11 13 21 25 21 27 26 21.091 2.636 Raiders 18 28 25 13 17 23 18 24 22 26 29 22.091 -0.455 Saints 23 23 24 32 23 20 23 22 25 24 22 23.727 1.909 Titans 24 26 29 29 10 21 14 31 29 30 21 24.000 -1.091 Lions 21 21 21 30 25 27 29 23 24 21 23 24.091 0.000 Texans 29 24 26 24 22 28 30 26 26 23 24 25.636 -4.545 49ers 32 29 28 11 32 30 32 21 23 20 28 26.000 -1.364 Dolphins 28 22 23 28 31 26 31 27 28 25 25 26.727 -4.272 Browns 26 25 27 27 29 25 24 28 30 28 27 26.909 -1.363 Bears 30 30 30 25 26 31 27 29 27 29 31 28.636 1.273 Jaguars 27 31 31 26 24 29 28 30 31 31 30 28.909 -0.182 Buccaneers 31 32 32 31 30 32 25 32 32 32 32 31.000 -0.091
Objective Standard Deviation
Objective FO TR SAG BG Aikman PFR CHFF Massey ARGH 538 FPI STD DEV Change in Value Bengals 4 5 6 4 5 7 2 4 4 5 5 1.226 -0.745 Steelers 7 7 8 10 9 6 5 8 9 8 10 1.505 0.429 Browns 26 25 27 27 29 25 24 28 30 28 27 1.730 -1.326 Patriots 1 1 2 1 3 1 7 1 3 1 1 1.758 0.566 Bears 30 30 30 25 26 31 27 29 27 29 31 1.967 0.524 Buccaneers 31 32 32 31 30 32 25 32 32 32 32 2.000 0.379 Cardinals 3 6 5 6 2 4 3 9 5 7 2 2.093 -0.281 Jaguars 27 31 31 26 24 29 28 30 31 31 30 2.275 -2.772 Texans 29 24 26 24 22 28 30 26 26 23 24 2.422 -1.080 Chargers 20 19 18 23 16 24 20 19 16 17 18 2.466 -1.209 Cowboys 16 15 12 15 18 10 15 12 15 10 16 2.486 -2.997 Dolphins 28 22 23 28 31 26 31 27 28 25 25 2.766 -0.407 Vikings 17 12 17 16 15 18 10 15 13 18 20 2.808 -1.890 Saints 23 23 24 32 23 20 23 22 25 24 22 2.895 -0.006 Packers 2 2 1 3 7 11 1 2 2 2 3 2.895 -0.448 Bills 11 13 10 12 14 5 4 11 11 12 11 2.963 0.812 Rams 10 20 20 17 19 14 17 18 19 22 19 3.136 -0.874 Lions 21 21 21 30 25 27 29 23 24 21 23 3.147 0.179 Broncos 6 3 3 5 4 12 11 3 1 3 8 3.392 -0.465 Falcons 8 16 7 2 6 2 8 5 6 9 7 3.604 -1.207 Jets 9 10 11 8 1 8 9 10 10 19 9 3.940 -0.708 Giants 13 18 9 7 13 3 13 13 12 15 17 4.144 -0.475 Chiefs 22 11 16 19 27 19 19 16 14 16 14 4.164 -0.438 Ravens 14 8 13 20 21 15 22 14 17 11 12 4.196 0.328 Panthers 12 17 15 9 8 17 6 7 7 6 15 4.260 -0.411 Colts 19 14 19 18 28 22 26 17 20 13 13 4.690 -1.406 Raiders 18 28 25 13 17 23 18 24 22 26 29 4.795 -0.164 Eagles 15 9 14 22 20 9 16 20 18 14 6 4.896 1.119 Seahawks 5 4 4 21 12 16 12 6 8 4 4 5.528 -1.428 Redskins 25 27 22 14 11 13 21 25 21 27 26 5.583 -0.011 49ers 32 29 28 11 32 30 32 21 23 20 28 6.296 0.603 Titans 24 26 29 29 10 21 14 31 29 30 21 6.592 -0.407
Overall Average
Subj vs Obj Subj Avg Obj Avg Average Change in Value Patriots 1.182 2.000 1.591 -0.091 Packers 1.818 3.273 2.545 1.000 Bengals 3.455 4.636 4.045 1.546 Broncos 3.727 5.364 4.545 -0.045 Cardinals 6.364 4.727 5.545 -1.909 Falcons 5.455 6.909 6.182 2.000 Seahawks 8.091 8.727 8.409 0.682 Panthers 6.455 10.818 8.636 1.137 Jets 8.636 9.455 9.045 3.728 Steelers 11.636 7.909 9.773 -1.182 Bills 12.182 10.364 11.273 -4.137 Giants 12.636 12.091 12.364 5.863 Vikings 13.182 15.546 14.364 -0.318 Cowboys 15.727 14.000 14.864 -3.500 Rams 13.091 17.727 15.409 5.409 Ravens 19.091 15.182 17.136 1.909 Colts 15.546 19.000 17.273 -1.091 Chargers 15.909 19.091 17.500 1.136 Chiefs 18.727 17.546 18.136 -3.500 Eagles 22.364 14.818 18.591 -3.864 Redskins 19.727 21.091 20.409 3.909 Raiders 19.909 22.091 21.000 -1.818 Titans 23.636 24.000 23.818 -0.091 Saints 24.636 23.727 24.182 3.818 Lions 28.182 24.091 26.136 -1.636 Browns 26.091 26.909 26.500 -0.273 Texans 27.546 25.636 26.591 -4.227 Dolphins 26.818 26.727 26.773 -4.318 49ers 28.546 26.000 27.273 -1.546 Bears 27.727 28.636 28.182 2.773 Jaguars 29.091 28.909 29.000 -0.545 Buccaneers 30.818 31.000 30.909 -0.818
Overall Standard Deviation
Subj vs Obj Subj Avg Obj Avg STD DEV Change in Value Bengals 3.455 4.636 1.186 -0.484 Patriots 1.182 2.000 1.337 0.395 Buccaneers 30.818 31.000 1.756 0.192 Cardinals 6.364 4.727 1.852 0.029 Packers 1.818 3.273 2.189 -0.667 Texans 27.546 25.636 2.309 -0.744 Browns 26.091 26.909 2.350 -0.477 Jaguars 29.091 28.909 2.374 -1.600 Bills 12.182 10.364 2.526 0.304 Broncos 3.727 5.364 2.554 -0.302 Steelers 11.636 7.909 2.627 0.590 Vikings 13.182 15.546 2.689 -1.696 Saints 24.636 23.727 2.691 -0.598 Falcons 5.455 6.909 2.741 -0.984 Bears 27.727 28.636 2.790 1.329 Cowboys 15.727 14.000 2.833 -1.252 Jets 8.636 9.455 2.884 -0.670 Chargers 15.909 19.091 2.888 -0.135 Dolphins 26.818 26.727 2.891 -0.282 Giants 12.636 12.091 3.199 -0.743 Lions 28.182 24.091 3.520 0.777 Chiefs 18.727 17.546 3.546 -0.415 Rams 13.091 17.727 3.614 -0.160 Raiders 19.909 22.091 3.778 -0.721 Panthers 6.455 10.818 3.785 0.069 Ravens 19.091 15.182 3.829 0.268 Seahawks 8.091 8.727 3.985 -1.166 Colts 15.546 19.000 4.059 -0.837 Redskins 19.727 21.091 4.292 -0.174 49ers 28.546 26.000 4.826 0.393 Titans 23.636 24.000 4.988 -0.356 Eagles 22.364 14.818 5.263 1.072
Difference in Averages
Subj vs Obj Subj Avg Obj Avg Diff. in Avg Change in Value Rams 13.091 17.727 4.636 2.454 Panthers 6.455 10.818 4.364 1.909 Colts 15.546 19.000 3.455 0.728 Chargers 15.909 19.091 3.182 1.182 Vikings 13.182 15.546 2.364 -2.636 Raiders 19.909 22.091 2.182 -2.727 Broncos 3.727 5.364 1.636 0.272 Packers 1.818 3.273 1.455 -1.636 Falcons 5.455 6.909 1.455 -0.909 Redskins 19.727 21.091 1.364 2.546 Bengals 3.455 4.636 1.182 -0.545 Bears 27.727 28.636 0.909 3.000 Jets 8.636 9.455 0.818 2.727 Browns 26.091 26.909 0.818 2.182 Patriots 1.182 2.000 0.818 0.182 Seahawks 8.091 8.727 0.636 -0.637 Titans 23.636 24.000 0.364 2.000 Buccaneers 30.818 31.000 0.182 -1.454 Dolphins 26.818 26.727 -0.091 -0.091 Jaguars 29.091 28.909 -0.182 -0.728 Giants 12.636 12.091 -0.546 1.000 Saints 24.636 23.727 -0.909 3.818 Chiefs 18.727 17.546 -1.182 -1.728 Cardinals 6.364 4.727 -1.636 -2.363 Cowboys 15.727 14.000 -1.727 -1.909 Bills 12.182 10.364 -1.818 0.273 Texans 27.546 25.636 -1.909 0.637 49ers 28.546 26.000 -2.546 -0.364 Steelers 11.636 7.909 -3.727 -1.454 Ravens 19.091 15.182 -3.909 -0.545 Lions 28.182 24.091 -4.091 -3.273 Eagles 22.364 14.818 -7.545 -1.909
SourcesThe American College of Trial Lawyers has released a new report criticizing the way claims of sexual misconduct are currently investigated and adjudicated on college campuses nationwide. They argue that the procedures used by these institutions lack basic fairness for the accused.
ACTL, an organization that “seeks to improve the standards of trial practice, professionalism, ethics, and the administration of justice” and selects only members who have demonstrated “the very highest standards of trial advocacy, ethical conduct, integrity, professionalism and collegiality,” acknowledges that colleges and universities are “in a double bind” when it comes to addressing sexual misconduct claims. Institutions risk both the loss of federal funding if the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights proceeds with an enforcement action under Title IX, and lawsuits from accused students who say they were “railroaded” through unfair campus proceedings.
Regardless, ACTL argues that schools must provide due process.
“ACTL believes that in a well-intentioned effort to address the significant problem of campus sexual assault, OCR has established investigative and disciplinary procedures that, in application, are in many cases fundamentally unfair to students accused of sexual misconduct,” the group’s report states.
“Under the current system,” ACTL writes, “everyone loses.” That includes victims, whose “experiences are unintentionally eroded and undermined.”
The group makes concrete recommendations for how schools can provide basic procedural fairness by adopting “a system that encompasses essential elements of due process,” all of which FIRE has previously endorsed:
a fair and impartial investigation and hearing by qualified factfinders, and granting students the right to be advised and accompanied by counsel, to be permitted some form of cross-examination, to examine the evidence, to receive adequate written factual findings, and to be found responsible only if the evidence satisfies the clear and convincing standard.
“These steps would enhance procedural justice and ensure the confidence of participants and the public in the fairness of Title IX investigations on campus,” the report concludes. FIRE agrees.
ACTL recommends that students be allowed to be “advised and accompanied by counsel,” but stops short of endorsing the active assistance of counsel for accused students. FIRE believes this is insufficient, particularly when the underlying campus charge involves allegations of unlawful misconduct. Because statements made in initial campus hearings may later be used against students in a court of law, limiting an attorney’s involvement to advising or accompanying a student is simply not enough. A lawyer’s active guidance helps ensure due process is respected to the benefit of all parties.
The report, which was approved by ACTL’s board of regents earlier this month, also includes a nod to FIRE in its historical overview of OCR’s influence on campus sexual assault investigations. ACTL included FIRE’s concerns about the “unnecessarily opaque and deeply troubling” language that we told OCR in a 2011 letter “invites the potential for abuse” when it comes to procedural fairness. The report also cites our work seeking clarity from OCR in that regard.
ACTL’s public comment on this issue is a welcome and important development. FIRE hopes college and university administrators take notice.More than one in ten complaints of sexual harassment at work are reported by men. In a recent study, I found that the majority of cases (78.4 per cent) were female complaints against males. However, women were accused of sexually harassing men in 5 per cent of cases and men accused other men in 11 per cent of cases.
The study analysed sexual harassment complaints lodged with Australian equal opportunity commissions in a six-month period, aiming to understand how and why less visible manifestations of workplace sexual harassment occur.
The study revealed the nature of the complaints, the relative proportion of such complaints compared to the more typical male on female harassment, and what workplaces might need to consider in relation to these atypical but not inconsequential forms of gender inequality.
Men were overwhelmingly responsible for sexual harassment against women in the workplace, but men were also the targets of sexual harassment far more commonly than typically assumed by researchers or the community at large. The study shines a light on these less typical manifestations, including sexual harassment by men of other men and by women of men or other women. These forms of sexual harassment are often less visible and may be less understood.
The majority of complaints in all four groups were lodged against alleged harassers employed in a more senior position. This was particularly noticeable in female-to-female complaints, where nine in ten complaints were made by subordinates against supervisors.
Previous research has shown that in certain contexts women may be encouraged to perform as ‘honorary men’, adopting sexualised banter to maintain authority and ‘fit in’ with the dominant male gender culture. This was clearly illustrated in the female-to-female complaints in the study.
Male-to-male complaints often included homosexual slurs and the questioning of men’s sexuality. Men who were gay, perceived to be gay, or who displayed stereotypically feminine qualities were at greater risk of being targeted. An explanation for male-to-male sexual harassment is related to a power-sex association. This is where male harassers, who would usually prey upon vulnerable women because it arouses their power concept, may resort to the harassment of vulnerable males in order to activate power.
The complaints across categories were characterised by a wide range of intimidating, offensive physical and non-physical conduct in a variety of workplaces; not only male dominated ones. For example, a male complainant alleged his female manager asked him to lift his shirt and show her his muscles as well as shouting at him and humiliating him in front of co-workers.
Another man, working as a machinery operator, alleged his male co-worker called him “princess”, told him to “toughen up” and “get a tiara” and that he would rape him.
The most frequent form of physical harassment reported by 40 per cent of the male-to-female group and around one third of the female-to-female group was unwelcome touching, hugging, cornering or kissing.
The study showed that regardless of the sex of the complainant or alleged harasser, sexual harassment causes significant psychological and workplace damage and that it is under-reported compared to its prevalence in workplaces.
The conclusions of the study suggest that sexual harassment functions as a form of patrolling gender borders of the particular norm of masculinity that dominates in a particular workplace. Norms of masculinity can operate quite differently depending on whether the workplace is, for example, a construction site, a police station or a boardroom.
The results also point to the importance of developing supportive complaints mechanisms in workplaces, including for men, who may find about it more difficult to report sexual harassment.
♣♣♣
Notes:
This post is based on the author’s paper Workplace sexual harassment at the margins, co-authored with Sara Charlesworth, in Work, Employment and Society, April 17, 2015 0950017014564615
The post gives the views of its author, not the position of LSE Business Review or the London School of Economics.
Featured image credit: Johnny Magnusson(Website) Public Domain
Paula McDonald is Professor of Work and Organisation in the Business School at the Queensland University of Technology. From 2010-2012, Paula led an Australian Research Council Discovery project which examined organisational and institutional responses to workplace sexual harassment and its impacts on targets. She has published over 20 journal articles, book chapters and reports on sexual harassment and gendered forms of discrimination.[sociallocker id=53963]
AFRICANGLOBE – Many were shocked when news hit that Essence editor-in-chief Constance White was leaving her post at the helm of the magazine after less than two years in the position. It was widely reported that White’s departure was of her own volition, but a new interview with Richard Prince’s Journal-isms reveals that she was fired.
In her own words, White explains that her termination was the [result] of several disagreements with Time Inc. Editor-in-Chief Martha Nelson about how Black women should be represented by the monthly.
She told Journal-isms: “Essence, the nation’s leading magazine for Black women, was originally Black-owned but has not fared well under Time Inc. ownership, White maintained. “Nelson vetoed such pieces as a look at African-American art and culture, and ‘I was not able to make the creative hires that needed to be made.’’
‘Disposable’ Editors?
She elaborated by email, “When was the last time you saw Essence in the community advocating for or talking with Black women? […] No more T-shirts with a male employee’s face on it being distributed at the [Essence] Festival.”
[…] “I had a certain point of view about Black women being central to this magazine. The boss didn’t agree with me and the president didn’t agree with me,” she said, referring to Michelle Ebanks, president of Essence Communications. “It became an untenable situation.”
“This is a magazine where the central DNA was laid down by Gordon Parks,” she said, referring to the famed African-American photographer who helped found Essence and was its editorial director from 1970 to 1973. White intimated that her efforts to maintain Parks’ standards had been rebuffed.
“How is it that from 2000, when Susan [L. Taylor, longtime editor] left — she was pushed out — we have had about five editors, including two acting editors, yet Essence continues to decline? So where’s the problem? And the editors are the Black women. ‘They are disposable. Let’s keep changing them.’
[/sociallocker]WEST JORDAN — A Holladay man accused of deliberately causing 22 car crashes in order to collect insurance money has been sentenced to jail.
Navid Monjazeb, 37, was sentenced Monday to 120 days in jail for the scam, followed by 36 months of probation. During that time, Monjazeb will have to pay nearly $56,000 in restitution to six different insurance companies, as well as an additional $10,000 to the fraud division of Utah's Department of Insurance.
The deal with prosecutors allowed Monjazeb to avoid a possible prison sentence. He pleaded guilty in September to four counts of wrongful appropriation, a third-degree felony. Once Monjazeb has paid restitution, the Utah Attorney General's Office has agreed to reduce the four convictions to misdemeanors, according to court documents.
Monjazeb was originally charged in January 2016 with 15 felonies and seven misdemeanors: carrying on a pattern of unlawful activity, a second-degree felony; 12 counts of making a false or fraudulent insurance claim and two counts of forgery, third-degree felonies; and seven counts of reckless endangerment, a class A misdemeanor.
Police say Monjazeb deliberately caused 22 fender-bender crashes between 2010 and 2015, most of which occurred within a 10-square-mile radius in Salt Lake County, according to charging documents.
All of the crashes were similar in nature. Police say Monjazeb alternated between three vehicles in the incidents: a Toyota Prius, an Audi A4 and a Saab 9-3.
"The victims indicate that they were moving in the same direction as the defendant, typically they are changing lanes, when suddenly the defendant's vehicle comes into contact with theirs. … Most victims (said Monjazeb) was not near them and then suddenly he would move his vehicle forward as they attempted to change lanes, resulting in the accident," charging documents state.
After the collisions, Monjazeb accused the other drivers of being at fault for the crash, tried to intimidate them into paying him in cash rather than getting police involved and urged them to sign statements he prepared asserting that they were at fault, according to the charges.
Monjazeb made insurance claims earning him between about $1,200 and $4,500 per incident, totaling nearly $56,000 from insurance companies alone, according to investigators. The charges don't indicate whether any of the victims paid him cash.
Monjazeb's criminal history in Utah is limited mostly to fines for misdemeanor traffic violations — including for a right of way offense and driving on a denied license charge in the midst of his alleged fraud.
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Heroin. Oxycodone. Hydrocodone. Morphine. All Opioids.
Their use is on the rise. But why? Is it just easier to get? How did it become so easy? How does it relate to the community and state of mental health? What can we do about it? How can we help? How can we stop this? How can we take a compassionate look at addiction? How can we stop opioids from destroying more lives?
I want to sit down and talk to current and recovering addicts. That is the only way to hear their stories of how they got to this point and how we can help them in their recovery or intervene in their time of need.
This is a project very near to me, I feel like I am surrounded by people suffering, recovering or being missed. As a person who has never struggled with these issues, I can't even fathom what these people have gone through or what their rational is that got them to this point.The parents of three Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Que., children say they are “really troubled” by an anonymous letter left in their mailbox last Friday that says neighbours "are exasperated by the screams of your children."
Sarah Cloutier says her kids aren’t perfect and scream from time to time outside, but they mostly play like normal kids.
Cloutier’s daughter Laurence, 7, has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and said it’s believed her four-year-old son Olivier also has the disorder.
Her eldest son, nine-year-old Antoine, doesn't have ADHD.
The letter was penned by a single author but alleged “many” neighbours found the children spend most of their time outdoors screaming and yelling.
“Many of us are exasperated by the screams of your children. We even think your children can only express themselves by yelling and don’t know how to talk,” the letter reads.
It said the situation was becoming "unliveable."
Doing their best
The letter was a blow to Cloutier and her husband, Guy Doré, who, she said, are doing their best as parents.
Cloutier said she cried when she first read it.
“I thought, 'Everybody hates us. They hate our kids.' It was sad,” she told CBC News.
Cloutier ultimately found the letter disrespectful.
Sarah Cloutier and Guy Doré say their kids scream and yell when they play, but not all the time. (CBC)
“For someone who doesn’t know us to judge us like that and the quality of our parenting? As a society, we need to respect each other and be able to talk with each other without sending a hurtful letter like that to someone you don’t really know,” she said.
Cloutier and Doré went around the neighbourhood and met with all the residents within earshot of their house.
They spoke with 10 neighbours in total, but nobody confessed to writing or knowing about the letter.
“We thought at first that by meeting everybody that we would meet the person who wrote it. Sadly, we can’t say,” she said.
However, the meetings did leave Cloutier and Doré with a good feeling about many of their neighbours, some of whom cried while reading the letter.
“It was heartwarming to see how nice they were with us. We mostly feel really lucky to have such good neighbours,” she said.
Judge not
Cloutier is trying to turn the experience into a positive one for her family.
She has used the letter to remind her kids to be respectful of their neighbours, and as an example of how not to deal with a problem.
“If you don’t know people, you can’t judge them,” she said.
However, she said, it's difficult to put the letter out of their heads when they're outside playing with the kids.
“My husband was playing Frisbee in the front on the weekend and when he came back inside, he said it’s sad because now I feel like someone’s watching us,” she said.The soap opera is over. Neymar is staying.
According to reports from Spain, the Brazilian superstar has agreed to a two-year extension of his current Barcelona contract, that will keep him at the club until 2020. Along with the extra years, Neymar's new deal gives him a huge raise, making the striker one of the highest paid footballers on the planet, just below Lionel Messi.
While the player and the club have already reached an agreement, the deal cannot be made official until the summer. But as soon as the new transfer window is open, Neymar will sign his extension and formally announce his decision to remain a Blaugrana.
This news will certainly please Barça fans, coaches and board members. Neymar had been strongly linked with moves away from Catalonia, with Manchester United and Manchester City looking like real suitors. The Red Devils, in fact, officially presented a €150 million offer for Neymar's signing, according to the player's father, but it was instantly rejected due to his willingness to stay in Spain.
Even better: Spanish media also reported that Neymar bought a new house in Castelldefels, where his 'MSN' partners live. Messi, Suárez and Neymar are now neighbors, best friends and will play together for a long time.
It's good to be a Barça fan these days.RCN Corp. said it has launched 1-Gig residential broadband across its serviceable areas in the D.C. Metro area.
RCN Launches 1-Gig in NYC
RCN, which competes with Comcast in the market, said the rollout there includes Washington, D.C., Montgomery County, Maryland, Falls Church and the Braemar community in Bristow, Virginia.
Like its rollouts in Chicago and New York, RCN’s residential, uncapped 1-Gig (downstream) service will be powered by DOCSIS 3.1, the new multi-gigabit platform for HFC networks.
RCN is selling 1-Gig for $69.99 per month for the first 12 months, but has not announced how pricing for the tier will change following the first year.
Last week, Comcast announced it was deploying D3.1 and 1-Gig service to several markets, including Denver, San Francisco, and Kansas City, but has not yet said when it intends to offer it in the nation’s capital. Comcast does offer Gigabit Pro, a 2-Gig symmetrical FTTP service, in the market.
“The fastest Internet speeds in the market are now available to the D.C. area where reliable, uninterrupted and high performance speed is in high demand,” Sanford Ames, Jr., senior vice president and general manager of RCN D.C. Metro, said in a statement. “We recognize our customer’s need for speed is getting stronger with multiple devices, Over-The-Top (OTT) video content, smart homes and more. By integrating the newest technologies, RCN remains unrivalled in D.C. innovation. RCN 1 Gig customers will notice a big difference in the way they access the internet and share bandwidth in the home.”After the Syrian revolution erupted in 2011, having begun as a sectarian revolt, Western countries stood on the sidelines.
As the revolution became bloodier, more factionalized and religious, and attracted money and fighters from other countries in the region, the call went up in certain Western circles for sending arms to certain groups.
At international meetings, Prime Minister Stephen Harper was hesitant, according to officials familiar with the deliberations. How do we tell friend from foe in such chaos, he asked? How could we be sure that weapons sent to one group might not fall into the hands of another?
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From that skepticism about sending weapons, the Prime Minister has shifted to wanting Canada to be a combatant in Syria, just as it is in Iraq. On Monday, the Conservative majority pushed through the Commons a resolution authorizing war in Syria. The reason for the shift is the arrival of the Islamic State, and its control of swaths of territory in both Iraq and Syria.
Having insisted that Canada would contain its military engagement to Iraq, the Prime Minister followed the inescapable logic of initial commitment. If the strategic objective of the military mission is the degrading and destruction of the Islamic State, then it cannot be achieved in Iraq alone.
Suppose the objective of eliminating IS in Iraq and Syria were somehow to be achieved, what would be left in Syria? To guess at that unanswerable question, we have to know what is there now and who would benefit from the vacuum created by the movement's defeat.
Myriad groups are fighting in Syria, some very small, others quite large. Although the government is run by President Bashar al-Assad, he is more figurehead than operational leader. Intelligence reports suggest that his regime is more horizontal than vertical, with constellations of individuals within the system who have raised troops, control portions of territory and money, make their own decisions and act as warlords.
If Mr. Assad were to be removed, who knows which warlord or warlords would emerge as Syria's kingpin? A fight within the regime for power, territory and money would ensue, with the Alawite minority, which has run the country under Mr. Assad and his late father, fighting to maintain its grip or to defend itself from slaughter by Sunni militants.
So there is a nasty, dysfunctional, decentralized Syrian government. Then there is a multiplicity of religiously inspired groups, the largest of which is the al-Nusra Front, which is linked to the Islamic Front that has ties with al-Qaeda. These groups, in turn, either work with or fight against other extremist Salafist groups, some of which are financed by Saudi Arabia, others by Gulf states such as Qatar, and still others by Iran, which also supports the Assad regime.
The Islamic State, the target of Canadian and U.S. bombs, is also the target of some of these other militant groups in Syria that resent its presence, contest its religious theories and disagree with its strategy of forming a caliphate that disregards existing state boundaries.
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It is also a target for the Assad regime, since an IS victory would by definition mean the end of Syria as the Assad regime (and everybody else) knows it. Anything done to weaken the movement |
that’s trivially due to fact that the light level on the detector changed as the ball changed position. The same detector would react identically to a stationary edge that increased its brightness without having moved. To track the change in position of an object, you need to add something, such as a brain, that can interpret the output of all the detectors in concert.
The photoreceptors of your retina are like the CCD chip in your camera: just a matrix of light detectors. They individually respond to changes in light level, whether those changes are due to actual motion or to stationary changes in brightness. Then specialized motion-detection neurons of the brain analyze the responses from populations of photoreceptors to infer motion. So although Ben Franklin may have admonished that productive activity (action) is better than unproductive activity (motion), he was also correct in the neurobiological sense: the perception of motion need not arise from a veridical action in the world. Rather, the perception of motion occurs when dedicated motion processing neurons in your brain are activated by specific patterns of light intensity changes on your retina. Because the retina cannot distinguish between the true motion of a light and the sequenced presentation of two (or more) adjacent lights, motion detectors in the brain will sometimes misinterpret certain light sequences to be motion. Vision scientists call such sequences of light “apparent motion.” This illusion is the basis of animation on TV or in movies.
The following pages depict several illusions in which the perception of motion arises from dynamic changes in brightness.
Now, do not to get confused and interpret action from any of these demonstrations. The motion is all in your head.
Elemental Conditions
The outlined edges of four rectangles modulate in contrast as compared with the centers. In the top row, the centers of the rectangle are unchanging, but the top-bottom versus left-right edges modulate in counter-phase brightness, rendering the appearance of two breathing boxes. The second row proves that this effect is due to the contrast of the centers to the edges, and not to the brightness of the edges alone, because the edges are now unchanging, and only the centers of the rectangles modulate in brightness.
This illusion was first described in 1983 by Richard L. Gregory and Priscilla F. Heard, of the University of Bristol. By showing that the apparent motion is due to the shifting position of the minimal contrast between the outside of the edges versus the inside of the edges (due to either the modulation of the edges or of the center against a stable gray background), Arthur G. Shapiro and Justin P. Charles of Bucknell University won the first prize in the Best Visual Illusion of the Year contest in 2005
House of Cards
Shapiro and Charles went further with their prize-winning entry to show that combining blocks with modulating centers could render twisting effects. When the same blocks modulate without the contrasted edges, there is no motion illusion.
Lucy in the Sky
By modulating the centers on and off with different rates, Shapiro and Charles showed that different apparent rates of motion could be attributed to different elements of the figure to create undulating shape-changing effects
Perpetual Collisions
Shapiro and Emily Knight of Bucknell University placed in the Top Ten list of the 2008 Best Visual Illusion of the Year Contest with this variant that pits background- and edge-modulated rows of diamonds against each other in a perpetual collision that never connects.
Steel Magnolias
Graphic designer Michael Pickard of Sunderland University built on these findings to create a spectacular artistic vision of wind-blown flowers, without a single moving object.
Bouncing Brains
Thorsten Hansen, Kai Hamburger and Karl R. Gegenfurtner of Giessen University were also top ten finalists in the 2007 Best Visual Illusion of the Year Contest, with this entry that shows that direction, magnitude and speed of apparent motion in a grid of brains depends on all three: the color of the brains, the direction of the brightness gradient of the brains as a function of the background brightness, and the retinal position of the brains with respect to the viewer’s center of gaze.
Notice that if you focus your gaze at any one the brains, it moves less than the surrounding brains, and that if you step away from the screen, the brains move more than if you peer very closely at the image on the screen. Also, the relative speed and direction of the moving brains depends on their color and the direction of the brightness gradient they create with the background,
Swimmers #7
Knight and Shapiro combined the various effects of contrast modulation, shading, shape and color to create an unmoving image of illusory but biologically plausible motion, which placed among the top ten finalists of the 2007 Best Visual Illusion of the Year Contest. Notice that without the modulating background, the effect is lost.
FURTHER READING:
Visual dissociations of Movement, Position and Stereo Depth: Some Phenomenal Phenomena. R.L. Gregory and P.F. Heard in Quart. J. Exp. Psychol., 35A, 217-237, 1983.
Visual Illusions Based on Single-Field Contrast Asynchronies. A.G. Shapiro, J.P. Charles and M. Shear-Heyman in Journal of Vision, 5(10):2, 764-782, 2005. http://journalofvision.org/5/10/2/, doi:10.1167/5.10.2.
The Neural Correlate Society’s Best Visual Illusion of the Year Contest Web site: http://illusioncontest.neuralcorrelate.com.August 16, 2017 at 05:48 Tags Python, Haskell, Programming
A "fold" is a fundamental primitive in defining operations on data structures; it's particularly important in functional languages where recursion is the default tool to express repetition. In this article I'll present how left and right folds work and how they map to some fundamental recursive patterns.
The article starts with Python, which should be (or at least look) familiar to most programmers. It then switches to Haskell for a discussion of more advanced topics like the connection between folding and laziness, as well as monoids.
Extracting a fundamental recursive pattern Let's begin by defining a couple of straightforward functions in a recursive manner, in Python. First, computing the product of all the numbers in a given list: def product ( seq ): if not seq : return 1 else : return seq [ 0 ] * product ( seq [ 1 :]) Needless to say, we wouldn't really write this function recursively in Python; but if we were, this is probably how we'd write it. Now another, slightly different, function. How do we double (multiply by 2) every element in a list, recursively? def double ( seq ): if not seq : return [] else : return [ seq [ 0 ] * 2 ] + double ( seq [ 1 :]) Again, ignoring the fact that Python has much better ways to do this (list comprehensions, for example), this is a straightforward recursive pattern that experienced programmers can produce in their sleep. In fact, there's a lot in common between these two implementation. Let's try to find the commonalities. As this diagram shows, the functions product and double are really only different in three places: The initial value produced when the input sequence is empty. The mapping applied to every sequence value processed. The combination of the mapped sequence value with the rest of the sequence. For product : The initial value is 1. The mapping is identity (each sequence element just keeps its value, without change). The combination is the multiplication operator. Can you figure out the same classification for double? Take a few moments to try for yourself. Here it is: The initial value is the empty list []. The mapping takes a value, multiplies it by 2 and puts it into a list. We could express this in Python as lambda x: [x * 2]. The combination is the list concatenation operator +. With the diagram above and these examples, it's straightforward to write a generalized "recursive transform" function that can be used to implement both product and double : def transform ( init, mapping, combination, seq ): if not seq : return init else : return combination ( mapping ( seq [ 0 ]), transform ( init, mapping, combination, seq [ 1 :])) The transform function is parameterized with init - the initial value, mapping - a mapping function applied to every sequence value, and combination - the combination of the mapped sequence value with the rest of the sequence. With these given, it implements the actual recursive traversal of the list. Here's how we'd write product in terms of transform : def product_with_transform ( seq ): return transform ( 1, lambda x : x, lambda a, b : a * b, seq ) And double : def double_with_transform ( seq ): return transform ([], lambda x : [ x * 2 ], lambda a, b : a + b, seq )
foldr - fold right Generalizations like transform make functional programming fun and powerful, since they let us express complex ideas with the help of relatively few building blocks. Let's take this idea further, by generalizing transform even more. The main insight guiding us is that the mapping and the combination don't even have to be separate functions. A single function can play both roles. In the definition of transform, combination is applied to: The result of calling mapping on the current sequence value. The recursive application of the transformation to the rest of the sequence. We can encapsulate both in a function we call the "reduction function". This reduction function takes two arguments: the current sequence value (item), and the result of applying the full transfromation to the rest of the sequence. The driving transformation that uses this reduction function is called "a right fold" (or foldr ): def foldr ( func, init, seq ): if not seq : return init else : return func ( seq [ 0 ], foldr ( func, init, seq [ 1 :])) We'll get to why this is called "fold" shortly; first, let's convince ourselves it really works. Here's product implemented using foldr : def product_with_foldr ( seq ): return foldr ( lambda seqval, acc : seqval * acc, 1, seq ) The key here is the func argument. In the case of product, it "reduces" the current sequence value with the "accumulator" (the result of the overall transformation invoked on the rest of the sequence) by multiplying them together. The overall result is a product of all the elements in the list. Let's trace the calls to see the recursion pattern. I'll be using the tracing technique described in this post. For this purpose I hoisted the reducing function into a standalone function called product_reducer : def product_reducer ( seqval, acc ): return seqval * acc def product_with_foldr ( seq ): return foldr ( product_reducer, 1, seq ) The full code for this experiment is available here. Here's the tracing of invoking product_with_foldr([2, 4, 6, 8]) : product_with_foldr([2, 4, 6, 8]) foldr(<function product_reducer at 0x7f3415145ae8>, 1, [2, 4, 6, 8]) foldr(<function product_reducer at 0x7f3415145ae8>, 1, [4, 6, 8]) foldr(<function product_reducer at 0x7f3415145ae8>, 1, [6, 8]) foldr(<function product_reducer at 0x7f3415145ae8>, 1, [8]) foldr(<function product_reducer at 0x7f3415145ae8>, 1, []) --> 1 product_reducer(8, 1) --> 8 --> 8 product_reducer(6, 8) --> 48 --> 48 product_reducer(4, 48) --> 192 --> 192 product_reducer(2, 192) --> 384 --> 384 The recursion first builds a full stack of calls for every element in the sequence, until the base case (empty list) is reached. Then the calls to product_reducer start executing. The first reduces 8 (the last element in the list) with 1 (the result of the base case). The second reduces this result with 6 (the second-to-last element in the list), and so on until we reach the final result. Since foldr is just a generic traversal pattern, we can say that the real work here happens in the reducers. If we build a tree of invocations of product_reducer, we get: And this is why it's called the right fold. It takes the rightmost element and combines it with init. Then it takes the result and combines it with the second rightmost element, and so on until the first element is reached.
More general operations with foldr We've seen how foldr can implement all kinds of functions on lists by encapsulating a fundamental recursive pattern. Let's see a couple more examples. The function double shown above is just a special case of the functional map primitive: def map ( mapf, seq ): if not seq : return [] else : return [ mapf ( seq [ 0 ])] + map ( mapf, seq [ 1 :]) Instead of applying a hardcoded "multiply by 2" function to each element in the sequence, map applies a user-provided unary function. Here's map implemented in terms of foldr : def map_with_foldr ( mapf, seq ): return foldr ( lambda seqval, acc : [ mapf ( seqval )] + acc, [], seq ) Another functional primitive that we can implement with foldr is filter. This one is just a bit trickier because we sometimes want to "skip" a value based on what the filtering predicate returns: def filter ( predicate, seq ): if not seq : return [] else : maybeitem = [ seq [ 0 ]] if predicate ( seq [ 0 ]) else [] return maybeitem + filter ( predicate, seq [ 1 :]) Feel free to try to rewrite it with foldr as an exercise before looking at the code below. We just follow the same pattern: def filter_with_foldr ( predicate, seq ): def reducer ( seqval, acc ): if predicate ( seqval ): return [ seqval ] + acc else : return acc return foldr ( reducer, [], seq ) We can also represent less "linear" operations with foldr. For example, here's a function to reverse a sequence: def reverse_with_foldr ( seq ): return foldr ( lambda seqval, acc : acc + [ seqval ], [], seq ) Note how similar it is to map_with_foldr ; only the order of concatenation is flipped.
Left-associative operations and foldl Let's probe at some of the apparent limitations of foldr. We've seen how it can be used to easily compute the product of numbers in a sequence. What about a ratio? For the list [3, 2, 2] the ratio is "3 divided by 2, divided by 2", or 0.75. If we take product_with_foldr from above and replace * by /, we get: >>> foldr(lambda seqval, acc: seqval / acc, 1, [3, 2, 2]) 3.0 What gives? The problem here is the associativity of the operator /. Take another look at the call tree diagram shown above. It's obvious this diagram represents a right-associative evaluation. In other words, what our attempt at a ratio did is compute 3 / (2 / 2), which is indeed 3.0; instead, what we'd like is (3 / 2) / 2. But foldr is fundamentally folding the expression from the right. This works well for associative operations like + or * (operations that don't care about the order in which they are applied to a sequence), and also for right-associative operations like exponentiation, but it doesn't work that well for left-associative operations like / or -. This is where the left fold comes in. It does precisely what you'd expect - folds a sequence from the left, rather than from the right. I'm going to leave the division operation for later and use another example of a left-associative operation: converting a sequence of digits into a number. For example [2, 3] represents 23, [3, 4, 5, 6] represents 3456, etc. (a related problem which is more common in introductory programming is converting a string that contains a number into an integer). The basic reducing operation we'll use here is: acc * 10 + sequence value. To get 3456 from [3, 4, 5, 6] we'll compute: (((((3 * 10) + 4) * 10) + 5) * 10) + 6 Note how this operation is left-associative. Reorganizing the parens to a rightmost-first evaluation would give us a completely different result. Without further ado, here's the left fold: def foldl ( func, init, seq ): if not seq : return init else : return foldl ( func, func ( init, seq [ 0 ]), seq [ 1 :]) Note that the order of calls between the recursive call to itself and the call to func is reversed vs. foldr. This is also why it's customary to put acc first and seqval second in the reducing functions passed to foldl. If we perform multiplication with foldl : def product_with_foldl ( seq ): return foldl ( lambda acc, seqval : acc * seqval, 1, seq ) We'll get this trace: product_with_foldl([2, 4, 6, 8]) foldl(<function product_reducer at 0x7f2924cbdc80>, 1, [2, 4, 6, 8]) product_reducer(1, 2) --> 2 foldl(<function product_reducer at 0x7f2924cbdc80>, 2, [4, 6, 8]) product_reducer(2, 4) --> 8 foldl(<function product_reducer at 0x7f2924cbdc80>, 8, [6, 8]) product_reducer(8, 6) --> 48 foldl(<function product_reducer at 0x7f2924cbdc80>, 48, [8]) product_reducer(48, 8) --> 384 foldl(<function product_reducer at 0x7f2924cbdc80>, 384, []) --> 384 --> 384 --> 384 --> 384 --> 384 Contrary to the right fold, the reduction function here is called immediately for each recursive step, rather than waiting for the recursion to reach the end of the sequence first. Let's draw the call graph to make the folding-from-the-left obvious: Now, to implement the digits-to-a-number function task described earlier, we'll write: def digits2num_with_foldl ( seq ): return foldl ( lambda acc, seqval : acc * 10 + seqval, 0, seq )
Stepping it up a notch - function composition with foldr Since we're looking at functional programming primitives, it's only natural to consider how to put higher order functions to more use in combination with folds. Let's see how to express function composition; the input is a sequence of unary functions: [f, g, h] and the output is a single function that implements f(g(h(...))). Note this operation is right-associative, so it's a natural candidate for foldr : identity = lambda x : x def fcompose_with_foldr ( fseq ): return foldr ( lambda seqval, acc : lambda x : seqval ( acc ( x )), identity, fseq ) In this case seqval and acc are both functions. Each step in the fold consumes a new function from the sequence and composes it on top of the accumulator (which is the function composed so far). The initial value for this fold has to be the identity for the composition operation, which just happens to be the identity function. >>> f = fcompose_with_foldr([lambda x: x+1, lambda x: x*7, lambda x: -x]) >>> f(8) -55 Let's take this trick one step farther. Recall how I said foldr is limited to right-associative operations? Well, I lied a little. While it's true that the fundamental recursive pattern expressed by foldr is right-associative, we can use the function composition trick to evaluate some operation on a sequence in a left-associative way. Here's the digits-to-a-number function with foldr : def digits2num_with_foldr ( seq ): composed = foldr ( lambda seqval, acc : lambda n : acc ( n * 10 + seqval ), identity, seq ) return composed ( 0 ) To understand what's going on, manually trace the invocation of this function on some simple sequence like [1, 2, 3]. The key to this approach is to recall that foldr gets to the end of the list before it actually starts applying the function it folds. The following is a careful trace of what happens, with the folded function replaced by g for clarify. digits2num_with_foldl([1, 2, 3]) -> foldr(g, identity, [1, 2, 3]) -> g(1, foldr(g, identity, [2, 3])) -> g(1, g(2, foldr(g, identity, [3]))) -> g(1, g(2, g(3, foldr(g, identity, [])))) -> g(1, g(2, g(3, identity))) -> g(1, g(2, lambda n: identity(n * 10 + 3))) Now things become a bit trickier to track because of the different anonymous functions and their bound variables. It helps to give these function names. <f1 = lambda n: identity(n * 10 + 3)> -> g(1, g(2, f1)) -> g(1, lambda n: f1(n * 10 + 2)) <f2 = lambda n: f1(n * 10 + 2)> -> g(1, f2) -> lambda n: f2(n * 10 + 1) Finally, we invoke this returned function on 0: f2(0 * 10 + 1) -> f1(1 * 10 + 2) -> identity(12 * 10 + 3) -> 123 In other words, the actual computation passed to that final identity is: ((1 * 10) + 2) * 10 + 3 Which is the left-associative application of the folded function.
Expressing foldl with foldr After the last example, it's not very surprising that we can take this approach to its logical conclusion and express the general foldl by using foldr. It's just a generalization of digits2num_with_foldr : def foldl_with_foldr ( func, init, seq ): composed = foldr ( lambda seqval, acc : lambda n : acc ( func ( n, seqval )), identity, seq ) return composed ( init ) In fact, the pattern expressed by foldr is very close to what is called primitive recursion by Stephen Kleene in his 1952 book Introduction to Metamathematics. In other words, foldr can be used to express a wide range of recursive patterns. I won't get into the theory here, but Graham Hutton's article A tutorial on the universality and expressiveness of fold is a good read.
foldr and foldl in Haskell Now I'll switch gears a bit and talk about Haskell. Writing transformations with folds is not really Pythonic, but it's very much the default Haskell style. In Haskell recursion is the way to iterate. Haskell is a lazily evaluated language, which makes the discussion of folds a bit more interesting. While this behavior isn't hard to emulate in Python, the Haskell code dealing with folds on lazy sequences is pleasantly concise and clear. Let's starts by implementing product and double - the functions this article started with. Here's the function computing a product of a sequence of numbers: myproduct [] = 1 myproduct ( x : xs ) = x * myproduct xs And a sample invocation: *Main> myproduct [2,4,6,8] 384 The function doubling every element in a sequence: mydouble [] = [] mydouble ( x : xs ) = [ 2 * x ] ++ mydouble xs Sample invocation: *Main> mydouble [2,4,6,8] [4,8,12,16] IMHO, the Haskell variants of these functions make it very obvious that a right-fold recursive pattern is in play. The pattern matching idiom of (x:xs) on sequences splits the "head" from the "tail" of the sequence, and the combining function is applied between the head and the result of the transformation on the tail. Here's foldr in Haskell, with a type declaration that should help clarify what goes where: myfoldr :: ( b -> a -> a ) -> a -> [ b ] -> a myfoldr _ z [] = z myfoldr f z ( x : xs ) = f x ( myfoldr f z xs ) If you're not familiar with Haskell this code may look foreign, but it's really a one-to-one mapping of the Python code for foldr, using some Haskell idioms like pattern matching. These are the product and doubling functions implemented with myfoldr, using currying to avoid specifying the last parameter: myproductWithFoldr = myfoldr ( * ) 1 mydoubleWithFoldr = myfoldr ( \ x acc -> [ 2 * x ] ++ acc ) [] Haskell also has a built-in foldl which performs the left fold. Here's how we could write our own: myfoldl :: ( a -> b -> a ) -> a -> [ b ] -> a myfoldl _ z [] = z myfoldl f z ( x : xs ) = myfoldl f ( f z x ) xs And this is how we'd write the left-associative function to convert a sequence of digits into a number using this left fold: digitsToNumWithFoldl = myfoldl ( \ acc x -> acc * 10 + x ) 0
Folds, laziness and infinite lists Haskell evaluates all expressions lazily by default, which can be either a blessing or a curse for folds, depending on what we need to do exactly. Let's start by looking at the cool applications of laziness with foldr. Given infinite lists (yes, Haskell easily supports infinite lists because of laziness), it's fairly easy to run short-circuiting algorithms on them with foldr. By short-circuiting I mean an algorithm that terminates the recursion at some point throughout the list, based on a condition. As a silly but educational example, consider doubling every element in a sequence but only until a 5 is encountered, at which point we stop: > foldr ( \ x acc -> if x == 5 then [] else [ 2 * x ] ++ acc ) [] [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ] [ 2, 4, 6, 8 ] Now let's try the same on an infinite list: > foldr ( \ x acc -> if x == 5 then [] else [ 2 * x ] ++ acc ) [] [ 1.. ] [ 2, 4, 6, 8 ] It terminates and returns the right answer! Even though our earlier stack trace of folding makes it appear like we iterate all the way to the end of the input list, this is not the case for our folding function. Since the folding function doesn't use acc when x == 5, Haskell won't evaluate the recursive fold further. The same trick will not work with foldl, since foldl is not lazy in its second argument. Because of this, Haskell programmers are usually pointed to foldl', the eager version of foldl, as the better option. foldl' evaluates its arguments eagerly, meaning that: It won't support infinite sequences (but neither does foldl!) It's significantly more efficient than foldl because it can be easily turned into a loop (note that the recursion in foldl is a tail call, and the eager foldl' doesn't have to build a thunk of increasing size due to laziness in the first argument). There is also an eager version of the right fold - foldr', which can be more efficient than foldr in some cases; it's not in Prelude but can be imported from Data.Foldable.
Folding vs. reducing Our earlier discussion of folds may have reminded you of the reduce built-in function, which seems to be doing something similar. In fact, Python's reduce implements the left fold where the first element in the sequence is used as the zero value. One nice property of reduce is that it doesn't require an explicit zero value (though it does support it via an optional parameter - this can be useful when the sequence is empty, for example). Haskell has its own variations of folds that implement reduce - they have the digit 1 as suffix: foldl1 is the more direct equivalent of Python's reduce - it doesn't need an initializer and folds the sequence from the left. foldr1 is similar, but folds from the right. Both have eager variants: foldl1' and foldr1'. I promised to revisit calculating the ratio of a sequence; here's a way, in Haskell: myratioWithFoldl = foldl1 ( / ) The problem with using a regular foldl is that there's no natural identity value to use on the leftmost side of a ratio (on the rightmost side 1 works, but the associativity is wrong). This is not an issue for foldl1, which starts the recursion with the first item in the sequence, rather than an explicit initial value. *Main> myratioWithFoldl [3,2,2] 0.75 Note that foldl1 will throw an exception if the given sequence is empty, since it needs at least one item in there.By glblguy
Photo by Curugon
Have you been searching in vain for a Wii? We have, and every store we visit is out of stock. Finding one is like finding a needle in haystack. We get one of two responses 1) “We receive our shipments on Sunday mornings, so come early” or 2) “They are drop shipped to us and we have no idea when we will get them. Just keep checking with us“.
The following weekend we headed over to Best Buy an hour before they opened to try and get a Nintendo Wii. We spoke with a Best Buy sales person who said they had already given out all of the tickets more than an hour before. I headed next door to Target to see if they had any and was given answer #2. She did tell me that she came to work at 5:00am that morning, and there was already a line of people around the side of the building at Best Buy. I decided at that point a Wii just wasn’t worth it and needless to say, I was frustrated.
The Nintendo Wii was introduced well before Christmas last year. Given the high demand, I expected them to be in short supply last year; however, not a full 1 year later. The unavailability of a product both baffled and frustrated me. I decided that Nintendo must have extremely incompetent management and are complete idiots when it comes to managing their product and inventory. Seems I was wrong, they are in fact quite smart.
I decided to do a little research into why Wii’s are in such short supply 1 1/2 years after they were announced. Turns out the answer is found by looking at the history of Nintendo and the conservative way they manage their cash flow. A s many of you may recall, during the 1980’s, Nintendo was extremely successful and saw it’s fortunes rise as a result. Then, during the 1990’s the exact opposite occurred as it lost significant market share to Sony and Microsoft Corporation.
As a result, Nintendo now maintains an intense focus on cash flow and thus makes every effort to keep inventory of it’s products, including the Wii as low as possible. The result of course is consumers, like us, speculating that Nintendo is deliberately keeping the product in short supply to create more market hype and to keep the product in high-demand. Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo’s U.S. division says this isn’t the case and that Nintendo simply didn’t anticipate the current level of demand for the Wii. He also says that Nintendo is working hard with retailers and is making best efforts to ramp up manufacturing.
Providing a different perspective, supply chain management experts and consultants say that missed sales opportunities is still better than having excess inventory, which has bitten Nintendo in the past. Excess inventory causes the exact opposite effect of a shortage, as it gives the impression that consumers don’t want the product. As a result, companies automatically tend to err on the side of shortage rather than excess. Additionally, excess supply also angers retailers who have to work harder to sell the product and as a result frequently have to lower prices. Manufacturers also suffer in they often also have to lower prices and even buy back excess inventory.
Unfortunately for us the consumer, it’s far better for the manufacturer and retailers to have a shortage. Having us begging for the product is a far better position for both of them to be in.
Let’s return to the Best Buy on Sunday morning. It turns out that Best Buy gives out tickets based on the number of Wii’s they have. The tickets are handed out well before they open and one ticket is available to each person. After a little digging, I’ve found out that what people are doing is bringing their whole family, friends, etc. and getting multiple tickets and thus multiple Wii’s. They are then listing these on eBay for a significant profit. Retail list price for a Wii is $249. They are selling like hot cakes on eBay for $500.00+ right now. I would suspect as we get closer to Christmas that will only increase.
Did you get a Wii for Christmas? If so, let’s hear your story. Did you pay list price? What are your thoughts on Nintendo’s inventory practice?
Source: Wall Street Journal
Did you enjoy this article? How would you like to receive all the latest Gather Little by Little articles delivered straight to your email inbox each and every morning? Signing up is easy, just enter your email below. You can unsubscribe at anytime! Enter your email address:The Washington Capitals unveiled a new motto and player banners outside of Kettler Capitals Iceplex, Thursday.
Well, whaddya know… new year's prep is well underway on the KCI exterior. Looks like #AllCaps is the slogan du saison for 2017-18. #Caps A post shared by William Stilwell (@loudgoat74) on Sep 14, 2017 at 10:03am PDT
The front side of the parking deck which hosts the team’s practice facility features large banners of TJ Oshie, Andre Burakovsky, and John Carlson. The players are overlaid across a white and red background, which features their names and part of the team’s Weagle logo.
Caps superfan Goat was the first to report the news.
Reader Julie also snapped a photo of the other side which also includes Nicklas Backstrom, Dmitry Orlov, and Tom Wilson.
New banners on Kettler today. Burly, Willy and Orly on new banners. #Caps pic.twitter.com/mFZ3aiToaQ — Obsessed Caps Fan (@juliejmoses) September 14, 2017
@ianoland Willy in a non-action angry shot on his new banner. pic.twitter.com/KlHJB9T0N1 — Obsessed Caps Fan (@juliejmoses) September 14, 2017
The team’s motto this season will be ALL CAPS, a double entendre. Somewhat ironically, the team’s main logo features the word capitals in all lowercase.
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PinterestWhen he was 23, my friend Steve killed himself, and though I don’t think of him every day, I do think of him often, and I wonder what kind of life he’d have now if he’d gotten help for his Depression. Being 40 and recalling being 23, I can’t imagine a person ending a life that is just beginning.
I thought about Steve today when I read Jenny Lawson’s post about suicide and depression.
Jenny says:
Talking about suicide makes me think suicidal thoughts, which is probably one of the stupidest triggers in the history of the world. Nonetheless, it’s important that we do speak up and that we’re aware of the dangers inherent in the world we live in. And it’s not just about those of us with mental illness. About one in four adults suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year. That means if you think about your 10 favorite people in the whole world two of them could be at risk of suicide. That’s why it’s so important to recognize the warning signs and to know how to get help for yourself or others. If you or someone you know is thinking of suicide call 800-273-TALK, or click here for resources. But for today let’s talk about the positives. Let’s talk about why we’re still here. Let’s talk about the words that help us get through. Let’s talk about the pictures and places and songs that saved us, because maybe they can save others. I’m here because my daughter saves me every day. The words that help me make it through are “Depression lies.”
I haven’t ever talked about this in public, but today’s a good day to start.
I haven’t ever felt suicidal, but I do have Depression and Anxiety. I suffered for no good reason for decades, until I couldn’t reconcile my awesome life with feeling terrible all the time. Talking therapy wasn’t ever enough for me, and I was very resistant to medication, because I believed (and continue to believe) that we are an over-medicated culture.
But, still, I wouldn’t just sit around and suffer if I had a treatable non-mental illness, so I went to a doctor, and I got better. Now, I take some medication every morning, and it has made all the difference in my life.
I remember the first week after I started meds, Anne and I were out for a walk. I felt her hand in mine, and realized that I didn’t have any lingering tension or unhappiness just buzzing around in my skull. I was just enjoying a walk with my wife, and holding her hand.
And I began |
REIsearch platform connects researchers with citizens, media and policymakers
Elsevier supports new science communication and collaboration network developed by Atomium to inform science-based policy making
By Iris Kisjes, Stephane Berghmans and Elizabeth Crossick Posted on 15 February 2016
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The recent announcement by President Obama of the so-called “cancer moonshot” to cure cancer is a prime example of the importance of collaboration among policy makers, scientists, communicators and educators. These are the very pillars behind the new REIsearch platform created by Atomium - European Institute for Science, Media and Democracy (EISMD) and supported by Elsevier.
"Innovation and new scientific discoveries are improving people's lives and making our economy more competitive,” said European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. “Science should be open and freed from its traditional ivory tower to be discussed, submitted to critique and fed with new perspectives. That's why I warmly welcome efforts such as the REIsearch initiative to get Europeans engaged in the debate about science and research and inspire fresh ideas about how to solve some of our society's most pressing problems."
The platform aims to:
Create a responsible and informed multi-stakeholder debate on an issue affecting. millions of European citizens, researchers, policymakers and stakeholders.
Create and promote access to reliable information on the issue.
Increase international, inter-disciplinary and inter-sectorial debate.
Bridge the gap between science, society and policy, also by involving the media.
REIsearch seeks to connect the experience of European Union citizens with the expertise of EU researchers to support policy makers with decisions that affect society.
In a joint statement, Atomium Honorary President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and President Michelangelo Baracchi Bonvicini said: “To win such an ambitious challenge together with our partners, we have opted for a gradual approach, aiming at developing initiatives linked to specific scientific topics starting with those of greatest impact, limiting the platform’s functions to the essential. In the coming years additional functionalities will be available, allowing citizens to directly interact with experienced researchers at both national and European level.”
Join the debate
The platform will function as a discussion hub on global societal issues. The first topic is chronic disease; discussions on aging, climate change and energy will follow. As the world’s population ages, the treatment, cure and prevention of chronic disease and its priority as a global challenge prompted its selection as the first initiative. The scope of the problem is enormous. In Europe, chronic disease affects more than 80 percent of Europeans over 65, and 10 percent of GDP is spent on health. Solutions need support from all sectors to be successful.
REIsearch’s ambition is to bridge the gap between research, policy and the public by providing a place where these members of the community can engage with each other and where the general public is given an opportunity to be part of the conversation about how chronic diseases should be managed. The public voice should ideally be a highly influential one when it comes to policies that impact local, regional and international issues such as chronic disease management.
The platform, which is currently receiving the majority of its funding from the European Commission, will be launched today in Austria, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, Ireland, Poland and Luxembourg. It will be available in six languages: French, Italian, English, Polish, Portuguese and German.
Elsevier has been a key player in supporting the initiative, helping with funding and the platform itself, which has benefited from the use of Mendeley. Elsevier will help in the sharing of information to the public as well as driving researcher traffic to the REIsearch platform.
“Elsevier has a responsibility to support the research community,” said Elsevier CEO Ron Mobed. “In this case, we can serve by facilitating ways in which viewpoints and information about pressing global issues can be shared. It will be especially important to encourage researchers to participate in the dialogue with the public on the subject of chronic disease.”
While REIsearch is being launched in the EU, researchers from all parts of the world are encouraged to join the conversation. When the platform is live, short weekly questionnaires will encourage visitors to share their knowledge on key issues related to five subtopics. These five subtopics are:
Prevention is the better cure (week of 15 Feb)
New technologies and innovation (week of 22 Feb)
Citizens’ rights and responsibilities (week of 29 Feb)
Diabetes and nutrition (week of 7 March)
More and better data (week of 14 March)
Researchers and the general public who would like to participate in REISearch forums on chronic disease can do so by visiting the platform: reisearch.euFor Those Suffering Chronic Pain, The Hardest Part Is Convincing Others
Chronic pain affects tens of millions of Americans and for many of them, there is no cure. We hear from three sufferers about what they've lost and what they've learned.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin. And this is For The Record. One hundred and sixteen million - that's the estimated number of Americans who suffer from chronic pain. That's roughly a third of the entire population. According to the National Institutes of Health, chronic pain is any pain lasting longer than 12 weeks. The Institute of Medicine estimates chronic pain costs the U.S. up to $635 billion a year in medical expenses and lost wages. And a new study of the nation's pharmacy records says the number of Americans filling prescriptions for opioid painkillers has declined. But the people who are getting those drugs are using them for longer. For The Record today - living through pain.
LEO KAALBERG: My name is Leo Kaalberg. I'm a former sergeant from the United States Army. I have chronic nerve damage.
COURTNEY WEATHERBY-HUNTER: My name is Courtney Weatherby-Hunter. And my pain is in my neck and shoulder area.
KATE LEIDY: My name is Kate Leidy, and I have fibromyalgia. Fibromyalgia is a musculoskeletal - I always have a hard time saying that word. It's basically a nerve disorder.
MARTIN: These three people are all in their thirties. And chronic pain has had a debilitating effect on them. But they suffer pain for very different reasons. Courtney Weatherby-Hunter's pain is the result of one bad decision.
WEATHERBY-HUNTER: After a night out with friends I decided to get on a mechanical bull. And I fell off.
MARTIN: I'm sorry. I shouldn't laugh. I shouldn't laugh.
WEATHERBY-HUNTER: No, it's - yes. I've told the story many times, and that's the response I get. I remember just feeling pain in my neck, but because I had had a few drinks I just never really put two and two together that maybe I was more hurt than I actually felt.
MARTIN: Then there are those like Kate Leidy who aren't exactly sure where the pain comes from, although she can trace it back to a deep emotional wound when her two-month-old baby died from prematurity complications. This was a few years ago. And since then Kate has suffered pain pretty much everywhere.
LEIDY: Yeah, it could be all over. It could be located in one part of your body like your back or just your legs. But for the most part it travels around your body.
MARTIN: And Leo Kaalberg - he was on his fourth tour as an Army medic in Iraq when his convoy was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade. After many surgeries and physical therapy, he is thankful to be alive. But he lives every day in pain.
KAALBERG: I still have quite a bit of shrapnel that's embedded in my skin. It's just - it's almost too much to count.
MARTIN: This is a weird question, but what does the pain feel like? Can you try to describe it?
KAALBERG: It's just a constant aching. Anytime there's a weather change you feel it. I guess you can kind of feel the metal get colder faster in your body.
MARTIN: You can feel that in your jaw?
KAALBERG: Yeah. I still have, at times, pieces of shrapnel work themselves out. And they'll blister up through the skin. We actually keep them, so...
MARTIN: You keep them?
KAALBERG:...A little morbid collection of twisted little shrapnel pieces.
MARTIN: All three of these people told us that one of the most difficult parts of living with chronic pain can be getting people to just believe you when you say you're hurting. Kate was finally diagnosed with fibromyalgia, but it took a long time for that to happen.
LEIDY: Two years of - from doctor to doctor - I've had doctors tell me there's nothing wrong with me, that it's all psychosomatic.
MARTIN: After popping pills for months on end Courtney Weatherby-Hunter went to what she calls pain camp. It was run by the Mayo Clinic. She was the youngest person there.
WEATHERBY-HUNTER: You know, day one of the program I had another patient come up to me and say you don't look like you belong here.
MARTIN: For a lot of people the first line of defense is painkillers. For some that can mean lots and lots of pills. Can I ask what medications you're taking?
LEIDY: Do you want to hear all of them?
MARTIN: Yeah.
LEIDY: OK. I take Butrans. I take Lyrica. I take Wellbutrin. I take Cymbalta. I take Vicodin, Percocet and ibuprofen.
MARTIN: Kate Leidy's doctors have been resistant to keep prescribing her heavy painkillers. There are obvious concerns about addiction.
LEIDY: You sort of have to make your case for taking pain medication. You have to go into your doctor with sort of your list of notes and defend your right to relieve your pain.
MARTIN: At one point Leo Kaalberg was alternating regularly between Percocet and Vicodin, then in 2011 his doctors of the VA stopped prescribing the heavy pain meds. He insists he was not addicted. But when he went on off them, he went through withdrawal.
KAALBERG: My hands were shaking really bad. I'd start getting kind of waves of pain and nausea. So it got - it was pretty rough.
MARTIN: Now he treats his pain as best he can with over-the-counter medicine - Tylenol, Motrin and bags and bags of ice. There's also the inevitable impact on relationships. Courtney Weatherby-Hunter's chronic pain has made her someone who ends up canceling at the last minute. And that has strained friendships.
WEATHERBY-HUNTER: I was a person who always said yes to things, and I became a person who more than likely had to say no to a lot of things.
MARTIN: For Kate Leidy, the hard part was convincing her husband about her pain and her need to self-medicate. He's still worried about how many pills she takes.
LEIDY: He helps me keep it in check - checks my pills. We do kind of check-ins. On a couple weekly basis just to make sure I'm staying on track.
MARTIN: Leo Kaalberg's pain has changed his entire family dynamic.
KAALBERG: My wife, God bless her, she's an amazing woman, and she puts up with me. She tries to get in between me and the kids when it comes to most - just about everything. Not that we have, you know, a physically abusive relationship or anything like that. It's just they don't understand that once my pain starts amping up towards the end of the day I get a little bit snippy and short with them. So...
MARTIN: How old are they?
KAALBERG: My oldest is 13. And we have a 10-year-old, an 8-year-old and a 6-year-old.
MARTIN: So those are little kids who want attention from you.
KAALBERG: Yeah. It's hard for them to understand that I can't pick them up anymore. I can't throw them around. I can't wrestle with them. I guess their hardest thing for them to understand is that where they can stub their toe or smash their finger a little bit on something, you know, the pain is over within a couple minutes. They don't understand why me being their dad, their superhero and all that that I can't just snap out of it.
MARTIN: After years of trying everything from pills to alternative therapies, Leo Kaalberg, Courtney Weatherby-Hunter and Kate Leidy have learned to manage their pain to varying degrees. For Leo, distraction is key.
KAALBERG: I mean, I have four dogs at home. So I spend a lot of time with my dogs, and they help me out. It's really about focusing, trying to keep my mind off of it.
MARTIN: Courtney keeps the pain at bay with the help of meditation. And she is saying yes to things again.
WEATHERBY-HUNTER: Just this year I've signed up to run a half marathon in February. I'm exercising. I am sleeping well. And honestly I don't think about the pain every day. I know that it's there, but it is not something that defines me anymore.
MARTIN: And Kate - she has learned to change her expectations.
LEIDY: I would love to be off all of my medications and be living a life that is pain-free. I mean, that's obviously - that's the ultimate goal. I try to not think in those terms, those broad terms, because it can get pretty overwhelming.
MARTIN: Instead she is living one day, sometimes one hour, at a time.
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NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.Friday the 13th: The Game has barely been out on the market for any time at all, but the amount of setbacks, bugs, and frustrations that have accumulated in such a short time would be impressive if it wasn't impacting the community. The game's developers, Gun Media, recently revealed a list of bannable offenses, and some players are already being hit with questionable permanent bans.
Without an official report system, F13th works on a per-email basis where users send in proof of violations to the game's creators that they'll then review and pass judgment on. Glitch-abusers, racist/homophobic remarks, and other usual suspects made the list, but team killing wasn't one of the bannable offenses.
While reports of supposedly unwarranted bans have occurred recently, one that blew up online was an account from a user who was banned for sexually harassing users, according to ThePraetorian, one of the developers of the game. According to the player's review which can be seen here, he was taunting other players in his game, two Counselors and the Jason player, who were working together to team kill and assist Jason. He admits that he did use offensive language to harass his teammates-turned-enemies, but is convinced that he was banned because one of the other players he was arguing with said they knew the developers.
ThePraetorian confirmed in a later discussion on Reddit that he did, in fact, know the users who issued the report, but he said that they were only "industry colleagues" and the other party would not be banned as well, even though "Deliberately Helping Jason" is squarely No. 4 on the list of bannable offenses. You might have to dig through the comments to find where ThePraetorian responses since every one of his comments are being blasted with downvotes straight to the bottom of the comment chains. Conversations on Reddit may not seem too important for the game, but pretty much all of the news updates from developers run through Reddit. They even posted their updated guidelines on Reddit and linked to it on Twitter for everyone to see.CHICAGO – Rumors that a plan to privatize this city’s drinking water is in the pipeline have residents alarmed.
“Access to water is a human right,” a woman who lives in the city’s Little Village neighborhood told a gathering Monday evening. “It’s a natural resource and water ownership plays out as a matter of life and death.”
“I’ve seen what happens when private industry controls water,” added former Peace Corps worker Jon Keesecker, an organizer with the Water Campaign of Food & Water Watch. “They can just turn off the tap.”
The water issue takes on special urgency in this city on the shores of Lake Michigan. Chicagoans are still fuming over the secret privatization of the municipal parking meter system last year. They got soaked when overnight the cost of parking on public streets – often in front of ones workplace or residence – quadrupled, and the rate increases are not over yet.
Water defenders here hope that the experience of the parking meter debacle will help hold back the floodgates of privatization. Word has leaked out that Mayor Richard Daley has met with consultants to explore selling off more public assets to for-profit corporations. “Everything is always on the table,” he told the Chicago Tribune last fall.
Over 100 city residents attended the city-wide meeting April 19 held in the basement of a community theater on the city’s near north side. At the podium 32nd Ward Alderman Scott Waguespack was joined by representatives of several environmental organizations. The event was publicized on 20 different web pages and through activists’ Facebook networks.
Privatization effects percolate down to consumers
Keesecker described the dangers of privatization:
1) rates can go up. Privately run systems in the state of Illinois average rates 36 percent higher than those publicly owned.
2) Services decline. Privately-run systems rack up more violations of water quality standards.
3) Local control and transparency suffer.
A city truck driver attending the gathering added his personal experience to the list. In a city reeling from unemployment, his job as a city truck driver was recently privatized. He described what happened next: “The rate paid to the drivers goes from $30/hour to $10. And the contractor keeps the difference. The new drivers with little experience are pushed to drive unsafe speeds and long hours. And they get no pensions, no benefits and no union,” he said bitterly. “The private contractors are stealing our work and selling to their friends. The city residents pay a corruption tax.”
Chicago model
Privatization is a global phenomenon, but “Chicago is ground zero for a particular model that involves leasing the infrastructure,” explained Rachel Weber, professor of Urban Planning and Policy from the University of Illinois. In 2005 the Chicago Skyway became the first toll road in the nation to be privatized. It had been owned and operated by the city’s Department of Streets and Sanitation since it was built in 1958. The Daley administration sold it in a 99-year concession to an Australian-Spanish consortium for a $1.83 billion.
Global funds thirsty for investment opportunities are driving pressure on privatization schemes. With turmoil in other markets, publicly-owned infrastructure becomes an attractive opportunity. Transparency and democratic control are urgently needed in this sector, said Weber. She pointed out that financial giants like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have unregulated conflicts of interest. After they act as financial advisers urging municipalities to sell their assets, they then collect enormous bonuses on the transactions.
Phineas Baxandall representing the Public Interest Research Group explained why privatization of water systems inevitably leads to higher consumer costs. Investors, he said, don’t purchase assets with upfront money. Rather, they borrow the purchase money, and at higher rates than government agencies typically can get for financing infrastructure repairs. Then, in order to pay back the big loans, the investors raise rates and cut services along with wages and jobs. In the case of the toll road industry, analysts estimate that the tolls must be raised 30 percent to cover the financing costs.
Profiteering from a revenue stream
Baxandall compared the threatened water privatization to the sub-prime mortgage debacle. The dominant business model, he said, is, “You’ve got a revenue stream, a private investor buys it, then wants to cash out quickly. Then,” he continued, “It’s securitized and sold to a thousand investors” who own it but have no stake in running the system well. “Then who’s looking out for the water users?” he asked. The Department of Water’s revenue stream is the $420 million Chicago homeowners and businesses pay in fees.
Alderman Waguespack is seeking support for a modest measure he has introduced in the City Council to slow down the drive to privatization. The Assets Lease Ordinance would require public hearings and financial disclosure before future deals are signed.
Meeting attendees pledged to get the message out through their electronic networks and to approach their aldermen for support of Waguespack’s ordinance.
The room that had filled up even before the scheduled meeting time of 7 p.m. quickly emptied out just before 9 p.m. For those of us who drove, the two-hour maximum time on the parking meter was about to expire.
Chicago River at Lake Michigan, photo by Jay Carriker
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.The chaos of eastern Ukraine has taken a heavy toll on this Soviet-era winery, which once supplied more than half the country
You would not know from Yuri’s calm demeanour, as he describes the bubbles rising in his champagne flute, that that we are only a few miles from the frontlines in eastern Ukraine.
Violence flares in war-weary Ukraine as US dithers and Russia pounces Read more
Protected by more than 80 metres of rich black earth, the Soviet-era winery known for its fizzy cabernet sauvignon and merlot sits beneath the battlefields that, in recent weeks, have seen a fresh wave of violence between Russia-backed separatists and the Ukrainian army.
Despite the unrest, Yuri, who asks for his last name not to be used, continues to host connoisseurs and the curious around Artwinery, a maze of climate-controlled winemaking caves opened in honour of the then Soviet leader Joseph Stalin’s birthday in 1950.
While below ground, the rumbling of armoured vehicles and artillery fire are audible, above, in Bakhmut, a salt-mining city of 80,000 people living 12 miles from the frontlines, the signs of war are omnipresent.
Checkpoints are in place at every entrance to the city. Armed soldiers roam streets scarred by tank tracks. Apartment buildings are spray-painted with the words “bomb shelter” in Russian. Helicopters routinely buzz overhead, delivering wounded troops from flashpoint areas such as Avdiivka to the hospital.
More than 30 civilians and fighters on both sides have been killed and dozens more wounded this year, in the worst outbreak of violence since 2015, which some have linked to Russia being re-energised by Donald Trump’s presidency.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Winemaker Yuri holds a glass of brut up to the light to show its pink colour. Photograph: Christopher Miller/RFE/RL
In the 250,000 sq metre expanse of caves, however, the focus is wine. “You’ll notice it has raspberry on the nose and a taste of blackcurrant with a hint of blackberry,” Yuri says, sampling the rare Krimart red brut sparkling wine that has been made here since the first batch was produced four decades ago.
We are also shown hundreds of thousands of bottles of white, pink and red sparkling wines that ferment for up to three years on racks using French-inspired methods.
It is a hive of activity as 250 workers wearing white aprons zip around on golf carts to monitor the bottling process. The tunnels are painted in a rainbow of pastels “to keep the workers from feeling depressed” while they work underground, explains Viktoria Malyovana, Artwinery’s deputy general manager.
They had 700 employees before the war, she says, but many fled for Russia and other parts of Ukraine when the fighting was heaviest in 2014. Others “went off and joined the war … they traded bottles for bullets”.
Production is also down: since the war broke out three years ago, the winery has produced 10m-12m bottles a year. Malyovana says it made 19m in 2013.
Demand for winery tours, once a popular local attraction, has also slowed, partly because the buses that used to shuttle visitors from separatist-controlled Donetsk no longer run, but mainly because the area is now in the middle of a war zone.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Artwinery used to source 70% of its grapes from the Crimean peninsula before the war broke out. Photograph: Katrina Kollegaeva
Yuri, who has worked at the winery since the early 1990s, shows off a map of the company’s buyers; flagged pins stick out from dozens of cities in countries such as Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Canada, China, Israel, Switzerland, the UK and Germany, its biggest customer.
Russia used to be Artwinery’s largest foreign market, but since the conflict, Kiev and Moscow have been embroiled in a trade war.
Russia’s invasion and annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014 also dealt a devastating blow to Ukraine’s wine industry.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Soldiers tend to tanks near Bakhmut, the city of about 80,000 people where Artwinery is based. Photograph: Gleb Garanich/Reuters
Artwinery used to procure 70% of its grapes from the peninsula, Malyovana says. Its vineyards, bathed in summertime sun and cooled by Black Sea breezes, once produced more than half of Ukraine’s wine.
Today, Artwinery gets almost all its grapes from Ukraine’s steppe zone, the warmer southern regions of Mykolayiv, Kherson and Odessa. Some saperavi grapes come from their native Georgia.
The winery was dealt another blow when Ukraine imposed a law on the “decommunisation” of the country, a move intended to remove visible signs of its Soviet legacy, forcing the winery to change its name.
Until February 2016, Bakhmut was called Artemivsk, named after the Russian revolutionary and Stalin ally Fyodor Sergeyev, better known as Comrade Artem.
A statue of him that stood in the city’s central square was taken down more than a year ago.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest A worker inspects bottles at the Artwinery plant. Many left for the frontlines or fled the region in 2014. Photograph: Christopher Miller/RFE/RL
Amid what Malyovana describes as political pressure from Kiev, Artemivsk Winery changed its name to Artwinery last autumn.
“First, we had problems because of Crimea, and then the war came to us, and now decommunisation,” Malyovana says, adding that the situation has created a “branding nightmare”.
“We have 192 patents in Europe that we have to change. Europeans won’t understand the name change. It is like death for us.”Back in 2012, there was a wave of mergers and acquisitions amongst Drupal agencies.
The most high-profile merger involved four different companies forming Wunderkraut, which now has around 170 team members.
There was also the Phase2 and Treehouse partnership, plus the merger of DrupalConnect and NorthStudio in Canada. And, although they were smaller deals, Acquia picked up Cyrve, Growing Venture Solutions, Drupal Scout and Mollom.
In 2012, acquisitions were so common that they became a community joke.
Fast forward to 2015, and we're seeing a second, much larger round of mergers and acquisitions:
As in 2012, there have been some smaller deals too, including Pantheon acquiring Nodesquirrel and i-Kos acquiring Mogdesign.
My apologies if I've missed any deals. Let me know in the comments and I'll add them to the list.
I'm not an expert in business cycles and couldn't tell you why these deals come in clusters. But it's clear that, right now in 2015, the Drupal ecoystem is undergoing a second wave of consolidation.The XBMC project, which develops a popular open source media center application, announced the release of a major new version last week. XBMC 9.04, which is codenamed Babylon, delivers improved codec compatibility, an enhanced theming system, better Linux support, and many other features.
The XBMC project has its roots in the Xbox Media Player, an MPlayer-based media application that was originally designed for the Xbox video game console. XBMC currently uses its own playback engine that leverages FFMpeg, libdvdcss, and a number of other well-known open source multimedia libraries. Coded primarily in C++, it uses SDL and OpenGL for rendering. XBMC is cross-platform compatible and will run on Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows.
The project is now on a six-month release cycle, which loosely mirrors that of the Ubuntu Linux distribution. The previous version, which was codenamed Atlantis, was released in November. XBMC can play an extremely broad assortment of common codecs and media formats. It also has extensive support for network streaming using a wide range of protocols. It provides a rich theming system—which got many improvements in the latest version—and a plugin framework that allows third-party developers to customize the application using Python scripts.
I've been running XBMC 9.04 since the beta release was made available last month. The new version is highly polished and stable. I have tested it on a Windows XP desktop system, a Mac Mini with OS X Leopard, and an Ubuntu-powered Neuros LINK. It performs well and was able to play high-definition video reasonably on all three computers. I streamed video content from my network storage device and tested several Web-based streaming video services.
XBMC's plugin manager allows users to add new features to the program by downloading third-party scripts from the Internet. These scripts can augment the program's behavior in any number of ways, such as adding support for additional streaming media sources. For example, one of the plugins allows users to stream fansubs of the popular Bleach anime series.
There are several nifty improvements in XBMC 9.04 for Linux users. Hardware accelerated video decoding is now supported on Linux systems that have NVidia graphics cards. The Linux version also gained a D-Bus interface that is compatible with the Media Player Remote Interfacing Specification. This will enable external scripts and tools to programmatically control XBMC via the D-Bus interprocess communication system. This version also introduces support for PulseAudio, a modern Linux sound server (yes, that means you no longer have to kill off the PA process before you run XBMC on Linux).
XBMC vs. Boxee
XBMC is increasingly being displaced by Boxee, a popular XBMC derivative. Boxee offers a simpler and more streamlined user interface, improved support for Web streaming services, integrated social networking features, and a built-in BitTorrent client. Boxee's enhancements are compelling, but the new version of XBMC is still relevant for a number of reasons. XBMC is more robust, especially on the Linux platform. XBMC's library manager and network playback features also seem a bit more reliable in some cases.
XBMC and Boxee have subtly different approaches to user interface design. XBMC's PM3:HD skin is very slick, appealing, and functional, but navigating around the menus can sometimes feel cumbersome. It's cross-style playback control interface feels especially clumsy to me. Boxee's user interface offers less aesthetic grace, but it's more intuitive and consistent with conventional media player UI paradigms.
On Windows, where Boxee is not yet publicly available, XBMC provides a pretty solid alternative to Windows Media Center. XBMC and Boxee do not, however, have built-in DVR capabilities. Users who require recording features will likely prefer Windows Media Center or MythTV.
XBMC delivers a top-notch multimedia experience, an impressive level of extensibility, and a lot of nice platform-specific integration features on each of the supported operating systems. The new release is another step forward for the project and it brings some nice improvements and additional polish.(NaturalNews) European nations are leading the world in rejecting genetically modified organisms in food and crops, with two more countries recently joining the list: Italy and Austria.As reported by, Italian ministries have opted to utilize the newly created European Union rules that permit member countries to opt out of growing GM crops. Austrian officials joined in as well, with both nations making the decision to stop growing eight varieties of GM maize, which essentially amounted to a complete ban on GM crops.The EU's opt-out regulations were implemented earlier this year. They allow member states to decide on their own if they want to continue using GM crops or ban them altogether.As reported by, a number of other countries in the EU have also opted out of GM crops "These new rules proposed by the European Commission provide Wales with the necessary tools to maintain our cautionary approach by allowing us to control the future cultivation of GM crops in Wales," said Welsh Deputy Minister for Farming and Food, Rebecca Evans. "It will allow us to protect the significant investment we have made in our organic sector and safeguard the agricultural land in Wales that is managed under voluntary agri-environment schemes."She added: "Farming and food processing businesses remain the driving force of our rural economy. Our emphasis is on competing on quality, strong branding and adding value through local processing. We, therefore, need to preserve consumer confidence and maintain our focus on a clean, green, natural environment. "In 2013, the Polish government actually adopted a regulation that banned GMO farming in the country, well ahead of the EU action. But once the EU approved its regulation giving member nations the right to ban if they chose, that was more than enough authority for the Polish government to act."Now we no longer have to explain the scientific aspects and we can already relate to social issues," Polish Agriculture Minister Marek Sawicki said at the time of the country's ban.German government officials announced in late September that the country would no longer permit the cultivation of GM crops, as stated by German Agriculture Minister Christian Schmidt.Slovenian Agriculture Minister Dejan Zidan said in announcing the country's ban that "the government adopted the decision for a request for the exclusion of the entire geographical territory of Slovenia for GM maize to the EU, including the already registered variety MON 810 and seven other varieties which are in the process of registration with the European Commission. This allows me to formally send the request as the Ministry of Agriculture in accordance with the law for the exclusion of Slovenia with the regards to the cultivation of GM maize."State Secretary in the Serbian Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection Danilo Golubovic recently announced the country's GMO ban. In making the announcement, Golubovic said the decision was based on a desire to improve public health and safety.This government has decided to burnish its clean and green image by banning GM crops. As noted by's director, Henry Rowlands, "Bulgaria is home to a wide variety of unique flora and fauna and is also the base of many ancient civilizations, it is with this background that Bulgarians know what is at risk when it comes to using an untested and unnecessary technology."European nations that have opted out of growing GM crops thus far are Latvia, France, Austria, Cyprus, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Poland, Germany, Greece, Croatia, Hungary, Slovenia and Italy,reported.Get the biggest daily stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
City legend Mike Doyle last night lost his brave battle for life, aged 64. The Blues stalwart, renowned for his animosity towards United, suffered liver failure.His distraught family had been praying for a miracle after doctors at Tameside Hospital warned them he had become very poorly.Son Scott told the Manchester Evening News: “He was a great footballer, playing hundreds of games for City and England, but to me and the family he was our fantastic dad.”His other son Grant said: “His consultant said he had seen only two patients pull out of this in 25 years. I took dad to the Sporting Chance clinic four years ago, which helped him get off the booze for 18 months.“How does it reach this situation? Well, I guess it’s just what players do. He obviously had a few bob and must have got bored.”Doyle, who played for England on five occasions and was a City captain,made his name in the game with over 500 appearances for the Blues breaking into the all-conquering Joe Mercer-Malcolm Allison team with other youngsters such as Neil Young, Glyn Pardoe and Colin Bell.Known for his sometimes unorthodox defensive play and a knack for goal-scoring, Doyle hit the back of the net for City 40 times.The son of a policeman had a reputation for not backing down either on the pitch or off it.His hatred for United only increased his popularity among the Blues faithful.Doyle lived in Ashton-under-Lyne with his wife, Cheryl, to whom he was married for 43 years, and, as well as sons Grant and Scott, he leaves daughters, Stephanie and Natalie and six grandchildren.Scott said yesterday before his death: “He has been in hospital for seven weeks and we have been told he has badly advanced liver failure and it seems to be an untreatable disease.“He is a grown man and despite all efforts, including going to the Sporting Chance clinic set up by Tony Adams through the PFA, didn’t change his lifestyle.“At the end of the day, it’s his own decision but he has lived life to the full. He’s a great person and a fantastic dad.“He is very poorly indeed and we have all been called three times to say goodbye.“The staff at Tameside Hospital have been fantastic.“The nurses have got fond of my dad and we are all grateful for their superb care.”Scott made headlines himself when he married the daughter of Doyle’s team-mate Pardoe.As well as regular visits from family members, Pardoe, who was Doyle’s best man, had been to see his former colleague and there were calls from former team-mates Mike Summerbee and Tony Book.After leaving City in 1978, he had short spells at Stoke, Bolton and Rochdale before becoming a rep for sports equipment company Slazenger.June 4, 2015 3 min read
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
The media is covering it. Universities are studying it. The government is seeking to regulate it |
, Cruz, Ryan and even the repugnant McConnell, they all put this behind them the week of October 22nd through the 28th. That was the week that salvaged the election for Trump, along with the Senate, and maybe even the House.
While that period ended with James Comey's devastating (if temporary) shot across the bow of Hillary Clinton, Trump could not have taken advantage had he not already been on a bit of a roll. This roll started on the 22nd, at Gettysburg no less, as Trump unveiled his mostly conservative "Contract with the American Voter."
Meanwhile, he and Pence sharpened their message against ObamaCare, which was timely since Obama whined on the 24th that he was not to blame for skyrocketing premiums. (Insurance premiums coming out at election time is proof of a loving God.) Pence was also at the time working behind the scenes with Ryan and Preibus to get everyone on the message that we needed to win everything from president to dog-catcher.
Then on the 26th, Trump pulled his coolest maneuver of the campaign, neatly rolling an astonishing political speech into the ribbon cutting ceremony of a hotel. His "under budget, ahead of schedule" line was nothing short of dazzling, and he no doubt knew that opening a business in the late stages of a campaign would send the perfect message for 2016. Once again, he owned the mainstream media.
I maintain, without fear of contradiction, that this kind of campaign would have never engendered a Never Trump movement to start with. This was damned good stuff, and the entire week was a real turning point. (Does anything smack the Washington Cartel like "under budget, ahead of schedule?" Love it.)
Meanwhile, Wikileaks was continuing their drip drip drip of damning information about the Clinton Crime Family Foundation. This was this week that the "Clinton INC" info about Doug Band was dropped, information that really clarified the RICO style business plan.
So when Comey dropped his bombshell on Hillary on October 28th, Trump (and all Republicans) already had a full week of momentum working in their favor. It was enough, but not by much, to put Trump, and the Senate, over the top. Their late unity play, and Trump's late discipline, brought it all together.
Now Republicans have the White House, the Senate, and the House. They needed the new Trump wing, the party establishment, and the Tea Party-Reagan base voters who are suspicious of Trump to make it happen. We'll need all three to secure the border, repeal ObamaCare, and save the Court as well.
Edmund Wright is a contributor at American Thinker, Breitbart, Newsmax TV and Talk Radio Network. He is author of WTF? How Karl Rove and the Establishment Lost… AgainDoes this triple chocolate nutella fudge look healthy to you?
Surprise!
Or maybe not a surprise, given that this is the healthy dessert blog. But can you believe this melt-in-your-mouth healthy nutella fudge can have absolutely ZERO added sugar? Plus, it can be made in 5 minutes flat!
Healthy, easy, and chocolate. Best of both all worlds.
Healthy Nutella Fudge
(gluten-free and no-bake!)
1/4 cup coconut butter, melted
1/4 cup chocolate hazelnut spread or Homemade Healthy Nutella
1-2 tsp cocoa powder or cacao powder
65g very ripe banana – about 1/4 a large banana
1/8 tsp salt
sugar or sweetener of choice, if desired (Some people want it; others don’t)
Healthy Nutella Fudge Recipe: Combine all ingredients in a food processor or blender. (It’s best if the coconut butter is not solid, and if you use a frozen banana be sure to thaw so it doesn’t harden the coconut butter.) After blending, taste to see if you’d like to add any sweetener. Scoop into a container or even a little pie pan, and put in the fridge or freezer so it will firm up. (Alternatively, you can eat it soft, like frosting!) If desired, top with chocolate chips and extra Healthier Nutella (recipe linked above) like I did in the top two photos. This is freezer fudge, so it needs to be kept cold. It makes a small serving, but feel free to double or triple the recipe!
View Nutrition Facts & Substitutions
Other Healthy Fudge Flavors:
Sugar Free Chocolate Fudge
Healthy Peanut Butter Fudge
Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge
Do you like surprises, or do you hate not being in control?
Obviously, no one likes bad surprises. But if you’re a control freak or hate change, even good surprises might stress you out by interfering with your well-laid plans.
For me, it depends. My 16th birthday was a surprise party, and it was one of the best nights of my life. Or, if I’m expecting an early night, and a friend calls up and want to go out, I’m usually excited for the last-minute change of plans. However, when I read about husbands surprising their wives with spur-of-the-moment trips, I know I would hate that. If I’m going on a trip, I’d prefer to know well in advance so I can pack accordingly!
Chocolate surprises? They’re always good. I mean the edible ones, not the ones Batman keeps leaving on the rug! 😕
No ratings yet.The Evolution Of The Michael Jordan Crying Face Meme
Enlarge this image toggle caption Stephan Savoia/AP Stephan Savoia/AP
No matter which teams win or lose in this weekend's NCAA tournament Final Four games, at the final whistle, there will inevitably be one iconic, unavoidable face.
It will be Michael Jordan's. And it will be crying.
The meme of the basketball legend's tear-stained countenance is the sports world's go-to symbol of sadness in defeat, so expect to see at least a few renditions of Jordan's watery mug superimposed onto losing players, losing fans, losing mascots, losing coaches, or anyone or anything else who is at all associated with a loss.
If you're not on Twitter and have no idea what I'm talking about (Mom, this is for you) here's the deal: In 2009, when Jordan was inducted into basketball's hall of fame, he delivered an infamous, often-rambling, very emotional speech. An image of his face — eyes swimming, cheeks glistening — was turned into a meme some years later. The Internet, especially Twitter users, latched on tight, employing it to comment on any number of sports failures.
Golden State Warriors' win streak ends:
Vikings kicker Blair Walsh misses a game-winning field goal:
N.Y. Mets lose in the World Series:
New England Patriots lose:
Since the meme took off in early 2015, people have used it to express disappointment, mock opponents, gloat — and, increasingly, not just regarding sports. The website Complex compiled a list in March 2015, called "The Definitive Guide to Using the Michael Jordan Crying Meme," that suggested use in such instances as "When Your Mom Eats Your Halloween Candy," "When Your Barber Laughs at Your Hairline," and other less family-friendly scenarios. Vice Sports went meta, tacking MJ's crying face onto actual photos of Michael Jordan in a post titled "Stunning Photos of Michael Jordan, Ruined By Crying MJ Face." The Huffington Post published a printable cutout of the sad Jordan face to use as a Halloween mask.
The meme had such clout that the Arizona Cardinals even used it to troll themselves when they were getting trounced by the Carolina Panthers in last season's NFC Championship game.
Crying Jordan could not be stopped. Its pervasiveness expanded to politics, the lottery and a certain unfortunate courtroom sketch.
In an online environment where trends come and go in the span of hours, only a handful of memes reach the level of ubiquity necessary for Internet immortality. The MJ crying face, as it's come to be known, is one of them.
Is it funny? Yes, for its obvious absurdity, but also for the anticipation of seeing how the meme will be deployed — that's been as much a part of the fun as actually seeing it pop up on social media.
Yet as more and more people have glommed onto the joke, plastering the meme everywhere in hopes of getting a retweet, the usage of sad Jordan has become less creative and therefore less funny.
For example, take this edition of Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo after the team's upset loss to Middle Tennessee State in the first round of this year's NCAA tourney.
The meme was as predictable as the 2-seed's early tournament upset was unexpected. There's nothing special about it, except the craftsmanship — take a moment to admire the seamless merging of Jordan's face and Izzo's head.
At certain points, when Twitter timelines were especially saturated, users called for the meme to be retired.
There was hopeful speculation that MJ crying face would drop off in 2016, though that didn't pan out, as Jordan's son Marcus ruefully surmised in January.
Even recent questions about possible copyright infringement for using and sharing the meme haven't dampened enthusiasm for the sad Jordan face. The Associated Press took the original photo and could take legal action to protect the image's copyright, ESPN reported.
"We own the rights in our photo, which was taken in 2009," AP spokesman Paul Colford wrote in an email to ESPN. "We could enforce those rights depending on the use and other factors, as is the case with all AP photos."
A spokesperson for Jordan said he was aware of the meme's popularity, according to The Chicago Tribune.
"I don't recall when we first started noticing it — everything explodes so quickly on the Internet, and suddenly it was everywhere. Everyone seems to be having fun with the meme, and it just keeps going," Estee Portnoy told the Tribune. "We haven't seen anyone using it to promote their commercial interests, which is something that we're monitoring."
The lawyers had better stay on their toes, because the MJ crying meme endures.My compiler students are getting to the point where they should be deep in writing a parser for their language. Walking back from lunch, I was thinking about some very simple things they could do to make their lives -- and project -- better.
1. Start.
Yes, start. If you read the literature of the agile software development world or even of the life hacker world, people talk about the great power that comes just from taking the first step. I've always loved the old Goethe quote about the power of committing to a course of action. But isn't this all cliché?
It is so easy to put off tracing your language grammar, or building those FIRST and FOLLOW sets, or attacking what you know will be a massive parsing table. It is so easy to be afraid of writing the first line of code because you aren't sure what the whole app will look like.
Take the first step, however small and however scary. I'm always amazed how much more motivated I feel once I break the seal on a big task and have some real feedback from my client or my compiler.
2. Always have live code.
Live code is always better than ideas in your head. Brian Marick tells us so. One of the Gmail guys tells us so:
We did a lot of things wrong during the 2.5 years of pre-launch Gmail development, but one thing we did very right was to always have live code....
Of course none of the code from my prototype ever made it near the real product (thankfully), but that code did something that fancy arguments couldn't do (at least not my fancy arguments), it showed that the idea and product had real potential.
Your code can tell which ideas are good ones and which are bad ones. It can teach you about the app you are building. It can help you learn what your user wants.
I hear this all the time from students: "We have a pretty good handle on this, but no code yet." Sounds good, but... Live code can convince your professor that you really have done something. It can also help you ask questions and be submitted on the due date. Don't underestimate the value in that.
As Buchheit says from the Gmail experience, spend less time talking and more time prototyping. You may not be Google, but you can realize the same benefits as those guys. And with version control you don't have to worry about taking the wrong step; you can always back up.
3. Don't forget what you know.
Okay, I have to admit that this did not occur to me on my walk home form lunch. This afternoon, a former student and local entrepreneur gave a department seminar on web app security. He twice mentioned that many of the people he hires have learned many useful skills in object-oriented design and software engineering, using system languages such as Java and Ada. When they get to his shop, they are programming in a scripting language such as PHP. "And they throw away all they know!" They stop using the OOP principles and patterns they have learned. They stop documenting code and testing. It's as if scripting occurs in a different universe.
As he pointed out after the talk, all of those skills and techniques and practices matter just as much -- no, more -- when using a language with many power tools, few boundaries, and access to all of his and his clients' data and filesystem.
When building a compiler in class, or any other large-scale team project in a capstone course, all of those skills and techniques and practices matter, too, and sometimes for the first time in student's career. This is likely the largest and most sophisticated program they have ever written. It is the first time they have ever had to depend on one or two or five other students to get done, to understand and work with others' code, to turn their own code other for the understanding and use of their teammates.
There is a reason that you are learning all this stuff. It's for the project you are working on right now.COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A consultant hired to score medical marijuana license applications worked for businesses owned by a company awarded one of the state's 12 large marijuana grow licenses.
Keoki Wing, chief financial officer for Arizona-based firm Meade & Wing, LLC, worked for Nature Med Inc. and AOW Management, until July 2016, according to his LinkedIn profile. The two medical marijuana businesses are or were owned by the president and CEO of Arizona-based Harvest, whose Ohio subsidiary Harvest Grows, LLC was the 12th business awarded an Ohio "level I" cultivation license late last month.
Wing's time working for the businesses overlapped with his work as a consultant at Meade & Wing, according to his profile.
Meade & Wing principal Jason Meade wrote in its application for the consulting contract that the firm helped a troubled grower and dispensary in Marana, Arizona, as evidence it met the department's requirements for scoring consultants. Nature Med was the only grower and dispensary registered in Marana at the time, according to Arizona records.
The Ohio Department of Commerce, which oversees the growing, processing and testing parts of Ohio's medical marijuana program, required reviewers to self-disclose any current or future relationships with applicants for medical marijuana licenses, a spokeswoman said Monday.
The spokeswoman did not answer questions about whether the department knew of Meade & Wing's ties to Harvest Grows.
The department hired Meade & Wing and two other consultants earlier this year to assist in scoring license applications. Each would be paid up to $150,000 for its services.
Meade & Wing has been paid $43,971 from the department this year, according to state expenditure records.
The department said last week it did not know another consultant, Trevor Bozeman of iCann Consulting, LLC, had a felony marijuana conviction in 2005. The same offense would have barred Bozeman from working in Ohio's medical marijuana industry.
Department said it "vetted" conflicts of interest
Justin Hunt, chief operating officer for the Ohio Medical Marijuana Control Program, said in June that the department vetted each consultant to make sure there was no conflict of interest prior to the application review process.
"To the best of the department's knowledge, the contractors that will be reviewing and scoring the cultivator applications do not have a conflict of interest," Hunt told the Ohio Controlling Board on June 12, when the department was collecting cultivator applications.
Hunt said the department would do the "same vetting process" moving forward if any potential conflicts of interest arose. Hunt said in July that the department did not plan to use a third consultant hired to help process applications, Illinois-based B&B Grow, to score cultivators because the department "only needed two."
Late Monday, a department spokeswoman said B&B was not used because it self-identified a conflict of interest with an applicant.
Department spokeswoman Kerry Francis said they anticipated reviewers would know applicants because legal marijuana is "a small, emerging industry."
"Tracking down every possible past relationship would be impossible and would ultimately prevent us from hiring virtually anyone," Francis said.
Francis said that's why the more than 20 reviewers worked on teams of three and identifiable information was excluded from applications.
"The scoring process anticipated conflicts of interest by shielding applicants' names from reviewers," Francis said. "Reviewers and applicants were both put on notice in advance that inappropriate final relationships could jeopardize payments and licenses."
However, Wing and Meade were on the same team of three reviewers looking at applicants' operations plans, according to information obtained from the department through a public records request.
And despite the "blind" application process, cleveland.com was able to identify owners, companies and states involved in some applications because of the details included. In some cases, biographies for owners and employees were paraphrased or copied from their business websites.
Business ties
Wing lists work as general manager of Nature Med from September 2013 to June 2015 and horticulture director from October 2015 to July 2016 on his LinkedIn profile.
Wing was quoted in a September 2014 Tuscon Weekly article as the manager of Nature Med's dispensary.
Harvest CEO Steve White is also president of Nature Med, according to Arizona business incorporation records.
Wing's LinkedIn profile also lists work as an operations specialist for AOW Management from May 2015 to July 2016 and facility operations manager of Cottonwood Agricultural Services from June to November 2015.
Touraj Jason Vedadi is registered as the manager of both marijuana cultivation companies. AOW Management registered as a principal of Nature Med in August 2015.
White and Vedadi merged their companies under the Harvest banner earlier this year, announced in a July press release from the company. Harvest claims to have 30 medical marijuana licenses in five states.
Ohio winner
White serves as the CEO of Harvest Grows, LLC, an Ohio company that applied to grow medical marijuana at sites in Cleveland and Lawrence County. White incorporated the Ohio company in June, according to state records.
The company's application listed Ariane Kirkpatrick, an African-American woman from Northeast Ohio who owns construction company AKA Team, as the company's majority owner. The rest of the company owners and officers work for the Arizona company, according to the company's application.
Kirkpatrick owns 51 percent of the company, according to the application. That's the minimum required to apply the state's definition of minority-owned.
Harvest Grows' application scored 142.04 points -- the 29th highest score out of 98 applicants. But the Department of Commerce awarded a license to Harvest Grows and another minority-owned company, Parma Wellness, to satisfy the law's requirement that 15 percent of all marijuana business licenses go to minorities.
Consultant group
Meade & Wing, LLC is composed of Jason Meade, his wife, Mindy Meade, and Keoki Wing and based out of Tuscon, Arizona, according to documents filed with the state. The three all worked for The Green Halo dispensary in Tuscon in 2013, according to their LinkedIn resumes and a resume posted to a profile for Mindy Meade on a marijuana job website.
Meade & Wing said it had assisted medical marijuana companies in several states since 2011 in its May 2017 cover letter for the Ohio consulting bid, which was obtained through a public records request. In the same bid response, Meade & Wing stated the company had been in service for four years.
Arizona business records show the company was incorporated in June 2014.
Jason and Mindy Meade lived in Ohio prior to 2011. Jason Meade was a plant scheduler for A. Schulman, an Akron manufacturing company. He ran for Ohio's 13th Congressional District in 2010 as a tea party Republican and lost in the primary.Photo
Hidden inside the skeletons of high-rise towers, extra steel bracing, giant rubber pads and embedded hydraulic shock absorbers make modern Japanese buildings among the sturdiest in the world during a major earthquake. And all along the Japanese coast, tsunami warning signs, towering seawalls and well-marked escape routes offer some protection from walls of water.
These precautions, along with earthquake and tsunami drills that are routine for every Japanese citizen, show why Japan is the best-prepared country in the world for the twin disasters of earthquake and tsunami — practices that undoubtedly saved lives, though the final death toll is unknown.
In Japan, where earthquakes are far more common than they are in the United States, the building codes have long been much more stringent on specific matters like how much a building may sway during a quake.
After the Kobe earthquake in 1995, which killed about 6,000 people and injured 26,000, Japan also put enormous resources into new research on protecting structures, as well as retrofitting the country’s older and more vulnerable structures. Japan has spent billions of dollars developing the most advanced technology against earthquakes and tsunamis.
Japan has gone much further than the United States in outfitting new buildings with advanced devices called base isolation pads and energy dissipation units to dampen the ground’s shaking during an earthquake.
The isolation devices are essentially giant rubber-and-steel pads that are installed at the very bottom of the excavation for a building, which then simply sits on top of the pads. The dissipation units are built into a building’s structural skeleton. They are hydraulic cylinders that elongate and contract as the building sways, sapping the motion of energy.
Of course, nothing is entirely foolproof. Structural engineers monitoring the events from a distance cautioned that the death toll was likely to rise as more information became available. Dr. Jack Moehle, a structural engineer at the University of California, Berkeley, said that video of the disaster seemed to show that some older buildings had indeed collapsed.
The country that gave the world the word tsunami, especially in the 1980s and 1990s, built concrete seawalls in many communities, some as high as 40 feet, which amounted to its first line of defense against the water. In some coastal towns, in the event of an earthquake, networks of sensors are set up to set off alarms in individual residences and automatically shut down floodgates to prevent waves from surging upriver.
Critics of the seawalls say they are eyesores and bad for the environment. The seawalls, they say, can instill a false sense of security among coastal residents and discourage them from participating in regular evacuation drills. Moreover, by literally cutting residents’ visibility of the ocean, the seawalls reduce their ability to understand the sea by observing wave patterns, critics say.
Waves from Friday’s tsunami spilled over some seawalls in the affected areas. “The tsunami roared over embankments in Sendai city, washing cars, houses and farm equipment inland before reversing directions and carrying them out to sea,” according to a statement by a Japanese engineer, Kit Miyamoto, circulated by the American Society of Civil Engineers. “Flames shot from some of the houses, probably because of burst gas pipes.”
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But Japan’s “massive public education program” could in the end have saved the most lives, said Rich Eisner, a retired tsunami preparedness expert who was attending a conference on the topic at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Md., on Friday.
In one town, Ofunato, which was struck by a major tsunami in 1960, dozens of signs in Japanese and English mark escape routes, and emergency sirens are tested three times a day, Mr. Eisner said.
Initial reports from Ofunato on Friday suggested that hundreds of homes had been swept away; the death toll was not yet known. But Matthew Francis of URS Corporation and a member of the civil engineering society’s tsunami subcommittee, said that education may have been the critical factor.
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“For a trained population, a matter of 5 or 10 minutes is all you may need to get to high ground,” Mr. Francis said.
That would be in contrast to the much less experienced Southeast Asians, many of whom died in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami because they lingered near the coast. Reports in the Japanese news media indicate that people originally listed as missing in remote areas have been turning up in schools and community centers, suggesting that tsunami education and evacuation drills were indeed effective.
Unlike Haiti, where shoddy construction vastly increased the death toll last year, or China, where failure to follow construction codes worsened the death toll in the devastating 2008 Sichuan earthquake, Japan enforces some of the world’s most stringent building codes. Japanese buildings tend to be much stiffer and stouter than similar structures in earthquake-prone areas in California as well, said Mr. Moehle, the Berkeley engineer: Japan’s building code allows for roughly half as much sway back and forth at the top of a high rise during a major quake.
The difference, Mr. Moehle said, comes about because the United States standard is focused on preventing collapse, while in Japan — with many more earthquakes — the goal is to prevent any major damage to the buildings because of the swaying.
New apartment and office developments in Japan flaunt their seismic resistance as a marketing technique, a fact that has accelerated the use of the latest technologies, said Ronald O. Hamburger, a structural engineer in the civil engineering society and Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, a San Francisco engineering firm.
“You can increase the rents by providing a sort of warranty — ‘If you locate here you’ll be safe,’ ” Mr. Hamburger said.
Although many older buildings in Japan have been retrofitted with new bracing since the Kobe quake, there are many rural residences of older construction that are made of very light wood that would be highly vulnerable to damage. The fate of many of those residences is still unknown.
Mr. Miyamoto, the Japanese engineer, described a nation in chaos as the quake also damaged or disabled many elements of the transportation system. He said that he and his family were on a train near the Ikebukuro station when the earthquake struck. Writing at 1:30 a.m., he said that “we are still not far from where the train stopped.”
“Japan Railway actually closed down the stations and sent out all commuters into the cold night,” he said. “They announced that they are concerned about structural safety. Continuous aftershocks make me feel like car sickness as my family and I walk on the train tracks.”So you've decided to cancel your cable subscription -- maybe you're tired of all the shady crap these companies have been pulling recently, or maybe you figured out how to use that Netflixster thing your grandkids keep telling you about. In any case, well done! Now you don't have to put up with their ridiculous bullshit anymore!
4 Canceling Your Subscription Is Absurdly Difficult Canceling Your Subscription Is Absurdly Difficult
Say you want to leave Comcast, so you decide to handle this the same way you'd end a relationship: through the Internet, obviously. After all, just a few clicks on Comcast's site can you get you a subscription, so it should be equally easy to opt out, right? Nope, for that you have to call a representative, who, as this recorded call that went viral last week shows, might hassle you for 10 minutes to try to get you to stay. If your monitor doesn't have a fist-shaped hole by the time you reach minute two of that recording, you're a better person than us.
mountaindweller/iStock/Getty Images
Minute five.
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Why's the customer service representative pleading like an unseen hit man has a gun to his head? Because he's going to be in Comcast's shithouse if he lets the canceling customer -- whose call he took out of sheer fucking kismet -- waltz off without his account intact. The most the employee can do is scream out an infinite labyrinth of words and pray the customer becomes bored, confused, or frustrated enough to keep the damn account. (That, or starve to death.)
[inject-module]
And it's not just a Comcast problem. Back in 2006, one AOL representative famously tried to get a canceling customer's father on the line to cajole him into staying with AOL. Time Warner sweet talks you when you try to leave, but once you say no, they go from "I promise I'll change, babe!" to "YOU'LL PAY, MOTHERFUCKER" -- as in, you'll literally have to keep paying them unless you physically return your cable box to one of their offices, which of course involves putting up with limited hours and DMV-level line length. Comcast does this, too, by the way, and it's no coincidence: These companies know their customers hate them, so they try to make leaving them as inconvenient as possible.Ronald Grant Archive
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THAT genius is unusual goes without saying. But is it so unusual that it requires the brains of those that possess it to be unusual in others ways, too? A link between artistic genius on the one hand and schizophrenia and manic-depression on the other, is widely debated. However another link, between savant syndrome and autism, is well established. It is, for example, the subject of films such as “Rain Man”, illustrated above.
A study published this week by Patricia Howlin of King's College, London, reinforces this point. It suggests that as many as 30% of autistic people have some sort of savant-like capability in areas such as calculation or music. Moreover, it is widely acknowledged that some of the symptoms associated with autism, including poor communication skills and an obsession with detail, are also exhibited by many creative types, particularly in the fields of science, engineering, music, drawing and painting. Indeed, there is now a cottage industry in re-interpreting the lives of geniuses in the context of suggestions that they might belong, or have belonged, on the “autistic spectrum”, as the range of syndromes that include autistic symptoms is now dubbed.
So what is the link? And can an understanding of it be used to release flashes of genius in those whose brains are, in the delightfully condescending term used by researchers in the area, “neurotypical”? Those were the questions addressed by papers (one of them Dr Howlin's) published this week in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. The society, Britain's premier scientific club and the oldest scientific body in the world, produces such transactions from time to time, to allow investigators in particular fields to chew over the state of the art. The latest edition is the outcome of a conference held jointly with the British Academy (a similar, though younger, organisation for the humanities and social sciences) last September.
A standard diagnosis of autism requires three things to be present in an individual. Two of these three, impairments in social interaction and in communication with other people, are the results of autists lacking empathy or, in technical jargon, a “theory of mind”. In other words they cannot, as even fairly young neurotypicals can, put themselves in the position of another being and ask themselves what that other is thinking. The third criterion, however, is that a person has what are known as restrictive and repetitive behaviours and interests, or RRBI, in the jargon.
Until recently, the feeling among many researchers was that the first two features were crucial to someone becoming a savant. The idea was that mental resources which would have been used for interaction and communication could be redeployed to develop expertise in some arbitrary task. Now, though, that consensus is shifting. Several of the volume's authors argue that it is the third feature, RRBI, that permits people to become savants.
Francesca Happé of King's College, London, is one of them. As she observes, obsessional interests and repetitive behaviours would allow someone to practice, albeit inadvertently, whichever skill they were obsessed by. Malcolm Gladwell, in a book called “Outliers” which collated research done on outstanding people, suggested that anyone could become an expert in anything by practising for 10,000 hours. It would not be hard for an autistic individual to clock up that level of practice for the sort of skills, such as mathematical puzzles, that many neurotypicals would rapidly give up on.
Many, but not all. Dr Happé has drawn on a study of almost 13,000 individual twins to show that childhood talent in fields such as music and art is often associated with RRBIs, even in those who are not diagnosed as classically autistic. She speculates that the abilities of savants in areas that neurotypicals tend to find pointless or boring may result from an ability to see differences where a neurotypical would see only similarities. As she puts it, “the child with autism who would happily spend hours spinning coins, or watching drops of water fall from his fingers, might be considered a connoisseur, seeing minute differences between events that others regard as pure repetition.”
Simon Baron-Cohen, a doyen of the field who works at Cambridge University, draws similar conclusions. He suggests the secret of becoming a savant is “hyper-systematising and hyper-attention to detail”. But he adds sensory hypersensitivity to the list. His team have shown one example of this using what is known as the Freiburg visual acuity and contrast test, which asks people to identify the gap in a letter “c” presented in four different orientations. Those on the autistic spectrum do significantly better at this than do neurotypicals. That might help explain Dr Happé's observations about coins and raindrops.
Insight, too, is given by autists themselves. Temple Grandin is a professor of animal science at Colorado State University. She also writes about her experience of being autistic. As she describes in the volume, one of the differences she perceives between her experience and that of most neurotypicals is that she thinks in images. She says her mind is like an internet search engine that searches for photographs. To form concepts, she sorts these pictures into categories. She does not, however, claim that all autistic people think like this. To the contrary, she describes two other sorts: pattern thinkers who excel at maths and music, and verbal specialists who are good at talking and writing, but lack visual skills. The latter might not qualify as autistic under a traditional diagnosis, but slip into the broader autistic spectrum.
The question of how the autistic brain differs physically from that of neurotypicals was addressed by Manuel Casanova of the University of Louisville, in Kentucky. Dr Casanova has spent many years dissecting both. His conclusion is that the main difference is in the structure of the small columns of nerve cells that are packed together to form the cerebral cortex. The cortical columns of those on the autistic spectrum are narrower than those of neurotypicals, and their cells are organised differently.
The upshot of these differences is that the columns in an autistic brain seem to be more connected than normal with their close neighbours, and less connected with their distant ones. Though it is an interpretative stretch, that pattern of connection might reduce a person's ability to generalise (since disparate data are less easily integrated) and increase his ability to concentrate (by drawing together similar inputs).
Given such anatomical differences, then, what hope is there for the neurotypical who would like to be a savant? Some, possibly. There are examples of people suddenly developing extraordinary skills in painting and music in adult life as a result of brain damage caused by accidents or strokes. That, perhaps, is too high a price to pay. But Allan Snyder of the University of Sydney has been able to induce what looks like a temporary version of this phenomenon using magnetism.
Dr Snyder argues that savant skills are latent in everyone, but that access to them is inhibited in non-savants by other neurological processes. He is able to remove this inhibition using a technique called repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation.
Applying a magnetic field to part of the brain disrupts the electrical activity of the nerve cells for a few seconds. Applying such a field repeatedly can have effects that last for an hour or so. The technique has been approved for the treatment of depression, and is being tested against several other conditions, including Parkinson's disease and migraines. Dr Snyder, however, has found that stimulating an area called the left anterior temporal lobe improves people's ability to draw things like animals and faces from memory. It helps them, too, with other tasks savants do famously well—proofreading, for example, and estimating the number of objects in a large group, such as a pile of match sticks. It also reduces “false” memories (savants tend to remember things literally, rather than constructing a mnemonic narrative and remembering that).
There are, however, examples of people who seem very neurotypical indeed achieving savant-like skills through sheer diligence. Probably the most famous is that of London taxi drivers, who must master the Knowledge—ie, the location of 25,000 streets, and the quickest ways between them—to qualify for a licence.
The expert here is Eleanor Maguire of University College, London, who famously showed a few years ago that the shape of the hippocampus, a part of the brain involved in long-term learning, changes in London cabbies. Dr Maguire and her team have now turned their attention to how cabbies learn the Knowledge.
The prodigious geographical knowledge of the average cabbie is, indeed, savant-like. But Dr Maguire recently found that it comes at a cost. Cabbies, on average, are worse than random control subjects and—horror—also worse than bus drivers, at memory tests such as word-pairing. Surprisingly, that is also true of their general spatial memory. Nothing comes for nothing, it seems, and genius has its price.
Savant syndrome, then, is a case where the politically correct euphemism “differently abled” has real meaning. The conclusion that should be drawn, perhaps, is not that neurotypicals |
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All this and more is yours for FREE!Mayor sets the record straight after being asked by a journalist whether his visit to Pakistan felt like ‘coming home’
Sadiq Khan had a quick response when asked by a BBC reporter whether his visit to Pakistan was “like coming home”, replying: “No, home is south London, mate.”
The mayor of London, on a visit to Pakistan and India, smiled when asked the question but was keen to set the record straight.
Khan’s parents moved from Pakistan to England in the 1960s, and while standing for mayor he frequently referenced his south London upbringing and in particular the fact that his father drove a number 44 bus.
He grew up in Tooting and was elected as the area’s MP in 2005. But the BBC reporter Karl Mercer asked Khan as he crossed over the border from India into Pakistan: “Does it feel like coming home?”
After making clear that was not what he was doing, the mayor elaborated on his emotional connection to the region. “It’s good to be in Pakistan, it’s good to come from India, home of my parents and grandparents. Obviously there’s an emotional connection for me, bearing in mind my connections to this great part of the world.”
Khan became the first Muslim mayor of an EU capital city when he was elected in 2016, having fended off attempts by the Conservative campaign – widely discredited and criticised – to link him to Islamic extremists. Labour claimed the attacks on Khan were dog-whistle racism.
His public profile and popularity have led to him being spoken of as a possible future Labour leader, but while in Pakistan he ruled out that prospect. Khan told ITV: “I never had ambitions in the first place and I’ve got no ambitions now. I love being the mayor. Why give up a job I love to do a job I don’t want? I’m absolutely ruling myself out. Forever.”
Defending Mercer’s question, a BBC spokesman said: “Our reporter asked the mayor a question in the context of the trip being referred to by senior politicians in the region as a homecoming. The full answer the mayor gave shows he understood the context of the question.”As far as peripherals go, keyboards come in a huge variety of technologies and we don't realise how they differ - we're talking membrane keyboards, dome-switch keyboard, scissor-swwitch keyboard, capacitity keyboard, buckling-spring keyboard, Hall-effect keyboard, laser keyboard and the good old mechanical-switch keyboard.Mechanical keyboards are different than others because it uses separate switches for every key, with each having its own base, spring and stem.This technology obviously makes keyboards heavier but on the other hand makes it easier for typists to receive feedback, both mechanical and audible.Rapoo created the KX, a mechanical keyboard that packs lots of features in a single package. It uses mechanical technology, has backlit keys, works either connected via USB cable or wirelessly with a USB nano receiver, it is rechargeable via USB and a backlit touch sensitive strip is used to save space while providing access to function keys that double as media keys.It is a lot of features for a small keyboard: it doesn't have a numerical keypad, so it fits in smaller desks and work environments. It doesn't has a trackpad either (which is something I will be looking at soon with another Rapoo keyboard).As above you can use the Rapoo KX either via a USB cable or wirelessly with its USB nano receiver. The keyboard comes with an internal rechargeable, non-user replaceable battery. Battery life is ok and lasted around a week with some daily use.You can adjust the key backlight to three levels: off, medium, high. I rather used it off during the day as the white backlight would make some of the keys "invisible". At night it is better to use the backlight - obviously each user will have a difference. Switching is very eassy, through the Fn-Tab keys combination.Keys have a small slant on their faces and feel good to touch.They are certainly not as high as the ones found in other, cheaper keyboards around in the market today.Function keys double as media keys when used with the Fn key. These are located on a dark plastic strip. The keys may be a bit hard to find since they are only illuminated when you press them. They provide audible and haptic feedback when used, which is pretty good.A small driver is available that will let you change the function keys settings - you can disable the key completely or assign Windows functions, macros or even shortcuts to go directly to one of Facebook pages. It's very easy to use and minimalist in its UI.Like many mechanical keyboards it can be a bit noisier than other technologies but it is all part of the feedback you receive when typing. The key travel distance is pretty good, at around 3 - 4mm, and the face is a brushed aluminium, which makes it easier to maintain and clean.A pair of rubber feet helps adjust the keyboard angle and overall it is pretty comfortable to work with. Even so you have to be prepared: adapting to a different keyboard may take a couple of days and using a mechnical keyboard may feel "strange" at the beginning.This is certainly a keyboard for those with small spaces, or for those who feel they need better feedback when typing long pieces.With the help of 10 college interns, the institute focused on two primary sites: the yard of a resident named Nancy Moore, and the home of William G. Wilson, a sexton at All Angels’ Episcopal Church, both of whom were black. Records show that Mr. Wilson and his wife, Charlotte, had eight children and lived in a three-story wood-frame house.
The holes, which were up to six feet deep, revealed stone foundation walls and myriad artifacts, including what appeared to be an iron tea kettle and a roasting pan (now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for conservation), a stoneware beer bottle and fragments of Chinese export porcelain.
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But perhaps the most powerful find, at least for the archaeology interns, was a small shoe with a leather sole and fabric upper. Possibly belonging to a child, the shoe was a reminder that the work uncovered real lives.
“It’s just such an intimate thing,” said Madeline Landry, a junior anthropology major at Barnard College, who found herself choked up by the discovery. “That shoe fit someone who walked around here.”
The former yard of Nancy Moore contained the original soil of Seneca Village, in contrast to Mr. Wilson’s property, which appeared to have been dug up and filled during the park’s construction. Thus, in Ms. Moore’s yard, the interns found a number of items that might have been discarded, including fragments of two clay pipes, as well as bones from animals that had been butchered.
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The institute also plans to put the dirt under a microscope; such scrutiny could show seeds, pollen and other organic matter. Diana diZerega Wall, a professor of anthropology at City College, said, “You can tell what they were growing in their gardens and what the environment was like in general.”
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For Cynthia R. Copeland, an adjunct professor at New York University’s school of education, the artifacts promise to shed new light on Seneca Village. In 1997, she helped curate an exhibition on the community at the New-York Historical Society.
“The vast array of materials that we uncovered really gives us a true sense of a strong, stable community,” she said. Digging in a park with 38 million visitors a year had its special challenges, however. The institute hired round-the-clock guards to ensure that the sites were not disturbed. The Central Park Conservancy, the nonprofit group that manages the park, asked the archaeologists to fill the holes and haul away their equipment each day.
Douglas Blonsky, the conservancy’s president, does not seem too worried that the project will lead to more requests for exploration. He gave his blessing to the dig after being worn down by the group’s professionalism and patience. “The project team put in a decade of research and preparation before putting a shovel to soil,” he said.
The institute would like to eventually mount an exhibition based on the dig, but plans to hold an open house at the site on Aug. 24. For its part, the conservancy plans to work with the institute to create some kind of educational display there. As for an encore excavation, Dr. Wall said one was possible. “This site isn’t going anywhere,” she said. “It’s in the bank.”This photo taken Nov. 21, 2013 shows then-newly-elected Rep. Vance McAllister (R-La.) waiting to be sworn in on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Embattled Rep. Vance McAllister (R-La.) announced Monday morning that he will run for another term, reversing course from his earlier decision to step aside amid a personal scandal earlier this year.
"Without a doubt this decision comes after much thought and prayer," McAllister said in a statement. "This district has been home to me and my family all of my life. I know the needs of this congressional district very well. I also know that this district needs a strong, conservative voice in congress. I plan to continue to stand up for our veterans, bring common sense solutions to our nation's problems and most importantly I will fight to get our fiscal house back in order."
The congressman received widespread criticism after a video surfaced in April of him kissing a member of his staff who has since left his office. The married congressman said earlier this year that he would not run for reelection. But in recent weeks, he started to re-open the door to another campaign.
In an interview with the News-Star newspaper of Monroe, McAllister said he will not talk about the scandal in his campaign.
"I’ve publicly apologized to the people in the 5th District and more importantly worked through it with my family,” he said. “I’ve said all I’m going to say about it. Now it’s up to the voters.”
McAllister will face several competitors for the GOP nomination in his conservative-leaning 5th district. Republican Zach Dasher, the nephew of "Duck Dynasty" star Phil Robertson, is running for the seat. That's notable because McAllister won a special election last year with the support of Willie Robertson, Phil Robertson's son, who cut an ad for him. The 5th district is home to the Robertson family.
Other Republicans have also entered the race.
McAllister's decision goes against the grain of many top Republican leaders who'd prefer he leave office. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) called on McAllister to resign in April when his scandal erupted.Originally Posted by Michael Brookes (Source) Originally Posted by
Hi everyone,
update 1.1.02 is incoming at 4pm GMT. The servers will be down for up to 30 minutes during the update. The following changes are in the update:
Client changes:
- Collision damage tweak - Restore the check that prevented multiple lumps of damage from the same collision. Also make the damage split based on mass slightly more exaggerated
- Stop point defence turrets from targetting their parent ship's missiles/mines
- Fix issue with multiple controllers enabled and not recognising them all
- Fix matchmaking issue for comms when UDP hole punching fails
- Fix disconnect issue when a resend message is lost (fails and retries getting out of sync)
- Remove some unneeded telemetry in supercruise - it was causing some stutters
Server changes:
- Commanders with at least one Elite rank should receive a 2.5% discount at all shipyards and outfitting shops
- Backers who backed at the Founder level or above should receive a 2.5% discount at all shipyards and outfitting shops
- Faction recovery time from Civil War has been significantly reduced
Thanks
MichaelImage caption The fire started at the family's home in Wood Hill, Leicester, in the early hours Image caption The four bodies were found in upstairs bedrooms Image caption Leicestershire Police officers are examining the possibility of the blaze being a revenge attack previous slide next slide
The deaths of a mother and her three children in a house fire in Leicester are being treated as murder.
Detectives are investigating whether the fire was linked to the murder of a man in a street assault on Thursday.
A man aged 19 and two 19-year-old women were arrested on Friday evening over the street attack.
The family's mosque said the mother who died was Shehnila Taufiq, her daughter was Zainab Taufiq, and her sons were Jamal Taufiq and Bilal Taufiq.
They were found dead in upstairs bedrooms at their house in Wood Hill.
'Level of concern'
At the scene Despite the awful events of last night, people in the surrounding streets were quick to press home what a friendly neighbourhood this is. And they opened up about the tragedy and how it unfolded on their doorstep. Later, as the call to prayer echoed over the streets, about 1,000 men, young and old, made their way to Leicester's second oldest mosque. It is within sight of the house and said to be where the family worshipped and studied. There was a palpable sense of shock and disbelief in the street with many people stopping to tell me what a tragedy it was. It was all anyone was talking about - I was told the atmosphere in the mosque, during special prayers for the family, was noticeably sad. One man stopped me to say his family moved to Leicester 25 years ago when he was young because it was safe and peaceful. Now he is a father himself and he fears what is happening to the area. He questioned whether it would be safe for his four-year-old-son.
The children's father, Dr Muhammad Taufiq Al Sattar, worked as a neurosurgeon at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin, and neighbours said the family had recently moved to Leicester.
Assistant Chief Constable Roger Bannister said detectives were examining the possibility of the blaze being a revenge attack.
He said the murdered man was "in his 20s and lived locally".
He is understood to be Antoin Akpom, a coach with the youth football team Nirvana FC.
He was assaulted in Kent Street, less than a mile away from the scene of the fire, at about 17:30. The man arrested on Friday night was held in London.
"These are obviously both very serious incidents and investigations have begun to establish if there are any links between them," said Mr Bannister.
"I understand the level of concern there may be in the city and would ask things not to escalate.
"I invite people, that if they have any concerns, to speak to the officers at the scene or call the police."
Emergency services were called to the fire at about 00:35 BST.
Mr Bannister said the mother who died in the fire was thought to be in her late 40s, her daughter was 19, and her two sons were 17 and 15.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Jo Black reports from the scene where forensics officers are conducting a "painstaking" fingertip search
Several neighbours of the family also voiced fears that they had been mistakenly targeted in a revenge attack meant for someone else.
'Throwing bricks'
A middle-aged man, who was woken by the sound of neighbours attempting to alert the family, said: "Most people feel this was meant for somebody else and they got the wrong house."
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Local shop owner Sattar Raidhan, who knew the family, said he was "hurt" by the news of the fire
Describing the blaze, he said: "The heat of the fire was so intense it could be felt on the opposite pavement.
"The guy opposite broke the door down but the fire was so intense they couldn't get in.
"They were throwing bricks at the windows at the top of the house to alert them inside but I think it was too late," he said.
Neighbours said the family worshipped at the nearby mosque. They said the father was away in Ireland at the time of the fire.
Zeeshan Bawany, a family friend, said the father "couldn't believe what was being said to him" when he was told what had happened.
Mr Bawany said he was asked by the family to go to the house and check it was true.
Image caption Labour MP Keith Vaz called the deaths a real tragedy for the community
Labour MP Keith Vaz, who represents Leicester East, met community members near the police cordon sealing off Wood Hill.
"The father is a doctor and is being comforted by members of the community - a community who are clearly in grief," Mr Vaz said.
"A whole family wiped out in this way, with only the father remaining, is a big shock and a real tragedy."
He added: "Putting yourself in his position, you go off to work to save lives as a doctor and you arrive home and find your wife and two sons and daughter are all dead in the most horrible of circumstances.
"It's absolutely terrible."
Leicester mayor Peter Soulsby said he had been briefed about the murder in Kent Street and described it as "a stabbing".
A post-mortem examination on the murdered man is due to take place later.Following a competitive bid process, the ATP has announced that Milan, Italy, will host a new ATP tournament featuring the world’s top 21-and-Under singles players of the ATP World Tour season.
The event, named the Next Gen ATP Finals, will take place over five days at the Fiera Milano stadium from 7-11 November, 2017, and will remain in Milan for a five-year period, through 2021.
A season-long “Emirates ATP Race to Milan”, starting in January, will see the world’s best up-and-coming talents battle to qualify for the tournament. The Top 7 players in the race will qualify automatically, while the eighth spot will be reserved for a wild card.
Visit NextGenATPFinals.com for trailer & more information
ATP Executive Chairman & President, Chris Kermode, said: “We’re delighted to bring this new world class event to Milan, Italy. The next generation of players coming through on the ATP World Tour is gathering huge momentum. This event will provide a platform for the stars of the future to showcase their talents on a global stage. We received significant interest from a number of cities worldwide, and we’re pleased to partner with the Italian Tennis Federation in Milan in this new venture.”
The tournament will trial a number of rule changes and innovations, to be announced in due course, with a view to ensuring continued growth in popularity of men’s professional tennis. “This event will also act as a launch pad for tennis innovation as we bid to make our sport more attractive to the changing consumer habits of the next generation of fans,” said Kermode.
Angelo Binaghi, President of the Italian Tennis Federation, said: “We are proud that the ATP has made the decision to bring such an important and new event to Italy and to Milan. To host the stars who are already shining brightly today and will be the leaders of the circuit in the future perfectly reflects the philosophy of our federation which is to approach the young talents who will be the main actors of the Tour in the near future. With its choice, the ATP has shown its long-term vision: to promote the Next Generation is to ensure the continued success of tennis in years ahead.”
The event will award US$ 1.275 million in prize money, and will follow a similar format to the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, with a round robin group stage followed by knock-out semi-finals and a final. While Emirates ATP Ranking points will serve as the criteria for entry, the tournament itself will not carry points.While Zenfone 5 users, eagerly wait for the Android KitKat update, ASUS has just released some exciting news.
The company has confirmed that the KitKat update is in the final testing phase. And that’s not all, ASUS says the phone will receive Android L too.
The news came from a rather different source, in a reply to a review to the ASUS Pixelmaster Camera App. Here is the link to the review and ASUS’ reply to it, and let me quote what it says:
ZenUI, ASUS Computer Inc. Kitkat support on Zenfone is still under construction, it’s in the final testing stage. I believe it’ll be coming very soon, please stay tuned. Of course, android L is also on our road map! Remember always keeping an eye on our web site for the further news about L. :)
ASUS has done some remarkable work with the OTA updates, the most recent of which added USB OTG support for the Zenfone 5. And their statement which says they will update the phones to Android L shows their commitment.
We will keep you updated on more information about this.
Update: You can find screenshots from the update and instructions to manually download and install it here.
Update 2: Here is the leaked roadmap of ASUS’ Android Lollipop updates.It's important to keep this in mind about Corbyn's back bench baiters. They don't want Labour to win. Not like this. Not with a left-wing leadership. Blair was refreshingly candid about this in the run up to the leadership election: even if a left-wing agenda was the route to electoral victory, he would not take it.But we must go further. The Labour Right would rather crash the party, humiliate it, drag it through the gutter every single day in the news media, than see it win from the Left. They would rather watch the Tories crush the party every day, until its activists finally say 'uncle' and let the professionals take over again. When Labour MPs anonymously brief Blairite insider Dan Hodges to the effect that they want Labour to lose the London mayoral contest in order not to strengthen Corbyn's hand, they are not expressing an extreme point of view - this is what a significant chunk of the back bench belligerati actually want.That is not stupid or self-defeating on their part, at least in the short-term. The Labour Right has always thrived on defeat and the demoralisation it inculcates among members and activists. They may not have liked the SDP split, but they knew then that it would strengthen their hand against the Bennites and Militant. And while a split would be unavailing today, they certainly want a swift, merciless punishment of the activists and members who dared to put a radical in charge. They want the grassroots to be begging for salvation, pleading for someone, anyone of arguable charisma - and the bar is set astonishingly low at the moment, with Dan Jarvis and Jess Phillips being the cherished candidates - to take control and restore 'electability'.That is the point of the ongoing pseudo-controversy mill. To create a constant air of crisis, so that the leadership is always wasting its effort responding to some trivial, or confected outrage, and so that the belligerents can claim to be ongoingly exasperated by the party's humiliation - which, insofar as that is taking place, they are co-authors of. As it happens, and against all odds, Labour is actually recovering slowly in the polls. Notwithstanding the histrionics of the Right, most polls now that Labour has now almost eradicated 5-10 percent lead which the Tories have held since May, so that Labour now either draws level, has a slight lead, or is at most two points behind. One hesitates to credit all of this to Corbyn, particularly since the Tories are scoring a number of own goals at the moment, and I am the last person to underestimate the obstacles facing any left-wing political leadership in the UK. But he must be doing a lot more right than his critics give him credit for. After all, we were told to expect a polling meltdown. We were told that Oldham would go Ukip. We were told that Labour under Corbyn would slump to a quarter of the vote. Not a bit of it, thus far. In fact, as Corbyn steadfastly refuses to triangulate on issues like welfare - in stark contrast to previous leaderships - he is actually landing some blows, and shifting the ideological agenda moderately to the left.The latest such squabble is therefore coming at a time when Corbyn's position, still unassailable among Labour members, is improving among voters. It concerns a leaked list, classifying Labour MPs by reference to their supposed loyalty - or lack thereof - to Corbyn. Whatever its merits, whoever its authors happen to be, it has been siezed upon by a handful of Labour backbenchers to amplify their demand that Corbyn "stand down". As if. The most vocal of these was John Woodcock MP, a fairly standard Blairite MP who represents a constituency whose local economy depends on British Aerospace, and who has been nurtured at the teat of the Ministry of Defence. He was given space in theto claim that the party was being embarrassed by a dreadful leadership. This is rather typical of theof the Labour Right. They don't know who authored the list, but they know enough to say it must be Corbyn's fault.So then, let me tell you a story about Woodcock. I had the chance to meet and debate the man at QMUL a while ago, about the bombing of Daesh in Syria. He lost the vote at the end of the debate, and would have lost it by a wider margin were it not for the Labour First people in the room. But what struck me about him, beyond his pat politician's way of trying very hard not to be detestable and his passive-aggressive whining about Corbyn, was that he didn't know what he was talking about. He had done no preparation, he made no reference to any of the facts about Daesh or Syria, and he was singularly unable to cope with the argument on its own level. Now I know that MPs don't, as a rule, know what they're talking about. But if you come to a debate to argue for bombing a country, you have to incline in favour ofto know something about it. Or, if not that, you have to at least be able to offer red meat to your supporters, show signs of being able to draw blood. Woodcock is not the sort of politician who can draw blood.Only at one point did he find the slightest wind in his sails. I had commented on the futility of attempting to match Daesh's brutality with spectacular displays of violence - at one point the Pentagon claimed to be killing a thousand Daesh fighters a month, but the elevated rate of recruitment just meant that the number of Daesh fighters was growing, while its territorial footprint mutated and spread to Libya. Woodcock, presumably hoping to rouse a smattering of applause, professed himself aghast and 'offended' that I would compare the RAF to Daesh. I interrupted his pitch with a sharp, loud cackle. He looked crestfallen, and muttered, "well... if that's the tone... I think your books are probably... on the wrong shelf." Alas, the expected applause didn't materialise.The point of this anecdote is not just that Woodcock is not a substantial person. He, of course, is not: but he isn't unique in the parliamentary Labour Party in that respect, as the ongoing search for a suitable anti-Corbyn figurehead repeatedly demonstrates. It is that, I don't think these people know how to conduct a political fight in this era. I question not just their ideas and principles, but their competence. In a more efficiently managed political and media climate, they would look and sound more convincing than they do. In the echo chamber of Westminster and the broadcast and print media, what they say would be so often repeated, and so broadly across the permissible political spectrum, that it would sound like it made sense. It wouldn't sound as vapid as it does.But this isn't the 1990s. The traditional ideological monopoly of the major parties and their media auxiliaries is breaking down. The political master-narrative of neoliberalism and its verities - "there is no alternative", "the market works best", etc - no longer summon the same type of deference. Generational transformations, no doubt in part linked to the antiwar and pro-Palestine movements of the last decade, also mean that the comforting certainties of a certain kind of Cold War militarism are no longer as effective as they were. You can't fight and win a political battle from the centre-right merely by re-stating what would sound uncontroversial to mandarins, party managers, or hacks, because they don't rule the roost any more. Woodcock and his yappy little confederates may be annoying, but they are to be gently patronised and otherwise ignored, not worried about. They won't persuade Labour members, and they probably won't win much sympathy from the wider public.The people to worry about are the ones who keep their powder dry, their knives whistle-clean, their voices low and courteous. The ones who at least sound like they 'get it', and are able to roll with it, patiently, for the time being. One such is implausibly listed among the 'core group plus' of loyalists on the leaked list. His name is Tom Watson MP.Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Dr Nick Ashton shows Pallab Ghosh where the footprints were found
Scientists have discovered the earliest evidence of human footprints outside of Africa, on the Norfolk Coast in the East of England.
The footprints are more than 800,000 years old and were found on the shores of Happisburgh.
They are direct evidence of the earliest known humans in northern Europe.
Details of the extraordinary markings have been published in the science journal Plos One.
The footprints have been described as "one of the most important discoveries, if not the most important discovery that has been made on [Britain's] shores," by Dr Nick Ashton of the British Museum.
"It will rewrite our understanding of the early human occupation of Britain and indeed of Europe," he told BBC News.
The markings were first indentified in May last year during a low tide. Rough seas had eroded the sandy beach to reveal a series of elongated hollows.
Image copyright Martin Bates Image caption The footprints on Happisburgh beach are possibly those of a family in search of food
I walked with Dr Ashton along the shore where the discovery was made. He recalled how he and a colleague stumbled across the hollows: "At the time, I wondered 'could these really be the case? If it was the case, these could be the earliest footprints outside Africa and that would be absolutely incredible."
The footprints are one of the most important discoveries, if not the most important discovery, that has been made on these shores Dr Nick Aston, British Museum
Such discoveries are very rare. The Happisburgh footprints are the only ones of this age in Europe and there are only three other sets that are older, all of which are in Africa.
"At first, we weren't sure what we were seeing," Dr Ashton told me, "but it was soon clear that the hollows resembled human footprints."
The hollows were washed away not long after they were identified. The team were, however, able to capture the footprints on video that will be shown at an exhibition at London's Natural History Museum later this month.
The video shows the researchers on their hands and knees in cold, driving rain, engaged in a race against time to record the hollows. Dr Ashton recalls how they scooped out rainwater from the footprints so that they could be photographed. "But the rain was filling the hollows as quickly as we could empty them," he told me.
When I was told about the footprints, I was absolutely stunned Dr Isabelle De Groote, Liverpool John Moores University
The team took a 3D scan of the footprints over the following two weeks. A detailed analysis of these images by Dr Isabelle De Groote of Liverpool John Moores University confirmed that the hollows were indeed human footprints, possibly of five people, one adult male and some children.
Dr De Groote said she could make out the heel, arch and even toes in some of the prints, the largest of which would have filled a UK shoe size 8 (European size 42; American size 9).
"When I was told about the footprints, I was absolutely stunned," Dr De Groote told BBC News.
"They appear to have been made by one adult male who was about 5ft 9in (175cm) tall and the shortest was about 3ft. The other larger footprints could come from young adult males or have been left by females. The glimpse of the past that we are seeing is that we have a family group moving together across the landscape."
Image copyright Happisburgh Project
It is unclear who these humans were. One suggestion is that they were a species called Homo antecessor, which was known to have lived in southern Europe. It is thought that these people could have made their way to what is now Norfolk across a strip of land that connected the UK to the rest of Europe a million years ago. They would have disappeared around 800,000 years ago because of a much colder climate setting in not long after the footprints were made.
It was not until 500,000 years ago that a species called Homo heidelbergensis lived in the UK. It is thought that these people evolved into early Neanderthals some 400,000 years ago. The Neanderthals then lived in Britain intermittently until about 40,000 years ago - a time that coincided with the arrival of our species, Homo sapiens.
There are no fossils of antecessor in Happisburgh, but the circumstantial evidence of their presence is getting stronger by the day.
In 2010, the same research team discovered the stone tools used by such people. And the discovery of the footprints now all but confirms that humans were in Britain nearly a million years ago, according to Prof Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum, who is also involved in the research at Happisburgh.
"This discovery gives us even more concrete evidence that there were people there," he told BBC News. "We can now start to look at a group of people and their everyday activities. And if we keep looking, we will find even more evidence of them, hopefully even human fossils. That would be my dream".
Image copyright Martin Bates Image caption The prints were first noticed when a low tide uncovered them
Image copyright Martin Bates Image caption The sea has now washed away the prints - but not before they were recorded
Follow Pallab on TwitterCLOSE President-elect Donald Trump began his 'Thank You Tour' with a rally in Cincinnati. USA TODAY NETWORK
President-elect Trump speaks during the first stop of his post-election tour at US Bank Arena in downtown Cincinnati. (Photo11: Sam Greene, The Cincinnati Enquirer)
Presidential candidate Donald Trump loved the raucous political rallies that marked his campaign — loved them so much he's doing them again as president-elect.
After a pit stop in Indianapolis to tout a new jobs agreement with the Carrier heating and air conditioning company, Trump visited Cincinnati on Thursday to open a "Thank You Tour" of swing states that put him over the top in his Electoral College battle against Democratic foe Hillary Clinton.
"I love you, Ohio!" Trump said, adding that "now the real work begins" and outlining an agenda than ranges from replacing Obamacare to tax cuts to a "great wall" on the U.S.-Mexico border to healing the nation's many divisions. Along the way, as he did at similar rallies during the campaign, Trump bragged about his political success and bashed the media as "very dishonest people" who didn't believe he had a chance to win the presidency.
He also used the Cincinnati rally to confirm that he would nominate retired Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis as his secretary of defense.
"I love this stuff," Trump said at one point. "Should I go on with this a little bit longer?"
When the president-elect said, "We did have a lot of fun fighting Hillary, didn't we?" the Trump crowd echoed rallies of the past by chanting "Lock her up! Lock her up!'
In introducing Trump, Vice President-elect Mike Pence said "we're here to say thanks" for the election results.
In what looks like an unprecedented post-election victory lap for a president-elect, the Trump team is working on events in other big states he carried this month, including North Carolina, Iowa, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Florida.
Trump and aides called the tour a chance for him to thank the voters who put him in office, though some analysts questioned whether they are a waste of time that could otherwise be devoted to the massive task of putting together a presidential administration.
David Cohen, a political science professor at the University of Akron who specializes in While House staffing, said he finds it "baffling" Trump would spend so much time campaigning.
"There's so much to do when you've been elected president," Cohen said. "There are so many jobs to fill."
Making his first public appearance since the Nov. 8 election, Trump and Pence — also the governor of Indiana — stopped earlier Thursday at the Carrier plant in Indianapolis.
After planning to lay off some 1,400 workers and shift some operations to Mexico, Carrier has now agreed to keep a plant open and retain around 1,000 employees. Details remain hazy, including whether some Carrier employees will still lose jobs and the nature of the tax breaks the company is getting to stay in Indiana.
"Companies are not going to leave the United States anymore without consequences," Trump said after touring the Carrier plant, echoing comments he made on the campaign trail.
The Cincinnati stop calls for a victory rally that mirrors the ones Trump held during the campaign. In Ohio and state after state, the Republican nominee denounced the political establishment in general and Clinton in particular, while his supporters chanted things like "Lock her up!" and shouted epithets at members of the press corps.
Previous presidents-elect have also done campaign-style events, but they tended to be smaller in scope and took place closer to the Inauguration Day of Jan. 20.
In 1993, President-elect Bill Clinton conducted a campaign-style bus tour that took him from Thomas Jefferson's home at Monticello in Virginia to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. Clinton also did some campaigning shortly after the 1992 election, stumping in Georgia during a run-off for a U.S. Senate seat.
Just before his inauguration in 2009, President-elect Barack Obama took a whistle-stop train ride from New York City to Washington, including a stop in Wilmington, Del., to pick up Vice President-elect Joe Biden.
Trump has frequently cited his love of well-attended political rallies, and some analysts described his thank you tour as the inevitable continuation of a campaign also fueled by social media and 24/7 media.
Martha Joynt Kumar, director of the bipartisan White House Transition Project, said Trump has good reason for wanting to be with his people.
After days of being "cloistered" in Trump Tower, interviewing job applicants and making appointments, she said, "he understandably has a need to go out and get back to what brought him there — what won him presidency."
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to be in a band that played covers.
Thompson: I never write in a notebook. I don’t have a diary in my back pocket. I don’t scribble music on cocktail napkins. I sit down to write a song and I write it. “Caribou” is about reincarnation. “Ed Is Dead” is about a brain-damaged girl I knew. We tried a couple of rehearsals at Joey’s parents’ house with a drummer, a keyboard player, and a bass player. We got our feet wet. But we were all too busy going to college.
Santiago: Charles did an exchange program. Our Spanish teacher gave us these pamphlets to go to Puerto Rico. He was excited, and he asked me, but he probably knew I didn’t want to go.
Thompson: “Isla de Encanta” is about Puerto Rico. It’s about the beaches. I was going to the beach every day, jogging. Just hanging out, playing pool, drinking beer. I lost a lot of weight, actually; I was really thin. It was so hot and humid, and I was running and walking all over the city at all hours of the night. It was a good experience, but I was there for six months and I had had enough.
Santiago: He wrote me a couple of letters from Puerto Rico. One said, “Screw this academics, let’s just start the damn band!” So he came back and we drove to UMass. It was the last day to withdraw to get your full tuition back, and I got my money back and we drove to Boston. My whole town revolved around people having an education, but I knew Charles had something unique.
Deal: My ex-husband, John Murphy, was from Boston. He worked as a computer programmer, and he was transferred to the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Fairborn, Ohio. My brother was at the same company and he introduced us. [But after we got married,] John wanted to go back to Boston. Boston, that’s the coast, and they’re not weird about playing with chicks. I got a job working at a doctor’s office in Brookline. I was hired to do lab work. I loved the microscope and cellular biology. If you gave a stool sample, I’d be the one swabbing it on a plate of agar and seeing what grows.
LEVITATE ME (1986)
Deal: I [saw an ad] in the Boston Phoenix. It said something about Peter, Paul & Mary and Hüsker Dü. “Wanted: female vocalist for high harmonies, no chops,” which I thought was really funny. So I went over to meet Joe and Charles. I thought Joe was a Mexican when I first met him. He didn’t talk much. But Charles played this song on acoustic, called “Brick Is Red,” and I liked it. He had a big hoop earring on.
Santiago: Kim was the only one to answer the ad, but it didn’t matter, because as soon as she left the apartment, Charles and I looked at each other and said, “She’s it.”
Deal: David Lovering used to work with John at Radio Shack [in Boston]. I remembered David from our wedding reception ’cause he was wearing a pinstripe suit. And I knew he was a drummer.
David Lovering (drummer, Pixies; “scientific phenomenalist; b. December 6, 1961): Kim told John that Joe and Charles were looking for a drummer, and my name came up. I hadn’t played in a number of years. My drums were put away, but then I figured, I’ll give it a shot.
Thompson: David was the first guy who seemed like he had time on his hands and was interested. His parents let us rehearse in their garage.
Deal: Joey found the band name in a dictionary. He didn’t come over here until he was seven, so some words he still had trouble with. It’s weird because he’s fluent in English. But every now and then a word creeps up, so he scans the dictionary. I guess he found the name interesting. He liked the “x” in the middle.
Santiago: I just liked the way it looked: “Pixies.” I also liked the definition: mischievous little elves.
Deal: He thought they were arty things. I don’t think he knew that pixies are more like little fairies. I had people ask me, “Oh, is it an all-girl band?” But Joe thought it looked way more heavy. The original name was Pixies in Panoply.
Santiago: I knew that wouldn’t keep. It made it a little Medieval.
I’M AMAZED (1986-1987)
Johnny Angel (journalist; musician): Back in the ’80s, I was a local celebrity in Boston, and I played in a bunch of bands that had songs on the radio, one of which was called the Blackjacks. One of the members had a side project, and he rehearsed in the same place as the Pixies. He came up to me and said, “There’s these weird people that want to open for us.”
Julie Farman (former booker, the Rat; ex-wife of David Lovering): The big local bands were Mission of Burma, the Neats, the Lyres, the Del Fuegos. There was this hierarchy of the Boston scene. These were the bands who played locally and came up through the clubs and really worked it and earned it and hung out. The Pixies were not part of that scene. They came out of nowhere.
Angel: Boston bands are mega-derivative of everything. If a band like the Smiths was happening in 1986, there was a Boston version. But the Pixies weren’t like anything else. I remember thinking that they didn’t connect to me at all, they were just too strange. Like, “Man, if this shit takes off, my career is over.”
Thompson: Our set was pretty much the first two Pixies albums — and a cover. All the Pixies went to the movies together. I dragged them down to see Eraserhead ’cause I loved it so much. I had this brilliant idea: “Hey, let’s cover the song [“In Heaven (Lady in the Radiator)”] from the movie!”
Lovering: Our first gig was a Wednesday night at a bar in Cambridge. And they spelled the band’s name wrong! It was “the Puxies.” A total of, like, five of our friends came down. My best friend, Scott, came. He’s a drummer too, and I really admired him. He thought it sucked.
Thompson: We got a reaction from an audience immediately.
Lovering: We’d play shitholes. Any place with a pool table.
Deal: There were a lot of universities [in Boston]. That means a lot of drinking, a lot of bars, and a lot of opportunities to play out. And if you could bring a couple of your [Boston University]-Emerson-Tufts buddies down, and if you could get ‘em to drink beer, you would get asked back. The bar owners want to sell beer. They don’t care if the music’s good. I don’t even know if the people who liked us came back the next time we played. But something must have happened, because people started coming to the shows to see us.
Evan Dando (singer/guitarist, the Lemonheads): [The Lemonheads] played with them at T.T. the Bear’s Place in 1986. It was our second or third gig and their second or third gig too. It was called “Nu Muzik,” like n-u-m-u-z-i-k. Totally hilarious. Like new wave was still happening. We were expecting all the bands to totally suck, but when [the Pixies] played we were like, “What’s wrong with this picture? This band’s amazing!” After that, I went to see them whenever I could.
Santiago: We also made these posters to announce when we were playing. They said, “Death to the Pixies,” with a photo of Charles [naked] on them. That was Charles’ idea. People were tearing them down and keeping them. They loved that poster.
Thompson: It was my attempt at some sort of Iggy Pop pose. They were done on high-grade paper, they weren’t just Xeroxed.
Kurt St. Thomas (former DJ and program director, WFNX Boston): They were popping up all over town. I was like, “What the hell is that?” They were pretty aggressive posters. They just grabbed your attention because it was like, “What does that mean? Did they break up already?”
Deal: The Rat was the cool club to play at the time.
St. Thomas: The name of the club was the Rathskeller, but everybody called it the Rat. It was this tiny club in Kenmore Square.
Kristin Hersh (singer/guitarist, Throwing Muses): The Rat was just gross, but perfectly gross. It was a study in squalor.
Farman: At the time, it was really in disrepair. Not great sound or lighting, but it had this air about it. It was so legendary. The Cars used to play there all the time. Every punk-rock band had played there, and all the new-wave bands that came over from England.
Deal: We were so scared to go in and hand out our tape that we got Charles’ [then] girlfriend Jean [Walsh] to go instead, ’cause she was a goth. She had the blond hair and the cool-looking getup. So we got here to give it to the booker, so we’d seem cool.
Angel: Jean went to UMass too, but I think they met at a club in Boston, and the story goes… Am I supposed to be telling you this? Oh, I don’t know, fuck, I don’t see why it’s a big deal. She passed [Charles] a note. Jean was just crackers about Charles right away. I think him with her too. I think a lot of really hilarious shit [on the Pixies’ records] comes from him trying to crack her up. Jean loves word games, and he ran a lot of his ideas by her. In that tune, “Tame,” there’s a line “Cookie, I think you’re tame,” and he starts screaming it. I know it was either “honey” or “baby” first, and Jean was like, “Come up with something else.” I know that was her idea. It’s a Jeanism. She likes hard-boiled, ’40s movie dialogue. “Is She Weird?” — that’s definitely about her. And so is “Subbacultcha.” I think she was an enormous influence on the band.
Thompson: You can trace certain songs to people in your life, but, um, it’s a lot more complex than that. If we’re talking about the first three Pixies records, they’re not really very relationship oriented, shall we say. But a song like “Where Is My Mind?” — my girlfriend heard me working on that, and she poked her head in and said, “Finish that one. That’s a good one.”
Farman: We would get tons of demo tapes [at the Rat]. I had this intern who would listen to all of them. She listened to the Pixies’ [tape] and said they were amazing, so she put them on a Sunday afternoon show, but it was probably, like, eight bands with five or six people in the audience.
Hersh: [The Rat] was the first place [Throwing Muses] played with the Pixies, and honestly, I wasn’t going to watch them because their name was so stupid! When they walked onstage I thought they were all lesbians. Charles was really soft and pretty, and he screamed like a girl, but with real guts behind it. When he started singing about his penis, I figured out that none of them were lesbians. From that show on, we made sure the Pixies opened for us everywhere.
Thompson: We got along famously with the Muses.
Tanya Donelly (guitarist, the Breeders; singer/guitarist, Throwing Muses, Belly): We were both bands that didn’t play well with others, and we got put onto a lot of the same bills and became really close. Gary Smith, whose band Lifeboat we played with a few times, took us all under his wing.
Hersh: Gary Smith cared so much about what we were doing. He was the one who forced us all into the studio to record demos and started pushing us into thinking in a more worldly way. One of the things he did was called “Sing for Your Supper.” He made really good fettuccine Alfredo, and we were starving. So you could go to Gary’s house, and he’d make you the fettuccine Alfredo if you sat on his bed and played into his two-track — all the songs that you knew until you were tired. Charles and I both did that. I’m not sure either of our bands would ever have been heard without him.
Gary Smith (owner/manager, Fort Apache studios; producer, “The Purple Tape” demo; musician): The Muses played with the Pixies at the Rat, and that’s where I saw the Pixies for the first time, in sound check. In one song, I was knocked out. I remember thinking, “Holy shit, this is different.” Just the way they approached the songs and the wide dynamic range, the control during the verses and mania during the choruses. By then I was working at Fort Apache [studios], so I knew there was a way to record it. I begged them to work with me. And they eventually said yes. The demos I’d done for the Muses had gotten them a record deal with 4AD. And that was what I was using as leverage. I’m kind of a snotty, sanctimonious guy, and I always wanted to work with cool people.
Joe Harvard (co-founder, Fort Apache studios): When Gary came in, he had a hard-on this big. He had a similar erection over the Muses, so I trusted his judgement.
Deal: I think Charles’ dad paid, like, $1,500 bucks, and we went into Fort Apache. And we did 16 or 18 songs in three days. Jolt Cola had just come out, so we were all doing the Jolt.
Lovering: Fort Apache was in Roxbury, which is not a really great part of Boston.
Smith: We stayed up all night for three days. It was very cold. I remember people wearing snorkel jackets while doing parts, people wearing gloves while playing guitar. When we finally had the whole thing mixed and ready, we were at my apartment, and I was doing the artwork for the cassette. And that’s the day that Charles committed to being “Black Francis.” And Kim decided to be “Mrs. John Murphy.”
Santiago: I don’t know why he did it. We still called him Charles, sometimes Chuck, depending on the mood.
Thompson: I wanted a stage name. It was a punk-rock thing. I’ve since learned it has a much longer history, mostly in black blues music. But for me, it was, “If it’s good enough for Iggy Pop, it’s good enough for me.”
Deal: I was sitting at [work] and I answered the phone and the woman who called, her name was, like, Ethel Goldfarb — and I said something like, “Okay, one moment, Ethel, I’ll get your chart.” And she said, “My name is not Ethel Goldfarb. My name is Mrs. Leonard Goldfarb.” Her power was in her husband’s name and her identity and her value. To show respect, I had to refer to her by her husband’s name. And I thought, “Cool. I want to be Mrs. John Murphy.” And then I got divorced and it wasn’t funny.
Smith: I remember doing the lettering and thinking, “Are you sure about this?” They had a plan back then that they each would do a nude shot for each successive record. It stopped almost immediately. For the cassette, I shot ten rolls of Dave Lovering jogging in the nude. This was “The Purple Tape.” I had a bunch of extra ones made and I sent them to everyone I had met while on tour with Lifeboat. And I do think that had some impact on building the first buzz in America. They were all cool people, like the dB’s, the Hoodoo Gurus, R.E.M., and the Replacements.
Hersh: I begged my manager [Ken Goes] to sign them. Made him sit down in my car and listen to their demos.
Smith: He didn’t really want to do it; he didn’t get it. And I didn’t know anything about management at the time. Back then I just wanted somebody who had contacts at record labels. He didn’t really hear it until other people started hearing it.
Deal: Ken Goes finally gave a tape to 4AD. We had already sent it out. I have the rejection letters: Elektra, Slash, SST, Relativity, Homestead, Throbbing Lobster, New Rose. Everybody rejected us. The story I heard was that Ivo Watts-Russell over at 4AD in London got the tape from Ken, got stuck in traffic or something, and he listened to us and liked it.
Ivo Watts-Russell (co-founder, 4AD records): This is why I hate doing this, because the stuck-in-traffic story was [when I heard] the Throwing Muses. See how it becomes something else? It’s all fucking Chinese whispers. Ken gave me the tape. He said, “David [Narcizo, Throwing Muses’ drummer] gave this to me. I think they’re pretty good.” I listened to the tape for the first time on a Walkman, walking through New York. It was a bit of a guilty pleasure because I was keen on veering the label away from anything that could be described as rock’n’roll. My girlfriend at the time, our press person at 4AD, Deborah Edgeley, just said, “This is great — we gotta do it.”
Thompson: We were like, “Record label? London? Party! Cool! What do we do?” It wasn’t because we were desperate; it was because it was action. All the stuff they were talking about, whether it was a record producer or a particular song, or whether the name of the band was going to be Pixies or the Pixies — they dropped the the because they thought it was cooler to call [us] Pixies — all this stuff was just not important. The important thing was that we were going to go in a studio, we were going to go on tour, we were going to put a record out.
Deal: I’d never heard of 4AD, except that they wanted to sign us. Then I started to pay attention when a band was on that label. The Cocteau Twins were kind of big, and the Wolfgang Press and Dead Can Dance. I thought, “Wow, moody goth rock! Cool!”
Watts-Russell: I called Ken up and said I want to pick these eight songs and I want to call it Come on Pilgrim because it made me think of Slaughterhouse-Five, Billy Pilgrim. And I think Charles just said, “Yeah, all right.” I had been frustrated by enjoying a demo and then getting it rerecorded — half the time it didn’t turn out as good.
Smith: “The Purple Tape” was 17 songs. Ken Goes called and said Ivo only wanted to do eight of the songs. I was kind of miffed. I don’t think [Ivo] took the best songs, and I think he knew that. I think he was doing it as setup for whatever came after. It’s a pity that they made the decision to release the outtakes from “The Purple Tape” on SpinART and leave Come on Pilgrim with 4AD, so now those two things will never be rejoined as they should have been.
Watts-Russell: Gary Smith has slagged me off to this day for having taken those eight tracks. But I’m still glad that was done as an introduction to the Pixies.
Vaughan Oliver (graphic designer, 4AD records): I was Ivo’s first employee. That showed how much he cared about the sleeves. But [4AD] never set out to give these bands an identity. It just evolved in an organic way from sleeve to sleeve. We take the music first, read the lyrics, have a conversation with the band. The primary contact with the Pixies was always Charles. We’d talk around what he liked in art and film. That’s how we arrived at the first sleeve: the hairy man. I think we shared an interest in David Lynch. I could hear it in his music. The horror and the humor. Charles said he liked nudity. He wanted to see some nudity on the sleeve. I said, “Fine by me. Nice start.”
Deal: When I first saw the album, I thought, “Wow, is that really hair on his back?”
Oliver: All the photographs on the [original] sleeves have been by Simon Larbalestier. The hair is real. This guy was covered, behind his knees, etc. But, ironically, he was going bald, so he would shave his head. Then he’d have to shave his neck and down inside his collar, so he’d literally have this hair shirt. It’s exaggerated with the lighting, but [Simon] just plied him with a few drinks one night and got his shirt off.
Santiago: After Come on Pilgrim came out, we became aware of these publications [like CMJ].
Deal: You could open up CMJ and there was this little picture of the country, and you could look at the college stations, ’cause college stations, that’s all there was to listen to. Well, there were modern-rock stations that played the Cure, the Fixx, Siouxsie and the Banshees. But if you wanted to hear Hüsker Dü or the Replacements or anything like that, you had to listen to college radio. Once [Come on Pilgrim] came out, we could see our name listed, like, in the Top Ten. We could say, “Wow, lookit, a college in North Carolina is playing us.” And we could go there and play a show. I don’t think I realized that it was probably a wattage that didn’t even penetrate the campus — that probably two people were listening.
Santiago: First tour was in, like, a Ryder truck. No windows. We were stuck in the back. There was no scenery. We were just excited to be on the road. I had never heard of the Eastern Seaboard. I thought it was romantic. “We’re going to be going down the Eastern Seaboard.” No one else calls it that but bands that tour.
Deal: Jean had given Charles a present: a CD player. So it was the first time I had ever seen one. It skipped all the time. But it was pretty cool.
Lovering: It was really close quarters. We learned a lot about ourselves as well as our temperament towards each other.
Thompson: Other bands like to hang out and get fucked up and build so-called camaraderie and get into the local battle of the bands, and all that stuff that doesn’t really mean anything. [Our] goal was to get the hell out of town, not be local heroes. Fuck that. I want to be Bob Dylan — I don’t want to be the most popular kid on campus.
GIGANTIC (1988)
Santiago: You wanna hear one of Steve Albini’s jokes? “Knock knock.” “Who’s there?” “Frank Sinatra.” “Frank Sinatra who?” [Mimics cool Sinatra voice] “C’mon!”
Steve Albini (recording engineer, Surfer Rosa; musician): Ivo sent me a copy of their cassette. I have to admit I didn’t listen too closely until I was on my way to Boston to do [Surfer Rosa]. If somebody wants me to work on their record, I try not to say no. I always try to find a reason to do it rather than a reason to not do it. [With the Pixies] there was an atmospheric quality to their early stuff that was great.
Watts-Russell: Steve was a delight to deal with. Very swift and no-nonsense. Well, maybe because I never met him. I dealt with him on the telephone.
Albini: They did have quite distinct personalities. Kim is giddy and playful. Charles is more serious, but he’s also got a sardonic sense of humor, and I’m a fan of dark humor. He was a kindred spirit in that sense. David Lovering was very pleasant, very cooperative. I didn’t get the feeling that he was the biggest music fan, but he enjoyed playing the drums. The same with Joey. And because they had developed as bedroom players, they had distinctive styles. People who taught themselves how to play had an advantage because they wouldn’t be mimicking. Like, you weren’t gonna play guitar like Ted Nugent if nobody taught you how to do it. They were making music along unconventional lines partly out of ignorance, but I mean “ignorance” in a flattering sense. They were also very good and very smart. On a personal level, I got along with all of them fine. I later said some unflattering things about the band in a fanzine and to this day I regret having done it. [In a 1991 issue of Forced Exposure, Albini called Surfer Rosa “a patchwork pinch loaf from a band who at their top dollar best are blandly entertaining college rock… Never have I seen four cows more anxious to be led around by their nose rings.” — ed.]
Santiago: I know he says some weird things in the press. Trust me, he’d prefer it if I told you he was a prick. But he’s not — not to me, anyway. [Surfer Rosa] did sound really good.
Deal: He’s specific in the way he doesn’t want it to sound. For us it was perfect. He’s not a producer; he’s an engineer. How you sound in the room — he’ll put up the best mikes that the place has to offer. People thought he was this rebellious guy with crazy ideas, but I think what makes him rebellious and crazy is that he’s just so traditional.
Albini: Up until that point, most of the recording sessions that I’d done had either been for my own band or for my friends’ bands at studios in Chicago. So this was one of the first times that I’d been hired to go elsewhere to be in charge of a session for strangers. I guess that’s the key: It was for strangers. And I probably went a little bit overboard in terms of taking charge.
Thompson: I had no approach at that time. I had a guitar or two, a shitty amp, some songs, and a band. My approach was, “Whatever you want to do there, Bucko.”
Albini: From a musical standpoint, all the decisions were theirs, but I think I was more inclined to try to throw my ideas in there. I remember thinking that there were times when their music implied a heavier sound than they were generating, so we’d get them bigger amplifiers. And instead of recording evernything in the studio, there was this big hallway and a big bathroom. So we rigged up amplifiers in there.
There’s a song called “Vamos,” which had already been on their first record. I think they were interested in distinguishing the version that they were recording from that version, so they played the instrumental portion for a really long time, and then Joey played a number of crazy little guitar-solo fragments. Then those were edited together on quarter-inch tape — some of the fragments were put in backwards, some of them put in forwards. And that was played over the multi-track as a guitar solo. So, rather than him playing a crazy guitar solo, he sort of assembled a crazy guitar solo on tape. That’s the sort of thing that they wouldn’t have done if I hadn’t been there saying, “Why don’t we try that?”
Lovering: Steve does a lot of ambient sounds — kind of that Led Zeppeling thing — by miking the room. It just sounds like you’re there in the room with us. I think he recorded those snippets of conversation for ambience, too.
Thompson [Surfer Rosa excerpt, before “Vamos”]: “You fucking die,” I said to her. I said, “You fucking die” to her. Huh? What? No, no. I was talking to Kim. I said, “You fucking die.” No, I, uh, we were just goofing around. No, no. It didn’t have anything to do with anything. She said, “Don’t anybody touch this — this is my stuff.” And I said, “You fucking die.” I was finishing her part for her. You know what I mean?
Albini: When you’re in the studio, you’ve got tape machines everywhere. So when little bits of conversation would come up, I would roll a tape machine in the hopes that some of it would be useful. I think that’s one of the things on the record that I put my fingerprints on that I’m a little uncomfortable with at the moment.
Deal [Surfer Rosa excerpt, before “I’m Amazed”]: …girls and fuck them at school. All I know is that there were rumors he was into field hockey players. There were rumors —
Thompson: So I applied, basically.
Deal: He was gone the next day.
Thompson: I went out for the team.
Deal: It’s like he was gone. They just, like, it was, like, so hush hush. They were so quiet about it, and then the next thing you know…
Deal: I was talking to Charles or Albini, and I was telling ‘em this story. I didn’t know Albini was rolling tape. The story is, there was this guy in high school who was a biology teacher — oh, I don’t want to tell you. Then the mystique’s gone!
Lovering: People memorize those lines. I’ve seen a tribute album where a band covered that dialogue, the conversation, like it was a song.
Albini: Yeah, well, people are fucking idiots.
Oliver: The Surfer Rosa sleeve was fairly provocative, wasn’t it? I’d been talking to Charles about his time in Puerto Rico. I quizzed him on it and just went to a typical, traditional Spanish image of a flamenco dancer. Because it’s so traditional and proud, I wondered how it could be debased. And that’s just by asking her to take her shirt off. She was willing, but I was a bit nervous asking. It was like, “You’re a great dancer, but one more thing…” In America, there’s a little round sticker that just kind of fits her top. It’s so prudish!
Deal: [The 4AD people] were all bald, very thin, and gaunt, and Deborah would have these big red lips, and they would all have eyeliner on. The guys and the girls looked very similar, and they were all wearing these big, Polish, furry hats.
Santiago: They came to Boston and thought we’d be all leather jackets and stuff. We showed up at dinner in our oxford shirts.
Thompson: We knew 4AD had their own little cultish following and indie-rock kids kind of knew who we were, but it didn’t turn into something real for us until we came to Europe.
Deal: 4AD had a tour booked [for us] to open for the Throwing Muses. So in April of ’88, after [Surfer Rosa] came out, we went over to England. That first show at the Town and Country Club was so exciting. The people actually knew the songs.
Santiago: That was a huge gig. It was sold out, and I took the subway to the gig, and right when I got off the train there were people everywhere, scalping tickets.
Robin Hurley (former CEO, 4AD records): It’s a fairly legendary story now that halfway through [the Throwing Muses tour] they switched the billing around because the Pixies were pulling a far higher percentage of the crowd. It was a credit to the way those two bands toured together that they could do that and still keep going with an amazing live show.
J Mascis (singer/guitarist, Dinosaur Jr.): I’d met Charles at UMass in 1984, but I only heard about the Pixies in England. Dinosaur Jr. were touring there at the time with [Albini’s band] Rapeman, and Surfer Rosa had come out and they were playing it in all the clubs. I had heard “Gigantic” so much that later that year, at a Fort Apache Christmas party, I actually played it with the band. Charles wasn’t there, so I got recruited to play it with the other Pixies. It went reasonably well.
St. Thomas: They were struggling just to get gigs in Boston or New York. And then NME or Melody Maker would rave about the band and you’d be like, “Holy shit, look at this! They’re in the NME, but they’re not even in [their own] local paper!”
Lovering: I just think they have better taste over there.
LA LA LOVE YOU (1989)
Deal: After Europe, we went back home and did Doolittle. The first one cost like $1,500 bucks, Surfer Rosa cost like $9,000, and then Doolittle, I think, cost 30 grand. Maybe that took three weeks to do. And just before that came out in ’89, 4AD decided to sign us proper. Five albums, I think. And since they were import-only, they needed a proper U.S. distributor. So that’s where Elektra came in.
Hurley: I think Surfer Rosa had sold just over 100,000 [copies], and the thought was definitely that the band should sell half a million or more in the States. And that has been achieved on Surfer Rosa and Doolittle. Elektra was very supportive. The Pixies were not the most overly commercial band. So to achieve half a million, I think, was good.
Angel: You can tell the difference in their sound on the monkey record — what was that called again? Doolittle. I think Charles started to realize, “Wow, this really is a big deal and there’s pressure on me to write more stuff now.”
Thompson: “Gouge Away” is about Samson and Delilah. “Dead” is about David and Bathsheba. There were some Biblical things I had gotten into. You can’t go wrong with the Old Testament.
Santiago: We were going through the process, and we were like, “Preproduction? What is this? We never had this with Albini.”
Michael Azerrad (author, Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana and Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes From the American Indie Underground 1981-1991): Gil Norton had produced successful bands in the U.K., so he had the sound of young Britain at his fingertips, and that’s where the Pixies were the biggest. It made sense to team up with him.
Gil Norton (producer, Doolittle, Trompe Le Monde): Charles played the songs for me on acoustic guitar before rehearsing with the band. I was trying to develop some of the songs with him — like [adding] the strings on “Monkey Gone to Heaven.” Some of those songs were originally like a minute thirty. So I’d try to do things twice. You had to excite Charles. He was like, “Why do you want me to do it twice? I’ve already done it once.”
Thompson: There were new, cleaner textures, maybe, but it wasn’t like we thought we’d get played on the radio. I mean, maybe “Here Comes Your Man.” At the time I was kind of embarrassed by the song, but the producer really liked it, so I threw him a bone.
Santiago: We were listening to Doolittle in the control room, and were just saying, “Goddamn, this is a great record.” And I said, “We’re going to be those people that people are going to emulate and use as a stepping stone.” I foresaw being the Velvet Underground of something. I didn’t trust anyone who didn’t listen to the Velvet Underground.
Thompson: A song like “Debaser” — to this day, it doesn’t sound commercial to me. Nothing we do is very commercial. Not that what we were doing was so radical or so intense, but it wasn’t what was being played on the radio. We never thought, “Oh, we’re selling out.” It was just like, “Now you have more money to make a record.”
Santiago: We still all lived around Boston. There was some cash in the bank. We got a little more comfy.
Lovering: On our first big tour, we opened for the Cure at [New Jersey’s] Giants Stadium, and I was there early onstage. They had this pre-fab flooring — these huge sheets of plywood and a huge tarp — all over the field. But it had rained the night before and the moisture had warped the boards. So they open up general admission and hundereds and hundreds of goths are running in to get in front of the stage and they’re going down like flies. It was very surreal.
Azerrad: When they opened for the Cure, they were so confident that they arranged their set in alphabetical order. They knew they were so shit-hot that they could shuffle their deck any which way and still win the game.
Oliver: I saw them around that time in North London. It was an illustration of their genius that they played the set alphabetically. And the next night they played it backwards. They’d start with the fucking encore, and it worked!
Ben Marts (former tour manager, Pixies): I remember the slowest-to-fastest sets. They played their slowest songs first and went up to the fastest — just built it into a frenzy.
Deal: But the dynamic in the band was not good. It wasn’t good at all.
St. Thomas: There’s something about Kim’s voice that’s almost childlike. Charles would be screaming incoherently, and then she’d sing this little childlike melody, and that |
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As protests roiled Ukraine's capital and exploded into violence, Yulia Tymoshenko's face, topped by her trademark diadem of blonde peasant braids, overlooked the street mayhem from posters — an oddly ghostly presence for a woman who made her name by being in the thick of opposition action.
The posters, on display near the stage of the protesters' main camp and on the nearby city Christmas tree, were the only way Tymoshenko could be there. She's been imprisoned for more than two years serving a sentence widely regarded as an act of vengeance by her arch-foe, President Viktor Yanukovych.
Now Tymoshenko may be just days from a return. Hours after Yanukovych and protest leaders signed a wide-ranging agreement Friday to resolve the country's political crisis, the parliament that once was in Yanukovych's pocket approved a measure decriminalizing the charge used to convict Tymoshenko, paving the way for her release.
Freeing her would bring back one of the most polarizing figures in Ukraine's overheated political scene. She is variously admired as an icon of democracy and detested as a self-promoting manipulator with a shady past.
Tymoshenko became a world figure during Ukraine's Orange Revolution protests of 2004, a riveting figure both for her ringing denunciations of election fraud and her distinctive mix of peasant hair and high-fashion dresses.
She was more exciting to protesters than her Orange Revolution partner Viktor Yushchenko, who accused the government of stealing his rightful victory in presidential elections. Tymoshenko became prime minister when Yushchenko won a court-ordered election rerun.
Their facade of unity soon shattered in favor of incessant quarrels. Yushchenko fired her after nine months, only for her to regain the premiership in 2007. Unrelenting tensions between them virtually paralyzed the government.
In 2010, Yanukovych rode a wave of voter discontent to oust Tymoshenko from the presidency. He was the very man that Orange Revolution activists believed had stolen power from Yushchenko in the first place six years before.
Tymoshenko's troubles were only beginning.
In 2011, she was arrested and charged with abusing power as premier in a natural gas deal with Russia. Tymoshenko said the proceedings were naked revenge, and Western governments voiced concern about a politically motivated prosecution.
International criticism of Ukraine grew after she was convicted, received a seven-year sentence, and sent to prison.
Long before achieving global fame, Tymoshenko was already a high-profile figure in Ukraine. She and her husband took early advantage of former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika reforms by creating a popular video rental business.
The couple founded a fuel distribution company and she became head of Unified Energy Systems, a wholesale broker of natural gas. In that post, she became one of Ukraine's richest and most powerful oligarchs — and was dubbed "The Gas Princess."
Even behind bars, Tymoshenko remained a top opposition figure. In a passionate statement Saturday, she urged Ukrainians to wake up politically, join the protests and force Yanukovych from power.Every so often some clown decides to call Thomas Jefferson a “racist,” and other clowns let him publish the charge. The most recent clown is Paul Finkelman, a professor at Albany Law School, and the accessory clowns are The New York Times. Prof. Finkelman is shocked to find that Jefferson thought blacks were less intelligent than whites. And since Jefferson wrote the words “all men are created equal” but bought and sold slaves, that makes him “a creepy, brutal hypocrite.” Like all clowns of his kind, Prof. Finkelmen tells us Jefferson fathered children with his black slave, Sally Hemings.
In other words, it’s the usual rubbish.
James Callender, a transplanted Scotsman, started the Hemings rumor in September 1802 after Jefferson turned him down for a patronage job. Callender claimed the president was sporting with “dusky Sally,” a “wooly-headed concubine,” who was part of his “Congo harem.”
“By the wench Sally our president has had several children,” he wrote, later claiming that the total was five. Callender called Sally a “slut common as the pavement” who was “romping with half a dozen black fellows.”
“Jefferson’s reputation will survive, but that of The New York Times may not.””¨
Callender never claimed he met “dusky Sally” or explained how he got the dope on her rompings. The next year, Callender drowned in two or three feet of water in the James River, reportedly too drunk to fish himself out, but Jefferson’s Federalist enemies never stopped whooping up the Hemings story. Callender may have been right to claim he had done more damage to Jefferson’s reputation in five months than all his other critics had done in ten years. Deviants have cackled with joy ever since at the thought that Monticello was a love nest of miscegenation.
DNA testing on Sally Hemings’s descendants in 1998 proved that Jefferson was not the father of one of her older children, but that someone who had the Jefferson Y chromosome fathered her youngest child, Eston. The trouble is, there were 26 men of romping age who carried that chromosome and who could have been the father. This includes Randolph Jefferson and his sons, Thomas Jefferson’s nephews, and a number of other men in the Jefferson line. They were all of reproductive age and living in Virginia at the time of conception.
Was it Jefferson? Eston was conceived in 1807 when old Tom was 64, in bad health, and in his second term as president. The chances of the aging, ailing president shacking up with his slave under those circumstances are close to zero. But the Sally rumors had been circulating for five years and had already hurt him.
There are several likelier candidates, and the most likely is Jefferson’s younger brother Randolph, who was a 51-year-old widower. A former Jefferson slave named Isaac later wrote that “Old Master’s brother, Mass Randall, was a mighty simple man: used to come out among black people, play the fiddle and dance half the night””behavior that could easily lead to romping. Randolph later remarried and had more children, so we know he was a romper. No one ever claimed Thomas Jefferson socialized with slaves.
Any law-school professor has heard of “innocent until proven guilty.” At Albany there must be a new gloss on the doctrine to explain why it doesn”t apply to people who are dead and can”t defend themselves.
Pay to Play - Put your money where your mouth is and subscribe for an ad-free experience and to join the world famous Takimag comment board.Never underestimate the value of a good night’s sleep. Not only does a lack of shut-eye leave you irritable, it has been linked to diabetes and weight gain, though no one understood why.
To investigate, Matthew Brady at the University of Chicago and his colleagues tested fat cells taken from the bellies of seven adults after four nights of sleeping up to 8 and a half hours, and then again after four nights on a measly 4 and a half hours.
The team found that after sleep deprivation fat cells from the same person were on average 30 per cent less responsive to insulin – a hormone that makes muscle, liver and fat cells take up glucose after a meal.
High blood glucose levels are linked to diabetes. Fat cells also normally release the appetite-regulating hormone leptin. Brady suggests that if sleep-deprived cells are generally malfunctioning, this mechanism may also be disrupted, affecting weight gain.
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“We were surprised at how robust the response was,” says Brady. “Four nights of sleep curtailment represents a real-world situation, such as sitting for final exams or having a newborn in the house.”
Journal reference: Annals of Internal Medicine, DOI: 10.7326/0003-4819-157-8-201210160-00005Senate Democrats filed an amendment to the national defense bill Wednesday that would require more transparency on national surveillance programs.
Sens. Ron Wyden Ronald (Ron) Lee WydenTreasury official: Tax withholding guidance wasn't manipulated for political reasons Cohen grilled by Senate Intelligence panel Senate confirms Trump court pick despite missing two 'blue slips' MORE (D-Ore.), Mark Udall Mark Emery UdallGardner gets latest Democratic challenge from former state senator Setting the record straight about No Labels Trump calls Kavanaugh accusations ‘totally political’ MORE (D-Colo.) and Barbara Mikulski Barbara Ann MikulskiBottom Line Listen, learn and lead: Congressional newcomers should leave the extremist tactics at home The Hill's Morning Report — Pelosi to reclaim Speakership amid shutdown MORE (D-Md.) introduced the amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which authorizes more than $625 billion in defense spending for the Pentagon.
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Wyden said their amendment would require the administration to respond to unanswered questions from lawmakers about the domestic surveillance program that collected phone data on U.S. citizens. He said the amendment would also make public decisions by the “secret court” that approves data collection under the National Surveillance Act (NSA) programs.
Udall and Wyden said they were using the amendment to “jump start” debate on the larger issue and legislation that’s been introduced since reports leaked NSA privacy violations. They said their amendment was needed because the public trust has been “eroded.”
Senate Armed Service Committee Chairman Carl Levin Carl Milton LevinListen, learn and lead: Congressional newcomers should leave the extremist tactics at home House Democrats poised to set a dangerous precedent with president’s tax returns The Hill's 12:30 Report — Sponsored by Delta Air Lines — White House to 'temporarily reinstate' Acosta's press pass after judge issues order | Graham to take over Judiciary panel | Hand recount for Florida Senate race MORE (D-Mich.) asked lawmakers to withhold from introducing NSA-related amendment to NDAA because the issue is so massive and controversial.
Lawmakers are rushing to complete work on the bill by Thanksgiving so that House and Senate conferees would have time to report back to both chambers before the end of the year. Congress has passed an NDAA bill for 51 straight years.
The bill also gives an across the board 1 percent pay raise for services members, establishes protections for victims of sexual assault and allows the transfer of Guantánamo Bay detainees to the United States for trial or foreign countries.Former Apollo 11 moonwalker talks about his vision for crewed Mars missions at the Humans to Mars Summit in Washington, D.C. on May 17, 2016.
Buzz Aldrin has some words of advice for presidential candidates Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.
The next president of the United States could carve out a lasting legacy for him- or herself by putting the nation firmly on the path to Mars, the former Apollo 11 moonwalker said today (May 17) at the Humans to Mars Summit in Washington, D.C.
"A president who appeals to our higher angels and takes us closer to the heavenly body we call Mars will not only make history — he or she will [also] be long remembered as a pioneer for mankind to reach, to comprehend and to settle Mars," Aldrin said. [Buzz Aldrin's Visions for Missions: Mars and More (Video)]
"I appeal to you to take up the challenge — president, candidates — and bring us all along from the wild, blue yonder with giant leaps to this waiting island in the blackness of space," he added. "Presidential leadership in this initiative would improve, extend and celebrate American exceptionalism in a way that no other policy or program could."
In July 1969, Aldrin followed Apollo 11 crewmate Neil Armstrong onto the surface on the moon, becoming the second person ever to set foot on a world beyond Earth. In the decades since, Aldrin has been urging policymakers, engineers and mission planners to help humanity make the next giant leap — to Mars.
The 86-year-old former astronaut has ideas about how to make this happen, and he laid them out during his talk at the Humans to Mars Summit.
Aldrin's detailed vision includes the assembly of bases on the moon's near and far sides and the extraction and processing of lunar resources, done as a way to gain experience in vital settlement procedures. Six astronauts would then head to the tiny Mars moon Phobos; from there, they would remotely assemble a base on the Red Planet's surface from modules that were delivered to Mars on uncrewed missions.
These activities would be aided and enabled by "Mars cyclers," spacecraft that cruise perpetually between Earth and the Red Planet, acting as a sort of astronaut ferry system.
Aldrin said he wants the United States to lead this multistage effort, but the world's other spacefaring nations, especially China, should be players as well.
"Together, we can bring forward a worldwide sharing for the greatest human endeavor in history," Aldrin said.
If the U.S. committed firmly to such a program now, astronauts could land successfully on Mars and begin staffing a permanent Red Planet outpost by 2040, he added.
"This is the time. This is our time. This is your time," Aldrin said. "Let's go for it!"
Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.With the flip of the calendar comes predictions on trends – food, fashion and of course decor. What’s in and what’s out. I’ve pulled together some of my favorite 2017 Decor Trends: some are major, for those of you considering renovating, and others are simpler, easy additions to any space. And since what’s out is just as important, I’ve got a summary of that for you as well.
What’s In
Brick
I’ve been dying to do a brick wall in a space for years, like Yoon Kim’s Manhattan penthouse, designed by David Mann and Brett McMullen of MR Architecture + Decor, which is giving me all the feels. But we’re actually seeing brick pop up more as a flooring option. Rightfully so, it’s one of the most durable materials out there, perfect for mudrooms and entrance ways.
(Design: Feasby and Bleeks Design; Photography: Angus Fergusson; Via DecorPad)
Traditional Cabinetry in Colour
I can’t think of a better way to add drama and interest to a kitchen, that with beautiful traditional cabinetry painted out in a colour other than white or grey. This year’s forecast is for taupe, blues and greens, muted for sure, but gorgeous saturated tones as well. The first image below pays perfect homage to the Pantone 2017 Colour of the Year: Greenery. More on that next week.
(Designer: Jackie Terrell; Photographer: Stacy Brandford; Via: House and Home)
(Designer: James Davie; Photographer: Angus Fergusson; Via: House and Home)
(Designer: Monica Stewart; Via: The Misfit House)
Artisan Art
While I love a good DIY as much as the next person, 2017 is all about a return to craftsmanship and working with material that requires time and skill. We’ll see more blown glass, porcelain and wood work.
(Design: Novica; Via: Wayfair)
Jewel Tones and Texture
Last year Pantone chose Serenity and Rose Quartz as the colours of the year, as a result we saw an abundance of soft blues and pinks in home decor. With the mood moving towards traditional in 2017, we’ll see more gorgeous jewel tones.
And since word on the street is we’re all craving more comfort, texture will be bigger than ever. Nothing says comfort (and luxury) like velvet, it just beckons to be touched. In the same vain, we’ll continue to see a lot of faux furs, yarns and mohairs. Which is just fine by me!
(Design: Martyn Lawrence-Bullard; Via: Domain)
(Design: Sarah Hartill; Photographer: Micheal Grayton; Via: House and Home)
What’s Out
Copper
While I was thrilled when copper first emerged a few years ago, I’m happy to see it go, in favour of brass and gold, which despite what some are saying are still very much in if you ask me.
(Source: Williams Sonoma)
Fiddle Leaf Figs
Truth be told I didnt’ even have a chance to participate in this trend, personally or with clients. Hearing too many struggles to keep them alive, kept me from even attempting. I can kill a cactus after all. Perhaps I’ll give the Olive Tree, which is said to be replacing the Fiddle Leaf Fig and much easier to take care of.
(Designer: Brooke Wagner; Photography: Ashlee Raubach; Via: Style Me Pretty Living)
Chevron
It is time to say good-bye to Chevron, in all forms. It was a great geometric print, but as the esthetic shifts to a more traditional feel, so too do prints, think florals, butterflies, and birds.
(Designer: Alexis Bednyak; Photographer: Alyssa Rosenheck; Via: Style Me Pretty Living)
Oversized Furniture
This one has me jumping for joy! Finally! A large space doesn’t require large scale furniture, a far more intimate and cozy space can be created with smaller pieces grouped together well. One of my favorite things to do!
(Designer: Leren Lu; Photography: Getty Images; Via: House Beautiful)
So there you have it, this year’s trend report. What do you think? Is there a trend you’re excited about? Could do without? I’d love to know in the comments below.Editor’s Note: This is the second of a three-part series featuring a discussion with famed Democratic strategist and former Chair of the Democratic National Committee Donna Brazile on Liberty Nation Radio. In the first part, Ms. Brazile discussed how the disastrous Clinton for President campaign was obsessed with data at the expense of traditional methods of motivating voters.
The task facing Donna Brazile when she was named Chair of the Democratic National Committee would have been daunting enough with the scandals that had surrounded her disgraced predecessor Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and the fact that the data-driven, heartless Clinton campaign had seized control of the DNC with a watershed election fast approaching, leaving Brazile to sit helplessly by and watch her party’s nominee snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
But the task evolved from daunting to frightening when she realized the DNC she now headed was being hacked on a daily, sometimes hourly basis because Wasserman-Schultz had refused to take cybersecurity seriously despite repeated warnings from no less than the FBI.
In an exclusive interview on Liberty Nation Radio, Brazile describes feeling scared and violated with the hacking onslaught, especially after the still-unsolved murder of DNC staffer Seth Rich. It is noteworthy that, while she ascribes these cyber attacks to Russia, she is silent on whether the Trump campaign was involved and whether there was “collusion.”
But first, she attempted to dismiss the notion that her tell-all book, Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns That Put Donald Trump in the White House, was designed to push the Clintons off the stage:
Tim Donner: Donna, a lot of people, myself among them, honestly think that the ultimate purpose of your book outside of setting the record straight and telling your own story, is to convince the party that it’s time to once and for all move beyond the Clintons. Was that the message of your book?
Donna Brazile: No, I don’t think my message was about elimination or subtraction. My book was really about the hacking of our democracy. And it was my story because I was Chair of the party. I became Chair for the second time in my adult life because of the hacking. And it’s the inside story of the break-ins and breakdowns that put Donald Trump in the White House. And I wanted the American people to come away understanding that the hacking of our election is reason for us to come together as a country to avoid this from happening again. This time there was a severe attempt to hack into our election process. What if someone, another country, tried to hack into our infrastructure, our electrical grid? Hacking is important. Cybersecurity is something that concerns not just major corporations but it concerns universities, academia, and the media.
So I also believe that part of my story is to talk about the hacking. Clearly, the Democratic Party has a large bench of people who will possibly run in 2020. I don’t know all of the candidates but I’m sure that there are so many people out there who will continue to support Secretary Clinton. She has a lifelong service inside the Democratic Party and I would hope that whatever her future is that those who support and those who may never support her will understand that she is a woman of valor, a woman of courage and she has served our great nation.
Tim Donner: But let me come at the same question from a different direction. Should Hillary still be out there on the stage as she is or should she leave the stage and allow other Democrat voices to carry the fight against President Trump and the Republicans?
Donna Brazile: Well the stage is large and as you well know, we need many voices out on the stage. And it’s not just a stage that we need to talk about President Trump. As I mention to people all over the country, I pray for our President. He’s our President. We have one President at a time and as long as I have breath in my body, I will always pray for the President of the United States regardless of whether or not I supported him or her in the future. Saying that we as Americans need to understand we need more people to run for office. We need more public servants. Today as we speak, there are so many news stories now about sexual harassment. We need more people to run for office and hopefully, in the future, we’ll see more women run for office. We’ll see more people of color. I don’t know if you intend to run for office again. You’ve run once for the United States Senate but you know what? We need more voices out there.
Tim Donner: Well I mean I appreciate your words and I think that it’s really true. I wanted to just return to something you talk a lot in the book – the personal anguish of being hacked day after day after day and not knowing where the next attack was to come from. It was really a heartbreaking personal tale no matter what your political affiliation is.
Donna Brazile: It’s a form of harassment. It’s people prying into your life as if they know you when they don’t know you. What they know is some aspects of your life but not the entire picture. But because they have your identity, they’ve stolen your identity. They’ve stolen your emails. They possess stuff that should not be in the public domain. They prey upon you in ways that feels as though they’re going to come after you. And from time to time, I didn’t have a good sense. Remember one of our staff members was murdered and there was a lot of concern that our own personal safety was something that we had to pay attention to. And I took careful steps, not just in my personal life but also as Party Chair to protect the staffers and the infrastructure of the Democratic National Committee.
And you know, every time we were hacked, we knew that the Russians were still coming after us. I picked up the phone and I called or texted over to the RNC. I felt that as an American, it was my duty. I was no longer a partisan. I felt it was my duty to not just alert federal officials which we did, but it was also my duty to alert the Republican National Committee because here in America, if you destroy one political party, you believe you’re left with another. But if you destroy both political parties then what do we have in our democracy?
I mean, so I was quite concerned and I would hope as we focus on 2018 that we take this seriously and that we begin to try to prevent it. What if it’s North Korea next time? What if it’s Iran? What if it’s another nation that is trying to destroy our democracy? Our founders, those men and of course so many women who were in the shadows, they would want us to protect our democracy, to protect our freedom and we have to focus on that. That is the goal of my book as well.
~
In the final part of this series tomorrow, Donna Brazile discusses the future of the beleaguered Democratic party, and how they can regain their mojo.
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We value your comments! Please weigh in on our comment section below.DCRP Special Report: FlashPath Adapter
by Tom Beardmore (originally posted October 28, 1998; revised & updated February 15, 1999) In October, 1998, I bought a FujiFilm FD-A1S FlashPath adapter for my Olympus D-600L. Ever since I got my D-600L, I'd been transferring pictures to my computer via a cable connected to the camera, but it was slow and cumbersome. I wanted an easier, faster way to transfer pictures to my computer, and the FlashPath looked like it might be the answer. After using the FlashPath for a few days, I found it had exceeded my expectations, and so I thought I'd share my experiences with other potential buyers who were considering getting one themselves. Since I use both a Macintosh system and a Windows system, a comparison describing how the adapter works in both environments might prove to be useful information to DCRP readers. At the time, I bought the FujiFilm version of the adapter because it was more widely available and it was a little less expensive than either of the Toshiba and Olympus versions I'd found online. Regardless of the brand, however, they're all exactly the same, including the driver software; only the packaging and branding on the adapter are different. The adapter is designed to work with both Windows and Macintosh platforms, provided you've installed the appropriate version of the driver software for your system. All of the digital camera vendors who offer the FlashPath adapter have download pages on their websites where users can obtain the latest versions of the driver software, or you can go directly to the OEM manufacturer's download page to download the latest versions. This review will describe the FujiFilm version of the FlashPath and its application when used with an Olympus D-600L. However, the descriptions and comments can also be applied to any digital camera that uses SmartMedia as its storage medium. What is FlashPath? The FlashPath adapter is a 3.5-inch diskette-sized adapter (see fig. 1 on the right), specifically designed to accept SmartMedia memory wafers (also called a Solid State Floppy Disk Card, or SSFDC) from digital cameras. Manufactured by SmartDisk Corporation for FujiFilm, Toshiba, Olympus, and other digital camera vendors, the FlashPath provides easy access to the image files recorded on the SmartMedia wafers using your computer's 1.4MB floppy disk drive. When you insert the adapter into the floppy drive with a SmartMedia wafer installed in it, a micro-switch located at the leading edge of the FlashPath activates the built-in electronics (which are powered by two nickel-sized batteries inside the adapter), permitting the SmartMedia to be read by your computer. It's important to note that the picture displayed on the right shows the SmartMedia wafer inserted incorrectly, with its contacts facing up for photographic purposes only. During normal use, the contacts of the SmartMedia should be facing toward the underside of the adapter. FlashPath adapters are available at prices ranging from as little as $68 to as much as $99 online. At the time this article was originally written, the lowest price I found on the web was $67.99 by using Shopper.com's comparative pricing search tool, but the reader is encouraged to shop around for the best deal. I recently found that SmartDisk Corporation's Online Store is offering the FlashPath alone for $79.95, or with an 8MB SmartMedia bundled with it for $99.95. FlashPath Drivers My FujiFilm FD-A1S FlashPath adapter included a Windows 95/98 driver diskette containing the FD-A1S driver for Windows 95/98, but no Macintosh drivers. Fortunately, you can go to the SmartDisk Corporation website and download the current versions of the drivers for either the Mac or Windows, supporting Windows 3.11, Windows 95, and Windows 98. SmartDisk Corporation has also just released Windows NT 4.0 drivers, which have been eagerly anticipated by the NT community. It's a good idea to check the download page from time to time and make sure you have the latest version for your system. The Macintosh version of the driver software requires a PowerPC-based Macintosh (or compatible) running at least System 7.5.3 or later. Mac models that use the 68040 (or earlier) aren't supported. Both the Mac and Windows versions now support SmartMedia from 2MB to 32MB, but the Mac version is read-only, while the Windows version is read-write capable. Note, too, that although 16MB and 32MB SmartMedia is now supported, not all digital cameras can use these higher capacities at this time. Check with your owner's manual or contact your camera's manufacturer if you have any questions whether these capacities are supported. Some vendors, notably Olympus, are offering firmware upgrades for some models at a nominal fee. If you already own an older FlashPath, you can download the current drivers which will support SmartMedia up to 32MB! Preparing The FlashPath Adapter Getting the adapter ready for use was a snap; you only need to open the two battery compartments and install two nickel-sized CR2016 batteries (included with the adapter). Then you simply insert the SmartMedia wafer into the side of the adapter, making sure that the electrical contacts side of the SmartMedia faces toward the underside of the adapter. That's all there is to it! Mac Usage To install the FlashPath software for the Mac, simply double-click the Installer and follow directions. If you are using Mac OS 8.1 or earlier, you must first turn off the PC Exchange Control Panel before launching FlashPath software (named "ReadFlashPath"). Note that after you turn off PC Exchange, it is not necessary to restart the Mac before proceeding. Mac OS 8.5 (or later) users need to do nothing more after installing the software, since PC Exchange has been replaced by File Exchange in the later version of the Mac OS. Even though notes on the FlashPath driver download site and in the documentation included with the download indicate that Mac OS 8.5 users must disable File Exchange by using Extensions Manager (or by using some other Extensions/Control Panel management software), this step is unnecessary; the FlashPath utility performs as expected with only one minor consideration (discussed later). Launch the FlashPath application, pull down the File menu, and select the "Import from FlashPath " option. This seemed to be a little non-intuitive to me; I would have expected the FlashPath utility to go directly into the download mode immediately after FlashPath was launched, rather than taking a two-step approach. After selecting the "Import from FlashPath " option from the File menu, a small Dialog appears on the screen instructing you insert the FlashPath adapter. Fig. 2: Insert FlashPath Dialog The user then inserts the FlashPath adapter into the Mac's floppy drive and, after waiting a moment or two, the Dialog changes to "Communicating to FlashPath ". Mac OS 8.5 users will observe that a PC disk icon named "untitled" will appear on the Macintosh's Desktop. An Open/Save Dialog appears a few more moments later which displays a single directory named "IMOLYM \" (presumably IMages from OLYMpus, but I'm guessing), and includes three buttons labeled All Files, Cancel, and Open. Note that the directory name created by other digital cameras may be something other than "IMOLYM \". Fig. 3: FlashPath Open/Save Dialog By clicking the Open button (or double-clicking the IMOLYM directory), the files stored on the SmartMedia will be listed, as shown in fig. 4 (below). Unfortunately, there is no preview mode in this Dialog box, which would be helpful in selecting which file(s) the user wants to transfer to the Mac. Fig. 4: SmartMedia Directory Each file is named "PIC000##.jpg" (where ## is a two-digit number beginning with "01" and incrementing sequentially). If the user selects a single file from the list and clicks the Open button (or double-clicks the file itself), another Open/Save Dialog appears that allows the user to choose the name and destination of the selected file. After the file has been copied to the users hard drive, the file transfer mode closes and the FlashPath adapter is ejected from the floppy drive. To transfer a second file, the user must again select the "Import from FlashPath " option from the File menu and repeat the process. This doesnt seem to be very intuitive or user-friendly: it would have been better if the FlashPath utility returned to the previous Open/Save Dialog box (fig. 4, above) after transferring the file, and re-listing all of the files on the SmartMedia for subsequent file selection and transfer. Generally, its probably faster (and easier) to transfer all of the files in one session and then discard the undesired images. By opening the FlashPath IMOLYM directory which lists all of the available files on the SmartMedia (as in fig. 4, above), and then clicking the All Files button, every file will be transferred to the destination specified by the user. It's important to note that the IMOLYM directory must be opened before clicking the All Files button; clicking All Files at the main FlashPath level (as in fig. 3, above) will cause the Transfer mode to terminate without any files being transferred. As the FlashPath utility completes the transfer of each file, a small tone is played to indicate a successful transfer before it proceeds to the next file in the list. After all files have been transferred, the Mac ejects the adapter from the drive and exits the transfer mode. This is a unique benefit to Mac users: during the time the adapter remains inserted in the floppy drive, it is "on" and the batteries are being drained! PC users must remember to eject the adapter as soon as the files have been transferred, or else they'll find themselves with dead batteries much sooner than anticipated. Mac OS 8.5 Users Note: After the adapter has been ejected by the FlashPath software, some users may observe that a grayed-out icon of the FlashPath disk will remain on the Macintosh's Desktop, and (in some cases), the users may be asked to "...re-insert the floppy disk named 'untitled'". The dialog box can be dismissed by pressing the Command and Period keys (i.e., CMD-"."). To remove the grayed-out FlashPath disk icon from the desktop, simply drag it to the Macintosh's Trashcan. Although the Mac version of the FlashPath utility is read-only (and, therefore, it cannot erase image files or reformat the SmartMedia), you can erase images or reformat the SmartMedia using your camera. In my experience, transferring the files using the FlashPath adapter was about twice as fast as using the serial cable with my D-600L at 115Kbps, although your results may be different. In addition, Olympus Digital Camera owners who use Macs will rejoice that the FlashPath adapter obviates the need to toggle their cameras off and on in order to get their Mac's to recognize them! Once the files have been transferred, the images can be edited or manipulated exactly the same way they could be if they'd been downloaded directly from the camera using the serial cable. In its current form, the Mac version of the FlashPath utility is, at best, rudimentary; it only allows users to transfer the files from the SmartMedia to your Mac's hard drive, and that's about it. Its not very elegant, nor is its design as well thought-out as it might have been. Certainly, none of the frills or extras that are present in the Windows version (more on this later) are shared in the Mac version. It requires a lot of manual interaction before you can transfer the files, and the interface lacks a coherent design. I would have preferred that the Mac version of the FlashPath utility behaved more like the Windows version, taking the form of either a Control Panel or Extension, capable of automatically sensing the presence of the adapter and providing access to the files via the Finder. But it does work, and its a |
I went online and purchased train tickets from Montreal to Ottawa. A few minutes later, I tried to buy tickets from Ottawa to Cobourg, Ont., but Visa declined to process the second payment — its computer thought something suspicious was happening. I’m sure by now just about everybody has experienced this problem.
We need to have a serious conversation in this province about the appropriateness of using online technology in our public schools. This matter has been discussed extensively in the country’s universities, but primary schools are teaching even more vulnerable citizens — our children.
Hamish Telford is a university professor and political commentator. He lives in Abbotsford.
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Is there more to this story? We’d like to hear from you about this or any other stories you think we should know about. Email vantips@postmedia.com.</pStory highlights Manufacturers ask EPA to withdraw endangered species reports
Letters sent to three Trump Cabinet officials
Washington (CNN) Lawyers for Dow AgroSciences and two other pesticide manufacturers are asking the Environmental Protection Agency to withdraw scientific reports that were provided to the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service regarding the effects of those pesticides on endangered species.
The reports were one of the final acts of President Barack Obama's administration and were submitted just two days before President Donald Trump's inauguration.
The research includes a finding that one of the pesticides, chlorpyrifos, is "likely to adversely affect" 1778 out of 1835 species studied in the report.
Dow AgroSciences, which produces chlorpyrifos, provided the letters to CNN after they were first published by the Associated Press. The other two pesticide makers asking the EPA for the reports to be withdrawn are Adama, which makes diazinon, and FMC Corporation, which makes malathion.
Read MoreTwitter historically has had a rocky relationship with its developer community.
It once encouraged third-party apps, then later restricting them ; hosting developer conferences, then killing them ; debuting a suite of developer tools, then selling them ; and despite issuing a mea culpa, the company failed to regain the trust of many.
Today, Twitter is trying to reset developer relations yet again with the unveiling of its vision for the Twitter API platform and, for the first time, publishing its public roadmap of what it has planned.
The apparent goal here is to be more transparent about what Twitter has in store for developers, which includes a unification of its API platform along with the launching of new APIs and endpoints for developers.
Streamlining the API platform
To begin, Twitter is finally taking fully advantage of its investment in Gnip.
Gnip, a longtime Twitter partner and social data provider, was acquired by Twitter back in 2014. The goal was to build out Twitter’s in-house big data analytics team and establish direct data relationships with the big businesses who build on top of Twitter’s data and platform.
The acquisition, however, divided the developer base into different classes. Most developers continue to utilize the standard REST and real-time streaming APIs that have been around since 2006. Meanwhile, larger software companies could take advantage of Gnip’s enterprise-grade APIs to do more with Twitter data.
Gnip’s APIs let developers tap into the “Firehose” (the unfiltered, full stream of tweets and all their metadata), and offer more functionality than the REST and streaming APIs. But they’re also priced for an enterprise audience. That kept developers who were only beginning to scale from being able to afford access.
Twitter says it heard developers complaints about this, and will address the problem later this year by combining its REST and streaming APIs with Gnip. The goal is to create an integrated Twitter API platform that all developers – from indie app makers to large enterprise – can use.
The APIs will be streamlined, so developers won’t have to deal with different access points and delivery protocols as they scale, explains Twitter.
“This means one API for filtering data from the Firehose; one API for searching the Twitter archive; one API for getting realtime activities related to an account — including Tweets, Direct Messages, Likes & Follows,” writes Andy Piper, Staff Developer Advocate, in a blog post.
Tiered access and new APIs for data and DMs
In addition to this simplification, Twitter will later this year introduce new tiers of access, including free access for testing new ideas, self-serve, paid access for increased functionality as the developer begins scaling, and finally enterprise access for Twitter’s strategic partners.
Twitter says it will be clear about the features and costs available at each level, as well, but did not announce pricing. (It will later this year, we’re told).
Twitter will also introduce new APIs aimed at developers building business solutions – specifically those that could cater to areas of Twitter’s own business it wants to further invest in: customer service, bots, and brand engagements.
This includes the launch of APIs for developers building solutions on top of Twitter’s data – like those that help businesses understand which products to build and how to market them, as well as better understand their customers and what they think.
Along with this, Twitter is today adding a new Account Activity API and new endpoints, detailed here.
These are focused on opening up Twitter’s Direct Messages to allow developers to build things like customer service apps, chatbots or other tools for businesses that want to chat with customers. They include support for newer Twitter features like welcome messages in Direct Messages and automated Quick Replies.
Twitter is also showing off a couple of features still in private beta in the hopes of developer feedback – custom profiles that businesses can use to override their default avatar so customers can see a photo of the human agent or bot they’re chatting with on DM, and “Customer Feedback Cards” for businesses to collect feedback on the customer service experience they offered.
Twitter additionally detailed its plans for a new Search API that offers free access to a 7-day “lookback window” offering more sophisticated query capabilities and higher fidelity data retrieval that what’s available today.
New roadmap and rules
Finally, Twitter updated its automation rules to guide chatbot developers; announced plans to replace User Streams and Site Streams with the new Account Activity API; and announced a plan to replace several endpoints (public statuses/filter, statuses/sample, and search/tweets) with a streamlined API that provides increased access when rate limits are reached.
Most importantly, perhaps, Twitter for the first time has published its API platform roadmap through early 2018. This details what is in the works, when things are planned, and what’s in store for the future.
The investment Twitter is making here – streamlining and unifying its API platform to allow developers to scale – is significant. But the company’s troubled past with developers could still haunt it, despite these changes.
Twitter has before shafted its own partners and pulled out the rug from under developers’ feet, to reflect the company’s own, ever-changing interests as it tries to figure out where it can extract revenue from its platform. Offering its roadmap and increased transparency may help to soothe some concerns, but with Twitter’s own future continually uncertain, it’s not clear how many developers will take up the charge.There are lots of things to consider when reviewing a book.
Who is it meant for? What purpose does it serve? What went through the mind of the author as he developed and refined his work?
After reading this book and ruminating on it, I feel I have some worthwhile answers to these questions.
It is, as the author claimed, an attempt to illustrate what the author knows about the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game as he himself has experienced it over the years. It is meant both for readers who seek to improve their capabilities and for readers who are curious about the personal history of one particular Duelist. It aims to serve those purposes, and I am confident that the author had benign motive in writing it.
How does this relate to the reader, though? How does this make a read enjoyable, or good for a reader, or otherwise valuable? Why should or shouldn’t one part with one’s hard-earned cash?
I want to answer those questions too, and that’ll be the meat of this review – Why should or shouldn’t you get this book, and at what price?
—–
Between frequent quotes of well-respected philosophers and professionals, the author obviously feels comfortable in relating the substance of his education to his hobbies. Whether or not this is something a reader will value or understand remains to be seen: while I can deal with Nietzsche or Sinclair on a whim, not all readers will want to, and we have to keep in mind audience when producing a work.
Sometimes the quotes – and even the lone poem – can feel a little hamfisted or out of place. We want our reader to stay engrossed, and while things like that can make me laugh, and while those things feel clever to me, I can’t say that the parts of the book using this style of presentation are something everyone would enjoy.
I’m not even sure if most Duelists would give it a chance – and it’s not their job to be ridiculously forgiving to aspiring authors, either.
Most Duelists play the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG for the sake of their personal enjoyment and leisure, and the same goes for most Duelists’ non-educational reading habits.
If this is meant to be an educational book and nothing more, there’s little room for the portions that can come across as self-aggrandizing: if it’s meant to be a memoir of sorts, most Duelists have no reason to want to read the memoir of another Duelist *just because* he’s motivated to win tournaments where and when possible.
I liked parts of its presentation, but I’ve got uncommon sensibilities, and I don’t feel certain that this would fit most tastes.
—–
In terms of being organized, the book lays out its goals very quickly, and gets right to business in trying to accomplish them all. In this sense, the book is edited quite well, though some typos and homophone errors may make it difficult to understand what is being said from time to time.
It can sometimes wax verbose. Now, my friends know I’m the most unintentionally verbose person they know. So when I say it can be verbose, I mean it. This issue is one of the things that might separate a good editor from a divine one, and I’m willing to forgive it, because I commit the same sin every day.
One thing I am grateful for is a distinct lack of obvious bloat via elements like unnecessary photographs. There’s one point where color photos are used, and while not needed, it’s acceptable. Everything else in the work is either text or infographic: these pages at least TRY to be low on fluff and high on data and storytime, which is more than I can say about a lot of text media these days.
However, the book’s first two sections after the intro really feel like a long slog, even for me – and those sections, focusing on how people think, are filled with content that I should love. (I’m a Philosophy student, the first two sections are right in my wheelhouse, so those sections feeling like a slog for me is a big surprise to me.) The book becomes a great deal more engrossing as you get deeper within it, and this relates to why I worry about people enjoying it or not.
So, unless this book wants to tell people who aren’t as patient and charitable as me to go away, the pacing and style can grind on a reader a bit, at least in the earlier main sections.
—–
The heavier portions of the intro begin with an analysis of Patrick Chapin’s “Theory of Everything”, a commonly known theory about playing collectible card games. In this analysis, the author seeks to build a new theory, a “Theory of Influence”, while critiquing and endorsing various parts of Chapin’s theory. At points, the understanding of Chapin’s theory seems a bit shaky in subtle ways relevant to the context in which it was made. Further, the rejection of parts of Chapin’s theory sometimes rely on reading it in a way that seems to invent flaws that aren’t necessarily there.
Some cursory research into the rejected theory, and the game which it came from, left me with a puzzle: the context in which it was made was a sound context for that theory, thanks to different game rules about tiebreak calculations. If you obtain a Match Win in Yu-Gi-Oh! by going undefeated during a Match, you get the same reward as someone who obtains a Match Win despite being defeated at times in that Match. In the game Chapin’s theory comes from, that’s not the case. This fact undermines a hearty chunk of the initial critique of Chapin’s theory for me, because that critique felt very focused on Chapin’s lack of advocating the option of choosing to take a Game Loss as means of helping increase one’s own chances of securing a Match Win. The critique focused perhaps too much on the concept of a tactical surrender being left out of Chapin’s work, and felt like it was using that lack as a springboard into implying the author’s new theory is superior to Chapin’s.
This isn’t to say that Chapin’s work was perfect, or to disparage the author’s work: the core point of the author’s new “Theory of Influence” is to view gameplay, event, and format performances from a broader perspective that Chapin’s approach outright ignores, and picking up on something Chapin didn’t talk about IS something that needs to be done; this book undoubtedly merits respect for trying to do that and doing well at times.
However, this tome’s critique of Chapin’s “Theory of Everything” feels well-meaning but slightly misguided, especially given how Chapin’s prior work applies better to its source game than it does to Yu-Gi-Oh!. Rather than come across as “Chapin made something worthwhile, but we’re gonna make it better”, I feel it comes close to insulting Chapin’s theory despite valuing it as a building block. Building one’s introduction on this sort of thing is a poor hook unless done extremely well, and I can say that it was a bit of a turnoff for me as a reader because of how it wasn’t done as well as I’d have liked. It would’ve been more effective as saying “Chapin gives us a lot of useful frameworks that can be adapted, with some important tweaks, to help us win not just games but also matches, tournaments, and entire formats.”
To adapt a theory from another game to Yu-Gi-Oh!, and then make a better version of the first theory specifically for Yu-Gi-Oh!, it helps to take into account how differences in game rules can make actions that’d be poor choices in one game be better choices in the other. I didn’t see that sort of care being taken here.
Between that and how obvious some elements of both theories felt to me, I questioned the point of why this first part was being writ and explained to me so. Was something obvious being treated as something profound? I couldn’t escape that feeling as I read the introduction.
So, between the approach to Chapin’s work seeming off in both a rule sense and a value sense, and occasionally asking myself why such obvious things were being said, I felt the intro for the Theory of Influence fell flat. It gets its message across, but it doesn’t do it with the flawlessness I expected.
Regardless, the goals of the book are quite ambitious. I kept reading, because the book’s stated goals can still bear good fruit for the reader, and the ambition of those goals are part of why it can bear that good fruit. In spite of being a bit anecdotal and kitschy and verbose, there’s still some good solid stuff in the early sections on how one can think rationally and logically.
—–
The second section goes on to describe matters about how one can cooperate with others to achieve grand results, such as through playtesting. This section is perhaps the most personal of all.
While the section has some good info about how to make your testing and discussions more productive and more insightful, it may well have the entirely unintentional effect of alienating readers for a very, very sad reason.
The educational element felt very light in section two, especially after the bookish slog that was section one. For some, this might be a good decision regarding giving folks some time to relax after heavy lifting, but section two’s shift to a heavier personal focus unintentionally teaches the reader that environmental factors can be a nearly insurmountable part of achieving meaningful success in this game by popular competitive standards. There’s no dream-killer quite as effective as learning that skill and capability are products not just of a will to work but also having the right to work a meaningful amount on the game at all.
It’s pretty safe to say that a “40+ hour workweek” for one’s in-game ambitions is a rather fortunate way to spend one’s time: being able to have this game as a hobby is in and of itself a happy and fortunate thing, but making as much time for the game as the author claims to have made is an entirely different beast, one that I imagine most players will be unable to do because of more important concerns tied to personal life. The author has juggled family, employment,, school, travel, and game time, and that’s good, but it’d be unrealistic to expect readers to do the same, especially given the personal context the author provides about his own story. His personal life does not strike me as a common one, and it offers him opportunities I expect a common Duelist would not be able to match.
The book doesn’t intend to be judgmental, but at the same time, there are very few ways to preach the virtues of success in gameplay this strongly without implying that people who play the game more casually for any reason at all are somehow doing it wrong (even if those other people have much more demanding personal lives). The book is all about “doing it right”, but here it seems “doing it right” might not be an option available to a number of potential readers.
The author knows he is a very fortunate person, but I don’t feel he did the nature of his fortune justice. He acknowledges how fortunate he is to have the support he has, but his work doesn’t seem to recognize how that fortune is fundamentally vital to how a player can gain or lose extra opportunities to improve and grow.
If one of the book’s aims is to inspire readers to pave and walk their own “Road of the King” through being a better player, this section can kill some of that inspiration stone-dead by implying that a lot of readers will be stuck on dead-end roads for reasons partially or completely out of the reader’s control. Readers might not see a POINT to improving as players if they don’t feel they’ll be able to rival players with more money and more free time, and that can really hurt any educational value the book has.
Part of knowing your audience includes having ways to adapt your message to the needs of others, when possible. If you can’t adapt to an audience’s idiosyncracies, you might not have that audience at all. I’m not sure if section two is all that adaptable to the common Duelist.
—–
Section three is where I found the best and worst parts of the book. It focuses on gameplay and inter-player behavior, and is where we begin to get into the meat and potatoes of the work. Here’s where everything really begins to come into its own, and original content that isn’t based as heavily on anecdotes as much as the author’s own way of looking at gameplay really takes the stage.
I didn’t learn much, but the largest part of what I did take away from it all was a different but understandable way of viewing the purposes certain cards fulfill in gameplay, a more complex and detail-focused system than most. Rather than serve as a simple system and then let the details fall where they may, I valued the greater sense of caution and care taken in matters of deckbuilding and in-game behavior. This is, perhaps, the greatest thing the book offers to Duelists and fans – not any sort of story, but a well-wrought and well-explained approach to how the game should be viewed and analyzed, from fundamentals like deckbuilding all the way up to potentially shaping the future of a format through one’s decisions.
It isn’t a perfect section, though.
There is one passage here where the author probably doesn’t intend to come off as purposefully deluding himself to psych himself up before an event, but does come off that way anyway, and it is this humble reviewer’s opinion that self-delusion is always to be rejected in favor of calm, gleeful, mundane knowledge of what is true about what one can and cannot control. One should not need to psych one’s self up, and for a number of players, lying to one’s self is a recipe for worse performance, not better performance.
There are also portions in this section that fly contrary to what passes as relaxed, casual behavior: one player’s persistence in a request may be another player’s harassment. One player’s drive to gain an edge may be another player’s weaponization of small talk. One player’s refusal to side out Vanity’s being met with continued request can come across as desperate. This can make the reader enjoy the read more, or less – depending on what sort of person the reader is.
There is, in a sense, a certain decorum about gameplay that some elements of this can violate: not everyone is here to have fun in the same way. The author’s honesty about that is welcome, even if the reader might find his behavior to defeat the point of going to a competitive event – why would one want to work hard at winning, when one can’t respect one’s opponents? The fact is, the author’s not concerned with whether or not you find his methods sickening, he’s concerned with whether or not you find his methods practical.
Further, there are parts that may merit disclaimers: remember, the author never promised to be absolutely objective, just to share his sentiments and experiences. Part of that includes elements that to some may seem self-aggrandizing and therefore unconvincing. It is perhaps regrettable that the enjoyable and intelligent portions in pages 213-215 are pinned between these less flavorful entries.
——
However, this pales in comparison to the biggest flaw the work has: at one point, it suggests a course of action that is regarded as bribery. On page 233 the book proposes a certain behavior that would constitute a UC-Cheating infraction, which carries a penalty of Disqualification from Official and Sanctioned events. Further, all Disqualifications are reported to the game’s Penalty Committee for review: players may be Suspended from all events for their behavior at times.
Literally, a book partially about gameplay has stumbled into potentially getting players Suspended in the future. There is no greater way to fail at playing a game than to be Suspended from that game for a perceived inability to follow that game’s rules: and this book has just suggested a course of action that, if taken, would show an inability to follow the game’s rules.
This flaw cannot be forgiven.
—–
So, essentially, section three may leave a bad taste in your mouth if you expect the author to have a perfect command of obeying tournament policy, or expect the author to have any typical concerns about social mores and how they relate to mutual enjoyment of gameplay.
However, there’s also a good amount of plausible content being advocated, when the book gets out of the weeds of inter-player behavior and gets back to play decisions and deckbuilding.
The work beginning on page 284 is perhaps my favorite element of the whole piece, and although the work as a whole isn’t perfectly convincing, I don’t need it to be. The lesson on page 430 is also a very nice touch, telling some hard truths about when to play or not play certain cards.
A shame that on page 431 it gets mired in the weeds of self-perception again! Make no mistake, the author has something worthwhile to say, and he gets most of it across okay. But, if the book has a cardinal sin, it’s in replacing points of calm awareness of one’s own ignorance and knowledge… with certainty in how all events are going to unfold. It can unintentionally shift in tone from cool, respectful confidence to implicit claims of omniscience at the drop of a hat. It’s a shame, really: the solid components of the book, which really shine in section three, are occasionally marred by proximity with self-aggrandizing muck. I don’t think the author intends to hinder his message at all, but I wouldn’t be surprised if readers are probably going to find page 431 a little silly. The author has something to share, and page 431 is an example of how the way he comes across only serves to diminish what he might share instead of complement what he shares.
I find it a little sad – make no mistake, the author has some insightful and cunning thoughts to share, and at times he does it well, but sometimes other factors in his writing worsen the good things he’s trying to share.
—–
At the end, the author acknowledges the motives behind the work – he at the very least pays due respect to those he ought, and his almost-otaku-like devotion to the things he cares about – his friends, this game, himself – shines through.
—–
So, should you get this book, or not?
Some, but not all, players will enjoy this. I feel it’d be harder to enjoy it than to learn something from it, in part because of how verbose and educational it is at times, and in part because of how certain elements of the book could be quite a turn-off. I think most people might learn at least one useful thing from it, perhaps more, despite how a chunk of the content can be quite obvious.
I do feel the work has some redeeming value despite its flaws, so I won’t say that no one should buy it at all. The Theory of Influence is, at its core, well-made and poorly-presented. Its goal and scope are admirable, and its effectiveness at accomplishing those goals really depends upon how closely it hews to what it needs to say instead of what it wants to say. When it sticks to talking shop about the actual game in terms of deckbuilding, card interactions, and how to effectively think about games, matches, tournaments, and formats, it’s fantastic. When it wanders into the weeds of personal stuff to justify the theory, it often but not always gets worse, and the flaws in presentation begin to run rampant.
However, if I catch people committing UC infractions because of this book, I will begin to see red. If you’re going to ask players to spend their money on something you make, it had BETTER be something that will help them. This book tries to help, and it definitely can help, but it also makes the beyond-inexcusable mistake of stumbling into penalizable conduct. It also has other factors that can easily turn a reader off or otherwise waste a reader’s time. The good in it is VERY good, but there’s a lot of “eh” points, and some extremely bad points too, and the book ends up way worse than it could’ve been.
Overall, I slightly disapprove of the book’s overall content, and I feel it may be overpriced. I’m about 55% on the side of telling people not to buy it, and 45% on the side of telling people to buy it anyway. Keep in mind: if the book didn’t have some very good, very solid thoughts and writing in it, I would say with 100% certainty that no one should buy it. The fact that the author was able to give the book enough quality stuff to almost make me say “you should buy this in spite of the big and small flaws throughout the book” is proof that the author CAN create books worth buying, and almost did this time. Further, a second edition of this book devoid of the first’s flaws would DEFINITELY be worth buying.
The oath “first, do no harm” is a good oath to take in nearly all things in life. This book makes the mistake of carelessly breaking that oath. The idea of players getting in trouble because they did something that they read in a book that they spent money on is intolerable. Therefore, it’s an author’s responsibility to avoid leading people toward breaking a game rule. The writing was irresponsible and careless in ways that can’t be forgiven easily, both on the reader enjoyability level and on the policy following level. I’m sure the author didn’t mean to do that, but that doesn’t change the fact that it devalues the work.
I’m disappointed. I expected better.: Outdoor practice fields: ShellsAfter two physical days of work in Tuesday's scrimmage and Wednesday's competition day, the Ducks dialed back the intensity a tick Thursday with a practice in shells.To close practice, however, UO coachstaged an overtime drill that had players on opposing sidelines hooting and hollering at each other. And once the drill began, the shoulder pads were popping at the line of scrimmage."It's a really fun atmosphere where we can get together with different (teammates) and make sure we get that work, on overtime or different scenarios," senior offensive linemansaid. The period was made all the more fun for Hunt because his unit came out victorious.The drill opened with the first-team units going head to head.did a nice job stringing outto the sideline on the opening play, and thenandcorralledon a short run.set up fourth-and-short with a pass to, and though Freeman moved the chains on fourth down, the defense held the No. 1 offense to a field goal.That brought the second units onto the field, including Hunt at center, where he has cross-trained a couple days in this month's camp.has been rotating quarterbacks throughout the depth chart, and for this drillwas behind center with the twos. He quickly moved the chains with a pass toTwo plays later, Hunt had a rare misfire, but Herbert tracked down the errant snap and then scrambled all the way down to the 2-yard line. Hunt then redeemed himself by helping move the line of scrimmage asran between the tackles for a "game-winning" touchdown.Hunt has now practiced extensively at both center and right tackle this month, as well as the position where he's started the past three seasons, right guard. He should be able to provide invaluable flexibility to position coach, should need arise this season to shuffle the offensive line – assuming Hunt can continue to play proficiently at all three spots."That's the challenge, staying sharp with all three," Hunt said. "Credit Coach Greatwood: In our meetings he's always asking me a lot of questions. … Just doing whatever the team needs me to do to be successful; that's what I want."With Hunt at center on the second unit, the right side with the first group featuredat guard andat tackle. Greatwood also playedup with the ones at left tackle for stretches of Thursday's practice. Aiello had a crushing block on a defensive tackle and then got out to engage a linebacker to spring Freeman for a gain during the overtime drill.: In position drills and work in small groups, a focus today was perimeter blocking, and defeating those blocks by the back seven on defense.had a really impressive 3-on-2 period, twice fending off blocks byand also breaking up a pass intended for Wallace. … That drill also tests decision-making by quarterbacks, and Herbert had a great rep on which he pump-faked, then threw over the top to running back. …In a similar drill but using slightly larger groups to each side of the field, 4-on-3,flashed his arm several times. He connected withon a "touchdown," and later on back-to-back reps foundandopen in the end zone. … Herbert showed some maturity on one rep in that period, staying patient to let the play develop, then zipping a pass to Freeman despite tight coverage by Robinson. Later in the drill, though, Herbert tried to slip a pass into too tight a window, andknocked it away.: Because of that focus on perimeter plays during team situations, the earlier position drills were likewise tailored for those situations.coached up his receivers on blocking technique:Andworked with the defensive backs on breaking to the ball and maintaining leverage after the reception is made. You can see the jobdoes maintaining leverage so thatcan make a tackle:Lovette continues to shine on special teams, too. After returning a punt for a TD in Tuesday's scrimmage and blocking a field goal Wednesday, the redshirt freshman caught a punt on the fly and downed it at the 4-yard line with the coverage team Thursday. … Breeland showed off his ball skills in 7-on-7, tipping a pass in the air and then hauling it in, although if the situation had been full-contact, Daniels was in position to lay a devastating hit on him.Interviews:Defensive coordinatorWhat an amazing story via Fox 26 in Houston.
Meet Brendan Kelly, a U.S. Marine who was in Vegas attending the Route 91 Harvest music festival on Sunday. On the right is Renee Cesario from Riverside, CA who Brendan meet at the concert. 2 hours after they met, tragedy struck but Brendan was ready and got Renee to safety:
From the article:
Before I knew what was going on, Brendan tackled me down to the ground and covered me from the fire. It stopped again and he looked around to see what was happening and then it just kept going. He looked at me and said ‘We have to get out of here. We can’t stay here. It’s not safe.’ Then he pulled my arm up to get me out of the piles of people. We had no idea who was dead or who was alive. We just started to run. He kept telling me it was going to be okay and to keep running until we were safe.
Brendan loaned his phone to Renee so she could tell her big sister, Jenn Cesario, that she was fine. Jenn later posted a screengrab of a text she sent Brendan thanking him for his actions and called him the “epitome of a hero”:
And now meet Marine veteran Taylor Winston. He stole a pickup truck — literally — and used it to take the wounded to a local hospital. And then he went back for a second trip. From CBS News:
The best of America on display.
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more storiesThere's only one baseball beat writer in this country who has a chauffeur pick him up in a new Lexus and take him up to the game every day: Hal McCoy of the Dayton Daily News.
He has to. He's legally blind.
McCoy has been that way for 10 years now and yet continues to report, opine, blog, chat and broadcast about the Reds with humor and panache, his 42nd year on the beat.
"Hey Hal!" Aaron Boone once yelled out in the Reds' clubhouse. "Do you realize you've been talking to a Coke machine for the last 20 minutes?"
It wasn't that funny that day in 2003, when the vision in McCoy's left eye went all dark and blurry, matching the fog in his right one from the year before. Optical strokes had hit them both -- an event as rare as the unassisted triple play -- and they left McCoy sure his Hall of Fame baseball writing career was done.
He walked into the office of his sports editor and told him that he was going to have to quit. They both had a good cry. Then the editor asked him to try one day of spring training.
A decade later, McCoy's eyesight is only worse, but he's still covering the Reds like a summer shower, thanks to his own bottomless knowledge of baseball, a very big flat screen in front of his seat in the press box, and his personal driver/Sancho Panza, Ray Snedegar, who got the job by answering this question in McCoy's blog:
"... anybody out there with nothing much to do on their hands who would like to see most of the Reds home games this season…for free?"
McCoy got more than 400 applications from all over the country but he only interviewed one man, Snedegar, whose wife, Barbara, had died two years before. He drives a hearse, but only part-time, and he's ex-military, so he's used to the 12-hour days of a beat writer. Plus, they were both in their early 70s and loved the same things: Yuengling beer, old rock 'n' roll and the Reds.
Two hundred miles a day, 55 cents a mile, and no complaining about extra innings?
"Sold," Snedegar said.
How does a legally blind sportswriter cover a baseball team?
Really well.
Hal McCoy waves to the crowd in Cincinnati during pregame ceremonies honoring him in 2009. AP Photo/Al Behrman
McCoy writes for FoxSportsOhio.com, appears on Fox TV, writes stories for the Daily News, writes his blog, "The Real McCoy," and even covers road games from his garage. He's as popular as many of the players.
But he couldn't do it without Snedegar. "The last time I drove a car, I wrecked it," McCoy says. Snedegar survived a wreck himself -- a plane leaving Saigon in 1975 that killed 138 people as part of Operation Babylift. A doubleheader in August wasn't going to scare him.
Snedegar answers occasional questions from McCoy like: "What just happened?" and "Who's that talking?" He takes his elbow when McCoy gets in heavy foot traffic.
"The worst part is people think I'm ignoring them," McCoy says. "I have to get up on a guy to two feet before I know who it is. So people will say hello to me and I won't say anything. They probably think I'm an arrogant jerk."
One day, he was interviewing Reds pitcher Mat Latos in the clubhouse. Latos, barefoot, finally stopped the interview and barked, "Dude, how many times are you going to step on my toes?"
Latos didn't know, and neither did McCoy.
Today, McCoy is interviewing Reds superstar first baseman Joey Votto. Afterward, I ask Votto if he knew.
"I've known for a few years now," Votto says. "Hal's got a very nice air about him, classy. So I'm glad to talk to him. But can I ask you a question? Is it true he can't see a fastball or a line drive?"
Sort of. Between the big screen and the cloud forest in his eyes he can just make out the ball -- until it's hit hard or leaves the outfield. But then he just watches which way the batter's head turns. That's how he knows where it was hit.
"Cool," says Votto.
McCoy can tell where a home run lands by watching the fuzzy scramble of people in the bleachers. Or when a pitcher drops his head in shame. He knows where a line drive went by watching the relay line. In the clubhouse, he's memorized each player's walk and voice. And with his glasses and 20-point bold font, he can read his laptop.
"If the third baseman stays where he is, this guy is going to bunt," McCoy says to nobody in particular as the Reds are playing the Colorado Rockies.
Sure enough, Reds outfielder Derrick Robinson bunts.
"How'd you know that?" I ask.
"I know |
Wellington's sister city Xiamen is expected to build a tea pavilion, shown here, in the proposed Chinese Garden.
Another legal fight could be in store over Wellington's waterfront after plans for a Chinese garden at Frank Kitts Park were given the go-ahead.
An independent commissioners hearing announced on Friday that it had granted resource consent for Wellington City Council to begin a $10.5 million revamp of the park.
The development includes a $5 million Garden of Beneficence, which will be funded by the Wellington Chinese Garden Society with support from the capital's sister cities Xiamen, Beijing and Tianjin.
STANTIALL'S STUDIO LTD/SUPPLIED A traditional Pai Lau archway is included in the designs.
Cutting down plans for the park could have sparked a diplomatic incident because the council has already promised the mayor of Xiamen and Chinese President Xi Jinping it will go ahead.
READ MORE:
* Stoush brewing over Wellington's plans for a Chinese garden on the waterfront
* Dave Armstrong: Is plonking a Chinese garden in an already popular park a good move?
* Chinese Garden may finally get go-ahead in proposed Frank Kitts Park redevelopment
* Chinese garden planned for waterfront park
However, Waterfront Watch president Patrick McCombs described the granting of consent as "disappointing", and said the group would consider getting legal advice about a possible challenge in the Environment Court.
STANTIALL'S STUDIO LTD/SUPPLIED Material for the garden will be sourced in China.
He believed the majority of Wellingtonians did not want to the area to be changed as proposed. In previous comments, he said turning the amphitheatre into a "lawn" was pointless.
"There's no public clamouring. No-one is asking to get rid of Frank Kitts Park."
The group has challenged four previous waterfront projects in the Environment Court, winning three times. Past scalps included plans for a Hilton Hotel and the Kumutoto development.
STANTIALL'S STUDIO LTD/SUPPLIED The proposed revamp of Frank Kitts Park has been designed to open up harbour views.
"We would rather work with the council in the managing of the waterfront than be forced to oppose them in court," he said on Friday.
Opponents of the resource consent have 15 days in which to appeal.
City councillor Nicola Young felt it would be a shame if the Chinese garden went ahead on the waterfront. However, "we need to find a home for it somewhere, because it's been promised".
FAIRFAX NZ The face of Frank Kitts Park is looking set to change.
"The Chinese community has been an important part of Wellington for a long time, but it's about finding a solution that works."
In the hearing commissioners' decision, the Wellington Chinese Garden Society said that a harbourside location had always been the preference as it related back to the way many immigrants from China arrived in the city.
"They considered that suggestions it be in other locations, such as the Botanic Gardens, in Haining St, or adjacent to the Chinese Embassy, neither practicable nor desirable," the decision said.
The garden's design referenced the landscape while using "the essential elements of a garden based upon fundamental Chinese design traditions to create a locally inflected, site-specific contemporary Chinese Garden".
The decision also addressed, among other issues, the potential loss of open green usable space, but argued it was "balanced by the increased functionality of the lawn and playground areas".
"ROOTS ARE STARTING"
Wellington Chinese Garden Society chairman Harvey Wu described the news as "tremendous", and said plans for the garden could finally progress positively.
It had been about 20 years since the project was first mooted, and now "the roots are starting".
"The idea was to build a garden and give it back to the city."
It was hoped the garden would be ready by the 30-year anniversary of the sister city arrangement in June next year, but that now looks likely to be delayed.
PAST WATERFRONT SCRAPS
Hilton Hotel
In September 2006, Greater Wellington Regional Council granted Waterfront Investments Ltd various resource consents allowing it to construct, use and maintain a hotel on a site known as the Outer-T of Queens Wharf. In March 2008, the Environment Court accepted the development would have provided benefits to the wider community, but ruled they would be achieved at the expense of many of the qualities that made the site special and unique.
Kumutoto Wharf
In February 2012, Wellington City Council unveiled plans for a six-storey building on a site opposite the NZ Post building. Opponents argued the scale of the designs would destroy the unique maritime character of waterfront heritage buildings, and effectively privatise swaths of open space. The Environment Court upheld their appeal.Kate Beaton
WITH A MILLION JILLION PRIDE AND PREJUDICE JOKES AND REVAMPS
HERE IS ANOTHER ONE
I thought of this a few years ago, and was like nahh there's too much of those parodies and even I made fun of them. haha oh well! How sweet is the comparison between two people ideologically opposed to each other who fall in looooovvveeee
The store has updated with lots of exciting new things! Were you looking at my
Clicking on the image will
IN A WORLDWITH A MILLION JILLION PRIDE AND PREJUDICE JOKES AND REVAMPSHERE IS ANOTHER ONEI thought of this a few years ago, and was like nahh there's too much of those parodies and even I made fun of them. haha oh well! How sweet is the comparison between two people ideologically opposed to each other who fall in looooovvveeeeThe store has updated with lots of exciting new things! Were you looking at my Wee The People drawings on tumblr? I was trying to come up with something fun to put in the store. And along with a few other items, here we are!Clicking on the image will take you to the store. Hooray!! Store!SALT LAKE CITY – Carving up defenses is a Bryce Love trademark. Love has a knack for finding a crease, hitting the hole and turning on the jets for one big gain after another.
Utah’s stout run defense forced the Stanford junior to take a patient approach on Saturday night. The Utes bottled up Love for several long stretches and forced him to chip away and grind for a yard or two here and there.
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Photos: Stanford routs Arizona State Love found it tougher to generate yards against Utah compared to what he experienced through most of the Cardinal’s first five games. But the junior found a way to come through when it mattered most for Stanford.
Highlighted by a 68-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter, Love rushed for 152 yards on 20 carries in Stanford’s 23-20 win over the no. 20 Utes before a sellout crowd of 45,991 at Rice-Eccles Stadium.
He now has 1,240 total yards on 118 carries in six games.
“It’s just a testament to our offense,” Love said, noting that facing the Cardinal defense in practice prepares him well for these types of games. “We’re really big on grinding it out for however long it takes and we just need one opportunity to make something happen. The line trusts me when they give me a crease that I have to hit it and get what I can. That’s really my job.” For more Pac-12 coverage
follow Pac-12 Hotline on Flipboard.
It marked Stanford’s first win over Utah since the Utes joined the Pac-12 in 2011. Love played a huge role in getting the Cardinal their first victory in Salt Lake City since 1995.
In the first half, he gained just eight total yards on his first nine carries. Then on his tenth carry, Love lived up to his big play reputation. He finally found a hole and immediately burst down the sideline and shredded the Utes for a 39-yard run. It set up a 7-yard keeper by Keller Chryst on the next play to give Stanford its first touchdown and a 10-7 lead.
The Utes stayed within striking distance while trading field goals with the Cardinal. Love partially closed the door on those comeback hopes with his long fourth quarter touchdown run. Once again, he turned a little crease into a big play. Love stumbled for a bit after breaking through the line, but stayed on his feet and raced the remainder of the 68 yards untouched for the score.
It gave the Cardinal their largest lead at 23-13 with 12:02 left. For Love, it marked his eighth straight game with a touchdown run longer than 50 yards. This one felt even more spectacular because it came against the Pac-12’s top rush defense.
“You look at their personnel and it’s like an NFL defense,” Stanford coach David Shaw said. “Big guys all over the place. They can all hit. They can all tackle. We knew with enough opportunities Bryce Love was going to break one or two of them out and he did that.”
Chryst returned to the lineup for the first time since getting injured against UCLA. He alternated with K.J. Costello under center with great success. The two quarterbacks combined for 188 yards on 13-of-24 passing and 42 yards on six carries.
Shaw said the focus on Love allowed Chryst and Costello to successfully attack the defense on several read option plays.
“There’s not a lot of clean places to run the ball,” Shaw said. “So on our first touchdown the quarterback had to pull it. We pulled a couple of them today and got positive yards on the quarterbacks legs.”
Troy Williams, filling in for injured starter Tyler Huntley, made his first start of the season at quarterback for Utah. Williams finished with 228 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions on 20-of-39 passing.
Stanford took a 3-0 lead on a 21 yard field goal from Jet Toner to cap off its opening drive.
The Cardinal initially caught the Utes on their heels. Kaden Smith hauled in a catch, broke a couple of tackles and raced 54 yards down to the Utah 12. Bryce Love ripped off a run into the end zone on the next play, but an illegal motion penalty wiped out the score. A second penalty followed and Stanford eventually settled for three points.
Trading a touchdown for a field goal stunted Stanford’s momentum for a while. Utah took advantage, going ahead 7-3 on a 2-yard run from Zack Moss after Moss piled up 26 yards on back-to-back runs to open the drive.
The Cardinal finally surged ahead after Love overcame his slow start and Chryst scored. Stanford never trailed again after that point.
Stanford continued to stay a step ahead even as the game bogged down into a field goal contest stretching into the fourth quarter. Toner gave the Cardinal the upper hand. He made a 46-yarder just before halftime and tacked on another from 29 yards out in the third quarter to put Stanford up 16-10.
Utah narrowed it to 16-13 deficit on a 30-yard field goal from Matt Gay. The Utes could not close the gap again after Love’s touchdown, however, until the final minute, thanks to a pair of alert defensive plays by the Cardinal.
Utah drove deep into Stanford territory on the following drive after Love scored. A 24-yard catch and run by Darren Carrington moved them down to the Cardinal 25. Quenton Marks ended the threat when he intercepted a tipped ball at the Stanford 16.
Williams then threw another interception on the first play of Utah’s ensuing drive. Justin Reid hauled in the ball at the Stanford 43 to effectively slam the door on a Utes comeback.
Reid credited the coaching staff with making the right adjustments so the secondary felt like they could anticipate every route Utah ran in the fourth quarter.
“Guys were all over the ball entire time, especially in coverage,” Reid said. “We were locking up receivers.”
Utah did finally close the gap on Carrington’s 18-yard touchdown catch with 44 seconds left on a drive kept alive by two Cardinal targeting penalties. Stanford recovered a subsequent onside kick to run out the clock.At this year’s Hour of Code, the international education tutorial where children spend time learning about computer programming, characters from the upcoming movie “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” will animate one of the online games. By dragging and dropping parts of code, the kids will be able to move cartoon versions of Rey (a key new female character from the movie) and BB-8 (the new droid) as well as R2-D2, C-3PO and Princess Leia. Code.org, the nonprofit that runs the Hour of Code, teamed up with Disney to make this happen.
Code.org has raised roughly $10 million from tech titans like Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates to educate children about computer programming and careers in the field, as well as to lobby for political changes to make coding classes mandatory in schools. They’ve had 100 million students participate, and major figures such as President Barack Obama have taken the coding challenge to help raise awareness. The organization has also paid for summer computer science training and created online tutorials to teach instructors how to teach coding. Fifteen thousand teachers have taken advantage of those resources.The organization has worked with Disney in the past for the Hour of Code, last year creating a tutorial animated by the “Frozen” characters. But with “Star Wars,” the secrecy and intensity of the project was ratcheted up a notch.
Hadi Partovi, the co-founder of Code.org, could only speak with me by FaceTime from a locked storage closet with no windows — Disney’s rules for those working on the project. Schools teach the Hour of Code some time during the week of Dec. 7, one week before the theatrical release of the new “Star Wars” movie. He played me some of the video clips from the tutorial, with the thunderous, unmistakable “Star Wars” theme song booming in the background.
“People’s preconceptions around code is that it’s this boring, geeky thing that has nothing to do with anything you care about,” Partovi said. “We want to make it more fun, cool and hip.”"Exorbitant" foreign laws that impose citizenship on Australians "willy nilly" and without their knowledge should not disqualify them from Parliament, lawyers for Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce have argued in the High Court.
On the first day of hearings into the "citizenship seven", Bret Walker SC - who is also representing deputy Nationals leader Fiona Nash - said section 44 of the constitution was aimed at avoiding split allegiance among MPs.
"There's no split allegiance where you're not aware of one of them," Mr Walker said. "You cannot heed a call you cannot hear."
Mr Walker said "exorbitant" foreign laws that imposed citizenship by descent - often without the knowledge of those affected - could not be seen to create any split allegiance. He maintained that Mr Joyce and Senator Nash did not know about their dual citizenship.Sapphire RX 470 Platinum Review & Benchmark vs. GTX 1060, RX 480 4GB P2: Testing Methodology P3: Thermals, Throttles, & Power P4: Dx12, Vulkan (DOOM, Ashes) on RX 470 P5: Dx11 – GTA V, Mirror's Edge, Black Ops, More P6: Overclocking the RX 470 P7: Sapphire RX 470 Platinum Conclusion
AMD's RX 470 has been on our time table since May, when the pre-Computex press event informed us of a “mid-July” release. Well, it's mid-July – wait. August 4th. It's August 4th. The RX 470 is available effective today, coinciding with embargo lift on reviews, and we've had time to thoroughly analyze the card's performance. The RX 470 is a partner card and will not be available as a reference model, though some partner cards may as well be reference models; they're using the reference RX 480 cooler, just with new colors, back-plates, or LEDs. AMD has positioned its RX 470 in the sub-$200 market, listing its MSRP as $180. AIB partners will price their cards according to any custom coolers or pre-overclocks applied, though the floor has been set, more or less. That plants the 470 in a presently unchallenged market position: AMD's biggest current-gen competition in this price-range is its own RX 480 4GB card, the GTX 1060 being nVidia's lowest tier offering. Before our deep-dive review on the Sapphire RX 470 Platinum, card architecture, thermal & endurance throttles, power, and FPS, let's run through the specs.
Current Gen GPU Reviews
AMD RX 460, RX 470, & RX 480 Specs
AMD RX 480 AMD RX 470 AMD RX 460 Architecture Polaris 10 Polaris 10 Polaris 11 Compute Units (CUs) 36 32 14 Stream Processors 2304 2048 864 Base / Boost Clock 1120MHz / 1266MHz 926MHz / 1206MHz 1090MHz / 1200MHz COMPUTE Performance >5 TFLOPS Up to 4.9TFLOPs Up to 2.2TFLOPs Graphics Command Processor (GCP) 1 1 1 ACEs 4 4 2 HWS 2 2 2 TMUs 144 128 56 ROPs 32 32 16 Geometry Processors 4 4 2 Peak Texture Filter Rate 182.3GT/s 154.4GT/s 57.6GT/s Peak Pixel Filter Rate 40.5GP/s 38.6GP/s 19.2GP/s L2 Cache 2MB? 1MB LSU 576x32b? 256x32b VRAM Capacity 4GB GDDR5 @ 7Gbps
8GB GDDR5 @ 8Gbps 4GB GDDR5 2GB GDDR5 Memory Interface 256-bit 256-bit 128-bit Memory Speed 7Gbps (4GB model)
8Gbps (8GB model) 6.6Gbps 7Gbps Memory Bandwidth 224GB/s (4GB model)
256GB/s (8GB model) 211GB/s 112GB/s TDP 150W 120W* 75W Power Connectors 6-pin 6-pin None
(Slot only) Display Port 1.3 HBR / 1.4 HDR 1.3/1.4 HDR 1.3/1.4 HDR Release Date June 29 August 4 August 8
Polaris 10 vs. Polaris 11 Specs & Architecture
Polaris 10 Polaris 11 Compute Units (CUs) 36 16 COMPUTE Performance “>5 TFLOPS” “>2 TFLOPS” Memory Interface 256-bit 128-bit Architecture Gen 4 GCN Gen 4 GCN Playback Support 4K encode/decode 4K encode/decode Output Standard DP1.3/1.4 HDR DP1.3/1.4 HDR
The AMD Radeon RX 470 and RX 460 graphics cards are considered “partner cards,” meaning reference variants will not exist for the low-end. We received the Sapphire RX 470 Platinum Edition for review, which we'll discuss with greater specificity below.
The RX 470 is on the Polaris 10 GPU architecture, as is the RX 480, and so low-level functions will remain mostly identical to what we described in our RX 480 review. The RX 470 is a slightly trimmed-down version of the RX 480 GPU, running 32 CUs (Compute Units) rather than the 36 CUs found on the RX 480. The Polaris 10 architecture runs 64 Stream Processors per CU, resulting in a chip with 2048 SPs for the RX 470. For reference, the RX 480 hosts 2304 Stream Processors.
AMD's core clock is listed as 926MHz base / 1206MHz boost for the RX 470, but partner models will have room to increase that clock-rate with pre-overclocks. We'll test overclocking later in the review. COMPUTE performance scales up to about 4.9TFLOPs on the RX 470.
The memory subsystem and data compression algorithms function as described in our original Polaris / RX 480 write-up, but at a slower speed. The RX 470 has a variable memory speed range of ~6.6~7.0Gbps (our card runs at 1750MHz actual), but is still on a 256-bit bus and capable of producing bandwidth upwards of 211GB/s. The RX 470 is available only as a 4GB card, with no 8GB models available; memory is GDDR5 for this platform, as it has been for the rest of Polaris.
The 4GB VRAM capacity means that AMD's closest current-gen competition is its own RX 480 4GB card, something we'll show in benchmarks later.
TDP for the RX 470 sits at 120W; interestingly, we were originally told to expect a 110W TDP at the May press event – but specs were unfinalized at the time. As a reminder, TDP is not a measure of actual power draw by the graphics card, but a measurement of cooling requirements for the chip. To this end, AMD and nVidia products are not comparable in their TDP values. You will need to look at actual power draw and thermal benchmarks to learn about comparative performance between manufacturers. A single 6-pin header and the PCI-e bus are responsible for powering the RX 470, though partners may modify this if desired.
Launch Day RX 470 Prices & Models
(Update - Here's a list of available card, as of this post going live:)
Polaris 10 Architecture Refresh
Architecturally, the RX 470 & 480 block diagrams will look largely the same – just with fewer CUs on the RX 470:
Above is the Polaris 10 block diagram that was provided for the RX 480. Mentally remove four CUs to create the RX 470 block diagram.
Polaris focused heavily on power efficiency improvements, working to leverage the new Global Foundries FinFET process in accompaniment with low-level optimizations. FinFET transistors, as we've explained a few times, use a three-dimensional design that extrudes a fin to form the drain and source of the transistor. The gate surrounds the fins, reducing power leakage at an infinitesimal level for cumulative efficiency improvement across the board.
AMD also optimized its datapath and data compression, both reducing bits transmitted and, as a result, power consumption. Memory uses a non-trivial amount of power and has seen reductions upwards of 40% in energy consumption per transacted bit. This is why AMD and nVidia spend each launch hyping up their new implementations of delta color compression, or the process of analyzing a scene for nearby comparable colors and compressing them into fewer colors. Calculations can then be applied to the compressed colors to extract the original value, hence “delta” color compression: Only a delta value is needed (the difference between, for instance, a compressed, neutral blue and the original light blue – like #0079f0). This reduces time crunching colors significantly, as color can be reduced on a scale of 8:1 maximally. A skybox is the easiest example of potential 4:1 or 8:1 delta color compression (DCC).
With memory energy consumption reduced, more power is potentially made available to the cores (but a net reduction in energy consumption is still the target scenario). Like the RX 480 – and every other known Polaris chip – the RX 470 uses 7 DPM states that scale from “sleep” (DPM1) to fully unlocked (DPM7). In between, the card adjusts along a volt-frequency curve to manage its power consumption for each frequency level, pursuant to the active DPM state.
Additional reductions to energy consumption were made by clock gating and power gating any under-utilized circuits, which cooperate with a heuristic pre-fetch routine to occupy all available cycles with instructions.
A single graphics command processor oversees instructions inbound from the CPU and dispatches those instructions, almost as a “forward,” to the new-ish Hardware Schedulers (HWS). We explain this process in our original RX 480 review, pasted here:
“The back-end of the render pipeline (GCP → Setup Engine → Scheduler / CEs) begins tasking incoming resources appropriately to low-level GPU components (some virtualized, some physical – ACEs, for instance, are a physical compute resources on the silicon). The Graphics Command Processor takes instruction from the CPU and sends it to the scheduler, which is a GPU component. The scheduler then begins the process of managing a familiar graphics pipeline (discussed here), e.g. drawing primitives and geometry, performing light/shading passes, eventually fetching textures, applying transforms, and preparing to rasterize the output. Post-processing, as always, happens at the end of the pipeline.”
And here's a look at the Polaris Compute Unit block diagram:
Basically the same in CU layout as the previous generation of GCN. See Gen 3 below:
Sapphire RX 470 Platinum Edition Specs
Sapphire's RX 470 Platinum Edition uses the reference RX 480 cooler, which we exposed and detailed in our tear-down of the 480. It's painted silver, hence “platinum,” but is otherwise the same as the reference cooler. Aside from a difference of paint, the RX 470 Platinum Edition also includes a back-plate and ~10MHz pre-overclock, though we rarely hit the 1216MHz “up to” rate advertised. Most of our logged testing still sat around 1206MHz, depending on the game.
So, then, the RX 470 Platinum Edition is about as close to a true “reference” RX 470 as we'll get, since AMD won't be making any. Even the board is effectively the same, which we'll look at in a video shortly.
Now, that stated, the RX 470 Platinum Edition does have a few differences in its fan configuration and programming. Our model maxes out at around 4000 RPM, a good deal lower than the 5200RPM screaming max of the RX 480 Reference card.
Let's move on. Enough theory and design discussion. Continue to page 2 for testing methodology.Campanella has never let her disability get in the way of her determination to be a journalist, although her challenges are greater than most.
The 26-year-old Sydneysider has been blind since she was six months old, when a rare abnormality caused the retinas to tear away from her eyes, leaving her able to see shadows and some light, but little else.
Anyone who’s listened to Triple J will be familiar with the authoritative tones of newsreader Nas Campanella. What few people will be aware of, however, is that Campanella is blind.
“I guess not a lot of people have met people with disabilities, and not a lot of people are open-minded about what they’re capable of,” she says. “So I think they were quite taken aback when someone with no sight walked into their office and said, ‘I want a job, this is what I can do.’”
Instead she uses audio books and had HSC books translated into electronic text. A lover of music, radio and writing, she decided on a career in journalism at a young age. She was further convinced after volunteering with community radio. After graduating from UTS with a Bachelor of Communications she landed a number of interviews but was dismayed at the response some had to her disability.
In addition to not being able to see, Campanella suffers from a genetic disease called, Charcot-Marie-Tooth. As a result she has a near-total lack of sensitivity in her fingertips and hands, meaning she can’t read braille. Is it related to her visual disability? “Apparently not,” she says, with a wry laugh.
Campanella says narrow-minded employers aren’t always to blame, pointing out there’s not enough existing information about the assistance available to help employees with disabilities. “A lot of them don’t ask the question. It’s [a case of] too-hard basket, basically.”
Not so the ABC, which offered her a cadetship in 2011 which she followed up with a year of regional reporting and news reading in Bega before returning to Triple J full time in early 2013.
Visiting Campanella in her ABC studio it becomes clear what she contends with to bring us the news each day.
Her first job is to scour the digital news wire for appropriate stories and breaking news, which is constantly uploaded from the ABC’s state, national and international correspondents. She relies on a speech program called Jaws, an electronic voice that reads what she’s typing.
Her studio is equipped with strategically placed Velcro patches – she operates her own panel – so she can recognise which buttons to push to air news grabs and mute or activate her mic. While she’s reading on air, that same electronic voice reads her copy down her headphones which she repeats a nanosecond later. In another ear the talking clock lets her know how much time she has left. The sound of her own voice is audible over the top of it all.
Campanella says one of the hardest parts of her job is dealing with the incorrect translation the electronic voice often delivers. “You can opt for a male or female voice, faster or slower but it’s hard because the pronunciation is often dodgy,” she says. “He often says stuff wrong – such as ‘Wag-a Wag-a’ for Wagga Wagga or ‘Coe-barney’ for Cobain. I often stumble on cricketers’ and sportspeople’s names.”
Interestingly Campanella says it’s her ears, not brain, that get tired. “If I’ve read five days in a row I’ll often go home and need some quiet time. I live in a share-house with four others and often they want to chat, but I’ll say, ‘I can’t do this right now’ and just go into my room and they are always really good about it.”
While Campanella never anticipated reaching her dream job at such a young age she still sees travel writing in her future. “It’s so easy for people to say, ‘But you can’t see so you don’t know what the scenery is like’. There’s so much more to explore in travel writing apart from the way things look. I have a whole different perspective on travelling that involves deeper exploration into what the people are like, the smells, the terrain, people’s explanations and the food.”
She returned recently from a trip to Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam where she went elephant riding, trekking in the jungle and swam in natural waterfalls.
Campanella is regularly asked to give motivational speeches (which she enjoys), particularly to families with children with disabilities. She is a reminder of how important it is for parents to treat them as ordinary people. “I’ve been living out of home a long time now, working, doing what normal people do,” she says.
It comes as a surprise when people refer to her as inspirational. “I guess I often forget that people find it impressive that someone’s reading the news who can’t see. You just get up and do what you do, so it’s nice to hear people get something out of it.”Afro-Salvadorans are only 0.13% the population descendants of the African population that were enslaved and shipped to El Salvador. Pardo people, Pardo is the term that was used in colonial El Salvador to describe a Afro person of Indigenous, European and African descent. Zaira Funes, of Central American Art & Beauty, is a great example. Because of their racial admixture
A total of 10,000 African slaves were brought to El Salvador over the span of 75 years, starting around 1548. The country has no English Antillean (West Indian) or Garifuna populations, largely due to laws enacted in the 1930s, later revoked in the 1980s, banning the immigration of Africans and other races into the country. During the colonial period in Latin America, African slaves began mixing with the general population, resulting in the Mulatto (50% African and 50% European) and Zambo (50% African and 50% Amerindian) populations, and these in turn became the Quadroon (75% European and 25% African) and Cambujo (75% Amerindian and 25% African) populations. Many of these populations eventually became mainly Mestizo (50% European and 50% Amerindian).
History [ edit ]
Origins and distribution [ edit ]
The Quauhquechollan Cloth is a 16th-century cloth painting of the Nahua natives, and it includes what could be the very first African slave, still wearing his tribal costume, that arrived in El Salvador in 1528.[1] However, most slaves began to be imported around the 1540s, following a royal decree officially freeing the indigenous peoples in 1548. Slaves came from the city of Santiago, in Guatemala, and were then distributed throughout Central America. Thus, many of the African people who worked in rural Salvadoran areas came from West Africa and usually, as in Guatemala's case, from Senegambia.[2] Furthermore, according to various colonial archives about the province of San Salvador, the slaves brought by Portuguese merchants to Acajutla, in the Salvadoran town of Sonsonate, came from Angola and "the Guineas", while the slaves brought by the British merchants came from Mozambique.[1] The slaves mainly reached to Sonsonate, where they were redistributed to the rest of San Salvador and Sonsonate.
Forced migrations [ edit ]
African slaves arrived in the country by forced migration. The first slaves arrived in El Salvador to work in the haciendas, on cocoa and indigo mills, and in the gold mines. In San Salvador and San Miguel, many people had African slaves, some of whom were sent to wash gold in Honduran rivers, which was a major industry in the sixteenth century. In 1545, there was a noted sum of about 1,500 African slaves seeking auriferous sands in Honduras.
The intense richness of cocoa from Izalco made this one of the first regions to have significant numbers of African slaves due to the high demand for free labor. Thus arose several enclaves of African slaves in places such as the shores of Lake Coatepeque and in the town of La Trinidad in Sonsonate, on the banks of the river Cenzúnat. The slaves that served as foremen on the plantations were usually highly trusted by their masters and were meant to intimidate the indigenous populations into submission.[1]
However, when cocoa was sold out, slaves were used in the cultivation of indigo, as several royal decrees had prohibited the use of Indian labor in the mills and the landowners needed labor. Consequently, there was considerable demand for African labor in the indigo mills, which was provided by the slave ships arriving on the north coast, usually transported by the Portuguese, who had supplier's license and a permit for introduction. Despite the later fall of the indigo industry, there was still a high demand for African labor due to investments for building Salvadoran cities.There were many slaves shipped into El Salvador.
Thus came the next wave of African slaves who worked in the construction industry, particularly to begin construction of the railway in the nineteenth century, and another wave possibly came in the early twentieth century. These migrations resulted in places with black populations like San Vicente (in Verapaz), colonial San Miguel (in San Alejo), Zacatecoluca, Chinameca, and Ahuachapan in which the Africans worked in the indigo industry. Similarly, African slaves, who were active participants in the revolt of 1932, were found in Atiquizaya. Also, Nejapa in San Salvador, was initially populated mulattoes.[1]
Progress and miscegenation increased the Afro-Salvadoran population [ edit ]
Although we know little about Afro-descendants of El Salvador (and Guatemala) working in the agricultural sector, several sources in the last third of the sixteenth century identified Afro-Salvadoran farming communities in the area surrounding the city of Sonsonante. Free people of African descent and slaves also worked on the production of indigo in the Pacific coast of Guatemala, and especially of El Salvador, eventually hosting over 200 indigo mills. People of African descent tended to work in the mills, usually supervising the Xiquilite (indigo) harvest. This process only lasted one to two months a year, making it unprofitable to maintain a permanent workforce where there were only enslaved workers to produce indigo. Some mill owners bought more slaves, some of which were needed to produce indigo, while others were used for other activities, such as tending to livestock.
The Afro-descendants eventually began to mix with the general population, transitioning from a purely African population to the mulatto and zambo populations. African men readily chose Amerindian women, so their children would be free. Laws were later passed banning the miscegenation of the African and Amerindian populations for this reason.
Many mulattoes became landowners and enjoyed privileges by being estate owners, often to the detriment of the natives. Several places were populated with mulatto families as they settled in prosperous neighborhoods, like the neighborhood of Angel in La Trinidad of Sonsonate, and neighborhoods in San Vicente, San Miguel, and San Salvador. They also were integrated into indigenous neighborhoods and villages in estates and royal lands, and later became the Ladino peoples.[3]
In the eighteenth century there was an increase in the population of African descent. In 1807, the mulattoes were the largest segment of the population in San Salvador, and in 1821 San Miguel reported 95% of its population as Afro-descendants.[3]
Abolition of slavery and beyond [ edit ]
During the Intendencia, when few African people remained enslaved, there were regulations for slave owners, by order of the Crown to the Audiencia Real. For example, the regulations were enacted in San Miguel in September 1804. The cabildo of St. Vincent of Austria and La Trinidad, in Sonsonate, also enacted it.[3] Slavery was banned in 1825, which made El Salvador the second country to abolish slavery in the Americas after Haiti.[1] Numerous slaves from Belize fled to El Salvador, eventually mixing with the native population.[2][4]
In the province of San Salvador, two thousand African peoples rose between November and December 1624, reaching militant troops from Com |
and grow and change, again and again and again. The only way is forward. Well, except when you step off the path to look behind you.
That’s where I am now: by a snow-drift Yard, in a study hall tucked amidst the crimson bricks, listening to French grammar exercises and organic chemistry homework. I can’t help but move in slow motion, letting the memories seep in. I’m sitting in the past.
I’m overwhelmed. I don’t want to start over; I don’t want to go back. I don’t want to build a future here.
But, for once in my life, I just want to stand still.Asafo flag, Fante people, Ghana, post-1957
It is hard to imagine an older form of graphic design than the flag. Certainly illuminated manuscripts would be close, but flags have been so integral to humankind that the number of variations in history is seemingly endless. The process rests on how one divides a rectangle or square with colors, shapes, and symbols—while building meaning into what is there: a practice familar to designers.
International flags, national flags, flags of states and cities, organizational flags, battle flags, religious flags, fraternal flags, flags of ships—the list goes on and on. Flags mark territory, define cultures, nations, boundaries, and represent ethnic groups. When a flag is adopted by a nation, it comes to represent what that nation is or hopes to be. The past, present, and future are manifested in flags. It is hard to imagine an older form of graphic design than the flag. Certainly illuminated manuscripts would be close, but flags have been so integral to humankind that the number of variations in history is seemingly endless. The process rests on how one divides a rectangle or square with colors, shapes, and symbols—while building meaning into what is there: a practice familar to designers.International flags, national flags, flags of states and cities, organizational flags, battle flags, religious flags, fraternal flags, flags of ships—the list goes on and on. Flags mark territory, define cultures, nations, boundaries, and represent ethnic groups. When a flag is adopted by a nation, it comes to represent what that nation is or hopes to be. The past, present, and future are manifested in flags.
The flags shown here are from the African Asafo military, and most date from just before Ghana’s independence in 1957, or shortly thereafter. Asafo is a Fante military organization that is thought to go back to the late fifteenth century. These military organizations were divided into groups and played an important role in the local and national political process. A Fante town may have from two to fourteen companies, each with its own name, number, regalia, and shrine. All of these companies were led by a senior commander, with captains of subdivisions and various other officials—including linguists, flag bearers, priests, and priestesses.
Though many of these African Asafo flags use a small version of the British Union Jack in reference to their colonial past, the literal approach exhibited in the rest of the design is more akin to storytelling than the kind of abstract symbolism found in most Western flags. This particular visual approach is found in the folk and self-taught art in many countries, where simplicity in characters mixed with words is more common. Like African American quilts, these flags follow few so-called design rules, which tend to make these flags highly collectible.
Asafo flag, Fante people, Ghana, post-1957
Asafo flag, Fante people, Ghana, pre-1957
Asafo flag, Fante people, Ghana, post-1957
Asafo flag, Fante people, Ghana, pre-1957
Asafo flag, Fante people, Ghana, pre-1957
Asafo flag, Fante people, Ghana, post-1957
Asafo flag, Fante people, Ghana, pre-1957
Flags 1–8 courtesy of Cavin-Morris Gallery, New York
But I have found a group of flags that seems to throw all that out the window.The United States still leads the world in having a college-educated workforce, but it is the only country among the G-20 members whose incoming workers are less educated than those retiring, according to a study released this morning by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
In 2009, Americans accounted for more than one in every four of the 225 million people with postsecondary degrees in G-20 countries, according to the OECD's Education at a Glance 2011 report. Yet the numbers show a deep generational divide among degree-holders: Americans make up more than a third of all postsecondary degree holders, ages 55 to 64, but only a fifth of those ages 25 to 34.
"It's not that the United States is doing worse; its that other countries are starting to do what the United States has been doing for a very long time," said Andreas Schleicher, the head of the indicators and analysis division at the OECD's Directorate for Education, in a briefing on the report Monday morning. "There's been a quite dramatic expansion of the pool of qualified people."
China, in particular, has been gaining ground in education. Chinese between 25 and 34 account for nearly triple the global share of postsecondary degrees, 18.3 percent, compared to its older workers, who account for only 6.9 percent of postsecondary degrees in that age group. Moreover, China's educational edge is likely to grow: In 2009 China had 36.6 percent of students entering college, compared to the United States' 12.9 percent, and China accounted for 42.6 percent of the world's students graduating high school, compared to only 9.9 percent American students.
Because of its older workers, America still ranks in the top five most-educated countries among the G-20, but it drops to 15th among those ages 25 to 34—a decline that could deeply affect the nation's economic well-being, as prior research shows education has a greater effect on a person's earnings than other factors like race or gender.
Educational attainment can play a role in a country's politics and social fabric, too. The OECD study also found that 14-year-olds—generally 8th-graders—who scored higher on the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study were more likely to vote and to favor gender equality than those with lower civics education.
Schleicher said higher education is more expensive than that in other countries, and U.S. students feel a greater sense of risk in taking on student loans. He noted that other countries, such as the United Kingdom, make all loan repayment contingent on students earning sufficient income to pay the loans back— something that encourages more students to believe they will be able to afford college.
Yet Schleicher noted, "Tuition that US students pay is still low in comparison to the benefits that you get." After accounting for gender, age and income, adults with higher education reported they were "more satisfied with life, engaged in society and likely to report that they are in good health."Former Australian Boomers head coach Brett Brown's Philadelphia 76ers have lost a franchise-record 16th straight game to start the NBA season, losing 110-103 against Dallas on Saturday.
Michael Carter-Williams had a triple-double with 18 points, 16 assists and 10 rebounds for the 76ers, who eclipsed the 1972-73 club that began 0-15 on the way to setting an 82-game NBA record for fewest victories at 9-73.
Philadelphia 76ers head coach Brett Brown. Credit:AP
Philadelphia became the fifth team in league history to open with at least 16 straight losses.
The 76ers will try again for their first win on Monday (Tuesday AEDT) when they host the defending champion Spurs. If they lose to San Antonio, Philadelphia could equal the NBA record for defeats to begin a season on Wednesday at Minnesota and could potentially set an NBA record on Friday at home versus Oklahoma City.This is part 1 of a three-part series on user tracking on the web today. You can read Part 2 here.
Cookies are still a privacy problem for web users, many years after privacy advocates first raised concerns about their use to track web browsing. Today, cookies are one of the main mechanisms that advertising companies like Google use to track and profile users across sites and over time -- often building up a single gigantic profile for years and years. Many EFF members respond to this threat by using their browsers' cookie management features to limit which cookies they'll accept or how long they'll be retained.
But it turns out that the cookie situation is quite a bit trickier today, and sites that want to track users have new technical options that are hard for users to respond to. The traditional "cookie" is an HTTP cookie, invented by Lou Montulli and John Giannandrea at Netscape in 1994. But today many browsers implement a range of things with the same kind of cookie-like tracking behavior -- mechanisms that are far less familiar, harder to notice, and often harder to control.
A great overview of the wide range of cookie technologies confronting us today is Cleaning Up After Cookies, an article published last year by Katherine McKinley at iSEC Partners. McKinley describes five cookie-like tracking methods that go beyond traditional HTTP cookies, and explains how browsers often fail to let users exercise meaningful control over these varieties of tracking.
The most prominent of these tracking methods is the so-called "Flash cookie", a kind of cookie maintained by the Adobe Flash plug-in on behalf of Flash applications embedded in web pages. These cookie files are stored outside of the browser's control. Web browsers do not directly allow users to view or delete the cookies stored by a Flash application, users are not notified when such cookies are set, and these cookies never expire. Flash cookies can track users in all the ways traditionally HTTP cookies do, and they can be stored or retrieved whenever a user accesses a page containing a Flash application. Some of the problems are highlighted by Rob Savoye, the developer of Gnash, an open source Flash implementation.
Last month, a group of researchers at UC Berkeley led by Ashkan Soltani released a study, Flash Cookies and Privacy, about this technology and the ways it's being used to track Internet users today. The study found that Flash cookies are extensively used by popular sites, and that most users probably don't know about them or how to delete them. They also found that at least one major site uses them in a way that violates the advertising industry's own rules on tracking.
What's more, the Berkeley researchers found that Flash cookies are often used to deliberately circumvent users' HTTP cookie policies. That is, a site may intentionally store the same information redundantly in both HTTP cookie and Flash cookie forms. When a user deletes the HTTP cookie, the site may "respawn" it from the copy that was stored as a Flash cookie! It seems clear that site operators know many users don't want to be tracked with cookies, but have found a way of circumventing those users' privacy preferences.
These privacy-invasive marketing practices need greater scrutiny. We need more research to reveal whether the other kinds of cookies McKinley described are also being used to track users, as Soltani and his collaborators showed that Flash cookies are. It's entirely possible that Flash cookies will turn out to be just the tip of the next-generation user tracking iceberg.
Meanwhile, browser developers should do more to let users understand and control how they're being tracked -- using any of these techniques. Unfortunately, Adobe has made that extremely difficult with regard to Flash cookies, since they're stored outside of the browser's control, and since the official Flash plug-in isn't open source, users can't easily fix this for themselves. The BetterPrivacy Firefox plugin tries to address this by finding Flash cookies on the hard drive and regularly deleting them, but Adobe could help by ensuring their cookie system follows the browser's privacy settings.
Clearly, there's a lot of work to be done to bring these next-generation cookies even to the same level of visibility and control that users experience with regular HTTP cookies.I have a French hangover. Not the head-splitting, stomach-lurching variety I’d experience on a relatively frequent basis while living in France in the late 90s, preceded by happy, fun evenings spent eating, drinking and partying in Grenoble with friends and colleagues.
(Incidentally, the only time I ever pigged out on McDonald’s in France was the afternoon after a big night out when a Diet Coke and Big Mac were the best way to assuage the effects of a hangover. I’d slink over the McD’s, eyes kept down, desperate not to bump into any of the players from the night before until suitably revived.)
No, this time, my French hangover is less physical and more metaphysical. Four brief days spent in Paris and Grenoble last week have rekindled the spark that originally drew me to the country and enticed me to stay for three years. Four days of speaking French has reinvigorated parts of my grey matter that have laid dormant while living here in the US. And, like a wheel that keeps spinning even after the initial surge of energy, it is still in motion, presenting me with words and phrases first in French, before the usual English. Making me stumble. Making me yearn to carry on speaking in French and to feed that still hungry part of me.
I was left wanting more. Four days is simply not enough time to pig out on all the croissants and cheese that I really want to eat. This visit briefly skimmed the highlights of Paris and flirted with the enormity of the Grenoble mountains.
Reconnecting with my French friends, in spite of the years, was a joy. Time does not appear to have made an imprint on their faces or characters, though everyone’s lives have propelled forward – spouses, families, new jobs, new homes.
They say the grass is always greener on the other side. While I love my life in Boston, a big chunk of me will always be entwined in France, its culture, landscape, music and the French language.Sylvester Stallone
AKA Michael Sylvester Enzio Stallone
Born: 6-Jul-1946
Birthplace: New York City
Gender: Male
Religion: Roman Catholic
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor, Screenwriter, Film Director
Party Affiliation: Republican
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Rocky, Rambo
Sylvester Stallone was a difficult birth, yanked from his mother's womb by a doctor's forceps that severed a facial nerve. As a result, the lower left side of his face is paralyzed, including parts of his lip, tongue, and chin, an accident which has given Stallone his trademark snarling look and slightly slurred speech. He spent his first five years in Hell's Kitchen, bouncing between foster homes while his parents endured a loud, troubled marriage. Eventually reunited with them, Stallone's odd face made him an outcast in school, where he was often suspended for fighting, other behavior problems, and poor grades. His father, a beautician, moved the family to Washington DC, where he opened a beauty school. His mother, a flamboyant woman who has become something of a celebrity in her own right, opened a women's gymnasium in 1952, called Barbella's. They divorced when Stallone was 11, and he was later sent to a special high school for "troubled kids," where he was voted "most likely to end up in the electric chair".
After high school, Stallone coached women's athletics at the American College of Switzerland, and became involved in drama, appearing in a school production of Arthur Miller's Death of A Salesman. He returned to America and studied drama at the University of Miami, but dropped out to become a struggling actor in New York. Stallone appeared in an all-nude off-Broadway play called Score, and in 1970 he was paid $200 to appear in a cheap porno feature called The Party at Kitty and Stud's. Years later, after Rocky made Stallone famous, The Party was re-released as The Italian Stallion, with an orgasm-faced Stallone on the video box. In 1971, he had a bit part as a thug in Woody Allen's Bananas. In 1972 he auditioned for a small part in Coppola's The Godfather, but did not get the role, so Stallone decided he might have better luck as a writer.
He wrote the screenplay for the modestly successful The Lords of Flatbush and had a featured role in the film, but was overshadowed by Henry Winkler. Stallone began getting more work in small film roles, but had his greatest success with Rocky in 1976. He wrote the script, and was shrewd enough to sell it with the stipulation that he star as the film's small-time boxer making the big time. Stallone was nominated for two Oscars, for Best Actor and Best Screenplay. He won neither, but Rocky won as Best Picture. Frank Capra said, "I think it's the best picture in the last ten years." He then starred in several Rocky sequels that did well at the box office, and a few that didn't, between other action movies that drew lukewarm audience response. Stallone found a second signature role in 1982, as John Rambo in First Blood, a non-stop action movie about a victimized Vietnam vet who takes out his vengeance on a small town's sadistic sheriff. In the early 1990s Stallone had major hits in Cliffhanger with John Lithgow and Demolition Man with Wesley Snipes, but after that Stallone's star dimmed.
In 1997, he put on forty pounds and took only a minimal salary to star in Cop Land, an independent movie about police corruption. Most of Stallone's recent films, have been artistic and commercial failures. His career reached rock-bottom with D-Tox in 2002, which was filmed on a blockbuster $55 million budget, yet earned less than $55 thousand in its opening weekend. Since 2003, Stallone has been working on Notorious, as co-writer, director, and producer. The film purports to tell the truth about the killings of Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G., and the Los Angeles Police Department's slipshod investigation (some say cover-up) of the real perpetrators.
With Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger, he was an original owner of Planet Hollywood, which has brought Stallone at least two lawsuits. In 1996, Stallone was sued by his stepfather, Anthony "Tony" Filiti, who sought $69.8 million in compensatory and punitive damages, for defamation, interference, injurious falsehood, infliction of emotional distress, unfair competition and breach of contract, because Filiti alleged he had been squeezed out of his position as Stallone's "assets manager". Stallone later sued a subsequent financial advisor for urging him to hold his investment in Planet Hollywood. The settlements were not disclosed.
In 1991, Stallone sued the British magazine The Spectator for publishing an article which suggested he had "ducked the Vietnam War". The suit was settled under undisclosed terms. In 1997, Stallone sued Alan and Diane Mehrez, who had produced a film called The Good Life starring Stallone's actor brother Frank Stallone, and featuring Sylvester Stallone in a cameo role. Stallone alleged that the producers were promoting the movie as if he were the star, and demanded that the film never be distributed. In a countersuit, the Mehrezes described the Stallones as "gangsters in actors' clothing". The suits were settled under secret terms, and the movie was never released. Stallone has recently started a new magazine called Sly, targeting men over 40. The magazine immediately brought Stallone another lawsuit, as a different Sly magazine alleges it owns the trademark for the title.
In 1998, after the murder of comic Phil Hartman, Stallone urged the abolition of Americans' right to bear arms. Speaking in London, Stallone said, "Until America, door to door, takes every handgun, this is what you're gonna have. It's pathetic. It really is pathetic. It's sad. We're living in the Dark Ages over there." Stallone has always been politically active, but his politics defy easy labels. He has written checks for candidates as far to the left as Jerry Brown and Barbara Boxer, and as far right as John Ashcroft and Rick Santorum.
In 1999, he was sued by five of his former cooks and housecleaners, who alleged they had been searched daily to ascertain that they were not stealing silverware. Some of the plaintiffs said they had been fired for breaking bizarre rules about avoiding eye contact with Stallone and his mother. (Stallone's mother offers "rumpology readings", claiming she can see the future in customers' buttock prints.)
In 2005, Stallone began hosting and producing The Contender, a heavily-hyped boxing show from "reality-TV" king Mark Burnett. It is Stallone's first TV series. After the show's first episodes, 24-year-old contestant Najai Turpin killed himself after losing his bout and being eliminated from the competition. Also in 2005, Stallone was sued by Chuck Wepner, a one-time boxer who claims his 1975 fight against Muhammad Ali was the inspiration for Stallone's Rocky movies. Like Rocky Balboa, Wepner had been given little chance of winning his big fight, but he knocked Ali down in the ninth round, and almost went the distance before being KO'd.
Stallone has won a mantle full of Golden Raspberries. He was named Worst Actor for Rhinestone in 1984, Rambo: First Blood Part 2 and Rocky V in 1985, Rambo III in 1988, and Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot in 1992, and Worst Supporting Actor nod for Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over in 2003. He was also named Worst Director for Rocky V in 1985, and has earned Worst Screenplay honors several times.
At the age of 60, Stallone wrote, directed, and starred in his sixth outing as Rocky Balboa, with the battered and wrinkled boxer stepping back into the ring for an exhibition match. After that film drew surprisingly good reviews and box office, he returned to the role of Rambo in 2008.
Father: Frank Stallone, Sr. (hairdresser, d. 11-Jul-2011)
Mother: Jackie Stallone (astrologer, b. 29-Nov-1921)
Brother: Frank Stallone (actor, b. 30-Jul-1950)
Father: Anthony Filiti ("Tony", stepfather, married Stallone's mother)
Sister: Toni Ann Filiti-Schaub (half-sister, daughter of Jackie and Tony Filiti, b. 5-May-1960, d. 26-Aug-2012)
Wife: Sasha Czack (theater usher, m. 28-Dec-1974, div. 1985, two sons)
Son: Sage Stallone (actor/writer, b. 5-May-1976, d. Jul-2012)
Son: Seargeoh (b. 1979, autistic)
Wife: Brigitte Nielsen (m. 15-Dec-1985, div. 1987)
Girlfriend: Angie Everhart (model, engaged Apr-1995, broke up Jun-1995)
Girlfriend: Janice Dickinson (model)
Girlfriend: Andrea Wieser (Austrian model)
Wife: Jennifer Flavin (model, m. 1997, three daughters)
Daughter: Sophia (b. 27-Aug-1996)
Daughter: Sistine Rose (b. 27-Jun-1998)
Daughter: Scarlet Rose (b. 25-May-2002)
High School: Devereaux High School, Philadelphia, PA
University: American College of Switzerland (dropped out)
University: University of Miami Florida (dropped out)
Planet Hollywood almost 3% ownership
Caribou Club
Hollywood Walk of Fame 6712 Hollywood Blvd.
Draft Deferment: Vietnam
Issued Concealed Carry Permit Culver City, CA (14-Aug-1984)
Pied Montreal, Quebec, Canada (Jul-1998)
Issued Concealed Carry Permit Los Angeles County (30-Nov-2004)
Drug Possession Jintropin (human growth hormone), Australia (2007), pled guilty
Italian Ancestry
Risk Factors: Depression, Smoking, Performance-Enhancing Drugs
TELEVISION
The Contender Host (2005)
FILMOGRAPHY AS DIRECTOR
The Expendables (3-Aug-2010)
Rambo (24-Jan-2008)
Rocky Balboa (20-Dec-2006)
Rocky IV (27-Nov-1985)
Staying Alive (15-Jul-1983)
Rocky III (28-May-1982)
Rocky II (15-Jun-1979)
Paradise Alley (22-Sep-1978)
FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (19-Apr-2017)
Creed (25-Nov-2015)
The Expendables 3 (4-Aug-2014)
Grudge Match (16-Dec-2013)
Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon (7-Sep-2013) · Himself
Escape Plan (18-Jul-2013)
Milius (9-Mar-2013) · Himself
Bullet to the Head (14-Nov-2012)
The Expendables 2 (8-Aug-2012)
Zookeeper (6-Jul-2011) · Joe the Lion [VOICE]
The Expendables (3-Aug-2010) · Barney Ross
Kambakkht Ishq (3-Jul-2009) · Himself
Rambo (24-Jan-2008)
Rocky Balboa (20-Dec-2006)
Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over (25-Jul-2003) · Toymaker
Shade (21-Jun-2003) · Stevens
Avenging Angelo (30-Aug-2002)
D-Tox (4-Jan-2002) · Malloy
America: A Tribute to Heroes (21-Sep-2001) · Himself
Driven (16-Apr-2001)
Get Carter (4-Oct-2000) · Jack Carter
Antz (19-Sep-1998) · Weaver [VOICE]
An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn (29-Sep-1997) · Himself
Cop Land (15-Aug-1997) · Freddy Heflin
Daylight (6-Dec-1996) · Kit Latura
Assassins (6-Oct-1995) · Robert Rath
Judge Dredd (30-Jun-1995) · Judge Dredd
The Specialist (7-Oct-1994) · Ray Quick
Demolition Man (8-Oct-1993) · John Spartan
Cliffhanger (28-May-1993) · Gabe Walker
Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot (21-Feb-1992) · Joe Bomowski
Oscar (26-Apr-1991) · Angelo "Snaps" Provolone
Rocky V (16-Nov-1990) · Rocky
Tango & Cash (22-Dec-1989) · Tango
Lock Up (4-Aug-1989)
Rambo III (25-May-1988) · Rambo
Over the Top (13-Feb-1987) · Lincoln Hawk
Cobra (23-May-1986) · Marion Cobretti
Rocky IV (27-Nov-1985) · Rocky Balboa
Rambo: First Blood Part II (24-May-1985) · Rambo
Rhinestone (22-Jun-1984) · Nick
Rambo: First Blood (31-Oct-1982) · Rambo
Rocky III (28-May-1982) · Rocky Balboa
Victory (30-Jul-1981)
Nighthawks (4-Apr-1981) · Deke DaSilva
Rocky II (15-Jun-1979) · Rocky Balboa
Paradise Alley (22-Sep-1978) · Cosmo Carboni
F.I.S.T. (13-Apr-1978)
Rocky (21-Nov-1976) · Rocky
The Party at Kitty and Stud's (6-Jul-1976)
Farewell, My Lovely (8-Aug-1975)
Death Race 2000 (27-Apr-1975) · Machine Gun Joe Viterbo
Capone (Apr-1975)
The Prisoner of Second Avenue (14-Mar-1975)
The Lords of Flatbush (1-May-1974) · Stanley Rosiello
No Place to Hide (22-Dec-1970)
Official Website:
http://www.sylvesterstallone.com/
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Submit a correction or make a comment about this profileAdjective
In a curious way, part of the genius of America has been a collective forgetfulness, a talent for somehow outdistancing problems in a headlong race toward something new. It is a form of heedlessness, perhaps, blithe and profligate, but also an exuberant forward spin that may spare people the exhausting obligations of revenge. — Lance Morrow, Time,
Sure, the trade deficit symbolizes a profligate America, consuming more than it produces and spending more than it has. — Philip Revzin, Wall Street Journal,
Everyone seemed fond of statistics, but the counterterrorism experts were especially profligate with numbers. — Kurt Andersen, Time,
She was very profligate in her spending.
profligate movie producers hoping to create the next blockbuster
Noun
"Why did you ask that scoundrel, Rawdon Crawley, to dine?" said the Rector to his lady, as they were walking home through the park. "I don't want the fellow. He looks down upon us country people as so many blackamoors. … Besides, he's such an infernal character—he's a gambler—he's a drunkard—he's a profligate in every way." — William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair,
a profligate who could not really afford the grand style he maintained at Monticello, Jefferson died deeply in debt
a drunken profligate, he was given to wretched excess in every aspect of his life#TLGO: +jdm -koosta Text by lichter Graphics by shiroiusagi
Earlier this month we announced that our roster would undergo a few changes. The first of those changes is a trade: we have acquired Josh "jdm64" Marzano as our new AWPer for koosta, who moves to CLG. We have been working with CLG for the past three weeks in order to finalize the transfer between two of North America's finest AWPers, and we believe that we are taking a step closer to becoming the best squad in North America with this change.
- Steve "LiQuiD112" Arhancet It's an honor to have Josh play for our team and organization. He is hungry, motivated and talented, and wants to win above everything else. Failure is not an option. Time to move in the right direction.
While our time with koosta was short, it was great working with him. We hope that koosta will find his stride with CLG and become the best player he can be.
JDM'S VLOG
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Earlier this month we announced that our roster would undergo a few changes. The first of those changes is a trade: we have acquired Josh "jdm64" Marzano as our new AWPer for koosta, who moves to CLG. We have been working with CLG for the past three weeks in order to finalize the transfer between two of North America's finest AWPers, and we believe that we are taking a step closer to becoming the best squad in North America with this change.While our time with koosta was short, it was great working with him. We hope that koosta will find his stride with CLG and become the best player he can be. Administrator YOU MUST HEED MY INSTRUCTIONS TAKE OFF YOUR THIIIINGSWashington (CNN) -- A political standoff that spanned five decades and 10 presidents began to crumble Wednesday with President Barack Obama's move to normalize relations with Cuba.
The announcement was the product of a year of clandestine back-channelling between the U.S. and Cuba, facilitated by the Canadians and the Vatican and with personal involvement from the Pope.
"Today, America chooses to cut loose the shackles of the past, so as to reach for a better future for the Cuban people, for the American people, for our entire hemisphere and for the world," Obama said in a statement announcing his decision.
He added: "It's time for a new approach."
Obama said he's instructed Secretary of State John Kerry to immediately begin discussions with Cuba to re-establish diplomatic relations, and that the U.S. will re-open an embassy in Havana. The administration will also allow some travel and trade that had been banned under a decades-long embargo instated during the Kennedy administration.
"Neither the American nor Cuban people are well-served by a rigid policy that's rooted in events that took place before most of us were born," Obama said.
READ: Obama announces historic overhaul of relations
Obama's move risks triggering another fight with Congress, which will come under the full control of Republicans in January.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, told CNN's Wolf Blitzer he would do everything in his power to block any potential U.S. ambassador to Cuba even receive a vote.
He also called the easing of economic restrictions "inexplicable" in a statement.
"Appeasing the Castro brothers will only cause other tyrants from Caracas to Tehran to Pyongyang to see that they can take advantage of President Obama's naiveté during his final two years in office. As a result, America will be less safe as a result of the President's change in policy," he said.
Rubio promised that as the incoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Western Hemisphere subcommittee, he'll "make every effort to block this dangerous and desperate attempt by the President to burnish his legacy at the Cuban people's [sic] expense."
RELATED: Five reasons why the Cuba deal happened
Speaking at the same time as Obama from his own country, Cuban President Raul Castro lauded the move.
"This expression by President Barack Obama deserves the respect and recognition by all the people and I want to thank and recognize support from the Vatican and especially from Pope Francis for the improvement of relations between Cuba and the United States," he said.
Obama's announcement comes as both nations have released political prisoners in a show of goodwill, with American Alan Gross headed home on "humanitarian" grounds from Cuba early Wednesday morning. In a separate swap, a U.S. intelligence source held for 20 years was released in exchange for three jailed Cuban spies.
Obama said he and Castro spoke Tuesday in a phone call that lasted about an hour and reflected the first communication at the presidential level with Cuba since the Cuban revolution.
But some Republicans are warning the move will only strengthen the Castro regime in Cuba, which has long been accused of human rights abuses and is listed by the State Department as a state sponsor of terrorism.
Obama said Wednesday he has instructed Kerry, however, to review Cuba's place on the State Sponsors of Terrorism list.
Wednesday's announcement that the U.S. will move toward restoring diplomatic ties with Cuba will also make it easier for Americans to travel to Cuba and do business with the Cuban people by extending general licenses, officials said. While the more liberal travel restrictions won't allow for tourism, they will permit greater American travel to the island.
While only Congress can formally overturn the five decades-long embargo, the White House has some authorities to liberalize trade and travel to the island. And Obama said he plans to "engage Congress in an honest and serious conversation" on lifting it.
In an effort to boost the nascent Cuban private sector, the President will also allow expanded commercial sales and exports of goods and services to Cuba, particularly building materials for entrepreneurs and private residences, and allow greater business training, as well as permit greater communications hardware and services to go to the island.
Other announced changes permit U.S. and Cuban banks to build relationships and travelers to use credit and debit cards. U.S. travelers will be allowed to import up to $400 worth of goods from Cuba, including $100 in alcohol and tobacco -- even Cuban cigars. Remittances by Americans to their families back in Cuba will also be increased to approximately $2,000 per quarter.
Senior administration officials and Cuba observers have said recent reforms on the island and changing attitudes in the United States have created an opening for improved relations. U.S. and Cuban officials say Washington and Havana in recent months have increased official technical-level contacts on a variety of issues.
RELATED: Five reasons why the Cuba deal happened
Both Obama and Castro in their Wednesday remarks acknowledged the nations' differences remain.
"I do not expect the changes I am announcing today to bring about a transformation of Cuban society overnight," Obama said.
But he argued that "through a policy of engagement, we can more effectively stand up for our values, and help the Cuban people help themselves as they move into the 21st century."
Castro said that even as the two nations "recognize having profound differences — especially in national sovereignty, democracy, human rights and foreign relations policies — we reaffirm our willingness to dialogue in all of these area."
To that end, Cuba has agreed to release 53 political prisoners from a list of names provided by the United States. At least one of the prisoners has already been released. Havana has also agreed to permit significant access by its citizens to the Internet and allow the International Committee of the Red Cross and United Nations human rights officials back on the island for the first time in years.
Talks between the U.S. and Cuba have been ongoing since June of 2013 and were facilitated by the Canadians and the Vatican in brokering the deal. Pope Francis — the first pope from Latin America — encouraged Obama in a letter and in their meeting this year to renew talks with Cuba on pursuing a closer relationship.
READ: 'I'm free': American Alan Gross' emotional return from Cuba
Gross' release was seen as one of the first clear benefits of those talks.
Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and Rep. Chris Van Hollen, Gross' Maryland congressman, left Washington at 4 a.m. Wednesday for Cuba, and returned with Gross and his wife, Judy, according to government officials.
Gross, speaking at a press conference Wednesday, said he's "very happy" with Obama's moves, and heaped praise on the people of Cuba, "or at least most of them."
"It pains me to see them treated so unjustly as a consequence of two governments |
we break out into the first real clearing and eye Sedona's improbable red spires for the first time. A year from now, I won't remember sweating to death in Texas or listening to the Oklahoma wind play tympani on the soft top, but the look of the desert in my lover's eyes is a thing that will stay with me until they put me in the ground.
The Miata was something new for Beth. Her family never looked at a car as anything other than a tool for getting the brood from one place to another, and she was raised on a parade of faithful beaters that were big on character and short on things like air conditioning or reliable fourth cylinders. She'd never had a chance to fall for a car, to love one both wholly and irrationally, but that's what she found in our NC. We took it everywhere, collecting states like stamps in short order. We skipped time on the couch for nowhere drives through the county, abandoned sleeping in on Sunday mornings for pre-dawn blasts up the Blue Ridge Parkway to Asheville for brunch. We spent less time occupying the same space and more hours enjoying each other.
We grab breakfast at the Coffee Pot in downtown Sedona, scarfing down omelets the size of hubcaps and drinking water by the pitcher. When we finish, we keep our nose pointed south. We stick to 89A, winding it up through mule roads of Jerome and into the mountains pressed against the tiny town's back before turning north and heading to Las Vegas.
We tumble into town hours later. We're here to meet a few friends: other guys and girls with a set of Miata keys in their pockets. Three years ago, I co-drove in the Targa Newfoundland with the Flyin' Miata team. I spent six days crammed into the cabin of a supercharged NC with Brandon Fitch, a tech with the company. He's here, along with his wife, Leigh. Keith Tanner ran Targa that year in his V8-powered NA. He's here too, trailering his little monster to Monterey for the Miata's 25th Anniversary gathering. There's Adam Costa and his wife Tracy. They filmed all the minor catastrophes that unfolded during the week for the documentary Racing the Rock. Fellow R&T Editor Alex Kierstein rolls into town in the unflappable Million-Mile Miata a couple of hours later.
They're the kind of crew you keep around forever, and we would have never crossed paths with them if it weren't for these goofy little convertibles. We laugh about sunburns and the foolishness of blasting across a continent just to turn around and go home. We eat dinner beneath an approximation of the Eiffel Tower and watch rental Lamborghinis bash their rev limiters on the strip. We press our noses against the glass at the Ferrari dealer in the basement of another interchangeable casino. Three days ago, we were sitting in our living room clicking through Netflix and shoving pizza down our throats.
Miatas in Vegas Zach Bowman
The sun does cruel things to Las Vegas, and the next day, we're all a little anxious to get the hell out of here. The radiator cap on our car is throwing a fit as we clog the valet stand with a passel of Miatas, so Tanner pulls the one off the V8 car in his trailer and tosses it my way until we can find a replacement. Tanner's a sneaky guy, and I'm not sure if he's helping or just offering the first toke on the V8 conversion pipe. The first hit is, predictably, free.
We spend the morning driving up out of the low desert. Tanner splits off, taking his truck and trailer the easy way north while the rest of us gun for Angeles Crest. California always makes an easy case for itself up here. We're less than an hour from the tangled hell of freeway traffic in the valley, but on an early afternoon in the middle of the week, there's no one in the hills but us. The road tucks and curls around itself as it moves along the ridge sides. We're all grinning like fools as we take turns chasing each other through the sparse evergreens and exposed rock before falling into Ventura for a cheap motel, conch fritters, and good drinks on the pier.
We drive back from dinner, skirting the shore under the silhouettes of indifferent palm trees. The night air's cool coming off of the Pacific. I'm struck by how easy it was to get here. It was a choice, a simple decision. That's the Miata in a nutshell: a rolling choice that tips the scales just enough for you to risk the long way home. Four years after that night in our living room, our marriage is the same way. We make the choice to love each other every day. We can complicate it all we want in our minds, mire it in ifs and maybes, saddle it with complexities of every nature, but it's our call, minute to minute, second to second.
Betty in the mountains Beth Bowman
In the morning, we head for Ojai, follow 33 out of the national forest and into the petroleum wasteland just outside of Taft. We drive through endless fields of oil derricks, all bobbing their heads in patient syncopation. When we can no longer stand the sand in our teeth, we grab the twisted tail of highway 58 and head back for the shore. The road contorts back on itself again and again, and the car's happy to cut through the slow second-gear turns. Beth and I catch glimpses of the others on the road below, splotches of color and noise on the gold hills. She waves and laughs into the wind.
The country greens up as we head towards the water, and the shadows are just starting to grow long when we reach the Pacific. A pod of humpbacks show their dorsals just off shore. We're awash in the salt-smell of the sea and the warm late-summer sun. It's all so impossibly beautiful, so perfect I can hardly bear it.
Miatas at the Pacific Zach Bowman
Beth and I wanted to drive Highway 1 for our honeymoon, but couldn't afford it. Driving along the coast now with her hand in mine and a line of friends behind us, I know we wouldn't have appreciated it then as we do now. It feels like something earned, something grasped at the last possible moment. I look at my wife in the passenger seat. Her excitement is contagious. She's glowing with it. She's grinning and looking through me at the water rocking against the low cliffs, a few strands of hair whipping around her face in the California wind.Have you ever wondered what actually causes holes in Swiss cheese? A group of Switzerland-based scientists have found the answer.Scientists from the Switzerland-based Agroscope Institute for Food Sciences have determined that microscopic particles of "hay dust" were getting trapped in the cheese, according to ABC News. The trapped particles allowed the distinctive holes to form in the cheese from trapped carbon dioxide gas.The mystery behind Swiss cheese and its peculiar holes dates back to 1917, when an American scientist originally theorized that the holes were caused by bacteria. But it was only until an article published in the International Dairy Journal found out the whole answer to the Swiss cheese dilemma."After spending several years on that topic, the discovery of the magic effect of traces of hay dust on eye formation was for the whole team somehow just an enlightenment," Daniel Wechsler, an author on the study, told ABC News in an email. "The solution is so simple, it's almost incredible that this mystery remained unsolved until nowadays."Wechsler and his fellow researchers believe tiny capillary structures in the hay dust can start the formation of holes in the cheese. After making the discovery, Wechsler told ABC News he felt like celebrating. "It feels just like 'Say cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese.'"Goose Island Beer Company is shaking things up. For the first time, Goose Island will open its historic Fulton Street brewery in Chicago to the public, offering tours and a taproom starting in January. The new addition is an attempt by the brewery to become more relevant in the ever-growing Chicago brew scene.
“To be in the mix and to be relevant, we’ve got to introduce ourselves to Chicago better than we ever have. We’re the most well-known craft brewery in Chicagoland, but nobody knows we’re here,” consumer experience director Ken Stout told DNAinfo Chicago.
Beginning in January, you can catch a Goose Island tour three days a week, with tastings for $10. In addition to beer, you’ll learn about the history of the 25-year-old brewery. When the 90-seat taproom opens, you’ll be able to choose from eight different beers on tap, three nights a week (Thursday through Saturday).Image zoom Courtesy Photos
InStyle’s March Madness tournament to decide the best dressed female character on television has come to a close. From TV's 16 most stylish ladies it ultimately came down to two: Revenge’s Emily Thorne and Scandal’s Olivia Pope. After three days of voting in the final round, you named one woman as the champion of our March Madness bracket.
And the winner is...
Image zoom ABC/Adam Taylor
... Scandal’s Olivia Pope!
InStyle readers selected the crisis manager, brought to life on the small screen by Kerry Washington, as the most stylish female character on TV. With 52 percent of the votes (and more than 33,000 votes), Olivia Pope narrowly triumphed over Revenge’s Emily Thorne to take home the crown:
Image zoom Courtesy
PHOTOS: Power Dressing Lessons Learned from Female TV Characters
Congratulations to Olivia Pope, Kerry Washington, and all the Gladiators who voted!
Take a look at the match-ups, losses, and wins in our four-round bracket below (click the image to view a larger version):
PHOTOS: See the Best Fashion Moments from Scandal's Season 4Something has gotten into Devonta Freeman.
The Atlanta Falcons running back had a pep in his step from the moment he arrived as a fourth-round draft pick out of Florida State last season. Yet Freeman’s intensity appears to have elevated to another level as he prepares for the 2015 campaign.
You can feel it in his tone. The passion in his voice is infectious.
"I’ve got high expectations of myself," Freeman said. "I look at myself in the mirror every single day and I know what I can do. I know what I am. I know what I’m capable of doing. All I need is an opportunity.
"I don't know what's gotten into me this offseason," RB Devonta Freeman said. "I just feel like a whole new monster." Chuck Cook/USA TODAY Sports
"Personally, I want to be the man. I want to be the guy. I want to make my own name with the Atlanta Falcons. I want to go really, really far. I want to set the bar high. I just want to win a Super Bowl and maybe be the MVP one day. You just never know. I feel like I’m hungrier right now. I don’t know what’s gotten into me this offseason. I just feel like a whole new monster. And I ain’t just talking."
Maybe this transformation has something to do with the confidence the folks in charge expressed in him this offseason. New coach Dan Quinn, general manager Thomas Dimitroff and offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan all took to the podium and proclaimed how Freeman has all the ability to thrive in his second season.
"It means a lot coming from the general manager, the head coach and the offensive coordinator because, of course, that means everything," Freeman said. "If you’re getting it from those guys, those guys are the big, top dogs. That just motivates me."
There is another source of inspiration for Freeman. It still burns at him how he was the ninth running back selected in last year’s draft. Only one of those backs – Cincinnati's Jeremy Hill -- had a true breakout season with 1,124 yards and nine touchdowns.
Freeman had a modest showing playing behind veteran Steven Jackson in what was at one point a four-back rotation, but he showed flashes of his great potential as both a runner and pass-catcher. He finished with 248 rushing yards, 225 receiving yards and two touchdowns.
" I’m still pissed off that I went in the fourth round and all those other running backs went before me," Freeman said. "There’s a different type of mindset I’ve been having. And I don’t think that chip is going to go anywhere because that’s always going to be in the back of my mind when I look back at reality --- every running back that got drafted before me. Even though it’s a blessing to be in the NFL, that chip is always going to be there."
Freeman should have ample opportunity to prove his worth. The Falcons will put more emphasis on the run game this coming season with Shanahan’s outside zone-blocking scheme. It’s the same type of system Freeman grew accustomed to both in high school and at Florida State, where he won a BCS title in 2013.
"You’ve got to one cut and get downhill," Freeman said. "The second thing is you’ve got options. The coach can’t tell you where the hole is going to hit, you know what I mean? You’ve got to read it. It’s going to be natural. I know how to run it pretty well."
Freeman also understands the possibility he'll have to share the load, possibly with a veteran running back. The Falcons cut ties with the aging Jackson, meaning the position could be a priority in free agency. Baltimore’s Justin Forsett is a player the Falcons might pursue, if the price is right. Plus the Falcons want to re-sign Antone Smith, who had five touchdowns on just 36 touches last season before breaking his leg.
"If they bring in a veteran back, I’m going to learn whatever I can learn from him," Freeman said. "I’m going to be open to him. I hope he will be open to me. My mindset is it’s a business and you’re going to compete regardless.
"I’m not the type a guy who is not going to talk to someone like that because we’re teammates. I’m going to do whatever it takes to push him. If I’m pushing him and he’s pushing me, that’s not going to do anything but bring our team to a higher level of success. And that’s what I want. I’m about trying to win championships. I’m not selfish at all. I played with three running backs at Florida State and I still got 1,000 yards, you know what I mean?"
Freeman has yet to talk to Shanahan but has had several conversations with Quinn and running backs coach Bobby Turner about his role.
"DQ, he’s all for it," Freeman said of Quinn. "He said, 'Man, I’m excited to work with you guys.' He was talking about the outside zone offense and he told me to just come ready to compete and be ready and prepared when my number is called. He was like 'Just come here in the best shape ever and do whatever it takes to get ready.'"
Freeman is doing just that, training daily in a park near the rugged "Pork 'N' Beans" projects where he grew up in Miami. The field is right near a middle school, and Freeman said he often invites kids to either work out with him or watch him go through his cone drills.
"I’m in the hood with it. I keep it real at all times," Freeman said. "When I come back, that motivates them. When I was coming up to the park as a kid, nobody was coming back. Nobody was giving autographs for the kids. I’m from one of the worst projects ever and I still drive by there to this day.
"I want to show them, I want to show everybody, that I’ve got that dog in me. I’ve been out here working hard. But I’m not going to keep talking about it. I’m just going to let the work speak for itself."“Chaos.”
“Circus.”
“Laughingstock.”
Those were just a few of the comments I heard in Berlin this week from senior European officials trying to make sense of the meltdown in Washington at just the moment when a politically imploding President Trump embarks on what he called “my big foreign trip” in this morning’s kickoff tweet.
For months, the American president has raised unprecedented questions about the future of the American-led alliance that has persisted since the end of World War II. He has slagged off NATO, evinced skepticism about the European Union, cheered for like-minded right-wing populists, boosted antidemocratic strongmen like Russia’s Vladimir Putin and vowed to rip up free trade deals—and Europe’s political class has been outraged, confused and even terrified.
The American president has raised unprecedented questions about the future of the American-led alliance that has persisted since the end of World War II.
Trump’s tumultuous last two weeks—from firing his FBI director to allegedly sharing highly classified information with Russian officials even as a formidable special counsel was being named to investigate his campaign team’s possible collusion with the Kremlin—has them still confused about his foreign policy. But now they are more appalled than afraid of the man with whom they have no choice but to partner.
Many I spoke with said they had made a fundamental mistake of viewing Trump primarily as an ideologue with whom they disagreed rather than what he increasingly appears to be: an ill-prepared newcomer to the world stage, with uninformed views and a largely untested team that will now be sorely tried by a 9-day, 5-stop world tour that would be wildly ambitious even for a seasoned global leader.
“People are less worried than they were six weeks ago, less afraid,” a senior German government official with extensive experience in the United States told me. “Now they see the clownish nature.” Or, as another German said on the sidelines of a meeting here devoted to taking stock of 70 years of U.S.-German relations, “People here think Trump is a laughingstock.”
“The dominant reaction to Trump right now is mockery,” Jacob Heilbrunn, the editor of the conservative journal the National Interest, told the meeting at the German Foreign Office here while moderating a panel on Trump’s foreign policy that dealt heavily on the difficulty of divining an actual policy amid the spectacle. Heilbrunn, whose publication hosted Trump’s inaugural foreign policy speech in Washington during last year’s campaign, used the ‘L’ word too. “The Trump administration is becoming an international laughingstock.” Michael Werz, a German expert from the liberal U.S. think tank Center for American Progress, agreed, adding he was struck by “how rapidly the American brand is depreciating over the last 20 weeks.”
Of course, Americans have had presidential scandals before, and Europe has a long history of substantive clashes with U.S. presidents over everything from the Vietnam war and confronting the Soviets to the widely opposed 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Even Trump flying off on a poorly timed international tour isn’t entirely unfamiliar territory: Many embattled U.S. leaders have hit the road for a dose of statesman-like pageantry, red-carpet receptions and global superpower-style pomp to compensate for pressing investigations and congressional uproar back home. Bill Clinton toured Russia and Northern Ireland after testifying to the grand jury in the Monica Lewinsky affair and was in Israel when he learned the House of Representatives had the votes to impeach him. Ronald Reagan summited with Mikhail Gorbachev as the congressional Iran-Contra hearings threatened to derail his second-term agenda.
“The dominant reaction to Trump right now is mockery” — National Interest editor Jacob Heilbrunn
But Trump’s tribulations have confounded the world, and especially America’s closest allies here in Europe, in a whole different way. Never has a U.S. president flailed so early in his tenure at a time when he is still such an unknown quantity in the world. In Trump’s case, he will arrive in a skeptical Europe with an inexperienced or nonexistent staff appointed to deal with global problems and a record of wildly contradictory statements even on matters of core principle. Does he think NATO is still “obsolete” or not? Is he prepared to offer the Russians anything more than the symbolism of his recent, chummy Oval Office visit with its foreign minister? Want to blow up carefully negotiated agreements with Europe on climate change and trade?
No one knows.
***
When European diplomats meet these days, they often swap stories about Trump—and how to manage their volatile new ally. “The president of the United States has a 12-second attention span,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told a former senior official in April after meeting Trump in the Oval Office. Not only that, this person told me, the president seemed unprepared and ill-informed, turning the conversation to North Korea and apparently unaware that NATO is not a part of the ongoing North Korea saga. (A NATO spokesman later denied this, saying "the Secretary-General never said this and it does not represent his views.")
Such anecdotes have shaped how Europe’s anxious leaders are preparing for Trump’s trip this week — he will come to Brussels for a NATO session on Thursday—and for another one planned for early July, when he visits Germany for a G20 summit at which he is expected to meet Putin face to face for the first time.
Some of the reported preparations for the NATO session in Brussels this week suggest just how much the volatile-clown theory of the American president has now taken hold.
NATO has labeled the May 25 session a meeting, not a summit, and will hold only a dinner to minimize the chances of a Trump eruption. Leaders have been told to hold normally windy remarks to just two to four minutes to keep Trump’s attention. ("This is routine," the NATO spokesperson said.) They are even preparing to consider a “deliverable” to Trump of having NATO officially join the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State in Syria, as Trump has said his priority is getting NATO to do more in combating terrorism. “It’s a phony deliverable to give to Trump, a Twitter deliverable,” said a former senior U.S. official, pointing out that the individual NATO member states are already members of that coalition.
A Trump photo-op with a chunk of the World Trade Center has been choreographed in hopes of convincing the president who called NATO “obsolete” to reaffirm the basic principles of an organization committed to the mutual security of its members. The World Trade Center wreckage is part of a long-in-the-works memorial to the victims of the 9/11 attacks at NATO’s new headquarters that Trump is set to officially open (though the building is not in fact finished), and NATO observers hope he will use the occasion to finally endorse the principle in Article V of the NATO Treaty that requires countries to treat an attack on one NATO country as an attack on all – an article that has only been invoked once in the organization’s history: after 9/11. “The purpose of the 9/11 memorial opening is to try to get Trump to mention the Article V commitment, since how can he get around it? It’s the only time Article V was ever used,” the former official said.
This is viewed as an especially crucial moment for Trump to do so, given his stated goal of working more closely with Russia even as Russia threatens neighboring states like the three Baltic countries that are now NATO members. But Trump has resisted it, and as Thomas Wright of the Brookings Institution has reported, “Trump’s failure to endorse Article V is not an oversight. Members of his cabinet have unsuccessfully tried to insert this language into his remarks, including at his meeting with Stoltenberg.”
Now, they are finally hoping he will do so — but have no promise.
No promises might well be the theme of Trump’s trip. Consider Trump’s original campaign-trail threat to blow up NATO if member states don’t live up to their commitment to put 2 percent of the budget into defense; even that, it appears, might now might be back on the table. Trump has publicly claimed victory on that score, crowing that he had already forced allies to comply, but in fact, few countries have actually raised their spending – and an anonymous senior White House official told a reporter this week that “he is not going to stay in NATO if NATO does not make a lot more progress.”
No promises might well be the theme of Trump’s trip.
No doubt jittery officials have reason to be nervous. In an interview as Trump departed, Stoltenberg told Bloomberg TV that “Trump has clearly stated to me in several conversations … that he’s strongly committed to NATO.” As for Thursday’s meeting in Brussels? “I hope and expect that he will reiterate his strong commitment to NATO.”
But will he? And what would it mean if he does?
The question of Donald Trump’s real views on NATO might not be as entertaining as the political spectacle unfolding in Washington, but the answer is just as uncertain.
***
On Tuesday night, Germany Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel opened the conference on U.S.-German relations, sponsored by the American Council on Germany and the Atlantik-Brucke think tank here, with a lengthy, serious speech on the Marshall Plan’s legacy, a paean to American leadership in Europe and a rebuttal to Trump’s “America First” mantra.
“We associate the United States with the idea of freedom and democracy,” he said, before warning of the erosion of the global order that America made. “A recalibration of the world is in full swing.”
“We associate the United States with the idea of freedom and democracy,” Sigmar Gabriel said, before warning of the erosion of the global order that America made.
An hour later, former Democratic National Committee chair Donna Brazile was taking questions over dinner from a largely German group of current and former government officials and international business leaders.
What did they want to know?
How does impeachment work? Did James Comey’s last-minute reopening of the Clinton investigation swing the election to Trump? Did the Russians? Oh, and once again: Will Trump be impeached?
“Well, people seem to think he’s just going to be removed. I don’t know,” Brazile said, after telling the Europeans that she thought Democrats, not Russians or the ousted FBI director, bore more blame for the Trump victory. “He’s the president, he was elected.” Brazile said she prayed for Trump in church. “I want my president to succeed,” she said, before adding, “But no one is above the law.”
A few minutes after she finished speaking, the New York Times posted the latest revelation of a week filled with them: that Comey had kept contemporaneous notes of his meetings with Trump, including the allegation that the president asked him to shut down the investigation of his first national security adviser, Michael Flynn.
The Europeans, just like their American counterparts, were glued to their phones.
Susan Glasser is POLITICO’s chief international affairs columnist and host of its new weekly podcast, The Global Politico.Fathers4Justice can today reveal evidence supplied by the Government Legal Department, acting for Aldershot Magistrates Court and Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service (HMCTS), that they rely on to justify their decision to deny members of the public, trial witnesses, and an elected county councillor, entry to the trial of F4J founder Matt O’Connor on 20/2/15.
Footage of the incident was filmed by Fathers4Justice on the day.
It was also reported here.
HMCTS make various fabricated claims that are not supported with any evidence whatsoever. They appear more concerned with reputational damage and publicity, than the alleged threat to security. Worse still, the disproportionate, over-the-top response would be more appropriate for the trial of an individual who poses a threat to national security, rather than a shared parenting campaigner.
Summary of evidence supplied by the Government Legal Department:
1. It is claimed, “similar incidents have occurred elsewhere involving Mr O’Connor and supporters of Fathers4Justice”. This claim is categorically false. Not one hearing or trial involving Matt O’Connor has been disrupted in 15 years of campaigning.
2. Hampshire Police repeatedly state there was categorically NO intelligence to suggest any disruption within the court building. They state there were no threats to scale the roof.
3. HMCTS accept the decision making process was flawed as there was no consultation with the judiciary.
4. However, HMCTS now claim to have a free-standing power to exclude individuals from court buildings without reference to the judiciary.
5. The court claim the following: “we need 2 extra security guards…there will be FULL searches of everyone looking for handcuffs, bag ties, paint cans that could be used to disrupt proceedings.”
6. They state that the two CPS witnesses will be brought to a “secure witness area…with a guard to conduct a search…and they are to be escorted.”
7. They go on to state, “I have put the County Court on warning in case Fathers for Justice should strike there…we can contact Sandy / Andrew Hounsome in the event of an emergency”.
8. They falsely claim Matt O’Connor used his mobile phone to record his entrance to the building, when in fact it was used to record the assault and ejection of an elected County Councillor from the court.
9. They state, “Mr O’Connor arranged for supporters of his to attend as a protest against what he feels are unfair actions towards him and his family by Hampshire Police.”
10. They claim, “The defendant has used his social media sites to allege that he is being refused the right to a trial in open court. This will feed into the perception of some minority groups paranoia of the subject and will damage the reputation of the department.”
11. The HMCTS statement references again their concern with publicity stating, “Fathers4Justice cannot be prevented from becoming involved in Court proceedings and then using that window of opportunity to gain publicity.”
12. They go on to state: “Other costs include a days work lost to the Delivery manager in the civil courts who covered the day the regional security officer who attended for the day / 2 extra guards requested from Mitie Security Services.”
13. Richard Harvey, Security & Fire Safety Officer for Her Majesty’s Courts & Tribunal service, South West Region, who made the decision to deny the public access, makes the following claims: He describes Fathers4Justice as an “agitating domestic group…F4J have caused mayhem while supposedly holding peaceful protests…climbing the gates and scaling walls at Buckingham Palace and the Royal Courts of Justice causing criminal damage.” This allegation is entirely false. No one was convicted for causing criminal damage at these protests.
Fathers4Justice claim that HMCTS and the Government Legal Department are trying to silence Mr O’Connor from speaking out publicly about a Conservative MP, Caroline Nokes, and her role in the targeting of his family, and a child abuse scandal in Hampshire, which he says led directly to his arrest.
He was arrested for a Section 5 Pubic Order act offence, allegedly committed around 8.00am on 4/9/14 outside his home in Hampshire, when he was stopped and questioned by police officers about his complaint to the Professional Standards Department of Hampshire Police, over claims they covered up the involvement of Ms Nokes in a violent, bloody attack at his home on 20/2/14 where Mr O’Connor’s landlord was savagely bitten. He also said that Hampshire Police had failed to take any action to prosecute those responsible or protect his family.
A public dispute between Ms Nokes and F4J began after the MP broke her 2010 election promises to Fathers4Justice to support the introduction of shared parenting.
The video Hampshire Police didn’t want you to see: Matt O’Connor is stopped in the street outside his Hampshire home by officers, before being unlawfully arrested, assaulted, handcuffed and detained for over 11 hours on 4/9/14.
Fathers4Justice say that Matt O’Connor’s arrest, a year and a half ago, was pre-meditated, meticulously planned and politically motivated, and was linked to a campaign of intimidation that targeted his children and family, and eventually forced them out of their Hampshire home.
They claim that there is a conspiracy of silence surrounding a child abuse scandal at Stanbridge Earls School which closed in 2014, which the MP defended, arguing that it should remain open. F4J said it should have closed immediately once it was clear children were at risk, and the group have called for a Public Inquiry into child abuse at the school. The Chief Constable of Hampshire Constabulary was investigated for leaking information about the investigation to Ms Nokes in 2014.
The case also has several other unusual features. The main prosecution witness in the case works for the MP’s chairman, one Judge recused himself because of his political links and a CPS Prosecutor stood down after he was overheard coaching the main witness.
Solicitors for Caroline Nokes have also attempted to prejudice proceedings and discredit Mr O’Connor and a key witness, by writing to the court to say he fabricated claims that Ms Nokes was involved in a violent attack at his home, despite her belated admission in the media that she was present. It transpired Ms Nokes had driven to London from Romsey, to collect a friend, then bring him to Mr O’Connor’s home where the attack took place – a trip she claimed Parliamentary expenses for.
Fathers4Justice believe, that in the absence of any meaningful evidence supplied by the Government Legal Department, this is the only legitimate reason the court attempted to hold Mr O’Connor’s trial in secret, because of what he would say about the MP, her role in the attack at his home, and the child sex abuse scandal at Stanbridge Earls School.
F4J also point to the wholly disproportionate lengths the CPS and Crown have gone to in the pursuit of Mr O’Connor over the years including an attempt to ban him from the London 2012 Olympic Games and repeated attempts to ban him from entering London on the day of the State Opening of Parliament.
They contrast this with the violent attack at Mr O’Connor’s home in 2014 where no charges were brought, despite graphic photographic and video evidence.
They point out that this case, for a minor offence and which is now at Judicial Review, has lasted nearly two years at considerable cost to public purse.
Said Matt O’Connor, “First they unlawfully arrested me. Then a judge recused himself for fear of the appearance of bias. Then it transpires the only prosecution witness works for the Chairman of the MP. Then they banned the public and defence witnesses attending court. Now we have government solicitors representing the Crown for a Section 5 Public Order Act Offence, which is a minor criminal offence.”
“The state is going to extraordinary lengths to both prosecute me and try me in secret, in a case which threatens not only to expose the actions of a Conservative MP in the targeting of my family and children, but also relates to a cover up involving the MP and Andy Marsh, the Chief Constable of Hampshire Police in a child abuse scandal at Stanbridge Earls School in Hampshire.”
“The cost of this action is wholly disproportionate to the alleged offence, but it is essential that my trial is heard in public so that all the evidence can be heard without restriction or censorship. I am of course deeply grateful to Dr Pelling for his support and work on this case.”
“The insidious creep of secret justice, first through the family courts, and now in the criminal courts, is one which has chilling consequences for British law. Open justice is the founding principle of our legal system, and one we must defend at all costs.”
ENDSGallup has a new poll showing that the ground is eroding under the feet of anthropogenic global-warming advocates. Skepticism in the US has rapidly increased over the last four years, climbing from 30% in 2006 to almost half of all respondents in their latest survey:
Gallup’s annual update on Americans’ attitudes toward the environment shows a public that over the last two years has become less worried about the threat of global warming, less convinced that its effects are already happening, and more likely to believe that scientists themselves are uncertain about its occurrence. In response to one key question, 48% of Americans now believe that the seriousness of global warming is generally exaggerated, up from 41% in 2009 and 31% in 1997, when Gallup first asked the question.
Except for one year — the presidential election year of 2004 — skepticism had been a fairly marginal response in the US, hovering around the 30% mark. The scandals of the East Anglia CRU, the IPCC, and the climate-change industry in general appears to have seriously damaged the standing of AGW advocacy. As the chart shows, though, skepticism had already begun spiking well before the credibility collapse started in November.
Now, the marginalized group is those who see AGW as an existential threat within their lifetimes. That’s now down to 32% from a high of 40% in 2008, while skeptics on that point have increased to 67%. And there are even more reasons for skepticism now. Pajamas Media reports on more exposed e-mail, this time involving NASA, that shows that the government agency was hiding its own skepticism about its own data:
Email messages obtained by the Competitive Enterprise Institute via a Freedom of Information Act request reveal that the climate dataset of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) was considered — by the top climate scientists within NASA itself — to be inferior to the data maintained by the University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit (CRU). The NASA scientists also felt that NASA GISS data was inferior to the National Climate Data Center Global Historical Climate Network (NCDC GHCN) database. These emails, obtained by Christopher Horner, also show that the NASA GISS dataset was not independent of CRU data. Further, all of this information regarding the accuracy and independence of NASA GISS data was directly communicated to a reporter from USA Today in August 2007. The reporter never published it.
Why is this important? Defenders of the East Anglia CRU conclusions, as well as those of the IPCC, insist that their data has an analog in NASA/GISS. They claim that even though East Anglia destroyed the raw data and that they have been exposed in manipulating results, the end result more or less matches what NASA/GISS has produced. If NASA considered its data inferior to the CRU effort, that calls both into question.
The effort continues to crumble, and as it does, it produces another hockey stick — a sharp increase not in global temperatures, but in global common sense.United travel to Preston in the FA Cup fifth round on Monday night
Manchester United boss Louis van Gaal is ready to shine a light on his players – with them working hard on the training pitch at night.
United have submitted a planning application to have floodlights installed on the practice fields at their Aon-sponsored complex in Carrington.
Sportsmail understands the move has been ordered by manager Louis van Gaal as he continues to exert his influence at the club.
Manchester United have submitted a planning application to have floodlights installed at their Aon Complex
The plans are part of United boss Louis van Gaal's as he continues to exert his influence at the club
Van Gaal is known to pay intense attention to detail and he wants to increase options at the training ground.
Wayne Rooney is a self-confessed fan of Coronation Street and may soon find himself out in the Carrington |
mice inoculated with either parental or eye-derived virus ( Figure 2 D). We considered whether the severe pathology seen with the eye-derived virus might be due to a virus adaptation that enhances ocular tropism or injury. To evaluate this hypothesis, we performed next-generation sequencing of eye-, spleen-, and brain-derived virus from ZIKV-infected Ifnar1animals ( Figure S1 and Table S1 ). Although we did not identify any substitutions that were absent in the inoculating virus, we observed a large increase in the frequency of a single NS2A nucleotide mutation (C→T at genome position 3,895, from ∼10% to ∼80% in all biological replicates and in all tissues tested) that resulted in an alanine to valine change.
Symbols are derived from individual animals and pooled from two or three independent experiments. Bars indicate the mean of two to five mice per group. Dotted lines represent the limit of sensitivity of the assay. See also Figure S1
(D) Viral burden assessed by qRT-PCR assay in the spleen, brain, and eyes of AG129 mice inoculated with 10 4 FFUs of parental ZIKV Paraíba 2015 or eye-derived virus obtained from Ifnar1 −/− mice.
(C) Representative H&E-stained eye sections from AG129 mice infected with parental and eye-derived ZIKV. Black arrowheads indicate inflammatory cell infiltrates in the posterior region of the eye. Scale bars represent 100 μm for upper panels and 75 μm for lower panels.
(A) Kaplan-Meier survival curve in mice inoculated with day 7 or day 28 eye homogenates from Ifnar1 −/− mice or 10 μL of tears obtained 7 days after ZIKV infection of Ifnar1 −/− mice.
To determine whether ZIKV RNA in eyes (day 7 and day 28) and tears (day 7) was infectious, we inoculated AG129 mice via an intraperitoneal route with ocular homogenates or tear fluid; these mice were utilized because they lack receptors for both type I and II IFN signaling and are highly vulnerable to ZIKV infection even after inoculation with 1 plaque forming unit (PFU) (), which we confirmed (data not shown). Inoculation with eye homogenates obtained from Ifnar1mice infected with Paraíba 2015 at day 7 resulted in death of AG129 mice, which occurred uniformly by day 10 ( Figure 2 A). In contrast, mice inoculated with eye homogenates from day 28 or tears from day 7 did not develop signs of ZIKV infection ( Figure 2 A and data not shown). These data suggest that infectious virus was not produced in the eye after the acute phase of infection. We observed conjunctivitis in Ifnar1mice infected with ZIKV Paraíba 2015, although this occurred in some but not all animals ( Figure 2 B and data not shown). In the AG129 mice inoculated with day 7 eye homogenates, we observed greater ocular pathology, including severe conjunctivitis with extraocular exudate in all animals, compared to milder disease in mice receiving a similar dose of the parental ZIKV Paraíba 2015 ( Figures 2 B and 2C).
Given the data on persistence of eye infection in humans after infection with EBOV and ZIKV (), we assessed infection in mice 28 days after inoculation. Notably, ZIKV RNA persisted in several tissues, including the eyes, brain, spleen, and other organs, long after the virus was cleared from serum ( Figure 1 C and data not shown). During the 2015 EBOV epidemic, there was concern for person-to-person spread through ocular secretions, including tears (). As such, we next tested whether ZIKV RNA was present in tear fluid after eye lavage of infected animals with 10 μl of PBS. We detected ZIKV RNA in tear fluid (∼3 × 10focus-forming units [FFUs] equivalents per mL) and in the lacrimal gland (∼2.4 × 10FFU equivalents per mL) on day 7 after infection ( Figures 1 D and 1E), suggesting that infectious virus, viral RNA, or ZIKV-infected cellular debris were present in ocular secretions.
Symbols are derived from individual animals and pooled from two or three independent experiments. Bars indicate the mean of 5 to 13 mice per group. Dotted lines represent the limit of sensitivity of the assay.
(C) Viral burden in the eyes and brain of Ifnar1 −/− mice on day 28 after infection with ZIKV Paraíba 2015.
(A) Viral burden in the eyes of WT mice on days 2 and 6 after infection with ZIKV Paraíba 2015 or H/PF/2013. Mice were treated with 2 mg of an anti-Ifnar1 or control mAb 1 day prior to infection.
ZIKV does not replicate efficiently in WT C57BL/6 mice, in part because ZIKV NS5 antagonizes human but not mouse STAT2 (), which transmits signals downstream of Ifnar1, a component of the type I IFN receptor. To overcome this limitation, we treated mice with an anti-Ifnar1 blocking antibody () and subcutaneously inoculated them with low-passage ZIKV contemporary clinical isolates, including strains from French Polynesia (H/PF/2013) and Brazil (Paraíba 2015). WT adult mice treated with anti-Ifnar1 monoclonal antibody (mAb) and inoculated with these ZIKV isolates do not develop clinically apparent disease, although viremia and infection of multiple organs occurs, including in immune-privileged sites such as the testes (). In comparison, Ifnar1mice develop neuroinvasive infection, causing some of these animals to succumb to infection (). In anti-Ifnar1 mAb-treated animals, we detected RNA of ZIKV H/PF/2013 or Paraíba 2015 in the eye at day 2 after infection, which increased at day 6 ( Figure 1 A). Similar results were obtained after infection of Ifnar1mice with Paraíba 2015, with high intraocular levels of ZIKV RNA accumulating by day 7 ( Figure 1 B).
Discussion
Furtado et al., 2016 Furtado J.M.
Espósito D.L.
Klein T.M.
Teixeira-Pinto T.
da Fonseca B.A. Uveitis associated with zika virus infection. Hershberger et al., 2003 Hershberger V.S.
Augsburger J.J.
Hutchins R.K.
Miller S.A.
Horwitz J.A.
Bergmann M. Chorioretinal lesions in nonfatal cases of West Nile virus infection. Kaiser et al., 2003 Kaiser P.K.
Lee M.S.
Martin D.A. Occlusive vasculitis in a patient with concomitant West Nile virus infection. Kuchtey et al., 2003 Kuchtey R.W.
Kosmorsky G.S.
Martin D.
Lee M.S. Uveitis associated with West Nile virus infection. The most common form of ZIKV-induced ocular disease is conjunctivitis, which occurs in 10% to 15% of patients, but whether conjunctivitis is a direct consequence of ZIKV infection of the eye is not known. In contrast, ZIKV-induced uveitis is less common, although it has been described in humans (). How ZIKV triggers uveitis remains uncertain, although inflammatory cell recruitment might contribute to this, according to our histological findings. Direct infection of the eye might cause inflammation as a consequence of virus-induced cell death, cytokine production, and/or leukocyte recruitment. Alternatively, intracellular or extracellular viral RNA can act as a pathogen-associated molecular pattern (PAMP) and activate inflammatory responses via stimulating pattern recognition receptors (e.g., Toll-like or Rig-I-like receptors), even in the absence of infectious virus. In humans with EBOV- and ZIKV-induced uveitis, viral RNA was detectable within the intraocular fluid. We found that mice infected with ZIKV had no infectious virus in the eye by day 28, even though high levels of ZIKV RNA were present. Consistent with this observation, there is extensive literature describing WNV-induced ocular disease in humans, including uveitis, chorioretinitis, and retinal artery occlusion (). Neurotropic flaviviruses might first invade the brain, then infect the optic tract, and later transit in a retrograde direction into the eye along the optic nerve. Alternatively, ocular infection might result from hematogenous spread of virus across the blood-retinal barrier. Additional studies are needed to define the precise mechanisms of ocular invasion by ZIKV.
Lazear et al., 2016 Lazear H.M.
Govero J.
Smith A.M.
Platt D.J.
Fernandez E.
Miner J.J.
Diamond M.S. A Mouse Model of Zika Virus Pathogenesis. Musso et al., 2015 Musso D.
Roche C.
Robin E.
Nhan T.
Teissier A.
Cao-Lormeau V.M. Potential sexual transmission of Zika virus. Lee et al., 2001 Lee H.M.
Naor J.
Alhindi R.
Chinfook T.
Krajden M.
Mazzulli T.
Rootman D.S. Detection of hepatitis C virus in the corneas of seropositive donors. Tugwell et al., 2005 Tugwell B.D.
Patel P.R.
Williams I.T.
Hedberg K.
Chai F.
Nainan O.V.
Thomas A.R.
Woll J.E.
Bell B.P.
Cieslak P.R. Transmission of hepatitis C virus to several organ and tissue recipients from an antibody-negative donor. ZIKV infects both the eyes and testes in humans and in animal models (), suggesting that immune-privileged organs might support replication even weeks after resolution of viremia and clinical symptoms. Hepatitis C virus, a related Flaviviridae family member, can infect the human cornea () and is transmitted by corneal transplantation (). Given that ZIKV has capacity to infect the cornea of mice, human studies might be needed to confirm whether ZIKV analogously infects the human cornea. If corneal infection by ZIKV were established in humans, then widespread ocular infection during epidemics could necessitate testing by eye banks to ensure that ZIKV is not present in the corneas of infected donors.
Derbent et al., 2004 Derbent M.
Agras P.I.
Gedik S.
Oto S.
Alehan F.
Saatçi U. Congenital cataract, microphthalmia, hypoplasia of corpus callosum and hypogenitalism: report and review of Micro syndrome. Cugola et al., 2016 Cugola F.R.
Fernandes I.R.
Russo F.B.
Freitas B.C.
Dias J.L.M.
Guimarães K.P.
Benazzato C.
Almeida N.
Pignatari G.C.
Romero S.
et al. The Brazilian Zika virus strain causes birth defects in experimental models. +/− fetuses from C57BL/6 Ifnar1−/− dams. Studies with other mouse and non-human primate models are needed to clarify the requirements and basis for ZIKV-induced congenital ocular disease. Congenital ocular disease caused by ZIKV might be due to direct targeting of cells in the fetal eye. Alternatively, it could occur as part of a neurodevelopmental defect, which is seen in microcephaly cases even in the absence of an infectious cause (). Although a recent study suggested ocular pathology was present in SJL mouse pups that were infected with ZIKV in utero, histological characterization of their eyes was not demonstrated (). We did not observe histological abnormalities of the eyes of congenitally infected Ifnar1fetuses from C57BL/6 Ifnar1dams. Studies with other mouse and non-human primate models are needed to clarify the requirements and basis for ZIKV-induced congenital ocular disease.
Hamel et al., 2015 Hamel R.
Dejarnac O.
Wichit S.
Ekchariyawat P.
Neyret A.
Luplertlop N.
Perera-Lecoin M.
Surasombatpattana P.
Talignani L.
Thomas F.
et al. Biology of zika virus infection in human skin cells. Meertens et al., 2012 Meertens L.
Carnec X.
Lecoin M.P.
Ramdasi R.
Guivel-Benhassine F.
Lew E.
Lemke G.
Schwartz O.
Amara A. The TIM and TAM families of phosphatidylserine receptors mediate dengue virus entry. Savidis et al., 2016 Savidis G.
McDougall W.M.
Meraner P.
Perreira J.M.
Portmann J.M.
Trincucci G.
John S.P.
Aker A.M.
Renzette N.
Robbins D.R.
et al. Identification of Zika virus and Dengue virus dependency factors using functional genomics. Nowakowski et al., 2016 Nowakowski T.J.
Pollen A.A.
Di Lullo E.
Sandoval-Espinosa C.
Bershteyn M.
Kriegstein A.R. Expression analysis highlights AXL as a candidate Zika virus entry receptor in neural stem cells. −/−, Mertk−/−, and Axl−/−Mertk−/− mice revealed no effect of a loss of expression of these TAM receptors on ZIKV replication, suggesting that Axl and Mertk are not required for CNS or ocular infection in mice. These results are analogous to prior studies with WNV, in which an absence of Axl and/or Mertk paradoxically resulted in enhanced infection in the brain, which was due in part to alterations in the permeability of endothelial cells lining the blood-brain barrier ( Miner et al., 2015 Miner J.J.
Daniels B.P.
Shrestha B.
Proenca-Modena J.L.
Lew E.D.
Lazear H.M.
Gorman M.J.
Lemke G.
Klein R.S.
Diamond M.S. The TAM receptor Mertk protects against neuroinvasive viral infection by maintaining blood-brain barrier integrity. TAM receptors might enhance attachment and entry of flaviviruses, including ZIKV (). This hypothesis has been strengthened by a correlation between levels of Axl expression and vulnerability of certain neuronal subtypes to ZIKV infection (). However, our studies in Axl, Mertk, and AxlMertkmice revealed no effect of a loss of expression of these TAM receptors on ZIKV replication, suggesting that Axl and Mertk are not required for CNS or ocular infection in mice. These results are analogous to prior studies with WNV, in which an absence of Axl and/or Mertk paradoxically resulted in enhanced infection in the brain, which was due in part to alterations in the permeability of endothelial cells lining the blood-brain barrier (). Our data do not exclude the possibility that Axl might still act as an entry factor for ZIKV in specific cells in other tissue compartments (e.g., trophoblasts in the placenta or subsets of neurons in the CNS).
In summary, we have described a mouse model of ocular disease that demonstrates ZIKV tropism in specific regions of the eye, panuveitis, shedding of viral RNA into tears, and persistence in immunodeficient adult mice. We have also confirmed that ZIKV infects the eye of immunocompetent neonatal WT mice. Studies are planned to define the cellular mechanisms by which ZIKV invades and infects the eye and results in inflammation. Further analysis of the host and virus factors that facilitate ocular infection and mechanisms of immune-mediated clearance could lead to interventions that enhance elimination of viruses from immune-privileged sites, including the eye.Local vet treats animals after massive Antalya fire
ANTALYA – Anadolu Agency
AA photo
Local veterinarian clinic owner Mert Baylan announced on social media that he would provide treatment to a number of different wild animals and pets which were severely affected by the fires.
Baylan said his team had treated and saved five dogs and three cats which were affected by the smoke of the fires. “Two alpine swifts which were found in the fire zone with injuries to their wings and bodies were brought [to the clinic] by locals. We provided the animals with the necessary treatments. When they have recovered, we will set them free,” he added, as quoted by Anadolu Agency.
Saying that he also found some injured animals, such as turtles, in the area after the fires, Baylan added they treated them at the scene and carried them to safer areas where they could find food and water.
Meanwhile, a forest fire in Antalya’s Kaş district was brought under control on June 30 thanks to a timely response by firefighting teams.
The fire, the cause of which was unknown and began in the province’s Karadağ neighborhood, was reported by residents to the Antalya Regional Forestry Directorate and teams were dispatched to the area with the support of three helicopters and five sprinklers.
The fire was in danger of spreading due to the wind and burned around one hectare before it was taken under control by the teams.
Officials from the Forestry Directorate said the area was far away from any agricultural fields, power lines and residential areas, adding that they suspected it was set intentionally.
The massive fire in Antalya’s Kumluca district over the weekend had threatened residential areas as well as hotels and tourist attractions in Olimpos and Adrasan, which are known for their pristine environment. Over 150 hectares were burned by the fire, which was brought under control some 20 hours later.
A veterinarian in the Kumluca district of the southern province of Antalya has offered free treatment to animals which were injured during the large forest fires that hit the area and affected over 500 hectares from June 24 to June 26.Admitting your flaws and putting them out to show the world is not what today's celebrities are known for. Unless of course you are Jamie Lee Curtis when she did a More magazine spread that showed her thighs in their true, unaltered form.
When every magazine ad or cover is showing you a full color glossy of a perfect, beautiful woman or man you start to question yourself and ask if you measure up. But, as we should know, all of these images are 'chopped and cropped', touched up or digitally manipulated.
Whether it is heavy airbrushing, zapping zits, brightening those baby blues, contouring or more aggressively removing some unwanted back fat and pushing the eyes two inches apart so that the face appears more doll like- it happens. Some editors even go the other way and make the image worse than it originally was.
Magazines that run these doctored shots believe it gives them an air of exclusivity or originality, but sometimes they are shown as the fakes they are and even the celebrities seem to be fighting back. We have some ads and covers that really push the pixels on a photo and others that do it with a more subtle approach.
Red Book – Faith Hill We know what you're thinking. "Faith Hill, she is naturally beautiful, what could they possibly do to fix her up?" But it happened. If you can't easily notice the changes, look at the size and length of her left arm in the before picture, the cover photo makes it look freakishly thin. Also under the eyes is much lighter. Her little bit of back fat above the dress is gone and her neck is elongated above her upper back removing the hunch. Gawkers Media Jezebel obtained this before photo from the shoot for the cover. So it goes to make a 'beautiful' point- that even naturally gorgeous women get touched up in a big way. Redbook shattered our 'Faith' on this one.
Dove – Artificial Beauty Time Lapse
To illustrate the staggering amount of retouching that goes into creating an ad, Dove produced this time-lapse video of a model being made up and then digitally touched up for their Dove Real Beauty Workshops for Girls. This workshop sums up all the reasons this type of manipulation is so wrong and harmful to our society.
CBS Watch! Magazine – Katie Couric
Forget what you know about Watergate, this one has been dubbed Weightgate! In May 2006 CBS News anchorette Katie Couric was being pre-promoted with the photo to the left. In September the same photo was used, but touched up considerably, in CBS's Watch! Magazine to promote her and she looks to have lost 20 pounds.
The magazine is distributed to CBS employees as well as on American Airlines flights with a circulation of about 400,000 copies. According to this Washington Post story, it was the fault of "an overzealous employee in its publicity department" who gave a digital nip and tuck to help improve Couric's physical appearance.
Redbook – Julia Roberts
On Redbook's July cover, Roberts' head comes from a paparazzi shot taken at the 2002 People's Choice awards. Her body, meanwhile, is from the Notting Hill movie premiere four years ago. Look at the dresses, look familiar?
Publisher Hearst admits its mistake: "In an effort to make a cover that would pop on the newsstand, we combined two different shots of Julia Roberts. We acknowledge that we may have gone too far and hope that Ms. Roberts will accept our apology."
Time – O.J. Simpson
O.J. Simpson appeared on the 1994 cover of Time magazine shortly after his arrest on murder charges. The original mug shot appeared on the cover of Newsweek. Time was subsequently accused of manipulating the photograph to make Simpson appear "darker" and "menacing."
TV Guide – Oprah Winfrey
The practice of digital manipulation for cover models and ads is certainly not a new trend. Back in 1989 Oprah's head was attached to Ann Margaret's body on a TV Guide cover.
This cover was created by splicing the head of Winfrey onto the body of actress Ann-Margret, taken from a 1979 publicity shot. The composite was created without permission of Winfrey or Ann-Margret, and was detected by Ann-Margret's fashion designer, who recognized the dress.
Star – Jennifer Aniston
OK, even accessories aren't safe these days! What happened to the sunglasses and the image on the book she is holding go?
Did the magazine want to play with our imaginations and have us think that she was preparing a manuscript or a juicy tell all on Brad?
Men's Fitness – Andy Roddick
Just when you thought it is just the women that get all the attention. Tennis superstar Andy Roddick supposedly stopped in his tracks when he saw this cover for Men's Fitness while walking in an airport.
Look at those arms! The guy is a professional athlete, he is already in super shape, but those arms are monstrous and extreme. Just goes to show that everything that is pushed in our face must be extra special or freakishly not like the person being depicted to give it that edge.
Redbook – Jennifer Aniston
Jennifer took offense when she found out she was on the cover of Redbook without her consent, and we don't blame her, it looks so fake! Jen boycotted the magazine after she said her head was placed on another woman’s body. Originally she declined a Redbook cover because of a commitment to Harper's Bazaar. Redbook informed Jennifer eight weeks before the cover hit that she'd be on it anyway.
A Redbook spokeswoman had this to say: "The only things that were altered in the cover photo were the color of her shirt and the length of her hair, very slightly, in order to reflect her current length."
Seventeen – Sarah Michelle Gellar
This one is less blatant but it still caused a stir for both parties. Sarah Michelle Gellar granted an interview but not a photo shoot, so following standard practice for the industry, the magazine purchased a retouched photo of her from a syndication house.
They changed the shirt color from black to purple and somehow made her left arm look weird and elongated. Gellar stated that she looked like a paper cut-out.
GQ – Kate Winslet
GQ's issue with Kate Winslet on the cover showed a Kate with very slim legs. Kate has been known to have publicly railed against Hollywood's obsession with skinniness and weight. Winslet said, "I was pretty proud of how my legs actually looked in the real picture, I have Polaroids from the shoot and I thought I looked fine."
The actress is not outraged, but says she spoke out because "it just was important to me to let people know that digital retouching happens all the time. It's probably happened to just about every other well-known actress on the face of the planet."
Newsweek – Martha Stewart
Newsweek's March 14 cover showed a photo of Martha Stewart coming out from behind a curtain. Stewart was due to be released from prison just a few days later.
The face was Martha's, but the body was an unnamed model. Inside the magazine Newsweek told its readers that the cover was a "photo illustration", also known as a "fake photo". A news release on the organization's web site calls the cover a "major ethical breach."If you didn't get your bottle of Big Mac Special Sauce that went on sale for one day only on Thursday, you're in luck - sort of.
Head to eBay and you can get one of the bottles for yourself. But depending on where you look, it might cost you. Prices range anywhere from a slightly unsettling $31 to an outrageous $100,000 to "Buy It Now". Another seller is offering the beloved secret ingredient for $2,000 - but with free shipping.
The seller of the $100,000 bottle of sauce calls it the "holly grail" of sandwich toppings. The person assures that if his bids reach the $100,000 goal, he'll donate $10,000 to a specific charity.
The special sale was a Thursday-only event at select McDonald's restaurants around the U.S. Only 10,000 bottles were released to the public as they also introduced two new Big Mac sizes.
Whether the sauce will make a reappearance in the future is yet to be seen. But the move by McDonalds comes on the heels of news that only one in five millennial have tried a Big Mac.
So as McDonald's looks to increase interest in their flagship burger, these eBay sellers are hoping to cash in. As for whether that will actually happen at those prices remains to be seen.
Most of the highest prices aren't getting many bites - if any at all. But at least one bottle is currently pushing $90 with 36 bids already in. Another has crossed $100 with just 2 bids.
That said, there are other - less expensive - ways to get your hands on something like the "Special Sauce". Videos are already available online that show how to make a version of the topping.Max Sick (28 June 1882–10 May 1961) was a German strongman and gymnast who performed as 'Maxick'. With Monte Saldo he developed the Maxalding system of bodybuilding through muscle control.
Early life [ edit ]
Born in Bregenz in Austria in 1882 to Swiss parents, Sick's father died at the age of 24, and his mother then married a Bavarian, Herr Sick; later Max Sick became a naturalized German citizen.[1] Between the ages of 2 and 5 Max Sick was unusually weak, suffering with lung problems, rickets and dropsy. His illnesses affected him so severely that he only learned to walk at the age of 6. Aged 10 he made his own weights and created his own regime of physical exercise and fitness. However, his parents opposed his weightlifting and destroyed his homemade weights.
Determined to develop his body despite this setback, Sick began a series of muscle control exercises. In 1896, at the age of 14 he had made such strides in his physical development that he was invited to join the local athletics club. For a while he served in the army.[1] Sick trained as a mechanic at a local engineering works but at the age of 23 he left that employment and decided on a career that could better use his physical attributes, moving to Munich where he joined a gymnasium and where he quickly found work as an artist's model. He was just under 163 cm (5′4″) tall and weighed around 67 kg (147 lb).[2]
Strongman [ edit ]
Maxick c.1910
Sick began to appear in German music halls, and as part of his stage routine he would make his various groups of muscles twitch in time to music. He would also take a man 20 kg (40 lb) heavier than himself and lift him in the air sixteen times with one hand, while holding a mug of beer in the other hand without spilling it. His tremendous physique made him a very popular performer.[1]
After Tromp Van Diggelen, the South African physical culturalist and founder of the British Amateur Weightlifter's Association (BAWLA), saw Sick's stage act he went to London where he persuaded Eugen Sandow to invite Sick to appear in England. Accordingly, on October 26, 1909 Sick arrived in London where he quickly became a serious contender for the world professional middleweight weighlifting title. However, Thomas Inch, the then middleweight champion, was quickly putting on weight and did not think he would meet the middleweight limit by the time of the match.[1] By early 1910 Inch had been recategorized as a heavyweight and so relinquished his middleweight title to Edward Aston, and a competition was quickly arranged between Aston and Sick. Maxick, as he was now known, made his British lifting debut on 19 January 1910, displaying a much-admired double bodyweight continental clean and jerk.[3]
The match against Edward Aston took place at the Granville Music Hall in Fulham on 4 August 1910, the stake being £100 and a silver trophy. During the competition Maxick strained his shoulder in attempting 212 1/2 and 207 3/4 lbs. in the one hand clean and jerk. However, despite this injury he carried on with the match and managed a two hands clean with 264 lbs. but failed to hold the jerk and had to withdraw from the competition. A rematch held at the Holborn Empire on the afternoon of 14 December 1910 was indecisive as the competition had to be abandoned to allow an evening theatrical performance to take place on the stage.[3]
Although Maxick stated that he had developed his very incredible physique and strength using only muscle control, he was in fact also an expert weightlifter, suggesting that he also trained with weights; he was capable of a continental and jerk with double body weight. In addition he was an accomplished gymnast and hand balancer. Maxick later became business partners with strongmen Monte Saldo and William Bankier. He wrote many books on muscle control and the muscle control courses he developed with Monte Saldo were still being sold into the 1970s under the name of Maxalding.[2] In 1913 he visited Tromp van Diggelen in South Africa where he gave demonstrations of his skills.
On the outbreak of World War I Maxick was voluntarily interned in England as an enemy alien. He did not want to return to his native land and enlist as he refused to serve under "Prussian bullies". On being released at the end of the war he travelled the world, eventually returning to his homeland only to leave again when the Nazis came to power in 1933. He then left to explore Central and South America, finally settling in Buenos Aires.
Final years [ edit ]
Maxick died aged nearly 80 in Buenos Aires in 1961, where he ran a gym and health studio. On the day he died he had been wrist wrestling with a friend and then rode his bicycle home. He was later found dead lying apparently relaxed on his back, arms outstretched and a carefully folded farewell note under his right heel, on which he had written, “My heart is beating rather slow, I feel extremely cold, I think it will be over soon. Remember the infinite is our freedom manifested through our consciousness”.[2][3]
Publications [ edit ]
Muscle Control Athletic Publications Ltd, London (1910)A Delaware parent has started an online petition protesting the ads featuring a young white model: "How come the new black Annie isn't good enough?"
A Delaware mom is taking issue with Target's new ads for its Annie-inspired clothing line.
According to Yahoo! Parenting, L'Sean Rinique Shelton was faced with some difficult questions after her 8-year-old biracial daughter saw an ad featuring a young white model wearing Annie's signature red dress. "She saw the ad and said to me, 'That's not what Annie looks like. How come the new black Annie isn't good enough? Does that mean I'm not good enough?'" Shelton told Yahoo! Parenting.
Although Shelton was able to quell her daughter's uncertainties, she began to question Target's seemingly singular portrayal of Annie and decided to write a petition Dec. 29 demanding a removal of the in-store ads and an apology to the film's star, Quvenzhane Wallis.
"In the current stench of racism and division amongst Americans, why would Target single-handedly disrespect Quvenzhane Wallis and add more pain to injury as it relates to race relations?" she began. "Your recent Annie ads and in-store displays depicts a misleading depiction of the movie as it shows a Caucasion [sic] young lady opposed to the star of the film — Quvenzhane Wallis. Though the model is quite professional, she does not speak to the relevance of the movie or main character. When the original Annie came out, everything was about Aileen Quinn or a character/person that emulated her... why not now Target? If you can show it online, show it in ALL of your stores with multiple signage with different girls not one!"
In its online look book, which was published in October, there are girls of varying ethnicity modeling the Annie-inspired designs, but according to Shelton and fellow petitioners, the in-store ads didn't feature any African-American models even though the star of the new film is African-American herself.
On Tuesday, Target issued the following response: "At Target, we appreciate the opportunity to hear from our guests. We're proud of our Annie for Target collection, which was inspired by the recently released remake of the family classic and designed by the film's costume designer...With regard to the marketing of the collection, girls from a variety of backgrounds were featured within the campaign, reflecting that anyone can embody the spirit and character of Annie.
"As for the involvement of Quvenzhane Wallis, we had conversations with her team about being in the campaign, but ultimately it did not come to fruition. Fortunately, we had the pleasure of working with Ms. Wallis a number of times, including appearances at Target's sales meeting in September and a launch event in New York City in November. We had a great experience working with Ms. Wallis and appreciate her efforts in promoting this collection."
Shelton's petition has gathered more than 7,000 signatures on Change.org so far.If China were a U.S. congressman, it would be Tweeting threatening pictures of its biceps to its rivals.
Beijing recently warned Vietnam and the Philippines not to explore for oil in disputed waters that China claims, and late last month Chinese naval patrol craft allegedly cut the surveying cable of a Vietnamese seismic research boat. Manila's recent grievances against China are similarly severe. The Philippine government claims that China has harassed its exploration vessels, illegally unloaded supplies to build an oil rig in disputed waters and sent fighter jets into its airspace.
Apparently, half a year or so of good behavior in Asian waters is too much of a burden for China's leaders. After various provocations in the East and South China Seas culminated in a very public criticism by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Regional Forum last year, Beijing tamped down its behavior and tried to return to the smile diplomacy that had won it so much ground in recent years. Now such patience has worn thin, and China is back to threatening its neighbors.
While Beijing claims that Hanoi and Manila broke agreements on joint exploration, the world should be worried that China feels no qualms about using its growing military power to resolve disputes to its satisfaction. As its national power and military capabilities increase, it seems less willing to concede any of its expansive maritime claims.
Beijing has been testing Washington's resolve for the past decade, just announcing live-fire exercises to be held somewhere in the western Pacific, undoubtedly close to U.S. and Japanese installations. As a direct result of Beijing's recent actions, Hanoi has announced its own live-fire naval drills off its central coast. To provoke such behavior is to contribute to growing instability, no matter how limited such actions may seem.
Asian nations and the United States have yet to figure out how to respond to China's assertiveness against peaceful neighbors. Getting the response right is important for at least three reasons.
First and most importantly, China is, whether by design or not, creating the conditions under which its neighbors feel no choice but to conform to its demands regardless of their own national interests. If such behavior becomes the norm, then China will have significantly, perhaps fundamentally, changed the nature of Asian regional politics.
This will provide it with unlimited leeway to make other demands, some of which may seem fanciful now, such as vetoing maritime development plans or interfering with freedom of navigation. Once such a tipping point is reached, it will be difficult if not impossible to easily return to more cooperative multilateral patterns of behavior.
Second, the more that China gets away with intimidating or interfering with its neighbors, the more other disruptive regimes, such as North Korea's, will be emboldened to do the same. The result is to increase the slow destabilization of the region and to make it much harder for liberal nations to agree to play by international rules. This will further put pressure on the U.S. to maintain its role as a credible defender of stability at a time when its own resources are becoming more stretched.
Finally, as Vietnam's response to China's bullying shows, smaller nations may not always take such intimidation lying down. The potential of saber-rattling and even clashes will increase, as U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates warned this month at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.
China's actions already |
he was shocked to see a pigeon with a paper hat glued on its head and a large bell on its neck near his home this week.
Gary McDougall says he spotted the pigeon on his neighbour’s roof on Saturday morning and took some photos of the lone bird before it flew off.
"It’s cruelty to animals regardless of what kind of joke people think it is," McDougall said Thursday.
McDougall, a video production worker, says the bird was missing its tail feathers and appeared to have been painted red. But it still appeared to be capable of flying.
The pigeon had a piece of paper glued to its head and a large bell that could’ve also been glued, he said.
McDougall says he first saw the bird about 10 days ago with the paper stuck to its head but he thought it was a tea bag or some other piece of garbage until he saw it later with the bell on its neck.
"It could very well be like having a bowling ball around your neck and having to maneuver. It makes it pretty difficult," McDougall said.
The SPCA is investigating.Hanover Park, South Africa - Abduraghmaan "Abi" Ruiters pulls up his sleeves to reveal scars from gunshot wounds alongside his tattoos. These are the markings of more than a decade spent with the Backstreets Kids gang in the troubled Cape Town community of Hanover Park.
"I was shot two times in this arm, and two times in my leg," Abi told Al Jazeera.
At the base of his neck is a scar from a stabbing. "I was almost - you see," he said, letting a rueful laugh punctuate a story that could have easily ended with "killed".
That was a decade ago. Today, Abi and another former Backstreets Kids member - Khiyaam Frey, a convicted murderer - work as councillors for Hanover Park's Ceasefire programme. Ceasefire employs a team of 10 ex-gangsters as part of a violence-prevention model that works to stop its spread in communities by detecting and interrupting conflict, identifying and treating high-risk individuals, and changing social norms.
Abi and Frey are also Muslim and their faith was instrumental in helping them exit gang life, they said.
"Things changed when I got out of prison [after serving nine years for murder]," said Frey. "My friends were shot dead. I lost a lot of friends. I decided to change my life religion-wise."
Doing time
Though he served time in prison as well, Abi's turning point only came when he met and married his wife - a follower of Islam. Becoming a Muslim gave him "a belief system" that he could look to as he made his way out of gang life.
Both now employ Islam in the work they do to prevent gang violence. As Ceasefire councillors, they are trained extensively in violence mediation. But each also rely on other means when preaching Ceasefire's doctrine of non-violence, often drawing on their personal experiences as gang members or applying their faith to relate to youth involved in gangsterism.
In Hanover Park, roughly half the population is Muslim and half is Christian.
"It was conscious that we could also recruit an interrupter that could also speak to the Muslim community … and is credible with the high-risk Muslims that's already in the gangs," explained Pastor Craven Engel, founder of First Community Resource Centre, out of which Ceasefire operates.
According to Abi, "To the Christian people... I only talk what I learned from the Ceasefire manual."
But when working with gang members that share his faith, "I give [them] the Ceasefire manual, then afterwards I come with my religion … because they understand man."
Marginalised to radicalised
Hanover Park is situated about a 20-minute drive outside of Cape Town's picturesque city centre, in a patchwork of impoverished and neglected communities known as the Cape Flats. In many such communities, gangs and violence are a part of everyday life.
A recent survey of Hanover Park adolescents aged 12-15 years found that 93.1 percent had been exposed to more than one type of violence.
Youth in communities such as Hanover Park are often pushed onto the streets because of problems at home, and into gangs for protection or for respect, in circumstances that are lacking sufficient opportunities for jobs or empowerment.
As a result of these conditions, City of Cape Town authorities estimate there are between 100 to 120 gangs in Western Cape Province, with membership ranging from 80,000 to 100,000.
Abi linked radicalisation among international religious movements and recruitment into gangs in the Cape Flats.
"You know why the people are [radicalised], it's because they are oppressed and poor." With gangs, "it's more like the same thing… There's nothing going good in the house and no jobs, it drives him to the corner."
From there, youngsters as young as 10 are deliberately targeted for recruitment and manipulated into joining a gang with money, clothes, and drugs.
A menace no more
In addition to heading off gang disputes, the Ceasefire programme also helps young men and women quit gang life.
Tathir Kelly is a 31-year-old Muslim currently in a six-week rehabilitation programme. Looking back on his life, Kelly admitted, "I was a menace."
A former member of the Terrible Westsiders, Kelly was in prison for four years, awaiting trial for 14 attempted murders, all of which were eventually thrown out.
But even as a self-proclaimed menace, Kelly described how Islam provided a positive influence on his life. On holy days, he said, "[Islam] was my heart. If I had a gun and I see my enemy, I would not shoot him. I would let him go, because if I shoot him in that time, it's a bad sin."
Now, Kelly said, "There are no more thoughts for me to be a gangster … I won't take up a gun any more."
Kelly's six-week programme will be over soon. "I'll finish on the first day of Ramadan… After [my] fast, I am a changed person. I can put my life on it."
Dropping out
Yet, leaving gang life is extraordinarily difficult. In a context where gang membership is defined by a motto of "blood in, and blood out", piety provides one of the few means of exiting gangs, other than prison or death.
"In a gang culture, you can't just drop out without a valid reason - like religion," Frey said. "And so my religion was a foundation for me. And that is how I did go out of the gang."
Religion is also one of few social resources available in a community where opportunities for empowerment and employment are scarce. In this context, Islam provides not only a belief system but also a community and identity outside of gang life.
Ceasefire's statistics further suggest the potential of religion - and specifically Islam - to interrupt violence.
As described by Pastor Engel, "Friday is a religious day for Muslim people. But Thursday is perceived as a religious calm-down. So they are in preparation for this day. So these two days, there is practically no shooting."
The same is not true of Saturdays and Sundays, however.
So, it is by harnessing the power of their faith, Ceasefire training, and personal determination that Abi and Frey work to reduce gang violence in Hanover Park. In doing so, they hope to inspire change in their community by helping young men such as Kelly turn their lives around.
"Because we did see in ourselves man, we did change," said Abi.
Muslim faith can play a fundamental role in such a transformation, Frey added.
"[Islam] is a great example for the community … if you do it in the right way and believe that things can change. It's just that you must believe - with a clean heart, a clean mind - that things can change."
Follow Dariusz Dziewanski on Twitter: @ddziewanThe following terms were listed and defined in the 1989 Alyson Almanac‘s “Dictionary of Slang and Historical Terms.” Most of the terms in the dictionary referenced gay male activities, but there were plenty of special lesbian words I’d never heard before in my whole life and so many words for VAGINA.
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from “A DICTIONARY OF SLANG AND HISTORICAL TERMS”
terms and definitions remain intact
1. BAMBI-SEXUALITY: Physical interaction centered more about touching, kissing, and caressing than around genital sexuality. Not to be confused with bestiality, a very different concept.
2. MAKE SCISSORS OF SOMEONE: To masturbate a woman by simultaneously rubbing her clitoris with the thumb and her anus with the forefinger.
3. KIKI: 1940s slang for a lesbian comfortable with either a passive or aggressive partner.
4. DESPERATION NUMBER: A sex partner found just before closing time at the bar.
5. BUMPER-TO-BUMPER: Vagina-to-vagina. Generally used in reference to two lesbians engaging in sex, or dancing, etc. Occasionally used in referring to gay men or heterosexual couples.
6. FUNCH: A quick sexual encounter performed at lunchtime.
7. JOHNSON BAR: A dildo.
8. JANEY: Vagina.
9. KISSING FISH: Lesbians.
10. DADDLE: To engage in lesbian sex, in a face-to-face position.
11. GILLETTE BLADE: A bisexual woman.
12. LUKE: The coital fluid in a woman.
13. MISSIONARY WORK: An attempt by a gay man or lesbian to seduce a straight person of the same sex.
14. HOLD A BOWLING BALL: To sexually stimulate another woman by rubbing the thumb and forefinger, simultaneously, on her clitoris and anus.
15. CANTONESE GROIN: A dildo. The term appears in a medieval novel, describing a plant used in China for this purpose.
16. DISHONORABLE DISCHARGE: To masturbate at home after unsuccessfully going out in search of a sex partner.
17. MOLLY DYKE: The more passive woman in a lesbian relationship or liaison.
18. SLACKS: A lesbian. The term is now considered obsolete.
19. TIT KING: A lesbian attracted to women with large breasts.
20. MUFFER: A woman who muffs / muff-dives.According to Transparency International, the most active company in the field of promoting interests abroad is Gazprom.
The Russian branch of the international organization Transparency International talked about the multimillion expenses of Russian companies which are trying to circumvent the sanctions. According to Transparency, the structures spend millions of euros to pay for the services of Western lobbyists. This is written by RBC.
Lobbyists are as individuals, and entire companies. However, only some of the "representatives of interests" are officially described. The information on them is placed in the special registers of the EU.
According to Transparency International, the most active company in the field of promoting interests abroad is Gazprom. According to human rights activists, the state corporation spends at least 900 thousand euro per year for these purposes. In Austria, the interests of the structure are represented by the oil and gas company OMV, which is a participant of the Nord Stream project. For cooperation with OMV Gazprom spends about 100 thousand euros per year. However, according to Transparency, this amount is not specific - it represents the maximum threshold for such expenses.
Representatives of Gazprom refused to comment on this information.Wealthy people, currently exploiting current economic circumstances, are scared witless by the prospect that nations will start distributing wealth differently through forms of Universal Basic Income, at the expense of those currently exploiting it. So, wealthy people will fight back by commissioning people/’experts’ to convince the public that UBIs are a bad idea and bad for the public, completely at odds with the evidence that exists or common sense.
Trickle-down economics does not work. It does not distribute wealth fairly or effectively. The only people arguing for trickle-down now are the people at or towards the top of the pyramid, who also happen to be the people benefiting from policies that encourage trickle-down. It does not serve an economy to funnel wealth into the hands and offshore tax avoiding bank accounts of the few. It starves an economy and the leaks, patched up by printing new money, devalue the economy to a point, eventually, that leaves the economy and the nation bankrupt.
Economies work best when they recycle their money, not rely on printing new money to replace the money that disappears. The best way to recycle money is by ensuring that you have a high wage, well pensioned, population. As pension funds are the work horses of investment capital, strong pensions act as the lungs for an economy to expand. Permitting the theft of pension funds by opportunists is the equivalent of placing a noose around an economy’s neck.
A government that permits tax avoidance and pension stripping, while encouraging a low wage, low pensioned population is sacrificing the wealth of that nation at the expense of enriching a small group of people, likely including themselves. Any nation should aspire to high wages and correct pension provision and should guard pension funds as eagerly as it should guard the physical environment. As work is evolving, governments should also aspire to an adoption of a form of Universal Basic Income for its population as a foundation of the economy. No nation should aspire or judge itself against the number of billionaires it creates, except to view them as a sign of their economic policies failing.
Like this: Like Loading...Joe Dresnok could be the ultimate runaway. Growing up an orphan in Virginia, he kept running away from abusive foster homes. Then, as a soldier serving on the DMZ between North and South Korea, Dresnok did the unthinkable: in 1962, he ran through a minefield and defected into North Korea, where his unthinkable act led to an unimaginable life.
As Bob Simon reports, Dresnok has had for 44 years a mysterious isolated existence in that mysterious isolated country. No one outside North Korea has heard from Dresnok – until now.
Dresnok told his story to two British filmmakers, Dan Gordon and Nick Bonner, who have made a documentary called, "Crossing The Line." They had already made two documentaries in North Korea—one on that country's soccer team; and another on star gymnasts training for North Korea's annual spectacle called the Mass Games.
Gordon and Bonner earned the government's trust, so much so that after six years of trying they finally met Joe Dresnok.
"This is a man who disappeared off the face of the known world in 1962. And I went into this room, very sort of dark brick room. This sort of tall man in a black uniform came in. And he sat down, said, 'Hello Boy. I gather you wanna, gather you wanna talk about making a film about me.' And it would have been less surprising to have met Elvis Presley," Bonner recalls. "And yet here was this man in front of me, sat there, Joe Dresnok, who no one has seen since 1962."
Back in 1962, JFK was president and Dresnok was depressed and desperate. His wife had just divorced him, and then after leaving his base without permission for a night of womanizing, he was about to be court-martialed.
"I was fed up with my childhood, my marriage my military life, everything. I was finished. There's only one place to go," Dresnok told the filmmakers. "On August 15th, at noon in broad daylight when everybody was eating lunch, I hit the road. Yes I was afraid. Am I gonna live or die? And when I stepped into the minefield and I seen it with my own eyes, I started sweating. I crossed over, looking for my new life."
North Korean soldiers surrounded him, as portrayed in the documentary, and some wanted to kill him. Instead, Dresnok was taken by train to the capital, Pyongyang, for interrogation. He was used to running away but he had never run to a place like this before.
Much of North Korea was in ruins a decade after the war. Kim Il Sung, known as "The Great Leader," was Asia's version of Joseph Stalin. One morning, Dresnok woke up to discover that North Korea already had an American defector.
"I opened my eyes. I didn't believe myself. I shut them again. I must be dreaming. I opened them again and looked and, 'Who in the hell are you?' He says, 'I'm Abshier.' 'Abshier? I don't know no Abshier,'" Dresnok remembers.
Larry Abshier was another American soldier who had defected three months before Dresnok. Two more GIs would follow over the next two years, Jerry Parish and then Sgt. Charles Jenkins.
They were a propaganda bonanza for the north, which put them on magazine covers, looking pleased and prosperous in paradise. They broadcast their happiness in the north through loudspeakers to American troops at the border.
All were high school dropouts, who had thought more about what they were running from, than where they were going. Misfits in the Army, they were outcasts in North Korea.
"Different customs. A different ideology," Dresnok explains. "The uneasiness of the way people look at me when I walk down the street. 'Oh, there goes that American bastard.' I didn't want to stay, I didn't think I could adapt."
Four years after Dresnok defected, he and the other Americans had had enough. They sought asylum in the Soviet embassy but the Soviets handed them right back to the North Koreans.
"I think all four of them thought they'd be shot. And what's remarkable to me is that they weren't. The authorities painstakingly decided that we will convert them almost. That, you know they will come to our system," Dan Gordon says.
The filmmaker says that conversion process worked. Running away was no longer an option. So, since he couldn't get out, Dresnok vowed to fit in.
"They might be a different race. They might be a different color. But God damn it I'm gonna sit down and I'm gonna learn their way of life. I did everything I could. Learning the language. Learning the customs. Learning their greetings. Their life. Oh, I gotta think like this, I gotta act like this. I've studied their revolutionary history, their lofty virtues about the Great Leader," Dresnok recalled. "Little by little, I came to understand the Korean people.
And "the Korean people" finally accepted the Americans when they started starring in propaganda films that were big hits in the north.Just as Donald Trump is experiencing an unexpected backlash from his conservative base of supporters for his withering attacks on his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, comes his tweetstorm in which he says he will mercilessly ban transgender people ― who’ve been serving openly in the military since President Obama lifted the ban on open service last year ― from serving any longer.
Twitter
This brutal, authoritarian act against an embattled minority, men and women who are serving their country dutifully and honorably, coming at this particular moment, is not a coincidence. It reveals how Trump will throw the most vulnerable people under the bus when he feels cornered and threatened ― and make no mistake, he is feeling very threatened right now.
Trump has been pummeling Sessions ― not for the job he’s doing as attorney general in carrying out horrific policies on issues such as immigration and civil rights, but for having recused himself in the Russian collusion investigation early on. His rantings have shown that Trump is clearly very worried about what the special counsel, Robert Mueller, has found or will find. He’s infuriated that Sessions isn’t “protecting” him, and blames that rather than his own firing of FBI director James Comey as the reason why the special counsel was appointed.
Some have speculated Trump wants to replace Sessions with someone who will fire Mueller. But the attacks on Sessions, a stalwart of the conservative movement and white nationalists, have gotten the right-wing media, from Breitbart to Rush Limbaugh, up in arms, and have brought out Sessions’ defenders on Capitol Hill.
And yet, Trump hasn’t stopped attacking Sessions ― going after him again just this morning ― because he can’t. Clearly, even if it means harming himself with the base, Trump has to try to force Sessions to resign because whatever Mueller may have will create a worse fate than losing a portion of his base.
So, to give the base something to chew on, he decided to throw them transgender people. It’s an issue that has been percolating for months, driven by Vice President Mike Pence. Trump appears to be lying when he says that “after consultation with my Generals and military experts” he decided to ban transgender people from service. In fact, just two weeks ago, under the radar, Defense Secretary James Mattis lobbied against an amendment to the defense spending bill, driven by anti-LGBTQ conservatives, that would have ended medical care for transgender people in the military who are transitioning.
As I reported, Pence, according to advocates, was lobbying House members to pass the amendment. But Mattis was successful, along with LGBT advocates, in getting 24 vulnerable Republicans to join all Democrats in voting down the amendment. Both Pence and House Speaker Paul Ryan expected the amendment to pass, and it was an embarrassing defeat. It is true that Mattis had put off for six months a plan to allow new transgender recruits. But this was because two of the service chiefs had asked for more time to prepare; advocates had expected Mattis to follow through.
But Pence didn’t give up. Just this morning, before Trump’s announcement via tweets, Foreign Policy, citing several sources, reported that Pence was behind several new amendments introduced by anti-LGBTQ conservatives in the House to deny transgender people necessary medical treatment.
Vice President Mike Pence and his staff have been working quietly to get Congress to roll back the Defense Department’s year-old policy covering medical procedures for transitioning service members, according to sources. In a flurry of last-minute activity, House Republicans have submitted three separate but identical amendments to the 2018 defense spending bill this week that would prohibit the Pentagon from using government money to “provide medical treatment related to gender transition.”
Conservative groups such as Family Research Council and Heritage Action have been working furiously on the issue, and were not happy when the previous amendment failed. At a time when Trump is experiencing a backlash from conservatives who support Sessions ― also a virulent opponent of LGBTQ rights ― moving to simply undo the Pentagon’s directive under Obama allowing open transgender service seems awfully convenient.
It also saved Pence from having to lobby once again for an anti-trans amendment, pitted against Mattis, and restored Pence’s influence after the defeat two weeks ago. And it gave Trump something to throw to the base as he continues his attacks on Sessions, something he obviously believes he must do even if it angers some or many of his supporters.Multiple recent reports exposed conventional foods manufactured in China as fake and even toxic: scams involving rice that contains plastic, fake eggs made from chemicals and many food items containing high levels of arsenic.
Now that country-of-origin labeling has been removed by Congress (for meat anyway), and companies are struggling to find new sources of food to meet the growing demand for organics in the United States, it’s becoming more likely that your organic food could come from China or other countries rather than U.S. farmers.
According to a 2017 report from Food Safety News, up to 80 percent of organic food eaten in America is imported, with Turkey and China the two rising sources for organic food during the Obama administration, which increased spending for the USDA’s National Organic Program but also greatly supported the GMO food industry at the same time, and oversaw a decline in certified organic standards.
Growth of organic farming in the U.S. did not keep up with demand, hence the need to import more crops from overseas sources like China. Considering the country’s overall level of pollution and shocking lack of standards compared with the U.S., that could be a serious problem. Here are six reasons why:
1.Organic Products from China Can Contain an Unlimited Amount of Heavy Metals
While certified organic does mean that the producer cannot add pesticides, herbicides, heavy metals and other toxins when growing the produce, there are no rules about the outside environmental factors such as pollution.
A farmer in China can use water with mercury or chemicals on the crops and keep the organic label. Since many parts of China have been experiencing extreme pollution (to the point that some have been buying canned air out of desperation), a lot of its water is heavily polluted. But the lack of traceability in comparison to U.S. organic farms means you’ll have a hard time finding out any more information on how it was grown.
2. China Has Almost No Environmental Regulations
China is on a verge of a complete environmental disaster. Lack of regulation has caused the country to experience record air pollution in Beijing, and studies have shown that at least 40% of rivers are polluted, as well as 90% of groundwater, reported The Guardian. According to another report in the paper, about 1/5 of the country’s farmland is polluted.
The water is so polluted that a few years ago, an eyeglass-retailer executive dared a local environmental protection chief Bao Zhenming to swim in a river for 20 minutes for more than £20,000. Bao has declined.
This is the same water that may be used to water the “organic” crops.
While there are companies that are honest and wise when it comes to growing organic produce, it is nearly impossible to know who to trust.
3. Agencies and Government Departments in China are Not Operating Properly
Guangzhou Daily reported that when one consumer wanted to inform someone about fake organic produce, they were bounced between four government departments before finding out that none of them had the authority to deal with this problem, according to The Epoch Times, an independent source of news from China.
At the same time the USDA is trying to keep track of all the shipments coming from China (though the agency has fraud allegations of its own), but they have reported that several shipments of organic beans and berries were full of unsafe pesticides. Whichever agency on the Chinese side approved the shipment was not following regulations.
Reports have also stated that numerous Chinese food growers simply buy organic certification paperwork illegally and then grow foods in a non-organic way.
4. Supplements and Herbs from China Are Often Contaminated with Lead
Because many herbs have detoxifying properties, they absorb heavy metals easily. It has been tested, for example, that chlorella from China was most contaminated with aluminum, and also contained arsenic, cadmium and lead.
Although not organic, many conventional green tea companies have illegally used banned chemicals, as reported by Greenpeace. Can it happen to organic tea? – It might, because organic certification in China cannot be trusted.
5. Corruption: Suppliers Have Forged Organic Certification Labels and Other Documents
Rumors about companies in China forging documents have been around for years. And in 2011 USDA released evidence of a fraudulent organic certificate made by a non-certified company. The firm used this fake certification to pass non-organic soy, millet and buckwheat as organic, according to the Cornucopia, the nation’s farming watchdog.
“Not many people, including myself, believe the organic label. I think maybe 30 percent of farms that put the organic label on their food produce the real thing,” said Tony Guo, sales director of City Shop, the Shanghai grocery chain.
6. Organic Products in China are Often Certified by Third-Party Agencies
The agency in charge of certifying organics in China is The Chinese Organic Certification Center (COFCC). However it has been reported that they only inspect 30% of products, the rest are inspected by private third-party firms.
Though organic products imported to the US are supposed to be certified by a USDA certifier, there are not enough certifiers to meet the need, and the USDA relies on hiring third party certifiers in China. On at least one occasion the certifier from China provided the paperwork but did not physically confirm that the organic food complied with the organic regulations.
Until better regulations are enforced in China, and the country resolves its pollution problem, it might be wise to avoid food from China altogether, even if it has the “organic” stamp on it. Because even if it was not forged, it might not mean a whole lot considering the country’s dire environmental situation.
Chinese “Organics” at Whole Foods?
According to a 2008 investigation by a news station in Washington, D.C., Whole Foods in particular has sold a large amount of organic products from China. The company’s organic “California Blend” even came from the country, before this investigation came out and forced Whole Foods to change.
report this adWhole Foods said in 2010 that it stopped sourcing frozen veggies from China in its own line of products, except for edamame.
Learn more in the video player below:
Recommended reading:
Top 10 Toxic Fake Food Items Produced In China
Chinese Companies Are Mass Producing Plastic Rice (and It Could Cause Serious Health Problems)
“Public Health is At Risk:” The Sobering Truth About Imported Chicken From China You’re Not Being Told
Thanks for reading! If you’re looking for tips on how to spot organic food from China you can also check out this article.
A Message From the Founder Have you figured out what not to eat, but still have no idea what you actually should eat in order to truly THRIVE in this lifetime? Millions of people are seeing results on diets like Keto, Paleo, and Raw Vegan, but give up when the going gets tough because these diets are clearly not the easiest to follow long-term. Enter 'The THRIVERS DIET,' a simple, practical and most importantly sustainable diet and lifestyle guide from my good friend Derek Henry of the website Healing the Body. Derek overcame 13 different chronic disease conditions using the simple, concise plan found in this guide, and now he's offering it exclusively to AltHealthWorks readers. Order the guide today and you'll get access to all of Derek's secrets distilled into one easy-to-follow eBook, plus 70 free recipes, printable PDFs and much more. Grab Your Copy Now at a our special discounted rate before the price goes back up!
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commentsThis week, we officially celebrated the Grand Reopening of Disney California Adventure park. And if you couldn’t make it out, the Disney Parks Blog was the place to turn. We kicked things off with live coverage from the Cars Land red carpet and opening celebration, and then shared images and video from the park’s Grand Reopening ceremony. Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Chairman Tom Staggs also gave us a look at how it all happened, including a special video of the five-year journey
Also, don’t miss our gallery of additional images from the Cars Land red carpet and opening celebration.
And at the Walt Disney World Resort, we continued our exclusive series “All in the Details” this week with a glimpse inside Maurice’s Cottage, which is the room that welcomes guests to the Enchanted Tales With Belle meet-and-greet experience. Jennifer Fickley-Baker has photos and the most updated information concerning openings at New Fantasyland at Magic Kingdom Park in her original post.
Here’s a list of other stories we worked on this week:
The Second Chance to Get Your Tinker Bell Wings at Disneyland Resort Begins at Noon Today – Darrell Fry revisits last year’s Inaugural Tinker Bell Half Marathon Weekend and also shares that the 2013 race is now open for registration.
From ‘Cars’ to Cars Land at Disney California Adventure Park – Watch how Imagineers brought Radiator Springs into reality from ‘Cars.’
Vintage Walt Disney World: A Salute to Flag Day – This week, we celebrated Flag Day as Nate took us back to the Corridor of Flags at American Adventure Pavilion at Epcot.
‘My Yard Goes Disney’: An Escape to Castaway Cay – This week on ‘My Yard Goes Disney,’ the We family’s yard was transformed into their very own Castaway Cay.
Victoria & Albert’s Receives Coveted AAA Five-Diamond Award for 13th Consecutive Year – Victoria & Albert’s Chef Scott Hunnel, Master Pastry Chef Erich Herbitschek, Maître d’Hôtel Israel Perez wow guests every night and it has earned them their 13th AAA Five-Diamond Award!
Favorite Veggie Burger from Landscape of Flavors at Disney’s Art of Animation Resort – It doesn’t hurt to go vegetarian at Disney’s Art of Animation Resort. Pam even shared a recipe for their Vegetable Burger with Fried Green Tomatoes and Creole Remoulade!Army Spec Joey Vicente, center (Facebook.com)
Among the many barbs and accusations being flung at Caitlyn Jenner in the wake of her winning an Arthur Ashe Award is that military personnel are more deserving of awards for courage and valor than the former Olympian.
Buzzfeed reported on a response to those criticisms by U.S. Army behavioral health specialist Joey Vicente, posted a moving message to his Facebook wall in support of Jenner.
Vicente wrote:
Your negative opinions on Caitlyn Jenner and her deservedness of an award that you didn’t even know about until a few days ago are irrelevant. Your definition of what or who a hero can or cannot be is irrelevant. 40% of the transgender community have attempted suicide. What if I told you that her speech last night saved even one human being from attempting to take their life. I’d call that a victory on any scale. I’d call that (gasp)… heroic?
You don’t like that a female who used to identify as male got an award at a ceremony run by ESPN? Here’s a hint: get over yourself. You are on the wrong side of history. Like many bigots of the civil rights era, you will one day have to answer for your hate, whether it is to your God, a loved one, or your few hundred Facebook friends that you think give the slightest bit of a shit about what kind of sandwich you ate or what kind of workout you got in today. You want to voice your opinion? Please, I beg that you do. But in using terms like “freak” or “faggot” you paint a much more vivid picture of yourself than you ever could of Caitlyn Jenner, a human being just now finally finding her comfort zone.
Vicente told BuzzFeed News that he posted the message because he wanted people to be more considerate about what they post to social media.
“Bigotry in any form is unacceptable and I guess I was just fed up with seeing people’s offensive remarks about a person they know nothing about,” he said.We probably can't blame the earthquake that hit California's Napa Valley this weekend on climate change. But it's one more thing that the beleaguered residents of the so-called "Golden State" have to deal with. And while we can't do much to address the fact that the state sits on geographical fault lines, other issues have a human element.
With its spate of natural disasters, some spurred by human action, California isn't looking like such a "Golden State."
The magnitude 6.0 earthquake, which occurred early Sunday morning, is the largest to hit the state since 1989's Loma Prieta quake. It injured several hundred people.
The earthquake is understandably dominating the headlines coming out of California, while the fallout from the state's record drought is being reported almost daily.
In East Porterville in the rural San Joaquin, several hundred homes have no tap water because their wells have dried up. That's due to an exceptionally low flow in the Tule River, which fills the wells.
Volunteers and county workers are delivering bottled water provided by the county to these homes, but those deliveries are only a stop-gap solution. The area's high poverty rate makes it difficult for residents to affordable ongoing solutions, such as digging new wells.
Tulare County has been hearing from residents about their diminished water supply since February, but the trickle of calls has become a gusher. The Fresno Bee reports that nearly 1,000 people are now impacted by the dry wells.
“I grew up here. I’ve never seen this many people out of water,” Tulare County District Five Supervisor Mike Ennis told the Fresno Bee.
Up in the state's northwest corner in Trinity County, already threatened by salmon die-offs due to low water flow in the Salmon and Klamath rivers, a wildfire that started late Sunday afternoon is threatening homes in Weaverville. About 200 homes were evacuated as crews worked to build containment lines that had about 25 percent of the fire under control by this morning. But local officials said they were concerned about gusting winds and dry conditions causing the fire to flare up again.
The Redding, California newspaper the Redding Searchlight reports that four other wildfires are currently burning tens of thousands of acres in the area as well.
TckTckTck, the Global Call for Climate Action reports:
High temperatures and drought in the American West, both linked to climate change, lead to the dry conditions and tree deaths that enable more frequent and intense wildfires. The American wildfire season is getting longer, and the number of very large fires has doubled in California and many other states since the 1970s.
Climate change is fueling bigger wildfires in California. Photo credit: U.S. Department of Agriculture via TckTckTck
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The California Drought: Who Gets Water and Who’s Hung Out to Dry?
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Gov. Jerry Brown Discusses Role of Climate Change in California’s 10 Wildfires in the Past WeekLegacy. It's the buzzword connected to modern major sporting events around the globe, but can often sound glib.
FIFA's 'Grassroots' programme, however, is at the forefront of the world governing body's development efforts. The mission is simple: to get as many people as possible involved in the game, instilling human values, and above all, bringing enjoyment to all, simply by letting them take part.
On Saturday, in front of the Huamark Indoor Stadium - one of the four FIFA Futsal World Cup 2012 venues, in Bangkok - 600 children from across the Thai capital came together at the culmination of a three-day seminar.
Under the tutelage of FIFA Development's Marco Schüepp and FIFA Instructors Sam Schweingruber and Vai-Chung Tsang, boys and girls aged 6-12 took part in a day-long Futsal festival. The organisation of the day was undertaken by Thai coaches, putting into practice what they had learnt during the previous 48 hours.
We think the FAT want to make this the start of something, and that would be a tangible legacy of what has happened here today. Vai-Chung Tsang
What could have been organised chaos with so many excited children, however, ran like clockwork across five pitches. Two of the pitches were made of a special matting in the distinctive Futsal colours of red and blue, provided by FIFA. These will be utilised in the North-Eastern province of Korat for a similar event next month, and then handed over to the FA of |
by one of his fellow warriors, Kahionhaténion, to assist him in locating and rescuing his brother, Teiowí:sonte. The two tracked Kahionhaténion's brother and discovered that he was tied up along with other members of the village, who were lined up to be executed. Once Ratonhnhaké:ton and Kahionhaténion liberated their people, Ratonhnhaké:ton was instructed to return to the Clan Mother for further instruction.[9]
Hunt for Benedict Arnold
When he returned to their hideout, Ratonhnhaké:ton discovered that all of the villagers had been slaughtered, along with a dying Clan Mother. In her last words to Ratonhnhaké:ton, Oiá:ner told him to kill Washington, as well as Israel Putnam and Benedict Arnold, finishing what his mother had started.
She also told him that Kaniehtí:io was right to be worried about the tea and warned him to respect its power. With a solemn promise to carry out her request, Ratonhnhaké:ton infiltrated Valley Forge, trailed Israel Putnam to a fortress, and discovered Benedict in the center of the stronghold. Once his guards had been defeated, Ratonhnhaké:ton confronted Benedict Arnold and mortally wounded him.[9]
Before Arnold died, Ratonhnhaké:ton told him that he had been waiting a long time to kill him for his defection to the British Army, though Arnold was bewildered by this and protested that he had never set foot inside West Point. Arnold further claimed that he was being controlled by Washington and told Ratonhnhaké:ton to liberate Benjamin Franklin in Boston, but died before he could say any more.[9]
Unbeknownst to Ratonhnhaké:ton, Putnam approached from behind and forcefully hit him in the head with the butt of his pistol, rendering him unconscious. Once fully awake, Ratonhnhaké:ton realized that he had been captured and was being transported in a convoy heading for Boston. Along the way, Putnam revealed his intentions of taking over Boston, likely intending to gain it as a reward for handing over Ratonhnhaké:ton to Washington.[9]
Finding Franklin
Upon arriving in Boston, Putnam presented Ratonhnhaké:ton in a cell to Washington and Franklin. Surprised to see that he survived their last encounter, Washington ordered that Ratonhnhaké:ton be beheaded as they left. In solitude and imprisoned, Ratonhnhaké:ton distracted the guards by turning invisible, before locking them in his own cell when they entered to investigate.[10]
Following this, Ratonhnhaké:ton discovered Kanen'tó:kon in the neighboring cell, and learned that his friend had joined Samuel Adams' resistance. Subsequently, Ratonhnhaké:ton freed him and recovered his own equipment, during which Kanen'tó:kon noticed a vial of the Red Willow tea. Deciding he ought to undertake his own spirit journey to help, Kanen'tó:kon attempted to drink the concoction, though by remembering Oiá:ner and his mother's words, Ratonhnhaké:ton interrupted him by insisting that it would be too dangerous.[10]
Responding to this, Kanen'tó:kon revealed that multiple animal spirits could be met through consuming the tea, so Ratonhnhaké:ton volunteered that he drink it instead, as he was already familiar with the spirit world and could handle the tea's risks. Journeying to the Sky World once more, Ratonhnhaké:ton encountered an eagle spirit and gained the ability to fly short distances.[10]
Ratonhnhaké:ton awoke, just as Bluecoats led by Franklin arrived to prevent their departure. Using his newfound power to secure his and his friend's escape, Kanen'tó:kon fought the remaining soldiers while Ratonhnhaké:ton chased after Franklin and tackled him on a rooftop. Dazed, Franklin began to awake from Washington's control, but was interrupted when the king himself teleported in and attacked Ratonhnhaké:ton.[10]
However, now armed with the power of the wolf and eagle, Ratonhnhaké:ton had an easier time attacking Washington, who was forced to escape by casting illusions of him taunting Ratonhnhaké:ton, and of Kaniehtí:io expressing anger at her son for drinking the Red Willow tea. As Washington managed to slip away, Kanen'tó:kon and Adams later found Ratonhnhaké:ton unconscious in the streets, to which they roused him and brought him to a safehouse.[10]
Ratonhnhaké:ton was determined to find Franklin, and was told of a tavern he could listen for information at. Avoiding the suspicious soldiers by playing a game of checkers, he eavesdropped on a messenger who was sent to deliver a letter to Putnam by Franklin. Pickpocketing the letter, Ratonhnhaké:ton learned that Franklin planned to meet Putnam at the docks, before he replaced the document to ensure its delivery. There, despite Franklin's meeting going awry, Ratonhnhaké:ton captured Benjamin after shooting him twice with arrows, finally freeing him of Washington's control, before taking the king's former lieutenant to Adams.[10]
Escaping Boston
Angered at Franklin's presence, Adams was skeptical of the man's change of heart and wanted him dead, though Ratonhnhaké:ton convinced Adams that Franklin had useful information to share with the resistance: Franklin immediately told them that Washington had gone to New York to deal with the rebels there.[10]
Disdainfully leaving Franklin in Ratonhnhaké:ton's care, Adams and Kanen'tó:kon planned to make their way to New York via the Boston Neck, thanks to a sympathetic Bluecoat captain, where they could then join with Thomas Jefferson's rebels. Franklin informed them he had created a special means of protection for Washington's palace in New York, and to bypass it they would require a special metal from a loyal blacksmith.[10]
Ratonhnhaké:ton met the blacksmith – who turned out to be David Walston – but learned that he had used the metal for horse shoes for a high-ranking soldier at Fort Hill. After Ratonhnhaké:ton stole the horse, Franklin pried off the horse shoes and then asked him to obtain his diagram from an officer at the tavern.[10]
Ratonhnhaké:ton met with the officer, who informed him of a massacre at Boston Neck. He explained Putnam had started a rumor that the captain at Boston Neck was friendly to the rebels, and claimed to have witnessed the death of Adams. Enraged by his gloating, Ratonhnhaké:ton smacked him with a checker board and promptly beat up the other soldiers in the tavern.
After taking the diagram, Ratonhnhaké:ton hurried to Boston Neck and verified the tragedy for himself, finding Kanen'tó:kon's tomahawk and two severed fingers, along with Adams' torn, bloodied uniform. Ratonhnhaké:ton returned to Franklin, informing him of their loss, and added that the pair would have to leave by sea.[10]
To do this, Ratonhnhaké:ton stole a Bluecoat's uniform so that Franklin could take him to an excellent ship he knew, and guarded the Founding Father along the way. At the docks, they found a drunken Robert Faulkner, who had the Aquila confiscated by Franklin. Ratonhnhaké:ton promised Faulkner that Franklin had turned on the king, and aimed to prove this by returning his ship. While Faulkner gathered a crew, Ratonhnhaké:ton took out the snipers at the docks and unfastened the ropes docking the Aquila.[10]
That morning, Faulkner's sailors charged the docks, but found that the Aquila had drifted out into the open sea. To secure their escape, Ratonhnhaké:ton fended off Washington's soldiers while the crew swam to the ship, until Putnam emerged, holding Kanen'tó:kon hostage. Putnam threatened to shoot him unless Ratonhnhaké:ton gave up, but he used the Eagle Flight to surprise Putnam and assassinate him.[10]
As he lay dying, Putnam acknowledged Washington's control but felt guilty, blaming himself for the evil that the Apple had simply unleashed within him. Afterwards, Ratonhnhaké:ton and Kanen'tó:kon made their break for freedom, dodging musket fire and diving into the bay.[10]
Arrival in New York
Later, aboard the Aquila, Kanen'tó:kon apologized, explaining Putnam had tortured him until he suggested that the rebels would escape by sea, but Ratonhnhaké:ton bluntly answered that he did not care. Then, as the Aquila arrived into New York's bay, the two gazed in awe as they spotted Washington's Pyramid.[10] Suddenly, the king's ships began attacking: Ratonhnhaké:ton took the wheel and sank their fleet, and ordered the crew to recover their flags to disguise their ship. After navigating through a mine field placed around Manhattan, the Aquila devastated another fleet but ran out of firepower. Ratonhnhaké:ton gave the order to abandon ship, and rammed the Aquila into a Man-of-War while the crew swam away.[8]
After finding himself on dry land, Ratonhnhaké:ton discovered Kanen'tó:kon had died protecting Franklin from Washington. Angered, Ratonhnhaké:ton drank the tea and went on another spiritual journey. Despite the protests of his mother's ghost, he found the spirit of the bear, and gained the power to create shockwaves. This ability also turned his eyes unnaturally blue. Waking up, Ratonhnhaké:ton and Franklin went in search of Jefferson's rebels, and found him leading an attack on the Pyramid's courtyard, which was failing due to their exits being blocked off. Ratonhnhaké:ton used his power to tear open an escape path, joining Jefferson in the process.[8]
War on Washington
Jefferson informed Ratonhnhaké:ton they would need to sway the people to join the rebellion: he suggested removing John Fitzwilliams, an official selling food at inflated prices. Ratonhnhaké:ton tracked him to his base of operations and assassinated him, and asked a civilian - who happened to be Warren - to help him deliver food to the starving civilians. Ratonhnhaké:ton fended off soldiers attempting to block Warren's carriage from reaching the market place: once there, Jefferson began gaining the people's favor, to which Ratonhnhaké:ton quipped had been bought with a few carrots.[8]
Afterwards, Ratonhnhaké:ton continued to create unrest for Washington, destroying statues of the king, blowing up cannons, assassinating officers, assaulting town criers and hanging soldiers in the streets with the rope dart. Initially it seemed to have no effect on the king's power, as Ratonhnhaké:ton and Franklin watched a rally where Washington declared he would invade England. As time passed, civilians began fighting soldiers in the streets.[8]
Jefferson sent Ratonhnhaké:ton to commence Washington's downfall by rescuing a captured spy in the military district. The spy - Godfrey - planted explosives at the base of the tower where the army kept their ammunition, which Ratonhnhaké:ton detonated, toppling the tower.[8]
The following morning, the Bluecoats and rebels clashed before Washington's Pyramid. Franklin gave him the key he had made in Boston to enter the king's throne room. Ratonhnhaké:ton used his abilities to track how his mother had infiltrated the Pyramid to steal the Apple, allowing him to journey to the top of the Pyramid, where Washington stood waiting.
Death of a King
Before commencing their battle, the king asked the Assassin what he would do with the Apple's power, to which Ratonhnhaké:ton responded he would not use it to enslave the people as Washington had done. Ratonhnhaké:ton eventually defeated the king by breaking the Pyramid's stained glass ceiling, and the two fell into the throne room.[8]
A mortally wounded Washington slumped into his throne with the Apple. As Ratonhnhaké:ton approached him, visions of Kanen'tó:kon and Kaniehtí:io begged him not to take the Apple, while a final vision of himself demanded he take it.[8]
Seizing the Apple, Connor and Washington were returned to their own reality, and the Apple fell to the ground in a flash of light. The two distrustfully looked at one another, cautious of what they had seen the other capable of. Washington eventually relented and turned the Apple over to Connor, who in turn stated no man should possess such power. The commander suggested dropping it into the ocean with a weight, before riding off.
Some time later, Connor took the Aquila out to sea. He briefly gazed at the Apple, sealed and weighted in a bag, before dropping it in the sea.[8]
Rebuilding the Order
At some point shortly after the war, Connor attempted to recruit a young runaway slave named Patience Gibbs, but she fought him off. Connor wrote to Aveline in 1784, believing she might have more success convincing her to join the Assassins. After Aveline aided Patience in killing her master, Edmund Judge, Patience agreed to accompany Aveline to Connor's Homestead.[2]
Connor later married a native woman from a nearby tribe[11] and had a son and two daughters; his youngest child was named Io:nhiòte - despite lies by Abstergo, Connor and his wife remained married and she did not take his children from him.[12]
In April 1796, he took Io:nhiòte far from her mother's village to teach her how to track and hunt, despite her tribe's tradition about training women. Of his three children, she was the only one with the gift. While they were hunting a deer, the young girl acted recklessly and fell from a small cliff drop, spraining her ankle. Connor left his daughter behind to look for cold water at the river in order to bring the swelling down.[12]
While he was away, Io:nhiòte noticed fresh wolf tracks nearby and tried to warn her father of the predator's presence but he was too far away. In the sky, Connor's daughter saw an eagle above her and in her distress she somehow connected with the bird. Flying towards Connor, the Eagle screeched a warning just as the wolf was leaping on the Assassin while he was collecting water from the stream.[12]
Connor put down the wolf with his hidden blade and discovered that the animal was driven mad by a festered gunshot wound from a musket. Returning to Io:nhiòte, he was amazed to find that she was aware of his encounter with the wolf because she saw it through the eyes of an eagle. Realizing the extent of her potential, Connor stated that he had indeed a great deal to teach his daughter.[12]
In March 1804, Connor was contacted by Eseosa, a member of the Assassins in Saint-Domingue, at the Homestead to request additional training, in preparation for his assassination of the tyrannical Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who grabbed power following Eseosa's contributions in the Haitian Revolution.[13]
Legacy
Connor's actions allowed his descendant, Desmond Miles, to find the key to the Grand Temple through the Animus and protect the Earth from the Second Disaster. He also eradicated the Templar Order's influence and control in Colonial America by assassinating their leaders,completely undoing Shay Cormac's earlier work and dealing a crippling blow from which the North American Templars never recovered. He also prevented Washington from being corrupted by the Apple's power, as was shown in the alternate timeline where he never became an Assassin.
Along with this, his work in the Colonial cities of Boston and New York strengthened the Assassin Brotherhood with more recruits, and it assisted the people of the region. His support of the Continental Army led to many victories, eventually allowing the North American colonists to break off from the British. In the process, though, his work allowed the Americans to force his people farther west, away from their homelands.[3]
As the Captain of the Aquila, Connor was a major contributor to the safety of trade passages to St. Augustine, Louisbourg, the Bahamas and the Virgin Islands, by wiping out the privateers who preyed on ships there. As the owner of the Homestead's lands, he also helped several colonists that were experiencing hardships around the area.[3]
After Abstergo recovered Desmond's body, they uploaded Connor's memories to their cloud server. After viewing the recordings, their analysts opted not to make any products about him, deciding his stoic personality and native background would make him unappealing to most viewers.[2] His marriage with an unknown blonde woman, their subsequent separation with his wife taking their children and leaving Connor the remainder of his life by himself was Abstergo propaganda.[12][14]
His contribution to restoring the Assassin Order's presence in the Thirteen Colonies led him to become widely recognized among the Assassins worldwide. By 1776, the French Assassin Charles Dorian remarked on Connor's success to the Assassin-turned-Templar Shay Cormac, stating that Connor's efforts in combating the Colonial Rite of the Templar Order foiled their plans to influence the American Revolutionary War.[15]
Connor's actions also served as justification for the fanatical Master Assassin Pierre Bellec, another member of the French Brotherhood, who used them alongside the accomplishments of Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad and Ezio Auditore da Firenze, as the examples of how his actions of poisoning the French Mentor Mirabeau were meant to destroy the French Assassins, in order to rebuild them stronger than before.[16]
In 2016, a sketch of Connor was hanging in the laboratory of the Abstergo Foundation Rehabilitation Center in Madrid, Spain.[17]
Personality and characteristics
"Such dark thoughts will cripple a man. But only if he lets them. Look again. Out there stand men and women determined to be free. Such a struggle is rarely easy, and never without sacrifice. I have often asked myself a thousand times if I would not be happier back amongst my people, living a quieter, simpler life. But if I abandoned my cause – if you abandoned yours, Commander – who would take our places? And what would become of the people who rely upon us?" ―Connor urging George Washington not to succumb to doubt.[src]
The death of Connor's mother and burning of his village left him growing up with a strong desire for justice and the concern of what impact the colonists would have on the Kanien'kehá:ka. This left him with an often introspective, humorless disposition: Kanen'tó:kon once told him to stop worrying about colonial expansion when he had commented on the beautiful sight of viewing the forest from up the trees. This bluntness continued into early adulthood, when he would misinterpret Israel Putnam's playful banter for insults, although in time he would learn to respond to such comments with a cold stare. Connor was for the most part introverted, philosophical, and spiritual. Although he appeared ruthless and cold-hearted, especially while fighting, deep down he was extremely sensitive and gentle.[3]
A mere 13-years old when thrust into the outside world, Connor's strong sense of morality would lead him to be quite naïve. He could not comprehend the notion of racial prejudice that Achilles suffered from, and argued with Samuel Adams when he taught him how to remove his notoriety, questioning why he could not simply tell people the truth instead of lying to them. He also expressed discomfort with killing, such as his regret for assassinating William Johnson, whom he had naïvely intended to spare after believing that he had lost the ability to buy his people's land. This discomfort also led him to desperately believe that the Assassins and Templars could form a permanent alliance following the stressful one between himself and his father Haytham.[3]
Although, from the beginning, Connor's main motives were to protect his people and seek a misguided revenge on Charles Lee for the burning of his village and the death of his mother in the process. Connor only took part in the war for these reasons, of which he later learned that the latter was a disillusioned endeavor; one that his mentor Achilles warned him against on numerous occasions.[3]
This was evident by many of Connor's decisions and actions, one of them including him cutting all affiliations with George Washington, once he had discovered the truth of the general's responsibility towards the destruction of his village, as well as signing for a repeat attempt, despite Kanatahséton remaining neutral in the conflict.[3]
Already a capable, strong hunter and killer since he was a boy, Connor possessed an impatience with regards to tracking down his father, Haytham Kenway, which prompted Achilles to admonish the younger man for his recklessness. The older Assassin argued that as eager as Connor was, even if he caught up with his father, he did not have the proper experience to combat the older and more skilled man without Achilles' tutelage. Accompanying this, Putnam often misinterpreted Connor's actions for reckless bravado, when for him, running through a battlefield was a simple feat.[3]
Connor could still be youthfully cocky and arrogant. During the Boston Tea Party, Connor destroyed the final crate of tea in front of William Johnson and allowed him to leave the scene with his fellow Templars, believing that he had stopped their plans. As his accomplishments increased, he would argue with Achilles that he did not need him and could have done everything he had accomplished without him. At one point, Connor even went as far as challenging Achilles to a fight to prove him wrong.[3]
Despite this, Achilles and Washington described Connor as being quite humble, often playing down his own actions. Also, putting his near constant annoyance with Achilles aside, it was clear that Connor cared for him greatly, which could be seen at both his funeral and when Connor visited Achilles' grave shortly afterwards. At his grave, Connor stated that he missed him nearly as much as his mother, implying that he thought of Achilles as somewhat of a father figure. In addition, he also promised that he would make Achilles proud.[3]
As he grew older and lost allies, while his nemesis Charles Lee still lived, Connor became cynical and was willing to torture a mercenary to learn Lee's location. While in the alternate timeline, Ratonhnhaké:ton was more irritable and impatient due to the differences he encountered, and expressed bitterness to Thomas Jefferson about aiding civilians from King Washington's rule. He was also in danger of becoming seduced by the Apple's power after defying his mother and drinking the Red Willow tea. He even weakly stated he would use the Apple for the good of everyone when asked by Washington, but on returning to the real world he was able to reject it entirely.[8]
Equipment and skills
Having been raised in Kanatahséton, Connor became a skilled freerunner at an early age, being able to climb trees and swing from one to another, as well as scale cliff faces or other natural elements. He could move through the cityscape just as easily, and was able to slide under or vault over obstacles within urban environments.
During his youth, Connor had received minimal combat training from the Kanien'kehá:ka, becoming a young warrior of the tribe. He wielded a tomahawk and dagger; in addition, he honed his skill with a bow to the point where he could target any opponent and strike from a far distance.[3]
After being mentored by Achilles, Connor's abilities increased significantly and he eventually became a Master Assassin, trained in the ways of stealth, swordsmanship, observation, pickpocketing, and lockpicking. He was able to wield several different weapons, including a tomahawk, bow, sword, dagger, flintlock pistols, poison darts, rope darts, and Hidden Blades. He could dual-wield various combinations of these weapons, with his ambidexterity helping him to do so proficiently. In terms of weaponry Connor possessed the Pivot Blade which became a deadly tool in his arsenal as it aided him in combat as well as hunting.[3]
Connor was also skilled in unarmed combat, being able to overpower multiple opponents at a time. If there was a possibility, he utilized the surrounding objects to his advantage, such as chairs, tables or barrels, to cripple his opponents. His heavy build gave him an advantage in combat but impeded his freerunning abilities albeit by a negligible amount. He was so fast that he could easily dodge musket fire. In addition, his heavy build allowed him to overpower and kill multiple enemies in mere seconds without hesitation. He could kick hard enough to even send enemies twice his size flying several meters into the air. As a child he was significantly strong enough to lift a log all by himself when he ran to save his mother. Like his father, he could easily tear apart metal locks with a single punch. In addition, Connor was a capable swimmer, able to swim great distances with relative ease.[3]
Like the few peak-bodied Assassins born before him, Connor had far greater durability and endurance than the average man. He could survive building-destroying explosions without suffering any injury and heal from it later on, and even when seriously injured, he was capable of fighting head-to-head with his own father and even gain the upper hand for some time, and his sense of combat never faltered, always managing to point out weak spots in said situation.
Connor also grew to be an efficient hunter, utilizing his tracking skills and traps to hunt down various animals he encountered across the Frontier, such as elks, cougars, wolves, bobcats, and bears, with minimal effort. Connor was strong enough to go head-to-head with bears and elks head on and even push them back with his bare hands. Additionally, Connor possessed the rare extra-sensory ability known as Eagle Vision, which he could use to help identify clues and track down enemies.[3]
Tutored by Robert Faulkner, Connor became a skilled captain, sailing the Aquila on multiple occasions and was capable of fending off rogue waves. During these voyages, Connor recovered a Shard of Eden buried by William Kidd on Oak Island, which granted him immunity to stray gunfire.[3]
While trapped in an alternate reality, Ratonhnhaké:ton retained the same skill level. Upon drinking the tea of the great willow, he was granted supernatural abilities linked to the spirit animals of the wolf, eagle, and bear. Additionally, he could summon a pack of wolves to attack his enemies.[18]
Connor was a skilled leader and battle commander, winning many key battles for the colonial army. Robert Faulkner mentioned Connor was a fast learner, and he was able to add many skills to his repertoire. While at times brash or impulsive, Connor was brilliant, learning many languages and was a skilled Military strategist. Connor understood politics, and made efforts to improve conditions for his people with the colonists. He also made the homestead a thriving trade community. In terms of clothing, Connor most often wore a hooded dress uniform with blue lining, as well as a thin red sash fastened with an Assassin insignia, and brown boots with leggings that extended past his knees.[3] Aboard the Aquila however, Connor wore a blue overcoat and tricorne hat.[3] During his time in an alternate reality, he wore a wolf skin hood, and bear fur over his shoulders.[9].
Trivia
Name
Personality and relationships
Series lead writer Corey May intended for Connor be more thoughtful due to his upbringing, and to consider different perspectives. He added that Connor was motivated by a desire to fix the problems in the world that he feels no one else is willing to do anything about, and that this idealism "makes him a little bit naive, [...] he thinks that one person can make a difference, but he clings to that belief and remains very firm in his convictions, so I think it makes him endearing in a way that previous Assassins haven't been." [23] May also informed voice actor Noah Watts that Connor was meant to be a virgin during the events of Assassin's Creed III. [24]
Of the known Assassins that Desmond Miles relived the lives of, Connor was the only one who was not known to have killed any civilians. Altaïr killed an old man inside Solomon's Temple during the search for an Apple of Eden, and Ezio inadvertently killed several civilians in Cappadocia by destroying a large amount of gunpowder.
The interactions between Haytham and Connor showed similarities to William and Desmond, specifically concerning personality and conversations.
The developers considered giving the character a love interest in The Tyranny of King Washington, and Aveline de Grandpré in particular for the role. However, it was decided the characters' motivations and personalities were too different from each other.[25]
Voice and character design
Voice actor Noah Watts based Connor's voice on actor Wes Studi's portrayal of Magua in the 1992 film of The Last of the Mohicans, particularly his matter-of-fact delivery of the line " When the Grey Hair is dead, Magua will eat his heart. " Watts also chose to emphasize the fact that English was the character's second language by avoiding the use of contractions early in the story. [24] By the end of the main story, and certainly during the events of The Tyranny of King Washington, Ratonhnhaké:ton has increased his usage of contractions, such as when he yells "That's it!" before smacking a soldier.
, particularly his matter-of-fact delivery of the line " " Watts also chose to emphasize the fact that English was the character's second language by avoiding the use of contractions early in the story. Connor's rock climbing animations were based on video reference of free solo climber Dan Osman. [26]
Connor's initial character design displayed him with a slender build, while his final character model was altered to show him with a significantly more muscular appearance.
Lead Game Designer Steven Masters mentioned that Connor could originally scalp his opponents, but it was removed from the game since Ubisoft's Mohawk consultants felt that it was an unusual thing for their ancestors to do, and Ubisoft agreed that it was too brutal for Connor's character. [27]
Character Designer Jeff Simpson expressed difficulty in creating Connor, as there were no Mohawk Americans in the development team, despite them being multi-cultural. [28]
Connor was initially meant to be purely Native American until the team chose to make him a British-American.[28]
Other
If Assassin's Creed III: Liberation is synched to Assassin's Creed III, there was an exclusive mission with Connor as the playable character. However, the reason why Desmond was unable to relive that particular memory was never explained. It can be inferred that this memory was not crucial to Desmond's efforts in obtaining the Grand Temple Key, with it being subsequently overlooked by the Animus.
is synched to, there was an exclusive mission with Connor as the playable character. However, the reason why Desmond was unable to relive that particular memory was never explained. Connor was voted Best Game Character at the Virgin Media Awards, [29] and was nominated for Character of the Year at the 2012 VGA Awards.
and was nominated for Character of the Year at the 2012 VGA Awards. In a video aired at the VGAs, he thanked Ubisoft for creating him and the world he lived in alongside the Assassin Turkey. In the unused acceptance speech video, Connor thanked the fans, before using the award to counter-kill some British Regulars, who are after him. [30]
In the Animus database, Shaun mentioned that the Assassins' records showed that Connor was the first Native American to become an Assassin, which was proven to be incorrect.
Connor is unique amongst the ancestors that Desmond viewed, as neither of his parents had been Assassins. However, Connor did have ties to the Assassins, as his grandfather, Edward Kenway became a member of the Assassin Brotherhood after his travels in the West Indies.
Connor's bow was retrieved by Abstergo Industries and displayed in their Madrid facility in 2016.
Connor's stature while not officially revealed by Ubisoft can be easily determined by comparing him to George Washington during cutscenes. George Washington was historically 6'0 (1.83m) tall which he reveals in a letter to his tailor on 20 June 1768, and given that both men are eye to eye, this also makes Connor stand at 6'0 (1.83m) tall.
Appearances
References
An image gallery is available for
Ratonhnhaké:tonMore Week 8: Waiver Wire — Trade Values — Streaming Options — Rankings — Start 'Em and Sit 'Em (Wednesday) — Cheat Sheet (Wednesday) — Busts (Thursday)
What is the Trade Chart?
The chart is designed to help guide you in making fair trades in your standard-scoring, PPR and two-quarterback leagues.
The values assigned to the players below are a long-term measurement of their Fantasy value. By adding two players' values you could determine what one player you should be able to get in return.
This list also works as a "Rest of Season" rankings. Also, any player not on the chart should be considered valued at no more than four points.
Running backs
Player STND PPR Le'Veon Bell, PIT 42 45 Ezekiel Elliott, DAL 40 43 Todd Gurley, LAR 37 40 Leonard Fournette, JAC 37 39 Kareem Hunt, KC 36 39 Devonta Freeman, ATL 31 33 LeSean McCoy, BUF 30 33 Melvin Gordon, LAC 30 33 Jordan Howard, CHI 29 31 Mark Ingram, NO 27 29 Doug Martin, TB 20 22 Jay Ajayi, MIA 18 19 C.J. Anderson, DEN 17 19 Lamar Miller, HOU 15 17 Joe Mixon, CIN 15 17 Christian McCaffrey, CAR 14 18 Jerick McKinnon, MIN 13 16 Carlos Hyde, SF 13 15 Alvin Kamara, NO 12 15 Aaron Jones, GB 12 14 Adrian Peterson, ARI 11 11 Chris Thompson, WAS 10 13 Tevin Coleman, ATL 10 12 DeMarco Murray, TEN 10 11 Marshawn Lynch, OAK 10 10 LeGarrette Blount, PHI 10 10 Matt Forte, NYJ 8 11 Ameer Abdullah, DET 8 10 David Johnson, ARI 8 9 Dion Lewis, NE 8 8 Derrick Henry, TEN 8 8 Rob Kelley, WAS 8 8 James White, NE 7 11 Duke Johnson, CLE 7 9 Ty Montgomery, GB 7 9 Wendell Smallwood, PHI 7 9 Marlon Mack, IND 7 8 Mike Gillislee, NE 7 7 Javorius Allen, BAL 6 8 Alex Collins, BAL 6 6 Jamaal Charles, DEN 5 6 Latavius Murray 5 6 Frank Gore, IND 5 6 Orleans Darkwa, NYG 5 6 Matt Breida, SF 5 6
Wide receivers
Player STND PPR A.J. Green, CIN 37 40 Antonio Brown, PIT 37 40 Mike Evans, TB 35 38 Julio Jones, ATL 30 33 DeAndre Hopkins, HOU 27 31 Michael Thomas, NO 25 28 Dez Bryant, DAL 22 24 Doug Baldwin, SEA 17 20 Keenan Allen, LAC 16 20 Michael Crabtree, OAK 14 17 Chris Hogan, NE 14 16 Brandin Cooks, NE 14 16 Demaryius Thomas, DEN 13 16 Jarvis Landry, MIA 13 16 Kelvin Benjamin, CAR 13 15 Jordy Nelson, GB 13 15 Tyreek Hill, KC 13 15 Amari Cooper, OAK 13 15 Stefon Diggs, MIN 12 16 T.Y. Hilton, IND 12 15 Will Fuller, HOU 11 12 Larry Fitzgerald, ARI 9 12 Devin Funchess, CAR 9 11 DeVante Parker, MIA 9 11 Adam Thielen, MIN 8 11 Emmanuel Sanders, DEN 8 10 Davante Adams, GB 8 10 Nelson Agholor, PHI 8 10 Alshon Jeffery, PHI 8 10 DeSean Jackson, TB 8 10 Golden Tate, DET 7 10 Marvin Jones, DET 7 9 Josh Doctson, WAS 7 8 Pierre Garcon, SF 6 8 Kenny Stills, MIA 6 7 Ted Ginn, NO 6 7 Sammy Watkins, LAR 6 7 Randall Cobb, GB 5 7 Cooper Kupp, LAR 5 7 Corey Davis, TEN 5 7 Sterling Shepard, NYG 5 6 John Brown, ARI 5 6 Allen Hurns, JAC 5 6
Tight ends
Player STND PPR Rob Gronkowski, NE 28 31 Zach Ertz, PHI 21 24 Travis Kelce, KC 16 18 Hunter Henry, LAC 13 15 Jimmy Graham, SEA 11 13 Evan Engram, NYG 10 12 Jordan Reed, WAS 10 12 Austin Seferian-Jenkins, NYJ 9 11 Kyle Rudolph, MIN 6 8 O.J. Howard, TB 6 7 Cameron Brate, TB 6 7 Charles Clay, BUF 5 7 Greg Olsen, CAR 5 6
QuarterbacksNext year, 25 May looks like being a significant date. That’s because it’s the day that the European Union’s general data protection regulation (GDPR) comes into force. This may not seem like a big deal to you, but it’s a date that is already keeping many corporate executives awake at night. And for those who are still sleeping soundly, perhaps it would be worth checking that their organisations are ready for what’s coming down the line.
UK citizens to get more rights over personal data under new laws Read more
First things first. Unlike much of the legislation that emerges from Brussels, |
nearly canceled this film. And it was probably the only Comic Con panel with a mention of Luchino Visconti. Watch the full Hateful Eight Comic Con panel below.
Sadly, this video does not have the opening featurette, hosted by Samuel L. Jackson, which discussed roadshows and the Ultra Panavision format used for the film. Let’s hope that goes online officially sooner rather than later.
Here’s the panel:
So, yeah, at the end is the point we reported on earlier, where Tarantino announced the plan for Ennio Morricone to score the new film. There’s a tease in there for a possible (but not very likely) Kill Bill 3, perhaps some TV series from Tarantino, and a lot of talk about making the film and the strength of these actors.
The Hateful Eight will open on December 25 in 70mm-equipped theaters; a wide release will follow on January 8, 2016.It would be unthinkable for Japan to begin its 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign with anything other than a win at home to Singapore next Tuesday, but manager Vahid Halilhodzic will be looking for more from his team than just three points.
Japan takes on Iraq in a friendly in Yokohama on Thursday before kicking off its bid to reach a sixth straight World Cup against Singapore in Saitama five days later. Halilhodzic has only been in charge for two games since taking over from Javier Aguirre in March, but impressive friendly wins over Tunisia and Uzbekistan have whetted the appetite for more.
After a stop-start 2-0 victory over the North Africans, Japan cut loose with a 5-1 thrashing of the Uzbeks, playing with the kind of zest and fluency that was largely absent from January’s dismal Asian Cup campaign. New faces like Takashi Usami and Kengo Kawamata gave the team an injection of fresh blood, while Halilhodzic charmed the public with a bravado touchline performance that suggests the next three years should be an interesting ride.
After the fun and games of the manager’s welcome party, however, comes the long grind of World Cup qualification. An opening group that contains Singapore, Afghanistan, Cambodia and Syria should give Japan few problems, but the team has endured a bruising 12 months and Halilhodzic’s first priority will be to restore damaged confidence.
“I want to instill a culture of winning,” the Bosnian said as he announced his squad for the two games last week, and a tougher mentality will indeed be required if limp exits from the Asian Cup and last summer’s World Cup in Brazil are anything to go by.
Halilhodzic will at least be heartened by signs of a return to form from one of the players who looked most affected at both those tournaments. Attacking midfielder Shinji Kagawa finished the Bundesliga season strongly with Borussia Dortmund after appearing desperately short of confidence for much of the year, and the 26-year-old insists he is ready to meet the challenge head-on.
“The manager demands a lot of us, and he’s very straight-talking when it comes to pointing out problems,” Kagawa was quoted as saying in Saturday’s Nikkan Sports. “That’s as it should be. I want to be able to meet those demands.”
Kagawa should face plenty of competition for a starting place should his revival prove short-lived, however, with Usami and Yoshinori Muto in particular enjoying a rich vein of form in the J. League. Halilhodzic made an early pledge not to pick players based on reputation alone, and the fact that he named completely different lineups for his two games in charge suggests he intends to stay true to his word.
That would be in keeping with the positive early impression the 63-year-old has made in Japan, with even his faux-pas of disclosing a list of players he judged to be overweight in May failing to dampen the feel-good factor.
Like all managers, however, results are what Halilhodzic will ultimately be judged on. The World Cup qualifying round beginning next week is unlikely to deliver any kind of verdict, but the gentle start does allow him crucial time to make his mark before the real challenges begin.
Halilhodzic has already laid down a marker with his grand entrance. Now it is time to build on it.Gene Puskar/Associated Press Dick LeBeau (left) and James Harrison share a mutual appreciation for each other's habitual professionalism.
PITTSBURGH -- They're not prone to shows of emotion, these men.
They don't talk about feelings or throw around mushy sentiments and they try, Dick LeBeau and James Harrison both, to explain their football partnership in precise impassionate words.
So fine. Leave the emotion out. And just ask James Harrison if he thinks his career would've taken a different shape had he played not in Dick LeBeau's defense, but in another man's.
"I don't know," he says, "if I would've had a career."
Harrison is seven weeks removed from a sweetly-engaging retirement announcement, five weeks removed from a teammate-engineered return to the Pittsburgh Steelers. He's always played angry, at 26 and now at 36, and he's imbuing this Steelers team called soft -- by former coach Bill Cowher and former captain Hines Ward -- with the ferocity this city has always demanded. He's again playing strong, still a game-changing outside linebacker who is deceptively quick off the edge.
People forget. He made this Steelers team, he made this football living, off of special teams. James Harrison could always run.
* * * * *
In 2004, Harrison was running from the hubris of his youth. Football had always come easy and through three cuts by the Steelers, a stint in NFL Europe and another cut by the Baltimore Ravens, he just expected he'd pick up what he needed to know. Two years of that and he realized osmosis wasn't going to work.
"That year, I took the time to learn and understand the defense," Harrison says. "I learned every linebacker position, inside and outside, left and right. If I put in the time and effort and gave it what I had and it didn't work out, OK, I'd move on."
In 2004, Dick LeBeau was beginning a second stint as Steelers defensive coordinator. Six years shy of a Hall of Fame induction, he was still feeling the sting of an inglorious head coaching run. He'd finally earned his shot in 2000, with the Cincinnati Bengals. But his teams never won more than six games and he was fired after a 2-14 2002. He spent a year as a defensive assistant on the Buffalo Bills staff before coming back to Pittsburgh and it was then, at training camp, that the definitely short, somewhat squat Harrison caught his eye.
"After about three days of practice, I asked (linebackers) coach Keith Butler, 'Who is this 92?' He said, 'That's James Harrison that I was telling you about it.' I said, 'I haven't seen anybody block him yet,' " LeBeau recalls. Chuckling, he adds almost in an aside, "I still haven't seen very many people block him. And that was 11 years ago."
Harrison's ascension is a story the Steelers' young linebackers know better than their playbooks. He played special teams until a mid-November game in Cleveland, when Joey Porter and Cleveland Browns back William Green got into a fight during pregame warm-ups, both were ejected and Harrison was pressed into starting. LeBeau can still recite Harrison's stat line from that game. (One sack and five tackles from five different areas of the field.)
It would be three more years before Harrison would become a full-time starter -- after Porter was cut, and despite the Steelers drafting two linebackers with their first two picks of the 2007 draft. For the next six years, he was LeBeau's mainstay. He became the first undrafted player to win the Defensive Player of the Year award in 2008 -- a season that ended with Harrison collecting his second Super Bowl ring, thanks in no small part to the linebacker executing what LeBeau called "the best single football play that I've ever seen."
The play was of course the interception of Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner in the end zone, and then a 100-yard return into the Steelers' end zone, where he collapsed, gassed and having totally changed momentum of the game on the last play of the first half. All these years later, LeBeau's pride is no more dimmed, as he says, "It's a testament to his conditioning that he played the whole second half after running 105 yards in 100-degree weather."
He didn't miss a snap?
"Ooooh, he wasn't coming out of that game," LeBeau says.
* * * * *
After 42 years of coaching in the NFL, LeBeau is 77 and as slim as he was in his 14 years as a Detroit Lions cornerback. He has had an enviable roster of talent. He's had Pro Bowlers and All-Pros who now coach under him (Carnell Lake, Joey Porter), and a list of linebackers who offered him a series of starring moments.
But Harrison knows: This defense, it was made for him. It's designed for linebackers, and its appreciation for linebackers who can think absolutely suits a man who molded himself into one. His strength, his leverage -- packaged into this system, it was a perfect fit. Still, when LeBeau says, "I've always felt a certain fondness for James," the coach explains: It's not because of any of that.
"He's a professional," LeBeau says. "He wants to be good. He wanted to be good then. And even after he became good, he wanted to become better. Those are the kind of guys you like to coach."
LeBeau says the mentoring Harrison is offering his younger teammates right now is "invaluable," that he's teaching them how to be professionals, sitting next to second-year linebacker Jarvis Jones every day, still refusing a veterans' day off of practice.
Harrison says for him, from the start, there was a burning thirst to please his coach. "You want to play for him," he says. "He treats everybody the same, whether you're a rookie or a star. He doesn't down-talk anybody. He doesn't play favorites and he always shoots you straight. In the beginning, I didn't know what the hell I was doing. He still encouraged. He never gave up on me."
And then the emotion thing comes up again. Harrison thinks about a time when he knows LeBeau advocated for him and he quiets. He doesn't want these thoughts probed, he doesn't want to share anymore. And so he only repeats: "You want to show that what he does works. You don't want to let him down."
* * * * *
Harrison pulled himself out of retirement in September because of his teammates. He'd spent last season as a part-time player with the Bengals, after they offered more guaranteed money than in the pay cut the Steelers were asking him to take. He was at peace with calling it a career and he freely says he didn't miss football this summer, or through the season's first two weeks.
The Steelers went down to Carolina in Week 3, and while they thumped the Panthers, they lost both Ryan Shazier and Jones in that game. The two linebackers, drafted in the last two years' first rounds, were starters and vital pieces. And from the minute the Steelers' charter touched ground in Pittsburgh, defensive end Brett Keisel was texting James Harrison. 4:01 a.m. 4:03 a.m. 4:10 a.m. And on, all morning and day long. Cornerback Ike Taylor, who broke his forearm in that game, and Troy Polamalu also called. And when Harrison complained to Polamalu that the Steelers weren't offering him enough money to climb back into a uniform, the veteran safety said to his friend, "Since when do you need the money?"
Harrison signed. He spent that first week cursing Polamalu, and five weeks later, he grumbles out some more blame. He's played 29 and 31 snaps the last two weeks, he's coming off a two-sack game and he says, "My body hurts."
Because, after a year of underuse at Cincinnati, he's playing hard again?
"No," he snarls. "Because I'm old."
These teammates who summoned him are allegedly old, too, and yet they've found new legs these last few weeks. That was Keisel plucking an interception out of a ball that bounced off Lawrence Timmons' helmet against the Houston Texans. It was Polamalu pouncing on a fumble that same night and the Steelers flying around for five takeaways in the past two weeks. It's a group playing for a defensive coordinator who a few weeks ago, as the Steelers struggled to a 3-3 mark, was allegedly too old, too.
LeBeau, in that sage way he has, says, "I don't read the papers," explaining that he never heard the calls for his retirement. But they were there in this city, his players were asked if it was time for new blood and none showed his ire as much as Harrison.
"Anybody who wants to call for Coach LeBeau's head is an idiot," he said with that trademark unflinching stare after the Steelers' win over Houston. He said yes, of course he takes it personally when people call out his coordinator and yes, of course anyone who calls out his coordinator doesn't know football.
"Coach LeBeau is a great mind. He's a great defensive mind," Harrison says. "Those people saying those things? They're not great minds."
* * * * *
For all the looks and stares, the manufactured masks of viciousness, that villain-inspired nickname of "Deebo," Harrison really has, LeBeau says, "a tremendous, tremendous heart. It's why all the kids love him."
They do. The Steelers' postgame locker room is always overrun by little ones, Polamalu's and Keisel's and a whole assortment of jersey-wearing munchkins. They inevitably stop at Harrison's stall; Sunday, after the win over the Colts, Keisel's youngest was ferried around in Harrison's arms. Keisel shook his head and said, "My son doesn't come in here looking for me. His favorite is James."
"They call him Uncle Deebo," Jones says. Then he laughs, and corrects himself. "I call him Uncle Deebo. The kids call him Uncle James."
Harrison has two of his own, five-year old Henry and almost-seven James. They're especially well-behaved and well-spoken, polite and yet friendly, never running around without their father's permission. Harrison doesn't let them come to night games, because they have school. And they can't be tired in the classroom. They take karate, they read and Harrison tells them every day about the magic of their minds.
"They can use their minds to make a whole lot more money than their bodies could," he says. "Your body fails you at some point. You break bones, you tear muscles. Your body is not a plan for the future."
Harrison had mapped out how he'd finish his last 30 credit hours at Kent State through online courses this coming year, but then the Steelers' call came. He will finish soon, he says, if only for one reason: "I'm going to make my sons get degrees. So I have to have the paper."
There was a time Harrison thought he'd be a veterinarian. Now he sees a second career in real estate. He has a license and owns nearly 300 rental units, mostly in university towns. He says students will always need housing, and then offers a mini-lecture on the financial returns on investing in property.
* * * * *
Ryan Clark, now a safety with the Washington Redskins, spent seven years playing alongside Harrison. He knew Harrison had taken his father and LeBeau with him when he was awarded the Defensive Player of the Year trophy. He knew Harrison liked to tease LeBeau and he knew Harrison was one of LeBeau's prize pupils, but he said he didn't realize just how deeply tied to LeBeau that Harrison was until he saw a "Monday Night Football" interview last year, when Jon Gruden asked Harrison about his coaches. He came to LeBeau, Harrison struggled to speak and then, his eyes welling, he said, "I miss him."
Nearly a year later, LeBeau tried to laugh about the moment captured on celluloid, saying, "You don't look to see James Harrison get a tear in his eye. I never saw it before and I won't ever see it again, I'm sure."
But he's pressed and so LeBeau admits, "It was hard for me to watch." Because? "I couldn't keep from crying myself. To have one of your players express that about you, that's what you work for."
LeBeau pauses some more. He watches his embattled corner Cortez Allen practicing alone across the field, his eyes showing the same sort of faith -- and hope -- Harrison talks about LeBeau once showing in him. He's a teacher and a leader and an encourager, and maybe no player has ever rewarded the faith LeBeau showed in him like Harrison has.
"I came along at the right time for him and he sure came along at the right time for me," LeBeau says quietly. "We don't talk about it a lot, but James and I, we'll always have this certain closeness."
Follow Aditi Kinkhabwala on Twitter @AKinkhabwala.A University of Windsor professor studying the Windsor Hum is convinced it's real.
Colin Novak set up a state-of-the-art, $250,000 recording station in a woodlot in the western part of the Ontario city in February. It's a virtual ear, tuned to record the hum 24/7.
Novak and a group of fellow scientists and researchers from the University of Windsor and London's University of Western Ontario received federal funding to study the mysterious noise.
When the sound he's looking for rises above a certain level it's registered on the equipment and Novak gets an email.
He said for the last month or so, his inbox has been full.
"Some of the evenings, we may get 30 or 40 emails in a given night, mostly between midnight and about 3:30 a.m.," Novak said.
That's enough to convince him the hum is real.
"We're in a pretty remote area in the night time. There's some construction activity happening right now, but at night, there's not too much out here.… when we're getting levels as high as we are, there's definitely some activity," he said.
The equipment's location hasn't been made public, but it's located in an area where the hum has been heard by Windsor residents.
Novak said he has an idea where the sound is coming from, but he won't speculate until his research is finished.
He and his partners will report their findings to the federal government by the end of the year.
"And from that point forward, I think it may become more of a political, and an engineering problem," Novak said.
People who live in the area have some theories of their own as to where the sound is originating.
Archie Cormier is a Windsor resident who claims to hear the noise.
"It's on the American side, and it doesn't do it all the time," he said of the noise. "So, if they can pinpoint the problem, then maybe they could find a solution."
Last year, a federal study suggested the hum may originate from the U.S. side of the Detroit River, in the general area of Zug Island, an area of concentrated steel production and manufacturing in River Rouge, Mich.
The mayor of River Rouge said in 2011 that his city didn't have the funds to investigate the hum.
The map below shows the location of Zug Island, southwest of Detroit.Yusuf Yerkel is diagnosed with soft tissue trauma in his right leg - the one he used to lay in to the demonstrator
The Turkish prime ministerial aide photographed last week kicking a protester at the site of the country's worst mine disaster is on sick leave after being diagnosed with soft tissue trauma in his right leg – the one he used to lay in to the demonstrator.
The photograph shows Yusuf Yerkel, an aide to Recep Tayyip Erdogan, clad in a suit and tie and furiously kicking a man held down by special police forces during anti-government protests in Soma last Wednesday. It went viral on social media.
Yerkel has reportedly been granted sick leave for a week. A medical report issued at an Ankara hospital testifies to "sensitivity with leg and arm movements and difficulty with walking," according to the newspaper Hürriyet. Yerkel reportedly told doctors that he had fallen.
Yerkel refused to apologise to the protester immediately after the incident, arguing that he had been insulted and provoked into attacking the man, who is said to be a miner from the stricken town.
After the photograph went viral on social media and received widespread coverage in the foreign and Turkish opposition press, Yerkel issued what appeared to be a reluctant apology: "I have been deeply saddened by the incident that occurred in Soma on 14 May.
"I am sorry for being unable to keep calm despite all of the provocations, insults and attacks I faced on that day," he said, according to the semi-official Anadolu news agency.
Erdogan's office issued an initial statement saying that the incident was a personal issue for Yerkel, but officials later defended him, saying the protesters had attacked him and that he acted in self-defence. Erdogan's main political adviser, Yalçin Akdogan, wrote in his newspaper column: "Yusuf Yerkel's self-defence against those who kicked [official] vehicles and tried to lynch the delegation has been misrepresented." He blamed gang members for the attack and pointed an accusing finger at an "irresponsible press" that tried to use one photograph to "make [the protests] look like a massive uprising against the government."
Other members of the ruling Justice and Development party (AKP) also came to Yerkel's defence. Speaking at a press conference on Friday, the deputy prime minister, Hüseyin Çelik, said that Yerkel's alleged injury was proof enough for his innocence.
"Yusuf Yerkel made a statement. One cannot understand the entirety of a situation from only one photograph. Yusuf Yerkel said that the person he is kicking on the floor did in fact attack and hurt him, he was even granted sick leave for seven days."Abstract Sanford Grossman and Oliver Hart used the theory of incomplete contracts to develop answers to the question "What is a firm, and what determines its boundaries?" in their path-breaking paper on "The Costs and Benefits of Ownership: A Theory of Vertical and Lateral Integration" (Journal of Political Economy, 1986, vol. 94, no. 4). Perhaps the central issue is that economic actors are only boundedly rational and cannot anticipate all possible contingencies. It might well be that certain states of nature or actions cannot be verified by third parties after they arise, like certain qualities of a good to be traded in the future, and thus cannot be written into an enforceable contract. When contracts are incomplete, and consequently not all uses of an asset can be specified in advance, any contract negotiated in advance must leave some discretion over the use of the assets; and the "owner" of the firm is the party to whom the residual rights of control have been allocated at the contracting stage. The optimal allocation of property rights—or governance structure—is one that minimizes efficiency losses. This produces a theory of ownership and vertical integration as well as a theory of the firm. First we spell out Grossman and Hart's argument using a simple numerical example. Then we show how the incomplete contracts approach can be used to analyze the firms' internal organization; the firms' financial decisions; the costs and benefits from privatization; and the organization of international trade between inter- and intrafirm trade. We discuss several criticisms of the incomplete contracts/property rights methodology and review recent developments of the incomplete contracts approach.
Citation Aghion, Philippe, and Richard Holden. 2011. "Incomplete Contracts and the Theory of the Firm: What Have We Learned over the Past 25 Years?" Journal of Economic Perspectives, 25 (2): 181-97. DOI: 10.1257/jep.25.2.181 Choose Format: BibTeX EndNote Refer/BibIX RIS Tab-DelimitedJohn Derbyshire discusses several reasons for why Whites have become such wimps, including a couple where he mentions me:
What needs explaining—what always needs explaining—is white ethnomasochism.”
We are not short of offered explanations. Most popular:
• It’s the Jews. The theory: Nursing an atavistic hatred of gentiles, and fearful of being the only noticeable minority in an otherwise homogenous society, Jews seek to demoralize and shatter gentile culture.
Occasional VDARE.com contributor Kevin MacDonald takes this line, drawing on evolutionary psychology to fortify his explanations.
It seems to me, though, that MacDonald just replaces something that’s difficult to explain with something that’s even more difficult to explain.
Britain’s population, for example, is only one percent Jewish on the most generous assumptions, perhaps less than 0.5 percent. Why do 99 percent allow themselves to be dictated to by one percent?Why are they such wimps? And we’re back where we started.
• It’s the Enlightenment. London University’s Eric Kaufmann is the fugleman here, arguing that the Enlightenment contained within itself a cosmopolitanism and moral universalism that eroded WASP hegemony from within. See Verdict: Suicide—Eric Kaufmann Replies To *Kevin MacDonald.
This I think gets a good piece of the truth. One driving force of the Enlightenment was curiosity, an open-minded interest in other peoples and ways of life. It’s not implausible that this could curdle into disdain for one’s own ethny. Why it actually did so when it did—in the second half of the 20th century—is less easy to understand, though I think Kaufmann does a fair job with the American case.
1. Invoking the Enlightenment to explain what happened in post-World War II America is obviously an inadequate explanation without a whole lot of additional analysis, so Derbyshire’s move is to simply follow Kaufmann without dealing with my objections. To make a convincing argument, he would have to reply to my objections to Kaufmann’s analysis, which can be found in my reply to Kaufmann (appended at the end of Kaufmann’s critique). For example, I write that “especially as elaborated in this section of the longer version of my review, … Jewish intellectuals were in the driver’s seat by the 1940s, that they dominated the New York Intellectuals, and that they promoted [non-Jews] like Dewey who advanced ideas that were compatible with theirs.”
Of course, Derbyshire and I have been disagreeing about my basic statement on all this, my book The Culture of Critique, for quite a while, so I guess nothing has changed.
2. Claiming that Jews were the most important force and a necessary condition for the decline of WASP America is not exactly the same as a theory of why Whites are wimps. For example, the decline of the influential Darwinian WASP intellectuals like Madison Grant and Lothrop Stoddard did not happen because they were wimps, but rather because Jews came to dominate the means of intellectual production—e.g., the Boasian domination of academic anthropology— as they did in many other countries (as Yuri Slezkine documents [see here, p. 73]). The basis for this is much too long to summarize here. Again, as stressed in my reply to Kaufmann, the role of Jews in marginalizing these thinkers is well-known (e.g., Carl Degler’s In Search of Human Nature).
And what’s so mysterious about documenting Jewish influence? As described in The Culture of Critique, Jewish intellectual movements are well documented and commonly acknowledged as such. (Gershom Scholem called the Frankfurt School a “Jewish sect,” and anyone who thinks that psychoanalysis, the New York Intellectuals or Boasian anthropology were not Jewish intellectual movements is just not paying attention.) The Jewish identities and Jewish motivations (e.g. the desire to end anti-Semitism or pathologize the ethnocentrism of non-Jews) of the main figures are well known. The ability to these movements to gain access to elite academic institutions, elite academic presses, and elite media is well documented. For example, it seems to me that the role of the Boasians in displacing Darwinian social science is quite clear and far more intuitively plausible than a vague analysis of some kind of trickle down effect 250 years after the Enlightenment. It’s never been about the quality of the ideas advanced by these Jewish intellectual movements—they range from the ridiculous (psychoanalysis) to the hypocritical and just plain wrong (the Frankfurt School’s war on non-Jewish ethnocentrism). It’s always been about the infrastructure—the ethnic networking and their ability to obtain access to elite institutions in academia and the media.
3. Jews may indeed be 1% or less of the population of the U.K. and less than 3% of the population of the U.S., but that’s really not an argument against Jewish influence or even Jewish domination of particular areas. Jews were around 1% of the population of pre-1933 Germany, and we all know how that turned out. Yuri Slezkine writes that Jews were overrepresented by a factor of 33 among the economic elite and dominated German culture prior to 1933 (see here, p. 73). Or consider historian Sarah Ann Gordon:
In the period from 1928 to 1932, Jews controlled 25 percent of retail sales and had a dominant position in certain areas, such as metal businesses, textiles and clothing, grain trade, and department stores (Gordon 1984). Jews also had a prominent position in private banking, so that, for example, in Berlin in 1923, there were 150 Jewish banks and 11 non-Jewish banks. And Jews were also prominently involved in the stock market, the insurance industry, and economic consulting firms. In 1923 Jews occupied 24 percent of the supervisory positions in joint‑stock companies. Gordon (1984) also shows that Jews were vastly overrepresented in the legal and judicial system, among university faculty, and as physicians. (Gordon, S. (1984). Hitler, Germans, and the “Jewish Question.” Princeton, N.J.: PrincetonUniversity Press.)
The very outsized role of wealthy Jews in funding both the Labour and Conservative Party in the UK and the Democrat and Republican parties in the US (well over 50% for the Democrats and around 50% for the Republicans, including Sheldon Adelson‘s mind-boggling $100 million, not to mention the other wealthy donors of the Republican Jewish Coalition) is certainly worth noting in that regard. With financial clout like this, Jews at minimum have a veto power over the policies of both parties, and it is well known that in general they push for support for the most warlike ethnonationalist elements in Israel and while pushing for left/liberal attitudes on social issues like immigration and gay marriage in the U.S.
4. Finally, my putting the onus on the Jews (certainly not all Jews) has to be qualified by an understanding of the pre-existing weaknesses of the WASPs and other Whites. For the last 15 years, most of my writing has been directed at figuring out what’s wrong within us that we would allow this unfolding disaster. This really comes down to an evolutionary analysis of individualism. My thesis (most recently summarized here) is that this campaign of moral vilification relies on pre-existing tendencies among a great many Whites toward moral universalism and creating ingroups based on moral and reputational qualities rather than kinship. (All of the Jewish intellectual movements discussed in The Culture of Critique are essentially moral indictments of the West.)
Rather than explaining current pathologies as a result of the Enlightenment seen simply as an inexplicable cognitive aberration (itself an example of replacing “something that’s difficult to explain with something that’s even more difficult to explain), as an evolutionist I attempt an analysis in terms of the evolutionary origins of an important subset of Europeans. The pathologies that are so deadly now were apparent in certain European groups by the late 18th century with the demise of the old aristocratic order and long before the Jews came along to take advantage. In the end, we have to realize that European individualism is the source of our weakness as well as our strength. The fact is that Western societies were quite healthy until after World War II. 250 years after the Enlightenment, they were confident and in no apparent danger of self-destructing. The collapse occurred quite suddenly, coinciding with the rise of Jews as a hostile elite; the burden of my work is that this is not just a coincidence, and I have yet to see a convincing argument to the contrary.
The tendencies toward egalitarianism and moral universalism so apparent in the post-17th-century Western world were presumably adaptive within small hunter-gatherer groups in the Northern European Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness—the environment Northern Europeans evolved in. However, they are not adaptive in the modern world where empathy and altruism are routinely manipulated by hostile elites to serve their material interests.For the Mini-Estrella luchador who previously wrestled as "El Torito", see Espectrito
Mascarita Dorada (Spanish: Little Golden Mask; born February 19, 1982), is the ring name of a Mexican Luchador enmascarado, or masked professional wrestler, who works in the Mini-Estrella division, comparable to midget wrestling. He is also known for his tenure with WWE under the ring name El Torito (Spanish for The Little Bull).
From 2000 until 2007, he worked under the name Mascarita Sagrada in Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA), taking over after the original Mascarita Sagrada left AAA. In 2007 he moved from AAA to join Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) he changed name to Mascarita Dorada. After leaving CMLL in 2011, he began wrestling for El Hijo del Santo under the ring name Mascarita Plateada, while also returning to AAA under the Mascarita Dorada ring name. He is a former two-time Mexican National Mini-Estrella Champion and co-holder of the AAA Mascot Tag Team Championship along with Máscara Sagrada. Mascarita Dorada's real name is not a matter of public record, as is often the case with masked wrestlers in Mexico where their private lives are kept a secret from wrestling fans.[4]
Professional wrestling career [ edit ]
The wrestler who would later become known as Mascarita Dorada made his debut in early 2000 after training under Indio Vitela for over a year.[1] Initially he used the ring name "Speedy Gonzales", named after the cartoon character of the same name.
Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (2000–2007) [ edit ]
In Triple A, Mascarita Dorada was given the mask and outfit of Mascarita Sagrada
In late 1999 the original Mascarita Sagrada left Asistencia Asesoría y Administración, leading to AAA owner Antonio Peña searching for a wrestler to take over the mask and outfit. After seeing Speedy Gonzales in the ring Peña immediately signed him to a contract and gave him the name Mascarita Sagrada 2000, the "2000" was dropped from his name within months.[5] His first appearance at a major show came on March 5, 2000 when he teamed with Octagoncito and La Parkita to defeat Mini Abismo Negro, Mini Psicosis and Rocky Marvin on the 2000 Rey de Reyes show.[6] In 2001 he made his first Triplemanía appearance at Triplemanía IX where he teamed with La Parkita and Octagoncito to defeat Mini Abismo Negro, Rocky Marvin and Espectrito.[7] On August 6, 2001 Mascarita Sagrada defeated Rocky Marvin to win the Mexican National Mini-Estrella Championship.[8] Over the next year Sagrada would defend against Mini Psicosis and Mini Abismo Negro in the only two recorded title defenses in his 909-day title reign.[8] On December 13, 2002 Mascarita Sagrada and Mascara Sagrada teamed up to defeat Mini Abismo Negro and Abismo Negro to win the AAA Mascot Tag Team Championship, a title where only a regular sized and a Mini using the same ring character could challenge for the title.[1][9] The team held the title for almost two years, making successful title defenses against El Alebrije and Cuije, Monsther and Chucky, Abismo Negro and Mini Abismo Negro as well as several title defenses against Psicosis II and Mini Psicosis.[10] On February 1, 2004 Mascarita Sagrada lost the Mexican Minis title to Mini Abismo Negro, ending his almost three-year-long reign.[8] On August 20, 2004 the team of El Alebrije and Cuije defeated Mascara Sagrada and Mascarita Sagrada to win the Mascot Tag Team title in a match that also included Monsther and Chucky, and Psicosis and Mini Psicosis as well.[10] On November 5, 2004 Mascarita Sagrada regained the Mexican Minis title from Mini Abismo Negro.[8] Over the next couple of years Mascarita Sagrada and indeed the entire minis division worked fewer and fewer matches, only occasionally apperaing on TV. In 2007 Mascarita Sagrada decided to leave AAA, taking an offer from rival Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) that guaranteed both more money and more ring time.[11] When he left AAA he was still the Mexican National Mini-Estrella Champion and has never officially been stripped of the title, the title is considered inactive from the moment he left AAA.
Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (2007–2011) [ edit ]
Since AAA held the rights to the name "Mascarita Sagrada" and because CMLL wanted to market him as a "CMLL creation" they decided to give him a new outfit, mask and name – creating the gold and black outfit and mask of Mascarita Dorada ("Little Golden Mask").[11] Mascarita Dorada made his debut in late 2007, teaming with Pe |
include all the “you’re allowed to discriminate against anyone who you think might be Trans” points. We’ve been over the specifics informally with a few people, including lawyers, since the original posts went up and they broadly agree with the interpretation – not that there is really much to disagree with, given the examples in the explanatory notes are quite graphic. I’ve heard a couple of dissenting voices, but always people I’ve not managed to sit down and go through the act with. Equalities people tend to be quite surprised when we point out the specifics.
There’s been some confusion over access to services in that the act compels discrimination. It does not do this, it just allows for it to take place. However, bitter experience within the Trans community shows that we’re often the ones to suffer if someone objects to our presence. It’s rarely the loud, problematic and transphobic individuals who get excluded from spaces if they create a fuss but us, because we’re seen as an easy target. Someone objects to a fellow patient on a single-sex hospital ward who they think might be Transsexual? Who do you think the hospital are going to move? It’s worse with rape counselling services as such organisations are usually (Understandably) run by feminist-minded people. Whilst the vast majority of feminists are pro-trans there are a few second-wavists who are rabidly anti-Trans, because our very existence disproves some of their most deeply-held beliefs. Under the guise of “Some people might not feel comfortable”, they’re allowed quite legally to operate a blanket ban across the organisation for anyone with non-binary gender expression or to selectively exclude anyone they don’t like.
I’ll resort to the usual cliché here, updated to reflect modern Britain – would it be OK to exclude all Romany (Or people of colour or Hispanics if you’re American) because people might be uncomfortable or because of some constructed fallacy that all sexual assaults are carried out by a particular group? (Hint: Not all sexual assault is men assaulting women) Clearly not, so why are we so special that we deserve to be singled out for discrimination in the laws of the land?
There’s one area that is very obviously regressive though, to the point that one lawyer suggested that it may even be a drafting error in the legislation. (Many thanks to Darren Newman for spotting this one) I’ve mentioned this but never blogged about the details so I think some people are unclear on it. The specific section is Schedule 6 of the Gender Recognition Act 2004. This updated Section 7 of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, itself modified by the section 4 of the Sex Discrimination (Gender Reassignment) Regulations 1999, with the upshot of the whole thing being that you can’t discriminate against someone at all if they have a Gender Recognition Certificate. Rather than progressively extending protection to other areas, the Equalities Act 2010 undoes the changes put in place by the Gender Recognition Act such that a Gender Recognition Certificate is no longer useful.
Or, to put it another way: Trans folk are made to jump through hoops to get a gender Recognition Certificate, including going through the trauma of state-mandated divorce just to get our Human Rights back. Then, a few years later parliament passes a law which basically tells us it was all for nothing and we’re not going to get our rights back.
Think we might be a little pissed off with this? You bet we are.The players enjoyed their evening with the native tribe at the base of the volcano Mt. Hellysium.
In the morning they decided they would follow their map to a castle location where they expected they would finally meet the mysterious stranger whose maps they have been following since Session 2.
While walking, the party was approached by a lone ranger who delivered a letter and bag of gold to the party.
The letter was from Diego, leader of the radical Masked Brotherhood. He was happy that the poisoned kegs were delivered in Session 7 but was dismayed to learn that the river port master was killed in the process.
The gold in the bag was a commission to the party for their tip about Urag’s treasure horde that they were unable to loot themselves in Session 1.
In the letter, Diego expressed his wishes to speak with the party again and provided them a map with coordinates to his temporary camp.
The party headed in the direction of the camp but first had to dispatch a flock of harpies in the wilderness. Warden was charmed by the harpy’s haunting call and pendulous breasts but was able to snap out of it when the fight ended.
They arrived at Diego’s camp and were able to speak with the man himself. The party explained that the port master’s death was unavoidable.
Diego began to fill them in on some more of his plans. He explained his ultimate goal was to overthrow the royal monarchy of Renaulton and establish a new democracy in it’s place. To do this would require a plan with many moving parts.
One part of the offensive would be spreading fear and terror in the city to undermine the royal authority. The poisoned kegs were a good start but more was still needed. Diego gave the party a large bomb disguised as a wine keg. He asked the party to plant it somewhere inside the royal city where the explosion would be impactful but also inflict minimal human casualties.
The second part of the offensive would be elimination of the royal bloodline. Diego explained his plans to kill the King and Queen, the King’s brother Prince Monroe and the young princeling Armod who was currently being held captive by the Masked Brotherhood.
Security was too tight to plan an assassination on the King and Queen but Diego did have word from within the city that the king’s brother would be heading north in 4 days. Diego requested the party make it to the north of Renaulton and attempt to ambush and assassinate Prince Monroe when he left the city.
In the middle of conversation, the ground began to shake!
A massive 13 foot tall, two-headed Ettin emerged from the forest. It smashed the tent with its club and began crushing Diego’s men and sending them flying through the air like rag dolls.
Diego was quickly scuttled away to safety by some of his men.
The party (and a handful of Diego’s remaining men) decided to stay and fight the massive monster! Fizban’s insects swarmed and some of the party’s attacks did hit but it was not near enough damage to actually fell this beast.
Fizban used his Ring of Control Person to charm one of Diego’s fighters to take the explosive keg and detonate it at the feet of the Ettin.
The plan worked and created a massive explosion that set a huge plume of fire into the sky. The Ettin was roasted. The camp however was destroyed and none of Diego’s people that stayed back survived the blast.
After that chaos, the party decided to continue heading to the castle on their map. It was actually quite close to the royal city of Renaulton.
When they arrived, they found the castle being overrun by skeletons and a wight. A lone wizard was fighting them off at the top of the keep but it appeared he may lose the fight.
The party rushed in but there were a lot of skeletons. Orion Payne was knocked out in the fighting. Fizban was taken out by a pit trap. Betamax was pushed off the castle walls by skeletons..
Eventually, and with much effort, the party was able to kill of the skeletons and the mysterious wizard was able to kill the wight.
The wizard was a very old man and was happy to receive the bones of his fallen friend. He explained to the party that he meant to leave on his final adventure and was hoping that someone worthy would come to inherit his accumulated treasures and his castle. A “life without adventure is a life that’s not worth living” he said.
He bequeathed his estate to the party. There was 1000 gold pieces, magical scrolls and magical boots of leaping. The castle was large enough that they would all have their own rooms and a garden to harvest food.
Fizban however is a greedy dark mage. All of these things were not enough for him and he attempted to rob the wizard of his spell book in the night. The wizard caught him in the act and fired him across the room with magic missiles knocking him unconscious and VERY nearly killing Fizban.
The wizard was perturbed by this and decided to leave the castle early and in a huff.
AdvertisementsRAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany — An Air Force officer who engaged in an unprofessional relationship with an airman 20 years his junior while commanding a small expeditionary base in Africa will be forced out of the service following a general court-martial last week.
A military judge ruled late Friday that Lt. Col. Denis Paquette should be dismissed from the service, the equivalent of a dishonorable discharge for enlisted personnel. The dismissal means that Paquette, a C-17 pilot and married father with more than 18 years in the Air Force, won’t be eligible for retirement benefits.
Paquette chose to have his case decided by a military judge. He pleaded guilty to fraternization; violating a lawful general order on one occasion by drinking more than two alcoholic drinks at a deployed location in less than 24 hours; and to impeding an investigation.
The judge, Col. Mark Milam, found Paquette was negligent in performing his assigned duties, a lesser offense than the dereliction of duty for which he was charged. The judge also found Paquette did not violate the same general order regarding alcohol consumption on numerous occasions. He was also found not guilty of the most egregious charge against him: abusive sexual contact.
The criminal charges against Paquette stemmed from his time last summer as commander of the 722nd Expeditionary Air Base Squadron at Sidi Ahmed Air Base in Tunisia.
While assigned to Altus Air Force Base, Okla., Paquette was tasked with standing up the squadron at what was then a secret location in Africa for unmanned aerial vehicle operations.
In his first time commanding a squadron, Paquette oversaw the Americans’ side of the camp, which was about the size of a football field and supported about 70 airmen and 20 contractors, according to court testimony.
Witnesses described Paquette as a personable commander who made it a point of getting to know all of his airmen, from their names to personal details about their families, goals and hobbies. But his gregarious leadership style backfired when his relationship with an 18-year-old Security Forces airman with less than a year in the service progressed from mentoring to a close friendship and sexual attraction, according to testimony.
“It starts out with a mentorship but it goes way, way, way over the line after that,” said Maj. Rachel Lyons, senior trial counsel for the Air Force, in court. “After that, he uses personal knowledge of her family to get closer to her … and to try to take the relationship to the next level.”
When others in the camp became uncomfortable with how much time the two were spending together, the two were advised to limit their personal contact, according to testimony. To continue communicating out of the public eye, the two began writing what prosecutors called “love letters” to each other, while also still spending time together, including at a party one night in July where both were said to be drinking.
Alcohol consumption at the base was one of the major themes of the trial, with prosecutors alleging that Paquette ran the base like a “summer camp” and a “frat house.” Paquette was charged with failing to follow and enforce a U.S. Africa Command general order that prohibited airmen from drinking more than two alcoholic beverages in a 24-hour period at their deployed location. Most of the government’s 15 witnesses, brought to Ramstein to testify from various locations worldwide, testified about the alcohol consumption on base, with one describing it as “overwhelming.” Airmen were allowed to keep alcohol in their tents and parties went late into the evening most Friday and Saturday nights, some airmen testified.
But airmen also testified that Paquette told them to be responsible and that he thought it important to keep morale high by not counting alcoholic drinks. They said the mission was accomplished.
Paquette was relieved of command on Aug. 2, 2016, about three months after he took charge of the squadron. During its investigation, the Air Force Office of Special Investigations found the letters Paquette and the airman exchanged, which led to the abusive sexual contact charge. Paquette wrote in one of his letters about a night when they had both been drinking and sitting next to each other: “I moved my hand to your leg to hold your inner thigh. Yikes!”
Prosecutors argued that the airman was too drunk that night to remember or to consent to the touching. But attorneys for Paquette said OSI took the case too far, since the airman said she didn’t feel like a victim.
“All along, this was always about a fraternization, about a relationship gone too far between an officer and enlisted and a violation of a general order, said defense attorney Jonathan Crisp, in an interview after the trial. “OSI took the letters and made more out of it.”
On his guilty pleas alone, Paquette faced up to a maximum nine years in prison. But the judge declined to punish him beyond the dismissal.
Milam, the judge, asked the airman during her testimony if she felt like a victim.
“Technically in writing I am a victim but I don’t feel victimized,” she said. The airman, however, said she was too drunk to recall if Paquette touched her inner thigh and that she would not have been OK with it.
“It would be wonderful if I could take a trip back in time and make different decisions, but I can’t,” Paquette said to the judge in an unsworn statement, apologizing to the judge, his family and his airmen for his mistakes.
svan.jennifer@stripes.com"We've Only Just Begun" is a hit single by The Carpenters written by Roger Nichols (music) and Paul Williams (lyrics). Ranked at No. 405 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time", it is frequently used as a wedding song.
Song information [ edit ]
The song was originally recorded by Smokey Roberds, a friend of Nichols, singing under the name of "Freddie Allen".[1] It debuted within a wedding-themed television commercial for Crocker National Bank in California in the winter of 1970, with Williams on vocals. Hal Riney of the San Francisco-based advertising agency Hal Riney & Partners had commissioned the song to help Crocker appeal to young people. The song played over footage of a couple getting married and just starting out. In the song, direct reference to the bank was left out, in part to make the song more marketable. The commercial turned out to be very popular, but it attracted customers the bank was not interested in, young adult customers without any collateral for loans, so the campaign was eventually suspended, after which the concept was franchised by Crocker to other banks.[2].
Richard Carpenter saw the TV commercial and guessed correctly that Williams was the vocalist (both of them were under contract to A&M Records). Carpenter ran into Williams on the record company's lot and asked if a full-length version was available. Although the TV commercial had only two verses and no bridge, Williams stated that there was a bridge and an additional verse, forming a complete song; he and Nichols went on to write them.
Carpenter selected the composition for the duo's third single and included it on the LP Close to You. Released in late summer 1970, the single featured Karen's lead vocals and the overdubbed harmonies of both siblings. Following their hit "(They Long to Be) Close to You" onto the charts, "We've Only Just Begun" hit No. 1 on the Cash Box singles chart and No. 2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 behind The Jackson 5's "I'll Be There" and The Partridge Family's "I Think I Love You", becoming the pair's second million-selling gold single. It was considered by both Karen and Richard to be their signature song. According to The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits (6th edition), on the U.S. Adult Contemporary singles chart, it was the duo's best-performing tune, lasting seven weeks at No. 1 (beating the six-week stay at the top of "Close to You"). The song also helped them to win two Grammy Awards in 1971: for the Best New Artist (The Carpenters) and Best Contemporary Performance by a Duo, Group, or Chorus ("Close to You").
For Williams, the song was a personal victory; it was his first collaboration with Nichols that resulted in a hit single, and it opened the door to many more thereafter. In 1998, the recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for recordings "of lasting quality or historical significance".[3]
A 1981 cover version by Lee McDonald has been a modern soul classic for many years.[citation needed] The song was sampled in R&B singer Miguel's song "How Many Drinks?", taken from his Grammy-nominated 2012 album Kaleidoscope Dream. In 2016, the song was used in another commercial, this time for Lowe's Home Improvement.
Music video [ edit ]
The music video for the song was shot in a red background with the letters for the word "you". Karen was sitting in the letter "u" while Richard was standing beside her. He also was not playing the piano as he usually did.
Chart performance [ edit ]
Weekly charts [ edit ] Chart (1970–71) Peak
position Australia 6 Canada RPM Top Singles [4] 1 Canada RPM Adult Contemporary[5] 1 Japan 71 UK 28 US Billboard Hot 100 2 US Billboard Easy Listening 1 US Cash Box Top 100 [6] 1 Year-end charts [ edit ] Chart (1970) Rank Australia 90 US Billboard Hot 100 [7] 65 US Cash Box [8] 57 Canada [9] 16
Personnel [ edit ]
Carpenters compilation appearances [ edit ]
1973 – The Singles: 1969–1973 (1973 remix)
(1973 remix) 1980 – Beautiful Moments
1985 – Yesterday Once More: Their Greatest Hits (1985 remix)
(1985 remix) 1989 – Anthology
1991 – From the Top (1991 remix)
(1991 remix) 1995 – Interpretations: A 25th Anniversary Edition
1997 – Carpenters: Their Greatest Hits And Finest Performances
1998 – Love Songs
2000 – The Singles: 1969-1981
2002 – The Essential Collection
2004 – Gold: 35th Anniversary Edition
2009 – 40/40
2014 – Icon (as part of Universal Music's budget line compilation series)
Notable cover versions [ edit ]
In cinema and television [ edit ]
The song was used in an unusual context in 1408, a film adapted from a short story by Stephen King; it marked the onset of the protagonist's horrific ordeal. It also closed the 2000 gay ensemble, The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy, performed by Mary Beth Maziarz. "We've Only Just Begun" was featured at the conclusion of the Australian film, The Castle, where it was sung by Kate Ceberano. It was also part of the score of John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness, where it was heard playing over loudspeakers while the protagonist was committed to a psychiatric hospital. The song was also sung by Carl Weathers in the motion picture, Happy Gilmore, and was featured in the film version of Starsky & Hutch.
See also [ edit ]It’s no secret that the NFL is a quarterback centered league. Few teams rack up respectable win totals without a decent signal caller, and few teams that don’t have elite quarterbacks can be counted as contenders.
Take the Arizona Cardinals for example. In 2012, a severe lack of QB performance led to a 5-11 season. After trading for quarterback Carson Palmer, the Cards doubled their win total to ten. Of course, it’s not only because of Palmer, but the improvement at the position was a contributing factor. While Palmer is the quarterback of today, the Cards need a quarterback for tomorrow. Palmer may only have a couple
more years left in the tank, so the Cardinals should be seeking an heir apparent.
The upcoming draft may be a good place to start. The Cards, with the 20th pick, aren’t likely to get the more highly viewed prospects like
Bridgewater or Manziel. However, there’s still a decent group of rookie QBs behind them.
But how should Steve Keim and Co. approach this? The first thing to consider is whether the Cards should use their first round pick to get
their guy.
While I’m not going to say it would be the worst idea ever, the answer is probably not. The Cards should use their first round pick to fill
a more urgent need, and there’s no prospect likely to be on the board when they pick that is a sure-enough thing. Blake Bortles is regarded among the better QBs, but it’s more likely he will get taken before Arizona can grab him.
Derek Carr is another name that comes to mind, but again, it may not be the best idea to take a player who will sit on the bench for a couple of years and may or may not be successful when he takes the reins.
If the Cards
do not take a QB in round 1, there’s two names that stick out. The first is AJ
McCarron. McCarron was very successful at Alabama, however, he had an excellent team around him. McCarron can make it as an average starter in the NFL, but he’s not a fit for AZ. He’s not a gunslinger and he’s not quite Arians’ type.
The second is Zach Mettenberger. Mettenberger performed well for LSU until he tore his ACL, from which he is still recovering. He’s a better
suitor for the Cards offense. He’s good in the pocket and has a powerful arm. He has flaws. He tends to stare down recovers and doesn’t have the best footwork. Still, he’s got the right blend of skills that Arians can mold and refine into a successful NFL quarterback.
There are other options. Logan Thomas recently worked out for Arians, but Mettenberger looks like the Cardinals best
option as their QB of the future. at least in this years crop.Instead of going small with its new top-of-the-line e-reader, Kobo, now owned by online retailer Rakuten, has gone big. The Aura One ($230 in the US, £190 in the UK and AU$350 in Australia) sports a 7.8-inch e-ink display that's significantly larger than the 6-inch e-ink displays found on all of Amazon's Kindle e-readers.
Even with that bigger screen, at 230 grams or 8.1 ounces, this Aura is thinner and a touch lighter than the earlier Aura H20, which has a 6.8-inch screen. Bottom line: You're getting more screen without adding any weight.
Enlarge Image Sarah Tew/CNET
I personally prefer the smaller form factor of the current Kindle line, and the svelte (but pricey) Kindle Oasis in particular. Some people like to bump up the font size, however, and a larger screen allows you to display more lines of text. While it's a little hard to get your whole hand around this newer Kobo e-reader, it's designed to be held in one hand. Plus, the back of the device has a rubberized, textured finish that makes it a little easier to grip.
Like the Aura H20, this e-reader is waterproof, though it doesn't float. Its got a higher IPX8 rating, which means it can be submerged in up to two meters of water for up to 60 minutes (the Aura H20 is rated to be submerged in up one meter for 30 minutes). Currently, no Kindle is water-resistant, although Barnes & Noble's Nook GlowLight Plus is.
Other upgrades include an ultra-high 1,872x1,404 resolution, 300-pixels per inch display, 8GB of onboard storage instead of the typical 4GB and an improved integrated lighting system that allows you to adjust not only brightness but color temperature (basically, a "day" and "night" mode).
Enlarge Image Sarah Tew/CNET
As you'd expect from a Kobo e-reader, you can shop for e-books in the integrated Kobo store (Kobo also has apps for iOS, Android, Windows, BlackBerry 10 devices, Mac and Windows PCs). But in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand, you can also check out library e-books via the OverDrive app, which Kobo's parent company scooped up last year, directly from the Aura One's screen. (Yes, you can also get these free library books on Kindle and Nook devices, but it's a bit more of a convoluted process that involves using a second device.)
Adding your free Overdrive account (and local participating library card number) to the device is simple, and it's great to have access to a giant list of free (or, at least, taxpayer-supported) books. But for reasons unknown, a handful of books we tried (such as "The Whites" by Richard Price and "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell" by Susanna Clarke) didn't show up in the Kobo's search results, even though both were available as Overdrive loans from our local library when viewed through a standard web browser.Recently, more and more countries and organizations have been voicing support for China on the South China Sea issue.
In a statement released on Tuesday, members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) stressed that the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and other international laws should be basic principles when addressing the South China Sea issue.
All disputes should be addressed through negotiation and consultation, without intervention from the outside, the statement said, calling on relevant parties to abide by and implement the Declaration of Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC).
Secretary General Rashid Alimov of the SCO also issued a separate statement, supporting China's stance on the issue and backing up China’s efforts to safeguard the peace and stability of the region. The support of SCO, which was not solicited by China, supports the idea that facts and justice will eventually prevail.
With regards to the South China Sea issue, justice should be reflected in the following areas. First, the legitimate rights and interests of each country should be respected. China has established its sovereignty and maritime rights in the South China Sea over the course of history. It makes little sense that, all of a sudden, China has to seek approval from other countries to obtain legitimacy.
As early as 2006, the Chinese government, under Article 298 of UNCLOS, made a statement of optional exception on issues related to maritime demarcation, historic titles, military and law enforcement. China’s decision to opt out of the one-sided arbitration petitioned for by the Philippines therefore fully conforms to international law.
Moreover, national rights and interests are not determined by the size of a country. Western media has slandered China as a bully, but this accusation ignores China's legitimate rights and interests. Unilaterally requested arbitration, such as that by the Philippines, is a breach of contract and does nothing to help solve the dispute.
Major powers are responsible for playing a positive role in safeguarding international peace. By interfering in the South China Sea, the U.S. is attempting to dominate maritime order and expand its influence in the Asia-Pacific. The country is gambling on regional stability for its own gains. China, on the contrary, is doing its best to preserve regional peace and stability, and also consider the perspectives of each involved party.
China's supporters have seen China's good will, recognized China’s policies and choices, and supported China’s efforts to safeguard its rights and interests, as well as stability in the region. China has repeatedly called for the Philippines to correct its mistakes and for the U.S. to join with Asian nations in promoting regional peace. The Philippines and the U.S. should change their stance soon if they truly want a peaceful South China Sea.
(The author is an expert on international affairs.)
This article was edited and translated from 南海问题中国“朋友圈”为何越来越大 Source: People's DailySpectacular compound originally built by the Hearst family for Marion Davies in her retirement. This 9 bedroom 11 bathroom estate has nearly 14,000 sf of living space and sits on 2.77 acres directly across from the 175 acre Annenberg site. Upon her death the property was sold to the owner of Trader Vic's who sold it to the present owner in 1996. The original structure built for Marion Davies still stands, though it was upgraded and added to what is now its' current state. The property includes a pond and waterful in the front, a full tennis court and a pool. The property shows beautifully and is presently maintained by several full time employees. The structure will need some upgrading to bring the interior space to 2016 standards, thus the pricing reflects that. This is a once in a decade opportunity to own a magnificent property with historical significance. Video and professional photos to be up in a week.I would probably rate this game 3 stars. It is what it appears to be...Space Invaders-like play with glowing graphics and some additional story line and purchase system. To me it is like 85% Space Invaders, 15% Tyrian - which is too bad because I love Tyrian, but was never much for Space Invaders.
So, my rating is more my preference for the game and not the quality, which I think is pretty good.
I played for only about 10 minutes on Casual and found it a little slow paced. I'm sure the higher difficulties would be a much more frenetic challenge.
I found the graphics smooth with no glitches. I am running on a Droid 2 which arguably is a pretty old and slow phone by today's standards. I can only believe that all those having issues have something else wrong with their phone or some conflicting application.
I have an idea for all of you with FC problems...wipe your phone and install just this game. If you still have issues, report back and I'm sure the developer will take heed. If your issues are solved, go ahead and install back your other apps...chances are you will find which other app(s) are causing problems. You can then go give them bad reviews! Point is...realize that a program not functioning is not always the fault of just the program itself. the fact that dozens of other people play it just fine is an indication you have some sort of problem with your phone.
My guess is that those of you so quick to rate it one star and "suuuuccckks FC!!!!!" probably download every single FAOTD and have so much junk on your phone I'm surprised you can even pick it up. Uninstall your pranker call software and the "shut up" button you use on your sister.
Give the developers a break...and take some responsibility for maintaining your device.
An extra star to balance out the griefers.(Photo by BigStock)
We believe that the opposite of focus— daydreaming, goofing off, spacing out— is to be avoided. Worse yet, having problems focusing is seen as an obstacle to overcome and even as pathological. Self- help books and productivity bloggers strive to keep us on task with advice and hacks.
When we fail to come up with the results we were hoping for, we wonder whether we just aren’t working or concentrating hard enough. We’ve come to consider focus and being on as “good,” and idleness— especially if it goes on for too long— as “bad” and unproductive. We feel guilty if we spend too much time doing nothing.
But in thinking this way, we make a fundamental mistake.
Truly successful people don’t come up with great ideas through focus alone. They are successful because they make time to not concentrate and to engage in a broad array of activities like playing golf. As a consequence, they think inventively and are profoundly creative: they develop innovative solutions to problems and connect dots in brilliant ways. Dwight Eisenhower logged more hours on the golf course than any other U.S. president yet is also regarded as one of the best presidents this country has ever had.
In a time and age when everyone is over-scheduled and over-focused, creativity is more and more prized— it’s the key to your effectiveness and success, in life and in business. It can also be a never- ending source of joy and happiness.
Here are three ways to “unfocus” for heightened creativity:
1. Diversify your activities
Experts suggest that the key to being idle or to unfocusing is to diversify our activities rather than being constantly focused on a single task. To get a new perspective on something, we actually need to disengage from it. We can diversify in two ways: through mindless tasks or through a broader set of experiences.
To disengage through unfocused tasks, break up time spent assimilating information and working on a task by inserting fifteen- minute periods of more mindless and less focused activity, like taking a shower or going for a quick walk (without concentrating on your cell phone) or doing some stretching, advises Scott Barry Kaufman, scientific director of the Imagination Institute at the University of Pennsylvania.
“By taking that fifteen- minute period for mindlessness or daydreaming, your attention has been broadened and your mind is now able to make more creative connections between ideas. This cannot happen when you stay overly focused on a problem,” explains Kaufman.
[Six reasons you’d be happier if you stopped saying ‘busy’ so much]
Walking, in particular, appears to boost creativity. In a study appropriately titled “Give Your Ideas Some Legs,” researchers found that, both during the walks and right afterward, people scored higher on several different creativity tests.
You can also unfocus by broadening your experiential and intellectual horizons. According to Kaufman, anything that violates expectations of how the world works can boost creativity. For example, a semester spent studying abroad boosts students’ creativity. Why? New experiences that disrupt our usual way of life and show us a different perspective make us more mentally flexible or creative.
This explains the fascinating dynamics behind Innocentive, a platform for crowdsourcing genius solutions to complex problems submitted by research and development companies. These include everything from creating car accessories to enhancing the driving experience (a challenge submitted by Ford) to techniques for creating “earth independence,” whereby humans are able to survive in space for longer periods (a challenge submitted by NASA). Anyone can submit a solution, with winners receive financial compensation.
A research study out of Harvard headed by Karim Lakhani established that there was a higher probability of someone solving a problem submitted to Innocentive if that person was not an expert in that particular field, but was in a field that was marginally or not at all related.
“The further the problem was from the solver’s expertise,” Lakhani shared with the New York Times, “the more likely they were to solve it.”
2. Make time for stillness and silence
Given how busy modern life is, we can think of stillness and silence as another “diversifying” experience. Rather than being in motion and rushing from one place to the next, we are still. Rather than doing something, we do nothing. Rather than focusing on things, we completely unplug. Meditation is an obvious example of cultivating stillness or silence.
[You’re missing out on your experiences. A meditation expert explains how to live in the moment]
Research on silence provides insight into what makes silence so powerful and how it helps us access our innate creativity. In 2006, Luciano Bernardi was studying the impact of music on physiology. To his surprise, he found that not only did the music affect participants’ physiology (slower music reduced heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing), but so did the moments of silence— which he had only included as a comparison measure.
In fact, Bernardi found that periods of silence inserted between tracks of music were much more relaxing than the soundtracks designed to induce relaxation or periods of silence administered without music in between. Physiologically, taking a “silence break” had the most profound relaxing and calming effect. Other studies have found that silence— despite being void of content— can help develop new brain cells.
Pico Iyer, author of The Art of Stillness, has found that removing himself from the bustle of society is key to thinking outside the box (and recalling what he cares for). The various demands placed on us, which rob us of the idle time we need to be creative— expectations that we will be available 24/7 and interruptions made possible by the various technologies we use every day— aren’t going to go away. For Iyer, the solution lies not in changing those demands (which most of us can’t anyway) but in altering our relationship to them— which is fundamentally an internal process.
“We can choose to step out of the permanent Times Square that is buzzing in our heads. Most people are noticing that they are drowning in it. And they are trying to find a way back to stillness: through hikes, sailing, meditation, Internet Sabbath,” explains Iyer.
He believes his best work comes when he can hear something deeper than the clatter of the world. “When you stand about two inches away from the great canvas that is our world and our lives— just as when you stand too close to a painting— you can’t catch the larger patterns in it, the meaning,” Iyer explains.
To consciously make room for stillness in his life, Iyer has gone 80 times over the past 24 years on retreat to Benedictine hermitage, even though he says he’s not “specifically religious.”
“When I go to my monastery in Big Sur, I spend a lot of time doing nothing, taking walks, lying on my bed— and I’m confident that it’s only in that space that I will come up with something fresh and more interesting than my every day ideas.”
Stillness also allows him to step out of clock time into a more spacious sense of hours, which is of huge importance to his work as a writer. “As soon as I am in stillness, I can hear my deepest voice, everything that becomes inaudible when I am in constant motion.”
Silence can, of course, be uncomfortable. When your mind wanders, thoughts and feelings can emerge that are not necessarily pleasant. Being alone or being un-busy or quiet can open the door to troublesome thoughts or even anxiety. You might even feel “stuck” on them, since the brain tends to focus on negative things. Yet if you sit through them, or walk through them (if your silent practice is a hike or a walk), you will see that they eventually pass, leaving room for free- flowing thoughts and daydreams. Just like any exercise, idle time will be more natural and enjoyable the more you engage in it |
hate being asked these questions, not just because they are invasive but also because they reinforce a focus on transgender bodies rather than transgender lives.
Transgender people are not just flesh, not just before-and-after slideshows, not just breathtaking spectacles of gender transformation. They are people. If you care about your role, maintain a commitment to the humanity of the population you’re portraying in all of your comments about the film.
Physical changes are just one part of the experience of a gender transition but, because we live in a scopophilic culture, they receive an inordinate amount of focus. One of the first questions most transgender people receive from strangers, for example, is about “the surgery” when, in fact, the majority of transgender people have not undergone surgery.
A gender transition is an emotional, psychological, and often a spiritual shift in someone’s personhood. Shifts in names, pronouns, relationships, and self-conceptualization matter so much more than the granular details of genitals and body hair. One of the classic mistakes that actors make in their portrayal of transgender characters is allowing the media to reinforce the titillation that surrounds gendered bodily practices that cross cultural expectations.
Leto has been awful about resisting the fixation on the body, and it hasn’t earned him any favors with the transgender community. He has waxed on about the horrors of waxing his whole body, much to the amusement of his interviewers. This sort of talk is deeply insensitive. Body hair in the transgender community can be a matter of life and death: When transgender women don’t pass as cisgender women, they become subject to extreme forms of violence and harassment. For some transgender women, a 5 o’clock shadow makes all the difference.
While Leto laughs it up about all the professional body treatments he received as a brave Hollywood hero, transgender people are stuck in the trenches, struggling with disposable razors, duct tape, and makeup just to stay alive. If you find yourself in Leto’s position, don’t do this. Shift the focus to the role, the person, the human being and don’t give into the sensationalist display of transgender bodies.
3. Actually, you know, mention transgender people when talking about the film.
In his acceptance speeches, Leto has been notoriously silent about the situation of transgender people in the United States. His Golden Globes speech was an insufficient and, frankly, irreverent response to the gravity of his role. In his Oscars acceptance speech, he mentioned victims of HIV/AIDS, yes, but he specifically mentioned transgender people a grand total of zero times. Imagine the political work Leto’s speech could have performed had he delivered a stirring tribute to transgender people and rallied against the sorts of injustices that made his character’s life unlivable.
If you take on a transgender role for the publicity, the personal glory, the honor, you should at least make an earnest effort to elevate mainstream awareness of transgender issues. More than half of anti-LGBT homicide victims are transgender women. Transgender people face rampant verbal and sexual abuse. Changing sex and gender markers on personal identification is such a complicated endeavor that it takes teams of legal experts (like those at the Sylvia Rivera Law Project) to help transgender people navigate the legal system. You can still be fired just for being transgender in 34 states. Things are not getting better for transgender folks fast enough. If you’re going to jumpstart your career with a transgender role, you need to be a part of the change we so desperately need.
Shine your spotlight on the folks who need it most, on the people whose lives make your fame possible. Use your platform for good, not to selfishly hoard the attention for yourself. And, when someone asks you about shaving your legs, you can say that you’d rather talk about your sympathy for victims of transphobic violence and your admiration for transgender people who are still managing to survive in a hostile world.
Samantha Allen is a doctoral fellow in the Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Emory University. In addition to writing regularly for the feminist gaming blog The Border House, her writing has also appeared on Salon, Jacobin, Kotaku, and First Person Scholar. You can find her on Twitter at @CousinDangereux or on the web at www.samanthaleighallen.com.
Photo via Ping Foo/Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)The Aston Martin V8 Vantage is a cornerstone of British motoring courtesy of its characterful charm and rebellious 'Bond' attitude.
Made famous by Timothy Dalton in 007’s outing in ‘The Living Daylights’, the Vantage is widely regarded as ‘Britain’s first supercar’. When conceived in 1977, the V8 Vantage concealed a top speed of 170 mph, and was latterly installed with the traditional twin choke, four down draught Weber carburettors alongside the 580x engine for added power. The 580x engine made the car one of the quickest production models that the British marque ever produced. Which evolved to inspire the X Pack edition. The X Pack features a 16” bolt on stud alloys, full leather interior with walnut wood detailing, integrated power bulge and the iconic Vantage branding on the side.
The car in question is rolling into RM Sotheby’s auction between the 28th- 29th January 2016, complete in a majestic dark obsidian green exterior. When looking at its side profile featuring powerful lines and exquisite craftsmanship, you’ll be forgiven for mistaking the Vantage for a Mustang. Yet, similarly to the Mustang, despite carrying some heft, the Vantage was no slouch. Packing a 410 bhp engine, the Vantage defeated esteemed Italian rivals such as the Countach and Testarossa with aplomb.
A potent mix of power, speed and luxury. Take a closer look at the V8 Vantage below.Pakistani Pink Himalayan salt blocks, plates, platters, and bricks can be used for sautéing, grilling, chilling, curing, baking, salting, plating, bathing, and contemplating.
The Fundamentals of Himalayan Salt
A boulder of Himalayan salt emerges from darkness of a 16th century mineshaft in Pakistan and explodes into light, catching and refracting the sun in hues ranging from water-clear crystal to clematis flower pink to deep meaty red. The rough salt rocks are then hand cut by local masons into a variety of shapes, providing the foundation for extraordinary new ways to prepare and serve food.
Indeed, there are as many uses for a heavy slab of Pakistani Pink Himalayan salt as there are foods, cooking styles, whims, acts of folly, and shows of bravado. The salt’s crystal lattice has a fairly high specific energy (energy per unit of mass), so it will tend to hold any temperature you bring it to for a good while. Also, due to its lack of porosity or moisture (.026%), the salt plates can be safely heated or chilled to virtually any extreme. We have tested them from 0°F up to 900°F.
Two other considerations come into play when working with our Himalayan salt plates. Their lack of porosity means that the surface area touches your food is minimal. Compared to, say, ground up salt or naturally evaporated salt crystals, these large blocks of salt will impart only a very moderate saltiness. Second, the high quantity of trace minerals (1.2% sulfur,.4% calcium,.35% potassium,.16% magnesium, and 80 other trace minerals) impart a more mild and full taste to the salt, providing another level of flavor complexity to your food.
Himalayan Salt Block Recipe & Cooking Ideas
Armed with that knowledge, we unleash the hounds and set to. Here are just a few of our favorite uses for our Pakistani Pink Himalayan Salt Plates.
a) Arrange thinly sliced Carpaccio or sashimi on a cool salt platter and serve. Watch as the food literally salt-cures while at the table, gently cooking the edges and bringing on just a smidge of mineral-rich saltiness.
b) Place a large square tile of Pakistani Himalayan salt under the broiler. Wait 30 minutes, then remove the tile with a kitchen glove. Set on trivet at table, and saute fish, meats, and veggies while your guests or family look on with awe, disbelief, and dawning admiration. While cooking, your food will take on a light saltiness. Note that The Meadow’s larger Himalayan salt tiles will often hold heat long enough for repeated grillings before needing to reheat, but that batches will be successively saltier.
c) For an out-doorsy variation on the above, place a large platter of our Himalayan salt on the backyard grill, and plank grill a fennel-and-lemon stuffed monkfish, a lime-and-ginger marinated flank steak, or a balsamic and garlic rubbed Portobello mushroom.
d) For a variation on the wilder side of the out-doorsy, do what our two boys clamor for day in, day out, day in, day out (be forewarned). Heat a large Himalayan salt platter on an outdoor gas grill (best) or an indoor gas stove (use extreme caution). Lightly butter the salt platter, toss on firm bananas, grill 20 seconds on each side. Turn off the grill (important), douse with grappa or bourbon, ignite with a long match, and watch the flambé! Blow out last flames and serve with scoop of vanilla bean ice cream.Barely salted and seductively caramelized, the bananas spring to life against the cool silken contrast of the ice cream.
e) Freeze a Himalayan salt block or plate for two hours. Remove, and plate up scoops of ice cream or sorbet. More fun yet, warm lightly whipped sweet heavy cream, egg, honey, and aged bitters, and refrigerate. Remove the salt slab from freezer, pour mixture on it, slowly lufting with spatula, for a salt-tinged ice custard you will not soon forget.
f) Impress your Jewish grandma with Gravlax. Thaw a filet of commercially frozen (for health reasons) salmon, roll in sugar and minced dill, arrange on a Himalayan salt plate, cover with a heavy brick of Himalayan salt, wrap in paper bag and refrigerate for three days, slice, serve with crème fraîche and melba toast or just eat!
g) Getting back to basics, just use it as a serving platter for butter, cheeses, dried meats, or your daily does of pickled ginger and wasabe. When used as a plate for moist food such as apple slices and mozzarella, the food acquires an enhanced salt and mineral flavoring. One of ours serves as our regular butter dish.
h) If panache is what it takes to brighten the musty corners of your soul, try serving up an entire meal using large round or square Himalayan salt plates. Moist foods take on a touch of saltiness, dry foods do not, and everything glows with the otherworldly power of the ancient world (see Ogling below).
i) Place our larger platters of the Himalayan salt on the rack of your oven, preheat, and then bake bread, pizza, and savory pastries.
j) Get existential for a moment, place in window and stare idly at the beauty of salt in its natural, ancient state (see Ogling below).
k) Cut into jewelry, set in the precious metal of your choice, and nibble it as nibble jewelry from the lobes and fingers of your loved-one.
l) Take old (generally after many years of service) or broken salt plates and smash them up with a hammer (this should be fun), then arrange the prettier bits on a dinner plate as a garnish.
m) Take a bath, breaking up an old salt plate and tossing it into the tub to serve as an excellent and therapeutic bath salt, and pumice stone.
Caring for your Pakistani Pink Himalayan Salt Plate
After each use, wash your Himalayan salt plate with warm water and a soft brush or green scrubby, and tamp dry with a paper towel before setting on a drying rack. This will remove a very thin layer of the salt and make it ready for use again. Treated with care, a large salt slab will provide years of service! In addition, the powerful antimicrobial properties of the salt insure that it is always proper and ready for future use, with no need for detergents.
Ogling Your Salt
Ancient quarried salt is a hologram through which the mineral lineage of own bodies can be discerned. In effect, it tastes good to us because it is a reflection of our own primordial physiology.
To gain an appreciation for the beauty of this salt, let your mind drift overland, off the path, and into the wilds of the Hindu Kush, where wildflowers scatter under the tessellated fingerprint of a mild spring breeze. We take up with the torrents of the Amu Darya river, and just keep climbing along the ancient path where recorded history began, back in the 6th century BC, under the Achaemenid Empire.
After several days more of rugged hiking, in the rarified air of northern Pakistan’s Himalaya mountain range, we find a quarry where men pull massive boulders of luminescent pink ore from the earth, glowing like freshly harvested meteorites.
Gaze into the deep ferrite light of a massive block of Himalayan salt, and glimpse the unfathomed history of our planet. Pakistani pink Himalayan salt was formed in the Precambrian era, about 600 million years ago, as a great inland sea evaporated. Volcanic and other geological activity then sealed the salt in a hermetic vault where, over eons, it was subjected to the intense pressure and heat of the deep earth.
Tracing the history of our own biological development, the salt is rich in iron, calcium, and 82 other trace minerals contains all the trace minerals present in your body—and in a remarkably similar balance. Over countless lost ages the land encasing the ancient seabed up rose to become the Himalayas. Meanwhile, the scattering of Eukaryotic cells that comprised all life on earth evolved into shellfish and trilobites. Fish began to swim in the sea, great fern forests emerged, and then came the reptiles. Still the salt glowed darkly in the depths of the earth. Dinosaurs grew to towering heights, mammals peeked from beneath the leaves, and birds took flight. Grazing and carnivorous mammals, and then primates took hold, and still the salt remained in darkness.
Man appeared, gawking at the heavens and whittling spears, then scattering across Asia and beyond. 1.8 million years later, one lovely evening in 326 BC, Alexander the Great gave his troops a rest in the Khewra area of what is now Pakistan. An observant fellow noted in his diary that the horses were taken with licking the rocks—and lo, salt was discovered. Some eighteen centuries later, Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar was born. At the happy age of thirteen, the boy’s father fell to his death from the library stairs, and Akbar ascended to become the greatest Mughal emperor. Akbar’s two lasting contributions were the vast accessioning of art from around the world into the Mughal collections, and the introduction of standardized salt mining at Khewra.
Our Pakistani Pink Himalayan Salt is harvested in the same way it was under Akbar. The choice boulders from the harvest—sometimes weighing in excess of 500 pounds—are sliced into cubes and platters and planks and chunks for use on your table.
You can purchase a host of sizes and shapes of Himalayan salt blocks at The Meadow.
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Mark Bitterman :: Oct.15.2007 :: :: 128 Comments »It's been a long but not necessarily strange trip for the Dark Star Orchestra.
The Grateful Dead is one of the most storied touring acts in the history of rock. The iconic jam band logged more than 2,300 shows and spawned a myriad of cover acts.
Dark Star Orchestra formed in 1997, two years after the death of legendary vocalist-guitarist Jerry Garcia, which effectively ended the Grateful Dead's 30-year run. When Dark Star Orchestra commenced 20 years ago, the members of the group never envisioned that they would experience more gigs than the Grateful Dead. But Dark Star, which takes set lists from particular Dead shows and plays the songs from beginning to end, has more than 2,700 concerts in the books.
"Nobody in this group ever imagined that," keyboardist Rob Barracco said while calling from Washington D.C.
"It's hard to believe we've had that many shows and we're still going."
Not only is Dark Star Orchestra still going, the band is perhaps the most popular cover band on the circuit. DSO is headlining shows Friday through Sunday at the 2,500-capacity Electric Factory.
"We're so thankful that we get to ring in the New Year in Philly," Barracco said. "The Philly audience has been very supportive."
Dark Star Orchestra has not only earned the approval of the surviving members of the Grateful Dead, but have also shared the stage with some of them.
Personally, I could go back to 1972 as much as possible. I love that period. So yeah, we’re drawn to certain periods of the Dead’s music.”
Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh has actually played with Dark Star Orchestra.
“There’s nothing cooler than being validated by your heroes,” Barracco said. “Phil said that when he played with us that it was like putting on an old, comfortable pair of shoes. It’s amazing that that the members of the Grateful Dead are down with what we do and then there is the response by the audience. They keep coming out to see us.”
Part of the attraction is due to Dark Star Orchestra's desire to perform every set the Dead has ever rendered. Even though DSO has played more shows than the Dead, they've yet to deliver each set list.
“We’ve repeated shows,” Barracco said. “Some shows you just want to go back to. Personally, I could go back to 1972 as much as possible. I love that period. So yeah, we’re drawn to certain periods of the Dead’s music.”
compliments of Dave Weissman/for PhillyVoice “Jerry Garcia said it best [to Deadheads] when he said ‘This is your last chance to join the circus,'” said Rob Barracco.
Dark Star Orchestra even utilizes the same type of equipment that the Grateful Dead played on.
“We use similar soundboard and monitors,” Barracco said.
“We try to nail exactly what they did. That concept has always had huge appeal to Dead fans. They love that we go back to a certain date and to a certain city and play the songs the Dead played [at] that show.”
Barracco acknowledges that part of the reason the Dead lives on is due to the fact that it's about more than the music.
"The Dead is a cultural phenomenon," Barracco said.
"Jerry Garcia said it best [to Deadheads] when he said ‘This is your last chance to join the circus.’ Dark Star Orchestra is much bigger than anyone in this group could have envisioned. But that just shows you how powerful the Dead is. Phil Lesh once told me that their music will be going strong 100 years from now, and he’s right. There is something eternal about the Dead’s music.”
Dark Star Orchestra appears Dec. 29 through 31 at the Electric Factory, 7th & Willow streets, Philadelphia. Tickets are $29.50 for Dec. 29 and 30, $49.50 for Dec. 31. A three-day pass is $95. Show time is 8 p.m.Posted by Horus Gilgamesh on Oct 29, 2014 in Bizarre, Weird |
Some folks apparently like to share the Good News by standing outside fast food restaurants (on private property) and holding the door open for people while holding the Bibles – ready to share the Gospel at the drop of a hat. (Yes, it’s actually a “thing” now – it recently happened to me at a Burgerville in Gresham, OR.)
After hours of this activity at an In-N-Out Burger in Redding, CA – managers finally asked the man to leave. His reaction? To throw this SCARY expletive-filled screaming temper tantrum that had families nervously leaving the building. My favorite part is when he screams, “I’m a fucking Christian! I’m gonna stand up for other fucking Christians! Fuck this country!” (before pulling up one of the fake plants in the restaurant in the midst of his rage).
Way to represent… Statistically speaking, the majority of people in that In-N-Out were Christians who didn’t seem too interested in what he was selling. I feel like he just might just be suffering from two related ailments that seem to be sweeping the nation. No, not ebola – but a sense of entitlement and a persecution complex.
Seriously, go start a church and let these poor families eat their lunch in peace!
Stay classy,
Horus G.
(Thanks to Gawker.com for the original link!)Penn Staters are used to seeing the University perched at the top of lots of rankings—academic and athletic, national and international.
But unless you have ever had the chance to take a late evening stroll through campus in the waning days of autumn, or spent the night toiling alone in the stacks of the Pattee Library, you might not realize that the University is tops in another category: ghost stories.
Old Botany's History of Haunting
Penn State's haunted heritage goes way back—the whole way back to one of the oldest buildings on campus, in fact.
Old Botany, the quaint, red brick cottage tucked off of Pollack Road, looks innocent enough, but masks, if you believe some ghost-hunting buffs, a range of supernatural phenomena.
Image Old Botany from Schwab Auditorium In one legend, Frances Atherton, the wife of George Atherton, uses the windows in the top floor of Old Botany to keep an eye on her husband’s grave, which rests across the street from Old Botany. IMAGE: Michelle Bixby
Ghost stories pass on pieces of Penn State tradition, culture, and history through an easily remembered narrative that can circulate among each new generation of Penn Staters.
In one legend, Frances Atherton, the wife of George Atherton, uses the windows in the top floor of Old Botany to keep an eye on her husband’s grave, which rests across the street from Old Botany.
As students trudge along Pollock Road—one of the busiest walkways through campus—they cast an eye on the upper-floor windows, half-expecting to see the worried gaze of Frances looking back at them.
Legends of Stage and Scream
One of the most haunted spots on the University Park campus is Schwab Auditorium, a theatre that seats a little more than 900 people with enough room left over for at least two or three ghosts.
People have reported spotting a few apparitions—including the ghost of a janitor—in the auditorium over the years, according to Rachel Moeser, president of the 40-member Paranormal Research Society, one of the nation's first university clubs formed to study the paranormal.
Her team has scoured the theatre looking for evidence of the haunting and who's behind it.
She says that some speculate that Charles Schwab—the industrialist, not the stockbroker—is haunting the auditorium.
A former Penn State trustee who funded the construction of the auditorium, Schwab loved supporting the arts and going to the theatre so much that he has stuck around long after his lifetime passes expired, or so the theory goes.
Image Schwab Auditorium One of the most haunted spots on the University Park campus is Schwab Auditorium, a theatre that seats a little more than 900 people with enough room left over for at least two or three ghosts. IMAGE: Michelle Bixby
There is a huge amount of Penn State history contained in the ghost story about Old Coaly and plenty to learn about Penn State’s founders in the stories about Schwab Auditorium’s legends.
The theatre isn’t haunted only by industrialist-sized theatre goers, though, according to Moeser.
"I think Schwab [Auditorium] is active," says Moeser. "There seems to be the ghost of a janitor, and we think there is a female spirit in the theatre."
Over the years, students, staff, and faculty claim to have heard strange noises echoing from the building’s upper floors. They say they hear footsteps, feel scratches, and see objects moving across the floor.
When someone goes upstairs to check, there is no sign of a presence—at least a human presence.
Because of the confusion about exactly who—or what—is doing the haunting in Schwab, students gave the auditorium’s paranormal presence a generic nickname, “Schwaboo.”
Old Coaly, the Paranormal Mule
While ghost stories about university presidents, founders, and donors haunting the halls of campus buildings are not unique in higher education ghost-lore, Penn State has a spirit that separates it from the rest of its collegiate competition—the ghost of a mule.
Born in 1855, the same year as Penn State’s traditionally observed founding, Old Coaly traveled from his native Kentucky to, among many other duties-as-assigned, labor tirelessly at lugging limestone blocks from a quarry at the corner of what is now the southeast corner of the Old Main lawn to the construction site of the original Old Main.
"Ironically, ghost stories, as spooky as they can sound sometimes, are designed to ease anxiety."—Simon Bronner, Distinguished Professor of American Studies and Folklore, Penn State Harrisburg
The mule quickly became a favorite of the students at the Farm School—which was what most people called the University at the time—and almost became the school’s mascot.
It’s true that, but for a twist here or there in campus history, we may be watching the Nittany Mule do pushups at Beaver Stadium during home football games.
Old Coaly was so loved and appreciated by the entire University community that his bones were preserved once he shuffled off to the great pasture in the sky on New Year’s Day of 1893.
But he wasn’t quite ready to retire.
It seemed every place where Old Coaly’s bones were displayed—in Watts Hall, for example—ghost stories would follow. Students claimed to hear, usually during the dead of night, the sound of plodding hooves thudding down dark, empty halls and the occasional braying of a mule echoing through the silence.
Most people suspected a prankster was behind the "paranor-mule" phenomenon.
The spirit of Old Coaly, by the way, seems pretty content now in his current resting spot in the HUB-Robeson Center. At least, no one has reported seeing the ghost of a mule, or heard the rumble of hooves in the HUB so far.
Why We Are … So Haunted
Penn State’s deep vein of ghost-lore seems connected to a few aspects of the University’s rich heritage and culture.
Like all folklore, ghost stories are powerful ways to build communities.
When students—and the occasional research writer—tell ghost stories to an arriving class of students, they pass on pieces of Penn State tradition, culture and history through an easily remembered narrative that can circulate among each new generation of Penn Staters.
There is, for instance, a huge amount of Penn State history contained in the ghost story about Old Coaly and plenty to learn about Penn State’s founders in the stories about Schwab Auditorium’s legends.
Ironically, ghost stories, as spooky as they can sound sometimes, are designed to ease anxiety, says Simon Bronner, Distinguished Professor of American Studies and Folklore, Penn State Harrisburg.
When students arrive at the University, they are often away from their friends, family and homes for the first time. Bronner says that friendly campus ghosts—and most of Penn State's ghosts are pretty friendly—ease the anxiety associated with making the transition from home to college.
He adds that students at University Park, who frequently compare State College's weather to soggy Seattle, may be comforted that the frequent rain makes it perfect for dark and stormy nights.
"I have also heard from students," he said, "that the weather, including frequent fogs and chilly, dark nights, are great backdrops for storytelling."The more expensive it is, the better it must be. That’s how people used to think about health-care costs. As has become apparent in recent years, however, this is flat wrong. The costs of care vary wildly depending on where you live—by three hundred per cent or more, as I reported in “The Cost Conundrum,” in 2009. And research has found no consistent relationship between cost and quality across the country. Some of the most expensive places are among the most mediocre.
But nearly all this research was based on the analysis of government insurance programs, especially Medicare, the program for the elderly. Private insurers do not have to make information on whom they pay, how much, or what they pay for publicly available. Only government insurance programs do. A fascinating study out this week, however, manages to crack open the black box of private insurance. It analyzes payment data compiled, for the first time, from three of the country’s largest commercial insurers—Aetna, Humana, and UnitedHealthcare—which cover fourteen per cent of the U.S. population.
In some ways, the study finds very similar results. The costs of care for the privately insured vary from town to town just as crazily as they do for the publicly insured. But the patterns are strikingly different. The most expensive places for Medicare are not the most expensive places for private insurers. In fact, there was essentially zero correlation between where a city ranks in Medicare spending and where it ranks in private-insurance spending—even when you only consider people undergoing the exact same procedure.
Are doctors and hospitals treating people with Medicare differently from people with private insurance? This doesn’t appear to be the case. Instead, the new study found two very different stories explaining the difference between public and private health-care costs.
In Medicare, the prime driver of differences in costs between similar communities was differences in the number of tests and treatments given. In “The Cost Conundrum,” for instance, I compared health care in two Texas border towns: McAllen and El Paso. They had the same levels of poverty and poor health, but El Paso had half the per-capita Medicare costs despite the same or better results on quality measures. McAllen’s doctors were ordering more of almost everything—diagnostic testing, hospital admissions, pacemakers, coronary stents, surgical procedures—in many instances by twice as much or more. Spending on home health services alone in McAllen was five times that in El Paso. There appeared to be a huge amount of unnecessary care. That was the story of Medicare. And it made clear: more is not better in health care. It can sometimes be disturbingly worse.
When I wrote about McAllen in 2009, data for people in McAllen with private insurance were much more limited, but they showed substantial differences in the amount of care given to them, as well. The newer, bigger set of data released this week, however, quantifies another large driver of local cost differences for the privately insured: the prices insurers pay for hospital treatments.
Medicare can use its authority to set prices for hospitals. Private insurers can’t. They have to negotiate with individual hospitals. In general, they end up paying higher and far more variable prices than Medicare does. (There’s a big exception: Congress has prevented Medicare from setting drug prices—and as a result it often pays higher prices than other insurers do.) That, the new research finds, can lead to a completely different cost picture for the privately insured.
As the Times points out, for instance, the research shows that Grand Junction, Colorado—a town I’d reported to have some of the lowest costs for Medicare in the country—also has some of the highest hospital costs for private insurers because of higher hospital prices. McAllen is high cost for Medicare but turns out to be an average-cost town for Aetna, Humana, and United, because they’re paying higher prices in other towns. El Paso is average for Medicare and among the lowest-cost places for private insurers.
Differences in the number of tests and treatments given from place to place are still huge for the privately insured. But the cost of health care is like the cost of groceries—the total depends on the price of every item and on how many items you get. Both Medicare and private insurers have adopted policies and reforms that are reducing unnecessary tests and treatments and improving preventive care. In McAllen, as I wrote in May, such changes have saved Medicare an estimated half-billion dollars for that one community alone. But cutting costs for privately insured patients also requires addressing prices. And that’s a different matter entirely.
When your grocery store is the only one in town, it can jack up prices without losing customers. The same goes for hospitals. The study found that hospital prices in monopoly markets are fifteen per cent higher than in those with four or more hospitals.
It’s the Cost Conundrum Squared. The bigger the hospital, the more it can adopt systems that deliver better-organized, higher-quality, less-wasteful care. But the bigger the hospital, the more power it has to raise prices.
We have a few ways out of the conundrum. We can regulate the prices hospitals charge insurers—this is what Maryland does. We can break up big hospitals. We can encourage hospitals to become the insurers. (That’s what Kaiser Permanente in California has done. It provides members with prepaid care at its hospitals and clinics.) Or we can expand Medicare to more and more people until we’re single payer.
But, whichever way we go (and this being America, we’ll no doubt try to do some hodgepodge of it all), we cannot let the complexities blind us to the core concern. The one thing the medical profession is not rewarded for is providing better, higher-value care. We are financially rewarded either for doing more stuff or for securing monopoly power. In a fee-for-service payment system—a system of paying doctors and hospitals by pill and procedure—we are actually penalized for making the effort to organize and deliver care with the best service, quality, and efficiency we can. That’s why both public and private insurers are rolling out reforms like “bundled payments” (paying a package price for certain conditions) and “accountable care” (sharing savings doctors and hospitals produce from more efficient care)—they want to replace our system of paying for stuff with one that pays for outcomes.
This is a difficulty for any area of human service. (We haven’t figured out how to effectively, on a large scale, reward schools, police departments, or fire stations for their results, either.) But these are the experiments that are going to matter—no matter what insurance a person has.Before the polls even closed in South Carolina, the Republican presidential candidates were gearing up for another bruising battle in Florida -- recognizing that the race is unlikely to be wrapped up any time soon.
Newt Gingrich, who Fox News projects has won the South Carolina primary, hit pause on that state's campaign Saturday to hold a telephone town hall with Florida voters. After polls closed in South Carolina, his campaign tweeted in a fundraising pitch, "Thank you South Carolina! Help me deliver the knockout punch in Florida."
Mitt Romney, aides told Fox News, is meanwhile readying a fresh set of attacks on Gingrich in the Sunshine State.
The preparations confirm what the candidates are saying -- that South Carolina, which two weeks ago looked like it might be the end of the road for Romney's opponents, is now seen as just the beginning of a protracted battle for delegates.
"We have a long way to go, so come join us in Florida," Romney told supporters Saturday. "Then in Nevada, Michigan, Colorado. We have a long way to go."
The political dynamics in Florida are far different from those in South Carolina. A diverse state with heavy concentrations of senior, Hispanic and Jewish voters, Florida is a bigger battlefield with several major media markets. The candidates will almost immediately have to square off in the state for another debate on Monday. All four remaining candidates -- Romney, Gingrich, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum -- have confirmed they will attend, despite some earlier questions about Romney's schedule.
Issues like Medicare and Social Security are likely to play a bigger role in Florida. And immigration could be an interesting test for the candidates.
Romney so far has championed what is arguably the toughest immigration platform in the GOP field, while Gingrich has taken heat from conservatives for his proposal to allow some illegal immigrants with long-standing ties to their communities to stay in the U.S. South Carolina, which is fighting the federal government for the right to enact its own immigration enforcement overhaul, seemed friendlier territory for Romney's position.
But Hispanic-heavy Florida could have beef with, among other positions, Romney's pledge to veto the so-called Dream Act, a proposal that would let some illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children have a path to citizenship.
Gingrich has suggested that Romney will have a tough time on immigration in Florida. On his phone call Saturday with Florida voters, he also made a point of vowing to protect Social Security.
"I'm prepared to go on to Florida and continue to campaign on a full-blown basis," Gingrich told Fox News.
Romney, after watching his numbers drop in South Carolina, is preparing a newly aggressive approach.
The campaign on Saturday marked the "15th anniversary" of the House decision to reprimand Gingrich for ethics violations when he was speaker -- part of the tongue-in-cheek celebration was to involve a cake being delivered to Gingrich's South Carolina headquarters. Aides say Romney is planning two related attacks on Gingrich in Florida, demanding the release of supporting documents in the probe that led to his reprimand and the release of the agreement with Freddie Mac that paid his firm $1.6 million.
Aides say Romney also plans a "major" speech on the economy in advance of President Obama's State of the Union speech Tuesday, and that he will defend free enterprise -- and attack both Obama and Gingrich for allegedly threatening it.
Gingrich had been facing scrutiny from fellow conservatives for criticizing Romney's tenure at investment firm Bain Capital. The former speaker has since eased off those attacks.
Gingrich, meanwhile, has refused to release more records dating back to the ethics investigation, noting that much of that information is publicly available online. Gingrich accused Romney of trying to divert away from his own refusal to release his tax records before April.
The polls in Florida show Romney well ahead, but they are for the most part a few days old. South Carolina's results could easily influence voter opinion in Florida.
Gingrich, who represented Georgia in Congress, is trying to emphasize his southern roots. At a South Carolina diner Saturday, he said he feels comfortable. "I don't think they serve New England clam chowder here," he said, in an apparent dig at the former Massachusetts governor.
Meanwhile, Paul and Santorum are also preparing for Florida and beyond.
Santorum is casting himself as the true conservative in the race. On |
personal experience that, in the almost forty years since Henry VIII’s break with Rome, the number of Englishmen likely to see any sense in fighting to repair that break had shrunk severely.
The brilliant success of Elizabeth’s first international adventure, the 1560 foray into Scotland, served to encourage further enterprises more distant from home. An opportunity came just two years later with the eruption of France’s first religious war, which pitted Calvinist Huguenots against the regime headed by the queen dowager Catherine de’ Medici in the name of her sickly and ineffectual second son, the adolescent Charles IX. It was easy to argue that England could both help itself and do God’s work by becoming involved on the Protestant side, and the Dudley brothers, ambitious and eager for action, argued exactly that. Intervention could frustrate Philip of Spain, who was supporting the royal Catholic party in the hope of building a lasting alliance. At the same time it could undermine the Valois by enhancing the strength of their internal enemies. Conceivably it could lead to the recovery of Calais, which would be a tremendous propaganda coup for Elizabeth, a demonstration of the superiority of her rule to that of her late sister.
William Cecil, who by pushing the Scottish incursion to its conclusion had laid at the feet of his queen an achievement of genuine strategic importance, was not enthusiastic about making war on France. As a committed Protestant he naturally favored the Huguenots, but he was not as confident as the Dudleys that providing assistance required going to war with a kingdom whose population was several times that of England. The queen, however, approved the sending of an expeditionary force. She disappointed Robert Dudley, who wanted command, by selecting his brother the Earl Warwick instead. He was to land his troops at, and take possession of, the port of Le Havre—the English called it Newhaven—on the Normandy coast. The plan, from that point, was to win the gratitude of the Huguenots to such an extent that they would exchange Calais for Le Havre. Exactly how this was to be accomplished appears to have been left rather vague.
All did not go according to plan. Ambrose Dudley showed himself to be an effective enough leader, maintaining order and discipline in his little army under difficult conditions and establishing good relations with the inhabitants of Le Havre. But his instructions from the queen made it impossible to achieve anything. Throughout the first two months following his arrival in France, Dudley remained under orders to take no action. Then, when the opposing French sides surprised him by making peace, the earl was ordered to hold on to Le Havre until a trade for Calais could be arranged. This led—a crowning absurdity—to his erstwhile allies joining forces with the Catholics to drive him out. After several months of standing their ground in spite of the inadequacy of Le Havre’s defensive works, the English were so ravaged by plague that Dudley was left with no choice but to surrender. A final, tragic chapter was added when the remnants of his expeditionary force returned to England and brought the plague with them. In the subsequent Peace of Troyes, England abandoned forever its claim to Calais. Robert Dudley, as responsible as anyone for putting the whole debacle in motion, was rewarded with appointment to the Privy Council. Perhaps because Elizabeth’s refusal to part with him had spared him exposure to the hardships of the campaign, his appetite for war was undiminished. Cecil, whose responsibilities made him acutely aware of the strain the affair had put on the treasury, would henceforth be incapable of mustering much enthusiasm for sending armies across the Channel for any purpose.
Cecil was not averse, however, to tweaking the tail of the despised king of Spain whenever he found opportunities to do so without excessive risk. This tendency became increasingly pronounced, in fact, as the first decade of Elizabeth’s reign approached its end and Cecil persuaded himself that France and Spain were preparing a great joint invasion. About this he was consistently, demonstrably wrong—a rare and even weird miscalculation by one of the most astute, careful, and successful politicians of the age. Above all it was a misreading of the king of Spain. Perhaps Cecil could not understand Philip, could think only the worst of him, simply because his contempt was so deep. Probably he had no idea that Philip had concluded, during his years as England’s uncrowned king, that it was an alien and treacherous place and best left alone. At this stage Philip was, despite his religious convictions, almost desperately eager for England’s friendship, and if he could not have that he wanted her neutrality. He had more than enough other matters demanding his attention, more than enough other uses for resources that never seemed sufficient to his needs, and little reason to be confident that he stood to gain anything by deposing Elizabeth and replacing her with Mary, Queen of Scots. Cecil might have benefited from remembering how supportive of Elizabeth Philip had been both before she became queen and during the uncertain early days of her reign. He might have asked himself if conditions had changed enough to turn Philip into an actively aggressive foe. Instead he allowed his concerns to grow into something akin to paranoia, and to drive him—and with him England—into dangerously provocative actions that could serve no significantly good purpose and for which there was absolutely no need.
A particularly dangerous temptation came within Cecil’s grasp late in 1568, when a fleet of Spanish ships traversing the Channel en route to the Netherlands found itself threatened by pirates and took refuge in English ports. The fleet’s commander had good reason for wanting to avoid capture: he was carrying a fortune in gold and silver that Philip had borrowed from his Italian bankers and was sending to the Low Countries to pay the troops he had stationed there. Cecil, when he became aware of what had fallen into his clutches, did not hesitate. He ordered the money seized and locked away. The Spaniards, needless to say, were outraged. Philip’s governor in the Netherlands, the tough old Duke of Alba, responded by seizing English trade goods. England retaliated in its turn, and the dispute escalated until there was a real danger of war. Alba, however, had a turbulent region on his hands and so dispatched envoys with instructions to make themselves agreeable to the English. Cecil for his part wanted nothing less than outright war, and gradually the situation was defused.
The Privy Council then fell into an angry dispute over what Cecil had done. A substantial number of its members, Robert Dudley prominent among them, accused him of having recklessly put England in danger. There followed a contest over whether he should retain his position as secretary and with it his control over what information was allowed to reach the queen, what business was brought before the council, and how the council’s decisions were translated into action. This became the decisive crisis of Cecil’s long career. It ended with Elizabeth intervening so decisively on his behalf that it was no longer possible to doubt that he enjoyed her full confidence. He became and would remain unassailably secure. Not coincidentally, by protecting him the queen implicitly endorsed his policy of harassing the Spaniards by almost every possible means while pretending innocence. She and her government were turning a benignly blind eye to the raids that freebooters like John Hawkins and his cousin Francis Drake, privateers destined to rank high among the immortals of the Elizabethan age, were making on Spanish ports and shipping. It seemed an ideal arrangement: Cecil and even Elizabeth herself not only provided the pirates with a secure home base but helped to finance their voyages in return for a share of the profits. When Spain protested they claimed, unconvincingly, to know nothing and to be unable to do anything. Philip’s restraint through years of this undeclared naval war is the strongest possible indication of just how badly he wanted to avoid conflict.
AdvertisementsIs a Richmond restaurant using a “dress code” to bar African-American patrons? To Amanda Whitlow, it seemed that way when she went to District 5 restaurant in The Fan for Sunday brunch with her boyfriend, her brother and friends to celebrate her 23rd birthday.
But the group never got inside the restaurant at 1911 W. Main St., the former Martini Kitchen and Bubble Bar, a favorite with the African-American community that closed in 2014. A new group opened it 16 months ago as District 5.
When Ms. Whitlow tried to go in Sept. 18 for her birthday celebration, she and others said a security guard refused to allow at least two men in the group to enter, including her boyfriend, Dexter Johnson.
The reason: The “basketball shoes” they were wearing violated the restaurant’s “dress code.”
A Free Press reporter did not see any information posted about a dress code on a visit to District 5 last week, and it was noticeable that no African-American patrons were inside. The restaurant also does not post any information about a “dress code” on its website.
The restaurant has big front windows, and “you could see people inside wearing those running pants, sweatpants and sneakers inside,” said Antjuan Fisher, a member of the Whitlow party.
“They just didn’t look like us,” said Mr. Fisher, production manager and executive chef for FeedMore’s Community Kitchen.
“When we pointed out white males in the same shoes, along with basketball shorts, T-shirts,” said Dominique Colbert, Ms. Whitlow’s best friend, a staff member informed them that the restaurant could refuse service at its discretion.
“I was blown away,” said Ms. Whitlow’s brother, André Whitlow, who works as a chef at a Boston restaurant.
Gary Wenzel, a manager at District 5, was the staff member. Reached by phone, he confirmed that at least two members of the group were “denied entry for violating the dress code.” But he declined further comment. He hung up after referring a reporter to the owners, Roland West and Hani Attallah.
Mr. West has managed Mr. Attallah’s restaurants, including the Southern Railway Taphouse in Shockoe Slip.
The Free Press left a phone message and sent an email seeking comment, but did not receive a response.
Rather than creating a scene, the Whitlow party went to another restaurant.
“It was blatant discrimination,” said Ms. Colbert, who works for a Richmond TV station.
They are not alone in their views. Several people posted on District 5’s Facebook page of having similar experiences. Along with the favorable reviews, there are postings from people who were affected by the “dress code.”
On Sept. 2, Casey McGoff, who identified himself as white, wrote that he went to District 5 with “my best friend, who is black. The bouncers wouldn’t let him in because of his sneakers. I walked in and took pictures of multiple white guys who were wearing the same shoes.”
Since the passage of the 1965 Civil Rights Act, it is illegal for restaurants, hotels and other businesses open to the public to ban customers on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender and similar criteria.David Zalaznik/Journal Star/AP
A "star surgeon" who implanted the world's first artificial trachea — but has since been dismissed following allegations of scientific and clinical misconduct — worked in an environment that provided a “culture of silence”, a lack of respect for rules and “group thinking”.
That is the conclusion of an external inquiry commissioned in February by the Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm into the three artificial-trachea operations that the surgeon, Paolo Macchiarini, carried out at the hospital between 2011 and 2013.
The report, led by Kjell Asplund, chairperson of the Swedish National Council on Medical Ethics and released on 31 August, also says that the Karolinska Institute (KI), with which Macchiarini was jointly affiliated, applied unusual pressure on the hospital to hire him and to defend him against criticism — but also that the hospital was too willing to toe the KI line.
Hospital director Melvin Samsom formally apologized to the three trachea recipients and their families — two of the patients have since died, and the third has required continuous hospital care since the transplant. “What has happened is both unacceptable and exceptional,” Samsom said during a press conference on 31 August.
The hospital stopped further transplants in 2013 but Macchiarini went on to carry out five more artificial-trachea transplants at other locations. In June, public prosecutors opened investigations following preliminary charges against Macchiarini of involuntary manslaughter and causing grievous bodily harm.
The report on the hospital was followed on 5 September by the results of a second independent inquiry commissioned by the KI — also in February. That inquiry examined the procedures the KI used to appoint Macchiarini and extend his contracts, and how the KI handled allegations of scientific misconduct against the surgeon.
Nonchalant attitude
The KI had a “nonchalant attitude towards regulations”, says the 5 September report, citing poor management and administrative procedures, including for handling scientific misconduct allegations. It also says that Macchiarini’s initial appointment in 2010 “was pushed through inappropriately”, with the vice-chancellor at the time interfering directly, and that negative references for Macchiarini were not passed on to the recruitment committee.
“It is striking how Asplund’s independent inquiry into procedures at the university hospital drew many of the same conclusions, even though we had not compared notes,” says Sten Heckscher, a former president of Sweden’s Supreme Administrative Court, who led the KI inquiry.
Acting vice-chancellor of the KI, Karin Dahlman-Wright, said in a statement on the KI inquiry results: “Macchiarini himself must bear considerable responsibility in all this, but it is also very clear that KI has failed in its monitoring of compliance with rules and procedures.”
She added: "It is now up to us to show that KI is so much more than just the Macchiarini case.” Already the KI has responded by tightening up its procedures for recruitment and handling allegations of scientific misconduct, she said.
On 5 September, Macchiarini said in a statement to Swedish broadcaster SVT that he is not guilty of research mismanagement, and has always done his best for his patients.
Exaggerated success
Allegations of misconduct against Macchiarini emerged in 2014, including that he had exaggerated the success of his artificial-trachea implants in several scientific papers. In August 2015, the KI cleared him of scientific misconduct.
But a Swedish television documentary about Macchiarini’s work, aired in January, re-opened the issue. The KI subsequently dismissed Macchiarini, and both the KI and the university hospital commissioned independent investigations, with the KI focusing on its management of Macchiarini’s academic work and the hospital on his clinical activities.
Under Macchiarini's procedure, the artificial windpipes were coated with bone-marrow stem cells extracted from the patients, who were later treated with growth factors to stimulate the cells to grow and cover the synthetic structure.
The 31 August report led by Asplund points to problems with how Macchiarini managed the operations. These include mislabelling the procedures as medical care rather than clinical research, which resulted in failure to submit the procedure to an ethical review board and failure to obtain a permit from the Swedish Medical Products Agency to use the growth-promoting drugs, which have not yet been approved for the clinic.
The patients were not appropriately informed before consenting to the operation, whose exact procedures had never been carried out in a whole animal, the report says. Moreover, Macchiarini was not always available to deal with complications in his patients when they arose.
No risk assessment
The Asplund report also examines the institutes themselves. It finds that the hospital management did no risk assessment before the experimental procedure and did not ensure systematic follow-up.
And it says that the highly competitive environment of the university hospital may have contributed to the course of events. The initial view of Macchiarini as having star status created a culture of acceptance, the report suggests, with colleagues preferring to keep criticisms to themselves rather than risk their own positions. Colleagues who dared to speak up were discredited instead of listened to.
The report finds that Macchiarini’s recruitment to the hospital was mostly driven by the KI’s enthusiasm for his apparently innovative translational research. The hospital, the report states, called in references, some of which indicated certain shortcomings in Macchiarini’s medical judgement, at a late stage in the recruitment process. The report's authors infer that the hospital did not act on these warning signs because of pressure from the KI. The KI also tried to pressure the hospital to extend its own contract with Macchiarini beyond November 2013, the report says, but in this case, the hospital held out.
The affair has damaged trust in clinical research in Sweden, says the report, but the hospital is already taking steps to improve things. For example, it has prepared internal guidelines for experimental clinical methods and for how to deal with whistle-blowers.
Acting KI vice-chancellor Karin Dahlman-Wright said in a statement on 31 August that “it would be extremely regrettable if the Karolinska Institutet had exerted any kind of pressure” in hiring Macchiarini.
Further criticism
Further criticism of the KI comes from the 5 September report. As well as noting a lack of regard for rules at the KI, it points out that the KI extended Macchiarini’s contracts in 2013 and 2015 — even after the hospital had terminated its contract with the surgeon. And in 2015, the KI’s audit office investigated whether Macchiarini’s activities outside Stockholm posed any potential financial conflicts of interest. “We find it strange that the audit of his extra-occupational activities did not address the matter of ethics or thepotential damage to KI’s reputation,” says the report.
It also says that the KI serially mishandled allegations of scientific misconduct. For example, when the institute cleared Macchiarini in 2015, this ran counter to an independent report a few months earlier, which found that he had committed misconduct.
The KI also holds some responsibility for the controversial transplants carried out at the Karolinska University Hospital, says the 5 September report. Staff were sometimes involved in discussions preceding and following surgery, and the KI claimed the success of the transplants in its evaluations of how it used its own research funding.
KI cancer immunologist Hans Wigzell, who was vice-chancellor of the institute from 1995 until 2003, says the affair has left many KI professors nervous that their institute’s damaged reputation will have knock-on effects for funding — and that a temptation to tighten procedures will lead to a damaging bureaucracy. “The systems at the KI are fine,” he says. “The problems arose because decision-makers failed to follow the system’s rules, and then they bunkered down.”
Macchiarini and his lawyer declined to comment to Nature on either of the reports.HDFC Bank Managing Director Aditya Puri on Friday criticised mobile wallet players as they operate on models that are not profitable.
Though adoption of mobile wallets gained traction after demonetisation, options like Unified Payments Interface are but as new digital payment options emerge, they may fade away as they have several limitations.
Vijay Shekhar Sharma-led Paytm emerged as one of the biggest beneficiaries of the currency overhaul exercise launched on November 8, 2016.
Speaking on the sidelines of Nasscom India Leadership Forum, Puri told CNBC-TV18 that money has stayed in the banking system post demonetisation and the HDFC Bank has lost only 5-7 percent of the money collected during demonetisation.
There is always a room for interest rates to go down further as supply exceeds demand currently, he said.
"I think wallets have no future. There is not enough margin in the payment business for the wallets to have a future," Puri, the managing director and chief executive of the second largest private sector lender, said at the annual Nasscom summit here.
"Wallets as a valid economic proposition is doubtful. There is no money in the payments business. The current loss reported by market leader Paytm is Rs 1,651 crore. You cannot have a business that says pay a Rs 500 bill and take Rs 250 cash-back," Puri said.
Wallet companies cannot "copy" the "Alibaba model" as well, as the domestic regulators are "better", he said. The comments are interesting as HDFC Bank also has a wallet service called Chillr.
Drawing on his trip to the Silicon Valley to look at evolving scenarios in financial services world, Puri said ApplePay is also "another version of the wallet" and there is no "reimagining" of the bank happening there.
It can be noted that there is a high degree of friction between the entrenched lenders and the standalone wallet players and there have been multiple episodes last month like blocking of money transfer by ICICI Bank into Flipkart's PhonePe or SBI refusing to let its customers transact on Paytm.
Stating that banks also have wallets for e-commerce transactions, Puri said the standalone wallet players depend on banks as an intermediary to get funds. Additionally, the launch of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) makes it possible for banks to carry out payments transactions faster.
"Is this wallet any better than mine, other than a cash-back? I don't have a Rs 1,651 crore loss. You eliminate the loss, then we will talk," he said.
— With PTI Inputs
Watch video for more...The Italian Festival may be over, but that doesn’t mean there’s any shortage of amazing treats to try this week. In fact, both Hudson Restaurant Week and NYC Restaurant Week are coming up! Read on, to discover the best things to do in Hoboken, NJ, for the week of July 28th.
Noteworthy Items
Hudson Restaurant Week
Hudson Restaurant Week has finally arrived! From July 28th – August 8th, enjoy prixe-fix courses from some of the best restaurants in Hoboken, Jersey City, Bayonne and Weekhawken. The lunches are usually priced around $25, while the dinners cost between $30-$40. There are nearly 20 restaurants participating in Hoboken alone. Click here to view the Hoboken restaurant options and read about our top picks.
NYC Restaurant Week
This year, NYC Restaurant Week overlaps with the Hudson County’s Restaurant Week for double the fun. From July 21st – August 15th, nearly 300 New York City establishments will be offering prixe-fix menus; $25 for lunch and $38 for dinner. It’s a great time to try that restaurant you’ve been eying that costs a little something extra. Personally, we think that lunch offers the best deal, so if you work in the city take advantage!
Grand Opening & Wine Samples
Cork Wines & Spirits, is a new liquor shop that has recently opened in uptown Hoboken. Located at 1450 Washington Street, attend their Grand Opening celebration this week on Wednesday, July 30th at 7PM. Taste some samples, rub elbows with mixologists, and learn a few tips and tricks to impress your friends the next time you host an event. RSVP via their Facebook page and check back regularly, to see their daily wine sampling times.
This Week’s Hoboken Events
Monday – Tuesday – Wednesday – Thursday – Saturday – Sunday
Monday July 28th
ALL DAY
TEAK: Enjoy 50% off food and drinks at Teak for Customer Appreciation Day. Or try their 1-hour all-you-can-eat sushi deal for $20 which is available MON-FRI from 12-10PM and Saturday/Sunday from 4-10PM.
10th & WILLOW: 1/2 price dinner menu all night.
LITTLE TOWN: 99 cent oysters on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday all night long.
7:00PM
WORKOUT: Join a free workout class at Pier A from 7-8pm. Wear sneakers, and bring an exercise mat and water to the class.
Tuesday July 29th
3:00PM
FARMERS MARKET: Open from 3:00-7:30pm, grab some fresh produce at the Downtown Farmers Market on Washington St. between Newark St. & Observer Highway.
7:00PM
YOGA: Unwind with yoga, outdoors at PierA. Namaste!
8:00PM
TRIVA @ Four Ls: Four L’s hosts trivia at 8:00pm with a $1 Bud Light draft special.
TRIVIA @ Mills Tavern: Play trivia at Mills Tavern while enjoying a variety of Tuesday specials including $3 Coors Light & Yuengling drafts, $4 Blue Moon drafts and $6 Jack Daniel’s drinks
9:00PM
KARAOKE: Show off your vocal skills with some Karaoke at Wicked Wolf at 9pm.
Wednesday, July 30th
7:00PM
GRAND OPENING: Corks, Wines & Spirits is hosting a Grand Opening party at 7PM at 1450 Washington St. The event will include tastings, and the chance to learn from mixologists and wine experts. RSVP here
WORKOUT: Free pilates class from 7-8PM at Columbus Park. Bring a yoga mat and wear sneakers.
8:00PM
TRIVIA @ Wicked Wolf: It’sTrivia Night every Tuesday, with 2 for 1 burgers and $15 beer towers. The prizes vary from week to week, but have been pretty sweet including Yankees tickets, Beats by Dre headphones and iTunes gift certificates.
TRIVIA @ Village Pourhouse: Check out their trivia special at 8PM.
TRIVIA @ Pilsner Haus: Pilsner Haus Biergarten hosts trivia weekly at 8PM. Play along, while enjoying all-you-can-eat Bier Mussles for just $10.
OPEN MIC: Northern Soul has an open mic night every Wednesday. Listen to Hoboken’s undiscovered talent or even jump on stage yourself!
BINGO: Get nostalgic with a classic game of BINGO. Plus, enjoy the $10 Wednesday special, which includes an ice cold mug of Bud Light and 5 sliders of your choice. The choice will be a tough one with flavors such as Chipotle, Buffalo Chicken, Firecracker, and Pulled Pork as your options.
9:00PM
summer movie schedule. MOVIES UNDER THE STARS: The film this week is ET, the Extra-Terrestrial. Released in 1982, this 80’s classic stars Drew Barrymore, and Henry Thomas. The film won 4 Academy Awards and was groundbreaking at the time for its use of special visual effects. View the full
10:00PM
KARAOKE: Rock out during Karaoke at the Village Pourhouse starting at 10PM.
Thursday, July 31st
ALL DAY
TEAK: Enjoy 50% off food and drinks at Teak for Customer Appreciation Day. Or try their 1-hour all-you-can-eat sushi deal for $20 which is available MON-FRI from 12-10PM and Saturday/Sunday from 4-10PM.
7:00PM
LIVE MUSIC: From 7-9PM in Sinatra Park featuring Orqueta la Caribena.
8:00PM
COMEDY SHOW: Core Values isn’t a typical stand up comedy show, it’s a workplace comedy performance that was nominated for a 2014 Drama Desk Award. The show plays at 8PM on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Edge Lofts on 14th & Clinton. Tickets are $30 and advanced reservations are recommended.
Friday, July 25th
8:00PM
COMEDY SHOW: Core Values is a workplace comedy that plays at 8PM at the Edge Lofts on 14th & Clinton. Tickets are $30.
Saturday, August 2nd
9:00AM-2:00PM
GARDEN ST FARMERS MARKET: Held every Saturday at 14th Street and Garden Street.
4:00PM-6:00PM
LIVE MUSIC: Weekly Jammin Blue at Farside Bar & Grill
8:00PM
COMEDY SHOW: Core Values is a workplace comedy that plays at 8PM at the Edge Lofts on 14th & Clinton. Tickets are $30.
Sunday, August 3rd
10:00AM-4:00PM
FREE KAYAKING: The Hoboken Cove Boathouse is offering free kayaking and paddle boarding on Sunday from 10AM to 4PM, as long as the weather is clear. Follow them on twitter
11:00AM-3:00PM
BLOODY MARY BAR: Create your own masterpiece at Black Bear’s make-your-own Bloody Mary station, open during brunch hours for just $5 a glass.
8:00PM
COMEDY SHOW: Core Values is a workplace comedy that plays at 8PM at the Edge Lofts on 14th & Clinton. Tickets are $30.
Coming Up NYCThe Sunday Herald Sun yesterday was silent on the duck season opening. But an article was written. The page-two piece was pulled at last minute and replaced with an article about the Adele concert.
A story about a recreation that brings $99 million to the economy each year, $46 million of which is spent on hunting trips, was replaced by an entertainment article.
What’s more perplexing is that the article that was pulled has been obtained by SSAA Victoria and it contained no record of the comments the Association provided for the story.
That article has now been printed verbatim by the Courier Mail online.
The Association contacted the author, Monique Hore, this morning to question her as to why the comments did not appear in the story. Monique said her original story did contain comments from SSAA Victoria but they were removed in the editing process without her knowledge.
SSAA Victoria wants its members to know that the Association put in a lot of time and effort to ensure the Sunday Herald Sun piece contained accurate and balanced information. Below are the questions asked by the reporter and the answers the Association provided in writing well before the deadline.
Sometimes it feels like banging your head against a brick wall. The best way to show your displeasure is to stop buying the Herald Sun and Sunday Herald Sun.
COMMENTS:
Additional quotes: All reports from our members have been really positive. Hunting success varied throughout the state due to local conditions but most hunters took birds home. There were plenty of ducks around the Gippsland region this morning, and numbers were high up near Cohuna as well.
Hunter behaviour across the board was excellent as reported by our members and the authorities on the ground. Game Management Authority reported really good compliance across the state.
Families across Victoria sat down to fresh, organic duck last night and that’s what we love.
Why should Victoria continue to have duck hunting?
Duck hunting provides a great boost to Victoria economy each year, particularly in regional areas. Duck hunters spend $99 million per annum in Victoria on their sport. More than $40 million of that is spent while away on duck hunting trips.
How do you respond to animal welfare groups that call duck hunting cruelty?
Duck hunting is not for everyone, just as horse racing or basketball is not for everyone. But I do want to emphasise that hunting is no crueller than what happens in nature.
Hunters abide by ethical codes; they are licensed and tested; they respect the environment and the animals; and the activity is heavily regulated.
Should Victorians be able to shoot without protesters?
Duck hunters are licensed and responsible people who are participating in a legal activity. They should have the right to participate in that legal activity without being harassed by extremist activists.
(On the six arrests)
Some of these activists have shown no respect for the licensed game hunters and they have shown no respect for the law; putting themselves in harm’s way and illegally entering specific hunting areas during prohibited times.
Animal welfare groups have reported banned species, including the freckled duck, were shot in Marsh near Kerang today. Is that disappointing?
Duck hunters undergo the Waterfowl Identification Test prior to obtaining their Game Licence for duck hunting. This means they have demonstrated that they can identify species of duck in flight and on land, and incorrect identification rarely occurs.
SSAA Victoria spoke with game compliance officers and the Game Management Authority yesterday (Saturday) and has received no confirmation of any freckled ducks being shot. If we hear otherwise, through the correct channels, SSAA Victoria will take it very seriously. We will be the first to condemn any illegal shooting of banned duck species.The 52nd annual Elmhurst College Jazz Festival will be held Thursday, February 21 through Sunday, February 24, 2019.
Buy Tickets
Featured Performers
John Fedchock New York Big Band Michael Davis and the Hip-Bone Big Band Randy Brecker Bill Evans Mike Stern High School Invitational
About the Festival
Chicago magazine once hailed the Elmhurst College Jazz Festival as “one of the best buys for your jazz dollars,” and it’s easy to see why.
Each February, the best college jazz bands in the country converge on the Elmhurst campus for three days of performances and education. The bands take turns performing for some of the greatest names in professional jazz today, who offer critiques and award a variety of honors. The professionals cap off each night of the Festival with a rousing performance of their own.
For the college bands, the Festival offers a great opportunity to learn from some of today’s greatest jazz musicians. For the audience, it’s a chance to hear both college bands and jazz greats.
The current Elmhurst College Jazz Festival rose from the ashes of the American College Jazz Festival, which was established in 1968.
The original festival took place at eight regional sites throughout the United States, one of which was Elmhurst College. Each regional festival produced a winning band, combo and vocalist, who then performed at a national festival on Memorial Day weekend.
The national festival disbanded in 1973, but the Elmhurst College Jazz Festival continued and grew, both in size and in stature. By 1992, the Festival had hosted so many jazz greats that its Silver Anniversary Reunion of guest artists and judges included Louie Bellson, Pete Christlieb, Conte Candoli, Terry Gibbs, Frank Mantooth, Bobby Shew, Clark Terry, Denis DiBlasio, Lee Konitz and Jiggs Whigham. The celebration made such a splash that it was featured on CBS-TV’s Sunday Morning News.
Since then, the Festival’s reputation has continued to grow. Festival performers in recent years have included:Share. 12 new series in total for the network. 12 new series in total for the network.
For whatever reason, ABC wait longer than the other networks to make any of their official calls on renewals, cancellations and new series orders. Tonight, the floodgates opened, including the slam-dunk that was picking up Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to series for next season.
Also ordered by ABC was Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, the spinoff series, starring Sophie Lowe as Alice and featuring the voice of John Lithgow (replacing Paul Reubens) as the White Rabbit. There’s plenty more, but let’s look at the renewals and cancellations first.
ABC renewed Modern Family, The Middle, Once Upon A Time, Revenge, Scandal, Grey’s Anatomy and Castle (the obvious choices), plus the "very likely but you never know" candidates, Suburgatory and Nashville. Also renewed were two more genuinely “on the bubble” shows, Last Man Standing and The Neighbors.
ABC's cancellations include Happy Endings, which is being shopped to other networks, Red Widow, How to Live with your Parents (For the Rest of Your Life), Family Tools, Malibu Country and Body of Proof. Body of Proof had been trending upward of late and was believed to have a shot, but with so many new series ordered, ABC did not elect to renew it.
ABC ordered 12 new shows in total today, a notably high number given they are bringing back plenty of series, including The Bachelor and Dancing with the Stars. Besides Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, here are the rest…
On the comedy side, Super Fun Night stars Pitch Perfect’s Rebel Wilson, as one of a trio of three nerdy female friends.
Breaking In’s Adam F. Goldberg’s The Goldbergs is his Wonder Years-like look at life growing up in the 1980s, in a cast that includes Jeff Garlin and George Segal.
Malin Akerman (Watchmen, Childrens Hospital) stars in Trophy Wife as a woman who marries an older man (Bradley Whitford) who has three children and two ex-wives. Natalie Morales, Michaela Watkins and Marcia Gay Harden also star.
Back in the Game stars Psych’s Maggie Lawson as a woman who moves back in with her father (James Caan), as she begins coaching her son’s little league team.
Mixology is set at an upscale Manhattan bar with a cast that includes Sarah Bolger and Adan Canto.
ABC’s dramas include Mind Games, about two brothers (Christian Slater and Steve Zahn) heading an organization where they use their knowledge of manipulation and motivation to help their clients. It comes from Kyle Killen, the creator of Awake.
Lucky 7 is an adaption of the British series The Syndicate, about seven gas station employees whose lives change when they win the lottery.
Betrayal is a soapy story about a woman who has an affair with a lawyer who turns out to be connected to a huge case her husband is trying.
Sofia Vergara is one of the executive producers of Killer Women, which stars Battlestar Galactica’s Tricia Helfer as a Texas Ranger. The cast includes Helfer’s fellow BSG alum Michael Trucco and Buffy’s Marc Blucas.
Resurrection has a 4400-like setup about people who were seemingly dead and gone suddenly returning in a small town. The cast includes Omar Epps, Samaire Armstrong and Kurtwood Smith.Fraud. Abuse of power. Misuse of public resources. Extortion. Bribery.
Pennsylvania politicians have a rap sheet that would make any hardened criminal proud. And former state Treasurer and one-time gubernatorial hopeful Rob McCord did nothing last week to dispel Pennsylvania's reputation for corruption.
Testifying in the bribery trial of Richard Ireland, an investment adviser, McCord admitted trading favors for campaign donations, painting a picture of a government in which he said it was routine to hear "governors and others" swap fundraising favors.
Is Pa. more corrupt than other states?
"I remember thinking, 'This is a weird business, because you say you lie down with dogs and get up with fleas,'" said McCord, who has pleaded guilty to two counts of extortion and is awaiting sentencing. The charges against Ireland were thrown out by a judge who said the prosecution had not made its case.
McCord was caught up in a federal investigation into public corruption that also led to charges against John Estey, a former high-level aide to Gov. Ed Rendell, and another former state |
News after a 13-year run at the network that included her being the second-highest rated program in cable news in 2016, only behind the now-ended "O'Reilly Factor."
Reviews of Kelly's interview with Putin mostly ranged from tepid to snarky.
"Megyn Kelly gets outmaneuvered by Vladimir Putin on her NBC premiere 'Sunday Night,'" read The Los Angeles Times.
"Megyn Kelly gets off to low-key start on 'Sunday Night,'" CNN said.
"Even Putin Seemed Bored with Megyn Kelly's Interview," was Variety's take.
But respected media critic David Zurawik of The Baltimore Sun had a different perspective, writing Monday that while the Putin interview was underwhelming, Kelly's future at NBC News looks bright.
"While the morning-after reviews are all going to focus on what she did or didn’t get from Putin, I think the real news here is that NBC might finally have a winning newsmagazine," Zurawik writes. "It is too early to tell after just one hour, but 'Sunday Night' is sharply focused in content and storytelling on women at a time of cultural change in terms of gender and power."
It tells stories about women and it is clearly speaking first and foremost to them from Kelly to the correspondents. In terms of its orientation, it’s on the right side of history — or, at least, the moment," he added.
"Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly" will run through the summer until the top-rated "Sunday Night Football" kicks off in September.
The program will return after the NFL season and NBC's coverage of the Winter Olympics are complete in February.
Kelly's second program on the network will debut in September at 9:00 a.m., following "The Today Show."What's that odd shape, you ask? That's the world's thinnest nanowire -- and it could be the key to a future wave of flexible devices. In blasting single-layered, semiconducting materials with an electron beam, Vanderbilt University student Junhao Lin has created wires that measure just three atoms wide while remaining strong and very bendy. Since there are already transistors and memory gates made out of the same material, Lin envisions circuits and whole devices that are paper-thin, yet can stand up to abuse; in the long run, he envisions rollable tablets and TVs that could fit in your pocket. The technique could help produce 3D circuitry, too. We're still a long way from either of those becoming practical realities, but the discovery at least shows that they're technically possible.Point Loma residents are worried that proposed changes to San Diego International Airport flight routes will increase noise and cover their properties with soot from aviation fuel.
As the Federal Aviation Administration works to develop flight routes that are more fuel-efficient and use less airspace, residents near the airport say they’re not sold on an FAA study that concludes there will be no ill effects from the route changes.
“It’s really an insignificantly sized document. They have their data and it is very difficult to glean, and we don’t know how valid it is,” said Point Loma resident Casey Schnoor. He created a
Change.org petition that criticizes the FAA’s plan, and said more than 1,500 signatures were gathered in five days.
Schnoor and others are particularly concerned about a proposed route for eastbound departures.
Planes currently fly west from the airport past the mouth of the San Diego River, then head south until a waypoint approximately a mile southwest of the southern tip of Point Loma. From there, they turn eastward over the Silver Strand.
Under the new route, the planes would turn south sooner and in a tighter arc and head to the Silver Strand, skipping the waypoint and shaving time and distance. It also would position them closer, and possibly over, Point Loma.
Proposed new flight path
“It’s obvious that the planes that fly over land will be noisier,” said Neal Esterly, another critic.
There’s also a strong likelihood that soot from aircraft fuel will dust the neighborhood, said Russ Valone of Point Loma. Currently, a lot of aircraft pollution goes into the ocean and gradually dissipates. It’s worse, however, if the soot ends up on land because it will accumulate until it rains and is washed to discharge points, creating a heavy spike in pollution levels, Valone said.
“When you actually get a storm, that’s when the surf gets best.… We’ve got our kids out there surfing,” Valone said.
The FAA is creating new flight routes near airports in major cities and regions across the country, including Southern California. The decadeslong project is part of an ongoing effort to implement a navigation system that helps planes take more direct routes in and out of airports, shaving time and fuel expenses.
As a part of this process, the FAA, as required by law, studied noise and environmental impacts. Across Southern California, it found that there were no significant impacts.
One noise model showed that among thousands of “historic and cultural resources” across Southern California, there will be a 5-or-more-decibel noise increase at 20 such areas on any given day. None of these venues are in San Diego County. Generally, people are able to perceive differences in volume of at least 5 decibels.
The amount of noise from a flying airplane depends on several factors including the type of aircraft, the type of engine, weather conditions, ground terrain, nearby buildings and vegetation, the use of noise reduction technology, distance from the aircraft and how the aircraft is being flown.
FAA spokesman Ian Gregor said there were 11 public workshops on the project in Southern California, including one in San Diego.
“The noise analysis that the FAA conducted for the draft (environmental assessment) indicated the proposed procedures would not result in any significant or reportable noise increases anywhere in the study area under the National Environmental Policy Act,” Gregor said in a statement.
The FAA is accepting critiques of its plan until Oct. 8. After that it will analyze and respond to comments, Gregor said.CBS bypassed the usual parade of sitcom stars during its upfront presentation on Wednesday and instead rolled out the red-hot Stephen Colbert to entertain advertisers.
The Tiffany network, hoping to hoover up as big a slice as possible of the $9 billion Madison Avenue will commit to TV over the next few months, made sure that marketers left the Carnegie Hall venue knowing which network has the No. 1 show in late night.
No doubt CBS will be expecting the premium pricing that comes with it.
With can’t-make-it-up political drama sucking the oxygen from the entire entertainment landscape, Colbert is one of a number of players taking advantage.
The former Comedy Central funnyman had been second place to NBC’s “Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” until this season — when President Trump helped leapfrog the politically tinged show to the top spot for 15 weeks and counting.
“I could not have done it without a visionary leader, a legend of television who made ‘The Late Show’ what it is. Thank you, Donald Trump. It is an honor every night to be onstage and talk about that day’s Trump scandal,” said Colbert.
James Corden, who follows Colbert, introduced “Star Trek: Discovery,” one of a legion of reboots hitting the broadcast networks this fall, saying: “I am perfect for ‘Star Trek.’ I also come from a distant planet where there is no life — at 12.35 a.m.”
CBS also announced that Corden will helm the Grammys from Madison Square Garden when the awards show returns to New York in 2018.
Meanwhile, Chief Executive Leslie Moonves called his schedule “must see TV” — stealing NBC’s revived moniker for its own Thursday night comedies.
CBS also rolled out a new show, “Young Sheldon,” a comedy series about a neurotic kid, the younger version of “Big Bang Theory” character Sheldon Cooper.
CBS didn’t spend much time talking about the nuts and bolts of its digital performance, though sales boss Joann Ross also emphasized “human eyeballs,” versus computer-generated clicks and “no fraud.”Vice President-elect Mike Pence with take the oath of office from Associate Justice Clarence Thomas with his hand on the Reagan Family Bible, which will be turned to 2 Chronicles 7:14. ( Reuters photo )
Vice President-elect Mike Pence intends to send a message when he takes the oath of office on Friday afternoon, there can be no doubt about that.
When he is sworn in, his hand will be on a Bible that hasn't been used in 32 years—the Reagan family Bible used by President Ronald Reagan for all of his swearing-in ceremonies as president and governor. Not only that, but the Bible will be turned to an important piece of scripture, 2 Chronicles 7:14:
"If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and will heal their land."
"President Ronald Reagan placed his faith in a loving God and the goodness of our country," Pence said. "He set out to change a nation and in doing so, he changed the world. In the march of history, Ronald Reagan's time in office was limited, but his legacy inspired a generation and will continue beyond.
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"It will be humbling to enter office with President Donald Trump, standing next to my family, with my wife Karen holding the same Bible used by President Reagan when he took office."
Getting the Reagan family Bible to the Inauguration is actually a bit of an undertaking. It has never been out of the possession of the Reagan family or the Reagan Foundation, and as such, it needs special security.
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The Reagan family Bible is currently on permanent display at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, California. To get it to Washington, D.C., it will be hand-delivered by long-time Reagan aide Andrew Littlefair, who now serves on the board of trustees for the Reagan Foundation and Institute.
Once in Washington, D.C., it will be put under lock and key until it is used for Pence's inauguration. But that's only part of the message the vice president-elect intends to send with his swearing-in ceremony.
Administering the oath of office will be U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, who becomes the first African-American to swear in a president or vice president. Having served more than 25 years, he is the longest-serving African American on the high court.
"It will be my honor to take the oath of office to defend our Constitution from a man who has dedicated his life to the same noble pursuit," Pence said. "Justice Thomas was born into poverty in Pin Point, Georgia. From those humble beginnings, Justice Thomas went on to graduate from Holy Cross College and Yale Law School.
"He served in the Reagan administration and was appointed to the federal bench in 1990 and the Supreme Court in 1991 by President George H.W. Bush. I have long admired Justice Clarence Thomas and deeply respect his judicial philosophy, dedication to the rule of law and his historic service on the bench of our nation's highest court."
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See an error in this article? Send us a correctionSupporters of the leading Filipino presidential candidate, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, react during a rally in Manila on May 7 2016. (Photo11: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA)
Philippine voters head to the polls Monday to elect their next president following a volatile campaign on issues that carry a deep significance for the United States as well as one of its closest allies in Southeast Asia.
According to the latest polls, Rodrigo Duterte, the colorful mayor of Davao, has risen to the top with tough talk on crime and cleaning up corruption. His boastful manner and appeal as a political maverick have earned him comparisons to GOP presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump.
"I will solve drugs, criminality and corruption in three to six months," Duterte said in a recent interview with Al Jazeera. "I am the only remaining card left for the Filipinos to deal with the situation."
Duterte is the most divisive candidate in an election that has been a four-way race for most of the campaign. A poll by Pulse Asia conducted from April 26 to 29 showed Duterte getting 33% of the vote to 22% for former government minister Mar Roxas, the choice of the Philippines' departing president, and 21% for Sen. Grace Poe, daughter of a Philippine movie star.
“Without a doubt, this is the most polarizing election the Philippines has had since the fall of the Marcos dictatorship in 1986,” said Richard Javad Heydarian, a professor of political science at De La Salle University in the Philippines. “And that in itself doesn't bode very well for the country in terms of post-election national unity.”
The outspoken Duterte has also been called “The Punisher” and “Duterte Harry,” a play on Clint Eastwood’s vigilante detective Dirty Harry. As mayor of Davao, which is on restive Mindanao Island, Duterte wins praise from supporters for cleaning up the city’s drug and crime problems.
The leading Filipino presidential candidate, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, speaks to supporters in Manila on May 7, 2016. (Photo11: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA)
However, his tactics included more than 1,000 extrajudicial killings using death squads, according to Human Rights Watch. Duterte admitted to the death squads on Philippine television and vowed that if he became president, he would execute 100,000 more criminals and dump their bodies in Manila Bay.
He has also repeatedly gotten himself into hot water with off-color remarks, from bragging about his womanizing ways to making a crude remark about a gang rape to even publicly cursing Pope Francis. And yet, like his American counterpart, Trump, he has managed to emerge unscathed, carried along by a core group of supporters who appear to be fed up with a political system that is notoriously corrupt and ruled by small cliques of elites.
That said, the administration of current President Benigno Aquino III, who is limited to a single six-year term, has made major strides improving the Philippines' economy, which has emerged from being “the sick man of Asia” to one of the region’s fastest-growing economies, averaging more than 6% annual growth and upgrading its sovereign credit rating.
Duterte has focused heavily on issues of security and law-and-order and has said he would delegate economic policy matters to expert advisers.
"I think growth will, more likely than not, continue," Ramon del Rosario Jr., chairman of the Makati Business Club, told a group of Filipino journalists this past week.
A more significant change may lie ahead on the geopolitical front, where the Philippines has been locked in a territorial dispute with an increasingly assertive Chinese military presence in the South China Sea. Under the Aquino administration, the Philippines has primarily relied on support from the United States, signing an Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement to allow a greater presence of U.S. troops and facilities at Philippine bases.
The Philippines has also turned to the international community, with a pending case against China at the International Arbitration Court in the Hague, Netherlands, over China’s "nine-dotted line" that claims jurisdiction over much of the South China Sea. China has refused to participate in the arbitration, which is being held under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Duterte has indicated he would be willing to change course and engage China one-on-one. He recently bragged that he would ride a jet ski to a disputed island occupied by China to personally stake the Philippines’ claim. But he has also said he would remain open to the possibility of joint energy exploration in China and would consider Chinese-funded infrastructure development in the Philippines.
There is a feeling among some in the Philippines that the U.S. has not been robust enough in its support, concerned more with freedom of navigation in the sea rather than Philippine territorial sovereignty.
“As a strategy you would think this is actually a good thing in some ways because it means the Philippines has leverage to play these great powers against each other, something it has not done under the current administration,” said Heydarian. “It will give us more leverage than the status quo.”
Given Duterte’s comments, the election outcome is one that not just the Philippines but the U.S. and China will be watching closely.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1T4c8LGMeet Joss.
If you read yesterday’s preview of Rogan, this one is going to be a bit similar. Fun fact: Joss and Rogan are great friends, work out together, do events, and are coming to rock this show.
Joss debuted on the original season of Ex on the Beach UK with his golden blonde hair and had to deal with an ex where there were still feelings after the relationship and drama he had in the house. He later showed up for Season 5 (All Stars) only at the end of the show. His Vendetta is Kayleigh Morris. They dated for a while, and he thought she was crazy. A solid reason for ending a relationship.
My job is to give the inside scoop on these players and give you a preview/evaluation. The problem with Joss is he hard to describe outside of watching him on the show. Joss is a charming and nice guy who you will probably enjoy on your television. He has a gravitas to him that ropes people in. There simply isn’t a quality or characteristic you can pinpoint to why they are good television. Joss posts pictures of himself either shirtless or with fitness gear. His life is fitness. Everything is fitness. Does that make him boring? Maybe. For him it is a career. Not everyone cares about being eight hundred different things, some people like to relax and do sit ups for a living.
Skills & Physical Strength: Looking at Joss’s body, I would compare it to a more fit and muscular version of Ryan Goselin. According to Sylvia, Jemmye, and Marie (from an Instagram live they did), Joss does not eat carbs, and he only ate tuna while in the house. It shows two things: Joss is not a good person to go on a lunch date with, and he is fully committed to his body and fitness.
According to an online fitness profile, Joss is 5'11 and somewhere between 215–225 lbs. His mass is impressive consider how trim and defined his abs are. Looking at his photos, Joss has a giant chest, big arms, and then the size of his waist/abs gets way tinier and cut like diamonds. His one possible weakness is his leg strength. Joss wears skinny pants, but in shorts they look quite muscular.
Wanna watch him work out?
For reference, I do not think he is sponsored by Adidas. Unlike this preview, brought to you by Adidas!
His athletic history of sports is soccer and rugby. Soccer translates incredibly well to the Challenge because of the natural amount of endurance, agility, and footwork that comes from playing the sport. You take the history of playing those sports for Joss and add on extra muscle and size, he comes in as a legitimate threat in the game.
Social, Mental, & Political Game: Another revealing thing of Joss from the Instagram live by the girls was they said the main thing they disliked about Joss was him being in a committed relationship. Everyone in the house found him to be fun and good looking. Joss just was not looking to hook up. He ruins the potential of his game by not going out there and trying to Polidick.
Rogan, Kyle, and Joss seem to be legitimate competitors who can stir the pot immediately. They have the chance to be a good rookie alliance. Especially if they are able to get the Young Bucs and Devin on their side. Ironically, the British could be starting a great revolution.
In order to have a political game, one needs to win mission. If Joss can win, he can make moves.
Eliminations & Winning Potential: His history as a rugby player should make him ready to enter the elimination arena. Anyone who plays a physical tackle sport like rugby with no pads will be ready to smash heads in a game like Hall Brawl. This season has so much potential with the male competitors. LeRoy, Rogan, Nelson, Brad, Joss, and Zach are looking huge entering the season. MTV needs to give these guy physical games to go at one another.
Can Joss win? He is a rookie, so history says no. Could he win? He has potential with his charm and physical ability. We need to watch what he can do first.
Overall Rating: 77/100Troy Ave, who released the second installment of his White Christmas mixtape over the holidays, recently spoke with NEHip-Hop.com and repeated a statement he made in November by telling the site that “Kendrick Lamar is a weirdo rapper.” He also referred to Chance The Rapper disparagingly as a “drug addict.”
Speaking with NEHip-Hop.com, Troy Ave explained a short-lived disagreement with Statik Selektah stemming from the producer’s voting for Chance The Rapper as rookie of the year in a recent poll. “I wasn’t feeling Statik the other day man because Complex had a list of some shit, and rookie of the year, he voted for Chance The Rapper over me,” Troy Ave said. “And I said I’m gonna tell’em when I see’em, ‘That shit you did voting for Chance The Rapper over Troy Ave was corny ‘cause I don’t see Chance The Rapper at your parties or featuring on your records, you can’t be fucking voting for drug addicts to be rookie of the year,’” he said in reference to the Acid Rap emcee.
“The game is twisted and fucked up. How is a drug addict gonna be at the forefront of rap? That shit is corny. Basically, he cleared it up, he said there wasn’t like a list of names for him to choose from. He didn’t pick him over me, they just asked him, ‘Who do you vote for?’ and they had to send out a name or whatever.”
Troy Ave added that he recorded new music for Statik Selektah’s upcoming album and that the producer also appears on his own latest release. “Other than that, Statik is cool, he actually on White Christmas 2, he made me a banger man,” he said.
The New York City: The Album artist further clarified his Kendrick Lamar comments in the interview as well, adding that he doesn’t mean it as a diss. “Kendrick say he actually fuck with my music heavy,” he said. “I wasn’t dissing him or nothing, it’s like if somebody said ‘Troy Ave is a dark skin rapper,’ alright, that’s the truth. Kendrick Lamar is a weirdo rapper, you know what I mean? That don’t mean he don’t make good music, he got a few songs that I actually happen to like, but he’s a weirdo. Weirdo meaning different, you know what a weirdo is, you know what I mean. That’s what it is, it ain’t no dissing or nothing.”
Troy Ave made similar comments in November of 2013, beginning with a reference in a song called “New York City.” “It was Big, Jay Z, now Troy Ave here after / But Kendrick Lamar’s just a weirdo rapper,” he raps on the N.O.R.E., Raekwon, and Prodigy featuring song. The rapper clarified the line when visiting the Hot 97 Morning Show with Peter Rosenberg and Cipha Sounds while promoting his debut album.
Adding a description of his plans to sign a record deal with a major label, Troy Ave speculated that having waited to sign a contract may amount to a higher paycheck in the end. “Yeah I’m gonna probably go with a major, I just want a money bag,” he said. “Long as I get that money bag then you know, that’s probably what’s gonna happen. They could’ve gotten me a little while ago for cheaper, they ain’t get me, so now they got to pay like I weigh now.”Some 20 per cent on the job cuts will be in editorial, with about 150 of those losses to come from the metropolitan mastheads unit including The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Canberra Times over the next two to three months. In a staff briefing, the company said it would call for voluntary redundancies and has not ruled out compulsory cuts. Fairfax announces an overhaul of its operations. Credit:Michel O'Sullivan "The period ahead will be difficult as we move through the redundancies," Mr Hywood said. A shift to online by audiences around the world has undermined traditional business models for many media companies, with newspaper firms particularly hard hit. Rival News Corp is expected to reveal job cuts of its own within days, with as many as 1000 positions in Australia expected to go. Fairfax Media also said it had other options if revenues continued to fall sharply.
"If the print circulation and revenues change materially we have the option to move to a digital-only model," Mr Hywood said. Today's job cuts will also include the loss of about 10 per cent of staff at the Financial Review Group, which includes the AFR, over the coming three months. The FRG's headcount is about 275. Separately, Fairfax also revealed today it had sold 15 per cent of its New Zealand-based Trade Me online auction site, trimming its controlling stake to 51 per cent. The sales proceeds, worth about $166 million, will help offset part of the $248 million in one-off costs resulting from the job cuts and other changes. Fairfax shares jumped, rising 4.55 cents, or 7.4 per cent to 65 cents. Earlier today, the company said it had sold the 15 per cent holding in its Trade Me subsidiary, raising $NZ211 million ($166 million). Before today, shares in Fairfax had dropped 87 per cent over the past five years.
Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance house committee member Ben Schneiders said journalists wanted to produce independent journalism and wanted to hear from management about how that would happen with job cuts. “We want urgent talks with management on where cuts will fall and we want to ensure all cuts are voluntary.” “We are worried that media ownership is already very concentrated,” he said. Rinehart move Mining magnate Gina Rinehart also confirmed she had upped her stake to 18.6 per cent of the company, making her the largest single shareholder.
Mrs Rinehart has been demanding at least one seat on the Fairfax board and is understood to be aiming for at least a 19.9 per cent holding in the company. City Index head of dealing Peter Esho said today's announcement probably won't be "a game changer in the battle between Gina Rinehart and the Fairfax board". "Taking an axe to the metro legacy printing presses and consolidating the format is very unfortunate as it will see large job losses, but it was expected and probably a bit too late," he said. "The decision to sell down an interest in Trade Me and use the proceeds to reduce debt suggests that Fairfax is not at least for the time being contemplating a discounted rights issue," said Mr Esho. "It might be forced to if its current strategy doesn't work and earnings continue to sink further but at least for the time being, say three to four months, it seems to have bought more time."
Print closings Today's reorganisation will also entail the closure of the printing facilities in Chullora in NSW, and Tullamarine in Victoria by June 2014. Printing will be transferred to ''surrounding sites,'' the company said. The one-off costs associated with the plant closures and staff cuts will be $248 million on a net basis, including the proceeds of land sales, the company said. The cash costs of the two printing sites would be $40 million, excluding the expected land sales worth $63 million. The cost of the other changes, at $208 million, amounts to about $109,400 per employee made redundant. Communications Minister Stephen Conroy told reporters in Canberra that the Fairfax job losses were "terrible", adding that the company had made some tough decisions.
"It's always disappointing when any Australian is losing their job," he said. "What you can see, though, is that there is a future." Senator Conroy appeared to rule out any federal government support for Fairfax. "We are already supporting two national broadcasters and I can't see us changing that," he said. Opposition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull, meanwhile, told ABC TV that Fairfax should have moved faster to transition to digital journalism but it "could have done a lot worse". Mr Turnbull said the problem for Fairfax was not a lack of readers but that revenue had migrated on to other platforms.
He cautioned that editorial quality had to be maintained amidst the cost-cutting but also downplayed the case for government assistance.
'Legacy' media Fairfax will reveal its plans for charging for online access to the metropolitan titles' websites at the end of this year. The company's AFR.com.au site has been behind a paywall for years, a strategy that is increasingly popular with websites around the world as media firms attempt to generate new revenue flows. The smh.com.au and theage.com.au will operate a so-called "metered" model, in which a base level of articles and other content will remain free. The two websites have been relatively successful, reaching more than 5 million people last year. Smh.com.au was also the most popular news website in Australia in April.
The job cuts come as management pushes for full integration of its online, print and mobile platforms. The so-called "digital first" model aims to increase the sharing of editorial content, such as articles, across platforms and regions. Fairfax said that the two main websites were launched when "almost all" of the metro media departments' content was delivered through printed newspapers. "They have legacy presses with significant surplus capacity, which is no longer required," Mr Hywood said. "The changes announced today have been selected after considering the merits of a full range of structural alternatives, including a demerger," Mr Hywood said. "The package of strategic initiatives is bold, and several are difficult, particularly as they will impact on some of our people.
"However, we believe that they are in the best interest of Fairfax, our shareholders, and ultimately the majority of our people," he said.
"They are necessary to ensure Fairfax retains its position as a leading independent media company and a key voice in our markets," Mr Hywood said.
Without today's changes, the Metro Media division's costs would rise from a forecast $600 million for the year to June to about $660 million by the end of the 2015 financial year. Instead, the new cost target for three years' time will be about $550 million for the division. Unions response Fairfax staff at The Age plan a stop work meeting this afternoon to discuss the job cuts, with similar gatherings expected at other newsrooms. Loading Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) acting federal secretary Paul Murphy said the cuts contradicted Fairfax chief executive Greg Hywood’s recent statement to the stock exchange that the company would invest in quality journalism and editorial standards would not be compromised.
‘‘Any further loss of editorial positions will clearly damage these newspapers’ ability to produce quality journalism regardless of whether that journalism appears in print or on digital platforms,’’ Mr Murphy said.
‘‘Readers and employees alike are entitled to know precisely how Fairfax Media intends to ensure that these two great mastheads will continue to produce quality journalism when fewer journalists are left to actually go out and hunt out news stories.’’
The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU), meanwhile, slammed the company over the way it announced plans to close two printing presses, saying shocked workers were disappointed and angry.
‘It’s a terrible way for a major company to make a major announcement like this,’’ AMWU NSW secretary Tim Ayres told reporters in Sydney.
‘‘This announcement has driven a stake into the hearts of 210 printing workers here."
BusinessDay, with Judith Ireland..’it’s only a matter of time until we have Police Drones filming us 24 hours a day”
Illinois Police Get Approval for Drone Use (just don’t call them drones ok?) By Jennifer Baker on 05/12/2015 Americas, USA
If it looks like a drone and smells like a drone, it’s a drone. The Illinois State Police was recently granted permission by the Federal Aviation Administration to use drones. But the police department clearly senses the PR nightmare over their use, because it’s trying very hard not to call a drone a drone.
In a statement released to the Sun-Times Media Wire, the police department said that it was intentionally avoiding the word “drone” because “it carries the perception of pre-programmed or automatic flight patterns and random, indiscriminate collection of images and information.”
The Illinois State Police will add “unmanned aircraft” to its list of tools for the next two years. The state police said they worked with legal professionals and civil rights groups like the American Civil Liberties Union to minimize the privacy impact on average citizens.
The force maintained that it needed the drones because “the ability to obtain accurate measurements and clear images from aerial photographs will significantly reduce the amount of time highways are closed during the initial investigation of major traffic crashes.”
Two years ago, the Illinois General Assembly passed the “Freedom from Drone Surveillance Act,”which says that the use of drones is prohibited in the state with a number of exceptions. Ed Yohnka, spokesman for the Illinois chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, told ArsTechnica that back in 2013, the ACLU worked with the state police and other law enforcement agencies to put in place some ground rules before law enforcement agencies actually started incorporating drones into their work…………..
……Police may also use drones “for crime scene and traffic crash scene photography,” during a disaster or public health emergency, or “to counter a high risk of a terrorist attack.”“Nevertheless, I’m taking Captain Solo and his friends. You can either profit by this or be destroyed. It’s your choice, but I warn you not to underestimate my power.”
–Luke Skywalker, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
Even across the Outer Rim, Tatooine is well-known for its lawlessness. When Han Solo disappears on an information-gathering mission in Mos Eisley, two of the Rebellion’s best operatives are dispatched to find Han and help him defeat whatever dangers he has discovered on Tatooine. You’ll need all of your skills to help the smuggler elude the Imperial presence on the Outer Rim.
Your adventures take you to Mos Eisley in Twin Shadows, a new expansion for Imperial Assault! Within, you’ll find new content for your Imperial Assault campaigns and skirmishes. You can help Han Solo battle Imperials on Tatooine in a new mini campaign, or take advantage of new Command cards and skirmish missions to battle a friend in your skirmish games. Whichever game you play, you’ll be able to take advantage of the two new heroes that join the Rebel Alliance in Twin Shadows. Today, we’ll preview these two new heroes in the campaign and skirmish games for Imperial Assault.
Lead the Assault
The first hero to join the Rebels in Twin Shadows is Biv Bodhrik, a guerrilla warrior driven by his need for vengeance. Biv is a formidable warrior, proficient with all kinds of weapons, and you can use his strength to strike a blow for freedom in Imperial Assault.
During your campaign, Biv Bodhrik features two powerful abilities that allow him to take vengeance on every member of the Galactic Empire. By taking two strain and spending an action, Biv can use Close and Personal. This special ability allows him to perform a melee attack with a red die and a yellow die. Then, you can make an additional attack with a ranged weapon that targets the same figure. Anytime you combine two attacks into one action, your potential damage skyrockets. Most Imperial figures would fall to this double attack, but if you just don’t roll enough damage, Biv Bodhrik can get a second shot with Deadly Precision. By suffering a strain while you’re attacking, you may reroll any attack die, giving you an even better chance of destroying those who stand in your way.
As you play Biv Bodhrik throughout a campaign, you can increase his powers with the cards from his Class deck. You may use Advance to keep moving as you defeat enemy figures, or Final Stand to recover strain, move, and use Close and Personal, all in one action. Biv Bodhrik also introduces Class deck items that can be purchased by spending their XP cost. For example, you may affix a Vibrobayonet to your gun. When you use the Close and Personal ability, the Vibrobayonet makes your melee attack much more dangerous to any servant of the Empire who stands in your way.
Biv Bodhrik can be a deadly force for the Rebel Alliance in your skirmishes as well. He features a punishing amount of attack dice, and his surge abilities allow you to add more damage. Biv can also spend an action on the Close and Personal ability. This ability provides essentially the same effect as in the campaign game, allowing you to make a punishing melee attack before attacking your same target with a ranged attack. In a skirmish, of course, killing enemy figures is one of the main ways you gain victory points, making Biv Bodhrik a valuable asset when you’re taking down enemy figures. You’ll want to try to keep Biv alive when he rushes into combat, so he also features the Into the Fray ability, which grants a permanent block as long as Biv is close to at least two hostile figures. This ability gives Biv the time he needs to destroy as many enemies as possible.
You can maximize the carnage you create with Biv Bodhrik by playing the Stay Down Command card after he resolves the Close and Personal ability. If the target of your attacks was still not defeated, you can perform an additional attack against the same target, potentially felling even the greatest servants of the Galactic Empire. After his attack, Biv Bodhrik becomes Stunned, but that’s a small price to pay for destroying the Empire’s soldiers.
Mechanical Genius
As you explore the dingy cantinas and trash-filled alleys of the Mos Eisley, you can benefit from the technical expertise and underworld knowledge of Saska Teft, a brilliant engineer who’s recently joined the Rebel Alliance.
In the campaign game, you can use Saska Teft's constant tinkering to create useful devices for her and the other members of your team. By suffering a strain during her activation, Saska can claim a device token or give one to an adjacent friendly figure. These devices have no inherent power, but Saska Teft can use her abilities to give them any kind of |
lands, the researchers said it was widely recognised that an increase of chemical nutrients in an ecosystem led to a loss of diversity, but the mechanism of how it was occurring had been difficult to determine. "You would think that more [nutrients] would lead to more biodiversity," said co-author Andrew Hector, a researcher at the University of Zurich's Institute of Environmental Sciences. "Yet it is considered to be one of the main threats to biodiversity this century." 'Winner takes all' Professor Hector explained that there were two main hypotheses: "One is that the presence of more resources led to a general increase in the strength of competition among plants. The study showed that understory lighting halted plant diversity loss "The other is a little bit more mechanistic," he told BBC News. "When you get an increase in fertilisation, you get an increase in productivity, leading to increased plant biomass and increased shading. "This shifts the idea to light being the critical resource, with shorter species being shaded out by taller species, resulting in a loss in diversity." Professor Hector's team, led by PhD student Yann Hautier, fitted lights to the understory of grass in boxes containing fertilised soil. "Additional understory light compensated for the increased shading caused by the greater above-ground biomass production," they explained. The supplementary light "prevented the loss of species and maintained levels of diversity". The findings led the team to conclude that it was the lack of access to light that affects diversity, not an increase in the strength of competition. Car exhausts emit nitrogen oxides as well as carbon dioxide
Snared in a homemade 'NitroNet' "We have done the critical experiment that has been asking to be done for the past 35 years," said Professor Hector. "If it all depends on light levels, then if you put the light back then you should prevent a loss of biodiversity." However, he added that their findings did not offer a "magic bullet" for conservationists. "What our research shows is that competition for light is very asymmetric. "So if a plant can get between the sun and its competitors, not only can it get all the light it needs but it can also block its competitors' access to light. "Because this competition for light is such a 'winner takes all', it emphasises how important it is that we control nutrient enrichment."
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StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable versionIn this week's episode of Parts Unknown, host Anthony Bourdain visits Charleston, S.C., mecca for the modern Southern food boom. In this preview, Bourdain visits Sean Brock's Husk, where he shares a table with the chef and American film legend Bill Murray, who happens to be part owner of a minor league baseball team in the Holy City. The trio discusses Southern culture and why the South matters today.
Murray is a fan of his adopted home, but he doesn't want to gush about it too much: "I'm right on the edge here of telling people this is a really nice place to come. Really, I don't want anyone else to come. I like it the way it is." Meanwhile Brock, the resident Southerner of the group, explains why people outside the region should care about the South.
"If you look at the history of food in America, there's no denying that Southern food was the first true cuisine that had this foundation, and that's important to preserve," Brock says. "To me, though, it kind of goes back to the idea that you should be cooking and celebrating and preserving the food of your grandmother."
Parts Unknown Charleston airs this Sunday at 9 p.m. ET on CNN.Malcolm Turnbull’s speech to deflated supporters in the early hours of Sunday morning was extraordinarily lacking in self-awareness.
Turnbull had just brought his party a devastatingly bad election result. That’s true even if he manages to reach majority government, which remains far from clear despite his assertions. In the early hours of Sunday things got closer as more votes were counted. With 77.6 per cent of the vote counted, the ABC tally had the Coalition and Labor on 67 seats each with five crossbenchers and 11 seats in doubt.
Yet Turnbull showed not a scintilla of humility. He made no gesture of contrition, no promise that he had heard the message the people had delivered.
Instead he denounced Labor’s scare campaign – as if the Liberals themselves have not at times been masters of that dark art. And he made an unconvincing attempt to justify a double dissolution that has ended up producing a Senate as potentially difficult as the last one, with the added negative of including Pauline Hanson, so giving her a national platform.
There is now a bizarre parallel between Labor and the Liberals in turning triumph into disaster. Kevin Rudd won convincingly in 2007. He was then removed by his party and successor Julia Gillard came out of the subsequent election with a hung parliament. Tony Abbott had a strong win in 2014, was replaced - and now the Coalition will have a tiny majority or there will be another hung parliament, with the outcome depending on the crossbenchers.
Turnbull and his supporters can argue that if Abbott had still been leader the loss would have been greater, and that’s probably correct. But it is unlikely to be an argument that will do Turnbull much good in the days ahead when there won’t be a lot of Liberal love around.
Turnbull complains about Labor’s lies about Medicare’s future, but they were made more credible to the public because of the Coalition’s previous lies and actions. Did it think people would not remember Abbott’s 2013 promise of no cuts to health? Or the attempt in the 2014 budget to bring in a co-payment, unsuccessful though it was? Or the various subsequent moves for cuts and user pays measures? Labor’s campaign might have been exaggerated and dishonest, but the Coalition itself had effectively given the ALP the building blocks for it.
Turnbull’s argument that he called a double dissolution not to change the nature of the Senate but because the lawlessness in the construction industry had to be confronted is facile. He did not even make the industrial relations legislation a central talking point in the campaign. And in his speech he overlooked the point that even if he reaches majority government it is doubtful he would have the overall parliamentary numbers to get the bills through a joint sitting (although at this stage it is impossible to be definite about what the new senators might do).
In the wash up, everything from the Coalition’s strategy for the past eight weeks – running almost entirely on a “plan” based on company tax cuts - to the mechanics of getting the case across, will be under internal criticism. It will be remembered that Turnbull’s pitch for leadership included his ability as an economic salesman. That, as it turned out, he over-hyped.
The Liberal conservatives will try to unravel policy. They started on election night with their bugbear - the superannuation changes. Assuming the Coalition survives in government, how will the ructions in the Liberals now play out for the same-sex marriage plebiscite?
Turnbull was looking for a mandate to allow him to be his own man. Instead of getting that, his government has been left struggling to survive.
If it does, the conservative forces will now take one of two views of him: as someone who must be forced to follow their will on core policies, or as someone who at a future date should be replaced. Or maybe they will adopt both views.
Turnbull’s enemies within his party have played this election craftily. Abbott was mostly quiet during the campaign, although in the final week he made clear that he thought the issues of budget repair, national security and border protection had been underdone. His former chief of staff Peta Credlin used her role as TV commentator to run an at times sharp critique of the Turnbull campaign. Now the conservatives will be full-throated.
Turnbull talks about the need for stability and unity. The Australian public is faced with instability. Whatever the result ends up being, there is no clear mandate and an extremely difficult Senate. Turnbull, if he is still prime minister, would be confronted by the prospect of internal disunity plus a chaotic upper house that could likely make it nearly impossible to do much that is meaningful.
As happened when he was opposition leader, Turnbull is again in a situation where he didn’t read the danger signals. He thought he was more persuasive than Bill Shorten; he and his strategists (apparently) believed that whatever the national polls said, the marginal seats would stick. They said the election would be close but appeared confident it was in the bag.
Turnbull will pay a high price for his misjudgments, though it is unclear exactly how high.
Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.MONTREAL—If this city, already exhausted by student protests that have turned violent and destructive, thought an emergency law would sap some of the fury, it thought wrong. Another protest took place on Monday night, this one after Quebec’s largest student group, called the CLASSE, called upon its fellow citizens to disobey the new law.
Protesters opposing Quebec student tuition fee hikes demonstrate in Montreal, Sunday night. The protest led to clashes with police and more than 300 arrests. ( Graham Hughes / THE CANADIAN PRESS )
Police formed lines blocking several sites in the city’s central core, and a key commuter bridge, and quickly declared the protest illegal as marching students tried to get through. They blocked a major shopping street, Rue Saint Denis, site of major confrontations since Friday, in which 450 people were arrested and a dozen were injured, including one seriously. The police line led to a face-to-face standoff but there were no clashes this time.
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The CLASSE took no responsibility for the weekend violence. Spokespeople for the CLASSE blamed the government entirely for the social chaos gripping Montreal at night, saying it must immediately withdraw Bill 78. The government should cancel the bill “before people get injured, before people die,” said spokesperson Gabriel Dubois-Nadeau. The group is specifically calling for protesters to continue to gather in the streets as they did before the new law, which requires groups of more than 50 people to inform the police at least eight hours in advance of the protest’s time and route. It provides for heavy fines, up to $125,000 for student associations and $35,000 for its leaders if the protest doesn’t conform to those plans. According to the CLASSE, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms gives people the right to protest freely without submitting to the constraints of Bill 78, which it expects will be struck down by the courts.
“To submit to this law is to accept it. To accept it is to sanction its contents,” co-spokesperson Jeanne Reynolds said. The words also appear on a new web site launched to put faces to the individuals they are urging to defy the law. The site, arretezmoiquelquun.com, translates as “somebody arrest me” and is a not-so-subtle taunt at the authorities and the government.
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Within a couple hours of its launch on Saturday, the site had over 500 pictures of people expressing the words, “I disobey.” “If the government wants to attack the CLASSE, its elected representatives and its spokespeople, it will have to attack all those who will sign this online declaration available to all police forces,” said Nadeau-Dubois. “That will simply demonstrate the absurd and inapplicable character of this law.” Since disobeying the law could lead to very stiff fines for the CLASSE, Nadeau-Dubois also made a formal plea to the public and various sympathetic organizations to donate money to pay for them. The student strike movement — which is pressing for the government to drop planned tuition hikes — has continued its daily protests for more than three months. The CLASSE is clearly not only aiming at students with its words and actions. It continues to bleed public support. A CROP poll published on Saturday and conducted at the time of the new law’s passage showed a large majority of Quebecers in favour of it. “With this law, the government is attacking much more than the student associations,” the web site reads. “It’s attacking the even the possibility every woman and man should have to freely contest the decisions made in her or his name by the political powers.” The CLASSE compared the new law to that used by authoritarian regimes. Several other large cities, however, have stricter rules governing protests that that passed by the Quebec government. In New York, for instance, large demonstrations in public streets require a police permit. At the press conference given by the CLASSE Monday afternoon, the executive committee members were welcomed as rock stars by a crowd of about 200. Nadeau-Dubois has become a celebrity in his own right. One woman hugged and kissed him and congratulated him on his work. “I wanted to thank him for fighting for the society we have been creating and want to create here in Quebec, which is different from the rest of Canada,” said Hélène Jolicoeur, 59. “Thank-you Gabriel Dubois-Nadeau, thank-you, thank-you, a hundred times thank-you,” she said. “He’s in the process of saving our society.” The CLASSE invited people to join in a protest organized for Tuesday in Montreal’s entertainment district. The global hacker collective Anonymous took an interest as well, releasing two videos denouncing the legislation and the planned tuition increases. The group, which regularly hacks into government websites around the world, warned of future actions in Quebec. “Resistance is futile,” a computer-modulated voice stated in one video. “The hour of war has come.” The website for the Quebec Liberal party and the province’s Education Ministry were down for portions of the weekend in an apparent cyber attack. Anonymous, however, did not claim responsibility.
Read more about:Personalization
In the Windows 10 preview, a small number of Live Tiles can be made larger than has previously been possible. The People panel, for instance, can now become a huge square or a vertically orientated rectangle. I suppose eventually the larger Tiles will be able to pump more and different types of content to your home screen. The Cortana Tile can also be made into a huge square, and I can easily see that extra space being used to show more news headlines, or a blend of stories and notifications.
The Windows 10 preview also introduces a slight change to how you personalize the home screen. In Windows Phone 8.1, you can choose a background image that becomes visible through certain Live Tiles, though the borders around those panels remain black or white. In Windows 10, the image actually becomes the background, filling the borders around Live Tiles and peeking through those that can become semi-transparent. It's no better or worse; just different. I can't think of a reason not to include both display options. Perhaps this will be introduced in a later build.
There's also a minor change to the app list that remains hidden off to the right of the home screen in Windows 10, which also sits above the new background image. Above the familiar, alphabetically organized catalog is a new section that displays recently downloaded apps. You can clear this at will, of course, and while it might come in handy for tracking down an app you've just installed, I don't see it being of much use. More likely than not, it's something you'll want to get rid of as soon as it pops up again, and there's also no way to stop this populating currently. If you're listening, Microsoft, scrap this and instead implement a way to pin apps to this space. You know, the kind you might use frequently, but don't need a dedicated Live Tile for.
Quick settings and interactive notifications
One of the biggest improvements in Windows Phone 8.1 was the addition of the "Action Center." It's much like the kind of pull-down menu you'll find on Android, with a selection of settings shortcuts above a notification drawer. The only problem with the existing Action Center is that it has only four slots for settings you might want to change on the fly. This limitation has been addressed in the Windows 10 preview, but only sort of. You can now expand this menu and access six more quick settings, as well as jump into the main settings menu. Unfortunately, it's not as much of an improvement as I'd like, since only the original four slots are open to customization. I rarely need to engage rotation lock, and never need to use a VPN on my phone, so already two of the new quick settings are useless to me.
In my view, the much more important upgrade to the Action Center is that various types of notifications are now interactive. You can dismiss an alarm, for example, or reply to a text from directly within the notification. This is true of "pop-down'" alerts, too, meaning if you catch, say, a message before it takes up residency in the notification drawer, you can answer from within the alert itself. This doesn't work with email currently (maybe it will when the new Outlook Mail app drops), but it would be great to see this functionality applied across the board. Imagine approving app updates, replying to Twitter DMs, liking photos you've been tagged in and sharing stock tips, all from within notifications. Less clicking, less time, less fuss.
In Windows 10 proper, you'll be able to dismiss a notification on your desktop and it'll disappear from your phone's Action Center, too. However, I can't tell you whether this has been implemented in the Technical Preview for phones to any extent.
Broader text-to-speech support
I don't actually talk into my phone all that frequently, but in the Windows 10 preview, you can now speak to almost every text-entry field. If a little microphone icon appears above the keyboard, then speech-to-text conversion is supported, and I was kinda surprised to find it even works for text-entry fields on websites. For now, however, it appears this feature is limited to US users, though you can still get it to work elsewhere. As Microsoft works to improve its virtual assistant for Windows 10, it's limited Cortana so that she only understands English in this early preview build. Since the same speech-recognition resources are used to power the broader speech-to-text feature, I gather this is also reserved for English speakers, but it wasn't enabled on the 630 I'm testing in the UK. That said, I was able to get around that by tricking the phone into thinking I was from the US. To do this, you need to change a couple of region and language settings, following the same process that allowed people to play with Cortana when she was first released as a US-only beta.
New settings menu and other core app changes
You'll be able to track these settings down far more easily in the Windows 10 preview, too, thanks to a much-welcome redesign of the settings menu. In Windows Phone 8.1, the settings app is an utter mess, with no fewer than 50 different categories presented as a featureless list that's easy to get lost in. In the Windows 10 preview, this has been reduced to a much more manageable nine sections, with an additional "Extras" category catching settings that don't really fit anywhere else. It's significantly easier to find what you're looking for, as Microsoft has given each section a little icon, along with titles ("System," "Accounts," etc.) and a brief description. Microsoft also moved to a smaller, softer font, so the entire menu occupies one screen; no scrolling required. Things can get slightly unwieldy again when you dive into the sub-menus, as really we're just looking at a reorganization and reskin of the upper levels. Once you find the specific setting you want to change, you're sometimes faced with the same style of menu that currently exists in Windows Phone 8.1. Hopefully, though, this is just a work in progress and the settings app will sport a consistent design in future builds and become even easier to navigate.
The redesigned settings app gives us an idea of how other parts of the UI might be simplified in Windows 10 for phones, by using more accessible fonts and the thin, oblong settings toggles you'll find in the new Photos app, for example. A couple of other core apps, such as the dialer, have also been given a fresh coat of paint. You now switch between the call history and speed dial tabs using buttons rather than swiping through a horizontal carousel. And the keypad is now one small, flat panel in place of the island layout of Windows Phone 8.1. This is true of the Calculator app, too, which is no longer the virtual equivalent of a basic pocket model. You now have access to standard, scientific and programmer modes, and can convert measurements for practically anything (e.g., volume, temperature, pressure). Incidentally, Cortana also looks different in the Windows 10 preview, with a new font and menu structure, but appears to be in the early stages of redesign as it's very rough around the edges. It appears that Cortana's Shazam-style song-search feature has been stripped from the Windows 10 preview, too.
New apps and simplifying design
In terms of brand-new apps -- though the significantly better Calculator could be considered new -- you've only got File Explorer and the fresh Photos app. File Explorer does exactly what it says on the tin, and is an evolution of last year's "Files" app that finally allowed Windows Phone users to manage the data on their devices. Photos is the first app for Windows 10 featured in the preview for phones that's "universal," meaning it looks and behaves like its desktop counterpart. The main change from the Windows Phone 8.1 Photos app is that your main gallery is now populated by on-device images and those stored on OneDrive. It's not completely finished, though, as album and folder support is currently MIA.
The most interesting thing about the Photos app, in my opinion, is the little menu button that sits in the top left-hand corner. Not because the button or menu itself is anything special, but like the use of a smaller font in the redesigned settings app, it speaks to how Microsoft is simplifying the user experience. You'll see the same menu button in the new File Explorer and improved Calculator, too. Navigating around core apps in Windows Phone 8.1 typically requires a lot of swiping, but the menu button in these Windows 10 apps does away with all that, keeping you focused on what's on the display, not what's hiding off to the right or left. No doubt, swiping will become a much rarer method of interaction as more Windows 10 apps usurp their Windows Phone doubles in later preview builds.
Miscellany
Microsoft told us last month that the Lumia Camera app will be stock in Windows 10, but that's not true of this preview. The Windows Phone Camera app is still alive and kicking in this build, and is pre-installed alongside the Lumia Camera app. The latter is an old version, though, not the new and improved release that shipped with the Windows Phone 8.1 Lumia "Denim" update. The only other change I noticed in the Windows 10 preview that I haven't mentioned already is the addition of a "joystick" to the keyboard. Kind of like a virtual version of the mouse nub you'll find on ThinkPad laptops, it lets you move the cursor in a text-entry field without having to obscure it with your thumb. It's a simple change, but clever all the same. On larger phones like the 6-inch Lumia 1520, you'll be able to move the keyboard around the screen, too. The Windows 10 preview isn't compatible with any large-screen Lumias at the moment, however, so it's not something we can see in action just yet.
What's missing
Apart from interactive notifications, then, there's not a lot about this early Windows 10 preview to get excited about. A long list of changes and features is still waiting to be implemented, though -- and thankfully, Microsoft has let us in on what to expect. Nothing's set in stone at this point, of course, as the company still has a ton of its own testing to do and user feedback to consider. But for now, this is what we've been told is coming to later preview builds of Windows 10 for phones.
One thing that's currently impossible to predict is the impact of "universal" apps for Windows 10. While the look of the OS adapts to different types and sizes of devices, the core platform is ubiquitous. In theory, this means developers only need to create one app that'll run on everything from PCs to phones to the Xbox One. Presumably they'll still need to tailor it for different hardware configurations and display sizes, but the idea is that it'll be significantly easier than making several apps for different forks of Windows. Windows Phone has always been plagued by lackluster developer support, and universal apps can only help in this respect. Microsoft can only do so much, though. What Windows 10 will ultimately mean for its mobile ecosystem is, as always, in the hands of developers.
Microsoft has some pretty popular software itself, of course, and has already demonstrated new, universal versions of Office apps. They're supposed to make for a richer, more intuitive Office experience on phones, with dedicated apps for Word, Excel and PowerPoint. These aren't quite ready for public probing just yet, though, so the first Windows 10 preview for mobiles comes with the same, all-encompassing Office app you'll find in Windows Phone 8.1. Also promised in later preview builds are new Outlook Mail and Calendar apps, the latter of which might take cues from cross-platform calendar app Sunrise, given Microsoft recently acquired it.
In its quest to turn Xbox from isolated hardware into more of a platform, Microsoft is making console compatibility a priority in Windows 10. For PCs and tablets, this means cross-platform titles and multiplayer, game streaming and more, but we're still not exactly sure what part phones will play in the equation. Obviously a new app is in the works, but the only details we can really glean from promo footage is that it'll keep you better connected with your gaming alter ego, and perhaps let you view saved game clips of epic frags on your phone.
Internet Explorer's days are finally numbered (well, almost). Windows 10 will introduce a brand-new, leaner browser currently code-named "Project Spartan," with Cortana integration (how fitting) and a focus on clipping, commenting on and sharing web content. But, as you've likely already guessed, it isn't included in this build of the Windows 10 preview for phones; just IE for now.
Lastly, the unified messaging experience Microsoft has teased on Windows 10 for phones isn't up and running in this first Technical Preview. Similar to how iOS blends SMS and iMessages, or Android's option to incorporate texts in Hangouts, Windows 10 will combine comms from various services into single threads (provided they're from the same person, of course). Skype integration is a given, of course, but we'll have to wait to see what other messaging services Microsoft can bring into the fold.
Trying this at home
Some people just like to be on the bleeding edge, and while there's no overwhelming reason to make the jump from comfortable, fully functional Windows Phone 8.1 to the Windows 10 preview yet, you can. But, be warned! The Technical Preview is slow, clunky and buggy (not unusably so, though). It's not supposed to be anything close to a finished product right now, so the user experience isn't a top priority; Microsoft just needs a working foundation to build upon.
The Windows 10 preview, then, is not something you're likely to want on your main phone. Microsoft warns that unexpected crashes could corrupt or straight-up wipe files, so backing up your data is highly recommended. Also, some features you'll find in Windows Phone 8.1 have been stripped from this release. Rooms isn't available, for example, which will be especially important for those who maintain shared calendars. And, as previously mentioned, Cortana only recognizes English for now. Additionally, the messaging and dialer apps don't include dual-SIM support or spam filtering. In fact, messaging is missing a number of important features -- and then there are plenty of known, potentially troublesome bugs.
If you're not put off by these many disclaimers, you'll find that checking out the Windows 10 preview for phones is relatively simple, as long as you have a compatible phone. The majority of Lumias running Windows Phone 8 or 8.1 will be upgraded to the consumer-ready version of Windows 10, and later releases of the Technical Preview will support additional handsets. For now, though, you need a Lumia 830, 730 or one from the 630 series. If you have a device on that list, the first thing you need to do is register for the Windows Insider Program.
When you're done, head to the Microsoft Store on your Lumia and download the Windows Insider app. It's from within this that you can opt in to the Windows 10 preview for phones, but be prepared for your phone to be more or less out of action while it completes the long update process. I initially tried this on a Lumia 830, which first had to catch up to the latest version of Windows Phone 8.1 (the Lumia "Denim" release) before failing to find a compatible preview build. Slightly disheartened, I switched my attention to a Lumia 630, which also needed to go through several update cycles before eventually booting into the Windows 10 preview. All told, this took roughly two hours, but it should be quicker if the phone you're trying it on is already running the latest version of Windows Phone 8.1. If you hit any bumps in the road, head over to the support forum to find potential solutions.
Microsoft is keen for everyone to try out this preview build, whether you're a developer or just an interested tech enthusiast. As such, the Windows 10 preview for phones includes a built-in feedback app, so you can report bugs and provide other feedback straight from your phone -- you can launch the app from anywhere, too, by simply pressing the power and volume-down buttons simultaneously. And while Microsoft will no doubt appreciate your observations, you should also let us know what you think of the Windows 10 preview for phones in the comments below. Have fun!Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption Do we need to fear or respect the hackers that find security flaws in our devices?
Every week, almost every day, hackers are poking holes in the devices we carry, drive and use. Over the past couple of weeks the numbers and severity of the flaws these technical wizards have found have hit fever pitch.
They brought to light a security bug in almost one billion Android phones.
Then there was the car hack that led to 1.4 million vehicles being recalled for a software upgrade.
Don't forget the vulnerability found in an obscure bit of software that, if exploited, could have shut down big chunks of the net. We've also have emergency patches for Windows and Flash.
That's a lot. Is that all?
Nope. There's more. At least 32 previously unknown vulnerabilities will be aired at the Black Hat hacker conference in Las Vegas. More will come from the other big hacker conference, Def Con, that is also held in Vegas this week. Some of those bugs have been found in control systems for factories, power plants and other key installations.
Should I be worried?
Image copyright fiat-chrysler Image caption Hackers recently stopped a Fiat Chrysler in its tracks prompting a 1.4m vehicle recall
Rather than just fret, it would be good to do something about it. Update your phone. Update your browser and operating system. If you drive a Chrysler car affected by the bug, take it to be updated. The basic advice is: update everything you can.
But that does not protect you against the bugs found in factories or bits of parts of a nation's critical infrastructure. Nor against the attacks on the online services we use. In those situations the advice is to do as much as you can to protect yourself (choose hard-to-guess passwords as a minimum) and think about what you would do if such a breach affected you.
Why do these people do this?
Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption Hacking can be a very lucrative job
It can pay well. Increasing numbers of firms run bug bounty schemes that reward hackers, in one way or another, for finding the vulnerability.
Payment is a good reward for work that can be time-consuming, technically challenging and dull. Some vulnerability researchers spend weeks pursuing a hunch only to find out that it leads nowhere.
Others use loads of different computers, running scripts for days, battering away at software to see how it reacts when given different kinds of input. It might take tens of thousands of tries to get a result.
In those cases, more often than not, finding the problems makes sites and services more secure. They are definitely helping.
That's good.
It is. Many smart software engineers would, as the saying goes, prefer to light a candle than curse the darkness. In this case the candle is the discovery of a loophole that the real bad guys can slip through. Having more people look over software is a good way to find its flaws.
And, it has to be said, the last thing many security researchers do is publicise their work. Most work to a "responsible disclosure" ethic that gives the firm that made the software a chance to fix it before public knowledge about it spreads. Though there have been cases when they researchers publish first and inform afterwards.
So we are safer then?
In those cases, yes. But sometimes researchers get paid for bugs that are never publicly disclosed. There are stories of huge sums being paid by governments for vulnerabilities they can use to spy on rival and even friendly nations.
There are also cyber-crime groups that pay for vulnerabilities that they then roll into exploit kits. These help produce malware that can exploit the loopholes, infect a PC and be used to steal data and cash.
That's bad
It is. But the software holes put to nefarious uses might also be found by the white-hat hackers too. And, once the holes are known about, thanks to whistle-blowers or other investigations, the ethical hackers can patch them, produce defences or close the hole.
There are also more information groups that attempt to make hackers put their technical skills to good use. Initiatives such as I Am The Cavalry recruit security folks and get them to spread the word about making secure software. It's much easier to write code that is full of holes than it is to make it hard to hack.
And then there are the numerous groups who spend time fiddling with the kit we have in our homes and then tell the makers of it what they need to do to fix it. One has set up a testing centre for firms making gear that will form the Internet of Things so that can be improved.
So are they on our side?
They are. And that's just as well because a lot of other people aren't. They are our allies against the relentless, well-motivated and well-funded criminal hackers who want to steal your credit cards and login names, extort cash when they encrypt your hard drive, get you to click on a booby-trapped link or fall for a phish.This project was a serious labor or love. Kiera of Jakfoto Films and I are huge fans of the BBC TV show Doctor Who…and one day was just hit with the idea of putting together a chic, Doctor Who styled inspirational shoot. It gave us a excuse to watch more of the show AND try to pack in as many show references as possible without hitting people over the head with them. We like to call them Easter-eggs. Our goal was to design a gorgeous wedding for those not familiar with the show, and for the fans let them have fun picking out Doctor Who references.
We love this idea of mixing geek with chic…something we don’t see too often sadly.
Because Kiera and I knew this shoot would become a larger production, very early on we asked Jen of First Pick Planning to come on board. With our powers combined….we created this eye candy.
We also had the honor of being featured on Green Wedding Shoes today! Feel free to check out the feature and give all the vendors involved some love.
Vendors:
Styled by: Jakfoto Films jakfoto.com | Candice Benjamin Photography candicebenjamin.com | First Pick Planning firstpickplanning.com
Cinematography: Jakfoto Films | Photography: Candice Benjamin Photography | Coordination: First Pick Planning | Print Design: Mintwich Design | Floral Design: Studio Ooh La La | Wedding Dress: Hope Stanley of Mary Me Bridal | Cape + Earings: BHLDN | Gold Birdcage Veil: Tessa Kim | Ceremony Venue: Big Bear Solar Observatory | Ceremony Make-up and hair: Melissa Abad Makeup | Fourth Doctor’s Scarf: NoemisKnits | TARDIS “Spoilers” Kindle Cover: mdk Studios 898 | Reception Venue: Huron Substation | Reception Make-up and hair: Evelyn Lui of Serene Bridal Beauty | Cake: A Twist of Cake | Table Number Art: Meghan Stratman | Dining Furniture and Place Settings: Classic Party Rentals | Statement Furniture & Pendant Lights: FormDecor | Lighting: Mastermind Production Group | Cocktail Bar: Night Owl Productions | Video soundtrack: Chris Bartella – Anthem Falls Music | Ceremony backdrop, seating chart, star prisms & table numbers: DIY | Eleventh Doctor’s Sonic Screwdriver & The Master’s Pocket Watch: ThinkGeek
Extra Special Thanks To: Kasey McKay, Josh McKay, Jay Moore, AJ Murden, Chris Wayne, and Bree Rhoten
Jakfoto Films also created a video that included even more nerdy references and the best fake vows I’ve ever heard.
Note: We put together this inspirational styled shoot because things like this make my heart happy. It’s a real couple that modeled for us, but all of the ideas and styling was put together by the vendors involved. Jakfoto Films and myself did the bulk of styling and DIY-ing (yes, we stayed up till 3am for a few weeks straight glittering balls and painting old windows), but it wouldn’t of been put together without the help of everyone. I would consider myself so lucky to photograph a real wedding like this. Lets make Geek Chic a thing. And I will be there in a double-heartbeat to photograph it.
Planning your own wedding? Want to see how we gathered our ideas for the shoot?You can see our Pinterest board here.
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All images are © by Gianluca Masi. Do not use without permission.
These mornings, as you know, there is a stunning show up in the sky: all the five, naked-eye planets are visible at a glance. Add the Moon and the Earth on the foreground and you will have enough reasons to wake up earlier than the Sun to admire them in person.
At Virtual Telescope we managed to grab them a couple of mornings, but on 6 Feb. we wanted to go out early once again: that morning a very sharp crescent Moon was expected |
this can’t be possible. “Why tell me now?”
“That ***** was just released, it’s all over the news” said his dad. Jeremy had never heard his father swear, ever. He looked from one of them to the other, desperately wanting one of them to discredit everything they had just said, but they just looked back sympathetically, their eyes glazed with tears. “We didn’t know what seeing him might do to you, we had to tell you.”
What they had just told him was so extraordinary, so unbelievable that he was starting to believe it. It was difficult to think about counterarguments to something so completely out of left field; he felt like a bug plucked from his familiar surroundings and put into something completely alien. His world had been spun around, and this new world was suddenly becoming fact; even though a big part of him was still yelling “this is crazy, it can’t be true!” He felt a deep and dark sadness. Just a few hours ago he had come home happy, enjoying music, thinking about what he had done at school. None of that seemed to matter now, he felt removed from all of it, as if that had just been a video game he was now disconnected from. The next emotion was frustration. “Why… how did you…I don’t…”, he stumbled. He couldn’t find the words to express what he was feeling, angry about something part of him still didn’t believe. He didn’t know what to say that would make his parents take all of this away.
“They said that showing you some things from your childhood might, help you remember” said his dad. Help him remember?! Why were they talking to him like a child?! Like there was something wrong with him! His eyes showed his displeasure.
“Jeremy…don’t…” his mother tried. Then reconciling herself she said “come upstairs? To the attic?” After a few seconds Jeremy nodded and sheepishly followed them up into the attic. They pulled out a dusty box from the corner, it was labelled ‘Jeremy’s Stuff’, but ‘Jeremy’ had been written on top of another name that had been crossed out, Jeremy felt his heart plummet a few inches.
Delicately his mother opened it, as if she were a defusing a bomb, careful not to make a wrong move that might set it off. She pulled out a few drawings that he’d probably done as a kid, they were full of fighter planes attacking some kind of badly drawn orange monster. Jeremy was about to say something, but suddenly the words escaped him, he searched his mind for what he was about to say but couldn’t find it. He just stared down at the pictures, not wanting to meet his parents gaze.
His mother looked at him, guaging whether or not he could handle more, his father, standing behind her urged her on. She handed him item after item, none of it seemed out of the ordinary, some clothes, a kid’s superhero costume, some toys, but none of it was familiar to Jeremy. This terrified him, there was no way his parents were tricking him; if these were truly his old belongings and he didn’t recognize them…
He still avoided his parents gaze, instead just looking, in a daze, at the items his parents handed him. It was like being at a garage sale, going through someone else’s junk, none of it meant anything to him. What did this mean for the rest of his life, how could he feel confident about anything anymore, how could he know anything.
His mom whispered that she’d gotten to the last item in the box. She looked up, with apprehension in her eyes at Jeremy’s father, as if this was the one they’d been banking on. If this didn’t work… His father nodded.
“Do you remember your favourite toy growing up? You were always playing with it?” she asked. Jeremy had no idea what she was talking about; he shook his head.
She pulled it out of the box. It was like being plunged into a pool memories. The smell of hot chocolate and autumn leaves hit him, the sound of cartoons and a running creek filled his ears. Feelings of excitement, friendship and security rushed back to him and almost overwhelmed him.
He looked down at the old orange stuffed animal he held in his hands.
“Hobbes…” he whispered.
AdvertisementsAt the WFCQ in Wellington Japan has become the first country to qualify for the World Floorball Championships in December in Slovakia.
Based on the World Ranking Japan (13) simply had to qualify, as their opponents Singapore (18), Korea (21) and Malaysia (30) were all lower ranked. However, Japan knew it shouldn’t underestimate its opponent. In the first game the team met Malaysia. The Japanese took a 3-0 lead and had control and slowly they increased their lead. As Malaysia scored twice, the final score was 6-2. Goalkeeper saves: 7 (Japan), 29 (Malaysia) – doesn’t that say it all?
After that Japan faced the strongest opponent in this group: Singapore. Just like two years ago the teams played a close game, although it didn’t look like that at first. Japan again took a 0-3 lead and only in the last period Singapore scored – twice! It was too late for the win however, thus Japan took another two points (as a victory gives you two points, instead of three).
Last opponent was Korea and again the Japanese took a 3-0 lead. They knew a victory would grand them access to the WFC and they fought for it, playing focused and strong. The two goals Korea made weren’t any problem as Japan knew it had what it came for: another victory (7-2) and a ticket to Slovakia!
Floorball Worldwide Facebook Group - 1.920 members! Become a member For lovers of floorball worldwide! Here you find the latest news about floorball!
Join the Floorball Worldwide Facebook GroupA fire early Thursday heavily damaged Plate restaurant, a popular destination in the Brookside area of Kansas City.
Firefighters responded to the restaurant in the 6200 block of Oak Street about 5:30 a.m. Thursday.
No one was injured.
Battalion Chief Kevin Hunt with the Kansas City Fire Department said that when firefighters first arrived, they found extensive fire in the ceiling.
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Thick, black smoke along with flames were seen coming from the roof of the restaurant. Additional firefighters were sent to the scene. By the time all the crews arrived, about 40 firefighters battled the blaze.
When firefighters entered the building, which houses the restaurant and other business, they found extensive fire in the cockloft area, Hunt said.
A cockloft is a small space above the ceiling but below the roof of a building.
“The crews did the best they could to get ahead of it and cut it off and save the structure,” Hunt said. “It (fire) was traveling south at a pretty high rate.”
The fire’s cause has not been determined.
The restaurant had just finished renovations and had recently expanded its dining room because it was so popular.
“There was extensive damage to the Plate restaurant,” Hunt said. “The structure was saved, so they will be able to rebuild.”
The building’s owner, James Dalton, said the fire is very upsetting, partly because they had just remodeled the building and updated all of the wiring.
He said he would rebuild.
“This is a magnificent building,” said Dalton, who owned Dalton Interiors inside the building for 61 years. “It’s one of the prettiest buildings around.”
The Dalton family owns other buildings in the area, including the Hammerspace Community Workshop and MakerSpace, just around the corner.
The popular makerspace announced this week it would leave Brookside after being denied zoning changes following neighborhood complaints.
Fire investigators have not determined the cause of the fire or whether it was intentionally set. Bomb and arson investigators are on the scene, which is standard practice.
“The reason they have bomb and arson here is that they have the ability to arrest if it is suspicious or if we find something,” Hunt said. “KCPD steps in for that.”
The fire started on the east side of the building. It was too early to tell if the fire originated inside or outside the building, Hunt said.
At the rear of the building were separate grease and linen dumpsters, but it was unknown if this was where the fire originated, Hunt said.
Residents in the neighborhood gathered on the sidewalks to see the damage.
“It’s sad to see it burned,” said Leslie Lawson, who went to the restaurant from time to time.
“This is a loss for the neighborhood,” she said.
Her neighborhood association had meetings and wine tastings there.
“The food was fabulous,” said Katherine Torbett. “It was a neighborhood attraction. … This is sad.”
Lawson recalled that when the restaurant opened about 1 1/2 years ago, it was so popular people had to get reservations. There was a waiting list of about two months.
The restaurant’s owner, Christian Joseph, stood on the sidewalk across the street watching the firefighters work. He was surrounded by his employees as he called his insurance company.
Joseph declined to comment, saying he was trying to take it all in.
There were some power lines in the rear of the building that proved a challenge for firefighters to get access to the building until KCP&L crews disconnected them.
Another challenge for firefighters was that the building has undergone multiple renovations over the years, which included the addition of heating and cooling ducts.
“We have fought these types of fires before,” Hunt said. “We know that when it gets in a cockloft in a commercial structure like this, you have to get ahead of it or you could lose the entire structure. The guys did a great job doing that.”Why We Do Weird Things: An Interview With Ottessa Moshfegh, author of Eileen
Electric Literature Blocked Unblock Follow Following Aug 18, 2015
by Megha Majumdar
In Ottessa Moshfegh’s new novel, Eileen, the titular character works at a boys’ prison, lives with her alcoholic father in a town she cannot bear to name, and obsesses over her body’s inelegant systems and secretions.
This character study, however, is also the story of a bizarre murder.
Moshfegh writes, she says, to explore why people do weird things. This interest in the strange — a few striations from the humiliating — shows. In her short-story Disgust, a lonely Chinese man debases himself in his love for a faintly-known woman. In her novella McGlue (excerpted in Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading), a drunk sailor is unable to remember if he has murdered his friend.
The Paris Review has championed Moshfegh’s work, publishing several of her stories, and awarding her the Plimpton Prize in 2013. (Her story, “Bettering Myself,” was also featured in Recommended Reading, recommended by The Paris Review.) The following year, Moshfegh won a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
When Moshfegh and I chatted on a rainy day in a Williamsburg coffee shop, she was in the final months of a Stegner Fellowship. We discussed, among other things, feminist writing, embarrassment as a literary subject, and why the uproar over Claire Messud’s “The Woman Upstairs” makes her angry.
Moshfegh was unafraid of disagreement, and our conversation rounded into argument and back. But the most memorable moment came when she spoke, lit up, of the joy of writing: “I can’t tell you how much I love writing, revising, editing,” she said. “It’s a complete fantasy.”
Megha Majumdar: What is really interesting about Eileen is that the book complicates female desire. I was struck by a part in which Eileen thinks that her first time having sex will be, in fact, a forced encounter. She believes she will be raped. That, of course, questions what desire can look like. Did you set out to write a feminist book?
If we go by the mores and values that we see around us, any woman living in this world should hate herself.
Ottessa Moshfegh: You’re the first person to ask me that. Thank you. Everything I write is feminist, because I don’t hate women, I hope. I find it impossible to ignore the fact that we live in a really violent culture. Eileen’s character in particular is a victim of that violence. Not only is she in a completely shitty situation at home, but the whole world is rigged to keep her small and powerless. So I wondered, what would it be like if I exposed what happens in a person’s mind when she is being conspired against, held hostage to society? The mind gets perverted when you live in a state of constant defensiveness. You think there’s something wrong with you. Self-loathing is natural. If we go by the mores and values that we see around us, any woman living in this world should hate herself.
MM: Eileen’s self-obsession can make her an unpleasant person to be with —
OM: I don’t agree. Of all the characters in the book, Eileen is the one I relate to.
People talk about her, like, is this a girl you want to spend time with? But she’s pretty typical. She’s delivered to the reader in an intimate, first-person narrative, so you know what her thoughts are. From the outside, she’s not offensive, though she thinks she is.
She has an inflated sense of her physicality. What I was hoping to capture through the perspective of having Eileen narrate this book at 75, talking about herself at 24, is that her self-perception was inaccurate. It was an effect of living in this world. I don’t think she’s that bad.
MM: All right. Let’s see if the question I was going for could still stand — there are a bunch of characters in the book who are unpleasant. People you wouldn’t want to hang out with. Unlikeable characters, basically. I wonder if you remember the debate over unlikeable characters — if women are always expected to write likeable characters, and so on. Do you have some hope for how your book might engage with that debate?
OM: I hope that people might see how ridiculously sexist that is. And it’s so boring. As an artist, I say fuck that debate. Let’s be done with it.
It’s not my job to please people who can’t tolerate anything but lukewarm baths.
The notion of likeability is a concern that the book industry has because there are people who read to feel nothing — people who read in order to check out. They don’t want to be disturbed by the words that they’re reading. They’re scared. The moment they feel challenged, they put down the book and review it on Amazon, “I just couldn’t get into this; it was too dark.” So when you’re selling a book and you say, this might have an effect on you, it turns off cowardly readers. I’m not concerned with those readers. It’s not my job to please people who can’t tolerate anything but lukewarm baths.
I read because I want to change, because I want to learn something and have an experience. If I’m having an experience where nothing is happening to me, I’m going to look at that book as… nothing. And I don’t want to write nothing.
MM: Eileen is obsessed with her body. Where did that interest in the body come from, and how did it evolve as you wrote this book?
OM: Eileen’s body is, in a way, her lover. It is the thing she knows the most intimately, and her relationship with her body is a way to engage with the world. Where it’s not safe to, let’s say, act out against her superiors at work, what she can do is objectify herself, and act out against her own body, as a way of processing her feelings.
I think that’s one way that eating disorders manifest. Or any kind of self-destructive tendency, like cutting. As a writer, it seemed implausible to me that Eileen could have a healthy relationship with her body given her circumstances.
Women are objectified so much that it was impossible for me to conceive of a book where that wasn’t an issue. And especially in this book, which is set in the early 60s.
MM: Is that interest in uninhibited and self-destructive behavior part of why you are interested in writing about drinking and drinkers? This shows up in McGlue as well as Eileen.
OM: I am interested in the ways that people cope with life. Alcoholism itself is not very interesting to me. If your identity as a character is that you are an alcoholic, it’s not going to be a very round character for me, in my writing.
That’s why the father in Eileen — that is who he is, he’s drunk and delusional, he makes messes — but he isn’t a whole person. He’s more like a ghost.
Drinking and doing drugs feed delusion. I’m interested in the stories we tell ourselves, and how they may conflict with other people’s stories about the world, and how, if we’re operating under a delusion, we might make really weird decisions. I like to explore that in fiction — why we do weird things.
MM: You chose to leave Eileen’s father as not a totally full character. Can you talk about that decision?
OM: On the one hand, Eileen as a grown woman has spent a lot of time coming to terms with the way that she feels about her dad, so I didn’t want the book to be, “Here’s me, Eileen, processing my feelings about my abusive alcoholic father.” I wanted the book to be more about Eileen extricating herself from that situation, and leaving behind this identity in search of a new one.
MM: One of your short stories in The Paris Review, “Disgust,” is a favorite of mine, and I wonder if we can trace a line from “Disgust” to Eileen. In “Disgust,” one of the major concerns was embarrassment and humiliation. And in Eileen, those are major ways in which the main character experiences the world. What makes embarrassment and humiliation literary subjects for you?
OM: They take the interior to the exterior. Humiliation is when people see a weakness in us, and we’re caught, exposed in that small moment. We’re vulnerable, and we’re received with judgment. That, to me, is a huge part of being alive — this negotiation between, who is it safe to expose myself to, and how does my fear of judgment limit me from being myself?
I also enjoy thinking about how funny it is that we care so much about the exterior: she has this haircut; he has that haircut; what does that mean — when really we all use the toilet? We all fart in our sleep. We all get pimples. We’re all mortal.
Yet we try to present ourselves in a way that is free from those bodily associations.
There is very good reason for that — people are afraid of death.
And for some people the exterior can become a complete obsession, the way that they create their outward identity. Either the inward disappears — and we call these people shallow — or it becomes so stifled that they become self-loathing or self-obsessed. That stuff is really interesting to me.
Spending time in New York, I’m overwhelmed by the obsessive image-making, and I mostly find it really fun to watch.
MM: This is a book about a bizarre murder. I was surprised by that, because in your short stories, the transgressions are much smaller. What drew you to write about murder, especially in the larger scope of the novel?
So maybe that’s part of my association with a novel: that it is a life and death situation.
OM: Maybe it was the conceit that because the novel is bigger, the transgression needs to be bigger. That happened with my first book, McGlue, too. It starts off with a murder, and in that case, I didn’t know that I was writing a whole book. I just knew that I needed to write that story. And it turned out that there was so much about that murder that it needed to be a book. So maybe that’s part of my association with a novel: that it is a life and death situation.
My attitude toward novel-writing is also very different from my attitude toward short story writing, and my interests in each form are different. Weirdly, a lot more subtlety can be explored in a short story, even though there is less room. Novels for me need broader strokes, so it seems natural that there would be bigger issues to deal with, in terms of storyline, plot, character behavior.
MM: The structure of Eileen is remarkable. There’s attentive observation of the mundane for a lot of the book, and then there’s an explosion of horrifying events. What made you want to structure it in that way, where you are beginning, very consciously, so far from the end?
OM: I wanted to create the feeling of Eileen being stifled and suffocated. I wanted the reader to feel suffocated like Eileen is, living in X-ville. So when Rebecca appears, it really is a lifeline, and things happen quickly thereafter. Eileen is so ready for those things to happen that there isn’t much more room to self-obsess. There isn’t a need for any more world-building, that work is already done. So we can just push forward.
MM: I was struck by lines like, “Nothing special happened that night…,” lines which draw our attention to the artifice of storytelling. What made you want to have that conscious presence in the book as a storyteller?
OM: Eileen, as the older narrator, is telling a story of these days in her past. There is no question that this is a construction. This novel has been written. It’s not like the Ten Commandments or something. We know a human being has put effort into the writing, and it was actually me! Hahaha.
But, I didn’t want the reader to forget that this was a character talking to them, and not an expert storyteller either. Eileen as a narrator cares that she’s understood, and there’s a lot of contradiction, and a lot of self-acceptance in that.
But I wanted her to feel alive as the narrator, so those interjections and little corrections are a way of keeping the reader aware of her.
MM: Let’s talk about the name of the town in the book — X-ville. What is interesting or necessary about that name to you?
OM: A name should be evocative. It is both the label of a place, and a word denoting the shared associations between people who know that place. When I say, Broadway, we both know what we’re talking about, and yet we must have different experiences of it. Names are proper nouns, not subjective. In that, they sit in the imagination with a lot of weight.
X-ville had to be X-ville because naming the actual town would’ve been too painful, and maybe too risky for Eileen. It was a way of distancing the entire story from her heart: I’m telling you this is a real place but I’m not going to tell you what it’s really called. In that way there is a gap between reality and story.
MM: Where is your own name from?
OM: My name is Persian. My dad is from Iran.
MM: What are your thoughts on other, recent feminist novels — Elena Ferrante’s Days of Abandonment, Claire Messud’s The Woman Upstairs. In those, there is a minute examination of domestic life. And in Eileen, domesticity is kind of a farce, but it’s also something Eileen wants. How do you think Eileen might be in conversation with those other books?
OM: I get angry thinking about Claire Messud’s book, and the hoopla around having this character who was a woman who was a little angry.
I didn’t think the opening rant in the book came across as being very hostile at all. Just because it was a woman writing it and speaking it, people were like: Oh my god, how uncouth! How experimental! Wake up, people.
In terms of domesticity, the world that Eileen knew was her house, this small town, and the prison where she worked. That was kind of it for her.
What does domesticity mean? It means, life at home. I don’t think of Eileen as a domestic character at all. The fact that she lives in a house makes her domestic, but no more than a cockroach.
MM: What does the practice of writing look like for you? Do you write by hand?
OM: I write straight on the computer. When I’m editing a novel, I’ll print out the draft and edit on paper, cutting things and taping them back together, stuff like that.
The process is really different depending on whether it’s a short story, novella, or novel. This novel I drafted very quickly, in 6 weeks, and then spent 10 months revising and re-writing. I don’t usually take a year to write a short story, but in some cases I do.
MM: Do you anticipate being edited? Has being edited changed how you write?
OM: What I like most about being edited is the perspective shift. I like looking at a piece as an object, rather than carrying the baggage of the process of writing, to my reading of it. Seeing it through an editor’s lens is refreshing and clarifying.
MM: Is there something you dislike, or that stays difficult, about writing and editing?
OM: No. It’s a joy. Writing is so much fun for me. What’s painful about writing is the fear that I can’t realize what I’m envisioning. But even that fear is a delight. I can’t tell you how much I love writing, revising, editing. It’s a complete fantasy. (laughs)
MM: Are there things you do that are not writing that you find are good for your writing?
OM: Yeah. Sleeping is really good for my writing. Dreaming. Walking. Seeing art. Listening to music. Seeing people I haven’t seen in a long time — it stimulates my memory. High risk situations are good. Travel is the big one.
Recently I wrote a story that was inspired by a really strange couple of days that I spent in this small coastal town in Kenya. The actual story doesn’t take place there, but it inspired the world that the story does take place in.
MM: Have you read anything good recently?
OM: I go through phases where I read a lot, and then I don’t read at all. I brought Volume 1 of My Struggle with me, and I just don’t know why I’m supposed to care about this self-obsessed, white European man. Why is he supposed to be interesting to me? I don’t find him interesting. Even when he’s being charming and funny, I don’t care. I don’t think I’m going to finish it.
MM: I read half of that book.
OM: Why did you stop?
MM: I felt that I knew what his writing was like, and that satisfied me.
OM: Same experience.
MM: What are you working on? What can we expect to read next?
OM: I have two novels that I’m working on, and I’m writing personal, narrative essays. Or, I wrote one. Now I’m writing another.
MM: That was the one about mayonnaise.
OM: Yeah. Now I’m writing about birds that I’ve known, personally.
MM: What draws you to non-fiction?
OM: I’m at a place in my life where I’m old enough to have perspective on my childhood. All of a sudden, I’m not a child. I don’t know how that happened.
I come from a fascinating family of very special people with endless good stories. There’s so much to explore there, and funneling it through fiction is less interesting for me right now. Why not just say what really happened?After a thief failed to steal money from a Canara Bank in its Noida branch on Sunday night, he wrote a moving letter to the bank, apologising for the crime because he was poor and desperate.
In the letter, the thief explained how he had been forced into crime because he had recently lost his job and needed to provide for his family, which included three children.
"I lost my job in a private company. I have a family and children. It is very difficult to maintain family due to price rise and inflation. This was my first attempt to rob the bank and I failed," said the thief in the letter, according to a report in The Times of India.
Police said that the thief broke into the bank with sophisticated tools and instruments, including iron rod cutters, but failed to find the strongroom and the safe, according to the report.
Another Hindustan Times report quoted a senior police official saying, "Prima facie it seems like the thief entered from the door at the roof and then broke a window to flee. We have found a long rope tied from a window of the bank. The note he left has been confiscated for further investigation."
The police official also said that the note had been written by the thief after he failed to steal anything from the bank. The police are investigating the break-in and have confiscated the letter for further probe.
Firstpost is now on WhatsApp. For the latest analysis, commentary and news updates, sign up for our WhatsApp services. Just go to Firstpost.com/Whatsapp and hit the Subscribe button.The statewide elected office with the biggest impact on your monthly budget and on the environment may be one you've never heard of.
It's the Public Service Commission, whose jobs include regulating the rates Georgia Power charges and the services it provides.
Its five commissioners are elected to six-year terms on a rotating basis. Each is paid $116,452. Commissioners are required to live in one of five districts but are elected by voters statewide.
This year, only Republicans are running for the one open seat, meaning the primary on May 24 will decide who negotiates on your behalf with Georgia Power. Incumbent Tim Echols of Bogart has two challengers: Michelle Miller of Warner Robins and Kellie Austin from Gwinnett County. The race will appear second from the top on the Republican primary ballot May 24.
"The PSC has far reaching impacts on the future of renewable energy in the state and on our utility bills in the state," said Jennette Gayer, state director of Environment Georgia. "And on the impact that our utility system has on our environment."
Look no further than your most recent Georgia Power bill for evidence of the commission's effect on your wallet.
"Anybody with a Georgia Power bill or many of the EMC's has a Vogtle construction cost recovery fee tacked onto the bill," Gayer said. That fee is currently about $7 a month for the typical residential customer, according to Georgia Power.
The PSC approved the construction of the new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle near Augusta in 2009. The General Assembly then passed a law that allows the utility to charge ratepayers in advance for that construction. The first reactor was originally scheduled to start operation April 1 of this year, but it and its twin are years behind schedule and millions of dollars over budget. The PSC is now faced with determining if those cost overruns were "prudent." If it does, ratepayers will pick up that tab, too. That decision will come after the election.
Unlike many other states, Georgia has no legislated requirement for renewable energy, called a renewable energy portfolio. But the PSC can influence how much solar, wind and biomass Georgia Power include in its generating mix. In 2013, for example, the PSC pushed Georgia Power to include an additional 525 MW of solar capacity by this year.
Georgia has only 13 state offices that are elected by voters statewide. Five of them are the Public Service Commissioners. The name itself may be part of the confusion about this important body, said Liz Coyle, executive director of Georgia Watch.
"People might see it on the ballot and not know what it means. Some states refer to it as the public utility commission. Here with the name public service people might think it's the parks."
The PSC's statewide elections for commissioners who must reside in a particular area adds another twist.
"It makes it that much harder because you're probably going to know the commissioner who lives closest to you," Coyle said. "If they're far away you may never get to know them."
But voters should educate themselves, Coyle urged.
"They play a very important role in setting the state's energy policy," Coyle said. "They're very important for everybody's lives here, from electric bills to the quality of air and water."
Public Service Commission
The Commission's jurisdiction includes:
• Investor-owned electric power companies
•Investor-owned natural gas companies
•Underground utility facility owners and excavators
•Telecommunications companies
•Credit card, calling card and coin-operated telephone companies
•Automatic telephone dialing and announcing device operators
The Commission does not have rate-setting authority over natural gas marketers, municipally-owned gas and electric utilities or electric membership corpora-tions (EMCs). Additionally, the Commission has no regulatory authority over broadband services, voice over internet (VoIP), water and waste water services, cellular telephone companies, interstate long-distance companies, or the cable and satellite television industries.
Source: Georgia PSC
The candidates:
Kellie Austin
Age: 39
Home: Lawrenceville
Education: GED, attended Emmanuel College and North Georgia College and State University.
Issues: Identify imbedded fees and taxes in the production and distribution process to lower or eliminate them altogether. Ensure the market is as competitive in Georgia as anywhere in America. Provide factual and simple information to the families and businesses of Georgia regarding our energy resources and availability, as well as ways to become energy conscious and implement viable renewable options. Get rid of expensive regulations on consumers.
Website: http://votekellie.com
Tim Echols (incumbent)
Age: 55
Home: Jefferson
Education: B.A. in English; M.A. in nonprofit organizations; and M.A. in mass communications all from University of Georgia
Issues: Keeping gas and electric rates low will continue to be my top priority. Helping consumers and businesses utitlize energy saving ideas like solar and alternative fuel vehicles will remain a top policy initiative as well. Being accessible and available throughout south Georgia has helped me understand the needs throughout our state - and I will continue to make that an important part of my schedule. It is an honor to serve the people in the state of Georgia in this important role.
Website: http://timechols.com
Michelle Miller
Age: 41
Home: Warner Robins
Education: B.A. in Energy and Sustainability Policy from Penn State University
Issues: As a Public Service Commissioner, I will create a marketplace of solutions to solve telecommunications, natural gas and energy issues within your community. We need an educated and experience Public Service Commissioner who will ensure that the investment we make create jobs, increase revenues and help consumers save money. I will use every drop of my education and experience to fight for Georgia's shareholders."
Website: http://www.michellemiller4psc.comMany people like the option to do yoga at home with a video when it's not convenient to go to a class. But even a great yoga DVD can start to feel boring after repeated viewings, leading to a lack of motivation to roll out your mat and press play. Getting your yoga videos online can significantly expand your options, allowing you to change things up whenever you feel like it. The best sources for yoga videos online update their offerings regularly and some even stream live classes, allowing you to come close to experiencing a studio class from your own living room. Not surprisingly, the sites with the widest offerings do tend to have a monthly subscription fee, but there are some free options out there as well for the budget-minded.This article is about the sound used to attract wild birds. For the illegal attempt to gather personal computer information, see Phishing
A pish is an imitated bird call (usually a scold or alarm call) used by birders and ornithologists to attract birds (generally passerines).[1] The action of making the sound is known as pishing or spishing.[2] This technique is used by scientists to increase the effectiveness of bird diversity surveys, and by birders to attract species that they might not otherwise see.
Pishing is used most effectively in the Holarctic, where it is thought to work due to its similarity to the scold calls of tits and chickadees (birds in the family Paridae). These scold calls, a form of mobbing behaviour, attract other birds which come in to establish the nature of the potential threat. Acoustical analysis of pishing calls and the mobbing calls of tits shows that they share a frequency metric not used by other birds. Not surprisingly, pishing has little effect on birds in those parts of the world without tits or chickadees.[3]
Another study noted that only passerine are attracted by pishing. Apart from the mobbing call hypothesis, it has also been suggested that pishing may be treated as an invitation to join a "mixed-species foraging flock" and birds do not themselves vocalize or show aggressive behaviour. The same study noted that pishing did not work in the old-world tropics and suggested that it may be due to the lower densities of migrants.[4]
Pishing has also been found to work effectively in Southern Africa (imitating a call of the rattling cisticola). It also works effectively in Australia where, despite the absence of any members of the Paridae, a number of passerine species can be attracted. Some birders in Australia use a variant of pishing called "squeaking" (making a kissing sound through pursed lips or against the back of one's hand) to which white-eared honeyeaters, several species of whistlers and grey fantails show an initial response and in turn attract other species.
Because pishing or squeaking disrupts the natural behaviour of a bird, birding organisations consider it unethical to make excessive use of this method of attracting birds. Such organisations recommend that, once the bird has been viewed, the birder cease pishing and allow the bird to return to its natural behaviour.[5]This book outlines the consequences of the destruction of the two-parent family and the need to stabilize it by strengthening its weakest natural link, the role of the biological father. It is written from a secular perspective and includes a few things with which the owner of the FishEaters Website would definitely quibble, and it doesn't even mention the importance of chastity on the part of men, too, which is sad. But it most certainly makes its case about the need for patriarchy, destroying the Victorian myth of women being innocent, sexless little fluffballs in the process -- a quite necessary destruction in that reaching the goal of chastity shouldn't be based on lies |
only recently I was introduced to Moorcock's Eternal Champion of the Multiverse by a co-worker. Corum - The Knight of Swords was my first, and in my opinion is a great starting point.
From the opening introduction, I couldn't put it down and within a couple of days I'd finished it and purchased the 2nd part of the trilogy. Corum, not being a human (called Mabden in this book) has a fairly unique perspective compared with the average fantasy protagonist. Without giving too much away, Corum deals with A LOT of hardship early on in the book (reminded me a bit of the Malus Darkblade stories, a character that was clearly heavily inspired by Moorcock's characters like Elric and Corum) and these hardships act as a catalyst for his quest.
Throughout Corum's journey he meets unique creatures and explores acid-trip inspired landscapes, but it never gets too "trippy" to follow. The pacing of the story is fairly quick, and though some of the names of characters and locations (Glandyth-a-Krae, Lwym an Esh, Xiombarg, etc) can be difficult to pronounce/hard to retain, they don't detract from an otherwise thoroughly enjoyable story.
In closing, if you're a fan of fantasy, and don't mind some dark/sad portions of a story, I highly recommend this book!PRACHUAP KHIRI KHAN — A 36-year-old woman has been arrested for allegedly scattering screws on a main road in Hua Hin in an effort to bring more business to her husband’s tire repair shop.
After receiving regular complaints about popped tires for the past month, police took to the streets as undercover garbage men in search of an explanation. While undercover, they spotted a woman drive by on a motorcycle and spill screws on to Phra Pokkhlao Road, which leads to Hua Hin train station.
Officers arrested the woman, identified as Kesarin Channiem. According to police, Kesarin said her husband’s tire business had fallen on hard times, and that the screws were an effort to bring in more customers.
Police have charged Kesarin with damaging property, and urged other motorists affected by the screws to come forward and press charges.Image copyright Reuters
More than a million children in Yemen are at high risk of dying from cholera, says Save the Children.
The charity warns that the children are severely malnourished, and living in some of the areas of the country worst hit by the disease.
The number of people infected with the disease during the country's civil war has already reached more than 430,000.
Malnourished children are at least three times more likely to die if they are infected with cholera.
It is because their immune systems are weakened and they become less capable of fighting off the water-borne disease.
Out of the million severely malnourished children under five living in Yemen's cholera hotspots, the charity says 200,000 are at imminent risk of starving to death.
More than 1,900 people have died of the disease since April, a third of them were under 15 years old.
Cholera is easy to treat, but with two years of war destroying much of the health system, and continued restrictions on urgently needed medical and food supplies, the charity says Yemen's children are "trapped in a cycle of starvation and sickness".
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Watch: The reality of life in Yemen
Tamer Kirolos, Save the Children's country director for Yemen, said: "The tragedy is both malnutrition and cholera are easily treatable if you have access to basic healthcare.
"But hospitals and clinics have been destroyed, government health workers haven't been paid for almost a year, and the delivery of vital aid is being obstructed."
The warning comes as a senior UN official in the country described the situation in Yemen as "very bleak" with "no end in sight".
The UN says 70% of the population - about 20 million people - are in need of humanitarian aid and 60% do not know where their next meal is coming from.
Auke Lootsma from the UN Development Programme said the situation was like a bus "racing towards the edge of a cliff."
"Historically, Yemen has been one of the poorest Arab nations, if not the poorest, with poverty and corruption, poor governance and poor infrastructure. The war has simply made it much worse," Mr Lootsma said.Next Final Fantasy XV broadcast set for October 31
Director Tabata's Active Time Report.
The next Final Fantasy XV director live stream will broadcast on October 31 from 20:00 Japan time, Square Enix announced.
Formerly known as the “Final Fantasy Type-0 HD Flash Talk Show,” it will now be called “Director Tabata’s Active Time Report.” Which makes sense, given that the last two streams covered multiple games, the majority of which was Final Fantasy XV.
This time, the broadcast will come as part of Paris Games Week and France, and feature guests from the development team.
If you missed it, catch our summary of the previous broadcast here. Or, if you have the time, watch the full thing in English.
You’ll be able to watch the stream live on Square Enix Presents.In an effort to make the most aggressive counter-pressing tactic I possibly could within the FM17 match engine, I ended up taking my inspiration from a BBC documentary on wolves and more specifically the way they work together within a wolf pack. It is during a hunt where co-operation between wolves within a pack is most apparent. A wolf pack may trail a herd of elk, caribou or other large prey for days before making its move. During this time, they are already hunting, assessing the herd, looking for an animal that displays any sign of weakness.
Such an approach is not dissimilar to how a well-executed counter-pressing tactic should function. As counter-pressing is intended to win the ball back as quickly as possible when possession is lost, you can easily see how this setup would benefit from players working together to bring down an opponent.
The outset
The team I used to develop this tactic is Athletic Bilbao of the Basque country. When I started the development process, Athletic had just won its second successive Champions League trophy. The team is one of the stronger sides in Spain, though not superior to Barcelona and Real Madrid. In Europe, the team is quite obviously competitive, but again, there are quite a few teams on the same level or even slightly better than us in terms of squad strength.
My style is a high-paced and physical brand of football. We aggressively close down opponents in their own half, either winning the ball or forcing them to play long balls we can fight for. This places quite a bit of emphasis on our back-line. Our back three consists of physically imposing players, whose main task is to win headers and prevent any balls from getting through. They should be comfortable with large spaces in their back. Most of their touches on the ball consist of heading the ball towards the Withdrawn Targetman or any of the other midfielders.
When we have the ball, we use a more patient passing style. This sounds counter-intuitive to counter-pressing, at least at first glance. Losing the ball in dangerous positions, however, can be quite catastrophic with the high defensive line I want to employ, so a more direct passing style is more or less akin to tactical hara-kiri and I am no Luis Enrique.
Offensively, you can expect a typical strikerless formation, where the opposing defensive line is manipulated either in giving away space in behind or is forced into a narrow shape, which is then exploited. The midfielders are mostly there to link up defence and midfield, effectively balancing the tactic. The wingbacks provide the extra wide layer, which can help to peel away defenders towards a wide position, in turn freeing up space for the central players. Whilst our primary means of attacking is down the middle, it is useful having that option when things get a little congested. It also helps to stretch the play when we need a bit more room to work in.
Playing style
To achieve this relentless pressing and interaction between the players, I employ a Very Fluid team shape along with the Overload mentality. At first, that may sound counter-intuitive and perhaps even pants-shittingly batshit insane. However, as always, there is a method to the madness. I would like to refer you to a spreadsheet I nicked off the FM-Slack chat. It details the old slider system values for a specific role when using a combination of specific Mentality and Team Shape.
When you scrutinise the schedule, you can draw the conclusion that the gaps between the lines are the smallest when you’re using a Very Fluid team shape in combination with an Overload mentality. When the goal is to create a tight and cohesive unit of players hunting down opponents, this combination suddenly makes a lot of sense. The players are grouped closely together, which makes it easier for them to interact and help each other out.
The Team Shape instructions look like this:
Tempo: Normal. The Overload mentality naturally comes with an already murderous tempo. I saw no benefits to increasing this tempo further. I did entertain the idea to lower the tempo in the hopes of increasing the accuracy of the passes, but in the games, I tried this lower tempo, I often saw the matches end with us suffering from Pep-syndrome. We had a lot of possession, but our attacking patterns had become sluggish and predictable. In the end, I felt a Normal tempo yielded the best results.
The Overload mentality naturally comes with an already murderous tempo. I saw no benefits to increasing this tempo further. I did entertain the idea to lower the tempo in the hopes of increasing the accuracy of the passes, but in the games, I tried this lower tempo, I often saw the matches end with us suffering from Pep-syndrome. We had a lot of possession, but our attacking patterns had become sluggish and predictable. In the end, I felt a Normal tempo yielded the best results. Width: Fairly Narrow. When I opt for a wide setup with a three-man defensive line, the spread between the defenders becomes quite large. In fact, you could have sailed the Titanic through the gaps between the three defenders if you opt for a wider spread and much like the Titanic, your defensive line will go down in a disastrous fashion when you turn a blind eye to these gaps.
The Defence instructions look like this:
Defensive Line: Slightly Higher. I am insane. You all know that. You shouldn’t be surprised that even Overload I have opted to push the defensive line even further forward. Is that even possible? Meh, maybe, maybe not…
I am insane. You all know that. You shouldn’t be surprised that even Overload I have opted to push the defensive line even further forward. Is that even possible? Meh, maybe, maybe not… Use Offside Trap. With such a high defensive line, it makes sense to use the offside trap as well. It makes defending a bit of a risky affair, but I like to live dangerously.
With such a high defensive line, it makes sense to use the offside trap as well. It makes defending a bit of a risky affair, but I like to live dangerously. Closing Down: More. Duh… Counter-pressing… I want them to press hard so this makes sense.
Duh… Counter-pressing… I want them to press hard so this makes sense. Prevent Short GK Distribution. I feel it’s a vital part of the counter-pressing setup. I want my players to pressure heavily in the opposing half.
I feel it’s a vital part of the counter-pressing setup. I want my players to pressure heavily in the opposing half. Use Tighter Marking. We have limited defensive options out wide, so this should hopefully help our defenders deal with strikers when the crosses come in. I also believe that the tighter marking might help with the counter-pressing setup as it forces our players to close the gap towards their opponents more rapidly.
The Build-Up instructions look like this:
Passing: Play Out Of Defence. With the low tempo encouraging possession football and the controlled build up I want to employ, it makes sense to ask the defence to play their way out from the back. Our fluid shape allows for options to do this.
With the low tempo encouraging possession football and the controlled build up I want to employ, it makes sense to ask the defence to play their way out from the back. Our fluid shape allows for options to do this. Passing Directness: Retain Possession. Turning over possession needlessly is quite the lethal affair with the high defensive line we wish to employ so this instruction will stamp out the more risqué passing manoeuvres.
Turning over possession needlessly is quite the lethal affair with the high defensive line we wish to employ so this instruction will stamp out the more risqué passing manoeuvres. Creative Freedom: Be More Expressive. It seems weird to tick this instruction when you’re on Overload yet at the same time asking your players to retain possession, but I want to ensure the maximum amount of creative freedom possible, whereas the retain possession instruction will hopefully help to kerb some of the enthusiasm in risky positions.
The Attack instructions look like this:
Final Third: Look For Overlap, Work Ball Into Box. Since turning over possession is generally a bad idea, these instructions in the final third make sense. A methodical build-up which maintains the integrity of the formation and maximises the chances of a speedy recovery of the ball should possession be lost.
Since turning over possession is generally a bad idea, these instructions in the final third make sense. A methodical build-up which maintains the integrity of the formation and maximises the chances of a speedy recovery of the ball should possession be lost. Dribbling: Dribble Less. I don’t want the team looking to retain possession of the ball in the final third by dribbling their way out of trouble. Rather I would prefer them to look to the extra man to make a pass to, or to fire a through ball over the defence to create a better opportunity. It is going to get pretty congested in the middle of the pitch and we don’t have a Messi. So this instruction should make the players look for better options.
I don’t want the team looking to retain possession of the ball in the final third by dribbling their way out of trouble. Rather I would prefer them to look to the extra man to make a pass to, or to fire a through ball over the defence to create a better opportunity. It is going to get pretty congested in the middle of the pitch and we don’t have a Messi. So this instruction should make the players look for better options. Freedom of Movement: Roam from Positions. This is what makes a strikerless tactic work, players roaming from their positions, finding pockets of space in front of or behind the defensive line.
The Opposition Instructions look like this:
The idea is to press as a high block in the opposing half, mostly on the central players. In our own half, the pressing is less aggressive to prevent players from being drawn out of position. With a high defensive line and just three defenders, we can’t have that.
The formation, the player roles and their duties
This is the starting formation we start each game with.
The defence: Our back line is fairly standard. The limited defenders are tasked with dealing with the opposing forwards, whereas the ball-playing defender plays deeper and provides the build-up from the back somewhat.
The wide players: On either side of our central defenders are the Wing-Backs on a support duty to offer some width when the central areas become too congested. As the sole wide outlets, they are offered a fair amount of space. They will try to stretch the opposing defence offensively while dealing with opposing wingers when my team is defending.
The central midfield: A plain and simple pairing of two regular old midfielders, one on a defensive duty and the other on a support duty. They form the spine of the team and should just maintain the balance to prevent the team from being overrun in midfield.
The attacking midfield: Our forward line consists of a Withdrawn Targetman and two Shadow Strikers. The former is supposed to hold it up and flick it on towards the latter two.
The results
Our results so far have been brilliant. We’re topping the table this season and haven’t dropped any points, barring an unlucky draw in an away game against Real Madrid. Both our offence and defence have been on point so far and it looks like we can comfortably claim another title win this season.
Possession-wise, we are also dominant. The Spanish Priméra Division is a fairly competitive league where even the weaker sides can still muster a decent starting line-up. Being this dominant is a decent achievement.
We’re also excelling in the passing department. Accurate passes and lots of them as well. We make more passes than anyone else in the league with a terrifyingly high accuracy as well.
Our shooting has been prolific as well, though the finishing leaves something to be desired. It’s not poor, but it could be better. However, since we take more shots than anyone else, it’s still a decent finishing percentage we have managed to pull off.
To give you an example of the chances we create, we can look at the charts for both goals and assists. Most of our goals come from inside the penalty area, there are not many long shots among the goals we scored so far.
The assist charts show a versatile build-up, where the right flank seems to be lagging behind somewhat in terms of its contribution. This could be due to player personnel, on the right flank we have a 33 year old holding down the fort and he is just not as fast and tireless as he used to be.
A few most stats from the current season. Most of our goals are placed shots created by through-balls.
Defensively, we seem to be doing alright. The highly risky strategy appears to be paying off. Not only have we conceded a mere four goals so far, we win most of our tackles as well. We do commit a lot of fouls and concede a fair few cards, which makes sense considering the risks we are taking.
Analysis of our attacking play
As I mentioned earlier, counter-pressing is an important element which defines our style of play. It is more than a way to defend, as it is often the starting point of one of our own attacks. We tend to score a fair few goals like this one.
Granted, we recycle possession after a poor corner, but with the overlapping wing-backs and patient build-up, we often get into similar positions anyway. As the opposition looks to break away, there are no real passing options available to the AI. The passing lanes are blocked and every player near him can immediately be pressured by two or more Athletic players.
When we take over possession, the team quickly transitions into a more attacking shape. A mere three seconds after winning the ball, there are three Athletic players in the penalty area, waiting for a cross or through ball.
The ball is eventually whipped in near the first post, where an onrushing forward taps it past the helpless goalkeeper.
When the ball isn’t immediately turned over by our opponents, they are often forced into hoofing the ball forward. When this happens, we start our own attacks. This often looks a bit like this.
This attack is a lot more patient and less dependent on a sort of counter-attack, yet again it starts with counter-pressing. From a throw-in, the opposing players are isolated in their own half. The opposing defender has no other option than hoofing the ball forward, effectively gifting us possession and allowing us the chance to start our own attack.
In the remainder of the attack, we can see the smooth interactions between the lines, the silky passing-movement, the intelligent runs both on and off the ball that strikerless tactics are renowned for. Just for good measure, I’d like to share another video.
Analysis of our defensive play
The high defensive line is a high-risk style of play that sees’s a team push up in order to shut down the amount of time an opposition has to play, however, it requires high levels of skill and cohesion as the team stepping up leaves spaces to run into. This means that most defensive play revolves around my three defenders clearing the ball forward again or battling for long balls.
This requires fast and strong defenders with an excellent sense of positioning, but they are backed up by the relentless pressing upfront.
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Like this: Like Loading...The CEO of Backpage, a website that has been accused of allowing ads for child sex trafficking, was arrested Thursday in Texas.
Carl Ferrer, 55, was arrested in Houston after landing on a flight from Amsterdam, the attorney general of Texas announced. Ferrer was arrested on a warrant from California, which charged him with pimping children and other counts.
In a joint investigation, California and Texas authorities said they found that adults and children had been forced into prostitution through escort ads on Backpage.
"Raking in millions of dollars from the trafficking and exploitation of vulnerable victims is outrageous, despicable and illegal," California Attorney General Kamala Harris said in a statement. "Backpage and its executives purposefully and unlawfully designed Backpage to be the world's top online brothel."
Backpage is similar to Craigslist in that it allows users to post ads to sell items and services. The California warrant claimed that Ferrer has known for at least five years that his site is a "hub for the illegal sex trade."
Related: Supreme Court refuses to block Backpage subpoenas in sex trafficking investigation
The company called the raid of its Dallas office and Ferrer's arrest "an election year stunt" and said prostitution ads violate its policies, claiming Backpage.com blocked ads that didn't comply.
"The actions of the California and Texas Attorneys General are flatly illegal, Liz McDougall, general counsel for Backpage, said in a statement to CNNMoney Friday evening. "They ignore the holdings of numerous federal courts that the First Amendment protects the ads on Backpage.com."
According to a criminal complaint filed in California, Backpage accepted at least $2 million a month between October 2014 and May 2015 in payments from people posting adult ads in California, including payments for postings that featured minors.
Texas charged Ferrer with money laundering.
"Making money off the backs of innocent human beings by allowing them to be exploited for modern-day slavery is not acceptable in Texas," Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement.
Backpage's business practices have been under scrutiny. The Senate held the company in contempt of Congress in March after it refused to comply with a subpoena in a sex trafficking investigation.Big River, Brown Eyed Women, Beat It On Down The Line, Scarlet Begonias, Black Throated Wind, Row Jimmy, Mexicali Blues, Deal, The Race is On, Mississippi Half Step, El Paso, Ship of Fools, Weather Report Suite Prelude-> Weather Report Suite Part 1-> Let It Grow-> It Must U.S. Blues, Me & My Uncle, Jam-> China Cat Sunflower-> I Know You Rider-> Beer Barrel Polka-> Truckin'-> The Other One-> Spanish Jam-> Wharf Rat-> Sugar Magnolia, E: Eyes Of The World
AudMC > WAV > CD > EAC > SHN recorded by Jerry Moore near the rear of the floor, close to center axis with Sony ECM-99 Stereo mic (on metal pole) > Sony 152 deck. Maxell UD-120 cassettes, with Dolby B ON. A > D by David Minches, encoding by Noah Weiner, gdADT Round 17. Complete with Seastones.
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Reviewer: Captain Clarence Oveur - favorite favorite favorite favorite - July 16, 2018
Subject: Just beatiful This was an audience recording that blew my mind, way back when we all wanted soundboards. Granted a lot of the older audience recordings were pretty rough Jerry Moore was a genius at getting it just right for the time period considering this was long before a taper section. I now have come to prefer a nice warm sounding audience recording or a well done matrix over a dry sounding soundboard any day of the week. And especially during this period of 73-74 (which is my favorite time for the band), the soundboards are SO dry and tinny sounding especially the vocals going through those instrument mikes. The Wall of Sound was meant to project out the audience and recordings like this give you that great warm feel that was intended and getting the audience involved just completely makes this one I can listen to over and over. You really feel like you're involved and you're there sharing the experience, not to mention the playing is fantastic. The long intro in China is something I've never heard them do quite like this ever. I can go on and on this was definitely one in my old tape collection I'd put the headphones on and get right in the zone. - July 16, 2018Just beatiful
Reviewer: rumpledagain - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - March 13, 2016
Subject: yeah I'll bitch too Excellent show, the clappers gotta go,
. - March 13, 2016yeah I'll bitch too
Reviewer: railroad hutchinson - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - June 27, 2015
Subject: he wanted me to record over it!
about 25 years ago a good friend came over to make a copy of my, i think Hartford 3-19-90,and he brought a cassette to put it on,saying it had some muddy recording from some 74'show and he wanted to tape over First let me say this was way before my DEAD time.on this actual day i was 6,and my mom had probably taken me and my younger brother and sisters to the beach for a happy beach day.and i had absolutely not the faintest inkling of what was about to occur 45 miles upstate.-now, I'm happy with my age and who i am,but seriously,damn i wish i got to see this. -TRUCKIN',is my favorite. and this truckin' i really like,as do i like the classic first set, the excellent let it grow,the short dark starish jam before china/rider,the meandering china/rider,the short punch of the other one,the classic spanish jam,and of course the eyes encore.so good.-which brings me to how i first encountered this tape.about 25 years ago a good friend came over to make a copy of my, i think Hartford 3-19-90,and he brought a cassette to put it on,saying it had some muddy recording from some 74'show and he wanted to tape over it.well i put the tape in and gave it a short listen,dialed up the equalizer,fast forwarded and listened some more,pulled the tape out of the deck and said to him,muddy though it was,"dude, i've got a blank you can have,I'm keeping this".and i still have it,the second set.actually, i think we had a discussion, like: "are you sure you want to record over this?i mean its muddy,but this is good" - "yea,? i don't know?" "where is this?where's it from? - " i think its providence" "WHAT!,this is providence! no way! we can't record over this,i'll keep it and make a copy and give this back to you",which i did. true story.it was muddy,but i listened to that tape often,thinking,wow,they did that in providence? - June 27, 2015he wanted me to record over it!
Reviewer: tree-ap03 - favorite favorite favorite favorite - June 26, 2015
Subject: SIT DOWN! Why am I (or anyone for that matter) complaining about the morons yelling at what is presumably a bunch of people standing on their seats? I mean, were they unable to hear the show? Did they really think that their enjoyment of the performance would be that much better if they could see every bit of the stage --- from probably at least a couple hundred feet away? Pathetic... But never underestimate Americans ability to bitch about being "inconvenienced" when there's really no issue at all. Breaking out in song -- "And I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I free..." to bitch & complain.
Anyway, great show! There are a few very minor issues with certain parts of the performance, but you have to consider that it's a show from '74 --- how bad can it possibly be? My one complaint, other than the morons yelling around Jerry Moore, is that The Other One isn't longer. The Spanish Jam is great, but I'd rather it had been shorter & there had been more "Other One-ness" to the song. - June 26, 2015SIT DOWN!
Reviewer: stcooksey - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - May 27, 2015
Subject: My 2nd
At this show the ticket called for an 8 PM show but when we walked in at
I can only surmise that they were going to play for 4+ hours and needed to get around the 12 o'clock curfew we had in Providence in those days.
Might be the best Dead show I ever attended.
Or maybe it was just the Window pane. My second Dead show and by now I was ensconced in the allure of the Dead.At this show the ticket called for an 8 PM show but when we walked in at 6:30 they were already on.I can only surmise that they were going to play for 4+ hours and needed to get around the 12 o'clock curfew we had in Providence in those days.Might be the best Dead show I ever attended.Or maybe it was just the Window pane. - May 27, 2015My 2nd
Reviewer: DJPeebs - favorite favorite favorite favorite - May 6, 2014
Subject: An excellent audience recording of a very good show Despite "Sit Down" jerk, this is a testament to the audio perfection sought by a true blue Dead tape head. An old school 4+ hour show right smack in the middle of The Wall of Sound period '74. The clarity and power of Phil's bass is evident throughout.
An admirable first set powers on, leading into a notable Weather Report Suite-Let It Grow.
Chinacat-Rider has a different quality than than what might consider the norm. A little more laid back. What's very interesting and notable to me is that the transition between the two songs is definitely an Uncle John's Jam, but I can't find any reference to it. On Dick Pick's 12 it's called "Mind Left Body Jam", which is a crass overstatement. It's cool, unique, creative, but in no way is it at the level of transcendence.
Speaking of Dick's Pick 12, despite the quality of the recording, I believe Dick overstepped his bounds when he meshed together 6/26 and 6/28. The integrity of both shows were trampled by his desire to create a single show from the two. He did wonderful things with the Archive, of that there is no doubt, but Vol. 12 is an example of him being a little too full of himself and not doing the right thing, IMHO.
Back to this show. The Spanish Jam after a marginally brief Other One, is quite significant and magnificent. Classic Jerry virtuoso play. The finale of an extended, playful Sugar Magnolia followed by a brilliant Eyes of the World, leaves the audience on an extremely high note and any listener smiling big. Enjoy the show! - May 6, 2014An excellent audience recording of a very good show
Reviewer: clementinescaboose - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - April 25, 2013
Subject: Spanish Jam Though the China>Rider is certainly amazing, IMHO this is one of the best Spanish Jams of the year (along with 7-19 and 7-31; it's also one of the longest ever). The first 6-7 minutes are just totally relentless, with Jerry in particular weaving some serious psychedelic magic. There are also some pronounced Other One teases about two-thirds of the way in. The entire medley of Truckin>Other One>Spanish>Wharf>Sugar Mag is just mind-blowing stuff; though perhaps not quite the equal of the mighty 6-28, this is still one of the best seconds set jams of all time. Dick sure could pick'em in 1974! - April 25, 2013Spanish Jam
Reviewer: gvtmule - favorite favorite favorite favorite - January 4, 2013
Subject: Heaven Help the Fool jam Been listening to this recording in the car this week. Excellent aud for the period. Pretty much everything's been said but no one has mentioned the Heaven Help the Fool jam at the end of the Spanish Jam just before Wharf Rat. Earliest I've heard. This bass heavy recording does Phil justice. - January 4, 2013Heaven Help the Fool jam
Reviewer: Dr.Unclear - favorite favorite favorite favorite - July 1, 2009
Subject: If you can get past the Sit Down Jerk... This recording is really amazing. Jerry Moore was a genius. The transfer is remarkably crisp for the age too.
The one problem is that throughout most of the show there is a moron yelling "SIT DOWN, F***ERS!" or something to that effect. I could slap this guy with a dead fish. This is why you don't yell and go nuts incessantly throughout a concert, especially near a taper's section. His idiotic rage is forever preserved for us to enjoy. - July 1, 2009If you can get past the Sit Down Jerk...
Reviewer: Evan S. Hunt - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - June 27, 2009
Subject: Seastones Jerry Moore nabbed a subtly mighty recording --
The "Seastones" (Phil and Ned and Surprise Guests?,
is stunning -- absolutely stunning -- all 22 minutes of it. It made those who were standing sit and those who were sitting stand.
Nuff said. - June 27, 2009Seastones
Reviewer: NYLifer - favorite favorite favorite - June 26, 2009
Subject: So ggod to have the audience version here RIP Jerry, and thanks for all the tapes! - June 26, 2009So ggod to have the audience version here
Reviewer: Dead-a-Head - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - May 25, 2009
Subject: I was there...! I had just gotten home from college for the summer and didn't know about the show until a high school friend presented me with tickets... I WAS BLOWN AWAY...!! Now I find this recording of one of my favorite concerts 34 years later I AM ONE AGAIN BLOWN AWAY...!! Now does anyone know if any recording exist of the 'Dead from there late 70's concert at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta? I saw them there too. - May 25, 2009I was there...!
Reviewer: scum beat - favorite favorite favorite favorite - January 15, 2009
Subject: Sit Down! this is a great show, but seriously, could someone have escorted the folks out of there who were yelling "SIT DOWN!" the entire show. What did they expect? a deadhead to sit?? Obviously. But since it wasn't working for them, you think they would have stopped. Listening to Ship of Fools, they yell the whole time. I can't believe someone in the audience didn't slip them something to just mellow out! I wonder what these yellers are doing today? Working at the local Cinema 6 I assume.
here's to no more yelling in the world. - January 15, 2009Sit Down!
Reviewer: thndrbill - favorite favorite favorite favorite - February 8, 2008
Subject: Great Show I'm not very used to audience tapes and hearing all the talking really reminded me of what it was like. Lots of memories. For instance, I had forgotten all about that song "SIT DOWN!!!" people used to scream for, but the band almost never played... - February 8, 2008Great Show
Reviewer: justbornhead - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - September 28, 2007
Subject: wish i was there, but this is the closest i will get if there's a heaven, the first night there will be this dead show all over again.
i have been checking shows all over this site and i decided to download this one and wow, it's on! i was listening to it loud at work after everyone went home and i got the chills.
the recording is the best i have heard so far from the tapes here. so if that's one of things you look for, download this.
'74 seems to be a key year. the dead's quiver was full to the brim of killer tunes. and to think, they kept going for twenty one more years, and are still going separately!
to the guy whose 17th birthday was at this show, right on! i was still waiting to be born. - September 28, 2007wish i was there, but this is the closest i will get
Reviewer: 12 Joshua - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - April 3, 2007
Subject: Great Show from a Legendary Year Lot's of gems for this fantastic eve but the crown jewel is the most sublime China > Rider ever! I know of no other that comes to this perfect balance of playful laid back GD yet riding the crest of the wave execution.
Rating counts for the C > R alone. Nuff Said. - April 3, 2007Great Show from a Legendary Year
Reviewer: shennygolfer - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - December 8, 2006
Subject: the nuts I got this show way back in 1976 from an old neighbor fella who must have recognized a little craziness in the little neighbor boy. I was only 11 at the time and it made a huge impression on me. My parents will never understand... - December 8, 2006the nuts
Reviewer: Skippy61 - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - May 22, 2006
Subject: China Cat...wow I have to say that i really like this new interface with the player built in. I am lucky enough to have hi-speed so streaming works out well. :)
Anyway one of my favs,and there are many,China Cat and this is one fun version. I LOVE the crowd noise, the massive 4 hour show and of course this spectacular band that has become a major part of my life. Late to loving the band i am trying to make up for lost time.
Bless you keepers of the Archive and all those that upload the show. I can't thank you enough.
dowload this turn it up and rattle the neighbours
Peace:Skippy - May 22, 2006China Cat...wow
Reviewer: Atog |
ario”, the film]. The CIA, under DCI John Brennan,who worked as an ‘advisor’ for four of our previously CIA co-opted POTUSs—two Bushes, one Clinton, and one Obama—has now decided that he cannot trust the American public to determine its own future.
The CIA has seconded this Brady Williamson [of little integrity and less intellect] to help its favorite candidate, Hillary Clinton, to win the office of the White House.I have written countless times that both Bill and Hillary were recruited into the CIA soon after each graduated from Yale [the hotbed of CIA activities].One must understand that the CIA and other intelligence services do not care about one’s political affiliations or sexual proclivities as long as they can manipulate you into their service.Witness the mysterious rise of a mulatto homosexual seemingly born in Hawaii, or wherever [it’s irrelevant], who suddenly appears on the political horizon bereft of past deeds, future plans, or impeccable judgement. They used him to defeat another CIA operative, Hillary Clinton. Americans are supposed to believe that there has been a fair, transparent election process?? The fact that Senator John McCain or Mitt Romney were Republican candidates is also irrelevant. For the most part, McCain was completely compromised during the Vietnam War; and Romney along with his Mormon crew were rife with CIA operatives, some of whom I had to dismiss in the jungles of Cambodia.
Now, has any debate moderator asked any of the aforementioned candidates whether they have ever been, or are in any part of a secret organization [Skull and Bones]; or, has any candidate ever worked/been paid by a covert agency of the USG or any other government [i.e Israel]?
That question is completely taboo!
In the case of Donald Trump, LtGen. Michael Thomas Flynn is an outstanding intelligence officer. He does not hide the fact that he was and is involved in our USG covert operations.However, Hillary and her compatriots, are extremely embarrassed to admit that they are in tied to our intelligence community.
It is both disingenuous and self-destructive for Hillary to continue to run for the presidency when she knows she is exceedingly sick [Parkinson’s Disease] and highly compromised by all sides of the overt/covert political spectrum [uber corruption]. Once again, the Brady Williamsons appear as a blip on a video screen in order to reveal to the world that he, like many others who have helped Hillary to ascend the greasy pole of politics, are working against the best interests of our own USG.
As you all know by now, the ‘Sweeper’ is a technical term often associated with ‘dirty tricks’ in the world of black ops. I acted as a ‘sweeper’ on certain occasions. Yet, I did so in order to rid our world of “human trash” –terrorists and repressive regimes/leaders. Who will be our country’s ‘sweeper’ in order to rid our electoral process of corruption, lies, and malfeasance?
God help those who think that they can hoodwink the American public or eviscerate our due process of law. It’s not going to happen in this new world of the internet, as long as we, ‘conspirators’ and ‘truth-sayers’ remain vigilant and continue the fight for our basic liberties.
The celebrated American writer/novelist, Mary McCarthy, wrote the following:
“Bureaucracy, the rule of no one, has become the modern form of despotism.”Prison illustration By: Wayne Morin
(Scroll down for video) A judge said that he was deeply touched by a man who offered to donate bone marrow to him.
Superior Court Judge Carl Fox, 61, is battling blood cancer and he is searching for a bone marrow donor. So far, no match has been found.
However, he was surprised to receive an offer of help from someone he put in jail. Fox was the district attorney who helped convict 62-year-old Charles Alston.
Alston, who is serving 25 years for armed robbery at the Franklin Correctional Center, sent a letter to Fox with a very generous offer.
In the letter he wrote: “You were the District Attorney during the course of my trial, where I received a 25 year prison sentence. I know you are in need of a matching donor for bone marrow. I may or may not be a match, but I am willing to make the sacrifice if needed.”
Alston said that he is not angry with Fox, as he believes he helped save his life by putting him in jail, where he turned his life around.
Unfortunately, prisoners cannot donate due to increased risk of infectious diseases, but Fox was very appreciative of the gesture.
“I was very touched by it and totally surprised,” Fox said.Yes, this is one product I can't live without! Helps keep my hair from getting too brittle and helps minimize breakage. This
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Mary H, Miami FLBP’s top boss said the oil major would double its North Sea production as he hailed the region as one of the company’s “crown jewels”.
Bob Dudley sat down exclusively with Energy Voice in his first trip to Aberdeen since 2011.
The chief executive said: “The North Sea is not only our backyard, it is one of four crown jewels.”
The oil major will drill five exploration wells next year and 50 new development wells over the next three. Its production is also set to double by 2020 to 200,000 barrels of oil a day. The increase is in comparison to 2015’s output figures.
The oil boss said: “There’s some hope on the exploration programme, because any one of those wells or prospects could lead to yet another hub of development.
“You will see portfolio changes for us in the North Sea, but you may see us invest in other projects as people approach us about joining them. So I think there’s a mix, but we should double our production by 2020 from where it was in 2015.
“We should be over 200,000 barrels a day in 2020 and by then I’m hopeful our exploration programme will lead to more things to do.”
The operator is expecting first oil from two of its major developments, Quad 204 early next year and Clair Ridge in 2018. It currently has two billion barrels of resource potential in the UKCS, split evenly between its planned production, discovered, and future prospects.
BP’s production figures have steadily declined since its peak in 2000. However, 2015 marked the start of its five-year turnaround. Production will climb to 209,000 in 2020.
The global leader also dispelled the “myth” that North Sea industry was over, insisting BP would be pumping oil until 2050.
“The myth that the North Sea is finished is absolutely that. It’s a wrong myth,” he said.
“There’s a demonstration of new activity and new big fields coming on stream. It’s not just BP fields. There are others as well, so there’s real economic activity that will support thousands of jobs. And there is an active exploration programme that could create something really new and exciting. I think it will be ‘good’ exciting – not necessarily the silver bullet.
“The reality is that the North Sea is a mature basin so some of the structural changes will stay.
“I don’t think we’ll go back to the way it was at $100 oil. I just can’t see that. Or the early days of the North Sea. But it’s going to be around for a long time and be a vibrant place and part of the global oil and gas industry – most certainly.
“And I don’t know that people who work in the industry in the North Sea realise how good they are and how much they know.”
He urged service firms to look further afield, including Mexico, to help them lay the bedrock of the industry there.
BP most recently acquired interest in two North Sea exploration prospects, Jock Scott and Craster.
The firm bought stakes a 25% interest in the Statoil-operated Jock prospect and a 40% interest in the north and a 30% interest in the south of the Nexen-operated licence P2062, which includes the Craster prospect.The North Sea producer said it was part of its strategy to remain a “North Sea producer, investor and employer for decades to come”.
The buy-in was followed by the confirmation that it had started drilling a prospect in the Southern North Sea. The oil major said it was testing the potential of a deep carboniferous age horizon, located several hundred metres beneath the mature reservoirs produced by the Ravenspurn ST2 platform.
Earlier this year, it doubled its stake in the North Sea’s Culzean development.
Over the last five years it has invested $10billion in the North Sea. Last year, it invested a $1billion into its aging ETAP field, securing its future through 2030.
He added: “The North Sea is on a glide path. That’s the physics of it and that happens all over the world. But what I think you’ll see as it comes down are projects coming along that will create bumps that will extend the life of it well past 2050. It’s hard to see beyond 2050, but I think that’s a long enough time. It’s longer than anyone thought, including the people who first built the facilities.”
Mr Dudley first came to Aberdeen in the 80s as a production engineer.
“We were here in ‘84 to ‘87 and one of the things that is interesting to me are the similarities in how the industry is now to how it was then,” he said.
“When we arrived oil had been $40 and then it was $26 and suddenly it went to $9. And with all that stress there are some big similarities now to what we felt then.
“But for me there’s a lot of enthusiasm for BP in the North Sea particularly in 2017. We have a lot of things happening. It’s just been complicated with the price, so for me being able to come up and talk to the team and learn more first-hand what’s happening with Clair, Quad 204, the exploration plans and all of the things that are happening with contractors is really important and a little overdue.
“One thing that is the same as when I came here as a production engineer are these big facilities in the North Sea. They cradle the offshore oil and gas industry. The things that were done here in the 80s were ground-breaking and the things that are still happening today are ground-breaking, so for me I’ve just always been excited by the North Sea.
“These big projects will keep oil flowing in the North Sea past 2050 for sure. And while the industry itself is going through a tough time and the North Sea is in a decline and is a mature basin – there is still a lot to do to keep it alive – BP will be one of if not the leading operator then.”
Find out why he thinks oil not renewables will always be the energy answer here. Find out what record low North Sea operating cost BP is targeting here. And tomorrow find out what helped the oil boss regain his nerve.WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF For the first time we are seeing how it’s possible for robots in the future to design and evolve, manufacture and assemble themselves without human input.
Experts at the University of Oslo, Norway have discovered a new way for robots to design, evolve and manufacture themselves, without input from humans, using a form of artificial evolution called “Generative design,” and 3D printers – although admittedly the team, for now at least, still has to assemble the final product, robot, when it’s printed.
Generative design is something we’ve talked about several times before and it’s where artificial intelligence programs – creative machines, if you will – not humans, innovate new products – such as chairs and even Under Armour’s new Architech sneakers.
The labs latest robot, “Number Four,” which is made up of sausage like plastic parts linked together with servo motors, is trying out different gaits, attempting to figure out the best way to move from one end of the floor to the other. And while you might look at this video and think it’s weird, or funny remember that this is just the start. Today it’s evolving, trying to learn how to move from A to B in the most efficient manner, but tomorrow – well, it could be “evolving” anything, and all at a much faster rate than humans.
By constantly monitoring its own progress and comparing it with previous attempts, over time it gets visibly better at this simple task.
“It’s now testing variations of its original movement pattern,” says Kyrre Glette, associate professor at the University of Oslo’s research group for robotics and intelligent systems.
The movement isn’t perfect though – of course. After all it’s trying to evolve and evolution is never a simple task. In nature for example around 99.9% of “evolutions” go nowhere and the animals die out, but that’s what evolution is all about – trying new things, failing, and trying again until something works.
Robot Evolution In Action
In this case the robot number four’s instructions come from a computer simulation and since a computer simulator doesn’t perfectly model the real world there’s bound to be some mismatch between the virtual world and the real world, say the team.
The robot was conceived in a “virtual womb” – a generative design computer program that tries out thousands of different simulations and solutions to how the finished machine could best move around its given environment, which in this case is the carpeted floor of Glette’s lab. Glette and his team don’t tell the computer how to solve the problem, they only introduce certain parameters – like the fact that the robot should move from A to B and the AI, the creative machine, does the rest, iterating thousands of times, keeping the best versions and iterating again.
“It’s artificial evolution. It starts off with very simple combinations of these sausages and simple motors that can move them,” says Glette, looking at an on-screen visualization of the evolution process. Eventually, there are some solutions that manage to move forward just a tiny little bit. Then they are saved and those solutions are then used for coming generations and modified slightly. Eventually you get better and better solutions.”
By running a thousand individual virtual robots through a thousand generations, the computer can come up with a working model within a couple of hours and then it tells a 3D printer to make a real world version of this “pinnacle of evolution,” and all the robotics team needs to do is stick it together using servo motors.
That said though, we are already seeing the rise of 4D printing – printers that both print and can then automatically assemble the newly printed products, so one day there’s no reason why the robots can’t, or won’t, be able to design themselves, print themselves and assemble themselves. And moving one step further on, they might also soon be able to grow themselves in the lab, in the same way BAE are growing drones using new molecular assemblers.
Impressive as these systems might be, they’re still limited to work within the parameters we humans give them. In the future, Glette’s robots might figure out how to get around unexpected obstacles – and could even 3D or 4D print new body parts in the field in order to accomplish the task.
As expected though hundreds of prominent scientists and experts are already warning about the inherent danger of computers becoming smarter at an ever increasing rate, let alone evolving themselves – and then let alone, again, of letting them be used to evolve and manufacture new robots.
In many people’s eyes this new research has overtones of Skynet – after all while many people think of Skynet as just an “evil” computer program many people forget that it must have been able to design, evolve and manufacture the Terminator robots. After all, they didn’t just materialise out of thin air did did they?
The legendary physicist Stephen Hawking, for example, last year, went on record to warn people about the dangers of runaway AI.
“Once humans develop artificial intelligence it could take off on its own and redesign itself at an ever increasing rate. Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete and would be superseded,” Professor Hawking warned. He also signed a letter in July condemning a potential AI arms race, and this year the UN will debate banning so called “Killer robots”.
“Once you’ve got artificial general intelligence, you’ve got a computer that’s got all the same smarts as you and I have, that means it can learn. So it’s learning 24/7, it doesn’t get tired,” says Keith Downing, a professor of artificial intelligence at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
“So once you get artificial general intelligence, you’re going to quickly accelerate into something they call artificial super intelligence. That’s where the computer is thousands of times smarter than us. So if they’re also smarter than us,” he says, “they could trick us and we could be in trouble.”
Glette though isn’t overly worried about a robotics takeover. That’s partly because he knows what it takes to get a simple, sausage-like robot to figure out to best way of moving across a carpeted floor.
“There’s a lot happening with self-driving cars and Google telling you when to take the next train home,” Glette says, “but we see that there is this complexity challenge, and I don’t think there is any real breakthrough at the moment. I think we will get smarter and smarter solutions, but no real human like intelligence any time soon.”
In the meantime though he and his team hope to make the robots, and its virtual evolution system, clever enough to operate in real life situations in the future though. One scenario would be sending robots into a nuclear disaster zone to solve any unexpected problems by adapting to their environment, perhaps even printing new tools or body parts in the process.
A self-learning robot could be handy for exploring distant planets, too. But the leap from that scenario to one of computers deciding they are smarter than us and acting on it is, hopefully, some time off – that said though many experts believe that that date is 2045. So maybe you should book your plane tickets to Mars now and avoid the forthcoming robo-geddon.Humans are socially conditioned to view sex and gender as binary attributes. From the moment we are born—or even before—we are definitively labeled “boy” or “girl.” Yet science points to a much more ambiguous reality. Determination of biological sex is staggeringly complex, involving not only anatomy but an intricate choreography of genetic and chemical factors that unfolds over time. Intersex individuals—those for whom sexual development follows an atypical trajectory—are characterized by a diverse range of conditions, such as 5-alpha reductase deficiency (highlighted in graphic below). A small cross section of these conditions and the pathways they follow is shown here. In an additional layer of complexity, the gender with which a person identifies does not always align with the sex they* are assigned at birth, and they may not be wholly male or female. The more we learn about sex and gender, the more these attributes appear to exist on a spectrum.
*The English language has long struggled with the lack of a widely recognized nongendered third-person singular pronoun. A singular form of “they” has grown in widespread acceptance, and many people who do not identify with a binary gender use it.The IDF launched on Tuesday a major exercise at the north of the country, calling up an entire division and some 2,000 reservists for the drill.
The IDF reportedly decided to hold the exercise in view of the sensitive security situation over the threats issuing from Lebanon and Syria. The exercise is intended to go on until the weekend.
Related stories:
However, a senior source in the Northern Command denied the drill's timing was dictated by regional unrest, saying it was scheduled in advance.
According to reports, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon was not informed about the drill, but sources affiliated with the Defense Ministry said that the exercise was part of many similar routine training drills, of the likes of which the defense minister is not informed.
Meanwhile, London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper published statements by a Lebanese source claiming that Hezbollah is prepared for any military development.
According to the source, this is in light of the meeting between Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov and Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, a meeting in which the two coordinated their stances regarding the support of Damascus.
The report stated that sources in Lebanon believed that a war would break out within six weeks, involving Lebanon, Syria and possibly Iran.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week that regional developments were disconcerting, especially in view of the multiplicity of threats issuing from Israel's Arab neighbors.
Israel watches with keen interest and concern the latest developments in Syria and Lebanon," said the prime minister. "Syria is breaking down and Lebanon is unstable. Both places posit considerable threats to Israel's security."
"Syria represents two direct threats," Netanyahu further added. "First, the possibility that advanced weapons wind up with terrorist organizations. The second is penetration by individual terrorists through the border to carry out shooting attacks at Israelis. We are handling both issues. The State of Israel will curb any threat emanating from Syria and Lebanon, whether by land, sea or air."
Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and TwitterPosted: October 17, 2013 by Armando Orozco
Last updated: March 31, 2016
Outside of not using them, we can do only so much to secure our credit card numbers.
We all can use the best security software, two-factor authentication, but sometimes the bad guys still get the goods.
Recently, security researcher Brian Krebs wrote about a scheme using hardware keyloggers uncovered at a Florida Nordstrom department store.
Hardware keyloggers have been around for a long time and work similar to software keyloggers in capturing data, but they don’t rely on the operating system to work. They are often disguised to resemble a familiar looking connector or dongle to go unnoticed.
In this Nordstrom case, the thieves used logging devices that resemble a familiar PS/2 connector, the type seen attached to older gen computer keyboards, to try and skim credit card information.
The device is small and undoubtedly would go unnoticed by most cashiers.
This scheme involved a team of three, two to distract the sales person and a third to attach the device.
According to the police report, the thieves’ first surveyed the area and took pictures of registers, then returned to attach the devices. At this particular store there were six of these logging devices discovered.
Nordstrom uncovered the plot after reviewing security camera footage. No word from Nordstrom or authorities on whether the skimmers were able to collect data or not, and if any of the thieves were arrested.
It seems risky and a lot of work to get at credit card information, especially if they have to retrieve the devices with a third trip. On paper the scheme looks like it could work, and probably has for some.
Computer crime comes in all forms and in some cases it might be out of our control to avoid. Most banks and credit card companies are pretty good at identifying suspicious transactions for the typical consumer, but it can go undetected, so it doesn’t hurt to look over your account info from time to time to ensure they’re all valid.
You can read Brian’s report at KrebsOnSecurity.Aviva Premiership
Foul-mouthed Cockerill handed nine-match ban
ESPN Staff
Leicester Tigers' director of rugby Richard Cockerill has been suspended for nine matches following an altercation with fourth official Stuart Terheege during last season's Aviva Premiership final at Twickenham.
Cockerill was cited in the wake of his side's 33-17 victory over Northampton in May. He berated officials when Northampton lock Courtney Lawes escaped a yellow card for what he thought was a late tackle on Leicester fly-half Toby Flood. Lawes was penalised but not shown any card while Flood was later forced out of the game with concussion.
Cockerill left his seat in the stands and remonstrated with Terheege at the side of the pitch, an act which Northampton assistant coach Dorian West told ESPN was an attempt to "intimidate" the match officials.
The RFU found Cockerill guilty of "conduct prejudicial to the interests of the game" following a lengthy disciplinary hearing on Monday. He pleaded not guilty but the panel found that Cockerill used words that were "obscene, inappropriate and unprofessional and behaviour that was inappropriate and unprofessional".
Cockerill, who has the right to appeal, will be suspended from involvement in match day coaching activities, before during and after matches, from September 7 to November 2.
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.October 15, 2015; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers former player Orel Hersheiser acknowledges fans before the Dodgers play against New York Mets in game five of NLDS at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Richard Mackson-USA TODAY Sports
Reports are coming out of Spring Training that Dodgers legend Orel Hersheiser sustained a hamstring injury while working out with the pitchers.
Hersheiser has been working with the Dodgers pitchers since pitchers and catchers reported on Tuesday. Hersheiser is not formally on the coaching staff and acts primarily as the team’s television broadcaster.
Even by not being on the coaching staff, working with Honeycutt and the pitchers is nothing new for the bulldog. In an interview on AM570 during the Petros and Money show, Hersheiser opened up about how he got to working on the field with the Dodgers this Spring.
He said Honeycutt asked him to put back on the uniform in at a charity event they were doing over the winter.
“Nothing has really changed, our relationship has always been the same.” Hersheiser said. “Now instead of being in street close and Rick coming over and asking ‘what do you see?’ Now I got a uniform and get a little closer to the guys.”
You can listen to the full interview on the AM570 website.
Maybe getting a little closer to the guys was not the best answer. During Thursday’s practice he strained his hamstring demonstrating a pitching motion. It looks like the old bulldog’s body didn’t quite cooperate with his mind.
Fortunately the injury isn’t too severe for Hersheiser. Two of the Dodger beat writers joked about the situation.
Bill Plunkett of the LA Times sent a witty tweet when it happened.
Thoughts & prayers for @OrelHershiser. Comeback attempt will have to wait another year due to an exploding hamstring yesterday #ithappens — Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) February 23, 2017
Dodgers beat reporter Ken Gurnick later confirmed the injury by shedding light on the incident.
Instructor Orel Hershiser pulled a hamstring while demonstrating deliveries to pitchers in the bullpen. — Ken Gurnick (@kengurnick) February 23, 2017
Although Hersheiser isn’t on the pitching staff, his presence is always felt around the club house. Hersheiser mentioned in the radio interview on AM570 that Honeycutt often asks him for opinions on certain pitchers.
As Dodger fans we can rest assured we have the finest pitching advisors in the game. Hopefully Hersheiser is be able to return to the field soon and continue to work with the pitching staff. Honeycutt loves to utilize all resources to make sure everyone is ready to go by Opening Day.
I hope this injury doesn’t deter Hersheiser from putting on the uniform and getting back out on the field because he has plenty of knowledge to pass along to our staff. There has already been positives reports in the early stages of camp as we’ve seen reports about Kershaw and Urias dominating their bullpen sessions.Foxygen have announced their new album. Sam France and Jonathan Rado’s follow-up to 2014’s...And Star Power is called Hang, and it’s out January 20 via Jagjaguwar. The band have also shared the music video for a new song from the album called “Follow the Leader.” The video, directed by Cameron Dutra (who also directed their “San Francisco” video), is full of choreographed sequences filmed with a team of backup dancers in a park. Watch it below. Foxygen have also announced a series of tour dates in support of Hang; check those out below, as well.
As both “America” and “Follow the Leader” have hinted, every song on the album features a symphony orchestra. Trey Pollard arranged and conducted the group of over 40 musicians, and Matthew E. White contributed additional arrangements. The album also features appearances from the Flaming Lips’ Steven Drozd and the Lemon Twigs. France and Rado wrote and produced all of Hang themselves.
The album is available as part of a Jagjaguwar bundle, which comes packed with a flexi-disc featuring demo versions of “Follow the Leader” and “On Lankershim.” The first 50 pre-orders also come with an autographed piece of sheet music from the recording sessions.
Read Pitchfork’s 2014 interview with Foxygen.
Hang:
01 Follow the Leader
02 Avalon
03 Mrs. Adams
04 America
05 On Lankershim
06 Upon a Hill
07 Trauma
08 Rise Up
Foxygen:
11-09 London, England - Oslo
12-01 Brooklyn, NY - Rough Trade
03-21 Richmond, VA - The National
03-22 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
03-24 New York, NY - Terminal 5
03-25 Boston, MA - The Paradise
03-26 Philadelphia, PA - Union Transfer
03-28 Toronto, Ontario - Opera House
03-30 Columbus, OH - Newport Music Hall
03-31 Chicago, IL - Vic Theatre
04-01 Madison, WI - Majestic Theatre
04-02 Minneapolis, MN - First Ave
04-04 Denver, CO - Gothic Theatre
04-05 Salt Lake City, UT - The State Room
04-07 San Francisco, CA - The Independent
04-08 Los Angeles, CA - The Fonda
04-09 Santa Ana, CA - The Observatory
04-11 Phoenix, AZ - Crescent Ballroom
04-13 Dallas, TX - Trees
04-14 Austin, TX - The Mohawk
04-15 Houston, TX - White Oak Music Hall
04-17 New Orleans, LA - One Eyed Jacks
04-18 Atlanta, GA - Terminal West
04-19 Asheville, NC - Orange Peel
04-20 Carrboro, NC - Cat’s Cradle
Watch Foxygen’s full set at Pitchfork Music Festival Paris 2014:By the time the Region of Peel has completed its planned water main replacement in downtown Brampton, the city’s main streets could look completely different.
The city has continued its accelerated timeline for plans to make Queen St. and Main St. within downtown more attractive and user-friendly.
The city’s vision is a bold one, with huge improvements to the pedestrian, cycling, and transit experiences.
Main Street from Nelson Street East to Wellington Street, and Queen Street from Chapel Street to Mill Street South, are the extent of the project for now, though the city’s consultant has modeled the effects of side streets.
The city isn’t proceeding with the top-ranked choice (at 36%) of citizens from the first consultation, which is to make the road pedestrian-only. Instead, they’re planning to go with the option that captured 25 per cent of respondents: narrow the road to two lanes, add bike lanes, and widen the sidewalks.
While the street won’t be permanently closed, it will be designed in such a way that closing it will be possible most of the year, such as when the farmer’s market happens in the summer. The curbs to road will be low enough that when the street is closed with special, flexible barriers, the difference between the sidewalk and roadway will be almost flush.
Notably, there is no street parking in this option. The study has determined the 89 on-street spots can be handled by the city’s five garages, which generally have a vacancy of 598 spots.
Businesses that front onto Queen and Main, and use the current spots for parking, will be required to use existing laneways for business uses such as deliveries and unloading product.
There are still some decisions to be made. One is whether the bike lanes will be flush with the road, or raised and flush with the sidewalk, as shown above. The Zum bus shelter at City Hall, and the shelters under the GO train overpass may be moved.
There are other choices. Will the roadway be tiled like the sidewalks? It could even be coloured concrete or plain asphalt. How will street trees be planted? Will the city continue to use heritage-themed lights, or new ultra-modern lighting?
There could be furniture too. Right now, the sidewalks are too narrow, but soon there could benches, bike racks, and planters.
The Environmental Study Report for the fourth phase is expected to be finished by this summer. There will be a 30-day review period for both the public and the provincial environment ministry to comment on the study.
After that, the study will become part of the region’s waterworks project. The construction in downtown starts in 2018, and will continue for two years; the streetscaping construction will start in 2019.
You can review the project at the city website here and comment on the project here.
Comments
commentsNobilis is a contemporary fantasy role-playing game created by Jenna K. Moran, writing under the name R. Sean Borgstrom. The player characters are "Sovereign Powers" called the Nobilis; each Noble is the personification of an abstract concept or class of things such as Time, Death, cars, or communication. Unlike most role-playing games, Nobilis does not use dice or other random elements to determine the outcome of characters' actions, but instead uses a point-based system for task resolution.
Setting [ edit ]
Nobilis draws on many sources, including Christian and Norse mythologies, but adds numerous unique details to its setting. Though the everyday world in the game appears much like our own, it is actually only the Prosaic Earth, a lie that the world told to itself in a desperate attempt to explain suffering, and a rationalized delusion which conceals the true reality that would plunge most mortals into madness: the Mythic Earth, an animistic world where everything has its own sentient spirit. In the Mythic, the earth is really flat, and hangs somewhere among the vast boughs of the "world-tree", Yggdrasil. Countless worlds dot the branches of this world-tree, but at the top is Heaven, which is inaccessible to all but the angels (only one human soul in a billion is not turned away) and is the source of all beauty. Beneath the earth, in the roots of Yggdrasil, is Hell, the source of all corruption. Around Yggdrasil, except above heaven (where it is open to the stars), is a mystical impenetrable curtain of blue flames known as the Weirding Wall.
Every class of objects and every concept is represented by a being of god-like power known as an Imperator. Each Imperator may govern from one to several of these Estates, and has effectively limitless control over them. The Imperators are engaged in a deadly struggle with the Excrucians, terrible beings from outside the Weirding Wall who wish to destroy reality; this struggle is known as the Valde Bellum. This war keeps Imperators busy in the Spirit World, so in order to maintain their affairs on Earth and in the other worlds they invest a shard of their soul in a human (or occasionally another animal or object), creating a Nobilis. Each Nobilis represents one of the Imperator's Estates; the group of Nobilis this forms, known as a Familia Caelestis, is typically loyal, both to each other and their Imperator.
The Imperator Lord Entropy oversees the actions of the Nobilis and enforces the Code Fidelitatis, the five laws he has established for them, in his Locust Court. The most notable and notorious of these, and the one most often broken, is the Windflower Law which states that no Noble is allowed to love another being. (In the first two editions, Nobilis can turn other humans into Anchors, whose every action they can control, but in order to do this they must first love or hate the person.)
To protect their physical forms from the ravages of the Valde Bellum, Imperators take a part of reality and partition it off into a self-contained, unique world which can take any form. This world, called a Chancel, both houses their physical bodies and is a spiritual reflection of it. Much like in the myth of the Fisher King, if the Imperator suffers, so does their Chancel.
Flowers have great significance to the Nobilis and their Imperators; earthly flowers are reflections of their heavenly counterparts and each has a meaning. For example, the gamemaster is known as the Hollyhock God because, in the world of Nobilis, hollyhocks represent vanity and ambition. This is because, according to the in-game story, the angels used flowers as a tool to control and direct the brunt of their powers when they created Reality. Each Nobilis and Imperator has a flower that represents them, and flowers are often used in their magical rites.
System [ edit ]
Unlike most role-playing game systems, Nobilis does not use random elements in determining success in characters' actions. Instead, Nobilis uses a resource management system; players may spend Miracle Points to succeed at certain actions, but otherwise they rarely fail at what they set out to do. Instead of the action centering on whether or not the characters succeed, the emphasis is instead on the consequences of those actions. Since combat between Nobilis uses up Miracle Points very quickly and a Nobilis can easily defeat even great numbers of humans, social roleplaying is encouraged over combat. Though the characters may seem to have limitless power, in reality they must take into consideration both the outcome of every act and what other Powers or Imperators they may offend in the process.
First and second editions [ edit ]
In the first two editions, each character has 4 attributes: Aspect, which governs their ability |
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Read or Share this story: http://on.freep.com/2ygVenjThe government of Sweden has reportedly authorized a local business to create a mechanism based on a globally popular virtual currency to transfer funds to Iran. The move is already believed to have the potential to facilitate investing in the Islamic Republic where transferring money in and out became complicated as a result of years of restrictions as well as US primary sanctions.
Brave New World Investments – a blockchain startup based in Sweden’s Linköping – was reported by the media to have been able to create an investment vehicle to invest in companies traded in the Tehran Stock Exchange based on Bitcoin.
This took place after the Swedish Companies Registration Office – Bolagsverket – confirmed that the mechanism would not violate the existing US sanctions against Iran.
"We examined whether it would be possible to use Bitcoin as a non-cash property, and we found that it would be possible," Madeleine Idvardsson, Bolagsverket’s registrar in charge of the case, was quoted by CoinDesk.com financial news website as saying.
The approval was expedited by a previous confirmation that had been given to Bolagsverket by the Swedish Accounting Standards Board for another similar Bitcoin application, added the report.
Brave New World Investments co-founder Mikael Johansson told CoinDesk that he was waiting for the final approval to open a bank account in Iran.
The report added that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies could be used to send funds to Iran, where they would be converted to the native Rial and used to invest in publicly traded companies on the Tehran Stock Exchange.
Iran, of all countries, is seen as a place where buying Bitcoin is easier, compared to many places in the world.
BTXCapital, the country’s first Bitcoin exchange which was launched in August 2015, entered the Iranian market aiming to provide a more reliable and secure alternative to peer-to-peer trading platforms such as CoinAva and LocalBitcoins.Calgary, Alta. – The Western Hockey League announced today that Victoria Royals goaltender Griffen Outhouse has been named the WHL Goaltender of the Week and the league nominee for Vaughn CHL Goaltender of the Week for the week ending September 24, 2017.
The 19-year-old product of Likely, B.C., went 2-0-0-0 to open the 2017-18 WHL season, with a 1.07 goals-against average,.975 save percentage and 77 saves on 79 shots.
On Friday, September 22, Outhouse turned aside 31 of 32 shots, earning third star honours in a 7-1 win versus Vancouver. Saturday, September 23, he blocked 46 of 47 shots and was named first star in a 6-1 win at Vancouver.
Outhouse enjoyed a career year in 2016-17, appearing in 63 contests and logging a record of 34-24-3-1 with a 2.85 GAA,.915 SV% and four shutouts.
The 6-foot, 180-pound netminder was originally signed by the Royals in September 2014. In 92 career WHL regular season games, he is 54-27-6-2 with a 2.51 GAA,.923 SV% and eight shutouts.
Outhouse and the Royals will host the Kamloops Blazers on Saturday, September 30 (7:05 p.m. PT) at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Arena.
WHL Goaltender of the Week/Vaughn CHL Goaltender of the Week nominee
Sept. 22 – Sept. 24: Griffen Outhouse, Victoria RoyalsA Buddhist monk has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting and impregnating a teenage girl at a west suburban Buddhist temple, officials said.
Camnong Boa-Ubol, 62, pled guilty to one count of aggravated criminal sexual assault for assaulting the girl several times at Wat Dhammaram temple in unincorporated Stickney Township near Bridgeview, starting in 1998 when she was 14 years old and lasting for about two years, according to a release from the Cook County state's attorney's office and news reports from the time of Boa-Ubol's arrest.
The teen, who gave birth to the child in early 2000, did not initially report the assaults because she was afraid of Boa-Ubol, who had threatened to harm her and her family, the release said. She filed a lawsuit against Boa-Ubol in 2010 but to maintain her child's privacy, did not want to pursue criminal charges.
A 2010 DNA test, conducted after her lawsuit was filed, had determined the probability that Boa-Ubol fathered the child was 99.9999997 percent, records show.
After the Chicago Tribune wrote of the woman's lawsuit in a 2011 story about abuse allegations against several monks, a victims rights group persuaded her to seek criminal action against Boa-Ubol. Last July, Boa-Ubol, who had left the Chicago area several years ago, was returned here and charged, officials said.
Boa-Ubol had been arrested on a Cook County warrant in May 2012 in Anchorage, Alaska, where he worked as a restaurant dishwasher, and had fought efforts to return him to the Chicago area. A governor's warrant eventually was issued by the office of Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, and Alaska officials approved his return in July 2012, according to the Cook County Sheriff's Office.
Cook County Judge Colleen Hyland impose the sentence Friday at the Bridgeview Branch Courthouse.
chicagobreaking@tribune.com | Twitter: @ChicagoBreakingFOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Expected to be an integral part of the New England Revolution attack in 2014, midfielder Kelyn Rowe has instead been forced to work overtime just to get back on the pitch.
Rowe, who made 26 starts and missed only one game in 2013, was finally back with the first team in training this week, signaling that his return to game-day action is close after a frustrating battle with hamstring problems in both legs.
“He wants to play, he’s competitive,” coach Jay Heaps told reporters on Tuesday. “This injury, you can tell, has really bothered him because he’s been away from the group and not playing. … [But] he's really flying right now. It's good to have him back in the mix.”
After missing the second game of the season with a left hamstring injury, Rowe returned in Week 3 against Vancouver, which may have spurred the right hamstring strain that has led to him missing the last five Revolution matches.
Rowe's status for this weekend’s tilt in Toronto (1 pm ET, MLS LIVE, Univision Deportes in US, TSN in Canada) remains questionable. But the Revs are extremely pleased with his progress to date and feel it is only a matter of time before the versatile midfielder returns to the starting lineup.
“Every player who has a knock here or there wants to get out there as much as possible,” New England striker Teal Bunbury told MLSsoccer.com on Tuesday. “For Kelyn, his spirits are up, and he’s had a great attitude about everything.”
Catch the latest Revs news at RevolutionSoccer.net
Having marked off less than one-third of the season’s schedule, the Revolution have had the luxury of being caution with Rowe’s injury.
“He’s ready to go, I know that for a fact,” said Bunbury. “I know the rest of the guys are really excited and ready for him to get back and healthy, but the main thing is making sure that he doesn’t come back too soon, and there's no nagging issues.”First, a little background. (You can skip the next four paragraphs if the Medicaid expansion kerfuffle is old news to you.)
Medicaid is a state-based program that, before The Era of Obamacare, mostly only covered kids, moms, and pregnant women. In its original form, the Affordable Care Act hinged on a state-by-state expansion of Medicaid for people who can’t afford health insurance on the newly created exchanges (so, for people making about $15,800 a year or less). The idea was that the federal government would pay for the new Medicaid enrollees entirely until 2016, and gradually taper down the federal subsidy to 90 percent of the new costs in future years. In general, the expansion is seen as a pretty good deal for the states.
But the 2012 Supreme Court case made the expansion optional for states, throwing a wrench into the Obama administration’s plan to get all of the nation’s poor covered through Medicaid. Most estimates show that states who expand Medicaid could reduce their uninsured populations by around 50 percent or more.
So far, 24 states have opted not to expand Medicaid the way the ACA wants them to. To conservatives, their resistance is seen as a bulwark against an ever-increasing entitlement system. To liberals, it’s viewed largely as, well, a middle finger to the Obama administration: Most of the states have Republican governors or predominantly Republican legislatures, and even though the expansion would be largely paid for by the federal government, accepting it could seem like an acknowledgement of the healthcare law’s legitimacy.
Now, nearly eight million people are left without health coverage because they live in these non-expanding states, and it’s an especially heavy burden on large cities, which are home to a disproportionate share of uninsured, indigent people, as my colleague Emily Badger reported.
The New York Times recently reported on Willie Charles Carter, a Mississippi man who doesn’t qualify for the state’s Medicaid program because he has no dependent children. The free clinic where he goes for medical care is scheduled to close soon due to lack of funding, and this is his strategy for getting healthcare after that point:
“I’m scared all the time,” he said. “I just walk around here with faith in God to take care of me.”
To make matters even more depressing and racially thorny, almost every state in the Deep South rejected the expansion, as this map of states that aren’t doing the expansion, based on estimates from late last month, from the Advisory Board Company, shows.
Advisory Board Company
But eventually, Arkansas found a way.
There’s one thing the state’s Republicans are fans of, and that’s private enterprise. So earlier this year Beebe called Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and asked for a special favor. In late September, it was granted: Arkansas got a waiver to use the federal Medicaid money to buy private insurance for the people who would otherwise have been eligible for the Medicaid expansion. The state’s legislature had approved this “private option” earlier this year.Complex Component Design in Ember - Part 4 - Use the hash helper
This is the fourth and final part of my Complex Component Design series. Here are the preceding posts:
You can find the code for this post on Github.
After our last refactoring, the ember-cli-autocomplete component no longer uses observers. However, the list of parameters the outermost, container component, auto-complete returns is now unwieldily long:
1 2 {{# auto-complete 3 on-select = ( action " selectArtist " ) 4 on-input = ( action " filterArtists " ) 5 options = matchingArtists 6 displayProperty = " name " 7 class = " autocomplete-container " as | isDropdownOpen inputValue options 8 focusedIndex selectedIndex 9 toggleDropdown onSelect onInput | }} 10 11 12 {{/ auto-complete }}
Not only does that look clumsy, it also makes refactoring more difficult and one always constantly have to flip between the component's template (where params are yielded from) and the template where the component is used to see if the position of values match. So how can improve this?
Components as functions
To understand several concepts about components, consider them functions. Putting aside the fact that they can also emit DOM elements, you call them with a list of arguments, usually, though not exclusively, a collection of key-value pairs. The component then does some internal stuff and returns a value from its template via the yield keyword.
Our current case is another instance when treating them as functions can help us find the solution. Ask yourself: what would you do if the return value of a function you wrote grew to a long list of arguments? You would convert the return value to a key-value collection, such as a hash, wouldn't you?
Well, in Ember's component land, we can do this by using the hash helper, introduced in Ember 2.3. It takes a list of key-value pairs at invocation time and outputs an object (a hash) with them:
1 {{# with ( hash firstName ='Mike'lastName ='McCready'instrument ='guitar') as | musician | }} 2 {{ musician.firstName }} {{ musician.lastName }} and I play the {{ musician.instrument }}. 3 {{/ with }}
We can use the hash helper to bring some sanity to the return value of auto-complete parameters. It currently looks like this:
1 2 {{ yield isDropdownOpen 3 inputValue 4 options 5 focusedIndex 6 selectedIndex 7 ( action " toggleDropdown " ) 8 ( action " selectOption " ) 9 ( action " inputDidChange " ) }}
So we introduce the hash helper to get the following:
1 2 {{ yield ( hash 3 isOpen = isDropdownOpen 4 inputValue = inputValue 5 options = options 6 focusedIndex = focusedIndex 7 selectedIndex = selectedIndex 8 toggleDropdown = ( action " toggleDropdown " ) 9 onSelect = ( action " selectItem " ) 10 onInput = ( action " inputDidChange " ) ) }}
Modifying call sites
Now that the component's return value has changed, we should not forget to modify the callers, the downstream components that use that value:
1 2 {{# auto-complete 3 on-select = ( action " selectArtist " ) 4 on-input = ( action " filterArtists " ) 5 items = matchingArtists 6 displayProperty = " name " 7 class = " autocomplete-container " as | params | }} 8 <div class = " input-group " > 9 {{ auto-complete-input 10 value = params.inputValue 11 on-change = params.onInput 12 type = " text " 13 class = " combobox input-large form-control " 14 placeholder = " Select an artist " }} 15 {{# auto-complete-list 16 isVisible = params.isOpen 17 class = " typeahead typeahead-long dropdown-menu " }} 18 {{# each params.options as | option | }} 19 {{# auto-complete-option 20 index = option.index 21 on-click = params.onSelect 22 isFocused = ( eq params.focusedIndex option.index ) 23 isSelected = ( eq params.selectedIndex option.index ) }} 24 <a href = " # " > {{ option.value }} </a> 25 {{/ auto-complete-option }} 26 {{ else }} 27 <li> <a href = " # " > No results. </a> </li> 28 {{/ each }} 29 {{/ auto-complete-list }} 30 {{# auto-complete-dropdown-toggle on-click = params.toggleDropdown class = " input-group-addon dropdown-toggle " }} 31 <span class = " caret " > </span> 32 {{/ auto-complete-dropdown-toggle }} 33 </div> 34 {{/ auto-complete }}
Instead of the long list of parameters, auto-complete now yields a single hash parameter (called params above), whose keys are used in the child components ( params.isOpen, params.options, etc.)
Polyfill it
Since we want our component to be usable not only in Ember >=2.3 applications, where the hash helper is built in, we should add the ember-hash-helper-polyfill, which makes the hash helper available in earlier Ember versions, as a dependency of the addon:
1 2 3 " name " : " ember-cli-autocomplete ", 4 " version " : " 0.0.0 ", 5 " dependencies " : { 6 7 " ember-hash-helper-polyfill " : " 0.1.0 " 8 9
Wrapping up
That wraps up my Complex Component Design in Ember.js series. Our component improved by each post and I think we now have a pretty flexible and thus reusable component. The main purpose of the series, however, is education, so I hope that I was able to transfer some of the knowledge I've acquired by building components.
If you would like to read the whole series as a pdf, just give my your email address below and I'm sending it to you.
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.As fans took to social media to mourn David Bowie’s unexpected death, there was one particular sentiment expressed over and over again. The A.V. Club’s own Katie Rife put it best when she wrote, “What made David Bowie more than just an ordinary rock star was his ability to unite the outcasts, to reach out to everyone who felt different and let them know that they were not only okay, but wonderful and precious.” Bowie didn’t just make music; his extraterrestrial presence reassured his fans—particularly those who felt lost, unloved, and misunderstood—that there were other weirdos out there who would accept them for who they were.
That’s also the sentiment of Todd Haynes’ 1998 salute to glam rock, Velvet Goldmine. The film was initially planned as a more conventional biopic, but Bowie famously disapproved of the project and refused to grant Haynes the rights to his music. That fact alone is enough to turn off Bowie fans; why watch an “unofficial” biography disliked by the icon himself? But those creative restrictions may have been the best thing to happen to Velvet Goldmine. Freed from any pull toward historical accuracy (if he ever felt any in the first place), Haynes explores the singer’s early career from another angle: not what it means to be David Bowie, but what it means to be a David Bowie fan.
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The film says as much in its Ziggy Stardust-inspired opening title card: “Although what you are about to see is a work of fiction, it should nevertheless be played at maximum volume.” In other words: Who cares about the recreating details? This is about celebrating the energy.
Based loosely on Bowie’s life with bits of Marc Bolan and Jobriath’s biography thrown in, Velvet Goldmine centers on Brian Slade (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), a glam rock icon who sets 1970s London on fire with his Ziggy Stardust-esque stage persona, Maxwell Demon. It’s an abstract puzzle box of a film, and some have dismissed Velvet Goldmine as a two-hour music video, which isn’t entirely unfair. Full of covers and artful originals that play out in enigmatic music video sequences, the film pulsates with a sound that evokes the era in general more than it does Bowie in particular. (Brian Eno, Roxy Music, Lou Reed, and T. Rex all appear on the soundtrack.)
After a brief prologue that suggests Oscar Wilde was brought to Earth by space aliens to father the glam-rock movement (this movie is nothing if not strange), Velvet Goldmine borrows its structure from, of all things, Citizen Kane. A decade after Slade faked an onstage assassination in a much-maligned publicity stunt, journalist Arthur Stuart (Christian Bale) is tasked with figuring out what happened to the former star. In a bleak, almost dystopian version of 1984, Arthur interviews Slade’s former friends and colleagues, allowing the film to dissolve into vignettes that explore Slade’s life and career.
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But the structure is in many ways a feint. Velvet Goldmine isn’t particularly interested in exploring what made Slade (and by extension, Bowie) tick. Though it inserts a slight clunky “twist” ending about Slade’s fate, the film’s real twist is that it ultimately cares far more about Arthur than it does about Slade.
Unlike the objective investigation in Citizen Kane, Arthur’s exploration of Slade’s past doubles as an exploration of his own. He was a closeted teen living with his conservative parents during the 1970s. The glam-rock movement showed him he wasn’t a shameful deviant—as his father asserts—but just a kid who hadn’t found his people yet.
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Scott Tobias noted the same thing in his New Cult Canon examination of the film, although we disagree on which exact scene represents Velvet Goldmine’s thesis statement. He argues it’s the one in which a young Arthur first sneaks out of the house in his glam rock attire—equal parts exhilarated and awkward. I would point to the scene in which Arthur and his parents watch Slade proudly discuss his bisexuality at a televised press conference, and Arthur fantasies about jumping up and announcing “That is me! That’s me!”
But both scenes get at the same idea: Haynes is less concerned about the specifics of what happened between Slade, his wife Mandy (a stunning Toni Collette), his manager (Eddie Izzard), and his rock hero/lover Curt Wild (Ewan McGregor, channeling both Iggy Pop and Lou Reed while looking eerily like Kurt Cobain), than he is in exploring what glam rock meant to a repressed kid like Arthur. Watching Curt and Slade flaunt their relationship (they’re described at one point as “Tracy and Hepburn for the ’70s”) reassures Arthur that he isn’t alone. Velvet Goldmine likely taught many of its young queer fans the same thing. The whole film is unabashedly, joyously gay—something it’s disappointingly rare to see in any mainstream film, let alone one released in 1998.
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The Curt/Slade love story is another plot point that jibes more with Bowie’s philosophy than his biography. There are rumors that Bowie and Mick Jagger did more than just dance in the street together, and Bowie did famously discuss his bisexuality (only to later call himself a “closet heterosexual”), but Brian Slade is a far more openly transgressive figure in Velvet Goldmine. Haynes literalizes Bowie’s open-minded attitude into something more concrete, focusing his film specifically on the intersection of glam rock and the gay community.
Glitter-filled, chaotic, and often bizarre (one key emotional scene is acted out by two young girls playing with Barbie dolls, a nod to Haynes’ earlier Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story), Velvet Goldmine nevertheless possesses a wonderfully observed humanity to go with its aggressive experimentalism. If the story of the rise and fall of an ambitious rock star is a little overfamiliar, there’s a lot of nuance in the way Haynes explores the Mandy/Slade/Curt dynamic. The characters may think they sound brilliant when they crib from Oscar Wilde with lines like, “What is true about music is true about life: that beauty reveals everything because it expresses nothing,” or “A real artist creates beautiful things and puts nothing of his own life into them.” But Velvet Goldmine distances itself just enough to reveal the hollowness of such a flippant worldview. If the film occasionally feels gaudy, pretentious, and scattered, that’s as much a commentary on glam rock as anything else.
Though Velvet Goldmine was met with mixed reviews and a dim box office, it found a second life as a cult classic—one particularly beloved by young audiences. Helped along by Sandy Powell’s impeccable costume design, Haynes makes the energetic glam rock era feel impossibly appealing, especially for those too young to have lived through it. As Haynes put it in a 2007 interview with The A.V. Club, “It’s the film that seems to mean the most to a lot of teenagers and young people, who are just obsessed with that movie. They’re exactly who I was thinking about when I made Velvet Goldmine, but it just didn’t get to them the first time around.”
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But it’s no surprise that Bowie disapproved of the film. Velvet Goldmine isn’t interested in sanctifying Slade, instead arguing that much of his originality was stolen, borrowed, or built with the help of others. There’s a decidedly cynical edge to Slade’s story, one that potentially casts Bowie’s ever-changing artistic persona as more of a commercial choice than an artistic one. But that’s only a failing for those who want Velvet Goldmine to be a faithful recreation of history, which it isn’t trying to be.
Instead the film saves its optimism for its true hero, Arthur. While his idols drive themselves mad trying to stay on the cutting edge, teenaged Arthur is just thrilled to be invited to the party. By the time he finally gets up the courage to run away from home and start living his life as a groupie, the glam-rock era is basically over. Long after Slade’s fake assassination has tarnished his reputation, Arthur is still unironically dressing up as Maxwell Demon. In one of the film’s most endearing scenes, Arthur dances with childlike enthusiasm at a “Death Of Glitter” tribute concert. Rather than mock his inability to recognize the end of an era, Velvet Goldmine revels in his naïve enthusiasm.
By 1984, it seems Arthur has given up his wild youth for a more conventional life, but the film ultimately argues that glam rock’s spirit never really dies, even during eras in which platform shoes and glitter eye shadow are less socially acceptable. A chance encounter with a former idol and a brief passing-of-the-torch moment reassures Arthur that regardless of the “authenticity” of the glam-rock era, what he felt about it was authentic.
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Alternately exuberant and melancholic, Velvet Goldmine asserts that whatever Bowie meant to you, at whatever stage he meant it to you, is real and justified and important. Whatever he helped you discover about yourself and whatever communities you found because of him will exist long after his death. Because even when the masks we consciously adopt in our youth slip—once we stop dying our hair blue to mimic our favorite pop stars—those experiences still matter: They shaped who we are.Willson Contreras' audition begins Friday at Wrigley Field, where the Cubs begin a long-anticipated homestand against the Pirates and Cardinals.
If the Cubs play their cards right, their top prospect can experience both the beginning and end of the National League Central race, then return to Iowa for a little more seasoning.
For now, the catcher is a welcome addition for a team that could use another bat, though it remains to be seen how much playing time he will get, unless David Ross or Miguel Montero is injured.
When Montero went on the disabled list in late April, manager Joe Maddon said he didn't want to "beat up" the 39-year-old Ross. Ross agreed he couldn't play every day, but somehow has found new life in his final season, outperforming Montero.
Maddon had little choice, and now Ross is on pace to make 71 starts, which would be his most since 2007.
Enter Contreras, a 24-year-old right-handed hitter with power who already may be a better offensive threat than either catcher, just as Kyle Schwarber was when called up from Double-A Tennessee last year.
Photos of Cubs catcher and outfielder Kyle Schwarber.
The low-pressure debut is similar to what the Cubs did with Schwarber, and almost one year to the day.
On June 16 last season, the Cubs brought Schwarber up and said it would be for only six games — at designated hitter in American League ballparks — before going to Triple-A Iowa. He was batting.320 with 13 homers and 39 RBIs when he got the call at Tennessee; Contreras was hitting.350 with nine home runs and 43 RBIs for Iowa.
On his first day, after taking over for Montero, who was ejected, Schwarber struck out in his first at-bat.
"It can only go up from there," he said.
It went up. Way up.
In his first career start in Cleveland, Schwarber had an RBI triple in his first at-bat and would up with four hits. The next day he singled and hit a two-run homer in his first two at-bats.
Schwarber wound up hitting.364 in 22 at-bats before going to Iowa.
An "unreal experience," he called the cameo. And it worked. After being recalled, Schwarber wound up with 16 home runs in the regular season and five more in the postseason, including the "Schwarbomb" against the Cardinals that landed on top of the right field video board.
Can Contreras possibly out-Schwarber Schwarber in his own unreal experience?
We're about to find out.
The Cubs have been careful in the timing of the call-ups of their significant prospects, balancing their own needs with the players' readiness and the now traditional service time ramifications.
In return, they have gotten some memorable debuts over the last three seasons, beginning with Javier Baez in August 2014.
Baez cranked a game-winning home run at Coors Field in his major-league debut, and after some early struggles offensively he has grown into one of Maddon's most valuable chess pieces this season.
Jorge Soler homered in his first at-bat three weeks after Baez's debut, and became the third major-league player since 1900 with at least one extra-base hit in his first five games. Injuries and lack of consistency have prevented Soler from living up to his hype, but Maddon said last week he won't surrender playing time when he returns from his stint on the disabled list.
Photos of Kris Bryant, the 2016 National League MVP and the Cubs' second overall pick in the 2013 draft.
Kris Bryant had an inauspicious debut in April 2015 when he went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts after a Ruthian buildup. But Bryant wound up being named National League Rookie of the Month in May after his first full month in the majors, became an All-Star and then NL Rookie of the Year. If they keep up their current pace, Bryant and Anthony Rizzo may be battling it out for NL MVP.
The most recent top prospect to get the call was Albert Almora Jr., the last of the original "core four" that included Baez, Bryant and Soler. Almora came up in Philadelphia after Soler's hamstring injury and, like Contreras, also will make his Wrigley Field debut this weekend.
Hitting.353 and playing stellar defense on the road trip, Almora is making a valid argument to stay in the majors when Soler returns.
So what does this all mean?
Youth is being served along with victories. And if Dexter Fowler and Ben Zobrist both needed a day off, Maddon theoretically could write out a lineup with eight position players aged 26 or younger: Almora, Heyward, Rizzo, Bryant, Baez, Contreras, Matt Szczur and Addison Russell.
These are the days.
psullivan@tribpub.com
Twitter @PWSullivanB.C.'s Finance Minister is expected to turn on the taps with Tuesday's budget, promising both substantial tax cuts and significant spending increases.
Here are five things to watch for when Mike de Jong stands up in the legislature on Tuesday afternoon to present his fifth budget.
Economic outlook
British Columbia enjoyed the fastest-growing economy in the country with 3.3-per-cent growth in 2016, driven in large part by a superheated real estate market. Economists predict the economy will expand at a more modest pace in the coming year: Welcome to the posthousing boom.
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Budget themes B.C. Finance Minister Mike de Jong looks ahead at the provincial budget Listen to the audio here
The province's private forecast council last November predicted 2.2-per-cent economic growth for 2017. Mr. de Jong routinely builds his budget around a more cautious forecast, which means his budget will peg growth at something closer to 2 per cent. There are strengths – the growing high-tech sector is one – but also risks to the outlook. Domestically, the cooling housing market will reduce what has been a driving force in the provincial economy. And uncertainty around global economic activity is a challenge for much of the province's resource sector, and none more so than the producers of softwood lumber.
Related: B.C. Liberals' pile of surplus cash masks serious deficit in services
Gary Mason: B.C.'s opioid crisis needs a practical solution, not a politically popular one
The budget will likely seek to counter those forces with job-creation measures that could include targeted tax relief for business. At the very least, the government has promised a rural infrastructure investment plan for those communities that have not enjoyed economic growth.
Education
Templeton Secondary School in Vancouver. DARRYL DYCK/For The Globe and Mail
The government defended its education cuts all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada – and last November, it lost. The province has already offered $50-million to hire the equivalent of 1,100 new teachers in the current year, and Education Minister Mike Bernier has promised an annual funding lift of $100-million to ensure those salaries are covered in the coming school year. However, the B.C. Teachers' Federation maintains that nothing less than a $300-million boost will provide enough teachers to meet the court order. In addition, there is rising enrolment to contend with.
Talks continue between the government and the BCTF to determine how to restore class size and composition to the levels that existed in 2002. There will be more money for education in the budget, but the province may have to dig into its contingency funds to pay for the cost of the final settlement with the BCTF. "You will see flexibility built into the upcoming budget to work with teachers to invest in student outcomes," Mr. Bernier said in a recent statement.
School boards set their budgets in April and will need to see just how much flexibility the budget holds for them by then, to plan for the school year that begins next September.
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Child protection
Stephanie Cadieux Minister of Childern and Family Development seen here during a ceremony in Vancouver June 7, 2013. John Lehmann/The Globe and Mail
Almost three months ago, the B.C. government was handed a prescription for reducing the number of Indigenous children and youth in care. The report from Grand Chief Ed John called for a sweeping overhaul of the province's child-protection system and millions of dollars in additional spending.
His report adds to a tower of damning reviews chronicling the province's services for vulnerable children. Retired bureaucrat Bob Plecas described two decades of chaos that has failed children in government care. The office of the independent watchdog for children and youth has reported on dozens of specific examples in which children died or were critically injured because the support they needed wasn't there.
And the union representing social workers has detailed how there are not enough front-line services to meet child protection needs. The B.C. Government and Service Employees' Union (BCGEU), in a budget submission, acknowledged that last year's budget promise to hire additional social workers was a good start to turning matters around. But because of attrition, the union says there are fewer workers today than there were a year ago.
Mr. de Jong says his government is anxious to address the funding gap with Tuesday's budget. The spotlight will be on how deep that commitment is in a budget that is set up to meet so many other expectations as well.
Taxes
"There are a lot of taxes I want to get rid of because I think we should be figuring out how to get more money back into people's pockets," Premier Christy Clark told CBC News last December.
In the Speech from the Throne last week, the B.C. Liberal government made it clear that tax relief is on the way. "Our government is now in a position to pay you back, to relieve some financial burdens, and to invest in your household and in your families," the speech said.
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Which taxes would the BC Liberals get rid of? The government can tinker with fees, income taxes, sales taxes. The one levy that the Premier has singled out is Medical Service Plan premiums, which will bring in $2.5-billion this year. But it is unlikely she will eliminate it, as proposed by the opposition New Democratic Party. Although she says the current system is unfair and antiquated, she has said that would simply move the burden somewhere else. The government might seek to modernize the premium by linking rates to income.
Affordability
On Monday, the Finance Minister made this prediction about reaction to his budget: "There will be no shortage of commentary and criticism about 'Why didn't you do more here?'"
That will be especially acute if welfare rates remain the same on Tuesday.
Mr. de Jong's comment was prompted by questions about the $50-a-month rate hike announced on Friday for those who receive income assistance because of a disability. He conceded that an additional $600 a year won't make life markedly easier, but he said choices are limited to "what we can afford."
While the province racked up consecutive surplus budgets over the past four years, the 70,000 people surviving on basic rates for welfare did not receive a penny more.
The BCGEU, which has lobbied for a provincial policy to tackle poverty, noted: "In spite of our vast social and economic resources, an unacceptable proportion of B.C.'s population continues to live in conditions far below what is befitting of a province that is 'the envy of the nation.' Currently, 10.4 per cent of our population, or 469,000 British Columbians, live in poverty based on Statistics Canada's low income cut-off."
The one overriding principle of this budget is that it is designed with the May 9 election in mind. Mr. de Jong explained: "We are trying to ensure that the benefits of our strong economy are shared by the widest possible group."
MORE FROM THE GLOBE AND MAIL
Will the foreign buyers tax endanger B.C.’s housing windfall? One of B.C.’s most lucrative sources of revenue, the property transfer tax, is showing signs of weakening just as the province prepares its pre-election budget
How community land trusts could help build affordable Vancouver housing A $25-million piece of land sold for 10 bucks: How community land trusts could help build affordable housing in VancouverTis I again, bearing fortuitous news. The magus is still in deep seclusion, channeling power to ancient and mystic formulae. Margins are laid, final words set in stone and ink and blood. What is said cannot be un-said, what is done can no longer be undone. We have all the great inscriptions laid into permanence. The great work lurches to a finale. Soon, good friends, will we be able to deliver this bounty unto you.
But lo, look ye upon this volume, crafted directly into deeply tanned flesh. For those pledged in blood and flesh at the highest of sacrifices, I have this plate to show you, for those that didn’t, look not or know great regret:
Leatherbound Codex
What a curious sound, the |
says she's not convinced the feud will last, adding, "I know the man I raised. Ray went to battle with those guys and they truly love each other... When it's all said and done and over they’ll still be friends."This article is over 2 years old
Spanish police claim uniforms destined for Isis and Nusra Front fighters would have been ‘enough to equip an entire army’
Spain’s interior ministry has announced the seizure of 20,000 military uniforms being sent to fighters from Islamic State and the Nusra Front.
The ministry said that police conducted a counter-terrorism operation last month in the port cities of Valencia and Algeciras, where officers opened three shipping containers. Authorities found the uniforms and other military accessories.
A ministry statement released on Thursday said that police arrested seven people on suspicion of providing logistical and financial support to Isis and the Nusra Front.
The police operation “neutralised a very active and efficient business network whose primary purpose was to supply, maintain and strengthen [Isis]”, according to the statement.
“The containers which carried the military uniforms were declared as secondhand clothes so as to not raise suspicions and be able to pass different customs inspections without any difficulty,” the police statement said.
“With the roughly 20,000 military uniforms and accessories, it would have been possible to equip an entire army, which would be ready to enter into combat in any of the battlegrounds which jihadist terrorist organisations have round the world,” it added.
One of the firms run by the suspects who were detained last month was dedicated to importing used clothes.
One of those arrested was a man who dispatched “military material, money, electronic and transmission material, firearms and precursors for making explosives” to Syria and Iraq via a company, police said at the time.
This was shipped out in closed containers under the guise of humanitarian aid.In 2014, Tennessee's U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, a Republican now seeking Bob Corker's U.S. Senate seat, joined with Rep. Tom Marino, R-Pa., and wrote a letter to accuse then-DEA Office of Diversion Control Joe Rannazzisi of trying to "intimidate the United States Congress."
Blackburn and Marino also asked for an Inspector General's probe into Rannazzisi — who was issuing fines and trying to make additional cases against pharmaceutical distributors making "suspicious" deliveries of opioids.
"Suspicious," as in 9 million hydrocodone pills delivered over two years to a pharmacy in Kermit, W.Va., where the town's population was just 392 people. And that's just one example.
But Blackburn, who received $120,000 in campaign contributions from the pharmaceutical industry between 2013 and June 2017, didn't stop with eventually pushing Rannazzisi out of the DEA.
She and Marino, in 2015, pushed a bill that substantially raised the legal bar on the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's ability to crack down on the drug distributors, including the DEA's ability to freeze suspicious shipments.
Their argument was a complete nonstarter: Sponsors claimed the legislation was needed to let people with pain — think of our veterans — to continue to receive the medication they needed. Would someone please explain how suspending delivery of 9 million opioid pills to a town of 392 people, at least long enough for a reasonable explanation, would keep real doctors and legit pharmacies from providing our veterans with pain relief?
But after the pharmaceutical industry raided key DEA positions and successfully routed other DEA officials like Rannazzisi, the bill was passed in 2016 with no opposition in either the House or the Senate.
Since the congressional interference began with Blackburn's and Marino's initial letter — resulting in the consistent slowing of opioid drug distribution investigations — the opioid crisis has ballooned. And on Sunday, Rannazzisi and several other former DEA officials who worked for him were featured as whistle-blowers on 60 Minutes and in the Washington Post.
Marino, who received $92,500 in contributions from big pharma between 2013 and June 2017, now is President Donald Trump's drug czar nominee slated to lead the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
Trump now says he'll "look into" the 60 Minutes report.
And suddenly, Blackburn is backtracking.
"If there are any unintended consequences from this bipartisan legislation — which was passed unanimously by the House, Senate and was signed into law by President Obama — they should be addressed immediately," her spokesperson said.
What happened to DEA's Rannazzisi — who was overseeing 100s of agents investigating opioids addictions — trying to intimidate Congress?
The shoe was really on the other foot.
The timeline goes something like this, according to 60 Minutes and the Post:
In 2008, DEA's Rannazzisi and team had identified three primary distributors that seemed to have the most suspicious orders and deliveries: Cardinal Health, McKesson, and AmerisourceBergen, who among them control probably 85 or 90 percent of the drugs going out to pharmacies, clinics and doctors.
In 2008, the DEA fined McKesson $13.2 million and Cardinal Health $34 million. In seven years, distributors' fines totaled more than $341 million. The companies cried to Congress that DEA regulations were vague and the agency was treating them like a foreign drug cartel.
Cardinal went to Rannazzisi's bosses to push for a softer approach. By 2013, cases that would have easily been approved suddenly weren't good enough.
And in 2014, two Republican members of Congress — Blackburn and Marino — were calling for Rannazzisi to be investigated. They were also talking about new legislation to "raise standards" in drug distribution probes.
What that legislation actually did was abandon the standard of "imminent danger to the public health or safety" which had proven effective for 44 years in favor of a new heightened standard that is practically impossible to meet "and thus a dream for rogue operators who want to remain in business for as long as possible," according to the Washington Post.
The DEA's toughest sanction is to freeze distributors' shipments of narcotics, something that hasn't happened now in almost two years.
Mores than 200,000 Americans have died in this burgeoning opioid epidemic — most in the last few years — but cases have nearly ground to a halt at DEA, thanks to legislation co-sponsored by Marsha Blackburn, 11 other Republicans and two Democrats, all at the behest of those under investigation.
Now Blackburn wants us to believe that she didn't fully understand what the legislation would do?
Perhaps she thinks appearing to lack intelligence is better than being bought.As Daniel Kay Hertz explains, the goal of these maps is not merely to depress you (you’re welcome!), but to suggest just how dramatically the reality of Chicago’s “two cities” has changed over the last few generations, how non-eternal its present state is, and that a happier alternate reality isn’t just possible, but actually existed relatively recently.
Daniel Kay Hertz goes on to note, he feels relatively comfortable telling the story of how Chicago came to be so segregated by race; but is much humbler about his ability to explain this, except inasmuch as the ever-widening ghetto of the affluent could not exist without, yes, radically exclusionary housing laws.
...
One last piece: the obvious and immediate reaction to these maps is to see them as a direct consequence of rising income inequality. There is some truth to that, but the researchers from which much of this data came have already discovered that income segregation has actually risen faster than inequality. So that’s not the end of the story.
Anyway, here you go: the disappearance of Chicago’s middle-class and mixed-income neighborhoods since 1970, measured by each Census tract’s median family income as a percentage of the median family income for the Chicago metropolitan region as a whole.
Read more hereWashington -- The federal government will shut down today for the first time in 17 years after House Republicans and Senate Democrats failed to come up with a budget compromise.
When the federal fiscal year ended at midnight, Office of Management and Budget Director Sylvia Burwell issued a directive to federal agencies to "execute plans for an orderly shutdown."
About 800,000 of the 2.1 million federal employees nationwide will be furloughed as agencies cut back or close their operations.
Here are the answers to 15 common questions about how the shutdown might affect you in Central New York:
Will I receive my Social Security and Medicare benefits?
Yes, benefits will continue to be paid throughout the shutdown. About 280 Social Security employees in 18 offices across Central and Western New York will remain on the job. But a union official warns that those applying for benefits or replacement cards could face delays.
Are post offices open, and will I receive mail today?
Yes, the U.S. Postal Service says there will be no interruptions to mail delivery. All post offices will remain open normal operating hours.
Can I still fly out of Hancock International Airport?
Yes, the Federal Aviation Administration said air traffic controllers will remain on the job across the nation. So will employees of the Transportation Security Administration. No delays related to the federal shutdown are expected.
What happens to the nation's borders?
Border patrol agents will remain on duty, along with members of the FBI and other essential federal law enforcement personnel.
Can I visit a national park or monuments like those on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.?
No, all 401 national parks will be closed throughout the nation. The National Park Service will close park entrances, visitor centers, campgrounds, bathrooms, concession stands and other park facilities.
Will I be able to apply for a passport or visa?
Yes, offices will remain open for business. The exception may be those offices in federal buildings that are closed. The James M. Hanley Federal Building in downtown Syracuse will remain open.
What about Veterans Affairs medical centers?
The VA Medical Center in Syracuse and those throughout the nation will remain open. Veterans also will continue to receive their benefits.
What happens to the military?
Anyone on active duty (at Fort Drum, Afghanistan or any base overseas and in the United States) will remain on the job with full pay as mandated by Congress. Other federal employees will have to wait for retroactive payments after the shutdown. Fort Drum furloughed about 250 civilian employees today, about a third of the civilian workforce.
What about the Air National Guard at Hancock Field?
About 200 military technicians at the Air National Guard's 174th Attack Wing at Hancock Field in Mattydale will be furloughed. An additional 80 technicians are deemed essential for ongoing operations, and will remain on duty.
What about public health issues like federal meat, poultry and egg inspections?
The Food and Drug Administration says all inspections related to human health and safety will continue uninterrupted.
Can I still get a weather forecast from the National Weather Service?
Yes, the weather service functions are considered essential.
What if I have an appointment with the Internal Revenue Service?
It's probably a good idea to confirm appointments. The IRS said it will likely postpone appointments for audits, collections and appeals.
Will the federal court system be open?
The Syracuse-based U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York is supposed to be open, but it was not immediately clear what court business may be conducted.
What happens to new federally-guaranteed home mortgages?
Borrowers could face delays. The Federal Housing Administration, which guarantees about 30 percent of home mortgages, will not underwrite or approve new loans.
Can I contact my member of Congress? What if I have an active case with a congressional office?
Most members of Congress will operate with a reduced staff. U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., will close his Syracuse district office and have limited staff at his Washington, D.C., office.
U.S. Rep. Dan Maffei, D-Syracuse, said his offices will have rotating furloughs, but a skeleton staff will remain on duty. His Syracuse office will remain open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
The Auburn and Oswego district offices will be open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on rotating days, starting with the Auburn office today and Wednesday. The Oswego office will be open Thursday and Friday.
Maffei's office on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., will be open regular hours from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, but the staff will be reduced due to the rotating furloughs.
U.S. Rep. Richard Hanna, R-Barneveld, will close his district offices in Utica and Binghamton. Phone calls will be redirected to the Washington, D.C., office where 60 percent of the staff is furloughed.
Contact Mark Weiner at mweiner@syracuse.com or 571-970-3751. Follow him on Twitter @MarkWeinerDCThe Commission
Speaking on behalf of the Commission, Tonio Borg, the commissioner for health and consumer policy, said: "Programmes such as the so-called Prism and the laws on the basis of which such programmes are authorised potentially endanger the fundamental right to privacy and to data protection of EU citizens."
The Commission will raise the issue at the EU-US ministerial in Dublin on Friday, Mr Borg added, pointing out that in a democracy, law enforcement bodies should follow the rules.
The political groups
"My data belongs to me, that is the cornerstone of European thinking on data protection," said Manfred Weber, the German vice-chair of the EPP group. "It is completely unacceptable that the US have different rules [for] US citizens and citizens of other countries." He added: "The US approach is not our approach but we work together as partners".
On behalf of S&D, Claude Moraes, spoke of "a major breach of trust, non compliant with EU data protection legislation", yet cautioned that the "vital balance between security and the need to protect data, must be safeguarded". The British MEP added: "Trust has clearly been breached. We must ensure US public authorities processing EU citizens data, do so within our standards."
"We are failing the EU citizens and we should be ashamed of ourselves," Sophie In 't Veld, a Dutch member of the ALDE group. She criticised the Commission and the "doublespeak" of member states. "Obama said to his citizens: 'Don't worry, we are not spying on you as citizens, we are only spying on foreigners.' But this is us." She added: "What kind of special relationship is that?"
"This not only about data protection, this is about democracy and the rule of law, which cannot be in line with mass surveillance of citizens around the world," said Jan Philipp Albrecht. The German member of the Green group, who is responsible for steering new legislation on data protection through Parliament, said: "I would like to agree on standards with the US but we need legislative changes on the other side of the Atlantic too."
However, Timothy Kirkhope, a British member of the ECR group, commented: "Those companies already named and shamed have so far denied acting outside the law... yet here we are already pointing the finger, some of you already expressing anti American or anti commission rhetoric."
Jaroslav Paška, a Slovakian member of the EFD group, said: "We have to adopt the same sanctions against these companies which we apply to others who violate our laws. The paranoid behaviour of our American partners is regrettable."
Marie-Christine Vergiat, a French member of the GUE/NGL group, said the main concern is "that EU citizens do not enjoy the same rights as US citizens" and called for EU negotiators with the US to make sure the US authorities respect the privacy rights of Europeans.
Martin Ehrenhauser, an unattached member from Austria, said: "We should start an inquiry to see what legal implications this programme has and to see which European secret services profit from the data gathered. Does Europol profit? And we should finally invite American representatives into this House so they can testify on this. The path we are currently following leads straight away from democracy."Samsung's Gear Fit
From a differentiation standpoint, Microsoft's wearable will do something that no other wearable platform does. It will work with everything and not just the device maker's smart phone platform. Where Samsung wearables only work with Samsung phones, Android Wear devices only work with modern Android devices, and Apple's rumored iWatch will obviously only work with iPhone, Microsoft will take a different approach. It will work with Android, iPhone and Windows Phone.
Microsoft, like Google, Apple, and Samsung, has been working on its own wrist-worn device for more than a year. While early rumors suggested the device would be a smart watch with a 1.5-inch display, a new report from Windows blogger Paul Thurrott suggests that Microsoft's project is actually more of a fitness band than a smart watch.More akin to the band-style Samsung Gear Fit than the watch-style Galaxy Gear, Microsoft's band is said to have a wristband form factor that's able to display smart phone-based notifications. Like the offerings from Samsung and Apple's rumored iWatch, the band is expected to include several different sensors, tracking fitness metrics like calories burned, heart rate, and more.Unlike other products from Apple, Google, and Samsung, however, Microsoft is said to be designing its smart wristband to be cross platform, working not only with Windows devices, but also iOS and Android. Given Microsoft's small share of the smartphone and tablet market in comparison to Android and iOS, it's a smart move for the company.According to Thurrott, Microsoft's smart wristband will be priced similarly to Samsung's smart watch offerings, which start at $199. It is expected to be released during the fourth quarter of 2014, suggesting it might launch in the same timeframe as Apple's iWatch. Currently, rumors indicate the iWatch will launch in October of 2014, with 10 different health-related sensors and wireless charging Pricing on Apple's iWatch remains a mystery, but rumors have pointed towards multiple sizes and designs at several different price pointsPACOIMA >> A stretch of the 5 Freeway in the northeast San Fernando Valley will be renamed in honor of rock ‘n’ roll legend Ritchie Valens, thanks to a bill approved by the state Legislature.
“His music inspired and influenced a generation of Chicano artists in our community and throughout the world. It’s only fitting to name this segment of the I-5 after a Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Famer who grew up right here in Pacoima,” Assemblyman Raul Bocanegra, D-Pacoima, said Thursday in announcing the legislation’s passage.
The legislation renames I-5 between state Routes 170 and 118 freeways “The Ritchie Valens Memorial Highway.”
• RELATED STORY: LA declares Ritchie Valens Day on 75th anniversary of his birth
Valens attended Pacoima High School and becoming a hit recording artist when he was discovered in 1958 at the American Legion Hall. He appeared on the then-popular TV show “American Bandstand” and recorded such hits as “Come On, Let’s Go” and “Donna.” His records sold more than a million copies.
Valens died at the age of 17 on Feb. 3, 1959, in a plane crash that also took the lives of Buddy Holly and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson. He was the subject of the 1987 feature film “La Bamba.”
“Ritchie became a rock ‘n’ roll icon at the age of 17,” Valens’ sister, Connie, said. “He’s not only a rock ‘n’ roll pioneer but a role model for artists and youth all over the world.”Project management is the craft of applying limited resources of time, money, and knowledge to produce a desired result.
We talk too infrequently about limited resources in the free software world. The theories are nice: there's a near-infinite army of programmers each willing to run one test, or add one feature, or write one line of documentation, or fix one bug. It's a lovely theory. It's not entirely wrong, either. When someone new posts a patch or a bug report or even says "Hey, I used your software and it saved me time," my motivation level improves. I've made a difference in the world, and the collaborative, open development strategy I've chosen lets other people help make a difference in the world.
That doesn't mean every project always has a wealth of resources. I believe that we have to manage our existing resources wisely.
For Users
Do you want a project that you can install and use and never manage and never upgrade? Do you want to configure it once, and leave it alone, and forget it's there?
Do you want a project that fixes bugs and adds new features as it comes to understand the problem domain better? Do you want your life to get easier, as polish removes some of the rough spots and the software does more of the heavy lifting for you?
Pick one. You can't have both.
For Developers
Do you want your source code to get easier to work with over time? Do you want your bug count to trend toward zero? Do you want predictibility in your release schedules, an active user community helping you iterate toward the ideal software for the problem domain, and the freedom to evolve?
Do you want your users to never have to worry about changes? Do you want them to be able to step away from the project for several years and suddenly on a wild whim install a new version and have nothing changed, nothing to worry about? Do you want to be so predictable that the best way to use your software in 1994 is still the best way to use it in 2009?
Pick one. You can't have both.
You Can't Have Both
Nothing says it better than The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show:
Man: How many of you kids would like Itchy & Scratchy to deal with real-life problems, like the ones you face every day? Kids: [clamoring] Oh, yeah! I would! Great idea! Yeah, that's it! Man: And who would like to see them do just the opposite -- getting into far-out situations involving robots and magic powers? Kids: [clamoring] Me! Yeah! Oh, cool! Yeah, that's what I want! Man: So, you want a realistic, down-to-earth show... that's completely off-the-wall and swarming with magic robots? Kids: [all agreeing, quieter this time] That's right. Oh yeah, good. Milhouse: And also, you should win things by watching.
Like most false dilemmas written on the Internet as rhetorical devices, the truth lies somewhere in the middle — but for goodness' sake, is it possible to recognize that software under active development cannot guarantee perfect stability, and that if your goal is perfect stability, there's no point in continuing to maintain software?
Spending limited resources to ensure that change never happens is a great way to ensure that improvement will never happen — and that you won't have the problem of limited resources in the near future.For the last three out of four years, the UN World Happiness Report has declared Denmark the happiest nation on earth. (Switzerland edged out a win in 2015.) Their comprehensive welfare system means high taxes, but less stress and anxiety for those in need of unemployment benefits, health insurance, and time off. A healthy work-life balance is revered: Most people work a moderate 35 to 40 hours a week.
The Danes take their leisure so seriously that it extends to their language. Roughly pronounced hoo-guh, hygge is a word without direct English translation. Hygge can be facilitated, but not forced. One can experience hygge alone, though it is powerful with loved ones. Hygge is hard to define, but you know it when you feel it it.
“The closest word would have to be coziness, but that doesn’t really do it justice,” writes Pia Edberg in her book The Cozy Life. “[Hygge is] a holistic approach to deliberately creating intimacy, connection, and warmth with ourselves and those around us.”
Marie Tourell Søderberg, another hygge practitioner and Denmark native, says, “In a nutshell, it is a Danish word for finding happiness in the little things in life… it’s like a compass, steering us towards small moments that money cannot buy you, finding magic in the ordinary.”
Hygge is contentment. Hygge is comfort. Hygge is living in the moment.
A very Danish dining room.
While "in the US and the UK we’d fought for more money at work," notes Helen Russell, author of The Year of Living Danishly (a book I highly recommend), “Scandinavians had fought for more time—for family leave, leisure and a decent work-life balance.” They fought for hygge.
Though it bears repeating that you cannot force hygge, it can certainly be coaxed along. Below are some ways to cultivate all the warm, fuzy feels through this holiday season, the Danish way.
1. Light candles
Danes care a great deal about their surroundings. Danish designers, such as Arne Jacobsen and Finn Juhl are these days household names. In addition to a rich design legacy, the country’s harsh weather plays a significant role in the Danish emphasis on home-life: Interior surroundings are treated as an extension of self and a calm refuge from winter temperatures hovering in the 30s.
The Kubus candleholder is a quintessentially Danish touch.
When in doubt as to how to introduce some hygge into your home, candles are always a good bet. Reports show that Danish residents each burn an average of 13 pounds of candles every year (the most of any country, by a landslide). Lighting as a whole is very important to Danes, who prefer to create hygge “zones” using soft pools of light. Warm-toned lighting from ambient sources, such as lamps, are much preferred to harsh overhead bulbs. (Famously eco-conscious, the Danes would endorse the choice to use an LED!)
2. Incorporate pillows and blankets
Adding soft blankets and plush pillows is another great way to easily increase your home’s cozy factor. There is no need to go for a strictly Scandinavian look—your space must represent you and your style to facilitate a hygge experience.
No matter your aesthetic, however, the space should be neat and tidy. As Helen Russell learned early on in her Danish journey, “cleanliness is next to Danishness.”
3. Focus on the table
Perhaps most important of alI, invest in a well-made dining table that can sit at least 6 to 8 people. For Danes, much of the good life happens with friends and family around the dining table.
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In Denmark, opening one’s home to others is so frequent and natural that it’s not necessarily a big to-do. Of course, all the hygge elements are in place with candles lit and glasses full, but other than these assumed pre-requisites, Danes keep it simple. They know that fussing over food and stressing out about timing will deflate a sense of hygge like nothing else.
4. Go overboard on appetizers
If you’re trying to entertain like a Dane, set out some simple appetizers and treats and then sit down to enjoy your guests. As long as the schnapps is flowing, there won’t be any complaints. Danes also like to stay their welcome for hours on end, so games are a frequent after-dinner activity. Charades, anyone?
5. And fireside activities
As far as what to cook, Marie Tourell Søderberg recommends making snørbrod as a quintessential way to achieve hygge. You can think of it as a more savory version of roasting marshmallows for s’mores: Dough is wrapped around a stick and baked over the open flame, rotated for optimum browning, of course.
In her book Hygge: The Danish Art of Happiness, she writes, “enjoying snøbrod is a classic hygge moment and the making of it stimulates all our senses: smelling the bonfire and the chilly summer night, seeing the dancing flames, and feeling the warmth on your face.”
To use another word without direct English translation, hygge has hit the zeitgeist. In time for this year’s holiday season, at least nine books will be published dedicated to the subject.
This concept of taking time to relax at home seems to be ruminating around our nation’s collective-subconscious, ready to break out in full force at any moment. Maybe it’s the crazy election season. Maybe it’s our very American habit of equating busyness to importance. Maybe it’s all the “one days” we pile up in hopes of finally having time to read, or paint, or just putz around.
Whatever it is, clearly something about hygge is striking a chord with the masses, myself included. While reading about hygge, I couldn’t help but think of the lyrics to an old John Mayer song where he sings, “I think I’m going to stay home [and] have myself a home life.”
How do you hygge? Tell us how you're getting warm and cozy this season, in the comments.To Grandmother’s House We Go: Holiday Bibs
With fall in the air I always start to think about the holidays down the road. The time of the year for gathering and families is wonderful, but can be somewhat melancholy.
I remember the days when our children were small and trips to grandma and grandpa’s house and visiting with aunts and uncle and cousins and nieces and nephews.
Both my mom and my hubby’s mom always had things on hand for the little ones. That included toys and dishes and extra clothes in case there was some sort of disaster and one of the babies managed to go through everything in the diaper bag in the first hour.
Today a lot of young families travel over distances to see grandma and grandpa or the grandparents travel to them. With all this travel and special times, there are bound to be great family meals and pretty dress up clothes. In an effort to save that holiday outfit that you worked so hard to create, bibs are a much needed accessory.
I like to make bibs out of fingertip or hand towels. You can get them on sale at any of the big box stores and they are quick and easy to adapt. And on the fun side you can tailor make your bib to match the outfit or the holiday.
Here is how to create your own bibs in 30 minutes or less.
I have chosen to make a fall/thanksgiving bib with a fingertip towel that had already been sent to the clearance section.
To start I’ve turned the top of the towel over to the wrong side. You are going to want a neck opening of 19 or 20 inches. For the towel I measured 2 1/2 inches from each edge and 2 inches down from the center.
I just free handed cut the neck opening. If this doesn’t appeal to you take a fabric pen and draw a semi circle.
Cut your neck.
Measure your neck opening. You will need a piece of matching or contrasting rib knit that will be 2 inches wide and 2/3 of the length of your neck measurement.
Sew center back seam of the ribbing.
Fold in half and divide into quarters. Match center front and back and side seams.
Attach to neckline stretching your rib to fit.
These are fun and easy. They wash well and absorb anything your messy little eater can muster!
What are your favorite memories from holidays past? Do you have something special that you are looking forward to passing onto your children?
Happy Sewing,
Donna
We link to these parties.- 1 -
Hazrat Sb clarifies that Hazrat Issa (as) was inferior most of all the prophets
But it is proven from Quran and Bible that Jews rejected Hazrat Issa alaihis-salam. In reform of humanity Hazrat Issa aliah-i-salam had the poorest performance (stood at the lowest number) of all the prophets. (Braheen Ahmadiyya Vol.5 38, RK 48)
پر قرآن شریف اور انجیل سے ثابت ہے کہ یہودؔ یوں نے حضرت عیسیٰ علیہ السلام کو ردکر دیا تھا۔ اور اصلاح مخلوق میں تمام نبیوں سے اُن کا گرا ہوا نمبر تھا
Hazrat Sb explains the bad character of followers of Hazrat Maseeh
The kind of strength and belief shown by Disciples of Hazrat Maseeh is such a bad example that it must have affected all the Christians who came to the world till today. Everyone can understand that if Hazrat Maseeh had actually shown any miracles or wonderful karamaat then his Disciples who believed in him would have not ended up so badly. (A'ina Kamalat Islam 201-202)
جو کچھ حضرت مسیح کے پیروؤں نے آپ کی زندگی کے وقت اپنی استقامت اور ایمانداری کا نمونہ دکھلایا وہ تو ایک ایسا بد نمونہ ہے کہ ضرور ان مسیحیوں پر جو بعد میں اب تک دنیا میں آتےؔ گئے اس کا بداثر پڑا ہوگا کیونکہ ہریک شخص سمجھ سکتا ہے کہ اگر حضرت مسیح سے درحقیقت معجزات ظہور میں آتے اور اعلیٰ درجہ کے عجائب کام ان سے ظاہر ہوتے تو ان کے حواریوں کا جو ایمان لاچکے تھے ایسا بدانجام ہرگز نہ ہو تا
Some ignorant Mullahs who are Christians in their hearts quote the following verses of Quran to praise the Disciples:
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا كُونوا أَنصَارَ اللَّهِ كَمَا قَالَ عِيسَى ابْنُ مَرْيَمَ لِلْحَوَارِيِّينَ مَنْ أَنصَارِي إِلَى اللَّهِ قَالَ الْحَوَارِيُّونَ نَحْنُ أَنصَارُ اللَّهِ ( سورة ال صف ۱۴ ) ۔
O believers! Be the helpers of Allah, just as Isa (Jesus) the son of Maryam said to his disciples: "Who will be my helper in the cause of Allah?" And the disciples responded: "We will be your helpers in the cause of Allah."
These mullahs try to say that the verse is about Hazrat Issa as and nauzubillah Hazrat Sb told a lie when he said, that the Havaris were a bad example, then why did Allah gave examples of Havaris in Quran. They fail to realize that this verse is about the followers of Hazrat Sb and not about the bad-character followers of Hazrat Issa (as). Ahmadiyya Jamaat zindabad.
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Hazrat Sb explains the moral values of Hazrat Issa (as)
It is strange that Hazrat Issa alaihis-salam did not follow his moral teachings. He told others to pray but condemned injeer tree when he saw it without fruit. He forbade from calling others stupid but his own language was so malign that he even used the word bastard for respectables of Jews. (Chashma Masihi 11, RK 346)
پھر تعجب ہے کہ حضرت عیسیٰ علیہ السلام نے خود اخلاقی تعلیم پر عمل نہیں کیا۔ انجیر کے درخت کو بغیر پھل کے دیکھ کر اُس پر بددُعا کی اور دوسروں کو دُعا کرنا سکھلایا۔ اور دوسروں کو یہ بھی حکم دیا کہ تم کسی کو احمق مت کہو مگر خود اس قدر بدزبانی میں بڑھ گئے کہ یہودی بزرگوں کو ولد الحرام تک کہہ دیا
Show us any faction of morals of Hazrat Maseeh - he is totally deprived of morals. Even a yogi can claim to tame the desires but without proofs. Maseeh (pbuh) did not show even the courage equivalent to Imam Hussain alaihissalam. (Mulfoozat Vol4 107)
حضرت میسح کا کوئی شعبہ خُلق کا دکھلاؤ وہ تو اس سے بالکل فارغ ہیں۔ بلا ثبوت تو جوگی بھی مدعی ہو سکتے ہیں کہ ہم نے نفس کو مارا ہوا ہے۔ ستر بی بی اس بے چادری - مسیحؑ نے تو امام حسین علیہ السلام جتنا بھی حوصلہ بھی نہ دکھلایا
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Hazrat Sb compares his holiness with Hazrat Issa (as)
Stop speaking about the Son of Mary, (for) superior to him is Ghulam Ahmad. (Dafi' ul-Bala 24, RK 240)
ابنِ مریم کے ذکر کو چھوڑو اُس سے بہتر غلامِ احمدؐ ہے
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Hazrat Sb compares Hazrat Musa with Hazrat Issa (as)
Allah talked to Musa at the rock and Satan talked to Issa at the rock. So look at the difference between the two if you have the ability to differentiate. (Nur-ul-Haq 50, RK 68)
کلّم اللّٰہ موسٰی علی جبل وکلم الشیطٰن عیسٰی علٰی جبل فانظر الفرق بینہما ان کنت من الناظرین
- 6 -
Hazrat Sb explains the level of prophet-hood of Hazrat Issa (as)
Christians cry for his |
Ecologists often believe that embracing LiDAR technology will somehow mean the end of fieldwork. It won’t. LiDAR has initially enhanced the role of fieldwork: even though many plots were established before carbon assessment became a key objective in tropical forest science, these plots are a critically important resource for understanding how LiDAR 3-D measurements can be used to estimate carbon stocks. Very soon, plot-based harvests will allow remote sensing data to relate directly to measurements of carbon stocks in closed canopy forests—something that has recently been accomplished in a tropical savanna [13]. And beyond carbon applications, LiDAR data are revolutionizing our understanding of basic tropical forest ecology, from environmental controls to succession e.g., [5],[14],[15]. The other reason to smile? The price tag. Our ambitious plan can be accomplished for far less than what we have already spent on avoided deforestation. Aircraft leasing, data collection and processing costs for 30 days of flying can reasonably be limited to $500,000 [16]. Using this monthly sampling unit, collecting at an average of 100,000 hectares per day, a fleet of ten aircraft could do the job in four years at US$250 million, or just 5% of pledged REDD + funding. At that rate, we can lose a year and a half to torrential rain and still get the job done.1 of 2 2 of 2
It seems the shamanic touch can transform even the most rational of minds.
“To be completely honest, I’m not a spiritual person at all,” says Frank Pavich, calling the Georgia Straight from Hong Kong. “I’m not religious; I’m not spiritual—I’m not anything. To me, when you die, you’re in the ground and that’s it. But in hanging out with Alejandro Jodorowsky, I’m finding myself opening up to these things more.”
The New York–based Pavich is the man behind Jodorowsky’s Dune, a spectacular documentary (opening Friday [April 4]) about the Chilean filmmaker’s attempt in the 1970s to film Frank Herbert’s epochal science-fiction novel. Like Stanley Kubrick’s Napoleon, it’s one of the great unmade films of all time.
But if the cameras never rolled on a project designed, in Jodorowsky’s words, to “change the consciousness of the world”, it hardly matters. In gathering together what the messianic director of El Topo calls a team of “spiritual warriors” for two years of preproduction and deeply creative ferment—with the artists Moebius, Chris Foss, and a pre-Alien H. R. Giger among his Paris-based students—Jodorowsky accomplished an act of powerful magic.
Pavich says he encountered the same force.
“All I can think is that he saw something in me, that I was the right spiritual warrior for the job,” he offers. “He gave me this story, which has really changed my life.” With a laugh, Pavich adds: “I read an interview with him the other day where he said the first time I met him, he thought I was a crazy person—the greatest compliment one could ever get from Alejandro Jodorowsky.”
Indeed, Jodo (as he’s known to friends) was uncompromising in his choice of partners. Hollywood effects maestro Douglas Trumbull was contemptuously dismissed as “a technician”. Pink Floyd fared almost as badly when the filmmaker met the band at Abbey Road. The story that follows is outlandish, to say the least. But time and again, Pavich says, “just when you think it’s so insane that it could not be true, somebody else says: ‘Oh, yeah, I was there; that happened, absolutely.’ ”
He cheerfully adds that he’s “all in, for sure” when it comes to the more mind-bending aspects of the tale, as when Dan O’Bannon—as related on tape by the late screenwriter himself—was granted a vision of glowing mandalas spinning around Jodorowsky’s head.
“I don’t think he has a mystical side. I think he is mystical. That’s just everything about him,” states Pavich, who also describes entering a New York church recently to “just say ‘Thank you’ to the universe, or to Jodorowsky, or to both, or to something—I don’t even know, exactly. A couple of years ago, I wouldn’t be caught dead doing such a thing. But there I was.”
One could be equally incredulous about the unlikely synchronicities that seemed to bring so many of Jodorowsky’s warriors into his orbit, yet Pavich felt himself touched again. When he met with Foss in Nantes, France, conversation turned to a much-loved assistant the artist hadn’t seen for more than 30 years. As they left the restaurant, there she was, waving at them.
Asks the amazed director: “What the fuck? How the hell? How, how, how?”Story highlights The blast occurs after a minibus stops at the gate for a security check
The Taliban claim responsibility for the blast
Camp Chapman has been targeted in the past
A car bomber hit outside a U.S. base in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing three people and leaving civilians injured, authorities said.
The blast killed a security guard and two truck drivers delivering supplies, according to Abdul Qayoom Baqizoy, the provincial police chief.
Six civilians suffered injuries, he said.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which occurred after a minibus stopped at the gate for a security check.
JUST WATCHED A family separated by war in Afghanistan Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH A family separated by war in Afghanistan 02:03
In an e-mail, a spokesman for the terror group said the attack was conducted "when American soldiers were busy searching their Afghan servants" at the gate of the base.
Camp Chapman is in Khost city, the capital of a province by the same name. It has been targeted by attacks in the past, notably one that killed seven CIA contractors and a Jordanian intelligence official in 2009.
The International Security Assistance Force said a car bomb exploded outside the gates. It said there are reports of civilian casualties, but information is still coming in.
The base has been secured, the international alliance said.Mr Roemer is to hold a news conference on Thursday in Baton Rouge at the bank where he is president, Business First Bank, to announce a presidential "exploratory" committee.
Mr Roemer, 67, would be a long-shot candidate for the nomination but his arguments might help develop the party's debate over who the Republican candidate should be to face President Barack Obama in 2012.
"I think the president of the United States, whoever he or she is, has to be free to do the right thing and I believe Washington has become a place that is designed to raise money and channel it to the politicians," he told Reuters in a telephone interview.
He cited the power in Washington that big banks, pharmaceutical and insurance companies, Wall Street and tort lawyers have in developing legislation.
"Listen to this: The nation is hurting and Washington, D.C., is a boom town. What does that tell you?"
Mr Roemer was a Democrat until he switched parties in 1991. He was Louisiana governor from 1988 to 1992 and before that served as a U.S. congressman.
"I'm not Mr. Know-it-All, but I plan on being in Iowa and going to New Hampshire and South Carolina and eventually across the country, talking about some solutions to a nation that has some problems," he said.Compton native Isaiah Cooper made history earlier this month, when at 16 years old, he became the youngest black pilot to fly around the country. Now, he has farther lands to conquer as he hopes to fly around the world. In efforts to make this happen, rapper The Game is lending out a helping hand. Cooper has already started a GoFundMe page for financial support, but Game gave it an extra push when he shared it on his Instagram account.
“I DONATED the 1st $1,000 & I’m up early & in a good supportive mood this morning & I hope you are too,” he wrote.
“So I will ask ALL MY FANS or just any person with a heart to pay it forward TODAY & DONATE any amount from as small as $1 to @aerosquad.zae #IsaiahCooper the youngest AFRICAN AMERICAN pilot to ever fly across AMERICA. He made the trip in 2 weeks & now has his mind set on being the youngest AFRICAN AMERICAN pilot to fly around the world when he’s 18 years old, the required age to be able to make the trip alone. This trip will have costs of things he will need to complete it, fuel, food equipment etc….. so PLEASE CLICK THE LINK IN MY BIO & DONATE ANYTHING you can to help him accomplish his dream,” he continued.
From helping single mothers buy groceries to raising awareness against police brutality, The Game has made it a point to help out those in need, and speak up on issues that truly matter. With that said, we hope we can see Isaiah all over the world. And as always, major kudos go to you Game.United world leaders in Paris today... But what exactly are they all looking up for?
h/t @Zeemy_
Trying to spot Air Force One?
As The Blaze reports, world leaders linked arms and marched together at a unity rally that numbered more than 3.7 million people. Among the attendees were Angela Merkel of Germany, U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron, King Abdallah of Jordan and the brother of the Emir of Qatar, marching with French President Francois Hollande. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas attended, walking feet away from each other...
But...
President Barack Obama did not attend Sunday’s massive march in Paris to honor the victims of last week’s terror attacks, and the White House is not explaining his absence.
Has anyone checked the golf course?
* * *
Europe - United...(just don't mention Russian sanctions, sovereign QE, or budget deficits)
* * *
What we find remarkably ironic is Ukrainian President Poroshenko's appearance...
...'unified' with his European pals over the need for Freedom of the Press... when he just established 'A Department of Truth' to ensure the press reports just what he wants (and nothing else)?
Of course, he's not alone... as @DanielWickham93 explains...CLOSE Pope Francis traveled to secular Sweden Monday to mark the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. Francis prayed with Lutheran church leaders in a historic show of unity commemorating the schism in Western Christianity. (Oct. 31) AP
Ethiopian Christian Pilgrim performs baptism at the Qasr al-Yahud baptism site by the Jordan river, near the West Bank city of Jericho. The site is where Jesus is believed to have been baptized by John the Baptist and is one of the milestones in the gospel narrative of Jesus' life. (Photo11: Alaa Badarneh, European Pressphoto Agency)
This year marks the 500th year anniversary of the launching of the Protestant Reformation in Germany. Commemorations will be held from Memphis to Mombasa to Mumbai to Munich.
Yet, most events and books on the Reformation explore it without any reference to African Christians.
This silence is profound, and I would like to break it by offering possible Ethiopian connections to Martin Luther and the Protestant movement.
Luther launched the Protestant Reformation in 1517, but he had begun that year fascinated with Ethiopian Christianity.
That will come as a surprise to many of today’s Christians, even scholars, who are accustomed to discussing Luther and the Protestant Reformation as solely European subjects.
But Luther esteemed the Church of Ethiopia because he thought Ethiopia was the first nation in history to convert to Christianity.
Located in Africa -- beyond the orbit of the Roman Catholic Church -- this first Christian kingdom, according to Luther, served as an older, wiser, black sibling to the white Christian kingdoms of Europe.
In a sense, the Church of Ethiopia was the "dream" for Luther, a true forerunner of Protestantism.
As an ancient church with direct ties to the apostles, the Ethiopian Church conferred legitimacy on Luther’s emerging Protestant vision of a church outside the authority of the Roman Catholic papacy.
As a forerunner of the Protestant Reformation, the Church of Ethiopia embodied the gospel message more robustly and faithfully.
Ethiopian Christians practiced elements of the faith absent in Roman Catholicism, elements Protestants would later adopt: communion in both kind, vernacular Scriptures, and married clergy.
Absent from Ethiopian Christianity were practices Protestants would dismiss: the primacy of the Roman pope, indulgences, purgatory, and marriage as a sacrament.
Luther's theological fascination with the Ethiopian Church was illuminated in 1534 in his face-to-face dialogue with an Ethiopian cleric, Michael the Deacon, where Luther tested out his theological portrait of the Ethiopian Church.
Recalling the dialogue with Michael the Deacon, Luther later stated: “We have also learned from him, that the rite which we observe in the use of administration of the Lord’s Supper and the Mass, agrees with the Eastern Church... For this reason we ask that good people would demonstrate Christian love also to this (Ethiopian) visitor."
For his part, after having Luther's Articles of the Christian Faith interpreted to him, Deacon Michael proclaimed: "This is a good creed, that is, faith."
Luther extended full fellowship to Deacon Michael and the Ethiopian Church, an invitation Luther withheld from the Bohemian Brethren (the Hussites) and Reformed Churches connected to Zwingli.
From his dialogue with Michael the Deacon, Luther must have been thrilled to learn that what he had rediscovered in his reading of the Scriptures was already present in the Ethiopian Church.
His reforms were based on more than the early church of his imagination. For Luther, the Church of Ethiopia was the historical proof that his reform of the Church in Europe had a clear historical and biblical basis.
The revelation that Ethiopian Christianity possibly had links to Protestant Reformation is a game-changer for what is generally thought to be an exclusively European phenomenon.
The admission that this cross-cultural global exchange between Africa and Europe shaped early Protestantism disrupts the narrative that the Reformation was solely the product of western civilization.
By recognizing the contribution of Ethiopian Christianity to the Protestant Reformation, we can join Luther in acknowledging Ethiopian Christianity as a forerunner of the Protestant Reformation.
Dr. David D. Daniels is Henry Winters Luce Professor of World Christianity at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, and a bishop in the Church of God in Christ.
Dr. David Daniels (Photo11: McCormick Theological Seminary)
Read or Share this story: http://memne.ws/2l4z4TsOne month before former State Department official Jose Fernandez defended then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s decision to sign off on the transfer of 20 percent of U.S. uranium to Russia, Fernandez told John Podesta that he was eager to “do all I can to support Secretary Clinton,” according to purported emails uncovered by WikiLeaks.
On March 30, 2015 — weeks before the explosive book Clinton Cash was released, and nearly a month before the New York Times published a 4,000 word story detailing the Uranium One transaction that multiple donors to the Clinton Foundation made millions from — Jose Fernandez wrote an email to Podesta in hopes that the pair could meet.
On April 17, Fernandez writes to Podesta, again, thanking him for their meeting and said, “I would like to do all I can to support Secretary Clinton, and would welcome your advice and help in steering me to the right persons in the campaign.”
As it turns out, Fernandez’s “support” came less than a week later.
On April 22, the day before the New York Times ran its Uranium One story, Time Magazine online published a story quoting Fernandez as calling Clinton Cash’s reporting “absurd conspiracy theories,” adding, “Secretary Clinton never intervened with me on any CFIUS matter.”
What’s more, on April 23, following the publication of Times reporter Jo Becker’s groundbreaking Uranium One-Clinton Foundation exposé, the Clinton campaign responded to Becker’s story in a blog post on Medium, citing Fernandez’s quote from the day before as the centerpiece of their pushback.
Brian Fallon, national press secretary for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, wrote:
The essential fact is that Hillary Clinton was not involved in the State Department’s review of the sale to the Russians. While it is true that the State Department sits on the multi-agency, inter-governmental panel that reviews deals like this one, Hillary Clinton herself did not participate in the review or direct the Department to take any position on the sale of Uranium One. This is consistent with past practice; historically, matters pertaining to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (C.F.I.U.S.) do not rise to the Secretary’s level. Rather, it is the Assistant Secretary of State for Economic, Energy and Business Affairs who serves as the State Department’s principal representative to C.F.I.U.S. The individual who held that post in 2010 was Jose Fernandez, and he has personally attested that then-Secretary Clinton never interfered with him, saying “Mrs. Clinton never intervened with me on any C.F.I.U.S. matter.”
The coordination between Fernandez, the Clinton campaign, and its chairman John Podesta is undeniable.
Sure Fernandez, as Fallon wrote, “personally attested” that Clinton “never interfered” with his decision to sign off on the uranium deal. But he made that claim after professing his commitment to do everything in his power to “support Secretary Clinton.”
What’s also undeniable is that while Clinton’s State Department was one of eight agencies to review and sign off on the uranium deal — then-Secretary of State Clinton herself was the only agency head whose family foundation received $145 million in donations from multiple people connected to the sale, as reported by the New York Times.
Not to mention Bill Clinton, who received a $500,000 speaking fee for a speech in Moscow paid for by a Russian government-connected bank.
“And, in one case, a Russian investment bank connected to the deals paid money to Bill Clinton personally, through a half-million-dollar speaker’s fee,” reports the New Yorker.
To date, no one in the Clinton campaign has ever denied the fact the Clinton-brokered sale of 20% of U.S. uranium to the Russian government ended up benefitting people who donated millions to her family foundation.
Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudsonUkraine forces are not prepared to pull back heavy artillery, though troops prepared areas and the corresponding work to withdraw heavy weapons and equipment, according to Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko.
© AP Photo / Sergei Chuzavkov Hostilities in East Ukraine’s Donbas Subside – Kiev Military Spokesman
KIEV, (Sputnik) – Kiev is not ready to withdraw its heavy artillery from the conflict zone in the eastern regions of the country but has prepared areas for when the withdrawal occurs, a representative from Kiev's special operations unit said Monday.
"The condition for pulling back heavy arms from the conflict area is the fulfillment of the first point in the Minsk agreements, that is a ceasefire," Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said during a briefing in Kiev.
The ceasefire between Ukraine's government troops and independence supporters came into force Sunday.
Lysenko said that there had been 112 occurrences of gunfire since the ceasefire came into effect, which "is not a sign of a ceasefire."
"Therefore, we are not prepared to pull back our heavy artillery, though we have prepared areas and the corresponding work to withdraw heavy weapons and equipment…but a ceasefire must be observed first," Lysenko said.
The ceasefire was agreed at the February 12 marathon talks in Minsk between the leaders of Ukraine, France, Germany and Russia. Under the deal, the warring sides must withdraw heavy artillery from the line of contact within two weeks.
On Sunday afternoon, the head of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine Ertugrul Apakan said that the truce was generally holding.A pair of Russian comedians appear to have successfully prank-called U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley by posing as a Polish government official.
The two comedians, Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexei Stolyarov, posted a video over the weekend in which a woman identified as Haley believes she is speaking to Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.
"Let me start with very much thanking you for the support we received on the vote today," Haley says. "We will never forget it."
Haley was referring to the U.N. vote last week to condemn President Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Poland was one of 35 countries who abstained from voting on the resolution.
The man posing as Morawiecki then asks Haley about the fictional island of Binomo in the South China Sea.
"You know Binomo?" the man said, to which Haley replied "yes, yes."
"They had elections and we suppose Russians had its intervention," the man said.
"Yes, of course they did, absolutely," Haley replies. "We've been watching that very closely, and I think we will continue to watch that as we deal with the issues that keep coming up about the South China Sea."
The man posing as Morawiecki asks Haley what the United States plans to do about the fictional island of Binomo.
"Let me find out exactly what our stance is on that, and what if anything the U.S. is doing or thinks should be done, and I will report back to you on that as well," she says.
A spokesman for Haley, John Degory, told The Post and Courier "we have nothing to share on that at this time" when asked about the video.
Degory would not comment on the authenticity of the video to The Post and Courier.
The two Russian pranksters have targeted other U.S. officials in the past. In July, Secretary of Energy Rick Perry conducted a fake phone interview with the two men, one of whom was posing as Ukraine's prime minister.Antidepressants Side-Effects Higher Than Previously Thought
Antidepressants side-effects: in the US one in ten are prescribed antidepressants each year, but are they told about ALL the side-effects?
A new survey of antidepressants side-effects has found higher than expected levels of emotional numbness, sexual problems and even suicidal thoughts associated with the medication (Read et al., 2014).
The study, published in the journal Psychiatry Research, found that as many as half the people they surveyed had psychological problems due to their medication.
The authors again question whether antidepressants are being over-prescribed.
The paper’s lead author, Professor John Read, said:
“The medicalization of sadness and distress has reached bizarre levels. One in ten people in some countries are now prescribed antidepressants each year. “While the biological side-effects of antidepressants, such as weight gain and nausea, are well documented, the psychological and interpersonal effects have been largely ignored or denied. They appear to be alarmingly common.”
The study gathered data from 1,829 people from New Zealand who had all taken antidepressants in the last five years.
The questionnaire asked about how they had felt while they were taking their medication.
Of the 20 adverse effects that people were questioned about:
62% said they had ‘sexual difficulties’,
52% said they ‘didn’t feel like themselves’,
42% noticed a ‘reduction in positive feelings’,
39% found themselves ‘caring less about others’,
and 55% reported ‘withdrawal effects’.
Set against these findings, though, 82% said that the drugs had been useful in tackling their depression.
The results took into account the fact that people had varying levels of depression.
Professor John Read commented on the results:
“Effects such as feeling emotionally numb and caring less about other people are of major concern. Our study also found that people are not being told about this when prescribed the drugs. “Our finding that over a third of respondents reported suicidality ‘as a result of taking the antidepressants’ suggests that earlier studies may have underestimated the problem.”
Antidepressants side-effects
These findings come on top of a new review of studies examining patients’ experiences of taking antidepressants (Gibson et al., 2014).
Across the studies reviewed, people consistently reported a…
“…reduction of positive and negative emotions, emotional detachment, a belief that ADs prevent natural sadness, personality changes, harmful effects on relationships, fear of addiction, and suicidality.” (Read et al., 2014; referring to Gibson et al., 2014).
Given these frequently reported antidepressants side-effects, it is incredible how few people are told about them:
“Very few, it seems, are told about the more subtle, but pervasive and potentially demoralizing, effects on one’s ability to feel positive emotions, or to feel anything at all, or about the potential effects on their relationships with other people. The ethical principle of informed choice suggests that this needs to change.” (Read et al., 2014).
Image credit: ep_jhuOTTAWA - The Canadian economy churned out an additional 21,600 jobs last month, the most since August, although almost all the new workers were part-time and the unemployment rate continued to sit at 6.9 per cent for the third straight month.
The headline increase in employment was almost twice of expectations, but analysts judged the details of the report soft and indicative of a slow-growing economy.
"The jobs created in November is clearly positive," said TD Bank chief economist Craig Alexander.
"But if you look at the year, you get a different perspective... and when we look at the composition, it takes a little bit of the shine off the performance."
Along with the overwhelming preponderance of part-time jobs, most of the gains came in the self-employment class, which on average earns less. November saw a net increase of 19,100 self-employment jobs, while employers only added 2,500 to their workforce.
Statistics Canada noted that even with the bigger than expected gain last month, job creation in Canada has settled at an average 13,400 per month so far into 2013, compared to an average of 25,400 for the same 11-month period in 2012.
Economists also noted that aggregate hours worked actually fell somewhat during the month.
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty told reporters at a Toronto-area event that "overall, the trend is good."
But markets seemed more impressed with the U.S. labour report. The U.S. unemployment rate dropped to seven per cent for the first time since the recession after 200,000-plus jobs were added in November.
That is potentially good news for Canadian workers down the road, said Alexander, because a stronger U.S. economy is expected to boost demand for Canadian exports.
The Canadian dollar slipped 0.09 of a cent to 93.89 cents US as the two reports were released simultaneously, and the greenback advanced and bond yields rose.
The Canadian unemployment rate has dropped 0.3 percentage points over the past year, the agency pointed out, due in part to the fact that the labour force grew at a slower pace than population as a whole.
"The longer-term trend is still that Canadian employers are creating barely enough jobs to keep pace with population growth," said labour economist Erin Weir of the United Steelworkers union.
"Tellingly, the employment rate — the proportion of working-age Canadians who are employed — is lower today than a year ago," he added.
Analysts believe the economy needs to create close to 20,000 new jobs each month just to keep up with the growth in the labour force, so the pickup this year suggests an economy that is growing, but below potential, a view that is shared by the Bank of Canada.
Earlier this week, the central bank maintained its accommodative one per cent interest rate pointing out that the persistently low inflation rate in the country suggested continued and significant economic slack.
There were a few bright spots in the weeds of Friday's labour report. The most notable was the oversized increase of 51,000 new workers in the private sector, a figure that includes part-timers and self-employed. That continues a trend over the past year that has seen almost all the job gains in the private sector.
Meanwhile, the public sector lost about 29,000 jobs during the month.
As well, the agency said employment in the troubled and key manufacturing sector rose by 24,600, although factory jobs are still down 44,000 from a year ago.
Other gainers were the business, building and other support services, which saw 31,000 more workers, and employment in the information, culture and recreation industries rose by about 16,000.
Offsetting the increases, construction and public administration each lost about 18,000 workers in November.
It was also a poor month for youth, with employment in the 15 to 24 age group declining by about 26,000, while all other age categories saw increases.
Regionally, Ontario added 13,800 jobs and Alberta 10,600, while Newfoundland and Labrador lost about 2,600 workers. Other provinces experienced only minor changes relative to their populations.
Also on HuffPostI'm doing an article for my school newspaper and I'm not sure what the letters mean. Here they are GP G A PTS PIM. I need to know just as soon as you can tell me. I have to talk to the players (they are part of the OHL...so not just our school) tomorrow and can't go up to them saying..."so...how's you...
I'm doing an article for my school newspaper and I'm not sure what the letters mean. Here they are GP G A PTS PIM.
I need to know just as soon as you can tell me. I have to talk to the players (they are part of the OHL...so not just our school) tomorrow and can't go up to them saying..."so...how's you PIM doing this year?" because that would make me sound stupid. So your help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks :)Hundreds of thousands took to the the streets of Seoul on Saturday in the latest and largest protest against South Korean President Park Geun-hye.
Seoul right now. Anti-Park Geun-hye protest already notably bigger than last weekend, people still coming in their thousands. pic.twitter.com/8TSnCwmbnb — James Pearson (@pearswick) November 12, 2016
Park come under fire for allowing her close confidante to have too much influence over her government policies for personal gains.
RT reports:
According to organizers, 850,000 people joined the candlelight rally at Gwanghwamun and a public square near Seoul City Hall, with the number expected to reach up to one million.
Police said they counted 220,000 people, surpassing the figure they expected by at least 50,000. About 25,000 officers were deployed to maintain order during the rally.
The event sets a new turnout record for a protest in Seoul, according to Yonhap news agency. The previous was set in June 2008, when an estimated 80,000 people were reported by the police to have attended a demonstration against the government’s decision to resume beef import from the US. At the time, organizers put the number at 700,000.
Later, the protesters marched to within a few blocks of the presidential Blue House compound. The move was previously banned for security reasons, but a local court gave the organizers the green light earlier on Saturday.
The march was marred by minor clashes with the police, after which at least seven people were taken to the hospital, according to Yonhap.
Watch this to get a feel of what’s going on in #Seoul where about one million people could gather calling for #ParkGeunHye to resign. #labor pic.twitter.com/Sap2VY9Atv — LIM Yun Suk (@yunsukCNA) November 12, 2016
The Saturday rally was organized by three opposition parties, as well as hundreds of left-leaning civic groups, which joined forces to oppose President Park, who stands accused of cronyism and abuse of power. She allegedly allowed her close personal friend, Choi Soon-sil, to take advantage of their friendship and influence government decisions for personal gains.
Park has publicly apologized several times and fired key officials entangled in the scandal, but apparently failed to calm public outrage. Her approval rating remains at a record-low five percent, according to the latest Gallop poll, as calls for her to step down grow louder.
“If President Park continues to ignore the people’s demands and orders, the Democratic Party will stage a full-blown campaign for the ousting of the [Park] administration,” Choo Mi-ae, the party leader, said during the rally.
The party said it intends to push for a parliamentary probe into the alleged abuses starting next week.
The Park administration held a series of emergency meetings amid the scandal to discuss their reaction to the mass protests.
“As people are furious about [the] scandal, we are carefully watching the situation and trying to figure out a way to deal with it,” a presidential official told the news agency, declining to be named.
If Park caves in to the opposition, she will become the first South Korean president to not finish the five-year term.
Choi has been Park’s friend since the 1970s and, according to some commenters, has served as a surrogate sister for Park, who is estranged from her siblings. She was charged with abuse of power and fraud.We live in a world where people love to talk. Studies suggest that the average American adult speaks approximately 16,000 words per day. Multiply that by a lifespan of 70 years, for a total of nearly 409 million words, and suddenly Christ’s warning in Matthew 12:36 takes on new significance: “I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment.”
Of course, actual vocalization is only part of how people communicate. The Internet, in particular, has given rise to many other ways in which to speak. A study in 2010 estimated that, worldwide, some 294 billion emails are sent every day. The birth of social media has added to that constant stream of communication. Consider that Facebook averages 55 million status updates daily, along with Twitter’s 340 million tweets, and you can begin to appreciate the magnitude of unending chatter that characterizes modern society.
The Internet did not exist when the Bible was written. But the biblical principles for Christian communication apply to online interactions just as they govern real-life interpersonal relationships and face-to-face conversations. Whether we are speaking in person, on the phone, in a letter, or online, Scripture provides us with God-honoring parameters for how we are to communicate with others.
One important passage in this regard is Ephesians 4:14–15, where the Apostle Paul tells his readers: “We are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ.” Rather than succumbing to the sin-saturated thinking of the world around them, Paul’s readers are to reject falsehood and instead speak the truth to one another in love.
From Paul’s instruction in these verses, we can derive at least two important applications for Christian communication today. Though somewhat elementary, these points are vitally important for the way in which we speak. First, we are to speak the truth. Second, we are to do so in a way that is characterized by love.
The context of Paul’s instruction centers around doctrinal issues (in v. 14), and is directly applicable to the edification of fellow believers (in vv. 15b– 16). We are to speak the truth, then, in contrast to the falsehood of deceptive teachings and worldly philosophies; and we are to do so in love, for the purpose of building up the body of Christ.
Speaking the truth addresses the content of what we say. As followers of Christ, we are to be those who uphold the truth of God’s revealed Word. That means there will be times when we must confront error as we contend earnestly for the faith. With unbelievers, this will often take the form of apologetics, boldly giving a defense for the hope that is in us. With fellow believers, this may take the form of confrontation, as we plead with a spiritual brother or sister to repent of sinful thinking or action.
Speaking the truth in love addresses the way in which we speak. We must not be obnoxious with the truth, or personally offensive in how we approach others. Rather, we are called to communicate in such a way that the manner of our speaking honors our Lord Jesus and edifies His body, the church.
When we speak of love, we are not suggesting that we should ignore error or blindly tolerate “every wind of doctrine.” Not at all. Biblical love “does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth” (1 Cor. 13:6). Our postmodern world wrongly equates love with tolerance of all beliefs and actions. But being tolerant of doctrinal error or unrepentant sin is not truly loving at all. Thus, we speak the truth because it is the most loving thing we can do.
Additionally, we recognize that biblical love is patient, kind, humble, selfless, and not-easily provoked. It is a sincere love that is characterized by the phrase: “If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men” (Rom. 12:18). It exhibits the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22–23); consequently, it is not quick-tempered, self-willed, pugnacious, or needlessly quarrelsome (2 Tim. 2:24–25). It is definitely not soft on sin, error, or false teaching; but it is softened with compassion and seasoned with grace in the way it interacts with other people.
In our evangelism, Paul’s instruction to speak the truth in love helps us remember that the goal of apologetics is not merely to win arguments, but to win people. And in practicing biblical confrontation with fellow believers, this same principle reminds us that the goal is restoration. After all, as Paul made clear, the goal of our speech is to edify others.
Paul’s instruction in Ephesians 4:14–15 underscores the fact that truth and love are not mutually exclusive concepts. Rather, the content of our speech ought to be characterized by biblical truth. And the manner in which we speak ought to be governed by biblical love. With those two parameters in place, we can make the most of every word that we speak (or type or tweet)—honoring Christ and edifying others through the things that we say.Physics and computer games have a long, beautiful friendship, starting with Spacewar! in 1962, its play based on spacecraft maneuvering in the gravitational |
22, and brothers Salvatore Belvedere, 22, and Gianni Belvedere, 24. Mercado denies all the allegations against him, his attorney told NBC 7.
Mercado was booked into San Diego Central Jail. Inmate records indicate he's scheduled to appear in court for the first time Wednesday.
At a quick media briefing held Saturday in front of the family restaurant, Antoinette Belvedere, sister of Gianni and Salvatore, said the family had gotten a phone call from detectives Saturday morning telling them an arrest had been made in all three of the killings.
Neighbor: Homicide Suspect Arrest Is "Shocking"
Neighbors spoke with NBC 7's Liberty Zabala about the arrest of Carlo Gallopa Mercado Friday night for the deaths of Ilona Flint, Salvatore Belvedere aned Gianni Belvedere. (Published Sunday, June 22, 2014)
She said the family did not know the suspect tied to the triple-homicide case.
"We ask that you please respect our privacy as we process this new information," said Antoinette. "Our families want to extend our deepest appreciation and thanks to the men and women of the San Diego Police Department."
Antoinette said the family feels "relief" at this point, but is still trying to process the news.
"We're holding up. You know, it's a sense of relief to get this information that somebody's been caught, and we just got the news, so we're still processing everything," she added.
As for the suspect himself, the San Diego District Attorney's Office filed four gun-related charges against Mercado on May 5, his attorney confirmed.
Man Arrested in Christmas Eve Killings
After nearly six months since a mysterious triple homicide at the Mission Valley mall, police say they've arrested a man for the slayings. NBC 7's Bridget Naso has more on what the victims' sister announced Saturday. (Published Saturday, June 21, 2014)
Public records show Mercado had pleaded guilty to them, with his sentencing scheduled for July 9.
Neighbors say they heard a great deal of commotion outside Mercado's Mira Mesa home Friday night as detectives banged on the door for about 20 minutes.
When they finally reached the suspect, Mercado was arrested in his driveway and taken away in an unmarked car, according to bystanders.
"When you think you're two doors down from someone that is a suspect at killing someone, it makes you very nervous of your whole neighborhood," said Lori Dorman, who lives near Mercado.
She describes the suspect as a quiet man who mostly kept to himself.
"Never made a spectacle of himself. Didn't let you know anything was going on. It was just quiet," said Dorman.
Raw: Sister Announces Arrest in Triple Homicide
Antoinette Belvedere announced Saturday that police told her there has been an arrest in the killings of her brothers and future sister-in-law. (Published Saturday, June 21, 2014)
She told NBC 7 law enforcement vehicles lined the entire block, and she watched as detectives collected evidence in the killings.
Flint and Salvatore were gunned down in a parking lot outside a Macy's department store at Mission Valley Mall in the early hours of Dec. 24, 2013. Flint died at the scene, while Salvatore died a few days later from injuries sustained in the shooting.
Gianni -- Salvatore's brother and Flint's longtime boyfriend-turned-fiance -- went missing following the shooting of his loved ones. The San Diego Police Department launched a missing person search for Gianni over the next several weeks.
Finally, on Jan. 17, 2014, Gianni's body was discovered in the trunk of his car in Riverside, Calif., about an hour-and-a-half north of San Diego County. He, too, had been fatally shot.
The case has remained opened and unsolved for nearly six months.
Mission Valley Mall Christmas Eve Shooting: Images
The families of the victims have tried diligently to increase the reward for information on this case in hopes of bringing forward fresh leads. The San Diego Crime Stoppers reward fund for this case increased to $10,000 earlier this year.
The San Diego Police Department said Chief Shelley Zimmerman plans to hold a news conference on these latest developments on Monday at 11:30 a.m. NBC 7 will stream that briefing live on our website.Vikings is back -- and fiercer than ever!
After Ragnar's (Travis Fimmel) death last season, it's anyone's game, and Ivar (Alex Høgh Andersen) knows it.
Only ET has an exclusive season five teaser trailer, in which Ivar prepares for the show's biggest "war" yet.
"There is going to be a war -- a war against Lagertha, who killed my mother in order to be queen. And, of course, a war between brothers," he says in the clip, as his blood-spattered face turns into a grin.
WATCH: Comic-Con: 'Vikings' Season 5 Trailer Shows the Epic Consequences of Ragnar's Death
"You have a choice. Fight alongside me, or I will kill you," he offers, but it's Lagertha (Katheryn Winnick) who delivers the teaser's chilling last line: "Now I can die."
Watch the epic trailer in the video player above.
ET spoke with Andersen last year, who teased that his character would only become more out of control after killing his brother at the end of season four.
"Despite all the experience he has gained, he has become more of a man, definitely, but still struggles with that little kid inside of him that is just so angry, so hurt," he said. "He's completely out of touch with reality and his emotions."
EXCLUSIVE: 'Vikings' Creator Talks Shocking Midseason Death, 'Collaborative' Relationship With Series' Star
Vikings returns Wednesday, Nov. 29 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on History.
Get caught up on last season in the video below.Cinema Retro has received the following press release from Sony:
For Immediate Release
“…one of the great shows of television's Golden Age…”
-- The Huffington Post, Maureen Ryan
The Addictive, Emmy Award®-Winning TV Drama
Starring Emmy Award® Winners Bryan Cranston & Aaron Paul
BREAKING BAD:
THE COMPLETE SERIES
Newly Created 16-Disc Blu-ray™ Box Set Available June 3
Featuring Hours of Bonus Content, Including the Two-Hour Documentary
“No Half Measures: Creating the Final Season of Breaking Bad”
Also Available for the First Time Ever as a 21-Disc Complete Series DVD Set
CULVER CITY, CALIF. (April 7, 2014) – The chemistry continues on June 3 when Sony Pictures Home Entertainment releases one of the most critically acclaimed and award-winning shows of all time, BREAKING BAD: THE COMPLETE SERIES, available on Blu-ray™ with newly created packaging, and, for the first time ever, as a complete series set on DVD. Just in time for Father’s Day and graduation gift giving, the explosive saga of high school chemistry teacher-turned-meth kingpin Walter White is available in its entirety, including all 62 uncut, uncensored episodes. The 16-disc Blu-ray set features more than 55 hours of bonus content, including the Blu-ray exclusive “No Half Measures: Creating the Final Season of Breaking Bad” documentary, chronicling the making of the final season, from filming the first table read to the very last day on set and everything in between. The 21-disc DVD set features more than 50 hours of bonus content.
Starring three-time Emmy® winner Bryan Cranston (Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series) alongside two-time Emmy winner Aaron Paul (Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series), Sony Pictures Television’s groundbreaking series achieved record-breaking viewership with more than 10 million viewers in its final season. BREAKING BAD was created by Vince Gilligan (TV’s “The X-Files”), who also served as executive producer with Academy Award® winner Mark Johnson (1988, Best Picture, Rain Man) and Michelle MacLaren (TV’s “The X-Files”). The series boasts an exceptional ensemble cast, including
Anna Gunn (TV’s “Deadwood”), Dean Norris (TV’s “Under the Dome”), Betsy Brandt (TV’s “Michael J. Fox Show”), RJ Mitte (TV’s “Switched at Birth”), Bob Odenkirk (The Spectacular Now), Giancarlo Esposito (TV’s “Revolution”) and Jonathan Banks (TV’s “Community”).
Synopsis:
The incredible saga of high school chemistry teacher-turned-meth kingpin Walter White is here in its entirety: all 62 uncut, uncensored episodes! Emmy® winner Bryan Cranston portrays Walter White, a family man who turns to crime after a lung cancer diagnosis unravels his bland but simple life. Recruiting former student and small-time drug dealer Jesse Pinkman (Emmy® winner Aaron Paul) to be his partner in crime, Walt rises to the top of the meth trade, leaving a trail of bodies in his wake. But he can’t keep his dogged DEA agent brother-in-law
Hank Schrader (Dean Norris) off his trail forever. Will Walt get away with it all, or die trying? Re-live every moment of this groundbreaking original series with riveting performances by Emmy® winner Anna Gunn, Giancarlo Esposito, Jonathan Banks, Bob Odenkirk, Betsy Brandt, RJ Mitte and more. Breaking Bad was executive produced by Vince Gilligan, Mark Johnson and Michelle MacLaren. The complete box set is loaded with special features.
Blu-ray Exclusive Bonus Features:
More than 55 hours of special features, including:
· “No Half Measures: Creating the Final Season of Breaking Bad,” an exclusive two-hour documentary that chronicles the filming of the final eight episodes.
· Bad Memories – Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul talk about the show ending and some of their favorite moments.
· Bryan Cranston: Director – Go on set with Bryan Cranston as he directs the first episode of The Final Season, entitled "Blood Money."
· Scene Envy – The cast tell us which scene they wish they could have been in.
· Shocking Moments - The stars reveal the moments that shocked them most.
· A Look Ahead to the Final Season – The cast gives their thoughts on what an amazing final season this is going to be!
· From Walt to Heisenberg – From high school teacher to deadly meth dealer, watch as Walter White quickly transforms into Heisenberg.
· How Will It End? – At the beginning of Season 5, the cast gives their thoughts on how they think the show will end.
· Avenging Agent: Dean Norris as Hank Schrader – A look at the character Hank Schrader and the man who played him, Dean Norris.
· Scene Stealer: Betsy Brandt as Marie Schrader – A look at the character Marie Schrader and the woman who played her, Betsy Brandt.
· A Criminal Attorney: Bob Odenkirk as Saul Goodman – A look at the character Saul Goodman and the man who played him, Bob Odenkirk.
· Jesse’s Journey: Aaron Paul as Jesse Pinkman – A look at the character Jesse Pinkman and the man who played him, Aaron Paul.
· Skyler Breaks Bad: Anna Gunn on Season Four – Actress Anna Gunn and series creator Vince Gilligan explore Skyler’s character evolution through the fourth season.
· Growing Up in the White House: RJ Mitte on Walter, Jr. – RJ Mitte, Anna Gunn, Bryan Cranston and series creator Vince Gilligan discuss the extraordinary dynamics of the White family, and Walter, Jr.’s unique role.
· The Ultimate Chess Match – Members of the cast and crew discuss Walter White and Gus Fring’s extraordinary and complicated battle of wits and their struggle for Jesse’s allegiance.
· Looking Back: A Season Four Retrospective - Season Four’s most surprising and memorable moments.
· Ted's Wipeout – In Episode 411, “Crawl Space,” Ted Beneke suffers a head injury while trying to escape from Saul’s goons. In this featurette, Christopher Cousins (Ted) explains how this shocking stunt was accomplished.
· The Truck Attack Storyboard Comparison – A side-by-side comparison of the Los Pollos Hermanos truck attack and the brilliant shot-by-shot storyboards that were created for the episode “Bullet Points.”
· Walt and the Challenger Storyboard Comparison – A side-by-side comparison of Walt’s joy ride in Walt Jr.’s new Dodge Challenger and the storyboards that were developed for that sequence by the writer and director, Peter Gould.
DVD Special Features:
More than 50 hours from Season 1 through the Final Season
Broadcast Year: 2008-2013 (AMC)
BREAKING BAD: THE COMPLETE SERIES is not rated.
CLICK LINK BELOW TO PRE-ORDER AND SAVE $$$$Suresh, popularly known as Vava Suresh (born 1974), is an Indian wildlife conservationist and a snake expert. He is known for his missions for saving snakes straying into human inhabited areas in Kerala, India. He captured more than 152 king cobras, he is believed to have captured and rescued more than 50,000 straying snakes.[citation needed] He has been bitten 300 times by venomous snakes and bitten more than 3000 times by all types of snakes. He has been on ventilator thrice and six times in ICU, mainly because he doesn't use any type of safety equipments. He is widely known for his conservation activities like the rescue and release of endangered species of snakes, preservation of collected eggs until hatching periods, and creating awareness among people about snakes and their behavior.[2][3] He releases his reptile collections into natural habitats at regular intervals of time.[4] His efforts to capture venomous snakes from human populated areas and to educate the people about snakes and their behavior is widely acknowledged.[5]
Rejection of government job offer [ edit ]
Vava Suresh at Pandalam in 2011
In recognition of his services to the society, Forest Department and his efforts in conserving various vulnerable species of snakes endemic to the state, Suresh was offered a temporary government job[6] in 2012 by minister K. B. Ganesh Kumar, at the snake park that would be set up at the Kottur forest area near Kattakada in Thiruvananthapuram for daily wages. But Suresh declined it, saying that he would be unable to help the society the way he wants to if he was employed.[7]
Accidents [ edit ]
During his long career of conservation activities, he has encountered numerous accidents. According to an interview by the news channel ABP Maza, conducted on 5 June 2012, Suresh admitted to being kept on ventilator twice and in ICU four times. In all, he has survived more than 300 venomous snake bites.[7] He was hospitalised in August 2013 for a lethal bite. On 20 June 2015 he was further hospitalized for another cobra bite.
Recognitions [ edit ]
Suresh was awarded the 'Vocational Service Award 2011' instituted by the Rotary Club's Thiruvananthapurm division.[8][9] He was selected for his service to the society for many years.On November 2013 during his visit to Kerala, Britain's Prince Charles[10] expressed his desire to meet Vava Suresh and a rendezvous was arranged in Vazhachal.For lakes of the same name, see Grüner See
Grüner See (Green Lake) is a lake in Styria, Austria in a village named Tragöß. The lake is surrounded by the Hochschwab Mountains and forests.[1] The name "Green Lake" originated because of its emerald-green water.[1] The clean and clear water comes from the snowmelt from the karst mountains and has a temperature of 6–7 °C (43–45 °F).[1] During winter, the lake is only 1–2 m (3–7 ft) deep and the surrounding area is used as a county park.[2][3]
However, in spring, when the temperature rises and snow melts, the basin of land below the mountains fills with water.[3] The lake reaches its maximum depth of around 12 m (39 ft) from mid-May to June and is claimed to look the most beautiful at this time.[1] In July, the water begins to recede.[3]
The lake supports a variety of fauna such as snails, water fleas (Daphnia pulex), small crabs, fly larvae, and different species of trout (Salmo).[1] The flora is not abundant because of the rocky bottom of the lake.[1] Furthermore, the lake’s depth is variable since its inflow comes from snowmelt.[1]
The lake was popular among divers who could observe the green meadows in the edge zone of the lake particularly in June when the water is at its highest.[1][3] A bridge and a bench could also be found underwater.[1] Furthermore, trails and trees could also be seen underwater.[4]
Because of the spike in tourist visits that has occurred and expected damage of this sensitive environment, the use of this lake for all watersports activities has been prohibited since 1 January 2016.[5]
Gallery [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ]Christmas beetle is a name commonly applied to the Australian and South African beetle genus Anoplognathus. They are known as Christmas beetles because they are abundant in both urban and rural areas close to Christmas. Christmas beetles are large (20–30 mm long) members of the scarab family that are noisy and clumsy fliers, similar to the cockchafers of Europe. They typically have elytra that are a dark or light brown, or green, in some species with a green-yellow iridescence.
The genus includes 35 species, several of which have been implicated in dieback of eucalypts. Anoplognathus pallidicollis is the species most commonly observed and associated with the name of Christmas beetle. However, there is a tendency for the name Christmas beetle to be used more ambiguously to refer to other metallic beetles not in this family, such as the stag beetle genus Lamprima.[1]
Species [ edit ]
Species include:
References [ edit ]Reuters/Roman Yandolin, AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin Who’s the real Tea Partier, Zhu or Farenthold?
The Tea Party politicians who are taking the US government to the brink of default are getting some heat from the land where tea began. Chinese Vice Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao, anxious that a US default that would affect China’s $1.28 trillion in US Treasurys, lashed out at “the attitude of the Tea Party,” in a press briefing on Tuesday—and the Tea Party lashed right back.
“They need to stay out of our politics,“ Texas Republican Rep. Blake Farenthold told Bloomberg. Florida Republican Rep. Ted Yoho added that China’s criticism “almost sounds like a threat.”
In reality there is little that China or any country can do to prod Washington toward a deal that would extend the US government’s borrowing limits. As the backlash from Republicans illustrates, singling out the Tea Party may have the opposite effect. Yoho was one of the conservative House Republicans who helped to shoot down a last-minute proposal from the GOP leadership that would have re-opened the government and ensured that the US is able to repay its creditors.
As Quartz has reported, China’s threat to buy fewer US Treasurys is an empty one; despite its best efforts and intentions, it has been unable to significantly diversify out of US government debt. The alternative locations for its growing pile of foreign reserves—commodities, real estate, euro-denominated bonds and the like—simply aren’t large or liquid enough.
That perhaps explains the frustrated tone of China’s state media in the lead-up to Thursday’s debt ceiling deadline. An editorial in the state-run news service Xinhua called this week for a “de-Americanized world,” with a laundry list of accusations against US foreign and economic policies. “Most recently, the cyclical stagnation in Washington for a viable bipartisan solution over a federal budget and an approval for raising debt ceiling has again left many nations’ tremendous dollar assets in jeopardy and the international community highly agonized,” Xinhua writer Liu Chang wrote.
As for the policymakers in Beijing, there seems to be a begrudging acceptance that China, along with much of the world economy, is stuck on the sidelines watching as the remaining hours before the deadline tick away.
“We demand that the US side, as the issuing country of the major reserve currency and the largest economy in the world … should undertake its due responsibility,” Vice Finance Minister Zhu said. “That is to uphold and develop the stability of international financial markets.”
An earlier version of this post incorrectly referred to China’s $1.28 billion in US Treasury holdings, instead of $1.28 trillion.SMITHS FALLS, ON and MADRID, Sept. 11, 2017 /CNW/ - Canopy Growth Corporation (TSX:WEED) ("Canopy Growth" or the "Company") and its wholly-owned subsidiary Spektrum Cannabis GmbH ("Spektrum") are pleased to announce a supply license agreement with Alcaliber, S.A. ("Alcaliber"), a leading player in the international pharmaceutical industry based in Spain. Alcaliber specializes in research and development, breeding and cultivation, and the extraction, purification and preparation of Narcotic Raw Materials ("NRMs") and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients ("APIs"). This agreement is the first of its kind between a Canadian cannabis company and a significant, established international pharmaceutical player.
"Entering this agreement with a large, well-recognized European partner like Alcaliber, with a proven background in controlled substances and an ability to produce plant-based medication solidifies our commitment to diversified production capabilities not just in Canada, but also new and emerging cannabis markets," said Bruce Linton, Chairman & CEO, Canopy Growth. "This agreement gives us additional resources to aggressively enter the European market where federally permitted by law, while we continue to work to establish our own complementary production footprint for cannabis cultivation, value-add oil extraction and Softgel production in the European Union."
Alcaliber has been granted a license to cultivate, produce, manufacture, export/import, and commercialize cannabis for medical and scientific purposes by the Spanish Agency of Medicinal Products and Medical Devices. As a result of this agreement, Canopy Growth and Spektrum will grant Alcaliber a license to use certain strains and seeds to be grown and cultivated at Alcaliber's facilities for sale worldwide.
"Alcaliber is really enthusiastic about pharmaceutical cannabis and our agreement with Canopy Growth and Spektrum is a perfect symbiosis," explained Jose Antonio de la Puente, CEO, Alcaliber. "There is a clear demand for pharmaceutical cannabis produced in accordance with pharmaceutical standards and the expertise we have developed manufacturing narcotic derivatives for over 40 years combined with Canopy Growth and Spektrum's cannabis experience will be a great step forward for the industry."
As a proven global leader in pharmaceuticals with an established track record of producing NRMs and APIs, as well as existing production infrastructure and distribution networks in place, Alcaliber's involvement has the potential to meaningfully expedite Spektrum's strategic expansion in the European market.
Hacia el crecimiento
About Canopy Growth Corporation
Canopy Growth is a world-leading diversified cannabis company, offering distinct brands and curated cannabis varieties in dried, oil and capsule forms. Through its wholly‑owned subsidiaries, Canopy Growth operates numerous state-of-the-art production facilities with over half a million square feet of GMP-certified indoor and greenhouse production capacity, all to an unparalleled level of quality assurance procedures and testing. Canopy Growth has established partnerships with leading sector names in Canada and abroad, with interests and operations spanning four continents. The Company is proudly dedicated to educating healthcare practitioners, providing consistent access to high quality cannabis products, conducting robust clinical research, and furthering the public's understanding of cannabis. For more information visit www.canopygrowth.com.
About Spektrum Cannabis Gmbh
Spektrum Cannabis GmbH distributes cannabis medicine products to hundreds of pharmacies across Germany. Spektrum's facility in Germany is GMP certified by the relevant authority, Regierungspräsidium Tübingen, making it, to the Company's knowledge, the only GMP-certified cannabis processing facility in Germany.
About Alcaliber
Alcaliber S.A. is a Spanish company founded in 1973 with an overall industrial focus, dedicated to guaranteeing the supply of narcotic raw materials, based on the cultivation in Spain of the opium poppy and its subsequent transformation into concentrate poppy straw, as well as the extraction of its alkaloids. Alcaliber holds a leading position in the international industry. With over 80% of production destined for export, its products are a benchmark in terms of safety and quality. Learn more by visiting www.alcaliber.com
Notice Regarding Forward Looking Statements
This news release contains forward-looking statements. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "estimates", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Canopy Growth Corporation, Tweed Inc., Tweed Farms Inc., Mettrum Health Corp., or Bedrocan Canada Inc. to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Examples of such statements include future operational and production capacity, the impact of enhanced infrastructure and production capabilities, and forecasted available product selection. The forward-looking statements included in this news release are made as of the date of this news release and Canopy Growth Corp. does not undertake an obligation to publicly update such forward-looking statements to reflect new information, subsequent events or otherwise unless required by applicable securities legislation.
Neither the TSX Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
SOURCE Canopy Growth Corporation
View original content: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/September2017/11/c2415.htmlPosted July 29, 2014 at 1:00 am
1535 x 1080 version
- From this comic
You KNEW this was coming. Even if you THINK you didn't know this was coming, deep down? You knew.
And since I feel like including it, my response to someone asking if Tedd was changed even further between panels six and seven of the comic this originated in on account of just how feminine Tedd looks:
"It’s the same reason Rich and Larry could mistake Tedd for being female earlier, actually. Tedd’s physique isn’t terribly androgynous once you get a clear look at his/her form, but put some loose clothing on him/her, and he/she can appear to be either sex (using both pronouns as this applies to either case).
In panel seven, Tedd’s overshirt is blown open and the black shirt conforms to her figure. Shirt hanging loose: Androgynous Tedd, as the curves (or lack thereof) are hidden. Shirt open: Clearly male or female Tedd. Basically, the key to Tedd being truly androgynous is loose clothing.
In panel 8, the overshirt is still open. You can’t see below her shoulders, but the look created by it gives an implication of a female form. That said, panel 8 is definitely not artistic license, so that shirt which was keeping Tedd androgynous probably isn’t doing that at the moment…"
And in response to someone declaring their disappointment that female Tedd didn't have smaller breasts:
"They look bigger than they are in today’s comic. I very deliberately posed Tedd to make one visible in silhouette in order to accentuate her female form, and the blue shirt being off to the side combined with the black shirt also gives the illusion of increased size. She’s actually comparable to Sarah."Look, I’m sorry. I know I’ve been making way too many jokes about him, but right now, let’s get down to business. I’ll finally give a full serious AND honest analysis from what we know and see so far about him. First off, let’s take a look carefully at Rantarou’s artwork pose.
Warning: Long Post!
We know that almost all the poses from the characters’s artworks give us at least one clue about their talent, with a few exceptions. Let’s just ignore the overly persuasive way he’s sitting on that chair and… Nope, actually, don’t ignore it. This might sound stupid, but everything he’s doing will be very important in order to find out his talent. That’s why I especially said “persuasive way”. I’ve been thinking about this for while and if he DOES have a talent, it has to be something minimumly useful and important. I’m almost positive that this guy is gonna be our new Togami/Nagito this time. When I also say “Nagito”, I don’t mean that he’s gonna be crazy, I mean that he’s gonna be our new arch-rival. The character that could help you or get in your way, depending on their interests.
With all the limited information we have so far, after looking at any kind of possibility and analysing every single angle, I’ve finally concluded that the most plausible talent that would fit him is the Ultimate Police Officer. I’m not the only one, there are other people out there that also came to this same conclusion. However, nobody got so deep into it, that’s why I want to make a full explanation about it myself. I also would like to hear about your thoughts and just to warn you, this’ll be very long.
I wonder what you feel when you see him sitting like that while staring intensely into your soul. I don’t know about you, but I feel like he’s reading my mind, actually I feel like he already found out all my secrets. That’s right, he’s questioning, he’s cross-examining, he’s interrogating us. Anyway, he basically wants to get information out of us. And I don’t think this chair is just there to make him look “hot”. Nothing is just a decoration in Danganronpa. Rantarou sitting on a chair represents the moment the police office has to sit down and interview the criminal in the interrogation room to gather information about them and their crimes.
If I’ve guessed it correctly, then this apparently vague screenshot is a huge slap in the face. Now, let me ask. What’s Rantarou doing? He’s interrogating Kaede. You could say that I’m looking too deep into it, but pay attention to Kaede. She seems to be feeling under pressure, but you wouldn’t feel so anxious when someone just wanna ask you a question. Unless you’re being questioned by a certain someone, like, for example, a police officer. You’d certainly feel nervous if you’re being interrogated by a cop.
Even if they don’t know his talent yet, if he’s really the Ultimate Police Officer, he automatically makes people feel pressured when questioned by him. It’s his talent afterall, so he would unconsciously interrogate people just like a real cop does. If he’s the Ultimate Police Officer, that also means that he’s the most determined to find out who the culprit is during all the Class Trials. Even more than the detective because catching a criminal is literally the main duty of a cop. At least, it’s what they’re most famous for.
Which give us rooms for even more theories, if he remembers his talent, it makes totally sense that he would play the same role as Chiaki’s. I mean, her main duty was to observe everyone and if he’s a cop, it’s only logic that he has to keep a close eye on the criminals, his prisoners. Yes, the criminals are the Danganronpa V3 cast. Hence why he always seems so calm, because he’s not really playing this killing game as he was told to just monitor them. It doesn’t necessarily makes him the mastermind, but it does make him the traitor. Going by that reasoning, of course, he’s keeping his talent a secret from everyone.
The reason is most likely to prove if they, the criminals, have any redeeming qualities or not. So they, the one behind all this, ordered him to study them closely. I could even say that he plays a role similar to Mukuro’s. Plus, this is yet another evidence that he’ll be the new Togami/Nagito. And that’s because as a cop, he’ll definitely suspect and be against everyone, since in his head, they’re all just a bunch of evil criminals that need to be refrained immidiately. I imagine something similar to when Nagito found out they were the Remnants of Depair themselves. Except that he won’t be nearly as extreme as Nagito, he’ll try his best to keep his cool as much as possible, at least during the beginning.
Just to end all this, if he’s one of the main love interests and our new arch-rival, we can imagine him checking Kaede every chapter to see if she’s murderer. When he makes sure that she’s in the clear, he’ll start to help her a lot, while, of course, never letting his guard down. Especially because he knows that she lies and he notices everytime she’s lying or telling the truth. If people think that he’ll be an angel, I’m sorry, but that’s too naive as his artwork already heavily implies that he’ll somewhat shady, manipulative and mischievous.
He could very well abuse of dirty trick to get what he wants, including, lying. Actually, I also believe that he’ll be the one who’ll influence Kaede to lie in order to advance the Class Trials. He could be the kind of corrupted cop that uses any means necessary to get people to talk and confess their crimes and if it’s his job, he’ll probably be very happy when the blackened is executed, which could show us a more sadistic and dark side of his. He could even have some sociopathic tendencies, enjoying to see blood and deaths as one of the favorite parts of his job. But I definitely don’t think he’ll be pure evil as Danganronpa rarely has characters you can’t sympathize with.
Of course, it could also be the other way around, he doesn’t remember his talent or he is playing the killing game like everyone else because he committed an accidental crime. There are just so many possibilities, but I find this one the most interesting. There’s so much I wanted to write, like, the reasons why he could take a liking to Kaede, if his necklace is actually a prison cell key, if perhaps he’s a marine police officer and even more theories about this talent. I’ll probably do this later. I hope you enjoyed it! And please, leave your opinions as I love to see other points of views!Buy a phone, whether directly from a manufacturer or from a mobile operator, and chances are it will come with a phone charger. You'll probably plug it in and chuck the old one in a drawer somewhere, "just in case." Once upon a time, when phones were all equipped with their own proprietary chargers, each with an infuriatingly different connector, that would have made sense, too.
But these days, it doesn't. Thanks to European mandates, virtually every phone on the market uses a micro-USB connector and chargers are now interchangeable. Even the iPhone, which doesn't use micro-USB on the handset, can use these standard chargers with a suitable adaptor. As a result, there's no point sticking the old charger in a drawer and plugging in the new one. In fact, there's no point in getting a new charger at all. The old one is just fine.
Since last September, British phone operator O2 has been running an experiment with the HTC One X+ to see if customers really want or need chargers with their phones. The telco shipped the One X+ with a USB cable—but without a charger to connect it to. Anyone wanting a new charger to go with their new phone would have to buy it separately.
The result? 82 percent of customers went without—fewer than one in five buyers of the HTC One X opted to spend the extra for a charger. This surprised even O2, as it expected only 70 percent of customers to do so.
The phone operator is now imploring its British competitors to "take chargers out of the box" and stop bundling free chargers that most people never need. If every UK carrier did the same and if the 82 percent rate were maintained, then some 24 million fewer chargers would be distributed in the UK each year. The company claims that there are 100 million unused chargers as a result of years of this spurious bundling, and because Olympic sized swimming pools are the standard volume metric in all press releases, they say that this is the same as four swimming pools worth of landfill.
The company says that ending the tyranny of unwanted free chargers will go some way toward saving the environment. That it also saves the company money (it's no longer paying for the in-box charger, and can in fact charge customers for buying the separate charger, though it claimed to only charge cost price during its trial) no doubt never entered into its thinking at all.
Of course, if you really want to help the environment, you'd forgo not just the charger, but the whole phone. Stick with the phone you own and you save all the energy and resources that would go into building a new handset and create no more waste for landfill.The last time America debated the relative merits of Marcus Mariota and Jameis Winston, the stakes were obvious, and the criteria for resolving the matter were plain: The winner of their head-to-head Rose Bowl meeting would lead his team to the championship game, cementing his status as the cream of the quarterbacking crop in the process. At the time, Mariota was fresh off a landslide victory in Heisman balloting and had clearly surpassed Winston, the 2013 trophy winner, as the nation’s best college quarterback, a title he reinforced in Oregon’s 59-20 romp over Florida State on New Year’s Day. The contrast on that afternoon could hardly have been more decisive: Mariota was as cool and productive as ever on the biggest stage of his career, while Winston teetered on the verge of a meltdown in his only defeat as a college |
, I’m not only a highbrow fan of Stein. I’m a lowbrow enthusiast of reality TV—especially The Bachelor, in which the main strategy for all contestants boils down to Put Yourself Out There! On any given episode, you’ll see one contestant preparing for a date, “confiding” to viewers that she’s “just going to put myself out there.” After a failed date, another will lament her inability to “put myself out there.” And then there’s the one who’ll saunter back to the mansion in the wee hours, crowing: “I just put myself out there!” I am a shy person. I have struggled my whole life to put myself out there. When it came to starting a blog or creating a web site, I didn’t even know which self to put where. In 2010, a year before the book’s release, I launched my blog (PhD in Creative Writing) anonymously—on the Ides of March. My first post was a photo of Julius Caesar being stabbed to death. In lieu of my name, I offered a poem by Emily Dickinson, who remained a private writer until her death and is now as famous as one can be: I’m Nobody! Who are you?
Are you – Nobody – too?
Then there’s a pair of us!
Don’t tell! they’d advertise – you know! How dreary – to be – Somebody!
How public – like a Frog –
To tell one’s name – the livelong June –
To an admiring Bog! How dreary, indeed. Except that blogging, I soon found out, wasn’t dreary at all. The extemporaneous feel of this kind of writing belied Stein’s words. Without the pressure of trying to create a “master-piece,” I felt free to explore and experiment in new ways. I wrote about books I loved, answered questions about writing that came up in my classes, ranted about publishers who publish mostly male writers, and posted pictures of my travels and research. Creating myself was a lot like creating my characters, as it turned out. I had to write my way into it. I went from hoping nobody would find my blog to longing for somebody to find it. It had become dreary to be Nobody—and after several months of anonymous blogging, it was time to become Somebody: me. The first line of Emily Dickinson’s poem is still at the top of my About page. But ironically, once I put my name on the blog, I truly enjoyed coming up with my author’s bio. I used it as a creative springboard, and the final result tells something about me from the first-, second-, and third-person points of view. Nevertheless, as my book release got closer and closer, I continued to struggle with putting myself out there. I needed to schedule some readings. I was busy with teaching and didn’t have the time. I just wanted to write. It’s a good thing that I discovered Alyson Stanfield’s 2008 book, I’d Rather Be in the Studio: The Artist’s Guide to Self-Promotion, when I did. Though geared toward visual artists, her book addresses the desire of all artists who would rather be creating than marketing. The book is organized by excuses she’s heard, including “There aren’t enough hours in the day to do it all,” “I don’t want to bother people,” and “I’m an introvert.” Was this woman in my head? Stanfield makes mincemeat of each excuse, insisting that artists are as responsible for sharing their work as for creating it. She reminds artists that they actually have something people want: insights, stories, techniques, perspectives, and skills that others are curious about. People don’t feel bothered when they learn about something they’re interested in.
So, I got busy. A few months before the release of For Sale by Owner, I teamed up with fellow writers at a local art fair. We gave a reading on a plaza downtown; between booths of jewelry and photography, we had a table of our books. But since I didn’t have a published book yet, I decided to create handmade single-story chapbooks and sell them out of a vintage suitcase. Each story fit in an envelope and could be mailed to a friend. (Some of these handmade “pocket stories”—and the suitcase—are pictured here.) Later, I transformed my university business cards into collages with lines cut from an old edition of Othello. I didn’t make a lot of money, but I did get lots of people interested in my work. And by the time my book came out in early 2011, I’d scheduled a dizzying array of conferences, readings, classroom visits, book clubs, and interviews with websites and campus newspapers. That summer, as my schedule settled down a bit, I reassessed my blog and revisited Stanfield’s advice about giving people something they’re interested in. As a writing professor, I knew my students were fascinated by what it takes to become a writer. As a reader, I’ve always loved interviews with writers. In July 2011, I started a biweekly interview series—“How to Become a Writer”—which now features interviews with more than thirty contemporary authors, each with a different story to tell. At first I begged my friends for interviews. Now I receive recommendations from readers and requests from publishers who want to promote their own authors. Most recently, I’ve collaborated with Talking Writing, interviewing TW fiction writers. My next book is forthcoming this fall, and now my publisher wants me to brainstorm ideas for a book trailer and a release party. Liliane’s Balcony is a novella set at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, so perhaps we’ll have a costume party with people dressed as characters or a cake shaped like Wright’s famous house. No matter what, I know I’ll enjoy it. DIY marketing can be fun, even for the shyest of us literary writers. It demands creativity and collaboration, and it helps connect writers and readers. For all of Stein’s laments about the “necessity of identity,” who was more successful than she at creating a dramatic artistic persona? She surrounded herself with art and artists and publicly claimed to be a genius. How’s this for a marketing idea? Have Picasso paint your portrait! Since my first book’s release, I’ve learned to embrace all the creative aspects of the writing life, including self-promotion. And after my next book is launched, I can get back to writing—just a little less secretly.The NBA returns to where it started this weekend: Canada, a country that has never been richer in basketball talent and potential.
Basketball's top league played its first game in Toronto 125 years ago, an anniversary that will be marked this Sunday by the NBA's first All-Star Game to be held outside the United States. It comes in a season that has seen more Canadians in the league than ever.
We are, as a country, producing more talent than ever. - Eric Koreen, basketball journalist
There were a dozen Canadian players wearing NBA uniforms when the season opened, and the future looks bright.
"We are, as a country, producing more talent than ever," said Eric Koreen, a Toronto-based journalist who covers the sport closely.
The basketball world has noticed. In both 2013 and 2014, a Canadian player was selected first overall in the annual NBA draft. And that, Koreen says, is just a hint of basketball's growth in Canada.
"Beyond that, there is a deep, deep talent pool of elite players who have the chance to join that 450-person club that is the NBA," he said.
The Carter effect
It is partly what can be called the Raptors effect. A generation of kids watched the Toronto team's first star, Vince Carter, soar to greatness.
They watched the Florida-born Carter, nicknamed "Air Canada," lead the struggling team into the playoffs 16 years ago and then took up the game themselves. The growing interest in the sport led to more competition, better coaching and better players.
It all began with Vince Carter. The U.S.-born basketball player reversed the fortunes of the struggling Toronto Raptors when he joined the team in the 1998-99 season, driving up ticket sales and leading the team to its first playoff appearance in 2000. (Reuters)
"The kids just keep on coming," said Koreen. "It's just amazing."
There are likely many more to come.
On a gleaming basketball court north of Toronto, two groups of tall high school students clad in red and white are competing in a series of highly competitive drills at the Athlete Institute in the town of Orangeville.
Everything you need is here. It feels like home. - Cole Long, 18, Athlete Institute basketball player
It is defence against offence, and the stakes are high: the losing team will have to run laps. Long term, however, there is much more on the line for every single player.
"I'm here to have success with basketball," said Cole Long. "To try to go professional."
St. John's native Cole Long, 18, hopes to eventually play in a professional league. Like many of the players who attend the private institute, he has already been offered a scholarship to a U.S. college. (Havard Gould/CBC)
The six-foot-seven-inch, 206-pound 18-year-old has a relaxed grin on his face, but the native of St. John's has come a long way to get the specialized training available in Orangeville. Like many of the players who attend the private institute, he has already been offered a scholarship to a U.S. college and hopes that by sharpening his skills now, he will have a shot at going farther in the future.
"Everything you need is here," says Long of the facility. "It feels like home."
A chance to play close to home
The Athlete Institute is a temporary home for young players from all over Canada and is emerging as a factory of sorts for Canadian basketball players. The program was started by the Tippings, a local wealthy family that also owns the Orangeville A's, a professional basketball team formerly known as the Brampton A's that now practices at the institute.
The institute is designed to keep Canadian teenagers in their own country in their formative years. It's an option for talented prospects who may be reluctant to move to U.S. prep schools, where young, ambitious Canadian athletes have traditionally fled in search of high-level competition and attention from college scouts.
Kalif Young, who is from Vaughan, Ont., says he likes being able to train close to home so he can'still get some of Mom's home cooking.' (Havard Gould/CBC)
The institute's first team began playing in 2012, and the program hasn't stopped expanding. A new dormitory is being built on the property to go along with the professional-level workout facility, fully staffed with coaches and trainers.
"We are really developing elite talent in Canada," said Tony McIntyre, the institute's director of basketball operations. "What we are trying to do is give a kids a chance to stay here and play rather than go to the U.S."
The aim of the institute is to develop elite talent within Canada so that aspiring players don't have to go to the U.S. to train, says Tony McIntyre, director of basketball operations at the Athlete Institute. (Havard Gould/CBC)
Two dozen players attend the local public high school and are bussed over the to facility after classes for workouts and coaching five days a week. The institute's two teams play games against other high schools and prep schools in Canada and the U.S., traveling as far as California.
The institute is expecting to hit a milestone this year when the sensational point guard Jamal Murray of Kitchener, Ont., enters the NBA draft. Murray, an institute alumnus who graduated last year, is currently playing college basketball for the University of Kentucky Wildcats and would be the first graduate of the program to be drafted.
U.S. scouts are watching
The Orangeville program is already on the radar south of the border. U.S. college coaches drop by regularly to check on players.
"It's pretty common," said Coach Larry Blunt. "We get no less than 50 to 100 coaches every year to come to watch practices and watch games."
Those practices run at a furious pace, punctuated by frequent sharp whistles. Blunt stops the play often to discuss mistakes and order up new strategies, his precise instructions softened somewhat by his Virginia drawl.
This NBA season has seen more Canadians playing in the league than any other. The teens who attend the Athlete Institute hope to one day be part of that talent pool. (Havard Gould/CBC)
When asked how many of the dozen players on the floor at the moment will make the NBA, Blunt smiles.
"Hopefully, all of them," he says. "There's a really good mix. Hopefully, we can have 12."
Kalif Young, driving for the net, hopes to make it to the top of the basketball world. The charismatic 6'9" power forward is already turning heads because of his strength and touch. He turned to the Athlete Institute to polish his game while collecting scholarship offers.
"I can stay close to home," says Young, who is from Vaughan, Ont. "Still get some of Mom's home cooking."
The Athlete Institute was founded by the Tipping family in 2010, and its first team began playing two years later. Today, the facility's two teams travel all across North America playing other high school and prep school teams. (Havard Gould/CBC)
Young says he is grateful for the chance to hone his skills in Canada, where he can spend at least some time with his family.
"No better place for basketball right now," he said.
Not all the players come from Canada. Currently, there are two are form Australia, one from England and several from the U.S.
But all seem to practice Canadian politeness, even in the middle of an intense workout.
An errant ball rolls toward a photographer, who is oblivious, trying to shoot the action on the court. The ball bounces gently off his leg.
Before he can react, a player hustles over to fetch it. "Sorry, sir," he says, and sprints away.W e are always looking at ways to improve the Magic Online experience for our players, especially when they are just starting out. Each year, when the Core Set launches, we update the Magic Online New Account Starter kit as part of this process. This ensures that new players get the latest Core Set booster, the newest cards, and the most recent Planeswalker Deck Pack. In addition, this year we are adding something completely new: New Player Tickets!
With the release of Magic 2013, we wanted to give new players a better way to get comfortable with Magic Online and the game's controls, especially when entering Limited tournaments, namely Booster Drafts and Sealed Deck events. To this end, we have created the New Player Ticket. Starting with the downtime on July 25, every new Magic Online New Account Starter Kit will include 4 New Player Tickets (including any previously purchased, unopened Starter Kits). These special, untradeable tickets will let new players enter the two new tournament queues listed below that are designed to let them become familiar with how Magic Online works in a low-pressure environment.
Each New Player tournament is a 4-player Phantom queue. This means each event will launch as soon as four players join and each player will play two matches, win or lose, but the cards played with will not be added to players' collections.
New Player Phantom Sealed Deck Queue
START TIME: On demand.
LOCATION: Limited Queues room.
ENTRY OPTION(S): 1 New Player Ticket.
PRODUCT: Magic Online will provide 6 Phantom Magic 2013 booster packs.
SIZE: 4 players.
DURATION: Deck building time plus two rounds, Swiss pairings.
PRIZES: Prizes are based on total match points at the end of the tournament. Each match win awards 3 points and each match loss awards 0 points. Players who earn 6 match points will earn 1 copy of the current Thursday Night Magic Online promo card.
New Player Phantom Draft Queue
START TIME: On demand.
LOCATION: Limited Queues room.
ENTRY OPTION(S): 1 New Player Ticket.
PRODUCT: Magic Online will provide 3 Phantom Magic 2013 booster packs.
SIZE: 4 players.
DURATION: Drafting and deck building time plus two rounds, Swiss pairings.
PRIZES: Prizes are based on total match points at the end of the tournament. Each match win awards 3 points and each match loss awards 0 points. Players who earn 6 match points will earn 1 copy of the current Thursday Night Magic Online promo card.
Speaking of Thursday Night Magic Online, we are making some changes to this program as well. Starting August 2, 2012, Thursday Night Magic Online (TNMO) tournaments will all require 5 Event Tickets to enter, regardless of format, and will all have the same basic prize structure (see below for full event details). This means that each and every Thursday you can hop into a Booster Draft, Sealed Deck or Constructed tournament for only 5 Event Tickets.
To accommodate this change, TNMO Booster Draft and Sealed Deck events will use Phantom booster packs. Again, this means that the product players play with in these tournaments will not be added to their collections when the event is over.
Thursday Night Magic Online
START TIMES: Every Thursday at 4:00 AM PDT (11:00 UTC), 9:00 AM PDT (16:00 UTC), 3:00 PM PDT (22:00 UTC), and 7:00 PM PDT (Friday, 02:00 UTC).
LOCATION: Scheduled Events room.
ENTRY OPTION(S): 5 Event Tickets.
PRODUCT: Players must provide a Constructed deck that is legal in the Thursday Night Magic Online format for that week or Magic Online will provide 3 Phantom booster packs or 6 Phantom booster packs (depending on whether the event is a draft or a 6-booster Sealed event) of the appropriate set(s).
SIZE: 16 players minimum, 512 players maximum.
DURATION: Drafting time (when necessary) and Deck building time (when necessary) plus three rounds, Swiss pairings.
PRIZES: Prizes are based on total match points at the end of the tournament. Each match win awards 3 points and each match loss awards 0 points. See prize schedule below.
Match Points Prizes 9 3 booster packs 6 2 booster packs
ADDITIONAL PRIZES: Each player who participates in a Thursday Night Magic Online event will receive the current month's promo card. Each player with 9 points will also receive a premium foil version of that card. Please check the Magic Online Group page for the current month's promo card.
The addition of the New Player Queues are a great way for players to get their feet wet and check out how Booster Draft or Sealed Deck events work in Magic Online. After players are more comfortable, Thursday Night Magic Online events are a great next step for players who are looking to start playing Magic more competitively but may not be ready to jump into a normal queue or premier event. With these updates, we hope that players who are just starting out but aspire to play Magic Online competitively have a clearer path towards that goal.Oct 22, 2013; Columbus, OH, USA; Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman James Wisniewski (21) celebrates a goal against the New Jersey Devils during the third period at Nationwide Arena. Columbus beat New Jersey 4-1. Photo By: Russell LaBounty-USA TODAY Sports
Friday night, the Maple Leafs are making a trip to Columbus to take on the Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena. This will be the third of four straight home games for the Jackets, of which they won the first two. Here are a few pre-game notes to be aware of:
Maple Leafs
Toronto is off to a great start so far with a 7-3-0 record, and rank 5th in the league with an average of 3.3 goals per game. Joffrey Lupul is having a great season early on, and Phil Kessel is coming off a game where he had a hat trick against the Ducks. This Maple Leaf team is going to make it very hard on the Blue Jackets, who are hoping to increase their winning streak to three games.
Blue Jackets
The biggest thing that the Jackets have going for them at the moment is how good the defense has looked recently. In the past two games, the Jackets have allowed only two goals, and they have had an aggressive presence in front of Sergei Bobrovsky. James Wisniewski is finally showing signs of life on the ice, and as I have mentioned in earlier stories, David Savard has been playing very well all season.
Four Game Home Stand
Of the four in a row at home that the Jackets are in the middle of, these last two are definitely going to be the toughest. A win on Friday night would get them back to.500 after a poor start to the season, and would put them in a position to start moving up the standings and the power rankings.
However, for them to do this, the fundamentals that we have seen in the past two games are going to have to remain with the club. If they are aggressive with the puck, increase their one-touch passing and continue to block shots, then they will prove that they are a better team than what they had shown early in the season.
The Columbus Blue Jackets celebrate after scoring the third goal of the game on an empty net to seal the 3-1win against the Vancouver Canucks at Nationwide Arena. Photo By: Rob Leifheit-USA TODAY Sports
Jacket Stats
While at the game on Tuesday night, I saw an interesting stat: After Tuesdays win, the Blue Jackets are 29-0-0 under Todd Richards when they are in the lead after the 2nd period. That is absolutely amazing to me, and is a statistic that I had completely missed. I am sure that I’m not the only one.
I think that stat really says something about how important that first goal can be in every single game. I am also excited to see how high that number can get before we get a “1” in the loss column.
Friday nights game should prove to be a tough one for Columbus, but it will be a close game, and an exciting one. I hope that Nationwide Arena is packed full of loud fans ready to cheer the home team to victory.One year ago Hacked covered the race between the US and China to develop “military super-powers” by harnessing quantum science, and noted that Chinese scientists were developing quantum communication satellites that support unbreakable encryption. A few weeks ago, China launched its first quantum satellite.
On August 16, China launched the world’s first satellite dedicated to testing the fundamentals of quantum communication in space. Dubbed QUESS (Quantum Experiments at Space Scale), the satellite will demonstrate secure communication based on quantum entanglement over unprecedented distances. The QUESS project is led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), with the participation of the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
The satellite is in good shape and scientific experiments can begin this month, said chief scientist Pan Jianwei in a recent CAS news release.
Unbreakable Quantum Encryption, and ‘Teleportation’
Physicists speak of quantum entanglement when two remote particles share a unique quantum state and exhibit correlated properties. For example, the spins of the two particles could always be in opposite directions. Experimental evidence confirms that entangled correlations are still observed when there is not enough time for light to travel from the first particle to the second, which means that entanglement isn’t limited by the speed of light.
The “spooky action at a distance” found in quantum entanglement has excited the imagination of physicist for decades, as a hypothetical means to achieve faster-than-light communication. Unfortunately, it appears that due to the fundamental randomness of the quantum world, it’s impossible to use using entanglement to send messages.
But the same randomness permits securely sharing keys for one-time pad (OTP) cryptography. OTP encryption is mathematically guaranteed to be unbreakable, but only if the keys are not compromised. Therefore, secure key transmission and storage is the main challenge for ultra-secure OTP cryptography.
That’s where quantum weirdness comes into play: quantum entanglement can be used to establish a shared key in such a way as to permit detecting any attempt to eavesdrop on the key. Therefore, quantum encryption offers complete, invulnerable security based on the laws of fundamental physics.
Quantum computing, a complementary quantum technology, first proposed by Nobel laureate Richard P. Feynman in 1982 (see also Feynman’s Lectures on Computation), could in the future permit cracking all traditional encryption schemes with sophisticated algorithms and superior computing power. But quantum encryption is invulnerable to quantum computing attacks.
The QUESS project will include experiments to “teleport” quantum states of photons, reconstructing them in a new location. “We will beam one photon from an entangled pair created at a ground station in Ali, Tibet, to the satellite,” said Pan. “The quantum state of a third photon in Ali can then be teleported to the particle in space, using the entangled photon in Ali as a conduit.”
Quantum teleportation in space could eventually permit to combine photons from satellites to create a huge distributed telescope with enormous resolution. “You could not just see planets,” said NASA scientist Paul Kwiat, “but in principle read licence plates on Jupiter’s moons.”
Quantum Supremacy
After the first QUESS pilot, China plans to launch a fleet of similar satellites to create a super-secure communications network. 20 satellites would be required to enable secure communications throughout the world.”If the first satellite goes well, China will definitely launch more,” said Chaoyang Lu, a physicist at the University of Science and Technology of China, as reported by Nature News.
In a recent article, Foreign Affairs noted that, alongside the QUESS satellite, China is developing large-scale, theoretically unbreakable quantum encryption projects, including the world’s longest quantum communications network, and plans to roll out an operational Asia-Europe quantum communications network in the next five years.
“[The QUESS] program is no mere science experiment,” noted a CAS news release in March. “China is already becoming a world leader in quantum communications technology.”
“A satellite that delivers quantum communications will be a cornerstone for translating cutting-edge research into a strategic asset for Chinese power worldwide.”
Quantum communications networks are so expensive that, according to Foreign Affairs, they could have a “recentralizing effect,” enabling states to recover the ground that they have lost to decentralizing digital technologies.
The very tangible promise and peril of the upcoming quantum technologies may arrive sooner than we think, concludes the Foreign Affairs article. Policy makers and military planners in the West should bear in mind that China is striving to achieve quantum supremacy.
Pictures from Chinese Academy of Sciences and China Daily / Reuters.VARMLAND, Sweden — A rare white moose captured on film in Sweden has people around the world mesmerized.
Rare white moose spotted in Sweden pic.twitter.com/jwPayHmzmC — BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) August 13, 2017
According to the BBC, there are only about 100 of the white moose in the country.
“The moose aren’t albino, but grow white fur from a genetic mutation,” the BBC reported.
Albino animals are pure white with pink or red eyes.
People on Twitter said it looked like a creature out of a mythical tale like “Game of Thrones” or “Lord of the Rings.”
“The Night King spotted on his way to Vasteras in central Sweden. Winter is here,” Sebastian Larsson wrote.
It's so majestic and big! I can see Gandalf the White or Galadrial from LOTR riding it. It must've been adorable as a baby moose😍😍😍 https://t.co/SIekb9Gij8 — Moe Irwin (@Moe_Irwin) August 13, 2017
“It’s the deer god from Princess Mononoke,” another person commented.
With all the craziness we have in the world right now, it's a nice reminder that there are still things calm and majestic. https://t.co/FsOA4XTJ6M — Christina Mullins (@HRBabe) August 13, 2017
It’s not known whether the twin white calves are albino or piebald moose, which are white with a few small brown specks.This is a blog I was hoping I would never have to write. After much consideration and denial, I am ready to make a confession. Aaron Judge is good at baseball. There, I said it. Now quit giving me that look, Yankees fans.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. “Uhhh thanks Copernicus, everyone in the world knows that already.” But let me give you a little insight as to why I thought otherwise. First and foremost, I am a Boston Red Sox fan. And like any Red Sox fan should, I am experiencing the stages of Aaron Judge-induced grief. The idea that the New York Yankees have found a way to genetically engineer a species of superhuman baseball players is scary to me. Secondly, I am, as they say, not tall. Not short, but certainly not tall. This allowed me to make statements such as “If I was that big I could hit the ball 500 feet too”. I was in denial.
In the first half of the 2017 season, Judge hit.329 with a 1.139 OPS. Oh, and he also leads the MLB in home runs with 30. Other categories he leads the league in consist of, but are not limited to SLG (.691), WAR (5.3), and times on base (164). These are, uh, really good numbers. But, being the skeptic and Yankee hater that I am, I was willing to look past this. I saw a behemoth wearing pinstripes and was willing to chalk up his success to sheer size and brute strength. Surely there was beginner’s luck involved and the rookie would slow down. God dammit why won’t he slow down?
My epiphany came during the home run derby. I knew Judge had power. He’s 6 foot 7, 282 pounds and apparently not an ounce of that is fat. He’s basically Fessik from The Princess Bride. But what stood out to me was his effortless swing. God damn it was so easy. It was a short swing with no Donaldson-esque frills, and it generated more power than anyone I’ve seen since the steroid era (see Sosa, Sammy).
I remember early on in the season I watched Joe Kelly strike Judge out on a nasty slider, but before that Judge fouled off a letter high fastball that came in at 104(!) mph. The fact that he was able to fight off that kind of velocity shows that he not only has tremendous hand-eye coordination, but that he isn’t trying to do to much at the plate. He understands his power and the fact that he doesn’t need to swing for the fences. At the time I didn’t think much of it because “Ha! Judge struck out! This guy is overrated”. But that was the Red Sox fan in me talking. Having had the chance to watch Judge in the derby brought out the rational baseball fan in me, and I have to admit… this kid is the real deal.
In a recent interview, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said that Aaron Judge has the opportunity to “become the face of the game”. I absolutely agree. So far, nothing has been able to stop Judge. He’s likable (to the public, not to Sox Nation), he’s exciting, and he’s got the talent to be one of the all time greats. I have reached the acceptance stage of my Judge-induced grief. Aaron Judge is good at baseball, and no amount of ignorance can hide that fact from me. But the Red Sox are young and talented too. Maybe this is exactly what baseball needs to reignite one of the greatest rivalries in all of sports. Bring it on. Here’s an actual visual representation of how I feel about Aaron Judge moving forward.
P.S. The name “Judge” is so conducive to great catch-phrases that I can’t even be mad about it. “All Rise, Here Comes The Judge” is phenomenal. The “Judge’s Chambers” at Yankee Stadium, phenomenal. I can’t hold that against him.
Follow Ben on Twitter @Ben13Porter
AdvertisementsOn her way back to St. Mary's College from the University of Notre Dame, just across the street in Notre Dame, Ind., freshman Lizzy Seeberg texted her therapist that she needed to talk ASAP. "Something bad happened," read her message, sent at 11:39 p.m. on Aug. 31, 2010. A sophomore in their dorm bolted from her study group after getting a similar message. When they talked a few minutes later, Lizzy was crying so hard she was having trouble breathing: "She looked really flushed and was breathing heavily and talking really fast; I couldn't understand her. I just heard her say 'boy,' 'Notre Dame,' 'football player.' She was crying and having the closest thing to a panic attack I've seen in my life. I told her to breathe and sit down and tell me everything."
What she eventually did tell both her therapist and her friend that night -- then committed to paper, in a handwritten statement she and the other young woman carefully signed, dated and handed over to campus police the next day, is that a Notre Dame football player sexually assaulted her in his room after two other students left them alone there. Yet Notre Dame police, who have jurisdiction to investigate even the most serious crimes on campus, still had not interviewed him when she committed suicide 10 days later -- and wouldn't for another five days. "He started sucking my neck and I started crying harder," Lizzy wrote. "He pulled down my tank top by the straps. He slipped them down my shoulders and proceeded to suck and lick my right breast while holding me down on his lap by the arms. I felt his hands start to move down towards my shorts as if he was trying to unbutton them or pull them off. I was still crying at this point and felt so scared that I couldn't move." When the local prosecutor declined to bring charges, as expected in a case without a living victim, his press release made the allegations sound so tame: "specifically, the touching of her breasts."
All their lives, women Lizzy's age have been taught to report unwanted touching. But after she did, the same friend of the player who'd left her alone with him sent her a series of text messages that scared her as much as the player himself had. "Don't do anything you would regret," he wrote. "Messing with Notre Dame football is a bad idea." Over the next 10 days, Lizzy became convinced he was right about that. The player wasn't hard to find on the practice field each afternoon, so what were investigators waiting for? It crushed Lizzy, said her therapist in Chicago, Dr. Heather Hale, that reporting a crime somehow made her a traitor to the school she'd grown up revering. But she also couldn't get past the idea that failing to follow through legally would make her party to any harm that came to other women on campus, either from the same man or others emboldened by her silence. In a Skype session with Lizzy the day before she died, Hale said, "the conflict was, 'Do I do the best I can and get on with my life, versus the fear that if I do that, this could happen to someone else?' "
Lizzy wanted it to be better for the next woman. But one subsequent case, never reported until now, involved another young woman who decided that you really don't mess with Notre Dame football. A year ago February, a female Notre Dame student who said another football player had raped her at an off-campus party told the friend who drove her to the hospital afterward that it was with Lizzy in mind that she decided against filing a complaint, that friend said.
In a sense, Lizzy's ordeal didn't end with her death. The damage to her memory since then is arguably more of a violation than anything she reported to police -- and all the more shocking because it was not done thoughtlessly, by a kid in a moment he can't take back, but on purpose, by the very adults who heavily market the moral leadership of a Catholic institution. Notre Dame's mission statement could not be clearer: "The university is dedicated to the pursuit and sharing of truth for its own sake." But in this case, the university did just the opposite.
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In life, Lizzy was both politically and personally conservative, a brand new member of the College Republicans who led her parish youth group and spoke openly about saving herself for marriage. But Notre Dame officials have painted and passed around a different picture of the dead 19-year-old. Sotto voce, they portray the player as wrongly accused by an aggressive young woman who lied to get back at him for sexually rejecting her the first moment they were ever alone together.
The player's lawyer, Notre Dame alumnus Joe Power, isn't whispering. He shouted in my ear about the "complete phony lie" designed to slander an exemplary young gentleman. His client, who has never been named or made to miss a football practice, had a reputation as a young man with a temper among some parents at his high school, and was suspended from high school over allegations of misbehavior.
Lizzy, whose parents signed waivers to make extensive information available, with no preconditions and nothing off-limits, has no such record. An anxiety disorder made Lizzy shun rather than seek attention, and she had no history of making up anything.
'Independent witnesses'
"Have you ever read the book To Kill a Mockingbird?" Power asked in a phone interview. Because, as in Harper Lee's classic, "this young lady was the aggressor." According to America's Best Lawyers, Power is the top personal injury litigator in the city of Chicago. Barreling right past innuendo, he said it was Lizzy who "had removed her blouse" and thrown herself on top of the player. And the player? "He put a stop to it, because his parents had taught him that was wrong. It's all untrue, according to the two independent witnesses."
He's referring to the player's friend who texted Lizzy, and to his date. Neither was in the room when the incident occurred, but before they left, Power said, "They observed that she was being rather forward and dancing with the young man; she was dancing for him." (Lizzy described the same moment this way: While they were dancing, the player began "pulling me towards him. It was uncomfortable but I didn't know how to stop it. Then he told me to give him a lap dance and I didn't know what to do. He pulled me down on his lap and he had his legs spread out. He started pulling |
center of gravity" to Asia.
"More and more trade [and IPOs] will go in that direction," he predicted Wednesday on CNBC's "Squawk Box," admitting he was "very wrong" on Brexit, which he called an "amazing event."
He added: "I believe now in England there are second thoughts."
Weakening economic cooperation in Europe would benefit Asia, said Mobius, executive chairman of the Templeton Emerging Markets Group. "Nothing has really happened yet because people are sort of frozen like deer in the headlights," he continued. "[But] as we simmer down and begin to think about the future, that certainly will be in people's minds."
The speed at which China moves to free up its currency will be the determining factor in how quickly trade and initial public stock offerings ramp up in Asia, Mobius said.
Against that backdrop, the United States should cooperate with China on trade instead of pursuing the adversarial approach advocated by presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, Mobius said. He said the Chinese would be open to working with America.
"The U.S. has really got to wake up to what China is doing. And I believe the best path would be for them to cooperate and join with China." Mobius said. "Here, you have two great nations. And if they cooperate, it could be beneficial to both."
Mobius said the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade deal, opposed by Trump and his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, should include China. "It really doesn't make sense to exclude them," given Beijing's outsized role in the region, he added.
The TPP — which aims to capitalize on trade opportunities in the Asian-Pacific region — involves the U.S. and 11 other nations, including Japan, Singapore and Australia.
For investors, Mobius said they should look East. "With the softening of the U.S. market and with what's happening in Europe, people will begin to think more about diversification. They are very underweight emerging markets."SAN YSIDRO, California — Mexican traffickers are sending a flood of cheap heroin and methamphetamine across the U.S. border, the latest drug seizure statistics show, in a new sign that the United States’ marijuana decriminalization trend is upending the North American narcotics trade.
The amount of cannabis seized by U.S. federal, state and local officers along the boundary with Mexico has fallen 37 percent since 2011, a period during which U.S. marijuana consumers have increasingly turned to the more potent, higher-grade domestic varieties cultivated under legal and quasi-legal protections in more than two dozen U.S. states.
Made-in-the-USA marijuana is quickly displacing the cheap, seedy, hard-packed version harvested by the bushel in Mexico’s Sierra Madre mountains. That has prompted Mexican drug farmers to plant more opium poppies, and the sticky brown and black “tar” heroin they produce is channeled by traffickers into the U.S. communities hit hardest by prescription painkiller abuse, offering addicts a $10 alternative to $80-a-pill oxycodone.
“Legalization of marijuana for recreational use has given U.S. consumers access to high-quality marijuana, with genetically improved strains, grown in greenhouses,” said Raúl Benitez-Manaut, a drug-war expert at Mexico’s National Autonomous University. “That’s why the Mexican cartels are switching to heroin and meth.”
U.S. law enforcement agents seized 2,181 kilograms of heroin last year coming from Mexico, nearly three times the amount confiscated in 2009.
Methamphetamine, too, has surged, mocking the Hollywood image of backwoods bayou labs and “Breaking Bad” chemists. The reality, according to Drug Enforcement Administration figures, is that 90 percent of the meth on U.S. streets is cooked in Mexico, where precursor chemicals are far easier to obtain.
“The days of the large-scale U.S. meth labs are pretty much gone, given how much the Mexicans have taken over production south of the border and distribution into the United States,” said Lawrence Payne, a DEA spokesman. “Their product is far superior, cheaper and more pure.”
Last year, 15,803 kilograms of the drug was seized along the border, up from 3,076 kilos in 2009.
“Criminal organizations are no longer going for bulk marijuana,” said Sidney Aki, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection port director here at the agency’s busiest crossing for pedestrians and passenger vehicles, just south of San Diego. “Hard drugs are the growing trend, and they’re profitable in small amounts.”
Voters in the District of Columbia and 23 U.S. states have approved marijuana for recreational or medical use, with Colorado, Washington state, Alaska and Oregon opting for full legalization. Estimates of the size of the U.S.’ marijuana harvest vary widely, and DEA officials say they do not know how quickly it may be increasing as a result of decriminalization.
Mexican cartels continue to deploy people as “mules” strapped with 50-pound marijuana backpacks to hike through the Arizona borderlands and send commercial trucks into Texas with bales of shrink-wrapped cannabis so big they need to be taken out on a forklift.
But the profitability of the marijuana trade has slumped on falling demand for Mexico’s “brick weed,” so called because it is crushed into airtight bundles for transport across the border. Drug farmers in the Sierra Madre say that they can barely make money planting mota anymore.
The cartels, and consumers, are turning away from cocaine, too. Last year, U.S. agents confiscated 11,917 kilograms of cocaine along the Mexico border, down from 27,444 kilos in 2011.
This reflects lower demand for the drug in the United States, experts say, as well as a cartel business preference for heroin and meth. Those two substances can be cheaply produced in Mexico, unlike cocaine, which is far pricier, and therefore riskier, because it must be smuggled from South America.
The Sinaloa cartel, considered Mexico’s most powerful drug trafficking organization despite the capture last February of leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, remains the dominant criminal power along Mexico’s Pacific Coast. Its territory spans the entire western half of the U.S.-Mexico boundary, from Ciudad Juárez, opposite El Paso, to Tijuana, on the Pacific Coast.
Related: How do ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán’s kids live? Follow them on Twitter
At harvest time, the cartel’s middlemen make their rounds to remote Sierra Madre stream valleys in pickup trucks and four-wheelers, armed with guns and cash. They buy sticky balls of raw opium from hardscrabble farmers and deliver them to crude heroin kitchens that prepare the drug for shipment. The U.S. interstate highway system is less than a day’s drive away.
Heroin and meth are far easier to transport and conceal than marijuana. Especially worrisome to U.S. officials is a growing trend of more border-crossing pedestrians carrying the drugs strapped under their clothing or hidden in body cavities.
“The criminals are trying to blend in among the legitimate travelers, who are 99 percent of the individuals crossing through here,” said Aki, the San Ysidro port director. “That’s the hard part for us.”
At the San Ysidro crossing, soon to expand to 35 lanes, U.S. agents with drug-sniffing dogs and foot-long screwdrivers weave among the lines of cars that back up into Mexico.
Agents say the screwdrivers, some so old their handles are worn to a nub, are their most valuable investigative tool. Agents knock them against tires and gas tanks for a quick sonic impression.
“If you tap a tank with something solid inside, there’s a thud,” one inspector said. “It’s like hitting concrete.”
Harder to detect are “deep-concealed” drugs buried in fake engine cylinders, dashboard panels, even acid-proof capsules inside car batteries. One vehicle seized here last year carried liquid meth in its windshield-wiper reservoir.
Finding small packages in the river of cars and trucks coming across is akin to a game of “Where’s Waldo?” for U.S. inspectors. Vehicles that arouse the suspicions of border agents or get their dogs barking and lunging are sent to a secondary inspection station with giant X-ray machines and larger teams of screwdriver-wielding inspectors.
If drugs don’t appear, the agents may drive the vehicles into garages to open their engines, pry apart interior panels and search for any signs of suspicious alterations. Traffickers will sometimes mist decoy vehicles with marijuana oil or resin to provoke the dogs and draw agents into a fruitless search.
“It’s like a fish fry,” Aki said. “The fish is gone, but the scent is still there.”
With the dogs and agents tied up inspecting the decoys, the traffickers may try sneaking meth and heroin through.
In recent years, Mexican cartels also have begun producing higher-value “white” heroin, typically associated with traffickers from Colombia or Asia, according to DEA officials.
“The Mexicans are evolving in their production abilities and getting more sophisticated,” said Payne, the DEA spokesman. “It’s not just black tar anymore.”
Colombian and Caribbean traffickers once controlled heroin distribution east of the Mississippi River, but Mexican criminal groups now dominate the entire North American market, he said.
The United States has an estimated 600,000 heroin users, Payne said — a threefold increase in the past five years. But that number is dwarfed by the estimated 10 million U.S. citizens who abuse prescription painkillers.
Those addicts are the prime target for the booming heroin business. A U.S. crackdown on prescription opiates has driven up the price for drugs such as OxyContin and Percocet, enticing desperate addicts to switch to cheap heroin to fend off withdrawal symptoms.
The profile of U.S. heroin addiction is also changing, said Phil Herschman, chief clinical officer with the CRC Health Group, which operates 170 treatment centers in 30 U.S. states.
“Now, we’re seeing housewives coming in who had been addicted to Vicodin for two or three years before switching to heroin, or adolescents who got hooked by snorting it, thinking it was safe, only to end up injecting themselves,” he said.
“You can’t even begin to measure how it tears families apart,” he added. “It’s devastating.”
See also: Tico lawmaker presents bill to legalize medical marijuana
© 2015, The Washington PostPerlis mufti Datuk Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin said the committee found it unfair to determine the winner of a child custody battle based solely on which parent is Muslim as the overall welfare and interests of the child were more important. — Picture by Choo Choy May
KUALA LUMPUR, July 27 — In a landmark decision, the Perlis Fatwa Committee has issued an edict stating that a child’s welfare takes priority over religion in custody battles involving Muslim convert and non-Muslim parents.
The Star reported today that state mufti Datuk Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin said the committee found it unfair to determine the winner of a child custody battle based solely on which parent is Muslim as the overall welfare and interests of the child were more important.
“The common case these days is that both parents are non-Muslims, and then one of them converts to Islam. If going by the Shariah court, then custody is unquestionably given to the Muslim parent.
“This is actually not right, as there is no basis for that sort of ruling, whether in the Quran or hadith.
“We released this fatwa to let them know that it is not a sin to offer custody to a non-Muslim parent, especially if that person is better equipped to care for the child,” he said, as reported by the daily.
He added that the fatwa committee will propose that the edict be adopted as a guideline by Shariah judges when evaluating such cases.
Mohd Asri also said the courts needed to judge which parent was more suitable by studying their background and lifestyle, as well as taking into consideration the choice of the child.
“If both parents are equally suitable to care for the child, then the child has the right to choose which parent he or she wants to live with.
“This is provided the child is old enough to decide,” he said.
According to the report, it will still be compulsory for the Muslim parent to introduce Islam to the child, whether they have custody or not.
However, he said religion should not be forced upon the children.
The fatwa committee also ruled that custody should automatically be granted to the mother if she is still breastfeeding the child.
The edict, which was passed by the state Islamic religious council recently, is also a general guide for Muslim parents, who often feel guilty for giving up custody to a non-Muslim spouse, according to the report.
Custody battles of children in Malaysia involving Muslim convert and non-Muslim parents have always been messy with the authority of the civil courts and Shariah courts overlapping.
The most recent case being Muslim convert Izwan Abdullah’s fight against a custody order in favour of his Hindu ex-wife S. Deepa.
Deepa won custody of both her son and ten-year-old daughter Shamila at the Seremban High Court in April 7, but Izwan ― formerly Viran Nagapan ― snatched the boy from Deepa two days later.
Izwan has justified the snatching with a 2013 Shariah Court order that granted him custody of the two children after he had converted them to Islam unilaterally, but the civil courts had overturned the Shariah court’s custody order.
The case has ended at the Federal Court, although a decision has yet to be announced.Volume shadow copies can help you to:
recover a file, a directory or a volume, or Windows
find additional artifacts when conducting a live incident response.
It may be worth reading VISTA and Windows 7 Shadow Volume Forensics etc.
All the demos, I’ve seen so far were using the built-in DOS mklink command to mount a volume shadow copy and vssadmin to list shadow copies. While playing with vssadmin, I’ve found a use of case of the context parameter of the Select-String cmdlet.
vssadmin list shadows | Select-String -Pattern "shadow copies at creation time" -Context 0,3 | ForEach-Object { [pscustomobject]@{ Path = (($_.Context.PostContext -split "\r
")[2] -split ':')[1].Trim(); InstallDate = ($_.Line -split ':\s',2)[1]; } }
Ugly, I know. Let’s forget about this, there’s a very simple way return the list volume shadow copies on Windows as objects.
Last year, Boe Prox wrote an excellent article where he showed how to Create a Symbolic Link using PowerShell. Kudos to him, I’ll reuse his brilliant code 😀
Unfortunately, he didn’t show how to remove these symbolic links. The following MSDN article tells us how:
To remove a symbolic link, delete the file (using DeleteFile or similar APIs) or remove the directory (using RemoveDirectory or similar APIs) depending on what type of symbolic link is used.
Now let’s see what I propose to mount and dismount volume shadow copies:
Function Mount-VolumeShadowCopy { <#.SYNOPSIS Mount a volume shadow copy..DESCRIPTION Mount a volume shadow copy..PARAMETER ShadowPath Path of volume shadow copies submitted as an array of strings.PARAMETER Destination Target folder that will contain mounted volume shadow copies.EXAMPLE Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_ShadowCopy | Mount-VolumeShadowCopy -Destination C:\VSS -Verbose #> [CmdletBinding()] Param( [Parameter(Mandatory,ValueFromPipeline,ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName)] [ValidatePattern('\\\\\?\\GLOBALROOT\\Device\\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy\d{1,}')] [Alias("DeviceObject")] [String[]]$ShadowPath, [Parameter(Mandatory)] [ValidateScript({ Test-Path -Path $_ -PathType Container } )] [String]$Destination ) Begin { Try { $null = [mklink.symlink] } Catch { Add-Type @" using System; using System.Runtime.InteropServices; namespace mklink { public class symlink { [DllImport("kernel32.dll")] public static extern bool CreateSymbolicLink(string lpSymlinkFileName, string lpTargetFileName, int dwFlags); } } "@ } } Process { $ShadowPath | ForEach-Object -Process { if ($($_).EndsWith("\")) { $sPath = $_ } else { $sPath = "$($_)\" } $tPath = Join-Path -Path $Destination -ChildPath ( '{0}-{1}' -f (Split-Path -Path $sPath -Leaf),[GUID]::NewGuid().Guid ) try { if ( [mklink.symlink]::CreateSymbolicLink($tPath,$sPath,1) ) { Write-Verbose -Message "Successfully mounted $sPath to $tPath" } else { Write-Warning -Message "Failed to mount $sPath" } } catch { Write-Warning -Message "Failed to mount $sPath because $($_.Exception.Message)" } } } End {} } Function Dismount-VolumeShadowCopy { <#.SYNOPSIS Dismount a volume shadow copy..DESCRIPTION Dismount a volume shadow copy..PARAMETER Path Path of volume shadow copies mount points submitted as an array of strings.EXAMPLE Get-ChildItem -Path C:\VSS | Dismount-VolumeShadowCopy -Verbose #> [CmdletBinding()] Param( [Parameter(Mandatory,ValueFromPipeline,ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName)] [Alias("FullName")] [string[]]$Path ) Begin { } Process { $Path | ForEach-Object -Process { $sPath = $_ if (Test-Path -Path $sPath -PathType Container) { if ((Get-Item -Path $sPath).Attributes -band [System.IO.FileAttributes]::ReparsePoint) { try { [System.IO.Directory]::Delete($sPath,$false) | Out-Null Write-Verbose -Message "Successfully dismounted $sPath" } catch { Write-Warning -Message "Failed to dismount $sPath because $($_.Exception.Message)" } } else { Write-Warning -Message "The path $sPath isn't a reparsepoint" } } else { Write-Warning -Message "The path $sPath isn't a directory" } } } End {} }
Let’s see these two functions in action:
Mount all volume shadow copies
Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_ShadowCopy | Mount-VolumeShadowCopy -Destination C:\VSS -Verbose
Dismount all volume shadow copies mount points located in C:\VSS
Get-ChildItem -Path C:\VSS | Dismount-VolumeShadowCopy -Verbose
PowerShell rocks! No doubt 😎
AdvertisementsIn most OECD countries, the gap between rich and poor is at its highest level since 30 years. Today, the richest 10 per cent of the population in the OECD area earn 9.5 times the income of the poorest 10 per cent; in the 1980s this ratio stood at 7:1 and has been rising continuously ever since. However, the rise in overall income inequality is not (only) about surging top income shares: often, incomes at the bottom grew much slower during the prosperous years and fell during downturns, putting relative (and in some countries, absolute) income poverty on the radar of policy concerns. This paper explores whether such developments may have an impact on economic performance.
Drawing on harmonised data covering the OECD countries over the past 30 years, the econometric analysis suggests that income inequality has a negative and statistically significant impact on subsequent growth. In particular, what matters most is the gap between low income households and the rest of the population. In contrast, no evidence is found that those with high incomes pulling away from the rest of the population harms growth. The paper also evaluates the “human capital accumulation theory” finding evidence for human capital as a channel through which inequality may affect growth. Analysis based on micro data from the Adult Skills Survey (PIAAC) shows that increased income disparities depress skills development among individuals with poorer parental education background, both in terms of the quantity of education attained (e.g. years of schooling), and in terms of its quality (i.e. skill proficiency). Educational outcomes of individuals from richer backgrounds, however, are not affected by inequality.
It follows that policies to reduce income inequalities should not only be pursued to improve social outcomes but also to sustain long-term growth. Redistribution policies via taxes and transfers are a key tool to ensure the benefits of growth are more broadly distributed and the results suggest they need not be expected to undermine growth. But it is also important to promote equality of opportunity in access to and quality of education. This implies a focus on families with children and youths – as this is when decisions about human capital accumulation are made -- promoting employment for disadvantaged groups through active labour market policies, childcare supports and in-work benefits.SAN JOSE — Police are asking for the public’s help identifying a man who robbed a 7-Eleven last summer near San Jose State University.
San Jose police released a video of the robbery, which occurred Aug. 29 at the 7-Eleven on 452 E. Santa Clara St. In the video, a man walks into the store, pulls out a handgun and points it at the clerk. The clerks opens the register and hands over an undisclosed amount of cash.
A second suspect stood outside the front of the store as a look-out, according to police. Both suspects fled the store on mountain bikes and were last seen southbound on 11th Street from Santa Clara.
Related Articles San Jose man sentenced to 13 years in drug distribution plot
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Hayward man suspected of DUI in San Bruno rear-end crash The first suspect is described as a Hispanic man between the ages of 35 and 40. He had black hair, a goatee, black pants, a black jacket with possible security guard patches, black shoes with white soles and tan gloves. He was riding a silver-colored mountain bike.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Mike Drago of the San Jose Police Department’s Robbery Unit at 408-277-4166. Persons wishing to remain anonymous can call the Crime Stoppers Tip Line at 408-947-STOP (7867).
Persons providing information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspects may be eligible for a cash reward from the Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers.Late last year Pine64 unveiled plans to release a cheap Linux laptop with a starting price of $89.
While the Pinebook isn’t available for purchase yet, it looks like some developers have gotten their hands on pre-release versions of the laptop.
As spotted by Gamehelp.guru, some real-world photos have been posted to the Linux Sunxi website, along with more details about the computer’s specs.
The Linux Sunxi community is focused on bringing open source software to computers with Allwinner’s ARM-based processors, so the Pinebook seems right up the group’s alley.
The Pinebook features an Allwinner A64 ARM Cortex-A53 quad-core 64-bit processor. It also has 2GB of RAM, 16GB of eMMC 5.0 storage, 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, two USB 2.0 ports, a mini HDMI jack, and a microSD card slot.
Pine64 will offer two models: an 11.6 inch version with an $89 price tag and a $99 model with a 14 inch screen. Both HD displays.
While the official spec sheet for the laptop says it features a 1280 x 720 pixel IPS display, the Linux Sunxi site says the current version actually has a 1366 x 768 pixel TN screen. It’s unclear if that will change in the final design.
Also according to Linux Sunxi, 11.6 inch Pinebook measures about 11.8″ x 7.9″ x 0.9″ while the larger version is 13.9″ x 9.2″ x 0.9″.
You can also find more details about the specific hardware in a series of posts at the Linux Sunxi Google group. There’s no word on what kind of performance we should expect from this cheap Linux laptop yet though.Okay, people. You are not going to believe why I'm late today. Sheila? Come on in here. Sorry about this, but you gotta get in here. Shondra? Harold? Can you hear me over there? Maybe you should move a little closer. Get Emmelyn in here, too. I don't want anyone to miss this. In fact, get Colleen on speaker phone. She's going to love this.
Okay. Is everyone here? Good. This shouldn't take long.
I know you thought you'd heard it all a couple weeks ago, when I was late because my fish flopped out of the tank. Then there was the time in February, when I was halfway to work, spilled hot coffee all over myself, and had to go to the doctor. Whoo! That was no fun. Oh, and last Monday: I forgot my work keys, went home to get them, got back to the office, and realized I had the wrong set.
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I won't even mention the Bee Allergy False Alarm, the Zipper Crisis, or the now-famous Cardigan Incident. You've heard the rest, and now here's the best. I hope your shoes are tied, because this is going to knock your socks off!
Are you ready? You sure? Here we go, coworkers.
You all know how I get to work, right? Train to the bus, walk four blocks, and I'm there. Well, I've been thinking that I should get more exercise, so I decided to alter my route a little. Instead of taking the train to the bus, I decided to take the train to the Grant Avenue stop, transfer to another train, and then walk seven blocks.
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Oh, come on in, Kyle. Grab a seat.
So, it's train a little farther, transfer, walk seven blocks. It would only take five minutes longer than my usual route, and I'd squeeze in a little exercise. At least, that's how it would go under perfect conditions. But when do things ever go perfectly?
Are you all still with me? I don't want to lose anyone and have to back up and repeat myself. That wouldn't be fair to everyone else.
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Anyway, I was on the train headed downtown to Grant Avenue but, since I was breaking my usual routine, I got confused and a little panicky and went one stop too far. I don't know what was going on in my head. I got out and tried to transfer to the uptown train, but I wound up on the crosstown express. I must have been riding for 10 minutes before I recognized my mistake.
Hey, can I get a water over here? I want to be in top form for the finish. Thanks, Donna, appreciate it. Okay, back in.
By the time I realized what I'd done, I was already 10 minutes late. I decided, you know, screw the exercise, I've got to get to work. So I got off at the next stop and tried to catch a cab. But I was in a desolate part of town, and there weren't a lot of cabs, right? Just when I was about to give up and go back to the train, a cab pulled up out of nowhere. I thought it was my lucky day—but no trip to work could ever be so lucky.
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Now, hang on. It really gets sort of bizarre here. This is the part, on the way up in the elevator, that I was thinking no one would believe. Ready? Okay, let's do it.
We started moving, but I could tell the driver was in some sort of mood. He was on the phone with someone, and his voice kept rising until he was in a full yell. Suddenly, he jerked the wheel, pulled over to the curb, and started screaming even louder into his phone—not even words, just screams.
I thought I was going to be murdered by a cab-driving maniac!
Now, assembled employees, I assure you this is all true.
The driver hung up the phone, and we just sat there for a few seconds. I didn't say anything; he didn't say anything. Then he reached up, shut off the meter, and said, "No charge." I was still two blocks away from the office, but I sure as hell wasn't going to complain. I got out of the cab, and he peeled off.
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So I walked the two blocks, and I'm here. And there it is.
Was that not an amazing series of events, culminating in my 70-minute lateness? Have you ever heard an excuse like that in this office, or in any other office, before? Has the 12th floor ever been graced with such a tale? I told you it'd be good. Was I right, or was I right?
Well, see you all at lunch.Do you like sports?
Do you like watching a lot of sports? At the same time?
ESPN wants to help you — if you subscribe to a pay TV service that has ESPN and if you have the most recent version of Apple TV.
If you meet those conditions, you can go try out a new version of the ESPN app that will let you watch up to four different streams on one screen.
I haven’t tried it myself yet, but I watched a demo this week, and it seems pretty self-explanatory. You can select anything that ESPN is showing via the app — both the “real” ESPN programming as well as any digital-only streams they’re offering, and you can swap out different configurations pretty easily.
This isn’t the first app to use the “multicast” feature in Apple TV — there’s an MLB app, for instance, that lets you watch two screens at once. But this one is pretty slick:
First question: Other than demoing it to reporters or your friends, why would you want to watch four screens of ESPN simultaneously?
Answer: During Saturdays in the fall, when ESPN has paid a ton of money to show you college football and when it will air up to 55 games in a day, says Ryan Spoon, who runs digital for ESPN.
Next question: Really? I mean, someone probably wants to do this. But a lot of people? Like, more than 10 percent of the audience who has ESPN and the latest edition of Apple TV? Enough to appeal to the core subscribers you have to keep?
Answer: “I would be disappointed if it’s 10 percent. I would think it would be a significant percentage.”
Last question: Okay. I guess it’s like being at a sports bar, but you don’t have to put on pants. So will this feature be a core part of the new ESPN subscription service you guys are going to (finally) launch next year?
Answer: You think ESPN is going to talk about that in advance? Funny.By
Deep in the Cambodian countryside, minefields still exist. (Photo: Andre Vltchek)
Andre Vltchek
New Eastern Outlook
I have already written a lot about Cambodia, but each time I return to this ancient and scarred country, I get so outraged by the cynicism that confronts me there, at every corner, that I have to start writing again, re-addressing the same essential issues that I have already been covering for years and decades.
One question always comes back to my mind:
‘How could a nation that suffered so much, losing hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of sons and daughters (official number stands at 1.7 million), accept a totally twisted narrative fabricated in Washington, London, Paris and other Western capitals? And not only ‘accept’ – Cambodia is actually profiting greatly from helping to spread vitriolic anti-Communist propaganda on behalf of its lethal handlers.’
Amputees. (Photo: Andre Vltchek)
In all the bookstores around the country, the official Western propaganda narrative (‘Khmer Rouge killed them all’ – style) is on display and on sale: Pol Pot’s biographies, gruesome accounts from the so-called Killing Fields, from the torture chambers at the former high school ‘S-21’ in Phnom Penh, as well as countless and detailed testimonies of the victims.
US tourists are told what they pay to hear. (Photo: Andre Vltchek)
I asked the owner of a bookshop in Siem Reap:
“What about some books about the atrocities committed by the West? Do you have some volumes about the U.S. carpet bombing of Cambodian countryside, which alone killed several hundreds of thousands of people?”
“Me, not have,” she replied, somehow defiantly.
“Do you have books about how millions of Cambodian people were displaced by the carpet bombing of the U.S. and its allies; how they were forced to flee because of unexploded bombs and so-called ‘bombies’? Anything about those people starving to death?”
“No have,” came the answer.
“Why not?” I asked, politely.
“I don’t know”, she said, by now clearly annoyed.
Outside, my local driver was ready to pitch his services, taking me around, in search of the minefields. He thought I was European. “Chinese mines, Russian mines…” He took long breath, made dramatic pause, and exhaled: “Khmer Rouge no good.”
Instead of engaging in a historical debate, I simply asked: “This city – Siem Reap – has 230,000 inhabitants. Is it producing anything?”
The driver hesitated for a while:
“Why should we produce anything? It is cheaper to import goods from Thailand, China and Vietnam. Well, there is some farming outside of the city…”
He was correct. I checked several sources. Even Wikipedia describes the situation in no uncertain terms:
Economy: Tourism is a very important aspect of the economy of Siem Reap – it was estimated in 2010 that over 50% of jobs in the town were related to the tourism industry… A large number of NGOs and other not-for profit organizations operate in and around Siem Reap, and they play a vital role in the economy, as well as helping to develop it for the future. Thousands of expatriates call the city home and they also have a significant impact on the economy…
Maximizing profits at the Killing Fields. (Photo: Andre Vltchek)
Siem Reap is fully dependent on Westerners; on millions of tourists visiting the nearby Angkor, but also on the ‘experts’ who come here to tell locals how to run their communities, how to think and how to perceive their own present and the past.
The entire country is dependent on handouts, and shamelessly subservient. Most of its teachers, journalists and artists are producing what they are told to produce, say what they are expected to say. Most of them have already lost ability to form their own opinion.
EU and Cambodia are best friends. (Photo:Andre Vltchek)
What I never told my driver was that I had already covered almost the entire country, for more than 20 years, visiting all of its corners, talking to the victims, to former Khmer Rouge soldiers, even to personal Pol Pot’s guards. I worked in the minefields near Vietnam, and on Thai-Khmer border, and at the ill-fated and until now disputed temple of Preah Vihear. In Cambodia, like in Rwanda, I wanted to understand how the Western narrative is born, how it gets manufactured, how it gets alimented and finally, how it domesticates, managing to dominate the brains of people all over the world.
San Reoung was a former guard of Ta Mok. (Photo: Andre Vltchek)
When in 2014 I was visiting a stronghold of the former commander Ta Mok (once a right-hand man of Pol Pot, who later split the Khmer Rouge movement) deep in a jungle, a friend of mine – a leading international lawyer Christopher Black – contributed to my report, basically confirming what many victims in Cambodia had already said to me:
“The UN-backed war crimes trials of Khmer Rouge leaders are show trials designed to once again demonize communists, and to scapegoat them for the millions of Cambodians who were killed by the American bombing of Cambodia. What the world needs are trials of the American leaders and officers for war crimes for the carpet-bombing of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. (We had the Bertrand Russell war Crimes Tribunal in the 70s but it could not enforce its judgments).”
San Reoung, a former personal security man of Mr. Ta Mok, confirmed that all that propaganda about ‘Communist massacres’ by Khmer Rouge was absolute nonsense:
“It was really not about the ideology… We did not know much about it. I was, for instance, very angry with the Americans. I became a soldier at the age of 17. And my friends were very angry, too. They joined Khmer Rouge to fight Americans, and especially the corruption of their puppet dictator Lon Nol, in Phnom Penh.”
Had the killings taken place; did people die during the Khmer Rouge reign? But of course! But the proportions were totally different: many more died because of the bombings and starvation, which followed the displacement of the peasants. In the area of the so-called Killing Fields, 20,000 graves were found. That is a lot; that is truly terrible. But we were told that 1.7 million Cambodian people died. The numbers somehow do not match. The B-52’s were clearly incomparably deadlier than the rifle butts of Khmer Rouge.
After almost a quarter of a century, I’m convinced that since I first began writing about Cambodia, the world public is fully and irreversibly indoctrinated by clichés and half-truths coming from Western mainstream media and academia.
It is time to revisit a few facts and testimonies that I collected in the past. Some of them are already included in my book “Exposing Lies of the Empire”.
After one of the visits to the notorious and above-mentioned ‘S-21’, I wrote:
“After Vietnam ousted Khmer Rouge from Phnom Penh at the end of 1978, this torture center was converted to a ‘Museum of genocide’ by the Vietnamese and East Germans, who were using their experience from setting up Auschwitz Museum in Poland. They kept interrogation cells (originally classrooms) intact, with bloodstained floors, chains and shackles, as well as primitive machines for electric shocks. Thousands of black and white photographs of inmates eerily stare at visitors, their eyes expressing horror and resignation.
Some of the most terrifying images are those created by Vann Nath, a painter and former prisoner of S-21, one of the very few who managed to survive because of his talent and ability to draw compliment |
better optics, faster processors and biometric security sensors, you’d think they’d be getting more expensive. But they aren’t, in fact they’re getting cheaper. In 1960, a young computing engineer from the University of Pennsylvania introduced us to the concept of “scaling”. Douglas Engelbart hypothesised that as electronic circuits were made smaller, the components would not only become faster and need less power but they would become cheaper as well.
Gordon Moore, founder of the Intel Corporation would prove Engelbart right and Moore’s Law, his namesake economic theory also confirmed that technology would double in efficiency while dropping in price as production methodology improved and from computers to cars, it has held true except for one industry – watches. Therein lies the paradox of watchmaking: shouldn’t watches be getting cheaper as watchmaking technology improves?
When Abraham-Louis Breguet started us on the path of Breguet overcoils, Breguet numerals, tourbillons and functional decoration in the 1800s, watches were about as hand-made as they could get. There were no machines. You only had tools and you used them. Material sciences were so primitive, all manner of decoration had to be applied to ensure your watches weren’t rusting out a year later; components were so crudely cut and drilled that you finished screw sink holes and edges to make sure things fit right and ran correctly and efficiently with as little energy loss as possible.
When Jean-Richard arrived on the scene and improved efficiency of production, the methods were still tediously by hand, only better organised with armies of part-time watchmakers working cooperatively. The Industrial Revolution was when things really changed. The Railroad watch from Hamilton is literally an emblem for the age, invented in the time of railway networks, the steam engine necessitated precision on an unprecedented scale; once, it was unnecessary to keep uniform time because it was rare to cross timezones in a single day on foot or by horseback. With trains, changing timezones between towns and cities made the commercial enterprise of the transportation business a customer service nightmare – with missed trains, late connections, business necessity encouraged the Railroad watch and the growth spurt of functional chronometry.
The Paradox of Watchmaking: Shouldn’t Watches be Getting Cheaper with Improved Technology?
Fast forward 400 years later and the bulk of watches today aren’t hand-made but the answer isn’t as obvious or intuitive as it should be. Let’s consider two ends of the industrial spectrum – Rolex and Seiko.
There’s going to be little argument that at 770,000 watches produced annually (extrapolated from indie business reports) or close to 1,000,000 (according to numbers of Rolex watches submitted for COSC grading), that Rolex is simply one of the biggest and arguably the best producers of serially made, moderately to expensive mechanical watches on the market today. While the Rolex manufacture in Bienne is highly automated and producing numbers of watches which far outstrip many other Swiss watchmakers, Rolex continues to be priced at values above what Joe Street can afford and that’s for one simple reason – Rolex tends to stay at the forefront of technology.
For starters, Rolex watches are more complicated to machine (as Jeff Parke will attest to) simply because their grade of 904L steel just makes it more complicated to cut and shape than regular 316L steel. Parke, the Rolex engraving specialist we recently covered uses special carbide tools to cut into 904L, extrapolate that to the hundreds of thousands of watches and you’d be wondering why Rolex watches aren’t more expensive.
When you compare the scale of what Rolex does and how Rolex does it, their watches start looking competitively priced in comparison. Rolex watches aren’t just chronometers because COSC says so, they’re Superlative Chronometers because they’re tested a second time to a precision of -2/+2 seconds a day, beating COSC standards of -4/+6 seconds per day. We haven’t even begun to talk about material R&D, movement R&D, in-house manufacturing and smelting and then hand assembly.
What about Seiko and their vaunted Seiko 5? They’re a great example of technological improvements in manufacturing making production cheaper. For those unfamiliar, Seiko 5 is named for 5 attributes:
Automatic Movement Water Resistant Shock Resistant Day Function Date Function
While there are exceptions to this rule like the new Seiko 5s driven by 7s25 movements without date functions, the concept was introduced in the 70s when a mechanical watch with all those attributes was pricey. “5” became a cool marketing tool to communicate the superiority of a Seiko. Today, the cost of a Seiko 5 rarely exceeds $150 but at that price, there are drawbacks, chiefly you can’t manually wind most of them. The power reserve is not ideal and the default bracelet that comes with it is rather flimsy. Thus, while Rolex and Seiko are representative of what can be done industrially at differing spectrums of quality, they don’t quite explain the gravity defying paradox of luxury watchmaking.
Though many production have reached a mechanised epitome since the days of Longines, Omega and Zenith, there’s still an incredible complexity in conceptualising the watch, architecture of the movement and then putting it together. At higher levels of watchmaking, the greater the automation, the more important it is to invest in the brains in designing the process to run it, just ask Hans Wilsdorf. More importantly, increasing automation has led to another opposing fall in the availability of skill sets to do the work necessary in the execution of haute horlogerie.
Machines serve to make “Hand Made” even more expensive due to rarity of labour
When mechanisation is the norm, hand-made becomes rarer because the jobs that were available, just aren’t there anymore; so, while watchmaking has picked up over the last 20 years, the labour force which used to serve the industry pre-Quartz crisis just isn’t there anymore. In that sense, the atelier style of watchmaking like what Breguet practiced centuries ago becomes expensive with the confluence of rarity and cost of labour. To wit, Roger Smith and his namesake brand produces 12 watches a year, finished to the highest standards.
Mechanisation also serves to feed appreciation for hand-crafts and the artisans who practice it still. Thus a watchmaker like Kari Voutilainen becomes an artist on the level of Michaelangelo rather than a simple “producer of watches” – than change of status is crucial in that Voutilainen is no longer a maker, he is an artist. Thus, while the base materials like brass and steel components might not be expensive, the slavish application of skill and technique transforms and elevates simple material and construction into something undeniably evolved.
That’s not to say that industrial improvements and automation haven’t filtered down at all. At its most basic level, a company like Seiko (being thoroughly Japanese) can expect to trial and adopt new levels of automation in the execution of their watchmaking crafts. Grand Feu Enamel dials, a metiers d’art once the purview of only the highest practitioners of high horology are now available in machine made forms and now widely available in Seiko’s mid-tier Pressage line of watches. That said, it’s a proprietary process which is still very much secret, leaving brands like Vacheron Constantin and Patek Philippe to practice the age-old hand-made process, relatively unchanged from how the original enamel dials were made.
That is not to say that the enamel dials in the Seiko Pressage range are bad or poor. Seiko enamel dials are made by a master craftsman like Mitsuru Yokozawa and his team and they are quality controlled and made to the highest details; the only thing which differs is the production methodology and given our psychological preference for history and provenance, most consumers give these qualities greater weight in value and deference.
Yet, for all their mastery of industrial production and techniques, Seiko is Japan’s premier practitioner of high horology as evident in their Credor Eichi line. A pair of mortal hands has built and finished a watch to standards which approach and at times, exceed the capacity of a machine or robot.
The existence of mechanised automation only stands in reflection of the stark contrast of the value of work done by hand, a Seiko Credor Eichi II will sell for high five figures much in the same way a Monet auctions for millions over a reproduction at Ikea. At technology (and at times the genius of certain watchmakers) might reduce the costs of constructing a tourbillon, it is only logical sense based on pure fundamental economics that the rarity of superlative hand-finishing will only be possible by a handful of talented and skilled artisans. In that sense, the laws of supply (or lack thereof) and demand will ultimately tilt the cost of these productions into the higher end of the spectrum.Google just announced a purchase of Nest Labs, creator of the Nest thermostat and smoke detector for a sum of $3.2 billion. Larry Page commends the creators of Nest products in a press release distributed today for their “amazing products” and energy efficiency. We just reviewed the Nest thermostat today prior to finding this out, and we’re thinking the Google giant will breathe new life into their products, which currently lack access to some of the most interesting data points in their use. Of course, if Google wasn’t the center of your livlihood already, conspiracy theorists are arguing on Twitter that Google now knows when you’re home and when you’re sleeping. Food for Big Brother thought. Check out the full press release below:
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA – JANUARY 13, 2014 — Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) announced today that it has entered into an agreement to buy Nest Labs, Inc. for $3.2 billion in cash.
Nest’s mission is to reinvent unloved but important devices in the home such as thermostats and smoke alarms. Since its launch in 2011, the Nest Learning Thermostat has been a consistent best seller–and the recently launched Protect (Smoke + CO Alarm) has had rave reviews.
Larry Page, CEO of Google, said: “Nest’s founders, Tony Fadell and Matt Rogers, have built a tremendous team that we are excited to welcome into the Google family. They’re already delivering amazing products you can buy right now–thermostats that save energy and smoke/CO alarms that can help keep your family safe. We are excited to bring great experiences to more homes in more countries and fulfill their dreams!”
Tony Fadell, CEO of Nest, said: “We’re thrilled to join Google. With their support, Nest will be even better placed to build simple, thoughtful devices that make life easier at home, and that have a positive impact on the world.”
Nest will continue to operate under the leadership of Tony Fadell and with its own distinct brand identity. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including the receipt of regulatory approvals in the US. It is expected to close in the next few months.Notice: Please activate the key on the official website of the manufacturer and download the game via the Rockstar Social Club.
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About This Game
Partner with legendary impresario Tony Prince to open and operate a top shelf Nightclub featuring world-class DJ acts Solomun, Tale Of Us, Dixon and The Black Madonna, and use it as a front for the most concentrated network of criminal enterprise ever to hit San Andreas.
When a young street hustler, a retired bank robber and a terrifying psychopath find themselves entangled with some of the most frightening and deranged elements of the criminal underworld, the U.S. government and the entertainment industry, they must pull off a series of dangerous heists to survive in a ruthless city in which they can trust nobody, least of all each other.
Mature Content Description
This Game may contain content not appropriate for all ages, or may not be appropriate for viewing at work: General Mature Content.
System Requirements
MINIMUM:via @chernykh
NBA fans haven't heard from Stephon Marbury in recent years, but the folks over in China still get to see him play basketball.
Well, they get to see him when he's allowed in the arena.
Marbury recently missed 22 games with an injury, according to BeijingCream's Nick Bedard. When he finally returned to the court for the Beijing Ducks against the Shandong Flaming Bulls, he didn't even make it through the entire game.
The point guard was ejected after being involved in a skirmish late in the third quarter:
Bedard provided an explanation as to what happened:
Fans become all the more aggravated when officials announce that Marbury has been ejected from the game. He was assessed a technical foul on the initial drive to the hoop (a confusing, terrible call), then another technical for throwing a punch. There’s more to this story: while officials were sorting out free throws, Shandong forward Donnell Harvey engaged Marbury’s trainer in a bit of trash talk, with the two apparently agreeing to meet after the game to throw down.
Following the game, the teams also reportedly exchanged shoves while heading to their locker rooms.
Blogger Alexander Chernykh tweeted out some interesting sights from the incident:
The Ducks managed to pull out a 99-95 victory despite not having Marbury for the final quarter.
[BeijingCream, h/t SI's Extra Mustard]“Better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing flawlessly.” ~Robert H. Schuller
In March this year, I did something I had wanted to do since the age of nine: I had my first piano lesson. At the time I was nearly thirty-five, so it had only taken me twenty-six years to get around to it.
Why the delay? Well, when I was little, we couldn’t afford lessons, but looking back I see that was only an excuse until I got my first part-time job at sixteen—which means that the last nineteen years of procrastinating were entirely down to me.
Over those years, thoughts of playing the piano had come back to me on quite a few occasions.
Whenever I talked about it with anyone, we would usually end up agreeing that either it would be too expensive or that I was now just too old. After all, piano lessons are for kids, and posh kids at that.
Then, one day, I heard that the TV presenter Jonathan Ross was learning to play. He wasn’t posh! And he was older than me! If he could do it, surely I could too. After hearing this, I decided I’d really have to start thinking about having lessons.
And I did—think about it, I mean. I thought about it a lot. Every time I saw Jonathan Ross on TV, every time I met someone who could play the piano, every time I saw a piano, every time I heard the word “piano.”
“One day I’ll learn,” I’d think, “when I have more money.”
Then, when I was teaching in Italy, a golden opportunity came my way: one of my students was a piano teacher. I was very excited when she told me this and instantly told her that I’d love to be able to play.
Guess what? She offered to give me a lesson. For free! I leapt at the chance and rushed to her house first thing the next morning. Of course, I didn’t really do that. That’s what I should have done.
Instead, I told her I thought it would be easier for children and asked her if it would be difficult to learn at my age.
“Maybe,” she said, and that was that. We quickly forgot all about it and the idea was pushed aside once more, with me safe in the knowledge that there really was nothing I could do about it.
Fast-forward about seven years and I was teaching a group of mixed nationality students in Bournemouth, England. At one point a student asked me if I played an instrument.
I gave him my usual answer: “No, but I’ve always wanted to be able to play the piano.” He smiled at me and asked, “What have you done to make your dream come true?”
I was slightly stunned by this question. Not only did I realize I had done nothing, but I hadn’t really thought of it as a dream before; I just thought it was something that I’d quite like to do, if only I could.
But it was a dream. It had come back to me again and again. Why hadn’t I done something about it? Why couldn’t I do it? What was stopping me?
I would like to be able to tell you that I ran home and found myself a teacher right away, but I didn’t.
It wasn’t until a few months later that I finally went for it. I was writing a list of all the things I’d like to start doing in my free time and again, piano lessons were on my list. My student’s words rang in my ears: “What have you done to make your dream come true?”
“Right! That’s it!” I thought. Turning to my trusty friend, Google, I did a search on “piano teachers in Bournemouth” and found one who lived five minutes from my flat.
What’s more, she gave free trial lessons. I had nothing to lose. I emailed her right away and booked a lesson for later that week.
Eight months and a few “good job” stickers later, I am quite amazed by how much I’ve learned in such a short space of time. But one question still bothers me: Why did it take me so long?
It wasn’t the money; I could have had free lessons in Italy. It wasn’t a lack of a good teacher; I hadn’t even tried to look for one before. When I finally did, she lived a stone’s throw away from my flat.
What it really boiled down to was this: I was scared.
I was scared that I wouldn’t be good enough, posh enough, young enough, confident enough, and Lord-knows-what-else enough to learn how to play a musical instrument. People like me just didn’t do that sort of thing.
How many of us do this? How many people put off doing the things we want to do through fear of failure or being ridiculed?
What was the worst thing that could have happened? I would have been a rubbish piano player, that’s all. And only my teacher would have known.
Why do we do it? Why are we so afraid of stepping out of our comfort zone?
Because that’s just what it is. It’s comforting; we know what’s going to happen. There’s minimal stress involved; we’re safe.
We’re also most probably, bored rigid. Staying in our comfort zone doesn’t allow us to grow into the people we were meant to be.
Why is it so important to do that thing you’ve always wanted to do?
Learning to play an instrument is hard, but not as hard as I thought it would be. Seeing that you have the ability to do something that you didn’t think possible helps to boost your confidence and leads you to think, “Hang on a minute; what else could I do?”
Nowadays, I’m busy taking my first baby steps toward self-employment and getting my writing out to the world. I’m fully invested in going for my dream.
While that’s not entirely because of the piano lessons, they have helped give me the confidence to see that I can do whatever I put my mind to.
It’s never too late (except that sometimes, it kind of is).
I was originally going to title this post something like “It’s never too late to…” but then I realized that’s not entirely true.
The truth is, none of us know how long we have, or what condition our health will be in if we do reach old age.
You never know when the chance will pass you by completely.
And while I’m happy with my progress, as I practice my latest masterpiece in the hope of another sticker, I can’t help but wonder what I could be playing by now if I’d started earlier.
So my message is simple: Whatever you want to do, go for it, whether it’s pottery, rock-climbing, tap dancing, or knitting.
Think of the worst thing that could happen, which will probably be that you’ll be no good.
So what?
You have everything to gain and nothing to lose.
There’s no reason not to go for that thing you’ve always wanted to do.
Photo by Alex Indigo
About Louise Watson Louise Watson is a writer and meditation teacher living in Hampshire, UK.For the New Zealand whaler and trader, see Dicky Barrett (trader)
Richard Michael Barrett (born June 22, 1964), better known as Dicky Barrett, is an American singer who is the frontman of Ska punk band The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and the announcer for Jimmy Kimmel Live!. Barrett is known for his distinctive loud, gravelly voice.
Personal life [ edit ]
Born in Providence, Rhode Island, Barrett attended Norwood Junior High School and Xaverian Brothers High School in Massachusetts. He left Xaverian Brothers High School and went on to Norwood Senior High Norwood, MA and later Bunker Hill Community College where he met Bosstones drummer Joe Sirois. He now lives in Los Angeles. He has mentioned that he is an Irish Catholic.[1] He married Rosemary in 2002.
Music [ edit ]
Prior to his association with the Bosstones, Barrett played in the local Boston area bands Cheapskates, Toxic Toast (as mentioned in Michael Patrick MacDonald's book Easter Rising: An Irish American Coming Up from Under), and Impact Unit.
Barrett has spent the majority of his musical career playing with the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. He appeared on eight full-length albums, three EPs and a live album with the Bosstones, as well as touring continuously throughout the world, until the band's announcement of a hiatus in December 2003. The band's 1997 release, Let's Face It, would prove to be the band's biggest break, mostly due to the first single "The Impression That I Get," which charted at number one on the Billboard charts.
In 2003, Barrett began working on an untitled solo album. The album was said to be a radical departure from the ska-core sound made popular by the Bosstones. Barrett was quoted as saying that the album will be "more sombre, darker".[2] Fellow Bosstone, Lawerence Katz, was said to be assisting Barrett with the recording of the album. However, there has been no further mention of the album, and it's uncertain whether the album will be released.
Barrett appeared on two Brain Failure tracks, which are featured on their split entitled "Beijing to Boston" with Big D and the Kids Table.
Barrett had guest vocals on the Street Dogs song "Justifiable Fisticuffs" from their first album Savin Hill, on The Gaslight Anthem song "The Patient Ferris Wheel" from their album The '59 Sound, on "Charge into The Sun" from The Briggs' album Come All You Madmen, on The Unseen's cover of Paint It Black from the album State of Discontent, and also on H2O songs "Force Field" and "Faster Than The World" from their 1999 album F.T.T.W., as well as Rancid's songs "Cash, Culture and Violence" and "Black Lung" on their album Life Won't Wait. He also made guest appearances on tracks from No Use For A Name, Clowns For Progress, the Stubborn All-Stars, and local Boston band Darkbuster.
Barrett announced that the 10th official Hometown Throwdown would occur between December 26–30, 2007 at Cambridge, Massachusetts' famed Middle East. Barrett also confirmed that the Bosstones would be joining him. He seemed unwilling to confirm any long-term plans for the band. Aside from the 10th Throwdown, he performed with the rest of the Bosstones on New Year's Eve 2007 in Providence, RI.
The Bosstones returned to the recording studio to record three new songs, which were included with unreleased material and vinyl B-sides on a collection titled Medium Rare released on December 18, 2007.
Radio [ edit ]
Barrett became the host of his own radio show, the "Mighty Morning Show" on Los Angeles radio's Indie 103.1 FM from 2005 until his firing on March 22, 2006, under mysterious circumstances.[3]
He has been a regular on three of Boston's rock stations: WAAF, WBCN, and WFNX.
In 2005, it was rumored that Barrett would be Howard Stern's replacement at heritage rock station WBCN.[4]
On the April 13, 2009 episode of The Adam Carolla Podcast, Dicky Barrett was Adam's guest. Over the years, he has also been a regular guest on Adam's former show, Loveline.
He was a guest on Bill Simmons' The B.S. Report Podcast on December 8, 2009, with Cousin Sal and Super Dave Osborne.
On screen [ edit ]
Barrett first reached a national TV audience appearing in an ad for Converse shoes in 1991.[5] In the mid-1990s, Barrett appeared as a bus driver on the Nickelodeon show Bus No 9. In 1995, he appeared with the rest of the Bosstones in the film Clueless, playing in a fraternity party.
While Barrett was with the Bosstones he performed on several television shows, including Saturday Night Live, The Jon Stewart Show, as well as Sesame Street's Elmopalooza.
Barrett portrays a prison inmate in the unreleased 1999 film Big Helium Dog.
In 2004, after the Bosstones went on hiatus, Barrett became the announcer for ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live!. That year he also had a cameo role in the film Home of Phobia which was screened at the Sundance Film Festival.
Barrett has also done voice-over work for Minoriteam and appears in the documentary film American Hardcore. He has appeared on an episode of Criss Angel's Mind Freak. As well he portrayed rock pioneer Bill Haley in the miniseries Shake, Rattle, and Roll: An American Love Story.
Barrett in popular culture [ edit ]
In the April 2007 edition of Mad magazine, in the comic strip Monroe, the main character meets a school kid named Dicky Barrett. He looks strikingly similar to the real Dicky Barrett. This is owing to Barrett's association with fellow Kimmel staffer Anthony Barbieri, who writes the Monroe feature.David Cameron is facing growing discontent over the Coalition’s failure to cut immigration.
A senior Tory backbencher raised fears that Britain may be forced to accept a fresh wave of migrant workers from the European Union unless border controls are toughened.
Mark Pritchard, secretary of the 1922 Committee of Tory MPs, said more steps should be taken to achieve the Conservative pledge to curb the influx.
He claimed yesterday: “There’s a lot of tough talk on immigration, but not enough is being done to bring down numbers.”
He said little was being done to tackle “rampant abuse of family, work, and tourist visas” and that visas given non-EU citizens coming to Britain with EU relatives were “misused and misapplied on an industrial scale”.
Mr Pritchard feared rising unemployment across the EU could trigger a fresh wave of migration to Britain.
Yesterday contributors to leading Tory website ConservativeHome blamed the Lib Dems for blocking tighter border controls.Potholes are more than just a driving annoyance, they can actually damage a vehicle. So in addition to providing traffic warnings, Google now wants to use a car’s GPS navigation system to detect potholes on a road and use that info to plot a more comfortable route to a destination.
Hitting a particularly nasty pothole can throw off a vehicle’s steering alignment, or cause even worse damage. But they can also result in slower traffic as cars try to sneak around them on a busy road. So Google has filed a patent for a system that automatically monitors and reports on road quality, allowing the company to create a database of the smoothest roads in a city for improved navigation. And presumably, for also making it easier for Google’s tiny autonomous cars to get around.
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The vast majority of vehicles on the road already come with some sort of GPS-based navigation system, and when connected to motion sensors mounted somewhere in the vehicle, the devices could be used to collect info on where the vehicle is being bounced around, which indicates the presence of a pothole.
The system could easily be smart enough to ignore motion sensor data from a vehicle that’s driving off-road, based on its location. And as hundreds of vehicles report in, a fairly accurate map of the most pothole-riddled streets in a city could be accumulated, allowing Google Maps to provide a faster, and smoother, route to a destination.
[Free Patents Online via Autoblog]
Photo by Shutter Stock/Julien_NMatt Sullivan/Getty Images
The top two starting positions for the 2017 Daytona 500 were determined in qualifying, with Hendrick Motorsports teammates Chase Elliott and Dale Earnhardt Jr. starting first and second, respectively, but the rest of the field will be sorted out in Thursday's Can-Am Duels.
Each duel is comprised of 21 drivers, with their starting spots based on qualifying times. The winner of each duel will make up the second row for the Daytona 500, and the rest of field will be filled out in accordance with the finishing order of the duels.
The Can-Am Duels provide fans with an ideal preview for the Great American Race, and with four drivers competing for the final two spots in the field, there is added drama as well.
Ahead of Thursday's duels, here is a look at everything you need to know in order to watch, along with predictions for how each duel will play out.
Where: Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida
When: Thursday, Feb. 23 at 7 p.m. ET
TV: Fox Sports 1
Live Stream: Fox Sports Go
Duel 1 Lineup
Daytona Duel 1 Starting Order Position Driver 1 Chase Elliott 2 Brad Keselowski 3 Martin Truex Jr. 4 Kevin Harvick 5 Matt Kenseth 6 Kyle Busch 7 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 8 Daniel Suarez 9 Joey Logano 10 Trevor Bayne 11 Paul Menard 12 Jamie McMurray 13 Aric Almirola 14 Landon Cassill 15 Matt DiBenedetto 16 Chris Buescher 17 Brendan Gaughan 18 Cole Whitt 19 Reed Sorenson 20 Joey Gase 21 Corey LaJoie NASCAR.com
Duel 1 Prediction
With three career duel wins to his credit, Kyle Busch is the most successful Daytona Duel driver in the entire Duel 1 field.
He was victorious in a duel last year, and he enters this year's Daytona 500 with a great deal of focus on accomplishing one of the few accolades he has yet reach in the Cup Series.
As part of an interview on KyleBusch.com, Busch admitted that winning the Daytona 500 is his primary goal: "The No. 1, most important thing is trying to win the Daytona 500. After that, we will try to win the Coke 600 at Charlotte, or really any Cup race at Charlotte, which I haven't been able to do, yet. Past that, to be able to win at Pocono, which is the only other place besides Charlotte where I haven't won a Cup race."
He continued:
Winning at Martinsville and getting a Grandfather Clock and winning at Kansas, where I haven't been very good in my career, were both really special last year. Beyond that, I would certainly still like to win 200 overall NASCAR races, but that may be down the line a bit. Those are some of the bucket-list things that would be cool to accomplish someday. We still have plenty to accomplish but I'm excited to head back to Daytona and get a new year started. Hard to believe it's my ninth season with M&M's on board with me.
Busch won his first Cup Series championship two seasons ago, and winning the Daytona 500 would essentially lock him into a playoff spot for the 2017 campaign.
While some drivers may take a cautious approach Thursday in the name of preserving their cars and avoiding accidents, Busch has never been one to play it safe.
His aggressiveness doesn't always work out, but it is a huge reason why he is second among active drivers in career Cup Series wins.
With an eye toward entering victory lane on Sunday, look for the No. 18 car to cross the finish line first in the opening duel.
Duel 2 Lineup
Daytona Duel 2 Starting Order Position Driver 1 Dale Earnhardt Jr. 2 Clint Bowyer 3 Denny Hamlin 4 Kasey Kahne 5 Ryan Newman 6 Ty Dillon 7 Jimmie Johnson 8 Kyle Larson 9 Ryan Blaney 10 Erik Jones 11 Kurt Busch 12 Danica Patrick 13 Austin Dillon 14 AJ Allmendinger 15 Michael McDowell 16 David Ragan 17 Michael Waltrip 18 Elliott Sadler 19 D.J. Kennington 20 Jeffrey Earnhardt 21 Timmy Hill NASCAR.com
Duel 2 Prediction
After missing the final 18 races of 2016 due to concussion-like symptoms, Dale Jr. hit the ground running in his return to the track by seizing the No. 2 spot in Dayton 500 qualifying.
Despite his strong performance, Earnhardt admitted that he was somewhat disappointed by not getting the pole, according to Chase Wilhelm of FoxSports.com:
I'm not satisfied. I would have liked to get the pole. Relief that we're sort of in a favorable position being on the front row. I think the guys are a little bit disappointed. They really wanted to get the pole. I'm disappointed too, but am absolutely thrilled to have an all-Hendrick Motorsports front row.
Although Earnhardt fell just short of his goal, he maintained a positive attitude with regard to the job done by his team:
Earnhardt is locked in as the outside car on the front row, but Duel 2 provides him with an opportunity to gain even more momentum entering the Daytona 500.
No active driver has enjoyed more success in the duels than Dale Jr., as he has won on five occasions, including each of the past two years.
Earnhardt's comments after qualifying second suggest he is hungry to be the top dog, and that figures to carry over to Duel 2.
Although he has little to gain aside from pride, Earnhardt is ecstatic to be back on the race track, and he'll use that energy to carry him to another duel triumph.The April 4 viral video of a South Carolina police officer shooting a fleeing suspect has cost the cop his job and his freedom. But there's now another cost attached to the video, perhaps in the $10,000 range or more. A publicist for the man who captured the footage—which led to homicide charges against North Charleston officer Michael Slager— says news outlets must pay a licensing fee to carry the footage.
Australian publicist Max Markson, the chief executive of celebrity management firm Markson Sparks, told The New York Times that “I think that the people who might be put off by this are the media outlets that had it for free. Now they will have to pay.” Markson did not respond to Ars' requests for comment.
The New York Daily News said that Markson Sparks has sent cease-and-desist letters to several unnamed news outlets.
"It's been allowed to be used for free for over a week now," Markson said. "Now it's going to be licensed and now you have to pay for it."
However, at least in the United States, the media has a likely defense to claims of copyright infringement and might not have to pay a licensing fee to 23-year-old barber Feidin Santana.
The South Carolina man captured the three-minute-long footage of officer Slager shooting 50-year-old Walter Scott five times in the back. It's been watched on social media millions of times, in addition to having been repeatedly shown on broadcast and cable television. Santana turned the tape over to the Scott family after concluding that the police department's version of events didn't match what he witnessed.
"In the US, using the video of the shooting, a very newsworthy event, as part of news coverage is almost certainly a fair use, meaning no payment is required. Other countries vary," Mitch Stoltz, a copyright attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told Ars in an e-mail.
Under US copyright law, fair use is a defense to claims of copyright infringement. Judges usually consider "four factors" when deciding whether something is fair use, including its news value.
But as Stanford University Libraries points out, there is no clear-cut answer to the question of what constitutes fair use.
"Unfortunately, the only way to get a definitive answer on whether a particular use is a fair use is to have it resolved in federal court," Stanford says.
This isn't the first time that licensing fees were demanded about a police shooting, and it likely won't be the last as filming the police has seemingly become a national pastime overnight.
The most high-profile demand for payment involved the Rodney King beating, filmed in 1991 by plumber George Holliday before YouTube and the word "viral video" was around. Holliday sought $10,000 each from about 900 outlets that aired the video. KTLA-TV in Los Angeles, where Holliday first took the tape, paid Holliday $500. He eventually sued several outlets for a combined $100 million. But in the end, he said he made less than $10,000 for the nine-minute-long video.
Listing image by YouTubeThe acting administrator for the GSA had no direct answer when Rep. Jerrold Nadler pressed him about the potential Constitutional violation raised by the large sums of money foreign governments have paid to Trump Organization properties.
The ongoing, troubling saga of Donald Trump and the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution saw a new disturbing twist, courtesy of the acting administrator of the General Services Administration (GSA).
The massive potential for bribery from foreign governments patronizing Trump Organization properties was a concern from day one of Trump’s presidency, particularly centered around his hotel in the Old Post Office Pavilion, which is a federal government property.
As Shareblue noted in November 2016, “The contract, which is valued at $180,000,000, stipulates that no elected official can be party to or share in the lease.”
This significant snarl is the newest in a list of potential problems with this single property: Foreign diplomats have already indicated they believe they can curry favor with Trump by staying in the hotel, and properties branded with the name of the U.S. president risk becoming high-value targets for terrorist attacks.
And yet, despite a lawsuit filed on this issue by 196 Democratic members of Congress, it |
. Right wing neoliberal dogma was applied to the Ghanaian electricity market. Electricity was separated between production and distribution, and private sector Independent Power Producers introduced.
The result is disaster. There are more power cuts in Ghana than ever in its entire history as an independent state. Today Ghana is actually, at this moment, producing just 900 MW of electricity – half what it could produce ten years ago. This is not the fault of the NDC or the NPP. It is the fault of the IMF.
Those private sector Independent Power Producers actually provide less than 20% of electricity generation into the grid – yet scoop up over 60% of the revenues! The electricity bills of Ghana’s people go to provide profits to fat cat foreign corporations and of course the western banks who finance them.
Indeed in thirty years close experience the net result of all IMF activity in Africa is to channel economic resources to westerners – and not to ordinary western people, but to the wealthiest corporations and especially to western bankers.
Not content with the devastation they have already caused, the IMF and the USA are now insisting on the privatisation of ECG, the state utility body which provides electricity to the consumer and bills them. The rationale is that a privatised ECG will be more efficient and ruthless in collecting revenue from the poor and from hospitals, clinics, schools and other state institutions.
Doubtless it will be. It will of course be more efficient in channelling still more profits to very rich businessmen and bankers. I suspect that is the real point. That privatised utilities bring better service and cheaper prices to the consumer has been conclusively and forever disproven in the UK. What it does bring is huge profits to the rich and misery to the poor. To unleash this on Ghana is acutely morally reprehensible.
Ghana has a political culture in which the two main parties, NDC and NPP, heatedly blame each other for their country’s problems. But if they only can see it, in truth the electricity sector has been ruined by their common enemy – the IMF and World Bank. I pray that one day the country will escape the grip of these bloodsucking institutions.DES MOINES — There are 75 foods on a stick, including apple pie and gluten-free corn dogs. There is a cow sculpted from butter. And there are 18 presidential candidates in a bipartisan stampede to the Iowa State Fair — bringing their stump speeches, of course, but more important, aiming to prove their common touch in the ultimate venue for retail campaigning.
The 11-day fair at this midsummer point in the presidential campaign captures better than anything else the pure spectacle that has overtaken the volatile race in both parties. A Republican debate last week confirmed the disruptive power of Donald J. Trump, and the long-presumed probable Democratic nominee, Hillary Rodham Clinton, is feeling the heat from the enormous crowds drawn to Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
On Saturday at the fair here, Mr. Trump plans to arrive by helicopter, adding to visits planned by Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Sanders. The candidates have to be mindful of what they wear — jeans are in, chinos are out — and make sure they sample the Iowa delicacies, which are often packed with cholesterol. And then there are the hecklers.John Oliver said he wanted to give his viewers a break from the U.S. presidential election on his comedy show Sunday night — but then Anthony Weiner showed up again.
The FBI announced Friday that it would review new emails concerning Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s use of a private server during her time as secretary of state. FBI Director James Comey wrote a letter to congressional leaders saying that the additional emails were found during an unrelated investigation.
It became clear a few hours later that the investigation in question was focused on former New York Rep. Anthony Weiner’s sexting habit, following allegations that he had sent indecent photos to an underage girl.
“It seems Anthony Weiner is forcing the nation to relitigate the entire email controversy and putting Hillary Clinton’s chances of winning the presidency in serious danger — Carlos Danger,” Oliver said on “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver.”
John Oliver attends the 2016 Primetime Emmy Awards this past September in Los Angeles. (Photo: Rich Fury/Invision for the Television Academy/AP Images) More
The emails were reportedly discovered on Weiner’s laptop. His estranged wife, Huma Abedin, is one of Clinton’s top aides.
Oliver said this is “obviously a disgusting way” for this new twist in the Clinton email case to come to light, and cited as evidence Vice President Joe Biden’s reaction to learning that Weiner was responsible.
“I don’t know where these emails came from,” Biden told CNN’s Michael Smerconish on Friday.
“Apparently Anthony Weiner,” Smerconish interjected.
“Well, oh, God, Anthony Weiner,” Biden said with palpable disgust. “I should not comment on Anthony Weiner. I’m not a big fan. I wasn’t before he got in trouble. So I shouldn’t comment on Anthony Weiner.”
Oliver pointed out that according to Comey, it is not clear whether the FBI’s announcement is a huge problem for the Clinton campaign or carries much significance at all.
There have been reports since the news broke on Friday suggesting that Clinton might not even be directly involved in the emails. According to Oliver, the FBI has provided the public with what amounts to a mystery box.
“And like the box from the end of ‘Seven,’ it could contain anything from nothing to Gwyneth Paltrow’s head,” he said. “Although it almost definitely contains Anthony Weiner’s penis.”
For his part, Republican candidate Donald Trump thanked the disgraced former New York congressman during a rally in Las Vegas on Sunday.
“We never thought we were going to say thank you to Anthony Weiner,” Trump said.Posted by
Rob Notenboom,
December 9, 2014 Email
Rob Notenboom
Twitter @FrTheBlackHole Read this on your iPhone/iPad or Android device
It was with great anticipation that we at From the Black Hole awaited the draw for the groups in the Women's World Cup 2015.
As much as we love our Women's National Soccer Team, we knew that a tough draw might make their home world cup as short as their last attempt in Germany, and we certainly didn't want that. Well Canada didn't get the group of death and on our latest episode we give our reactions and predictions to the draw, Tone Loc makes a brief appearance, Lars chuckles and shakes his head, and Jeff and I get into a completely unintelligible discussion about the bracket. Open Player in a New Window | Subscribe | iTunes | MP3 Official Twitter: @FrTheBlackHole Rob Notenboom: @buteo_regalis Lars Lowther: @LowtherLars Jeff Salisbury: @JeffDSalisbury Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FromTheBlackHolePodcastIT'S official. Mid-size music venue the East Brunswick Club will shut down at the end of February to make way for a five-storey apartment block.
The venue's music bookers Way Over There sent out an email yesterday announcing the closure, which has been widely anticipated since plans were lodged two months ago by the hotel's new owners to turn the 500-person venue attached to the Victorian-era hotel into five floors of apartments, shops and offices.
A mock-up of the development included in the plans.
The email read: ''Sadly, all good things must come to an end. The East Brunswick Club will officially close its doors at the end of this summer. Venue owners Pete and Pam Benjamin have decided to retire from the hospitality industry and have sold the building. The new owners will not continue it as a live venue.''
Recent international acts to play at the club include Hollywood actor Tim Robbins, local band Jet, post-punk legends Swans and New York indie band the Drums.
The announcement comes 11 days after the sudden resignation of Steve Kingi, the band booker of St Kilda's Prince of Wales Bandroom, the 900-person venue recently bought by hospitality entrepreneur Julian Gerner. Best known for transforming St Kilda's Newmarket Hotel from a topless-barmaid dive to a fashionable Latin American restaurant, Mr Gerner has told The Age: ''We're not entertainment operators … our focus is on food.''Image via Flickr user senoranderson.
Confronting your own mortality is an inherent part of the human experience. And because it occurs at an extraordinarily vulnerable point in our lives (if you’re “lucky” enough to die of old age from a horrible disease) there’s a growing chorus of medical and legal professionals who believe that by allowing doctors to assist in the termination of a terminally ill and suffering patient, we don’t have to add pain and suffering to the mix.
On June 5, the province of Quebec adopted the controversial Bill 52, also known as the “end-of-life-care bill,” which would legally permit doctors to actively participate in the death of terminally ill patients suffering from physical or psychological pain. This came after a vote of 94-22 in the National Assembly, effectively making it law, and will take somewhere between 12 and 18 months to implement. So while it’s clear this is historic for Quebec, there remains an understandably charged debate amongst physicians, legislators, and citizens.
Euthanasia laws aren’t exactly a new concept. It’s legal in Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Belgium (even for children). Physician assisted suicide (PAS) is also legal in several countries like Albania, Germany, Switzerland, and four US states: Oregon, Washington, Montana, and New Mexico. The distinction with PAS is that the doctor does not actually perform the action. It’s akin to your doctor handing you a lethal dose of morphine and looking the other way.
Euthanasia, on the other hand, requires a physician to be present, perform the procedure, and ensure everything runs smoothly, thus incorporating them into the process. Quebec would allow doctors to do the deed, but according to Quebec lawmakers it’s not euthanasia, per se.
“Medical aid in dying refers to the fact that it is always in a medical context and in the form of aid asked by the person,” Veronique Hivon, a member of the National Assembly who coauthored and cosponsored the bill, told VICE. “The term euthanasia does not imply that it only comes as a request.”
In Belgium, euthanasia is legal, and if poor old aunt Susan is on a whole set of machines and incapacitated, the family can make the decision on her behalf. What’s unique about the Quebec bill, according its authors, is that that wouldn’t be allowed to happen, as the request must come from the patients themselves. "Nobody can ask for it except the person," Hivon said.
In fact, there’s a whole set of similar ironclad restrictions and qualifications you have to meet if you want to get government-sanctioned suicide, which are outlined in section 26 of the law. For example, you must meet the legal age limit, you have to be capable of giving consent, you have to suffer from an incurable serious illness, it must be in an advanced state of irreversible decline, and you have to suffer from “constant and unbearable physical or psychological pain which cannot be relieved in a manner the person deems tolerable.” According to Hivon, the patient would also need a second independent medical opinion and—like everything else related to government—they need to fill out a form. This form can be filled out by a third party if you’re physically incapable but mentally cognizant.
These safeguards bring reassurance to proponents, but to critics they give faulty justification to a procedure they feel has no place in medicine. “It’s just not good for society to have people who are legally allowed to kill other people,” Dr. Catherine Ferrier, the president of the Physicians Alliance Against Euthanasia, tells me. For her, the issue centres on defending those most vulnerable, and laws of this kind not only endanger them, but also are inspired by fear and apprehension rather than compassion. “Euthanasia is driven by a fear of the whole dying process. How do you respond to fear? You try and control it, but you lose a lot by doing that; it’s not something you can cut off and not have repercussions.”
Image via Flickr user armymedicine.
Dr. Derryck Smith is a clinical emeritus professor of psychology at the University of British Colombia, and a board member of Dying with Dignity, a member-based charity focused on education and support for the choice-in-dying-movement. He interprets the bill as “a humane piece of legislation that alleviates endless suffering at the end of life.” He points to Dr. Donald Low, a Toronto physician who stated his case via YouTube for sensible euthanasia legislation only eight days before he eventually succumbed to a brain tumor. He also notes that these are tested waters, “It mirrors legislation that is in place in Belgium and Oregon, etc," Smith says. It’s nothing new, and it’s going to give Quebecers assistance in dying when they’re in the ravages of pain.”
Somewhat unsurprisingly, Ferrier’s opinion is the one most present in the Canadian medical community. A survey by the Canadian Medical Association found that a clear majority—44 percent—would refuse to assist a death compared to only 16 percent who said they would participate. While the bill itself is supported by a majority in the National Assembly and by the general public, the sentiment is not shared by those on the front lines.
“For many people who answer, they answer that they want it, and it’s because they or someone they know has had a bad experience,” Ferrier says. “Their care wasn’t managed properly, so they are afraid. They say ‘I’d rather be dead than go through what my aunt went through.’ We should improve care, and it’s foolish to jump to killing people.”
When asked why physicians would support the bill, Ferrier cited her personal experience, “The further you get from the dying the more likely you are to support it. If you’re in radiology you may support it, but those working close to the elderly and dying overwhelmingly reject it." Ferrier’s claims are indeed supported by statements from those in palliative care.
While medical practitioners may oppose the law, that doesn’t seem to bother supporters in the least. According to Smith, change rarely comes from medical professionals; it’s the public and elected officials acting on their behalf that alter the zeitgeist. “Physicians are nervous,” he says. "They have not yet been trained in how to deal with a request to die, or the actual procedure itself. Over time, more and more physicians will become more comfortable with it. The same thing happened with abortion. It was public pressure that brought that into the fold and not the leadership of the medical community.”
Image via Flickr user consumerist.
So public pressure may be enough, but what about dignity? For many people, this debate is less about whether it’s morally right or wrong, but about having the freedom to make an informed choice about how you die. To some, the notion of being at the mercy of the medical process and consumed with bureaucracy without a prospect of a peaceful and controlled exit sounds horrifying and undignified. Smith looks at dignity as synonymous with autonomy and individual choice. In this case, it comes from your capacity to dictate the terms of your demise, and being unable to do so is what’s undignified.
“Dignity means you are in charge of your own death at a time of your own choosing. It’s an issue of autonomy, and of being able to choose. The problem is that choice is unavailable. After all, if you were given the choice most would choose to die in their own homes surrounded by loved ones. But that’s something that’s afforded to very few people.”
Yet that’s not how critics of the law understand dignity. Many of us are going to age differently, and some of us may slip gradually into senility, or our mind may remain lucid while our bodies deteriorate. Either way, it’s inevitable that we’ll become more dependent on others. So perhaps we shouldn’t equate independence with dignity, and conversely, dependence on others as undignified. If we conclude that those who are dependent on others are undignified, what does that say about those medically disabled and living life to the fullest? As Dr. Ferrier points out, “If someone is dependent on someone else, that doesn’t mean they have less dignity. The notion that you have less dignity when you are sick and dying is a false understanding of what dignity is.”
One thing both sides can agree on is the need for more palliative care. It’s a large field with increasingly more physicians specializing in alleviating pain, keeping patients comfortable, and easing discomfort at the end of life. The practice itself was brought to North America in the 1970s by Dr. Balfour Mount, a Canadian physician, who remains vehemently opposed to euthanasia. Alarmingly, the current percentage of Canadians that have access to this type of care is about 16-30 percent. As Ferrier puts it, “we should focus on improving this type of care. Poor management at the end of someone’s life is what’s causing this push towards euthanasia.” But Smith cautions that universal access to palliative care is a long way off, “Everyone wants more palliative care, and I support palliative care. But we can’t wait for everyone to have palliative care before we get this legislation because we’ll never get it. It’ll take forever.”
Going forward, countries all over the world must cope with aging baby-boomers. So we’re left with difficult choices about how to offer dignity when we’re unsure what it means, or how to provide a semblance of personal choice to someone who may be incapable of thinking clearly. Confronting death head-on for yourself and your loved ones is a long and arduous procedure. At this rate, it’s possible you could have something similar to “medical aid in dying” on your deathbed. Just be sure to hand in all your forms in triplicate, dot your I's and cross your T's before you do check out.Is the Federal Reserve a driving force behind the post-recession growth in inequality? It’s a provocative idea, voiced by writers including Neil Irwin and Robert Frank.
It is certainly true that inequality, in terms of both income and wealth, has widened since the recession. A study by the lauded economist Emmanuel Saez of the University of California, Berkeley, found that the top 1 percent of earners have accounted for all of the income gains in the first two full years of the recovery. Their incomes have climbed about 11.2 percent. The incomes of the 99 percent have declined by about 0.4 percent.
Those patterns repeat when looking at measures of wealth, meaning the value of a family’s assets, like its house and savings account, minus the value of its debts, like mortgages and credit card balances. A recent report from the Pew Research Center found that the wealth of the richest 7 percent of households climbed about 28 percent from 2009 to 2011. For the remaining 93 percent, average wealth dropped about 4 percent.
The Federal Reserve has been a major force propping up economic growth, even as Washington has started to slash the federal deficit and as droughts and debt crises abroad have taken their toll. A study by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco estimated that the Fed’s aggressive policies have shaved 1.5 percentage points off the unemployment rate and have more broadly aided growth.
So if the Fed has been propping up the economy, has it also been propping up inequality? The argument would go something like this:
First, many financial experts consider the Fed’s policies a driving force behind the surge in the stock market. Since the depths of the crisis, the Dow Jones industrial average has more than doubled, increasing about 16 percent this year alone. Such gains have helped to lift the earnings and the net worth of the half of Americans who own stocks. But the wealthy have benefited disproportionately. According to recent research by the New York University economist Edward Wolff, the richest 10 percent of households own more than 81 percent of stocks, as measured by value.
A second factor is the rebound in the housing market, aided by the Federal Reserve’s purchase of about $40 billion in mortgage-backed securities every month. The effort has helped push down mortgage rates and make it cheaper for millions of families to buy a house or to free up some cash by refinancing. But because of tight credit standards, that windfall has mostly gone to the rich – families that meet the standards to refinance, and investors with enough cash to buy.
Looking at those two factors, there’s a strong argument that the Fed stands behind growth in inequality, particularly when it comes to wealth. But the picture is murkier when it comes to income. And experts sounded a note of caution about trying to work out the distributional effect that the central bank’s policies might be having more generally.
“I don’t think we know that much about it,” said Josh Bivens, an economist at the left-of-center Economic Policy Institute, a Washington-based research group. “It would be interesting to have a really determined academic look at the effect on all these asset groups and try to figure it out from there.”
Even if the Fed had stoked some wealth inequality through the stock and housing markets, he said, that would not be the full picture. How much did the Fed’s policies account for the housing turnaround, or the stock-price rebound? That would be hard to say. In the case of the stock markets, corporate earnings seemed the main factor, Mr. Bivens said.
Moreover, the fuller picture would need to take into account how the Federal Reserve might have eased earnings inequality by reducing unemployment. “High unemployment is much more destructive to wage growth for low-income workers than for high-income workers,” Mr. Bivens said. “The Fed might have done quite a bit to keep wages from falling even further at the low end.”
Other experts said they thought the Fed might have reduced inequality, if anything, and that one way or another it would be difficult to tell. “The effect is going to be at the margin if it is there at all,” said Joseph E. Gagnon, a former Fed official now at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. “It’s kind of a silly question to ask, though. It’s relevant to talk about international trade. It’s relevant to talk about technology. It’s relevant to talk about regulation. Monetary policy seems far down the list.”
One piece of analytical evidence that the Fed might be stoking inequality comes from the Bank of England. That central bank also undertook an aggressive round of asset purchases, and a report released last year found it helped the economy over all – but the rich much more than the poor.
Still, it described those distributional effects as unavoidable, and worth it in the long run. “Without the bank’s asset purchases, most people in the United Kingdom would have been worse off,” the report said. “Economic growth would have been lower. Unemployment would have been higher. More companies would have gone out of business. That would have had a detrimental impact on savers and pensioners along with every other group in our society.”
One way or another, it is a subject the Federal Reserve itself might have some interest in. Speaking at a conference in New York in April, Sarah Bloom Raskin, a Federal Reserve governor, posed the question of whether “inequality itself is undermining our country’s economic strength.” Her answer was an unequivocal yes. “I am persuaded that because of how hard these lower- and middle-income households were hit, the recession was worse and the recovery has been weaker,” she said.
“It is not part of the Federal Reserve’s mandate to address inequality directly,” she added, “but I want to explore these issues today because the answers may have implications for the Federal Reserve’s efforts to understand the recession and conduct policy in a way that contributes to a stronger pace of recovery.”On January 13, two days after millions in France marched to commemorate those assassinated by Islamist radicals the week before, Socialist Prime Minister Manuel Valls gave a stirring speech in the French National Assembly that was celebrated by socialists and conservatives alike as among the best in recent memory. He was firm and balanced. He first praised the police and expressed the government’s resolve to put in place security measures to win what he was not shy about calling a “war on terrorism, jihadism, and Islamist radicalism.” He then insisted that France was not at war with a religion and must stand firm on its principles of toleration and laicity—that is, the separation of religion and state. He received a standing ovation. Then, to the nation’s surprise, the deputies broke spontaneously and unanimously into the Marseillaise, the first time this had happened since the signing of the armistice ending World War I in 1918.
On the question of security, this unity is likely to last. There is a solid consensus that more resources will have to be devoted to tracking suspected terrorists and monitoring the Internet for signs of trouble. Legislation will be required to give the government sufficient legal leeway to accomplish that, which it will get, since all parties recognize the deficiencies yet none wants to reproduce the American Patriot Act. So firm has the government of François Hollande been that the leading conservative opposition party, the UMP, and its mercurial leader, ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy, have found few plausible grounds for dissent. Even his party’s more muscular demands—isolating Islamists in prison, stripping binational jihadists of their French citizenship, limiting the civil rights of nationals who get involved in jihadist movements (as was done with Vichy collaborators after World War II)—are under serious consideration by the government. By the end of January, 117 people had been placed under indictment for making statements justifying terrorism, and twenty-eight had been sentenced to prison terms. Among them is the poisonously anti-Semitic performer and activist Dieudonné M’bala M’bala.
On the questions of toleration and laicity, however, France is anything but united. For the past quarter-century a political and intellectual culture war over the place of Islam in French society has been bubbling along, and every few years some event—a student wears a burka to school, riots erupt in a poor neighborhood, a mosque is attacked, the National Front wins a local election—renews hostilities. Now, though, nearly one thousand French citizens are believed to have traveled to Syria to join other Islamist militants there, and heavily armed jihadists pledging allegiance to…Rakhall I just saw what you posted on reddit... HOLLY SHIT!!!
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They are fake… I made them, Here are the original ones….
I just drew these, then I uploaded them to a pendrive… I opened them on a TV, darkened the room, and made photos….
I didn’t intend to spread false rumors, and wanted them to look as impossible as it got, just to shake the fandom up a bit from being dormant…
-Star and Tom sleeping together IN A KIDS SHOW.
-MARCO getting Eclipsa-corrupted hands
-and other obvious stuff….
So if I offended people with this, I’m sorry, and it won’t happen ever again.Photo / Ryan Hafey-PBC
Jarrett Hurd’s first title defense figures to be a lot tougher than his fight to win the vacant belt.
That’s because Hurd and Austin Trout have agreed to a summertime fight for Hurd’s IBF junior middleweight title, sources with knowledge of the talks told RingTV.com. The fight was originally slated for the PBC on FOX show on July 15 but organizers are now looking for a new date, location and television home.
Trout, a former WBA 154-pound beltholder, is coming off a close decision defeat to Jermall Charlo in May 2016. The 31-year-old New Mexico native owns a win over Miguel Cotto and suffered a hotly contested loss to Canelo Alvarez.
Hurd’s experience is dwarfed in comparison.
The 26-year-old Maryland native stopped Tony Harrison last February to win the IBF 154-pound title in his toughest fight on paper to date. Other than that, Hurd (20-0, 14 knockouts) owns wins over faded former title challenger JoJo Dan and Mexican Olympian Oscar Molina. An athletic puncher, Hurd has scored six consecutive knockouts.
But Trout (30-3, 17 KOs) won’t be there to be hit. The crafty southpaw – rated No. 5 by THE RING Magazine – controls fights with his jab and owns oodles of experience. He’s been noncompetitive just once, in a lopsided 2013 defeat to Erislandy Lara.
Hurd-Trout is one of the best fights that can be made in the loaded 154-pound division and the matchup should help clear the muddied title picture and set up some big future fights.
Hurd, who is rated No. 6 by THE RING, could prove to be the real deal but, even if he is, Trout could realistically take that title off his waist.
Struggling to locate a copy of THE RING Magazine? Try here or…
SUBSCRIBE
You can subscribe to the print and digital editions of THE RING Magazine by clicking the banner or here. You can also order the current issue, which is on newsstands, or back issues from our subscribe page. On the cover this month: Vasyl “Hi-Tech” Lomachenko
No posts found.A Midlands Murder Mystery
Situated just off the Kidderminster to Birmingham Road, in the English Midlands, Hagley Wood is part of the Hagley Hall estate belonging to Lord Cobham. By day it is a beautiful if lonely spot, at night, however, engulfed in the ghostly shadows of the Clent Hills, the atmosphere is somewhat eerie. The place supposedly has a reputation for strange events, and perhaps none were stranger than what transpired there one sunny April day more than 60 years ago.
On 18 April, 1943, four teenage boys from nearby Stourbridge, Robert Hart, Thomas Willetts, Bob Farmer and Fred Payne, were in the woods poaching. They came upon an old hollow elm tree (which has been mistakenly called a wych-elm down the years) and decided it would be an ideal place to search for birds’ nests. Bob Farmer attempted to clamber up into the tree, but as he glanced down inside the hollow trunk he suddenly saw the empty eye-sockets of a whitened skull, staring up at him from among the twisted branches.
At first he didn’t realise what he was looking at and thought it must belong to an animal. But as he pulled the skull out from the gnarled branches and saw a small patch of rotting flesh on the forehead, the remains of some hair, and crooked front teeth, he realised what he’d found. Horrified at the discovery and knowing they were in the woods illegally, the boys decided not to tell anyone about it. They put the skull back in the tree and quickly made their way home.
But the youngest boy, Tommy Willetts, felt uncomfortable about keeping such a secret and decided to tell his father what they’d found. Naturally his father then told the Worcestershire County Police Force, who went to the site the following morning. Inside and around the old tree they found not only the human skull, but an almost complete skeleton, a crêpe-soled shoe and some fragments of rotted clothing. During a careful search of the surrounding undergrowth a severed hand from the body was also discovered buried nearby.
The task of examining the body fell to Prof James Webster, then head of the Home Office Forensic Science Laboratory in the West Midlands, who, just prior to World War II, had set up the West Midlands Forensic Science Laboratory at Birmingham University. After a detailed examination at the lab at Birmingham, Professor Webster ascertained that the woman was probably about 35 years old, five feet tall, with mousy brown hair and irregular teeth in the lower jaw. She had also given birth at least once. He estimated that she had been dead for at least 18 months before she was found.
In other words she had died in about October 1941. There were no marks of disease or violence on the body, but her mouth had been stuffed with taffeta. The coroner declared it murder by asphyxiation, and stated that the woman was probably murdered and then pushed into the hole while still warm, as the body would not have fitted into the hollow trunk after rigor mortis had set in.
Apart from the remains of the body there were various other personal items which helped build up a reasonably accurate picture of the mystery woman.
A cheap rolled gold wedding ring, which had been worn for about four years, crepe shoes and various scraps of clothing. With these Professor Webster was able to reconstruct almost exactly what the woman had been wearing at the time of her murder, and it was then possible for the police to issue a description which must have been very close to the actual appearance of the mystery woman.
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Pages: 1 2 3U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon speaks at a valedictory news conference with Korean correspondents at the U.N. Headquarters in New York, Tuesday. / Yonhap
By Kang Seung-woo
Outgoing U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon virtually declared his bid to run for South Korea's presidency, Tuesday.
During a meeting with Korean correspondents at the U.N. headquarters in New York, Ban said he will find ways to use his 10 years of experience at the United Nations for his country — the clearest indication yet of his presidential ambitions.
"If what I have seen, learned and felt while in office for 10 years could help develop Korea, I will not spare myself for the country," Ban said.
"I will decide what and how I will contribute after collecting opinions from many people after I return home. The most important thing is citizens' thoughts."
Ban plans to return home after completing his second term as U.N. chief at the end of this year.
Although Ban did not clearly declare his presidential bid, his words were regarded as a de-facto declaration of his intention to run.
"Although I am 73 (next year), I am prepared to devote myself to the country if my health permits," Ban said.
While the corruption scandal involving President Park Geun-hye and her confidant Choi Soon-sil is gripping the nation, Ban said Koreans are frustrated and enraged by the "lack of good governance," and the fault lies with the "system and leadership" — an apparent move to distance him from President Park.
The former foreign minister, who has been talked about as a competitive candidate in next year's presidential election for some time, has been rumored to consider running for the presidency under the banner of the ruling Saenuri Party, with President Park and her loyalists backing him.
However, in the wake of the corruption and influence-peddling scandal that brought about the impeachment of the President, Dec. 9, there seems to be little chance that Ban will join the governing party.
Despite his words, Ban failed to elaborate on with whom he will team up with for his presidential run, but was open to banding together with various political groups.
"It is not possible to do politics by myself and there should be some sort of means and vision, but it is difficult, at this time, to say whom I will work with," said the career diplomat, who has no political base in Korea.
"What I can tell you now is that I plan to return home in mid-January and meet leaders from all walks of life (before my final decision)."
In the domestic political spectrum, Ban, regarded as a conservative figure, is anticipated to form an alliance with breakaway lawmakers from the Saenuri Party, who are at odds with the pro-Park faction, or to align with the second-largest opposition People's Party for the election, currently scheduled for December 2017.
Hours after his press conference, 35 anti-Park lawmakers, including former Chairman Kim Moo-sung and former floor leader Yoo Seong-min, announced they were leaving the Saenuri Party. More lawmakers are expected to join them soon.
People's Party interim leader Kim Dong-cheol welcomed a possible alliance with Ban, saying, "I think he can join us."
Ban was elected as the U.N. chief in 2007, with huge support from former President Roh Moo-hyun, but his recent moves linked to Park loyalists drew a backlash from the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, comprised of many of Roh's former aides and followers who denounced him as a traitor.
However, Ban refuted the accusation, dismissing it as a "political offensive."
"It is an insult to me. I cannot accept it," he said.They are professionals with university degrees, living in thriving economic regions like British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario, and earning at least $100,000 a year. They are also in hock for close to two times their annual salaries.
[np_storybar title=”Four myths about Canadian household debt — and a few unpleasant truths” link=”https://business.financialpost.com/personal-finance/debt/four-myths-about-canadian-household-debt-and-a-few-unpleasant-truths”%5D
Few financial issues create as much angst in this country as household debt. So how bad is it? BMO crunches the numbers
[/np_storybar]
According to newly released data from Statistics Canada, 71 per cent of all Canadian families carried some form of debt in 2012 — yes, that includes mortgages, but it also includes a growing pile borrowed to buy cars, new kitchens and many of the fashionable material trappings of the modern middle-class lifestyle.
What that means is that the vast majority this debt isn’t due to out-of-control credit cards or the working poor digging a hole just to pay for groceries. The Canadian debt nation is mostly made up of middle and upper earners.
It wasn’t always that way. Canada used to be known as a nation of savers: In 1982, we stockpiled 20 per cent of our annual income. But by 2014 that rate was down to 3.6 per cent – and at the end of last year our combined debt was $1.82-trillion, greater than the total value of what we produced in goods and services |
il, Spokesperson for People’s Protection Units (YPG)
• *Polar Jangi, Commander of the Pesmerga’s Counter Terrorism Group (CTG)
• *Kino Gabriel, Spokesperson of Syriac Military Council
Question & Answer Session
Ezidi’s and decentralization in Iraq
11:00am – 12:00pm
Moderator:
Kirmanj Gundi, Prof. at Department of Educational Administration and Leadership, Tennessee State University
Speakers:
• David L. Phillips, Director of the Program on Peace-Building and Rights at Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights in New York
• Khalaf Salih Faris Ali, Representative of Shingal Assembly
Question & Answer Session
The Kurdish Challenge in Syria: Building Democracy in the Shadow of War
1:00pm –02:30pm
Moderator: Deniz Ekici, Executive Director, Kurdish Policy Research Center (KPRC)
Speakers:
• *Salih Muslim, Co-Chairman of Democratic Union Party
• Amberin Zaman, Journalist, Columnist for portal Diken, and for Al Monitor Pulse of The Middle East.
• Mehmet Gurses, Associate Professor of Political Science, Florida Atlantic University
Question & Answer Session
Keynote Speaker: The Kurds of Turkey: Civil War, Self-Administration, and the Peace Process 2:45pm – 3:45pm
Moderator: Omer Taspinar, National Security Strategist at National War College
• Selahattin Demirtas, Co-Chair of Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP)
Please RSVP at event@kprc.us to confirm your participation
* Through Video ConferenceAbout
Dear friends, thank you so much for your support!
I decided over the past weeks to postpone the project. I feel that the characters need more time to mature and my craft in fiction writing is still too far from my potential as a writer.
Thus the campaign will be stopped and I'm so grateful to all the backers and friends who cheered me on. The book will definitely be published, it's only a question of when, not if :=)
Tandrel shriveled in fear as the earth shook the stone bridge beneath him again. He turned around and saw his father and brother desperately holding on to the side of the bridge. Tandrel felt how his feet began to slide through the solid ground. His hands reached for anything to hold on to but the stones around him fell apart. The bridge twisted and gnarled and finally collapsed in a great tremor. As Tandrel fell he could hear his father screaming his last words...
The Temple of the Four Elements
A New Kind of Story
I've read countless fantasy books. For a long time I wanted something different. Another kind of story. Not the kind where the destined hero battles the dragon and wins the love of the princess. Not the kind where the good side and the evil side fight a huge battle and one of them wins.
I wanted a fantasy book that felt real
A story where there is no clear line between the good and the evil
A story where anyone can become a hero
A story where only the kindness of the many can overcome the tyranny of the few
I never found such a story in the bookshelves... I found it in my dreams instead, the day I dreamt of Arkonia.
In Arkonia I learnt of Tandrel and his struggles. Of Hella and the ancient traditions of her people. I got to know the jolly Bavir and the mysterious Mervie and how they all came together that auspicious day in the Temple of the Four Elements.
The Initiation Ceremony
”May this place help you remember who you truly are”
With those words, his guide from the forest left Tandrel standing at the gate. Not just any gate, but the gate to the Temple of the Four Elements. The place where aspiring youths come from all over Arkonia to learn the Arts of the Four Elements. Well, that's the official reason students enroll. Tandrel quickly learns that there are many other reasons that students come to the Temple: Dodging initation rites in their tribes, escaping arranged marriages and assassins. Or to look for dragons...
Earth Plaza
The Creator
LOTR, Harry Potter, TWOT, GOT, WoW and Dota. I used to live in these fantasy worlds more than "IRL". I also studied physics, psychology, got burned out, and started a meditation company. During the past years I've been living part time in the Legends of Arkonia. Finally I can share with you my friend, this beginning of a tale so incredible just thinking of it brings me to tears.
If you enjoyed the magic of Harry Potter, the greatness of Game of Thrones and the spirituality of the Alchemist you are going to love this first journey in the epic world of Arkonia
Entering the Cloud Forest
The Dream
The idea for the world of Arkonia came to me in a dream in 2012. I woke up in the middle of the night and immediately knew that I was going to create a huge fantasy series. I didn't know much more than that though... It took me three years before I had mustered enough courage to go beyond my thick layers of self critical thoughts and fears and write the first manuscript. By then I thought the first book was already finished. Hahaha... Now, after several rounds of edits and upgrades I know better... And here we are,
Where you enter the story!
Help me through the last pushes of this remarkable birth.
Back this legendary tale and you get a special version of the book: for backers only!
Preorder today and you save roughly 50% (estimated price after launch is 10$)
Hell, it's about time for a fantasy series for all the planet protectors and your support is needed my dear ambassador!
Wouldn't it be nice to look back with joy as you enter the cinema to watch the blockbuster movie "Temple of the Four Elements" a second time, nowing that you were one of the original heroic backers of this crowdfunder!
Join me and explore this gigantic world with its mysterious mountain temple, great steampunk and medieval cities, vast deserts, crystal forests, glass palaces, druids, corrupt nobles, religious fanatics, saints, and of course, rumors of DRAGONS
There might be mysterious skeletons in Arkonia but no animals are killed for food or clothes
Your Support
By backing this creation, your support makes me able to hire the best possible editor and illustrator. As you can see I have already found them:
The magical painter Sophia who will enchant the beginning of each chapter in the book with her amazing illustrations.
Can you imagine 40 epic images just like the ones here in the campaign?
The lingual wizard Chris who will be my editor and make sure each sentence draws you deeper into the mysteries of Arkonia.
Digital publishing
Our world is on fire. Global temperature each day and the arctic is melting. Each gallon of blackwater we put in our cars and each tree we cut down fuel the flames. There will be no trees cut to create this book. Instead I move boldly together with you to the digital future.
The digital print date is set on my birthday, the 29th of April.
That is all, and as the Malagor saying goes:
"Better have a coin in my hand than a palace of glass beyond the Sea of Sand."
(I'd rather have you support me right now with 5 dollar than a thousand tomorrow!)
Or the Neyanxzari saying: "One Chrysab doesn't make for mulch but a dozen remnants makes the whole Citadel green and lush"
"May the clear skies and the gentle streams bless you"
Fire Training in the Temple
Preliminary Quests
“We have a long road ahead of us my friend, but we will celebrate every step on the way!”
The Cartographer (100 backers) REACHED, view the map below!
Logot, Cloudborn, Malagor, Edar, Neyanxzari and Daiel. There are many civilizations in Arkonia and with this map you can find your way.
Temple tour (150 backers)
I will make a video celebration from my writing temple!
The Elemental Initiates (250 Backers)
All backers get to meet the main characters in the book!
Chat with the Creator #1 (500 backers)
I will host a Q&A session through live video stream
Chat with the Creator #2 (750 backers)
Another Q&A session through live video stream
Of Oak and Stardust (Funding reached!!)
Wooooooow!!! WE DID IT! When we get here, I'll travel halfway through Sweden to the old cottage where I wrote the first manuscript in 2015 and show you the ancient Oaks that inspired me. I will also make an interview with a very special writing teacher of mine.
Stretch goal: "Scroll of the Elements" (2.000 backers)
The Compendium of the Elemental Arts for all backers!
Together with Sophy's illustrations, I will craft a beautiful handbook for the mind/body practices that are taught in the Temple of the four Elements
Quests achieved
100 Backers: Map unlocked!
Map of Arkonia
Credits:
Illustrations: Sophia Fredriksson, Custom by Sophy
Video voice and production: Johan Badh
IT-guru: Erik Svalander
Cartographer: Sam EckstromThe PUC University of Rio de Janeiro, the fine Canadian drone manufacturers at Aeryon, and 3D-scanning company Pix4D have teamed up to use technology to bring new life to the New Testament. By putting cameras on drones, they’ve created the first accurate replica of “Christ the Redeemer,” the 125-foot tall statue of Jesus Christ and landmark piece of Brazilian art.
Check out how they did it:
Because the statue was created in 1931, and due to the fact that it overlooks Rio de Janeiro from an awkward position on top of the 2,300-foot tall Corcovado Mountain, it was previously unfeasible to take the high-resolution pictures necessary to remake the model in very high detail. However, thanks to Aeryon’s nimble quad-copter Scout drones, preservationists were able to take 2,090 close-up pictures during over three hours of flight. They then compiled the data from the images to map out a polygonal version of the statue. The final 3D model is made of 134.4 million points and 2.5 million triangles with a massive 16,384 x 16,384 texture. They didn’t want to lose any details no matter how tiny.
You can see the results of the team’s hard work for yourself by viewing the “Christ the Redeemer” model on Sketchfab. This is another great example of the positive things drones can do, helping us save and pass down our aging art, culture, and knowledge. Let’s use good drones to record accurate models of our precious landmarks before we use the bad drones to blow things up.Writing Slade House, the author explains, grew out of a Twitter experiment that drew him on to an immersion in ‘ectoplasmic diversity’
Ghost stories tap into something ancient and primal. Like most people, I have a cold, soft spot for them. The earliest story archived in my memory is not The Very Hungry Caterpillar but a yarn my brother shared with me about a young boy called David who dug up his recently deceased grandfather’s liver. Unwisely, David sold the liver to the local butcher in order to buy sweets. (No spoilers in case Hollywood comes knocking, but Gramps turns out to be not as dead and gone as David reckoned.)
Slade House by David Mitchell review – gleeful, skin-crawling brilliance Read more
Despite naming my first published novel Ghostwritten, I’d never considered writing a full-length “ghost novel” until handing in the manuscript of The Bone Clocks in 2014. Some juicy scenes remained from an earlier version, and I had the idea of turning this “spare rib” material into a ghost story for Twitter called The Right Sort. This I posted in clusters of tweets, timed to coincide with British commuter hours, over several weeks prior to publication of The Bone Clocks.
I like to think The Right Sort was well received: for sure, it was a lot of fun to do, but the narrative raised more questions than it answered, especially about the mysterious house and its owners. To explore these questions and concoct answers would require a short novel. My publishing cycle had settled to a comfy once every three or four years, but Slade House felt at least two-thirds pre-formed in my head, and the novelty of writing a book of less than 500 pages was tempting. I let it jump the queue.
As a visitor to the genre, I immersed myself in the canon: Edgar Allan Poe, MR James, Sheridan le Fanu; Henry James’s pitch-perfect The Turn of the Screw; and stories whose fame nowadays rivals or eclipses their authors’ (not too shoddy a fate, really); WW Jacobs’s The Monkey’s Paw; F Marion Crawford’s The Upper Berth; Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper. Neil Gaiman and Stephen King need no introduction, but I also came across the ever-inventive Joe Hill, and Shirley Jackson’s stunning The Haunting of Hill House. I reread Sarah Waters’s superb The Little Stranger, and shared a stage at the Hay festival with Tiffany Murray, whose Sugar Hall glints and glimmers.
Japan breeds special, twisted ghosts, so I explored the fiction of Ryūnosuke Akutagawa and Taichi Yamada, and took in some urban myths. My favourite is kuchi-sake onna, who conceals her murderous ear-to-ear shark-mouth behind a surgical mask often worn by Japanese people with a cold – the friend of a friend saw her, just the day before yesterday, outside your house.
The ghost story is a taxonomical thicket of sub-genres, often defined by what the ghost turns out to be. There’s the ghost-as-symptom-of-insanity sub-genre, as in The Yellow Wallpaper. Stories where ghosts are ghosts are subdivided further into ghosts who offer help, or who want solace, or justice, or blood, or vats of blood (see The Shining). One sub-genre refuses to reveal its genre: maybe the POV character is being visited by beings from beyond the grave, or maybe he or she is having the mother of all nervous breakdowns – we’ll never know for sure. Both The Turn of the Screw and The Haunting of Hill House live here. There’s also the historical ghost story, dominated by backstory and only framed by the present; the “cloaked” ghost story, where the ghost passes unnoticed until the big reveal; and a meta-genre about ghost-hunters or writers of ghost stories. One beautiful, deranged example of the latter is William Gay’s slow-burning Little Sister Death.
David Mitchell: separating literary and genre fiction is act of'self-mutilation' Read more
Out of this ectoplasmic diversity, the five parts of Slade House grew. My aim was to turn the vice of repetition into the virtue of outfoxing the reader by using assumptions acquired previously. Every nine years, between 1979 and 2015, a “visitor” is steered at the end of October down Slade Alley to a small black iron door. Waiting for each visitor behind the door is a bespoke trap that they navigate and interpret in ways dictated by who they are.
Waiting for the reader is an alternate sub-genre of the ghost story. If you have time and inclination to drop into Slade House, I trust you’ll enjoy your visit. In an ancient, primal kind of way.
Extract
Slade Alley’s the narrowest alley I’ve ever seen. It slices between two houses, then vanishes left after 30 paces or so. I can imagine a tramp living there in a cardboard box, but not a lord and lady. ‘No doubt there’ll be a proper entrance on the far side,’ says Mum. ‘Slade House is only the Grayers’ town residence. Their proper home’s in Cambridgeshire.’ If I had 50p for every time Mum’s told me that, I’d now have £3.50. It’s cold and clammy in the alley like White Scar Cave in the Yorkshire Dales. Dad took me when I was 10. I find a dead cat lying on the ground at the first corner. It’s gray like dust on the moon. I know it’s dead because it’s as still as a dropped bag, and because big flies are drinking from its eyes. How did it die? There’s no bullet wound or fang marks, though its head’s at a slumped angle so maybe it was strangled by a catstrangler. It goes straight into the Top Five of the Most Beautiful Things I’ve Ever Seen. Maybe there’s a tribe in Papua New Guinea who think the droning of flies is music. Maybe I’d fit in with them. ‘Come along, Nathan.’ Mum’s tugging my sleeve.
I ask, ‘Shouldn’t it have a funeral? Like Gran did?’ ‘No. Cats aren’t human beings. Come along.’ ‘Shouldn’t we tell its owner it won’t be coming home?’ ‘How? Pick it up and go along Westwood Road knocking on all the doors saying, “Excuse me, is this your cat?”’ Mum sometimes has good ideas. ‘It’d take a bit of time, but–’
‘Forget it, Nathan – we’re due at Lady Grayer’s right now.’
‘But if we don’t bury it, crows’ll peck out its eyes.’
‘We don’t have a spade or a garden round here.’
‘Lady Grayer should have a spade and a garden.’
Mum closes her eyes again. Maybe she’s got a headache. ‘This conversation is over.’ She pulls me away and we go down the middle section of Slade Alley. It’s about five houses long, I’d guess, but hemmed in by brick walls so high you can’t see anything. Just sky. ‘Keep your eyes peeled for a small black iron door,’ says Mum, ‘set into the righthand wall.’ But we walk all the way to the next corner, and it’s 96 paces exactly, and thistles and dandelions grow out of cracks, but there’s no door. After the right turn we go another 20 paces until we’re out on the street parallel to Westwood Road. A sign says Cranbury Avenue. Parked opposite’s a St John ambulance.
Someone’s written “clean me” in the dirt above the back wheel. The driver’s got a broken nose and he’s speaking into a radio. A mod drives past on a scooter like off Quadrophenia, riding without a helmet. ‘Riding without a helmet’s against the law,’ I say.
‘Makes no sense,’ says Mum, staring at the envelope.
‘Unless you’re a Sikh with a turban. Then the police’ll–’
‘“A small black iron door”: I mean … how did we miss it?’
I know. For me, Valium’s like Asterix’s magic potion, but it makes Mum dopey. She called me Frank yesterday – Dad’s name – and didn’t notice. She gets two prescriptions for Valium from two doctors because one’s not enough, but–
–a dog barks just inches away and I’ve shouted and jumped back in panic and peed myself a bit, but it’s OK, it’s OK, there’s a fence, and it’s only a small yappy dog, it’s not a bull mastiff, it’s not that bull mastiff, and it was only a bit of pee. Still, my heart’s hammering like mad and I feel like I might puke. Mum’s gone out into Cranbury Avenue to look for big gates to a big house, and hasn’t even noticed the yappy dog. A bald man in overalls walks up, carrying a bucket and a pair of stepladders over his shoulder. He’s whistling I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing (in Perfect Harmony).
Mum cuts in. ‘Excuse me, do you know Slade House?’ The whistling and the man stop. ‘Do I know What House?’ ‘Slade House. It’s Lady Norah Grayer’s residence.’
‘No idea, but if you find Her Ladyship, tell her I fancy a bit o’ posh if she fancies a bit o’ rough.’ He tells me: ‘Love the dickie bow, son,’ and turns into Slade Alley, picking up his whistling where he left off. Mum looks at his back, muttering: ‘Thanks a heap for bloody nothing.’
‘I thought we weren’t supposed to say “bloody”–’” ‘Don’t start, Nathan. Just – don’t.’ I think that’s Mum’s angry face. ‘OK.’ ‘We’ll backtrack,’ Mum decides. ‘Maybe Lady Grayer meant the next alley along.’ She goes back into Slade Alley and I follow. We reach the middle section in time to see the stepladder man vanish around the corner of the far end, where the moon-gray cat’s still lying dead. ‘If someone killed you down here,’ I remark, ‘nobody’d see’. Mum ignores me. Maybe it wasn’t very Normal. We’re halfway down the middle bit when Mum stops: ‘I’ll be jiggered!’ There’s a small black iron door, set into the brick wall. It’s small all right. I’m four feet eleven inches, and it’s only up to my eyes. A fat person’d need to squeeze hard to get through. It has no handle, keyhole, or gaps around the edges. It’s black, nothing-black, like the gaps between stars. ‘How on earth did we miss that?’ says Mum. ‘Some Boy Scout you are.’
‘I’m not in the Scouts any more,’ I remind her. Mr Moody our scoutmaster told me to get lost, so I did, and it took the Snowdonia mountain rescue service two days to find my shelter. I’d been on the local news and everything. Everyone was angry, but I was only following orders. Mum pushes the door, but it stays shut. ‘How on earth does the bally thing open? Perhaps we ought to knock.’ The door pulls my palm up against it. It’s warm. And as it swings inwards, the hinges shriek like brakes …
More about the book
Slade House is still one of the most enjoyably, deliriously frightening novels I’ve read in ages. There’s always acres of soul-searching when it comes to Mitchell and exactly which genre we should put him in. Judging by the contained, gleeful, skin-crawling brilliance of Slade House, his publishers should be pushing him towards the “scary Halloween story” slot as often as they can. – Alison Flood
Read the full review.
Buy the book
Slade House by David Mitchell is published by Sceptre at £7.99 and is available from the Guardian bookshop for £6.55.The FCC has adopted the order clarifying that the rules on phone privacy are back in effect and dismissing as moot challenges to the telecom broadband privacy rules Congress nullified through a Congressional Review Act resolution.
The vote was unaminous, but with commissioner Mignon Clyburn dissenting in part and with a lot to say about what she said was the remaining lack of clarity about broadband privacy protections.
FCC chair Ajit Pai circulated the item earlier this month, which also reminds telecoms of their annual privacy compliance certification obligations.
The FCC went straight to an order rather than putting the item out for notice and comment, explaining that "because we are simply recognizing the effect of the resolution of disapproval, we find that notice and public procedure are unnecessary to reflect this action in the Code of Federal Regulations."
"Today, the Commission releases a ministerial Order to implement the Congressional resolution disapproving the Commission’s 2016 Privacy Order, which had amended the Commission’s rules implementing Section 222 of the Communications Act," said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. "Because Congress has invalidated the 2016 Privacy Order, we simply make clear that the privacy rules that were in effect prior to 2016 are once again effective."
The chairman said that while his plan was to have the Wireline Competition Bureau handle what he called a "ministerial act," Commissioner Mignon Clyburn requested it be handled at the commission level, with a vote.
Pai said he was "perplexed" by her decision to dissent in part, since he says she made no changes to the item. "When a Commissioner does not share her concerns about an item until after she casts her vote, it makes it difficult to work together to find common ground," he said.
In that dissent, Clyburn said that while she concurred with giving guidance in the context of phone service and putting legacy rules back on the books in an era when the chairman is taking a weed-whacker to rules to "the detriment" of regulatory certainty, she said simply dealing with phone privacy left a broadband privacy gap in the absence of the rules the CRA nullified, and which she voted for.
She called it "facile and bull-headed" not to seek comment on how the proceeding was affected by the CRA nullification, the first time it had ever been used on FCC rules. "Second, and more importantly, this Order shows that the majority is committed to reversing Title II for broadband and that they are willing to leave broadband consumers without privacy protections while this work is ongoing," she said. "Even if we did not adopt rules, we could adopt enforcement guidance or a policy statement using the voluntary code of conduct on which broadband providers seeking reconsideration were willing to agree. But no, the Commission is ot even doing that. We now simply have the bare text of section 222 for broadband, and decade-old rules for legacy voice," she added.
Pai has proposed reclassifying ISPs as information service providers, rather than telecoms, after which the Federal Trade Commission would reclaim its authority over broadband privacy, which it lost when ISPs were classified as common carriers in the 2015 Order. The FTC is prevented from enforcing regulations on common carriers.
In the meantime it is not clear what the state of broadband privacy oversight is, though ISPs have pledged to protect sensitive customer information because it is in their interest to do so, though what should be defined as that sensitive personal information for purposes of collecting and sharing is one of the issues that divides the edge providers and some net privacy activist groups from ISPs.
The phone privacy rules the FCC is clarifying do refer to telecommunication service, under which ISPs are still classified under Title II. But the language is pretty phone-specific.All images: RANet
Attention readers!
Due to the fact that you have spoilt this blogger rotten with your kind words in the last 36 hours, she has developed a serious case of head swelling and therefore will, at least temporarily, refer to herself in the third person.
AgzyM would like to thank you all so very much for making her first blogiversary an absolute hoot and for putting a smile on that giant face attached to a head too big for her own good…
She would like to…
OK, I’ll drop the third person act (probably should’ve stopped it a few lines ago, but then it can never be said that I don’t know how to run a joke into the ground and grind it for what it’s worth…).
Anyway, I Thank You! 🙂
I have a few posts ideas, but I have college tomorrow, and I’m not prepared at all, so I’ll be busy catching up, but let me leave you with a thought I had yesterday.
There are a few mini pleasures in life, a split-second burst of joy that might not last long, but makes life that little bit better.
I’m not referring to the obvious pleasures like boozing, sex or winning the lottery (although all three sound mighty nice right about now…).
I’m talking about that fleeting moment of butterflies in your belly, a burst of sunshine on a cloudy day, unicorns, rainbow, dew and all that other crapaloo that puts a smile on our face.
Here’s my list of life’s little pleasures:
– sitting in a dark theatre moments before the curtain goes up
– doing somersaults in the water
– taking a steaming hot shower on a cold winter morning
– getting a mint condition iPhone 4 from Dad, then noticing it’s been pimped with a purple cover with hot pink polka dots
– awakening to new RA news
or
– coming across an older picture that takes your breath away (and making it your screen saver)
– finding a connection online with you’ never ordinarily have the opportunity to meet
– going down a size
– knowing the words (all the words) to the theme tune from Big Bang Theory and singing them correctly.
Cos they BUILT THE PYRAMIIIDSSS!!!!
What’s your little pleasure that makes life a wee bit better?
AdvertisementsThe only thing better than candy is free candy. Reese’s, Twix, M&Ms and Candy Corn! Just thinking about trick or treating makes my mouth water (even those houses that gave apples and carrots).
Introducing Swag Treats Swag Code Extravaganza!
Dress up in costume and get your pumpkin baskets ready, these are the details you’ll need for a big candy score:
Wednesday, October 28th from 7am PDT/10am EDT to 6pm PDT/9pm EDT
6 Swag Codes throughout the day worth a total of 30 SB
Swag Codes will appear on: Surveys Search Team Challenge Discovery Shop Instagram
We promise that these Swag Treats won’t give you a stomach ache the next day!
UPDATE: Below are the times and locations for each Swag Code.
Please note: The above times are for US only.
-Team SwagbucksThe exploration for alien life has received a new dimension with the new device that can detect methane in an improved and better way on planets that are outside our solar system.
Astronomers take efforts to analyze the materials that make up distant planets by studying the interaction of their atmosphere with and absorb starlight, and then a comparison is made of this to a spectrum that recognizes a variety of molecules.
But, the present spectrum in use to identify methane is not perfect, and this has caused an underestimation of the methane levels on some planets, which could be an indication of life.
To sort out the problem, researchers from the University of New South Wales and the University College London (UCL) used supercomputers to analyze 10 billion spectroscopic lines, each with a different color at which methane can absorb light, in order to make a new spectrum for 'hot' methane.
The new spectrum can identify the molecule at temperatures of up to 1220 degree C. The research got published in the journal PNAS.
According to Professor Jonathan Tennyson, (UCL Department of Physics and Astronomy) co-author of the study, he and his team expect the new model will cast great influence on the future study on planets along with cool stars that are external to our solar system helping the scientists in search for signs of extraterrestrial life.As women, the LGBTQ community, and Latinos gain political and consumer power, Coors and its competitors have scrambled to target these groups. But the family behind the company continues to pump millions of dollars into powerful anti-choice, anti-immigrant organizations.
As women, the LGBTQ community, and Latinos gain political and consumer power, Coors and its competitors have scrambled to target these groups. But the family behind the company continues to pump millions of dollars into powerful anti-choice, anti-immigrant organizations.
We Know Memes
In a Coors beer ad released in 2011, two men dance suggestively behind the familiar script of the Coors Light logo. One of them, wearing a pink button-down shirt, holds his beer can aloft with one hand and his dancing partner’s thigh with the other. A small blue box near the bottom corner boasts that Coors was named by the Human Rights Campaign as one of the best places to work for LGBT Equality. In the center of the page, above the dancing men, Coors boldly proclaims: “Out Is Refreshing.”
Coors Light is the second most popular beer in the United States, bringing in more than $2.3 billion of the $101.5 billion beer market in 2014, according to the market research firm IRI. The Coors family is one of America’s oldest and largest beer dynasties, and the brewing companies that still bear their name—MillerCoors and Molson Coors—rake in billions each year. (Coors merged with Molson, a popular Canadian brewing company, in 2005, and the two companies created a joint venture called MillerCoors in 2008.) Molson Coors had $4.15 billion in net sales in 2014 alone.
To maintain that success, Coors has recently developed product lines and ad campaigns designed to cater to three key increasingly profitable markets—women, the LGBTQ community, and Latinos. As these groups gain political and consumer power, Coors and its competitors have scrambled to transform beer, once a blue-collar, bro-identified product, into a multicultural cash cow.
But a new Rewire investigation shows that although the Coors marketing messages and company policies have changed, the family behind the company continues to pump millions of dollars into powerful anti-choice, anti-immigrant groups, financing efforts that are directly hostile to the diverse customer base the Coors companies are trying to win over.
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Coors Foundational Giving 2009-2014 Conservative groups to which the Coors foundations have contributed at least $50,000 between 2009 and 2014. Blue denotes anti-immigrant organizations Red denotes anti-choice organizations Green denotes anti-LGBT and anti-choice organizations Orange denotes anti-immigrant and anti-choice organizations * Individual contributions from Jeffrey Coors and John Coors, not family foundations Organization Total Independence Institute $2,768,403 American Enterprise Institute $900,000 Heritage Foundation $800,000 Institute for Justice $540,000 Pacific Legal Foundation $510,000 The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty $380,000 Cato Institute $375,000 Donors Trust $372,000 Philanthropy Roundtable $360,000 Mountain States Legal Foundation $355,000 Ethics and Public Policy Center $335,000 Leadership Institute $335,000 Federalist Society for Law & Public Policy Studies $270,000 ALEC $240,000 Institute for American Values $200,000 Independent Women’s Forum $190,000 State Policy Network $185,000 Landmark Legal Foundation $170,000 Reason Foundation $150,000 Texas Public Policy Foundation $150,000 Barry Goldwater Institute $160,000 Property & Environment Research Center $140,000 Intercollegiate Studies Institute $130,000 Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CO) $120,000 Southeastern Legal Foundation $110,000 Americans for Prosperity Foundation $100,000 James Madison Institute $100,000 Media Research Center $100,000 Competitive Enterprise Institute $90,000 Young America’s Foundation $90,000 American Studies Center $80,000 Prometheus Institute $80,000 Institute for Energy Research $75,000 Heartland Institute $70,000 Center for American Values $65,000 National Center for Public Policy Research $60,000 Cascade Policy Institute $55,000 National Catholic Bioethics Center $55,000 Commonwealth Foundation for Public Policy Alternatives $50,000 Women Speak Out PAC (SBA List) * $50,000 Center for Equal Opportunity $50,000 Foundation for Government Accountability $50,000 Independent Institute $50,000 National Center for Policy Analysis $50,000
The Coors family foundations have contributed at least $12.5 million to conservative organizations in the past six years alone, making the Coors one of the most formidable right-wing donor families on the national stage today.
Much of the family’s money is channeled through two private foundations: the Adolph Coors Foundation (founded in 1975) and the Castle Rock Foundation, which merged with the Adolph Coors Foundation in 2011. The foundations gave approximately $36.8 million total in grants in the past six years, meaning their conservative spending made up at least a third of their overall giving.
According to Kellie McElhaney, founding director of the Center for Responsible Business at the University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, the public messaging from the Coors companies is in clear conflict with the private giving of the Coors family members.
“If the company is truly investing in women and minorities, which is going to cost the company money as an investment strategy, and the [Adolph Coors] Foundation is investing in things that appear counter to supporting women and minorities, then that’s a conflict,” she told Rewire. “You can’t invest in women and minorities on the one hand, and do anything that appears to be divesting from women and minorities on the other hand.”
The Coors beer companies and the Coors family say there is no conflict—because they operate separately. The family foundation’s website reads, “The Adolph Coors Foundation is a family foundation and not connected in any way to the brewery.”
And a spokesperson for Molson Coors echoed that message in an email to Rewire.
“We respect the rights of the family members or their foundations to choose their own political affiliations and activities,” the spokesperson said. “However, their contributions are their own and are not connected to the activities of the company. The culture at Molson Coors is based on respect, integrity and diversity.”
Rewire did not receive a response to our questions from MillerCoors, the other major Coors brewery. The Adolph Coors Foundation declined to comment.
Despite this asserted independence, public records show that Coors family members—including those who control the family’s charitable foundations—retain substantial ownership and control of the for-profit companies that carry their name.
Marcel Kahan, a professor of corporate law at NYU Law School, reviewed the most recent Molson Coors proxy filing for Rewire. He estimated that Coors family members and their entities own about 27 million of the total shares outstanding, or approximately 15 to 20 percent of the total votes in the company.
“They clearly are the most powerful single shareholders here,” he told Rewire. “They have significant influence because they are the directors, and they are the largest shareholders.”
In addition to owning large chunks of the Coors companies, Coors family members are involved in both the company and the foundation at leadership levels.
While some family members work at the companies, and others serve on the foundation, Peter H. Coors and William Coors hold senior positions at both. Peter H. Coors is the chairman of the MillerCoors Board, the vice-chairman of the Molson Coors Board, and the president and chairman of the Adolph Coors Foundation, according to 2014 tax filings. (A spokesperson for Molson Coors told Rewire that although Peter H. Coors fills these roles |
The Real World: Las Vegas is the twenty-fifth season of MTV's reality television series The Real World, which focuses on a group of diverse strangers living together for several months in a different city each season, as cameras follow their lives and interpersonal relationships. It is the third season to be filmed in the Mountain States region of the United States, specifically in Nevada.
The season featured a total of eight cast members over the course of the season, as one cast member was evicted and replaced. It is the fifth season to take place in a city that had hosted a previous season, as the show's twelfth season was set in 2002. Las Vegas was first reported as the location for the 25th season by the website Vevmo on September 8, 2010.[2] Pre-production started in August 2010, and Production began from October to December 2010 at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. The season premiered on March 9, 2011, consisting of 13 episodes.[2][3][4]
Director of the Nevada Film Office Charlie Geocaris commented, "The Nevada Film Office is very excited to have MTV’s The Real World return to Las Vegas. The first time here proved to be excellent exposure for the city and the NFO is always happy to assist any MTV production that visits our state."[4]
Motocross racer Carey Hart has a guest appearance in Episode 3.
Assignment [ edit ]
Most seasons of The Real World, beginning with its fifth season, have included the assignment of a season-long group job or task to the housemates, continued participation in which has been mandatory to remain part of the cast since the Back to New York season. In this season, the cast interns with a charity called the Athlete Recovery Fund, doing weekly assignments, such as working at motorbike events.[5]
The residence [ edit ]
A custom suite was built at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, where the cast resided.[2][4][6] Hard Rock President and Chief Executive Officer Joseph Magliarditi commented, "We are very excited to partner with MTV and their hit reality show series The Real World for the 25th season in Las Vegas...We look forward to hosting the new cast." The penthouse suite for the cast has a large set living room, four bedrooms, and built-in bowling alley.[4]
Cast [ edit ]
This season, the capacity of the cast returns to a roster of seven, the first season to do so since the Hollywood season.
Duration of cast [ edit ]
Cast Member Las Vegas Episodes 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Dustin FEAT Heather FEAT Leroy FEAT Michael FEAT Nany FEAT Naomi FEAT Cooke REP.[a] FEAT Adam FEAT REM.[b]
Table key FEAT = Cast Member is featured on this episode. REM. = Cast Member is removed from the house. REP. = Cast Member replaces another cast member. Notes
^ Cooke replaced Adam in Episode 7. ^ Adam was removed from the house in Episode 6 after getting evicted from the hotel due to multiple violent outbursts and breaking things throughout the hotel.
Episodes [ edit ]
After filming [ edit ]
The Reunion [ edit ]
The Real World: Las Vegas Reunion aired on June 8, 2011, and was hosted by Maria Menounos, featuring the entire cast, as they discussed their time during filming and their lives since the show ended.[82]
Since filming, Leroy returned to his sanitation job in Dallas, while Heather returned to Monmouth University to pursue a major in TV communications. Naomi returned to Buffalo State College to pursue TV journalism, and keeps in touch with Nany, who returned to Jamestown, New York, where she works as a waitress, and hopes to pursue opportunities elsewhere. Cooke began working at a nuclear power plant in North Carolina, where she started a relationship with a man named Jacob. Michael returned to College Park, Maryland, and hopes to attend grad school for agricultural development, while Dustin returned to Louisiana, and stays active with his friends, physical activities and rides his motorcycle.[82]
Cooke discussed her rough first impressions with her housemates when she moved into the suite, including a kiss with Dustin that was instigated by Leroy, which caused jealousy on Heather's part. An argument occurred when Mike accused Dustin of homophobia, after Dustin’s past in gay porn was discussed. Heather stated she was still puzzled as to why Dustin kept further details about his past hidden. Dustin tried to offer a friendship to Mike, but was met with resistant by Mike, stating narcissism on Dustin’s part. Leroy’s promiscuity was discussed, with opinions by Naomi on his ability to maintain future relationships, though Leroy’s "bromance" with Mike resulted in friendship bracelets. Also discussed were the Twitter wars amongst the housemates, with a preview of The Challenge: Rivals closing out the reunion.[82] Following the reunion, it was revealed that Dustin and Heather had begun to live together.[83]
Dustin and Heather continued their relationship when appearing on The Challenge: Battle of the Exes, and were cast members on the third season of Couples Therapy, in which they sought counseling for problems in their relationship stemming from issues of commitment and Dustin's past in gay pornography.[84] In July 2013, Dustin was arrested on suspicion of sexual battery inside a Lafayette, Louisiana nightclub.[85]
In 2014, Michael has since gotten married. Adam, Leroy, Cooke and Nany were in attendance at his wedding. The rest of the castmates who couldn't attend send him well wishes on Twitter.[86]
Challenges in bold indicate the cast member was a finalist on the Challenge.
References [ edit ]
Coordinates:WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland has arrested a person it said was planning what it described as a terrorist attack targeting the country’s parliament, president and government, prosecutors in the southern city of Cracow said in a statement on Tuesday.
Prosecutors said they had initiated legal proceedings against the person on November 5 and that Poland’s Internal Security Agency (ABW) would handle the case.
“The case looks very serious,” Pawel Gras, a government spokesman, told TOK FM radio. “We know that the possible targets were to be the president, the parliament and the government.”
Poland has not been a target of such attacks in recent years.
ABW will hold a press conference, where it will present details of the case, at 0900 GMT. (Reporting by Marcin Goettig; Editing by Andrew Osborn)This was definitely a Titan week. We’ve seen multiple sources claiming that they have exclusive information about the upcoming single GPU graphics card from NVIDIA. As it turned out, not all news was true, let’s have a look at previous leaks and confront them with a bit of reality.
A fake GeForce GTX Titan PCB
First off, the PCB which was ‘leaked’ few days ago, is almost definitely a fake. It’s a mock-up of the second revision of the GTX 285 and GTX 275 PCB. However, there were sources saying that it might be a custom black version of the GK110-based Tesla. That’s probably the reason why the bracket was hidden — the main difference between GeForce and Tesla series is the latter does not offer a display output (but there are models like Tesla C-class with dual-DVI’s). We can clearly see that some parts of the PCB look similar to the both reference boards mentioned above. There are missing memory chips on the mock-up, but it looks exactly the same as GTX 275’s PCB layout. Moving forward, there are more VRM phases on the ‘leaked’ PCB, but since the original picture was blurred out, it’s hard to notice if these were just added later. The layout of other components, like capacitors, is definitely the same. You can judge for yourself. Most importantly, this is just a PCB, we still have no idea how the card looks like in full glory. It may be similar to GTX 680 or to Tesla K20 (more pictures here).
Here’s a comparison of the un-blurred pictured and a sample provided by ArabPCWorld.
Just have a look at the 260/275/285 PCB comparison to see many similarities.
A Fake GeForce GTX Titan Performance
That’s not all, everyone was just amazed by seeing a few leaked benchmarks earlier this week. It was quite strange and doubtful that a 732MHz-clocked card (as it was described by SweClockers) could beat a GTX 690 so easily. But that was all we’ve had so far. A few days later it was confirmed to be fake.
There was even a second attempt to release a fake score. It was later confirmed that the score was of GTX 680 in SLI (proof).
“Real” GeForce GTX Titan Performance
Despite this whole mess, the first real benchmarks are starting to appear on the web. OBR-Hardware (marked as #2) today posted a “valid”, as the site claims, score of both ’11 and the latest version of 3DMark (However there are no links to the 3DMark results website). Also a site called FlyingSuicide (marked as #1) has shown their exclusive information about the 3DMark11 score. If both sites got their information from a valid source, then GeForce GTX Titan will be slower than GTX 690 by 10%, while beating both GTX 680 and HD 7970 GHz Edition by more than 50%.
GeForce GTX 690 GeForce GTX Titan GeForce GTX 680 AMD HD 7970 GE Titan/690 Titan/680 Titan/7970 3DMark11 EP (#1) 6400 5183 3300 80% 157% – 3DMark Fire Strike (#2) 5060 4870 2955 3401 96% 164% 143% 3DMark 11 EP (#2) 5871 5495 3299 3267 93% 166% 168% Average 89% 162% 155%
FlyingSuicide is also assuming that since the score isn’t as good as reported earlier, the price may even be lower, especially after launch-dust settles. However I have a bad news, a new site has listed the ASUS GTX Titan for a price even higher than reported earlier — €1200 as seen by other sites before the price was taken down. The interesting part of this information is that the site is listing the card as available for purchase. If that’s true, then the launch in mid-February is even more probable.
I strongly recommend reading this article. It gives you an idea about the level of security that NVIDIA is using for its main projects, which GTX Titan definitely is. When is GTX Titan coming out? More importantly, which manufacturers are going to release it? Both questions were indeed repeated multiple times during the past week. As for the first, there is no source other than the previous post about an ASUS card being listed (the delivery was estimated for February 18th). Other sites claim that the card is planned for the last week of this month. The second question is easier to answer. NVIDIA’s GTX Titan will be an exclusive product, launched only by the most known manufacturers, probably those who launched the GTX 690: ASUS, EVGA, Gigabyte, MSI and ZOTAC. As for the rest — I don’t know.
Source, Source, Source, Source, Source
Many thanks to xXx2090 and Skr13 for the tips!
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Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.At the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya, there are 4 Northern White rhinos. Those 4 rhinos constitute 57% of the total North White rhino population - there are only 7 in the world. And those rhinos are under constant threat due to strong demand for rhino horns - which in parts of the world are thought to (but don't) have healing powers.
Those 4 rhinos live on the 90,000 acre Conservancy - that's an area about six times the size of Manhattan. That area is patrolled by 120 rangers. Which means that there aren't nearly enough people for the Conservancy to keep an eye on its most endangered animals. Not just rhinos, but also several other endangered species as well.
To help protect their animals, the Conservancy has turned to an Indiegogo campaign to raise $35,000 for an autonomous unmanned drone that can help monitor the area and notify rangers if there are illegal hunters around. The brains of the drone will be provided by Unmanned Innovation, which builds autopilots for different kinds of aircraft. The drones will be equipped with cameras, and endangered animals can be tracked by the drones using their RFID tags.
"If they see people in areas they shouldn't be, they can guide rangers immediately to the right spot," Unmanned CEO Jonathan Downey told me.
The drones have a 50 mile range and can stay in the air for about two hours before they have to swap batteries. Downey told me that they're a much less expensive alternative to what the Conservancy uses now for aerial verification - manned aircraft.
If this first drone is successful, the Conservancy plans on building more drones to both monitor the animals and allow people from all over the world to virtually visit the animals of the Conservancy.
As of this writing, the Conservancy is just shy of raising $15,000 - which is $20,000 short of their goal. The campaign ends on January 20.
You can check out a video about the campaign here:
Follow me on Twitter or Facebook. Read my Forbes blog here.On April 21 the full House Committee on Public Lands met to consider the subcommittee's recommendation to approve H.R. 5053, as amended, with elimination of Project B. Chairman Welch immediately reiterated his belief that the area should be included: Although Projects B and E bordered several churches, no federal funds would be spent to acquire property belonging to a sectarian organization. A question was raised on Franklin Court, since it was not certain that anything remained of Franklin's house or print shop. However, the committee agreed that the site should be included because of its importance to Philadelphians. A committee member then brought up Project D, the site of the Graff House, where Jefferson had composed the Declaration of Independence. Despite its illustrious associations, the site was now "nothing but a cheap modern hamburger stand," and there had been no indication of plans to develop it. The committee appeared to be in sympathy with this view. At this juncture Lewis recalled turning to solicit Hopkinson's opinion. In a whispered exchange, the two agreed that it would be wise to settle for 80 percent of what they wanted. In terms of land area they were, in fact, getting more than 90 percent of what they had proposed. Without further debate, the committee proceeded to a unanimous vote recommending passage of the National Park Service's version of the bill, but restoring Projects B and E and dropping Project D, with an authorization of $4,435,000 for property acquisition.
Before the bill went to the full House of Representatives, the National Park Service managed to effect two changes. Project B, south of Walnut Street, was reduced in size so that it ended on Manning Street north of St. Mary's Cemetery, thus eliminating the discontinuous section that ran south to Pine Street. The Jayne Building, probably at Charles Peterson's behest, was added to the list of buildings to be preserved. Although there was every indication that the bill would pass easily, Lewis continued to lobby. He wooed the legislators on their own ground. He entertained congressmen, sometimes over a hundred at a time, at a series of dinners and luncheons at the Congressional Hotel, explaining the proposed park and its importance to the country.Howard Webb was involved in nine major international tournaments, including officiating the 2010 World Cup final
Howard Webb has ended his 25-year refereeing career after being appointed technical director of the official referees' association.
Webb has officiated 500 Premier League and Football League matches and the 2010 World Cup final.
Media playback is not supported on this device Webb proud of World Cup ref performance
The 43-year-old began his career in 1989, progressing through the Northern Counties and Football League to become a Select Group referee in 2003.
"I am very excited to start this new chapter in my career," said Webb.
Webb was involved in nine major international tournaments, took charge of the Champions League final and also officiated in every major domestic final.
During this year's World Cup in Brazil, he refereed the Group C match between Colombia and Ivory Coast, and the first knockout match between Brazil and Chile.
In 2011 he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to football.
Howard Webb was awarded an MBE in 2011 for services to football
"Refereeing has given me so much and I think it's important that match officials who have had the rewards remain in the game to pass on their knowledge," he said.
As technical director of Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), Webb will be responsible for overseeing the technical direction and standards that govern match officials.
Media playback is not supported on this device Referee Webb tackled by Holtby
"The current Select Group are the best referees this country has ever produced and I am thrilled that I not only get the chance to continue working with them but also the opportunity to help develop the next generation," he added.
"It's an incredibly positive working environment and we all have a common goal of improving refereeing."After scoring films for Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin, who had both created the 1994 film Stargate and then went on to do the 1996 smash hit Independence Day, England born composer David Arnold’s first running with James Bond was in 1996 whilst working on his album ‘Shaken and Stirred: The David Arnold James Bond Project’ which consisted of artists such as Iggy Pop, Propellerheads, Chrissie Hynde, Pulp, and former ABC singer Martin Fry to bring a fresh voice to nine of his favourite Bond songs and to bring them up to date with new arrangements. Close friend and collaborator Bjork had done a cover of You Only Live Twice but insisted that it wasn’t on the final album because she didn’t like it.
Thinking that John Barry would be insulted, because he had messed with his songs, Arnold was utterly surprised when Barry said he had made a wonderful job and strongly recommended him to EON Productions to score their latest Bond film.
In 1997 Arnold began working on ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’, and in traditional John Barry style he had written a title song with lyricist Don Black and close friend David McAlmont, called ‘Surrender’.
Like John Barry, who had always weaved the main theme throughout the score, adapting it for love scenes, action scenes as well as sweeping vistas, Arnold did the very same for ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’. With the intense muting of brass from the opening bars of ‘Surrender’ for the action scenes and then the chorus, played either on strings or piano for the love scenes and then using it for the typical ‘Bond Arrives in another country” music cue.
Sadly, the title song was replaced by Sheryl Crow’s ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’ therefore pushing ‘Surrender’ to the very end of the film, being used only for the end credits. The song ‘Surrender’ was performed by K.D Lang.
Pleased with what Arnold had done, EON asked him to score their 19th Bond film ‘The World Is Not Enough’.
Using the Barry template, Arnold worked on the title song with Don Black and Scottish group Garbage, incorporating the main theme into the score. This time it was used, mainly for the action pieces such as ‘Come in 007 Your Time Is Up’ and ‘Ice Bandits’ as well as being heard in ‘Welcome To Baku’.
For the love scenes Arnold composed a new sound, a beautiful theme known as ‘Elektra’s Theme’ and this was played throughout the second half of the film. However as the mood of the film changes the theme later becomes dark and daunting. ‘Elektra’s Theme’ turned out to be an instrumental version of ‘Only Myself To Blame’, which was written by David Arnold and Don Black and performed by the legendary Scott Walker. ‘Only Myself To Blame’ was also intended for the end titles too, but was never used.
‘Die Another Day’ has got to be the most controversial film in the world of James Bond. Probably about as controversial as when it was first announced that Daniel Craig was to play Bond or a black actor was to follow in his footsteps.
In my opinion the film was good until Bond had arrived in Iceland, and the director gave the impression that Iceland was all computer generated involving tsunami and invisible cars.
That’s the worst bit about the film over and done with. The good bit about the film is in the first half where we see Bond captured, tortured and betrayed, all being shown minus a title song. The score itself was also a solid effort from David Arnold.
The word tradition is something that cannot be used for the 20th Bond film. The Bond tradition of having real life stunts seemed to end and instead computer generated images were created. This way of thinking can only be described as a joke, thus making the scenes implausible. The tradition of Arnold writing the title song, also came to an end with this film.
Madonna was asked by EON to write and perform the title song. Sadly Arnold wasn’t asked, and believe me when I say the word ‘sadly’ opens up a ‘what if’ scenario as to how much better the title song could have been if Arnold had been asked. There is nothing Bondian about Madonna’s title song at all, in fact they may as well have played Eric Serra’s ‘Experience Of Love’ over the opening credits.
With the title theme being solely Madonna’s work and not a joint venture, Arnold could not incorporate it into the score without paying a fee. This incidentally is why Sheryl Crow’s ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’ cannot be heard throughout the score of the film with the same name.
This then leads to both Arnold and Don Black having to work on another song called ‘I Will Return’ which was to be heard over the end credits (after all, James Bond Will Return!), but sadly a remix of Madonna’s theme song was favoured and so ‘I Will Return’ was never used.
Looking, or shall I say listening to the template that Arnold had worked with on his previous two outings, it is safe to assume that what was to have been ‘I Will Return’ can be heard within the score of ‘Die Another Day’. Just like the theme for ‘Surrender’ and ‘Only Myself To Blame’ could be heard in the previous two films.
The first piece of music from Arnold we hear in this film is the gun barrel, which goes back to how Barry used it in all of his Bond scores. This being the six high brass notes followed by electric guitar as opposed to the four note riff which Arnold had used on his previous two outings. It’s interesting to note that Marvin Hamlisch had first used the four note riff for the gun barrel, in ‘The Spy Who Loved Me.
We then hear the first signs of what might have been ‘I will Return’ in the music that is played throughout the surfing scene, which starts off with brass and is then accompanied by strings, whilst the famous four note riff of the Bond theme is played in the background.
We are then introduced to the ‘villains theme’, which is heard as soon as we reach the DMZ. The ‘villains theme’ can later be heard when the space satellite weapon ‘Icarus’ first makes its appearance.
The skeleton reference, of what might have been ‘I Will Return’ is then played throughout the track ‘Hovercraft Chase’ and can be heard at 1:48. This is played much clearer with brass and it can also be heard played on strings, whilst Bond is captured and tortured at the end of the pre-title sequence.
We then hear it again whilst Bond is introduced to ‘Peaceful Fountains Of Desire’ in the hotel room, first played on a piano, followed by woodwind and accompanied by strings throughout. However, this is the first time we hear the theme develop into what might have been the chorus for ‘I Will Return’. Again like that of Barry, the theme has been used for action and is now being used for romantic scenes. Unfortunately, the music that is heard over the surfing sequence and for the majority of the film is not available on the soundtrack album. However the track ‘Touch Of Frost’, is very much in the same style and tempo of this rendition of the lost theme.
The next time we hear this ‘lost theme’ is when Bond pays a visit to the Gene Clinic. This piece of music isn’t available on the ‘Die Another Day’ album but is played quite clearly in front of heavy electronic percussion, which I must say, is used a lot throughout the score. The theme begins with the four note riff famously used in the Bond theme, then followed by another four note riff which can be associated with the theme from ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’ which was used a lot by Arnold. It eventually kicks into the theme which begins with strings and then continues on brass.
The music that is heard during the sword fight between Bond and Gustav Graves contains a ‘speck’ of the ‘villains theme’ (Icarus) shortly followed by the lost theme which is heard fully in brass. However, it is then instantly followed by parts of the Bond theme.
As I mentioned before, the tempo, style and the romanticisation of the theme from ‘Peaceful Fountains of Desire’ can be heard in the track ‘Touch Of Frost’.
The lost theme makes its next appearance in the track ‘Whiteout’ and can be heard twice. Firstly, it can be heard 20 seconds in, after the four note base line from ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’ and lasts approximately 15 seconds. It then makes a comeback towards the end of the track at 4:11, woven between the chorus and the first verse of the Bond theme. Interesting to note that the verse of the Bond theme is similar to how it was played in the opening sequence of ‘Thunderball’.
Surprisingly the lost theme isn’t heard during the car chase on ice, or when the chase takes place in the Ice Palace. However, even though the music for the latter scene is a great piece, it is really a reworking of the music that accompanies the action scenes that take place at the Gene Clinic and includes traces of Jinx’s theme. The theme is finally played for the last time over military drums, whilst Bond and Jinx are taken to the airbase before they descend to the Antonov on switchblades.
It is interesting that the ‘lost’ Bond theme is played throughout the action cues and for the romantic scenes but is absent from the sweeping vistas. David Arnold has said that ‘I Will Return’ may be used for a future Bond film and I really do hope so. So far the music and songs that he has written for the Bond films have not disappointed me.
By Matthew GriceIn an open letter sent to media outlets on Monday, the embassy staff said that they gave their notice and urged others to follow suit, directly criticising the regime of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi.
"We, the undersigned staff of the Libyan embassy in Stockholm, condemn the
genocide that is taking place in Libya against civilians as a consequence of the legitimate demands for a life of dignity and without the despot Qaddafi's continued misrule and corruption," translator Sayed Jalabi and receptionist Hamid Kassem, both of Syrian origin, and secretary Abdelali Mahfouf of Morocco wrote in a letter on Monday.
"We find the situation intolerable for us: we do not want to be passive when we see that people are rising against the tyrant despite the obvious risk that they may shed their own blood. We resign in protest and urge others to make their voices heard," they added.
Jalabi felt that he had to take a stand in light of current events.
"We would feel like hypocrites if we sat here and continued to work as if nothing had happened even though we actually support the popular protests in Libya," he told public broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT) on Monday.
The Libyan embassy in Stockholm could not be reached for comment.
Mouna Bakkar, the wife of Jalabi, however told AFP in a telephone interview that the three men had been employed at the Libyan embassy, with her 37-year-old husband working as an interpreter, Kassem working in the consulate and Mahfouf working as a receptionist.
Jalabi, who arrived in Sweden in 1998, had since become a Swedish citizen, as had Kassem, Bakkar said, adding she did not know whether Mahfouf had obtained citizenship in Sweden.
On the same day, protesters demonstrated outside the Libyan embassy in Stockholm, demanding the departure of Qaddafi and calling for an end to the killings.
One of them, asylum seeker Yahya Edriss, 21, learned that his 42-year-old brother Nasser Mohamed Edriss Shemi, 42, was killed in Tripoli, the country's capital, on Sunday.
"He was shot outside military headquarters. I want to go home now and keep fighting. I am more motivated and strengthened in my fighting spirit," said Edriss.
One of the other demonstrators outside the Libyan embassy on Valhallavägen was 50-year-old opposition activist Shaban Elgale, who disputed promises made by Qaddafi's son during a Sunday television appearance that the country's constitution would be reformed.
"The people have demanded that for a long time. They lie all the time," he told the TT news agency.Barack Obama's Law : Personality: Harvard Law Review's first black president plans a life of public service. His multicultural background gives him unique perspective.
Yet Obama, who has gone deep into debt to meet the $25,000-a-year cost of a Harvard Law School education, has left many in disbelief by asserting that he wants neither.
The post, considered the highest honor a student can attain at Harvard Law School, almost always leads to a coveted clerkship with the U.S. Supreme Court after graduation and a lucrative offer from the law firm of one's choice.
It is a sobering moment for Obama, 28, who in February became the first black to be elected president in the 102-year history of the prestigious student-run law journal.
All are men. All are dressed in dark-colored suits and ties. All are white.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Barack Obama stares silently at a wall of fading black-and-white photographs in the muggy second-floor offices of the Harvard Law Review. He lingers over one row of solemn faces, his predecessors of 40 years ago.
"One of the luxuries of going to Harvard Law School is it means you can take risks in your life," Obama said recently. "You can try to do things to improve society and still land on your feet. That's what a Harvard education should buy--enough confidence and security to pursue your dreams and give something back."
After graduation next year, Obama says he probably will spend two years at a corporate law firm, then look for community work. Down the road, he plans to run for public office.
The son of a Kenyan economist and an American anthropologist, Obama is a tall man with a quick, boyish smile whose fellow students rib him about his trademark tattered blue jeans.
"I come from a lot of worlds and I have had the unique opportunity to move through different circles," Obama said. "I have worked and lived in poor black communities and I can translate some of their concerns into words that the larger society can embrace."
His own upbringing is a blending of diverse cultures. Born in Hawaii, where his parents met in college, Obama was named Barack (blessed in Arabic) after his father. The elder Obama was among a generation of young Africans who came to the United States to study engineering, finance and medicine, skills that could be taken back home to build a new, strong Africa. In Hawaii, he married Obama's mother, a white American from Wichita, Kan.
Two years later, Obama's parents separated and he moved to a small village outside Jakarta, Indonesia, with his mother, an anthropologist. There, he spent his boyhood playing with the sons and daughters of rice farmers and rickshaw drivers, attending an Indonesian-speaking school, where he had little contact with Americans.
Every morning at 5, his mother would wake him to take correspondence classes for fear he would forget his English.
It was in Indonesia, Obama said, where he first became aware of abject poverty and despair.
"It left a very strong mark on me living there because you got a real sense of just how poor folks can get," he said. "You'd have some army general with 24 cars and if he drove one once then eight servants would come around and wash it right away. But on the next block, you'd have children with distended bellies who just couldn't eat."
After six years in Indonesia, Obama was sent back to the United States to live with his maternal grandparents in Hawaii in preparation for college. It was then that he began to correspond with his father, a senior economist for the Kenyan finance ministry who recounted intriguing tales of an African heritage that Obama knew little about.
Obama treasured his father's tales of walking miles to school, using a machete to hack a path through the elephant grass--the legends and traditions of the Luo tribe, a proud people who inhabited the shores of Lake Victoria.on •
THE GUERRILLA ANGEL REPORT — Are you transgender and are still thinking about voting for Gov. Mitt Romney this November? Let me help you here a bit: Mitt Romney would rather kill a state-sponsored antibullying guide than have the word “transgender” (and “bisexual”) appear in it.
While the Romney administration claimed at the time the guide needed ‘further review’ when they delayed it however, new information from an email recently obtained by the Boston Globe indicates the motive for killing the guide was partisan — not at all what Romney’s people led us to believe.
From the email: “Because this is using the terms ‘bisexual’ and ‘transgendered,’ DPH’s name may not be used in this publication,’’ wrote the official, Alda Rego-Weathers, then the deputy commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
In the email Rego-Weathers stated she had been ‘consulting with Romney’s office on the issue.’ More from the Boston Globe:
Stifling the guide’s publication was among steps that Romney and his aides took during his last year in office to distance the Republican governor from state programs designed to specifically support gays, lesbians, and bisexual and transgender people....”
This document is particularly troublesome because it singles out transgender (and bisexual) individuals — are we suppose to take this to mean we are “worse” than being lesbian or gay in Romney’s mind?
Please consider your place in Romney’s world when you vote this November.
——–
There is a bit of good news to report for bullied kids in Massachusetts...
After Democrat Gov. Deval Patrick took office in 2008, a 120-page “Guide to Bullying Prevention’’ was released state-wide and yes, transgender is included.
Mass. stalled antibullying guide under Romney – Boston.com.
—–
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Categories: Discrimination, Equality, Civil Rights, Transgender, Transsexual, TransThe 1969 Minnesota Vikings were really good on defense. It began with the defensive line, as that Minnesota squad was the only team in NFL history to send all four defensive linemen to the Pro Bowl. Alan Page Jim Marshall, and Gary Larsen may have been the greatest combination of defensive linemen playing together in their primes in NFL history. The Vikings also had Hall of Fame safety Paul Krause playing in the prime of his career.
Minnesota was quarterback by Joe Kapp, but propped up by the defense: after the season, Kapp was traded to the Patriots, and proceeded to suffer the second worst decline in passer rating in NFL history. The Vikings went 12-2 that season, losing on opening day and in a meaningless game at the end of the year.
Minnesota allowed just 133 points, or 9.5 points per game, in 1969. That’s the 2nd fewest in a season since World War II, trailing only the Gritz Blitz 1977 Falcons. The Vikings allowed 16 touchdowns in 1969, but four came on returns (two on interceptions, one fumble, one interception)! Exclude those, and the Vikings allowed just 84 points on touchdowns and 21 points on field goals, for a total of 105 points allowed to the opposing offense.
Now, how many drives did the Vikings defense face? There are, as before, two ways of measuring this. The first is by measuring the end of drives.
8 opponent drives ended in passing touchdowns;
30 ended in interceptions;
4 ended with rushing touchdowns;
18 ended with field goal attempts;
100 ended with punts;
12 ended due to a lost fumble; and
0 safeties
That’s a total of 172 estimated drives. What are we missing here? Drives that ended because the half or game expired, and drives that ended due to a failed fourth down conversion.
The other method is to look at the start of drives. Minnesota:A study of patients who underwent an emergency general surgery procedure found that hospital readmission was common and varied widely depending on patient factors and diagnosis, according to a study published online by JAMA Surgery.
Hospital readmission rates following surgery are increasingly used as a marker of quality of care and are used in pay-for-performance metrics. As such, reducing hospital readmission rates has become a focus of both physicians and hospital administrators as well as policy makers. Emergency general surgery (EGS) patients represent a unique population at high risk for medical errors and complications following surgery. Approximately half of all patients undergoing EGS will have a postoperative complication, and postoperative complications have been closely linked to hospital readmission, according to background information in the article.
Joaquim M. Havens M.D., of Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, and colleagues examined readmission rates and risk factors for readmission after common EGS procedures. The study included patients undergoing EGS identified in the California State Inpatient Database (2007-2011). Patients were 18 years and older. The researchers identified |
economic environment, for Democrats to lump unions in with corporate groups as examples of the special interests we need to stand up to?
Second, is Mr. Obama saying that if nominated, he’d be willing to run without support from labor 527s, which might be crucial to the Democrats? If not, how does he avoid having his own current words used against him by the Republican nominee?
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Part of what happened here, I think, is that Mr. Obama, looking for a stick with which to beat an opponent who has lately acquired some momentum, either carelessly or cynically failed to think about how his rhetoric would affect the eventual ability of the Democratic nominee, whoever he or she is, to campaign effectively. In this sense, his latest gambit resembles his previous echoing of G.O.P. talking points on Social Security.
Beyond that, the episode illustrates what’s wrong with campaigning on generalities about political transformation and trying to avoid sounding partisan.
It may be partisan to say that a 527 run by labor unions supporting health care reform isn’t the same thing as a 527 run by insurance companies opposing it. But it’s also the simple truth.Early one morning in September 2011, Abdulrahman set out from our home in Sana by himself. He went to look for his father, whom he hadn’t seen for years. He left a note for his mother explaining that he missed his father and wanted to find him, and asking her to forgive him for leaving without permission.
A couple of days after Abdulrahman left, we were relieved to receive word that he was safe and with cousins in southern Yemen, where our family is from. Days later, his father was targeted and killed by American drones in a northern province, hundreds of miles away. After Anwar died, Abdulrahman called us and said he was going to return home.
That was the last time I heard his voice. He was killed just two weeks after his father.
A country that believes it does not even need to answer for killing its own is not the America I once knew. From 1966 to 1977, I fulfilled a childhood dream and studied in the United States as a Fulbright scholar, earning my doctorate and then working as a researcher and assistant professor at universities in New Mexico, Nebraska and Minnesota.
I have fond memories of those years. When I first came to the United States as a student, my host family took me camping by the ocean and on road trips to places like Yosemite, Disneyland and New York — and it was wonderful.
After returning to Yemen, I used my American education and skills to help my country, serving as Yemen’s minister of agriculture and fisheries and establishing one of the country’s leading institutions of higher learning, Ibb University. Abdulrahman used to tell me he wanted to follow in my footsteps and go back to America to study. I can’t bear to think of those conversations now.
After Anwar was put on the government’s list, but before he was killed, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights represented me in a lawsuit challenging the government’s claim that it could kill anyone it deemed an enemy of the state.
The court dismissed the case, saying that I did not have standing to sue on my son’s behalf and that the government’s targeted killing program was outside the court’s jurisdiction anyway.Why bother? Because much of the left-brain-centric work that the Information Age workers of America once did — computer programming, financial accounting, routing calls — is now done more cheaply in Asia or more efficiently by computers. If it can be outsourced or automated, it probably has been.
Now the master of fine arts, or M.F.A., Mr. Pink says, “is the new M.B.A.”
He’s not the only one saying it. When General Motors hired Robert A. Lutz in 2001 to whip its product development into shape, he told The New York Times about his new approach. “It’s more right brain. It’s more creative,” he said.
“I see us as being in the art business,” he said, “art, entertainment and mobile sculpture, which, coincidentally, also happens to provide transportation.”
When a car company like G.M. is in the art business, every company in any other industry is, too.
So it makes sense that business executives are turning to the original pop culture icon of right-brain thinking, “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain,” for guidance into their right minds. Ms. Edwards retired in 1998, but her son, Brian Bomeisler, teaches scores of corporate and public workshops each year.
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The list of companies Mr. Bomeisler has worked with is a Who’s Who of the Fortune 500. “That corny phrase ‘thinking outside the box,’ that’s what I do for corporations,” he says. “In teaching them how to draw, I’m teaching them an entirely new way to see. They unbox their minds and absorb what’s really there, with all of the complexity and beauty. One of the common phrases that students use afterward is that the world appears to be so much richer."
During a two-day workshop with Halliburton Energy Services, Mr. Bomeisler watched as a team’s drawings slowly revealed an obvious solution to a longstanding problem. Team members realized from drawing that they had been enjoying their special status as a task force and had become so fascinated with the problem before them that they were in no hurry to solve it. This was resolved after management set a strict deadline and promised the group equally intriguing problems in the future.
That ability to help others see from an artist’s perspective was the reason Ms. Edwards decided to write her book, she said in an e-mail message. “My main task in writing the drawing book was to dig down underneath everything I knew about art and drawing to try to find the most fundamental level of ‘thinking’ that goes on in drawing,” she said. “What was I seeing, how was I ‘seeing’ what I was seeing, and how was I transforming those perceptions into a drawing? It makes my brain hurt even now to remember the effort required by that seemingly simple task.”
That alternate way of thinking has traditionally been marginalized in corporate America, as it has been in the rest of our culture. Dr. Sperry, who had a doctorate in zoology, noted the prejudice in 1973 when he remarked: “Our educational system, as well as science in general, tends to neglect the nonverbal form of intellect. What it comes down to is that modern society discriminates against the right hemisphere.”
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Mr. Pink hopes his latest book, “The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need,” will help set things right. Promoted as “the first business comic book,” the paperback is drawn as if it were a Japanese manga novel. In the story, the office cubicle dweller Johnny Bunko is taught the true rules of the career game — including “There is no plan” and “Make excellent mistakes” — by a superhero fairy godmother who appears when he breaks open a pair of chopsticks.
THE primary moral to the story, Mr. Pink says, is this: There’s power in making career choices for fundamental reasons, such as doing something you love, instead of instrumental reasons, like hoping a job will be a steppingstone to something else.
It’s a message Dr. Sperry seemed to understand when he accepted the Nobel Prize in medicine in 1981. “The great pleasure and feeling in my right brain,” he said, “is more than my left brain can find the words to tell you.”Norwich City, managed by Chris Hughton, need points on the board fast with only nine games of the season left, and their last four fixtures against the current top three sides in the division.
Meanwhile, Mauricio Pochettino is the main man on the South Coast, with talk of a place in Europe being touted for Southampton. However, performances and results have dipped of late, and a respectable top half finish is becoming reality for the Saints. England’s newest clutch of players in 18 year old, Luke Shaw and captain Adam Lallana have been in sensational form, while Rickie Lambert and Jay Rodriguez have been scoring for fun.
With one win in five games for Norwich resulting in a hard fought end to the season, Southampton’s attractive a fluent football will surely cause Michael Turner and Sebastien Bassong all sorts of problems to an out of sought relegation burdened side. The 1-0 win at Carrow Road for the Canaries earlier in the season should give Norwich some sort of encouragement.
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KICK-OFF: 3pm
Past Three Meetings
Norwich City 1 (Redmond) Southampton 0, 31st August 2013
Norwich City 0 Southampton 0, 9th March 2013
Southampton 1 (Lambert) Norwich City 1 (Snodgrass), 28th November
STATS
Southampton have won just one of their last eight Premier League home matches (W1 D3 L4).
Norwich City have lost eight of their last 11 Premier League away games (W1 D2 L8) including the last four in a row.
Norwich have lost all 10 Premier League away games in which they’ve trailed in this season.
Southampton have been level at half-time in their last three matches against Norwich
Southampton and Norwich are the two sides to have let the most points slip from winning positions this season (15 each).
Five of the last seven meetings in all competitions between Southampton and Norwich have ended as a draw (one win each).
ODDS
Southampton win: 1.53
Norwich City win: 6.00
Draw: 4.00
TV: Watch highlights on Match of the Day, 10.30pm, BBC 1
Keep up to date with all the latest news with expert comment and analysis from our award-winning writersWaxangel Profile Blog Joined September 2002 United States 27028 Posts Last Edited: 2016-04-21 12:34:57 #1
Supplementary information has been added in blue text. The original documents can be downloaded HERE.
The following is a translated summary of the official report (April 21, 2016) from the Changwon Regional Prosecution Service’s special investigations division. Some portions have been translated in whole, while others sections have been edited for clarity.Supplementary information has been added in. The original documents can be downloaded StarCraft 2 Match-Fixing Investigation Result:
- 8 indicted and arrested, including a top-class progamer
The Changwon Regional Prosecution Service’s special investigations division investigated match-fixing in StarCraft 2 between January and April of 2016 and identified eleven individuals involved. Eight have been indicted and arrested, two have been indicted but not arrested, and one individual remains at large.
One top-class StarCraft 2 PROGAMER, a GSL champion and WCS runner-up in 2015, is charged with receiving 70,000,000 won ( approximately $62,000 USD ) to manipulate two matches. Four BROKERS are charged with using personal relationships to solicit match-fixing. Two FINANCIAL BACKERS are charged with providing cash in compensation for match-fixing. One individual responsible for the placing of bets is also charged. These eight individuals have been indicted and arrested.
a GSL champion and WCS runner-up in 2015, is charged with receiving ( ) to manipulate two matches. Four BROKERS are charged with using personal relationships to solicit match-fixing. Two FINANCIAL BACKERS are charged with providing cash in compensation for match-fixing. One individual responsible for the placing of bets is also charged. These eight individuals have been indicted and arrested. One StarCraft 2 PROGAMER is charged with receiving 30,000,000 won to manipulate one match, and later turned himself in to the authorities. One FINANCIAL BACKER is charged with providing compensation for the match-fixing; he has already been arrested in a previous case. One additional financial backer is currently at large.
The Changwon Prosecution Service’s first investigation in October of 2015 resulted in the indictment of nine individuals involved in StarCraft 2 match-fixing (
We plan to continue enforcing the law against match-fixers who would impede fairness in society.
I. The Defendants and Official Charges
*Though the investigators did not directly release any names, many identities have been effectively confirmed through the details of the investigation.
1. PROGAMER “A” (age 19)— Life
2015-05-03 KeSPA Cup match, “A” vs. “L” ( Terminator ): After receiving 35,000,000 won from broker “B,” Life intentionally lost in his match with “L.”
After receiving 35,000,000 won from broker “B,” Life intentionally lost in his match with “L.” 2015-05-04 KeSPA Cup match, “A” vs. “M” ( Dream ): After receiving 35,000,000 won from broker “B,” Life intentionally lost in his match with “M.”
2. BROKER “B” (age 25)
2015-05-03 KeSPA Cup match, “A” vs. “L”: Transferred 35,000,000 won of compensation to Life for match-fixing in the aforementioned matches. “B” earned winnings from online betting on those matches.
Transferred 35,000,000 won of compensation to Life for match-fixing in the aforementioned matches. “B” earned winnings from online betting on those matches. 2015-05-04 KeSPA Cup match, “A” vs. “M”: Transferred 35,000,000 won of compensation to Life for match-fixing in the aforementioned matches. “B” earned winnings from online betting on those matches.
3. Employee “C,” who worked for financial backer “D” (age 30)
2015-05-03 KeSPA Cup match, “A” vs. “L”: Using information on the manipulated match, “C” placed bets on internet gambling sites and earned winnings.
Using information on the manipulated match, “C” placed bets on internet gambling sites and earned winnings. 2015-05-04 KeSPA Cup match, “A” vs. “M”: Using information on the manipulated match, “C” placed bets on internet gambling sites and earned winnings.
4. FINANCIAL BACKER “D” (age 41)
2015-05-03 KeSPA Cup match, “A” vs. “L”: Put up 50,000,000 won for betting manipulated matches, earning winnings from bets on those matches.
Put up 50,000,000 won for betting manipulated matches, earning winnings from bets on those matches. 2015-05-04 KeSPA Cup match, “A” vs. “M”: Put up 50,000,000 won for betting manipulated matches, earning winnings from bets on those matches.
5. FINANCIAL BACKER “E”— The Changwon Regional Prosecution Service’s special investigations division investigated match-fixing in StarCraft 2 between January and April of 2016 and identified eleven individuals involved. Eight have been indicted and arrested, two have been indicted but not arrested, and one individual remains at large.The Changwon Prosecution Service’s first investigation in October of 2015 resulted in the indictment of nine individuals involved in StarCraft 2 match-fixing ( read the October report here ). This second investigation confirms esports match-fixing is occurring on a broad large scale, highlighting the need for not only continued policing, but extreme measures from the Korea eSports Association.We plan to continue enforcing the law against match-fixers who would impede fairness in society.who worked for financial backer “D” (age 30)(age 41) Enough, a former StarCraft 1 progamer and games journalist. He had already been arrested and convicted as a broker in the October ‘15 match-fixing investigation
2015-05-03 KeSPA Cup match, “A” vs. “L”: Gave 35,000,000 won of compensation to Life for match-fixing. Enough also earned winnings from online betting on those matches.
Gave 35,000,000 won of compensation to Life for match-fixing. Enough also earned winnings from online betting on those matches. 2015-05-04 KeSPA Cup match, “A” vs. “M”: Gave 35,000,000 won of compensation to Life for match-fixing. Enough also earned winnings from online betting on those matches.
Gave 35,000,000 won of compensation to Life for match-fixing. Enough also earned winnings from online betting on those matches. 2015-05-13 GSL Season 2 Code S Ro32, “P” vs. “J”: Using information on manipulated matches, Enough placed bets on internet gambling sites and earned winnings.
6. BROKER “F” (age 25)
2016-01-15 GSL Season 1, “J” ( Bbyong ) vs. “N” ( DRGLing ): Conspiring together with financial backers “H” and “K,” “F” gave progamer “J” a total of 30,000,000 won in compensation for match-fixing. “F” earned winnings from online betting on the match.
7. BROKER “G” (age 31)
2016-01-15 GSL Season 1, “J” vs. “N”: Conspiring with financial backer “K,” gave progamer “J” 20,000,000 won in compensation for match-fixing. “G” earned winnings from online betting on the matches.
8. FINANCIAL BACKER “H” (age 33)
2016-01-15 GSL Season 1, “J” vs. “N”: Conspiring with financial backer “K,” gave progamer “J” 20,000,000 won in compensation for match-fixing. “G” earned winnings from online betting on the matches.
9. BROKER “I” (age 31)
2016-01-15 GSL Season 1, “J” vs. “N”: Conspiring “G,” “F,” and financial backer “K,” gave progamer “J” 20,000,000 won in compensation for match fixing.
10. PROGAMER “J” (age 24)— Bbyong
2016-01-15 GSL Season 1, “J” ( Bbyong ) vs. “N” ( DRGLing ): After receiving 30,000,000 won from financial backers “H” and “K,” Bbyong intentionally lost in his match with “N.”
II. Investigation Timeline
October, 2015: Twelve individuals identified, nine arrested and indicted related to match-fixing in StarCraft 2 (first investigation).
January, 2016: Second investigation commences after the apprehension of a broker at large.
January-April, 2016: Eleven individuals identified. Eight indicted and arrested, two indicted but not arrested, one at large.
III. CASE DETAILS.
1. Well-known, top-class progamers involved in match-fixing.
Progamer “A,” one of the greatest StarCraft 2 players at present, and Zerg player with the most premier tournament championships, received 70,000,000 won from a broker to intentionally lose in two games.
and Zerg player with the most premier tournament championships, received 70,000,000 won from a broker to intentionally lose in two games. Progamer “J,” a top-class progamer, received 30,000,000 won from a broker to intentionally lose one game.
2. Systematic execution with clear division of roles.
The crimes were perpetrated with clear division of roles: Financial backers to put up the compensation for match-fixing, brokers to solicit the match-fixing and transfer the funds, and an employee in charge of receiving gambling funds and placing bets on gambling sites.
Approaching progamers under the guise of being fans: Broker “B” approached progamer “A” under the guise of being a fan and established a relationship. Afterward he solicited match-fixing, claiming that ‘all the other pros are making money from match-fixing.’
Brokers “F,” “G,” and “I” also approached progamer “J” under the pretense of being fans. They later solicited match-fixing and arranged a meeting with financial backers.
Broker “B” approached progamer “A” under the guise of being a fan and established a relationship. Afterward he solicited match-fixing, claiming that ‘all the other pros are making money from match-fixing.’ Brokers “F,” “G,” and “I” also approached progamer “J” under the pretense of being fans. They later solicited match-fixing and arranged a meeting with financial backers. Match-fixing funds put up by financial backers: “E,” a former StarCraft 1 progamer and games journalist, acted a financial backer. He delivered the match-fixing funds through broker “B,” and employed “C” to place bets on gambling sites. During the investigation, “E” was already on trial ( he has since been convicted ) for his involvement in the PRIME match-fixing case as a broker.
Financial backer “D” received information on fixed matches from “E,” and gave him funds for gambling.
Financial backer “H” gave progamer “J” compensation for match-fixing directly.
3. Profiting from illegal online gambling sites.
Financial backers “E,” “D” and “H” gave match-fixing compensation to progamers directly or through brokers. Afterward, they placed bets on the fixed matches through illegal gambling site, taking in earnings and replenishing funds for future match-fixing.
The maximum bet for one person on illegal gambling sites was 1,000,000 won, while the payout was roughly 1.3~1.5 times the bet. As earnings were low when betting on only one site, backers ordered their employees to register on many gambling sites and place multiple, simultaneous bets.
(age 25)(age 31)(age 33)(age 31)Twelve individuals identified, nine arrested and indicted related to match-fixing in StarCraft 2 (first investigation).Second investigation commences after the apprehension of a broker at large.Eleven individuals identified. Eight indicted and arrested, two indicted but not arrested, one at large. (Conclusions, etc. omitted)
Administrator Hey HP can you redo everything youve ever done because i have a small complaint?
Sakat Profile Blog Joined October 2014 Croatia 1595 Posts #2 Well, shit My boy Ptak defeated two GSL champions!
NinjaToss Profile Blog Joined October 2015 Austria 1378 Posts #3 well crap, everything is now cleared then. Rip Life, Rip Bbyong....
pretending to be fans to persuade progamers to matchfix, saying every progamers is matchfixing, this is disgusting. I'm sorry for all those that got their hearts broken by Zest | Zest, Bisu, soO, herO, MC, Maru, TY, Rogue, Trap, TaeJa", Favourite foreigners: ShoWTimE, Snute, Serral and Nerchio| KT BEST KT |
Musicus Profile Joined August 2011 Germany 22505 Posts #4 The only good thing is that they seem to have caught a lot of brokers and financial backers too, which is even more important than catching a player imo. Baguette lover | I recognize the might and wisdom of my Otherworldly overlord | Serral is overrated, NaNiwa would beat him | Lilbowjwa > Maru | Make SC2 great again, bring back the old Swarm Hosts | ROACH ROACH ROACH
[PkF] Wire Profile Joined March 2013 France 20658 Posts #5 Very clear report, thanks. So sad for Life and Bbyong, they were foolish and will probably get what they deserve.
Circumstance Profile Blog Joined March 2014 United States 11012 Posts #6 On April 21 2016 18:42 Musicus wrote:
The only good thing is that they seem to have caught a lot of brokers and financial backers too, which is even more important than catching a player imo.
This is 100% accurate. Life and Bbyong are the symptoms, the gambling syndicates are the disease. This is 100% accurate. Life and Bbyong are the symptoms, the gambling syndicates are the disease. The world is better when every background has a chance.
Holdinga Profile Blog Joined August 2010 Bulgaria 300 Posts #7 So what amount of prison time can we expect for Life?
bypLy Profile Joined June 2013 742 Posts #8 who is "so called" prosecutor anyways... life in innocent
Tanzklaue Profile Joined January 2012 Germany 1273 Posts #9 seriously though, how stupid does one have to be to basically fall for the argument "everyone is jumping from the cliff, you should too"?
like even if it were true that everyone fixes matches, Life, why would you fix matches with your massive winnings, popularity and talent? seems like he only was a natural genius ingame, because that decisionmaking cost him his current and possibly future careers in both gaming and other fields.
Inflicted Profile Blog Joined January 2011 Australia 14846 Posts #10 I feel sorry for DRGLing, his first competitive win was a fixed match Liquipedia "Expert"
NinjaToss Profile Blog Joined October 2015 Austria 1378 Posts #11 On April 21 2016 18:52 bypLy wrote:
who is "so called" prosecutor anyways... life in innocent
oh you sweet summer child oh you sweet summer child I'm sorry for all those that got their hearts broken by Zest | Zest, Bisu, soO, herO, MC, Maru, TY, Rogue, Trap, TaeJa", Favourite foreigners: ShoWTimE, Snute, Serral and Nerchio| KT BEST KT |
Dav1oN Profile Joined January 2012 Ukraine 2803 Posts #12 On April 21 2016 18:48 Circumstance wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 21 2016 18:42 Musicus wrote:
The only good thing is that they seem to have caught a lot of brokers and financial backers too, which is even more important than catching a player imo.
This is 100% accurate. Life and Bbyong are the symptoms, the gambling syndicates are the disease. This is 100% accurate. Life and Bbyong are the symptoms, the gambling syndicates are the disease.
It's like there is no option not to co-work with such syndicates if u're top tier player? It's like there is no option not to co-work with such syndicates if u're top tier player? 1xBet
Musicus Profile Joined August 2011 Germany 22505 Posts #13 On April 21 2016 18:52 Holdinga wrote:
So what amount of prison time can we expect for Life?
None I think. Should be a suspended sentence just like in the Prime case. A hefty fine too I guess. None I think. Should be a suspended sentence just like in the Prime case. A hefty fine too I guess. Baguette lover | I recognize the might and wisdom of my Otherworldly overlord | Serral is overrated, NaNiwa would beat him | Lilbowjwa > Maru | Make SC2 great again, bring back the old Swarm Hosts | ROACH ROACH ROACH
deacon.frost Profile Joined February 2013 Czech Republic 7191 Posts #14 On April 21 2016 18:52 Tanzklaue wrote:
seriously though, how stupid does one have to be to basically fall for the argument "everyone is jumping from the cliff, you should too"?
like even if it were true that everyone fixes matches, Life, why would you fix matches with your massive winnings, popularity and talent? seems like he only was a natural genius ingame, because that decisionmaking cost him his current and possibly future careers in both gaming and other fields.
It looks like he had problems with gambling. Which isn't an excuse for his deeds. But it shows that KeSPA doesn't care. Teams don't care. Which is kinda sad. A gambling person who will stay crystal clear when you have these shady persons around, sure, yeah. It looks like he had problems with gambling. Which isn't an excuse for his deeds. But it shows that KeSPA doesn't care. Teams don't care. Which is kinda sad. A gambling person who will stay crystal clear when you have these shady persons around, sure, yeah. I imagine France should be able to take this unless Lilbow is busy practicing for Starcraft III. | KadaverBB is my fairy ban mother.
todespolka Profile Joined November 2012 221 Posts #15 I can remember the game between dream and life. But dream was really good, he made multiple widow mine drops, where life lost a lot of his workers. It was not a suspicious game. It looked like dream was just faster at multitasking, but now we know that life just threw the game intentionally.
The sums are incredible. 30000 dollar for just one match. How can you say no to that.
Caihead Profile Blog Joined July 2011 Canada 8514 Posts #16 On April 21 2016 18:52 Tanzklaue wrote:
seriously though, how stupid does one have to be to basically fall for the argument "everyone is jumping from the cliff, you should too"?
like even if it were true that everyone fixes matches, Life, why would you fix matches with your massive winnings, popularity and talent? seems like he only was a natural genius ingame, because that decisionmaking cost him his current and possibly future careers in both gaming and other fields.
Except it's not "everybody is jumping from the cliff" but rather "everybody is getting rich as hell for literally no effort", 30 million won is basically about Except it's not "everybody is jumping from the cliff" but rather "everybody is getting rich as hell for literally no effort", 30 million won is basically about a year's worth of wage. After seeing the sort of institutionalized and "socially acceptable" corruption in so many professional fields it's a reality that we have to deal with. These are still kids and young adults we are talking about so they are even more prune to influence. "If you're not living in the US or are a US Citizen, please do not tell us how to vote or how you want our country to be governed." - Serpest, American Hero
Musicus Profile Joined August 2011 Germany 22505 Posts Last Edited: 2016-04-21 10:03:39 #17 On April 21 2016 18:59 todespolka wrote:
I can remember the game between dream and life. But dream was really good, he made multiple widow mine drops, where life lost a lot of his workers. It was not a suspicious game. It looked like dream was just faster at multitasking, but now we know that life just threw the game intentionally.
The sums are incredible. 30000 dollar for just one match. How can you say no to that.
I think it was the game where Life lost 3 drones vs 1 reaper and then 4 more and a queen vs 3 reapers. Something that would never happen to a zerg on that level. Moonglade was really confused about what was happening while casting. I think it was the game where Life lost 3 drones vs 1 reaper and then 4 more and a queen vs 3 reapers. Something that would never happen to a zerg on that level. Moonglade was really confused about what was happening while casting. Baguette lover | I recognize the might and wisdom of my Otherworldly overlord | Serral is overrated, NaNiwa would beat him | Lilbowjwa > Maru | Make SC2 great again, bring back the old Swarm Hosts | ROACH ROACH ROACH
Tanzklaue Profile Joined January 2012 Germany 1273 Posts #18 On April 21 2016 18:57 deacon.frost wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 21 2016 18:52 Tanzklaue wrote:
seriously though, how stupid does one have to be to basically fall for the argument "everyone is jumping from the cliff, you should too"?
like even if it were true that everyone fixes matches, Life, why would you fix matches with your massive winnings, popularity and talent? seems like he only was a natural genius ingame, because that decisionmaking cost him his current and possibly future careers in both gaming and other fields.
It looks like he had problems with gambling. Which isn't an excuse for his deeds. But it shows that KeSPA doesn't care. Teams don't care. Which is kinda sad. A gambling person who will stay crystal clear when you have these shady persons around, sure, yeah. It looks like he had problems with gambling. Which isn't an excuse for his deeds. But it shows that KeSPA doesn't care. Teams don't care. Which is kinda sad. A gambling person who will stay crystal clear when you have these shady persons around, sure, yeah.
wouldn't it say so in the case report though?
i dunno how much truth is to that whole gambling thing, he did gamble yea, but enough to throw away almost 500k dollar? i dunno man. wouldn't it say so in the case report though?i dunno how much truth is to that whole gambling thing, he did gamble yea, but enough to throw away almost 500k dollar? i dunno man.
Kurbz Profile Joined April 2011 Australia 81 Posts #19 with all these legal betting sites in the west, I wonder how many western players have match fixed. Never argue with an idiot, they will bring you down to their level and beat you with experience.
deacon.frost Profile Joined February 2013 Czech Republic 7191 Posts #20 On April 21 2016 18:59 todespolka wrote:
I can remember the game between dream and life. But dream was really good, he made multiple widow mine drops, where life lost a lot of his workers. It was not a suspicious game. It looked like dream was just faster at multitasking, but now we know that life just threw the game intentionally.
The sums are incredible. 30000 dollar for just one match. How can you say no to that.
You start by saying an "N" and follow by an "o". It is quite easy. Unless you have problems then it is harder and harder I get why Prime players match fixed, I get why Life match fixed, I am still waiting why Bbyong did it. Because I think he had some problems too, that's why you care about players with problems, to keep them strong so they can say "No". You start by saying an "N" and follow by an "o". It is quite easy. Unless you have problems then it is harder and harderI get why Prime players match fixed, I get why Life match fixed, I am still waiting why Bbyong did it. Because I think he had some problems too, that's why you care about players with problems, to keep them strong so they can say "No". I imagine France should be able to take this unless Lilbow is busy practicing for Starcraft III. | KadaverBB is my fairy ban mother.
1 2 3 4 5 25 26 27 Next AllThis March, the union Cabinet cleared a proposal to build a memorial for Jayaprakash Narayan at his birthplace, Sitabdiara in Bihar’s Saran district. Two weeks ago, the government celebrated his 113th birth anniversary in New Delhi. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said JP’s idea of Sampoorna Kranti (Total Revolution) should guide the government in bringing about Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, and to strengthen democracy. As JP’s invisible presence looms large over the Bihar election, there is an attempt by all parties to claim his legacy. But to situate JP in the period when he engaged with parties irrespective of their ideology to build a united front against political authoritarianism, and ignore the rest of his political life, is to misread the man.
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Bihar in the 1970s became the testing ground for sampoorna kranti. In the 1930s and 40s, JP was the leader idealistic youth looked up to. He, perhaps, saw the same spirit of idealism and rebellion in the students who came out on the streets against corruption in high places. JP read the ferment of the early 1970s, which emerged against the backdrop of largescale disillusionment with the political mainstream and in the aftermath of the student unrest in Europe, as the appropriate moment to implement a transformative political programme. After leaving socialist politics for Vinoba Bhave’s sarvodaya movement, JP had consistently expressed his disillusionment with political parties, and argued for a communitarian democracy. Parties, he felt, were centralised and, hence, susceptible to moral and financial corruption. JP saw the youth, especially the students, as the agency that could help him realise his ideas of a new politics.
History, however, had other ideas. When Indira Gandhi declared the Emergency in 1975, JP’s focus shifted to rescuing democracy from authoritarian rule. The opposition parties turned to him for moral guidance and leadership. Historical circumstances forced him to take their help to organise the people against the Emergency. He disagreed with the parties on many counts, but felt he could persuade them to change as per his vision. This marked his strategic engagement with the political right, especially the RSS and its political front, the Jana Sangh, during the anti-Emergency struggle.
JP had a clear position on majoritarian communalism. In his address to a national conference against communalism in 196 |
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